Monday, October 14, 2013
At What Cost?
At What Cost ?
According to an October 5, 2013 New York Times article, "A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning" , the government shutdown has been in the planning since the re-election of President Obama in 2012. Before Ted Cruz was appointed talking mouth for the movement, former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese III and leaders from more than 36 Conservative groups had been strategizing a massive plot all along...... a "blueprint to defund Obamacare" by shutting down the government..
Who would be so arrogant as to dismiss and disregard the voice of the American people and our Democratic system of government that passed the Affordable Care Act by majority rule into a law that was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States? Who would derail democracy and risk defaulting on the debt?
Koch Konservatives. .... Government dictated by ideological despots whose billionaire status not only affords them the protection of Citizens United to manipulate our elections , but now, apparently, the veto power to override our legislative process? Americans have not experienced this type of takeover since the attempted corporate coup on President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, when a group of wealthy businessmen created a veteran's organization in a plot to overthrow the President of the United States. What? A group of patriot Americans manipulated by big money to destroy a President??
Freedom, Patriot, Prosperity, Heritage....apparently these labels are not so American after all. "Freedom" is just a "front" to these ultra-rich oligarchs whose egos are too swollen to swallow the loss of an election campaign they funded or the passage of a bill that did not meet their own narrow, self-serving political view.
Minimum wage? Pension funds? Jobs for Americans in America? The only jobs Koch Konservatives are concerned about appear to be paying right wing political advocates:
Freedom Partners is a tax exempt business organization with over 200 members who pay at least $1,000,000 in annual dues. The Board is headed by an executive of Koch Industries and they fund organizations like the Tea Party Patriots to push to defund the Affordable Care Act.
According to PBS Bill Moyers and Company, Freedom Partners spent $250,000,000 in 2012 to shape political and policy debate to sabotage the Affordable Care Act including dubious studies, misinformation in talking points, and even raunchy television commercials involving proctologists, all contributing to an epidemic of Obamacarephobia.
The Tea Party Express has spent 2.1 million it has raised on campaign consultants .
Heritage Action is one of many leadership institutes that has trained 6,000 paid "sentinels" to openly "confront" elected officials at open meetings.
The directives that come to these right wing organizations are clear: "Koch Konservatives should not approve a CR unless it defunds Obamacare!". At any cost!
The House of Representatives, with the most novice members vulnerable to strong-arming by ultra-rich oligarchs bankrolling campaigns, has become the broken branch of our government. A small band of ruffians sit like mischievous imps on the edge of a teetering branch, chain saw in hand, taunting, "Make me! Make me!", while gleefully touching the blade to the trunk of a majestic ancestral tree. They will cause suffering for working families and the economic advances we have made, risk the country's credit rating, and tarnish our credibility and stance in the world, before they accept defeat.
Our world neighbors who are watching our country wonder how a small group of anarchists can wield so much control in a nation that touts free elections and the democratic process to the rest of the world.
So what good is the democratic process when we cant believe in it anymore? What happens when powerful corporate forces in this country write the legislation through ALEC for states to pass, push to privatize Social Security and Medicare, fight against workers rights, and gut environmental deregulation, all in the name of weakening our government ……until it is too disjointed to function and people are too demoralized to vote?
Sweep the house in November! That's what the American people can do to counteract this ploy by the faux government of the Kochs, by the Kochs, and for the Kochs in our nation.
It wont be easy. The power and extent of the Koch Konservative dominion is deeply funded, organized with people motivated by winning no matter what the costs, and billionaires who can pay them very handsomely for their efforts.
There are "scorecards" that are kept to log how a Republican voted on any given issue. Moderate Republicans who are not Koch Konservatives are "targeted" in the next election with Tea party challengers. The Kochs and other billionaires get what they want or else. If they cant get it through Republican incumbents , they fund Tea Party candidates ......and gerrymander the district so the elected official can sit on the proverbial Tea Pot and do nothing.
Your Representative in the House will probably turn a deaf ear to your concerns if you arent part of the "score card" gestapo. Those incumbents take their paycheck from the government, but take their orders from the Koch Konservative machine.
But Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians may be keeping their own score cards in this shameful game. Do we all abide by the Constitution of the United States, or only when it works for our side? The only Americans who can afford to win "at any cost" are the billionaires. And losing the Democratic process in this country is too high a price to pay.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Armed and Way Too Dangerous
Armed and Way Too Dangerous: In 2005, George Zimmerman was charged with "resisting an officer with violence" and "battery on a law enforcement officer&quo...
Armed and Way Too Dangerous
In 2005, George Zimmerman was charged with "resisting an officer with violence" and "battery on a law enforcement officer".
The officer didnt shoot George Zimmerman.
Before the Zimmerman jury was sent into deliberations, they were given the following instruction:
"If George Zimmerman was not engaged in unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had the right to be, he had not duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force" ... (Sounds so far like Trayvon Martin).
..... "including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to to do so too prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."
In 2005, ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force, co-chaired by Wal-Mart, the nations largest seller of rifles, ratified the Stand Your Ground Law which was eventually adopted in26 states, including Florida.
Trayvon Martin had the same right to meet force with force. Zimmerman was a stranger who chose not to identify himself as the Neighborhood Watch, not to wait for the police officer to arrive, but to struggle with a young man who had just celebrated his 17th birthday three weeks previously. And shoot him in the heart.
StandYour Ground is a bad law. It is an NRA backed broadening of gun rights based soly on the subjective decision by the gun owner. The victim has no rights.
Did Zimmerman "reasonably believe" his injury was life threatening? He refused treatment for his bloody nose and cuts to the back of his head until the following day.
The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) is a group of state legislators and corporate lobbyists funded by the most powerful corporations in the United States. They write legislation benefitting corporate interests. Not so much the common man.
Thanks to ALEC, Stand Your Ground not inly is it less safe for unarmed citizens to walk the streets and hold perpetrators responsible for the death of a citizen,but also more difficult to hold corporations responsible for causing death or injury. 71 ALEC bills introduced in 2013 would weaken the legal rights of the common citizen to take legal action against oil, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and health insurance companies.
ALEC , which is overwhelmingly Republican in membership, has written legislation that makes it harder to vote, destroys unions, protects corporations from civil liability, and suppresses environmental protection, all in the name of furthering corporate power and profit in this country.
The next time you hear certain politicians speak of Americans losing their rights and freedoms in this country, ask yourself who is responsible.
Obama? Or the NRA GOP, ALEC , KOCH and multi million dollar legislative machine that operates behind closed doors.
Its too late to ask Trayvon Martin.
The officer didnt shoot George Zimmerman.
Before the Zimmerman jury was sent into deliberations, they were given the following instruction:
"If George Zimmerman was not engaged in unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had the right to be, he had not duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force" ... (Sounds so far like Trayvon Martin).
..... "including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to to do so too prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."
In 2005, ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force, co-chaired by Wal-Mart, the nations largest seller of rifles, ratified the Stand Your Ground Law which was eventually adopted in26 states, including Florida.
Trayvon Martin had the same right to meet force with force. Zimmerman was a stranger who chose not to identify himself as the Neighborhood Watch, not to wait for the police officer to arrive, but to struggle with a young man who had just celebrated his 17th birthday three weeks previously. And shoot him in the heart.
StandYour Ground is a bad law. It is an NRA backed broadening of gun rights based soly on the subjective decision by the gun owner. The victim has no rights.
Did Zimmerman "reasonably believe" his injury was life threatening? He refused treatment for his bloody nose and cuts to the back of his head until the following day.
The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) is a group of state legislators and corporate lobbyists funded by the most powerful corporations in the United States. They write legislation benefitting corporate interests. Not so much the common man.
Thanks to ALEC, Stand Your Ground not inly is it less safe for unarmed citizens to walk the streets and hold perpetrators responsible for the death of a citizen,but also more difficult to hold corporations responsible for causing death or injury. 71 ALEC bills introduced in 2013 would weaken the legal rights of the common citizen to take legal action against oil, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and health insurance companies.
ALEC , which is overwhelmingly Republican in membership, has written legislation that makes it harder to vote, destroys unions, protects corporations from civil liability, and suppresses environmental protection, all in the name of furthering corporate power and profit in this country.
The next time you hear certain politicians speak of Americans losing their rights and freedoms in this country, ask yourself who is responsible.
