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This is the Progressive future, as assumed and envisioned by Conservatives who hate any form of change and demonize it where ever possible.

My utopia is your dystopia and all of that.

Down with democracy

No real progressive would say or support that. That's fear mongering by your own leadership.

Down with the moral teachings of all major world religions

A good number of progressives don't like religion because it specifically runs against it's own moral teachings when convenient. Case in point: The Bible says to care for the poor and downtrodden, to welcome travelers and immigrants, and to live lives free from material attachments. Guess what the official rhetoric of the self-proclaimed defenders of Christianity is? The poor deserve it, damn everyone who is not one of us, and Greed is good.

We love the morals, but we hate the contradictions. You don't need a religion to teach or uphold morals and ethics, but you do have to teach and uphold them.

Down with happy healthy childhood

More demonizing.

Long live financial oligarchy!

That is not true in the slightest. We have, as a platform, removing money from politics. It's a fundamental requirement to be against money in politics to be able to call yourself a progressive in the US.

Brendan Eich was forced out as CEO of Mozilla for the horrible crime of expressing a political opinion shared by the overwhelming majority of the American populace and considered obviously-correct for all of history until the last five years.

Just because it was considered "tradition" does not make it immune to re-evaluation. Further same-sex relationships are present in all species not just humans, your view of history is wrong, and so is your view of the present.

However, I will agree that forcing him out via mass Twitter posting for his personal beliefs was wrong. It's not democratic in the slightest to have a random group of unrelated third parties dictating who can and cannot be employed in a given business. If it were a big enough issue, let them file a complaint, but they should not be dishing out personal attacks like that nor should any person or group give in to pressure to comply with such lynch mobs.

Long live sodomy! Long live emotionally damaged children!

Governor Matt Bevin, is that you?

Too bad - it's going to be forced on you literally at gunpoint

The only ones who have been pointing guns around here are insane sociopaths, and people frothing at the mouth over the idea of starting a civil war to purge the other. In other words, people who believe in dictatorships and absolute authority over the will of the people. As stated already, no real progressive supports such a position.

The Constitution allows for the states to call a convention proposing an amendment, completely bypassing the Federal Congress.
Five states have already passed bills calling for the convention, 29 more states are needed:

http://www.wolf-pac.com/the_pl...

http://wolf-pac.com/

Please, do something if you can.

Why are you pushing this bullshit:

The Wolf-PAC Resolution does not contain specific amendment language because we truly want to hear all sides and solutions at the amendments convention. We think the amendment should contain these core values:

"Corporations are not people. They have none of the Constitutional rights of human beings. Corporations are not allowed to give money to any politician, directly or indirectly. No politician can raise over $100 from any person or entity. All elections must be publicly financed."

*Note: The finished legislation will be worded differently and have to account for inflation, etc. This is simply to point legislators in the right direction and make sure the final amendment accomplishes the goals we have outlined here.

http://www.wolf-pac.com/28th

What part of CAMPAIGNING (not "elections" - lying-ass motherfuckers) do you want to publicly fund? Keep in mind that ELECTIONS are already funded publicly. Wolf-PAC is about coercive financing of:

1) robocalls and telemarketing
2) junk mail
3) MOAR commercials (radio, TV, internet, etc)
4) flyers littering the roads

Funny thing about "3" is that I already block it but if they want me to be the sucker paying* for it, will it be claimed that I'm "stealing" from myself?

Keep in mind, I have no dog in the 'corporate charter' fight. I'd be happy if we stopped issuing these limited liability monstrosities for non-public purposes (e.g., developing nukes to fight a war would be a public purpose that might require limited liability - selling me a burrito ... not so much).

Keep in mind, I don't care if you require elected officials to be chaste and impoverished (although that would require a constitutional amendment).

