Jim Ramelis's blog

“What I Did This Weekend” by Little Jimmy Ramelis

On Saturday I went to a Veterans organization meeting. I am a Chaplain and Service Officer with a couple different Veterans’ organizations. A national Service Officer was there and told us it has gotten so bad with multiple tour Iraqi veterans that some soldiers, in lieu of committing suicide are going back to Iraq with no resistance or volunteering because the survivor’s benefits would be better for their spouse if they got killed, than if they committed suicide. Wow, I reckon things are a little out of hand aren’t they?
I heard the same Service Officer telling guys that I know beyond a doubt that were Bush supporters all the way that Veteran benefits and services have been pulverized by the Bush cuts, and that service continues to deteriorate. It now pretty much boils down to waiting for a new President in the hope of giving veterans a better deal. A few years ago, you would have never heard Bush cut down in front of a Veterans group. The worm is definitely turning. The Bush supporters were holding their heads down and looking sheepish. I live in a county that went 60% for Bush in both of the last two elections and now I can't find anyone who voted for him.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is paing attention to the plight of the middle class. I live in a very rural area and the rising gas prices are threatening to destroy what is left of rural America.Here is Sen. Sanders and some of the comments he got.Things are getting grim here in the heatland. People really are deciding between gas to go to work, heat for the home, or food.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Dear Friend,

As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, I made a request to Vermonters on my e-mail list. I asked them to tell me what was going on in their lives economically. That was it. Frankly, I expected a few dozen replies. I was amazed, therefore, when my office received over 600 responses from all across the state, as well as some from other states. This small booklet contains a few of those letters.

Alternet has an article today about a group whose approach to Christianity is the exact opposite of Crossleft's and others who advocate the social gospel. The frightening thing is that some members of the group are our Congressional Representatives and Senators, and the powerful in our country. It is a group called "The Family" or "The Fellowship".They are fundamentalist elitists. They started in the 1930s and prize verses like Romans 13:1-7.Romans 13:1 says (NIV)” Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Verses like this make me happy to be a non-literalist. Were the Nazis or Stalin's Communist Russia ordained of God? How about George w., is he ordained of God? But reading the verse historically and in context, is Paul a Roman citizen, writing to Romans, and encouraging them not to fight the authorities, but instead to go along to get along?
"The Family" believes in evangelizing the powerful and the elite, forget the poor, they are hopeless. This group wouldn't be noteworthy except that they sponsor prayer groups with our elected leaders right in the Congress and the Senate.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/87665/?page=entire

Minutes Crossleft Call
These are the minutes from the Crossleft Call on June 10, 2008 at 8:30 P.M. EST.
In Attendance: Kety Esquivel, Stephen Rockwell, Jim Ramelis, Rich Warden, Roger McClellan, Angelo Lopez
We decided to put the rating stars back on the site as a means of people expressing their appreciation. Several bloggers do like them, a few don’t, and many don’t care one way or the other, so for now we are just going to go ahead and run them again.
We are going to rotate the days of the Crossleft conference calls. There is just no one day that can accommodate everyone. So by rotating we can perhaps get people that otherwise couldn’t participate because of schedule conflicts, to get in on the call. The call days will probably be Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, with plenty of advance notice. Wednesdays and Fridays are almost universally not preferred for a call day.

Dennis Kucinich rides again! He proposes 35 articles of impeachment on President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors. If you support, call your Congressional Representative. Here is the link if you want to read the whole 25 articles and 65 pages. I am going to save them on a jump drive, it is a synopsis of most the evil deeds of Bush II. The folowing is a call to action by Afterdowning Street, then that is followed by a piece from the office of Congressman Robert Wexler who is going to co-sponsor the bill. God knows I love Dennis Kucinich.
http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf

HOUSE TO READ KUCINICH RESOLUTION
ON IMPEACHMENT TONIGHT
REFERRAL TO COMMITTEE, HEARINGS SOUGHT
The Impeachment Resolution sponsored by Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be read into the Record by the Clerk of the House, tonight, beginning at approximately 7:15-7:30 pm. The required reading of the 35 Articles of Impeachment is expected to take up to 5 hours. Congressman Kucinich will be on the floor of the House during the reading. At the conclusion of the reading, Congressman Kucinich will rise and make a motion that the Impeachment Resolution be referred to committee. If a vote occurs on the matter it will be postponed until tomorrow.

