Saturday, October 17, 2009

"President Obama, 'Why do people hate you?'" From the Today Show

Interview with Tyren Scott from the Today Show.



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President Bush "41" calls Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, "...sick puppies..." (Video)

Poppy Bush called Olbermann and Maddow, "....sick puppies..." Bush "41", totally wrong here, just totally. Facts are different than manufactured facts, which is something that Fox News does on the DAILY. Criticism backed with FACTS are one thing and it is warranted, but made up bullshit that Fox News does is something else. There is a real reason that many go on Rachel Maddow's show from the right, because she is the real fair and balanced news show. Poppy Bush, sorry, you are wrong.



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President Obama brings the HEAT to the insurance industry

I mean the THREAT heat.

In unusually harsh terms, Mr. Obama cast insurance companies as obstacles to change interested only in preserving their own “profits and bonuses” and willing to “bend the truth or break it” to stop his drive to remake the nation’s health care system. The president used his weekly radio and Internet address to push back against industry assertions that legislation will drive up premiums.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, ‘Take one of these, and call us in a decade.’ Well, not this time.”

Rather than trying to curb costs and help patients, he said, the industry is busy “figuring out how to avoid covering people.”

“And they’re earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exemption from our antitrust laws,” he said, “a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing.”

Anyone defending these pariahs called the "health care insurance industries" are only doing it because they are too embedded with this corrupt group.

It does not take a rocket scientist to know that this industry's main focus is profits, not care for the insurer, profits. Health care in this country is a right not a damn privilege. If we, yes we, taxpayers are going to continue to spend in the billions and have wasted in the trillions on two wars which brought this country NOTHING to show for it; you mean to tell me we can not insure the people in this country? Folks are dying, daily, by the horrible rescission practices of the health care industry. The stories of this industry are NOT GOOD. Finally, the camel that broke the back for President Obama was the DISHONEST AHIP report released by the health care lobbyists on Monday. (Also note, Pricewaterhouse Cooper has come out with a statement clarifying that the cost savings was omitted from the report that was delivered on Monday. In other words, criticism was warranted and the report can be called bogus.) The only thing that was accurate was the THREAT that this industry was going to raise our premiums. Do they think we are dumb or something? They do this every year ANYWAY. And the ill timing release of this report just may have backfired on the health care industry and RIGHTLY SO.

Bravo, President Obama the heat is on. Threaten them, keep on threating them and then TAKE AWAY their Anti-Trust Exemption, enough of the lies, deceit, etc. It is time to take this industry to task and I mean the time was 20 years ago.

Read the whole article here and h/t to Daily Kos.

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President Obama's Weekly Address, October 17, 2009 (Video)

As the health insurance reform debate enters into its final stages in Congress, the President denounces the desperate and deceptive last-ditch efforts of the health insurance companies to derail it. October 17, 2009.



Transcript

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Friday, October 16, 2009

From President Obama at the DNC Fundraiser in San Francisco..."get a mop...grab a mop help clean up...that's a socialist mop..." (Video)

Yes, get a mop and help clean up the shit that was left for the Obama Administration, even that socialist mop....



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The Republican Party is going bat sh*t crazy

Wow, after reading this report any Republican that don't tow this skewed ideology line, will have a hard time retaining their seat. Trying to speak to these people is worthless, you won't get any where. And of course, Fox News speaks for the Republican Party and especially these folks who rejects facts but embraces innuendo.

When Stan Greenberg and fellow Democratic researchers launched a study of the conservative Republican world's reaction to President Obama, he figured they'd find ample evidence of racism.

They didn't. Not at all.

"Race just wasn't brought up," said a surprised Greenberg on a conference call with reporters Friday. He said that the focus groups were given as much time to talk about race as they could possibly need.

"If there was any kind of a racial element, we thought we'd pick it up. We didn't," said James Carville, who also worked on the report.

And when asked who spoke for the Republican Party, the answer was overwhelmingly: Fox News.

