Rep. Andre Carson: Tea Party Wants To See Blacks ‘Hanging On A Tree’: ABC News’ Amy Bingham reports: While Republican presidential candidates arrange and re-arrange their schedules in an attempt to court Tea Partiers, one House Democratic member of the Congressional Black Caucus is blasting the conservative group for trying to take America back to the days of...
STRENGTH, STRENGTH, STRENGTH SPEAKING STRENGTH We as people must "RISE ABOVE OUR CIRCUMSTANCES' and face the obstacles and challenges that we encounter on a daily basis. Join us as we discuss issues and topics that are real and listen to the voices of real people speaking strength to one another. Life ends So quickly so we must all live our lives to the fullest extent of the LAW, OUR BEING AND OUR STRENGTH.
Friday, September 2, 2011
WOMEN IN POLITICS
Do you use your power to vote? Have you ever thought that this right was not always a right for women? Women had to protest and fight for this right so that young women today can vote and have a say in who represents the people of our city, state, and country.
The Suffrage Movement, the movement towards women's rights, started geographically in the northeast of the United States. The women there organized the first women's rights convention at Senecca Falls, New York, in 1848.
The Women's Rights movement began dividing after the disappointment of the 14th and 15th amendments, which provided African American men with the right to vote, but women still could not.
One of the women's suffrage groups was the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA) led by Elizabeth Candy Staton and Susan B. Anthony, opposing the 15th amendment. This organization focused on federal action for feminist reforms. But there was another organization that was for the 15th amendment. The American Women's Suffrage Association or AWSA was being run by Lucy Stone and others. The AWSA looked more to the grassroots for support while still supporting the 15th amendment. Both of the groups argued that all tax payers had the right to vote regardless of race, creed, or gender.
In 1890 the NWSA and the AWSA finally came together and decided on a common goal, to give the right to vote to women. After long protesting, debating, and communicating with the government, still no new state would give women the right to vote until 1910. Then in 1920 the 19th amendment was added to the United States Constitution, which gives all American women the right to vote.
Because of their right to vote, women could now dream about being involved in politics. A total of twenty-two women have held a cabinet or cabinet-level appointments in the history of our nation. Of all the men who have served as president, only seven have appointed women to their cabinets.
To find out about more women in politics, try these sites:
Powerful Women
Africa’s 20 youngest women in power
After Forbes published their list of the world’s 20 youngest power women — which includes Beyonce, Serena Williams and Lady Gaga — they decided to create one just for Africa.
The list, “The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa,” is a rundown of ladies under 45 who are making the biggest impact on African business, technology, policy and media. You may recognize some of the names, like Chimamanda Adichie (who wrote “Half of a Yellow Sun”) and Ory Okolloh (the founder of Ushahidi), and companies, like Barclays Bank, Ernst & Young and Google. Take a look:
Please join us in congratulating these women for their enormous work and influence in their fields. They are helping to blaze a trail for girls and women across the continent, and for that we are thankful.
Ory Okolloh – Kenyan. Founder, Ushahidi
Chimamanda Adichie – Nigerian. Writer
Yolanda Cuba – South African. Corporate Executive
Ndidi Nwuneli – Nigerian. Social Entrepreneur
Dambisa Moyo – Zambian. Economist
Khanyi Dhlomo – South African. Media Mogul
Phuti Malabie – South African. CEO, Shanduka Group
Funmi Iyanda – Nigerian. Journalist & Broadcaster
Isis Nyongo – Kenyan. Managing Director, InMobi Africa
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu – Ethiopian. Entrepreneur
Elsie Kanza – Tanzania. Economic Advisor To Tanzania’s President
Saran Kaba Jones – Liberian. Founder, Face Africa
Julie Gichuru – Kenyan. Journalist & Broadcaster
Lisa Kropman – South African, Entrepreneur
Stella Kilonzo – Kenyan. Chief Executive, Capital Markets Authority, Kenya
Magatte Wade – Senegal. Entrepreneur
Jonitha Gugu Msibi – South Africa. Senior Partner, Ernst & Young
June Arunga – Kenyan. Entrepreneur
Juliet Ehimuan – Nigerian. Google country manager, Nigeria
Olga Kimani-Arara – Kenyan. Google Country Manager, Kenya
Read the short bios for each of these women on Forbes’ website
WHAT DOES TRUE EMPOWERMENT MEAN FOR WOMEN?
Face It: Our Power Is In Our Invisibility
Journalist Michele Willens
What does true empowerment mean for women?
Never have I felt more pride in my womanhood. And never has it seemed less of a story (though I am writing one) that women are doing so well. Have we finally reached the point of Invisible Invincibility?
Back to my summer reading. Upon reflection, some were more obviously penned by women: Emma Forrest's memoir, Your Voice In My Head, was the painful but illuminating story of a once suicidal creative soul; the novels Stone Arabia and The Great Man, were character driven with strong female (as well as male) characters, though hardly what one might call soft or mushy.
The only time, frankly, I actually looked to see who I was reading was smack in the midst of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, due to its wonderful wit. It deals primarily with an elderly male character and former military hero, so I was somewhat surprised to see the name of the female author. But then I, like millions of others, had read Unbroken earlier in the year by Laura Hillenbrand who took us deep inside a brave and macho man's ordeal.
What strikes me is not that women can bring both sexes beautifully to life on the page, or even that women have probably written the best books of the past year. Recent Pen Faulkner nominees for Fiction Writing of 2011 include Jennifer Egan, Deborah Eisenberg and Jaimy Gordon -- three of the five. What strikes me is that nobody mentioned it!
Also of little mention, gratefully, is the fact that off Broadway's most interesting works lately have come from female playwrights and they are treated as normally as their male counterparts. (Recent Pulitzer winner: Lynn Nottage) I even feel some pride in the fact that Michele Bachmann is ridiculed only for her skewed historical facts and weird policies. (And no more so, incidentally, than Rick Perry is for his lack of serious smarts.)
They hear us, buy us, watch us, read us without second thoughts. The roaring has stopped as a new kind of invisibility has been achieved.
Funny, because "invisible" is a word often used today in discussing midlife women as we begin to show our well deserved character lines. It was certainly repeated anecdotally in the book I worked on -- FACE IT: What Women Really Feel As Their Looks Change. What do we feel? Nobody notices us like that anymore and it rankles. The book offers a psychological guide for the generation of women who thought they'd never get old and have. But in the end, it is a rallying cry to band together one more time to fight the anti-aging culture threatening to swallow us up.
Being a spin master who is now trying to live life by focusing on the great moments rather than the overall scorecard, I urge this view: our place in the world at large has finally reached a point where, as a group, we have succeeded in blurring more than just our character lines. Next time you get down, think of all those writers and singers making news and creating art. Think of how the country got wrapped up in the U.S. Soccer team this year ... and those players were female. Remember that Oscar winning violent war film was made by a woman. Not to mention this season's most talked about, complex and gritty television series The Killing and The Hour. That head of state is named Angela.
I am not blind to the still sour statistics when it comes to how women fare. More importantly, I am not unaware that female voices are different, that female managing techniques are different ... and they should remain that way. Newsweek has a more feminist skew since Tina Brown took it over, but no one would say it is less interesting or missing the big stories. The fact they aren't may be the best story of all.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
New Mortgage Limitations
New Mortgage Limit May Set Buyers Back
For some buyers, neither option will be viable, and they have set Sept. 30 contract deadlines in hopes of closing on their new homes before the change kicks in.
“Across the country this is not a big deal,” said David Maundrell, the president of aptsandlofts.com, “but in New York, because our prices are where they are, it’s going to be an issue.”
The lower limit will primarily affect buyers searching for homes that cost $750,000 to $1 million. In Manhattan, that means one-bedrooms and smaller two-bedrooms. In Brooklyn, it will mainly affect two-bedroom properties.
Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, estimated that the new limit would affect about 7 percent of transactions in Manhattan, which had about 10,000 sales in the past year.
“It’s not a catastrophic impact,” he said. “But it doesn’t help, in a market that’s already facing many challenges.”
June Phillips, a senior vice president of Halstead Property, said that throughout the summer “all my buyers who were looking for a place under $1 million had the jumbo limit in mind, because they knew they’d have to put more money down after Sept. 30.”
