Pelosi // Current TV

Does the White House Lack Youth Outreach

Jose Antonio Vargas has a piece on the Huffington Post asking what happened to all of the young people that turned out for Obama. He also asks where too is the mainstream media

"the same MSM that declared 2008 as "The Year of the Youth Vote" -- in covering how young people are impacted by the health care debate, which has dominated the news for months? (Studies show that a quarter of Americans ages 25 to 34 don't have health insurance, while about a third of Americans ages 21 to 24 live without it -- more than any other age group."

Vargas says this is in part due to the high unemployment among young people and that many employers don't offer health insurance.

"Where is the Team Obama that adeptly leveraged the enthusiasm of its digitally-plugged young troops, who scheduled rallies on Facebook, passed YouTube videos around their network and sent text messages reminding their friends to vote? Speaking last month at George Washington University, just a few blocks from the White House, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe told the college crowd: "Your generation won the election. . .Obama simply wouldn't have been the nominee without you."

He goes on to quote our friend Tobin Van Ostern who created Students for Barack Obama but who is now working with Campus Progress

"But, as far as I can tell, engaging young people hasn't been a top priority for the OFA, DNC and the White House."

Sad but true. Vargas talks about who is knocking doors for OFA and who is doing the work for the DNC but the long and short is that the work done by the campaign to do outreach to young voters, on campus, online, in their communities isn't even half of what they did during the campaign.

We were lucky to have a representative from the Treasury Department speak at the 80 Million Strong Conference and had Interior Secretary Ken Salazar talk about the outreach he is doing to young people to encourage them to get more involved in our state and national parks. Beyond that there is very little outreach to young people, particularly considering that young people were such a large portion of the voters.

"The sentiment is echoed in a blog on the popular site Tech Crunch that's gone viral in the past few days. "On the night of your acceptance speech, just before you walked on stage, 'you' sent out an email saying 'I will be in touch soon' -- but you disappeared and all we were left with was the strange feeling you get when your older brother ditches you for his cooler friends," began the post, which blogger Edo Segal wrote as an open letter to Obama."

He goes on to quote many who say that Obama the candidate ran a new and different campaign based on change, but governs in the same old way politicians always have. The New Media Strategy has also seen a major change. While it was a major facets to the campaign with their director reporting directly to the campaign manager, the White House new media strategy falls under one of the many outreach tools in the communications department.

Not mentioned by Vargas is the office of public liaison whose youth outreach representative is the same as the faith based and non-profit outreach person. Can you honestly tell me that one person can handle all of the faith based outreach and non-profits and then have time to do an aggressive youth outreach strategy? Not a chance. At the same time, faith based groups are accustom to having a seat at the table in the White House, and they know very well how it works. Youth are accustom to being ignored, so they aren't as likely to stick their neck out and demand a meeting with someone from the White House.

At one point there was a monthly conference call among youth leaders and the office of public liaison, but one youth leader who asked to not be identified said it was such a colossal waste of time that he quite participating and he doesn't know if they continue.

While the process might seem trite, the result has the appearance that youth aren't a major conceJose Antonio Vargas has a piece on the Huffington Post asking what happened to all of... more

sarahkatheryn
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Health Care Activist and Sit-In Organizer Sam Pullen Remains in Custody

The following is a statement from Sam Pullen as reported by by Lacy MacAuley of Indie Media.

"My name is Sam Pullen and I will be coordinating the sit-in in Los Angeles on October 15. I am willing to risk getting arrested because I have been personally affected by the Blue Cross insurance company's policies that place profits before patients.

The most traumatic struggle my family has ever gone through was when my mother was sick with multiple myeloma cancer during my teenage years. Although she was covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance, her doctors doctors at the Mayo Clinic told her that her only option for a remission was to undergo a bone marrow transplant- a highly risky procedure. I still remember gathering around our dining room table for a family meeting where my mother explained that if the transplant wasn't successful, she may get sick and die within a few months. She was prepared to risk it in order to have a few more years with her children and husband. Yet she asked us if we were ready to risk losing her if things didn't go well. After an emotional discussion, we made the decision together that we would support her having a bone marrow transplant, no matter what the outcome.

Then Blue Cross denied coverage for the treatment her doctors had recommended. My mom then had to take up the fight for her life with her insurance company. Instead of focusing her energy on preparing for the transplant and healing, she had to battle with a bureaucracy that cared only about profits. She made phone calls, wrote letters, and finally met with an insurance company representative and asked him what he would do if he were the one sick with cancer. She wouldn't leave until Blue Cross agreed to cover her bone marrow transplant.

My mother's bone marrow transplant was successful, and during her remission I shared the most meaningful years I can remember with my Mom. Yet after a five-year battle with cancer, my mother died at age 45 when I was 18 years old.

