Landslide or Lose

For a Obama to win the presidential election, he has to beat the “fraud factor.” In case you haven't been paying attention for the past 8 years, there has been rampant election fraud in some states. And it's obvious who has benefited – the Republicans.

Gore received 150,000 more votes nationwide than Bush in 2000. But winning the popular election wasn't enough.

Exit polls in Ohio showed that Kerry had won in 2004. Yet, somehow Bush won this critical state.

In the election of 2008; for our vote to count, we have to expect that many of our votes won't count. In other words; VOTE, dammit!

The only way to assure a legitimate Democratic win in this election is for it to be an overwhelming landslide. Get out and VOTE!

If this is close, the GOP will likely challenge the results. And we all know what could happen if the election gets decided by the Supreme Court (again)...

You think that won't happen? Well, consider ACORN. This is an organization which has been getting poor people to vote. They've done an excellent job of registering voters. But that's probably not how you heard about them. You've probably heard about some individuals who filed false registrations to get a few bucks more in pay. Here's the real story of ACORN:



What we are talking about here is a few extra people registered – who won't vote, because they don't even know they're registered. Think about it. If the same person kept coming back to vote, sooner or later he would get caught. For this to work, the conspiracy would have to be enormous. And obviously, huge conspiracies can't be kept secret. The whole concept of rigging elections like this is totally impractical.

On the other hand, one person in the right position, can disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters – often without them even knowing it. We have evidence of caging lists. We have records. And some of these corrupt officials are up to it again.


“In Mississippi before the March 2008 primary, a county election official — from her home computer — secretly deleted 10,000 voters from the rolls.”

Some states have voting machines with no paper trail (thanks to Republicans). It has been shown that not only are these machines easy to hack, they don't function reliably.

“Early voting has begun, and problems are already emerging at the polls. In West Virginia, voters using touchscreen machines have claimed their votes were switched from Democrat to Republican. In North Carolina, a group of McCain supporters heckled a group of mostly black supporters of Barack Obama. In Ohio, Republicans are being accused of trying to scare newly registered voters by filing lawsuits that question their eligibility.”



“The Justice Department leaks an FBI probe of ACORN but remains silent on widespread voter intimidation tactics.”

“In Alabama, scores of voters are being labeled as convicted felons on the basis of incorrect lists.
Tens of thousands of voters could be affected in Wisconsin.”

“More than 30,000 registered Coloradans barred from voting”

1.6 million voters have been purged from New York rolls.

“Republicans sent more than 4,000 challengers to 1,800 polling places across the Ohio in 2004 and are expected to head a similar effort this year.”

“The New York Times has also reported that boards of elections in Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have illegally used federal Social Security databases to flag and possibly eliminate voters whose registration applications were suspected of irregularities. The Times reported some 37,000 Colorado voters removed in the three weeks after July 21; Secretary Coffman said the number was 14,000.”

“Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia reported purging more than 13 million voters from registration rolls between 2004 and 2006.”

But all is not lost. Obama could still win. But only if he wins by a landslide – which is likely to happen. In fact, not only is it likely that Obama will win the election, it is also possible the Senate Democrats could achieve the “magic 60” - a filibuster proof majority. This is very important, because for the past two years, Republicans have utilized the filibuster at an unprecedented rate to keep bills from passing. This is the cause of the “do nothing Congress.”

With Obama as president and a magic 60 in the Senate, Democrats will have an opportunity to make progressive changes at a critical time in history. We could actually fix things. Whether that will actually happen or the Democrats just sell out to remains to be seen. But I have hope.

Attack of the Rove Clones

Its that time again. Time to pick someone to determine our future for us. (Yes, it's that important.)

So, how are you going to decide?

Will you let the negative ads on TV effect your decision? Be honest. Most of us will. That's why candidates spend so much money on negative TV ads.

Often, negative information effects us more than positive. That isn't so bad, except when the negative information is simply lies. Carl Rove learned that lies can be more effective than the truth. His manipulations of the press, government, and the American people led to his ouster from the Bush administration. But lies sell – and he's back. However, this time, he has a thousand clones.

One of the most effective lies the Rove clones have used is to accuse their opponents of their own digressions. For example; big oil cronies calling environmentalists “eco-fascists.” (Obviously, the U.S. didn't invade and occupy Iraq for environmental reasons.) The accusation is used to counter the truth – before the truth is well known.

In the election here in Nevada, we're seeing plenty of these unscrupulous tactics. There is a very close race for a House seat between incumbent Dean Heller and challenger Jill Derby.

I've met Jill Derby. Wow! I don't think I've met a more perfect candidate. Her credentials are amazing. Her opinions are well thought out. And she listened to us. Moreover, she hasn't taken money from the oil companies. (The Dean Heller campaign has taken $40,000 from Exxon, Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, Chevron, and the Wildcatters Fund.)

So, with the perfect candidate running against him, what options does Dean Heller have? His team has to make stuff up.

The Dean Heller campaign has called Jill Derby a “big spender.” Jill Derby spent $100,000 in travel expenses, over 18 years, while volunteering for the Nevada Board of Regents. However, over only 12 years as Nevada Secretary of State, Dean Heller spent nearly $500,000 in travel expenses.

Let's also consider campaign debt. Back in August, Dean Heller had the fifth most debt of any sitting congressman. Currently, he has $321,000 in debt. In contrast, Jill Derby has only $2,000 in debt and $245,000 in cash on hand.

So, who's the conservative and who's the big spender?

Things are not always as they seem (on the attack ads.)

Only Roadkill On The Mega-Profit Superhighway

Has the fossil fuel industry consistently schemed to rev up profits?

Are you a slave to a system manipulated to keep power generation centralized?

Are Native Americans still being treated like Indians?

Are America's ideals destined to be roadkill?

I have a confession. George W. Bush and I have something in common. We both love to ride mountain bikes. There's nothing like getting outdoors for a good ride in the fresh air and natural surroundings. It only makes sense for mountain bikers to be environmentalists. But, “President” George W. Bush is about as far from an environmentalist as anyone can get.

For instance, his appointed bureaucrats are poised to trash Moab, Utah – one of the best places to mountain bike in the country.

The Bush BLM is fast-tracking six “resource management plans” for the Moab area. The BLM wants to officially designate over 17,000 miles of dirt routes in the wild areas in Southern Utah near Moab. They also want to open 80% of 11 million acres for oil and gas drilling – by December (just before Bush leaves office). A mountain biker wouldn't do that. Is Bush being blackmailed? Who really runs this Country?

Follow the money...

When you initially consider the two things the BLM intends to promote (off road vehicles and oil exploration), they seem unrelated. But remember, Bush Jr. has a lot of oil men buddies/backers. When you look at the two from an oil man's perspective, they aren't so unrelated after all. These are both ways to maximize oil profits. Here is an opportunity to get as much cheap oil as possible, and an opportunity to get people to use as much oil as possible. The oil companies must see this as a good thing. And an awful lot of people too lazy to walk (and likely too lazy to think) have been tricked into believing this is about freedom. No, this is about corporate anarchy.

I'll tell you what a good thing is...

Better yet, I'll show you.

A good thing is when we don't have to toil to make these fossil fuel companies even richer – while we poison ourselves just to get around.

There are people who have already escaped the oil addiction cycle. It can be done.

When you combine renewable power generated locally with that shared on long distance power lines and that stored in battery powered vehicles, renewable power becomes far more reliable. Renewable power can be shared – like music on the internet.

Which means that power can be reliably generated at home – and doesn't have to be minded or drilled. That's what the fossil fuel industry doesn't want us to know. That's the technology the fossil fuel industry hopes to marginalize. What else can you expect the fossil fuel industry to do? Change? Not without a fight. The profits are too obscene. Even if they know that global warming is destroying the balance of our environment, their system is geared to keep the cash coming in. Expect them to fight dirty. Expect them to lie. Expect them to pay off politicians. Expect them to buy patents, or even buy off companies; and shut down competing industries. Nothing is below elements within the fossil fuel industry.

It's time to get past the denial stage. Fossil fuels are bad for us. With them, we release 30,000,000,000 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide a year from the ground into the air. That's got to hurt... in fact, all signs are that we are right in the middle of the biggest extinction event since the end of the dinosaurs.

Maybe that's why oil men like Bush Jr. don't seem to care about Moab. Maybe they believe the end of the world is coming anyway. Maybe they believe that God will see them destroying things here and will (senselessly) invite them into heaven to destroy things there too? MAYBE NOT! Then again, maybe the oil men just figure they'll be dead by the time the bills come due, and don't care about the rest of us.

• So, just how long has this been going on? Well, there are some who are convinced that Prohibition was actually part of a strategy, schemed up by no less than John Rockefeller, for oil to take over the automobile market. Think about it. Americans like to drink. Most of the members of the American Congress back in 1917 liked to drink to. And prohibition was a ban on alcohol manufacturing, not consumption. Alcohol (biofuel) was used to fuel cars before gasoline. The transition to gasoline happened during prohibition (you couldn't get alcohol). What started it all? John Rockefeller donated 4 million dollars to a temperance society. That's equivalent to 60 million dollars today. Evidently; the oil industry has been manipulating our political system ever since it was powerful enough to get away with it.

