The Kucinich bill would allow states to form their own single-payer systems:

As reported earlier, House leaders have stripped the Kucinich amendment from the House health care reform bill. This amendment would help nullify legal challenges against efforts by individual states to enact their own single-payer systems.

[...] According to Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America, one avenue of appeal remains regarding these efforts:

Democratic House leaders can insert what is called a “Manager’s Amendment” into legislation, even when it is closed to any other amendments. The managers are the majority and minority members who “manage” debate for the bill on each side.

Today, tomorrow, and beyond, we need to call these “managers” and insist that the Kucinich Amendment is restored into the healthcare bill.

The “gang” that holds our future in their hands includes:

* Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-4965; San Francisco office (415) 556-4862

* Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: Washington, DC, office (202...; Greenbelt office (301)...; Waldorf office (301)...

* Rep. Henry Waxman: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-3976; Los Angeles office (323) 651-1040

*Rep. Charles Rangel: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-4365; New York office (212) 663-3900

* Rep. George Miller: Washington, DC, office (202) 225-2095; Concord office (925) 602-1880; Richmond office (510) 262-6500; Vallejo office (707) 645-1888

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You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

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(The above audio is the shortened version of the BLogger Conference call. You can find the full version here.)

I'm glad Congress is starting to heed our words and beginning to speak out against taking a vacation while health care takes a back seat to their barbecues and softball games.. Recess is for children at school playing on their swings and has no place in this debate. Rep. Clyburn is the newest member to say that Congress should not stop until a bill drops.

(Majority) Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told colleagues during a "contentious" closed-door session Thursday that they should postpone the August break until they pass a sweeping health care reform bill.

The Democratic whip says he told his colleagues they will be criticized in the press for leaving town without passing a bill. "I think it will affect our standing with the American people if we don't do this as a party," Clyburn said afterward.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) were both in attendance during the 90-minute session, but Clyburn would not say what their reactions were. The South Carolina Democrat thinks his colleagues will have more opportunities to work through disputes than they will if they leave town.

We salute Clyburn for taking the correct steps in trying to work this thing out and not be afraid what all Americans are thing. Recess, recess?

Americans are hearing our plea to make Congress work through August.

As Mr. Obama took questions from his audience in Shaker Heights, he was asked whether he intended to call on Democratic leaders in Congress to cancel their August recess to try to reach a compromise on health care. For now, he said, he had no plans to do so.

Keep up the heat. The more Americans put pressure on their precious month long play time the more willing they will be to get the legislation done.
We've just started making this a priority so the list has just begun.

Senator Wyden
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Rep. James Clyburn

That's three more than we had before I asked the question. Great start.
You can use HCAN's tools to find info so you can contact your own representative. Please contact them and tell them no August recess without a health care bill.
UPDATE: Meanwhile the Blue Dogs are trying their best to kill health care in the HOUSE.

The negotiations between House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and seven conservative Democrats on his panel fell apart Friday afternoon after the chairman told reporters he could move the bill to the floor without a committee vote.

Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, the top negotiator for conservative Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition, told reporters Friday that the negotiations "pretty much fell apart this afternoon."

In a meeting with Blue Dogs Friday, Waxman rescinded two previous concessions to help cut health care costs over time and ensure the government-sponsored health care won't impede on the private market. Asked how this leaves the negotiations, Ross said it "leaves the chairman with not enough votes to get it out of committee."

I'm no fan of Steny Hoyer, but I agree with his take on the media's obsession with bipartisanship.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Thursday dismissed Republican complaints about not being able to “write exactly half of every bill” as a “deeply elitist idea.”

Speaking at a forum sponsored by Georgetown University and Politico, Hoyer said the problem with fostering bipartisanship is that the understanding of bipartisanship is unrealistic.

“These days the conventional wisdom is that bipartisanship is not dead, but on life support. The debate now isn't what happened, but who killed it,” he said.

“But bipartisanship does not mean going out for drinks after the final gavel comes down.”

Hoyer then said that if Republicans could write half of every bill that would be "the kind of bipartisanship that would make elections irrelevant."

"It's a deeply elitist view if understood in that context," he added. "We're in the majority, so we have the power and responsibility to foster bipartisanship. But it takes two to tango."

The media has completely failed to hold Republicans responsible for their inabilty to work with the Obama administration. Never have their motives been questioned. When all the HOUSE/Limbaugh Republicans voted against the stimulus bill the media never looked at what they were doing politically. It was always labeled as Obama's fault. I remember when Republicans said that elections have consequences, but when it applies to them of course it's a non-starter.