On October 15, I will honor my mother's spirit by engaging in a sit-in in Los Angeles with a group of courageous individuals who are fed up with the the state of our health system and the greedy insurance companies that care more about money than people. We will demand that insurance companies immediately grant approval for treatment of all their members with life-threatening conditions.

We will be part of one of the largest campaigns of civil disobedience since the civil rights movement. Generations of Americans have fought to obtain health care as a guaranteed right for all, and we are determined to win victory at last. Over 1000 people from every major city will be arrested if insurance companies refuse to meet our demands. We will not back down until profit-driven insurance corporations no longer stand between the American people and the health care they deserve!"

By Sam Pullen
_______________________________________________________________________________
Good luck to same and those who remain in jail for protesting the corrupt government backed corporate welfare state of the health insurance industry, an industry that cannot compete in the open market without government welfare in the form of anti-trust and special legislation. The health insurance industry spends $2 million per day lobbying Congress. They are known to have a strong hand in writing the current public option plan in Congress.

Protesters like Sam, and the doctors on hand at that rally continue to support a single payer system (medicare for all - universal healthcare). As public health care nurse Maureen Cruise states (http://current.com/items/91210625_l-a-arrests-single-payer-is-not-off-the-table.htm) single payer is NOT off the table, as Pelosi stated to the world. It's the people's table.

More sit-in actions are planned and will continue until a universal health care system for all, without the for-profit insurance industry, is in place.The following is a statement from Sam Pullen as reported by by Lacy MacAuley of Indie... more

JonRaymond
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Hey Pelosi: Single Payer is NOT Off the Table

Los Angeles 10/15/09 – 12 arrested at the L.A. Anthem Blue Cross offices sit-in at as Maureen Cruise RN, public health care nurse, explains why single payer is not off the table. Along with a contingent of doctors at this recent sit-in, Cruise believes universal health care (a.k.a. single payer or medicare for all) is the only option. As Dr. Jo Olson told me, single payer is the only fiscal and moral solution. She has been working for a single payer system for the past five years. Nurse Cruise was an L.A. public health care nurse at numerous clinics until they all closed with the recent economic downturn. As she explains, 122 people die every day for lack of health care in the U.S. More die every day because they are denied health care from insurance companies despite paying their high premiums. People are forced into medical debt and foreclosure to pay for health care, unlike any other country. “What kind of country does this to it’s people?” she asks.

Nurse Cruise goes on to say that Pelosi’s announcement to the world that single payer is off the table was a ploy to make everyone forget about it and go for a public option instead, a public option written by and for the insurance industry, which spends over a million dollars per day lobbying Congress. The public option, as she says, is an insurance industry bailout, because with our economic downturn and the insurance industry’s annal retentive (my words) policy of raising rates to make up for losses, they are losing customers and so they look to the deep pockets of our government in the corporate welfare state we call America. But as long as we don’t have a viable health care system without the for profit insurance factor, and as long as we don’t have universal health care, people will continue to rally.

It’s interesting that the right tea baggers agree with the left in this area, that government bailout spending is wrong. But the right has been deluded by the right wing bumper sticker mentality media propaganda into believing that it is an Obama socialism agenda at fault. In fact it is a Wall Street corporate welfare agenda, since as cruise and many others agree, Wall Street owns Congress, and seemingly the Presidency as well.

But the bottom line is that, by law and on paper, this is still a democracy for and by we the people, not the corporations; and so the people have taken to the streets, lead by doctors and health care professionals like nurse Cruise, Dr. Olson and many others. They hold rallies and sit-ins around the country and get arrested in protest (http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org/2009/10/16/everyday-americans-arrested-at-health-insurance-company-offices-in-nine-cities-yesterday). Dr. Susie Baldwin calls the public option a government insurance industry jobs program (http://current.com/items/91088270_public-option-obamas-health-insurance-jobs-program.htm), which leads me to wonder, why can’t the insurance industry make an honest living selling a service that people need? Why must they resort to living off the government, pushing Congress to make laws forcing people to buy their worthless product which amounts to a mafioso payoff to keep their useless thug industry alive. Why must the insurance industry live on government corporate welfare? Are they too lazy to get a real job and pay their way like the rest of us?

As Dr. Paul Papenek told me that people don’t need actuaries, they need doctors and nurses. Shouldn’t we forsake the misguided careers of insurance professionals, not only for the 45,000 lost lives every year, but also for the high cost and fiscal deterioration of our country due to the waste, fraud and spending due to a corrupt monopolistic socialized corporate welfare state insurance industry that preys upon all Americans for it's very survival.

