[A warm welcome to the usual suspects. What took you so long? -- lambert]

Mr. Bowers loses his touch, and makes a clumsy attempt to conflate snark in a Quick Hit with commentary: "Progressive bloggers don’t write about single-payer because they are afraid of Rahm"*.

Fortunately, I assumed that "progressives" like Bowers would stoop to outright censorship at some point, so here is the post Bowers censored in order to replace with that link:

So, the question's still on the table: Why don't "progressive" bloggers cover single payer?

And now, the badge of honor!

Banned!

Finally, here's the post that Bowers is concerned to avoid answering (it was at the other end of the "can't understand" link (I think) in the screen dump above). Let me just post that screen dump for the record:

unless you were compromising with yourself. I'm sick of hearing the "public option was the compromise". No, it wasn't. You can't compromise on something when it's the only policy for which you have advocated. The public option, not single payer, is the demand. A compromised public option is likely to be the compromise. Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All, or single payer, was never on the table. It was never part of the negotiations, thus it was never a policy up for compromise.

What frustrates single payer advocates the most is how they have been sidelined from the national health finance reform debate. People who support single payer, or enhanced and improved Medicare for All, have long waited for the chance to present their case to the American people for real health care reform via a single payer method. With the ever increasing cost of care, and the growing number of uninsured and under insured Americans, single payer advocates view inclusion of proposals that support a one payer system for financing health care an essential part of the debate.

Before the primary it had been so long since Democrats held power I never noticed how much Democratic philosophy and policy advocacy had changed.  But during the primary I started to note what I would call a split in the Party between those who sought economic justice for the middle class, and those who sought social benevolence for the poor.  I'm always on the side of helping the poor, but in policy terms, I've always thought what helps the poor most is to empower the middle class.  Policies that target only the poor through subsidies and welfare programs, and sort of ignore the plight of the middle class over the last several decades, don't leave those on the bottom with anywhere to move up to.  Further, often the needs of the poor can only be met throu

Cross posted at MakeThemAccountable.

For years, I’ve been saying that the problem with progressives is that we don’t sell our message. We think that all we have to do is tell the truth, and promote issues that 60 to 80% of Americans want implemented. But we fail, time after time, to overcome the powerful message machine of the right. This week, David Cay Johnston reviewed Farhad Manjoo’s first book, True Enough, in which Manjoo tells us that “truth still matters, and in the long run, it will prevail so long as a decent number of people push for it.”

But that statement has to be wrong. How many Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and participated in the 9/11 attacks? How many still believe John Kerry lied to get his combat medals? How many still believe that Al Gore once said he invented the internet?

It's late for me. I'm really tired, and sick. Still, I'm kicking myself. Bigtime. "Snow," a crack den regular, ran for the Dem primary Senate seat tonight in SC, and is within 2K votes of victory, as of this moment. I'm too tired and lazy to give you links, but he's the "Mike Cone" in the race. Look him up. Short Verision: one of Our Own can win, if only we would join in trying and help in a meaningful way. I suck, because in his case, I didn't, not enough. I'm so sorry about that, Snow. Seriously. I've always loved your stuff and I am so hating on myself right now for wasting so much time on races that didn't matter, and/or in which voices like mine made no difference. That could've been another story in your case/race, and I salute you for not expecting people like me to do more for you. You showed such Class. You were smart, and I'm a hypocrite. Good show, win or place, however it works out by the morn.

Seriously, peeps. We're all closer than we think. Snow won't win (or goddess bless us, he will) but he came damn close. Think about what that actually means.

What do you cling to when you cling?
What stirs you up and makes you sing?
Did the Liberty Bell make freedom ring?
What do you cling to, when you cling?

What do you do when reason fails?
What takes the wind out of your sails?
Did your blood run cold, did you turn pale?
What do you do when reason fails?

[Just cross-posted to Kos. How about a recommendation? And welcome, Eschatonians, Paul Krugman, Digby, Andrew Tobias, and Sadly, No readers. And Avedon, you know I do.]

[And readers, if you want others to read this post, you can use the Digg or Reddit buttons below to recommend it.]

ONE CURRENT PERMATHREAD on Big Orange is that Krugman and Obama are feuding or having a vendetta. Which, when you take a step back, is bizarre. That movement conservatives and Villagers like stone Bush enabler William Kristol, like David Brooks, Broderella, and Andrew Sullivan are all good with Obama isn't even mentioned in passing by Obama's fan base. And yet those same enthusiasts spend inordinate amounts of time vilifying Paul Krugman, a true progressive who was there for us from the earliest dark days of the Bush regime.

Curious. What's really happening?  Read more…

A little bitchy, but what's not to love about that? John makes the important point clearly:

There's been a marked recent increase in the number of people asking me to write about their organization, campaign, or client. Whether it's a non-profit with some new-fangled incredibly-esoteric project, a politician promoting their latest highly-interesting-to-them but-kind-of-boring-to-you policy proposal, or a public relations firm being paid big bucks to push the lame ideas of yet another client, the volume of "give me free publicity" requests has skyrocketed of late.

Interestingly, at the same time, the number of ads these same groups are running on blogs has plummeted.

...

My point isn't that the blogs should be bought, or can be bought. My point is that the blogs should be supported by the larger progressive community, and they're not. Liberal non-profits, political operations, and companies interested in reaching either a progressive audience or an inside-the-beltway crowd wouldn't think twice about spending $60,000 on a Washington Post ad, spending a good chunk of change on an ad in The Hill or Roll Call, or paying a PR firm a $20,000+ a month retainer to get their news on the blogs, among other venues (NOTE: the very best way to get me NOT to cover a story is to have a PR firm contact me). But the notion of spending $800 (or hopefully, several thousand dollars) on a blog ad gives them serious pause. Then they turn around and expect favors.

Stop! Stop! You Evil White Male, You're Oppressing Me! Oh, this is some bunk, innit? Anyway, instead of wasting my time refuting her many misdirections and misrepresentations, let me just point out a new line of attack on the progressive/open source community: you're sexists! It's getting to be more common, and the Goodman piece is a prime example. Although, it would've been more effective if she could've avoided the Heather-y bitchiness in it. OTOH, that's what people in the SCLM live for, so I guess I should expect it.

Booman does all the work so I don't have to. I was just talking about this with another progressive, and of the likelihood of investigatory fireworks in a Democratic majority Congress. I'm not counting any unhatched chickens here, just throwing out another reason why Rove and KennyBoi are shitting bricks every time they look at the latest poll numbers:

 Read more…

A message to Democrats-and-Repubs-are-all-the-samers and other progressive non-voters.

I, for one, am proud to vote for the likes of Al Gore, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy.