JLB's Grass Roots Politics Leadership Bootcamp

JLB’s Grass Roots Politics Leadership Boot Camp
In order to avoid the cumbersomeness and the depersonalization of large groups, what would you think of entertaining a planned split off strategy that would cap the size of our meetings at fifteen around participants? Here’s what I have in mind…

1. The January meeting should get us up to fifteen participants over which I will preside, unless someone else wants to do so. But the February meeting will presumably kick us up to thirty participants, and that borders on cumbersome and impersonal.

2. So what if the February meeting is split into two groups of 15 with Carol running one meeting that would include the people that her side of the group has brought to the table, and Zuri and I running the other one that would include those who her side brought to the table.

3. Before presiding over one meeting, a member will have actively participated in three previous meetings, had three months of time to dig into the concept, wrestle with the various issues, read what you need to read, ask all the questions you can possibly think of, and effectively satisfy yourself that we are indeed embarking on a revolutionary strategy that is destined to democratize America’s free market economy, and eventually do the same for the world’s people.

4. Once you’ve jumped those hoops you will undoubtedly be ready to preside over a meeting. In other words you will have had ample opportunity to saturate yourself in the concept and to effectively become Joe Lunch Buckett yourself. You fire will have been completely ignited, and you will be a self motivated, self learner who is ready to choose your own unique role in the party from that point on. You will be a graduate of JLB’s Hands On Political Leadership Bootcamp.

5. When you have presided over a meeting you will eject and become a FREE AGENT who will be awarded the coveted Lunch Buckett containing one copy of Joe’s new book, one copy of Norm Kurland’s Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen, and one official set of ARP business with all of your info on them for the purpose of future reference.

6. Once graduated from Joe’s Grass Roots Politics Leadership Bootcamp you will be encourage to attend a monthly meeting of your choice (maybe one that needs a little boost?) and then to specialize in various projects within the party including things like…

a. College campus development
b. Power point presentations to local groups
c. Web site development
d. Niche market development, i.e. teachers, or women, or ethnics, etc.
e. Community Investment Corporation development
f. You could consult on ESOP, CIC, or other related ownership projects
g. And even running for public office on the ARP Ownership Platform
h. Fundraising
i. WAVG real people interviewing
j. And anything else you can think of to move this revolutionary concept into the forefront of the American voter’s radar screen.

Charismatic Leadership...Do We Really Want It?

Charismatic Leaders…Do We Really Need Them, Or Want Them?

In politics these days it seems that we’re always looking for that charismatic leader who can charm the pants off an audience. That person who can stand up in front of a crowd of people, feel their pulse, and get them to sing in harmony, in rhythm, and to feel good about doing it…all at the same time. In the past half century we’ve seen several examples of what I’m talking about, starting with Jack Kennedy in the early sixties. In the wake of his assassination, brother Bobby was picking up the slack right nicely until somebody gunned him down.

From The Kennedy’s To Ronald Reagan
The Kennedy’s were followed by a collection of less than charismatic leaders until we hit the 1980 election when, whether you approved of him or not, Ronald Reagan became a national political icon, the great communicator, the Republican with enough charisma to win lots of Democratic votes, and in the wake he became the ideal of every Republican politician since he left office in 1988.

And Then Came Clinton
Then in the 1992 along came a guy named Bill Clinton who was as charming as Reagan. He strode onto the international stage, stealing the show from a dull Bush I, and then from a droll Bob Dole. And despite his administration being undermined from the very get go by right wing nutcakes like Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch, Bill Clinton’s eight year term in office was very pleasing in the eyes of many Americans, and his many admirers around the world…because of his charisma.

The Current Charismatic Depression
We’re currently in a charismatic depression after Karl Rove and company helped John Kerry to self-destruct, decompose, and disappear leaving us with another four years of George W. But charismatic George W is not. In fact he often times has a hard time making sense of the English language, and is famous for addressing crowds that have been well vetted before they are allowed to listen to W’s drivel, and then cheer wildly for each confused and incomplete sentence. And now there’s a guy named Barak Obama who has climbed on the Democrats horse and is threatening to become our nation’s first black President…because of his charisma.

An Exercise In Avoiding The Responsibilities Of Citizenship?
But my real question is as follows. Why do we want charismatic leaders anyway? Why do we think we need a charismatic leader? And what does that longing for leadership have to say Americans anyway? Does it reflect a lack of self confidence? Does it say something about our own insecurities? Does it say something about our need to be told what to do and when to do it, by someone other than ourselves?

And to what degree is it an exercise in avoiding the responsibilities of democratic citizenship, while expecting someone else…like that guy with all the charisma, to move the masses, and carry the load on our behalf while we occupy ourselves with more important issues like professional sports, gourmet food, or which movie star or rock and roll singer is sleeping with whom, as reported in the National Enquirer, or People Magazine, USA Today, or the hottest talk (gossip) radio show in town.

But The Better You Know Yourself…
My contention is that the better you know yourself, and the more you’ve been willing to wrestle with your own demons, over and over again, the more confident, the more self assured, and comfortable you will be with YOU. And the more comfortable you are with your own well-earned conclusions, and the less important any leader, even a charismatic one, becomes.

The More You’ll Lead Yourself…
Under these circumstances, you’re effectively your own leader. You trust in yourself, and you think for yourself. To do anything less would be self-destructive. You have absolutely no need to have anyone else tell you what to do, or what to think about your own life…thank you. As a matter of fact, when and if someone else is presumptuous enough to presume that you need their advice and direction, even though you asked them for nothing, they’ve crossed the line of mutual respect. And the minute that mutual respect is ignored, conflict has walked in the door.

So I Say To Hell With The Charismatic Leader
I suggest that the job of a real leader is to build a stronger, more clear thinking, understanding, and empathetic nation that’s full of independent minded people who are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves, directing their own traffic, and who have absolutely no need for any charismatic leader to tell them anything. Instead let’s find representatives who know and understand how to systematically produce a nation full of justice, freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for everyone, and in the process, how to underwrite a true government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and then vote them into office to represent us....not to lead us.

Sheep Need Border Collies, But…
In short, sheep need border collies to move from one grazing spot to another. But real, live, thinking humans do not. So, in simplest terms, are you a sheep in human skin who needs a charismatic border collie to motivate and move you? Or are you a full blown human who is perfectly willing and able to wrestle with his own demons, to win the right to draw your own conclusions, and to ignore the charismatic border collie despite what that old dog may think? The choice, as they say, is yours to make.

A Golden Opportunty That NHL Strikers Will Never See

“The Golden Opportunity That NHL Striker’s Will Never Consider”

The National Hockey League strike…is this thing hilarious or what? I mean on one side of the table you have one group of spoiled adults who are being paid minimally $185,000 per season to PLAY hockey. In the off-season these guys PLAY golf, and cut lucrative commercial deals through their agents who take their own cut of the cut. Other than that, these guys are placed on social pedestals, revered by family and friends, and now they’ve gone on strike in order to get…MORE!
On the other side of the table you have the owners who are wallowing in potential revenue from a variety of hockey related sources or else they wouldn’t be at this bargaining table in the first place. And these guys are doing everything they can think of to avoid giving up…ANY MORE.

In principle this well publicized sports brouhaha is no different from a classic Teamsters or a teacher’s strike in which each party is battling for a larger piece of a finite economic pie. But in terms of real dollars per participant there’s a huge difference because the relative size of the NHL pie is so much greater, which is precisely what makes the whole situation so laughable.

Here’s How They Could Turn The Tide
But I suggest that there is an opportunity for the NHL to turn the tide here, and go from looking incredibly stupid and greedy on both sides, to exquisitely intelligent in a single bound. This move would not only settle the strike, but it would delight the fans, increase the size of the business pie, and also provide an economic role model for this nation and the rest of the world who is so desperately in need of a way to get beyond the old US VS THEM, 19th and 20th century economic paradigm that’s had all us all (including the NHL as we speak) in its grip since before the dawn of the industrial revolution many moons ago.

What is this move you ask? The move is to unionize or unite on the ownership side of the table. The move is to transform the players into owners, into partners, who actively participate in the economic wins and losses of their respective companies (their teams) as owners instead of employees. And when the company/team does well in economic terms, the player/owner reaps the benefits. If the company/team does poorly, the player/owner suffers the consequences…as an owner.

Eliminate The Reason For Strikes Forever
In making such a move you’d immediately eliminate all future strikes by replacing the old worker vs. owner paradigm with a new, all for one and one for all OWNERSHIP paradigm. And since all the participants would benefit from working together and succeeding, you’d also provide both sides with a system in which working together toward a single, productive goal, both on and off the ice, wins.

The Profound Potential Of Such A Move
But on a much larger scale, if the NHL were to make such a move, it could provide the entire nation (and eventually the world) with a high profile model for a free enterprise based, OWNERSHIP SOCIETY that the Bush administration keeps crowing about, but seems to so know so little about implementing. But my contention is that if the NHL could actually get it, surely their fans, and all those incredibly smart guys in the US Congress could get it too. And when it works like gangbusters, maybe we as a nation could take a tip from the NHL, apply the same principles to our economy, and see ours finally grow into a government of the people, by the people, and for the people

Yes, this represents a golden opportunity for the NHL to turn their proverbial lemon into lemonade, delight and enlighten their fans, increase the size of their pie, and have an absolutely profound effect on the rest of the world at the same time. On the other hand if they all continue to behave like greedy, spoiled brats, I sincerely hope they kill their golden sports goose, crash and burn as a league, and may they all finally get a real good taste of actually working for a living. They’ll all deserve it.


