Friday Flavor Face-off!

It's a battle Royale...literally! We wanna know which cupcake yous guys like best. Which delicious flavor reigns supreme? Is it Barack Obama's favorite treat - chocolate salted caramel, or Elvis Presley's beloved peanut butter and banana?


Just two fine-lookin' gents who love some cupcakes.

On one side, you got a dark chocolate cake Royale topped with house made caramel buttercream, Fleur de Sel, and dark chocolate curls. We launched it last year on Inauguration Day, as Obama is a professed fan of Fran's Salted Caramels. A man of taste, for sure.

This January, we launched the Velvet Elvis. In honor of what would have been The King's 75th birthday, (TODAY!) we have a moist banana cake topped with a rich, chocolate peanut butter fudge frosting. Because everyone knows how Elvis loved his fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

So, what'll it be? The President, or The King? Salted Caramel, or Velvet Elvis? Which great flavor reigns supreme for Seattle's cupcake connoisseurs?

Back to work!

Back in session.

You're not the only one who's back on the job after a long Labor Day weekend. Congress is back in session after their August recess, and that means it's time to kick it into gear and get this whole health care reform thing done and DONE!

There has been a lot of weirdness on the airwaves over the past few weeks. The media has jumped up and down and all over the place to give you images again and again of town hall meetings gone bonkers. We are not about to let a few silly sound bites ruin the fun for everyone...anyone else having a Howard Dean flashback here? Sound bites? Ruins? No? Ech. Sad memories of Iowa '03.

Anyhoo, we know the American people want reform. We put Obama in office to bring us the change we desperately need and truly want. It's crunch time, and we need to keep working together to bring quality, affordable health care to EVERYONE in this country, not just to the privileged few. So, give your lawmakers a call to make sure they're representing your best interests and working hard for the real reform you deserve.

Here's how you can do your part today and tomorrow:

Message for Senator Murray: Support the Kennedy HELP Bill, and tell your colleagues like Senators Reid and Durbin to do the same
Message for Senator Cantwell: Move a Health care bill forward in the Finance Committee by Sept 15, and tell your colleagues like Senators Reid and Durbin to get health care done

Numbers:
1-877-264-HCAN (4226) -- options for connecting to Senator, Representative, or signing up for text message updates
1-888-436-8427 -- direct to the Congressional switchboard

This is why we vote, people! We get to send the people into office that we think will represent our best interests in Washington. So, give em a call, and make sure they do!

We loved this comment so much, we turned it into a post.

Blog reader "kmt" had the following things to say in response to some of the comments we got on our post "Liar, liar, pants on fire. (P.S. Your flammable skin is a pre-existing condition, and your treatment will not be covered.) We love this comment...even though it uses a swear word. There is a considerable dearth of overtly persuasive messaging coming from the pro-reform side of the health care conversation. While everyone who is afraid of reform comes to the table armed with falsified images of "socialist death panels," "Soviet-style rationing," and other chimera from the deep PR pockets of private insurance propaganda, the stories of people who are left either dead or bankrupt on a daily basis by our current system are being drowned out. So, here's one. Thanks kmt.

On Friday Aug 14th, kmt wrote:

as for healthcare, for all you folks saying that all government cares about is the bottom line, what exactly do you think private insurers care about? the people? trust me, your private insurers don't give a shit about you. they don't care who dies--as long as they get their profits. i say this from first hand experience.

my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer at 48 and given 9 months to live. her private insurance refused to cover her chemo. i considered selling everything i had and taking out a loan to get her chemo, but it would only cover 1 and a half rounds (chemo was $20,000 per treatment there are 3 treatments in a round). so to say that existing private healthcare insurers are somehow benevolent people acting in your best interest, has been proven to be ridiculous (we aren't just hypothesizing here, go see Erin Brokovich or sick or any other movie/documentary about healthcare in the US). if you're poor, trust me they are already euthanizing "your grandmother" and your mother.

they just don't aren't euthanizing the grandmothers of of rich, predominantly white folks YET. it's completely a class issue (you'll notice almost everyone arguing against some form of universal coverage has the money to afford good healthcare--or at least healthcare they 'think' is good until something goes wrong). you can try to scare folks with this rhetoric, but the truth is that we know the "scary things" that you're saying (government only cares about the bottom line) are already happening in our health care system. it's all just a lot of propaganda put out by private insurance companies and people who have a lot to lose if there is a public option. it's all just to scare people into having a knee-jerk reaction. it's all just people trying to hold onto their money and trying to scare us into making a choice that is actually against our best interests as a nation because "we're scared."