Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Just say "No!" to the Wall St. Bailout Legislation!

Here is a "Call to Action" - compliments of:
http://www.votenobailout.org/

If you go to the site, you can have a form letter delivered to all your legislators, demanding that they balk at the blank check being demanded by Paulson and Bernanke.

You can also customize the letter to your liking, so I have attached my particular customized version for your perusal...


--- Text of Letter ---

Congress has no right to give the White House and its Secretary of the Treasury the power to transfer the people's money to the richest bankers in the country.

Vote No to the Bailout legislation.

The Bailout legislation is being rammed through Congress in a matter of days. This is an illegal power grab by the White House and their richest friends on Wall Street.

The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars.

If this legislation were to pass, it would constitute one of the biggest transfers of public wealth from working families to the private coffers of the ultra-rich in the history of the United States.

(Additionally, the "no judiciary review" clause in the bill is something that has been found unconstitutional time-and-time again, since the days of Marbury vs. Madison back in 1803!)

Congress should help families stay in their homes. Wealthy executives should be forced to disgorge their obscene profits, fees and bonuses that made them ultra-rich while they ran the economy into the ground.

This is nothing more than a publicly-funded bailout for private criminal recklessness, and there MUST be personal accountability on the part of those responsible.



Denver Flashback - Kucinich Rocked the Convention

In what probably *should* have been considered the keynote speech of the 2008 Democratic Convention, Ohio Representative and long-time Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich positively electrified the audience, bringing the crowd to its feet, causing those present to roar so loudly he had to yell into the microphone to be heard, and leaving the delegates cheering through the first part of the next speaker's remarks.

In the most spirited speech of the Tuesday session, now known as the "Wake Up, America!" speech, Kucinich railed against our illegal wars, the pitiful state of our economy and the Republican assaults on the Constitution and the Middle Class.

The text of the speech appears below, but please pay a visit to www.kucinich.us to see the amazing video footage, to sign on to an Impeachment Petition, or just to show some support for America's most courageous public servant.


--- Text of Speech ---

It's Election Day, 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake up call. Wake up America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy, and have added four trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt.

We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil, and twice what we paid for health care. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the President’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq's oil.

Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating this Administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children's inheritance and hollow out our economy. We can't afford it, America.

Wake up America, the insurance companies took over health care.

Wake up America, the pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up America, the speculators took over Wall Street.

Wake up America, they want to take your Social Security.

Wake up America, multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10 a gallon gasoline. The Oil Administration wants to drill more -- into your wallet.

Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost five to ten trillion dollars.

This Administration can tap our phones. They can't tap our creative spirit. They can open our mail. They can't open economic opportunities. They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline, and electricity skyrockets.

They skillfully played our post-911 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many. Everyday we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green.

Wake up America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left.

This is call for you to go from down to up.

Up with the rights of workers.

Up with wages.

Up with fair trade.

Up with creating millions of good paying jobs rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems.

Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment.

Up with health care for all.

Up with education for all.

Up with home ownership.

Up with guaranteed retirement benefits.

Up with Peace.

Up with Prosperity.

Up with the Democratic Party

Up with Obama - Biden

Wake up, America.

Wake up, America.

Wake up, America.