The Scourge Persists

The Scourge Persists
By Bob Herbert
Published : September 18, 2009

Did we really need Jimmy Carter to tell us that racism is one of the driving forces behind the relentless and often scurrilous attacks on President Obama?
We didn’t know that?

As John McEnroe might say, “You can’t be serious.” “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” said Mr. Carter.

I guess he was aiming his remarks at those who contended when Mr. Obama was elected that we had achieved some Pollyannaish post racial society. But it’s hard to imagine, after all the madness and vitriol of the past few months, that anyone still believes that.

For many white Americans, Barack Obama is nothing more than that black guy in the White House, and they want him out of there. (Mr. Carter knows a little something about kowtowing to that crowd. During his presidential campaign in 1976, he blithely let it be known that he had no problem with residents “trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods,” and he tossed around ugly terms like “black intrusion” and “alien groups.” He later apologized.)

More than three decades later we have Sherri Goforth, an aide to a Republican state senator in Tennessee sending out a mass e-mail of a cartoon showing dignified portraits of the first 43 presidents, and then representing the 44th — President Obama — as a spook, a cartoonist pair of white eyes against a black background.

When a gorilla escaped from a zoo in Columbia, S.C., a longtime Republican activist, Rusty DePass, described it on his Face book page as one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors. Among the posters at last weekend’s gathering of conservative protesters in Washington was one that said, “The zoo has an African lion and the White House has a lyin’ African.”

These are bits and pieces of an increasingly unrestrained manifestation of racism directed toward Mr. Obama that is being fed by hate-mongers on talk radio and is widely tolerated, if not encouraged, by Republican Party leaders. It’s disgusting, and it’s dangerous. But it’s the same old filthy racism that has been there all along and that has been exploited by the G.O.P. since the 1960s.

I have no patience with those who want to pretend that racism is not an out-and-out big deal in the United States, as it always has been. We may have made progress, and we may have a black president, but the scourge is still with us. And if you needed Jimmy Carter to remind you of that, then you’ve been wandering around with your eyes closed.

Glenn Beck, one of the moronic maestros of right-wing radio and TV, assures us that President Obama “has a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Some years ago, as the watchdog group Media Matters for America points out on its Web site, Beck said he’d like to beat Representative Charles Rangel “to death with a shovel.” There is nothing new about this racist rhetoric.

Back in the 1970s Rush Limbaugh told a black caller: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.” But the fact that a black man is now in the White House has so unsettled much of white America that the lid is coming off the racism that had been simmering at dangerously high temperatures all along.

Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow with Media Matters, said, “If someone had told me in February that there would be mainstream allegations that Obama was a racist and a fascist and a communist and a Nazi, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Republicans have been openly feeding off of race hatred since the days of Dick Nixon. Today’s conservative activists are carrying that banner proudly. What does anybody think is going on when, as Anderson Cooper pointed out on CNN, one of the leaders of the so-called tea party movement, Mark Williams, refers to the president of the United States as an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug, and a racist in chief.

After all these years of race-baiting and stirring the pot of hatred for political gain, it’s too much to ask the leaders of the Republican Party to step forward and denounce this spreading stain of reprehensible conduct. Republicans are trying to ride that dependable steed of bigotry back to power.

But it’s time for other Americans, of whatever persuasion, to take a stand, to say we’re better than this. They should do it because it’s right. But also because we’ve seen so many times what can happen when this garbage gets out of control. Think about the Oklahoma City bombing, and the assassinations of King and the Kennedys. On Nov. 22, 1963, as they were preparing to fly to Dallas, a hotbed of political insanity, President Kennedy said to Mrs. Kennedy: “We’re heading into nut country today.”

President Obama's Speech on Healthcare

This is President Obama's speech to the joint session of congress concerning Healthcare. This is Part-1 of 3 of that speech. September 9, 2009





President's Healthcare speech Part-2 of 3




Part-3 of 3
President Obama's makes his speech to the joint session of congress in the Chamber of House. During his speech. Rep. Congressman Joe Wilson yells out to President Obama " LIE " And is booed by all...

Much Ado About Nothing....

The President's speech was exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from someone, anyone, who was trying to motivate 6- and 7-year-olds. That so many took issue with the address even before it was given speaks to the need for a better educated America. But it also highlights the difficulty we face in trying to enlighten some segments of the population. Check it out for yourself.....

Peace & Blessings

THE LIBERAL LION'S MIGHTY ROAR MAY NOW FALL SILENT, BUT HIS DREAM SHALL NEVER DIE

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, longtime Democratic senator and the patriarch of the Kennedy political family, has died after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.

The Kennedy family released a statement early Wednesday morning saying, "Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it's hard to imagine any of them without him."
Related: Edward Kennedy Tributes: The President, Former Presidents, Biggies of Both Political Parties in Their Own Words
In recent weeks, Kennedy had received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, and his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, died. News came last week that the senator had sent a letter to the governor of Massachusetts, asking that he work to change the state's laws of succession to fill his Senate seat quickly through a direct appointment, rather than through a lengthier special election process. Kennedy's letter, as well as his absence from the White House Medal of Free

Democrats and Republicans alike had voiced their regret this year that Sen. Kennedy had not been in Washington to shepherd health care reform through the Senate. Before he died, Kennedy called health care reform the cause of his life. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) called Kennedy "the consummate legislator," while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) described him as a reliable partner on important issues. "He always kept his word, and that is far less common around here than a lot of people think," McCain told Politics Daily earlier this summer, speaking of Kennedy's legislative style. "We just sat down together and worked out a proposal. He didn't start it; I didn't start it. We just sat down and said OK, here's what we want to achieve -- what do we have to do?" McCain said.

Public figures from across the political spectrum reacted with sadness to the senator's passing. Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah), one of Kennedy's closest friends, said, "Today America lost a great elder statesman, a committed public servant and a leader in the Senate, and I lost a treasured friend." Former First Lady Nancy Reagan released a statement calling Kennedy "a dear friend," while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "It was the thrill of my lifetime to work with Ted Kennedy." Reid called Kennedy "a friend, the model of public service and an American icon," and added, "The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die."

President Obama released a statement at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, saying in part, "Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy," he said. "I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I've profited as President from his encouragement and wisdom."

Kennedy served in the United States Senate for 47 years after filling the seat of his older brother, John F. Kennedy, after JFK was elected president. Edward Kennedy became the patriarch of his large family after the untimely deaths of his three brothers Joe, Jack and Robert Kennedy.

Delivering the eulogy for Robert Kennedy in 1968, Kennedy said, "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world."

Sen. Edward Kennedy was 77.


President Barack Obama: "For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name( SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY) and resulted from his efforts."

Edward Kennedy's Cause - Health Care Reform

ENGLAND'S FIRST BLACK MISS ENGLAND

Jamaica does it again! Jamaican parentage, born in England .

History was made last night in London .

Great Britain crowned 20-year-old Rachel Christie as Miss England during the country's annual pageant at London's Metropole Hilton Hotel

Competing as Miss London City, Christie edged out her rivals to claim the title and will now compete for the Miss World crown in Johannesburg in December.

But competition is nothing new for this London-born beauty.

Christie specializes in the heptathlon and the 400 meters and is hoping to join the ranks of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Her uncle is British Olympic gold medalist Linford Christie, who stands as the most decorated British athlete. He is also regarded as the second fastest European in history and even has a stadium in West London named in his honor.

"My ambition in life is to compete and win gold in the 2012 Olympics," Christie told reporters. "I would also love to do well in Miss England . I want to be successful in whatever I choose to do in life."

THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY JR.

Marion Barry is the subject of a documentary on HBO
DAVID CARR Published: August 9, 2009

View Video - THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY JR.
http://florfilms.com/TRAILER.html



















Marion S. Barry Jr.
The Washington Post

Marion Barry in front of the White House during a parade in an undated photo. He now serves on the Washington City Council.

