SINGLE PAYER ACTION REPORTS: In the wake of the Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) flip-flop and flameout this morning, single payer activists were in no mood for lecturing from Howard Dean and John Conyers (D-Michigan). At a gathering on Capitol Hill earlier today, Dean had just started in on his talk – titled “Why This is the Moment for Reform?” – when single payer activists began criticizing him for supporting Obama’s health care legislation. Dean wrote in December that the Senate bill would do “more harm than good” and that if he were a Senator, he would vote against it. Single Payer Action’s Russell Mokhiber accused Dean of being a “shill for the biotech industry.” Over the past year, Dean has been with the corporate law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge – representing biotech companies seeking to defeat regulation of biologic medicines… VIDEO streaming out of YouTube, 06:44

This week in March, Americans note that federal health care reform has been in the works for a whole year. Bills have been written and amended; support has been promised and at times withdrawn.

As time went on, progressives pushed again and again for a strong single-payer health care system to emerge from federal law or their state legislatures. As time went on, a resurgence of conservative activists grew more fearful and vocal about the dangers of such change. President Obama started out the year speaking on the bright shining idea of a public option, or state-funded insurance plan that could cover any citizen who chooses it. The President's stance grew weaker and more beholden to private insurance companies as the debates dragged on, from summer to fall.

We lost Senator Ted Kennedy in this last fateful year, and still his long fight for reform, including meaningful health care reform, is impressed upon us. But what will actually be done? | Watch video

FEAR & LOATHING AT DUPONT CIRCLE? DONKEYCRATIC ASTROTURFERS GEAR UP FOR ANOTHER TIMEWASTER Folks, cast your minds back to about a year ago: the PowerShift feel-good "go green" event featuring Democratic Party honchos, the creepy-looking rally of college kids in toy green construction helmets in front of the Capitol — and, most distasteful of all, the CCA and their phony civil disobedience which was all civil and no disobedience, just a big fat photo op so they could say "hey, look at us blockading the Capitol Power Plant" before going back to their rally and leaving all the real direct-action activists twisting in the wind. Well, gang, it looks like the same kind of crowd is going to be in town on March 9th at 10:30am, only this time it's some phony "Citizen's Posse" claiming to be readying a "Citizens' Mass Arrest" of health-insurance company CEOs after rallying at Dupont Circle. This outfit and their hangers-on practically give themselves away with their mindless, slavish support of the current healthcare "reform" bill — you know, the hospital, pharmaceutical and insurance company giveaway combined with taxed benefits and mandatory corporate health insurance purchases for even the brokest of the broke — and their ties to tired old Liberal/Democratic outfits like MoveOn, The Nation, the AFL-CIA — uh, CIO, and the NAACP. So, let's follow a few Web links and check out the gory details on these tools, and find out why the People may "have a posse", but these hucksters aren't it.

Well, SOME news sources are worth checking out for political news. Others, not so much.

My roommate back in college admitted once that he spent an awful lot of time complaining about things (Usually justifiably, I thought) but felt he really had to make an exception once and to declare that the meal we were eating at a usually not-so-great cafeteria was really first-class. In the same light, I'd really like to commend the front-page piece in the Inky today summing up the health care summit yesterday. It's a solid, substantve piece that lets one know where all the players in the health care game are standing and where they're headed.

A cartoon explanation of why we need a public health insurance option.

If you agree that a public option should be part of the health care reform bill, make sure you let your representatives know!

And take action at http://www.YoungInvincibles.org

Animated by Andy Lubershane. More comics at http://www.earthlycomics.blogspot.com

Note: The data in this cartoon is supported by this report: http://www.ourfuture.org/healthcare/h..., which includes a lot more detail on current proposals for a public option.

Confronted by global climate change, health concerns, and disturbing news about the treatment of farmed animals, many people are switching to a flexitarian or vegetarian lifestyle. If you find yourself wondering about the impact of dietary choices, now is a great time to sign up for the Spring 2010 sessions of Veg 101, offered by Northwest VEG.

