In the midst of this excitement surrounding this electrifying voting year, days before the election, Democratic Presidential Nominee, Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham passed away. We express our sincerest condolences to Barack Obama and his family for their loss.

Barack Obama has managed to put together a remarkable campaign, enabling people to be an integral part of the democratic process on a state by state basis. He is offering America Change and the ability to Hope again after eight years of mounting National Debt, rising unemployment, home foreclosures, mounting medical bills and two wars. Barack Obama’s campaign indicates that if he is our next President, “We The People” can be in charge of our own destinies once again, and willing to work hard for the future of America to once again shine up on the hilltop!

No need to guess who I am voting for! Now getting ready to VOTE!

Despite the fact that JP Morgan Chase is one of the largest banks affected by the foreclosure crisis, holding 1.5 Trillion dollars in mortgage loans, will be implement their plan on loans held by the bank which is only about 20% and the other 80% of loans are held by investors whose loans they service and are currently not figured into this plan, yet. According to Charlie Scharf, CEO of Retail Financial Services at Chase,

While Chase has helped many families already, we feel it is our responsibility to provide additional help to homeowners during these challenging times. We will work with families who want to save their homes but are struggling to make their payments.

One of the program’s first priorities, is to eliminate the negative amortization loans it services most of came when they took over Washington Mutual Bank and EMC. This is a significant addition to its current foreclosure prevention program.

The type of loans targeted by the JP Morgan Chase plan are called “option adjustable rate mortgages” also known as option ARMs. The modifications that the bank plans to offer option ARM borrowers include affordable 30-year, fixed-rate loans, as well as a conversion for 10 years to an interest-only loan and principal deferment, in which a large portion of the debt is forgiven for a term of years or until the house is sold.

Chase’s plan is similar to that of Bank of America’s loan modification plan, in which the borrower will have to pay only about one-third of their income on a home mortgage.

Chase said it will review its entire portfolio to try to determine which of its customers are at risk and offer workouts to those borrowers before they get into trouble. It will streamline the process by using some kind of affordability standard (the bank declined to say how that will be done) to determine the best workouts it can offer customers to keep them in their homes.

Then it will contact the borrowers who will merely have to accept the offers to get more affordable mortgages.

Chase plans to meet the challenges head on by increasing staff, add 300 new counselors, for a total of 2,500 and opening 24 new regional counseling center for accessibility to their mortgage customers. Truly hope that this plan works for the many families facing foreclosure at the moment.

Now, after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a re-write of Paulson’s TARP, to include more oversight , CEO compensation limits and more taxpayer protections. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was rejected by House Republicans by a margin of 2 to 1 in spite of the arduous work of both Democrats and Republicans on September 28, 2008. There were rumors that The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 would pass with bipartisan cooperation between the parties, long nights through out the weekend, and assurances that the American Taxpayer would be repaid. That very same day, the stock market plunged 777 points in one day for the largest point drop in U.S. Market History and causing a ripple effect in Financial Markets around the World!

Here we go again! The U.S. Senate is making suggestions and amendments to try and improve upon the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and pass it later on today! For example, Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama has requested that increasing the amount of money insured by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) at banks and other financial institutions, from it’s current rate of $100,000 to $250,000. This increase could allay some fears of depositors with over $100,000 in the banks that they could lose their hard earned money.  Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain shares the thought that an FDIC increase would be benficial. So hold on, let’s see if the U.S. Senate will pass the bill, this time!

In his memoir, Scott McClellan says President George Bush used propaganda on the American public in order to justify going to war in Iraq. This is just one of many revelations that Scott is unleashing in his memoir, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception”. Scott is not just any regular government employee of the White House, he has worked with George Bush since Bush was a Texas Governor seeking the Presidency, so information in his book has a bit more credibility.

President Bush’s response to these steamy White House insider secrets, was that he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by the tone of the book when he was told about it, says current White House Press Secretary, Dana Perino.

The most interesting part of Scott McClellan’s memoir will be how Americans may have been deliberately misinformed about Iraq so that this war in Iraq is justified. War in Iraq is an especially hot topic in this 2008 Political Season for Barack Obama and John McCain as they seek the office of President of The United States. So get “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” below, and read it for yourself!

According to China, the latest facts and figures of the earthquake are as follows;

BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) — Following are the latest facts and figures about the massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked southwest China’s Sichuan Province on May 12:

– The death toll from the quake rose to 68,109 nationwide as of Wednesday noon, while 364,552 people were injured and 19,851 people were missing.

– Rescuers saved and evacuated 724,794 people to safe places, including 6,541 survivors buried under the rubble, as of Tuesday midnight.

– Hospitals took in a total of 85,722 injured people, 55,514 of whom recovered and left as of Wednesday noon.

– Domestic and foreign donations had reached 34.79 billion yuan (5.04 billion U.S. dollars), up 2.07 billion yuan overnight. And 9.78 billion yuan had been forwarded to the earthquake-affected areas.

– A total of 601,900 tents, one of the most urgently needed relief supplies, had been delivered to quake regions.

