Occupy Wall Street Manifesto Part 1

for immediate release

HELP US SPREAD SOLUTIONS.

OCCUPY WALL STREET and the people of F.U.R.I.O.U.S. (Fed Up taxpayeRs sIck Of corrUpt politicianS) present SOME of our manifesto of solutions and ideas.

Hello. We are part of the 99% who want specific concrete solutions and ideas on how to move forward from the Occupy Movement in ways that most of society can get behind. Not everyone agrees whether there should be a bullet-point manifesto, and so we do not pretend to be spokesmen for the entire Occupy movement.

However, it greatly troubles us that the media and others have implied we do not have any concrete goals or ideas to quickly fix all the problems ailing our nation and our world. This is dangerously false. So, while the entire world is watching, we want to spread solutions and ideas on how to reverse the trend of the hyper-capitalists destroying all corners of the globe. We welcome others to submit (to this address or to the world) CONCRETE SOLUTIONS and ideas, which we'd like to see society debate and discuss.

Society is a TEAM sport.

As inequality grows, we've seen the results: scandalous Crime. Poverty. Violence. War. And this broken record is only getting worse. And everyone loses in the end. Everyone.

TO THE 1% WE SAY:
the extra 7 mansions of a Mayor Bloomberg have not benefited him as they sit empty while the people of his city call on his resignation for stealing a third term and other offenses of tyranny. As we saw from the obscene $6 million he spent in spring of this year on more self-promotion, even his billions can't save him now. Conservatives and Liberals alike are united in their dislike of this dishonest politician who killed NYC and the middle class, but there is good news at the end of this dark tunnel:

It is not too late to undo the damage of hyper-capitalism.

MONEY DOES NOT BRING HAPPINESS TO THE 1% WHO ROBBED THE REST OF US. The rich are just as unhappy as the 99% who are suffering daily, and those fancy sports cars and expensive watches never ever bring happiness. So why are we fighting for such petty and empty "prizes"?

Caring about others and helping your fellow man will bring you happiness and improve the entire world.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER,
these are some of the things that most people on earth would like to see,
in order to improve the future hopes of our society,
to bring fairness, equality, and the rule of Law to our messed-up world. 

END THE WAR ON DRUGS
Even the police admit the war on drugs has spent trillions of our taxdollars and accomplished literally nothing except it created half the crime in America just as Prohibition did, yet it only took 14 years for everyone to figure out that Prohibition was far worse than alcohol. We not only call for the end of the completely failed war on drugs, we call on The People being reimbursed by politicians for the monies stolen every year on this shell game. Many people got very rich off this "war", and we want that money back. It's no different than a Bernie Madoff selling a scam to society. Government should tax and regulate drugs just as they did the Postal Service for 200 years. America will save billions annually, lower crime, and earn billions by treating illegal drugs like they treat the far-worse alcohol and the-worst-of-all tobacco. And most policemen who were killed died at the hands of a gun purchased with the huge illegal profits of Prohibition Part Two. Only Big Pharma supports this madness.


MINIMUM WAGE FOR CONGRESS, and all state legislators and executives.
They say $7 and change is a legitimate salary, so they should, by law, be forced to practice what they preach. (And it will simultaneously save taxpayers billions in salaries and pensions.)


REINSTATE THE STOCK TRANSFER TAX
America and NYC were doing great when this existed. It brought in billions of dollars until the rich used their enormous influence to kill it off so they could all afford a tenth empty and unused mansion. America went from being the richest nation to the largest debtor in all history, solely due to the hyper-capitalism of the 1%.


END ALL CORPORATE WELFARE
or set a Maximum Wage ($100K?) for all companies that get any public handouts of any kind. If you get any taxbreaks or subsidies from taxpayers, then you should not be able to get rich. The Yankees should either have a $100K salary cap, or else why do they need a cent in taxpayer money to pay their bills or buy them a new stadium?


