I’ll believe it when I see it. He probably knows it’ll be either defeated or Reid will somehow disallow it. But Dorgan will get to say during his reelection campaign that he stood up for the little guy.

I can no longer view anything that happens in Washington without what has come to seem like an UNhealthy dose of skepticism and cynicism. I don’t trust any of them, not Franken, not Harkin, not Whitehouse, not Feingold, zip, zero, zilch.

Dorgan is one of the few who voted against Gramm-Leach-Bliley in 1998, and warned of the dangers of deregulating the financial markets. If you read his speeches at that time, he was eerily prescient in describing exactly what happened exactly ten years hence.

He’s a prairie populist. I wouldn’t discount his words; I’d encourage him to act on them. Sure, he probably wants something in exchange for not doing it, from Senate leadership. Don’t they all?

But if we publicize his words, it might make it harder for him to take them back later, right? If we draw allies to his side based on his intentions and promises, they become harder to break. And the attention he gets for trying to do this won’t go unnoticed by others.

I too am dubious and cynical; but this encouraged me today, I hope it encourages you as well.

Dorgan has worked on this issue for years. Dogged Dorgan will prevail.

It encouraged me. And btw, generally, I trust Dorgan, Franken, Whitehouse, Feingold, and Harkin. Not too many beyond them, but those are good folks who very frequently vote for the public interest as I see it.

This news is something to cheer when there’s not much to these days. I saw the clip of Senator Dorgan warning against the repeal of Gramm-Leach-Bliley and he was impressive. Members of congress mostly aren’t impressive, but when it happens, I give credit where credit is due. Thank you Teddy and PS for the good news! btw, who’d have thought Rockefeller would rally for the public option, although haven’t heard anything from him since his meeting in the WH.

Thanks Prairie, and congratulations for having a wonderful Senator unafraid to step publicly into the EMK void.

I wonder what it feels like to have even one senator do something you can be proud of. I live in Texas . . .

Hey, I’m stuck with Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker. I supported Harold Ford, Jr. in 2006 as much as I could, but got stuck with Corker anyway.

incidentally, Byron Dorgan’s FDL Book Salon in June is here.

His book, Reckless!: How Debt, Deregulation, and Dark Money Nearly Bankrupted America (And How We Can Fix It!) can be found here.

For those of you who feel unrepresented, Byron Dorgan isn’t a bad Senator to “adopt.” I’m not sure you can contact him via email on his website without a North Dakota ZIP code, but FAXes from stranded Tennesseeans and Texans might be welcome.

I can attest that he is not an entirely unapproachable man.

Dorgan is one of the (few) good guys. He’s pissing Rahm off.

Maybe Sen Chuck Schumer could hand over some of the 1.3 million he has received from Wall Street this yr to help offset the Big PhRMA deal? Also, if the Public Option is such a big deal to the left why doesn’t the majority of this bill not go into law till 2013?

Rahm will stamp his tiny feet and pout. I think Dorgan is smart to do this. Hope it works. He’s a good guy.

I might just do that. Representatives can only be contacted via email by their constituents, but some Senators allow people outside their states to contact them via email. I wrote to Arkansas Sen Blanche Lincoln last week by email through her website.

From what I understand, we’re pissing Rahm off, too. Sounds like he doesn’t like all the recent ads from Liberal groups.

Big Fharma got sweet-heart deal from George W. Bush and I applaud North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan.

“Prescription drug importation is an immediate way to put downward pressure on health care costs. It has bipartisan support, and has been endorsed by groups such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses and AARP.”

Ed Schultz loves it though, and so do over 90% of his listeners!

I remain constantly amazed that reining in direct-to-consumer drug marketing isn’t part of this current “reform.” Aren’t Americans tired of explaining four-hour erections to their kids during football games?

Big pharma clearly has too much money. I don’t watch much teevee, but it seems like every ad is either for pharma or free credit reports.

I’m really sick of watching the boner ads. Revolting.

