Rev. Jesse Jackson and a group of local legislators and activists will hold a massive march and demonstration in New Orleans on Wednesday, April 1 to protest the present federal government policies and proposals.
Continue reading "Katrina hurricane victims are being neglected by the federal government" »
VOID's mission is to educate and organize Americans, who are dissatisfied with the results of their government or, elected officials. The power of such organization centers on voter's registrations and turnout to vote for positive change in our political system and government, by removing ineffective and irresponsible incumbents.
Vote Out Incumbents Democracy provides Americans who have lost confidence in our political system, an opportunity to restore responsible, ethical, and efficient government. The vote is the power our Constitution provides the people to direct their elected representatives and shape the results of government. A vote for incumbents is a vote supporting a candidate's participation in, and results of, that government. A vote against an incumbent and for a challenger is a vote for change in government, and indicates the voter's disapproval of the incumbent's participation in or, results of, government.
Ruy Teixeira at Mother Jones writes the following.
"What it means, though, is that the GOP is unlikely to get dislodged unless an intense anti-incumbent mood moves a significant number of races from the noncompetitive to competitive category. Could that happen? Possibly. Because one thing that does seem to be developing is just such an intense anti-incumbent mood unlike anything seen in American politics since-you guessed it-1994."
I found this excellent web site called OpenSecrets.org, which displays graphically one of the major reasons incumbents win. Follow the PAC money. (Note, the data is from 2002 but the money volume has only increased since then.)
As of January 26, 2006, our national debt was $8,190,567,748,779.48-- that's $8.191 trillion. Yet the US national debt 'ceiling' stands at $8.184 trillion - a full seven billion dollars less. Although our congress has been called upon by US Treasury Secretary John Snow, it has not passed an expansion of the debt ceiling, and so the US government is now operating in technical default.
Nearly a dozen House and Senate members who control federal spending, have hired lobbying veterans to raise campaign funds for them in return for lucrative favors. These favors, or "earmarks", have become so consuming to our incumbents seeking re-election, that they are neglecting their official duties.
Continue reading "Congresspeople pass pork in order to get re-elected" »
At least one 2008 presidential hopeful is bankrolling campaign funds through the use of his own 527 organization. Prowess in raising campaign monies is to a federal candidate's greatest advantage in our corrupt political system, especially if it is shown early on in the race.
Continue reading "2008 Presidential hopeful part of corrupt political system" »
Our long-term United States budget forecast is gloomy, particularly if President Bush and Congress agree to extend the tax cuts ready to expire after 2010; Bush wants Congress to make the tax cuts permanent before he leaves office in 2009. This means that in 2016, the annual federal budget deficit would be nearly $400 billion. Beyond that, the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are projected to rise to a level that "economic growth alone is unlikely to alleviate," according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Continue reading "Our president and Congress have not shown fiscal leadership!" »
The two leaders in the Republican U.S. House Majority Leader race claim that they are reformers; but let's take a look at a small portion of their money in politics life. Rep. John Boehner's Leadership PAC gave $242,822 to 53 Republican House candidates last year alone. Meanwhile, Rep. Roy Blunt's Leadership PAC gave 46 candidates contributions totalling $298,487.
Continue reading "Are both leaders in GOP Majority Leader race, leaders in corruption?" »
The stink over Washington D.C. is rising so high, jets flying over it at 35,000 feet will have to drop the oxygen masks for their passengers. It just keeps getting worse. There seems to be no end of wasted tax dollars, gross negligence in oversight responsibilities, bribes for legislation, and the pursuit of doubling our national debt to $10 trillion dollars and more. But my representatives are not responsible for this.
What does the word "politician" mean to you? Personally, we at VOID would rather have "public servants", a very politically-correct word, mind you! Take a look at Washington, DC on just one day, January 24, 2006, through the lens of Political Moneyline in their weekly newsletter:
Continue reading "We need public servants, not politicians!" »
New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said January 18, 2006 in releasing its World Report 2006. "Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive."
Continue reading "All of congress must stand against illegal torture" »
Elaborate schemes concocted by prominent Washington lobbyist Richard Kessler, head of Kessler Business Services, have allowed registered lobbyists to spend millions of dollars taking members of Congress on luxurious trips to Europe and U.S. resorts without technically violating congressional ethics rules that forbid registered lobbyists from paying for congressional travel. "We did what everybody else did," stated former representative Bill Frenzel (R-Minn.), including getting legal counsel to approve all spending decisions, and obtaining letters of approval from the ethics committees of the House and Senate approving the trips.
At $529 in 2004, the average weekly earnings of production workers were about 19 percent below the 1973 level; this is because of a failure of the economy to deliver the benefits of prosperity to all workers. Workers who have been most negatively affected are men with a high school diploma or less between the ages of 25 and 54.
You are now viewing VOID on its new webserver space all of its own. We have some tweaks to make, but, the bulk of the move is completed and went without a hitch.
We have a local VOID Chapter website in the works as a template which will be completed in coming weeks.
VOID now has its Federal Tax ID no., (AKA Employer ID no. or EIN). IRS has no problem with VOID being tax exempt as a Voter Education and advocacy organization. WE MUST NOT however be involved in promoting or advocating for any particular person or party in an election cycle. That's fine, because that is how we were founded in the first place, non-partisan, all partisan.
With our EIN, I was able to secure, at no cost, a license to use Movable Type software for VOID on this new host space with up to 5 authors and unlimited weblogs under the Non-Profit licensing program. Many thanks to the fine folks at Six Apart, developers of Movable Type software.
I have assembled all the documentation we need to draft our Articles of Incorporation to become a Non-Profit 501(c)3 organization. We will shortly assemble a committee to assist with the initial rough draft. We will be looking for those who have some experience in cash controls or accounting controls design and implementation. Anyone versed in contracts, law, or with experience on a board of directors of a non-profit would also be immensely valuable to us. Please reply if you have any of this experience and would like to participate in drafting our Articles of Incorporation to Email link elsewhere on this page.
Stephanie Crist has been doing a remarkable job of organizing our records and history to date.
David Weller has been regularly sending me internet resources we can tap to raise our visibility. Those which we have not yet followed up on will come into play shortly.
Thanks everyone for your patience, membership dues, and donations, while we get these fundamental organizational issues out of the way. Once done, no later than the end of February, we will be ready to start campaigning for VOID's mission and growth around the country.
And my thanks to all of you have continued to leave VOID's links or logo's on the internet in your surfing or writings. Please, keep up the great work.
Onward toward restoring responsible and accountable democracy in America.
We are moving Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy to its own server space. We will be back up and running by this evening. Please try back then.
CNN reports on a new poll. Though Americans hold an anti-incumbent mood, they won't be voting anti-incumbent. So, why do they think anything will improve? From CNN:
The issue of corruption ranked high on Americans' list of concerns in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey, taken Friday through Sunday.But with the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate up for grabs in November, most of the 1,003 adults polled said they don't think their own lawmakers are corrupt.
Many states have taken on the financial problems associated with the new Medicare Part D (prescription drug insurance). Although the effective date of the new social welfare program was January 1, a significant number of beneficiaries have been denied their benefits thus far.
Continue reading "Major Social Security legislation is fiscally irresponsible" »
For the ninth year running, the federal government failed to achieve a clean financial audit; this was due mostly to serious financial management problems at the U.S. Department of Defense. The DoD was not alone in receiving a disclaimer, or failing mark from the Government Accounting Office last December, 2005, however. It was joined by NASA, the Energy Department and the Homeland Security Department; together, these agencies represent 58 percent of the government's total reported assets.
Continue reading "Our federal government hasn't balanced its books" »
Following is an email I sent to my Senators Hutchison and Cornyn, and Representative Henry Bonilla. I would encourage all VOID supporters to take the small bit of time necessary to send a similar kind of message to your representatives by Sunday evening, putting them on notice. Feel free to borrow, cut and paste from my message below to craft your own unique message. It is only fair to let our representatives know why they are losing our votes to their challengers. (Be sure to include a subject: perhaps Corruption in Government, and your full name, and address and email address. Without that information, their staffers will likely trash the message.) The folks at Common Cause are also working to generate 10's of thousands of similar letters, as well.
VOID Board of Directors - Meeting Minutes
Monday, January 9, 2006 8:30PM - 9:30PM
ATTENDEES:
David R. Remer, President
Daniel Summars, Treasurer
Stephanie Crist, Secretary
PURPOSE: Discuss changes to Local Chapter memberships, accounting and funding procedures, address nature of contract development for Local Chapters, address the need for VOID accounting and cash control measures and the need for Daniel Summars, VOID Treasurer to report concerning the accounting of VOID funds in future meetings, as well as plan an initial budget for VOID.
One congressman in the race for Majority Leader of the U.S. House is Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio. He maintains the lobbyist-financed Freedom Project, with a lobbyist as treasurer and an all-lobbyist executive board. It has raised $5.94 million over 10 years and has contributed $3.26 million to fellow Republicans. Some 2003-2004 expenditures include $21,990 at Sam and Harry's steakhouse, $16,189 in fees at Manassas's Robert Trent Jones Golf Club and $5,990 for lodging at La Quinta Resort & Club near Palm Springs. This, by no means, clears the histories of the other congressmen running for the same leadership position.
Continue reading "Lobbyists have worked hand-in-hand with our politicians in Washington" »
Thirty-three states will conduct elections in late 2006 to determine the individual by party affiliation that will represent them in the U.S. Senate for the next six years. These thirty three (33) seats are currently held by Democrats (17), Republicans (15) and (1) Independent.
As early as June and as late as September, states that have the need will be conducting primary elections. If we use the 2002 data reflecting votes cast for the U.S. Senate by party as a recent barometer of voter turnout and sentiment, only 20.59% of the voters who went to the polls in the general election voted in the primary election. In terms of what trends were indicated, we get an array of mixed signals. In the primaries, 58.95% of the voters indicated a preference for the Democratic candidates, 40.45% chose Republican candidates and 0.06% chose "other" candidates. When the general election took place 46.06% of the voters came out for the Democratic candidates, 49.36% voted for Republican candidates and 4.58% chose "other" candidates. In round numbers, less than thirty percent of the age eligible voters vote in the mid-term election years than do in the Presidential election years.
U.S. Border Patrol agents have just discovered a 35-foot-long tunnel beneath the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, California, after it caved in and the asphalt roadway above it collapsed. More than a dozen tunnels have been found along the southwestern border, too, in recent years.
Continue reading "Illegal immigration and international trade" »
VOID Board of Directors - Meeting Minutes
Thursday, January 5, 2006 8:00PM - 9:30PM
ATTENDEES:
David R. Remer, President
Daniel Summars, Treasurer
Stephanie Crist, Secretary
PURPOSE: Establish rules of conduct and 3rd party advertising policy; report status of domain transfers and location of incorporation research; request review of web site changes; schedule special Board meeting.
According to Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the US Congress added about 14,000 earmarks to bills in 2005, totalling $27 billion.
Continue reading "Pork is fiscally irresponsible, and damaging to our budget process!" »
The Board met twice this month and set the direction VOID is to take. In addition to establishing a good many ground rules for VOID's organization, the Board has set in motion a plan for spreading VOID throughout the country as a grass roots organization. The way we will accomplish this is through the establishment of local VOID chapters in states and counties, and urban areas. Details are being worked out..
Continue reading "Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy Direction" »
There will be a great number of people, businesses, ideologies and other special interests writing contribution checks of many thousands of dollars each, to political candidates this election year. They will be sending them to "527" organizations, because the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has neglected to curb their abuses. To go further, many congressmen and women own "leadership PACs" (also fund-raising groups) to contribute monies to their respective political parties' candidates for congress and state office.
Continue reading "Support challenger candidates accountable to we, the people!" »
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and other congressmen, are stepping up and dispensing of financial contributions relating to corrupt Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. These are good, moral decisions, of course. However, unethical contributions to both candidates and elected officials should never have been accepted in the first place; congress is now worried that many more instances of corruption will surface.
Continue reading "Corruption activity surfacing more in Washington" »
This morning, this VOID web site was nominated for the annual Bloggie Awards. VOID was nominated for the following categories:
Best Weblog About Politics
Best-Kept-Secret Weblog
and, Best New Weblog
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
VOID Board of Directors - Meeting Minutes
Monday, January 2, 2006 7:30PM - 9:30PM
ATTENDEES:
David R. Remer, President
Daniel Summars, Treasurer
Stephanie Crist, Secretary
PURPOSE: Establish Board rules, membership dues, local chapters plan, incorporation proceedings, and the status of domain name transfers.
AP Politics: "AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn turned her back on the Republican Party and announced Monday she will run for governor as an independent."
ABC News: Politics: "Vermont County Senator Mark Shepard Gets Into U.S. House Race"
AP Politics: "HOUSTON - Former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson said Monday that he has filed paperwork to run for the congressional seat held by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay."
Roger Tauss over at Laying It On The Line has an examination of how Congressional Democrats oppose a push by the AFL-CIO for raising the minimum wage due to comparisons to the 7 salary increases Democrats have voted themselves since the last minimum wage increase.
Univ. of Washington research predicts highest costs yet for Senate campaigns. There research paper (PDF) is entitled,
Assessment of US Senate Campaign Expenditures in 2000, 2002 and 2004, with Predictions for 2006 and points to ever increasing wealth as prerequisite to run for U.S. Senate. Should the power brokers of our government be exclusively reserved for the highest bidders and wealthiest among us?
12/6/2005 - Abstract
The cost of political campaigning always seems to rise. Trends suggest that US Senate campaigns will average around 10 million dollars around the country in the 2006 election season, and that none will spend less than about 3 million dollars. In recent years, challenger candidates have had to spend twice as much as incumbents to win the seat away from the incumbent. In 2006, the major candidates for US Senate will spend in excess of 450 million dollars in campaigning.
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