Stop Forcing Taxpayers to Subsidize Outsourcing American Jobs

I’m OUTRAGED that American taxpayers are asked to pay to ship our own jobs overseas, thereby subsidizing big businesses that won’t even bring their profits from these jobs back into America. Sad to say, it reminds me of the Nazis forcing the Jews to dig their own graves before killing them. 

Congress has repeatedly refused to end these deductions. My purpose is to force President Obama and Congress to pass a bill that would eliminate any and all tax deductions given to businesses for shipping American jobs overseas. My goal is to get ONE MILLION signatures on the petition, and hopefully, to enlist Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, to support this effort and deliver the petition to President Obama himself. I'm also contacting Senator Bernie Sanders, a true champion for American workers, to see if he would be interested in sponsoring the bill in Congress.

The purpose of the petition is to address a single item that I believe will have a tremendous impact on creating jobs in America and stemming the flow of jobs going overseas.  I want a Congressional bill that has one single purpose, to eliminate the tax deduction(s) to businesses for creating jobs overseas. 

I'm hoping to enlist the help of Ed Schultz, a great supporter of the American worker and  Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, to aid me in this effort by getting the word out and building support for this movement. Both have large audiences and I believe every worker will agree with this idea.  I want to put everyone in Congress on record as to whether they support forcing taxpayers to pay for shipping their own jobs overseas, or do they stand with American workers.

What I am looking for right now is your opinion on this idea. I appreciate any and all comments. Meanwhile I will be working on the actual wording of the petition. I will update this blog and post a link to the petition as soon as I have it in place.

Pause for the Cause

15 minutes that can change our world

Are you fed up with all the crap going on in Washington, D.C. and your own State legislature? Tired of politicians who have sold their votes and our country to the highest bidder?  See no hope for the average person in the “new economy”?  It’s time to return to “of the people, by the people, for the people”.

I believe there might be a way to get our elected officials to listen to us. To make legislators realize we understand what they’re doing, we don’t like it, and we are not going to let them get away with it!

I suggest a simultaneous, nationwide, 15-minute work stoppage/strike.  Ideally, every single person would just stop working and walk out of the building. If you aren’t working at that time, walk out of your house, walk out of the mall, or park your car/truck and join the protest.  Signs would be a bonus.

Stop ALL business in this country, even for a few minutes, and I believe our elected officials will get the message. There will be a HUGE impact! The people make this country run, NOT the corporations stealing all our tax dollars.

It’s a simple concept, easy for everyone to participate. The hardest thing is getting the word out to every person in this country.

To do:

set a date (how about April 15^th?)

set a time (during working hours, coordinate time zones so impacts business hrs)

get the word out (If we get enough people interested, I hope/think it will generate its own publicity.)

JUST DO IT!

Let’s Get This Progressive Party Started!

This morning (Feb. 14)  I came across an article by Johann Hari in The Nation titled “How to Build a Progressive Tea Party” http://www.thenation.com/article/158282/how-build-progressive-tea-party   I really encourage you to read the article and then join the movement! You can read all about the ideas behind the movement at the home page of the actual grassroots organization at http://www.usuncut.org/  This idea is based on what’s been happening in Great Britain. 

I’m sold!  I’ve been waiting for a movement like this for years!  Although, I really don’t like the phrase “Tea Party” being involved.  Just pure Progressive is good for me.

You can follow this group on Twitter @USUncut , and find many more like-minded individuals.  The first protest is scheduled for Saturday, February 26 at Bank of America locations around the country and in Great Britain.  This movement is just organizing in the U.S. as of today, so there are not a lot of announced sites, but I’m sure if you follow there will be more details.  Why not organize a local USUncut and start some planning?

p.s. I’m trying to convince my husband I should start USUncutAZ, but he’s vigorously opposed.  We’ll see… 

GOP Campaign 2010 – Hate!

What is this, the GOP year of Hate? I guess their plan to put fear into the heart of every person in America is actually working. Of course, at the top of their Hate List is President Obama. Their Hate List continues with Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, “the gays”, the poor, the unemployed, the homeless, the old, the sick, the bleeding-heart liberals, progressives, education (at least for poor people), the minimum wage, any regulation that prevents them making a dime (think EPA, FDA, OSHA, SEC, MMMS, etc.), unions, and, let us not forget, the Veterans. (Even though the GOP loves a good war, they don’t want to be bothered with any messy collateral damage.)  Did I miss any?

Turns out I did miss a few.  They also hate environmentalists, the ACLU, community organizers, Democrats, and apparently all Government (except for their own, of course).

Come on! The GOP claims Jesus belongs to their party!  Their form of Christianity is very strange to me. It’s not like anything I've ever been taught. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? Doesn’t it seem like they worship the Golden Idol just a little too much? Why is it the “right-to-lifers” savor a good war and embrace the death penalty?

Beck better cool it with the God stuff. The Fundamentalists are already pushing back because they don’t believe the LDS are true Christians, the Mormons just might be next on the hate list, which would bode ill for Romney and his bid for 2012.  The Fundamentalists might put up with a Mormon, but would never follow one.

Does it seem to you that the women in the GOP, while suddenly plentiful, are more “front men” [sic] rather than solid legislators with strong backgrounds in public service. But they do make good-looking puppets for the men who actually control the Party. Fundamentalists want their women back in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant and ignorant. When you think about it, turning the Country over to Fundamentalist Christians is not much different from turning Afghanistan over to the Taliban.  It's obvious why it is important to keep a separation of Church and State.

When did “tolerance” become a bad word? Or “social justice” become a social disease? When did a trust fund you paid into all your working life become an “entitlement” which you are stealing from your country? Progress used to be the American ideal – now a “Progressive” is a demon from Hell spreading plague and despair. Apparently “Liberal” equates to “Commie” just waiting to suck all the money from the wealthy.

Well, the GOP plan of fear is working on me.  I'm terrified the Republicans will regain control. You think the Recession is bad now?  Count on sliding into the Second Great Depression, and there will be no social programs to help you.  You don't deserve any help. You're stupid and lazy or you would compete with the illegal aliens for those plum jobs.  If you were smart, you'd be rich!

You might like to check out this article on Right Wing Radicals: http://tinyurl.com/289ot8u

Boycot Companies Outsourcing American Jobs

Even through we are "the little people", collectively we can have a major impact on the bottom lines of the large corporations sending American jobs overseas. It's time we start boycotting these companies!!!  A list of major offenders can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2fmxnox

Call it the "People's Action Plan" for Job Creation.

Let's hit them where it hurts!!!

Stop the Flow of American Jobs to Foreign Countries

It is possible to stop the flow of American jobs out of the country.  I propose the following as possible ways to slow down, if not stop American job losses:

First, companies that ship jobs out of the country should pay 100% of the unemployment benefits for each layed off worker until he/she finds a new job...NO time limits. 

Second, employers would have to pay an "export tax" equal to the difference in one year's pay (including benefits) between the American and foreign employee for each job moved out of the country for at least five years.

We just need to make it more profitable to keep jobs in the United States.

One final note, Green Cards should not be issued for high tech workers unless every American college graduate has a job.  Companies employing these high tech workers should pay a tax for each Green Card worker every year that worker is employed equal to the difference between what they pay foreigners and what an American worker earns.

Maybe these ideas would help to stop the hemorraging of American jobs.  If only we could get our politicians off big business' payroll.

Last Update on Wounded Bobcat

Still no sign of the wounded bobcat. Today Southwest Wildlife came and retrieved their trap. I guess it was needed somewhere else. It just makes me very sad, I had such hope he would be caught and treated. Now I am left with nothing but worry.

I just don't know what to think. Is he lying somewhere in pain, unable to move? Has he fallen prey to a pack of coyotes? Or, has one of the gunshots I hear occasionally found a furry target? By the way, it is illegal to shoot a gun in this area, but there are many out here who feel they have the right to shoot anything they see. Don't even get me started on the shooting! I hate guns on a good day.

I just hope "Poor Baby" isn't lying somewhere dying a slow, painful death. It makes me crazy that there's nothing I can do about it. Any ideas?

Demise of the Republican Party

The current consensus is that the Republican party is falling apart. Yea!!! Maybe that's because rational people no longer identify themselves as Republican. The Republicans are frantically looking for some new "talking point" to suck people in. What a balancing act! They have to appeal to the crazies they already have and find new people with very narrow minds to believe in their "righteousness".

All that's left in the shreds of the GOP are 1) the top 1%, driven by greed and power; 2) the "Christian" fundamentalists and their religious zeal; and 3) the last remaining racists. They are going to have to come up with something very controversial and divisive to add to their fold and yet manage to retain those they have.

A Republican analyst was saying Mitt Romney is probably the current front runner to be the next GOP candidate, but he would have to learn to be a better actor. Then he immediately threw up Ronald Reagan as the most popular President. Just proves my theory that Republican Presidents are not "the deciders", but are mere puppets of the RNC and the super wealthy, who are really controlling our country and economy. Palin is only a passing consideration, fair as an actor, pretty enough to get the male vote, and willing to do anything to grab power. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to have the mental capacity to deal with intelligent people.

My hope is that the majority of people will look at what drives the Republican party and decide they don't want to be associated with the amoral, narrow minded, bigots that comprise the GOP.

Bobcat Update

Cole, from Southwest Wildlife, came out yesterday evening and placed a humane trap, baited with a dead chicken (yuk!) in a dry wash near our home. I checked the trap before dark yesterday, and again at daybreak this morning. But, alas, somehow the wily beast has managed to elude capture!

I'm worried about him even more now. What if he can no longer walk? I spent about a half hour looking for him, but no luck. It's very windy today, I will put on a heavier coat and go back out. He would have so many great places to hide. As I walk over the rocky ground I get a new appreciation for the pain he must be suffering walking on his wound. Crushed granite is very sharp.

I have reason to believe he is still alive. As gruesome as it sounds there have been no vultures or ravens hovering. And, I'm pretty sure I would smell something. When something dies out here, I can really smell it, horrible as it is.

Wounded Bobcat

I want to thank everyone for their caring responses to my injured bobcat Tweet. There's a picture to the right. That rather pinkish spot toward the bottom of his hind leg is actually bone. He walks on that bone while the bottom half of his leg drags behind. It's so gruesome. He must be suffering terribly.

I finally reached a wildlife rescue, Southwest Wildlife, that will come out to capture and treat "him". (I think I've named him "Poor Baby"). I'm currently waiting for "Jerry" to come (possibly not until tomorrow) and put out a "Have-A-Heart" trap so they can catch him. I'm told if the injury is too bad, or too old, they will have to amputate his leg, in which case they will keep him at the sanctuary for the rest of his life. That will be so sad, but I can only hope it's better than a slow, painful death.

A really down note to an otherwise joyous day.

Genocide in Darfur

For more than five and a half years the people of Darfur have lived under a brutal reign of terror. The government-sponsored genocide has taken hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and driven more than 2.5 million from their homes. In 2008 alone, violence forced more than 230,000 civilians to flee—sometimes as many as 1,000 per day!

Strong action from the next president can bring peace and protection to the people of Darfur. That's why the Save Darfur Coalition is bringing together people from all faiths and political beliefs to raise their voices and call for Darfur to be a Day One priority for the next president.

Be a Voice for Darfur. Go to www.AddYourVoice.org to send your postcard to the new president, demanding that this humanitarian crisis be a Day One priority in the White House. Add your voice today!

Voter Suppression by Republicans

A Republican crusade is occurring in every state across the country, concentrated in the "toss-up" states. Please read this article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he explains this outrage much more eloquently than I can. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote

This article gives all the nasty facts and details of the Republican strategy to steal another election. It makes me wonder just how "free" we really are, and just how much our vote really counts.

I hope the media keeps an intensely vigilant eye on voting "irregularities" during this election. Hopefully, the glare of public scrutiny, will keep them honest this time.

McCain/Palin Fostering A Divided Nation

We all make choices. McCain and Palin have chosen to open Pandora's box. They have decided to tap into everything that is vile in people. As the fable goes, they will never be able to put the hate and fear they are propagating in this country back in the box.

It is a pathetic situation for anyone to stir up this bitter ugliness in their quest for power. But as McCain and Palin profess to be qualifed to lead this country, the only thing they are proving is that they know how to divide the people of this country and stir up the dark elements of hatred we thought we had overcome in the last 45 years or so.

The thing that saddens me most is that they wrap it up in a religous fervor. It seems to me that man uses religion for his own ends. But I want to believe all the things I was taught as a child. God is color blind. How do these righteous religous people justify their hate?

We Need A "New" Business Plan

As I see it, the problem is that businesses (whatever their size) aren't interested in the future, they don't try to grow a solid business that will sustain itself and its employees into the future. The current strategy is for the individual(s) at the top of a company to pull out as much money as possible from the business, even before repaying the company's debt. These individuals don't reinvest their profits into the business to make it grow and prosper, they take the profits to acquire personal wealth (=power).

It is not sound economic strategy, but as long as they get rich, who cares? There are laws to regulate every aspect of our personal lives. Maybe there needs to be laws to enforce sound business models/principles on these companies. Conservatives only want "deregulation" on businesses, but not on our personal lives, we are animals to be controlled. Only the wealthy and the religous zealots know the right way for everyone to live, and only they deserve to be free to live as they please.

