Go Read: US-China Tussles Over Currency Exchange

You may have heard that next week President Obama will be visiting Asia, and significantly, the People's Republic of China. One big bone of contention is the way China pegs its Yuan (or RenMinBi) to the US Dollar. For a long time, it was at 8Y : $1USD. Currently it seems to be running 7:1. The US has been trying to get China to change the practice, and this post from Campaign for America's Future explains why.

Would prices go up at Walmart if China changed its currency to reflect the dollar's relative weakening worldwide? Probably. But maybe, as even Treasury Secretary Geithner has said, American workers would have a fighting chance if the RMB were to stop being manipulated to China's unilateral self-interest.

In the next week, it'll be interesting to see if the initial softening of China's Central Bank to the more flexible policy Geithner called for will continue after President Obama and President Hu Jintao meet.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. Her retired parents, like many in the Chinese diaspora, spend part of the year living in Shanghai and maintain a connection to the country of their birth. It was her dad, a lifelong basketball fan, who told her Le Bron James' nickname in China is "Lao3 Bei2 Jing4" or "Old Beijing."

The Stu-Pitts of Congress, and Women's Health Care From the Waist Up

Forgive me if I sound a little bitter despite being deeply moved by the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act this past weekend in the House. It IS a huge achievement and one-third of what we need to get the bill to President Obama to sign. I'm proud and grateful so many wonderful elected representatives who truly want to help Americans were able to move mountains and pass the bill.

It's just that, well, that was quick. We had a wonderful feminist moment there, didn't we, when we realized that women are treated differently than men by health insurers. We finally exposed the widespread practice of gender-rating--or disparate pricing by gender--for health insurance coverage that unfairly requires women to pay more than men with similar health status. We learned how eight states still allow insurers to consider domestic violence as a "pre-existing condition" to deny women coverage. We saw documentation of how common it is for women to be uninsured and underinsured whether it's employer-based coverage or self-procured, and how this made health insurance reform of particular interest to women. A quick statistic from the Commonwealth Study linked immediately above:

Six in ten women with moderate incomes (between $20,000 and $40,000) report being unable to pay medical bills, being contacted by a collection agency for unpaid medical bills, changing their way of life to pay medical bills or paying off medical debt over time, as did almost half (46%) of middle-income women.

Women rallying support around health insurance reform, I maintain, helped lift poll numbers for the public option and lift some of the curse extremist Teabaggers had tried to cast on the bill.

Breaking: President Barack Obama Wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations on the honor, President Obama!

UPDATED TO ADD:

From the Nobel Prize website's official press release:

...awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

We'll have more on the international and domestic response to the world's most significant humanitarian award to President Obama as it develops.

Right wingnuttery: Impeach Obama because Republicans don't like him?

I  just got off the phone with far-right wingnut Floyd Brown and FOX Radio host Alan Colmes about Brown's newest campaign: impeachment of President Obama. Ordinarily I wouldn't give this guy any attention at all, but since he was on Alan Colmes' Fox Radio show, I figured it was my duty to put a bit of counterspin on the insanity this man spews all over the networks and Internet.

Who is Floyd Brown?  Simply put, Floyd Brown rests in the heart and bowels of the Republican party as the engine formulating the poison that is farted all over Fox News, astroturf sites, and so-called right-wing news sites. Wherever he goes, noxious fumes follow.

Calling Out Tea Party Racism: Sometimes an Ally Can Challenge It Most Directly

Over the weekend, President Obama had this to say about whether resistance to White House policies were tinged with racist sentiment:

Previously, he'd spoken to the issue of race in America in a stirring speech during the Democratic primary.

I believe he's right in both his prior and most recent comments. Rudeness made Kanye West the talk of the Video Music Awards and rudeness made Congressman Joe Wilson the talk of a recent presidential address to a joint session of Congress. And, at the same time, I also believe that the president's task is to take the long view, a meta-quotidian and transcendent one. He guides the nation as we are and as we will be in years to come for the overall betterment of the country. So a disagreement over what constitutes racism moves no policy forward and certainly doesn't befit the office, and what racism exists ought not be dignified with a reply.

