Educators for Obama

Let's Get Back to Work!!!!

Obama Donna — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:05:46 EST

Where is everyone? We have an important election coming up in 2010, and all the experts are predicting the Republicans will win back the House and gain seats in the Senate. Our grassroots effort in 2008 needs to be repeated with that "Fired Up and Ready to Go!" energy. The Republican talking points are working with the help of Dick Cheney's big mouth to turn all energy to the right,

Setting The Record Straight

Ed Ebbs — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:44:34 EST

I keep hearing and reading emails that President Obama sold out on health care because the public option is no longer an option. Let us get some things straight. We together made history by electing President Obama to the White House and what he actually campaigned on seems likely to pass. There are, to be sure, some differences. The public option did not survive the Senate, but it was never promised.

The basic structure of the current proposal is quite similar to President Obama's campaign. Here's how it was described in the campaign's white paper:

The Obama-Biden plan provides new affordable health insurance options by: (1) guaranteeing eligibility for all health insurance plans; (2) creating a National Health Insurance Exchange to help Americans and businesses purchase private health insurance; (3) providing new tax credits to families who can’t afford health insurance and to small businesses with a new Small Business Health Tax Credit; (4) requiring all large employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees or towards the cost of the public plan; (5) requiring all children have health care coverage; (5) expanding eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs; and (6) allowing flexibility for state health reform plans.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

It would be good to remember, Aesop and his words "United we stand, divided we fall".
Aesop a Greek slave & fable author (620 BC - 560 BC), and we need to walk before we run!

~Peace

After the Flood God sent a rainbow to remind us He would not send a flood to keep what is good and destroys the rest! God sent an upside down rainbow. This is a sign for us to act as agents of good not corporate geed keep the wealth Pharasees who killed

Lillene Ebanks — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:49:42 EST

God sent the rainbow to remind us that He would not destroy the earth again! God's rainbow changes the shape of every thing that seems to be permenant! If the shape of a rainbow is the same for over two thousand years but it changed yesturday December 28, 2009 we can not depend on two hundred years of injustice! Segregation in homes, unequal job opportunities, police that entrap and hunt down poor minorities to prevent them from going to college so that the jails and prisons have clients! You can not turn a rainbow up side down and you have been given an up side down rainbow to guide your future actions! Be like the people who ignored Noah's preaching and God will wipe your memory from history keeping only the good is what I think God wants me to write! God used a natural disaster to replenish the earth in the day of Noah preserving animals and only the people who had not been giants children of Satanic fallen angel created to wipe out all that was good and to control the earth with devil giant children! Noah's family were not giants but worshiped The Living God! What God did before greater things shall we do!The power of God to change long standing elements: an upside down rainbow ! God is about to rebuild the earth with people of His own heartAnd let the wealth of the wicked be spread around B Yes the rainbow cup is up B Fill it up with the wealth of the wicket stored up for those who love thy neighbor as thy self and protect the least of these My children who have been used , abused, jailed for the wealth of the wicked who refuse to share the wealth of nationsB mighty Majessty Mining Minerals and making misery for the multitudes! The smile shape rainbow is the sign to give Lazzarus a seat at the table not just the crumbs that fall from your table!

Spread the Love: Healthcare Reform 'Greatest Achievement of Our Time'

Joseph — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:15:05 EST

http://www.tnr.com/print/article/politics/just-noise

The New Republic has published a thorough and insightful editorial praising Pres. Obama for the historic achievement of getting comprehensive healthcare insurance reform through both houses of Congress. It's worth reading, so we can all understand a little better just why so many of the complicated and poorly understood provisions of this bill really do mark a great step forward for progressive policy goals.

Obama's Leadership Has Won Major Historic Achievements: Why Can't We Say So?

Joseph — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:19:42 EST

Pres. Barack Obama's has been one of the most fevered and frenzied in history, in terms of crises to be dealt with, major meetings with world leaders, on matters of global, long-term consequence, and in terms of advancing major humanitarian and democratic goals. And yet, the national media continue to obsess over the right-wing lie-machine that paints Obama as weak, irresponsible and presiding over a time of chaos and disorder. We need to change this dynamic, and we need to do it with deliberate effort and intelligent planning.

We need to treat every encounter that in any way touches on politics, in the coming year, as a caucus vote: it's up to those of us who support Obama, his agenda and his methods, his better brand of politics, to remind and to persuade, to make sure our friends and neighbors see the truth and not the lies and the facile rhetorical mashups being propagated by the know-nothing quote-happy mainstream media.

Obama has got China and Russia to sign on to his plans for a world without nuclear weapons. This alone is possibly the single most important diplomatic breakthrough since the detente of the 1980s. He has already advanced on this front to a point where the US and Russia are about to sign an agreement significantly reducing their stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

For the first time in history, both China and India have agreed to the central principles of a global effort to curb carbon emissions, green the economy, and protect the natural heritage of future generations of humanity. This, again, is a diplomatic achievement that dwarfs nearly anything seen in recent decades. On both counts, Obama is open about his view that these are only the first, tentative steps, and that far more needs to be done.

The economic situation of one year ago was apocalyptic; it looked like the coming of a second great depression, and the prospect of 500 or more bank failures this year alone was not unrealistic. There was talk of 12 million foreclosures in one year and unemployment reaching over 20%. Pres. Obama's cogent and visionary economic recovery plan, which was designed to be incremental, so that the economy would not be forced to stand on its own after just a quick, random burst of stimulus, has saved millions of jobs and likely hundreds of banks as well.

The economic situation remains hard for average people, but it is far from the doomsday scenario that was being predicted just one year ago. And that's an historic achievement for Obama. He has expanded help to the unemployed, expanded health insurance for poor children, through SCHIP, and devoted record amounts of funding to clean energy technologies and zero-emissions vehicles.

He is building the most far-reaching and credible transparency-oriented infrastructure for government record-keeping the world has ever seen. He has ordered every agency of the executive branch to participate in and to plan along with an "open government initiative", which has given more ordinary people a direct say in government policy than at any time in history.

Now, at the end of a grueling year, in which the opposition, the center, his left-wing and much of his own party, has unfairly sought to blame him for the nation's woes —these attacks are so unfair, even Sen. Tom Coburn is defending Obama against such slander—, Obama has collected a Nobel Peace Prize, promoted a message of peace and cooperation around the world, acted to close the illegal detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, banned torture, is on the verge of passing healthcare reform of unprecedented scope, has secured the beginnings of the first true global climate accord, and he's already fighting for tough new financial regulatory reform.

We have to not only spend our time defending Obama against unfair attacks on his character and the nature of his leadership, we have to devote our energies to celebrating the tremendous accomplishments of his first year in office. We may never have seen so productive a first year, and there are concrete facts to back that up. Let's get out there and tell the truth about it all. Our nation deserves this president, because we chose him, because his vision is right for our times, and because we have a lot of cleaning up to do. Let's support him; let's help him blaze a trail toward a more just, more sustainable, freer and more prosperous American future.

Democrats Need to Fight EVERY Race EVERYWHERE in 2010

Joseph — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:38:35 EST

The Democratic party needs to take stock of the political climate, turn off the pundit-box and take a closer look at the meaning of the polls. Then, get the word out. The conventional wisdom right now says the president is losing favor and the Democrats are even less popular. Almost no one on television seems to notice that the very polls they're reporting show the Republicans even more out of favor than Congressional Democrats.

This means that even with the staggering legislative and budgetary complications facing the Democratic party right now, and the array of crises Pres. Obama is forced to wrestle with, the Republicans have made literally zero gain in terms of public image, popularity or public trust. There are substantive reasons for that, not least of which is the party's total failure to offer any relevant proposals for solving the nation's many crises, which people still remember were engendered BY their policies.

What's more, there's a mythology about poll numbers which suggests that somehow Democrats' success in 2008 was entirely related to the popularity of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate. Obama did win by a landslide; even his popular vote victory was by a more than comfortable margin. But the Republican party stirred up a firestorm of passionate hate, which motivated an anti-Obama vote. What's more, the 2008 Democratic wave was a follow-on to the 2006 Democratic wave.

For all of Obama's virtues as a candidate, the Democratic agenda itself was gaining popularity ever since 2005, when it became clear to the mainstream general public the Iraq war was built on lies, involved torture and other abuses, and that the Bush administration was disinterested enough to let New Orleans descend into chaos before intervening after Hurricane Katrina.

The real secret to Democrats' success in 2008 was the Obama campaign's demand that the party compete everywhere. This was an extension of the Democratic National Committee's 2006 strategy, implemented by then Chairman Howard Dean, to compete for every seat. THERE IS NO REASON REPUBLICANS SHOULD HAVE A FREE RIDE, ANYWHERE, EVER. Especially now, when their politics has so disgracefully descended into hate language, fearmongering and programmatic distortions.

If there are 40 House seats "up for grabs", as some analysts suggest, arithmetical logic would say save half and the Democrats keep a substantial majority. But aiming for less than total victory is, inherently, unconvincing. It will undermine the entire party-wide effort, and help give Republicans momentum on shaping the rhetoric of 2010 and painting any loss as a defeat for the entire Democratic party.

So, we need to compete for every seat, regardless of geography, aim to raise record amounts from small donors, as did Barack Obama in 2008, and make sure efforts to get out the vote are strong, EVERYWHERE. Every Democratic or Democratic-friendly candidate in the country deserves a strong support system to keep the Republicans from gaining ground.

Let's have real reform this year

Nate — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:33:53 EST

Dear Senators Cardin and Mikulski,

Let's have real reform this year, one that gives us real choice. Not the A or B, Coke or Pepsi, choices of a rigged private market controlled by an oligopoly of large corporations. This is not cars or stereos, this is whether people live or die. It is simply too important to leave to the private market alone.

I don't need subsidies to funnel more tax payer dollars to private corporations; we've already had $700 billion of that this year. I need a non-profit, publicly run, and publicly accountable option for my health care. One I can afford and trust. And I'd like to have it before the next time I get sick, so I can stop turning to charities for my medical care.

And let's be honest, this shouldn't be hard to do. The majority of Americans (and an even bigger majority of Marylanders) support a public option. So here's a great idea, why don't we give Americans of all ages and incomes the option to buy into Medicare instead of buying on the private market. No new, wasteful, bureaucracy needed, just expand what we have. If a person qualifies for the new subsidies they can choose to apply them to a private plan or a Medicare plan. Simple. Quality, affordable choices. Just like Barack said.

If the fact that I, as your constituent, am 40% more likely to die than you simply because I cannot afford health insurance (whereas my tax dollars pay for yours), and my employer does not offer me health insurance (the hiring freeze in Montgomery County, a result of the recession, means that I have been hired essentially as a permanent temp, instead of a full time teacher, and therefore do not receive benefits), is not enough to convince this Congress to fight for real reform, perhaps it is better we, the people, appeal to your self-interest instead.

So let me make it real simple for you. No strong public option (preferably Medicare open to all ages) = no vote, no canvassing, no phone banking and no donations in 2010 or 2012. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Democrat that feels this way.

Trading the public option for an expansion of Medicare by a decade, is of little consolation to the majority of us uninsured who are under the age of 40. Nor does it change the fact that I, and tens of millions of other Americans, will be mandated to buy a product we cannot afford while giving us no new options as to which product is available to us. So please, I beg you, if the public option is to be canned in favor of expanding Medicare, then make open to people of all ages.

So this holiday season, please, bail out the sick and dying, the laid-off and underemployed; don't bail out the insurance industry. Because again, it's simple math: universal mandate + no public option = insurance industry bail out. You would be forcing me to bail out the insurance companies by mandating I buy their over priced, insufficient products. At the end of the day working class Americans, of all colors and creeds, can no longer afford to “pay the bill for every major government program and get nothing or little in the way of return” (Mikulski, 1970).

How young people are treated by government today will shape how we vote for decades and generations to come. What FDR and the New Deal Democrats did for my grandparents - the children of poor, east European, immigrant factory workers, both Catholic and Jewish - is the inspiration which you, and I, and countless other Americans carry forward with us today.

Let us not forget that it was the critical support of people like us - the millions of first, second and third generation Americans, and their children, whose political views were laid by the haunting experiences of the Great Depression and the progressive agenda of the New Deal - which allowed Democrats to end segregation, to pass civil rights, and to create Medicare. And it was us, together with a new wave of immigrants, which elected not just our first African-American president, but also only the second in our history to have come from immigrant descent. We have now built the alliance of Asian, Latino, “white and black, white collar, blue collar and no collar based on mutual need, interdependence and respect” (Mikulski, 1970). And this time, with laser precision, our anger is generated towards those who have power.

It is time now that this coalition carry the torch forward for a new generation, and remind the people once again what Democrats are supposed to stand for. That is why the young cannot be left out of any compromise on health care, for so too then will we be left out of the experience which made my family, and your families, Democrats in the first place. The young generation is equally part of this new Great Recession; do we not then deserve to be part of this new New Deal? Let’s open Medicare to young and old, rich and poor alike. Let’s do it for our party and for our country. To honor those who came before us, and to lay the path for those to follow.

Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas

REASONS WHY AMERICA IS LOSING WAR IN AFGHNISTAN?

LIVETOLOVE GREENEYES LIVETOLOVE — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:19:02 EST

AMERICA IS LOSING WAR IN AFGHANISTAN DUE TO THE FOLLOWING REASONS.

1. AMERICA IS LOSING WAR IN AFGHANISTAN DUE TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES OF INDIA, ISRAIL AND TERRORIST ACTIVITIES OF CIA AGENTS OF ISRAEL AND INDIA, IN PAKISTAN, TRIBAL AREAS OF PAKISTAN AND IN AFGHANISTAN TO DESTABILZE PAKISTAN AND TO KEEP AFGHSANISTAN DESTALIZED FOR THEIR INTERESTS. ISRAEL THINKS PAKISTAN IS A THREAT TO ISRAEL SO THEY WANT TO WEAKEN IT. INDIA IS ENEMY NUMBER I OF PAKISTAN DUE TO KASHMIR ISSUES SO THEY WANT TO DESTABLIZE PAKISTAN . ONLY A STABLE AND STRONG PAKISTAN CAN BRING PEACE IN THIS WORLD. BELIEVE OR BELIEVE NOT. WORLD HAS SEEN PAKISTAN CAN DEFEAT TALIBAN AND AL-QUAIDA WITHIN MONTHS. SO IT IS THE DUTY OF WHOLE WORLD TO HELP PAKISTAN WITH MONEY AND WEAPONS.

Dear God I am sinking fast! This is not a funeral i just took down a poster of a dog owner I love!

Lillene Ebanks — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:08:44 EST

Stop my tears! I could not cry at Leila's funeral so not now! I am sick! What is my problemV Just a mountain lonely as al the hopes and dreams are going to firetrucks and greenB It is three AM and I am a little Moore Country than that Cassanova Cowboy! Those water dogs will always make you cry! What is a cure for that? Snow and Ice will will make those slay bells ring, slay dog races and oil pipelines plumbing are you crying yet? No moore tailgating in this town cassanova cowboy! I am praying for a little moore country than that!Pay backs!? Are AB x C B D itch! Se dogs ! Sullendly, I decided , "1e must stop meeting like this" at funerals that is where I needed tears and since when it counted I had no tears like hell if I will let another cassanova cowboy elicit tham now! No I wait on no one but God so the first little special education book that comes my way I intend to sell my tears for a pretty penny this time! I will never give them away again or let them be stolen from me eighter cassanova cowboy for I am a little Moore Country than that tonight! My dad' favorite dog was an Alascan Huskey who ate ribeye stakes as we made $300,000 anually then so I will go right back to a more posperous Gulf Oil Texas Tea period in my history to dry up my tears!

Gov. Huckabee freed Seattle police slayer

Michael Barnes — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:02:39 EST

Maurice Clemmons is suspected of shooting four Seattle police officers to death in a Tacoma coffee shop.

According to an article by The New York Times:

In 2000, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas granted clemency to Mr. Clemmons after he had served 11 years of a 95-year sentence for robbery and burglary convictions on charges prosecuted when he was 17.

I wonder how this will affect Gov. Huckabee's chances in 2012?

Senators to get in touch with....Thanks Donna

VA . Greatgran 'Grab A Mop' for President Obama — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:41:48 EST

Well done, Donna! Calls, Letters, Emails and Faxes are Needed to request a vote for HCR with a strong P.O.
By Donna No Shock Barack No Drama Obama of MD Yesterday at 10:26 am EST (Updated Yesterday at 10:26 am EST) Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-4843
Fax 202-228-1371
Email:Link

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Washington, D.C.
720 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6551
Fax: 202-228-0012
Email: Link

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Washington, DC
328 Hart Senate Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5824
Fax: 202-224-9735
Email: Link

Sen. Joe Lieberman (CT)
Washington
706 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-4041
Fax: 202-224-9750
Email:Link

Western Massachusetts OFA Volunteer Training - Dec 6th

Nicole LaChapelle — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:28:09 EST

Join Organizing for America -- and help make sure the change we voted for becomes a reality. This training is designed for volunteers who want to be effective organizers in their neighborhoods and communities.

This is a unique opportunity to apply the skills we learned during the campaign to the critical fight for health insurance reform and other upcoming policy initiatives. Join OFA-MA staff and volunteers from across the state to learn how to make change in your own neighborhood and beyond, utilizing the same tools that helped bring President Obama to the White House.

Topics include: Working as a community organizer · Storytelling as an organizing tool · Creating and working in organizing teams · Campaign structure and strategy · Issue advocacy for health insurance reform · Using social media for organizing · Phonebanking and Canvassing · Event planning

OFA Volunteer Training in Northampton, Sunday, December 6th: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpc8km

79000 americans already refinance

Filo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:17:39 EST

7 million to come

We need leadership!

Chris — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:23:21 EST

Mr. President, I am becoming disheartened by the way this government is running the health care issue. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, you are showing very little of the leadership that got you elected. When you were running for president, you said that your health care package would be different from Hillary Clinton's, and furthermore, that this difference was a critically important one. From what I have seen, the bill in legislature is not just "Hillary"--it is radical Hillary. Remember, Mr. President, you were elected because of your vision--not in spite of it. So, now you cannot simply sit above the fray and not be involved. It is incumbent on you (incumbent because what you do will determine whether many of us will vote for you again) to let Congress and the Senate know what kind of bill you are willing to sign. Show them that you will not sign a bill that goes against your promises. This is the leadership we deserve.

For far too many months, this health care bill has been the singlemost divisive topic in the US. Rather than reaching across the aisle, republicans have resorted to a propaganda campaign and sabotage. However, the democrats have been just as bad, if not worse. Nothing stinks so much as a sense of entitlement. And, unfortunately, democrats are reek with it, right now. No one can work with a group that thinks it has a popular mandate to do whatever it wants. The bill is getting loaded with more and more crap, penalties, punishments, red tape, and pork. And now the most elite and leftist of the senate democrats speaks of the tyranny of the moderate voice. Now it is the left democrats against conservatives and moderates. This, sir, is a legislative house so against itself it will never be able to stand. If you don't do something soon, I guarantee that both the senate and the house will lose their democratic majorities, and no one will be able to blame the republicans for this.

Whose vision is this? We don't need a health care program that is as bad as our tax code. We don't need a health care bill that does not have a simple vision. And we don't need a bill written by a legislative body that has little or no respect for its citizenry. You can put a stop to this by making it publicly known how you feel on all this. And I hope what you feel now is the same as what you said when you were competing against Ms. Clinton. We need consistency of vision from our leaders.

