Barbara Walters Names First Lady Michelle Obama the Most Fascinating Person of 2009

Walters finally gets it right.



From ABC.COM:

Exclusive: Michelle Obama on 'Whirlwind' Year
Barbara Walters Names First Lady Michelle Obama the Most Fascinating Person of 2009
By LAUREN SHER
Dec. 9, 2009

Michelle Obama is Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of 2009.

Almost a year since the Obama family moved to Washington, D.C., the first lady reflected on the transition to the White House.

"It has been a whirlwind. But it's been amazing," she told Walters. "I mean, if you think about this year, I had to get these two beautiful girls settled into a new city, into a new home, into a new school. We got a dog. I visited eight countries with my husband. I planted a garden. I've started a mentoring program. It has been everything. And now, here we are at our first Christmas in the White House."

During her tenure as first lady, Obama has promoted healthy living and taken steps to combat childhood obesity -- creating a vegetable garden on the White House lawn and holding health fairs with exercise stations for kids.

"I think I've begun to lay the foundation to a conversation about the health of our kids -- particularly when we're looking at statistics that say that one in three kids in this country are obese, and those numbers increase if you're African-American or Hispanic," she said. "So we're going to spend a lot more time on that issue in the years to come."

The first African-American first lady is also one of the fittest. Wearing a sleeveless dress in her official White House portrait, Obama's toned arms have become part of her signature style -- and the envy of many.

Obama, who often joins her husband in the White House gym, told Walters that her workout regimen began after the birth of their first daughter, Malia.

"My personal routine hasn't changed much in the past 11 years," she said. "I really started right after I had Malia, our oldest, and some of that was, you know, in all honesty it was a little sort of revenge because I'm married to a man who has worked out all of his life. And regardless of how busy he is, he finds the time to work out. And there was a point at which I got a little resentful of that."

"[Malia] was still waking up for that four o'clock feeding and I'd get up because I'd be the first one to hear her, and he'd be asleep," she added. "And I thought, 'I'm up, I might as well go to the gym. And if I get to the gym, then he'll have to wake up and do that feeding.' I get a workout in and everyone will be happy. So you know, if there's anything that I can attribute these arms to, it's probably just determination."

Rest of article at link above with video.

The First Lady is a wonderful choice.

Public Option Stripped from Healthcare Reform Bill

I have mixed feelings about this.... It's not what most Progressives wanted to see, yet I expected something like this would happen. In order to garner enough support in the Senate, I knew the legislation would have to be watered down even more than it already had been.

The new approach would basically leave private insurance companies (yes the ones that have been gouging and defrauding the American people for all these years) in charge of healthcare at all levels. The Fox has been put in charge of guarding the Hen House. And tonight, the Fox (the insurance industry) is laughing its ass off all the way to the bank. Why? Because this is a giant corporate giveaway.... like none other. Millions of Americans will be pushed onto private insurance rolls, strengthening the bottom line for the insurance industry.

Harry Reid (one of the worst Senate Majority leaders in modern history) wants to give us the illusion that what is left is still very much a "public option".

Essentially, this plan will allow the insurance industry to collude... to artificially set prices higher, etc, so that the industry could continue to make the same killing (pun intended) profiting from cutting corners on Healthcare that it does today. It will be very difficult to get any real competition under this plan. I am not arguing that it can't be done....apparently the new system will rely on a not-for-profit program...so it's possible. But I am pointing out that it will be difficult. The likelihood of success has gone down significantly in my opinion. Because the private insurance industry is going to naturally act in its own monetary interests....not in the interest of public health. I don't trust can't trust this industry to act in my best interests and compete effectively against itself. And with this approach, there is no real threat of consequences that would effectively deter insurance companies from trying to create workarounds and returning to some of the same abusive practices that they engaged in before.

This plan basically replaces the Public Option with a co-op. I believed that a combination public option/co-op could have been a workable compromise... but this is a much bigger scale down... a capitulation in a sense.

