"President Barack Obama"
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Almost There With Health Care
Yesterday, the White House released President Obama’s health insurance reform proposal. It bridges the gap between the House and Senate bills, includes ideas from both parties to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse, and puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care. And it creates a major new authority to help states crack down on insurers who propose unreasonable and unfair rate hikes — like the ones we saw just last week in California and Maine. It’s a proposal that combines feedback from the health debate with the President’s longstanding principles on reform — and it’s a bill that any member of Congress can support. But we know Big Insurance won’t like it one bit. Before too long, their attack ads will be back up on TV and their misinformation campaign will be up and running. They’ll have one goal: convince members of Congress that its bad politics to support reform. So it’s more important than ever to show every member of Congress that if they fight for reform now, we’ll back them up this election season.
The President’s bill makes insurance more affordable, sets up a new competitive health insurance market, lays down commonsense rules to bring greater accountability to health care, ends discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions, and cuts the deficit. It also strengthens the Senate bill, adding new provisions to cut down on waste, make sure middle-class families are protected, and closing the Medicare Part D “donut hole” coverage gap. But health insurance companies don’t care what’s in the bill. They’re fighting to preserve the status quo that benefits them — even though it’s disastrous for our nation.
What does all this mean?… It means reform is moving again, but the clock is ticking. We can’t wait to show that insurers are wrong when they claim members of Congress who vote for reform will suffer at the polls. Call, write, email, shout, visit, text, or anything else you can think of to get in-touch with your Congressional representative, and let them know that they absolutely have to get behind this new health care bill.
We’re closer now than we’ve ever been before to passing a health care reform bill that will give EVERYONE equal access to health care, no matter what their financial situation may be. It’s imperative that we continue putting pressure on our elected officials to make this dream a reality.
I want history to look back at my generation as the one’s who changed this great nation in a positive and profound way. I don’t want history to look back at us as the generation who blew an amazing opportunity to better the lives and health of every single American (present and future).
Putting Pelosi On Blast
I’ve had a lot going on this week personally and professionally. Most notably was the passing of my uncle JT. So due to those situations, I haven’t had the time to blog about the loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate on Tuesday. It was quite a shock, and a huge blow to the Democrats and President Obama’s progressive agenda. The reason this is so major is because the seat was loss in a special election to an anti-health care reform Republican. With that loss, the Democrats’ tenuous “filibuster-proof” Senate majority is gone. The reason for the loss is easy to pinpoint: the lack of enthusiasm and turn-out among Democrats and Independents who want this Congress and President Obama to be bolder.
I am so fed up with this whole situation. I hate to say this about my own political party, but the level of incompetence on the hill has to be astronomical to allow a health care reform bill that we all want, to get hijacked by the Republican MINORITY. I love Nancy Pelosi and I respect the job that she’s doing, but I have to lay most of the blame at her feet. If she was really “on top of things”, none of this would of ever happened. But what’s done is done, and the blame game isn’t going to get this health care bill passed. What we can do is push House Speaker Pelosi to step up and LEAD the House, and bring an end to the divisive bickering among Democrats about what should be done on health care. Call Speaker Pelosi right now and ask her to be bold. Ask her to publicly commit to passing health care with a public option using the filibuster-proof “budget reconciliation” process.
Two political organizations known as “Democracy for America” and “Progressive Change Campaign Committee” got together and commissioned a poll of Massachusetts voters taken immediately after the loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat and the results confirm what we already knew — that voters wanted a public option, expected substantive health care change, and are frustrated with slow pace of change. The poll showed Democrats and Independents don’t think the current Senate health care bill goes far enough, and more than 80% of them want a public option. If a public option were in the Senate bill, these voters would have delivered victory to save Ted Kennedy’s seat for the Democrats. It’s as simple as that.
Some in Congress are naively trying to spin that Congress needs to move more to the “center,” scrap health care reform, and move slower. Nothing could be more wrong. There is a huge opportunity to pass health care with a public option through a special process called “budget reconciliation” that only needs 51 votes in the Senate — that means Republicans and Sen. Joe Lieberman can’t filibuster. But first the House must pass it. Speaker Pelosi needs to hear from you so she knows she has the support needed to fight other members of Congress who didn’t learn the lesson from losing Ted Kennedy’s seat.
