GEORGETOWN, Kentucky – Democratic control of Congress and the fate of President Barack Obama‘s agenda are on the line in U.S. congressional elections this November, but some voters do not seem thrilled with their choices.

Discontent with Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress as the economy struggles and the deficit soars has energized some conservatives, including the Tea Party movement, and boosted Republican chances of winning the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate.

• Rangel Says He Won’t Resign House Seat, Seeks Expedited Hearing
• House returns from summer break for state-funding bill vote
• Obama: Democrats Shouldn’t Hide out From President
• Obama Finds Rangel Case ‘Very Troubling’
• US Rep. Rangel nears deal on ethics charges-aide

Obama to GOP: Restore jobless benefits

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will call on Republican lawmakers to stop blocking an extension of unemployment benefits as the Senate prepares to take up the issue again this week.

A White House official says Obama will have ‘strong words’ for Republicans when he delivers remarks Monday in the Rose Garden. Obama will argue that the GOP shouldn’t be calling for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while denying benefits to the unemployed.

• Obama to hit GOP on jobless benefits extension
• Obama presses for extension of jobless benefits
• Obama to call for extension of jobless benefits
• Obama Calls On Republicans to Stop Blocking Jobless Extension
• Obama: Republicans Blocking Economic Recovery

NEW YORK – A wealthy Manhattan investment banker and former top Democratic fundraiser was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison for defrauding banks of $292 million, some of which he donated to politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Al Gore.

Hassan Nemazee, 60, had reached a plea deal in March, admitting that he cheated banks out of the money and pleading guilty to three counts of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan said he’ll get out of prison in about a decade.

• Ex-Democratic donor Hassan Nemazee, 60, jailed for 12 years for fraud
• Bill Clinton to Officiate at Congressman’s Wedding
• Clinton Criticizes Russia For Occupying Georgia
• Clinton Seeks to Reassure Russia’s Neighbors
• Clinton Seeks to Warm US Ties With Azerbaijan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will warn health insurance industry executives at a White House meeting on Tuesday against imposing big rate increases ahead of tighter rules under the new U.S. healthcare law, The New York Times reported.

“Our concern is that they not try and, under the cover of the act, get in under the wire here on rate increases,” Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod told the newspaper.

• Obama to Announce New Health Benefits
• Obama gives insurers a warning
• Individuals see health insurance costs jump
• 15 Percent Of American Lack Health Insurance
• In US, 15 percent lack health insurance – survey

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama is chipping away at his long list of promises to gay voters but has yet to earn the full-throated backing of the reliably Democratic voting bloc.

The Obama White House has accomplished more than any other on gay rights, yet has drawn sharp criticism from an unexpected constituency: the same gay activists who backed the president’s election campaign. Instead of the sweeping change gays and lesbians had sought, a piece-by-piece approach has been the administration’s favored strategy, drawing neither serious fire from conservatives nor lavish praise from activists.

• Closing Arguments in Trial on California Gay Marriage
• Obama extends benefits for gay federal employees
• House Vote Advances End to Ban on Gays in Military
• Military gay ban repeal wins OK
• US moves to end military gay ban

My kid ADORES Legos. And yet–

Eleven people dead from the Deepwater Horizon explosion in addition to 41 oil-industry related deaths and 302 injuries between 2001-2007. Oil-covered pelicans. Dolphin carcasses choked with oil.

Legos are made with plastic, a product that requires petroleum in its manufacture.

And there, in a nutshell, is everyone’s addiction to oil. It’s woven so completely in our lives, in our kids’ favorite toys, the convenient sandwich bags we use, the useful stain-free fabric in our upholstered car seats, in our prettifying makeup. To divest ourselves of these things feels like removing joy, ease, or what’s surely a minor, harmless, and pleasing indulgence from our lives. No wonder we resist.

What this devastating disaster for the Gulf has made us do is look at ourselves. Both to see what we can do to help, and to see how we’re part of the problem.

Jon Stewart framed our oil dependency as if we Americans are collectively battered spouses unable to get ourselves free of a clearly abusive relationship. (About 2:48 in.)

Bill Maher took a more punitive line, saying that if the oil industry needs to die in order for us to fully embrace a sustainable energy future, then so be it. (See 3:02 in and onward.)

Now Bill Maher has a way of provoking in the most frat-boy, insensitive-jerk way possible, but I think he has a point when he says, “If the government hired away all 58,000 oil workers who work now in the state of Louisiana, and paid them their same salary repairing infrastructure and building solar panels, that would cost us $5.5 billion–which is what the Pentagon loses in the couch. …Jobs come and go. Once a species is extinct, it’s forever.”

I think the species Maher’s referring to is us.

Both comedians’ analogies, while imperfect, are meant to shock and unsettle. The status quo isn’t sustainable.

We have to contemplate the unspeakable, because clearly oil companies didn’t even contemplate the likely (a leak, explosion, or spill–or all three). The unspeakable? The well won’t be capped or the relief well won’t work until MONTHS from now. Worst of all? The leak can’t be stopped. The truly unspeakable? The Gulf coast turns into a dead zone for decades, if not hundreds of years. The unimaginable? Enough oil despoils the ocean that a good percentage of it is forever polluted, throwing our planet out of balance and threatening animal, human, and plant life in ways we can barely predict. We need to prepare for the unspeakable and unimaginable if we’re ever to prevent it.

And this isn’t even taking into account severe hurricanes expected this summer to hit the Gulf Coast as a result of the global climate crisis. It’s dawning on us that we may be in very deep shit.

Given the stakes of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, I can see why some found President Obama’s speech from the Oval Office rather lacking. But rather than look for drama in our response to the situation, which seems to be a press priority, I find it reassuring that the president is focused on what the federal government can and must do to hold BP accountable.

• There’s finally a person in charge at Minerals Management Services who seems competent, appropriately skeptical of corporate assurances, and fully capable of cracking down on non-compliance.
• One of the world’s richest and most powerful corporations was brought to heel by our president and voluntarily set aside a minimum of $20 billion in an escrow account and pledged collateral toward it. BP also pays $500 million toward ocean research on mitigating oil and gas pollution and $100 million to oil rig workers left out of work by the disaster.

These are huge steps. They don’t fix the leak, but they at least keep Gulf coast residents from completely going under.

UNLIKE insensitive boob Bill Maher, President Obama has not left those line-level workers in the oil industry high and dry while we transition to some other sustainable energy economy. But those line-level oil industry workers, as well as those in the fishing and tourism industries on the Gulf, must surely be aware that they may need to find new forms of work.

On Earth Day 2009, President Obama announced in Newton, Iowa, that he was opening up the

leasing of federal waters for projects to
generate electricity from wind as well as from ocean currents and other
renewable sources emphasis mine. And this will open the door to major investments in
offshore clean energy. For example, there is enormous interest in wind
projects off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware, and today’s
announcement will enable these projects to move forward.

While Obama has announced a six month moratorium on deep ocean drilling for oil, I think he should throw the gates open to leasing the same oil-befouled Gulf waters to offshore wind and water turbine development. Oil rig workers understand how to build and maintain complex ocean structures. If we succeed in kicking the oil habit, oil industry jobs will go away–but the expertise of building and maintaining those ocean structures will still be needed to maintain offshore wind and wave farms.

What I did find deeply unsatisfying was the president’s invocation of the ramping up of production for World War II during his “battle plan” speech from the Oval Office. He said:

The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is
somehow too big and too difficult to meet. You know, the same thing
was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World
War II. The same thing was said about our ability to harness the
science and technology to land a man safely on the surface of the moon.

It wasn’t only a matter of technological or manufacturing logistics–during WWII, Americans were asked to sacrifice for a greater good against a clear enemy. We have not been asked to sacrifice as a people for the wars we’re currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan–the burden has fallen disproportionately on a few. And here, in the face of this terrible oil spill, one that threatens our future as surely as any enemy, we were not asked to sacrifice any part of the wasteful ways in which we live or to willingly give what we’re ready to part with for the cause. As Bob Cesca has written, “Americans just don’t do sacrifice any more.”

Mr. President, you need to mobilize the American people. We’ve tried 30+ years of blinkered, lackadaisical, meandering energy conservation–or worse, the same old profligate habits. ‘Effort,’ like ‘taxes,’ seems to be anathema to politics. But without it we won’t be able to overcome the inertia that keeps us locked in the same old self-destructive rut. See, this time, WE are our own worst enemy.

This is what I personally want our government to do:

• Use the resources of the non-profit Corporation for National & Community Service to organize volunteers to help in the Gulf states. Organizing for America may also be a valuable resource. People are concerned. People want to help. We are galvanized, we care deeply about the Gulf states. Thousands, maybe millions of volunteers would come to the Gulf states if only they knew what to do. Can they help assemble boom on shore while trained workers paid by BP dispatch it in the water? Can they assist in wildlife counts (necessary to asses punitive damages against BP) and rescue efforts? Can they fill and organize storage of sandbags to stop already delicate shore areas from eroding in the next hurricane? Grassroots people on the ground, observing the direct effects of an oil spill, helping and trying to do what they can–this is how you build stakeholders in not only the Gulf but the bigger project of turning people to renewable energy.




• Train and employ people as part of a new Civilian Conservation Corps, as suggested by Robert Reich and others.

• The “helpline” set up by BP isn’t working. It seems to be a useless venthole. Meanwhile plausible and well-thought out solutions abound online. Use your web 2.0 savvy to crowdsource and implement some of the best suggestions, and if they work, make BP utilize them. Here’s one example: a corral to maneuver leaked oil from the burst well at the seabed floor to the water’s surface, where it can be captured. Let American ingenuity flower by giving thousands of inventors, engineers, innovators, and others with low-cost, low environmental impact solutions a chance to experiment with their fixes. Set up fast-acting science committees to vet projects and then pair waterfront communities and towns with the inventors. Everyone understands that some attempt at a solution is better than no solution at all. Small towns on the Gulf are already ginning up whatever solutions they can muster on their own. Wouldn’t government-facilitated assistance in vetting and implementation be better than doing nothing? Wouldn’t this be a way of sharing and organizing the on-the-ground knowledge of what *does* work so communities can replicate it as soon as possible? Make no mistake, we are under a time clock to shut down the well. The worst thing we can do is let our fickle attention spans wander to the next media spectacle.
• Throw down the gauntlet to the Christian Stewardship movement. Use the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Where are these Green Christians and other people of faith? I’ve taken a look around the interwebs and so far, with a few exceptions here, here, and here: CRICKETS. (Especially sad this organization is in disarray.) Then again, I’m not a churchgoer, so maybe the horror and need for new behavior is reverberating more powerfully than I give it credit for. But for once I’d like to see the faith community’s profile on renewable energy be as visible and vocal as it is on issues pertaining to women’s health or marriage status.
• I want to hear what plan is in place to PREVENT further ecological destruction as the result of a hurricane or other tropical storm. We know storms are coming. It was bad enough to be caught flat-footed the first time on the explosion and leaking well. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT RESCUE AND REMEDIATION EFFORTS AFTERWARDS. NO HANDWRINGING. I want to hear this from BP with great urgency and forethought, and with details tailored to the region, unlike the half-assed spill plans referencing walruses and other sealife not found in the Gulf. The federal government should double check and coordinate emergency evacuation and other plans now, before storms occur.
• Let’s put all the energy/climate bills we have pending on the table and pass legislation that sets real, achievable goals for kicking our oil addiction. Waxman-Markey passed in the House–what’s the status of the Kerry-Lieberman climate and clean energy jobs bill making its way through the Senate?
• We need the messge driven home again and again: it isn’t sacrifice if everyone’s doing it. Instead, it’s patriotism. It’s a greater good we’re striving for, because it fits with our values. It’s not deprivation, it’s discipline we choose in order to bring about our goals. If peer pressure isn’t sufficient, then let’s use the carrots and sticks of our laws to help us go in the right direction.
• Enlist artists in the cause–we need ways to channel our rage, fear,
  confusion, frustration, and hope. We need inspiration to keep from
  backsliding. We need to celebrate when we make progress. Green concerts teach by example–how can a large group of people come together with minimal ecological impact?

So here’s what I personally am doing:

• Meatless Mondays, Carless Sundays (Carless Sundays for religious folks)
• Two varieties of watermelon, sugar snap peas, blue kale, peas, beets, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and fava beans in my garden. We already use plant-based cleaners that are biodegradable, we compost, and have shifted our diet to from mostly meat to mostly greens
• Go on a plastic fast
• Buy only organic plant-based personal care products
• Re-elect Barbara Boxer for Senator from California, because she had the motherwit to send me an email regarding fast-tracking federal funding for Los Angeles city’s “Subway to the Sea” connecting downtown with the westside
• Support Senator Leahy’s proposed Enforcing Environmental Crimes Act (ECEA) to make restitution mandatory for victims of oil company criminal negligence
• By the end of 2010, find the most economical way to get our house solar-powered
• Boycott BP–yes, even though it might not have the economic impact I’d like. Because what a boycott teaches me is that I CAN LIVE WITHOUT OIL, one oil corporation at a time. I can get an electric vehicle. I can ride my bike to the store.
• Support airlines that use biofuel
• I will vote, call, register voters, support wholeheartedly any public official who will pass a stringent energy bill in 2010, as outlined by Rachel Maddow below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And Legos? I may have to start a letter writing campaign urging them to use either 100% recycled plastic or switch to plant cellulose or some other substitute. The company is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, but while their plastic toys meet or exceed safety standards and they’ve worked hard to maximize energy efficiency in the manufacture of their toys (pdf), the fact remains that the material they use for their bricks is not sustainable.

In the meantime, the library has plenty of other delights my kid can enjoy.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

BOGOTA | U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the Obama administration will continue to support Colombia as it heads for a leadership change amid tensions with neighboring Venezuela.

Clinton made the pledge in talks here with outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and the two candidates vying to succeed him in elections this month. She said President Barack Obama will continue to back Colombia’s anti-drug and counterinsurgency programs no matter who wins.

• Hillary, Bill Clinton dine in Bogota amid better security
• Clinton reassures Colombia on bulwark against Venezuela’s Chavez; tries to allay suspicions
• Often apart, Bill and Hillary Clinton catch up over dinner in Colombia
• Clinton: Iran Sanctions A Victory For Obama
• Clinton courts Latin America leftists – AP

Strictly as a public service, the mainstream media have long pointed out that those pesky folks who question where Barack Obama was born are your typical knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing Neanderthals. You know, the type of know-nothings who attend Tea Parties and other such sinister gatherings.

So those deep thinkers must be stunned by the findings of the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, which finds “about a third of so-called ‘birthers’ nonetheless approve of Obama’s work in office and express a favorable opinion of him personally.” Not only that.

• Poll: Half of ‘Birthers’ Call it ‘Suspicion’; A Third Approve of Obama Anyway
• US consumer confidence hovers near 2010 low – ABC
• ‘Glee,’ ‘Castle’ are new era of hits for Fox, ABC
• Dexter Rogers: Roethlisberger and Woods: Does the Media Cover White Athletes More Favorably?
• Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated

Obama: FBI looking for foreign ties in attack

WASHINGTON The FBI is investigating the suspect in last weekend’s failed Times Square car bombing for possible ties to terrorist groups, President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

Speaking hours after a suspect was pulled off a plane about to depart for the Middle East, Obama said ‘justice will be done’ in the incident.

The president said ‘hundreds of lives’ may have been saved through quick action by ordinary citizens and local, state and federal authorities on Saturday night.

• Times Square bomb suspect arrested on plane to Dubai
• Foreign Tie Examined in NY Car Bomb
• US sees some evidence of a plot in NY car bomb
• Times Square car bomb scare: How events unfolded
• Obama lauds police’s ‘quick action’ in NY incident

On April 3, 2010, before I began writing for Huffington Post, I published an article on my personal blog entitled Palin Prefers Homilies to Homework – “Drill Baby Drill.” This post was written two and one half weeks before the tragic explosion in the Gulf Coast on April 21, 2010. The impetus for the post was the plan unveiled by Barack Obama for additional offshore drilling and Palin’s criticism of that plan.

• Louisiana oil slick oozes to shore; 1.6M gallons spilled, still gushing; Obama heads to Gulf Coast
• Climate Bill Could Be Harmed by Gulf Spill
• Obama to go to Gulf soon for oil spill update
• Spill Recharges Drilling Debate
• White House U-turn on further offshore drilling after oil spill

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law is getting a mixed verdict in the first comprehensive look by neutral experts: More Americans will be covered, but costs are also going up.

Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concluded in a report issued Thursday that the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance – adding 34 million to the coverage rolls.

• Report: Health overhaul will increase nation’s tab
• Shulman Says IRS Has Few ‘Punitive’ Ways to Enforce Health Law
• Government to offer long-term-care insurance: Health Care Fact Check
• High-risk health insurance pools set to begin in June
• Seniors are anxious about Medicare cuts

LOS ANGELES – Foes of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military heckled President Barack Obama at a Los Angeles fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The protesters yelled out questions on what the president is going to do about the policy, which bars gays from serving openly in the military. The shouts grew so insistent that Obama responded.

The president said that he supports overturning “don’t ask, don’t tell” and suggested the protesters should be yelling at the people who don’t.

• Obama arrives in LA to raise funds for Boxer
• Why Obama Was Interrupted in Los Angeles
• Gay protesters interrupt Obama at California fundraiser for Barbara Boxer
• Obama rakes in cash for Dems, Sen. Boxer in a pair of Los Angeles events
• Obama To Speak At Boxer Fundraisers In Los Angeles

Iran could amass enough nuclear material to build a bomb in about a year and with help might eventually be able to field a missile powerful enough to reach the United States, senior military and intelligence officials said Wednesday.

Four top representatives of the Obama administration told Congress they are pursuing new sanctions on Iran urgently and add that a military strike has not been ruled out.

• Iran sanctions talks ‘constructive’
• India does not favour Iran sanctions
• China supports Iran sanctions
• China says Iran sanctions talks in NY “constructive”
• U.S., Russia Focus on Iran Sanctions

WASHINGTON — Capping a long day and a consuming political journey, President Barack Obama celebrated the passage of health care legislation with hugs, high fives and an emboldened attitude. Said the president to the nation, “Tonight, we answered the call of history.”

At nearly midnight in Washington, with a big swath of country asleep or headed that way, Obama strode into the ornate East Room with Vice President Joe Biden backing him. There was no hour too late for the president to embrace this moment.

• Dems Eye ‘Reconciliation’ on Health Care, But Tactic Is No Smooth Solution
• East Bay lawmakers hail passage of health care bill
• Health care vote results: bill passes, Obama to sign it into law
• Health care reform bill 101: Who will pay for reform?
• Stage set for historic health care reform vote

In a fresh appeal directly to the Iranian people, President Barack Obama says in an online video that the United States wants more educational and cultural exchanges for their students and better access to the Internet to give them a more hopeful future.

In the video, the second of his presidency directed at Iran, Obama said that the United States’ offer of diplomatic dialogue still stands but that the Iranian government has chosen isolation. He said the U.S. believes in the dignity of every human being.

• FCC lets schools receiving federal money for Internet connections give general public access
• HBO debuts online video service with Verizon
• Obama: New Iran Sanctions Being Developed Quickly
• Lil Wayne Says Goodbye To Fans In Online Video
• FCC’s plan for broadband Internet access falls short

Senate Democrats reached a compromise Saturday with a holdout senator that secured the 60 votes they need to pass a broad healthcare overhaul sought by President Barack Obama.

A marathon negotiating session of nearly 13 hours on Friday clinched an agreement with Senator Ben Nelson ensuring federal funds would not be used to pay for abortions and providing extra Medicaid funds for his home state of Nebraska.

• Democrats win 60th vote on health bill
• Reid, Senate Health Care Holdout Signal Progress
• Deal on abortion coverage not enough, Nebraska senator says
• Senate sends $1.1 trillion spending bill to Obama
• Reid: Abortion should not scuttle health care bill

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. — President Barack Obama hasn’t even finished his Martha’s Vineyard vacation and already he’s being asked whether he’ll come back next year.

A local radio station reporter asked White House spokesman Bill Burton on Thursday whether the president was ready to commit to a return trip.

Burton says that while the president loves the island, staff members “haven’t thought ahead that far in terms of figuring out what he’s going to do on vacation next year.”

• 
  Associated Press Writer= OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) ?” Barack Obama’s first presidential vacation began with a hurricane, was interrupted for a major economic announcement and is ending with a sad eulogy for a famous friend.
• 
  Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama was meetingtop economic advisers April 10, Good Friday, as regulatorsprepared stress tests for the largest U.S. banks, when he turnedto Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S…

• What vacation? Obama still in news spotlight
• White House: Obama won’t referee Kennedy legacy
• April Thank You From Obama Started Em…
• Decade of Debt: $9 Trillion
• Efforts to Rein in Gov. Paterson’s Ra…
• Obama vacation: Golf and Cindy Sheehan protest
• Obama’s Big Bang could go bust
• Obama expected to renominate Bernanke
• Dodd Says Obama’s Plan to Nominate Be…
• Obamas begin Martha’s Vineyard vacation

WASHINGTON – Giving Ben Bernanke a second term as Federal Reserve chairman was the politically safe course for a president beset by multiple crises and wanting no new battles.

The decision also helped soothe jittery financial markets, while drawing applause across party lines.

President Barack Obama cited the former Princeton economist’s role in navigating the nation through the worst economic distress in decades in offering him a second four-year term on Tuesday. In so doing, Obama followed the pattern of other recent presidents in reappointing a central bank chief first appointed by a predecessor on grounds that he was doing a good job.

• 
  US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will be nominated for a second term by Barack Obama later today.
  The move was welcomed by analysts who said it would provide stability at a critical time for the economy…

• Bernanke’s Low-Rate Fed Future Is Secure
• Fed Chief Bernanke renominated Pacifi…
• Obama taps Bernanke for second term
• Obama to tap Bernanke for another term
• Obama expected to renominate Bernanke
• Barack Obama doubles down on Ben Bernanke
• Obama to nominate Ben Bernanke for se…
• Obama to renominate Bernanke as Fed c…
• WRAPUP 1-Obama to tap Bernanke for second term as Fed chief
• Bernanke: Economy could grow soon

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (UPI) — Former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is playing a key role in shaping a healthcare reform compromise measure, analysts say.Daschle, who withdrew his nomination to be President Barack Obama‘s “health reform czar” in February after coming under fire for not paying certain taxes, has been ubiquitous in behind-the-scenes moves to forge an agreement establishing non-profit insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a government-run “public option” plan, The New York Times reported Sunday.

• 
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama hammered away at “outrageous myths” about his healthcare reform plans on Saturday, seeking again to take control of a debate that has tarnished support for his top domestic policy goal.
• 
  Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahealth-care overhaul should include a government-run insuranceprogram, reiterating her backing for the plan after anadministration official suggested the president may back down.
• 
  On the defensive because of an increasingly skeptical public, President Barack Obama has recently spoken extemporaneously about his health plan. In doing so, he has revealed…

• Obama again tackles “myths” on health…
• White House explains puzzling Obama comment
• Democrats Say Obama Shouldn't Retreat on Health Plan
• Obama Signals Public Option Could Be Dropped
• Obama May Eliminate Certain Parts of Reform Effort to Get Health …
• Obama’s stepmom says she owes her life to Britain’s NHS
• Obama’s stepmother praises NHS care
• $12 Million Ad Blitz Backs Obamacare
• Obama and the Practice of Medicine
• Obama Takes on Critics of Health Plan

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has left the heat of Washington behind for a New England vacation.

Obama and his family spent Saturday at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., and were expected to head Sunday morning to Martha’s Vineyard off Massachusetts. There they will stay at a private 28-acre estate on the small island.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says no official events are scheduled in coming days. But he does expect Obama will play at least a few rounds of golf and spend time relaxing with his family. Already on the island, vendors are selling T-shirts with the first family’s pictures and even promoting Bo, the first dog who will join the Obamas on the island.

• 
  EDGARTOWN, Mass. — Hurricane Bill taunted the New England coastline from a distance Sunday, after closing beaches and setting off a string of safety warnings for weekend boaters…
• 
  American Democrats live by water; Republicans hunker down inland. Nowhere in liberal America, from California to New England, is so perfectly Democrat, so supremely liberal…
• 
  WASHINGTON – The White House is continuing its push to counter what it calls a campaign of disinformation about President Barack Obama’s proposed health-care overhaul.
  It’s getting the message out through its Web site…

• Hurricane Bill breezing past New England shores
• Hurricane Bill Weakens to Category 1
• Hurricane Bill spinning past New Engl…
• Why Martha’s Vineyard is the Obamas’ …
• White House says US housing market bo…
• Obama takes vacation, leaves health care debate behind
• Obama urges renewed Mideast peace tal…
• White House: Obama would go to moon for his goal
• Barack Obama begins town hall tour to sell healthcare reforms to US
• White House Pushes Health Care Campaign

President Barack Obama is challenging his critics on a national health care overhaul, accusing them of making “phony claims” about the legislation.

