Thieves in the Temple.

free people! Free markets!

S. 1681, the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009, would end the antitrust exemption health insurance corporations currently enjoy. You can read the bill at thomas.loc.gov in about ninety seconds, and I don't see any catches in it. Of course I'd prefer that the McCarran-Ferguson Act be repealed in its entirety (and who joined Sen. Leahy in an unsuccessful effort to do just that many years ago? Trent Lott, of course!), but S. 1681 would do in the short run. I wonder what the hard-right "free marketeers" will say, once confronted with a Democrat-sponsored bill that does actually promote competition. They'll probably say the bill violates corporate rights or something, like they think corporations are supposed to have more rights than people! I don't have a handy email contact tool, but I think S. 1681 merits a phone call to your Senators. They'll never see it coming.

Meanwhile, the RNC rolled out a "resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates" last week, which Political Wire quickly dubbed "the Conservative Purity Test." Commenter Chredon (scroll down) bashes it pretty thoroughly, but personally I'm struck by how conservative it's not. I guess I should be thankful that opposing gay marriage and abortion only comprise 20% of their platform. But they're against stimulus bills while pretending the Bush bailouts don't exist? How would Robert Taft react to "troop surges," particularly after watching his "conservative" colleagues force General Shinseki into early retirement because he wanted more troops in Iraq going in? And what are "market-based reforms"? They don't tell you, because if they did, they might have to come out and say "whatever corporations want." A real conservative would tell you that smaller communities make the best decisions on behalf of said communities, and proceed philosophically from there -- versus proceeding from "whatever Barack Obama wants is evil," as the RNC obviously does in its resolution.

being number one.

Next week will bring Congress back to work (boo!), and at the top of their agenda will be Sen. Reid's health care bill, superior to Sen. Baucus's, certainly, but not to Rep. Pelosi's. Sen. Sanders (I-VT) has proposed an amendment that would (like Mr. Kucinich's "disappeared" amendment) permit states to start their own single-payer systems. I don't have an email contact tool yet, but using the tools in the upper left-hand corner of this page, you can call your Senators and demand the inclusion of Mr. Sanders's amendment in the final bill. You might also state your displeasure with the lack of effective cost controls. The After Downing Street link above will help you do that.

Keystone Progress provides a contact tool supporting the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Wall Street stands against us, but what, exactly, is their moral appeal? Can they argue that the market knows best, after "the market" destroyed some $13 trillion of American household wealth? Can they argue that government regulation is somehow immoral, when it's our government, not some monarchy or dictatorship? Can they even argue that they're only using their own money to oppose the people's will? No, they cannot even do that -- some of the money they're using to campaign against the people's will comes from the Bush bailout, meaning it's coming from the people. "Kafkaesque" doesn't begin to describe our culture's sick, immoral, and decadent financial elites. I still hope that it won't come down to torches and pitchforks.

the rare light posting notice that actually precedes an expected period of light posting.

Congress won't be very busy this week -- which is always a cause for celebration! -- so I don't expect to get many action alerts in the near future. Therefore posting should be light for a few days.

In the meantime, please patronize the excellent links on the left- and right-hand sides of this page.

"constituents"?

The War on the Chamber of Commerce continues! The Chamber of Commerce opposes the Franken Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill (S.A. 2588 to H.R. 3326, respectively) that would prohibit defense contractors from inserting forced arbitration clauses into employment contracts on matters like sexual assault and discrimination, saying "it would set a dangerous precedent." A dangerous precedent like what? Justice? Here's the petition. And, for your further edification, here's Joshua Holland's report, provocatively entitled "Not Your Father's Chamber of Commerce: National Organization is Now a Tool of the Radical Right." Your jaw may hit the floor during paragraph nine.

dead peasants and dead presidents.

Did you know today is NETWORK's National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft? Well, now you do. Anyone collecting a paycheck these days knows that on payday, well, hours get "lost," overtime gets "lost," vacation time and personal time gets "lost." The less fortunate among us also know the pain of working for less than minimum wage, of being forced to work off the clock, of being "accidentally" classified as a consultant or independent contractor instead of an employee -- or, even, of just not being paid. Need I add that any corporation that indulges in these practices also cheats all of us, by not paying their fair share of taxes? H.R. 3303, the Wage Theft Prevention Act, would help workers immensely by extending the statute of limitations on wage theft violations, so that corporations can't just "run out the clock" on investigations. Sounds obscure, I know, but a lot of times the little things make all the difference. NETWORK helps you support the bill.

