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61
Feed Your Head / 13,000 abuse claims in juvie centers
« on: December 20, 2011, 09:25:12 PM »
13,000 abuse claims in juvie centers
http://www.ylc.org/articleDetail.php?id=51&type=article

author: HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer
publication: AP National Story
date: 2008-03-02

COLUMBIA, Miss. - The Columbia Training School - pleasant on the outside, austere on the inside - has been home to 37 of the most troubled young women in Mississippi.
 
If some of those girls and their advocates are to be believed, it is also a cruel and frightening place.

The school has been sued twice in the past four years. One suit brought by the U.S. Justice Department, which the state settled in 2005, claimed detainees were thrown naked in to cells and forced to eat their own vomit. The second one, brought by eight girls last year, said they were subjected to "horrendous physical and sexual abuse." Several of the detainees said they were shackled for 12 hours a day.

These are harsh and disturbing charges - and, in the end, they were among the reasons why state officials announced in February that they will close Columbia. But they aren't uncommon.

Across the country, in state after state, child advocates have deplored the conditions under which young offenders are housed - conditions that include sexual and physical abuse and even deaths in restraints. The U.S. Justice Department has filed lawsuits against facilities in 11 states for supervision that is either abusive or harmfully lax and shoddy.

Still, a lack of oversight and nationally accepted standards of tracking abuse make it difficult to know exactly how many youngsters have been assaulted or neglected.

The Associated Press contacted each state agency that oversees juvenile correction centers and asked for information on the number of deaths as well as the number of allegations and confirmed cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse by staff members since Jan. 1, 2004.

According to the survey, more than 13,000 claims of abuse were identified in juvenile correction centers around the country from 2004 through 2007 - a remarkable total, given that the total population of detainees was about 46,000 at the time the states were surveyed in 2007.

Just 1,343 of those claims of abuse identified by the AP were confirmed by various authorities. Of 1,140 claims of sexual abuse, 143 were confirmed by investigators.

Experts say only a fraction of the allegations are ever confirmed. These are some of the most troubled young people in the country and some will make up stories. But in other cases, the youth are pressured not to report abuse; often, no one believes them anyway.

Undoubtedly, juvenile correction facilities and their programs benefit many of the youth who experience them by offering substance abuse programs, educational courses and mental health counseling. And for many troubled youth, the facilities are the last hope to straighten out problems that could eventually lead them to suicide, prison or other institutions.

Still, advocates for the detainees contend that abuse by guards remains a major problem and that authorities aren't doing enough to address the situation.

In 2004, the U.S. Justice Department uncovered 2,821 allegations of sexual abuse by juvenile correction staffers. The government study included 194 private facilities, which likely accounts for the higher numbers than the AP found.

But some experts say the true number of sexual incidents is likely even higher. Some youth view sexual relationships with staff members as consensual, not as adults in positions of authority abusing their power.

Sue Burrell, an attorney for the Youth Law Center in San Francisco, recalls investigating sexual encounters between female staff and male inmates at a juvenile facility in Florida. "One of the boys I interviewed said he didn't think it was fair that his roommate had a relationship with one of the staffers and he didn't."

Other abuse is physical, and often sadistic.

For boys at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, authority came in the person of 50-year-old Gilbert Hicks, and he wielded that authority emphatically.

Hicks was convicted of sexual assault in October 2005 after he "grabbed, squeezed and twisted" a boy's testicles, according to a federal lawsuit.

When the boy sought medical attention 10 days later because of pain and swelling, Hicks, who had worked at the facility for 24 years, taunted him by asking: "What, you want me to squeeze your (genitals) again?"

Hicks allegedly abused two other boys the same way.

His sentence? Five years probation and 90 days in jail to be served on weekends.

What sets the case apart from many others is the successful conviction.  Often such cases come down to the word of a guard against that of a teenager with a long criminal record, the primary reason that so few charges of abuse are confirmed and prosecuted, child advocates say.

While it is likely that incarcerated youth make false allegations of mistreatment against their guards, there are cases of abuse not being reported because "many children are afraid of what would happen if they snitch on staff," said Mark Soler, executive director of the Center for Children's Law and Policy in Washington D.C.

The worst physical confrontations can end in death. At least five juveniles died after being forcibly placed in restraints in facilities run by state agencies or private facilities with government contracts since Jan. 1, 2004.


The use of restraint techniques and devices and their too-aggressive application have long been controversial and came under intense scrutiny last year after the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson.

A grainy video taken at a Florida boot camp in January 2006 shows several guards striking the teen while restraining him. Six guards and a nurse were acquitted Oct. 12 of manslaughter charges after defense attorneys argued that the guards used acceptable tactics.

In Maryland, 17-year-old Isaiah Simmons lost consciousness and died after he was held to the floor face down at a privately owned facility that was contracted by the state. Prosecutors say the staff waited 41 minutes after the boy was unresponsive to call for help.

Scott Rolle, an attorney for one of the counselors, had said the men were only trying to prevent Simmons from hurting himself or someone else.

A judge dismissed misdemeanor charges against five counselors; the state has appealed.

Other restraint-related deaths were three boys - 17, 15 and 13 - in facilities in Tennessee, New York and Georgia, respectively. At least 24 others in juvenile correction centers died since 2004 from suicide and natural causes or preexisting medical conditions.

Supervision does not have to be abusive to be problematic. The absence of supervision creates its own misery.

Advocates say sex among detainees is also a major problem in some facilities, a claim backed by government findings. A U.S. Department of Justice report described sex at the Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana as "rampant."

And sometimes suicidal youth or those who want to harm themselves in other ways don't get the personal attention they need.

Mississippi's juvenile correction centers have been under the supervision of a court-appointed monitor since 2005 as part of the settlement to end the lawsuit filed by the federal government.

