Free "Ceasefire! Bridging the Political Divide" forum webcast on political reform

Presented by the Center on Communication Leadership at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Ceasefire! Bridging the Political Divide is a forum for exploring ways to improve political dialogue and decision making at all levels.

Convened by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the conference features a keynote address by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The program also features remarks by Governor Janet Napolitano, chair of the National Governors Association and two important panel discussions featuring key journalists, political strategists, philanthropists, and non-profit community leaders.

Free webcasts are still available for internet viewing for the June 18-19, 2007 Los Angeles forum.

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Tell your U.S. Representative YES on veterans legislation

U.S. Representative Randy Neugebauer's weekly newsletter tells of a recently-written bill to help our military veterans. House Republicans have introduced H. Res. 786, which would change the rules of the House to ensure that Congress never again uses funding for our veterans in order to advance a partisan agenda. This resolution would require the House of Representatives to consider the Military Construction bill and Veterans funding bill as stand alone legislation, preventing any excessive or unrelated spending to be attached. My own Rep. Neugebauer is proud to be a co-sponsor.

This bill is in response to past corruptions of veterans bills from addons of unrelated, politically divisive legislation. Our military men and women in this time of war are too important to this great country to become subject to unethical legislation. I believe this bill is non-partisan in spirit; if you agree with it, please call, write or visit your own U.S. Representative with a message to co-sponsor H. Res. 786.

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All Things Reform now on Squidoo!

Squidoo has provided All Things Reform a "lens", Reform Your Government, to share all of the things we have to offer. We are always looking for ways to spread the word about this blog-- about grassroots reform activism-- and we are grateful to Squidoo for providing this opportunity.

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Ask our presidential candidates what they think of public financing of campaigns

Just $6, from Americans for Campaign Reform, is running a grassroots campaign right now for the first several presidential primary states. They want you to ask your candidate whether he/she supports public financing of campaigns. Please follow this link Just $6, and follow their easy instructions.

Just $6 is an innovative approach to public financing of federal campaigns-- for just $6 per citizen, candidates each election cycle can brush aside donations from private special interests and spend more time with the voters. It proves to be less expensive, too, than the fundraising route.

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Thoughts on ethical and political reform

The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living offers a free weekly thoughts newletter of Thomas Merton, a famous 20th Century American monk. The Sep. 3rd issue strikes to the heart of what All Things Reform is about-- ethics and politics. Here Merton in his later years speaks of it, not as an agenda of a program with a definite beginning and ending, but as a way of life.

The Merton Reflection for the Week of September 3, 2007
"[Reading Chuang Tzu, I wonder seriously if the wisest answer (on the human level, apart from the answer of faith) is not beyond both ethics and politics. It is a hidden answer; it defies analysis and cannot be embodied in a program. Ethics and politics, of course: but only in passing, only as a "night's lodging." There is a time for action, a time for "commitment," but never for total involvement in the intricacies of a movement. There is a time of innocence and kairos, when action makes a great deal of sense. But who can recognize such moments? Not he who is debauched by a series of programs. And when all action has become absurd, shall one continue to act simply because once, a long time ago, it made a great deal of sense? As if one were always getting somewhere? There is a time to listen, in the active life as everything else, and the better part of action is waiting, not knowing what is next, and not having a glib answer."
Thomas Merton. Conjectures of A Guilty Bystander. New York: Doubleday, 1966: 173.

Thought to Remember
"A postulant who has come to the end of his rope and wants to leave, but who has been dissuaded (not by me), stands in the novitiate library leafing through a book called Relax and Live. Sooner or later it comes to that."
Conjectures of A Guilty Bystander: 173

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Help restore habeas corpus today

Public Citizen is running a grassroots email campaign in order to restore habeas corpus. I can't think of too many more important reforms about we, the people, than this! Here is their message:

You know the saying, "If at first you don't succeed..."?
We have another opportunity to restore the right to habeas corpus now. The Senate is debating the defense authorization bill again this week, and Senators Leahy and Dodd have re-introduced the bill to restore habeas corpus as an amendment. Meanwhile, many continue to languish without due process to review the lawfulness of their detainment, and still more of us remain vulnerable.
Your help is urgently needed again. Please call your senators now.
As the Founders understood, in denying someone else's freedom, we ultimately surrender our own.
Thank you for all you've done and for not backing down. Take a few moments today to restore habeas corpus!
Sincerely,
Daniel De Bonis, Online Organizer, Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division action@citizen.org

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Vote for more than just "the lesser of two evils"!

Joel S. Hirschhorn has just published an informative analysis on political reform-- it concerns the common practice, during a low voter turnout, of voting for "the lesser of two evils". It's conventional wisdom for people on general election day to vote against the more "evil" candidate, by voting for only an alternative major candidate. Most of those times, there are just the two nominees from the major political parties-- a Democrat and a Republican-- that are on the ballot, as well.

As a former National Press Secretary for the Reform Party, I'm well aware of the self-fulfilling prophesy that is the two-party system in these United States. Ultimately, voters should select candidates in the primaries and on general election day who are honest and accountable, and who are qualified for each of the respective open seats; this applies to all of levels of government, from the local to federal. And, the duopolistic major parties should present to the people their most qualified candidates, who are honest and accountable, as well as the minor parties such as the Libertarians, the Green Party and the Constitution Party.

Mr. Hirschhorn has a book out right now as well, entitled "Delusional Democracy: Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government". It promotes several political reforms which, put together, conditions our electoral system for cleaner, more responsible elections.

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