cycle of corruption

Money is not a problem for ALEC

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 12:02pm — Coffee Party Nation

Ron Rabatsky is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Business. He spent many years developing new products for a number of different clients at factories throughout Asia. He resides in Waxhaw, NC with his wife Barbara and his dog, Mason. This is the second in a series of articles Ron will be writing about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

by Ron Rabatsky

The Occupy Movement, as exemplified by Occupy Wall Street and emulated in so many cities worldwide, shows me one thing — people are no longer satisfied to live a no-longer-livable life. Expressing the entire 99% concept and the way it frames the lives of so many was a major accomplishment. Perhaps you remember George Carlin ranting about why “Nobody Cares About You.” If not, please go to the footnote (1) and watch it on YouTube. You’ll swear it was written last night.

Or perhaps you are old enough to remember William Holden in Network(1A): “I’m a human being, god damn it, my life has value. So get up out of your chairs and go to the window, open it, then stick your head out and yell ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’” (2)

Okay, what exactly is ALEC? On their web site ALEC defines its mission. It is:

to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America's state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.
to promote these principles by developing policies that ensure the powers of government are derived from, and assigned to, first the People, then the States, and finally, the Federal Government.
to enlist state legislators from all parties and members of the private sector who share ALEC's mission.
to conduct a policy making program that unites members of the public and private sectors in a dynamic partnership to support research, policy development, and dissemination activities.
to prepare the next generation of political leadership through educational programs that promote the principles of Jeffersonian democracy, which are necessary for a free society. (3)

ALEC in the spotlight Whew! That’s a fancy way to saying that ALEC is a lobbying group. After all, what do they do? They enable the salesman – the corporations – to get together with the buyers – the legislators – so that the corporations can try to sell the legislators on enacting special legislation to enrich their own coffers at the expense of the public. It encourages legislators to vote a certain way on legislation in the chambers before them. How else would you define what a lobbyist does? How many honest lobbyists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Nobody knows — they can’t find the honest lobbyist. And by the way, if your children are reading Texas’ new history books, they might have to ask, “Gee Dad, who is that up there on that mountain next to George Washington?” Or say to their teacher after reading this article, “What kind of principles of free markets? Jeffersonian?" (4)

Despite activities that most people would define as classic lobbying, ALEC officials insist the organization is not a lobbying group, since it doesn't directly hand legislation to a lawmaker. Instead, ALEC defines itself as a charity, a status it justifies because its purpose is to educate lawmakers. This tax-exempt status, among other things, allows their members to deduct all their assorted payments to ALEC. That includes “donations to scholarship funds”, which can be used to pay for transportation, hotel and meals for lawmakers attending ALEC meetings.

This is certainly not what I would think of as charity. Isn’t being somehow needy a criterion for charity? It certainly appears like an end-run around the disclosure and transparency expected of a charity. Common Cause is trying to pursue this via an IRS complaint, which was filed on July 14, 2011. But while there is a lot of noise made of this issue, nobody goes to court to challenge ALEC's 501c(3) status.

Video Introduces #OccupyDC

Mon, 10/03/2011 - 8:06am — EricByler

by Eric Byler

It was an email from a friend that got me out from behind my computer desk and out to McPherson Square to witness the first day of #OccupyDC on Saturday. It was great to be around so many people filled with hope, feeling connected to something bigger than themselves, and enjoying each other's company. They feel connected to New York and connected to people around the world fighting for freedom. And being around them made me feel the same way. If there is an Occupy event near you, I recommend that you check it out. You'll be surprised when you realize how much you missed that feeling.

Letter to the Occupiers & the 99% — by Annabel Park

Sun, 10/02/2011 - 12:30pm — AnnabelPark

Dear Occupiers and the 99%,

I am inspired by your courage and conviction and I thank you for the leadership that you are showing the nation.

I agree with many of the critical statements made in the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City about our current financial and political system and I admire the comprehensive nature of the approach.

As we further develop our collective vision and political strategy, I submit for consideration, Franklin D. Roosevelt's Economic Bill of Rights proposed in his State of a Union speech in 1944, a year before his death.

Although never adopted as an official amendment to the US Constitution, the Economic Bill of Rights became the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, authored in part by his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and adopted by the UN General Assembly December 10, 1948. The United States voted in favor of the adoption.

Martin Luther King, Jr. attempted to advance a version of this in 1968 through the Poor People's Campaign before he was assassinated.

While we may need to revise it, the Economic Bill of Rights offers an orientation — an intellectual, social and moral one — that addresses many concerns that we all have as citizens and frames our rights as rights; not as "entitlements" for the elderly, the undeserving, or the under-performing.

