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@ Zero G. - How many times does he have to be forceably removed by a CIA coup only to be reinstalled when the people of his country revolt.
Blankley said Corporations didn't exist until the 1800s?
He's just ignorant.
if people used to be property, and property is now people, is soylent green people?
How many elections does Hugo Chavez have to win before he stops being labeled a dictator?
It's Hugo Chavez, not Cesar
Currently religious and non-profit entities receive tax-exempt status on the condition they NOT engage in political campaign activities. This is NOT considered a restraint on their First Amendment free speech laws. If these groups violate this agreement, they lose that perk.
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161131,00.html
Corporations receive numerous benefits such as limited liability protections and tax benefits such as the ability to write off expenses all designed to facilitate commerce.
Why can’t the tax code be changed to make these tax benefits conditional on corporations NOT engaging in political campaign activities?
Technically this would NOT be a restraint on corporate free speech any more than it is with those religious and non-profit organizations.
Corporations, likewise, would remain free to engage in political activities. Only they, too, would be faced with the choice that such involvement would end all of those special benefits in the tax code. Changing IRS code could possibly be done in time to prevent a massive avalanche of corporate money from affecting this year’s election.
More here:
http://reinventing-america.blogspot.com/2010/02/tax-code-and-citizens-un...
While I believe that it's desirable to have a second legislative body to slow cool the passions of the moment, I believe the Senate as conceived was a terrible model for that body... simply because 1: it creates civic inequality where some citizens, depending on their state residence, have more power than others. 2: The Senate is antidemocratic where a mere 18% of the population now get a majority of 52 seats. 3: The Senate gives additional power to small white GOP states and works against the majority agenda. It is one reason why the Public Option can poll in the mid-70% range and still be scuttled.
If one does the
math we find that in the Senate
157,027,360 people are represented by two Democrats (total 46 Senators)
76,738,345 people are represented by two Republicans (total 28 Senators)
73,240,845 people are represented by one Democrat and one Republican (total 26 Senators)
Split into two halves in those split-vote states and we get roughly:
Senate Democrats represent some 193 million people
Senate Republicans represent some 113 million people
While I've proposed a change in Senate rules that would weight any senators vote based on the number of people s/he represents….
http://reinventing-america.blogspot.com/2010/02/reforming-anti-democrati...
this proposal is admittedly too radical for those trying to protect their small state power.
But what if as an intermediate step the Senate rules were reformed so such population vote weighting only applied to the filibuster?
It's time Democrats began to support democracy... and call for the reform of the antidemocratic features of our federal system.
Published on Thursday, March 11, 2010 by The Telegraph/UK http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/11-6
Greek Rioters Clash With Police as 10,000 Protesters Take to the Streets
Protesters clashed with riot police as more than 10,000 people marched through central Athens during a nationwide general strike against the government's harsh new austerity measures.
The strike grounded all flights and brought public transport to a halt. State hospitals were left with emergency staff only and all news broadcasts were suspended as workers walked off the job for 24 hours to protest spending cuts and tax hikes designed to tackle the country's debt crisis.
Protesters march during a 24-hour labour strike in Athens March 11, 2010. Greek public and private sector workers went on strike on Thursday, grounding flights, shutting schools and halting public transport in the second nationwide walkout in a fortnight in protest against austerity plans. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse rock-throwing protesters at one point of the demonstration as more than 10,000 strikers and protesters marched through central Athens, banging drums and chanting slogans such as "no sacrifice for plutocracy," and "real jobs, higher pay." People draped banners from apartment buildings reading: "No more sacrifices, war against war."
******************************************
Americans weren't wusses when I was growing up. I'll be in the streets on 3/20, will you?
Bush Citizen's Arrest in Canada: Judge Manfred Delong Meets Splitting the Sky
by Joshua Blakeney
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18020
Did you hear about it in the news?
Hell, did you even hear much about the Afghanistan debate in the House yesterday?
"There's one, two press people in this gallery," Patrick Kennedy said "We're talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We're talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!"
The problem with shareholders voting for campaign spending:
1) A large number of small individual shareholders sign over their vote to a proxy that will generally vote with the board.
2) Increasing number of shares are bundled in 401k and other investment tools that are controlled by program managers that would either have to contact all investors or vote on their behalf.
Chris Dodd is a great disappointment to me. I was initially supporting his presidential bid until he couldn't get the support in the primaries. Now it looks like he has been bought off and is just biding his time until he can get a nice cushy job at the financial institutions he was supposedly regulating as chairman of the banking committee.
Thom,
You've got the filibuster issue correct. The republicans WANT us to blow it up. It is our last bastion. We don't need to change it, we just need to elect more democrats. Everywhere, elect more democrats.
Republicans are mean spirited and I am referring to their base. They think they are better than other people and that they have a right to run things. They are self centered and they are WRONG. Their leadership has HISTORICALLY done rotten things under cover of night. It is a historical fact that when they're quiet? They're cooking up some dirty doings. I can't call it mischief when it takes our nation down. Can you?
They have been awfully quiet this year. They're in the dugout working on dirty moves. They will NEVER give up. They have to be destroyed, like all other fascist movements in history.
The republican party is NOT what it's followers THINK it is. A conservative movement that is. THAT is their LABEL. They are NOT conservatives or they would NOT have blown up the economy. They are the ENEMY WITHIN that their constituents are always looking for... and they search our side of the aisle for years looking for commies while fascists are sitting in their own party.
LOOK AT IT FELLOW AMERICANS. I beg of you true Americans who have been sucked into the republican party. This is not about party. It's about America, and keeping it free, keeping it a nation OF the people, instead of a nation that RULES the people.
Please!
"Winning elections isn’t enough..."
That's certainly true but it's the 1st step. Of course we have to keep on doing everything else but if you don't have people in office, you have nothing.
@glenn n: If the republicans aren't smart enough, their handlers are.
"It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas." -george w. bush
Alan Grayson has introduced a bill (HR 4789) for a Medicare buy-in for all. A petition for support can be found at:
http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=17
re: cost of wars: according to Cost of War web-site, its a river of money, to the tune of about $3000 per second, as I calculate it.
Chess is not a team sport...and if Obama is playing chess, he is playing against the progressive/peace agenda.
Thom, you are giving the republicans way too much credit. They are not smart enough to "trick" the democrats into killing the filibuster for future republican benefit.
If they do regain power, they will just kill the filibuster by themselves.
They are shameless, and have no problem doing whatever they want, no matter how slimy.
Just like with health reform. They have declared that if they can defeat Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo and it will break his presidency. The said it and they are doing it right out in the open, and they know not enough people care enough to stop them.
They are willing to thow the American people under the bus, as long as it makes Obama look bad and gives them the power.
@rewinn,
Winning elections isn't enough. I went to a coffee with my congressman (town hall meeting kind of thing) and there he was, standing under a "Peace on Earth" banner, and still voting for more war funding.
He's a dem, and the GOPhers don't even run anybody against him in this district.
One meme we should challenge is that if this health care bill goes down we won't have another chance for another 15 years.
We will have another chance when we force the issue. The present status quo is unsustainable.
Why is it that when GOPhers negotiate they ask for two hogs and end up with a whole hog, when Democrats negotiate they ask for half a hog and end up with fatback.
"... I doubt they’ll mind one bit about killing the Filibuster themselves."
Exactly right. If the GOP ever gets the Senate back, they'll dump the filibuster.
It's not like the Filibuster stopped the Iraq war or crazy judge nominations or anything. There is no solution other than winning elections.
@Zero G.: Totally Tubular!
" I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
- Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM
@Charles,
Yeah, let's bring back catheterized senators.
Your theory on the Filibuster is interesting Thom, but why would the Republicans worry about tricking the Democrats into blowing it up. By their calculations they'll be in charge soon enough, and I doubt they'll mind one bit about killing the Filibuster themselves.
@Charles, or, Tancredo, 'cause it tortures logic.