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Ideas community for the Citizen's Brefing Book.
  • 20
    Points
    Idea 1,
    Make the broard band monthly fee tax deductible, that will increase the usage of online service and speed up the migration to e-everything.

    Idea 2,
    Make 1 network enabled PC purchase tax deductible per house hold. That can stimulate the house hold spending, spread the usage of internet, and give incentive to companies improve their service and productivities by going on line.
    0 Comments »   Posted by joel to Economy on 1/13/2009 5:51 PM
  • 10
    Points

    I have worked up a budget bill that will guarantee that this country will not have to bailout any financial institutuions but it will bailout the unemployed. I will be present my bill in a day or two to my local congress and senate reprensative and hopefull it will be forward to President Barrack Obama to review and pass. He might think it will need tweeking which it might but it will benefit all working and unemployed americans in years to come. The bill i am proposing is a secret only because i do not want someone to steal my idea  Remember President Kennedy, Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. In somewhat at that time it was true but not now. We must do everything to ensure our survival as working and unemployed americans as we unite under a new president. The new phase shoud be: We the people to whom are united in the United States of America has called upon ourselves in all likes and forms to unite in to the survival of our country to protect current and future generations to come.

    In seven days, the torch will be passed and the torch will always flickered as long we stand togeather and not defeat ourselves with self greed. To all whom who will read this blog. I called upon all americans on the day President Obama is sworned in: When night falls upon our nation regardless what time zone we are in. We should all light up a candle or shine a flashlight into the sky to show the world once again that we are united so that when all foreign satellites are passing over the United States on the night President Obama accepts. The world will know that the United States will be the light for Freedom and Peace.

    God Bless President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of state Hillary Clinton

    0 Comments »   Posted by wolfman75 to Economy on 1/13/2009 5:50 PM
  • 20
    Points

    WPA

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    You have asked for suggestions to repair the mess we’re in.  It seems strange that nobody in Washington seems to remember what brought on the Great Depression and how FDR got us out.  I was born in 1923 and was a recipient of the Harding-Coolidge-Hoover debacle in 1932.  My father was a skilled radio technician who lost his job when RCA was allowed to gobble up Victor.  My father walked many, many miles in search of any kind of work to feed his family.  Finally, FDR came up with the WPA.  My father was not too proud to apply his skill to the end of shovel for $50 a month with which my mother managed to feed a family of six.  Not only did my father and others like him have employment but created something of use.  Years later when we traveled that road my father would smile and say, “I built this road.”  My suggestion to you is WPA. 

    0 Comments »   Posted by JC Hawaii to Economy on 1/13/2009 5:48 PM
  • 90
    Points
    I'd like to see a government that promotes a local food economy.

    By increasing our local food economies throughout our nation, we will decrease our dependency on foreign oil, increase our national security through diversified food sources, and create meaningful jobs that support nutritious and healthy eating, thereby lowering our health care costs.
     
    By strenghening our local food economy, we open up a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs and small business owners and large amount of new jobs.  One example is the concept of creating farmscapers.

    A farmscaper is landscaper that sets up an Organic urban community supported agriculture (CSA) where local farmscapers manage gardens within communities and all members of the csa benefit.  This can happen in both rural and urban communities.  Only small plots of land are needed to join.

    Each farmscaper finds member to join his/her program.  The member pays for a pro-rated share based on a number of factors including the amount of land they can put into production, the initial investment that the land owner is willing to put up front towards building the garden as well as the number of years the person is willing to commit to the program.  Each member then receives produce from their garden as well as gardens within the program during the growing season.  The farmscaper keeps the additional produce and gets to sell it at farmers market or to third party micro-processors for value added products.

    In addition to raising fruits and vegetables, there is an opportunity for larger land owners to participate in meat production through grass farming.

    Possible options for meat include Polyface farm grass farming type of sustainable practices. You can have different tiers of investments again with movable fences or cheap permanent fencing options.  Discounts are applied according to initial investments and length of contracts signed.

    The Federal Government can invest in this type of program is by writing laws that allow for these "micro" farm practices and encouraging smaller scale regional processing.  In addition, the government could provide low cost loans to farmscapers and by encouraging tax breaks for landowners having a certain amount of land under these programs.  

    With a significant increase in production of local food, their needs to be a focus on creating a market for the additional food products.  This can be through schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other industrial food systems as well as encouraging restaurants to buy from local coops/distributors.  The Federal Government can create laws that encourage industrial food production on a local level, easing certain laws while still maintaining food safety.  

    Thank you,

    Adam Cohen, D.V.M.
  • 110
    Points
    End ALL the old subsidies that have gone on for decades, whatever they may be for.  The government should be in the business of nurturing new industries and technologies, not supporting the old decaying ones.  If a industry can't stand on it's own after decades it needs to be allowed to crumble.  Subsidizes in industries like agriculture pervert the free market.

    The subsidies for corn more than any other has infiltrated all facets of our countriy.   It is why we are trying to force vehicles to run on Ethanol. It is why we now feed our livestock an unnatural diet.  It is why high fructose corn syrup is in everything we buy, and why the diabetes and obesity epidemic gets worse every year. 

    The subsidies for oil expoloration and development are equally damaging.  Wtihout them we as a nation would have been encouraged decades ago to move towards alternative energy with real effort.  It is why we have a transportation system that so favors trucking over rail.  It is why we have a food system the favors shipping food from coast to coast rather than buying local. 

    It time to make the hard changes.  END THE SUBSIDIES for all the old and established industries that hang on due to special interest lobbies.
  • -20
    Points
    Stop blocking of the truth about free energy sources NOW! The fact is that there are numersous new technology solutions to end all energy shortages "today" and we have the technology for providing an endless supply of "all types of energy" for our future needs. Why then do we continue to believe the corrupt forces in our own government and corrupt and powerful individuals driven by greed who have taken the world hostage with lies and cover ups.

    Do a search on Nassim Harramein and the resonance project, or the Orion Project with Dr. Steven Greer. Our government and corporations ared still trying to convince us that we need to burn fossil fuels or engage in archaic methods of capturing energy from the sun and wind to save us. While alternate "fuels" help, they are "NOT" the answer for long term peace and saving our planet and ourselves. WAKE UP AMERICA!

    John Cornett
    www.johncornett.com
    0 Comments »   Posted by musician1955 to Economy on 1/13/2009 5:22 PM
  • 50
    Points
    There is an abundance of statistical and empirical evidence that distributed energy is cheaper, cleaner and more reliable.  Distributed renewable energy, particularly if installed in micro-grids produces abundant energy right at the point of consumption with no environmental footprint or required transmission lines.

    New technology in small wind allows turbines to be placed on rooftops and operate at a much higher bandwidth than centralized wind farms.  !000 250kW wind turbines on commercial rooftops is the equivalent of a 250MW wind farm.

    The projected annual earnings from 20% wind by 2030 is $23 trillion, enough to pay off the national debt twice or run the federal government for 7 years!  Distributed renewable energy combining wind, solar, geothermal and combined heat and power, 20% publicly held would fund infrastructure, schools and health care and provide national security.

    Centralized power puts the country at risk and further adds to the dependence upon foreign resources while cutting a wide swath with 19,000 miles of transmission lines a third of a mile wide.  Europe installs microgrids and distributed energy, America should also.
    0 Comments »   Posted by magix to Economy, Energy and Environment on 1/13/2009 5:20 PM
  • -30
    Points
    Drain inlets are wide open. There is no flow control. A solution exists to solve the problems associated with unchecked inlets. 

    December 04, 2008


    TO: OBAMA ECONOMIC/HOMELAND/ENVIROMENTAL TEAM                                                                                      

    TOPIC:   A Ready to go Storm drain Inlet flow control device and street cleaning update.

    FOR:      Wet Weather Management & Infrastructure Compliance Program.



    REGULATORY SOLUTION:
        Drain Inlet Redesign Protects Subterranean Sewer Pipes from Damage and Improves Water Quality.
       
    EXPOSURES TO THE STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEM INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:     - Regulations on storm system use (NPDES, SPCC, Critical Infrastructure - HSPD 7)

        - Illegal discharge to open storm sewer

        - Design liability, gravity system, max capacity; 90%.

        - Protect against intentional misuse, terrorist opportunity (per HSPD 7) = system damage.

    DESCRIPTION:
        A simple, effective, and economical storm water management program developed around a patented inlet design.
        This paper describes a whole system approach for improving water quality and protecting sewer infrastructure from accidental or intention damage or illegal uses. The pollution prevention program centers around an inlet designed to meter flows into a regulated sewer system. What is being described is an innovative pollution prevention program which combines known concepts and proven methods to achieve multi-level,  environmental and subterranean drainage infrastructure compliance.
         Understand this inlet design allows for an alternative surface management process; plug, pump, reuse of water. The practice of washing surface is possible with this patentedly superior flow controlling inlet. Washing surfaces needs to insure runoff and surface drainage entering the storm system is controlled to the maximum extent practicable, economically. The prescribed process uses said inlet design as an insitu and exsitu system, simplifying the cleaning of drainage area(s). The inlet design and preemptive cleaning program insures surface pollutants are controlled onsite using a limited amount of water. Colson's prescribed management practice is effective and appropriate as compared to sweeping and other treatment controls to mitigate polluted runoff.
        Colson's inlet design and management procedure provides a way to integrate infiltration concepts, control any flow, and addresses non-point pollution with true prevention by reusing water to clean surfaces in a controlled manner.

    SUMMARY OF COLSON'S INLET FLOW CONTROL SYSTEM
        DESIGN:  Scaleable inlet drain meter.
        MODE OF ACTION: Oil-water-grit separator with screening capacity.
        PROVEN METHOD: Passive and active flow control.
        SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: Redirects to sheet flow, onsite water banking and rain garden systems.
        SIMPLIFIES COMPLIANCE: Pollution prevention activities are adjusted to meet changing site conditions.
        EASILY INTEGRATES: Combines treatment train -w- Zero discharge landscaping designs.
        APPLICATIONS: Excellent for pre & post construction, and redevelopment uses.

    BENEFITS OF "PRE-EVENT CLEANING", (PLUG PUMP AND REUSE)     - FIrst-flush pollutant load is reduced measurably.
         - Resources maximized.  Water is used and reused to manage cleaning and control of surface pollutants.
          - Standardizes measurement of pollution prevention to natural event pollution control.
          - Onsite control of fugitive airborne materials.

    NARRATIVE OF COLSON's PATENTED NPDES/INFRASTRUCTURE COMPLIANCE SYSTEM

        Washing surfaces with water is the most effective, dust-free means of cleaning. Preventing wash water from entering the storm system is a requirement of cleaning with water, hence the need for an inlet design that controls flow at the inlet. The proposed solution exceeds the need to protect the storm systems design and permitted use by controlling flow, resulting in onsite detention.
        Colson's patented system and management procedure enables effective and efficient surface pollutant control, measurably and repeatedly.  Each inlet decentralizes the problem areas effect, the area that inlet services can be managed and monitored more easily for pollution source residue. This process of tracking program effectiveness is known as an environmental management system (EMS).
        Colson developed this method as an integrated restructuring of archaeic public works programs and duplicative administration of these mandated programs. Colson's program will reduce unnecessary and expensive street cleaning practices and educational programs which have no measure for pollution prevention.

    CONCLUSION

        Pollution prevention is the first step required by law. Installing Colson's patented inlet utility systemwide, will insure the storm drainage system has a basic means of controlling flow and a means to prevent and track pollution prevention. Colson's program negates the unfunded mandate argument posed by opponents of the NPDES. Colsons program provides a needed solution for drainage infrastructure from overload and misuse.


    ©2007 CAMERONCOLSON Dba.CAMCO℠    SARATOGA, CA 
    www.californiacompliant.com
    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  • 100
    Points

    Financial institutions must take responsibility for their role in causing the financial crisis and must now take steps to keep people in their homes.  The government needs to take the lead in mortgage reform to put an end to deceptive lending practices. Banks cannot be trusted to regulate themselves.  In the interim, here are a few ideas:
    Foreclosures:
    1. Require financial institutions receiving bailout monies to renegotiate mortgage terms (fixed-rate only) of homeowners facing foreclosure.  
    Afterall, many of these people shouldn't have been given a home loan in the first place!
    2. Require lenders to rent foreclosed properties at a fair market rate until they can be sold. Consider renting
     certain properties to qualified applicants as a lease option to buy. This will help prevent further depreciation of home values and neighborhoods.

    Mortgage reform: 
    1. Income verification must be obtained by lenders to ensure potential homebuyers don’t spend more that 35%-40% of their income on their mortgage. 
    2. Require lenders to provide all first-time homebuyers with a homebuyer education course when they apply for a home loan to ensure they understand the homebuying process and can afford their mortgage payments. 
    3. Adjustable-rate mortgage contracts must disclose potential increases in mortgage payments to avoid surprises.

    1 Comment »   Posted by Janny Z to Economy on 1/13/2009 5:18 PM
  • -20
    Points
    I see no reason why no one person has a job in the US. There should be no homeless people walking the streets and we need to take care of our own.

    Here's my idea:

    Create a job task force, their duties are:
    • To direct homeless persons to a shelter or subsidized housing and help them find a job. This creates jobs and everyone wins.
    • Umemployed persons should be contacted by every employer that receives their resume. If the person who sends their resume feels that they are qualified for a job, they should have written acknowledgement by that employer. If that unemployed person does not receives something in the mail or email from that employer, the job task force will follow up with the employer.
    • The Job task force should take care of the persons who are US citizens and US citizens get priority for jobs over persons with working Visas.
    Just a few ideas to get us going in the right direction.
    1 Comment »   Posted by joelp to Economy on 1/13/2009 5:02 PM
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