July 14, 2009

LIVE-blogging the 80 Million Strong National Summit!

Posted by Karlo Barrios Marcelo at 5:32AM

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Looks like we capped out our character limit here. Follow the live-blog from here: http://futuremajority.com/node/8136

(12:40) Policy priorities: 1) Education 2) Health Care 3) Green Jobs 4) Public Service. (Education, Entrepreneurship, Green Jobs and Public Service are top issue areas that people want to spend time discussing in their small groups.)

(12:20) Policy Focus Areas: Core Content (general areas) - Education, Entrepreneurship, Green Jobs, Health Care, Internship, National Security and Public Service. In small groups, summiteers now choose what issue that want to focus on.

(12:13) Break time is up and we are set to move into our first policy discussion.

(11:52) KS - Question about rural development. A. There is a huge disparity between rural and urban areas. The people that live in rural counties and communities are in a reality facing a different life. Per capita income is $10K less than your city cousins and your healthcare and food costs are higher. We want to bring broadband to rural America. We are looking at how energy and climate change legislation will provide opportunities to rural America.

(11:49) KS - Question: Do you consider off-shore drilling an appropriate stop-gap? We are in the process of how to move forward on the inter-continental shelf. We oversee the development of the natural resources of our country . OVer 50% of the electricity produced comes from coal. 25% of oil and natural gas comes from public lands. Our view is that development should occur where necessary, but some areas are too sensitive for development. We are not in a position yet that we can stop oil and gas development. We will pursue a balanced approached to development.

(11:46) KS - Question, how is dept of interior using new media to get young people to get out to the parks? We are developing a project on this and a re-do of our current systems (very old systems!). He says he can't even send an email to all his employees.

(11:37) KS - Question about civilian service academy (he supports it). Question about mountaintop removal (he says we need to stop the ones that degrade our streams; creating a rule to protect the streams from degradation that may occur from mining activities).

(11:35) KS - "young people have not been participating in the outdoors and they should!" Q&A time!

(11:33) KS - "40 percent of the workforce in the dept of the interior will turnover. As scientists, as park rangers, so I would encourage you all to think about a service career in government. Same thing is true w/r/t to other agencies that will see that same kind of high turnover (baby boomers) in the years ahead."

(11:32) KS - "we know that when we talk about climate change, there is a huge opportunity for young people...harnessing the power of the wind, geothermal. In my office, we created an office specifically to engage youth...15,000 young people employed at our facilities across the country."

(11:31) KS - "was raised in a house without electricity, without a phone, speaking spanish in our household. people never thought i'd have the opportunities that i've had, but this country offers everyone an opportunity"

(11:28) KS - "when i think about my own history, it's just like yesterday i was your age. i think about your future when you're 30, 40, 50...you are an inspiration to me. I see the possibilities of tomorrow and what things human beings can do on this earth."

(11:25) KS - thanks us for our energy! (we got it, for sure!) "one of the young people i'm very proud of is a 23-year old working with me, making a big difference."

(11:23) Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, is here to speak.

(11:22) Core principle voting - top priorities: ideas and opinions of young americans should carry weight in public policy decisions; youth should have access to affordable higher ed; federal investments need to be dramatically increased to enable all youth access to quality secondary and post-secondary education...

(11:13) And we're voting on each of the core principles...

(11:07) A vote on streamlining language from young Americans to "all youth." (Voted down.) A vote on "we believe that citizens have a role in developing and working twoard solutions: government isn't the only solution." (Accepted.)

(11:01) Pictures from the first day of the summit so far - Check them out on our facebook page: http://tr.im/si6n

(10:53) Adding "immigration status" to one of the factors that should never determine where you can attend school, work or how you are able to move up the career ladder.

(10:52) Adding new items to core principles document before voting...1) We believe the federal govt should improve access and provide incentives to young Americans to pursue opportunities in public sevice.

(10:35) Voting commences on core principles.

(10:30) JB just wrapped up and is headed to his daily economic policy meeting. We're transitioning into our core principles document, which we will refine with the summiteers.

(10:26) JB - "help suppliers who were formerly supplying auto manufactures to try to figure out what's the next move, so we want to help those suppliers make that transition. check out The National Innovation Marketplace."

(10:22) JB - "energy, healthcare and education will be long-lasting career opportunities."

(10:20) JB responds to a question about careers for the future. Healthcare is one area wherein long-term careers are possible and highly probable. Almost every industry has been shedding jobs, expect healthcare...

the livestream is finally up!!! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/80-million-strong-summit

(10:17) JB responds to a question about the daily economic briefing...says he can't share much since some thing could be market moving.

(10:16) JB - "we aspire, and our policies aim to reconnect the middle class, an economy that's delivering prosperity for all." Now some questions!

(10:13) JB - "if we're losing jobs, is the recovery act now working? false. it's a misunderstanding of keynesian economics or stimulus in general. there is no plan that could fully outset a $2 trillion output gap, that could fully outset the 2 million jobs lost in the 1st quarter of this year. What you do is shave some of that pain off...provide nutrition through food stamps, help folks get health insurance who lost their jobs, you start to provide employment opportunities. We are putting people back to work with this plan."

(10:11) JB - "there are aspects of financial markets that are stabilized, but we are far from out of the woods. 9.5 percent unemployment rate, a lot higher for younger people."

(10:10) JB - "in the short term, Keynesian stimulus was staring us right in the face...there is a role to play by the public sector to inject something into the economy...help with recovery and reinvestment, especially healthcare, green jobs and education."

(10:08) JB - has his daily economic meeting, but has some time with us today. Wants to give us "a brief overview of the economy and the role of some of our policies to stave off the deepest recession since the great depression." He's going to do Q&A after his remarks.

(10:03) Jared Bernstein just walked in the room.

(9:50) Folks are suggesting more groundrules to help keep the discussion focused and civil.

(9:30) Summiteers are in their small groups discussing what they think the most important framework and guideline for the summit. This is the base of the discussion.

(9:18) Results of the survey show a good mix of age ranges and gender, but the ethnicity results show a small majority of white participants at 53%.

(9:14) After a summit-wide meet and greet session, Chris Bui demonstrates the interactive voting system with participant survey questions.

(8:57) Chris Bui, our resident expert on the interactive voting during the summit, explains how to use the voting keypads. The participants are the only ones eligible to vote on the issues and policies discussed today.

(8:54) JR - social entrepreneurs are changemakers. They tend to be results oriented. It combines the best of liberal and conservative ideologies. Our goals, those of 80MS, need to be ambitious, and change the "fishing industry", instead of just teaching others to fish. We're on twitter, too! @80MS.

(8:51) JR - Talks about the beginning of GenerationEngage...to address the civic opportunity gap between college grads and those who never went to college.

(8:49) JR - "I genuinely love this...I love that there are so many civic leaders here."

(8:47) Enista introduces Justin Rockefeller, the chair of GenerationEngage, 8,500 members across the country.

(8:46) Maya Enista - "...how lucky i am to have this job to fight for and with my generation every morning...it's your duty to take what we do here back to your communities to start the 80MS national movement."

(8:41) Caitlin Howarth steps up. "each of you [summiteers] are more than just individuals, you bring the dreams of families and friends..."

(8:39) Matt Segal of S.A.V.E opens up this morning with a greeting. "We have a diverse group of young leaders from across America...Unemployment is nearly double the national average. We represent of 15 percent of the labor force but a third of the unemployed."

(8:31) Coalition staff members starting to roll-in. Justin Rockefeller will be the first to speak today.

(8:25 AM) Good morning FM readers! We got off to a bit of a slow start here at the Capitol Hill Visitor Center. Tech problems, you know. Summiteers are starting to arrive, get coffee and chat.

Follow the livestream from here (starting a little after 8:30 AM) or the micro-blog on Twitter > http://twitter.com/80MS.

We'll uploading videos and pictures about the summiteers throughout the day, so look out for that content, too.