New flava in ya ear!
Mariah Carey.
Obsessed.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Health. Care.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"Now we have arrived at an even bigger national moment. Within a few weeks, we will know whether health care plans designed to eliminate a problem that has vexed every president since Franklin Roosevelt will make it to this president’s desk.
Both the House and a committee in the Senate have just shown their cards in the political poker game of the decade. The price of near-universal health, the House plan indicates, will be about $1 trillion, paid for with a surtax on couples who earn more than $350,000 a year, and a promise of savings in federal programs and the considerable waste stream of the private system.
The measures would require everyone to get health care, with subsidies for the poor. Employers, except for smaller businesses, would have to provide insurance or pay a fee to the government. And there would be a public option — a plan that would, in theory, keep insurance companies honest by acting as a legitimate competitor.
The final bill will likely be the kind of sausage that is never pretty in the making.
...About 48 million Americans have no health care, which means most people are at least one degree of separation from someone with no coverage.
...At the other end are people who have terrific health care, even gold-plated, and will likely find nothing in the legislative overhaul for them. But dissatisfaction runs high even among those with good benefits.
...Over the last decade, the courts have processed millions of former members of the middle class who lost it all on one catastrophic illness — the leading cause of most personal bankruptcies.
...To change this system is an enormous gamble, arguably on the magnitude of creating Social Security. The costs are scary, and coupled with trillon-dollar deficits, are prompting many independents to doubt the road that Obama has chosen.
All of this will make for a fast-round of shouting among all the interests groups, and a stimulus package for lobbyists. But this time it may not matter: the future of American health care could be decided by the politics of personal experience."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Health Care’s Historic Moment
EARLIER:
1st, AID.
Just a thought.
Because of the Times.
HELP.
Hill Street Blues.
St. James Infirmary Blues.
Words."Now we have arrived at an even bigger national moment. Within a few weeks, we will know whether health care plans designed to eliminate a problem that has vexed every president since Franklin Roosevelt will make it to this president’s desk.
Both the House and a committee in the Senate have just shown their cards in the political poker game of the decade. The price of near-universal health, the House plan indicates, will be about $1 trillion, paid for with a surtax on couples who earn more than $350,000 a year, and a promise of savings in federal programs and the considerable waste stream of the private system.
The measures would require everyone to get health care, with subsidies for the poor. Employers, except for smaller businesses, would have to provide insurance or pay a fee to the government. And there would be a public option — a plan that would, in theory, keep insurance companies honest by acting as a legitimate competitor.
The final bill will likely be the kind of sausage that is never pretty in the making.
...About 48 million Americans have no health care, which means most people are at least one degree of separation from someone with no coverage.
...At the other end are people who have terrific health care, even gold-plated, and will likely find nothing in the legislative overhaul for them. But dissatisfaction runs high even among those with good benefits.
...Over the last decade, the courts have processed millions of former members of the middle class who lost it all on one catastrophic illness — the leading cause of most personal bankruptcies.
...To change this system is an enormous gamble, arguably on the magnitude of creating Social Security. The costs are scary, and coupled with trillon-dollar deficits, are prompting many independents to doubt the road that Obama has chosen.
All of this will make for a fast-round of shouting among all the interests groups, and a stimulus package for lobbyists. But this time it may not matter: the future of American health care could be decided by the politics of personal experience."
EARLIER:
Friday, July 17, 2009
Community. College.
A Moment of Clarity.
Starting. Back at One.
Words.
"...Over the past 35 years, college completion rates have been flat. Income growth has stagnated. America has squandered its human capital advantage. Students at these places are on self-directed missions to reverse that, one person at a time.
Community college enrollment has been increasing at more than three times the rate of four-year colleges. This year, in the middle of the recession, many schools are seeing enrollment surges of 10 percent to 15 percent. And the investment seems to pay off. According to one study, students who earn a certificate experience a 15 percent increase in earnings. Students earning an associate degree registered an 11 percent gain.
And yet funding lags. Most people in government, think tanks and the news media didn’t go to community college, and they don’t send their children to them. It’s a blind spot in their consciousness. As a result, four-year colleges receive three times as much federal money per student as community colleges. According to a Brookings Institution report, federal spending for community colleges fell six percent between 2002 and 2005, while spending on four-year colleges increased.
