Force Congressional Transparency Referendum - Let the People Decide

When the Head of the Office of Government Ethics says our government representatives are, "Close to a Laughingstock" in the world, it is time the people of this country demand a referendum.

So...What is transparency? The answer is simple.  The people of this country need to know what their elected officials actually do while they are in office.  For instance:

1. When are they actually IN Congress doing their job
2. What legislation are they backing
3. When, What and How did they vote 
4. How many 'Pet Projects' or Earmarks paid for with our hard-earned taxes are they sneaking through on legitimate legislation
5. Whose LOBBYIST DOLLARS are they accepting
6. How are they spending the $900,000 credit they receive for operating costs

THIS IS TRANSPARENCY.  Here's one solution to Items 1 through 3. Link the automated voting system in place in Congress to a computer program that automatically tallies each representative's vote into a secure data base. Allow anyone in this country to sign up for access to this data base and receive emails weekly or monthly related to their representatives in Congress.

Items 4 through 6 are a little harder.  These problems would require our Congressional Representatives to be HONEST and REPORT these activities as they occur.  Of course, there should be penalties levied or even expulsion from Congress for false reports or not reporting issues in a timely manner.  HOWEVER, if the citizens of our country do not come together and force these things to come about, the United States of America will continue to decline due to the ever-growing greed of our governing bodies.

Check out this article from The New York Times about retiring Head of the Office of Government Ethics has to say about our elected officials:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/walter-shaub-ethics.html?smid=fb-share

USA Prison System: Big Money for Congress & Corporate America

There is a quote that says, "Men fight for their freedom, yet when they get it, they immediately start passing laws to take it away again..."  AND...Who in this country gets elected and passes these laws?  ANSWER:  The CONGRESS, i.e., the WEALTHY and Corporate America.

A LARGE percentage of the American Penal System, glaringly biased against the poor and middle class, is run by Corporate America.  FACT:   The majority of our inmates are non-violent offenders that need help, not bars.   When counseling for mental health, drug rehabilitation, job training, education or other mandatory programs would turn their lives around, offenders become dollar marks in our penal system's bottom line.  Tossing them into a cage  doesn't cure anything but irreparably damages their lives, stacking the odds against them ever succeeding after getting out.

HOW CAN THAT BE?  Inmates in this country are simply caged and submitted to a LOT of inhumane treatment, i.e., In the beginning of their incarceration, not affording them proper representation in a timely manner because they are unaware of their rights, forcing addicts to go through detox with no medical attention, housing them in unairconditioned units where temperatures rise into the 120's or more, providing improper nutritional intake, using them as 'slave-labor' and strip and cavity searching them multiple times a day.  The list goes on and it's NOT RIGHT!!!!

Until our ELECTED OFFICIALS  start making the needs of the citizens of this country a priority over pleasing the Lobbyists and their lackeys, real issues like our jails will never be addressed. The ultra wealthy own Congress.  In most instances, they can BUY THEIR WAY OUT of this unbalanced legal system and profit off of it at the same time...