Remember January 2001? Those were the good old days before George Bush and Dick Cheney took office. At the time, gas cost just a dollar eighty-seven a gallon. And now? $3? $3.50? Even four dollars for a gallon of gas.

The cost of driving to work and flying to visit family keeps going up. Meanwhile, Exxon-Mobil made more profits last year than any corporation in human history.
It's long past time for real energy independence in America and that starts by making sure oil companies pay their fair share.
Send a message to your Senator right now:
http://www.TrueMajority.org/StopPainAtThePump
Energy prices won't go down overnight. In the coming months we're going to be barraged with gimmicks like a tax day holiday which may poll well but do nothing to deal with our real problem of over reliance on fossil fuels.
That's because oil companies have all the money they need to make their case in Washington. They think that buying politicians will allow them to continue making record profits while we pay all the costs. Don't let them tell you a windfall profits tax wont work. Remember, we've done it before and it raised billions of dollars in revenue.

There will be a Crossleft conference call, Tuesday June 10 at 8:30 P.M.,That is 7:30 P.M. C.S.T., 6:30 M.S.T., and 5:30 P.M., P.S.T.

Call 1-218-339-2500 Extension 727705#

All Crossleft Members are welcome.

Proposed Agenda:

1.Some liked the voting with the 'stars",but we voted it out at our last meeting, do we want to put it to a vote on the site in he spirit of democracy?

2. Changing the day that the Crossleft Call is held on. Tuesdays don't work for everyone, there has been some discussion on a previous post about this, lets firm something up. Lets also firm up the Crossleft Board meeting time, too. Last meeting we discussed having it a half an hour prior to the Crossleft Member call. I really like that idea, minimizing the number of evenings spent on calls.

3. How do we proceed with a Crossleft Platform?

4. Ideas on making ourselves relevant this election.

More ideas for the agenda? It is a work in progress and can be easily amended.

Dear MoveOn member,
There are laws to prevent criminals from profiting by selling their stories. But after spending years defending the Bush administration and perpetuating the lies that led our country into war, Scott McClellan is poised to make bank—his tell-all book is a bestseller and he may make hundreds of thousands or millions.
Meanwhile, our troops are still dying in Iraq.
Coming clean is admirable. But McClellan shouldn't profit off the role he played in our nation's largest foreign policy blunder.
So we have a proposition for him. Let's call on him to donate all of the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans, like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. If we make enough noise, he'll probably be asked about it on tomorrow's Sunday shows (he's on all three!)—so please sign on and pass this around. Clicking below will add your name:
http://pol.moveon.org/mcclellan/o.pl?id=12765-9059635-VKQrah&t=3
The petition reads:
People who helped lie this country into an unnecessary war should not be rewarded for it. Scott McClellan should donate all the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans—like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Thanks for all you do.
–Nita, Wes, Ilyse, Eli, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Saturday, May 31st, 2008

Sign the Open Letter

You might have heard that the Supreme Court of California ruled that marriage is a fundamental civil right and must not be restricted on the basis of sexual orientation. Now, on June 17th, California is poised to become only the second state in America to practice full marriage equality. Over the past decade the public has rapidly been embracing equal rights and with this clear ruling we finally have an opportunity to put equality over the top.

Now we're coming out. We support full marriage equality.
We all have our own issues: budget priorities, labor rights, reproductive rights, election integrity, telecom immunity, anti-war, pro civil rights, this list goes on and on. But, this is bigger than that. Marriage equality comes down to human rights. That's why we're circulating this open letter for all progressives to take a second to step back from our respective corners and come out in support of same sex marriage.
Sign this open letter for equality today:
http://www.TrueMajority.org/Equality