Posts Tagged ‘Kathleen Sebelius’
LiveBlog for Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
• Jennifer Palmieri of the Center for American Progress calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform
• Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform, and the national call-in with President Obama today.
• Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.
• Comedian Hal Sparks joins us in studio at 8:05am Pacific to talk about all things politics and pop culture.
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the lead GOP senator in bipartisan health care negotiations, said yesterday that he urged President Obama this month to make clear he would accept a bill without a government-funded public insurance option. A White House spokesman yesterday expressed doubt that Grassley’s plea to Obama had any impact on weekend comments by Kathleen Sebelius that a public option is “not an essential element” of health care reform.
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that information her husband brought back from North Korea has been “extremely helpful” by providing a window into what’s happening in the reclusive country.
• Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season, strengthened into a Category 3 storm yesterday with top winds near 125mph. It looks likely to miss the U.S. East Coast.
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Center for American Progress, Chuck Grassley, Eric Massa, Hal Sparks, Hillary Clinton, Hurricane Bill, Jennifer Palmieri, Jim Wallis, Kathleen Sebelius, Sojourners
Posted in liveblog | 285 Comments »
LiveBlog for Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 20th, 2009
• The Rude Pundit (Lee Papa) calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about the Sotomayor hearings and the Right’s reaction to them (also about his upcoming appearance in San Francisco on Sunday, July 26).
• Administration officials defended President Obama’s broad health care proposals yesterday and urged a skeptical public not to judge the Dems’ overhaul until Congress writes the final version. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that it’s “a work in progress,” and said “more will be done. The House and Senate are committed to working with the president to get this done.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the top GOPer on the Senate committee reviewing Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination said yesterday her testimony did not settle his concerns about elevating her to the Supreme Court. “I was troubled by a number of the things the nominee has said, a number of the rulings she has made,” he said.
• The House Intelligence Committee will investigate whether the CIA broke the law by not telling Congress earlier about a secret program to deploy hit teams to kill individual Al Qaida members. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) announced the investigation in a statement on Friday.
• A self-described “more contrite” South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wrote an op-ed, published in newspapers around South Carolina yesterday, trying to win forgiveness after admitting to an affair and being incommunicado while he left the state for several days. He vowed to “begin the journey of trying to get things more right with you and others.”
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Jeff Sessions, Kathleen Sebelius, Lee Papa, Mark Sanford, Rude Pundit, Silvestre Reyes, Sonia Sotomayor
Posted in liveblog | 329 Comments »
LiveBlog for Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
• Mary Tyler Moore calls in at 6:06am Pacific to talk about her new book, “Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes.”
• Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about the economy.
• Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about the torture memo debate.
• The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level yesterday in response to the outbreak of swine flu that originated in Mexico. The number of cases confirmed by health officials worldwide totaled 82, most of them in the U.S. and Mexico, but hundreds more cases are under examination and Mexico has said 149 deaths may have resulted. The virus has now been confirmed to have spread to Asia and the Middle East.
• Morning debate and an afternoon vote are scheduled in the Senate today to confirm Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services, giving the agency a leader in the midst of the swine flu outbreak. She is expected to get the 60 votes needed, though perhaps with little margin to spare.
• House and Senate Dems reached an agreement late last night on a budget resolution for 2010, which includes key spending priorities for the young Obama administration. The agreement came as lawmakers were reconciling the House and Senate versions of the budget package. The House and Senate will likely vote on it this week.
Tags: Allyson Schwartz, Barack Obama, Joe Sestak, Kathleen Sebelius, Mary Tyler Moore, Swine Flu, WHO
Posted in liveblog | 224 Comments »
LiveBlog for Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) calls in at 6:30am Pacific to discuss her recent battle with breast cancer.
• Filmmaker Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about his recent trip to Afghanistan.
• Actress Sharon Gless calls in at 7:48am Pacific to discuss the possibility of a “Cagney & Lacey” reunion on The Stephanie Miller Show.
• Gen. Wesley Clark calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about President Obama’s defense plan, specifically related to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.
• President Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met for more than two hours in London today, the day before the G-20 summit begins. Both say the G-20 must agree to tough new rules for the banking system to help lift the world out of recession.
• In a late afternoon ruling yesterday, a three-judge panel in Minnesota delivered a severe blow to GOPer Norm Coleman’s attempts to return to the Senate in the ongoing recount there. The panel ruled that less than 400 absentee ballots should be opened and recounted. Coleman said there would be an appeal to the full Minnesota Supreme Court.
• Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, revealed to senators yesterday that she made “unintentional errors” on her taxes and has corrected her returns from three different years.
Tags: Barack Obama, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Gordon Brown, Kathleen Sebelius, Norm Coleman, Robert Greenwald, Sharon Gless, Wesley Clark
Posted in liveblog | 325 Comments »
LiveBlog for Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
• Dennis Herrera, City Attorney for San Francisco, calls in at 8:30am Pacific to discuss his arguments before the California Supreme Court this coming Thursday against California’s Prop. 8.
• President Barack Obama is sending his Treasury secretary and budget director to Capitol Hill today to defend his proposed tax increases, which are being met with misgivings by both GOPers and Dems in Congress. Administration officials say the nation’s economic crisis requires bold action to right the economy and expand access to health care while providing tax breaks to middle- and low-income families.
• The CIA has destroyed nearly 100 interrogation tapes of terror suspects, a number far greater than was previously acknowledged by the agency. The agency’s admission came in new documents filed in a lawsuit seeking details about the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody outside the country.
• U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised today to work with the incoming Israeli government, easing tensions ahead of a meeting but delivered a clear message that Washington is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state, putting her at odds with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
• President Obama nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius yesterday to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. She would help him overhaul a health care system whose cost has risen 4 times as fast as people’s wages in recent years.
Tags: Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, CIA, Dennis Herrera, Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Sebelius
Posted in liveblog | 357 Comments »
LiveBlog for Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
• Top Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have expressed concern over President Obama’s plan to draw down nearly two-thirds of U.S. forces in Iraq by August 2010, while some key GOPers are offering praise. Obama plans to leave between 35,000 to 50,000 residual forces in the war-torn country, serving in a training or advisory role to the Iraqi military.
• President Obama on Saturday asked Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be his nominee for Health and Human Services secretary. Obama is expected to make the announcement this afternoon. The post is still vacant after the first pick, former Sen. Tom Daschle stepped aside after some tax issues were revealed.
• President Obama plans to move ahead this week with an ambitious plan to overhaul the country’s health care system. Obama is asking for $634 billion in his new budget to be put aside over the next 10 years as a sort of health care fund.
• The government has revamped its rescue package to insurance giant AIG and will provide the troubled company another $30 billion. The new package comes as the company has burned through cash and has been unable to repay the government on its existing loan package, which totals some $150 billion.
• A massive late winter storm roared out of the Southeast and into the Northeast overnight, dumping what could be more than a foot of snow in spots, idling hundreds of flights and promising to make this morning’s commute treacherous.
Tags: AIG, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle
Posted in liveblog | 451 Comments »
