Merit pay is ok, but school teachers need a annual pay increase because we can barely make ends meet, and save money for retirement.
Teachers work hard, and we deserve to be paid accordingly. So, can we (teachers) receive an annual pay increase like the military employees are receiving. We would certaintly appreciate it!
Thank You
Thank You!
Even if President Obama doesn't get everything he wants accomplished as president, and even if he doesn't satisfy all American's beliefs and ideologies, at least he got ALL people thinking and talking about issues that were rarely discussed in an open forum. Issues such as: political integrity, healthcare, stem cell research, racism, honesty, etc... And, President Obama has even helped ALL OF US realize how lazy, neglectful, and non-productive some of our elected officials have been over the years.
So, way to go President Obama and Vice-President Biden!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get 'er Done!
President Obama is making the right decisions for America, but many people can't see it yet.
Exclusive! In his first Sunday morning television interview since winning the election, President-elect Barack Obama joins Tom Brokaw to discuss the economy, foreign policy and the upcoming transition of power.
Tea with Barack Obama's sisterMaya Soetoro-Ng on her 'awesome' big brother, his early presidential leanings and their mother's legacy of hope. By Stuart ColemanOct. 23, 2008 | When I met Maya Soetoro-Ng at a small cafe in Honolulu last week, we talked mostly about her brother, Barack Obama. She had been campaigning for him but had taken time off to care for their ailing grandmother. Soetoro-Ng didn't know then that 85-year-old Madelyn Dunham's health would become more fragile and that her brother would be flying back to Hawaii to visit her with less than two weeks to go before Election Day, followed by flocks of reporters and an impressive lead in the polls.Talking over tea, I was struck by how different she looks from her brother, who is nine years her senior. Maya is a half-Indonesian woman with light skin, dark hair and a deep voice. Although they had different fathers and lived apart for many years, she and Barack were both raised by the same mother and grandparents.While Barack went to Harvard, his father's alma mater, to get his law degree, Maya went to the University of Hawaii like her mother and earned a Ph.D. in education. She now teaches at a girls school in Honolulu , where she lives with her husband, Konrad Ng, and their daughter.
Did you ever imagine Barack becoming president? There was this joke in our childhood that he was going to be the first African-American president ... but it was based on the fact that he was so bossy and he was always winning arguments! You know, he was always trying to tell people what to do so we were like, 'Oh, yes, Mr. President!' There's a difference between a family joke and having a real concrete understanding. No, I didn't think that this would happen, or even could happen, until perhaps just after the 2004 Democratic convention when he made that big speech.
What changed after that speech? He started being recognized and people started really investing their own hopes and aspirations in him, and there were these Draft Obama movements all over the country. But even then, we thought, 'All right, the Senate, that's big -- you can effect a lot of change with that.' We weren't really thinking beyond that.
When did you first learn that he had aspirations for the nation's highest office? I remember a few years ago going into his office, and he was pacing and frustrated, and I said, 'What's wrong?' This is in Chicago in his home office. He said, 'I don't know. I feel like I'm floundering, like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, that I could be doing more, that I haven't quite found my path, my mission.' I started laughing at him because I was like, 'You are the only guy who could be a state senator, a law professor and a civil rights lawyer and feel like you're underachieving.' The big joke became, 'Finally, you're not underachieving!'
What was Barack like as a big brother? He was an amazing big brother. I've obviously said that a lot, but I mean it. He really was much more attentive than anyone his age could be expected to be.
As a teenager, you went to stay with Barack when he was working as a community organizer in Chicago . Is this when you feel like you began to know him as an adult and an individual? He was in his 20s so he was pretty young to be taking over the care of his teenage sister. He took me to several colleges around the country to help me make the good decision about where to go to school. He let me stay with him and helped me get my first job. He took me to festivals and fairs and museums. He enrolled me in classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, and I studied dance there. He was awesome! He showed me his life and an impressive dedication to service. I was a teenager then, and our relationship really hasn't changed.
Is it strange seeing what a national and international phenomenon your brother has become? It's kind of like I'm loaning him out to the rest of the world. I get a wee bit less of him, but he's still the same guy. I don't feel like there's a huge disconnect between the man I see on the television and the man who calls me at night. The smile is the same, the sense of humor is the same, and the ears are the same, and the voice is the same. And it's the same with his politics. He's working now to represent more people, to be more broadly inclusive in his representation. He can't really afford to think, 'Who am I?' Now, it's more like, 'Who are we as a nation? Or who do we want to be? And how can I help facilitate a stronger, broader, unified identity?'
The McCain campaign has been very aggressive. What do you say to people who say that your brother needs to fight back more? I say that he cannot be something other than who he is. This is a man who fights by thinking about what you can do to make the country better, to enhance our will, to expand the parameters of possibility. I think he's done a fairly good job letting people know that he's not weak, that he's decisive; he's not impulsive, but he's decisive, and he's not afraid to act. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that you have to get nasty. It doesn't mean that you have to transform your personality. He can't. He can only be who he is, and who he is is somebody who is very strong and competitive, believe me, but he's not nasty.I think a lot of people don't realize there is honor and dignity in the way that he's carried out his campaign. For the most part, I think he's done an extraordinary job. But I think there are other people who mistake the smile for softness or the civility for weakness.
Does he ever get mad? He gets irritated. He doesn't get mad unless someone's saying something about his family. He gets protective, and then he'll get mad. You know, like a time or two, he's said, 'Leave Michelle alone.' Fortunately, there haven't been too many people who have criticized her or the kids -- that would make him mad. I haven't really seen him mad; I've seen him irritated and kind of disappointed -- disappointed in the media or disappointed in his opponents.
Has this campaign changed him? In spite of his really hectic schedule, we speak regularly. I've been campaigning for him, of course, so I've seen him quite a bit this past year. Every year, he comes to Hawaii and spends time with his family. He makes sure that he takes me out on our sibling lunch, and we go and scatter flowers at the place where we scattered our mother's ashes. He's marvelously consistent and knows how he is. He's very rooted, and he lets us know that he's there for us.
What do you think your mother Ann Dunham's legacy was? Definitely, without a doubt, her compassion and empathy, her ability to see the humanity of other people, her hopefulness -- she was eternally hopeful. You think about this woman with two failed marriages that she really, really wanted to work, but she still believed in marriage. She witnessed all kinds of poverty, inequality and injustice and oppression, but she still believed in human beings and their potential to do good.
Who was more influential, your mother or your grandmother? Both. I think they each gave Barack something separate. Our mother was more of a dreamer, but she was also very pragmatic when she needed to be. And our grandmother was very practical, no nonsense, but was also our emotional tether when she needed to be. I mean, she's the reason we could make all of these choices and we could operate bravely in our own lives because we knew she was there.
He has had some strong women in his life. He couldn't help but be a feminist. That's what I've been saying for this whole campaign! I've been calling him a feminist for the last year. People laugh, but I think it's true.
How do you think Barack has changed people's view of race in America ? I think the impact is different for different people. My feeling is that for those who needed a strong symbol of black America , he's offered something valuable in representing race that way. But I think for those who were ready to deemphasize race, he's all for that as well. The campaign has never really been about race, from his perspective. People have tried to make it about race, but he's insisted throughout that it wasn't about race.
How does his mixed-raced identity affect his view of the world? I think it affects me more. He is less interested in the questions of his own hybridity ... it's sort of like 'I am what I am -- let's not overanalyze.' For me, it's really important because I feel like we don't teach multicultural education in ways that are particularly meaningful.
As a feminist yourself, what do you think of Sarah Palin? I don't care for her.
Why? We have different politics, and that's it really. And I really don't care for the way she has been deliberately misdirecting the attention of the American people when it comes to my brother. I'm protective because I love him.
You are invited to the 'Party of CHANGE'!
No need to RSVP Keith because you are welcome ANYTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are going to party during the inaugration!!! Work it out Obama and Biden, Rock On!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!! Yeah Baby!!!!!!!