Meanwhile, Rep. Gutierrez (D-IL) has introduced H.R. 3669, which would prevent corporations from taking out life insurance policies on any employee making less than a million dollars a year. Now, given that executives like to hide their real income in bonuses and options, I'd prefer the bill be a bit more specific about the income threshold, but basically it's a good idea. Your employer may have taken a life insurance policy out on you without your knowledge; that's what we call "dead peasant insurance." Corporations began this practice as a way of protecting themselves against the death of their executives, but then (to paraphrase George Washington Plunkitt) they seen their opportunities and they took 'em, extending the practice to all their employees. It's not just another way of moving around large amounts of money in the shell-game economy -- it's also a clear conflict of interest, in that an employee might be worth more to a corporation dead than alive. The bill hasn't had a committee hearing yet, so go ahead and call your House Rep and ask them to support it (especially if they're on the Committee on Education and Labor). They'll never see it coming.

the dirty jobs.

This Friday, November 20, the New York City Council will hold a public hearing on a pro-net neutrality resolution (712A-2007) -- and Free Press decides that's as good an occasion as any to write your House Reps in support of H.R. 3458. H.R. 3458 would protect your right to surf what you want, when you want, without being told what's better for you by the big telecoms -- in short, H.R. 3458 would protect the very principle that's made the internet so terrific so far. Will the big telecoms pack the New York City Council meeting with astroturfers and keep real New Yorkers out? I suppose if I thought of it, so did they. They'd be better off spending their unearned largesse paying actual people to do actual work. Come on, we've got double-digit unemployment! Everyone's gotta make sacrifices! Even the rich!

The Senate should take up health care reform again soon, and Public Citizen takes this opportunity to help you advocate, no, not for a bill closer to the House bill that passed two weekends ago, but for single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform! Because, you know, I don't believe "the art of the possible" means demanding less that what's right. If anything, demanding what's right widens what's "possible." Meanwhile, FAIR alerts us to a Washington Post article about the health-care related "pressures" center-right Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) faces -- without noting that said "pressures" include over $300,000 in campaign contributions from the health care industry just in the second quarter of 2009, which number outstrips any Senator not named Harry Reid. The FAIR link includes contact info for the Post, if you think they care about anything you have to say. Seriously: train your puppy with some newspaper that deserves to have dog poop on it. Let me know if I'm not being clear enough about how I feel about the Washington Post.

food safety and low-power FM: momentum, momentum, momentum!

S. 510, the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act, gets a hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee tomorrow morning beginning at 10 a.m. S. 510 would require yearly inspections of high-risk food processors, and would ensure that foods imported from foreign countries meet U.S. safety standards -- thus helping us prevent all the tainted food recalls of the last several years. I suppose right-wingers will object that a corporation's right to govern its own food production processes is paramount, and that they use foreign food precisely because there's less "red tape" involved. If someone wanted to mail photographs of children killed by tainted food to anyone who'd make such an argument, I wouldn't object. But for now, Consumers Union helps you contact your Senator, if your Senator sits on the HELP committee (which you can find out here -- and you can click on any name listed on the left-hand side for contact info).

H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act, did pass out of committee last month, and may get a full House vote this week. But for some reason, some of our House members don't seem to understand why we need this bill. And by "for some reason" I mean "because the big telecoms tell them what to do." Free Press helps you email your Reps, or (if you like) broadcast info about the impending vote via facebook or twitter, but a phone call to your House Rep (using the tools in the upper left-hand corner) would also be in order. The magic phrase in all your contacts ought to be this bill draws broad support across the ideological spectrum, because it's true: the Religious Right wants greater access to low-power FM stations just as badly as we do. And why not? All I ask for is a level playing field -- and corporate power is the real enemy.

real bipartisanship (again!).