75% TAX RATE ON ALL INCOME OVER $1 MILLION
Everyone agrees America was in great shape when it used to be 75% - and even when it was 90%. Lowering taxes on the rich destroyed America. No debate.


PROFIT-SHARING LAW
any employee of ANY company should automatically get a percentage of annual profits, just like the owners do. This is a perfect mix of socialism and capitalism. The harder you work at McDonald's, the more the company makes and the more money you make.


REMOVAL  AND ARREST OF ALL CEOs RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GREAT RECESSION
it's no secret that the rich are above the laws, and failed CEOs get huge paychecks, while honest and good workers are given pinkslips and no golden parachutes. The Great Recession is much worse than the Depression ever was. For instance, even rich people are losing their homes due to illegal or unscrupulous dirty tricks by banks. And all the jobs that left America will never return, until we are paid less than Chinese or Indonesian workers. During the Depression, those jobs were all gone only temporarily.

British Petroleum (BP) killed 11 workers in the gulf of Mexico oil spill of the Deepwater Horizon. Authorities quickly uncovered who was responsible for those 11 deaths. And no one was arrested. Because BP is very very rich and powerful. This double standard of law enforcement is illegal, and we demand EQUALITY.


CREATE A LAW WHERE POLITICIANS' SALARIES GO LOWER EACH TIME THEY BORROW MONEY OR RAISE THE DEBT CEILING OR TRY
TO LAY OFF WORKERS
If they ran our government so badly that they must borrow even one cent, then it stands to reason that they must be punished, and their salary must decrease dramatically each time they fail at their job. If money is as tight as they all say that it is, where a Mayor Bloomberg says we must close firehouses and lay off teachers, then he should walk the talk and cut all of his highest paid cronies' salaries by 50% before a single worker is ever laid off. Practice what you preach. Otherwise, the world knows you are totally lying to us.


OUTLAW EXCESSIVE PACKAGING
America loses billions per year on foolish sanitation costs and most of our garbage is wholly-unnecessary excessive packaging. It's as simply as passing state laws and instantly we save billions.


DISCOURAGE RECYCLING
Recycling is not really as wonderful as it sounds. It creates even more pollution for trucks to make separate pickups, and they use all kinds of unhealthy procedures to melt down plastics, metals, and the like. The solution is to eliminate waste and inefficiency at its source. For instance, if all bars can collect the glass bottles back and return them to the beer manufacturers, why can't we use a similar system of reusing-instead-of-recycling for other areas of waste?


CONGRESS MUST FIX THE EMINENT DOMAIN LAW
Both liberals and conservative agree that the Citizens United decision was a travesty. Government should not be able to seize any PRIVATE property for what our corrupt politicians deem "public use", because they've distorted this completely. (Can Bill Gates buy Central Park and turn it into his new mansion estate because it's for the "public good", where politicians will argue he'll pay property taxes which we currently do not collect on the PUBLIC park?)

And corporations cannot and should not have any of the same rights as individual citizens. Because they have none of the responsibilities of individual citizens. (Can we arrest Goldman Sachs when it commits crimes? No.)


OUTLAW "21+" AGE DISCRIMINATION
We call on an end to the arbitrary age discrimination accepted in America (which is supposed to stand for equality). To say a 20 year old cannot be permitted into thousands of private businesses like music venues or comedy clubs is no less obscene than "whites only" or "men only" establishments. And it's just as illegal.  Restaurants also sell alcohol and none are 21 plus. There is no legit argument to permit this illegal discrimination, anywhere in America. And it's good for our economy.


OUTLAW ALL HANDGUNS AND HANDGUN AMMO
We believe that there is no legitimate purpose for handguns or assault rifles. The Second Amendment can be satisfied with single-shot rifles. It makes no case for non-rifle arms. No handguns or handgun ammo for cops nor civilians. Just rifles.
PERIOD.


TAX THE CHURCH
We fully support anyone's free will to worship whatever religion or gods they choose to (unless its Scientology). (We're joking.) But there is no legitimate nor legal reason the taxpayers of America should spend billions or even one dollar to subsidize religion, and in fact, the only reason the churches don't pay taxes is a leftover of ancient tradition where they were more powerful than government, and simply deemed themselves above the tax laws. America stands for equality. No special treatment. And the First Amendment clearly says using taxdollars to subsidize religion in any way is illegal. America has lost billions of dollars to religion. We'd like that money back.


ARREST GIULIANI, WHITMAN, AND BLOOMBERG FOR POISONING FIRST RESPONDERS
It's no secret that our politicians (all Republican, which seems to indicate some pattern) lied and told the First Responders at Ground Zero that the putrid, acrid, toxic air was 100% healthy. It's no secret that people died from these criminal acts. If Giuliani, Bloomberg, and Whitman broke no laws, then the jury will clear them. Otherwise, it's called MANSLAUGHTER.


OUTLAW WAR PROFITEERING
It is unconscionable that the Corporations say our War on Terror is for the very survival of America, yet they don't sell us the weapons AT COST, doing more damage (financially) to our nation than all terrorists combined could ever dream of doing. (The US Military is non-profit. Halliburton wants government contracts in Iraq? Then let them be patriotic and do it AT COST. No profit, or minimal profit. Period.)


OUTLAW JAIL FOR ALL NON-VIOLENT CRIMES
America is the precise opposite of the Land of the Free. We are the land of the incarcerated, and most people are in jail for selling drugs that do not kill anywhere near as many people per ratio as the drugs deemed "legal" by politicians who were funded by the Big Pharmaceutical killers. The domino theory fallout of 2 million-plus people being jailed is incalculable. It destroys families; creates more crime; and wastes trillions of taxdollars. There is no logic to jailing people for non-violent crimes. Make them do huge amounts of community service, pay fines, etc. Let Bernie Madoff read Dean Koontz books on his own dime.


WE CALL ON THE DEMOCRATS TO
PUT OBAMA TO A PRIMARY
We gave Obama umpteen chances and he broke almost every one of his promises after we voted for him. This is Politics as usual. We must be allowed to choose a different Democrat in a 2012 primary. If we aren't, then this is just more run of the mill third-world tyranny that insults America in front of the world's eyes and the world should rightfully scorn our fascism.


OUTLAW 5-4 VOTES BY THE SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court has never been more lawless and politicized, and we call on the abolition of 5-4 votes, because this means one person (the swing voter on the SCOTUS) changes all laws in America, based on whether they were appointed by a Republican or a Democrat. That's lunacy and uncivilized and it is illegal because the judicial branch is essentially now the Legislative and Executive branch. If a vote by SCOTUS is not at least 6 -3, they should be forced to keep debating it until it's a little more certain than 5-4.


GUARANTEES FOR OUR TAXES
Would you ever voluntarily agree to give most of your money to someone who literally guarantees you nothing in return? Of course not, but this is America's tax code in a nutshell. (The rest of Western Civilization, for instance, guarantees you health care.) Our government does not even promise to keep the roads paved smoothly or to stop crime or keep us safe from events like 9/11. The government simply puts a gun to our heads starting at birth and says we must pay them as much as they ask for, or else. These are MOBSTER tactics.

And maybe the rich wouldn't be upset by higher taxes if they knew the money wasn't just being outright stolen by our corrupt government.

NO IMMUNITY FOR ANY GOVT EMPLOYEES
As usual, all politicians use empty buzzwords like "accountability", so let us see how many will support a complete end to the kind of totalitarian immunity they gave themselves. Mayor Bloomberg, for instance, says he enjoys "sovereign immunity" which allows him to break as many laws as he likes as often as he likes and that he cannot be punished. This is ridiculous and unethical and illegal under Equal Protection rights in the Fourteenth Amendment. He was also given immunity to testify in the John Haggerty trial where the mayor was robbed and was too busy golfing to notice a million disappeared. But why would he need immunity if he hasn't broken any laws? He's behaving exactly like Ghadafy, Mubarek, Hussein, and all dictators. NO IMMUNITY.


