The late Senator Ted Kennedy’s wife is considering, warily, taking the position on the Senate which her husband’s death has left vacant.  She has the support of both sides.  We certainly need a strong voice in that seat right now as our health care debate rages on:

Current state law in Massachusetts requires the seat remain vacant for roughly five months until a special election is held.

Ted Kennedy wrote to state leaders this month requesting that the law be changed to allow full representation during the ongoing debate over health care reform.

Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, has voiced support for a change in the succession law.

Momentum appears to be building around the proposal, especially because the health care overhaul could be determined by a razor-thin margin.

From the 2008 Democratic Convention

A forward thinking man, our Liberal Lion of the senate.

Being a proud Liberal, I was delighted to find this great, sardonic piece by DarkSyde, at Daily Kos on how to determine if you’re really a Liberatarian.

After the menagerie that I observed at Massa’s most recent town hall, I was amused to see reference to the behavior of some of our yellow shirted friends at town halls across the country (This one is for you, Mike, and rest assured, I still believe that you are a Libertarian)  Here are numbers 9 and 8:

9. If you believe you have an inalienable right to attend Presidential townhalls brandishing a loaded assault rifle, but that arresting participants inside for wearing a pink shirt is an important public safety precaution, there’s a chance you’re dangerously unbalanced, but no chance you’re a Libertarian.

8. If you think the government should stay the hell out of Medicare, well, you have way, way bigger problems than figuring out if you’re really a Libertarian.

I would have added,  that if you think that the government should stay out of health care decisions, but should be able to stand between a woman and her doctor when it comes to abortion, you’re probably not a Libertarian.  Although he does make reference to it in his final point:

And the number one sign: if you think government should stay the hell out of people’s private business — except when kidnapping citizens and rendering them to secret overseas torture prisons, snooping around the bedrooms of consenting adults, policing a woman’s uterus, or conducting warrantless wire taps, you are no Libertarian.

So, there you have it, folks.  Most of the teabaggers (written while smuggly smirking really, are not what they appear to be.  Time to come out of the Conservative closet my yellow (bellied) shirted buddies.

Oops they did it again - the D&C editorial board wrote a lame excuse for an editorial - calling for “bipartisan support” on Health care.  They need to look at the bigger picture.

Let’s get to the Editorial shall we - An Editorial titled Democrats need a new strategy.

Slaughter, in a recent meeting with the Editorial Board, admitted that the Democrats have done a poor job of educating the pubic about the benefits of health care reform. Such an acknowledgment is all the more reason why the Democrats need to devise a new strategy.

Bummer - where was our Democratic Leadership which I suppose includes Rep Slaughter? but it goes on -

It should be one that reaches out to Republicans such as Rep. Chris Lee, who strongly believes that reform should address the high cost of defensive medicine. Too many doctors are ordering expensive tests for patients to avoid malpractice suits. Yet no place in the House’s 1,000-plus-page bill is there a mention of legal reforms in medicine.

So this particular bill doesn’t have tort reform.  Write another bill that has addresses tort reform.  Why water down or expand the current bill - which is about providing coverage - need to include tort reform?  Oh, Rep Massa answered that question at one of this Town Hall meetings.

Save for a moment the ideological argument if Tort reform is needed or not.   That actually isn’t that important here - Seems to be we need a bill that provides coverage to everyone - then, if needed and after debate - add tort reform.

Look, I’m all for “bipartisan” support.  Bipartisan is actually “good” but the underlying assumption for those calling for bipartisan support is that there are rational actors involved on both sides.  Unfortunately the GOP simply doesn’t want health care reform success.

Bipartisan support resulted in a watered-down version health care reform (a nod to those conservative “Dems”, and one of the reasons the Senate still hasn’t released a bill from committee).   Anyone know how many GOP members voted for the current health care reform bill in the House?  It is also why Sen Grassley walks around saying that the government is going to kill your grandmother and the Senate voted to strip out counseling in order to remove non-existent death panels.

The “Party of Rush” wants the President to fail.  Heck - look at Chris Lee espousing the GOP talking points and tell me there is room for bipartisanship.

but whether the government can do a better job of managing your health care than you and your doctor can.

Who manages health care for those currently on Medicare? You know that government run single payer system?  Doctors.

Health Care reform to the the GOP is simply a political exercise to win at the expense of the American people.  The GOP doesn’t want a public option.  They don’t want a role for government in health care reform - yet didn’t vote to kill Medicare - Period.

What is lost on the D&C is that bipartisan for Chris Lee means tort reform and technology as part of health care reform.  while those may worth looking at - neither provide COVERAGE.

Get with it D&C.

Isn’t a Health Care bill about providing affordable coverage?

A continuation of this week’s In Case You Missed It…

Netroots Nation

I went back - had a great time and learned a lot. But it isn’t that simple.  Let’s see -  Howard Dean says we should have started with Single Payer and negotiated from there.  No kidding Howard welcome aboard - many of us are already there - instead most of our National electeds have been negotiating from the ill-defined public option.   More thoughts from Pittsburgh - networking was a high point.  It is always great to network with “A list” bloggers but meeting other bloggers especially fellow NY bloggers was equally valuable.

Massa comes about again against HR 3200 because among other weaknesses in the bill - it does not have a public option (strong or otherwise).

Finally Massa gets caught on tape saying he will support his constituents.   Folks from the Washington Times, probably in town for the conservative blogger conference that was occurring in Pittsburgh at the same time as Netroots Nation  caught up with Massa while he was speaking at a New York blogger caucus  Did they get their macaca moment? As I wrote absolutely not - in fact not even close.

Local

Well, the scandals and GOP missteps just keep coming and we are still awaiting for the ROBUTRAD shoe to drop.

• The “R” word - Vocabulary-challenged Dan Quatro some how managed to disrespect his colleagues across the aisle and members of the community who are disabled.  There was no shortage who let Mr Quato know where they stood.  In short - Dan Quatro is an intolerant, insensitive, idiot.
• RenSquare - Is this project dead yet?  yes, it is.  Now, what is interesting is the posturing for legacy.  Also, in a developing story the debt-generating Performing Arts Center - you know the one that not enough money could be raised and would generate over a million dollars per annum in debt is looking for a home.  Medley square was mentioned as were some other suburbs.  Guess what - It isn’t the location people - it is still unfunded and will generate debt it doesn’t matter where it is built.  Why would a town want this albatross around their neck?
• Rochester Sports Authority - Lone Dem quits panel over concerned that funds not going to pay down Frontier Field Debt.
• Relfare - Maggie Brooks attacks the poor - apparently she is upset that some of these folks are getting $200 dollars as part of a back to school stimulus.  See some of these folks actually spend the money rather than put it into their 410K and are ACTUALLY  - stimulating the economy.  Then she turns around and “protects” the poor from scams.
• Radio-gate.  The latest version of Monroe GOP nonsense comes in the form of Novitech.  Novitech apparently bid for and won a $224 million dollar 20 year contract a contract that is estimated to save $10 million dollars over 20 years.  it is a 20 year contract yet the GOP leadership which includes County Exec Brooks and Legislature Majority leader Quatro want to rush through the signing of this contract.  Who the heck is Novitech?  They could be these people - maybe not.  Why the urgency?  Why is yet another rammed through contract or legislation going to be different this time?   and what will be different this exactly how transparent is this contract.

In non-scandal related news

• Greece Prayer lawsuit was to be ruled upon.
• We have an open seat in Monroe County Legislature ( LD-9 (Penfield)) the question is do the Democrats have a candidate.  A explanation as to why we have an open seat this year.
• A Republican primary in Chili?  Steve Minarik must be rolling in his grave.
• Did anything ever come of this Dem Proposal?  Given the GOP is in charge - probably not.

