What, If Any, Kind Of Public Option Will Obama Propose?

Will President Obama finally say not only that he supports a public option, but then specify what kind of a public option he'll support?
That's one of the things I'm wondering about in the days leading to the president's speech to Congress on the need to pass meaningful healthcare reform on Sept. 9.
O.K., the legislation that passes Congress will be less than perfect and it's not going to include lots of things I would like to see in any bill, but what I would like to see is real action not only to address the 47 million who don't have health insurance, but millions more who are underinsured and many others who have been denied coverage because of either pre-existing conditions or because they became ill.
The New York Times detailed what one might conclude a series of "trial balloons" designed to test reaction to some possibilities.
Here's part of the Times report:

Administration officials said Wednesday that Mr. Obama would be more specific than he has been to date about what he wants included in the plan. Doing so amounts to an acknowledgment that the president’s prior tactic of laying out broad principles and leaving Congress to fill in the details was no longer working and that Mr. Obama needed to become more personally involved in shaping the outcome.
But the officials said Mr. Obama was unlikely to unveil a detailed legislative plan of his own. And they insisted that Mr. Obama had not given up on the provision that has attracted the most fire from the right, a proposal for a government-run competitor to private insurers, although many Democrats say the proposal may eventually be jettisoned.

So what is it about the public option that Republicans and insurance companies are afraid of. I'm fed up to here about the crying that Republican politicians like my area's shameful Taliban congressman, Pete Sessions (TX-32), about how private insurers won't be able to compete against a public option and that a public option will lead to a government takeover of healthcare.
Having a government-run public option sure hasn't led to a government monopoly in the package delivery business. If you don't believe me, just ask FedEx and UPS, two private companies who continually get handsome chunks of the package delivery business even with a public option-- the U.S. Postal Service-- available.
Why isn't the media pointing this out continually in their assessments of the arguments for and against the public option? And why is the media so obsessed with citing polls pointing to erosions in President Obama's popularity that they are completely leaving out polls pointing toward overwhelming support of the public option?
It seems that the media is asleep at the wheel when it comes to providing accurate coverage of the public option and the American people's overwhelming support for it. And with President Obama's talk on Sept. 9 drawing closer, it is very appropriate for the American people to hold the president's feet (as well as the feet of those in Congress) on the fire and force them to pass real healthcare reform with a real public option.

11 More Advertisers Stop Advertising On Hate Monger Beck's Show

Another blow to the airwaves survival of hate-speaking right-winger Glenn Beck:
Reports Color of Change, the organization that has pulled off this so-far most successful campaign to pressure advertisers to stop advertising on Beck's show on the Fox "news" channel:

Great news today -- 11 more sponsors have distanced themselves from Glenn Beck's television program, bringing the total to 57.
Eleven new companies whose ads were recently seen during Beck’s program—Binder & Binder, Capital One, The Dannon Company, Discover, HSBC, ICAN Benefit Group Insurance, Infiniti, Jelmar (manufacturer of CLR All-Purpose Cleaner), Jordan McKenna Debt Counseling Network, Mercedes-Benz and Simplex Healthcare (creator of the Diabetes Care Club) —have pledged to ColorOfChange.org to take steps to ensure that their ads don’t run on Beck’s show. Fifty-seven companies have now committed not to support Beck’s show since ColorOfChange.org launched its campaign four weeks ago after the Fox News Channel host called President Obama a "racist" who "has a deep-seated hatred for white people" during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

Now this is real grassroots action!

CNN Poll: 55 Percent SUPPORT Public Option

What part of this poll don't the mainstream media, Obama Administration, and members of Congress don't understand?
Remember the old album title that suggested that a large number of Elvis fans couldn't be wrong? The same can be said in this latest CNN poll that shows a clear majority favoring a public option.
This is the third poll that shows favoritism of a strong public option despite the millions of dollars right-wing groups and insurance companies have spent trying to defeat it.
Reports Jed in Daily Kos:

CNN poll by Opinion Research, 1,010 adults, 8/28-31, +/- 3 pts (pdf):

Now thinking specifically about the health insurance plans available to most Americans, would you favor or oppose creating a public health insurance option administered by the federal government that would compete with plans offered by private health insurance companies?
Favor - 55%
Oppose - 41%
No opinion - 4%

Note that the public option receives a wide margin of support even though the question uses the word "administer," which could be confusing to some who think it means the government would actually be administering the health care, instead of acting as a insurer like Medicare.
Still, despite the wording, this poll shows that there is strong support for the public option, even after a long summer of siege warfare by teabaggers against doing any reform at all.
The natural reaction to this should be to plow forward, especially given that 4 of the 5 committees with jurisdiction have a public option in their health care plan.

The question is whether the folks at the Obama Administration and in Congress get the point.
The teabaggers, birthers, deathers, and the rest of the assorted liars who have spread disinformation and lies about healthcare care reform may feel they have won (with support of mainstream media members too lazy to look beyond the noise of these nuts), but clearly on the very public option they hate, they DON'T represent the majority of the American people.
Big question: Will the rest of the media report this poll with the same (if not more) prominence than they have given the anti-reform liars?

Verizon Spokesman Defends Sponsorship of Anti-Environment Hate Speech Event

I don't understand why Verizon Wireless doesn't get it when it comes to its sponsorship of a Labor Day anti-environmental rally in West Virginia.
It's nice that the company was among many that have dropped sponsorship of the Glenn Beck hate-mongering show, but being involved in an anti-environment rally that features one hate-peddling speaker and a '70s rock singer whose hate-filled and threatening concert rant against then-Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton drew more than just a little attention.
Here's Verizon Wireless' response to protests against its involvement in the anti-environment hate speech event, as reported in the Huffington Post:

...Verizon Wireless spokesman Jim Gerace, "said his company simply paid $1,000 for the right to be able to sell its products at the rally." Gerace added: "It's nothing more than that ... and the groups who are trying to make it more than that are misguided. I'm definitely bothered that people are trying to put us in the middle of an argument."

Hmmm. Verizon Wireless cuts off sponsorship of one hate mongerer, Glenn Beck, but keeps sponsoring more hate from the likes of Sean Hannity and Ted Nugent? Again, why would a corporate giant like Verizon Wireless want to be associated with such trash as Nugent and Hannity and the others behind the anti-environmental event?
The Huffington Post piece continues:

After nearly four decades of enduring daily rounds of millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives ripping through their communities and mountains, dealing with blasting, flyrock, silica dust, selenium pollution, contaminated watersheds and streams, entrenched poverty and a devastated economy blocked from any diversification or job development, coalfield residents are sorta bothered, too.
Does Gerace know that a Massey subsidiary in eastern Kentucky dumped over 300 million gallons of toxic sludge into the area's waterways and aquifers in 2000, or that Massey paid $20 million in penalties for dumping more toxic mine waste into the region's waterways in 2008; or that Massey paid a record $4.2 million for civil and criminal fines in the death of two coal miners in West Virginia? That's just for starters.
(This week, Massey's union-busted thugs harassed nonviolent tree-sitters.)
Millions of Americans, including millions of Verizon Wireless customers, are aware of the egregious human rights and environmental violations caused by mountaintop removal, which former Vice President Al Gore called a "crime, and ought to be treated as a crime."
And their outrage at Verizon Wireless's sponsorship of Massey Energy's carnival is growing.

The huge public relations black eye Verizon Wireless could suffer as a result of its continued sponsorship of this event could be one that it may be hard pressed to recover from.

