After Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown voted to end the GOP filibuster on the Job's bill in the senate, one has to wonder, is President Obama, strategically speaking, in a better position with moderate Republicans than with liberal Democrats?
First, with a super majority the Dems have to take all the responsibility for governing - the good, bad and ugly.
Second, with a few more moderate Republicans, this would create an environment for more bipartisanship. Remember, if the Republicans gain more seats it will most likely be in swing districts, hence, they would be apt to be more centrist than right-wing.
Third, a stronger presence of moderate Republicans would probably quell the extreme demands from the most liberal wing of the Dems.
Do you think Obama, Inc. has already surveyed this truism?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Harvey's Global Politics - Launch
This day has been coming for sometime! Today I announce the launching of Harvey's Global Politics (HGP) blog. As the title suggests, this blog will be exclusively focused on World and Domestic politics.
Information is Power
Living in the information era, it is imperative that we become better informed about the relevant political issues of our time. Additionally, I plan to share practical information on how to best galvanize our collective power in order to bring about change we believe in
Please join me and become an active member of Harvey's Global Politics
Healing Souls will still operate as a blog dedicated to the above stated purpose, so feel free to join me at both sites.
Information is Power
Living in the information era, it is imperative that we become better informed about the relevant political issues of our time. Additionally, I plan to share practical information on how to best galvanize our collective power in order to bring about change we believe in
Please join me and become an active member of Harvey's Global Politics
Healing Souls will still operate as a blog dedicated to the above stated purpose, so feel free to join me at both sites.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Insurance Company Rip-Off
Editorial
The Lesson of Anthem Blue Cross Shield
Published: February 18, 2010; New York Times
Clients were understandably furious when Anthem Blue Cross, the largest for-profit health insurer in California, announced huge rate increases for people who buy their own insurance: an average increase of 25 percent, and a 35 percent to 39 percent rise for a quarter of the purchasers. The move also provided a textbook example of why the nation badly needs comprehensive health care reforms.
Complete Story...
The Lesson of Anthem Blue Cross Shield
Published: February 18, 2010; New York Times
Clients were understandably furious when Anthem Blue Cross, the largest for-profit health insurer in California, announced huge rate increases for people who buy their own insurance: an average increase of 25 percent, and a 35 percent to 39 percent rise for a quarter of the purchasers. The move also provided a textbook example of why the nation badly needs comprehensive health care reforms.
Complete Story...
health care
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Tale Of Two Africas
It is common knowledge that many countries in Africa are beset with crippling poverty, disease and corruption. The western media, as they should, reports this Africa night and day.
Whether reporting on Nigeria, Angola, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ghana or South African the storyline remains the same - poor dysfuntional Africa. As one that never accepts the prevailing narrative of the western press on face value, I probed further and discovered, via alternative medias, that there is more to the African experience than is reported by western media. Read on and decide for yourself.
Among the world's 12 fastest growing economies five of them are African countries. As a matter of fact, Ghana is projected to be the world's fastest growing economy by 2012. See link...Africa
Read On(link):
China will overtake the US to become the world's largest construction market in 2018, a new report has predicted. The report launched today forecasts global construction trends over the next 10 years. Its key predictions include Nigeria becoming the world's fastest growing construction market by 2020, followed by India and then Poland. China will be the largest market by 2020, the research found, with the US being the second largest, followed by India.
The Global Construction 2020 report found that Nigeria's construction spending will grow by at least 9% every year over the next decade, driven by rapid urbanisation. China's construction market will be worth almost £2.5 trillion in 2020 and will represent an immense 19% of global construction output.
A spokesman for Oxford Economics, which produced the report, said: "Overall the report shows that over the next 10 years the busiest markets will be in emerging economies and the emphasis will be on infrastructure."New world orders: Construction's latest global hotspots
13 November 2009
Now what do you think?
Whether reporting on Nigeria, Angola, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ghana or South African the storyline remains the same - poor dysfuntional Africa. As one that never accepts the prevailing narrative of the western press on face value, I probed further and discovered, via alternative medias, that there is more to the African experience than is reported by western media. Read on and decide for yourself.
