AirAmerica Radio: President Obama asked Americans to ratchet down the rhetoric. It's time to have a conversation on the topic of health care reform--not a screaming match.
Some people are heeding the president's call for reason. At Monday's City Place town hall meeting in Dallas between Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Republican Rep. Pete Sessions some of the opposing points of view actually joined in meaningful debate, but [according to a segment aired on AirAmerica Radio] the paper of record distorted the facts.
One such media-distorted town hall attendee (the woman pictured on the DMN front page) called Montel to set the record straight. Listen:
Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions will be in Irving for a Health Care Town Hall Discussion on Wednesday, August 19th, 5:30 PM. (Rep. Sessions opposes Pres. Obama's call for a national health insurance option.) Supporters for health care reform are planning to rally outside the event venue. RSVP to join that healthcare reform support rally outside the venue by clicking here. If you are Congressman Sessions' constituent please call 972-392-0505 to RSVP to get inside to hear Rep. Sessions.
Ranchview High School in Irving, 8401 Valley Ranch Pkwy Irving, TX 75013 (Map) Wednesday, August 19th, 5:30 PM
Hutchison, who has been in the Senate since 1993, opened the gubernatorial campaign Monday in her hometown of La Marque and ended the day in Austin at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, after stops in Houston and San Antonio. A five-day, 19-city swing, continues through Friday, when she will be in Fort Worth for a morning appearance at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Hutchison also plans a Metroplex stop Tuesday night at Eddie Deen’s restaurant in Dallas. Read the full story @ the Star-Telegram.com
For Hutchison's facebook schedule of stops on her week long campaign kickoff tour of Texas click here.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reports on "FreedomWorks" & Dick Armey's Role - 08/11/09
According to the Star-Telegram article, Texas political veteran and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey is traveling with Hutchison to endorse her candidacy.
In 2009, FreedomWorks, which is headed by Dick Armey, launched a campaign against President Barack Obama's health care proposals, accusing the Obama administration of attempting to "socialize medicine."
In Rachel Maddow's investigative report the reporter says that FreedomWorks' strategy has been to disrupt and shut down the August 2009 town hall congressional meetings on health care reform. Sen. Hutchison has said she opposes Pres. Obama's call for national health care reform.
A few hundred invited guests of the debaters and local health care organizations packed Cityplace Conference Center, listening to Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, both of Dallas, debate healthcare reform. So far, this townhall discussion is the only bipartisan congressional town hall meeting on health care in the nation during the August recess. Johnson is a registered nurse with 15 years' experience at patients' bedsides.
Organizers said they couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of the two-and-a-half hour meeting at Cityplace. The audience was very respectful of the speakers, and that gave everyone involved time to absorb a lot of information about the pros and cons of health care reform.
Nearly a quarter of the state's 24 million people are uninsured, and North Texas has some of the highest health care costs in the state. Johnson said that in 2008, there were 690 personal bankruptcies in her district, primarily because of health care costs. She also cited Parkland Memorial Hospital's more than $500 million in uncompensated care to treat the uninsured.
This year, Texans and their employers are paying $1,800 per family and $630 per individual in higher premiums to help pay for the uninsured, according to the Center for American Progress, primarily a Democratic think tank. The cost shift represents about 13 percent of all private premiums paid, far more than the national average – slightly above 8 percent.
For full story and ABC Affiliate Channel 8 News video click here and here.
Full video of complete Dallas town hall discussion on CBS Affiliate channel 11 click here. Noted with picture in the NYTimes here. Noted with picture in Reuters here.
Texas has the highest percentage of those without health insurance in the entire country. A U.S. Census Bureau report released last August showed that nearly 25 percent of Texans (just over 5.5 million residents) lacked insurance (compared to a national average of 15.5 percent). A Families USA report released in March found that the number of uninsured in Texas throughout 2007 and 2008 is much higher, around 9.3 million:
The report went further to say that 7.5 million Texans were uninsured for six months or more during that same time period and about 82.6 percent, were in working families, either working full or part-time.
An estimated 5,550 Texans are losing their health coverage each week, Families USA says in another report out in July 2009. “Rising like a deadly tide, escalating health care costs will have caused 866,580 Texans to lose their health coverage between January 2008 and December 2010,” the organization says.
