Just Say Why

Reports are out that in the next 48 hours, President Obama could
make the call on whether to hold Wall Street accountable and open an
investigation into the banks’ role in the housing crisis, or agree to a
sweetheart deal that lets them off the hook.

I signed a petition urging the president to start an investigation to hold
Wall Street banks accountable for the damage done to our economy. Can you
join me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/bankfraud/?r_by=34957-7654379-EVIjLex&rc=pac_bankfraud_letter.email.g0

Thanks!

A Good Employee
by
David Schlecht

If not all of us, at least most of us have been an employee at some time in our lives. Many of us have even been supervisors and managers.

Let’s face it, we all know how important it is to have employee reviews and evaluate our employees based on their skills and accomplishments, on the positive side, and on their failures as well.

Believe it or not, you have employees whether you think you do or not, and you need to start doing employee evaluations on them.

Yes, I’m talking about our elected representatives.

It’s not enough that they’re one party or another, we really need to know how they’ve voted and why. We need to know how much they’re wasting of the expense account we give them for their work.

How many days per week does your representative work and how many times is he AWOL? How much of his expense account is being spent on the wrong things? How much are YOU paying for his haircut? His pedicure? His tanning sessions? His golf afternoons. His private subway? His security?

In order to evaluate our employees, we need to start seeing progress reports, individual progress reports for each. And on this report card, we need to know how much effort they’ve been putting into working to make this a better country and how much time they’ve been voting strictly party line, against the best interests of the country.

We need to start seeing drug tests and alcohol blood tests and pee tests.

And we need to see financial reports monthly of all money raised and by whom. We need to know who is trying to bribe our representatives and we can only do it by demanding this information.

So, some fools in Congress want to drug test recipients of federal funds like welfare. So, if someone has a drug problem, I guess we should just all stand around and watch their children starve to death. It must be mighty strange to be a Republican representative and support those lousy ideas.

But, it is indeed time to start expecting 40 hours a week from the crooks, even if eight of those hours are to be spent back in their own districts. I would like to see a timecard showing what my representatives spend their time on.

We need to start seeing some accountability.

So, what do you think? Should we start drug testing our politicians?

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Subject: Tell Clarence Thomas: Recuse yourself!

Dear Friend,

The Supreme Court recently decided to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the new health care reform bill passed by Congress last year, and Justice Clarence Thomas has a supreme ethical conflict.

Amidst accusations of ethics violations, just two weeks ago on the day that the Court decided to hear the challenge of the new health care law, Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia were honored at a benefit put on by the same firm that is leading the challenge and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Tell Justice Clarence Thomas: Recuse yourself from deliberations on the constitutionality of health care reform. You can sign the petition at the link below.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/clarence_thomas_recuse/?r_by=30915-3476714-gOP2sWx&rc=paste2

Who owns the country?

Courtesy of ThinkProgress.

The DO-NOTHING House of Representatives – Updated
Matthew K.

Here we are now, November 2011, and what have the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives done for America?

In poll after poll, the two most important things on almost every American’s mind is JOBS and the ECONOMY.

What have the Republicans done for America on these fronts? Not a single thing. On the contrary, they have passed bill after bill that destroys jobs, knowing that they will never be accepted into law.

They even obstruct the passing of debt limits in order to prevent We the People from creating jobs through government programs. In fact, the Republicans in the different levels of government have destroyed the jobs of 800,000 public employees. Did they do this to save money? Don’t be silly. They followed up those job cuts with tax give-aways to the top 1%.

The Republicans in office have done everything they can to hurt America in order to make Obama and the Democrats look bad and increase their chances of gaining more power. They even admit that their number one goal is to make Obama a one term president. Got that? The Republican number one job isn’t to fix this mess they made but to make it even worse hoping that the voters will be stupid enough to blame the Democrats for it.

And, you can be sure that the Republican voters who have no idea what’s going on will gladly blame everyone but themselves for voting like the idiots they truly are.

