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    <title>American University College Democrats</title>
    <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/group_rss/AmericanUniversityCollegeDemocrats/html</link>
    <description>American University College Democrats</description>
                        <item>
            <title>New President&#039;s To-Do List....We Need....</title>
            <description>First, restore confidence Forget four years. In the first six weeks of his tenure, the new president&#039;s to-do list will include: Restoring a sense of public confidence that the country can meet and solve the financial challenges ahead. At campaign rallies, Obama already has quoted FDR&#039;s admonition that &quot;the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.&quot; Guiding implementation of the financial industry rescue plan, including figuring out which toxic assets Treasury should buy from struggling institutions and how much to pay for them. The move to use $250 billion of the bailout to buy stakes in banks will put the government in the unfamiliar role of part owner of institutions that embody free-market capitalism. Beginning to revamp a regulatory structure largely built during the Depression so that it reflects the complexity of the current global financial system. Deciding whether and how to begin the drawdown of most U.S. combat forces from Iraq. Obama says he wants to complete the withdrawal in his first 16 months in office. McCain says a reduction is on the horizon but hasn&#039;t set a timetable. Responding to the urgent request this month by Gen. David McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan, for more U.S. troops there. Army Times reports that Gen. David Petraeus, who takes overall command of the region on Oct. 31, plans to deliver a report to the president in February after conducting a &quot;top-to-bottom&quot; review. Submitting the federal budget for fiscal 2010 to Congress in early February. It presumably will reflect the costs of the bailout plan and the revenue impact of the economic slowdown. Being prepared for terrorists to strike during the transition, a timing they have used before. The World Trade Center was bombed five weeks after President Clinton took office in 1993; the Madrid train bombings took place three days before national elections in Spain in 2004; car-bomb attacks were attempted in London and Glasgow days after a new British prime minister took office in 2007.</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jimmysmith/CCx</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jimmysmith/CCx/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:56:30 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jimmysmith/CCx</guid>
            <dc:creator>Jimmy Smith</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/cef4e73ec1d6bc8727_zi7mv2sgt.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Jimmy Smith</db:author_name>
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                    <item>
            <title>An Open Letter to the American People</title>
            <description>October 14, 2008&lt;br /&gt;
An Open Letter to the American People,&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
This year&#039;s presidential election is among the most significant in our nation&#039;s history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting hi m.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
During the administration of George W. Bush, vital parts of our country&#039;s scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government&#039;s scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant&lt;br /&gt;
position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
We have watched Senator Obama&#039;s approach to these issues with admiration. We espe cially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation&#039;s competitiveness. In particular, we support the measures he plans to take - through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research - to meet the nation&#039;s and the world&#039;s most urgent needs.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
Senator Obama understands that Presidential leadership and federal investments in science and technology are crucial elements in successful governance of the world&#039;s leading country. We hope you will join us as we work together to ensure his election in November.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
Signed,&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
Alexei Arikosov Physics 2003&lt;br /&gt;
Roger Guillemin Medicine 1977&lt;br /&gt;
Peter Agre Chemistry 2003&lt;br /&gt;
John L. Hall Physics 2005&lt;br /&gt;
Sidney Altman Chemistry 1989&lt;br /&gt;
Leland H. Hartwell Medicine 2001&lt;br /&gt;
Philip W. Anderson Physics 1977&lt;br /&gt;
Dudley Herschbach Chemistry 1986&lt;br /&gt;
Richard Axel Medicine 2004&lt;br /&gt;
Roald Hoffmann Chemistry 1981&lt;br /&gt;
David Baltimore Medicine 1975&lt;br /&gt;
H. Robert Horvitz Medicine 2002&lt;br /&gt;
Baruj Benacerraf Medicine 19 80&lt;br /&gt;
Louis Ignarro Medicine 1998&lt;br /&gt;
Paul Berg Chemistry 1980&lt;br /&gt;
Eric R. Kandel Medicine 2000&lt;br /&gt;
J. Michael Bishop Medicine 1989&lt;br /&gt;
Walter Kohn Chemistry 1998&lt;br /&gt;
N. Bloembergen Physics 1981&lt;br /&gt;
Roger Kornberg Chemistry 2006&lt;br /&gt;
Michael S. Brown Medicine 1985&lt;br /&gt;
Leon M. Lederman Physics 1988&lt;br /&gt;
Linda B. Buck Medicine 2 004&lt;br /&gt;
Craig C. Mello Medicine 2006&lt;br /&gt;
Mario R. Capecchi Medicine 2007&lt;br /&gt;
Yoichiro Nambu Physics 2008&lt;br /&gt;
Martin Chalfie Chemistry 2008&lt;br /&gt;
Marshall Nirenberg Medicine 1968&lt;br /&gt;
Stanley Cohen Medicine 1986&lt;br /&gt;
Douglas D. Osheroff Physics 1996&lt;br /&gt;
Leon Cooper Physics 1972&lt;br /&gt;
Stanley&amp;nbsp ;B. Prusiner Medicine 1997&lt;br /&gt;
James W. Cronin Physics 1980&lt;br /&gt;
Norman F. Ramsey Physics 1989&lt;br /&gt;
Robert F. Curl Chemistry 1996&lt;br /&gt;
Robert Richardson Physics 1996&lt;br /&gt;
Johann Diesenhofer Chemistry 1988&lt;br /&gt;
Burton Richter Physics 1976&lt;br /&gt;
John B. Fenn Chemistry 2002&lt;br /&gt;
Sherwood Rowland Chemistry 1995&lt;br /&gt;
