Make the US Government Represent Us!

The US government has become corrupted and our politicians no longer represent us, they represent corporations. These corporations have deep pockets and all of our politicians fit inside them. We the citizens of the United States of America are standing up and refuse to watch big corporations take advantage of our democratic system and gamble with our money. Here is the information you need to know about our fight (and yours!) and  how you can let your voice be heard!

The American Anti-Corruption Act Website A run down version on how the radical new bill that will help keep money out of politics and our elections.

The American Anti-Corruption Act FULL PREVISIONS link: Complete American Anti-corruption Act

Represent.us the website were you can sign the petition, watch videos on the fight, and tools you can use if you want to be an activist. 

Tools For Activist where you can find templates so you can go out and get signatures yourself! Letters you can send your representatives, and speeches already made if you want to become an all out volunteer! Handbooks, flyers, tool-kits, brochures, and much much more you can use in your fight to let your voice be heard! 

A Video on why this fight is important! 

  

Texas GOP Raping Women With New Law

 
I've written about backwards run Texas before, but this really takes the cake. The GOP run state recently approved a new voter law that drastically restricts women's right to vote. Voters in Texas now have to show a PHOTO-ID with an up to date legal name. According to Occupy Democrats, this effects ONE THIRD of the women in Texas. To put that into perspective, Texas has 254 counties and only 81 DMVs. Men aren't effected by this because they keep their legal name after wedlock, but sometimes women don't get new ID's, or if they needed one they could just use a birth certificate in order to vote. This is no longer the case. The Republican run state knows that this law leaves a third of their women lost and confused. Women have the power to turn Texas blue for the first time in 20 years, because of senator Wendy Davis. She is a strong advocate for women's rights and against government regulating women's bodies. She is running for Texas governor and she has the women of the state backing her. The GOP are threatened by Davis and instead of battling on the issues, they change the rules. Read all about it and sign a petition here at http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/3959.

Raise The Wage Minimum Wage, For America

You know, the cell phone companies really understand the power that consumers have. They made smartphones reasonably priced so everyone can have one. Now everybody has one and their paying for data, and apps with companies advertising in these apps. They've opened up a whole new marketplace never before used. Now couldn't this same rule apply to the whole minimum wage debacle? Think about it. Disregard your views on the situation and think about what I'm saying. Raise the minimum wage so more people have more money to spend. In a world ruled by capitalism, you would think companies would be jumping at the chance to pay their employees more to, keep the flow of money going back up to the employers. Without the consumer (the underpaid employees) capitalism is nothing. Capitalism ultimately works like a powerful Red Wood with the CEOs at the top and the consumers (i.e employees) at the bottom. A strong consumer will in turn give way for a stronger CEO. Republicans love to throw the "trickle down" argument around (that the wealth of the CEO will trickle down to everybody), let's throw the "trickle up" argument right back at them. It's time America. Raise the minimum wage. 

A Bold New Law To End Corruption

My last post was about some real grimy stuff going on in Washington. Luckily there is a group of activist that have had enough of the corruption and bribery. They came up with an ingenious new law that will greatly impact how American elections are campaigned. The group is Represent.Us and they are actively fighting to end corruption. They wrote the American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA). In short, the law greatly impacts how much can be donated to a campaign and is 100% constitutional. Written by some of the top constitutional lawyers in America. Here is a rough outline of the law taken from Represent.Us

AMERICAN ANTI-CORRUPTION ACT OUTLINE

1. Stop Politicians From Taking Bribes- "Prohibit members of Congress from soliciting and receiving contributions from industry or entity they regulate, including those industries' lobbyist. Prohibit all fundraising during Congressional working hours."

2. Limit SuperPAC Contributions and "Coordination"- "Require SuperPACS to abide by the same contribution limits as other political committees. Toughen rules regarding SuperPACs' and other groups' coordination with political campaigns and political parties."

3. Prevent Job Offers As Bribes- "Close the "revolving door" where elected representatives and senior staff sell off their legislative power for high-paying jobs. Stop them from negotiating jobs while in office and, once they leave, bar them from all lobbying activity for five years."

4. Call All People Who Lobby, Lobbyist- "Significantly expand the definition of and register all lobbyist to prevent influencers from skirting the rules." (In my opinion we should have a national database of lobbyist and they should register as a Lobbyist, just like sex offenders so we know who is a lobbyist and monitor how much our politicians associate with them. The database is just my opinion though not part of the AACA.)

5. Limit Lobbyist Donations- "Limit the amount that lobbyists and their clients can contribute to federal candidates, political parties, and political committees to $500 per year and limit lobbyist fundraising for political campaigns. Federal contractors are already banned from contributing to campaigns: extend the ban to lobbyist, high-level executives, government relations employees, and PACs of federal government contractors."

6. End Secret Money- "Mandate full transparency of all political money. Require any organization that spends $10,000 or more on advertisements to elect or defeat federal candidates to file a disclosure report online with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours. List each of the donors who give $10,000 or more to the organization to run such ads. This includes all PACs, 501c non profits, or other groups that engage in electioneering."

7. Empower All Voters With A Tax Rebate- "Build up on the influence of voters by creating a biennial $100 Tax Rebate that they can use to make qualified contributions to federal candidates, political parties, and political committees. Flood elections with small-donor contributions that will offset the huge spenders. Candidates and political groups will only be eligible for these funds if they agree to a set of contribution limits: they will only accept money from small donors (giving $500 or less a year), other groups abiding by the limits, and the Tax Rebates themselves."

8. Disclose "Bundling"- "Require federal candidates to disclose the names of individuals who "bundle"contributions for the member of Congress or candidate, regardless of whether such individuals are registered lobbyists."

9. Enforce The Rules- "Strengthen the Federal Election Commission's independence and strengthen the House and Senate ethics enforcement processes. Provide federal prosecutors the additional tools necessary to combat corruption, and prohibit lobbyists who fail to properly register and disclose their activities from engaging in federal lobbying activities for a period of two years."

REPRESENT.US NEEDS YOUR HELP!

If you are intrigued by the new law there is a lot more you can find out about it on the Represent.Us website. Please take into account this whole project is in its infancy and as of December 7th 2013 there are only 20 districts across the country with an established team of activists fighting the fight. They need all the help they can get and if you are interested in doing what you can PLEASE visit the website and do what you can! Below I will post links where you can find the tools you need to combat corruption in your area. Please check out the website and sign your name to co-sponsor the act! America needs your help and frankly, we've all had enough, from liberals to conservatives and everyone in between.With our elected officials in the pockets of lobbyist they are turning America into a Corporate Dictatorship, but TOGETHER WE CAN PREVAIL!

Represent.Us Website - Represent.us

Activist Materials & Tools- https://represent.us/tools/

AACA Entire Overview- http://anticorruptionact.org/ 

   

Is The Constitution Outdated?

The Constitution is a powerful document that has been the law of the land since the dawn of America. Designed to bring order to a strong and vibrant society giving much deserved rights to us common folk. But is it old? Outdated? Well this has been a tending topic and I've decided to do a little research. I found A website where people can voice their opinion and I'm going to post five of the most compelling arguments from each side so you can make your decision.

Outdated

• The power of judicial review was never formally granted to the Supreme Court, yet has become a cornerstone of political life, and a dominant branch in US government as a result.Leaving an unelected body of 9 to make decisions such as Texas v. Johnson 1989, where public opinion was never in their favour.

• While the general principles of the Constitution are fine, the fact is, language changes over the years, and various words have gained and lost connotations over the long lifespan of the Constitution. To try to read it too strictly is, as such, a losing proposition, unless one also approaches it with a knowledge of late 18th century English. In modern times, the Constitution must be seen as something adaptable. Completely rewriting it is probably not necessary, but to try to adhere to its words too strictly is also not good.

•  The US constitution needs a complete reboot; from updating the bill of rights, to adding more regarding states rights. Also, it needs to be redacted in a way that it could be updated every 40 or 50 years; it's unthinkable to pretend to govern a country with such an outdated document that does not represent our values anymore.

Not Outdated

• The Constitution has the ability to change to fit current times. As policies the founding fathers couldn't have predicted, like abortion, arise, the Constitution can be amended to fit contemporary views. Certain fundamental rights, such as the right to bear arms, do need of course to be policed, but no, a set of laws that can evolve is by definition not outdated.
•  The U.S. Constitution evolves, just like any other document that founds a government. The fundamental rights of Americans shouldn't change. The document can be amended through a specific process that has worked for more than 200 years. The constitution isn't too old because America, as a country, is still here. The words may have been written on paper, but the U.S. Constitution is a living, breathing document that we live by every single day.
•   If anything does need to be updated, there is something called Amendments. Our constitution has worked for many years. It is a just and it supports our civil liberties. If the constitution is out of date, wouldn't we write another one? If we do write another one, who would write it? Mit Romney? Barack Obama? George Bush? Or some random billionaire? We don't have the great leaders like we used to.

 

In my opinion the constitution is outdated and should be revised to meet the needs of the generation in which it serves. By doing this new laws can be put into place, or laws that are no longer working for the country could be "erased".  So, is the constitution outdated?

 

Is The Constitution Outdated?
	Yes
	No
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A Liberals thoughts on the 2013 Government Shutdown

So with the intro to this blog out of the way I' ll go on to my first topic just a little bit of politics for you kids. So here in America the government shut down on October 1, 2013. The first in 17 years. Scary stuff. Yea, not really. On September 24th senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, gave a dramatic 21 hour rant/speech attacking Obamacare. This obviously was a huge failure (thankfully his references to Ashton Kutchers speeches didn't sway the Democrats) because the affordable care act is in effect. Fox News has been having a great time blaming the Democrats on shutting down the government, with no proof of this at all! They have no reason on shutting the government down and would gain nothing from doing this. All the Republicans have to say about why they think the Democrats shut down the governments is "just because they can." The hard headed right side will blindly believe bullshit mountain that is commonly known as Fox News, but this video of the Republican speaker of the house of representatives, John Boehner is a little convincing. George Stephanopoulos goes one-on-one with the speaker, and catches on his lies on pressing the blame on the Democrats. He constantly says he wants to sit down and have a "conversation", but the left has always been ready for a sit down and talk about the debt ceiling. The right side doesn't want Obamacare, they resent the fact that they lost the "fight". This government shutdown was brought on by the Republicans, because they think Obamacare will be too costly for the American people and it will cost the government too much money. So, shutting down the government is a way for the Republicans to save a little money for the budget and to punish the Democrats and using it as a bargaining chip. Their basically saying, do away with Obamacare or the government stays shutdown. What they don't understand is that the affordable care act is helping millions of people and due to the heavy traffic of people wanting to sign up for it, it actually popped up errors on the first couple days! Fox News had a field day with this. Now, with this said make your own decision on who has the best interest of the American people. A group of people that is willing to layoff tens of thousands, doesn't care about you. They have their own agenda that has the corporations heart. - Think about it! Stay informed I'll write more later on the shutdown!