This is change I can believe in. The Army will deny millions of dollars in bonuses to KBR, a division of Halliburton, for contracting work in Iraq that led to deaths.

You would think confirming Dawn Johnsen would be a priority for the Obama White House, but clearly you would be wrong. What is even more startling is, given the heavy exposure of the problems in the OLC, and inability of OPR to regulate it, the last few days that no one in the press and media are asking the Obama White House why they have so hung their own nominee out to dry.

Speaker Pelosi used her closing comment at today’s Health Care Reform Summit to remind the President that he once claimed to support the public option.

The New York Times has a heart-breaking account of the fallout of a steel plant closure in Lackawanna, an immediate suburb of my hometown of Buffalo, NY. Within weeks of the announced plant closure, 3 workers suffered heart attacks, two of which were fatal. But it’s not just in Lackawanna. Multiple studies have found that layoffs not only lead to increased health complications, they can also significantly decrease life expectancy even for relatively young workers.

The White House Health Care Summit has concluded. Unsurprisingly, Republicans continued to hit on tort reform as the way to lower our health care costs all afternoon. And they continued to be wrong. But a few more themes came up that are worth debunking.

Financial reform may be turning into Healthcare II: The Sequel. The Administration seems to be signalling its willingness to cave on the two critical elements: Volcker Rules and the CFPA.

Welcome to the final part of “Battle at the Blair House,” the bipartisan health care summit. This is part four, which should be focussed on expanding coverage; part one’s liveblog can be found here, part two is here, part three is here.

Well, well, well. Another “fiscal conservative” exposed as a fraud.

Welcome to “Battle at the Blair House,” the bipartisan health care summit taking place today between 10:00am and 4:00pm. We’ll be liveblogging all day–pull up a chair and sit a spell. . . . This is part two, which should be focussed on insurance reform. . . This is part three, which should still be focussed on insurance reform, at least at the start. . . part one’s liveblog can be found here, part two is here.

Sit up straight and listen up: The founding fathers didn’t sit around whining about the lack of democratization. They got off their butts and they did something about it. They swore with their lives and on their honor and committed themselves to making change happen. They certainly didn’t wait for some big all-powerful organization to come to them and ask how they could get their wish for democracy granted.