One of our favorite images from today's protest was a fabulous visual representation of Goldman Sachs, depicted as writer Matt Taibbi so richly described in Rolling Stone:

"The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

Every couple of minutes the squid would wrap its tentacles around a globe on a stick, adding to the hilarity of the image. Other rally visuals included with "wanted" posters for Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, as well as other handmade signs expressing taxpayers' desire for Congress to take immediate action on real financial reform:

Check out a photo slideshow of the protest:



Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein memorably said in an interview that he and the team at Goldman are "doing God's work." At today's protest, Reverend Tony Pierce, Board President of the Central Illinois Organizing Project, made a point to set the record straight on what God's work really is.

"When Goldman Sachs and Mr. Blankfein crashed our economy by inflating the housing bubble, that wasn't God's work. When they took $10 billion in bailouts--instead of using that money to stop foreclosures, to help the homeless and to rebuild local economies, when they instead used that money to enrich themselves--that's not God's work.

"When they're paying themselves $23 billion in bonuses, that's not God's work. In fact, I don't even believe by that action they even know what God's work is."

Public Citizen President Robert Weissman rallied protesters with his stark truth on how bailed out banks and the financial industry continue to try to buy Congress and fight reform:

Even though they've crashed the national economy, even though they've destroyed their own industry, even though they've taken trillions of dollars from public support to stay in business, nothing has changed in the way that Wall Street does business: They are still showering money on Congress.

Weissman revealed to the crowd that Wall Street has deluged roughly 2.5 times more money on members of Congress who sit on the financial services & banking committee than other members of Congress. This money results in bigtime payouts from Congress and the Treasury Department. "Because after all, you don't go to Wall Street to do God's work, you go to Wall Street for money," said Weissman.

The protest ended with the delivery of a poster-sized letter addressed to Blankfein proposing use their anticipated $23 billion bonus pool to help families facing foreclosure.

For a Twitterific recap of the action, check out our live tweets from the ground:

Alternet's Alexander Zaitchik noted this week that during Glenn Beck's recent hospital stay for appendicitis, Beck tweeted in praise of his "AMAZING drs/nurses:"

Little did Beck know that the top-notch care he was receiving came at the hands of those "radical Marxists" represented by 1199SEIU. Zaitchik reminds us that research has shown that patients treated in unionized hospitals have better survival rates that those treated at non-union hospitals. She also reminds us why Beck's smears of SEIU and unions in general should be taken with a grain of salt (or none at all!):

Compared to Beck--who probably knows more about the 80s TV show ALF than he does about the history of the AFL--Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are Pulitzer-winning labor historians. He clearly has little to no understanding of what unions do, their central role in creating the American middle-class, or why the labor movement has long served a legitimate and important role in national politics.

And in fact, Beck confirmed his total and utter lack of experience with labor last year when he said this: "I've never had to deal with unions before." But admitting he knows nothing about unions still didn't stop Beck from following up that statement with this baseless opinion: "I hate them. I hate them." The irony here is that Fox News broadcasters all belong to a union--so does this mean Beck hates all his coworkers too? Nice.

Beck says he'll be back to work on Tuesday following his emergency surgery for appendicitis last Wednesday. We can't help but wonder whether or not Beck will pick up right where he left off, increasing the pitch of his attacks on SEIU and its leaders. What do you think? (will the SEIU nurses who likely cared for him get an on-air "thank you"?)

Thanks to your support, on Thursday the Senate voted NO on the Vitter-Bennett amendment by voting for for cloture in a 60 - 39 vote on the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. For now, this puts to rest the divisive Vitter-Bennett amendment.

Thanks to SEIU's Don't Wreck the Census campaign--our micro site and Tweet your Senator tool--we generated over 750 letters and 1,700 phone calls to members of the Senate, urging them to vote NO on the Vitter-Bennett amendment.

In a statement, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina said:

"Today U.S. Senators put working families ahead of the politics of division and hatred. Joining a chorus of former U.S. Census Directors and advocacy leaders, the Senate voted down Senators Vitter and Bennett's misguided attempt to undercut 2010 enumeration efforts and mar this critical process with hateful, anti-immigrant politics."

