White House week in review:

Political power shifts to States?

Recently I read an OP-ED article written by Charles M Blow,  that was titled Repeal,Restrict and Repress.  What caught my attention about the article was all this new state legislation that specifically targets minorities, women, gays and the poor.  The Article was printed on February 12, 2011, prior to the mess that's now playing out in Wisconsin.  here are some excepts from the article:

Judging by the lead-up to those elections, one could have easily concluded that the first order of business on Republicans’ agendas would be a laserlike focus on job creation and deficit reductions to the exclusion of all else. Not the case.

• at least 15 state legislatures are considering Arizona-style immigration legislation. If passed, four of the five states with the largest Hispanic populations — California, Texas, Florida and Arizona — would also be the most inhospitable to them.

• state legislatures are poised to break the record on the number of immigration measures and resolutions introduced this year, having already introduced 600 by the end of last month. For comparison, 1,400 were introduced in total last year,

•  require drug testing of welfare recipients.

• According to The News and Observer in North Carolina, Republicans are considering severely narrowing or repealing the state’s recently enacted Racial Justice Act, which allows death-row inmates to use statistics to appeal their cases on the basis of racial discrimination.

• “Elections have consequences.” He was right, and the consequences of the last election could well be a loss of liberty, choice, access and avenues of recourse for many. Brace yourselves. It’s on!

  
  
  Seems like a power play right out of Bush's Play book...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The Cost of Revolution: Petro-Politics in play

Economy faces new threats- from CNN

1. Gas Prices*

2. Housing Market

• Credit Extension
• Foreclosures
• Construction

3. Jobs: Creation of jobs and Unemployment numbers!!!

4. Food/Energy Prices

• Commodities
• Raw Materials
• Finish Goods

USA Today asked several economist, in December, what are the things that we need to keep an eye on that tells us that the economy is getting better or worse.  

Gas Prices are creeping up and unemployment numbers, for now, are going down.   

* Current Price for a barrel of oil= $100.

Noteworthy: In the news today: under WTF?

Billboard targeted for African-Americans in New York
read story click on hpyerlink

"...This is our moment... " for what???

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sate Politics-Republicans back up plan

State Politics very much in play 

It's the ECONOMY stupid-II

"It's the economy, stupid" was a phrase in American politics widely used during Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H. W. Bush. For a time, Bush was considered unbeatable because of foreign policy developments such as the end of the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War. The phrase, made popular by Clinton campaign strategist James Carville, refers to the notion that Clinton was a better choice because Bush had not adequately addressed the economy, which had recently undergone a recession.

The 112th Congress is off with a bang.  The Political goal?  Do what ever you have to do to keep the economy right where it's at. Keep the American people,  the 13.9 million that are still unemployed, right where they are at, home. When I  say the 112th congress, I should narrow that a bit, I mean those of the  Republican party.  


The Mid-term elections are  but three- months in our rear view mirror and some have already forgotten lesson learned from that election cycle and  previous mid-term elections.  If the Republicans get to cocky, by over reaching, they could very well lose the Presdential bid for 2012, which would send them further into insanity. 


The Republican rhetoric of fear, which is no where close to the reality of the facts. The cure for deficit spending some how means cutting taxes? Not sure what language they are speaking, but you only have  "deficit spending"  when you have not taken in enough taxes.   I am always surprised to see these former lawyers, doctors, and even business  owners suffering from delusions that the deficit spending suddenly  twisted out of control after those foolish Americans elected Obama to office. Knowing full well that a majority of the deficit is from funding two war's that which went unpaid for, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and changes made to the medicare that also went unpaid for, all of which was lead by a Republican congress; these are the facts!  The current Republican leaders are directly responsible for this deficit.   This was a problem way before Obama even thought about running for office. 
 

In January 2011, things started off much with a bang, no pun intended.  The unfortunately events in Arizona, changed the tone for a couple for weeks.  The rhetoric was lowered to a still audible levels, but the actions  of the Republicans were crystal clear.   Get it on the record that they attempted to get the Health-care law repealed. They know that they don't have a snowball change in hell of getting this done, but that's not the point, if you tired you can move on.  Politics of late has come down to the appearance of getting things done when nothing is being actually done.  

What would the impact be on African-Americans if the health care law was to be repealed? And ultimately, how does that impact this economy? 



1 in 5 African-Americans do not have health insurance, this is the highest among all minority groups.   The Affordable Care Act will hopefully end discrimination by insurance companies. New provisions that would go in affect in 2014 would prevent insurers from turning away African-Americans' with pre-existing conditions. This law also helps African-American communities by bringing doctors, nurses and placing thousands of new primary care providers to chronically under-served  areas. This new law supplies billions of dollars that would go to local health care centers, that would most likely continue to be underfunded. Who does that impact?  A quarter of those community center patients are African-Americans. The Affordable Care Act promotes a healthy lifestyle training that could  limit obesity that disproportionately affects African-Americans, especially children. 