Which is why what President Obama announced this week is so important. He announced a $12 billion plan to produce 5 million more community college grads by 2020.
If the plan were just $12 billion for buildings and student aid, it wouldn’t be worth getting excited about. The money devoted to new construction amounts to about $2 million per campus. With new facilities costing in the tens of millions, that’s not a big deal.
...What’s important about the Obama initiative is that it doesn’t throw money at the problem. It ties money to reform and has the potential — the potential — to spur a wave of innovation.
...It’s a reminder that the Obama administration can produce hope and change — when the White House is the engine of policy creation and not the caboose."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: No Size Fits All
SEE ALSO:
Blackboard Jungle.
Starting. Back at One.
Words.
"...Over the past 35 years, college completion rates have been flat. Income growth has stagnated. America has squandered its human capital advantage. Students at these places are on self-directed missions to reverse that, one person at a time.
Community college enrollment has been increasing at more than three times the rate of four-year colleges. This year, in the middle of the recession, many schools are seeing enrollment surges of 10 percent to 15 percent. And the investment seems to pay off. According to one study, students who earn a certificate experience a 15 percent increase in earnings. Students earning an associate degree registered an 11 percent gain.
And yet funding lags. Most people in government, think tanks and the news media didn’t go to community college, and they don’t send their children to them. It’s a blind spot in their consciousness. As a result, four-year colleges receive three times as much federal money per student as community colleges. According to a Brookings Institution report, federal spending for community colleges fell six percent between 2002 and 2005, while spending on four-year colleges increased.
Which is why what President Obama announced this week is so important. He announced a $12 billion plan to produce 5 million more community college grads by 2020.
If the plan were just $12 billion for buildings and student aid, it wouldn’t be worth getting excited about. The money devoted to new construction amounts to about $2 million per campus. With new facilities costing in the tens of millions, that’s not a big deal.
...What’s important about the Obama initiative is that it doesn’t throw money at the problem. It ties money to reform and has the potential — the potential — to spur a wave of innovation.
...It’s a reminder that the Obama administration can produce hope and change — when the White House is the engine of policy creation and not the caboose."
SEE ALSO:
Bones, Ribs, Coolers, and Beer.
FILE UNDER: Old school funk for the true funk soldiers/This is how we do it!
As the days get long, and we see a rise in temperatures, how many bitches want to touch this n****a name Snoo- ah hem, I mean we should take the time to relax the mind, let the conscious be free, and indulge in the tunes best fit for chilling, dranking, and in the words of Magic Johnson, "having a good time..."
Ain't that right Chester French?
As the days get long, and we see a rise in temperatures, how many bitches want to touch this n****a name Snoo- ah hem, I mean we should take the time to relax the mind, let the conscious be free, and indulge in the tunes best fit for chilling, dranking, and in the words of Magic Johnson, "having a good time..."
Ain't that right Chester French?
This is how we do it.
Yes it is Michael. You don't even know...
Now if you visit this blog often, you know that old school jams are more often than not posted under the "Old School Funk for the True Funk Soldiers" headline. But sometimes old school joints are so good, so well put together, so classic to a brotha, [see Montell Jordan's This is how we do it] that all I can do is marvel at their goodness as they boldly play on and show us how's it done. This jam, presented below, is one such example.
Michael Jackson.
Man in the Mirror.
Live at the Grammys.
1988.
Now if you visit this blog often, you know that old school jams are more often than not posted under the "Old School Funk for the True Funk Soldiers" headline. But sometimes old school joints are so good, so well put together, so classic to a brotha, [see Montell Jordan's This is how we do it] that all I can do is marvel at their goodness as they boldly play on and show us how's it done. This jam, presented below, is one such example.
Michael Jackson.
Man in the Mirror.
Live at the Grammys.
1988.
Man in the Mirror.
Make that change...
Words.
"I am a former Republican and now an independent conservative, and what is going on with the GOP right now makes my skin crawl. What has happened to the party of morals, character and traditional beliefs?
Ensign, Sanford and Vitter should join Craig in the private sector and resign immediately. Not because they cheated on their wives but because of their hypocrisy and the sleazy things they've done in concert with their philandering.
