The Big Bang Act!

The Big Bang Act, written by Donis Georgiou is now posted at Daily Kos! Way to go Donis! This is an awesome bit of citizen activism and if you're reading this and agree, please send it to your elected reps.

Here it is, in easy cut and paste mode:

BIG BANG ACT

Effective and immediate job creation by civic investment

$900 billion for TRANSPORTATION

$300 billion for repairs to roads, highways, bridges. Contractors must commit to hiring local and using local sources for materials with a minimum of 70% of each project.

$500 billons to support high -peed rail investment in metropolitan areas and to explore expansion to rural areas that lack public transportation.

$100 billion in building & purchase of fuel efficient buses, trains, cars for local and state agencies, with a reserve of 30 billion to fund rural public transportation. Materials used must be 70% American sourced.

PAID FOR BY RAISING TRANSACTION TAX FOR THOSE THAT MAKES OVER $1 MILLION.

$500 billion for DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

$ 300 billions in aid to city & state colleges and universities to fund scholarships for middle income, poor and older, returning students.

$100 billions in student aid loan capitalization.

$100 billion to support pre-school to 12th grade public schools.

PAID FOR BY RAISING PAYROLL TAX FOR THOSE THAT MAKING OVER $300,000

$300 Billion in Job Creation

$200 billions for WPA 2011. A civilian Job Corp to work on America’s crumbing infrastructure.

$100 billion to re-establish the Civilian Conservation Corps and expanding the program in states such as California that have established their own versions of the program. This will also pay for a living wage increase to corps worker of $12 per hour.

PAID FOR BY INCREASING CORPORATE TAX TO 45%

$900 billion for Renewable Energy Investment

$400 billion for solar panel infrastructure improvements for local governments to be disbursed as grants for homeowners and charitable organizations

$300 billion for Wind Turbine project development in regions that are currently economically depressed. This development can & should include wind turbine part manufacture, as opposed to being solely for the purchase and installation of wind farm sites.

$200 billion for Bio-fuels development, research and promotion. Grants disbursement for universities and facilities that are seeking ways to improve and expand the capabilities of biofuels. Grant disbursement for local governments to switch to bio-fuel vehicles and to promote the use of biofuels through public information, expansion of small business owners to dispense biofuels and convert older vehicles to bio-fuels. Suspension of fuel taxes on small businesses and individuals who create their own biofuels using a significant percentage of recycled waste oil (50-100%) and demonstrate that it is for a primary use vehicle.

PAID FOR BY ENDING LOOPOLES ON BIG OIL ENERGY COMPANIES

Moving Forward

I am very pleased to say that the first act-the Big Bang Act by Mr. G has been submitted in SF. I will be happy to take a copy of that final version of it to Sac and hand it over to some elected officials. Nothing makes me happier than to see progressives getting active and working out what they want to see put into law. It's great and a real boost to the spirits.

Everything Starts At 1

It's been interesting, this attempt at citizen legislating. While I see the discontent on the left and the right, I notice that the efforts are tied mostly to screaming, yelling, blogging and commenting. If just half the effort expended on this was applied to contacting your lawmakers and your media (yes, they operate in the public sphere thanks to you, so they are yours), you 'd probably see some very effective laws happening. It takes effort and focus, persistence too. On a positive note, I had the privilege of reviewing one of my internet contacts first draft at a law/act to address jobs and education. It was a great first start and I fleshed out some possible methods that could make it more of a reality than a just a sketchy start that could leave too much to the lawmakers to develop. The only thing left, was suggesting methods to pay for it, because that will be the huge sticking point. Now, if & when he's ready to present it, I will add it here and cross post it. Why? Because if you want progressive laws, progressive actions, then you have to have a progressive population willing to do the work to see it passed. I've reached out and had more naysayers than supporters but just seeing another person put in the thought and effort has made the past couple of months worthwhile. Let's see if we snowflakes can start an avalanche of change.

Oh Boy-Dead Dinosaurs

Wouldn't it be great if we could just say no to oil drilling? In my world, it would go the way of the great beasts whose remains we refine and pour into our gas tanks. Well, not gonna happen, probably not until we suck the last drop out of the veins of planet Earth. What to do? 1. Make it safer. 2. Make it pay us back, the real owners of this country.

Effective Legislation for Offshore Drilling
We want regulation and laws in place to, ideally, prevent and, realistically, reduce, both oil spills from all water drilling operations, including deep water ones and to address the removal of American resources from our sovereign lands to create private profit.
Therefore, this law will have 2 component parts.

