Why The Arkansas Counties Facing The Mississippi River Are Important To YOUR Health Care

Last week, after talking a little bit about our media strategy for the new Blanche Lincoln TV ad (see below) we got a lot of e-mails asking why we were spending money in Memphis, Tennessee and Springfield, Missouri. I want to clear that up. The way the cable systems cover Arkansas is by dividing it up into media markets, DMAs I think they call them. The bulk of the money we've spent in the past-- and that we're spending on the new campaign, is in Little Rock, Jonesboro and Ft Smith. However, big swathes of northwest Arkansas and eastern Arkansas are covered out of Springfield and Memphis, respectively. That doesn't mean TV viewers in those cities will see our ads. We're only buying placements for Arkansas homes that are covered as part of those markets. Amazing what they can do with cable TV targeting these days!

Our last batch of Arkansas ads kicked off with a 6AM shot on CNN's American Morning For those interested, the cost of running that spot in each of the markets was this:

Little Rock- $85.00
Jonesboro- $10.00
Ft Smith- $25.00
Memphis- $3.00
Springfield- $4.00

A spot on Larry King Live is much more expensive, primarily because they reach a larger audience. We've bought quite a few of them.

Little Rock- $155.00
Jonesboro- $12.00
Ft Smith- $90.00
Memphis- $6.00
Springfield- $6.00

Although we are gladly honoring the Color of Change boycott of Glenn Beck's racist program, we do want to reach Fox viewers have we're running spots on that network too. Their morning show, Fox & Friends, was a pretty good buy:

Little Rock- $100.00
Jonesboro- $12.00
Ft Smith- $34.00
Memphis- $4.00
Springfield- $8.00

By way of comparison, the MSNBC ads we ran last month went something like this [in the Ft Smith market]:

The Rachel Maddow Show- $27.00 (8:47PM)
Countdown- $27.00 (9:17PM)
Hardball- $17.00 (10:56PM)
The Ed Show- $18.00 (5:50PM)
Caught On Camera- $17.00 (7:09PM)
Lockup- $18.00 (6:31PM)
Honeymoon From Hell- $18.00 (4:52PM)

I haven't spent much time in Arkansas, although in 1995, when I was running Sire Records, I went to Memphis to watch Jerry Lee Lewis record Young Bloodfor the label. There were 4 memorable things we did on that trip aside from hanging with Jerry Lee. We went to see Graceland. We went to a Sunday service at the Full Gospel Tabernacle church, where Al Green is the pastor. We rode in the elevator with the ducks at the Peabody Hotel. And we went to a dog track, Southland Greyhound Park, in West Memphis, Arkansas.

West Memphis is the 12th largest city in Arkansas with a population of around 30,000. It's the county seat of Crittenden County and it gets its cable TV from across the Mississippi River in Memphis. Once the home of Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson and CNN anchor T.J. Holmes, West Memphis is a majority black city, represented by a notoriously drunk Blue Dog, Marion Berry. Only 9 of Arkansas' counties went for Obama over McCain last year and in Crittenden it wasn't even close. Obama took 57% of the vote (in a state which only gave him 39% overall). Blanche Lincoln depends on the heavily Democratic counties of eastern Arkansas to win her races-- Crittenden, Saint Francis, Lee, Phillips, Desha, Chicot and Woodruff. She couldn't win re-election without them. And the people in this part of the state are overwhelmingly in favor of meaningful healthcare reform. They favor the public option by massive numbers. And it's crucial that they understand that it's Blanche Lincoln who has been working against meaningful reform-- and doing so on behalf of the insurance and medical industries that have been flooding her campaign coffers with "contributions." Close to 90% of Democrats in these counties, all of which voted for Obama in 2008, want health care reform with the public option. Thanks, in part, to the ads Blue America has been running all summer and fall, they are now aware that Blanche Lincoln is not representing them. Interestingly, the congressman who represents much of the area, Marion Berry, broke with the Blue Dogs and did vote for the healthcare bill last weekend.

So... would you help us keep our ads running in eastern Arkansas through the Memphis media market? The most expensive spots are $8.00! And like I said earlier, CNN's American Morning is $3.00. So is Wolfie's Situation Room and Studio B With Shepard Smith, The Live Desk, and Cashin' In on Fox. Speaking of Fox, though, you could consider a splurge and let us put more ads up on Huckabee-- this is Arkansas we're talking about-- which costs $8.00 a spot.

The spot is below and here's where you can donate $3.00 or $8.00 or $30.00 or any amount you want to get it shown as many times as you'd like. And, today, everyone who donates at least $30 (that's 10 spots on CNN's American Morning) gets a thank you from Blue America-- a rare (never sold) CD of the full 2:45 version of "Have You Had Enough," which features Rickie Lee Jones with Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher of the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Will Blanche Lincoln Stop Health Care Reform Dead In Its Tracks?

You can rail all you want at Joe Lieberman-- we all do-- but it's like feeding a troll; he loves the attention and the sense of martyrdom. And getting the Democrats to kick him out of the caucus if he joins the Republican filibuster of health care? Fat chance. And Mary Landrieu, the Democratic female corporate whore from Louisiana, as opposed to the Republican male corporate whore-- who also dates the other kind of whore-- from Louisiana? As usual she's more concerned about what her corporate donors and K Street lobbyists think than what her constituents want-- especially when she's not up for re-election for 5 years. Baucus? Nelson? Same thing. They each figure everyone's attention span is short enough so that nothing will matter when they face the voters in Montana and Nebraska next... respectively in 2014 and 2012.

No, as we've been telling you all year, there's only one weak link worth trying to beat into submission: Arkansas' corrupt and reactionary-- don't those two terms always seem to find a way of cuddling up with each other?-- senior senator, Blanche Lincoln. Blue America has run TV spots against Lincoln all summer and fall and she's watched her re-elect numbers dwindle down to a place where if a serious opponent-- i.e., one with big bucks to buy advertising-- jumped into the race, she would lose. She may lose anyway, even though her current opponents would probably do better if they toured together as a carnival show. Yesterday the RNC started their own campaign against her, trying to push her to vote with Republicans-- as she so often does-- and against health care reform.

This week Blue America and our friends at Donkey On The Edge Productions have a brand new ad for Arkansas voters to look at-- the fourth in our series-- and the message is very different from the Republicans'. By all means, be the first to view it-- and please consider making a contribution of our Campaign for Health Care Choice page so we can run it deep and wide.

Blanche Lincoln Is Asking For More TV Ads

Blanche & Ben yucking it up-- worse than Republicans

One of the Senate's most corrupt members, Arkansas reactionary Blanche Lincoln, has taken $469,383 in thinly disguised bribes from the Insurance industry and another $1,523,558 from the Medical-Industrial Complex. Is she in bed with the lobbyists who pay her to vote for their clients' interests instead of her constituents'? Well this year she's in the top 10 of senators favored with "donations" from lobbying firms and in her entire career, she's accepted $433,421 from a category of Inside-the-Beltway parasites whose only substantive function is to bribe legislators.

Blue America ran nearly a thousand cable TV ads across Arkansas in the hope of getting Blanche Lincoln to stop obstructing health care reform. Today I was going over the run in the Ft. Smith market. We had ads on CSI Miami, The Fugitive, Anderson Cooper 360, Larry King Live, CNN Newsroom, Barefoot Contessa, Wild Hogs, The O'Reilly Factor, Time Machine, Ice Road Truckers, Reba, Caught On Camera, The Rock, Law and Order, Saving Grace, The Bourne Supremacy, 40 Year Old Virgin and plenty of similar rubbish. A lot more American Morning, The Situation Room, Sportscenter and Huckabee in Little Rock and History of Sex in Jonesboro.

