Five Minutes With Obama

If I had 5 minutes to spend talking to President Obama, what question would I ask him? This:

What is your plan B?

If this stimulus plan fails, or causes hyper-inflation, what parallel actions could you be taking now, to kick start manufacturing? Before it is too late?

What is your plan C?

Plan C. Look, China is making goods sold in Walmart, thanks to Nixon's going to China.

Why can't the geniuses in Detroit and Silicon Valley make a small electric car, so cheap, that the US can sell it in India, China and Brazil?

Angry In Santa Cruz

Eight long years have done MUCH damage to my city. The fascist/nazi Bush/Cheney administration has spread its right wing filth everywhere here. We now have Texas based "Whole Foods" moving into the area—who will steal every dime Santa Cruzans have in the name of "organically irradiated" food.

KUSP continues to air NPR (National Pentagon/Propaganda radio), using left wing programs like Democracy Now to try to draw in leftist activists and independent thinkers who oppose the corporate state. UCSC has promoted frats, football and fast food, dumbing down the campus (activism) when it should have invested in the continuation of the Whole Earth restaurant, an Earth Center (instead of a military style information/engineering science center) and a cutting-edge internet/information/activist communications network.

Right wing Christianity has been shoving their literary trash into our libraries and bookstores as well as worshipping the Bush/Cheney warheads- "kill an Iraqi for Christ" while wrapping themselves in our American flag. We have a city council who persecutes the poor with a police state, declaring it "illegal" to sleep and writing tickets to the homeless playing music on OUR downtown mall!

The latest assault comes with Cabrillo College installing an "apartheid" log-in system at its library, allowing easy government security agencies 'carte-blanche' access into people's internet use—a wholesale violation of our 4th amendment right to personal privacy.

The Santa Cruz SUV's continue to belch out CO2 destroying our planet—and so the destruction and idiocy continues—time to reverse the plunge into darkness and move 180 degrees into a forward thinking green economy that can save us all from the damage done by these fascist right wing SCUM.

Santa Cruz is also a very bike-friendly and electric car- friendly town, with great bookstores, wonderful restaurants, independent health food stores, and lots of progressive enviros. And for the first time in eight years there's new hope that Obama can steer the ship of state in a new direction. So keep spreading your message, Derek, but consider mixing some "can do" spirit in with your righteous indignation!

Recession Psychotherapy

Should I advertise inexpensive therapy for $20/hour?
(Psychotherapist's name withheld by Editor.)

Probably not. Do keep offering discounts for low-income clients, of course. And consider advertising a "free introduction" or "half price first session" to attract new clients. But drastically cutting your base rate will only hurt your business. The economy is in recession, but even if unemployment rises to 12%, that still means that 88% of your prospective client base is working and can afford you!

Café Culture

I discovered your magazine in a café when I went to Berkeley. Your magazine is so resourceful, and as I recently moved to the Bay Area, this was exactly the kind of resource that I was seeking for! Could you ship your magazine directly to my mailing address?

Subscriptions are free! And you didn't have to come to Berkeley to find us. For almost 35 years OPEN EXCHANGE has been distributed throughout downtown Oakland, in the Grandlake and Lakeshore areas, on Piedmont and College Avenues, in East Oakland at the Food Mill and at dozens of other Oakland locations. In fact, you can find OPEN EXCHANGE in stores and streetracks from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa!