dear president, hi this is brian s lawhead i live in caon city colorado sir I have a question about gitmo and what to do with the detianies I know it might sound crazy i had a dream you are allway talking about saving the defisit and recerculating money into the us hear is an idea martin luther king had a dream and look what he acomplished to the point sir,what if you were to send them to alkatraz refurbish it up to code at the same cost as a new prison would cost fly them in .it is on its own land and it dont have to be consiterd on us soil and have our troopes returning from the war man it it would be cost effective. and the solgers haveing trouble with debreifing as they return us as civilains they coul gaurd it and charge the third world countrys detaining charges for our troops to gaurd them

This is going around on Facebook and Twitter. Re: Healthcare Reform (Maybe it will help) Enjoy Your $30,000 Insurance Policy The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released a simple document that could transform the entire health care debate in the United States. Absolutely no other set of statistics so cleanly identify the nature of our broken system. This week we put out our annual benchmark survey of employer health coverage and costs. Two numbers jumped off the pages. The first number was the average cost of a family health insurance policy in 2009: $13,375. To put that number in context, if you are an employer, you can hire an employee at the minimum wage for about $15,000 per year. If you are a consumer, you can rent an average two-bedroom apartment nationwide for $11,136 per year (though it is quite a bit more here in Menlo Park, California where our Foundation is based). You can also buy a new Chevy Aveo for $12,000, and it gets 35 miles per gallon on the highway. The other result that jumped off the page was the stark contrast between increases in health insurance premiums and overall inflation in the general economy. Premiums went up 5% and prices overall fell 0.7% (mainly driven by a big drop-off in energy prices) [...] over the last ten years premiums have increased by 131%, while wages have grown 38% and inflation has grown 28%. Consider this: If people (and businesses) are as concerned as they are now about rising health care costs in a period when they are actually moderating, how much more concerned will they be when rates of increase return to historic averages? Let’s do some very simple arithmetic. Start with a fairly conservative assumption: If we assume that premium increases over the next ten years will average what they did over the last five (about 6.1% per year), the average premium for a family policy in 2019 will be $24,180. That’s a big number. On the other hand, if we assume increases revert to the average of the last ten years—an average annual increase of about 8.7% and a very plausible scenario—premiums in 2019 will average a whopping $30,803, a very scary number. And here’s the chart: Very few families will be able to afford a $30,000 insurance policy. Even less companies will find a market for it. So their only choice will be to cut back on what the coverage offers, either with less benefits or lower amounts of coverage. More businesses will have to drop their coverage and throw their employees on to the individual market, driving costs up higher, as individuals aren’t bargaining collectively with insurers for lower prices. Simply put, the private insurance market would cease to exist within 10 years, maybe a little more, on the current trajectory. Those who think “failure is not an option” is just a slogan should really take a look at the Kaiser Foundation numbers. What they show is nothing but a nightmare. Even the President quickly took notice of the report in his speech to the AFL-CIO today: In fact, a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation was released today showing that family premiums rose more than 130 percent over the last 10 years — three times faster than wages. They now average over $13,000 a year, the highest amount on record, which is why when you go in to negotiate, you can’t even think about negotiating for a salary — a wage increase because the whole negotiation is about trying to keep the benefits you already have. (Applause.) That’s not just the fault of the employer, it’s the fault of a broken health care system that’s sucking up all the money. When are we going to stop it? (Applause.) When are we going to say enough is enough? How many more workers have to lose their coverage? How many more families have to go into the red for a sick loved one? (Applause.) How much longer are we going to have to wait? It can’t wait. (Applause.) AUDIENCE: We can’t wait! We can’t wait! We can’t wait! It’s not an idle threat to tell everyone that they will not have health insurance in ten years without reform. Heck, that’s why the insurance industry, while fighting anything that drains their profits, ostensibly supports reform. If the insurance market goes down the gutter, so do they. The opportunity exists for us to remake our health care system to remove the excess, the money that never goes toward care, the bloated salaries. Otherwise, even with a reformed system we could end up with the same people running the same system right into the ground. From: http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/?p=71909