Drilling Operations & Fees

1. In order to operate within United States waters, all drilling rigs must be registered under the American flag and follow all relevant laws regarding hiring persons with federal legal right to work in these United States of America. Hiring and firing practices must conform to relevant state hiring guidelines.
2. All rigs must conform to OSHA guidelines for worker safety and paper work to that effect must; a. be filled out by the appropriate inspector who is not an employee of the drilling or refinery company; b. displayed prominently in both any employee rest area and the main office area on the platform.
3. Whistleblowers, who inform on failure to conform to safe drilling practices or workplace safety guidelines, are protected from condemnation, termination or being blacklisted by their employers. Those employers who engage in this sort of activity face both a fine and a suspension of their license to operate for a minimum of 2 weeks.
4. Drilling leases and all attendant fees cannot be exempted for corporate entities with a gross income over a billion dollars. This cannot be adjusted for net operating costs.
5. Blow out preventers are now mandatory. There are no exceptions.
6. No drilling can be done without an up-to-date spill prevention and spill clean-up plan. Both shallow and deep water drilling of wells must be done concurrently with the drilling of a relief well. Deep water wells must have 2 concurrently drilled relief wells.
7. All drilling companies must pay a .25% fee based on net profits every quarter, that funds a monitoring services for old, out of use wells. This oversight fee will allow the management agency to pay for inspection and maintenence to prevent old wells from causing environmental damage down the road. Companies can avoid this fee if they provide bi-annual inspection of prior drilled wells they have made.
8. Old platforms that are out of use and in danger of falling into disrepair must be cleaned up by the companies that created them. 3% fees of gross income will be reserved by the federal government to provide dismantleing services. This fee can be reduced by 2%, if said companies provide the environmental cleanup and remove abandoned platforms while responsibly recycling or disposing of materials.
9. In the event of a disaster, the company that has either caused or had it happen to them, must halt all drilling operations for a minimum of 1 month for immediate inspection and the affected rig area must be made available for investigation immediately. Said 1 month down time must include unemployment pay for affected workers at the expense of said company.
10. While the responsibilities of funding the clean-up must be on the company who is at the heart of the incident, attendent agencies such as the EPA and NGO providers with a track record of experience can and shall be allowed to participate in the clean up process. They shall co-operate with the Federal Incident commander on-site.

American Resource Reclamation
This portion of the bill addresses the lack of American citizenry profiting from the use of American resources.

1. No company can drill in American waters without hiring from the local area of business at least 80% of it’s workforce.
2. No company can get a permit to extract resources from American waters or land without agreeing to reserve 30% of all materials extracted strictly for the American market.
3. There shall be no exceptions to the above stipulation.
4. Due to the risks to other American resources from drilling and mining, there can be no cap in the event of damages or disaster caused due to negligence, misconduct or malicious intent or any combination of those factors.
5. In clear cases of acts of god, damages may only be capped at 50% of posted profit for the last financial year. There may be no adjustments to the prior years profits after an event has occurred.
6. “Damages” in this case can include business losses, loss of income for workers, physical, mental or emotional damage,but in the event of a negotiated emergency fund being created for a long term disaster, the funds for the emergency fund cannot and may not be added to the sum total of the damages cap.
7. Any judicial oversight, in the case of potential legal action, must disclose potential conflict of interest and said judge, in the event of conflict, can be exposed to litigation by those affected if they elect not to remove themselves from the case, if judgement is deemed to be biased.

Welcome. Wherein our purposes are stated.

If you're here, you’ve either read my posts on Kos, FB or Twitter and want to participate. Or troll, it's a free country. So, what's the point? Here it is. Anyone with a writing implement and 2 coherent thoughts make a draft law. All you need is the will to do it. Then you need a tactic. Supporters, in fact. Here's where we get citizens really united. If we all, submit the most comprehensive, most progressive law we can put together, the more likely it is that progressive legislation can pass. Democracy is not a wait & see thing. If we wait for laws we like to happen, we're probably going to still be sitting here collecting dust & spiders in 20 years. By using the collective energy we have and our phones, email, twitter, and especially snail mail, we can have an impact. What I will do is post a draft version of a bill, anyone can submit edits, or comments to improve it, then I'll post the final version for sending. We can email it or mail it. If you know of just the right congressperson to send it to specifically, have at it. It costs us nothing but time to fight for what we believe is right. The conservatives do it, so why can't we. It's time to be the progressives we can be, hell, we can be the legislators we want. Maybe it's a little bit crazy, but, so's the world.