Pot

Posted on 28. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 20, 2011

Marijuana – pot – Citizens Briefing Book

Before Obama made the transition to the White House, he sent an email to all the people who had signed up at his website called Change.gov to gather ideas from his constituents. I received an email like this through my Master Gardener contacts, and when I visited the Citizen’s Briefing Book, I too felt like Obama was actually going to “listen” to what the people had to say.

Unfortunately, the conversation on Citizen’s Briefing Book was dominated by people who wanted pot legalized. Not exactly the kind of thing that is rattling around in my brain, but okay: if you want to suggest it at writeindependent’s solution page, go right ahead.

People who smoke pot probably think that pot will save the world. I don’t think so. In fact, I doubt very much if selling/taxing or smoking pot is going to solve the job problem, the energy crisis, or reduce pollution over the long term. It might cause people to laugh a little more, drive slowly, eat more, or become lethargic! That’s been my experience with pot smokers, anyway. Live and let live, I say.

What I am afraid of, however, is that the people who smoke pot are a more prolix group of folks than, say, parents, about writing down their ideas for change. I want more people to care enough about what’s going on in other areas besides just the drug scene. If you care passionately about food, or water, or jobs, or taxes, or civil rights, don’t just sit there: write!

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John Oliver Segment

Posted on 27. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 21, 2011

How long can this go on?

At the end of a John Oliver segment on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he sits around a table at a pub asking regular folks like you and me to comment on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

They sympathized with the protestors and felt that the message was basically a good one.

Oliver said “normal people should be doing something about this” and then they all decided to go back to their lives, rather than mobilize to do something about it. All my friends are the same way: they have plenty on their plates, just taking care of the kids or paying the bills, or trying to find a job.

Just like the protesters, they couldn’t come up with a way to handle the overwhelming task of trying to change things. If we only had a tool, a way to organize, that answered that need. Hmmmm. How about a website where regular people like you and me could work together to offer solutions, and then even vote in the representatives who could enact the laws to make these solutions happen? Oh, right: that’s writeindependent.org!

To watch the segment, click:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-18-2011/the-99-?xrs=share_copy

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Hawaii Votes

Posted on 26. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 19, 2011

Hawaii is tough. They don’t allow any write-in votes. You can obtain an absentee ballot by request, and the deadline for the general election is October 30th, but you still can’t write in a name. The only voting that goes on in Hawaii is by ballot. So if your name isn’t on the ballot, you’re not really a candidate there. That doesn’t just go for the presidential race, it goes for congressional elections as well.

If Hawaiians care about their votes counting, they should demand having their write-ins validated. Either that, or they have to hope the rest of the country did a good job choosing party candidates. Thank you, Americans Elect, for making a third party possible on the ballot!

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Arkansas Voting

Posted on 26. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 18, 2011

When I called the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office today, I found out that you should have no problem writing in a candidate for Congressman, Senator, or President, just so long as you spell their name correctly. If there is a question as to whether or not a candidate can be written in, the following letter should dispel any myth that write-ins are not allowed.

So long as the rules haven’t changed since 2006, write-in voting via absentee ballot is allowed, so it goes to follow that a vote cast in person the same way should be allowed also.

Dear Voter:

Because of delays in printing ballots in several counties, the State of Arkansas is taking steps to assure that each overseas absentee voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot in the upcoming election. Therefore, each county that has not been able to assure that ballots would be mailed to overseas voters by October 13, 2006, is sending a copy of the federal write-in absentee ballot to each overseas voter.

Enclosed please find a copy of the federal write-in absentee ballot, a copy of the candidate/measure list for your county and an envelope to return the ballot to your county.

You will probably receive the standard absentee ballot at a later date. You should feel free to complete the standard ballot and return it as well. Even if you send both the federal write-in absentee ballot and the standard ballot, you will not be penalized for “voting twice”. If the standard ballot arrives at the county clerk’s office by November 17, 2006, it will be counted and the federal write-in absentee ballot will not. The federal write-in absentee ballot will be counted only if the standard ballot does not arrive by November 17, 2006.

