Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog

• Physicians for a National Health Program Give Their Opinion of the Current Health Reform Bill Version

  UPDATE: Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont): "Without a strong public option the individual mandate makes no sense." Problem is that there is no strong public option and there hasn't been for months. Now, it's even weaker as the exchanges in the Senate bill are split up into 2 separate markets, the individual [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:07pm EST
  

• A Little History Lesson For Mark Kirk

  As we've discussed earlier this week, Mark Kirk is on a fearmongering mission to stop the detention of former Guantanamo prison inmates, detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at the super-max federal prison in Thomson, Illinois. He's crying Willis Tower and expecting Illinoisans will get scared and push him [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:58am EST
  

• Hoffman Campaign says poll not a push poll. You tell me.

  I've been bombarded with emails criticizing my comment that Hoffman's latest "information ballot" poll was a push poll. Ok, here's the poll off his own site, you tell me.Here are some of the questions that I question:ALEXI GIANNOULIAS's family bank had close financial ties with Tony Rezko, one of Rod [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:28am EST
  

• Senate Bill is Out.

  UPDATE: I'm hearing the vote is Saturday.*********************************I've examined a few reliable sources and did a quick look of my own, but I haven't yet read the entire bill. From what I've seen, this is the scoop in a nutshell:The bill contains an anti-choice provision, but it's something less than the' [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:10pm EST
  

• David Hoffman: Social Liberal, Fiscal Conservative-ish

  This evening I attended Tenth Dems University's Meet the Candidates, David Hoffman edition. Hoffman is running for U.S. Senate, Barack's seat.Hoffman is a graduate of Yale and received his law degree from the University of Chicago. He worked for Pat Fitzgerald for 5 years in the Narcotics and Gangs section [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:14pm EST
  

• Mark Kirk Recycles

  UPDATE:Crankyboy commented: Kirk proves that terrorism works because Kirk's afraid of them. Kirk's afraid of a group of people living in caves eating canned goods heated over an open fire. People as susceptible to terrorist threats as Mark Kirk should not be in office.*****************************Mark Kirk is going full court press [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 7:51am EST
  

• Arguments for Faulty Reform Coming In Faster Than I Can Open Them

  From Dick Durbin to Chris Van Hollen over at DCCC to Jeremy Bird from OFA (DNC) to Campaign for America's Future to an HCAN devotee I know from the District, I'm getting the emails to support exchanges and subsidies in place of health care reform. Durbin is going for an' [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 2:41pm EST
  

• Please, Please David. Tell Me Why.

  Progress Illinois quoted Senate candidate David Hoffman who appeared on ABC 7's Newsviews yesterday. Mr. Hoffman is touting his self-proclaimed credential as the better Democratic candidate to stave off the corruption dialogue. Among other things, Hoffman said:I think the press has been very consistent about this: that there are vulnerabilities [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 2:20pm EST
  

• Mark Kirk Against Prison Use, But Residents Want It

  There's been talk of housing some Gitmo detainees in an underused prison in Thomson a small town in northwestern Illinois. Thomson residents want it for the jobs, but Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk says no. He wrote a letter to President Obama urging the Administration to stop the deal:Dear Mr. [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 6:00am EST
  

• Let's Do The Right Thing for A Change. Do Not Escalate In Afghanistan

  [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 1:44am EST
  

• Truth Is, H1N1 No Match for Profits on Sexual Dysfunction and Restless Leg Syndrome. Corporations should not be setting our national priorities.

  While Fox News tells its viewers that the shortage of H1N1 vaccines proves that government cannot be involved in health care, not even as a single payer as opposed to an actual provider because they refuse to recognize the distinction, Barbara Ehrenreich gives us some facts in her recent article, [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 8:56pm EST
  

• Mark Kirk: Tie Our Economy to China's

  Mark Kirk's Iraq War tied our economy to China. We borrowed so much from China for that war that we are beholden to them and then some. The non-manufacturing, fully consumer economy we got from the free markets touted by Kirk tied us even more to China. We'll have to' [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 10:23am EST
  

• "Hey, Bill. What the H*ll Happened!"

