Big Insurance: Sick of It Rallies in PA

I know you are all have been working hard for health care reform. But I need you to do a bit more. Because the debate about health care in Washington has come down to this: If the insurance companies win, we lose.   HCAN and our partners are doing rallies all over the country to make the fundamental choice crystal clear.  You can help by coming out to fight for quality affordable health care at one of our rallies across the state: Big Insurance: Sick of It  Rallies for Health Insurance Reform Tuesday, September 22 Click more for locations and to RSVP for events in Pittsburgh, Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre, Erie, and Philadelphia Continue reading

So you want to do something for health care reform?

Here is your opportunity. All over the country, on Tuesday, September 22, Health Care For American Now, MoveOn, the AFL-CIO, SEIU and other groups are holding Big Insurance: Sick of It rallies. One of three national flagship events is in Philadelphia at 4:45 PM Dilworth Plaza, at the northwest corner of City Hall. Our target is Cigna insurance, whose world headquarters is in Philadelphia Wendell Potter, the former Cigna executive who has been speaking out about the awful practice of insurances companies will speak. So will Arlene Holt Baker, the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO. The eyes of the country will be on us, so we need a HUGE TURNOUT for this event. So please, RSVP for the event here, right now. And please invite your friends to this event today. Continue reading

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13

Cool RT @SenArlenSpecter $28 million in new funding for a high speed Maglev train from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. http://tinyurl.com/r5me7c # Home run!!! RT @tomfitzgerald 2/3 of 427 adults who watched speech support O propoals, insta-CNN poll says. # petition @CongJoeWilson to apologize for yelling “YOU LIE” in Obama speech, and lying about #hcr http://act.ly/iq RT to sign #p2 # Continue reading

Bucks County Get It Done Event with Congressman Patrick Murphy

The “Get It Done” health care rally at the Lions Park in Bristol Borough, PA, on Saturday, September 5th, 2009, drew a crowd of 300 people. The rally was one of hundreds taking across the country as part of the Health Care for America Now! campaign. The “Part 1” video features speeches given by several Bucks residents; Parts 2 and 3 have Congressman Patrick Murphy’s passionate speech in defense of health care reform.   Continue reading

Health Care Reform at the 2009 Philly Labor Day Parade

 Created with flickr slideshow. Created with flickr slideshow.The 2009 Labor Day parade was all about change that would make life better for working people. And a key to that, as President Pat Eiding said in his impassioned speech is to reform health care in 2009. Thousands of working people attended the parade and representatives of almost every union that took part carried posters or wore stickers in support of health care reform. Here are pictures of some of them. Continue reading

Growing up in a Catskills resort hotel

                    This is a long post, about 7000 words. It might be easier to download and print out the pdf version. Introduction One of the last times I walked on the grounds of the hotel my family owned—Stier’s Hotel—was about twenty years ago when I took my wife and some cousins to see it. That was also about fifteen years after we sold the hotel. At the time, our hotel still functioned as a hotel, although much had changed and it was owned by Hasidic Jews. They day we showed up was Shabbos and I was reluctant to walk onto the grounds. So we just stood at one of the gates and looked in. Soon a young boy, probably no more than 12 or 13, came up to us and asked who we are. I told him who I was and he… Continue reading

Today at 2:15 pm 30th street station: Tell Senator Specter to Get Health Care Done!

Join Health Care For America Now and SEIU as we thank Senator Arlen Specter for his support of health care reform and the public health insurance plan and encourage him to get health care reform done as he heads back to Washington on Tuesday September 8 We will be joined by Senator Specter as he leaves for Washington on the 29th street side of 30th Street Station on Tuesday afternoon at 2:15 pm. RSVVP at http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/event/detail/letsgetitdone/4jr7l Continue reading

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-06

has no events til Monday. Adrenaline levels are down and I'm catatonic. # Tell Obama we're counting on him to fight for bold change on health care including a public option http://tinyurl.com/lcx5j2 # Public Option or Insurance Companies?: Thursday Noon, 1900 Market Street in Philly, Noon. Stand up for health care reform !!! # Powered by Twitter Tools. Continue reading

Vote no on the Senate version of HB 1828

Sometimes there are no good choices. No one wants the city of Philadelphia to adopt Plan C, the plan to balance the budget by drastically cutting services. And there is a risk that if the State House votes down the Senate version of HB 1828 we will wind up with it. But that is far from certain. There is time for further negotiation between the House and the Senate. Labor has some influence over some Republican state senators. And now that organized labor has recognized how bad 1828 it could put its whole force behind a clean bill that allows Philadelphia to raise the sales tax and reduce pension spending. And there is a long way to go before we can rule out City Council passing other, possibly better, taxes that replace sales tax revenues if 1828 is never passed. What is certain, however, is that 1828 violates a principle… Continue reading

I was a liberal tea bagger

Tonight we turned out a bunch of people for a Health Care Town Hall sponsored by Damian Dachowski, who used the event to announce that he would be running for Congress against Allyson Schwartz next year. Normally, HCAN in PA ignore most these events. Given that the press in Southeast PA pretty much doesn’t cover events held by issue activists unless there is controversy, it doesn’t make sense to show up and give the right wingers more publicity. And, given that we are a non-partisan campaign, we especially make a point of avoiding partisan events. But this was a special case. Allyson Schwartz has been a great champion of health care reform. Her districts is important in that a lot of people who live in it have influence far beyond it. It is a district that is becoming more progressive. And we expected a lot of press anyway given that… Continue reading