Selected videos of the event from the iflizwerequeen YouTube channel:
August 17, 2009 Mary Warren, President Park Cities/Central Dallas Democrats is shown in this video clip outside the Conference Center where Representatives Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) and Pete Sessions (R) are scheduled to appear in a panel discussion on health care reform. Those who stood for healthcare reform in the crowd on the outside outnumbered those who were against it five to one. More citizens should get out there with their Flip videos and capture the truth. AMERICANS DO WANT HEALTH CARE REFORM AND NOW.
August 17, 2009 The numbers grew as the time drew closer to the scheduled panel discussion with Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson and Pete Sessions.
However the ratio remained as you see it in these two videos--about 5 to 1 in favor of health care reform
This young woman and her husband are both cancer patients and they have two young children. Her healthcare insurance is paid for by her employer. However she worries about her job security since she works in the financial industry. If she loses her job, she and her husband are uninsurable--tell that to their two young children.
theplumline: A forthcoming poll by the nonpartisan Research 2000 for DailyKos finds that 57% of Republicans either believes or is uncertain about the veracity of claims that the Dem health care proposal will create “death panels” to determine whether the sick or injured get health care depending on their “productivity in society,” versus only 43% of of Republicans who don’t believe it.
Question: Do you think the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress creates “death panels” which have the authority to subjectively determine whether or not a gravely ill or injured person should receive health care based on their “level of productivity in society”?
In this video FOX News is making a big deal about people allegedly receiving "unsolicited email" from the White House or OFA or some other pro-healthcare reform legislation group as the right wing itself blasts "unsolicited" healthcare reform mis-information email spam.
Go to Reality Check to get the straight information!
The following are just a few samples of the "unsolicited" healthcare reform mis-information email spam being sent by the right wing: EUTHANASIA ADVOCATES AUTHORED PART OF OBAMACARE
Tell Congress to Oppose Obama Health Care Bill
[...]message to all 535 members of the House and Senate for YOU.
Alert: Part of the controversial Obamacare proposal pending in Congress that discusses "end-of-life" counseling and medical procedures that could be rationed based on the age of the patient and other factors was written by suicide advocates who argue openly for the "right" to death, according to reports.
The sources for the Obamacare provisions have been documented on a blog for Family Research Council Action and discussed by prominent pro-life columnist Jill Stanek.
"Come again that promotion of euthanasia isn't part of Section 1233?" Stanek wrote in her new explanation of the dangers of Obamacare. "Kudos to FRC's The Cloakroom …for drawing attention to the fact that the two authors of Section 1233 are major proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide."
The authors include an Oregon congressman who has argued for assisted suicide before federal courts and an organization that openly boasts it helps "thousands of clients each year by ... guiding their search for a peaceful, humane death...."
FRC Action reports on its website the group "has been getting some heat" for its criticism of the plan.
"Today comes (a) smoking gun … with the group Compassion & Choices coming out defending the questionable rationing portions of the bill and admitting THEY ACTUALLY WROTE THE LANGUAGE!" FRC Action said.
Stanek took up the explanation:
"The group Compassion & Choices, formerly known as the Hemlock Society, also says it had a hand in crafting Section 1233, writing July 27: 'Compassion & Choices has worked tirelessly with supportive members of Congress to include in proposed reform legislation a provision requiring Medicare to cover patient consultation with their doctors about end-of-life choice (section 1233 of House Bill 3200),'" she wrote.
"Compassion & Choices calls itself part of the 'aid-in-dying movement,'" she continued, quoting from the organization's description of itself:
... An organization dedicated to care of terminally ill patients, including those seeking a hastened death....
Compassion & Choices... improves care and expands choice at the end of life....
Our professional staff and trained volunteers help thousands of clients each year by... guiding their search for a peaceful, humane death....
We offer information on self-determined dying...
The second party claiming authorship of some of the controversial parts of the plan is Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who wrote about his state's "Death with Dignity" law that allows doctors to give patients fatal doses of medication:
"The amicus brief I have filed with other members of the delegation supports the (appellate) court's decision to uphold Oregon's Death with Dignity law. In 1994, Oregon overwhelmingly approved physician-assisted suicide in a statewide vote. … Former U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft repeatedly attempted to undermine the Oregon law using various methods. Each time the judge ruled in favor of the Oregon law. I am pleased that Attorney General Gonzalez' attempt to overturn the will of the people has been no more successful than his predecessor's."
While physician assisted suicide is a contentious issue, it is an issue handled at the state level and the attorney general should not be permitted to deprive the citizens of Oregon and the nation the opportunity to make end of life decisions." Blumenauer has condemned criticism of Obamacare's provisions.
"The provision included in H.R. 3200 simply allows Medicare to pay for a conversation between patients and their doctors if the patient wishes to speak about his or her preferences and values," the congressman said. "The new Medicare benefit would allow doctors to be compensated for these conversations every five years, and more frequently if a patient has a life-limiting illness or health status changes."
He said without such "discussions," "families are left struggling to make decisions in the midst of turmoil."
Compassion and Choices also condemned criticism of the bill.
Citing its work on the language of the bill, it said, "Anti-choice extremists and their allies in Congress have begun attacking this critical provision, saying it will 'promote euthanasia' and that it's part of a cynical plan to deny health care to the elderly and terminally ill."
On Stanek's blog, participants shared her alarm.
"What's conspicuously absent is a provision that the patient consents to orders written after the counseling session. Or that the orders be written by the patient's primary care physician," wrote one.
"'Self determined dying' sounds as innocent and good for us as 'women's reproductive health,'" said another. "Have to dress it up to sell it."
"Frankly, the death culture has strongly permeated our nation, especially among the liberal elite," wrote a third. "Many of them will either deny, make fun of or outright oppose the pro-life position."
Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, has had his organization analyze the plan, and confirmed it contains health care rationing, a national health ID card complete with government access to personal bank accounts, government decisions on what health care benefits are available and mandatory taxpayer support for abortion.
Staver condemned the health plan as worse than China's mandatory one-child policy.
The Liberty Counsel analysis said under Section 1308, the government will dictate marriage and family therapy as well as mental health services, including the definitions of those treatments, and under Section 1401, a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research would be set up, creating a bureaucracy through which federal employees could determine whether any treatment is "comparatively effective" for any individual based on the cost, likely success and probably the years left in life.
It also, according to Staver, "covers abortions, transsexual surgeries, encourages counseling as to how many children you should have, whether you should increase the interval between children."
The Liberty Counsel analysis also pointed out the government would be allowed to ration health care procedures, prevent "judicial review" of its decision, tell doctors what income they can have, impose new taxes for anyone not having an "acceptable" coverage, regulate whether seniors can have wheelchairs, penalize hospitals or doctors whose patients require "readmission," prevent the expansion of hospitals and set up procedures for home visits by health care analysts.
Under Section 440, Liberty Counsel said, the government "will design and implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids and families that expect children." And Section 194 provides for a program that has the government "coming into your house and teaching/telling you how to parent," LC said. (WND)
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PROOF: OBAMACARE WILL LEAD TO 'MEDICAL MURDER'
Tell Congress to Oppose Obama's Health Care Mandate
[...]message to all 535 members of the House and Senate for YOU.
Alert: Imagine lying in some government-run hospital, hospice or nursing home many years from now. Imagine languishing unattended for days in soiled sheets, suffering from hunger and thirst, covered with bed sores, your flesh aboil with untreated infections. Imagine living in fear of resentful, underpaid health aides who take out their anger on you and abuse you. And imagine spending your final moments on earth in the company of a government health care worker with a syringe, who injects you with a lethal cocktail.
Do you find this hard to imagine? You should. In any civilized country, such things should not happen ever. But President Obama's health care proposals have the very real potential to turn this nightmare into a reality for many Americans, according to an in-depth investigation reported in the August edition of Whistleblower magazine, titled "MEDICAL MURDER: Why Obamacare could result in the early deaths of millions of baby boomers."
Especially vulnerable are the 80 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. "If you belong to that group, take note," says Richard Poe, author of the August cover story. "Your generation has been targeted for a program of age-based medical rationing such as our country has never before experienced."
Adds Whistleblower Editor David Kupelian, "If this dire end-of-life scenario sounds too awful to be possible, that is only because the reality of Obamacare has not been sufficiently reported. For this is not a fantasy it is what is already occurring in other 'civilized' nations, including Canada and Britain, that have adopted the same government-run system."