P.S. For anyone who’s really interested in an Ownership Society (like say the Bush Administration perhaps), a user-friendly roadmap for this new, 21st century economic paradigm entitled Capital Homesteading For Every Citizen has recently been published by Dr. Norm Kurland through the Center For Economic and Social Justice, and it’s available special order through Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble web sites.

December's Notes From The Underground

December 11th 2004 Notes From The Underground, ARP/JLB Mtg.

Structure…
· Officers – we decided that we would put off electing officers until the January meeting when we expect to see a minimum of 15 people participating.

· Projects – status of projects listed below

· Committees will be project based and we also decided to wait until the January meeting to organize them.

· Discussion – there was a lively discussion of what’s going on and where we are headed. If the excitement level at this meeting is any indication, I have no doubt that we will attract the projected number of fifteen people to the next meeting.

Projects…
· Recruiting - our goal is 8000 people by end of year one. One of the fairly immediate tasks will be to decide how and when to break off into smaller groups in order to maintain active levels of participation/ownership from every partner.

· CD Recording of Capital Homesteading Summary as a recruiting tool. JLB promised to have an original edition done before the next meeting, but speculated that we will be able to find someone else who would prove to be a more effective reader of this material.

· Power Point Presentation for COC’s, ESOP companies, even church groups – this will be a project in which everyone will participate and benefit from wrestling with the Capital Homesteading concept directly in order to develop sufficient confidence to make public presentations on the subject. JLB suggested that Jen Zuri would be the right point person for this project.

· Monica suggested that there are all kinds of local groups who would be candidates to hear a power point presentation. Brooke suggested that everyone come up with a list of these kinds of groups in their own communities.

· Brooke suggested that we should put meeting dates and times on business cards, and everyone liked that idea.

· Interviews with real people on real problems – both Monica and Brook said they would be happy to be interviewed by JLB and Al Robinson of WAVG talk radio and we’ll try to have both of these done before next meeting/

· Web Site/Blog Involvement – everyone agreed to actively participate in a democratic dialog through Joe’s web site message board and on Joe’s Blog starting in the near future….like hopefully this coming week.


· Carol asked about an American Revolutionary Party blog and JLB said Norm Kurland was investigating that possibility, and it’d probably be up by next mtg.

· Joe’s Book – JLB reported that was in the works and would likely be ready by next meeting as well. How do you like the title “The One Big Idea: The Missing Link In America’s Political System and What YOU Can Do About It!” Other suggestions for the title are most welcome.

· Register with FEC - we have the forms to do that when the time comes.

· Establish bank account - JLB suggest that Carol and Pam be co-signatures

· Brochure/Cliff’s Notes – we agreed this project is less important than the CD recordings and the power point presentation, so it was tabled for the time being.

· Data Base – Pam got caught with her hand in the air when this came up, so that project now belongs to her.

· ARP Platform – everyone at the table had read it and seemed to like it. There were no negative comments, only positive ones, but folks will read it more thoroughly before the next meeting.

· Mid Term Elections – everyone agreed that we should be considering a 24 month plan of attack in order to get things moving on a more local level, and to have some suggestions next meeting.

· Jim suggested that a combination book and CD (both of which we’ll have within weeks) could be packaged in the same way that software is packaged and could be something that would look very professional. Jim and JLB will be looking into that possibility and will report back on what they find next meeting.

· Get Barak Obama to our table within the first year – JLB reported that Obama had officially been invited to this meeting, and would continue to get invitations, along with notes and numbers of participants until he shows up.

· JLB said he had talked to a Chicago based homeless newspaper about doing a regular column in their bi weekly newspaper Streetwise and would update the group when he heard more. Brooke suggested the name of the column could be “Through The Cracks.”

· Pam suggests that someone who knows Roberts Rules should be running the meeting from now on, and that someone who knows how to take more conventional notes should take over the Notes From the Underground. Since this suggestion was not formally discussed, we’ll talk about it in January.

· The Onion Headline that JLB failed to come up with on Saturday is “It’s Really Hard When Someone Close To Someone You Pretended To Like, Dies.”

A Tool With Which To Identify Peaceful Revolutionaries

12 Questions To Ask Potential Revolutionaries

1. Are you happy with your current job?

2. Are you happy about having to work for somebody else, doing what somebody else wants you to do, instead of what you really want to do, forty to sixty hours a week?

3. Are you happy about having to squeeze your own personal agenda in and around the cracks and crevices of your week, while the day job (someone else’s agenda) occupies the most productive hours of your week, month, and years of your life?

4. Do you harbor any realistic hope of ever breaking FREE from that dilemma, which has been aptly characterized as wage slavery, or industrial sharecropperism?

5. Do most of your friends and family members find themselves caught up in the same dilemma, and do they also lack any plan eventually to FREE themselves?

6. Do you find that the conflict between those things you naturally want to do, and those things you’re financially required to do a great source of STRESS in your life?

7. Do you suspect that most of your friends and family members are living under the same form of STRESS, and that it could be grinding away on their health, their family relationships, the quality of their weeks, months, years, and ultimately their lives?

8. Do you like the fact that the same people who own and control the most productive hours of your week, month, year, life, also own and control the supposedly democratic government here in the United States of America…whether you like it or not?

9. Do you like the fact that these same people who own and control the most productive hours of your week, month, year, life, as well as your government, also control the media and most of the information to which you have access?

10. If someone could show you a peaceful way to unravel the political/economic system that has you, your family members, and friends under its control, would you be interested in hearing just a little more about it?

11. Would you be willing to check out a couple of web sites to learn more?

12. Would you attend and participate in a monthly meeting in order to learn more?

If YOU answered as follows, YOU are a PRIME candidate for membership in the all new, twenty first century edition of the American Revolutionary Party. Congratulations!

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No
5. Yes
6. Yes
7. Yes
8. No
9. No
10. Yes
11. Yes
12. Yes

Thoughts On Science And The Supernatural

Seven Rambling Paragraphs While Approaching Christmas 2004…
I hereby confess, I believe in things that are inaccessible to empirical science, things that scientists, no matter how smart they are, will ever be able to wrap their omniscient tentacles around. These things don’t fit under a magnifying glass. You can’t track ‘em from outer space. And laser beams and X-Ray machines can never penetrate them.

Call it supernatural. Call it metaphysical. Call it God. Call it what ever you want to call it, but science will never be able to reduce, for example, the concept of beauty to numbers, formulas, systematic predictability, and shove it into a robot-like computer. Science will never be able to weigh and measure the feelings I have for my family and friends, heat ‘em up, cool ‘em down, and slice ‘em into a countable number of pieces.

Science will never be able to throw its empirical rope around ideas like optimism, pessimism, adventure, purpose, hopes, dreams, and/or some people’s relentless pursuit of them. Science will never be able to understand or explain the creative process of writing a simple poem, an eloquent essay, the lyrics to a ballad, the notes to which they’re attached, a symphony, or an opera.

The Girl From Ipanema?
Science will never fully appreciate or understand The Girl From Ipanema, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, Rhett and Scarlett, Bogie and Bacall, Butch and Sundance, Ms. Saigon, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Knute Rockne, George Halas, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Roger Bannister, Bill Russell, Mohammed Ali, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Little Prince, and yet I truly believe in every single one of them. To me they’re every bit as real, (maybe more real) than E = MC square, or Newton’s laws of physics. *

They are the kinds of things that make life interesting, colorful, meaningful, fulfilling, and eventually…worth living. They are, for me, the locations in which the supernatural resides. And science, in its wildest dreams, will never be able to reduce them, understand them, or explain any one of them…empirically. That’s why I personally have no problem believing in the supernatural, the metaphysical, God, or what I like to call just plain…Good.

Creationism or Evolutionism?
Does that mean that I believe in creationism instead of evolution? Absolutely not! I believe that creationism is a creative, poetic, literary, and religious interpretation of how life here on earth began, while evolution is a scientific interpretation of the same subject. I also believe that both of them have their place, that I can fit both of these concepts into my brain, understand them in the way they’re intended to be understood, without being schizophrenic, without insulting either position, and without taking sides. And if anyone would care to explain why I cannot do this, I’m all ears.


*P.S. (I must admit however, that the processes of developing these miraculous pieces of hard core scientific data were certainly creative acts in themselves.)

The Official Invite To Our December Meeting

Just a reminder that our December meeting is next Saturday morning, 10:30 at the Geneva Library...courtesy of Carol.

To date...

Obama has been officially invited to the Saturday meeting, but don't expect him to show up yet.

I presume the Notes From The Underground met with everyone's approval.

Have you had a chance to look over, (and even weigh in on) the developing ARP Platform?

Since JLB is admittedly all too structureless, any thoughts on the structure that we're going to need as we move forward?

Any thoughts on a future bank account? My own feeling is hearts and minds first and the $$ will follow. But sooner or later we're going to need to be able to accommodate those who want to contribute actual money. Let's talk about this on Saturday.

