published by Jonathan on Tue, 10/20/2020 - 21:44
I didn't need convincing, but David French makes a strong case in this debate...
published by Jonathan on Sun, 01/15/2012 - 21:08
published by Jonathan on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 20:17
I’m sure I’m very naïve in many ways of my own, but this letter to editor (link) struck me as a profound misapprehension of how our political system functions:
To the editor:
In an earlier letter to the editor I suggested that the voters needed to use their votes to overthrow the American government much like the military coups are doing in third world nations. The question is, "What would that look like?"
We need to find someone who would be willing to give 4 to 8 years of their life to go to Washington either as a senator or representative. If we could get 25 to 30 such people throughout the United States we would be able to initiate reform by forcing the Republican and Democratic parties to sit down and negotiate real reform instead of bickering. Four to six senators and 8 to 15 representatives are enough to insist on reform.
How do we elect these people? We get their friends and relatives to support them by signing petitions so they are eligible to run for office. If I get 10 people to support a candidate and they each get 10 people it would not take much work to get this done. These people would belong to a truly "independent" party whose platform would be to force compromises to lower our national debt, get senatorial benefits in line with those of the working class and create a climate that would produce new jobs for the unemployed.
What if the professional congresspeople try to "hold up" this progress? Our independent party senators and representatives send out e-mails to the media and constituents describing the "pork barrel" or other special interest garbage that is causing our current problems. At the next election we, the voters, can get rid of the non-performing politicians.
ROBERT CLARKE
Midland
published by Jonathan on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 20:08
Last week I was at a conference in Minneapolis, and on Thursday I happened to be walking by when some folks camped out in the middle of an intersection and were arrested to raise awareness about the foreclosure crisis. I stopped and filmed a bit of the action. The police acknowledged the protestors rights to assemble and speak but emphasized that this assembly was unlawful because it was blocking an intersection. The two chants that were being employed by the crowd were “WE-ARE-THE 99%!” and “STOP FORECLOSURES NOW!”
Indeed, it is shameful that we took such extraordinary measures to protect the wealth on Wall St. (admittedly also sparing everyone the pain from a collapse of the global economy) but have done relatively little to direct benefit of Main St.
Here is the video I took in Mpls:
published by Jonathan on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 21:15
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