Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Legislature Protesters Rain 'the People's Bribe' on Lawmakers as Session Opens
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 12:38 PM
As legislators strolled into the House and Senate chambers for the noon opening gavel, protesters lined the marble hallways and demanded an end to the sales tax on food. Then as the House session started, they tossed fake checks like confetti onto the lawmakers from the gallery. The pieces of green paper were titled "The People's Bribe." They were made out to the Tennessee General Assembly for $99.99 and signed "the 99 percent."
In her first-day address, House Speaker Beth Harwell lectured Democrats on the need to quickly OK Republican redistricting maps to help political candidates meet the April 5 qualifying deadline. That's rich, isn't it? Republicans keep their plans under wraps until the 11th hour and then claim it's the Democrats' patriotic duty to rubber-stamp them.
"I hate starting the year in such a rush with a divisive topic, but I would like to remind you that we have responsibilities," Harwell said. "And one of those responsibilities every decade is to process these bills and get them out to the citizens."
Comments (40)
Showing 1-40 of 40
Comparable to the horn-honkers who charged into the Capitol, with the only difference being that the horn honkers, while exercising their First Amendment rights, actually did physical damage to the building, impeded traffic, and intimidated and threatened state workers and others.
But expect the right-wing hypocrites to attack the occupiers while continuing to venerate the horn honkers. Of course, you can never underestimate their infinite ability to rationalize any hypocritical double standard.
Countdown beginning....
like
dislikebunch of bums, 99% frigging useless is what they are. Too lazy to bake their own pie ,want apeice mine after I put in the work.
You are just ignorant, Tony. Parroting what talk radio tells you to say about the occupy protestors just shows it. I am yet to hear any "I want someting for nothing" message coming from the occupy camp. In fact, would you please provide a quote or some evidence for your stupid post? Can you? I thought not.
One of the most important things the occupy wall street crowd want is jobs. And their protest is often against the Mitt Romney types who own stuff but actually don't produce jobs. Well, not in the US anyway. They buy compenies, suck the money out of them for the ownin class, close the companies, and send the jobs overseas. But they make money, live high, get tax breaks, and pass the actual costs along to wha is left of the middle class.
Nobody wants your pie - dummy. You and gast always convinced everybody's out to take something from you. Paranoid much? Nobody's trying to raise your taxes unless you're a billionaire and already not paying your fair share. They're trying to get the legislature to represent your interests not just the billionaires. Go polish your car and leave the politics to the adults.
I love this kind of thing. I'm always gratified when *anyone* gets up off his ass and takes an interest in the process of government.
http://youtu.be/qdhgJmumGUE
In this peice one occupier talks about the illegal immagrants doing the work americans won't do.If we could by a miracle get the illegals out, these occupiers woundn't take the jobs left behind.They would still complain.Most don't even have a veiw, they just don't have anthing else to do after leaving the foodstamp--welfare office.
Come on Perry- did you watch it--he wants his tuition paid for him, why because that is just what he wants..ball is in your court Perry.
If one of your occupier friiends needs a job Bo-Bo , I will pay them to polish my car .Thats if they would even work, probably want the money first and then not do the job.
http://youtu.be/qdhgJmumGUE
And now the other side , sane ,rational and well spoken.
Well, that video CLEARLY proves the Occupy Protesters are trying to raise your taxes. As long as we're going off topic this is Tony showing off in his vette.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uGGL3WP6kM
I'll polish your car Tony. For free. Just say where and when.
Bo-Bo grow up .Srgue a fact , show some proof for your side.Give a statement that does not sound so trivial. And why are you so wrapped up on my car,give it a break, are you that jealous.My car has nothing to do with at all. grow -up.
@Perry Aubric: The Mitt Romney types buy companies that are foundering because of government and union demands. Not all jobs are lost because splitting and selling parts of a company allows jobs to be retained for the profitable sectors of the company. The Romney types may make money but the target business will likely go under anyway because of overseas competition from producers who don't have to fend off government and unions. The industries doing the best - farming, big oil, health, - are also the ones receiving government subsidies, not higher taxes. Go figger. As a side note, reports are that the production of Chevy's Volt is being moved to China; this after the TARP bailout left us taxpayers owning $30,000,000,000 worth of GM stock. What a laugh. What's the answer? According to some, more government interference and higher taxes. Again, what a laugh.
Concerning the occupiers, I wonder how many of them have a house in the suburbs and two cars in the driveway - something you can see by the tens of thousands if you drive around Davidson County, and by the millions if you drive across America.Do the occupiers really believe they speak for all those successful households? Ending that sentence brought to mind a new term for the occupiers and their supporters: "neanderthal intellectuals."
Tony is infatuated with his acid washed plum smugglers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aauBiFZ8T-M
You really want to meet me tony? With your little pocket pistol? Gonna show me how tough you are? Be careful what you ask for.
Grow up bo-bo, and I have no problem meeting you sometime .you might want to becareful what you ask for.
@ gast. good poost, your comments are smart and on point and as usual these liberals result to their same ways .
I don't know if you can take any time away from blowing gast to meet me Tony.
It is so totally silly to vilify Occupy Nashville when you obviously know nothing about it. 2 main demands - get money out of government and corporations aren't people. A great many of us who identify with ON have jobs, homes, and cars. It's the not getting ahead that results from the division of 1% and 99%. The stats aren't lying. The country is out of whack and needs to be brought back in balance. Occupiers simply want to call attention to and affect change on these basic themes. Hardly a threat to you or your car.
It's preposterous to say any two topics are the "main 2 demands" of OWS. I thought ending income equality was tops? Or debt forgiveness? Or healthcare? Or jobs? I've lost count.
And I guess Perry does not consider pooping in the bushes or open fornication as damage to property. Both were documented by state workers back in December at Occupy Nashville, to say nothing of the national movement where at least five people died in OWS encampments due to violence or drug overdoses. And if what those people did to Zuccotti Park isn't considered physical damage and impeding access then I don't know what those words mean.
"It's a worthy goal" as stated by Mr. Woods tells us how wrong he is
on this subject, but is also tells us it will be his subject matters for the
next 6 months! Everyone seems to know and describe what this
movement is all about except those that are the part-time campers
at all these sites.
It is unfortunate that this thread is reduced to such a low level of "debate" about issues that are truly important to America in general. People have been reduced to schoolyard antics of name calling and picking specific issues/people that may or may not represent the movement and its intended goals. I don't agree with all of the OWS goals, but, as a whole, their concerns should be the concerns of most all Americans making less than a million annually (actually alot less than that, but lets just go with that for now) Yet, people that should be coming together to fight against the entities propelling average Americans toward poverty end up fighting over their own narrow views and assumptions, while the top percentage laughs all the way to the bank. As with any protest, the most disenfranchised and angry people show up,,but, listen to what they have to say. I think most middle americans could find some points in common with the OWS movement that requires some serious reflection and discussion, and perhaps, even backing.
According to a survey by Occupy Wall Street - Public Opinion Project (OWS-POP), the following is a summary of Occupy locations in New York (100 respondents - October 22-23), Boston (95 respondents - October 23) and Washington, D.C. (38 respondents - October 30).
This is a synopsis, go to link below for full information.
