Daily Kos
State of the Nation
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Will Coburn force a full reading of the bill?
Much has been made of Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) threat to force a full reading of the Senate health insurance reform bill on the floor, though it poses no particular threat to the bill's passage. It's just a way to kill some time and be annoying. Should everyone who's interested read it? Sure. Shoul …
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USDA: 49 million Americans lack dependable access to food
Here's yet another heartbreaking example of the consequences of eight years of George W. Bush and GOP economic priorities: The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according …
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NY-23: Hoffman "Un-Concedes", At Glenn Beck's Urging
Despite the fact that he conceded the election within hours of the polls closing on November 4th, and despite the fact that an analysis of the early absentees seems to indicate that there is no chance of a reversal of fortune, anointed GOP standard bearer Doug Hoffman has decided that he really didn …
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Polling and Political Wrap-Up, 11/16/09
A surprising amount of new polling data as we kick off the new week. Contrary to the past two weeks, some of it is actually good news for Democrats, although there are a couple of brutal polls in there as well for the Blue team. DE-Sen: First Poll of Cycle Gives Biden Lead over Castle The pending " …
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Conservative Leaders Support Transfer of Gitmo Detainees to U.S.
The politics of fear may be the next breaking point in the Republican Party. While Rush Limbaugh and Liz Cheney lead the charge among the fear-mongers of the danger of the rule of law, a handful of conservative leaders support closing Guantanamo: [O]n Sunday, a group of highly respected conservati …
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Obama Opposed to Bill with Stupak
In a conference call with bloggers this afternoon, I asked CongressDaily's lead reporter on health care issues, Anna Edney, about the status of the Stupak-Pitts amendment on the Senate side. She indicated that Ben Nelson is still considering drawing up an amendment that would approximate Stupak-Pitt …
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Teabaggers Call Off Plans To Burn Democrats In Effigy
Because the public reaction seemed "kinda strange"... The chairman of the Danville TEA Party Patriots said Sunday he was unsure about whether the group will continue with its planned effigy burning of Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a bonfire rally Saturday in …
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More Shady Astroturfing in Healthcare Reform
Some groups, like the Chamber of Commerce and AHIP, are right up front about their opposition to healthcare reform. They might be slightly underhanded, like UnitedHealth's effort to pressure employees into writing members of Congress in opposition to reform, but at least we know what they're up to. …
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DE-Sen: Biden Has Lead New Poll, HCR the Defining Issue?
Via David Weigel, it looks like Beau Biden has more than closed the lead that GOP Rep. Mike Castle has in a hypothetical match-up. The Susquehanna Polling & Research survey [pdf} has Biden leading by five points. When they polled this race in April, Castle led by 21 points. (This poll was conduc …
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All Kinds Of Crazy
Warning: Do not be eating or drinking when you read the following, from John Ziegler's review of Sarah Palin's new high school slam book: "For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime." "I strongly believe that if every Repu …
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Corporatecare for PhRMA
Last week Jon Cohn and Sam Stein reported on a just how much of a sweetheart deal PhRMA actually got by negotiating with Baucus and the White House on reform efforts. In return for the $80 billion in reduced payments to drug makers over the next decade, the industry stands nonethless to profit hands …
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Fox goes on the warpath over a bow
The loons at Fox are beating up on President Obama after his bow while meeting the Emperor of Japan...but apparently they forgot their history, because President Obama is not the first President to make such a bow. Watch a montage of Fox's absurd attacks, along with the video and images they ignore …
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Faith Communities Coalesce Against Stupak
Leaders in the faith community want Americans to know that The Family at C-Street and the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops don't have a monopoly on the discussion of abortion in healthcare reform within the religious community. Earlier this week, faith groups issued a joint statement [pdf] reaffirm …
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Chamber of Commerce Is Looking For One Unprincipled Economist
Dolts: The Chamber of Commerce recently blasted out a fundraising e-mail to its member groups asking for $50,000 to hire a "respected economist" to study the health-care bills. Seems sensible enough. Knowledge is power, and all that. But then, as Michael Shear reports, comes step two: "The econo …
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Does the RNC Want to Kill Granny?
Remember how the RNC had to do an about face after the fact that their health insurance plan included abortion coverage? Guess what else their insurer, CIGNA, covers. Yup, "death panels." But ThinkProgress has noticed that Cigna, the RNC’s health insurance provider, also urges beneficiaries …
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AP fact checkers
On Twitter, the AP was bragging about the 11 reporters it assigned to fact check Sarah Palin's new book. That's fine and dandy. But would it have killed them to assign 11 reporters to fact check Bush and Cheney's Iraq WMD claims?
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Genentech's Revised and Extended Remarks
An already controversial component of the healthcare reform bill in the House has gotten more so, with the revelation over the weekend in the New York Times that 42 members of Congress used statements drafted for them by Genentech lobbyists on the issue of biologics. Statements by more than a doze …
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Lessons Learned From The Pandemic
We aren't quite done with this particular flu outbreak. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic (aka swine flu) is declining in most places in the US (not in New England yet, but that will come) and we have no idea whether there will be a third wave in spring (maybe), or whether lower amounts of H1N1 illness will ha …
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Jobs Summit Needs Big-Picture Focus
Come December, months after it should have happened, the White House will convene a jobs summit. That’s a good thing if we’re really going to talk about all options. Because important ones are missing right now. To that end, I’d like to suggest a few names for the summit’s gu …
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Woe, To Be A Governor
Back in July, and using the 2009 elections as the immediate backdrop, I suggested that the greatest level of volatility in the coming election cycles would be in the gubernatorial races. The basic thesis was that the current economic and political climate had essentially put the state's chief execu …
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