At the end of May, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed a bill that can put Vermont on the path to single-payer health care. As it stands, Vermont’s plan is to cover every resident of the state for actual health care they can use. But the Green Mountain State’s ambitious plan can only succeed if the Federal Government grants several critical waivers of existing health care laws.

Single-payer health care was pushed out of the health care debate long before Congress voted in 2010. We’re determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again…but Karl Rove is already on the move. We must set the terms of the debate now, before Rove unleashes his inevitable attacks on Vermont. In order to build up our campaign for Vermont’s waivers early, we need to raise $15,000 before Rove turns his sights on Vermont.

More than 60 members of Firedoglake met for a webinar on May 11, 2011 to discuss what FDL should do for the 2011 election. The lively event showed the true depth of both the views of FDL’s members, as well as the great ideas for how we should proceed from both an organizing and journalism perspective for the election.

You can watch a replay of the member presentation in the above video. We want to show what it means to be an FDL Member, and invite you to join as a member to participate in our coming discussions. (Future recordings of webinars will be available to members only.)

Alan Simpson doesn’t like “the Catfood Commission people.” In a testy interview with Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim, the chair of Obama’s deficit commission questioned Grim’s stated facts about Social Security, speculating that Grim’s information came from “the Catfood Commission people.”

Alan Simpson doesn’t like “the Catfood Commission people.” In a testy interview with Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim, the chair of Obama’s deficit commission questioned Grim’s stated facts about Social Security, speculating that Grim’s information came from “the Catfood Commission people.”

The Obama Administration intends to meet Congressional demands to move all three pending NAFTA-style “free trade” agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama by an arbitrary deadline of July 1

The Obama Administration intends to meet Congressional demands to move all three pending NAFTA-style “free trade” agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama by an arbitrary deadline of July 1

The ease with which the Army decided to put Manning in medium security, and out of almost a year of solitary confinement, makes the unending excuses out of the Pentagon pathetic.

Accused Wikileaks whistleblower PFC. Bradley Manning will be removed from solitary confinement and placed in medium security at Fort Leavenworth prison, according to reports from journalists who took a tour of the Kansas facility today.

The first report of Manning’s move came from National Catholic Review reporter Joshua J. McElwee, who said that after the tour of the Leavenworth facility, military officials announced that Manning would be moved to medium security tomorrow morning.

We’re excited to announce the first virtual conference for the FDL Membership Program: on Monday night at 8pm EDT, we’ll have a discussion about Bradley Manning’s conditions and the latest news surrounding his detention with special guests David House, Ret. Col. Ann Wright, and Marcy Wheeler.