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President on the move
By adamg on Wed, 10/30/2013 - 3:08pm
Sarah Bourne captured Air Force One at Logan shortly before 3 p.m.
About 15 minutes later, David Finnerty spotted his motorcade on the other side of the harbor:
And not long after that, Neal Gaffey watched him exit his limo at Faneuil Hall.
UPDATE: After his speech, the president shut the turnpike and the neighboring Worcester Line for a ride to a fundraiser in Weston. Michael captured the motorcade near BU:
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
Great!
Glad he had a safe trip up here for his fundraising trip...I mean, for his ACA speech.
$64k A couple
That's a bargain to eat with Barry!
We can't really complain
until we all support 100% public financing and making outside donations illegal.
Average congress critter spends at least 30 hours a week just begging for money. And people wonder why nothing gets done except favors for special interests....
When are we going to
wake up and finally realize that restricting campaign fundraising, for all its good intentions, just plain hasn't worked. It's high time we try to address the real issue here - CAMPAIGN SPENDING! Until we put realistic and significant restrictions on spending by candidates, public funding for campaigns is simply going to be one big money pit that will end up costing the taxpayers far too much for the return we get.
restricting campaign
Maybe we should actually try it first.
ban funding
Just ban funding.
Restrictions on spending or funding just make loopholes. You can't ban spending, since some spending is required and then people will get subjective about what that means.
So, ban funding. You all get the same amount of cash from public funds that increases at the level you're running for.
They should creat
A cap on spending per election. Even Steven, no outside ads!
Can't wait for
Him to take-off!
This.
I really wish politicians had to sit in traffic just like everyone else.
Obama decides to come for a fundraiser and a city of a million+ people have to adjust their routines?
That is the ultimate in dickish behavior, and I'm tired of it from *all* politicians, not just Obama.
Serious question here:
Serious question here:
Do officials and dignitaries have to pay the harbor tunnel tolls?
Doubt it
I know that when police/ambulance/public employees go through they sign a clipboard and it is paid for later by the departments. So basically we pay for it.
Of course not
You think Barack Obama plays by normal people rules? Those are beneath him.
But..ah...
On he contrary, he's the type of person to hink just the opposite. Plus, you have to admit...He doesn't have a normal job.
When we would take a city car
When we would take a City car through one of the harbor tunnels, we would stop at the toll both and sign a clipboard. I always wondered why they didn't have FastLanes on the cars, but then I realized that the City's financial and payment systems were stuck in the 1970s. That, and there was probably more potential for abuse with the FastLanes. I'm having a vision of a City employee running an illegal taxi service on the weekends using the transponders....
This was an issue in NYC.
This was an issue in NYC. All kinds of politicians were getting free E-ZPasses for their personal cars.
One of the papers reported on it, and the MTA cracked down.
And ... if the President never visited Boston
... we would have an endless whine-a-thon about how we were all being snubbed and how he was ignoring how important Boston is historically etc.
(not just talking about Obama here ... who the Herald commenters seem think should never Travel while Being Black ... but any president)
Your
Second sentence is giving me a migraine!
I wouldn't whine
This is Boston. I don't need the President to come here to remind me how important my city is or how great my life is.
I guess you weren't here
I guess you weren't here when there was much whining and ignorant-of-the-constitution blather about how Massachusetts was just too important to be losing representatives to the US House and how could such a thing be happening when it was MASSACHUSETTS we are talking about, etc.
Like Obama or not
Everything out of his mouth regarding the ACA has been a complete lie. Obama had nothing but good intentions pushing the ACA, but its a major disaster.
If you repeat that mantra often enough ...
... it still won't be true.
a half a billion dollar
a half a billion dollar website developed over the course of 3 years which doesn't work for 99% of the intended user base doesn't need a citation.
Read the fricken' right wing conspiracy nuthouse paper of record THE NEW YORK TIMES of all places for the long list of stories about what has gone horrible wrong in the ACA roll out.