The study was done by Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and was also authored by Karl Agne and Jim Gerstein.

What drives the GOP base, rather than race, was a genuine belief that Obama has a "secret agenda" to drive the country in a socialist direction, said the authors. These voters want more opposition, not more cooperation.

"They want more opposition," said Carville. "If you don't wanna get primary-ed, there's nothing in this [report] that tells [a GOP member of Congress] to go compromise on anything. Quite the contrary." read more here.....

Full report is here.

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I agree with Eugene Robinson about President Obama's visit to New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina was the one event that unraveled the Bush Administration. This horrible event unmasked what the Bush White House was all about and Bush lost the independent voters for the Republican Party by their uncaring, insensitive, don't carish attitude towards the people of the Gulf Region. We, Americans watched in horror as New Orleans unraveled and the Super Dome became a death trap, all LIVE on television. To this DAY, I will never forget the reporting of Jeanne Meserve, CNN, it was dark, night fall and she literally had to keep it together as you heard screams, cries for help, people trapped in flooded homes, etc. I will never, ever forget her reporting it brought streaming tears to my eyes.

Hurricane Katrina hardened Americans towards the Bush Administration and their total disarray and unpreparedness for what happened. And who can forget as President Bush was in a hangar in Alabama, telling the television crew that, "Brownie you're doing a hellava job." When the reality on the ground was that Brownie was not doing SHIT as FEMA Director. How can one forget how long it TOOK FEMA to get water, food, transportation into New Orleans and the hard hit parts of Mississippi? Who can forget Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans telling the federal goverment to, "Get off your asses"!!

The Republicans with Bush paid a price for their horrible handling of Hurricane Katrina and their lack of empathy and sensitivity. Now, President Obama who blasted the Bush Administration for their reckless handling of Hurricane Katrina, came into New Orleans, yesterday for a quick drive by. When I read he was only going to be there four hours, my first inclination was, "Who set this up?" Especially, when he left to go to a glitzy fundraiser in San Francisco? Obama White House, don't ever do this again. That whole Gulf Region is STILL A DISASTER AREA, it warrants more than a four hour drive by, while you are picking up gumbo, President Obama.

President Obama's brief display of drive-by compassion Thursday in New Orleans was, for me, by far the worst outing of his presidency thus far -- and the biggest disappointment.

I covered Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath -- the flood in New Orleans that drowned a great city, the storm surge in Mississippi that erased whole communities, the devastation, the agony. For weeks afterwards, I had trouble sleeping. I couldn't forget the scenes I'd witnessed or the stories I'd heard.

More than a year later, I covered a Senate subcommittee hearing in New Orleans on the lagging reconstruction effort. I watched as a young senator who was thought to be considering a presidential run -- that would be Barack Obama -- used his Harvard Law skills to eviscerate Bush-era officials for not doing enough to rebuild and revive the Gulf Coast region.
So it was strange and disheartening that Obama would wait nine months to make his first visit to New Orleans as president. It was stunning that he would spend only a few hours on the ground and that he wouldn't set foot in Mississippi or Alabama at all. But worst of all was the way he seemed to dismiss the idea that his administration could and should be doing much more.

I know that local officials say the Obama administration is more responsive and more effective than the Bush administration, but that's not saying much. What says more is that New Orleans still doesn't have an operational full-service hospital. And that an adequate flood barrier is still not in place.

"I wish I could just write a check," Obama said. If that was his message, he should have stayed home. We now know that our government can make hundreds of billions of dollars available to irresponsible Wall Street institutions within a matter of days, if necessary. We can open up the floodgates of credit to too-big-to-fail banks at the stroke of a pen. But when it comes to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, well, these things take time.

I doubt these are the priorities Obama wants to be remembered for.

Source

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The Texas execution of an innocent man continues (Video)

From AC360 on the execution of Todd Willingham, and read it all here:



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The balloon boy hoax, at least is seems like a hoax to me

My husband said yesterday, "this was set up for television." I was not willing to go that far, because everyone was glued to their sets about that balloon in the air with a six year old. After watching some of the morning programs and the little boy did not come out because his father said, "it was for the show." Enough.