The Obama Administration has announced that 9.11 defendants will be tried in federal court rather than the Guantánamo military commissions -- and I must say that folks who fear that the 9.11 defendants might go free on "technicalities" show a tremendous lack of faith in the American justice system. Not to mention that said "technicalities" would more likely be due to Bush Mobb incompetence than that of Mr. Obama. Not to mention that, if all we wanted from anything were "guilty" verdicts, we'd be trying traffic tickets in military courts. Anyway, the Obama Administration won't be trying other detainees in the federal court system, so the ACLU helps you call for federal court cases for all detainees. We're either good enough to be both safe and free, or we're not. I know which side right-wingers come down on. I also know they come down on the wrong side.

Meanwhile, both Planned Parenthood and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State help you oppose the Stupak Amendment to the recent House-passed health care bill, which restricts federal support for abortion more than ever before. The Stupak Amendment doesn't just prevent the "public option" from covering abortion; it also prevents any health care entity that participates in the federal exchange from covering abortion, which, last I looked, was still legal. The net result? Millions of women who now have abortion coverage will lose it. If folks want to prevent women from having abortions, they need to make abortion illegal, period, end of story. They will fail in doing that in the short run, since the vast majority of Americans are now pro-choice. But you don't just throw random roadblocks in front of a woman's right to a legal medical procedure. Not if you respect the law, anyway.

Finally, S. 1789 would equalize crack and powder cocaine sentences; Families Against Mandatory Minimums helps you tell your Senators to support the bill. Also, you may be interested to know that Congress has required a review of mandatory minimum sentences as part of the recently-passed Defense Appropriations bill. I'm not surprised to see a fairly decent piece on mandatory minimums in the Wall Street Journal -- the Journal is fairly right-wing, economically, but many folks who are right-wing economically are fairly libertarian about criminal justice matters. I see another opportunity for real bipartisanship!

surprise, pimps! It's quick-action Saturday!

Public Citizen will hold a protest rally in Washington, D.C., this Monday, November 16, at noon, in front of Goldman Sachs's office on 101 Constitution Ave NW (close to Union Station). If you can make it, let Public Citizen know here; if not, you can still use this action tool supporting H.R. 3126, which would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, among other fine aims. The banksters are spending millions lobbying against any attempts to regulate them. You'd think they'd want to spend millions, you know, hiring people to help them undo the damage they've done. But no. The banksters don't think like you and I. They're bold, you know. They're doing "God's work," after all.

foreign policy Friday, plus the new Paul on the block.

Mr. Obama wants to close Guantánamo, but many members of Congress have a not-in-my-backyard attitude toward relocating detainees -- even though federal prisons already hold convicted terrorists without incident, and even though the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees aren't terrorists. So Common Cause provides an open letter to Congress supporting the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detainee center, which they rightly say the world associates with torture and tyranny. No, tyranny is not too strong a word for what's happened there. It's not too strong a word for what's happening at the Bagram holding facility, either, which threatens to become the new Guantánamo under Mr. Obama. When the "Close Bagram" alerts start arriving in my inbox, you'll see them here.

Meanwhile, as Mr. Obama takes his time figuring out what to do in Afghanistan, we can call him at 1.888.310.8637 and advise against escalating that conflict. My specific advice always goes like this: "get bin Laden, get out." A Bush-style "surge" will give America 20,000 to 40,000 soldiers' worth of breathing room, but we'd need many more than that to properly occupy a nation, and that's not the business we ought to be in. A more surgical application of soldiers/diplomats/intelligence agents would more likely produce the architect of 9.11. Now America's last reporter, Greg Palast, finds it inconceivable that a millionaire in need of dialysis is hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan. If so, that should make our exit that much quicker.

Finally, this Wall Street Journal blog piece interviews Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand "son of Ron" Paul. I'm pleased that Mr. Paul currently outpolls and outraises the Republican establishment candidate, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Greyson, but I'm less pleased that he, well, plays the game more than his father does. When Ron Paul opens his mouth, I know he's telling the truth as best he understands it regardless of the political consequences -- even when I don't agree with him, which is often. But when Rand Paul tells us that he sees similarities between his race against Mr. Greyson and Marco Rubio's "insurgent" campaign against the "established moderate" Charlie Crist, he lies three times -- first by suggesting that Mr. Rubio is a "conservative" and not a reactionary, second by suggesting that the not-terribly-moderate Mr. Crist is a moderate, and third by suggesting (though not stating) that even Mr. Greyson is some sort of moderate, though he's exactly the kind of boilerplate far-right-wing corporatist Republicans have been churning out all decade. His anti-war views are noticeably softer than his pop's, too. Maybe Rand Paul took his father's defeat in the 1984 Texas Republican Senate primary way too much to heart.