Lincoln reacted quickly, making noises that sounded like she might take the side of her state's working families for a change, instead of the big Insurance companies that buy her fealty. But, alas, they were only noises. Yesterday one of our friends in Hot Springs forwarded us a form letter she got from Lincoln's office. As though it were written by a real Democrat, it acknowledges that there's a problem. But the conclusion is very disappointing, some of it coming straight from Insurance Industry Talking Points that are routinely parroted by anti-health care fanatics like Mike Pence (R-IN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Paul Ryan (R-WI):

My priority in health reform is to create better access to a range of high quality and more affordable health insurance plans, while protecting what works for Arkansas families and creating greater efficiencies in how our nation delivers care. While I support government programs like Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP, or ARKids First,” as it is known in Arkansas) that provide coverage for specific vulnerable and hard-to-insure populations, I do not support moving America to a nationalized single-payer or “government-run” health care system. Instead, in health care reform I will ensure Arkansans and Americans will have the freedom of choice to keep their current insurance plans and current doctors or choose another plan that better meets their needs. Health care reform should also stop the insurance companies from denying coverage for an illness an individual had five years ago, denying coverage because of some other pre-existing condition, or denying coverage because of age. The goal is to make health care cost less and cover more, and this will take a uniquely American solution that will enable Americans to save by doing their part and making healthy lifestyle choices for themselves and their families.

It sounds to me like Blanche is asking for another round of cable TV ads. Some Democrats worry that she could lose her seat to a Republican. Why worry? She is a Republican-- at least when it really matters. She votes with them and she fights tooth and nail against the most important progressive legislation behind the scenes, watering it down and making it useless, not just the way she is with health care, but something she has also done with Employee Free Choice, in effect killing the bill by declaring her intention of joining the Republicans in a filibuster. So you worry about her losing? It would be a step in the right direction. In the end, for example, she did vote for the Cash For Clunkers bill last week. But the Senate voted 7 times on various amendments and substitutes to HR 3435 that day. The Democrats won all 7 rollcalls, no thanks to Lincoln, who joined Ben Nelson on 3 of them in crossing the aisle and voting with the Republicans. It's her modus operandi.

And it isn't as if Arkansas isn't one of the states in direst need for health care reform-- the real kind, not what Blanche and the Insurance companies are offering. When the Center For American Progress looked at the situation in Arkansas, they found a real mess for ordinary working families:

• 80 residents of Arkansas are losing health insurance every day, and 14,000 Americans nationwide lose insurance daily.

• The average family premium in Arkansas costs $1,500 more because our system fails to cover everyone-- and $1,100 more nationally.

• Our broken health insurance system will cost the Arkansas economy as much as $2.4 billion this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured-- and up to $248 billion nationally.

• In Arkansas there has been a 6 percent increase in the uninsured rate since 2007.

• 500,000 are uninsured today in Arkansas.

• In Arkansas the combined market share of the top two insurers is 81 percent, limiting employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive.

• The average family premium will rise from $11,472 to $19,575 by 2019 in Arkansas without health care reform.

• In Arkansas, without health care reform, 72,980 will have lost coverage from January 2008 to December 2010.

• In Arkansas, 243,000 people would gain coverage as a result of the House health care reform bill by 2013, and 391,000 would gain coverage by 2019.

• A typical Arkansas family will pay $19,575 for health coverage in 2019 without health care reform.

Please help us decide which of the 3 TV spots we did should be run next. And if you can afford to chip in for the effort, believe me, even $10 and $20 contributions help make sure the good folks in Texarkana, Arkadelphia, El Dorado, Pine Bluff, Horseshoe Bend and Fayetteville know exactly where their senator stands when it comes to their health care. A lot of people think this ad below is the one we should run next. What do you think?




UPDATE: Blanche Will Talk With Arkansas Voters

Looks like she'll probably get an earful. I can imagine her hearing from normal working families about her attempts to kill health care reform on behalf of her Insurance company CEO donors and lobbyists at the same time the lunatic fringe wingnuts attack her because... well, because that's what lunatic fringe wingnuts do. I wonder if she'll say something similar to Chris Carney when he found out that the wingnuts he's been catering to for the last 3 years hate him: "They should remember that I'm one of the Blue Dogs that slowed the process down so we could have a discussion about this issue." Anyway, here's what she sent us today:

Lincoln will travel the state throughout the annual congressional work period. The following is Lincoln’s schedule of events around the state for August 11-15:

Tuesday, August 11—Little Rock, Malvern

9:10 a.m., Keynote address, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas Seminar, “Connecting Your Business with China.” Lincoln will join the State Chamber/AIA, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas World Trade Center, and business and community leaders to welcome the Chinese Ambassador to the United States. Capital Hotel, 111 W. Markham Street, Little Rock.

12:00 p.m., Speak, Lions Club of Malvern. Western Sizzlin Steak House, 621 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Malvern.


Wednesday, August 12—Little Rock

9:00 a.m., Speak, “Jobs for Arkansas” Business Aviation Forum at Dassault Falcon Jet. Lincoln will join Governor Beebe, Senator Pryor, Dassault Falcon employees, and other community and business leaders to discuss the importance of Arkansas’s aviation industry. Dassault Falcon Jet Company, 3801 East 10th Street, Little Rock.


Thursday, August 13—Springdale, Hot Springs, Benton, Little Rock

9:30 a.m., Speak, Association of Arkansas Counties. Northwest Arkansas Holiday Inn & Convention Center, Salons D & E, 1500 South 48th Street, Springdale.

12:00 p.m., Speak, Mental Health Council of Arkansas Conference. Hot Springs Convention Center, 134 Convention Boulevard, Hot Springs.

2:15 p.m., Saline County Economic Development Meeting. Lincoln will join Senator Shane Broadway; Eddie Black, Chamber of Commerce Director; Representative Dawn Creekmore; Representative Ann Clemmers; Mayor Rick Holland; Former Representative Lamont Cornwell, Benton Economic Director. 205 East Street, Benton.

5:30 p.m., Pulaski County Democratic Women, Democratic Party of Arkansas headquarters, 1300 West Capitol Avenue, Little Rock.


Friday, August 14—Little Rock, Pine Bluff

10:15 a.m., Tour, Center for Healing Hearts & Spirits. The Center for Healing Hearts & Spirits is a project of the Women’s Council on African-American Affairs, Inc. Its mission is to promote and nurture individuals in areas of education, economic and community development, healthcare issues, public safety and race relations. The center was created to assist victims of violent crimes and terminal illnesses and their affected families to improve the quality of their economic and social environment, transition back into the workplace and to provide for self-sufficiency. 2416 S. Chester Street, Little Rock.

11:50 a.m., Tour, SEARK College. Lincoln will tour the campus, including the new library and nursing program, and meet with SEARK board members. 1900 S. Hazel Street, Pine Bluff.

1:30 p.m., Reach Out and Read, Flowers Pediatric Clinic. Lincoln has been a champion of the Reach Out and Read (ROR) program, which is a national nonprofit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation. Arkansas is home to 19 ROR sites. Flowers Pediatric Clinic, 316 W. 5th Avenue, Pine Bluff.


Saturday, August 15—Rogers

4:40 p.m., Featured Speaker, Benton County Democratic Committee Political Rally. 1211 Samaritan House, W. Hudson Road, Rogers.

Too late for Malvern but we can certainly get some ads up in time for her Pine Bluff bullshit session. Please donate today.

David Sirota introduces our masters the 1-Percenters and their retainers: Land Rover Liberals, Corrupt Cowboys & Millionaire Media

Meredith Viera wants to know why the president,

with his surtax, is so intent on "punishing the rich."

"No, it's not punishing the rich. If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that's part of being a community."

-- President Obama, speaking about the surtax,

as quoted in David Sirota's syndicated column today

In his syndicated column today, our friend David Sirota introduces us to an interesting cast of characters doing the Beltway shuffle.

David Sirota: 1-percenters launch attack on health care

CREATORS SYNDICATE
JULY 24, 2009

Here's a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.

According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it has been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms.

And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.

But what really makes the ultra-wealthy so fortunate, what truly separates this moment from a run-of-the-mill Gilded Age, is the unprecedented protection the 1-percenters have bought for themselves on the most pressing issues.

To review: With 22,000 Americans dying each year because they lack health insurance, Congress is considering universal health care legislation financed by a surcharge on income above $280,000 — that is, a levy almost exclusively on 1-percenters. This surtax would graze just 5 percent of small businesses and would recoup only part of the $700 billion the 1-percenters received from the Bush tax cuts.

