Without delving into the complexity of arguments for and against the President Barack Obama’s inclination to introduce the public health insurance plan or rather an alternative to the exclusively privately run health insurance in the country, the reality at hand is that without an iota of doubt Americans are passionate and hungry for an alternative that will be affordable and does not sacrifice quality.
Why are there so many opposition to this plan, which in my opinion should be given a chance since it survival will be sequel to its successes? Those who argue against the plan just purely on a sentimental and ideological bases are missing the most essential part of the argument, namely if Americans feel confident about the plan, then allow it to play out, since the same Americans will turn their back on the plan if it fail to meet their expectation.
Much has been said about how America is a free society and where choices are based on personal inclinations, and the same is applicable even in our investment choices among others. While it may be true that proposing such a health insurance plan may be something unthinkable for those who are extremely opposed to it and further very difficult to sell the idea to them, without doubt, it should be noted as true that proponent did understand the necessity of giving the American people the kind of choices that are evident in our telephone services, postal services and so many other services that forces healthy competition.
The indictment of the first female mayor of Baltimore City in Maryland has unfortunately exposes the inimical and detrimental aspect of the law that constitute nothing short of using the same law and the power to be to aggressively and diabolically pursue an egocentric agenda that is only self serving and does not in any way constitute any kind of veritable opportunity to help move the city forward.
While it may not be in my position to exonerate the mayor, I am however appalled and at the same time disappointed by the outcome of the so called investigation and the indictment that was handled to her only as a result of the fear that the days of the state prosecutors were to expire a day after. In order words, it may be wise to say did the prosecutors indict the mayor because their days were to expire the following day or as a result of concrete evidence beyond reasonable doubts?
It is also important to point out that in recent times the state prosecutors have ransacked the house of the mayor and as of today nothing has been said and no credit has been given to her in that regard; that a mayor of a major city like Baltimore City was humiliated by the power that be and we are all watching with helplessly like sheep without Sheppard.
Retrospectively all Americans have come a long way and can evidently identified with the struggles, sacrifices and courage of the black Americans. Today change has indeed come to America and the bitterness of the 60's should be a thing of the past from a pragmatic perspective. This country cannot afford to dwell on the negativity, discrimination, sentimentalism and idealism that forms the focal points of the 1960 United States of America.
These pictures are a reflection of our today, commitment, and desire to truly emulate the fundamental idealism of America; Unity in Diversity, opportunity and democracy.
Barack Obama: 44th U.S. President
President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ultimately ended slavery in America at the end of the Civil War. In this illustration from 1863, a freed slave, watched by his family, shackles at his feet, kisses the hand of the president.
Despite brief progress for African Americans during Reconstruction, many parts of the nation were systematically segregated. Here, female students sing at a meeting of the African-American sorority Delta Sigma Theta on the campus of the University of Kansas in 1939.
MLB: Jackie Robinson
Brown v. Board of EducationLinda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., May 8, 1964. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years-old, because she was black, led to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Civil Rights: Rosa Parks
Death of Emmett TillEmmett Till, a black 14-year-old Chicago boy was brutally murdered near Money, Miss., on Aug. 31, 1955, after whistling at a white woman.
'I Have a Dream' Historic March
President Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights: Malcolm XMalcolm X , also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, has been described as one of the most influential African Americans of the 20th century.
First Black Female Elected to CongressIn January 1972 U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, N.Y., announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
Television Series: The Cosby Show"The Cosby Show," starring comedian Bill Cosby, kicked off its long television run in 1984.
Rev. Jesse Jackson: Rainbow Push CoalitionThe Rev. Jesse Jackson holds hands with marchers to show support for U.S. President Bill Clinton during a rally at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 1998.
New York City's First Black MayorDemocratic New York City mayoral candidate David Dinkins gestures during an Election Day rally on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. Dinkins served as the city's first black mayor from 1990 to 1993.
First Black Secretary of StateVice President Dick Cheney, left, swears in Secretary of State Colin Powell, the first black American to serve as secretary of state, in 2001, as President George Bush and Powell's wife Alma look on.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/popup?id=6183629
Indeed we have all come a long way; Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and other racial components that form the diversity that America is built upon.
God bless USA
God bless Obama
WASHINGTON – Democratic officials say Barack Obama's fellow Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel has agreed to be White House chief of staff.
