Sunday, January 31, 2010

Corpotocracy Video Blog




Corpotocracy is the current state of our union.
See above and below:

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Video




An introduction to the group and the blog, and some quality face-to-face time.
Also available on youtube under Rooftop Revolutionary.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

State of the Union

So, Obama did what the swedes call "lagom." It's not too extreme, it's not too lame, not too hot, not too cold. He fell, as he has in the past, in the middle.
He stood behind his decisions (whatever those were) for the past year and promised that this year would oversee massive changes in the economic quagmire we currently find ourselves in.
Well, isn't that nice?
I don't know about you, but for once, I'd just like someone to walk up there, close their sheet of notes and speak to the people. Not the supreme court justices shaking their heads as you comment on their cheap souls, not the republicans or democrats sneering or grinning as you weave your hour long speech into a nice looking but less than cozy feeling quilt.
As he stood up there defending his honor and laying out plans for change, I couldn't help but get a little caught up in his rhetoric at times. After all, the man is a very fine orator. But the fact still remains that actions speak louder than words.
I wasn't blown away by the speech just as I haven't been blown away by his actions.
What about you?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The revised constitution

Pussy footing

So, I'm a very straightforward person. If I have an opinion on something (which I usually do), I will voice it, and I realize that not everyone shares my views. The problem comes when people compromise their views to appease others. It is impossible to make all people happy, and the greatest offender of this is the Democrats.
As I said in my last post, Obama isn't doing enough to combat major issues. He has fallen into the typical Democratic bog of "oh, what do you think?" While this is an important point in politics, it should not be taken to the extreme of not getting anything done because you wish to make sure all are pleased. Take a look at Poland, for example, due to the need that votes must be unanimous, they never got anything done, they never mobilized as a country. Politics is a difficult game of compromise and resolve. You must stand for what is right, but be willing to work with others. It's a tough line to walk.
I'll give the two best examples of those who have walked successfully: Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bill Clinton. Regardless of how you feel about them, the facts are that they got things done. The economy was soaring by the time they left office. With Clinton, unemployment decreased each of the eight years that he was President. What did they do?
Maybe it's what they didn't do. They didn't pussy foot. At the same point, neither one was blindly ideological, stating that their parties interests came above those of the entire country. They walked the line between that, constantly moving, constantly examining the current status quo and changing.
Here is what we currently lack. We don't need or honestly have the time for a president who is dead set on pleasing everyone. We don't have the money or the will power to sit through while Washington argues with itself about what to do about us 'little people.' Now is the time to square off against tough issues, and you can't do that by pussy footing.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The rise of the rest

If you're like me, you'll go out on 4th of July with sparklers, sing a few patriotic songs, eat some bbq and feel proud to be American. Like I tell all my friends overseas, I love my country, just not what it's become.
Looking back on what brought us to today, looking forward to $6 trillion debt over the next ten years, debt is the key word.
Since the 1980s, Americans have spent money that they didn't have, bringing us to the current statistic that the average household now has an astounding 13 credit cards with an average debt of $120,000. Going up the step ladder, we see that politicians urged them to carry out the American dream, as they themselves borrowed using imaginary money gained from future taxes and lottery earnings. At the top, the federal government makes the average shopaholic look like a miser. Considering that today, the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of room, the only thing the feds are doing to combat that is to install an expanded clock, like fixing traffic issues by expanding a highway. Sorry, won't cut it.
Now, here's where the interesting parts come in. Who were we borrowing money from? If we, from top to bottom, left to right were a nation of moochers and debtors, who put up the cash?
Well, here's the title of my post: the rise of the rest.
China currently owns $2 trillion worth of foreign currency reserves, most of it being U.S. dollars. China has an IOU slip from us, holding more than 10% of our outstanding debt. China spends $40 billion a year on sending money abroad. Like a little kid getting allowance, we grab the cash, run outside and spend it on whatever toys we can find first. But we have to grow up. Eight other nations are climbing up the rungs as we sit here, arrogantly clutching the "city upon a hill" ideal while we spend money to support our American dream.
That has to change. Like I press in all my posts, the easiest place to start a chain reaction of change is by doing it yourself. I don't mean to take blame off the state or federal governments, because after all, they owe way more than $120,000. However, they're looking to repay their debt with our money. They're covering their tracks with our footprints and we have to be the ones to stand up and say no.
The world doesn't look at us like the big brother, superpower anymore. We're losing touch with reality and it starts very much with economic faults. Stop spending and make sure Washington does too. Bailouts, wars, frivolous spending has got to stop. It's time to worry about the people, you know, like the constitution says: OF the people, FOR the people and BY the people.

Monday, January 25, 2010

It's the economy, stupid

Although, I was more into GI-Joes than into politics in 1992, that phrase could certainly use a resurrection today. It seems that the people, whether they be gun-toting Republicans or tofu-eating Liberals can agree that the economy is crap. However, our constituents, on both sides seem to be doing nothing. The right continues it's ever entertaining quest to defile the name of Obama and his supporters, seeming to forget that to defile the name of an elected official is to defile the name of the American people...tricky. The left seems to be suffering once again from the teetering, I-want-to-please-everyone syndrome of being too vague, too slow and too indecisive as to what needs to be done.
So, where does that leave us?
No other political issue is as pressing as the economy. The right screams and shouts like a paranoid grandmother that there are terrorist on every corner. Obama seems wrapped up in the bloody gauze of healthcare bill that has yet to make clear anything other than its own disabilities to reach a clear consensus and heal an ailing system.
As if trying to avoid the giant dollar sign in the room, Obama has yet to speak out decisively on any economic issues, such as unemployment. As many politicians do, he got that over with on the campaign trail and now seems quite content to enjoy the white house, where men in Boss suits are wined and dined at the expense of those eating ramen noodles for dinner.
Speaking of campaign trails and dashed hopes, consider that many of Obama's biggest supporters during the campaign were bankers and lobbyists from the very institutions which the people are now suffering at the hand of. Thanks to the Supreme Court, big corporations now have even more leeway in ensnaring politicians into their web, giving them huge piles of cash for their political souls. I wonder how much the Supreme Court judges got for that decision. I hope enough to retire to a nice little island where the people, if they ever wake up, can't rise up and slay them.
And yes, I do blame us. I blame politicians for their uncanny ability to skirt issues, sell their souls and fight amongst themselves. However, we watch it all as if it's a particularly entertaining episode of Jerry Springer.
We must act. We must force those who represent us to act. There can no longer be apathy. This is our country and we have to save it from itself. A government FOR the people, BY the people, OF the people, not FOR big banks, BY lobbyists and OF paid off pawns.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Public Interest vs. Corporate Interest

Free market fans will try and tell you that corporations support public interest by competing amongst each other to offer the best products, thereby leaving it up to the consumer to choose who will indeed succeed and who won't, in this glorious deregulated market. They will say that government regulations stifle the American dream, that they squash a company's ability to be all it can be.
Let me say bullshit. The free market theory has been tested in numerous countries all across the globe. The lab results are in. It sucks. Regulations serve as protectors of competition and public interest. Free market ideology allows the biggest corporations to do whatever the hell they want, because they are answerable to no one, not the people and not the government.
Take our friends up at Wall Street, in particular Citi Group. Citi recently hiked up interest rates to astronomical levels. When questioned, the only response was that it was the fault of the customers for not paying back their loans. Um...what?! This coming from a company who has yet to pay back $25 billion of a $45 billion handout?!
Simply put, Wall Street knows that they can play high risk. Uncle Sam will be there to break the fall. They keep the winnings and distribute the losses on the little people down below, via bailouts and interest hikes, job losses, privatization and unaccountability.
It's our job to hold them accountable. The government is supposed to be a reflection of the people that they govern. Is that true?
Between now and December 15th, Phil Angelides and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will try to get to the bottom of this financial meltdown. I wish them all the best. In an age when corporate interests headed by cocky, overpaid lobbyists take precedence, I fear it will take more than a commission to break down the over-inflated pedestal these corporations and financial institutions find themselves on.
What do you think?

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Welcome...

A movement must not be political, it must start social.
If it starts politically, one is concerned more with the acquisition of power than of change.

A quiet people is a helpless people.

Rooftop Revolutionary...what?

So, another group dead set on changing the world...
Another political team pushing "the candidate America needs"
Another extremist with an absolute ideology

No, no and no.

I don't want to change the world. That's not our job. I want to change the United States.
I don't have a candidate and I am not a candidate. I do not know of anyone running or planning on running who I trust and would stand behind. That's a problem.
I am not an extremist. I do not blindly support anything, not even my own viewpoints. Government must change, because those that they govern are forever changing in a changing country.

You must "trade purism for pragmatism, extremism for centralism."
-Sam Tanenhaus The Death of Conservatism.

Welcome to my blog.