Pissing Rahm off is a very good measure of anything we do, or anything anyone else does in DeeCee, as far as I’m concerned. If Rahm’s happy, I’m not happy. If Rahm’s unhappy, I’m happy. It’s pretty simple.

He’s destroying the Democratic party, but getting Beltway Democrats to see that is well-nigh impossible.

Owe you, Teddy. What’ll it be?

I’m loving it, too! I contibuted to Health Care for America NOW! and to ActBlue’s ad calling on Sen Lincoln and Rep Ross of Arkansas to stop doing the bidding of the insurance industry.

Hey! How come we didn’t get to see Paul Kirk sworn in? Is it because he’s a short-termer or did I just miss it?

Dorgan was one of about 6 in the Senate to vote against the repeal of Glass-Steagall back in 1999 (I believe that Dick Durbin was another). In other words, he saw the problems with Enron and the Global Meltdown very early on. (Thanks for the link, Teddy P.)

Dorgan’s decisiveness is refreshing.
Nice to see Schumer’s getting in on the action.

Hey, Knoxville — Again, to clarify: ActBlue is the donation aggregator where any Democrats can set up webpages to collect money for their campaigns or causes. Blue America, as well as FDL Action (which is running the Ross/Lincoln ads) are affiliated with FireDogLake and use the ActBlue platform for fundraising.

But the ads are FDL Action’s, not ActBlue’s. There’s lots of “blue” in the names of things on the web nowadays, and I like to be sure folks are clear on what’s what.

Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, though — many people get it mixed up.

I also want to contribute to http://healthcarecantwait.com to keep running the ad to pressure Baucus.

Good for you, Knox. It’s fun to see an ad you’ve contributed to, isn’t it.

Ufff… have you opened a copy of TIME or other weekly newsmagazines lately…?
I don’t watch teevee, but by the time I get through a magazine, I’ve seen a bunch of them.
Brave New Worldish.

Whatever became of Blue America?

What we need to do is call every Dem Senator, esp. Harry Reid and ask them whether they’re working for the American people or agin ‘em …

It happened last week, just as the Massachusetts judge dismissed the GOP’s case against the governor’s right not to have to wait 90 days. And, just before the stories hit about Kirk being a well-compensated health insurance company director and PhRMA lobbyist. As well as, of course, an upstanding EMK staffer, head of the DNC, and innovator of the two-party Presidential debate system that took things away from the League of Women Voters.

You are a contributing machine! Thanks for all your support.

No, the only magazine I get is New Yorker. Sometimes you’re places without wifi, you know!

Thank you Senator Dorgan. A very modest donation to follow. This is the kind of representation we need more of. He was also one of the only people to predict what would happen when they repealed Glass-Steagall.

Aren’t Americans tired of explaining four-hour erections to their kids during football games?

Nope!

What low-information-football-watching Americans do NOT want to explain is the LACK of four hour raging woodies.

They would certainly appreciate less tampon commercials during other non-football programming I am sure.
/snark

Really important health info about drugs, like cancer drugs, don’t make it into the marketo-sphere. They’re too dull and really, really too deadly of topics. So drugs about your genitals, or your fat, or your cholesterol, or the whiteness or straightness of your teeth get cast into the day-to-day media mix since those things can ultimately make you SEXY! Yes I said SEXY!

Otherwise, these direct campaigns have no interest in campaigning.

It’s so transparent when you look at the totality of it. Grrrr.

Teddy,
Thank you so much for clarifying these distinctions. I need to stop calling the Lincoln/Ross ad and “ActBlue” ad.

I had to pop in and out during the earlier thread. I’m going to go back and look at those comments.

I’ve contributed to the FDL Action ad to tell on Sen Lincoln and Rep Ross of Arkansas to stop doing the bidding of the insurance industry!

*Head meets keyboard*

(duplicated)

Men get 4- hour Boners and Women get Extra Strength Tylenol …

“”Whether you like PhRMA or not, we have a deal.”

What can one say about politicians who are so cravenly corrupt that they would publicly complain that their colleagues aren’t honoring a back-room deal with lobbyists to which they were never a party?