• So, just how big a problem is it? These massive corporations have taken on a life of their own, and don't intend to die, even if humanity does. Alternative energy has been marginalized for the past 28 years. (I've mentioned the dirty tricks the fossil fuel industry has used in previous posts.) If you remember the 1970's, you'll remember that at no time since has renewable energy had any where near the political support it did back when Jimmy Carter was president. Massive campaign contributions and unprincipled propaganda efforts have seen to that. (Anyone with a TV today might assume the oil companies have switched over to renewables already, if we didn't know any better.) And many within the populous either have been convinced that there isn't a problem, or that there isn't anything they can do about it. Our civilization is in high gear to self-destruction.

• So, just how bad is it for some? Since the 1950's, the US Government has been forcing an exodus of over 12,000 Navajo people from their reservation – for Peabody Energy to mine coal there. “Through this forced relocation, the Federal Government has destroyed the subsistence lifestyle of thousands of Navajos, uprooted whole communities, and left the Navajo Nation and Navajo people to bear much of the burden of addressing the extraordinary economic, social, and psychological consequences of relocation.” And now, after all this, John McCain, chairman of the Senate committee on Indian Affairs; is campaigning to put an end to Navajo relocation payments.

I'll bet you thought this all ended back in the 1800's. The white man chasing Indians off their land, and offering them nothing but empty promises in exchange. Well... it's still happening, but it's actually worse now. The white man's corporations contaminate the ground and pollute the air – when there are far cleaner, safer, and less oppressive options (that cost just a little bit more).

This could all be avoided if we relied on renewable energy.

One might conclude that the highway to hell is powered by fossil fuels.

What Happened To The Republican Party?

Even Colin Powell can't take it any more.

Has the Republican Party been taken over by crooks, haters, and proto-fascists?

Let's examine each of these accusations.

1. Remember the Bush administration bailout that was supposed to rescue the economy? Well, now we know who really got bailed out. $70,000,000,000 of that bailout money will be going to pay and bonus packages for the Wall Street bank executives who got us into this mess (by gambling with other people's money). Did any of them get fired? No. Has the Bush administration backed down on deregulation, or considered re-instating the laws that have protected us from this kind of corruption since the Great Depression? No. Does Treasury Secretary Paulson have a rational plan to help out main street? No.

In China, an ex-Beijing official received the death sentence for corruption. And although I don't support it, you can bet they will have far less corruption in China.

2. One of the uglier tactics the Republican Party has been using during the presidential election is the totally unfounded claim that Obama is a Muslim. This is obviously a veiled claim that all Muslims are terrorists. This is just another form of racism. There is no way, without all this hate, that the US would have been willing to be responsible for the deaths of close to a million Iraqis – when it was primarily Saudis who were responsible for 9/11.

3. Our Constitutional Bill of Rights has been reduced to barely more than a piece of paper. Executive power has marginalized the balance of power of the legislative and judicial branches. And every law meant to protect our citizens from pollution, oppression, product irresponsibility, and corruption oversight has been under years of attack.

In an unprecedented (and previously illegal) move, the Bush administration has brought in Army troops to keep the peace in the US (crush civil disturbances). They have also set up internment camps. They have taken given themselves the power to take over command of the (formerly State controlled) National Guard. And Moreover, they have given themselves the right to declare martial law whenever they fell like. Yes, the Bush administration now has a "Pinochet option."

Most Republicans are good people with the best of intentions. So, what happened? The same thing that has happened to the Democrats, though to a lesser extent. Our system has rotted from within. Our electoral system is at the root of the problem. And both McCain and Obama are products of that electoral system. Until we get the big money out of elections and change the two party system to proportional representation, things will never really get completely fixed.

This Is What Freedom Sounds Like

I just heard the debate. But what I heard was so much more than what we have come to expect.

Thanks to the internet and DemocracyNow.org, I got to hear the debate – not just between Barack Obama and John McCain, but also with Ralph Nader and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinnney participating.

WOW!!! This is the future of political debates. The mass media can no longer shut out third parties.

Mr. Nader and Ms. McKinney brought the debate to a much higher level.
I highly recommend you listen to the debate as it should have been.

Click Here for transcripts, an audio stream, or a video stream to the debates as you would hear them in a truly free country.

Bush critic wins 2008 Nobel for economics

Here's news of another Bush critic receiving a Nobel prize.

Paul Krugman has just received the 2008 Nobel prize for economics. This is the same Paul Krugman who “argues that President George W. Bush's zeal for deregulation and loose fiscal policies helped spark the current banking meltdown.”

What's it going to take? What's it going to take to convince the radical right wing of just how badly the Bush administration has fouled things up?

In the past, they have tried to trivialize Paul Krugman's commentaries in the New York Times. The radical right has accused the New York Times of being a part of the “liberal press.” But let's face the facts here:

Paul Krugman has received a Nobel prize in economics and George W. Bush has a financial meltdown on his hands.

What's it going to take?

Even now; the radical right wing propaganda pundits are trying to blame the recession on the Democratic Congress. Paul Krugman hasn't been criticizing Congress. And, oh by the way, some Republican Senators have been killing bills in the Senate on a record scale. Why hasn't this filibuster party been addressed by the right? Oh yeah, because they are the ones responsible for the “do nothing” Congress.

