On this New Years Day I was going through my email 'drafts' in hotmail, when I came across this. Especially now as we are already deep in the "dialogue" and the compostable rhetoric, this Amendment needs to be brought out and be brought about.
Please email/post it widely. It's time for a Real Change in this Country. Doncha think?
--The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified. Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.
Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.
Forward this [email] post to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours need to serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
8. Any congressman resigning due to unlawful acts receives NO benefits.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
The Nuclear Fallout of the American Dream
Did you watch "60 Minutes" last Sunday night when they showed abandoned houses in Cincinnati, OH, being torn down because so many of them were 'under water' mortgage-wise? The majority of entire neighborhoods, evicted and demolished; while the banks that created these implosions go on business as usual, unscathed by these decisions that they made in the name of Corporate Greed and Profit.
The Occupy Movement was accused of being fuzzy on their demands re: this whole political/economic mess. But what was shown on TV were clear scenes of detonations of the American Dream dieing a rather somnalent, but ultimately violent death. Whole Communities have been laid waste, and yet the Banks that created the circumstances for this wholesale destruction remain unharmed and un-indicted in their responsibility.
How many more Cities need to die quick deaths before the mess of this nonsense is rectified and brought to some kind of justice? How many people need to be evicted, their houses going vacant and up for the Crony Bidders of the Banks that orchestrated this fallout? Some Communities might as well have had a nuclear bomb dropped for all the livability and sustainability that remains in them.
It's time to find a way to Indict the New Un-Indicted Conspirators, and take down the System that is obviously so corrupt that it can't even police itself.
The Occupy Movement was accused of being fuzzy on their demands re: this whole political/economic mess. But what was shown on TV were clear scenes of detonations of the American Dream dieing a rather somnalent, but ultimately violent death. Whole Communities have been laid waste, and yet the Banks that created the circumstances for this wholesale destruction remain unharmed and un-indicted in their responsibility.
How many more Cities need to die quick deaths before the mess of this nonsense is rectified and brought to some kind of justice? How many people need to be evicted, their houses going vacant and up for the Crony Bidders of the Banks that orchestrated this fallout? Some Communities might as well have had a nuclear bomb dropped for all the livability and sustainability that remains in them.
It's time to find a way to Indict the New Un-Indicted Conspirators, and take down the System that is obviously so corrupt that it can't even police itself.
Ah, The Republican Feeding Frenzy...
It seems that the Republican Candidates for President have been stumbling all over themselves to make mockeries of... Themselves. From Herman Cain and his 'infinite number of women' to Eye of Newt and his leanings towards his installation as the New Monarch (obviously with no Clothes to hide his bald lies and outrageous statements) to Mitt Romney (a.k.a. King George the Firsts [George Herbert Walker Bush] demented In-Law) and his 'Oh, what's this? This little bar code thingie?', the whole race is turning into hares trying to twist themselves into political pretzels. Too bad the Far Reich Tea Partiers doesn't see these gaffs as disqualify-iers against Higher Office.
Much was made of the Biden gaffs during the last election cycle, but this new batch of stumbler/ bumblers takes the cake (as in "Let Them Eat...") is taking the gaffs to new highs. Newt and his 'If I don't agree with what the Supreme Court decides, I'll haul them in to Congress under arrest if necessary to have them answer to The People' (as if the Little People were the ones he was talking about), take the Fascistic leanings of the Tea Party and their Acolytes to new lows, further deadening the possibility of democracy even further.
What next, Herr Gingrich? Abolishing the Constitution if it doesn't suit you? Instigating Martial Law to enforce your World Views? Even Mad King George the Second didn't do that with the reason of 9/11 to be his excuse.
How much more insane do the Politics of Hate and Deception have to become before even the most dim of political bulbs understands the consequences? How many more rabid Tea Partiers have to make 'jokes' of assassinating a sitting President because of his Color?
If they don't watch out, the feeding frenzy on the horizon will be the Republicans eating themselves alive with their beliefs and opinions.
Much was made of the Biden gaffs during the last election cycle, but this new batch of stumbler/ bumblers takes the cake (as in "Let Them Eat...") is taking the gaffs to new highs. Newt and his 'If I don't agree with what the Supreme Court decides, I'll haul them in to Congress under arrest if necessary to have them answer to The People' (as if the Little People were the ones he was talking about), take the Fascistic leanings of the Tea Party and their Acolytes to new lows, further deadening the possibility of democracy even further.
