tagged w/ News and Politcs
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Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison has a comprehensive piece online detailing the relationship between WikiLeaks and The Guardian. The story gives an up-close look at how Julian Assange provided his leaked cache of classified documents on Afghanistan, Iraq, and U.S. diplomacy to the British newspaper and other news organizations last year.
The alliance between the old-media outlet and the Web-driven document clearinghouse proved rocky at times. It grew particularly strained recently after the paper turned its lens on Assange. (This was pretty much the same dynamic that upended WikiLeaks' relationship with the New York Times.)
What's more, Ellison notes, the Guardian and WikiLeaks were by no means committed to a shared agenda or pursuing common journalistic aims just because each organization wanted to make information public:
The partnership between The Guardian and WikiLeaks brought together two desperately ambitious organizations that happen to be diametric opposites in their approach to reporting the news. One of the oldest newspapers in the world, with strict and established journalistic standards, joined up by one of the newest in a breed of online muckrakers, with no standards at all except fealty to an ideal of 'transparency'—that is, dumping raw material into the public square for people to pick over as they will. It is very likely that neither [Guardian editor-in-chief] Alan Rusbridger nor Julian Assange fully understood the nature of the other's organization when they joined forces."
Ellison's account offers a great tick-tock chronology of last year's set of WikiLeaks dumps, together with several revelations regarding WikiLeaks' media strategy.
How The Guardian got involved: Reporter Nick Davies has written about his involvement with Assange before, but Ellison adds new details to the timeline. In June, Davies read a short Guardian piece on the arrest of Bradley Manning, the army private who's believed to be a principal WikiLeaks source and who's been kept in solitary confinement since his detainment. Davies was determined to track Manning down. Davies learned Assange would be in Brussels, so Brussels-based Guardian reporter Ian Traynor spoke with the WikiLeaks chief and learned he had two million documents. Davies headed to Brussels and "went to the Hotel Leopold, woke up Assange, and began a conversation that lasted for the next six hours."
How the New York Times got involved: Davies and Assange discussed bringing in the Times while in Brussels, and back in London, Rusbridger called Times executive editor Bill Keller. Times reporter Eric Schmitt flew to London to see the material, reported it was genuine, and the Times came aboard. Assange then brought in Der Spiegel on his own.
How Channel 4 got involved, and Assange split with Davies: In July, Assange provided Britain's Channel 4 network with the Afghanistan documents. Ellison writes that Davies was "livid" over the breach of Assange's presumed first-look arrangement with The Guardian and that the two haven't spoken again. (Slate's Jack Shafer has a good take on Vanity Fair piece, including the expectations reporters sometimes have for the sources they've "cultivated.")
How The Guardian got the cables from Assange: Investigative editor David Leigh agreed to a delay in publishing articles related to the Iraq documents because Assange wanted to bring in the nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism to work with Channel 4 and Al Jazeera. In exchange for a six-week delay, Assange provided "package three" -- the State Dept. cables -- to the Guardian. In doing so, Assange got a letter from the Guardian agreeing not to publish anything on the leaked cables until he gave the go-ahead. But...
The Guardian got the cables from a second source: This bit of news fills in an interesting gap and explains friction between Assange and The Guardian. The British newspaper agreed to Assange's embargo on a release date for the cables, because WikiLeaks was its source. But in October, The Guardian received the full cache of cables from freelance journalist Heather Brooke. She had obtained the cables independently from an ex-WikiLeaks volunteer. (Brooke suggested on Twitter today that there's more to the story). Regardless, The Guardian now had the full database from a different source and believed it was free from the embargo agreed upon with Assange. The Guardian then provided those documents to Der Spiegel and The New York Times. These news organizations planned to published on Nov. 8--with or without Assange's input.
Why Assange threatened to sue: Assange and his lawyer met in Rusbridger's office and threatened to sue if The Guardian published anything from the cables ahead of the embargo. Ellison writes that Rusbridger, Guardian investigations editor David Leigh, and editors from Der Spiegel "spent a marathon session with Assange, his lawyer, and [WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn] Hrafnsson, eventually restoring an uneasy calm." They agreed to delay publication a few weeks while Assange brought in two more media partners, Le Monde (France) and El Pais (Spain).
So what's next? Last week, The Cutline raised some questions for WikiLeaks in 2011. In Ellison's piece, Davies notes that Assange has discussed having files on all Guantanamo Bay prisoners. (Wired zeroes in on this detail). Assange has also spoken about having documents that could take down a bank or two. But it remains to be seen exactly what Assange has and also how he may choose to work with news organizations going forward. As Ellison explains, it hasn't always been an easy relationship.
