I'm kidding. I use whole wheat bread for that particular recipe.
The big lobby day for Medicare Part D at Rep. Fitzpatrick's office is set to happen in two days so it's all kinds of high pressure around here. I alternate between worrying that we won't get the hundred people and worrying that we will. How very Oscar Wilde of me.
I've been posting a daily countdown on dKos, MyDD, Booman and OpEd News. It's the same blurb that goes out to the local media in an attempt to educate and interest them about the issue and the event. Today's was my favorite one:
"If you are caught in that donut hole you will be disappointed and start pressing your members of Congress to do something about it."
That bit of advice was given two years ago by Gail Wilensky, PhD, a health analyst with Project HOPE, a former Medicare administrator who also advised President Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign.
Dr. Wilensky was right. And now is the time for all of us in Bucks County, PA to show up on July 29 to tell our congressman, Mike Fitzpatrick (R), that we want to see Part D fixed today.
And it's not just the Donut Hole we want fixed. PA Action, the sponsor of the event, wants the following sensible fixes made to Part D:
* Require that Medicare negotiate the cheapest possible prices for drugs with the pharmaceutical companies;
* Eliminate the "Donut Hole" that will add crippling costs to many seniors;
* Offer a prescription drug plan to seniors directly through Medicare that does not require they join private plans;
* End the "bait and switch" provisions that allow private insurance plans to drop coverage for specific drugs while seniors are locked into the plan;
* Reopen an enrollment period so that millions of seniors will not be locked out of help for prescription drug costs -- and drop the penalty for joining after May 15.PLEASE RSVP at this link and make the commitment to coming out on the 20th. Remember, we'll be lobbying Rep. Fitzpatrick for real reform of a confusing and crony-driven Part D as well as celebrating Medicare's 41st birthday and our democracy.
What: Medicare D-Day on Medicare's B-Day
When: 9:15am Saturday, JULY 29
Where: One Oxford Vally, Suite 800 located in the Oxford Valley Mall - we will gather on the side of the building that faces the JC Penney parking lot
Why: to lobby Congressman Fitzpatrick to fix Medicare's Prescription drug benefit
I was so happy to find that quote. Was life even worth living before Google?
Today is Prince Spaghetti Day and we all know what that means. I have about a million things I want to post about but so far I've only gotten to the Talking Dog's remarkable series of interviews with people directly involved in the saga of Guantanamo, detainee rights and Team BushCo's shredding of our Constitution. The corporate media should be beating a path to the Talking Dog's door to get the rights to this series. (Or at least be ripping him off.) But that's part of the point of the interviews: nobody wants to have this discussion. Thank goodness for blogtopia and for the Talking Dog in particular.
Updates as required.
UPDATE:
Tonight Colbert (I love that man.) interviewd Neil Kaytal, the lead attorney in the Hamdan case. The Talking Dog had him first.
Booman lets the Dems have it.
What defines our times?
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