Have you all noticed how QUIET all the usual suspects have been in the past 48 hours, as if it was coordinated or something ?
Dive ! Dive !
(warning sirens waaahoooowoo waaahooooowoo )
Now look, I never keep anything from the crew and I don't expect them to keep anything from me. So come on, speak up !
You make one move to take over this boat and I'll see that you're hung.
A fleet boat of the Navy, a submarine with her fighting powers still intact, and you'd take her back to Pearl ? I don't believe it.
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Emanuel, Pelosi Meet in Capitol To Chart Health Care Course Friday 2/26/2010 HuffPo
Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.
Senior Hill aides speculated to HuffPost that Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, would bring the message that the House must move first, with a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would follow. It's hard to make amendments to a law through reconciliation if that law hasn't been made official yet, they argue.
Pelosi's office wouldn't confirm that the meeting, which was still ongoing as of the early evening, was taking place or comment on what Pelosi's reaction might be. A White House aide said he was unsure what message Emanuel would deliver.
Hoyer: House Will Go First on Health Bill Sunday 2/28/2010 The Hill
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Sunday that the House must pass the Senate bill before fixes to both bills can be approved.
Hoyer is the highest-ranking House Democrat to outline that path forward, which is perceived as a critical concession to Senate Democrats.
"Whether we're willing or not, we have to go first if we are going to correct thing that the House disagrees with," Hoyer said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) suggested that it be used last week.
Since tomorrow is the big "virtual march" on Washington, when the so- called Democratic activists (yeah, I mean you, OFA) and interested others are supposed to flood the Congressional switchboards, faxes, and email to their Senators on the Eve of Destruction, er, the Thursday televised "Bipartisan" Health Care Summit Kabuki Theatre, to expedite the passing of the gallstone, er, The Health Insurance Bill, the Speaker of the House clarified the status of the President's bill tweak tonight. The bill tweak was posted online yesterday.
This was posted late in The Hill this evening:
Pelosi: House Dems can support Obama healthcare proposal
"We're very pleased with what the president put up on the Internet," Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday at a news conference.
Pelosi did not object to the absence of a Public Option in President Obama's version of the bill, altho she said it would be the preferred method, nor to putting an excise tax on on "high cost health care" plans to pay for it. (oh, nice message control there by the writer for not using the Reaganite "Cadillac Plans.")
The White House bill includes a modified version of the tax that seeks to protect middle-class union members from paying it.
Pelosi endorsed that proposal, stating that "the pay-for in it is something that Democrats in the House can support."
( If I had to make an educated guess, the unions that they have in mind here are the ones that work on government military contracts and projects such as the electrical, metal sheetworker, aerospace industry, shipbuilding, etc, and in turn donate to Democratic candidates. )
According to the wonk room think progress, with President Obama's tweak of the Senate bill, there is a delay in starting the excise tax. This is a combination of kick the can down the road to 8 years in the future, and upping the amount of exemption for each policy before the 40% excise tax on policies worth over a certain amount kicks in. A double barreled kick, as it were. Because it's very likely that policies are going to cost lots more in the near future, after we saw Wellpoint's 39% proposed rate hikes this month. http://www.marketwatch.com/sto...
Obama's Version- Excise tax - 'Labor agreement' for everyone. Changes effective date of the Senate policy from 2013 to 2018. Raises the amount of premiums that are exempt from the assessment from $8,500 for singles to $10,200 and from $23,000 for families to $27,500 and indexes these amounts for subsequent years at general inflation plus 1 percent.
There is also a payroll tax increase of zero point nine 0.9% percent on wages or salaries above a certain income, and a two point nine percent 2.9% assessment on unearned income. ("unearned" income is that which does not come from actual work performed for wages, but is from interest, dividends, investment gains, or things like rent).
According to The Hill story, the House will be voting on Wednesday on a repeal of the health insurance industry's Anti Trust exemption, which would allow the Federal Trade Commission and Dept of Justice to combat collusion (aka evil cooperation to fix prices) between health insurance companies. They've had the exemption since 1945.
The day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech to Congress, the conservaDems intent on bailing out the health insurance industry are happy to hear that House Speaker Pelosi say that:
"I think that the President's, not only his appeal to pass it but his explanation to the American people as to what the possibilities were was a very powerful statement that will be helpful to us," Pelosi said.
/snip
"You go through the gate. If the gate's closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we'll poll vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we're going to get health care reform passed for the American people."
