Economics is sometimes labeled the dismal science. I agree with dismal, but I dispute the term science. Economics deals with people and their behavior and there is no way to perform scientific experiments with people when so many factors can vary. True science requires holding most variables constant and trying change with only one or a few variables at a time if reliable results are expected.
Barack must try to deal with the economy when so many others have an input to the results and some are working at cross purposes to him. It is a wonder that the President can influence the economy at all with its inherent complexities. At best, he can inspire confidence in his leadership. If the public believes that the economy is improving, they will make it so by spending with confidence. If the public believes that the economy is getting worse, they will make it so by saving more and spending less. Public perceptions are self reinforcing in this area.
I have a couple speeches to work on for other candidates, so I thought I'd take a break and write a few lines on what I am feeling right now before the evening's Presidential State of the Union Speech:
Obama will be eloquently speaking tonight to all Americans and those that have cable or statellite throughout the world. An economy message is what the bulk of people are expecting where simple terms are used that explain where we are right now and where Obama is taking us. This speech is Obama's much needed presentation to galvanize the basic troops and to attract more small businesss owners. All hands on deck with Watch parties are being set up every 40 miles in my region, if you are checking the mybarackobama.ocm sites.
Boldness and decisiveness has to be projected by President Barack Obama tonight. I don't mean a little, I mean throughout the speech. I think we are all tired of the huge constipation and blow-hardedness of this Congress. Enough is enough, Republicans claim that Democrats and themselves don't want to see fingerpointing and the usual blame games. However, if you go around and ask, very few people can tell you what the Republicans really want.
Other than, "I don't know, what the Democrats don't want? replied one astute Republican acquaintance of mine. "I give up Nervie", what do they want?" I responded, "they want insurance to be bought across the state-lines and not be penalized for past health issues in insurance and the rest I don't really know either. We looked at each other for a few seconds and both nervously started laughing. I continued, "Working with bi-partisans seems to be tough and seriously gamesmanship on steriods. Why, because they can? The Republicans have got to come 1/2 way or see him strong arm them into action (but is this possible).
The republicans keep moving the goal post and crossing their arms saying 'no no, we won't go.'" I crossed my arms for emphasis. I got off my soapbox and we discussed how so many middle class people we knew were feeling left out of the President's past economic efforts. Don't know why, but he agreed (for once) and we promised one another to have coffee at the nearest Starbuck this weekend, but usually in the past (twice now), he always cancels at the last minute. So as my mother would have said, "OR keep your happy ass at home then, I have business to take care of and don't try jumping on the ship when it moves out to sea. . . we won't release the rowboats". He says he promises to show this time. Meantime, I'll be sure to bring something to read or write with me in the event that he doesn't show.
Obama has to turn this huge eight-year-out-of-control ship around and many economists say it won't be easy. I even heard Republicans pundits admitting to this. WOW there is HOPE!!
I believe we need to educate our children. We need to invest in their future so that America can continue to be strong. We need to provide all Americans affordable, obtainable healthcare. And citizens must have the ability to fire those insurers who don't. The beltway power games seem more like gamesmanship of obstructionists. This comes on the wings of the economic stimulus package not being large enough to jump start our economy although we constantly hear how it jumped started the banks and other financial institutions w/huge executive bonus checks last quarter. OKAY so they paid the federal government back. but what about the little guy/gal who paid into their having those tax funds. What compensation is there for us!??
I ask is it possible to have "Cash for Clunkers" for all jump start industry or indexes? But who has any cash left? How about "Tax Credits for ________" fill in the blank. Yeah, I'm dreaming.
As for Obama's speech we hear he will address his $4 billion education plan to counter the "No Child Left Behind", a much needed national infrastructure plan, ending the Afghanistan and Iranian wars (bring our troops home), and "no ask no tell in the military', but the jobs for the middle class will hopefully be a priority.
I planned to be at the GOTV phonebank for the Massachusetts Special Senate Election at the OFA office in New York City on their Election day, Tuesday, the 19th. I had to try to reserve most of the rest of the weekend to work, keeping in touch with everyone in our loose orbit of Obamanistas here for the latest develoments in MA. Then late Sunday night Geoff (Berman, our deputy field director in New York) tells us that he had been called up to Massachusetts to help out. Now. Uh. Oh. This race seems really to be in trouble. But, of course, we'll win. We just have to work.
