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Ear to the Ground

Obama Makes Health Care Reform Official

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Posted on Mar 23, 2010
Obama signs bill
AP / J. Scott Applewhite

Eleven-year-old Marcelas Owens of Seattle, at left, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., right, and others watch as President Obama signs the heath care bill in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday.

After months of partisan bickering, “Obamacare” paranoia and tea-party whimsy, President Obama made the health care reform bill law on Tuesday, signing it with studied deliberation as Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others from among Fox News’ most beloved federal officials looked on.  —KA

The New York Times:

Mr. Obama affixed his curlicue signature, almost letter by letter, to the measure, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, surrounded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and a raft of other lawmakers who spent the past year on a legislative roller-coaster ride trying to pass it. Aides said he would pass out the 20 pens he used as mementoes.

The ceremony included two special guests: Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who had been a driving force for health care legislation before his death last year, and Connie Anderson, the sister of Natoma Canfield, the Ohio cancer survivor whose struggle to pay skyrocketing health insurance premiums became a touchstone of Mr. Obama’s campaign to overhaul the system.

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By Joe McPlumber, April 29, 2010 at 4:42 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Do you folks have any idea how bigoted and hypocritical you sound, spewing bigoted hypocrisy about hypocritical bigots?

Some of us have a respect for the rule of law, and proper boundaries for federal authority because if there aren’t any boundaries by law, then there aren’t any boundaries. So we’re just as genuinely concerned for your freedom as for ours. You may not get it, you don’t have to, just please at least live up to your own standards of civility and inclusiveness?

Seriously. Have a bit of respect, we’re all Americans.

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By Tom Degan, March 26, 2010 at 5:18 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

It was a lot of fun watching these idiotic Republicans “warning” the Democrats that the passage of health care reform will cost them dearly at the polls in November.

“OH, PLEASE DON’T THROW ME IN THAT BRIAR PATCH, BRER BEAR!!”

It’s going to cost someone dearly, alright, but it won’t be the Dems. Former Bush 43 speechwriter Davin Frum put it perfectly yesterday when he said that it was the Republicans – not Barack Obama – who had met their “Waterloo”. The historical rule of politics, that an incumbent president’s party always loses ground in the midterm elections, will go out the window come November. They will be unable to win without the help of the moderates. At this moment the moderates are abandoning this sinking ship en masse. The extremism of people like Michele Bachmann and John Beohner is starting to scare the hell out of them. Gee, I wonder why!

Then there is the sticky situation of the Tea Party. By this late point it must be obvious to even the casual observer that this is an organization comprised of morons. It was formed as a protest movement against high taxes – immediately after President Obama passed the largest middle class tax cut in American history. There’s no denying it, these are not the brightest people on the planet. Their overt racism notwithstanding, they sure are funny! One self identified Tea Partier called into C-SPAN’s Washington Journal the other day asking the moderator where she could write to her congressman. When host Greta Brawner asked this idiotic woman what her congressman’s name was, she replied (I assume with a straight face) “He’s a Democrat. I don’t know his name.” Ya gotta love ‘em! Ya just gotta!

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan

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By Preston, March 23, 2010 at 5:37 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!

Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.

Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.

Each smallest act of kindness - even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile - reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.

Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.

All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined - those dead, those living, those generations yet to come - that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.

Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength - the very survival - of the human tapestry.

Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!

Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.

It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.

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By nedtheheadhunter, March 23, 2010 at 5:13 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

That kid from Different Strokes hasn’t aged a bit!

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By tigger, March 23, 2010 at 3:55 pm Link to this comment

If I wanted to have socialism in this country I would be ecstatic about this healthcare reform bill that was signed. I prefer to keep my rights, and not be forced into doing something that is not of my own intention and thought. Wait America we are on a socialistic ride and that is for sure.

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Leefeller's avatar

By Leefeller, March 23, 2010 at 10:32 am Link to this comment

Seems I must be Drinking koolade, because I always get what I want!

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By skulz fontaine, March 23, 2010 at 10:17 am Link to this comment

The UnderObama Biden says, “yes, it’s a big fucking deal.” Biden’s words oh yeah.
What Congress passed is NOT health care reform. What Congress passed is more
gravy on that corporate plate and you WILL “enroll.” Or else!
Drink that koolade kids and “believe.” Believe it cause Obama and Congress do
NOT have your interests in mind.

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By Leefeller, March 23, 2010 at 10:09 am Link to this comment

Damn, the Russians are coming, socialism is among us run, run, for cover we are doomed for our, great Democracy (really a Republic)  is lost forever and we we will now all become like Communists!

Come ye tea bags march among the streets, spit on your leaders, take back our democracy, tea bags speak for all the people.

Why do I perceive a new rendition of Nazi Germany right here in River City? Is this the 1930’s? Could it be spittle flying and hate mongering by manipulations?

Stay tuned, you….. yes you will see the great happening in 2012 or maybe you will see it and I won’t? Will I miss it? Damn we need to hate something, anything, please find something to hate!

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