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 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
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

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

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

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

"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

In the New York Times today, Tuesday, July 1, 2008:

WASHINGTON �" The Pentagon has ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by KBR, a major military contractor, after the electrocutions of several United States service members.

General Petraeus’s written statement was made public on Monday afternoon by Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania. The statement said that of the 13 Americans electrocuted, 10 were in the Army, 1 in the Marines, and 2 were contractors.

In addition to those killed, many more service members have received painful shocks, Army officials say.

Had enough of KBR? Check out Grayson for Congress
http://www.graysonforcongress.com/

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The Obama Fellows (interns) are doing a major voter registration drive. Their efforts in addition to efforts of other groups such as ACORN are producing impressive results across the country, but particularly in Florida. It will take a special effort to stay in touch with these voters.

In Orange County as of mid-June are about 14,000 more Democrats than there were on January 29 resulting in a 43,000 registered voter advantage over the Republicans.

I discussed this in more detail on June 15:
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/JBCallahan/Cxbm

VOTER CONTACT
The DNC has produced a great national voter contact database, VoteBuilder (also known as VAN). But, we need to closely monitor the latest voter registration date in the database for a given state or county. In Florida, there is a three to four month lag in the monthly CDs we get from the Florida Division of Elections. If this lag carries over to VoteBuilder we will have a three to four month blindspot where we will be unable to contact newly registered Obama voters.

The campaign intends to remedy some of this problem by keeping track of the names of the people they register the limits of this approach is twofold:

#1 The Obama campaign will know its own voters, but it won't know who other organizations such as ACORN have registered and it can't just ask ACORN for its list because that would be illegal coordination and would jeopardize Project Votes' tax status.

#2 Keeping track of names before you turn you in doesn't tell you which eligible voters actually made it on the voter registration rolls (glitches could include that if the drivers license number or the last 4 digits of the social security number don't match their voter registration could fail). This is Florida! Strange things happen to the voter registration rolls! Trust, but verify.

To know all of the newly registered voters (not just the ones registered by Obama campaign) we have to rely on public records. Although by law the State of Florida maintains the official roll, in Orange County, Florida the Supervisor of Elections posts a monthly list of registered voters here:
http://www.ocfelections.com/Public%20Records/New%20Voters/New%20Voters%20Homepage.htm

The list is posted in the middle of one month for registrations through the end of the previous month. Using to posted list could reduce the reporting lag to two to four weeks.

The posted list has addresses, but does not have phone numbers or emails. To the extent that the Obama campaign has phone numbers and emails they could be added and the voter could be called to congratulate them on their successful voter registration. Yes, you are on the rolls and you can vote by mail or you vote at the elementary school (for example).

If we do not have phone numbers or emails for the voters (perhaps they were registered by ACORN/Project Vote) we add the voters to a special walk list and send volunteers to the door with lit and sign people up to receive email updates from Barrack Obama and other campaigns.

I hate for all the voter registration efforts to go to waste. Some optimists believe if a voter registers at a supermarket they will definitely turn out at a school, a firehouse or some other polling place to vote. Without further contact, the voter may not know how to vote by mail, vote early or on election day a polling place. Moreover, without further contact, they may vote for Obama and quit and not vote for the other Democrats on the ballot.

In conclusion, we need to follow through newly registered voters (whether registered by the Obama campaign or not) and it may take some additional data efforts (beyond VoteBuilder/VAN) to do so.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The City of Orlando, which owns the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) has a choice on how to generate electricity in the future. Under the Bush administration it pursued so called "clean coal" with a proposed coal gasification plant feeding a gas turbine generator.

Not surprisingly, the Bush/Cheney administrations' Energy Department was enthusiastic about so called "Clean Coal" plant which would be built by former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and use coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

Finally, OUC came to its senses and axed the coal portion and plans to build a natural gas powered plant. With the rising cost of fossil fuels, a better alternative may be wind energy.

Much of the electricity along the east coast of Florida is provided by Florida Power and Light (FPL). The parent company of the FPL Utility, FPL Group is a large investor in wind energy around the United States.

This year, FPL Group proposed an wind power farm in Florida near its St. Lucie nuclear plant. Although much of inland Florida is not suitable for wind energy coastal Florida is.

A similar wind farm, if constructed at the Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Air Force base could help meet the energy needs of Orlando, without burning fossil fuels.

At one time, OUC owned an oil fired power plant along the Indian River (one fo the bodies fo water that separates Cape Canaveral from the mainland). High voltage transmission line capacity between the former OUC Indian River Plant and the City of Orlando. Thus, the existing transmission line capacity could be used to transmit the power from the Kennedy wind farm to Orlando.

As a sea level state, Florida has to do all it can to prevent climate change and the resulting sea level rise.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

PS At one time I was an economic forecaster in the Strategic Planning Department of OUC.

McCain slips on oil slick; may lose Florida. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper's political blog "Central Florida Political Pulse" is reporting:

ohn McCain told reporters in Virginia today that it’s a "very high priority" to lift a decades-old ban on off-shore drilling so that states have the option to harvest natural gas and oil from the ocean floor have that option.

Florida lawmakers have fought for generations against drilling near the state’s shores -- as they fear an oil spill could have a catastrophic effect on the state’s beach-based tourism. The comment by McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, sparked a quick response from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

“Any attempt to weaken the moratorium on coastal oil drilling is irresponsible,” said Nelson in a statement. He pointed to military, rather than environmental concerns. Lifting the ban “would end training and evaluation in the largest testing area in the world for the u.s. military, which is off the gulf coast of Florida.”

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/06/mccain-lift-the.html

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Was the excuse given.

I was at an economic conference sponsored by the Orlando Business Journal (a weekly business newspaper). I met a friend who was working for the Alan Grayson(D) for Congress campaign.

A panel of 3 economists gave presentations followed by a question and answer period. During the Q&A period my friend stood up and gave her name and organizational affiliation and asked a to the effect that wouldn't ending the war help the economy?

There was shocked silence in the room. One of the economists grabs the mike and says smugly, if we weren't over there, there would be $500 a barrel oil! The other two economists knew the nature of the audience, looked relieved that they were not obligated to say anything and remained silent. Shortly after that there was a break, and during the break I put on a Grayson for Congress sticker for the remainder of the conference. Jim Callahan Orlando, FL

The Republican loss of a "safe" Congressional seat in Mississippi has triggered headlines in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other papers.

Wall Street Journal
The Republican Panic
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121080704069593315.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Democrats won with 54% of the vote in a district that a Republican won with 66% in 2006 and that President Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points. It was the GOP's third special election loss this year, and it has Democrats predicting that November will be another rout of 2006 proportions. Oklahoma's Tom Cole, who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, captured the GOP reaction when he declared that "There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates."

New York Times
Republican Election Losses Stir Fall Fears
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/us/politics/15repubs.html?hp

The victory by Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat elected in a once-steadfast Republican district on Tuesday, was the third defeat of a Republican in a special Congressional race this year. In addition to foreshadowing more losses for the party in November, the outcome appeared to call into question the belief that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois could be a heavy liability for his party’s down-ticket candidates in conservative regions.

USA Today
Republicans fear public has lost confidence
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-14-gopfallout_N.htm

Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who runs the committee tasked with helping elect Republicans to Congress, said Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi �" after losing GOP seats in other special elections in Illinois and Louisiana �" was evidence that "a large section of the American people doesn't have confidence in the Republican Party." * * * He said, "When you lose three of these in a row, you have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long hard look: Is there something wrong with your product?"

Keep it up.
Keep up the pressure.
Support the Democratic Congressional and Senatorial candidates where you live.
No President can do it alone.

I am a proud supporter of Alan Grayson(D), the candidate for change, in Florida's 8th Congressional District.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Democrats are on a roll with three Congressional wins. The latest win in in northern Mississippi's first Congressional District which is across the state line from Memphis, TN.

According to Congressional Quarterly (CQ):

Democrat Travis W. Childers won the House special election runoff Tuesday in Mississippi’s 1st District, defeating Republican Greg Davis by a sound 54 percent to 46 percent with all precincts reporting. * * * The win by Childers (CHILL-derrs) also boosted the Democrats to a 236-seat majority to 199 Republicans.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002838030

* * * President Bush was favored by 62 percent of 1st District voters in 2004, and Republican Roger Wicker �" who in January vacated the seat to accept a U.S. Senate appointment �" won a seventh and final House victory with 66 percent in 2006.

The 3 Democratic Congressional victories are:

1. March 8, 2008,
Illinois, 8th Congressional District,
Bill Foster(D)
- seat previously held by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert(R)

2. May 3, 2008,
Louisiana, 6th Congressional District,
Don Cazayoux(D)

3. May 13, 2008
Mississippi, 1st Congressional District,
Travis Childers(D)

Victory! Victory! Victory!

Go DCCC!

And it dealt another stinging psychological as well as tangible blow to the Republican Party, which poured well more than $1 million into its unsuccessful effort to salvage the seat and now looks far more likely to suffer further losses in the November general elections than to score the 19-seat net gain it needs to reclaim the majority. * * * The national GOP went even further to try to save the Mississippi seat, with Vice President Dick Cheney shuttling in for an election-eve rally for GOP nominee Davis in a futile effort to pump up turnout among the district’s typically dominant Republican base. * * * The DCCC’s $2 million in independent expenditures aimed at capturing the 1st District seat actually were much greater than the NRCC’s spending, but the Democratic committee is much better funded and could better afford the spending spree. The Republican committee’s wasted seven-figure expenditures on its three special election defeats have left it with little remaining cash to put into bids to take over Democratic seats in this fall’s election and to play defense against other strong Democratic takeover bids.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Alan Grayson, Orlando [Democratic] candidate for Congress [CD 8], signed a settlement agreement with IIF Data Solutions late yesterday, requiring IIF to pay $8.9 million plus interest to settle claims that it overcharged the Federal Government. The settlement brings to a successful conclusion a lawsuit that Grayson filed in June 2006 on behalf of the taxpayers and his client, a whistleblower and former IIF employee. This is the third largest recovery by a whistleblower in the 145-year history of the False Claims Act.

Grayson has filed dozens of lawsuits against corrupt and fraudulent government contractors. Uniquely, he has continued to prosecute these cases in the name of the Government, even where the Bush Administration facilitated the fraud and coddled corrupt contractors.

In the IIF case, Grayson fended off numerous efforts by IIF to dismiss the case. The Bush Administration refused to prosecute, and then it refused to allow any Government officials to appear as witnesses at trial. Grayson persevered nevertheless, marshalling other witnesses, experts, and documents. The lawsuit reached its exciting conclusion in a settlement agreement that Grayson negotiated in the courthouse, inside the judge's chambers, on the day that the trial was scheduled to begin.[1]

Under this Administration, Washington, D.C. is drowning in waste, fraud and abuse. We need someone to make sure that our tax dollars are spent wisely. Alan Grayson is the perfect person for that job. Please support Alan Grayson for Congress, on August 26 and November 4.
* * *

[1] As required by the terms of the settlement agreement, it is noted that "Defendants have not admitted liability for any allegations brought in the litigation, and entered into the settlement only to avoid litigation risk and to continue to focus on delivering services to the Government."

To send Alan Grayson(D) to Washington as a US Congressman, please visit:
http://www.graysonforcongress.com/

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

In this Sunday morning's Orlando Sentinel there is an editorial about the GAO report on wasteful government spending put on government credit cards.

ORLANDO SENTINEL
EDITORIAL
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed13108apr13,0,6765039.story
Our position: Extravagant spending with government credit cards has no justification

Jim Callahan response:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the investigative arm of Congress and supports the US Congress in meeting its constitutional oversight responsibilities.

Who we elect to Congress matters.

There is only one candidate in the Florida Congressional District 8 race with a proven track record of going after federal government waste, fraud and abuse. The candidate is attorney Alan Grayson who has filed lawsuits against government contractors for their committing fraud against the US government and its taxpayers who ultimately pay the bills.

If we want change we have to change who we are voting for. If we continue in election after election to re-elect Tom Feeney and Ric Keller things won't change. They will get worse. This morning, an Orlando Sentinel columnist, Scott Maxwell questioned Tom Feeney's use of his Congressional office's postal budget.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/southofdowntown/orl-maxwell1308apr13,0,2683954.column
If he can't manage his own budget, how do we expect him to exercise oversight over the entire federal budget?

Central Florida needs change and it is time exercise term limits over our multi-term incumbent US Congressman who have overstayed their mandate.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough was enthusiastic about economist Jeffery Sachs' (author of "The End of Poverty") new book "Commonwealth."

This is a shock. Joe normally represents Pensacola Florida's version of Joe Six-pack, for whom Obama's recent race speech is over their head.

At the Republican grassroots level there is concern about global poverty (even if cynically they want their evangelical missions to get funding) and the environment (those Republicans who don't have direct business interests to the contrary).

Al Gore's blurb for Commonwealth:

Al Gore, Winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and Former Vice President of the United States

"Common Wealth explains the most basic economic reckoning that the world faces. We can address poverty, climate change, and environmental destruction at a very modest cost today with huge benefits for shared and sustainable prosperity and peace in the future, or we can duck the issues today and risk a potentially costly reckoning in later years. Despite the rearguard opposition of some vested interests, policies to help the world's poor and the global environment are in fact the very best economic bargains on the planet."

Publishers' Weekly says:

The author analyses economic data, demographic trends and climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming problems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete with benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the world's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending would fund a comprehensive antimalaria program for Africa, saving countless lives.

Commonwealth web site:
http://www.sachs.earth.columbia.edu/commonwealth/reviews.php


Time magazine summarized the challenges posed by Commonwealth this way:   Read More »

1. Add Presidential Preference Primary to the August Primary - which will be held the 2nd day of the Democratic National Convention.

2. Seat all Florida delegates as uncommitted.

3. Allow the candidates to campaign in Florida and woo the now unpledged Florida Delegation.   Read More »

A message from the Alan Grayson campaign:

PRIORITIES
As we approach the end of President George W. Bush's final term in office, a report last week to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee threw a spotlight on a troubling trend. In the five years before 2003, federal support for medical research doubled. In the five years since, it has flat-lined. No increase at all.

As a result, younger researchers with fresh ideas have received nothing. The average age of a first-time grant recipient is now 42.

The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, here in Orlando, ranks fourth in the nation in federal research funding. How much more would it have received if funding had increased? How many more good jobs would there be in Orlando? And how many more important cures would the Burnham Institute have developed?

Congressional candidate Alan Grayson says, "It makes me sad to think of all the new cures that remained undiscovered, all the people who could have been cured but stay ill, and all the victims of illness who didn't have to die. President Bush and the Republicans in Congress are more concerned with giving out huge subsidies and tax breaks to the big HMO and pharmaceutical companies than they are with helping the sick and finding cures."

Alan Grayson has "street cred" on this subject. Over twenty years ago, he founded the Alliance for Aging Research, to promote medical research on curing the afflictions of old age. He has been an officer of the Alliance ever since. The Alliance, with a multimillion dollar annual budget, has increased research on aging by over 600%.

"That's what I want to see more of," says Alan. "I want to concentrate on healing the sick, educating our children, and improving jobs and the economy. Let's get our priorities straight."

For over 20 years, Alan has been striving, and succeeding, in helping people to remain healthy. If he's elected to Congress, he'll keep doing that.

Alan Grayson asks for your support, in the Democratic primary on August 26, and the General Election on November 4.

"Some men see things as they are, and ask 'why?' I dream things that never were, and ask, 'why not?'" -- Robert Kennedy, 1968.

Justice. Equality. Peace.

Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Alan Grayson, Democrat, for U.S. Congress, Florida District 8

http://www.graysonforcongress.com

####
posted by
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

If the Democratic Party had stuck to the rules and only had not seating half the delegates as the penalty (like the Republican Party) we would not be in the situation we are now.

Four Democratic state party chairs (in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Caroline and Nevada) used their position to extract a destructive pledge from the candidates, that went far beyond the party rules, pledging the candidates not to campaign in Florida.

It is the campaign blackout imposed by the pledge, not party rules that is the problem. The failure to campaign in Florida (or for more, than one candidate to get on the ballot in Michigan) invalidates the candidate results.

Following the January 29 primary, the party did a good job of holding caucuses to elect the persons to serve as delegates. At least here in Central Florida, the delegates elected for both Obama and Clinton were people who were either active in the meetup groups for the Presidential candidates or active in local political campaigns. These are good people who deserve to be seated. One of the delegates is first term state representative Scott Randolph who represents one of the most diverse districts in the nation.

On the other hand, because of the failure to campaign in Florida, the candidate results are invalid. With good delegates, but invalid candidate results, the delegates should be seated, but released from their pledges.

Florida voters still deserve the opportunity to see the candidates campaign in Florida. There is one last chance to vote.

"Denver will host the 2008 Democratic National Convention Monday, August 25 to Thursday, August 28."
http://www.democrats.org/a/convention_2008/

Florida will hold a regularly scheduled Primary Election on Tuesday, August 26, 2008, the second day of the Democratic National Convention.
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/online/elecdate.shtml

Imagine the drama of the convention, as the roll call is called out, "Florida passes," as vote counting in Florida is still underway.

At the convention, the seated, but unpledged, Florida delegation eagerly seek out Primary results in their own districts. Each of the delegates had campaigned hard for their candidate prior to the convention so tonight's vote would validate their choice.

The irony under this scenario is that Florida voters would get the last word.

Jim Callahan
Precinct Committeeman, Precinct 401
Orange County Democratic Executive Committee
Orlando, FL

Florida Legislature imperils voting rights; two Federal injunctions prevent implementation.

NAACP v. Browning
Federal injunction issued December 18, 2007

League of Women Voters v. Cobb
Federal injunction issued August 28, 2006

Both lawsuits name the Florida Secretary of State -- Kurt Browning replaced Sue Cobb.   Read More »