Friday, December 30, 2016

DC corruption silence

Since November 10th, I have made efforts to elicit comment from the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington and from other leaders in Alabama government and politics, concerning President-Elect Trump's Contract with the American Voter and its plan for restoring honesty and accountability, and bringing change to Washington to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion.

I have sent tweets multiple times to Senators Sessions and Shelby and to Representatives Byrne, Roby, Rogers, Aderholt, Brooks, Palmer and Sewell, and also have sent tweets to Governor Bentley (who will appoint a successor to Senator Sessions) and to contenders that the Governor has interviewed.

The only responses have been from Representative Byrne, who said he supported term limits, and from Perry Hooper, who said he was co-chair and campaigned across the state for Trump's #draintheswamp agenda.

The efforts that have been made are memorialized in the below blog entries:
Trump's contract with American voter, November 10, 2016
AL Cong'l delegation lobbying ban positions, December 6, 2016
Contenders for Sessions seat, December 13, 2016
Is fighting DC corruption an AL priority, December 18, 2016
PBS News hour, December 29, 2016
Tim Lockette, January 4, 2017
Further ideas for fixing Congress?, January 6, 2017
Luther Strange's $309,000, January 12. 2017

Update 1/3/17
Ooooooh.
Now we know the reason for the Alabama sounds of silence about Wash DC corruption.
Republicans in Congress have been busy conspiring to eviscerate Congressional ethics.





Edit: During the day, the President-Elect pulled the Republicans back.



Thursday, December 29, 2016

PBS Newshour

Would the Alabama legislative delegation please watch the below video from last night's PBS Newshour and offer their comments. Thank you.


Sunday, December 18, 2016

Is fighting DC corruption an AL priority?

I wish for the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington to make a priority of restoring honesty and accountability, and cleaning up corruption and special interest collusion, as promised by the President-Elect in his Contract with the American Voter. See The 2018 citizens' unity Congress.

Are Alabama's representatives in Congress going to make it any priority of theirs to help advance this in 2017? (Rep. Byrne has said he supports term limits (see Term limits), but I don't know what Rep. Byrne plans to do in 2017 to advance that.)

One of the President-Elect's proposed measures is a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.

Regarding the lobbying ban measure: Is that something individual members of Congress could implement for themselves and their staffs without Congressional action as a whole? If yes, are Alabama's representatives in Congress willing to undertake that immediately for themselves and their staffs? Answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Since the President-Elect has famously taken to Twitter for communicating directly to voters, might Alabama's legislative delegation in DC do similarly, and further extend the same to two way communications between the Representative and his or her constituents? Such a use of Twitter could be the start of new transparency and accountability in our governance. Please consider this suggestion. I will initiate here from the constituent side by using the #alpolitics, #al01, etc. hashtags.

Thank you.




12/28/16: See AL Cong'l delegation lobbying ban positions;  Contenders for Sessions seat.

12/29/16

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Contenders for Sessions seat

Dear Governor Bentley,

In the 2016 Presidential election, the American people heard for eighteen months about a rigged, broken, and corrupt Congress and political system. This came from both Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side and Donald Trump on the Republican side.

It culminated with Donald Trump's Contract with the American Voter, in which the President-Elect committed to embark immediately on a plan for restoring honesty and accountability, and bringing change to Washington. The Contract proposed six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC. These are:
★ FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.
★ SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).
★ THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.
★ FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
★ FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
★ SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

In deciding whom you will appoint to replace Senator Sessions in Congress (assuming he will be confirmed as Attorney General), I urge you to think about the importance of cleaning up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington DC, and how well your appointment will advance that objective.

Thank you.

UPDATE 12/21/16 Persons reported under consideration
It has been reported that Gov. Bentley has interviewed  suspended Alabama Supreme Court Chief Judge Roy Moore; U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville; former state Rep. Perry Hooper of Montgomery; Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston; Associate Justice Glenn Murdock; Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur; Rep. Connie Rowe, R-Jasper; and Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster.
Inquiry is made to those persons about what their positions and commitment are for restoring honesty and accountability, and cleaning up corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC.
12/3016
The list of contenders for Sessions seat grows with this report of Bentley interviews of state Attorney General Luther Strange, U.S. Rep. Martha Roby,  U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer, businessman Tim James,  and state Sen. Greg Reed of Jasper.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

AL Cong'l delegation lobbying ban positions

Will the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington please announce their positions regarding the President-Elect's lobbying ban proposals. Please report whether there are any Congressional bills you are supporting or will support and other steps you will be taking for a lobbying ban for Congress and Congressional staffs.