Obama? Or the NRA GOP, ALEC , KOCH and multi million dollar legislative machine that operates behind closed doors.
Its too late to ask Trayvon Martin.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Outsmarting ALEC
DemKOCHracy in America
The powerful American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a corporate backed organization that has been writing massive amounts of legislation for Conservative politicians to march back into their state legislatures for passsage.
This law-making machine went largely unreported until the Conservative takeover of the House of Representatives and most state legislatures in 2010 yielded a gusher of ALEC bills that have left a widespread ALEC slick across the nation this year: Discrimination against family planning coverage in health insurance for women, union-busting, anti-environmental protections, voter suppression, and privatizing schools and penal systems for profit. All organized and coordinated efforts to promote a pro-corporate , pro-wealthy agenda by exploiting the rights of women, middle class workers, school aged children, and the poor .......while passing and protecting tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.
Corporations fund 98% of ALEC revenues and Petro-Chemical Koch Industries has been a long term presence on the governing board of ALEC.
CHARLES and DAVID KOCH. With annual revenues of 100 billion dollars, they have grown not only a Tea Party movement, but a sprawling network of foundations, think tanks, front groups, advocacy organizations, lobbyists, and sadly,....politicians parading as the free thinking lawmakers, to push their agenda. On Social Security alone, they have funded think tanks in an 28.4 million dollar effort to manufacture 297 opinions and commentaries, 200 reports, 56 studies, and 6 books distorting Social Security effectiveness and purpose. All in the name of PRIVATIZATION.
Free Markets?. Limited Governmen? It turns out that ALEC seeks not to limit government, but to take over previously held government responsibilities so corporations reap profits from our tax dollars.
How does ALEC do it?
1. Maintain an environment of public fear . ie.The NRA worked with ALEC to pass The Stand Your Ground Laws in 24 out of our 50 states. That's almost half our nation. It didnt work out too well for the" freedom and liberty" of a black kid as he walked home on a public street in Florida
I felt "threatened" recently by a motorist with an NRA sticker on his bumper. He pointed to my bumper sticker and proceded to harrass me and drive erratically around me all the way up Highway 49. I guess when you pack a gun, it gives you the " freedom and liberty" to do that.
My husband urged me to remove the patriotic bumper sticker for my own safety. A few days later, some old duffer took it upon himself to assist me in that regard as my car sat parked at the Alta Sierra Country Club. So much for my freedom from fear and freedom of speech.
2. Exploit those public fears. ie., The Voter Fraud bills were based on allegations of widespread fraud which negated the vote of certain" freedom and liberty" loving Americans . Upon actual investigation, however, voter fraud was found to be virtually non-existent and these laws only end up suppressing the very basic right to vote for mostly elderly, poor, students, and non driving women in our country. State legislatures have been pushing these laws all across the nation. In the Pennsylvania legislature, Rep Tarzai recently bragged,"Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania. Done!"
Following pressure and exposure by several watchdog groups such as the Center for Media and Democracy, ALEC recently disbanded its Task Force responsible for Voter ID laws and the Stand Your Ground Law after several corporations left the ranks.
Who else will leave the ranks?
We can take a lesson from the recent resignation of one of our own local citizens from his position as co-founder and spokesperson of the National Tea Party Patriots. In part, he cited the reason for his departure to have been the corporatization (his word) of the organization calling it a "big top-down organization" raising millions of dollars with only a very small portion trickling down to grassroots on the ground. He also cited its association with Americans for Prosperity and the .....wait for it....Koch brothers. The same Koch brothers that the Romney camp referred to as "the financial engine of the Tea Party" while being wined at dined by the oligarchs at their Park City, Utah compound recently.
You can search the Union archives over the years for the times I have alerted readers of this "association" between the Tea party and the Oil and Gas billionaire Koch brothers. They sowed the seeds. You bet they intend to reap the benefits. And if a near-sighted old biddy like me could trip over them on her way to researching the movement, why cant those who still follow them?
Several members of the local Tea Party, and one member in particular, has attacked my freedom to speak with an attempt to shackle my writing wrist in the stockade of public ridicule each and every time I wrote to TheUnion regarding special interest ties to the Tea Party.
