Savvify

Never in the history of the United States has a Presidential Candidate or a President-Elect or much less a sitting President asked everyday citizens for input in making policy.  This idea is so new and innovative that even your congressperson has yet to embrace it.  While most congresspersons reject input from the public and will go to great effort to avoid it, our President-Elect has decided to embrace it.

Fellow citizens, President-Elect Obama is asking for your input on where this great nation should be going.  Yes it is true that not all your suggestion can or will be implemented.  However, it is possible some of your ideas can be combined with others and a win-win policy can be forged.  Now is the time to make your ideas known to the President-Elect.

Please remember that the transition staff is very busy and cannot answer every e-mail received.  But we have been assured that each e-mail received will be given appropriate attention by staff.

You may share your thoughts in general, or your hopes and dreams for the future or even your election night experience.

I just wrote in to share my vision for where President-Elect Obama should lead the country, and I thought you might want to do the same:

http://www.change.gov/yourvision

Just go to the above website and share your thoughts with our President-Elect.  I did.

The elections are behind us now and it’s time to commence problem solving.  Unfortunately the failed policies of President George Bush and the Republicans are still with us and will be with us for a while yet.

The Republican economic policy of trickle down economics is based upon the thesis that by making the rich more rich they will create an economic environment that is more stable and conducive to the creation jobs and wealth.

The last eight years of trickle down economics has shown us that is not the case.  Human nature demands that we look out for number one first and that of course requires us to hoard resources.

For eight years we have let the economic gap between the haves and the haves-not widen to never before seen proportions.  Government policies have allowed the CEO’s of medium to large companies amass huge salaries and benefits while requiring more and more of the common worker‘s resources be invested back into the system.

The recent bailout is not a cure. It is not even close to treating a symptom of the crisis that is destroying our great society.  It is in fact, adding to the problem.  The bailout is a trickle down solution proposed by the Republicans.  It is designed to protect the elite status of wealthy investors.

In order to solve the financial crises we must first define the root of the problem.  The real problem is not that wealthy investors are losing money.  The problem is not the real estate market. It goes much deeper than all that.  The real problem is that the middle class can no longer support the wealthy elite with the meager resources allocated to them.

When a company starts to lose money their first action is to cut a few jobs from the bottom of the company. As the company loses more money, more jobs are cut from the common labor force.  If a company continues to lose money, whole divisions or factories are shut down.  The purpose of making the cuts from the bottom up is to preserve the incredible salaries of the executives which can sometimes reach over 100 million dollars ($100,000,000.00) a year.

Note that the bailout does not require executives to take a cut in salary.  Much to the contrary, the bailout enables the executives to continue getting an obscene salary and living the lifestyle they have become accustomed to at the expense of the taxpayers.

Further more, the bailout does not require companies to hire more employees or even to offer to lend more money.  Thus the companies take the money and create nothing of benefit for society.  Their only purpose is to maintain the status quo of the executives.

BOTTON LINE we, the common man (taxpayer), are paying over $1,000,000,000,000.00 (one trillion dollars) just to keep a few company executives happy.

THE REAL SOLUTION is to define the problem truthfully.  Re-capitalizing
banks and other financial institutions is like giving a painkiller to a man with appendicitis, eventually the appendix will burst and kill the man. Treating the symptom without treating the underlying cause is a formula for disaster.

Banks and other financial institutions are under-capitalized.  That is to say they are really short of cash.  Other large business are also feeling squeezed.  But the problem is not that they are under-capitalized.  The problem is not that consumers are lacking in confidence. The real problem is that the wealthy elite have amassed their small fortunes while creating nothing of value.  In order for trickle down economics to work the wealthy have to invest heavily in society.  That has not been the case during the eight year reign of the Republicans.

Banks and other financial institutions receive money from three sources, stockholders (investors), borrowed money, and operations (sales).  Stockholders and lenders will not offer up their money without some sort of compensation (interest and profits). That does not appear to be the problem at this point.  Operations is the activity that the institution conducts in the normal course of business.  For banks and other financial institutions it is the loaning of money to the common citizen.  When a large portion of the common citizens cannot afford to repay the loans, the institution will suffer a drop in cash flow. Further more, all other business will also suffer because the common citizen will be financially unable to purchase other goods and services.

What causes the common citizen to not make the required payments on a loan?  The vast majority of citizens pride themselves in paying their debts.  However, as the wealthy elite require more and more of the company’s cash resource there is less and less to “trickle down” to the point where many citizens end up with no job.  The average citizen will allocate his resource with the following priority: food, shelter, transportation, medical, disposable income (the extras in life).  For many of our citizens without a job, food is as far as they get in their list of priorities.

