Entitlement my a$$, I paid CASH for my social security insurance!!!!

I am the 99%

I got the blurb below in a chain email - and I feel that it sums up how a lot of us are feeling right now.

Some more than others -

I can tell you - I'm mad as hell about the discussion around this topic.

I have worked for forty six years and paid into Social Security and Medicare the whole time - and it pisses me off that right now - the government is going to play a hide the wiener game with the money I paid in. 

I played by the rules!  I did what I was suppose to do.
I worked hard.
I saved for my reitrement.
I saved enough money to buy a modest home.

I hate my job - I hate working -  and I can't retire - because Wall street screwed over my IRA, Wall Street screwed me over on the value of my house and now the government is going to screw me on Social Security.

Everywhere I look - I'm getting screwed!

I wish there was some way to sue Wall Street and the Federal Government for FRAUD on this issue.  But they cover their asses with the phrase "Every investment has inherent risk".

Oh how I wish that every person on Wall Street would get screwed financially and end up living in the gutter where they belong.

This is another example of what Rick Perry called "TREASON in high places" !!!

Get angry and pass this on!

Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too.

It totaled 15% of your income before taxes.

If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.  If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.  If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month. 

The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.

Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!!

Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout to the government!! 

Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?

We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile, and Turkey . And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement

even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives

and now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money.

Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?

Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.

Sad isn't it?

99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.

I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did.

Schumer (D-NY) and Lee (R-UT) - Dismiss You and Me (US)

In a time:

when Americans can’t find a job

In a time

when Americans are struggling to hold onto what little we have left

In a time

when 99% of the citizens of the United States are feeling financial pain.

In a time

when people have taken to the streets over the injustice in the United States.

A bi-[partisan bill has been introduced that:

The government may turn to foreigners to shore up the weak housing market.

A bill co-authored by Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) aims to use the appeal of U.S. residence visas to entice foreigners to buy American homes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

If passed, the bill would offer a U.S. residence visa to any foreigner who makes a cash investment of at least $500,000 in U.S. residential real estate.

Looks like our dear senators want a whole new set of immigrants to take what few jobs are available in the US.

Looks like these senators want to help out the bankers by giving them a new set of buyers for the houses that Americans lost due to the financial crisis.

Looks like these senators can’t come together for a decent bi-partisan jobs bill – but they can make offers to foreigners -  while no similar offer exists for citizens of the United States.

So – Schumer and Lee – tell me WHO are the constituents you are representing with this bill?

So – Schumer and Lee – tell me WHAT in the hell are you doing for the  citizens of the United States?

So – Schumer and Lee – tell me WHY are you introducing this type of bill - when so-called immigration is suppose to be an "issue".

So – Schumer and Lee – tell me HOW are helping THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

Arkansas - Who Rules? The People or ALEC Corporations?

Arkansas

State Motto:  Regnat Populus

“The People Rule”

Well – if that’s your motto – you better get rid of all the ALEC members in your state – because to ALEC members – The Corporations Rule!!!!!!

Each person on the list has been compiled and cited using the web and you can also find the proof by researching through ALEC documents, reports and magazines, the Arkansas state bios, and other state and misc. webpages.  The list probably contains more than one actual Arkansas ALEC member.

Gilbert	Baker	AR
Cecile	Bledsoe	AR
Les	Carnine	AR
Ann	Clemmer	AR
Linda	Collins-Smith	AR
Dawn	Creekmore	AR
Jane	English	AR
Steve	Faris	AR
Ed	Garner	AR
Bobby L	Glover	AR
Dan	Greenburg	AR
Debbie	Hobbs	AR
Bobby	Hogue	AR
Karen	Hopper	AR
Barbara	Horne	AR
Tim	Hutchinson	AR
Johnny	Key	AR
Michael	Lamoureux	AR
Mark	Martin	AR
Robert	Moore	AR
Roy C.	Ragland	AR
Bill	Sample	AR
Susan Lynn	Schulte	AR
Bill	Stoval III	AR
Tim	Summers	AR
Jerry	Taylor	AR
Shawn	Womack	AR

Another list can be found at ALEC Exposed– because they access to leaked documents that I don’t have.  Since I don’t have these documents on file – I won’t list those people in my blog.

AND if your legislator is not on either list – contact them and ask them, “Are you a member of ALEC?  There’s quite a few people on this ALEC list – I’d ask if I were you.

So what – what if people had a list – what does that accomplish? 

What would happen if people had a list - what will it accomplish? 

Does it really hurt ALEC if a list were available or would ALEC just go on – business as usual?

How would this information be used in a constructive way?

What is next – we HAVE TO REMOVE all ALEC members from state and federal government.  It is our role to make sure that they don’t get re-elected.  Now is the time for “boots to the ground” to use the information we have compiled on ALEC members and ALEC “model legislation” to prove to others that ALEC members MUST be removed from public service at any and all levels. 

ALEC just completed their four day conference where ALEC Corporations told your legislators what legislation they wanted to have passed and what legislation they did not want to have passed.

ALEC members are not serving the public – they are serving the ALEC corporations.  It does not matter how ALEC or their members spin this story over the next couple months it is important for you – to remember and to talk about the following fact:

When was the last time YOU got to sit with your legislator for two or three days and tell your legislator what YOUR needs are and help your legislator write legislation that benefited YOU?

Your ALEC legislator does this multiple times a year with corporations – so when push come to shove – it is evident who your legislator is representing – the ALEC corporations.

Past members are important – because they may come up for a state or federal appointment.

Campaign reports – report campaigns – so someone may be on the list that did not win  - but you can bet your boots they will try again.

ALEC members and those affiliated with ALEC in any manner

MUST NOT BE RE-ELECTED.

Without state and federal legislators ALEC will cease to exist and it will implode.

As a courtesy -
please don't take credit for this list or
post it anywhere on the web as your original work and research.
This blog - in whole and part - is copyright protected.

For more information on ALEC –

Please read this report or this report or this report

or this series of six articles.

And watch this news video  from North Carolina on how other ALEC "model legislation" is going to screw the citizens of North Carolina - legislation introduced by ALEC legislators.

This is what ALEC is About  _ Mark Pocan on Thom Hartmann

MN Democratic US Senators HAVE TO GO

We need to primary them.  They have both been bought out by the corproations and 1% and we need to get rid of them.

I don't care how popular they are - they are too conservative and that is not what we were expecting.
We deserve better!

From last night's Jobs Bill Votes:

VOTING AGAINST Cloture on THE OBAMA JOBS BILL
The threat did not sway some Democrats, who voted with the GOP. The 10 Democrats defections were: Sens. Al Franken (Minn.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.).

"And despite a veto threat from the White House, 10 Democrats voted for a GOP alternative.  ...  The Republican measure offered on the floor Thursday night won more votes than Obama’s proposal."

VOTING FOR THE GOP Cloture of the JOBS BILL
Franken
Klobuchar

Minnesota needs progressive Congressional people who SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT.

Minnesota Progressives - stand up!  and get some good candidates to primary these two.

Heh, heh - Ho, Ho  Franken and Klobuchar HAVE GOT TO GO!

Corporate Greed and YOUR Legislator's Pocketbook

People are all wondering about “Corporate Greed” and why there is an Occupy movement going on.

Well, - ya know – us ignorant citizens can take about as much as we can take before we rise up –

NOT ONLY against the corporations –

BUT ALSO against politicians

   who put corporate greed

   AND The legislator's own personal greed

above the citizens that they are elected to represent.

There is always the possibility when you pair ordinary people with corporations who can control and bribe them that there may be problems when it comes to governance.

Here's a little tale about how corporate greed leads to legislator greed.
It really doesn't matter what state it is -it could be any state - this story just seems to unravel, so Alaska gets picked on today.

Whatever the resolution of all this  was - it really doesn't matter - it's the overall pattern of corporate greed and legislator corruption that should be of concern.

It really is up to US, folks - to eliminate corporate greed and we HAVE TO start looking at our legislators as a major cause of ongoing corporate greed in government.

In 1999, CCA [Corrections Corporation of America] made the President’s List for contributions to ALEC’s [American Legislative Exchange Council] States and National Policy Summit; Wackenhut also sponsored the conference. Also, past cochairs of the Criminal Justice Task Force have included Brad Wiggins, then Director of Business Development at CCA and now a Director of Customer Relations, and John Rees, a CCA vice president.

In 1996, the Alaska Legislature was flooded by teams of private-prison representatives eager to convince lawmakers of the merits of privatization. Corrections Corporation of America [CCA] teamed with Chugach Alaska Corp., an Alaska native corporation. Wackenhut, the number two corrections corporation, teamed with Veco, an major oil-industry maintenance company, and Allvest Inc., which ran halfway-houses in the state. Both hired prominent lobbying firms to further their causes. [35] The groups also put nearly $200,000 into the campaigns of lawmakers during the 1996 elections. (Allvest alone put nearly $120,000 into the campaigns of candidates between 1990 and 1998, with more than $92,000 going to sitting legislators and incumbents.)

ENTER

Alaska State Legislature   Representative Pete Kott – ALEC MEMBER

Anchorage Daily News  - December 2007

A federal jury in September convicted Kott, 58, of bribery, conspiracy and extortion for his role in advocating an oil tax pushed by Veco Corp. executives and favored by North Slope oil producers. He received nearly $9,000, a political poll for his re-election campaign and the promise of a lobbying job, all from Veco executives, according to testimony.

The stakes in Juneau during the 2006 legislative session were huge. Kott and other Veco allies were trying to keep the proposed new oil tax on profits at 20 percent, as the industry wanted. But others were pushing for a higher rate. Even a one percent change in the tax rate meant tens of millions to the state, if not even more.

The Alaska Report

Specifically, the indictment alleges that Company A, a multinational corporation that provided services to the energy, resource and process industries and to the public sector, had significant financial interests in contracts from oil producers in Alaska, natural gas pipeline legislation, and a legislative proposal called the "petroleum production tax," or PPT, that would change the taxation of oil production.

…the indictment alleges that Kott and Weyhrauch each corruptly solicited and/or received multiple financial benefits from Company A in exchange for each legislator's agreement to perform official acts as a member of the Alaska state legislature to further the company's business interests.

According to the indictment, Kott corruptly solicited, and the company agreed to provide, employment for Kott after he left the state legislature, as well as other things of value. At a meeting in April 2006 with the company's vice president and, via teleconference, the CEO, Kott said he had been successful in getting other state legislators to support the oil tax legislation favored by Company A, and that he believed the bill would pass. Kott allegedly said in a meeting with the company's CEO and vice president on May 7, 2006, that he had worked to kill an amendment to the PPT bill because Company A's CEO told him to do so. According to the indictment, Kott said, "I had to get 'er done. So I had to come back and face this man right here [pointing to the CEO]. I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie."

ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE

HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE 

March 11, 2010

REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG, to illustrate  the loophole in existing law, referred to  the federal corruption case  involving the VECO  Corporation,  wherein although  the  company  didn't realize  any pecuniary gain - and the State  of Alaska didn't realize any loss or damage  - the company  was certainly seeking pecuniary  gain and  pecuniary loss  or  damage to the State  -  when it  bribed certain Alaska  lawmakers  to  defeat  a  tax  that  would  have affected the  oil and gas industry.

Or you have this
DON YOUNG – ALEC Alumni – Now serving in the US Congress - also from Alaska

•Young was the subject of a 2007 Justice Department criminal inquiry on the basis of his association with employees of the VECO Corporation that were convicted of bribery. VECO CEO Bill Allen, who hosted a yearly fundraiser for Young called “The Pig Roast,” pled guilty to charges that he bribed three Alaska state legislators. Between 1996 and 2006, VECO fundraisers raised over $150,000 for Young. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), VECO benefited from earmarks and legislation proposed by Young during this period.


And then, of course - there are the disclaimers

Stevens cautions that there's nothing illegal about the contributions, and says that the Veco executives who have donated to his campaign are innocent until proven guilty.

Yeh, sure.

"We have no information that would suggest that there have been any improper activities either by Veco Corp., Veco Alaska or any of the principals involved in those companies," Menard said.

Yeh, sure

I will believe corporations are persons

when Texas executes one.

A sign at multiple Occupy sites.