Kamikazee drivers packing guns in the trunk, old golfers who bow to the spire that transmits talk radio three hours a day, and harrassing ad hominum attacks may attempt to threaten my personal right to free speech; but I bet you $10,000 they can never intimidate, rip, or harrass away the spirit of Americans who understand that real freedom is never gained at the expense of someone else's freedom.
The real and far reaching fear for all freedom loving Americans is the passage of Citizens United and the unlimited amount of Corporate campaign contributions politicians will be receiving if they step to the right, to the right, to the right while marching to the ALEC tune.
Because when Citizens United allowed Corporations to fund political campaigns without restraint, they allowed a well greased path for "We The Wealthy" and special interests to get politicians voted into office, take a pledge to cripple government, and remove those who wont. And fill the void with corporate power.
While profit continues to drown the 1% and their shareholders..... that so- called trickle has dried up before reaching the jobholders.
We the People may not have their billions to buyout this country. They can harass, obstruct, concoct, distract, and disparage.........but We still have the VOTE. The question is.... do voters have the smarts to outsmart ALEC?
The powerful American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a corporate backed organization that has been writing massive amounts of legislation for Conservative politicians to march back into their state legislatures for passsage.
This law-making machine went largely unreported until the Conservative takeover of the House of Representatives and most state legislatures in 2010 yielded a gusher of ALEC bills that have left a widespread ALEC slick across the nation this year: Discrimination against family planning coverage in health insurance for women, union-busting, anti-environmental protections, voter suppression, and privatizing schools and penal systems for profit. All organized and coordinated efforts to promote a pro-corporate , pro-wealthy agenda by exploiting the rights of women, middle class workers, school aged children, and the poor .......while passing and protecting tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.
Corporations fund 98% of ALEC revenues and Petro-Chemical Koch Industries has been a long term presence on the governing board of ALEC.
CHARLES and DAVID KOCH. With annual revenues of 100 billion dollars, they have grown not only a Tea Party movement, but a sprawling network of foundations, think tanks, front groups, advocacy organizations, lobbyists, and sadly,....politicians parading as the free thinking lawmakers, to push their agenda. On Social Security alone, they have funded think tanks in an 28.4 million dollar effort to manufacture 297 opinions and commentaries, 200 reports, 56 studies, and 6 books distorting Social Security effectiveness and purpose. All in the name of PRIVATIZATION.
Free Markets?. Limited Governmen? It turns out that ALEC seeks not to limit government, but to take over previously held government responsibilities so corporations reap profits from our tax dollars.
How does ALEC do it?
1. Maintain an environment of public fear . ie.The NRA worked with ALEC to pass The Stand Your Ground Laws in 24 out of our 50 states. That's almost half our nation. It didnt work out too well for the" freedom and liberty" of a black kid as he walked home on a public street in Florida
I felt "threatened" recently by a motorist with an NRA sticker on his bumper. He pointed to my bumper sticker and proceded to harrass me and drive erratically around me all the way up Highway 49. I guess when you pack a gun, it gives you the " freedom and liberty" to do that.
My husband urged me to remove the patriotic bumper sticker for my own safety. A few days later, some old duffer took it upon himself to assist me in that regard as my car sat parked at the Alta Sierra Country Club. So much for my freedom from fear and freedom of speech.
2. Exploit those public fears. ie., The Voter Fraud bills were based on allegations of widespread fraud which negated the vote of certain" freedom and liberty" loving Americans . Upon actual investigation, however, voter fraud was found to be virtually non-existent and these laws only end up suppressing the very basic right to vote for mostly elderly, poor, students, and non driving women in our country. State legislatures have been pushing these laws all across the nation. In the Pennsylvania legislature, Rep Tarzai recently bragged,"Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania. Done!"
Following pressure and exposure by several watchdog groups such as the Center for Media and Democracy, ALEC recently disbanded its Task Force responsible for Voter ID laws and the Stand Your Ground Law after several corporations left the ranks.
Who else will leave the ranks?