So a problem with the website
Means the program itself is broken? Sorry, no. It means the website is a shit-show. It doesn't speak to the value of the Act at all, one way or the other.
As an aside, I can't help but notice that policies requiring government to always go with the lowest bidder tend to enjoy overwhelmingly bipartisan favour. I wonder how you would have responded if HHS had awarded the contract that went to CGI to someone more expensive, but with a stronger track record of delivering working products on time. Would you have accepted that it provided better value for money, or would you have thrown a hissing fit that Obama was wasting your tax dollars?
The government DIDN'T PICK
The government DIDN'T PICK THE LOWEST BIDDER! IT WAS A HALIBURTON STYLE NO BID CONTRACT!
The program is broken when it relies entirely on the website to function. The phone number and mail in forms are useless because staff still needs to enter all that information in through the website.
And, there's no promise of
And, there's no promise of security. I find that part amazing, participants should not expect any privacy....
Don't worry Colbert heard
Don't worry Colbert heard your cries....
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-vi...
Aww.
It's cute that you think the intermittent failure of a half-billion dollar software project on launch day is indicative of some sort of unusual incompetence.
Have you ever been part of a website launch? Because I'd say the ACA site's first day is in the top 50% of major rollouts.
Keeping drinking me!
Keeping drinking me!
sabotage
Not to mention it's been sabotaged from the start since it was only meant to be a backup for state run sites and implementations.
Red states didn't do their job, forcing the FED to grow the size of the project 10 fold. Of course it's going to have issues.
Meanwhile everything is peachy in Kentucky where the Democratic Governor and Republican legislature implemented the exchanges at the state level like what was expected.
After all, the idea was for states to try different things so that the national program could see the best implementations and figure out if they'd work on larger scales. Red states easily could have had much, much more influence in implementing and fixing the laws and websites.
They didn't, and they have no right to cry foul now after open sabotage was their only visible plan.
Thank You
Thanks for saying this. This is very much true, many states who were against the ACA just didn't do what was expected of them. And Kentucky is a perfect example of what SHOULD have happened. Politicians working together for the good of the their constituents
Kentucky is SO excited about the ACA and it's new program called "Kynect", they even had a booth at the State Fair in August showing people the savings. People were amazed at the savings they could get. One even remarked that "This beats Obamacare I hope" (of course the ACA, Kynect, and ObamaCare are all the same thing!) (AND this is Mitch McConnell's home state..)
Kentucky Wins, the politicians win (except McConnell) for working together, the over 600,000 people in KY that will be able now have affordable healthcare regardless of a pre-existing condition also win. It's a win win (except for McConnell)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/kentucky-obamacare_n_3801054.html
My point to all of this is that anon(2) is right, if the states did what they were told instead of fighting it tooth and nail, things wouldn't be in such a mess now.
Let me get this straight
You're claiming that one state did what was expected, so therefore the Red states totally screwed up the rollout?
That seems like a bit of a stretch, doesn't it?
There's a lot of stretching
There's a lot of stretching going on with this topic.
Someday adults will be able to have a fruitful discussion about our country's healthcare system. Until BOTH sides find an adult - this is what we get, finger pointing and defensiveness.
Here Patricia - Have some sense of proportion!
Grownups like facts, data and reality, right?
https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/395982657814667264/photo/1
Sorry if what you "just know" doesn't wash the them.
I know we are a bastion of the vast right wing conspiracy but:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57610328/obamacare-early-enrollmen...
SURE
Lie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfl55GgHr5E
Fact: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/29/republicans-pounce-as-focus-tur...
I would advise you click the links labeled "Here" for further articles.......
I'll regret saying this
So not true.
Want someone to Blame.. blame good ole Mittens Romney. He's the real scapegoat here who started it all, right here in MA.