Since readers have asked me about neglecting specific revelations from the WikiLeaks docs, just a reminder: this is a media blog so the focus is on the media relationships and strategy. For more on WikiLeaks revelations, check out The Guardian, New York Times, a very good new CBS round-up or WikiLeaks itself. And for daily updates on all-things-WikiLeaks, The Nation's Greg Mitchell is a must-read.Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison has a comprehensive piece online detailing the... more
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In this satellite image from NOAA, Hurricane Katrina is seen in the Gulf of Mexico August 28, 2005. Photo: Getty Images.
The month before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I went to Louisiana to report my second-ever story for Current TV. This was before the network had even gone on air, before the idea of Vanguard as a show.
I was there to work on a story about how geography is affected by global warming. In Louisiana, the ocean was creeping up along the coastline, eating up marshland. The people I interviewed living in the southern parts of the state knew they were in a precarious situation, that the encroaching sea was already impacting their way of life.
A fisherman I interviewed named Tom told me I was looking at it all wrong. The levees were vulnerable, he said, but the real danger was that a Category 5 hurricane could wipe everything out. Saltwater from the ocean invading the marshland meant that one last line of defense -- unlike the furious cycle that a storm picks up over open water, marshland can actually help slow down hurricanes -- was also gone. Tom said that it would probably take a major city -- New Orleans -- being threatened to get anyone to take it seriously.
I went back to California, and before I finished assembling the story, Katrina hit. Everything people had told me would happen, did. I had been so fixated on the rising sea level that the risk a hurricane posed to New Orleans, while part of my story, wasn’t the first or biggest thing on my mind.
I wish I could say “I told you so” -- but like the government, like most people, I wasn’t taking it seriously. The people who lived there were right. It’s not the kind of thing anyone wants to be right about.
The global warming story I had originally gone to Louisiana to cover was -- before Katrina -- entirely ignored by the mainstream media. In its wake, as seemingly every journalist on the planet swept into town, it became a major part of the discussion. (I went, too, though I was skeptical about what I could add.) But I was glad so many reporters were there, that finally the long-overdue questions were being asked. People were talking about levees and the impact mankind had on that fragile ecosystem.
But still the coverage was reactionary. We should have known that this place was particularly vulnerable. I had been on the right track, but I didn’t ask all the right questions. When I got back to New Orleans, areas where we had been a month before -- even those relatively unscathed by flooding -- were a ghost town. The voice of that fisherman warning me about hurricanes echoed in my head the whole time.
The lesson to me as a journalist was that we have to stay a step ahead, to be enterprising and ask tough questions -- but also that we can so easily miss the big story if we think we already know what it is. I’m not saying that it’s possible to predict the future, but it’s important for journalists to go where the story is -- and listen when those who know best tell us there’s a storm coming.
Adam Yamaguchi is the executive producer and a correspondent for Current TV's Vanguard.
In this satellite image from NOAA, Hurricane Katrina is seen in the Gulf of Mexico... more
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Obama revives nuclear energy deal with Russia
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governor Sarah Palin didn't cage her answer when pressed Sunday morning as to whether she would consider a run for president in 2012.
"I would, I would if I believe that is the right thing to do for our country and the Palin family. Certainly I would do so," she told "Fox News Sunday," in an interview that was taped before she addressed a Tea Party convention the night before. "I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I could potentially do to help our country ... . I won't close a door that perhaps could be open for me in the future."
In her first Sunday show appearance, the 2008 vice-presidential candidate predicted that, if the election were held today, President Barack Obama would actually lose the office he won just a year-and-a-half ago. But -- citing a column written by Pat Buchanan -- she left open the possibility that his fates could change, particularly (she seemed to wish) if a major attack were to be launched against Iran.
Palin also used her platform to continue a call for the president to rid himself of his closest advisers. On Attorney General Eric Holder, she labeled his handling of captured terrorists -- "allowing them our U.S. constitutional protections when they do not deserve them" -- a firing offense. On Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, she said his comments calling liberal groups "f-ing retards" was "indecent and insensitive" and cause for his dismissal.
But the former governor went to great and sometimes awkward lengths to insist that when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used the same exact term to describe the same exact group, it was simply in the role of political humorist.
"They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh," she said, when read a quote of Limbaugh calling liberal groups "retards." "Rush Limbaugh was using satire ... . I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there."
In the 30-minute sit down with host Chris Wallace, Palin addressed a wide swath of largely political topics -- the policy minutia, undoubtedly, saved for another time and place.
