Friday, July 5, 2013

To Trust or Not to Trust This Administration?

It's hard to figure out whether to laugh or cry about the "scandal" news these days.  A little of both is probably in order.  For sure, everybody but the politicians and the media are sick beyond belief of the constant sniping and fault finding.

I've been reading my way through several historical records about presidents and their families.  From After Camelot by J. Randy Taraborrelli, as well as The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro, one gets the sense that both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations faced constant stone-walling by Congress.  President Johnson, who cut his teeth in Congress, warned President Kennedy that he needed to carefully select the order in which he presented bills for consideration.  President Johnson said President Kennedy's most crucial and important work could be held up indefinitely if he introduced the most controversial work first.  With the typical disdain with which elitists hold ordinary people, they ignored his warning.  At the time of his death, much of President Kennedy's work was, indeed, bogged down as predicted.

President Johnson turned out not to be so ordinary, either.  His wheeling and dealing days before the Vice Presidency gave him a savvy, as well as power enough, to wheedle and ram through much of President Kennedy's and his own agendas.  Like many Americans, I've stood in awe of the Kennedy legend since it's beginning.  I also sold President Johnson's skills way too short.

In The White House Diary of President Jimmy Carter, notes on his work indicate his own struggle with the legislative branch.  In one note, he says that colleagues told him that Congress respected him, just not the office of President.  (Too bad, Congress. Do we have to send you back to school to study the reasons for our balance of power)?

I know I've had my favorite president's.  I've also had my dislikes. But favorite or nemesis, a President's role is an important one.  The Constitution was designed so there would be this balance of power mentioned above.  We, the people, sometimes forget this.  It is inexcusable for any branch of the government to devalue or ignore the importance of the other.  With the power balance, no one individual or interest group can take control away from the people.  We have a President, a Congress and the Courts to keep everyone in line. 

But, Congress is not the only culprit in our interchanges.  As to the phone and internet data collection, all three branches were supposedly involved in the "threat" to our personal freedom.  As to the IRS scandal, appropriate heads should roll.  As for administration staffers deciding what to and not to tell the President, other heads should also roll. 

As to the airhead geeks who keep downloading classified documents, you are traitors to your country, not heroes.  However much conservatives and liberals alike think we should know every time the President has to blow his nose or Congress makes a decision to improve our protection, we just don't need to know.  The fact that you could do such a juvenile thing is indicative of your inability to make rational and intelligent decisions.  Our Civil Liberties and our freedom are threatened by what you know?  So, our very lives can be threatened by what you did, to say nothing of the damage your actions do to diplomatic matters and our country.

You enemies of this President or you Congressmen looking for fodder to win elections, know this.  You are all standing in the way of important decision making and actions that could get America back on track and our people back to work at the helm in this world.  Calm down.  Stop to think.  Please find out what you can do to help instead of impede.  And for goodness sake, geeks and politicos alike, stop showing your ASSES to the whole world.  You are giving us a bad name and making us more vulnerable to our enemies.

And to all my government branches and your agencies, please feel free to collect information on my blog page views (louhough.blogspot.com), e-mail addresses and phone information.  In fact, statistics about my political blog show the following page views from other countries.  Please track these reads to find out if any of them happen to be from terrorists.  I would be delighted for you to use them to save innocent lives.  Besides at least 671 views from the United States, there have been 41 from Russia, 27 from Germany, 11 from Sweden, three each from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Two from both France and South Korea with one each from Columbia, Hungary and Israel. 

You might also want to figure out who keeps hacking my Facebook page.  Hard for me to tell if it is friend or foe.

Bottom line, if collecting information on my personal information can save even one life, please feel free to use it.  I may be an irritant to many political figures, but I am committing no crimes.  I'm proud to be an American whose information can serve my fellow man, even if it is merely letting you collect my private data.  I don't think my trust is misplaced.

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