Three cheers for the Democrats.

Fantastic news. Hooray for the House and Senate Democrats!!

Congress has passed the biggest expansion of health care in 40 years, guaranteeing health care to millions of uninsured children.1

The New York Times writes:

The bill embodies the Democrats' vision for health care, taking a step toward the goal of universal coverage while reversing what they see as Republican efforts to "privatize Medicare."2

More than 200,000 of us signed the petition asking Congress to bring us closer to affordable health care for everyone. Together, we made over 3,600 phone calls to key members of Congress who were on the fence. But we didn't do it alone: Dozens of groups have led the fight for children's health care—the Service Employees International Union, Families USA, and the Campaign for America's Future to name a few.

President Bush has promised to veto the bill, even though the Senate vote would be enough to override a veto for the first time in Bush's history.1 Even Republican governors are calling Bush "oblivious to the political risks" of a veto.3

Stay tuned as we take the fight to the White House. But today, let's celebrate—our campaign for affordable health care for everyone is off and running.

Thanks for all you do.

–Noah, Matt, Joan, Laura, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Friday, August 3rd, 2007

Sources:
1. "House Passes Children's Health Plan 225-204," New York Times, August 1, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2860&id=10904-3017897-tZWul5&t=1

2. "Senate OKs Wider Kids' Health Program," Associated Press, August 2, 2007
http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=116&sid=1206298

3. "Children's Health Plan Focus of New Struggle," New York Times, August 1, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2862&id=10904-3017897-tZWul5&t=2

In other news, slipped under the radar last Friday (I'm still looking for the article): the House and Senate Democrats also passed a bill to implement the changes recommended by the 9/11 committee.

This is anti-pork, guys. Up until now the broad "anti-terrorism" budget has been out of control. Any city in the U.S. could claim it was under threat from "terrorists" and help themselves. One city in California bought itself a multi-million dollar "disposal unit" for WMDs because, golly, "We'll be the only ones to have one." Other cities didn't even pretend to use the money for security.

Now congress has followed the recommendations of the 9/11 panel and earmarked funds for cities (such as New York, Washington D.C...) that have been determined to have actual security risks.

This was not an easy bill to pass and required a great deal of negotiation and bipartisan cooperation with Republicans. Getting rid of pork is never easy.

Kudos. Our reps are earning their cookies.

Good luck to Brad at Google.

Learned from copperbadge's LJ:

Brad Fitzpatrick, the founder of LJ, is leaving for Google.

Good move, Brad. Best of luck to you.

I'd say we'll miss you but that's been true for two years. And really true the last couple months. Do you think Six Apart will stop digging once they hit China?

Using GreatestJournal as an auto-backup at least.

Two links that were immensely helpful in my packing, tidying up the house, getting prepared so that I'm ready to go if I so choose:

- Snapetoy teaches us how to set-up Semagic to update multiple journals at once. (thanks to scarah2 and lauramcewan for the link)

- All you ever wanted to know about backing up your LJ. (thanks to wyomingnot for the link)