Private Republican campaign fund-raising groups are concealing their donors from the public because the GOP does not trust American voters to handle the information. Republican operatives want to shield voters from knowing who is actually paying for GOP attack ads. The GOP fears the consequences if Americans know the truth – exactly which giant corporations and Wall Street banksters are funding vicious screeds against Democrats because those covert donors believe Republicans will deliver for big business.

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

Former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) punked conservative talk show host Glenn Beck yesterday by recanting his earlier allegations that House Democrats forced him out of office because he refused to vote for health care reform. Massa resigned on Monday amidst allegations that he sexually harassed one or more male staffers.

The Little Rock Convention Center is prepared for the November 21st, 2009 Free Health Clinic

Channel surfing this morning I skimmed by Sesame Street and there was that scamp, Cookie Monster. “ME WANT COOKIES!!!” he roared. Can Cookie Monster say anything else?

Cookie Monster brilliantly shows not tells Sesame Street-viewing kids about the dangers of being driven solely by one’s primitive, self-indulgent appetite – an “id” gone wild! Sesame Street is teaching children about empathy and healthy, reasonable behavior.

Funny but disturbing Cookie Monster always lumbers safely off the screen (much to the relief of the titillated tiny viewers) after his less than a minute roar-rant for cookies. His obsession confounds the good people of Sesame Street. They humor him and reason with him at times. But they know they can’t and shouldn’t try to pacify his lust for cookies by taking away everyone else’s cookies and giving them to him. He may WANT their cookies VERY much, but that doesn’t give him the right to get them.

Health care reform activists and Labor, some 600-800 strong, rallied and marched in Philly yesterday, under threat of rain, in the din of thwoop-thwooping TVNews copters overhead who covered it live, and evening rush hour traffic honking their support. CIGNA whistleblower Wendell Potter,AFLCIO Exec VP Arlene Holt Baker, National Physicians Alliance Dr Valerie Arkoosh, UFCW1776 President Wendell Young, and Stacie Ritter, the Mom of two leukemia-stricken 6-year-olds whose care was denied by CIGNA, were just some of the speakers. Philadelphia Police estimated the turnout at 600; the union leaders who were also there estimated the turnout to be about 800.

Wendell Potter

The Senate Finance Committee is getting ready to debate a health care bill that does not come close to meeting the needs of America’s working families. Nor does it meet the standards President Obama laid out in his address last week to Congress. There is no employer mandate, no public option, no help for retirees. The bill imposes substantial costs on the states, weakens state insurance regulations and taxes health plans that provide benefits for many middle class families. This bill fails to provide good, affordable coverage and does not protect families from medical bankruptcy. It is unacceptable.

Long story short: I was absent from the Internets for much of the last week due to a sudden, mysterious, and incredibly painful ailment that I thought was going to kill me. I ended up going to the hospital to get treatment after exhausting all other options, and am now on the hook for several thousand dollars’ worth of medical bills, because I had the bad luck to fall ill right in the void between insurance plans.

I want to use this story to illustrate why we need real, accept-no-substitutes health care reform, both as a cautionary tale and a call to arms. No matter how well-off you may be (or people think you may be), one accident, viral infection, bad piece of lettuce, or unexplained malady can put you in the poorhouse. Despite what demagogues and tools of the insurance industry would have you believe, health care in America is fundamentally broken, and not by the imagined hordes of immigrants or welfare recipients clogging up your local emergency room, but by a system that puts the needs and well-being of people far behind the motive for profit. And not just patients, but doctors, nurses, specialists, technicians, caseworkers, insurance brokers–EVERYONE who is part of our dysfunctional mess of a medical industry is burdened in some fashion.