In fact, it is so minuscule, those making $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year — or nine-tenths of 1 percent of their 12-month haul.

Nonetheless, the 1-percenters have deployed an army to destroy the initiative before it makes progress.

The foot soldiers are the Land Rover Liberals. These Democratic lawmakers secure their lefty labels by wearing pink-ribbon lapel pins and supporting good causes like abortion rights. However, being affluent and/or from affluent districts, they routinely drive their luxury cars over middle-class economic interests. Hence, this week's letter from dot-com tycoon Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, Colo., and other Land Rover Liberals calling for the death of the surtax.

Echoing that demand are the Corrupt Cowboys -- those like Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who come from the heartland's culturally conservative and economically impoverished locales. These cavalrymen in both parties quietly build insurmountable campaign war chests as the biggest corporate fundraisers in Congress. At the same time, they publicly preen as jes' folks, make twangy references to "voters back home," and now promise to kill the health care surtax because they say that's what their communities want. Cash payoffs made, re-elections purchased, the absurd story somehow goes that because blue-collar constituents in Flyover America like guns and love Jesus, they must also reflexively adore politicians who defend 1-percenters' bounty.

That fantastical fairly tale, of course, couldn't exist without the Millionaire Media — the elite journalists and opinionmongers who represent corporate media conglomerates and/or are themselves extremely wealthy. Ignoring all the data about inequality, they legitimize the assertions of the 1-percenters' first two battalions, while actually claiming that America's fat cats are unfairly persecuted.

For example, Washington Post editors deride surtax proponents for allegedly believing "the rich alone can fund government." Likewise, Wall Street Journal correspondent Jonathan Weisman wonders why the surtax "soak(s) the rich" by unduly "lumping all of the problems of the finances of the United States on 1 percent of (its) households?"

And most brazenly, NBC's Meredith Vieira asks President Obama why the surtax is intent on "punishing the rich?"

For his part, Obama has responded with characteristic coolness — and a powerful counter-strike. "No, it's not punishing the rich," he said.

"If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that's part of being a community."

If any volley can thwart this latest attack of the 1-percenters, it is that simple idea.

David Sirota is the bestselling author of Hostile Takeover (2006) and The Uprising (2008). Contact him at ds@davidsirota.com.

Will Blue Dogs Help GOP Extremists Destroy Obama's Presidency Over Their Donations From Insurance Industry CEOs?

The Republican Party response to the debate over health care reform is in.

I've been in Asia all summer. I stand out and no one thinks I'm a native. People tend to ask me where I'm from. I sometimes say "L.A.," sometimes "California," and sometimes "USA." The response is always the same: "Obama!!" And it's a very, very positive expression of overwhelming pro-American sentiment. Apparently they're not paying any attention to the violently anti-Obama American corporate media, which is largely onboard the conservative clarion call to stop at nothing to derail health care reform and use it to deal a devastating blow to Obama's credibility and his ability to lead.

I'm not quite sure why the House of Lords thinks its August recess is more important than solving the country's health care crisis but I know I'd feel a lot better about Reid's reading about GOP talking points postponing the vote if he had also announced a suspension of health care benefits for all members of the Senate and their families until the crisis is solved for the rest of America.

The worst of the conservative partisans and bribe taking corporate shills in Congress have no interest in solving the crisis, only in scoring political points against President Obama. Neo-Confederate and right wing extremist Jim DeMint has said so openly and Jim Inhofe jumped on board the Obstructionist Express yesterday too. "This is a losing proposition for them," drawled the Oklahoma arch-reactionary. "And for those out there who believe, that would like to have something optimistic to look at, we are plotting the demise on a week by week basis of where Bill Clinton was in 1993 and where Obama is today and his demise ratio is greater than Clinton’s was in 1993. So, he’s trying to do the same things, except more extreme."

New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez had a good answer for Inhofe, DeMint and the extremists: "Slowly but surely the Republicans are revealing their true strategy on health care: partisan gamesmanship comes before getting something done. If Republicans believe doing nothing will ingratiate themselves with the American people, they have not learned a single lesson from the last two elections. Their do nothing approach is why health care costs have skyrocketed, and it’s why Republicans are in such a bad place today. This strategy is bad politics, but it is also a deeply troubling way to govern." But is anyone (aside from conservatives like pervert John Ensign) hearing him?

Apparently Blanche Lincoln (DLC-AR) isn't. She's still using Republican Party talking points when discussing health care and in her latest Lincoln eLetter she's doesn't mention the public option, only insurance company priorities. Our last ads TV spots in Arkansas ran today. You can let us know if you want us to run some more by donating to the Blue America Campaign For Health Care Choice here.

Yesterday one of the most corrupt Republican leaders, Roy Blunt, currently running for the open Missouri Senate seat and supposedly the GOP point person on health care in the House, admitted the Republicans have no plans for health care other than the failed status quo dictated for political campaign contributors at the Big Insurance companies. “Our bill," he told The Hill, "is never going to get to the floor, so why confuse the focus? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they’ve got to whatever we’re offering right now?”

The same Republican leaders who are now doing all they can to undermine President Obama politically and who are howling about stopping socialism, were very recently-- when they were in the majority and helping Bush drive the economy into a ditch-- telling Democrats that unless they came up with an alternative plan to what the GOP and their corporate allies were ramming through, to STFU.

Pea-brained Indiana fanatic Mike Pence on May 17, 2005: "The ridicule has taken a variety of forms including denouncing the President's motives and intentions ... Beyond that slur, there has just been, to date, simply silence. No ideas. No counterproposals." Sounds like he's describing his own party's response to the health care crisis? He isn't alone. Three months earlier John McCain pontificated at Fox News that "to have no alternative, no plan of their own, smacks of demagoguery.”

While self-serving reactionary Blue Dogs have been bolstering their ideological brethren across the aisle, they have been busy filling their bowls with corporate cash while making it difficult for President Obama and progressive allies to move forward and bolstering the dual Republican agenda: stopping progress on health care reform and crippling the Obama presidency. There are now 86 co-sponsors to H.R.676, John Conyers' single-payer health care proposal, the real progressive legislation before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where the Blue Dogs and Republicans have vowed to kill it. A vote could come today. Democrats.com is keeping careful track and rallying citizens to call their representatives and tell them that we want real health care reform. Yesterday Obama was at a town hall meeting in Ohio talking about real reform. He was inspiring to Democrats who were listening. But either shills like Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Max Baucus, Mark Pryor, Mary Landrieu, John Barrow, Jim Cooper, Dan Boren, Allen Boyd aren't listening... or they aren't Democrats.

Whenever I hear people say that it's happening too soon, I think that's a little odd. We've been talking about health care reform since the days of Harry Truman. How could it be too soon? I don't think it's too soon for the families who've seen their premiums rise faster than wages year after year. It's not too soon for the businesses forced to drop coverage or shed workers because of mounting health care expenses. It's not too soon for taxpayers asked to close widening deficits that stem from rising health care costs-- costs that threaten to leave our children with a mountain of debt.

Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington, but it's not soon enough for the American people. We can get this done. We don't shirk from a challenge.

Shameful that progressives have to resort to this, but with enough die-hard conservative Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee working with reactionary Republicans like Roy Blunt, Joe Barton, John Shadegg and Marsha Blackburn in opposing Democratic Party values and real reform, the House leadership is considering bypassing the committee and taking the legislation right to the floor. Forcing sleazy lowlife scumbags like John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Mike Ross (Blue Dog- AR), Jane Harman (Blue Dog-CA), Zach Space (Blue Dog-OH) and Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN) to come out of the closet as full-blown conservatives and vote with Republicans against health care reform on the floor of Congress will, in all likelihood, end their shameful and freakish political careers. Why can't we have more Democrats like this one today (see how long it takes you to guess who it is)?

The Democratic Party represents the people... The Democratic Party puts human rights and human welfare first... These Republican gluttons of privilege are cold men. They are cunning men... They want a return of the Wall Street economic dictatorship.