I draw the line at the government directing all the money - or even some of it - that is spent to determine how we run the government. Wolf-PAC is pro-statist and anti-democratic. It amazes me that so many people have fallen for it. "Why?", you might ask. It is because "Corporations are not people." True but that doesn't imply the true goals of the WOLF-PAC which is government control of how the government is selected.

Why do people promote this without a text of the amendment? Do you really believe they will take in millions just to "hear all sides and solutions at the amendments convention"? They want a convention and your money without publicly disclosing amendment text. Dumb-ass mofo...

* I pay 6-figures in tax (likely over $300,000 as a business owner)

LOL!! The Fed may be independent of gov't but it's not independent of corporate plutocracy. Indeed, this is the crucial struggle of our times, wresting control of our politics and our economy from these fat-cat SOBs.

Get thee hence to Wolf-PAC.com and pitch in to help save our democracy from these blood-suckers.

[Price Fixing] [Predatory Pricing] [Collusion] any other basic education in this subject matter i can help you with today?

Oh, please do help me with more "basic education": explain how these strategies can possibly be stable in a free market.

we use legalized bribery against itself, corruption jujitsu: http://www.wolf-pac.com/

You mean you want to support a PAC that favors big media corporations and lets politicians suppress speech critical of them? Why is that a good thing?

Can you give actual examples of how "players cheat" in the absence of government regulation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

any other basic education in this subject matter i can help you with today?

So, how exactly to you propose to bring this "fair regulation" about?

we use legalized bribery against itself, corruption jujitsu:

http://www.wolf-pac.com/

the heroin crack meth of money in politics is not defeated by voting for the fourth party candidate wackjob

the laws need to be changed like this:

http://www.wolf-pac.com/

using money to defeat money. corruption jujitsu

Overturning Citizens United will require a constitutional amendment. Have you done your part to move that process forward yet? Here are a couple of things you can do:

1. Visit MoveToAmend.org and sign the petition.

2. Visit Wolf-PAC.com and volunteer.

3. Contact all of your elected representatives at every level of government and make sure they know where you stand on the issue of corporate personhood, and why.

Id love to see a constitutional convention in my lifetime and a few new amendments.

Then I hope you've been supporting WOLF PAC. They're working towards holding a constitutional convention to get money out of politics. Two states have passed their bill so far.

How do plan we make people care?

Here's a plan. Here's another plan. Here's another plan.

With so much corporate money involved in US politics these days and the revolving door being such an integral part of the system, we should have expected this. After all, the difference between the revolving door and what Dowd is doing now -- being on both sides of the door at the same time -- is only a matter of perception. If nobody in power objects, then this will soon become normal.

If we want to fix things, then there's only one solution: Get money out of politics! Vermont and California are the first two States to call for an Article V convention to amend the Constitution to require all election campaigns to be publicly funded and end corporate personhood. It may seem radical to some, but this is the only way to reverse the series of disastrous Supreme Court decisions, ending with Citizens United and McCutcheon, that got us into this mess.

Wolf-PAC has a petition on their site, plus this page with information about volunteering or donating. Volunteering would include actually meeting with local legislators to pitch the case for a convention and try and get a local resolution passed supporting it, so that eventually the state would approve its application for the convention.

The Convention Of States project is also actively seeking a convention. At least 3 states so far have approved their applications.

Indeed. Several states have already approved their applications for a convention. We need 34 states to approve them and start the convention.

...electric cars don't have alot of things that car dealers make money with ... . Alot of dealerships make much of their profits from such things, ... . So the dealers have alot of money, alot of friends ...

Just between you and me, "alot" is not a word, although it could be a misspelling of the verb "allot". In this case, you mean "a lot" (two words), as in many. As for style, it may have been deliberate, but generally it's distracting when a word or phrase is needlessly repeated so often in just a few sentences, especially when there is so much else to choose from, e.g. "many", "plenty of", "large numbers of", "(is/are) flush with (cash)", "lots of", etc.