UPDATE. Spelling error corrected in paragraph 3. "Secoond" is not a word.

today's version of "I got nothin'."

I've had an unusually high number of outside commitments this week, so I apologize for the light posting. I plan to post an action-alert-with-penny-rant-tacked-on-at-the-end tomorrow, but it'll go up later in the afternoon than usual.

In the meantime, please patronize any of the excellent links I have on either side of this page. All of them will enrich you.

time and a word.

The House passed H.R. 3639, which froze credit card rates and sped up new protections for consumers to December 1, but now the Senate must act. I know why Democrats might avoid action -- Sen. Dodd (D-CT) has just introduced a massive financial regulation overhaul bill. But Republicans? They're so blindly corporatist they can't see the tips of their own noses. I can just hear Jim DeMint saying: why now? Because credit card companies have been jacking up rates, doubling minimum payments, and tacking on fees for actually paying balances off, all to beat the February deadline for implementation of new credit card reforms. That's why now. Anyway, the will of the Senate doesn't matter -- the will of the people matters. Consumers Union helps you make it so.

Meanwhile, the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460/S. 1152) allows workers to earn up to seven paid sick days per year (one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of work, which can only begin to be used after 60 days on the job, per Sec. 5). The Family Medical Leave Act permits workers 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year, but the Healthy Families Act would help workers get paid days off for illness, care of a family member, childbirth or adoption, or recovery from sexual assault or domestic violence. Opponents no doubt wonder why, if so many businesses already offer paid sick leave (I get 12 paid sick days a year at my job), why bother? Well, to kick the butts of the businesses that don't, obviously -- like the food service industry, which doesn't give paid sick leave to four out of five workers. Nice job, guys. NETWORK, the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, helps you support the bill.

Finally, though the Obama administration has set modest goals of raising fuel efficiency standards to 34 mpg and lowering carbon dioxide emissions to an average of 250 grams per mile by 2016, the auto industry is fighting them tooth and nail. You'd never know the American auto industry just got bailed out, would you? Seriously, the chutzpah of corporations in this country is just astounding -- if most of us didn't have to work for corporations, we'd all be busting out the torches and pitchforks for them right now. Anyway, the EPA is accepting public comments about the rules, and Public Citizen helps you leave your comments. Which is preferable to busting out torches and pitchforks, of course. I sure do hope it never comes to that.

here, there, and everywhere.

In a not entirely surprising development, the uneasy truce between the democratically-elected-but-overthrown leader of Honduras, President Zelaya, and the usurper, General Micheletti, has fallen apart. Thus SOA Watch reminds us that Mr. Obama's phone number is 202.456.1111 (or 202.456.1414), and that State Secretary Clinton's number is 202.647.4000, and that we may leave messages with these individuals demanding that the U.S. government not recognize the illegitimate government of Honduras or the upcoming November 29 elections. Think about it: the usurpers have already attacked their own people. Do you think they'll conduct fair elections, now less than three weeks away? Hardly. You may also press for the reinstatement of Mr. Zelaya and punishment for those who have violated human rights.

In other news, House health care legislation (H.R. 3962) passed by a five-vote margin late Saturday evening, with one Republican (Joe Cao of Louisiana, exactly whom I expected) voting "yea" after the Democrats got their margin. H.R. 3962 passed with that awful Stupak amendment, but on balance it's a better bill than I thought: it still includes the individual mandate, but also mandates large employers to help provide insurance, and prevents health insurers from jacking up rates based on pre-existing conditions (or gender, I might add), which items a bill needs to have at the least if it's going to have an individual mandate. It also includes a not-particularly-robust public option. But the bill may one day achieve what single-payer could achieve more quickly -- if the Senate doesn't eviscerate it. Mr. Lieberman has already said he'll join a Republican filibuster against any bill with a public option "as a matter of conscience." Whose conscience, he doesn't say. Not the conscience of the people of Connecticut, I imagine -- which is the only "conscience" that should matter in his vote.

all in one day: the health care version.