Perhaps the most interesting twist in all of this is the fact that Senators want OPM to run the new program. For those not familiar with OPM.... this is an organization that can't even handle its core mission very well, let alone a new complex program. Essentially OPM isn't all that good at running OPM. This agency has been underfunded and understaffed for years. That was the second red flag for me (the first came with word that the public option as it was structured before was dropped from consideration, and Harry Reid was refusing to make a statement).

Despite all of this, I hope the new plan will work as intended. This is probably the best that Obama and the Democrats could have accomplished under the circumstances. And perhaps it will could be something to build on later. If you think about this in the context of incrementalism... this is a pretty impressive accomplishment.

So despite my grumblings, I have to give the legislation a thumbs up.

Still learning more about everything that is in the new plan.

_____________


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Interview with Melanie Fiona

Hear an interview with Melanie Fiona from the Tavis Smiley radio program. She talks about her debut album "The Bridge".

I usually don't post much of anything about new R&B performers, because the genre is full of muck... but this artist has the talent.

________________


Other Music Related Links

An interview with Alice Smith

An interview with Laura Izibor

An interview with Mavis Staples

Sly & The Family Stone

Interview with David Crosby

Other music related posts

The 2009 Kennedy Center Honors

Another one of my goosebumps moments - the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.


U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama arrive for the national anthem for the Kennedy Center Honorees at the Kennedy Center in Washington, December 6, 2009.
--------------REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Obama Celebrates Kennedy Center Honorees from White House on Vimeo.

Kennedy Center Honorees (L-R) Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert DeNiro and Bruce Springsteen laugh at a joke by Brooks as they are introduced by U.S. President Barack Obama at a reception at the White House in Washington December 6, 2009. ----------REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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The Princess and the Frog---positive or negative?

I have to admit it; I am psyched about The Princess and the Frog - the first Disney movie with a Black Princess. I didn't think I would be this excited about it, and I do have my hesitations, but considering that I have a DVD of every other Disney 'Princess' movie, why shouldn't I look forward to the first Black Princess?

The Trailer




The hesitation?

Well:

1. Tiana spends most of the movie as a FROG. The first Black Princess, and she's not even on-screen as a Black young woman for most of the picture.
2. The Prince is NOT Black. Would it have been too much for the Black Princess to have a BLACK PRINCE?

I bought the ' Jump at the Sun' series of children's books because the heroes and heroines are Black.

I must say though, the Disney marketing machine is behind this completely. I smiled when I saw the display of merchandise in Target. Why shouldn't little Black girls be able to drive their parents crazy with pleas for the latest of the Disney marketing machine. Peanut can't form sentences yet, but has the Tiana Calendar [which she wouldn't let go from her clutches at Borders], both Tiana dolls, The Princess and the Frog Little Golden Book, and the soundtrack is on its way. I have to admit that if the movie goes the way of the book, I do like the storyline - Tiana has a goal for herself. She has a dream for herself, and is willing to work hard to achieve it - for herself, by herself. She's not waiting for the Prince to rescue her and give her a life, and I can't see anything but a positive about that.


Voiced by Tony Award Winner, Anika Noni Rose talks with Essence about her historic role:

Her Royal Highness: Anika Noni Rose
Monday, November 30, 2009 | 6:45 AM
by Regina R. Robertson

For decades, our images were rarely featured in mainstream fairytales, but a new day has come. This holiday season, Anika Noni Rose makes history when she's crowned as Disney's first, Black Princess--Tiana--in 'The Princess and the Frog.' With credits spanning stage ('Caroline, or Change'), film ('Dreamgirls') and television ('The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'), the 37-year-old Tony Award-winner is intent on keeping her good fortune rolling.

Essence.com caught up with Rose to chat about landing her dream job, seeing herself in animation and how she hopes to switch things up for her next, big role.

ESSENCE.com: What was your initial thought when you heard there was going to be a Black animated princess?
ANIKA NONI ROSE: Oh my God, I was thrilled. [Working with] Disney has been my dream, so I just focused on getting the part and when I did, I called home screaming! [laughs] There's no reason why a girl from Connecticut would end up being the first Black Disney princess.

ESSENCE.com: Well, there's no reason why not, either! Weren't Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Tyra Banks being considered, too?
ROSE: I read that they were, but I don't know any details. Ultimately, that didn't matter to me because I was competing against me. As an actor, if you spend so much time thinking about how many other people are coming into a room, you'll psyche yourself out before you even get there.

