Helen Thomas and Chip Reid call out Press Sec. Gibbs

[waggy]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: K1052
You are basically claiming that using what would be considered by any rational person as a much less than honest format to "discuss" the plan is not important at all. If Obama really wanted to keep out the trivial questions yet address the serious ones his own office should definitely not be the ones filtering them for the "town hall". I think that it's bullshit personally and stinks of tactics belonging to the previous admin.

You've got a point there that I hadn't considered. If the Obama administration wanted to use a 'Town Hall' format for discussion, it should pass the job of filtering the questions on to some nonpartisan group to accomplish.

The fact that it's the administration itself and not a group of journalists or some other reasonably non-political body is in itself pretty damning.

I agree.

IF they passed off the filtering job to someone else it wouldnt smell so bad.

 

[umbrella39]

I'll take feigned indignation for $1000 Alex.

 

[nobodyknows]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
WFT?

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

So Obama will have his questions asked by people in a format that appears to be a session where the public is free to ask what they will.

Nope. People won't be allowed to ask what they want. They'll have questions handed to them to act so the entire UHC "discussion" is scripted.

Now that's openness for you.

If anyone thinks that Helen Thomas is a Right Wing Republican, they don't have their head screwed on. Gibbs' obfuscation is almost comical except the majority of Americans won't have a clue of how this will be micromanaged.

I'm becoming less satisfied with this Administration every day. I was hoping for change, but instead we have a new flavor of controlling the people.

Met your new boss, same as your old boss, just with a slightly different agenda. We'd have been better off with Hillary IMO. At least she has a pair.

 

[fskimospy]

While I agree that maybe they are trying to take on the veneer of having a more open town hall format than they really are, no president will ever take unscreened questions... ever. You all know as well as I do that as soon as he starts doing that he's going to end up having people asking why we faked the moon landing, or why he's a WHITE HATING COMMIE or whatever.

I'm not exactly sure what should be done about this, and the idea that it's totally just unscripted is obviously BS, but expecting any president to do what you're asking isn't realistic. Never gonna happen.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: waggy
yes i did bitch about bush when he tried to do stuff like this.

Obama is the one that said he would be OPEN and transparent. A setting like he is setting IS NOT what he said.

Maybe he will be more open in the future! One can always hope for change.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: nobodyknows

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
WFT?

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

So Obama will have his questions asked by people in a format that appears to be a session where the public is free to ask what they will.

Nope. People won't be allowed to ask what they want. They'll have questions handed to them to act so the entire UHC "discussion" is scripted.

Now that's openness for you.

If anyone thinks that Helen Thomas is a Right Wing Republican, they don't have their head screwed on. Gibbs' obfuscation is almost comical except the majority of Americans won't have a clue of how this will be micromanaged.

I'm becoming less satisfied with this Administration every day. I was hoping for change, but instead we have a new flavor of controlling the people.

Met your new boss, same as your old boss, just with a slightly different agenda. We'd have been better off with Hillary IMO. At least she has a pair.

Not just anyone would have dodged bullets in Sarajevo the way she did. Come on, 'slightly different agenda' for the first serious chance for UHC in history is absurd.

 

[dali71]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Not just anyone would have dodged bullets in Sarajevo the way she did. Come on, 'slightly different agenda' for the first serious chance for UHC in history is absurd.

That reminded me of the video "proof" of her bravery :

http://www.dailymotion.com/vid...nia-the-true-story_fun

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: eskimospy
While I agree that maybe they are trying to take on the veneer of having a more open town hall format than they really are, no president will ever take unscreened questions... ever. You all know as well as I do that as soon as he starts doing that he's going to end up having people asking why we faked the moon landing, or why he's a WHITE HATING COMMIE or whatever.

I'm not exactly sure what should be done about this, and the idea that it's totally just unscripted is obviously BS, but expecting any president to do what you're asking isn't realistic. Never gonna happen.

I've given things a bit of thought and others have come up with the same idea. Completely out of the blue questions would present landmines and as such create problems in giving out good answers. As I said in a reply to Craig, I can see the "socialist" catchphrase being an issue. I can also see him wanting to avoid a "Joe the Plumber" incident.

Frankly I've no interest in such petty games, and no I would not like to see plants for the other side playing a game. I want reasonable people asking reasonable questions and reasonable (and direct) answers from Obama.

It's not difficult to achieve the above. As suggested, the Press can screen questions that the public provide, and have the President answer them. This would accomplish a few things. First, this would allay the fears of the WH by eliminating distracting or irrelevant questions. No bombs. Next it would give Obama credibility by actually doing something that he himself brought up. Transparency in government. While some may believe that UHC isn't something which is important enough to bother (or at least it seems the case), UHC is in fact the single largest change in how the government affects the citizens of the US since slavery was banned. This program will put one of the most important aspects of our lives -our health and the health of our loved ones into the hands of the government forever. Make no mistake, once government assumes control it will never relinquish it.

