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  #41  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 4:31 AM
Dragonheart8588 Dragonheart8588 is offline
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Originally Posted by Fiorenza View Post
Another thing, I don't trust politicians made by the Chicago machine. However, my main problem with Obama is he's looking for more government to fix the economy and whatever. In my book, government doesn't fix problems....government is the problem! Anyway, I hope the public has a chance to understand both philosophies, that both candidates get a fair hearing in the media. Let's have some debates where the candidates put questions to each other, not staged media events with manipulated questions either. The purpose of an election season is for the electorate to become informed on the alternative policies.
I agree with you that big Gov't is inefficient and can be a big problem. However, they do have their places.

An example, I'm trying to get a job with the State of Georgia in the financial dept. I have to go to take tests for different positions. The test questions are ridiculous. They are way too simple. I mean I don't know my scores, yet. So I might be wrong.

However, if the government is going to hire somebody to manage millions of taxpayer's money, they should make the test a lot harder. Although, there were only two people who trying to get the in financial positions including me.

There were ton of people there taking test to work for the DMV or the correction dept.

Wait, what was my original point. Anyways, enjoy my rant.
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  #42  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 4:44 AM
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Okay, Fiorenza. Your arguments are peppered with fear. Fear of Chicago, of young people, of people calling for change, fear of government in general. My question, is why is it that Obama scares you more than McCain? Is it because he is unknown or that he is so different than the norm? It cannot be his policies or anything he has actually done. He isn't more corrupt than McCain. Why would Chicago have anything to do with it?

The Republican party did not shrink government, they crippled it. They spent more money than any administration by far, but also cut taxes ballooning a deficit beyond reconciliation. McCain hasn't suggested cutting a single government agency, but proposes a whole host of new tax cuts. What is it that draws you to that candidate?

Please read Obama's policy on the economy. It is actually quite logical and does not suggest any addition in government.

The Regan small government romanticism never actually worked you know. It definitely isn't being applied today as anything more than a talking point. Please reconsider your reasons for disliking Obama.
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  #43  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 5:05 AM
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Originally Posted by Dragonheart8588 View Post
I hope everyone knows why Chicago is known for its nickname as the Windy City right? It is not because it is actually windy.

No one is questioning McCain and Hilary speeches because most people know that these speech are from highly skilled speech writers.

However, what worry me is that people who are obsessed with Obama doesn't seem to question him very much.

No one is saying Obama is inept. It is more like that he have as many people that are in business of running a campaign for the like of McCain and Hilary. Therefore, I have to take what they said with a grain of salt and this coming from a person that is straddling the fence.

I may not even vote this election. I have major concerns for both of them.
Obama's is obviously not the Clinton campaign. if it were, Hillary would have been the nominee many months ago. Obama is the undisputed leader of his organization and throughout the entire process, it has been orderly and disciplined with practically zero drama. In fact few people even know who is working for the campaign (though I do). No one has even made news with the exception of one woman who called Hillary a monster and was immediately let go.

This is not by chance. I should link an article that expressed amazement at the fact that through January and February, the Obama campaign did not even have a media corespondent because it didn't need to spin anything. It merely acted and that spoke for itself. I should also link the article done on the campaign office in Iowa that was requesting a line on how to deal with attacks leveled on them and Obama simply replied "just tell the truth."

Obama is not fed lines or points of the day or messages of the minute. It has been consistent for 17 months and going back all the way to his first book in the early 90's. If Obama is running his agenda. He gets policy advice from his loyalists, but there is no one running his campaign but him.

I remember working volunteering for it in late January and I was told just one rule while phone banking. Never attack or say anything negative about another candidate. I'm sorry, but that is deeply different than the McCain or the Clinton operation.

Still I listen to people level all of their fears on him and doubt every word that comes out of his mouth no matter how honest or open he has been. He is an intelligent and powerful man who has never been controlled by anyone. He is calm in the face of adversity and has nothing to gain in the presidency but for the people of the nation. He personally has never been wealthy or held any job but as a civil servant. (with the exception of 2006-present when his book reached best seller) He has not tried to slice and divide the electorate for his gain. He refuses to even bring up the obvious glaring racial divisions in the electorate and make excuses. He wasn't willing to take a cent from traditional fat cat donors to the detriment of his own chances. No Obama is not a win at any cost candidate and his word carries a lot more weight than several others.

Now come up with a reason why one should be reserved about his presidency?

Also, ask me one thing you don't know about him that isn't plain and obvious and easy to find out about.
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  #44  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 5:15 AM
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Cutting taxes does not cause or increase deficits -- runaway spending does that. With every major cut in tax rates, including those of Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Bush, tax revenues have soared. The problem has been that government has then spent even more money than it took in. The issue is too much spending, not too little revenue.

The flip side is being proven this year in the state of Michigan, where an idealistic governor forced through a significant increase in tax rates. To the surprise of no one except the governor and her liberal colleagues, tax revenues have plummeted since the rates were increased.

In a non-static (i.e.: real) world, you get more of what you reward, and less of what you punish. Want more sales? Cut prices. Want to make more loans? Cut your interest rates. Want more tax revenue? Cut tax rates. Just make sure to control your spending when the money starts rolling in.
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  #45  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 5:45 AM
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Originally Posted by MarketsWork View Post
Cutting taxes does not cause or increase deficits -- runaway spending does that. With every major cut in tax rates, including those of Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Bush, tax revenues have soared. The problem has been that government has then spent even more money than it took in. The issue is too much spending, not too little revenue.

The flip side is being proven this year in the state of Michigan, where an idealistic governor forced through a significant increase in tax rates. To the surprise of no one except the governor and her liberal colleagues, tax revenues have plummeted since the rates were increased.

In a non-static (i.e.: real) world, you get more of what you reward, and less of what you punish. Want more sales? Cut prices. Want to make more loans? Cut your interest rates. Want more tax revenue? Cut tax rates. Just make sure to control your spending when the money starts rolling in.
Well if one were to ignore the Clinton years... I would say sure. The problem is that the targeted tax cuts of the Bush era did not build a bottom up economy and disfavored competition. That caused a weakening middle class that was unable to deal with shock and thus made a recession inevitable. At the moment it is all but impossible for someone to start a viable new non service business without personal wealth. That is the error of the Bush tax cuts and while tax revenues always increase if just by pure population growth, the real issue is that the economy did not grow faster due to the tax cuts. The growth was focused on preexisting technologies and corporations and the housing market gains.

As for your price to sales analogy, the most profit is gained at a single perfect price. Just cutting the price does not maximize profit. You have to market equalize.

The free market concept is actual quite useful until you factor in the monopolization of the needed products and services sector. The concept of a profit and wealth is actually not something that occurs in a perfect market. You have to understand that the pro business approach that Washington has taken is actually a long term anti-capitalism strategy. The government should not more favorably allocate it's resources to the producers rather than the consumers. If it continues like this, the consumer will lose an ability to consume and the economy will not be able to sustain itself in the face of the energy crisis.
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  #46  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 10:57 AM
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hi

It's really amazing to me how uneducated you people seem to be in terms of the Beltline. This is a big project yet this thread is pretty uninformative.

Has anyone looked at the video that I posted or have any detailed questions or concerns regarding anything related to the Beltline?

I'm happy to hear that officials with Atlanta are traveling to study other cities they can learn from.

