A message Thursday from Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius is unusual not just for its tough language toward health insurers, but because it exists at all. In a letter to the insurance industry’s lobbying and trade association, Sebelius flatly warns insurers to cut it out with blaming their double-digit price hikes on federal health reform.

Seeing as how the word “Fascism” is being bandied about lately, I thought I’d add something to the mix:

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Think about it.

House Appropriations Subcommittee recommends funding $450 Million More for a $6 Billion jet engine the military doesn’t even want.

Media giants are spending a fortune to convince lawmakers and regulators to dismantle consumer protections on the Internet and give industry absolute power over the most important communications medium of our time.

I understand that it’s a little goofy to draw lessons from a fictional movie, but I am going to proceed nonetheless. My wife and I were just watching Braveheart and there was one interesting element in there. In the movie, the nobles of Scotland keep betraying William Wallace who is fighting for the people of Scotland. And my wife asked me why the nobles continually stab Wallace in the back if he is fighting for their country.

Do you ever get the feeling that you are living in historic times? I don’t mean “historic” in the common sense, in which we record whatever happens as history. I mean “historic” as in, a really, really, really important era; one that will change the way man governs himself forever. A time that will set us free from the lies that the wealthy and powerful few tell us to control us; a control they have exerted for as long as history has been recorded.

How would such a time distinguish itself from all of the rest of history? How would future generations know that when they looked at our history, it was set apart, holy (holy literally means set apart; a religious connotation is not necessary). How would they know that when they read of the events in our time, they were discovering a moment in mankind when the masses shrugged off the chains that bound them, and never again would they allow themselves to be enslaved? What sets us apart? What sets now apart?

Big phone and cable companies are so determined to dismantle Net Neutrality that they’ve spent millions to flip Congress against you. Earlier this week, many in Congress delivered.

Now that we have delivered victories for Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and most likely a win for Bill Halter in Arkansas, you, the Netroots, need to know about the next important Primary Candidate.
Just like the race between Lincoln and Halter, this is a choice between a
Corporate powered candidate vs a People powered candidate.

Andrew Romanoff has taken the same pledge that Barack Obama took to win his race – he has pledged to take no corporate PAC Contributions or Special Interest money. If you knew nothing else, that would be a good reason to support Andrew Romanoff. However, you need to know why his opponent does not deserve to be re-elected. Michael Bennet is a Bankster Senator and was a corporate raider before he was appointed a Senator.
There is a clear difference in this race – supporting the Candidate who works for Wall Street or supporting Andrew Romanoff, the Candidate who works for us on Main Street.

The big phone and cable companies are pulling out all the stops in their campaign against network neutrality, the set of principles which keep the Internet free from corporate gatekeeping and censorship. Part of that campaign involves enlisting members of Congress to echo their talking points, and right now, telecom lobbyists are hitting Capitol Hill hard, putting maximum pressure on members of Congress in both parties to sign letters to the FCC.

ColorOfChange.org is reaching out to every member of the Congressional Black Caucus today to warn them about a letter that is being circulated by Rep. Gene Green. We’re worried that some CBC members will sign the Green letter without fully understanding what’s at stake, and we want to make clear how important this issue is to the ColorOfChange.org community and to African-Americans in general, and why our members see it as a 21st century civil rights issue.

Below is the letter we sent to CBC offices this morning.

Lobbyists for big cable and phone companies like AT&T and Comcast are circulating a letter in Congress, targeting Blue Dogs and the Congressional Black Caucus, asking them to sign on in opposition to net neutrality and the FCC’s recent announcement that they’ll reclassify broadband services to they can protect the Internet.