Posted on 03 November 2009 by trouble97018
Posted: November 3, 2009 01:14 AM
I had arranged to meet David Plouffe on Saturday afternoon at a Starbucks on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington. The night before, a copy of his new book, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory, was waiting for me when I checked into my hotel at midnight. I flipped it open, read a few lines and was hooked. I spent the rest of the night reading it.
Plouffe has written the most important political book of the year (for reasons I’ll get to in a moment). It’s also completely gripping. It reads like a thriller. Even though you know how it ends, you quickly get caught up in every twist and turn of perhaps the most remarkable campaigns in American history.
Along the way, I found myself tearing up when I read about the campaign volunteer who had scrimped and saved (“Grabbed some ramen on the weekends… Didn’t take the girl to a movie”) so he could donate ten dollars to Obama, and laughed at the funny-in-retrospect tales from the trail (like David Axelrod’s BlackBerry crashing at a crucial moment because of glazed donut getting stuck in the trackwheel.) Source
Posted on 25 October 2009 by trouble97018
Think Progress
By Zaid Jilani on Oct 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
One of the right’s loudest crusades has been their effort to undermine the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN). Following the release of a series of videos showing a handful of ACORN employees behaving inappropriately, conservatives in Congress have done everything they can to single out ACORN for being stripped of all federal funding (while engaging in apparent opposition to defunding companies that cover up rape). Many legal experts have warned that these measures may be unconstitutional because lawmakers cannot punish a group or individual without a trial.
Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) challenged the constitutionality of one of these anti-ACORN measures being supported by Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) during a hearing of the Science and Technology committee. Grayson repeatedly questioned Broun about the constitutionality of “bills of attainder” — which are punishments that single out a group or individual without a court trial. The Georgia Republican was unable to offer a coherent rebuttal: Source
Posted on 28 September 2009 by trouble97018
HuffingtonPost | Jenna Staul
First Posted: 09-28-09 04:12 PM | Updated: 09-28-09 04:52 PM
Two progressive organizations would like to introduce you to Bing Perrine — an uninsured father from Montana who’s got something to say to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) in a new released TV ad.
“Senator Baucus, when you take millions of dollars from health and insurance interests that oppose reform, and oppose giving families like mine the choice of a public option, I have to ask, whose side are you on?”
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America are making waves Monday for the ad. USAToday, CBS News, the New York Daily News and the Wall Street Journal are among the outlets chattering about the spot.
Past advertising campaigns from the groups have targeted Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley. The groups have launched a fundraising effort to raise $100,000 to air the ad, according to a statement released Monday. The Washington Post’s Capitol Hill Briefing blog reports that the group has raised $50,000 so far. Source
Posted on 28 September 2009 by trouble97018
September 28, 2009, 10:44AM
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is a critical day in the saga of the public option. Democrats Charles Schumer (New York) and Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia) are introducing an amendment to include the public option in the bill to be reported out by the Senate Finance Committee — the committee anointed by the White House as its favored vehicle for getting health care reform.
Before you read another word, call and email the Senate offices of Democrats Max Baucus (Montana), Tom Carper (Delaware), Robert Menendez (New Jersey), Kent Conrad (North Dakota), and Ben Nelson (Florida) — telling them you want them to vote in favor of the public option amendment. And get everyone you know in these states to do the same. Hell, you might as well phone and email Republican Olympia Snowe (Maine) and make the same pitch. Source
Posted on 23 September 2009 by trouble97018
Huffington Post
First Posted: 09-21-09 10:34 PM | Updated: 09-22-09 09:14 AM
It’s a safe bet that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Rush Limbaugh don’t have any dinner plans.
Frank called out the conservative radio host for his well-documented addiction to painkillers during an appearance Monday evening on The Jay Leno Show.
Jay Leno asked Frank whom–if Frank had to chose– he’d rather have dinner with: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter? “I guess of the three, I would take Rush Limbaugh, because it would be very painful and he would come with the painkillers, which he always has.” Source
Posted on 21 September 2009 by trouble97018
TPM Live Wire
Rachel Slajda | September 21, 2009, 6:05PM
Speaking at a fundraiser for Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today, Vice President Biden warned that Republicans will try to “break the back of our effort” in the 2010 elections by trying to win 35 seats from traditionally Republican districts that are now held by Democrats.
“It’s not that Republicans are bad guys. This is just the bet they’ve made. They’re going to put their chips on movement in the 35 seats in the House that have been traditionally Republican districts and trying to take them back,” Biden said, according to the White House pool report. Source
Posted on 17 September 2009 by trouble97018
TPM DC
Brian Beutler | September 17, 2009, 7:50PM
Howard Dean and Democracy for America have launched a new campaign called America Can’t Wait, to bring grassroots pressure to bear on elected officials to pass health care reform with a public option through via the filibuster proof budget reconciliation process.
In a letter to supporters, obtained by TPM, America Can’t Wait founder Howard Dean to supporters writes that pursuing the 51-vote should be the priority over the regular legislative order because it will be more likely to produce a public option. Source
Posted on 16 September 2009 by trouble97018
Huffington Post
Posted: 09-16-09 06:00 PM
On September 15th, Van Jones addressed his friends and supporters about his recent resignation with the following e-mail message.
Dear Friends:
My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so. I resigned from the White House on Sept. 6, and I have remained silent since then–in keeping with my promise not to be a distraction during a key moment in the Obama Presidency.
Over the past several days, however, many people have been asking how they can help and what they can do.
The main thing is this: please do everything you can to support both President Obama and the green jobs movement. Winning real change is ultimately the best response to these kinds of smear campaigns. Source
Posted on 15 September 2009 by trouble97018
Think Progress
By Igor Volsky at 1:04 pm September 15, 2009
Today, in testimony before the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Forum on Health Insurance Reform, health care whistle blower Wendell Potter reminded Congress why a public option is essential to reform. If Congress fails to create “a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the President might as well be called, ‘The Insurance Industry Profit Protection And Enhancement Act,’” Potter said.
At the end of the hearing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) agreed with Potter. “You cited a public option as one way for it to reach its achieve its goal,” she told him. “We will be passing the ‘Private Insurance Profit Perpetuation Act.’ We have no intention of doing that”: Source
Posted on 02 September 2009 by trouble97018
TPM DC
Brian Beutler | September 1, 2009, 2:34PM
During a Friday tele-town hall event, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told constituents that he doesn’t think the public option ought to be a government run program like Medicare, but instead favors a “private entity that has direction from the federal government so people that don’t fall within the parameters of being able to get insurance from their employers, they would have a place to go.”
Today, a Reid spokesperson tells me, “[t]he idea is that [Department of Health and Human Services] could contract with a third-party administrator to do the administrative stuff. It would still be policies set by HHS.”
Though this isn’t the reform community’s first preference, it is something they could get behind. Source
