Yes, let's get health care reform done. And soon. # Bipartisanship: D and Rs always disagree about means. But the GOP sits on its hands when O articulates goals like creating jobs. # Go Jets! # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
Last night you heard President Obama say that we have to pass health care reform this year. Reports today that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are working on a plan to move the reform legislation through Congress. I know that many of you are disappointed and angry that we have not yet succeeded. I am, too. But I taught and studied American politics for many years before I became an activist, and I know that what we have seen in the 19 month long fight for health care reform is the usual course our politics takes on the most important questions. Continue reading
To the woman who has me looped. Brown Penny I whispered, ‘I am too young,’ And then, ‘I am old enough’; Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love. ‘Go and love, go and love, young man, If the lady be young and fair.’ Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, I am looped in the loops of her hair. O love is the crooked thing, There is nobody wise enough To find out all that is in it, For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon. Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, One cannot begin it too soon. W. B. Yeats “Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.” Immanuel Kant I’ve loved this poem for a long time. But it was only a few years ago that I think… Continue reading
Rally and march for Health Care Reform at 11:00 am, Love Park, Art museums steps at 11;45 RSVP http://bit.ly/8MKAOz # Rally and march for health care reform Saturday 11:00 am, Love Park and then run up the steps of the the Museum with your poster at 11:45. # @BradyDale Sapir-Whorf bogus: If we can't talk about all the kinds of snow for which Eskimos have words, we can't make the hypothesis. in reply to BradyDale # Health care reform in critical condition. Phone bank today 1-8 and tmw 10 to 7:30 for Martha Coakley at UFCW Local 1776, 3300 Walton Road. # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
The National Moment In my previous post, I said that there is still a way forward to health care reform that is good if not great. Having said all that, there is no question that after Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey statewide elections, after a decline in Obama’s popular support and in the Congressional poll numbers (where the Democrats are in a dead heat with Republicans, ten points below where they were a year ago), we Democrats are not doing as well right now as we were a year ago. Why not? There are two leading theories, which lead to two radically different conclusions about what Obama should do now. The right is saying that Obama overreached and is trying to force major changes, and especially health care reform, on a country that did not elect him for that purpose. The left is saying that Obama has compromise too much… Continue reading
Breathe. Take a step back. You need to make sure you don’t get caught up in perhaps the most damaging features of our public life: our inability to look beyond the day’s news and put each day in perspective. The world and American politics did not change dramatically last night. The prospects for health care reform are not all that different than they were yesterday. Continue reading
The Massachusetts Senate election tomorrow is critical to the future of this country and especially to the future of health care reform. It’s likely to be a low turnout election, so everything we do here in Pennsylvania to help get Coakley supporters to the polls will make a big difference. There are two local places where you can join phone banks to call likely Coakley supporters and urge them to vote tomorrow. UFCW Local 1776, 3031A Walton Road, Plymouth Meeting, PA. 19462. Now until 8:00 pm today and 10:00 am to 7:00 pm tomorrow. Organizing for America PA Headquarters, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 820, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Shifts at 4:00 pm today; 10:00 am, 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm, tomorrow. I don’t have to you how important this election is. Democrats have the bare minimum 60 votes we need to control the Senate. And, with Republicans determined to oppose… Continue reading
"Dada cannot live in New York. All New York is dada, and will not tolerate a rival." – Man Ray # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
Note: this is about 1800 words long. You might want to print it out. The health care reform legislation that will be enacted by Congress later this month contains a number a different elements. It’s not easy to grasp it in its entirety. But there are a few key parts that you should understand for two reasons: first, because there is still time to make the legislation better and second because you should understand how much this legislation will accomplish, even if it doesn’t contain everything we want. Let me say one word on the last point before jumping into the details. We are not going to get everything we want in this legislation. But don’t let your disappointment about that blind you to how much we will accomplish, especially if we get most of the best provisions of the House and Senate bills in the final legislation. We will… Continue reading
There have been many moments in the campaign for health care reform that have been hard and frustrating. But two things have kept me going: the stories I’ve heard about people who are suffering or have died for lack of health insurance and the effort so many Pennsylvanians have made to push Congress to enact good reforms. I’ve been inspired again and again by these stories and by the hard, thankless work so many people have done on behalf of reform. On December 17 I took part in an event that moved me more than anything else I’ve done in the 18 months of the campaign because it joined both of these elements. Continue reading