It seems to me that everyone, Government and businesses included, would save a whole lot of money (and reduce the size of Government) by simply throwing out the entire tax code and applying a flat tax to everyone, possibly through a national sales tax. That way you would only pay taxes when you spend your money, and you are not penalized for earning and saving. Everyone pays the same rate, (luxury items could have a higher rate, no tax on first home). People under a certain income level would be exempt from the tax. Cut out all the paperwork, and the people who have to handle the paperwork from record keeping, preparation, govt. handling, and distributing refunds, and giving the Government the "right" to seize your property if you can't, or don't pay. This may be a free country, but we all pay through the nose for that "freedom".

Anyway, just some of my thoughts on what got us into this mess.

Criminals: Paulson, Bernanke, Greenspan, and Congress

As we look to discover the real root of the financial crisis, I have to believe that, ultimately, Paulson and Bernanke are where the buck stops.

The following is a comment put on the Anderson 360 blog from Tom Kelley, Oct. 9 (I hope this isn't violating a law)

"As to your list of culprits: The Federal Reserve needs to be very high on the list of culprits. They are chartered to assure the stability of the monetary system, achieving full employment, stable prices, and steady economic growth. They act independently, but answer to Congress (and are audited by the Congress). They (and their Reserve Bank System) are responsible for auditing banks operating within the US. If, as part of their audits, they could not see the poor loan practices and rein them in, then their several-thousand strong agency is not performing their duty. Mr Bernanke and his organization were asleep at the switch.

Certainly, any given company’s defective practices or bloated bonuses may contribute to the problem, but with a problem as systemic and pervasive as this appears to be, the real culprits must be the either the architects or operators of the system – this, in both cases is the Federal Reserve and the Congress to which it answers."

I agree so wholeheartedly with these statements! Yea Tom for saying it so sucinctly! Although I do think Paulson, even before he was Secretary of the Treasury, was one of the architects of this whole financial system failure.

And let us not forget Alan Greenspan this is his legacy.

McCain Promoting Hate and Fear!

I am absolutely astounded that McCain is using a smear and fear campaign to win the White House. Living in Arizona, I knew he had no integrity, but to intentionally stir up hatred and fear throughout this country for his own gain is beyond unscrupulous! Why is the news media not repeatedly mentioning all McCain's ties to anti-semetic and racist groups every time they report McCain and Palin tying Ayers to Obama? McCain's tactics of inciting fear, hatred and violence are despicable, and could tear this country apart!

The Navy refused to make McCain an Admiral, so he quits the Navy. Maybe Conservatives should listen to the experts. He wasn't fit to lead in the Navy, and he certainly isn't fit to lead this country...most especially in a time of crisis!

Obama is looking more in-control and reasonable all the time. Hopefully, McCain's supporters will wake up and smell the stinking tactics of McCain/Palin before they vote.

Our Government has Sold Out America!!!

Today may be the saddest day of my life. Today is when I realized the lies they have told us about the function of Government. Our elected leaders are controlled by lobbyists, and only worry about how they "appear" to their voters. Today is when our economic policy demonstrated that the rich matter, and we're just the slaves to provide the money for their whims and schemes. We're just suckers for the rich to pluck.

One Congressman said "we will just have to learn to live within our means". Especially if the bailout results in the loss of your job. You will learn to live on nothing. If your job is connected to the Defense Department you will probably lose your job...I've already lost mine, and my husband is only 3 months away from the end of his contract. There are no more defense jobs.

The 800,000+ jobs lost so far this year aren't coming back! These jobs have been shipped overseas, and as long as our Government gives employers a tax break for it, this trend will grow. We'll all be willing to work for a lot less now so we can complete with the enforced child labor of a third world country. The American Dream died the second we woke up from this nightmare on Wall Street....and the worst is yet to come!

McCain Aspires to be Dictator!!!!

McCain gave an interview to the Des Moines Register and actually said "he aspires to be Dictator"!!! Read the story, and watch the clip at http://tinyurl.com/436tkr

No Bailouts Act

Be sure to check out an alternative to the obscene bailout of Wall Street at http://tinyurl.com/43k8mw

At least someone is trying!

NSPD 51 Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood!

Apparently, President Bush has the power to suspend the election and declare martial law!!!! If you doubt that this is a possibility, check out
NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51 at http://tinyurl.com/yqthor

How's that crisis on Wall Street looking now? It would only take a hurricane, if it comes to that! Somehow President Bush gave himself total power over the country!!! How can this happen?!?

The day Bush suspends the elections and declares martial law will truly be the end of the United States of America we believe in.

Should I buy a gun? I've always been against them, but it looks like I might have to change my opinion.