But, now that you have my attention, I agree with your opinion. That's crony capitalism for you; it's the downside of deregulation and industry knows it (which the best way I can think of to fight in general is to get money out of politics). Let's hope other vehicle manufacturers follow Tesla's example.

This sounds like an interesting method by which individual problems, such as immigration reform, might be solved, but we must recognize that the root cause of disfunction in DC today is money; that bribery in US politics is now legal and that the politicians see it as the norm. As a result, they -- particularly those in the federal government -- almost never care about what their constituents think: in 94-95% of all cases all they have to do is raise more money than their political opponents so that they can outspend them all in every next election.

When seen in this light, it becomes clear that issues such as immigration reform are not going to be solved unless those who fund our politicians also agree. Those donors are big corporations and very rich people, and in this case they seem to think that immigration reform will likely lead to higher wages and thus less profit, so they will tell the politicians to vote aginst any such reform or else their money will diverted to the next politician in line who will vote against it. The politicians think they have no choice in the matter, but that's also how they got elected in the first place (by doing what their donors told them to do).

So, anyone who thinks that the politicians they vote for should be acting primarily in the interests of their constituents, instead of the rich and powerful, should realize that we first all need to act together to get money our of politics. And it can be done! After that DC will once again start to get things done.

That being said, the quote you post is not the text of the propopsed amendment. I know that because there is no proposed amendment. We're not at that stage yet, with only a single state's legislature voting in favor of a constitutional convention, so far.

That was the proposed amendment. It even has a URL name so it isn't just a random blog post on that site:

"Corporations are not people. They have none of the Constitutional rights of human beings. Corporations are not allowed to give money to any politician, directly or indirectly. No politician can raise over $100 from any person or entity. All elections must be publicly financed."

That you suggest a completely different amendement will be pushed ('we have to send our money before we see it' eh?), it no way supports your support of this BS organization.

If you don't already know who Larry Lessig is, you're obviously new here.

I support MAYDAY-PAC and I support WOLF-PAC. If you're tired of elections being bought, you should too.

Why do you support the "publicly finance" of elections ("publicly finance all elections in our country")???
http://www.wolf-pac.com/the_plan

You propose to take my tax dollars to give to politicians to convince me to vote for them so they can take more of my tax dollars?

Why do I need more robocalls that circumvent 'do not call' efforts?

Why do I need more subsidized junk mail?

Why do I need to pay for more commercials to skip? (and is it theft if I paid for that commercial to begin with?)

There are problems in this country, but a plan to take more tax dollars by force is not something I would support.

Keep in mind their reform will GUT the first amendment. All political speech will get routed through the government. The inch you think you're giving will soon be a mile.

If you don't already know who Larry Lessig is, you're obviously new here.

I support MAYDAY-PAC and I support WOLF-PAC. If you're tired of elections being bought, you should too.

Remember: http://www.wolf-pac.com/
Move your ass, do something.

This is why we need a 28th Amendment to get money out of politics forever.

wolf-pac.com

Hear, hear! I'm going to send them some money - the only political contribution I've ever made.

If the Supremes make absurd and crooked decisions, the only way around them is an amendment.

This is why we need a 28th Amendment to get money out of politics forever.

wolf-pac.com

It's even more clear that we need to get money out of politics. wolf-pac.com

There's also WOLF-PAC.

They're also trying to get money out of politics, and they're making good progress. If you're a supported of Lessig is doing, you'll probably be a fan of WOLF-PAC's work. If you have money, give it to Lessig. If you have time, give it to WOLF-PAC. We need as many open fronts as possible in this war.

Wolf-PAC has been working at the state level for quite some time now to convice the states to have an Article V convention to amend the constitution. A former SCOTUS member John Paul Stevens has even gone on record saying an amendment is the only real way to fix the problem. Vermont's house is voting on it today (it already passed the Senate).

Wolf PAC is working to get the states to call for a convention to pass an amendment saying that corporations do not have the rights of people and limiting the amount of money that a politician can raise from any person or entity.