$100K SALARY CAP FOR ALL PUBLIC SERVANTS
Politicians continue to give record pay raises to their friends and cronies, while slashing public services and laying off low-paid workers. Mayor Bloomberg, for instance, would rather pay his friend $500,000 as a so-called public servant to run the City University of NY, which had to raise tuition because they were tight on money. Bloomberg would rather lay off ten city workers making $50,000 a year instead of lowering this one crony's pay to a still- handsome $100K a year. Why the CUNY head needs to earn 25% more than the President of the USA is beyond us. The mayor declines to explain it because he says employees (the mayor) should not have to answer questions of the boss (taxpayers). This is another example of how he breaks his promises and claims that he runs government like a private business. (We've never seen a business where employees ignore all the boss' orders and weren't instantly fired.)


CREATE A LAW SO POLITICIANS MUST GIVE THE SAME % RAISE TO UNIONS AS CRONIES
Everytime the politicians say the budget is tight, what they mean is that they're going to have to cut the salary and benefits of the middle class, so they can give even bigger pay raises to the millionaire businessmen in their cabinets and administrations. The solution is simple: make it so politicians can't give any pay raise to their pals that is larger than the percentage pay raise to all the other government employees and unions.


NATIONALIZE LIQUOR, INSURANCE, PHONES
Even those people who claim to hate communism or socialism concede it's the most efficient and fiscally sensible method, as shown by their love of police and fire departments, which are all anti-free market, anti-competition. If privatization and competition worked, we would use them for public safety and national security, yet even Bush and Cheney said Big Government should socialize national security (hence the creation of the Office Of Homeland Security, and the nationalization/communism of the Transportation Security Agency, which threw out the privatization and competition of airport baggage screeners). Even three-time Republican candidate Bloomberg socialized many private bus services in Queens and Brooklyn and shifted them to being state-run by the MTA (which we admit Bloomberg has run into the ground). (No system is perfect. But socialism makes more sense and eliminates most waste and profit-margins and greed.)

Sweden nationalized liquor (so taxpayers reap the profits from alcohol sales) and America has nationalized numerous lotteries too, with the government being the bookie who reaps the profits.  We call on America to nationalize liquor (which will earn taxpayers tens of billions per year alone), as well as ALL insurance, telephone service, and electricity (just as our government was always on the cutting edge of technology, from inventing the internet to landing people on the moon). There should be no profit margins of any kind in such basic necessities as electricity and phone service. The people of America will be very happy to never get another phone bill or insurance bill or electrictiy bill and think of how much paper and energy will be saved. Run them like we run the fire department.You never get a bill ever in your mailbox for this critical service.


EACH NOVEMBER, VOTERS SHOULD HAVE THE CHOICE TO AUTOMATICALLY REMOVE
ANY ELECTED OFFICIAL
Mayor Bloomberg famously said he should be able to fire any "bad" schoolteachers with no checks-and-balances of any kind. Curiously, he didn't say the same thing about any other public servants (like bad cops or bad mayors). Why should a politician be allowed to be terrible for 4 years of public service with no accountability? It doesn't cost any extra money to just add that question on each November's ballot, or we can allow voters to WRITE-IN with a pencil any public servant they want removed (like the Police Commissioner of NYC). Or we can have the top ten elected officials with a box to check if you want them fired immediately, with a variety of solutions for once they leave (like having the Public Advocate take over as NYC's mayor until the next election). Our government can't get any worse, that's for sure, and we expect the Republicans to fully support this idea, since they are the ones who say government should be run like a private business. So give us (the boss) the power to quickly fire bad employees (public servants).


MAKE ALL POLICE COMMISSIONERS, JUDGES, AND ATTORNEY GENERALS ELECTED OFFICIALS
We think it is unethical and illogical and illegal for politicians to appoint police commissioners, judges, or Attorney Generals, as these positions are meant to be checks-and-balances on the very politicians who appointed them. If the Attorney General is elected in NY State, why not elect the AG of the USA, instead of letting the president appoint them, which creates instant corruption and conflict-of-interests? Why isn't NYC's police commissioner an elected position, so Ray Kelly can arrest the Mayor's staff (when they inevitably break the laws and abuse their authority) without fear?


FREE ABORTION FOR ALL
Overpopulation is one of the top dangers in the world today, and considering that most children are unwanted mistakes, we believe that abortion must be encouraged as much as possible. Abortion should be free upon demand. This will also lower crime, decrease crowded classrooms, and umpteen other ills, even decreasing unemployment.


ALL STATE COLLEGES FREE AGAIN
America was in much better fiscal and social shape when PUBLIC colleges were free. Keep in mind how bad it is for the economy when people spend too much money on rent, school, etc. That's money they no longer spend out and about. Trillions spent on student loans that would've instead gone to local businesses - restaurants, movies, theater, clothing stores, and on and on.

PUT "NONE OF THE ABOVE"ON ALL BALLOTS
We should not be forced to "choose" one of the terrible candidates they force us to choose. If we don't like ANY of our "choices", we must be allowed to reject them all. No more choosing the lesser of two evils. Since the beginning of this nation, the Corporations have made sure they give us false choices.


POLITICIANS MUST BE HELD FINANCIALLY LIABLE FOR ALL MISTAKES
With great power comes great repsonsibility, they say, and public servants are our employees which they want everyone to forget. If accountability is something a Mayor Bloomberg cannot handle, like when he "lost" $700 million in the CityTime scandal or the other billions he admits he lost with lax supervision, or almost all of his ventures, which he admits were total failures (like the $200 million he spent trying to lure the money-losing Olympics to NYC), then he can resign whenever he feels like it and return to the private sector.

We tried the current method - let politicians spend our money as recklessly as they want, with no possible way for us to regulate or recoup lost money - and it never worked once. Instead, it's getting worse every day, as America goes bankrupt from just the phony wars of Bush /Cheney. And it's not like a Bloomberg could argue that he didn't know the War on Drugs was a failure that lost us trillions. What politician can argue that they didn't know the stadiums they bought rich sports teams with our taxdollars sit empty 300 days a year? It's no secret that stadiums create little economic development: that's the entire reason the rich want us taxpayers to pay for them in the first place!

MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE FOR ALL GOVERNMENT FAILURE
Many private businesses offer a money-back guarantee, and the talking points of Republicans today is that they run government like a private business. Mayor Bloomberg has said this more than anyone, yet he has never once kept this promise. If he ran a restaurant, and your food was filled with rat droppings, he'd say you still have to pay for the meal. He's admitted that almost all of his plans have failed, from the 911 unification call system to the tens of billions he spent on failed education "reforms" and cooked books. He even admits to paying out $1 billion taxdollars in just ten years to settle lawsuits against his NYPD, which he claimed he had reformed. Why isn't he responsible for reimbursing us for those lost monies? If a drunk plumber comes into your house and breaks everything, he's legally liable for it all. The same must be true about politicians who are drunk on power, with no restrictions on how they waste our cash.


ARREST BUSH / CHENEY AND TRY THEM
America is a nation of laws, yet our politicians and 1% elite don't get held responsible for their actions and say they shouldn't have to obey laws. The whole world knows Bush and Cheney committed war crimes and so why wouldn't Bush and Cheney want a trial to clear their names? It's a win from everyone's perspective! And if they lose, we should get 100% of their assets too. They defrauded us far more than all Bernie Madoffs combined.


ARREST ALL WHO FUNDED BIN LADEN, THE TALIBAN,  AND THE REST
We call on the arrest of anyone and everyone who funded terrorists, including President Bush, who admitted to funding the Taliban in early 2001 while his father admits to funding Bin Laden and Hussein. If they broke no laws, the jury will clear them. We, the 99%, are not soft on terrorism like the American government is.


