Road Trip!

El Cabrero is not the world's biggest fans of marches or rallies in Washington. It's not that they're a bad idea; it's just that any tactic repeated too often tends to diminish in value.

Having said that, I'm in the process of spending a long hot day and a minimum of 16 hours of bus time attending what participants hope will be a decent-sized health care rally up that way. At last word, five buses were going from West Virginia alone.

Among the messages that I hope get delivered loud and clear are 1. that it's unacceptable that more than 45 million Americans lack health care and that many who do have some kind of insurance can't afford the coverage they have; and 2. if we're serious about health care reform, there needs to be a public option to compete with private plans.

This is a critical time for real health care reform in this country and it could be a long time before it rolls around again on the guitar if this chance is missed. As the saying goes, (no pun intended), this would be one of those times to leave it all on the road.

(Note: This post was scheduled to be published several hours after the bus left at midnight, so it may not have links to anything really good or bad that happened after Wednesday evening. In such cases, please accept congratulations or condolences as appropriate.)

((Final comment: if anyone starts singing "100 Bottles of Beer" on the bus, I may wind up doing jail time.))

I HOPE HE MEANS IT. Obama discusses the public option among other things here.

POLICY MATTERS. Some countries use labor market policies to reduce unemployment. The latest snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute looks at the example of Germany.

PLAIN TALK. By way of Coal Tattoo, the United Mine Workers of America takes aim at Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

WHALE CULTURE. Some of them may have it. What would Melville say?

IN ONE EAR BUT NOT THE OTHER. You are more likely to get what you want if you whisper in someone's right ear than the left.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED