DAMN! The Democrats bow down again.......

On the whole incident with Gates, Obama and Officer Crowly this week, Obama unfortunately bites the dust and bows down again and although the media does not pronounce his words as an apology.....to a woman like myself......it certainly feels like one....

Here is this "non-apology", read it and tell me what THAT sounds like?

"I want to make clear that in my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. Crowley specifically. And I could've calibrated those words differently."

and added that the sergeant is an "outstanding police officer and a good man."

Okay folks, that sounds like an apology to me! If we were in an argument and you called me stupid, then said these words to me, I would feel like you apologized and we are okay again.....LOL. I'd love to see Obama actually stand firm on his beliefs and not try to be so partisan....After all, he was elected by a huge majority. The Republi-cons (my husband's phrase) do not care about partisanship, they cry and cry "bi-partisan!" only when things do not go exactly as they'd like....but in fact, they themselves are not partisan and never back out, never apologize or otherwise. Obama acts as if he were a meek player in the game and as if he did not have the upper hand. here we are with a democratic majority in all fronts and we are still cowering.....

That fact of the matter is that he did not need to apologize for his comments. Gates was in his own home, walks with a cane and is an elderly man. To walk up to this man and handcuff him was "stupid".....no ifs, ands, or buts.

Oh, by the way the tags "Republi-cons" and "Demo-cowards" are my husband's inventions....I just heard him use it 2 days ago and thought them to be very fitting and it made me laugh. I keep telling him he should start a blog....so far no luck.

Recesssion, Pandemic and ......Abortion#*@? and other issues....

Of all the things President Obama could be addressing right now, he's addressing abortion? Can we worry about the suffering and the living please! We are in the middle of a recession where millions are without jobs and more coming, we are facing a possible pandemic where thousands could be affected and die and he's addressing abortion....and at a graduation! I am pro-choice all the way but this is not the time to address this issue.....there are more pressing issues I would love to see addressed. 100% of the people I know and am associated with are not sitting around thinking about abortion......most people I know are worried about retaining their jobs or finding one....

As a point aside, I read some article about his speech on Yahoo News and saw that the rowdy protester was interviewed for the article. That is simply unfair. When thousands of protesters stood around for days in front of the Republican Convention in 2008 I did not read one interview of these people in the mainstream news.....not one.....they were simply referred to as the protesters and there was some mention of police riot gear, but no luxury of an interview!!! The media tries to show us how these people protesting are the majority, yet I'd seriously question that facade.  

Now there is a handful of rude protesters who break in to a commencement, call the President of the United States a "baby killer" and they get coverage!!.....and they have the gaul to call the media a liberal media...please! Who is dumb enough to believe that! Here is the 2-second moment of fame for this gal who by the way does not sound too bright. Her comment is annoyingly typical of what most people who dislike Obama has to say about him.....it's always some fictional character -flaw they and they alone see in him....hey, If you are going to disagree with the man you could at least address the issues, and not his character.

One of the protesters at Notre Dame, Jill Stanek, an anti-abortion blogger who did not support Obama, said

“It was just a regurgitation of things he’s said for a long time,” Stanek said. “He’s so good at expressing your point of view, so people are lulled into thinking he agrees

with them, and he doesn’t. It’s just so typical Barack Obama.”

Obama...CHANGE.....If not now....when?

I was very disappointed last week when I heard President Obama's response to an inquiry about why single payer insurance is being shoved off the table. Here's the transcript:

Linda Allison: “My question is, so many people go bankrupt using their credit cards to pay for healthcare. Why have they taken single payer off the plate? And why is Senator Baucus on the Finance Committee discussing healthcare, when he has received so much money from the pharmaceutical companies? Isn’t it a conflict of interest?”

President Obama: “If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense. That’s the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world. The only problem is that we’re not starting from scratch. We have historically a tradition of employer-based healthcare. And although there are a lot of people who are not satisfied with their healthcare, the truth is, is that the vast majority of people currently get healthcare from their employers, and you’ve got this system that’s already in place. We don’t want a huge disruption as we go into healthcare reform, where suddenly we’re trying to completely reinvent one-sixth of the economy.”

This basically tells me he's afraid to "shake the boat". I was hoping he'd do more than just go with the status quo......we has the majority in all 3 houses, he won by an overwhelming majority....This country is ready for the change he so spoke of during his campaign. Also, if now is not the time....the country will never again be this ripe for change.....ever. What is he so afraid of?  The entire country is behind him.....This makes me so furious....

21,000 New Troops in Afghanistan....This is an OUTRAGE!!

I voted for Obama yet I am appalled at how few people who voted for him know about his latest military efforts in Afghanistan.  His latest move to send 4,000 new troops after already having sent 17,000 combat troops last month is an outrage and a slap on the face to all who voted for him because they wanted the US out of the Middle East.  I have looked everywhere online and not one place I am able to read SPECIFICS about why the heck we are there!  What ARE we doing there? 

One fact I did read on DemocracyNow.org was that on Thursday, "National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair estimated some two-thirds of pro-Taliban groups are motivated by basic concerns such as inadequate water supplies or access to education." Can someone tell me what 17,000 COMBAT soldiers will do there to alleviate this situation?   

In the NY Times I read they are being sent to help focus "the overall American mission more explicitly around efforts to root out Al Qaeda." and Defense Secretary, Robert Gates states how he thinks that, "Our long-term objective still would be to see a flourishing democracy in Afghanistan.” 

I'm FOR democracy just as any other American...but our country is in crisis....and we do not need to spend our money on external priorities.  And "According to the Center for Defense Information, the estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach $864 BILLION by the end of fiscal year 2009".  This year (2009) we will spend about $33 billion more than last year's $140 billion. Do you have any idea how helpful this money could do in our country?

A site I like to visit often is called http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

It takes the cost of our war in Iraq and gives you what the tradeoffs would be in your community. Try it...it's fun AND VERY SCARY.   I did and here is what I found out this dizzying info: "Taxpayers in New York will pay $58.9 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided: 10,854,125 People with Health Care for One Year" When I read this I see how all our country's problems could easily be solved if our politician really wanted to fix them......

I voted for Obama for change, not status quo......I am an American Citizen who is struggling with health care for my own family and I feel it's not right to prioritize in democratizing a country over the welfare of our own citizens. 

I will e-mail President Obama tonight about this.....you too can at his online e-mail contact at www.whitehouse.gov. 

Proud Latte-Drinking Liberal

Okay....I don't actually drink latte...ever.....but I am a proud liberal nevertheless.....

I caught the last part of this movie in HBO called Right America: Feeling Wronged.  It's a documentary about a filmmaker who travels across America to talk to conservatives. How scary it was to watch. Some people would call President Obama a Muslim, a terrorist and some even equated his youth followers to "Hitler Youth".......Plus, too many of them were beyond livid over the fact that he refused to wear a USA flag pin....and I MEAN livid. 

More than ever I feel proud to be liberal in my views of the world, politics....parenting....etc. I feel conservatives always come at you with their general fear of change.... Too often, their politics are very exclusive in nature as only benefitting the middle class and above and totally ignoring a huge segment of our population.  Overall, someone is getting excluded.  Their message is often expressed through anger and vengefulness and their wishes for the world flowing against the current of the recent consciousness. 

All my life I've felt most comfortable on the side of the oppressed. Being Latina I have seen members of my family mistreated just because they could not speak English. I myself, have felt the lowered expectations of most my elementary school teachers all the way up to high school. Pair that with a general distrust of authority and you have a liberal. 

I have made a vow to myself to not turn away from the gore of others' suffering, no matter who or where. I know and feel that the only thing that WILL save this world is our compassion for others. Once we turn all others into enemies, we have war. To have these people on this movie come out and proclaim that Obama reminded them of Hitler is a perfect example of the rampant ignorance that fills our world. Had these people taken one minute to questions their fear in an Obama administration they might see their own shadow scare them away. 

I think that is why buddhism appeals to me so deeply. It's philosophy is meant to release you from the bonds of wanting an end result and just turning your eye to the beauty that exist in all things; even the most mundane things. 

WE'RE STILL AT WAR......IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION

Okay people, I am so appalled that we're still there.....the American death toll is 4259.......remember when it got to two thousand and we were outraged?  

The total US wounded is 31,087. THIRTY ONE THOUSAND EIGHTY SEVEN....

