Countdown’s free clinic in New Orleans reveals health reform’s human stories, demonstrates need for overhaul, Daily Kos TV, November 16, 2009, by Jed Lewison:

“A few weeks ago, Countdown Sr. Producer Richard Stockwell came up with an idea: create a series of free clinics which would not only deliver care to the uninsured, but would demonstrate the need for health care reform that covers all Americans.

“On Saturday, Stockwell attended the first of those free clinics, held in New Orleans in partnership with the National Association of Free Clinics. On Monday, Stockwell described his experience there in a post on MSNBC.com, delivering a powerful and moving testament to the imperative of a health care overhaul.

“Keith Olbermann read the post in its entirety during the first segment of Monday’s Countdown, along with video footage from the free clinic itself.

*****

Where things stand: back on November 12, 2009, Evans Politics ran a complete version of  The Corporate Empire Strikes Back: Corporate Dems Seek “Alternative” To Public Option. Again., Daily Kos, November 12, 2009, by Hunter. Things haven’t changed much in a week, and insiders say health care reform will be discussed inside the Democratic caucus as soon as today (Wednesday — See Salon article below). It may take till the end of the month to make it to the floor, though. However it doesn’t look good for true health care reform; let me quote from the article mentioned, to show you why:

We learned that:

Even as Senate Majority Leader Reid seeks votes for a healthcare bill with a public option that states can opt-out of, Reid has allowed Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., to work on what one aide called a “Plan B” if Reid cannot line up 60 votes for cloture.

The “Plan B” Carper has come up with is not a co-op, and not a trigger, but a co-op trigger. A co-op that wouldn’t even happen unless it was triggered. Which it wouldn’t be, because “triggers” are the legislative equivalent of sternly worded letters; they don’t happen. That’s the brilliant plan being dreamed up because not only is the public option too controversial, not only is an option with opt-out controversial, not only are the ineffective and nonsensical “co-ops” too controversial, and not only was a trigger itself much too scary, but the only thing Carper and some other Dems think would be milquetoast enough for the Senate to stomach would be a trigger that does nothing attached to a co-op that will do nothing.

Ahem.

Sen. ranking, percentage corporate PAC money raised in relation to individual contributions (via fivethirtyeight.com.)

So, let me get this straight: we’ve got Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), of all people, coming up with an “alternative” to the currently proposed opt-out public option. We’re going to be listening to the earnest proposals from Tom Carper, the senator from the great state of corporate-magic-fairyland Delaware, a state that seems at this point only to exist in order to allow America’s largest corporations to circumvent the corporate laws and taxes of other states.

Tom Carper, who is the number one recipient of corporate cash vs. individual contributions of all Democrats in the Senate, with about 44 percent of every one of his campaign dollars coming from corporate PACs — a feat that required him out-grubbing all four of the other top corporate go-to Democrats on that list, Blanche Lincoln, Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson and Max Baucus, all of whom have already gone to great and much-publicized lengths to make sure that any bill passed by the Senate is as much of a cash cow for private insurance companies as possible, and who have become regular fixtures in the attempt to gut, water down, or carve away anything that might be the slightest bit inconvenient for those companies.

That Tom Carper.

With all due respect — which is to say, next to zero — you have got to be kidding me.

And this is because Joe Lieberman lives in Connecticut, where these health care industry giants have their headquarters, and because the woman he sleeps with at night (his wife) is a health care industry lobbyist. And now Lincoln has lined up with him (I wonder how much that cost?). So kiss the 60 vote override on the fillibuster against any true, decent public option goodbye.

See the transcript of Keith Olbermann’s commentary, here.

Visit the National Association of Free Clinics, where you can find a clinic in your area or donate.

See Reid ready to present health bill to fellow Dems, Salon, November 17, by Alex Koppelman, excerpt quoted verbatim:

These aren’t exactly happy days for those people who’d like to see healthcare reform passed, and soon. Sure, the House approved its bill more than a week ago now, but the Senate looks like it’s ready to hold things up. Just Tuesday, there was talk of yet another blown deadline, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin wouldn’t even make a firm prediction that President Obama would have signed a final bill before next year’s State of the Union.

There was one little bright spot at the end of the day, though. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office let his fellow Democrats know that they’ll be meeting Wednesday so that he can give them the bill he’s been working on for weeks now. That means the first procedural vote on the legislation — one to open debate — could come before the Senate recesses for Thanksgiving.

Visit often Politico’s Live Pulse, for “breaking news on the health care fight.”

But back to the good work Countdown is doing with it’s free health clinic:

Keith Olbermann: Health reforms human stories
at a Free Health Care Clinic in New Orleans

(Why isn’t Joe Lieberman ashamed
at demonstations of human suffering like this?)