I did not get the suggested Cliff's Notes done. But recently it did strike me that collectively developing a Power Point Presentation that could be given by any one of us, and others, including people in other states, to local ESOP companies (there are plenty in Chicago area), Chambers of Commerce meetings, and other such events would not only be a great exercise in getting our own hands dirty (someone else uses this phrase I know) and deepening our own understanding of what we're constructing here, but it would also generate the materials that should make up the Cliffs Notes that I did not finish. What do you think?

I hate to tell you gang, but we are blazing the path on this thing, and there are lots of people around the country who are watching what we do, and are waiting for us to show them how to nail this thing together at the local level...just so you know.

Most importantly, bring any and all questions that you have about this impossible dream to the meeting so we can throw them out on the table, talk about them, and make sure that everyone's cup is overflowing when it comes to actually developing "an ownership society" instead of just talking about it like our wonderful Mr. W seems so prone to be doing these days.

If you have other SPECIFIC THINGS that you want to see accomplised at this next meeting, hit reply to all and let everyone know up front.

Hasta Sabado.

RO/JLB

Do You Believe In Good?

Do You Believe In Good?
Do you believe in Good? As the general rule do you believe that treating others right benefits everyone, even you in the long run? In Christian terms, do you believe in the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you?”

If so, you’re basically an optimist. And if you’re optimistic, it colors the way you see, experience, and interact with the people and the world around you. It colors your understanding of the past, present, your expectations for your future, and your ability to fulfill your dreams, your potential, and live a meaningful human life. And if so, you’re a Christian according to my own best interpretation/understanding of the term.

If I said someone was “Christ like” I’d mean that they treat others with respect, dignity, and consideration. This in fact, makes them what the world needs more of, namely good, humane, human beings. Call me a humanist if you will, but anti-human is anti-Christian to me. And being humane is being Christ like!

Now, does that mean you have to advertise your faith on the bumper of your BMW or Chevy truck? Does it mean that you have to tell others about the strength and the power of your beliefs and your God? Does it mean that you have to attend church, or publicly praise and give credit to God after you score a touchdown? Or pray before meals & bed time? Or disapprove, disrespect, discredit, or belittle in any way, people who wear religious labels (Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew) that differ from yours?

Does it mean that you have to approve of self-righteous, self serving, self indulgent, dollar hungry, commercial television evangelists who clog the airways today with poisonous socio-economic politics, prejudice, and hatred/bigotry, disguised as religious conviction? Does it mean that you have to vote Republican?

My answer? It means exactly the opposite! God doesn’t need your bumper sticker advertisement. God doesn’t need nor care about your public testimonial. He’s not pitching an infomercial or running for office. He doesn’t care if you ever walk into a church or tell him what you want in your prayers. (On the other hand he’d probably appreciate you just listening once in a while.) And he could care less about touchdowns.

God cares only about your heart & actions, not your label! More specifically, he cares about how you think of, and treat other people (the Golden Rule?) regardless of their religious affiliation/label, ethnic background, race, age, sexual orientation, or gender. And if you treat other people right, you may call yourself a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Jew, or even an atheist, and still be very Christian in my eyes. On the other hand, you can call yourself a Christian, but if you don’t treat other people with dignity and respect, even (especially) if they’re different from you, and if you don’t carry yourself with a tangible sense of humility, you fail my Christian test immediately!

If I was a betting man, I’d wager that God has as particularly low opinion of self righteous, self serving, self indulgent, money grubbing, bigots and hypocrites who wallow in religious talk, put on a show “in his name” and fill the minds of naïve friends and followers with social poison. My God would throw these charlatans, these anti-human money-changers out of his house on their ear, and tell ‘em to stay out. Amen!!

3 Principles of Economic Justice

Kelso’s binary formula is grounded in…

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies…In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
Which states, among other things…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Kelso’s offers his Three Principles of Economic Justice.

The Principle of Distribution which simply confirms the age-old presumption that if you make something, it belongs to you, not someone else. No disagreement here, right?

The Principle of Participation states that all citizens are guaranteed the right to participate in the economy to the degree that they are able to provide themselves and their family members with decent food, clothing, housing, health care, education, etc. that are necessary to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, those RIGHTS that are endowed by the creator, and according to the Declaration of Independence, are both self evident, and inalienable. That means they're intuitively obvious, and they cannot be taken away by anyone. In other words, people who are being denied access to participation in the economy are also being denied access to the rights endowed on all humans by God …those rights that constitute the American ideal for which our forefathers fought and died.

The Principle of Limitation/Harmony states that no one will be allowed to have so much of the American Pie that it infringes on the Principal of Distribution, or the Principal of Participation for anyone else.

In my mind, it’s logiclally impossible to agree with the assertions in The Declaration of Independence, without agreeing with the Principle of Participation. Furthermore, it’s logically impossible to agree with the Principle of Participation without agreeing with the Principle of Limitation as well. So, when you buy into the Declaration of Independence, you’re automatically buying into Kelso’s three principles of economic justice which include the Principles of Participation and Limitation. Amen

Hollywood Gossip
Movie Reviews
Cigars

ESOP Participants Of The World Unite!!

“Former Presidential Candidate Calls For ESOP Participants To Close Ranks, And Unite!”

There are currently over 10,000 companies in the United States that are organized around the concept of employee ownership. And these 10,000 companies can boast of over 11,000,000 workers who double as owners, and who actively share in the wins and the losses of their respective companies by participating in the profits and the losses…the capital ownership side of the economy where most of the wealth is being generated in the twenty first century. Some even participate in the decision-making processes, depending on company policy in this regard.

But We’re Still Functionally Divided…
On the other hand, there are a variety of associations who represent the various interpretations of the employee ownership gospel, but who currently operate relatively independent of one another, despite the fact that they are all products of the same inspired piece of literature, namely The Capitalist Manifesto co-authored by Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler way back in 1958…a half century ago.

If We’re Going To Stand Any Chance Of Winning…
“But, according to former 2004 Presidential candidate Joe L. Buckett, “if we’re going to have any chance of creating a legitimate Ownership Society in this nation, we must first find a way to appeal to our most natural constituency, the rank and file worker/owners who are active ESOP participants, because they are in fact already walking the walk, no matter which association their company happens to belongs. If we can’t get them to hear our message and identify with us, we’re dead in the water before we ever start the engines.”

We Must Come Together And Join Hands Over The Big Picture
Buckett, the current frontrunner for the 2008 American Revolutionary Party nomination, goes on to say, “ESOP enthusiasts must all put aside their petty differences and concentrate on the big picture where we all agree that spreading individualized capital ownership among all American citizens is the key ingredient to underwriting political and economic justice, freedom, peace, prosperity, and a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. After all,” he continued, “if we can’t get along with each other, how are we going to present our message in a clear and understandable way to voters who have yet to become familiar with this revolutionary, 21st century concept whose time really has finally arrived?”

To Learn More About The Ownership Campaign Of Joe L. Buckett…
To learn more about Joe L. Buckett and his 48 Month Plan of Attack to win the White House in 2008, check out his web site at www.joelunchbuckett.com, or the new, third party’s web site at www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us , or any of the affiliates who are already lining up behind Joe’s unique 48 Month Plan of Attack to win the White House. Or, if you want to talk to the candidate himself call his Press Secretary, Rick Osbourne who can be reached during the day at 630-495-3445. Why not CALL RIGHT NOW?

Hollywood Gossip
Movie Reviews
Cigars

Constructing A New Third Party Platform...

Here's the latest, edited version (draft #10) of the new American Revolutionary Party platform. We invite all viewers to participate in the drafting of this historic document by going to http://jtw.editme.com/arpplatform, clicking on draft review, and offering your personal comments on any or all points in the latest edition. JLB

A Holiday Message To Pass On To Three Friends

A Christmas Carol For The 21st Century...

Dear Friends:
WARNING: Please DO NOT forward this Christmas link on anyone else, UNLESS…
· you’ve read it,
· you understand it,
· you agree with it in principal and in spirit,
· you have a pretty good answer to the $64,000 question at the bottom of the page,
· and you want to make someone’s holiday season just a little more thoughtful and meaningful this year.

Now here’s the link…

http://www.joelunchbuckett.citymax.com/page/page/1523239.htm

And if you do, then choose no more than three truly open minded friends who you think will also read it, understand it, agree with it, appreciate, and grow from this special edition of Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, then forward this message to them, WARNING and all, and ask them to weigh in on the $64,000 question by clicking on the following link…

http://www.joelunchbuckett.citymax.com/page/page/830089.htm

On the other hand, if anyone wants to learn more about the $64,000 question, then suggest that they poke around the following web site (www.joelunchbuckett.com ), and see what they can uncover? Then let’s see how much interest we can generate BEFORE CHRISTMAS DAY, 2004?


Sincerely,


Joe L. Buckett

The ABC's Of Productive And Destructive Credit

The ABC’s Of Productive And Destructive Credit

There’s a huge difference between…

(A) PRODUCTIVE (individual freedom creating) GOVERNMENT DEBT that you know can and will be repaid, by a particular individual/citizen, in a predictable period of time, without ever raising taxes on anyone else at all. The two best examples of this kind of debt include low interest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans (government never loses money on, or has to raise taxes to support the FHA because it produces wealth instead of destroys wealth) with which citizens purchase housing, and the newly suggested Capital Homesteading Act (CHA) credit which does the same on a broader scale, and...

