…….”I don’t get these guys in Congress,” Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, told The Cable. “In the word’s of Joe Biden, this is a big fucking deal. It’s not too often you can watch the hinge of history move. Every president since Jimmy Carter has tried to get a deal with Iran. This is the first president to actually do it.” Cirincione caught the news of a deal during a meeting at the Halifax International Security Forum, a gathering of hundreds of policy wonks, administration officials, lawmakers and journalists in Canada. The conference attracted foreign-policy minds across the political spectrum, but as news trickled out of Geneva, left-leaning security experts erupted in celebration. “It’s only the first step, there’s a lot of hard work to do, but it is huge,” said Cirincione
Heather Hurlbert, a former State Department and White House official and senior advisor at the National Security Network, applauded after watching the president’s Saturday night address on a hotel flat screen TV. “You’ve got to credit the president on this,” she told The Cable. “I recently went back and was looking at his campaign speeches, and he did what he said he was going to do. And that’s not something people get a lot of credit for in our politics right now.”……..
Republicans will never give President Obama any credit for his accomplishments. It’s sad that some Democrats felt the need to criticize the deal. At least give the deal a chance to work.
This your AIPAC wing of the Democratic Party……they don’t want their campaign contributions to dry up. Plain & Simple. If J Street could their act together, it would be a totally different story domestically, Pkaden!
More and More Asia Americans are becoming politically involved. A BFD. That is Thanks to……..drum roll…..Pres Obama. In 2008 the Only Asian American group then sen Obama lost was the Vietnamese Community.
In 2012, He won every Asia American Group, handily. Respect rewards respect.
Today I participated as an enrollment assister at a Health Care Enrollment Fair in Salem, Oregon. It was a marvelous and touching experience. It made me aware of how many poor and struggling individuals and families there are who are just on the edge of survival, going without the essential of human need, including especially medical care. The persons I helped were all very grateful for this new service they now will have a new found security that is rare for them, young and middle aged, individuals, couples, families with children, multi-generational families in the same household. Their stories were touching and at times heart rending. There were about 30 assisters in all, volunteers, professionals, insurance agents and brokers. We were busy most of the day. It was a good learning experience for me in helping others complete the application process and go through the steps they have to go through to meet this need. The woman with the health department who is my supervisor in this effort is young latina woman who is very skilled and has such a pleasant disposition and communication skills for this. But it was well organized by Cover Oregon and an event that will bear much fruit in the lives of many hundreds of people. I learned again today that there are many, many poor people in America who are working hard but barely surviving, and without basic medical care. Some I saw today were making $1000–1200 a month income. One single woman in her 50s, making 15K a year, with a congenital disability, no health care coverage. Her life is changed for the better because of President Barack Obama.
A wonderful update Bill, that last line almost made me cry. You’re so great for getting involved and helping people on this, I would love to include it in tomorrow’s R&S if that’s okay?
Well done, Bill R. That’s what tech savvy dems need to do at the ground level given the political opposition, boneless dem congress critters and media lies.
{{{{{{Bill}}}}} That’s a giant hug for you! Thank you for doing this and helping your fellow citizens out…this is what being part of a community that cares for everyone is all about. You did good:)
What a satisfying experience, Bill. I can just imagine the feeling of knowing you personally helped someone gain som peace of mind. I saw an interview the other day with Senator Merkley, when asked why the Oregon site was not running, and all the applications had do be done by workers/volunteers…….he gave a one word answer, ORACLE! Do you have any insight into this?
per reports, Oracle is the contractor for the ObamaCare exchange in Oregon;
one of the major problems they cite is that Oracle tried to offer so many services (OR wanted to create a one-stop network for multiple vital services) so this complicated the whole system & it won’t work as planned
Dear Bill R. – it’s wonderful to hear your eye-witness report on the application fair in Salem today. Apparently the Portland two-day event signed up another 600 needy people. It’s a crying shame that Oracle choose to make the website impossibly complicated so that now, paper and pencil applications have to be processed, but it will get fixed.
I spent the weekend putting Cover Oregon fact sheets in both Spanish and English in laundromats, libraries, affordable housing units, and a community college multi-cultural center. I emailed the Timbers soccer team to see if they would let me put them in the restroom stalls before the big game but never heard back. Now that the Timbers lost, that’s a moot point, but I may try the Blazers basketball stadium.
We can all have “the talk” with our young relatives over the holiday season. Bright people here will think of additional ways to get the good news out. That;’s how we skirt the negative MSM and the GOP saboteurs!
Bill honestly it’s people like you that makes a difference in people’s lives. I mean really think about all the good that all of you assister’s did today to change lives. It’s really amazing when you stop to think on it. thank you. thanks for doing that.
Alon Pinkas, former Israeli consul-general in New York, criticized Netanyahu for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.” In a piece slated to appear in Nov. 26 editions of the Jerusalem Post, Pinkas credited Netanyahu for elevating the Iranian nuclear threat issue to the top of the global agenda. While imperfect, the interim agreement marks a significant first step in curtailing Iran’s nuclear weapons drive.
Israeli Experts Dispute Netanyahu Snub of Iranian Nuke Deal http://t.co/wpi7FmA7mh “Now is not the time for empty threats and self-pity”
“Netanyahu could and should have declared a partial, cautious, reserved victory, but a victory no less,” wrote Pinkas.
“If someone had told Israel a year ago that by November 2013 Syria’s chemical stockpiles would be subject to international inspections and destroyed by virtue of an enforceable Security Council resolution and that Iran would sign a deal designed to curtail its nuclear program, that someone would be dismissed as a lunatic.
LP, I totally love the “empty threats and self-pity” used to describe Netanyahu. If you’re Bibi, that’s not something you want to hear from a fellow Israeli who knows what he’s talking about.
I only wish every network didn’t have their personal *Netanyahu Spokesman* i.e. their anchors telling us how that ACTUAL people of Israel feel, Jackie.
Thank you, JER. It is always a moving emotion to watch him arrive and take off. The honor that is displayed is remarkable and moving. We are so blessed to have this great man as our POTUS. Again, thank you, JER for these each time.HZ
I went to see if I could get near the area where PBO was speaking on immigration reform, about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. As I got close, I was very surprised to see that unless you had tickets to attend, they were not letting people within a block of the building. DARN!! I waited anyway to see what I could see and after about 45 minutes, lots of motorcycle cops showed up and I could see the motorcade streaming down the hill about a block away. There was a tent set up for PBO’s wagon and in he went. The only thing I could get plenty of pictures of were lots and lots of cops, secret service, bomb squad and ambulance trucks. But it was fun anyway. The event was right across the street from the cable car museum and they had to shut down the whole cable car system until after the event for security purposes, so I hung out and laughed with all the cable car maintenance guys who were also trying to get a glimpse.
The white area in the middle of the photo is PBO’s white tent where his car enters. They were not driving the beast today, which I was hoping to see.
It was frustrating! I’ve never seen the police and security keep people back so far. Lots of neighbors came out but we couldn’t get close enough to really see anything. I saw the motorcade arrive about a half block away and PBO’s car went straight into the tent they set up for his arrival. So I’m glad I went but I’m bummed I didn’t get to see him.
I know how you feel. In 1981, I was close enough to take pictures 3 of Reagan. I went to DC on a school project. By accident, I and 3 others saw Reagan. We too pictures before he was sworn in. I didn’t care for the man. I had the pictures. I can only imagine what I would do should I run into pres Obama by accident as I did with Reagan in 1981. I will faint. 911 will be called, that is all.
Well, I know all you guys say that but honestly, he’s so sweet and friendly, you would not faint. You would shake his hand and smile wide!! Then you’d step back and say, WOW, that guy is really handsome!!
Nena, Bill Clinton was famous for buying last minute Christmas presents at Union Station in DC. One year my husband and I were having lunch there with our daughter and suddenly police came a cordoned off a whole portion of the shops and he just walked through. You could stand up on the balcony and look down and see him shopping.
Metaaaaaa, thank you for the report, so sorry you didn’t get closer, but it must have been exciting to be so close to it all. Love the photo, wow the security is amazing – and comforting.
Chips, if you ever need a supply of cop photos, I’m good.
It was fun anyway. Everybody gets excited when his motorcade pulls up. There were some French and German tourists who didn’t realize what they had walked into. They were way excited.
I recognized the name Betty Ong, but had to verify through Google that the Betty Ong Center was named after the 9/11 flight attendant. What a beautiful tribute!
Important segment on Anderson Cooper—-on the Christian book re. Christian disciplining a child, “To Train Up a Child”—–kids with these dummy misguided parents are dying from the abuse recommended ——-Tells parents to:
Use plastic tubing to beat their children.
Parents should wear this plastic tubing around their necks as a constant reminder to kids to obey.
Swat babies as young as 6 months with willow branch, thin plastic tubing or a wooden spoon.
Blanket train babies by hitting them with an instrument if they crawl off a blanket on the floor.
Beat older children with rulers, paddles, belts and large tree branches.’
Train children with pain in order to teach total obedience.
Discipline should include cold water baths, locking kids outside in cold weather, withholding meals.
Use a hose on children who have potty training accidents.
Inflict punishment until a child is “without breath to complain”.
Advises “breaking children”, make them too scared to get angry, make them “draw into a quiet shell and obey”.
This is so sick—–these Christains authors are sick and the parents who inflict this brutality on their children should be locked up for child abuse. Physical punishment is never okay, never leads to a healthy adult—–it’s a big reason why we have so many troubled dysfunctional people in this country. Cruel, misguided, undereducated, idiotic parenting.
And in the meantime, kids are dying because of the advice in this book.
Oh my God Dotster, that is the most twisted, evil thing I have ever read, complete and utter depraved brutality, these people should be locked away forever.
Here is a case of a couple using these ‘parenting’ methods who were sentenced recently..
“The moment adoptive parents broke down in tears as they get maximum sentences for starvation and hypothermia death of teenage girl from Ethiopia
Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Washington were found guilty of neglecting, abusing, and ultimately killing 13-year-old Hana Williams
The couple left Hana to die from hypothermia and starvation in their backyard in May 2011
Step-brother Immanuel testified he and Hana were beaten with sticks, hosed down, forced to eat frozen food and locked in closets
Larry accusing his wife of being the ‘primary actor’ in the abuse
……………………….//
So horrifying. That beautiful child. It is just unfathomable. Such evil people. And I’m always suspicious of these Christian home schoolers—–in addition to doing a huge disservice to their kids, stunting their growth, they keep their kids separate from any public interaction— out of fear of what?—–what their kids will hear or what they’ll tell?
I first read about that particular case a couple of weeks back and I was stunned! IMO there must be something missing in these people to leave a human out in the cold, without food etc and think that kind of punishment is acceptable, forget Christlike. For Hana to be murdered slowly in this heartless way was painful to read, and the ‘mother’ seemed so untouched, even in her call to 911.
Dotster, this is sadistic and insane treatment of children. That it should dare to link itself to anything resembling Christianity is sick and obscene. You are so right about the end result of cruelty like this. Miserable abused children become angry and abusive adults–a vicious cycle that never ends if these people become parents themselves. I never cared much for Anderson Cooper, but if he’s exposing this, then good for him.
I’ve been reading complaints about the media all day as I’ve been to Mayo for the first of several sclerotherapy sessions (thankful for good insurance!) – and agree with everyone’s frustrations. I personally believe the mainstream corporate media has gone far beyond false equivalence and is now actively engaged in trying to shape public opinion against PBO and against peace and against the common welfare. The conglomerate umbrellas that employ them benefit enormously from war and chaos and defense spending and on and on. It’s about power, greed, and their own personal benefits.
The MSM is something to behold, and only getting worse.