Since purchases in New York City, especially co-op purchases, can take as long as two months to close, it is already too late for buyers who are not already in contract to calculate their costs using the higher limit, she said.
In 2008, before the housing and mortgage markets imploded, the national limit for government-insured, or conforming, loans was $417,000. But afterward, to help keep markets moving, the limit was raised to $729,750 in areas with high median home prices, like California, New York and Washington D.C. “But considering the housing market still needs a push,” Mr. Maundrell said, “it’s bad timing to lower the limit now.”
For Peggy Leung and her husband, Bill Hanff, timing is so crucial that Ms. Leung has been contacting the developers of their nearly completed East Williamsburg building at least once a week to see how close it is to getting a certificate of occupancy.
The couple cannot close their deal, even though they have their financing lined up, until the building receives its final permits. “I check so much with them that I’m afraid they’re going to stop responding,” Ms. Leung said. “But if this doesn’t happen, we’re going to have to keep renting until I don’t know when.”
The two, who now rent an apartment in Gramercy Park with their 18-month-old son, Milo, are in contract to buy a one-bedroom duplex with a recreation room and a yard for $749,000. They qualified for a Federal Housing Administration loan, which allows them to put just 3.5 percent down and borrow $722,000. Their carefully drafted contract permits them to duck out of the deal and get their deposit back if the building does not receive its approvals by Sept. 30.
Their mortgage broker, Ross Weinstein, said he had encouraged them to write the deadline into their contract. Even though there remains a chance that the current limit may be extended, he said, it is not a high priority for Congress right now. And he doesn’t think Ms. Leung, who has her own interior design firm, and Mr. Hanff, a Web site designer, would qualify for a jumbo mortgage, which they would need under the lower limit. Most jumbo mortgages, also known as nonconforming mortgages, require at least 20 percent down and a credit score of 720 or more.
Mr. Weinstein, who is the managing partner of Exclusive Capital Consultants, said that given how long it can take to close a deal in New York City, Wells Fargo and other banks stopped operating under the $729,750 mortgage limit on Aug. 15. That means that anyone looking to borrow $700,000, for example, would already be given a jumbo mortgage rate, which is typically about half a point higher than the rate for a conforming mortgage and could cost borrowers an additional several hundred dollars a month.
Andrea Morales/The New York Times
Peggy Leung and Bill Hanff, and their son, Milo, in East Williamsburg at the apartment they hope to buy before Sept. 30 for $749,000, borrowing $722,000. After Sept. 30, the limit on federally guaranteed loans drops to $625,500 from $729,750.
By VIVIAN S. TOY
Published: August 26, 2011
FOR most potential buyers, the impending change in mortgage limits is just another obscure wrinkle in federal policy. But for some New Yorkers, it could mean the difference between buying and not buying a new home.
On Oct. 1, when the limit on federally guaranteed loans drops to $625,500 from the current level of $729,750, hundreds of buyers in the city and nearby suburbs will either have to come up with larger down payments to stay under the new limit or face the prospect of applying for jumbo loans — anything above $625,500 — which have higher interest rates. For some buyers, neither option will be viable, and they have set Sept. 30 contract deadlines in hopes of closing on their new homes before the change kicks in.
“Across the country this is not a big deal,” said David Maundrell, the president of aptsandlofts.com, “but in New York, because our prices are where they are, it’s going to be an issue.”
The lower limit will primarily affect buyers searching for homes that cost $750,000 to $1 million. In Manhattan, that means one-bedrooms and smaller two-bedrooms. In Brooklyn, it will mainly affect two-bedroom properties.
Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, estimated that the new limit would affect about 7 percent of transactions in Manhattan, which had about 10,000 sales in the past year.
“It’s not a catastrophic impact,” he said. “But it doesn’t help, in a market that’s already facing many challenges.”
June Phillips, a senior vice president of Halstead Property, said that throughout the summer “all my buyers who were looking for a place under $1 million had the jumbo limit in mind, because they knew they’d have to put more money down after Sept. 30.”
