Adam Roberts's Blog

Direct Democracy

Adam Roberts — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:00:55 EST

Former US Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), who is also running for the Democratic Nomination, has been sponsoring a new way to view the true meaning of Democracy, and with it, ultimately handing the power of legislation to the people. The National Initiative movement, an effort formed by Mike Gravel's "The Deomcracy Foundation" is a constituional amednment that would enable the people to use ballot initaives to vote alongside existing Legislative bodies, on all levels of government. The organization seems to have worked out many of the major technicallities, with many checks to inusre coporations, lobbyists, and a rash unconsitutinal decsion from the people, have no power in the system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Initiative

http://www.nationalinitiative.us/

In fact, people would even be able to safely vote through many means, even the internet. This is a grand ideal, one of which many would say is equivalent to the feared "majoritarian dictatorship" or "Mob Rule," and should be whole-heartedly rejected. These people are simply uninformed of the matter. All this system would be doing is essentially adding another check to our horribly malfunctioning Checks and Balancing system. The Legislators have long since abanonded the will of the people for corporate greed and lobbyist bribes. Imagine the leaps forward we would make if the people had command over legisltation. The vast majority of America wants the horrible NAFTA system to be repealed; Congress and the President both refuse to do so, instead choosing fake promises. Animal Rights Reform, better tax policies, ANYTHING that the people wanted (provided its constitutionality) could be provdided. If there was a national initiatve for it, the will of people would prevail and it would be immediately abolished.

The problem is clear; Gravel is scoring in the 1% range and probably will not recieve the nomination. Which is why I am encouraging you to ask Obama to also endorse this idea. It is a bold one (bold being the one the thing that politicans hate, of course), but if the people were informed on a massive level, I am sure this idea would be well receieved.

I encourage you to spread the word on this, and convince Obama and his numerous supporters to grab ahold of this plan.

FairTax Act!

Adam Roberts — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:09:08 EDT

A national Consumption tax is something we need very, very, badly.

This bill was created to try and rectify the problems that have emerged from the Federal Income Tax and the IRS's existence. It would repeal the 16th amendment and put in its place a national sales tax for the United States Government to collect revenue.

The problem with our current system is that a) The Income Tax is a great violation of personal liberty, with the government forcibly taking our hard earned money and b) The IRS has become a highly sophisticated organization, and nearly incomprehendable to ordinary citizens.

The FairTax would fix both these problems and then some. It would allow us to take home all of our paycheck, instead of having it cut to pieces by taxes, and it would end the Income Tax's destruction of our rights. It would make taxation a choice, meaning it is your choice to go out and purchase luxury commodities and the like. It would also render the IRS and its highly intricate Tax Code unneccesary and wasteful.

Economists at Boston University concluded that the FairTax would reward low-income households with 26.3% more purchasing power, middle-income households with 12.4% more purchasing power, and high-income households with 5% more purchasing power.

This issue destroys class and party lines. It simply logic to endorse something like this, and a National Candidate like Obama would be the best to endorse it.

Hillary Clinton is a traitor!

Adam Roberts — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:56:34 EDT

There are two things that Hillary Clinton has done that deserve immediate scrutiny:

1) She has disregarded the will of the DNC, the only uniting organization between Democrats.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7036562.stm

2) She has given President Bush the authority to attack Iran. This is a portion of a statement that the Gravel Campaign is circulating. Though Obama does recognize that it is too early to rule out a strike against Iran, he did not vote on this measure, like the traitor Hillalry did.

It started with Democratic Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel criticizing Senator Hillary Clinton on live TV. Now, two other candidates are catching on. John Edwards and Barack Obama have both followed Gravel's lead, making statements that criticize Clinton's controversial vote on a measure which gives President George W. Bush the cover to attack Iran.

At the September 26 Democratic debate in Hanover, N.H., Gravel first raised the issue, calling the Kyl-Lieberman amendment (S. Amdt. 3017) "a fig leaf to let George Bush go to war with Iran." The Senator went on to say, "I'm ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for it. You're not going to get another shot at this." You can watch an excerpt of that debate here.

Since then, Edwards and Obama have made similar statements.

While Obama told AP he sees "nothing wrong with identifying the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization," he admits that the vote "could potentially lead to military action in Iran." You can read more about that in today's Union Leader.

Obama was absent the day the vote was cast in the Senate. As a result, he could not vote on it.

Edwards, who calls his vote authorizing the Iraq War a "mistake," followed Gravel in congratulating Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden for voting against the resolution

Direct Democracy

Adam Roberts — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:38:45 EDT

Former US Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), who is also running for the Democratic Nomination, has been sponsoring a new way to view the true meaning of Democracy, and with it, ultimately handing the power of legislation to the people. The National Initiative movement, an effort formed by Mike Gravel's "The Deomcracy Foundation" is a constituional amednment that would enable the people to use ballot initaives to vote alongside existing Legislative bodies, on all levels of government. The organization seems to have worked out just about all of the major technicallities, with many checks to inusre coporations have no power over the system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Initiative

http://www.nationalinitiative.us/

In fact, people would even be able to safely vote through many means, even the internet. This is a grand ideal, one of which many would say is equivalent to the feared "majoritarian dictatorship" or "Mob Rule," and should be whole-heartedly rejected. These people are simply uninformed of the matter. All this system would be doing is essentially adding another check to our horribly malfunctioning Checks and Balancing system. The Legislators have long since abanonded the will of the people for corporate greed and lobbyist bribes. Imagine the leaps forward we would make if the people had command over legisltation. The vast majority of America wants the horrible NAFTA system to be repealed; Congress and the President both refuse to do so, instead choosing fake promises. If there was a national initiatve for it, the will of people would prevail and it would be immediately abolished.

The problem is clear, Gravel is scoring in the 1% range and probably will not recieve the nomination. Which is why I am encouraging you to ask Obama to also endorse this idea. It is a bold one (bold being the one the thing that politicans hate, of course), but if the people were informed on a massive level, I am sure this idea would be well receieved.

I encourage you to spread the word on this, and convince Obama and his numerous supporters to grab ahold of this plan.