The values and ideas expressed in the Economic Bill of Rights were embodied in the New Deal programs, Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression.The U.S. Social Security program remains one of the lasting and influential outgrowths of Roosevelt’s EBR, though threatened and underfunded by an unfair system of taxation and corporate influence in our federal legislature.

Insofar as the Economic Bill of Rights may appear to be unrealizable, this so-called conventional wisdom attests to just how far our current consciousness has departed from the lessons in human avarice and systemic myopia painfully learned during the Great Depression and World War II.

This departure is no accident; it is by design. In the last 30 years, we've moved away from Roosevelt's vision, and have been lured or bullied into accepting an entirely different social contract. Roosevelt wanted the Economic Bill of Rights to be the law of the land because he knew the "economic royalists" were nipping at the heels of social justice. He wanted to give us constitutional protection from their abuse of power. He spelled it out in his 1936 speech "Rendezvous with History."

The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor - these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship . The savings of the average family, the capital of the small-businessmen, the investments set aside for old age — other people's money — these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.

Without our consent, we have become enablers or cogs of a financial system that requires us to pay off the gambling debts of the "money guys" at the casino we call Wall St and maintain the system that benefits the 1%, the "economic royalists." Our political system is now fully co-dependent on this financial system, addicted to the enormous amounts of cash that flow into campaign coffers and into bank accounts awaiting our elected leaders upon their return to the private sector.

Because of these problems, and, our incomprehensible and unfair tax code, our country has an upward income redistribution system, (one in which ?% of earnings now goes to the top 1%). Rather than protecting the economic rights of the majority, our government actively redistributes our nation’s wealth to those who least require it. It bestows privileges to the wealthy for being wealthy and punishes the poor for being poor.

The current social contract tramples on our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We need to thoroughly revisit and renegotiate our social contract. It is not too late reverse the terrible policies of the last 30 years that have led to the current recession, extreme economic inequality, the corruption of our democracy. We ought to return to a politics that recognizes our humanity.

Let's discuss the merits of the vision advanced by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt who praised compassion, and compare it to the vision advanced by Ayn Rand who praised selfishness instead. Let us decide as a nation which we prefer. We do need to make a choice here.

Let's take the occupation to the voting booth. Let's take it to town halls, city halls, state capitols and the US Capitol. Let's Occupy the Voting Booth in 2012.

The truth is, too many of us have been absent from the political process. Widespread public disengagement hurts our democracy as much if not more than greed and corruption. We cannot achieve changes in this country until We the People occupy the People's House.

In Egypt, the people demanded that a dictator step down. With a dictatorship, that can work: Hosni Mubarak stepped down and the people of Egypt embarked on a journey to constitute a new democratic society. But the United States is already a representative democracy based upon a well-established system of laws. There is no one person who could step down, or step up, and solve our problems. The closest thing that we have to Mubarak is money. And the only ones who can step up are We the People. Perhaps the rally cry for the American people should be: Money out. People in. We want our democracy back.

Whichever solution or slogan we decide to advance as a people working together to change our society, we cannot achieve our goals without the commitment to ongoing and fiercely persistent engagement from all of us. We need to take our jobs as citizens seriously and understand that our civic duty is really a civic gift from those who fought for and are still fighting for real democracy.

Finally, to my new friends at OccupyDC and to OccupyTogether, I invite you to join us on October 29th for a Citizens Intervention at the US Capitol. Let's speak for the 99% and take our concerns, stories, ideas and grievances directly to Congress. Let's initiate a civil, national dialog with all Americans in the spirit of the democratic slogan “out of many voices, one.”

We need all Americans whether they are in Congress or not, to participate in a dialogue about our future. As much as we may at times feel alienated from each other, we do share a common future and a common bond, the love of our country and its ideals.

I have no idea what the outcome of our struggle will be. I can offer my hope and these stirring words from Roosevelt.

To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny... It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

Let's move to protect our democracy for our fellow and future Americans as well as the rest of the world from our pernicious and rapacious few. (or something like that – just a bit stronger ending.)

Sincerely,
Annabel Park

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Transpartisan agreement: Congress is broken

Wed, 09/21/2011 - 8:06am — Coffee Party USA

Some Coffee Party members are attending a transpartisan conference in Boston hosted by Coffee Party "rock star" Larry Lessig and Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler [watch LIVE web cast]. I met Mr. Meckler last night at a reception and found him to be a thoughtful and open-minded person. Looking forward to being on a panel with him tomorrow. I expected that conservatives would have only token representation, as they often do unfortunately at trans-partisan events. But this place is crawling with them, and that's a good sign.

I am not sure how I feel yet about calling a new Constitutional Convention under Article 5, but one thing I have learned in the past few years is that our Congress is broken. Our country is suffering from systemic, institutionalized abuse of power, and that is what our Constitution was designed to protect us against.

— Eric Byler

Conference on the whether or not we need a Constitutional Convention

by Lawrence Lessig

Two hundred and twenty four years ago, people of radically different views put aside those differences long enough to save this Nation. America was on the brink of collapse. Its first constitution was an unmitigated disaster. Only a radical, and some say illegal, reform could restore the promise of the nation declared a generation before when it claimed its independence from Britain.

We forget this fact about them today. To us, they all look very much alike — white guys, some in wigs, eloquent and brave no doubt, but certainly not the picture of significant difference in either ideas or values. Yet when the men who founded this nation met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, there were fundamental differences among them. Slavery, for example: The men who founded this nation were critically divided on this fundamental question. Some thought it natural and appropriate. Some thought it the quintessential injustice. Yet they were able to put even this difference aside enough to craft a pact that would give birth to our constitution (and eventually, death to slavery).

On September 25 & 26, I will co-host a conference at Harvard with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler, on whether it is time for a new constitutional convention. Our conference is obviously not that convention. We don't pretend to parallel that event two and a quarter centuries ago, and certainly not any of its characters. [MORE]

The goal of America is freedom: here is how we get there

Fri, 09/16/2011 - 9:17pm — AnnabelPark

Dear America,

We are in the middle of a great struggle for the soul of our country.

It is easy to read the news each day and become a little more disheartened, if not downright demoralized about our future. Elected members of our government are telling us that we don't deserve disaster relief, clean air, fair wages, healthcare, jobs, or homes. We are not part of the "productive class," and thus the tax dollars we contribute should not be invested in our families or our futures.

Our struggle is often presented as an economic struggle. The top 1% vs the rest of us. In many ways, it is that. But, like many conflicts between people and power throughout history, it is also a struggle for identity, as individuals and as a nation.

The ruling class in America wants to determine what we deserve or don't deserve as human beings. They malign social programs — paid for with our taxpayer money — as "entitlements" that, for some reason, we no longer deserve. In the aftermath of the Wall Street financial crisis, somehow We the People have become less deserving of the fruits of our labor. Instead, our money goes to those who created the crisis — the "money guys" as former Senator Alan Simpson refers to them. [READ MORE]

Enough Is Enough! Citizens Intervention @ US Capitol #Oct29

Wed, 09/14/2011 - 8:01pm — AnnabelPark

This is the blog post that started it all, but please check out our new
official website for the Enough is Enough: Citizens Intervention
on Oct. 29, 2011 on the West Front Lawn of the US Capitol.

The People's turn to speak #Oct29, a few minutes at a time

Mon, 09/05/2011 - 6:33pm — admin

America, you are invited: SIGN UP TO SPEAK
at the Enough Is Enough Rally, October 29, 2011 at the U.S. Capitol West Front Lawn

"Our struggle is often presented as an economic struggle. The top 1% vs the rest of us. In many ways, it is that. But, like many conflicts between people and power throughout history, it is also a struggle for identity, as individuals and as a nation."

— Annabel Park [READ MORE]

CLICK HERE for the latest update on the #Oct29 Enough is Enough Rally.

Momentum builds for #Oct29 Enough is Enough Rally at U.S. Capitol

Mon, 09/05/2011 - 6:27pm — EricByler

by Eric Byler

With 8 weeks to go, we already have 250 people signed up to speak at the Enough is Enough Rally #Oct29 and 3,400 signed up to help organize. They are coming from all across the country, even Hawai'i! Pre-registrants will be given priority over walk-ups, so click here to reserve your spot before publicity and advertising begin. Here are some updates:

Annabel Park's new video and letter to America have provided us with the perfect opening statement: "Our struggle is often presented as an economic struggle. The top 1% vs the rest of us. In many ways, it is that. But, like many conflicts between people and power throughout history, it is also a struggle for identity, as individuals and as a nation."
A team of volunteers has developed a social media strategy to attract the attention of speakers we'd like to attend such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Dylan Ratigan. CLICK HERE to do your part.
Thanks to your donations, we are hiring professional event planners and mainstream media consultants to help ensure that the People's voice will at last be heard.
We are facilitating satellite rallies, particularly in parts of the country that are far from DC. Local meet-ups have already begun, including planning meetings for local speak-out events and group travel to the D.C. #Oct29 (we will be raising travel funds for interested groups).