Oprah WINfrey Retires from her Talk Show After 25 Years of Social Reform: Two Point Five Billion Dollar female Icon To Go On Her Road To the White House,

Lillene Ebanks — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:05:05 EST

Women around the world are empoyered as a result of watching Oprah rise to the top financially. With both fame and forture she is proof that a woman can amass wealth! That means she can balance a budget and put America into a sound financial standingB she can talk with leaders internationaaly with a commanding leadership candor that comes naturally from her twenty five years as a media icon who has interviewed leaders focusing on the social issues that Americans and international views tune in daily to hear! Former GovernorPalin"s beauty can not hold a candle to your ability to talk on your feet, advocate for the issues Americans care about creating a clear visual transparency on clouded issues! I do no know what is up but President Obama could lock in his victory in 2012 by passing healthcare, immigration reform, bringing the troops hoome, reducing the deficit and putting a woman: Oprah Winfrey in itB Should she run on an independent or Republican ticket we will be in the words of Elvis Presley"All shoo up!" Michael Jackson,"This Is It!" I hope the fude between the First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey was just a publicity strategy ashe is a FORCE to be reconed with in any arena she decides to trabsition into. Women around the world look up our ship is on the horizon! I am voting for Oprah no matter which ticket she chooses to run on: Independent , Democratic, or Republican! /ive us a force that can not be turned back! Rally up a crowd for the face that will be carved into history!I take it back after getting to see intricate details like the O Magaine's cover with Oprah an Ellen Degenres who looked very pretty together but I am A Little Moore Country Than That too O so if that is my option win or lose I will go on the side of the fighting angels who were raped in Sodom! I may be an old generation that you all hope will die off soon like I know the old slavery thinking segretationist generation will die off soon too and the Obama supporting young people will replace them! But But yes were will end up in heaven through the blood of Jesus that COVERS all unrightousness BUT My riches Oprah will be there for sure as Iam investing in what the Sodom angel fought for and I will not willing be the BUTT of the joke again! Thank you! Riches power fame it does not matter to me as I may fail through a temptation like the demons that kept chasing President Clinton but I will never fail for that temptation Cover Girl! No NEVER!

Within a brief moment of time

i am rasa — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:22:15 EST

Within a brief moment of time

I have been focusing on the greatest journey of my life.

That most amazing miraculous dream of one tiny little sperm carrying the worlds most heaviest load, the genetic information of generations and generations and generations....in order to enter into the dream world of a small egg awaiting for that wondrous moment to arrive. The greatest journey of my life. The greatest journey of my life, happening throughout the ages.

Here i am, the dream of a tiny minuscule sperm who has touched, entered and combined into the amazing dream of an egg. Generations of dreams combining in ONE brief moment of time. Two different distinctive dreams combining everything together to co-create a dream dreaming.

Within that brief small moment of synchronization of time and space. The combined wholeness of my dream was unified. Then began the second most amazing adventure of my life. From one miraculous cell to 100 trillion cells playing and dancing in a unified field of utopian nature.

Then from being focused inside the womb to looking outward to this.

We are all energy. Within a brief moment of time. The possibility of combining and integrating our individual unique miraculous creative genius energy TOGETHER to realize a totally new dream coming from the heart of reality seems so simple so easy.

The Mass Group. E=MC2. Peace, love, freedom...pelodom.

Within a brief moment of time is our ability to integrate our consciousness to form an amazing new creative dream unfolding. Within the empty space is the ability to integrate ALL our dreams simultaneously. By coming to the O table, by giving freely of our geniusness, our dreams shared, our consciousness expands. Our reality expands. Abundance is the dance.

Within a brief moment of time, creation of a new life.. a new dream is owakened.

Dream Big Dreams

LSU I believe! I stood next to the chrystal trophie and went to get autographs from my LSU principal dad, father of two LSU blitz win players and their pictures are not in my LSU trophy book! I hurt like you will not believe- comforted by their ring!

Lillene Ebanks — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:06:18 EST

LSU thanks for the memory! Look at my campaign polital fund raising picture next to the trophy in my profile! Tears LSU!I remember taking the photo with the little brother of BAMA before their uta Utes game and baby brother wore hounds tooth outfit and I wore UtES for UTAh. I remember wearing!AMA red sunglasses to Washington DC as I sttod in proxy for BiGBoy and sis graduatio they never got because of the bull dogs so home school was their second choice! No Chil Left Behind President Bush. I hurt and they hurt like you will not believe! Where are they now? I hurt like you will not believe President Bush, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchings and Governor of Texas! We need a woman governor of Texas and next time I come. To Austin I want those God awful lipstick on a pig hurting beaver billboards of My blue bonnet Lady Bird Johnson Texas highways as you are making my bluebonnets cry!

"Dream BIG Dreams" ...Take ONE...scene one, act one

i am rasa — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:38:47 EST

WE...We the people, in order to form a more perfect union ....decided to make a movie.

So, "Dream Big Dreams" was conceived as a process of WE creating community for the ultimate well being of the i within the we and the we within the i .

So, here i sit within the echoing silence of Kelly's Room of the First Street Community Center Mount Vernon Iowa.....LISTENING.....Listening to the deep subtle depths of the heart of reality. Within THE SPACE where the Masters gather, a small flame of a winter green flame coats the twenty foot square empty space ....a warm rich glow of peaceful solitude.

Our community seeks a strong sound foundation in which to reach out in play of our game of forming a more perfect union. A warm, secure, peaceful, creative, healthy, engaging, blissful playing field suitable for meeting each and every individual unique relationship in pure possibilities of play.

THE SPACE of the room, of infinite and eternal playing field of Kelly's Room is suitably framed by the words, "Beautiful Pure Perfect Love" for the integral informative conceptual magical Utopian ways of growing and sustaining communities through the ages.

"Dream BIG Dreams" is a movie about a process WE all co-create and co-design. A simple easy blueprint of economic development taken seed within the heart of oneself and being connected and networked, shared and danced into the heart of family, community, state and nation and the heart of reality.

A time to remember, Black Hawk, and all our ancestors that brought US to this point in time, this magical miraculous perspective with the heart of the sweat lodge within the heart of Kelly's Room.

WE all bring our "Dream Big Dreams" of our individual unique miraculous creative genius to the O table of Michelle's Tea House.

From the magic of Craig Wilson's "Chalk the Walk" appearing on Main Street Mount Vernon, George Washington appears through a worm hole of time, heading homeward, he appeared in Mount Vernon where he befriended Makiah Miller and all his friends of the small Iowa town of Mount Vernon. Here during the process unfolding, George shares his 33 insightful ways of forming a more perfect union....in sharing his magical utopian vision of manifesting everyone's "Dream Big Dreams"

So, the process of WE...We the people making a movie to co-create a more perfect union is born. ...OUR vision OUR goal of playing the game whole heatedly together...to act as a blueprint integrating the nation, integrating the systems of dancing the ultimate health of oneself into the heart of reality.

The process of making the movie is beginning. Til Thanksgiving Day the process of you..."Dreaming Big Dreams" is unfolding....is being shared with all the friends manifesting for one another each and every dream coming home to the heart of reality.

Which character do you play?

CUT..........

Shame on you Arnie Duncan sitting up there in DC and putting the blame on colleges but you have not yet made any effective difference in the lives of those in the school to prison pipeline wasting tax dollars blowing smoke!

Lillene Ebanks — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:45:36 EDT

When will you help the children in Nw Orleans and the Latinos dropping out in the droves? You do not eveb acknowledge the issue of top heavy administrators and excess curriculum with under emphasis of take home internet phones so the poor can research topics to make good grades! The have"s get better grades because of internet access and the have not's fail or drop out! Give the tuision to parents and let private school take over as public school spent too much money on administrators who tie teachers hands and over burden teachers with too much paper so children can not compete with private school children.Pooh Bear still can't read! The frogs are still not LEAPing and are dropping out of the hopeless game and the pitbull dogs victims are in the school to prison pipeline! Urgent drastic revolutionarty change no just do what private schools do and give tax payers the cash not hire people to pretend the problem is that teachers are not paid enogh! No their hands are tied by over regulations pushy curriculum companies and the black hole where curriculum are stored without a librarian to sort it out just warehouse people!

Healthcare Letter

Nate — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:41:11 EDT

My uncle moved to Florida a little over a decade ago to help take care of my grandmother who was already living there. He runs his own small business, Martin Painting. Most of the work he does himself, occasional hiring local high school and college students to help him during the summer months. And for many years he was able to make a living wage, along with his wife who teaches piano lessons to local school children.

Then the housing market crashed. There were no newly built homes to paint, and many struggling home owners were putting off renovations on existing homes. He wasn't able to afford health insurance anymore. Just last month he suffered from a heart attack. The doctor told him he should avoid any cardiovascular activity for at least six months. But the following week he got an offer for a job. With the hospital bills he had just accumulated he needed the money even more than before.

So one week after suffering a heart attack, and despite his doctor's order, my uncle was back at work, hauling paint cans and industrial sprayers, climbing tall ladders. Our broken healthcare system has denied him what in our country has become the luxury to rest and recuperate after nearly losing his life. I just want my uncle to be able to get better.

That is why I believe it is of such vital necessity that we pass a universal healthcare bill that has, as a bare minimum for reform, a strong public option. And there’s a real easy way we can do it, without even needing any new bureaucracy. Let’s open Medicare to all Americans. Those 65 and older can still receive Medicare for free, while younger Americans could choose to buy their policies from either Medicare or the private market. All that’s left is to take the existing subsidies, such as Medicaid, and let low income families decide if they want to use them to buy Medicare or private insurance.

Any bill that mandates the purchase of insurance (whether with our own money, or tax dollar subsidies), but offers no public alternative to the private, for-profit companies – which have failed to negotiate in good faith with the reform process, which have denied needed treatment to millions of Americans, and which leave 45,000 Americans to die from preventable causes each year because they cannot afford the industry's over priced premiums – would not be reform. It would be an insurance industry bailout, in the form of 50 million new, though unwilling, customers, forced by government to buy their product.

Wealthy corporations have had more than their share of bailouts this year. The American people cannot afford to bail out insurers whose health care system now takes more American lives per year than Al-Queda could ever dream of. Fine me, jail me, water board me, I will not buy insurance from these companies whose practices continue to abuse, maim, and kill innocent Americans, while their profits continue to soar. I hereby boycott any and all private insurance. I demand another option.

Tribute to a Three Strand Pearl Tradition: Created by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II And Continued By First Lady Barbara Bush As a Result of Bonds Created As Wife of the Ambassador to Great Britain, First Lady, and mother of Our Forty Third President

Lillene Ebanks — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:17:04 EDT

On behalf of the ladies internationally I thank you Your Majesty for creating a symbol of grace, elegance, motherhood and royalty. I invested my Louisana teacher retirement in three strand pearls as a reminder that I am a Tea Cup Princess. I learned from my niece who has spinabifita and often has to be in a wheelchair, that if you think like a princess you are a princess. When we have overwhelming life challenges we practice thinking like a princess. She said,"Thinking like a princess is hard work; it is a job in itself!" So remember to think like a princess and enjoy the natural things in life. Nature created pearls and my mother, all my aunts and I are so proud to wear your three strand pearls, Your Majesty. I am crying now because I love you. When I was sorting the mail at work I cried when I saw your picture on the stamps that was on the money I spent as a child. I was not given the gift of tears at my daughter's funeral but I did not realize the emotions and loyalty my mind held developed growing up as a British subject and acquiring the culture, customs, and bonds of the Queen whose symbol is the three stand pearls. God bless the Queen is what I am taught but because life is so fleeting and we sometimes only tell people all the best things after they pass; I want to express to you that as Queen of England, your love of your subjects is so personal and we take so much pride in walking with dignity and confidence all because of the influence and bonds you creat through out your kingdom in the hearts of your subjects. We know that with a British passport and the Royal Navy we have not just the strength of Britain but we are valued as individuals. Britain will and does keep a watchful and loving eye on her subjects. On behalf of the British subjects, I would like to present this token of our love and affection to you for everything you have done for us. Long live the Queen! God bless our First Ladies and thank you for creating American traditions that have bonds and pride that knows no bounds, Thank you First Lady Michelle Obama for gracing the cover of fashion magazines internationally reaching out to touch lives and inspiring them to be the best they can be! To Lady Diana's children, Harry and William, accept this token of our love for your mom. From all the women of this world, we thank you First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for raising the tide so all our ships raise as we wait for our boat to come in. You grace the pages of history bonding women together as you make your way up the road to the first women president of our great nation, the United States of America!We will xarve your face into the Ozark Mountain side to remind us that diamonds are forever and diamonds are a girls best friend; Arkansas has the only diamond mine in America and out of this mine came the Blue Diamond the rarest of jewels our First Woman President! Yes We Can call things that be not as though they were because faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen! Our words float around in space as sound never dies but travels forever like diamonds they stand the test of time and glisten in the sunlight! Perfume can ruin a pearl but a diamond will never stop sHining! Like the precious golden curls in Chelsea's hair that took two hundred years and forty two presidents to rest her head a the pillows of the Cherry Blossom Park! Cherry blossoms a gift to us from China! Ancient Chinese secrets: wallow in the lap of luxury and do not balance our budget but get us in hock up to our pearl laden necks so we can not function without first consulting with China or Naking a trip to the Cayman Islands to process our off shore company nvoices! Oh what a tangles web we weave when the people we try to decieve! Thank God for President Obama taking us into a new world of transparency via the internet! Long live the King of the New Age of Internet! May the sea always rise to welcome you and take us with you too!

To the Texas Congressman advocating illegal immigrants wait their turn like legal immigrants: my family came here legally, served in the Navy, helped CIA deliverr arms for Vietnam War, their wives and children are born Texans and deportation awaits!

Lillene Ebanks — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:15:43 EDT

Lost heart or sense Texas representative? In the past families could stay together by sponsoring their relatives but when our President could not sponsor his aunt, we have to reform those atrocious bigoted anti family anti immigration torture laws created by President Bush and approved by Congress after 911. US Citizen families have rights as citizens and your heartless bigotry must be stopped racist male GRINGO Republican Congressmen and racist male Republican Fox muse men!Glen Beck of Fox Muse this International two way news cast is making you cow down and hide behind Biblical principles "No Name calling"?! Well, gringo, when you start trying to help American Indians stay in this country to visit their unmarked ancestrial burial grounds that you occupy, Biblical principals will come naturally won"t they?

No Bull Prize

Chris — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:33:00 EDT

I know this is going to sound crazy, and it is bound to offend a lot of people, but President Obama does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Not yet, anyways. I believe President Obama is doing a lot of good for this country, and I think that having him in the White House has done a great deal to reform the image of the US around the world. However, the Nobel Peace Prize is not something he deserves at this time.

Rather than accept the prize, I think it would be awe inspiring for President Obama to go to Norway and decline the prize, to give a speech about the meaning of the prize, and to show the world that he cannot be bought with flattery. Sure, there are a lot of die-hard fans who think he should accept any prize that is being offered. But a man's true value cannot be captured in an award. I think that he could not possibly lose the support of the people on the left for turning down the prize. But even better, I think he would generate a great deal of respect and admiration from many people on the right. Imagine how devastating it would be to conservative fundamentalists if he rejected the prize. He could make real inroads with conservative America just by doing this little thing. He would also generate even more admiration and respect around the world.

It would be a real win for President Obama if he turned down this prize.

UNITED AGAINST RACISM

WEBMASTER — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:46:34 EDT

Hi Friend

There is a new group that just started on Facebook that I thought Organizing for America members may be interested in joining. Please see United Against Racism -

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/354956/80588439?m=9dc74a6e

United Against Racism

posted by David Apperson

Healthcare March on Washington

Joseph — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:33:42 EDT

We need healthcare reform in order to prevent the continuing spread of the vicious infection of personal and corporate bankruptcies linked to radically escalating healthcare costs, which are coinciding with a worsening deterioration in quality of coverage and quality of care. We need reform to make healthcare coverage affordable, reasonable, and undeniable. We need reform to save tens of thousands of lives per year and establish a sustainable long-term economic path, to help protect the market system and make protecting and sustaining life more cost-effective, liberating people to live the lives they dream they can.

We are watching a massive, nationwide movement of propaganda and mobilization spread one after another wild fabrication and spur sometimes violent anger about the most promising healthcare reform proposals our nation has seen. It is intolerable to stand by and watch this campaign of malicious fear-mongering sow hate and anger and derail reform in order to serve the morally bankrupt political strategy of those who want to "kill reform" for their own electoral gain.

We need to organize not just at the local level, but we need to organize nationally, set a date for a massive demonstration of support in Washington, DC, and march on Washington. The demonstration should be set for early October and we need to spend big to get the message out and treat this cause like a second inauguration. We stood in the freezing cold to support Pres. Obama and his message of transformative change, and now we have to do the same, in the midst of this firestorm of distortions and tempers, to show the true grassroots movement demanding a response is pro-reform.

Let's get moving on setting the date for a march. We can launch a group on this website and use it to plan and to mobilize support.

Reform and restructure our capital markets

Carin C Lin - Supporter of Obama/Biden — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:52:17 EDT

The regulators and lawmakers have spent most of the last year trying to save the financial industry, rather than transform it. In the short run, the efforts at an extraordinary cost of our taxpayers have succeeded. Citigroup and other wounded banks have avoided bankruptcy, and the economy has sidestepped a depression.But if the financial industry’s systemic risks are not addressed, they could cause an even bigger crisis — in years, not decades. Next time, it is predicted that the credit of the United States government may be at risk. In fact, the seeds of another collapse had already sprouted. If major banks are allowed to keep making bets that are ultimately backed by taxpayer guarantees, they will return to the practices that led them to underwrite trillions of dollars in bad loans, Professor Simon Johnson at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, pointed out.

People will accept change at a time of crisis. Now is time to reform and restructure our capital markets for a better future. We have to change the rules and correct the fundamental flaws in the financial system and make sure what happened that last year in Wall Street will not happen again.

Health-Care Reform: What is it?

foius — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:24:27 EDT

Since the President has decided to speak once again on this issue, should we consider all the townhall meetings, firestorms, and adversarial positions of politicians when evaluating the pros vs. the cons of his health-care reform positions? Furthermore, there is not enough plain talk on how the so-called public option plans will adequately insure those of us who don't have health-care insurance. What are the politicians afraid of? Since the American taxpayers already pay for the uninsured when they go to the hospital ER, shouldn't there be some form of comprehensive coverage which addresses the real out of pocket costs that those who don't have health-care insurance must pay? I find that the 1,000+ page bill that is currently being considered is woefully abstract and not simple enough to understand much less enforce. How do you go about reeling in the astronomical fees, costs for medical procedures, surgeries, and tests that are currently being administered by all these HMO's and other medical insurers? Will there be any incentive based options which help those who are currently paying high health-care insurance premiums so that their payments will go down? Why won't Congress force the pharmaceutical companies, health-care insurers, and physicians organizations to come up with a comprehensive plan that addresses all of the important issues facing health-care reform including the public option so that some form of consensus can take place between the supply and demand sides of this issue to lower costs, increase coverage, and streamline the bureaucratic malaise that endangers any type of progressive attempts at reforming or remaking our health-care industry. Who is really afraid of the public option alternative? Why haven't the insurers formed some sort of plan that puts health-care coverage premiums, fees, surgeries, and payments into a manageable option that is affordable for those who are able to pay for private health insurance? What is the Bottom Line in this debate: coverage or payments? Can the Federal Government do any worse than what is already being enforced by the HMO's and state health agencies? Too many questions, not enough transparency or accountability. Will President Obama give in to the conservative element of the Democratic Party and forgoe the Public Option? How about Single-payer alternatives? Why are doctors and insurers afraid of this alternative? Will the uninsured continue down the path of no health-care insurance for those who cannot pay for it? Time will tell. We need universal coverage, the same that our members of Congress have and apparently don't want the rest of us to enjoy. Universal Health-care can and does work if it can be administered efficiently. That is the challenge for health-care reform. Prompt and quality service for everyone!!!

The Labor Day Pledge

i am rasa — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:45:05 EDT

Labor Day contemplation of how to be of ultimate service to oneself.....

The I pledge video is going around and around and around....I pledge to be oneself.

Concerning my recent visit to The White House to http://chalkthewhitehouse.com and all things concerning 'Dream Big Dreams' ....

I haven't had health insurance forever....so i've had to learn the secrets of healing thyself. I've had to learn many new perspectives to live in poverty my entire life while living in a land of plenty. I am a workaholic. Yet my labor has no value. My life has been to study, know, and experience the creative life of an artist in pursuit of the ultimate health of oneself.

Peace is the key. Balance. When I saw the unfinished building of the Institute of Peace near the Kennedy Center for the Arts, I knew I wanted to work there...as artist in residence...sharing my perspective and vision on happiness, sharing my masterpeaces of the ultimate health of oneself.

WE have everything. EVERYTHING. What we need is to co-create systems of utopia...integrating the individual unique miraculous creative geniuses WE were all born as into systems that reflect our geniusness.

