It's a comin'. :-D
Posted on 10/19/2011 6:09:31 AM PDT by randita
An OWS Working Group Committed to Elect a Non-Partisan National General Assembly
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.
1. Implementing an immediate ban on all private contributions of money and gifts, to all politicians in federal office, from Individuals, Corporations, Political Action Committees, Super Political Action Committees, Lobbyists, Unions and all other private sources of money to be replaced by the fair and equal public financing of all federal political campaigns. We categorically REJECT the concept that money is equal to free speech because if that were so, then only the wealthiest would have a voice. These actions must be taken 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 spend vast sums of money on political campaigns to influence the candidates’ decisions and ensure their reelection year after year.
2. The immediate reversal, even if it requires a Constitutional Amendment, of the outrageous and anti-democratic holding in the "Citizens United" case by the Supreme Court, which equates the payment of money by corporations, wealthy individuals and unions to politicians with free speech. We, the People, demand that institutional bribery and corruption not be deemed protected speech.
3. Prohibiting all federal public officials and their immediate family members, whether elected or appointed, from EVER being employed by any corporation they regulate while in office and/or holding any stock or shares in any corporation they regulate while in office until a full 5 years after their term is completed.
4. A complete lifetime ban on accepting all gifts, services, money, directly or indirectly, to any elected or appointed federal officials or their immediate family members, from any person, corporation, union or other entity that the public official was charged to regulate while in office.
5. A complete reformation of the United States Tax Code to require ALL citizens to pay a fair share of a progressive, graduated income tax by eliminating loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and deductions, subsidies (e.g. oil, gas and farm) and ending all other methods of evading taxes. The current system of taxation 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 income in taxes to the United States Treasury. We, like Warren Buffet, find this income tax disparity to be fundamentally unjust.
6. Medicare for all American citizens or other single-payer healthcare system, adjusted by a means test (i.e. citizens who can afford it may opt-out and pay their own health insurance or opt-in and pay a means tested premium). The Medicaid program, fraught with corruption and fraud, will be eliminated except for the purpose of providing emergency room care to indigent non-citizens who will not be covered by the single-payer program.
7. New comprehensive regulations to give the Environmental Protection Agency expanded powers to shut down corporations, businesses or any entities that intentionally or recklessly damage the environment and/or criminally prosecute individuals who intentionally damage the environment. We also demand the immediate adoption of the most recent international protocols, including the "Washington Declaration" to cap carbon emissions and implement new and existing programs to transition away from fossil fuels to reusable or carbon neutral sources of power.
8. Adoption of an immediate plan to reduce the national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020. Reduction of the national debt to be achieved by BOTH a cut in spending to corporations engaged in perpetual war for profit, the "healthcare" industry, the pharmaceutical industry and all other sectors that use the federal budget as their income stream AND a truly progressive income tax code that does not allow the wealthy and corporations to evade taxes through excessive deductions, subsidies and loopholes. 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 multinational and domestic corporations.
9. 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 and by putting People to work now by repairing America's crumbling infrastructure. We also recommend the establishment of an online international job exchange to match employers with skilled workers or employers willing to train workers in 21st century skills.
10. Student loan debt relief. Our young People and students are more than $830 billion in debt from education loans alone. Payment and interest on these debts should be deferred for periods of unemployment and the principal on these loans reduced using a corporate tax surcharge.
11. 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. 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 to counter the Military Industrial Complex's goal of perpetual war for profit.
13. 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, taking into consideration the redundancy caused by technology and the inexpensive cost of labor in China, India and other countries and paying our teachers a salary that is competitive with the private sector. Paying our teachers a competitive salary commensurate with the salaries of People in the private sector with similar skills.
14. 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 its citizens rather than outsource jobs and reconstruct the manufacturing capacity of the United States. In conjunction with a new jobs act, reinstitution of the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps and a similar emergency governmental agency tasked with creating new public works projects to provide jobs to the 46 million People living in poverty, the 9.1% unemployed and 10% underemployed.
15. Implementing of immediate legislation to encourage China and our other trading partners to end currency manipulation and reduce the trade deficit.
16. Immediate reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act and increased regulation of Wall Street and the financial industry by the SEC, FINRA and the other financial regulators, and the commencement of a Justice Department criminal investigations into the Securities and Banking industries practices that led to the collapse of markets, $700 billion bail-out, and financial firm failures in 2007-2008.
17. Adoption of a plan similar to President Clinton’s proposal to end the mortgage crisis and instead of the Federal Reserve continuing to lower interest rates for loans to banks who are refusing to loan to small businesses and consumers, the Federal Reserve shall buy all underwater or foreclosed mortgages and refinance these debts at 1% or less to be managed by the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and foreclosure task force described below) because 1% or less is the interest rate the Federal Reserve loans to the banks directly who hoard the cash rather than loan it to the People and small businesses.
