Morning all — hope everyone is well this morning! Coffee has just finished brewing here…so life is much better at the moment. *g*

Hi Christy,

Being a parent of two children with mood disorder, we have participated with the grassroot NAMI organization. The work they do is outstanding for patients, families and communities. I’ve attached a link that gives you an idea of how they suggest to contact lawmakers.

In our support meetings NAMI would often suggest to families that the single biggest impression to a lawmaker was to visit their office and take family members with you.

Do you think we could arrange a nationwide day/week to stand in line at your representative’s office? Everybody come armed with a health story and a demand that a public option be available to every citizen.

http://il.nami.org/updates_&_alerts.htm

I guess I’d like to ruin their vacation, as so many lives have been ruined from the shameful lack of health care coverage in this country. I want what they have – health care.

Warmest regards,

LizH

Liz, that is a fantastic idea. Let me contemplate logistics on that and I’ll see what we can do — because, you are absolutely right, a face-to-face is the most effective way to communicate with them and their staff.

Ooooo…I really like that idea. I’d participate for sure!

This is a nice way to start the morning news. Usually I read about more caving to industry demands and get depressed. May the force be with Obama.

Life, Liberty and pursuit of happiness…….

Mandated Healthcare in the absence of effective cost control measures is pending corporate servitude. Corporations seem very concerned and opposed to a “public option,” but will embrace a government mandate on the citizen to buy health insurance or face a income tax penalty?

Real due process here when corporations “buy law” and the taxpayer citizen insured uninsured are rendered subservient to corporation enable under the color of law, while corporations with public charity status and tax exempt deny coverage and profit!!! What a racket……………………

Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall in some of these meetings? This is why various governmental entities and states have “sunshine laws.”

In St Pete and Tampa we are doing just that. There was a rally at Senator Nelson’s (FL) office in Tampa yesterday. More to come. I don’t think our congressmorons know we’re waiting for them.

Sorry for the short visit but off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Irak: 4328

US KIA Afghanistan: 751

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Good morning Christy and thanks for the post.

Maybe our President will go all LBJ on ‘em. No, prolly not.

Baucus has an industry tything event scheduled that he cannot miss.

Maybe its time to crank up the “You Work For Us Summer Tour” for another round this year? For a health care edition…hmmmmmmm…..

Maybe Obama can show these Republicans in Democratic clothing this clip, and tell them that the longer we delay, the more time the GOP is going to have to make up lies about a public option.

Hey Nevada, do us all a favor, and start fresh with two new Senators.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2266

Holy crap Christie, you’re waking up at 5:30 in the morning? I thought I was an animal waking up at 6:15 to try and beat the Florida heat on our daily 4 mile walk. I hope that Obama, Clinton and Biden remind Reid and Baucus how badly the republicans want this health care bill to fail-for purely political reasons. Max should also know that WE THE PEOPLE will go Ned Lamont on his blue dog ass if he lets it happen.

Well, I’m on East Coast time…but I do sometimes wake up that early to get a jump on article research. I’m a nerd, what can I say? I should explain that the blog started as Jane’s blog — and she’s a California girl, so it ran on West Coast time. We kept it that way for continuity. So those times on the post are all West Coast times as a result.

Interestingly, someone on either Countdown or Rachel (I watch them consecutively on TiVo so sometimes they “blur” in my mind) said that the Chair of the Finance Committee is the most powerful, and that the Majority Leader is the “Majority Scheduler.” That shed a bit of light, for me, on what’s going on with the Finance Committee and Reid pushing Baucus.

also nice to get a little mommy time before the kid wakes up…oh yea, and we’re grateful that there are places like this with people like y’ all who do the great work you do.

Until the peasants rise up from our computers and take to the streets (okay, to the Congressional offices), we are invisible. So easy to stack emails, letters, phone messages in “yes/no” piles and then blow them off. After a boilerplate response. Not so easy to ignore people in offices, hallways, parking lots.

Of course, in my Congressional District (MN2, John “The Colonel” Kline), people gather routinely at the intersection where Kline’s office is located, and they’re being hassled by police because people are honking in solidarity with their peace and health care signs. I kid you not.

I find myself “translating” times on other blogs like I do at FDL, and then having to make a mental adjustment, since it seems most of the others I read run on Eastern time.

Pay for healthcare the equality way…………
Take the cap off FICA!

And Jane lives in DC now, correct? Not to disadvantage our “left coast” pups, whose voices I value, but since so much of our conversation here is beltway politics in one form or another, is it out of the question to convert our Lake clocks to EST?

I’ve always thought that Appropriations was the most powerful, because that’s where the pork, patronage and favors gets doled out among the colleagues in the Senate. I know one of my Senators, Byrd, held that chair for ages and ages — and it made him a sort of a king on the Hill for years and years. Which he worked for the benefit of WV in every conceivable way, frankly.

But it was an object lesson in maneuvering yourself through seniority and sheer force of will into a position like that, and then seeing what you could do with it once you held it. He was back in the Senate this week, btw, after a long hospital stay — he voted on a defense appropriations issue in committee this week. I hear from his staff that’s he’s on the mend and plans to be back in full swing for the Sotomayor, health care and other votes coming up.

Note to self: Emails, letters, phone calls all good. Need more.

One question I would like to see of Baucus is Why are you protecting the insurance industry so dilligently? And of the media – why is all the news about the insurance industry? Why isn’t the news about the health and well-being of the American People? This is what makes me so angry every morning when I peruse the blog headlines.

how about adding a note to the time to say est or pst whichever time is used?

Well, the “scheduler in chief” comment was an eye opener. I sure hope Teddy can be back for some of the health care stuff coming up after the August recess.

Bingo!

We thought about it when we did the front page re-do, but we’re so used to doing everything on West Coast time (and Jane’s not necessarily permanently in DC, either), so? We decided to stick with consistency instead. That way all the old and new posts sync.

for my bingo prize this morning, darlin’, i’d like single payer, no triggers, bye bye health insurer vampires. whadda ya say?

Are you guys just now noticing the time on this blog after all these years? Wow…

Weird technical stuff going on with the thread. Some of the comments have a “reply” link and some don’t. Some comments seem to disappear. For example, now on my screen #24 comment has nothing in it, and #25 has no “reply” link.

Refresh restores them, but then others disappear. I installed the latest FF yesterday….wonder if that’s why? Anyone else having this problem?

no. we’re just talking about it now.

I wonder why this has no reponse?

You can be sure the 6.2% tax will be reduced should taking the cap off FICA happens!

I like consistency. I think we’re all pretty much used to the time stamp thing, aren’t we? If anyone has a real problem adding 1, 2 or 3 hours to the west coast time, you could always get a bank of clocks like they have at television stations which show all the time zones. *g*
It’s not that big a deal, is it?

Are you guys just now noticing the time on this blog after all these years? Wow…

No, at least not in my case. But maybe we all just need a breather so we’re talking about trivia.

24’s comment was missing for me for a while, but i can see it now.

now, 24’s comment is missing again.

Never been a problem for me but then I have always been good at arithmetic. *g*

I say “booyah!” Yes we can! Cheers!!

It’s a glitch in my code somewhere — it’s on the list of things to get fixed, but the front-page redo took precedence in the coding. For now, just refresh. It seems to happen after you (and by you, I mean anyone) make a comment — and a refresh adds everything back onto the page.

And I hear you about needing a break. *g* I could use one, myself. Have been feeling very “Calgon, take me away” of late for no reason I can pinpoint.

Good Morning, Mike….You get an A + + + + + + +…
On a different trivial note, who else is enjoying their home grown tomatoes?

It’s a tad late to point this out, but still worth saying. If the Senators and Congresspersons had “talked to their constituents”–visited medical centers that work, like, oh, say, Mayo–at the start of this process instead of the moldery middle….

If the Senators and Congresspersons had recognized what is actually working and then said how can we make this happen for all of “We, the people….”

If the Senators and Congresspersons hadn’t made their default position closed-door crony special interests-serving legislation writing… well then we wouldn’t need to be having any of these conversations.

But since they didn’t…stay there in the Beltway Bubble, Work. Make it work. Pass health care reform now. With the public option. Period.

profit at life’s expense……………

One more reason that the August recess is a win. We’re going to get a better bill. I could care less about industry freakshows, that happens all the time anyhow.

