Good Morning, Everyone. We have had a couple of relatively dry days--sunny even if unseasonably cool. I think everyone is hoping for a bit more summer weather. My tomatoes are all blooming well as are two of my peppers. The ones I started from seed are lagging a bit but I think they are also hoping for more warmth. We are so looking forward to salads and sandwiches with tomatoes and lettuce this time next month.

Barbara Ehrenreich had this op-ed piece in the New York Times this morning. She is right on several points. The real poor have disappeared from the news media. Unless, of course, they can be woven into a story that supports conservative notions that the poor deserve what they get because of their inborn flaws. Her observations on the labor market developments for the last decade or more are also right on. I wonder how many observers remember the last recession and the accounts in the news of a 'jobless recovery?' I do. And I think that this recovery will be equally jobless.

Chris In Paris has an accurate take on the debate over health care reform. So the price for some form of limited expansion of coverage and minor reduction in price is to be bought by limiting malpractice liability? We give up the right to sue (perhaps) incompetent or negligent doctors and hospitals so the insurance industry won't take a hit in their pocketbooks to get really miniscule (if not illusory) improvements in cost and availability. Worse has been how the insurance, pharma, and AMA has been allowed to frame the debate as one of individuals losing powers of choice if the Federal Government enters the mix. Look, people, most of us have NO choice now. If we are lucky enough to have a job with health insurance attached we don't have any real choice. We take what the company gives us, if we can afford it. If we can't afford the company policy we have to try to find our own. No choice there!! If we can't find a program we can afford, we do without. Again--no choice. For the 47+ million people without health insurance--NO CHOICE!! The only people who won't have a choice under a government sponsored public option will be those who don't have a choice now--the uninsured. But at least we will have health care. Which we don't now.