We can take a lesson from the recent resignation of one of our own local citizens from his position as co-founder and spokesperson of the National Tea Party Patriots. In part, he cited the reason for his departure to have been the corporatization (his word) of the organization calling it a "big top-down organization" raising millions of dollars with only a very small portion trickling down to grassroots on the ground. He also cited its association with Americans for Prosperity and the .....wait for it....Koch brothers. The same Koch brothers that the Romney camp referred to as "the financial engine of the Tea Party" while being wined at dined by the oligarchs at their Park City, Utah compound recently.
You can search the Union archives over the years for the times I have alerted readers of this "association" between the Tea party and the Oil and Gas billionaire Koch brothers. They sowed the seeds. You bet they intend to reap the benefits. And if a near-sighted old biddy like me could trip over them on her way to researching the movement, why cant those who still follow them?
Several members of the local Tea Party, and one member in particular, has attacked my freedom to speak with an attempt to shackle my writing wrist in the stockade of public ridicule each and every time I wrote to TheUnion regarding special interest ties to the Tea Party.
Kamikazee drivers packing guns in the trunk, old golfers who bow to the spire that transmits talk radio three hours a day, and harrassing ad hominum attacks may attempt to threaten my personal right to free speech; but I bet you $10,000 they can never intimidate, rip, or harrass away the spirit of Americans who understand that real freedom is never gained at the expense of someone else's freedom.
The real and far reaching fear for all freedom loving Americans is the passage of Citizens United and the unlimited amount of Corporate campaign contributions politicians will be receiving if they step to the right, to the right, to the right while marching to the ALEC tune.
Because when Citizens United allowed Corporations to fund political campaigns without restraint, they allowed a well greased path for "We The Wealthy" and special interests to get politicians voted into office, take a pledge to cripple government, and remove those who wont. And fill the void with corporate power.
While profit continues to drown the 1% and their shareholders..... that so- called trickle has dried up before reaching the jobholders.
We the People may not have their billions to buyout this country. They can harass, obstruct, concoct, distract, and disparage.........but We still have the VOTE. The question is.... do voters have the smarts to outsmart ALEC?
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Holy War on Women
Holy War against Women
March is Women's History month. In the middle to late 1800's, Aaron A. Sargent, a Republican US Senator from Califonia resided right here on Broad St. in Nevada City with his wife Ellen Clark Seragent. Ellen Sargent formed the first Suffragist movement in Nevada City in 1869 and Susan B. Anthony was a friend and vistor to their home. Aaron Sargent was moved by their struggle for an equal political voice and is attributed with the wording of what would become the 19th amendment. The bill would be introduced unsucessfully each year for 40 years, but it wasnt until after their deaths that the 19th amendment was voted into law in 1920.
So, where are the men who stand up for women's rights today?
President Obama has been a friend to women's health with new contraceptive guidelines under the Affordable Care Act. The ACA ended the discriminatory practice of insurers charging women 50% more than men for health coverage. He has made sure that ALL women have access to contraception by compromising wih religious institutions who will not have to provide contraceptive coverage that conflicts with religious beliefs. A woman's insurer will be required to offer her coverage without additional cost. The compromise resolved religious liberty concerns while respecting the health needs of women. The Catholic Health Association has lauded the decision. But that's not good enough for some.
The League of Women Voters has issued an alert regarding the Blunt-Rubio amendment being introduced in the Senate which would limit access to contraceptive services for women if any employer or insurance plan had a "moral objection" to it. Since when is an employee's medical record the business of an employer? What is the boss doing in our bed?
And can I hear the word Vasectomy? Just once? Vasectomies are covered by most health insurance. But Conservatives dare not mess with the male vote. Let's be clear, women, if men were the ones to get pregnant, it would interfere with their golf swing.
All four standing candidates in the Republican Presidential Primaries have stated their intent to repeal the health care reform law which eliminates the economic barriers to contraception. In other words, wealthy women will still be able to shop till they drop for contraception, undergo abortions in spa-like surroundings , and hand pick surrogate mothers to carry their children. Working women, not so much.
Why are the voices we hear not from women, but from fanatical politicans like Rick Santorum and religious celibates like Archbishop Tim Dolan, who blur political platform and Church Law. It has become a holy war for Rick Santorum. Like a comical Jughead in a lopsided mitre, Santorum continues to spew his personal religious edicts from the bully pulpit in a flagrant disregard for American women under the Constitution: their needs, their rights, their choices, their voices, and their place in society.
