No surprise here. I'm glad I voted a third time for Ralph Nader and an independent for Congress. Will "The Nation" now please learn to endorse by what candidates stand for rather than having a "D" next to their name?

Democratic activists should start donating money to the Republican opponents of Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Max Baucus, Kent Conrad and Tom Carper. If the Senators holding those seats are going to vote like Republicans, then they should darn well be labeled as Republicans.

I think I'll start using "Baucus" instead of "Quisling."

The main reason why our country's politicians are such low-quality politicians that they can't even do a simple thing like pass single-payer or even a robust public option is because they get elected by being in high-enough-spending extremely unfairly-high-spending political campaigns. The fact that their political campaigns get so much funding from monied interests (such as the health insurance industry) is only a secondary reason. LET'S GET OUR GOVERMENT TO BAN OR AT LEAST LIMIT CAMPAIGN SPENDING IN ALL OF OUR COUNTRY'S ELECTION RACES!!

lord i going to start using baucus you instead of
f-you. this will surely lead to conversation. me too
jennifer. and when dems. which i'm not start talking to
me about issues i always bring up ralph. these people
cannot stop shooting themselves in the foot no matter
who the candidate might be! but this is surely one of the
saddest days in the history of amerika. if beezelbub
runs against baucus in the next cycle i'll send him
a large check! at least you know what your getting!

Let's change the name of our country. From USA to UCA... United Corporations of America.

Max Baucus voted against his own bill. He & his committee had more lead time to write the bill & yet were the last to have it ready.
To be honest, I'm glad that this bill failed. It is NOT good legislation. House bills ready months ago are better bills.
All that being said, I hope Max Baucus loses his seat & all his big pay checks from the health care lobbyists etc.

Adam Howard cites an article by John Nichols to show how Obama "supports" a public "option." There is nothing in the article cited to indicate that Obama really cares at all.
Again, we have an article which tries to portray Obama in a good light, when the reality is that all of this mess stems from Obama's pretending to care when, in fact, he doesn't and too many people not wanting to put the blame squarely where it belongs.
Obama deliberately created this fraud. He is not anything more than another corporate tool.

i keep being amazed at the state of mind of the sheeple

the evidence is right under your nose - in front of your face - its killing us all

here is the deal: we live in a totalitarian fascist country (not as bad as england which is leading the way) and we have no rights left

the corporations - the very select few elites among elites - people like the rockefellers - own the entire country

more specifically they own the government, food production, oil production, the media and the banks

we are talking about 5 corporations

game over in chicago and boise idaho for that matter

we are in the end game and YOU are done (me too)

no healthcare
gmo food
population reduction
big brother

the whole nine

and YOU, not me, are thinking about things getting better. what a joke

the quality of life in this country has been eroding big time since the 50's - really sped up since reagan ( we know that reagan was advancing into senility his entire term of office and - for those who know american history - bushdaddy was the president for three terms - two of reagan's and one of his own

the nwo is not a left wing fantasy - it was introduced into the lexicon by bushdaddy in a state of the union address

clinton and gore - two pricks in a pod - though gore has been deified by his shilling on climate change the fact remains that he walked away from the presidency and abandoned us to bushbaby

arguably an act of treason

big al made a fortune on the google ipo (a payoff) and is now poised to make tons of cash from "climate change"

wall street is drooling over their anticipated windfall over carbon tax credits - gonna make the credit swaps seem like chump change

the wars will continue - it fits into the eugenics program and also enables the theft of resources to fuel the beast that is the nwo

we are now paupers, surrounded by the homeless and the criminal class (also a nwo creation) and bombarded 24/7 by mass media - and it has undone any sense of cohesion we may have had at one time

say goodbye to civility

say goodbye to freedom - it left about 20 years ago - and say hello to the fema prisons

how bad can it get

i see from the posts here and other places that the sheeple aint got a fucking clue about anything anymore

scratch your heads over iraq, afghanistan, colombia, iran

folks calling each other fascists - no self-respecting fascist would have any of ya

you are controlled

you are peasants

you don't count

big news - who could see it coming

healthcare is dead

man, what next....

I wonder what the headlines will read in a years time. Probably something like: 'Insurance Companies Make A Killing - Literally.'

I would bet that in the not too distant future you will see South American style death squads skulking through the streets of most major American inner cities, looking for the homeless and unemployed, especially children, and gunning them down in the street like rabid dogs.

At first it will be written off as tin-foil hat 'conspiracy theory'. But soon there will be survivors, who will be able to identify the killers as members of the local police force, or more likely, the paid killers from Eric Prince's Blackwater. After a too brief investigation, it will be revealed that the medical insurance companies are paying some of the killers bills, all as an effort to cut down on public healthcare spending.

Think this is too over the top, too fantastic to be believed?

I suggest you ask any of the poor underclass in most of South America. Because this is a daily occurrence in their world.

Walk in peace.

So called "moderate" Democrats and their Republican friends side with their corporate benefactors instead of the health interests of thier constituents. Shame!

they blew again, what a surprise! This thing was doomed to begin with. So much for bi-partisanship.

http://www.mindwafers.com/3/post/2009/09/hmohhhshit-part-ii-the-return-of-the-coop.html

Just a thought: Does anyone here think that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their companions in slime will not be up in arms that Obama has utterly failed the American people, and how it is time he has to go?

These jokers are the public voice of fear and ignorance, and they will be doing their poisonous best to whip the proles into a frenzy, baiting them into violence, inciting them with sly, legally subtle innuendo to take to the streets and 'take back their country!'

And that's when the entire country will be treated to the tools and tactics used so recently in Pittsburgh.

And that's "Change you can believe in! (TM)"

Walk in peace.

Why all the angst? The slow rate of progress in the Finance Committee suely was the time it took for the Insurance lobby to be scared enough to up the price it took to buy the members...sure it is a shame...in many countries the corruption police would be knocking on doors. Don't vote next time by party but by whether the politician will demny themselves the money that the lobbyists bring. You won't have many people to vote for.

Remember their names? Why? All we need to know is they are Democrats. I'll never vote for any of these Corporate Thugs again. And the ChristoRepublicans are far, far worse. I've had it with our one party system.

2010 mid-term elections can't come soon enough. I can't wait to support independent party candidates.

wow, even The Nation is reconsidering their love affair with with the dems. There's only one party, folks. When will you stop believing the rhetoric?

I was watching the deliberations today and was struck by the utter nonsense of Baucus. He could not vote for a bill that "would not get sixty votes in the Senate". So he voted against it. Isn't he part of the "sixty votes in the Senate"? It reminds me of the convoluted logic I heard from someone who said, "If I didn't work, I couldn't afford daycare". Maybe if you didn't work... Maybe if you voted for the bill it would get...Wow! Beam me up to the Mother Ship where things make any kind of logical sense.

Its unbelievable how corrupt the US system is.

There are millions of reasons that meaningful health care reform will not happen, and they are all currently accruing interest in various Congressmen's PACs courtesy of the Health Insurance Industry.

How can anyone believe that a person, particularly a politician, dispassionately review the merits of a given piece of legislation and decide on the best course of action for the benefit of their voting and salary paying constituents, while the industry they are contemplating is jamming millions of dollars into their political slushs funds?

Corporations vote with their dollars, and their votes count more than yours. You may want health care, and voted for your representative to provide it to you, but they want to squeeze every last penny out of you until you are dead, and they pay cash.

You cant fix your country until you fix the corrupt system.

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats

Vote Green in 2010.

http://www.gp.org/

–(Three Reasons Why one should cancel your Subscription to "The Nation Magazine" post haste.)

"It's times like these that even the most patient progressives find themselves at loss for why they even bother to back the Democratic party."
-(Adam Howard)

–Huh? I truly cannot believe how that can be said with a straight face? You "find yourself at loss" for reasons? Unbelievable!

"It's no longer the lesser of two evils; in this case it's the equal of the other evil." -(Adam Howard)

–"No longer?" "...in this case..." You mean there are no other cases? Please! This is so wretched as to truly defy belief.

"But this is a devastating blow to all of us who have been holding out hope that our elected officials could actually still do their jobs and make positive change happen for ordinary Americans." –(Adam Howard)

–Not even the God of Dark Laughter can laugh at that one. This pathetic pabulum can only serve as material for satire: "...elected officials doing their jobs" ; "...positive change for ordinary Americans..."; "holding out hope..."

They shoot horses, don't they? And dying dogs.

Why do Americans need congress?

They are nothing more than worthless, corporate shills.

Why should our tax dollars pay their salaries?

Think of all the money we taxpayers can keep in our own pockets by not having to subsidize these useless, obstructionist members of congress.

Why should congress enjoy the best socialized health care OUR MONEY can buy?

And why should congress be allowed to double deal, by receiving massive amounts of money from lobbyists in exchange for favorable legislation, while betraying the best interests of the American people?

Congress consistently votes against the best interests of the American People in favor of the best interests of their corporate masters.

At least 90% of congress are nothing more than corrupt spokesmodels for their corporate sponsors.

Why shouldn't corporations be mandated to pay for congressional salaries, health care, travel, security and all other expenses since the corporate interest, not the American Peoples' interests, are being represented by congress?

Great one.thanks for sharing this to us.

http://www.pennystockexplosion.com

Anyone who ever saw the film 'Bulworth' saw it coming. Bulworth was killed by the insurance lobby. Funny that Hollywood seems to be about ten years ahead when it comes to killing off 'enemies of the State'.

They can add another one to the list.

More wishful thinking from the Nation trying to give the Obama administration a pass. The Obama administration knew the score--and if they really wanted healthcare reform they would've championed it with singular intent. But what they wanted was health insurance reform to benefit the ambitious interests of the insurance crooks to bilk all Americans and since they couldn't blame the Republicans they had to create the scenario within the Democratic party.
You know if they wanted to twist arms and whip them in line with threats and bribes, they would.
Obama does not receive my support or even my respect, so these liberal progressives, continuing to wax on about Obama, while at the same time, demanding that it is up to us to pressure Obama, are talking out of their asses.

I heard Michael Moore mention to Amy Goodman that if obama had come out strong for single payer to begin with, instead of a seriously flawed compromise right off the bat, he would have had the strong support of millions of Americans out in force. And a decent bill would most likely been passed. I tend to agree...

Polls say a large majority want single payer-- where every working American is automatically enrolled-- and that's not even on the table! Polls show a large majority want a strong public option that any American can opt into. Are lawmakers even considering that? What they are considering are timid, watered down versions of that. They are all terrified of upsetting the insurance "industry" because they get so much money from them. They are also terrified of being accused of creating a massive scheme for a "government takeover" that would (god forbid) take money from the working class and give it to the government-- never mind that the government would actually give more of it BACK; never mind that the insurance "industry" is just such a massive scheme to take money from the working class and give it to the already super-rich.
I've signed every damned petition that comes my way. I have also written letters, made phone calls, talked to the press, attended "town hall" meetings, attended rallies and marches, helped organize public hearings, meetings, and rallies, and at least one staff meeting with our congressman, who appears to be a slavering, trembling puppet of moneyed interests.
Today I will call Senator Maria Cantwell's office and give her an earful. She happens to be on the Senate Finance (Max Baucus) Committee and voted for the public option, which was voted down in that committee 15-8 yesterday. But it's not dead yet-- they need to not only hold their ground but strengthen their stance and never give up.

Suppose I was an idiot. And suppose I was a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. ~Mark Twain

Who wants their proposed 'forced insurance plan' anyway? What they propose is no reform at all. Better to let it die, and the system crash and burn of its own accord, then perhaps from the ashes we can obtain REAL reform.

Please vote Socialist Equality Party going forward

http://www.socialequality.com/

After watching clips of the Senate Finance Committee last night I feel into a restive sleep and reprised the hearing in a dream. Like the pols in Sicko each member had a balloon over his head with a running total of the money accepted by health insurance interests. When Grassley told his lie that Single Payer would eliminate consumer choice the meter over his head spun wildly. No other member challenged his lie and their meters steadily clicked upwards. When Jay Rockefeller said that he wanted a public option because it was what the people needed, for a brief moment the meter above his head stopped. Then when the vote on Rockefeller's amendment came and the members, with their heads down and their voices muffled said "no", I saw the meters surge forward again.