Update: Today the Republicans have filibustered a jobs bill that would have passed if it had been voted on. They obviously don’t want our government to work and they obviously don’t want to fix the economic mess they created.

Update 2: Yesterday they passed a bill that confirms that “in god we trust” is the company motto. Got that? No on jobs,  yes on garbage like this. If you voted for these pigs, I hope you’re paying attention. I hope you’re feeling the pain they are causing, first hand.

Update 3 (Admin): Check out this survey from a Republican politician. Do you see anything important missing? Only the most important thing to America.

No Jobs

This came to my inbox today. There is an all out attack on everything that is designed to help the 99%. It’s time we started standing up for ourselves. No one else is going to.

Subject: Tell Senate Democrats: Absolutely no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security benefits

Dear Friend,

It’s official: There’s now a bipartisan consensus on the Super Committee to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits.

The Republicans have a longstanding desire to dismantle Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. But according to recent news reports, a majority of Democrats on the Super Committee just proposed their own plan to reduce the deficit that included slashing Medicare benefits by $200 billion and dramatically reducing future Social Security benefits.

It’s hard to imagine how the Democrats on the Super Committee could be any more out-of-touch or wrongheaded.

In the face of massive unemployment, rampant foreclosures, a sputtering economy and widespread anger that the country is systematically prioritizing the needs of the ultra-rich and wealthy corporations over the needs of the other 99% of us, the Democrats who support this plan think the best thing to do is make it harder and more expensive for seniors and the less fortunate to get medical care or pay for their basic living expenses.

Tell Harry Reid and the Democratic senators on the Super Committee: Absolutely no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security benefits.

Click here for more information and an easy way to take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/supercommittee_mms/

#Occupy Reno
Dave Speck

The Reno Nevada group of #Occupy Wall Street, #Occupy Reno, is preparing to start occupying the closed Moana Pool area at 240 W. Moana Lane. The Reno mayor, Cashell, has met with the group and the city council has agreed to waive the $1,000 per month park fee.

Cashell says that the group need to also consider their elected national representatives in their disgust/anger for the current broken system.

Politics as Warfare
by
David Schlecht

This post about Politics as Warfare is a MUST-READ for anyone even slightly interested in saving what’s left of our democratic process.

Read it and pass it on to everyone you know.

Our democracy is under attack

The Banks are Still Ripping us Off
by
David Schlecht

Just last week Citigroup settled charges (without admitting or denying guilt) that it defrauded investors by selling them a package of mortgage-backed securities rife with mortgages it knew were likely to default, but didn’t disclose the hazard. It then bet against the package for its own benefit — earning fees of $34 million and net profits of at least $126 million. [Robert Reich]

They paid a paltry $285 million in penalties.

That’s nothing near as awful as B of A transferring their failing speculation commodities to their retail section because it’s FDIC insured; in other words, you and I have to pay up when their bad bets go sour.

The American banking industry is ruled by just a handful of banks so we’re still in an era of TOO BIG TO FAIL.

Taking Advantage of the Handicapped
by
David Schlecht

I’m sure we all remember back in our school years and those few sick kids who would take advantage of the mentally handicapped by calling them names or telling jokes about them, just so they looked better.

We were young, indeed, when we learned that it was wrong to take advantage of the weak. We learned that there was something wrong with people who did that. We learned that it was a sign of weakness when someone had to capitalize on the indefensible.

Fear and Hatred are two of the strongest emotions that make us weak, that handicap us. If you’re afraid, it is so much more likely that you’ll make a mistake. The same goes for hatred. Some of us are just doing the best we can with what we’ve got and nobody has the right to take advantage of us. No one!

But, there is an organization that is out there every single day trying to take advantage of the weak and the handicapped and even those who are too busy to pay attention. Are you being taken advantage of?

How are we being taken for a ride? What are the tricks? What are some examples? I’ll share the secrets with you.

The organization that is out there trying to make their lives better at our expense is using fear and hatred and just downright taking advantage of the naive, handicapped, or uneducated.