I don't know who those people are who saying your approval ratings are down. Everyone I know loves you and we are so happy to have an intelligent, thoughtful and well spoken person in the white house. I feel you represent the interest of the US and trust your judgment. I always wonder where these polls are taken. They certainly never ask me or anyone I know. I find that interesting. You did a great speech on Wednesday to clarify any misconceptions that the public might have. I think those who are blocking progress are not the ones without insurance and need to step back and get a reality check. I personally am looking forward to having the health care system overhauled. I had breast cancer last year and I am all clear now, but can not move to another insurance company due to the pre-existing condition clause. I’m sure there are days you feel discouraged, but don’t; there are many people who respect you and so appreciate all you do. Thank you. Nancy Scannell

Thanks for listening! I have a great topic discussion regarding senior citizens. Definitely something we all could consider: What about the idea of changing the official retirement age to 60 instead of 65? How would it benefit American families? One of my college degrees is as an RN Assistant and from what I've learned and experienced working in the healthcare business is that it would be a really great thing for seniors to do so. For example, seniors would be allowed to have senior discounts at an earlier age. If we changed the official retirement age to 60 instead of 65 it would only be a benefit. In a lot of situations, not only can a person not work at 65, but they have a very difficult time doing anything: travel, living, being capable of enjoying things they used to enjoy, etc. If we changed it to 60, at least they could enjoy their retirements a few years (at least) before they can't do anything anymore. Just something to think about. :) Also, while I've got you guys on the line, this new transfer to digital from analog, may not have been the best thing to do. Millions of seniors who do not understand, lost their televisions completely or are having problems with signal interference so badly--that their TV's keep going on and off on them, every hour, and they don't understand why. I don't understand why we had to take the analog down??? I major in Medicine through Communications/acting, so I understand technologies very well. Why did we have to trash the analog? There are so many millions of TV's in this country right now that are operating only blank screens. For example, the TV's at LAX (taxi holding lots) are still blank with nothing showing on them. Any TV's outside that depended upon analog signals prior to the new digital requirements are still null and void and receive no signals. How many seniors have no TV now when before, it was their only source of joy?

I'm sorry for this being off topic of healthcare reform, but I would like to point out the idea of recent dot.com technology updates and something major that is going on with Silicon Valley right now. Thousands of people are about to lose their websites because Yahoo! is closing down GeoCities. How many? I don't know, but I think there are going to be thousands and I, personally, think it's a foolish idea because it's a form of revenue for Yahoo! and millions of people were depending upon Geocities to support web service for their businesses. GeoCities is a beautiful program, millions are using it and it seems a waste to me that they are trashing the software. People learned how to build web pages through GeoCities. It seems stupid to me that they would just throw the Pagebuilder program away when there is no other like it. How many children learned to build web pages through GeoCities? How many people used it to support their businesses? Millions are about to lose it all. An example--joematters.net. Now, Joematters.com is obviously very important to me and I am going to gather info--from many different websites I had to build when it originally had limited capacity to combine them all into one which I will pay for and host. However, what about Joematters.net? Seriously, this is representative of millions of families that are about to be wounded by Yahoo's sudden changes. I'm not going to pay to host two websites, so that means I'm going to lose all the information unless I rework the entire website to conform to joematters.com--which now has greater capacity--which they did not used to have. MY point being...the labor costs are being flushed down toilets of everyone who is being forced to adapt to Yahoo's new limitations on web development because they are trashing what once was offered as hosting of millions of websites. I just wanted to mention it because it seems to me there are some legalities here that are being overlooked and it doesn't seem right that these labor costs of all these people are being trashed along with the GeoCities program. I already spent ten years building my website and now I have to restructure everything because Yahoo is shutting down it's hosting for GeoCities and only offering hosting through Yahoo. What about the others? Do they understand? Do they have the time to rebuild ten years of work?