This is not an isolated never before seen problem.  The United States and indeed even the world has been through this type of problem before.  The Great Depression in the 1930’s and to a lesser extent once more during the 1970’s.

Every time the cure was to lessen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.  Through government intervention during the financial crises the middle class is partially restored and the economy tends to right itself.  It has always been the middle class that carries the social burden.  The upper elite cannot contribute because it is beneath them to do so.  The street and homeless people physically and mentally cannot carry the burden. Therefore it is the middle class that must support and sustain our fragile economic system.

In the 1930’s FDR proposed the New Deal.  With thousands out of work he proposed the formation of the WPA (works progress administration).  Anyone wanting a job could have one even if the government had to create one for him.  However the government jobs were far from welfare.  The WPA built hundreds of government building, some of which are still in use today.  The WPA created thousands of miles of highways, hundreds of bridges were built. Even artists were commissioned to create works of beauty for the federal government. The government not only gave jobs to the middle class but more importantly it grew the infrastructure of the nation. It created something of value. And in the process gave back to its citizens the self respect they so richly deserved.

The early seventies (1973-1974) also witnessed the collapse of the stock market not only here but world wide.  Our own markets lost over 45% of their value.  And at the same time the oil crises reared its ugly head.  Unemployment shot up, interest rates were beyond belief, and long lines formed at the gas stations.

Again the government intervened, not by flooding the elite with money, but by bailing out the middle class who in turn bailed out the elite and the economy as a whole.  The WPA was revised under the name of “The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).  This program provided training and retraining for the hard core unemployed and also summer jobs for the nations youth.

History reminds us that we are a strong nation.  That we are a capable nation. And that most of the time we the people act in concert for the good of the nation.

The Republican answer to the financial crises at hand is the $1,000,000,000,000.00 (one trillion dollars) bailout of inept and possibly corrupt executives of major corporations.  The only real requirement for this handout is that you be one of the elite and that your ridiculously obscene salary be in jeopardy.

The bailout creates nothing of value.  The businesses receiving the funds are not required to hire staff. They are not required to put the money into operations.  The businesses receiving the money are not required to create anything of value.  In fact, the companies can just accept the money and use it any way they see fit, such as continuing to pay ridiculously obscene salaries to inept or corrupt executives.

VERY INPORTANT points here.  Any company asking for help from the government should be required to agree to the following rules:
1) No executive shall receive compensation in excess of 10 times the wages of the lowest paid employee.  2) All tax dollars invested in companies shall be used, 100%, in the company’s operations.

Just these two rules alone will insure that the bailout benefits those it was intended for - our nation as a whole.

The new President and the new Congress should be made aware that it is we the people that need bailing out, not the rich elite.  It is the middle class that bears the burden/responsibility of taking our nation into the future.

If and when every person that wants a job has one, there will be no home foreclosures.  If and when every person that wants a job has one, factories will run double shifts.  If and when every person that wants a job has one, car makers will put a new car in every driveway.  If and when every person that wants a job has one, banks will lend consumers money at reasonable interest rates.  If and when every person that wants a job has one, the profits of the big corporations will again support the ridiculously obscene salaries paid to inept or corrupt executives.  If and when every person that wants a job has one, we will once again enjoy the self respect we so richly deserved.

Authors note:  You have my permission to send this essay to President Elect Obama and more importantly to your Congressperson.

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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.
Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution.
http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11
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Several years ago I tried to explained to my daughter how race relations influenced my life.  I spoke to her about my younger days while I was in school and then my days as an organizer in the civil rights movement.

I explained to her that at one time we had separate schools. And that the goal of the school for minorities was to educate children just enough to read. And worse yet that when Brown vs. Board of Education  went into effect it became the goal of school counselors to encourage minority students to quit school at around the sixth through ninth grade.

I explained to her that in my school days talking Spanish on school grounds was punishable by expulsion and/or corporal punishment.  I told her about the time when I was in seventh grade and required to take a foreign language elective.  I elected to take Spanish. Well one day as we were filing into the classroom a friend shouted to me “Hola”, which is the Spanish word for Hello.  Naturally I responded with a resounding “Hola”.  My white friend  was not punished. I was given three whacks with a paddle in front of the classroom for talking Spanish in the hallway.

My daughter responded with “Oh Dad, that’s history”.  Down deep inside I cried a  tear.

At some point I tried to explain to my daughter about my work with organizations fighting for civil rights. I explained to her about organizations like LULAC, The American GI Form, NAACP, Image and MALDF, about the Mexican/American caucus in Austin.

My daughter looked at me and said “Dad, that doesn’t happen any more.” Down deep inside I cried a tear.

November 4, 2008 ABC’s Charles Gibson said “the polls in California have closed and ABC News  will now project that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States”.  A black man had just been elected President of the United States, I cried a tear.

I cried a tear for all we had just lost. The bigotry, the lies, the hate. All gone. My daughter was right, it is just history now. Every thing we did, the boycotts, the marches, the demonstrations, the sit ins all were history.  My youthful actions of civil disobedience at last vindicated and I cried a tear.

I am still crying as I make note of this memory.  But they are tears of joy and relief.  My daughter and your sons and daughters will never know the feeling of being a second class citizen.  Yes I cried a tear.

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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.
Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution.
http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11
Save $$ on gas here

Sound the alarm, the Hypocrites are coming!  Women and children first, hide, run, find safe haven! Save your self! What are we to do they are everywhere!

The Hypocrites are among us. That is a fact.  We see it everyday on the news, on the television, on the internet.  There is no escaping it, there is no safe place.  Soon they will assimilate each and everyone of us.  Resistance is futile.

How can we identify the Hypocrites?  How can we protect ourselves from the Hypocrites?  Is there a magic bullet?  Once infected, is there a cure?

Identifying a Hypocrite is fairly simple.  Just watch and compare the spoken words with the actions of your leaders. I know that sounds to simple to work but yes it does work.  In fact here are a few examples.

Sarah Palin is a frugal person.  She knows how to get the most value for your tax dollar.  That is very true.  She spent $150,000.00 (one hundred fifty thousand dollars) just on clothes, makeup and salon charges just to get started on her campaign.

Sarah Palin represents the common man and woman.  This is also true.  Sarah Palin is just like you and me.  She and her family are just like Joe the Plumber and Windy the Waitress.  Well except that her income last year was over $4,000,000.00 (four million dollars) while Joe the Plumber only made about $40,000.00 (forty thousand) and Windy the Waitress only made about $15,000.00 (fifteen thousand).

John McCain says he knows the pain we feel.  He admits he also feels the pain.  He knows what it feels like to have no job.  He admits to knowing what it feels like to not have food for your kids.  He admits that he knows the pain of having your home in foreclosure. He also admits to declaring over $4,000,000.00 (four million dollars) in income last year.

Both McCain and Palin fear that the United States is going to end up a Socialist Country.  When people start to talk about “spreading the wealth around” John and Sarah are there to protect us from Socialism.  Government should not be about helping Joe the Plumber or Windy the Waitress. An action like that could be defined as Socialism.  Instead lets give the money to large corporations.  Subsidies for big business such as oil and farming, is not Socialism.  Only when the business or person needs the subsidy can it be defined as Socialism.

Protection?  Protection from what?  There is no protection from ourselves.  We the people know how to protect ourselves.  It is within our reach, it is our birth right.  Magic Bullet??  YES there is one. Is there a cure?  Yes the magic bullet offers a permanent cure.  But as with all simple things it is very difficult to use.  We each have a magic bullet.  But for it to work we must use it.  Where is the magic bullet?  It’s in your wallet.  It’s called a voter registration card.  Use it or lose it!

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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.
Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution.
http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11
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Most surveys ask or try to measure how smart we think we are.  This essay reverses the question and assumes that we know we are gullible and attempts to measure to what degree we allow the gullibility to advance. At what point does gullibility become stupidity?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines stupid as:
Adj:     Slow to learn or understand; obtuse. Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.  Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless: a stupid mistake, dazed, stunned, or stupefied. Pointless; worthless: a stupid job
n.     A stupid or foolish person.

As November 4, 2008 nears we allow ourselves to become more and more gullible to the point that stupidity takes over. As the definition of stupid states we become slow to learn, make poor decisions and allow foolishness to take over our better senses.

Here are some prime examples.  90% of the voting population wants all incumbent congressmen voted out.  Why? Because if in all this time that they have been there they have not fixed the problem they are not going to fix it with one more term. In fact, they have become part of the problem.  That is - all but their congressman.

Yes it’s true! It’s everyone else’s congressman that is the problem; not mine!  So what if mine takes money from lobbyists.  So what if mine votes for pork. So what if my congressman votes against everything I believe in.  He is my  congressman and deserves another chance.  Your congressman is the problem and has to go, period, end of discussion!