They seem become lazier by the day, and every pundit that MSNBC has on can be refuted by going to the source (i.e., Twitter!):
Voila! Howard Fineman and Andrea Mitchell both taken down by a single tweet (Andrea and upChuck both make no attempt to conceal their utter contempt for our President):
#Saudi welcomes P5+1 nuclear agrmt w/Iran as primary step towards comprehensive solution to Iranian nuclear program & a ME free of all WMD
As to why the MSM is worse (but doesn’t explain why blatant partisanship against the WH is tolerated by NBC, especially with the slothful and middle-finger offender upChuck nor the corrupt Lara Logan and husband, along with Ben Rhodes’ brother David at CBS):
The problems with HealthCare.gov are real, but the media has declared Obama and his health law dead before— yet they’re both still here.
By Alex Seitz-Wald
———————————–
It’s a dark time for President Obama. His approval ratings are sliding as confidence wanes in his competence and the government’s ability to do anything right. His allies squirm, his critics circle and lick their chops in anticipation of a kill. National newspapers wonder if this is “Obama’s Katrina,” even as George W. Bush gets better marks from the public than his successor. The president’s entire agenda seems in peril, thanks to his administration’s inability to tackle a thorny technical problem. “It’s a lot like Custer,” a former Democratic senator remarks. “He underestimated the number of Indians on the other side of the hill and paid the ultimate price.”
I’m talking, of course, of the 2010 BP oil spill. Or perhaps Hurricane Sandy. Or maybe the IRS controversy—disasters that seemed sure to doom the Obama administration, until they suddenly didn’t.
It is easy and quite a flip to call for the demise of this POTUS. His critics have been wrong without ever paying any price financially or politically. Hence they are free to endlessly opine.
Until many start to tune them out……don’t watch, don’t click and just make them suffer financially. That is how they get the message.
OK, so I watched the video of PBO’s speech here and I thought it was excellent. Love the humor he infuses in everything and the patience he shows these young punks who think they can yell at POTUS and come off looking good. And the funny thing is, when he mentioned the presence of all Congress people in the audience people cheered and then when he mentioned Gavin Newsome, no one cheered!! HHAAAHAHAA!
Would have had better luck by mentioning Kamala Harris.
Glad to see PBO pivot to Asia, by acknowledging the immigrants from that part of the world.
I don’t have to tell you, Meta, living as you do in San Francisco, that Asians are pretty much assimilated into California culture (speaking as a Japanese American female).
And after seeing the 2009 (I think that was the year) spelling bee champion on @Maddow just after she had won, it’s apparent that American educators could learn from Indian-Americans. (The spelling bee winner always asked for the root origin of the word — e.g., Greek, Latin, etc. — so even if she had never heard the word before, she apparently knew enough Greek, Latin, etc. to make a good guess).
Sorry that the Beast wasn’t in town, but would probably be difficult to maneuver in the City, and would be extremely embarrassing to get stuck in a driveway or corner.
I was also glad to hear him talk about Asian immigration and also to mention Betty Ong, the AA flight attendant on the plane that crashed into the WTC on 9/11. I saw in the local press that PBO asked to meet with the family when he arrived and one of the cable car maintenance guys I was talking to is a family member and talked about the grocery her family owns nearby.
The streets where the event took place are very narrow, so you’re right, I think the Beast may have had a more difficult time maneuvering the narrow hills.
😆 You must be related to my mother Ladyhawke, she was the founding member of the “Why Isn’t He Holding The Handrails Club’ after his first AF1 flight!!
I’m with ya, Ladyhawke! She’s so funny about it, still completely obsessed, she adores him – but gets VERY angry with over that jogging-down-AF1-steps-without-holding-rail business 😆
On the other hand, he’s so good when he arrives with his family. He’s always holds someone’s hand and makes sure his girls and Michelle are holding on to a hand rail.
At the end of her three-day trip to Afghanistan to visit American troops and civilians and to assess conditions in the country, Ambassador Rice met with President Karzai, at his invitation, for a working dinner at the Palace. Link to readout http://t.co/9yoMWiEAVP
Ambassador Rice stressed that we have concluded negotiations and that deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year’s elections is not viable, as it would not provide the United States and NATO allies the clarity necessary to plan for a potential post-2014 military presence. Nor would it provide Afghans with the certainty they deserve regarding their future, in the critical months preceding elections. Moreover, the lack of a signed BSA would jeopardize NATO and other nations’ pledges of assistance made at the Chicago and Tokyo conferences in 2012. Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan. The United States will continue to work with Afghanistan to support a smooth security transition and to help ensure free and fair elections.
Last summer Ellen Holzman and Meredith Vezina, a married gay couple in San Diego County, got kicked off their long-term Kaiser health plan, for which they’d been paying more than $1,300 a month. The cause wasn’t the Affordable Care Act, as far as they knew. They’d been living outside Kaiser’s service area, and the health plan had decided to tighten its rules.
That’s when they discovered the chilly hazards of dependence on the individual health insurance market. When they applied for a replacement policy with Anthem Blue Cross of California, Ellen, 59, disclosed that she might have carpal tunnel syndrome. She wasn’t sure–her condition was still being diagnosed by Kaiser when her coverage ended. But the possibility was enough to scare Anthem. “They said, ‘We will not insure you because you have a pre-existing condition,'” Holzman recalls.
But they were lucky, thanks to Obamacare. Through Covered California, the state’s individual insurance marketplace, they’ve found a plan through Sharp Healthcare that will cover them both for a total premium of $142 a month, after a government subsidy based on their income. They’ll have a higher deductible than Kaiser’s but lower co-pays. But their possible savings will be impressive.
More important than that was knowing that they couldn’t be turned down for coverage come Jan. 1. “We felt we didn’t have to panic, or worry,” Holzman says. “If not for the Affordable Care Act, our ability to get insurance would be very limited, if we could get it at all.”
Hey Chips, you’ve got a Cheezy Puffs friend in Iran! 🙂 In all seriousness, it’s a small world but these types of things on Twitter makes it seems like a neighborhood.
This is one of the most astounding things I’ve seen.
I love the Iranians (after Rick Steve’s introduction, courtesy of you) — just amazingly warm, welcoming and generous, despite the horrors of war in the 1980s and now the sanctions that is inhibiting their natural entrepreneurial spirit.
Such a win-win for Iranians and Americans alike (saw a tweet about how this will help our auto industry — the same one that the heartless son of a former Michigan Governor wanted to circle down the drain — talk about unpatriotic). Saw another tweet that Saudis fear that Americans have a greater natural affinity to Persians over Saudis — have no idea or opinion about such a subjective statement.