You went back on all you said you would do. Be the President and stop campaining! In case you didn't know you are the President. We need leadership and someone who listens to what the people want, NOT what you want for US. The rock star is gone .Grow up and do what you were elected to do. Stand up for what the people want. I only pray you can be a leader and not follow what the Chicago politcal machine tells you to do..

kick the party of no to the curb, and get the dems in the pocket of the insurance co. or they will be looking for a job at re-election

Dear Obama and Michelle: I would like to start by saying I loved Michael Jackson too, and I’m truly saddened to share the unfortunate truth with you of his recent passing. I think it may have been God talking when I suggested the idea of writing Amendment 27 (on Facebook and elsewhere on the internet). Slavery procurement laws have been hurting me and my family since I graduated modeling school in 1987 in Wisconsin and was told that I would need to go to the big city to be procured. This was, unfortunately, after my family already paid thousands and thousands of dollars with my grandfather’s (a doctor in the US military) inheritance money to my mother for 34 different acting and public schools, including several performing arts schools. I hope you both understand that we may have been able to save Michael Jackson had we enacted God’s request to make (slavery) procurement laws optional. Something we should all wish to consider: Would Michael Jackson still be alive today had we made slavery procurement laws “optional” just by adding one sentence to the US Constitution to protect him from the lashings of poorly written slavery procurement laws? We need Amendment 27 written to protect: artists, musicians, writers, entertainers (like Michael Jackson), directors, actors, models, comedians, magicians, dancers and other artists from slavery procurement laws that were written poorly many years ago and still exist as they were then, today. Michael Jackson may still be alive today had we enacted Amendment 27 six months ago: FACT. This is what I believe Amendment 27 should say: “SLAVERY PROCUREMENT IS OPTIONAL FOR EVERY US CITIZEN, IN EVERY STATE, WHETHER A UNION MEMBER OR NOT.” I truly believe this one sentence added to the US Constitution for the protection of artists and entertainers could have saved Michael Jackson’s life. With all due respects, I understand people are really sensitive about this, but I believe this is God talking through me, reaching out, and trying to save future artists, entertainers and their family members from being murdered as slaves or as family members of slaves in the future. If we enact Amendment 27 as soon as possible, it will help to protect the lives of artists and entertainers (and their family members) in the future. To help everybody understand, the reason I’ve been writing about making slavery procurement laws optional (according to the US Constitution) for the past six months (on Obama’s Facebook, etc.) is because I am Dean’s Honor List and a straight ‘A’ student—one who has been an artist in the entertainment industry since 1977. My portfolio is online at: http://www.geocities.com/joematters/portfolio.html). Now that I have been travelling across the country since 1993 to work as an actress in TV and films, I recently learned in school (just graduated in 2008 with my third college degree with Honors) that the slavery procurement laws written in 1954 regarding Brown vs. Board of Education (the cause of officially declaring slavery illegal in the United States) DID NOT FREE ALL THE SLAVES! This explains why I was told in 1987 that I needed to be procured—as a slave—in the big city. Brown vs. Board of Education did not free the enslaved (slave) entertainers in 1954 that were entrapped by poorly written state procurement laws. In many states across the country, these slavery laws were never changed as a result of “Brown vs. Board of Education” and they continue to hurt people very badly to this day. There are many states which still have procurement (slavery) laws and rules that require human beings to be slaves in this country. Slavery is currently required through “procurement” laws that are written poorly in many states. We need Amendment 27 added to the US Constitution to free the slaves that are binded by State Labor Codes that currently keep people as human slaves in the United States. This is because in 1954 when Brown vs. Board of Education was enacted, it did not free the slaves bound by slavery procurement laws hurting the slaves bound by state procurement laws that still exist! ASK YOURSELVES, PLEASE: Were all the slaves freed as a result of Brown vs. Board of Education? NO, THEY WERE NOT. Had they been, Michael Jackson may still be alive today. We’ve got to do something about this and it has to be done on a nationwide level. California Labor Code 1700 which clearly states slavery procurement is required is not written the same as the slavery procurement laws requiring/allowing artists to be slaves in New York or other states. This is why it needs to be written on a nationwide level. Please see my posts in Obama’s Facebook from the past six months for further support of this subject. It may be so that God was working through me to try to protect Michael Jackson’s life. I INSIST, WE MUST GET THIS AMENDMENT WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE LIVES OF ENTERTAINERS AND THEIR FAMILIES BEFORE ANYONE ELSE IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS MURDERED, THREATENED, LYNCHED, WHOOPED OR BEATEN AS A PROCURED SLAVE IN THIS COUNTRY, EVER AGAIN! If you don’t believe me, please print out a copy of California Labor Code 1700 and see for yourself the rules regarding “procurement” and it is when you do this that you should Honor the remembrance of Michael Jackson. The meaning of procurement is slavery, is it not? It needs to be made clear not just in California, but in every state in America. For your consideration: With deep sadness, yet hope--that we can get this written and added to the US Constitution before any more slaves are murdered or get their asses whooped, EVER AGAIN, BY ANY PROCURER!!!!!! PLEASE HELP US. Andrea Calabrese http://www.joematters.com

