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My White House Petition. Please sign if you agree!

My White House Petition. Please sign if you agree!

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If you are against the corruption, profit motives and loss of rights that go hand-in-hand with handing over core public services to private interests, please sign my White House petition: http://wh.gov/4rb

I didn’t see anything on this topic, so I created it. Please sign and spread the word!

We only have 30 days to get 5,000 signatures in order for your petition to be reviewed by the White House. Until the petition has 150 signatures, it will
only be available from the following URL: http://wh.gov/4rb

We petition the Obama administration to:
Block attempts to privatize social services for profit motives.

Citizens of the U.S.A deserve a basic social safety net, free from the motives of the marketplace. There should never be another house that burns down because the “firefighters fee” hasn’t been paid. Core services should not discriminate.There shouldn’t be clear conflicts of interest, such as a “first responders services” company being formed by Jeb Bush. Players like the Koch Brothers should not be unchallenged in their corrupt war against working people. While there is a place for contracting within a government structure, we have all witnessed the waste, corruption, and loss of rights that go hand-in-hand with handing vital services to less-than-accountable entities. Provide blockers to such corruption, both in and out of government, for the sake of the country and its well-being.
Created: Sep 25, 2011
Issues: Consumer Protections, Economy, Labor

Please spread the word!

1. Facebook: Share on Facebook. Here’s a sample status line to cut and paste into your Facebook status:

Sign the White House petition at “We the People” to block attempted private takeovers of core public services. #BlockPublicServicesTakeover http://wh.gov/4rb
We need 5000 signatures in 30 days for an official response.

2. Twitter: Here’s a sample tweet you can use:

Sign the WH petition to block attempted takeovers of core public services at http://wh.gov/4rb #BlockPublicServicesTakeover

3. Email: Here is a sample email to cut and paste, or create your own.

Dear friends,

I wanted to let you know about a new petition to block attempts by private entities to take over core public services on “We the People,” a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov. Will you add your name to mine? If this petition gets 5,000 signatures by October 25, 2011, the White House will review it and respond!

We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

You can view and sign the petition here:

http://wh.gov/4rb

Here’s some more information about this petition:

Block attempts to privatize social services for profit motives. Citizens of the U.S.A deserve a basic social safety net, free from the motives of the marketplace. There should never be another house that burns down because the “firefighters fee” hasn’t been paid. Core services should not discriminate.There shouldn’t be clear conflicts of interest, such as a “first responders services” company being formed by Jeb Bush. Players like the Koch Brothers should not be unchallenged in their corrupt war against working people. While there is a place for contracting within a government structure, we have all witnessed the waste,
corruption, and loss of rights that go hand-in-hand with handing vital services to less-than-accountable entities. Provide blockers to such corruption, both in and out of government, for the sake of the country and its well-being.

Just a Light Smattering of Related Material:

Firefighters Watch As Home Burns: Gene Cranick’s House Destroyed In Tennessee Over $75 Fee, by Adam J. Rose

Study: Privatizing government doesn’t actually save money, by Ezra Klein
A new study finds that privatizing government functions is usually more expensive than keeping those jobs in-house. The POGO analysis found that private contractors working with the government make, on average, twice as much as a comparable private-sector worker.

The REAL Reason Why Republicans Want To Abolish FEMA: So They Can Profit From Natural Disasters, by Stephen D. Foster Jr.
Former Republican Governor Jeb Bush is set to lead a newly formed FOR-PROFIT natural disaster response company. According to the Maritime Executive, Bush’s newly created firm, Old Rhodes Holding LLC, joined forces with O’Brien’s Response Management, a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings, to form a for-profit disaster response company.

Koch Brothers, ALEC and Their Corporate Allies Plan to Privatize Government, by Beau Hodai
“Any rational person can look at what these corporations are doing through ALEC and on their own and know that essentially for-profit corporations are writing legislation in Arizona,” said Caroline Isaacs, AFSC program director. “The spirit of the law—which I think most of us believe is there to prevent money from buying undue influence in politics—is clearly being violated.”

