President-elect Obama announces the next step in changing America
Building upon the movement that started on a cold January morning in Illinois almost two years ago, Barack Obama today announced the creation of "Organizing for America," a grassroots organization that will help ordinary citizens get involved in the legislation-making process.
While President-elect Barack Obama continues on his train trip to Washington, his transition team has just released a video in which he announces the creation of "Organizing for America."
"I'm asking people like you who fought for change during the campaign to continue fighting for change in your communities," Obama says.
The goal is to take those who volunteered during the president-elect's campaign and organize them to "work for change" in communities.
Is this guy serious about changing the way this country works, or what? Check out BarackObama.com and get involved. The election of the 44th President of the United States was but only the first step. Now the real work begins.
You're going to need it after I give the next $350 billion to banks and corporations that don't need it! Best of luck, suckers!
and you will be the first to refuse
to help with what needs to be done,
probably take away from your gun cleaning,right?
you are just a complainer and not a solution.
there are too many like you......
amen to that!suckes covers it!
gets you $350 billion.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I'd pay a dollar for that!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
unless it has bewen tried before.
http://www.ecommcode2.com/hoover/research/pho...
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Everyone should watch this. My fellow Americans, I implore you to watch this.
The times are too serious, the challenges too great.
Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia
I'm pumped.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4q3OJ0U8CHw/SU6eVqB...
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Tha was good! That was funny!
that the only change that seems to be coming, is the use of the internet as a propaganda tool by a Dem. According to all the emails I receive, Obama needs your change. Please donate to the "holy crap what a waste of money in this economy" ball as the new King is crowned.
Unlike the Kool Aid drinkers above, this is why I share Chris Matthews thigh tinglin when I think about what happens to leadership in America at noon on 20 Jan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr4PcOQYFAw
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Its better than lying us into two wars of choice, killing hundreds of thousands of innocents while making a mockery of every ideal our country is supposed to stand for.
Although if you ask me, (and I knew that you would) if Obama doesn't investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the above, then nothing matters, he's just as culpable.
This is the way you transform an arrogant corrupt republic back to a democracy. It wont be easy, a lot of work for all of us, but I believe it will be worth the time and sacrifice.
but this good man is a born leader with a cool head, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather have organizing this movement to try to pull us out of the quagmire we're in. Good luck to us all!
Sir, I know how to save 3,000 jobs with the stroke of a pen. You will be the new Commander in Chief, so save the base, save BNAS, Brunswick naval Air Base, the only base on the East Coast!
Military and economic security demand it. It is set to close in 2011. Already squadrons are leaving. Don't wait until it is too late!
But I think the country will be better off in a few years. Several years, 4-5 maybe.
Hey, things a truly fucked up. Fixin it ain't gonna happen overnight.
Get used to the idea of a slow recovery. In every aspect.
I know this guy who is 62. Worked hard all of his life. Invested wisely(so he thought). He got wiped out. His properties are worth less than half of what they were 2 years ago. His investments are wiped out.
Now he can't retire for another 5 to 10 years. He was there. He was finished working. He just didn't cash in when he should have.
There are Millions of stories like this across this country.
This rebound will not happen fast. But it will happen none the less.
Some people want immediate results. That's one of the reasons we're in this mess. Patience .
What is your conceptual, continuity?
This rebound will not happen fast. But it will happen none the less.
I'm on the fence with that. We used to be a creditor nation, now, we're the worlds largest debtor nation. People used the real estate bubble to refinance their mortgages, so that they could use the perceived increased equity in their homes to buy things such as wide-screen TVs, and now, we're hearing pleas to subsidize this consumption with mortgage relief?
I'm opposed to this mortgage relief, portrayed as relief to homeowners. It looks to me like it is a further bailout to banks. If I'm a homeowner that has bought a $150,000 house that is now worth $100,000 , I'm in a good position to tell the bank that either they'll have to renegotiate the mortgage, or I'll let them foreclose and let the bankruptcy courts discharge my obligations under the mortgage. That way, the bank eats the difference between the mortgage and the current market value of the home.
If the borrower has enough assets to pay the mortgage, then he shouldn't be exempt, same as any investor who invested in any asset.
What I think I'm seeing is that, under the Bush II administration, the economy spluttered along, facilitated by a near doubling of the national debt and unprecedented consumer borrowing. It's now clear that this couldn't carry on forever.