A career that has spanned five decades and included four terms as mayor of Washington, a trip to federal prison for possession of cocaine, and his current position as a City Council member in the capital. Throughout it all he has displayed an almost feral gift for retail politics: a quiet sidebar conversation here, a big-clap hug there and always, always, even now at 73, lavishing attention on the women in the room.

After a youth of extreme poverty (which included picking cotton) in Itta Bena, Miss. — “dirt, dirt, dirt poor” he says in the documentary — Mr. Barry became an Eagle Scout and earned a master’s degree in chemistry at Fisk University in Nashville. But his head was turned by the civil rights movement after he got involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and he quit a doctoral program in chemistry at the University of Tennessee. In 1965 he moved to Washington and commenced an enduring affair with a city that was then a ward of the federal government.

Mr. Barry has the reputation of being a less than scintillating interview, and a conversation on Thursday evening did little to change that view. He tends to lean on platitudes and civil rights movement aphorisms to describe his “50 years of public service that served as a blueprint for those who came later” while continuing to blame most of his legal problems on his opponents.

The news media have generally not been friends to Mr. Barry, nor has the federal government, a persistent antagonist throughout his career. He maintains that the United States Attorney’s Office, in enticing him to a hotel room where drugs were present back in 1990, was trying to kill him.

In the documentary directed and produced by Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer, it is clear that age has caught up to Mr. Barry. Afflicted with high blood pressure and diabetes, and having had his prostate removed, he often moves slowly and cat-naps between appearances. Watching him in the documentary is a little like witnessing Willie Mays no longer able to run down a fly ball, but he was completely on his game for the premiere.

Mr. Barry has never been especially enlightening on the subject of himself or his contretemps, and the documentary reflects his absence of self-awareness. But Mr. Barry’s ex-wife, Effi Barry, an elegant and eloquent woman who divorced him in 1993, is a steady and telling presence throughout the documentary. (Effi Barry, who died in 2007, was his third wife. He has been married four times.)Mr. Barry initially had little interest in the project. “He wasn’t friendly, he wasn’t receptive, but eventually, I wore him down.” (Mr. Barry said, “I figured it would be the one time when the whole story could be told.”)
Mr. Oppenheimer, whose credits include co-producing “Devil’s Playground” (about Amish teenagers), said there were protests and counter-protests at the film’s premiere in June at the Silverdocs festival in Washington, with people shouting and arguing about whether Mr. Barry was worthy of a film.“We both watched and said to each other, ‘This is what our film is about,’ ” he said. “The passions that this man’s career has generated continue to this day.”

Mr. Barry’s credentials as an early and effective warrior in the civil rights movement receive significant attention in the 78-minute documentary. A leader of the Free D.C. Movement, Mr. Barry founded a jobs program called Pride Inc. for unemployed black men. He was elected to the school board in 1972 and when the city achieved home rule in 1974 was elected as an at-large council member. He was shot when Hanafi Muslims took over the District Building in 1977 but survived, cementing a reputation for both fearlessness and durability.

With the sought-after endorsement of The Washington Post in 1978, he became the city’s second mayor and was re-elected twice. During the third term rumors began to circulate that he was using cocaine even as the city he ran was tipping over under the weight of a crack epidemic. On Jan. 18, 1990, Mr. Barry went to the Vista Hotel to visit a former girlfriend, Rasheeda Moore, who was working as a government informant. He was caught on tape by the F.B.I. and city police using crack cocaine.

Most political careers would have ended there, but Mr. Barry is not any politician, and Washington’s voters and juries have a complicated relationship with authority. The jury deadlocked on the multiple felony counts stemming from the Vista arrest; Mr. Barry was convicted on a single count of possession for an earlier incident. After serving a six-month sentence he ran for City Council using the slogan “He may not be perfect, but he’s perfect for D.C.” In 1994 he ran for a fourth term as mayor and won.

His successful campaign to return to the City Council in 2004 on behalf of Ward 8 — one of the city’s chronically impoverished areas — serves as a centerpiece of the documentary. Mr. Barry’s public life continued to suffer from steady brushes with the law, including failed drug tests, a conviction for failure to pay taxes, probation violation, traffic offenses and, last month, a charge that he was stalking an ex-girlfriend. (That charge has since been dropped.)“Those are all just distractions, efforts by the government and the media to distract me, to discombobulate me and separate me from the community,” he said. “I was re-elected with more than 90 percent of the vote in 2008, so that stuff isn’t going to keep me down. They know who I am.”

