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What the Recovery Act did for us All …


Just over a year ago, thanks in part to your organizing, President Obama was able to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

The Recovery Act wasn’t a silver bullet, but it’s very good policy. It cut taxes for 95% of working families to give them a leg up as they fight to get by. It invested in our nation’s infrastructure and clean energy. it gave tax breaks to small businesses to help hire workers, and it helped out state and local governments — including local police departments like the one in Englewood, Colorado, which was able to hire officers like Eddie B., whose story is below.

We’ve got a lot more work to do. But as many as 2.4 million Americans are working now who would otherwise be unemployed, and we’re breaking the back of the recession.

We put together a video explaining where we were just one year ago, and what the Recovery Act has done for our country. Watch it here.

Road to Recovery: Watch the video

In the three months prior to the Act, the nation lost 2.2 million jobs. The financial system was collapsing, and the “Great Recession” was being recognized for what it was — the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

But since the Act’s passage, Americans of all stripes have been able to get back to work. One example of what the Recovery Act made possible is the story of Eddie B., from Englewood, Colorado.

He graduated from police academy in 2009. Without the Recovery Act, he and his classmates would have had to wait for two years before being hired into the police department — but stimulus funds led to him being hired immediately. In Eddie’s words, “the President, with the Recovery Act, gave me the opportunity to serve my community and help the people I live with.”

The success of the Recovery Act is composed of millions of stories like Eddie’s — of folks getting to work who wouldn’t otherwise be in their jobs, families able to buy their first home because of the homeowner’s tax credit, and much more.

Please check out the video we put together, and pass it along to 5 friends:

http://my.barackobama.com/RecoveryVideo

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

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Maria Cantwell says no to the Public Option


People in Seattle and Washington State should know that Maria Cantwell has said no to supporting the Public Option

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Washington State … Tell Maria Cantwell to support the Public Option


Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Call Sen Maria Cantwell: (202) 224-3441

Al Franken and heroes

Senator Michael Bennet just announced a letter to Senator Harry Reid, asking him to pass the public option through reconciliation, which only needs 51 votes in the Senate. Senators Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, and Kirsten Gillibrand have already co-signed it — and over 100 House Democrats and 300,000 Americans have signed on in support of this strategy.

Boom! In one day — after 10,000 phone calls to Congress — we doubled the number of senators who signed the letter calling on Harry Reid to pass the public option through “reconciliation.”

Al Franken (MN), Patrick Leahy (VT), John Kerry (MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) all stepped up.

P.S. CNN described the impact of this campaign:

The fight over health care reform burst back into public view Tuesday as four Democratic senators asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to hold a vote on a government-run public insurance option.

Politico added:

[Sen. Mike] Bennet took the lead in the Senate to round up co-signers for the letter, which was spearheaded by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Credo Action. A similar effort in the House netted 119 signers to a letter.

Call your Senator today and ask them to co-sign Senator Bennet’s letter asking Harry Reid to pass the public option through reconciliation—

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Green technology a beacon of hope?


February 9, 2010

Program Note: Don’t miss Casey Wian’s report on Green Wave technology tonight onAC360° at 11 p.m. ET.

Green Wave's prototype product - a light pole powered by a windmill and solar panels.

Green Wave’s prototype product – a light pole powered by a windmill and solar panels.

Casey Wian
CNN Correspondent

Skeptics might say Mark Holmes is tilting at windmills. The long-time attorney started his new alternative power company, Green Wave Energy, in October 2008, during the depths of the U.S. financial crisis.

“Well, we had a major financial meltdown, everybody was in a panic. Those were really dark days and we figured, what better time to start a company?” Holmes said.

We visited the Newport Beach, Calif. shipyard that is home to Green Wave’s prototype product, a potentially revolutionary light pole powered by a windmill and four solar panels. It operates completely off of the electric grid, and can actually generate enough excess power to run a 1,000-watt appliance.

Green Wave Energy is funded by 33 partners, mostly friends, acquaintances and colleagues of CEO Holmes, whose career as a corporate lawyer included cases involving both the marine and alternative energy industries. Together, they’ve raised a little more than $200,000 in cash, and nearly $3 million in products and services to launch the company. They hope to soon be providing light to places like Haiti and other remote locations without easy access to the electric grid.

One partner’s busy shipyard is where Green Wave’s World Light Pole is tested. Another partner’s SUV and trailer serve as a makeshift wind tunnel, saving the company $50,000 a day. And a third partner’s struggling luxury yacht factory is now Green Wave’s manufacturing facility.

“Most of my background has been working with people in the marine industry, and they are absolutely perfect for developing renewable energy products, because they build to a standard that assumes the worst is going to happen,” Holmes said, adding that the company is using fiberglass to enable its light pole to survive hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.

At the Green Wave partner’s yacht manufacturing facility in Perris, Calif., the recession has slowed business dramatically and forced deep layoffs. But Green Wave is providing hope.

“I think that’s one way of looking at it, they’ve had some very tough times, a significant reduction in force,“ Holmes said. “I think with us coming here and starting up production they are going to be able to bring back a lot more folks, and hopefully several hundred folks, if everything works out right.”

A UC Berkeley study estimates green technology companies could create more than 400,000 jobs in California alone during the next decade.

“These are in general, higher paying jobs. They are engineering jobs, research jobs, higher-paying manufacturing jobs, specialized manufacturing jobs, so they are important,” said Jerry Nickelsburg, an economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast.

So far, Green Wave has sold just one of its $20,000 light poles. But it’s negotiating two potentially large contracts, including one that could bring the devices to Haiti. Holmes says the business model of “green tech” companies partnering with recession-plagued traditional manufacturers is not unique to Green Wave Energy.

“I think this is the model, if anything. I think there is so much ‘old school’ technology, or old school manufacturing facilities out there that need this sort of re-invigoration. Bringing green technology to those facilities will be basically bringing them back to life.”

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