Despite all our efforts, there's going to come a day in the not-too-distant future, when our progressives are going to come under severe (I would say, almost unbearable and inhumane) pressure from Rahm and the White House.
Rahm will use every invective known to man. He and others will attempt to threaten, humiliate, punish, destroy, defang, control, and demoralize the progressives into submission and into voting for a compromise bill which will not contain a public option.
This is where you and I come in. This is what we need to do now, and in the weeks ahead to keep the progressives firm, resolved, determined and glued together. The progressive members of Congress are the firewall for the public option.
PRIORITY ACTION:
We must have many more signatures on the Stay Firm on Your pledge for the Public Option Petition. We are at 18,000 plus signatures. We need you help in getting this number much, much higher.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AND FORWARD TO EVERY LAST HUMAN BEING YOU KNOW AND URGE THEM TO SIGN.
The pressure to capitulate on the House members who are standing firm is going to be brutal.
Members of the House who took this pledge will be under intense
pressure from Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the Obama Administration to cave for an insurance industry bailout, and will be threatened with retribution if they do not get in line.
We must continue to raise money.
After two months of your hard work, 65 members House drew a line in the sand: no public option, no health care reform. You responded by raising more than $175,000, almost $250,000 close to over $300,000 for those members in less than slightly more than 48 hours.
Can we get to $350,000? No one will doubt us if we hit that magic number.
Dear friends, I recognize as well as most the severe economic turmoil we're all experiencing. But again, we reinforce our strength and our determination by raising money for the progressives, so if you can, please give. Please give even a few dollars, because a few dollars from many people really adds up.
We must continue to reward good behavior. HERE IS A LINK TO THE ACT BLUE CONTRIBUTION PAGE, we want to thank all these good progressives who are drawing a line in the sand for the public option.
We are standing on hallowed ground. We are walking in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. We must seize our destiny from those who want only to maintain the murderous status quo.
All that you've done is a great start, but it's just the beginning. We need to make sure these 65 members hold firm. We've shown them we have their backs. Now they need to get ours.
The petition to the House is to keep their pledge to support only a public option in both the House bill AND the conference bill.
I'm heading to Washington in September to personally deliver the petition with Jane Hamsher.
I'm going to be in Washington DC next month. If we can reach at minimum 25,000 signatures (and I think we can get way, way more), Jane Hamsher and I will march togther to hand-deliver the petition to the House when they return to take up this historic health care legislation.
You may have seen this article in the New York Times about what you have done. Jane Hamsher is our beloved leader and spokesperson, but trust me on this, Jane would be the first to say, this is what you accomplished, not Jane or nyceve or slinkerwink. We're just conducting this extraordinary orchestra, and all of you are making the music.
We will measure our progress by the brutality of the attacks which are in the pipeline at this very moment. The better we do, the more horrendous will be the extremist right wing push back.
We are ramping up our response at this very moment and working on detailed instructions for the citizen push back. We'll need a serious show of hands on board, overwhelming force and the same relentless passion that we see on the lunatic right.
Make no mistake, we will be victorious, with your hard work, resolve and determination.
Here's what's being planned (just the tip of the iceberg).
In a clear sign that conservatives are worried that the public option could still survive, an internal memo from a top anti-health care reform group claims that "rumors of its death" have been "greatly exaggerated," discusses plans to run new adstargeting it, and vows to redouble efforts to foment opposition to it at town hall meetings.
Greg Sargent at the Plumline found Conservatives for Patients' Rights CPR's memo on the public option that will target Obama in Martha's Vineyard.
Here's the memo. It's going to get even nastier.
AND, AS ALWAYS, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR WORK
PLEASE DONATE WHATEVER YOU CAN. WE REALLY NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND YOU HAVE BEEN AMAZING.
THERE ARE 22,OOO LOBBYISTS IN WASHINGTON DC.
Please help us continue this fight for the American people and against the FAKE PROTESTORS, THE MOB VIOLENCE, the insurance industry lobby and its August campaign of fear.
Lobbyists and wealthy Republican donors are spending $1.4 million a day to insure that healthcare reform dies. We are beginning to win this battle--literally see daylight, where before there was darkness, thanks to your generosity.
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