9/11 National Day of Service Tomorrow

For eight years, the non-profit organization My Good Deed — a group co-founded by Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk, a volunteer firefighter, during the September 11th attacks — has petitioned the federal government to declare September 11th a national community service day to honor the lives of those who died in a positive and constructive way.

Jay Winuk has said of the initiative, "As a 9/11 family member, I cannot think of a more inspiring, appropriate and constructive tribute to my late brother and all those who perished, were injured or rose in service — to rekindle at least for one day each year the remarkable spirit of compassion and service that unified our country."

In April, Winuk finally got his wish, when President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which officially declared September 11th a National Day of Remembrance and Service.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who helped draft the provision of the act that proclaimed the national service day, explained, "September 11 should not only be a day for mourning — it should be a day to think about our neighbors, our community and our country. We can take a tragic day in our nation's history and turn it into a force for good."

President Obama issued a proclamation today urging Americans to participate:

Our democracy is strengthened when we uphold the freedoms upon which our Nation was built: equality, justice, liberty, and democracy. These values exemplify the patriotism and sacrifice we commemorate today.

In that same spirit of patriotism, I call upon all Americans to join in service and honor the lives we lost, the heroes who responded in our hour of need, and the brave men and women in uniform who continue to protect our country at home and abroad.

If you would like participate in a volunteer activity tomorrow to honor the lives of those lost on September 11th, 2001, and the service of the brave firefighters, police officers and EMTs who ran toward danger that day, you can find a National Day of Remembrance and Service event near you at Serve.gov or 911dayofservice.org. And if you have a great volunteer project planned for tomorrow, please tell us about it in the comments!

"The Great Unfinished Business of Our Time": Health Care Reform

In the closing passages of his speech to the joint session of Congress, President Obama urged members of the House and Senate to rise to the finest in our national character and finally provide a humane way to address the health needs of all of America's citizens. We know the status quo is broken. What'll we do about it?

Woven into the soaring rhetoric of President Obama's speech were specific calls to three prominent Republican senators: Senator John McCain, Senator Orrin Hatch, and Senator Chuck Grassley.

Senator McCain, President Obama noted, had worked in bipartisan fashion with Senator Ted Kennedy to advance a federal patient's bill of rights (which never passed in the House). Senator Orrin Hatch worked with Senator Ted Kennedy to pass children's health insurance. Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Ted Kennedy collaborated on a bill that helped families take better care of their children with disabilities.

If you're on Twitter, use these buttons to quickly and conveniently sign a petition urging these senators to vote for a health insurance reform bill that has a strong public option.

Senator John McCain

Senator Chuck Grassley

Senator Orrin Hatch

Ted Kennedy's Letter to President Obama: The Full Text

Last night, in his address to Congress, President Obama quote a letter he received from Senator Ted Kennedy, written a few months ago to be delivered upon his death.

May 12, 2009

 

Dear Mr. President,

 

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

 

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

 

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

 

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

 

There will be struggles – there always have been – and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

 

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family’s health will never again depend on the amount of a family’s wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will – yes, we will – fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

 

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America’s behalf inspires the entire world.

 

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

 

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

 

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.

 

 

With deep respect and abiding affection,

[Ted]

 

 

MOMocrats Live Chat: President Obama's Health Reform Speech

Want to tell the G.O.P. to stop stonewalling on health care reform? Please join MOMocrat @cyn3matic's act.ly petitions on Twitter:

Orrin Hatch

John McCain

Chuck Grassley

Strategies to Pass a National Public Option/State Single Payer Health Care Plans: Will They Work?

Lately there's been a lot of angst from liberals and moderates who favor health insurance reform regarding the fate of a public option* in Congress. What's missing is a sense of how national policy debates intersect with state efforts to reform the provision of health care.

Listen up if you live in the states of California, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, or Ohio (pdf).

Listen up if you're belong to or agree with over 572 union organizations nationwide who support single-payer health care at a national level, also known as H.R. 676.

Listen up if you've gotten increasingly concerned over the mainstream media reporting on reputed White House wavering on the public option.*

MOMocrat CityMama gave an excellent overview of the situation which I encourage you to revisit and plunder for talking points WHEN YOU CALL OR FAX your representative. You are making those calls, right?

I wanted to give a little space here to review what's happening on the state level, and encourage you to mobilize there as well.