The new health care law also gives businesses protection from explosive increasing health insurance cost. Small Business would get a tax cut to offer coverage to their employees; estimates suggest that there are close to  70, 000 African-American small business owners. This would help their businesses and help the community two-fold by providing jobs and saving lives. If the repeal was to happen in was cut off the access to needed preventive care that millions of African-Americans need;  Mortality rates for cancer is the highest amongst African-Americans. The Affordable care Act would provide for free, preventive screening for mammograms and colonoscopies, that normally would be covered under current health care polices.  some of the four million African-American seniors could also receive a  $250 check once they hit the "donut hole" gap in medicare prescription drug coverage.


Healthy people live productive lives, not sick people. Its quite simple, lower cost for individuals means better lives, tax-incentives for business owners means  more jobs and all these things increase and help our economy.  


The Republicans want to keep this fear alive that "Obama-care" will make your life worse. They have obviously never suffered from any medical crisis in their lives.

But what does all this negativity really do to the economy?  It keeps people in a constant state of fear. Fearful that things are not getting better. The end result, people believe that things are getting worse and stop spending. However, when things are working it shows, look what happen in December 2010,  all that "working together"in congress  during the lame duck session, actually helped the economy. Americans spending  increased thus, unemployment dropped. The perception was that things were getting done, congressional  members were working together.


That's good right?

Noteworthy: In the news Today

More Blacks choosing to vote independent: 

"'They were playing a con job on average, everyday working Americans. And both parties keep kicking the major crises down the road. Social Security problems have been looming for 20 or 30 years. The energy crisis – we’ve been knowing about that for 30 or 40 years.

'Politicians, Black or White, will take you for granted if they can get your vote and don’t have to work for it. That’s just human nature,' he added. 'We need to let them know we expect more.'"

January 2011: State of Unemployment for Minorities:

Overall Unemployment Blacks: 15.7%

Latino Unemployment: 11.9%

-----------------------------------------------

Black Men   16.5%      16.5%...12/2010

 White Men   7.9%         8.5%

-----------------------------------------------

Black Women   12.9%  13.2%...12/2010

 White Women   7.0%     7.0%

-----------------------------------------------

Black Teens    45.4%    44.2%...12/2010

 White Teens   22.8%    22.5%

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Under-Employment rate for December was 16.1% --

slight fall from 16.7 in December.  

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 NULPI  

This is why we fight?---yes!!- New day in Egypt

at·tri·tion

 noun \ə-ˈtri-shən, a-\

• abrasion: erosion by friction
• a wearing down to weaken or destroy; "a war of attrition"
• the act of rubbing together; wearing something down by friction

.... And this is why ... This is why we fight

This is why we fight?---yes!!-

This song says it all!!!

av·a·rice Noun:ˈavəris/

Extreme greed for wealth or material gain

Come the war
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hell

Come attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight

BLACK HisTORY TODAY

February 10: 

1964, After 10 days of debate and voting on 125 amendments, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 290-130. The bill prohibited any state or local government or public facility from denying access to anyone because of race or ethnic origin. It further gave the U.S. Attorney General the power to bring school desegregation law suits.

On this day in 1966, Economist Andrew Brimmer became the first African American appointed to the US Federal Reserve Board.

1992, Alex Haley, author of Roots, died

What are they fighting for?- this is why they fight...

This is what Egypt is fighting for ?.... 

Economic Justice defined: 

Is a conviction that economic policies must result in benefits that are distributed equally across income and racial lines; that jobs created by state and local tax incentives must go to local people and taxpayers; and that the health, natural resources, and the culture of the community must be ...

Social Justice defined: 

The fair distribution of advantages, assets, and benefits among all members of a society.

... to be continued

BLACK HisTORY TODAY

February 9: 

In 1944, Alice Walker, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Color Purple, was born. Walker, who is originally from Georgia, was an individual who was deeply moved and active in the civil rights movement of the 60s. She is a highly acclaimed author who is known for her writing on themes of race and gender.

Author Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man wins the National Book Award

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. met with former President Lyndon B. Johnson to discuss voting rights for African-Americans in the United States. Johnson would later sign the Civil Rights Act in 1968.

In 1995, Bernard Harris, Jr. became the first Black astronaut to take a spacewalk during his second Space Shuttle flight. He graduated from the University of Houston in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He later received his MD from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in 1982. He began his work in space exploration when he joined NASA’s John Space Center as a clinical scientist and flight surgeon.

SNL: MICHELLE BACHMANN COLD OPEN

I missed SNL for one week and I missed the best thing that has  happen to the Republican Party since.... George Bush and Sarah Palin