Read full statement by Medina here.

Again--thank you for making calls, writing letters, blogging, and Tweeting your Senators to vote no on the Vitter-Bennett amendment. In addition to SEIU, the Don't Wreck the Census campaign was composed of the of the following organizations: AAJC, CAP, Demos, HNBA, LCCR, LDF, LULAC, MALDEF, NALEO, NDN, PFAW, SEIU.

Read coverage of the victory in NOLA.com, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal.

In our continued efforts to stop an amendment introduced by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and Bob Bennett (UT-R) that would stop the 2010 Census dead in its tracks, last week SEIU launched a new Twitter tool broadening our online capacity to reach our elected officials. Try it yourself--go to www.DontWreckTheCensus.org and tweet your Senator to vote NO on Vitter-Bennett amendment #2644!

Since SEIU joined civil rights groups and a unified group of former U.S. Census Directors to fight the Vitter-Bennett amendment, the opposition to the misguided proposal continues to grow. This week, Sen. Mary Landrieu wrote a biting letter to her colleague Sen. Vitter warning him that she would not support the amendment.

"Your amendment, as currently drafted, would only do harm to our country by delaying the Census at a cost of $1 billion to our already beleaguered taxpayers and to our state."

In the letter, Landrieu goes on to write to Vitter, "If you are ever interested in setting aside political gamesmanship and working together with me on a serious initiative to reform the laws that govern illegal immigration and Congressional apportionment, I would welcome your support." Read coverage of Landrieu's stand against the Sen. Vitter.

The vote on the Vitter-Bennett amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill has been delayed multiple times-which gives us more time to make our voices heard. Don't let hate rule--go to Don't Wreck the Census.org to learn more and take action.

Just yesterday the White House released a list of visitors this year and SEIU President Andy Stern topped the list with more than twenty trips since January.

Coming off an eight-year period when the voice of workers fell on deaf ears, the list demonstrates the White House desire to hear from working people.

The Washington Post notes several visits came during the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act debate.

Talking Points Memo sums it up nicely:

It makes sense that Stern would be a popular guest -- beyond leading a group key to the Democratic base, Stern's SEIU has been a leading voice on behalf of health care reform.

Andy Stern has tweeted about some of his White House visits, and you can follow him here.

Why We're Headed to Chicago Next Week: Read more about the largest taxpayer mobilization in Chicago next week where thousands of Americans from 20 cities will converge on the American Bankers Association (ABA) conference to demand banks stop spending millions in taxpayer dollars to lobby against reforms that would protect Americans from the next economic crisis. Want to join us?

Krugman Reminds Us Why We're Fighting Those Guys in the First Place...While giant financial institutions are paying out record bonuses and salaries, they aren't lending to small businesses or helping families that are struggling with their mortgages. Read Paul Krugman's NY Times piece, which gives a sobering report on the state of banks.

Blog about it if you must....In a study by the Sunlight Foundation's Micah Sifry, SEIU.org was counted as the most referenced site in blog posts about healthcare policy. Read the score here.

Then on techPresident, Nancy Scola highlights SEIU's new online tool + Twitter + Ads campaign ("Take a ticket for healthcare equality") to help get the word out to would-be tweeters that's time to deliver on healthcare reform that ends discrimination against women by health insurers. The campaign has generated over 5,000 tweets since yesterday.

Senators Urge Extension of Unemployment Benefits: 7,000 people every day see their are seeing their jobless benefits expiring--and it's largely due to the petty obstructionism of two Senators who are blocking the needed extension of jobless benefits. Yesterday afternoon, 14 senators from across the country joined together to urge swift passage of a UI extension.

Former SEIU Member Crowned a Ugandan King: For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a CNA in Maryland and Pennsylvania and was a member of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. Yesterday, Mumbere returned to his native Uganda and assumed the royal crown as king of his people, the 300,000-strong Rwenzururu Kingdom. Read more about his life from teenage leader of a rebel force to impoverished student, a CNA working in the U.S. and, finally, to king of his people. Photos of his crowning here.

"The Greatest Public Demonstration in Puerto Rican History:" Photos and recap from the Puerto Rican General Strike on October 15 on SEIU's Blog here. Stand up for the civil rights of Puerto Rico's citizens by contacting your member of Congress and asking him to hold hearings on Gov. Fortuño's anti-American actions.

SEIU's Rocio Saenz Joins International Unions to Urge Reform of Mexico's Broken Labor Laws: Joining a group of international labor leaders, SEIU Vice President and President of Local 615 Rocio Saenz spoke at a press conference in Mexico City on October 14 about the urgent need to reform broken Mexican labor laws that allow multinationals to exploit Mexican workers without recourse. "We cannot address the deeper causes of global poverty and forced economic migration unless we reach across international borders and ensure that all working people have the right to decent work and a job that will support their families," said Saenz.

UPDATE: A new video:

Jorge-Alonso Chehade came to the U.S. from Peru as a child and is now facing deportation next Friday, September 25. He and a friend accidentally crossed the Canadian border while trying not to violate traffic laws, a March 2009 incident which, ironically, led to his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sadly, his pending deportation.

Watch Alonso's call to action:

Jorge-Alonso Chehade graduated from High School with honors, attended community college and worked hard enough to transfer to a top-tier university, where he received a degree in Business Administration from the prestigious Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He is quite literally the embodiment of the American Dream, but our broken immigration system has prevented him from continuing down his career path after graduation. His story is part of a broader narrative of the challenges faced by immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. and embraced American ideals, but are unable to fully contribute to our country because current immigration law does not provide a mechanism for them to do so.

On his Facebook Support Group, Alonso writes:

I am very grateful to the many opportunities that America has offered me and I am ready to give back. This is why I would like to stay in the country, work, pay taxes, and bring change by joining all national efforts in support of the DREAM Act.

Alonso has earned the chance to live and work here and call America home--and ICE needs to hear from us that he should be allowed to stay. The goal is to get at least 3,000 signatures--we currently have around 2,500. Sign onto U.S. Senators Patty Murry and Maria Cantwell's letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Alonso's behalf, requesting that they defer action on his deportation.

We've been successful with Walter Lara and Taha Mowla, now let's do all we can for Jorge Alonso! Please let your friends and family know how they can sign the petition on his behalf too: http://action.seiu.org/page/invite/invitejorgeltr. Later this week, Alonso will deliver the signed petitions in person to ICE.

Twitter & Facebook Support: Support the DREAM Act & allowing Alonso to stay in America on Twitter by posting this message: Another #dreamact student in trouble - STOP @jache0220 Deportation. Co-sign Senators' letters and RT http://t.seiu.org/zr8bqw #alonsochehade. Join his Support Group on Facebook here, where regular updates are being posted.

Recently, we asked you to demonstrate your support online for the President's efforts to fix health care by changing your profile picture on Twitter and Facebook to an image of the "Uniquely American Solution" health care poster by artist Derek Gores.

The response was amazing. Jonathan Singer at MyDD reported that as of Friday night, 880,000 people had posted the "no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick" message on their Facebook profile. It's likely that it's surpassed 1,000,000 at this point--even Scrubs funnyman Zach Braff is on board!

Not only did we have a lot of people posting the Derek Gores piece as their avatar, many took one more step in making it their own by adapting the image. Check out some of our favorites:

                                                   

Thanks for keeping the drumbeat for health care going online--let's keep up spreading the word: click here to download your avatar - and if you're on Twitter, tweet about changing your profile picture in support of health insurance reform.

If you've got a Facebook account, you can see all of the public status updates we're talking about here. And on Twitter, you can view the latest posts here.

When President Obama gave his Labor Day speech to a Cincinnati crowd on Monday, he prefaced the health care portion of his speech with the words, "I'll have a lot more to say about this Wednesday night, and I don't want to give it all away."

Well, the wait is almost over. The President will address a joint session of Congress tonight at 8:00 PM ET. You don't want to miss this pivotal moment for healthcare, so be sure to tune in.

Show your support for health reform

If you haven't already....show your support online for the President's efforts to fix health care by changing your profile picture on Twitter and Facebook. Click here to download your "Uniquely American Solution" avatar and swap it out on your Facebook or Twitter profile.

On Thursday, a simple message began spreading like wildfire on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It read: "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick."

People were asked by friends to re-post the statement if they agreed. Thousands did just that.

We didn't want to let this homegrown campaign go to waste, so we found a more lasting way to demonstrate your support online for the President's efforts to fix health care - changing your profile picture!

For the past six months, we've made thousands of calls to Congress, written hundreds of letters to newspapers and flooded Congressional offices with emails and petitions - but what we often fail to do is lobby our friends and neighbors.

That's why we've produced avatar-sized images of our "Uniquely American Solution" health care poster by artist Derek Gores. Click here to download your avatar - and if you're on Twitter, tweet about changing your profile picture in support of health insurance reform.

Download your "Uniquely American Solution" avatar and swap it out on your Facebook or Twitter profile. Thanks for keeping the drumbeat going online as we emerge from a long Labor Day weekend.

P.S. Did you miss the activity on Facebook and Twitter? If you've got a Facebook account, you can see all of the public status updates here. And on Twitter, you can view the latest posts here.

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We're pretty excited SEIU Executive Secretary-Treasurer and Change to Win chair Anna Burger is set to keynote at the Netroots Nation convention (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) this weekend in Pittsburgh, PA. The annual gathering put on by Netroots Nation--a nonprofit organization for the advancement of online political activism--will bring together online organizers, political bloggers and progressive activists, from both inside and outside the union movement.

Burger is part of a panel discussion with NJ Gov. Jon Corzine and economist Dean Baker, entitled Building a 21st-Century Economy:

Saturday, August 15th - 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
Keynote, Hall B

Shortly after President Obama took office, he remarked, "We need new rules of the road for the 21st century economy, together with the means and willingness to enforce them." But in today's world, economic solutions must include more than just bailouts and regulations.

As our leaders push to solve our country's financial crisis, how can we maintain confidence in the economy while protecting the interests of the middle class? What are some of the pivotal policy decisions that are being made now, and what will a "21st century economy" look like? And how can we as progressives help for progressive change in areas such as health care and workers' rights?

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Change to Win Chair Anna Burger and economist Dean Baker will join us in Pittsburgh for a discussion about the economy and how it affects working Americans. The panel will be moderated by Kevin Drum of Mother Jones.

Netroots '09 will feature tons of panels, training sessions, workshops and keynotes to help teach participants how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate. Other Netroots panel discussions SEIU'ers will be leading include How to Work with Unions in Your District, Building the Blue-Green Movement Online, Turning Red Districts Blue: Organizing For Change, Si Se Puede 2.0, and Labor Caucus.

Reason #1,292 you should go to Netroots '09: It was recently announced that President Bill Clinton will kick off the convention with a keynote on Thursday night. If you haven't already signed up to attend the highly-anticipated gathering of the online progressive community register now here.

Attendees and panelists will live tweet from the conference August 13-16 -- you can follow what they're saying on Twitter via the official Netroots Nation hashtag #nn09. Head on Radio Network will be broadcasting the event with live audio and video stream.

In the wild and wonderful world of Twitter, the Twitter following of SEIU recently surpassed 2,000--in fact, as of today we're up to nearly 2,300!

Thanks to all of the friends and progressive organizations who've "followed" us along the way and inspired us with their work, engaged us in conversation and helped us get our message out via the power of the Retweet on Employee Free Choice, health care reform, corporate accountability and much more.

To commemorate the day, I've created this mosaic of our Twitter followers.

* Subscribe to the RSS feed of SEIU's tweets * Follow SEIU on Twitter

(See the entire mosaic after the break)

As the House leaves for August recess, the Republican party is pulling out all stops as they misinform the public about the true cost of health care reform. With H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act--which should be exempt from the usual political machinations-- the health and welfare of Hoosiers and folks throughout the country is at stake.

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana continues to spread false information about the cost of the bill. In an interview on MSNBC, Rep. Pence incorrectly states that the health reform bill would result in "one trillion dollars" in new taxes. Even the news anchor knows something is wrong with Pence's calculations.

Watch the interview here:

Rep. Pence followed up his cable news performance by spouting even more misinformation on the House Floor this week, this time with a new incorrect figure: 800 billion dollars in new taxes.

Folks, we must nip these false facts in the bud. Here's our fact check.

FALSE CLAIM: Rep. Pence Claims Over $800 Billion In New Taxes In House Health Care Reform Bill. Rep. Mike Pence claimed on both MSNBC and the House floor that the House health care overhaul included "more than $800 billion in new taxes."

FACT: Bill Includes Only $544 Billion In Taxes Affecting Only 1.2% of the Population. The surtax in the House health care overhaul bill would actually "raise $544 billion over 10 years- roughly half the cost of the bill - and affect only 1.2 percent of all households in the United States."

So if you're on Twitter-- message Rep. Pence and ask him and his colleagues in the House to read the bill and disseminate the facts.

The Heritage Foundation responded yesterday to our campaign exposing the Lewin Group's conflict of interest on health insurance reform by saying, um, the blog version of "NUH UHHH!"

From the Heritage blog: "In fact, the Lewin Group is an independent and well-respected national health care and human services policy research and consulting firm with an expertise in modeling, statistics and actuarial analysis and more than 35 years experience." (Nice work. This could stand in for "About Us" language on the Lewin Group's own website. Oh look - in fact, it's fairly close to their own description.)

What Heritage declines to address is the very point of our campaign - the fact that in 2007, the Lewin Group was purchased by UnitedHealth - a health insurance company with a track record of breaking the law and defrauding customers. And that Republicans, who use Lewin Group studies in their attempt to derail health insurance reform, have long been claiming that this firm is "independent" and "non-partisan." Sorry, but that's simply not true.

The bloggers at Heritage try to spread the blame around, too, albeit sloppily. In defending Lewin Group statistics, they quote Democrat Ron Wyden's joint op-ed with a Republican colleague, in which they wrote, "The Lewin Group [is] the gold standard of independent, health-care analysis." (Did they find this on the Lewin Group website, as well? The quote is part of their website's template footer.)

This attempt at using Wyden's comment to prop up the Lewin Group's credibility is weak, at best. The op-ed in question was written in June 2007, mere days after the sale of the Lewin Group to UnitedHealth. It refers to studies conducted long before UnitedHealth had its hands in the policy research cookie jar. Maybe the Lewin Group was once the "gold standard" of health policy research - but that's certainly not the case anymore.

Sorry, but you're going to have to try harder, Heritage.

So far hundreds of you have watched this video and used Twitter to call out the people trying to pass off the Lewin Group as "independent:"

I just took a screen shot of all the @replies to Senator Grassley's Twitter feed; take a look:

The Senators and Representatives in this video thought they could pass off the Lewin Group as a trustworthy source when it comes to health care, but they're starting to get a serious dose of reality, 140 characters at a time.

Will you keep the pressure on them to quit citing the Lewin Group as a respected source of information? Join SEIU's campaign to tweet the truth about the Lewin Group.

This is a new one.

Imagine you're an insurance company making billions of dollars by charging people tons of money for health care. Now, imagine there's a reform bill in Congress that could end your stranglehold on the market, forcing you to lower your prices and improve your services.

How would you respond? By buying your own think tank to generate anti-health reform studies, of course.

No, this isn't another HAARM plot, this is really happening. Click here to watch the video: seiu.org/lewin

It gets worse. Republicans in Congress are actually playing along. Not only are they citing these studies from the Lewin Group with a straight face, they're using words like "independent," and "non-partisan" to describe it. What they're forgetting to say is that their research firm is "owned by a private insurance company," and "completely biased when it comes to health care."

This is bad - even for Washington. Will you call out the GOP? Use Twitter to tell them to stick to the facts on health care: seiu.org/lewin

This is the most important week yet in the movement to fix health care; we can't waste a single minute with distorted truths and biased stats. Help us put the conversation back on track.

With the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act still going, it was bound to break Godwin's Law: yesterday the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial board "unequivocally" equated the Employee Free Choice Act to.... Nazis. The newspapers' anti-Employee Free Choice editorial ends with this:

Have you noticed? Political parties supposedly dedicated to the workers' welfare have a way of undermining their rights. They may begin by bullying management but wind up dictating to labor, too. And everybody else. For a European example to beware, note the sad history of the grandly named National Socialist German Workers Party, aka Nazis.