For instance, the cover story, "Medical Murder," documents how British seniors, under a government-run system, "are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses," many dying "in filthy, overcrowded hospitals or nursing homes, rife with pestilence, including the deadly, antibiotic-resistant superbugs." Numerous horror stories of needed medical care intentionally denied reveal the stark reality of government-run health care worldwide.
To a small degree, Obamacare's ominous implications are starting to leak out. Here's how columnist Charlotte Allen explained it recently in the Los Angeles Times:
In looking for a way to fund healthcare, Obama has set his eye on the oldest and sickest. You see, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, about 30 percent of Medicare spending nearly $100 billion annually goes to care for patients during their last year of life. What if there were no 'last year of life,' the president seems to be asking. ... [W]hy not save billions of dollars by killing off our own unproductive oldsters and terminal patients, or since we aren't likely to do that outright in this, the 21st century why not simply ensure that they die faster by denying them costly medical care? The savings could then subsidize care for the younger and healthier.
And for those who have been paying close attention, Obama himself has ever-so-gently hinted at his true intentions. At a town hall event in June televised by ABC News, Obama cited the case of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died on the eve of his election, suggesting one way to cut medical costs would be to stop expensive procedures on people about to die.
Families, Obama said, need better information so they don't approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."
"Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller," the president offered.
Obama was slightly more explicit in a May 3 interview with the New York Times, when he said there ought to be a national "conversation" over whether "sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else's aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they're terminally ill is a sustainable model." Such decisions, added Obama, shouldn't be left to patients or their relatives, but to a "group" of "doctors, scientists, ethicists" who are not part of "normal political channels."
One such elite medical decision-maker would be Obama's special adviser for health policy, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel. He's a longtime advocate of "age-weighted medical rationing" meaning, the older you are, the less care you get, as in Britain. But what about the Hippocratic Oath, you might ask, the sacred vow doctors have always taken to do all they can to heal their patients? As Whistleblower documents, Emanuel advises doctors to stop taking that oath so literally, and instead to be "prudent" in assessing how much time, effort and money each patient is worth, for the greater good of society.
Moreover, as "MEDICAL MURDER" reports, a bill being pushed hard by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, will take from Congress all authority over federal health spending and decree that such decisions in the future would be made by a secretive committee of "experts" modeled after are you ready? the Federal Reserve Board.
"Obamacare is arguably the single most important issue of our time," said Kupelian. "It's not about taxes, debt, wasteful spending or burdensome regulations it's about our very lives, and the lives of our loved ones. Americans seriously need to wake up and see the horror staring them in the face, and then they need to let their elected representatives know, in no uncertain terms, exactly what they think of Obamacare." (WND)
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OBAMACARE WILL REPLACE MEDICARE
Tell Congress to Oppose Obama's Health Care Mandate
[...]message to all 535 members of the House and Senate for YOU.
Alert: Political Insider Dick Morris is worried that complacency among citizens could result in a disastrous healthcare overhaul costing Americans for generations to come.
In an exclusive interview Morris was asked whether he thinks Democrats will do what Sen. Chuck Schumer has alluded to: Ram health reform through without any Republican support using a process called “reconciliation.” That requires only a simple majority instead of 60 votes.
"Yeah, I think they're going to try it. I think there's no chance that they’ll get 60 votes, there's no chance of any real Republican support," Morris said. "They're going try and jam this thing through, and of course, it will pass the House because they march in lockstep."
"So it is absolutely crucial for us to be aggressive and active in taking the steps to fight it," he said.
The key is spreading information about the mammoth healthcare bills and mobilizing the conservative grass roots, Morris said.
"The fact that public opinion is moving against this legislation does not guarantee its defeat, because he (Obama) can still ram this thing through."
Morris contends that senior citizens will pay the biggest price under the overhaul.
"This healthcare reform proposal really is the repeal of Medicare," Morris said. "That's really what it comes down to, because they're going to provide medical care to 50 million new people without expanding the number of doctors or nurses," he said.
"You can't do that; you can't just write a check for more healthcare, got to have more doctors or more nurses to administer it," he added. "That means there's going to be less health care for each person and that will force rationing."
What will endanger the elderly most, Morris said, is the rationing of heart and hip operations, which constitute the bulk of elder care.
"Rationing involves a decision that is supposedly rational as to who should get care and who doesn't get it," Morris explained. "And inevitably that's going to mean saying no to the elderly, no to people that want hip transplants, no to people that need new knee surgery, or no even to people who have bypass surgery."
