are we doomed? i hope not. but i thought this must be said and said IMMEDIATELY. after the fold:
kudos to slinkerwink and chris bowers and nyceve and others for their excellent action diaries and incessant efforts at demanding the non-negotiable PUBLIC OPTION.
However i've called the White House and the many listed senators and those of the HELP committee every day this week since before last Thursday. And after imploring daily to tell their elected official including the president that the public plan is NON-NEGOTIABLE (no to 7 year trigger, no to taxing employer health benefits, no to daschle/dole, etc) the people on the receiving end of my phonecalls say that they have BARELY heard from us. This is NO exaggeration. I was about to cry. The wingnuts and freepers are winning this.
They, even the blue states at Barbara Boxer or Diane Feinstein's office (I'm from CA) say they get FAR more calls AGAINST the public option than for it. This includes the White House. I told the comment operators at thew the whitehouse or Senate offices that a poll came out yesterday saying 76% in the new NBC/WSJ poll support the Public Option. They laughed and asked "Really????"
P.S.: The white house comment operator told me that if i really want to get my message to the president, you MUST EMAIL AS WELL AS CALLING. I say that goes for the Senators of the HELP committee listed in slinkerwink's diary.
UPDATE: i just saw a tv ad for CPRights (Conservatives for Patients Rights, though the ad did not say the word conservative nor show it!) telling people to call congress because Obama's plan would cause 119 MILLION PEOPLE to lose their health insurance. ABSOLUTE LIES!