Oh yeah, you're mad that people are being dropped from their healthcare coverage because Obama said they wouldn't. How about pointing the finger back at the employer first. Employers AND insurance carriers have KNOWN for years that this was coming and that many current plans do not meet ACA guidelines. Blame THEM first. They are the ones who are screwing their employees for NOT offering plans that MEET ACA guidelines. They are at fault, not Obama. The ACA is working as designed, plain and simple.
Not an Obama fan either but there's so much misinformation out there about the ACA its very very sad. And sad that people don't bother to READ and VERIFY their facts before spreading nonsense.
Miss Information, the wife of
Miss Information, the wife of Mr Information.
You really want to blame somebody?
Go after the hospitals. Print me a price list if I ask for one, or you're hiding something. It's that simple.
The nobility of healing the sick does not make you an infallible group of human beings that don't respond to financial incentives.
Agreed
100% agree. Hospitals and Doctors are to blame also for exorbitant costs that are passed onto carriers and PoS patients.
Impossible to do. Don't
Impossible to do. Don't forget, medicare and medicaid patient bills that are paid by the government are many times not paid, or paid an amount on the dollar. I've done hospital reimbursements, the fact is the government does not pay so hospitals have to make up the difference. If they didn't many hospitals would go under. I worked for one of the first hospitals to file Ch. 11.
It's not like buying a car, unfortunately.
And that, precisely, is what needs to be fixed
But that requires actual work, so the lazy president and lazy Congress won't do it.
Chicken and Egg
How do you pay something that doesn't have a set price?
Even between Hospitals in this states procedures are VASTY different in costs, so the government might be overpaying at one and underpaying at another.
Prices/lack of information are a big part of it. So is rent seeking.
But no one wants to change it, because no one wants their livelihood effected.
It's more than just hospitals.
Any health care system that is based on making money off of sick people will fail at it's purported mission -- taking care of the sick -- and succeed wildly at its principal mission -- making money.
My understanding it's the
My understanding it's the individual policy holders losing coverage. Most employer plans are fine. The bare bone plans for part timers/high turn over positions are the ones needing tweaking.
Sorry, but this is a mess - no amount of spinning will make the mess go away.
Why plans are canceling individual policies
They don't meet minimum standards.
And that begs the question:
And that begs the question: does the government have the right to force you into a different plan?
Who knows what is best for me? Me, or the government?
Government's not forcing you into a particular plan
That would be single-payer and that's only for godless Communistic heathens in Europe and Canada.
The whole point of the Republican health-insurance system the Democrats agreed to is to throw tons of extra money at insurance companies. The key part of that is an "exchange" or "connector" where you get to choose a private plan. That the federal exchange Web site isn't working is a major problem, of course, but it's not taking away your right to help keep insurance executives in fancy homes. What the government is doing is forcing insurers to meet certain minimum standards (such as actually covering hospitalization), just like the government forces car companies to produce cars that meet certain minimum safety requirements.
"Republican health-insurance system"
It was actually a bipartisan bill, something this current administration has failed to produce.
Bipartisan in the sense that Democrats signed onto it, yes
But its origins are in a Republican counter-proposal to the never-was Clinton plan.
How
do you have a STATE counter proposal to a FEDERAL (would be) proposal which NEVER excised.
If something does not exist, their is nothing to counter.
Republicans proposed it in the 1990s
Then Mitt Romney proposed it in the aughts. And got it passed. Again, the key feature is that it preserves the existing private system rather than attempting to, say, extend Medicaid to everybody.
I'm on the train and can't cite this
But didn't Medicare just enroll 100,000+ new participants in the past week or so?
Yes
Yes they do, SCOTUS has said as much.
You're required to participate or pay a fine. There's a choice there.
I'd also point out many insurers are desperately trying to keep these patients for plans that no longer meet requirements, and have even been offering better rated plans for cheaper to keep them since the exchanges + rebates are typically offering much better plans at a cheaper price than private insurance.
Competition is happening while getting rid of plans that don't really insure people but only allow access to primary care for terribly high premiums.
Thats a good thing.