  UPDATE: Proves my point re OFA. More HCAN follies around the country.UPDATE: National HCAN just advised the Senate to use the House bill as the model health care reform bill proving that they do in fact have rocks in their heads over there. I guess they like high costs and [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 6:39pm EST
  

• Tell Northbrook How You Feel About the 70 Gun Giveaway

  On October 27, 2009, the Village Board of the Village of Northbrook approved an ordinance providing for the disposal of surplus police department duty weapons, seventy, 17-year-old Beretta Centurion 92FS'. They decided to give them away to the officers who used them for unrestricted personal use. Under the ordinance, if' [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Finally, an answer to my question and ooops, HCAN wrong again.

  I've been asking for months: why so much cheerleading on the progressive side for the health care corporate welfare/reform bill.Rose Ann DeMoro explains:Why then so much cheerleading by many progressive and liberal legislators, columnists, and activists?1- Passage of the bill was a clear defeat for the Republican opposition and those' [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 9:33pm EST
  

• A Spoon Full of Benefits Helps the Corporate Welfare Go Down

  Despite the mandate for change in last years election, it seems that every small bit of reform we manage to get passed is paired with a huge dose of corporate welfare. First, the climate bill got bogged down with perks to the coal industry saddling us with dirty coal burning [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Happy Birthday Grover, Cookie Monster and the Fuzzy and Blue Gang over at Sesame Street

  I can't embed it, but here is my favorite Sesame Street song, Fuzzy and Blue.' [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 8:24am EST
  

• Some Democrats No Longer In Mood To Drop Their Values For the Micro Mini Public Option

  The signatories of this draft letter to Nancy Pelosi will gain some respect back from me. Greg Sargent of The Plum Line blog is reporting 41 Democrats will sign.Will Obama finally draw the line?Over the years, I've learned that even though the road often gets tough, you are never sorry' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:37pm EST
  

• Claire McCaskill Misrepresenting Stupak Amendment

  UPDATE: Mccaskill seems to be backing off her statement. Maybe she finally read the amendment and realized she was wrong.*******************************************Sen. Claire McCaskill said:Obviously, I have been a pro-choice candidate for my entire political career, and obviously there is controversy always surrounding this issue. But we are talking about whether or [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 2:09pm EST
  

• My Article Re Howard Dean At Tenth Dems Made It To Huffington Post

  It can be found here. They placed it on their Politics page.Dr. Dean said the grassroots was going to have to make the final push for real reform. However, it seems to me that if the grassroots isn't acting independently of congressional leaders and the white house, nothing of any' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 10:09am EST
  

• Cultlike Devotion to a Pretty Bare Reform Package

  Even more disturbing than the weak to non-existent public option and the anti-abortion provisions of the health politics bill is the cultlike devotion to it. I'm reading the most outrageous things on the Internet from a call to kick Dennis Kucinich out of congress to telling women that they are' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Exchanging Core Democratic Values for Little Reform

  I told this story at the beginning of the health care debate, but I think it should be repeated now that health care reform has become anti-abortion legislation.I was in the waiting room of my doctors office a couple of years ago. A young woman came in with a bladder [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 9:01am EST
  

• Eric Massa's pre-vote statements

  Here is what Eric Massa had to say before the vote.At the highest level this bill will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry,” Massa said in a telephone news conference this morning. “There’s no other way to look at it.Best line is always at [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:40pm EST
  

• Dennis Kuchinich on Why He Voted Nay

  We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:33pm EST
  

• It's Official. Health Care Reformers Sell Women's Right to Choose Down the Drain

  UPDATE: It took Chris Van Hollen about 30 seconds after the final vote to ask me for money. His email fails to mention the Stupak Amendment. Imagine what I had to say back to him.**********************************UPDATE: One bright light in all of this is Rep. Eric Massa. He told a constituent [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:37pm EST
  

• Jane Hampsher is Twittering that the Stupak Amendment is Expected to Pass--You worked for Health Care Reform and Got An Anti-Abortion Bill

