I continue to be thankful above all that we thepeople had the good sense to elect Barack Obama as our president. As the world turns ever more insane and violent, it's comforting to know there is a strong, even-tempered person ready to take over. I know the sacrifices he and his family will make for us can never be repaid, so I am thankful that he felt the call to serve us. I have never felt this way before about a politician. I really don't believe his running was about his ego--and for that I am also thankful.
This is the season of giving, and in that spirit President-elect Obama's new website is sharing stories on that topic. Read them here.
As an artist, my way of giving to my community is to create images that I hope will inspire and capture the mood of the country. You can see some of my Obama celebration images here.
Have a great holiday weekend!
CHICAGO, IL – Wednesday, November 26, 2008 – Ain’t it nice to finally have a smart guy in (coming in) to the White House?
Think about it . . . compare the way President-elect Obama handled himself in today’s press conference to the way George W. Bush muddled his way through eight years.
You remember, don’t you?
George W. Bush, the genius, was actually reelected after he said, "My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire."
And, despite the fact that there was no doubt about George W. Bush’s intelligence or lack thereof, voters sent him back to Washington for a second four year term after he said, "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
It is eminently refreshing that President-elect Barack Obama is more than able to string an entire series of sentences together to create cohesive paragraphs to convey a logical series of meaningful thoughts and ideas . . . a skill that is critically essential to anyone who aspires to the highest office in the country.
His ‘Help is on the way’ press conference today reassured the American people and financial markets around the world that a thoughtful, intelligent, resourceful, committed, dedicated man has arrived to lead the nation out of the morass created by eight years of the meanderings of a failed frat boy who couldn’t convey a meaningful idea on his best day.
President-elect Obama said, “I was elected with the charge of getting this economy back in shape. We are going to implement starting day one when I come into office.”
Nice political statement . . . but he then went on to support that statement by conveying the following meaningful thoughts and ideas:
He announced the creation of the ‘President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board’ (not made up of old friends from college or campaign contributors or incompetent political hacks) headed by 81 year old Paul Volker, an epitome of Washington experience whose leadership will be augmented and balanced by top staffer, 39 year old Austin Goolsbee, a well-respected, visionary, economist from the University of Chicago.
In Monday’s news conference, the President-elect announced that he would nominate 41 year old Tim Geithner, current New York Federal Reserve President, to be Treasury Secretary and on Tuesday, Obama announced he would nominate Peter Orszag to manage the Office of Management and Budget with the immediate responsibility of evaluating the federal budget, ‘page-by-page, line-by-line’, to eliminate wasteful spending and realign how taxpayer dollars are spent.
In the coming week, President-elect Obama is expected to move on from putting together his economic team to naming his national security and foreign policy team, including the vaunted, but not yet confirmed nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. He is also expected to confirm publicly that current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates will stay on for the first year of his administration.
In response to a tough question from CNN’s Ed Henry about ‘playing musical chairs’ by recruiting people who worked in the Clinton Administration, Obama said, “The American people would be troubled if I selected a treasury secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council at one of the most critical economic times in our history who had no experience in government whatsoever.”
“What we are going to do,” Obama went on to say, “is combine experience with fresh thinking. But understand where the vision for change comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me. That’s my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing.”
Lest we forget how George W. Bush handled a similarly tough question in a press conference, permit me to take you back to April 3, 2004, when the 43rd President of the United States of America, the leader of the free world, George W. Bush answered a question about whether he’d ever made a mistake in his presidency by saying, “I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet . . . I don’t want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t . . . you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.”
Huh?
President-elect Barack Obama, unlike his soon-to-be predecessor, has demonstrated that he is a man of action . . . holding three press conferences in as many days to send a clear message to not only millions of shaky Americans worried about their economic futures but to the world in general.
Be advised, America and the world, there is a new man taking the helm of democracy in America, an intelligent man, a man unafraid to work at being President, a man willing to reach out to the best and the brightest the nation has to offer to build not only a better nation but a better world as well.
Maybe I’m amazed, but I’m also relieved.
Aren’t you?
Copyright 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights reserved.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at ltdassociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.