Morris cited the medical care system in Canada as an example of why socialized medicine doesn't work.
"In Canada, where they have a system like this . . . there is an eight-week wait for cancer radiation: You have cancer, you have to wait eight weeks. There's an eight-month wait for colonoscopies and as a result the incidences of colon cancer in Canada is 25 percent higher than in the United States," he said. "The top drug we use to treat colon cancer, Avastin, is not permitted in Canada and the result is 41 percent of Canadians who get colon cancer die of it as against only 32 percent in the United States. Sounds horrific, but those are the stakes," Morris said.
Since Democrats have enough votes to pass the overhaul without any Republican support, why are they trying to win some GOP votes?
"They're worried about needing Republican support because they know how unpopular this thing is going to be when it’s adopted and after it's taken effect, and we're not just talking about the medical portion, we're talking about the tax hikes, too," Morris said.
"So they want to be able to say this was a bipartisan bill, don't blame the Democrats, Republicans put it over the top, too, just like they do with the stimulus package now where they got three Republicans to come on board. But I don’t think the Republicans are going to bite on this one." (Newsmax)
DO NOT BE SILENCED BY ANYONE STAND UP! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
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Houston Chronicle: LA MARQUE — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison this morning formally announced as a Republican primary challenger to Rick Perry, the longest serving governor in Texas history.
Appearing at La Marque High School, the Class of '61 graduate launched both her campaign and a five-day, 19-city tour of Texas.
In her announcement, Hutchison made no direct reference to her stated plans to resign her Senate seat in either October or November to concentrate on the March 2 GOP primary. But she promised to fight President Barack Obama's health care overhaul "while I'm in the Senate."
Hutchison made it clear that she plans to aggressively contest Perry on issues. But she also is going after his political base among social conservative and rural voters by reminding them of Perry's past support for state-mandated vaccinations against a sexually transmitted disease.
"Let me start by saying this about Rick Perry. He's a dedicated public servant. I know he loves Texas. But now he's trying to stay too long — 14 years, maybe longer," said Hutchison.
Hutchison said she will propose term limits of eight years for governor. Hutchison in 1994 had promised a self-imposed term limit of two full turns in the Senate, a promise she broke in 2006 to successfully seek a third full term in the Senate.
Hutchison will bring her statewide kickoff campaign tour to Dallas, TX on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 from 6:00pm - 7:30pm at Eddie Deen's Ranch, 944 South Lamar - View Map
As the storm of controversy surrounding the health care reform bills rages on, Texas Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn are throwing themselves into the thick of things to oppose reform, teaming up with the Texas Medical Association for a series of town hall meetings across the state.
(KERA audio) At a Dallas press conference, Sen. Hutchison blamed illegal immigrants for making Texas the national leader in uninsured residents while bashing Pres. Obama's Healthcare reform, presumably to bolster her credentials with the far right conservative base. But hospital officials and state statistics don't back her up. Sen. Cornyn also opposes Pres. Obama's Healthcare reform.
Is President Obama's administration signaling it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on CNN's State of the Union Sunday program that government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul. (video left) Obama himself seemed to be waffling on the public option commitment in his statement at a town hall meeting in Grand Junction, CO.,"All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it."
On the other hand, speaking on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs emphasized that President Barack Obama still supports a “public option” for health care. Gibbs' statement seems to run contrary to Sebelius' statements on CNN's State of the Union Sunday program, that a public option is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul.
Update Monday August 17, 2009 @ 10:18 AM - A White House official told the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “misspoke” when she said that a public health care option was not “essential” to the administration’s health reform efforts.
After comments made by President Barack Obama and Sebelius over the weekend implying that the White House would be willing to sign into law a health reform bill that doesn’t offer a public health care option, members of the administration countered that Pres. Obama does strongly support the public option.
The push to emphasize that the president will indeed fight for a public option reflects continued strong support for a public option from progressive Congressional Democrats as well as nationwide progressive groups, such as the President's old campaign organization that reorganized under the DNC as Organizing For America. According to an article at Politico.com, more than 100 liberal Democrats in the House are unlikely to vote for a health reform bill that does not include a public option.
Sen. Curt Conrad (D-ND) told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on Sunday that the U.S. Senate will not allow a public option, adding his belief that, “to continue to chase that rabbit is just a wasted effort.”
If it comes down to an either/or choice, the lion's share of Democrats agree with Democratic strategist James Carville who suggests that instead of just throwing in the towel on a universal public health insurance option, Pres. Obama and Democrats in congresss should allow the conservatives to defeat it, then defeat those conservatives at the ballot box in 2010.
At a roundtable discussion on CNN's State of the Union Sunday program, Carville argued that if the Democrats can come up with an agreement that is supported by most Democratic members of Congress, they should let the GOP filibuster it, thereby killing health care reform and effectively painting the Republicans as being the party that opposed fixing the system.
That, Carville implied, would backfire on the GOP in upcoming elections. "Put a bill out there, make them filibuster it," Carville said. "Make them be what they are — the party of no. ... And you know what? Run on it. Let them kill it. Let them kill it with the interest group money, then run against them. That's what we ought to do."
From CNN's Web site:
“What about this?,” Carville said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, “Suppose they pass a House bill that can get 56 Senate Democrats.” Then, Carville suggested, instead of using reconciliation, a special budgetary maneuver in Senate procedure that frustrate GOP attempts to mount a filibuster, Democrats should call for a vote. “And make [Republicans] filibuster it. But the old kinda way is that they filibuster it and make’em go three weeks and all night and [Democrats] will be there the whole time.
“Then, you say, ‘They’re the people that stopped it. We had a majority of Democrats. We had a good bill. They stopped it.’"
(Video Courtesy of Crooks & Liars and HBO) Real Time with Bill Maher reporter (and comedian) Dana Gould asks WFT after he first visits a healthcare town hall conservative protest and then visits a Remote Area Medical traveling clinic -- of the type that that usually operates in third world countries -- in downtown Inglewood, CA.
An event started by the Progressive Center, and joined by MoveOn and Organizing For America OFA, is encouraging people to participate in a non-confrontational SILENT MAJORITY demonstration outside of the Charting America's Health Care Future event, with Congresspersons Eddie Bernice Johnson and Pete Sessions' forum in Dallas on Monday morning Aug. 17th. This forum has been moved from the SMU campus to CityPlace Tower - 2711 Haskell & I-75 in Dallas. This is likely the only time that Congressional members of both the Democratic and Republican parties will meet in the North Texas area to discuss health reform. They recognize that this is an excellent opportunity to showcase the differences between advocates of health reform and the opposition. The call is out for progressives to stage a peaceful demonstration of support. We WILL showcase that difference.
Event contact phone number: 979-319-2443. Please RSVP to this number or this link to sign up for Monday demonstration so that we can get a headcount to prepare properly. We want everyone to be safe and comfortable. Thanks!
The Democratic Party of Collin County had a substantial turnout for its annual fundraiser dinner honoring former governor Ann Richards. In addition to keynote speaker Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, U.S. Senate Candidate John Sharp also briefly addressed the dinner attendees.
Sharp, who served as Texas State Comptroller from 1990 through 1999, told the Collin County Democrats that turning out the Democratic vote in Collin Collin will be key in electing Democrats to statewide office in future elections.
Sharp reminded dinner attendees that the first of those statewide elections, the special election to fill U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's vacated senate seat, could be in the not so distant future. On Monday (Aug. 17) U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will begin a five-day statewide campaign tour to formally announce that she will oppose Rick Perry in the March 2, 2010 Republican primary. Sen. Hutchison is scheduled to kick off her gubernatorial campaign tour of Texas at 8 A.M. Monday morning (Aug 16) in the gym of her hometown high school in La Marque.
Hutchison's formal gubernatorial campaign announcement will be no surprise, but everyone is waiting to see if she will surprise with a resignation announcement. There has been much speculation over her possible senate resignation and rumors are once again circulating that she will announce a resignation date during her Monday morning La Marque High School campaign kickoff event. (see Sen. Hutchison Says Will Resign Senate Seat In Oct. Or Nov.)
Sharp told county Democrats that when Sen. Hutchison does resign, Gov. Rick Perry will appoint a temporary replacement to U.S. Senate until he can order a special election.
Unlike most other states, Texas allows the Governor to make a temporary senate appointment only until he can order a special or emergency election. Texas election law allows Perry to call that special election as soon as 36 days after Hutchison resigns.
After a ceremonial bill signing of House Bill 3 at R.L. Turner High School in Carrolton in late July Gov. Perry said he might quickly call a special election to replace Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison because too many important things are going on in Washington, D.C.[StarTelegram blog, July 29]
So, Texas could have a special election as soon as November 3, 2009, or at any time as late as May 8, 2010 depending on exactly when KBH resigns. Sharp said it is even possible that Texans will go to the polls on the November 3, 2009 uniform election date to vote on the dozen or so amendments to the Texas Constitution, scheduled to be on the ballot, and then return to the polling place again sometime later in November or December 2009 to vote for a new U.S. Senator in a special election, if Hutchinson resigns in October, as many Texas politicos are now speculating.
Shawn Stevens
During his remarks, the new Democratic Party of Collin Co. Chair, Shawn Stevens, reminded the audience that:
"Comparing 2008 to 2004, there were 20,000 more straight ticket Democratic voters in 2008, while the Republicans’ straight ticket votes were virtually unchanged. Also, the raw Democratic vote in Collin County went up by 40,000 votes, while the raw Republican vote went up by only 10,000, a 30,000 net gain for the Democrats, reducing the vote gap between the Democratic and Republican vote by around 17.5 points."
"Increasing the Democratic vote in Collin County is critical on a statewide, and perhaps national, level. Because of our large population, a few more percentage points in our county can tip a statewide race blue."
Stevens observed that in November 2008 the Democratic vote for Pres. Obama was just under 38 percent. That turnout was a significant increase from the 28 percent given to presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 and the 24 percent given to presidential candidate Al Gore in the November 2000 election. Stevens told the county Democrats that if they can help bump the Democratic vote turnout by just another 5 or 6 points, to 43 percent, in statewide races, this county can provide the margin of victory for Democratic gubernatorial, U.S. Senatorial and other statewide candidates.
A representative for Houston Mayor Bill White, who has also announced his intention to run for for Kay Bailey Hutchison's vacated U.S. Senate seat, also made a few remarks during the dinner event.
Sworn in as Dallas County District Attorney on January 1, 2007 -- keynote speaker Craig Watkins -- was the first elected black district attorney in Texas. In November 2006, Watkins, then 39, was elected as part of a Democratic sweep in Dallas in which the party took 42 judgeships and six other countywide offices.
For his pursuit of a range of reforms designed to protect the wrongly accused and appropriately punish the guilty and for his willingness to stake out politically precarious territory to create a "conviction integrity unit," an operation that has freed prisoners who have been wrongly incarcerated, Mr. Watkins in 2008 was named "Texan of the Year" by the Dallas Morning News.
Dallas DNA Promo Segment
The Discovery Channel is currently running a six part series called Dallas DNA featuring Mr. Watkins and the work being conducted by the Dallas County District Attorney office's "conviction integrity unit."
Dallas DNA chronicles the pioneering CIU where post-conviction DNA testing is being used to clear the innocent, as well as confirm the guilty.
Mr Watkins maintained a mostly non-partisan tone during his keynote speech emphasizing that elected officials must always remember that they were elected by the people to serve the community, not themselves or their political party.
Marlene Byndon
Marlene Byndon, Democratic Party of Collin Co Chair Vice Chair, served as the MC for Saturday evening fundraiser dinner. As evidence that the Democratic Party is gaining momentum in Collin County, attendance at this this year's Ann Richards dinner was significantly higher than in past years.
The President talks about how the chatter and ruckus around health insurance reform on television obscures the reality of what's happening in America. He discusses how in most towns people and Members of Congress are having constructive conversations, and how people are learning how reform will help them and their families with the real problems they have faced with the insurance system. August 15, 2009.
Joe Duffy, Dallas Field Organizer for OFA and Dr. Winfred Parnell, member of Doctors for America will be available for an informative discussion on HealthCare Reform Legislation on Saturday, August 22 from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM @ Schimelpfenig Library in Plano. Discussion agenda includes an overview of how you can support HealthCare Reform Legislation on a local and national level. Dr. Parnell will also give a presentation on Health Care legislation now going through the legislative channels.
AirAmerica Radio: President Obama asked Americans to ratchet down the rhetoric. It's time to have a conversation on the topic of health care reform--not a screaming match.