(B) DISTRUCTIVE (individual dependence creating) GOVERNMENT DEBT that can ONLY be repaid with the sweat from a productive citizen’s brow (i.e. via taxes) such as the Vietnam War, the current Invasion of Iraq, government pork barrel projects on the part of the people who REPRESENT US in congress, and the Social Security System, not to mention the flood of Federal Reserve backed, consumer credit card debt that banks create daily.

(C) But, people say, there’s also a big difference between the FHA, where people have to qualify, and earn their home ownership through productive work in order to pay off mortgages over a period of time, and the CHA, which is nothing more than a free government giveaway to all citizens from sea to shining sea. I mean it’s a self-liquidating loan that pays itself off with tax deductible dividends, so nobody has to work to earn their respective piece of the rock, right?

(D) There are similarities and there are differences. The main similarity is that, in the long haul both the FHA and the CHA are WEALTH PRODUCING PROGRAMS that serve to offer individual citizens the opportunity to actively participate on the ownership side of the economy which is where most (95%) of all wealth is being produced in the modern, 21st century, post industrial age.

(E) Furthermore, since both the FHA and the CHA create wealth instead deplete wealth (and drain the economy), neither one has ever, or will ever, COST THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER EVEN ONE THIN DIME.

(F) The big difference is that the CHA program is NOT BASED ON WORK, TOIL, WAGES, and SALARIES. Instead, it is BASED ON OWNERSHIP OF WEALTH PRODUCING PROPERTY/CAPITAL, which is precisely what makes it so liberating to each and every individual citizen who chooses to participate. In other words, it offers all citizens the opportunity to actively participate in the ownership side of the free enterprise economic system, the lack of which is what causes the rich to continually grow richer, the poor to continually grow poorer, and feeds the root cause of violence and terrorism the world over.

(G) And as far as the FREEBIE CLAIM is concerned, we already offer participative opportunities to individual citizens in all kinds of ways. For example, would you say that public education is a freebie or an investment in the future? Would you say that public libraries or public roads are freebies or investments in the future?

(H) The CHA program represents an opportunity for average citizens to get a leg up, a way to begin to participate in the 21st century “ownership society.” But in the long run as those seven year loans are paid off, year after year, and the individual owns more and more of the rock, they will have to learn something about managing wealth, and investing in the future, if they expect to hang on to and to maintain the leg up that they’ve been offered by this new program. And financial literacy (as it is called) is good.

The Infinite Power Of Two: The Wisdom Of Noah

The Infinite Power Of Two
Noah Had It Right All Those Centuries Ago…

I must confess that I think Noah had it right all those centuries ago, before the great flood, by allowing two of each species to board the arc. I doubt that he was into higher mathematics or anything like that, but he knew intuitively about the infinite power of two multiplying themselves over, and over, and over again, and he knew that the could replenish the earth in the wake of the great flood.

At The Dawn Of A New Millennium…
Now here we sit at the dawn of a new millennium no less, in the wake of the most recent political flood (or fiasco whichever you prefer) that has left people on both sides of the isle, the world over, scratching their heads and wondering what’s going to become of planet earth if, despite our differences, we the people who populate planet earth are ultimately unable to work together in harmony, towards mutually agreed upon ends, without resorting to killing each other and violating each other in a multitude of innovative ways on our way towards getting that job done.

So, Let’s Start Building The 21st Century Arc…
I suggest that our modern, 21st century voyagers need to take a tip from Noah, become proactive, build an arc, and start bringing people on board two by two, week after week, month after month for 48 consecutive months. If we can do that, at the end of 48 months, we will find ourselves with an arc full of partners whose fires are burning brightly with the flame of understanding, enthusiasm, and conviction over the fact that, after all these years we’ve finally discovered a way that we can create economic justice, which will in turn will underwrite social justice, which is the primary requirement for peace, the world over.

Binary, Binary, Binary…
In this binary age (thanks to the inventors of the modern computer and Bill Gates), using a binary orientation to the economy (thanks to Louis Kelso and all the people who have kept his dream alive for over a half century now), and with the help of a binary system of reaching out to people two, by two, by two, etc., etc., etc., (thanks to Noah and his arc) there is suddenly a light at the end of the long, long tunnel.

A Coincidence? I Doubt It
Now let me ask, have you ever noticed that the victory sign which American President’s love to flash at the press ant the television cameras when they’re boarding Air Force One, IS ALSO THE NUMBER TWO? Coincidence you say? Could be, but I for one, kind of doubt it.

P.S. One More Interesting Observation…
For the sake of the conversation, if the group starts off with three partners (one fire lighter, and two fires being lit), and if each new partner doubles himself (3, 7, 15, 31, etc., etc.) or herself for 24 consecutive months (two years) our ranks will swell to MORE THAN THIRTY TWO MILLION PEOPLE, without any help from the mainstream media at all. Just handshakes, and eyeball to eyeball conversations full of fire in the belly understanding, conviction, and enthusiastic fire lighting is all we’re talking about here.

Now that’s pretty impressive for just twenty four months. And can you imagine what we can do with a full forty eight month program? Yes Virginia, that’s right. We can take the nation, and the world back from its corporate captors in the name of justice, freedom, democracy, peace, prosperity, and a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, just like our forefathers imagined over two centuries ago. Now close your eyes, sleep tight, and have sweet dreams.

WAVG Interviews Joe On Christian Economics

“WAVG AM FM Talk Radio Interviews
Joe L. Buckett Over His Claim That He’s A Proponent Of Christian Economics”

Al: So I want to welcome all our loyal WAVG talk radio listeners out there in the heartland. This is Al Robinson with a special guest who’s making his second appearance on our show. Please give a warm welcome to America’s first and only virtual candidate for President of The United States, Mr. Joe L. Buckett.

Joe: Thanks Al. As always, it’s a pleasure to be here with you and your listeners.

Al: As usual we’re running short on time Joe so let me jump right to the point. When you claimed recently that your economic plan was and I quote, “Christian economics,” our phones began ringing off the hook and I knew we were going to have to get you back on the program. Now with all the controversy initiated by that comment, I’m now going to give you an opportunity to tell our listening audience exactly what you meant when you uttered the phrase “Christian economics?”

Joe: Well Al, let me first point out that I wasn’t aiming to stir up any controversy with that remark. And I confess that to my knowledge, Christ never uttered the term economics in his life. I mean he was a carpenter, a real live blue collar man of the people who worked with his hands, and then became a little controversial himself by catering to the lower class, and effectively spitting in the face of the guardians of the status quo on numerous occasions.

So without his ever using the term economics, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know which elements of society Christ valued and respected, and which elements he devalued and disrespected. I mean it was Christ who claimed that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, right? Now, what does that say about his economics?

Al: OK Joe, Christ was controversial because he embraced the poor and downtrodden, while he had little use for the guardians of the status quo. How does that play out in the context of your own orientation to economics? I mean you claim to be inclusive, right?

Joe: In our “two table theory of economics” we concentrate all our attention on the cancerous root cause of most of the world’s problems, namely concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few people, at the expense of everybody else, and ESPECIALLY the SYSTEM that actively encourages that concentration to occur. And on one hand our economic program is designed to lift up the poor and the downtrodden, dust them off, and to offer them the same kinds of opportunity that middle class and wealthy Americans enjoy all the time. So we certainly line up with Christ in this regard Al.

Al: But when I hear you make those kinds of comments Joe, I begin to suspect that you’re some kind of modern Robin Hood or El Zorro who wants to run around, steal from the rich and give back to the poor. Now in modern terms that kind of redistributive thinking translates into you being a bleeding heart liberal, a socialist, even a communist doesn’t it?

Joe: Well, if you look at our program only in that way, you’re absolutely right Al. And for that reason many people’s automatic, knee jerk reaction to our plan is that our we are socialistic or communistic, simply because we do address and solve the problem of poverty in a way that’s truly systematic instead of just charitable. On the other hand, any real student of the subject knows that the primary goal of socialism/communism is to ABOLISH ALL PRIVATE PROPERTY. They (the Marxists) claim that private property is the root of all problems, and that abolishing it, makes the problems go away.

In contrast, we are unabashed and unapologetic PROPONENTS OF PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN CITIZEN, which makes us the polar opposite of communists, socialists, or Marxists. Our position however is that concentrated wealth and power, whether it’s in the hands of a communistic politburo, a socialistic bureaucracy, or corporate autocrats IS THE REAL ENEMY OF JUSTICE, FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, PEACE, PROSPERITY, AND A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE.

Al: OK Joe, but how does all that translate into a Christian message? I still don’t get it.

Joe: Well, there are several things in this regard that come to my mind Al. First, if I understand him at all, Christ was not a dictator in any way shape or form. He respected people from all walks of life so long as they respected (his term was “love”) others. The golden rule sounds right for this point. He was also a proponent of freedom and would have hated the thought of anyone forcing a religion in his name, down anyone else’s throat. He would have hated the thought of people being frightened out of their wits by hellfire an damnation preaching fundamentalist manipulators.

In my mind, Christ would’ve agreed with the claim that if a religion is not freely chosen by the will of the individual, then it’s absolutely worthless. He would agree with an old acquaintance of mine who used to say, “A leader is not someone who makes you do what he wants you to do. A leader is one who makes you want to do, what he wants you to do.” In other words, religion without free will has nothing to do with my understanding of Christianity. And so our economic support of justice, freedom and democracy is something that Christ would’ve taken to like a duck to water. Does that make sense Al?

Al: Keep on going Joe, it looks to me like you’re on a roll here.

Joe: There is more Al. I’d also contend that Christ was a non materialist, but that doesn’t mean that he accepted the condition where people are given the choice between wage slavery and starvation. As a matter of fact, in my view he was a strong proponent of sharing the wealth, which is best seen in the story about the five fishes and the loaves of bread. You know, the one where a minimal amount of food was passed around in order to feed the masses who had come to hear him speak. And when everyone was finished eating, there was way more food left over than when they’d originally started passing it around in the first place. The moral of the story of course is, share the wealth and there will be plenty for everyone. Hoard it and you actively create poverty. You choose.

Al: So how does this apply to your program Joe? Do you want everyone to share the wealth and create plenty for everyone? Is that it?

Joe: Well, that’s pretty much correct Al. I guess I’d say it a little bit differently. We want to offer individuals across the economic spectrum an opportunity to actively participate on the capital ownership side of the economy, where most of the wealth is being created in the 21st century. This in turn will reduce each individual worker’s need to auction off a significant portion of his life in order to feed himself, his family, and pay his bills. It will free him up to do what some folks like to call “leisure work,” of which the study of religion and philosophy are two of the very best examples. But if you have to spend all your waking hours scratching out a subsistence living from day to day, paycheck to paycheck, you’re actively being deprived of the chance to do leisure work and to make your own life as fulfilling and meaningful as it ought to be.

Al: Let’s dig a little deeper into this concept of leisure work Joe. I’ll bet that our listeners out there would get a kick out of hearing a more detailed explanation of that.

Joe: Sure Al. Leisure work is the work you freely choose to do when you have the discretionary time and opportunity to do so. For most Americans today, that discretionary time to choose your own activity comes on the weekend. Now I’m not talking about laying around watching the NFL on Sunday afternoon, drinking beer and munching chips. That’s primarily a non productive use of your discretionary time and it’s wasting that kind of opportunity that keeps most people behind the eight ball in life.

Leisure work on the other hand, is productive whether it’s an educational pursuit, a recreational pursuit (i.e. active athletic participation as opposed to mere spectatorship), or a charitable pursuit. It is what you would be doing with your hours, days, weeks, months, and years of your life if you didn’t have to auction off a significant portion of it in order to pay the bills. Leisure work in short, is a labor of love.

Al: Tell me again how that translates into economics Joe. I’m still missing something.

Joe: Discretionary time Al is largely dependent on your financial situation. If you find yourself in a situation where you have a family to support, and you own no wealth producing property that you can pay your bills with, then you’re required to auction off the only thing you do own, which is your time and your talent. And the more of that time and talent you have to auction off to the highest bidder, the less of it belongs to you. That is to say, the less time you have to do the things that are most meaningful and fulfilling to you…such as being a good spouse or parent for example, or reading things, or talking to people who can help you to grow and become more human, etc.

On the other hand, if you own plenty of wealth producing property, then you don’t have to concern yourself with paying the bills. It’s a non-issue. You are financially independent. You are FREE to do those things that make your life interesting, meaningful, and fulfilling. And that’s more likely to happen as you own more and more of your own life, and you’re not having to sell it to the highest bidder.

Al: Like last time you were here, we’re running short on time again Joe, and I have one final question for you. Are you a Christian yourself?

Joe: Good question Al and I’d tell you that I consider myself a Christian, but not in the sense of disrespecting anyone else for their religious views. I was raised Methodist in a small town of Burlington, IA. And back in the fifties and sixties in Burlington there were various denominations of Christianity in town from Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Catholics. We even had a Jewish synagogue in town, but no mosques back in those days, although I’m sure they do today.

But back then, none of these groups were declaring themselves absolutely right, and superior to all others, like they do today. And I must admit, I kind of liked it that way. It was mutually respectful, and very Christian according to my interpretation. I mean there were ways that each one of these groups were different from the other, but I don’t recall ever having anyone tell me that their interpretation of God was the only correct interpretation, and that if I disagreed with them, I was going to burn in hell for eternity.

That would have been considered incredibly bigoted in a time when, most people recognized their own natural limitations with regard to empirically knowing what God said and meant in any one passage, or in any one book, be it the Bible or the Koran, etc. Back in the innocent fifties people at least had some sense of humility, and they knew when they didn’t know.

But today I think the problem is that too many people seem to be incapable of recognizing the difference between a belief and an empirical fact. I have an acquaintance from West Texas who used to say “God help them who don’t know that they don’t know.” Today I think it should be, “God save us from those people who don’t know that they don’t know, and who insist on stuffing their own interpretation of religion down other people’s throats.” It’s one of the two primary roots of terrorism…the other being the economic component.

So in answer to your question Al, regardless of the fact that many people who call themselves Christians today would exclude me from their ranks because I interpret things differently from them, I still consider myself a Christian. In other words my own edition of Christianity tends to be inclusive…kind of like Christ was himself. Their edition tends to be exclusive, kind of like the country club full of rich folks. Now you tell me which sounds like the more Christian position to take, and if this sounds like "Christian economics" to you?

Al: We’ve officially run out of time Joe, but I want to thank you for coming in for another WAVG interview, and for answering this controversy as best you can. Please say hello to Ms. Buckett for me, and until next time, this is Al Robinson for WAVG AM FM talk radio saying, we’ll be here again next week, same time, same station.

Ten Top Reason's To Avoid Supporting Joe L. Buckett

The Ten Top Reasons To Fear Joe Lunch Buckett, And To Avoid Supporting Him At All Cost!

1. He’s different from any politician you’ve ever heard before. Beside that, he’s virtual! He doesn’t sing the same old, worn out battle hymns from the right, or same the old, worn out battle hymns from the left. He’s a totally different animal, and in your considerable experience, anyone who’s different MUST BE WRONG! And that’s that!

2. You are one of those top 1% whose net worth is greater than the bottom 95% combined, and you really do stand to lose if people hear what Joe has to say to them. Besides that, you think that things like justice, freedom, and democracy really are at their very best when controlled by the corporate elite, and parceled out to individual citizens at the discretion of the corporate elite.

3. You think that the modern, corporately owned and controlled mass media really does present all sides of the story to the people who take the time to listen. In other words, you contend that the modern media provides the American people with all the information they really need to make an informed decision with regard to who has the best taco restaurant in town, and who’s the lesser of two evils when it comes to being President of the United States.

4. You think that justice, freedom, and democracy can actually co-exist with an economy that actually promotes the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few people at the expense of the many. And anyone who disagrees must be a commie pig…right? Anyway, just look at us today. We’re living proof.

5. You really like the way our current political system works, where empty suited candidates from the conventional left and the conventional right, and neither of whom have any common sense solutions for 21st century problems, sling mud and insult one another (and the intelligence of the viewing public) for six straight months, then when one side eeks out a so-called victory, they claim a mandate for their own agenda, while a polarized public sits dazed and confused on the sidelines, which is where they really belong anyway.

6. You think that since he refuses to comment on two guys kissing, that Joe must be some sort of Godless, and immoral pervert who deserves no support.

7. You have not been laid off of your job yet, and you see the Dow Jones climbing on a weekly basis (despite the fact that job layoffs are gong on all around you) so you contend that the economy is heading in the right direction and you support the status quo. I mean why consider change unless you really have to?

8. You like being an industrial sharecropper, a modern day wage slave who spends his or her day doing what someone else tells you to do. After all, freedom requires thinking and taking responsibility. And that kind of thing is hard work. You actually prefer to have someone else think and take the responsibility so you can watch the NFL, the NBA, or even better the WWF and drink beer all weekend, every weekend. Awesome, huh?

9. If the economy actually did positively explode, just the way that Joe claims it will under his 21st century plan, we’d use up the earth’s natural resources even faster than we already are currently. And by some estimates we only have about fifty years left on the lease anyway. Why speed up the race to Armageddon…right?

10. You think that if all citizens were to develop the financial independence (i.e. freedom) that Joe is prescribing, they would be far too hard to control. The boss could no longer dictate to them 40 to 60 hours a week. The government could no longer buy their vote. And the end result of too much freedom for all is mass chaos and hysteria, which doesn’t sound too good to you. Let freedom ring is a nice marketing slogan. And a government of the people, for the people, and by the people rolls off the tongue nicely. But come on. Let’s get real. And besides, if people don’t know that they’re not free, why would you want to wake them up to that fact? A sleeping and well controlled citizenship is the key to today’s Brave New, 21st Century World, and you think we should just keep it that way.

Notes From The Underground: Our First Meeting

Notes From The Underground:
The First Historical Event

Let it be known that on Sunday afternoon on November 14th 2004, at Starbuck’s Coffee Shop in downtown Geneva, IL the new 21st century edition of the American Revolutionary Party held its first ever, sit down and talk about it meeting to discuss the future direction of the United States of America. Seven people showed up and discussed the following items...

· Why the concept of democratic capitalism, which from now on will be referred to as Capital Homesteading, was potent enough to bring them to the table today.