The Real Face Of GOP Healthcare Reform Opposition: They Simply Don't Care About Average Folks Like Me

When Republican senators and congressmen are confronted by inconvenient truths about healthcare reform they either:
1. Try to change the subject and lie about how President Obama is getting "his clock cleaned" about it (Rep. "Taliban Pete" Sessions (TX-32)during Irving townhall meeting) (NOTE: the transcript can be found here).
2. Tell a lie and then abruptly end the meeting when constitents catch the man in the act (Rep. Pete Olson (TX-22) during his recent townhall).
3. Blame the media when the questioner wouldn't allow him to get away with not answering the question (Rep. John Culberson when questioned by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell).
4. Tell a crying woman in need that the government can't do anything to help her in a cold, matter-of-fact manner (Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma).
And now we have No. 5. And this could be the meanest one of all.
Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas, who got herself in deep doodoo the last few days because of her racist "Great White Hope" slur, dug herself in an even deeper hole with some rather sadistic behavior during a townhall meeting toward a single uninsured mother.
Here's the video of Jenkins in action:

And here's the transcript (as provided in Mike Nellis' excellent Daily Kos diary):

Elizabeth Smith: I’m a 27 year-old single mother. I work full-time. I do not have health insurance. My employer does not provide health insurance to me and I cannot afford it privately. Why shouldn’t my government guarantee all of its citizens health care?
Jenkins: Thank you. I’m sorry, maybe you missed my opening remarks, but absolutely. That’s why we have Medicaid in the current system and that’s why under the alternative proposal we have an option for low-to-modest-income people to be able to afford health care and then we’ve got the SCHIP program for children. I think we’ve got all of the bases covered.
Audience member: She’s not covered under SCHIP!
Jenkins: OK, if you’re not then you’re the perfect example for why we need reform and why we need it now but we have to do it right and if we can do an alternative proposal, as I’m suggesting, give you the money to go buy it in a reformed marketplace where it is affordable, that’s my preference rather than to saddle the nation with yet another government program when they can’t afford the government run programs we have.
Elizabeth Smith: I want an option that I can pay for. I work. I pay my bills. I’m not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can’t I get an affordable option. Why are you against that?
Jenkins: A government run program (laugh) is going to subsidize not only yours (laugh) but everybody in this room. So I’m not sure what we’re talking about here.
Jenkins: I think it comes down to the whole discussion of...
(The crowd erupts. At this point, it's safe to say even they aren't buying Jenkins position...)
Lynn: OK folks. Let’s be respectful. UH-OH (talking over crowd). We’re gonna make time for everybody. We’re gonna all listen to each other respectfully, even if we disagree. I think we can agree we need reforms, again it’s just how we gonna do it. I believe people should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with an advancebale tax credit to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance.

What makes this exchange between Jenkins and her constituent even more illuminating is this-- according to the Daily Kos diarist:

In fact, yesterday we also learned that Jenkins' hasn't even read the health reform bills being debated in Congress.

Let's get straight to the point. The Republican party, their insurance company allies, and their lying apologists on right-wing talk shows and/or Fox "news" don't give a rat's a-- about providing meaningful health insurance reform so average folks like me won't have to go under just because we get sick.
If you really thought Republicans have a solid case against health insurance reform, look at these examples. They'd rather lie and make things up instead of provide the reform people need.
They'd rather sit, do nothing, and watch all the campaign cash come from their anti-reform friends rather than do anything that would even give folks a chance at making it through whatever healthcare crisis they face.
This is your Republican party in action, and it's time the mainstream media stop giving these guys any creedence and legitimacy. They are out of touch, have no heart, and don't deserve to be heard or believed on healthcare reform or anything else.
They are nothing but a fringe party, and the sooner Democrats realize this and stop thinking they can make deals with them, the better America will be.

Ask Verizon Wireless To Disassociate From Anti-Environment, Hate Speech Peddlers

In the volitle political climate we live in today, if you were a company, would you like to be associated with pundits or entertainers who have been associated with making highly offensive and hateful remarks?
That's the problem of Verizon Wireless sponsoring a pro-coal, anti-environment rally on Labor Day.
Here's part of a statement made by an organization called Credo Action criticizing Verizon's participation:

Why is Verizon Wireless co-sponsoring a pro-coal, anti-environment rally on Labor Day?
It's called the Friends of America Rally and over 25,000 people have already RSVPed to attend a political event to promote climate change denial and mountaintop removal mining.
Massey Energy, a dirty coal company and the most egregious violator of the Clean Water Act in history, is the moving force behind the event.
The rally features speeches by prominent global warming denier Lord Christopher Monckton and conservative pundit Sean Hannity. Ted Nugent will provide musical entertainment.

