http://www.stjameswinery.com/shop/wine/sweet/velvet-red.html

CafeGive has teamed with more than 20 non-profit organizations nationwide since forming in 2008 and launching its website in July. Additionally, 200 top retail brands and boutique retailers are represented on CafeGive.com. CafeGive’s innovative business model allows shoppers to support causes they care about, merchandisers to build their brand by reaching new and existing customers and non-profit organizations to tap into the growing social networking and e-commerce trends in a way that benefits everyone.

CafeGive takes shopping for a cause to a new level by enabling people to actively pair retail products and non-profits to create campaigns for their causes. In turn, people can promote their causes by sending links called “widgets” to friends through email or social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, with each purchase made via a widget earning directly for a selected cause.

Participating non-profits include national organizations such as the Children’s Heart Foundation and Mercy Corps as well as local non-profits in regions ranging from Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area to Chicago and New York City. Retail stores on the site include major brands such as Banana Republic, The Westin Hotels, The Walking Company, Macy’s and PetSmart and boutique merchants such as Charming Life Designs.

You can find out more about CafeGive at http://www.cafegive.com, and we’d be happy to connect you with company leaders to discuss the business in more detail. Please let us know if you have any questions, thanks for your consideration and remember to give twice this holiday season with CafeGive!

Best,
Jenna

For one, the majority of spending of tax dollars goes to our military. As a veteran, I can tell you that we spend more on our military/DoD by a factor of nearly 10 times than any other country and the big shame is that you’d think that money would go to the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, but they make less than minimum wage. How can we cut the overblown military spending on projects that can’t protect us from another 9/11? Stop the lobbyists who work for companies who are contracted to make billions (over 600 billion) on missile shields, stealth jets that are visible in rain/cloud-moisture, toilets that cost thousands, etc.

Lobbyists, like tell-tale heart crook Jack Abramoff, are a big problem. Washington can’t seem to get rid of them.

They rig the system. You’d think we, as a country, would embrace free enterprise, but the wealthiest Americans don’t hold it as a Holy Grail. Corporations in similar markets raise prices together like a rising tide where profits go up and up; consumers are asleep to the practice. Industries like energy where governments are expected to deliver or face public outcries are gamed for billions in profits. Companies take advantage of people’s weaknesses and general stupidity to rake in billions like cellphone companies that got away with charging people to receive calls even though landlines don’t incur a cost when receiving calls and when it comes to manipulating human behavior, cellphone companies know that the average person can not keep track of minutes any better than calories.

Now, I’m not saying that corporations are evil, but some of the cats who run them are only out to squeeze the consumers for every dime they have like car dealership managers who orgasm every time that one of their employees rakes some poor family head over the coals for an overvalued car and an overinflated payment (and I know because I worked for one of them).

No one but the government, we the people that is, have the power to curb runaway corporate profits where it’s clear that if they weren’t squeezing the customer and lavishing their executives that everyone would be happy except the greediest people in the company. They should be standing on the sidelines screaming that the company should be making so much more money and patted on the head so long as the company is making profits without doing it at the expense of those pursuing the American Dream (imagine someone in the 30’s trying to buy a house today when their apartment is getting smaller and smaller…).

I agree that a government that is poorly managed can be just as bad and we’ve seen the lack of management from Clinton through Obama (including Bush) where they haven’t yet represented the people’s will when it comes to keeping our economy balanced and from spinning out of control. And some counties and states have gone bankrupt or are on the verge only because a few key people or a system of laws keeps prosperity at bay.

However, if you look at when it was that Americans prospered the most, by percent of population, it was when there was lax credit and so that becomes a trap which will eventually close on those who don’t profit from it early.

All we can do is focus on what made America from the beginning because it was good and pure. It was only through lobbying that America’s government, or any government, was ever corrupted. It was only through lax scrutiny that the consumer lost their hats in a whirlwind of slow or declining income and an increased cost on staples such as cellphones, health insurance payments, car payments, mortgages, addictive sweets/fats/sugars, etc.

Our problem today isn’t taxation without representation, it’s inconsistency at most. Put out a flat tax that adjusts based on the budget with a cap of 25% (combined federal, state and local) on the individual and gut these enormously expensive programs that have very little soldier-on-the-field practicality. While you’re at it, give tax credits to families who take their seniors in as dependents so that SSI won’t implode under its own weight in ten years. And for Chreepst sake, give tax credits for everyone who is doing more than their fair share when it comes to leading our country to better fuel efficiency, ridesharing, commuting from home, generating their own electricity, recycling more and paving a way for a cleaner world.

I hope this makes sense.