Florida Voter Data Base

US Senate Races: Georgia, MN and Alaska

Jim Callahan — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:55:41 EST

US Senate: HELP IN Georgia and Minnesota!
Keep your fingers crossed for Alaska recount and help out if you can in Georgia runoff and Minnesota recount.

SOLUTION: Aid homeowners in paying mortgages

Jim Callahan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:20:42 EDT

Why should the $700 BILLION go directly to the banks?

If the mortgages are paid, the derivatives should have their full value, if not; some folks should go to jail.

A Harvard study suggests that 50% of personal bankruptcies are related to hospital bills and in many of these cases, the person had health insurance, but lost the insurance in the course of the disease or injury.

Nearly half of all Americans who file for bankruptcy do so because of medical expenses, according to a new study released jointly by researchers at Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School * * * "Good educations, decent jobs, and health insurance were no guarantee that a person wouldn't be wiped out by an illness or accident. We believe the current policy debates are overlooking a critical problem: A broken health care finance system is bankrupting middle class America."

"Our study is fairly shocking," explained Steffie Woolhandler, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "We found that, too often, private health insurance is an umbrella that melts in the rain."

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2005/02/03_bankruptcy.php

On the other hand, the investment banks engaged in risky behavior such as 30 to 1 financial leverage and poorly understood derivative transactions. It was the leverage and derivatives that amplified the foreclosure crisis into a worldwide economic crisis.

Congressional candidate Alan Grayson(D), a Harvard educated attorney, wrote in an e-mail

Here is more context. $700 billion is over $2000 for every man, woman and child in America. For a family of seven, like mine, it's over $15,000. Someone just took $15,000 from me and my family, and gave it to anonymous bondholders whom I've never met, who have done nothing for me, to whom I owe nothing and -- right now -- I really don't like.

More context: you could take one percent of that amount -- one percent! -- and pay off the delinquency on every home mortgage in arrears in America. And keep people from losing their homes.

The financial system needs to be rescued, but we can save real people and not just corporations if we act wisely.

As the AARP lobbying group put it, "Divided We Fail."

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

John McCain's leadership failure

Jim Callahan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:57:17 EDT

John McCain's inability to lead the House Republicans led to defeat of the Bailout Bill supported by President Bush(R) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D).

This defeat shows just how ineffective John McCain would be as President.

More of the same, only worse with John McCain.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Bailout Bill Fails; Redo

Jim Callahan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:11:20 EDT

Bailout bill
BAILOUT BILL
Dem 141 Yea
Rep 66 Yea
TOTAL 207 YEA

218 votes needed to pass.

Bill fails. Leadership trying to switch votes.
Live coverage on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC.

NBC has "Martha Stewart" -- ironic given her insider trading
CBS has "As the World Turns" -- so it goes
ABC has "One Life to Live"

Dow was initially down nearly 700 points,
but recovers to be down 350 points, then falls
again to 440, 500...

Motion to reconsider withdrawn after chair declares there would be an immediate vote. Regular order (business) resumes. No chance of passage in this form. Back to drawing board.

I addressed the question of what a middle class bailout would look like in this post that I made this morning:

Bailout Bill DOA; What is needed
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/JBCallahan/CGhy

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Bailout Bill is DOA

Jim Callahan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:00:14 EDT

The bailout bill should accomplish 3 purposes:
1. Facilitate resumption of credit transactions
2. Allow US citizens to occupy houses as owners
3. Remove impediments to worldwide economic recovery

PROBLEM: The global economy is in peril because financial transactions are stalled because the value of US mortgage backed securities held by banks and other credit granting financial institutions around the world are reduced by the inability of US homeowners to make their mortgage payments. Mortgage repayments are impaired by usurious loan terms, falling home prices, job loss and bankruptcies (half of all US bankruptcies are caused by medical bills).

The problem is that the bailout bill, "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008"

http://financialservices.house.gov/

http://financialservices.house.gov/essa/ayo08c04_xml.pdf

does not address the reasons for the impairment of the underlying mortgages. Remodeling the upper stories of a building does not fix structural problems in the foundation.