An even stronger example of the above is the fact that most congressmen under investigation for wrong doing or even worse, indictment or even worse than worse, being tried by a jury for wrong doing are far ahead of their opponents in the polls.  We (me and you - six-pack Joe, Ed the dairyman, Wendy the waitress, Democrat or Republican, etc) just don’t get it.

We hear only what we want to hear.  We hear our congressperson say “I am going to solve the energy problem for you”. We hear “Don’t worry, I will protect your 401K”.  We hear “No new taxes”. We hear what we want to hear.  We forget that these are the same lies we were told during the last election; not only the same lies but they are being told by the same people that have failed us so badly.

The naked unadorned truth is that any, I say again, any, politician that makes a promise is lying.   No person can predict the future.  There are 100 Senators in the Senate and 435 Representatives in the House of Representatives. No one alive today can predict how each of those persons will vote on any future issue. So to say I alone will convince all those people to vote for something I want is to tell a lie.

The trick is to listen.  Senator McCain said he will “freeze spending”.  Then he said he will increase spending for certain pet projects such as research into autism among others.  I want to know how you can freeze spending yet increase funding for pet projects?

And while we are at it Senator Obama is no different.  He promises to increase spending while lowering taxes.

The battle cry of the incumbents this election year is “Re-elect me and I will fix what is wrong with Washington!”

Verily I say unto the incumbents “You had your chance! What were you doing all these years in office? Yes you had your chance and more.”

Senator McCain racked up 26 long years in public service.  Now he says he will change the Washington culture of doing what is in the best interest of each elected official.  Senator McCain - read my lipstick: 16 years is a long time to be asleep at the helm.  Where were you when this country needed you?

Senator McCain also says “I’m going to make government live on a budget, just like you do.”  Read the sentence carefully. Did he say on a budget that is within our income? NO!  He said “…a budget…”. It may not be a balanced budget or a budget within our means, just a budget.

If I had a dollar for each person that has pledged to not vote for any incumbent I could retire very comfortably.  In fact with that many people pledging not to vote for an incumbent all my family up to and including my sixth cousins could retire very comfortably.

I continue to follow the campaigns very carefully.  I still see no reason to vote for any congressional incumbent.  I still see no reason to vote for Senator McCain.  Join me in pledging not to vote for any incumbent.  Please add your name and state to the comment section below stating your pledge.
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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.
Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution.
http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11
Save $$ on gas here

For eight years now the Republicans have owned the mantra Family Values.  They have pushed it and sold it to the American people for untold quantities of political gain.

The entire time the Republicans were pushing family values they themselves were without values.  They appear to have given so much of it away that they had none left for themselves.

Trent Lott was forced to resign from the Senate in disgrace. His resignation from the Senate came just two days before the federal indictment of his brother-in-law trial lawyer Richard Scruggs. Scruggs plead guilty to conspiring to bribe a Mississippi Judge by promising him a federal judgeship appointment using his influence over Lott.

Newt Gingrich also pushed family values.  Gingrich knew very well what family values were all about because having been married three times he himself had three families.  First he married his high school math teacher, which he divorced while she was bedridden with cancer. Six months later he married Marianne Ginther. While married to Marianne Ginther he had an affair with Callista Bisek.  He later divorced Marianne Ginther and married his mistress Callista Bisek.

Tom DeLay also a proud sponsor of family values and morals had no morals when it came to political wheeling and dealing.  He regularly employed a method know as “catch and release”.  Using this method DeLay would count the votes needed to pass a bill then would allow certain members of his party to vote against it so that they could remain in the good graces of the public back home.

Tom DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury on criminal charges related to campaign finance laws. Tom has the distinction of being the first congressional leader ever to be indicted while holding that office.

Now comes John McCain. A Republican and pusher of family values.  Yes, John McCain knows first hand the importance of family values.  Besides being involved in some very questionable behavior with the Keating 5 McCain brings to the Republican party, and the Republican Party accepts, a former mistress as a potential first lady, the concept that teen pregnancy and illegitimate children are private family values, a Vice-Presidential candidate that can see Russia from her doorstep and this fact alone qualifies her for Vice-President, and now the idea that nationalizing our banking system and nationalizing certain big businesses is good for the country.

John McCain hero, savior, an outstanding example of family values, the man who cheated on a wife who remained faithful to him throughout his five years in a war prison.  The presidential candidate who promised to run a clean campaign with a focus on the issues and no mud slinging.

John McCain, conservative family values.  Not a hypocrite, just trying to win an election by any means possible, legal or illegal.