Wolf PAC

The supposed solution here in order to guarantee net neutrality -- public ownership of the hardware -- is overkill. Other countries have net neutrality without that, so why can't the United States do the same?

Because almost all of US politics on the federal level is corrupt. Or else, how an earth did Tom Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the cable and telecommunications industry, ever get to become the current chairman of the FCC?? Because our politicians were paid by the industry to let it happen. And the worse thing about it is that the Supreme Court says this is perfectly legal these days (talk about activist judges). So, where previously the communications industry may have been reasonably well regulated, it's not anymore.

There is only one solution to this problem: get big money out of politics. And we can actually do this.

It would be difficult a thing to do in any other country with such a thoroughly corrupt political system, but lucky for us the United States Constitution includes Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody working towards this yet? Yes. WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho, Kentucky and Illinois.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

If you think this idea makes sense, you can sign this petition, donate, or even take action by personally contacting your favorite State Legislator and asking for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result we might be able to change this awful situation sooner than you think.

.

*) Over the years this has become the source of a problem that has lead to a series of bad Supreme Court decisions equating money to free speech. The decisions include Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti in 1978, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010 and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission in 2014, but there are probably more. Yes, legal personhood is important in that it provides a way to safeguard personal assets against the claims of creditors and lawsuits, but the truth is that if legal personhood were to be revoked we could simply pass a law to provide this protection in some way other than personhood.

**) At the State level, more than half of all political campaigns are already publicly financed in some way, so there's nothing strange about doing the same for political campaigns

The supposed solution here in order to guarantee net neutrality -- public ownership of the hardware -- is overkill. Other countries have net neutrality without that, so why can't the United States do the same?

Because almost all of US politics on the federal level is corrupt. Or else, how an earth did Tom Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the cable and telecommunications industry, ever get to become the current chairman of the FCC?? Because our politicians were paid by the industry to let it happen. And the worse thing about it is that the Supreme Court says this is perfectly legal these days (talk about activist judges). So, where previously the communications industry may have been reasonably well regulated, it's not anymore.

There is only one solution to this problem: get big money out of politics. And we can actually do this.

It would be difficult a thing to do in any other country with such a thoroughly corrupt political system, but lucky for us the United States Constitution includes Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody working towards this yet? Yes. WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho, Kentucky and Illinois.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

If you think this idea makes sense, you can sign this petition, donate, or even take action by personally contacting your favorite State Legislator and asking for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result we might be able to change this awful situation sooner than you think.

.

*) Over the years this has become the source of a problem that has lead to a series of bad Supreme Court decisions equating money to free speech. The decisions include Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti in 1978, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010 and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission in 2014, but there are probably more. Yes, legal personhood is important in that it provides a way to safeguard personal assets against the claims of creditors and lawsuits, but the truth is that if legal personhood were to be revoked we could simply pass a law to provide this protection in some way other than personhood.

**) At the State level, more than half of all political campaigns are already publicly financed in some way, so there's nothing strange about doing the same for political campaigns

I think it's well established now through various supreme court decisions that the only way left to enact real campaign contribution reform in the USA is through a constitutional amendment. Support one of the various organizations that are pushing for that:

http://www.democracyisforpeopl...
http://www.movetoamend.org/
http://www.wolf-pac.com/

Lots more links on how to address all facets of the problem here:

http://www.corporations.org/so...

And you can make a difference with this PAC: http://www.wolf-pac.com/

WOLF-PAC.

We're making it happen. You should help out.

Whatever court decision decided that corporations are people too was garbage.

That would primarily be the Citizens United v FEC court decision of 2010, and further backed up by the recent McCutcheon decision of 2014, though of course other little laws and regulations contribute.

If you would like to do something about it, I would encourage you to join a group such as the WolfPAC and Move to Amend. A couple state legislatures (California and Vermont, I believe) have *already* passed bills calling for a constitutional convention to propose a new constitutional amendment that puts into law that corporations do not have the rights of people, and there is similar pending legislation in many other states. Call/write your state congressmen today and get it done, and we can put this nonsense behind us. It is not impossible, it has been done in past history and is already starting to happen now; I'm sure you haven't heard it on the news, but it is happening. Get involved in making history!

Get money out of politics! http://www.wolf-pac.com/

The only solution I can think of is to attack this evil at its source by getting money out of politics.

Think again. The only way to get money out of politics it to take away from politicians the power to grant favors to special interests. The Constitution took great care with this, but the Supreme Court has absolutely abdicated its responsibility to hew to the highest law.

I am pleased about their latest decision, however, because it might force some action at last regarding the excessive power of Congress to anoint winners and losers, and thereby attract money from the PACs.

This is typical of our current President. If pressed on the issue, he might say that he would "prefer" the NSA not to collect phone records on all Americans, but that so far the opponents of the system just haven't been vocal enough about it for him to take any action on the subject. "Hey, Mr. President, where's all that _change_ you promised us?" I'm sure he would prefer to to do all those things, except that his donors would not be too happy about that.

To think that I voted for this guy... twice. Not that the alternatives were any better, but sometimes I wonder if this administration really is any better than the previous one. And I seriously doubt the next one will be any better. Why? Because today the donors are the ones who are actually running the country (with the recent McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission ruling only adding insult to injury). The only solution I can think of is to attack this evil at its source by getting money out of politics.

Wolf PAC

While we're on this "fuck the republicrats" sidebar, I'd like to take this opportunity to spam you about WOLF-PAC.

I found out about them here on slashdot, and I've been supporting their efforts ever since.

The idea is to do an end-run around the federal legislature and get a supermajority of state legislators to agree to campaign finance reform. Undo Citizens United and a whole slew of other "money in politics" problems by threatening to get another amendment tacked onto our federal constitution.

In the past, even the threat of such a possibility has caused the federal legislature to act. It's actually not as loony of an idea as it initially sounds. I highly recommend you look into WOLF-PAC, if you haven't already. And yes, they should've picked a less-silly name.

This country needs more critical thinkers involved in the political process. That's a problem because usually critical thinkers know better than to get involved in this shit. However, that may be a luxury that we can't much longer afford.

Which is why we need a 28th Amendement. http://wolf-pac.com/

It's fucking sad to putting this all in perspective and hear/read it all together. What a fucking sad state of affairs we're in. I had no intentions of plugging anything when I began this post, but I'm going to do it now since I know some AC will ask "what do you do to stop it?" This is what I do, and you should too.

Republicans are not running the show.

Hardly matters. Both parties are more-or-less "owned" by the corporate oligarchy, the Democrats are just a bit less brazen about it. (I'm too lazy to look up the numbers right now, but I'm sure you know Obama got a LOT of help from Wall Street to get elected.)

saying that the financial sector has been de-regulated. This is absurd

The repeal of Glass-Steagal was a pretty huge step in that direction. (And it was signed into law by Clinton, another "friend" of Wall Street.)

The only hope I see of changing things is a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get some "regulation" of money in politics. As long as corporate "big money" keeps running the show, politicians will have little if any incentive to serve The People.

The two most prominent efforts to enact such an amendment (that I know of) are MoveToAmend.org and Wolf-PAC.com.

MoveToAmend is a petition drive and lobbying group pushing for Congress to pass an amendment at the federal level. They also get local governments to pass resolutions calling for such an amendment. Wolf-PAC is a more grass-roots/guerrilla effort. Their philosophy is to bypass the federal government altogether (on the theory that the current "corporate owned" Congress will never pass such an amendment) and lobby the states to call for an Article V convention on this specific issue.

Whenever I can, I take the opportunity to raise awareness to the initiative to limit the influence of money in politics: http://www.wolf-pac.com/
As a foreigner (from an American point of view) that's what I'm able to do. You US citizens should go at least one step further, and contact your representatives, or at least sign the petition, or support the movement with money.