Veg 101 classes will run from 6:30-8:45 PM every Sunday from March 7 to April 25. Each class features a one-hour lecture and one-hour cooking class, with samples served. View the complete course description at  http://nwveg.org/veg101.php

Northwest VEG is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) group that supports healthier, more sustainable, compassionate food choices. Join us for the 2010 Portland VegFest, which will be held on September 18 and 19 at the Oregon Convention Center.

For more information about Northwest VEG, visit www.nwveg.org.

January 22nd marked the 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The January 23rd "Walk for Life", was smaller than in past years. By its own estimate, the group against reproductive choice was 20,000 to 30,000. However the San Francisco Chronicle estimated the size at "several thousand", not the "tens of thousands" that the pro-lifers claim. More than 200 pro-choice activists, while a smaller group, had a significant presence with music by Brass Liberation Orchestra, the Raging Grannies, a great pro-woman rapper on stage.

Rustbelt Radio for January 18, 2010

Planned Parenthood moving to a new bigger facility got churches across the country to ship thousands of folks here to Houston on Martin Luther King day to protest abortion and womens access to safe and affordable health services. Pro-Choice and feminist groups were able to mobilize a small number of folks (honestly, at around 30 this is bigger than many Houston protests) but it was dwarfed by the thousands of carpetbaggers who came to protest Planned Parenthood.

A January 2, Boston Globe editorial, "Don’t be shy on family planning" announces that the Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA)has been blocking Planned Parenthood advertisements on Worcester buses.

After Re'Anita Burns and other members of Youth United for Community Action helped shut down hazardous waste disposal company Romic Technologies, The Nation hailed their action as one of the top 10 youth activism victories of 2007. As 24-year-old Re'Anita enters a second decade of organizing in her community of color, she fights for tenants who need relief from illegal rent increases. She says she is not sure what changes the next ten years will bring to East Palo Alto, but she knows one thing for certain: she will never stop being a community organizer.

If you do only one more political thing this year as we put 2009 to bed--RIP, let it be to listen to Bernie Sanders on the floor of the United States Senate speak about Health Care Reform which boots out corporate greed! Sanders speech is being heralded the "New Social Movement" and this couldn't come at a better time...

For 2009 reflect for just a minute on all the garbage we have been subjected to pertaining to Health Care Reform and realize that from the start the campaign has been designed by the corporate greedy who literally buy reform that makes them lots & lots more money. Profit over people wins again. The campaign for healthcare reform loses, but out of it we have the "New Social Movement"

So let us do put 2009 to bed and permanently behind us. It has been a horrible year, however we deserve to end it on a high note. We need this. If you do only one more political thing this year listen to Bernie Sanders uplifting speech describing a wonderful vision for 2010. Not a campaign, a movement!--In solidarity, Wes Brain, Chair, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice, CARRY ON!

The Bernie Sanders speech is at:  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=9083042

Following distributed by "All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676" "Senate Speech Heralds New Social Movement" by Margaret Flowers and Andy Coates. Keep on reading....

The December episode of Chicago Independent Television features health care activists at Chicago protests for a Single Payer/Medicare for All health system, a Chicago presentation for Palestinian rights by the founder of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, a vigil in the Pilsen neighborhood on Chicago's south side against the Fisk coal burning plant, and a presentation from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the most progressive member of the U.S. Senate.

Read more about Episode 53 | CIMC TV Podcast | CIMC Video Page | CITV on YouTube

Newly-elected (by his own City Council) Mayor Mike Rotkin will cross verbal swords with Robert Norse in the Free Radio Santa Cruz studio on Sunday, December 13th at 10:30am on 101.1 FM and online. Topics are expected to include the proposed ban on new medical marijuana clinics and growhouses, recently installed anti-homeless architectural changes downtown, the Sleeping Ban and more.

On Monday Senator Schumer (NY) announced his support for an expansion of Medicare to those 55 years old and older. Activists say this is not enough. The Mobilization for Healthcare Now launched another wave of protests in its campaign demanding a national single-payer system in the US. On Thursday December 10th, demonstrations occurred at the office buildings housing Senators offices in 16 states. Not including today 35 sit-ins have been organized in a two month period. Video is available at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7mZY0JwTfM