Stupak was the last democrat with integrity, but now even he has fallen under the Kenyan's spell and acquiesced to the establishment of Death Panels.

Well, the good news is that the Kenyan has dealt a devastating blow to the current Republican strategy. It's hard to make predictions, particularly about the future-- but it's not going to be 1993 all over again

Ask not, Al, for whom the Death Panels toll. . .

'dad, can i be on a death panel when i grow up?'

'certainly son...anyone can grow up to sit on the board of an insurance company.'

"Pro-choice" and making someone else pay for an individual's choices are two VERY different things! Why should I pay for someone else's abortion? That doesn't mean I'm not pro-choice! Talk about radical!

Just as a reminder to those who might be fairly new to this blog, the current "Al" is a parody poster who posts things a previous Al might have said.

i'm afraid that the senate dems might change the amendment for the tax on cadillac plans to go back to the original version where the it will take effect immediately rather than by 2018. This could get really messy.

If Stupak has changed his mind, one of the major factors has to be the threat of legitimate primary opposition. Amazing how that clears one's mind.

Dear Jane, as anyone who has been following this is totally aware, and I am sure that includes you, no one except the woman involved will be paying for her abortion. That has been made so explicitly clear that the US nuns among other Catholic groups have come down on the side of the health bill. So there is nothing radical about this bill at all.

And Al, perhaps you haven't noticed but practically every day there is a piece in the news about someone who was denied insurance coverage for some treatment s/he needed because it would be expensive and the insurance company decided that it is better that they die. When you get in the situation where you need expensive treatment and get it because this bill says the insurance companies can't drop you just because they feel like it, I expect to read an apology from you for your posts against help for those who need it. That is what a decent person would do.

Thanks for the heads up Michael. What happned to "previous Al"?

Barack Obama will sign an executive order stating, essentially, that the law will follow the law.

Now that I think about it, there could be a justifiable reason why Stupak and Co. have acted the way they have.

Think about all those "Bush signing statements." with a swipe of the pen, he could declare his "divine kingly right" to ignore various portions of the law. Eight years of that opens a whole can of whoop-assed paranoia---and an EO committing the Government to follow Hyde counters that paranoia.

Isn't it ironic to hear the GOP crying about the executive order when they had absolutely no problem with Bush's signing statements.

IOKIYAR on crack.

Previous Al dropped out after rescission for a pre-existing condition.

Nancy's ceremonial gavel

It's almost big enough to knock some sense into someone with teabags for brains...

History will happen tonight either way.

If the bill passes, the democrats will have made history.

If the bill fails, it's the democrats who will be history.

I know the GOP is going to try everything in the book to pitch one last hissy fit.

Come on folks, are we really facing rioting in the streets over this?

May the cool heads prevail.

I can forsee turmoil within the Republican establishmnet brewing in the face of their loss on health reform, those on the right's right will continue their push for unflinching ideology while more pragmatic moderates will begin to question what this purity pursuit has really gained them in legislative accomplishments. This may play well for Dems.

It's almost big enough to knock some sense into someone with teabags for brains...

I actually like this, from Wonkette:

And if anyone gets in her way, she will smash their skulls into sandhills of calcium with her Weapon, the “1965 Medicare gavel,” forged by ancient socialist hobbits in a distant epoch, as a paean to Thor.

WHAT IN EARTH do the Repubelickans care about the military, except to use them as political tools when it suits them? I'd say "What a joke", but nothing those losers do surprises me anymore.

The GOP has taken a huge gamble here and lost big. If they think they will win votes in November by promising to take away health care security for millions, go ahead and try. The fact that they have gone hysterical in these last days (much like the general election in 2008) shows that they know defeating passage was their one chance at serving their masters.

Like I speculated, I don't think Stew-prick really needed a genuine concession. It was kabuki so it would look like he'd accomplished something, for the sake of certain mislead voters. Uh, let's REM that these people think about getting elected ... Even tho I half-assedly admire him for cleverness now that I think about it, he was sand in the gears and still a prick. Not as much as "Al" is!

I'm with Doc, although many military I know are of the teabagger "mind"-set, one would think they of all Americans would realize they had been played like a harp from hell by the projectionist Grand Ole Party.

Jane @5:46 pm:"Why should I pay for someone else's abortion?"

"Why should I pay for someone else's chemotherapy?"

"Why should I pay for someone else's appendectomy?"

"Why should I pay for someone else's liver transplant?"

"Why should I pay for someone else's bipolar disorder meds?"

"Why should I pay for someone else's..." etc.

Because, Jane, you are an empathetic human being who recognizes that universal health care benefits everyone.

Or, rather, are you a self-centered barbarian who only cares about yourself and sees nothing wrong with denying other people needed care for your own arbitrary reasons?

It's true that most senior military are sympathetic towards the teabaggers. There are exceptions, but generally they keep their opinions to themselves unless they are prepared for an onslaught of derision or outright hostility.

If and when this reform bill passes, I feel sure it will be enough to turn the Orange man - white.
Someone should send DeMint Abba's recording of Waterloo to put him to sleep tonight!

Only slightly off-topic, but as a California voter I'm delighted to see that Carly Fiorona's campaign is wasting money on "Tell Barbara Boxer 'NO' on the Health Care Sham" ads on this site. Can you get Meg Whitman to expend some pointless dollars here as well? --what's that? Sorry, I didn't realize...oh, of course...Guys! Ixnay on the GOP ads!...oh, never mind.

Why should I pay for someone else's abortion?

Well, dear, you aren't going to, so don't worry your little head about it.

What a dumbshit.

Why should I pay for someone else's emergency treatment due to being denied their legal right to an abortion by embryo-worshipping nutjobs?

Barack Obama will sign an executive order stating, essentially, that the law will follow the law. -- Ezra Klein, @WaPo

That's not how N.O.W. sees it:
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/live-blogging-the-house-vote/?hp

Ooops, apologies for the oversight above (@19:36). For the N.O.W. statement on the N.Y.T. blog, scroll down to 6:26PM.

Al or no Al, I guarantee that right now there are fightin' teabloggers furiously pecking at their keyboards that the executive order Obama will issue on abortion gives him the right to require all Americans to have abortions at his discretion. They'll call it Obama's Death Panel for the Unborn.

"The latest right-wing attack suggests health care reform will be bad for the military."

As opposed to making up fairy tales of mythical stockpiles of WMDs and connections to al Qaeda, then scaring the American people with "not wanting the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud".

As opposed to launching an unecessary war into Iraq, with rosy promises of a cakewalk and Iraqis showering American soldiers and Marines with flowers and kisses.

As opposed to low-balling the actual cost of the Iraq war, refuse to raise the taxes necessary to fund the war, then act like the money lost to corruption and incompetence (and which should have been used to protect American lives and ensure national security) is somehow not a big deal.

As opposed to sending soldiers and Marines with inadequate weapons and equipment to fight an insurgency, then patronizing the complaints of those same soldiers and Marines with "well, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want."

As opposed to ignoring and underfunding treatment for the wounded coming back, and not caring that men and women have had to serve two or more tours of duty, because the idea of reintroducing a draft was unthinkable.

As opposed to ignoring the war in Afghanistan for seven years, then complaining about the new administration's strategy.

In other words, to those who are now somehow concerned about our men and women in uniform, when they clearly are not,

Go fuck yourself, douchebags.