Here’s the schedule for today’s expected health care reform votes in the House of Representatives. Note that it’s going to be a long, politically dramatic day with expected votes on the “fixes” to the Senate bill, reconciliation and President Barack Obama signing it if it passes. The next step (and resulting drama) will be when the bill goes to the Senate for a vote. Via CBS: 2...

RJ Matson, Roll Call This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Only the class is detention:

Of course these are only estimates and I can’t see them holding the vote unless they know for sure they have the numbers. But according to the Hill, they are right on the edge with 37 Democrats voting No and at least 19 unclear, including 3 who voted No last time. If the 37 no votes stick and one of the three former No’s stay that way, then that is enough to defeat the bill. Firedoglake.com also...

It has become almost a fait acccompli for some readers to complain when a contributor brings to readers’ attention some unpleasant or unflattering news about members of the “other party.” And perhaps the number and type of such reports tilts more one way than the other. It is also true that members of the party that “made the news” will often not only point such unbalance out, fact-check it, bring...

Sunday promises to be a particularly historic day for the United States: it’ll be the day when health care reform passes the House and goes onto for battles in the Senate or it goes down in flames. And it promises to be a turning point day — one way or another — for President Barack Obama, who has put his personal political capital on the line in an era where politics is personalized more than...

WASHINGTON — Here is the ultimate paradox of the Great Health Care Showdown: Congress will divide along partisan lines to pass a Republican version of health care reform, and Republicans will vote against it. Yes, Democrats have rallied behind a bill that Republicans — or at least large numbers of them — should love. It is built on a series of principles that Republicans espoused for...

Extreme politics isn’t being practiced just on Capitol Hill right now. In Columbus, Ohio, the Ohio Democratic Party has been placed in what at least some Ohio Democrats feel is an untenable, undesirable and improper although absolutely legal and rightful (in that a candidate can do this) position: they’ve received a request from Ohio Lt. Governor and U.S. Senate primary candidate Lee Fisher to make...

Chill America. This healthcare reform debate has normal people acting as all the rest of us crazies. Passions are running so high the antis are emptying their arsenals and threatening to huff and puff and blow down the doors to the Supreme Court. The fors act as the sun won’t rise if Congress votes down the legislation. It’s time to act as good, responsible parents when their child misbehaves. Time...

The Washington Post reports that House Democratic leaders say they will take a separate vote on the Senate health care bill, rejecting an earlier, much-criticized strategy that would have permitted them to “deem” the measure passed without an explicit vote. For more details, click here.

Did anybody notice that the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the CARD Act) took effect last month? Passed early in the Obama presidency, it gave credit card companies nine months to “adjust” before the legislation became law. And, boy did they adjust. Earlier this year the American Institute for Economic Research reviewed Federal Reserve statistics and determined that...

I’ve been trying to call my Georgia Blue Dog representative, John Barrow, all morning. Busy. Busy. Busy. When, finally, I got through his voice mail apologized that there was no one there to take my call, but invited me to leave a message. When I got the beep, the invite was rescinded. His voice mailbox is full. I called back. Again. This time I got an answer. I told the man who answered that the voice...

If you were awake and even glancing at the news yesterday, you likely caught wind of a fast breaking kerfuffle in the ongoing health care reform debate. Republicans were excitedly talking up a supposed “leaked memo” which was – eventually – alleged to have originated from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office, instructing Democrats to avoid talking about planned increases in Medicare...

Here’s the video of an interview CBS’ Katie Couric did with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (clothed and not in the shower) about health care reform and other issues. In this interview, Emanuel says the GOP is now under the control of a “fringe group” and professes confidence health care reform is on track: Watch CBS News Videos Online

Our political Quote of the Day is from Dick Polman, who, in a piece that needs to be read in full, provides us with the “Freak Out Award” in the health care reform debate. Polman gives several reasons why he believes it’s now in the tea leaves cards that health care reform will pass. The first is the Congressional Budget Office’s verdict. The second is “theanti-abortion House Democratic...

Patrick Chappatte, The International Herald Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

RJ Matson, Roll Call This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

From the (Albany) Times-Union:

Since the global economic crisis began to ease, the U.S. has renewed its pleas to Beijing to allow the value of its currency, the yuan or remnimbi – to float freely, i.e.: to rise, which would make U.S. exports cheaper for Chinese consumers and reduce America’s annual trade deficit with China. But Christiane von Hardenberg of the Financial Times Deutschland warns Americans to be careful what they...

Here’s what happens when governments are not transparent, even for routine stuff as travel destinations billed taxpayers by members of the California Assembly and Senate. The excuse given by the Legislature’s record-keeping officers were for “security” reasons even though the trips were already taken. The Associated Press, which has been on a crusade lately with a multi-pronged Freedom...

Nancy Pelosi tells Bart Stupak that there will be no more deals on abortion language before the health care vote on Sunday:

The Dutch have a long and proud military history going back to at least the 16th century and even earlier if one considers the “Batavians”—fierce tribes who lived around the Rhine, in today’s the Netherlands—who were described by Tacitus as “the bravest of the tribes of the area, hardened in the Germanic border wars.” Dutch sailors and soldiers—straight and gay, I am sure—fought...

This will be the most historically and monumental weekend that will answer the question of whether health care is a right or a personal responsibility since Congress passed similar safety net legislation on Social Security, Medicare, MediCaid and prescription drug subsidies for seniors. I’ll defer the prestidigitation of the politics to MSNBC.com First Read whose contributors know a helluva lot more than...

Former Alaska Gov. and GOP political celebrity Sarah Palin apparently has A&E interested in her proposed reality show. She has reportedly put a pricetag on it: $1 million to $1.5 million per episode. (Power to the millionaire populists!) I wonder if the show could be seriously pitched at that price if it featured Eric Massa? (It would probably have to be shown on Showtime due to all the guest appearances...

Homer: And how is “education” supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine-making course and I forgot how to drive? Marge: That’s because you were drunk! Homer: And how. ********** WaPo: Historians on Tuesday criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, saying...