Violet today reiterates the warning signs that led us to a day where House Democrats voted through a health insurance reform bill that effectively bans abortion, and reminds us what we need to do:

Word to the wise, girls: if a guy calls you a filthy cunt or a whiny bitch, if he says Hillary Clinton is a hag from hell, if he calls her supporters the dry pussy brigade, if he talks about punish-raping the rebels, this guy is not a feminist. Which means that he doesn’t really give a shit about women’s rights. Which means that his commitment to your reproductive freedom is about as firm as a tomato seed. Which means he will sell you out. In a god. damn. heartbeat....

On a separate thread where folks are discussing possible legal challenges health care bill, I said I'd look around to see if there have been any challenges to Massachusetts mandatory coverage law and how they fared. This is by no means comprehensive:

Mass.
Against the Mass. law, I could find only one challenge and that was thrown out on what seem to be procedural grounds rather than on the merits. (I can't find the slip op. online to confirm).

Tea Party Challenges

The Hill is reporting that Democrats are 'rebranding' the public option as 'Medicare for All.':

Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.”

House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option.

Seems Congress has finally locked on to the fact that Medicare's pretty popular:

While much of the public is foggy on what a public option actually is, people understand Medicare. It also would place the new public option within the rubric of a familiar system rather than something new and unknown.

I have to admit, I'd pretty much written NOW off a long time ago as an DC-insider suck-up organization. And Kim Gandy's choice of Obama-worship over substantive advocacy for women last year would have been a turn-off in any case. But the recent election of new NOW president Terry O'Neill has allowed me, well, a bit of hope.

The election shaped up as a female-only replay of much of the divisions in the primaries (hot young things full of hope vs bitter elderly knitters), a point even Salon's Broadsheet noticed. O'Neill's opponent was Latifa Lyles, who had Gandy's endorsement and an Obama-like rhetorical style, which Salon's Berman, oddly, quotes as proof in support of Lyles' substance:

according to the Post and the NYT

Ok, I'll start with the obvious speculation (not that we'll ever know) -- did Paterson tell her 'no way' and then give her the opportunity to avoid embarassment by dropping out herself?

eta punctuation, always a plus.

Richardson is withdrawing his name from appointment as Commerce Secretary. A federal grand jury has been investigating some NM government contracts awarded to a California company since at least mid-December.

Richardson say he's done nothing wrong (of course not! what are you, a racist?), but does not want to delay confirmation hearings.

Obama is deeply regretful, showing praise on Richardson as

Boston.com (yes, I know) is reporting that Tom Daschle is up for Health and Human Services.

Obama may not pick Kerry for SoS but Congress (ok, Harry Reid) lines up to give Kerry a consolation prize.

If Clinton accepts SoS, I'm trying to imagine what the nomination hearings might be like. (or can they just skip hearings and take it to a vote? The Senate does have to confirm Cabinet appointments, doesn't it? Or am I mixing it up with something else?).  Read more…

I haven't encountered him before, but first, he nails the Obama campaign's (and most likely administration's) ignore-the-progressives strategy, and explains why it will likely succeed (h/t to amberglow on the It's the Reality, Stupid thread):

The Obama administration will not pay a great political price in abandoning the pretense of moving the country in a progressive direction for two primary reasons. First, for Senator Obama’s political base the symbolism of his election is the change they were seeking and not an idea or program based on a set of policies. The second reason is the political weakness of what passes for the left in the United States.

Shelly Mandell, pres. of the L.A. Now chapter, introduces Palin at a rally in SoCal:

In rarity for a Republican event, Mandell bragged about her efforts campaigning for the failed Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and her support for Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984.

"I know Sarah Palin cares about women's rights," Mandell said. "As vice president, she will fight for you. She cares about our children and she cares about women's lives."

Local news station has the rest.

Efforts to correct mistakenly(?) reported facts are counterproductive:

...journalists’ attempts to correct misinformation is unlikely to sway public perceptions, according to a series of experiments by a Duke University political scientist.

“What we found is that corrections are ineffective for the group most likely to have the misperception,” said Brendan Nyhan, a Ph.D. candidate in Duke’s political science department. “Even worse, we found that those people may actually end up believing in the misperception more strongly after hearing a correction.”

....

Oops.

From Wired

Hacker's dad seems to be a Democratic state representative in Tennessee, nam e removed.

Nothing profound to say here, except: People! Don't use 'secret hints' for your passwords that are data freely available on Wikipedia.

___________
Since intranets has asked so politely, I'll repeat my apology (posted in comments, as soon as I saw tnjen's further information on the subject) and correct my original post:

I've been wondering why I haven't seen much about trying to alleviate the failing financial markets from the consumer end.

The Boston Globe had an article with a somewhat hopeful-sounding title today:

Fannie, Freddie Collapse Could Help Borrowers.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency "actively looking" at expanding loan modifications among the more than $5 trillion in loans that Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee, Bair said.

Just got a notice that Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, The Baroque Cycle) is launching his new book, Anathem with a live webcast at 10pm EST:

Anathem

If you love, as I do, the slightly naughty pasttime of sucking up history, politics and economics through well-told fiction, here's a guy for you. I haven't heard much about Anathem, but found The Baroque Cycle hugely satisfying (once I got into it; must admit it took me a few times with the first book). Yum!

Over at The Confluence, Riverdaughter received an email from Dr. Lynette Long responding to Gloria Steinem's piece explaining why women shouldn't vote for Palin.