 While on the topic of wounded soldiers, I watched a documentary movie, Body of War, Last night about the life of a wounded soldier who served in Iraq. He was paralyzed from the waist down. Since the injury he's travelled all over in his wheelchair protesting the war. But watching his daily life of catheters, pain, throwing up, no sex with his wife, being dizzy all the time.   I multiply his life times 31 THOUSAND......how many more lives have to be destroyed this way? I strongly feel that as an American it's your duty to watch this movie and see the gore of war....."Do not anaesthetise the war" says Phil Donahue, the man behind this movie. I agree.  I have never quite understood people who claim to support our soldiers, glorify the soldiers, yet will not face the ugly side of this war, such as the injured, the dead, the families who lost their sons and daughters.........I think all teens should absolutely watch it without question...The great thing is you can watch the trailer on YOUTUBE right now.....

Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health,  said in an e-mail "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities." To read this article go to CBS News.

Take 5 minutes and send President Obama an e-mail asking him to get out troops out of there.....NOW.....Sooner...faster........What ARE we doing there?!!!#$%

Other articles to read: War Veterans Cuncussions are Being Overlooked, NYT

President Obama.....Put Single-Payer on the Table...Fire Private Insurance

I just found this great article by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now about getting Single-Payer Insurance back on the table...an absolute MUST read....

Posted on Mar 10, 2009

By Amy Goodman

President Barack Obama promises health-care reform, but he has taken single-payer health care off the table. Single-payer is the system that removes private insurance companies from the picture; the government pays all the bills, but health-care delivery remains private. People still get their choice of what doctor to go to and what hospital to use. Single-payer reduces the administrative costs and removes the profit that insurance companies add to health-care delivery. Single-payer solutions, however, get almost no space in the debate.

A study just released by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group, found that in the week before Obama’s health-care summit, of the hundreds of stories that appeared in major newspapers and on the networks, “only five included the views of advocates of single-payer—none of which appeared on television.” Most opinion columns that mentioned single-payer were written by opponents.

Congress is considering H.R. 676, “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All,” sponsored by John Conyers, D-Mich., with 64 co-sponsors. Yet even when Rep. Conyers directly asked Obama at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting if he could attend the White House health-care summit, he was not immediately invited. Nor was any other advocate for single-payer health care.

Conyers had asked to bring Dr. Marcia Angell, the first woman editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, the most prestigious medical journal in the country, and Dr. Quentin Young. Young is perhaps the most well-known single-payer advocate in America. He was Martin Luther King Jr.’s doctor when King lived in Chicago. “My 15-minute house calls would stretch into three hours,” he told me.

But he came to know Barack Obama even better. Though his medical partner was Obama’s doctor, Young was his neighbor, friend and ally for decades. “Obama supported single-payer, gave speeches for it,” he said.

This past weekend, hundreds turned out to honor the 85-year-old Young, including the Illinois governor and three members of Congress, but the White House’s response to Conyers’ request that Young be included in the summit? A resounding no. Perhaps because Obama personally knows how persuasive and committed Young is.

After much outcry, Conyers was invited. Activist groups like Physicians for a National Health Program (pnhp.org) expressed outrage that no other single-payer advocate was to be among the 120 people at the summit. Finally, the White House relented and invited Dr. Oliver Fein, president of PNHP. Two people out of 120.

Locked out of the debate, silenced by the media, single-payer advocates are taking action. Russell Mokhiber, who writes and edits the Corporate Crime Reporter, has decided that the time has come to directly confront the problem of our broken health-care system. He’s going to the national meeting of the American Health Insurance Plans and is joining others in burning their health-insurance bills outside in protest. Mokhiber told me, “The insurance companies have no place in the health care of American people. How are we going to beat these people? We have to start the direct confrontation.” Launching a new organization, Single Payer Action (singlepayeraction.org), Mokhiber and others promise to take the issue to the insurance industry executives, the lobbyists and the members of Congress directly, in Washington, D.C., and their home district offices.

Critical mass is building behind a single-payer system. From Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph Stiglitz, who told me, “I’ve reluctantly come to the view that it’s the only alternative,” to health-care providers themselves, who witness and endure the system’s failure firsthand. Geri Jenkins of the newly formed, 150,000-nurses-strong United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee (nnoc.net) said: “It is the only health-care-reform proposal that can work. ... We are currently pushing to have a genuine, honest policy debate, because we’ll win ... the health insurers will collapse under the weight of their own irrelevance.”

