Stimulus Package a Sham

It is time for me to weigh in on the stimulus package. As of today it appears the package has now neared $900 billion dollars and filled with so much pork loaded up by our Democrats. Democrats and Republicans boasted how they were going to change, and all they are doing is setting up failure for our future generations. The current package will spend money we do not have and we need to curtail it and stop giving money to large greed corporations!



If I was in US Congress I would push more efforts onto targeting the mortgage industry and help people on the verge of foreclosures. Adjust the mortgages to allow people to stay in their homes and find a way to reassess homes due to the decline in property value so mortgages can be renegotiated.



Secondly I would drop the $2 billion dollar for clean coal plants. Clean coal is an oxymoron and we should invest this money into our infrastructure such as mass transit and also into alternative energy solutions.



Third, NO TAX CUTS for greedy corporations. They got us into this mess, and it is time to stop rewarding bad business practices. We also need to remove the $1.6 billion dollar tax cut for Verizon! This is to be used for bringing Internet to the rural area, but why don't these companies use their own money, not the taxpayer? After all they will benefit from the growth, not the taxpayer.



And finally, give the American Taxpayer immediate relief by cutting taxes and ensuring all Americans have medical coverage at no cost. There are 43 million people today with out health care coverage, including myself, and it is totally unacceptable to continue to allow this in the greatest country in the world! There is much more that needs to be eliminated, but these items I listed I would target immediately!



I spoke about making changes by voting Green Party in 2008, and I did get 11, 000 votes. If we could hold an election today, I am sure this number would be greater. It is my will to continue voicing my concerns and stay on top of the issues that effect the everyday citizens. I will be running again in 2010, but to do this, I must have volunteers and financial support as well. If you can help, please pass this onto your friends, and to volunteer, send me an email back to your commitment. If you can click here: Online Donations Accepted.



I want to be your Congressman in 2010, but until then I will run with the banner to keep our Congressional leaders honest! Let's make change happen!

Rodger Jennings

www.rodgerjennings.org
www.metroeastgreenparty.org

Lighthouse Media Center Open For Business In Alton, IL

Alton, IL, February 4, 2009: Jennings Properties, Inc., locally owned and operated by Rodger Jennings and his son, Anthony are proud to announce the opening of the Lighthouse Media Center at 115 Market Street in Alton , Illinois . The Lighthouse Media Center now offers an alternative to help individuals and small businesses, including bands, to cope with rising prices to rent a facility for private functions. The facility will hold up to 75 people. The Lighthouse Media Center offers a stage area for speakers or performers for an event with a full sound system available to rent. Prepared food maybe be brought in or have your event catered. Also being offered will be projection capabilities to allow for presentations done by DVD or laptops.



It can be rented by the hour or a special rates to rent the facility for a day, weekend or longer. For pricing and scheduling call the Jennings Properties, Inc. at 618-670-4711 or send an email to Jenningsproperties@sbcglobal.net.

Email your Congressman today!!!

We must change the Economic Recovery Plan from 1/3 tax cuts for the Middle Class to Jobs, Jobs and Jobs!!! Only 1/5 of the money is going to Jobs per Rep.
Defazio, (http://www. defazio. house. gov/).
We have already done tax cuts recently and they did not work! Why because the Middle Class does not go out and spend that money they get it entangled with the Financial Services Industries through their mortgages and debt, we all know that throwing money at those institutions is like throwing a water balloon at a burning house!
I Love the Middle Class but we need Jobs!!!! Infrastructure, the Greening of our Energy Grid, Mass Transit, retrofitting buildings for conservation, these are good investments at this time, not tax cuts! Obama will just have to pay his donors and voters back later in his term, when the economy has recovered a bit!
Also Food Stamps, Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid spending, these expenditures will help those amongst us who are falling off the cliff, to hang on, they also help the states with their budgets.

What we don't need is 50 Million to the National Endowment for the Arts, I love the arts but not right now, things are too dire!
We don't need 200 Million to Rehabilitate the lawn of the National Mall, unless Obama means to grow organic fruits and veggies on the Mall for the poor, there is just no reason to spend money on that right now!!!
We don't need 500 Million for bomb detectors in the airports for the TSA, isn't it funny how there has not been another attack like 9/11 since 9/11? Any one questioning the War on Terror right about now? I digress, my apologies.

Please pick up the phone and demand a better deal for America;
More Green for our Buck! More Bucks for our Poor!

Change Gonna Come!

Today, January 25, 2009 is a great day for the American people. As I sit here watching the Obama Inauguration I am proud to be an American citizen. I was just a child when JFK was elected and remember how the country and the world swirled around that administration and now we are seeing it again, perhaps even more as we have seen the media refer to this a Obama Fever.



However all is not good in our country and especially in our great state of Illinois. We must as people of this state take control of our civil servants and demand that they begin to work for us. Many of the elected officials feel that we owe them the job, but they are very mistaken as they owe us to be our servant that will listen to what our needs are. Millions are out of work, including myself, and though this is a festive day, many of our citizens are suffering while we spend billions of dollars for a bail out of the banks who refuse to turn around and help people.



US Congress needs look at the people, listen to the people, and work for the people in this country. The American people need to demand change. The American people need to understand the change only happens when they make it happen. Sure we elected a new President, and I pray he does the job, but this is not change. They only handed the reins over from the Republicans to the Democrats. If the American people want to demand real change, it is time to force the political scene to accept a third party. In Illinois we have a three party system but many people are not aware of this because the media will not give the Green Party the respect they deserve. Rise up people and start demanding to know more about the Green Party and ask the news media to start giving equal coverage to a party that has equal status in Illinois.





Rodger Jennings

Chairman of the Metroeast Green Party

www.metroeastgreenparty.org

METROEAST GREEN PARTY TO MEET

The Metroeast Green Party will hold its first meeting of 2009 on January 25, 2009. It will be held at the Lighthouse Media Center, 115 Market Street, Alton, Illinois at 2 pm. It is open to the public and all ages are welcome to attend.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm Social time
2:15 pm - 3:00 pm Party business
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Open Discussions


If you are interested in changing the fate of our citizens in the state of Illinois, consider attending the Green party meeting on January 25. We offer people a third party choice and we will be working to bring in new members to help grow our cause. For more information about the Metroeast Green Party, please go to www.metroeastgreenparty.org or visit the Green Party of Illinois at www.ilgp.org.

If you have any questions, please respond to this email.


Rodger Jennings
Chairman of the Metroeast Green Party
www.rodgerjennings.org
www.metroeastgreenparty.org

Project Manager Job Seach

I am searching for a job in the field of PROJECT MANAGEMENT. I was laid off from my job in June, 2008.

I have established a proven track record of developing and implementing strategic process enhancements that drive operational efficiency, significant cost savings, and business growth in my 25+ years as a leader in the areas Process Improvement and Project Management. Skilled in managing projects from inception to implementation, identifying IT solutions, and building and leading high-performing teams, I am confident in my ability to generate superior results for your organization.

In leadership positions with Western Union, I have consistently enabled success by leading business units to implement process improvements that save money, eliminate waste, and enhance productivity. My most valuable accomplishments include:

• Recommending and leading call change project that provided Western Union agents access to make system changes to non-financial areas of money transfers. Result: Project has saved company $12 million to date and continues to save an average of $3-4 million/year.
• Spearheading compliance and subpoena project to reduce paper handling and manpower. Result: Saved company $250,000/year. (Savings are ongoing.)
• Overseeing move of 200 employees and equipment to new building. Result: No business delays. Move was completed over 1 weekend.
• Managing transition of reports from old image system to new system and directing customization of new system for worldwide users. Result: Successful new OnDemand system is still in use and expanding.
• Oversaw Change Management Processes for the building population.
• Receiving numerous awards, including: 1st Quarter Accelerator Award for Team Work (2008); Team of the Quarter Award (2005); CFO Team of Excellence Award (2002 and 2001).


RODGER W. JENNINGS
Alton, Illinois 62002
rwjsr2220@sbcglobal.net

PROJECT MANAGER / SIX SIGMA BLACK BELT / IT MANAGER

I am a seasoned, award-winning Project Management leader and IT Manager with more than 25 years of experience developing and implementing process enhancements that drive operational efficiency, cost savings, and business growth. Expertise in spearheading complex, large-scale projects that require expert facilitation of communications between business units. Proven track record of identifying IT solutions, streamlining processes, and building and leading high-performing teams that enable optimum bottom-line results.


Technical Skills
Certified Six Sigma Black Belt • Project Management • IT Systems & Solutions
Team Leadership • Systems Implementation • Operational Streamlining • Disaster Recovery
Computer Operations Management • Vendor Relations • Strategic Planning
Staff Management • Training • Cost Avoidance • Change Management Process • MS Software Proficient • Project Management Software Tools

Achievements
• Spearheaded Process Improvement Projects - Recommending and leading call change project that provided Western Union agents access to make system changes to non-financial areas of money transfers saving an average of $3-4 million/year. Also headed a compliance and subpoena project to reduce paper handling and manpower resulting in $250,000/year savings.
• Installed Change Management Procedures to align building practices to accept continual change occurring in the workplace.
• System Migration from paper to an online document solution to reduce cost of paper and increase production time to retrieve information via online solutions.
• Development of Software leading teams to develop software for process improvements.
• More achievements available upon request.

Education
• AA in Computer Technology Control Data Institute, St. Louis, Missouri
• BA in Information Technology Rochelle University, Clearwater Florida
• Certified Six Sigma Black Belt First Data Corp, Denver, Colorado

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

WESTERN UNION
Senior Manager, Black Belt Quality and Process Improvement

Senior Manager, Data Center

Computer Operations Manager

Computer Operations Supervisor

EDS
Computer Operations Supervisor at Western Union Facility

Early Career or detail information on professional experience is available upon request.

Pro Active Leadership

If there is one book leaders need to read I would suggest reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven R. Covey. In this book there are seven points that can make one effective, something anyone in an influential position should consider.

The topic “Being Proactive” is discussed in the first chapter. How fitting is this when it comes to being a leader. Do we see any of our leaders out on a regular basis being proactive in meeting the public? When there is a problem to address, are they there side by side with the people being affected?

In Steven Covy’s book, language is just one way to be proactive, or in many cases not. For example how many times have you heard from our leaders, “There’s nothing I can do.” As a change manager expert in my job, that sentence makes no sense to me, as my response would be, “There must be an alternative and we need to explore all possibilities.” There are many ways to address an issue; just saying no is not an option to me.

An additional way to look at problems in our community is from a proactive focus. Many times concerns will drive a focus on a problem, for example, the loss of businesses has be driving the focus to get more business. But the alternative to this is to have a proactive focus to increase population which will drive down concerns of businesses and allow for the city to flourish. Of course it is much more complex that just a few words in a sentence as you have to be proactive on many fronts such as crime, racial issues, and much more.

Until our leadership learns how to be proactive, the circle of concerns will inherent all the issues and make it very difficult to focus on making this the city it can be. Stop waiting for things to happen and make them happen in a positive manner. Check out www.citizensforalton.com or www.metroeastgreenparty.org.


R. Jennings
Chairman Metro East Green Party
Citizens for a Better Alton

TIme For New Leaders in Alton

LEADERSHIP - (noun), 1. ability to lead: the ability to guide, direct, or influence people 2. guidance: guidance or direction

In the city of Alton, the above definition has been lost. In fact I think the word may be gone in the vocabulary of our elected officials. The city is moving towards crises and yet they quietly hide behind their titles and lock themselves behind closed doors, in effect the “ostrich syndrome”. When are the elected officials going to stand up and take responsibility for their lack of action? The city is being drained of good citizens as they leave, giving corruption, drug dealing, prostitution, and murder more control of our streets. Looking at the definition of “Leadership” it is for certain we have no person in office that has the ability to influence our citizens. The mayor and aldermen have no creditability any more after letting the streets become a Wild West scene. It is obvious they have no “guidance” as they have no sense of vision for the future.

In recent weeks we have seen senseless murders, death threats, and local businesses go out of business only to be replaced by pay day loan companies and minimum wage jobs. We see the city in the middle of a battle with one of the areas worse slum lord as people continue to get hurt from his action. So how did this happen, lack of “Leadership” is the only answer. Our elected officials have worried too much about what is important to them, not listening to their constituents and their concerns that are changing our culture and environment of this city. Our elected officials have no visionary goals, except for the riverfront area, but there is much more to this city than the riverfront.

Better leadership is needed now at all levels of our city government. New trust must be instilled in our police force that will allow people not afraid to give facts that are crucial to a case. Today’s police force is intimating and instills fear in the regular citizen of Alton. Maybe a smile or a wave would do wonders to help bring back a little trust. But that is just the tip of this ice berg. We need tough laws on drug dealing, prostitution, use of fire arms, and tougher housing guidelines. We need to make our young teenagers who deface property learn a lesson by requiring all kids to give community time to keep our city clean! Maybe they would appreciate what they have. The city needs to work stopping racism and we all become one group of people, ALTONIANS! It will not be easy, but we must put a stop to racism in this city to allow it to flourish again.

It is time to step up and educate everyone that people are people, and color or race makes no difference. People need to register to vote, and tell our officials that we are tired of the status quo. We should be there for our neighbors, even if the neighbor is 10 miles across town. It is obvious our elected officials have no leadership skills so we need to step up and take control of our own destiny and work towards a united city front. Effective changes do not happen by accident. It will require a focused and deliberate effort from leaders to move forward and in doing so; we must use an approach that can accommodate different personalities and cultures. Join me in this urgent need to make our city a better place to live!