The good folks over at Appalachian Voices wondered about a new website for a grassroots group pledging to show the faces who support the coal industry.  A quick analysis of the pictures in the campaign shows that the pictures of the "faces of coal" bear a striking resemblance to stock photos available from an internet clip art service.  

Rachel Maddow took the faces of coal down a notch. 

All in all, I guess this lame attempt was better than the Clean Coal Carolers, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Hankey.

Josh Marshall flagged a post by a TPM reader BR worth serious consideration.  I highly recommend the post.  It goes to show how much foresight and leadership Senator Kennedy exercised on this issue for years.

Senator Kennedy had previously introduced a bill to open Medicare coverage to all persons.  The beauty of this form of "public option" is its simplicity and its progressive potential.  Previous public options would create a new insurance plan with costs somewhere between Medicare and private insurance.  This approach would be more progressive and would reduce administrative and bureaucratic costs.

To further simplify the process, I would suggest having Congress pass a resolution which spells out broad principles of health care reform rapidly.  Then follow up with the 1,000 page bill markup at their leisure.  Haste in cementing points of agreement is critical.  That is precisely why opponents of any reform see delay as their best tactic.

Here is a modest proposal of points on principle on which Congressional Democrats may be able to get agreement quickly enough to pass a resolution:

I propose a short bill of no more than 2 pages with simple declarative sentences, such as:

 

1)  No health insurance plan may decide to drop coverage on a person because the value of their life is not deemed worth coverage.

2)  When a person leaves one insurance plan, their previous insurer must maintain coverage for six months or until they get their new coverage in place.

3)  No health insurance plan may kick people out for failure to disclose a condition.

4)  Health insurers can no longer deny coverage on basis of pre-existing conditions.

5)  All citizens will be required to have some form of health insurance coverage.

6)  No person will be forced by the government or their employer to drop their existing health insurance plan.

7)  All citizens whose employers do not provide health insurance must purchase their own health insurance.

8)  The Federal Government will allow citizens who are currently ineligible for Medicare benefits, the option of enrolling in Medicaire by paying premiums.  This optional Medicare coverage will help bring down the cost of health insurance for the uninsured who work.

9)  The optional Medicare coverage will work just as Medicare does: reimbursing private doctors for covered services.

10)  The optional Medicare coverage must be self-sustaining financially, not draining any benefits away from enrolled Medicare recipients.

11)  Those citizens who cannot afford private health insurance or optional Medicare coverage will get a tax credit to cover the extra cost of the optional Medicare premiums.

12)  The tax credits will be paid for by the extra revenue generated by the cap on health insurance tax exemptions for those making more than $250,000 per year.  No one making less than $250,000 per year will have their exemption for employer paid health insurance capped.  Those making $250,000 per year or more will have their health insurance tax exemption capped and their tax deduction for health care costs capped.  If this cap is insufficient to create revenues to offset coverage, adjustment of the marginal tax rate for those earning more than $250,000 per year may be made yearly.

 

 

Having been raised in the South, I was familiar with Ted Kennedy first through the lens of fights over desegregation.  I lived in a small town with a de facto segregated school system for the first and second grade.  Desegregation hit my town in 1972 and caused a rift.  Some whites decided that they needed to create a "Christian" school for whites only.  Others, such as my parents, welcomed the desegregated school system.  In my Second grade class, there were less than 5 black people in the whole grade.  In my Third grade class, whites were a minority instead.

That same year, a man named Jesse Helms was elected to represent North Carolina to the United States Senate.  Helms had been a radio and television commentator prior to running for office.  In one of his noted editorials, he had called for a wall to be placed around the University of North Carolina, which he claimed stood for the "University of Negroes and Communists."  In addition to his diatribes against higher education and civil rights, Helms made straw man attacks against Senator Kennedy.

It was a transparent ploy: call forth the old rebel spirit against the tide of Yankee marauders.  Helms mastered it and rode that ploy for five terms.  Each campaign was more subtle in its use of the ploy, but the ploy remained the same: scare the white people of North Carolina against the threats posed by non-whites at home and Yankee liberals from up North.

Jesse 's attacks had the opposite effect on me.  The harder he hit at Ted Kennedy, the more I grew to respect a Senator who was a true gentleman.  Jesse was portrayed by his supporters as a gentleman, but he had mean streak.  Helms used Kennedy's support for civil rights as a campaign wedge issue.  When he opposed the MLK holiday, he referred to  Ted Kennedy's support as a beef he should have taken up with "his dead brother who was president and his dead brother who was attorney general" because Hoover's FBI had wiretapped Dr. King.  Now that's class! 

Senator Kennedy rose above the insults heaped on him by Helms.  As a measure of the man,  Senator Kennedy afforded more respect than Helms offered.  Senator Kennedy was the true gentleman.

Lay down, my dear brother, lay down and take your rest...