Today is Labor Day. Being artist in residence at the Institute of Peace is my way of being the ultimate service to the nation. Can anyone grant me that position. Can anyone deny me that position. It is my place in the world. As all that I have ever been and all that I will ever be is reflected in the need of that postion being full filled by being oneself.

I pledge to be oneself....to form relationships in forming a more perfect union..in co-creating and co-designing systems reflecting the ultimate health of oneself. The Key to knowing oneself is Peace. Is Balance. Is the ultimate health of oneself.

As Artist in Residence of the Institute of Peace. I Pledge to BE, DO and have....as oneself.

My "Dream Big Dreams" is that WE all find the perfect manifestation of our true Labor of Love, and each and every act of BEING ONESELF is an act of service to oneself, family, community, state and nation.

p.s. And my ten year old son Makiah wants to remind his friend Barack Obama to "Dream Big Dreams" as he plays basketball with ALL his Dream Team Players with the most passionate happy Labor of Love he knows.

Where's the Beef?

JohnK — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:59:11 EDT

This week I thought I felt a shift. The blustering voice of fear is starting to die down. Opposition voices to healthcare reform are proving that they have no substantive answers, just knee-jerk reactions. There is no alternative plan or agenda from people opposing reform. It seems to be a scary combination of "I've got mine, you get yours", and a gamble that maybe status quo will last just long enough for me. The media is tiring of the narrative of angry protest against reform. They need a new byline.

I think the opportunity is now. Make time to attend a rally, like the September 3rd rally in downtown Houston. Let us offer educated, thoughtful reform. Let us show greater support. Now friends. Now.

Beware Green Carpetbaggers

Chris — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:41:24 EDT

T. Boone Pickens is down, but not out, in his plan to transform America from an oil-and-coal society to an energy-producing society based on wind and other renewable sources of alternative energy. It is odd, then, that the same man has plans for depleting one of America's least renewable and most endangered natural resources--namely, the Ogallala aquifer underlying vast portions of America's bread basket. You heard me correctly. T. Boone Pickens fancies himself a water baron, and if his corrupt desires are allowed to succeed, he will make himself filthy rich and turn himself into a hero as he desertifies one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

The Ogallala is a huge underground ocean that has been supplying much of the midwest with water for farming for over a century. The problem is that we pump water out of it much faster than it is replenished. It took a million years to fill, but it may not last the next 100 years. Part of the Pickens Plan (the part that is not advertised) includes using the wind corridor he creates to build a water pipeline from northern Texas to Dallas in order to supply the thirsty city with Ogallala water, which is perfectly legal in Texas. At what cost? This plan would drastically reduce the aquifer and eventually force the U.S. to go begging to its northern neighbor for water resources. If Pickens really believes in the importance of being energy-independent, then one would have to question a plan that would force us to be dependent on another country for water.

Pickens is a hypocrite; he is a dangerous carpetbagger who would destroy America while appearing to help, all to line his own pocketbook with a few extra billion dollars. Let's be thankful that this robber baron has been unsuccessful in his plans to rape this country in the name of a green initiative.

HeathCare

Jewish Bohemian — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:59:23 EDT

President Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to call for "honest debate" about his health-care reform proposals. <p>Shlomo second king after Dovid who began a line of kings destined to end with Moshiach wrote a book with prescription to cure any illnesses; Shlomo was very wise and found a way around health care–but, here in America health care is a big problem. The problem seems to be one of the past verses the future. <p>Conservative and liberal are really different perspectives about money, both want to move forward just one want to conserve the communal wealth and the other wants to move faster into the future–thats how the system was meant to work. <p>In the Cabala is explained how one is represented by a dot while two (two points) comprise a line; two is also considered chaos–three is a triangle and the first time there is unity. In Cabala that third point is compassion. <p>All human beings are commanded against stealing. Sometimes the human being steals because they are pressed into theft by their situation, but those people who steal to become richer, particularly in the business of heath care and the politicians who take their money and advance their cause have no compassion–they are the two sides of chaos.

US-African Affairs: Clinton "Lost" in Translation in Congo

Franklin Katunda — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:44:35 EDT

Lost in Translation

By Franklin Katunda

Washington DC -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked a very central question on US economic interests in Central Africa at a forum in Kinshasa, DR Congo. Unfortunately, an inquiry most Congolese have called insightful in regards to the US-Congo relations got “lost in translation”. Not only, had it lost its significance in the media coverage, but worst, given their slacking pleasure not to look into news tips and details, US media networks condensed it into another Clinton’s “saut d’humeur” sound bite.

A “key” question stolen by just another “sound bite”

This was, indeed, a very momentous question ever asked to a top US official in public by a citizen of Congo about the US-Congo relationship: China’s government economic engagement in the DR Congo, in the light of what the US-Congo cooperation should had been. The question was put out of context by a staffer who (apparently) did not understand the Congo’s accent of the student who spoke the French language, and provided a bad translation to Madam Secretary.

First, it is a shame for the State Department to recruit a language poorly-skilled staff to the highest US diplomatic affairs’ cabinet, regretfully. Than the media coverage of the forum was curtailed in the frenzy that always worships and longs for the Clinton buzz. Newscasters focused more on what they think Madam Secretary wanted to convey to Africans on her abilities vs. former president Clinton to bring about a new era in US-Congo relationships.

Result: The “I’m the Secretary of State, not my husband” was headlined on front pages of newspapers and 30 seconds “sound bite” played all day on every American TV network. The Daily News and the New York Post and others quickly “Xeroxed” the AP breaking news for their morning (August 11th) cover page. American listeners and viewers were unfairly fed with a sound bite played on almost every network, even though US journalists recognized the incident turns out to be a wrong translation of what the student’s question really meant. Interesting, business TV channels such as CNN-Money, CNBC and others Bloomberg News should have had interest in covering the story but all seem to have missed the ball… Or simply did not elaborate on another China’s gain over the US in the world’s business competition we have been losing at every inch of the way.

The release of the recorded-translation clearly casts a (female) voice translating the question by University of Kinshasa’s student (a young man), and it reads: (about the China and Congo’s relationships…)”What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton, and what does Mutombo think about?” instead of translating: “What does Mr. President think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton, and what does Mutombo think about?” The real argument here that one can make sense out of is to just think this: What if the incident played good for the US diplomat who happened lucky to not even dodge the question? Students from all over the world like President Obama, and students in Congo understand their aspirations in regards to the current US Administration. Any reference to Bill Clinton to reflect on China-Congo relationships won’t even cross their minds a beat, given the former president’s background on the Great Lakes conflict since the 90s.What strikes me, as I write this opinion piece here, is that the media did not extensively comment on Madam Secretary’s response, even after a clarification was made about the true meaning of the question.

Just as many Americans have not learned any consistent news on Congo’s fate in past decades. Meanwhile, China has gain significant economic interests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, as reported several informed-organizations. The US has been on the side lines, had timidly and sometimes just rhetorically referred to their will to “work with” these war-torn nations in order to help them recover, instead they did not effectively engage them economically.

The US government failed, to a large extent, to support them with conflict resolution during the invasion of the Eastern Congo region, the horrific mass killings in both Sudan’s Darfur region and Congo while complaining, for more than a decade, about the violence borne of sequences of civil unrests. America talked “human rights” when it comes to consequences of the war (rape and violence on civilians) but did too little when it comes to put pressure on the governments of Congo and Sudan, while China did none of these things and would never even refer to the observance of human rights when they strike a business deal. In facts, it’s not a secret to anyone that China, still a totalitarian regime, has made huge progress in economic development and diplomacy although a “red” regime. China seats on the UN Security Council without being questioned too much on plans it has to protecting and respecting the rights of its own citizens.

A call to US Media to factually and objectively report on African Affairs

A Huffington Post website writer critiqued the lack of depth in facts by US media coverage of the Congo’s conflict that required 17,000 UN peacekeepers to intervene, and yet unsuccessfully pacified. Georgianne Nienaber wrote that we (reporters) “owe Africa the same kind of attention to detail and accuracy in reporting. There is a certain sloppiness that happens in reports from Africa, and we can all do better”, she said.

A few newspapers like the NYT which report on DR Congo every other 6 weeks, sometimes with just a few short articles lost in pages 6 or 10; reporters negligently write without really attracting US scholars and citizens’ curiosity on the Congo’s crisis when, ironically, this war has been called the “worst armed conflict involving many countries since the World War II”. Radio, TV commentators and producers turn away from citizens’ calls and emails when contacted to speak out and to contribute in news analysis about the Congo during their show casts.

I personally was a guest-contributor on US-African Affairs with Voice of America (VOA) in Washington DC, and I sat down on a radio/web-TV panel that debated on the post-Congo’s 2006 presidential elections. My opinions on the topic, as always, were so pointed and my account of facts very challenging versus the scripted version they had. It’s safe to say that they did not align with the producers’ talking points on the DRC crisis, and (reason why) I never got invited again, despite my calls, emails and offers to contribute in months that followed. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and reporter Lisa Ling for the Oprah Show played a praised but risky role when reporting stories of rape, violence and genocide in the Eastern Congo during the Bush Administration.

Anderson went with President Obama to Ghana to report on the history at slave trade site, but Anderson’s CNN remained silent on Hillary Clinton’s trip to the DR Congo… No special report, not even a press correspondent was seen to be on Clinton’s plane to Congo… Why? MSNBC only played that sound bite over a “lost in translation” question, without reporting or calling for a news analysis on the question and the town hall’s highlights. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell invited on three shows in two days following Monday’s forum just elaborated on what may have gone wrong with the secretary of state as a person.

What a shame to reap a worst news spotlight with such unfairness in journalism, when so many human rights advocates, bloggers, Congolese and American scholars in US, activists like Kambale Musavuli of Friends of the Congo, Jean Kamba, Abraham Luakabuanga, John Pendergast or my-self; book writers, freelance photographers and even lawmakers like former GA Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney worked hard and took risks of their careers, calling for years for an exclusive spotlight on Congo since the war started?

Recent developments on the ground

The bigger Congo’s picture here is that investigative journalists in US still ignore the magnitude of the civil unrest and violence between militias, and more the illicit exploitation of minerals in Congo’s conflict zones. A recent government “launch of the operation Kimia II in the DR Congo has seen a spike in the number of sexual assaults against the women of the Kivu’s”, wrote in an editorial, Scott Morgan, web-editor of the “Confused Eagle.” One key problem, he wrote, is that the “FARDC (Government of the Democratic Congo’s Armed Forces) is not able to sustain combat operations against the Rwanda’s FDLR.

As part of the Peace Accord, the Government in Kinshasa has instructed its army (FARDC) to integrate some of the former Militia Groups into the Regular Armed Forces. The FDLR have had bases in the region since they were driven out of Rwanda, after the horrific genocide of 1994.” The FDLR (Hutu Rwandans) “have a tactical advantage of knowing the terrain” in the Kivu provinces compared to the Congolese government forces, writes Morgan.

A columnist in LA Times, Helen Winternitz, said that the Eastern region of Congo has been set by civil wars for a decade, a horrifying symptom of breakdowns through the entire government. The undisciplined Congolese army and the various militias combating the FDLR use rape as a weapon of war. As many as 200,000 women and girls have been raped, some men mutilated to the point of death in what is described as the world's worst episode in mass killing and sexual violence.

Meanwhile, on an unprecedented twist since August 1998, Rwanda and Congo’s heads of state orchestrated a quick meeting in Goma, Kivu to normalize their diplomatic relations (under US’ recommendations?) … What do the two leaders discuss when they met in Goma, days before Clinton’s trip in Congo? Not much consistent is known about. The Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda (a Rwandan-born rebel), who terrorized the Kivu’s civilian population under Congo’s “laid up” President Kabila’s watch (his accomplice), was arrested a few days before the inauguration of Barack Obama, after he benefited with an impressive military logistic support from Rwandan President Paul Kagame (his mastermind). So many unreported happenings, news stories out there…

Congolese Bloggers and Web-news critiqued some of Hillary Clinton sayings

Although Mrs. Clinton was overwhelmingly welcomed in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city, the Agence France Press (AFP) reports that she faced “some tough questions from students.” Questions from students at a forum in Kinshasa were worth being reported in western media, and of course only a few European and Congolese local newspapers commented on.

The American public and even some high government officials don’t know the history and the recent happenings in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), and if the conventional media won’t help with the matter, perhaps “citizen journalism” took over with tools like i-report, twitter, you tube, facebook, hundreds of Congolese news websites and many other independent blogs are beginning to help build networks of African news sharing in US. I’m not sure this can fight the coalition of powerful press agencies like the well-known AP, Reuters, AFP, Belga, Xinhua… But it’s been making a whole difference in shaping the public opinion.Signs of progress in social networking being noticed in Congo; residents of Kinshasa by-passed some of these traditional media who either report for either side of the story and just missed the point.

One web-twitter present at the forum (August 10th at 8:39 AM our time) wrote: “Town Hall ended a short while ago, that was pretty exciting, seeing HRC, Fox News, Secret Service and Mutombo in one room.” Another person twitted on Clinton’s address to Congolese students, reporting what she said at that very moment: “I came here to talk to you students before anyone in your government; I expect more transparency from your government” US News media would not broadcast even on a 30 seconds sound bite that: “A student told Clinton, to applause from the crowd, that underdevelopment (of DR Congo) stemmed from a long history of Western exploitation in the resource-rich nation, once notoriously the private fiefdom of Belgium's King Leopold II…”, as reported the AFP here.

Digging deep on the forum’s aftermath, one of the US top diplomat’s answers to Congolese created an outrage in many circles in Kinshasa; when Mrs. Clinton refused to “look back to the past”, saying she (the US) wants to “work with people who are seeking for a good future, not those who refer to the past.” An online blogger for hinterland wrote an open-letter back to Clinton saying: “This one sentence from your answers to the forum in Kinshasa is very saddening, and brings wordiness among the Congolese people, which is still traumatized by a 13 years-long war.

Your country, the US, wrote Roger Puati, wants to work with the Congolese people while suggesting that we live by your way of thinking: Never refer to the past… Meaning forget the humiliation we have endured for 10 years and even more for the past 50 years?” An expert on Central African Affairs and author of “East along the Equator”, Helen Winternitz writes in an Op-ed that “When Congo emerged from the vicious colonial rule of Belgium; the United States empowered and, as a Cold War tactic, supported Mobutu Sese Seko. Utilizing the dictator was considered a legitimate tool by American policymakers who did not worry about the long-term consequences. Mobutu fathered the corrupt and dysfunctional mode of governing that now plagues the country.

”Another Congolese appalled by Clinton’s remarks, Jean-Pierre Mbelu writes on a French/Flemish language website Congoforum.be: “In our faces, Mrs. Clinton asks us (Congolese) to turn the page on a past that holds more than 5 millions of lost lives ! “What about this? Secretary Clinton calls for trials on soldiers who raped in war zones without referring to their foreign chief-allies, past US administration’s officials and multinationals involved in secretly supporting or carrying out the invasion in the DR Congo to be tried as well or called on for their wrong deeds… Is that how the US will work with us?”

What if anything the Department of State should learn from this?

“Obama, who took an interest in Congo when he was in the Senate, has inherited the moral responsibility to make amends and help the Congolese build a government that actually works on their behalf”, says in an Op-Ed, Winternitz. The Senate bill S. 2125 from the 109th US Congress on the Democratic Republic of Congo happened to be the only foreign policy, Mr. Barack Obama (then US Senator) initiated with a bi-partisan support from twelve other US Democrat and Republican Senators. In the light of that 2006 congressional law signed by George Bush, the Obama administration cannot afford lose its “own” message.

Madame Secretary Clinton should be commended for meeting with students “before” meeting Congo’s officials (good move); she is to be saluted for clearly “voicing up” ( government officials including President Kabila) on the resolutions that borne from the last spring US Senate hearing on the DR Congo. A key message was to stop and prosecute the rape, used as weaponin conflict zones. This is the 111th congress senate hearing on Congo/Sudan where (as I reported earlier in Spring) California Senator Barbara Boxer (D) and the audience could not resist a heart breaking to the horrific account of scenes of rape and violence by among many, Mrs. Chouchou Namegabe, a Kivu-based Journalist and Activist.

In an open letter to Sec. Clinton, another Congolese US-based website’s owner urges, on the post Congo’s trip, the US to be practical if “work with” Congo is what they want, and get all rapists be tried in criminal courts. He proposes Clinton’s cabinet to “… send DNA technical experts to DRC to help collect DNA samples from former militias and soldiers who fought in the east of Congo and from children born out of rapes. By matching the DNA samples of children and militias in a DNA data center, wrote the web-writer, the paternity of these fatherless children will clearly be established.”

Editor Sylvester Ngoma believes that “… The criminals will then be excluded from the national army and brought to justice. Even new victims will be able to report to these data centers for DNA collection to help catch rape criminals. This approach will have several positive effects. Some soldiers will leave the national army on their own just by knowing that their DNA will be collected and kept in a data center. The parliament will need to pass a law mandating all soldiers who fought in the east of the country to comply to the "DNA as a Rape Deterrence Plan" (from Congovision)At the end of the dayHaving say all that, Secretary Hillary Clinton still needs to carefully do an unscripted facts check on Congo since the Rwanda genocide of 1994, and attentively review the history about the after 1997 invasion of the DR Congo by Rwandan and Ugandan militias (when Bill Clinton was President).

The State Department’s African Affairs division must sincerely determine what the public opinion in regards to the US responsibility in the conflict is, and then apply President Obama’s own policy. The Congo Senate Bill (as they call it) will empower Secretary Clinton to pressure on President Joseph Kabila’s governance style. Only the S2125 bill would help them to measure up the progress in security and the observance of human rights towards the people of Congo, and then she can finally masterfully avoid alienate, frustrate the Congolese people, but would preach the message of “Hope”, accompanied with an engaging economic and bi-lateral cooperation the US failed in the past 8 years.

It has to be known that above and beyond the differences of cultures, languages and the issue of proximity, Congo shares a common history with the US, citing the past “Cold War” as an illustration; Congo (ex-Zaire) has gone out of the way to contribute through the generosity of its people, the use of its territory militarily, its strategic resources, minerals and intelligence to strengthen US national security and preserve its interests not only in the Continental Africa, but here at home and around the world.

Fifty years since Congo’s independence, and considering the potential level of cooperation both countries can still develop, our commitment at Congoboston.com to write ( please read: to accurately translate) the opinion of the Congolese people from their French heritage to English, and into the American mainstream media, I strongly hope that today’s message of “Hope” to Congo will NOT be lost in translation again.

An Opinion Editorial by Franklin Katunda, in Washington DC

Franklin is a freelance web-writer; chief-editor for Congoboston.com. Barack Obama surrogate, expert in US politics and foreign Affairs, he actively worked for 2 years within the presidential campaign and is member of OFA, Organizing for America.

© August 18th 2009, Congoboston.com

MAKE AMERICA MORE SAFE, SECURE AND PEACEFUL.

LIVETOLOVE GREENEYES LIVETOLOVE — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:28:52 EDT

MAKE AMERICA MORE SAFE, SECURE AND PEACEFUL BY HELPING PAKISTAN BY MONEY AND WEAPONS. A STRONGER PAKISTAN , A STABLE PAKISTAN , A PROSPEROUS PAKISTAN IS 100% SURETY OF PEACE, SAFETY AND SECURITY OF AMERICA AND THE WHOLE WORLD. NOBODY CAN WIN WAR IN AFGHANISTAN OR ANY WHERE IN THE WORLD WITHOUT THE HELP OF PAKISTAN. PAKISTAN HAS THE ABILITIES TO DO MIRACLES. BELIEVE OR BELIEVE NOT? AN UNSTABLE PAKISTAN MEANS , NO MORE ISRAEL, NO MORE INDIA AND NO MORE SAFETY OF AMRICA. EUROPE AND THE WHOLE WORLD. BETTER TO SOLVE KASHMIR AND PALESTINE ISSUES SOONEST.

Pardon Me, I'm Only The Patient

Dawn in Arizona — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:33:40 EDT

Pardon Me!

The title of this says a lot. Going to doctors has become quite difficult as they and the health care industry is run by the insurance companies, not the needs of a patient or what the doctor thinks is best for his/her patient but by a huge industry set on making money..only!

