Story from the WKU Herald about KFTC and AID's Operation Voter Madness this past weekend.

Pictured is KFTC member Meredith Waldington registering voters in downtown Bowling Green.

Louisville freshman Chris Flood received phone calls from friends wishing him "happy birthday" while he filled out a voter registration form at a party Friday night. He filled out the form about 10 minutes before he turned 18.

Students from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Americans for Informed Democracy helped 270 people register to vote during Operation Voter Madness last week, said Morehead senior George Eklund, Warren County electoral organizer for KFTC.

2nd Annual Jefferson County Open House

Saturday greeted us Louisvillians with ominous gray skies looming with the threat of some very NEEDED hard rain. However, Jefferson County KFTC members were not discouraged and from 2 pm to 5 pm members worked tirelessly to prepare for our big event.  By 5 pm the block looked lovely, despite the continuous gloomy weather. The Mountain Top Removal Banner project wrapped around the whole perimeter of the block party, Christmas lights twinkled around the stage area, and delicious looking food was being brought out by member Retha Justice. The street block barely accommodate the variety of organizations recruited to table by members Peggy Kidwell and Becki Winchel. Members Retha Justice and Mary Love gave compelling testimonials and electoral organizer Amar Shah and member Margaret Stewart shared some poetry and played a CD of two of her poems that were converted to music. The evening closed music from member Carol Kraemer who was surrounded by a group of fans, singing and clapping along.  

Despite MANY competing events, approximately 60 people showed up for the event.  Many who showed up stayed for quite some time, eating, making connections and enjoying company.  Food  and drink was prepared and donated by Salvation Army, Rainbow Blossom, Retha Justice, Miss C's Kitchen, and Jackson's Organic Coffee. Many people from the neighborhood stopped by and took membership envelopes with them. One neighbor was from Eastern Kentucky and very interested in putting an end to MTR. Another woman said she lived across the street and definitely plans to be at our Chapter Meeting. Three copies of the charming MTR print used for the event invitation were sold. The print was created by member Julie Yoder.

Peter Meyer, a KFTC member in Northern Kentucky who is also an economist, talked with us today about the context and impact and path of the Wall Street fiasco.  We wanted to know three things:  1) Why did this happen? 2) What are some good solutions? and 3) How would bailing out/not bailing out Wall Street executives impact Kentucky families?  The crux of his answers to these are below.  It's not a verbatim representation of the conversation--just as close as we can get right now.

KFTC hasn't taken an organizational stance on the Wall Street bailout, but we think it's important to have these conversations; talking about economic policy keeps us from being intimidated by it.   Many thanks to Peter for his time and insight in helping us have these conversations.  And feel free to add your own thoughts!

Q.  How did we get here?

A lot of things brought us here.  Most recently, $45 trillion dollars were traded back and forth in credit and mortgages, and nobody knows how much of this $45 trillion was backed up with real money, and how much was built on a problematic foundation that never had any real money.  People don’t know how much of that foundation is risky, and that's a very big problem.  Wall Street trades depend on credit, so when the credit industry got shaky, Wall Street got shaky.

The $45 trillion trading-on-thin-ice-and-sometimes-water was possible because of lax (or no) government oversight and too little regulation of the financial industry.  President Roosevelt enacted lots of great pieces of legislation to help regulate and oversee this sector, but they've been totally emasculated.  The Regan era did real damage to government's ability to regulate, followed up by the efforts of then-Senator Phil Gram (who was also, until recently, John McCain's chief financial advisor...the one who called us "a nation of whiners"), who succeeded in finishing off Roosevelt's work in 1999, under President Clinton. 

Why did traders continue to work with numbers that everyone knew weren't based in reality?  Because they made money that way!  When we deal with our family finances we try to think long-term, over the course of our lives.  What's going to keep me afloat when I'm 85?  The CEOs and senior executives at these places have much shorter horizons.  They get quarterly bonuses that can dwarf their paychecks, and those bonuses are based on numbers for trades that may or may not be on solid foundations.  Their horizon is so so short that they don’t think about the eventual bounce back for what they do to get their own bonuses.  The bonuses were designed to push the stock market up.  But when they push it down, there is no regulation. So what if the company goes under?  If they get fired, they still have their golden parachute!  We saw this happen when Enron tanked, and when the CEO of Hewlett-Packard left with her huge bonuses, even as the company was worth half what it was when she came on!  There are too many golden parachutes, too many bonuses, and too little oversight and regulation.  (If Congress really had the guts to fix this, they'd start taxing capital gains.  I don't think that'll happen, but it needs to.)

Q.  As an economist who is invested in principles of economic justice, what do you think good solutions should include?

The bill that got forward yesterday gave Paulson too much power, and did too little to help the people who were affected by the mortgage crisis.  That's why so many Democrats didn't vote for it.  Instead of fiddling around trying to fix the Paulson/Bush proposal, the Democrats should have crafted their own bill.  I hope that they're doing that now. 

Some of the money has to go to lenders to make them feel comfortable enough to keep trading in credit.  Businesses need credit to operate, cities need credit, we all need credit.  But not all the money.  A good solution would do three things:  1) If a company gets government  help, no bonuses or golden parachutes for their chief and senior executives.  2)  We need to cover the people who are losing the homes they're living in.  Give people a chance to pay their mortgages, a chance to avoid bankruptcy, and let's see how much of the problem that solves.  3)  I don't have a problem with the $700 billion number.  But put the money into something real!  Help people stay in their homes; invest in infrastructure, in building bridges and updating our internet connectivity and creating an infrastructure for renewable energy and efficiency, in investments that will last and create jobs!  I'm not against borrowing to strengthen the economy, but let’s do it to strengthen what makes us more productive.

Q: How does this Wall Street mess affect Kentucky families and communities?

The people who trade on Wall Street have to be able to use credit for their trades.  If the credit industry dries up, Wall Street stops.  If it gets bad enough, Wall Street isn't the only thing that stops.  Any place that would ever need to borrow--even short-term borrowing--is in trouble.  Lines of credit are likely to be taken away or reduced.  When credit gets frozen, people get laid off because their boss can't make payroll.  You can't get loans to go to college.  Your local government can't get a loan to rebuild the bridge, and your local school can't get computers, because they can't borrow the money for it.  And if our credit seems compromised in the eyes of the rest of the world, inflation goes up.

There's an old Chinese curse:  May you live in interesting times.  Unfortunately I think we do.  From here, we need to think of solutions that move toward fixing the real problems.

Yesterday, Matt Heil visited a World Affairs Council meeting with KCCJ (Kentucky Conference for Community Justice) with 10 Russians from the Novosibirsk Federal District to share ideas about non-government organizations.

One of the topics was KCCJ's multi-tenant project, bringing together non-profits under one roof to share resources. 

Matt talked about KFTC and what we do, focusing mostly on our grassroots structure and strategy, as well as our focus on lobbying and holding elected officials accountable.

It was hard to get across what 'Kentuckians For The Commonwealth' meant.  It didn't translate well into Russian as a double entendre, but eventually I think they got it."

"They asked questions about corruption in non-profits and about infiltration of non-profits by the government," said Matt  "something that's been a serious problem in Eastern Europe.  I talked a lot about KFTC's grassroots approach that would make problems like that especially unlikely here."

"They were impressed by what we're doing here in Kentucky related to grassroots organizing.  I think it planted a seed in their minds about bottom-up organizing."

"I speak a little Russian, so it was fun.  I greeted them and said goodbye in Russian.  They loved it."

Who should attend:  Local and regional elected officials, economic development leaders and specialists, business owners, bankers and investors, workforce trainers, Chambers of Commerce leaders, entrepreneurs, coaches, Cooperative Extension agents, anyone interested in the economic future of their local community and the region.

The conference is free but you must register by Friday October 10.   Click here to register.

The event agenda

 
 Sponsored by:  The University of Kentucky Growing Local Economies Partnership:  UK Appalachian Center, Cooperative Extension Rural Economic Development Program, Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute, Kentucky Small Business Development Centers, and the Training and Development Center, Bucksport, ME.

For more information click here.

     An open letter to Governor Beshear, delivered earlier today along with a blanket full of 186 paper dolls, and accompanied by a few hundred calls, emails, and letters throughout the day.

    Governor Beshear, 
   On behalf of our 5,700 members and 186,000 Kentuckians who have at some point in their lives been convicted of a felony, we thank you for streamlining the restoration process earlier this year to allow many hundreds of Kentuckians to vote in this year’s election – and many more in elections yet to come.  This is a real step forward for our Democracy and for justice in our Commonwealth.
   We realize that there are those in this state who oppose these changes and we admire your determination to do the right thing despite them, but we also promise that there are far more of us who support restoration of voting rights for former felons than those who oppose it.  We know this both through anecdotal experiences all over the state from Warren County to Pike County and everywhere in-between going door to door and talking to voters about the issue – but also from neutral UK Survey Research Center polls that show a double-digit lead in the number of supporters for restoration.
   As the voter registration deadline is only seven days away, we ask you to take another extraordinary step – we ask you to use your power to issue a blanket restoration to all former felons who have served their debt to society, giving them enough time to register by the deadline and make their voices heard in this historic election.
   We present you with this blanket – with 186 paper dolls, each representing 1,000 Kentuckians who can’t vote because of Kentucky’s extreme and regressive disenfranchisement laws.  Please use your power to grant them a blanket restoration of voting rights before it’s too late.  We leave them in your hands.

                                                                          - Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

The $700 billion bailout failed in today's House vote.  Some of the dissent came from Democratic representatives who voted against the bill because it bailed out Wall Street executives but didn't do enough to protect Main Street.  Much of it came from Republican representatives who see the bill as a violation of the "free market."

As many members have pointed out, this is a repulsive situation to find ourselves in: Decades of systematic dismantling of government oversight and regulation on the financial industry have made our families and communities vulnerable.  The question of how to fix the situation is one that the public, by and large, has not been invited to participate in.

With the bill still under negotiation, there is time for you to weigh in.  Here are some suggestions from allied organizations who are keeping their eyes on the bailout.  (Janet Tucker also posted a couple of action steps in the comment section of the bailout post from last week.)

Make your voice heard.  Call Congress today (toll-free 800-830-5738 or 202-224-3121) and demand that any bailout plan include: 

1. mortgage assistance for those most affected by the crisis.
2. controls on excessive CEO pay.
3. protection for ordinary taxpayers from bearing the costs of the bailout, by returning a portion of any profits made by bailed-out banks to the American people, and increasing taxes on wealthy investors.

Call your Representative and Senator through the Capitol Hill switchboard  - (202) 224-3121 - to tell them:

 

1)      No Bail-out for Wall Street.  They had their fun, now they deserve the hang-over.

2)      Don’t be panicked by the very people that caused the crisis.  Take the time to develop a REAL recovery plan for our economy that puts people first, by addressing foreclosures, jobs, affordable housing, pensions, infrastructure and health care. 

3)      Restructure our financial systems, with renewed public oversight, to meet the needs of our entire economy, not just the finance sector, and end the excessive political clout of these few firms.

4)      Bring in fair taxation, honoring work over wealth, and stop subsidizing excessive CEO salaries.

These are some options.  What do you think we ought to be telling our representatives?

One week from today (Monday, October 6th) is the last day to register to vote for the big General Election in Kentucky.  If you're not registered, you can visit your local county clerk today before they close that day, or print out a registration card from Here -  and get it postmarked on that day or earlier.

Also, please make sure your friends are registered this week - and that they're voting address is updated.  You can find out whether or not you're registered and where on from a link from KFTC's www.KentuckyElection.org website.

Finally, please join in the local massive voter registration drives organized by KFTC this week.  We'll have Operation Voter Madness registration marathons in several areas, as well as lots of community tabling events and door-to-door canvasses.  Please contact your local organizer to learn about events in your area. 

Don't forget to call Governor Beshear's office Today and leave a message as part of our call-in day!

(502) 564-2611

"Thank you for restoring the rights to some former felons, but I urge you to use your power to give a blanket restoration to all Kentucky former felons in time to vote this year"

It just takes 2 minutes and together, we can make a big difference.

We've been doing a lot of solid work over the last few weeks registering voters and identifying voters by getting people to sign petitions and voter surveys.  But now, we have a mountain of data to enter, preferably by the end of next week!

We have the funds set aside to hire up to 400 hours of data entry workers during that time to get all of the work done - focusing in Lexington, Louisville, and Berea (and possibly other locations).

The pay is $10/hour and after you learn the process at a local training, you'll be able to do most of the work from home (anywhere with good internet access).

If you're interested, please talk to your local organizer or email Dave Newton at Dave@kftc.org.  You don't have to send in a resume, but please include just a few words about your experience with data entry and/or with KFTC.

Additionally, if you're in Lexington, we just happen to have a data entry training scheduled for tomorrow (Monday) at 3:30pm at the Lexington KFTC Office (250 Plaza Drive, just off Southland).  If you happen to be able to make it, that would be ideal.

Note - KFTC's nepotism clause indicates that people in these positions can't be a family member or partner of any Steering Committee member or staff member (including short-term electoral organizers).