She dismissed charges that her husband Todd played an unacceptably active role in guiding her administration as governor, after it was revealed in recently disclosed emails that the "first dude" was often consulted on weighty matters.
She acknowledged moderate successes in Obama's foreign policy -- specifically towards Afghanistan and Pakistan -- but still questioned why the president "pals around" with domestic terrorists (Bill Ayers).
Finally, she declined several attempts to weigh in on other prospective 2012 candidates, citing only Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) as someone who she admired and found intriguing.
The impression, in the end, was left that she was charting out a candidacy of her own. Pressed about reports that she was being consulted by a group of Washington-based advisers -- those insider elites she often bemoans -- on issues both domestic and foreign, she didn't exactly shoot down the idea that it was prep work for a White House run.
"Ever since our PAC was formed we have had good people contributing, some, many volunteers, I guess you would call them advisers yes, fire away emails to me every morning saying this is what happened in Washington overnight, you need to be aware of this," Palin said. "I have no idea how conventionally people [run for the White House]. How they open a door that perhaps isn't even open. ... I don't know how any of that stuff works. I'm just appreciative of having some good information at my fingerprints now."governor Sarah Palin didn't cage her answer when pressed Sunday morning as to... more
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Will we see a shift in policies?
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Police officers filmed using riot shields to sledge down a snowy hill while on duty have been reprimanded.
Local policing area commander Supt Andrew Murray said the snow had "a habit of bringing out the child in all of us".
He added: "I have spoken to the officers concerned and reminded them in no uncertain terms that tobogganing on duty, on police equipment and at taxpayers' expense is a very bad idea should they wish to progress under my command".
I think it's great! The more ingrained the police can get in their local community by being seen to do harmless, fun things normal people do, the better. True, they probably clubbed some homeless people to death moments after this was filmed, but where's the harm in a little bit of sledging?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8458844.stmPolice officers filmed using riot shields to sledge down a snowy hill while on duty... more
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richjm
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2 years ago
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Farmers Not Invited to Food Summit?
by Sabina Zaccaro
ROME - World farmers are not part of the official delegations at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food summit on food security that opened here Monday. But they came anyhow to express their views, since, they say, it is their communities that are most impacted by the food crisis.
Small-scale producers from the Amazonian rainforest, from Africa, the Pacific islands and the Himalayas gathered in Rome for the Peoples' Food Sovereignty Forum (Nov. 13-17), held in parallel to the FAO meetings, to discuss the serious effects of the crisis in their communities.
Photo:
Activists from the International Peasant Movement (La Via Campesina) take part in a demonstration outside the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome November 16, 2009. (REUTERS/Giampiero SpositoFarmers Not Invited to Food Summit?
by Sabina Zaccaro
ROME - World farmers are not... more
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Let's start off with some eternal truths.
-> One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
-> Those 545 human beings spend a lot of their energy (we call it campaigning after they've been elected.) convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. And most of the media cooperates as well.
-> Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Then they either make them worse or find a way to make sure the cure is worse than the original problem so that the cure also becomes a problem. That way, they can lie about what they've been doing to stave off the original problem.
-> You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. And congress authorizes the expenditures and the taxes to pay for them. Remember this always. Governments have no monies nor wealth that they don't first take from their subjects.
-> You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. Then the Senate is supposed to discuss and adjust those appropriations, not rubber stamp them. Of course, Senators are no longer beholden to the State Governments because they're popularly elected just like their Representative neighbors so they've become just another spending body. That's how elections are won. Buy the votes with their own monies collected through taxes they have no voice in controlling.
-> You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. Them with the money makes the rules.
-> You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. (occasionally, if the Federal Bank isn't looking.)
-> You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does. (which is another can of worms entirely - that problem was created by Congress in 1913)
-> No (intelligent) normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker of the House to stand up and criticize a President for creating deficits.
The Constitution, the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.
The President only proposes a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it and he doesn't appropriate monies.
-> It is the speaker of the House, the leader of the majority party, and fellow House members, not the president, who approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they can manage to agree to.
-> There are no insoluble government problems except those Congress wishes to ignore and perpetuate.
-> It seems inconceivable that a nation of 300 million has not yet replaced a mere 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. There is not a single domestic problem that is not directly traceable to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. It would seem self evident.
-> Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
-> Never vote for an incumbent. Throw'em all out. The very few honest ones will have no trouble finding honest work. The rest can go on welfare.
*source: PL Booth,
http://www.blueeyeview.blogspot.comLet's start off with some eternal truths.
