ePluribus Media had a chance to get to a Blogger's meet up with Rep. Jim Himes in Norwalk, Connecticut, on Tuesday night and we hit on a bunch of topics. We have a couple of videos up on the topic of Healthcare Reform over here already and you can peek at these YouTube uploads for more (Six from this event edited so far).

But for those of you that might wonder "if Rep. Anthony Weiner is really pushing as hard as he can for Single Payer?" You might enjoy this short and humorous video from the interview below the fold:

ePluribus Media - along with Connecticut Bob, Saramerica and AndersonScooper - had an opportunity to sit down and talk to Connecticut Representative Jim Himes and discuss various issues. This first part is on Healthcare Reform and Reconciliation:

Part 2 of the healthcare discussion gets a little more into what can be achieved through reconciliation and is below the fold. I will be posting more video from this as I finish editing and uploading it to YouTube.

If you have any doubt about that, just ask the people that are actually trying to make a difference:

And since the entitled political class feels no compulsion to come
and bear witness to the fruits of their morally deplorable conduct.
 Here it is for the world to see.

Meet Nicole Lamoureux, the heroine and executive director of the
National Association of Free Health Clinics describing being repeatedl
and serially smacked in the face, with  very invitation her
organization extends to the politicians to see the reality of the lives
of their constituents.

Note: Listen at the end of the tape (which I forgot to turn off),
Nicole's utter disgust and that they are working to find a location to
set up in Washington.

"We extend invitations to all the members of Congress, but they never come"

More below the fold.

I was watching Countdown last night and Keith Olbermann had said
that 1000 people got free healthcare at the clinic in Hartford. Most of
them had not had access to a Doctor in years. Whether it was the
unemployed, the underemployed, the working poor. The common thread
among them all is that access to medical professionals is beyond their
financial  reach because of our completely broken healthcare insurance
for profit. MSNBC's Ed Schultz broadcast from there yesterday, their
network had organized the fund raising for this effort, and he had some
harsh words for the politicians that are ignoring these people that are
in dire straights.

Lives were saved because of this.

Updating with a bit of video from Countdown on Dorgan, Dodd, the Senate supermajority and the Free Clinics:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I was going to write about this after seeing it on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night but someone beat me to it. Via Kirby at CtBob and coming to Hartford, CT, next month:

Volunteer Feb 3 PLEASE!

The National Association of Free Clinics is
bringing a free clinic to the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford
on Wednesday Feb 3 from noon to 7pm. Volunteers are needed -- licensed
health professionals, people who can help set up the evening before,
those who can assist with registration, escorting patients and just
about anything else you can think of. Sign up here.

Keith Olbermann has been diligently working on setting up these free
clinics with NAFC and raising money in states in which senators have
fought health reform. I have been hoping we would have one here to show Joe LIEberman that
there are people who need this help right here in the Nutmeg state.

Tessa at My Left Nutmeg says:

"They need Doctors, Dentists, Psychologists, Translators, nice people
to register patients, strong people to set up the examination areas,
etc.etc."

If you don't have time to make it to one of their clinics to help out, please consider donating to The National Association of Free Clinics towards supporting both their advocacy and free clinics. More volunteer info from their site below the fold:

When you consider the polarization of politics across the nation, Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal's numbers both in favorabilities and versus any of the candidates in the #GOPsmackdown primary have to be considered ridiculously good across the board:

Blumenthal heavily favored

When Chris Dodd retired last night his seat went from one of the most
vulnerable to one of the safest for Senate Democrats. Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at
least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before
Dodd's announcement.

Blumenthal
is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters
like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19%
who see him negatively. It's no surprise that he's liked by 71% of
Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him
favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn't take a lot of hands to count
the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP
voters these days.

Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda
McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse
for him not to be Connecticut's next Senator.

Calling Blumenthal heavily favored is an understatement.

Regardless of his low favorabilities, if you look at Sen. Dodd's numbers versus the GOP primary candidates polled, he barely loses to Simmons and it is probably within the margin of error since it is only a 4 point gap, ties McMahon and beats Schiff. Any guesses as to whether or not Senator Dodd had acess to these numbers before making his decision last night?

CT-05 Rep. Chris Murphy beats all 3 candidates but his numbers are lower than Blumenthal's, while President Barack Obama and healthcare reform also performed well in this Connecticut poll. Peter Schiff may as well drop out of the race now as all 3 polled Democratic candidates would likely beat him with even Dodd having a 7 point lead against him.

Some of the numbers below the fold.

It is way too early in the morning but I figured I'd check for the latest Quinnipiac poll results for the Connecticut Governor's race:

In an early look at the 2010 election for Connecticut
Governor, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz runs best among possible
Democratic challengers, trailing Republican incumbent Jodi Rell 46 - 40
percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.



Gov. Rell leads 91 - 5 percent among Republicans and 56 - 26 percent
among independent voters, while Bysiewicz leads 74 - 12 percent among
Democrats.