Dr. Young has now been invited to a Senate meeting along with the “usual suspects”: health-insurance providers, Big Pharma and health-care-reform advocates. I asked Young what he thought of the refrain coming from the White House, as well as from the leading senator on the issue, Max Baucus, that “single-payer is off the table.” “It’s repulsive,” sighed Young. “We are very angry.” But not discouraged. I asked him what he thought about Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day. “Things are heating up.” he chuckled. “When things are happening that you have nothing to do with, you know it’s a movement.”

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 700 stations in North America. She was awarded the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the “Alternative Nobel” prize, and received the award in the Swedish Parliament in December.

© 2009 Amy Goodman

Dear President Obama..I cast my vote for UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, Single Payer and Not For Profit

Image found at  www.cartoonstock.com 

Dear President Obama, 

     I am one of the 46 million uninsured Americans in this country. I am a school art teacher, an artist and a mother of two toddlers who simply cannot afford the exorbitant monthly health insurance rates. Please have the courage to consider a true a long look at a single player, not for profit Universal Health Care.I strongly feel that doctors, nurses, and medical professionals must run our health care system -- not "for-profit" insurance companies, who make money and get rich by denying us all health care. What do they know about health anyway?  Health care is a right all Americans deserve.  

If we ever wish to restore our super power status we cannot be the only modern country to allows 18,000 of its citizens to die each year simply due to lack of insurance. That is an unforgivable loss for a leading nation. 

I look forward to supporting your efforts and wish you and your wonderful family the best 8 years. 

   Miriam Cutelis

 ************

I urge you to send President Obama your ideas as well. be counted! 

Go to 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

It's That Easy!

Source information below taken from http://www2.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php

The following Universal Health Plan was submitted by Kucinich in 2006.  

Michael Moore who made the movie Sicko, supported HR 676 (the plan)  

The plan covers all health care needs, including dental care, mental health care, vision care, prescription drugs, and long-term care - at NO extra cost!

Kucinich's plan, HR 676, is supported by 78 Members of Congress , more than 260 Union Locals , and 14,000 physicians and is endorsed by the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

Nearly 46 million Americans have no health care and over 40 million more have only minimal coverage. In 2005 some 41% of moderate and middle income Americans went without health care for part of the year. Even more shocking is that 53% of those earning less than $20,000 went without insurance for all of 2005. In fact, the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance.

The American health system is quite sick. Pulitzer Prize journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele, in their stunning analysis of the health care industry, Critical Condition (2006 Broadway Books), insist that "... U.S. health care is second-rate at the start of the twenty-first century and destined to get a lot worse and much more expensive." Consider the following facts from Tom Daschle's article for the Center for American Progress: "Paying More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform":

Fact of Fiction?

Americans are The Healthiest People in the World.
FACT: Citizens of 34 nations live longer than Americans.

The U.S. is the Best Place to Get Sick.
FACT: The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world for health system performance. Countries like Australia and the United Kingdom rank above the U.S. Americans have lower odds of surviving colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia than Canadians who do have national health care. Americans also experience greater problems in coordination of care than the previously mentioned countries and New Zealand.

Covering All Americans Will Lead to Rationing.
FACT: Same-day access to primary-care physicians in the U.S. (33%) is far less available than in the United Kingdom (41%), Australia (54%) and New Zealand (60%). Per capita spending for health care averaged $2,696 in countries without waiting lists and $5,267 in the U.S.
Global Competitiveness is Hampered in Comprehensive System.
FACT: "Health care costs are not just a burden and barrier to care for individuals; they are taking a heavy toll on American businesses." The strain on employers in 2005 was staggering. "The average total premiums for an employer-based family plan was $9,979 in 2005 ..." Most of our competitors in the world markets finance their systems outside corporate taxes and employer mandates. Without Medicare for Everyone, the U.S. will continue to hemorrhage jobs.

We Cannot Afford to Cover All Americans.
FACT: We already spend enough to have universal health care. "The truth is, we cannot afford to not reform the health system." We spend about 50% more than the next most expensive nation and nearly twice per person what the Canadians do. On May 1, 2006 Paul Krugman explained in Death by Insurance how incredibly wasteful the current system is. The doctor he referenced has two full-time staff members for billing, and two secretaries spend half their time collecting insurance information on the 301 different private plans they deal with. This type of waste is easily 20%. Also consider that 98% of Medicare funds are spent on medical care.