The GOP is putting out scarey ideas:

the government wants to take over our private lives

the government wants to kill older people

On and on they go while all the time taking money to work not for the people of this country who elected them but for the money, the power to control our lives and our health care.

Let us tell the truth! What IS a Preferred Provider list but simply a list of doctors in the pockets of the insurance industry? Already we are limited to what tests we can get, what treatments we can obtain and why? Because the doctors themselves have been up for sale and bought.

I just changed doctors because of this reason - a doctor that I must pay up front because he is not on The List. Now, finally, a few simple tests will be ordered to keep an eye on my health. With his help perhaps I will have the correct medication. This is life changing, good intelligent health care. But now my husband and I will be punished by the far to big health care insurance company. Who wants to bet they will not cover simple blood tests? Or new meds that work.

All of this is so wrong and thank God we have a President who is willing to go up against the power and fight for us, the patients.

First Entry

Ken Beck — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:55:50 EDT

Every issue that America faces, whether it's health care reform, war, the economy, crime, etc., also faces the students in Her schools. I am a public school teacher in Minneapolis, MN (7th grade math). The economy is having huge impact on the students in my school. Last year, out of 115 or so students on my 7th grade team, 71 were new students at the end of the year. I hope that gives you an idea of the turn-around rate of students in my room.

I believe that poverty is the biggest social issue of our time. It is the biggest injustice there is. I believe that education is a key to ending poverty.

I hope that my future blog entries will inspire readers to act to promote social justice.

Thanks for taking your time to read this.

- Ken

MYTH BUSTERS: Health insurance reform vs. small business

Tom Hayes, working for change — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:41:03 EDT

There’s no shortage of allegations that small business will be hurt by healthcare legislation, as Nancy Duff Campbell, a founder and co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, points out today at Reuters, with: “Women small business owners really need healthcare reform“ (subtitled: We need reform.)

Small businesses owners are suffering from the current system. That graduated surcharge that some say is a job killer? Campbell found that only 1.2% of all taxpayers, including 4-5% of those with some business income, would be affected. Not exactly a death-knell for job creation when you examine the spin coming from big insurance companies more closely.

Yes, It's Time for Change!

Jill 4 Obama — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:17:45 EDT

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. speaks with Admin. Jackson and Sec. Donovan on the new green economy. Photo credit: Johnny Simon Green the Block Obama Administration officials and members of the Green the Block campaign discuss opportunities in the new green economy and announce their first major initiative.
Correspondence Video The President's position on health care insurance reform is informed by the ten letters he reads every day. Watch a behind-the-scenes video showing how these letters are chosen from the tens of thousands he receives daily.
White House Photo, Lawrence Jackson, 7/31/09 Weekly Address: The Economy & GDP 8-1-09 The President discusses the state of the economy amidst positive signs from the GDP. Recognizing that is little comfort to those struggling, he offers hope for the time ahead.

Health Insurance Consumer Protections Watch the President's remarks, or get the fact sheet on how 8 fundamental consumer protections in reform can bring you and your family peace of mind.

Correspondence Video The President's position on health care insurance reform is informed by the ten letters he reads every day. Watch a behind-the-scenes video showing how these letters are chosen from the tens of thousands he receives daily.

Let's go change the world...

It's time for Health Insurance Reform!

Health Insurance Reform Under Attack

EsquireUK — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:16:29 EDT

Canada sounds pretty good right about now!!!!

MDR Miami Beach — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:58:18 EDT

Lately some of the most interesting news bits come to me through Twitter. Check out this one from a proud Canadian --> http://stratosphear.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/33-7-million-canadians-are-not-shona-holmes/

RT @EileenLeft If you live in Canada,Britain,Netherlands,Australia, anywhere u have universal health care, SPEAK UP! Don’t let our GOP lie and thrash you!

Stand With President Obama to Reduce Health Care Costs

Jill 4 Obama — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:42:14 EDT

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG

MONDAY, JULY 20TH, 2009 AT 2:30 PM "Not This Time" Posted by Jesse Lee

download .mp4 (89.5 MB) | read the transcript

This afternoon the President continued his conversation on health reform with a roundtable at the Children's National Medical Center, a conversation that has taken him to every region of the country and encompassed every imaginable perspective on health care reform. It has been a conversation that has brought more people and more stakeholders into the fold supporting strong reform than ever before, and taken us further down that road than ever before. And so it is no surprise, perhaps, that those who feel they would profit financially or politically have come out swinging furiously to try to kill reform.

Surrounded by those who heroically do everything they can to help the young and the ill, today the President made clear that whereas those special interests and their voices in Congress have stopped change in the past, they would not win this time: And over the past decade, premiums have doubled in America; out-of-pocket costs have shot up by a third; deductibles have continued to climb. And yet, even as America's families have been battered by spiraling health care costs, health insurance companies and their executives have reaped windfall profits from a broken system. Now, we've talked this problem to death, year after year. But unless we act -- and act now -- none of this will change.

Just a quick statistic I heard about this hospital: Just a few years ago, there were approximately 50,000 people coming into the emergency room. Now they've got 85,000. There's been almost a doubling of emergency room care in a relatively short span of time, which is putting enormous strains on the system as a whole. That's the status quo, and it's only going to get worse.

If we do nothing, then families will spend more and more of their income for less and less care. The number of people who lose their insurance because they've lost or changed jobs will continue to grow. More children will be denied coverage on account of asthma or a heart condition. Jobs will be lost, take-home pay will be lower, businesses will shutter, and we will continue to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on insurance company boondoggles and inefficiencies that add to our financial burdens without making us any healthier. So the need for reform is urgent and it is indisputable. No one denies that we're on an unsustainable path. We all know there are more efficient ways of doing it. We just -- I spoke to the chief information officer here at the hospital and he talked about some wonderful ways in which we could potentially gather up electronic medical records and information for every child not just that comes to this hospital but in the entire region, and how much money could be saved and how the health of these kids could be improved. But it requires an investment.

Now, there are some in this town who are content to perpetuate the status quo, are in fact fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests. There are others who recognize the problem, but believe -- or perhaps, hope -- that we can put off the hard work of insurance reform for another day, another year, another decade. Just the other day, one Republican senator said -- and I'm quoting him now -- "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses, and breaking America's economy. And we can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time. Not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake. There are too many families who will be crushed if insurance premiums continue to rise three times as fast as wages. There are too many businesses that will be forced to shed workers, scale back benefits, or drop coverage unless we get spiraling health care costs under control.
(President Barack Obama roundtable with health care providers at Children's Hospital, July 20, 2009.
Official White House Photograph by Pete Souza)

GOD HAS SENT US ON THIS EARTH TO SAVE MANKIND, NOT TO KILL MANKIND.

LIVETOLOVE GREENEYES LIVETOLOVE — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:52:48 EDT

God has sent us on this Earth to save mankind, not to kill mankind. To kill one life is as if to kill the whole humanity. To save one life is as if to save the whole humanity. ALL CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM KINGS AND DICTATORS WERE TERRORISTS AND KILLERS OF MANKIND COZ GOD CREATED US EQUAL NOT SLAVES OF ANY ONE. THEY INVADED NATIONS, OCCUPIED THEIR TERRITORIES, WEALTH AND EVERY THING THEY POSSESSED. THEY MADE NATIONS THEIR SLAVES AND THEIR COLONIES. THEY INTRODECED SLAVERY SYSTEM AND RACISM. THEY DID INJUSTICE WITH THE SUBJECTS. NONE OF THEM WORKED FOR GOD, THEY ALL WORKED FOR THEIR DREAMS, DESIRES AND GREEDS. TO DO THAT THEY USED RELIGION FALSLY IN THEIR FAVOUR.

Mayor Vilaragosa & Hilary Clinton

Los Angeles Next Mayor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:37:36 EDT

Did you know that Los Angeles Mayor Vilaragosa supported Clinton in the Primary?

1000 Election Blogs

WEBMASTER — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:01:33 EDT

As President Obama recently related to me regarding local service; "Now is our time to work together, reaffirm our enduring spirit, and choose our better history."

It is our responsibility as Americans to vote, and vote we must. And now is the time to plan, prepare and promote our principles. I invite all citizens of of this great country of ours to post a message on one of 1000 election blogs.

1000 Election Blogs
election-blogs.blogspot.com

Help Impeach Mayor Vilagosa

Los Angeles Next Mayor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:35:32 EDT

Help me impeach Mayor Vilagrosa. L.a needs a Mayor we can trust. If he can't fix his marrage then how can he fix L.A? It's immpossible.

Duty Calls

Los Angeles Next Mayor — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:57:47 EDT

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. JFK There was a time for change, but now we need to change the results.

Words from L.a 's Next Mayor

Los Angeles Next Mayor — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:00:12 EDT

My name is David A.Morgan Jr. and I am going to run a campaign to become the Mayor of Los Angeles. I am a native of Los Angeles and I am also the Author of a Book called The Eye's of June. You can find that at any bookstore or contact me and I will send you one free of charge. I am in need of Volunteers and supporters. If you want to hear my views please feel free to contact me. And I will answer any question for you. Let's do something before Mayor Villarogosa ruins Los Angeles like he ruined his Marriage. And other peoples careers.

The Audacity of Hubris

Primary Colors — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:22:37 EDT

This week, so-called 'Blue Dog' democrats and centrist GOP members have been meeting secretly and at length to produce proposals meant to derail a central tenet of President Obama's health insurance reform plan, a strong public health insurance option. Available nationwide to anyone who chooses it, such a plan would be able to negotiate with health providers and drug companies on behalf of its members (American taxpayers) and pass on the savings in the form of affordable premiums. Recent surveys show that 73% of voters nationwide (77% Dem, 79% Ind, 63% Rep) support health reform that includes such an option while only 15% are estimated to support reform that does not. So why would middle-of-the-road Democrats and Republicans work so hard to undermine something that most of their constituents desire? Because the disconnect between the motivations of our congressional representatives and the interests of the voters they supposedly represent has never been greater. Healthcare lobbying groups have reportedly committed some $100 Million to be spent over just the next few weeks in an all-out assault on the Obama health care initiative. What percentage of that amount might be destined for the campaign funds of past recipients, many of them part of this GOP/Blue Dog alliance? I'd bet it's safe to guess that it's probably a similar portion of the funds that mortgage industry lobbies mobilized to defeat a measure that would have empowered bankruptcy judges to re-write the loans of millions of homeowners on the brink of foreclosure. The measure was widely seen as the 'teeth' in Obama administration measures to deal with the mortgage crisis, and they were conveniently pulled by the same cadre of legislators now collaborating in rare bi-partisan fashion against the physical welfare of their electors and the American people as a whole. Enough is enough. I just hope that as Democrats we have the guts to field strong primary opponents to the Blue Dogs that share the idealism of our President and not the self-centeredness of this faction so obviously gone astray.

Obama's Congo and Sudan Foreign Policy Still Challenged

Franklin Katunda — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:36:35 EDT

We begin with an email letter from a friend=advocate for the DR Congo to web-editor Franklin Katunda:

Hi Franklin,

I saw that you are advocating for the Congo and enjoyed reading what you wrote. I lived in Goma, DRC, and worked with HEAL Africa (www.healafrica.org) for two years. It is an organization started by a Congolese orthopedic surgeon and has over 200 Congolese on staff. There are four of us here in the States now working for HEAL Africa and getting the word out about what our Congolese colleagues are doing amidst war. I also saw that you mentioned Friends of the Congo and they are one of our partners here in the States. I will actually be moderating a panel at their event this Sunday after the performance of the play "Ruined" in NYC. You can find more info here:http://www.friendsofthecong...

Anyways, just wanted to make the connection. Hope that you are doing well and continuing to spread the word about the hope and potential in the Congo.

Take Care,

Harper

harper@healafrica.org

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Response from Franklin

Thank you so much Harper for what you are doing in the DR Congo, helping with the Congolese surgeons.

I will be publishing more and will share it with Organizing for America" members of my group. President Obama said during the campaign: " We are the change we have been waiting for", and I strongly believe it is as we move forward with the foreign policy agenda of our country towards Africa in general and the DR Congo in particular. The US-Africa foreign policy was too long tainted while dealing with the conflicts in Sudan and the DR Congo. We were not able to help resolve these conflicts for too long.

President Bush supported for the past 4 years term, a Rwandan president whose troops invaded a sovereign country (the Democratic Republic of Congo). Kagame spoke at a DC press conference, called by "Voice of America" government radio that " it was necessary" for Rwanda (his troops) to go into (invade) the Congo", because he believed his own people, "Hutu tribe members" who found refuge in the eastern province of Kivu (DR Congo). According to him, the hutu were preparing attacks in Rwandan territory (which never happened).

Since the invasion of the DR Congo, Rwanda curiousely produces and sells minerals such the 3 T's and other gold, diamonds they don't produce(officially). Most of their shipments started their journey from the Congo's cities (where the war takes place) in route these convoys head to Kigali International Airport, Rwanda where they are cargoed overseas to Asia, Europe and US corporations. Supplies from the Congo's war zones help manufacturers make electronics components, jewelry and weapons...

Kagame = Saddam Hussein as far as being a terrorist; he is also a war criminal and a sponsor of terrorism in DR Congo. The only difference in between the two is that the later invaded Kuwait, was punished by the US, and removed by force. The first one has been a friend of the Bush administration. He is still in power even after he invaded the DR Congo, he always had a free pass from the US, even after a UN account established his troops raped and killed many and caused the mass killings of thousands of inoncent civilians in Congo's cities.

Madam Secretary Clinton and President Obama should be held accountable in the way they will enforce the senate-enacted policy in regard to the DR Congo; i'm talking about the S-2125 Senate Bill on Security, Devevelopment and Governance in DR Congo; Activists have to push a pressure and checks, as far as to see if they (the administration) will be diligently helping to stop this humanitarian disaster, the violation of human rights and human dignity.

We, supporters of the campaign that elected President Obama have a solemn obligation to establish a "check-and-balance" on the current administration and Congress in order to change our foreign policy towards Congo and Sudan. I said it before: the appointment of Johnnie Carson at the State department's african affairs, the appointment of a new US ambassador to China, was, to my sense a key to enleash a new strategy in dealing with instability in these two countries in which China has strenghten diplomatic and economic relationships. Sudan welcomed chinese businesses at an increasing level, while the chinese entrepreneurs are road and infrastructure builders in the DR Congo. Where is the United States "economically" and "strategically" in these countries?

How would the Obama administration through its State Department engage China in regards to Sudan and Congo? How would Clinton deal with strong-tied US corporations that are playing the same role as China in these countries economies? What is the fine line between opening business deals with governments of Sudan and Congo that are violating human rights?

The Sudan's region of darfur and the Eastern Congo's conflicts have been out there for too long. It's time to end them by obtaining a firm commitment from China to play a crucial role to substantiate our cooperation and aid to sound governance, and observance of human rights.... America needs to turn the page on its past mistakes dealing with Africa. Secretary Clinton should really take advantage of her trip to Africa and really come back with a clear differentiation between the Continent as a whole and its Respective Nations (52 countries) , its economic realities, our interests within each one of them, and the geopolitics and various cultures Africa has. Those who committed crimes should not be in power, they should be prosecuted in court, and the Obama administration should acknowledge the ICC (International Court) for its role in doing just that in Africa.

We are watching this 11 days trip to 7 African countries: (KENYA, SOUTH AFRICA, ANGOLA, DR CONGO, NIGERIA, LIBERIA AND CAPE VERDE)....Not a mention about RWANDA and SUDAN amazingly...but happily Cape Verde long time ignored, Cape Cerde has been on the growth's path and has observed sound democracy... This small African island-country with powerful lobbying immigrant networks in most American cities. Nigeria and Angola's economies deserve support from the US and conflicts in Kenya and DR Congo should appaul the world and South Africa should be teamed up with to help prevent HIV/AIDS and apply some better application models in prevention in other African nations as well.

I'm Franklin Katunda, an Obama surrogate and I approve this message.

Check my latest news article on the DR Congo news at www.congoboston.com

GovComCom Now for long term-restrucring in this gov's absorption

Erez Elul — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:57:43 EDT

In the current cycle of gov's absorption for public's emision why not also to push for long term restructuring for the benfite of the publick, by the mean of GovComCom?

This post continues the GovComCom as a solution for the current crisis

World opinion changing fast - Mr. President

Heinz Rainer — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:55:13 EDT

Inspite of many attempts to make you change your mind on prosecuting those who committed crime against humanity you keep on hiding the suspects: We ask you how can this be possible, is it on Mr. Gates advice ? Or are you afraid of partisans, who might attempt to remove you from Office ? Do not falter, and you see every sincere person will support you even more.

You decided not to publish photos of Abu Ghraib in order not 'to endanger the U.S. Military' stationed in Iraq.

Your actions are now raising eyebrows on every part of the globe. We ask you again : " Let those who committed those acts face

justice; a term which they used over and overduring their own campaign of Terror against innocent, and helpless people.

Article quoted from New Zealand paper :

Quote :

Obama half bush?

Harith al-Ubaidi, a member of parliament's human rights committee, said he understood why Iraqis struggling with a lack of jobs and services might ignore more photos of abuse, but he contested Obama's reasoning for holding them back.

"This is an absolutely invalid excuse. If armed groups could exert more pressure, they wouldn't wait for the photos."

In Ubaidi's view Obama is trying to avoid whipping up Arab opinion as he attempts to repair US-Middle East relations, damaged under former President George W Bush, and was also protecting interrogators guilty of abuse.

Obama has said CIA agents who followed legal guidance on interrogation would not be prosecuted, but left the door open to prosecuting Bush-era officials who developed the policies.

Ubaidi said Obama's overtures to Muslims in Egypt next week are likely to fail if he is seen as continuing Bush's policy of secrecy over detainees, or as blocking efforts to hold those who abused prisoners accountable.

Laila al-Khafaji, another member of Iraq's parliament, said she preferred to forget the past.

"The page of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal was turned a long time ago and it's time to forget. What's the point of reminding us of these pains?"

unquote

How much more needs to be said to make you understand that people around the world look up to you and want nothing else butyou taking them on.

Again we quote another article from another publication. Gruesome details are known to you, and must be made public.Do not hesitate to act on those who made this world dirtier to live in, to live in shame to be an American.

We need to clarify our good name in front of the world now. And you will gain respect from every voter, everyone who believed in you when they elected you to office.

Please do it now, let justice take its course ..

Follow my tweets

The Obama Presidency: Supreme Court Nominee

EsquireUK — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:14:48 EDT

www.whitehouse.gov

This morning President Obama nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Sotomayor would replace Justice Souter, who earlier this month announced his plans to retire who announced his plans to retire at the end of the court's current term.

From WhiteHouse.gov:

As a former constitutional law professor, [President Obama] believes it paramount to select someone who rejects ideology and shares his deep respect for the Constitutional values on which this nation was founded. And as the President has made clear, upholding those constitutional values requires more than just the intellectual ability to apply a legal rule to a set of facts. It requires a common sense understanding of how laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives.

During a joint appearance with Judge Sotomayor, the president described both her professional experience and her incredible life story:

Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Judge Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice.
... But as impressive and meaningful as Judge Sotomayor's sterling credentials in the law is her own extraordinary journey. Born in the South Bronx, she was raised in a housing project not far from Yankee Stadium, making her a lifelong Yankee's fan. I hope this will not disqualify her -- (laughter) -- in the eyes of the New Englanders in the Senate. (Laughter.)

Sonia's parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during the second world war, her mother as part of the Women's Army Corps. And, in fact, her mother is here today and I'd like us all to acknowledge Sonia's mom. (Applause.) Sonia's mom has been a little choked up. (Laughter.) But she, Sonia's mother, began a family tradition of giving back to this country. Sonia's father was a factory worker with a 3rd-grade education who didn't speak English. But like Sonia's mother, he had a willingness to work hard, a strong sense of family, and a belief in the American Dream.
When Sonia was nine, her father passed away. And her mother worked six days a week as a nurse to provide for Sonia and her brother -- who is also here today, is a doctor and a terrific success in his own right. But Sonia's mom bought the only set of encyclopedias in the neighborhood, sent her children to a Catholic school called Cardinal Spellman out of the belief that with a good education here in America all things are possible.