The word was out that this special election was tense and a lot of people had signed up to phonebank on Election day. With New York’s OFA staff in MA I figured this may mean we volunteer leaders would have to be a little more responsible — I didn’t realize we’d be running the show. Around 3:30 in the morning I get a bunch of pdf docs from Geoff in MA to print these out and take to the office in a few hours.
Just let me fill in a few personal realities. 9:00 in the morning, I'm not even in my REM sleep yet. 9:00 am for me is like when you were 15 waking up on New Years Day after mixing the Canadian Club (what is that stuff?) with the Beefeater's Gin the night before. Fuzzy, foggy, bad tummy, bad hair, overdressed cause its supposed to be cold. I thought I was just being magnanimous when I said I'd be there 3 hours before I get up - 9:30 in the friggin' morning! Having to be at the office at 9:30 meant I wouldn't be able to sit in the car and wait out the alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulations, a dire concern for us in NYC. Gotta pack my bike and dog in the car, go looking for a space....
I was in the office at 9:30 with Janna Townsend, a co captain on our Rapid Response team who lives down the block. By 9:45 a steady stream of people in hats and gloves, etc. "Are you here to phonebank to Get Out The Vote in Massachusetts?"
YUP.
I had come armed with one call list and was trying to figure out how to print out more for the increasing crowd of callers when Anne Stonehill walks in with:
CALL LISTS!!! Always loved her and here's more reasons.
Plus she had Tally Sheets. Which I had completely forgotten.
Anne! Anne! Anne! (That was a cheer.)
We fell into a natural organization:
Greeting. Signing people in. Training. Finding places for people to be. Printing call lists. Cutting up Tally Sheets. Reassigning new pages to people as they finished. Signing people out. It got so smooth that I even had the time to recruit like 7 new rapid response team members.
The spirit of mutuality was prevailing. There were so many people, in very little space. It had to be uncomfortable deep in the call room. Nobody complained about the rumpled conditions, people tripping over each other nature of the place.
Some people had no cell phone with them. I guess they thought they we going to a place outfitted with tons of landline phones. People lent each other chargers and adaptors, got out their computers and tried Skyping people. Not sure if that worked. And then, I absolutely was not snooping when somehow I found a few burners (pre-paid anonymous cell phones) in Geoff's desk. Just in the nick of time.
It was like that all day. We just kept riding.
Answering people's concerns, tallying, troubleshooting.
There was no time during the day that there weren't 30 people there. All through the day, people showed that we knew could take over certain necessary jobs when someone had to leave.
Shelley Kaplan trained and Susan Gass trained and Amy Slattery and Arlene Geiger deciphered some convoluted documents, and John Chang did some math and Edgar printed call lists from emails Geoff sent him since it took till late afternoon for my computer to make friends with a printer there. Marie knew all the quirky secrets of this office and calmly showed us all day long.
The whole day I never had an inch of thought that Martha Coakley was going to lose. I just knew we had to work. Like we'd been doing the last 2 weeks.
That we lost devastated me later that night. But that we bivouacked this whole operation with 136 volunteers and made almost 9,000 calls in an emergency situation gave me the opportunity to discover yet again how much more capable I am than I know.
The opportunity to certify that I am not going to let go of the possibilities that we unleashed by electing Barack Obama.
Its a treacherous trail, with so many excuses to turn back, but why are we here if not to get better? We are on the way to Government Of The People, By The People And For The People. Of which I just happen to be one.
Ø The House can pass the Senate bill (unchanged) which will make it law. (i.e. insurance companies will no longer be able to throw people off for pre-existing conditions...) Ø At the same time, the House writes a new bill to rectify the deficiencies of that Senate bill.Ø Then this new bill gets passed by the House as part of the Budget bill and sent on to the Senate.Ø In the Senate, reconciliation can be used to pass with a majority of 51 votes.
Michael Steele and Tavis Smiley, by Minerva L. Williams, Michael Steele says he has helped raise $80 million and he is definitely under the gun w/the various levels of the Republican Party. Steele has learned he can't be a straight shooter, the cheerleader, and head of the Party at the same time, duh. Learning curve, you'd think with his background he would have known this. So his learning curve report will come out after the midterm elections results, then maybe I'll read the book.
