Our current employer based health care system is a nightmare for employees and employers alike.  

People who have health insurance are worried sick about losing it.  People who don't have health insurance are worried sick about getting sick.  

People who would like to work part-time must work full time just to get health benefits.  Companies who might like to hire full time hire only part-time so they don't have to offer benefits.  Some companies who would like to hire don't because of health insurance costs.  Small businesses aren't on a level playing field with big businesses.  American businesses aren't on a level playing field with businesses located in countries with national health care.  Employees with families can't leave jobs with health insurance to start new businesses for fear of losing coverage.  Folks with disabilities are discouraged from earning anything just so they can continue to qualify for Medicare.  

All of this fuss about USANext aka United Seniors Association, Inc. got me to wondering where they get all their money.  It looks like a huge chunk came from PHrMA but it also looks like they do mail and telly soliciations; in part using the company InfoCision Management Corporation whose founder is strongly GOP.  One of their officers also sits on the board of the Council of National Policy which I believe is also a strongly right wing group.

In the last week I've seen/heard two folks I really admire (Juan Cole and Brad DeLong) and one I don't know much about but who seems to be admired around here (Wonkette - Ann Marie something??) on national television

Although I find these folks compelling in writing I am sorry to say that they are a huge disappointment in the flesh.  

I've been here at dKos since User IDs were in the low 1000s.  At that time the preferred term for referring to the media was SCLM as an acronym for "so called liberal media."  Apparently this was viewed  by some as a scathing comeback to the right's branding of the "liberal media."

Since the election, there seems to be a shift toward the use of the term MSM or "main stream media" as differentiated from alternative media.  

If nothing else, we should be learning that words matter, labels matter, how you frame an issue matters.

If that is true, we need to carefully choose how we are going to refer to which media and then use those terms consistently and not just lazily let terms slide into the vernacular.

Personally, I don't think MSM vs. alternative media labels are accurate or useful.  In my mind the battle here is between corporate controlled media (the mission of which is to further their corporate parent's agenda, not to inform) and independent media.

Not just for progessives and liberals, but for the entire reality based community which I am convinced contains not only independents, but also fiscal, foreign policy and individual rights conservatives.  We need a simple symbol we can use to identify each other and to show solidarity in our opposition to faith based madness and to declare our refusal to engage in willful self-delusion.

We need something to stand in balance to the square black W symbol.

Any ideas?

Something like 2+2=4 or maybe just a 4? (Or is Orwell too obscure?)

Or what about the symbol for sum (only I don't know how to produce it here)?  Something mathematical as a symbol of rationality?

Plenty of brilliant folks on this board - what do you think?

A reality based assessment of the situation has suggested several things to me:

Trickle down politics does not work.  This means that there is no silver bullet in the form a person out there who if only put "in charge" could inspire the unengaged, make the scales fall from the eyes of the willfully deluded, force the corporate controlled press to do its job, and rein in the more egregrious acts of the Rs. Not HoHo, not Obama, not Spitzer.  Sure folks like that can help; but we need to quit looking for a saviour.

The press is a lost cause and will be for quite some time. We have very little independent press in this country.  Most of the corporate controlled news outlets are really just "infotainment/opinion" outlets.  And...it's not going to change fast enough to help us. We can't wait around.

The party has no idea how to make use of the grassroots except to ask us for cash.

Surely there should be some sort of due diligence required before an OH voter can challenge another; especially if the challenge is based solely on returned mail (which such challenges appear to be prohibited by some sort of a consent decree).

Anyhow, I took a look at the first page of the Lucas County Challeged Voter List (Toledo area). It had 48 names.  By spending about 10 minutes on anywho.com I was able to verify that for at least 5 of the challenged voters (10%) there were families/persons living at the address listed on the voter registration card and with the same last name as the challenged voter, leading to the conclusion that the challenged voter is a member of the family residing at that address.

I would think that this readily available information would be enough to rebut any presumption raised by unclaimed mail such that any challenge raised against these voters would have to have been made in bad faith.

FYI - on page one of the list I was able to match last names and addresses for these challenged voters:

Abramson, Daniel
Allison, Tywon
Anteau, Christiah
Baker, Dana
Barsen, Bernice