  The Stupak Amendment will prevent all insurance plans sold in the individual and small group market from covering elective abortion. So, the bottom line is that more abortion restrictions than we ever saw out of the Bush Administration will pass under this so-called Democratic House. Maybe that's what they mean [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 1:21pm EST
  

• Kirk Fails to Get A Floor Vote On His Brand of Healthcare Non-Reform, Protects Record of Ineffectiveness

  Kirk offered his "protect the doctor-patient relationship" bill as an amendment to the House bill yesterday in the rules committee, but it looks like he's not getting a floor vote. This may seem like a defeat, but it does protect Kirk's record as a completely ineffective representative unable to get [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:19am EST
  

• FDL Action: One Bright Light of Honesty in the Health Care Reform Debate

  I've been tough on HCAN, OFA and MoveOn for their lack of open honesty about the health care reform bills. They deserve it. When they weren't trying to supress debate, they were lying through omission. However, I want to commend FDL Action as the only public option advocacy group that [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:11am EST
  

• And they call it a democratic congress

  There will be a vote on the House co-ops renamed public option bill today after all. There will be no vote on single payer or state single payer amendments, but there will be a vote on an amendment to make it illegal for an insurance company that covers abortion to [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:48am EST
  

• Profiles in Lack of Courage

  Kirk's going to be begging for Sarah Palin's endorsement. Even I didn't think he'd stoop that low:Kirk can't even answer the question:The nation seems surprised by Kirk's latest antics, but it's nothing new to us here in IL-10. Remember Kirk ran away from Josh, an Iraq War Veteran:' [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Fired Up, Ready to Fight (but only with their own side)

  UPDATE: An anonymous commenter asked what I made of the Conyers and Kucinich request to single payer activists to not lobby for the Weiner Amendment. While I don't like to respond to anonymous commenters in general, I want to answer the particular question, so I will.Of course, I can never' [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 5:58am EST
  

• Mark Kirk Told Us All Summer That No One Who Matters Is Uninsured. Rep. Grayson Lists the Numbers of the Dead District by District

  Below is part of Rep. Alan Grayson's floor speech listing the numbers of dead due to lack of adequate health insurance. This comes from the Harvard Study showing about 45,000 each year die due to lack of insurance or underinsurance.IL-10 comes in at about the 2:17 point on this video:Here's' [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 10:41pm EST
  

• While It's Easy to Tear Apart a Bad Idea, It's Hard to Keep a Good Idea Down. Single Payer is Back and the Table is Covered with It.

  UPDATE: Congressmen Kuchinich and Conyers don't want the Weiner Amendment called up for a vote. They say it's a weak version of H.R. 676. PNHP disagreed with that latter point, seeming fairly satisfied it was about the same. The argument appears to be that there has been no debate and [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:42am EST
  

• Get Out the Tea Bags and Glue. Mark Kirk Needs a New Hat

  UPDATE: Watch for Mark Kirk at Michelle Bachmann's tea party raid on Capitol Hill. We'll be watching for him. If an attack on Congress such as the one Bachmann plans were to happen while the republicans were in control, the protesters would have all been arrested as terrorists.***********************************************We have an [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 1:24pm EST
  

• NY23 and Mark Kirk

  Some are saying that the defeat in NY 23 of Conservative Party candidate Hoffman is a good sign for Mark Kirk. Interference from out of state extremists didn't work. However, they also note that Hoffman himself wasn't a great candidate. He skipped debates and wasn't up on the issues.More important' [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 8:44am EST
  

• Insurance Companies Holding Up Tamiflu for Kids with H1N1

  This first came to my attention from an old friend, a divorced mother of 5, who is having trouble getting Tamiflu for her 15 year old who has H1N1. She has that really great employer-provided insurance that polls tell us she's supposed to love and not want changed through health' [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 9:54pm EST
  

• What Will Sarah Do Re Mark Kirk? What Will Mark Kirk Do Re Illinois?

  Illinois is left to wonder:Given Sarah Palin's endorsement interference in New York's 23d District, supporting an extremist right wing 3d party candidate over the moderate republican candidate, causing the latter to drop out of the race and support the Democrat and Palin's current robocalling in Virginia, will Palin robocall for [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 8:31pm EST