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Health care: the need for the public option, in 30 sec

Snipped this at moveon.org:

FL-18: Ros-Lehtinen hosts MoveOn/Dems and enjoys

A little triumph was recorded when five members of the Miami Beach Democratic Club had a meeting with our staunchly Republican member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. It happened Thursday evening in the congresswoman’s Miami office. The occasion was to propose President Obama’s Green Jobs initiative.

Bottom Line: Ros-Lehtinen was pretty enthusiastic about it. And happy to meet a bunch of her constituents, even if they all voted against her, and our leader, Dave Patlak, was the candidate against her in 2006. And your blogger here runs several blogs that sometimes are pretty critical of her. It’s the way things are. No hard feelings.

You can see the video of it here:

This was a joint effort of a vast infrastructure of progressive endeavor, with MoveOn a big player through its current program called Power Up America. A week or so earlier we had met as a MoveOn council drawing in people with interests in green jobs and green business of small scale. Also prominent in the background was Green for All, a grassroots organization whose founder, Van Jones, now is part of the Obama administration as special adviser on green jobs. So we can say an arm of this effort reached up to the White House.

The goal is to help the economy recover as well as to redirect economic activity along environment-friendly lines.

As the congresswoman said at the end of the meeting: “Save the planet and save money too.”

Her overall positive reaction to the presentation still leaves the question of where she will put her vote when it comes down to that. Ros-Lehtinen is famous for being nice to her constituents and as helpful as possible. But then she votes the way the Republican leadership orders. So far she has been a reliable No vote on the Barack Obama programs and budget. Maybe things will be different now that she's met with us and may have a better understanding of Green Jobs as a way to stem a tide of unemployment among her constituents.

(also posted on the Florida Progressive Coalition blog.)

John McCain's friends

Our friends at MoveOn have worked up a good video on the lobbyist rule that would follow a McCain victory.



Well, I'm off to a night of phone-banking for Barack.

Obama+Facebook=Bumper sticker

A little while ago I got this Facebook message from MoveOn saying I could get a free Obama bumper sticker by clicking on a link. I did it and decided to go for a $25 donation and get 100 Obama bumper stickers. Soon came another message from MoveOn saying it took only 30 minutes to have 1,000 people join that group. Great!

Now, here's your chance to climb aboard: Click on this link and join up.

UPDATE: The Obama campaign emails with news that the McCain campaign raised $21 in May, along with $23.7 million raised in partnership with the Republican National Committee. Bottom line: Please give to the Obama campaign, and don't wait. As to the first paragraph above, don't go for the free single bumper sticker -- get more stickers by giving some money.

https://donate.barackobama.com/match is a link that lets your money be matched by money from another donor. Cool doubling.

Iran protest at Ros-Lehtinen office

Part of the group of 10 who
left a petition Thursday at
U.S. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's office.



















No war over Iran. That was the message as protesters working under the MoveOn umbrella left petitions at the Miami offices of two Republican menbers of the U.S. House.

Targets were Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, FL-18, and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, FL-25.

Bill Clinton on the Petraeus ad

Our sharpest political analyst rips into the Republicans on the MoveOn ad that told the truth about Gen. Petraeus. Here's the link to the CNN interview of Clinton done by Anderson Cooper, for those who haven't heard it. I caught it on Air America a day late, so maybe there are others like me in the Stone Age who would enjoy hearing Bill Clinton's view of it.

The only little fault in this is that some Democrats voted for the Senate resolution, too. Not Hillary or Dodd, who voted against. Obama abstained and called it a stunt. Biden stayed in Iowa.

Can Lobbyists stop the war?

This is a very long read in the NY Sunday Times Magazine but for me it was worth the slog. Some questions answered, such as:

• What's going on with the Democrats in Washington? We gave them Congress, why aren't they ending the war? Not enough votes, and some are afraid to appear to leave the troops in the lurch.
  
• Why aren't there giant demonstrations a la Vietnam? It's not only the lack of the draft, there's also a fear that civil society might break down. (I would add that we don't have the assault weapons.)
• What is Americans Against Escalation in Iraq? A coalition spearheaded by MoveOn but with many other groups.
• They all specialize in online movements and television ads and polls -- another reason for fewer big demos.

The same issue of the magazine has another tremendous long article on Rudy Giuliani and one almost as long on a neo-con who dared to buck the Bush-Cheney drive for dictatorship. The second is not available free online, but there's a review of his book with the hot title of "The Terror Presidency."

Presidential vote, of a sort

Here's what MoveOn calls its "full results" from the Virtual Town Hall. The votes seem to include votes cast by those who looked at the videos, as well as those who went to viewing events. This does not imply a MoveOn endorsement, nor is this space endorsing. And here are the campaigns' websites.

Sen. Barack Obama	28%	www.BarackObama.com
Sen. John Edwards	25%	www.JohnEdwards.com
Rep. Dennis Kucinich	17%	www.Kucinich.us
Gov. Bill Richardson	12%	www.RichardsonForPresident.com
Sen. Hillary Clinton	11%	www.HillaryClinton.com
Sen. Joe Biden	6%	www.JoeBiden.com
Sen. Chris Dodd	1%	www.ChrisDodd.com