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New Forum Nodes - Reminder

Bill Harding — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:00:29 -0400

As a guideline to our many new members, and a reminder to our long-standing members, Democrats.com asks that you only post one "new" forum node per day (24-hour period). This policy gives all members the time needed to read, digest, and comment on new nodes. This policy is not strictly enforced, but when a member shows a tendency to post several new nodes daily, several times a week, their nodes will begin to be unpublished. If that is not enough of a "hint," then the member may be changed to a "comment only" status. New nodes which are just a "copy" of a news article, should be restricted to no more than four paragraphs of quoted material, with a link to the quoted source. If you want to include commentary with the quoted material, that is fine, but please try and keep it "readable" with the use of paragraph breaks, and brevity. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding... Note: Before it is brought up, this policy does NOT apply to our bloggers. They can post as often, and as long, as they like...;-)

Yes, Detroit can make a green turnaround

SharonRB — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:16:57 -0500

[From Nancy Skinner.]

Let's face it. No one believes us. That's the crux of the problem in fashioning a bailout for the three Detroit automakers.

Let's face another reality: Why should they? Resistance to change has long been part of the culture of the domestic auto industry. When President-elect Barack Obama came to the Detroit Economic Club and said we need to do better, he was pilloried almost universally by the media and establishment types.

Many of those folks would rather spend enormous sums lobbying against CAFE standards than use that money to get the job done. Now we are on the brink of collapse, and the American public is not feeling our "fierce urgency of now."

We need to rebuild the trust of the American people and capture their imagination.

Here's one way to do that:

Forge a complete "green turnaround" restructuring plan for the auto industry that is built into an economic aid package sufficient to get the job done: a Detroit Compact of sorts. This would not be just another unpopular bailout, but an energy, environmental and economic program all rolled into one.

It sounds enormous, but all change on this scale is. We can break it down into steps.

• Convene three working groups: technology, industry and financial.

The technology group -- including the best and brightest, not just from here in Detroit, but across the country -- would determine the best technology mix (EVs? fuel cells? plug-in hybrids?) for the immediate, near-term and long-term future, as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome to make it happen. For example, battery swapping at gas stations may be an intermediate option until a long-mileage battery is developed.

The industry group -- the American-based automakers and the UAW -- would make an honest assessment of assets and liabilities (pension, health care, etc.), and current finances, including cash flow based on current sales, then determine whether a consolidation or strategic partnerships make sense. This would be based on factors such as the most promising technologies in development, time to market and economies of scale.

The financial people -- private and government economists -- would determine the needed mix of public financing, tax incentives and outside private capital for the reinvented auto industry, and how the funds would be allocated. Most urgently, this group would determine how best to provide the bridge financing while the Detroit Compact is put in place.

• Integrate the work products.

What technology mix, alliance mix and financing options, if any, will best help achieve the goals of ensuring the industry's survival, avoiding bankruptcies and the resulting economic shock, and producing the most fuel-efficient vehicles possible as quickly as possible, with an escalation plan to make even more advanced vehicles in second- and third-generation cycles?

• Build public and congressional support for the agreed-upon plan. The audience is the American public and Congress.

Our new president has said it clearly and consistently: Yes we can. And Detroit can, too. We can take a great American industry, one that created the American middle class, and reinvent it to produce the most advanced vehicles in the world. This will reduce our energy and financial dependence on other nations, rescue our climate, and reinvigorate our economy when we need it most.

The American people and our leaders in Washington need to hear Detroit say it loudly, and at long last: Yes, we can.

Prosecute George W. Bush For Murder

Thunderstone — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:02:09 -0500

THE MISSION:

"There are 2,700 District Attorneys in the United States. We intend to send a copy of The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder to every single one of them....

"American Military Deaths in Iraq

Since war began: Total = 4201 In Combat = 3393

Since 5/1/2003: Total = 4062 In Combat = 3285

Total Wounded: Official = 30,793 Estimated = 100,000+

An estimated 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the US invasion. More than 4 million Iraqis have now been displaced by violence in the country.

Cost of the War in Iraq

$572,391,767,047 and counting . . .

"We believe that somewhere in our nation there is a courageous man or woman who wants to reestablish The Rule of Law in this country. There can be no exceptions to 'No Man Is Above The Law'...

"What we're trying to do is to 'Kick Start' the judicial process by finding one -- from out of thousands of District Attorneys -- who will help us all begin to reclaim our country. . . ."

For further information, please continue to

http://prosecutegeorgebush.com/mission.htm

Thank you for your time.

Obama, Truth & Rights

satyagrahi — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:43:54 -0500

http://colindonoghue.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/seeing-through-the-manufactured-crisis-and-what-might-come-next/

Transparency & Accountability

melita — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:11:51 -0500

Hello fellow Activists!

The Massachusetts Justice Foundation is advancing the following Legislative Agenda for the upcomming 2009 legislative session:

1. Reform of State Public Record Law. Public records in Massachusetts, it turns out, are not so public. 50 years after the the first public record law was inacted the State Legislature inacted legislation to exempt itself. The Judicary soon followed suit, ruling they too were above public scruinity. Judicial officials go so far as to say its budget and salary records are beyond the reach of the law (of note is the total budget for the Judiciary has increased by 82% in the last decade alone, while case load has remained stagnant or decreased). The Government should be covered from the top down by the public record law. Transparency is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy.