-> One hundred senators, 435... more
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A Queens, New York man is fighting for his life because to men chose to attack him simply because he is gay. The entire incident was caught on tape. According to David Mixner, "You morally must watch this tape and know that this is not an isolated incident."A Queens, New York man is fighting for his life because to men chose to attack him... more
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A new spike has sent the cost of the precious metal to a level not seen before. The dollar slid sharply after yesterday's report in The Independent that Gulf Arab states are secretly planning to stop trading oil in dollars, and a senior UN official said that the US should be stripped of its position as the main source of currency reserves for other countries.
The price of gold is surging on world markets amid fears that the old economic order based on the supremacy of the US dollar could be breaking down.
The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank.
The biggest driver of global economic instability in recent years has been the determination of China to boost its export sector at all costs. Beijing's persistently large trade surpluses and manipulation to prevent its own currency from appreciating have effectively forced Western nations into running persistently large trade deficits. It was this pressure that blew up various asset bubbles that burst with such disastrous effect last year.
This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.
Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security."A new spike has sent the cost of the precious metal to a level not seen before. The... more
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~ 9/24/09
Americans who fail to pay the penalty for not buying insurance would face legal action from the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The remarks Thursday from the committee's chief of staff, Thomas Barthold, seems to further weaken President Barack Obama's contention last week that the individual mandate penalty, which could go as high as $1,900, is not a tax increase.
Under questioning from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Barthold said the IRS would "take you to court and undertake normal collection proceedings."
Ensign pursued the line of questioning because he said a lot of Americans don't believe the Constitution allows the government to mandate the purchase of insurance.
"We could be subjecting those very people who conscientiously, because they believe in the U.S. Constitution, we could be subjecting them to fines or the interpretation of a judge, all the way up to imprisonment," Ensign said. "That seems to me to be a problem."
Ensign's argument , however, wasn't persuasive to the committee -- which rejected an amendment from Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to eliminate the individual mandate.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote with Democrats to preserve the mandate.
~ 9/25/09
ENSIGN RECEIVES HANDWRITTEN CONFIRMATION
http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0909/Ensign_receives_handwritten_confirmation_.html?showall
This doesn't happen often enough.
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.
Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."
The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.~ 9/24/09
Americans who fail to pay the penalty for not buying insurance would face... more
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From Commondreams:
"With rabid wingnuts having successfully felled Van Jones, they have set their sights on the next victim: Dr. David Michaels, Obama's eminently qualified choice to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. To Red State, Michaels is "a radical...who makes Van Jones look tame" and who had the audacity to "smear BPA, an innovative chemical used to make plastics stronger." To sane people, Michaels is a progressive, knowledgeable, award-winning occupational epidemiologist who wrote the highly regarded book, "Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health." Ergo: When the time comes, people, let's speak up."From Commondreams:
"With rabid wingnuts having successfully felled Van Jones,... more
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WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $50,000 reward for a Seattle man it says is a domestic terrorist. But that has not kept him from keeping his pilot’s license or from trying to sell his airplane online, apparently because the Transportation Security Administration has not compared the F.B.I.’s wanted list with the Federal Aviation Administration’s list of licensed pilots.
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6 Considered Threats Kept Licenses for Aviation (June 26, 2009) The pilot, Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 31, was indicted with 10 other people in January 2006, in Eugene, Ore., on charges that they committed arson, destroyed an electric tower and other acts of domestic terrorism. Credit for those acts and others were claimed by two groups, the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front.
The F.B.I. says Mr. Dibee may have fled to Syria.
According to F.A.A. records, Mr. Dibee still owns a single-engine airplane, a 1977 Grumman/American Cheetah. He is also trying to sell the plane on the Internet for $39,000.
The New York Times learned that Mr. Dibee still has his license and his plane from a database processing company, Safe Banking Systems, which in June released the names of six other people with F.A.A. licenses who had been charged or convicted of terrorism crimes or otherwise were considered a threat to national security.
After the names were released, the Transportation Security Administration suspended the six licenses and said it would take steps to weed out other pilots who posed security risks from among the nearly four million names in the F.A.A.’s public database.
Last week, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and its aviation subcommittee sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration and the F. A. A. asking whether the two agencies were reconsidering which lists to use to match against the list of pilots. The letter referred to “apparent weaknesses in the existing vetting system.”WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $50,000 reward... more
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Former President Bill Clinton told a group of public health officials in Washington Monday that as a "member of the peanut gallery" viewing the posturing over health care reform, he sees "eerily familiar" political arguments getting in the way of progress on one of the most serious issues facing the nation.