Washington Post
PowerPost
Trump administration will ban lobbyists, enact five-year lobbying ban after leaving government

 

Donald Trump’s transition team on Wednesday announced that registered state and federal lobbyists will not be allowed to serve in the Trump administration, and people who leave the administration will have to wait five years before they can become lobbyists.
“It goes back to Trump’s goal to make sure people aren’t using government to enrich themselves,” transition spokesman Sean Spicer said on a call with reporters. “The key thing for this administration is going to be that people going out of government won’t be able to use that service to enrich themselves for a five-year period.”
Every person who joins the administration will be asked to sign a lobbying ban form that states they are not a registered lobbyist. If they are, they will have to provide evidence of their termination.
The policy comes after days of criticism over Trump’s inclusion of lobbyists on the transition team, despite his campaign pledge to keep special interests out of Washington.
On its face, the lobbyist ban appears stringent, but it could be easily skirted if a lobbyist were to deregister to be eligible to join the administration. One sign indicates that it may already be happening: A close aide to Pence who is a Washington lobbyist, Josh Pitcock, filed paperwork with the Senate on Monday to terminate his status as a federal lobbyist. Pitcock advised Pence during the presidential campaign, and has lobbied for the state of Indiana since 2013, earning $280,000 a year to lobby on a wide range of issues including health-care marketplace exchange rates and resources for the state’s response to the Zika virus, lobbying records show. Pitcock did not immediately return a request for comment.
The five-year ban is something Trump proposed on the campaign trail in October, and it greatly expands on lobbying ethics rules that impose a one-year or two-year ban — often referred to as a “cooling-off period” — on lawmakers and administration officials becoming lobbyists after leaving government.

The five-year ban will make it harder for Trump to recruit people to work in the administration. It is common for administration officials at all levels to join the law and lobbying industry after leaving government because their policy expertise is highly valued by firms and companies. Limiting people’s post-government employment prospects for five years will probably discourage many people in the Washington policy community, lobbyists or not, from wanting to join the administration.




Update 12/7/16 The President-Elect has also proposed term limits for Congress. See Term limits. I have also asked our Alabama delegation about this:

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Priority questions for AL legislative delegation

Many people have many questions relative to the pending Trump presidency. These questions are deserving of prioritizing by the President-Elect and Congress. 

The conflicts of interest presented by the Trump business empire should be of very high priority, because they potentially have bearing on every action to be taken starting on day one (January 20th) of the Trump administration. The questions need addressing starting now, and not waiting until January 20th.

Here are some priority questions for your consideration:

1. What is the relationship between the constitutional oath of office to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States" and the exemption for the President that is provided in the "conflicts of interest" statute? What does the word "faithfully" mean in the constitutional oath of office? Can Trump do anything he wants in service of the interests of his business empire and his family, or does the word "faithfully" limit what Trump can do?

2. If the word "faithfully" means there are limitations on what Trump can do, do you think Trump understands that?

3. What is the role of Congress in overseeing whether the President is "faithfully" executing his office? Can Congress impeach the President if it determines that the President has failed to faithfully execute his office? What if the President has one view of what "faithfully" means, and Congress has a differing view?

4. Do you currently have any concerns that President Trump will not faithfully execute his office? What assurances have you gotten thus far, or do you think assurances have been lacking? What do you understand is the President-Elect's understanding  of the word "faithfully"? To the extent you understand what Trump's understanding is, do you agree or disagree with Trump's understanding of what the word "faithfully" means?

5. Given that the question of whether Trump is faithfully executing his office will be relevant immediately starting January 20th, don't you and other members of Congress need to start your own consideration of this matter immediately, so that the country, the Trump administration and Congress are on good ground for moving forward starting January 20th?








Thursday, November 10, 2016

Trump's contract with American voter

President-Elect Donald Trump campaigned hard at the close of his campaign that he would "drain the swamp" in Washington DC.

In his Contract with the American Voter,  Trump committed to embark immediately on a plan for restoring honesty and accountability, and bringing change to Washington. The Contract proposed six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC. These are:
★ FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.
★ SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).
★ THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.
★ FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
★ FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
★ SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

REQUEST TO: Alabama legislative delegation in Washington, and other leaders in Alabama government and politics, and in the Alabama business, media, education and civic communities
PLEASE EXPRESS your views about cleaning up corruption and special interest collusion in Washington.

This request is with a view to educating Alabamians on the subject and how it bears on how well Congress and the rest of the Federal government perform their job for the American people.






UPDATE 11/19/16
I am an Alabamian and am pressing this in Alabama. I urge others to do similarly in their States. See The 2018 citizens' unity Congress.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Be an Alabamian who wants to know

Is our Congress corrupt?

This morning (August 25) on Fox & Friends, Senator Sessions strongly condemned contributions to The Clinton Foundation and the buying of access to American leaders. See below video


In the very first debate, Trump was brutally honest about the buying of access, and worse things, connected with campaign contributions Here's the video of that.



Senator Sessions and the rest of the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington should talk to Alabama voters about campaign contributions buying access to Congressional lawmakers and others in Washington, whether Congress is corrupted by the same, and, if so, what should Congress do to fix the corruption.

Are you an Alabamian who wants to know whether Congress is corrupt and whether anything can be done about it?

Step One
If you do want to know, a first step for you is to send tweets to Senators Sessions and Shelby and the Representative for your Congressional district (or even send tweets to all seven of Alabama's representatives in Congress).

You can send tweets by clicking on the below links. The tweet you send will have a link to this blog entry (Be an Alabamian who wants to know).  Also your tweet will contain, and show up under, the Twitter hashtags #FixCongressNow and #alpolitics.

Tweet here to Senator Sessions
Tweet here to Senator Shelby
Tweet here to Rep. Byrne
Tweet here to Rep. Roby
Tweet here to Rep. Rogers
Tweet here to Rep. Alderholt
Tweet here to Rep. Brooks
Tweet here to Rep. Palmer
Tweet here to Rep. Sewell

Step Two
It is doubtful you will get answers from Senators Sessions and Shelby and the Representative for your Congressional district by sending your tweets to them per the above. You need to get lots of your fellow Alabamians to be asking the same questions in way that registers in the Alabama social media. Here is how to do it:

You and other Alabamians send individual tweets to fellow Alabamians in your geographical area who are Twitter users.

First, you need the tweet message you are going to send, with a link to this webpage. I suggest a tweet such as:
I am an Alabamian who wants to know whether our Congress is corrupt. You should want to know too. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2016/08/question-to-al-congresspersons-re.html 
Then you need to find follower lists of other Twitter accounts in your geographic location that have a lot of followers in the location. I am in the Jefferson County/Shelby County geographic area, and the below would be examples of good Twitter follower lists to use:
https://twitter.com/GreaterShelby/followers
https://twitter.com/OTMJ_Life/followers
https://twitter.com/HomewoodHigh/followers
https://twitter.com/TrussTribune/followers

In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list  you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.

The idea is for recipients of your tweets who click on the link in the tweet will come to this webpage and then join in and do their own tweeting to other Alabamians in their locale. The goal is to produce a pyramiding of tweets that reaches tens of thousands of Alabama voters.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Rep. Palmer, about your town hall today

Rep. Palmer, our country is in a state of shock, or else despair, growing out of the Presidential election.

The talking heads on TV are talking endlessly about our anger and disgust for the political establishment and Washington DC, and this is gurgling over the sides of our cups.

The two Presidential nominees, we've been told, have the highest unfavorable ratings of Presidential nominees ever.

The Presidential general election went straight to the gutter within days of the presumptive nominees being determined, and it keeps getting worse.

Half the country would like a choice of other than Clinton or Trump, and there seems no way for them to get it.

The people feel hopelessness connected with the Presidential election.

With that malaise emanating from the highest political level, the voters may think to look to Congress to assuage them.

Congress, unfortunately, is part of the problem as well.

I don't know what priorities you are looking to address in your telephone town hall this evening.

You, as the Representative of the Alabama 6th Congressional district, ought to address your constituents about the huge political malaise in the country.

You, as a member of Congress, should talk with your Congressional colleagues and try to find out whether Congress can collectively address the American people about the situation.

The hopelessness is pretty bad, and I am not holding out much hope, but someone has to speak up.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Can Alabamians battle Alabama corruption?

Yesterday I was notified that, in Washington State, there has been launched a campaign for The Washington Government Accountability Act, Initiative 1464, being powered by more than 24,000 Washington Represent.Us members and a cross-partisan coalition called Integrity Washington. The law seeks to restore public trust in government by increasing transparency, giving voters a stronger voice, and strengthening enforcement. A summary and full text of the Act can be found through links at http://integritywashington.org/about/.

I was also notified about a campaign in South Dakota for The South Dakota Government Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act, Initiative 22, being championed by the bipartisan coalition Yes22.org and more than 1,000 Represent.Us members in South Dakota. The Act will prevent political bribery, improve transparency, and increase enforcement of South Dakota’s ethics laws. For a full copy of the proposed law, see http://yes22.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/south-dakota-government-accountability-and-anti-corruption-act1.pdf.

Does Alabama need an Alabama Government Accountability (and Anti-Corruption) Act? What can we Alabamians do to get the same?




Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Current status

Update 2/8/2024
Go to Be An Alabama Rootstriker* with Rob Shattuck: My Wishes and Horses Campaign (al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com)

Update 2/8/2020
I am trying to get on the ballot as an Independent candidate against Gary Palmer in #al06 in order to argue with Palmer about various issues regarding which Palmer has ignored me for more than three years. For more information, go to 31 days until March 3rd

Update 5/13/17
I have turned completely against Donald Trump. The reasons for this are detailed in numerous entries in my blogs. For accessing these: in this blog, start at the entry Ivanka and Nordstrom and read going forward in time; in my Trump Censure blog, start at the entry Trump Censure and read going forward; and in my 2016 Congressional candidates Declarations blog, start at Can Trump be President and read going forward. I consider at this time Donald Trump being President as a frontline obstacle to achieving the goals stated in the subtitle of this blog, and I am currently dedicating my efforts to advocating for getting Donald Trump out of office, either by his voluntary resignation or by his impeachment.
 
Update 11/10/16

In September I left off 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations and undertook Trump Tweet.

President-Elect Donald Trump campaigned hard at the close of his campaign that he would "drain the swamp" in Washington DC.

In his Contract with the American Voter,  Trump committed to embark immediately on a plan for restoring honesty and accountability, and bringing change to Washington. The Contract proposed six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC. These are:
★ FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.
★ SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).
★ THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.
★ FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional offi  cials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
★ FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
★ SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

This blog will now shift to pushing for support in Alabama of the foregoing Trump initiative, including suport by the Alabama's legislative delegation in Washington, by other leaders in Alabama state and local government, and in its business, media and civic communities, and by Alabama citizens generally.
______________________________________


This blog dates to 2012.

The largest part of the blog documents my endeavor to run for Congress in the Alabama 6th Congressional district in 2014.

Since Nov. 5, 2014, I have been concentrating on national activities seeking to battle the corrupting influence of money in politics. This has been done via three other blogs, to wit, in chronological order, The Campaign Finance Reformers Blog (old)The Campaign Finance Reformers Blog (new); and 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

For the past year, the 2016 Presidential race has sucked up almost all the nation's political attention.

While overwhelming attention is going to continue to be paid to the Presidential election, the Congressional elections will assume greater importance in voters' minds than they have had during the past 12 months.

The astounding political story of the Trump and Sanders Presidential candidacies has been attributed to a deep, widespread disgust and anger against the political establishment and against Washington DC. The country awaits how this is going to play out over the next six months in Clinton versus Trump for President (it now appearing virtually certain those will be the Democratic and Republican Presidential nominees).

Besides the country not knowing which candidate is going to win the Presidential election, the country does not know how the voter disgust and anger is going to be taken out against Congress in the Congressional elections.

My main interest has been Congress. The 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations blog seeks to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is corrupt or not, and to pass reform (or not) for the voters to consider in November, and thereby make the 2016 elections a referendum on Congress.

Being an Alabama resident, this is deserving of being separately and specially carried on by me in Alabama. This blog will become more active again for that purpose. Information about activity that has been undertaken regarding Congressional races in Alabama has been previously compiled in the 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations blog, and that information can be accessed by means of links listed in Districts and States with activity.


UPDATE 5/11/16
The 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations citizen effort calls for mobilization of the citizenry to tweet in the effort. Whether anything will happen is dubious. All I know to do is try to lead by example.

The past couple of days I have been using https://twitter.com/RepMoBrooks/followers and https://twitter.com/USRepGaryPalmer/followers to send to fellow Alabamians this tweet:
So, what do we Alabamians now think about our AL legislative delegation in Wash. DC? http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2016/05/current-status.html
There have been over 950 page views of this entry.






So, Alabama

What do you think now?