(Matt Dunne continues to hit the blogs hard this week. We definitely appreciate it at GMD. Here’s the beginning of his piece at VDB and a link to the rest. Now if only we can get him to stop referring to himself in the third person (heh – shades of Bob Dole). We’ll be having more posts on health care throughout the week. – promoted by odum)

Healthcare Legislation: Current State of Play

Last Friday the Senate passed what could be called a conciliatory and solid step toward healthcare reform.

Acknowledging the fact that the Governor is not interested in systemic changes that could lead to lasting cost-containment, the bill that began in the House and was then fine-tuned in the Senate accomplishes three major goals: expanded coverage, pushing large employers to cover their employees, and better ways to manage the cost and quality of chronic care.

Here are some specifics on how these three goals are met through this piece of legislation, the passage of which will be negotiated in the coming weeks by House and Senate leadership and the Governor…

See Vermont Daily Briefing’s full posting of Matt’s health care update here.

From the blog Proviso Probe via Kagro X at Daily Kos:

Today, Thursday, April 20, 2006, Rep. Karen Yarbrough introduced into the Illinois General Assembly House Joint Resolution 125, which calls for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Want to know why I’m posting this here? Check out the first paragraph of the resolution:

WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature

Looks familiar, eh? Despite all the expressed reasons not to take this step, which are at least as valid in the take-no-prisoners venue of Illinois politics, a proud Democratic legislator has stepped forward. Go give her a contribution, she’s got an election this year too (and tell her GMD sent ya!) Check the link for the complete resolution:

WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature; and

WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without warrant; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without charge or trial; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter; and

WHEREAS, the Republican-controlled Congress has decline to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; and be it further

RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

If you’ve ever worked on a campaign you know the stress of running on a budget, and wondering from week to week whether you’ll have the money to do your next piece of literature, or order your yard signs, or place that important ad the week before Election Day.
The big guys are no different, it’s just a matter of scale. Fortunately, though, their resources are also different. For instance, when Richie Tarrant needed a slug of cash he had to go, hat in hand, to his biggest backer. One can only imagine the sweaty palms, the pounding heart, the stammer, the dry mouth as he threw himself on the one man he has turned to time and time again when things lookd tough. Would he come through again, or would this be the limit? Only one man would know the answer, and that man was . . .

Richard Tarrant.