Meantime, he has less than a year to retain his perch as head of the GOP, will his knucklehead friends listen, don't hold your breath. One thing I will attest to is that the republican party seeks results and quickly, so he says he'll be OKAY. But we all know that often there is a price to pay when speaking "truth to power", it may not be what the republican party wants to hear. Okay so the guy has some guts and cajones.
The Harry Reid standard I don't believe is equal to Trent Lott's comment about Strom Thurman. Based on intent, Thurman had an African American daughter he denied all those years and he pledged to racism in everything I have ever read, until the last dying month, or am I wrong here. How Steele gets it as a double standard, I stilll don't quite follow his rhetoric. I believe the question should have been does the "intent of the individual based on his continual actions and speech". What are the deeds of the two men, what were their motivating cause, who gives any credence or a free pass to making "bonehead" statements?
You should have also asked him about the Clinton statement that was supposedly caused the late Ted Kennedy to hit the ceiling and endorse Obama. Critical discussion regarding the varying healthcare disparities should be a public discussion and I can't say I ever heard it either. But in the time the Republicans were harping on "killing grandma" shouldn't they have raised this issue instead of the constant "no's" we heard all the time.I wish he had asked him about Palin and the Tea party folks. That should have been interesting. Maybe next time after the midterm election report card is given to him Steele will be willing to review those phenomenas.
For Steele to suddenly bring up African Americans needs is laughable, Steele must have added this because he was speaking to Tavis Smiley. However, I would say, that the Democratic party needs to stop taking the African American community for granted. Steele's comments on the Obama Plan doesn't seem to address that fact that President Obama is trying to pull us out of the bear's mouth and how deeply we were lead down the bears throat during the Bush Administration. The truth told, the bear is about to swallow the entire nation whole.Steele has to know how long it takes to turn a sinking ship around, while bailing the water with teaspoons to allow for more financially feasibility.
Everyone is talking about Wall Street but no one is talking about the poverty throughout the United States. Why either party hasn't discussed empowering the less enfranchised and the mortgage holders w/the insane loans is beyond me. It must be because Wall Street is more important, although it wouldn't cost as much to bring the poor to at least a basic livable wage as Citibank, Bank of America and the gang.
Doesn't anyone believe in the middle class anymore? They will be the saviors of our economy not the stingey 5%. I dare you to put Steele on after the midterm elections. I dare you, I double dare you, I triple dare you.
And trust me, I'll be working fevorishly for the other side, the Obama side.
Peace out, Minerva, Santa Clarita Valley.
“What To Do During an Economic Tsunami”
By Minerva L. Williams, freelance writer
NEWHALL, CA. The second part in a series of “What to do during an Economic Tsunami” will be January 21, 7PM hosted by the SCV California Fair Elections Act (http://www.yesfairelections.org/ “vote smart” effort.
This bipartisan Initiative features Trent Lange, state coordinator; Xandra Kayden, VP of Advocacy and Program for Women’s League of Voters; and professor at UCLA with Robin Gilbert, State Outreach Coordinator, who provide guidelines in understanding the Yes, California Fair Election Act, formerly called “Clean Money Initiative”, that will be on the June 2010 ballot.
“Fair elections is the common-sense reform to our broken government,” says Robin Gilbert, state community outreach coordinator, “there are so many changes that need to be made in our communities and our state yet if our elected officials are not accountable to us, they will be accountable to those who paid for their campaigns. As Molly Ivins wrote ‘You got to dance with them that brung you, one of the oldest sayings in politics that points to the reality that special-interest money rules today's politics’ ”.
The event is FREE, doors open at 6:30PM for socializing, and will be at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 24901 Orchard Village Road, (Orchard Village & Lyons Avenue) across the street from Ralph’s Market in Newhall. Refreshments and parking are free, arrive early to socialize for the townhall-style discussion. Bring your questions.
This is a collaboration of: The former Assemblymember Dr. Keith Richman-R 38th AD, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), California Common Cause, California Primary Care Association, California Fair Elections Act, Santa Clarita Fair Elections Act, League of Women Voters, California Nursing Association, Golden State Jobs Coalition, California Sierra Club, and the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment. For comprehensive list: visit: http://www.yesfairelections.org/content/pdf/cfea_endorsers.pdf
Email concerns to: minwilli@gmail.com. Also visit: http://www.monetary.org/ and http://economicsfordemocrats.com/ or call hostess at (661) 755-3772 or (661) 295-9318.
--30--
MEDIA REFERENCES ONLY: Any other background needed can be provided or see the following sites:
1. http://www.yesfairelections.org/
2. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/13552888/California-Fair-Elections-Act-Poll
3. "The Monetary Solution” http://www.monetary.org/
4. “Economics for Democrats” http://economicsfordemocrats.com/
5. www.investmentadvisor.com/News/2000/7/Pages/The-Gifters.aspx
6. www.krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/krugman-q-and-a/?apage=2
7. www.money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/1987/10/12/84111/index.htm
www.spwfe.fpanet.org:10005/public/Unclassified%20Records/FPA%20Journal%20August%202003%20-%20Focus_%20Coping%20with%20Wrenches%20in%20the%20Charita.pdf
PICTURE REFERENCES:
Trent Lange, Ph.d, State Chair, California Fair Elections Act; Robin Gilbert, MA; State Outreach Coordinator; and Xandra Kayden, Ph.d., VP Women’s League of Voters, Los Angeles; Advocacy and Programs (statewide large endorsing organization for the California Fair Elections Act).
SHORT RESUMES available . . .
Excellent humanity at my place for a MA special election callbank tonight. I like it when they're all here squinching into every available, and some less available (someone inevitably gets all set up on the little red velvet bed in the back, apparently not noticing La Toilet, oblivious that this is my one and only BATHroom), crevice.
The real estate brokers call my loft "Classic Arty Old Tribeca". That means there's no marble.
But it is truly amazing what a decentralized, spontaneous and visionary network my man Barack is building. And we're not stopping till Government of the People, For the People, and By the People has come to pass and then we'll already be there!
I love this transformation I'm getting caught up in. ABOUT TIME. Thank you.
Been busy resting for a week and now coming out of the chute with some ideas for the coming year. Have decided to collaborate with a few folks on issues of money. Please consider coming out, drop all defenses, learning something new, meet some interesting people, and then review the information, see if it is something you can commit to, read up on it, ask any other financial professionals that you have access to, sign the petition for California Fair Elections, and decide to decide whether it is a commitment that you can encourage others to go out and teach . . .
First you need to know what money is, how it is used, how it is used to manipulate, and how it is created. Do you even understand the value of money and how that is determined?
Do you homework and check out the sites mentioned in the following announcement .. .
Learn Important Facts about the Future of Our Economy
and its Impact on Business and Politics
SANTA CLARITA, CA. “Support is solid across party lines” that we are concerned about the affected of money on our government. A community collaborative is ripping off the secrets of money with two educationalseminars in January highlighting the effects of the Fair Election Act on the June 2010 ballot. The future of California’s budget is no joke and goes beyond the political bickering and frightening comments
from the media. Here is an opportunityto understand the intricate details and revelations added to what you learned in high school and college.
January 14, 7PM titled: “How toSurvive the Economic Tsunami” byMark Pash, MBA, CFP®, a 37-year financial veteran, who is one of California’s top financial planners willaddress his ten-year prediction on the current economic conditions. Listed by SFV Business Journal as one ofthe top 50 advisor firms, Pash will provide background, theory, and policy changes that lead to the negative financial charges. This is a hopeful explanation on President Barack Obama’s regulations and oversight andsuggestions on how to you may approach your 2010 financials.Bring your small business, nonprofit, and profit company and tax questions. Visit the following websites:http://www.monetary.org/ and http://economicsfordemocrats.com/.
See you there . . . .
In short, I'm worried. I'm worried about the future of my medical care options. I'm worried about continuing to owe money for medical bills I already can't afford to pay for--with a co-pay which is currently less than $10, I'm still unable to manage it on a regular basis. You see, I have no income of my own.
But if nobody is really interested, then the Obama plan will never come to fruition.
(There's more on the blog post: I didn't want to post the whole long diatribe to every list, so please click the "read more" URL below if you're interested in my line of reasoning and argumentation.)
