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New Mexico Daily Lobo
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House passes health care bill last minute WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama and House Democratic leaders struck a last-minute deal Sunday with abortion foes to secure the final few votes needed to remake America’s health care system, writing a climactic chapter in a century-old quest for near universal coverage. The House argued its way through a thicket of Republican objections toward an evening vote on the bill to extend coverage
Protest
to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. A shouting band of protesters outside the Capitol dramatized their opposition, and one man stood up in the House visitor’s gallery shouting, “Kill the bill” before he was ushered out — evidence of the passions the yearlong debate over health care has stirred. Passage of a central health care bill already cleared by the Senate would send it to Obama
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 / Page 5
for his signature. That still would leave one more step, a companion package of changes would go to the Senate. Obama lobbied by phone from the White House, then took the crucial step of issuing an executive order that satisfied a small group of Democrats who demanded that no federal funds be used for elective abortions. “We’re well past 216” votes, a majority, said Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, swinging behind the bill after leading the holdouts in a rebellion that had left the outcome in doubt.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signs the health care reform bill on Capitol Hill in Washington on Monday. . AP Photo / Daily Lobo
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minimal coverage. To pay for the bill, it “include(s) a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for families making more than $250,000 per year.” Insurance companies will also have to pay a 40 percent tax on extremely highend insurance plans, according to the site.
Artist’s Avenue
“The health care bill has radically changed into a beast,” Griffin said. Griffin said he worked over 100 hours campaigning for President Barrack Obama to be elected into office, and he is disappointed that the President allowed the bill to get to this point.
Student Derrick Heisey said the bill will increase taxes on health insurance companies and the middle class. “I’m all for health care reform, but not for this bill,” said Heisey, co-organizer of the protest. He said the entire bill is a mess.
“It shouldn’t be illegal to not get health care,” Heisey said. The CBS site said that by 2014, people who haven’t purchased health care will face a $695 annual fine. Heisey said the bill also cuts Medicare — something else he isn’t happy about. Medicare will be cut $500
billion over the next 10 years, the CBS Web site said. “Let’s say my best friend needs a liver transplant,” Heisey said. “I’d be more than happy to pitch in for his medical bills. But for someone I don’t even know? I’m not willing to do that.”
frustrating, that kind of paint. DL: So it’s not planned at all? It just flows out? RT: The thing I did decide before was the color scheme. I only brought like a few colors that night … I brought those paints, went with the color scheme and made it up as I went. I started out with all black and then brought in the white and the tan and all of sudden I started adding some red and it was so funny. People are constantly mingling and being like, “That looks so good.” Everyone was saying stuff about solar systems, moon cycles and this and that. And when I put the red on there people just kind of went nuts. Red affects people, and they were all coming up like, “Ooh red, red, red more red. Yeah, I love red.” It’s funny how color
impacts people. DL: You said you had to move a little quicker with live painting. Any other challenges? RT: Just getting over the nervousness of having people watching you and worrying you’re going to screw it up. And just trying to do it fast enough that you finish, or that it looks finished, so it looks like you did something and didn’t just do a couple of things. DL: So how do you get from the visual arts to the cinematic arts? RT: I have always been really creative and have been doing painting and all different sorts of arts. I was interested in architecture when I was a kid and all kinds of different stuff. At one point of my life, probably about the beginning of high school, I asked myself, “If you could do anything,
because you can do anything, if you could do anything, then what would it be?” and my answer was make movies. I don’t even know exactly why. I didn’t even know how movies were made. I couldn’t even comprehend that it’s actually still pictures. It’s 24 still frames per second, and I didn’t understand anything about how movies were made, but something about it was like, “That is such a cool thing, and if I can do anything then I want to do the hardest most confusing thing to me that also inspires me.” I just decided I was going to do that. I remember the first project that I edited… DL: What was the project about? RT: It was a present, kind of, for my friends for Christmas. I took all this footage of us hanging out and going around doing the things that we do. I
compiled it all into this friend video, and put some music to it. I actually made myself cry in the editing process. I put a cheesy song on it. I put Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” on there. I was in high school and that was our song. I took a video of them one after another giving each other hugs, and then I just spliced them all together, hug after hug after hug, of all these people that I love, and I put that song to it. And I watched it for the first time, and it brought a tear to my eye and I was like, “Wow, this medium is really moving.”
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bodies and our galaxies is built up using these geometric shapes and proportions. And, so, I find a lot of beauty in that. It’s innately beautiful to people, geometry. Just because it’s a part of us; we can’t help but be attracted to it. DL: So how did you get into live painting? RT: I went to a show in Denver, the “Midnight Show.” They’re a reggae band, and I saw a guy doing that … I was like, “Whoa, you can do that? I want to do that.” So I came back to Albuquerque and then there was a show going on that my friends were in. Not many people came, but it was a really good first experience. I did that one with the black light and fluorescent lights and that was fun. People love that because it just glows, but it’s also
See some of Ramona’s short films at YouTube.com/user/ RamonaTeo
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