Major Breaking News Story

Chuck Todd and Ben Smith report that John Bolton is not running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Americans anxiously await the moment when Sarah Palin announces she is not running.

Celebration: The DLC Is Ready To Fold

It makes me so happy to blog about the Democratic Leadership Council on the verge of permanently closing it's doors. Ben Smith reports the DLC only has four staffers and is broke. The DLC hasn't been able to find someone who wanted to be a permanent chairman. The DLC chair once once a position politicians like Bill Clinton. No Democrat with a promising future wants to get anywhere near the neoliberalism and triangulation shit house known as the DLC.

How happy I am? This song represents my feeling about the DLC folding.

A Muslim President Who Attends Christian Church

This Ben Smith tweet is irrefutable evidence that Barack Obama is a Muslim. How else can you explain Obama attending services at a Christian church. Obama is a sly sinister trickster, but I am on to him.

Hat tip to Marxist-socialist blogger Benjamin Kirby.

Obama's Welfare For the Health Care Industry

A new CBS poll shows President Barack Obama has a better approval rating on Afghanistan and the economy than for health care.

Obama Approval Poll Numbers

Overall - 50 percent
Afghanistan - 48 percent
Economy - 47 percent
Health care 42 percent

59 percent of Americans favor the public option. 29 percent of Americans oppose. Politically, it made no sense for Obama to oppose the public option. It makes more sense when one understands the White House refused to release the names of health care industry officials that had meetings at the White House. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force the White House to release the list of names.

• February 4 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• February 23 (meeting with president)
• March 5 (meeting with president)
• March 25 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• March 30 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
• April 6 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• May 22 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

J. James Rohack (President-elect, American Medical Ass'n.):

• March 25 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)
• June 22 (meeting with president)
• June 24 (meetings with Clare Gallagher and president)

William Weldon (Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson):

• May 12 (meeting with president)

Jeffrey B. Kindler (Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Inc.):

• March 5 (meeting with president)
• May 6 (meetings with Sarah Fenn and Elizabeth Bafford)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Stephen J. Hemsley (President, CEO, Director, UnitedHealth Group, Inc.):

• May 15 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• May 22 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
• July 14 (meeting with Aneesh Chopra)

Angela Braly (President, CEO, Director, WellPoint, Inc.):

• February 13 (meeting with president)

George Halvorson (Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan):

• March 27 (meeting with Keith Fontenot)
• June 5 (meeting with Peter Orszag)
• July 23 (meeting with Kathleen Sibelius)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Jay Gellert (President and CEO, Health Net, Inc.):

• February 10 (meeting with Tina Tchen)
• March 11 (meeting with Jennifer Cannistra)
• March 20 (meeting with Matt Flavin)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Thomas Priselac (President and CEO, Cedars-Sinai Health System):

• April 3 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)

Richard Clark (Chairman, President and CEO, Merck):

• March 24 (meeting with Ezekiel Emanuel)


Wayne T. Smith (Chairman, President and CEO, Community Health Systems):

• June 4 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Rick Smith (Sr. Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America):

• May 19 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• June 2 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)
• July 7 (meeting with Jim Messina)
• July 24 (meeting with Sarah Fenn)

Obama does not support a public option. The President does support very American being required to buy private health insurance. This will give the health insurance industry new custumers. The White House made an agreement with the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association to not allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug rates. Contrary to what the tea baggers believe, the only welfare Obama supports his for corporations.

Politico's Ben Smith received a letter from a heath care industry official. The health care industry is doing a victory lap.

"We WIN," the insider writes. "Administered by private insurance companies. No government funding. No government insurance competitor.”

Organizing For America v. Republicans

Ben Smith reports Organizing For America have sent out emails to voters in Republican districts that voted for Barack Obama. Smith reports the Democratic National Committee launched the attack on Republicans voting against health care reform. However, Mitch Stewart of Organizing For America is responsible for sending out the email. An unnamed Democrat expresses a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.

Said a Democratic official: "If Republicans think this is a political problem for us - they're sorely mistaken. the American people want reform and Republicans are standing in the way for the sake of partisan politics. That is a political problem for them. We are going to cause havoc for them."

Here is the list of Republicans Organizing For America are targeting.

CA-3 Dan Lungren
CA-24 Elton Gallegly
CA-25 Howard P. "Buck" McKeon
CA-26 David Dreier
CA-44 Ken Calvert
CA-45 Mary Bono Mack
CA-48 John Campbell
CA-50 Brian P. Bilbray
DE-AL Michael N. Castle
FL-10 C.W. Bill Young
FL-18 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
IL-6 Peter Roskam
IL-10 Mark Steven Kirk
IL-13 Judy Biggert
IL-16 Donald Manzullo
IA-4 Tom Latham
MI-4 Dave Camp
MI-6 Fred Upton
MI-8 Mike Rogers
MI-11 Thaddeus McCotter
MN-3 Erik Paulsen
NE-2 Lee Terry
NJ-2 Frank A. LoBiondo
NJ-7 Leonard Lance
OH-12 Pat Tiberi
PA-6 Jim Gerlach
PA-15 Charlie Dent
VA-4 J. Randy Forbes
VA-10 Frank R. Wolf
WA-8 Dave Reichert
WI-1 Paul D. Ryan
WI-6 Tom Petri

Reproductive Rights Out of H.R. 3200

Ben Smith's headline "Abortion sidetracks health care debate" really pisses me off. Abortion is an important health care issue. An amendment to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 eliminates abortion as required coverage. It was never clear if abortion would have been mandated in coverage. The amendment prohibits abortions being part of "required coverage." Where the legislative language gets tricky is no federal health care plan will not required or prohibited from abortion funding. Policy wise: this is a victory for conservatives. There are too many hurdles in the bill for money to go into abortion funding. The Obama administration is not going to get into a political fight over reproductive rights. Which is a shame.

The federal government is letting the states decide if health care dollars will fund abortions. Republicans in Red States keep federal dollars from funding abortion. Blue states get short changed.

The conscience clause will work it's way into an amendment. The Church amendment was the first legislation that allowed medical facilities to deny providing abortions based on religious views. This is a dangerous and unethical form of medicine. In Tampa, a rape victim was denied a second morning after pill because it was against a health care worker's religious beliefs. The woman reported being raped and was arrested by a Tampa Police Officer for late student loans. I don't have the stomach to listen to nonsense about the conscience clause.