The rebound isn't going to happen without changes to what has gotten us to the point we're at right now. Free trade: What that has brought to us is a decimation of our manufacturing sector. While free trade benefits individual industries by being able to off-shore their labor, collectively, it damages the United States of America, Inc. And that's how we have to look at it - we need to pretend that the U.S. is being run like a business. Right now, we see a proposal to reduce income taxes to increase consumption. But, if that consumption is spent on imported goods, then the stimulus benefits the country of manufacture as much, if not more than the U.S.
Then, less I forget, our nation spends 16% percent of GDP on health care and doesn't cover everyone. Our competitors spend 11% and cover everybody. The only way to match our competitors is to go with single payer national health care, and Obama hasn't endorsed that idea yet. (Cost figures from B. Clinton on Letterman)
So, I don't see a long-term recovery soon. There may be further mortgaging of our future to alleviate the collapsing of the economy, but at some point, the foreign nations that have been lending us the money will conclude that further lending is imprudent. What is needed is a reversal of the policies that ended this nation from being self-sufficient.
Also we, need to end policies that prevent this nation from being efficient. For example, we spend about $48B federally on the war on drugs. Police forces all over this nation spend more and we hear of gun violence associated with this current prohibition. Most of this gun violence is associated with crack and heroin. So, if like some of our allies, we said to people who are addicted, you need to see your doctor to get maintenance prescriptions for your addiction, since we have no good cures, that would end the incentive of the gangs to get new users addicted, because, once addicted, they're off to see the doctor. The costs would be a fraction of the costs we currently pay on the war on drugs. Of course, the government would vociferously object, partly because the war on drugs has been used as an attack on the 4th amendment, and because it would reduce profits to the privatized prison system. Myself, I'm sick and tired of paying for the current approach on the war on drugs, which is the same approach used during prohibition, and yielding the same results.
We have lots of waste in this economy. What I see so far is an attempt to kick the ball down the road and postpone the reckoning. But sooner or later, we're going to have to seriously address the individual components that have led us to the state we're in. We're going to have to address a non-competitive health care system, a costly war on drugs, an outsourcing of manufacturing, a mortgage bubble, and a debt bubble.
One thing about the mortgage bubble. Republican are quick to point out that the mortgage bubble was caused by Democrats passing legislation that required banks to lend to unqualified individuals. Now, assuming that is so, once these mortgages were bundled into mortgaged backed securities, why is it that the rating agencies graded these securities as "AAA"? We know what the Republicans say is BS because if, the banks were having loans foisted upon them that they didn't want to make, then borrowers would have been met by Mr. Mooney or Mr. Drysdale, who would insisted that every "I" was dotted and every "T" was crossed. Instead, borrowers were met by "no income verification required".
Our current situation was caused by mortgaged backed securities being represented as "AAA" securities when, in fact, they were entitled to a junk rating only. Had this not happened, the present situation wouldn't have happened, although, sooner or later, consumption financed by ever increasing borrowing would have to come to a head.
I'm sure david vitter needs changing.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOrDN21yoGk&fe...
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Building upon the movement that started on a cold January morning in Illinois almost two years ago...
if that refers to the day Obama announced he was running for president, the date was actually February 10, 2007... i was there... damn it was cold.
I am not a follower, and I will remain an independent voter..........but I just volunteered to help bring change for America.
I feel disgraced by the vitriol and hatred expressed throughout this nation and feel like we need a new understanding of collective history, and a new emphasis on civic responsibility.
We have become too complacent.
'We, the People'............rimshot................hahahahahaha!
This is so cool! I've got 19 volunteers posted above and who knows how many posting after me who will back Obama & the Dems in Congress when they're doing the right thing for all of us and who will call Obama & the Dems when they're missing the mark.
Oh, and me too. This is going to be so much fun ! All the newly unemployed like me with not much to do in between on-line resumes and applications except research, blog, e-mail and call our Representatives. Sweet!
You better believe the Obstructionist Rethuglicans will try to throw up roadblocks every step of the way, America be damned. That's how they'll show their love for this country.
Dr.Dean worked for CHANGE and GUESS what Obama and Friends threw Dr. Dean under the Buss then backed up and ran over Dr.Dean again. For Obama went to bat for LIE-berman then he made EMMANUEL his chief of STAFF the one person that was stuck in the OLD way of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Then to add insalt to Dean People Obama threw a big DINNER FOR McCain. We Dean People will not be there for Obama next Election CYCLE. And you can take that to the BANK.