To cast your vote for federal offices on the federal write-in absentee ballot, for each office for which you vote write either the candidate’s name or the political party designation on the ballot. To cast your vote for state and local offices, simply decide who you want to vote for then write in the office and the candidate’s name on your ballot. To cast your vote on a measure, write the number then “yes” to vote for the measure or “no” to vote against the measure.

You may only vote in local races where you are qualified by residence. If you do not know your precinct or which local races you may be eligible to vote in, you may contact your county clerk or a family member if you have access to a telephone. You can find your county clerk’s telephone number on our website at: www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections_military_voting.html. Information regarding congressional districts, circuit court districts, and state legislative districts can be found at: www.VoteNaturally.org. Just click on the red “Search Your Voter Registration Information” link. If you vote in a race where you are not qualified by residence, that vote will not be counted, but the remainder of your ballot will be.

After you have voted your ballot, place it in the return envelope provided by the county clerk along with the completed Voter’s Declaration/Affirmation. Please be advised that a witness signature is unnecessary, but YOUR SIGNATURE is necessary.

Thank you for your participation in this election.

Charlie Daniels

Secretary of State

State of Arkansas

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Electric Cars?

Posted on 24. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 17, 2011

I will just come out and say it: I am not a fan of the electric car. Why? Because most sources of electricity are NOT clean. About 48.7% of our electricity comes from coal, and any way you slice it, coal is still not clean energy. If nuclear power plants (19.4%) were clean, I’d be all for them, but the dirty fact is: there’s no way to safely store the waste from nuclear energy generation. The radioactive pollution is so underplayed, no one even talks about it.

If we want to get on a creative spike in this country, we have to go in a completely different direction than our so-called “leaders” are taking us. We have to reduce oil consumption, reduce coal use, get off biofuels, off fracking for natural gas and into truly clean energy. We have to get away from the internal combustion engine, which creates most of the CO2 in our atmosphere. In fact, anything that burns anything creates more of what contributes to the climate crisis.

It will take time, but we have to focus in the right direction first. The reason you may be thinking that there are automotive alternatives to coal (or electric), or oil, or the internal combustion engine, is that you are conditioned to believe that these are our only choices.

If we can spend billions upon billions of dollars making oil into gasoline and plastics and crappy nitrogen “fertilizer”, if we can spend billions upon billions to promote the biofuels industry, which uses a ridiculous amount of water to grow the crops whose fuel ends up getting burned and polluting the air, then we can spend those same billions making fuel cells, or funding solar projects like SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) or cars that run on pressurized air or flywheels (a nod here to NASCAR for at least looking at flywheels!)

Again, the only reason you haven’t heard of these things is because the people who run all the other industries are invested heavily in them. Let’s turn the tide and change the way we think!

I will be presenting other energy-creating systems that Americans rarely hear about but which are being used in Germany, India, and other countries that are far ahead of us in the area of energy production, the automotive industry and heating/cooling systems. Wake up, America! We are just infants when it comes to learning what the leading edge technologies are!

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Job Creators

Posted on 23. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 16, 2011

Job creators – Milton Friedman

Over the weekend, I told a friend’s father about this website, which opened the door for him to talk about his worries for the future.

He thinks we’re headed for class warfare: all out violence of the poor against the people who have something. He complained about how the masses keep procreating, and this population explosion begets more poor children growing up in poorly parented circumstances.

Okay. So there are poor people who aren’t able to give their children everything they need. But does violence solve these problems? When has violence ever solved anything?

In fact, why be so negative?

People don’t want to live in negative thoughts. They are taught negative thoughts and then they either perseverate in those thoughts or they don’t. It’s up to the thinker. I will go even farther: people who think negative thoughts bring about those events that match their thoughts. It’s the old self-fulfilling prophecy.

My guess is that poor people do want to improve their circumstances. You don’t even have to light a fire under people; they always want to improve their lot in life. All you have to do is give them a chance, and they will take it.

I see a different future than my friend’s father: I see a future where the people who “have” care about the people who have not. They are willing to share, and they will do so within the context they are accustomed: they will invest in companies that provide jobs that improve the economy of the United States of America.