Something happens to Republican leaders when they get control of the government... Republicans in Washington have a habit of becoming curiously deaf to the voice of the people. They have a hard time hearing what the ordinary people of the country are saying. But they have no trouble at all hearing what Wall Street is saying. They are able to catch the slightest whisper from big business and the special interests.

Republican candidates are apparently trying to sing the American voters to sleep with a lullaby about unity... They want to kind of unity that benefits the National Association of Manufacturers... the real estate trusts... [the] selfish interests... They don't want unity. They want surrender. And I am here to tell you people that I will not surrender.

Some things are worth fighting for... We must fight isolationists and reactionaries, the profiteers and the privileged class... Our primary concern is for the little fellow. We think the big boys have always done very well, taking care of themselves... It is the business of government to see that the little fellow gets a square deal.

That's Harry Truman, campaigning in 1948-- unfortunately not Harry Reid in 2009.


UPDATE: Conservative Slimebag Resigns In Disgrace

Pinellas County Medical Association president Dr. David McKalip apologized for the email he sent out with the image of President Obama (above) and resigned as president elect. I'll bet he was a Marco Rubio supporter. Substantial political contributions from him and his wife have gone to Ron Paul, Tom Feeney, Connie Mack, Mitt Romney, and other extreme right figures (as well as $500 to DLC Senator Bill Nelson.) How would you like that kind of narrow-minded bigot as your physician?

How Do You Know If Your Congresscritter Is Worth Rehiring Or Needs To Be Replaced?

Yesterday NYC Congressman Jerrold Nadler made a 20 second video (above) declaring that he supports inclusion of the public option in health care reform and that he opposes any health care legislation that excludes it. Blue America supported Congressman Nadler's re-election campaign last year, in part because of clear, principled stands like this.

Last year Blue America also supported the successful election of Jeff Merkley against Oregon's ultra-sleazy corporate shill Gordon Smith. Jeff has been one of the most outspoken and persistent supporters of real health care reform on the HELP Committee, a real tribune for ordinary Oregon working families. If you have a Republican senator or one like Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman, Arlen Specter, Evan Bayh or even Dianne Feinstein, playing footsie with the Big Money boys at the Insurance Industry they're probably not making arguments like this one Senator Merkley sent out to his constituents yesterday:

At the beginning of July, I held town hall meetings in Umatilla, Polk, Clackamas, Linn, Marion, and Multnomah Counties. At each meeting, the most prominent issue of concern was health care. 

People of all walks of life are paying dramatically more for health care than they used to. These high costs are hurting our families and our small businesses. Last year, we spent 17 percent of our gross domestic product on health care; in the last nine years, costs have doubled for the average family. In May, Oregon’s largest insurer announced that the average small business premium was going up 14.7 percent-- on top of a 26 percent increase last year. Health care costs are an increasing drag on our economy and the pocketbooks of working families. 

In my role on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, I’ve been working with my colleagues on a plan for health care reform that will lower costs, provide consumers with more choices, and increase competition.

The change would work like this: Americans who are happy with their current health plan can keep it.  But if you don’t like your plan and you want to look at other options, we’re going to make sure you have a choice of quality, affordable health plans. This will lower costs and it will also force insurance companies to provide better services to their customers. 

One of those options will be a community health insurance plan offered by the federal government. This public option will be an additional choice to increase competition, lower prices, and keep insurance companies honest, so families won’t be entirely at the mercy of the insurance companies. Most Oregonians I’ve talked to-- and about three-quarters of Americans according to the polls-- like the idea of having a choice of what type of plan they want rather than having the federal government make that decision for them.

Over the next few months, we’ll be engaging in a nationwide discussion about the direction of health care in our country.  We’ll have before us a choice between a system that gets more and more expensive every year, leaves middle class families one pink slip from losing their health coverage, and makes our businesses less competitive, or an improved model that increases health care options, expands care, and lowers costs. I don’t think we can afford to do nothing.

We have a once in a generation opportunity to remake our health care system for the better. I invite you to contact my office and talk to your friends and family about your opinion because we can only enact real change if you make your voices heard.

If you're not hearing this kind of thing from your congressmembers, you're being shortchanged and your employees aren't doing a good job and aren't serving your interests. You should think about firing them-- or maybe just helping us fire Blanche Lincoln, one of the worst of the duplicitous Democrats taking immense sums of money from the Medical-Industrial Complex CEOs and voting for their interests instead of Arkansas voters' interests. Sad how the same reactionary Republicans with a handful of corrupt Democrats opposing health care reform are the very same political hacks opposing financial reform too. Watch Elizabeth Warren on Rachel Maddow tonight and try to keep what she sends in mind when you think about voting next year:

Is Blanche Lincoln Coming Around On Health Care Reform?

Who'll be the next in line?

One of Blue America's biggest successes was when we put together 6 full page newspaper ads asking why a Democratic congressman would join the GOP in opposing health care for needy children. Before we could run the ads 5 of the Democrats announced they were changing their positions in favor of reform and we were able to save the thousands of dollars we had scheduled to spend. We still ran the full page ad against Jim Marshall, an ultra-conservative Democrat from Georgia, and he voted with Republicans against the kids anyway. Jim Marshall, a Zeller Miller Democrat, will have Blue America on his ass for the rest of his miserable career.

Yesterday when I woke up I had a letter from Digby telling me that Blanche Lincoln, the first target of the Blue America Campaign for Health Care Choice is reassessing her support for Insurance Industry CEOs against the interests of Arkansas' working families. (A few days ago we mentioned that one of the families she shills for-- the Waltons of Wal-Mart-- may also be telling her to change her reactionary position.) "Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans," said Senator Lincoln. "Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan." She sounds almost like a Democrat. Digby:

Far be it for me to suggest that the threat of a barrage of ads throughout the state using the words "quality public plan" would precipitate this, but her office was informed about what was coming down the pike starting.

Greg Sargent at Who Runs Gov speculated today that "pressure from the left might be getting results, albeit limited ones, in the case of “centrist” Dem Senator Blanche Lincoln, who has been resisting any commitment to backing a public health care option."

Lincoln, who’s getting hammered by ads demanding she commit to the public option, has now shifted towards supporting one, at least in rhetorical terms. In a piece for today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she says health care reform should include a public plan or a non-profit substitute.
Here’s the key graf from Lincoln:

Health care reform must build upon what works and improve inefficiencies. Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans. Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan.

The assertion that reform “should” have a public plan or non-profit substitute is a shift from her previous position, which was only that she was “evaluating” a public plan or a substitute.

Lincoln’s position had made her a top target of the left. The Blue America PAC, which is headed by liberal bloggers Howie Klein, Digby, dday, Jane Hamsher and John Amato, raised money for ads targeting Lincoln in her home state of Arkansas, pushing her to commit to a public option.

To be sure, Lincoln left herself wiggle room. The non-profit substitute for a public plan could take many forms, and the idea is viewed in some quarters as a potential ruse to avoid creating a strong public option. But Lincoln clearly seems to be shifting on the question.

TPM made much the same point today in the post Amid Pressure From Party Leaders And Reformers, Blanche Lincoln Now Open To A Public Option.

A couple things to keep in mind. First, Lincoln has been under fire from reformers for being unwilling to unequivocally endorse the public option-- and since she still hasn't done that, it's hard to imagine they'll be fully satisfied.

Second, this comes as Democratic leaders are making their strongest push yet to unite caucus members ahead of a tough fight over health care reform. Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing the Senate Finance Committee to move ahead with a comprehensive and satisfactory health care reform bill with or without Republican support, and, relatedly, Majority Whip Dick Durbin is urging party members to oppose Republican filibusters on Democratic agenda items, even if they don't support the underlying legislation.