State

• Govenor Paterson signs a breastfeeding bill of rights. The Governor is under pressure in his 2010 election bid.
• This disgraced health commissioner - learns how the little people live.
• Who knew that Westchester County housing needed to be desegregated?
• The State GOP fund raising is significantly depressed.  Good.
• Make it stop please - some of our state lawmakers are double-dipping pay and pensions. Please make this stop too - Patronage.
• The 53rd Senator (Mayor Bloomberg) puts the breaks on reform of Public Authorities -
• No LT Governor  - court rules against Ravitish.
• What the watchdogs are for - bogus vendor gets rejected by the State.
• Paterson blames the media.
• File this under PLease PLease PLease - Rudy Guilinai may run for Governor.
• Leaking Radioactive waste into Lake Ontario?  Geez.

Federal

• Who the heck needs and Army Sectary at a time of not one but two wars?  Certainly not the United Stated because the -  Senate Republicans are blocking John McHugh’s (R-NY) appointment to Secretary of the Army.   Anyway - this impacts candidates and special elections so, that said - the posturing continues - Oot is Out as a Dem candidate.     Bill Owens is in.  Here is a comparison of this race and the most recent special election - NY-20th.
• Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell - Sen Gillibrand and Rep Patrick Murphy call for repeal this policy.  Let’s hope it comes sooner rather than later.

Quick Clicks

• Immigration Policy - what to to with Migrant workers- Here is yet another complicated issue.
• The Democrat and Chronicle figures out that Rep Massa’s seat is a targeted seat in 2010.  The GOP is dancing around Tom Reed as THE candidate.
• Wingnuts.  They are out there birthers gone wild… Wingnut Ranger,
• There was this funny Cialis parody.  Yes it is funny.  Puts ED side effects into perspective.  There was this story about demonizing what we don’t understand.
• RT has face book page - and a group page.  Now if I can figure out how to text using my rotary cell phone….

That’s it for now see you next week.

Well, it has been a few weeks since I wrote an In Case You Missed It...  There just wasn’t a lot of time between Netroots Nation and vacation - so here a three week recap - I split it into two posts so here is what happened the past three weeks - August 9 to August 30.

Before we go on - RIP Senator Kennedy.

OK - let’s get started

The National Health Care debate - debated locally

We opened with New York Times primer on Health Care and followed with a must read Frank Rich Essay.   How did the debate play out in the month of August?  With the Congressional recess comes constituent engagement.  The D&C had a nice article on the approach of each of our local Reps.  We already told you that  Reps Slaughter and Lee were hiding behind technology - specifically tele-conferences.  Massa was having open, public meetings and Rep Maffei was doing both.

Rep Eric Massa - Remember Congressman Massa’s first Town Hall meeting on August 6th?  Of course.  well, we started posting video on August 9th.  Massa opens the meeting and starts to dispel of the Health Care myths out there.  The first question seemed to set the tone - Ignore Health  Care reform until you fix Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  The implication of “Death Panels”,  Massa explains why he doesn’t support the current House Health care bill (HR3200) as currently written.  Then there was this statement blaming Clinton for the current fiscal mess we are in.  This question about if Congress will accept the same health care as the rest of America.  A doctor is booed, questions about taxes,  pre-existing conditions and co-pays,  Abortion,  Finally this video went Viral - 12,000 views and climbing.  Its confused message?  Well you tell me.  She lumps all levels of government together, repeats the death panels nonsense.  But that that video put me on someone’s watch list.  Oh boy - Stlo7 is being watched.

There are more clips and this is the definitive clip index of each speaker at Massa’s first town hall meeting.

There was apparently a more contentious meeting at the end of the month in Victor. Not everyone could get in but there were some first hand reports.  In short - it was ugly.

Massa gets early August kudos from the D&C editorial board at the beginning of the month.  I wonder if the D&C will remember Massa’s opponent Corning Mayor Tom Reed’s comments at the end of the month where he calls Massa - well, who cares what Tom Reed calls Eric Massa.  Tom Reed once said that he didn’t want to waste time reading HR 3200.  Yeah - Tom Reed disconnected from reality.  Can’t wait until the debates .

Rep Chris Lee on Health Care debate - Fear Uncertainly and Doubt.  Lee is all about tort reform and technology.  Great then create a separate bill but firmly entrenched in the “party of no” he like others take his orders from elsewhere.  Oh, he isn’t the only elected Republican who is spouting Fear, uncertainty and doubt - Meet State Senator Mike Nozzolio.

Rep Louise Slaughter gets lobbied on behalf of Credo/Firedoglake/RT on her position on a strong public option.  An early preview of how difficult is it so pin down the powerful Congresswomen on Health Care reform especially after you watch this interview -

Health Care shorts - Meanwhile - Peter Mott, MD writes an editorial piece. Rachel Maddow states there are more Dems in Congress for a reason.  Rep Barney Frank handles the ignorant.   New York’s Ex Lt Governor and current health care naysayer and GOP mechanical parrot Betsy McCaughey is dismantled by Jon Stewart over health care.  So much so she resigns her conflict of interest position the next day.   Imagine if our Main Stream Media acted more like Jon Stewart.Finally why isn’t Reaganomics dead yet?  Krugman applies it to the health care debate.

The Senate - The Senate Finance committee (the Senate failed to deliver a bill out of committee) scrubbed the wording that was intentionally misconstrued as death panels by the GOP.  Gee, I actually thought the Democrats were the majority part in in Congress.  Guess I was wrong.

Perhaps this video spots lights the GOP message on Health Care - A women asks the government for help - specifically Senator Coburn from Oklahoma.  She needs help with her health care issues.  He says call his office and he will help then turns around and says the govenrment should help with regards to health care - you neighbors should help.  Isn’t Senator Coburn “the government”?

President Obama went on vacation and this post wonders why - especially if his legacy is at stake.

More in the next post…

The health care crazy crap is piled so high that it has become a teetering skyscraper of crazy crap. Here’s the latest from RNC, via a Washingston state newspaper:

Raymond and Louise Denny of La Center were surprised last week to receive a mailing from Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, entitled “2009 Future of American Health Survey.”

After reading it, their surprise turned to outrage.

They were especially irked by the following:

“It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person’s political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you?”

Raymond Denny, a retired insurance underwriter, characterized the question as akin to “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”

“It’s so blatantly lopsided,” he said. “I called them up and said, ‘This is ridiculous!’ They just said, ‘All right.’”

The RNC did not return a call requesting comment.

When you consider how the Republicans are behaving, who could blame us if we did deny coverage to them or sic our death panels on them… but of course, that’s how not how we play.

Eric Massa will hold his last August Recess Town-hall meeting Monday, August 31st in Horseheads, NY.  We’ve tried to cover them and let our readers know what’s going on from Mendon to Victor.  Eric has held up very well under attack from those who are uninformed.  Now, his stlye has drawn fire from his opponent, Tom Reed of Corning:

“To me, holding town hall meetings, telling people to their face he’s listening and trying to get their input on health care so he can make an informed decision and not tell people he’s already made up his mind is disingenuous and misleading and extremely arrogant,” Reed said. “That’s the type of leadership we don’t need in the 29th Congressional District.”

Yes, I know, we expect this kind of rhetoric from the right.  Their model is Randy Kuhl in the 29th, who had no interest in answering the questions of his constituents.

Eric, on the other hand, has reached out at every opportunity to listen to what his constituents have to say.  He has made himself accessible to those who agree and those who disagree.

Yep, Tom, this is just the kind of leadership we need in the 29thbv.  Really, who’s being disingenuous here  ?

RT has a a small internal posting glitch - this is a test post

blah blah blah

Just a quick update as my extended vacation ends - don’t expect much from me this weekend as I focus on getting a bunch of things done around the house.  A couple of thoughts on Health Care after reading RT past couple of weeks, replying to the endless Massa Town Hall comments videos on my youtube channel and reflecting on what I saw from afar (and what ever else pops into my my head).

The Congressional August recess is almost over, and guess what?  America survived a month of representative Democracy.  Not only did America survive - Congressman Eric Massa  proved that he is absolutely a force to be reckoned with.  How do you put words around his individual efforts on behalf of representative democracy?  Well, I can’t think of the words and the ones I can think of  fall short.  Frankly, Massa set the standard on how a member of Congress should engage the public.

