Cut The Inaugural
The present aftermath from Hurricane Sandy should not surprise any of us since we have seen the effects of hurricanes on population centers before. Even today, New Orleans has not been entirely rebuilt, leaving over 30,000 people who formerly had homes still waiting.
The tragedies now enveloping Americans in the communities hit by Frankenstorm, on Oct. 29, could have been avoided. This disaster is a direct result of our failure to make sure the infrastructure on which we depend politically, economically, and to keep us safe in the face of disaster does the job we pay to have done for us by government. The source of the problem is not ‘natural disaster’ but one of design and priorities.
The tens of thousands now homeless, having lost everything, remain mired in the evidence our system has failed. We need to see this and take action.
Instead of providing relief, government talks and gives news conferences. Relief efforts remain, largely from volunteers, including Baptists coming in from Louisiana, veterans of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and residents from surrounding areas who are digging into their own resources to ensure people in need are helped.
Instead of sending out suggestions on supplies to have on hand, the enormously expensive government agencies which were assigned to provide for disaster relief should have:
Stockpiled immediate resources to be made available to put people back into their neighborhoods with temporary housing, complete power generated on site, and sanitary and cooking facilities. Plans for such units, which could have been moved in either by road or helicopter, as needed, were ignored in favor of FEMA trailers and shelters, where available.
The specter of small children and elderly, starving and freezing in America, or anyplace else, is not to be tolerated.
Now, we should be working on fast-tracked plans for rebuilding. Since we know it will be necessary to replace homes, schools, and other buildings quickly, the correct approach would be to do it now by spending money to provide better stability and security in impacted areas proven to be vulnerable to disaster. We need pay for no studies to know where this one is.
Rebuilding should be carried out Deep Green, entirely off the grids. The needed materials and technologies exist. Let’s use them, at the same time demonstrating their thrift and superiority. Homes, schools, and businesses could even now be going up. Construction and rehabitation could take place in as little as a month for the first structures.
This is the plan we should have had in place.
Both major political parties today focus only on continuing their sinecure for job security and profits.
It is time to move forward and it is past time for Americans to join together to make this happen. Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Reformers, Greens, or Justice, we are all one in needing the security we are now paying for so dearly.
The election is over. It is time to begin examining what we have accepted and believed and instead become more discerning.
President Obama will continue in office for the next four years. A simple swearing in would be appropriate and a powerful statement which needs to be heard. We must conserve our resources and use them wisely.
All of us hope and pray for real change. We need it and should demand it from those elected to serve.
Plans are now going forward for an Inaugural. Instead of spending money on what is, essentially, a party for corporate donors, money which was earmarked for this event should be spent on the plan for rebuilding above and for immediate relief for those still homeless and without power and food.
Corporate donors should dig into their pockets and help make it happen. Arrange another time for a party at the People’s White House, when those now in need are cared for.
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster – Rebuild America
Nathan MacPherson – MacPherson Investment Group
Sign the petition HERE
Senate May Wipe Out E-Mail Privacy
By Renato Ramírez, Chairman of the Board and CEO, IBC-Zapata
and James C. Harrington, Director, Texas Civil Rights Project
Sen. Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chair of the Judiciary Committee, has capitulated to law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Justice Department, and is sponsoring a bill, authorizing widespread warrantless access to Americans’ e-mails, as wells as Google Docs files, Twitter direct messages, and so on, without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.
Leahy’s bill would only require the federal agencies to issue a subpoena, not obtain a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause. It also would permit state and local law enforcement to warrantlessly access Americans’ correspondence stored on systems not offered “to the public,” including university networks.
Even situations which still would require a search warrant, the proposed law would excuse law enforcement officers from obtaining a warrant (and being challenged later in court), if they claim an “emergency” situation.
Not only that, but a provider would have to notify law enforcement in advance of any plans to tell its customers they’ve been the target of a warrant, order, or subpoena. The agency then could order the provider to delay notification of customers, whose accounts have been accessed, from three days to “ten business days” or even postpone notification up to 360 days.
Agencies that would receive civil subpoena authority for electronic communications include the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the NLRB, OSHA, SEC, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission. There is no good legal reason why agencies like these need blanket access to people’s personal information with a mere subpoena, rather than a warrant.
One might expect better of Leahy, given his liberal credentials; but he has been quite disappointing. In fact, he had a hand in making the Patriot Act bill less protective of civil liberties. Nor has the Administration been helpful in this regard, quite to the contrary. Expectations of “law and order” types might not be as high in terms of protecting civil liberties, but they should not be as unsatisfactory as they are with proponents of constitutional freedoms.
The revelations about how the FBI perused former CIA director David Petraeus’ e-mail without a warrant should alarm us all, who have less power and prestige than he did.
If the Fourth Amendment is to have any meaning, it is that police must obtain a search warrant, backed by probable cause, before reading Americans’ e-mails or other communications. If we are to preserve our constitutional protection from warrantless searches, unreviewed by the courts, we need to let our Senators from Texas hear from us immediately and resoundingly.
We cannot allow the government to undermine our rights, bit by bit, even in the name of national security, which too often is the mantra it so casually uses. As Ben Franklin said, those who give up freedom in the name of security deserve neither.
This abridgement of our fundamental rights affects us all — conservative, liberals, and libertarians alike. Our allegiance to the Constitution must be non-partisan. Write your Senators.
The Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit foundation, promotes civil rights and economic and racial justice throughout Texas.