So where does that leave the Blue America community? Our first batch of TV spots started running all over Arkansas today. We're talking about putting the second wave on hold now that Lincoln (and Pryor) seem to be moving in the right direction. We'll re-assess in a week. Meanwhile, we're trying to decide what state our next target should be. Pennsylvania, where Republican-Democrat hybrid freak Arlen Specter take even more outrageous bribes from the Medical-Industrial Complex and Big Insurance than Lincoln and who is playing a devious behind the scenes role in trying to water down the effectiveness of a public option at the behest of his patrons? Or how about Iowa, the home of Chuck Grassley, the Republican tasked by the Insurance Industry with being on the front line of offense against the entire concept of "robustness"in a public option. As ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee-- something he held onto rather than take on that position on the Judiciary Committee for the specific purpose of working with his pal Max Baucus to weaken any reform to the point of making it ineffective-- Grassley makes an excellent target of opportunity. He also has to face a politically well-educated voting base in a blue-trending state in 2010. Imagine ridding the SEnate-- and American politics of a worse-than-worthless hack like Evan Bayh! Or maybe you have another suggestion? Let us know-- and, please, continue donating to the Campaign for Health Care Choice. We can make this work, one crooked senator at a time!

Meanwhile, where do we look for leadership on health care policy? Ken suggested Howard Dean the other day. I'm with him on that-- and with another Vermonter as well, Senator Bernie Sanders. THis is the guy who should be writing the legislation, not disgraceful Big Business shills like Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley.




UPDATE: Our Blanche Lincoln Ad Goes National

David Shuster ran our ad on MSNBC as a news story today-- and invited Jane on to talk about it.

Is Ann Kirkpatrick The Blanche Lincoln Of The House?

The updated 2009 CQPolitics party unity scores are out. No surprises for DWT readers as to which Democrats have been the least supportive of Obama's change agenda and which ones have found a home across the aisle voting with the enemies of working families. The 10 worst Democrats:

Walt Minnick (ID)- 40%
Bobby Bright (AL)- 52%
Gene Taylor (MS)- 65%
Heath Shuler (NC)- 68%
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)- 75%
Baron Hill (IN)- 75%
Parker Griffith (AL)- 77% 
Jim Marshall (GA)- 77%
Jason Altmire (PA)- 78%
Joe Donnelly (IN)- 78%

This morning friends in Flagstaff sent me a report by Cyndy Cole in yesterday's Arizona Daily Sun that indicates that reactionary Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick could be angering enough people to attract a primary opponent. She represents one of the nation's poorest districts, the Navajo Nation, but her votes show no concern whatsoever for working families, only for powerful CEOs. Unlike almost all Democrats, for example, she voted with the GOP to oppose limits on executive pay at banks receiving federal bailout funds and she voted against the mortgage lending reform bill, something sorely needed in hard hit Arizona. Not all of her Republican-oriented votes are about economics. She vehemently opposes restrictions on automatic weapons, a popular position in individualistic Arizona, just as she opposed the FDA regulating tobacco marketing to children, which she termed "unneeded government interference," straight from the Republican Party talking points handed out by tobacco lobbyist John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Some of her constituents were surprised, however, when she also joined Boehner and Cantor to oppose capping greenhouse gas emissions, because of a repeated pledge during her 2008 campaign to support renewable energy development in her district. At the time she campaigned on adding "green" jobs to the district's struggling economy and calling climate change America's biggest environmental challenge and a likely contributor to drought in Arizona. 

Last year, Blue America, sensing how terrible Kirkpatrick would be for working families and for the environment, endorsed her progressive Democratic opponent Howard Shanker, who she buried with help from the perfidious DCCC and with huge amounts of Establishment cash. We were horrified when the Sierra Club, for whom Shanker had been winning cases as an attorney, went along with the Inside-the-Beltway crowd and endorsed Big Business friendly Kirkpatrick. Now it's the Sierra Club's chance to be horrified.

Between a vote to swap federal lands to allow mining near Superior, and the vote against the climate bill, the Sierra Club is not pleased...  "Her district will feel the effects of climate change significantly, especially in the greater Grand Canyon area," said Grand Canyon Chapter Director Sandy Bahr. "Reduced flows in our rivers and streams is only one of many issues. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the higher temperatures will result in even more dead trees and more significant forest fires." 


..."There are certainly a lot of progressive Democrats who are disappointed by her votes at this point," said Democrat Avtar Khalsa. But those sentiments appear to stop somewhere near the city limits, with farther-flung Democrats more supportive. 



 ..."I basically think that Ann Kirkpatrick should return to her Republican roots," said Democrat Debbie Leavitt, referencing Kirkpatrick's childhood in a home that was politically divided. "I don't think she should be allowed to continue pretending to be a Democrat." 
 


Others spoke on parallel tracks, including one of her more generous donors in Flagstaff. 
 


"I am very disappointed in her promise versus performance on environmental issues," said William Putnam of Lowell Observatory. 
 


Perhaps some local Democrats didn't fully understand who they were electing, said city councilwoman Karla Brewster. 
 


"The people I've talked to are angry ... and believed she would be more liberal than she has been voting," Brewster said. "In talking to Ann myself, I've believed she would be more moderate." 
 


...Democrat Bill Breed supported Kirkpatrick and congressional candidate Howard Shanker last year, before siding with Shanker. 
 
"She doesn't vote like a Democrat," he said of Kirkpatrick... The vote against the greenhouse-gas-capping bill might have landed roughly with some in Flagstaff, but it's a non-issue in much of the rest of the district, said Flagstaff political scientist Fred Solop. 
 


"It's not a highly salient issue within the district as a whole," he said, adding that her overall record on environmental issues is "pretty good." 
 Sometimes party members get a pass from their party leadership and are granted permission to not back a major party bill that's going to pass anyway, Solop said. 
 Perhaps that has been the case with Kirkpatrick on the climate bill. 
 


"If your district's in conflict with the governing party, vote the district," he said. 
 
He's looking ahead to the next election, as competitors emerge. 
 


"This is going to be a very tough race for her," Solop said. "And if she can win this next election, she'll be in Congress for the next decade."

Its something we should work to prevent for the sake of the country. The Sun presented a neat list direct quotes from the duplicitous Kirkpatrick when she was desperate to win over Democrats in 2008. At the time she committed herself, in writing, to progressive positions she has since jettisoned sure she could keep Democratic voters in her camp-- where else can they go-- while winning over some Republicans. These quotes sound like they were given by a real Democrat, not Ann Kirkpatrick:


 "Like Senator McCain, I support bipartisan efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a free market cap-and-trade system." 
 
-- Sept. 2008 Arizona Daily Sun questionnaire 
 


"America's greatest environmental challenge is climate change, which is likely contributing to drought conditions here in the district. Our government must work with business to find economically viable solutions to this common problem. America should be a leader in the global community on this issue." 
 
-- June, 2008 Arizona Daily Sun questionnaire 
 


"We need to work to make sure every American has access to quality, affordable medical services. While we move towards that goal, we must prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions, make sure every child in this country can see a doctor by expanding S-CHIP, and allow the government to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices for Medicare just as the V.A. does." 
 
-- Sept. 2008 Arizona Daily Sun questionnaire 
 


(Regarding background checks on guns sold at gun shows) 
 
"I will support laws that promote responsible gun ownership and use." 
 
-- June, 2008 Arizona Daily Sun questionnaire 
 


"I support a permanent tax cut for 86 million middle-class families, fixing the alternative minimum tax so it does not target middle-class families, and preserving the estate tax as it stood under the Clinton Administration while exempting most small businesses and farms." 
 
-- Sept. 2008 Arizona Daily Sun questionnaire

As today's Hill pointed out yesterday, Obama is having a far worse problem in the House of Lords, were a handful of very conservative would-be mini-presidents  have been working to water down Obama's agenda to make it more palatable to their corporate campaign donors. There are 6 who have consistently sided with the GOP in their obstructionist agenda against Obama's attempts to rescue the country from decades of right-wing misrule. The half dozen worst Democrats, according to the CQPolitics 2009 Senate scorecard, with their party unity scores:

Arlen Specter (PA)- 49%
Ben Nelson (NE)- 56%
Evan Bayh (IN)- 70%
Blanche Lincoln (AR)- 85%
Mary Landrieu (LA)- 87%
Kay Hagan (NC)- 88%

Miss McConnell and Jon Kyl have been reaching out to these reactionary anti-family Democrats, hoping to get them to help block Obama’s two biggest initiatives: healthcare reform and climate change legislation. They are confident that enough of them-- particularly Lincoln, Bayh, Landrieu and Nelson (plus Lieberman)-- will join the Republican efforts to filibuster change that at the very minimum they will succeed in watering down whatever Obama proposes so that ultimately his plans fail.

Writing about Lieberman, Nelson and Landrieu, The Hill concludes that "all three have expressed concerns about the core element in Obama’s healthcare proposal: a government-run insurance program that would compete with the private sector. The three also worked together this year to successfully cut more than $100 billion from Obama’s economic stimulus package." Their assessment is that the 3 others most likely to join the GOP obstructionism are Bayh, Lincoln and Arkansas doofus Mark Pryor.

“The Democratic Conference has 60 votes, if they’re all here, and if they are straight party-line that means that Republicans cannot stop legislation,” said Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.).

“[But] it is not all that common to have total party-line votes. If a couple of Democrats don’t vote with their party, then it doesn’t matter that they have 60 votes.”

Lieberman, who opposed Obama in the general election and then needed Obama’s support to hang onto his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has indicated he may vote against Obama’s healthcare reform initiative. [Lieberman is, and has long been, one of the most heavily bribed members of Congress when it comes to the Medical Industrial Complex and Big Insurance.]

“If we create a public option, the public is going to end up paying for it,” Lieberman told a home-state newspaper last week. “That’s a cost we can’t take on.”

Blanche Lincoln is a member of the Senate Finance Committee and has been working diligently behind the scenes to put roadblocks in the way of an effective and robust public option, a cat's paw of the Insurance CEOs inside the health care subcommittee. Her bad faith performance-- plus the fact that, along with Arlen Specter, she is the only one of the really bad Democrats up for re-election next year-- has inspired Blue America to launch an informational campaign about Lincoln's activities against health care reform starting tomorrow in all Arkansas media markets. Meanwhile, her Louisiana evil twin, Mary Landrieu, who doesn't have to face voters for another five-and-a-half years, "has angered liberal activists by seeming to go out of her way to express opposition to the public option, while other arch reactionaries and egregiously corrupt Democrats like Max Baucus and Tom Carper have stayed in the shadows on the issue, reassuring lobbyists and donors while not angering the public. "Lincoln teamed up with Senate Republicans during debate over the budget resolution to pass an amendment raising the exemption and lowering the rate for the estate tax. Both Pryor and Lincoln have expressed concern with the Employee Free Choice Act, a major priority of labor unions backed by most Democrats... Anna Aurilio, a lobbyist for Environment America, a liberal group, ranked Nelson, Landrieu, Bayh, Lincoln and Pryor as the toughest Democrats to persuade to join Democratic leaders on environmental votes... Lieberman, Nelson and other centrist Democrats give Republican leaders hope they can stop healthcare and climate proposals favored by Obama and most Democrats, even though they control only 40 seats, not enough to sustain a filibuster."

Has Wal-Mart Really Changed Sides In The Health Care Reform Battle? Will They Crack The Whip On Blanche Lincoln?

In this morning's L.A. Times David Lazarus confides confusion that one of the country's most politically reactionary corporations, Wal-Mart, is taking a pro-health care reform stance. "It's not clear what the retailer's motives may be," he writes, "nor does it truly matter. Wal-Mart is to be commended for taking a stand-- something far too many businesses have been reluctant to do." Wal-Mart is also one of the country's most hated corporations. They sell cheap slave-labor products, primarily from China, putting American workers out of work, depressing the wage base here, devastating normal American retailers and acting as a de facto monopolistic price-fixer across the American economy. (They're also trying to force their own standards on popular culture, something well illustrated currently by their mud-wrestling match with Green Day.) And they force their poorly paid workers to get health care from strapped government entities. Every time they want to open a new store in an area where the inhabitants haven't had their brains rotted out from environmental catastrophe, Wal-Mart winds up in a legal battle with the residents who don't want them around.

Do you think Mr. Lazarus is confused about Wal-Mart's motivations because he doesn't know any of this? Or maybe he just doesn't care. "Whatever the company's motive, retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc. made healthcare reform significantly more likely last week by throwing its weight behind a requirement that all employers provide health coverage."

Did they? Wal-Mart can influence a great many senators, particularly Republicans. The Walton family and the Wal-Mart PAC contribute a great deal of money, almost all of it to corrupt right-wing legislators. So far this election cycle the PAC has donated to 8 senators-- Evan Bayh (D-IN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Robert Bennett (R-UT), Richard Burr (R-NC), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Arlen Specter (R-D- PA), and John Thune (R-SD)-- all of whom oppose health care reform. They also own two senators out-right, both nominal Democrats, albeit right-wing anti-family Democrats, Arkansas corporate shills Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln... yes that Blanche Lincoln, widely referred to Inside-the-Beltway as the Senator from Wal-Mart. She's never opposed them on anything... not ever. Neither has Pryor. When it actually looked like Obama and the Democratic majority could pass Employee Free Choice, Wal-Mart persuaded Lincoln to serve notice-- publicly-- that she would reverse her previous position (on the identical bill-- although one Wal-Mart didn't care about knowing Bush could always veto it if worse came to worst). She declared she was not only against Employee Free Choice this year but that she would join the Republican Party filibuster to prevent it coming to a vote.

Anticipating Wal-Mart's opposition to health care reform, she jumped out in front of the parade and declared she opposes the public option. If Wal-Mart really supports health care reform, all they have to do is tug her leash-- and Pryor's-- and that's two "no" votes that become "yes" votes in an instant.

This is Wal-Mart, right? The same company that's drawn fire from unions and municipalities for not providing sufficient coverage to its own 1.4 million U.S. workers?

The same company that just a few years ago was fighting aggressively against similar proposals at the state level?

"Wal-Mart has been working hard to improve its image on healthcare," said Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Washington think tank. "They've moved from being a bad guy to a good guy."

That was the consensus among various healthcare experts I spoke with. While none could say for sure what Wal-Mart's motive may be, there was general agreement that whatever the company is up to, its contribution to the reform debate is a positive one.

"This blows a hole in business opposition to reform efforts," said Judy Feder, a Georgetown University public policy professor who also serves as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress... Many healthcare activists are reluctant to go on the record criticizing Wal-Mart for fear they'll discourage the company from continuing down the reform path. But privately, they say it's possible Wal-Mart is backing mandates as a way to head off more onerous legislation.

Specifically, the company may be trying to put the kibosh on a "free-rider provision" that would require employers to contribute to individual policies or government programs like Medicaid if workers have no other recourse for coverage.

About 52% of Wal-Mart employees are insured through the company, up from roughly 46% several years ago. The rest have to look elsewhere for coverage.

Often, coverage ends up being provided by taxpayers. As the nation's largest employer, Wal-Mart would perhaps have the most to lose from a free-rider provision.

The Asheville Citizen Times may not reach as many readers as the L.A. Times but they probably reach as many Wal-Mart shoppers. That paper claimed today that Wal-Mart's move into Obama's camp "represents a seismic shift" and a "game-changer" and they quote Wal-Mart's CEO, Mike Drew, at length:

“During the debate, we must keep our eyes trained on one clear imperative: reforming health care is necessary not just to improve the health of all Americans, but also to remove the burden that is crushing America’s businesses and hampering our competitiveness in the global economy. ... From a business perspective, health reform could not be more critical. … We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage, but any alternative to an employer mandate should not create barriers to hiring entry level-employees. …With smart, targeted policies, we can create a financially-viable health care system that enables workers to change jobs without losing their care, and allows businesses to become more nimble.”

The company says it's "open" about the public option and that it will have a statement to make "at some point." Until that point, unless Senator Lincoln makes up her own mind, the Campaign For Health Care Choice will continue informing Arkansas voters that Blanche Lincoln works for big corporate CEOs and not for them and their families. If you'd like to help us keep the pressure on Lincoln-- and other members of the American House of Lords-- please consider a donation at Blue America.

Obama Gives Us the Nod To Go After Blanche?