The truth is.... family plannng is a moral responsibility. Not a sin. And Abstinence rarely works.
If an American woman does not have freedom over her own reproductive health choices, made in most cases with her own husband and her doctor, then that woman is as much imprisoned in a radical religious culture as her counterparts in the Muslim world.
Republican Governor Bob McDonald of Virginia recently introduced an invasive Intravaginal Ultrasound bill which would require a woman seeking an abortion to submit to a mandatory Intra Vaginal ultrasound. Alabama, Virginia , and Pennsylvania quickly followed suit. Lets get this straight........Rep. Rand Paul refuses to go through an airport security patdown because it is an invasion of his liberties. A patdown. But a woman seeking an abortion must submit to a mandatory 10 inch ultrasound wand intravaginally?
We cannot wait for Darrel Issa to ask a woman or a woman's health advocate to speak before Congress on the issue of Religious Rights and Women's Health. It didnt happen. Apparently, women ovulate, lactate, and dilate, but only men can dictate when it comes to womens reproductive health. Women in this nation need to sit up in the stirrups and ask the question....Whose body is this, anyway? We must speak loud and clear with the vote handed down to us by the women, and men, who fought long and hard for a woman's voice in politics almost 100 years ago. We must use our voice in our vote and speak out for ourselves.
Pssst, Contraception prevents Abortion.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Occupy Wall St. Signs of the Times
Signs of the Times
A few weeks ago, I wandered down Broad St.. picked up a placard, and participated in the first political rally of my life. Here are what some of the signs read:
Tax the Rich: We are no longer the Land of Opportunity, but the Land of Profit for only the Very Wealthy.
According to a recent News Week article, since the 1970s, median income has grown 5% for 90% of Americans compared to 281% for the top 1% of Americans. Those top 1% now possess 40% of our nations wealth.
After 10 years of the Bush Tax cuts that saved 4 trillion dollars to the rich, job growth remains stagnant.Tax rates are below what they were under President Eisenhower, yet Conservatives are adamant that they will not raise revenue by taxing the Super Rich and large corporations because they are the job creators. Really?
People Over Profit: Lets look at one large corporation that has prospered over the last decade. One of the so-called job creators, Apple Industries, is expected to make a whopping 80 billion in revenue this year. Because they still employ more Chinese than Americans in their manufacturing, Apple is responsible for contributing billions toward our national trade deficit. Like other big corporations, Apple disguises profits as foreign earnings in lower taxed countries and do not pay their fair share of taxes.
Make Wall St. Pay: "Liberty and Justice for all" no longer has meaning because there has been no justice for those criminals in Wall St. investment firms who intentionally packaged risky mortgages into unregulated derivatives.
People have lost their jobs, their homes, their savings, and not one Investment banker or Wall St. trader has been indicted.
Corporations out of Washington: Corporate power has too much influence in Washington. Is it still "We, the People", or "We the Corporations" that our elected representatives strive to serve, protect, and defend?
The House of Representatives chose to lose our national debt rating rather than negotiate a debt ceiling. With the pawns of the Corporate elite scurrying to defend the profit margin for their benefactors, we have made little progress toward balancing our federal budget.No Lobbysits: Lobbyist has become a nasty word. Even Herman Cain has ommitted his stint as a Restaurant Industry lobbyist from his resume. The flaky as his crust candidate who is the frontrunner for Conservative Presidential slot earned his living lobbying in Washington against smoking bans in restaurants, against a lower alcohol blood level limit, and against a higher minimum wage.
No More Unpaid Wars: Starting a war while simutaneously cutting taxes in 2001 and 2003 has so far contributed a whopping 800 billion to our national debt, and sacrificed 4500 American lives, and 654,965 Iraqui lives (British Medical Journal, The Lancet), and for what? The troops will be home with their families for Christmas, but the Iraquis are rewarding China and India with oil contracts
Corporations are Not People until Texas executes oneYou may have your brains laundered and locked up tight by Corporate owned media that passes for news like Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp....you know the one that is under investigation for phone tapping? Sarah "Take the Money and Dont Run" Palin took a college student to court for hacking into her e-mail. He was sentenced to a year in jail. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch runs his media empire with an iron fist. How much time do you think he will
serve?