In the simplest non-partisan terms - he announced an open public meeting, showed up and took unfiltered questions for as long as the public would allow.  He did this on a popular and complicated issue - an issue, for example, where active progressives and yellow shirted tea baggers are united for different reasons (no on HR3200 as currently written).   Only one of his other upstate colleagues - Maffei- held open public meetings.    Slaughter and Lee choose to hide behind the sterility of technology.

Why public meetings over technology?  Well, you are forced to use all your senses.  Not only that, the Congressional Staff gets to see the assembled public they work for.  Technology, alone, simply converts the public into a number.

So, Massa’s reward?- Disinformation and implication.  You have already heard my opinions on the Working Families Party, Citizens Actions and their supporters’ protest outside Eric Massa’s Office at the beginning of the month (to their belated credit they have since backed away)  here, I don’t  have any word problems - at best, this protest was ignorant and misguided.

There are people who just don’t get it and continue to push the nonsense that isn’t part of the current bill. This happened in his first August recess Town Hall meeting and one of his last.

Then there is this -

Check this out- Jill Wynn, a D&C editorial board contributor writes this sentence, within a paragraph, with no context.

In our meeting with Louise Slaughter last Thursday, she mentioned that Massa was not going to vote for the proposed House reform legislation.

So, is this a sleight, a smack, or is Jill simply not doing her homework?  I mentioned earlier that Massa is going to vote against the current health care proposal in the House.  Why?  There isn’t a public option.  Add a strong and robust public option - it likely gets Massa’s vote.  Oh, it also gets the vote of the progressive caucus, one that Louise Slaughter is a member of - one that, supposedly, Slaughter is going to vote against too.  But you can’t tell that from this list where both Maffei and Slaughter are no where to be found.  Then again, based on this interview, can you tell where Rep Slaughter stands?

Monroe County is alerting food stamp recipients to be on alert for a scam targeting poor people in the area. The scammers promise $1,000 in extra food stamps or gift cards, but ask for credit card or debit card numbers. Those targeted will receive no benefits, and are at risk for having their bank accounts emptied, officials said.

Look at this quote from Maggie Brooks:

“It is disturbing that some are seeking to use the less fortunate of our community to meet their own selfish needs.”

Are you freakin’ kidding me, Maggie? Only two weeks ago, and again last week, you dumped on this same group of unfortunates to further your own selfish political needs. Gimme a break.

In the rush to get federal stimulus money spent, it looks as if somebody tried to pull a fast one. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office rejected a $7 Million contract to paint expressway bridges on I-84. Apparently they think the contractor is a front for a Bronx company already banned from doing business with the state:

Following an extensive, but expedited review of materials supplied by DOT, as well as independent research by DiNapoli’s staff, several serious concerns about Steed and the lack of due diligence in the contracting process were identified. Among them:

Unresolved questions regarding the control or influence exerted over Steed General Contractors by debarred vendor Delphi Painting and Decorating and its owner, Steve Papastefanou Sr. Steed may be a front company created by Papastefanou, who along with his company Delphi Painting and Decorating, is debarred by the New York State Department of Labor for prevailing wage violations for the period October 2007 - October 2012.

Investigations into allegations raised by DiNapoli’s staff after the initial contract submission were not completed.

We have a new kid in town.  Stlo wrote about Maggie’s newest sleight of hand 2 days ago.  a picture is worth 1,000 words, they say:

a back view

a close up

a side view

Yup, you decide.

Hat tip to Jeffrey Feldman for sending this video our way.  I thought it was timely considering last evening’s Massa Town Hall.

How is it that in every other industrialized nation, the government is the answer, but here it is not?

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)

Paul Krugman is one of my favorite columnists. For my money, he hit it out of the ballpark with this analysis of the  health care debate:

Call me naïve, but I actually hoped that the failure of Reaganism in practice would kill it. It turns out, however, to be a zombie doctrine: even though it should be dead, it keeps on coming.

Let’s talk for a moment about why the age of Reagan should be over.

First of all, even before the current crisis Reaganomics had failed to deliver what it promised. Remember how lower taxes on high incomes and deregulation that unleashed the “magic of the marketplace” were supposed to lead to dramatically better outcomes for everyone? Well, it didn’t happen.