Among the world's 12 fastest growing economies five of them are African countries. As a matter of fact, Ghana is projected to be the world's fastest growing economy by 2012. See link...Africa
Read On(link):
China will overtake the US to become the world's largest construction market in 2018, a new report has predicted. The report launched today forecasts global construction trends over the next 10 years. Its key predictions include Nigeria becoming the world's fastest growing construction market by 2020, followed by India and then Poland. China will be the largest market by 2020, the research found, with the US being the second largest, followed by India.
The Global Construction 2020 report found that Nigeria's construction spending will grow by at least 9% every year over the next decade, driven by rapid urbanisation. China's construction market will be worth almost £2.5 trillion in 2020 and will represent an immense 19% of global construction output.
A spokesman for Oxford Economics, which produced the report, said: "Overall the report shows that over the next 10 years the busiest markets will be in emerging economies and the emphasis will be on infrastructure."New world orders: Construction's latest global hotspots
13 November 2009
Now what do you think?
Friday, February 12, 2010
GOP Hypocrisy Exposed
Just when you think Republicans have reached an all time nadir in morality, the duplicitous and cynical bunch prove they can descend much lower.
In the following clip, MSNBC's Rachael Maddow exposes GOP senators and legislators who have vocally mocked President Obama's stimulus package while taking credit in their home districts for the jobs produced by the stimulus package.
Yes, while on the national stage they loudly jeered how the stimulus package had no positive effects and created no jobs, they locally attended ribbon cutting ceremonies to applaud projects created by the stimulus project.
Hmmm...The Audacity of Hypocrisy
Follow this link, Maddow
In the following clip, MSNBC's Rachael Maddow exposes GOP senators and legislators who have vocally mocked President Obama's stimulus package while taking credit in their home districts for the jobs produced by the stimulus package.
Yes, while on the national stage they loudly jeered how the stimulus package had no positive effects and created no jobs, they locally attended ribbon cutting ceremonies to applaud projects created by the stimulus project.
Hmmm...The Audacity of Hypocrisy
Follow this link, Maddow
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Republican Senatorial Gain
As the reality of Scott Brown's election win sinks in, the challenge is what can we glean from this stunningly huge Republican upset in the liberal bastion Massachusetts. The irony of him winning the late senator Ted Kennedy's senate seat, as an anti-health care candidate, speaks volumes. After all, Ted Kennedy was a strong advocate for Universal Health Care - it was, posthumously, to be his legacy.
What does it all mean?
Did it mean Americans rejected Universal Health Care? Was it a negative referendum on President Obama's agenda? Did it mean the Democrats fielded a weak candidate? Is it a unforced fumble by the an over confident Democratic party? Or, is it a harbinger for the 2010 mid-term elections?
One thing for sure, it means, President Obama's agenda faces daunting and mounting roadblocks now that his party no longer has a filibuster proof super majority in the senate.
Politics is not a Spectator Sport
First and foremost, in my opinion, we progressives tend to get out worked by the conservative machine. Case in point, after the historical election of President Barack Obama, we celebrated, high-fived and partied. The mindset was, we overcame and we reached the promise land.
However, on the other side, they licked their wounds and then they planned, plotted and launched, perhaps, the most cynical and unprecedented political scorched the earth attack in recent history.
Obama's administration had to contend with, 24 hours of FOX propaganda, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Tea Party nuts (not all of them, mainly the fringe elements) and the "just say no" Republican congress. All of this played out while the American people were in the throes of the worst economic recession/depression and job shortage since the Great Depression.
Conventional wisdom would state that, while suffering from the affects of eight years of failed Bush/Cheney polices - giving to the rich; allowing Wall Street to go wild; and, fighting an expensive war of choice in Iraq - surely, the American public wouldn't award the criminals because the new sheriff couldn't magically fix everything over night. Conventional wisdom was wrong.
THE LESSON:
We can not continue to elect great leaders and watch, from the sidelines, as they do battle with well armed and financed armies. Our adversary is forever diligent in their quest. They have out worked, hustled, and maneuvered us. Just think, for instance:
Where was our Tea Party convention to counter theirs? Where were our Town Hall,
In a nutshell, Republican conservatives fervently believe, they are the only party fit to govern and when voted out of power they will - if allowed - sabotage, malign and nuetralize, by any means necessary, any other party in government - no matter how popular with the American people they are.
