Dear President Obama,
we all have come a long, long way from Iowa. When you became President, we were all thrilled. You signed ARRA into law in Feb. The bill was wonderful until reality set in for many States. It became business as usual with funding programs that were failing getting federal funding. I decided to use my skills and extensive understanding of federal grants, state grants, CDA, CAA's, and started to work.
From March till June 15, I helped various groups. Not charging more than stamps and the cost of paper, I set out to help others start to change their areas. Many, many, many submissions later, I find myself sad to see so little going out.
The government has been offering several grants and loans for over 5 months. President Obama, you had an urgency in getting applications in for everything from broadband communication to advanced technologies. The concept was great, pour funding into R and D and the green economy and create jobs and an independence from foreign oil. Everyone was excited at the prospects of finally rolling out some technology that was $500,000 to $5,000,000 dollars away from transformative change.
With great excitement our first team gathered to apply for a NOAA grant. April 6th. Was NOAA deadline for a Costal Rehabilitation Grant. We submitted the required paperwork and an extensive application. We were told the grant award would be sometime by the end of April. In May, we were told without a doubt we would know by the middle to end of the month. June, no new news. The very end of June, our team was told via a letter that over 8000 groups applied. We did not make the cut.
During this time, various teams from across country were asking if anyone has any information on anyone getting a grant. A few grants were closed and no awards except a few DOT or other super large group.
In the meantime, I was told to apply for ARPA-E. We were given a two step process to apply. Step one, apply for a control number, and step two submit an 8 page summary for consideration to step three. Deadlines for every thing were June 2, 2009. Everyone from NY to MM, FL, WI, and many others decided to work together. A network was established and many diverse companies were looking out for their counterparts because the deadline was pushed back a week. The last announcement said over 3500 applications were received. If the rules were followed, the small fry R and D’s would have had a much better chance with the original deadline were followed. Our network submitted over 37, 8 page applications from advanced engineering from various groups. Solar to geothermal, nanotech and data sensors to pick up viruses, road construction, and reusable clean tech cradle to cradle shovel ready projects. This award was to be announced the first week in July and we all do not know what to do next.
Smaller grants, under $500,000 are available but impossible to grant to business unfamiliar with compliance issues. We submitted for a cooperative mini grant to help other applicants secure the funding and also ensure compliance with the rules and guidelines. This grant was moved back another 90 days. The grant managers are just as puzzled as the general public.
USDA and SBA programs are now become the jokes of the business world. If you can show a profit you can qualify. If you qualify, no bank will back the loan. In Miami, FL, the SBA has written zero loans in 2 and ½ years. The ARC program was announced several months ago as a $35,000 debt repayment program. This program was just released two weeks ago and one stipulation is positive case flow. Everyone’s books are lousy and getting worse.
More than one of my close business associates is now facing court action. They were counting on some form of help to drive the economy. They all have been to the SBA, USDA, private sector funding, international funders, banks, and all of the other routes. No funding. Credit scores too low because everyone was checking credit scores.
Frustration and lack of confidence is setting in with most businesses. The shovel ready projects have been sitting for months waiting. The great excitement has led to the great confusion. For some, 20 months of hard campaigning followed by non-stop grant applications has led to total burn-out.
My advice, get the money out. Any amounts for all the “wonderful” ideas we hear about. It is time to step to the plate and throw some funding at us. We are not kids. We have experience and years of training in almost every field around. Heck, a pat on the back would go a long way to rebuilding this wonderful nation.
I write this to all the grant managers who are great and pick up the telephone, the folks at SBA that hear these stories, the hard work on the grant sites, to everyone across the country working extra hard to make this work, and to all those applicants waiting like us.
Hang in there,
Y. Asienberg
L.Quarles
PPS/AVC
South Bay, FL
Hand had evidently broadened his intellectual horizons; his article showed a heightened empathy for the economic and social arguments supporting a more interventionist role for the state.
