Yvette Clarke doesn’t have any health care events planned so far for recess. She comes awfully close to taking the pledge on the WNYC with Amy Eddings today, saying she wouldn’t vote for a “watered down” version. It would be good to know exactly what “watered down” means — will she vote for co-ops, or triggers, or giveaways to PhRMA because the White House doesn’t want to be 13-1?

Jump for joy via @saparevo@.

Word is that the DOJ is seriously beefing up the fraud enforcement unit within the Criminal Division.

This is some very good news indeed:

The Obama administration is dramatically beefing up the fraud section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division as it tries to add muscle to back up its rhetoric about cracking down on health care and corporate fraud.

The department is looking for what Assistant

Just a bunch Average Joes.What we are dealing with here is a mob, and not a thoughtful new brand of American revolutionary. Instead of thought, these groups indulge in the flinging of slogans (“No to socialized medicine!”) whose function is to wear down the enemy. As a leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the Freedom Works web site Tea Party Patriots put it:

John Solomon, showing how the Village catapults propaganda.

Led Zeppelin – Since I’ve Been Loving You (live 1973).

Heartbreaker.

What’s on your mind tonight?

I’ve made this point previously, but I think it’s worth repeating: these town hall protests (why do they continue?) are not about the country debating health care reform. They’re ideological hissy fits, orchestrated by the Republican party and their corporate cronies. Their purpose: to vent about “SOCIALISM!” — which for the Teabaggers is everything from the stimulus to Medicare and Social Security — and fatally wound a Democratic President in the process.

Hey, remember when the right took that DHS report about violent right-wing extremists a little too personally? That shoe fits better every day, as the teabaggers and their media enablers veer farther and farther into outright eliminationism. Consider these examples from just the past couple of weeks:

For a two-term incumbent, Harry Reid’s re-elect numbers seem really rocky. Granted, these are internal GOP polls, but it sure looks like Harry might have a rough 2010 re-election, should the Republicans find an opponent next year.

Lambert is organizing a terrific effort to turn H.R. 676 supporters out to Blue Dog town halls and get them to commit on camera to support Single Payer:

Big media doesn’t connect bank and broker profits with customer abuse. How hard is it to see that these obscene bonuses come from bank efforts to suck the last nickel out of every consumer?