Video also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN939sSdrls

Parts of this clip will be included in a feature film "Got Healthcare": http://outinthestreetfilms.comLos Angeles 10/15/09 – 12 arrested at the L.A. Anthem Blue Cross offices sit-in... more

JonRaymond
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The New Gilligan

Here's a collage of Obama administration and current news event pictures set to... more

hdvcreations
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Pelosi steps up defense of public option on health care

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned her Senate counterparts Thursday... more

tcmfan08
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Pelosi Says Anti-Obama Rhetoric Familiar

this is a real stretch to go back to anti-gay rhetoric of 70s.

ryan8566
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Pelosi warns right wing rhetoric creating climate of violence

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warns that right wing rhetoric is creating a climate of... more

locutus [removed]
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Obama Falling Fast

The Obama administration has joined itself at the hip of the liberal leadership in... more

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Obama Calls Health Care Critics “Boogeymen”

So, amidst all the innuendoes and demeaning labels applied to Obama’s critics,... more

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Health Care + TITTIES

Probably not the best reason to endorse health care, but hell, opposing forces are... more

petercoffin
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'Un-American' attacks can't derail health care debate

'Un-American' attacks can't derail health care debate By Nancy... more

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HealthCare reform and the actual Swastika sign

(House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is nothing more than a third rate gossip columnist)... more

synjun
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2 years ago
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Pelosi Protesters, Including Kid In Stroller, Compare Obama To Hitler

Two members of the audience at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) town hall... more

WakeUpPeople
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Spies, lies and Speaker Pelosi (Somebody please wake up the CIA CO)i-

The latest kerfuffle has Congressional Democrats accusing the Central Intelligence... more

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Become a member of US Conress Watch

You're an upstanding citizen right? Congress makes law, not the president.... more

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Pelosi says Jackson resolution unnecessary

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut the door Thursday to a resolution honoring Michael... more

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Pelosi on Tiananmen Anniversary: 'We Will Not Rest Until There Is Freedom of Speech..."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Members and human rights activists participated in an event on the West Front of the Capitol this afternoon to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

"Good afternoon. Thank you very much Yang Jianli and the Initiatives for China for bringing us together this morning and this afternoon.

"Words fail me to adequately tell you what an honor it is to be on the same stage and in the presence of so many of the heroes of June 4 - to have a message at the same time from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in solidarity for more openness in China and Tibet.

"We stand here in front of the Capitol of the United States, a beacon of freedom to the world, with a great history of free speech and open discussion.

"On this side of the Capitol, here on these grounds, we stand with people who took to heart and to mind, the words of our Founders. In our Declaration of Independence, in our Constitution, our words talked about every person being equal and 'endowed by their creator.' 'Endowed by their creator,' not by the state, but 'endowed by their creator' of certain rights like liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And it was for life and liberty - and some people paid that price in Tiananmen Square. They paid with their lives and their liberty to speak out for freedom.

"It's interesting to me that this week there are also observances in Eastern Europe about freedom emerging there at this time 20 years ago. And for those of you who are old enough to remember Tiananmen Square, you would have seen that the students gathered in the square in May in the days leading up to June 4th were an inspiration to the world, to the entire world. They inspired others to have the courage and they had a drumbeat of liberty and freedom that was felt around the world.

"What they wanted was dialogue with their government on openness and freedom and freedom of speech and religion and ending the corruption in China. They wanted that dialogue, they wanted that conversation - what they got was crushed. Crushed. Some of those people crushed in the square and other streets of Beijing. But they could not crush the spirit of Tiananmen.

"And that's why it's important these 20 years later - I remember meeting Chai Ling in Paris. She was newly escaped from China - we are so proud of her, she is so courageous, and so many others, so many other heroes of that movement. Many of them, when they got out of China, signed my man before the tank poster in my office, which is getting old now, but I'm very proud of the signatures that are on there. They are the signatures to a declaration of freedom in China and what this freedom means is openness, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, accountability, rule of law according to the Chinese Constitution.

"So what is important for us to do now? Who would have ever thought all of you here who are gathered with great leaders for democracy? Who would have ever thought that 20 years later, we would still be in this situation? That the same cowardice that inspired - I don't know if inspired is the word - that insisted that the regime crush the people in the square - to clear that square at such and such a time. The same cowardice that did that - that same fear of the people exists in China today.

"We were told 20 years ago that peaceful evolution and economic reform would lead to political reform. Indeed, the economic reform has occurred. And I was so pleased that Secretary Clinton said in a statement that China has made enormous progress economically. I saw that last week in China. But she also said that a China that had made all that progress should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed at Tiananmen Square - both to learn and to heal. We need to do that as we go forward.