— Gerald Gunther, Learned Hand, p. 123
When President Barack Obama mentioned he was looking for judges in possession of "empathy," many political conservatives quickly assumed that empathy was code for "activist." And "activist" in turn is a secret word for "judges who make decisions we don't care for." The article referenced above appeared in 1908 in the Harvard Law Review, written by Learned Hand, who most observers consider America's greatest judge that never made it to the Supreme Court. Learned Hand spent his 50-year career as a judge on the federal district and circuit courts in New York, earning a reputation as the very model of "judicial restraint," which we are told by those same conservatives is the conceptual opposite of "judicial activism." Hand's essay criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision in Lochner v. New York. In Lochner the Court, relying on theories of laissez-faire capitalism, used the doctrine of substantive due process to strike down a law regulating maximum working hours for bakers. The Lochner majority reasoned that the law ran afoul of a constitutional freedom to make contracts that it discovered somewhere within the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court downplayed the "relative strategic advantages of the two parties to the contract," as Hand put it, "of whom one is under the pressure of absolute want, while the other is not." In other words, Learned Hand's empathy lay to the side of the journeyman bakers, whose interests were protected by their elected representatives, those who had imposed the maximum employee working hours as against the rapacious corporate baking concerns. While the empathetic Judge Hand leveled more particular legal criticisms of Lochner, his own overarching philosophical concern — as it continued to be throughout his long career — was directed toward the phenomenon of a tiny group of unelected, life-tenured judges capriciously invalidating the democratically expressed will of the people, which Learned Hand regarded as almost a form of tyranny. Sound familiar? Sounds practically like the late Tom DeLay.* In opposition to that potential, Hand practiced not "judicial activism" but "judicial restraint," which is precisely the attitude conservatives will tell you they value most in a judge. And in Learned Hand's case, it had quite a lot to do with empathy for the human objects of judicial decisions, a concern which Obama apparently shares. So when conservatives are ultimately presented with President Obama's forthcoming nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, perhaps they should be careful about what it is they're not wishing for.
I have not been on our site much because I have been helping others, as our President has urged us all to do. I heard this call to order and thought, what can I do? I decided to do what I do (business planning, etc.) and extend that to everyone. I work as a consultant to alternative and innovative projects. This work doesn’t pay much but few people know the macro and micro levels of systems.
I decided to attempt to help a fellow inventor type with a design project. A few years ago, all doors would have shut. This year, something has changed in Washington D.C. When I made a call, someone called me back! I was shocked. That was an opening that let me feel like this is really my country for a change.
The issues we face as a county and planet are daunting to say the least. America has more talented people that anywhere else in the world. Once we all stop backbiting and focus on the task at hand, remarkable things can take place.
My advice to everyone is simple. Everyone has something to give of themselves. When you are thinking of others you tend to not dwell on your own self pity. With that said, hey, we have a country to fix!
Thanks to everyone out there!
Larry
P.S. Good job to everyone.
The challenges are great, the road is long, and the critics say that it will never work. These are the same statements before President Obama started his campaign for the White House. Her it is, December of 2008, and the same exact questions now face the entire populist.
We wanted a change in Washington and in politics. A reformer with a vision to lead us back onto the path of more traditional American Values. A leader that would not allow torture to be mentioned as a tactic of any branch of the US government. We wanted to end an unjust war with some dignity and focus on alternative energy programs.
After eight long years under an administration that has given us huge debt, wars, and not the brink of a depression, what is next?
I have a very clever plan to develop some technology that could radically change our country. It is “green” and would produce jobs. Our factory is manufacturing a unique blended hybrid recycled plastic. This will keep huge amounts of waste out of landfills and would be the raw material for new products.
An economist would say that the triple bottom line would be met or exceeded. I decided to let this be known to some people and everyone has been impressed. Last week, I received a booklet from the EPA. This manual came with a useful CD and many pages of questions. This style of implementing new technologies is outdated. The market is moving too fast. The standard P/L tables do not apply anymore. We will turn a profit, create jobs, pay taxes, and develop new equipment.
So, the booklet sits on my desk as I wonder how our family can afford Christmas this year, a very ill relative in the hospital that has depleted all of her assets, a daughter worried about her job, and cash running out.
I worry that such a great idea is in danger of never seeing the light of day because of the paperwork needed and the time required to do it. Yes we need a change, I am willing to help, but time is very short. Check us out at www.avcpallets.com what the heck, someone else with vision might understand the situation.