I'm going to have to jump in and break up this conversation about the 2 party political system which was created by mass media. You see, once you achieve a certain level of awareness of how the world really works, you begin to elevate yourself above this "2 party" political system crap that mass media has fed you and led you to believe it has anything to do with reality. Then you begin to focus on what's really the problem: The shortage of engineers and scientists in America, and the election of leaders who are lawyers.
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  #47  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 10:57 AM
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Dante, you are wrong. The US has been a consumer paradise. Both parties have been advocating policies that reward consumption and penalize savings and thrift. Many other countries unfortunately have followed the US lead, to a lesser degree. The exceptions are east Asian countries, including India, to a lesser degree. These countries have built wealth in the last few years. They have done it with policies that reward savings (capitalization) and depress consumption. I see some indications in McCain's record that will give the US a more rational economic policy. I see nothing in Obama's rhetoric that will avoid stagflation. To the contrary. Certainly Obama doesn't talk about more ill-considered government, but that is the result of his and the Democrats policies. The result of their policy is to push consumption beyond the limits of rationality (for example increasing entitlements in the face of deficits) while depressing production (for example not allowing oil production).
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  #48  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 2:12 PM
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Originally Posted by civilexpert View Post
I'm going to have to jump in and break up this conversation about the 2 party political system which was created by mass media. You see, once you achieve a certain level of awareness of how the world really works, you begin to elevate yourself above this "2 party" political system crap that mass media has fed you and led you to believe it has anything to do with reality. Then you begin to focus on what's really the problem: The shortage of engineers and scientists in America, and the election of leaders who are lawyers.
While I agree that the US has failed enormously in emphasizing the need for good engineers and scientists to continue innovating, and I certainly wish our country wasn't run by lawyers, it seems to me that your attitude is equally short-sighted as the political system you seem to abhor. "Once you achieve a certain level of awareness of how the world really works".....you probably would realize how little you actually know in the grand scheme of things, and how seldom situations really boil down to the simple "reality" you propose.


PS: I didn't mean to start a political debate - I just wanted to point out that there was a candidate who had lots of good ideas on "Urban Policy."
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  #49  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 2:52 PM
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Could you link to a source where Obama's urban policy is laid out?
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  #50  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 3:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Fiorenza View Post
Dante, you are wrong. The US has been a consumer paradise. Both parties have been advocating policies that reward consumption and penalize savings and thrift. Many other countries unfortunately have followed the US lead, to a lesser degree. The exceptions are east Asian countries, including India, to a lesser degree. These countries have built wealth in the last few years. They have done it with policies that reward savings (capitalization) and depress consumption. I see some indications in McCain's record that will give the US a more rational economic policy. I see nothing in Obama's rhetoric that will avoid stagflation. To the contrary. Certainly Obama doesn't talk about more ill-considered government, but that is the result of his and the Democrats policies. The result of their policy is to push consumption beyond the limits of rationality (for example increasing entitlements in the face of deficits) while depressing production (for example not allowing oil production).
Okay, now this I can properly respond to. Marketsworks had a non-economist's view of the economy.

The strength of the US economy is because it reaches close to the ideal of the perfect consumer/perfect producer system. An economist will tell you that the concept of savings is actually the worst thing for growth. The economy thrives on waste and spending and the creation of debt.

Said debt creates more capital. That is how we grow capital in the US. We invest profits immediately and we charge interest on debt. I detect from you now the notion that growing personal savings and decreasing consumption will be better for our economy. I would like to stop you there and really ask you to consider the implication of what are you are saying.

As for Asia China's growth was almost entirely based on production without consumption with the US being the largest consumer. The world is nearly completely dependent on wasteful lifestyles in order to fuel economic growth. I know the language I use makes it seem like a bad thing, but it is simple the way the world works. India has taken a share of the service industry as well. They do not consume these services either, they only provide them.

Do you know the reason India and China do not consume the services and products they provide? It is not because they have a penchant for savings. It is because they have yet to match our level of wealth. In fact they cannot match or level of wealth until they catch up to our level of consumption because only then will their be enough demand for high profit business to bring another 2.7 billion into the first world.

As a note, China has grown to a level where owning a car is more and more practical for the average citizen. The result is that demand for cars and gasoline have shocked the market into a frenzy and raised gas prices here into the $4 range. Usually, the opening of a new market is exciting, and does not create price increases, but unfortunately the entire oil industry was set up in a way that shipped the greatest portion to the US and held the US hostage by limiting new drilling.

Stag-flation occurs when the government has exhausted all the tools of it's control over the economy and can no longer stimulate growth by lowering the federal interest rate.

