Zoiks! Cranky Grandpa is back on the loose and he's looking to "scratch the back" of some of his biggest campaign donors, telcos.
As a side note (or 'rant' as many readers have been known to say ;) ), speaking only for myself but using the word 'America' to represent... well, myself and America -- America is SO sick and tired of business as usual in Washington, D.C., seriously. Not necessarily gun-totin' crazy pissed off crazy (though some few number are), but calculating crazy in the voting booth crazy -- voting AGAINST all obstructionists and do-nothings (hello, Congressman Yon Dung!) and voting AGAINST those that would choose corporations over unions and the little guy workers of America... voting them all out out OUT!
Change is a'comin', I can smell it. I can feel it. Very soon someone in high political office may get upset enough with all the stinkin' 'moneychangers in the temple' to start tossing them out. They're starting to do that with bailed out companies and bonuses by getting clawback from essentially majority publically owned companies (due to them still owing America both me AND the entire country). America is beginning to demand responsibility, accountability and mostly PAYBACK for all the monies we taxpayers LOANED these companies -- BEFORE they give out fat bonuses for failure. If these are new hires, not responsible for past mistakes then okay, but if these are rewards passed out to rats abandoning a sinking ship, that they themselves scuttled like pirates to pilfer for the booty -- then yes, I have a problem using taxpayer money to reward these pirates.
Though I'm clearly kidding by comparing through allusion the implications of Obama as 'a savior' or 'messiah' for America (this time the country and I suppose by extension even me), change DOES need to come starting with, as he was told to do by advisors from the outset, curtail and sharply regulate and control lobbyists. Corporate influence over D. C. must end in its entirety. 527 groups with 501(c)3 status eligibilty must always be and should always remain tightly controlled to only narrowly allow non-profits and their public members to form coalitions in order to access their representatives in D.C. in cases where people feel the cause needs to cary more clout and gravitas (and then by extension employ an actual living, breathing person to go 'lobby' the representative). This naturally carries more impact than that of a lone constituent sending a letter to their congressman or senator to discuss an issue. The bottom line is that it should all be done through non-profits with all elections publically funded to eliminate corporate control and undue influence on our government.
Yes, corporations are people too, but MONEY must be removed from the equation for us to be able to make good law based upon facts, science and reality. Reform the way Washington works FIRST and THEN Obama and his administration could really work through health care and labor issues and human rights issues and DADT and getting us out of bad wars while protecting America issues and &tc, ad infinitum. Ahem. Oh and he'd SO be able to take care of that nuclear non-proliferation thingy while he's at it, too. Here's to hoping Axelrod reads this. Ah screw it, maybe I'll just email him the link. ;)
TL;DR version for Dave: Change Washington, D. C. first, then change everything else to what is good for ALL the common citizens of America, not just a select few. P.S. -- KEEP NET NEUTRALITY!
-Laz
I agree with you except for one important point. Corporations are NOT people, even though the court decision back in Roosevelt's day involving the RR companies started this whole mess of corporations as citizens. Corporation CEO's cannot be sued individually. Until we remove or amend the provision of Corporations receiving the same consideration as "persons" but without the same consequences for actions; it only perpetuates the madness that is the Corp. mindset. - Hedgewytch
ReplyDelete