The House debates their massive health care bill today -- which is unusual, since they normally have weekends off -- and hopes to vote by the end of the day. The bill they'll produce will be better than the one that passed the Senate Finance Committee. But they've done gone and angered up my blood. The House leadership apparently persuaded Rep. Weiner (D-NY) to withdraw his amendment, which would have essentially replaced the entire bill with a single-payer system like the one described in H.R. 676, but then permitted Rep. Stupak (D-MI) to proceed with an anti-abortion amendment. You can call your House Reps and oppose the Stupak amendment using the tools in the upper left-hand corner. And the People's Email Network provides a petition saying, simply: "pass Medicare for All, or pass nothing."

Am I a bad liberal for doing this? Hell no! What's my job as citizen again? To express my will -- not to express some watered-down version of my will that might make other people like me, and certainly not to go along with What's Best for Team Democrat. The Democrats are not my team. America is my team. And yes, I suppose the Democrats would risk losing their majorities in 2010 even if they did pass single-payer -- not because the people oppose it (because they don't, if every poll I've been reading for the last ten years is any indication), but because the corporations and their lackeys oppose it, and will spend tons of money lying about it, and thus help create an atmosphere where some other legislative mis-step will prove fatal. But at least then it would be worth it, because we'd have single-payer. And I maintain that the Democrats run a greater risk of losing both Houses if they pass this bill -- or, worse, if both Houses produce a compromise bill that they never vote upon because all their constituents know it's a pile of dung.

early in the morning.

OK, now I'm hearing that the House may vote either on H.R. 676, the single-payer health care bill, or the Weiner Amendment to the House leadership-approved health care bill that would essentially replace said bill with H.R. 676. Such a vote could happen literally any minute, so Public Citizen helps you tell your Rep to vote yes on this matter. Many Reps (mine included) have said they'd vote in favor of single-payer if it ever came to a vote; now's the time for them to keep their word. I'd follow up with a phone call, as well. Nothing like a little message force multiplication to keep the politicians on their toes.

Meanwhile, the Senate works on their version of ENDA, S. 1584, and some Senators are apparently making noises about broadening exemptions for religious organizations so they can discriminate against gays more. I'm willing to put up with the exemptions already in the House version of ENDA, because those exemptions conform with existing law -- only churches and non-profits would get those exemptions, because Title VII of the Civil Rights Act permits them. But now religious broadcasters are trying to get individual religious employers exempted as well, which would basically eviscerate the bill. Everyone's entitled to their own religious beliefs -- but not to an all-encompassing right to discriminate against people on the basis of said beliefs. I think opposition to this far-right lobbying effort merits a phone call to your Senators. They'll never see it coming.

Pennsylvania residents, take note: the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has drafted a climate change action plan that calls for Pennsylvania to cut its emissions 30 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. That's the biggest cut I've ever seen, and (so far) it doesn't involve any cap-and-trade games. I almost feel crass for mentioning this, but this effort would create a lot of jobs for people who can help houses, businesses, and transportation services meet the new limits. Of course, if the state doesn't hear from us, it could just pretend the plan never existed. But PennEnvironment helps you leave a comment so that, yeah, like, they'll have to listen. Or at least look bad if they don't listen.

time passes slowly.

I'm not interested in calling my Reps and Senators to support the House health care bill. It still contains the individual mandate, it still contains a not-particularly robust public option, and it doesn't even allow states to create their own single-payer plans if they like, a Dennis Kucinich brainchild that made it out of committee but, somehow, didn't make the final bill. But Brendan Skwire calls our attention to the Eshoo/Barton amendment in the House's health care bill dealing with biologics, or drugs made from living organisms. Those who use them swear by them -- or, should I say, those who can afford them swear by them -- but Eshoo/Barton gives corporations the right to tweak their biologic drugs in such infinitesimally small ways that far cheaper generics will never appear on the market. Reps. Waxman (D-CA) and Deal (R-GA) apparently had an amendment that would have permitted generics to penetrate the market more easily, but of course Mrs. Pelosi caved to the Blue Dogs and put the Eshoo/Barton amendment in. Because the Blue Dogs are all about fiscal responsibility, even when it costs more. I think the Eshoo/Barton amendment is a good thing to call your Reps about, using the tools in the upper left-hand corner of this page. (In other news, that vote on the Weiner amendment? Not happening. This bill is a boatload of suck, and the Democrats will pay for it in 2010. The good news? Just as the remaining moderate Republicans in the House paid the price for the scarlet R in 2006 and 2008, the Democrats most likely to lose their House seats will be Blue Dogs.)