Larry Q
Well gang,
It has been an uphill fight for all of us. I suggest a massive trip to some warm beach and relax. I have made many new friends here and get teary eyed that change spread across the nation.
To all of my wonderful neighbors, who meet me in a blizzard, freezing cold. The long days of SP-45 and knocking on doors. It paid off in so many wonderful ways and meeting HQ staff and the excitement everyone had.
To my new family! We all worked together and are just a phone call away. This is not the end, it is our collective future. We must stay strong and stay involved.
Many blessings,
Larry and Cheryl
Wisconsin
www.plasticpalletssolutions.com
avcusa@gmai.com
My Congress,
I am inspired, my Congress, and let me tell you why.
Because for the first time in my life, I am seeing people come together to action. Larger numbers of voters are mobilized than ever before. People are speaking the same voice, are giving of themselves, are motivated to work and reach out to others. And it is in the name of Change for all of us.
For the first time in my life, I'm seeing the real America - a unified people from small and large towns, demanding Change. A hint of the America of which our founders dreamed…an America where the people are bonding together to make a difference, mobilizing to effect change. I'm seeing the America we talk about when we read the Preamble to our Constitution:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
These rights, including free speech and religion, are integral to our shared experience as Americans, allowing Lincoln’s words to ring true:
...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
It is this government of the people that our founders wished for us, and that we have slowly let slip through our fingers. The dream of the forefathers set up a representative structure where each of you, members of Congress, serves as a trumpet for us. You are our elected spokesperson, our clarion call of what we want for our society.
And we want Change.
What is this Change? Everyone I speak to agrees: we need leaders that inspire and represent the America we want to see regardless of party-affiliation. 80% of Americans feels that we have a leadership crisis – in our businesses, in our government, among our own people. We are not happy with where we have gone, the course that our country has taken and how uninvolved we have become. What was originally an American Dream has now become its nightmare as we learn some valuable lessons about economics and leadership. We recognize a crisis, and we understand that we have been part of the problem.
I feel that this is why so many Republicans and Independents have come to support Obama: he is a leader for all people, not just one side or another. Not the rich over the poor, or the poor over the rich. He represents a responsibility of the people to take care of the people, of Americans to support America!
But it didn’t have to be Obama. Any leader who truly represented the interests of everyone should have been able to step forth and rally the American people behind them. Because as the leadership poll shows, the majority of people want the President to do what the American people think is right. Not what the individual him/herself feels is right.
And what the American people feel is right often transcends party-lines. From the leadership report, again:
Americans have specific desires of our government, and a growing number do not care about a label of one party or another, but instead are looking for leaders that take up the platform of the people and work to make it happen.
Why can't our politics always be thus, my Congress? Why must one don the banner of one party or another, conservatism or liberalism, and not appreciate that a strong country is flexible. By refusing to yield, we are broken - as we have seen in our foreign policy. By bending, we are made stronger.
Why must our future leaders choose one side or another, when America needs candidates that are able to see all sides of the picture and make the right choices for America at that time? Whether that choice be conservative or liberal, social or fiscal? Why must we choose sides and belong to one method or another, when in truth, a marriage of the two is usually the best action altogether? Why not a leadership that has all options available in order to move in the direction that is best for Americans?
I am excited to see that we are stepping up and accepting responsibility for ourselves and our actions. Many might say that we are lazy and merely want to bring in “leadership” that will decide things for us, as long as we can continue to watch our sit-coms and reality TV. That the American spirit is a thing of the past.
But this election shows that is not so: We The People feel left out of the mix, constantly given leadership options that do not inspire us, do not make us feel as if we are being represented, spend efforts only to discredit others instead of supporting US, the people.
Too long has our government been incestuous and broken, over eight (and more) long years of constant fear and frustration. Confidence that we could do anything to save ourselves was lower than ever before. Instead we hung our heads and tried not to look the world in the eye, shuffling our feet and saying, “Yeah…I know. I feel helpless too.” We huddled up, ready to endure a long winter of failed confidence and leadership. Many talked of leaving the country. Others vowed to fight on. Still others descended into a pessimistic hole of distrust of any candidate, taking the latest administrative as just a sign that Lincoln’s words were the past, and fear was our future.