Kirk is supporting the public option, as well he better.

It comes as no surprise, of course, that a Massachusetts Democrat replacing Ted Kennedy supports a public option. But this demonstrates that, with Kennedy’s seat filled, the 60th vote for health care reform won’t necessarily belong to public option skeptic Olympia Snowe–and the question of a public option is technically one for Democrats to answer alone.

It means “I’ve already bartered my soul and you can’t stop it.” He makes it sound as if this whole thing is on paper and signed in blood.

and special super-dooper vitamins.

A deal we weren’t a party to and will not explain to the American people

What happened to that Barack Obama guy who ran for President, promising to put all the health care negotiations on C-SPAN? I’d sure like to watch those meetings, if anyone knows when the PhRMA deal will be re-run.

“”Whether you like PhRMA or not, we have a deal.”

Whether they like it or not, the Congress is writing the legislation not PhRMA or the POTUS. I know you insurance and pharma types are fighting mad that your ability to fleece americans will come to an abrupt end. All I have to say is it’s about damn time!

Went back and looked at your clarification re the groups and affiliations in the earlier thread. At that time I was moving too fast and running out the door. But I definitely got it now. THANKS AGAIN.

Teddy ! Great post !

I wanted to expand on your great thought … if thousands of calls are made supporting Byron Dorgan, we’ll see more Congresscritters make bold statements. We support Dorgan today, tomorrow 10 more Dorgans will stand up and that is how we drive politics to the Left.

That is precisely how the Repugs drove it to the far right …

And ladies synchronized-dancing with happiness about their new ovulation rings. Those make us laugh out loud at my house: Esther Williams meets Sex in the City!

Sometimes they are actually followed by the ad with the embarrassed young lady who needs a cream for itch & smell “there.” Then my sides hurt frmo laughing.

watertiger is upstairs at the Mothership!
Late Night: A Passel of Petrified and Pathetic Pinheads

And I haven’t forgotten about putting together an ad to place in a Nashville newspaper to pressure Rep Jim Cooper to listen to his constituents and to Democrats across the country who worked hard in 2008 to get Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

If symptoms persist for more than four hours…

call your friends!!!

Ah, New Yorker… I’m at least 3 weeks behind; am waiting for the rain to hit so I can catch up on my magazine reading ;-))

But my heavens, reading this news of Dorgan is positively uplifting.
And to hear Schumer say, “Hey, I wasn’t in on that WH deal!” is almost enough to one hopeful. Maybe he’s been spending too much time with the Hon. Sen. Jay Rockefeller and some of that passion for real reform has rubbed off…?

or “I’ve sold your soul, my soul and the souls of all our constituents and there’s nothing you can do about it”

Dickens would’ve wrote a great book on the US Congress, methinks. an entity that hybridizes the worst attributes of the Circumlocution Office and the Court of Chancery, run by orcs on steroids and with guns .

I wonder whose blood they signed that deal with. um, never mind…

HEALTH CARE REFORM – OR FAILURE OF REFORM – WILL AFFECT US FOR DECADES TO COME.

Utterly destroyed my keyboard !

You are quite welcome, please pass it on!

ROFLMAO !!!

We owe Jane so much.

Last quick question: Is it better to write 1) “FDL Action’s ad” or 2) “FDL Action PAC’s ad.” My impression from references to other PAC’s work is that it’s fine to leave out the “PAC.”

Go Senator Dorgan! We need a vibrant public option. The hell with the republicants!

Yes.
And that’s an understatement.

A drug induced 4 hour woodie is no match for multiple orgasms. *G*

Bless women, and their multiples. *G*

Drug importation is a band-aid for a gaping wound. The reason prices are lower (though not NHS-lower) in Canada is that provincial Medicare has better bargaining power. (Another factor is that Canada doesn’t allow DTC advertising.) What the US needs is the kind of structures that allow for that kind of bargaining, and while I can understand importation as a stepping-stone, it’s basically piggybacking off the Canadian system.