George Galloway takes on the U.S. Senate

George Galloway takes on the U.S. Senate

Thank you MLEEZA

Big Demand. Dwindling Supply

Big Demand. Dwindling Supply

Del Walters on the Tyranny of Big Oil

By Del Walters - EbonyJet.Com

As Chrysler emerges from bankruptcy and GM enters we need to take a look back at what really caused the collapse of the American automotive industry. Look no further than the gas pump, which again is reminding us that when it comes to our own personal economies, we are held hostage by the global oil cartel. Once again there is talk that gas prices are creeping up and speculators are to blame. Those speculators are betting that as the economy improves we will be willing to pay more at the pump. And we will, because we have no choice.

When the very first cars were rolling off the assembly line in Detroit, oil was cheap because until the mass production of the automobile there was no demand. The old oil companies were uniquely American - Texaco, Esso, Pennzoil. Standard Oil Company began in 1870 in Ohio. When Standard, which had become too big, was forced to break up we got names like Exxon, which was once Standard Oil of New Jersey, and Mobil, which was the former Standard Oil Company of New York.

We started changing the names of Big Oil when we started crossing borders to find it. Loosely translated, we created the demand which led to the oil empires of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the list goes on. How many cars do you think they were selling in Dubai in the 1950’s? The country was known for its export of pearls until 1930. Look at any documentary from the time and you will notice that we not only helped them look for their oil but gave them the technology to get it out of the ground.

Walter Cronkite, in a documentary about oil in Libya proclaims, “The only problem for this once small back woods desert country is how to spend all that money.” The next line sets the stage for countless coups and wars fought in the name of black gold. “The people who shepherded the camels seem determined to shepherd the oil.” They had the oil, and in the long run, we got the shaft we sent to drill it.

It would be easier to find Waldo than figuring out who actually owns big oil but there is one tentacle in this entire battle we can trace. The fortunes of companies like Exxon Mobil, Shell and the others rose, as the American auto industry collapsed. They earned, and continue to post, record profits while the American car companies fight for their very survival.

Now let’s look at the politics. Republicans hate organized labor. Detroit is symbolic of everything big labor can produce. Set aside the racial politics and the battle lines were drawn. Senators angry over the GM and Chrysler bailouts pointed out cheaper southern labor forces. Patriotism, it seemed, stopped at the Mason Dixon line. It is after all, better to buy a Kia or Hyundai and punish those unions than to save American icons. After all, it was the high cost of union labor and healthcare that crippled the auto industry. Or was it?

Does the demise of the GM and Chrysler have anything to do with the fact that for the last eight years the White House was ruled by George Bush, a man whose family made its fortune off big oil? Shouldn’t there at least be someone out there asking the question? How is it that all of the man’s friends got rich and we got the shaft? Didn’t we see it coming? How many of us would still be driving our gas guzzlers if gas were still selling for $1.50 a gallon? How many of us stopped driving those gas guzzlers when prices hit $4.00?

That is not to let either GM or Chrysler off the hook. Everyone has known for years that the word’s supply of oil was dwindling and alternative forms of energy would have to be found if the American way of life is to survive. That is why the current crisis may have a silver lining in the long run. We have been forced to change by the man who promised it.

There is a line from a 1981 movie, Rollover, with Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson about Big Oil. The synopsis was described on IMDB, “An Arab oil organization devises a plan to wreck the world economy in order to cause anarchy and chaos.” The young naïve Fonda says in the closing lines of the film that unless we act quickly the Arabs will own us. Kristofferson faces the camera and says to the youth matter-of- factly, “You’re missing the point. We are the Arabs.” Life often follows art but in this case no one can argue we weren’t warned. The problem is I’m still not sure we have found the proper person or persons to blame.