The Heene Family was on the reality show, Wife Swap and from what I have heard and read, the family did not come across as all sweetness and nice. I guess for some people, they just can not get enough publicity. And watch the Today Show clip, the child looks sick, his eyes are closed and he THROWS UP in the middle of the interview on the show. No pity for these parents at all. Lastly, the family called the MEDIA FIRST.

CNN



And here is a contestant talking about the father from the Heene Family from Wife Swap and Richard Heene sounds like a nut:



The Today Show:



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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Rachel Maddows calls Americans for Prosperity's President, Tim Phillips a parasite to his face (Video)

An anti-health care group funded by a right winged fringe, Art Pope. This organization is a FAKE grassroots organization, supposedly concerned about health care, yeah they are for the RICH and STATUS QUO.


Part One


Part Two

A must see video. This is real journalism.

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President Obama's Town Hall Meeting in New Orleans, LA (Video)


Part One


Part Two

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Employers are cutting pay across the board, all over the place (Video)

But our mortgages, food, tuition, car notes, health insurance sure ain't goin' down!! And what if the economy rebooms? Are these companies going to increase your pay, with plus? I doubt it.



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This is so wrong, big lottery hoax (Video)


A woman being driven around in a rented limousine pulled up at a coat store and announced she'd won the lottery and would pay for everyone's purchases, police said, but she ended up causing a riot when customers realized it was a hoax.

Angry customers threw merchandise around and looted, leaving the store looking as though a hurricane had passed through it, police said.

Linda Brown was arrested Tuesday after an hours-long shopping spree that began when she hired a stretch Hummer limousine to drop her off at a Burlington Coat Factory store, police Sgt. Lt. Michael Deakins said. Brown walked to a cash register and loudly announced she had won the lottery and would pay for each person's merchandise up to $500, he said.

"Well, of course, people like to hear that," Deakins said. "Apparently they were in line calling relatives who were not at the store and told them to come."

People flooded the registers as cashiers began ringing up purchase after purchase, but Brown had not yet paid the bill, Deakins said. At least 500 people filled the aisles and another 1,000 were outside trying to get in, he said.

"She was telling people she won $1.5 million," Deakins said. "But it ends up she didn't win anything. She had no money to pay for anything." read more here....

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Foreclosures moving right along.....

Along with problems of NO JOBS and people having to take wage cuts to try to keep a job, your mortgage bill sure isn't going down anytime soon. Record high foreclosures and folks just walking away from these homes that is not worth the paper it is printed on, should be an ALARM all across this country. The Dow Jones may be partying like it is 2099, but Main Street is being slaughtered out here.

Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.

"They were the worst three months of all time," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.

During that time, 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter -- whether a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession, the RealtyTrac report said. That means one in every 136 U.S. homes were in foreclosure, which is a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008.

Nevada continued to be the worst-hit state with one filing for every 23 households. But even tranquil Vermont, where the foreclosure crisis has barely brushed the housing market, saw foreclosure filings jump nearly 170% compared with the third quarter of 2008. Still, that resulted in just one filing for every 5,023 households in the state -- the best record in the country. read more here....

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President Obama on Highways and Recovery (Video)

President Obama speaks about the Recovery Act at the Fairfax County Parkway Extension, an example of people being put to work rebuilding our country. October 14, 2009.



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Michael Moore and Dylan Ratigan goes at it on The Today Show (Video)



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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fat Cats of Wall Street can pop champaign, the folks on Main Street are struggling to stay afloat (Video)



This is the reality. Where is the bailout for the American Public?

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Rush Limbaugh DROPPED from the St. Louis Rams bid (Video)

From the Ed Schultz Show:



Again, no one is surprised. The NFL don't want this drama, truly they don't.

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Ed Schultz hits HARD on the economy and JOBS (Video)

From The Ed Schultz Show:



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"We are moving in the right direction", President Obama on the 10,000 Dow Jones day (Video)



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President Obama Observes Diwali (Video & Transcript)

After signing an Executive Order restoring the White House Advisory Commission and Interagency Working Group to address issues concerning the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, the President observed Diwali, or the “Festival of Lights,” a holiday celebrated across faiths. October 14, 2009.



Transcript

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The Dow hits 10,000 for the first time in a year, but who cares?

Really, who give a mickey-fick that the dow hit briefly 10,000 points. Is that going to lower the health care bills of family A? Is it going to help the college student who can not find a job from family B? Will it give a promise of jobs to come for family C that lost their home? A guranteed of a livebale job waged for family D?

No, it is a reminder that the Bailout Kings of Wall Street still reign and the average family on Main Street its options are bleak.

That is the reality out here, not on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average has reclaimed 10,000 for the first time in a year.

The Dow crossed five figures in afternoon trading Wednesday, seven months after it hit a 12-year low of 6,547.05 on March 9. The comeback by the stock market’s best-known indicator is the most visible sign yet that investors believe the economy is indeed recovering from the financial crisis and recession.

Cheering erupted from traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as stocks briefly moved above the psychological barrier. They fell back into the 9,990 range in the normal ebb and flow of trading. read more here....

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If CNN cares about Latinos in America, get rid of LOU DOBBS (Video)

h/t to Daily Kos, read it all here.....



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Dylan Ratigan tells the CEO of U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "...you talk nonsense" (Video)

I saw watched this exchange this morning and had to agree with Ratigan on Donohue's rationale on expanding the job market. And when was the last time the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was even relevant?



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(Update) Indianapolis Colts owner on Rush Limbaugh owning the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise is basically, NO

Well, again, words do matter. Actions do matter. How you conduct yourself in the open DOES matter and Rush Limbaugh is finding this out the hard way.

The NFL would be incredibly STUPID to allow Rush Limbaugh, now he is stating, "I would be a minority owner", to have anything to do with the NFL. Limbaugh is trying to beat back his constant inflammatory comments over the years, but with little success. When you call the majority of African Americans who play in the NFL a bunch of "Crips and Bloods but without the weapons", did he think the NFL would welcome him with open arms?

Sometimes, when you have a shit load of money, what you STAND FOR does matter. That is the NFL.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said this afternoon that the divisive rhetoric of prospective Rams minority owner Rush Limbaugh makes him unappealing.

"I myself couldn't even think of voting for him," said Irsay speaking from the NFL's fall ownership meetings in Boston.

Asked if he'd spoken to other owners about Limbaugh's candidacy, Irsay said, "I haven't and I don't think I would even go to the point of talking to Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, Dwight Freeney, talking to those men and seeing what their positions are. I'm very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage and it's something that we don't need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity and we have.

"I come from a different era where Marvin Gaye and John Lennon were speaking about [certain things] and we've been doing a slow crawl to some of the things they talked about. We don't need to go the other way," Irsay added. "We can't go the other way where there isn't forgiveness and understanding but we gotta watch our words in this world and our thoughts because they can do damage."

My, my talking about Marvin Gaye and John Lennon, both men who recorded, repeatedly social records back in the day. They spoke about racial divide, the environment, and giving PEACE A CHANCE. Rush Limbaugh does not qualify in any of those categories.

Lastly, when a NFL owner comes out and one well respected as Irsay, you are a DONE DEAL. Now the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell weighs in:
"I've said many times before we're all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about," Goodell said at an NFL owners' meeting. "I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL, absolutely not."

King Rush, "Its been one."

Read it all here.

(UPDATE)

NFL sources: Checketts drops Limbaugh from bid to buy Rams

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This is another problem, working for LESS and paying MORE for everything else

I had a friend call me last week in an absolute panic. Their whole department is being given to a consulting company, starting in January. Everyone in the department must re-apply for their jobs and the pay cut is 15-20%. The benefits from a consulting company versus the firm are worse and the cost is higher.

Folks, these companies don't care about you as they did your parents or grandparents 40 years ago. They have no remorse on cutting your salary, making your premiums for insurance and everything else higher. They only care about its companies bottom line and if they can rah-rah it on the stock market, only the top elusive folk benefit. Everyone else, like you? Not so much.

Many Americans are also trapped with houses that are not worth the paper they bought it for. So what are many Americans doing? They are walking away from these over priced homes and don't give a DAMN about doing so. That is a continuous problem. Hey, if Wall Street and the banks can make out like fat cats, why not walk away? Many just don't care anymore. That should be alarming.

I am going to be a stickler about jobs in this country. Sure, President Obama inherited a huge mess, but by this time next year it is HIS MESS. The Republicans, if they can get it together, needs to present to the American Public why they should vote for them, but more so, where they can be inventive on creating JOBS for the millions of Americans out of work. That is the Republican problem, as they continue to say NO to everything, they continue to offer no solution to anything. Until they can figure this out, they will continue to be the party with the names of Limbaugh, Beck and Dobbs.

And the Democrats and Obama, this economy needs to turn around and jobs need to come back to this country. That is YOUR task and to energize your very base as to why to continue to come out to vote for you. The notion of Obama inherited this mess only lasts for so long. Next year are the mid-term elections and after watching in the thousands line up for federal assistance for housing and heating was heartbreaking. Estimated 50,000 showed up, but only 3,500 applications will be granted.

It is not only the economy stupid, but it is JOBS.

The dark blue captain’s hat, with its golden oak-leaf clusters, sits atop a bookcase in Bryan Lawlor’s home, out of reach of the children. The uniform their father wears still displays the four stripes of a commercial airline captain, but the hat stays home. The rules forbid that extra display of authority, now that Mr. Lawlor has been downgraded to first officer.

He is now in the co-pilot’s seat in the 50-seat commuter jets he flies, not for any failure in skill. He wears his captain’s stripes, he explains, to make that point. But with air travel down, his employer cut costs by downgrading 130 captains, those with the lowest seniority, to first officers, automatically cutting the wage of each by roughly 50 percent — to $34,000 in Mr. Lawlor’s case.

The demotion, the loss of command, the cut in pay to less than his wife, Tracy, makes as a fourth-grade teacher, have diminished Mr. Lawlor, 34, in his own eyes. He still thinks he will return to being the family’s principal breadwinner, although as the months pass he worries more. “I don’t want to be a 50-year-old pilot earning $40,000 a year,” he said, adding that his wife does not want to be married to a pilot with so little earning power.

In recent decades, layoffs were the standard procedure for shrinking labor costs. Reducing the wages of those who remained on the job was considered demoralizing and risky: the best workers would jump to another employer. But now pay cuts, sometimes the result of downgrades in rank or shortened workweeks, are occurring more frequently than at any time since the Great Depression.

State workers in Georgia are taking home smaller paychecks. So are the tens of thousands of employees in California’s public university system. The steel company Nucor and the technology giant Hewlett-Packard have embraced the practice. So have several airlines and many small businesses. read more here....

And these pay cuts? How are people suppose to SURVIVE? The inflation is not going down, the grocery bill is not reducing, the car note is not declining, the basics of living is not cheap. And it is supposed to just be ok?

Houston, we got a problem........

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Auto sales plunge, retail sales down

Wall Street may be dancing in the streets, economists may say the recession is over or about over, but the average Joe and Joesetta don't see that. Main Street is hurting and this is real.

Retail sales declined in September by the largest amount this year as car sales plummeted following the end of the government's popular Cash for Clunkersprogram.

The Commerce Department says retail sales dropped 1.5 percent last month. That's smaller than the 2.1 percent fall economists had expected, but still the biggest setback since sales dropped 3.2 percent in December.

Car sales plunged 10.4 percent, but excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.5 percent. That's better than the 0.2 percent increase analysts expected

Source

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

President Obama dances at Fiesta Latina!!!

This event was on the South Lawn of the White House.



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The hate continues...swastika engraved on a golf course with Obama's name (Video)

Again, is this suppose to endear people to the Republican Party?



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Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) to resign from congress

This is a safe Democratic district. The Ambassador to Israel slot is still open, ummm, President Obama? Obviously, the rumors of the Ambassadorship is HOT and HEAVY!!

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, who represents Broward and Palm Beach counties, plans to resign from Congress.

He plans to announce his plans at a news conference Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Boca Raton.,

A Democratic source with knowledge of Wexler's plans said he is likely to take a public policy job that deals with the Middle East.

Wexler, a senior member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, has long been involved in issues involving Israel and Turkey.

Source

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President Obama on a “Critical Milestone” for Health Reform (Video)



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Republicans are a sad looking lot, they hate any health care reform (Video)

Note: This notion of premiums going UP by a study of Price Waterhouse is the same study that is highly questionable that the insurance lobbyists released yesterday. And finally, when was the last time ANYONE'S premiums have not gone up. Shit, premiums are going up EVERY YEAR. This scare tactic is bogus by the Republicans, but they are a sad looking lot. Orrin Hatch stating, "We need a restrained, dignified, good way" towards health care reform, a.k.a., kill the health care bill by any means necessary.



Today's win was for the Democrats and the Republicans are petrified.

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Well, the Democrats got Snowe, for now

She will be the only Republican, thus far going forward that will probably vote for health care reform. The biggest question is the public option and after the lobbyists for the insurance industry put out a highly questionable report yesterday about costs going to increase with reform, the Democrats should move forward on everything including the public option.

I saw on television the Republicans looking defeated. I am not cheering about that because the defeat was on the side of the insurance companies and for any individual that has the best damn health care in this country and to be so damn selfish, it is a shame and just sad.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she intends to vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform package. She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor.

"Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it," said Snowe. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time."

Snowe's statement came several hours before a scheduled committee vote.

"My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," she said. It does keep her at the negotiating table and at the center of the debate; Snowe risked marginalizing herself if she voted no.

Snowe is well aware of the math. Her vote, she said, comes with knowledge that Democrats don't need Republicans to pass the landmark legislation.

"The majority has the votes. It has the votes in the House. It has the votes in the Senate. So it shouldn't be about the mathematics of vote-counting, but rather the mechanics of getting the best policy," she said.

Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) was thrilled at the news, complimenting Snowe for her "very thoughtful statement. It'll be well remembered and I thank you for it." read more here...



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Monday, October 12, 2009

The boogey man was sent to getcha'!!! Health care insurance companies saying, boldly they will spike rates if any public option in the final bill!!!!

Yep, did we expect anything DIFFERENT? Even though these vipers are getting a mandate, a.k.a., every American in this country must PURCHASE their product, which is insurance, as shitty as it may be for some? Meaning they, a.k.a., insurance companies get billions of dollars in NEW CUSTOMERS and they are playing the scurred card to the senate?

These sorry, mo-fo, insurance companies playing a final card before that Senate Finance Committee vote tomorrow!! And we will see who BLINKS first. A major threat to the American People and this White House needs to push back hard and I expect it tomorrow.

Insurance companies aren't playing nice any more. Their dire message that health care legislation will drive up premiums for people who already have coverage comes as a warning shot at a crucial point in the debate and threatens President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

Democrats and their allies scrambled on Monday to knock down a new industry-funded study forecasting that Senate legislation, over time, will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical policy. "Distorted and flawed," said White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass. "Fundamentally dishonest," said AARP's senior policy strategist, John Rother. "A hatchet job," said a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

But the health insurance industry's top lobbyist in Washington stood her ground. In a call with reporters, Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, pointedly refused to rule out attack ads on TV featuring the study, though she said she believed the industry's concerns could be amicably addressed.

At the heart of the industry's complaint is a decision by lawmakers to weaken the requirement that millions more Americans get coverage. Since the legislation would ban insurance companies from denying coverage on account of poor health, many people will wait to sign up until they get sick, the industry says. And that will drive up costs for everybody else.

Insurers are now raising possibilities such as higher premiums for people who postpone getting coverage, or waiting periods for those who ignore a proposed government requirement to get insurance and later have a change of heart.

The drama threatened to overshadow Tuesday's scheduled vote by the Senate Finance Committee on a 10-year, $829-billion plan that Baucus has touted as the sensible solution to America's problems of high medical costs and too many uninsured.

The Baucus bill is still expected to win Finance Committee approval. The insurance industry is trying to influence what happens beyond the vote, when legislation goes to the floor of the House and Senate, and, if passed, to a conference committee that would reconcile differences in the bills.

It's at that final stage where many expect the real deal will be cut. read more here....

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Parents of the baby that was DENIED health insurance because he was too fat speak out (Video)

Yes, a baby is denied coverage because his pre-existing condition is being, well fat. The insurance company changed its mind once this story hit the media, but this is another one to throw in the WTF bin, when it comes to health care reform. From The Ed Schultz Show.



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From Hardball on Rush Limbaugh's bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams (Video)

In the end, the NFL's perception is a league of unity not divisiveness and I believe Limbaugh with all his quotes that have come back to haunt him, in the end the NFL will say thanks for the application but no thanks to Limbaugh.



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Rev. Al Sharpton to NFL: No to Limbaugh



From The Ed Schultz Show:



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The Republicans, Conservatives explodes on the Obama Nobel Peace Prize (Video)

Again, these conservatives don't get it. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to many for their on going work to peace. The award is all about the United States of American rebuking the George W. Bush regime, which includes all these nothing pundits, and restoring the United States of America's stature in the world and to bring about peace.

The Republicans, Conservatives did not get nor understand Obama for the past two years, they don't understand or get him now. But the world does, as well as the American Public.



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Rush Limbaugh on the Today Show (Video)

Talking the Republican Party and of course, President Obama, Part One.



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Young Folks, Your Help is Not Wanted

We can talk Afghanistan (which is a total mess), health care (partisan mess), but the economy will be the number one driving figure for the economy next year. Will the Republicans win on this issue if the economy is the same? Not really. But it will depress many of the new voters that came out to vote for Obama, especially the young voter. The highest unemployment, right now, is the 18-24 group. Unemployment is over 50% and let us not forget the rest of the country which is inching closer to the double digit everyday.

It is the economy stupid is very real, right now and job creation is a must for all the people who are unable to find jobs. If that is not a train ride to the other side, unintentionally, then I don't know what else is.

Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.

Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow's would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, and work-related mental disabilities, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.

When today's unemployed finally do get jobs in the recovery, many may be dissatisfied to be slotted below people who worked all along—especially if the newcomers spent their downtime getting more education, says Richard Thompson, vice-president for talent development at Adecco Group North America, which employs more than 300,000 people in temporary positions. Says Thompson: "You're going to have multiple generations fighting for the jobs that are going to come back in the recovery."

What's more, the baby boom generation is counting on a productive young workforce to help fund retirement and health care. Instead, young people risk getting tracked into jobs that don't pay as well, says Lisa B. Kahn of the Yale School of Management. That would mean lower tax payments for Social Security and Medicare.

Only 46% of people aged 16-24 had jobs in September, the lowest since the government began counting in 1948. The crisis is even hitting recent college graduates. "I've applied for a whole lot of restaurant jobs, but even those, nobody calls me back," says Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin graduate with a bachelor's degree in English who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Every morning I wake up thinking today's going to be the day I get a job. I've not had a job for months, and it's getting really frustrating." read more here....

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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Republicans, listen up, "Keep acting a fool over the Olympics, Nobel Peace Prize, if you want..."