DON'T CONFUSE US WITH THE
DON'T CONFUSE US WITH THE FACTS, GAFFIN!!! WE SAW IT ON THE TEEVEE IT MUST BE TRUE!!!!
Sorry if I've stepped over a
Sorry if I've stepped over a line. People are losing what coverage they had into an "acceptable" plan. Unfortunately, many are finding sticker shock.
Am I not supposed to speak of these things?
With all due respect...
... you are simply spouting right wing propaganda and not sharing anything remotely like "facts".
You mean people aren't being
You mean people aren't being forced into higher cost plans?
Wow, someone in the administration should talk to you to get their facts straight (since they basically admitted it)
Did'nt know
ACA was the same as the MA Health Care reform. O wait its not, ACA used MA as a model.
Your comparison is similar to comparing a Ford Model-T to a Ferrari Enzo. Their both cars!
its almost identical
With your analogy, the real comparison would be comparing a Plymouth Stratus to Dodge Neon.Same car, same frame, different name.
Aaahhh
But different manufacture warranty's!
Actually ...
Dodge Stratus to Plymouth Breeze. The Neon was just a Neon regardless of which label it wore.
Yeah, I'm an econocar nerd.
LOL
OK :) I was trying to think of two cars that were identical, except the name..
a couple of times, when
a couple of times, when clinton was president and came to boston, i got to see his entire motorcade: exactly 42 vehicles. No kidding. wonder if BO has 44 vehicles in his motorcade.
Order of a motorcade
This is a broad description, subject to change based on the circumstances the Secret Service feels are in play on the ground, but it should be mostly accurate:
- Local police escort (varies in size)
- Presidential limo (x3: one holding the President, a decoy, and a spare. Secret Service detail rides in the decoy and spare, AIUI)
- Electronic countermeasures van
- Control and Support vehicles (transport key staff, military aides, etc. Usually two, but may vary)
- Counter-assault team vehicle (usually one)
- Counter-surveillance team vehicle
- Hazmat vehicle
- Press vans
- Communications van
- Ambulances
Here's an MBTA alert you don't tend to see
Worcester Line shut on account of presidential motorcade on the turnpike.
FIXED
Obama had nothing but doubleplusungood intentions pushing the ACA, but its a major disaster.
"Impeach Obama"
Sorry to see only one such sign on Congress Street
Yeah, because when the
Yeah, because when the majority of Americans support the other party, impeachment is the only reasonable solution!
OMG, cannot imagine the
OMG, cannot imagine the traffic in Boston today.
It's bad..
Just came from The Haymarket Area.
The T station was a nightmare.. all the buses were using one loop. Streets blocked off.
93 didn't look like it was moving an inch, Rutherford Ave was a parking lot inbound..
Cars everywhere...
That's why I ride a
Unicycle
Oh good lord.
Leaving aside the fact that it used to be a honor, or at least a pretty cool thing, when the President of the United States visits your city, can I just tell the people whining about being inconvenienced in traffic to put on their big boy pants and stop the tantrums?
1. If you're reasonably well-informed, you knew four days ago that the President was coming.
2. You could have taken the T to work. You could have taken the T home from work. You could have left work early. You could have stayed at work a little late. Hell, you could have taken the day off if the traffic was going to be so traumatizing for you.
3. Since nothing this man does is ever going to satisfy you, it's amazing that he keeps trying. But seriously, you're whining yourselves into a sad, pathetic self-parody.
Did you tell Adam to put on
Did you tell Adam to put on his big boy pants when he used to complain about Bush/Cheney/Romney traffic?
While we're on the topic, I wrote in a previous thread that he'd probably not report on Obama traffic disruption, but he did.
Well, I see absolutely nothing here that justified
the MBTA totally shutting down the Orange Line earlier. Even "bypassing" (translation - closing off) State Street Station for a short time while the motorcade passed by UPSTAIRS seems to be classic tin-hat paranoia inspired security theater.
Unless the T had another disabled train and decided to blame Obama for it.