http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k&NR=1
This evening I attended a health care town hall meeting for the 4th district of MD. What immediately caught my attention when I arrived was the heavy presence of P.G. County Police there must have been 20 squad cars. Our local Fox News station was there (I actually like our local station it is nothing like Fox Cable News). I arrived about 40 minutes before the start time and there was already a long line of people there waiting to enter the conference room. I was amazed to see the people streaming into the building. Everyone stood in line very orderly and at 6:00 the door opened and we were allowed into the meeting room. We did not have to show ID but we were required to fill out a sign in sheet that asked for our name and address. The room filled to capacity with folks lined around the room and standing in the back.
There were well over 300 people in attendance and there were probably about 30 self identified Republicans. When Congresswoman Edwards got on stage she immediately asked if we were all from her district. She gave us the rules of the road and told us that she was not going to tolerate on either side anyone being disrespectful. The Repubs were good at getting to the mic when the answer session began. Only one try to shout over her but we immediately shut him down. These were there typical questions:
Why doesn't the bill have anything in it regarding tort reform?
Where in the Constitution does it state that health care is required by the government for all?
How are you going to pay for the “government run health plan”?
What policies are being setup in this bill for end of life?
Rep. Edwards was patient and respectful with them and countered every question. She assured them that the health care reform would be deficit neutral, that tort reform would not drive the cost of health care down and that although the Constitution does not mandate that everyone should have health care that the government does have a responsibility for its citizenry and that everyone should be entitled to health care if they need it.
She asked us to not be afraid. She said that we cannot sit around each evening listening to the talking heads telling one side of this story. She asked us to go to her site and read the bill and send her a message or call her office if we have a question. Don’t buy into the misinformation that is being distributed by the special interest. She was confident that we will have Health Care Reform.
My conclusion about the Repubs is that they are very selfish people. Basically they feel that as long as they have there’s then you should just figure out a way on your own to get yours.
I heard some heart wrenching stories about what some folks are going through that would make you cry out loud like a baby. How Repubs can ignore that is just amazing to me.
Rep. Edwards belongs to the Progressive Caucus and she has read every single page of the Health Reform bill that came out of the House. I am very impressed with Rep. Edwards she is an eloquent speaker and is extremely knowledgeable about the facts. I feel totally at ease knowing that my voice is being heard and well represented by Congresswoman Edwards.
Apparently when the mybo blog reaches 500 comments it shuts down so we have gone back to the previous thread titled:Listening Tours: "As Fired Up as Ever"
JOIN US THERE...
Donna
A letter to CNN’s Newsroom:
Again your so called “best political team on TV” missed the mark. Your pundits were so eager to defend your “White House journalist” Ed Henry with his “gotcha moment” by stating that they thought the President was angry that they missed that most of America found the Presidents response as being right on the mark. If you perused the other cable channels or researched the internet you would know that they mostly think that the President made Mr. Henry look like a spoiled kid who had a hissy fit on national TV. We (the public) don’t trust your opinion. If you look back over the campaign of 2008 you all were wrong far more than you were right. Do you all ever go back and look at the video tape?
Larry King touched on it last night when he questioned his guest panel with: is the punditry totally out of touch when it comes to this President? The answer is heck yeah. You guys are so far off the mark that it is beyond ridiculous.
Our countries economy is in peril. We picked the smart guy this time to fix it. We are invested in his success and we have far more patience than the 24/7 cable pundits and the inside the beltway boys. We are willing to give him a couple of years to turn things around. We know he inherited a mess and never expected him to waive a magic wand and fix it overnight. Why is this so hard for you all to understand? We do not persecute him over every little thing and we don’t care that it took a few days before he showed “outrage” about the AIG bonuses. Just fix the damn economy. This is where your punditry and the press miss the mark. Just get us there. All the other “stuff” is just theater that you all like to play bit parts in.
We have a smart visionary in the White House that is liked by most of this country and he as well as a lot of the public actually find you all irrelevant because you no longer report the news you try to be the news. He bypasses you at every opportunity that he can so you all try to make a name for yourselves every time that you get an audience with him. He didn’t call on one major newspaper and I respect him so much for that. Most people don’t get their news from newspapers (a lot of them are falling by the waste side). Just like most people don’t get their “real news” from 24/7 cable shows. Hint, hint.
Signed:
Someone who gets their news from the alternative news source – The Internet
In President Bush's first eight months in office before 9/11, the administration's focus was largely on matters concerning the economy, relations with North Korea and their nuclear efforts, stem cell research, and the job of uniting a nation still bitter over the controversy that surrounded the 2000 presidential election
Much talk circulated over how to deal with North Korea during Bush's first eight months as well how to handle the stem-cell research debate. On August 8, 2001, in a televised address to the nation from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush announced that the federal government would fund the research, yet only use human embryos which had already been destroyed. From the start of his first term, economic indicators were predicting a recession, thus Bush enacted massive tax cuts in July 2001 which changed the way federal taxes were paid and introduced changes to retirement and pension plans of senior citizens.
