MAKING CHANGE: BRING HOME THE BACON
Making CHANGE happen. We elected President Obama in Nov. We rallied for the economic stimulus and then for the budget resolutions. Now to finally bring home the bacon for our region we need to help our local governments and groups apply for grants. For example, this is how we get a summer jobs program.
GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP
Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D, FL, 2nd) is hosting a grant writing workshop this Wednesday, April 8, 2009 as a follow-on the the economic stimulus workshop held last week.
Congratulations one and all! Victory is sweet.
Next steps:
1. US Senate - road to 60
a. Georgia - runoff election - make phone calls for Jim Martin
b. Minnesota - Al Franken is in recount, so far less than 200 votes out of more than 2 million separate the two candidates.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMpTmr96V5hKIfyHT4Av4jsVQgrQD94M80203
2. Orange County Democratic Party - 2008-2012 organizational meeting Saturday, December 6
FLORIDA -- officially Orange County Democratic Executive Committee (OCDEC)
http://www.orangedemocrats.com/
http://www.orangedemocrats.com/page.asp?PageId=396
3. Change is Coming House Meeting - weekend of December 13-14.
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL
Senator McCain is out of touch. This is Paul Krugman's analysis of the situation. Based on this analysis does Senator McCain's proposal to throw people in jail make any sense? It is a pallative that doesn't get to the root of the problem.
"The story so far: the real shock after the feds failed to bail out Lehman Brothers wasn’t the plunge in the Dow, it was the reaction of the credit markets. Basically, lenders went on strike: U.S. government debt, which is still perceived as the safest of all investments — if the government goes bust, what is anything else worth? — was snapped up even though it paid essentially nothing, while would-be private borrowers were frozen out.
Thus, banks are normally able to borrow from each other at rates just slightly above the interest rate on U.S. Treasury bills. But Thursday morning, the average interest rate on three-month interbank borrowing was 3.2 percent, while the interest rate on the corresponding Treasuries was 0.05 percent. No, that’s not a misprint.
This flight to safety has cut off credit to many businesses, including major players in the financial industry — and that, in turn, is setting us up for more big failures and further panic. It’s also depressing business spending, a bad thing as signs gather that the economic slump is deepening."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/opinion/19krugman.html?ref=todayspaper
There is more to come, by October 1st we may have the largest municipal bankrupty in US history if Jefferson County, Alabama already in default, files for bankruptcy if it can't reach a negotiated settlement by September 30t
The root cause is that ordinary homeowners can't pay their mortgages and many are underwater in that the value of their house has fallen to the point that sales proceeds would not pay off the mortgage.
Five million homes are at risk.
We had a couple of mistakes in our Rasmussen Reports poll results that we had to fix over this weekend (thanks to a caller who informed me of the mistakes!). The New Jersey results were flipped between Obama and McCain -- mistakingly crowning McCain as the winner of the state. And the Virginia poll was just not updated to the latest June poll... I have fixed that.
Quinnipiac University has ... focused exclusively on the battleground states. [Obama] is over 150 electoral votes ahead in the more contested states.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes:
<blockquote> In 2006, for the first time in U.S. history, a majority of all births to women under 30 — 50.4 percent — were out of wedlock. Nearly 80 percent of births among black women were out of wedlock.By comparison, when John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, just 6 percent of all births were to unmarried women under 30.Since then, the percentages have risen across the ethnic spectrum. One-third of white, non-Hispanic women under 30 who gave birth in 2006 were unmarried. For Hispanics, it was 51 percent.“Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important,” said Senator Obama, in remarks he delivered at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. “And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation ...
Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies, put it this way in a research paper:
“The marriage rates of all native-born young males and young black males (22-32 years old) in the U.S. are strongly correlated with the annual earnings of these young men. The higher their annual earnings, the more likely they are to be married. Among native-born black males, those men with earnings over $60,000 were four times more likely to be married than their peers with annual earnings under $20,000. </blockquote>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/opinion/21herbert.html?hp
Jim CallahanOrlando, FL
Obama supporters not only need to win the election, locally activists need to be involved in the local party. Does the party matter? It does in Florida, if you want your votes to count!!! <br>
Tonight's Orange County Democratic Party meeting is an opportunity to show the local Democratic Party your support for Obama and sign up ("qualify") to run for Precinct Committee man or women. <br>
Now is time to sign up to be part of reorganization of the party that will take place after the election in December. <br>
BTW, by state law the county party organizations are known as "Executive Committees." So this is officially the Orange County Democratic Executive Committee (OCDEC). <br>
From a draft announcement: <br>
<blockquote>
This week is Qualifying Week <br>
from Noon on Monday June 16 to Noon on Friday June 20, 2008 <br>
Every four (4) years in a Presidential election year, all County Democratic Executive Committees reorganize for the next four-year cycle. Current members and those who wish to represent their precinct must qualify to run. The terms of all current members expire this year. In December 2008, the newly elected Precinctmen and Precinctwomen meet to elect new DEC officers from among their ranks. The newly-elected Precinctmen and Precinctwomen are the only ones who can either run for office or vote at the December 2008 organizational meeting. < br> <br>
Who can qualify: Democrats registered to vote in the Precinct in which they live. You must have specified your party affiliation. No party affiliation and independents are not eligible.<br> <br>
How to qualify: You must complete the form and loyalty oath and sign it before a Notary Public. You may download the form from the Florida Democratic Party website here: http://www.fladems.com/precinctform or here: http://www.fladems.com/page/event/detail/other/wrb3. Forms can also be obtained from the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office at 119 W. Kaley St., Orlando, FL, 32806 (407-836-2070). <br> <br>
Where do I file: You must file the original with the Supervisor of Elections Office. You may NOT file it electronically. You may also bring your fully executed forms to Orange Democrats Headquarters at 47 E. Robinson St., Suite 201, Orlando, FL 32801 until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, 2008, and we will file them with the SOE for you. We will be posting hours on our website; however, if no one is there when you come by, you may slide it under the door. We will be in the office daily during qualifying week. <br> <br>
Where do I find a notary: We will have notaries available at our monthly meeting on June 16, 2008, beginning at 6:30 P.M. We will also have notaries available periodically at the headquarters (check website for updates). If you are a notary and can help, please email orangedemocrats@gmail.com. You can also find notaries at law offices, banks and savings & loan offices. <br> <br>
</blockquote>
Jim Callahan <br>