With the support of family, friends, and teachers, Sonia earned scholarships to Princeton, where she graduated at the top of her class, and Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, stepping onto the path that led her here today.

Along the way she's faced down barriers, overcome the odds, lived out the American Dream that brought her parents here so long ago. And even as she has accomplished so much in her life, she has never forgotten where she began, never lost touch with the community that supported her.

What Sonia will bring to the Court, then, is not only the knowledge and experience acquired over a course of a brilliant legal career, but the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey.

Read the president's full remarks, as well as Judge Sotmayor's remarks . . .

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN NOMINATING
JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR TO THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

May 26, 2009
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Of the many responsibilities granted to a President by our Constitution, few are more serious or more consequential than selecting a Supreme Court justice. The members of our highest court are granted life tenure, often serving long after the Presidents who appointed them. And they are charged with the vital task of applying principles put to paper more than 20 [sic] centuries ago to some of the most difficult questions of our time.

So I don't take this decision lightly. I've made it only after deep reflection and careful deliberation. While there are many qualities that I admire in judges across the spectrum of judicial philosophy, and that I seek in my own nominee, there are few that stand out that I just want to mention.

First and foremost is a rigorous intellect -- a mastery of the law, an ability to hone in on the key issues and provide clear answers to complex legal questions. Second is a recognition of the limits of the judicial role, an understanding that a judge's job is to interpret, not make, law; to approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice; a respect for precedent and a determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand.

These two qualities are essential, I believe, for anyone who would sit on our nation's highest court. And yet, these qualities alone are insufficient. We need something more. For as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience." Experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune; experience insisting, persisting, and ultimately overcoming those barriers. It is experience that can give a person a common touch and a sense of compassion; an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live. And that is why it is a necessary ingredient in the kind of justice we need on the Supreme Court.

The process of reviewing and selecting a successor to Justice Souter has been rigorous and comprehensive, not least because of the standard that Justice Souter himself has set with his formidable intellect and fair-mindedness and decency. I've sought the advice of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, including every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. My team has reached out to constitutional scholars, advocacy organizations, and bar associations representing an array of interests and opinions. And I want to thank members of my staff and administration who've worked so hard and given so much of their time as part of this effort.

After completing this exhaustive process, I have decided to nominate an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice: Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the great state of New York. (Applause.)

Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Judge Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice.

It's a measure of her qualities and her qualifications that Judge Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. District Court by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush, and promoted to the Federal Court of Appeals by a Democrat, Bill Clinton. Walking in the door she would bring more experience on the bench, and more varied experience on the bench, than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed.

Judge Sotomayor is a distinguished graduate of two of America's leading universities. She's been a big-city prosecutor and a corporate litigator. She spent six years as a trial judge on the U.S. District Court, and would replace Justice Souter as the only justice with experience as a trial judge, a perspective that would enrich the judgments of the Court.

For the past 11 years she has been a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of New York, one of the most demanding circuits in the country. There she has handed down decisions on a range of constitutional and legal questions that are notable for their careful reasoning, earning the respect of colleagues on the bench, the admiration of many lawyers who argue cases in her court, and the adoration of her clerks who look to her as a mentor.

During her tenure on the District Court, she presided over roughly 450 cases. One case in particular involved a matter of enormous concern to many Americans, including me: the baseball strike of 1994-1995. (Laughter.) In a decision that reportedly took her just 15 minutes to announce, a swiftness much appreciated by baseball fans everywhere -- (laughter) -- she issued an injunction that helped end the strike. Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball. (Applause.)

Judge Sotomayor came to the District Court from a law firm where she was a partner focused on complex commercial litigation, gaining insight into the workings of a global economy. Before that she was a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA's office, serving under the legendary Robert Morgenthau, an early mentor of Sonia's who still sings her praises today. There, Sonia learned what crime can do to a family and a community, and what it takes to fight it. It's a career that has given her not only a sweeping overview of the American judicial system, but a practical understanding of how the law works in the everyday lives of the American people.

But as impressive and meaningful as Judge Sotomayor's sterling credentials in the law is her own extraordinary journey. Born in the South Bronx, she was raised in a housing project not far from Yankee Stadium, making her a lifelong Yankee's fan. I hope this will not disqualify her -- (laughter) -- in the eyes of the New Englanders in the Senate. (Laughter.)

Sonia's parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during the second world war, her mother as part of the Women's Army Corps. And, in fact, her mother is here today and I'd like us all to acknowledge Sonia's mom. (Applause.) Sonia's mom has been a little choked up. (Laughter.) But she, Sonia's mother, began a family tradition of giving back to this country. Sonia's father was a factory worker with a 3rd-grade education who didn't speak English. But like Sonia's mother, he had a willingness to work hard, a strong sense of family, and a belief in the American Dream.

When Sonia was nine, her father passed away. And her mother worked six days a week as a nurse to provide for Sonia and her brother -- who is also here today, is a doctor and a terrific success in his own right. But Sonia's mom bought the only set of encyclopedias in the neighborhood, sent her children to a Catholic school called Cardinal Spellman out of the belief that with a good education here in America all things are possible.

With the support of family, friends, and teachers, Sonia earned scholarships to Princeton, where she graduated at the top of her class, and Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, stepping onto the path that led her here today.

Along the way she's faced down barriers, overcome the odds, lived out the American Dream that brought her parents here so long ago. And even as she has accomplished so much in her life, she has never forgotten where she began, never lost touch with the community that supported her.

What Sonia will bring to the Court, then, is not only the knowledge and experience acquired over a course of a brilliant legal career, but the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey.

It's my understanding that Judge Sotomayor's interest in the law was sparked as a young girl by reading the Nancy Drew series -- (laughter) -- and that when she was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of eight, she was informed that people with diabetes can't grow up to be police officers or private investigators like Nancy Drew. And that's when she was told she'd have to scale back her dreams.

Well, Sonia, what you've shown in your life is that it doesn't matter where you come from, what you look like, or what challenges life throws your way -- no dream is beyond reach in the United States of America.

And when Sonia Sotomayor ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court of the land, America will have taken another important step towards realizing the ideal that is etched above its entrance: Equal justice under the law.

I hope the Senate acts in a bipartisan fashion, as it has in confirming Judge Sotomayor twice before, and as swiftly as possible so that she can take her seat on the Court in September and participate in deliberations as the Court chooses which cases it will hear this coming year.

And with that, I'd like all of you to give a warm greeting as I invite Judge Sotomayor to say a few words. (Applause.)

JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I was just counseled not to be nervous. (Laughter.) That's almost impossible. (Laughter.)

Thank you, Mr. President, for the most humbling honor of my life. You have nominated me to serve on the country's highest court, and I am deeply moved.

I could not, in the few minutes I have today, mention the names of the many friends and family who have guided and supported me throughout my life and who have been instrumental in helping me realize my dreams. I see many of those faces in this room. Each of you, whom I love deeply, will know that my heart today is bursting with gratitude for all you have done for me.

The President has said to you that I bring my family. In the audience is my brother, Juan Sotomayor -- he's a physician in Syracuse, New York; my sister-in-law, Tracey; my niece, Kylie -- she looks like me -- (laughter) -- my twin nephews, Conner and Corey. I stand on the shoulders of countless people, yet there is one extraordinary person who is my life aspiration -- that person is my mother, Celina Sotomayor. (Applause.)

My mother has devoted her life to my brother and me, and as the President mentioned, she worked often two jobs to help support us after Dad died. I have often said that I am all I am because of her, and I am only half the woman she is.

Sitting next to her is Omar Lopez, my mom's husband and a man whom I have grown to adore. I thank you for all that you have given me and continue to give me. I love you. (Applause.)

I chose to be a lawyer, and ultimately a judge, because I find endless challenge in the complexities of the law. I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights. For as long as I can remember, I have been inspired by the achievement of our Founding Fathers. They set forth principles that have endured for more than two centuries. Those principles are as meaningful and relevant in each generation as the generation before. It would be a profound privilege for me to play a role in applying those principles to the questions and controversies we face today.

Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich. I was raised in a Bronx public housing project, but studied at two of the nation's finest universities. I did work as an assistant district attorney, prosecuting violent crimes that devastate our communities. But then I joined a private law firm and worked with international corporations doing business in the United States. I have had the privilege of serving as a Federal District Court trial judge, and am now serving as a Federal Appellate Circuit Court judge.

This wealth of experiences, personal and professional, have helped me appreciate the variety of perspectives that present themselves in every case that I hear. It has helped me to understand, respect, and respond to the concerns and arguments of all litigants who appear before me, as well as to the views of my colleagues on the bench. I strive never to forget the real-world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses, and government.

It is a daunting feeling to be here. Eleven years ago, during my confirmation process for appointment to the Second Circuit, I was given a private tour of the White House. It was an overwhelming experience for a kid from the South Bronx. Yet never in my wildest childhood imaginings did I ever envision that moment, let alone did I ever dream that I would live this moment.

Mr. President, I greatly appreciate the honor you are giving me, and I look forward to working with the Senate in the confirmation process. I hope that as the Senate and the American people learn more about me they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.

Thank you again, sir. (Applause.)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/introducing-sotomayor?signup=true

Please Won't You Be My Neighbor

Tony — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:52:08 EDT

Globalization and the internet are bringing together an international community. Problems are more internernational than ever. Every great nation needs to understand and opperate with this understanding.

Similarly on the internet we can not be running around telling everyone that we are greatest. On the internet like any playground that child is very unpopular. We can work to be the greatest, and always strive for better. The greatest is still to come.

We must approach our problems with love and understanding. We are all neighbors now.

There will be an economic correction

foius — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:19:50 EDT

Since there is an overabundance of expert opinions on the recovery process, we need to focus our efforts on the impact that the current economic correction is having upon our economy and its' various industries, primarily the auto, oil, and manufacturing industries. As of yet, there has not been the expected lending trend by the banks to facilitate customer and business spending priorities. A primary factor to consider is the continuing loss of jobs in the manufacturing and financial sectors and the ensuing economic impact that these job losses have upon the psychological well-being of everyday working Americans. I truly believe that there has not been enough emphasis on creating jobs for the millions of unemployed Americans who desparately need work. Unless the Obama Administration develops a govt. sponsored and funded jobs program for the unemployed and the underemployed the expected recovery will not take place. It is one thing to put the supply-side principals (banks, auto companies, big businesses) in a position to rebound from their massive losses and it is another thing to facilitate the needs of the demand side (workers, retirees, entry-labor applicants) so that their will be some sort of financial safety-net to tide them over until the economy improves (if it improves at all over the next 2 years). The challenges are many, but there are applicable solutions that must be utilized for the benefit of the majority of Americans and not just those who have deep-pockets and big political contributors. I would like to see the Obama Administration live up to its' promises to help those Americans who a at risk in this recessionary environment so that this country can truly become the leader of the World Economy and provide a shining example of how to rebound and entire nation from economic despair. It can be DONE!!!!!!! Will we meet the challenge?

BallTown (screenplay)

Vincent Williams — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:40:46 EDT

The family that sings together, clings together (and, by the way, maybe reads together and provides the kind of safety and security required). I have written a family screenplay titled "BallTown" which is briefly described below:

When URTH and MOONICA whirl your way, T. D. FOOT, TIPPY the VOLLEY GIRL, DUNCAN BASKET and all balls discover to their terror that the villain SLIME has resolved to destroy their bounce, their roll and even their soul.

URTH narrates this audience interactive musical invention. Designed for ages 2 to 12 with parents and grandparents, well-known classics such as "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "You Are My Sunshine", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", etc. invite all to sing along.

There are two heroes in this story and they are honored to be recognized by (since this is "BallTown") President O-Ballma.

When families have fun, they enjoy sharing.

Martin Luther King - present politics

Heinz Rainer — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:38:49 EDT

This I found a good link to visit :\

http://wewillnotbesilenced.cf.huffingtonpost.com/non_violent_resistance.swf

Education Update

Arizona Educators, Teachers, and Students — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:31:57 EDT

Thanks Dan for all the HARD work you have been doing! We will see you over the next few Monday's downtown!

-Matt

FWEA Political Action Team --1) Usual Bad News The news from the State Capitol this week is that the Republicans in the Senate and House announced at new "Joint Draft Budget Proposal". It might seem like good news since they hadn't produced one since January. However, it is so chock full of bad ideas that they didn't even have a press conference to announce it. Right away members of their own party and the governor pointed out some of the bad ideas. Here are a few regarding education funding: - continue the cuts from FY09 - no 2% increase from Prop 301 - cut more soft capital (books, computers, etc) - no building renewal $ (to fix buildings) - phase out Career Ladder over 11 years - "sweep" (a legislative term that means steal) any money that districts had saved -- $300 millionKyrsten Sinema, a leading Democrat, said the Republicans have put out “another incomplete, unrealistic, irresponsible budget proposal.” The head of the House Education Committee, Rich Crandall, a Republican said the same thing only in nicer terms.More of the legislators are expecting it to go to the deadline at the end of June. 2) Good NewsA statewide poll, done by the Cronkite Center/Channel 8, showed that 69% of voters oppose more cuts to education.69% supported a temporary sales tax increase.So the voters seem to be more aligned with the Democrats who have drafted a proposal that doesn't cut education but raises funds by rolling back tax cuts, eliminating tax credits, and allowing the state property equalization tax to return. The Dem's ideas are being paid a bit more attention, but not much.What to Do1) Come out a picket the Governor's office. Monday May 4 -- FWEA DAY -- 4:00 - 5:30 -- last week we had 20 people including some from Sunnyside. COME ON OUT! We need FWEA members from EVERY site. *** Bonus Day -- Tuesday May 5 TEA (TUSD teacher's association) 4:00 - 5:30 -- so if you can't make it Monday, you can join TEA Tuesday2) Call the Governor 800- 253-0883 The Republicans in the Legislature are stuck and need clear leadership from the governor. So far she has only offered general guidelines and has kept her distance from the process. Tell her: 1) It's time for her to step up and lead 2) The voters want NO CUTS to education 3) Allow the State Property Equalization Tax to returnLet's keep it up ! Public opinion seems to be shifting our way!Dan

The State of Public Education

Arizona Educators, Teachers, and Students — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:32:57 EDT

Help support education in Arizona by holding signs outside the Governor’s Education Building every Monday afternoon from 4:00-5:30 on the NW corner of Congress and Granada in downtown Tucson. United we stand, divided we fall. Stand together for those who have received a pink slip or RIF. Show support to improve the entire education environment. There are signs there, but you are welcome to bring one you made. If you need a chair, please bring your own, as well as water to drink. Thanks for helping change education for the better!! There is free parking in the garage on the west of Granada on the north side of Congress.

http://speakupnowaz.org/

http://vodpod.com/watch/1349208-lost-generation

Free College Admission Guidance

MyCollegeCalendar.org — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:56:33 EDT

The current economic crisis is forcing numerous school districts to cut student counselor positions. In Manteca Unified School District (Manteca, California), more than 50% of the basic counseling staff may be eliminated, leaving a very challenging situation for next year’s remaining counselors and the college-bound students under their responsibility. Opportunities to help students, “. . . may be dramatically curtailed in coming years.”

However, there is a valuable, interactive tool designed to help high school counselors and to guide students and parents through the college admission and financial aid processes. In these times of economic and competitive challenges, help is available at MyCollegeCalendar.org.

MyCollegeCalendar.org is a complete online system that covers the college preparation and admission process for high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors and parents on all topics from A to Z, all FREE OF CHARGE. Not only are all topics covered, but “how-to” instructions, internet links, example documents, and schedules are all rolled into one guidance system.

Convenient and effective.

Counselors can direct students to use MyCollegeCalendar for universal guidance and as a task planner. Each high school class can be on the “same page” with regard to preparing, planning and applying to college; counselors are able to check student progress with college preparation and application steps by making sure students complete recommended and required tasks on time.

Furthermore, high school counselors can direct students to MyCollegeCalendar for all “routine” tasks (i.e., how to search for colleges and scholarships, how to register for the SAT/ACT and when tests are scheduled, how to create a student résumé, etc.), leaving much-needed time for counselors to advise students and to complete the all-important tasks of writing letters of recommendation and editing college application and scholarship essays.

Similar to high school counselors, professional college admission consultants and financial planners can use MyCollegeCalendar as a universal guidance tool for all of their clients. This will allow professionals to more effectively manage and expand their client base.

Parents can create their own account to monitor their student’s progress.

Students can plan, prepare and complete college application and financial aid tasks 24/7 from their home computer.

In addition, MyCollegeCalendar has built-in guidance and schedule flexibility. All users can toggle between any high school year, and juniors and seniors can switch between early, regular and late schedules depending on their progress and the time of year. Students are able to easily see upcoming tasks because completed actions (both recommended and personal) can be marked as “complete” and removed from the “Today”, “This Week”, “Next Week” or “MyTasks” list of action items.

While nothing can replace the hands-on personal guidance and care of dedicated counselors, parents and able professionals, MyCollegeCalendar allows EVERYONE involved in the college admission and financial aid processes to work together to ensure student success.

For more information visit MyCollegeCalendar.org

CLEAN TRUCKS PROGRAM

WEBMASTER — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:19:49 EDT

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been working to replace old trucks burning dirty, imported diesel with new trucks running on clean, domestic natural gas.

The program has been working, but too slowly. The way these trucking companies rotate their fleets, this is the year when a huge percentage of the trucks will be replaced. They need to be replaced with trucks running on natural gas.

Click here to sign this petition to push forward the Clean Trucks Program.

In California there are 3,700 premature deaths every year due to air pollution. Pollution-related disease and medical conditions, including childhood asthma, costs Californians $19 billion per year.

Helping truckers trade trucks producing diesel fumes that everyone has to breathe – especially children and the elderly – for new trucks which produce no particulate emissions and a fraction of greenhouse gas emissions is an excellent investment for California. It will also be another example of California leading the country in protecting the environment.

Just the other day, California’s Air Resources Board approved regulations for its Low Carbon Fuel Standard which will have a real effect on reducing greenhouse gasses from petroleum-based fuels.

Click here to sign this petition to push forward the Clean Trucks Program.

The White House: Monitoring Swine Flu Outbreak

EsquireUK — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:31:29 EDT

www.whitehouse.gov

Twenty people in the U.S. have confirmed cases of swine flu linked to the virus that has spread in Mexico, and the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said officials expect more severe infections to begin showing up.

Richard Besser, the CDC’s acting director, said the virus has been identified in New York, Texas, California, Kansas and Ohio. So far, the cases have been relatively mild and only one person has reported being hospitalized.

“It looks to be the same virus that is causing the situation in Mexico,” Besser said at a briefing at the White House. Scientists are trying to determine why the virus, normally transmitted among pigs, has been more severe in Mexico, where as many as 81 deaths have been linked to the infection.

There is no vaccine for the virus, he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said stockpiles of drugs to treat patients will be made available. The government is issuing a health emergency declaration to free up more resources to combat the spread of the virus.

Health officials said they are trying to determine how the virus gained its ability to infect and spread among humans.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it was “far too early to determine” whether there will be an economic impact from the outbreak.

Obama’s Mexico Visit

President Barack Obama was in Mexico City April 16 for meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Gibbs said the incubation period for an infection is long past and “the president’s health was never in danger”

The outbreaks in Mexico and the U.S. warrant an urgent assessment of its potential to spark the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, the World Health Organization said yesterday. The Geneva-based United Nations agency held an emergency meeting and decided that more evidence is needed to determine whether the level of pandemic alert should be increased.

John Brennan, a special assistant to the president for homeland security, said the government is putting in place systems to allow “rapid identification” of any new cases and efforts to “mitigate a broader outbreak” in the U.S.

He said there is “no evidence whatsoever” of a connection to bioterrorism. Besser said all investigations so far point to a naturally occurring virus.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at Hnichols2@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: April 26, 2009 13:29 EDT

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/26/Streaming-at-1230-White-House-Press-Briefing/

Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 11:26 amStreaming at 12:30: White House Press Briefing

[UPDATE: This briefing has concluded, check back later for the transcript.]

The Office of the Press Secretary issued the following advisory this morning concerning a special White House Briefing to discuss the reported swine flu cases. Watch it streamed at 12:30pm EDT at WhiteHouse.gov/live, and find up-to-the-minute information through the HHS/ CDC swine flu widget.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SUNDAY, April 26, 2009

White House Briefing to Discuss Reported Swine Flu Cases – Today at 12:30pm EDT

WASHINGTON – Obama administration officials will host an on-camera briefing this afternoon in the White House Press Briefing Room to provide an update on swine influenza in the United States and the government response.

WHO: Secretary Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security; Dr. Richard Besser, Acting Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

WHEN: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 12:30pm EDT

WHERE: White House Press Briefing Room

www.whitehouse.gov

The White House: Monitoring Swine Flu Outbreak

EsquireUK — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:31:25 EDT

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/26/Streaming-at-1230-White-House-Press-Briefing/

Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 11:26 amStreaming at 12:30: White House Press Briefing

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SUNDAY, April 26, 2009

White House Briefing to Discuss Reported Swine Flu Cases – Today at 12:30pm EDT

WHEN: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 12:30pm EDT

WHERE: White House Press Briefing Room

www.whitehouse.gov

BARACK OBAMA FIRST 100 DAYS

WEBMASTER — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:23:01 EDT

During the first 100 days of the Obama presidency we have seen outstanding leadership in tackling the many issues facing our great nation. And it seems that overwhelming poll numbers indicate that America agrees with President Obama. see THE WHITE HOUSE

The question remains; What can we as fellow Americans do to help our neighbors and countrymen? Included are nine things you can do to help the President celebrate his first 100 Days in office:

1. Donate unused suits to the Salvation Army
2. Donate time to Americorps
3. Donate toys for children at Toys for Tots
4. Donate blood at the Red Cross
5. Donate a can of food each week to a Local Shelter or Food Pantry
6. Donate money to Save the Children
7. Donate time at local a Veterans Hospital
8. Donate an hour a day to your Child
9. Donate to the Make a Wish Foundation

Participation is greatly appreciated. What you do for the least of our brethren, you do for yourself -
http://donate.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGxWJh

Barack Obama First 100 Days posted by David Apperson

Green Jobs & Recovery

Jill 4 Obama — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:32:41 EDT

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Recovery.gov

US Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis testifies before Senate HELP Committee on green job skills training Accountability and Transparency -

This is your money. You have a right to know where it's going and how it's being spent.

Learn what steps we're taking to conduct oversight of funds distributed under this law in order to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.

Share your Story - Tell us how the Recovery Act is affecting you. What's working? What isn't? We want to hear from you.

State Progress and Resources -

Curious about the recovery progress in your state?

Learn more about statewide recovery efforts here.

Agency Progress and Resources - We're bringing transparency and accountability to all areas of government. Learn about Recovery investments and grant programs at government agencies and departments.

US Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis testifies before Senate HELP Committee on green job skills training Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Secretary Solis testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions regarding green jobs skills training for workers.

Solis stated the promise of green jobs is not only to help re-start the economy and put Americans back to work, but also to help make America more energy independent.

DOL is developing plans for use of Recovery Act funding for research, labor exchange and job training projects that prepare workers for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries, and will soon issue solicitations for grant applications to be administered by ETA. The department has encouraged states to expand existing training programs that have the potential to prepare workers for careers in the renewable energy sectors and for other green jobs.

Read More @Recovery.gov

ONLINE VETERANS COMMUNITY

WEBMASTER — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:42:47 EDT

President Barack Obama says all Americans have a “sacred trust" with the military personnel who have served this Nation, a responsibility to reward courage and self-sacrifice with all the benefits an open democratic society can provide.

MyVetwork (myvetwork.com) provides the solid foundation for a vibrant network of support in the spirit of that sacred trust to improve the lives of not only our active duty personnel and the 600,000 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but all our nation's estimated 23 million living military veterans - and their families, too.

MyVetwork is already operational, with the capability to service the Veterans Community—for the first time—in three intersecting strings, known as a Trident Connection, add up to One Trusted Source for Veterans that anyone connected to the government understands is crucially needed:

Connection: An easy to use—free—means for our service men and women (all branches, all conflicts, whether active duty, veterans or retired) and their extended families to connect and shape their own community where they can interact and exchange information on getting the services and resources they need (replacing current “Needle in a haystack” searches with the badly needed “Bingo. Found it!” laser-like search). Employs a cool Pin View that makes it easy to:
- Locate people you know, like buddies from combat
- Find people you don’t know, the very people—living nearby or half a world away—with whom you most want to connect based on values, interests, concerns, and specific experiences you’ve identified as important
- Find jobs the MyVetwork way: the “job board on steroids” helps find work that matches your interests and skill sets, and helps vet-friendly employers ensure vets get first-look opportunity at available positions.
Information: MyVetwork is building the innovative “Milipedia” with content specifically shaped by and for the military community, continually adapting to the needs of service personnel and their families and updating the information they seek, especially in the areas of healthcare, education, money and finance, and careering. Whether cutting through the red tape to benefits programs available from the VA; differentiating the proliferation of local services and programs; or finding specific people offering advice and support, Milipedia info has the added advantage of being “vetted” by military personnel who can vouch for the value of the proffered service/information (think “Military meets Wikipedia meets Zagat guide”).
Organizational Umbrella: Finally, a place for unwinding the organizational maze, categorizing all the available services, the scores of organizations, the many websites and the hundreds of community programs already providing support for our military and their families, giving them the best possible means to showcase themselves to the military community with the accompanying opportunity to increase membership, even raise needed funds.

Veterans community in one location. All for free.

Founded by decorated veteran John R. Campbell, MyVetwork draws on the “secret sauce” of the military, the “I’ve-walked-in-your-shoes” strength military personnel willingly share with one another, which will be a driving force behind MyVetwork.

Learn more about MyVetwork by visiting myvetwork.com or join the Veterans Community by visiting community.myvetwork.com.

Online Veterans Community: veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGxcKg
Document posted by David Apperson

Mr. President - right - or wrong?

Heinz Rainer — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:15:19 EDT

Latest revelations about CIA torturers and the memos that came from 'above'.

Imagine, Mr. Obama, leaving a human submersed in water with a constant feeling of drowning.

Or, as we saw 'water cascading' on a human 's face, for hours. With the same feeling of getting drowned.

What else? We only begin to know what torture techniques were used against the so called 'Terrorists'.

The difference of being a 'Terrorist' or a CIA thug isn't that big in actual fact.

In Guantanamo Bay, similarly basic human rights were abused by the 'Greatest Nation' on earth.

And finally some of the memos are now being made public .

Where are Bush, Rumsfield, Cheney and Rice, as the master perpetrators. Why don't you take them on trial?

Here is the straw : "Mr President, you now want to protect the CIA henchmen who committed these crimes against humanity". Crimes, for which every normal citizen would be imprisoned for years.

You declare an amnesty for such culprits, who were 'only following orders'.

This means - in actual fact, that German SS troups were only 'following orders' and they should have been exonerated as well. Or do we have some double standards here?

Is it not that any person that tortures another fellow human, is committing a crime against humanity?

No Mr. President, we see some biased decision taking, and we are certain that Mr. Gates is the main reason for this.

He wants to protect his criminal gang.

No Sir, we won't agree. For the first time we speak out against your decision.

Like in the 'illegal use of drones' against innocent civilians.

Your policy of eliminating unwanted people somehow does not compare with the public image you portray. Somehow I have doubts if you are the person we thought you were, or you are simply caving in to pressure.

Torture in any form - is illegal. And torturers must be prosecuted, CIA henchmen or not.

Bush, Rumsfield, Cheney and Rice should be put on trial as well. Fast.

They were lying to us continiously till the end. And now we should let them go free ?

Take them on, the free world looks up to you.

We Have to Comment! EPA: Action on Greenhouse Gases, Hearings in May

V, aka VCubed/Virginia V — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:08:40 EDT

We have never had a better chance to impact this critical issue. Our reps are willing to use "budget reconciliation" to overcome filibuster threats and pass health care reform (since private insurers are still at the table), but on climate change and cap-and-trade, the resistance is absolute, from Democratic reps from mining, coal, oil, gas states, not just from Republicans.

Since our representatives are more indebted to their oil, gas, mining and coal lobbyists than to our environment or our President, it's the EPA to the rescue! There will be a 60-day comment period so please write, right now, and get everyone you can to attend 2 public hearings in May, in

Arlington, VA 5/18, and
Seattle WA 5/21.

Support w/your comments to:

GHG-Endangerment-Docket@epa.gov

Subject: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171

Do it please, now! Background at: http://epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html

Post this on Facebook, all your networks, Digg to push story to front page:

http://digg.com/world_news/U_S_says_greenhouse_emissions_endanger_human_health

Send this alert to all your friends, especially in the vicinity of VA and WA!

REACHING OUT TO THE CUBAN PEOPLE

WEBMASTER — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:59:23 EDT

Today Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was joined by Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council Dan Restrepo -- who spoke in Spanish -- in announcing a change in US policy towards Cuba at the Daily Press Briefing:

MR. GIBBS: Good. Before we do our regularly scheduled program, I’ve got a short announcement. And I am joined for the bilingual portion of this announcement by Dan Restrepo, a Special Assistant to the President and a Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council.

Today, President Obama has directed that a series of steps be taken to reach out to the Cuban people to support their desire to enjoy basic human rights and to freely determine their country’s future. The President has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Commerce to carry out the actions necessary to lift all restrictions on the ability of individuals to visit family members in Cuba, and to send them remittances. He’s further directed that steps be taken to enable the freer flow of information among the Cuban people and between those in Cuba and the rest of the world, as well as to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian items directly to the Cuban people.

In taking these steps to help bridge the gap among divided Cuban families and to promote the increased flow of information and humanitarian items to the Cuban people, President Obama is working to fulfill the goals he identified both during his presidential campaign and since taking office.

All who embrace core democratic values long for a Cuba that respects the basic human, political and economic rights of all of its citizens. President Obama believes the measure he has taken today will help make that goal a reality. He encourages all who share it to continue their steadfast support for the Cuban people.

MR. RESTREPO: Thanks, Robert.

Buenas tardes.

Hoy, el Presidente Obama ha ordenado que se tomen ciertas medidas, ciertos pasos, para extender la mano al pueblo cubano, para apoyar su deseo de vivir con respeto a los derechos humanos y para poder determinar su destino propio y el destino de su país.

El Presidente ha dado instrucciones a los secretarios de Estado, Comercio y Tesoro para que pongan en marcha las acciones necesarias para eliminar todas las restricciones a individuos para que puedan visitar a sus familiares en la isla y mandar remesas. Además ha dado instrucciones para que se tomen pasos para permitir el flujo libre de información entre el pueblo cubano y entre quienes están en Cuba y el resto del mundo, y para facilitar la entrega de recursos humanitarios enviados directamente al pueblo cubano.

Al tomar estas medidas para ayudar a -- cerrar la brecha -- la brecha entre familias cubanas divididas y promover el flujo libre de información y artículos de ayuda humanitaria para el pueblo cubano, el Presidente Obama está esforzándo por cumplir los objetivos que fijó durante la campaña y desde el asumio del cargo.

Todos aquellos que creen en los valores democráticos básicos anhelan una Cuba que respeta los derechos humanos, políticos, económicos, básicos de todo su pueblo. El Presidente Obama considera que estas medidas ayudarán a hacer realidad ese objetivo. El Presidente - El Presidente alenta a todos quienes comparten este deseo, que sigan cometidos a su firme apoyo para el pueblo cubano.

See http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/13/Reaching-Out-to-the-Cuban-People/

FIRST FAMILY DOG

WEBMASTER — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:31:41 EDT

Guessing is over: It's Bo!

First Family Dog - In a long-awaited and guessed-about move, the Obama family has opened the White House to the new first pet -- a Portuguese water dog named Bo.

APRIL 12: In this handout image released by the White House on April 12, 2009, the first family dog, Bo, a six-month old Portuguese water dog sits in the White House in Washington, DC. Bo is a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and and his wife Victoria to the President's daughters, Sasha and Malia. PETE SOUZA / GETTY IMAGES BY PHILIP ELLIOTT ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Bo? No jest.

The first family dag has settled by the first family -- a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama girls are naming Bo.

The selection was one of the White House's most tightly kept secrets.

The first pooch is a gift from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, who owns three so-called porties and wanted the Obamas to follow suit.

''We couldn't be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to Malia and Sasha,'' Kennedy said in a statement. ``We love our Portuguese water dogs and know that the girls -- and their parents -- will love theirs, too.''

The housebroken puppy, which has been undergoing extensive training in recent weeks, was named ''Charlie'' by his original owners, but first daughters Malia and Sasha rechristened him Bo.

The Washington Post reported in its online editions that Obama's daughters chose the name Bo for the pup because first lady Michelle Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley. The name for the dog was an apparent reference to the singer ''Bo'' Diddley.

Throughout the day Saturday, celebrity websites and bloggers were abuzz with rumors of the first family's selection of a Portuguese water dog; one site even claimed it had pictures of the future first pet.

Obama promised his daughters a puppy during the campaign.

''This is Washington. That was a campaign promise,'' Obama said when he appeared on Jay Leno's talk show last month, as the audience roared with laughter. ``No, I'm teasing. The dog will be there shortly.''

The president and first lady had said their choice was down to either a Portuguese water dog or a Labradoodle because they were considered good pets for children who have allergies, as Malia does.

First Family Dog supplemented with material from the Chicago Tribune. Article pulled from Miami Herald.

First Family Dog posted by David Apperson
http://kids.barackobama.com/page/community/tag/first-family-dog

Hear the tribute of Bo Diddley performed by Buddy Holly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUEKu2nOLCw

Listen to the President's Message of Renewal from the White House -
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/11/Weekly-Address-Passover-and-Easter

Recovery in Action: "Beginning to Percolate Nationwide"

Jill 4 Obama — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:21:44 EDT

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG
Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 6:00 pm Recovery in Action: “Beginning to Percolate Nationwide” This morning, having made progress on an international response to the financial crisis in Europe, the President met with Treasury Secretary Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, SEC Chair Mary Shapiro and Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan to start working on next steps here at home. (President Barack Obama confers with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke following their meeting
at the White House, April 10, 2009. White House Photo/Pete Souza) Meanwhile, the Recovery Act continues to pick up steam… Nationwide, Washington Post, 4/10/09: "Building repairs are underway on public housing in Imboden, Ark., and Cumberland, Ill., states across the country are receiving money to weatherize the homes of low-income residents, and the Silver Star Construction Co. is about to start work on two road-resurfacing projects in south-central Oklahoma with a total cost of $12 million. ‘We were thrilled to get some work,’ said Steve Shawn, president of the company. ‘Some of the work had started slowing down from the economy. The new work came in just around the right time.’ Slowly but surely, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- better known as the economic stimulus package -- is beginning to percolate nationwide, six weeks after President Obama signed the legislation." Nationwide, Modern Healthcare, 4/9/09: "Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, looked tired but sounded pleased with the outcome of the trade association’s annual convention in Chicago… Offsetting the economy was the American Recovery and Reconciliation Act of 2009, signed into law by President Barack Obama in February, which by some estimates contains as much as $35 billion in federal dollars directed toward healthcare information technology spending. ‘We had more provider organizations represented here than we’ve ever had,’ Lieber said. ‘What else could you attribute it to? It’s the stimulus… They (providers) knew they had to pick up whatever intelligence they could this week.’ And that understanding of what the stimulus act held in store for them came not just from the educational sessions—government officials were somewhat limited in what they could say, since Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary nominee, has not yet passed through Senate vetting and been sworn in—but by ‘sitting across the coffee table’ at breaks during the show, exchanging ideas and information with IT industry peers, Lieber said." Colorado, Business Journal, 4/8/09: "The Denver area will have at least 38 active road construction projects this summer totaling $234.4 million, 14 of which are being paid for with federal stimulus money, the Colorado Department of Transportation said Wednesday. "With the funds we are receiving from [the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act], we will now be able to have a construction season similar to those of recent years," CDOT Executive Director Russell George said in a statement. "We will be able to resurface roadways, replace poor bridges and improve safety all across the Denver metro area." Kansas, Kansas City Business Journal, 4/9/09: "Kansas will get $18.4 million for child care and disease prevention for children, and $2.1 million for children’s vaccines, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site. Nationwide, $2 billion in stimulus money for the Child Care and Development Fund will help states support child-care services for working families, those seeking employment or those receiving job training or education." Michigan, WMMT, 4/9/09: "Lieutenant Governor John D. Cherry, Jr. today announced that 67 communities in 27 Michigan counties will benefit from a total of $47.3 million in transportation enhancement (TE) funding. This total includes 22 projects funded through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). The funding will complete 176 miles of bike paths and paved shoulders; enhance local roadways in communities statewide with lighting, landscaping, sidewalks, crosswalks and other improvements; preserve a historic bridge and two historic rail facilities. The projects are planned for the 2009 and 2010 construction seasons and will create or retain more than 1,300 jobs. ‘This is a positive step for Michigan’s economy,’ said Cherry. ‘These enhancement projects will create jobs and improve communities so they are more attractive to residents, businesses and visitors.’" Missouri, Kansas City Star, 4/10/09: "Within a couple of years, Kansas City could become a green model for turning around some of its poorest neighborhoods, officials said Thursday. Up to $200 million in federal stimulus money will weatherize every home that needs it in a 150-block area, upgrade bus services and provide much more help, they said. ‘I’m so excited, I'm trying to calm down,’ said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat who came up with the idea for a Green Impact Zone. ‘This is a perfect storm of opportunity.’ Kansas City is taking the lead in the nation by funneling as much stimulus money as possible over two years into rebuilding one area of the city, Cleaver said. Local, state and federal governments have agreed to work together on the plan. ‘The key is we are investing federal money wisely and building an inclusive green economy strong enough to create jobs for residents,’ said Cleaver, who met with more than 50 neighborhood and community leaders Thursday." New Hampshire, New Hampshire Business Review, 4/10/09: "Over the next three years, New Hampshire will receive more than $23 million in federal stimulus money designed to create jobs and increase energy conservation by funding a major boost in home weatherization projects. The program is one piece of the job creation puzzle presented by the more than $900 million targeted for New Hampshire through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February…’This is great, exciting stuff,’ said Charlie Wolfe, weatherization manger for the Dover-based Strafford County Community Action Committee. ‘We’ve talked before what we could do if we had more money, and now we will have a chance to make a big difference.’ According to the Department of Energy, the low- and moderate-income participants in the Weatherization Assistance Program on average see a 32 percent reduction in heating bills – cutting a $2,000 annual heating bill, for example, to about $1,400." New Mexico, Daily Times, 4/10/09: "The state of New Mexico has awarded contracts for four highway reconstruction projects to be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Gov. Bill Richardson said this week. Construction on the projects, worth a total of nearly $50 million, is scheduled to start within 30 days. Among the projects is U.S. 491, the main north-south thoroughfare through the New Mexico portion of the Navajo Nation. The highway, which has earned a variety of notorious nicknames, is among the most dangerous in the United States. Construction began on the road formerly called U.S. 666, or the ‘Highway to Hell,’ almost a year ago. The ground-breaking ceremony occurred last May, signaling a $100 million collaboration between the state and the Navajo Nation to widen the two-lane corridor to four lanes. The agreement came after a nearly four-year struggle over rights-of-way and state funding. A compromise calling for the Nation to contribute $10 million in cash and in-kind donations was reached in January 2008, just months before construction began. Stimulus money, however, will not be used for the widening project. The state Department of Transportation awarded $8.9 million for rehabilitation of a portion of the two-lane highway, spokesman S.U. Mahesh said." New York, Democrat and Chronicle, 4/10/09: "The 1,776 jobs expected to be created by the federal stimulus money earmarked for roads and bridges in the Rochester region give this spending package a patriotic ring. But in announcing the job-creation number in Canandaigua on Thursday, Gov. David Paterson noted that the projects must meet federal standards…To date, Paterson has certified projects for about $24 million of the $74 million that the seven-county region is scheduled to receive. The funds are slated to go to 115 projects." Oregon, Washington Post, 4/10/09: "Take, for instance, what Oregon's Housing and Community Services Department needs to do to secure its $82 million. It has already applied for $38 million to weatherize low-income residents' homes, and just received the first 10 percent of that, but still needs approval from the state legislature to spend it. It is awaiting guidelines for applying for $27 million in tax credits for affordable housing development. It just received the guidelines for applying for $8 million to help prevent homelessness, and expects that it will not spend that money before July. And Oregon will not apply until July for ‘neighborhood stabilization’ funding that will be distributed on a competitive basis for states to renovate or demolish abandoned homes. In fact, it is still getting ready to spend $19.6 million that it received for a similar purpose from a housing recovery bill President George W. Bush signed in late July. It is a lot of hoops to jump through, but officials say it is worth it. ‘This is a huge investment for us,’ said Rick Crager, Oregon's deputy housing director. The process ‘is not an issue for us. It's important that we're accountable.’" Texas, San Marcus Mercury, 4/9/09: "U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett today announced that $2.4 million in federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used for flood control projects along Plum Creek in Hays County. ‘Upgrading flood control along Plum Creek will protect people and property along the rapidly growing Kyle-Buda corridor,’ said Rep. Doggett, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and House Budget Committee. ‘This recovery funding will create jobs, promote future construction in Hays County, and reduce the danger from any future flooding.’" West Virginia, US Fed News, 4/10/09: "United States Senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, both D-W.Va., along with Congressman Nick Rahall, W.Va.-3, today announced that West Virginia is slated to receive more than $1,643,000 in federal funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The monies will be distributed through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of a $197 million spending program across the country… The funds will be used for overseeing the assessment and cleanup of leaks from underground storage tanks or directly paying for assessment and cleanup of leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling, unable, or the clean up is an emergency response. ‘Many West Virginia families rely on groundwater as a source of their safe drinking water,’ said Byrd. ‘This funding will help to eliminate the backlog of more than 950 underground tank clean-up projects in West Virginia. And through this funding we will both create jobs and improve the health and safety of West Virginia communities.’ ‘The protection of West Virginia's drinking water is essential. West Virginia families should be able to trust that the water coming from their faucet is safe," said Senator Rockefeller." Wyoming, Jackson Hole Daily, 3/23/09: "A Teton County pathway project will receive $300,000 to complete a route from Jackson to the Gros Ventre River in Grand Teton National Park. On Thursday, the Wyoming Department of Transportation Commission approved $300,000 of federal economic stimulus money for the first phase of the pathway along Highway 89 north of Jackson. Tim Young, director of Friends of Pathways, said the stimulus money likely will provide the final funding needed to finish the path. Teton County has won competitive federal grants totaling $3 million, but Young said that money was just shy of what it will take to finish the project. ‘This stimulus funding helps bridge the gap,’ he said."

Blue meanies Back- Time to Post

Dawn in Arizona — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:05:54 EDT

It is so hard to see most of the front page on posts being occupied by the nonsense. So another post is in order.

Back to "Path To Citzenship" or Citzenship part 2.

My post got two great answers. 1. fine the employers and 2. the idea of letting the illegals get away with breaking the law is not good.

Fist of all the illegal problem in Arizona is massive! If a business is busted, they go right back to doing things their way-right away. This is not working.

I am in the top part of Arizona and yet, any given day, there are men standing on street corners waiting- they wait for construction bosses to pull up for two or three or more people. The men get paid cash for whatever hours they work...dangerous on not they must eat/pay rent.

Fining illegals up to $4000. for being here and then saying it is a path to citizenship is unrealistic. They do not have that kind of money.

How about community service? Heaven knows we could use that!

Stop Insurance Industry Profiteering! Reform Health Coverage NOW!

Tom Hayes, working for change — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:07:48 EDT

1 in 6 Americans are uninsured and millions more are under-insured, yet lobbyists try to convince Congress and the media that health insurance companies are the best way to provide affordable health care to America. If the President's plan is changed to exclude an option similar to Medicare, health care in this country remains mired in the hands of insurance profiteers.

A public, single-payer option is the way to guarantee health care for all Americans. Insurance companies are in it for profit - that's what business does. Our big mistake thus far has been expecting them to behave altruistically. Where is their motive? It's on the bottom line.

New legislation without a new option is no longer a viable choice. Let people keep the for-profit coverage if they already have it, but a public health care option is overdue. Of course, competition should force private industry to provide better service at lower costs, but it still doesn't force them to help the uninsured.

"In 2009, Congress must take up and act on meaningful health reform legislation that achieves coverage for every American while also addressing the underlying problems in our health system. The urgency of this task has become undeniable."
~Senator Max Baucus, (D-MT)
Chairman, Senate Finance Committee
12 November 2008

To date, the private, for-profit payment systems have enriched a few large corporations while leaving millions of average Americans one illness or injury away from medical bankruptcy. The system is broken; it's a mass of red-tape, with medical decisions in the hands of bureaucrats instead of doctors. We spend more per capita on health care than any other nation, but our results leave a lot to be desired.

“The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans’ health dollars.“

We need to re-define success. Big business is ignoring the problem, looking instead to their separate bottom lines, while non-profit organizations are bringing real innovation and proactive thinking to bear. We need insurance profiteers out of the health care industry - now. They drive costs up, because they're middle-men making a profit. What's right for their business is wrong for providing cost-effective health care to Americans. Let's pass the President's plan and move on to tackle the other thorny issues of our time: education and the economy.

Let's put medical decisions back in the hands of trained professionals.

Tom Hayes, working for change — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:36:19 EDT

Single-payer national health insurance isn’t socialized medicine (and if it was you can bet most doctors in the U.S. wouldn’t support it.) Single-payer is simply a streamlined system in which a single agency organizes health-care financing and payments: delivery of medical care remains essentially as it in in the U.S. today - largely private. All that’s lost is the red-tape and restrictions.

Who’s against it then? Insurance companies, because they profit enormously from the current system - even though they add no value. In fact, many people will tell you that insurance companies make it hard to get what they deserve and pay for with the premiums. That’s why it was such a major focus of Obama’s campaign in 2008: he proposed that modern health care should include giving everybody in the U.S. coverage.

To get there we need the freedom to choose between keeping private insurance—for those lucky enough to have any—and opting into a universally available public health insurance option (something like Medicare.) Ultimately, by reducing the number of agencies handling the payments we simplify the task for hospitals and clinics - less of the time and money goes to red tape, and more goes to actual medical services.

Ultimately that also means diminishing the power and profits of the private insurance companies currently siphoning their lavish earnings off your health care payemnts. They make money off the red tape, and by letting non-medical personnel decide what should and should not be prescribed to treat patients, and that’s a large part of what has caused costs to soar while coverage just shrinks.

It’s time for a reality check. Insurance companies profit from the current system, so naturally they’re opposed to changes that hurt their bottom line and their corporate bonuses. What value do they add to the process?

Digg this article…

RCSEFi's campaign

Clay — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:52:46 EDT

I am an advocate for improving education. Half of the students in school will drop out. Most of the dropouts won’t know what to do with their lives and will become lost in a world of bad choices.

You can help. RCSEFi is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation I started that focuses on encouraging youngsters to stay in school. We work with kids ages 12 – 16 and use auto racing to help them discover the excitement in learning.

RCSEFi has elevated the pedagogy with our highly acclaimed teaching process known as E3 Student-Centered Teaching™. Students are shown how to learn using their hands and minds focused around their interests. This is a living pedagogy that evolves with student’s interests helping it to stay relevant and exciting.

I support families, single parents, and our children looking for a better way to learn. One of the benefits of RCSEFi is that we offer positive role models for many youngsters lacking a male figure in the life. I am committed to positively changing the lives of children. My organization currently faces a challenge that threatens to hamper our progress. I need your help and support in spreading the word and attracting attention to this vital program. Details of the campaign are listed on the website and on our blog page.

http://www.rcsefi.org
http://www.rcsefi.org/blog

I invite your comments and suggestions.

Together we can change the lives of children.
Thank you for your support

Clay Smith

Can Obama make a difference in Africa?

Franklin Katunda — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:33:24 EDT

"Change in US-AFRICA relationship"?

Comments by Franklin Katunda, group's administrator

Would the US become more engaged in the African Continent in the Obama era? Too long western corporates (including many US firms and merecenaries) have been part of networks of sponsors for weapons dealings with African military leaders, whom for most are despot, dictators. The illicit exploitation of mines and other precious gems in the old continent have caused wars, coup d'Etats and genocides. Most civil wars and genocides happened by the hands of armed leaders with connections with financiers and merceneries from US, Europe and even communist nations like Iran, Lybia, China, Russia and Korea.

The African continent became since the 60s a place when our national security was at risk with the initial East-West Cold War to end up with post democratization of most african regimes in the 80s to become a terrain of easy money for these outlaws. The 1990 to 2000s horrific happenings in Africa (Sudan, Congo Democratic, Rwanda, Nigeria and others Somalia, Kenya) and the motives behind their actors could fragilize our national security, if political instability, civil unrest, economic crisis and poor governance can still prevail.

Too long the foreign policy of the United States towards Africa has been timid, our diplomacy mode has been even accomplice, sold out to the dictat of the Europeans (former colonists of all African nations to the exception of Liberia). The French, the British, Portuguese and the Belgians have no power but an historical advantage over the US in Africa; the European Union is running the show in the old continent, and more it leads the US in every area of interest: economy, geopolitics, education, cultural identity and more the choice of leaders to become heads of states. It is time the United States of America become the ally, once of african countries that make progress in the observance of human rights, good governance and economic growth.

Here is the question: Now that Africa has been neglected too long ... Can Obama make the difference in Africa? How would he proceed when nominating Amb Carson, a longtime Intelligence officer and a 37 years diplomat in a continent that shifted from being a cold war terrain in the 60s to become "presumably" a barn to a few Al qaeda elements, to numerous illegal "western" predators and "communists" outlaws?

What do you think Amb. Carson could bring to the process to improving a positive and active presence of the United States in Africa; to the benefit of both the welfare of the African people and our country's national security?

Please read, and leave your comments at the bottom.

****

JOHNNIE CARSON NAMED AFRICAN AFFAIRS UNDERSECRETARY AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT

President Barack Obama today announced his intent to nominate Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, State Department.

Ambassador Johnnie Carson is currently the National Intelligence Officer for Africa on the National Intelligence Council. He joined the NIC in September 2006 after a 37-year career in the Foreign Service. Prior to this appointment, Carson served as the Senior Vice President of the National Defense University in Washington D.C. (2003-2006).

Carson's Foreign Service career includes ambassadorships to Kenya (1999-2003), Zimbabwe (1995-1997), and Uganda (1991-1994); and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs (1997-1999). Earlier in his career he had assignments in Portugal, Botswana, Mozambique, and Nigeria. He has also served as desk officer in the Africa section at State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Staff Officer for the Secretary of State (1978-1979), and Staff Director for the Africa Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives (1979-1982).

Before joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Carson was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania. He has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Drake University and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the School of Oriental and Africa Studies at the University of London.

Ambassador Carson is the recipient of several Superior Honor Awards from the Department of State and a Meritorious Service Award from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The Centers for Disease Control presented Ambassador Carson its highest award, "Champion of Prevention Award," for his leadership in directing the US Government's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Kenya.

Calling Congressman

yoshi — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:12:50 EDT

I received an e-mail from Mitch. (which I believe was sent to you all as well)

I called 3 Congressmen of my district to inform I support President Obama's Budget and

they support as well.

I phoned Rep.Peter J. Roskam(R-IL-06), Sen.Dick Durbin(D-IL), and Sen.Roland Burris (D-IL) offices.

All three offices were responded by secretaries (I believe) and all three offices mechanically answered they will pass the message.

I do not know how much will this help but I felt the big wall (like a wall in China or used to be in Berlin) in D.C. which congressman had forgotten us public.

We elected President Obama, yet as if it is congressman of Republicans and Democrats who are not with the President.

I will stand whatsoever to help the President and will appreciate Mitch had sent us an e-mail.

However we may have to renew all Congressmen if they can not support our President!

What A Pleasant Surprise!

Dawn in Arizona — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:13:35 EDT

After just watching our intelligent President speak I must admit I am still surprised....at how sharp he is, at how he explains and takes the time to answer fully a question and at how proud I am to have voted for such a man.

After baby Bush anything would have seemed better, the difference from 5th grade papers to senior year in high school papers, but we have zoomed to the top of the heap.

Knowing that President Obama is actually working in the White House, working for me for you and for our country lets me sleep better, rest easy. Things are hard! for us and others

but the future is here and forming- this is not a President who takes vacations every other week.

Good Job, Mr. President

Whitehouse Blog, March 24, 2009

Jill 4 Obama — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:01:36 EDT

TUE, MARCH 24, 9:53 AM EST The President Calls NASA Astronauts

President Obama, joined by Congressional leaders and middle school students from the Washington, DC area, is currently calling to congratulate the astronauts on the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Discovery on their successful ongoing mission.

WhiteHouse.gov/live.

UPDATE: The call has concluded.

TUE, MARCH 24, 8:58 AM EST

“A Time for Global Action”

With the G20 meeting approaching on April 2nd, this morning the President published a rare "simultaneous op-ed" in thirty papers around the world, calling for a collective effort to address the economic peril found in all corners of the globe. "The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose," he writes. His op-ed appeared in the following publications: Al Watan (Gulf States), Arab Times (Gulf States), Asharq Al Awsat (Arab-wide paper in Arabic), The Australian (Australia), Bangkok Post (Thailand), Chicago Tribune (United States), Clarin (Argentina), Corriere della Sera (Italy), Die Welt (Germany), El Pais (Madrid), El Mercurio (Chile), Eleftyropiea (Greece), Estado de Sao Paulo (Brazil), Gulf News (Gulf States), The Hindustan Times/ The Hindu (India), International Herald Tribune (London), Kristeligt Dagblad (Denmark), Le Monde (Paris), Lidove Noviny (Czech), Los Angeles Times (United States), The News (Pakistan), NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands), Saudi Gazette (Saudi Arabia), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), Straits Times (Singapore), Sunday Times (South Africa), Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden), Syndey Morning Herald (Australia), WProst (Poland), Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) The President calls for a coordinated approach to three central issues, namely the need to "stimulate growth" (pointing to the Recovery Act as an example); the need to "restore the credit that businesses and consumers depend upon" including an "honest assessment of the balance sheets of our major banks" (pointing to the plans laid out yesterday); and extending "a hand to countries and people who face the greatest risk" to help emerging economies remain stable and avoid plunging the global economy into deeper trouble. The President closes with a broader vision: While these actions can help get us out of crisis, we cannot settle for a return to the status quo. We must put an end to the reckless speculation and spending beyond our means; to the bad credit, over-leveraged banks and absence of oversight that condemns us to bubbles that inevitably bust. Only coordinated international action can prevent the irresponsible risk-taking that caused this crisis. That is why I am committed to seizing this opportunity to advance comprehensive reforms of our regulatory and supervisory framework. All of our financial institutions -- on Wall Street and around the globe -- need strong oversight and common sense rules of the road. All markets should have standards for stability and a mechanism for disclosure. A strong framework of capital requirements should protect against future crises. We must crack down on offshore tax havens and money laundering. Rigorous transparency and accountability must check abuse, and the days of out-of-control compensation must end. Instead of patchwork efforts that enable a race to the bottom, we must provide the clear incentives for good behavior that foster a race to the top. I know that America bears our share of responsibility for the mess that we all face. But I also know that we need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy. That is a false choice that will not serve our people or any people.

Did you - or did you not pay Blackwater 70 Mio $

Heinz Rainer — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:30:41 EDT

In its Editorials, Jermey Scahill acuses the President of having paid Blackwater 70 Mio $.

Quote: "

For those already outraged at the AIG bonus scandal, here is a fact that should add more fuel to the fire: The Obama administration has paid the mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater nearly $70 million to operate in Iraq and, according to The Washington Times, may keep the company on the payroll months past the official expiration of its Iraq contract in May. I reviewed Blackwater's recent transactions with the Obama State Department and discovered a $45 million payment to Blackwater on February 4, 2009 for "protective services-Iraq." It is described as a "funding action only." Here is the interesting part: The estimated "Ultimate Completion Date" is 5/07/2011. Unquote ". Wham. We are speechless. Is that easy, pay 70 Mio $ to a bunch of Mercenaries, killers? What makes then our new government look different from the old one ? This question has to be raised. Wondering, while this new revelation will hit the Media, what explanation the government will come up with. Here is the full story :

President Obama, Why Did You Pay Blackwater $70 Million in February?

OBAMA PRESIDENT by HEINZ RAINER

AFRICASIAEURO

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Bonuses to AIG - a closer look

Heinz Rainer — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:24:13 EDT

Seems we are getting some more insight into the whole mess.

IN FACT recipients of Bonuses have left with the Millions in their pockets, called 'retainer Bonuses'.

Quote: "If they were not given bonuses, they would presumably leave and sign on with rivals of AIG, where they could use their knowledge of AIG and work against its interests, and those of the taxpayers who now own 80% of the company. (In fact, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that some people who got the bonuses have already left AIG.)".....

I wonder what else will be uncovered, those who cashed in leaving the sinking vessel fast.

Read : AIG BONUS MESS

What s next ? Will see....

HEINZ TRAVEL SPOTS GROUP

President Obama: Good Ideas Not Political Tactics

EsquireUK — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:58:28 EDT

Wednesday, 18th March 2009

Washington, D.C.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/17/Good-ideas-not-political-tactics/

www.whitehouse.gov

"But the one thing I will say is this: With the magnitude of the challenges we face right now, what we need in Washington are not more political tactics -- we need more good ideas. We don't need more point-scoring -- we need more problem-solving. So if there are members of Congress who object to specific policies and proposals in this budget, then I ask them to be ready and willing to propose constructive, alternative solutions. If certain aspects of this budget people don't think work, provide us some ideas in terms of what you do. "Just say no" is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs. It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policy is proposed by the other party.The American people sent us here to get things done. And in this moment of enormous challenge, they are watching and waiting for us to lead. Let's show them that we're equal to this task before us. Let's pass a budget that puts this nation on the road to lasting prosperity. I know Kent Conrad is committed to doing that; John Spratt is committed to doing that; I'm committed to doing that. We're going to need everybody working together to get this thing done." - President Barack Obama

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/17/Good-ideas-not-political-tactics/

AIG Outs Counterparties

Heinz Rainer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:47:32 EDT

Wrote my words of peace in Forbes comments :

Quote :"

AIG's collapse caused a lot of pain, but its bailout package offered sweet relief for some.

After months of stonewalling, government-controlled American International Group ...." read on:

AIG Outs Counterparties

AFRICASIAEURO

RENEWABLE WIND ENERGY

WEBMASTER — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:50:40 EDT

Renewable Wind Energy Notes -

If you would like to promote renewable wind energy please refer to list for wind related terms -

Clean Energy
Energy Council
Energy Program
Green Energy
Hydropower
Renewable Energy
Wave Energy
Wind Energy
Wind Power
Wind Turbines

Also see Green Energy Terms [ http://www.gweconline.com ]

Renewable Wind Energy
source: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGx5tr

LOW COST GREEN ENERGY

WEBMASTER — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:37:30 EDT

With the continuous expansion of the Pickens Plan, I would also like to mention something that I believe will interest everyone.

I have just confirmed through the grapevine that Green Wave Evergy Corp intends to launch a competition among small towns and cities across America.

The purpose of the competition? To give-away a 350kw-rated Wave Generating Power Plant (valued at over $350,000).

At this time in our nations history we need more doctors and nurses, and educators and geeks, as well as fire fighters and police officers. You could be the reason for saving a life, extinguishing a fire or catching a criminal.

Imagine if you could be the person who helped your town save hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual energy cost. They might even name the power plant after you.

The Green Wave Power Plant is expected to generate $5 million over a 20 year lifetime expectancy of the system. Money is generated to local communities through energy savings and/or through energy sold back to utility companies.

Contact Green Wave and please share this message with your friends and family.

Pickens Plan: http://push.pickensplan.com/profile/webmaster
Green Wave Energy: http://www.gweconline.com

source: http://enviros.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGx5pM

posted by David Apperson from http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=57071869141

Please Stand Up with our President for the Change we BELIEVE in

MDR Miami Beach — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:54:19 EDT

Yap yap yap - the talking heads.

Meanwhile, we NEED health care solutions. We are not taking proper care of ourselves. We HAVE TO educate all of our children so much better than this. Our children, for goodness sake! And WE CAN invent and use new energy solutions. We could actually live to see things greener and cleaner.

There is no chance that Washington will do what we need them to do. We knew that. That is why we elected this new President -- he wants to speak for us. He wants to hear our voices.

President Obama has presented his 10 year budget that plans to invest in Health Care, Education and Energy now, on the road to Economic Recovery and to a future that we all want to live in.

We KNOW that is the right thing to do right now in this country. Whatever Congress people and media heads have to say, there is no FUTURE without planning for and investing in it. This is our chance to create the future we want to see.

"We know this fight won't be easy. But important battles never are. Together, we have the opportunity to shape our country's future. We believed in the power of people to win an improbable election victory. And we believe in the power of people to drown out the cynics and entrenched interests in Washington to bring lasting, meaningful change we can all be proud we played a role in." -- David Plouffe

So let's get busy. (1) Sign the Pledge online. http://my.barackobama.com/pledgeproject (2) Get all of your friends and contacts to Sigh the Pledge online. (3) Host a Canvass Party on Saturday, 3/21. Engage your friends & neighbors. http://my.barackobama.com/pledgecanvass (4) Go out & Canvass on Saturday 3/21. Find an event and Show up.

Make our voices heard.

Yes We Can!

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

WEBMASTER — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:16:23 EDT

Imagination Joined to Common Purpose

Message from The White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov

Dear David:

Thank you for your recent note, and for sharing your thoughts with me. Your kind words echo the messages of millions of Americans who have welcomed me and my family to the White House with an outpouring of goodwill.

On January 20th, Americans spoke with one voice, choosing hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Our Nation faces serious challenges, but we will overcome them if our imagination is joined to common purpose.

Now is our time to work together, reaffirm our enduring spirit, and choose our better history. With your help, we will renew our Nation's promise to carry forth the great gift of freedom to future generations, as our forebears have delivered it to us.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama

see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58917909520

If we own it?

Filo — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:58:41 EDT

We could get President Clinton or Hw Bush and we will knock until they know who we are in our country.We are America!

Universal truth

Filo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:48:34 EDT

Soon Ahmanidajad will put himself in a distorting travesty with bin laden.Our market world economical outlook could be looked at as psychological.Has our Judeo-christian society left us at this point without a voice of reason to distribute.They mostly have been a peaceful faith for 2000 years in which our fold comes from.Should the decision for Iran's nuclear program come from somebody else.After all it is a volatile issue that affects the balance of power.Most if I can say all do not believe that an all out war will an can happen.For nobody will go against the wishes of peace.Should the farewell of this issue begin in our markets a rally in which we could find a involving great wealth.For after all that would be the mirror image of the offensive in which is also a defensive.Is Iran's nuclear program an offense to GOD.For many believe that man cannot think of himself as a great.Nobody knows except his angels and soon we will have to figure out why.But as for now we must try to be overconfident and keep the faith and trust in our Government for they see into the deep future and soon this could be as a success in which we will not find ignorance.But soon we will know.For we have seen many canontation's deep south the north poverty Constitution Hitler human rights.So therefore change will define come as but at last they will be final until the end.For if knowledge is knowable who tells us that?So therefore again is it an offense?

are you LISTENING????

i am rasa — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:01:33 EDT

My top priority in life is LISTENING to my son Makiah Miller and acting accordingly.

Sometimes, hearing him, getting outside the box of my own perceptions...to listen to what HE is teaching me...is difficult.

Go HERE, inside the box labeled Nate Hutcheson...inside that box is THE ISSUE, click on it ...see if you can hear what lessons HE has to teach...

May your day be perfect and may you act on it accordingly...or....." Be the love. Share the love." as Makiah tells me.....

--
rasa
Robert Allan Schueler Artist
Peace City, Utopia.

AT&T GOING NATURAL GAS

WEBMASTER — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:20:39 EDT

Interesting email sent out today from T Boone Pickens regarding ATT

_________________________________

Hey, Army -

Listen to this! The Pickens Plan is having some real impact.

This morning, Randall Stephenson, who is the Chairman and CEO of AT&T made a very important announcement.

AT&T is going to replace 17 percent of its fleet - which is one of the largest in America - with vehicles running on natural gas and other renewable fuels. They are going to purchase 8,000 truck chassis built by an U.S. automaker and then they'll work with domestic suppliers to convert those chassis to run on natural gas.

A big portion of AT&T's fleet is going to domestic natural gas and is using vehicles built in America to do it. AT&T will also be working with natural gas suppliers - domestic natural gas suppliers - to build the fueling facilities they will need for these vehicles.

AT&T is also going to replace some 7,100 cars which are running on gasoline with cars using battery and other alternative sources. When this is done, AT&T will have one of the largest alternative fueled fleets in history.

I believe this is going to be a big momentum play. When other fleet operators put their transportation teams on this, you're going to see a major shift away from imported diesel and onto domestic natural gas.

This announcement gives the Pickens Plan Army a great push going into the next few weeks when Congress will begin to act on energy legislation. To build on this momentum, and to make sure Congress and the Obama Administration know we want a plan now, we're going to be holding a Virtual March on April 1-3. Along with our Virtual March partners, we are going to rally Americans to deliver the message to Congress that the time is now to put a plan in place and to end America's staggering addiction to foreign oil.

There has never been a Virtual March of this magnitude and we are certain it will leave a strong impression on Washington. The time to act is now!

Visit www.pickensplan.com/virtualmarch to learn more and sign up to participate in the Virtual March.

-- Boone

source: http://enviros.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGxNBY

also see http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGx5pM

Reforming the U.S Health Care System Relies On the IT and Prevention

Dr. Pathe Sambe — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:21:16 EDT

My ideas in reforming the U.S. health care system will relies, also, on the Information Technology (IT) and prevention as developed in my previous blog " Organizing Health Care System: Time is Ripe for Action". I will like to bring to your attention this report as following posted in consulting firm blog.

"Upon assuming office, U.S. President Barack Obama made it clear that reforming healthcare is a top priority for his new administration. But unlike past attempts at healthcare reform that concentrated on the cost of coverage, it appears that today’s healthcare reform debate will revolve around the delivery of healthcare itself. Many experts in the field, such as Dr. Paul Grundy, director of healthcare transformation at IBM, believe this approach is ideal for tackling issues from the quality of care to the cost-effectiveness of medicine. “There is a real understanding this time that there needs to be an adult conversation around ‘what is it we buy,’” he says. “This is the first time we’ve really begun to focus on that issue as part of the reform.”

Technology provides the basis for sweeping reform
"Despite the current state of healthcare, Grundy is optimistic about the new administration’s emphasis on modernizing the field with technology, as he notes that developments in technology are poised to make reform economically attractive. Using IT to make healthcare smarter, he explains, may save billions for American businesses—and provide employees with a better quality of life. “We have huge issues around errors and medical errors, which are hugely expensive,” Grundy says. “In a system where you have something as simple as electronic prescribing, you see a 90 percent reduction in medical errors because you have a system in place that identifies, warns you, prevents you from having that error occur.”

"As an example, Grundy points to pilot programs such as the ActiveCare Network pharmaceutical program, which can lower the cost of drug therapies by up to 90 percent by ensuring that the right drug is used on the right patient at the right time. These kinds of programs, he says, are being closely examined by the Obama administration as models for how to prioritize healthcare. “We have the pyramid upside down,” he explains. “We take our money, and we spend it on heart transplants and MRIs until the money goes away—and it never reaches down to covering comprehensive, robust prevention and primary care.”

Click here to read the complete report

Thanks so much for your comments and attention on this blog.

Be part of the solution.

Tom Hayes, working for change — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:29:22 EST

It’s time for politicians to pay attention to what voters said in November 2008. Voters said, government is here to stay, so stop running against government and just start running the government well. We had a failure of leadership in Washington, and Obama won the Presidency because most voters felt it was time for a change. The task of restoring the jobs, the task of rebuilding the American dream, is urgent. Real people are losing their paychecks every day. Real people are losing their health insurance every day, while millionaire bankers send their lobbyists to D.C. to make sure executives of badly run companies don't lose their bonuses, let alone their pensions or their jobs.

Barack Obama and his team in the White House are clear that they work for the people who elected them, because special interests didn't fund his campaign. He's turned his attention to health care plans that regular people can afford, and won't lose when they lose their jobs - the President knows our wages aren’t keeping pace with the price of gas, food, and prescription drugs. He's rolled up his sleeves; Obama's working every day.

This is what happens when you elect a former community organizer. Voters saw that this is a man who leads by example, a man who's more interested in action than repeating memorized talking points in a press conference. Will you be part of the solution? If you're not talking with your neighbors about community needs and priorities, rest assured there are people who have every intention of controlling how the money is spent.

Obama won’t sit idly by and let our country become even more dependent on foreign oil and imported goods while big companies outsource our jobs. He's targeted education, for example, an investment in our children that will renew our economic power and secure their future.

President Obama gets that government is only as good as the people who run it; he and his staff were working even before the inaugural. Voters are hungry for more leaders with the common sense values Obama has shown, with the courage to do what it takes to lead a clean up of the mess in Washington - so that government "for the people" serves us all by keeping teachers and policemen employed despite special interests and partisan posturing that most of us find disingenuous if not downright unpatriotic in a time of crisis.

I'm not asking who anybody voted for, or if they're a member of a political party. My question is: What are you doing while Obama's team works to save the economy, jobs, and our environment?

I'm not asking if you can help, but as a citizen of the USA I'm hoping you will.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION

WEBMASTER — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:07:45 EST

USAservice.org International Registration
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58917909520

Join over 800 active non-partisan community leaders, organizers and national sponsors in helping our fellow citizens renew the United States of America.

http://www.whitehouse.gov - President Obama issued a call to non-partisan service and thousands have responded. Volunteers have already organized over 13,000 projects in all 50 states, repainting schools, mentor kids, collect canned food and donate blood.

At Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., thousands helped assemble more than 80,000 care packages for our military troops, while in Alexandria, Virginia the Blogfest raised funds for the Fisher House.

Please join with us in promoting USAservice.org -

1 ] Join this Facbook group.
2 ] Become a member of USAservice.org Registration
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58917909520
3 ] Click on "Invite other Community Leaders to Join" from menu on right.
4 ] Select your friends.
5 ] Click on "Send invitation"

All members agree to support the United States Constitution -
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/index.html

It's that simple. Thank you for joining USAservice.org!

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I work for the American people...

MDR Miami Beach — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:13:50 EST

"I work for the American people. I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November."

So we are into the serious throwdown now. Our President is ready. His budget is substantive. His team is in place.

There will be a lot of noise and pushback over this budget. Our Congress people will need to hear our voices and feel our support.

Get ready. We will need to work hard to win this one.

Twitter- Know Your Obama

Jill 4 Obama — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:56:12 EST

TWITTER

KnowYourObama

Following

You follow KnowYourObama
KnowYourObama's updates

Obama is getting out of the bubble. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id...21 minutes ago

HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
- Emily Dickinson

Where is My Home Loan??

Dawn in Arizona — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:55:51 EST

This is serious. We do not know who or what holds our home loan! We pay to a "Servce Company" who will not give out any information. Now that hubby is back to work we wanted to see if we could re-finace.

Does anyone know how to get this information? How can they hide it from us? We are current on our payments and just might qualify for some help...but how can we even start without knowing?

So many things that were illegal years ago - are just fine now, or least were made that way by Republicans.

Anyone know?

Republicans slam agenda as ‘mimicry’

Heinz Rainer — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:36:57 EST

I read with interest following article on the gulf news. No doubt that Republicans have found their meagre voices again. Slamming, distorting President Obama's economic agenda.

Best of all, Sen. McCain, still recovering from his hangover. As an old shark in politics, he will continue to oppose President Obama s agendas, no matter what, with the vague hope of winning the next election.

Wondering if McCain is familiar with web 2.0 ?

Quote from Gulf Times: (Part 1)

"Republican legislators slammed President Barack Obama’s economic agenda on Friday for mimicking the ideals of socialist European governments, one day after the president revealed his $3.6tn budget for 2010. At a conservative policy gathering in Washington, lawmakers repeatedly attacked Obama for planning a massive uptick in spending on energy, education, healthcare and other programmes. “Pushing back these efforts to basically Europeanise America will not be easy,” Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, told the Conservative Political Action Conference. Obama on Thursday released the outline of his 2010 budget and priorities over the next 10 years. It includes a more than $600bn downpayment on healthcare reform and $15bn per year for renewable energy investments. Obama’s budget would increase the federal deficit in 2009 to $1.75tn in 2009 - 12.6% of gross domestic product - and $1.2tn in 2010. The administration believes it can trim the deficit back to $533bn by 2013, once the US economy pulls itself out of a deep recession. The 2010 budget faces a bruising battle over the coming months in Congress. “Americans have gotten a glimpse of the big government plans of Obama and the Democrats and millions are ready to stand up, speak out, and yes, even take to the streets to stop America’s slide into socialism,” South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint told the gathering of conservative activists from around the country. Socialism has long held negative connotations in the US as a representation of leftist ideals that go against the US free- market tradition. That US tradition, by contrast, has come under heavy fire in Europe in recent months amid a massive financial crisis, which has spread around the globe and is largely blamed on the kind of free- wheeling, underregulated capitalism practiced on Wall Street. The financial crisis has sparked concerns about another idea that strikes fear in the hearts of many politicians and voters in the US: nationalisation. Wall Street stocks tanked last week when one Democratic senator, Christopher Dodd, suggested nationalising banks may be the only option to stave off a devastating wave of bankruptcies. Ever since, the Obama administration has repeatedly insisted it has no such plans. The Republican criticisms this week harked back to a common theme through much of the 2008 presidential campaign. Republican contender John McCain jumped on Obama’s comments in October that he planned to “spread the wealth” by raising taxes on the wealthiest workers, which was itself a feature of Obama’s budget outline on Thursday. “At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain said in one radio address in October. Republicans also focused their criticism this week on a plan to help reduce global warming-causing emissions by forcing companies to pay for their pollutants. Obama included revenues from the contentious plan, which already exists in Europe, in his budget projections. The administration hopes it will help cut (MORINGA-AFRICASAIEURO) greenhouse-gas emissions 80% by 2050. The climate legislation was strongly opposed by former president George W Bush and rejected by Congress last year. A revived effort against the measure is being fought by Republican legislators worried about its potential to harm the economy and cost jobs."

Heinz Rainer

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White doll/Black doll test - anxiety

Kenne — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:28:17 EST

You would think that in this day and age we'd be removed from the outward social bigotry, sub-conscience aggrandizement, commercial stereotypes, and repressed self-hatred of our forefathers. The fact that the "Clark Experiment" CAN be reprised is an indictment of our society.

We now have a president who has outgrown the insidious racial condescension to become the most powerful man on the planet - arguably. BUT, we still have to endure cartoons, emails, caricatures, and even outright slanderous vile from some in the public media and even elected officialdom who probably long for, what they must consider, a more peaceful time, like during antebellum days.

It sickens me to no end. When I first heard about the "White doll/Black doll" experiment during school in the sixties I said to myself, "I'll be glad when THAT stuff is over!"

Here it is, February 27, 2009 and I am STILL saying, "I'll be glad when THAT stuff is over!"

Deja vu??

No!

This is the reality of our humankind and we are all responsible for it. People of African descent have to, need to, must be more proactive and community conscious. There HAS to be a sense of moral outrage from the whole. The "Community of the collective" has to wake up, as Bill Cosby says. I have heard people talking about how Korean grocery stores, Arab convenience stores and Hindu gas stations are popping up all of the landscape of the mostly Black communities around the nation. But, those same people sit on the stoop or outside the barbershop and won't crack a book, or scan the want ads for a job - ANY job. I have seen young black men who can recite entire album lyrics of rap songs but can't tell you the days weather. And don't ask for it in celsius! And there are some young men and women who are more concerned with the bling bling than the ching ching of a paycheck being deposited in the bank. This often leads those who are ill equipped to participate in the workforce to lead a life of crime. This is witnessed by the plethora of people of color in the penal system.

It is easy, VERY easy to see why some in our nation look to the black community with contempt and scorn.
And dovetailing into the appreciative characteristics of a simple children's doll, who WOULD want to be associated with a part of society that is non productive and self-wounding.

I bear no ill towards the majority of people of color but I am distressed at the increasing lack of internal modeling and imagery. Our young have very few who they can look up to, our present president accepted. But it still has to come from the family, the home, or the community. It is past time to step up. Responsibility is staring right at us.

A leader has come forth to show us the way. Now's the time.

Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care

Dr. Pathe Sambe — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:21:19 EST

A awesome plan, and budget! As the main problems are the payments to hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies. Our health care system will be better if the federal government create a better administration and controling procedure by using a state of the art information technologies to manage our health care system in this digital age.

Following is the details of the article in New York Times dated February 26, 2009:

"President Obam's budget would make a down payment toward his goal of covering the uninsured, and he would pay for it in part by cutting federal payments to hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies.

He would also increase premiums charged to Medicare beneficiaries with higher incomes for prescription drug coverage.

Mr. Obama requested more than $6 billion for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health, up from $5.6 billion last year, and he announced a “multiyear plan to double cancer research.”

In addition, Mr. Obama said he would speed the approval of low-cost generic versions of expensive biotechnology drugs by establishing “a new regulatory pathway” at the Food and Drug Administration.

And he said he would increase access to family planning services for low-income women by expanding eligibility under Medicaid. A similar proposal was dropped from the recent economic stimulus bill after it provoked an outcry from Republicans.

Mr. Obama asked Congress to set aside $634 billion in a “reserve fund for health care reform.

He provided no new information about how to cover the uninsured, saying he would work out the details with Congress later this year. But he did propose specific changes to save money, and many of his ideas face opposition from Washington lobbyists and the interests they represent.

Mr. Obama would, for example, require drug companies to give bigger discounts, or rebates, to Medicaid, the health program for low-income people.

Drug makers now must provide Medicaid with a discount equal to at least 15.1 percent of the average manufacturer price for a brand-name product. Mr. Obama wants to require discounts of at least 22.1 percent. Pharmaceutical companies have resisted such proposals in the past.

Mr. Obama said he would save $176 billion over 10 years by cutting Medicare payments to health insurance companies that provide comprehensive care to more than 10 million of the 44 million Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare pays private insurers an average of 14 percent more than it would cost to care for the same people in the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program. “It’s time to stop this waste,” the White House said.

Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, denounced the proposal. It would, she said, require people in private Medicare Advantage plans to bear “a disproportionate share of the costs to reform the health care system.”

The president also proposed cutting Medicare payments to hospitals that re-admit a large proportion of patients within 30 days after they are discharged. Such re-admissions sometimes indicate that hospitals provided poor care or did not properly coordinate care.

Under the proposal, hospitals would receive “bundled payments” that cover not only their own services, but also any care provided by nursing homes and home health agencies in the month after patients left the hospital.

The White House said this proposal would save $26 billion over 10 years."

For more information on this report, please click here

WEBMASTER PHOTOGRAPH

WEBMASTER — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:45:48 EST

There is now a picture online of a photograph taken of me when I was 17 years of age serving with the United States Army. The URL on Facebook is

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=237119&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=29570937696&aid=-1&id=1460623847&oid=29570937696

Webmaster Photograph
source: http://veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/president

Disclaimer: The term Webmaster is a carry over from campaign my.barackobama.com - The user name Webmaster I have kept before, during and after the transition.

Organizing U.S. Health-Care System, President Obama Top Fiscal Priority

Dr. Pathe Sambe — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:51:26 EST

Now, the President Obama is working on this urgent matter. As proposed in my previous blog: " Organizing Health-Care System, Time is Ripe for Action " that is a very important priority of the Obama administration.

The report by Lori Montgomery and Amy Goldstein, Washington Post Staff Writers, Tuesday, February 24, 2009; Page A05:

"President Obama will make reforming the U.S. health-care system his top fiscal priority this year, administration officials said yesterday, contending that reining in skyrocketing medical costs is critical to saving the nation from bankruptcy."

At a summit on "fiscal responsibility" convened by the White House, top administration officials said they also are committed to stabilizing the Social Security system and to revising a tax code that generates too little money to cover the cost of government.

For more details on the report, clik here

Thanks for your views and comments