On February 9, 2001, A US submarine, the USS Greeneville, collided with a Japanese fishing ship and killed 9 people on board the boat. Bush soon apologized to the Japanese for the incident.In April 2001, a U.S. military spy plane was forced to land at a Chinese military airport. The U.S.-China spy plane incident or Hainan Island incident was one of the first major international challenges that the new administration faced.
President Bush also heavily promoted his No Child Left Behind education program, visiting schools across the country. His program was surprisingly endorsed by longtime liberal Democrat, Senator Ted Kennedy.
So let me get this straight. President Bush signed into law No Child Left behind; apologized to the Japanese for us colliding with a fishing ship killing 9 people; dealt with a U.S. military spy plane being forced to land at a Chinese military airport and signed an order stating that federal funds could only be used in research on “some” embyros for stem cell research.Well this sounds like what the Obama Administration has had to deal with in maybe a week.
President Obama’s 49 days in the life of a President:
President signs executive order to close Guantanamo Bay on Jan 22, 2009
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act signed Jan 29, 2009
SCHIP signed into law on Feb 4, 2009
The President hold his first primetime news conference on Feb 9, 2009
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law on Feb 17, 2009
The President announces a $75 Billion Plan to Stop Foreclosures Feb 18, 2009
The President holds a Fiscal Responsibility Summit at the White House on Feb 23, 2009
The President addresses a Joint Session of Congress on Feb 24, 2009
President Obama announces his plan to end the Iraq war and troop withdrawal on Feb 27, 2009
The President holds a Health Care Summit at the White House on Mar 5, 2009
The President announces the lift on federal funding for stem cell research on Mar 9, 2009
And this is just the first 49 days. What the heck was George doing for 8 years. Oh that's right he was creating a mess for President Obama to clean up and the media wants to know why he hasn't fixed it all already. Unbelievable.
Letter sent to the "cable chatter"
You know what MSM we won this election without you and we will win the Recovery and Reinvestment Plan debate without you. You all spent the better part of 11 months telling the public that they did not know "Barack Obama" and the white working class in PA, IN & OH would be a real struggle for candidate Obama to win over because he “just doesn’t connect with them”. You were wrong then (PA – 55/44 Obama; OH – 51/47 Obama; IN -50/49 Obama) and you are wrong now. You think the public is not watching and engaged. What you miss is that the public has a lot invested in the success of this President and want him to succeed.
The ideologues on the other side are invested in his failure. If his Recovery plan even remotely starts to turn this economy around then they will wander in the desert for years to come. You can continue to put all the Republican faces on your shows that you want to try and change the public’s
opinion but it will not work. You are the ones who are out of touch. You didn’t understand the pulse of the people during the campaign and you don’t understand it now. Most of you sit there and allow the Republicans to say things that you know are not based in facts and don’t call them out on it at all. That is why on the rare occasion when you do it becomes such a hit on you tube.
The Gallup is up today with overwhelming support by the public on the Recovery plan. How often today will you report on that? Some elected official down in Florida sent out an email stating that “2 million AA’s could make it to Washington, DC in freezing temperatures but couldn’t make it out of New Orleans with 4 days notice in 85 degree weather and not one of you reported the story. Oh that’s right it might shed a bad light on the Republican Party as a whole so you don’t report those kinds of stories.
Meanwhile folks slept out overnight to get in to see our President at a town hall in Florida and the tickets for Indiana were gone in one hour. Yep sure looks like his support is waning.
Just report the facts please and stop trying to create drama for your ratings!
Sometimes I am a little slow but I have now figured it all out. The Republicans do not want the Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to come to a vote because that stops deliberation. They have made a concerted effort to do everything possible to extend the deliberation of this Plan with all these silly amendments that they know won’t pass because they know that the media will repeat their petty arguments and grandstanding (ala Lindsey Graham yesterday). Jade (our blogger) reported this morning that that fool on MSNBC this morning and his side kick were screaming that we should wait and not do this right now. They obviously got the memo. Rush and the other right wing radio extremist have all of their listeners calling Congress tying up the lines saying that the American public is NOT in favor of this plan. Also these bogus calls are being touting by the Republicans as a reason to not support the Plan. The media is giving them voice because dissent sells on their news shows. The public is fickle and for a while was only hearing about these petty issues in the Plan that the Republicans don’t like so some became confused as to whether or not this was the best plan. You have to hand it to the corrupted Republicans they are good at being bad.
Their only problem is they are going up against the best politician this country has seen in more than 40 years. He took it to them last night. He turned every complaint they have waged against his Plan and turned it on its head. They want to go after him but they are cautious about doing that because they know how popular he is so expect them to lash out at Reid. Not a big fan of Reid’s but I’ve got his back on this one.
598,000 jobs lost and they say wait.
When the Recovery Plan passes and is implemented and those shovel ready jobs get started right away slowly but surely the publics confidence will come back. The Republicans will be wondering in the desert for a very long time. Republicans we forgive you but we will never forget.