What examples of fear do you hear regularly? If you’re over 40, you remember the fear that was relentlessly fanned about the scary communists. Russia, the Soviet Union was the big scary monster in the dark. We even had drills to hide under our school desks in the event of a raid. Regular fear sessions. Who was encouraging the fear? Who was fanning the flames of fear of the Soviets?

Then came the Muslims. The same organization ran out of the fear when the Soviet Union collapsed so they needed a new boogy man to fear. So, they started fanning the fear of Muslims. Now that bin Laden has been killed, they’re, again, running out of things to make us fear.

They make us fear the brown skinned Mexicans coming to steal our jobs. They make us fear the gays and the gay agenda. They make us fear teachers forcing our kids to be gay or want to do sex. They make us hate and fear the liberals, the commies, the fascists.  They make us fear that Obama is coming for our guns.

They make us believe that Obama doesn’t have a birth certificate so they can sow fear that our president is a secret Muslim. They make us believe that Obama wasn’t born in America and fear that  we have an illegitimate president.

They make us fear and hate the blacks, the orientals, the hispanics, the Arabs.

Now, stop and think about all the bad things that I’ve been describing. How many of them are things we need to continue to fear? How many of them are manufactured by the Republican party to keep their voters uneducated and upset about the things they hate and fear?

The Republican party is making fools of every single Republican voter out there. If you don’t believe the lies, why do you vote for the liars? Why do you vote for the party that is taking advantage of the less educated among us? Why vote for the party that has to use hate and fear to get you to vote against your own best interests?

Are you a Republican? Are you waking up yet?

I know, the Democratic party is just as bad. At least that’s what we’re led to fear.

The Corruption of our History
Matthew K.

During and after the Great Republican Depression of the 1930s, the right-wing fanatics were busy writing news articles and books about how it wasn’t their policies that caused the crash. When they were expelled from government and the liberals took over the government and cleaned up, the right-wing was busy explaining how the recovery was actually due to this that or the other thing, but definitely not due to the liberals. You even hear conservatives of today explaining how it wasn’t liberal policies that got us out of their depression but the war.

Someone needs to grab the corporate media, you know the so called liberal media, and force them to publish the truth. If the war solved the depression, then why aren’t our two wars making this the land of milk and honey? If putting people to work making war makes jobs, won’t putting people to work building our infrastructure going to be even a better stimulus? The media is against the 99% and it’s time we turned off the poisonous TV.

Here we are, today, with the Republicans refusing to do anything whatsoever to help America get out of this Republican Great Depression. Their excuse for shafting you and me is so that they can make Obama a one-term president. In other words, they’re selling the country down the tubes to make political points. It should be pretty obvious by now that the Republican party is not interested in helping America. Their only interests lie with the billionaires at the expense of all the rest of us, the other 99%.

Today, you see right-wing blog after blog after right-wing think tank, rewriting our current mess, just like they did during their last great depression. It’s all the liberal policies like helping our neighbors and demanding safe food and drugs that caused the mess.

It’s not a small crime to corrupt our history. If America can’t learn from our mistakes, because the Republicans are polluting our information, then we’ll never be able to avoid this in the future. We’ll come along and step in this same gopher hole again and again until we learn from it. Are we learning yet?

#OWS is now Occupy the Planet
by
David Schlecht

The #Occupy Wall Street movement is now the Occupy the Planet with demonstrations all around the globe. The plight of the 99% is not limited to just the USA, it’s all around the globe. And, so are the demonstrators.

We are seeing occupations springing up all around the country and all around the world. Even here, in the heart of Republican insanity, we had 250 people demonstrating.

It’s just beginning and it is the best chance we 99% have of taking our country back from the greedy. Support your local occupiers. Show up. You are part of the 99%.

by
Matthew K.

You ask, “Who Are the 99%?”

I’ll tell you who. It’s you and your parents and your children. It’s your neighbors, your teachers, your students. It’s the clerk in the grocery store and the nurse at the doctors. It’s everyone you know.

