First one was better: Sicko
"Obama group seeks ‘stories’ of healthcare; Grass-roots effort puts focus on need, not details" by Sasha Issenberg, Globe Correspondent | June 28, 2009
WASHINGTON - The group Organizing for America is headquartered only two blocks from the Capitol, but when horse-trading over healthcare legislation intensified there this week, Barack Obama’s grass-roots advocacy operation turned its attention away from Washington.
Yesterday, the group recruited thousands of its volunteer members to gather in farmers’ markets, rehab clinics, parks, and libraries nationwide as part of a National Health Care Day of Service. It was a do-gooder occasion with a blunt, short-term political objective: calling attention to the administration’s “work to reform America’s healthcare system,’’ as Michelle Obama put it in an e-mail to supporters.
The push for a major healthcare overhaul presents a significant test of the president’s ability to harness grass-roots energy and convert it into governing power. Obama is counting on having his activists promote healthcare as a two-sided choice - either take urgent action now or lose the opportunity for a long time - even as congressional negotiators, and other interest groups, haggle over the policy specifics that drive the lawmaking process.
Sicko has been out for over two years, jack-off, and yet nuthin'!!
Btw, that was the last good movie I saw. Everything since has been s***.
“Every American is going to have a different opinion about what should be in the plan,’’ said Paul Tewes, who served last year as a top campaign strategist for Obama. “What they’re doing is what they did during the campaign. Once you’re listening to people and respecting people and inviting people into a conversation, individuals will be empowered to play a part.’’
Just DON'T SAY the WORDS "single payer," 'kay?
After being elected, Obama took the remnants of his campaign structure and reinvented it as an activist arm of the Democratic National Committee.
Sig Heil.
As it works to influence the healthcare debate, Organizing for America has downplayed the typical tools of legislative activism: bombarding congressional switchboards, mail rooms, and computer servers - or local newspapers with letters to the editor - as a show of force.
And in this case, the agenda-pushing MSM gives its approval. Such glowing terms compared with other issues and organizations (such as thoe against illegal immigration).
Instead, the organization has used its supporter base - culled from the millions of names Obama collected during the presidential campaign - as a source of what it calls stories: first-person accounts of travails faced under the current medical system. On Friday, the latest of them found its way to YouTube, featuring an unemployed Florida woman unable to secure insurance because of a preexisting condition.
He HASN'T SEEN Sicko, has he?
“We get [the stories] out in a number of ways, whether that’s in a Web ad or a press conference,’’ said Jeremy Bird, deputy director of Organizing for America. “When we go door-to-door, our scripts have people sharing their own healthcare stories more than policy points.’’
Obama took a similar approach to the economic stimulus bill that passed Congress in February, his first major legislative initiative. He called on Congress to pass a collection of tax cuts and new spending, but did not fully activate his grass-roots network until Congress had shaped the contours of the package.
Organizing for America tried only to illustrate the need for swift action, coordinating nationwide “economic recovery’’ house parties, and gathering individual testimonials about the need for more federal help.
I'm starting to feel insulted.
“It keeps legislators’ minds riveted to the problem,’’ said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. “It’s helpful to have groups reminding people of the urgency.’’
Pfffft!
Yeah, so let's do something we will regret because of the FALSE URGENCY!
In the healthcare debate, Obama has stood publicly for little other than urgency. He has committed himself only to a set of principles so broad that they fit comfortably into the mainstream of both parties’ views. In the past week, he has emphasized his willingness to bend on key points, such as mandating that individuals be insured and taxing health benefits they receive from employers - both positions Obama opposed as a candidate.
Yeah, yeah, we know all about his lies, 'er, promises.
He has also spoken in favor of a public insurance plan, perhaps the most controversial provision being debated in Congress, but has not insisted that it be part of the bill being drafted in Congress. Yet others pushing for a healthcare overhaul have tied themselves to specific provisions.
A leading left-wing coalition, Health Care for America Now, has run ads promoting the inclusion of a public insurance plan. A group of doctors and nurses led by Vermont’s former governor, Howard Dean, gathered in Washington during the past week to push the same agenda. Meanwhile, labor unions are fighting efforts to tax health benefits.
And the SINGLE-PAYER ADVOCATES representing the 80% of us that want that?
