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Upcoming health care talks to be televised
By cnn.com politics on February 8, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- President Obamas bipartisan meeting on health care reform planned for February 25 will be broadcast live, a senior administration official said Monday.
Coverage details were not complete, but the official said the White House expected "the whole thing to be live."
The half-day meeting is an attempt by the Obama administration to rescue health care legislation, a top domestic priority for the president. Televising it also would help fulfill a campaign promise by Obama that health care negotiations would be broadcast live.
On Tuesday, Obama will meet with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate for bipartisan talks that the president promised in his State of the Union address last month. Tuesdays meeting now will help prepare for the February 25 health care talks.
Republican leaders in Congress said they would welcome an opportunity to take part in drafting health care legislation, but they repeated their past calls for Obama and Democratic leaders to throw out separate health care bills already passed by the House and Senate in order to start over in a bipartisan effort.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chambers second-ranking Republican, said in a statement Monday that Obamas call for bipartisan health talks care was welcome "if the point is to listen to Republican ideas and really consider them."
"According to recent news reports, however, White House officials have made it clear that Obama does not intend to restart the health care legislative process from scratch and that hes adamant about passing comprehensive reform similar to the bills passed by the House and Senate, " Kyls statement said.
"Such preconditions suggest the White House is not serious about genuine negotiations," it continued. "A large majority of the American people strongly oppose the Democrats massive bill, and Republicans will not abandon them."
Top House GOP leaders sent a letter to Obama Monday asking who would be allowed to participate in the meeting. They warned that if "the starting point for this meeting is the bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate."
"Bipartisanship," the GOP leadership argued, "is not writing proposals of your own behind closed doors, then unveiling them and demanding Republican support. Bipartisan ends require bipartisan means."
In a CBS interview broadcast nationally Sunday, Obama said: "What Id like to do is have a meeting whereby Im sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and lets just go through these bills -- their ideas, our ideas -- lets walk through them in a methodical way so that the American people can see and compare what makes the most sense."
Obama first floated the idea of face-to-face, televised talks with Republicans to seek a health care compromise last week. In a speech Thursday at a fundraising crowd, he said that whatever legislation emerges from the talks should then go to Congress for a vote.
Readers Comments
World »
Netanyahu, Clinton talk after settlement crisis
March 18, 2010
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed “confidence-building steps” with Palestinians in a telephone call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after a dispute over settlements.
Politics »
US rep: Accused ‘Jihad Jane’ has been cooperating
March 18, 2010
A Pennsylvania congressman says the U.S. terrorism suspect known as “Jihad Jane” has been cooperating in an international probe of radical Muslims.
Business »
Report: Linux Gains Ground, Windows Stumbles
January 26, 2010
Linux inched ahead in the operating-system arena during the final month of 2009, even as Windows and Mac gave up some ground. That’s according to research firm Net Applications, which recently released its Market Share report covering operating systems in December. Linux accounted for 1.02 percent of the market in December, up from an even 1 percent the month before.
Technology »
Is Digg the future of social news?
March 18, 2010
London, England (CNN) — Social voting site Digg this week unveiled plans to become a hub for sharing links on the Web. If your friends are sharing media on Facebook, Twitter and other sites, Digg wants to provide a personalized home page that filters the Web based on your friends activities. These new features will be previewed in the coming weeks.
Could it work? Might Digg help define the future of news?
Facebook, Twitter … Digg?
If youre sharing links on the Web today, chances are youre doing it on one of two sites: Facebook or Twitter. Thats a problem for Digg, which allows users to vote on news stories, pictures and videos. Digg pioneered social sharing, but these activities have moved to other venues in recent years.
But the Twitter and Facebook trend also provides an opportunity for Digg: While Twitter and Facebook are utilized to share links, ranking news stories is the core focus of neither. The sites new plan is to analyze the news stories, videos and images shared by your friends on these sites and rank them by relevance.
One-hit wonders
Getting "Dugg" was once the dream of Web publishers. When a news article gained enough votes to hit the Digg home page, tens of thousands of visitors could bombard your Web site in a matter of hours.
Publishers, however, realized this system was a lottery of sorts: Littering your Web site with "Digg this!" buttons in the faint hope of hitting Diggs home page proved far less effective than encouraging readers to share links with small groups of friends on Twitter and Facebook.
On Digg, submitted stories are either hit or miss. On social networks, however, every share drives more interest. Digg hopes to rectify the situation by offering personalized home pages for every user, making the site more relevant to individuals and referring more reliable streams of traffic to publishers.
The rise of the curation economy
"Content curation" is a major Web trend for 2010. People are creating stories, photos and other "content" at a rate that is outpacing our ability to consume it. Information overload has become an increasingly common complaint, I wrote in December 2009.
The problem is growing. In May 2009, YouTube announced that 20 hours of video content was being uploaded every minute. This week, the video sharing giant revised that statistic to 24 hours per minute. Last month, Twitter announced that users are producing 50 million Tweets per day, up from 35 million per day in 2009. Facebook, meanwhile, reports that users are posting 60 million status updates per day — in October 2009, that number stood at 45 million per day.
With this content tsunami growing faster than our ability to consume it, Digg seems perfectly positioned to solve the content consumption crisis.
Diggs vision: curated consumption
Once the clear leader in curation, Digg has become a niche community of technology enthusiasts. By aggregating activity on other social sites, it hopes once again to become the leader in social news. With content overload reaching new heights, its timing could be fortuitous.
Diggs challenge: Prove that it can cut through the content mountain, rather than contribute to it.
copyright 2009 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
Health »
Health vote likely Sunday, Obama delays trip
March 18, 2010
Democrats plowed fresh billions into insurance subsidies for consumers on Thursday and added a $250 rebate for seniors facing high prescription drugs, last-minute sweeteners to sweeping $940 billion legislation headed for a climactic weekend vote.
Sports »
Butler does it in second half against UTEP
March 18, 2010
Butler overcame a six-point halftime deficit and surged into the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 77-59 blowout victory over No. 5 UTEP in a West Regional game Thursday.