Minister Prays for Obama's Death

Southern Baptist Minister Prays for Obama's Death

By James Wright

AFRO Staff Writer

(June 21, 2009) - A well-known minister of a denomination that once supported slavery and is firmly against a woman’s right to an abortion said recently that he is praying for President Obama to die.

The Rev. Wiley Drake, a former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, told Fox News Radio earlier this month that he was practicing “imprecatory prayer” or seeking a divine curse that would cause the president to die.

“If he does not turn to God and does not turn his life around, I am asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Scripture that would cause him death,” Drake said in an interview with Fox’s Alan Colmes, according to the Associated Press.

The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 so slaveholders could continue to serve as missionaries. The church supported the South during the Civil War, supported segregation of the races before and during the Civil Rights Movement and has been known for its hostility toward affirmative action and busing to achieve racial balance in schools. The church has been a favorite of conservative Republican Party candidates.

In 1995, Southern Baptists formally sought forgiveness from African-Americans. By 2007, the convention's minority membership, including African-Americans, Asians and Latinos, had grown to about 18 percent, said the Rev. Richard Land, head of the denomination's public policy arm. But like many other U.S. denominations, the 16.2 million-member Southern Baptist Convention remains overwhelmingly White.

Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were raised Southern Baptists. Carter left the church in 2000 over its increasingly right-wing agenda and while Clinton acknowledges his roots in the denomination, he attends services with his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is a United Methodist.

Roger Oldham, vice president for convention relations with the Southern Baptist's executive committee, said that Drake's comments were out of line with church teachings. Oldham told the Associated Baptist Press that Drake's comments do not reflect the actions, resolutions or positions of the denomination.

”I think it is a fair statement to say that the vast majority of Southern Baptists are committed to praying for the well-being of the president in accordance with the specific instruction given in 1 Timothy 2:1-3,” Oldham said, quoting, “’First of all, then I urge petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior.’”

Drake recently said that he prayed for the death of famed abortion doctor George Tiller. Tiller was shot to death in his church on May 31 in Wichita, Kan. by an anti-abortion activist.

In regards to Obama, Drake, who pastors a church in Buena Park, Calif., had not retracted his statement as of AFRO press time.

Published on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Congress Needs to Hear From Us Today on Afghanistan

by Tom Andrews

This week Congress is set to authorize $550 billion in defense spending and, with it, an additional $130 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite a Democratic President and a Democratic majority in Congress, the military industrial complex is once again running up the score: the House Armed Services Committee wants to shower the Pentagon with even more federal dollars than George W. Bush ever requested. And the flood gates of federal dollars are once again wide open for a war without end in Afghanistan.

But there is some good news. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) is trying to squeeze a bit of common sense into the bill with an amendment that calls on the Administration to develop what President Obama told a national television audience we need: an exit strategy from Afghanistan. Unable to get this proposal included in the Supplemental Defense Appropriation bill a few weeks ago, Rep. McGovern has since introduced it as a bill that has already attracted 89 Congressional co-sponsors. Now he intends to propose it as an amendment to the House Armed Services Committee bill when it makes its way to the floor of the House tomorrow.

But Rep. McGovern needs our help.
Call your Representative today at (202) 224-3121 and:
1. urge her/him to co-sponsor Rep. McGovern's Afghanistan Exit Strategy bill H.R. 2404, and
2. vote for Rep. McGovern's amendment to the Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 2647).

I realize how hard it may seem for Congressional Democrats to require the Obama administration to develop an exit strategy as a condition for continued funding. After all, this is our guy, right? The last thing our guy needs is a Democratic Congress second guessing, making demands, and putting conditions on the war.

But this is exactly what we and the administration need precisely because he is our guy.

Unlike Mr. Limbaugh, we want and need President Obama to succeed. The very real prospect of the United States embedded in an endless war in Afghanistan would undermine everything this administration is trying to do while imperiling the very Congressional Democrats President Obama needs to move his agenda.

Continuing our military presence in Afghanistan without an exit strategy is a bad idea for many reasons. As I've noted before, the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan unites our opponents within the country and region and makes cooperation by key regional players like Iran, Russia and China far less likely with the prospect of tens of thousands of US troops on their border. As for those with the most at stake - Afghan people - over 80% oppose an escalation of American troops in their country.