i would just like to say thank you, for dedicating your time to try to fix this mess. Thank you for being selfless in all that you do, unlike many others in america. Because i know in my heart, that if everyone had just stopped thinking about themselves for 2 seconds, and cared about one another, without prejudices and judgements, we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in. And i would like to tell you that you really shouldn't feel like you need to fix everyone and everything, because you are ONE human being, just like the rest of us, and i understand if you can't fix everything, but i thank you for trying.

My name is Bridget Peterson. I work for Towards Employment, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio as a Paralegal. Towards Employment is a non-profit organization which provides job readiness and placement for individuals on welfare or have criminal convictions. The issue facing our clients, besides the barrier of having criminal records, is child support. This problem is so out of control. For example, 80% of our clients who graduate have suspended driver's licenses. Out of that 80%, more than half our suspended due to non payment of child support. Now it is my understanding that the State of Ohio intends on making it harder for these men and women to release their suspensions. This is absurd. I have clients in their 50's who are suspended because they owe only $1500.00, and their children are grown and in college. The State does not even offer to give them a chance to get their license unless they have money and/or a job. No wonder Cuyahoga County has the highest employment rate. These people are in a catch 22. They can't win. My idea is, give them a chance, one chance and if that doesn't work, ok, then put the more restrictive sanctions on them. Another issue is the guidelines. I have a client who has to pay $776 a month on a minumum wage job. How is suppose to live. And, they wonder why some people just won't work. Come on now, you do the math. This gentlemen would have a gross income of $437.00. Could you live off of that? The State won't modify because mother is on welfare. Right now, where are economy stands, its hard enough for someone with a driver's license, experience, degrees, and no felonies to obtain employment. Imagine how difficult is for the people Towards Employment serves. Thank you for listening.

The problem with Americans is that we are not counting our money right there is not suppose to be a decimal in between the one and the two zero's on one dollar. If I have one dollar in papper for its really one hundred cents. Just an easy way to carry it. One million cents is only ten thousand dollars. So there are alot of americans living under the poverty level on welfare alone not to mechen those not counted thats not on _no_kind of asstance. Money not Being counted right helps the rich stay rich and the poor stay disavantage for not being able to count their money right. I bet 10% of Americans have at least one thousand dollars in the house and dont know it because in change. Under ten cents in coins laying around,long gone are the days that some of us are paid in coins any more so that the problem no one wants to take the time out to count the change so all money is being missed spent including your buget. Im hoping this letter gets to you. I got the chance to write this by some one using the computer before me and they left it on this, Im writing more in a propesl that Im hoping you can use in your running the white house or should I say America while its in your hands. That like twleve hundred and six days rounding off abit. Try counting that in hours or seconds might hurt you brain.Think about the poor children not knowing how to count because some told the they can have 12zero's when the first one ment you have nothing the other 11 are just places. First what are we counting. Time, people, money, fruits what are we counting that will say when a dot should go in between those zero's I've been speaking about. brownrosalyn2259@yahoo.com

I think you are a socialist that carries the ideology that government is the end all solution to any and every problem that arises in America today. I think you want to cure the social ill's in America by taking my tax dollars and giving them to people that have no motivation or drive to succeed in their life. I also think that I hope I'm wrong and you turn out to be a fantastic president. My thought and my hopes will be reflected after your tenure has been completed. If I am wrong I will humbly admit my lack of optimism. God bless the President, his family and this country and it's citizens, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and the rest!