Until then, we will have more doomsayers and plenty to worry about.

Remember the “job creators?” We have to trust that they will start doing what they promised.

Post Script: Guess those job creators are just too lazy to get America back to work! Unemployment is still too high, and the numbers of children living in poverty is still rising. What’s wrong with this picture?

Did trickle down economics work?

How many ways could Milton Friedman be wrong? He was wrong about the free market being a good system (there’s winners in a free market, but many losers too) about self-regulation actually working, (no banking elites were ever reported for fraud in the subprime mortgage debacle because the banks won’t report their own managers) about big government being bad for business (it’s great for those who get subsidies!) and about vouchers for school systems making for better education (they only break up a sense of community. If my kid gets a voucher and yours doesn’t, too bad, right?) If Milton Friedman were alive today, I’d like to show him around this world he helped create and give him a piece of my mind.

 

 

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Congress Should Follow Their Own Rules

Posted on 21. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 15, 2011

Congress

Warren Buffett, in a recent  interview with CNBC, offers one of the
best quotes about the debt ceiling:

“I could  end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told  CNBC. “You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.

The 26th amendment  (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971…before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2.  Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.

Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

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Chris Christie for President?

Posted on 21. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 14, 2011

Chris Christie

The answer is no.

Even if we all liked Chris Christie, we couldn’t force him to become President by writing his name in. He would have to file his “letter of intent” in each state that requires it, and he would have to do so before July 3rd because Indiana requires the earliest filing.

Some states require you to jump through more hoops than others to make your run for Presidency official. For example, the state of Illinois requires you to file a “Declaration of Intent to be a Write-in Candidate” in each of the 102 counties and with each of the 8 Board of Elections Commissioners if you want your write-in vote counted. Each form needs to be notarized. Hopefully, you know a notary that will only charge $10 (or less) to sign all 110 forms at once!

This process might seem excessive, but the point is that we want to be sure that the write-in candidate is quite serious about her intentions, has had time to think about it, and realizes the enormity of the task at hand. It reminds me of pregnancy.

For more information about how to file letters of intent, visit: http://writein2008.blogspot.com/search/label/Indiana.

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Occupy Wall Street

Posted on 20. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 13, 2011

Large numbers of people are protesting corporatocracy in Zuccotti Park (a.k.a. Liberty Plaza Park) in Lower Manhattan. They started their “indefinite stay” on September 17th and continue to this day.

It’s not the only protest of its kind. Currently, there are similar “occupations” in Madrid, Paris, and San Francisco’s financial district. They pattern themselves after the peaceful uprising in Egypt and other pro-democracy movements in the Middle East called the  Arab Spring. If there are more, please comment below.

In addition to protests, one anonymous citizen is calling for a People’s General Assembly to abolish or alter the current form of government. Find the petition here: http://signon.org/sign/recognize-the-resolutions.

Whenever people are willing to go to great lengths to be heard, something has to change.

Posted in Economy, Writeindependent.org | Comments Off on Occupy Wall Street

Monopoly

Posted on 19. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 12, 2011

monopoly

Almost everybody knows the game of monopoly. We used to play the game for hours, and we all learned that how you won was to vanquish your fellow players by bankrupting them.

We got so good at the game, that we learned that the strategy was to buy up every property you could, hopefully “landing” on the good ones by chance, and thus building an empire with houses and hotels.

Monopoly is fun until the person who is hoarding all the cash seems to be getting a big head. If one of the players is rubbing the cash, and rolling around in it, and laughing diabolically, the other players start to lose interest in being around them. Some monopoly games can go on for quite some time without any one person seeming to get an upper hand, and even these games can grow tiresome.

Then you start asking your brother, “do you want to play monopoly?” and he remembers the last time you played, and how disgusted he felt when you rolled the money into cigarettes and starting puffing away on your profits. And he doesn’t much feel like playing. “Oh, that game,” he says.

When I think about how my government isn’t representing me, it’s when I look at the laws that have been passed that help large companies get even larger to the point that they have the market cornered. I’m all for companies being successful, but when they get so big as to monopolize an industry, well, I just don’t want to be around that company anymore.

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