But a 15-year-old girl on suicide watch at Columbia Training School used a toe nail and the sharpened cap off a tube of toothpaste to carve the words "HATE ME" backward in her forearm. The girl also said she was shackled 12 hours a day, and forced to wear leg restraints to classes, meals and other activities.

Another 15-year-old girl who spent time in Columbia told the AP she was twice groped by a male guard. She said she reported the abuse.

"They told me I was lying," she said with tears streaming down her face.  "They told me that I was wrong for reporting it, that I shouldn't have brought it up."

Columbia sits atop a 2,200-acre campus with a manicured lawn that stretches out beneath the shade of oak trees. From a distance, the red-brick buildings and pastoral grounds could pass for those of a boarding school. Indeed, administrators pointed proudly to the fact that 90 percent of the girls got their general education diploma.

"We are giving them skills that they will take well into adulthood," insisted Richard Harris, a deputy administrator with the Mississippi Department of Human Services - a few weeks before the state announced it was closing Columbia "due to issues ranging from adequate staffing to quality of care, and the desire to most efficiently spend taxpayer dollars."

While officials in many states complain that funding can be a major challenge -  salaries for guards in Mississippi's juvenile facilities start at $18,000 a year - it will take more than cash to fix the problems.

"What could be done to minimize or reduce these problems?" asked Melissa Sickmund, with the Pittsburgh-based National Center for Juvenile Justice. "Training. Oversight."

Columbia had about 120 staff members and a $5.8 million budget and at times housed only a few dozen girls. At that rate, it costs about $598 a day to house a girl, according to a study by Timothy J. Roche, an expert consultant hired by the state.

There are success stories.

Nancy Molever, an Arizona Juvenile Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said it would have been difficult to improve conditions there - or meet recommendations made by the federal government - without a willingness "to change the culture of the agency" that oversees the juvenile facilities.

Arizona recently emerged from a lawsuit the Justice Department filed after three youngsters committed suicide. Arizona invested $8 million to $10 million in facility improvements and increased the starting annual salary of youth correctional officers to over $30,000, Molever said. The state has also been weeding out employees slow to conform to the new rules, Molever said, but the downside is more employee turnover, which is already a problem nationwide.

Officials in Missouri, which has one of the most highly regarded juvenile correction systems in the country, agree that it takes more than money to run a safe facility.

"It's just a different approach that we take. It's a treatment approach," said Ana Margarita Compain-Romero, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Social Services. "In other states, they take a more punitive approach, more like corrections."

62
Shared Hope International
http://www.sharedhope.org/

Shared Hope International exists to rescue and restore women and children in crisis. We are leaders in a worldwide effort to prevent and eradicate sex trafficking and slavery through education and public awareness.

63

Polaris Project

http://www.polarisproject.org/
 
Our vision is for a world without slavery.
Named after the North Star that guided slaves towards freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002.

Polaris Project is a leading organization in the United States combating all forms of human trafficking and serving both U.S. citizens and foreign national victims, including men, women, and children. We use a holistic strategy, taking what we learn from our work with survivors and using it to guide the creation of long-term solutions. We strive for systemic change by advocating for stronger federal and state laws, operating the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline 1.888.3737.888, and providing services to help our clients and all victims of human trafficking.

64

Nicholas Kristof/ NY Times Columnist
http://www.facebook.com/kristof

We tend to focus on sex trafficking abroad, but we don't have the moral authority to complain about others unless we clean up our own act. This article illuminates the problem at home -- and why it sometimes really does amount to slavery. Time for emancipation, right?

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7002 ... d=fb_share

Here is the article in its entirety.

ATLANTA — Maybe it was the defiant glint in her eye. Maybe it was the way she dragged her feet on the way to join the other underage girls in tube tops and 8-inch heels hawking their bodies in a bad part of Atlanta. Keisha Head wasn't sure. But somehow Sir Charles always knew when she was considering trying to escape.

"You better not be thinkin' 'bout leaving," the pimp would say. "You know what's gonna happen."
 
Sometimes, if he sensed Keisha needed reminding, the big man would shove the then-16-year-old into his Mercedes-Benz and drive her to the cemetery. There he'd strip off her clothes and leave her curled up next to a headstone, sobbing, to contemplate how nobody would notice if she — a runaway and a prostitute — went missing.

"I know grave diggers," he'd say when he came to collect her 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour later. "We could just throw you in a hole when they're burying someone else."

At the time, Keisha, now 31, was considered a delinquent. Now lawmakers are beginning to recognize she was a slave.

Their stories are as different as their backgrounds. There's the boys choir from Zambia that was forced to sing seven concerts a day then locked in a trailer in Texas while their benefactors collected the cash. There's the case of 400 Thai agricultural workers who came to Seattle looking for salaried work picking apples and wound up shut in wooden shacks with no pay.

Researchers estimate close to half of today's victims of human trafficking are people like Keisha who have been coerced into the sex industry.

Sex slaves are the most profitable slave in the modern world, according to Siddharth Kara, a fellow on human trafficking at Harvard University and author of "Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery." On average, a sex slave costs $5,000 in the United States and, before escaping or dying, generates profits exceeding $135,000. There is little risk for exploiters because, more often than not, it's girls like Keisha — and not the pimps who manipulate them — who wind up behind bars.

There are some state and federal laws in place to fight the practice, but prosecutions and convictions are rare.

According to an analysis of anti-slavery laws released last week by the anti-slavery organization Shared Hope International, more than half of states don't have legislation in place to make sure victims like Keisha aren't being punished instead of cared for. Even in places with strong anti-slavery laws, victims go unnoticed because law enforcement officials confuse the crime, which is officially called human trafficking, with smuggling immigrants across the border. Many still see people like Keisha as criminals instead of victims.
 