OUTLAW PARDON POWERS OF PREZ, GOVS ETC
This is another corrupt leftover from the days of Caligula that should be retired immediately. That a President Bush (or anyone) could have their staff break laws (as Scooter Libby did) and then can pardon them or commute their jail sentence after a jury convicts them is pure tyranny. That a vice president (Ford) can pardon his former boss (Nixon) is pure tyranny.
No true American tolerates tyranny.


STOP FUNDING REGIMES AROUND THE WORLD
Conservatives and liberals alike agree that we must stop giving trillions of our hard-earned taxdollars to propping up dictatorships around the world. (Our CIA prefers to support dictatorships because it's much easier than the messiness of democratic states, who may not agree to the Corporate Agenda of America's puppet government.)


OUTLAW ALL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS
Most public officials use the power we gave them for their own greed and needs. For instance, NYC has a Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Kate Levin, who gives billions of our taxdollars to the richest arts organizations in NYC, who will be hiring her when Bloomberg eventually leaves office (knock on wood), for very large salaries, essentially with money that she gave them out of our pocket. Rupert Murdoch just hired Bloomberg's last corporate lawyer / Schools Chancellor Joel Klein for $4 million and almost immediately received a $30 million contract of taxpayer money. This is the rule, not the exception, and we must OUTLAW it all. Their argument is that if we want the top talent in government, so does the private sector, but this has never worked out once in our history, so it's time to try making it illegal to rob the cookie jar.


MORE MASS TRANSIT AND BETTER MASS TRANSIT BECAUSE OIL IS WASTED ON COMMUTING
Any and all Americans should have the choice of whether they walk to work or have to spend 45 minutes commuting. Currently they do not have this choice, as our housing situation is a nightmare. The amount of money in lost manpower; pollution; waste; death and injury; and so on, from millions of people driving to work shows a government so unintelligent it should be shut down immediately. For example, Mayor Bloomberg said we should stop funding terrorism by buying oil, yet he's responsible for evicting over one million people from Manhattan over the past ten years, forcing them to now commute to their jobs in Manhattan, in deference to rich developers, whose luxury condos and skyscrapers fill Manhattan with over 300,000 empty apartments (many of which have sat empty for over a decade).

RETURN BILLIONS OF TAXDOLLARS STOLEN FROM BATTERY PARK CITY
FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Most New Yorkers do not know that Battery Park City excluded affordable housing under a deal whereby its property taxes were dedicated to building affordable housing elsewhere in the City. The past four mayors, to no one's surprise, simply broke these agreements and stole the money to spend on enormous pay raises for themselves and their friends,
and other illegal spending.
We call on the Cuomo administration and City Controller John Liu to audit BPC's profits to see a full accounting of which Corporations those billions went to for Corporate Welfare and which mayors stole those monies. And how much was stolen from us.


OUTLAW ALL HIDDEN FEES AND FINE PRINT
It's quite simple: it should be illegal to have any hidden fees or anything that is misleading in any way to consumers.


OUTLAW ALL PRIVATE MEETINGS
BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS
Again, if this standard is too high, then don't run for office and don't take a job as a PUBLIC servant. There can be no secrecy in government, and even their lies that they must keep secrets for national security is preposterous. If anything, our government divulges even more than necessary, most of which is false, as shown when NYC's terrible police commissioner Ray Kelly leaked a fake story that his NYPD could shoot down planes. (He wanted to scare away terrorists with this silly lie.) Why would they want secret meetings? Just tell the terrorists about how powerful our government is and how excellent our "intelligence" agencies are. That should be enough to deter all terrorism, no?

Politicians regularly meet with the RICH in private meetings about changing laws etc. None of this should be legal.


OUTLAW ALL PERKS OF INCUMBENTS OR MAKE TERM LIMITS FOR all ELECTED OFFICES
We created Term Limits as a very dramatic example of how dirty our elections are. The taxpayers said "please take away my choice to return this incumbent again and again", like a drunk driver begging you to take away their keys. A Mayor Bloomberg can "win" any election as the incumbent, because he has billions of our taxdollars to spend as bribes that none of his opponents have. Additionally, the incumbent gets their name and face in the media daily, unlike their opponent. Nothing is fair about the power of incumbency, which is why 95% of incumbents automatically win. And none have to outspend their opponent 1000% as Mr. Bloomberg did, which speaks volumes, Mr. Mayor.