What's it going to take?

I especially like the Krugman comment (when asked about a trend of Nobels going to people who are anti-Bush); the Nobel laureate said "A lot of intellectuals are anti-Bush."

But it isn't just intellectuals any more. Most of the American people have finally figured out what has happened (unfortunately too late for much of our 401Ks).

John McCain is dropping in the polls. And his campaign is most likely worse off than the mainstream media wants to report... The mainstream media wants to report a horse race to keep their ratings (and political advertising) up. And obviously, some stations (like FOX) are blatant McCain supporters. You can tell the McCain campaign is in serious trouble though, because their ads are starting to imitate Obama ads.

But don't count McCain/Palin out yet. The Republicans stole the election in 2000, and they stole the election in 2006. It's obvious they'll try to steal the election again. Our elections are still vulnerable. The Army has even stationed a brigade here, in the United States, to quell "civil unrest." (Which is unprecedented, by the way.)

Obama has to win by a landslide to counter the fraud factor. But it looks like he just might win by a landslide.

Clueless

"The Fundamentals of our Economy are strong."
John McCain
Sept, 2008


This one is fundamentally wrong.

Either We're Better Off or We're Way Worse Off

Well, the Bush Administration got its way.
They got their bailout - and they got the Democrats to vote for it.

This sounds a whole lot like the invasion of Iraq.
But, I guess we'll see.

Let's FIX the Economy Instead

“Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The more I find out about this (now up to $1,800,000,000,000) “bailout/rescue.” the more I realize what scam it is. There are far better ways to keep our economy afloat. In fact, we could even fix some things – like for instance; our tangible infrastructure.

In a way, America has been here before – during the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover's bailouts for the money speculators didn't work back then either. What succeeded were real, tangible economic development (work) programs.

Our nation is in serious trouble. Our system is broken.

The trouble at Wall Street is not an accident, it is a sign.

And the “bailout” is just a band aid on a cancer.

Everybody knows this. And yet, we're being asked to continue to live in our fantasy world, and believe that if we throw money at the problem; somehow, it will fix itself. Obviously, it won't. But not so obviously, this is still only the tip of the iceberg.

We have allowed our electoral system to be corrupted. Consequently, we have allowed our elected officials to be corrupted. Ironically, within America's electoral system; an honest, moral, and reasonable candidate barely has a chance at getting elected. It was just a matter of time before the ship started sinking.

Examples:

• Alternative energy is being ignored again. The “bailout” procedures have pushed the extension of the alternative energy tax breaks to the back burner... again. This might not be so bad if the fossil fuel industry hadn't received $18,000,000,000 in subsidies. (update; the tax credit has been added to the Senate “bailout” bill)

• America's governmental scientists have been chosen on the basis of politics, not science. This has led to numerous mistakes in understanding of reality. The worst case of political ignorance of science is Bush's attitude about global warming. The consequences are terrifying.

• The Department of Interior (DOI) is in the middle of a number of scandals – the most recent being the conflict of interest case with oil companies. Drugs and sex were involved, so this case has received some public interest. But it is only part of a much bigger case that has cost America billions in oil tax revenues. (To see a previous post concerning DOI corruption click here.) If ever there were a Federal bureaucracy not worthy of our confidence, it would be the DOI. Nonetheless, they are trying to gut the Endangered Species Act by giving themselves even more power.

• The American auto industry has ignored the obvious for decades now, and not bothered to develop gas saving and alternative powered cars. For their callous disregard for the reality of the petroleum supply, they want to be bailed out to the tune of $25,000,000,000.

• This “bailout/rescue” itself may have been contrived. Officials have been secretly planning this “bailout” for months. (They claim as a contingency plan.) The Bush administration has been tightening money, which further exacerbates the crisis. And the Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, has made three critical “mistakes” that have made this crisis worse. The Times reports: “Had it not been for Mr Paulson the bailout would probably never have been needed. What made it necessary was a three-stage sequence of blunders. The first began when Mr Paulson decided, for largely political reasons, to wipe out the private shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two businesses which he and many Republican politicians regarded as crypto-socialist incubi in the American body politic. The enormous – and unnecessary – losses suffered by shareholders of Fannie Mae triggered the first stage of the financial crisis, starting on September 8. He then aggravated the crisis by deliberately bankrupting Lehman and then seizing the assets of AIG.” ... Now Mr. Paulson wants us to give him $700,000,000,000 to spend as he pleases. I'll have to admit, this crisis sounds contrived.

Why is it that every American isn't up in arms about this? Yes, most of us are. However, some people don't think America's collapse matters. There are multi-national corporations (some of them banks) that would survive the collapse of America's economy. In fact, if stocks collapse, there will be an opportunity for those who still have money to buy stocks up for a pittance. Who knows, they might even use the “bailout” money to do it.

So, just how bad are things. Well, Wall Street “needs” something like $1,200,000,000,000 to keep our system working like it has been. The unasked question should be; “why do we want the system to keep running like it has been?” Of course, there are no guarantees that the “bailout” will work. In fact, it won't avert a recession... its too late. As we can obviously see; if we keep giving out money, without any punitive measures, there will be more takers... and more, and more, and more.

Hey, I only need 10 million dollars to pay my bills and go to Vegas. If you don't give me the money, Las Vegas' economy will suffer greatly. If that happens, the State of Nevada could be in serious trouble. (Isn't that pretty much their argument?)

I have three concerns. First, what if the bailout isn't the best way of handling this “crisis?” Then we're in trouble. Second, what if the bailout doesn't work? Then we're really in trouble. Third, what if this is all a scam? Then we're really, really in trouble.

Even the House of Representatives saw through this BS. Not only the Democrats, but a whole lot of Republicans think the “bailout/rescue” is a bad idea. I highly recommend you listen to what Rep. Dennis Kucinich has to say. He suspects a scam also.

The heads of these corporations have caused this crisis! They should all be sued, not reimbursed. At the very least, any corporation that receives “bailout” money should be required to fire everyone at top level management – the CEO, the CFO, the Board of Directors – all of them! They caused the problems. They should not be allowed to screw up again! It would be a double standard not to fire them. If one of their employees had failed this badly, the employee certainly would have been fired.

Personally, if I were going to bailout somebody; I would bail out the poor. The poor are not going to take that money and invest it somewhere else in the world. On the other hand, these multi-nationals have no problem taking the “bailout” money and investing it somewhere else. And don't be surprised if they do just that. They will follow the most profitable investments. If that's not in the U.S., oh well... to bad for us.

I would prefer to see the “bailout” work is such a way as to change the face of corporatism. But the sad truth is that multi-national corporations hold far too much power to allow our Government to get away with that.

The American people have sat on our pathetic asses for far too long now. We have allowed our nation to become a puppet to multi-national corporations. And now we're going to have to pay to keep them profitable. Why? So that they won't shut down our system. Why? Because we are too pathetic to think up a better one.

I love this country.

I hate to see this happening to it.

I want to see things fixed.

And it is starting to look like the “bailout/rescue/economic hijacking” is, at best, just throwing good money after bad. At worst, it is the ransoming of America's middle class, and draining of our nation's wealth – to make the "unscrupulous money changers" even richer.

Lie, Cheat, and Steal

I can see why John McCain is too chicken to debate tomorrow night.

With everyone angry about the “bailout,” what's he going to say? He's not about to tell the truth. How would that sound? How about...

“I've supported deregulation for all of my political career. I even got into quite a bit of trouble over some “special” treatment I got back during my support of deregulation of the Savings and Loan industry. That led to a “bailout” too. Back then I was branded the member of the Keating Five who could lie the best – by packaging myself as a “maverick.” We could have fixed things back then, but instead we chose to make them worse back in 1999. We deregulated laws enacted during the Great Depression (which up until then had prevented another depression). But enough about that. I'd rather talk about being a war hero... Oh yeah; Wall Street has had a field day for the past nine years. Never mind Enron. The fundamentals of our economy are strong. I really don't know what fundamentals, but that sure sounds good on camera... Except for when I say the fundamentals of our economy are at risk a few hours later. So, now that we can't hide the real costs for deregulation, I'm going to act like an outsider... We'll get those Washington fat cats! We'll drown 'em in money!”

But seriously, we all know that John McCain wouldn't say that. But what could he say?

• What could McCain say when Obama asks him about his history as a member of the Keating five?

• What could McCain say when Obama reminds us all of McCain's close ties to the people who masterminded this catastrophe?

• What could McCain say when Obama points out that McCain voted for the deregulation that led to this “bailout.”

• What could McCain say when Obama asks him about his flip-flop on socialism – but only for the rich.

Face it; if John McCain would have gone ahead with this debate, he would have lost the election. (If that's possible.) He would have been exposed as a Washington insider who has done the fat cats' bidding for years. Since the late 1990s, Wall Street has been given cuts in the capital-gains tax, dividend tax and estate tax, cuts in marginal income tax rates, free-trade agreements, low interest rates, and very light regulation. With all that, things still went to hell. It makes you kind of wonder if this was all inevitable do to bad legislation. It makes you kind of wonder if John McCain has sold his soul for a chance at being president.

There just isn't a lie big enough to cover McCain's ass on this one. He simply wouldn't have been able to keep up his public persona. We'd all see for ourselves that he doesn't give a damn about the American people.

Let's face it. John McCain was far better off staying home in one of his seven (or is it eight) houses. (By the way; I'll bet none of his houses was financed with a predatory loan.)

Speaking of predatory loans; we're all about to take out a $700,000,000,000.00 loan from the Federal Reserve - to save us from a recession that will happen anyway.

We're borrowing money from one bank to give to other banks – because they made bad investments. We're borrowing our own nation's money from the Federal Reserve to give to Goldman Sachs, the same company the Secretary of the Treasury used to be an executive for. Oh, and the Secretary wants to have complete control over how the money is spent.

Warren Buffet knows what's going on. He knows where the next big welfare handout for the rich is going. He just invested five billion dollars in Goldman Sachs.

They've been planning this “bailout” for months now. [White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony] Fratto said the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials.

This is amazing! We can't afford health care for children. We can't afford to help out clean, safe, and economy saving alternative energy. But we can afford to hurt responsible banks by subsidizing their irresponsible competition? This makes about as much sense as taking money from the kids' education fund to give to compulsive gamblers!

I can also see why Ralph Nader wasn't invited to the debates. Ralph Nader calls this “bailout” the Goliath of domestic panic legislation. He suggests that the bill include:

• Provisions for homeowners to stay in their homes in default, or rent them at market value

• A cap on executive compensation and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains

• A stimulus package for infrastructure repair and upgrade to generate new community jobs

• Comprehensive regulation of and disclosures by the financial industry and Wall Street to prevent this from occurring again.

• Prudent margin requirements on derivatives trading and a tax on securities derivatives transactions

• Shareholders control over the corporations they own

• Tougher criminal enforcement against culpable firms and executives

But, of course, nobody listens to Ralph Nader anymore... But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why? Maybe because you never see him on TV? Even though Ralph Nader has been running for president three times now, how many times have you actually seen him speak on TV?

Ralph Nader has been trying to warn us about those who lie, cheat, and steal. Bush Jr. has lied to get elected, his party has cheated to win him elections, and now Bush's buddies are about to steal $700,000,000,000.00!

We all know that the money could be spent far better on sensible stimulus packages to our economy. But no! These politicians would rather give away our money to multinational corporations – and leave us with the bill... plus interest.

Please Congress, if you can't do it right, don't waste our money.

Update: make that $1,200,000,000,000.00

To Honorable Senator Harry Reid

This is one of those moments in history...

When the history books are written, this will be a turning point – or what could have been a turning point.

The powers that be are desperate at this moment. The powers that be want $700,000,000,000. And they want you to just hand it over, or you'll never see your economy again. But you don't have to. At least not until you get a few concessions.

You could take the pushover route and request that the executives involved in the bailout take pay cuts – or you could press for real reforms that could change the face of corporatism.

We all know that the system is broken. This is your chance to fix it. Right now, you have the power to influence substantial fundamental change. The powers that be are desperate at this moment. If the Democrats (and maybe even a few Republicans) were to filibuster this bill, you could force real rational reforms on the system.

It only takes a few, dedicated Senators to stall this bailout until Wall Street would accept anything – including regulations that would force them to be fiscally responsible. They might even accept reduced influence on Washington.

This is one of those moments in history where our fate, our nation's fate, and even the world's fate rests on a few people to stand and say NO! We won't give you a dime until we are satisfied that corporate interests are not placed above the citizens of the United States.

If you can lead us to a path of a functional, sustainable, fair, and healthy economic system, I believe it would be worth $700,000,000,000.

Otherwise, lets get the depression over with, it will just be worse if we continue to put it off with taxpayer bailouts to inept corporations.

Thank you,

Rick Spilsbury

Click here for his "reply"

They Don't Want Us To Think About This...

"Our" government wants American taxpayers to bail out a failed system so they can continue on without having to change. We all know something is terribly wrong. Failure is a sign. And mass failure is a sign we need massive change. But that's not what they want.

They want close to a TRILLION DOLLARS of our money – so that they can go out and play the system for more – and get even richer (at our expense). These inept corporations blew the billions and billions they had. There is nothing anywhere near a guarantee that the bailout will work. And ironically, some of the bailout money will go to continue to pay the multi-million dollar paychecks of these bungling executives.

In case you don't remember, this isn't a one-time bail-out. The pattern of deregulation, corruption, and bailouts happened back in the 1980's with the Savings and Loan debacle. We, the American taxpayers, have become their enablers.

I've been in this situation before, on a personal basis. I'm divorced from two beautiful, intelligent, and seemingly sensible women – who both had gambling problems. And I can tell you from hard-learned experience that giving them more money never, never, never fixed the underlying problem. It just made me more in debt.

They'll do this again and again, until we force change within the system. And the perfect time to force that change is now. They know that. That's why they're rushing us.

They want us to bail them out, now, with no strings attached. They even want us to bailout foreign banks.

Excuse me?