· Why the task of recruiting new participants (partners) requires a handshake to handshake, eyeball to eyeball, first hand experience with someone whose knowledge, understanding, enthusiasm, and conviction for this new concept has rendered them contagious. In other words conventional, mass- media marketing techniques alone will be insufficient to light the fires required for our success.

· Why in order to succeed, this new party will require a sufficient degree of credibility and seriousness for people to take it seriously and to become engaged. In this light it was decided that the connotation given by the www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us (ARP) was better than Joe Lunch Buckett (JLB), which can easily, at first glance, be construed to be a mere spoof.

· Everyone decided that all the current attendees would like to have the opportunity to weigh in on the construction of the ARP platform, which JLB promised to email to everyone, along with the notes from the first meeting.

· Everyone also agreed that the goal of getting Senator Barak Obama to OUR TABLE within the first year of our existence was a viable goal and that we should plan to get that done. JLB promised to invite Obama to all meetings from now on, and to send him updates from the previous month’s meeting.

· We also agreed that each current partner would be responsible to bring (no more than) two new partners to the next monthly meeting, which was officially set to be the second Sunday of each month for the next 48 months.

· We also did the calculations and found that if each partner brought two more partners (they doubled themselves) that we’d grow from 3 to, 7, to 15, to 31, to 63, to 127, to 255, to 511, to 1023, to 2047, to 4095, and to 8191 partners within our first year of existence. And we felt if we could stick to these monthly projections that Mr. Obama would definitely find a way to OUR TABLE.

· Pam suggested that something like Cliff’s Notes (called Joe’s notes), developed to explain our concepts quickly and simply, would be a great asset to the organizational efforts of the new party.

· Jennifer agreed and added that if they could be made up into a mailer friendly brochure it would add a degree of practicality.

· Jim said that he had some graphic design expertise that he could throw into the pot for such an effort, and JLB promised to work with all three on developing a Joe’s Notes brochure.

· Carol suggested that we needed some structure and organization such as officers and committees, and she volunteered to bring suggestions along these lines to the next meeting. She was appointed head of the committee to explore this topic.

· Jennifer is a master organizer, and Pam is a natural border collie, and both volunteered to help Carol out in her pursuit of structure and organization. JLB admitted to being anything but organized, but volunteered to help when possible.

· Carol also suggested that we may need more space and more quiet for meeting #2 and volunteered to track down a meeting room in the Geneva Public Library.

· JLB announced that the ARP was planning to officially announce its existence to the world on the steps of the Federal Reserve in DC, on the third Friday in April, 2005, and that Fed Chairman Allan Greenspan would be invited to attend. Carol promptly grabbed her cell phone and called her travel agent to book her flight.

· Carol said she had some friends who wanted to contribute money to the party, but suggested that we needed to clarify the issue of our bank account before we could accept contributions. JLB promised to check with Joe’s treasurer, Al Robinson to see what was in that kitty, and to bring some suggestions to meeting # 2 with regard to the creation of a bank account.

· Carol asked JLB to check with Al over updating Joe’s merchandise page, moving from the 2004 election to 2008. With that change she said that she’d like to give some Joe Christmas gifts this year. JLB agreed to check with Al on this.

· Carol also suggested that we keep an eye out for a local business that’s going bankrupt, with which we might partner up and wrestle through the challenges of establishing a correctly done ESOPS with them, for their benefit and ours. We all agreed to keep an eye out for such a business.

· In discussing the meeting with Norm K Sunday evening, Norm suggested that JLB should think about bringing a busload of Chicago area people to the April announcement in DC…reminiscent of the Freedom Rides of the 60’s. Being a child of the 60’s himself, JLB thought that would be great fun and that he’d mention it in his Notes From The Underground.

· If anyone has anything to add or delete from these notes, please take the liberty to make the corrections and send them back to JLB who will add them to our official Notes From The Underground historical journal…JLB

The Official Invitation For Our First Ever Meeting

The Official Invite For…
The Quixote Clan (Temp Name For The Original Seed Group) Initial Organizational Meeting

The Quixote Clan is dedicated to those people who are crazy enough to think the impossible is not only achievable, but inevitable…to those true, and occasionally naive optimists who respond to “It can’t be done,” with “It’s only a matter of time.”

Congratulations Immari! You are part of a small, handful of people who Joe L. Buckett thinks is equally as disgusted and crazy as he is.

You are one of a rare breed who looks back at the 2000 and the 2004 election fiascos and thinks to yourself, “This can’t be allowed to happen again in 2008 while I sit on the sideline for FOUR MORE YEARS allowing it to happen. If I’m unwilling to step up to the plate myself, then why in the heck should I expect anyone else, especially either one of the corporately owned and operated mainstream parties, to do anything about the problems? There has never been a time in my life that was so ripe for starting a legitimate third party. I say, let’s do it! Now, what time was that meeting again?”

In other words we sure would like to have you attend and participate in history’s first ever meeting of the Quixote Clan where we will discuss and hammer out a 48 month action plan intended to finally make the elections of 2008 a democratic (small d) event to celebrate! The meeting will last NO LONGER THAN ONE HOUR, and will be held at Starbucks on Main Street in downtown Geneva starting at 2:30 sharp.

Please see the two enclosed attachments for a suggested initial agenda, and to start your creative wheels turning.
· 48 Month Plan of Attack http://www.joelunchbuckett.citymax.com/page/page/1408140.htm
· Who is Joe L. Buckett http://www.joelunchbuckett.citymax.com/page/page/1442253.htm

Sincerely,

Rick Osbourne
Press Secretary
The Joe L. Buckett for President Project
Please RSVP to joelunchbuckett@chilitech.com or if you must, just show up!

AChristmas Carol Retold For The 21st Century

A 21st Century Christmas Story Retold

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house you go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow…oh. When you arrive at Grandma’s house you go inside and discover that she has set two tables. One table is reserved for Uncle Scrooge, while the other table is reserved for everybody else.

The Two Table Christmas Dinner Arrangement
But there was a problem, namely that 95% of Grandma’s Christmas dinner was sprawled all over Uncle Scrooge’s table, while 5% of the dinner was carefully placed in the middle of the table for everybody else. That struck you as rather odd.
But there was a second problem as well, and it was that you knew Uncle Scrooge well, and he was a fine, upstanding, Christian citizen who always gave ten percent of his fortune to the church. That is to say, he tithed. He was even kind to his employee Bob Cratchett and his family, and he always made sure that the whole Cratchett family, including Tiny Tim had a present or two under the raggedy Christmas tree that they’d cut and dragged in from the surrounding forest.

You Disagree With Many In Your Community…
Knowing these things, it was impossible for you to conclude, as many in the community did, that Uncle Scrooge was nothing but a mean and greedy old possum who, through his shrewd business dealings, stole his fortune from the poor working class people for his own personal benefit. I mean, if they’d seen how Grandma had set the two Christmas tables this year, there are those in town who’d gladly kick over the two tables, take Uncle Scrooge out back, string him up to the highest tree, and celebrate in the name of good riddance. But oddly enough, you weren’t one of those people.

Scrooge Owned Factories, And…
The reality was that Uncle Scrooge, through his shrewd, and totally legal (he knew and he played by the rules) business dealings, owned factories, machinery, rental properties, and numerous other business enterprises in town that provided lots of jobs for lots of people like Bob Cratchett. And those things that he owned, churned out a fortune in passive income for dear old Uncle Scrooge. His main job these days was to endorse and to cash checks that flowed like water into his post office box every day of the week.

The Cratchetts Owned The Clothes On Their Backs
On the other side of the coin, the Cratchett family owned little more than the clothes on their backs, and as the result they all found themselves in a position where they had to auction off eight, ten, and twelve hours of their 24 hour day to the highest bidder, which generally speaking, was not very high because there were lots of people in town who were in the same position as the Cratchetts and needed to have the job to put food on the table. So in this sense, Cratchett and family were fortunate to have a job this Christmas, because there were many in town who did not and were much less fortunate.

The First Real Question In Your Mind Is…
So the real question in your mind was that, if Uncle Scrooge actually figured out a way to purchase and to own all these wealth-producing properties…which effectively produce 95% of all the town’s wealth, why should anyone claim that he deserves less than 95% of the benefits? Furthermore, on what basis would anyone in town legitimately argue that everyone else, who collectively produces only 5% of the wealth, deserves any more than 5% of the benefits?

The Second Real Question Is…
Then a second question popped into your mind. Was it possible that Uncle Scrooge understood, at an early age, that owning productive property was the real key to success in this free enterprise economy? And was it equally possible that the Cratchetts had unwittingly bought into the old and trite claim that if you work hard, and keep your nose to the grindstone, you’ll do just fine? After all, that’s what the teachers taught you in school, right? In other words, is it possible that Scrooge’s ownership orientation to life was vastly superior than the Cratchett’s workers orientation to life when it comes to self control, self government, and freedom?

Auctioning Off Your Life VS Freedom
I mean Uncle Scrooge doesn’t auction off any hours of his life to the highest bidder, right? He’s financially independent, which is to say that he is FREE to come and go when he pleases, and to spend the hours and days of his life dancing to his own tune, not dancing to someone else’s tune. Uncle Scrooge governs himself, while the lives of most other (financially dependent, and thus not free) people in town are effectively dominated and governed by… none other than Uncle Scrooge. Of course that’s why it’s so easy to simply loathe Uncle Scrooge.

