I write to speak to an abominable situation of denying assistance to people most in need...People denied because they have been late in making payments - which is more than proof to me of how financially in need they are.
I recently helped my son, whose family consists of his wife and 2 young children, by paying the $450.00 application charge required for them to apply for mortgage rate lowering under the President's program.
Not only do I think "how unfair" an application fee is...That is to charge people applying for some relief/assistance/the very ones who can't afford to pay anything else...Those who are out of work after being laid off and having severe monetary problems and who can't find work in California with 11.5% unemployed).
But, I now find that the application was rejected (causing them to continue to pay high interest rates and denying the reduction of one month's payment) because the record shows that they were late in making some payments.
This seems like "a no brainer" to me! Aren't these people, who have been forced to make late or partial bill payments, the very people who need assistance? If those who are in dire financial situations and struggling to keep their homes, feed and clothe their children, keep up with much needed medical attention, etc. are those rejected, then there must be a flaw in the President's program that needs to be fixed.
Isn't there some way of helping these good people?
This morning I awoke to a new world!
A world, not just my country, the world that has been transformed.
I woke up at 5AM and went to the computer to see this new world my sons inherited this day and I saw... rejoicing!
I soon found a picture of a celebration in Japan, JAPAN!!!
Then, I wept, I wept and said to my wife who was holding me by then... "I always thought they hated us, I always thought they hated us"... We black Americans, we n-----s, today we are no longer that! My sons are no longer that! In the eyes of the whole world that matters, they have nothing to prove to anyone except themselves!
As a nation, as a planet, we are all human beings and so much more. As I surfed through the Internet pictures from Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia... China... yes China! flashed across the screen. all with a collective exult that the dream, the American dream, is still alive and will thrive, "that all men are created equal" and there are a majority of people of good will in the world who know this in this age!
Humanity spoke last night and spoke to the ancient African slave and one of Rome's greatest poet's words, 'Nothing human is foreign to me'.
A global scream of the words spoke by Martin Luther King, that we demand that we be "judged by the content of ...(our) character."
Obama speaks to our humanity -- a humanity that can no longer be constrained by fifteenth century social and racial constructs. The age of race is dead!
LONG LIVE THE.... THE AGE OF THE HUMAN RACE!!!
I'm sitting at a computer here in Philly at the Philadelphia Field Headquarters for Obama on Sansom Street, and the excitement of the moment is simply breathtaking. I can barely contain my emotions as the hundreds of volunteers chant "Yes We Can!" and "Obama! Obama! Obama!" I am overwhelmed. I just couldn't get myself to drink the champagne before the magic number 270, and now that Barack Obama has attained that seemingly insurmountable goal, I am overwhelmed, and finding it difficult to keep from smiling and crying at the same time.
I wish my dad were alive to witness this moment. He is not, but I am, and I am savoring every moment of this historic moment in honor of my father.
Enjoy this moment America. Because Yes, We Can!
To all my friends who have been idly sitting by, watching Barack Obama's poll numbers rise, it is time to ask yourself, "What have I been doing for the Campaign for Change lately? Ask yourself, "Am I getting complacent?"
I have not posted on this blog in roughly a month because I have been knocking on doors in Pennsylvania, canvassing voters. I've also been busy entering voter registration and phone call canvassing data to prepare for getting out the vote.
We are now in the GOTV phase, and it's tme to get serious! Please don't be one of the supporters of Senator Obama who wakes up disheartened, dissilusioned and disappointed on Wednesday, November 5th, saying "If only I had done more..." If you can't give the time, give the money. If you can't give the money, give the time to this campaign. The time is NOW.
We need everybody to "Get up offa that thing" and get to work. Even if you can only donate an hour of your time to enter data, to make calls to a battleground state, to canvass in a battleground state, to knock on doors to persuade voters. We are 13 days away from the most important election of our lifetimes. Do something.
If you have a webcam or access to a video recorder please take the opportunity to respond to this youtube request by actor/activist Hill Harper.
http://www.joes4obama.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_G9o0IsPQ
Respond here (through youtube)
http://uk.youtube.com/video_response_upload?v=YQ_G9o0IsPQ
1. NAME -> All you need to state is that you are an average joe/ average joanna
2. State Profession - this is completely up to you if you want to do this?!
2. LOCATION -> What State or even Country you are located
3. VOTING for Barack Obama on Election Day, November 4
That is at least 15 seconds. Please consider taking this challenging and sharing with EVERY OBAMA supporter you know!
Remember http://www.joes4obama.com
Thank you..
It makes you want to cry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VFRt5W4FM
REAL HOPE FOR PEACE!