"I also want to reference a speech made by President Obama in Egypt today. President Obama made a very excellent speech in Egypt and thiSpeaker Nancy Pelosi, Members and human rights activists participated in an event on... more

Apocalipstick
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Wall Street Time Bomb?

Or a misrepresentation by the pundits and spin-doctors? What really happened on... more

asherp
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Pelosi and the CIA Briefings: Why all the Fuss Over Old News?

Strangely absent from the recent coverage of Pelosi's past knowledge of U.S. torture policies is any acknowledgement that this story is old news. Really old news. Way back in December, 2007, the Washington Post ran a piece headlined, "Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002." It hit Pelosi with the exact same allegations that have been so breathlessly reported as of late:

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

So what's new? For one, Republicans are under intense moral and political threat and see a chance divert responsibility for their misdeeds back to Democrats.

To be sure, Pelosi should have taken action against U.S. torture policies as soon as she was briefed on them. And she's now paying the price for being too politically cowardly-or opportunistic-to address this issue head-on when the Post broke the story back in 2007. But it's disingenuous for the press and Pelosi's political rivals to feign outrage over what Pelosi knew and when. What did they know and when? Assuming they read the news, why didn't they make an issue of this back in 2007?

One politician did make an issue of the Post story at the time.

Cindy Sheehan, the Peace Mom, ran a quixotic campaign against Pelosi for her House seat last year, and garnered 16 percent of the vote and very little press. Key to her electoral strategy was capitalizing on liberal outrage-surprisingly tepid outrage, it turned out-over what Pelosi knew. She even called for Pelosi to be stripped of her leadership post over the news. "I was appalled and really saddened," Sheehan told me at the time. "We can't be represented by a person like this."

Seventy two percent of San Francisco voters thought otherwise.

With Sheehan's failed challenge in mind, it's hard to put credence in today's New York Times story on Pelosi's political fate, which quotes Bay Area resident Delphine Langille of San Ramon: "I'm very skeptical of what she's saying, Langille told the Times on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, "and when she goes to get re-elected, this could really damage her credibility." Yeah right. There's simply no way a Republican could ever mount a viable challenge in San Francisco, no way the Democratic establishment would ever try, and no way--as we've seen--that a third party outsider will take her down.

Politics is morally mushy business. The political climate was clearly more pro-torture back in 2002 than it is now. A braver politician might have spoken out sooner, but also might not have risen to the Speaker post. The interesting thing about San Franciscans is that they are politically sophisticated enough to entertain a race like Sheehan's while also voting for a pragmatist like Pelosi. And they can certainly distinguish between the moral clarity-or absolutism-of someone like Sheehan, and the immoral opportunism of liberal-come-lately Republicans. Let's hope the press and the rest of the nation eventually figure this out too.Strangely absent from the recent coverage of Pelosi's past knowledge of U.S.... more

asherp
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Pelosi: C.I.A. misled Congress over waterboarding

Under fire from Republicans for what she knew about harsh questioning of terror detainees, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday asserted that the C.I.A. had misled Congress about its techniques, even as she acknowledged that she had learned in 2003 that the agency had subjected suspects to waterboarding.

At a tense press conference, Ms. Pelosi said for the first time that a staff member alerted her in February 2003 that top lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee had been briefed on the use of tough interrogation methods on terror suspects.

But she said the fact that she did not speak out at the time due to secrecy rules did not make her complicit in any abuse of detainees. She accused the C.I.A. and Bush administration of lying to Congress about what was actually transpiring with the detainees.

“I am saying that the C.I.A. was misleading the Congress and at the same the administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction,” Ms. Pelosi said.

The C.I.A., reacting to Ms. Pelosi’s remarks, said that a chart prepared by the Director of National Intelligence and cited last week by congressional Republicans to show that Ms. Pelosi had taken part in a September 2002 briefing on interrogation techniques was “true to the language in the Agency’s records.”

An agency spokesman, George Little, added that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, had pointed out in a recent letter to Congress that the information “is drawn from the past files of the C.I.A.” and represented contemporaneous memoranda “and notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals.”

But Ms. Pelosi said she was told at that briefing that waterboarding, one of the most controversial of the harsh techniques employed, was not being used.

Republicans took sharp issue with the speaker’s remarks.

“The speaker’s comments continue to raise more questions than provide answers,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican minority leader. “It’s pretty clear that they were well aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were; they were well aware that they’d been used; and it seems to me that they want to have it both ways. You can’t have it both ways.”

Senator Kit Bond of Missouri, vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, issued a more scathing response.

“It’s outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars,” he said in a statement released by his office. “Instead of prosecuting or persecuting, our country should be supporting our intelligence professionals who work to keep us safe.”Under fire from Republicans for what she knew about harsh questioning of terror... more

Nettle
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