*****

IMPORTANT: The hackneyed -- and inaccurate -- mantra of Republicans when universal health care is introduced is to blame trial lawyers and malpractice cases for our lack of national health care. In fact, 0.46% of our total health spending is spent on awards, legal costs, and underwriting costs -- about the same as Canada and the United Kingdom and about the same amount we spend on dog and cat food each year. While "defensive medicine" may drive up the price, it hardly accounts for our stunning health care costs. The belief that citizens should give up their right to fair legal redress for legally proven medical mistakes in exchange for lower health care costs rings as true as the promise that if we must give up our civil rights to be safe from terrorists.

Even those with coverage too often pay exorbitant rates. The current profit-driven system, dominated by private insurance firms and their bureaucracies, has failed.

We must establish streamlined national health insurance, "Enhanced Medicare for Everyone." It would be publicly financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control of the system. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.

"Mainstream" writers like Ph. D. economist and columnist for the New York Times Paul Krugman now agree with those doctors and Dennis that "covering everyone under Medicare would actually be significantly cheaper than our current system." They all recognize that we already spend enough to provide national health care to all but lack the political courage to make the tough decision that doctors, nurses, and medical professionals must run our health care system -- not "for-profit" insurance companies, who make money by denying health care.

 Health care is a right that all Americans deserve.

HEALTH REFORM, Every Voice Has to Be Heard....AN INVITE TO WRITE TO THE PRESIDENT

Okay everyone. You heard the Man!!

"Every voice has to be heard. Every idea must be considered ... The status quo is the one option that is not on the table,"

Now go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/ and give President Obama your idea for how this health system should be reformed. 

Copy and paste this URL and send to your friends as well.....

If you don't know enough, use google and take the time to find out more...

but make sure you write him.  

I will post my letter in a few days. 

My Two Cents on the Anti-foreclosure Plan

The very bare-boned basic facts of the Foreclosure plan set out by President Obama are the following. The plan will allow lenders and borrowers come to new terms. Most of the funds will pay for incentive money to encourage lenders to modify troubled loans and to subsidize lower interest rates to reduce borrowers’ monthly payments. Yet, after five years, the interest rate will begin to gradually adjust upward again. 

 Although this plan could possibly help four million at-risk homeowners to stay in their homes, I can't help to this this as a temporary solution. I assume that what drove most of these desperate  people who are so close to losing their homes, was buying homes they could not really afford. I hate to paint a broad brush across this problem, yet one cannot deny that greed is the fundamental root of this problem; on the part of the banks, mortgage companies and yes, the home buyers. I can't help thinking that this plan will simply postpone the inevitable; the eventual loss of the home. If most Americans feel they are somehow entitled to being a home owner, regardless of their financial situation, then the issue is more about what we feel we need to have to be part of the "American dream".  For if one does not know how to live simply and wisely within their financial means, always craves for more than they have,  then the problem will never be solved by just throwing more money at it. 

My husband and I did not buy a home during the boom. We simply could not afford it. We wanted one very much, but realistically we could not do it at that time. We saved money instead and now have more than enough for a 20% down payment. Therefore, now that homes are more reasonably priced, we are finally looking.  Yet, in looking at President Obama's Plan, where is the reward in being responsible when people who lacked self-control and sound judgement are being offered reduced interest rates among other concessions. 

I absolutely feel it's a horrible thing to lose a home. It must be a terrifying and desperate situation for the entire family. Yet, in trying to explain my position I am reminded of Suzy Orman who told a single mom on Oprah who were about to lose their home that they should sell to the lowest bidder and get a one-bedroom apartment as a way to make ends meet comfortably. Worse things have happened. 

Now if only President Obama would just come up with a home incentive (more than the 8K one form the stimulus package) to help home buyers who do have a qualifications and down-payment buy a home. It would fill up a lot of those empty homes in no time, and maybe get things moving once again. 

A Word About The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

I just had to read more about this Recovery and Reinvestment Plan and surprisingly found more info on it on Wikipedia.  I love Wikipedia, but that is an entire new post for another day. 

To set the tone for my views I have to bring out this one line first, "

"On January 28, 2009, a full page advertisement with the names of approximately 200 economists who are against Obama's plan appeared in The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal. The funding for this advertisement came from from the libertarian Cato Institute. The ad stated, "... we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s... To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, savings, investment, and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."

Remove impediments to investments! Isn't that what got us into this ridiculous mess to begin with....de-regulation?  BURDEN OF GOVERNMENT! Government is only a burden to bankers and investors who started this whole problem...These are the same people that cry "socialism" whenever the middle class (and all the way down to the poor) asks for the same benefits they enjoy.  

It makes me sad when this rhetoric of being against BIG GOVERNMENT gets repeated by people who would benefit from big government. These very people run around unaware that the public school system is a socialist framework, and so is the U.S.Mail.....We certainly enjoy these amazingly free benefits but then are taught to believe that a government-run anything is the kiss of death. 

When regular health insurance costs runs to over 1K/month how could any person be against universal health care for example. So easily we are persuaded against such an ideal by the very people who are getting rich off of this system now, the insurance companies. They say the lines would be too long, the quality would be horrible. We stupidly believe this and cry "no" to something that might save our lives one day. For as you all very well know, just because you have insurance does not mean you will be covered for all services. The pencil-pushers non-doctors have the last say as to whether or not you get that money. 

So friends more government does not scare me one bit. What DOES scare me awake at night is our military spending. We have bases in 156 countries, totaling in 702 overseas bases and another 6,000 bases in the United States and its territories. Our military spending budgeted for 2009 $651.2 billion dollars. With this money we could make the lives of every American live in prosperity, health and well educated....but the priorities of our country is not it's people, but maintaining its status as the world power. 

As an artist I often visualize nations as people; filled with their own unique personalities. I see the U.S. often as a bully who too often indignantly cries when other countries do not follow the established rule of law, yet, we cross those same lines as we see fit with little regard for other countries and their sovereignty. When our provervial muscles are driving our actions, the heart has no say. 

As Americans, we are still in our "youth" in terms of how we see ourselves amongst other nations. As we all know,  most young people often see things in black and white and in extremes. To a young person, BIGGER IS better, louder is best....they are all ego.....To a seasoned heart, bigger is not better, and it's actually a detriment to peace to be so centered around such fake ideals of grandeur. 

We all have encountered the young driver armed in a brand new vehicle zipping past us like a maniac down the road, without one once of through to the fact that all around them are innocent lives, just trying to get from one place to another. Living in America makes most young beings crave this form of grandiosity; we live in an imagined bliss shaped by TV and movies in which we are always the protagonist. Such forms of grandiosity can be so short lived and unsubstantial. On the other hand, compassion drives the heart of a wise person. Perhaps one day America's leaders will borrow ideals from the East which emphasize compassion and camaraderie and run this country with a set of priorities congruent with these ideals. To think that bigger is better is the ideal of a young mind....we need to grow up. 

Would love to hear your comments. 

Awesome Bill Moyer's Interview About Obama and the Bailout

Bill Moyers

I just finished listening to this fantastic podcast of a Bill Moyers interview around the issue of Obama and the Bailout with two very smart fellows and have decided to post excepts of some of my favorite parts. One of the speakers is historian Thomas Frank who wrote the best-seller "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and "The Wrecking Crew." He is a columnist with the "Wall Street Journal".  The other fellow is David Sirota spent years in electoral politics and now is in political journalism. His column appears in newspapers across the country and he's written two best selling books, "Hostile Takeover" and "The Uprising".

Excepts: 

David Sirota

DAVID SIROTA: We've gotten all of the bad stuff and none of the good stuff of nationalization. Nationalization in other countries means that the government has control over the banks with that money that they put into the bank.....What we have done is simply handed the money over with no mandate to actually change the behavior, change the structure of the banks, change the management of the banks. 

******

BILL MOYERS: Do either of you see any toughness in Obama as he approaches this issue?

DAVID SIROTA: Unfortunately, I think the actions that he has taken have been ones that are much more towards the status quo.....He has put in place into his administration people who have been either involved in the current bailout — Tim Geithner — or people who have really advocated for lots of the same free market fundamentalism that this bailout really epitomizes.  

*******

Thomas Frank

BILL MOYERS: Tom, you even wrote a column the other day with the headline that said, in the "Wall Street Journal", "Obama should act like he won." Is he doing that?

THOMAS FRANK: You know, it's a funny thing because he — I love Obama. I voted for him many times. He was my state senator back in Chicago. I've, you know, followed this guy's career for ages. I think he's the greatest thing in the world. I don't understand why a man that just won a sweeping victory over the other party — you know, won a landslide in the electoral college and the other party, you know, is crawling off with its tail between its legs, you know, horribly discredited, everything they believe in ruins.

