As our once great nation struggles to find its place in the post 9/11 world, we find ourselves immersed in one big mell-of-a-hess (an emphasis term for "hell of a mess" for anyone wondering). Our economy has tanked. The great capitalist experiment has been an overwhelming success, if you're one of the wealthiest 10% of Americans. Healthcare is better than ever. And our private insurance companies have helped costs rise so that only those of us with better than ever pocketbooks can afford it. Our public school system is so bad (how bad is it?) working at McDonald's and Wal-Mart are touted as "careers" to accomodate our poorly prepared workforce and millions of the newly unemployed, and despite lacking superior health and retirement benefits. Read more »

Below are recommendations for how to reposition and take control of the healthcare issue. This is in my view among the most important communications battles in history and it must be "won." Winning is getting people to believe they are informed about the Administrations proposals. If they have the facts on the Administrations proposals then they will be able to see, recognize, and form opinions about the purveyors of any distortions and misinformation.

Frame-up and answer the core question "What Is Healthcare Reform?"

Healthcare reform under the Obama Administration is a new set of rules and policies designed to give American citizens more access to full-coverage, more power over their healthcare issues, and more protections from insurance and medical practice abuses.
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Since taking office president Obama has swiftly implemented a plethora of initiatives which can be characterized as featuring profound differences in direction, policy and processes. Differences not just from the previous administration, but different from anything undertaken in the United States ever before. Different not just to shake things up, but different to set things off. New directions to address new concerns. And much of it designed so that the debates and subsequent responses will require in-depth review of many assumptions and beliefs that underlie much of our present political policies.

The entire portfolio of initiatives being addressed has been expertly positioned and focused under three top level issues - The Economy, health care, and Education. This is marketing mastery, as it sets forth a platform for communicating news, issues, and accomplishments in easy to comprehend sound bites that feature unprecedented clarity and relevance to elites, everyday Americans, and the world.

With a backdrop of record unemployment, declining retail and housing sales, and global economic upheaval the Obama administration has attacked status quo thinking and policy across a broad array of policy areas. At least that's how it looks. While there is evidence of change in economic policy, foreign policy and approaches to health care - there is more evidence of compromise that waters down the change that is needed. Read more »

As millions of Americans start the new year facing joblessness, the prospect of losing their homes and uncertainty in every area of their lives, I wanted to take a stab at refocusing administration and corporate leaders on the real issues from the working and  no-longer-working families perspective.

It galls American families to listen to experts and the treasury secretary warn of the dangers of cutting executive pay. What danger? Pay for millions of families has been cut and in many cases eradicated completely. It is said we won't attract 'qualified' people at reduced wages. Really? I'll bet there are a bunch of qualified and experienced folks, recently unemployed, who'd love a shot. The administration promotes the saving of jobs, and the corporations negotiate early retirement to replace senior workers with new hires who'll work for half as much. Does that mean the cost of living will cost half as much? And all the while executives and representatives collect six and seven figure paychecks. Bottom line, executives and representatives are still rich while more working Americans are poorer and homeless. There, that pretty much sums up the beef. Read more »

It has not taken long to see a critical flaw in President Obama. He believes you can get a different result doing the same things.

After winning a contentious election running on a platform of 'change', Mr. Obama has surrounded himself with the appointees who have spent lifetimes upholding the very values and core beliefs that caused our current crises. You cannot simply adopt new tactics to make change. There has to be a willingness to let go of the most fundamental assumptions before you can begin to have a clearly different view, and possibly see opportunities for change. Read more »

Welcome to the first BlackPolitics.com ‘B List’. The ‘B List’ is a list of key issues that we need to keep at the forefront of our advocacy and public policy agenda. These are issues that, in our opinion, are not being addressed either adequately or at all

Track the ‘B List’ weekly, post your comments, and join the dialogue that promotes these important issues. Read more »