Just ask Bill Clinton!
Good ideas are not enough we need strategic activity and guile. What are you waiting for...
What does it all mean?
Did it mean Americans rejected Universal Health Care? Was it a negative referendum on President Obama's agenda? Did it mean the Democrats fielded a weak candidate? Is it a unforced fumble by the an over confident Democratic party? Or, is it a harbinger for the 2010 mid-term elections?
One thing for sure, it means, President Obama's agenda faces daunting and mounting roadblocks now that his party no longer has a filibuster proof super majority in the senate.
Politics is not a Spectator Sport
First and foremost, in my opinion, we progressives tend to get out worked by the conservative machine. Case in point, after the historical election of President Barack Obama, we celebrated, high-fived and partied. The mindset was, we overcame and we reached the promise land.
However, on the other side, they licked their wounds and then they planned, plotted and launched, perhaps, the most cynical and unprecedented political scorched the earth attack in recent history.
Obama's administration had to contend with, 24 hours of FOX propaganda, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Tea Party nuts (not all of them, mainly the fringe elements) and the "just say no" Republican congress. All of this played out while the American people were in the throes of the worst economic recession/depression and job shortage since the Great Depression.
Conventional wisdom would state that, while suffering from the affects of eight years of failed Bush/Cheney polices - giving to the rich; allowing Wall Street to go wild; and, fighting an expensive war of choice in Iraq - surely, the American public wouldn't award the criminals because the new sheriff couldn't magically fix everything over night. Conventional wisdom was wrong.
THE LESSON:
We can not continue to elect great leaders and watch, from the sidelines, as they do battle with well armed and financed armies. Our adversary is forever diligent in their quest. They have out worked, hustled, and maneuvered us. Just think, for instance:
Where was our Tea Party convention to counter theirs? Where were our Town Hall,
Yes We Canrallies to show we are just as committed and passionate about the mandate we delivered election night to President Obama?
In a nutshell, Republican conservatives fervently believe, they are the only party fit to govern and when voted out of power they will - if allowed - sabotage, malign and nuetralize, by any means necessary, any other party in government - no matter how popular with the American people they are.
Just ask Bill Clinton!
Good ideas are not enough we need strategic activity and guile. What are you waiting for...
Monday, November 23, 2009
Cosby Speaks
Just a little nugget I am passing on:
BILL COSBY - A MUST READ
The Reverend Jesse Jackson almost never gets
upstaged and I had never seen the Reverend
Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public until last month.
Jackson invited Bill Cosby to the annual Rainbow /
PUSH conference for a conversation about the
controversial remarks the entertainer offered on
May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington , D.C.
when America 's Jell-O Man shook things up
by arguing that African Americans were betraying
the legacy of civil rights victories. Cosby said
'the lower economic people are not holding up their
end in this deal. These people are not parenting..
They are buying things for their kids...
$500 sneakers for what? But they won't spend $200
for 'Hooked on Phonics'
Bill Cosby came to town and upstaged the reverend
by going on the offense instead of defending his
earlier remarks. Thursday morning, Cosby showed
no signs of repenting as he strode across the stage
at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a standing
room only crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat
and dark glasses, he proceeded to unload a Laundry
list of black America's self-imposed ills. The iconic
actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't compete
with the oratory of the Reverend but he preached
circles around Jackson in their nearly hour-long
conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners
and the toughest of love.
The enemy, he argues, is us: "There is a time,
ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn
the mirror around." Cosby acknowledged he wasn't
critiquing all blacks. . .. just the 50 percent of African
Americans in the lower economic neighborhood
who drop out of school, and the alarming proportions
of black men in prison and black teenage mothers.
The mostly black crowd seconded him with choruses
of Amens.
To the critics who pose, it's unproductive to air our
dirty laundry in public, he responds,
"Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day."
It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train,
in the candy store. They are cursing and grabbing
each other and going nowhere. The book bag is very,
very thin because there's nothing in it.
Don't worry about the white man, he added.
I could care less about what white people think
about me. . . Let them talk.
What are they saying that is so different from what
their grandfathers said and did to us?
What is different is what we are doing to ourselves.