Hannity's involvement in the rally given the hateful rhetoric he has often used against President Obama and others is bad enough. What's even scarier is Verizon's association through this event with Ted Nugent who last year in a rant encouraged violent attacks against then-Democratic presidential candidates Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Here's the video of the Nugent rant:

Is Verizon really sure it wants to associate itself with the hate speech of Ted Nugent? I suggest it disassociate itself with this event posthaste?
The Credo Action piece continues:

Companies like Verizon Wireless may say they are not making a political statement when they participate in events like these. But it's never just about marketing. After all this is the same company that made a decision to block NARAL Pro-Choice America's text messages from its network. Verizon Wireless has choices. And once again, it's made a very poor one.
Tell Lowell McAdam, President and CEO of Verizon Wireless to issue a public apology and immediately withdraw all support from this extremist, anti-environmental rally.

I've already let my feelings be known to Verizon Wireless. I hope you do too.

Texas GOP Congressman, Caught In Healthcare Reform Lie, Abruptly Ends Townhall

We've seen three distinct pages of the Republican playbook in play when it comes to the actions of three Texas congressmen.
One part of the playbook-- When caught in a lie and you still don't want to answer tough questions, end the meeting-- was executed excellently by the Houston-area congressman, Rep. Pete Olson from Tom DeLay's old congressional district, during his townhall last week.
Here's part of what the Huffington Post reported:

Olson told the story of Britney, a pregnant woman who couldn't find a doctor who would treat her unborn child's heart defect. After being turned away by several, she hunted down a specialist in Detroit who was willing to perform the procedure. Britney is convinced that her son would not have been born if there was a public option then, and she wouldn't have had the choices to find the doctor that she wants.
Over applause, a number of audience members audibly groan. "Oh Jesus Crist, that's terrible," says one attendee. "That's not true," says another.
"For those of you who say it's not true, don't talk to me, talk to Britney," Olson responded.
"The insurance company turned her down, not the government," an audience member says. "The private insurance turned her down, not the government." Others shout back that if there was government-run insurance, she would have been turned away. As the meeting devolves into shouting back-and-forth, Olson just says, "I want to thank you all for coming."

Just like a little coward. He got caught in his lie, so he abruptly, like a little boy, takes his bat and ball and goes home instead of deal with his sin and apologize for it. The problem is, Olson IS the government, and his district, as Republican as it may be, deserves far better from its representative than what he delivered in his townhall.
Here's the video of Olson in action:

Another part of the playbook-- When confronted with a hard question, change the subject-- was executed by my area's Tom DeLay gerrymandering-imposed congressman, "Taliban Pete" Sessions, during his recent townhall in Irving.
Cool Onion, in his excellent blog, "Sessions Watch," provides a riviting transcript of Sessions' encounter with a constituent:

Constituent: Thank you for giving us an opportunity to discuss this issue.
Sessions: Yes, ma’am.
Constituent: And Congressman, I respect the fact that you have a family member with special needs, and you would do anything you can to make sure that that person in your family is taken care of. I want to tell you my story about someone in my family who I care deeply about, who’s falling through the cracks of our current system and why I think having a public option is so important. Can I do that?
Sessions: Yes, ma’am. Absolutely. That’s why you’ve been invited down…
Constituent: Thirteen years ago, my husband was diagnosed with liver failure. He was told he needed a transplant to live. Nine months later, he received his transplant. Now, if my story stopped there and was only about health care it would be a wonderful story about how our country is admired around the world for the type of health care we receive. However, my story is not about our health care. My story is about health coverage, pre-existing conditions, and falling through the cracks in the system as it stands. My husband’s a semiconductor engineer, he made six figures a year, we were as middle class as anybody wants to be. And last Fall, when the economy collapsed, he lost his job. Now, we had the choice of staying on COBRA, and at the time, as you recall, at that time was $1500.00 a month for our family.
Sessions: Yes, ma’am.
Constituent: Okay. His insurance just for him, if I took myself and my two children off, was going to be over $600.00. The medicine to keep a liver transplant alive, without insurance, was going to cost me $700 a month. Now, unemployment was only $1500 a month, and we still had rent, and food, and utilities and everything else. Now, when the new administration came in and the stimulus package came through, we were able to get our—for nine months—insurance reduced. But at the end of those nine months, we’re back up to $1500 and our unemployment is gonna run out. There are no jobs to be had, especially jobs with insurance. The only people that are hiring now are hiring contract labor. Contract labor, they’re not required to insure; it’s a loophole in the business system. Now, without the medication, my husband is going to die. We’re already lost our home, we had to sell our car, I’ve had to cut as many expenses as I can possibly cut, in order to keep my husband alive. Alive. It isn’t a matter of—y’know, people are saying, “Well, why don’t you just go get Medicare.” He doesn’t qualify for Medicare. He’s healthy! He’s been post transplant for almost—
Sessions: He’s probably not old enough—
Constituent: — fifteen years —
Sessions: —for Medicare.
Constituent: He’s 54 years old. He’s not old enough. So we are in this black hole where, y’know, without the public option, all this bill does is say everybody has to be covered. If there’s no cost savings on anybody from the…for the insurer, there’s no incentive to make the insurance companies cover us at the same rate that anybody else gets, and all I’m asking for—I’m not asking anybody to take their insurance away from them. I’m just saying I am an American citizen, I deserve the same amount of insurance that anybody else gets… (applause) …we pay taxes…
Sessions: Thank you, and I think you’ve spoken very well.
Constituent: And I truly would like to know, why aren’t you on this? Please.
Sessions: I’ll tell you why I’m not on the bill. I’m not on the bill because people need to speak to the President when he goes around the country and to say, “Mr. President, let’s not do a trillion six hundred billion dollar. Let’s aim where the problem is, and let’s help people and let’s go…(audio drowned out by applause)…this President…this President was told that in thirteen days, he spent more money than George Bush spent in two wars for seven years, Katrina and New York City with 9-11…(cheers and applause)…and…that a person who is gonna be President has to be responsible for the national debt that is taking place that is killing jobs in this country…(unintelligible exchange between Sessions and Constituent, drowned out by applause)…and this President needs to hear from you and others so that he goes back and does something about the problem, not over everybody in here and ruining Medicare. (Cheers and applause from audience). And I—I as a member of Congress am trying to say, I have—I have open town hall meetings. I initiated the meeting with Eddie Bernice Johnson. I openly will say to anybody, including the President, “Mr. President, listen to people, go do something about the problem, don’t try to take over a government run health care plan…(cheers and applause)…I have great empathy. I really do. It doesn’t take a lot for me to figure out, and I started my career working as a paperboy. I worked every day, never missed a day of work when I worked in the private sector and I’ve gotta work for a living now, too. And I know all but for probably five genes that any of us have that are wrong it could be us that would be there, too. I, too, understand that. I’m not a mean, cold-hearted person. But the American public is also kind and generous, but don’t pick on everybody. (applause) Go and find the problem. So I would say that a group of people who were here from all the organizations need to go back and do a huddle with the President, and the President is a great salesman. But he is getting his clock cleaned (wild cheers and applause obscure audio)…dialogue with the President. And I’m very open to having dialogue with anybody here. Please aim for the problem. I would love to have you say to the President, “Mr. President, what we’re trying to sell is not working.” It’s not! You just can’t argue that case. But you still have needs, and we still have a problem, and Sessions agrees with that. Let’s solve the problem. Thank you very much.

And again (for at least the third time in this blog), here's the video of Sessions in action:

And if all that wasn't enough, a third Texas congressman (and the second from the Houston area)-- executed the GOP playbook as perfectly as you can get it-- when confronted with a question you don't want to answer and the interviewer persists with it, don't answer the question still. Blame the media instead.
Here's Rep. John Culberson in action as he is interviewed by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell:

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If you don't already know the Republican party's lack of concern toward average folks like me and complete lack of interest in passing real healthcare reform, all you have to do is watch all three of these video clips and you'll quickly get the picture.