The individual mandate (without the public option) has been a top priority of the health insurance industry. Who would not want millions of new customers to be forced to buy their very expensive product? Sen. Chuck Schumer has been working to actively cripple or destroy the individual mandate. An amendment offered in the Senate Finance [...]

Sen. Bill Nelson was on MSNBC with David Shuster talking about the AHIP extortion attempt report about insurance premiums, which he rightly dismissed. (“You have to look at who produced the report. The insurance industry did.”) After saying that the Senate Finance Committee would pass the bill tomorrow with all Democrats supporting it “to get [...]

I was on Top Line with David Chalian and Rick Klein talking about the fact that the White House wasn’t able to deliver on their secret deal with AHIP because the political cost of tanking the public option got too high. AHIP is out there with guns blazing trying to kill off health care reform [...]

The big story from the weekend is that AHIP, the lobby for the insurance industry, waved around a study from Price Waterhouse Coopers (the Oscar people) claiming that, as a result of the Senate Finance Committee bill, health insurance rates will rise $4,000 faster by 2019 than if there were no bill at all. This [...]

In response to the comment about White House disdain for the “liberal fringe” reported by NBC’s John Harwood last night, some are suggesting that the word “adviser” could mean this is coming from someone outside the White House. I asked Harwood to clarify. He confirmed that the quote came from “an Obama adviser.” He did say that the comments weren’t specifically directed at “the LGBT community or the marchers,” but “referred more broadly to those grumbling on the left about an array of issues including the war in Afghanistan and health care and Guantanamo.”

Looks like it. It’s starting to look more and more like Texas governor Rick Perry orchestrated an effort to thwart a state probe into an arson investigation that may have led to the execution of an innocent man. Sam Bassett — the former chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, who Perry declined to reappoint [...]

Talk to the hand… The DNC and the Obama White House rolled out their latest tactic last week, securing support on health reform from a variety of Republicans, most of them retired and none of whom can actually vote on the bill in Congress. Within a matter of days, Bill Frist had backed off his [...]

Obama himself said that blogs aren’t reliable, and dismissed bloggers as “people shouting at each other across the void.” John Aravosis has been giving Obama heartburn over gay issues all the way back to Donny McLurkin. The idea that it was just by coincidence that Harwood happened to mention blogs and LGTB dissent together is laughable.

Lady Gaga speaks to the assembled bazillions on the National Mall today marching for full LGBT equality in the United States. more coverage here

This has always been worrisome. Who the hell cares what this guy thinks? And what’s left of the GOP’s heads explode. In other news, dogs hate cats. Really smart. NFL players: not Dittoheads.