Pelosi and her House are allegedly attempting to do a run around of the "60 vote Senate supermajority needed to block a filibuster" problem, by passing a House version of "side car reconciliation" to the bill first before signing off on the Senate's version of a "health insurance reform" bill. There is no timetable, other than they have a year to contemplate how to do this before the proto legislation already passed, expires.
H.R. 1068, the Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street's Bailout Act.
Wall Street Transaction Tax Proposed by Democrats Ryan J. Donmoyer
Dec. 3, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- A group of congressional Democrats proposed taxing large transactions in stocks and derivatives, an idea that has received a cool reception from the Obama administration. [...]
.25 Percent for Stocks
The measure would be based on legislation DeFazio proposed in the House that would apply a tax of 0.25 percent or 25 basis points to stock transactions in excess of $100,000, and a levy of 0.02 percent or 2 basis points on derivatives including futures, options, swaps and credit default swaps.
Harkin and DeFazio said the proposed new levy is backed by more than 200 economists, the AFL-CIO labor union federation and business leaders including Warren Buffett and Vanguard Group Inc. founder John C. Bogle, now president of Bogle Financial Markets Research.
BECK: Last week, I head you say that - you were on with Dennis Miller. ... You two were talking about an insurrection coming.
O'REILLY: Tax revolt.
BECK: He used the word insurrection. And not in a comedic way.
O'REILLY: Yeah, tax revolt. I think people, when they figure out how badly they're going to get hurt in the next few years, there's going to be a tea party on taxes and its gonna get nasty. Nancy Pelosi's going to be bobbing up and down in the Boston Harbor.
This statement appeared to be too much for Beck even, who replied, "Uh, I don't think that's necessary."
Since a group of tea bagging protestors comprised of mostly white people have the cojones to burn Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressmen Tom Perriello in effigy, I thought it would be a good idea if someone in the media would go so far as to ask these people why they don't just go all the way in their supposed "defense of freedom and liberty" and burn President Barack Obama in effigy as well. I mean, if they are really brave and all, why shouldn't they?
According to a post on Pennsylvania blog, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will allow a mere twenty minutes of debate on single-payer, albeit indirectly.
The debate will actually be on an amendment put forth by Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York's 9th District, which would effectively transform the corporate giveaway that is HR 3200 into something very close to the single-payer form offered by Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers's HR 676. According to David Swanson, the debate on the Weiner amendment is being used as cover for dropping Kucinich's amendment, which would allow states to create their own single-payer health insurance systems.
This is probably our last, best chance to improve what is shaping up to be a disastrously bad bill that will force Americans into buying unaffordable insurance. Click on the House Telephone Directory link, call as many representatives as you can, and demand that they pass the Weiner amendment. This may be our only shot at getting something that will work for all Americans, instead of simply further enriching Big Insurance.
Pelosi Prepares To Move Ahead With Robust Public Option by Brian Beutler last night at TPM, October 20, 2009, 8:09PM
A preliminary analysis from CBO may have sealed the deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to move ahead with a "robust" public option--one that reimburses hospitals and providers at Medicare rates, plus five percent--in the House's health care bill. She is briefing her caucus about the plan's savings tonight, and, pending the approval of a sufficient majority of members, will adopt the measure as part of the complete reform package.
The analysis finds the reconstituted House proposal to be deficit neutral, and require less than $900 billion in new spending, over ten years.
The bill remains nominally more expensive than the Senate Finance Committee proposal, but would cover 96 percent of all Americans, providing greater bang for each federal dollar spent. And, aides note, the bill that comes to the floor of the Senate will be a hybrid of the Finance and more expensive HELP Committee bills, so the price is expected to rise.
The move is sure to make progressives ecstatic, and puts Senate leaders, who have been unable to reach any decisions about their preferences for a public option in their own bill, in an uncomfortable position.
How can you be for the Death Penalty and be against the "Corporate Death Penalty"?
ACORN was smeared to death, and that sucks. So, how do we make the best of it?
If ACORN must go, the rest of all the Bush Era Crooked Contractors you know and loathe will just have to go too.
On Friday (Spet 25th), Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) inserted into the "legislative history" language spelling out that including all fraudulent organizations was, in fact, the intent of the Congress.
~snip~
"The bill imposes, and is intended to impose, a corporate death penalty on contractors who fall within the scope of its prohibitions."
Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami emailed us late last night to assert that no final decisions have been made on the shape of the public option: "It is inaccurate for anyone to assert that the Speaker or the Leadership has determined the form of the public option. How we move forward on the public option will continue to be discussed by the Leadership and the Caucus, which will meet on Thursday."
Didn't Take very long for this bullshit to happen. Shoulda seen it coming.
