You don't know anything about me. I work in middle management in local public health in a rural, depressed corner of Michigan. I am well versed in Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP. My mother's on Medicare. My father died of cancer last year. My neighbors rely on MIChild, Michigan's CHIP, for insurance, while the parents go uninsured (and he's an RN but can't afford the co-pay, for added irony). I've watched Medicaid get worse and pay for less every year, resulting in substandard medical and dental care for poor children. I've seen changes in Medicre formulas run our not-for-profit home health and hospice service into the ground. The preventive health programs I used to manage, from children's and senior health screenings to diabetes and osteoporosis prevention, and the low-income children's dental program we used to run (federal block grant to states) are all gone now, victims of the Michigan Dpression and reprehensibly perverted national priorities that value the oil supply, killing and torturing Muslims over health care. Don't tell me I don't know or care about universal health care.

What I don't care about is which plan, Obama's or Hillary's, gets to the halls of Congress. The end result is likely to be something different, after intense negotiation and consensus building. What I do care about is who has a better chance to build that consensus. For my money, Obama's the better candidate. If you think Hillary's better, that's fine by me. But don't tell me I don't understand or give a shit about working for universal health care.

Sorry I got a bit testy. Let's all pull together and get this thing done. The real work begins after Hillary or Barack wins the general election.

I saw that interview in my hotel room. Some giggling far-right fem-bot asked Bolton whether he would be McCain's Secretry of State.

No further comment necessary. I report, you decide.

Keep her thru Super Tuesday, then dump her after they win Hispanic-rich California.

A lovely metaphor, New Orleans the vagina (Florida the penis, I suppose).

or, as Paul Simon said:

The Mississippi Delta was shining

Like a National guitar

Yup

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

© John Prine

While digesting Reader's Digest

In the back of a dirty book store,

A plastic flag, with gum on the back,

Fell out on the floor.

Well, I picked it up and I ran outside

Slapped it on my window shield,

And if I could see old Betsy Ross

I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:

But your flag decal won't get you

Into Heaven any more.

They're already overcrowded

From your dirty little war.

Now Jesus don't like killin'

No matter what the reason's for,

And your flag decal won't get you

Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning

And the cashier he said to me,

"If you join the Christmas club

We'll give you ten of them flags for free."

Well, I didn't mess around a bit

I took him up on what he said.

And I stuck them stickers all over my car

And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:

Well, I got my window shield so filled

With flags I couldn't see.

So, I ran the car upside a curb

And right into a tree.

By the time they got a doctor down

I was already dead.

And I'll never understand why the man

Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you

Into Heaven any more.

We're already overcrowded

From your dirty little war.

Now Jesus don't like killin'

No matter what the reason's for,

And your flag decal won't get you

Into Heaven any more."

I'm Obama all the way, but this was fun. Better than that Up With People style one a few weeks ago. Spontaneous. Real people.

Like the cross in the Huckabee Christmas ad.

Hard for me to see how record numbers of repubs switching registration just to vote for HRC in PA in order to drag out the bloodbath is going to help in November when they vote for McCain. The sooner Obama can be rid of the Clinton hate machine, the better for him and our nation's future.

Yup

Ha! Apparently someone in Hawaii is suing to stop the huge particle accelerator in the Alps to stop its work before it creates a black hole that swallows the Earth.

muke Iram

I would rather have War Room focused on the Big Lies (Cheney-Bush et al) than the small lies (Hillary's sniper fire). Let's remember who's fucking up the world and not get sidetracked by Obama-Clinton. End of the day, Obama'll be elected if we keep exposing the truth about Iraq and Bush-Cheney-McCain.

My favorite liberal economist, former Clinton Sec of Labor. Will announce tomorrow!!! I'd like to see Nunn and Reich in Obama's cabinet.

Hillary should take the VP slot on the McCain ticket. I think it would be easier for Obama to defeat them both at once rather than sequentially.

Why the supers are breaking for Obama: he's bringing a lot of young people to the polls. As someone said on NPR -- Reagan made a generation of republican voters, Obama could make a generation of dems -- people chose their affiliation in their 20s. Clinton's winning some battles with Boomers-and-older turnout, but demographically speaking, Obama could win the war for the party for the next 30 years.