What next, Herr Gingrich? Abolishing the Constitution if it doesn't suit you? Instigating Martial Law to enforce your World Views? Even Mad King George the Second didn't do that with the reason of 9/11 to be his excuse.
How much more insane do the Politics of Hate and Deception have to become before even the most dim of political bulbs understands the consequences? How many more rabid Tea Partiers have to make 'jokes' of assassinating a sitting President because of his Color?
If they don't watch out, the feeding frenzy on the horizon will be the Republicans eating themselves alive with their beliefs and opinions.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
No Super Solutions; just another Super Logjamb
A recent poll of Americans brought out something that by now should be very apparent to even those most resistant to facts and figures (you know who these Amuricans are): Congress' general approval rating has dropped to 9%, lower than the number of people in the country wanting a communist make-over of the government. And since the conservative branch of the Houses of Congress have seen to it that the moderate members of their Party were cut down in the fury of Tea Party madness, there is no balance beam there to help bring about any stabilizing influence in this equation/rating.
But those of the Far Right of the political spectrum seem to still be blaming the Democrats for this decline. Why is it so hard for them to realize and acknowledge that the less advantaged of the Country need to be paying less than Those Who Can most afford it to pay their fair share of taxes to do so. They have the battle cry of They Need to Compromise with Us, when the whole idea of compromise is that both sides give up something and that the process not just be a unilateral sided one.
And the idea of a flat tax being resurrected by the Republican Party hopefuls will only further redistribute the burden once again to Those Who Can't Afford It. Most of the "solutions" that Conservative produce and heavily promote, only serve to entrench the status quo of the 1%, and further entrench the 99% in an ever increasing spiral of poverty. Going back to 1950's solutions is not a solution.
I would say to those of the extreme Conservative end of the political spectrum that if they don't want to see the Occupy Wall Street movement flooding into the streets of Middle America, I would highly suggest that they start to find solutions that actually represent compromise, and to right this economic Titannic before the Iceberg of public outcry extends even to those who are now loyal to the agenda of the Far Right which this Committee so obviously embodied.
And I would also say to the Conservative Wing of the 99%; wait till your job is taken away, and you find out which Far Eastern County it's been shipped to. Perhaps that might be a wake-up call to them. Then they might finally understand what the Occupy Movement is all about.
And then again, probably not. 'Don't confuse me with the facts! I know what's right!'
The Time is now to enact Real Change -- before...
But those of the Far Right of the political spectrum seem to still be blaming the Democrats for this decline. Why is it so hard for them to realize and acknowledge that the less advantaged of the Country need to be paying less than Those Who Can most afford it to pay their fair share of taxes to do so. They have the battle cry of They Need to Compromise with Us, when the whole idea of compromise is that both sides give up something and that the process not just be a unilateral sided one.
And the idea of a flat tax being resurrected by the Republican Party hopefuls will only further redistribute the burden once again to Those Who Can't Afford It. Most of the "solutions" that Conservative produce and heavily promote, only serve to entrench the status quo of the 1%, and further entrench the 99% in an ever increasing spiral of poverty. Going back to 1950's solutions is not a solution.
I would say to those of the extreme Conservative end of the political spectrum that if they don't want to see the Occupy Wall Street movement flooding into the streets of Middle America, I would highly suggest that they start to find solutions that actually represent compromise, and to right this economic Titannic before the Iceberg of public outcry extends even to those who are now loyal to the agenda of the Far Right which this Committee so obviously embodied.
And I would also say to the Conservative Wing of the 99%; wait till your job is taken away, and you find out which Far Eastern County it's been shipped to. Perhaps that might be a wake-up call to them. Then they might finally understand what the Occupy Movement is all about.
And then again, probably not. 'Don't confuse me with the facts! I know what's right!'
The Time is now to enact Real Change -- before...
Monday, September 26, 2011
"Class Warfare" vs. Crass Warfare
So. President Obama calling on Taxing The Rich is "Class Warfare," as if the Rich don't know a thing or two about Class Warfare.
When did things get so crazy that the Poor and the Middle Class have to pay full taxes, but for some reason, The Rich need to be exempt? The reason usually given is that; "The Rich are creating jobs for Americans, and that's why..." Nonsense (and my language is cleaned up here for a general audience). The Rich don't create jobs for Americans, they create jobs for their companies. And when it suits them to ship those jobs to foreign shores for slave wage employees, they do it. In a heartbeat. Except for my mind, their having a heartbeat is questionable.