Too many of my Republican friends offer excuses: "Democrats do the same thing," they say. But that won't play with the American people.
The Republican leadership -- especially any member of it who is thinking of running for president in 2012 -- needs to step back and acknowledge that the party is damaged, dysfunctional and coming across as hypocritical. There was a time when Republicans stood for something, but today it's no longer clear what the party's basic tenets are or who speaks for it.
...the GOP has to stop sending out the next candidate in line to chase the largest car going by and instead figure out what it stands for and how to connect with the changing complexion of our nation. That, or prepare for political extinction."
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: Reviving the GOP
Words.
"I am a former Republican and now an independent conservative, and what is going on with the GOP right now makes my skin crawl. What has happened to the party of morals, character and traditional beliefs?
Ensign, Sanford and Vitter should join Craig in the private sector and resign immediately. Not because they cheated on their wives but because of their hypocrisy and the sleazy things they've done in concert with their philandering.
Too many of my Republican friends offer excuses: "Democrats do the same thing," they say. But that won't play with the American people.
The Republican leadership -- especially any member of it who is thinking of running for president in 2012 -- needs to step back and acknowledge that the party is damaged, dysfunctional and coming across as hypocritical. There was a time when Republicans stood for something, but today it's no longer clear what the party's basic tenets are or who speaks for it.
...the GOP has to stop sending out the next candidate in line to chase the largest car going by and instead figure out what it stands for and how to connect with the changing complexion of our nation. That, or prepare for political extinction."
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Blackboard Jungle.
A Moment of Clarity.
Educating America: "Easy as 1-2-3!(?)"
Words.
"It's the silent education crisis, the one we don't talk about much because its existence undermines the story we like to tell about our country.
The problems we face from kindergarten to 12th grade get regular, if still insufficient, attention. But we rarely confront how badly we're faring when it comes to educating our people after high school. That silent education crisis belies our claim that no nation comes close to us in guaranteeing that anyone can work hard, get a great education and soar.
...Today, the United States stands 10th in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds who have earned a postsecondary degree. We're behind Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and France.
The information I've just offered comes from an important article by Andrew Delbanco, a professor at Columbia University, published this spring in the New York Review of Books. Delbanco concludes that "a great many gifted and motivated young people are excluded from college for no other reason than their inability to pay, and we have failed seriously to confront the problem."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Our Silent Education Emergency
Educating America: "Easy as 1-2-3!(?)"
Words.
"It's the silent education crisis, the one we don't talk about much because its existence undermines the story we like to tell about our country.
The problems we face from kindergarten to 12th grade get regular, if still insufficient, attention. But we rarely confront how badly we're faring when it comes to educating our people after high school. That silent education crisis belies our claim that no nation comes close to us in guaranteeing that anyone can work hard, get a great education and soar.
...Today, the United States stands 10th in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds who have earned a postsecondary degree. We're behind Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and France.
The information I've just offered comes from an important article by Andrew Delbanco, a professor at Columbia University, published this spring in the New York Review of Books. Delbanco concludes that "a great many gifted and motivated young people are excluded from college for no other reason than their inability to pay, and we have failed seriously to confront the problem."
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The White Man's Burden.
Compassionate.
Words.
"Despite the best efforts of Republicans to root out any sign that Sonia Sotomayor has emotions that color her views on the law, the Bronx Bomber kept a robotic mask in place.
A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not know that a gaggle of white Republican men afraid of extinction are out to trip her up.
...Like the president who picked her, Sotomayor has been a model of professorial rationality. Besides, it’s delicious watching Republicans go after Democrats for being too emotional and irrational given the G.O.P. shame spiral.
W. and Dick Cheney made all their bad decisions about Iraq, W.M.D.’s, domestic surveillance, torture, rendition and secret hit squads from the gut, based on false intuitions, fear, paranoia and revenge.
Sarah Palin is the definition of irrational, a volatile and scattered country-music queen without the music. Her Republican fans defend her lack of application and intellect, happy to settle for her emotional electricity.
