Blue Dog Mike Ross presciently submitted virtually the same co-op plan in a July 31 amendment that finally emerged this week in Max Baucus’s Senate plan. But since it now looks like Pelosi is on board with co-ops, that means the Blue Dogs aren’t going to have to take the hit.

Is this a great country or what?

What emerged from 9/ll has left America profoundly sick, seized with malicious cancers of unbridled greed, irrational fears, and corrupted government institutions that not only tolerate but facilitate powerful interests in looting the nation’s wealth and principles.

There really doesn’t seem to be any limit to what the administration will do to pass Rahm Emanuel’s neoliberal giveaway to the insurance industry. The “author” of the plan released by Baucus (and apparently by Mike Ross) is a former VP of Wellpoint. Now AHIP is boasting about their role in crafting it:

Coast Guard Fires on Suspicious Boat on Potomac River

So many lives lost. So many dreams shattered. So many families with empty arms. So many loved ones with aching hearts. Still.

Hope it was worth it to you, assclown.

Republican plans to win in Massachusetts, well at least they’re going through the motions.

Eric Burdon – Sixteen Tons

What’s on your mind?

Whatever happened to Civility? The way our national discourse has degenerated in the past few months just makes me want to throw the fuck up. Dana Milbank, as always, makes the point pissily pithily:

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today rejected the appeal by Philip Morris that the company has a first amendment right to sell its killer products wherever it pleases. San Francisco’s law preventing pharmacies, seen by consumers as retail establishments that sell things that are good for you, from selling tobacco must now withstand another challenge from the pharmacy retail industry itself.