Why is it that when greed and corruption impacts common welfare and forces the government to take action, legislate, regulate, prosecute, and fine. .. too often the actual fine is a miniscule percentage of the overall profit and billionaires go free? Corporate crime does pay in the United States of America.
When I stopped on a Broad St. crosswalk to let a motorcyclist cut through the mass of people, he thanked me by shouting back,"Go home!" Hey, motorcycle dude, I dont know where you are from, but we are home. We have been patiently listening to a group of people yelling at us for the last 2 1/2 years while the country continues its decline. So now listen to this. You just ran over my First Ammendment toes. And this Motorcycle Mama has laid her big spike down! We are the 99% and we will Occupy Wall St. and Restore Main St.
Starting right here on Broad St.
#OWS
A few weeks ago, I wandered down Broad St.. picked up a placard, and participated in the first political rally of my life. Here are what some of the signs read:
Tax the Rich: We are no longer the Land of Opportunity, but the Land of Profit for only the Very Wealthy.
According to a recent News Week article, since the 1970s, median income has grown 5% for 90% of Americans compared to 281% for the top 1% of Americans. Those top 1% now possess 40% of our nations wealth.
After 10 years of the Bush Tax cuts that saved 4 trillion dollars to the rich, job growth remains stagnant.Tax rates are below what they were under President Eisenhower, yet Conservatives are adamant that they will not raise revenue by taxing the Super Rich and large corporations because they are the job creators. Really?
People Over Profit: Lets look at one large corporation that has prospered over the last decade. One of the so-called job creators, Apple Industries, is expected to make a whopping 80 billion in revenue this year. Because they still employ more Chinese than Americans in their manufacturing, Apple is responsible for contributing billions toward our national trade deficit. Like other big corporations, Apple disguises profits as foreign earnings in lower taxed countries and do not pay their fair share of taxes.
Make Wall St. Pay: "Liberty and Justice for all" no longer has meaning because there has been no justice for those criminals in Wall St. investment firms who intentionally packaged risky mortgages into unregulated derivatives.
People have lost their jobs, their homes, their savings, and not one Investment banker or Wall St. trader has been indicted.
Corporations out of Washington: Corporate power has too much influence in Washington. Is it still "We, the People", or "We the Corporations" that our elected representatives strive to serve, protect, and defend?
The House of Representatives chose to lose our national debt rating rather than negotiate a debt ceiling. With the pawns of the Corporate elite scurrying to defend the profit margin for their benefactors, we have made little progress toward balancing our federal budget.No Lobbysits: Lobbyist has become a nasty word. Even Herman Cain has ommitted his stint as a Restaurant Industry lobbyist from his resume. The flaky as his crust candidate who is the frontrunner for Conservative Presidential slot earned his living lobbying in Washington against smoking bans in restaurants, against a lower alcohol blood level limit, and against a higher minimum wage.
No More Unpaid Wars: Starting a war while simutaneously cutting taxes in 2001 and 2003 has so far contributed a whopping 800 billion to our national debt, and sacrificed 4500 American lives, and 654,965 Iraqui lives (British Medical Journal, The Lancet), and for what? The troops will be home with their families for Christmas, but the Iraquis are rewarding China and India with oil contracts
Corporations are Not People until Texas executes oneYou may have your brains laundered and locked up tight by Corporate owned media that passes for news like Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp....you know the one that is under investigation for phone tapping? Sarah "Take the Money and Dont Run" Palin took a college student to court for hacking into her e-mail. He was sentenced to a year in jail. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch runs his media empire with an iron fist. How much time do you think he will
serve?
Why is it that when greed and corruption impacts common welfare and forces the government to take action, legislate, regulate, prosecute, and fine. .. too often the actual fine is a miniscule percentage of the overall profit and billionaires go free? Corporate crime does pay in the United States of America.
When I stopped on a Broad St. crosswalk to let a motorcyclist cut through the mass of people, he thanked me by shouting back,"Go home!" Hey, motorcycle dude, I dont know where you are from, but we are home. We have been patiently listening to a group of people yelling at us for the last 2 1/2 years while the country continues its decline. So now listen to this. You just ran over my First Ammendment toes. And this Motorcycle Mama has laid her big spike down! We are the 99% and we will Occupy Wall St. and Restore Main St.