– A total of 3,866,100 quilts and 8,757,300 garments had been sent to these regions.

– The government has allocated 19.56 billion yuan (2.83 billion U.S. dollars) as of 2 p.m. Wednesday for quake relief efforts. The fund included 15.39 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.17 billion yuan from local budgets.

– Between Tuesday noon and Wednesday noon, five aftershocks measuring above 4 on the Richter scale had been monitored in Sichuan.

– International medical teams from Russia, Japan, Italy and Germany have treated 2,410 patients in quake areas since May 20.

We offer sympathy to the victims of this tragic catastrophe!

Surprisingly, Amy showed up voluntarily and on-time at Scotland Yard. While there, she was fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA. This is apparently pretty usual procedure for someone who’s interviewed by the police in London. The police wouldn’t identify Amy by name but confirmed “a 24-year-old had been arrested during an appointment at a police station in connection with an investigation into attempting to interfere with the course of justice.” Amy was released on bail and ordered to return in March 2008.

The witness tampering case stems from an assault charge filed on Winehouse’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil accused of assaulting a barman in London in June.

Amy, a multi Grammy Award Nominee, has canceled all of her tour dates and shows for the rest of the year.

Her publicist said that she canceled tour dates and appearances due to doctor’s orders, but Amy said later, that her husbands legal troubles is the reason.

I can’t give it my all onstage without my Blake,” she said at the time. “My husband is everything to me, and without him, it’s just not the same

Amy Winehouse song “Rehab” is one of the most popular songs of the year. I wonder, why, hum?

Now, Barry Bonds, the homerun King of baseball, pleads “not guilty” to an indictment of lying to Federal investigators and “obstruction of justice”, who were investigating his alleged use of “performance enhancing drugs”. Federal investigators for five years, have been investigating claims that Barry Bonds and other high profile athletes, used performance enhancing drugs in order to take their natural skills and abilities to whole new level.

Today in court, Barry stuck to his guns and plead not guilty and that he is innocent of these charges. Hooray! It would seem that Federal investigators should have more important priorities these days than athletes who are using their own bodies and talents to achieve their dreams!

Let’s look at his from another angle, like if I were given performance enhancing

drugs. It would not matter what “enhancer” you gave me, I would not be able to hit a ball out of the park, or a homerun for that matter, no matter how much “enhancer” they gave me. I could not even get out of the blocks with Marion Jones! This just seems like an old fashioned “witch hunt”, go figure.

It is possible that Rosie’s show will air around 9:00 pm E.S.T. which will pit her up against CNN’s “Larry King” and Fox’s “Hannity and Colmes”, who are also in this time slot. Not a bad position if you ask me.

Rosie left ABC’s “The View” in May 2007 and has been rumored get a game show hosting gig and other television spots. Rosie had many fans who watched her on “The View” and will be quite happy to see her return to television. Of course, there will be the usual detractors.

It sounds like a done deal except for some minor details that must be worked out like, how much she will get paid, and will her show also appear on the NBC broadcast network. Her show will replace MSNBC’s “Live with Dan Abrams” which was not getting the ratings like expected.

Keep your eye out for the Rosie foes like Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly and the likes trying to stir the muddy waters about her return to T.V., but we will watch and wait for the Rosie return.

In an effort to increase the awareness of global warming and increased industrial and consumer waste, NBC network has announced it is calling this week in November (Nov. 4 thru Nov. 11), “Green Week”. During Green Week there will be tips everyday to make “going green” easy so that we can help make our activities more eco-friendly. There are also websites that offers recycling tips.

As you may have heard by now, that Former Vice-President of the United States, Al Gore, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in bringing universal awareness to the destruction caused by global warming. Many people asked, “why a Nobel Peace Prize”? Just look at what is happening to Georgia and Alabama and their fight over the water for their states. There is no peace for the residents, businesses, or animals if Georgia doesn’t get enough water. So we can all see that lack of natural resources in a global, technologically advancing world will upset the peace.

Here are few tips that we can put into action to help save the planet,

• Repair leaking faucets
• Do not run the tap while brushing your teeth
• Operate dishwashers and laundry machines during off-peak hours
• Recycle bottles, cans and plastic whenever possible
• Save energy by cutting off computers and devices when not in use

These are just a few, but here is much more that we can do to help cut back on pollution by becoming more informed from recycling and other eco websites. Atleast, we can start to become more “green”.

All of a sudden, the public at large and others are stating that Barry Bonds was taking steroids and that’s how he achieved the number of home runs he has! What a bunch of crock! Anyone who has ever played any sport knows that no artificial enhancement substance can make you the best hitter, pitcher or whatever, one has to have actual ability to be the best! Sounds like the green eyed monsters

are rearing their ugly heads! Before all of the steroid scrutiny, no one knows who in the past achieved “greatness” using this so-called “super human” drug! Let me see, could Babe Ruth have taken steroids? Or maybe Sandy Kofax took steroids to achieve his records!

I can’t wait to see Hank Aaron’s home run record broken by someone who has been hitting the ball like no other in baseball! Barry Bonds have put in work to be the Home Run King, so give him his props!