2. Adoption of Federal Statues 28 U.S.C sec. 144 and 28 U.S.C. sec. 455. The proposed legislation would change our state's current subjective standard of judicial recusal, modeling the Federal Court's objective standard of recusal. Lax standards in the arena of judicial bias has to long been the norm in our State, with tragic and costly results. It is far to expensive and difficult for litigants and the public to pay for the resulting protracted proceedings Massachusetts' "insider" justice creates.

The Massachusetts Justice Foundation is a group of concerned citizens dedicated to creating a transparent and accountable state government.

Hedge Funds-- Responsible for the Systemic Destruction of the US Economy

jaslam — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:21:22 -0500

A 2006 report from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson raised concerns that
hedge funds could pose systemic risk to the financial markets, using
Citadel's disclosed information as a case study and stating that "at
face value, and without being able to look into the black box, the
balance sheet of today’s Citadel hedge fund looks quite similar to LTCM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTCM).

On 27th October 2008, following persistent market rumours, the Wall
Street Journal reported that officials from the Federal Reserve Bnk had
been checking with counterparties of Citadel Investment Group, Sankaty
Advisors, and other large hedge funds to evaluate the impact of any
failure on counterparties.

On 30th October 2008, it was announced that Citadel is winding down
its $1bn Fusion fund of funds. No disclosure on recent performance of
Fusion has been made, but it is expected that most of the remaining
capital will be shifted into its Discovery and Pioneer seeding funds.

On 31st October 2008 Fitch Ratings downgraded the Issuer Default
Ratings and senior debt ratings of Citadel's Kensington Global
Strategies Fund, Citadel Wellington LLC and Citadel Finance LLC,
placing the ratings on Rating Watch Negative pending notification of
redemptions. Despite buybacks of $100million of debt, $400million of
debt remains outstanding.

Fitch stated that they are "concerned that the recent performance of
Kensington and Wellington and future challenges to the broader market
may increase redemption requests in 2008 and into 2009, eroding the
funds' capital cushion".

On 6th Nov 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that Citadel
Investment Group had been asked by several banks to come up with more
collateral to cover investment losses. It stated that "Citadek's
biggest hedge fund has fallen almost 40 percent this year, causing the
company to hold talks with lenders including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche
Bank and Merrill Lynch".

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_Investment_Group]

President elect Obama give us, the nation, a goal to gets us working together towards a common goal

no_more_boneheads — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:18:20 -0500

President Elect Obama,

The repulican method of getting the nation to focus on war and the military complex isn't working. Lets call the trickle down theory the middle age term it deserves--- Might is right theory. It doesn't work and doesn't get a nation to come together towards a common goal.

The way I see it... We need some goal to help bring Americans together to work towards a common goal. If we could come up with something that a majority of Americans bellieve enough in to support it and work together.

We could build a whole industry on global envirnomental sciences. If we could build up that industry, we could export to other countries and help the environment.

We could build an industry and infrasturture that uses alternative fuel for transportation. I wouldn't bail out American car companies. Those companies should have taken que from Japan over 5 years ago when they started building hybrid cars. They didn't invest in the future, let them die in the future.

The US has the highest rate of nationals being incarcerated. These people need jobs that the current workplace overlooks.

The US doesn't keep track of people that recieved unemployment insurance after they have stopped drawing unemployment. These people need a hand up, to get back on their feet.

Rebuilding the environment and infrasturctures can help get us working together. Lets make it... America the Beautiful. America the technological advanced. America my brothers keeper, by taking care of the environment.

We need some goal to work towards.

Anybody else have any ideas?

Thank You

Jeff Smith

bush must resign

kiee1 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:43:57 -0500

For all Americans. Now that We have elected a new President , I need to ask who is our leader for the next two and a half months? As it seems clear President Bush no longer wants to lead! This upcoming two and a half months we need leadership. A leader who no longer choses to lead must step down. The current administration no longer wants to lead . We as American must ask him and Vice President dick Cheney should step down . Allow a temporary government to over see transition , stabilize the economy, help with the wars. We as Americans need to appeal to their patriotic values. Not to ego . With the state of our economy we need in office experts . Some names warren Buffet, Gen. NORMAN SHWARZKOPF, Also Condoleezza Rice should go . Any former president would do, All 3 remaining well respected. This his would reassure the stock markets, The banks, the entire country President Bush has chosen not to govern any more . So much more can be lost in two and a half months email all government officials governors and all email our reps lets start now to rebuild our economy!! Please remember President Bush fas chosen not to govern us. , These times are so important. keep Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, But the nation needs help now.

Who Should replace Rahm Emanuel?

jeffuppy — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:06:11 -0500

From Truth2Tell at DemocraticUnderground:

Rahm Emanuel goes to the White House. Goody for him. Now we can maybe get a real progressive Representative from the 5th Congressional district in Illinois. Here's my choice:

Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney

More here

Me likes!

Voting in Florida

mylonelyblueheart — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:19:05 -0500

Just thought I'd share this. It is not really good news. I just spoke with my daughter and she lives in Broward Co, FL. It seems she has been in line to vote since 11:00am this morning. There is no excuse for this. My calculation makes it almost 5 hours waiting in line to vote? Let me just say that she is not a happy camper. I wonder how many Floridians will not vote, because of this. Correct me if you think I am wrong, but is this crazy.? There is something wrong here, we need real election reform. I feel like I could scream.