🙂 🙂 She’s got some interesting tweets. Lots of news of Iran and lots of food stuff too. Arapaho, I understand there are some issues with the young not understanding their elders in what they went through in the wars. But nevertheless, it seems there is much respect in the culture as a whole. And I’m afraid there might be some truth to the natural affinity to Persians. I’ll share a story on the next thread about that. 🙂
This might be bigger than anything POTUS has done to date. Which we all know is saying A LOT with his hundreds of signature accomplishments. And 3 more years too!!!
The huge geopolitical and other benefits of a successful Iran Nuclear Agreement http://t.co/Il7H3g4mMR
And for those of you who follow Juan Cole, you know he’s rather a curmudgeon on all things Western; always saying that the US is screwing things up in the Middle East. So I was rather shocked to see he didn’t have anything negative to say about it.
LP posted this yesterday before hastily abandoning TOD for a football game, but for me it was an “AHA” tweet.
I know we were wondering about Harry Reid’s support of the increasing Senate sanctions against Iran, but this article makes it clear that if the Senate does vote for increased sanctions, they would go in effect only AFTER the 6 month interim deal expires. This completely supports President Obama’s statement on Saturday night.
And this. Emoprogs were in a lather in 2009 that SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE TO HELP THE IRANIAN GREENS now. While the violence by the Iranian Guard against its own innocent citizens was appalling and anguishing, Jim Stuart is right; we wouldn’t be where we are today if PBO had stepped in then (he no doubt realized that Ahmadinejah was losing favor with Iranians and that crippling sanctions would prompt voters to elect another President).
Iran and value of strategic patience; emoprogs, MSM wanted PBO in:
Jun 2009:to side w/Iran Greens
Sep 2013:bomb Syria http://t.co/lakkcn4l3o
Netanyahu’s 10 lessons to be learned on Iran
The agreement was achieved. Anyone with eyes in his head could have written this predictable and inevitable scenario the moment that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rose to the UN dais to deliver a conciliatory speech, then softened public opinion in the interviews he gave to all possible media outlets in the United States.
Netanyahu finds himself alone without a world partner with even the majority of Israelis not backing his position on the Iranian deal. This swaggering, boastful, egotistical asshole finally gets what he deserves.
There, edited it for you Forus! 😀 I have been waiting for a while now for Bibi to get his comeuppance, so I wouldn’t want to think this is ALL he gets.
The U.S.-led deal to freeze Iran’s nuclear program is a great accomplishment on many levels. Begin with the most basic: What if the talks in Geneva had failed?
If Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had gone home empty-handed, we would likely be drifting toward war. Iran’s uranium-enrichment centrifuges would continue whirling until it became unambiguously clear that the nation, if it chose, could make a “breakout” dash to build a nuclear weapon in a matter of weeks — something President Obama has said he will not allow.
The president could decide to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities or he could wait until Israeli military action forced his hand. Either way, we’d be engaged in another Middle East war — one whose economic, political and human consequences could be dire.
So what did Kerry do in Geneva? He won an agreement that not only freezes Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program for six months but actually rolls it back, that prevents new nuclear facilities from coming on line and that provides for unprecedented daily inspections to ensure that Iran is living up to it commitments.
I have been thinking that Prez Obama is tireless and always working to figure out how to get his promises to fruition. He chose experts that can give him excellent counsel and work to complete his visions. Even though he has had more interference than any previous President he still works to figure out other ways to achieve what he has promised. Most seem to get comfortable and ease back rather than pushing forward. Rachel Maddow’s Monday show included many foreign accomplishments of this administration. She also mentioned how PBO is still working on closing Guantanamo through executive orders. When I first researched Senator Obama’s legislation accomplishments in IL I was amazed at how much he can get done. It also points out in comparison how lazy the other side is.
The Obama Diary 
Hola!
Hola Bill. Felicitaciones!
The president speaks truth. We need to listen.
Congrats, Bill! Great photos, UT…….
…….”I don’t get these guys in Congress,” Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, told The Cable. “In the word’s of Joe Biden, this is a big fucking deal. It’s not too often you can watch the hinge of history move. Every president since Jimmy Carter has tried to get a deal with Iran. This is the first president to actually do it.” Cirincione caught the news of a deal during a meeting at the Halifax International Security Forum, a gathering of hundreds of policy wonks, administration officials, lawmakers and journalists in Canada. The conference attracted foreign-policy minds across the political spectrum, but as news trickled out of Geneva, left-leaning security experts erupted in celebration. “It’s only the first step, there’s a lot of hard work to do, but it is huge,” said Cirincione
Heather Hurlbert, a former State Department and White House official and senior advisor at the National Security Network, applauded after watching the president’s Saturday night address on a hotel flat screen TV. “You’ve got to credit the president on this,” she told The Cable. “I recently went back and was looking at his campaign speeches, and he did what he said he was going to do. And that’s not something people get a lot of credit for in our politics right now.”……..
Republicans will never give President Obama any credit for his accomplishments. It’s sad that some Democrats felt the need to criticize the deal. At least give the deal a chance to work.
This your AIPAC wing of the Democratic Party……they don’t want their campaign contributions to dry up. Plain & Simple. If J Street could their act together, it would be a totally different story domestically, Pkaden!
Hi! Bill R. and vetivera24. Our President just keep going.
Bill R and Vetivera24 Clocked in together 😉
Congrats to both of you 🙂
More and More Asia Americans are becoming politically involved. A BFD. That is Thanks to……..drum roll…..Pres Obama. In 2008 the Only Asian American group then sen Obama lost was the Vietnamese Community.
In 2012, He won every Asia American Group, handily. Respect rewards respect.
Pierce has a good memory, and good research – I am late reading – but if you haven’t seen this – worth a read
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/iran-nuclear-programs-deal-112513
The GOP do like to forget reality.
Thanks a gazillion UT, you’re the best!
You’re welcome, Chiparoo!
