This Week With Barack Obama

Saturday, September 19, 2009

CNN and Fox News going at each other.... (Video)

If you have not seen this, Rick Sanchez slamming Fox for slamming, well the rest of the media....

Now, CNN has an ad up going after Fox News....

Ah, let the games begin.....

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Talk about low down, John Edwards

I guess that Edwards is about to announce that he is Rielle Hunter's baby daddy. Big Whoop, we already knew this when the affair story started flourishing about. But this from the NY Times is just straight up wrong.

The notion that Mr. Edwards is the father has been reinforced by the account of Andrew Young, once a close aide to Mr. Edwards, who had signed an affidavit asserting that he was the father of Ms. Hunter’s child.

Mr. Young, who has since renounced that statement, has told publishers in a book proposal that Mr. Edwards knew all along that he was the child’s father. He said Mr. Edwards pleaded with him to accept responsibility falsely, saying that would reduce the story to one of a political aide’s infidelity.

In the proposal, which The New York Times examined, Mr. Young asserts that he assisted the affair by setting up private meetings between Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter. He wrote that Mr. Edwards once calmed an anxious Ms. Hunter by promising her that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band.

Is that low down or what? Again, glad the Democrats dodged this bullet.

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Oh, WOW, Joe "You LIE" Wilson is choked with tears (Video)

Again, I am waiting to see those quarterly reports, especially since he is stating he raise up to 2M since he called President Obama a liar.

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In case you missed it: Rachel Maddow nails South Carolina's hypocrisy (Video)

Her findings? At the tail end of all of these quality-of-life measures are various Southern states. And the worst among them? Mississippi and South Carolina! And hey, speaking of South Carolina, isn't that where some of America's Next Top Health Care Reform Obstructionists come from? Why, yes! That's where you will encounter Jim "Waterloo" DeMint and Joe "Will Forte Correctly Captured You As A Cringing Milquetoast, Didn't He?" Wilson in their natural habitats.

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President Obama's Weekly Address, September 19, 2009 (Video and Transcript)

With the next G20 Summit approaching in Pittsburgh, the President goes over the progress in stemming a global economic crisis. He discusses the impact of the Recovery Act, and pledges that “lobbyists for big Wall Street banks” will not prevent real reform for the future, including a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. September 19, 2009. YouTube

Transcript

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Friday, September 18, 2009

Michelle Obama jumps into the health care game (Video)

With everything that is going on, women's health issues are critical in the health care debate. Women do have more issues than men, primarily because we GIVE BIRTH, to start. The recent revelations that many health care insurance companies are stating that C-Sections are a "pre-existing condition" should have every woman in this country livid. I always felt that Michelle Obama should have been talking directly to women and families long time ago, but I am glad to see her jump in the game, now.

Health care reform "is very much a women's issue," a part of the feminist movement, First Lady Michelle Obama told a group of women's rights activists today.

"If we want to achieve true equality for women ... then we have to reform the system," she said.

Women, she said, pay more for insurance while earning less and are more likely to work part-time or for small companies that don't offer health insurance. On top of that, she said, eight in 10 women are responsible for the health care of their children and their spouses, and sometimes their aging parents.

"Women play a unique and increasingly significant role in our families. We know the pain, because we are usually the ones dealing with it," Obama said. She spoke of when her daughter Sasha had meningitis -- "We were terrified" -- and how her father had multiple sclerosis.

"What would we have done, as a family ... if my father hadn't had insurance?" she said.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Transcript

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This is what I don't like about the Obama White House and Big PhRma

Candidate Barack Obama campaigned on the big drug giveaways of the Bush Administration with Medicare D, but now the Obama White House has done the same thing that the Bush Administration did; negotiate away the option of purchasing cheaper drugs outside of the United States.

I don't know if any one out there has relatives, friends that can not afford prescription drugs, but I do.