“This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I’m glad that so many are engaged,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

“But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.”

• 
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama hammered away at “outrageous myths” about his healthcare reform plans on Saturday, seeking again to take control of a debate that has tarnished support for his top domestic policy goal.
• 
  PHOENIX — President Barack Obama took on both the defense establishment and freespending lawmakers on Monday, saying they were draining the defense budget with “exotic projects.
• 
  WASHINGTON – To separate fact from fiction, Lori Robertson managing editor at FactCheck.org, joined FOX 5 News.
  President Barack Obama heads to Montana today for yet another town hall on health care reform.

• Obama again tackles “myths” on health…
• Firms with Obama ties profit from health push
• Obama lashes defense establishment, Congress
• Obama confident of health care overhaul
• Death of Obama’s grandma has role in health-care talk
• Obama Invokes Grandmother’s Death
• Obama invokes grandmother’s death in health debate
• Calling all crazies: Obama needs you – Chicago Sun
• Obama invokes granmother’s death
• Obama On Road For Health Care Overhaul

BELGRADE, Mont. (Aug. 14) – Trying to lower the temperature of the health care fight, President Barack Obama on Friday denounced news media emphasis on angry protesters at town-hall meetings.

Obama ventured west for the latest of his own town hall-style events, fielding polite but occasionally tough questions one man declaring the president couldn’t pay for his plan without raising taxes. Tieless and rolling up his sleeves in campaign mode, Obama pitched his overhaul plan to a crowd in an airport hangar near Bozeman.

• 
  On the defensive because of an increasingly skeptical public, President Barack Obama has recently spoken extemporaneously about his health plan. In doing so, he has revealed…
• 
  WASHINGTON – To separate fact from fiction, Lori Robertson managing editor at FactCheck.org, joined FOX 5 News.
  President Barack Obama heads to Montana today for yet another town hall on health care reform.
• 
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama’s health plan “downright evil” Friday in her first online comments since leaving office July 26…

• Obama denounces emphasis on health care protests
• Obama and the Practice of Medicine
• Can Obama keep town halls cool?
• Obama On Road For Health Care Overhaul
• Six Lobbyists Per Lawmaker Work to Shape Health-Care Overhaul
• Obama's Phoenix VFW speech prompting health care protests
• Palin Calls Obama Health Plan ‘Evil’
• Ex-Alaska Gov. Palin says Obama’s plan to overhaul nation’s health care is ‘downright evil’
• Palin: Obama health plan ‘evil’
• Democrats Say Angry Protesters Won't Derail Health-Care Town Halls

WASHINGTON – For months, the White House press corps has been accused of having a too-cozy relationship with the Obama administration, a friendship that even featured an off-the-record Fourth of July party at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for some 30 selected reporters.

While relations are not yet as tense as they are in Canada between the media and the Prime Minister’s Office, the U.S. brawl over health-care reform is taking its toll on the alleged love-in between President Barack Obama and the reporters who cover him.

• 
  Team Obama is suffering from Extended Campaign Syndrome. In an election, campaign staffers are often just trying to survive until the next week or the next primary. They cut corners because they are fatigued or under pressure…
• 
  WASHINGTON – The White House is attempting to fight back this week against the well-organized foes of its health-care reform plans who have angrily disrupted town hall…

• AARP Corrects False Obama Claim
• Obama and the Permanent Campaign
• Under Fire, Obama Takes Health Plan West
• Henryk A. Kowalczyk: The Health Care Reform Bill; the Promise of Pears on a Willow Tree
• White House fights back online against opponents of heath-care reform
• White House Launches Web Site to Battle Health Care 'Rumors'
• Obama’s ambitious reforms lose steam
• James Oberstar threatens to “roll over” White House
• Critics Accuse White House of Playing 'Big Brother' in Health Care …
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