Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Don't Cry for Me, Kathleen Parker


Propagandist Kathleen Parker writes in today’s Washington Post about a new tv commercial being produced by the same old conservative propagandists that brought us the myth that was Ronald Reagan.

"In 1984, Americans were more optimistic about their future. Now, Americans feel uncertain and are deeply concerned about the direction of the country. . . .” she quotes from the new propaganda peice. Kathleen Parker isn’t quite blaming Obama. She’s just sad. Awww.


Here’s what I am sad about: Since Ronald Reagan came to office in 1981, we have had twenty years of Republican “leadership” in the White House and ten years under Democratic administration. In that period of time, this country has seen a steady loss of jobs, a steady decrease in income as compared to inflation and a steady shrinking of the middle class. Those things have wrought the destruction of the American Dream.

You want to talk about blame?

Let’s see…
Whose policies were so pro-business that they encouraged companies to hide their profits in off-shore accounts and relocate their factories elsewhere?

Which party encouraged the breaking up of unions which eventually contributed to joblessness and the lowering of the American wage?

Which President granted amnesty to illegal immigrants, in turn encouraging more to come and take American jobs?

Which party turned its head while American businesses courted more illegal immigrants to come to this country in order to continue to drive down the wage?

And what President, upon leaving office, took a one million dollar paycheck to stand before an audience in a foreign country and trashtalk the American worker?

Was it Keynesian economic policies that the majority Republican Congress enacted between the years of 1994 and 2000, or was it a new, neo-conservative, free market approach that undid all of the regulation and separations in the financial industry in this country that were put into place to protect the citizenry?




And then Parker dutifully repeats the latest Republican meme:

“Nevertheless, it is probably fair to say that Obama's ideas were too big for America's appetite. It would have been nice had he made a few incremental repairs to the economy and left the transformative events for a less stressful time.”
Yes, poor America. Obama cared more about his socialist agenda than he did about the country and its citizens.

More propaganda from the People For The Status Quo.

How fucked up are things in this country? Very. How much more fucked up can they get? VERY, VERY.

And who continues to benefit from the combined misery of the people of this country? Politicians, yes, but mostly the corporate ownership. Profits are rising again and the recession is over for them. While the rest of us wallow, the machine grows.

And Kathleen Parker is in no danger of becoming destitute tomorrow, unless she tells the truth. So, as a wise man said, “…And so it goes.”

If it is true what the pundits say, and Americans are so lacking in intelligence, knowledge, facts, evidence, and simple common sense that they vote Republicans back into office after the way they have slowly destroyed everything this country once was and once stood for, then woe be to the Republicans and the people of this nation. The Republican Party will bring us more of the elitist, rich-get-richer, trickle-down on the working man policies that have gotten us to where we are today and this nation will continue to suffer.

HOWEVER, if this Republican revolution does not occur, Democrats can take no satisfaction in knowing that their current policies are not innovative enough or progressive enough to turn anything around either. All the time in the world will not heal this economy without change in policy. True progressive economic policies, including more stimulus and a bottom-up approach that stops favoring the corporate/banking power structure and starts empowering true small business, especially manufacturing, is needed to turn this mess around. Obama and the Democrats haven’t brought these things to the table yet, and may missed their only chance.

Oh, and in case I didn't make it clear, if you want to know who is responsible for the mess that we are in -- I BLAME THE CONSERVATIVE POLICIES PUT IN PLACE BY WHOEVER ADVOCATED, WORKED TO ENACT AND ENACTED THEM FOR OUR CURRENT PLIGHT. THIS INCLUDES DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS AND SPINELESS PROPAGANDISTS THAT REPEAT THE MEMES AND MYTHS THAT CONTINUE TO LEAD US AWAY FROM SOLUTIONS AND CONTINUE TO BENEFIT THE WEALTHY AND POWERFUL.

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Supreme Hypocrisy

Money is protected speech when it is lobbyist money paid to politicians in order to procure passage of certain laws and regulations that will benefit corporations, but not protected speech when it goes to certain organizations that have been labeled “terroristic” by the government. Really?

Which does more harm, I wonder, in the big picture and the long run, -- the “terrorist” group or the government that works for corporations rather than the people that fund it and are supposed to be represented by it? Which causes more sickness, disease, pain and death—the “terrorist” group or the laws that allow corporations to freely pollute the planet, sell unsafe products, and treat the world’s citizens as slave labor?

Just who are the terrorists here? And what does it take to make the government’s terrorist list? And is there any recourse for groups that are falsely or erroneously labeled terrorists?

Remember Ronald Reagan’s “Freedom Fighters” that terrorized Nicaragua? Remember the Afghan “Freedom Fighters” that eventually took over the government and became known to the world as the Taliban? One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

Corporations can pay governments to create laws that harm thousands or millions but you and I don’t have the right to support the groups or causes that we believe in. Another example of: a) the hypocrisy of the Supreme Court; and b) the inequality of corporate personhood.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

Financial Reform Should Start With Foundation

Paul Krugman addresses the problem with the financial "reform" in this oped:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/opinion/26krugman.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The problem with this bill is that there is not enough reform of the credit-rating agencies. If Congress were truly serious about reform, this would be where to start. Not only at the corporate level with Standard & Poors and Fitch's, but with the credit reporting agencies that report on individuals to lenders. Both of these systems are set up to serve the interests of big business, rather than to protect the public or the individual citizen. The purpose of both credit rating agencies and credit reporting agencies have veered off course and are in need of heavy regulation to get them right again.

Credit rating agencies started out as a way to help lenders rate the risk of lending to certain companies, funds or capitalize large business deals. They have become a tool to push through bad business deals.

Credit reporting agencies started out as an unbiased way to rate individual's credit worthiness. It has turned into a tool to allow creditors to charge ridiculous rates of interest and to strongarm people who would otherwise not use credit to do so.