Today I participated as an enrollment assister at a Health Care Enrollment Fair in Salem, Oregon. It was a marvelous and touching experience. It made me aware of how many poor and struggling individuals and families there are who are just on the edge of survival, going without the essential of human need, including especially medical care. The persons I helped were all very grateful for this new service they now will have a new found security that is rare for them, young and middle aged, individuals, couples, families with children, multi-generational families in the same household. Their stories were touching and at times heart rending. There were about 30 assisters in all, volunteers, professionals, insurance agents and brokers. We were busy most of the day. It was a good learning experience for me in helping others complete the application process and go through the steps they have to go through to meet this need. The woman with the health department who is my supervisor in this effort is young latina woman who is very skilled and has such a pleasant disposition and communication skills for this. But it was well organized by Cover Oregon and an event that will bear much fruit in the lives of many hundreds of people. I learned again today that there are many, many poor people in America who are working hard but barely surviving, and without basic medical care. Some I saw today were making $1000–1200 a month income. One single woman in her 50s, making 15K a year, with a congenital disability, no health care coverage. Her life is changed for the better because of President Barack Obama.
Thanks for everything you do Bill and thanks for the update.
A wonderful update Bill, that last line almost made me cry. You’re so great for getting involved and helping people on this, I would love to include it in tomorrow’s R&S if that’s okay?
Yes indeed, please do.
Thanks so much Bill, just read it again, sobering, beautiful and uplifting.
Well done, Bill R. That’s what tech savvy dems need to do at the ground level given the political opposition, boneless dem congress critters and media lies.
{{{{{{Bill}}}}} That’s a giant hug for you! Thank you for doing this and helping your fellow citizens out…this is what being part of a community that cares for everyone is all about. You did good:)
What a satisfying experience, Bill. I can just imagine the feeling of knowing you personally helped someone gain som peace of mind. I saw an interview the other day with Senator Merkley, when asked why the Oregon site was not running, and all the applications had do be done by workers/volunteers…….he gave a one word answer, ORACLE! Do you have any insight into this?
per reports, Oracle is the contractor for the ObamaCare exchange in Oregon;
one of the major problems they cite is that Oracle tried to offer so many services (OR wanted to create a one-stop network for multiple vital services) so this complicated the whole system & it won’t work as planned
Bless you Bill….
Oh my gosh, Bill, what an experience. Wonderful work for you to touch the lives of those in need. BRAVO and thank you for your service.
Bill,
Thank you for your work and thanks so much for sharing it here.
Dear Bill R. – it’s wonderful to hear your eye-witness report on the application fair in Salem today. Apparently the Portland two-day event signed up another 600 needy people. It’s a crying shame that Oracle choose to make the website impossibly complicated so that now, paper and pencil applications have to be processed, but it will get fixed.
I spent the weekend putting Cover Oregon fact sheets in both Spanish and English in laundromats, libraries, affordable housing units, and a community college multi-cultural center. I emailed the Timbers soccer team to see if they would let me put them in the restroom stalls before the big game but never heard back. Now that the Timbers lost, that’s a moot point, but I may try the Blazers basketball stadium.
We can all have “the talk” with our young relatives over the holiday season. Bright people here will think of additional ways to get the good news out. That;’s how we skirt the negative MSM and the GOP saboteurs!
This is great to hear amid all the negative reporting on the ACA.
Awesome work Bill! Thank you for sharing this beautiful experience with us.
Bill honestly it’s people like you that makes a difference in people’s lives. I mean really think about all the good that all of you assister’s did today to change lives. It’s really amazing when you stop to think on it. thank you. thanks for doing that.
Bill R, I’m so proud that you are a member of this wonderful & caring TOD family! This is what President Obama wants from us…to help one another.
Great work, Bill. You’re an inspiration to all of us.
I believe, Linda, was making this point earlier……for the ditto (pundit/anchor) heads blabbing on T.V.
Alon Pinkas, former Israeli consul-general in New York, criticized Netanyahu for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.” In a piece slated to appear in Nov. 26 editions of the Jerusalem Post, Pinkas credited Netanyahu for elevating the Iranian nuclear threat issue to the top of the global agenda. While imperfect, the interim agreement marks a significant first step in curtailing Iran’s nuclear weapons drive.
“Netanyahu could and should have declared a partial, cautious, reserved victory, but a victory no less,” wrote Pinkas.
“If someone had told Israel a year ago that by November 2013 Syria’s chemical stockpiles would be subject to international inspections and destroyed by virtue of an enforceable Security Council resolution and that Iran would sign a deal designed to curtail its nuclear program, that someone would be dismissed as a lunatic.
LP, I totally love the “empty threats and self-pity” used to describe Netanyahu. If you’re Bibi, that’s not something you want to hear from a fellow Israeli who knows what he’s talking about.
I only wish every network didn’t have their personal *Netanyahu Spokesman* i.e. their anchors telling us how that ACTUAL people of Israel feel, Jackie.
Live: Awaiting President Obama’s arrival in Los Angeles – http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/President-Barack-Obama-Los-Angeles-Southern-California-233298011.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_LABrand
Thank yoooooou JER!
has he already arrived? I see Marine One on the ground.
Marine One is waiting for President Obama who is expected at LAX at 5:35 pm PT.
Thanks JER!
Thank you!!
Thank you, JER. It is always a moving emotion to watch him arrive and take off. The honor that is displayed is remarkable and moving. We are so blessed to have this great man as our POTUS. Again, thank you, JER for these each time.HZ
Good evening, TODville! What a day!
I went to see if I could get near the area where PBO was speaking on immigration reform, about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. As I got close, I was very surprised to see that unless you had tickets to attend, they were not letting people within a block of the building. DARN!! I waited anyway to see what I could see and after about 45 minutes, lots of motorcycle cops showed up and I could see the motorcade streaming down the hill about a block away. There was a tent set up for PBO’s wagon and in he went. The only thing I could get plenty of pictures of were lots and lots of cops, secret service, bomb squad and ambulance trucks. But it was fun anyway. The event was right across the street from the cable car museum and they had to shut down the whole cable car system until after the event for security purposes, so I hung out and laughed with all the cable car maintenance guys who were also trying to get a glimpse.
