harnessing the private sector to keep guns from bad guys

The following is how gun violence could be drastically reduced in the United States by holding the correct parties accountable.

The solution lies in states rights and accountability. And the private sector.

If the parties in the firearms industry are properly assessed the cost of gun violence, the firearms industry will create its own system for keeping firearms out of the hands of bad actors.

Individual states should be allowed to assess fines against any and all parties in the chain of custody for firearms used in illegal shootings. From manufacturer to the person who provided the criminal the firearm.

Alternatives to Barack Obama & Mitt Romney present ideas in Chicago

While Free & Equal characterized it as a “debate” I was heartened by how much agreement Jill Stein (Green), Rocky Anderson (Justice) Virgil Goode (Constitution) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian) expressed.

To get the basics out of the way: Last night, October 23, at the Hilton Chicago (720 S. Michigan) in the International Ballroom, Free & Equal hosted a debate between the four candidates. The event was moderated by Larry King and ChristinaTobin, the founder and executive director of Free & Equal. The format was to pose six questions submitted by social media, with candidates each given two minutes to respond and then one minute to “rebut”.

There will be a second round debate on Tuesday, October 30 in Washington, DC. The second round debate will focus on foreign policy and will include only the top two candidates. The top two candidates will be determined by a ranked voting poll onFree & Equal's website that uses Instant Runoff Voting to determine the winners.

[much more below the fold]

second email sent to petition signers

The second email I sent to people who signed the petition is below. It went out Thursday, September 27 at 5:20 PM.

This blog has been commandeered for

A week ago today, I started a petition on SignOn.org calling for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to "stop the commercials" paid for by Education Reform Now narrated by Emanuel and spinning the results of the negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union. As of now, the petition has over 8,200 signers. I created a survey for people who signed the petition and 68.5% who took the survey are from the City of Chicago.

SignOn.org does allow me, as the petition creator, to email everyone who signed the petition. However, I know that all people don't want to be involved in every little discussion and decision.

So, I'm going use this blog to keep people abreast of what is happening in connection wit the petition.

preliminary feedback from petitioners on school questions for Mayor Emanuel

Thursday late afternoon I sent an email to approximately 8,000 people asking them to provide feedback on questions for Mayor Rahm Emanuel about issues related to Chicago Public Schools. When I returned home about midnight there were approximately 530 responses.

The following questions got the most positive feedback:

Rahm Emanuel graphic produced by SignOn.org

Are you annoyed by the money spent having Mayor Emanuel spin the teachers strike?

Bradley Manning deserves a monument

In the future, Bradley Manning will be judged a hero. He exposed official misconduct. He exposed lies the government used to justify continuing to prosecute wars. These wars were folly. Manning showed the people the truth.

(I am assuming that Manning was in fact the source that provided Wikileaks with the information the government alleges Manning provided to Wikileaks.)

Society has monuments to people it considers heroes. But usually these monuments have the imprimatur of the government. So, these monuments tend to be skewed to war heroes and the like.

But why can't the people claim this tradition for our own?

I want there to be a monument for Bradley Manning. He took a grave personal risk to expose the truth to the people of the United States and the people of the world.

People who want there to be a monument to Manning should come together and create a committee. Money should be collected and proposals from artists should be solicited.