ESSENCE.com: How did you feel when you saw Tiana on the big screen for the first time?
ROSE: When I saw Tiana, with my expression on her face, in color, standing in the moonlight, surrounded by sparkles--I was truly undone! I've been crying for a year-- seriously.

ESSENCE.com: What does it mean to you to be making history?
ROSE: The largesse of it all didn't hit me [in the beginning], but when they unveiled the doll to me, I remember thinking, "There's a doll, based on me and the work I've done, that's going to be here for these little girls--and she's glamorous." This movie is showing the world a different picture of Black America, which is phenomenal. It's just phenomenal.

ESSENCE.com: What were your feelings about the initial criticism surrounding the film, specifically relating to the prince not being Black and the firefly being a bit...ethnic?
ROSE: I was surprised by some of the things that the community took issue with, especially considering the amount of negativity that's in the world about us, on TV and film. But I think it's really about us not ever having this happen before and wanting to have some control over our image, because we so rarely do. There's a lot of humor in the film. There are also a lot of touching moments that I think are very genuine and it's all been done with such love, which you can see in the details. You can see it in Tiana's little, round nose and in how she moves...and that firefly's funny!

Read more here

In the end, I think this movie is about the little girls pictured in this clip.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

First Family Lights National Christmas Tree

First Family Lights National Christmas Tree


WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 03: (L-R) U.S. President Barack Obama presses the button to light up the National Christmas Tree with daughters Malia and Sasha, and First Lady Michelle during the annual National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the Ellipse December 3, 2009 in Washington, DC. Lighting the National Christmas Tree is a yearly tradition for the President of the United State during the holiday season.
-------------- Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Two for One - Mike Williams and Smokey Robinson

"Daddy, Where Do Democrats Come From?"

I'll tell you in a series of four charts. The basis of this post comes from work I've been doing for my Southern Politics course. I've explained to the class how the Republican Party has evolved into a Southern Party over the last twenty years, but I had no visual evidence of this. Well, here's some evidence.

First, we see that over the last twenty years, the Democratic Party actually appears somewhat bipartisan as 48% of its House members were Democratic. That's balance. Especially when we compare the South to New England, where 75% of its members have been Democratic. Conversely, the six Plains states are remarkably Republican, much more so than the South. And, yes, I use the Confederacy to define the South, not the Census Bureau's definition. In my view, if you didn't secede, you're not Southern.



But, this only tells us where Democrats have come from, in the aggregate, over the last 20 years. It's better if we break it down by Congress. In the second graph, we see that New England hasn't always sent 75% of its' delegation to Congress as Democrats. Instead, we see a steady up tick. IN the 101st Congress, New England showed more balance, a 60:40 ration, then a steady upward creep, culminating in 100% of its' delegates being Democratic for the 111th Congress. Conversely, if you look at the dark, red line, the Plains states, you see something different. Perfect balance, then Democrats fall off the cliff in the 104th Congress. This, of course, is when Newt Gingrich-led Republicans regained the majority in the House after forty plus years in the wilderness. The Mountain West and South also severely experimented with Republicanism during this stage, yet the large Black population in the South, kept (and keeps) the South from becoming wholly Republican. The Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and West were never in serious likelihood of becoming Republican. Obviously, if the GOP wants to grow, New England and the Mid-Atlantic are areas of concern; I'd advise the GOP to concentrate on the Midwest and Mountain West.



Still curious, I wanted to know how Southern the Republican caucus had become. But, first, we'll examine the Democratic side. What strikes me when I look at the next chart is the remarkable balance of the Democratic caucus. This might make reaching intraparty deals a difficult proposition, but it's probably better than the Republican alternative, which I'll get to shortly. In the 101st Congress, four different regions (West, South, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic) each provided at least 14% of the Democratic caucus. No one regional delegation clearly dominated. By the 111th Congress, the Democrats (no doubt, thanks Rahm Emanuel's efforts) had achieved even more balance. While the Southern Democratic share shrunk from 30% to 23%m there are still four regions comprising at least 18% of the Democratic caucus and the delegations from New England and and the Mountain West are larger. That's balance.