The white area in the middle of the photo is PBO’s white tent where his car enters. They were not driving the beast today, which I was hoping to see.
Meta 😉 🙂 😉
You are here now, finally. Please Meta tell Us every detail…….. 😉
How was it?
It was frustrating! I’ve never seen the police and security keep people back so far. Lots of neighbors came out but we couldn’t get close enough to really see anything. I saw the motorcade arrive about a half block away and PBO’s car went straight into the tent they set up for his arrival. So I’m glad I went but I’m bummed I didn’t get to see him.
I know how you feel. In 1981, I was close enough to take pictures 3 of Reagan. I went to DC on a school project. By accident, I and 3 others saw Reagan. We too pictures before he was sworn in. I didn’t care for the man. I had the pictures. I can only imagine what I would do should I run into pres Obama by accident as I did with Reagan in 1981. I will faint. 911 will be called, that is all.
Well, I know all you guys say that but honestly, he’s so sweet and friendly, you would not faint. You would shake his hand and smile wide!! Then you’d step back and say, WOW, that guy is really handsome!!
Nena, Bill Clinton was famous for buying last minute Christmas presents at Union Station in DC. One year my husband and I were having lunch there with our daughter and suddenly police came a cordoned off a whole portion of the shops and he just walked through. You could stand up on the balcony and look down and see him shopping.
Well, meta, I’m sorry you couldn’t see more, but I’m actually glad he’s so well protected. The more the better, in my opinion.
Metaaaaaa, thank you for the report, so sorry you didn’t get closer, but it must have been exciting to be so close to it all. Love the photo, wow the security is amazing – and comforting.
Chips, if you ever need a supply of cop photos, I’m good.
It was fun anyway. Everybody gets excited when his motorcade pulls up. There were some French and German tourists who didn’t realize what they had walked into. They were way excited.
I recognized the name Betty Ong, but had to verify through Google that the Betty Ong Center was named after the 9/11 flight attendant. What a beautiful tribute!
C-SPAN is re-running PBO’s speech in San Francisco
Important segment on Anderson Cooper—-on the Christian book re. Christian disciplining a child, “To Train Up a Child”—–kids with these dummy misguided parents are dying from the abuse recommended ——-Tells parents to:
Use plastic tubing to beat their children.
Parents should wear this plastic tubing around their necks as a constant reminder to kids to obey.
Swat babies as young as 6 months with willow branch, thin plastic tubing or a wooden spoon.
Blanket train babies by hitting them with an instrument if they crawl off a blanket on the floor.
Beat older children with rulers, paddles, belts and large tree branches.’
Train children with pain in order to teach total obedience.
Discipline should include cold water baths, locking kids outside in cold weather, withholding meals.
Use a hose on children who have potty training accidents.
Inflict punishment until a child is “without breath to complain”.
Advises “breaking children”, make them too scared to get angry, make them “draw into a quiet shell and obey”.
This is so sick—–these Christains authors are sick and the parents who inflict this brutality on their children should be locked up for child abuse. Physical punishment is never okay, never leads to a healthy adult—–it’s a big reason why we have so many troubled dysfunctional people in this country. Cruel, misguided, undereducated, idiotic parenting.
And in the meantime, kids are dying because of the advice in this book.
This an ongoing story for about a year now by Cooper and Tuchman on CNN.
The group then was from IN. I wonder if it is still this same group and their Faith Followers?
Oh my God Dotster, that is the most twisted, evil thing I have ever read, complete and utter depraved brutality, these people should be locked away forever.
Here is a case of a couple using these ‘parenting’ methods who were sentenced recently..
“The moment adoptive parents broke down in tears as they get maximum sentences for starvation and hypothermia death of teenage girl from Ethiopia
Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Washington were found guilty of neglecting, abusing, and ultimately killing 13-year-old Hana Williams
The couple left Hana to die from hypothermia and starvation in their backyard in May 2011
Step-brother Immanuel testified he and Hana were beaten with sticks, hosed down, forced to eat frozen food and locked in closets
Larry accusing his wife of being the ‘primary actor’ in the abuse
……………………….//
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2479174/Hana-Williams-adoptive-parents-Larry-Carri-Williams-maximum-sentences.html
So horrifying. That beautiful child. It is just unfathomable. Such evil people. And I’m always suspicious of these Christian home schoolers—–in addition to doing a huge disservice to their kids, stunting their growth, they keep their kids separate from any public interaction— out of fear of what?—–what their kids will hear or what they’ll tell?
I first read about that particular case a couple of weeks back and I was stunned! IMO there must be something missing in these people to leave a human out in the cold, without food etc and think that kind of punishment is acceptable, forget Christlike. For Hana to be murdered slowly in this heartless way was painful to read, and the ‘mother’ seemed so untouched, even in her call to 911.
Dotster, this is sadistic and insane treatment of children. That it should dare to link itself to anything resembling Christianity is sick and obscene. You are so right about the end result of cruelty like this. Miserable abused children become angry and abusive adults–a vicious cycle that never ends if these people become parents themselves. I never cared much for Anderson Cooper, but if he’s exposing this, then good for him.
I’ve been reading complaints about the media all day as I’ve been to Mayo for the first of several sclerotherapy sessions (thankful for good insurance!) – and agree with everyone’s frustrations. I personally believe the mainstream corporate media has gone far beyond false equivalence and is now actively engaged in trying to shape public opinion against PBO and against peace and against the common welfare. The conglomerate umbrellas that employ them benefit enormously from war and chaos and defense spending and on and on. It’s about power, greed, and their own personal benefits.
The MSM is something to behold, and only getting worse.
They seem become lazier by the day, and every pundit that MSNBC has on can be refuted by going to the source (i.e., Twitter!):
Voila! Howard Fineman and Andrea Mitchell both taken down by a single tweet (Andrea and upChuck both make no attempt to conceal their utter contempt for our President):
As to why the MSM is worse (but doesn’t explain why blatant partisanship against the WH is tolerated by NBC, especially with the slothful and middle-finger offender upChuck nor the corrupt Lara Logan and husband, along with Ben Rhodes’ brother David at CBS):
Can Obama Recover? He Did Already
The problems with HealthCare.gov are real, but the media has declared Obama and his health law dead before— yet they’re both still here.