...And then there’s the Supreme Court, of course, which gave up its claim to rational neutrality when the justices appointed by Republican presidents — including Bush Sr. — ignored what was fair to make a sentimental choice and throw the 2000 election to W.
Faced with that warped case of supreme empathy, no wonder Sotomayor is so eager to follow the law."
EARLIER:
Justice League.
A Moment of Clarity.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| White Men Can't Judge | ||||
| ||||
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
"LET'S DANCE! LET'S SHOUT!"
And "Shake Ya Body Down to the Ground" with Foreign Born, and their,
Winter Games.
Winter Games.
1st, AID.
"The LIFETIME sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can rest Medicine(?)."
Words.
"Many, if not most, Americans have some experience with our nation's mostly private health-care system. Yet they still fall prey to the scare tactic that nothing -- but nothing -- could be worse than a government takeover of the system. How things could be worse than they are now, I cannot imagine.
In the past two months, I have spent many hours accompanying a loved one to hospital emergency rooms -- all of them privately operated. The rap on what is sometimes called socialized medicine is that if the government ran the system, the wait would be interminable. Well, I am here to tell you that even when the government does not run the system, the wait can be interminable.
...the insurance industry sets out to spook the public with talk of "socialized medicine," "government bureaucrats" and "government-run health care." My loved one recently had to return to the emergency room because she was dehydrated. Her insurance company listed the reasons someone could return, and dehydration was one of them. They still denied her claim. The government had nothing to do with it.
The ongoing health-care debate is complex -- not as interesting as Michael Jackson or Sarah Palin. But in deciding what to do and who to support in the current attempt to reform health care, don't rely on insurance industry propaganda, but on your own experience. Recall the last time you went to the emergency room and ask yourself whether the government could possibly do a worse job. If the answer is yes, you might need medical attention more than you realize."
Walking on Broken Glass.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"The only real suspense in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is whether the Republican Party will persist in tying its fortunes to an anachronistic claim of white male exceptionalism and privilege.
Republicans' outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor's musings about how her identity as a "wise Latina" might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any "identity" -- black, brown, female, gay, whatever -- has to be judged against this supposedly "objective" standard.
...There is, after all, a context in which these confirmation hearings take place: The nation continues to take major steps toward fulfilling the promise of its noblest ideals. Barack Obama is our first African American president. Sonia Sotomayor would be only the third woman, and the third member of a minority group, to serve on the nation's highest court. Aside from these exceptions, the White House and the Supreme Court have been exclusively occupied by white men -- who, come to think of it, are also members of a minority group, though they certainly haven't seen themselves that way.
...when he [Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)] brought up the "wise Latina" remark, as the GOP playbook apparently required, Graham said that "if I had said anything remotely like that, my career would have been over."
That's true. But if Latinas had run the world for the last millennium, Sotomayor's career would be over, too. Pretending that the historical context doesn't exist -- pretending that white men haven't enjoyed a privileged position in this society -- doesn't make that context go away."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Whose Identity Politics?
Words.
"The only real suspense in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is whether the Republican Party will persist in tying its fortunes to an anachronistic claim of white male exceptionalism and privilege.
Republicans' outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor's musings about how her identity as a "wise Latina" might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any "identity" -- black, brown, female, gay, whatever -- has to be judged against this supposedly "objective" standard.
...There is, after all, a context in which these confirmation hearings take place: The nation continues to take major steps toward fulfilling the promise of its noblest ideals. Barack Obama is our first African American president. Sonia Sotomayor would be only the third woman, and the third member of a minority group, to serve on the nation's highest court. Aside from these exceptions, the White House and the Supreme Court have been exclusively occupied by white men -- who, come to think of it, are also members of a minority group, though they certainly haven't seen themselves that way.
...when he [Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)] brought up the "wise Latina" remark, as the GOP playbook apparently required, Graham said that "if I had said anything remotely like that, my career would have been over."
That's true. But if Latinas had run the world for the last millennium, Sotomayor's career would be over, too. Pretending that the historical context doesn't exist -- pretending that white men haven't enjoyed a privileged position in this society -- doesn't make that context go away."
"Oh Won't You Smile-a-While for Me!"
"SARAH!"...
A Moment of Clarity.
A Moment of Clarity.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Monday, July 13, 2009
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