To be sure, the wealthy benefited enormously: the real incomes of the top .01 percent of Americans rose sevenfold between 1980 and 2007. But the real income of the median family rose only 22 percent, less than a third its growth over the previous 27 years.

Moreover, most of whatever gains ordinary Americans achieved came during the Clinton years. President George W. Bush, who had the distinction of being the first Reaganite president to also have a fully Republican Congress, also had the distinction of presiding over the first administration since Herbert Hoover in which the typical family failed to see any significant income gains.

And then there’s the small matter of the worst recession since the 1930s.

There’s a lot to be said about the financial disaster of the last two years, but the short version is simple: politicians in the thrall of Reaganite ideology dismantled the New Deal regulations that had prevented banking crises for half a century, believing that financial markets could take care of themselves. The effect was to make the financial system vulnerable to a 1930s-style crisis - and the crisis came.

“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals,” said Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937. “We know now that it is bad economics.” And last year we learned that lesson all over again.

Or did we? The astonishing thing about the current political scene is the extent to which nothing has changed.

The debate over the public option has, as I said, been depressing in its inanity. Opponents of the option - not just Republicans, but Democrats like Senator Kent Conrad and Senator Ben Nelson - have offered no coherent arguments against it. Mr. Nelson has warned ominously that if the option were available, Americans would choose it over private insurance - which he treats as a self-evidently bad thing, rather than as what should happen if the government plan was, in fact, better than what private insurers offer.

Here’s a report on the Wednesday evening Town Hall meeting in Victor via The Albany Project.  Our own Ladkiddo arrived late and was unable to get in.

The general atmosphere at the Victor Town Hall hosted by Eric Massa was of a rude audience erupting in waves of boos, shouting questions out of turn, and trying to talk over Eric.
Specifically, Eric opened the evening with the pledge, a general recognition of veterans in the audience, and a recognition specifically of Korean war veterans (I’m not sure why he singled out that group).

Then, he asked for ten seconds of silence in memory of Senator Kennedy. The hall blew its top with boos, cat calls, and shouts of “Mary Jo”.

It was downhill from there.

The auditorium seated maybe somewhere between 800 and 1000. It was full; there were people in the hallway outside milling about; and another couple hundred in the gymnasium across from the auditorium, where they had piped in an audio feed.
The bulk of vocal members of the audience looked to be middle or upper-middle class, was clearly white, was 40s or 50s, and was loud and unwilling to listen.

People asked Eric to explain “the bill”– I’m assuming, HR3200– and Eric did, patiently and dilligently. But whenever “the hall” disagreed, they began yelling over him.

Eric was polite to a fault. He was the picture of calm, cool demeanor under fire. He never lost his cool, often tried to lighten the proceedings with small quips, and defended the right to speak of everyone with the microphone (most of whom disagreed with any reform whatsoever).

Now, the extreme members of the audience– who were probably between one quarter and one third of those present– might not feel that way, because he also admonished them to be polite and allow the person with the microphone their say. But I was in complete awe of his ability to remain calm, and cool, and polite.

Perhaps “polite to a fault” is the correct term. Many of the speakers came with the lies and cannards that are being spread by the extremist radio hosts (Limbaugh and his wannabes). Eric always listened politely, attempted to gently correct some (but not all) of the incorrect statements, but never wavered from an appearance of a respectful discussion.

I don’t know that Eric could have done anything differently. He is a public servant, elected by the people, and needs to be respectful of them. But at what point when people are saying things that are bold faced lies should they be told “you are either lieing yourself or stupid for believing the lies pushed by Rush and his buddies”?

He never did. They called him a liar. They called him a communist. They said that he was trying to force them, kill them, destroy them. And he never more than nodded and responded politely.

When he attempted to explain that “the bill” wasn’t socialized medicine, they screamed and yelled and booed. When he tried to tell them what socialized medicine was, they called him a liar. When he tried to tell them how money savings could be realized, they screamed and yelled and booed some more. When he tried to explain that the only real socialized medicine in the US is the VA– and that every discussion he has with constituents about the VA has the constituents asking for more money for it– they yelled him down.