Tactics in the class war

It is critical the movements in this country stop looking to the failed Congress and Executive in Washington DC for solutions.  The solution to the corruption of the democratic system must come from grass root constitutional amendment  movements (CAM) within the separate states. 

KNOW THE ENEMY: The forces of reaction will try to sabotage this constitutional amendment movement (CAM) by adding restrictive amendments concerning the personal liberty of individuals to the CAM state's constitutional amendment slate (abortion, gay marriage) and this must be resisted by both the left and the right.  The slate of CAs must deal with the class war and only the class war.  That is, the class war on the poor and middle class by the oligarchy which seeks to usurp the democratic electoral process to protect corporate interests.

For instance, at the top, Bernie Sanders has proposed a constitutional amendment (CA) to redefine corporations as non persons.  And United Republic, a group designated by Dylan Ratigan to organize a corrective CAM, supports a Sanders type amendment and is using money donated to engage in this dead end waste of energy endeavor.  Thus are our efforts to make social change co-opted by the Congress of puppets.  This redefinition of corporations does nothing to change the root source of evil which lies in the corruption of Sander's brother and sister legislators who listen and act for only Big Money regardless of how the majority votes.  This one shot, top down CA will be quickly circumvented by Big Money as was the McCain/Feingold election reform act which led to the PACs satirized by Colbert.

This is the kind of CA slate that United Republic (a big money male left organization) ought to be organizing in the states.  The states through a process of Constitutional Conventions can initiate Constitutional Amendments.

Examples of a slate of CAs:

1.State and federal campaign financing reform, (no private money – period. Public air time – public funds)(Dylan Ratigan’s original petition and the one most of us signed.)

"No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office."

All PACs can be abolished and a series of free TV and media time given to all candidates for one year before the election.  No one but the candidate should be allowed to campaign on their behalf but they should have ample free access to media in order to explain their political plans to the electoric.

• 2.Blind trusts and stock and asset disclosure mandated for congress members and govt. employees,(re: Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison by Peter Schweizer)

• 3.Eliminating ALL congressional and regulatory contact with lobby money (including no revolving doors re: Capitol Punishment by Jack Abramoff ) except for information given at public hearings and in public documents released to the public.

• 4.Elimination of politicized gerrymandering,

• 5.No state or federal congress or executive exemptions from any law or regulation.

• 6. State ballot citizen initiatives rights so that the citizen public may petition, initiate, place on the ballot proposed legislation, vote and pass or reject legislation when their govt is unresponsive.

• 7. Politician's, staff's and govt. worker's benefits restricted to (use of) the public's “entitlements”.

• 8. No earmarked bills, that is, a bill shall be restricted to the matter under consideration and no member shall add unrelated amendments, earmarks or other matters unrelated to the original matter. Bills limited to 25 pages with related matter passed separately.

• 9. Executive shall have the right of the partial veto providing that entire sections are vetoed and the veto is not used to introduce provisions contrary to or not voted on by the members of congress.

• 10.  State public workers shall not collectively bargain with elected public officials but shall, where bargaining is permitted, negotiate with a board of residential property tax payers chosen by lots as juries are selected. This will prevent public unions from negotiating with those they organize to elect but rather they shall negotiate with those who actually are obligated financially by the bargaining process. Thus the balance of power will be restored as between government and taxpayers. Fed workers shall be restricted to entitlement benefits -  Medicare and Social Security.

11. No foreign entity shall be allowed to own any media in the US as a stockholder or otherwise, except that the media be clearly identified as a foreign corporation with foreign ownership.  At this time, FOX has Saudi princes as major shareholders and is owned by other foreign entities.  These interests are not now identified and under this amendment FOX would be registered as a foreign corporation and have on air declarations under their logo and verbally in their marketing. This amendment would apply to all media, print, radio, TV networks and internet.

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Here are amendments proposed by William Brown
http://www.petition2congress.com/5713/employment-compensation-congressional-representatives/



No member of Congress shall reside on any federal or other publicly owned land or in any federal or other publicly owned structure not determined as a proper residential facility by the United States Housing and Urban Development agency. No member of Congress shall reside in publicly owned housing facility unless rents and/or leases are paid at fair market value.

Any and all personal debt incurred by any member of Congress, public and or private, shall be the sole responsibility of that member of Congress. No member of Congress shall accept loans, gifts, services, monies and/or other compensation held as campaign or political contributions for himself/herself or other Congressional Representatives.

No member of Congress shall be allowed to take the oath office if public and/or private liens are held against him or her except personal credit debt. All members must be current with alimony and/or child support as documented by his or her home state as personal circumstances require.

Personal gifts of cash and/or in-kind services or products received by persons or representatives of for-profit and/or not-for-profit organizations not eligible to vote in his or her district or state shall be considered as income and taxed at its fair market value to be assessed by the Congressional Budget Office or other Non-Government Organization not affiliated with any member of Congress and/or his/her immediate family.



One paid day per month shall be allowed for sick leave, not transferable to the next year. Two paid days of vacation per month shall be given, not transferable to the next year. Unused sick days or vacation days shall not be exchanged for compensation.

All personal investments and real property not considered as his or her primary place of residence shall be held in a non-interest bearing blind trust account. No member of Congress or his or her immediate family members shall participate in the sale, purchase or other trade of stocks, bonds, commodities or other traded market products during their term of service as a member of the House Representatives or Senate. Members of Congress shall recuse himself or herself from debates, speeches, votes or other legislative actions that may benefit any family members directly or give the appearance of conflict of interest.

OASDI Trust Fund as required of all federal employees.

Any and all campaign and political contributions, cash or in-kind, remaining at the end of any direct election in which a candidate is not elected and/or at the end of each term of service as defined by the United States Constitution shall be surrendered to the U.S. Treasury. Any and all debt held as result of campaigning or accrued during the occupation of the seat shall be the sole responsibility of that member of Congress or non-elected candidate; they shall be allowed to solicit public assistance in debt restitution, any and all funds remaining after all debt is cleared shall be surrendered to the U.S. Treasury.

No law shall be passed that will exclude any member of Congress from laws and/or regulations except as those exclusions shall be enjoyed by all Americans.