Optimizing McCain--Free and Easy Widgets!

Viva La 3-Guard! Blazers 116, T-Wolves 93
Here, let's start with the NBA clip this time for those who wish to skim in pictures, then we'll come back below the fold with analysis... {Writing and stuff below, like I said!} If you'll forgive what sounds like a tangent for a moment, the Joe's Sporting Goods store in Lake Oswego near the Bridgeport Mall on I-5 closed down this past year. I was worried that it would be difficult to find a suitable anchor tenant to keep that strip mall alive (ugh, I must be getting old and incredibly bourgeois to root for a strip mall's survival), but apparently Dick's Sporting Goods felt just cocky enough to open their own outlet in the shell of a dead riva

Spanning the State: "The most important single step in 100 years"
The news of the morning, of course, is the passage last night (by two votes, one of whom was a Louisiana Representative who will shortly become the most primaried member of the Republican Party in the history of America) of the House version of the health care reform bill.   The Oregon delegation split along party lines.   "Tonight I voted for every Oregonian who has faced bankruptcy when they've lost their care or has been denied coverage

HCR passes House 220-215: Oregon delegation splits 4-1
HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, passed the floor vote by 220-215 at a few minutes after 8pm, Pacific Time, tonight.   The Oregon delegation votes: Yes:  Blumenauer, DeFazio, Schrader, and Wu. No: Walden (Flip those around, and you've got their votes for the odious Stupak Amendment earlier today.)

OR-5: Last Chance to Weigh in with Schrader on HCR
Carla at Blue Oregon has been on Kurt Schrader (OR-5), who's been unwilling to say whether he'll support the health care reform when it finally comes to a vote in the House, probably later this evening.   While callers were getting through to DeFazio's, Wu's, and Blumenauer's offices in DC today, it looked for a while like Schrader and staff had put the phone under the couch cushion and left the office, locking the door behind them.  In the comments at BO we're assured that Schrader's office is open for business today, just swamped with calls (many, apparently, from out of

Earl Signals Opposition to Stupak Abortion Amend; Vote Still On Track for Today
It's hard to get truly excited about the fair-to-middlin' health care reform package now pending final debate and a vote later today, because it really stood just a few cruel Blue Dog votes away from producing an ironically cheaper (and more effective) bill they couldn't support. Kurt Schrader in the 5th echoed the refrain from other Western/rural Democrats who complained that Medicare +5% provider reimbursements under the public plan would penalize the more efficient Oregon providers, who get much less than doctors in other states for the same services.It's a fair argument--but it's also something that can be dealt with; Congressman Blumenauer