By Alex Seitz-Wald
———————————–
It’s a dark time for President Obama. His approval ratings are sliding as confidence wanes in his competence and the government’s ability to do anything right. His allies squirm, his critics circle and lick their chops in anticipation of a kill. National newspapers wonder if this is “Obama’s Katrina,” even as George W. Bush gets better marks from the public than his successor. The president’s entire agenda seems in peril, thanks to his administration’s inability to tackle a thorny technical problem. “It’s a lot like Custer,” a former Democratic senator remarks. “He underestimated the number of Indians on the other side of the hill and paid the ultimate price.”
I’m talking, of course, of the 2010 BP oil spill. Or perhaps Hurricane Sandy. Or maybe the IRS controversy—disasters that seemed sure to doom the Obama administration, until they suddenly didn’t.
———————————
http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/can-obama-recover-he-did-already-20131125
It is easy and quite a flip to call for the demise of this POTUS. His critics have been wrong without ever paying any price financially or politically. Hence they are free to endlessly opine.
Until many start to tune them out……don’t watch, don’t click and just make them suffer financially. That is how they get the message.
PBO Landeddddddd!
Yes, madam…..AF1 has landed. What a beautiful Plane.
So nice to have our President on the west coast now.
This was posted earlier on TOD, but it’s such a stunning photo that it deserves a repeat.
Oooooooh wow Arapaho415, that is just stunning!
Gorgeous!
There He Is!
OK, so I watched the video of PBO’s speech here and I thought it was excellent. Love the humor he infuses in everything and the patience he shows these young punks who think they can yell at POTUS and come off looking good. And the funny thing is, when he mentioned the presence of all Congress people in the audience people cheered and then when he mentioned Gavin Newsome, no one cheered!! HHAAAHAHAA!
Would have had better luck by mentioning Kamala Harris.
Glad to see PBO pivot to Asia, by acknowledging the immigrants from that part of the world.
I don’t have to tell you, Meta, living as you do in San Francisco, that Asians are pretty much assimilated into California culture (speaking as a Japanese American female).
And after seeing the 2009 (I think that was the year) spelling bee champion on @Maddow just after she had won, it’s apparent that American educators could learn from Indian-Americans. (The spelling bee winner always asked for the root origin of the word — e.g., Greek, Latin, etc. — so even if she had never heard the word before, she apparently knew enough Greek, Latin, etc. to make a good guess).
Sorry that the Beast wasn’t in town, but would probably be difficult to maneuver in the City, and would be extremely embarrassing to get stuck in a driveway or corner.
I was also glad to hear him talk about Asian immigration and also to mention Betty Ong, the AA flight attendant on the plane that crashed into the WTC on 9/11. I saw in the local press that PBO asked to meet with the family when he arrived and one of the cable car maintenance guys I was talking to is a family member and talked about the grocery her family owns nearby.
The streets where the event took place are very narrow, so you’re right, I think the Beast may have had a more difficult time maneuvering the narrow hills.
Oh. My. Word.
WOW. Pete is just completely amazing.
Isn’t that just gorgeous Meta, the man is a GENIUS!!!
As a proud member of the “Why Isn’t He Holding The Handrails Club’ the second to last photo makes me nervous.
😆 You must be related to my mother Ladyhawke, she was the founding member of the “Why Isn’t He Holding The Handrails Club’ after his first AF1 flight!!
Aw, that’s so sweet. I know exactly how she feels. The mother in me wants to protect him all the time. He’s such a sweetheart.
I’m with ya, Ladyhawke! She’s so funny about it, still completely obsessed, she adores him – but gets VERY angry with over that jogging-down-AF1-steps-without-holding-rail business 😆
On the other hand, he’s so good when he arrives with his family. He’s always holds someone’s hand and makes sure his girls and Michelle are holding on to a hand rail.
Well, that’s very true Jackie, but it doesn’t calm my mothers rail-free nerves!!
At the end of her three-day trip to Afghanistan to visit American troops and civilians and to assess conditions in the country, Ambassador Rice met with President Karzai, at his invitation, for a working dinner at the Palace. Link to readout http://t.co/9yoMWiEAVP
Ambassador Rice stressed that we have concluded negotiations and that deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year’s elections is not viable, as it would not provide the United States and NATO allies the clarity necessary to plan for a potential post-2014 military presence. Nor would it provide Afghans with the certainty they deserve regarding their future, in the critical months preceding elections. Moreover, the lack of a signed BSA would jeopardize NATO and other nations’ pledges of assistance made at the Chicago and Tokyo conferences in 2012. Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan. The United States will continue to work with Afghanistan to support a smooth security transition and to help ensure free and fair elections.
Karzai is truly a piece of work. He’s worn out everyone’s patience and it is past time to call his bluff. Good for Susan Rice.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-obamacare-success-20131125,0,1801769.story#axzz2liEHzjAH
Last summer Ellen Holzman and Meredith Vezina, a married gay couple in San Diego County, got kicked off their long-term Kaiser health plan, for which they’d been paying more than $1,300 a month. The cause wasn’t the Affordable Care Act, as far as they knew. They’d been living outside Kaiser’s service area, and the health plan had decided to tighten its rules.
That’s when they discovered the chilly hazards of dependence on the individual health insurance market. When they applied for a replacement policy with Anthem Blue Cross of California, Ellen, 59, disclosed that she might have carpal tunnel syndrome. She wasn’t sure–her condition was still being diagnosed by Kaiser when her coverage ended. But the possibility was enough to scare Anthem. “They said, ‘We will not insure you because you have a pre-existing condition,'” Holzman recalls.
But they were lucky, thanks to Obamacare. Through Covered California, the state’s individual insurance marketplace, they’ve found a plan through Sharp Healthcare that will cover them both for a total premium of $142 a month, after a government subsidy based on their income. They’ll have a higher deductible than Kaiser’s but lower co-pays. But their possible savings will be impressive.