But We The People are now standing up and taking back our country. Having had the taste of hope, the taste of what being a citizen really means, we awake to our charge: We The People are going to hold our leaders responsible, and ourselves responsible for bringing the right leaders in. We need an ideology change, a thread of something that will allow us to hold our heads high. We need to feel as if those “rights” we fought for so many years ago really exist and mean something. We need to know that we can make a difference.
As America, we are so close to stepping away from the adolescent behavior of the past eight years, reminiscent of a spoiled, rich teenager who is the bully of the world playground. I am eager to see us move beyond that into our young adulthood to being more responsible, more thoughtful country.
And it only took being thrust out on the ledge of utter downfall for us to pull back, and pull together.
I am also scared, my Congress.
I am scared that we will not learn from this unifying experience and divisive politics.
I am frightened that we will choose Change, and then sit back and wait for change to happen to us, instead of realizing that it starts with us.
I’m afraid that We The People will feel the burden of Change will be too much after so many years of being downtrodden. We will forget the sacrifices that our forefathers and ancestors made to seek a better country, a better life. We will forget how much they gave up, and how much many of our people still give up, to make sure that America is the country of opportunity and freedom, where people have the right to speak their minds and worship how they wish.
I worry that we will feel that there is too high a price to pay for Change. That We The People will be too afraid of uncertainty to push for a better country and world. Much like the uncertainty of death that begets strict religion but no enlightenment, We The People could fall into greater fear of Change than fear of dying out. And we will balk, and remain the same.
But have no doubt – we will still pay the prices we thought we were avoiding.
I’m fearful that people will cling too much to labels and ideologies, eschewing flexibility and evaluation. They will be unable to cast off the chains of “my way or the highway” for self-review and broad perspective. That We the People will turn our backs on ourselves and everything we could be in order to follow a regimented doctrine from a corrupted era.
And I'm sure you are scared too. Because despite the label of "democrat" that Obama runs under, in reality he is very middle of the road, and represents many of the views of both conservatives and liberals. And that means that perhaps it might not be about large parties, facing off mano e mano, anymore. Perhaps all our hopes will be realized and we will have flexible, thoughtful leadership that will listen to We The People, and move forward step by step to becoming a stronger, greater nation. And this means We The People will demand Change of You, my Congress.
No, it will not change overnight, or even with one president. All of our troubles will not vanish, and no one person is the answer to the days ahead. We may endure some difficult times and much will be demanded of us to put our best foot forward for the slow steady climb.
But it must start somewhere, it must start with one step. One Step towards Change and Hope, a step that will restore confidence in our own leadership. This will allow us to feel strong enough to lift our heads and look towards the horizon of becoming a better country, a better We The People, and a better citizen in this world. We will be able to look ahead and see that the sun is rising on America, and hope renews with the coming Spring.
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun.”
I raise my head and look forward to the rising of the sun, so that we may prepare for a new season of growth and confidence in The United States of America – United Again. Perhaps then we can achieve what Lincoln spoke of in his second inaugural address:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.
This blog, Exponential, endorses Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.
Lane BurnsConcerned Citizen of the United States of America
The distinctly different challenges the United States faces today demand a deliberative, steady and thoughtful leader who will guide our nation through what are sure to be a very perilous next four years. Barack Obama is the man for that job. [...] We base our endorsement not just upon Obama's promise of hope and change, but also upon his positions on issues of importance to Americans.
How frustrating. So, let's go through this latest fear-tactic, shall we?
Enough Democrats will be elected into the Congress to create imbalance. Choose a Republican for president to balance them out.
A number of reasons why this irritates me:
Imagine McCain. His sneers. His air-quotes. His privatization and his flippancy towards the rest of the world. Do we really want someone who believes in supporting his private investors more than the common American people? Do we really want someone like McCain or Palin, who immediately turn to smearing opponents instead of dealing with issues? Do we think that is an effective way to lead a country?