The "Workforce Fairness Institute" and "Center for Union Facts" both linked to the editorial approvingly and without distancing themselves from the Nazi association.

Think Progress reports:

Corporate front group tweets approvingly about editorial equating Employee Free Choice Act with Nazism.

Today, the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) -- which is a corporate front group, "founded by several longtime Republican operatives," that is lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- tweeted approvingly about an editorial in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that unequivocally equates EFCA with Nazism.

The editorial says that "American public opinion came to the defense of the secret ballot when it was about to be junked. It needs to stay vigilant against these sly little provisions intended to achieve the same end."

WFI's Mark McKinnon (background on ex-Bush strategist McKinnon here) has previously warned that Employee Free Choice is equatable with "tyrannies and socialism." In November 2008, the National Journal reported that WFI "has been doing grassroots work in 16 states for about six months," in opposition to EFCA. When asked by the New York Times, WFI's Mark McKinnon "would not say which companies are financing the institute, founded by several longtime Republican operatives." So although the group will not identify its funders, the National Journal has also reported that WFI is likely funded by big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Recently, deceptive ads about the Employee Free Choice Act ran in Arkansas and Nebraska, falsely claiming that organized workers do not have a say in negotiations over their wages and benefits and implying that employers are handing out raises to their employees with the union that is standing in the way. The ads are paid for by the Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC), and EFAC, like its affiliated anti-EFCA corporate front group Center for Union Facts, is run by corporate lobbyist Rick Berman. Beginning to see the ties that bind here?
Comparing those who support a workers' rights to mass murderers is beyond the pale and completely undermines the Democrat-Gazette's credibility as a legitimate news outlet. We believe such an outrageous, offensive claim by Arkansas' largest paper demands a strong rebuttal. Let the editors of the Democrat-Gazette know what you think about their Nazi comparison. Write your letter to the editor now.

Yesterday, California Democrat Judy Chu won a special election in District 32 with almost 62% of the vote to become the newest member of Congress. "She's a dynamic leader and a woman of action, who stands up and fights for her beliefs, whether outside on a picket line with workers or inside the corridors of power," said Courtni Pugh, Executive Director of SEIU California State Council. SEIU members endorsed Chu in January and contributed their time and energy to her victory.

Even our President is happy about the win, expressing his enthusiasm for Chu's victory via Twitter: RT @BarackObama: Congratulations to CA Rep. Judy Chu district on becoming the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress.

The Financial Times reported yesterday that Citigroup is raising credit card interest rates on 15 million customers. Citigroup has received three taxpayer-funded bailouts totaling $45 billion and the latest plan to keep the failed bank afloat gives the government and taxpayers a 34 percent stake in the company.

Said SEIU's Anna Burger, "It's shameful that Citigroup would raise interest rates on millions of Americans during a time when record unemployment and home foreclosures are forcing families to rely more and more on their credit cards just to get by." This news comes a week after Citigroup announced it is also raising salaries by as much as 50 percent for investment bankers and other top executives, to accommodate for smaller annual bonuses. Citigroup needs to commit to give any new raises to front-line bank employees, who struggle just to make ends meet while dealing with the rising costs of healthcare, not top executives who have contributed to this mess.

Signing petitions for change on Twitter

Sign and Tweet this petition - Tell @Citi_Forward (Citigroup) to give raises to front-line bank workers, not top executives: http://act.ly/2h. Retweet to sign.

Learn more about using Twitter as an advocacy tool with act.ly here. Check out who's in the hot seat on act.ly right now.

President Obama is hosting an online discussion this Wednesday, at 1:15 p.m. EDT, on health care reform. He's soliciting questions from people via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Below is the President's video introduction to this week's online discussion:

If you're on Twitter, ask a question with this hashtag #WHHCQ. Facebook users can ask questions here. Two hundred and thirty-six (236) YouTube video questions have already been submitted--many of which deal directly with the public health insurance option. Below are a few of our favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1TNyspiNaU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH0zcK8T39Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfl7mDMpruw

Submit your own question via YouTube here.