This is no small thing. Some have faith in the best intent of Obama and the legislators. I have no such allegiance to politicians. I didn't have it with Bush and if anyone believes I did, they can ask Harvey or Moonbeam and they can tell you I opposed the Iraq War well before it came into existence. In fact some of those who excoriate the Republicans for Iraq sat watching for fear of speaking up or supported it. I am no partisan.

Now that we've established a way where the concerns of most reasonable people can be addressed, that feeds my suspicious nature because it should occur to others that this isn't what's happening.

I'm going to assume that Obama and his staff have a roughly equivalent intellect as those posting here. How can he possibly fail to note this conflict between control and transparency? He cannot.

That leads me to some troubling conclusions.

He is determining what the program ought to be.
He has determined that control is more important than transparency even when there is a mechanism to prevent improper questions.


He's created a mechanism by which he can dodge questions. Oh, someone might submit a question that's hard to answer, but germain. Well the answer might be troubling. Maybe some aspect of what he wants isn't positive. Maybe people are going to have to pay a lot more or give up effective control over their health care. Perhaps Obama intends to effectively legislate the practice of medicine, usurping the judgment of professionals for the regulation book.

That's not the case? Well how can we know? IF that were the case we could not find out. Questions leading down to debate about negatives can be avoided. The New Opiate of The Masses. Prevent intelligent debate until the agenda is accomplished, when it's too late.

In this Obama is indeed like Bush. He knows what's Right, he'll control the environment and what people can examine. It's his Goal, and what he wants is what the nation gets because he's President and the public be damned.

So you may say "Well maybe he's right". That's hardly relevant. For a representative democracy to function properly the elected must answer to the citizen. In order for that to happen we must insist that WE are in control of the process. Perhaps we can't write the law, but it is a mandate of liberty that the public be informed on critical issues. That the prior administration didn't keep faith is in no way a justification to continue the same damaging philosophy as the last.

I don't care about the petty squabbles between those who wish to tag themselves as Dems or Reps, Libs or Cons.

At this moment the future of our health is transitioning to an entity who can punish those who don't abide by their rules. You won't be able to select a different government. We will be stuck for good or ill with this for eternity or until society utterly fails.

Shove getting even. I want a good look at what were having, not a deluxe poke for a pig.

If preserving face over substance is more important than allowing the public to actively participate by having IT"S questions (not what is politically expedient) answered, then Obama and those who support this are not people we can trust.

Party uber alles.

No thanks. It didn't float last time and it doesn't now.

 

[ZeGermans]

Bush hired a male prostitute to lob softball questions at him.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: ZeGermans
Bush hired a male prostitute to lob softball questions at him.

Was the Bush thing before or after Barney Frank had him stay in his apartment?

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: ZeGermans
Bush hired a male prostitute to lob softball questions at him.

so what?

 

[sciwizam]

Originally posted by: ZeGermans
Bush hired a male prostitute to lob softball questions at him.

Did he run on a New Era of Transparency??

 

[Tab3076]

Originally posted by: eskimospy
While I agree that maybe they are trying to take on the veneer of having a more open town hall format than they really are, no president will ever take unscreened questions... ever. You all know as well as I do that as soon as he starts doing that he's going to end up having people asking why we faked the moon landing, or why he's a WHITE HATING COMMIE or whatever.

I'm not exactly sure what should be done about this, and the idea that it's totally just unscripted is obviously BS, but expecting any president to do what you're asking isn't realistic. Never gonna happen.

Seconded. An event where the president or his advisors are asked loaded questions - i.e - "Mr.Obama why do you hate America?" isn't something that needs to be allowed at these kind of events. Doing so just makes them worthless.

 

[Tab3076]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider

Originally posted by: eskimospy
While I agree that maybe they are trying to take on the veneer of having a more open town hall format than they really are, no president will ever take unscreened questions... ever. You all know as well as I do that as soon as he starts doing that he's going to end up having people asking why we faked the moon landing, or why he's a WHITE HATING COMMIE or whatever.

I'm not exactly sure what should be done about this, and the idea that it's totally just unscripted is obviously BS, but expecting any president to do what you're asking isn't realistic. Never gonna happen.

stuff

tl;dr ?

 

[Lanyap]

Originally posted by: Tab3076

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider

Originally posted by: eskimospy
While I agree that maybe they are trying to take on the veneer of having a more open town hall format than they really are, no president will ever take unscreened questions... ever. You all know as well as I do that as soon as he starts doing that he's going to end up having people asking why we faked the moon landing, or why he's a WHITE HATING COMMIE or whatever.

I'm not exactly sure what should be done about this, and the idea that it's totally just unscripted is obviously BS, but expecting any president to do what you're asking isn't realistic. Never gonna happen.

stuff

tl;dr ?

yl.

 

[PokerGuy]

More "change" and "tranparency". Glad to see this new era of openness and honesty of government is upon us

How are people so incredibly stupid to not see through this? Oh, nevermind, after watching an episode of Jaywalking, it's pretty clear how these things happen.