Sept 22, 2009Speaker Pelosi is nixing a deal she cut with centrists to advance health reform, said a source familiar with negotiations.
Pelosi's decision to abandon the agreement that was made with a group of Blue Dogs to get the bill out of committee would steer the healthcare legislation back to the left as she prepares for a floor vote.
Pelosi is planning to include a governmentrun public option in the House version of the healthcare bill. She wants to model it on Medicare,- with providers getting reimbursed on a scale pegged to Medicare rates.-
-"The speaker is full-steam-ahead," said a senior Democratic aide.-
It was a VERY good day for Progressives in DC and working class Americans today. Pelosi has shot down her deal with the Blue Dogsthe MAYO Clinic is going to support a Public Option and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IO) has said that he is now VERY confident that a Public Option will make it to the President's desk in Health Care Reform.
Hell, even Harry Reid grew some temporary spine and said that a 51 majority vote will be used to pass health care reform if all else fails.
Let's see who long Harry's new found vertebrae lasts.
So, all in all it is a good day for Progressives politically, and working class Americans everywhere as we push harder for a Progressive agenda that benefits working class Americans FIRST.
Let's hope more good news is coming soon. I could get used to writing happy diaries like this am getting f#$king sick and tired of this BULLSHIT
Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog's ongoing letter writing campaign for accountability for the Bush Era State Sponsored Torture program. The premise of this campaign is to write decision makers every Monday urging them to do the right thing in terms of our international treaty obligations and our Federal statutes. This means to investigate the enormous amount of prima facie evidence and where warranted by the evidence, to prosecute. The Dog writes a letter every week, which you, the activist, can either cut and paste or use as the jumping off point for your own letter.
You see CEOs of these Industries making millions of dollars a year -- indeed many of them a million dollars a month -- for their 'Leadership' in withholding benefits, to people in NEED of Health.
From HuffPo comes the news that Nancy Pelosi is starting to kick ass. This is what teh presdient must do. People need a narrative of good guys v. bad guys. They see it in books, TV, movies, daily life.
The real "villains" in the fight for health care reform are insurance companies.
snip
"They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way," Pelosi said of the insurance industry after her weekly press conference. "It's almost immoral, what they are doing," she said, referring to industry lobbying against a public insurance plan option. "Of course, they've been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it."
The current system works so well for insurers that they don't even want subsidies, Pelosi claimed. "They've had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country," she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. "This is the fight of our lives."
Pelosi referred to the health insurance industry's campaign against reform -- specifically, the public option -- as "carpet bombing" and "shock and awe" during the press conference.
I think the President will build on this. I hope so. Obama, Pelosi and Reid (yech) must speak with one voice to win.
Good and evil, right and wrong. It's now up to the President, for Nancy has shown a light on the way to success. He must courageously take the fight to the immoral insurance companies. No more everyone at the table.
Just when you think, RNC, and the Republicans in general, have realized that this country have moved on and left them in the dust. No more appeals to our worst and base instincts with racism, sexism and homophobia are going to work with majority of the folks. RNC releases this misogynistic video to make their point about Nancy Pelosi.
This is surprising, but I'm glad he said this. Nancy Pelosi has her faults, but the attacks on her for telling the truth about the CIA, i.e., that they lie, are wrong. It's misdirection by Republicans to avoid justice for Bush and Cheney (and many others) for violating international law. Pelosi did not shine on this (an understatement) but she is not Bush or Cheney. She may not have stopped it (and she may not have been able to do so), but she did not create the criminal policies.
Arlan Specter coming to the rescue. Well, it's a start. Now he needs to support EFCA.
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) took the opportunity Wednesday to defend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has come under fire in recent weeks over a controversy surrounding when she was told of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques being used by the CIA.
"The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to - I was about to say 'candid'; that's too mild - to honesty," Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a lunch address to the American Law Institute. He cited misleading information about the agency's involvement in mining harbors in Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra affair.
snip
"Director [Leon] Panetta says the agency does not make it a habit to misinform Congress. I believe that is true. It is not the policy of the Central Intelligence Agency to misinform Congress," Specter said. "But that doesn't mean that they're all giving out the information."
Okay so the Dog has not been around this week (if you care he has been at Caterpillar Production System for Dealers training, which is a 6 Sigma Lean methodology for transforming value streams instead of single processes. Everyone's eyes glazed over yet?) so of course it is likely that most of the hot topics have been blogged to death, but cut a hound some slack as he sits at O'Hare waiting for his flight home, eh?
March on Washington
Pelosi Prepares To Move Ahead With Robust Public Option
