Thanks to Gerald and Turn Maine Blue for doing such a great job.

A NYT article reporting Obama might support reform of medical malpractice suits appears on the day Obama is to speak to the AMA.

My Left Nutmeg has been in the vanguard of state blogs fighting to end the war and has the Lamont/Lieberman battle scars to show for it. They have been, and continue to be, inspirational.

John Conyers is getting the screws put to him by the White House and by Democratic leadership to abandon his long standing principled refusal to vote for any war funding that doesn’t include plans to bring the troops home safely.

Robert says “thank you” in a video from Brave New Films to Conyers over at Michigan Liberal.

Emanuel hoped that by gratuitously attaching the car bill to the IMF bailout he could count on holding onto a batch of nervous Democrats–and pressure some Republicans. Recall, 59 Republicans broke with Boehner and Cantor to cross the aisle on June 9th and vote for Cash for Clunkers. Some of them are the exact targets Emanuel has been trying to woo away from the hysterical Cantor in the Supplemental battle, particularly Michigan Republicans like Thaddeus McCotter, Fred Upton, Dave Camp, Vern Ehlers, Candice Miller and Mike Rogers. Emanuel figured it could also give him a shot at John Shimkus (R-IL), Mike Turner (R-OH), Patrick Tiberi (R-OH), Mark Souder (R-IN), Don Manzullo (R-IL), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Steve Austria (R-OH), Steve LaTouette (R-OH), Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and a few other Midwestern Republicans whose constituents have been devastated by the auto industry collapse. Of course that goes for plenty of Democrats as well, particularly Midwest freshmen Mark Schauer (D-MI), Gary Peters (D-MI), Andre Carson (D-IN), and Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Debbie Halvorson (D-IL), Bill Foster (D-IL) and Steve Driehaus (D-OH).

Food Inc. rend the veil of secrecy that hides the ugly part of America’s food supply from consumers. It’s like that cliche, “You don’t want to see how sausages are made..” Or your chicken sandwiches, or beef. Or anything made with corn–which is just about everything we consume.

Food Inc shows how our food is the end product of a highly mechanized system, where workers are expendable, where 80% of the production of our meat is in the hands of four major companies, where chicken farmers are simply sharecroppers raised leased chicks for slaughter, where the rise of eColi can be directly traced to poor handling of meat and the overfeeding of animals with corn.

All the smarmy Republican legal smear tactics?  Say it straight out: it’s all about the right-wing moolah.

Jane said it all here, but I’m risking a repeat:

Boy, does this sound familiar:

While conservatives say they know they have little chance of defeating Mr. Obama’s choice because Democrats control the Senate, they say they hope to mount a fight that could help refill depleted coffers and galvanize a movement demoralized by Republican electoral defeats….

Michael Calderone thinks it’s news that Obama’s Administration is sleeping with the Gray Lady. Doesn’t he know that all powerful people sleep with the Gray Lady?

Translation:  Rahm did make the deal with Thaddeus McCotter to go easy on him in 2010 (even though he’s one of the DCCC’s top targets and best opportunities to take a Republican seat).  The White House was going to pass flu preparedness anyway, so they were only going to “give up” what they already intended as some kind of weird cover.

But it looks like they floated the story too soon — word has it Cantor flipped his shit, the deal fell apart and Rahm is back to square one.

h/t Bob Fertik

After reading Obama’s health care reform speech to the AMA, it’s hard to overstate the powerful message the President of the United States just delivered to the people who, if you read the speech carefully, Obama identified as having utterly failed the nation’s health care needs.