CIA and the Dems 7/9/09

Lightning Round 7/9/09

The Losers are; Andrew Malcolm for saying “A majority of young people still approve of Obama job performance but a majority of seniors over 64 don’t” and then added maybe they’ll die before the next election.” The other Loser is Henry Waxman for going overboard in his criticism of republican opposition to cap and trade.

Winners and Losers 7/9/09

From WhiteHouse.gov:

The videos can be funny, cute, dramatic, but most of all, they should help make a positive impact. HHS is organizing an expert panel to evaluate submissions and will present the best PSAs to the public so everyone can vote on their favorite submission. The winning PSA will receive $2,500 in cash and will appear on national television. To learn more about the contest details, as well as our larger effort to plan and prepare for the flu season, please go to www.flu.gov. To take a crack at the PSA contest, just post a response to Secretary Sebelius’ video below, but skim over the rules first.

You can learn more at Flu.gov.

Flu.gov

Obama and Russia 7/8/09

The Losers for today are; Al Gore for stating that “having an apposible thumb and a nero cortex is a viable construct”

Winners and Losers 7/8/09

Lightning Round 7/8/09

Benedict begins his service July 17 at the LNC’s quarterly meeting in St. Louis, Missouri and will then move directly to the Party’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Wes Benedict named Executive Director

As we speak, key committees in Congress are weighing options and making final decisions about how to tackle health care reform. This could be one of the last opportunities to shape the legislation before it’s written.

The behind-the-scenes committee negotiations aren’t front-page news, but the lobbyists trying to block reform are following every detail, and they won’t miss a day. If the final plan is to uphold President Obama’s principles of reduced costs, guaranteed choice — including the choice of a robust public insurance option — and quality care for all, your voice must be heard.

Please write a short letter to the editor of your local paper expressing your support for President Obama’s three principles for real health care reform, and asking your Congressional representatives to do the same. You can write and submit your letter in just a few minutes using our simple online tool.

These letters are an easy but powerful way to make a difference. The letters section is one of the most-read parts of the newspaper, and decision-makers in Congress and the media watch it closely to gauge where the public stands.

Good letters are usually just two or three short paragraphs. You can just explain that you’re a local resident who knows we need real health care reform following the President’s three principles, and we need it now. If you have a personal experience with the health care system that motivates you, that will make the letter even more powerful.

The opponents of real reform have deep pockets and insider access, and they’re holding nothing back in their drive to derail progress before the plans go public.

Your letter, submitted at this time, can help remind your representatives that the American people are counting on them to stand up to special interests and deliver the comprehensive reform we so desperately need.

http://my.barackobama.com/healthcareletter

Thanks for all that you do,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

P.S. — These letters are a vital first step. Stay tuned for other critical ways to organize locally and make a difference in this campaign. We can only win this thing if we all work together every step of the way.

A Critical Time for Health Care Reform

LIVE: Vice President Biden Makes Health Care Announcement

Interview with Joe Lieberman

Lightning Round 7/7/09

The Losers for today are; Mike Lupica, for blaming gun control on the murder suicide of Steve Mcnair and Joe Biden for his most recent speech in Iraq.

Winners and losers 7/7/09

If you’ve listened to President Obama talk about health care reform in the past several weeks, you’ve probably heard him talk about how we should study communities around America that provide better coverage for less and replicate their success. He often talks about the high cost of health care in McAllen, Texas, a town on the Mexican border that has one of the most expensive health care markets in the country.

The June 1st issue of The New Yorker magazine included an article about the soaring costs in McAllen. A few key passages are excepted below – here’s a link to this must read, The Cost Conundrum. The bottom line? More expensive care doesn’t necessarily lead to better health outcomes.

…The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government.

Read the full article . . .

The High Costs of Care

Residents of Evansville, Indiana, volunteered to help a community health center. The ECHO Community Health Center — which provides health care to people without insurance, including the homeless — was in the process of relocating and needed help. Volunteers carried boxes of medical records to the center’s new facility. WTVW FOX Evansville reported: 

The local chapter of Organizing for America is helping ECHO Community Health Center move to its new location. Evansville for Change helped with the move as part of OFA’s National Health Service Day. The move was from ECHO’s former headquarters at 501 John St. to a new facility at 315 Mulberry. A local moving crew transported most of the heavy medical equipment for the new facility. Volunteers loaded and unloaded boxes of medical records… The new facility will be open to the public July 6.

Residents of Central New York provided free rides for people with medical appointments. These organizers provided relief to people who are affected by the changing economy and may by uninsured. The group also put up fliers with information about SCHIP. By providing free rides and raising awareness of health care reform, these organizers helped people get the care they need. News 10 Syracuse reported:

One Central New York group answered President Obama’s call for a National Health Care Day of Service by launching a new project in the community.

