Barack Obama
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Health-care reform through green-colored glasses
President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress Wednesday nightWhitehouse.gov With a summer of incendiary rhetoric and fabricated charges by the right-wing dominating the media headlines, President Obama took to the bully pulpit to sell his plan for what is now being called “Health Insurance Reform” rather than health care reform. President Obama and […]
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A moment of truth for Appalachia, Obama and EPA on mountaintop removal coal mining
A moment of truth has arrived for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and President Barack Obama, who has promised “unprecedented steps” to rein in the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining that is wrecking havoc across wide swaths of Appalachian mountains, valleys and communities. Anti-mountaintop removal activists are hoping President Obama and EPA […]
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Can Obama deliver health and energy security with a half (assed) message?
September 6, 2009 Here’s a quiz: 1) What’s worse from a messaging perspective, “the public option” or “cap-and-trade”? 2) Tell me in one sentence what team Obama says is the benefit of passing a health care reform bill. 3) Tell me in one sentence what team Obama says happens if we fail to pass the […]
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Obama Labor Day Speech
September 8, 2009 President Obama delivered a rip roaring speech yesterday in Cincinnati (text and videos here). It’s how he should have been messaging all along. Even though it focused on health care and the economy, Obama talked about clean energy, as always does: And we’re making an historic commitment to innovation–much of it […]
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White House announces Gulf restoration task force amid criticism of Army Corps
In response to criticism that the Army Corps of Engineers has failed to take needed action, President Obama is creating a federal task force to overhaul management of coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley made the announcement this week in an interview with Bloomberg News. […]
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Barack Obama is not Bagger Vance
Things are pretty grim among progressives these days, what with health care bogging down and climate legislation on indefinite delay; right wing crazies everywhere and Blue Dogs intransigent; the organized coalition that brought Obama to office fractured and ineffective. Disillusionment is in the air. In response, on listservs and private conversations, I’m hearing more and […]
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Climate-news poem: Cash for cukes edition
This week’s verse was contributed by the White House as it worked on plans for a farmers market. Check out more climate poems from Grist. First we thought cars were the fix, so Congress made a bet:Give people cash and they will trade their clunking old Corvette.And boy, they did! In drives — uh, droves […]
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Obama wants to set up White House farmers market
Michelle Obama working with local students in the White House garden.Photo: The Official White House PhotostreamPresident Obama said on Thursday that he and the First Lady are looking into setting up a farmers market just outside the White House, which might sell food from the White House garden or from local farmers. The president said […]
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Netroots Nation frustration and the impediments to progressive change
I just returned to Seattle from Netroots Nation, the yearly gathering of progressive bloggers, journalists, and activists. Last year, in Austin, the atmosphere was absolutely electric, with the election approaching and a clear sense of battle lines drawn, victory within reach. Also, lots of great parties. This year, at least from my limited perspective, the […]
