Grass Roots Over Washington (GROW)

Hi-

A little late to the table; was out of town trying to get over the Cold That Will Not Die (6 weeks and counting), but I LOVE this, and I thank everyone who has worked so hard getting it together. I do think it has a simple strength that will attract people and makes a serious point with a smiling countenance. Lovely!

I love our President. He makes all of the GOP look like mental midgets.

BUT! He needs to have emotion, indignation and drama. People don’t listen to intellect only.

GROW needs to be emotional… and intellectual. The GOP “appeals” to the gut even though their fare ends up being food poison.

Fuck you, GOP.

Oops! Just read the last paragraph of your Post, AdLIb. where you brought up what focus and scope of the group.

I think we the scope of the group should be all activities and issues in which corporations have undue and undemocratic influence. That would include the corporatization of the press, etc.

But I strongly believe we should focus our efforts solely on the SCOTUS decision. I feel this way because we are a new group and we are a herd of cats, but I also think that once we gel and gain cred, we should work towards consolidating other groups working towards the same goal. In a way, if we were the group that formed a coalition of groups, I’d feel we did something amazing. So those are the goals as I see them, FWIW.

Once we have our sea legs, and have accomplished a few of our first steps, I would like to see us expand our goals.

Corporations are the government you can’t vote out.

Does anyone else look at the photo and think about getting out Bambu and listening to Pink Floyd while staring at a lava lamp?

http://www.internationaloddities.com/rolling-papers.asp

Just throwing an idea out there after reading the comments.

We are a group of American citizens, united to ensure the continuation of our democracy, which is imperiled by corporate influence and interference in our government.

We stand against the corrupting power of corporate money — money that mutes our voices.

We insist that the voice of grass roots America be heard.

Our mission is to unite our country against corporate abuse. And to make sure our government is responsive to us — our families, our neighbors, our fellow citizens.

We urge all Americans — of any political party — to join us in this one goal: “A government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

I have just been reading some of the articles and associated links by clicking from the Think Progress’s word cloud “corporate ethics.” http://thinkprogress.org/tag/corporate-ethics/ The forces we are facing are large, vast and wealthy. Many of them I never heard of or knew they existed. Some corporate groups are being formed right now to uphold the recent SCOTUS ruling: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/06/action-tank/

I am not writing this to dampen spirits but to inspire. I look at the “move-on” million faxes” and it barely got a peep in the corporate owned media. If a million is not enough, what is the number needed to gain notice?

Our group will have to include many movements coffee,tea,water,cola….Left right,center, to fight “corporate person hood.” Think of every non-corporate group that you can. It will take every one plus more speaking and fighting against this corruption of democracy. It will have to be huge to crack into corporate media.

We can fight this corporate take over of democracy. We can,We MUST fight this obscene take over of the American peoples voices.

(and this for Cher, “No belly button, No politics” 🙂 )

I wish this thread were like the Vox Populi threads because than we’d have all the comments in one place. Any way to keep these comments together?

New email– at some point we should compile all these efforts, as they are part of our mission, right?

Dear “Cher”,

It’s been a month since the Supreme Court spoke.

Now it’s time for US to speak.

The Democratic Leadership has finally come out with a plan. And, thanks to your participation, the plan includes three of our proposals.

So far, the plan would:

* Stop foreigners from buying our government.
* Prevent government contractors like Blackwater from stealing our elections.
* Force disclosure to shareholders when a company wants to bribe and threaten elected officials.

The Supreme Court needs to understand that this is a democracy. OUR democracy.

It’s urgent that we act. I’m going to be speaking with a key congressional committee chairman, Rep. Bob Brady, with a simple message: Let’s go!

Chairman Brady is in charge of the House Administration Committee. Our bills are assigned to his committee. He needs to hear from all of us that saving our democracy just can’t wait.

Please join me. Call Rep. Brady’s office in the House Administration Committee and ask him to save our democracy. The phone number is 202-225-2061. Tell him that he needs to move the bill as fast as possible. You can also weigh in at the committee web site.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be keeping you informed. I’m working to include all of our proposals in the final bill, and make it as strong as possible. After all, it’s not enough to disclose political looting and bribery. We must STOP it.

Call Brady’s office in the House Administration Committee and tell him to MOVE the bill: 202-225-2061

Seven out of ten Americans think corporations ALREADY have too much influence over elections.

Eight out of ten Americans want restrictions on corporate spending on elections.

Almost eight out of ten Americans think that shareholders should get to vote before their companies spend one dime on elections.

Call Bob Brady’s office at 202-225-2061 and tell him what you think. What we think.

Corporations are not people. Corporations do not breathe. Corporations do not fall in love. Corporations do not have children. Corporations do not lose their jobs. Corporations do not fight and die in war.

This is obvious to everyone but five justices on the Supreme Court.

Time to fight back.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

I’d like to throw out a suggestion —

If anyone suggests a change to the mission statement, could you please rewrite the entire statement with your changes so we can see how it reads?

It helps people see how the change affects the overall concept.