Edmond H. Fischer Medicine 1992&lt;br /&gt;
Oliver Smithies Medicine 2007&lt;br /&gt;
Val Fitch Physics 1980&lt;br /&gt;
Richard R Schrock Chemistry 2005&lt;br /&gt;
Jerome I. Friedman Physics 1990&lt;br /&gt;
Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics 1993&lt;br /&gt;
Murray Gell-M an Physics 1969&lt;br /&gt;
E. Donnall Thomas Medicine 1990&lt;br /&gt;
Riccardo Giacconi Physics 2002&lt;br /&gt;
Charles H. Townes Physics 1964&lt;br /&gt;
Walter Gilbert Chemistry 1980&lt;br /&gt;
Roger Tsien Chemistry 2008&lt;br /&gt;
Alfred G. Gilman Medicine 1994&lt;br /&gt;
Daniel C.Tsui Physics 1998&lt;br /&gt;
Donald A. Glaser Physics 1960&lt;br /&gt;
Harold Varmus Medicine 1989&lt;br /&gt;
Shel don L. Glashow Physics 1979&lt;br /&gt;
James D. Watson Medicine 1962&lt;br /&gt;
Joseph Goldstein Medicine 1985&lt;br /&gt;
Eric Wieschaus Medicine 1995&lt;br /&gt;
Paul Greengard Medicine 2000&lt;br /&gt;
Frank Wilczek Physics 2004&lt;br /&gt;
David Gross Physics 2004&lt;br /&gt;
Robert W. Wilson Physics 1978&lt;br /&gt;
Robert H. Grubbs Chemistry 2005&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
The views expressed in this letter represent those of the signers acting as individual citizens.&lt;br /&gt;
They do not necessarily represent the views of the institutions with which they are affiliated. The&lt;br /&gt;
Medicine award is for &quot;Physiology or Medicine.&quot;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jimmysmith/CGF</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jimmysmith/CGF/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:19:10 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jimmysmith/CGF</guid>
            <dc:creator>Jimmy Smith</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>Jimmy Smith</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
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        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>Mortgage Bailout Plan Is All Wrong</title>
            <description>The plan, regardless of whose changes are applied to it, is still a short term reaction to a long term problem.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must be liquidated. Government caused the problem. Throwing tax dollars down the toilet fixes othing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This plan will destroy what is left of our economy.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We need a totally different long term plan to cure our totally messed up economy.</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CGx2</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CGx2/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:11:18 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CGx2</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CGx2/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>Japan Collusion with Morgan Stanley to Defraud US Taxpayers</title>
            <description>Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan&#039;s largest bank, said on Monday it planned to take a stake of up to one-fifth in U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley as part of a strategic alliance.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said in a statement on Monday it would buy 10-20 percent of the common stock of Morgan Stanley. It said it would decide on the amount it would pay after carrying out due diligence.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Buying 20 percent of Morgan Stanley would cost MUFG about $6 billion based on its total market value of $30 billion.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Morgan Stanley has chnaged into a commercial bank so that it is eligible for greater financial aid, ie more taxpayer bailouts from Paulson, and Japan wants part of the bailout.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Morgan Stanley has been under pressure to raise capital amid a sharp fall in its share price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What international banking conspiracy?&lt;br /&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/C4f</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/C4f/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:29:37 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/C4f</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/C4f/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>The Level of Risk in Our Financial System is Being Increased</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;In the final destruction of all the wonderful laws passed by a thoughtful Congress and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to protect the American people from the excesses and corruption that caused the Great Depression, your totally incompetent governmenthas &amp;nbsp;taken the final steps to maximize the corruption of our financial system. The last two major independent investment banking/ stock brokerage houses have now officially become commercial banks. Don&amp;rsquo;t believe me? See: &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20080921a.htm&quot;&gt;http://federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20080921a.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My parents told me about the abuses of the Great Depression and how the stock brokers owned by the commercial banks robbed people of their life savings by having people buy stocks in failing companies, and that money was then used to pay back the bad loans to the bank that owned the stockbrokers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bush is destroying our nation.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CPT</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CPT/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:27:39 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CPT</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CPT/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>Wave of Tent Cities</title>
            <description>RENO, Nev. â�&quot;  A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Then others appeared â�&quot; people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a &quot;tent city&quot; â�&quot; an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they&#039;ve experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report&#039;s release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg5p</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg5p/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:17:15 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg5p</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cg5p/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>No More Palin</title>
            <description>Don&#039;t think anyone here dislikes or is as afraid of this conservative crack case to be a heart beat away from the presidency as I am.  All the reasons we know.. she lies... she isn&#039;t qualified are right there for all to see.  McCain picking her as VP shows his terrible judgement and putting his country last...anything to win politics.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is the problem with Palin.  We know the GOP cannot talk about the issues because they have no answers, nothing but more of the same.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As long as we keep the chatter alive about Palin we don&#039;t discuss the issues.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
No more Palin chatter.  Let&#039;s discuss issues and mcCain.  On those topics we win.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let&#039;s talk about the topics that weren&#039;t even mentioned at the GOP Convention...the middle class, health care...ending the war, housing foreclosures, energy independence, the environment.........</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CCPB</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CCPB/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:45:29 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CCPB</guid>
            <dc:creator>Lincoln Park Dem</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/297eb1512beded58a8_fznmv2lwx.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Lincoln Park Dem</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>2</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CCPB/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>We need you!</title>
            <description>We have started a new group on the DNC Party Builder site for all grassroots organizers like you. We will be sharing info, flyers, helping each other with talking points and encouraging and sharing info to get on the phones, knock on doors and raise money to help Democrats win. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organize your neighborhood. If you don&#039;t know how...we&#039;ll help you.  You can do it on your own or we&#039;ll do our best to hook you up with Democrats in your area that could use your help.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We have less then 60 days left and need your ideas and help. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
http://www.democrats.org/page/group/PartyBuilderVolunteerActionGroup</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CCzd</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CCzd/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:05:46 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CCzd</guid>
            <dc:creator>Lincoln Park Dem</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/297eb1512beded58a8_fznmv2lwx.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Lincoln Park Dem</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>6</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CCzd/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>Watch our broken government make</title>
            <description>the Wall Street speculators rich.&lt;br /&gt;
They will come up with some goofy plan for Fannie and Freddie that will leave serious invesstors wondering how it will affect the stock price&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But the insiders will know beforehand and get rich ahead of us.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
They should stop trading the stock and have a true takeover just like with the banks where the stock is wiped out forever&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But the Wall Street insiders will get rich and you and I will probably pay $10,000 per person in taxes for the bailout&lt;br /&gt;
I want to hear barack saying we will not bail out the insiders</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CCzt</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CCzt/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:15:44 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CCzt</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CCzt/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>You Ain&#039;t Seen Nothing Yet</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago I criticized the Repub for defrauding investors for permiting trading in the stocks of Fannie mae and Freddie Mac. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxMV&quot;&gt;http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxMV&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today its was announced that 9 percent of mortgages are late or delinquent. Astoundingly, One of eleven mortgages are bad. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When those people become homeless, things will get much worse. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The cost to the economy and to us taxpayers for all the bank bailouts that will follow will place the US on the verge of bankruptcy. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Homeprices are going to continue to decline, which means more mortgages will be upsidedown (where the mortgage is larger than the home value). That will result in even more people walking away from their mortages, and HOME PRICES WILL DECLINE EVEN FURTHER &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;for years. . . . &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;and revene from property taxes will continue to decline, robbing our already short-changed &amp;nbsp;schools of much needed revenue, so our children will pay the price of government lack of regulation&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CCLP</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CCLP/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:23:35 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CCLP</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CCLP/</wfw:commentRss>
        </item>
                    <item>
            <title>Another Reason We Need Change</title>
            <description>One of our Party Builders, Robert Brooks, has written an excellent article on his blog at http://thewildernessvoice.blogspot.com/&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I am not duplicating his excellent article, but making a major correction. As shocking as his article is, and with great respect to Mr. Brooks, he understates the problem.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He uses the example of the year 1967 for his computations that the dollar has lost 80 percent of its value in forty years, compared, among other things to the price of gold.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I beg to argue that the two most relevant benchmarks are the price of oil, and the median homeprice, since those two items determine the price of almost everything else we spend our money on.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 1967 a barrel of oil was $2.90 a barrel. Today, Sept. 2, 2008 oil closed at a five year low of $105, which indicates a loss of 97 percent in the value of a dollar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
National figures on median home prices are subject to manipulation, so I will use my home.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My home was built in 1967, coincidentally the same base year used as a base by Mr. Brooks. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The current market value of my home indicates a 92 percent loss in the value of the dollar. People are mistaken when they think they have made money when a homeprice goes up. What you are really seeing is inflation: it takes more dollars to buy the same thing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the 39 or 40 years since 1967, Republicans have controlled the White House most of the time, but there is plenty of blame to go around for both parties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What this really means is that our government has stolen 92 to 97 percent of the life savings that people had in 1967.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And every year they are stealing more of our life savings. Greenspan is a traitor who belongs in jail, because the statutory job of the Federal Reserve is to preserve a sound dollar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Greenspan only missed the mark by 95 percent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We need CHANGE&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In case I did not state it clearly,  WE NEED CHANGE</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxMV</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxMV/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:04:27 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxMV</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>8</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CxMV/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>New Orleans Hurricane</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, watching those poor people lining up for buses to yet again flee a hurricane, my heart broke. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With all our riches how can there still be people in America who are so obviously so impoverished and helpless? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, it is because our system of education is broken, failed, shameful. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How can any politician believe that property taxes from impoverished areas can pay for world class schools and world class teachers?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A factor in our broken system of education is that first, teachers are underpaid so that schools for teachers &amp;quot;sometimes&amp;quot; fail to attract the most talented people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Second, the curricula are not teaching prospective teachers how to really teach.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I want every teacher in America to receive the same starting pay as computer programmers and engineeers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I want better curicula for preparing teachers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And I want 3,000,000 more, high paid, talented, dedicated teachers who are fully prepared to teach THE LOVE OF medicine, bioscience, math and engineering, starting in the first grade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let us all work for an America where everey child has absolutely equal and excellent education, so that in the future no American is so unprepared for life that they end up helplessly standing in line for buses to flee for their lives.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please donate, tax deductible,&amp;nbsp;to these goals at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fluni.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.fluni.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I cannot think of anything more consistent with the core values of our Democratic Party.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxGK</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxGK/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:15:44 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CxGK</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CxGK/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Michelle&#039;s First Date</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;This vignette touched my heart, because it has such relevant symbolism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;In the clips last night, Michelle Obama spoke of finally giving in to Barack&#039;s request for a date. She had been refusing his advances because she was very proper in the top law firm of Sidley &amp;amp; Austin, where she was a full fledged attorney and Barack was just a summer intern.