With job descriptions ranging in scope from prostitute to waiter to maid, more than 150,000 people in the United States are living in slavery, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
 
"We're only just starting to wake up and recognize this problem," said Alicia Wilson, policy counsel for Shared Hope International. "Awareness is low, law enforcement isn't where it should be and there are almost no services for victims."

Changing Perceptions

When Keisha met Sir Charles, she was living in an abandoned building in Atlanta and hadn't eaten for several days. Born to a schizophrenic mother, she had spent most of her life wandering through foster homes — 42 in all — until a child welfare official told her the state mental hospital was her only remaining option. She ran away. Sir Charles gave her food and replaced her ragged, dirty clothes. She found herself telling him things she'd never told anyone: how she'd been molested, how she had gotten pregnant and how, because she had no money, she had sorrowfully given the baby up. He dried her tears and offered to take her to visit the 6-month-old.

"I felt like I'd finally found a home," she said.

Three days later Sir Charles asked Keisha to turn her first trick. She refused.

"You know that little girl you took me to see?" he said. "I can make sure something happens to her."

Because of a deep-seated perception that slavery is a Third World issue, states have had a hard time getting the ball rolling on anti-trafficking initiatives, said Texas state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who has been at the forefront of the legislative battle against modern-day slavery. When she first suggested an anti-slavery law in 2001, "I was patted on the back and told, 'Little lady, that doesn't happen here,'?" she said. The movement started out small, with just a few states taking a look at slavery. Over the past decade, 48 states have criminalized human trafficking. In 2005, states passed nine new laws, then, in 2008, 13. In 2011, legislatures approved 42 bills.


Van de Putte pushed for state legislation because she believes states are better equipped to detect the crime. It's local police who are on the ground, responding to domestic violence and prostitution calls, she said.

"They are the ones who are going to be able to peel back the layers to figure out whether this is actually a case of human trafficking," she said. "The feds can't do that. They aren't even here."

Texas gets high scores from advocates for its anti-slavery laws, as do Illinois and Washington. But in a comprehensive analysis of trafficking laws released last week, Shared Hope International gave 26 states failing grades. Many states, like Utah, have good criminal statutes in place but don't offer protection or services to victims. West Virginia and Wyoming have yet to address the issue at all.

When it comes to sex trafficking, oftentimes it's the victim who is prosecuted while the captor goes free, Wilson said.


"Shared Hope International argues, regardless of whether or not there is proof of coercion, minors should never be charged with prostitution because they cannot legally consent to have sex. While federal law protects children from prostitution prosecution, only three states do the same."

"We need to be shifting the mind-set, taking this from a delinquency proceeding to a child protective proceeding," Wilson said. "These are not criminals. These are vulnerable children."


Sir Charles expected Keisha to bring in $1,000 a night. If she didn't meet quota one night, she had to make it up the next. If she failed, Sir Charles beat her. She never saw a penny.

"People always ask me, 'Why did you stay?'?" Keisha said. "I didn't have a choice. Sir Charles was well-connected in the community. He knew all the runaway hideouts. I had nowhere to go."

Enforcing the law

People who might have helped Keisha jeered at her instead. They saw her, a teenager in a tight miniskirt, on the side of the road, and rolled down their windows and yelled at her to "Go home!"

Even the police overlooked her plight.

One day, after all the other girls had left with clients, a patrol car pulled up.

Looking her up and down, a half-smile on his lips, the officer inside observed, "What are you doing here? You belong down on Pastry Street. That's where all the pretty girls are."

Even for those on the front lines, human trafficking remains a foggy issue. While the vast majority of states have criminalized both labor and sex trafficking, less than half require law enforcement to complete training. In states with anti-trafficking statutes, 44 percent of law enforcement personnel and 50 percent of prosecutors don't know the legislation exists, according to a recent survey from the University of Chicago. Prosecutors who had heard of the laws indicated they were reluctant to use them because, "Sometimes it's easier to prosecute it as something else."

There's always a little lag between the time new laws are passed and prosecutions start piling up, said Kathleen Kim, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, who studies human trafficking. For example, the Federal Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2000 revamped the definition of human trafficking to include a variety of coercion tactics, including psychological manipulation. But most of the cases filed since have continued to reflect the older laws, which required prosecutors to provide proof of bodily harm. Federal, state and local law enforcement officials need to get up to speed on the broad definition of coercion, she said.

"They're using 10 different control tactics and we're only catching them for one," she said.

 
A big part of the problem is a simple lack of awareness, said Bradley Myles, executive director of Polaris Project, one of the nation's largest anti-slavery organizations.

"It's a hidden crime," Myles said. "Traffickers do their best not to be detected. If we're not looking, it's very possible we won't see."

Law enforcement, prosecutors and service providers get hung up trying to define human trafficking, according to the University of Chicago survey. Many incorrectly confuse human trafficking with smuggling or believe only immigrants are affected.
 
"We're not talking about people paying for an illegal ride over the border," Myles said. "We're talking about people being held against their will and being forced to work."

Keisha, who is now a spokeswoman for the Georgia anti-trafficking organization A Future. Not a Past., describes the work she did for Sir Charles as "being raped repeatedly."

"If you don't want to do it," she said, "it's rape."

One night, a client pulled a gun on her, raped her and stole her money. She emerged so bruised and battered she could barely walk. When she returned to Sir Charles, he sent her straight to the street to earn back the cash she'd lost.

That was the day she realized — no matter what Sir Charles threatened — things couldn't get worse. That was the day she found the courage to escape.

It took years and a stint in prison to assemble any kind of self-esteem. But in the end, Keisha realized she was more than just the abuse she'd suffered.

"I am a powerful woman with a voice," she said.

Now she spends her days testifying before legislators, advocating for tougher laws and higher penalties. She's living proof of the reality of modern-day slavery. Proof is tattooed across her shoulders in curling, black script: "Sir Charles."