Businessman Ned Lamont trails Rell 53 - 33 percent and Stamford Mayor
Dan Malloy loses 52 - 33 percent, the independent Quinnipiac
(KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.



In a Democratic primary matchup, Bysiewicz gets 26 percent to 23
percent for Lamont, with 9 percent for Malloy. No other contender tops
3 percent.

With no candidate on the right to compare, all I can say
is that it looks like Susan Bysiewicz is the early front runner in the
race for the Democratic party nomination.



And it looks like Rell may still be able to squeak out on a bit of a high note barring anymore news of the scandal involving Dautrich - AKA: Rell's Brain - and Quinnipiac leaking out. Of course, this poll was, I believe, taken before the news of subpoenas going out in that scandal.

Still waiting on word from Rell on whether or not she will be running - presumably she is having trouble forming an opinion on whether or not to run without Dautrich first poll testing the idea - but, via Paul Bass, it looks like Lamont is getting ready to run for Governor:

Ned Lamont, who took on U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman three years ago, has formed an “exploratory committee” for a challenge to Gov. M. Jodi Rell in 2010. He plans to talk about Moody’s, not Moody.

Lamont planned to start informing past supporters of his move Wednesday morning, a day after the polls closed on the 2009 municipal elections and attention officially turns to the already crowded 2010 campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate.

h/t to TPMDC for the full press release from Ned Lamont:

We really want to know which way the wind blows, Joe? The other day you were dead set against the Public Option, much to the chagrin of Connecticut voters. And now:

In the spirit of the post by Luaptifer, yesterday, of BradBlog's "Tea Party Express II: Rise of the Teabags", I wanted to share with you a compilation video CtBob did of some of his footage from Tea Party events in CT, mixed with some interviews and background on some of the people involved with the originally documented material.

When you read stuff like this you really don't have to wonder if Dautrich focus group tested this message before she sent it out:

A review of documents provided by the university to The Day also shows that the governor's office did not fully comply with previous requests for public records, leaving out a handful of e-mail responses from Moody to Dautrich, including a message that thanks the professor for his help in crafting Rell's budget speech.

Harris declined to comment on any of the new findings in the UConn documents, but said in an interview this week that the Moody e-mails had been withheld from a reporter inadvertently because the governor's staff had not correctly used the "Find" function in the Outlook e-mail program when complying with The Day's records request.

1st thing:

John Kantrowitz was kind enough to invite me to a CCAG BBQ/Fundraiser in Woodbridge, CT, after Senator Dodd's Blogger outreach in New Haven, CT on September 26th, '09. They had set up for video but their cam was not working so I whipped out mine and started filming... IOW, sorry for the blackout in the first few seconds and sorry I didn't get the intro and beginning of Ned Lamont speaking:

Video of Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Speaker of the House and State Rep. Chris Donovan below the fold.

Since some morons are saying that is the "Left of the Left" that are pushing for the public option and this supposed to be shocking news to be breathlessly reported on in the traditional media... As they continue their twisted and contorted takes on reality, let us look at who really supports the public option, OK?

67% of conservatives support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

71% of Republicans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

77% of Americans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

For those of you politicians and media stenographers that have a problem with reading comprehension I took a moment to annotate this Survey USA graphic. There is your "Left of the Left" in RED and BLUE...



Now... You could do nothing at all about this issue OR... You could contact these Connecticut politicians (or your own local politicians) and ask them to join the vast majority in the "Left of the Left" and take a strong stand for a public option:

CT-01: John Larson - Phone: 202-225-2265

CT-02: Joe Courtney - Phone: 202-225-2076


CT-03: Rosa DeLauro - Phone: 202-225-3661

CT-04: Jim Himes - Phone: 202-225-5541

CT-05: Chris Murphy - Phone: 202-225-4476


If voting on principle is not enough incentive for them... Perhaps we can interest them in this ever sweetening pot of gold:

Bloggers Take $300,000 Victory Lap

We just crossed the $300,000 mark in our effort to thank the progressive members of Congress who signed the August 19 letter, pledging to vote against any health care bill that does not have a public plan.

A little video below the fold on where we are in this debate:

First 2 4 All 9 parts of the video from the meeting in Hartford on Monday between Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Sen. Chris Dodd and small business leaders in Connecticut:

Part 1

Part 2

I will be uploading more as I edit and upload it to YouTube. Should be about 5 or 6 9 parts.

Via the Hartford Courant:

U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Dodd is scheduled to undergo surgery during the Senate's August recess and said he expects to be back at work after a "brief recuperation" at home. "It's something that's very common among men my age,'' said Dodd, who is 65 and the father of two young daughters. "In fact, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their life.'' Dodd, a Democrat who is up for re-election in November 2010, said he feels fine. "As you have probably noticed, I'm working some long and hard hours lately,'' he said. "And that will continue."

I am certain that everyone wishes him the best in his treatment and hopes for a speedy recovery. We need his voice to help fight for changes in health insurance and healthcare so that every American can have a chance to receive the kind of treatment he will receive. Via tparty, An email from Sen. Dodd to supporters below the fold.