I don't spend much time complaining on this blog because I have always felt that it was far more benefitial to be proactive than a whiner with no plan of her own but this has frustrated me since that vote last Wednesday.I honestly believe that the Dems thought that Pres. Obama could just put on the charm and win over the Republicans. They have done nothing IMO to truly sell this plan. Have any of you read one op-ed by a Dem or seen a concerted effort to put their faces on every show to intelligently breakdown this plan like the Republican Senator (Snowe) did yesterday?We have been asked to host a house party to talk about it with our neighbors and friends and come up with ideas which is great but no real activisim outside of this. One of our bloggers (thank you Bonnie)called the White House yesterday and they told her to call her Senator or Congressperson and ask them to support the plan. WHY WAS THAT NOT SAID IN THE EMAIL TO US. I realize that we can do this on our own but folks they have 13 million email addresses. Don't you think we could have galvanized hundreds of thousands in each state to really put pressure on Congress?Now Pres. Obama has to go on each TV station and try to sell a plan that they have sat back for a week and let the Repubs define. I did a "test" at work yesterday. I asked 4 people what they knew about the plan. Everyone of them said it will put lots of people to work BUT...it has a bunch of junk in the plan that we just don't need. So you tell me whose message is getting through????Organizing for America...put us to work please.
"Officially, the White House says it is not concerned with how the legislative process has played out. But, in private, party officials have grown acutely frustrated that the Obama White House, Democratic National Committee and congressional Democrats have not mounted a more effective defense of the stimulus package as Republicans seek to tar it as a "spending bill."
I Rest My Case...
LinkForgive me for the rant but after reading the above article I have linked I could hold it no longer.
Wow this all started for me 4 years ago when I first heard Barack Obama speak. I remember barely even being able to pronounce his name after that when I would speak to people about how I had wished that on that night in Boston that he was the one being nominated for President. I felt so moved by this man that I had never heard of before that night.
I donated and volunteered for the Kerry campaign with high hopes that the good people of this country would do the right thing and elect him. They did not. The disappointment that I felt that morning after Kerry loss cannot be measured. I actually cried. You see at that time I had my two wonderful AA sons that had attended West Point and graduated only to be sent over to Iraq to fight in this horror of a war. I wanted my babies home and I knew with this loss that that was not going to happen. I was so distraught that after a few days my husband had to sit me down and have a heart to heart with me. He told me to trust God and that he believed that God had a plan and although we couldn't see it at that moment it would be revealed to me and to have patience.
Well fast forward 4 years and that young man whose name I couldn't pronounce years earlier was now running for President. I joined the Barack Obama blog family and got busy. We blogged, volunteered and donated like crazy. The community became my second home. We motivated folks to donate if you could do nothing else. I was interviewed by a reporter in December who wanted to confirm that I was a “real person” and who wanted to do a story on me because he said that I personally made the most donations to the Obama Campaign. I refused the story because I didn’t do it for fame and I felt he would have made a mockery out of a really legitimate activity. He said I made somewhere in the neighborhood of 255 individual donations to the campaign. The reason I did this was because I noticed on the blogs that some where having a more difficult time thatn others to generate donations. So I decided that since I was going to be making donations until I maxed out anyway that I would instead of making one donation for $50.00 that I would make 5 donations to someone who hardly had any donations or was just starting their fundraisers for $10.00 each and help them with their own individual fundraisers. A lot of times just this simple gesture would motivate them to ask their family and friends and really start to move their thermometers. It was fun and the supporters appreciated it.
Barack once said in one of his stump speeches that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper. That sense of community and looking out for others was a great inspiration to all of us.
God revealed his plan when on November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. If Kerry had won in 2004 this would not have been possible. Patience is indeed a virtue J
When I think of the agonizing nights that my husband and I went through when our twin sons were over in Iraq, yes at the same time at least once, on multiple deployments I can only think of how sweet it would be to attend the Inauguration of Barack Obama to witness the next Commander in Chief take his oath of office. If not, I will sit proudly with my family and cry tears of joy for a job well done.
As Paul points out in his Op-ed we fall for anything:
So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.
And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.
Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.
What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”
In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.
What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”
Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.
Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.
Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”
It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina — when the heckuva job done by the man of whom Ms. Noonan said, “if there’s a fire on the block, he’ll run out and help” revealed the true costs of obliviousness — that the cult began to fade.
What’s more, the politics of stupidity didn’t just appeal to the poorly informed. Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.
Why were the elite so hawkish? Well, I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.
All this is in the past. But the state of the energy debate shows that Republicans, despite Mr. Bush’s plunge into record unpopularity and their defeat in 2006, still think that know-nothing politics works. And they may be right.
Sad to say, the current drill-and-burn campaign is getting some political traction. According to one recent poll, 69 percent of Americans now favor expanded offshore drilling — and 51 percent of them believe that removing restrictions on drilling would reduce gas prices within a year.
The headway Republicans are making on this issue won’t prevent Democrats from expanding their majority in Congress, but it might limit their gains — and could conceivably swing the presidential election, where the polls show a much closer race.
In any case, remember this the next time someone calls for an end to partisanship, for working together to solve the country’s problems. It’s not going to happen — not as long as one of America’s two great parties believes that when it comes to politics, stupidity is the best policy.
