Raise a Glass to Healthcare: Our Bi-Weekly Political Roundup

It’s gonna be a good one tonight. That’s an understatement. It’s going to be a celebration three years and three generations in the making.

The Baltimore Chapter of Drinking Liberally celebrates its third anniversary tonight at Joe Squared, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Hell, it might even be warm enough to sit out on that nice patio they have there.

Drinking Liberally meets tonight at Joe Squared. 7pm.

As always, DL meetings are very informal, and open to anyone of a liberal bent. New members are encouraged to stop by and become new friends. And judging by what we’ve seen on the Twitter we’ve got a lot of new friends out there. Come on Baltimore… its time to live up to all that tweeting you did on Sunday. Come on out and give us your take on healthcare, the tea-party wingnuts, and the general awesomeness of Nancy Pelosi.

As for the Chop’s take on it, we saw it coming the whole time. A year ago we were telling anyone who would listen that something would get passed. Sure, we wanted that something to be single-payer. We wanted that something to at least have a public option. But when it all came down at the end of last week, with Kucinich coming to Jesus and the whip count steadily increasing, we weren’t at all surprised. The votes have been there the whole time, and if there was ever a day when congress went through the motions just for show, it was Sunday.

That sounds strange to say, but it’s true. They could have had two hours debate and a 20 minute vote and been done.

All in all though, we think its a good deal. We like the bill. Obama promised Change and this bill is full of changes. The Chop has been generally pleased with Barack Obama (don’t ask don’t tell notwithstanding), and we’re even more pleased now.

We also want to share with you this link we were sent (via the DL mailing list) to the SEIU website. They’ve made it incredibly easy to see how your representative voted on the bill, and added a contact form to voice your gratitude or displeasure. (In Maryland only Roscoe Bartlett (R- 6th District) and Frank Kratovil (D- 1st) voted no. If you live there, give them what for.