We can’t let this opportunity pass us by. Health Care reform absolutely needs a public option. Think of how much free health care could better your life, and possible extended the years we do have. Think about your children, your mother, your father, your grandparents and anyone else that you’ve seen struggle while trying to pay for something as simple as a doctor’s visit. Or having to go without their medication because they just can’t afford it. I’m sure we all can relate to that scenario. Do you want how much money you make, to dictate and decide you and your children’s quality of life? That’s not the kind of America I want to live in, and I hope it’s not the kind of America you want to live in either.
Click on the link below to read over a call script and instructions before calling:
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi 202-225-4965
When Is War The Right Thing To Do
I think the western world has a skewed outlook when it comes to war and protecting our people and way of life. I’m aware that war is sometimes necessary and even sometimes unavoidable (ie WW2 & Nazi Germany), but we have to start being honest when it comes to voicing our intent and reasoning. Those that support sending more troops to Afghanistan are arguing that it’s “the right thing to do”, or saying that we’re going over there to make our country safer and to help the Afghan people. Now, I don’t like resorting to name calling, but anyone that actually believes either of those statements to be true are just outright naive. First of all, the Taliban has been weakened so much that they aren’t that big of a threat to us anymore (compared to other more dangerous countries that pose an imminent threat). And most of the Taliban aren’t even in Afghanistan anymore. They are scattered in low numbers throughout the Middle East. And that’s an absolute fact that even General Petraeus admitted. So in my mind, that kills the whole “keeping America safe” argument. So who are we really fighting over there? We’ve bombed these people so much that there’s really not much left to bomb. How many times can you blow up the same building? All the legitimate targets are now rubble. I don’t see the point of spending our tax dollars on expensive missiles that are targeted to hit rubble and ruins. How does that make our country safer? How does that “help” the Afghanis? We need to understand that the old ways of war don’t apply anymore. We can’t effectively fight terrorism by going after one or two specific countries. Terrorist aren’t all huddled up together in one place. They are smart enough to know that they can not win that way. But I guess our government hasn’t figured that out yet. It’s like we’re trying to put a cassette tape in a cd player, and then wondering why it isn’t playing. But instead of learning a new way, we keep doing the same thing, hoping for a different result. What kind of sense does that make? If we don’t soon adapt, and start being smarter, then I fear 9 11 will happen all over again. And that’s something none of us want.Is more troops the answer?
I listened to President Obama speak last night just like most Americans. I can’t say I was surprised at his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, but I am a bit disappointed by this decision. For the last 24 hrs I’ve watched and heard a slue of nasty attacks against the President from both the left and the right. It sickens me, and it’s made me rethink my position and want to support President Obama even more. I don’t know why I feel the need to protect this President even when I completely disagree with a decision he’s made. What is that? I have to ask myself the obvious question here… is it race? I’m not sure I can answer that either way. I will admit that I do feel a lot more connected and invested in the success of this current administration, but even if race does play a part in all this, it’s accompanied with many other factors that all work in conjunction with each other. Like for example, I actually worked on Obama’s election campaign here in North Carolina because I was so inspired by everything this man did and stood for. So even if his ethnicity does play into my need to protect him blindly, it’s just one small part of a much larger picture. I can’t, nor would I want to, separate who Obama is as a person, from who he is as a politician. And I’m surprisingly ok admitting that.
**DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY URBAN ENTERTAINMENT BLOG “SOCIALLY URBAN” FOR THE LATEST IN URBAN ENTERTAINMENT NEWS AND EVENTS. WWW.SOCIALLYURBAN.COM
Politics vs Celeb Culture & Health Care
Politics VS Celeb Culture
Everyone knows I’m a political junkie. I follow politics like most guys follow sports. Up until a few weeks ago, a majority of my blog entries were about politics. Unfortunately I’ve had to abandon that angle for a while in order to pursue other interests, projects, and business opportunities. In other words, writing about politics all the time does not make me money (lol). I’m being totally honest here. Call me a sellout or whatever. I can take it. I would never let ANYONE dictate or question my personal integrity. I’d be broke and completely destitute if I concerned myself with what people thought about me. The bottom line is, the more visitors I get on my site, the more money I make. If I write one blog about Chris Brown & Rihanna’s domestic abuse issues, and another blog about the effects NAFTA has had on international trade… guess which one would generate the most traffic. Of course it’s going to be the one about Chris Breezy & lil’ ReRe (lol). I’m not talking about a small disparity, I’m talking about a HUGE difference in traffic numbers. I know, It’s totally ubsurd, and I hate taking part in it all, but I have to make a living. In this country, only the wealthy can afford principals and, and I’m not quite there yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I have no interest in celeb culture, because I do. I visit Perez Hilton’s site every now and then. I watch Entertainment Tonight on occasion. So I’m not downing or bashing that kind of stuff. I’m just saying that if given a choice, I’d choose politics. I could easily look at the negative side of this, but I’m choosing not to. I feel very lucky to get paid for doing something that I love. Writing has always been a passion of mine. So what if I have to make concessions every now and then. It’s a very small toll to pay on my road toward enlightenment and total creative freedom. How many people can say that they get paid for doing something they love? ……. can you say that? …….. NOPE, Didn’t think so (lol)
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S HEALTH CARE BATTLE
Because of the situation I described in my previous blog post, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines rooting for my “team” strictly as a spectator. My plate has been over-flowingly full to say the least. I have two sites that have to be “launch ready” before September, I have 3 different blogs (DeMon Govsenprez, Blue Options, and D-MESHthat I have to update daily and constantly find new content for, I’m still working on my album & recording new songs whenever possible, and on top of all that, I have an overload of graphic art jobs for different clients. So that’s the main reason why you haven’t heard me speak out and give my opinion on this health care issue. I finally got fed up with all of the nonsense, the misleading Republican talking points, the political posing and posturing, the partisan pundits posing as journalists (aka Lou Dobbs), and worst of all, the conservative Democrats that are basically sabotaging their own party, and the man they elected to run this country. After all that, it would be almost impossible for me to watch all of this unfold while I sit ideally by. I can not figure out why Democrats are playing right into the hands of the Republicans. Either they are dumb as nails, extremely naive, or they have a monetarily vested interest in stopping this bill from being passed. Lobbyist seek-out the kind of politicians that are greedy, of poor moral character, and can be bought for the right incentive. It’s so sad to see the behavior of the opposition at the “town hall” meetings. People need to know that 90% of the “disruptors” that you see screaming on tv, were all staged and orchestrated by Michael Steele and the Republican party. It’s crazy how easy it is to plant ideas and false information into the brains of conservatives in order to manufacture fear and outrage. And the really sad part of it all is that most of these people would benefit from the President’s health care bill. 75% of Americans make less than $50,000 a year, and under the proposed plan, their taxes will not be raised at all. They fail to realize that the people that’s organizing disruption and spreading false information to get the middle class angry, are just using them to make the rich even richer. This is the same kind of problem that’s causing the gap between middle class and the wealthy to widen greatly. The American middle class is disappearing right in front of our eyes. That’s one of the main reasons why we need this health care bill to pass. We elected President Obama because we thought his ideas and leadership would make this country prosperous again for ALL Americans. This President knows what it feels like to struggle. That’s why he’s been able to connect with so many voters. We had 8 years of Bush’s White House catering to the rich, because that’s all he knew. He grew up with millions at his disposal. His family is wealthy, his friends are wealthy, his wife’s family is wealthy. So those were the pepole he catered to. But we finally get a President that wants to help lift Americans out of poverty and help the middle class rise again, and we want to backpedal and second guess ourselves. We knew the President’s position on health care over 2 years ago when he was still campaigning, and we all seemed to want it then. That’s why I don’t understand what conservative democrats are thinking. What’s their motive? As I said before, I’m sure it’s all political. I’m hoping and praying that President Obama does not back away from his original bill. He needs to stand his ground on this one, or the Republicans are going to try the same bulling techniques all throughout his whole Presidency. I think Obama needs to throw his weight around, and put the fear of God into those dissenting “turncoat” democrats. If it was November right now, and some of those Democrats were up for re-election, I bet they’d be singing a different tune. They’d be kissing Obama’s ass and begging him to campaign for them and help them get re-elected. President Obama needs to remind them that he will remember those who supported him and those who didn’t. I bet if he lays it out to them in those terms, you’d see a huge shift of public support from that group of dissenting Democrats. Sometimes you got to play just as dirty as they do. In this situation, I would pull every trick I could think of, because the ends will justify the means. He can worry about “clean up” after the bill is passed. I think when it finally does get passed, most of the naysayers are going to be eating crow and loving their affordable prescriptions and their affordable health care; all thanks to the President for seeing past our current circumstances and for standing up to his opponents and standing up to the extremely powerful insurance lobby.
**side note** I want to encourage people to do a little research on this health care bill. Don’t beleive something to be true just becasue you heard it on tv or you read it in a newspaper. Take a close look at the biggest opponets of this bill. Then you’ll start to see the real truth. You’ll find that most of the organizations that are spending millions to try and kill public health care, are all big money corporations that have lobbied and shaped government policy for their benefit, and they continue to exploit the current health care system to get as much as your money as possible. These people and organizations have no interest in helping anyone but themselves. Don’t let this kind of behavior continue. Don’t let them use you to make even more profit from a broken health care system, that can be so easily fixed.
The amazingly wise Mr. Fredrick Douglas once said “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” I believe we proved that to be true when we united as a country and decided to elect Brarack Obama as our leader. We have the power to shape our own destiny. Those who want to oppress us can only do so if we let them. We need to show the wealthy establishment that we will not endure oppression of any kind, under any circumstances. Not in this country. Not in this lifetime. Never again.
demon@demonspencer.com
Visit My New Blog at: www.d-mesh.blogspot.com
**side note** I want to encourage people to do a little research on this health care bill. Don’t beleive something to be true just becasue you heard it on tv or you read it in a newspaper. Take a close look at the biggest opponets of this bill. Then you’ll start to see the real truth. You’ll find that most of the organizations that are spending millions to try and kill public health care, are all big money corporations that have lobbied and shaped government policy for their benefit, and they continue to exploit the current health care system to get as much as your money as possible. These people and organizations have no interest in helping anyone but themselves. Don’t let this kind of behavior continue. Don’t let them use you to make even more profit from a broken health care system, that can be so easily fixed.
The amazingly wise Mr. Fredrick Douglas once said “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” I believe we proved that to be true when we united as a country and decided to elect Brarack Obama as our leader. We have the power to shape our own destiny. Those who want to oppress us can only do so if we let them. We need to show the wealthy establishment that we will not endure oppression of any kind, under any circumstances. Not in this country. Not in this lifetime. Never again.
demon@demonspencer.com
Visit My New Blog at: www.d-mesh.blogspot.com
Sign This Petition To Investigate Bush & Cheney
Newsweek reported Saturday that Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate whether the Bush administration illegally tortured terrorism suspects. You can find a link to that article here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/206300
A decision is expected in the next few weeks. Holder should investigate torture, and he should start with former Vice President Dick Cheney and his legal adviser David Addington. I urge you to sign the petition to tell Attorney General Holder to assign a prosecutor to investigate torture, just as I did. Please have a look and take action.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/investigate_cheney/?r_by=4958-332510-ZNEIrhx&rc=paste
PS. Check out my new design showroom for my graphic art, promotion, and publishing company Privlidge Works PDP.
Ousting the Ayatollah (Iran’s Uprising)
For the last 48 hours, I’ve been glued to CNN watching the political unrest unfold in Iran. If anyone has ever doubted the power and usefulness of the Internet and social networking sites, now is the time to say “I TOLD YOU SO”. If it weren’t for these new tools of communication, I really don’t think we’d know what the hell was going on in Iran. The Ayatollah has tried to shut down all outside communication, but with today’s technology, that’s virtually impossible. Right now the United States has an amazing opportunity. We’ve tried to remove the Ayatollah in some form or another for decades now. Our biggest misstep, was publicly backing The Shaw way back in the 60’s. The Ayatollah used the common Muslim fear of western influence and control to slowly discredit and remove the Shaw. This plot worked so well, that it has been adopted by many Muslim extremist groups (i.e. Al-qaeda, Hamas, etc) as a powerful recruiting tool ever since. Keeping that in mind, our country needs to take a laissez-faire approach, and let this political uprising take it’s course. That’s the absolute best help we can give Iran right now. President Obama has been very smart to do so. If we take any kind of official stance siding with the uprising, then that gives Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah more ammunition to scare the protesters into submission. The threat of western influence is the most powerful tool they have right now, and we can not play into that.
What concerns me the most is not weather Ahmadinejad or Moussavi won the election, because if you look at where the real political power resides in that country, you’ll see that The Ayatollah holds all the real power. An Iranian president is nothing like an American president. Iran is more Imperialistic than they would like us to think. Ahmadinejad won the election because The Ayatollah wanted him to win the election. Simple as that. They tout the Ayatollah as some sort of religious adviser or councilor, but ask yourself, what kind of religious adviser has the gaul and the power to threaten military action against a group of protesters. It would be a huge step in the right direction for the people to prevail and place Moussavi in power as president, but Iran’s oppressive political policies and any real change toward freedom will not happen with that alone. The only way we will see any change in Iran, is by removing The Ayatollah from power. Anything less would only serve as window dressing.
GAY MARRIAGE RIGHTS
As I watch what’s going on in our country played out in every current form of media you can think of, I began to see something in the human spirit that’s very dark, evil, and innately insecure. Proposition 8 in California is a bill that says marriage can only be defined as one man and one woman, which basically says that if you’re gay and you and your partner want to enter into matrimony, you’re out of luck. I’ve struggled for years and years trying to understand what makes people want to persecute, oppress, and exclude their fellow human beings for not believing as they believe, or hate people because their skin pigment is different from theirs. It’s amazing to me that they see nothing wrong with this. Throughout history, this same type of evil has occurred over and over again… but we’ve learned absolutely NOTHING from it. Nothing at all. I’m 100% sure that this gay marriage ban will be looked at as a major injustice years, maybe even decades from now. It will be seen in the same light as slavery and the holocaust. But I’m here now… we’re living in the time we’re living in. Sure time will bring us justice, but we don’t have to wait. We’ve seen this same story play out a million times, and it all ends in the same way. With all of our knowledge, and with our ability to reach and communicate, and share ideas with people all over the world, we are still just as ignorant as those slave owners were in 1654, just as ignorant as Hitler and Nazi Germany was in 1933, just as ignorant as those who took part in the Salem witch trials in 1692, just as ignorant as those who supported segregation during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s, just as ignorant as those who supported apartheid in South Africa in 1948. We learned all of this in 3rd grade. There are countless movies, books, articles, and documentaries about every one of those events… but for some reason, we’re not connecting the dots. So I ask a very simple question. WHY? Some of you may say religion bears most of the blame, but I think it’s a lot deeper than just religion. I believe human insecurity is the root of it all. Insecurity is a dark, evil and dangerous emotion that can cause humans to do horrible and terrible things to each other. Insecurity defies any and all logic. Insecure people feed off of each others negative energy. For some reason, they crave the feeling of superiority. They have to exclude and opress anyone that’s unlike them, in order to feed that craving. They seek out “easy targets”, and use whatever amunition they can find, to justify their sick behavior (like religion). Then it snowballs from there into something ugly and evil because they don’t realize that negativity will never fill that void of insecurity. It boggles the mind that these so called religious leaders and organizations are spending their time and money and focusing their attention on the personal lives of two consenting adults that are in love and want to get married, and happens to be of the same gender. Who I love and who I marry, has nothing to do with them. My right to marry will in no way affect any aspect of their life. With everything that’s going on in the world like famine, homelessness, desize, etc., why would they want to focus on what two consenting adults do in their personal life. They have to see the hypocrisy of it all. Nobody is that dumb. I guess I’ll call it “willful-ignorance”… and I call them DUMB ASS IGNORANT ASSHOLES. Legal gay marriage will happen sooner or later anyway, so let’s fast forward through all this bullshit, and accept the inevatible.
Visit www.whiteknot.org for more information. This country just elected it’s first African American president. If we can do that, we can do anything.
D5 Creation