The democratic agenda does not in general cause stagflation. It was crafted by the top economists and experts to create growth at all levels of the class system. Obama's minor differences and nuances are more geared around reforming the banking system to prevent debt explosion but in general, his plan specifies cutting taxes to the middle class to help the competitive nature of the market and spurring new technologies and opening up new markets for job creation. This is a simplification of course, but I do not see the relationship between that and stagflation.

Lastly, it is obvious that the Republican agenda has lead to stagflation because that is what we are in right now. What is it about McCain's policies that you think will change that?
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  #51  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 3:09 PM
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Could you link to a source where Obama's urban policy is laid out?
That was already linked to you...

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/urbanpolicy/

Strengthen Federal Commitment to our Cities

* Create a White House Office on Urban Policy: Obama will create a White House Office of Urban Policy to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs. The Director of Urban Policy will report directly to the president and coordinate all federal urban programs.
* Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant: In the long run, regions are only as strong as their people and neighborhoods. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is an important program that provides housing and creating jobs primarily for low- and moderate-income people and places. Barack Obama has fought against Bush Administration cuts to the CDBG program and, as president, he will restore funding for the CDBG program.
* Do No Harm: Barack Obama does not support imposing unfunded mandates on states and localities. Obama strongly supports providing necessary funding for programs such as No Child Left Behind.


By the way, this is what I mean about people not giving Obama a fair shake. It seems that you don't even know what McCain's policies are, just that they are automatically better.....
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  #52  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 3:13 PM
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Stimulate Economic Prosperity in our Metropolitan Regions

* Support Job Creation: The federal government has a role to play to ensure that every American is able to work at his or her highest capacity. Barack Obama will double federal funding for basic research, expand the deployment of broadband technology and make the research and development tax credit permanent so that businesses can invest in innovation and create high-paying, secure jobs.
* Enhance Workforce Training: Obama will make long-term investments in education, language training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths – our ingenuity and entrepreneurialism – to create new high-wage jobs and prosper in a global economy. A critical part of this process is ensuring that we reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and ensure that it strengthens federal investments needed for success in the 21st Century.
* Increase Access to Capital for Underserved Businesses: Barack Obama will strengthen Small Business Administration programs that provide capital to women and minority-owned businesses, support outreach programs that help business owners apply for loans, and work to encourage the growth and capacity of these firms. Obama will also strengthen Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which are engaged in innovative methods to provide capital to urban businesses.
* Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators, which facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. Obama will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in urban communities throughout the country.
* Convert our Manufacturing Centers into Clean Technology Leaders: America boasts the highest-skilled manufacturing workforce in the world and advanced manufacturing facilities that have powered economic growth in America for decades. Barack Obama believes that America is at a competitive advantage when it comes to building the high-demand technologies of the future, and he will help nurture America's success in clean technology manufacturing by establishing a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize.
* Strengthen Core Infrastructure: Barack Obama will make strengthening our transportation systems, including our roads and bridges, a top priority. As part of this effort, Obama will create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.
* Improve Access to Jobs: America's families and businesses depend upon workers having reasonable access to their places of employment. Barack Obama will double the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program to ensure that additional federal public transportation dollars flow to the highest-need communities and that urban planning initiatives take this aspect of transportation policy into account. The Obama urban agenda will also help facilitate the creation of new jobs in underserved economic areas, so more low-income urban residents can find employment within their home communities.
* Invest in a Skilled Clean Technologies Workforce: Obama will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable jobs. Obama will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth.