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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.
Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution.
http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11
Save $$ on gas here

As if things could not get any worse, now the Bush administration wants to nationalize the banks. Could this be his way of making sure his friends keep on getting those ridiculously high bonuses for running companies into the ground?

This really sounds like something Hugo Chavez of Venezuela would be doing. Could it be that President Bush has taken a page from the play book of the Venezuelan Dictator? Anyone want to place a bet on how long before we have martial law here in the United States?

Mexico, a third world country, experienced something similar in the last century. The ruling party PRI (pronounced Pree) managed to remain in power for over 70 (seventy) years. Although presidential elections were held every six years the PRI always managed to win over the opposing party (PAN). This was due to the undisputable fact that election fraud was the standard in this third world country. Additionally, it can be said that most of the citizens aided and abetted the fraud and intimidation that accompanied each election.Some in the hopes of gaining a crumb of the pie (trickle down economics?) and others from fear of retaliation.

Today I fear we are losing our country. I see the ruling elite taking everything that can be taken. I see our government making every effort to place every thing of value we might have into the hands of the ruling elite. Just yesterday, after learning that part of the bailout handed to AIG went to pay for one big party for the executives of the company; a party that cost over $400,000.00 (four hundred thousand dollars) our ruling elite again handed AIG another bailout to the tune of $37,500,000,000.00 (37.5 billion dollars).

History is a great teacher. If we look at the history of other nations we can see what is happening here at home. First, create a national emergency and set yourself up as the savior, the hero. Secondly, take control of the political system as much as possible. Thirdly take as much of the wealth as you can possibly take without drawing suspicion to yourself. Fourthly, nationalize as much of the private sectors as possible. This adds to your power and wealth. And fifth, as the savior and wealthiest member of this corrupt system set yourself up as the “de facto” dictator.

Are we in line for a dictatorship? Remember that a dictatorship need not appear to be one on the surface. Mexico had a party that stayed in power and ruled for over 70 years. The Bush administration may very well pass the torch on to a “leader” of his choice. In plain English, is it possible that McCain/Palin have already been anointed by the powers that be and there is nothing we can do to stop it?

Assuming that voters turn out in mass on election day and the Democrats lose by a small margin or god forbid the Democrats take the popular vote and lose the electoral vote what then? What will that say about our nation. Our form of government? Our citizens? Its time to act.

I suggest you write your congressperson and demand accountability. Express, clearly and succinctly, the idea that unless they take responsibility and act now they will not have a job come November.

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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.

Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution. http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11

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In a ABC News headline it is revealed that Executives of AIG partied with the money from the bailout made possible by the stupid American taxpayers.  $440,000.00 or nearly half a million dollars were spent on one big party only days after the stupid American taxpayers gave AIG $85,000,000,000.00 (eighty-five billion) of their hard earned money.

The news article, which may be read in full is located here http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5973452&page=1
The following is the first three paragraphs of the news article.

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“After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort

Rescued by Taxpayers, $440,000 for Retreat Including “Pedicures, Manicures”

By BRIAN ROSS and TOM SHINE
October 7, 2008

Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, Congressional investigators revealed today.

“Rooms at this resort can cost over $1,000 a night,” Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) said this morning as his committee continued its investigation of Wall Street and its CEOs.

AIG documents obtained by Waxman’s investigators show the company paid more than $440,000 for the retreat, including nearly $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges. “
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The above report shows just how stupid the American people are.  Additionally the American taxpayers are so stupid that almost half are calling for “4 more years of the same”.  The other half are star struck and believe that changing which political party is in the White House will eliminate the greed of the ruling elite.

While the ruling elite were having parties in rooms costing over $1,000.00 per night, the stupid taxpayers paying for it all were in the process of losing their homes.  The ruling elite dined on expensive fish eggs and lobster with white wine paid for by the stupid taxpaying parents of thousands of little children going to bed hungry.  Far better for your child to go hungry than for an elite citizen to do without lobster.

I know it is disgusting to say and hear but we have degenerated into a third world country where only the ruling elite can function normally.  I remember as a young man I used to cross the Mexican border into Mexico.  There, close to the bridge little boys around 7 or 8 years old would come running to me and say “Hey Mister, you fuck my mother? She is a virgin”.

How stupid of me not to see that my life has come full circle.  Why, just yesterday I heard a neighbor say to me, “Hey Mister, you vote for my candidate?  He is an honest politician“.

Yeah Right!!!
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Pancho Villa - a bleeding heart liberal Revolutionary.
Work with nature - plant a tree for more oxygen and less pollution.
http://www.saintdiva.com/page.php?11  Save $$ on gas here