I know where each of my blogs’ time stamps are, zonewise. It is kind of a fun mental exercise to add and subtract to figure out when things are posted relative to my time. But then I am a math geek. *grin*

The longer health care stays in Baucus committee the more his cash register goes ca-ching

I seem to recall hearing somewhere (said a source unwilling to be identified for talking out of her butt) that the Board/management at Mayo have a decidedly right-side political bent. If that is true, it seems all the more reason why our brethren and sistern on the Conressional right should make it their business to check out that bastion of amazing health care delivery. Just sayin’.

…parasites feeding off the genetic misfortunes and conditioned minds of individuals…..

And yes many healthcare “”"providers”"” do, do many many good things…………

Gee, I wonder if that’s the point? /snark

Bingo. I am hoping that if Congress goes on summer “vacation” that they have surprises waiting for them at home – very angry constituents. Conventional Wisdom says lobbyists get to give more money during the break. I say give them HELL during the break.

OK, I am off to my morning job. See ya later.

Mornin’ all. When I called Reid’s office yesterday, I got a bunch of talking points that were worthy of Joe Lieberman. This is very complicated and it’s more important to do it right than do it fast, etc.

I hope that Obama gives them both a swift kick in the pants.

Saw on Rachel last night that my blue dog congresscritter is a member of the adultery cult and lives at the C-Street Frat House. That means Shuler was actually appointed by God and doesn’t really represent us at all.

who else is enjoying their home grown tomatoes?

Me, me, me! I can’t believe they’re still setting fruit, even though we’re in the 100’s with almost no rain (lots and lots of hand watering, though). The fish emulsion, kelp meal, and epsom salts must be working.

If Republicans think that closing down health care reform will gain them votes in 2010 then why do the ‘blue dumb dogs’ vote with them? funny that

Are you guys just now noticing the time on this blog after all these years? Wow…

Waaaahhh! Not seeing any yet. It has been a cool wet summer here in NW Indiana, and I think they may be later ripening than usual. Haven’t been to the farmer’s market, so there may be a few there.

I find that Campari tomatoes (in stores in the produce section in a plastic container) taste liketomatoes and not red tasteless balls all year. You can get a much larger container at Costco or Sam’s for less than in the grocery stores. I eat those all year, except for late July – early September when we have “real” tomatoes here. If yours are ripe, I envy you.

A week ago, the Des Moines Reigster did publish my letter on Grassley and his “go work for the federal government” response in a town hall debate. Of course, they edited it, so it wasn’t as sharply critical. Still.
I want to thank Southern Dragon and others here who helped when me when the person at the Register asked me to verify my numbers.
I don’t know what I’d do without this site!

Is it too much to hope for that Reid and Baucus get an earful of ‘why aren’t you doing the job you’re being paid – and paid very well – to do?’
(I hope they get their (figurative) arms twisted hard enough to hurt every time they think about delaying health care coverage reform any further.)

(My good news is that the shingles are fading. Still itchy and the pain will be around for a while longer, but I can live with that.)

I’m so jealous. I have a whole bunch of tomatoes on my plants but they are all still green, with the exception of the little cherry tomatoes. My brandywines are growing really well…but just haven’t ripened yet.

And now? Just thinking about it makes me want to run to the produce market. *g*

OOPS. I did something weird with my quote. My #55 was in reply to Demi, but apparently I copied the wrong sentence to quote.

ARGGHH. I think that means I should get back to what I’m being paid to do, which ISN’T hang out at the Lake.

Good Morning Christy and Firedogs,

Many of those lobbyists once worked for Baucus. they are now on K Street giving him even more money – it’s the circle of life

(((PJEvans))) Oh, darlin’, sorry. But glad it’s getting better!!

Good for you!

So sorry to hear about the shingles, but I’m awfully glad they are fading. Try some Aveeno oatmeal bath if you have some — that really helps with the itching.

Does anyone here know the current status of Ted Kennedy’s health? I Google’d it, and only found old info plus a hideous right-wing blog questioning whether he deserves health care coverage.

I don’t know the answer on that, frankly. I haven’t heard any news on him for a while.

Well, DC is a fur piece for me, but Montana could be a quick road trip. I wonder if Baucus has any public events scheduled?

My brandywines are huge, as are my “commie” plants…Cosmonaut Volkov and Paul Robeson, which are supposedly native to Russia, but are doing quite well here in drought-ridden Central Texas.