They didn't just figure this scheme out a few days ago. Important people in Congress warned us that this would happen within 10 years (9 years ago, when Congress dropped all the regulations that would have prevented this). And the mortgage crisis has been transpiring over the past few months now. You'd think they would have figured out at least a few things they could do better. But all they can talk about is the money.

The only thing these “captains of industry” can come up with is; “give us a trillion dollars in a week, or we'll cause another depression.” That sounds like a ransom note.

They just want the money. They don't want us to force them to be fiscally responsible.

Where are the constraints?

Where are the regulations?

Where are our nation's demands?

Where is the leadership?

These people go crazy with greed when they smell money. And they don't want regulations to hold them back. Once they get our trillion dollars, they will fight any form of regulations to control them. And all they have to do is buy off a few Republican Senators to filibuster any bill that is intended to keep them from repeating this disaster. They don't believe in government oversight. And up until earlier this week, neither did many Republicans. They just want our money. If they wanted the system to run effectively, they'd have some ideas for sensible regulations right now.

...It is true that I'm no financial expert. But apparently, neither are these highly paid executives... But I could be wrong about that. Maybe they don't want the system to run effectively. Maybe they figured out long ago that they could rip off the poor, and when things went wrong, they knew they would get bailed out by the middle class.

Which brings me to my point. This bail out will cost us close to a trillion dollars – and maybe more. Our national debt is up from four to nine trillion dollars from our surplus back in 2000. And the “war” will ultimately cost us somewhere between a trillion and three trillion dollars. That adds up to some real money – which we don't have.

So, where is the money going to come from? Bush Jr. cut taxes for the rich. John McCain (the Old-boy network flip-flopper) doesn't intend to raise taxes. Barrack Obama only wants to revoke the Bush tax cuts. So let's face it, the money just won't be there. Not even the rich have that kind of money... So, what are they going to do? Apparently, they're going to print money. And what does that lead to? Inflation. Maybe even runaway inflation. I don't see any way around it. And what will that mean? It will mean that they will be taking money from your savings. What money you do have will lose its value.

If you are middle class, and have some money saved for your retirement (say in a 401K), it's very likely you may as well say goodbye to it's present value. And that money you thought you had waiting for you in Social Security – don't expect it to be worth anything.

And don't expect John McCain, or even Barrack Obama to fix this. By the time one of them gets into office, the damage will already be done.

Which means one thing. We have less than a week to see that the right things get done. Which isn't enough time to organize. I suspect they planned that. However, if you want a future with any retirement money and a paycheck worth anything, we had better get off our butts. There won't be a second chance.

If things keep going in this direction, there won't be a middle class... and these people don't care.

Write your Congressmen NOW!

Let them know you do not want them to be a pushover.

This is the perfect time for a Democratic filibuster in the Senate: Don't give them a dime until they agree to fixing the system. At least they can reenact the Great Depression Era laws that would have prevented this.

Or, if you are like me, ask them to consider some other alternative. I can't tell you what. I don't know myself yet. But, for a simplistic example; what if we gave the money to those who's homes were in foreclosure to pay off their debt? The mortgage companies could have their money anyway, and presently overlooked American citizens could keep their homes.

Sadly, there isn't time to promote any well thought out plans. If we could think this through, we could be at a turning point here. It's time to fix our systems. And you don't fix things by throwing good money after bad.

Letter to Stu

I too believe that the system is broken.

But I don't believe that those who control the system will fix it. They don't want to. They're conservatives. They don't want change. Those who have succeeded, often at any cost, don't want change. They want to stay on top – at any cost.

I suspect that is the reason so many civilizations before ours have collapsed. Their systems ceased to be able to respond to change.

The conditions of our world are constantly changing, like a switchback road down a steep mountain. We don't want to be the on the bus without power steering – and a driver who only wants to go straight ahead.

...All I ask; is that we consider the consequences.

I'm concerned that there is a possibility, just a possibility, that things could get worse and worse, until humanity just goes extinct. And I fear that it there is a faint possibility that it could even happen in my lifetime.

Now, it only makes sense to face that possibility and do what needs to be done to avert the future's worst case scenario.

You know what scenario I'm talking about. Our civilization is at risk from a combination of human population explosion, resource depletion, and the poisoning of our environment. Talk about a perfect storm. Yet Americans have known about these major threats to our future for 30 years now, and we've done essentially nothing. Talk about a lack of leadership.

If we don't un-break our system, it's going to be extraordinarily difficult deal with these monumental changes to our economy – and our suburban lifestyle.

I don't want to live in a gated community, inside a fenced-in country. What's the point? To keep out the suffering masses? It won't matter. We may be able to build a fence high enough so as not to see others suffering, but we can't build a fence high enough to keep out pollution and climate change.

We have to be responsible about this now.

Even Bush Jr. has admitted that America is “addicted to oil.” What? What? Did I miss an evil laugh after he said that?

