A message from Lawrence Lessig

As you probably know, insurance giant AIG sparked national outrage by paying $165 million in executive bonuses after receiving a $170 billion taxpayer bailout.

What fewer people know is that AIG gave more than $9 million in campaign contributions to Congress. AIG split its money between those in both parties who could help them the most.

Will just recouping $165 million solve the AIG problem? No. We need to solve the underlying problem of special interests investing millions of dollars in political campaigns to reap billions in rewards from taxpayers.

You joined the Change Congress donor strike--now, can you help bring others into this critical movement for reform?

If you're on Facebook, can you "share" my Huffington Post piece from today about this issue? Here's a link: http://twurl.nl/a0l8ik

If you're on Twitter, can you Tweet something like, "Want to help solve the AIG problem? Check this out: http://twurl.nl/ze0t32 #aig #change #reform #congress"

Or, you can just email your friends and ask them to join the strike at www.Change-Congress.org

Now's the time to push hard for this reform. In the midst of national debates over how to regulate Wall Street, members of Congress should not be begging special interests for $2,400 checks.

Together, we can Change Congress.

--Lawrence Lessig

Obama enlists campaign army in budget fight

From today's WaPo:

President Obama will kick off an all-out grass-roots effort today urging Congress to pass his $3.55 trillion budget, activating the extensive campaign apparatus he built during his successful 2008 candidacy for the first time since taking office.

Read the whole shebang at this link.

And then get involved!

Participate in P4C's Mar. 21st Pledge Project table at our Spring into Action Volunteer Recruitment Fair.

Create your own Pledge Project and let us know so that we can promote it among our group.

This is no time to wait for others to rally support for President Obama's budget. While we dally, the GOP is racking up on-air hours in its organized media blitz to repeat false talking points about the 2010 budget over and over and over again.

No more dough till we know where it goes

They won't reveal to us the names of the banks that have received $1.2 trillion of our money since September 2008.

Despite all that money, last week, AIG posted $61 billion in losses for the 4th quarter of 2008.

Where did the money go?

No one will tell us.

And now we're getting ready to hand over another humongoid chunk of our money to the tune of $750 billion to the same people.

If you're not happy with this scenario, please sign a Firedoglake petition at this link to let them know.

Here's what the petition says:

"Dear Members of Congress: The public needs to know where all our money has gone. Restoring public trust is critical in getting our economy back on its feet. We ask that you move swiftly to re-regulate and bring transparency to a financial system whose rules have been written by bank lobbyists for their own benefit. No additional bank bailout funds should be approved until that happens."

Restore majority rule in California!

A message to California's grassroots (yup, that's us!)

A group of California Obama organizers is fed up with California's arcane and unworkable budget process, and wants to get to work fixing this mess.

How? We want to use our networks to build a grassroots movement to get rid of the CA budget's two-third's rule.

California is one of only three states that requires a two-third's majority to pass a budget, and it has resulted in the legislature failing to pass a budget by the constitutional deadline 28 of the last 32 years!

We can't fix education, or health care, or the environment if we don't fix our budgeting process.

Will you sign up on Yes We Can Change California to indicate your interest in supporting repeal of the two-third's rule?

As President Obama told us more than once, our work is just beginning. California needs our help, and we need your support in order to begin this necessary process.

Please visit Yes We Can Change California, and sign up to join the state-wide effort to restore democracy to our state government and eliminate the two-third's rule.

When you do so, please let me know that you have signed up. I have made a personal commitment to get at least 100 fellow grassroots activists to agree to become part of this movement. I am fed up with the legislative impairment in Sacramento and take responsibility for changing its dysfunction before my teen-aged daughter reaches adulthood and assumes the fiscal mess that holds all of us hostage every single year. After all, this is our government!

Pass along this message to others who you think would be interested in supporting this movement. Consider making your own commitment to enlist 100 other citizens to join us. Let me know if you are doing this, so that we begin to create the powerful local network that will be required to get a ballot initiative that restores majority rule in the California budget process.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, inquiries, or concerns about this effort.

Yours in change,
Linda Carpenter Sexauer

Obama's Budget Director Orszag

We're not in Kansas anymore, fellow Munchkins!!! President O's Budget Director, Peter Orszag, blogs! Yup, he actually reads 30-40 blogs every morning to prevent his decisions from being formulated within a White House bubble.



You can visit OMB Director Orszag's blog at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/

Be sure to set aside four minutes to watch this video at WhiteHouse.gov of Director Orszag providing clarification on Obama's 2010 budget.

This lack of secrecy almost hurts! Kinda like being let out into a yard in full sun after being locked up in a dark dungeon for eight years.

Don'tcha love it?

Important conference call for California community organizers

From California's Volunteer Liaison to Organizing for America:

I need your help. As leaders of our amazing activist network, I would like you to join me on a conference call SUNDAY NIGHT MARCH 1 at 8:30 p.m. to discuss how to fix California's broken budget process.

I've been talking with some other CA organizers and we decided we'd like to gauge - and then garner - support for a ballot initiative that would restore majority rule to CA's budget process and hold our government more accountable for its actions. California is one of only three states that has the two-thirds rule. The other two states are Arkansas and Rhode Island, whose budgets are a fraction of CA's. The two-thirds vote requirement has made California's budget negotiations drawn-out affairs almost every year. Lawmakers have missed the June 15 constitutional deadline to approve a budget in 28 of the last 32 years.

Restoring majority rule could be one of the most important political activities in the state over the next year. The organizers who helped change the way Washington works should be on the front lines of the battle to change the politics in our home state.

If you'd like to help, or just hear more about our idea for bringing about change in California, please join me and other CA leaders on a conference call Sunday night:

When: Sunday, March 1 at 8:30 p.m.
Call in info: 712-432-1100 access code 1015319

You may forward this email to anyone you think would be interested in being on the call.

I look forward to talking with all of you. Please feel free to email me with any questions.

Thanks for all you do.

Mary Jane

Cash-strapped communities suffer as corporations target water systems

Ran across a web site today that seems very well-suited as a resource for those of us who are interested in water resources and water allocation.

From Food & Water Watch:

"A new report released today by Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., reveals that many cash-strapped communities across the country are experiencing rate hikes and a decrease in public services after selling their water and wastewater systems to private corporations. Money Down the Drain: How Private Control of Water Wastes Public Resources highlights cities and towns across the country that have sold their water systems to private companies to offset budget deficits in an increasingly unstable economy, and the negative economic and environmental impact of water privatization on those communities ..."

Read the entire press release here.

Stop the outrageous and irresponsible obstructionist behavior of the CA GOP!

Looking for one really quick action to take to shake the California state budget impasse? Do this.

And if you're looking for more to do, go to the front page of Community Organize and read Marta's post about the hostage crisis in Sacramento and what we can do to stop it.