Now, let's examine the House GOP. First thing I notice is that in the 101st Congress, the Republican Party had commendable balance. Four different regions comprised at least 14% of the Republican House caucus. But, and quite noticeable, is that by the 111th Congress, only three regions comprised that much (South, West and Midwest). The Republican Party reached oblivion in New England (0%) and the Republican delegation from the Mid-Atlantic was cut in half (18% to 9%). What caused this change? The Southernization of the Republican Party. Southerners went from 22% of the GOP caucus to 41% in just twenty years. In so doing, Southerners pushed out New Englanders and those from the Mid-Atlantic.

Okay, I'm just gonna have to go all Doctor on you now

No, it doesn't mean that I'm going to charge you for reading this. :-)

I've talked about healthcare reform over and over again (I don't see how Joan does it every day without going insane). I've talked about healthcare from an emotional standpoint and from an American legislative standpoint. I've talked about all the benefits of healthcare reform. Well, I'd like to take a different tactic. I would like to review the medical literature. I've picked several studies which I will describe over the next several days. The one thing that all of these studies have in common is that they point out that health insurance is a predictor of outcome. On Wednesday or Thursday, I'm going to review an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association which clearly states that having a unified health program has survival benefits (we don't have a coordinated, organized healthcare system in the United States).

As a trauma surgeon, I don't like to talk "shop" with people who are not in the medical profession. As soon as you start mentioning cytokines and mitochondria DNA, most people's eyes glaze over. But, with watered-down legislation creeping through the Senate at a glacial pace, I thought it was important for me to go over some of this literature. The literature makes approximately the same point that Keith Olbermann made approximate monthly go when he talked about having health insurance being life-and-death.

In trauma, we, trauma folks, would like to think that we treat patients all the same. Many states have trauma systems, in which an injured patient, is shunted away from small hospitals that probably cannot help that patient and toward trauma centers who have the expertise and the manpower to help. This move has been shown to save lives. Most, if not all trauma centers have protocols which are then individualized for a particular patient. We have found through numerous studies that these protocols help save lives. Therefore, you would figure that the outcome of a patient who was seriously injured in a car crash would be directly related to his or her injuries which is true for the most part. A recent study has thrown a wrench in this.

A study, which was published in The Archives of Surgery in 2008, investigated over 400,000 patients which had been entered into the National Trauma Databank. One thing that we have known for years is that socioeconomic status does influence your outcome. As expected, mortality rates for Black and Hispanic patients were higher than those of White patients. Patients with insurance had a mortality rate of approximate half of those without insurance. Now, for the shocker -- both Blacks and Hispanics with insurance who were injured had a mortality rate less than Whites without insurance.

This was a very surprising result. Numerous studies in trauma patients over the years have shown differences in outcomes amongst the races. As more and more studies have been done, it is clear that race is a surrogate for multiple other factors including eating habits, living conditions, and other things that can affect outcome. It is also clear that insurance acts as a surrogate for those same kind of factors. People with insurance have jobs. People with jobs drink less than people without jobs. People with jobs tend to live in better conditions than people without jobs. What was surprising is how strong insurance is as an indicator of lifestyle.

So, if every American has health care coverage will they all have better outcomes from trauma? Well, this question is somewhat hard to answer. On one hand, just having insurance does not get you to live in a better house, in a better neighborhood with better indoor plumbing and a refrigerator that works all the time. On the other hand, one of the huge problems that we have in the trauma community is that we have to send many people home from the hospital, after their hospital stay is over, when they should go to a rehabilitation center for more therapy but they can't qualify because they don't have insurance. These patients will instantly do better. Getting adequate health care coverage to all Americans is a step towards better equality.

I would like all members of Congress to read this article. This is important. This is what we're fighting for. We're fighting for a more equitable society. I'm not trying to take away any healthcare from anybody but instead, I want to add healthcare to those who don't have it.

Tomorrow, I'm going to review an article called health insurance and mortality in United States adults. This article expands on the concept that insurance is a marker for outcome.