The Rich make often many times (millions to billions of times) the amount of the average American Worker. And to top it off, many of their industries would not exist in this "Capitalistic" society if they hadn't received massive subsidies to build those very same industries (the most egregious examples being the Oil and Nuclear Power companies). And to top even that off, not only do they pay no taxes on their massive incomes, most of these "Captains of Industry" continue to get major subsidies.
Which never, by the way, get talked of being cut by the lackies of The Rich from the US Budget in any way like those elements of/programs for "...the least of these" -- "The Poor will always be with You."
Yes, it's time for The Rich to pay their fair share of taxes. And while we're at it, let's cut their entitlement programs. Let their business rise or fall by their economic standards, losses, and gargantuan egotistical mistakes. If we need to rise and fall by our personal capitol and mistakes, then so should they.
Tax The Rich and Cut their subsidies, Mr. President. No more Entitlements for those who don't 'need' them becasue of their business expertise (or lack thereof).
When did things get so crazy that the Poor and the Middle Class have to pay full taxes, but for some reason, The Rich need to be exempt? The reason usually given is that; "The Rich are creating jobs for Americans, and that's why..." Nonsense (and my language is cleaned up here for a general audience). The Rich don't create jobs for Americans, they create jobs for their companies. And when it suits them to ship those jobs to foreign shores for slave wage employees, they do it. In a heartbeat. Except for my mind, their having a heartbeat is questionable.
The Rich make often many times (millions to billions of times) the amount of the average American Worker. And to top it off, many of their industries would not exist in this "Capitalistic" society if they hadn't received massive subsidies to build those very same industries (the most egregious examples being the Oil and Nuclear Power companies). And to top even that off, not only do they pay no taxes on their massive incomes, most of these "Captains of Industry" continue to get major subsidies.
Which never, by the way, get talked of being cut by the lackies of The Rich from the US Budget in any way like those elements of/programs for "...the least of these" -- "The Poor will always be with You."
Yes, it's time for The Rich to pay their fair share of taxes. And while we're at it, let's cut their entitlement programs. Let their business rise or fall by their economic standards, losses, and gargantuan egotistical mistakes. If we need to rise and fall by our personal capitol and mistakes, then so should they.
Tax The Rich and Cut their subsidies, Mr. President. No more Entitlements for those who don't 'need' them becasue of their business expertise (or lack thereof).
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A Child Must Be A Choice
I'm single. I have never really wanted to have children except for one of the women I have been with.
Below is a response I wrote in a personals ad regarding the idea of 'men not wanting children,' describing why I haven't wanted children. I know that some of it will seem crass and uncaring to some (mainly women), but there are a number of reasons for this in my life (most of which I won't go into in a public forum).
Not everybody should have children. A current look around this country shows that many shouldn't have had; they weren't prepared to raise children. If you haven't at least tried to heal whatever childhood emotional injuriesthat were done to you, perhaps you should wait on transferring those same issues to children.
I've also known a number of women who decided (one of them at quite an early age) that they themselves did not want children. The reasons? I can't tell you or (perhaps) they'd kill me. [Sort of a joke.]
And in a similar vein, not everybody should go to college. In this country you're treated as pariah if you don't have a degree (or two), but many people should perhaps attend vocational training. We have way too many lawyers and not enough nurses. And I know a number of people with superfluous degrees that they arenever going to use.
I have personally fathered two children in my time. But in both cases, however much the woman wanted (or in both cases never knew they wanted) children, neither was prepared to do it. With one of them she was too old and her body rejected the fetus. In the other one, when I didn't respond favorably, she had an abortion.
In the end, unless both of the procreators are wanting wholeheartedly to devote the next 18 years of their life to the child, the child should not be created. I know this probably sounds really harsh, but have you ever known anyone who found out that they were an 'unwanted' child? It wasn't a feel good revelation, I"ll tell you that.
We all need to find in ourselves what our true reason for coming into this life is, before we take on the task of forming someone elses reason for coming in. I truly believe in a saying by a comedian some time ago, "I don't believe in having children until I"m through being one."
Aside from this, I have way too many other things in my life that if I don't give them attention for any length of time, will not suffer for the rest of their lives for that lack of attention paid. And besides, I don't have enough time for all of my creative 'children' (works of art/writing/design) as it is.
In my opinion, a child is either a choice, or a potential (as a former friend once was fond of sayinhg) flaming disaster if they are not.
