Dear friends across the US,
The flood of corporate and special interest money pouring into our elections is corrupting American democracy to the breaking point, but we have a powerful opportunity to begin to take our democracy back if we act in the next 48 hours.
Since the Supreme Court’s radical 2010 Citizens United ruling gutted most legal limits on what billionaires and corporations can spend on influencing our elections, so-called “SuperPACs” have raised more than $300 million from a tiny group of super wealthy donors. With this money, Big Oil can block efforts to fight climate change, Wall Street can block fair taxation and defense lobbyists can rev up the war machine -- even when the public is opposed. The threat to good government is existential -- yet the candidates are barely talking about it. We can change that by making sure big money in politics and the need for a Constitutional Amendment to fix the problem is a central topic in the first presidential debate.
PBS’s Jim Lehrer will moderate the debate -- and his staff told Avaaz that if we petition for him to ask a question on this issue, they'll present it to him this Friday, along with how many people signed. So let's build a massive call -- sign below and share with everyone you know:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/us_election_debate_i_full_us_list/?bNxfadb&v=18232
Just one man, Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, has already vowed to spend more than $100 million dollars supporting Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Adelson is a savvy investor -- a new analysis shows he stands to win back more than $2 billion in tax breaks if Romney ends up in the White House. But the problem affects both parties. The system is broken and most Americans know it: in poll after poll, a supermajority of Americans of all political persuasions say they want common sense limits put on what the super-rich can spend on our elections.
Centuries ago, America’s founders designed a way for us to put this genie back in the bottle, a way for us to amend what’s broken: by reversing the Supreme Court decisions that created this mess with a Constitutional Amendment. Some argue that an amendment is too hard to achieve, but organizing for an Amendment is a powerful tool in itself which forces candidates to stake out a position on this issue for voters to judge and can serve as leverage for other reforms like transparency and public financing, which are also needed. That’s why calls for an Amendment are gaining steam - several versions have already been introduced in Congress and President Obama recently offered support for the idea.
Jim Lehrer is no dummy: he knows that few issues are more worthy of debate than big money and corruption in government. But the campaigns will be pushing for softball questions, so it’s our job to remind Lehrer that the purpose of these debates is to force candidates to address the issues that matter to us, on the record and unscripted. Sign now and forward this to others:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/us_election_debate_i_full_us_list/?bNxfadb&v=18232
Around the world Avaaz members have come together by the millions to challenge government corruption and pay to play politics. With our fragile democracy in the US now at risk of being taken over completely by the 1%, it’s time to fight back. That’s why we’re launching Elections not Auctions, an Avaaz project to stem the flow of unlimited money into our democracy. They have the money, but we have the power.
With hope and determination and fighting spirit,
Ian, Joseph, Morgan, Dalia, David and the entire Avaaz team
SOURCES
Poll: Americans largely in favor of campaign spending limitations (LA Times / AP)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-poll-citizens-united-20120916,0,7468934.story
Right-Wing Billionaires Behind Mitt Romney (Rolling Stone)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/right-wing-billionaires-behind-mitt-romney-20120524
Obama Grows More Reliant on Big-Money Contributors (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/us/politics/obama-grows-more-reliant-on-big-money-contributors.html?pagewanted=all
Jim Lehrer to moderate DU presidential debate Oct. 3 (The Denver Post)
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21301449/jim-lehrer-moderate-du-presidential-debate-oct-3
Obama, on Reddit, proposed overturning Citizens United (LA Times)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-president-obama-reddit-ama-20120829,0,7159605.story
National Survey: Super PACs, Corruption, and Democracy (Brennan Center)
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/national_survey_super_pacs_corruption_and_democracy/
How One Mega-Donor Could Save $2.3 Billion Under Romney’s Tax Plan (Think Progress)
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/11/825851/romney-adelson-taxes-billionaire
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
--- Howard Zinn
Supine or Prone vs. standing…..up-right….