65
Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
« on: November 26, 2011, 09:35:52 PM »
For all you folks who want to really know what your suit jacket guys are doing to keep the lies of the stupid, uneducated dope smoker vagabonds from ever seeing the light of day, read this article.

http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/co ... news.reads
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality.

Excerpts from the article:
"US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park."


 "In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests."


The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.
The No 1 agenda item:
get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process.
No 2:
reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
No 3:
 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.


When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

66
Feed Your Head / Re: Youth w/out a Home - Laws - All 50 States
« on: November 26, 2011, 08:50:42 PM »
...

67
Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
« on: November 24, 2011, 12:03:58 PM »
Obama should return all money he took from corporations. That would be a good start. He does not need the money to win. The entrenched politicians from the two parties will never regulate themselves and take money out of politics unless we demand it and threaten them with complete electoral removal. All 535 members of Congress must be swept out and replaced with ordinary American citizens who will amend the constitution and pass new laws ending the corporate state by replacing private financing of campaigns with public financing and abrogating the Citizens United case.

68
Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
« on: November 23, 2011, 08:42:32 PM »
Here is another link that will help explain my position. Professor Lawrence Lessig's Book,  Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It. http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Mon ... 0446576433
Paul I could recite what this gentleman is saying but he does such a better more coherent job. I have been screaming about lobbyist, campaign contributions, retirement and health benefits for the 576 and term limits, Big banks and disproportionate taxing of Big Corps, the taxing of our citizens, WTO/WTA, jobs moving overseas ect....ince 1988.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... t/247561/#

Has a Harvard Professor Mapped Out the Next Step for Occupy Wall Street?
By Alesh Houdek

Nov 16 2011, 11:45 AM ET 185

Lawrence Lessig's
call for state-based activism on behalf of a Constitutional Convention could provide the uprooted movement with a political project for winter.

Excerpts from the article above;

Observers and participants alike have interpreted the Occupy Wall Street movement as expressions of frustration with persistently high unemployment and underemployment, with the appearance of growing income disparity in the United States, and with the sense that the richest among us are disproportionately responsible for the current crisis. But the fundamental problem, you could argue, is that we have simply not had meaningful financial reform in response to the crisis. The Dodd-Frank Bill that was passed last summer was better than nothing, but it did not do what needed to be done to fix the problems that caused the current crisis: We haven't punished anyone. We haven't broken up banks to prevent them from being "too big to fail" in the future. The banking system that's brought us the current crisis remains in power, barely chastened. "Why?" ask the Occupy Wall Street protesters.


Lawrence Lessig has an answer. In his new book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress -- and a Plan to Stop It, he spends 20 pages reviewing the the 30 years of deregulation that led up to the financial crisis and outlining our present circumstances. In fact, this book, published just before Occupy Wall Street began, is perfectly positioned to become the movement's handbook. While few protesters will need convincing that the government is corrupted by money, the book lays out the case in a such a comprehensive and persuasive manner -- and proposes such specific and radical solutions -- that it seems tailor-made for the Occupy movement. And it's ambitious proposal for state-based activism on behalf of a Constitutional Convention could provide the movement with a next organizing step as it nears its two-month anniversary Thursday -- and faces such questions as how to ride out the winter and how to respond to police crackdowns.

69
Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
« on: November 23, 2011, 08:27:44 PM »
Paul this is what I stand for by and large.


PLEASE SIGN OUR WHITE HOUSE ONLINE PETITION BY CLICKING THIS LINK:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#! ... s/Q6qYt2H9


????


The 99% Declaration


WHEREAS THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION PROVIDES THAT:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

WE, THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in order to form a more perfect Union, by, for and of the PEOPLE, shall elect and convene a NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY beginning on July 4, 2012 in the City Of Philadelphia to prepare and ratify a PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES on behalf of the 99% of United States citizens.


I. Election of Delegates:

The People, consisting of all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18, regardless of party affiliation and voter registration status, shall elect Two Delegates, one male and one female, by direct vote, from each of the existing 435 Congressional Districts to represent the People at the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY. The office of Delegate shall be open to all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18.

No candidate for Delegate to the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY will be permitted to run on a party line or use any party label while running for or serving as a Delegate. No candidate or delegate may take private money from any source.  Election Committees in the 435 voting districts, consisting of volunteers, shall organize, coordinate and transparently fund this election. The voting process shall be free from the corrupting influence of corporate money and all funds raised by the 99% Declaration Working Group shall be used for the purpose of funding the election of Delegates and providing a venue for the Delegates to meet in Philadelphia.


II. Meeting of the National General Assembly and Approval of a Petition for a Redress of Grievances:

In addition to ensuring a free and fair election of the Delegates to the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, the Working Group on the 99% Declaration shall be responsible for raising sufficient funds to secure a venue wherein the 870* Delegates may convene, deliberate and ratify a PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES to be presented to all 535 members of Congress, the 9 members of the Supreme Court, the President of the United States and each of the political candidates seeking to be elected to federal public office in November 2012.  

Subject to the voting procedure regarding the final vote for ratification of the PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES as set forth in section III, the Delegates of the National General Assembly shall implement their own rules, procedures, agenda, code of conduct, internal elections or appointments of committee members to efficiently and expeditiously accomplish the People's mandate to present a PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES to all three branches of the government of the United States of America and  political candidates before the 2012 election.


III. Content of the Petition for a Redress of Grievances:

The PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES ratified by the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY shall be non-partisan and specifically address the critical issues now confronting the 99% of the People of the United States of America. The Delegates shall deliberate and vote upon proposals and solutions to be included in the PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES and if necessary adjourn for further consultation with the 99% of the People of the United States of America as our founding fathers conferred during the first two Continental Congresses.

