The Whole Delivery

This morning it was 16. And now, the 17th Dem Senator to sign onto the Public Option push is a huge one. It's Chuck Schumer : This is key: Senator Chuck Schumer has just signed the letter calling on Harry Reid to hold a reconciliation vote on the public option. Schumer just fired off an email to supporters in which he announced his intention to sign the letter, which was initially spearheaded by Senator Michael Bennet and three other Senators. He wrote: I just added my name to their effort to pass a public option through the reconciliation process, and I wanted you to be the first to know. This is far from a done deal, but it’s an opportunity to break through the obstructionism Republicans have pushed for the past year. The momentum is growing. That can't be denied by anyone.

As the fight to repel "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is currently receiving its deserved growing attention, another boon for equality for the gay community is taking place with the potential news of the first openly gay male judge to serve on the federal court. Chuck Schumer has recommended to President Obama that one Daniel Atler be that individual to make such history. In a statement, Schumer said he recommended Alter because he’s “a brilliant attorney who possesses the knowledge, balanced views and temperament required of a federal judge.” “His outstanding leadership skills, his commitment to justice, and his extensive experience make him an exceptional choice for a position on the federal bench,” Schumer said. “I’m proud to nominate Daniel Alter. Period. But I am equally proud to nominate him because he is a history-maker who will be the first openly gay male judge in American history.” His resume' alone, gay or straight, is seriously impressive: A graduate...

A lot of people are going to not believe Schumer on this story, and believe he is covering up for the White House. But does that even matter at this point? No, it doesn't The debate over what happened behind the scenes is a big deal: It goes to the heart of who really deserves credit for the startling turn of events yesterday. The claims that the White House wanted a trigger, and tried to bigfoot Harry Reid into inserting one, infuriated liberals who saw it as Obama’s latest stiff-arming of the left-wing base. But Schumer says that’s not so. Here’s what he told TPM about this : “I think substantively the White House probably preferred a stronger public option than a trigger,” Schumer said. “We talked about this for a while in leadership and the White House wanted to hear our thoughts — and when they heard them they thought that this was the right strategy to get our caucus together.” What matters now is the progress of the final Senate bill to be debated on the floor, and whether t...

And possibly, the year : This is from Politico , so take it with a grain of salt: BULLETIN -- POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown: This morning, Senator Schumer is going to say, in light of the insurance industry report warning premiums will rise under reform, Dems should push to revoke the health insurance industry's antitrust exemption as a floor amendment. This will be at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Majority Leader Reid is also testifying." 10 a.m., Dirksen 226, "Prohibiting Price Fixing and Other Anticompetitive Conduct in the Health Insurance Industry." If its true, that is a potentially BLOCKBUSTER amendment. Regulation to the immoral insurance industry? It appears more likely than I thought, and it is ACTUALLY growing. Will certainly be interesting if the irrelevant SOP say their banal line of "government oppression is at it again" blah. It will be more hypocrisy from the Hypocrite Party in terms of not supporting their own super-capitalis...

And let's just let them have the option of deciding to accept Brown vs the Board of Education, Roe v Wade as Ms. Hemsher said, and any other bill or important case that has become a federal edict, and make it a subjective state rights' decision. Let's have them decide on SCHIP if they want their kids to not have health care or not. Let's have them decide on whether they want to finally drop Medicare and Medicaid like they want. Let's give them carte blanche to start real secret army groups by giving them the option to opt out of the 4th Amendment so Glenn Beck can have his own army to combat "Obama's secret Army." We might as well since we think it's all cool and well now that an opt-out option for a public option is the right way to go. A private decision for a public option (despite the public making the decision to want it, especially in some "red states" too) by either or both lying or crazy governors who will screw the people over ju...

Photo from Stephen Crowley of the NYT Interesting stuff : Check out this interesting quote in today’s New York Times from Senator Chuck Schumer on why the GOP’s continued opposition to Dem health care proposals makes a public option more likely to happen, rather than less likely: “One of the strongest arguments against a public option has been that the Republicans will never go for it,” Mr. Schumer said. “Well, the Baucus bill doesn’t have a public option, and they’re still not for it in any way, with the possible exception of Olympia Snowe,” a moderate Republican senator from Maine, who has not ruled out supporting the overhaul that Mr. Obama is seeking. And Schumer is right here, because the Republican Party is still at record low popularity. No one trusts them anymore (except either the utterly delusional, utterly selfish, utterly hateful or utterly ignorant amongst us), and the more they oppose something vehemently, the more the rational correct ideas the majority in the real main...

From yesterday, the New York Senator guaranteed a public option. Didn't need to link this since it's every where now, but yeah. We'll see how this story develops as this day goes on in terms of the reaction from the other side.

One of the few good things to come out of music in the last week, let alone in this year so far, is when Eminem introduced Run DMC into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The dumbassness of Coolio continues. Asher Roth's best song so far in his career , thanks to Cee-Lo. Chuck Schumer making music news? Indeed so. Scalpers beware. Slow news day for VH1 it seems when they report on the music career status of one John Cena . Then again, it really always is for them over there. And the current status of Wrigley's top marketing star (her commercials have her marketing for Juicy Fruit) and former top marketing star (he used to recently just have a "Double your pleasure, double your fun" Doublemint commercial) vary from either of course. The triumphant return of the music thread. Peace.

First post in almost two weeks, but hopefully this WILL BE the restart of the entire site. To start off, I offer another reason as to understand why some people can't stand journalist these days. In this example that you will see just below, I have an expert from Associated Press D.C. writer Liz Sidoti, who is notorious for being a dishonest journalist. And what is so further egregious about this is, she's a notoriously dishonest journalist who still has a well paying job. . In fact, with her track record of playing it up to Republicans . to call her a journalist is really disrespectful to a myriad of others who actually have earned that job description. Just look at how she mixes Obama's words here (focus primarily on the bold sections): Now Kovie at Open Left makes this catch : He said he would re-institute a pay-as-you-go rule that calls for spending reductions to match increases and would shun what he said were the past few years' "casual dishonesty of hidi...