Welcome, samueltpax!

RT: @samueltpax: 2:12PM was a helluva shock...I weigh 5lbs5oz & can belt out a nice cry. In NICU for a little observation but look good.

2:50 PM Sep 29th from Echofon

ntoddpax

NTodd Pritsky

I've been neglecting my education

I see that I've read only 23 of the top 100 Banned Books.

What's it like to be an American living in England and using their socialized medicine?

Really awful... as in really awful to know what your American friends have to suffer through, or die for, while you get excellent -- and free -- care.



via DCblogger

We're number one 37!

[for reference]

h/t prairie sunshine

on mn public radio:

Dr. Denis Cortese, president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, speaks live at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. about health care reform. His speech is titled, "Great Expectations: What Lawmakers Must Do to Reform U.S. Health Care."

[what curmudgeon cat sees when he looks in the mirror]

dog-liek tyeping detected

Socialized medicine, right here in the good ol US of A

Veterans get to have it, why can't we? Well, we could if Barabara Lee's HR 3000 were passed.

Your money or your life!

Dennis Kucinich peers into a crystal ball and predicts the future --

The Private Mandate Sausage Machine

While the political process in Washington suffers through its grotesque pantomime on health care, let us prepare our neighborhoods, our communities, our states for the eventual triumph of single payer health care. Please sign the petition for a single payer system. Download, print and circulate the petition among friends and neighbors.

Dear Friends,

It is said one should not ask how sausage or laws are made. Are you concerned about a public option? Let me share with you some insight about health care legislation which may not be good for your health.

A lesson in politics. The Kucinich Prediction: Here's what's going to happen ...

1. House will make a big deal about keeping/putting a public option in HR3200 because it competes with insurance companies and will keep insurance rates low.
2. The White House will refer to the President's speech last week where he spoke favorably of the public option.
3. The Senate will kill the competitive public option in favor of non-competitive "co-ops". Senate leaders like Kent Conrad have said the votes to pass a public option were never there in the Senate.
4. The bill will come to a House-Senate Conference Committee without the public option.
5. House Democrats will be told to support the conference report on the legislation to support the President.
6. The bill will pass, not with a "public option" but with a private mandate requiring 30 million uninsured to buy private health insurance (if one doesn't already have it). If you are broke, you may get a subsidy. If you are not broke, you will get a fine if you do not purchase insurance.

This legislative sausage will be celebrated as a new breakthrough and will be packaged as health insurance reform. However, the bill may require a Surgeon General's warning label: Your Money or Your Life!

The bill that Congress passes may pale in comparison to the bill that millions of Americans will get every month/year for having or not having private health insurance.

It will take four years for the new legislation to go into effect. During that time we are going to build a constituency of millions in support of real health care, a constituency which will be recognized and a cause which is right and just: Health Care as a Civil Right.

Join our efforts. Sign the petition. Contribute. Insure a democratic future.

Thank you.

Here's hoping that last part proves to be true -- During that time we are going to build a constituency of millions in support of real health care, a constituency which will be recognized and a cause which is right and just: Health Care as a Civil Right. Do what you can to help that along.

David Axelrod, The White

Just a random factlet to brighten your day [or not] -- that's what my email inbox preview pane shortens Axelrod's 'from the White House' emails to.

Cats on a hot tin roof skylight

Eric Massa shrine post

[continuing to steal the idea; anthony weiner here]

Eric Massa, at a protest of AHIP: "We are not radicals. We are not a fringe element. We are men and women who want to provide for our families."





Eric Massa has read HR3200 four times, and will not vote for it as it's written now.

Anthony Weiner shrine post [updated]

Stealing a good idea from donnadarko



updated to add this video:



Found this one [via] at Hillbilly Report, Anthony Weiner on Bill Maher's show:




And then there's the time he made Joe Scarborough speechless:




Weiner dares, double dares, Republicans to repeal Medicare, on its 44th anniversary no less:




Weiner: Why do we need insurance companies at all? [posted by JesusSavesAtCitibank; is that a cool name or what?]



more Anthony Weiner -- on TV, on YouTube


[and the same for eric massa here]

I've done that

In fact, it's the only time I've ever been knocked unconscious.