Clinton told attendees at the "Weight of the Nation" conference, sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies, that he hadn't come to give a speech on health care reform, "since that's above my pay grade now." But as he discussed public health and the costs of obesity to families and communities, health care reform was not far from his train of thought.
The former president's perspective, and obvious frustration, come from his own failed attempt to reform the nation's health care system in 1993, as well as his work in public health since leaving office. His foundation has focused on several health initiatives, including reducing AIDS and targeting childhood obesity in poor neighborhoods through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
Ultimately, Clinton said, "I just want this to work."Former President Bill Clinton told a group of public health officials in Washington... more
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JohnA
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2 years ago
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President Barack Obama got right to the point on health care reform and answered every GOP charge at the July 22 White House press conference.
Obama tied the need of doing health care reform now, not only to help the almost 50 million Americans who don't have health insurance, but to significantly rev up the economy.
The president, before taking questions, reminded the public of the more than trillion dollar deficit he inherited from the Bush administration and the costly and inefficient Bush Medicare plan. He also spoke about the economic crisis and what his administration inherited. All this geared, many said, to answer the cacophany of Big Business, insurance-medical complex and GOP misinformation that has echoed throughout the media these last days.
He said investment in clean energy and health care reform are key to reviving the economy and creating more jobs. He also asserted confidence in the stimulus package that would be doing its job -- by saving or creating some three million jobs -- over the next two years.
Obama said the bill he is looking forward to signing must lower costs, guarantee choice and expand coverage. He said he would not shift the cost of the health plan to the "middle class." And would not sign a bill that added to the deficit.
He said right now two-thirds of the reform plan could be paid for with current tax revenue already going to health coverage. The other one-third, he said, could be paid for by decreasing tax deductions on the wealthy. "That was my idea. But there are other ideas out there," he said. The House bill projects a surcharge on incomes of $1 million and more.
The president stressed that he would not allow the "middle class" to pay anymore. "People are already hurting," he said and referred to the growing wealth gap.
Every question but two were geared towards health reform. The president attempted to neutralize the personal and other attacks unleashed by the GOP and the insurance lobby over the last few days. "Health care reform is not about me. I have great health care," he said. It's about the American people, he said, and told many personal stories of struggling Americans with inadequate health insurance.
When asked if any of the plans would cover all the uninsured, Obama said that only the single-payer system, where everyone is enrolled would do that. But the current Congress plans he has seen and favors would cover 97-98 percent of the uninsured, he said.
When asked if the public option would deny benefits, the president said it would "largely match up" with the kind of care that Congress gets.
He also talked about a committee of doctors and health experts that could oversee what works and what doesn't in efficient and quality coverage.
It doesn't make sense to get the same test done two or three times because there wasn't coordination, he said.
The only limitations to the health plan would be things that don't make Americans healthier. He stressed decisions have to be medically and evidence based.
Right now, he said, doctors are forced to make decisions based on a fee-reimbursement system, not medical evidence or what the patient really needs.
Obama stayed firm on the need to do the reform in the next months. Without a deadline, he said, nothing gets done in this town.President Barack Obama got right to the point on health care reform and answered every... more
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President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders, telling the NAACP that the sacrifice of others "began the journey that has led me here." The nation's first black president bluntly warned, though, that racial barriers persist.
"Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America," the president said in honoring the organization's 100th convention.
White House aides said the President had been working on the speech for two weeks. Obama urged African-Americans to be realistic about some of the difficulties they may face, but to remember that "your destiny is in your hands."
"We've got to say to our children, Yes, if you're African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. That's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school," he said. "No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands - and don't you forget that."
"No excuses. No excuses," Obama added, verging off his prepared remarks. "You get that education. All those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete. Yes, we can."
Painting himself as the beneficiary of the NAACP's work, Obama cited historical figures from W.E.B. DuBois to Thurgood Marshall to explain how the path to the presidency was cleared by visionaries.
Obama's remarks, steeped in his personal biography as the son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, challenged the audience -- those in the room and those beyond -- to take greater responsibility for their own future. He told parents to take a more active role and residents to pay better attention to their schools.President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and... more
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The head of the Central Intelligence Agency has accused former Vice-President Dick Cheney of masterminding a secret plot to keep President George W Bush's mouth the f*ck closed.
Congress, the judiciary and the media were all unaware of the secret plot to keep the President locked in a small room at the White House, or cover his mouth with masking tape when he was allowed out in public.
http://thestupidtimes.blogspot.com/2009/07/cheney-ordered-cia-to-cover-bushs-mouth.htmlThe head of the Central Intelligence Agency has accused former Vice-President Dick... more
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