MUST SEE VIDEO! PASS IT ON!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50
OR SAME VIDEO AT
http://vodpod.com/watch/1051178-afl-cios-richard-trumka-on-racism-and-obama
THREE CHEERS FOR TRUMKA!!!This is what OBAMA has been saying! Fox News, the McCain/Palin campaign , Limbaugh et al, don't get it, this is not about Obama this is about us! A campaign accountable to the voters who paid for it! America wake up, Obama is us! All of us, he isn't black or white he is both! and neither, his perspective is different because his life allows him to step outside of himself and see all of us and know what matters, our needs and dreams. Trumka is right, it is time to put down the divisions, do what is right for your neighbor and yourself. America can't aford to be divided now. We are competing with the world that we can either lead or let come against us. Let us lead by example and defeat fear and tyranny here and abroad through the strength of our example!!!
Frank Rich's 9/27/08 column in The New York Times is a MUST READ.
The political posturing and outright misleading statements from the McCain campaign prior to today's congressional bill defeat reveal a lot about the two candidates running for President of the United States.
If you missed it, here's the permalink:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28rich.html?partner=permalink
Now, you tell me, isn't it obvious who would make a better President of the United States? Come on America (especially you undecided voters), WAKE UP!
VOTE BARACK OBAMA '08!
Re: William Kristol NYT Op Ed, How McCain Wins
http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2008/09/29/opinion/29kristol.html
This from the man who brought us the Iraq war. Little Billy is a nasty piece of work. He is not a patriot but a partisan. The problem is his candidate, John McCain is touting "Country First" and his article is saying do anything, no matter how despicable, to win first! Cultural issues divide the nation and divert from the needs of struggling working families.Trying to use Obama's book, "Dreams of My Father" as fodder for an argument against Obama might increase interest in a great book that will help Obama. The "middleclassness" Obama spoke of is the one that rejects public service for a "strivers" mentality in the black community. It is the notion that the only path to upward mobility in the black community is to acquire the material trappings of the middle class and leave a struggling community behind. Both Barack and Michelle (and Joe Biden as an analogy in the working lower middleclass ethnic white community)rejected this form of "middleclassness" for a career in public service by making a positive difference in the lives of others for the greater good of all.McCain on the other hand, it can be argued, has spent a life doing the polar opposite. He never rejected "middleclassness" because he's never known it, he ran away from it. He has always been an "elite" and when he decided to leave the military legacy he inherited and had the chance to make the personal moral choice of staying with his commitment to his family, getting a job and working, he chose instead to be cavalier and marry the boss's daughter from which all his "class" choices have stemmed. From that point on he has steadfastly hewed to the patterns and lifestyle only an elite class can live, well heeled associates, private jets and public charity. His policy choices reflect that elite class and so have the economic scandals those choices have engendered. No wonder he rarely mentions the middle class, it's apparent he can't feel their pain because their the "economic fundamentals" and are strong, they work hard for the rich.The question is not when Obama "changed direction" but when is McCain going to see the middleclass is not below a net worth of five million. That as a patriot he begin to see the policies that set people towards the creation, and elevation of a larger middleclass are best for our nation. These same policies McCain and conservatives have rejected time and time again in favor of total free market solutions and unregulated capitalism that earlier in the 20th century created problems for our nation, and it appears has done the same for our nation at the beginning of the 21st century.
Obama has incredible grace. I, for one, think racism is very prevalent in the campaign and so is sexism.
If Obama had McCain's negative background he would be done for. So here is the list that would disqualify Obama,
1. graduated 5th from bottom of class.2. crashed 5 planes never washed out because of Admiralty nepotism3. gave in to torture to blame his country4. left wife after horrible auto accident (had affair while married)5. never held a job except the one father in law gave him6. wife stole drugs and was never charged with a crime7. ensnared and escaped the savings and loan corruption prosecution8. had cancer 3 times9. made series of sexist off color jokes10. serious temperment problem11. flip flopped on confederate flag, taxes, immigration
12. has a gambling problem13. lies again and again see: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/325.html
and the sexim is clear Hillary was vilified for her fabrications in a war theater McSame gets a pass (see link above)
John McCain has as his economic advisor Senator Phil Gramm and according to Think Progress are some very, very disturbing facts which calls into judgment, McCain’s judgment.
For everyone who has lost a home due to foreclosure, this is what you should know of McCain’s economic advisor who called those who complained of their economic standing “A nation of whiners”
“As recently as December 31 of last year, still working for Swiss bankers, specifically to help kill the Emergency Home Ownership And Mortgage Equity Protection Act and the Helping Families Save Their Homes and Bankruptcy Act, a bill that would have let bankruptcy judges adjust mortgages terms so American families facing foreclosure could repay their loans and keep their homes.”