Hello?
Organizing for America is coordinating with many liberal interest groups on their efforts around healthcare activism, according to Bird. But Obama’s volunteer base will hold back from the internecine policy fights, he said, and wait instead for a satisfactory bill to reach the floor before backing it.
That's why I oppose (among other reasons) whatever comes out of there.
Liberals suck.
“Most of the groups have a sense of what they want in a plan,’’ said Dorgan. “At this point, there’s not yet a product. When there’s a bill coming out from the floor of the House and Senate, there will be plenty of time for constituent groups to weigh the particular product.’’
May we never get there.
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And what happened to those legions of Obamamaniacs, huh?
The Honeymoon is Over For Obama
Oh.
BROOKLINE - Barack Obama became president thanks to house parties like the thousands across the county this weekend, and thanks to activists who wrote checks and blogged and made phone calls to neighbors for the campaign. The agenda then was clear: Win the election.
Now Obama is reactivating his grass-roots political machine for a new purpose: Pass major legislation overhauling the nation's healthcare system. Together with a growing alliance of independent liberal activist groups that have amassed more money, members, and influence than ever before, the grass-roots base may provide the critical strength Obama needs to accomplish a goal that has eluded his predecessors.
So what happened in little more than a month, huh?
Yup, VAST SUPPORT NETWORK -- that is about a hair's breadth deep!
We didn't want George W. Bush II, but that's what we got, thus the fizzle for this guy.
But firing up those activists may pose political risks for Obama: The bill that finally emerges from Congress may not live up to liberals' expectations....
Or anyone elses!!!
This weekend, Organizing for America - the president's former national campaign organization, now run through the Democratic National Committee to support his policies - kicked off a months-long effort to build ground-level support for a healthcare overhaul.
Given where we are now, the jewgroup FAILED!!!!!
At the house parties, organizers read from talking points, urging those in attendance to get involved....
That's "change?"
Some Obama supporters are already dismayed that a national health system, along the lines of Britain or Canada, isn't being seriously considered.
YUP!!!!!!!!!!
Alan Frankel, co-coordinator of Obama's campaign in Framingham last year, was among eight activists who gathered at an apartment complex in Natick yesterday for an Obama healthcare party. He wants to help the president fix the healthcare system, but if Congress comes out with a bill that does not include what he sees as a reasonable alternative to a Canadian-style system - a strong government insurance option - he said, "I would certainly be angry."
Oh, I got anger to burn about all this!!!!
"I think it would be my responsibility then to make it clear to my legislators, especially if they didn't work for a public option, to voice my opinion," he said.
David Kidder, 69, of Watertown, retired head of health policy research at Abt Associates Inc., gathered with nine others in Brookline yesterday over strawberries and iced tea to find out what he could do to make sure a strong public insurance option is included in the final plan.
"I know the insurance companies say this is a stalking horse for single payer," he said. "I say, 'Yeah, hi-ho Silver!' . . . I think it's absolutely crucial that we have that."
Liberals have gained considerable ground recently in pushing their agenda on healthcare.
In late May, Senator Edward M. Kennedy made it known that his bill would embrace most of the left's wish list, including a Medicare-style public insurance option plan.
F*** that fat-assed, globalist turncoat. He SOLD OUT, Bay-Staters, sorry!!!!
We DON'T WANT a "Medicare-style public insurance option plan."
We WANT SINGLE PAYER like in Sicko so PICK a COUNTRY and pick the plan!
A draft that circulated Friday proposed a large public insurance plan, subsidies for families earning up to $110,000 a year, a significant expansion of the Medicaid program, and an employer mandate. On Wednesday, Obama, who had sounded noncommittal on the issue in March, issued a letter saying he "strongly" supported the public plan concept he had espoused in the campaign, as well as requirements that individuals buy insurance and employers help them pay for it. Advocates for Canadian-style national health insurance - which Obama has said is off the table - even won meetings with key committees last week.
Oh, whoop-de-doo!
And THAT was the END of it, huh?
Liberals have sounded uncompromising lately....
Yeah, DAMN THOSE LIBERALS for NOT WANTING to COMPROMISE on HEALTH!!!
Of course, when it comes to CREATING WARS based on LIES, well....
F*** you, Boston Globe, and your f***ing insults!
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