Irony deficiency, bumper sticker edition

So the dog and I were driving around this past holiday weekend, trips to the dog park and other fun places, and so were a lot of other folks, though not quite so many as in past years for the final weekend of the summer.

Still, there were enough cars at enough stoplights to collect a few new bumper stickers for my [mental] collection.




Seen on the back of huge brand new SUV, turning into a rawther ritzy-schnortzy neighborhood --

Live Simply
So that others may simply Live

And these 2 stickers side-by-side on another SUV --

McCain / Palin 08

I get mail

From the inbox ---

Today, I had the honor of being sworn! in as Florida's thirty-fourth United States Senator. U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and former U.S. Senator Connie Mack accompanied me to the Senate Chamber where I swore to support and defend our Constitution, and bear faith and allegiance to the same.

It is a privilege to serve the people of our great state and I am grateful for the opportunity to represent Floridians in our nation's capital.

I thank Senator Mel Martinez for his service and his assistance during this transition; he is a great example of the fulfillment of the American Dream. I look forward to continuing the Florida tradition of working together with my colleague, Senator Bill Nelson to ensure that Florida's interests are well protected in the United States Senate.

There are tremendous issues facing this nation, and although my time in Washington will be brief, I intend to work hard every day to address these critical challenges and serve the people of this unique, diverse and wonderful state.

As the father of three small children, I will do my part to make sure that America continues to be a place of hope and opportunity, for all Americans. I know that parents, both in Florida and around this country, want the same for their children and share my concerns regarding the national debt and out of control spending that threatens our children's future.

As the son of parents who worked hard all their lives to provide for their family, I will work to safeguard seniors and the programs that protect their quality of life.



George S. LeMieux

The best way to save Medicare for our seniors is to raise taxes and let all of the rest of us into the pool, as well as making it the source of health care for all our legislators. Somehow, I don't see Senator Stand-in agreeing with this simple prescription.


The oath of office for US Senators

Woman's Best Friend is a Large Black Dog because

the teeth show up so well, especially at night.

Either I need 11 more dogs

to balance things out number-wise, or I just need one more 50-lb dog to balance things out weight-wise. I wonder which it is.

from the inbox...

Health Care or Insurance Care? It's Time to Respond!

Dear Friends,

The health care decision-making process in Washington is horribly tainted by the campaign contributions of insurance and pharmaceutical interests. Under the pay-to-play system health care becomes insurance care, the public option shrinks to irrelevance, the choice we are left: What kind of private, for-profit insurance do you want? This is not acceptable. We must respond now, and not settle for a plan which subsidizes insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and sets the stage for the privatization of Medicare. We want Health Care for all the people, Medicare for All, which is exactly what the bill John Conyers and I wrote, HR 676, accomplishes. And the only way we will achieve it is to organize and take action in our communities to effect real change at a state and national level. Let us initiate immediately an action plan to intervene and provide health care for all:

1. On-line petition. Please contact your lists, your family and friends. Please sign the petition for a single payer system. I will deliver the petitions directly to your Congressperson.



2. Petition to download, print and circulate among friends and neighbors - including an instruction sheet.



3. A National Health Care for All Conference Call from Washington, DC, at 10 pm EDT, Thursday, September 10th at 1-800-230-1096. Join us, so that we can discuss our new beginning and ways in which we can all help. Pre-registration is necessary in order to reserve sufficient phone lines. Please RSVP. [NB: I don't seem to be able to make the link work directly from the post but it looks like you should send an email to rsvp@kucinich.us with Health Care For All Teleconference in the subject line.] When you call in and the operator asks, "what conference call?" tell the operator, "Health Care for All."



4. Health Care Meet-Ups. Coming Thursday September 10 2009.



5. Tell A Friend. Every email forwarded will make a difference. [NB: I can't make this link work from the post either, so you can just forward this post for lack of a better solution.]

I need your help to initiate this action. If you believe, as I do, that we can and must begin a new long-term state-by-state grassroots effort to create a single-payer, not-for-profit health care system, please contribute now at Kucinich.us


Thank you.

Sincerely.

So *that's* what they were doing!

Looking for the door to the secret room! I thought that excuse about inculcating a love of classics in the youngsters sounded specious.

Why I have no houseplants

I used to have an over-achiever dog too