APOLOGIES, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO A CONFLICT OF SCHEDULING BY THE STATION AT SOUTHERN RAIL

I think we are in about the 4th iteration of the Chapel Hill Public Library debate, but whatever the number, it's an important debate about an important issue.  Four things stick out to me:

First, the Town Council has delayed moving forward with the addition.  As much as I want to see it built, the current economic situation being what it is gave them little choice. When the situation is more favorable I'm sure that they will move forward.

This week after a lot of theatre by Democrats in Congress appearing to be tough on the big three, the automotive industry is likely to be bailed out.  Congress rejected the initial proposal by the automakers and asked them to come back with a better proposal and not in Leer jets.  They came back with their new proposals by car. 

The Obama team and Democrats are acknowledging that an economic stimulus plan equal to 4%-5% of US GDP is needed.  In other words 500-700 Billion dollars are needed for investing toward infrastructure as a means of creating jobs to stimulate the economy.

If there is anything of value that we may have learned from the previous local discourse on the global economic crises I would hope that it is: it is healthy to read between the lines of the national discourse mainstream setting media (i.e. NPR, The New York Times, CNN, and all mainstream corporate media to the right of these). 

Before taking another message and echoing and parroting again, lets take stock of where the financial bailout has put us.

I am new to this Internet community and surprised that there appears to be no conversation about human service needs or human service programs  in Orange County. We certainly seem to have many examples of both.

Last month Orange County government sponsored a day long retreat for the directors of all non-profit human service agencies that receive partial funding from the County. The purpose of the event was to facilitate discussion among non-profit leaders regarding the impact of the economic downturn on the non-profit sector and on the people it serves. The organizers hoped that non-profit leaders would discover new ways to anticipate future challenges and to collaborate on common goals. The meeting was facilitated by experts from the UNC School of Government.

While I was out (since the last post) this email appeared in my email box. 

The country has been getting ransacked over the last couple of weeks.  On August 4th 2008  both houses of congress (Rep. David Price included) sanctioned  H.R. 3221 and the conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie  essentially saddeling the U.S. government with 5.4 trillion in debt that it is now responsible for!!! 

Had we had a debate and expressed the outrage over this back then, gone into the streets banging our pots and pans .... the latest outrage, the  proposed bail-out bill, would now be something that our Congressman David Price might think twice about before voting  ...  we should have broken down his door back in August!

The very wise, prophetic, yet ignored,  Catherine Austin Fitts has summed this bill up:

With the fate of the transfer tax not even decided, CH town manager Roger Stancil is already calling for an 11% tax rate hike for Chapel Hill. He warns that property tax rate increases of 3 to 10 cents (per $100 valuation) will not be uncommon in local jurisdictions. (And my guess is that this is a trend that will continue for the forseeable future. )

http://tinyurl.com/45cqlc