FLOTUS, Michelle Obama talks childhood obesity (Video and Transcript)

First Lady Michelle Obama kicks off a campaign to confront the problem of childhood obesity at a YMCA in Alexandria, VA. She is joined by Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Dr. Judith Palfrey, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.


Transcript

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Vice-President Joe Biden's town hall with seniors on health care (Video)

Vice President Biden discusses a new report on how the President's health insurance reform will make Medicare stronger for Americas seniors in a town hall at Leisure World in Maryland. He is joined by HHS Secretary Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle from the White House Office of Health Reform. September 23, 2009.




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To Obama, “…how stupid, naive or lame can you be…”

This was from the Ed Shultz radio program, from Ed Schultz on the Obama stance or lack of stance for the public option.

And the way things are swinging now, I concur.

President Barack Obama can play around all day long on the “will he or will he not” game of public option, but it will be the Democrats who lose in 2010.

The Obama White House and Democrats in congress have been horrendous on the message of any health care package. Instead of making congress sit their tails in office for August and hammer out this legislation, congress went home and is getting the wrath of the well oiled lobbyists organizations that is causing chaos at these town hall meetings.

The main obstruction of these disruptions at the town hall meetings is to provide MISINFORMATION and hope that the media will repeat it, and they have in droves. The Obama White House should not have been shocked, stunned or surprised at any of this. Mr. Obama has continued to say that the other side will do anything to disrupt conversations, dialogue of healthcare reform. So, if he knew this why was the White House and Democrats in congress ill prepared for what we have witnessed going on?

Over the weekend there has been a slew of will we, won’t we, can we, could we information from the Obama White House and his surrogates sending out mixed messages all over the place. With all the friends below, it is easy to see how the public option can be totally NIXED from the conversation.



The Obama White House and the Democrats argument should be simple, “Do you know that you are a job away from not having any health insurance for you and your family?” “Are you unemployed? If so, can you afford the $1500.00 a month COBRA payment offered for you and your family?” “Do you know that we already have a public option in place for members of congress and the Federal Government? And why can’t the citizens of this country be offered the same option for lower costs?” “As health care costs continue to rise, do you know it is highly probable that your premiums can double by next year?”

These are the questions that needs to be presented to the public, but the Obama White House and the Congressional Democrats are numb on all the above.

I don’t care how this health care reform or health care insurance reform is crafted; one thing I do know is that it better have a SOLID PUBLIC OPTION. If not, the Democrats are in serious trouble come 2010 and Barack Obama may be going back to Chicago sooner rather than later, as planned.

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Sebelius FINALLY confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services

Her boss was there to hold the bible.



NPR

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Why is Sebelius' nomination being hung up in the Senate?

This is utterly ridiculous.

And this is why Obama needs to go right on with the reconciliation vote on healthcare, if he waits on 60 votes in that senate he will NEVER GET IT PASSED.

Now Napolitano, head of Homeland Security is doing a brilliant job during this crisis, but we need to have a Health and Human Services Secretary, too.

This nastiness of holding up these confirmations is kindergarten mentality at its worst. I don't remember Bush's folks being held up in his first term like this and with this Swine Flu becoming a worldwide epidemic, one would think that Sebelius would be confirmed by now. But we are talking about a senate that held Hilda Solis' confirmation up.

So Kathleen Sebelius will get her confirmation vote as Health and Human Services secretary tomorrow in the Senate — but even with the flu outbreak, her confirmation will still have to clear a big hurdle, requiring 60 votes.

So says the office of GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell, anyway.

As you know, Senate Republicans have been filibustering Sebelius over lingering questions about her views on late-term abortions and some campaign contributions she received from an abortion doctor. Late last week, the Senate Dem leadership announced that in the face of GOP opposition, they had agreed with Republicans to bring Sebelius’ confirmation to the floor for a vote tomorrow that would indeed require the 60 votes.

The outbreak of the flu epidemic had led some Dems to hope that the GOP would drop their filibuster, which would mean the 60 vote threshold would no longer apply. And even GOP Senator Susan Collins called for the Senate to expedite her confirmation today.

But McConnell spokesperson Don Stewart tells me she’ll still have to clear the 60 vote threshold. The question is, Whose fault is this?

Stewart says that the Senate agreement last week has “locked in” the 60 vote threshold. “She’ll have her confirmation vote tomorrow,” he says, adding that “every single Democrat” agreed to that threshold.

But Jim Manley, a spokesperson for Dem Senate leader Harry Reid, says that Senate GOPers could waive the 60 vote threshold if they wanted to. “With consent it could be changed if they agreed, but as of right now I don’t see any willingness to do so on their part,” he said.

Bottom line: The filibuster over an abortion controversy is still throwing a hurdle in the way of this nomination, despite the flu epidemic.

Senate is expected to confirm Sebelius today.

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This Week With Barack Obama, March 3-8, 2009: Salute to Ted Kennedy and the weekly slideshow

Musical tribute to celebrate Kennedy's birthday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, March 8, 2009









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Obama announces Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) for Secretary of Health and Human Services (Video)

President Barack Obama turned to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius Monday to help him overhaul a health care system whose cost has risen four times as fast as people's wages in recent years.

"Health care reform that reduces costs while expanding coverage is no longer just a dream we hope to achieve; it's a necessity we have to achieve," Obama said as he introduced Sebelius as his choice to be secretary of health and human services and Nancy-Ann DeParle, a health policy figure during the Clinton administration, to head the White House Office for Health Reform.

Source

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Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) Will Be Our Next Secretary of Health and Human Services

She, as Obama, is known to broker bridges on both sides of the aisle, will be announced the next Secretary of Health and Human Services by President Obama tomorrow.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius accepted President Obama's nomination to become Health and Human Services Secretary this afternoon, according to administration officials. Sebelius will replace former senator Thomas A. Daschle, who withdrew from consideration last month.

"This evening, the President asked Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to serve as his Secretary of Health and Human Services, and she accepted," one administration official said. "The President will formally announce the nomination on Monday afternoon at the White House."

Several Democratic sources said, however, that it is less likely the moderate Democrat will be offered the job of director of a new White House Office of Health Reform, a post Daschle had negotiated for himself as a way to increase his influence in the new administration.

Source

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New York Times Reporting Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) for Secretary of Health and Human Services

No Surprise. Let's just hope she has no tax issues and the Obama Folks have learned a thing or two about, vetting.

President Obama has settled on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, a key ally with a record of working across party lines, as his top choice for secretary of health and human services, advisers said Wednesday.

Should she be nominated, Ms. Sebelius would bring eight years of experience as her state’s insurance commissioner as well as six years as a governor running a state Medicaid program. But with Mr. Obama about to begin a drive to expand health coverage — an issue on which the parties have deep ideological divisions — her strongest asset in the White House view may be her record of navigating partisan politics as a Democrat in one of the country’s most Republican states.

Source

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Now Governor Kathleen Sebelius is being floated for Secretary of HHS

We know that Governor Phil Bredesen would be a diaster in this post, though the rumor is that he is being vetted. Oy!!! Now we have Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) emerging.

I was definitely a supporter for Sebelius being Obama's Vice-Presidential choice. She would have been a real change breaker, but we all know what was going on BACK THEN, with threats not to make it so.

So here is what the rumor mill is stating:

In a sign that she is getting a close look for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recently met with senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, according to two Obama administration officials.

Sebelius has a good personal relationship with the President and remained in the running for the vice presidential slot until near the end of the process, the officials also told CNN.

But the officials cautioned that President Obama is considering others for HHS as well. Those getting a look include Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden and Tennessee’s Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, according to the officials.

White House spokesman Reid Cherlin stressed to CNN that "no decision has been made." But Cherlin added the President "is moving quickly in filling this critical role."

The President's first nominee for the post, former Sen. Tom Daschle, stepped aside after questions were raised about his failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes for consulting fees and the use of a car and driver.

h/t to AMERICAblog for this statement that wraps up why Governor Phil Bredesen should NOT the Secretary of HHS:

"A lot of elected officials are in bed with the insurance industry, but Phil Bredesen doesn't stop there. He let them pay to redecorate his mansion. We can't think of anyone more wrong for health care reform or more wrong for America," said Jacki Schechner, spokeswoman for Health Care for America Now. "This is a guy whose single greatest health care achievement is stripping 200,000 people of health care coverage in Tennessee - a move that was not only bad policy but an unconscionable act."

Talk about not only confirmation DISASTER, but the crossing of the line in ethics.

Source

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Evening Wrap Up...All about ADS....and the VP....

obama in washington, dc, july 29, 2008

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RNC Puts "BarackBook" Up on Facebook

Well, the GOP or RNC or John McCain finally have joined the 21st century with new media? Remember what Mandy Grundwald and Mark Penn said, in Iowa, that Hillary's supporters look like caucus goers? And Barack's look like Facebook?

Well, that comment came back to bite them in the "you know what", because those Facebook voters came out and voted for Barack Obama in DROVES through the primary.

Well, these facebookers, moi included, went over to that site and wrote our piece and left. Guess what happened?

The day's clever RNC attack on Obama seems to be in the process of being swallowed by the Internets.

After Obama supporters swarmed BarackBook with a series of not-so-friendly discussion threads, the GOP seems to have disabled the discussion feature and deleted the mockery.

The "review" feature is still on, however, so the first thing readers see on the page is "E-Viagra for crotchety old Republicans: Destined to be the #1 website in Czechoslovokia and the Iraq/Pakistan border region."

Until the GOPers and John McCain can understand a computer and internet and how to actually use it they need to stick with what they know and understand, like circa 1980.

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Obama with VP Vetters, Again

I don't know what you think about all of this, but here is my take.

The Obamas are going on vacation to Hawaii, a week before the Denver Convention. So, if you are taking a vacation in a couple of weeks, wouldn't you like this Veepness out of the way?

I would. I know that Governor Tim Kaine, (D-VA) is the front runner in the news and cable desk clerk shows. I know that Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) is being floated hard and heavy. The cable desk clerks have been chirping away about Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) and the solid, and totally capable Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) has her lips zipped.

The primary focus of today’s boomlet on the Obama VP front is Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who, according to CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder is definitely among those being vetted by the campaign. But both the Politico and the Washington Post take the Kaine angle a bit further, reporting that he is high on the list and that he has had conversations with the candidate about the possibility.

The other names being mentioned as serious contenders are Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Delaware Senator Joe Biden. All accounts point to more names under consideration and one has to wonder what it does to a potential pick to have all this information out there. But these four names do allow us to at least speculate on what is driving Obama’s decision.

So, the four left standing are supposedly Kaine, Sebelius, Biden and Bayh.

I have thought about this hard and have come to the conclusion that Barack Obama, is a politician, the pick will be to help him, period.

Thus, Sebelius and Biden are out.

This is down to Bayh and Kaine. Why? Because Indiana is winnable and right next door to Illinois. Virginia has been turning blue for sometime, after Webb kicking Allen to the curb in 2006, this state is winnable.

The Obama Campaign is the most disciplined campaign I have witnessed for a long time. Meaning, you don't hear the inside fighting, hate that was in the papers on the regular like during the Clinton Campaign. They were tight lipped on finances and leaks of their candidate.

Kaine has not been leaked out there without a reason. He is being looked at to see if he can deal with intense media, will he gaffe, can he pivot and handle the questions. So far, so good. I expect the same will happen with Bayh, shortly.

Finally, remember when Hillary was throwing out there Vice-President and then that took a life of its own? You had HRC supporters starting websites, folks beating down congress, etc. It took Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) to tell Hillary, "There's no bargaining. You don't bargain with the Presidential nominee. Even if you're Hillary Clinton and you have 18 million votes, you don't bargain."

That is when I knew she would never be the Vice-President.

It is Bayh or Kaine. I am for Kaine. Reason is this, Bayh is the total opposite of Barack Obama. And Barack Obama has said he wanted someone who has his vision, complements him, and he can work with. It will be Kaine.



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Battle of these crazy polls

Folks, enjoy your summer, these polls are all over the place.



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Michelle Obama in Chicago Delivering Barack's Blueprint for America's Working Women and Families



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and all these ads.....

The GOP's Parody Ad Against Obama, click here...


new moveon ad, "29 Guesses"


obama's response to mccain's gas ad

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the movie "w" coming to a theatre near you...this fall...

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And from the makers of "Baracky the Movie" and "The Empire Strikes Barack" comes the....Commander in Chief, Test....


digg it here


One thing about the GOPers, they don't hold a candle to the Obama Campaign and how he has used new media, internet, facebook, and youtube....

Read, Obama and Supporters/Advocates, "Don't Sit On Your Laurels...."

and missed the last "Evening Wrap Up"....here....

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