We asked our readers to take a look at the 3 TV spots we made for the Blue America Campaign for Heath Care Choice. So far we've raised around $23,000 and this is the ad that was chosen for us to run in all of Arkansas' media markets:



But is it OK with Obama that we go after one of the worst of the conservative Democrats-- and one of only two (the other being quasi-Democrat Arlen Specter) facing re-election next year-- who is opposing his plan to reform the American health care system fundamentally? Well... we think so. According to today's Washington Post Obama urged groups like Blue America to lay off bad Democrats-- but he specifically left Blanche Lincoln off the list. He complained about groups that are going directly to the voters to expose corrupt Democrats Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Arlen Specter, Ron Wyden (I don't understand why he stuck himself in this detestable camp) and Dianne Feinstein. But the silence over Blanche Lincoln was deafening. Obama must really hate her-- as he should, since she has opposed everything he's tried to accomplish, even after Joe Biden helped her raise a fortune from loyal Democrats for her re-election campaign.

She takes immense sums from all the worst special interests and makes a habit of skipping across the aisle and voting with the Republicans in support of CEOs and against her own constituents.

In a pre-holiday call with half a dozen top House and Senate Democrats, Obama expressed his concern over advertisements and online campaigns targeting moderate Democrats, whom they criticize for not being fully devoted to "true" health-care reform.

"We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other," Obama opined in the call, according to three sources who participated in or listened to the conversation. "We ought to be focused on winning this debate."

...For his part, the president vowed to use his strong approval rating with voters to continue making the case for sweeping reform, according to one congressional staffer with knowledge of the conversation. Obama also hinted that efforts are under way to discourage allies from future attacks on Democrats, according to the source, who did not have permission to speak on the record about the discussion.

A fundraising video produced by Democracy for America suggests Landrieu is a "sellout" because she has received $1.6 million in campaign contributions from the health-care industry and has yet to endorse the concept of a government-run health insurance plan to compete against the private companies. The public-option concept, which Obama supports, has become a litmus test for many pro-reform activists who accuse the insurance industry of failing to deliver affordable, accessible care.

"Tell Senator Landrieu to support the people of Louisiana, not insurance companies," the spot concludes.

Founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Democracy for America argues that inclusion of a Medicare-style public option in health-care legislation is "non-negotiable."

MoveOn, a Web-based political action committee that works to elect "progressive" leaders, intended to run commercials over the Fourth of July holiday criticizing Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) for her silence on the public option. But after she endorsed legislation crafted by Democratic colleagues on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that includes that provision, the group dropped its plans.


"This measure is the heart of health-care reform and is supported by MoveOn's 5 million members, as well as the majority of the American people," said MoveOn's executive director, Justin Ruben. "With the support of legislators like Senator Hagan, we can come closer to our goal of making quality health insurance accessible and affordable for everyone."

Health Care for American Now, a labor-based coalition of 1,000 groups, has organized a petition pressuring Feinstein to support legislation that includes a public option.

"We need a senator who is championing, not nay saying, the need for reform," the petition says. "We're hoping Sen. Feinstein becomes a 'champion' for the people of California and stands up for President Obama's health reform."

Over at Firedoglake, Jane is wondering if MoveOn will kowtow to Obama on Landrieu and Frankenstein monster twin of Lincoln's, though not one who is going to have to face the voters in 2010. Here at Blue America, we're glad MoveOn and other public interest groups are targeting shitheads like Landrieu, Lieberman, Feinstein, and Nelson but it's at the ballot box where the rubber meets the road and it is Blanche Lincoln who should be made to pay a real political price for her perfidy. A lot of this is theoretical; Lincoln is not. We're not fooling around. If she votes against the wishes and interests of working families, we want to make sure those working families know about it when they vote next year. If you agree with this admittedly harsh strategy, please consider making a contribution. We especially need help for the parts of Arkansas south of Pine Bluff. You can donate here. As Jane pointed out last night:

This is the moment when the liberal interest groups must decide: are they going to represent the interests of their members and keep going, or are they going to play the access game and bow to Obama's wishes?

These groups have acted as firewalls to shield Obama from liberal critique. As the traditional institutional liberal validators and stakeholders, their silence on a variety of issues-- from financial regulation to the escallation of the war in Afghanistan to energy and beyond -- have acted as insullation for the administration as it breaks one campaign promise after the other. We saw it last week with the hastily arranged cocktail party for LGBT leaders last week-- the way Obama mutes liberal criticism is by reaching out to those at the top and rewarding them personally with access.

Blue America doesn't want access. We're not an Inside-the-Beltway bunch of sycophants eating Rahm Emanuel's droppings. We don't care about any cults of personality. We expect real health care reform. That's it and we don't play games. No matter what the other groups do, Blue America won't be bamboozled. When Lincoln raises the white flag of surrender to the people who elected her, we'll stop trying to defeat her. Until then, she's no different from Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, Chuck Grassley, Jim DeMint, Richard Burr and other bought-out Republicans who have vowed to their paymasters at Big Insurance and the Medical-Industrial Complex to kill reform. Help us pry Blanche Lincoln loose from that camp. It's the American thing to do!


UPDATE: Wisdom From DailyKos

I more or less cross-posted this at DailyKos today and I grabbed this comment from Village Expects Idiot Home Soon at the thread:

First, Arkansas is a Banana Republic, so the corporations that fleece the population ARE her constituents. Arkansas is 11th in earmarks.

Arkansas is owned lock stock and barrel by a cabal that runs Arkansas as their own hedge fund, as it were. They can and do take whatever they wish, and so one can stop them. They have no moral compass. None.

It helps to understand when you realize Arkansas was populated by the most violent criminals from Georgia, which refused to execute anybody because they were still stinging from the British laws, which provided the death penalty for 156 crimes, encompassing ALL violent crimes. (The so called criminals who populated Australia were all not violent offenders who were guilty of monetary crimes, from pickpockets to white collar embezzlers.) The hardened criminals from Georgia were taken across the Mississippi, and left. The criminals went to work killing everything in the state, including four Indian tribes that has lived their peacefully, as well as all the animals. They also acquired Hot Springs, the Switzerland of the Indians, where the chiefs of all tribes vacationed, until Georgia decided to make Arkansas their penal colony.

Blanche belongs to one such family. I don't think running ads is going to make one whit of difference. She will vote as the families tell her. And trick the populace as she goes. As hard as it is to believe, most of Arkansas is totally unaware of the set up. They defend the families. It's really sad.

Health Care Reform Battle Moves To Senate Finance Committee-- Where Blanche Lincoln Needs To Make A Decision

UPDATE: This is the ad that got the second most votes

No doubt you've read about Blue America's Health Care Choice Campaign and later today (5pm, PT) we'll be announcing which TV ad got the most votes. It isn't too late to vote-- just click that link above and view all 3 ads and tell us which one you think will be most effective in helping persuade Conservadem Blanche Lincoln that it's time to think of the best interests of her constituents-- the working families of Arkansas-- for a change, not the CEOs at the health insurance companies that have funneled so much money into her political career. I'm in awe at the number of ads-- on everything from CNN, MSNBC, Fox and ESPN to USA, TNT, the Food Channel and Lifetime-- that will blanket the Little Rock area. I think we need more spots in Jonesboro though, so please consider adding to our little warchest.

Meanwhile, it's looking like the tiny handful of senators who actually see themselves as tribunes of the people-- Sherrod Brown, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley-- are allowing the sworn enemies of working families (i.e., the GOP plus the bad Democrats like Baucus, Lincoln, Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu, all the corrupt, steaming garbage)-- are allowing themselves to be bamboozled into a weaker reform program in order to satisfy the paid off shills of the insurance companies. As Ezra Klein pointed out in the Washington Post yesterday, the new CBO score ($611 billion over the course of a decade) "is low in part because we've made some of the policy worse." We can thank corrupt shitheads like Lincoln, Baucus, Lieberman and the rest of the senators who are on the Insurance Industry payroll for that. Anyone who ever votes for any of them deserves exactly what they get from them. I mean when you have a shill like Kay Hagan now agreeing to vote for the bill, you know there's got to be something plenty wrong with it.