Remember when Bush mentioned the "Axis of Evil" and we were all ashamed that our leader so brazenly bypassed diplomacy and called names? Or how about when he called the leader of North Korea, a "pygmy"? Don't we see that now, in our own country, with McCain/Palin throwing out labels and accusations of socialist, terrorist, and "celebrity"?
We aren't happy with Bush's diplomacy methods - how could we support the same in McCain and Palin?
How many times have we shaken our heads when Bush would come out with gaffes and errors in his statements? And now we want to elect McCain and Palin, the top gaffe-makers in our country today?
And how many times have we questioned the Bush tactics and strategies that deliberately lead us into situations that are designed to benefit himself and his cronies? And now McCain and Palin are using the same cronies and political campaign advisers as Bush did. How many times did we say we disliked "flip-flopping" but ignore the fact that McCain's entire campaign has been a flip-flop. He was against torture, but ended up supporting Bush in it anyway. He was for campaign reform, and now he's been taking advantage of every loophole that exists. He was against tax cuts for the wealthy, and now supports them again. He left the 2000 campaign after Bush's campaign smeared him and his family terribly. Now he's using the same people to smear Obama. He says he puts his country first, but ask Americans how they feel Palin fits that theme. He claims he's moderate, but then takes up all the most conservative ideals of his party.
He's shown his disdain for what Americans want at every turn. We don't like the negativity - he does more of it. We don't like the idea of privatizing health care, he makes it a pivotal part of his campaign. Just what does McCain stand for that Americans really want?
Fear-mongering is tiring. Our country has been at Orange Alert for so long that no one even pays attention anymore. McCain wants people to question "Who is the real Obama?" when we really should be asking, "Who is the Real McCain - and which one is trying to be president?"
(originally posted at Exponential)
We strongly encourage readers to vote for Barack Obama for president. [...] By contrast [to McCain's campaign], Obama has been steady, thoughtful and inspirational. His "change-we-can-believe-in" campaign inspired thousands of people to get involved in politics for the first time. He's a Harvard lawyer, but he worked as a community organizer and consumer advocate before he went to law school. He has risen from humble beginnings to run for president. In this brilliant campaign, he has earned our vote.
The La Crosse Tribune endorses Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat from Illinois, to provide the change in leadership, hope and vision we need to restore faith in our future and restore trust among our world partners. [...] Obama combines the discipline of pay-as-you-go budgeting with plans to reinvest in our crumbling national infrastructure and reduce our carbon emissions by 80 percent by the middle of this century -- a more thoughtful, visionary approach to an energy policy than simply crying, "Drill, Baby, Drill." [...] We believe Barack Obama will provide the leadership and inspiration we need.
Americans feel the need for new leadership, a renewal of our national spirit, and a desperate need to pull together in tough times.This election is about such needs, not individual planks in a campaign platform. That's why the Herald endorses Barack Obama for president.[...]Restoring health to the nation's economy will be even more difficult considering the mess that the nation finds itself in at this point. It will likely require patience, sacrifice and a positive attitude from the American people. That will require inspirational leadership from the nation's president, and there is every reason to believe that is Obama's greatest strength.
Americans feel the need for new leadership, a renewal of our national spirit, and a desperate need to pull together in tough times.
This election is about such needs, not individual planks in a campaign platform. That's why the Herald endorses Barack Obama for president.
[...]
Restoring health to the nation's economy will be even more difficult considering the mess that the nation finds itself in at this point. It will likely require patience, sacrifice and a positive attitude from the American people. That will require inspirational leadership from the nation's president, and there is every reason to believe that is Obama's greatest strength.
The Bush administration has bumbled from crisis to crisis for nearly eight years, competence gone AWOL. The nation needs resuscitating change like a new baby needs that first breath of air. Two would-be successors pledge it. But Barack Obama is more believable. We recommend him to be the 44th president of the United States. Obama's vision and potential to be that change agent trump his relative lack of experience, though the experience he possesses is valuable. The maturity and calm demeanor he has exhibited these past two years in the public spotlight and earlier, speak to able, careful, inclusive leadership. And he is simply the better of the two on the issues.
You know when people are focused on something good, it's a momentous occasion. I've never seen anything like it in Baraboo before.
