Obama is still "proud" of Affordable Care Act

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25159887

I have continued to cover stories about the Affordable Care Act and the continuous grief Obama has received from this act throughout my blog.  This week in a television interview Obama was still standing behind the act and was quoted stating, "that he would be extraordinarily proud of the program."  Now the issue is the website.  The government is focusing on the website because amidst all of the chaos Healthcare.gov was down for eleven hours.  I also saw something on the news this morning about the site shutting down and having issues but, honestly, I find that some media outlets make sure to introduce this because they want to make sure the population is notified about ANY AND ALL issues that the Affordable Care Act has.  In addition, I find that Obama has tried his hardest with the program, has apologized to America for the issues, and it is important, yet hard to believe, that he continues his stance behind the program instead of denouncing it because of the struggles it has faced. 
This quote describes his devotion to the program (even though he knows it has flaws!)
"I continue to believe and [I'm] absolutely convinced that, at the end of the day, people are going to look back at the work we've done to make sure that in this country you don't go bankrupt when you get sick, that families have that security," said President Obama.

Do you think it is good that Obama is still standing by the program or do you think he should have just dropped it??

Obama Apologizes...

As many people have seen Obama has recently been on the news apologizing to any individuals that are being kicked off their health care plan and for any other issues associated with the new health care bill (Obamacare).  I found this article the other day and it raises a couple questions about the issue.  First, the article states that Obama apologized to congressional democrats for letting them down with the health care bill; however, the bill was approved by Congress.  I am confused as to why he is apologizing to Congressional Democrats when they obviously approved the health care plan.  I understand that Democrats may be more inclined or more able to approve what Obama is introducing but they knew of the bill and could have examined possible outcomes of it.  In addition, I think that Obama is right in apologizing to the American people, but I also find that his apology allows for the bias news media to write that he is stating what a failure Obamacare is and has owned up to being a bad president.  I do not believe he is our worst President and I also do not believe that he needs to take the blame for THE WHOLE Obamacare issues because there are other people that had to sign off on the new health care plan.  What do you think??



http://swampland.time.com/2013/11/14/obama-apologizes-to-democrats-for-letting-them-down/

Here are a couple political cartoons I found that go along with some of the more recent topics I have blogged about.....




Most of these are bias and against Obama but you get the point.

Google Barge

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24819850

Okay so this story I ran across on BBC news about the Google barges off of the US coast poses many questions and has been circulating rumors.  The barge a four story structure on the deck and so far Google has not commented on what the facility will be used for but they do have a patent from 2009 for a "water based" data center.  The article states several different rumors that are circulating that some seem completely outrageous like floating data centers powered by wave action and others seem more adequate like the deck will be fitted with showrooms to form a type of "party deck" on top. 

After reading this article it made me think about how the media speculates and starts rumors about the story because they do not know the answer or have all of the information.  Have you noticed that this has been happening more often?

Forced entry really??

Earlier this week I came across several articles posted on my friends facebook pages noting that Obamacare has reached a whole new level or that we are moving towards Communism with this new health bill so, obviously, I was curious to read more about what in the world they were talking about.  Here are several news articles that delve into this same issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKEd5WsMJO4

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/02/its-amazing-people-obamacare.html

The video above notes the tax dollars needed to put forth the new health care plan but it mostly discusses how these tax dollars are being used to invade your privacy through a "forced" home search.  When I first heard about how the new health care bill has forced home searches I was baffled at the issue because I wanted to get to the bottom of the story knowing that it truly could not allow home invasions because it would be against our rights.  Then, I stumbled upon the article on Politicus USA called, Its Amazing What People Believe About Obamacare. Deborah Foster, the writer of the article, notes several different websites she encourages individuals should use to fact check claims made or stories seen on media outlets.  Obviously the many posts stating forced entry are incorrect.   The health care bill does state that there will be home visits to any families or individuals using government health care, but these visits are voluntary and most likely will not be unannounced. These visits are voluntary because said inviduals or families are receiving the government funded medical insurance and they would not have to comply if they would rather switch to a different insurance.  Finally, there are several people in the community that are under the government health insurance that would benefit from guidance or assistance. 

Can we say Biased!

So here are two articles I came across that are both describing the lifted furlough and the next steps the US government should make. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24563189

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/17/with-budget-deal-national-debt-free-to-soar-again/

The first article, US Governmental Employees Head Back to Work, describes how Obama signed the deal ending the shutdown and extending the debt limit.  It later describes how this decision by Obama was very much needed but it still does not resolve the budgetary issues that the Democrats and Republicans have continuously fought over.  However, this decision does create a committee with mixed party members that are supposed to craft a long term budget.  Finally, the article notes Obama's views on how the Republican's tactics during the shutdown caused more harm to the population.

The second article on Fox news, With Budget 'deal' national debt free to soar again, is a similar article but it talks about the national debt and what our government will do.  It notes that this debt increase is the sixth since Obama took office (three times when Democrats controlled Congress and three times when Republicans controlled the house).  Then the article continues to describe and note percentages of how much the debt has risen under Obama's terms.  In addition, "Republicans have been more modestly emboldened in their push for spending cuts after the dire consequences that administration officials said would emerge."

After reading these two articles the reader can note clear differences in the journalists viewpoints towards budget spending, Obama, and the conflict amongst Republicans and Democrats.  I feel as if the BBC article is simply stating more of the facts, besides stating Obamacare instead of calling the health plan by its full name, and the Fox news article is leaning more towards the Republican viewpoint.  It is evident in the Fox article that they want to make sure the reader knows that the national debt is increasing because of Obama and that there was such a delay in lifting the furlough because Obama would not budge.  In the BBC article I found there is not much information on the Republican standpoint and more direct quotes from Obama on the issue which is very biased and against the Republican party. 
Have you noticed that news articles on the same subject read completely differently due to the bias that is, almost always, introduced into the material?  I know each reader should keep their mind open, but do you believe that in todays society he population only reads one article and believes that the information given is true???

Media on repeat?

As everyone is aware, the Government is still shutdown because of continuous debates and a standoff between Republicans and Democrats.  I read an article today about the subject and there is clearly still a political stalemate making the US Governmental shutdown continue.  The BBC noted in the article that for the first time in weeks the Senate held direct talks for the first time.  My question for this is why did the Senate not do direct talks earlier? 

In addition, the media, of course, has continued their coverage of the issue but one needs to ask, does the medias coverage and information help or worsen the communities ideas of the subject.  The media outlets keep information flowing about the government shutdown just so the community will stay informed about what is going on; however, many of the articles I have read have the same information with just a couple new political stances or statements from politicians.  This new article on BBC about the Senate opening direct talks was the first article, that I have seen, that has completely new information on the subject.  This problem may be because the Government has not made any moves that are notable towards lifting the governmental shutdown, but I know it is also because of the medias trend.  I find that this continuous repeated information through the mass media hinders the publics opinion of the media. 

Have you noticed media outlets, during an issue, continue to promote the same information over and over and over again?