Leahy is quite trustworthy. Sanders is still a senate newbie but never let us (in Vt) down in congress.

sheesh i feel for you, really.

This is the same deal that Delaware Senator Tom Carper (D-really?) defended so profusely last week during a Committee meeting:

“This is not the way that I would like to be treated,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said during a Finance Committee debate over an amendment that would have broken the PhRMA deal. “Whether you like PhRMA or not, we have a deal.”

Wow! An honest politician is one that stays bought. What an amazing sense of ethics!

It’s a foot in the door, though, wouldn’t you say? I hope reimportation will pass because the senior lobby is too powerful to oppose. The PhRMA will, eventually, have to compete in the USA with its own Canadian prices.

That would be expectation, I guess. Of course, in the world of unintended consequences plus corporate greed, anything is possible.

Thanks for the good news. I like the timing on this didn’t GOPers like Sen Vitter vote to allow drugs to come in from Canada? Lets see them explain why besides hate of Obama they change their minds.
Healthcare has no GOP support but this amendment should have GOP support based on previous votes on the subject./s

Self-absorbed eaters — Give them what they want

Millions of Americans like myself avoid refined processed food, and so have excellent health. In over 30 years raised a family of five and just like millions of like-minded people my doctor bills have been zero.

So why is it that we have a self-absorbed majority, knowing that oily, sugary and greasy stuff is doing harm to their body, simply refuse to resist such temptation? Well they can’t, like immature little children they won’t and what they really want is to force them to be good.

I know it’s silly, everyone wanting to pursue happiness as they perceive it to be, but they would just love for us to force them to be good. Just love for us to be so personal and caring, that we drag them kicking and screaming and give them no choice but to the good. Just love if only fresh fruits and vegetables we allowed them to eat if we would be so sweet.

So I say we give those childish compulsive eaters all the personal attention they deserve. Surely a high tax on all that oily-sugary stuff so they cannot afford to be bad. Most assuredly no medical insurance allowed for them, bankruptcy awaits every stay in the hospital for them, and tough love if there be any enrichment upon our misery by them.

Now if Byron would just go over to his colleague Kent Conrad’s office and kick his ass, we might make some progress.

It amazes me that the 2 of them are from the same state. Yeah, I know, Dorgan is adored by his constituents, I used to be one and I loved him when he was in the House and voted to put him in the Senate (voted to put Conrad there, too, never expecting, during the Reagan era, that he would be) but you don’t get the bullshit from Dorgan that you do from Conrad, that gets excused by how “conservative” the district is at home. Hello, same state.

If Dorgan can blow up the pharma deal, good on him and he should. Rahm might think they all have to abdicate their constitutional role to his wishes, but he’s wrong. Of course Rahm is often wrong. You’d think, though, that Axlerod could read a poll and see which way the wind is blowing. This bullshit “reform” that is nothing but a handout to pharma and insurance is going to drive a bunch of people right back into the arms of the bugfuck insane party – mandates without a public option will be the death of any Big D moment and the losses won’t be minor. Idiots.

Pull the other one!

http://dorgan.senate.gov/contact/

Clarification:non-residents of ND can contact him by e mail at link above. They just won’t get a reply.

I just e mailed him to thank him successfully.

Yeah, Feingold voting for Roberts as Chief Justice, just another vote for the American people.
Tom Harkin, ADM’s man in the Senate.
Where are any of them when it comes to shaming Obama and his Justice Dept into prosecuting the criminals who just left office while Obama makes speeches at the UN about the rule of law and America’s ideals?

“We” have a deal?! Which fucking “we” would that be?

“This is not the way that I would like to be treated,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said during a Finance Committee debate over an amendment that would have broken the PhRMA deal. “Whether you like PhRMA or not, we have a deal.”

This is the quote that we need to get out there. How dare he say that! He dares because we have let them all get away with this murder and terror. How dare the White House/Baucus cut a side deal.

I was told recently not to “embarrass” my senator. Really, who is embarrassing whom? What a shameful few days this has been.