Nobody questions the right of credit reporting agencies to gather sensitive financial information on individuals and then provide that information about individuals to possible creditors (now expanding to employers and insurers). Nobody questions the idea that these agencies have the right to use this information to produce a credit score that we all have to pay to see. Have you ever had erroneous information on your credit report and tried to have it removed? It can be a nightmare multiplied by three. Why do the credit reporting agencies get to decide whether I have enough credit accounts opened? Wouldn't it make more sense for each of US to decide whether we need credit cards or no? And why shouldn't the credit reporting agencies be civilly liable for reporting erroneous information on our credit reports that cause us thousands of dollars on a mortgage or car loan?

We have little or no control over the information that is gathered or reported, the accuracy of the information gathered or reported or the credit score that is created by this information. But the credit score controls the amount of interest we will pay on our mortgages and car loans, how much our insurance premiums will cost and sometimes whether we get a job or not. Who pays these companies to report on us? The lenders. Who benefits if we all have low credit scores? The lenders. There is a built-in motivation for the credit-scoring agencies to adjust their algorithms to keep scores low so that lenders can make more money from credit transactions.

How in the world did we all allow ourselves to become enslaved to something over which we have absolutely no control? And isn't it time that something was done to stop this nonsense?

Credit scoring and credit rating are both the foundations upon which credit is built or destroyed, approved or denied. If there is to be reform, don't you think it makes sense to start with the foundation?

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Friday, February 19, 2010

Read This With An Open Mind

How many people really have an open mind nowadays? Even progressives that generally pride themselves on their open-mindedness are not as open-minded as they believe. One case in point is the progressive view of the Tea Party movement. Progressives are all-too-willing to dismiss these folks as crazies and racists. Although the movement was started by Republican activists, there undoubtedly IS a grassroots component to what the movement has evolved into, but many are ready to dismiss these activists as an 'astroturf' group. And while the foundation of their protestations at first may have been anti-tax, anti-big government and a certain paranoid fear of socialism, if you listen to some of the other things they are saying, WITH AN OPEN MIND, you might be surprised at the amount of issues that you will agree with them on.

If you read the following with an open mind, you might also be surprised to find yourself agreeing with much of it. To CLARIFY: I am in no way, shape or form, supporting or condoning the actions that this individual took in protest. But upon reading his "manifesto" I found myself agreeing with some of what he was saying.

I reprint this here partially for your open-minded consideration and partially because the original post was almost immediately deleted from the site at which it was posted and I oppose censorship.

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
How did I get here?
My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.
The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.
That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.
Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.
On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.
The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.
In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.
Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.
For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).
SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.
(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:
(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.
Note:
• “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
• “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
• “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.
Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.
During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.
After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.
Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.
Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.
Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.
By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.
To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.
So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.
When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to XXXX XXXX, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, XXXX knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.
This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.
I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.
As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.
I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

We Must Demand The Medicare Option Be Put Back In Health Care Bill

THE FOLLOWING IS REPRINTED FROM AN EMAIL I RECEIVED TODAY. I AGREE 100% WITH EVERYTHING THAT IS SAID HERE AND COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF. THUS, THE REPRINT. PLEASE PASS THIS AROUND.


Don't you think it's time we started DEMANDING what we the people
want, instead of meekly and mutely rolling over while corporate
special interests have their way with us? The only thing that would
make the health care so-called reform bill more of a cruel farce
would be for the NRA to slip in a provision permitting loaded assault
weapons in hospitals.

Anything that might have actually made a real difference has been
systematically excluded or stripped out of the bill, killed off by a
lethal combination of weak-minded liberals too timid to fight for
their constituents and stubbornly corrupt industry quislings on the
other side. And those are just the Democrats. In early December they
were talking for a moment about allowing people younger than 65 to
buy into Medicare. That was before they moved with breathtaking speed
to try to kill off any hope of that either.

The Medicare buy-in option must be put back in the bill. This is
non-negotiable. This is our demand and we're sticking to it. When
will we have more votes? If not now, when?

Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1025.php

For almost an entire year Congress has been lulling us with the
promise that in the end there would be a robust public option. And
for just as long we have been telling you that it was all a knowing
willful LIE. With every alert we told you the so-called public option
was never anything more than a languaging trick, to get people to
stop talking about single payer, a way to get progressives to
preemptively compromise, only to be cheated out of even a feeble
public option in the end.

That's exactly what Nancy Pelosi said today. The senior House
leadership is prepared to surrender any public option of any kind in
exchange for a handful of legislative mumbles, some OTHER way to hold
insurance companies accountable. Oh, please, slap us on the wrist
with a wet noodle. Except that the one and ONLY thing that would
actually hold them to account would be real competition from a
righteous, low overhead public program, just like we have in Medicare
right now!!

To all of those who wrote and argued to us, "No, we have to
compromise our principles, we can't stand up for what we believe in,
we have to surrender now and hope to make it better later," that's
what you said. What has your capitulation got you? What are we left
with now but a total corporate takeover over of our public health
care system, every American forced to buy corporate insurance or pay
a federal penalty. NOW do you believe us?

Well, believe us now also when we tell you that the game is not only
not over, it has not yet even BEGUN. This bill is destined to be the
most DESPISED piece of legislation in American political history, and
woe unto the political future of any member of Congress who does not
jump up howling about this bill. But in the first instance, that is
what we must do ourselves. Jump up howling and keep howling.

Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1025.php

Our singular message is this: Put the Medicare buy in back in the
bill. We will be pumping out the alerts on this as fast as we can all
this month. But somehow YOU folks have got to find a way to generate
at least a million messages to Congress, by mobilizing everyone you
know to speak out like never before. And that's just for openers.

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