Two stripes, same tiger. Since mainstream media will not do their jobs and the ministry of propaganda are doing such a good job at not reporting the truth. I, as a country boy, armed with only my conscience and common sense will take charge of my country and frame the issues that are important to all Americans and tame this soulless beast.
First, the president may be commander-in-chief of the u. s. armed forces, and the legislature may be in charge of all the taxes collected and spending there of, they are not in charge of me or you!! They both work(exploit) for me and you, both these government entity’s exist to execute the will of the people, the money they spend is our money, not theirs or corporate Americas, ours. Clear?
The choices they have given us for in 2012 are the elitists choice, not ours. Second, If any American thinks he is only voting for the lesser of two evils, choose neither. Two wrongs will never make one right. All the “get out the vote zealots” tell us we have no right to criticize if we don’t vote. Well it doesn’t make any difference anymore. At least I will have a clearer conscience if I don’t vote. Again, if voting really did change anything, the practice would be outlawed and only criminals would vote, which is about what I feel like when I do vote anyway.........
One of the most potent [American journalist] assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity. [Let alone life on Earth.] ... Journalists [are making the] distinction between people who matter and people who don't matter. ... The people who died in the Twin Towers in that terrible crime mattered. The people who were bombed to death in dusty villages in Afghanistan didn't matter, even though it now seems that their numbers were greater. The people who will die in Iraq don't matter. Iraq has been successfully demonized as if everybody who lives there is Saddam Hussein. ... It's only when journalists understand the role they play in this propaganda, it's only when they realize they can't be both independent, honest journalists and agents of power, that things will begin to change.
- John Pilger, interview with The Progressive magazine
The American government stills thinks just because bribery works here it is going to work there? Now my student loan payments are going directly to the guys we called our enemies that were killing our troops six months ago. Wtf? Bu$hit’s new great Christian commission: instead of teach, preach and baptize is to bomb, burn and bribe. Shishh…….. Kosmicdebris…..
Billionaires and corporate special interests are flooding our election with campaign cash designed to capture our government for the 1%. But we can fight back with a Constitutional Amendment to fix it. Sign in the next 48 hours to ask moderator Jim Lehrer to make this a focus of the first presidential debate, and let's see who's with us and who's against us.  |
Since the Supreme Court’s radical 2010 Citizens United ruling gutted most legal limits on what billionaires and corporations can spend on influencing our elections, so-called “SuperPACs” have raised more than $300 million from a tiny group of super wealthy donors. With this money, Big Oil can block efforts to fight climate change, Wall Street can block fair taxation and defense lobbyists can rev up the war machine -- even when the public is opposed. The threat to good government is existential -- yet the candidates are barely talking about it. We can change that by making sure big money in politics and the need for a Constitutional Amendment to fix the problem is a central topic in the first presidential debate.
PBS’s Jim Lehrer will moderate the debate -- and his staff told Avaaz that if we petition for him to ask a question on this issue, they'll present it to him this Friday, along with how many people signed. So let's build a massive call -- sign below and share with everyone you know:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/us_election_debate_i_full_us_list/?bNxfadb&v=18232
Just one man, Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, has already vowed to spend more than $100 million dollars supporting Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Adelson is a savvy investor -- a new analysis shows he stands to win back more than $2 billion in tax breaks if Romney ends up in the White House. But the problem affects both parties. The system is broken and most Americans know it: in poll after poll, a supermajority of Americans of all political persuasions say they want common sense limits put on what the super-rich can spend on our elections.
Centuries ago, America’s founders designed a way for us to put this genie back in the bottle, a way for us to amend what’s broken: by reversing the Supreme Court decisions that created this mess with a Constitutional Amendment. Some argue that an amendment is too hard to achieve, but organizing for an Amendment is a powerful tool in itself which forces candidates to stake out a position on this issue for voters to judge and can serve as leverage for other reforms like transparency and public financing, which are also needed. That’s why calls for an Amendment are gaining steam - several versions have already been introduced in Congress and President Obama recently offered support for the idea.