Despite the heated rhetoric you're hearing from the right-wing echo chamber, exit strategies are an important and useful part of military planning. President Obama knows this, and that's why he has gone on the record to say that we need one for the US military in Afghanistan.

The Win Without War coalition has been working closely with Congressman McGovern and other Congressional allies on this important amendment. Coalition member organizations have stepped up: MoveOn.org, USAction/TrueMajority.org and Peace Action all sent alerts last week to their membership asking them to call Members of Congress in support of this bill. With your help today, we can easily push the number of co-sponsors from 89 to over 100. Call your Member of Congress, ask if she/he is a co-sponsor and if she/he intends to vote for the McGovern amendment to the Defense Authorization bill on Wednesday. If not, why not? And, if so, can she/he take an active role to encourage their colleagues to support it as well.

There is not a lot of good news in the Defense Authorization bill. Let's do something about that today before the votes are cast in Congress tomorrow.

Tom Andrews, a former Member of Congress from the first Congressional District of Maine, is the National Director of Win Without War, a coalition of forty-two national membership organizations including the National Council of Churches, the NAACP, the National Organization of Women, the Sierra Club, and MoveOn.

Obama Praise in the Middle East

 Obama Impresses, Wins Praise in the Middle East

Date: Thursday, April 09, 2009, 3:25 pm

By: Lee Keath, Associated Press

CAIRO - The Middle East is finding, to its amazement, that it may actually like America's new leader. Barack Obama has impressed many Arabs and Muslims with promises to open a new page after years of distrust during his first presidential venture to the Islamic world this week.

It's a startling change for a region where they chucked shoes at his predecessor George W. Bush and still want to burn Bush in effigy even after he's out of office.

But Obama's charm has hiked expectations he will change American policies that have angered many Arabs and Muslims, and some remain skeptical. Top on nearly everyone's list: They want Washington to press for the creation of a Palestinian state to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict - something Obama has promised to do.

"Everyone is optimistic about this man," Nasser Abu Kwaik, a barber in the West Bank town of al-Beireh, said Wednesday. "He is different, and he could be a friend to the Muslim world."

Many in Muslim countries echoed the words of one Indonesian woman, "I believe him."

"For the Islamic world," Obama's comments "are like a fresh breeze," said Ikana Mardiastuti, who works at a Jakarta research institute.

Obama's visit to Turkey this week was full of gestures calculated at showing he is a friend to Muslims, all aired live on Arab satellite TV networks like Al-Jazeera. The top headliner was his sound bite that the U.S will never be "at war with Islam." In a speech to Turkey's parliament, he mentioned the Muslims in his own family, a topic he avoided back home in his presidential campaign.

A town-hall meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday was also a strong symbol, with Obama answering questions from university students. To some it sent a message that this president talks to Muslims, dramatically different from the perception many had of Bush as domineering, warlike and imposing U.S. policy.

Even an offhand comment that he had to wrap up the town-hall before the afternoon call to Islamic prayers showed an easy familiarity with the rhythms of Muslims' lives.

"He's a modest person with a humanitarian view on world issues, particularly those relating to the Arab and Islamic worlds," said Jamal Dahan, a 50-year-old resident of the Lebanese capital Beirut. "Bush, on the other hand, was an arrogant man who only knew military power."

Even hard-liners took notice.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country welcomes talks with the United States if Obama proves "honest" in extending the U.S. hand to Iran, one of his strongest signals yet of openness to Obama's calls for dialogue.

A cleric at the prominent Shiite seminary in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf - where disdain for Bush's policies is high - was enthusiastic. "The Islamic world should avail itself of this positive opportunity," said Sheik Nimaa Al-Abadi. "The opening chapter of Obama in the Islamic world might be a real turning point."

In Saudi Arabia, a cleric on a government committee for rehabilitating militants away from extremism said Obama's outreach diminishes the appeal of terror groups.

Obama "will make it more difficult to recruit young Muslim men to carry out terrorist acts. They (militants) no longer have the argument to do so," said the sheik, Mohammed al-Nujaimi.

But many say they want real action.

Their skepticism was a reminder that while the "clash of civilizations" may exacerbate tensions, the heart of Arab and Muslim anger at the West is over policies, particularly the 2003 invasion of Iraq and what is seen as U.S. favoritism toward Israel.

In his parliament speech, Obama promised the U.S. would work for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But Arabs are watching whether Obama will press the hard-line ..... 

.... government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who so far has not expressed his support for a two-state solution.

"I will believe him only when I see his troops leave Iraq and when I see him telling the Israelis that it's time for you to leave the Palestinian territories," said Tariq Hussein, 25, a shoe salesman in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "Other than that it's all a political maneuver."

In Pakistan, doubts appeared even deeper. Civilian deaths in airstrikes by U.S. pilotless planes targeting militants have angered some in the country, along with Obama's plans to send more American troops to neighboring Afghanistan.

"Who would trust what the Americans say? Their only target is the Muslim countries," said Mohammad Ayub, owner of a cotton-processing factory in the city of Karachi. "Obama's claim that (the Americans) are the friends of the Muslims seems to be a part of their conspiracy."

Still, the Turkey trip suggested that style and tone at least open doors.

"He understands the issues better, he has more familiarity with Islamic culture and society." said Sheema Abdul-Aziz, a 31-year-old environmental conservationist in Malaysia. She said Obama seems "sincere."

In part, Obama's warm welcome reflected the almost rabid bitterness toward Bush, who on his final visit to Baghdad was pelted with shoes by an angry journalist. The journalist became a hero across the Mideast. Iraqi Shiite radicals plan to burn an effigy of Bush at an anti-American rally Thursday in Baghdad.

While Bush often emphasized outreach to Muslims and Arabs and he was the first U.S. president to openly endorse the idea of a Palestinian state, nothing could dent the image of an arrogant, bellicose United States created by Guantanamo Bay, prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and the bloodshed that reigned in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.

Still, even those calling Obama sincere are skeptical he can resolve the Mideast's many problems.

"It's nice to see and hear," said Riad Kahwaji, director of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. "But this region is a mess, and there are a lot of hardline adversaries still out there."

---

Associated Press writers across the Middle East and Asia contributed to this report.

Looting of Social Security

         William Greider on the Looting of Social Security

"What we've been doing, Mr. Chairman, in all reality, is taken a hundred billion out of the Social Security Trust Fund, transferring it over to the spending column, and spending it. Our friends to the left here are getting their tax cuts, we getting our spending increases, and hollering surplus, surplus, and balanced budget, and balanced budget plans when we continue to spend a hundred billion more than we take in."

That's the reality, and I think that you and I, working the same side of the street now, can have a little bit of success by bringing to everybody's attention this is all intended surplus. In other words, when we passed the Greenspan Commission Report, the Greenspan Commission Report only had Social Security in 1983 a two hundred million surplus. It's projected to have this year a 117 million surplus. I've got the schedule, I'll ask to put in the record the CBO report: 117, 126, 130, 100, going right through to 2008 over the ten year period of 186 billion surplus. That was intended; this is dramatic about all these retirees, the baby boomers. But we foresaw that baby boomer problem, we planned against that baby boomer problem. Our problem is we've been spending that particular reserve, that set-aside that you testify to that is so necessary. That's what I'm trying to get this government back to reality, if we can do that.

We owe Social Security 736 billion right this minute( 1998 ). If we saved 117 billion, we could pay that debt down, and have the wonderful effect on the capital markets and savings rate. 

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have spent every dime of the surplus Social Security revenue flowing into the Treasury during their terms in office,  according to economist Allen W. Smith, Ph.D. in his new book, *Demystifying Economics: The Book That Makes Economics Accessible to Everyone.  Smith points out that the 1983 legislation, which substantially raised Social Security taxes, was designed specifically for the purpose of building up a surplus in the Social Security trust fund in preparation for the staggering new obligations the fund would face when the baby-boom generation begins retiring about 2010.  Instead, Smith reports that the government began using the surplus to pay for other government programs as soon as it first appeared in 1983, and it has continued to do so ever since. 

