LA Philanthropy Watch

President Obama seeks the help of Organizing for America volunteers to help him pass the health care bill, which will:
1. End the worst practices of insurance companies (denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, dropping coverage when illness strikes, and raising rates without limit);
2. Give small businesses and individuals who do not get insurance at work a choice of insurance options; and
3. Bring down costs for millions of people and for the government, while extending the life of Medicare.

This June 2008 video features Dennis Hathway, president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight,  and Alejandro Ortiz from the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Fun facts (from video):
Number of billboards in Los Angeles: 11,000
Number of billboards that are illegal: 4,000 of the 11,000 total
Annual revenue from huge billboards: $1.34 billion
Annual municipal fee: $186 per billboard

“We cannot have another year-long debate about this.
So the question that I’m going to ask myself and I ask of all of you is, is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time or a few weeks’ time or six weeks’ time we could actually resolve something?
And if we can’t, then I think we’ve got to go ahead and some make decisions, and then that’s what elections are for. We have honest disagreements about – about the vision for the country and we’ll go ahead and test those out over the next several months till November.” — President Barack Obama

Aired September 16, 2009.

“They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact our leverage in the election, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.” – Paul Weyrich, conservative activist

Senator John McCain raised the issue of voter-fraud – and ACORN – repeatedly in the final weeks of the 2008 presidential campaign, including in the final debate on October 16.  This McCain campaign ad, posted on YouTube on October 10, 2008, accuses ACORN of “massive voter-fraud … nationwide voter fraud” – while tying Barack Obama to the organization.  The ad advises viewers that “Obama … moved to Chicago, became a community organizer … met Madeline Talbott, part of the Chicago branch of ACORN … was asked to train the ACORN staff …”

“What did ACORN in Chicago engage in?  Bullying banks.  Intimidation tactics.  Disruption of business….”

“Now ACORN is in trouble … ‘There are at least 11 investigations across the country involving thousands of potentially fraudulent ACORN forms’ [Fox News 10/8/08] … Massive voter fraud …”

“Nationwide voter fraud …”

In his State of the Union address, Barack Obama said, “To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills.”

Nancy Pelosi isn’t running for the hills.  At the Speaker’s weekly briefing yesterday, she said this about passing health care reform: “As I said to some friends yesterday in the press, you go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll poll vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security – and for the important role it will play in reducing the deficit.”

More power to her.

Hat tip: Greg Sargent.  This video clip is from the Wonk Room.  The complete video of the Speaker’s briefing is at C-Span (with the brief quoted text from above at 16:01 – 16:24).

From Daily Kos TV.

The exchange:

STEPHANOPOULOS: What is the strategy on health care going forward?

OBAMA: Here’s one thing I know, and I just want to make sure that this is off the table. The senate shouldn’t, certainly shouldn’t try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated. The people in Massachusetts spoke. He’s got to be part of that process.