In the meantime, the President's polling numbers are going up.

Conservatives and Republicans cheering that the United States of America lost the Olympic bid was epic FAILURE, on your part. Who in their right mind goes against their own country? That bitterness surely is not sitting well in the heart land.

Conservatives and Republicans whining and having a hissy fit over President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize does not bode well for you, either. Mr. Obama did not campaign for this award, had no idea that he would get this award, but to react like the sun and moon was falling from the sky, that behavior is a bit much. As Americans, we should be PROUD of our President receiving this monumental award. It has proven that the United States of America is moving in a new direction, away from the disastrous George W. Bush era. Your nastiness is not helping your party, one bit. Especially for the elusive independent voter, who thinks that your rhetoric is bat shit crazy!!!

For all this, the conservatives and the republicans have awarded President Obama with higher poll numbers, across the board, and believe me he is truly grateful.

Gallup

CBS

Ipsos/McClatchey

AP/GfK

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Gotta love this picture!!!


First Lady Michelle Obama getting into the limousine after her visit with the Pope in Italy and Sasha swinging her legs proudly with no shoes on. Gotta love it!!

Read East Wing Rules post on, Children, Presidents & White House Living, you will enjoy it.

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NFL Players Union "opposes" Rush Limbaugh's purchase of the St. Louis Rams

Remember what Rush said about Donovan McNabb? He was quickly removed from ABC's Monday Night Football. Why? Because everything he said was race related and flatly WRONG. That is why.

The NFL Players Union has every right to be very suspect and skeptical of Rush Limbaugh's purchase of the St. Louis Rams or any franchise to that degree.

King Rush's, as I call him, whole existence resolves around controversy, making ludicrous and ridiculous statements about people, and many times his fact checking on what he says is dead wrong, but it is this type of outrageous crap that has kept him burning the radio waves. So now he wants a NFL franchise?

Many players of the NFL are of color, so their feeling about the hate rhetoric that has repeatedly come out of Limbaugh's mouth is warranted. Why would anyone want to play for someone who wants the President of the United States to fail, has called the President "Barack the Magic Negro", stuck by the Nazi, Marxist and Hitler rhetoric, and then just be cool about Rush owning a team they play for. These players are not FEELIN' THAT. And we won't even go into what he has said about Michelle Obama and many Latino Americans in this country because I would need a book to write about it.

NFL don't do it. Do not give Rush Limbaugh a NFL franchise. He is a prime example of what an owner of a football team should not be, DIVISIVE.

NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith on Saturday made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

In an e-mail to the union's executive committee on Saturday specifically addressing Limbaugh's bid, Smith said, "I've spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred."

Limbaugh and St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts are among six potential ownership groups that have discussed buying the Rams. League sources say the current sale price has ranged from $700-to-$750 million but that there did not appear to be an imminent transaction.

On Sunday, Smith briefly elaborated, "This communication is more about what we stand for than the reality of our role in any franchise sale. While it's true the subject matter was related [to Limbaugh's bid], I do understand that the NFL does not present ownership bids to me or the NFLPA. I encourage our players to express their views."

At least seven NFL players have publicly opposed Limbaugh's interest in purchasing the Rams with Checketts. In Smith's communication Saturday with his executive committee, the union leader encouraged players to speak their mind on all matters, including Limbaugh's bid. read more here.....

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White House goes after Fox News and calls it "propaganda" (Video)

Anita Dunn: Fox News An Outlet For GOP Propaganda...
ABOUT.TIME.WHITE.HOUSE.....




source

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Meet the Press, October 11, 2009 (Video and Transcript)

The debate over the best way forward intensifies in Washington. Two key voices on the Hill and two experienced military leaders weigh in on the direction a new war strategy should take: Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI); Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.); and Gen. Richard Myers (Ret.). Plus a roundtable: Ron Brownstein, Paul Gigot, Katty Kay, Bob Woodward.



Transcript

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