In short, it’s all of us. And it’s up to all of us to come together, right here, right now, and quit letting the 1% keep us fighting each other instead of fighting against their greed and thievery.

The top 1% now has half the country’s wealth. Half our wealth. They get richer and richer while we get poorer and poorer.

Our politicians say we 99% have to do with less so the 1% can do with more.

It’s got to stop. And it is! We are coming together. We’re all the 99%.

The 99% at the #Occupy Wall Street and around the country need our help. They need food and supplies. This will only make a difference if we 99% can help keep them on the streets. It’s better still if we get out in the streets of our own towns. But if you don’t have an occupation planned in your city, get one started. No one better than you to make the next step.

And. consider donating supplies and pizzas to the 99%ers on the streets.

Occupy Wall Street
Dave Speck

You don’t hear much about Occupy Wall Street in the news and what you do hear is biased against the protesters. This sounds an awful lot like the protesters during the Viet Nam war. The media did their best to make the protesters look bad.

Today, young Americans are realizing that if we’re going to fix the greed destroying America, they’ll have to get involved, and get involved they’ve become.

If we’re going to save America, we all need to get involved and Occupy Wall Street is a great place to get involved.

In fact, there are thousands and thousands of protesters around the country right now, involved in Occupy America. Don’t expect to see them in your news but look for them. They’re there and they’re growing.

The Era of Citizens United
by
David Schlecht

The USA has changed over the years. When we were a young country, almost everyone knew what was going on politically and everyone was out there talking with their neighbors and friends and families about the issues of the day. And, almost everyone was personally interested and invested in the future of our country.

Today, Americans have become lazy about voting, they’ve become too busy being socially active in the virtual worlds like Facebook and Twitter and whatever. We’re too involved in what’s on the TV and whose on Dancing with the Scars, and whose the biggest loser, and hardly anybody is paying attention to the destruction being wrought upon our nation by the greedy and unethical and their unsophisticated puppets (yes, I’m talking about the Tea Baggers).

It’s becoming apparent that the more painful the decline of the American society, the more involved people are becoming. Just look at the thousands and thousands of people out there in countless rallies. Of course, you won’t hear anything about the thousands of voices because the media refuses to report about anything other than a handful of Tea Baggers here or there.

Yes, Americans are becoming more energized, but we’re a long way from the tipping point. Mark my words, though, we will get there. Hopefully it won’t be too late to do it peacefully.

Americans’ apathy and failure to get involved and failure to get out there and discuss and learn the issues has put us at a terrible risk. Today, our Supreme Court is controlled by the most radical of corporatists who have decreed that corporations are people and money is speech. This means that the voice of the lowly voter is drowned out by the billion dollar and international corporations.

Today, the bankers who have brought our economy to the brink of another Great Depression are making so much money that they could easily spend more on a candidate than was spent during the entire 2008 presidential election and it wouldn’t cost them more than a fraction of their bonuses.

So, the game is rigged for the coming election. The billionaires can spend as much as they want, thanks to the Republicans on the Supreme Court. There’s no way you and I can contribute enough money to even have our voices heard. There’s no reason for the candidates to represent us since we are no longer getting them elected. The candidate spending the most money almost always wins, and the corporations and billionaires have oh so much money.

The best way to evaluate the coming candidates is to see who is buying them. A good place to look is Open Secrets.

But there are so many people out there glued to Fox or Dancing or who knows what, that they don’t take the time to do their homework.

The coming election will be won by Citizens United and the multinational corporations and the billionaires. They’ll be fighting over our representatives like vultures, picking the flesh of the rotting democracy.

I believe, nah, I hope, that this will be enough to reach the tipping point and become the point where Americans wake up and take back their country.

But, it will only happen if you and I get out there and talk with our friends and families. We Americans have a huge multinational media industry who is benefiting from the big dollar elections and they have their best interests at heart when they refuse to educate the people.

It’s up to you. Today.