E!!

Breitbart found some video of Obama speaking on health care from a 2003 speech to the AFL-CIO.

Here is the money quote:

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

“Wow.”

The White House response to this?

A three-minute (mis)information video featuring Linda Douglass, a former ABC news correspondent and now the WH Office of Health Reform communications director, sitting in front of a computer screen showing Drudge’s front page and saying the video and site headline is “taking sentences and phrases out of context, and they’re cobbling them together to leave a very false impression.”

Why not try to explain why Obama has changed his mind, rather than denying what we just saw him say ON VIDEO in a speech just a few years ago…?

I got three LOLs and one verge-of-tears moment out of this video.  It’s a joke, but my love for my country, and my desire for truth and transparency in government, is not.  Watch, laugh, cry, and then decide what YOU can do about it.

When you have a little time to spare, treat yourself to the video from the Al Smith Dinner, a Catholic charitable event at which Sen.s McCain and Obama spoke.  (Link goes to a Kuo & Joe blog post at Culture11 which contains 4 clips from the dinner.) 

I agree with David Kuo:

“Watch these videos. They are extraordinary, truly extraordinary. We are ridiculously blessed to live in a country where two men who are fiercely opposed to one another are nevertheless able to set it aside for a night and laugh. It isn’t quite a miracle, but it is certainly a marvel. And if you have had to see countless political ads and three presidential debates, you owe it to yourself to watch these videos.”

McCain’s cracks about the Clintons are priceless (and hilarious), and Obama’s speech was funny from begining to end.  Bravo to the very gifted writers who put both presentations together.

Days after the cessation of the Conservative Leadership Conference 2008, remembrances float up…

…Seton Motley’s talk on Media Bias and the unFairness Doctrine (sponsored by the Media Research Center)…clip after clip of such biased “reporting” (commentary and emoting) that one is heartily laughing and throughly appalled all at once…

…Chris Matthews (MSNBC), Keith Olbermann (ditto), Brian Williams (NBC), Ann Curry (ditto), John Roberts (CNN), Campbell Brown (ditto), Charlie Gibson (ABC), Terry Moran (ditto) and more…

…the observation that some so-called journalists and major media outlets are now eschewing ratings and “sacrificing the bottom line to ideology”…sacrificing viewers (do they say “good riddance”?) in order to push their increasingly obvious agenda…

…the concept of Bias by Omission (what is not reported that should be)…

…the three upcoming vacancies on the FCC (February) and who will seat them (McCain or Obama) and do the vetting…

…the new “code words” for the Fairness Doctrine that are springing up in activist organizations posing as non-partisan groups:  “localism,” “media democracy,” “media reform,” “universal access”…which you can see in action here…

…the effect the Fairness Doctrine (and other limits on media) would likely have:  the mass migration of conservative talk radio personalities to satellite radio, increased internet podcasting, vlogging (blogging via video clips), and other New Media forums/outlets…

…a comment by a young mother in attendance that Nickolodeon attempts political indoctrination of children via their “kid reporters” (who covered the DNC, but not the RNC)…

And now for a serious look at this year’s campaign season (turn speakers on; page load time is worth the wait).

Here’s her speech.  And here’s some video from an interview with Newsweek earlier this year.  And nice, detailed piece on her from the Anchorage Daily news from 2006.

And then there’s this cute/funny tribute by my friend @ PragmaticallyPolitical:  10 Things I Love About Sarah Palin

PS  The graceless statement put out by the Obama camp re: Palin this morning was uncalled for.  McCain went out of his way to congratulate Obama on a historic nomination last night; Obama should have done the same for Palin.  But he didn’t.  And so Mr. Self-Proclaimed Non-Partisan shows us just how little class he really has.  

Here’s some video footage from the press conference that followed the Republicans’ attempt to reconvene the House on Friday.  At one point it was stated that the Republicans are not going home until the Dems agree to re-adjourn and vote on energy – or until W. orders a Special Session.  I hope they stick with it.  Nobody in Congress has any business taking a vacation until the People’s business is done.