Michelle Obama visits Howard University
It must have been an incredible inspiration to all the college students at Howard University to have the first lady of the United States Michelle Obama visit them. Think of it, here you are a student and person of color looking at the first lady who happens to look like you!
There will be students whose lives will never be the same as a result. The dreams of these college students and others like them will be expanded. No matter what your political affiliation is you must grasp the significance of this event and others like this on the minds of black youth and the African American community as a whole.
There are literally no more excuses, no more whining and no more crying about how you can’t make it because of the color of your skin. My life has been forever changed by the President and the first lady. My dreams are higher and I stand a little taller.
If we could all serve our communities, champion education and be role models for our kids the future will become brighter and brighter. I like what Michelle said to the students at Howard “The question that I hate most that we ask of young people is, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ And the truth is, I still don’t know, and I’m 45 years old,” she said. “All I know is that it’s important for you to be true to yourselves, not to worry too much about what other people are going to think or make of your choices, because everyone will question what you do and tell you that you should have done it the other way.”
Arnold Hayes
Add comment February 13, 2009
Good Idea for the President to go to Indiana and Texas?
It was a brilliant idea for the President to go to Indiana and Texas to promote his economic stimulus plan. Not only did it get the debate going again, it gave the President valuable face time to define his message. His first press conference did not hurt ether. In it he specified the urgency of the bill and put pressure on those that would oppose him to pass it. Well today they did pass the stimulus bill, the DOW was down about 300 points but so what!.
Let’s now go on to the next faze of this mess which is building confidence, helping home owners and getting people back to work as quickly as possible. Look for transparency and for the Administration to be up front about where the monies are going. This issue is clearly not over and the debate will continue. I believe the President made a great first step, my blood pressure sure seems like it is a little lower.
Arnold Hayes
Add comment February 11, 2009
Why Americans need to get back to work soon!
By now everyone knows that everyday the U.S. economy is sinking deeper and deeper into recession. Along with this comes a since of despair that we don’t see on the evening news. 568,000 people lost their jobs in January alone. There are moms, dads, sisters, brothers and children who are directly affected. More homes will be lost and cars repossessed. More people will go hungry and will need assistance. More business services will not be needed and even more people will loose their jobs.
This morning there was a tentative deal in effect; President Obama may sign the Recovery bill by Monday. Will this stop the tide of layoffs? Probably not in the short term, there will be more pain on the way. But it is it is a good step to help restore confidence.
This is going to be something we will never forget. We are going to have to summon strength that we did not know we had. We are Americans, we can weather the storm. It’s just that now is not the time to be selfish; it’s a time to be compassionate. Here are 5 things you can do to make a difference.
1. Realize that that people you see everyday, at work or at the gas station may be losing a job or has already lost a house. Be responsive to their needs.
2. Volunteer to help anyway you can. Usaservice.org
3. Help people develop new skills.
4. Donate time and money.
5. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Arnold Hayes
Add comment February 7, 2009
Let the President do his job!
I am mad as hell!, the Bush Administration absolutely destroyed this country and a couple of months later everyone forgets how bad the situation was and tries to save their on ass. Let the President of the United States try to help us All. Please remember that the idiots on talk shows and the idiots that want to see this Administration fail are all rich, they are millionaires many times over. They could care less about average everyday folks who are hurting.
I say take down their names and watch their behavior and boot them out of office! Pass the Damn Stimulus Package! It’s about confidence in America!
Sure it’s o.k. to look at the Stimulus Package and debate it but the Bush Administration messed things up so bad we need a big Stimulus and we need it now! I know many many people who are unemployed or about to be laid off, next week you may be too! Write these people! let them know if they don’t do what they are supposed to do we will put them on the unemployment line also!
Man I’m pissed and you should be too! 8 years of nonsense and people want to go back there!
Cable shows are only trying to create ratings so they won’t go under because of the Internet! they could care less, if the country is in constant turmoil and divided they become 24 hour 7 day a week crisis centers. They get ratings and money!
Think about it!
Add comment February 6, 2009
Former Reagan chief of staff endorses Obama
Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday.
Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official – Colin Powell – in his decision.
“Well let’s put it this way – I think Colin Powell’s decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama.”
Powell served as national security advisor to Reagan during Duberstein’s tenure as chief of staff.
Duberstein spoke with Zakaria about his final days in the Reagan White House. The Reagan official, along with Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Carter National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, also discussed the transition process to a new administration.
Add comment October 31, 2008
Economy Sheds Most Jobs Since 2003, More Cuts Seen
WASHINGTON – Jobs are vanishing at the fastest pace in more than five years with pink slips likely to keep stacking higher in the months ahead, an urgent signal the country may be careening toward a deep and painful recession just as Americans prepare to elect a new president.
Whether that’s Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, one of them will be dealing with the weakest employment climate in years.
Increasingly skittish employers dropped the ax even harder in September, chopping payrolls by 159,000 _ more than double the cuts made just one month before. It was the ninth straight month of job losses. A staggering 760,000 jobs have disappeared so far this year.