Below is a response I wrote in a personals ad regarding the idea of 'men not wanting children,' describing why I haven't wanted children. I know that some of it will seem crass and uncaring to some (mainly women), but there are a number of reasons for this in my life (most of which I won't go into in a public forum).
Not everybody should have children. A current look around this country shows that many shouldn't have had; they weren't prepared to raise children. If you haven't at least tried to heal whatever childhood emotional injuriesthat were done to you, perhaps you should wait on transferring those same issues to children.
I've also known a number of women who decided (one of them at quite an early age) that they themselves did not want children. The reasons? I can't tell you or (perhaps) they'd kill me. [Sort of a joke.]
And in a similar vein, not everybody should go to college. In this country you're treated as pariah if you don't have a degree (or two), but many people should perhaps attend vocational training. We have way too many lawyers and not enough nurses. And I know a number of people with superfluous degrees that they arenever going to use.
I have personally fathered two children in my time. But in both cases, however much the woman wanted (or in both cases never knew they wanted) children, neither was prepared to do it. With one of them she was too old and her body rejected the fetus. In the other one, when I didn't respond favorably, she had an abortion.
In the end, unless both of the procreators are wanting wholeheartedly to devote the next 18 years of their life to the child, the child should not be created. I know this probably sounds really harsh, but have you ever known anyone who found out that they were an 'unwanted' child? It wasn't a feel good revelation, I"ll tell you that.
We all need to find in ourselves what our true reason for coming into this life is, before we take on the task of forming someone elses reason for coming in. I truly believe in a saying by a comedian some time ago, "I don't believe in having children until I"m through being one."
Aside from this, I have way too many other things in my life that if I don't give them attention for any length of time, will not suffer for the rest of their lives for that lack of attention paid. And besides, I don't have enough time for all of my creative 'children' (works of art/writing/design) as it is.
In my opinion, a child is either a choice, or a potential (as a former friend once was fond of sayinhg) flaming disaster if they are not.
Monday, September 5, 2011
That Anniversary.
Ten years ago this Sunday, I was standing on a ladder with a bright blue almost unnatural sky behind me painting high up under eaves and listening to NPR when "reports [were] coming in of a possible small plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York. More details will be made once we have reporters on the scene." At that moment, I knew it was no "small plane" that had hit, and that that day was going to be one of the longest in my memory. I was also however, expecting that Martial Law would be imposed at any minute, when the news came that a "second plane" had struck the other Tower.
Yes, we're coming up on that anniversary, eulogizing and fetishizing our very own post-modern Pearl Harbor: 9/11. 'A day that will live in..." No, that was that other attach on American Soil.
Let me once again remind you before I go on, I am in not in any way either diminishing or denying the horror of that day now almost ten years ago. Three thousand people lost their lives that day, and many more suffered on the ground from the consequences of the two Towers crumbling into dust, both on that day and in the days and months to come from the literal fallout of the destruction.
What I am also reminding you about are the questions involved which still unanswered to this day regarding the circumstance of what happened and who did it. And I already hear the angry lynch mobs at my door ready to make me one of the fallen, just because I don't agree with the Twin Fetishes of what are called "National Security," and "Homeland Security." I still believe that the Twin Towers and the devastation to them and New York City, were merely excuse and prelude for the Military-Industrial complex to generate more revenues and get the American People to give up what had heretofore had been precious Freedoms in the 'fight against' "International Terrorism."
And while that day no visible form of Martial Law was imposed as I had expected it would, the prelude to the dissolution of our Protected Freedoms in the face and guise of 'protecting Our Nation,' still resounds like that of the previous "Shot Heard Round the World" of an earlier Age of Revolution, not dissolution. The very foundations of what Those who would say that they 'Believe In' the freedoms inherent in our System of Law and Revolutionary Intent, are still, or have been participating in the taking apart/tearing down/dismantling, Declaration by Declaration and Constitutional Amendment by Amendment of that System; all in the face of denial and fear-mongering and for an arcane sense of "safety" that has never really appeared.
Martial Law was not instituted that day or in the days following, but a far more insidious form of imposition of loss of freedom resulted in the Stalin-like fortification of Military Might in the form of first "The Patriot Act" and later the 'formation' of the equally infamous(and scabrous) "Tea Party." Quote/unquote Patriots will use the excuse of this anniversary to once again pump up the drumbeat of War in the form of 'tightening' our borders and cutting loose/jettisoning any impediments to their version of Making America Free and Safe. Martial Law might have been more easier to deal with in a way. At least that way the loss of freedoms and rights would have been obvious. Which is why that 'nuclear option' of Constitutional 'deregulation' occurred.
And also once again I urge you to watch the documentary entitled "9/11: Press for the Truth." <http://www.911pressfortruth.com/> which has detailed timelines that contradict the4 "standard version" of what really happened that day, and has "humorous" clips of Bush, Cheney and Rice backtracking and getting caught in outright lies over the exact nature of what transpired. It also shows how the international police organization Cointelpro raided an Islamic Terrorist group in Manilla, Philippines in 1992, retrieving drawings then of plans of two planes going into large square buildings; evidence which was dismissed by the US Government.
Not to mention the FBI Agent who told her superiors that there were reports of individuals in Texas (I believe) learning how to take off and fly planes but not how to land them, in 2000. These reports were also brushed aside. And just for further information, in the day following the events of the morning of 9/11/01 when air traffic was suspended over the entire US, there was one plane that was allowed to fly out of the country: one carrying a family with the curious name of bin Laden.
As with the Kennedy and MLK assasinations, the true facts of these matters will probably never be revealed, with the 'Clear and Present Danger' to our Nation and our planet which those answers represent will go one shrouded in mystery.
Yes, we're coming up on that anniversary, eulogizing and fetishizing our very own post-modern Pearl Harbor: 9/11. 'A day that will live in..." No, that was that other attach on American Soil.
Let me once again remind you before I go on, I am in not in any way either diminishing or denying the horror of that day now almost ten years ago. Three thousand people lost their lives that day, and many more suffered on the ground from the consequences of the two Towers crumbling into dust, both on that day and in the days and months to come from the literal fallout of the destruction.
What I am also reminding you about are the questions involved which still unanswered to this day regarding the circumstance of what happened and who did it. And I already hear the angry lynch mobs at my door ready to make me one of the fallen, just because I don't agree with the Twin Fetishes of what are called "National Security," and "Homeland Security." I still believe that the Twin Towers and the devastation to them and New York City, were merely excuse and prelude for the Military-Industrial complex to generate more revenues and get the American People to give up what had heretofore had been precious Freedoms in the 'fight against' "International Terrorism."
And while that day no visible form of Martial Law was imposed as I had expected it would, the prelude to the dissolution of our Protected Freedoms in the face and guise of 'protecting Our Nation,' still resounds like that of the previous "Shot Heard Round the World" of an earlier Age of Revolution, not dissolution. The very foundations of what Those who would say that they 'Believe In' the freedoms inherent in our System of Law and Revolutionary Intent, are still, or have been participating in the taking apart/tearing down/dismantling, Declaration by Declaration and Constitutional Amendment by Amendment of that System; all in the face of denial and fear-mongering and for an arcane sense of "safety" that has never really appeared.
Martial Law was not instituted that day or in the days following, but a far more insidious form of imposition of loss of freedom resulted in the Stalin-like fortification of Military Might in the form of first "The Patriot Act" and later the 'formation' of the equally infamous(and scabrous) "Tea Party." Quote/unquote Patriots will use the excuse of this anniversary to once again pump up the drumbeat of War in the form of 'tightening' our borders and cutting loose/jettisoning any impediments to their version of Making America Free and Safe. Martial Law might have been more easier to deal with in a way. At least that way the loss of freedoms and rights would have been obvious. Which is why that 'nuclear option' of Constitutional 'deregulation' occurred.
And also once again I urge you to watch the documentary entitled "9/11: Press for the Truth." <http://www.911pressfortruth.com/> which has detailed timelines that contradict the4 "standard version" of what really happened that day, and has "humorous" clips of Bush, Cheney and Rice backtracking and getting caught in outright lies over the exact nature of what transpired. It also shows how the international police organization Cointelpro raided an Islamic Terrorist group in Manilla, Philippines in 1992, retrieving drawings then of plans of two planes going into large square buildings; evidence which was dismissed by the US Government.
Not to mention the FBI Agent who told her superiors that there were reports of individuals in Texas (I believe) learning how to take off and fly planes but not how to land them, in 2000. These reports were also brushed aside. And just for further information, in the day following the events of the morning of 9/11/01 when air traffic was suspended over the entire US, there was one plane that was allowed to fly out of the country: one carrying a family with the curious name of bin Laden.
As with the Kennedy and MLK assasinations, the true facts of these matters will probably never be revealed, with the 'Clear and Present Danger' to our Nation and our planet which those answers represent will go one shrouded in mystery.
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