Congratulations to Obama and Biden!
OBAMA TO PIONEER WEB OUTREACH AS PRESIDENT
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer Beth Fouhy, Associated Press
NEW YORK – Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 — an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect's vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House.
If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress.
"He's built the largest network anyone has ever seen in politics, and congressional Republicans are clueless about the communications shift that has happened," Democratic strategist Joe Trippi proclaims. The results, he says, "will be amazing to watch.
"Hopefully, Obama will be a president for all Americans, not just the political supporters on his e-mail list," said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant.
Obama's people know they'll have to extend their reach.
Obama's team is determining how best to convert his army of online activists into a viral lobbying and communications machine.
Staffers are reluctant to discuss specifics, but Obama clearly is poised to become the first truly "wired" president of the digital age.
For legal and privacy reasons, Obama's campaign list must be kept separate from White House operations. Aides are figuring out if that list should be run through the Democratic National Committee or as a freestanding political entity that will eventually become his 2012 re-election committee.
But transition officials have already begun a new digital outreach effort, based on the campaign model, aimed at supporters and others interested in being connected to the activities of the Obama White House.
The transition operation has a new Web site, http://www.change.gov, designed for anyone who wants to post a message of congratulations, offer suggestions for the new administration or apply for a government job.
People are invited to submit their names and e-mail addresses, with the goal of creating a new list for the president-elect to tap when he wants to communicate directly about a program he's promoting or seek help urging members of Congress to support legislation he's proposed.
"Just imagine what happens when a congressman comes back to his district and 500 people are lined up for his town hall meeting because they got an e-mail from Obama urging them to attend," said Thomas Gensemer, managing partner of Blue State Digital which designed Obama's campaign Web site and change.gov.
If rumor is true, I think it is ok for President Obama to feel out what others are thinking about who should be SOS.
Hillary SOS - NO! Let's hope she was offered the Health Care 'Crisis' position because that's her passion. Hillary has to become more rational and logical in her thinking if she wants to work for the Obama administration of CHANGE. Plus, she's lacking in foreign policy experience abroad, and she's not the favorite amongst foreign dignitaries. Does she speak any other language than English?For SOS, what about Colin Powel, John Kerry, Bill Richardson, Condi Rice, Al Gore, even Chris Dodd?I'm not in favor of the Clinton's being in any high end cabinet position right now. I'm truly sick of them being considered for anything besides the healthcare crisis or something like that. They do not represent the REAL CHANGE we need in today's society. Hillary was divisive during the campaign, so what makes us think she won't come with her own agenda or ulterior motives. SOS, this must be a joke right!
Can You Say Mismanagement????????????????????
HALT the BAILOUTS, and attach PRECONDITIONS. Now, everybody needs a bailout. Hindsight is 20/20.
I'm one of the many Americans who is against Bailouts for corporations, financial institutions, and the like.
Why should I contribute my hard earned pennies to bailout any mismanaged business. All companies who need a bailout should cut cost, corners, and take a pay cut, or reject any pay-offs.
How will these entities ever learn a valuable lesson if they are spared? Yes, I know many people will lose jobs, but it's not the workers fault, it's the fault of mismanagement, greed, and short-sightedness. Instead, give the bailout money to people who are loosing their shirts, homes, and dignity. It's time the working class got a piece of the pie literally.
I'm serious, bail us out; the workers. Of course the struggling companies are going to say they will fail if they don't get help soon, but I don't believe it. Have you ever driven by a new car lot? I can't believe all the over-production of vehicles sitting on the car lots.
Have you ever seen the financial institution's lavish lifestyles? Well, they aren't hurting, and if they are it's on 'their income level'.
NO BAILOUT! Stop All Bailouts NOW!
Poor to Average Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
Americans like 12-year-old Tamara Agguire (far right) of Ponca City, OK
RICH AMERICANS live like this! It's all good, but I'm against mismanagement!
BAIL OUT THE:
Teacher
Nurse
Salon Owner
Home Owner
Doctor
Small Business
Policemen
Firemen
ETC...