This is one reason why many are skeptical of what this White House will do, because they were not forthcoming in this BigPhrma deal, remember they said it was not true, only to have to fess up that the sweetheart deal was made in the heat of the night. Not much for transperency, here. Since Senator Max Baucus' bill is now out in the open, in the bill is just about VERBATIM, the deal that he and the White House made with Big PhRma.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America senior vice president Ken Johnson said that the outline "is simply not accurate." White House spokesman Reid Cherlin concurred: "This memo isn't accurate and does not reflect the agreement with the drug companies."

But now that the bill is out, let's fact check those denials.

The memo also listed four things the committee and the White House agreed to keep out of the bill.

1) Drug makers wanted Baucus and the White House to block Democratic efforts to allow cheaper drugs to be shipped in from Canada. There's nothing in the finance bill that allows that. Check.

2) Some Democrats wanted PhRMA to give the federal government rebates for what it considered past excess charges; the memo says the White House agreed to oppose those rebates, and the bill doesn't include any. Check.

3) As agreed, the bill does not overturn a GOP law -- pushed originally by chief pharmaceutical lobbyist Billy Tauzin, when he was in Congress -- that bans the government from negotiating for cheaper prescription drug prices. Check.

4) Democrats wanted to shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Part D, a move PhRMA opposed because it would reduce reimbursement rates. The administration agreed not to include that provision, according to the memo, and it's not in the Baucus bill. Check.

Performing any kind of reform must include the pharmecutical industry. This industry, like the health care industry, has been gouging Americans for years. Candidate Obama campaigned for the very abuse of this industry, including calling out the Medicare D bill by the Bush Administration that forces no negotiating for cheaper drugs prices outside of the United States.

In the end, we will get a bill, but what kind of bill? If it is a sham bill, a bill the White House will settle for and call it reform, they are in for a rude awakening. This tactic would have worked in the 1990s during the Clinton fight, but not today. There is too much information at a stroke of a key, to dispute a sham bill. Also, the notion of settling for anything, may not work either. Remember, Barack Obama and the Democrats were put in office for CHANGE, if they don't bring major change to this health care bill, loss of support will be imminent.

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Dylan Ratigan nails Republican strategist for NO IDEAS for America (Video)

Brad Blakeman said, "...wait for the election..."

Again, we can argue about the Democrats until the sun comes home, the Republican Party has been destructive and have brought absolutely nothing to the table. Until they have solid ideas, the campaign of personal destruction just may not work in 2010.

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The Heat is on: Tell Blanche Lincoln and Mike Ross to Act Like Democrats (Video)

These Blue Dogs who have had a cushy job in congress acting Republican-Lite, their time is coming up. Target Arkansas. Politicians, Blanche Lincoln and Mike Ross will not vote for a public option, though their state is up to 80% for it. Whose payroll are these two listening to? You got it, insurance lobbyists.

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C-Sections now are pre-existing conditions

These insurance companies are about NOTHING. But the public is to believe they will do the right thing for the customer? Obama White House and Congress take notice. How many women do you know who had to have a C-Section? And now insurance companies are stating that if you had one child, having another child is by choice, and then they throw the ready made rescission at you by denying your claim and throwing you out of your insurance plan!!

Every woman in this country should be OUTRAGED.

n fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 14 states have a requirement for such coverage, and the number of plans without maternity coverage continues to rise dramatically. Why? Anthem Blue Cross — which has been actively fighting health care reform — considers pregnancy optional and therefore not necessary to insure:

“The point of insurance is to insure against catastrophic care costs. That’s what you’re trying to aggregate and pool for such things as heart attacks and cancer,” said an Anthem Blue Cross spokesman. “Having a child is a matter of choice. Dealing with an adult onset illness, such as diabetes, heart disease breast or prostate cancer, is not a matter of choice.”

If you are not mad at this, you should be. Child birth is natural, some women have problems, but to punish a woman who had a C-Section prior and may again is downright wrong.

This is what the American Public has had to deal with over the years with these low down insurance companies. Again, these teabaggers, racists, whatever you call them are taking up for THIS?? The status quo??? Does the right wing of the Republican Party, who harbors "LIFE”, condone this very behavior of insurance companies towards women? And you are standing with the insurance companies on this?

Republicans, y'all need to get your priorities straight. Democrats in D.C., get a clue and spine and do the right thing.