The final vote ratifying the PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES shall be by simple majority vote by the 870 delegates and a duly elected chairperson of the National General Assembly shall determine the outcome of the final vote on ratification in the event of a tie. Upon ratification, all of the Delegates shall affix their signatures to the final PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.


IV. Suggested Content of the Petition for a Redress of Grievances:

In order to facilitate the timely election of the 870 Delegates to the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY by July 4, 2012 and submission of the PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES before the 2012 general election, the Working Group on the 99% Declaration, shall draft a suggested list of grievances to be submitted to the Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY no later than April 30, 2012. The final version of the PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES, to be ratified by the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, may or may not include the following issues currently suggested by the Working Group on the 99% Declaration:


1. Elimination of the Corporate State. The merger of the Amercian political system of Republican Democracy with the economic system of Capitalism has resulted in the establishment of a Corporate government of, by and for the benefit of domestic and mult-inational corporations. Therefore, the 99% of the American People demand an immediate ban on all private contributions of any thing of value, to all politicians serving in or running for federal office. This ban shall extend to all individuals, corporations, "political action committees," "super political action committees," lobbyists, unions and all other private sources of money or any thing of value.

Private fundings of campaigns from concentrated sources of wealth have corrupted our political system. Therefore, all private funding of political campaigns shall be replaced by the fair, equal and total public financing of all federal political campaigns.

We, the 99% of the American People, categorically REJECT the concepts that corporations are persons or that money is equal to free speech because if that were so, then only the wealthiest people, corporations and other entities comprised of  concentrated wealth would have a meaningful voice in our society. The complete elimination of all private contributions must be enacted by law or Constitutional amendment because it has become clear that politicians in the United States cannot regulate themselves and have become the exclusive representatives of corporations, unions and the very wealthy who indirectly and directly spend vast sums of money on political campaigns to influence the candidates’ decisions when they attain office and ensure their reelection year after year.

It has been estimated that 94% of all federal political campaigns are won by the candidate who spends the most money. Our elected representatives spend far too much of their time fundraising for the next election rather than doing the People's business. This constant need for more and more money, causes our politicians to labor under conflicts of interest that make it impossible for them to act in the best interests of the American People. Indeed, the current system's propagation of legalized bribery and obscene conflicts of interests has reduced our once great Republican Democracy to a greed driven corporatocracy run by boardroom oligarchs who represent .05 to 1% of the population but own 38% of the wealth and whose incomes have increased 275% since 1979 while most other salaries have remained virtually flat or declined.


2. Abrogation of the "Citizens United" Case. The immediate abrogation, even if it requires a Constitutional Amendment, of the outrageous and anti-democratic Supreme Court holding in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.  This heinous decision proclaimed by the United States Supreme Court in 2010 equates the payment of money to politicians by corporations, wealthy individuals and unions with the exercise of protected free speech. We, the 99% of the American People, demand that institutional bribery never again be deemed protected free speech.


3. Elimination of All Private Benefits and "Perks" to Politicians. The 99% of the American People demand the immediate prohibition of special benefits to all federal public employees, officers, officials or their immediate family members. Public officials, politicians and their immediate families shall be banned from ever being employed by any corporation, individual or business that the public official specifically regulated while in office.  No public employee, officer, official or their immediate family members shall own or hold any stock or shares in any corporation or other entity that the public official specifically regulated while in office until a full 5 years after their term is completed.  

There shall be a complete lifetime ban on the acceptance of all gifts, services, money or thing of value, directly or indirectly, by any elected or appointed public official or their immediate family members, from any person, corporation, union or other entity that the public official was charged to specifically regulate while in office. The term "specifically regulate" shall mean service on a committee or sub-committee or service within any agency or department of the federal government responsible for the regulation of the person, union, corporation or entity seeking to directly or indirectly confer a benefit to a public official.

To root out corruption and restore integrity to our political system, all elected politicians and public employees must ONLY collect their salary, generous healthcare benefits and pension. Congress shall immediately pass new laws banning all private benefits to politicians and public officials. Any person, including individuals  connected directly or indirectly to corporations, who violate these new laws shall be sentenced to a term of mandatory imprisonment of no less than one year and not more than ten years.


4.  Term Limits. Members of the United States House of Representatives shall be limited to serving no more than four two-year terms in their lifetime. Members of the United States Senate shall be limited to serving no more than two six-year terms in their lifetime.  The two-term limit for President shall remain unchanged. Serving as a member of Congress or as the President of the United States is one of the highest honors and privileges our culture can bestow. These positions of prominence in our society should be sought to serve one's country and not provide a lifetime career designed to increase personal wealth and accumulate power for the sake of vanity and hubris.


5.  A Fair Tax Code. A complete reformation of the United States Tax Code to require ALL citizens and corporations to pay a fair share of a progressive, graduated income tax by eliminating loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and unfair deductions, subsidies and ending all other methods of evading taxes.

The current system of taxation unjustly favors the wealthiest Americans, many of whom pay fewer taxes to the United States Treasury than citizens who earn much less and pay a much higher percentage of their incomes in taxes. Any corporation that does business in the United States and generates income from that business in the United States shall be fully taxed on that income regardless of corporate domicile or they will be barred from earning their profits in the United States. This will allow honest companies and individuals who pay their fair share in taxes to take over those markets in the United States economy.


6. Healthcare for All. Medicare for all or adoption of a universal single-payer healthcare system. The Medicaid program will be eliminated as redundant.