Hang in there, Christy…they’ll be ripening up soon.

i thoguht the same thing. obamam should used biden and hillary. they have such passion on the issue. i know she is sos but she serves the pres and i hope she does more healthcare. here is the sched from the page
11:00 am
President Obama meets with Vice President Biden in the Oval Office

11:30 am
President Obama meets with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Max Baucus in the Oval Office
Vice President Biden holds a delegation meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki in the Roosevelt Room

12:30 pm
President Obama has lunch with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Private Dining Room

1:15 pm
President Obama delivers remarks on education at the Department of Education

LBJ had an advantage that Obama doesn’t have. He had spent some time in the Senate and Texas politics. He had the goods on Congressional members and wasn’t afraid to use it to twist arms. He knew where the bodies were buried.

If Obama wants to get anything done this term, he’d be wise to start collecting dirt on Reid, Baucus, the Blue Dogs, etc.

From Democrats.com email yesterday:

The battle over single-payer is in the House Energy & Commerce Committee (E&C). The committee was supposed to vote on Rep. Anthony
Weiner’s single-payer amendment on Monday, but chairman Henry Waxman keeps postponing the vote because it might pass – just like the Kucinich Amendment for a single-payer state option passed on July 17 by a shocking 25-19 bi-partisan majority.

I just called all the numbers given {below} and ALL answered except “mailbox-full Welch. The assistants were all pleasant and I felt that they were pleased to pass on the message: Please vote in favor of Rep. Weiner’s single-payer amendment. Maybe they need more calls?

Lean Yes
Diana DeGette CO01 202-225-4431
Jane Harman CA36 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy CT05 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone NJ06 202-225-4671 @FrankPallone
Bobby Rush IL01 202-225-4372
Peter Welch VT00 202-225-4115

Won’t Say / “Not Enought Votes”
Rick Boucher VA09 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley IA01 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield NC01 202-225-3101
Lois Capps CA23 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor FL11 202-225-3376
John Dingell MI15 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez TX20 202-225-3236
Gene Green TX29 202-225-1688
Jay Inslee WA01 202-225-6311 @RepInsleeNews
Doris Matsui CA05 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney CA11 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes MD03 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak MI01 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton OH13 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair) CA30 202-225-3976

By the way, I started with Waxman first and worked my way up — works good with notepad.

karen

Yes, tomatoes are ripe and yummy here. We put the corn in late, but it’s finally “knee high”. No fruit on the cucumbers or squash yet, but the plants are nice and big and the yard is soothing and beautiful.
A tip for yard lovers, this is the time of year when stores are starting to discount garden stuff. I bought a beautiful arbor that was originally $130.00 for $29.00 the other day. Sonny put it together for me and it’s in the yard now and is lovely.

A bit of the Johnson Treatment at this point might do the trick. I wonder what the Old Master of legislative arm-twisting would think of all of this?

Where is the Department of Education? Given travel time (?), that’s a mighty short conversation over lunch. Dare I hope they’ve conversed at length previously?

That’s where Biden could come in handy, I was thinking. And Hillary, for that matter, given how much time she’s spent in and around DC and politics.

Epsom salt! Good for the tomatoes. Good for the human’s bodies too.
Epsom Salt, take me away…

The things I am getting plenty of are cucumbers and zucchini. Must be good weather for them here this year and not so much for my tomatoes and peppers. Funny how that happens, isn’t it?

I believe I hear Rahm Emanuel, furiously scratching the dirt with his bare hands, now worn to bloody stumps.

epsom salts?

no way obama meets buaucs and reid for less than hr with biden there before and hilary after. yeah right. obama needs all hands he can now. biden and hillary as u say are dc vets. and those 2 know if this goes down obama will face a weakened presidency and agenda-and that will impact our intl one as well. so i hope u are right that he uses these 2 frmr sens alot

It just seemed like a very odd conjunction of scheduling if he weren’t going to use them for a bit of conversational arm-twisting. Using them as scheduling bookends would certainly allow for a bit of overlap and nudging, wouldn’t it?

Hi. I haven’t forgotten about your plant offer. I’ve just been wicked busy. Work and rehearsing for a concert I organized that we did this past Wednesday. I fretted and worried over it but it happened, was a huge success and now I can get back to my normal (whatever that is) schedule.
So sorry to hear about the shingles. My sister got them about six months ago, but hasn’t had a flare up since. Hope yours heal quickly.