HOUSING

* Create a New FHA Housing Security Program: Barack Obama believes we must ensure that the American dream of homeownership can continue. Obama strongly supports the efforts of Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd (D–CT) to create a new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program that will provide meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages and convert them into stable 30-year fixed mortgages.
* Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures: Obama will create a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners. The fund will also assist individuals who purchased homes that are simply too expensive for their income levels by helping them sell their homes. The fund will be partially paid for by Obama's increased penalties on lenders who acted irresponsibly and committed fraud.
* Lower People's Interest Payments by Creating a New Mortgage Interest Tax Credit: Many middle class Americans do not receive the existing mortgage interest tax deduction because they do not itemize their taxes. Obama will ensure that middle-class Americans get the financial assistance they need to purchase or keep their own home by creating a 10 percent universal mortgage credit that gives tax relief to 10 million Americans who have a home mortgage.
* Provide an Additional $10 Billion of Mortgage Revenue Bond Authority: Mortgage Revenue Bonds (MRBs) are used to refinance subprime loans and provide mortgages for first time homebuyers. Barack Obama will provide $10 billion in additional MRBs. According to the National Association of Home Builders, every new mortgage revenue bond home loan produces almost two full-time jobs, $75,000 in additional wages and salaries and $41,000 in new federal, state and local revenues.
* Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing throughout Metropolitan Regions: Communities prosper when all families have access to affordable housing. Barack Obama will create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to develop affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would use a small percentage of the profits of two government-sponsored housing agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to create thousands of new units of affordable housing every year. Barack Obama will also restore cuts to public housing operating subsidies, and ensure that all Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs are restored to their original purpose.

POVERTY

* Establish 'Promise Neighborhoods' for Areas of Concentrated Poverty: Successful strategies to address concentrated, intergenerational poverty are comprehensive in nature and address the full range of obstacles that stand in the way of poor children. One highly-acclaimed model is the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City, which provides a full network of services to an entire neighborhood from birth to college. Obama will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement.
* Increase the Minimum Wage: As president, Obama will raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and index it to inflation so full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing – things so many people take for granted.
* Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit: In the Illinois State Senate, Obama led the successful effort to create the $100 million Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). As president, Obama will reward work by increasing the number of working parents eligible for EITC benefits, increasing the benefit available to noncustodial parents who support their children through child support payments, increasing the benefit for families with three or more children, and reducing the EITC marriage penalty which hurts low-income families.
* Help Low-Income Workers Enter the Job Market: As president, Obama will invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathways programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce. This investment will be coupled with other measures to encourage the private sector and state and local governments to increase their support of these effective employment programs.

STRENGTHEN LIVABILITY OF CITIES

* Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities: Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives. As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.
* Control Superfund Sites and Data: As president, Obama will restore the strength of the Superfund program by requiring polluters to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites they created.
* Use Innovative Measures to Dramatically Improve Efficiency of Buildings: Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions in the United States today and carbon emissions from buildings are expected to grow faster than emissions from other major parts of our economy. It is expected that 15 million new buildings will be constructed between today and 2015. Barack Obama will work with cities so that we make our new and existing buildings more efficient consumers of electricity.
* Foster Healthy Communities: How a community is designed – including the layout of its roads, buildings and parks – has a huge impact on the health of its residents. For instance, nearly one-third of Americans live in neighborhoods without sidewalks and less than half of our country's children have a playground within walking distance of their homes. Barack Obama introduced the Healthy Places Act to help local governments assess the health impact of new policies and projects, like highways or shopping centers.

URBAN EDUCATION

* Support Teachers in Urban Schools: Barack Obama values teachers and the central role that they play in education. To ensure competent, effective teachers in schools that are organized for success, Obama's K-12 plan will expand service scholarships to underwrite high-quality preparation for teachers who commit to working in underserved districts and support ongoing improvements in teacher education.
* Expand Early Childhood Education: Obama has a comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan to provide critical supports to young children and their parents by investing $10 billion per year to create: Early Learning Challenge Grants to stimulate and help fund state "zero to five" efforts; quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both; work to ensure all children have access to pre-school; and create a Presidential Early Learning Council to increase collaboration and program coordination across federal, state, and local levels.
* Reduce the High School Dropout Rate: The warning signs for high school drop-outs often occur well before high school. Obama will sign into law his "Success in the Middle Act" to improve the education of middle school students in low-performing schools. Obama will also establish a competitive grant process for entities pursuing evidence-based models that have been proven to reduce dropouts.

CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

* Support Local Law Enforcement: Barack Obama is committed to fully funding the COPS program to combat crime and help address police brutality and accountability issues in local communities. Obama also supports efforts to encourage young people to enter the law enforcement profession, so that our local police departments are not understaffed because of a dearth of qualified applicants.
* Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports: America is facing an incarceration and post-incarceration crisis in urban communities. Obama will create a prison-to-work incentive program, modeled on the successful Welfare-to-Work Partnership and work to reform correctional systems to break down barriers for ex-offenders to find employment.
* End the Dangerous Cycle of Youth Violence: As president, Barack Obama will support innovative local programs, such as the CeaseFire program in Chicago, that have been proven to work. Such programs implement a comprehensive public health approach that implements a community-based strategy to prevent youth violence. He will also double funding for federal afterschool programs and invest in 20 Promise Neighborhoods across the country to ensure that urban youth have meaningful opportunities to succeed.
* Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama also favors commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. He supports closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. He also supports making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
* End Racial Profiling: Barack Obama cosponsored federal legislation to ban racial profiling and require federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to take steps to eliminate the practice. He introduced and passed a law in the Illinois State Senate requiring the Illinois Department of Transportation to record the race, age, and gender of all drivers stopped for traffic violations so that bias could be detected and addressed.

STRENGTHEN HOMELAND SECURITY

* Allocate Funds Based on Risk: Barack Obama believes that the president and Congress should direct our precious homeland security dollars according to risk, not as a form of general revenue sharing. To address this pressing issue, Obama introduced an amendment, supported by the Families of 9/11 and former 9/11 Commissioners Lee Hamilton and Tim Roemer, to increase risk-based funding in the 9/11 bill.
* Prepare Effective Emergency Response Plans: As our nation witnessed in the Hurricane Katrina crisis and its aftermath, too many localities do not have integrated emergency response plans to handle disasters. As president, Obama will further improve coordination between all levels of government, create better evacuation plan guidelines, ensure prompt federal assistance to emergency zones, and increase medical surge capacity.
* Improve Interoperable Communications Systems: Barack Obama supports efforts to provide greater technical assistance to local and state first responders and dramatically increase funding for reliable, interoperable communications systems.
* Safeguard Mass Public Transportation: Every weekday, Americans take 34 million trips on public transportation systems to get to work, school and beyond. Obama will fight for greater information-sharing between national intelligence agents and local officials and provide local law enforcement agencies with the everyday tools they need to protect their transportation systems.

SUPPORT FAMILIES

* Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Barack Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they deserve. Obama will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family.
* Strengthening Fatherhood and Families: Since 1960, the number of American children without fathers in their lives has quadrupled, from 6 million to more than 24 million. As president, Obama will sign his Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act into law to remove some of the government penalties on married families, crack down on men avoiding child support payments, ensure that support payments go to families instead of state bureaucracies, fund support services for fathers and their families, and support domestic violence prevention efforts.
* Support Parents with Young Children: Barack Obama would expand the highly successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded that these programs produced an average of five dollars in savings for every dollar invested and produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program.
* Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Barack Obama will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
* Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provides too little relief to families that struggle to afford child care expenses. Barack Obama will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses.
* Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure: In the wake of reports that some service members were paying 800 percent interest on payday loans, the U.S. Congress took bipartisan action to limit interest rates charged to service members to 36 percent. Barack Obama believes that we must extend this protection to all Americans, because predatory lending continues to be a major problem for low and middle income families alike.
* Encourage Responsible Lending Institutions to Make Small Consumer Loans: Some mainstream, responsible lending institutions are beginning to enter the short-term lending market to provide many Americans with fair alternatives to predatory lending institutions. Barack Obama will work with his Secretary of Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to encourage banks, credit unions and Community Development Financial Institutions to provide affordable short-term and small dollar loans – and to drive the sharks out of business.
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  #53  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 3:26 PM
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Fiorenza Fiorenza is offline
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Re: Obama's urban policy: it's all fluff.

