Our first Campaign for Health Care Choice TV spots are in the can -- watch out, Blanche Lincoln!

Help us help the senator from WalMart Arkansas "get it."

Numbers as of, well, earlier today

Breaking news from our pal John Amato at Crooks and Liars:

We spent almost all day yesterday filming our commercial spots which target Blanche Lincoln's non-support of a vibrant public option at the C&L Bat Cave. Digby, d-day and BNF's were amazing. Gordon Skene of Newstalgia also joined the crew and did a bang up job.

I want to thank the readers that have donated to Blue America's Campaign For Health Care Choice so far. We can still use your help. I told you that we weren't going to sit by and watch and we're getting to work.

To back up a bit, as Howie has reported, the Blue America team -- C and L, Digby's Hullabaloo, and Firedoglake in addition to DWT -- has teamed up with Brave New Films on this campaign to defend the best health care reform option available to us. John explained last week: "I think we've come up with a great idea. We are going to target Blanche Lincoln first with TV ads, with the help of Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, and expose her actions to her constituents in Arkansas. This will be the first play because she is up for re-election in 2010 and has already received the second most money from the HIC of any Senator."

The scripts for the spots are by none other than Digby (I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait to see the results!), who has given her take on the project:

Watching the health care debate unfold is frustrating and predictably enervating. These kinds of debates are often followed by a deepening of public apathy and a sense that government can't help solve the big problems. And this plays into conservative hands since they are the ones who want to stoke that belief so that the citizens don't get it into their heads that they can get an equal shake with those who think they own this country.

We can't let that happen with health care. It is just too important on every level, for individuals, business and the country at large. It's time to get involved. To that end Blue America is launching a campaign to raise money to run some television ads. We've got to get these wavering Democrats off the fence about a public plan choice or this thing is going to fall completely apart before it even starts.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Lincoln is showing so much compassion for the poor insurance companies. She's taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from them over the years. In fact, she's already received $14,500 from insurance companies for her 2010 campaign, the second highest of any senator up for re-election next year. And the only reform they support is reform that will get the taxpayers to pay the overpriced premiums for the 47 million uninsured without having to change their ways. The fact is that insurance companies are not in any danger of going out of business because of the public plan choice unless they continue the kind of practices that have brought us to this crisis.

Please go to our Blue America Act Blue Page to give what you can.

In his Monday report, Howie wrote:

We're on schedule to raise the money we need to help ignite a robust debate in Arkansas about Lincoln, while serving notice on the state's other wavering, conservative senator, Mark Pryor. Please consider helping us make this an effective campaign. If money is tight and all you feel comfortable giving is $5 or $10, remember that Blue America has managed to bring in close to $2 million by aggregating lots of $5 and $10 donations. We don't get any corporate contributions. Please learn more about our campaign and contribute to it, here at our Blue America page, the Campaign for Health Care Choice.

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