For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's
"got his" but doesn't understand the plight of the
black poor, he reminds us that,
"We're going to turn that mirror around.
It's not just the poor-everybody's guilty."
Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th years
of Brown vs. Board of Education, our failings betray
our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as he
recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University ,
a historically black college and Jackson 's Alma mater.
When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room
all jumped to their feet in ovation.
We have shed tears too many times, at too many
watershed moments before, while the hopes they inspired
have fallen by the wayside. Not t his time!
Cosby's plea to parents:
"Before you get to the point where you say 'I can't do
nothing with them' , do something with them."
Teach our children to speak English.
There's no such thing as "talking white".
When the teacher calls, show up at the school.
When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos;
turn it off. Refrain from cursing around the kids.
Teach our boys that women should be cherished,
not raped and demeaned.
Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood
and tears, not a dishonor.
Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors
of black on black crime.
It costs us nothing to do these things.
But if we don't, it will cost us infinitely more tears.
We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail
without a second thought, but when it comes
to sending messages regarding life choices,
people think twice about sharing.
The crude, vulgar, and sometimes the obscene
pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion
of decency is too often suppressed in the schools and
workplaces.
I passed this on... Will you?
BILL COSBY - A MUST READ
The Reverend Jesse Jackson almost never gets
upstaged and I had never seen the Reverend
Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public until last month.
Jackson invited Bill Cosby to the annual Rainbow /
PUSH conference for a conversation about the
controversial remarks the entertainer offered on
May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington , D.C.
when America 's Jell-O Man shook things up
by arguing that African Americans were betraying
the legacy of civil rights victories. Cosby said
'the lower economic people are not holding up their
end in this deal. These people are not parenting..
They are buying things for their kids...
$500 sneakers for what? But they won't spend $200
for 'Hooked on Phonics'
Bill Cosby came to town and upstaged the reverend
by going on the offense instead of defending his
earlier remarks. Thursday morning, Cosby showed
no signs of repenting as he strode across the stage
at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a standing
room only crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat
and dark glasses, he proceeded to unload a Laundry
list of black America's self-imposed ills. The iconic
actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't compete
with the oratory of the Reverend but he preached
circles around Jackson in their nearly hour-long
conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners
and the toughest of love.
The enemy, he argues, is us: "There is a time,
ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn
the mirror around." Cosby acknowledged he wasn't
critiquing all blacks. . .. just the 50 percent of African
Americans in the lower economic neighborhood
who drop out of school, and the alarming proportions
of black men in prison and black teenage mothers.
The mostly black crowd seconded him with choruses
of Amens.
To the critics who pose, it's unproductive to air our
dirty laundry in public, he responds,
"Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day."
It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train,
in the candy store. They are cursing and grabbing
each other and going nowhere. The book bag is very,
very thin because there's nothing in it.
Don't worry about the white man, he added.
I could care less about what white people think
about me. . . Let them talk.
What are they saying that is so different from what
their grandfathers said and did to us?
What is different is what we are doing to ourselves.
For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's
"got his" but doesn't understand the plight of the
black poor, he reminds us that,
"We're going to turn that mirror around.
It's not just the poor-everybody's guilty."
Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th years
of Brown vs. Board of Education, our failings betray
our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as he
recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University ,
a historically black college and Jackson 's Alma mater.
When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room
all jumped to their feet in ovation.
We have shed tears too many times, at too many
watershed moments before, while the hopes they inspired
have fallen by the wayside. Not t his time!
Cosby's plea to parents:
"Before you get to the point where you say 'I can't do
nothing with them' , do something with them."
Teach our children to speak English.
There's no such thing as "talking white".
When the teacher calls, show up at the school.
When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos;
turn it off. Refrain from cursing around the kids.
Teach our boys that women should be cherished,
not raped and demeaned.
Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood
and tears, not a dishonor.
Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors
of black on black crime.
It costs us nothing to do these things.
But if we don't, it will cost us infinitely more tears.
We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail
without a second thought, but when it comes
to sending messages regarding life choices,
people think twice about sharing.
The crude, vulgar, and sometimes the obscene
pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion
of decency is too often suppressed in the schools and
workplaces.
I passed this on... Will you?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)