Reasons for Hope

A new NYT/CBS News poll finds some signs of hope:

Poll Finds New Optimism on Economy Since Inauguration

Financial update: Big mess

Here's a bit of recommended reading that was mentioned at last Thursday's meetup:

Matt Taibbi, The Big Takeover

It's from Rolling Stone so there's profanity in the first sentence, but it seems appropriate to the situation, doesn't it?

Here's what I got as the takehome message from Dave K-G's answers to our questions about the financial crisis:

1) Banks and financial services will need to be reregulated. Separating deposit banks from investment banks again would be a good start.

2) New laws should provide for regulation of any new financial products. Any weak spot will eventually be exploited. An unregulated financial system is prone to crisis (and that's not a good thing for must of us).

Three Cheers for William Greider

Here's a bit of recommended reading: William Greider's 3/22/09 piece in the Washington Post, Obama told us to speak out, but is he listening?

William Greider appeared on Bill Moyer's show last Friday and elaborated on some of the points from the article: the bottom line is if we don't want the monied interests to get their way in Washington and everywhere, we're going to have to find a way to mobilize millions of people to take on business as usual. Greider believes that new laws may wind up enshrining corporatism (i.e., government run by the corporations) as our form of government.

Here's the link to the Moyers interview.

Lakoff on the Obama Code

George Lakoff analyzes how President Obama is helping the American public see that progressive values are American values. It's well worth a look:

The Obama Code

Stimulus bill passes House

Just wanted to remark that the "stimulus bill version 2.0" (after the House-Senate compromise) passed the House again, and Carney once again voted in favor of it (just like last time). Good for him.

Let's hope Specter sticks to his guns in the Senate.

CSCC plans healthcare forum for May 7th

CSCC is organizing a Healthcare Forum on Thursday, May 7, 2009, at 7 p.m. at the Union County Government Center on 15th St. N. in Lewisburg.

The theme will be "Re-Imagining Healthcare and Fixing What's Fixable: The Next 5 Years." Our goal is to generate public awareness and discussion about the importance of healthcare and about our ability as citizens to address problems in the current healthcare system.

We'll have 4-5 panel speakers from different disciplines. Each will talk about their perspective on what could be improved in the current healthcare system (in PA or nationally) and what can be done in the next five years or so.

We hope to include at least one health economics professor, one state Department of Health representative, one local healthcare administrator, and one physician. We will announce the names of the speakers once the panel is set.

The format will be short presentations by each speaker, followed by time for Q&A and discussion with the audience, for a total of 90-120 minutes.

Note: a Health Care Coverage Symposium is happening at Susquehanna University on March 25-26. Here's the link if you want details.

Meetup Tonight

Monthly CSCC Meetup, tonight (Thursday, Feb. 5th) at 7:30 pm at the First Baptist Church, 51 S. 3rd St., Lewisburg. Please join us!

Discussion items on this month's agenda will be:

1. "How to Keep the Pressure On Our Government Between Elections": We'll distribute information and share tips & advice on calling & writing your elected officials, keeping tabs on how they vote on key issues, and letting them know you are paying attention to what they are doing for you (or to you!).
2. "Where Should My Money Go?": With so many political groups soliciting for donations, how do you know who will give you the most impact for your buck? We'll discuss the pros and cons of national vs. local, group vs. individual and other choices to be made when deciding whether or not to donate.
3. Update on CSCC's "Re-Imagining Healthcare and Fixing What's Fixable: The Next 5 Years" expert panel (to be held May 7, 2009--mark your calendars!)