I think it's pretty obvious by now that the Bush administration has done their very best to maximize profits for the fossil fuel industry. Just check the record profits for the oil industry corporations for the past few years. I don't think we could have imagined, back in 2000, just how bad things could get. We're in an unnecessary war, which is actually an occupation – for no-bid oil company contracts. The price of gas has what, doubled, tripled? Sure, its gone down, but it never should have been that high in the first place. And worst: the definitive proof that global warming is proceeding much faster than we ever expected has been met with nothing but stonewalling – by America. Even China is cleaning up it's act now. But not us. The Republicans have filibustered every Energy Bill that has come up in the Senate this year.

Republicans may be correct about some things, but they have totally failed to deal with these awesome risks with a clear head or moral bone in their body. The Democrats aren't innocent either, but they're less guilty.

Obama may be promising more than he can deliver. But at least, he claims to be willing to try. Face it; the Republicans' only real response to the depletion of oil is to drill for a little more oil – in beautiful, natural places we would much rather save. That's worse than unimaginative. That's criminal. And all John W. McBush III can promise is more of the same. He even has what is effectively an oil-man for a Vice-Presidential candidate!

Have we forgotten Dick Cheney's secret meeting with the fossil fuel industry's executives the first thing he got into office? That was enough to make the paranoid among us suspect that there might even be some vast-right-wing conspiracy. But let's face it, back in 2001, the paranoid among us would have done a better job of predicting the future.

We may never really know why the price of fossil fuels got so high, but we do know who benefited. (First Enron, now Exxon.) And I have no doubt these giant corporations have far too much influence over both parties – and the press. These are the people who care more about short-term personal profits than long term success of our civilization. These are the people who have taken over our government, by taking over the Republican party. But, of course, that's what powerful people do. It's been going on ever since the beginning of governments. Unfortunately, this time its different. If we break our planet, everyone loses.

Yes, our system is broken. Worse, America is closer to fascism than it has ever been. And not that silly “liberal fascism” the right-wing pundits talk about. Real Fascism. Is that to be our nation's response to all of this? Fascism? Back during the Great Depression the Germans resorted to Hitler, and Americans resorted to FDR. I hope we have the sense to make the better decision again.

...But this time the situation we face is much more complex than back during the Great Depression. And the consequences of more of the same are far greater. This time, even the rich can die. This isn't a right wing/left wing argument. This is about corruption. Only a corrupt government would ignore our long-term future. And our government has been either Republican or Republicrat controlled for the past 30 years.

For example, consider that perfect storm on the horizon. The Republicans' response to the population explosion is to restrict contraception and attempt to ban abortions. Their response to resource depletion is to expend three trillion dollars (and hundreds of billions on oil) conquer another country (or two) for their oil. And the Republicans' response to environmental destruction is to subsidize it. This has to change, or there will be a significantly greater chance that humanity is screwed.

I was once like you. I even voted for Ronald Reagan the first time. But since then, I've done something that you haven't been willing to do. I read those articles and books that you've casually dismissed as “all lies.” And I found out the those “lies” often had more truth to them than what the fossil-fuel-funded corporate-owned mass media has been feeding us. Just ask yourself; who pays for your news? Who decides what gets reported and what gets ignored? Not you.

You should be curious. I'm claiming that I have information that you need. But I understand. It's OK if you're not interested. One letter won't likely counteract a lifetime of programing. But, remember to be honest with yourself, and don't ever claim again that your information sources are “fair and balanced.”

Who Killed The Electric Alternatives?

I have a “conspiracy theory” too.

I suspect that the fossil fuel industry has done everything within their power to hold back the development of sustainable energy, energy independence, and conservation. In addition to using a number of other dirty tricks, I suspect that they have manipulated politics and markets to create boom and bust cycles that have repeatedly devastated the alternative energy market.

And I suspect that they are at it again.

We are getting close to the end of this Congress' session. And still there is no extension of the clean energy tax breaks. If this doesn't happen, the demand for wind and solar energy will dry up dramatically. This will mean the loss of up to 115,000 sustainable energy jobs and the collapse of many sustainable energy companies. America doesn't want this. So why is the Senate at it again?

Why would the Senate give the (quite profitable) fossil fuel industry 18 billion dollars in subsidies and deny 1.7 billion dollars in tax incentives to the developing sustainable energy industry? Not because its the right thing to do – by any means.

For decades now, our tax dollars have gone to jack up the (now obscene) profits of the oil and coal industry. While, for some reason, there just hasn't always been enough to help out the development of sustainable industries we critically need in the long run.

Republicans within the Senate have used the filibuster approximately a hundred times this year (an all-time record by far) to bring legislation to a standstill. They have killed every energy bill that has come to the Senate without there ever being a vote... Why? Could it be that some Republican Senators don't want energy legislation</