This eye-opening yet sickening piece also reported of Gramm, “Gramm’s deregulation [as a senator] help set the stage for an explosion of banks slicing up subprime mortgages, bundling them with other mortgage slices, to hide the credit risks, and selling mortgage stew to other investment firms. That gave lenders powerful incentive to make as many loans as possible, regardless of risk.”
The most chilling words are a regardless of risk. We are only speaking of the financial meltdown that occurred the other day, yet there are other risks in this dangerous world. I think we as Americans have a right to question his judgment on a whole host of issues and not only this one.
In a wonderful piece called The Real American Traitors by William Rivers Pitt, you will simply be blown away as you read, “During his administration, Clinton offered legislation that would give the Treasury Secretary broad powers to ban foreign nations and banks from accessing American financial markets unless they cooperated with money-laundering investigations that would expose and terminate terrorist cash flows.” Concerning this legislation put forth by former President Clinton, Phil Gramm killed this all important piece of legislation and he even had the audacity to say, “I was right then and I am right now. The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and kill them."
Yes, you kill terrorists, but you must also cut off their funding. This is also a risk factor we must all think about especially when McCain surrounds himself with advisors in Senator Phil Gramm. I would like to know if the family members left behind on 9/11 in which the terrorists could have been stopped financially would be called “whiners” by Gramm in seeking justice for them.
You may contact the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net
Read this side-by-side comparison (PDF file) of Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin.
In case you missed Joe Biden on the "Today" show this morning, this is a must watch. You'll see why Barack chose Joe to be his running mate. I like the way he doesn't take any guff from Meredith Viera as she tries to attribute Joe Biden to the term "sleazy" when Obama's ad is actually attributing the use of "sleazy" to Joe Klein in Time magazine:
http://thepage.time.com/2008/09/16/biden-rebuts-mccain-on-morning-shows/
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/wingnuts_at_play.html
And now McCain is making quips about Barbra Streisand's fundraiser for Barack in Beverly Hills:
“He talked about siding with the people… just before he flew off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbra Streisand and his celebrity friends. Let me tell you, my friends, there is no place I’d rather be than here, with the working men and women of Ohio.”
I don't know about you, but I'm fed up with all the garbage that the McCain-Palin campaign is churning out, and I've signed up to go knocking on some doors in PA this weekend. It's time to set the people straight! It's time to fight back! I'm fired up and ready to go! What about you?!! Are you ready to knock on some doors?!!
"Sooner or later, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is going to have to come up with a different plan than the one he's currently following: trying not to let the passengers of the Good Ship USA notice that his plan to bail out all of the sickly financial organizations isn't working. Sooner or later, whoever's in charge is going to have to let the economy hit bottom.
You think voters are mad now? You haven't seen anything. And Bush and Cheney know that.
So I think the Bush administration is hoping to keep the markets stable until November 4. They're hoping the passengers won't push the current crew off the side of the Titanic and elect a new crew from the ship's passenger list. They're hoping that if they keep lighting up the sky with firecrackers over THERE or THERE or HERE -- we won't notice the way the ship is listing to the side, the way the water is pouring in the gaping holes just at the water line.
In other words, they're counting on us being Stuck On Stupid."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-denlinger/secret-memo-from-bush-don_b_126326.html
White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 ElectionSubmitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 09/13/2008 - 3:44pm. Guest Contribution A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
By Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
In light of questions (or the lack of) about Sarah Palin's faith, comes this very impressive article on apocalypticism by Chip Berlet. Some highlights:
Many evangelical Christians believe in a rapidly approaching End Time confrontation between good and evil. Many liberals and progressives glibly dismiss these beliefs as whacko, but the believers number in the millions, are just as smart and sane as the rest of us, and act out these beliefs in the public square--shaping policies in the domestic and foreign policy arenas.
[Berlet highlights continue after the flip...]
Juan Coles' piece on Salon.com drives home the point that a "theocrat is a theocrat, whether Muslim or Christian." He notes that Sarah Palin, the "GOP vice-presidential pick holds that abortion should be illegal," which is a view "stricter than that of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Palin's view represents "a literalist religious impulse that resists any compromise with the realities of biology and of women's lives."
More after the flip . . .
DO NOT BE DISCOURAGE!!!KEEP YOUR FOCUS! THERE IS NO TIME FOR HAND WRINGING!ITS GOING TO BE CLOSE! DONATE! REGISTER! GET OUT THE VOTE!HERE IS A REASON FOR OPTIMISM!!!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=10
WE WILL WIN BECAUSE WE MUST WIN!!!
