First, let’s get the exciting news out of the way!  The Senate will pass health care reform through reconciliation!

Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months by using a majority-vote maneuver in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.

Reid said that congressional Democrats would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing the upper chamber to make final changes to its healthcare bill with only a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 it takes to normally end a filibuster.

Remember, next week we are phone bombing Senator Pryor’s office to get him on board.  We can’t let up on this one.  Blanche Lincoln is utterly useless, but if we can pressure Pryor in the right direction we’ll be doing good.

Now, on to the photos from today’s march in North Little Rock/Little Rock.  We had a decent turn out, with around 60 or so people.  PolAddict joined us, as did Bob Estes, the father of the Draft Bill Halter movement.  Jay Barth dropped in as well for a bit, seeing us off from the North Little Rock side.  We had a great march and got a lot of attention from people on the street.  Many waved and some folks honked their horns.  One van that went by looked like it was carrying none other than Joyce Elliott, but we’re not sure.  (The driver honked.)  We marched across the bridge into Little Rock, stuggling to get the whole group together on the chant at first but eventually succeeding.  The march ended outside the Chamber of Commerce’s office (which Max Brantley points out “enjoys a $200,000 subsidy from city taxpayers, is unfriendly to the administration’s plan, and workers rights generally”) and then, after holding a protest against the Chamber’s lobbying against health care reform, we turned around and marched back to North Little Rock across the bridge.  We had a song we were singing and, like the earlier chanting, had trouble getting on the same page until a lady with a wonderful singing voice got on the right note and activist Arrow forced a megaphone into her hand, much to her embarrasment!  When we got back to North Little Rock, we got ready to head out, but not before we had a bit more fun.  I even jumped in and dusted off the old “Fired Up!  Ready To Go!” bit.  Anyway, here are the pics:

The first pic I took.  Arrow is either shy or his wife told him to stay out of trouble.  I’m betting it’s the later.

We had a great crowd.

Here’s Bob Estes of Draft Bill Halter fame.  (Great guy by the way.)

This guy tried to run when he saw me taking pictures.  I got him anyway.  Take a lesson politicians…

Jay Barth showed up…that’s one more reason to get him elected.

The march went across the bridge into Little Rock.

And we protested right outside the Chamber’s door, with a lot of folks holding up the pictures and stories of the people the status quo they work to maintain is hurting and, frankly, killing.

And, finally, the lady that saved the day when the rest of us were mangling the song.

I feel like we got something done today.  Things didn’t work out exactly as planned-there were some featured speakers that failed to show up among other things, but it was great none the less.  What’s more, we worked to spread the word and get people motivated, and we got some time on the news as well.  We still have some work ahead, but you can really feel the life being breathed back into this fight, and next week we’re going to keep the momentum going with our effort to get Pryor on board.

Update: Arrow emailed me to inform me that his count of the numbers in attendance was higher than seventy.

Tags: health care reform, Little Rock

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