7. Protection of the Planet. Corporate greed is destroying the only habitable planet known to humanity. New comprehensive laws and regulations must be immediately enacted to give the Environmental Protection Agency expanded powers to shut down corporations, businesses or any entities that intentionally or recklessly damage the environment, and to criminally prosecute individuals who intentionally or recklessly damage the environment. The 99% of the American People demand the immediate adoption of the most recent international protocols to reverse climate change, including the "Washington Declaration" and implementation of new and existing programs to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels to reusable or carbon neutral sources of energy.


8. Debt Reduction. Adoption of an immediate plan to reduce the national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020. Reduction of the $15 trillion national debt to be achieved by BOTH fair progressive taxation and cuts in spending that benefit corporations engaged in perpetual war for profit, inefficient healthcare,  pharmaceutical exploitation, the communications industry, banking and finance, the oil and gas industry, and all other entities that currently use the federal budget as a private income stream. We agree that spending cuts are necessary but those cuts must be made to facilitate what is best for the People of the United States of America, not multi-national and domestic corporations who currently have a stranglehold on the politicians in both parties.


9. Jobs for All Americans. Passage of a comprehensive job and job-training act like the American Jobs Act to employ our citizens in jobs that are available with specialized training. The American People must be put to work now by repairing America's crumbling infrastructure and building other needed public works projects. In conjunction with a new jobs act, reinstitution of the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and similar emergency governmental agencies tasked with creating new projects to provide jobs to the 46 million People living in poverty, the 9% unemployed and 16.2% who are underemployed.


10. Student Loan Forgiveness. Implementation of a student loan debt relief forgiveness program. Our students are $1 trillion in debt from education loans and have few employment prospects due to the financial collapse caused by the unbridled and unregulated greed of Wall Street. Banks receive virtually interest free loans from the Federal Reserve Bank and then charge upwards of 6% interest to our students for profit. Because education is the only way to ensure our future success as a nation, interest on student debts must be immediately reduced to 2% or less and repayments deferred for periods of unemployment. The tax code will also be amended so that employers will receive a student loan repayment tax deduction for paying off the loans of their employees.

The principal on all outstanding loans shall be forgiven over time by phasing in a graduated corporate tax surcharge. This surcharge will serve as restitution and reparations for Wall Street's intentional and reckless conduct leading to widespread unemployment after the economic collapse in 2007-2008. This economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, resulted in the the $1.5 trillion dollar bail out of Wall Street and unknown losses to the economy estimated to be in the trillions of dollars.  Banks and the financial institutions they own (see point 16 infra) have caused the current worldwide recession, debt crisis and ongoing turmoil in the international markets.


11. Immigration Reform and Improved Border Security. Immediate passage of the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration and border security reform including offering visas, lawful permanent resident status and citizenship to the world’s brightest People to stay and work in our industries and schools after they obtain their education and training in the United States.


12. Ending of Perpetual War for Profit. Recalling all military personnel at all non-essential bases and refocusing national defense goals to address threats posed by the geopolitics of the 21st century, including terrorism and limiting the large scale deployment of military forces to instances where Congressional approval has been granted. New laws must be enacted to counter the Military Industrial Complex's mission of perpetual war for profit. The annual savings created by updating our military posture and ending perpetual war will be applied to the social programs outlined herein to improve the quality of life for human beings rather than facilitating and assisting corporations engaged in murder to make ever-increasing profits distributed to the top 1% of wealth owners.


13. Reforming Public Education. Mandating new educational goals to train the American public to perform jobs in a 21st century economy, particularly in the areas of technology and green energy. This must be accomplished by taking into consideration the redundancy caused by technology and the inexpensive cost of labor in China, India and other developing countries. Eliminating tenure in primary public education in favor of merit performance and paying our teachers a competitive salary commensurate with the salaries in the private sector. These salaries must be based upon similar skills in the private sector because without highly-skilled teachers, there will never be a highly-skilled workforce and the United States will fall further and further behind its competitors.


14. End Outsourcing. Subject to the elimination of corporate tax loopholes and exploited exemptions and deductions stated above, offering tax incentives to businesses to remain in the United States and hire our citizens rather than outsource jobs. An "outsourcing tax" should be introduced to discourage businesses from sending jobs overseas and tax incentives should be offered to companies that invest in reconstructing the manufacturing capacity of the United States. This country must again competitively produce everyday products in the United States rather than importing them from countries like China and India.  To do business in the United States, corporations must make slightly less profit by hiring American workers and paying them a living wage rather than maximizing every penny of profit to the detriment of our society.


15. End Currency Manipulation. Implementing immediate legislation (see e.g. H.R. 639) to encourage China (which undervalues its currency by an estimated 25% to 40%) and our other trading partners to end currency manipulation and reduce the trade deficit and end unfair trade practices.


16. Banking and Securities Reform. Immediate reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act and increased regulation of Wall Street and the financial industry by the SEC, FINRA, the Justice Department and the other financial regulators. The immediate commencement of  Justice Department criminal investigations into the Securities and Banking industry practices that led to the collapse of markets, bank bail-out  and financial firm failures in 2007-2008. Introduction of a small financial transaction fee also known as the "Robin Hood Tax" to collect fees on each and every stock trade and other financial transactions. Uniform regulations limiting what banks may charge consumers for ATM fees, the use of debit cards and other miscellaneous "fees." Ending the $4 billion a year "hedge fund loophole" which permits certain individuals engaged in financial transactions to evade graduated income tax rates by treating their income as capital gains which are taxed at a much lower tax rate (approximately 15%).


17. Foreclosure Moratorium. Adoption of a plan similar to President Clinton’s proposal to end the mortgage crisis. The privately owned Federal Reserve Bank shall not continue to lower interest rates for loans to banks that are refusing to loan to small businesses and consumers. Instead, the federal government shall buy all mortgages in foreclosure and refinance these debts at an interest rate of 1% or less because that is the interest rate the Federal Reserve charges the banks who hoard the cash despite ample liquidity rather than loan it to the People and small businesses. These debts will be managed by the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an independent foreclosure task force appointed and overseen by Congress and the Executive Branch to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether foreclosure proceedings should continue based on the circumstances of each homeowner and the propriety of the financial institution's conduct when originating the loan.