So I partly agree with you. Regular politics impact your everyday in a thousand ways, but usually the complexity of the issues hinder choosing a course of action, and frequently requires investing a lot of time. But complaining about beta is much more clear cut... what's being proposed does not offer any value, on the contrary. And it doesn't take much time to voice your opinion here. In an analogous, political case, take the Keystone Pipeline... it seems pretty much everybody sees that it has a lot of corruption and environmental risk (risk? I would say most certain negative impact, given the other pipeline already in use), but how can you make your voice be heard in order to stop the thing?

But yes, you should take action in both cases.

All that will accomplish is (as has happened in the past) that one of the existing entrenched parties will go away and we'll be back to a two party system with the same actors and issues (most likely by the next election cycle).

Oh, that's it? Totally not worth it, you're right. I mean, Greens vs Libertarians is pretty much the same thing as Democrats vs Republicans, right?

I hope you don't vote.

Such change will, by it's nature, have to happen WITHIN the present, broken, two party system.

Mod parent up. HILARIOUS.

I support WOLF-PAC's efforts to reduce the influence of money in politics, but if you think that's all that's required to fix the system, I envy you for your naivety.

Shameless plug: WOLF-PAC needs your help. Not your money (well, I'm sure money wouldn't hurt either), but your actual help calling state-level elected officials. Please find some time between your second and third jobs and lend a hand. Democracy doesn't work without the involvement of the constituency.

The US parties may collude on a variety of things (like counterterrorism, or if you prefer, "counterterrorism") but they have significantly differing views on the relationship of the role of government to the citizenry and the economy. ...

Yes, and lions and hyenas are sworn enemies, but somehow that doesn't matter to you when you're alone on the savannah in the African night.

The fact is that the ideological differences between the two main parties have become increasingly superficial. The problem is that neither of them work for us anymore: they only work for their donors. That's by far the most corrosive influence on US politics these days: big money. Politicians running for Federal office know that they can't get elected without it. Did you know that 94% of the time the candidate running for the House of Representatives wins if they raise more money than their opponents? It's even 95% for the Senate. And Barack Obama, who was so good at raising all those small donations during the 2012 election cycle, still got 70% of his money from the big donors -- corporations and the super rich who give almost equally to both Republicans and Democrats -- the people who in the last three decades have become the de facto rulers of this country. There is so little disagreement between the two main parties on the really important issues (dragnet spying, military spending, Wall Street crime, taxes on the rich, the war on drugs, energy policy, etc.) because their masters want the same things from both of them. This is why, behind the scenes, the Republicans like to refer to Obama I and II as Bush III and IV. And Congress itself is now basically only a farming operation for K Street, where as lobbyists ex-members of Congress can expect to earn 15x as much as before.

There is only one solution to this problem: get big money out of politics.

This would be difficult in any other country with such a thoroughly corrupt political system, but lucky for us the United States Constitution includes Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody doing this yet? Yes. WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

If you think this idea makes sense, you can sign this petition, donate, or even take action by personally contacting your favorite State Legislator and asking for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result we might be able to change this awful situation sooner than you think.

.

*) The aim is not to end legal personhood for corporations, but natural personhood. The latter became a problem following the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which

The US parties may collude on a variety of things (like counterterrorism, or if you prefer, "counterterrorism") but they have significantly differing views on the relationship of the role of government to the citizenry and the economy. ...

Yes, and lions and hyenas are sworn enemies, but somehow that doesn't matter to you when you're alone on the savannah in the African night.

The fact is that the ideological differences between the two main parties have become increasingly superficial. The problem is that neither of them work for us anymore: they only work for their donors. That's by far the most corrosive influence on US politics these days: big money. Politicians running for Federal office know that they can't get elected without it. Did you know that 94% of the time the candidate running for the House of Representatives wins if they raise more money than their opponents? It's even 95% for the Senate. And Barack Obama, who was so good at raising all those small donations during the 2012 election cycle, still got 70% of his money from the big donors -- corporations and the super rich who give almost equally to both Republicans and Democrats -- the people who in the last three decades have become the de facto rulers of this country. There is so little disagreement between the two main parties on the really important issues (dragnet spying, military spending, Wall Street crime, taxes on the rich, the war on drugs, energy policy, etc.) because their masters want the same things from both of them. This is why, behind the scenes, the Republicans like to refer to Obama I and II as Bush III and IV. And Congress itself is now basically only a farming operation for K Street, where as lobbyists ex-members of Congress can expect to earn 15x as much as before.

There is only one solution to this problem: get big money out of politics.

This would be difficult in any other country with such a thoroughly corrupt political system, but lucky for us the United States Constitution includes Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody doing this yet? Yes. WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

If you think this idea makes sense, you can sign this petition, donate, or even take action by personally contacting your favorite State Legislator and asking for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result we might be able to change this awful situation sooner than you think.

.

*) The aim is not to end legal personhood for corporations, but natural personhood. The latter became a problem following the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which

... I'm getting tired of writing these letters, yet I'll do it again and remind my "representation" of my position. Anybody else?

Your pleas are falling on deaf ears, because your representatives in Congress today don't work you anymore: to them it's all about the money they need to get re-elected, so now they only work for their donors. Even Obama, who received so many small donations, got 70% of his campaign cash from big donors, mainly from people on Wall Street (which is why he will never prosecute them).

Therefore, what we must do is fix the underlying problem first: by getting big money out of politics.

This would be difficult in any other country with a corrupt political system, but luckily the United States Constitution happens to include Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody doing this yet? Yes. WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

If you think this idea makes sense, you can sign this petition, donate, or even take action by personally contacting your favorite State Legislator and asking for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result we might be able to change this awful situation sooner than you think.

.

*) The aim is not to end legal personhood for corporations, but natural personhood. The latter became a problem following the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which grated some of the rights of natural persons to corporations and makes it easier for them to lend financial support to political campaigns.

**) At the State level, more than half of all political campaigns are already publicly financed in some way, so there's nothing strange about doing the same for political campaigns for federal office.

... I'm getting tired of writing these letters, yet I'll do it again and remind my "representation" of my position. Anybody else?

Your pleas are falling on deaf ears, because your representatives in Congress today don't work you anymore: to them it's all about the money they need to get re-elected, so now they only work for their donors. Even Obama, who received so many small donations, got 70% of his campaign cash from big donors, mainly from people on Wall Street (which is why he will never prosecute them).

Therefore, what we must do is fix the underlying problem first: by getting big money out of politics.

This would be difficult in any other country with a corrupt political system, but luckily the United States Constitution happens to include Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody doing this yet? Yes. WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

If you think this idea makes sense, you can sign this petition, donate, or even take action by personally contacting your favorite State Legislator and asking for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result we might be able to change this awful situation sooner than you think.

.

*) The aim is not to end legal personhood for corporations, but natural personhood. The latter became a problem following the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which grated some of the rights of natural persons to corporations and makes it easier for them to lend financial support to political campaigns.

**) At the State level, more than half of all political campaigns are already publicly financed in some way, so there's nothing strange about doing the same for political campaigns for federal office.

What do you want, revolution?

Action, start here: http://www.wolf-pac.com/

This whole NSA spying debacle is nothing more than a self-licking ice cream cone if there ever was one, albeit a rather dangerous one for any democracy to be involved in.

In at least two court cases now the government has had to admit that its massive dragnet operation has, over the years, not prevented a single terrorist incident; the ones we did catch on time were thanks to tip-offs and good old fashioned detective work. Yet, why does the establishment seem to double down on this issue, even though it's clearly unconstitutional and public sentiment is against it?

Because of the money involved.

