Yesterday, five Democratic United States Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark), Bill Nelson (D-Fla) and Tom Carper (D-Del) voted against the a proposal to put a government administered public option in the health reform bill that will come out of the Senate Finance Committee.

Are these senators accurately voting for the will of their constituents?

When the American public was asked if they favored of opposed a government administered public health care option, this is what they said:

Americans support the notion of a government administered health insurance plan by a margin of 65% to 26%. According to the same poll, people who identify themselves as Democrats favor the public option by a margin of 81% to 12%. That’s nearly 7 to 1 in favor of, yet the representatives of the Democrat party in the Senate Finance Committee only voted for the public option at a ratio of 8 to 5. Perhaps the most interesting number revealed by this poll is that Republican voters favor the public option 47% to 42%.

So why can’t the people’s representatives in Washington get behind the public option? Specifically, why can’t these five Democrats get behind it when 81% of people in their party want the option. The answer I’d like to hear is that less than 50% of the voters they represent back home oppose the public option so they’re voting on behalf of their constituents, however, the numbers we see in the NYT/CBS poll make that extremely unlikely. So if that’s not the reason, what is? One likely answer is money. Look at the amount of money the health industry has pumped into these five Democrat’s coffers:

Max Baucus got $7,734,102, Blanche Lincoln received $4,190,592, Ken Conrad took in $3,287,891, Bill Nelson was given $2,414,895 and Tom Carper accepted $1,592,380 from health industry interests.

If money is the reason these five Democrats rejected the public option, then it only took a little over 19 million dollars over 20 years to buy the five votes the health insurance industry needed to kill any meaningful reform to their industry.

19 million dollars is nothing compared to the profits the insurance industry will make if a public option is defeated. They got a great deal for that 19 million. The american people? Not so much.

Link to Article

The Arlington Independent School District in Texas decided not to show President Obama’s address to students live yesterday because it reportedly didn’t want to interrupt its regularly scheduled lesson plans. However, the district has now decided to bus its students off-campus on Sept. 21 to hear President Bush speak:

District officials said it’s part of a Cowboys Stadium field trip that the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee invited 28 fifth-grade classes to attend several months ago.

In addition to hearing from Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, the students will hear from legendary Dallas Cowboys players and North Texas business and community leaders. The event launches the Super Bowl committee’s largest-ever youth education program.

Payments for unused vacation time and sick leave could be converted into retirement savings under the new measures and Americans would be able to have tax refunds directly deposited into their retirement accounts or used to buy savings bonds.

The measures do not require congressional approval and most will take effect immediately.

Link to article.

We can’t afford to wait vigil.

If you don’t trust the government with health care, why would you trust them in our public school system to educate our children? Some things don’t make sense…

Recently, Obama got slammed for “flying” a pizza chef to Washington DC to bake some pizza. Ha-larious!

How much does Obama love his pizza? So much that he is willing to fly a chef 860 miles to Washington D.C. to make him a personal pizza.

When you’re the president of the United States, only the best pizza will do – even if that means flying a chef 860 miles.Chris Sommers, 33, jetted into Washington from St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday with a suitcase of dough, cheese and pans to to prepare food for the Obamas and their staff.

He had apparently been handpicked after the President had tasted his pizzas on the campaign trail last autumn.

Hey, you guys know what says you are really sincere about this whole Global Warming thing that you want to use to justify an economy crushing cap and trade program? Jetting a dude across the country to make you a freaking pie.

Ok, now for the rebuttal!

He goes on to suggest that Obama is flouting the recession with this extravagance, and suggests a local pizzeria for the President to use.

This is stupid on its face, but when I actually called Chris Sommers’ restaurant, Pi, it got so much worse for Ace’s scandal.
I spoke with the restaurant’s manager, John Fitzgerald, and he gave me some things that we call “facts,” ones that cast Sommers’ trip in an entirely different light.

The best one is the first: Ace of Spades slammed Obama’s environmental cred for “jetting in” Pi’s chef, making it seem as though the guy was hopping a private gulfstream, or worse, partying down on Air Force One .

• In fact, Chris Sommers flew commercial.
• Not only that, he flew coach.
• Not only that, he had already planned a business trip to DC, so the restaurant paid for his travel!

John also told me that Chris Sommers is one of the most dedicated people he knows to the environmental cause.

• In fact, his restaurant buys carbon credits from a wind farm in Colorado.
• Not only that, they recycle about 75% of their waste.
• Not only that, John himself is going into the green building business. You couldn’t find a worse case for environmental hypocrisy.

Finally, Barack Obama isn’t saddling the American taxpayer with the tab for this feast. He’s picking up the tab, for local ingredients, out of his own pocket.

Zing! To be honest though, I’d still be okay if he flew in a chef to make him a pizza.

Tonight, voters across this country cast their vote in one of the most important elections in the history of our nation. The message is loud and clear, change is needed. Obama broke the barrier of red states and blue states, and brought together the United States of America.

At this time, Obama has 338 Electoral Votes locked up, and is leading a tight race in Montana, Indiana, and North Carolina which could bring his total to 367 if he wins all three.

What an amazing night. I’m glad my amazing GF was here to share it with me.