The State Health Care Reform "Action"

I rode by a group of folks waving signs on Woodward in Birmingham yesterday. We were turning a corner so I only saw one end of it, but I did see a few signs: one railing against "Obamacare", one that read "Healthcare for All," and one that pleaded for HR676 (the House bill that would enact single payer and that no one seems to be taking seriously) to be brought into the debate. I hadn't heard about any planned rally and I was already late to somewhere so I didn't get a chance to learn anything more until this morning.

There was an article on the rally in the Detroit News and an account from Detroit Mark in the Huffington Post. Detroit News blogger MakoYamakura to exception to Detroit Mark's characterization of those in the northern suburbs as "white conservatives [...] moved their businesses and families up in the upper counties to escape the diversity of Detroit. You know, bigots. Not everyone but an impressive sample, I'd be willing to bet." Interestingly there was a couple on the bus with me discussing the rally who, based on their experiences growing up there, felt that just by the nature of their conservatism, Oakland County residents were practically obligated to oppose anything proposed by any Democrat.

In his piece, Detroit Mark pointed out some of the signs for the anti-health care side. There are those that just list things that are just wrong, complete with supposed citations from the bill (FactCheck.org has is a good resource: look at Seven Falsehoods about Health Care). The other sign that he pointed out that I want to mention is one of Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a Hitler mustache. When similar depictions of Obama started cropping up a while back, I was completely mystified, but then someone forwarded a piece entitled "Stuff White People Like: Comparing People to Hitler" to a mailing list. I now get it: this just means that they don't agree with something and they think it's very, very bad.

Last week I signed an internet petition to support (and keep honest) the 60-plus House Democrats who have pledged to only support a health care reform bill that includes a public option. Below is a clilp of Rachel Maddow interviewing Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake.com. Perhaps ironic given my below comment about another interviewer, I really enjoyed watching how tickled Maddow is about Progressive Democrats with a spine.



Listening to NPR the other day, I really enjoyed Steve Inskeep's interview with Angela Braley, CEO of health care insurance company giant Wellpoint. I normally "tsk, tsk" during his interviews because he generally laughs so much that I feel more like I'm listening to a morning show instead of news. But he actually asked serious questions (such as "What do you get for those millions of dollars that you spend lobbying?"):