Jim Hightower: The Koch Brothers, Privatization and the Road to Hell, by Jim Hightower.
The megalomaniacal megabillionaires are literally using their money to buy public policy.

You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization, by Elliott Sclar
“Sclar traveled across the country, examining how different state and local governments attempted to privatize their services. He found that privatization often results in less service for more money, because agencies frequently overlook the high cost of making sure work gets done correctly….”You can save money,” Sclar says, “but you’re taking the cost out of people’s hides at the low end of the wage scale.”

Medicare Is More Efficient Than Private Insurance, by Diane Archer.
Non-partisan data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrate definitively that private insurance is increasingly less efficient than Medicare. The data show that Congress should examine and address the role that private insurance is playing in driving up overall health care costs. “If spending on Medicare rose at the same rate as private insurance premiums during that period, Medicare would have cost an additional $114 billion (or 31.7 percent).”

Runaway Spending on War Contractors, NYT Sunday Editorial
The Pentagon and the State Department have sent more than 260,000 private workers to Iraq and Afghanistan. And the report makes a compelling case for the need to cut back substantially on the practice. It also argues that the contracts should be made far more competitive and subjected to far more oversight by government managers. The report cites a host of problems, including kickbacks paid to civilian officials and members of the military, and faulty construction work that has led to the death of American troops.

What the Owners Count On

What the Owners Count On

Comments 1 comment

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you. ~ Oscar Wilde

More than half of U.S. population still doesn’t get it, George. Thanks for trying, dear “court” jester. We miss you – rest in peace.

Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning. ~ George Carlin

But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this. There’s a reason education s*cks, and it’s the same reason it will never ever EVER be fixed. It’s never going to get any better. Don’t look for it. Be happy with what you’ve got. Because the owners of this country don’t want that.

I’m talking about the real owners now, the real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.

Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners.

They own YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets, and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the b*lls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying – lobbying – to get what they want.

Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want:

They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking.

They’re not interested in that – that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right.

They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting f*cked by a system that threw them overboard thirty f*cking years ago. They don’t want that! You know what they want? They want obedient workers.

Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly sh*ttier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime. and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.

And now they’re coming for your social security money. They want your f*cking retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it ALL from you sooner or later, ’cause they own this f*cking place.

It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You and I, are not IN the big club.

By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long, beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged.

And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care.

Good honest hard-working people – white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on – good honest hard-working people continue… these are people of modest means… continue to elect these rich c*cks*ckers who don’t give a F*CK about them.

They don’t give a F*CK about you.
They don’t give a F**K about you.

They don’t care about you at all – at all – at ALL!

And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care.

That’s what the owners count on, the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue d**k that’s being jammed up their assh*les every day – because the owners of this country know the truth.

It’s called the American Dream ’cause you have to be asleep to believe it.

Something good about Palin and the Tea Party Folks

Something good about Palin and the Tea Party Folks

Comments 5 comments

I’m going to let all the things I could say about Palin’s speech pass today, and let FactCheck.org (and Media Matters and The Progress Report) point out lies and distortions, of which there were many. There was a whole bunch of snideness, and even more dishonesty. But… I’m on board in one way.

Why? Because there is one thing she said that gives me long-term hope.

She encouraged people to stand up and speak, and if some do, so will others. If there’s an energy to participate in the democratic process, maybe it will encourage more Americans to do the same. We’ve become timid and fearful and paranoid about our freedom and our duty as Americans.

Rather than parroting what some leader says, look up your own concerns and issues and the things that make a difference in your life. Really look. Really research. Really think.

And speak… and work… and think… and vote for your interests. And talk to your friends. And clear the air with realism, not paranoia.

Politics is messy – but democracy allows all to speak.