80% of the NSA consists of private companies that do almost all of the work and it's these companies that have such a massive stake in this gigantic data collecting operation. Normally the government should be able to simply tell them to stop, but the problem is that the tail is now wagging the dog: these companies don't want to see any drop in their profits, which is only their main interest and whole reason for being. So, they're fighting back using mainly legal methods, which these days includes the option to make donations to key politicians. Remember: money equals free speech these days.

The politicians involved, especially the members of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Feinstein, Chambliss, et al.), are the most obvious targets for these donations. Like all other members of Congress, they know that 94-95% of the time the candidate with the most money will win the next election, so they actually spend most of their time raising money while in return doing and saying most anything that their most important donors want. Our representatives don't work for us anymore: they work for their donors. Consequently, the government squanders untold billions on so many unnecessary "employment projects" every year, but this NSA mega-project to spy on everyone and everything is a particularly dangerous one.

That's why we must put a stop to it ASAP: by getting big money out of politics.

Lucky for us, this is actually easier than you might think. It would be very difficult in any other country, but the United States Constitution happens to include Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (34) of the country's 50 States. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Is anybody doing this yet? Yes indeed, and you too can get involved! WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm. So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.

However, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. And even if they are, the important thing is that they seem to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they seem quite happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to both Democrats and Republicans.

It looks to me like this is going to happen. The only question is whether it will be sooner or later. As an ex-pat I can only donate, but if you live in the US you can also contact your favorite State Legislator and ask for a meeting. It's easier than you might think and as a result maybe we can change t

You're really naive if you think you stand a change in a fight with the military that consumes most money in the world (almost 700 billion dollars annually, compare that the second place, China, around 200 billion).

And even if you could, violence is not the best way. This is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_to_propose_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Take money out of politics: http://www.wolf-pac.com/

... And now my FUCKING GOVERNMENT is doing pretty much anything you can conceive of in the name of spying on everybody including the people of the United States. ... I lower my head in FUCKING SHAME as to what has become of this country.

That's exactly how I feel. But, if our representatives in the Federal government no longer seem to be on our side, that's because they aren't. They don't work for us anymore: they work for their donors. Among the latter are a collection of corporations (e.g. Booz Allen Hamilton) that make up some 80% of the NSA. The problem is that the executives of those companies have learned that giving large political "donations" to key politicians is probably the best kind of investment they can ever make. As a result, the politicians involved have become heavily dependent on these companies in order to get re-elected and will do anything they are asked in order to keep those donations coming. Every other civilized country recognizes this as corruption, and we used to as well, but unfortunately our laws now say it's legal.

If you understand this, then you know there is only one solution to this problem: we urgently need to get big money out of politics.

How can we do that? It would be difficult to do in any other country, but the United States Constitution happens to include Article Five, which describes an alternative process through which the Constitution can be altered: by holding a national convention at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (at least 34) of the country's 50 states. Any proposed amendments must then be ratified by at least three-quarters (38 States).

Are we using this yet? Yes we are! WOLF-PAC was launched in October 2011 for the purpose of passing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood* and publicly finance all elections**. Since then, many volunteers have approached their State Legislators about this idea and their efforts have often been met with unexpected bi-partisan enthusiasm! So far, 50 State Legislators have authored or co-sponsored resolutions to call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics! Notable successes have been in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky.

But, if the State Legislators are also corrupt, why are they helping us? Well, maybe they aren't as corrupt as you think. But even if they are, the important thing is that they seem usually to be just as fed up with the Federal government as we are -- so much so that they are quite often happy to help out with this effort. After all, it's a pretty simple proposal that speaks to Democrats and Republicans alike.

.

*) The aim is not to end legal personhood for corporations, but natural personhood. The latter became a problem following the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which grated some of the rights of natural persons to corporations and makes it easier for them to lend financial support to political campaigns.

**) At the State level, more than half of all political campaigns are already publicly financed in some way, so there's nothing strange about doing the same for political campaigns for federal office.