More important than that was knowing that they couldn’t be turned down for coverage come Jan. 1. “We felt we didn’t have to panic, or worry,” Holzman says. “If not for the Affordable Care Act, our ability to get insurance would be very limited, if we could get it at all.”
Excellent, thanks Amk, working on R&S now so in that tweet goes!
That. Is. Flippin’. Hilarious!!!! 😆
I l’edmao at the waiter writing down favorite restaurant at the end.
Hey Chips, you’ve got a Cheezy Puffs friend in Iran! 🙂 In all seriousness, it’s a small world but these types of things on Twitter makes it seems like a neighborhood.
This is one of the most astounding things I’ve seen.
I love the Iranians (after Rick Steve’s introduction, courtesy of you) — just amazingly warm, welcoming and generous, despite the horrors of war in the 1980s and now the sanctions that is inhibiting their natural entrepreneurial spirit.
Such a win-win for Iranians and Americans alike (saw a tweet about how this will help our auto industry — the same one that the heartless son of a former Michigan Governor wanted to circle down the drain — talk about unpatriotic). Saw another tweet that Saudis fear that Americans have a greater natural affinity to Persians over Saudis — have no idea or opinion about such a subjective statement.
Oh my gaaaaaaawd, toooooo funny, hugs and kisses to my Cheesy Puff brothers and sisters in Iran!!! 😆
🙂 🙂 She’s got some interesting tweets. Lots of news of Iran and lots of food stuff too. Arapaho, I understand there are some issues with the young not understanding their elders in what they went through in the wars. But nevertheless, it seems there is much respect in the culture as a whole. And I’m afraid there might be some truth to the natural affinity to Persians. I’ll share a story on the next thread about that. 🙂
Great piece. http://truth-out.org/news/item/20246-iran-nuke-pact-defies-the-neocons
This might be bigger than anything POTUS has done to date. Which we all know is saying A LOT with his hundreds of signature accomplishments. And 3 more years too!!!
And for those of you who follow Juan Cole, you know he’s rather a curmudgeon on all things Western; always saying that the US is screwing things up in the Middle East. So I was rather shocked to see he didn’t have anything negative to say about it.
A couple of items on Iran.
LP posted this yesterday before hastily abandoning TOD for a football game, but for me it was an “AHA” tweet.
I know we were wondering about Harry Reid’s support of the increasing Senate sanctions against Iran, but this article makes it clear that if the Senate does vote for increased sanctions, they would go in effect only AFTER the 6 month interim deal expires. This completely supports President Obama’s statement on Saturday night.
And this. Emoprogs were in a lather in 2009 that SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE TO HELP THE IRANIAN GREENS now. While the violence by the Iranian Guard against its own innocent citizens was appalling and anguishing, Jim Stuart is right; we wouldn’t be where we are today if PBO had stepped in then (he no doubt realized that Ahmadinejah was losing favor with Iranians and that crippling sanctions would prompt voters to elect another President).
And to further underscore “what’s wrong the US/UK MSM” theme:
The whole world is sick of war and sick of warmongers.
Except certain GOPers and their cronies in the US corporate media!
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/11/ten-reasons-netanyahu-accept-iranian-deal.html#
Netanyahu’s 10 lessons to be learned on Iran
The agreement was achieved. Anyone with eyes in his head could have written this predictable and inevitable scenario the moment that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rose to the UN dais to deliver a conciliatory speech, then softened public opinion in the interviews he gave to all possible media outlets in the United States.
////
An interesting read.
Netanyahu finds himself alone without a world partner with even the majority of Israelis not backing his position on the Iranian deal. This swaggering, boastful, egotistical asshole finally gets what he deserves.
‘………..finally gets SOME OF what he deserves’
There, edited it for you Forus! 😀 I have been waiting for a while now for Bibi to get his comeuppance, so I wouldn’t want to think this is ALL he gets.
Totally agree on the edit vc!
😀
I really don’t like that man! From the moment he tried to abuse PBO’s hospitality I’ve harboured very strong negative feelings towards him.
Netanyahu’s awkward isolation
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/netanyahus-awkward-isolation
Well said, amk, well said.
I have been praying for peace in Jerusalem all my life. And it starts with acknowleding the fact that Abraham had two sons.
God blessed BOTH of them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-iran-deal-is-a-diplomatic-success-story/2013/11/25/11fa0f2a-560c-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html?hpid=z2
The U.S.-led deal to freeze Iran’s nuclear program is a great accomplishment on many levels. Begin with the most basic: What if the talks in Geneva had failed?
If Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had gone home empty-handed, we would likely be drifting toward war. Iran’s uranium-enrichment centrifuges would continue whirling until it became unambiguously clear that the nation, if it chose, could make a “breakout” dash to build a nuclear weapon in a matter of weeks — something President Obama has said he will not allow.
The president could decide to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities or he could wait until Israeli military action forced his hand. Either way, we’d be engaged in another Middle East war — one whose economic, political and human consequences could be dire.
So what did Kerry do in Geneva? He won an agreement that not only freezes Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program for six months but actually rolls it back, that prevents new nuclear facilities from coming on line and that provides for unprecedented daily inspections to ensure that Iran is living up to it commitments.
She’s sooooo good!!
I didn’t know until today that SOS Kerry’s son in law is Iranian….I think that’s a good thing….allows for better understanding.
Which one of SoS Kerry’s Daughters: The Medical Doctor or the Actress?
I like to hear about these kind of stories.
Oh DF, I didn’t know that at all, wonderful.
New post:
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/11/25/her-life-is-changed-for-the-better-because-of-president-barack-obama/
I have been thinking that Prez Obama is tireless and always working to figure out how to get his promises to fruition. He chose experts that can give him excellent counsel and work to complete his visions. Even though he has had more interference than any previous President he still works to figure out other ways to achieve what he has promised. Most seem to get comfortable and ease back rather than pushing forward. Rachel Maddow’s Monday show included many foreign accomplishments of this administration. She also mentioned how PBO is still working on closing Guantanamo through executive orders. When I first researched Senator Obama’s legislation accomplishments in IL I was amazed at how much he can get done. It also points out in comparison how lazy the other side is.