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We've known for some time that Fox News is merely the propaganda arm for the GOP. However, they usually couch their partisanship with claims of being "fair and balanced" and token ineffectual Democrats. But Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace was perhaps a little unintentionally forthright about where his loyalties lay in Sunday's interview with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Congress's priority to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

WALLACE: Big Labor’s top priority is what’s called “union card check” and that would be eliminating the right to a secret ballot in determining whether or not you’re going to organize, unionize a working place. [laughs] I love the way you’re smiling already. Are you going to move on that in the first month?

HOYER: I’m smiling because of the way you phrased it. It’s the Free Choice Act, of course, and what it does is …

WALLACE: Well, “union card check”, Free Choice, both sides have their euphemisms.

HOYER: Of course, and you use one side. That’s why I was smiling…[laughs]

WALLACE: And you used the other.

Sadly, Wallace obviously has access to the GOP talking points soundbytes that the Democrats are never savvy enough to replicate. Nice, neat, and sound sensible if a little weak on facts. "Union card check" sounds like something a Dem-voting life-long union member would be leery of. But Hoyer never retorts in a way that eliminates this fear. The Employee Free Choice Act simply gives the employees the right to decide whether to unionize, rather than the company. It's easy to understand and say, right? But instead, Hoyer gives this mush-mouthed reply:

HOYER: Well, okay, my point being that we believe that one of the problems that has existed in America is that working people have had a very, very difficult time in getting represented by unions in the work place. Work place has resisted that. The NLRB has not been very vigorous in assuring the lack of unfair labor practices. We believe that the employees…if over 50% of them sign and say that we want to be represented by a union, they ought to be able to be represented by a union. Let me say that many, many employers currently, under existing law, recognize such signatures right now and start to bargain and have a union representative.

C'mon, guys, it's bad enough that you go on Fox, can't you do a little prep work to be able to respond to the Republican framing first?

Transcripts below the fold:

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On Fox News Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 Chris Wallace repeats Americans For Job Security talking points verbatim immediately preceding one of their ads airing on the network.

driftglass comes up with the find and keenly observes Wallace's puppet-like devotion to his advertiser:

Wallace (filtered through Driftglass): Apropos of nothing whatsoever, aren’t unions evil? And shouldn’t the Evil Union Card Check program be opposed by all right thinking people who don’t want the destroy the economy? I mean, after all you get secret ballots in Congress. Why is it OK for Congress to have secret ballots and not for workers?

... [O]ne minute later, they went to commercial, [and] I got the shock of the week when the first paid commercial was from an outfit called “Americans For Job Security” repeating VERBATIM the Boehner/Fox Party line “question” that Wallace had awkwardly wedged into the middle of a “news” broadcast not sixty seconds prior.

You get secret ballots in Congress.

Why is it OK for Congress to have secret ballots and not for workers?

Driftglass goes on to provide us with lots of detail about Americans For Job Security -- predictably, a "sham front group that would be better called Corporations Influencing Elections." Be sure to read it all.

In the pages of "Drudge Daily"--better known as The Politico---they write a mind-boggling article on the FISA bill, Blue America and the hero role Hoyer played to get a bill passed for the minority party and Bush. Not even a mention as to why we're all so opposed to the bill. That's not important to the Drudge Daily.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) called the House bill a “capitulation.” Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald called Hoyer an “evil, craven enabler of the Bush administration.” Firedoglake.com blogger Jane Hamsher — delivering the lowest possible blow from the liberal blogosphere — declared Hoyer “the new Joe Lieberman.”

Hoyer knew it was coming, and he persevered anyway. That he did so speaks volumes about who he is: a master of cloakroom politics who can use his friendships across the aisle to strike deals, even if others demand that his party hew closer to the positions that put it in power in 2006.

It's better for Breshnahan and O'Conner to quote some comments of anger instead of dealing with the issue itself and why we are fighting back.  

Digby:

Do read the whole Politico article, which doesn't bother to spend even one paragraph describing why people were opposed to the bill. For that matter it doesn't bother to tell us why the other side was so adamant that it get passed either. The fact that it wasn't some typical congressional agenda item which might naturally be "horse traded" but rather a matter of fundamental constitutional principle, isn't worth mentioning. Even the fact that the whole thing stinks to high heaven of financial corruption gets no mention.