At approximately 4:00 P.M. this afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on his manager's amendment to the Senate health reform bill. Folks, we are nearing the finish line.
Today's events mark a crucial first step towards having an up-or-down vote in the Senate on health insurance reform. After months of back and forth in committee and weeks of debate on the floor, this morning Senator Reid filed a motion to end debate and vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Senate version of health insurance reform would achieve the goals President Obama set out at the beginning of this debate. It would provide more stability and security to people who have insurance by ending some of the insurance companies worst practices like denying someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition or canceling someone's coverage when they get sick. It will extend coverage to 31 million more Americans, providing coverage options for the uninsured through a new health insurance exchange, while making that coverage affordable through generous subsidies. And it would lower costs for families and businesses by increasing choice and competition. This legislation will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars in the next 10 years, and it will bend the cost curve downward.
What happens now? Sixty senators must vote to end debate, and then 51 Senators must vote to pass this historic bill. The exact timeline is anyone's guess, but Senate Democrats are working around the clock to pass the bill before Christmas.
Once the bill passes, the action moves to conference committee. Members of the House and Senate conference committee will create a final piece of legislation (blending elements of House and Senate bills) that will be voted on one more time by both chambers. Upon final passage, Congress will send that final bill to President Obama's desk for his signature.
While we have a few steps left to take and some twists and turns to go, here's what we can be sure of: President Obama will sign into law the most significant piece of social and economic legislation since Social Security, and the largest expansion of health care coverage since the creation of Medicare in 1965.
The work OFA volunteers and supporters have done and continue to do to ensure President Obama has the opportunity to sign this historic legislation into law is nothing short of amazing. Millions have taken action as part of OFA health insurance reform campaign since we kicked-off our effort on June 6th. And since August, Organizing for America has generated over 1,000,000 calls to members of Congress to demonstrate support for reform.
You've written, you called, you've visited, you haven't given up. Thank you. This holiday season, we're going to give America the gift of health insurance reform. We are going to get this done.
Addisu Demissie is the national political director for Organizing for America.
Monday, Dec. 14, 2009
[NOTE: Organizing for America has put out the call to 'deploy' our newly formed Rapid Response Teams to start doing massive phone banking beginning tomorrow, Tuesday the 15th December in anticipation of voting on Health Industry Reform bills or amendments in the Senate. I'm the leader of one of these RR teams. As such, I have to write up a description of what we're needing, post it, invite people, etc. But there has been so much disgruntlement, grumblings I've been hearing about Obama, that I just couldn't write some blurb without addressing the dissatisfaction. Of course, this that I came up with is WAY too long for a phone bank posting.]
Our first gigantic test is getting close. The Senate is moving toward a vote on health industry reform. And I keep hearing that people "are so disappointed in Obama."
If we're throwing Barack Obama out as a phony power-monger like all the rest, I just have one question:
Who is going to replace him? Huh?
Getting elected was a huge longshot, against all odds. But governing? Governing is ridiculous, war without bullets. Our government was written to produce stalemates. Plus, so many of us who campaigned for him are MIA.
I don't understand: We dump the guy and then complain bitterly that it was he who abandoned us? It's the classic parent-child struggle. Ten years from now are we going to be telling our schrinkers that Obama didn't meet our needs and that's why our lives suck? I mean, he's younger than a lot of us complainers. We're the ones who are the deserters. And I'm not talking about us deserting Obama. It's ourselves that we're forsaking. Our lives will suck if we back out now, and we won't be affording no schrinkers.
There's complaints that "...he's trying too hard to accommodate. That he is not being tough enough. He let all those finance sector crooks who got us into trouble back into office. Why can't he be tough? Cheney and Bush-Co didn't give a damn to compromise..." Yeah. And that's why we loathed them. Is that how you want Obama to be?
Besides having to remind us that Obama was not elected Emperor, he said all through the campaign that compromise was what he was going to have to engage in. Not for some abstract ideal of 'bipartisanship' (there should be more than 2 parties anyway, but first things first), but for practical reality. I.e., we have to get a bill passed!
It feels suicidal to withdraw support from the best possibility we've had in generations. The overwhelming tide was going against progressive values, was it not?