Clarence Page

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Medal of Honor for Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti presented by President Obama (Video)

President Obama presents Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti with the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. Washington D.C., September 17, 2009.

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These insurance companies are some low down mother phuckers.

This is what happened in California 2009 with denied claims, so far:

* PacifiCare -- 39.6 percent

* Cigna -- 32.7 percent

* HealthNet -- 30 percent

* Kaiser Permanente -- 28.3 percent

* Blue Cross -- 27.9 percent

* Aetna -- 6.4 percent

This is the real death panels, insurance companies. *Note: these are claim denials with PacifiCare at 40%, that is almost 50% in denials. That should worry MANY.

This is why a solid, robust government driven public option must be in the final passage of ANY HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL.

I don't know if this has been diaried, I have not looked, but we can not read it enough.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered an insurance company to pay $10 million for wrongly revoking the insurance policy of a 17-year-old college student after he tested positive for HIV. The court called the 2002 decision by the insurance company "reprehensible."

That appears to be the most an insurance company has ever been ordered to pay in a case involving the practice known as rescission, in which insurance companies retroactively cancel coverage for policyholders based on alleged misstatements - sometimes right after diagnoses of life-threatening diseases.

The ruling emerges from a conservative Southern state with one of the most pro-business climates in the country. And it comes as progressive Democrats on Capitol Hill are pressing for health care reforms, such as a public insurance option, that reflect wariness about the private insurance industry's motives.

These insurance companies don't give a DAMN, repeat DAMN, about you, yours, mines and ours. That is just a fact. And this ruling comes from one of the most conservative states in the union, South Carolina. Now if this state can grapple with the real deal of these low down insurance companies, why the HELL CAN'T CONGRESS.

I find it incomprehensible that some mother phuckin' bean counter whose SOLE PURPOSE OF EXISTENCE is to rescission our asses to NO COVERAGE. For THIS, these bean counters get bonuses and huge ones.

During the case, evidence emerged that Health Net had paid bonuses to employees to reward them based on the number of policyholders they had rescinded. The judge who awarded Bates the $9 million said in his decision: "It's difficult to imagine a policy more reprehensible than tying bonuses to encourage the rescission of health insurance that keeps the public well and alive.

Well, there you have it.

What else needs to be said.

A young man found out he was HIV positive by giving blood, but this low down insurance company, Fortis, scourged his application, everything attached to this man's policy, found NOTHING and went on and sent him to rescission land, a.k.a, you got bounced from your insurance coverage, anyway.

I don't know how insurance companies and those complicit in congress can sleep at night. People are out here DYING, that could have been SAVED because the insurance comapanies have FAILED on every level in dealing with the American Public's health.

And we expect the insurance companies going forward to do the right thing?

WE NEED A PUBLIC OPTION, period. And yes, I don't care if these damn private companies go bankrupt!!! So damn be it.

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Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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Senator Chuck Grassley blames OBAMA for non bipartianship in regards to health care reform

Can we gag?

Chuck Grassley, the Senator of Iowa who repeated the LIES of "death panels will kill Grandma", now is quitting and won't vote for any health care legislation.

Big Whoop.

Everyone but the White House knew what was going on for the longest. Thankfully, the White House has taken its head out of the clouds and are now looking at this realistically.

Grassley was a fraud on every level. He is a prime example of what will continue to happen in Washington, D.C., as long as Barack Obama is Commander in Chief. Any bipartianship going forward is a fantasy and I really hope the White House realizes that.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said he "resents" some of the things the administration and President Obama said and did during the August recess. In particular, Grassley took umbrage with President Obama attaching him to the death panel controversy. He said it was something he “took very personally.”

"And [I] kind of resent, that when I've been very candid with the President of the United States face to face... I leveled with him, I leveled with him," Grassley said of his conversations with President Obama. "And then we're accused by [David] Axelrod of making political things and maybe not being serious in our negotiations."

Yes, he leveled with the President by stabbing him repeatedly in the back. Going forward, forget Grassley for anything; he can not be trusted, period. Actions speak louder than words. Always have, always will.

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