WE NEED TO PROVIDE HEALTHCARE AND EDUCATION TO ALL AMERICANS!

HELLO, MR. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. I AM SO HAPPY THAT THAT YOU WERE ELECTED PRESIDENT! WHY? BECAUSE I AM DOWN WITH ALL THE BELIEFS THAT YOU HAVE FOR THIS COUNTRY. I BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN REFRESH THIS COUNTRY AND THAT IS WHAT WE ALL NEED. YOU ARE A ROLE MODEL FOR ALL YOUNG PEOPLE AND TO THE PEOPLE ALONE. IF YOU ONLY REALLY KNEW HOW YOU INSPIRE US ALL. YOU IS WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS AND HAS BEEN IN SEARCH FOR. I THINK THAT YOU ARE A ROLE MODEL FOR THE YOUNG BLACK MEN IN MY COMMUNITY. NOW THEY FEEL AS IF THEY COULD DO ANYTHING IF THEY PUT THIER MIND TO IT!! I AM SO HAPPY TO SAY THAT THE FIRST TIME I EVER GOT TO VOTE WAS FOR YOU. I STOOD IN LINE FOR FOUR HOURS, BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY IT WAS ALL WORTH IT. I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO MY FAMILY AND I. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP MR. PRESIDENT AND LET GOD LEAD YOU. WE ALL LOVE YOU FOR YOU!

Mr. President, when I watched you take the oath of office, I felt that I could feel the world shift to a better place. This summer I found through researching that my father came from the blood line of a freed slave in North Carolina, some thing that none of us even had the hint of it being true. we were always told that we were part cherokee, irish and german It explains why I never understood why people could discriminate according to race. As a white child,I could never understood why anyone would do that. I just felt that I was born too late to be a civil rights marcher, but now I do believe it was karma. I am a witch on the Wiccan path. Have always been a christian until 2006 when at the age of 52, I felt a calling to change. My talents of empathism, clairvoyance just did not seem to find answers within the christian church. Not faulting the church just explaining how I came on this path. I suddenly realised how prejudicial America is to those who are not judao christian or moslem. I had never realised this. being white, being christian (catholic) I never felt this discrimination before. I had seen it toward people of color and have always fought that. At an early age, I knew that discrimination because of race was inherently wrong. My heart rang with hope when I heard you mention "non-believers" and then to find that your sister in laws family is into Hinduism warmed my heart . I can only speak for myself. As a pagan, as a witch, as a wiccan, I do not want more freedom or more respect or more of anything. I just would like to have the freedom that christians have. To assemble without being protested. To assemble without being told that we are evil and rocks thrown at us and such. That when we are doing public service for people not to try and get the agency or the store to throw us out because we are "evil". For us to not have to still hide what we believe in on our path. And the most important is that somehow we can be respected and for it to be accepted as a valid belief. Your predecessor did not. He said wicca was not a religion. I h ave been republican all of my life, but when he said that I knew that it was time to search for hope. And in you I found that hope. We are tired of being maligned by the media, by hollywood, by preachers by people who read the bible and do not seek to see beyond it. Depending on their path, witches do not believe in the devil. So therefore we do not worship something we do not believe in. Many of us see the Lord and Lady that we follow to be simply other names used by different people for the same deity that the Jews followed. Many of us see them also as aspects of One God. The Divine Being who created this universe and whose name, whose real name is unknown by any of us. That the Lord and Lady are simply male and female aspects of God who is like the most beautiful diamond in the world that could have been created but which also has many many different aspects and sides. So yes, I would ask for you to do what you can to improve our world. Both for us, for others, for the planet. And to please, acknowledge that not all people who believe in a Creator Being is christian. Thank you for allowing me this chance to talk to you. My husband was proud to serve 21.5 years in the army. And the last 16 years as a chaplain assistant in the army. Our son is a submariner in the Navy at the present time. Humbly Yours