PUT FOIL - THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW - INTO PENAL CODES
The American government is the most lawless force in the world today, arguably. It breaks its own laws far more than its civilians do, and one of the most offensive ways is its hatred of the FOIL laws. Mayor Bloomberg, for instance, has repeatedly gotten caught violating this sacred law to keep secret from the public unflattering information about his Administration cheating crime and school statistics and much more. And to think the man promised no secrecy in government if he were elected. You can call the police if your neighbor's stereo is too loud. We think you should be able to call 911 any time the government refuses to give out or hinder PUBLIC information to the public. The politicians can explain it to a jury like everyone else who breaks the law must.


VOTER REFERENDUMS ON ALL MAJOR LEGISLATION
Most people don't vote and with good reason: our elections are essentially placebos and at best we get to "choose" between an awful Republican and an awful Democrat - both of whom break their campaign promises to defend the Corporate Status Quo. We The People, should make many of the major decisions that are currently being made in secret meetings in back rooms between our "Public Servants" and the Corporations and their lobbyists. No system of governance is perfect, but we must allow the people governed to have more say in their government and this is a perfect way to get citizens more involved.


PUT THE BILL OF RIGHTS IN ALL PENAL CODES
Isn't it madness that you can call the police because your neighbor's tv is too loud, but you cannot call the police if any government agency violates Federal Law and State Laws (which reiterate the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution) to violate the highest law in the land of America?


OUTLAW ALL
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS
Few Americans seem to realize that politicians create "Economic Development Corporations" for one reason only: to enable the government to break its own laws. Republican Governor of NY, George Pataki, for instance, created one EDC solely because it allowed him to use a loophole to continue to secretly borrow money on our credit card, in violation of state laws limiting reckless borrowing. In the past 10 years, the creation of EDCs has been epidemic, as the government just breaks any laws it wants now. This is in the Top Five reasons all the city, state, and fed governments are going bankrupt.


SALARY CAPS FOR ALL NON-PROFIT EMPLOYEES
NYU is one of the biggest property owners in NYC and they don't pay taxes. We subsidize all their billions in assets and yet their execs are making $4 million salaries? That's obscene and we call on all governors to fix this crisis.


NO POLICE UNDER AGE 30
Pay them a lot better for higher standards, and stop giving guns and massive power to immature young men. The result couldn't be more predictable. Not all cops are bad, but there have been endless police corruption scandals because we all know power corrupts. What could be dumber than giving weapons and power to young males with little life experience or education?


VOLUNTARY OPT-OUT FOR
ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL
President Bush would regularly say our military is "all volunteer" as a dishonest talking point, but the truth was quite different, and he forced soldiers to stay in war zones and stay enlisted, who did not want this, which should not be legal. (Nevermind that the wars in iraq and Afghanistan were fake and illegal.)


EITHER LOWER THE DRINKIN AGE TO 18 OR RAISE THE MILITARY ENLISTMENT AGE TO 21
This is another no-brainer. America is supposed to stand for fairness, and all conservatives and liberals alike think you that, if you're old enough to die in stupid wars for corrupt politicians, you should be able to enjoy a beer.

CREATE A CIVILIAN WATCHDOG GROUP WITH PROSECUTION POWERS TO POLICE ALL GOVERNMENT AND BIG BUSINESS ACTIVITY
No one believes our system of "representation" works, where we elect one person to look out for us. And our government just creates fake watchdogs like the Civilian Complaint Review Board which has no power. Like Jury Duty, there should be a panel of civilians who decide whether to investigate / arrest any persons who have huge power and influence.

OUTLAW ALL TOLL BOOTHS
We all agree that Toll Booths are a monstrosity in many ways, wasting resources, and expanding pollution. There is no less-efficient way to raise funds for highways or bridges than toll booths. (For instance, it costs not a cent to reinstate the Stock Transfer Tax and raise ten times more funds than toll booths, which are very expensive to build and maintain.) Let's ask the American people which they'd prefer - toll booths or the return of the Stock Transfer Tax - and see what they say.


LAYOFFS MUST ALWAYS BE TOP DOWN
And all top brass must take pay / perk cuts before being allowed to layoff single worker. This is just one no-brainer example of new LABOR LAWS we need to protect the future of America from greedy sycophants. If profits are down, then logically the brass must take pay cuts and perk cuts, before anyone else does. The Captain must go down with the ship.


RECOUP THE BILLIONS SPENT BY OUR CONGRESS TO MOVE JOBS TO CHINA
Most Americans are still unaware that the millions of American jobs that were moved to China were moved using billions of our taxdollars, given to the major corporations in secret. Just as most major corporations not only pay no taxes, they get hundreds of billions in "refunds". They literally pay negative billions in taxes. We PAID the rich to outsource our jobs and kill America. And we are saying we never agreed to this and want our money back from these thieves.


DEATH PENALTY FOR BAD POLITICIANS,
JUDGES, AND COPS
Many of us do not support the Death Penalty, but to all our fellow citizens who do, we suggest this inclusion. When a politician or policeman abuses the authority we gave them, there can be no greater crime in society. A policeman stealing is infinitely worse than a madman stabbing random people on a subway.


QUICKER SPEEDY TRIALS
It is unethical tyranny that it takes years for Americans to get the right to a "speedy" trial. There was no legitimate reason that, say, the two "Rape Cops" (Kenneth Moreno and Frank Mata) were paid by taxpayers for 2 years of sitting at home watching TV, before they were fired after being partially convicted at trial. And Moreno was earning $150,000 per year and Mata was being paid $120,000 per year. The longer a trial is delayed, the more evidence deteriorates and witnesses forget things. America's legal system is total nonsense until they fix this.


BREAK UP ALL MEDIA MONOPOLIES
One of the most devastating legacies of George W. Bush and the Republicans reign was to deregulate the MEDIA industry, so the Corporate Interests could consolidate more voices into ONE VOICE telling all americans to support their Corporate Agenda.
Without a free press, America is dead. Just another tyrannical autocracy.


ALL PROFITS FROM POLITICS 90% TAX RATE
Each president and many politicians use their position for fame and riches. We call on this to end, and one solution is a 90% tax rate on all profits earned from being a public servant. From the tens of millions Giuliani made as the "hero" of 9/11, to Obama and his wife's book deals, most of the profits should be returned to us. We can't remove enough perks of power. There should be no poison apples tempting anyone to run for office.


MANDATE PENNY TRAYS
Some may find things like this trivial, but it instantly improves the quality of life of billions of people. All it takes is a penny tray next to each cash register, and we think the government should legislate this. Such a simple solution, and you will never have to think about pennies ever again or scrounge for change, or accept pennies. If our government isn't competent enough to eliminate these useless coins, the Penny Tray solves it completely.


"RETIRE FOR LIFE" NATIONAL LOTTERY:
$60,000  PER YEAR TIL DEATH
We call for a national lottery in America that fixes the thoughtless chaos of current lotteries, where people win $36 million in a lump sum and it destroys their lives. (Some lottery winners are even murdered for their prize.) Each week, say, 4000 Americans win the "Retire For Life" lottery, receiving $60,000 per year until they die, so they can either choose to quit their jobs or not, freeing up many jobs, and there are always 4000 automatic winners, so half the nation will be buying these lottery tickets.

THESE ARE JUST SOME OF THE FIRST IDEAS WE JOTTED DOWN. We encourage everyone to submit more.

sincerely, Sarah, Kyle, Andrew, Zoe, Bill, and the rest of the gang and loosely-knit Manifesto Committee.

99% of The People want change.
We can make it happen, but only if we stick together.