Tried experimenting with the “Three Sisters” (corn, beans, squash) growing method this year, but it doesn’t work so well in pots. :( Corn died pretty fast, and I later found out you need way more than 2 plants for pollination. Doh! Lima beans are not making it in this heat at all, and the squash is covered with ants.

But I got ‘maters, peppers, and basil growing nicely.

Yep. Funny. I guess we’ll both just have to continue to be patient. Some more. For a while. (sigh)

Yep, it’ good for peppers and other plants as well.

Don’t even mention the Ants. It seems every summer, we have several lengthy ant threads here at the Lake.

What do Epsom Salts do for Plants?
Epsom salts contain hydrated magnesium sulfate, two elements crucial to plant growth.
Sulfur (13%) is crucial to the inner workings of plants, but it is almost never lacking in the soil, thanks in part to synthetic fertilizers and acid rain.

Magnesium (10%) can become scarce in soil, usually because of erosion or depletion of the top soil or a pH imbalance. Some plants, like lettuce and spinach, don’t mind going without magnesium. Others may exhibit symptoms like leaf curing, stunted growth, that could be attributed to more than one cause. Magnesium deficiency has even been blamed as a cause for biter tomatoes.
In general, magnesium plays a role in strengthening the plant cell walls, allowing the plant to take in the nutrients it needs. It also aids in seed germination, photosynthesis and in the formation of fruits and seeds.

http://gardening.about.com/od/….._Salts.htm

Somehow, soaking my head in oatmeal doesn’t appeal to me.

I’d recommend it for the Blue Dogs, though. A nice long soak would do them good.

Doing much better thanks.
Wish it would cool off, though, the rhubarb and some of the grapes are having a hard time in this weather. (No grape crop for me this year, either: they’ve been baked on the vine, too early even to make decent raisins.)

Had to go back to the last thread (Bleu Texan post). Bonkers made some very good points in comment 56. If his(her) words about ‘feeling threatened, backed into a corner, and lashing out’ (I’m paraphrasing here) could be framed as talking points on Rachel, Olbermann, any MSM show with guests that aren’t bought and paid for by the health care industry or Big Pharma.

The words are attention-grabbers and could be used when talking about Repugs, Blue Dogs, health care execs, anyone who’s against the public option due to fear of losing those big campaign contributions, or fear of competition.

I surely hope Obama invites the crew to lunch with Hillary… Obama’s rather passive approach has lost him a lot of credibility… Hillary retains her strength….

I hope she, if nothing else, shames them into action.

July 30 might be a good day for that as it is the anniversary of Medicare and there will be a major demonstration in Washington DC.

Well, I had intended to respond to a commenter who questioned whether the president had the power to cancel the Senate’s upcoming vacation, but after signing up for an account and signing in, yes I’m new here, I can’t find his comment now to respond to it. The answer however, is yes. You’ll find it in Article Two, Section 3 of the Constitution. It says “he may, on extraordinary Occasions convene both Houses, or either of them, and with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time Time as he shall think proper;” In short, the Constitution makes Obama the boss! He needs to begin acting like one or his programs won’t get enacted. Comity and bipartisanship will only get you so far and becomes dangerous when dealing with enemies. If Obama believes in what he’s doing, he has to begin acting like it!

thanks, that’s good info.

There is more to the health reform legislation politically than whether Obama has a great or just an above average Presidency; the fate of the Republicans probably rides on it. Unless reform is defeated, the Republicans will be finally viewed as a Party totally bereft of ideas, one that is incapable of bringing anything good to the country, and utterly disposable.

Even if it’s defeated, it’s going to be clear to a lot of people that the GOP was against it from the start.
They’ve been standing there doing absolutely nothing for it, most of them speaking out against one or another provision (any of the ones that don’t benefit the insurance companies), and merely talking about their alleged substitute bill (which no one has seen and which probably doesn’t exist).
They’re also doing a good job of ignoring their own party members, a majority of whom would like to see better health care coverage. You think those people aren’t going to remember?

that bastion of amazing health care delivery isn’t quite so amazing, it would seem:

As a result of low reimbursement rates, Mayo’s Arizona operations in 2007 stopped accepting new Medicare patients seeking primary care. About half of Mayo’s patients are on Medicare. Last year, Mayo said it lost about $840 million by treating Medicare patients, money it had to make up by treating privately insured patients.