I. Policies to reduce/eliminate corporate influence in politics
End corporate personhood
Campaign finance reform
Get corporate money out of elections
II. Policies to reform the tax structure
Raise taxes on the rich
Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes
Eliminate tax loopholes
Tax reform
Fair taxation
Tax code that favors the middle class
III. Policies to create jobs
Jobs / Create more jobs
IV. Policies related to healthcare
Universal healthcare
Single-payer healthcare
Nationalize healthcare
Affordable healthcare
V. Policies related to the environment and energy
Eliminate use of coal
Decrease dependence on oil
Carbon free dividend system
Green technology
VI. Anti-war policies
End wars / Stop the wars / Abolish war policy
VII. Policies to reform education
Education reform / Improve education / Serious overhaul of education
Debt forgiveness for student loans's free choice act
Personally, I think any middle class American that is not "mad as hell" is just not paying attention....as the saying goes. And those being "mad as hell" at the messengers instead of what is truly happening.....well, that's for them to figure out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-hayat/oc…
Corporations are people owned through shares of stocks. Corporations are ran by executives that answer to the shareholders - people. Those people pay taxes on their profits. Those people who pay taxes through their corporations deserve a say in how this country is ran and far more so than than a bunch of ignoramuses demanding enfranchisement for their fellow idiots. If the occupiers have shown no more judgment or knowledge in their work history they have about various aspects of how a nation's economy works, then it's no wonder they're out of work.
gast, your comment shows no more judgement or knowledge about the history of corporate personhood than most typical ignoramuses and idiots i come across. gotta go,,,i have a corporation to "ran".
@Rorohonda: Let's hear your take on who owns a corporation, on the power structure, and on who's accountable to whom within that structure. Let's also hear your take on why all the individuals, retirement funds, university endowment funds, bond holders, and mutual funds that participate in ownership through the shares they hold, should be excluded from our democratic process. I would love to see your reply addressing my last two sentences. Have you ever even considered how many people are invested in corporations through their IRAs and 401K plans? Why are you trying to shove them to the side? Why do their interests not count as much as yours? Those people have worked their whole careers to accumulate their retirement funds and you want to take constitutional rights away from them because some numbnut morons have convinced you that corporations are bad? Don't you realize the value of their retirement funds keep many old people off food stamps. All you smartass idiot protesters are trying to destroy a lifetime of investments and savings and put retirees on government handouts. Nice going.
One person, one vote, equal representation. All men are created equal, ever heard of that? gast makes it sound like someone is trying to deny shareholders right to vote. Why do you deserve more influence in Washington than anyone else gast?
@Rorohonda: You got me curious with your demands in a previous comment so I did some looking. American corporate taxes are already the highest in the world now that Japan has reduced its tax rate. The socialist countries of Europe, which you evidently want to emulate, all have lower corporate tax rates than America. But have you noticed how Obama is not saying a word about the protesters? He needs protesters to keep on making noise in order to reduce the heat on his own miserable performance. It looks like you and your bunch are the tools of a fool.
Again, why should corporations, composed of the people who provide the wealth, the jobs, and pay nearly all the federal taxes, be subservient to you when it comes to access to our political representatives?
what smoothybobo said.....One person, one vote, equal representation. it's called democracy.
corporations are owned by many individuals and entities all over the world and their mission is profit. (they aren't just owned by americans, gast) i don't think corporations are bad.....i just don't think they should not be allowed undue influence in our nation's politics. personally, i don't have a problem with lower corporate taxes in the us in order to bring jobs back to america....i am against the many tax loopholes though. and, i am a capitalist, not a socialist. you can be a capitalist while still being for transparency, regulations and believing that government provides many services better than the private sector can accomplish. it's a matter of balance, gast.
MAINLY, i am personally opposed to the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010 which allows corporations to make political expenditures. i think this is the biggest attack to our democracy in our entire history.
lots of good information out there gast. and, since it's obvious which "side" most of your opinions are being formed from, open your mind to some different perspectives.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-kaas-bo…
@Rorohonda: Here you go. The following link will explain exactly what happened to cause the financial meltdown. I realize you may not be interested in reality but at least you'll see why you're protesting the wrong entity. It's a quick read for the information available. Pay particular attention to the opening paragraph and also page five. BTW, while you write of patriotism and influence you do remember that OWS was instigated by a Canadian organization, don't you. How do you feel about those outsiders interfering with our affairs?
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj30n2/cj…
It's funny Gast generally poo-poo's anything that doesn't agree with his worldview and if you link to something that debunks what he spouts, it is suddenly a "biased source." Then he has the balls to include a link to the freaking Cato Institute, written by a guy from the American Enterprise Institute, the most right-wing of right-wing "think tanks." And I did read through the entire essay and much of what the author is saying has been, in fact, debunked. There has been, and continues to be, a concerted effort by people and groups on the Right to try to deflect blame on the housing crisis in particular and the implosion of the economy in general. They do this by ignoring the many complexities of why what happened happened. And it's not hard to understand why they're doing this. They know that their whole reason for being, their livelihood as paid spinners and distortionists, is under attack if the public really sees what happened and who's philosophies actually caused it. So they create straw man arguments and blame it all on Barney Frank, even though the roots to this whole crisis go back way before he was even in the majority. Alan Greenspan, for heaven's sake, has publicly admitted he was wrong about all that. And he's a Randian through and through. For a much, much better analysis of all this, go check out Greenspan's Fraud. It was written several years before the meltdown and was warning what was about to happen, and put much of the blame on the philosophies pushed by Greenspan and right-wing Republican policy makers.
Rorohonda,
The best way to limit the impact of 'Citizens United' is to get rid of the limits on individual contributions to candidates while restricting contributions to political parties and abolishing PACs. I am sure that there is enough support in both parties for this trade.
Contributions to candidates do not violate the principle of one-man one-vote. At no time in the history of the American Republic have voters possessed the level of access to information that exists now. From partisan sources like Fox News and MSNBC to more objective sources to research and data, individuals can find almost unlimited news. If anything, PACs are more of a violation of one-man one-vote than contributions from individuals.
At the same time, restrictions on money in politics are absolutely a dangerous limitation on the ability of candidates to get out their message and to counter inaccurate or biased information. Free speech is meaningless if you cannot reach voters. Every effort to limit money has been successful only at making the electoral process even worse. PACs are the bane of good government and serve incumbents more than private donors.
Now some favor public financing but that is the worst of all possible options. It would favor incumbents even more and result in restrictions on when one can start campaigning. It would also give the media a much greater influence since there would be only limited ability to counter the biases of writers and editors.
If you want reform, remove the limits on private contributions by citizens and outlaw PACs.
Rorohonda: It occurred to me there would be no protests about corporate campaign donations if liberals thought they could gain an advantage, so all the crying is political posturing and that's all it is. If libs have all the liberal media behind them, and all the Hollywood stars, and still can't convince voters their message doesn't suck, then the message must suck.
@Chris Allen:Glad you tried to learn something but your conclusion is, as usual, far removed from reality. The Cato Institute is libertarian, something from which I am far removed. But this particular report mirrors what CNBC reported every day of mid-2008 on; I know this because I was watching. The aspect of this report most interesting is that it does not name many individuals. It reports the time and responsiblity of each agency involved. The only conclusion to be reached is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, under the proddings of the likes of Barny Frank and Chris Dodd, provided the impetus for the world's financial crisis. To ignore this is to ignore your pants being on fire. There's one thing you still haven't learned and probably never will: liberal opinion pieces do not debunk anything.
ahh,,,,now i remember why i gave up posting on this forum.....around and around and around we go.................done. gast......good luck.....and, mark, you are smart enough to know the ability of well placed funds towards TV, religion and the uneducated masses. until the middle class that is too busy tending to their own business that is chugging well enough along gets hurt badly enough.........no change will happen. adios
Mr. Conservative If you ever wondered which side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test! If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone. If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life. If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect. If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him. If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. Democrats demand that those they don’t like be shut down. If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his. If a Republican reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh. A Democrat will delete it because he’s “offended” and or blame a Republican
Tony, gast and your like-minded followers.....please indulge me and watch this brief video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8h-xEuLfm8…
