Hi,
I just signed a petition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to stop protecting corporate Democrats who are willing to filibuster a public health insurance option.
Can you please add your name?
Click here to sign: http://action.firedoglake.com/harryreid
Thanks!
As an after thought, I added a few words of my own:
This is me, Bull, to say I think this is so very important I can't find the words. Please let these political betrayers know that they won't get away with it. Our representative in the House, Kurt Shrader, for whom I did a lot phone banking to help him get elected, now turns out to be a blue dog. So he has lost my vote. If the Senate doesn't shape up and give us a strong public option, I will think twice about even voting for Ron Wyden again, even though there was an article in the paper this morning which hastens to assure us all that Wyden voted for the public option. The thing is, he knew it was a failed issue before he voted. So for him, his vote was just another dog and pony show.
B.
Next day, I got this from R.
B.---
So corrupt. I stopped signing petitions...they do absolutely no good, give people a false sense that they have power, and give your e mail address to others who bombard you with political messages that I always immediately delete. Public option never had a chance... too much $$$$ involved
R.
R.
Of course, you are right as rain, now that I think stop and think about it. All those politicians--- so that is where they come from and where they get my email address from. And now I just got a message from Charles Schumer of New York. And I am thinking, where did this jerk get my email from, damn it! And then there is another email from Al Franken! Why isn't he addressing his constituents in Minnesota? Why me? And they all have their hands out for money. "Won't you please have Paypal send us a quick $20 and that will put us over the top." I get at least ten or fifteen requests for money every day in my inbox.
I will say, however, that Moveon.org, at least, has made some good political commercials for main stream TV, putting the liberal view out there really powerfully. What is it about money that makes these crooked polititians do nip ups for anybody who throws some money their way and, hold on a damn minute--- isn't there a law against that sort of thing where they buy and sell their votes. What they count on is that the man in the street doesn't have a clue about the issues. And doesn't really give a darn. But I can't stop caring. I wish I could. I know too many people who have died of a lack of health insurance. They couldn't even afford to go to a doctor. Several who knew they were dying of AIDS but no money for treatment or meds.
My insurance company is a perfect example of the for-profit phony health care outfits. The CEO's make a hundred thousand dollars a minute for fucks sake. Nobody is worth that! Especially when the company won't pay for what they agreed to when you first signed the premium. That is just racketeering! Like the mob. No different.
I want to take all the profit out of health care. I don't give a rat's ass if Max Baucus thinks it is all settled! I will keep on and I will be vengeful as hell. At the Town Hall meetings and at Democratic headquarters, where next time I see Kurt Schrader--- I will insult him all to hell.
Isn't it funny how you can tell what people really are?
I mean, I felt a little guilty when somebody would mention how great Kurt Schrader was, and I had nothing good to say about him ever since the night he spoke at Democratic headquarters and afterwards he was standing there not talking to anybody so I ambled up to him. He did not offer his hand.
"How do you feel," I asked, "about the Impeachment, of Bush and Cheney?" and I saw him do this little side step. True. Absolutely true: His left foot shot out to the side, away from me, and then his right foot closed the distance, bringing the feet together again. And while his feet are doing that his lips are moving.
"Oh," he says. "I think it's a little too late for that," and immediately he is looking over my shoulder at the guy behind me, who, of course, only throws him soft balls. And Kurt puts out his hand to the guy, shakes it with a warmth only a true politico could generate on the spot, and turns a cold shoulder to me to let know that I am dismissed. But before he could get away locked into fascinating conversation with his worshipful fan, my voice cut through the pleasantries.
"Yeah," I said, "but I'm not willing to let those bastards off the hook."
Old Kurt glared a final look and actually turned his back forcing the guy who had been behind me to step quick over to a position in front of me so they could schmoose in peace.
Well, that one little encounter made me very suspicious of the man, and I wasn't sure I wanted to send him to represent me in the House. I had been phone banking for him. And I sure didn't like his attitude. But hell, I have never met a Congressman or even a Congressional candidate before so I wondered, "WTF! What do I know?" And now, sure enough he is showing his blue dog colors all over the place. And yet I voted for the bitch! He sent out a mailing on how much he supported health care reform. And right under his full color photograph, in very small print, it says "This mailing is sponsored by the Health Care Insurers of America." And nowhere does he mention a public option. This may be his first term in Congress, but he learned very fast how to double cross his constituents. And now, he's turned out to be the snake in the grass I always knew he really is.
Well, I wrote a letter to the Editor of the Satesman Journal today, which, if they publish it, I will send along to you. It is pretty strong language and calls a spade a spade. The Editor might not like it. They are owned, after all, by Gannett and they really let you know it. I never saw a newspaper shove the Republican viewpoint so totally down their reader's throats. When they want to trot out an economic pundit they give us Charles Krauthammer, for Christ's sake. Never a word from Paul Krugman. After all, Krugman won a Nobel Prize in Economics and Krauthammer very noticeably did not.
That's enough rant for now. More Later.
Bull
Well, I called it right. The editor most decidedly did not like my letter. Far too liberal! The letter I had written was about Ralph Nader's article in the spring of 2009, in which he reported a conversation with Senator Max Baucus about Health Care Reform. At the end of the phone call Baucus blurted out, "Relax, Ralph, it's a done deal!"
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