What we have instead is the portrait of a Village hero, the ultimate master of the only game that matters --- ostentatiously capitulating to conservatism. It's the biggest accolade a Democrat ever gets, like winning a congressional Oscar, and the preening Hoyer is happy to make his acceptance speech in the pages of the Drudge Daily. This one is sweeter than most because he managed to capitulate to the congressional minority and the most unpopular president in history on an issue of fundamental constitutional principle which contained little political risk to uphold. A truly bravura performance. In fact, it's worthy of a lifetime achievement award.

Donate here to Blue America's FISA Accountability fund so that we can continue to assure that Steny's constituents are aware of his great triumph.

We have raised $311,977.00 so far. That is amazing and the Villagers and Hoyer took notice. Do you think he liked to see his face in the pages of the Washington Post?

Since we started our campaign to hold Steny Hoyer and other members of Congress accountable for conspiring with Bush against the Constitution, almost 5,000 patriotic Americans-- regardless of political party-- have donated to our drive. You've seen our thermometer rising and now it's approaching $300,000. Our first batch of advertising, including a full page ad in the Washington Post goes out next week.

Here's a sneak-peak at the Post ad: (click on above graphic to make larger)

None of the progressives who voted against Hoyer's disgraceful capitulation to Bush today will go on record advocating for a new Majority Leader and many of the candidates are too frightened to do so. There's even a cousinly split. The two House Udalls, Tom from New Mexico (the progressive one) and Mark from Colorado (the more establishment one), are each running for the U.S. Senate against rabidly right-wing Republicans. Mark (CO) voted with Hoyer, Bush, the Blue Dogs and the GOP to trash the Constitution. Keep it in mind when the DSCC send you an e-mail begging for money. The better Udall, Tom (NM) voted with us and had this to say to New Mexico residents:

The FISA bill we considered today would compromise the constitutionally guaranteed rights that make America a beacon of hope around the world. Today's vote was not easy. I stood up to leaders of my own party and voted against this bill, because I took an oath to defend Americans and That duty is most important when it is most difficult. We can protect our nation while upholding our values, but unfortunately, this bill falls short.

That sounds like real change. Mark? Not so much.

(h/t Heather)

The vote just went down. As expected, the House passed the disgraceful Steny Hoyer led capitulation bill passed 293-129 I believe...It now goes to the Senate to debate next week.

What this bill means to the Telecoms: The lawsuits they face could be dismissed by a court if the Telecoms proved that they had received directives from the administration that said warrantless wiretapping was legal. They already have that evidence so basically they have been give immunity against all lawsuits with this bill.

Please keep donating to our Blue America FISA page. We will not sit back idly...We've raised another 30K since last night.

Here's Steny Hoyer's response to John King of CNN a few days ago about Joe Lieberman's endorsement of John McCain:

Hoyer: Let me say that I'm sorry that Joe felt called upon to do what he did, but our Democratic candidate, as we have done in the Congress -- the first bill that we passed through this House of Representatives was the 9/11 Commission recommendation bill to keep our country safe. Last night we passed $31 billion in additional funding so that we could confront terrorism and defeat the Taliban which was, after all, the site from which this country was attacked and which, frankly, we have distracted our attention from.

And as far as Iraq goes, we need to defeat terrorists. When we've said we ought to redeploy, we have made the caveat that we ought to make sure that we continue to confront and defeat terrorism. So I think Senator Lieberman, who I -- is a good friend of mine, I respect him, but I think in this instance he is wrong. And our Democratic candidate is going to make sure that the American public knows that we are going to be committed to the safety of this country, to the safety of our people, and to the defeat of terrorists.

With friends like these, who needs____ (fill in the blank) How can Hoyer respect a man that has turned his back on the party that nominated him as their Vice Presidential candidate in the 2000 election? He is a traitor---plain and simple. Why does Steny still suck up to him? It only makes it that much worse. Call him out for once. Tell the world that Lieberman betrayed you. You'll feel better and so will we.

Way to go!

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Majority Leader, postponed a press conference announcing new reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers banded together and said they would fight any legislation that did not include a set of eight principles on wiretapping that preserve the "rule of law."

Stoller fills us in...

I just got word from the ACLU that a new and bad FISA bill is about to be unveiled tomorrow at 1:30pm by Steny Hoyer in a press-only briefing. Telecom immunity is not in the bill, but the Senate is pressing hard for that to be included...read on