"So much is at stake. Social Security and Medicare. Healthcare reform. Reproductive rights. Civil rights. Equal rights for gays and lesbians. The federal courts, including the Supreme Court. Our environment and energy policies.
All of these will be gravely endangered if the Tea Party gains the White House and Senate next year. If they do win, progress dating back to FDR will be rolled back, and it will take decades to undo the damage. We cannot allow this to happen."
Monday, December 5, 2011
The policies that will help disentangle the corporate tentacles from our government.
1. Shareholder Protection
Corporate America shouldn’t be able to use your retirement savings or other investments as its political war chest. When you own stock in a corporation, you own the corporation – and you should have a say in how it spends your money. The Shareholder Protection Act (H.R. 2517, S. 1360) would let shareholders, not CEOs, decide whether and how corporations spend money to influence elections.
2. Disclosure of Political Spending
Transparency will enable the public to hold activist corporations accountable. The Securities and Exchange Commission should require publicly traded companies to disclose their political spending, and President Obama should issue his executive order requiring disclosure of election spending by government contractors.
3. Public Financing of Elections
The Fair Elections Now Act (H.R. 1404, S. 750) would enable candidates to run competitive campaigns on small contributions matched by public funds, leaving them no excuse to chase after campaign cash from lobbyists and wealthy special interests.
4. Constitutional Amendment
Ultimately, we need a constitutional amendment to tell the Supreme Court that corporate spending is not the same thing as free speech by real people. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) — who used to work for Public Citizen — and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) have shown leadership on the issue, introducing an amendment in the House (H.J. Res. 78).
People will look back at this event and see it as the beginning – the turning point when the people demanded that the country move from militarism and war to diplomacy and cooperation; from funneling money to the wealthiest 1% to sharing the nation’s prosperity among each of us; and from environmental degradation to the planet’s renewal. It is our responsibility to get this Nation on the right track. You need to be part of this.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
"…see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers,
Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand
that they consume production and therefore have to work for
the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want
anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars,…and general junk
you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all
of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume,
work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack
revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans
wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to
pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young
girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who
go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for
no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected
acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to
all living creatures. "
Jack Kerouac
Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand
that they consume production and therefore have to work for
the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want
anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars,…and general junk
you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all
of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume,
work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack
revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans
wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to
pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young
girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who
go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for
no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected
acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to
all living creatures. "
Jack Kerouac
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
