President Obama as I have stated before in another forum will sorround himself with some of the best minds in the country and this group of people prove that to be true but those of us who want to see this President speak to our needs must speak out otherwise we run the rick of being left out to do nothing but complain rather than offer solutions. I supported and worked for his election and have been politically active since 1967 and know from experience that if you leave others to speak for you the good chance is that you are going to get left out. Most of our needs or local and not a national concern so we must seek to have our local elected official be more responsive to our needs. There are to few people speaking out for our small towns and rural communities and there is a high disconnect so forming a consortium of small towns and rural communities organized to present your case in a collective manner to the Congress and Senate on both the state and national levels. I believe the rural communities has the capacity to solve our energy dependent and create many jobs and additional income for Farmer all across this country of which will give much financial support to our small towns. T. Boone Pickens has a good plan,on energy independent, that he is promoting and should be invited to these rural communities to educate the community on how his plan will effect our local concerns.

On the housing crisis we are facing it doesn't matter how much money congress put into the hands of the lenders unless they force them to change the way the design lending programs we will continue to see the same things happen. The exotic products sold at every level is the cause of the problem. Congress looked the other way while these lenders kept making money for the unsuspecting public trying to get a piece of the American dream and tried to place all the blame on the buyers rather than those who design this mess in the first place. The first thing congress need to  force the lenders to stop all foreclosures for six months and redo outstanding loans at the current value of the property and reduce the rate to the lowest level possible and waive credit requirement and based the new loan on the ability to pay base on income.Create a quarterly audit for all lenders so as to catch and prevent the same failures we are now seeing. Second all new loans should be shorter terms (not longer than 10 years) change from compounded interest to simple interest rate. Creating faster equity in the purchase properties and faster ownership giving the owner an  ability to purchase again for investment purposes or use the equity to pay for education or retirement or go into business. Ownership is key in the society we live in.  

Many of our cities large and small need infrastructure money to replace and repair roads, streets,sewage,bridges,highways,schools and other such needs thereby creating many jobs and income to support the local businesses. But if we do find way to speak out someone will speak for you and four years from now all will be left is anger for all those government people. We need a Government for the people and by the people and that mean you. So get busy. Much success

Eugene