Starting right here on Broad St.
#OWS
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Tax Holiday from Reality
Corporations and their lobbyists are pressuring Congress to reinstate Bush's taax holiday for corporations to bring home offshore profits at a lowered 5.25 tax rate. Apple would like to shake 12 billion from their offshore tree. Microsoft's ofshore accounts compute to around 29 billion, and ask Google if they want to retrieve their 17 billion out there in cyberspace.
Money is power, so it just might happen again as it did in 2005 when President Bush and Congress appeased corporations with a tax holiday at a one year 5.25 tax rate. Companies with huge assets offshore were offered the opportunity to return $312 billion back to the United states with a much lower tazx rate and stimulate the job market. However, the majority of that money that returned to the country, a whopping 92%, was returned back to stockholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Hiring and job creation remained flat.
The truth is that the companies pushing the hardest for the next tax break are the ones sitting on billions in cash right here in the United States that they could readily use to hire if they so chose.
According to fromer labor Secreatry Robert Reich, between 1980 and 2011, the Anerican economy has doubled in size, but where has all that money gone.? Almost all the gains have to to the Super Rich.
1. The top 1% who used to take home 10% of the wealth, now take home more than 20%. The Super Rich hold 40% of the nations wealth.
2. The Super Rich have the political power to lower their tax rates from 70% to less than 35%. But because much of their income is capital gains, they are taxed at only 145%. According to the IRS, the richest 400 Americans pay only a 17% income tax rate.
3. Wages have barely increased with adjustments for inflation
4, Revenues are down to less than 15% resulting in huge budget deficits.
"This is about creating jobs," Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas said when introcducing the Tax Holiday bill this Spring. Jobs. The word that was dangled like a tank of oxygen before a gasping population of unemployed in order to pass the extension of tax credits for the 2% of the wealthiest Americans who live up where the air is rarified. It was supposed to create jobs and resuscitate the economy. We're still wheezing out here. Because statistics prove that as long as stockholders, executives, and politicians continue to grow their own record profits and accumulate wealth in the exclusive dynamic of the laslt 30 years, there will be little effect on jobs, the working middle class, or the economy.
The tax holiday is just one more Corporate conciliation, one that rewards companies, once again, for moving jobs and investments overseas.
Money is power, so it just might happen again as it did in 2005 when President Bush and Congress appeased corporations with a tax holiday at a one year 5.25 tax rate. Companies with huge assets offshore were offered the opportunity to return $312 billion back to the United states with a much lower tazx rate and stimulate the job market. However, the majority of that money that returned to the country, a whopping 92%, was returned back to stockholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Hiring and job creation remained flat.
The truth is that the companies pushing the hardest for the next tax break are the ones sitting on billions in cash right here in the United States that they could readily use to hire if they so chose.
According to fromer labor Secreatry Robert Reich, between 1980 and 2011, the Anerican economy has doubled in size, but where has all that money gone.? Almost all the gains have to to the Super Rich.
1. The top 1% who used to take home 10% of the wealth, now take home more than 20%. The Super Rich hold 40% of the nations wealth.
2. The Super Rich have the political power to lower their tax rates from 70% to less than 35%. But because much of their income is capital gains, they are taxed at only 145%. According to the IRS, the richest 400 Americans pay only a 17% income tax rate.
3. Wages have barely increased with adjustments for inflation
4, Revenues are down to less than 15% resulting in huge budget deficits.
"This is about creating jobs," Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas said when introcducing the Tax Holiday bill this Spring. Jobs. The word that was dangled like a tank of oxygen before a gasping population of unemployed in order to pass the extension of tax credits for the 2% of the wealthiest Americans who live up where the air is rarified. It was supposed to create jobs and resuscitate the economy. We're still wheezing out here. Because statistics prove that as long as stockholders, executives, and politicians continue to grow their own record profits and accumulate wealth in the exclusive dynamic of the laslt 30 years, there will be little effect on jobs, the working middle class, or the economy.
The tax holiday is just one more Corporate conciliation, one that rewards companies, once again, for moving jobs and investments overseas.
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