So Here’s What You Know Now
So, what you know at this point is that the system, the way it’s currently set up, tells people…work hard and you’ll do just fine. But if people really have both eyes open, they will see that all the people who do what the teacher says to do, that is to say they work hard for a living, find themselves on a perpetually running treadmill that goes a little faster every week, every month, every year, and at best it allows them to break even, but hardly ever allows them to get ahead in the big game of life. In fact the odds of falling further and further behind, no matter how hard you work, are so great that many people find themselves missing a step, tripping, and falling off the back of the treadmill, never to get back on again.
Not only that, but people who work for a living are always dependent on people who own for a living. That is to say, people who work for living are not financially free or independent, while people who own for a living are financially free and independent. And equally important is the fact that owners give themselves the opportunity to live their lives on a higher and more meaningful level than the industrial sharecroppers and wage slaves whom they employ.

The $64,000 Christmas Question Is…
With all that said, the $64,000 question now is, what can we do to the current system to encourage more and more workers to become owners of wealth producing capital, so that they too become more and more financially independent and free from the economic chains that bind their own lives, and the lives of their family members. Now if you can answer that question, then next year Grandma promises to have her Christmas table set a bit differently than this year. And finally, God bless Tiny Tim.

So Where Does All The Money Come From?

Where Does The Money Come From?

And indeed, where does the money come from? It comes from exactly the same source as when Bank One extends credit card offers to college kids all across the country. Now what does Joe College purchase with all that credit? Boom boxes, CD’s, DVD’s, MP3’s, video games, gas for daddy’s car, a six pack of beer for this weekend’s party, and other essential items required by the modern collegiate learning experience.

Bank One And Joe College VS…
Now don’t get me wrong here. Bank One knows exactly what it’s doing when it extends that credit offer to Joe College. They’ve carefully studied all the data, and they’ve concluded, based on empirical evidence, that this particular marketing strategy is profitable for them. In other words, before they ever extend this credit offer to Joe College, they know that they will make their money back and lots more…or else they would never do it. It’s a good bet. It’s just as simple as that.

Capital Homesteading And Johnny Paycheck To Paycheck
Now let’s contrast Joe College’s credit offer from Bank One with the concept of extending a Capital Homesteading credit to Johnny Paycheck To Paycheck. What you’ll find is that the credit extended to JPTP cannot be spent on non-productive consumer crap. On the contrary, it must be spent on a well-vetted, stock purchase, the kind that the conservative local banker (not some wild ass, dice rolling venture capitalist) would advise his local bank to purchase.

Like the boys from Bank One, the local banker will have studied all the data and will have a real good idea what the odds of repayment are going to be, before he ever advises JPTP to place his investment bet. Actually the odds of repayment are much better with JPTP’s Capital Homesteading credit than with JC’s consumer credit.

Consumer Crap VS…
There is one much more important difference however. The difference is that the purpose of Bank One’s Joe College marketing strategy is to get JC hooked on the consumer mentality of easy (buy now pay later) money, and in the long run, program him to believe that it’s completely normal to exchange his long term financial freedom for immediate gratification when it comes to consumer crap that he wants to have right now. Once he’s fully programmed, Bank One will wrap its financial tentacles around Joe College, who will then be producing profits for Bank One for years to come.

A Legitimate Piece Of The Rock
On the other hand, the Capital Homesteading credit, as we’ve already said, must go toward winning Johnny a piece of America’s growing economic pie, a piece of the rock that will predictably pay itself off and in the process, begin to transform Johnny Paycheck into a capitalist who has a vested, ownership interest in the future of a particular company, in a particular community, in a particular county, in a particular state, located in the United States of America.

Let Freedom Ring…
And as his productive piece of the rock grows year after year after year, JPTP will begin to feel the chains of wage slavery loosen, and the bell of financial freedom ring louder and louder, until he can finally be able to sing with Martin Luther King himself, “free at last, free at last, thank God, I’m free at last.”

In the long term big picture the Capital Homesteading strategy is specifically designed to create a nation spilling over with more and more capitalists, instead of a nation spilling over with more and more workers who are effectively cut off and alienated from the modern economic miracle known as the free enterprise system. The Bank One strategy is specifically designed to create programmed automatons who willingly trade their financial freedom and future in for consumer crap, and who, as the result can be easily controlled and dictated to by the captains of industry and by Wall Street.

It’s Our Choice
So I guess the choice comes down to…do you really want to underwrite a free enterprise economic system, and transform America into a real capitalist nation chock full of real live capitalists? Or do you prefer to create a nation that’s primarily full of workers (sounds communistic/capitalistic to me), who are systematically required to compete tooth and nail with each other, driving wages lower and lower (let’s become a third world nation ASAP, or redistribute from top to bottom in order to temporarily prevent the economy from falling flat on its face!) so that the captains of industry can oversee their respective monopolies without having to concern themselves…really, with legitimate competition. That way they can all get together, buy out the little guys, fix prices, fix elections, smoke big Cuban stogies, drive their fancy cars, and generally live off the fat of the land. Yes Tonto, I guess you could turn the clock all the way back to them good old days of yesteryear, if you really wanted to. But do you really want to?


P.S…Viva Las Vegas!
I have one final thought to offer here. If all those incredibly bright and intelligent, bureaucratic bean counters in Washington, DC are simply unable to recognize a good bet when they see one, then I know there are plenty of folks out in Las Vegas who don’t suffer from that moronic, myopic malady. I mean it’s they’re business to assess the odds accurately, facilitate the bet, and they make lots of money in the process. They do it every day of the year and twice on Sunday. Yah sure, I know you’re going to tell me that those folks out in Vegas are crooks. But that comment simply begs the question. How does that claim make them any different from the crooks in DC? Now if you’re unable to come up with a believable answer to that last question, I suggest that we consider taking bids from both DC and Vegas. If Vegas wins, we’ll just call it…outsourcing. Amen.

WAVG AM FM Talk Radio Interviews Joe L. Buckett

WAVG AM/FM Talk Radio Host Asks Presidential Candidate Joe L. Buckett…
If I Vote For You, What’s In It For Me?
Al: This is Al Robinson with my special guest today, Presidential candidate Joe L. Buckett. Welcome to the show Joe. Some of our listeners have heard about your candidacy, and others have not. But since we only have twenty short minutes here, let me get right to the point and ask you the question that our listeners would most like to ask. I want to know, if I vote for you, Joe L. bucket, what’s in it for my family and me?

Joe: Great place to start Al, and I’d answer by telling you that if elected, in accordance with section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, we (it’ll take the understanding, and active support of the majority of America to activate this plan) will extend to every American citizen (man, woman, and child), an annual credit for at least $3,000 designated solely for the purpose of purchasing stock in qualified companies.

Over the years every citizen will develop a sufficient ownership stake in the American economic pie that it will produce a property income over and above their current wage or salary, and provide a solid retirement nest egg so each American citizen can actively avoid ever becoming dependent on the U.S. government, i.e. social security...which we all know is mathematically destined to crash and burn under the weight of retiring baby boomers within the next three decades anyway.

Financial dependence, whether it’s on a government or a corporate entity, is economic slavery to be avoided if at all possible. If we really want to let freedom ring, that can happen…but not if you elect either one of the mainstream party candidates, both of whom are hopelessly lost in 19th and 20th century economic paradigms. In order to come up with 21st century solutions to 21st century problems, you must have both feet firmly planted in the 21st century.

By the way Al, before we go any further, I need to confess that this entire 21st century recipe for success was purloined directly out of Dr. Norm Kurland’s ingenious new (2004 edition) book entitled Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen. To get a copy listeners can visit his web site at www.cesj.org.

Al: Sounds good to me Joe, but I have one minor problem with what you’ve said so far. That sounds like a $3,000 dollar loan to me and I want to know how my friend Johnny Paycheck to Paycheck is going to pay for this loan when he can’t even keep up with all his credit card bills? That looks like one gigantic problem to me.

Joe: Yes Al, despite the fact that we’re talking about a zero interest loan, from inside the 20th century paradigm that is an insurmountable problem. But let’s step outside the box for a moment so I can tell you that the credit I’m talking about is going to bypass Wall Street and travel directly from the Federal Reserve, through local banks, to Johnny Paycheck. And these local banks have a vested interest in the health and welfare of the local community, and they will help guide the investor toward qualified companies who, among other things, have proven themselves to be solid, predictable growth companies.

Now one of the ways a company must be qualified will be according to its willingness to pay dividends out to their stockholders, which we’ll encourage by making all paid out dividends, tax deductible to the company. Johnny Paycheck’s loan will then be repaid, in approximately seven years using those paid out dividends, not with his salary or wages. When the loan is paid off, the dividends will keep coming and will go directly to Johnny in order to supplement his income, and to help him to earn a solid retirement nest egg and avoid government dependence. This is effectively a leveraged buyout for individuals.

Al: OK Joe let’s back up one more step here and ask…where’s all this money going to come from in the first place? Are you planning to jack up taxes on the wealthy and redistribute back to the less fortunate? If so, are you a communist, or a socialist.

Joe: OK Al. That’s actually another very good question to which my first answer is, we can accomplish this without raising taxes on anyone, and we will not redistribute anything to anybody. That would indeed be communistic, or socialistic where the state assumes power, and people are financially dependent and enslaved. We already have too much of that, and it’s the polar opposite of what we have in mind.

Now let me also tell you that, according to a Presidential report published in 2001, the US economy grows by about $2 Trillion dollars each year, which works out to be an average of $6775 for every man, woman, and child who’s an American citizen. And most of this annual growth requires investment in order to happen.

Our plan simply takes advantage of less than half of that FUTURE GROWTH (let’s avoid taking anyone’s currently existing piece of the American economic pie…thus NO REDISTRIBUTION!) that NOBODY OWNS YET, and makes that ownership accessible, in the form of capital credit, to all individual citizens (as opposed to only the well collateralized few at the top of the economic food chain) who, for what ever reason, often lack the discretionary funds to actively participate in the modern economic miracle known as the free enterprise system of economics.

Again, this effectively a leveraged buyout for individual citizens designed to render them less and less dependent on both government bureaucracy or autocratic corporate power. It’s specifically designed to underwrite more and more financial freedom for each and every American citizen, from sea to shining sea.

Al: OK Joe, I’m following so far, but I still want to play devil’s advocate and ask, what happens when that company who receives some of this capital credit investment, is poorly managed, and goes belly up? What happens to the nest egg, and who pays the loan off? Is it the American taxpayer by any chance?

Joe: Of course in our current system that’s exactly what happens. Tax payers are always bailing out poorly managed big businesses from Chrysler back in the 70’s, to Silverado Savings and Loan back in the late 80’s, to major banks, United, and Delta Airlines in the wake of 911…just to mention a few.

In our case however, there will be an insurance mechanism, much like when you or anyone else buys a house with FHA mortgage insurance where for a small premium the FHA insures against the risk of default, and underwrites the purchase, so that the bank and the individual are both covered, and not held directly liable if the loan cannot be repaid. By the way, one of the individual’s investment choices will be to purchase the stock in this insurance company, so that won’t require raising taxes either.

The other answer to this question though is that since the capital credit will be traveling through local banks that have a vested interest in the health and welfare of the local community, investors will avoid the Wall Street dice rollers seduction, and lots of these funds will end up in the hands of local business enterprises that people in the community will know well, and often work for, who are up front and transparent about their books and the future of their business, who local bankers know directly, and have a unique ability to predict future successes. In short, the capital credit investor will get guidance from knowledgeable locals, with vested interests in the advice they hand out.

Al: Joe, please allow me throw one more wrench into your system here. This all sounds like so much theory to me because it’s never been tried, tested, and proven, right? What empirical evidence is there that this wild ass theory of yours has any real world viability?

Joe: Al you keep coming up with these wonderful questions and I really appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me to answer them. And on this last question, you’re half right and half wrong. While it is true that it has not been tested in the municipal, state, or federal sector, it has been tested in the business community all over the nation.

I’m here to tell you that this 21st century ownership model to our 21st century economic problems has been tested in well over 10,000 business enterprises around the country who’ve implemented Employee Stock Ownership Plans, usually called ESOPS. Several years ago a group called the Center for Employee Ownership conducted a study of the nation’s 2000 best ESOPS oriented businesses, and among other things they discovered that companies who are organized around employee ownership, GROW 10% FASTER EVERY YEAR than conventional, autocratically organized companies grow.

And for my money that’s sufficient empirical evidence to at least roll out a test at the municipal level. And if that works, let’s roll it out at the county level. And if that works, let’s roll it out at the state level. And if that works let’s roll it out at the national level, after all the bugs have been worked out. And there will be bugs.

Al: We’re almost out of time here Joe, so would you kind of wrap this thing up in a summary for our listeners out there in WAVG AM/FM talk radio land?

Joe: Sure Al, I’ll be happy to do that. I’d say that the key thing to recognize is how this strategy disrupts our nation’s current systematic tendency towards concentrating wealth accumulation and power (it used to be referred to as monopoly) in a few hands, and instead it spreads the ownership of wealth producing capital out among individual citizens. This in turn underwrites, instead of undermines, freedom, democracy, and a dramatically smaller government…of the people, by the people and for the people.

Now can you imagine a family of four in which each member has been investing minimally $3,000 annually over a substantial number of years, without using wages or salaries to do it? Can you fathom what kind of demand that scenario would generate in our economy? By the same token can you believe that all this can be accomplished while reducing the role and size of government, lowering and simplifying taxes (actually we’ll endorse a simple flat tax), and eliminating inflation because supply and demand are finally both working in harmony, on the same wave, moving in the same direction?

That is to say, when production (supply), including sales, increases, then income (demand in the form of paid out dividends) automatically follows in its wake, which will automatically soak up the production/supply, and eliminate the “too much demand chasing too little supply” recipe for inflation. And when you keep supply and demand in balance, on the same wave, you also eliminate the troublesome bust and boom cycles that conventional economists accept as “just part of the free enterprise system.” Done right, we contend that bust boom cycles aren’t an inevitable part of the system at all.

Finally, understand that this plan is designed to gradually phase social security out, while rescuing it from its pending bankruptcy. It’s also designed to gradually phase out welfare as we know it, to reform health care and education, and to enthrone individual citizens over corporate autocrats and government bureaucrats so that they (autocrats and bureaucrats) are once again subservient to financially independent (i.e. FREE) citizens. In other words we’re showing citizens how to actively avoid becoming financially dependent on, and thus subservient to the government bureaucrats or corporate autocrats.

Al: We have officially run out of time here, but I must confess that you’ve won my interest, and you’ve probably won the interest of many people out there in the listening audience. By the same token there are still many details that we’ve left uncovered in this twenty-minute session. So my last question is, can you give our listeners a book or a web site, or both where interested parties can learn more about this fascinating, outside the box, 21st century vision for the future of America’s free enterprise system?

Joe: Sure Al. There are several places for your listeners to go. The first and probably the simplest is my own web site which is www.joelunchbuckett.com . The second is www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us . And the third and most important is www.cesj.org which is a virtual cornucopia of information when it comes to the concept of binary economics, which is the official name for the concept that we’re talking about today.

And once you’re on the www.cesj.org, click on the book entitled Capital Homesteading For Every Citizen written by Dr. Norman G. Kurland, his extremely capable colleagues Dawn K. Browhawn, and Michael D. Greaney. Norm is the single most knowledgeable human on planet earth today when it comes to the subject of binary economics. His book is a wonderfully written, and user-friendly commentary, which provides all the details that you’ll need in order to understand this incredibly innovative concept. If you really want to see what free enterprise economics is going to taste like in the future, this book is absolutely a MUST READ!

Al: Thanks Joe, and to all you listeners out there in WAVG land, check out Joe’s web site at www.joelunchbuckett.com where you will find references to all the other references that Joe just mentioned. Until next week this is Al Robinson for WAVG AM/FM talk radio saying, feng shui for now and have a bien fin de semana.

Time Is So Ripe For A Third Party

Disappointed and Disgusted With The Recent Election? The Time Has Never Been So Ripe For A Third Party!
Lombard, IL – Here’s a hard fact. In the recent election, Presidential candidate Joe L. Buckett got fewer votes than Ralph Nader who himself turned out to be a non-factor in Bush’s conservative march to victory. But standing around and complaining about things is not the recipe for changing anything according to candidate Buckett.

Act Or Else…“
If you truly think that this nation is heading down the wrong track, and you think our democracy is under siege, being sold downstream to the highest corporate bidder by both mainstream parties, and that the choice on November 2nd was in reality no choice at all, or a choice between the lesser of two evils, then you really have only one choice. You must allow your current level of disgust to manifest itself into 48 months of action, seeking ways to put our nation back on the right track,” Buckett said. “Complaining without acting is just a consummate waste of time,” he added.

21st Century Problems Require 21st Century Solutions
But if you’re going to succeed, Buckett suggests that you must break out of the conventional conservative mindset, and the conventional liberal mindset. In Buckett’s words, “You can’t just keep on shuffling the same old 19th and 20th century deck of cards and expect to come up with a 21st century solution. You must have some new cards, some legitimately new ideas, if you’re going to win this 21st century game.”

The American Revolutionary Party
Interestingly enough, Buckett contends that he’s discovered those new cards in the writings of a long lost revolutionary thinker by the name of Louis Kelso, and he has laid them out for anyone to digest on his new website www.joelunchbuckett.com where he explains what he calls the economics of freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity. Furthermore he suggests that readers check out www.americanrevolutinaryparty.us for more information on where Buckett and his thoroughly inflamed colleagues are looking to take the USA over the next forty eight months.

Concentrated Power Is The Enemy Of Freedom And Democracy
“Concentrated wealth/power, whether it’s in the form of a communist dictatorship, or a corporate aristocracy/dictatorship is the enemy of freedom and democracy,” Buckett said. “And if future generations of Americans are going to remain free, this generation must find a way to reverse the rapid trend toward concentrated wealth and power that’s undermining our American democracy today!”

Stop Complaining And Get Into Action
In short, stop complaining and do something about the problem. If you’re unwilling to do that, then you have nobody to blame but yourself if and when America’s freedom and democracy are totally flushed down the toilet. In Buckett’s view, “There’s no time like the present. Do something right now or we’ll all lose.