Meanwhile, behind every dark cloud there's another one: six law professors find too much ambiguity in the FCC's proposed net neutrality rule. The professors found the FCC's definition of "nondiscrimination" too narrow -- the FCC applies the term to an ISP trying to charge content providers for enhanced access, but not to ISPs trying to slow or block traffic. I guess you'd say the FCC applies "nondiscrimination" to positive discrimination but not negative discrimination, which can be just as bad. The professors also found the FCC's definition of "reasonable network management" to be, well, just about nonexistent -- the rule offers no guidance over whether, say, a Comcast can slow BitTorrent traffic at will, which FCC Chair Kevin Martin said they could not do in 2007. Is this another example of the Obama Administration wanting to hear from all sides? Fine; that's why we have public comments on executive branch rule-making. But if you don't define "reasonable network management," you might wind up letting corporations do it for you. And that would be bad.

don't stop 'til you get enough.

S. 1808, the Control Spending Now Act, would cut a lot of wasteful spending, chief among them the $244 billion in as-yet-unspent Bush bailout money. Senator Feingold's bill also targets earmark spending, corporate welfare, and big agribusiness subsidies. Chances are that, if you read the bill at thomas.loc.gov, you'll find something you don't agree with, but I think the aggregate effect of the bill is quite positive, even if it includes that annoying line-item veto section that the Supreme Court will almost certainly strike down (as they did a decade ago). I think S. 1808 merits a phone call to your Reps and Senators. None have stepped up to co-sponsor Mr. Feingold's bill, not even putative spending hawk John McCain. So give them a call. They'll never see it coming.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama signed a bill last week including gays in hate-crimes legislation -- if we must have hate-crimes legislation (and reasonable people disagree about that), it ought to include gays -- and now the Gay and Lesbian Task Force reminds us that H.R. 2981, a.k.a. ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, requires our support. Of course the right-wing "family" "values" crowd has their knickers in a twist over it -- the American Family Association, for instance, tells us that, if ENDA passes, a "Christian school...would not be allowed to reject a homosexual" who applied for a particular job. That's a lie -- under ENDA, an employer would be unable to reject a homosexual just because they're homosexual, and ENDA doesn't even establish an affirmative action program for gays. That's your "Christian" right-wing: always thinking you're stupid. I bet on you being smart.

Finally, Mr. Obama has just done something we thought he wouldn't do -- nominate an industry lobbyist to head a federal agency. If Mr. Obama gets his way, Anne Ferro would head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates truck safety. Granted, we're in November before we're hearing about the kind of thing Mr. Bush did all the time, but that doesn't make it any less wrong. Ms. Ferro lobbied in favor of Bush rules that would have increased the number of hours truckers could drive without a break. Ever met a truck driver? I've met dozens (I used to unload trucks in college), and they're among the most overworked people on Earth. They don't need to be spending even more time on the road; they need to be paid better for the work they do. Letting them work more hours, putting them and other drivers on the road at an unacceptably high risk -- what a typical Bush solution to a problem. Public Citizen provides the contact tool.

UPDATE. Argh! I've fixed the link in the 3rd paragraph so that it works.

one nation under a groove.

Weren't we just hoping the House would put together a bill restraining PATRIOT Act excesses? Along comes H.R. 3845, the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009, which would reform the National Security Letters and library records search provisions and would also require the government to go through a court when it wants a national security gag order. However, the bill does not contain protections for charities that do humanitarian work in strife-torn lands. The ACLU helps you ask the House for that protection. The House Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on PATRIOT Act reauthorization tomorrow, so let's get crack-a-lackin'.

Public Citizen (the source of yesterday's health care action alert, as I should have mentioned) informs me that we're doing a good job putting pressure on our Reps to demand a vote on the Weiner amendment to the health care bill -- which would essentially replace the health care bill with H.R. 676, the single-payer bill. Now Public Citizen urges you to call Speaker Pelosi herself, at 202.225.0100 (though you can also use the number I found at her website yesterday), and demand a vote on the Weiner amendment. The amendment, if passed by both houses and signed by the President, would eliminate the private health insurance industry. Some people say that like it's a bad thing. I think it's a good thing. Like Rep. Weiner, I wonder: what service does the private health insurance industry provide, other than converting care for others into profit for themselves?

Apparently the Senate did not vote last week on H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009. I don't know what's holding them up this time. I do know that this economy, now widely presumed by the chattering class to be "recovering," still hemorrhages over half a million jobs a month. NETWORK, the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby (I may not stop), helps you tell your Senators to support extending unemployment benefits. It's not like the unemployed can just go get another job or something. Hello, Senators? No one's hiring..

H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act, sailed through a House subcommittee and a House committee; now it deserves a full vote in the House. The Local Community Radio Act -- which, all together now, enjoys actual bipartisan support -- would enable the creation of hundreds of new, small, independent low-power FM radio stations, a nice alternative to the 80-song playlists we put up with from every big radio station we encounter. The big radio stations also don't serve communities that well -- they only run news in the mornings, and they banish their public interest broadcasting to an early Sunday-morning ghetto. So Free Press helps you contact your Reps and Senators with the number one reason you support low-power FM stations. I've given you three reasons, but of course you've got others. One of those might even be "I'm dissatisfied with the amount/quality of religious programming I get from big radio stations."

Finally, today is Election Day, one of the holiest days on the "Thieves in the Temple" calendar, so even though it's an off-year, go out and vote. Virginia and New Jersey will elect governors today, and New York Congressional district 23 will elect either a Democratic or Conservative Party House Rep today (the Republican dropped out over the weekend and, despite what you may have heard from Fox News, she then endorsed the Democrat). And in my lovely vale, we'll elect a new District Attorney. So, if anyone has any problems voting today -- said problems may include, but are not limited to, finding the polling place, voter intimidation, accessibility issues, voting machine problems, and provisional ballot issues -- or if anyone witnesses anyone having these or any other problems, the toll-free number for you to call is, as always, 1.866.OUR.VOTE -- or if, like me, mnemonic devices such as "OUR VOTE" actually slow you down considerably when you're dialing, 1.866.687.8683.

tempus fugit.

Rep. Weiner (D-NY) wants to offer an amendment to the current House health care reform bill that would essentially replace it with H.R. 676, the single-payer bill. Of course, House leaders decide which amendments get votes and which don't, and Nancy Pelosi seems to have an animus toward single-payer for some reason -- so we need to call our Reps right away and demand a vote. The Capitol switchboard number is 202.224.3121; you may also use the tools in the upper left-hand corner of this page. While you're at it, you may as well call Mrs. Pelosi herself at 202.225.4965 and ask her to submit H.R. 676 to the Congressional Budget Office for an evaluation of its cost. I bet it costs less than the House's ineffectual bill, which in turn cost less than the Senate's even more ineffectual bill. Don't take "because the bill won't pass" as an answer. If the people find out how much it'll save while providing better services than we get from the HMOs now, then Congressfolk will have to vote against the people's will.

Meanwhile, the current House bill does ensure full access to reproductive health care services for women, and Planned Parenthood helps you ensure that whatever comes out of Congress continues to do so. You can amend the contact tool to reflect your preference for single-payer health care, especially in paragraph one. And if the Vitters and DeMints of the world really want to deny women access to birth control and abortion, then they ought to work to make birth control and abortion illegal, rather than forcing the law to discriminate against more than half the population. That's all I've got to say about that.

Finally, the New York Times reported that the legitimate and illegitimate governments of Honduras have agreed to let the democratically-elected Mr. Zelaya finish out his term. At least that's impression you gather from its lede. Then there's this nugget, buried down in paragraph 13: "Some significant obstacles remain, not least of which is the approval of the nation’s Congress, which voted overwhelmingly to strip Mr. Zelaya of power four months ago and now has to decide whether to reinstate him." Well, that's hopeful! And then, in paragraph 18, Mr. Micheletti (the usurper) apparently thinks the accord with Mr. Zelaya will create a "unity government." One hopes that, with world opinion unified against the Micheletti "government," Honduras's Congress will do the right thing and reinstate Mr. Zelaya. But hope is exactly what it is. It's not exactly a contract.