Congressional Reform Act of 2011 - Hoax or Fact - It Makes Sense - But Beware

A viral email is circulating concerning the Congressional Reform Act of 2011, which probably doesn't even exist. There is hidden code behind this email. lots of hidden code, which could serve any number pf purposes. It could be people looking to steal identities. It could be a government initiative to weed out "dissidents".  Regardless, beware of this email. I think the idea of a Congressional Reform Act of 2011 is great. But if you want to pass the idea along DO NOT FORWARD the email. It will spam all your contacts with this dangerous code. Instead, rewrite the message in your own words and pass that along.

Here is the viral email:

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those t o do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.


You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going.

The problem with this email is the viral hidden code you don't see, which I have reproduced partially here:

PHEAA: Scandalous, Infamous, Corporate All American

The PHEAA is the infamous scandalous private student loan corporation that masquerades as a Pennsylvania State agency. They operate as AES (American Education Services) but use a PHEAA letterhead to intimidate loan holders into thinking they are a government agency. They send out bogus federal student loan default notices like this one to intimidate employers and debtors into signing over 15% of their paychecks to the PHEAA. Of course they also offer debtors an option to have a lesser amount deducted directly from their personal checking accounts, if the debtor has a personal checking account. And if the debtor does so, they have to sign an agreement with AES that AES has the right to share their personal banking information with any "third party" or "criminal justice agency" that requires it. Yet, they cite no law to support this mandatory agreement to infringe on people's personal banking information. If you have a direct deposit agreement between your employer and your bank, you have to sign the same kind of statement to allow "third parties" access to your bank account.

Here is a scenario that has happened to a friend. They had direct deposit. They owed some money to a creditor, which had gone to a collection agency, similar to AES. Because they signed this "third party" infringement of privacy agreement, the bank freely gave out their banking information to the collection agency. So the collection agency knew in advance how much money was deposited on payday and when. The collection agency proceeded to get a levy of the debtor's bank account and unbeknownst to the debtor (they failed to notify them in advance as required by law), they siphoned off the entire account balance on payday. So much for the convenience of direct deposit. It's convenient for the banks and for the creditors. Extremely convenient. Now you may say, well these people asked for it. They put themselves into debt. Oh really? So for that oversight they deserve to go for two weeks without any money at all, which would easily send many people into homelessness and unemployment. But at least the creditor gets their money and that's all we care about in America's corporate welfare state oligarchy.

If you ever face a similar situation you should contact your bank to see if you can have the situation reversed. Likely you won't get the money back taken by the creditor or the bank's fees (around $200) for aiding them to take all your money. But you may get the bank to reverse any overdrafts that occurred in the meantime.

Did you know that the U.S government has agreements with private corporate financial blood hounds like AES? Interestingly, By the way, the letter you see here was sent to a debtor who took out a college loan in California. What the freakin' hell does Pennsylvania have to do with it?  Good luck trying to find legal help against these mafioso-gone-legit government approved loan sharks. You'll do better to file your complaint and represent yourself.

OK. This is where we cue the Star Spangled Banner. Hold your hand over your heart and look lovingly at the American flag, and remember all the people who die for it.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

From my friend Bruce Benson: 

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified!  Why?  Simple!  The people demanded it.  That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.


Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.


I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.


In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.  This is one idea that really should be passed around.


Congressional Reform Act of 2011


1. Term Limits.

12 years only, one of the possible options below..
1.     Two Six-year Senate terms
2.     Six Two-year House terms
3.     One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2.  No Tenure / No Pension.


A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay

when they are out of office.


3.  Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.


All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social

Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.


4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.


5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.


6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.


7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.


8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.



The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.  Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.


Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s),

then go home and back to work.


If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message.

Maybe it is time.

The RAM: Helping Third World Countries like the USA

Restrepo, or How I learned to Love War

I'm going to be giving you spoilers here. So if you haven't seen Restrepo, you might not want to read on. But if you have no intention of seeing it, or have seen it, or are sick of war movies, then this is for you.

First off, Restrepo is the name of a soldier who was killed in action. He was with the platoon of U.S soldiers chronicled in the film, Restrepo. As a reaction to his death, which devastated his comrades, they set up an outpost and named it after him, O.P. (outpost) Restrepo. Now I have complete respect for the men of this platoon and Sgt. Restrepo, in terms of their service to their country. But the problem is that their service is in vain and effectively useless.

Sgt. Restrepo's death, while being quite dramatic material for a film, was in vain. This is not to diminish his worthiness as an individual, a serviceman, comrade, and friend to the other men of his platoon. But therein lies the rub. Right wing warmongers exploit men like these and their plight (which they impose on them to begin with). This film is overflowing with camaraderie, buddy love, friendship, honor, glory, patriotism and all those heartwarming, good feelings we're supposed to have about our country. There is no better subtle propaganda tool than a film like Restrepo to prop up this useless futile extravagant waste of a war. We feel for these soldiers and what they have to go through. But why the fuck do they have to go through it in the first place? That question is never asked.

Now I am not faulting the filmmakers. I have plenty of respect for them and their bravery in risking their lives to make this film. After all, if they hadn't done so, I wouldn't be able to rant about it, and it is questionable that the film is a propaganda tool of the right. It only works that way if you're a fucking moron, like people who believe what they hear on Fox News, or don't have any mental capacity to read between the lines. Pretty much, that would include all the brain-dead right wing and other warmongers. The filmmakers have exposed a piece of this war not seen before in the right wing owned and operated biased media.

So perhaps the left (and people like me) can exploit this film as well. In that respect, it is quite an awesome film. The film actually covers the bombing of a civilian neighborhood, and we actually see wounded children. But that hardly exposes the real tragedy of the many thousands of civilian deaths and injuries that are neatly cleaned from any and every media account of the war. The filmmakers have a good cop out for this. They were covering the troops and what the troops go through, bleeding heart conservatives who sign up for war and then can't deal with it when they get shot or their buddy is killed. What did they think war was?

To balance out the reality of what war is, if you see Restrepo, you should also see the HBO documentary produced by James Gandolfini, Wartorn, a film about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress - a nice name for being fucked for life up after seeing your buddy's head get blown off, or after watching a three year old take a hit of automatic weapons fire).

A Fresh Start for Whitey

It's 2010! Happy New Year, whop-dee-do, and all that! I've decided the world has brought us to a new place, a new beginning of a new decade where we will see great new things happen.

Lets take stock of what brought us here. First of all we now have corporations in this country that are "too big to fail," so big in fact that they don't even have to make a profit to stay afloat. They get government corporate welfare. Now what other country has that shit going for it?

I think we should all welcome this new change in America as we move now toward a corporate socialism, where companies will no longer have to worry about competition, or those antiquated ideas like "build a better mouse trap" or " the customer is always right" or making money because they "EARN" it. It's the new millennium folks and time we all move on from the antiquated failed industrial ingenuity capitalism of the 18th century to the new corporate socialized welfare state.

Now, in celebration and as part of the PR campaign to bring this new change home, it's time we upgrade our flag. 13 stripes and 50 stars? Come on. Are we kidding? How many hundreds of years have we had that crap? Sure it was exciting when every few years they added a new star. But those times are long gone. Ain't no more states gonna join this union. No fucking way. The only union anyone is gonna join is the E Union. I mean come on now. One currency and multilingual, plus they got the Riviera, nude beaches, and the Cannes film festival. Sheeeet. I'm going EU baby. Screw this USA bullshit.

So to upgrade our flag and at least make like we even want to be an EU contender I say with spiff it up with the AIG, CitiBank and Bank of America logos. Money talks folks. Yesserieebob. Ain't but one thing that will garner people's attention away from boobs on the beach, and that's green currency baby.

Now while we're at it, we have to set people straight on what the good ole USA is all about. This whole equality thing is getting way too embarrassing. How can we have a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution that talk about equality when we have to get on with racial tazer profiling and Muslim only lines at our airports? Everyone knows that when our forefathers spoke of all men being created equal, what they really meant was all rich whitey men who married their cousins. They didn't mean "women." They didn't mean blacks or Hispanics or any of all these other growing hoards of races infiltrating our country to the point of actually making whitey the minority. So it's time we clarify this shit for all people to understand. RICH - WHITEY - MARRIED THEIR COUSINS. That's it! Everyone else can go fucking die.

Which brings me to health care in this country. If your ain't rich and white, then go die. Whitey ain't paying for non 'a y'all.

So let's review. We'll need to amend the Constitution to rewrite the Constitution to more accurately reflect the reality of the USA. Hey, this is nothing more than truth, honesty and the American way. Equality ain't truth. Capitalism ain't truth. But, Whitey rules in America? Now that' s a truth we can all agree on. Ain't it the truth?

Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within

This is a synopsis of the 28 minute French film by Pascale Bourgau who interviewed US military women raped on duty. It's been seen on European TV but not in the US. Pascale, a reporter for the Belgian channel RTBF (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon), while six months pregnant, along with Anne Barrier, toured the United States to meet these women and tell of their pain, rebellion and today, their struggle. The documentary was selected for the New York Independent Film Festival and will be shown Monday evening, October 26 at 5:45pm at the City Cinema East, 181 2d Ave, NYC. Following the showing of "Rape in the Ranks", we will have a panel to discuss rape in the US military at the Telephone Bar and Grill, 149 2nd Ave (212-529-5000). See http://nyfilmvideo.info/2009-new-york-october-film-schedule-tickets/monday-octob... Filmmaker Pascale Bourgaux is available for interviews. Her telephone is 212-982-0684 and 646-2638402.

Synopsis:

Raped by their comrades, Tina, Jessica, Suzanne and Stephanie have been ignored by U.S. military officials in seeking justice. Though the Pentagon acknowledged receiving 3,000 reports of sexual assault in 2006 alone, and had launched a rape prevention program in 2004, the number of reported sexual assaults has since skyrocketed, but not the number of convictions. Only 2% of accused rapists are ever brought before a courts martial. Very few women have been willing to speak out, with the exception of these four brace women. Unable to stand the nightmarish daily rapes by her commander in Iraq, 21-year-old Suzanne refused to report back for mission and was brought before a courts martial. 25-year-old Jessica was raped in the U.S. and Korea, yet still dreams of going back to active service and seeing her attackers brought to justice. Stephanie has come to regret never reporting her own rape and perpetuating the law of silence. 20-year-old Tina, who was raped in Iraq, is no longer around to recount her nightmare. She supposedly "killed herself." Her mother claims she was murdered. This report tells the story of their pain, revolt, and uphill battle for justice.

Image captions: Left: Pascale Bourgaux interviewing Ann Wright, a former colonel who resigned before the war in Iraq; now a pacifist and defender of the cause of raped female soldiers (Washington, outside the White House). Right: Jessica and her husband Brendan Brinkman.

En francais: http://www.capatv.com/?p=2609

Visit the Stop War Project: http://stopwar.lafilmonline.com