Jim Lehrer is no dummy: he knows that few issues are more worthy of debate than big money and corruption in government. But the campaigns will be pushing for softball questions, so it’s our job to remind Lehrer that the purpose of these debates is to force candidates to address the issues that matter to us, on the record and unscripted. Sign now and forward this to others:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/us_election_debate_i_full_us_list/?bNxfadb&v=18232
Around the world Avaaz members have come together by the millions to challenge government corruption and pay to play politics. With our fragile democracy in the US now at risk of being taken over completely by the 1%, it’s time to fight back. That’s why we’re launching Elections not Auctions, an Avaaz project to stem the flow of unlimited money into our democracy. They have the money, but we have the power.
With hope and determination and fighting spirit,
Ian, Joseph, Morgan, Dalia, David and the entire Avaaz team
SOURCES
Poll: Americans largely in favor of campaign spending limitations (LA Times / AP)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-poll-citizens-united-20120916,0,7468934.story
Right-Wing Billionaires Behind Mitt Romney (Rolling Stone)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/right-wing-billionaires-behind-mitt-romney-20120524
Obama Grows More Reliant on Big-Money Contributors (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/us/politics/obama-grows-more-reliant-on-big-money-contributors.html?pagewanted=all
Jim Lehrer to moderate DU presidential debate Oct. 3 (The Denver Post)
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21301449/jim-lehrer-moderate-du-presidential-debate-oct-3
Obama, on Reddit, proposed overturning Citizens United (LA Times)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-president-obama-reddit-ama-20120829,0,7159605.story
National Survey: Super PACs, Corruption, and Democracy (Brennan Center)
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/national_survey_super_pacs_corruption_and_democracy/
How One Mega-Donor Could Save $2.3 Billion Under Romney’s Tax Plan (Think Progress)
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/11/825851/romney-adelson-taxes-billionaire
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
--- Howard Zinn
Supine or Prone vs. standing…..up-right….
Two stripes, same tiger. Since mainstream media will not do their jobs and the ministry of propaganda are doing such a good job at not reporting the truth. I, as a country boy, armed with only my conscience and common sense will take charge of my country and frame the issues that are important to all Americans and tame this soulless beast.
First, the president may be commander-in-chief of the u. s. armed forces, and the legislature may be in charge of all the taxes collected and spending there of, they are not in charge of me or you!! They both work(exploit) for me and you, both these government entity’s exist to execute the will of the people, the money they spend is our money, not theirs or corporate Americas, ours. Clear?
The choices they have given us for in 2012 are the elitists choice, not ours. Second, If any American thinks he is only voting for the lesser of two evils, choose neither. Two wrongs will never make one right. All the “get out the vote zealots” tell us we have no right to criticize if we don’t vote. Well it doesn’t make any difference anymore. At least I will have a clearer conscience if I don’t vote. Again, if voting really did change anything, the practice would be outlawed and only criminals would vote, which is about what I feel like when I do vote anyway.........
One of the most potent [American journalist] assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity. [Let alone life on Earth.] ... Journalists [are making the] distinction between people who matter and people who don't matter. ... The people who died in the Twin Towers in that terrible crime mattered. The people who were bombed to death in dusty villages in Afghanistan didn't matter, even though it now seems that their numbers were greater. The people who will die in Iraq don't matter. Iraq has been successfully demonized as if everybody who lives there is Saddam Hussein. ... It's only when journalists understand the role they play in this propaganda, it's only when they realize they can't be both independent, honest journalists and agents of power, that things will begin to change.
- John Pilger, interview with The Progressive magazine
The American government stills thinks just because bribery works here it is going to work there? Now my student loan payments are going directly to the guys we called our enemies that were killing our troops six months ago. Wtf? Bu$hit’s new great Christian commission: instead of teach, preach and baptize is to bomb, burn and bribe. Shishh…….. Kosmicdebris…..
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