American Brothers and Sisters the Nation changed on November 4th. And a prophetic voice from the 70s’ past Tramaine Hawkins beautifully sings ‘Changed’ and brings a wonderful meaning to exactly what has happen in this beloved country called America. Henceforth; November the 4th, 2008 records a magnificent victory that “men can be judged by the content of his character and not his skin.”
This election was a national victory! Patriotism showed up at the polls and changed the nation. The five minlute trailer highlights 11 year old Tierra rendition of the Star Spangle Banner. Please watch the video and May God Bless America in her growth toward change. The Nation Changed! http://blip.tv/file/1474484
We are quickly seeing the Obama administration take shape and many key players will be in place over the next few days. Today, the President-elect holds his first news conference.
I would like to make a suggestion to President-elect Obama: that among his first acts be to ask the people of the United States to be ready to sacrifice in order that the nation might achieve his vision. He must ask of us, much as John F. Kennedy did, before we ask of him.
Now that the victory is settling in there will be plenty of groups pushing their pet agenda items. On the other side, talk radio hosts will be aiming their verbal weapons at the "socialist in chief." The best way to head them all of at the pass -- and get a good start at achieving the larger goals -- is to make it clear that we all need to be part of the solution.
These are tough times and they are going to get tougher. We have more than our shares of challenges ahead. The only way that we have a chance at making progress is to look beyond our own self-interest and focus on our collective best interest.
The big ask is coming. I hope that the President-elect can pre-empt this by starting an honest conversation about what needs to be done and what each of us can do to get it done. He was brilliant at mobillizing us during the campaign; it's even more important that he mobilize us now.
This is a copy of the e-mail from Doug Middleton. A guy I admire who was in the forefront yeas ago to help people get out of credit card debt for literally PENNIES on the dollar. He Welcomes Your Comments. E-mail HIM!
It's over.
John McCain went down to defeat today in what was an obvious, predictable loss.
Claiming to be a "maverick" while in reality being anything but, Senator McCain came across instead as alternatively a petulant child and an apologist for bankers that have robbed America blind for the previous six years. As one of the "Aye" voters both for the $700 billion robbery of taxpayer bill (an affront that Barack Obama shares) and the "bankruptcy reform" bill that put a noose around American's necks, he finally "got his" on the national political stage.
America spoke, and said not just "no", but "hell no."
Unlike when we spoke to you Senator McCain when you were voting for the bailout, this time you're obligated to listen.
Unfortunately the McCain campaign turned out to be nothing more than apologists for the liars, cheats and frauds.
I called this back in July, and there are times I hate being right.
This is one of them.
In reality there is nothing to like here in this election season. America's economy is headed for the hole in the center of the bowl no matter what we do, and the imperative now must be to guarantee that the bankers and fraudsters don't make off with any more of our money, to claw back what we can, and to protect the funding capacity of our government, not to protect bankers and attempt to do what is mathematically impossible.
I have only faint hope that President-elect Obama will accomplish any of that in his time as President, and even less faith that he will be able to interdict the present idiocy prior to his inauguration.
It takes a strong man to stand up to the banking interests that bribe everyone up and down Washington DC. President Obama is only 10% likely to do the right thing, a President McCain was 0% likely to do so.
I do see, however, two possibilities and no middle ground, which gives me some hope. One possibility is that President Obama will proceed to play "pigman handout-a-thon", in which case our nation is headed for an economic collapse that will make The Depression look like a cakewalk.
Should President Obama listen to such idiots as Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson, this outcome is assured. Two years from now the Democratic Party will suffer the worst defeat in the history of the Republic, being mortally wounded and forever removed from American Politics. Four years from now President Obama will depart with his tail between his legs and head home to Chicago with a new middle name - "Hoover".
The depths to which American could sink under such a series of mistakes cannot be underestimated. It is entirely possible that a worst-case scenario could come to pass, including a political failure in our nation.
Barack Obama understands what this could mean, since he has ancestors who dealt with not being free men - and one hopes he is conscious of the risk that continuing down the "bailout path" brings in this regard. This risk cannot be overstated; it is REAL. Political and monetary failure, if it occurs, has an extremely high risk of leading to a form of government that is very different than our founding fathers intended, and none of us want to see.