The Labor Department’s report, released Friday, also showed that the nation’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, up sharply from 4.7 percent a year ago. Over the last year, the number of unemployed people has risen by 2.2 million to 9.5 million.
“Washington, the labor market has a problem,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. “Firms are hunkering down and running as lean as possible. … We are likely to see more months of job losses before conditions turn around.”
The unemployment rate for blacks shot up to 11.4 percent, the highest since late 2003.
Even with Congress’ unprecedented $700 billion financial bailout, the faltering economy and the jobs market probably will get worse. Many believe the economy will jolt into reverse later this year _ if it hasn’t already_ and will stay sickly well into next year.
The unemployment rate could hit 7 or 7.5 percent by late 2009. If that happens, it would mark the highest since after the 1990-91 recession. Some economists say the jobless rate could rise even more before the situation starts to get better.
Pressure is growing on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to do an about-face and lower a key interest rate in a bid to revive the economy. Many now think that will happen at the Fed’s next meeting on Oct. 28-29 or even earlier.
The hope riding on such a move would be to spur nervous consumers and businesses to spend more freely again. They’ve clamped down as housing, credit and financial problems intensified last month, throwing Wall Street into chaos.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials slid 157.47 points after relief over the bailout plan’s passage gave way to worries about the economy.
Friday’s employment snapshot is the last before America goes to the polls in November.
Mounting job losses, shrinking paychecks, shriveling nest eggs and rising foreclosures all have weighed heavily on American voters.
The economy is their No. 1 concern. An Associated Press-GfK poll earlier this week showed that likely voters now back Obama 48 percent to McCain’s 41 percent. They believe Obama is better suited to lead the country through the financial turbulence.
“I will rebuild the middle class and create millions of new jobs by investing in infrastructure and renewable energy,” vowed Obama.
McCain pledged to “open markets around the globe for our products, cut taxes and expand domestic production of energy … I will create jobs and get the economy on the right track.”
White House spokesman Tony Fratto called the latest employment figures disappointing “but not unexpected given the shocks to the economy.”
The 159,000 tally of total job losses _ government and private payrolls _ was the most since March 2003, when the labor market was still struggling to get back on its feet after being knocked down by the 2001 recession. Given a small net gain in government employment, the picture was particularly dark for private employers. They cut 168,000 jobs last month, the 10th month of such losses.
The pink slips were widespread.
Manufacturers (especially auto makers), home builders, retailers, securities and investment firms, hotels and motels, accountants and bookkeepers, architects and engineers, and legal services all cut back. So did temporary help firms _ usually a barometer of future hiring. That overwhelmed employment gains by the government, in education, health care and elsewhere.
Cost-cutting employers are getting rid of workers as companies chafe under all the economy’s problems. Companies announcing layoffs in September included Hanesbrands Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Schering-Plough Corp., Alaska Airlines and Alcoa Inc.
Spooked consumers and businesses have pulled back so much that some analysts fear the economy could stall out _ or even worse _ shrink in the July-to-September quarter. Many predict the economy will contract in both the final quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, meeting the classic definition of a recession.
“The economy was on the way down even before the latest tightening in the credit crunch,” said Nigel Gault, economist at Global Insight.
Wage growth for workers is slowing, meaning they’ll be more hard-pressed to spend and help the ailing economy.
Average hourly earnings rose to $18.17 in September, a 0.2 percent increase. That was half the pace logged in the previous month. Over the past year, wages have grown 3.4 percent, but paychecks aren’t stretching as far because of high food and energy prices.
Strains on Americans were sorely evident. The number of consumer bankruptcy filings rose about 29 percent in September from a year ago, the American Bankruptcy Institute reported Friday.
The financial crisis that intensified in September is forcing a seismic shake-up on Wall Street.
Lehman Brothers, the country’s fourth-largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection. A weakened Merrill Lynch, deciding it couldn’t go it alone anymore, found help in the arms of Bank of America. AIG was thrown a financial lifeline. And, the last two investment houses _ Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley _ decided to convert themselves into commercial banks to better weather the financial storms. The number of banks that have failed this year are up sharply from last year. On Friday, Wachovia Corp. said it will be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. wiping out Wachovia’s previous plan to sell its banking operations to rival suitor Citigroup Inc.
Add comment October 4, 2008
The Politics of War: Substance over Spin
Yes, Governor Sarah Palin defied expectations in last night’s debate. She was a peppy, prepared, presenter who may fool some people into thinking a vice president is supposed to be a snappy, citizen-politician. And fortunately for the McCain camp, there were no Katie Couric moments. But last night was also a success for the Democrats at a more important level, because when it came to logic and substance Senator Biden punctured both Palin’s balloon and the fallacy at the heart of the McCain campaign.
For me, the turning point came on the subject of global warming. Governor Palin was trying to sound reasonable. Alaska is suffering from global warming. And it doesn’t matter whether the cause was man-made carbon emissions or cyclical weather patterns. We have to deal with the problem, Palin argued. That’s when Joe Biden struck. Wait a minute. If you don’t accept that global warming is caused by man, if you don’t find the cause of the problem, how are you ever going to come up with a solution before the world faces a catastrophe. Logic matters and facts matter, Biden argued.