Re: Obama economics: Government policies that encourage consumption and personal debt must be counterbalanced with incentives for savings and thrift. There cannot be an overabundance of either. Right now the US is too heavy on the consumption and debt, and not enough on the capitalization and savings. That means that the US will become more and more third-world. I don't encourage my clients to invest in the US. There's no ROI here, thanks to government policy. The Republicans deserve no praise either as they haven't communicated what they believe, but Obama policies will only make it worse. Obama is nothing but empty rhetoric, and I'm sorry to see how the young people have been misled into following this road to nowhere.
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  #54  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 3:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiorenza View Post
Re: Obama's urban policy: it's all fluff.

Re: Obama economics: Government policies that encourage consumption and personal debt must be counterbalanced with incentives for savings and thrift. There cannot be an overabundance of either. Right now the US is too heavy on the consumption and debt, and not enough on the capitalization and savings. That means that the US will become more and more third-world. I don't encourage my clients to invest in the US. There's no ROI here, thanks to government policy. The Republicans deserve no praise either as they haven't communicated what they believe, but Obama policies will only make it worse. Obama is nothing but empty rhetoric, and I'm sorry to see how the young people have been misled into following this road to nowhere.
I'm sorry, but you need to be specific. The McCain agenda is a bunch of good lines without anything concrete laid out at all. I am of the opinion that if that policy was absolutely perfect, you would still think Obama was all fluff. Also savings and thrift do not help the economy. I would suggest you take some more economics classes. Please categorically explain how that long list of policies is all fluff? Also do you realize that that is an outline and the final product will be managed by the new Office of Urban Policy? How can you be against that?

Re: McCain's Urban Policy: error cannot locate

Re: McCain's Policy: 1/3 of his policies are around patriotism, keeping guns and protecting sanctity and marriage. None of these things are helping anyone. They are all engineered to play against fear of change. I'm curious if you have realized that of the two Obama is by far the only reasonable choice. I suggest that if you think Obama is so scary you vote for neither.
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  #55  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 3:49 PM
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I think the idea of a White House Office on Urban Policy is fascinating.
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  #56  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 7:41 PM
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I think the idea of a White House Office on Urban Policy is fascinating.
I agree, but what exactly does this have to do with the Beltline? hint, hint
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  #57  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 8:29 PM
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It's really amazing to me how uneducated you people seem to be in terms of the Beltline. This is a big project yet this thread is pretty uninformative.

Has anyone looked at the video that I posted or have any detailed questions or concerns regarding anything related to the Beltline?

I'm happy to hear that officials with Atlanta are traveling to study other cities they can learn from.

I'm going to have to jump in and break up this conversation about the 2 party political system which was created by mass media. You see, once you achieve a certain level of awareness of how the world really works, you begin to elevate yourself above this "2 party" political system crap that mass media has fed you and led you to believe it has anything to do with reality. Then you begin to focus on what's really the problem: The shortage of engineers and scientists in America, and the election of leaders who are lawyers.
What's wrong with lawyers? They make the world go 'round.
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  #58  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2008, 10:24 PM
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Obama all the way!!!!

Wait... this is the beltline thread.....
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  #59  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2008, 12:18 AM
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What's wrong with lawyers? They make the world go 'round.
Everytime your sitting in traffic in Atlanta be sure to pat yourself on the back for being the lawyer that you are... heavin forbid you solve complex problems involving science... maybe if there were more of Us engineers you'd be home by now
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  #60  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2008, 1:23 AM
Dragonheart8588 Dragonheart8588 is offline
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Everytime your sitting in traffic in Atlanta be sure to pat yourself on the back for being the lawyer that you are... heavin forbid you solve complex problems involving science... maybe if there were more of Us engineers you'd be home by now
Well, if all the engineers are so smart and ingenious, shouldn't the problem be fixed by now instead the bitching and moaning.

Also, who created and designed theses highways in the first place? Engineers, right?

I love science and I'm all for more engineers. However, we lawyers are ready with our pens and paper to sue the crap out of you guys when y'all screw up. J/k.

I hope y'all can read the jokes in my response.
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