President-elect Obama's transition team has been urging public comment on their programs. They are welcoming our ideas and comments on the PE's weekly addresses. Today after listening to the Saturday Computer-side chat at the Change.gov website, I was very pleased with the President Elect's toughts on making public buildings more energy efficient and wanted to ad my thoughts. So I wrote this in their comment request area:
"Thank you for the opportunity. Making public buildings more energy efficient is a good start toward energy conservation and job creation, but I would also like to see some other energy upgrading programs in the residential sector. One area that is always overlooked is energy efficiency in rental units. In many cities, the housing is aging and rental housing is often the oldest. In Seattle, Washington State's largest city, fully half the population is living in rented housing, many of them older duplexes, single homes, or multiplex units. There is no incentive for landlords to make energy efficient upgrades because the utility bills are always paid by the tenants. As a result, millions of tons of carbon go up the chimneys each year that are really just waste, and those that can least afford energy costs, are often forced to pay for it."I would love to see some programs, not just for homeowners, but for rental property owners as well. One thing that would really help and that would not be too expensive is to have a national system of inspection to rate all rental housing. The energy ratings would have to be disclosed to potential renters and be part of the lease and should also be put in the advertising. This would put people to work as inspectors, and might encourage landlords to clean up their acts. There could be other incentives as well, such as free CFL bulbs for new renters, and helping landlords with the cost of programable thermostats, insulation and even furnace and water heater upgrades. "In the end, if you include the renters, I am sure it will greatly decrease our carbon footprint and at the same time give a little help those who often live on the margins of our suffering economy."
This is a reprint of an article by Tim Wise, a writer/activist who is among the most prominent anti-racist activists in the U.S., having given lectures from 1995 to the present in 48 different states, and on over 500 college campuses. He has trained a multitude of teachers, corporate employees, non-profit organizations and law enforcement officers in methods for dismantling racism in their institutions.
THIS IS YOUR NATION ON WHITE PRIVILEGEBy Tim Wise For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help. White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay. White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug. White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action. White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested." White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals. White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful. White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist. White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look." White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt. White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America. White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced. White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden. And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…White privilege is, in short, the problem.
As a former Alaskan, I have been watching the media circus surrounding the GOP's VP choice with a bit of disbelief. Sarah Palin's private life is immaterial to the race, and the more the press and the bloggers dish on it, the more we are distracted from the real problems with this candidate, much to the glee of the GOP, I am sure. It almost makes me wonder if the GOP is setting us up with all these baby stories just to keep us from looking more deeply into the candidate's background, because while we are all talking about babies we are not talking about the Alaska Independence Party.What is and should be fully discussed in the press and is NOT being discussed is Sarah Palin's political life. I am very much concerned with her and her husband's involvement in the secessionist movement in Alaska. Joe Volgler, it's founder and a man whom Palin has praised in the past, would be on Bush's terrorist watch list if he were alive today. He was brutally murdered in 1993 by a coups within his organization and was known to deal in illegal weaponry. This was a very dangerous man and his organization is still very much in place, quite militant, and filled with "survivalist cult" types. And yet, just last year Gov. Palin was the keynote speaker at one of their "conventions". Her husband has been registered in the movement for many years.
Sarah Palin, along with the other three candidates, is about to be briefed by the CIA on top secret security matters. Am I the only one who is alarmed by this?
I recently moved here to Sequim from Seattle where Sen. Obama has a lot of support. I would like to participate in activities in the area and would appreciate contact with others in Sequim
I have an idea for a fundraiser here and need some help to get it going. I don't really know anybody here yet, but maybe this is a good way to get acquainted.
I see that there was an event in Seattle called "Bowling for Obama" and I notice there is a little bowling alley here in Sequim and I think a Bowling for Obama event may be fun. Apparently anyone getting above Barack's score of 37 had to give a dollar per point. That would be a sure thing! :)
So if there is anyone reading this who knows how I could set this up, please let me know. Is there someone from headquarters that I could contact? I am totally green at planning anything like this. I have always worked on Democratic campaigns in the past but someone else did all the planning. I just did gruntwork, you know, knocked on doors or stuffed envelopes and made calls. I never RAN anything.
Especially a fundraiser. How do I set it up? Should I just have everyone write checks to Barack and mail them all in?
So if someone in charge reads this please help. Thanks --- susan
What a lot of Republicans are beginning to figure out is that their party has changed drastically in the last 10 to 15 years. In a way, it's been hijacked by the corporatocracy and no longer represents the conservative values that brought many Republicans to the party in the first place. As I've watched this change over the years, I've often wondered why anyone who earns less than a million or so a year would ever want to belong to this party. They are turning the middle class into little more than surfs. They get people to vote for them by telling them "government is bad" and that it "taxes all your money" and "spends it in the wrong places". They say the solution is to "privatize". They even want to "privatize" social security. "Privatize" is just Repubicode for "turn over to our big business friends". Most of the Republicans in office are wealthy business people who are helping their former associates feather their nests. They farm out as much government as they can and pay for it on the backs of the fading middle class and then they take away all the public programs that the middle class and the poor use and replace them with even more "privatized" gems. They have even privatized the war. Billions of dollars have been spent with private mercenary soldier firms like Blackwater. It turns my stomach when I see that thousand of mercenaries are making ten times what we pay our troops all at taxpayer expence and then when our troops come home broken and sick they are not even thrown the bone of veteran services! All so the "privatized" soldiers can bring home big paychecks and make big profits for the company. Yes, the party of Lincoln has surely changed. He must be rolling over in his grave! Do not be fooled by John McCain's "maverick" facade. He is one of them. Don't forget the Keating Five and the whole fiasco with the Savings and Loan scam. It was only after that that he started "getting religion" on reform. Basically, he will carry forward this giveaway Republican program to the corporations. He has said as much. He even wants to end up with "private insurance" replacing Social Security.
Can you imagine the horror of turning all our government programs over to the insurance companies? so much for "conservative values"! More like "rape and plunder"!
Now that the primary is behind us, it is time to move on. Time to put the rancor caused by the Clinton candidacy aside and try and bring those that supported her back into the fold. Time for the family to heal.
We have a double goal and that is to defeat John McCain and and also get as many Democrats as possible elected to Congress and the Senate to support our new president.
ALL FIRED UP!