And of course, a refusal to face facts is the fatal flaw at the heart of the McCain campaign when it comes to foreign policy. Everyone in the world, it seems, except for the McCain camp understands that the United States has lost admiration and respect around the world. And more important, most voters understand that when it comes to international affairs, the United States is, as Senator Biden put it, in a hole. If you don’t know that the U.S. has dug a hole for itself, or don’t even understand that we are in a hole, how can America pull itself out? To pervert the old saying, Sarah Palin and John McCain don’t even know that we should stop digging.
It’s not just global warming. It’s our entire Middle East policy. If Senator McCain and Governor Palin are going to be cheerleaders for President Bush’s foreign policy, as they have been. Then, we are not going to get the right kind of change. We are going to get more of the same.
Biden talked about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, and the question of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. How can McCain be an effective steward of our national security if he won’t face the fact that America’s national interests have suffered with respect to all of these countries. This is where Biden’s substance trumped Palin’s puffery.
Who has been the beneficiary of the Bush foreign policy in the Middle East? Iran, Biden explained. The governments that threatened Tehran in Iraq (Saddam Hussein) and Afghanistan (the Taliban) have been overthrown. Iran is now the most influential player in Iraq, through its proxies in the Shiite-led government. In Lebanon, its ally Hezbollah is now the decisive force in determining the policies of the Lebanese government. Its friends in Hamas, as a result of one of the most counter-productive decisions of the Bush administration, are now the elected leaders of Gaza and control the government and the territory there. In short, America’s friends in the Middle East have been weakened while its enemies are stronger. That is the epitome of bad foreign policy.
And as far as the crucial question of Iran’s nuclear program is concerned, the Bush policy has left the next president a policy disaster. After five years of giving the government of Iran the silent treatment, Washington’s policy has done nothing to slow down Iran’s nuclear program. On Bush’s watch, Iran has come perilously close to mastering the hardest part of building a nuclear weapon — gaining the knowledge and engineering capability to make weapons-grade uranium.
These are the facts. But just like in the case of climate change, if you don’t understand or accept these facts, then positive change isn’t possible. If John McCain doesn’t understand where President Bush went wrong, he will never get it right. The Obama-Biden position to deal directly with Iran is not some sideshow issue. For it is only by direct diplomacy that the United States can find out if there is an agreement possible with Iran. And if we can’t convince the rest of the world that we have exhausted diplomatic possibilities, then we will never get the support we need to put real economic pressure and sanctions on the Iranian government. Like President Bush, John McCain just doesn’t accept this straightforward diplomatic reality.
Senator Biden explained this foreign policy truth last night. He didn’t get distracted by Palin’s folksy sound bites and phony appeal to Main Street that McCain is an agent of change.
If last night’s debate were a popularity contest, maybe you could argue that Sarah Palin did O.K. But with our nation facing two hot wars abroad and an economic melt-down at home, I am confident voters understand that the stakes are serious and that in a dangerous time, substance matters. And when it came to substance, Senator Biden had a good night indeed.
James P. Rubin
Add comment October 4, 2008
The John Edwards Affair:
The Washington Note published several pieces about the details and significance of a potential sexual affair in the middle of the John Edwards presidential primary campaign three times — twice on October 11, 2007 and once on October 12, 2007.
I wrote about this after reading Sam Stein’s work at Huffington Post. He broke this story — and the National Enquirer built on the ‘revelations’.
There are few times when I have received more hate mail and was the target of really awful, excoriating attacks than at that time — and now Edwards admits to the affair he had been denying. The same may be true for Sam Stein. I frankly don’t care about affairs in general — but I do care about the presumption that the American public can be counted on to be part of the outrage machine when a politician lies about something like this — particularly given the circumstances of Elizabeth Edwards’ health.
My hat is tipped to Sam Stein who was the first blogger to really work this story. He told me then that his sources were solid, and I believed him. He deserves a salute today — even though the story itself is gross and hardly worth the attention we are compelled to give it.
There will be ramifications of this incident on the blogging community and also on mainstream media. Some blogs frequently see themselves as willing vehicles of politicians, unwilling to focus a critical eye on the pol or party they are supporting. Others see themselves as a hybrid of advocacy and analysis. Others see themselves as competitors with mainstream media — covering political news with greater objectivity and creativity than the largely homogenized, too controlled big time media players offer.
Blogging is a real mix of types — but there are many great bloggers out there who were convinced until the last moment that Edwards was truthful and that this was a conspiracy hatched by Clinton or Obama to undo him as a presidential candidate — and then as a vice-presidential choice. Edwards owes these folks an apology for misleading them and the nation — many who were his strongest defenders. And then everyone in this game needs to thank the Sam Steins of the world who are willing to report what they learn and work a story as it should be worked.
I applauded previously Sam Stein’s thoughtful journalism and behind the scenes investigative work then — and given what we now know today — I applaud him again.
I wish John Edwards had done what Alexander Hamilton had done in a similar situation — as I wrote last October — but not to be. Sad.
– Steve Clemons (Huffington Post)
Add comment August 9, 2008