The second possibility is that President Obama actually thinks on his own and comes to recognize that he's not a figurehead, nor is he a puppet of the bankers and fraudsters - that he was sent to Washington DC for a reason.
To imprison all the fraudsters both on Wall Street and Main Street, and recover every nickel possible from their ill-gotten gains for ordinary Americans.
To clean up American Finance and implement The Genesis Plan or something akin to it, forcing full transparency and limits on leverage throughout the financial system.
To tell The American People that no, you cannot have houses appreciate faster than incomes, that the maximum sustainable home price is 3.5x income, and that spending more than 36% of your pretax income on all your debt, housing included, is both unreasonable and unsafe, leaving you one minor household disaster away from bankruptcy.
This pronouncement, along with policies that encourage same, will lead to a rapid revaluation of home prices downward, and clear the market.
To tell The American People that "free trade" sounds fine in theory, but that as practiced over the last 20 years it has led to tremendous distortions in foreign exchange and interest rates, not to mention millions of Americans losing their jobs to overseas workers who aren't better at what they do - they are just cheaper, mostly because they are either coming from or still living in slave-like conditions. Perhaps President Obama will do something to correct that imbalance, although you can bet the "masters of American Capitalism" will scream loud and long about any such attempt.
To tell The American People that the age of bubblenomics is over - that one must earn enough money to buy what one wishes to purchase, and if you can't, then you're unable to afford it - and that this applies to government as well.
To tell The American People that an Obama Administation will not permit The Fed to print money, nor to monetize bad assets - whether they be fraudulent mortgages, bad credit card debt, upside down auto loans or anything else. That such bad debt must instead be forced to default, and those who wrote that paper must eat their loss, no matter how painful and whether or not it results in business failure.
Tough but necessary words - words that are exactly opposite that which President Bush uttered after 9/11.
This is the change that America voted for Senator, now President-Elect Obama.
Is this the change that we truly can believe in, or were those mere words in a Presidential campaign?
We shall soon find out.
Douglas Middleton
Dear President-Elect Barack Obama,
My sincere condolences and deepest sympathy upon the passing of your beloved grandmother.
As The Original New York City Free Advice Man I would like to congratulate you, your wonderful family, friends and all our fellow supporters, true Democrats, real Republicans, sensible Independents and others, for getting you elected the next President of Our United States of America! I am exceedingly grateful to you and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden, whom I consider a friend, for putting up with all the senseless garbage and difficulties that our opponents threw at us during this long, testing and tiring campaign. You can count on me to provide you, your administration and our government any and all Quality Free Advice, Objective Criticism, Critical Insight and Foresight needed to help insure that the coming four years or more will be successful, especially in restoring Our American image and reputation abroad and our Constitution at home.
Having been a specific target of those who have unscrupulously, severely damaged our country I hope to have the opportunity to meet you and/or my friend Joe Biden (who was my preference until you’re very promising Iowa Caucus victory) and briefly discuss my very unpleasant experiences these past seven plus years. I also hope my YouTube endorsement video (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejts46Ll1Nk ) helped a little bit, and that all my other efforts at home (Maryland/DC) and here in London contributed to our success. Should you ever need the views/ideas/opinions of someone who truly thinks way outside of ‘the box’, then remember that The Free Advice Man is fully at your service. Consider me one of your National Philosophical Advisors!
Respectfully yours, best, J
ean-Pierre Ady Fenyo
Philosopher-at-Large
The Original New York City Free Advice Man ( www.infinitysociety.org/FREEADVICEMAN )
November 3, 2008 Edgware, London, England, UK Europe
Having been a specific target of those who have unscrupulously, severely damaged our country I hope to have the opportunity to meet you and/or my friend Joe Biden (who was my preference until you’re very promising Iowa Caucus victory) and briefly discuss my very unpleasant experiences these past seven plus years.
I also hope my YouTube endorsement video (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejts46Ll1Nk ) helped a little bit, and that all my other efforts at home (Maryland/DC) and here in London contributed to our success. Should you ever need the views/ideas/opinions of someone who truly thinks way outside of ‘the box’, then remember that The Free Advice Man is fully at your service. Consider me one of your National Philosophical Advisors!
Respectfully yours, best,
Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo
November 3, 2008
Edgware, London, England, UK Europe
