Editor’s note: With all the bad news out there, why not bid farewell to the week with an easy-to-digest roundup of our favorite forward looking and generally optimistic stories from the fine folks at The Stimulist. We’re just getting the series started, and would love to hear your feedback, good or bad. Email feedback@takepart.com to let us know what you think.

While President Obama and the Democratic leadership look to embrace the race debate at this week’s Beer Summit, the Republicans have come up with a strategy of their own–ignoring race entirely. GOP party chairman Michael Steele turned down a sterling opportunity to reach out to the Latino community at the National Council of La Raza this week, leading Alicia Menendez to ask, “if the GOP cannot get it together enough to send a high-profile representative to one of the largest gatherings of Latino leaders in the country, what should we expect when comprehensive immigration reform hits the House floor?” It’s no secret that the GOP is not the favored party of the Latino community come election day, but they could at least show some effort to reach out to constituents during the other 364 days of the year. If not, says Menendez, a huge segment of the American population could go unnoticed–which is bad for Latinos and even worse for the American people.

When they’re not busy accusing “wise Latina” Supreme Court nominees of reverse racism, the far Right has been stoking the fires of the Birther Movement. In the vein of the Obama-is-a-Muslim rhetoric that surfaced–and was quickly silenced by McCain–during the campaign, some on the Right continue to suggest that Obama is “undocumented,” that his birth certificate and that newspaper birth announcement are all part of an elaborate liberal plot. Yes, it is a practice in racist buffoonery by crackpot conspiracy theories, but The Stimulist’s Sean Braswell thinks that the media and those in power need to address the charges. Drawing a comparison between the Birthers and the KKK-glorifying film Birth of a Nation, Braswell warns that allowing the rumors to fester untreated can only lead to its spread.

While the far Right works to undermine Obama’s credentials as an American citizen, Republicans on the Hill continued to take action–or rather inaction–to kill Obama-care this week.  If they sit back and heckle, the GOP is hoping they might curry favor with Americans should the system fail. That leaves Democrats with two options: either pass legislation over the Republicans’ heads or make some serious concessions. Carlos Watson suggests the latter. Pass decent–but not perfect–reform now, he says, then come back for the rest by turning the Right’s critiques against them on the issue of entitlement reform. In the end, Obama will get what he wants, without having to put too much of that precious political capital on the line.

It’s that sort of political maneuvering that Sean Braswell suggests Congress employ to create those green collar jobs that Obama made a centerpiece of the stimulus. The reason the obsolete F-22 fighter jet program stayed around so long at so high a cost, Braswell notes, is because the industry had somehow developed an economic presence in 44 states. If Obama really wants America to sprout a green sector, he needs to make sure that green industry spreads across as many constituencies as possible. With green collar jobs forming the backbone of local economies, the green industrial complex may one day replace the military complex that kept the failed F-22 program afloat so long past its expiration date.

Creating a green economy will not, however, come cheap. For a president who has already passed $1 trillion in stimulus money (and who stands to spend up to 10 times that much), it won’t be easy convincing the Hill and the American people to support another round of stimulus spending. I mean, do you even know how much money $1 trillion is?! This video from Mint.com (via The Stimulist) might give you some idea.