Update 2/8/10: FactCheck.org’s analysis: http://factcheck.org/2010/02/tea-party-fact-checking/

Stop Big Media Now

Stop Big Media Now

Comments 2 comments

Banking on your short attention span, big media is giving it another shot. Stop Big Media is trying to get the word out.

Tell Congress not to dismantle media ownership rules!

Kevin Martin, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has been keeping a secret from the American people. He wants to push through plans to remove decades-old media ownership protections. And he’s trying to do it without public scrutiny.

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) have introduced groundbreaking bipartisan legislation that would hold the FCC accountable and put the people ahead of Big Media.

Letters like this — millions of them — stopped media consolidation in 2003. Sign the letter and tell everyone you know.

Do it now. Here is the letter default – you can edit.

I am writing to urge you to support S 2332, the “The Media Ownership Act of 2007.” This legislation will ensure that the Federal Communications Commission addresses the dismal state of female and minority ownership before changing any rules to unleash more media concentration.

Nearly 99 percent of the public comments received by the FCC oppose changing the nation’s media ownership rules to allow a handful of large conglomerates to swallow up more local media outlets. Congress rejected the same changes to the rules in 2003. Yet the FCC is still pushing a plan to overhaul the rules by the end of the year.

This legislation would mandate that the FCC give the public 90 days’ notice before holding a vote on new rules to ensure a full public accounting of the impact of media consolidation before changing the ownership limits. These steps are necessary to preserve diverse local media that meets the needs of our communities.

Diversity is the cornerstone of a democratic media system. Yet research by Free Press found that that while minorities make up 33 percent of the U.S. population, they own less than 8 percent of radio stations and 3 percent of TV stations.

This legislation would create an independent task force to address the crisis in minority media ownership.

Our democracy requires the free flow of local information from diverse voices. Please support the “The Media Ownership Act of 2007.”


More actions from Stop Big Media

Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice

Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice

Comments 5 comments

Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice:

We are America’s citizens. We are not defeatists. We are not pessimists. We are not appeasers.

I don’t hear anyone arguing that the militant anti-USA movements in the middle east are not a threat.
Not “Dean democrats,” not anyone.

Many of us simply have come to believe that you back-alley players are the last people in America who should be making decisions on how to deal with that threat.

You seem to escalate the problems.

You and a few others have formed a cabal that has taken over much of our government.

If you’re going to invoke Nazis and their appeasers, you might want to be pretty careful where you draw those lines.

It’s not only Arab extremists who hate us now. They spell Bush with a swastika or a dollar sign in South America. Take a look at world polls, and ask yourself how the view of our country can have so changed over the course of just a few years.

Here at home, we don’t appreciate your dishonorable use of the discourse of freedom while you move toward an increasingly fascistic (i.e. totalitarian, corporatist) regime with our own government.

Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld – You’ve done well for yourselves since the Nixon days, that’s for sure. Ms. Rice – I had hoped for better when I first heard that a black female academic… well, never mind. None of you lack intelligence.

But your words ring hollow. There is no truth in you.

Don’t stand up and try to tell us about morality and freedom and dreams.
What you’ve actually stood for has nothing to do with anything like that.

You have pursued aggressive actions in the world at large, and done what you could to destroy the benefits of citizenship at home. You have worked quite hard – yes – but only for the interests of big business (yes, especially oil), not for the interests of the American public. You have have rammed through no-bid contracts for your friends. This administration and its rubber-stampers in Congress even allowed insurance and pharmaceutical companies to write legislation.

Hey, we know that we don’t count as human unless we make at least $200,000 a year. You’ve made that clear in so many ways. How about all those accounts in Dubai and the Caymans? Tax giveaways to the rich, and to corporations that appear to have developed a stronger bill of rights than we could ever hope for. The attempted abolition of social security. On and on, and I can’t bear to think this week about Katrina anymore. The little speeches make me physically ill. What hypocrisy.

Take odds on who’ll win after Katrina – the oil industry or the luxury real estate developers. Admit it, you love the smell of crude in the morning.

We know what you stand for.

You’ve broken our trust. You’ve done little to make us safer while you’re manipulating us with fear.

Our ports and monuments and other targets are still quite unprotected.

You’re watching us (in violation of the Constitution) more than you’re “protecting” us.

America stuck our nose into the Middle East with boots on the ground in Saudi Arabia, protecting the tyrannical “royal family” – not democracy and freedom. We’ve propped up dictators and pulled down democratically-elected leaders for years. Are democracy and freedom near the top of America’s list? The evidence suggests we have other, competing, interests. Perhaps we should have a little national pow-wow about what, exactly, those interests really are.

We didn’t stay with the peace process in Israel, although we probably gave the go-ahead for the recent attacks. (Were those our bombs?)

The face of America to the world used to be the Peace Corps. Not anymore.

What is America known for now?
The carnage of Fallujah.
The torture of POWs and “detainees,” many of whom were rounded up randomly for a fee.
Abu Graib. Guantanamo.
The theft of natural resources from other countries.
Diamond-mining pseudochristians rushing toward their apocalypic visions.
Death cults spinning off your lead of hatred, the resurgence of the KKK and others.

Oh, and we do see the camps prisons you’re building in Texas. Who are they for again?

You tried to make us believe that Iraq was an immanent threat. It was not. The “pre-emptive” war was based on lies.

You tried to make us believe that Hussein was tied to 9-11.
Untrue, but you’re still using 9-11 to try to rationalize our invasion of Iraq.

You “sold” us this illegal and unethical invasion of Iraq. Then you banned the media from Fallujah, and after Abu Graib, you banned camera phones from military bases. No more evidence. No more reporting.

Judging from recent events, routine maintenance of the pipelines isn’t a prerequisite for corporate welfare.

Still, I’m wondering why clearly-permanent bases are always built on the oil pipeline?

We are not heroes to the people of Iraq. They want us to leave.

In the name of fighting terrorism, you’ve simply created more reasons for people to become terrorists. Terrorism is a method. We can’t wipe out terrorism. But we can and should look at why and how people become terrorists. Our ethical and strategic failures to legitimately address the issues of our world have contributed to that process. There are many more terrorists now.

In Iraq, we’ve simply jump-started civil war.

You said Iraq would be able to pay for the war. Check our national debt.

Another involuntary call-up for Marines… back-door drafts…

And now you’ve started softening us up for Iran. I’m not defending Iran, but if I were in their shoes, I’d probably want to have some kind of deterrant against US aggression too. Is Syria next? Endless war is the plan, then? When does the draft start, or are we planning to use the nukes again?

How many of our own will you label terrorists? The last time I checked, the ACLU was on the list!

It has become abundantly clear from your actions (and their consequences) that you have no idea what strategic negotiation is, what collaborative work is, what diplomacy is, how to gather actionable intelligence, how to create alliances. The US has become a throwback.

I wonder if you have a sense of what democracy and freedom even mean.

You have hurt the middle class, the blue-collar workers, the poor. The schools. The environment. The economy.

The reversal of FDR’s progress has always been a stated goal. The services of a previously rich nation are already being cut – and our treasury, such as it is now, is being handed to (surprise, surprise) the rich. Should anyone mention this, you accuse us of “class warfare.”

Orwellian language aside (does anyone still believe in the truth-value of “No Child Left Behind” “Clean Air Act” “Patriot Act”?), let’s recall the rallying cry of this administration, the promise of “compassionate conservatism.” That demeanor was dropped – what – three days after the election? Where is the compassion? Where is the conservatism?

This administration is self-centered, hard-hearted, and wasteful with the resources of this land and its people. It has a fundamental disregard for the value (and values) of this country. We will be paying for the destructive policies of this administration for many, many years and in many, many ways.

Given all this, it’s not surprising to see you all default to the usual tactics. You’re backed into a corner now – tight enough to defend Joe Lieberman!

Your reaction to the people who bring some of our disagreements into the public sphere for democratic discussion is predictable:

“Swift-boating,” whisper campaigns, intimidation, blowhard radio liars, the propaganda industry that used to be our free press, and the further corruption and manipulation of our religious communities. All of it.

What’s next? Disappearings, black bags? Americans don’t like intimidation tactics. I’m not afraid of you, despite the fact that you’ve put the guy who used to be in charge of dissident roundups (and death squads!) in charge of surveillance on the American people.

The things you stand for and represent do not strike me as the best America has to offer to its own citizens or to the world.

How small and select does the crowd have to be for you not to get booed these days?

You do have to answer to your boss. I don’t think you particularly believe in God or anything like that. I’m referring to your boss in this world.

In case you’ve somehow forgotten, that’s us, the American people – not that pathetic man in the white house.

Crumbs for the Bottom, Banquets for the Top

Crumbs for the Bottom, Banquets for the Top

Comments 2 comments

What will it take for blue-collar, middle-to-lower suburbia, struggling rural, and working poor to understand that they do not benefit from the policies and aims of this administration? I do not understand how this administration has been able to mislead demographics like NASCAR fans and Southern Baptists into the ranks of the supporters. As interest rates and prices rise, recognition is growing.

Here’s another piece of sneaky legislation: Frist has proposed holding a vote to see if estate tax cuts can get through the Senate if they are linked to a modest minimum wage increase. Insidious. The current minimum wage bill would finally grant a little boost in minimum wage (a $2.10 increase over three years, and tips are counted) – but only if it’s tied to yet more welfare for the superrich!

Don’t get excited about his latest incarnation of the estate tax reduction bill unless you and your family are pretty loaded. Most Americans don’t pay much if anything in estate tax now anyway. Next time you do your taxes, just ask about grandma’s house (if she has one). But if you’re really really rich, this is a big payoff. A married couple won’t pay penny one in estate tax on property unless it’s worth more than ten million dollars. The very top estate tax rate would fall from 46% to 30%. Another tax break for the people who least need it, more lost revenue for the government that Republicans want to break back to pre-FDR.

Yes, I understand that this kind of bundling is a way to pass things that wouldn’t otherwise pass, or even see a vote at all. But to combine unlike proposals like this in the same bill means that the public really doesn’t have a sense of what their representatives are voting for and against. How does a member of Congress, on either side or in the middle, decide how to vote on something like this?

  1. Is it more important to boost minimimum wage for the lower classes, or to oppose additional huge gifts to the upper classes that drastically cut already-dwindling revenues (about $753 billion over the next decade)?
  2. Is it more important to oppose any minimum wage increase, or to grant buddies and sponsors in the upper classes more favors?

Give just a few cakecrumbs to the bottom-level wage earners (be happy with the crumbs), strengthen the class divide (plan the excessively huge banquest of millions of designer cakes), and work to bankrupt the federal services and entitlements at the same time (get rid of any security for the American people) – nice class warfare (the use of cake imagery is intentional). When do we get to use the word aristocrats? When do we get to actually say that the class warfare is from the top down, and that the top isn’t even human, but protected and corporate?

Have a care, Congress. An election is coming up, and Americans are starting to get a sense of priorities again. What you do and what you are is more and more obvious with every passing day.

Look around the world – just look. We need real leadership, real ethics, real diplomacy, real intelligence and real planning.

To the party formerly known as Republicans: Don’t bother with your pitiful claims to empire. Don’t bother with your Constitutional disregard. Don’t bother with your gestures toward theocracy. Don’t bother with your transparent propaganda. Don’t bother with a staged terrorist attack. Don’t bother with your hate. Don’t bother trying to hide your mother lode of corruption. Don’t bother with your secrecy, your deceptions, your lies. Don’t bother scapegoating critical voices. Don’t bother with a rigged electoral system.

The multiple voices of America will be heard again. We will take back our democracy.