Yeah, in this health bill, we're not getting everything we want. Just which leader has gotten anywhere's near as close to transforming this disgraceful health system of ours? At least during the election, his party was behind him, but not the minute he took office, people. Think of going to work and battling day and night, (weekends, Yom Kippur and Easter too, sometimes) with people who are sworn to not let you do your job! And those are the friendlies.
You know that there are legislators that openly pray for President Obama to fail. That was the side, you may recall, that was so perilously close to shutting down what little 'representative government' we had left. How much chance are we then going to have to realize our progressive ideals: reverse the inordinate upward wealth consolidation, build a world class public school system, construct a sustainable energy program?
You know me. Am I Polly of the Anna's? I know this guy, the President of the United States, this administration, is different.
This is not a life and death anecdote, it's a detail, but it says a lot to me about Barack Obama and his values. Let us never forget the fish stinks from the head, folks.
So. After the election, there was a meeting with the Democratic National Committee and the original OFA, Obama for America. Naturally, as the President of the United States, who had run as a member of Democratic Party, Barack was now the default head of the DNC. The DNC folks wanted to fold OFA into the DNC. Why wouldn't they? The Prez said no.
Now the middle part of this story is a buncha arcane details, many about $$, that I'm not really worried about: let it suffice to say, that the sitting president cannot really carry an independent campaign organization outside the (unfortunate) two party system, so it was eventually arranged that OFA, the O now standing for Organizing, would be a project of the DNC. That was last Winter.
Now it's late Fall, and last week, in some 200 locations, OFA had national volunteer community organizer training sessions. I was sent the Keynote (PowerPoint in Microsoft) slide presentation a few days before so I could set up the tech at the location. The lead page and each of the 60 slides after had a big DNC logo with a diminutive Organizing for America sign under it. I guess I was not the only American involved who thought that stunk. We weren't working our tuchesses off for the D N friggin' C. And we said so.
The next day, the DNC logo was hard to see, and Organizing for America was who we were working for.
What this reaffirmed for me, and a lot of other folks, was the power-sharing, deeply respectful ethos of this org. Like my experience during the campaign.
I believe if I had been Obama during that campaign and felt the outpouring of joy and hope, I would have reason to depend on your forbearance and support. Active support.
You wouldn't be disappointed in Barack if you participated in the ongoing work. You're only disappointed if it is out of your hands. And it's not.
Those of us who support Barack Obama belong to the Party of Yes.
Yes we can.Yes we can pass affordable healthcare reform.Yes we can defeat al-Qaeda.Yes we can provide affordable college educations.Yes we can give the able-bodied good jobs at decent wages.Yes we can lead the world by our example.Yes we can.
I have always loved to play with words. Now that lifetime of experience is helpful when I want to express myself in poetry. Some poems just write themselves like the three below. When I must struggle, the results are not as pleasing. Two of these poems were written for fun. The third, In Afghanistan, is an attempt to distill about a dozen books into a few lines. It incorporates what I have learned from The Kite Runner, An Unexpected Light and others into what I think is a successful poem. I tried something different in Minneola. The rhyme between tangerine and orange is not in the words, but in the flavors.How
How black was the catHow blue was the kazooHow brown was the noseHow red was the roseHow pink was the skinkHow orange was the bowlHow purple was the grapeHow great was the apeHow tall was the giraffeHow later was the alligatorHow wide was the riverHow high was the skyHow round was the ballHow square was the nerdHow bright was the sunHow dark was the nightWhat did the Indian say?How
Minneola
Minneola, Osceola, tangerineLemon, lime, orangeSprite, 7Up, Diet CokeDr. Pepper, Dr. ThunderMr. Pibb, root beerBud, Miller, HeinekenPut mine in a steinPlease pass the chips.
In Afghanistan
In AfghanistanBright light, great heightIn AfghanistanBobbing kites take flightIn AfghanistanWarring tribes always fightIn AfghanistanThey pray to AllahIn AfghanistanMuslim faith, infidels bewareIn AfghanistanTaliban means student zealIn AfghanistanOutsiders welcome if invitedIn AfghanistanInvaders must convert or dieIn AfghanistanEngland, Russia and USAIn AfghanistanConfront destruction/defeatIn Afghanistan.
