"Public Policy Polling notes President Obama's approval rating with people who didn't vote for him is 14% and his disapproval rating with people who voted for him is 6%.

"So he's won over twice as many people as he's lost since he got elected. Who in the national media is going to write that story? Not bad for someone whose support is supposedly falling apart."

Obama is motoring. The President's greatest potential opponent right now is himself, so it would be wise to stand strongly for the most robust public option so we can get the most robust competition to lower prices and increase quality. There is no sane political reason to sell out your party and the people who voted for you for Olympia Snowe's one vote. The Senate needs to display that it will work for consumers over the interests of the powerful and pass a bill via reconciliation, and own as a badge of courage. The people's support would become even more emphatic if Obama and the Senate not only meet expectations but surprise them by going above and beyond their expectations. If the 2008 election said anything, it said that it's time to break ties in favor of the people and not the corporations and the staus quo, and that's still not only the right thing to do policy wise, but also politically, because that's what 55-60% of the nation wants, real reform, not Snowe's one vote, or 60 votes in the Senate.

This Just in,



Duck Sauce and I are declaring victory in the war against Patients, we are pleased to announce that we're getting the best public option we can given the chemistry of the Senate. It's not everything that we want, but given the circumstances we have to be, "happy with what we have to be happy with", until we can get real campaign finance/lobbyist reform. It's the best we can do given real politic and making pre-existing conditions a thing of the past and obliterating the concept of insurance redaction after you get sick is no small feat. We wish that the Public Option would be open to all Americans and not just those without employer based insurance, but we have to start the foundation somewhere. It doesn't matter if we call it Medicare part E or The Public Option, Mitch, or Duck Sauce.

Michael Moore take us home,

Friends,

It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so NOW what can I DO?!"

You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.

Here they are:

FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:

1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments to be in line with what people's homes are now truly worth -- and what they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home.

2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. The bill to make this happen is called H.R. 3200. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand its passage, no compromises allowed.

3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving office and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Tell your members of Congress they must support campaign finance bill H.R.1826.

4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like

they have in North Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan regulations on all commercial banks, investment firms, insurance companies -- and all the other industries that have been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, the food industry, pharmaceutical companies -- you name it. If a company's primary motive to exist is to make a profit, then it needs a set of stringent rules to live by -- and the first rule is "Do no harm." The second rule: The question must always be asked -- "Is this for the common good?" (Click here for some info about the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.)

5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The public must be the owners and landlords of the natural resources and energy that exists within our borders or we will descend further into corporate anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil fuels to transport ourselves, we must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct our auto/transportation companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass transit (clean buses, light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars that don't contribute toclimate change. (For more on this, here's a proposal I wrote in December.) Demand that General Motors' de facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style challenge to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the first place!!

FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:

1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). To find out who represents you, click here. Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primary opponent -- or even a candidate from another party -- if they don't do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes, click here to send them each an email. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!

2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock that you and the ObamaRevolution have entered the room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action -- and he won't feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic Party, send me a photo of the group and I'll post it on my website.

3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods,Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on -- and you should be on it!

4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!).Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.)

5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill that void, who will?

FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:

1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.

2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card.

3. Do not invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away in a savings account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own your home as soon as possible. You can also buy very safe government savings bonds or T-bills. Or just buy your mother some flowers.

4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how your business is run. Here's how to do it (more info here). Nothing is more American than democracy, and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when you enter your workplace. Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn your business into a worker-owned cooperative. You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you giving up eight hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly compensated and respected.

5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it (and, asMichael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants"). Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know this sounds like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look at Granny -- she's fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both of her U.S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don't put our own "oxygen mask" on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of this action plan!

I'm sure there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended on it. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and your community and your nation.

Tell your Momma.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The awesome IV: The Quickening.

From Nate Silver, Why The (Impure) Public Option is (Probably) Gaining Momentum

Whatever we can get is a win that we can build on, but we need a public option as a foundation.

Progressive's work is paying off, from the election of Obama in states like North Carolina and Indiana to the national election and the legislative agenda, progressive strategy is working to frame the debate, set the agenda, and (cross our fingers) get the best policy we can out of the Congress considering it's designed to subdue and delete progress. The GOP still tells themselves that they are supported and popular no matter of the evidence to the contrary. There is a mass exodus from the GOP to non-party affiliation which inevitable weakens both the individual's leverage capacity. There is power in numbers. Organic coalitions form of the commonly interested because that's an honest expression of where the people's interests meet with the urgency of the issues. The poor, minorities and middle class and even majority minorities like women are finally getting much more representation then before. By listening to what the people want and understanding what they need along with better execution and use of technology we are getting back on track as a democracy that can function for, by and of the majority of people and not just a small well connected wealthy minority. For the first time in along time around 55% of the people and the President are on the same page. Now we must retain that faith through execution, competency, and proving that the people can effectively self-govern in our democratic republic and this form of government is not evil but necessary for the common good and perpetuation of this nations 200 year hot streak.

breakdown,

1. The tireless, and occasionally tiresome, advocacy on behalf of liberal bloggers and interest groups for the public option. Whatever you think of their tactics -- I haven't always agreed with them -- the sheer amount of focus and energy expended on their behalf has been very important, keeping the issue alive in the public debate.

2. The fact that the CBO thinks it will save money.

3. The seeming inevitability of health care reform, which neuters the voices of those who aren't opposed to the public option per se so much as the entire project of health care reform.

4. The fact that the locus of power has shifted from the Gang of Six -- Bingaman/Conrad/Baucus/Snowe/Grassley/Enzi to the Group of Six -- Pelosi/Dodd/Obama/Reid/Baucus/Snowe.

5. The "innovation" of the opt-in/opt-out family of compromises, which have more liberal "street cred" than co-ops or triggers and are potentially also much more politically advantageous.

6. The fading from memory of the tea party protests and the "government takeover" meme.

7. Polls in myriad swing states and swing districts showing the public option is reasonably popular in these regions.

8. Constituent letters and e-mails.

9. The insurance industry's "senior moment": forgetting that this isn't 1993 and that the shelf life of a misleading study would be measured in hours (rather than days or weeks) and would damage its credibility in the process.

10. The Washington Post's somewhat bizarre decision to make its poll showing support for the public option its lede in yesterday's paper, even though public opinion has been fairly steady on the issue for months.

The White House stepped up its attacks on Fox News today with senior adviser David Axelrod declaring that the cable news network is "not really a news station" and that much of the programming is "not really news," reports Politico.

Said Axelrod: "It's really not news -- it's pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we're not going to treat them that way. We're going to appear on their shows. We're going to participate but understanding that they represent a point of view."

Jacob Weisberg: "Whether the White House engages with Fox is a tactical political question. Whether we journalists continue to do so is an ethical one. By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations. Respectable journalists -- I'm talking to you, Mara Liasson -- should stop appearing on its programs. A boycott would make Roger Ailes too happy, so let's try just ignoring Fox for a while. And no, I don't want to come on The O'Reilly Factor to discuss it."

The WWF used to claim they were legit too until it became too utterly obvious that they were a Circus Side Show with Characters playing parts. That's FOX-News, and you should treat it as such, and of course they'll complain. You don't want to make them bigger then they are. They have about ten million committed viewers, (and that's generous when O'Reilly gets about 3-4 million viewers and Beck get's about 1.75 million in a nation of 300 million,

Nielsen Cable Network Coverage Estimates

CNN/HLN: 99.10 million HHs
CNBC: 96.78 million HHs
FNC:96.26 million HHs
MSNBC: 92.64 million HHs

Remember Households divide potential viewership by 2-6. I think that FOX represents maybe 17-35% of the voting electorate, maybe. Do they beat other cable shows? Sure. Do they beat The Ultimate Warrior or Hannah Montana? Not even close. Does the fact that they are competing for different markets jive? Of course not, but nice try. You can try to make FOX bigger then they are because in relation to MSNBC, yeah they look bigger, but next to Sponge Bob Square Pants, they look pretty small to me.

I think The President needs an opponent, by virtue of the political power dynamic, and Obama is bigger then Boehner, McConnell, PalinHuckRomney, combined, so he might just squash a network now. Such is the nature of popular power, and Obama is still rocking a 55-40ish job approval rating, FOX, (49-45%, wtf?!), and Rasmussen have totally different results that make the President looks worse, likely incorrectly weighted polling that auto calls white males 50-80 to gain the majority of their sample, we'll never know because Rasmuessen won't tell me how they make their concoctions. Maybe they just tack on the worst MoE scenario possible. The point is, FOX want's the Obama Administration replaced with Queen Sarah and a Military Junta, and they don't care if they have to pull a Honduras Job to do it, so name them shame them, but it's important to point out how they mislead by manipulating the agenda, priorities, and evidence. Point out there real size and there motivations, (more like a tabloid then a newspaper; Sales trump the public good at News, corps.),anywhere were this: "Is Obama Palling around with Terrorists?" is supposed to be news and not a political commercial people need to call, "BS".

Freedom of Speech is also about correcting and quality assurance for those who don't know what they don't know.