January 8, 2013
By Emma Hadden
All the talk shows and blogs are talking about gun safety this week, and people have wide ranges of opinions and ideas. Some of them make logical sense, others of them... not so much. Check out this video from Upworthy.com of a pro-gun guy getting his argument turned inside out by a reporter with a level head.
This reporter knows her stuff, and makes some great points. Guns are dangerous in their own right because it takes a person to fire them; military or near-military grade guns are high-powered pieces of machinery designed to kill... do we want everyone to have that and be able to fire them, without the military-grade training to go with it?
Former General Stanley McChrystal thinks not. Watch what he said about it on Morning Joe on Tuesday morning:
McChrystal sees that guns are a problem, not a solution. Do you agree? Click here to sign our petition asking Congress to pass a new assault weapons ban now. Add your voice to the others telling Congress: We want these military weapons off the streets.
Categories:
Guns
January 7, 2013
By Emma Hadden
So you've heard that "corporations are people too," but can you carpool with them? Most of us would probably say: no. The question may come up soon in California traffic court, though. In a valiant attempt to prove the absurdity of corporations being legally equal to people, Jonathan Friedman, a California man, pulled out his corporation papers when stopped for driving alone in the carpool lane.
He's a pretty interesting guy, and has been trying for years to get caught so he could bring the corporate personhood issue to court in his own way. Here's the video of the NBC News report:
It seems pretty impossible that the court will side with Friedman in this case: obviously, he didn't have anyone else in the car with him. But if a judge sides with the officer who gave the ticket, he or she will, embarrassingly, declare that a corporation is not, in fact, a person, something that goes against a long history of previous court decisions.
Because they are legally considered 'persons,' corporations are taxed, litigated, and regulated like individuals, and can spend money (which they have a whole lot of) wherever and on whomever they like. Because their money somehow qualifies as free speech (what??), big businesses can throw their record profits behind the candidates they want to see elected or the politicians they want to make beholden to them. They drown out the people working for a better country and a better future in favor of their CEOs pocket books.
Though corporate giants may say things like this:
they've got their own agendas.
Do you think people should get to ride to work in the carpool lane with their corporations? They already get the advantage of mind-blowing profits, why should they get the quickest route through traffic too? Thanks Jonathan Friedman for the whacky and hilarious to stirring of the pot on this issue. With all the protections corporations have, you'd think they would be mentioned somewhere in the Constitution.
Is that how it should be? If carpooling corporations sounds as crazy to you as it does to us, add your voice to the petition and join us in letting government know: Corporations are not people, we are.
Categories:
Big Business
December 21, 2012
By Alex Showerman
One of the biggest challenges we hear about in the fight for gun responsibility is how powerful the gun lobby, and NRA is. The fact of the matter is the NRA is not what they pretend to be. Consider this chart:
In 2012, the NRA spent a whopping $16 million dollars in support of "pro-gun" candidates. Even more shocking, just 134,000 or .81% went to winning candidates. If that is not a rejection of their radical pro-gun stance, I don't know what is. But it's not just 2012 that there was this overwhelming rejection -- Check out the longer term trends of the impact of the NRA:
That is right in the last 8 years, the NRA has endorsed 1038 candidates, and only had a meaningful impact on 4 races. Essentially what this tells us is that as a political force, the NRA is completely useless. The time is now for us to treat the NRA, as the results show they are, completely irrelevant to the needs of the country, and pass comprehensive gun reform. The first step is grassroots action and you can get involved by adding your name to our petition calling on Congress to take swift action on gun reform.
Thanks to our friends at Think Progress for the great statistics.
Categories:
Guns
December 19, 2012
By Alex Showerman
For Immediate Release: December 19th, 2012
Contact: Alex Showerman
802-651-3225
[email protected]
Burlington, VT – Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America, released the following statement in response to the President’s call for action on gun reform.
“I am pleased by President Obama’s swift action and strong words on gun reform. Here in the United States we need to create a gun culture of responsibility and accountability. The President’s announcement that he will do everything in his power to pass bans on assault weapons, and high capacity clips, as well as closing the gun show loop hole by requiring background checks on all gun purchases is a much needed step in the right direction.”
“Here at Democracy for America, we stand at the ready to provide any and all grassroots support needed to pass these much needed reforms. As the President pointed out this is something a majority of the American people support. It’s time for groups like the NRA, and legislators to stop protecting the gun makers, and start protecting the American people.”
###
ABOUT DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA
Democracy for America is the people-powered Democratic Political Action Committee. With over one million members nationwide, DFA is a grassroots powerhouse working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom up.
Categories:
December 19, 2012
By Alex Showerman
For Immediate Release: December 19th, 2012
Contact: Alex Showerman
802-651-3225
[email protected]
Burlington, VT – Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of Democracy for America, released the following statement after reports that Republicans want to cut social security benefits to protect tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
“Republicans will gut any program they can, no matter who it affects, all for the sake of getting just a few more wealthy Americans more tax cuts.”
“Social Security should not be on the table. Republicans have made it abundantly clear they are not serious about deficit reduction, just gutting programs Americans rely on. In fact, it’s a widely known fact that Social Security does not add one cent to the deficit. Even the patron saint of the Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, knew that.”
"Right now Republicans are proposing these cuts, and we want to be clear-- These cuts are unacceptable, no matter who is proposing them. We have said all along no deal is better than a bad deal, and this is the worst deal."
###
ABOUT DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA
Democracy for America is the people-powered Democratic Political Action Committee. With over one million members nationwide, DFA is a grassroots powerhouse working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom up.
Categories:
Inappropriate text or images on this page? Please click here to let us know.