All 13 Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have announced they're for it. Presumably the 10 corrupt anti-family Republicans-- Mike Enzi (WY), Judd Gregg (NH), Lamar Alexander (TN), Richard Burr (Medical-Industrial Complex), Johnny Isakson (GA), John McCain (AZ), Orrin Hatch (UT), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Tom Coburn (OK) and Pat Roberts (KS)-- will all oppose it. And then there's the Insurance Industry's best friend, Max Baucus' uber-corrupt Senate Finance Committee, which has guaranteed their paymasters that they would kill whatever is beneficial in HELP's bill.

Burr, Isakson, McCain, Coburn and Murkowski all have to face the voters in 2010. Coburn's voters are as crazy and demonically-possessed as he is and there's nothing to be done with them at all. But Isakson, McCain, Burr and Murkowski should all be made to pay the price politically for sticking with the Insurance Industry CEOs and giving the collective finger to the struggling families in their states. Yesterday one of the best candidates for the Senate running anywhere, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, explained to Ohio voters why she is so adamant about a strong and robust public option and why she's asking all members of the Ohio congressional delegation to "fight for inclusion of a public insurance option rather than bow to pressure from the powerful insurance lobby to keep all payment for universal health care in the hands of private insurers." Brunner:  



“I strongly urge members of Congress to stand strong in favor of the more than 50 million individuals and families who now lack access to health care, because they have no health insurance of any form. Health care is a basic right, and the choice of a public or private plan ensures all have access to the type of health care they need... Consumers’ choices are dwindling as health insurance premiums soar.  Small businesses, labor unions, and companies with large numbers of retirees struggle to keep the costs of benefits level by increasing employee shares of premiums, deductibles, co-pays and decreasing covered services, especially when there are preexisting medical conditions. Millions of Americans in need of health care go without proper medical attention, even when they have health insurance.  Our current system of tying health care to a job leaves millions without health care as unemployment rises.  As these uninsured families with children apply to states for their children’s health care needs costs to taxpayers escalate.  For those who simply go without, leaving themselves completely vulnerable to catastrophic illnesses or accidents, ultimately, all others pay the price as health care costs rise."

She's running against a left-over Big Business shill from the Bush Regime, Rob Portman, someone who Cheney pointed out this week as a GOP up-and-comer. He has no position on health care whatsoever. Brunner pointed out that Cheney and Portman are exactly what has exacerbated the health care crisis in America and that the country needs to move on from their failed policies and catastrophic agenda.

Now that Dick Cheney has left office he has chosen to become vocal and to opine on issues of the day, presumably as a standard bearer for the ailing Republican Party. How can he and Rob Portman maintain their oblivion to the tragically large numbers of Americans who are suffering from their previous failure to face the deteriorating circumstances of Americans and their families because of inadequate or no health care?


In 2007, the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which represent 80,000 members in 50 states, ran a highly publicized advertisement in support of universal health care. Its blunt message:  “If (Cheney) were anyone else he’d be dead by now.”  The advertisement pointed out that Cheney, who has survived four heart attacks and quadruple bypass surgery, benefited from government-financed health care.

 

Brunner isn't in the Senate, at least not yet. Fortunately, Jeff Merkley is-- and a member of the Senate HELP Committee. He's a big booster of the Affordable Health Care Choices Act because it includes, in his words, "a strong, nationwide public health insurance option to lower costs and greatly reduce the number of uninsured Americans." He always said that one of the reasons he took on Big Business shill Gordon Smith was to help reform the health care system. The public option, as he sees it from inside the Committee, will be offered alongside private insurance options in a “Health Insurance Gateway,” or insurance exchange.  Participation in the public option is completely voluntary, and would assure American families that they will have access to an affordable choice.  Through pooled purchasing power and lower administrative overhead than private insurers, the Community Health Insurance Option will help to lower costs and encourage insurance companies to improve their services. Merkley:

“Our health care system is broken.  Over the last nine years, costs for the average family have doubled even as insurance companies use less and less of premiums for patient care. We need to provide consumers with real choices to keep costs down and keep insurance companies honest... If you like your doctor and you like your insurance, nothing will change for you.  But if you want more options, this bill provides them, while increasing healthy competition that will reduce costs for everyone. For far too long, insurance companies have been able to set the rules, charge what they like and revoke coverage on the flimsiest of excuses. The Affordable Health Choices Act will level the playing field for consumers by providing them with more choices.”

Our campaign looks great in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Ft Smith but it can use some beefing up in Jonesboro and everything south of Pine Bluff. The good news is that counties like Little River, Drew, Hempstead, Desha, Ashley, Union, Nevada, Calhoun, Clark, Dallas and Lafayette are among the least expensive in the state to saturate. So, if you want to help us make sure we're reaching everyone... this is the place where those $5 and $10 contributions are going to do some good. And if you think this is something, we're just getting started. Believe me, Medical Industrial Complex servants like Richard Burr (R-NC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Jim Bunning (R-KY), all up for re-election next year, and all violently opposed to health care reform, will not be getting off scott free.

Health Care Reform-- Getting Serious And Personal In Arkansas

Don't be fooled by GOP/Big Business propaganda efforts this time-- for the sake of your family

Jane's in Sweden and I'm in Indonesia but we left Blue America in the best of hands. Digby, John, Jacqui and D-Day have been working non-stop on our campaign of cable TV ads urging Senate Finance Committee Health Care subcommittee member Blanche Lincoln to forget her avaricious campaign donors for once in her miserable political life and think about the average citizens of Arkansas and America for a change. As we pointed out last week, HHS Secretary Sebelius's report on the state of the nation's health care situation is especially weak in Arkansas-- not for Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor or the 4 congressmen, all of whom get free platinum health care coverage for themselves and their families paid for by the taxpayers, but for regular working families.

We're hoping our TV ads will help persuade Lincoln, who is up for re-election next year, that with 80% of Americans favoring at least a public option, her career in politics depends on her championing her constituents, rather than Health Insurance CEOs. Digby wrote 3 TV ads, produced by Brave New Films and directed by D-Day. Here's one, but you can view all 3 here:

Campaign For Health Care Choice



We need you to vote on which of the 3 ads we should use first and we need you to donate what you can to getting the ads on TV in every nook and cranny in Arkansas so that there isn't one single solitary person in the state who doesn't know that their senator is playing a crucial role in health care reform. The raw facts about health care in Arkansas speak for themselves. Blanche Lincoln should speak for her constituents, not for Insurance Industry CEOs:

ARKANSANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO

Roughly 1.5 million people in Arkansas get health insurance on the job, where family premiums average $11,486, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.

Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 81 percent in Arkansas.

Household budgets are strained by high costs: 27 percent of middle-income Arkansas families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.

High costs block access to care: 17 percent of people in Arkansas report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.

Arkansas businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $1500 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.

AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN ARKANSAS

18 percent of people in Arkansas are uninsured, and 69.5 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.

The percent of Arkansans with employer coverage is declining: from 57 to 53 percent between 2000 and 2007.

Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 75 percent of Arkansas businesses, only 29 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006-- down 3 percent since 2000.

Choice of health insurance is limited in Arkansas. Blue Cross Blue Shield AR alone constitutes 75 percent of the health insurance market share in Arkansas, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 81 percent.

Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Arkansas, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

ARKANSANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE

The overall quality of care in Arkansas is rated as “Weak.”

Preventative measures that could keep Arkansans healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:

20 percent of children in Arkansas are obese.

26 percent of women over the age of 50 in Arkansas have not received a mammogram in the past two years.

45 percent of men over the age of 50 in Arkansas have never had a colorectal cancer screening.

70 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Arkansas have received a flu vaccine in the past year.

According to a late-breaking CNN story just now, Dr. J. James Rohack, the new president of the American Medical Association, which represents the interests of many of the nation’s doctors, said "the group is open to a government-funded health insurance option for people without coverage." A step in the right direction-- and more than Senator Lincoln has been willing to do. You can see the 3 ads here; you can vote for which one we should start with here and you can donate here-- and they're all the same heres.

John explains what we're trying to do really well at C&L and Digby did the same, with less words, at her blog.