18. Ending the Fed. The immediate formation of a non-partisan commission, overseen by Congress, to audit and investigate the short-term and long-term economic risks in eliminating the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank and transferring its functions to the United States Treasury Department.


19. Abolish the Electoral College, Comprehensive Campaign Finance and Election Reform. The 99% Demand the abolishment of the Electoral College in favor of the Popular Vote in presidential elections to avoid situations where the Electoral College elects a candidate who does not receive a majority of the popular vote. Subject to the above-referenced ban on all private money and gifts in politics, Congress shall immediately enact additional campaign finance reform requiring the Federal Communications Commission to  grant free air-time to all federal candidates; total public campaign financing to all candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to get on the ballot and participate in the primaries and/or general election election; implementation of nationwide uniform election rules applied to all voting districts requiring equal access to third parties to appear on ballots; abolition of "gerrymandering" by utilizing non-partisan public commissions, shortening the campaign season to three months; allowing voting on weekends and holidays; issuance of free voter registration cards to all citizens who are eligible to vote so that they cannot be turned away at a polling station because they do not have a driver's license or other form of identification; a review of the exclusion of voters with criminal records, and expanding the option of mail-in ballots and verifiable internet voting.


20. Ending the War in Afghanistan. An immediate withdrawal of all combat troops from Afghanistan and a substantial increase in the amount of funding for veteran job training and placement. New programs dedicated to the treatment of the emotional and physical injuries sustained by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our veterans are committing suicide at an estimated unprecedented rate of one person every 80 minutes and we must help now.


21. Repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA").  Immediate passage of Senate bill, S. 598, and House bill, H.R. 1116, to repeal the Defense Of Marriage Act because all human beings have the right to love and marry another human being regardless of gender or sexual orientation.


V. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that IF the PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES approved by the 870 Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in consultation with the NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE, is not acted upon within a reasonable time and to the satisfaction of the Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, said Delegates shall reconvene to utilize the grassroots network established in the election of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY to organize a new INDEPENDENT POLITICAL PARTY to run candidates for every available Congressional seat in the mid-term election of 2014 and again in 2016 until all vestiges of the existing corrupt corporatocracy have been eradicated through the power of the ballot box.

70
Tacitus' Realm / Re: Occupy the Agenda
« on: November 23, 2011, 08:02:17 PM »
Quote from: "Ursus"
Quote from: "Wayne Kernochan"
Quote from: "Paul St. John"
Quote from: "Wayne Kernochan"
Bloomberg is an excellent mayor?

Bullshit

This city will spent 25 years recovering from this douchebag.


Who said anything about Bloomberg?
The article says he's an excellent mayor

 ::puke::
Perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but it seems to me like this section is primarily an observation of ironies, with possibly a certain amount of sarcasm involved. From the above NYTimes OpEd piece, emphasis added:


    The Occupy protests might have died in infancy if a senior police official had not pepper-sprayed young women on video. Harsh police measures in other cities, including a clash in Oakland that put a veteran in intensive care and the pepper-spraying of an 84-year-old woman in Seattle, built popular support.

    Just in the last few days, Bloomberg — who in other respects has been an excellent mayor — rescued the movement from one of its biggest conundrums. It was stuck in a squalid encampment in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park: antagonizing local residents, scaring off would-be supporters, and facing months of debilitating snow and rain. Then the mayor helped save the demonstrators by clearing them out, thus solving their real estate problem and re-establishing their narrative of billionaires bullying the disenfranchised. Thanks to the mayor, the protests grew bigger than ever.[/list][/size]

    The irony is as thick as molasses.

    71
    Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
    « on: November 23, 2011, 08:00:43 PM »
    Quote from: "Paul St. John"
    Justify this to me.  No quotes.. No stupid articles.. Use YOUR fucking brain!  and justify YOUR  chosen stance!

    Paul

    Paul, I am not sure what is your problem but I am not interested in engaging in verbal warfare. I started this thread with a article a friend of a friend emailed me. I even noted that it was confrontational. I was trying to drum up conversation for a critical situation happening in America right now. The occupiers and just regular people protesting the unequal distribution of wealth in this country right now. On several threads I have expressed my opinions on this very subject. I just don't think I am so right that I want to go around and became overly excited about my opinions.
    Good luck.

    72
    Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
    « on: November 22, 2011, 06:16:44 PM »
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opini ... .html?_r=1

    A version of this op-ed appeared in print on November 20, 2011, on page SR11 of the New York edition with the headline: Occupy The Agenda.


    Occupy the Agenda

    By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
    Published: November 19, 2011

    The Occupy protests might have died in infancy if a senior police official had not pepper-sprayed young women on video. Harsh police measures in other cities, including a clash in Oakland that put a veteran in intensive care and the pepper-spraying of an 84-year-old woman in Seattle, built popular support.

    Just in the last few days, Bloomberg — who in other respects has been an excellent mayor — rescued the movement from one of its biggest conundrums. It was stuck in a squalid encampment in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park: antagonizing local residents, scaring off would-be supporters, and facing months of debilitating snow and rain. Then the mayor helped save the demonstrators by clearing them out, thus solving their real estate problem and re-establishing their narrative of billionaires bullying the disenfranchised. Thanks to the mayor, the protests grew bigger than ever.

    I watched in downtown Manhattan last week as the police moved in to drag off protesters — and several credentialed journalists — and the action seemed wildly over the top. Sure, the mayor had legitimate concerns about sanitation and safety, but have you looked around New York City? Many locations aren’t so clean and safe, but there usually aren’t hundreds of officers in riot gear showing up in the middle of the night to address the problem.

