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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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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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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