I don't need a lot of airy fairy volunteer crap. I need healthcare. I volunteer pretty much every day of my life as an activist. I'm glad to see more people getting involved!
But what we need is HR 676. SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE. Not that crap Baucus is proposing.
And frankly, I don't think Obama will fight for that or support it. So screw him because he is going to kill me.
Ditto everything you said.
HR 676!
I have some trepidations about what Obama wants the outcome of this "grass-roots changing of America" to accomplish "legislatively".
First, let me point out what I can see are the positives. If local groups of people get others involved on the basis of domestic issues, such as the environment, healthcare, local economic issues (practices of various companies and state/local government), etc., that will be very good. This means there will be a bigger pool of people to pressure their congressional representatives to support legislation that will benefit Americans.
I'm sure there are other potential benefits as well. I do wonder what will happen if local efforts don't result in a melding of Obama's programs and local programs.
For many years, I have been focused on what happens on the federal level. Local and state activism can accomplish only so much. I am concerned about the foreign policy of the president and congress. I am concerned about federal legislation that sets required standards for states in those areas where they receive federal money. I am concerned about presidential and congressional wrongdoing and how those matters are handled by the very bodies that have committed the wrongdoing. I am concerned about the US practice of conducting wars of choice without a Declaration of War, of presidents being able to do as they please. I am concerned about the destruction of our constitutional protections by the government itself. I am very concerned about the poisoning of our government by corporatism.
So, as much as I realize that Obama's push for people to get involved locally may have excellent benefits for Americans on local levels, I am just not interested in political activism at that level, though perhaps many will be. I've been there and done that, and while positive results can make one's own state or locality much more in tune with their citizens' needs, those results don't apply at federal levels.
While all this energy is focused on local matters and domestic issues, who will be watching the federal government's actions on foreign policy and congressional ethics? On restoring our constitutional government? Can Obama suggest an organization for people like us who can have a say in making legislation to deal with these matters, who can serve as an advisory board to Obama and Congress about legislation?
That's when I'd get involved, not before.
Barak Obama said, ..."I'm asking people like you who fought for change during the campaign to continue fighting for change in your communities,"
Translation...
stop watching me so closely and go clean up your bedroom...I'll call you when dinner is ready, we are having tainted leftover cloned beef and cabbage,(from 8 yrs ago) ...and you have to eat it all or you don't get cake.
...now get the hell out of my kitchen!
...(throws impeachment pie in the trash and thinks)..."now where's that bucket of jalapenos"
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I went and read that thing. It looks OK until you read the Israel policy. It's all about kissing Israel's a** and he is swearing to keep the weapons flowing to Israel so that Israel can
continue taking revenge by killing 68 Palestinians for every Israeli casualty"defend itself".And I agree with Anney that he has to institute change at the federal level.
And he is letting off Bush and Cheney completely. We need a fresh, independent investigation into 9-11, we still need to know what went down at Cheney's infamous secret energy conference, we need to determine whether the Iraq war was legal or was a violation of international law, and if Bush, Cheney and Rummy are war criminals, and we need to find out what happened inside of Dick Cheney's office re the torture memos and the revealing of Valerie Plame's identity and whether the Vice President broke the law on those occasions.
Those are not finished issues - they are very much alive and the guilty parties have to be prosecuted.
This new initiative is not to be independent, but a DNC baby, with VA governor Kaine at the helm.
So, does Obama plan to use this grassroots movement to support his shifted agenda (shifted from his campaign promises) and will they do it in the same kind of numbers Obama enjoyed during his campaign?
This plan makes me nervous, since I'm leery of any setup where a government program can be used as propaganda supported by a host of young people new to politics. Just saying....
Now, I'm going to make a shocking comment and it is NOT intended to suggest that there is a dark motive to Obama's plan, but rather that it could have dark applications if the format continues into another GW Bush-like presidency, which will not be stopped in the future unless Obama vows to uphold the Constitution and prosecute the Bush administration for war-crimes. The author of this post, Organizing for America Launches; Structure TBD [To Be Determined], made this comment:
It's true that no American president has ever done this, but at least one country had something similar, with a paramilitary application. They were called Hitler Youth.
As I say, I do NOT believe that this is Obama's aim for one minute, but I'm just expanding the programs' potentialities in the future if justice is not served on the Bush administration.
I've had the same reservations, especially because it looks like there's a large bait and switch action that is being played out. Well...we were warned that this would happen.
Unless there was as chance to shoot a minority, then it would be patriotic.
Five days after Obama's inauguration, independents will be meeting at a national conference sponsored by www.independentvoting.org in NYC. Independents have alot to be proud of, not only making the difference in the election of Obama (w/o independents voting in open primary states, Clinton surely would have been the nominee and 52% of independents voted for Obama in the general election), but most importantly for planting the seeds for the possibility of changing political culture that Obama is now pushing. I wholeheartedly support Obama's initiative to create grassroots organization off of his campaign organization, but what will be key to insuring that America is on a new road will be the connection between independents and the independent movement and the Obama initiative. To the extent that that movement resides in the Democratic Party, it's dead in the water.
If you're interested in attending (or finding out more about) the national conference in NYC (Sunday, Jan. 25), contact gmandell@cuip.org.
one local blowhard lazily reading chamber of commerce or GOP obstructionist talking points can undo the work of thousands of citizens volunteering few hours and dollars here and there.
there are 1000 plus RW stations out there filling the airwaves with constant attacks on anything obama wants to do. on sept 10 Limbaugh said "obama's head needs to roll" but I doubt few progressives heard it or called the local station or its sponsors to complain.
real progress, democracy, bipartisanship are impossible as long as the GOP has that complete monopoly to feed talking points and framing to the rest of the corporate media that often need its coordinated UNCONTESTED repetition as groundwork for the lazy celebrity talking heads so they can repeat the absurd talking points with 'popular' validation.
All the RW radio and television propganda can stop in a heartbeat if Obama orders that the FCC be restored to integrity and that the FCC subsequently mandates that broadcasters fulfill their prime obligation under the law: to serve and inform the public. Obama can further help the cause of a functioning Fourth Estate by order his DoJ to investigate the MSM for anti-trust violations that center around abuse of de facto monopoly power weilded by the small cartel of corporations that control the overwhelming majority of radio and TV stations.
My bet is, he isn't going to do anything of substance, corporatist/CFR true believer that he is.
Let's see...worked for universal health care, instead we are going to get a welfare system for the criminals who run the insurance industry.50'ish million more opportunites to say, "Go screw yourself, it isn't covered. But thanks for all those premium payments".
Worked for restoring and protecting the Constitution, instead, we got Obama's yea vote on FISA and a promise to expand the unConstitutional Faith Based Initiatives. It is beginning to appear like callous disregard for the Constitution from a Constitutional scholar.
Worked in hopes of seeing some progress made on progressive/liberal issues, instead, we are getting a cabinet made up entirely of corporatists, hawks and conservatives. This is strange, since it was the liberals and progressives that worked the hardest for Obama.
Worked to end the war crimes, get out of Iraq and to end the neocon insanity about Iran. Instead we got equivocation about GITMO and black prisons, because it's "hard", no immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and Obama and Clinton spouting the broadly refuted neocon propaganda about Iran and an imaginary nuclear weapons program. Oh, yeah...and more blind support for Israel, no matter the number of atrocities it commits.
Way to pay back your base to busting their asses for you, Barak. It is especially incomprehensible, because it is all in order to go through the futile efforts of accomodating sociopaths, psychopaths and wingnuts who will never get on board, stop their efforts to sabatoge the Obama administration or to go through the empty exercise of attempting to entice those who will never vote for he, a Democratic candidate or progressive/liberal issue - even if their lives depended upon it.
I'm going to wait and see, because it is beginning to appear to me that the more things change, the more they stay the same. If all this effort was on behalf of a bait and switch scam,my support will end. If that's the way it turns out, the community work that I am going to be doing will be solely on behalf of a third party, like the Greens...getting their candidates elected to local and state offices and to U.S.Congressional seats.
..have strong doubts about Obama for all the same reasons ( Work For Change - Paul 13:00 ) but I don`t know if he will be able to deceive the millions of Americans who have come to " worship " him and his campaign promises. The masses have stacked their future on this man, the first African American President with so many obstacles ahead. If he stumbles and or shows he is much of the same as the last Administration I believe there will be civil unrest. My money is on him stabbing us in the back.
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