&amp;nbsp;Barack surprised Michelle when he&amp;nbsp;took her, not to a fancy restaurant, but &amp;nbsp;to a church basement where he gave a speech to steelworkers who were laid off when the local steel mill closed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Michelle said Barack riveted everyone in the basement with a magnificent speech about how America actually was, and how America should be.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The clip showed a picture of the burly white steelworkers raptly listening to the young African American orator, demonstrating that the races were cooperating even back then.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I grew up in the same neighborhood as Michelle Robinson Obama, actually in between her house&amp;nbsp; and Rev. Wright&#039;s church. I&amp;nbsp;personally knew many of the steelworkers who forever lost high paying jobs to the slave labor wages of Indian and Chinese steelmills, and feel quite strongly about fair trade instead of free trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those hard working men&amp;nbsp;never, ever got jobs with pay&amp;nbsp;remotely near what they earned in the mill, for very hard work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Micehlle felt the same thing I did, and said that speech in the church basement made it all over, the end! She was in love with Barack.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A symbolic lesson for us all, united.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cgdc</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cgdc/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:57:41 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cgdc</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>5</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cgdc/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Proud To Be A Democrat</title>
            <description>While I shall continue to post about how to improve our &lt;br /&gt;
Democtratic party and uplift the issues of our candidates, my heart burst with pride as I watched our great Democratic Party make history as the first major party to nominate an African American for President of the United States of America.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On the Fourth of July, 2007, I signed the papers to register as a Democrat and abandoned my life long membership in the Republican Party. What a great day!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
May God Bless America, and God Bless our Democratic Party!</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CgTT</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CgTT/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:03:44 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/CgTT</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>2</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CgTT/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Who Is Crazy?</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Who is crazy?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Comments on previous posts have stooped to the politics of personal destruction, ad hominem attacks, and calling people &amp;quot;crazy.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Did you know that shortly after Frank filed with the FEC there was a staff post, since deleted, on Daily Kos, asking if Kos should support Frank instead of Obama? So the Kos staff was taking him seriously.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tell me, who is crazy?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frank Lynch is creating a new university http://www.fluni.com to train teachers of science, math, medicine and engineering to help treat our national shortage of science teachers and had the audacity to name the university after his father, who died at home in his arms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obviously Lynch is crazy, a loon, an egomanic and should be chased out of town. It goes against the principles of the Democratic Party to advance education and to deal with the teacher shortage. Drive Lynch away from posting, he is dangerous. And he is taking on the monumental, back breaking tsask of creating a non-profit, charitable university, and serving without compensation? What a jerk!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frank Lynch is creating a public charity devoted to abused children and abused women and to fighting poverty inside of America as opposed to Clinton&#039;s foundation which is mostly outside the USA. http://franklynchfoundation.org also named after his deceased father.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lynch is insane, What a narcissist. Anybody who wants to fight poverty inside America is a Nazi. Shout him down, ban him, ridicule him. And he wants to help abused children and save them from the broken foster care system? He can&#039;t possible be a true Democrat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lynch is writing books and creating a publishing company to raise money for his charities to help education and fight poverty in America. Criminal! UnAmerican. Anti-Democrat. No Democrat Presidential candidate ever wrote a book? Boo! Go away Frank. It is illegal to write a book.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frank filed to run for president even though he knew the Democratic Party insiders would not let him on the ballots. Why? As a means of getting the other Presidential candidates to copy the ideas he posted on http://www.franklynch.org and use them in their previously vacant websites previously filled with only empty rhetoric from Jimmy Carter&#039;s 1976 campaign, and we know Carter&#039;s legacy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gee Frank, you reminded Hillary and goaded Barack into helping college students and into adopting Universal Healthcare. Frank, you really are a tin hat wacko loon. Everybody knows that Hillary and Barack adopted universal healthcare AFTER you publicized it and nagged the Chairpersons of all 50 state party organizations about it. What a maroone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And by doing so, Frank Lynch changed America. What a terrible person! Pushing for universal healthcare and helping college students. Lock him in jail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And Frank Lynch filed to run for President without ever serving as a legislator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now this is a big one. Frank Lynch is going to propose a Constitutional Amenment to forbid anyone who has ever been a US Senator or Representative, or ever graduated from law school, from running for President.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No lawyer ever SUCCESSFULLY managed anything of substance in the entire history of America. No many of you will cite lawyers who were the head of all sorts of things. Yes, ABraham Lincoln, my geatest personal hero, was a lawyer, but he never went to law school. Ha! Try to focus. No lawyer evere SUCCESSFULLY managed anything of substance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chew on that! First it is a really big crime how so many Senators do nothing about carrying out their duties to the taxpayers for two whole years while they abandon the Senate to run for President. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, the Presidency is EXECUTIVE. Senators and Representatives do nothing but work to get re-elected and collect campaign donations by holding hearing after hearing after hearing after hearing to extort contributions from the victims of their hearings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, have you every watched CSPAN? None of those bums should ever be allowed to be President.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frank Lynch has expert experience in the areas that determine America&#039;s future: science, national security, finance/economics, and running a business. See http://www.franklynch.name &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fact, compared to the irrelevant experience of all the other candidates, Lynch is OVERQUALIFIED&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frank Lynch at age 18 dropped out of college because he thought his professors were stupid. At age 19 he was back as a National Science Foundation researcher studying the effects of early experience on adult biochemical and hormonal reactions to stress.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since stress is involved in weapons systems, he was recruited as a national security consultant, first on selection of advanced weapons systems, then intellegence, and he co-authored a study that predicted the current MidEast situation, in detail, with 100 percent accuracy, 40 years ago! Current candidates don&#039;t even understand the MidEast today, let alone see the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He then spent 10 years as a Corporate Finance Officer on Wall Street, followed by creating a new business from scratch, building it up into a publicly traded company, and selling it to a larger company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In contrast, both Obama and McCain state they do not understand business, finance or the economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No other Presidential candidate has these comprehensive, totally relevant, qualifications to deal with the problems facing America today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe Howard Dean erred by keeping Frank Lynch off the primary ballots? Would it not be interesting if the voters had had the chance to debate this?&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg87</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg87/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:01:06 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg87</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>13</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cg87/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Idealism, Free Speech and Innovation</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Are these blogs contaminated by professional paid assasins in the employ of funded campaigns?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In July 2007 I read every word of every website&amp;nbsp; of all the Democrat and Republican Presidential&amp;nbsp;candidates. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then I wrote my Top Ten List and the http://www.franklynch.org website including only ideas that were not on any Democratic or Republican Presidential candidate website at that date, the sole exception being that Kucinich had the same elegant version of single payer healthcare.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Clinton had dropped universal healthcare after the Republicans threatened to put her in jail for unauthorized expenditure of taxpayer funds in 1993. She never again sponsored unversal healthcare until after I embarassed her on September 11, 2007. On that date she was in my neighbordhood doing a &amp;quot;not really campaigning&amp;quot; fundraiser in which her only words on healthcare were cheaper drugs for seniors and more healthcare for children, less than truly revolutionary concepts. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the same time a mile down the same street&amp;nbsp;the ABC station&amp;nbsp;televised me campaigning for universal healthcare. Since her staff scans television news wherever she appears, they viewed the five televised spots of me pushing unversal healthcare when she did not. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shortly&amp;nbsp;AFTER that embarassment, she REMEMBERED that she used to support it.&amp;nbsp; She researched me so thoroughly that she found out my mother belonged to an HMO named &amp;quot;America&#039;s Health Choice&amp;quot; and Clinton adopted the name of my mother&#039;s HMO for her universal healthcare plan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As that website says, I filed for President with the FEC because I was disgusted that Hillary&#039;s and Obama&#039;s websites at July 2007 had almost no specific steps on how to achieve change, even though he had been campaigning for seven months and had spent more than a hundred million, including millions on consultants and writers to flesh out and put substance to his rhetoric. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Silly me, I thought that if someone were to run for President, they should have their ideas fleshed out with specific plans BEFORE starting a campaign, otherwise why run? That is not a rhetorical question. I think the reason to run for President is because you have specific ideas. If your initial,&amp;nbsp; starting&amp;nbsp;Presidential website&amp;nbsp;lacks specific steps you intend to implement, why bother running?. Much worse is if&amp;nbsp;after running for seven months, there is no excuse for not having specific, concrete actual steps, except if you have no&amp;nbsp; specific, concrete ideas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Isn&#039;t the purpose of running for change to have specific changes written down? All of the Democratic candidates were insider Senators or Congressmen (if Obama was an outsider, how come he lived off the taxpayers for the last ten years? Ha!) I knew there was no way the Party machine would let a true outsider like me into the debates or on the ballots, so I used faxes and certified mail to the State Party Chairpersons, and within 48 hours, the elements of my Top Ten List and website began appearing on the DNC website and on Hillary&#039;s and Obama&#039;s website. It is an incontrovertible fact that at July 20, 2007, neither Hillary nor Barack had Universal Healthcare, plug-in electric cars, windfarms, talking to our enemies, Energy Independence, Free College or College Tuition Assistance,&amp;nbsp;or the phrase &amp;quot;Bold New Ideas&amp;quot; on their websites. How short memories are! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sure, if you Google any idea you will find many hits, but none of the ideas on my Presidential website were on Hillary&#039;s or Obama&#039;s websites at July 2007, and I did in fact succeed in&amp;nbsp;inserting them into the current Presidential campaign and defined the major issues of this campaign. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And by doing so I changed America!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What amazes me is the vicious antagonism of this Democratic website toward a Democrat because he contributed to defining the issues and expanded the debate.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Perhaps Fox News may have something when they claim that we Dems really suppress free speech and ideological expansion while claiming the opposite?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You and Howard Dean have proven to me that our Party is the old establishment, and is highly resistant to true change. We won the 2006 elections to bring change, but tell me please, why are Congressional approval ratings so low after our 2006 victory?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I urge everyone to embrace outsiders who publicize ideas of change, instead of responding with pettiness and calling people &amp;quot;crazy.&amp;quot; First, that is immature. And Second, That is what Hitler&#039;s Brown Shirts did.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg8d</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg8d/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:28:36 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/franklynch/Cg8d</guid>
            <dc:creator>Frank Lynch</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/5e652afeccff01bdd7_7um6bx3fe.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Frank Lynch</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>8</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/Cg8d/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>REQUIEM FOR A TROLL or TROLL IGNORED</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Our campaign has successfully united for CHANGE on BARACKOBAMA.COM and other Democratic websites.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The grass roots efforts are expanding all across AMERICA.&amp;nbsp; As we increase our attention to GOTV, Hosting and attending events and phonebanking,the attacks on our&amp;nbsp;nominee&amp;nbsp; have intensified.The intent is to distract and disrupt.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;This tactic will not survive our unified decision to ignore. No Response, No Debate....Ignore.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can do this,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes we can.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Join other Party Builder and Obama bloggers now and sign up for this event:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpg22s&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpg22s&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpg23h&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpg23h&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBht</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBht/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:45:44 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBht</guid>
            <dc:creator>Lincoln Park Dem</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/297eb1512beded58a8_fznmv2lwx.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Lincoln Park Dem</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>16</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CBht/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Party Builder Bloggers</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;In the event some of you don&#039;t know we have a group of bloggers from this blog that have created a group at the Obama site called PB Bloggers:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PartyBuilderBloggers&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PartyBuilderBloggers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is what we have been able to do collectively so far:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Average Individual Activity&amp;nbsp;0&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;# of Members&amp;nbsp;78&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Events Hosted &amp;nbsp;958&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Events Attended &amp;nbsp;2,329&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; Calls made &amp;nbsp;3,983&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; Doors Knocked &amp;nbsp;16&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Number of blog posts &amp;nbsp;2,989&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Amount raised &amp;nbsp;$5,130.23 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These numbers include all individual and group efforts.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our Group is within $125 of meeting our goal form donations.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/maingroup/PartyBuilderBloggers&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/maingroup/PartyBuilderBloggers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just wanted to extend an invite to any that have not joined as of yet and send a BIG thank you to all who have helped us!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;This is our time, Our moment.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes We Can!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Obama &#039;08 and &#039;12&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBS7</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBS7/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:41:11 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBS7</guid>
            <dc:creator>Lincoln Park Dem</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/297eb1512beded58a8_fznmv2lwx.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Lincoln Park Dem</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>3</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CBS7/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Making a difference</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;As some may know, we have a group of bloggers on the Obama site.&amp;nbsp; We are really making a difference there.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our stats:&lt;/p&gt;Party Builder Bloggers is making a difference together5Activity Index&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.democrats.org/page/points/group/PartyBuilderBloggers&quot;&gt;More Details&lt;/a&gt; Party Builder Bloggers STATS&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedvoid(0)&quot; title=&quot;all activities&quot;&gt;All&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedvoid(0)&quot; title=&quot;7 days from now&quot;&gt;7 Days&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedvoid(0)&quot; title=&quot;30 days from now&quot;&gt;30 Days&lt;/a&gt; Average Individual Activity&amp;nbsp;0# of Members&amp;nbsp;77Events Hosted &amp;nbsp;952 20 56 Events Attended &amp;nbsp;2,291 53 312 Calls made &amp;nbsp;0 0 0 Doors Knocked &amp;nbsp;12 12 12 Number of blog posts &amp;nbsp;2,855 182 182 Amount raised &amp;nbsp;$5,130.23 $286.22 $1,067.91&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please join us:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PartyBuilderBloggers&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PartyBuilderBloggers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBM9</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBM9/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:34:32 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CBM9</guid>
            <dc:creator>Lincoln Park Dem</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/297eb1512beded58a8_fznmv2lwx.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Lincoln Park Dem</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CBM9/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action Alert</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Please see&amp;nbsp;following:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Subj: FW: Voting Rights&lt;br /&gt;From: Heather Smith, Rock the VoteDear Rock the Vote staff,I was outraged when I found out the other day that the Department of Veterans Affairs has forbidden voter registration drives in its hospitals, rehab centers and other facilities.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This ban hurts thousands of young veterans who have been injured while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. We should be helping our veterans register and vote, not making it more difficult.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Last&amp;nbsp;week, the Senate introduced a bill to overturn the ban and allow states to require V.A. hospitals to offer voter registration to their clients. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Will you join me and ask your Senator to co-sponsor the &amp;ldquo;Veteran Voting Support Act&amp;rdquo;?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://action.rockthevote.com/site/R?i=aD8ZYMFjXpizt59QSyVX5Q..&quot;&gt;http://action.rockthevote.com/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&amp;amp;id=107&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Banning the most basic act of democracy from Americans who have fought for&amp;nbsp;our democracy&amp;nbsp;just doesn&amp;rsquo;t make any sense.&amp;nbsp; We need to stand up for our veterans--especially for the thousands of young veterans who are eligible to vote in their first presidential election.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Please contact your senators today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; Sincerely,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Heather Smith&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CV9v</link>
            <comments>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CV9v/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:06:39 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/UnitedWeStandTogether/CV9v</guid>
            <dc:creator>Lincoln Park Dem</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/profile_picture/297eb1512beded58a8_fznmv2lwx.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>Lincoln Park Dem</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://www.democrats.org/page/community/comment_rss/CV9v/</wfw:commentRss>
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