In fact, if I were a pure good government type and could be assured that enough time would be given to allow success, I'd prefer a small pilot system that started with 10 states and let it run 3-5 years before expanding it. That won't work with our political system, so in my mind this is not only a more politically viable solution, but I prefer it over an immediate national public option. Let's see how it works.

And justifying a boycott because the CEO should have known this might cause a boycott-- absolutely brilliant. That's right-wing thinking at its finest.

Alas, manufacture all this misplaced outrage if you must, b/c at the end of the day, only about 5% of Whole Foods' customers will hear about this story, only 10% of those will care and only 10% will join the futile boycott. I'd be shocked if the boycott by 0.05% of their customers even registered in the noise. So not only is this effort misguided, but it's doomed to failure too. But if it really makes you think it's having an effect, then dig right in.

Now, a CEO puts forth concrete proposals for health care reform alternatives, and instead of trying to elevate the discourse by engaging in a critique of the opinion piece from a policy point of view, the progressive blogosphere goes into full-bore echo chamber mode and attacks this man for having the temerity to carefully express his ideas in a national newspaper.

We get the government, the politicians and the debate that we deserve in a democracy. And right now, what we deserve is right-wing demagogues making up crap about death panels. And we only have ourselves to blame.

You've done the hard work of finding the damning bits of information. Now be a great blogger by posting the extended quotes and trusting the reader to make their own decision instead of having to rely on your interpretation.

Frustrated.