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Obama is using every tool to reach the American people

Obama's Online Town Hall Meeting, March 26, 2009


Online Town Hall from White House on Vimeo.

President Obama's Weekly Radio Address, March 28, 2009


3/28/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

REPUBLICAN BUDGET PLAN

Labor Spot Attacks G.O.P.’s Attacks
By Sarah Wheaton NY Times

Republicans have been attacking the White House’s proposed budget, consistently saying that it “spends too much. It taxes too much. And it borrows too much.”

But the G.O.P. has not offered its own alternative proposal for the Democrats to attack. So the Democrats and their allies are attacking, well, nothing.

Americans United for Change, the labor coalition, has a new ad to run on national cable and on some stations in Washington, running Sunday through Tuesday.

THE PARTY OF NO



REPUBLICAN BUDGET PLAN - "CRICKETS"



The Times’s Carl Hulse notes today that there is disagreement among Republican ranks about whether they should be offering their own alternative spending measure. Even though it would have no chance of getting anywhere in Congress, it could help the G.O.P. avoid being characterized as the “Party of No.”

CANADA HAS SOMEONE THE USA ISN'T TELLING US ABOUT!

Friday, March 6, 2009
This is a BAD GURL! CHECK HER OUT!
Kitty

The Governor General of Canada is the vice-regal, or viceroy representative in Canada, of the Queen of Canada , who is the head of state. A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country in the name of, and as representative of the monarch. Canada is one of sixteen British Commonwealth realms, all of which share the British Monarch as their royal leader. The monarch appoints the Governor General on the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, who is the Canadian Head of Government, after which the Governor General maintains direct contact with the British monarch. There is no specific term.

President Barack Obama and Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean walk across the tarmac following his arrival in Ottawa,Canada Thursday, February 19, 2009. Michelle Jean has been Governor General of Canada since September 27, 2005. Canada 's first black Governor General.Right ?

President Barack Obama and Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean chat during a meeting following his arrival in Ottawa , Canada , Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009.
Executive power of Canada, Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, is the sovereign and Head of State of Canada, and gives repository of executive power, judicial and legislative power; as expressed in Constitution of Canada:


The Prime Minister of Canada is currently Stephen Harper. The prime minister is appointed by the Governor General, who is now Michaelle Jean, but to ensure the continuity of a stable government, this person must have the confidence of the House of Commons to lead the government.


The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada . The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada and executive authority is formally vested in the Canadian sovereign and exercised
on his or her behalf by the Governor General.Governor General of Canada in Ottawa , Canada.
Parliament of Canada Governor General Michaelle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper


President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper walked to a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa , February 19, 2009.














Michaëlle Jean (born September 6, 1957, In Port-au-Prince , Haiti ) is the current Governor General of Canada . Jean was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, to succeed Adrienne Clarkson and become the 27th Governor General of Canada since Confederation in 1867. Prior to this, Jean was a journalist and broadcaster on Radio-Canada and the CBC.
As the current Governor General of Canada , she is entitled to be styled Her Excellency while in office, and The Right Honorable for life; given current practice, she will be sworn in to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada after her term as the Queen's representative has ended.
Jean fled Haiti with her family from dictator Francois Duvalier regime in 1968. Her father, from whom she was estranged for many years, was a philosopher who was tortured under Duvalier regime and separated from the family for 30 years. The Jean family settled at Thetford Mines, Quebec ..
As a student at the University of Montreal Jean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature and, from 1984 until 1986, taught Italian studies while completing a Master of Arts degree in comparative literature. Jean attended the University of Florence , the University of Perugia, and the Catholic University of Milan to continue her studies in language and literature. Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Haitian Creole and can read Portuguese.


POSTED BY Kitty Madry-Stewart

President Obama Plan

                                 RNC    -  Steele

President Obama Speech to Congress 2-24-09

Full text of address delivered by President Obama to Congress

February 25, 2009

Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:

I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has - a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.

Click Here for rest of speech

This Makes No Sense, Steele should do better