One of Obama's first decisions as president-elect was to ask the Illinois congressman to run his White House staff. Emanuel accepted Thursday after struggling over family and political considerations.
Emanuel serves in the House Democratic leadership and will have to resign his seat and put aside hopes of becoming House speaker.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081106/ap_on_el_pr/obama;_ylt=Aqlj8KYBinUHjxFhQAcKmSth24cA)
RALEIGH, N.C. – President-elect Obama has won North Carolina, a symbolic triumph in a state that hadn't voted for a Democrat in more than a generation.
The Associated Press declared Obama the winner Thursday after canvassing counties in North Carolina to determine the number of outstanding provisional ballots.
That survey found that there are not enough remaining ballots for Republican John McCain to close a 13,693-vote deficit.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081106/ap_on_el_pr/president_north_carolina)
God bless Obama & Biden
Daily Trust (Abuja)
Camelot in Arthurian legend was the seat of King Arthur's court. It was a term used for John Kennedy when he won the American Presidency in 1961 which was seen then as the renewal of America and the promise of all possibilities and great things to come.
I am investing Barack Obama with the same legend. For what he has wrought in American politics, he is a black Camelot with all its glittering magical enchantments. Obama is Arthur who having conquered all opposition drew Excalibur, the sword from the stone in which it is buried for centuries and thereafter mounted his stallion and galloped off to make a date with History. And what a history!
Barack Obama as president -elect has given expressions to many time-worn notions. His achievement is nothing if not an exquisite dramatization of the idea of "from the log cabin to the White House". White House, symbolizing power and privilege that can be attained if worked hard for. In Barack's case it holds a greater resonance because it is the first time an African American would be achieving such a feat and boy, it did not come easily. Surely, on inauguration day the ghosts of Rev. Martin Luther King along with other Black dignitaries now gone, would be standing a little away from the gathering, they will wear a smile on their faces and chuckle to themselves that thank God we have got there at last. They can now say a final good bye.
Barack personifies America as the melting pot, a mélange of all nationalities gathered in one place, a fact noticeable always from the ever surging multi-racial crowd that gather to listen to him speak. Anyone who can do this, who can appeal to and win the allegiance of people from multi-racial backgrounds and ride on the wave they provide to power must have an innate quality special only to him. He has given expression to the quest of this motley crowd of peoples to forge a nation out of the cleavages of race, privilege and the bigotry and brutalities they spurned in the days of yore. His victory signals the defeat of the stubborn attempt to maintain and sustain them.
President elect Barack Obama as a citizen of America and the world holds so much goodwill and prospect, we are waiting with bated breath for them to bear fruits.
Sen. Obama becoming the next president of the United States of America is sure to bring the world together and increase our commonalities and share values for the sake of mankind.
No song reminds me better than the "we are the world song" of the 80's as I reflect on what Obama's candidacy portend for humanity beginning from home.
Take the time to listen once more to this oldies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcrwu6WGoMs
He did it, they did it and we did it indeed! The world will never be the same again and I am happy to be part of this history, generation and advocate for Obama and the idealism that he represented which fundamentally is in line and synonymous to the aspiration of humanity and the protection of its integrity!
My goodness! Thanks be to God. Amen
Behold the next first family of the United States of America; a reflection of how much we have grown and how far we have reached!
Love from Indonesia
The Philippines with joy and surprise
Love from India
Anthens, Greece
Jarkata Indonesia
Jerusalem, Israel!
Sydney, Australia
All pictures courtesy of The Huffington Post ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/reactions-around-the-worl_n_141187.html)
Yes indeed and for the sake of posterity, it was in my generation that we saw the emergenc of a minority candidate in the person of Senator Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States of America.
I was part of the generation that turn down the politics of discrimination, dogmatism and hegemony for broadmindedness, nationalism and objectivity.
I was part of the larger society that decided enough is enough and it is now time to become truly united around a common purpose and commitment to build the country.
I was in that generation that help redeemed the country's image a forever shape the mentality of racism and other forms of man inhumnity to man.
Mine was the generation that transcend sentimentailty and the myopia of narrowmindedness and instead lived up to the expectation of the almighty God in that we decided to live together as one rather than tear ourselves apart as different.
Retrospectively, America has spoken, and the world is listening indeed.
We must now join hand with Obama in making the world a better place beginning from home.
It was in my generation that the unthinkable became a reality.
Thank you America of all race, ethnicity, conviction, creed and ideology.
Without doubt this election is about the most historic in the annals of the United States of America and its ripple effect will touch many lives worldwide than any other dispensation ever seen. In fact it could be likening to a Jewish Roman citizen become the emperor of the old Roman Empire.
Today’s possibilities which include but not limited to the anticipation of an Obama presidency is definitely sequel to the sacrifices that the American citizenry had made in order to make the future generation better than the previous. Specifically speaking after the ugliness of the slave trade and gender discriminations in 60’s it became legal for every Americans to vote and exercise their civil right and at the same time responsibilities to the country and their fellow mankind.
It was not as easy to vote as our generation has come to see and even though there were many occasions that inhumanity and inimical consequences have followed the quest to integrate all Americans right to vote, today is worth all the sorrows, heartbreak, losses of lives and faith by those discriminated upon.
As we reflect on the year 2008, it is with great joy and pure exhilaration that I too will be part of the generation that finally free America conscience and bring about the light, transforming the country into a pragmatic moral authority, abode of humanity and the overcome of hatred, myopia, dogmatism, sentimentalism and hegemony for the sake of posterity.
If tomorrow comes, it is in fact a pleasure to reflect on today’s event and narrate to the generation yet unborn as to how Americans came together irrespective of their race, ethnicity, creed, ideology and convictions to rise above the challenges of our time and subsequently orchestrate the agenda that in reality has the potential of not only healing our past, but bringing everyone together for the common good of the nation. What a beauty to see Whites, Blacks, Latinos and the other diverse ethnicity coming together to support Sen. Obama, who by definition is a minority presidential candidate- the first in the history of America.
There are just too numerous challenges that will face the next president of the United States of America and with due respect Senator McCain does not have the capacity to deal with them in the kind of fashion that will bring about the succur we all are anticipating.
For sure it is not going to be, nevertheless if we walk with Obama and give him our support then better days are indeed ahead of us and in fact with his articulate, calculated, authentic, humble and compassionate characteristic we are in for a transformational government that will be an epitome of humane the symbiosis between the authority and the people.
If the election were to be held today and based on pundits and the opinions of majority of Americans Sen. Obama will have a landslide victory over Sen. McCain. However this in my opinion is not even the most imperative development in the current political dispensation when compared to the fact that America is pragmatically on the path that may as well essentially lead to the process of reclamation, renovation and reconstruction of the fundamentalism and idealism of the nation.
What is most appealing given the massive and unquantifiable gravitation of the majority of Americans at home and overseas to the movement of hope and change in the country as enunciated by Sen. Obama is the fact that many of these diverse populations can emphatically relate with every part of his speech, ideas, articulations and manifesto. White, Blacks and Brown alike have seen their commonalities magnified and the concept of unity in diversity simplified beyond the racial rhetoric of the minority of Americans.
It is in fact an exceedingly gratifying feeling and with total sense of belonging and commitment to see, feels and watches how Obama has electrified the political landscape with his authentic, pragmatic and honest conviction that if we are ready to work with him this country can once again see better days. Never has any candidate in recent times inspired the people and help them fashion their destiny for the common good of the country in the fashion that Obama has brought into the current dispensation.
With all due respect what I use to know about Senator John McCain is that in part and factually for that matter he was a war veteran just like Senator John Kerry and the many other Americans that have served their fatherland as circumstances presents its self. He is part of the American stories, idealism and convictions that freedom is a right and not a privilege and unity in diversity is an indispensable part of nation building and adherence to the integrity and authenticity of America as a country. Nevertheless whether he will be part of the American solution is an entire different argument that we must all attempt to pragmatically elucidate based on the current political dispensation and in comparison to Senator Obama.
Furthermore, John McCain has carved the image of being a maverick in the Senate and especially after the Keating involvement and especially sequel to his loss to President George Bush in the Republican Party presidential nomination of the year 2000.
To his credit McCain has reached across the aisles to work with the Democratic Party members in the Senate on many issues including but not limited to the need for a comprehensive immigration reform which will ultimately lead to legalization of those who merited to be in the country becoming permanent resident and those who failed to meet the criteria are treated in a humane fashion that does not in any way compromise their freedom and humanity while assuring the preservation of their integrity and quest to survive.
The John McCain I have come to see in the current political dispensation is almost a contrasting figure to what I use to see, read about and watch in the year 2000. How much can eight years bring about an exponential oxymoronic transformation in an individual as worthy of emulation as the many public figures that we have seen disintegrated and miniaturized into mere nonentities and inconsequentialities.
The below information was provided by The New York Times and is worthy of reading indeed. As a matter of fact if Americans does not care about Obama, there is just no way pragmatically possible for them to tune to the various networks that carry the infomercial.
Another angle to the infomercial is the fact that by simple permutation if about half of the about 33 million Americans that watched it decided to contribute just $10 each to the campaign, the campaign will be about $ 330 million more capable of dealing with the negativity from the McCain's campaign.
This logic had been lost to the McCain campaign hence its inclination of thinking that some of the money raised on the campaign might be from questionable sources, which in my opinion is very pathetic, dogmatic and sentimentally detrimental given the sanitization that Obama has brought into the political landscape.
Television networks needed a hit, and Barack Obama gave them one.
An infomercial on behalf of Mr. Obama was a smashing ratings success on Wednesday night, proving to be more popular than even the final game of the World Series — and last season’s finale of “American Idol.” The audience for Mr. Obama’s program far exceeded the expectations of television executives — and many political pundits who questioned whether Mr. Obama was engaging in overkill in buying a half hour on so many networks.
Mr. Obama’s 30-minute commercial, which played on seven networks, broadcast and cable, was seen by 33.55 million viewers, according to figures released by Nielsen Media Research. On the three broadcast networks that carried the special, the audience totaled more than 25 million, easily surpassing the number for the last World Series game on Fox, which averaged 19.8 million viewers. The special was also available on Univision, and three cable networks, MSNBC, BET and TV One.
“I was shocked by the number Obama was able to draw,” said Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS. “It’s just a stunning number.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/politics/31rate.html?ref=politics
More than 100 days after Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, Bill Clinton was finally due to share a stage last night with the man who proved to be his wife's nemesis.
The former President, who for months has vacillated between rage, envy, petulance, open scorn and — only lately — solid support when the topic has turned to Mr Obama, at last agreed to campaign with him in the critical battleground of Florida.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5042454.ece
Sent out the following message today to the Baltimore-area groups of which I am a member - feel free to copy and circulate to everyone you know!
“Monday, October 27, 2008
In Pennsylvania, John McCain has pulled back within single digits of Barack Obama.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state shows Obama with 53% of the vote while McCain picks up 46%. That seven-point margin is half the 13-point advantage Obama enjoyed early in October.
Not coincidentally, Obama’s current lead is matched by a seven-point advantage on the question of which candidate is trusted more on the economy.
However, while McCain has closed the gap, virtually all the movement comes from an increase in his support rather than a loss of support for Obama. This is the third straight poll showing Obama’s support at or above the 50% level.
Still, the tightening poll results help explain why the Obama campaign has been paying so much attention to the Keystone State this week. Obama and Biden are both campaigning there along with major campaign surrogates.
Obama is now viewed favorably by 56% of Pennsylvania voters, down three points from earlier in the month.
McCain’s favorability ratings have been moving in the opposite direction, up four points to 54%.”
With 21 Electoral Votes, Pennsylvania is a key state in this election.
And finally:
Click here for information on volunteering between now and Election Day.
The article below goes a long way to show the essentiality and power of judgment and the choices we make. McCain made the wrong choice of a running mate, appealing to just the Republican base when in reality he should have picked a candidate with national appeal.
Further more, the mere fact that he continue to insist that his decision was the best in spite of some of his surrogates suggesting otherwise clearly manifest his limitation and out of touch syndrome.
By and large America is not pragmatically ready for the candidacy of Sarah Palin with due respect to her what she has accomplished and of which I am happy for her.
Last week, Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor, said that Senator John McCain might now be on the verge of winning Pennsylvania — the mainly Democratic state where McCain is investing considerable time and energy in these final days of his presidential campaign — had he chosen Ridge as his running mate.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/27/america/27webnagourney.php
I am confident in Obama and the Biden ticket.