Organizing for America volunteers from around the region are introducing "Rides for Reform," which will offer free rides to medical appointments for people in need. Organizers hope the program brings more people to their cause of reforming health care.

"If we’re going to ask the government to reform health care and do something good for our community here, then we need to do some service that shows we’re in this together," said event organizer John DeSantis.

The group will also distribute fliers to let the community know about low-cost children’s health care.

Jeff from Columbiana County, Ohio, volunteered at a healthy food drive.  Not only did Jeff help feed the hungry, he encouraged preventative care. He felt especially passionate about donating food due to the economic difficulties in Ohio. Along with the other volunteers, he collected food outside several grocery stores, and all food was donated to local food banks. From WYTV ABC Youngstown:

A group of people in Columbiana County wants to make sure everyone can eat right. The group asked for health food donations like pasta and tuna. They organized the food drive to help people in need, and at the same time, promote good nutrition and wellness. Everything collected gets donated to Columbiana County Food Banks.

Jeff Martin, from the Healthy Food Drive, said, "This is National Service Day, and we are working with a group called Organizing for America. Our local food banks are depleted down in this area because of hard economic times and we are just trying to help people out; get some food to the people who need it."

The group collected food at four different locations on Saturday, including Giant Eagles in Salem, Calcutta, and East Liverpool.

Another food drive took place in Savannah, Georgia. Residents of Savannah volunteered for Second Harvest Food Bank, an organization dedicated to providing nutritious food to the hungry. From The Coastal Source:

Savannahians lend a helping hand to Second Harvest Food Bank. Saturday afternoon as part of Citizens for Better Health Day, a food drive was held in front of the Brighter Day health food store on Park Avenue.

Residents could bring any kind of non-perishable food with them and donate it to the Second Harvest Food Bank, who never has any shortage of people looking for food.

"Because of the changing economy, people don’t have as much money to spend for food," said Organizing for America volunteer Marie Simpson. "Some people maybe homeless and Second Harvest has a goal to help end hunger and that’s what we’re hoping to do."

Citizens for Better Health Awareness Day is part of National Health Care Day of Service taking place across the country.

Finally, here’s a look at photos from events across the country:

"We’re in this together"

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Your Monday Message: What can you do to ensure "good men" triumph?

Click here to read Barr’s column.  Barr writes, in part:

read more

Barr: ‘Cap and tax’ a lot of hot air

The Shameless Cover-Up by the Mainstream National Media

Weapons of Mass Distraction- Media Feeds the Public a Steady Diet of Michael Jackson

By Wayne Allyn Root, 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee

I saw it. I’m a witness to history. Someone has to provide witness to what our national mainstream media refuses to cover. The anger is rising. It is boiling over. The signs of the coming citizen revolution are everywhere. Just two days ago, on July 4th I spoke at Tea Party protests in Austin and Dallas. About 20,000 Americans citizens attended those two protests on a national holiday, in stifling 102 degree heat and unfathomable humidity. I know what normal people would have done on a typical national holiday on a stifling hot summer day at any other time in our nation’s history- go swimming with their family, or barbeque with family and friends in the shade. But these 20,000 people in two Texas cities sacrificed their valuable family time on a holiday to stand in the blistering heat and direct sunshine to vent their anger at the politicians (of both parties) who are destroying our country, killing capitalism, damaging the economy beyond repair, and enslaving our children and grandchildren to a lifetime of debt.

I assume tens of thousands turned out in other cities across the country. Hundreds of thousands in all. But I wouldn’t know. The news media didn’t report it.

While the media willfully ignores the Tea Party protests right in front of their eyes, they choose to talk nonstop about “green shoots” in the economy that don’t exist. These “green shoots” are a total fabrication- a figment of an ignorant, delusional, or deliberately fraudulent liberal media’s imagination. The economy is crumbling. The Obama debt is turning a deep recession into “the Greater Depression.” The numbers get worse every day. We are on the verge of economic Armageddon. But the President, the politicians who enable him, and the mainstream media are afraid to present the truth to the public. Perhaps they believe, as Jack Nicholson said in the movie A Few Good Men, “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.”

What California is now experiencing- debt, default, insolvency, bankruptcy, IOU’s to its own citizens- is coming to a country nearest you called America. California is merely “the canary in the coal mine” of what irresponsible liberal fiscal policy is about to do to the entire USA. California is ground zero of economic Armageddon. California is the true sign of how deep the hole is. Yet Obama keeps digging.

The deficit is out of control. The debt is unsustainable. Small businesses close by the hundreds of thousands. Almost 500,000 Americans a month continue to lose their jobs. No more government employees can be hired or paid for. The Obama economic stimulus plan is in shambles. The game is up. Yet Obama wants desperately to add to the debt. He tries desperately to push through a new $1.6 trillion dollar Universal Healthcare bill that will cost more than all the personal income taxes paid in America. He tries desperately to push through a Cap and Trade bill that will double or triple our electric rates and put American business out of business- in the middle of a depression. He asks the Federal Reserve to print more money to pay for all his debt, bailouts, handouts, entitlements, union giveaways and redistribution schemes. It is all the definition of utter insanity.

Small business is the economic engine of our U.S. economy. Small business creates 75% of new jobs- yet small business is going out of business like never before. Every day more small businesses close by the thousands. The landlords that own the buildings and strip malls and shopping centers where those small businesses used to be located are in bankruptcy, or will be soon. A wave of commercial real estate foreclosures that has never been seen in U.S. history is on the way. A wave so crippling it will make the wave of home foreclosures we’ve just experienced look small. Banks will buckle under this coming commercial wave of debt. But this news the mainstream media refuses to report…or simply doesn’t even understand.

Worse, the upper middle class that owns those businesses and buildings and shopping malls, that pays virtually all of our taxes, is being driven out of existence. Whether Obama or his Kool Aid drinkers in the media realize it or not, his grand dreams are DOA (dead on arrival). The plan was to pay for it all by “taxing the rich.” Well the rich that Obama hates so much, whose money he planned to redistribute, is vanishing by the day. There is no income left to redistribute. There is no one left to pay Obama’s tab. But this news the mainstream media refuses to report…or simply doesn’t even understand.

But none of this stops the biased liberal media from talking about “green shoots” and the prospects of economic recovery right around the corner. However far worse than these false hopes of recovery are the outright deceptions and fraud of the media. Whenever 25 or 50 anti-war demonstrators gathered against the Iraq War during the Bush presidency, the media was there with dozens of cameramen and reporters to cover it in detail- and make it look like a citizen revolution. Yet today a true citizen revolution is brewing and the media refuses to cover it. The anger about the Iraq War was small and inconsequential compared to the anger in the streets from ordinary Americans today.

Today the proof that a true citizen revolution is brewing is evident at Tea Party rallies and protests across this great country. The protestors at these Tea Parties are not the typical socialist radicals, counter-culture hippies, and professional protestors of the left who attended the war rallies. The Tea Party protestors define middle America. These are small business owners, blue-collar workers, parents with young children in tow, grandparents, patriotic war veterans. These are people who have never said a bad word about America in their lives. These are flag wavers- not flag burners. These are lifelong Republicans and conservatives and libertarians who have never attended a protest in their lives.

These are patriots looking to save their country, not American-haters looking to tear it down. They used to be too busy running businesses and taking care of their families to protest. Now they are willing to protest, scream and rage at the politicians destroying he American Dream. This is the story of the decade- perhaps the century. This is the story that should be on the cover of Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. This is the story that should lead off the national evening newscasts. Yet it is met with deafening silence. Instead we are fed a steady diet of Michael Jackson. Weapons of Mass Distraction.

Yet despite the media fraud and distractions, these quintessential middle American patriots are out in the streets protesting, screaming, raging. Angry. Bitter. Bursting at the seams in disgust and disillusionment. Not willing to take it anymore. Not words we’ve ever used to describe salt-of-the-earth middle American parents and grandparents. Something is happening. Something very unusual. Something very powerful. Perhaps for the first time ever, something out of the control of the mainstream national media (could that be what frightens them?). Something bigger than even the powerful politicians. Something bigger than all of us.

What I witnessed (as one of the main speakers at both events) in Texas on Independence Day was the Governor of Texas getting booed by his own conservative constituents. And the United States Senator of Texas getting literally booed and shouted off the stage by these same conservative constituents. These were Republican politicians. The protestors were taxpayers. Angry taxpayers. Angry that their money has been given away- looted- by politicians on both sides of the aisle. Angry about bailouts of wealthy corporations and CEO’s. Angry about wasted trillion dollar economic stimulus plans to nowhere. Angry about tax cuts given to people who never paid taxes in the first place. Angry about our government undertaking a hostile takeover of American business. Angry about government handing GM and Chrysler tens of billions of taxpayer dollars just so they could go bankrupt anyway, and then handing the leftover companies to the auto unions who weren’t even secured creditors. Angry about the socialization of America happening before our eyes.

20,000 people. In 102 degree heat and humidity. On a holiday. Not professional protestors, but taxpayers. Angry citizens. Parents. Grandparents. I was there to witness it. This is history in the making. The citizen revolution has begun. Whether the media notices…or cares…or understands…or not.

Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate. His new book will be released by John Wiley & Sons this July 20 entitled, “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts.” The book is available for pre-sale at Amazon.com. For more of Wayne’s views, commentaries, or to watch his many media interviews, please visit his web site at: www.ROOTforAmerica.com

I was a Witness to History.