18. An immediate one year freeze on all foreclosures to be reviewed by an independent foreclosure task force appointed by Congress and the Executive Branch to (in conjunction with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ) determine, on a case by case basis, whether foreclosure proceedings should continue based on the circumstances of each homeowner and propriety of the financial institution's conduct.
19. Subject to the above ban on all private money and gifts in politics, to enact additional campaign finance reform requiring free air time and public campaign finances to all candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to participate in the primaries and/or electoral process, to shorten the campaign season and to allow voting on weekends and holidays.
20. An immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and a substantial increase in the amount of funding needed for veteran job placement and the treatment of the physical and emotional injuries sustained by veterans in these wars. Our veterans are committing suicide at an unprecedented rate and we must help now.
Good point. Mrs. Eagle and I are no where near the 1% category and these people definitely do not speak for us.
...be nice or they will kick you out...
This is just a working draft.
Right! If the government gets to decide who gets funding, then the government will essentially be approving our candidates for us. Talk about the fox minding the hen house.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/home
The OWS’ers want to elect delegates for this convention, to petition the goverment a list of grievances.
First they are not 99%, this assumption is baseless and I am personally insulted by it. Some of what they are listing (the first four proposals, I’m in agreement with...number 5 sounds like quite similar to 999)
But they lose me after that, especially the EPA crap and so on.
Agree they are making a mistake trying to elect leaders of an amorphous ‘movement’. And they really really really need to clean up their act.
I need explaination on taxing them more but keeps jobs in America?
Public works? Shown to be the old army way of digging a pile of dirt just to create work.
The government does not grant our rights. There’s nothing antiquated about them.
It's a comin'. :-D
I think they are playing to the Ron Paul types who are, to some limited extent, falling for it. As you point out, the other 16 points are real deal killers even for the libertarians. At least I hope so.
This is pretty much Karl Marx dressed up in American Revolutionary rhetoric. This is not going to sell to anyone but a hard core Obama supporter and, of course, the twenty-somethings who are eating the Soros pizza.
Yeah, but the brilliance of this plan is that one person will get paid to dig the hole and then another person will get paid to fill it in.
This will DOUBLE job creation.
Sorry to be such a pest, y’all, but I don’t see any signatures on this Declaration or Constitution or Manifesto or whatever you want to call it.
This, alone, makes me smile.
Damn good idea. Why didn't somebody think of this before.
We can call it "Public Schooling" or some such thing.
Yeah, yeah. I know it sounds all pie-in-the-sky, wish-upon-a-star, Pollyannish and whatnot but, dagnabbit, I think it's worth a try!
I am curious why you think that the radicals who started this movement are being co-opted. Who is doing the co-opting? Surely you don't think this is a spontaneous uprising of some sort. Spontaneous uprisings in September don't start with GoDaddy registrations of websites in June.
You should take a look at what GoDaddy has to say about the OccupyWallStreet.org website. These people and their Soros related supporters are running the show. They are not being co-opted by anyone. They are Obama supporters and very likely just carrying out a major element of his re-election campaign.
Here is the GoDaddy info on OccupyWallStreet.org
Registrant:
Kalle Lasn
1243 7th West
Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 1B7
Canada
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: OCCUPYWALLSTREET.ORG
Created on: 09-Jun-11
Expires on: 09-Jun-12
Last Updated on: 27-Jul-11
Administrative Contact: Lasn, Kalle domains@adbusters.org
1243 7th West
Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 1B7
Canada
+1.6047369401
Technical Contact:
Lasn, Kalle domains@adbusters.org
1243 7th West
Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 1B7
Canada
+1.6047369401
Just an observation: Since McCain’s illegal limits on campaign contributions, the rinos and the DNC have taken over the country.
The socialists in both parties enjoy free and a limitless leftist media and entertainment campaign advertising.
Don’t you find it odd that this protest is targeting the same groups which the White House is targeting? Is it coincidence that a number of these declarations sound the same as White House talking points? The common thread of all these demands is that (more) government and regulation is the answer.
I don’t believe this movement is real, rather it seems to be a protest which was promoted and is supported by a certain campaign, in order to deflect blame while promoting another enemy to run against.
Time will tell.
Understood. Yes, this was set up from the start. Let me rephrase.. What I should have said is that a lot of idealistic, altruistic people have signed on, completely unaware thast they are being set up as pawns, useful idiots.
Then of course, you also have the strap-hangers, lost in space souls, criminals taking advantage, lunatics etc. falling into an incoherent bucket. Good luck with them electing ‘delegates’ for this supposed ‘convention’ planned for Philadelphia next year.
My plan is simple: Amend the US Constitution to remove (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) - The ‘commerce’ clause, from which all evil propagated by the Federal Government emerges. Kill it and you kill the evil.
Exactly. I couldn't have said it better myself. If this is not an Obama/Soros/Karl Marx sponsored movement I will eat my official Tea Party Member card for dinner.
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