    Yet in a larger sense, the furor over the eviction of protesters in New York, Oakland, Portland and other cities is a sideshow. Occupy Wall Street isn’t about real estate, and its signal achievement was not assembling shivering sleepers in a park.

    The high ground that the protesters seized is not an archipelago of parks in America, but the national agenda. The movement has planted economic inequality on the nation’s consciousness, and it will be difficult for any mayor or police force to dislodge it.

    A reporter for Politico found that use of the words “income inequality” quintupled in a news database after the Occupy protests began. That’s a significant achievement, for this is an issue that goes to our country’s values and our opportunities for growth — and yet we in the news business have rarely given it the attention it deserves.

    The statistic that takes my breath away is this: The top 1 percent of Americans possess a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

    A new study by Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely of Duke University polled Americans about what wealth distribution would be optimal. People across the board thought that the richest 20 percent of Americans should control about one-third of the nation’s wealth, and the poorest 20 percent about one-tenth.

    In fact, the richest 20 percent of Americans own more than 80 percent of the country’s wealth. And the poorest 20 percent own one-tenth of 1 percent.

    It would be easier to accept this gulf between the haves and the have-nots if it could be spanned by intelligence and hard work. Sometimes it can. But over all, such upward mobility in the United States seems more constrained than in the supposed class societies of Europe.

    Research by the Economic Mobility Project, which explores accessibility to the American dream, suggests that the United States provides less intergenerational mobility than most other industrialized nations do. That’s not only because of tax policy, which is what liberals focus on. Perhaps even more important are educational investments, like early childhood education, to try to even the playing field. We can’t solve inequality unless we give poor and working-class kids better educational opportunities.

    The Occupy movement is also right that one of the drivers of inequality (among many) is the money game in politics. Michael Spence, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who shares a concern about rising inequality, told me that we’ve seen “an evolution from one propertied man, one vote; to one man, one vote; to one person, one vote; trending to one dollar, one vote.”

    James M. Stone, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in a recent speech that many members of Congress knew that banks needed to be more tightly regulated, perhaps broken into smaller pieces.

    “So why was this not done?” he asked. “One obvious piece of the answer is that both political parties rely heavily on campaign contributions from the financial sector.”


    The solution to these inequities and injustices is not so much setting up tents at bits of real estate here or there, but a relentless focus on the costs of inequality. So as we move into an election year, I’m hoping that the movement will continue to morph into: Occupy the Agenda.

    I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook and Google+, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.

    73
    Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
    « on: November 22, 2011, 05:25:22 PM »
    "It is well that the people of the nation do not understand are banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a REVOLUTION before tomorrow morning."
     - Henry Ford

    "Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women their right to join the union of their choice."
    - Dwight D. Eisenhower

    "Were not from the left, were not from the right, were from the bottom and were coming for the top."
    - anonymous

    74
    Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
    « on: November 21, 2011, 07:36:54 PM »
    The Supercommittee Failed. Hooray!!!!!

    http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... _have.html

    Excerpt from article:
    Today’s the day when Washington officially comes to terms with the fact that the “Supercommittee”—a bipartisan, bicameral group charged with reducing America’s long-term fiscal deficit—won’t agree on anything. This is being termed a “failure,” and by the standards of D.C.’s fetishization of bipartisanship, it is one. But in terms of deficit reduction, failure is actually better than success.

    75
    Tacitus' Realm / Re: Tea Baggers Shut the fuck up.
    « on: November 21, 2011, 05:13:16 PM »
    Quote from: "Paul St. John"
    Personally, I think that the system will change, and I think that it will be in my lifetime.  I certainly hope so. I do not thinjk, however, that it will be due to the actions of thoise who refer to themselves as the 99%.  they lack direction, and sensibility.  Just to start, the location of the protest.  It should have been Washington. To me, in my mind, this is so clearly obvious, ande it just taints i9n my view, right off the bat, the credibility of this group, most of who in my opinion, at this point, are just looking for justification, to escape from life for awhile.  I also do not like the term "occupation". -LMAO!  I hope someone else picked up on that.  "Occupation" implies force, and militant action, and the truth is, that 99 percent of the punks, could never back such things up.  Additionally, does anyone else realise that while there a handful of people who live in the 99 percent, most of whom have earned it,  99 % of the 99% will no longer be in the 99 % in ten years.  It is ever fluctuating.  And if someone does succeed in getting the 99 percent, do they suddenly become evil?


    For it to really happen, will require first vision, and understanding, then persistence, and perseverence.. And will require the types of individuals, of which there are very few of on the earth- individuals who would probably never associate themselves, with these 99 percfent quacks. Anyone who thinks that a bunch of nearly meaningless protests is going to put an end to a machine that has been going for so long, is crazy.  

    Are there some real, real bad guys in politiocs?  Absolutly!  But do you think that they give a fuck about protests?  LOL!  hell NO!  They do not care if it is in the constitution or anything else.  The laws of the land serve one purpose and one purpose only to them. They use them to carry out their will.. that is it.  Corruption in the government goes so deep it is almost unfathomable.  Some of it is very, very intentional.  Some of it is well-meaning, but still leads to overall loss- great overall loss.  These are my thoughts anyway.

    But again, I do think that there will be a change in my lifetime. Unfortunatly, I do not know that everybody will be ready for it.

    Paul St. John


    Paul, I sense a lot of discontent here. I am not clear on why exactly you would not get behind the 99% but hey, you have your right. We can make change and will. Maybe as you said it will not be now or in a few years but I will not stand by as we are marginalized by the greedy and all powerful.
    I do believe in a person being able to build a company, flourish and reap the profits. So long as the person knows they did not do it all by themselves. The country they are living in participated, greatly.

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