Since purchases in New York City, especially co-op purchases, can take as long as two months to close, it is already too late for buyers who are not already in contract to calculate their costs using the higher limit, she said.
In 2008, before the housing and mortgage markets imploded, the national limit for government-insured, or conforming, loans was $417,000. But afterward, to help keep markets moving, the limit was raised to $729,750 in areas with high median home prices, like California, New York and Washington D.C. “But considering the housing market still needs a push,” Mr. Maundrell said, “it’s bad timing to lower the limit now.”
For Peggy Leung and her husband, Bill Hanff, timing is so crucial that Ms. Leung has been contacting the developers of their nearly completed East Williamsburg building at least once a week to see how close it is to getting a certificate of occupancy.
The couple cannot close their deal, even though they have their financing lined up, until the building receives its final permits. “I check so much with them that I’m afraid they’re going to stop responding,” Ms. Leung said. “But if this doesn’t happen, we’re going to have to keep renting until I don’t know when.”
The two, who now rent an apartment in Gramercy Park with their 18-month-old son, Milo, are in contract to buy a one-bedroom duplex with a recreation room and a yard for $749,000. They qualified for a Federal Housing Administration loan, which allows them to put just 3.5 percent down and borrow $722,000. Their carefully drafted contract permits them to duck out of the deal and get their deposit back if the building does not receive its approvals by Sept. 30.
Their mortgage broker, Ross Weinstein, said he had encouraged them to write the deadline into their contract. Even though there remains a chance that the current limit may be extended, he said, it is not a high priority for Congress right now. And he doesn’t think Ms. Leung, who has her own interior design firm, and Mr. Hanff, a Web site designer, would qualify for a jumbo mortgage, which they would need under the lower limit. Most jumbo mortgages, also known as nonconforming mortgages, require at least 20 percent down and a credit score of 720 or more.
Mr. Weinstein, who is the managing partner of Exclusive Capital Consultants, said that given how long it can take to close a deal in New York City, Wells Fargo and other banks stopped operating under the $729,750 mortgage limit on Aug. 15. That means that anyone looking to borrow $700,000, for example, would already be given a jumbo mortgage rate, which is typically about half a point higher than the rate for a conforming mortgage and could cost borrowers an additional several hundred dollars a month.
Women Standing Up for their Rights.
Sometimes, people have to stand up for what they believe in -- at least that's the stance actress Daryl Hannah is taking after she was detained by officers at the White House on Tuesday. Ignoring repeated requests to move from the sidewalk in front of the president's residence, Hannah was taken away in cuffs.
According to the NBC affiliate in Washington, the actress was there to protest against the unbuilt Keystone XL oil pipeline that will stretch from Canada all the way to the Gulf Coast.
"Sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice your freedom for a greater freedom," Hannah said in before being arrested. "And we want to be free from the horrible death and destruction that fossil fuels cause, and have a clean energy future."
NBC also points out that this isn't the first time Hannah has been in cuffs due to protesting. She was once arrested for stopping traffic in West Virginia over coal mining.
[via NBC]
*Image courtesy of AP
Related:
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Who Get The Friends in a Divorce?
Have you ever noticed that your friends split down the line or leave one partner completely when you divorce? Who is really entitled to the friends or can they be shared? Wouldn't it be awkward to be friends with both the former husband and wife?
Friends can surprise you when you become single. First of all some of the other women may not want you around any longer because you can be a threat to their marriage and a grave temptation. Some men want a bite of the now available forbidden fruit. Or you may be an intruder if your ex has a new partner and wants to share that person with his friends. Who is really entitled? It becomes awkward because either your friends feel sorry for you, or they overcompensate by keeping things from you, such as your ex dating someone else, or that they all hung out with the new partner last evening and did not include you. Your friends may even feel uncomfortable with you bringing your new beau around. It would be wonderful if everyone could just move on and be accepting on all counts.
Either way, things will never be the same unless they were your friends from the beginning, and they have loyalty to you. Sometimes during a split, you have to not only split up your assets, but you have to split up your friends or split from your friends.
What do you think about moving on and leaving others behind in order to obtain a fresh perspective on your new life? Whatever your decision, you will be fine and you will survive.
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