And he goes to that party and says, you know — he wanted a majority of the Republican votes in the Senate for his stimulus package as well as, of course, the Democrats. And I read that, I was, like, well, why? You just gave them a whooping that they're not going to forget in a long time, you know? You are in charge.

Let them, you know, why go to them? Let them come to you. And I think — you know what I think is going to happen is that he's going to discover very quickly what Bill Clinton discovered but then Bill Clinton never — you know, that these guys are implacable, you know? That they are not going to come around, that they don't have his best interests at heart. And they don't even have the nation's best interests at heart. I'm sorry. I'm very partisan.

********

BILL MOYERS: Well we'll find out what this means as President Obama confronts one of his first big challenges — the bankers and the bailout.

Usually it's the bandits robbing the banks. But now it's getting hard to tell the bankers from the bandits. Where have they stashed the loot — that 350 billion dollars of our money that the Bush Administration lavished on them to jump-start our failing economy?

For a story in last Sunday's "New York Times", largely overlooked in all the pre-inaugural hoopla, reporter Mike Mcintire reviewed investor presentations and conference calls to see how bankers talk when they think the rest of us aren't listening.

This from Boston Private Wealth Management, a healthy bank that was handed $154 million:

"With that capital in hand [...] we'll be in a position to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves once this recession is sorted out."

Once this recession is sorted out? Those funds are supposed to generate loans for people and small businesses in trouble — not to help banks ride out the recession on a cushion of cash.

Then there's this bit of Simon Legree mustache-twirling from the chairman of Whitney National Bank in New Orleans. They've received 300 million dollars in bailout boodle:

"Make more loans?" he asked. "We're not going to change our business model or our credit policies to accommodate the needs of the public sector as they see it to have us make more loans."

I'm not making this up — Flushing Financial crowed that it was newly flush enough to use the bailout bucks to raise the ante and buy new companies:

"We can get $70 million in capital," their CEO said. "So, I would say the price of poker, so to speak, has gone up." And, so to speak, he's playing with our chips!

REP. JESSE JACKSON, JR.:The joint resolution is passed.

You can download the entire interview on Itunes, or Bill Moyer's site. 

Would love to hear your comments on this interview. 

Obama Reverses Bush abortion-funds Policy---What A Wonderful Surprise

          As a strong pro-choice advocate, I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised at this move; and on his second day!!!  I was under the belief that our new president was to the right of center and as happy as I was about his presidency, I had a lot of reservations about real change really happening. Maybe things are looking up after all.  I cannot wait to see what comes next. 

          I read a very interesting and informative blog piece about this issue on Beliefnet.com called Is Repealing the Anti-Abortion "Gag Rule" Actually a Pro-Life Position? by Steven Waldman, author of Founding Faith and Editor-In-Chief of Beliefnet.com. 

Here are some facts I found in this article:

1. The repeal will not fund abortions

2. The repeal will reduce number of abortions around the world

3. The repeal would prevent countless pregnancy-related deaths and illnesses worldwide.

4. The repeal would save the lives of countless children worldwide.

5. The repeal would fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STIs.

6. The repeal would restore a wide range of health services.

Messages for the New President!

          What an amazing moment to be a part of.  I need to go and get 10 copies of tomorrow's paper to save.           Today I attended the Obama Inaguration celebration at P.S. 132Q in Springfield, NY (Queens, NY).  It was held at the school's auditorium and what an electrifying moment is was to be sitting in a room full of children, most African American and knowing how this would be one day they will never forget.           

          When I came home I put Nora down and looked online for images.  Being a visual person, I wanted to see if there were any images that would encompass the day's emotions.  On Al-Jazeera News Online I found these great video messages from all over the world for our new president.  I think that is a great idea!  Perhaps I will try to find other links to these types of messages and bring them to this site.  

         I also found a great article about what MLK would have thought of President Obama. It is written by Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black Agenda Report, and here he explains why he rejects ties between the US president-elect and the iconic civil rights leader.  I agree with some aspects of this article, such as the fact that many (1) people often are unable to spell out President Obama's policy stances and (2) the fact that he has been silent about current atrocities and on the fact that (3) he's pretty much right of center on most of his policies. Having said all that I am hopeful that he will address some severely ignored problems and wish him the best!! 

Below are images from Kenya! Taken from Yahoo News/Associated Press

OOOOOOObama!

          This is truly an amazing moment. I love all the wonderful pictures coming in from DC.....These images I found on Yahoo News Slideshows. Very Exciting!