To address usurious loan terms, the balance of any mortgage against a US owner occupied housing issued between January 1, 2002 and March 30, 2008 should be convertible to a baseline mortgage, where a baseline mortgage is defined as a 30 year fixed 6% mortgage. The conversion to baseline process should be available voluntarily as mortgage modification or mandatory through a bankruptcy judge.

To address falling home prices, the principal underwater mortgages should be written down to reflect lower market prices with 50% gain sharing provided through a due on sale note good for up to five years after the mortgage modification. Any "gain" by the lender resulting from the markdown should be treated as recovery of capital and not taxed as income. Again, the markdown of principal of underwater mortgages should be available voluntarily as mortgage modification or mandatory through a bankruptcy judge.

To address US personal bankruptcies, there should be established an Temporary Emergency Medical Debt Repayment Fund, Federal bankruptcy judges should be allowed to tap the fund, in addition to modifications of debt with hospitals in return for agreements to make mortgage payments. The Temporary Emergency Medical Debt Repayment Fund should last for two years or until the US can enact a universal catastrophic health insurance plan to prevent medical bankruptcies.

Job losses have to be addressed through the macroeconomic policies, but the recovery of consumers is one element of the macro policies.

The government should look at consumer income, the way it looked at farm income during the great depression. External economic pressures are preventing US consumers from making their mortgage payments and any real solution has to address those external economic pressures.

Other problems with the bill include a lack of transparency. To see our way through the current problem and to write regulations to prevent future problems there needs to be full disclosure of troubled assets. These are not military secrets, reports do not have to be limited to Congressional Committee chairs. The mortgage backed derivatives are based on mortgages that are public documents at courthouses across the US -- the derivatives, particularly the impaired derivatives should public record on the public Internet. The disclosure should happen BEFORE the assets are purchased and NOT two days afterward.

Two be eligible for purchase, all impaired assets should be fully disclosed on the public Internet by a fixed deadline. This will serve several purposes. First, the sum of the impaired assets gives a measure of the problem, instead of a scary unknown and thus allows evaluation of the likely effectiveness of public policies and improves public confidence. Secondly, the public record of impaired assets provides data for researchers to understand the problem and write regulations to limit the most problematic types of transactions. Third, disclosing impaired assets will create a "vulture market" for immediate purchase of impaired assets ahead of potential governmental intervention.

This type of transparency is essential for economic recovery. Sweeping the problems under the rug will extend the "Japanese disease" to the US. Denial is NOT an option. Problematic denial polices include:
1. Blaming "mark to market (MTM)" accounting
2. Not disclosing problematic assets PRIOR to government purchase
3. Restricting short sales

Not disclosing impaired assets, not marking to market and restricting short sales is burying our heads in the sand will prolong hard times.

Jim Callahan
MBA and former Research Assistant at Chase Econometrics
Orlando, FL

Price of bailout -- repeal Bush tax cuts

Jim Callahan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:39:19 EDT

Let's make sure that those who benefited from the Bush era, pay for the bail out.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Need Bailout data base for transparency

Jim Callahan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:22:55 EDT

"in sweeping up troubled assets, government would buy low and sell high."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/opinion/25thu1.html

1. It is a mistake to buy the impossible to value derivatives instead of the underlying assets (mortgages).

2. If the government does decide to purchase derivatives, it should require that all derivatives be registered in a public, Internet accessible, government data base by October 7 in order to qualify. The registration process should include key numeric parameters in a database, as well as a PDF of the signed contract.

Full transparency of eligible for purchase derivatives should be a requirement of the bailout.

The data base could be used to compute a total estimated size of the bailout and used by third parties to offer valuations of the derivatives.

Otherwise, what alternative is there to monitor the bailout?

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

McCain's lies about "Obama's Fannie Mae 'Connection'"

Jim Callahan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:08:44 EDT

The Washington Post outs this McCain lie. As of this morning this has not hit "Know the Facts" or "Stop the Smears" BarackObama.com

The McCain video attempts to link Obama to Franklin Raines, the former CEO of the bankrupt mortgage giant, Fannie Mae, who also happens to be African American. * * *

The Obama campaign last night issued a statement by Raines insisting, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters." Obama spokesman Bill Burton went a little further, telling me in an e-mail that the campaign had "neither sought nor received" advice from Raines "on any matter."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/09/obamas_fannie_mae_connection.html

By Raines's own account, he took a couple of calls from someone on the Obama campaign, and they had some general discussions about economic issues. I have asked both Raines and the Obama people for more details on these calls and will let you know if I receive a reply. * * * If we are to believe Raines, he did have a couple of telephone conversations with someone in the Obama campaign. But that hardly makes him an adviser to the candidate himself -- and certainly not in the way depicted in the McCain video release.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/09/obamas_fannie_mae_connection.html

Campaign volunteers make tens of thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands of calls everyday. Many voters, especially this week, say the economy is their most important issue. So, thousands of voters could legitimately claim that they had a call from "someone" from the Obama campaign and had a general discussion of economic issues!

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Small minded Rovian thinking led to Abu Ghraib

Jim Callahan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:49:37 EDT

When one loses a sense of one's own dignity and engages in whatever behavior will undermine the other person, it is a very slippery slope.

The willingness of John McCain to approve untruthful, distortions in paid advertisements and back away from his condemnation of torture shows he is no maverick, but is in the hands of handlers, who will take credit when things are going well, but then dump him as soon as things take a turn for the worse. Their campaign has lost its moral compass. If you can't lead a campaign in a moral direction, you certainly won't get America to where it needs to go.

Our Obama campaign is about big things, the future of America, that ultimately influences the small things, in a good way, around the kitchen table.

Present a compelling vision of America as it could be with peace, jobs clean energy and hope and let McCain-Palin crawl around in their Rovian play pen. Let them demeaning themselves and America at the same time with their small minded pettiness.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, Fl

Mood on the street:: electric!

Jim Callahan — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:03:19 EDT

The mood on the street in Orlando is electric! I walked a downtown neighborhood of single family homes last night (evening) with another volunteer Steve and Orlando Sentinel reporter Jim Stratton.

We identified ourselves as Obama volunteers. People were enthusiastic about Obama, but they were not registered at their current address. At the first five houses we registered 2 voters, and in less than 20 houses we registered five voters (all new residents, the old residents had moved out).

This was a predominately (though not 100%) white neighborhood of older but decent houses on tree lined streets.

There was a dark side though. One house was boarded up, some houses were vacant and for sale. The vacant, for sale houses suggests that the real estate crisis had hit here too though perhaps not as hard as newer neighborhoods (the new residents may have moved in foreclosed or distressed properties?).

This weekend, on a Sunday afternoon, I walked a newer Hispanic neighborhood in a treeless suburb (extremely hot weather to be walking in a treeless suburb). I was walking for a state legislator, Rep. Darren Soto. The mood was less enthusiastic, but still when we explained the platform, Republicans were willing to cross party lines.

This election is ours, if we work it. But, we have to work it. Enthusiastic people who are not registered to vote, can't vote.
Republicans who don't know the platform won't cross over.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Vision for America vs drivel

Jim Callahan — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:40:58 EDT

The Obama campaign has a vision for America concerning a responsible end to the Iraq war, jobs, clean energy and universal health care.

The other side has drivel about nothing.

We are writing a vision for American not a Sienfeld episode.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Republicans oppose Obama tax rebate and ITC for renewable energy

Jim Callahan — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:57:17 EDT

Campaigning Monday in hard-pressed Flint, Mich., Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama urged Congress to pass a second stimulus package "so that people would have a little more money in their pockets." He wants the package to include a tax rebate for individuals and aid to states for education, health care and other costs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_on_go_co/stimulus_two;_ylt=As.NRS4TfCuFzB2IT27Ng22s0NUE

Yesterday, the Vote Solar Initiative, delivered

a green hard hat - symbolizing the more than 100,000 solar and wind jobs that could expire with the tax credits in December - to every office.

Will you contact your Senators to ask if they received the green hard hat, and ask them to work to end the stalemate and put clean energy to work?

If you want lower taxes I'll tell you what to do; talk to with neighbor about change we need. The change that our working for and voting for Barack Obama will bring to the USA.
[credit to Pete Seeger for his song, "Talk'in Union."]

Remember the five things the campaign needs:
1. Phone voters
2. Knock on voter doors
3. Voter registration
4. Data entry
5. Money (if you don't have time).

If you want help, call voters. Even if only one out of 100 wants to help, if you call all 100 voters you will find the one willing to work for change.

Using this method we can organize precincts where we currently have no volunteers. It works, I have seen it happen. I have made it happen.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

PS I only had to make 80 calls yesterday to find a volunteer in a precinct without a volunteer. For the first time we have the resources organize within every precinct. Show'em what a little community organizing can do.

Call, Knock, Recruit & Give

Jim Callahan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:01:38 EDT

Now that the TV show the "Beltway Hillbillies" is heading into reruns we should do what any good community organizer would do:

1. Call - Make phone calls for the campaign
2. Knock -Knock on doors for the campaign
3. Recruit - Recruit new volunteers to the cause
4. Give - Give or get resources (money or in-kind) for the campaign.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The Season of Palin; a fine whine

Jim Callahan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:59:09 EDT

When satire substitutes for substance.
A high school taunt by the cheerleader in chief.

The country faces tough economic challenges, yet Palin and McCain know little of economics and defend the failed policies that got us into this mess.

Real change requires new policies; a person whose only tool is a hammer, thinks that everything looks like a nail. Cut taxes except on wages. Drill, drill, drill.

Don't know much about biology. We need to prevent AIDS and not encourage unprotected sex outside of marriage.

Don't know much about economy.

A failed tax structure that concentrated too much wealth at the very top; while sucking too much purchasing power away wage earning Americans will not be fixed by silly taunts.

Wage labor needs incentives too. We need productive investments and not just the mere reshuffling of assets.

if we know the country is on the wrong track and we need change; we have to fight back. As David Ploufe just wrote, "Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out of touch politicians and their failed policies."

The Obama campaign is recruiting and training ordinary people to take responsibility for voter registration and turnout in their own neighborhoods.

Get involved.

"Government of the people, for the people, by the people." A Lincoln

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Google's new browser Chrome / V8 Javascript

Jim Callahan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:41:40 EDT

Google has introduced a new web browser called "Chrome" that competes with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

With campaign tools such as this PartyBuilder, VoteBuilder and MBO (My.BarackObama.com) moving to the web, the ability of the browser to excecute Javascript becomes increasingly important.

For example, if you do "View/Page Source" of a PartyBuilder page you will likely see a line that includes: type="text/javascript".

According to Wired Magazine's Steve Levy:

Speed may be Chrome's most significant advance. When you improve things by an order of magnitude, you haven't made something better â€" you've made something new. "As soon as developers get the taste for this kind of speed, they'll start doing more amazing new Web applications and be more creative in doing them," Bak says. Google hopes to kick-start a new generation of Web-based applications that will truly make Microsoft's worst nightmare a reality: The browser will become the equivalent of an operating system.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-10/mf_chrome?currentPage=3

How much faster is Chrome? Again, according to Wired Magazine's Steve Levey, quoting the Google developers:

"We just did some benchmark runs today," Bak says a couple of weeks before the launch. Indeed, V8 processes JavaScript 10 times faster than Firefox or Safari. And how does it compare in those same benchmarks to the market-share leader, Microsoft's IE 7? Fifty-six times faster. "We sort of underestimated what we could do," [Danish computer scientist and developer of the "V8" Javascript engine used in Google's Chrome Lars] Bak says.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-10/mf_chrome?currentPage=3

Google described Chrome in a "comic book" for developers.

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

As we close in on 60 days to E-day Chrome is unlikely to impact this cycle, but like many weapons introduced in the closing period of a conflict, it looms large in the next conflict.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Bristol Palin 17 in second trimester - policy impact

Jim Callahan — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:52:11 EDT

The government has decided that high school student Bristol Palin has no independent choice on whether to carry her pregnancy to term.

If Bristol wants to terminate her pregnancy, she needs either "parental consent" or a court order. In this media fishbowl, "parental consent" seems unlikely though daddy providing consent would have fewer political consequences than mommy providing consent. Otherwise it takes a clinic, a doctor, an attorney and a judge and a public courtroom.

Adoption is another option, which also involves many other professionals.

College plans,if any, are probably on hold.

Even without the media circus, what should be a very private decision becomes everybody's business.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Why Palin is poison in FL

Jim Callahan — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:39:41 EDT

The spin is that "Palin fought the oil companies" and that "her husband is a commercial fisherman."

Her husband, Todd Palin, is a production operator and/or supervisor for BP oil company.

Gov. Palin fought the oil companies over money, NOT the environment. If anything, Gov. Palin wanted MORE drilling for gas on land owned by the State of Alaska. Gov. Palin FAVORS drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Floridians will understand the difference between fighting over money and fighting for the environment.

In Florida, for example, elected officials fight with the tourism industry about the size of the "bed tax" on hotel bills and how the money can be spent, but at the end of the day, once the deal is cut, the elected officials know the amount of the revenues is tied to the success of the industry and so they are likely to vote pro-industry on a number of other issues to protect the revenue source. Thus, the elected officials are co-opted by the revenue source.

Alaskan elected officials, of which Gov. Palin is one,will be very protective of the oil industry, because that is their goose that lays the golden eggs.

Florida is opposed to offshore drilling because Florida is a tourism and retirement state. While here at inland City of Orlando we have Disney World, the rest of the state (primarily coastal regions) relies on beautiful beaches. Tourism all over the state relies on warm weather and fresh (less polluted) air. Oil drilling would not just threaten the hotels, but the condos and the coastal subdivisions. Not just the tourism industry, but the finance, insurance, real estate, retail trade and construction industries' ways of doing business. Almost all retirees bring Social Security income and some pensions, wealthier retirees have large pensions and investments. Palm Beach County, with little industry, is an oasis built on wealthy retiree money. Oil soaked beaches with oil soaked birds would ruin the party and kill the goose.

Sure we could buy mineral oil to clean our bare feet at the beach and have for smaller spills from freighters, but paradise lost is paradise lost. Ask Louisiana.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

KTUU: Todd Palin works for BP

Jim Callahan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:02:20 EDT

Mr. Palin goes back to Prudhoe
by Mike Ross
Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A decision by Alaska's first family is raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest involving Gov. Sarah Palin and the oil industry.

The governor's husband, Todd Palin, is back on BP's payroll. Gov. Palin says his return will not influence her decisions involving the oil industry, but one former lawmaker who wrote an ethics guideline for the administration believes it's a bad move at the wrong time.

A few weeks after Gov. Palin was elected, Todd Palin took an unpaid leave of absence from his job as a North Slope oil field production operator.

But, the state's first husband recently returned to BP's payroll.

"You know, we've never hidden the fact that Todd had a job and he's created to work," said the governor. "He wants to keep working and after seven months of not working he is ready to go back."

Todd Palin said the family needs the extra income.
* * *
Steve Rinehart, a spokesman for BP, said the company feels Mr. Palin is a skilled worker and is glad to have him back, but would not comment on whether his employment creates a conflict of interest for the governor.

Contact Mike Ross at mross@ktuu.com

http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=6965360

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

BIG OIL v. America

Jim Callahan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:01:35 EDT

Palin is the next Cheney. If Palin wins the oil companies win for 4 more years.

The Palins are deeply embedded in the oil industry.

According to her official State of Alaska biography,
"Governor Palin is chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission"; while "She is married to Todd Palin, who is a lifelong Alaskan, a [oil] production operator on the North Slope." Other sources say specifically that Todd Palin is employed by BP.

Sarah Palin puts a pretty face on a slimy industry.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

If Palin wins; the oil companies win

Jim Callahan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:22:16 EDT

The Palins are deeply embedded in the oil industry.

According to her official State of Alaska biography,
"Governor Palin is chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission"; while "She is married to Todd Palin, who is a lifelong Alaskan, a production operator on the North Slope." Other sources say specifically that Todd Palin is employed by BP.

Palin is the next Cheney. If Palin wins the oil companies win.

Palin puts a pretty face on a slimy industry.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL