After the first Rocky movie hit the theaters, one of my clinical psych teachers commented about how good it can actually be to come in second. This is not the way people of any nationality want to feel. Everyone has been primed to be number one and nothing else will do.
There is a movement afoot for the United States to be number one in worldwide rescue missions. We just absolutely cannot let anyone else hold first place in anything. We must be the leaders. That's the competitive spirit! That's the way it is praised. Be first everywhere -- in sports, in education, in wealth, in war, in space, in rescue missions and even in meddling. Number two will not do even in looking the fool to the world. Ask any country that sticks it's hands out to take our dollars or our help while turning to their neighbors to "LMAO".
Joe Klein, a columnist in Time, stated in the July 28, 2004, issue that President Barack Obama needs to step up and address the worlds problems, especially the Central American "refugees" at our Southern borders and, "well, lead". President Barack Obama said in a speech the end of last week that the United States needs to take the lead in "this", referring to problems in the Ukraine.
Rebel Russian sympathizers and/or Russian troops are blowing commercial airliners out of the sky now. It wasn't enough to just kill each other on the ground.
Hamas and Israel are at it again. Egypt and John Kerry, our Secretary of State, have tried to negotiate a cease fire. Hamas keeps lobbing missiles. Israel keeps lobbing back. War has escalated to boots on the ground in the Gaza Strip and Netanyahu says he knows what Israel needs.
Afghanistan holds a vote and then the loser yells for a recount. The western world supervises a recount.
Egypt took giant steps forward and then giant steps back. Syria, a situation never solved, has lost the number one space in the headlines. Yemen, too.
A few dozen stolen girls escaped their captors. Then, this tragedy took a back seat to more "pressing matters". Where are the rest of the girls?
Let's face it, our southern border concerns are just about as insoluble as the concerns between Palestine, Hamas and Israel, the various branches of Islam, or Islam and the rest of the religions of the world. But there we are in the middle of everywhere borrowing money and passing it out to save everybody but ourselves.
Are you parents? At home, what would you do if your infant daughter were crying from hunger and the need to be changed at the same time your constantly squabbling twin two year old boys were at it again, and your six year old needed help with his/her homework and your eight year old started saying he needed a ride to soccer practice?
Well, first you would prioritize . Which is the most serious problem? Which child is the most helpless? How can one parent split herself all those ways? You can't, so you delegate.
You would yell for Dad to separate the twins. You would have the soccer player help his/her younger sibling with the homework and you would feed and change the baby yourself. If you were really smart you would get the Dad to pack all the older children into the car and take the soccer player to practice. Hence, the chaos is eliminated so that you can feed and bond with the infant.
So what does our President do? He tries to negotiate with Putin, the Ukraine, and the out of control rebels while sending Secretary of State Kerry to Israel, while petitioning the Congress of no so he can get enough dollars to actually do something about the border, while not giving many sound bytes to the temporarily simmering countries of the rest of the Middle East. He lets other world leaders help supervise election squabbles and sift through the plane disaster zone, while trying to armor himself against the constant attacks from the Republicans, Democrats, Tea Partiers, Congress, the Supreme Court and every other organization at home and abroad who thinks they can do it better even if they don't have the intelligence facts and contacts to know what exactly "it" is. Do the run on sentences leave you as out of breath as the President must be feeling all the time? Good!
Then, God forbid, he stops amidst all this chaos for a game of pool, a game of pickup, or a dinner out with his wife and he comes under even more attack by people who wouldn't consider doing without their own version of R and R. Do they understand the research findings about planned rests refreshing and energizing us to produce more?
Really, people, the job is hard enough on a good day without special interest groups or individuals and the press deciding just what the priorities are and who should deal with which. Much less, does the Chief Executive need the interference of prevaricators, foot draggers, and blustering of the other parties.
And really, Mr. Klein, you are blaming the Tea Party and citing Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge about the border uprising? I'm a veritable bleeding heart liberal Democrat and I, too, am saying "enough is enough", send most of them back. Let them go south of their country. Let them go anywhere else. We're broke and operating on overload.
The United States of America is not the Savior of the World. We are financially unfit to lift the world from poverty. We are in a pre-divorce setting with parties at odds and states threatening secession. It is time for us to quit forcing ourselves and our ideas on the rest of the world. We need to spend our own dollars on ourselves and our national debt. We need to regroup, rethink, reorganize, prioritize and delegate responsibility. And, if in the process of fixing ourselves first, we become second best in world politics, so be it. Let us do it with the grace and dignity with which it was handled by the Greeks, the Holy Roman Empire and the United Kingdom. And let our President get some rest.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
A Message To Central America
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door." Emma Lazarus
Romantic, isn't it? Per Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, this is the inscription that was put on the Statue of Liberty in 1883. I'm not sure "we've come a long way baby" is a good thing at this point. This country certainly no longer can handle all your tired, poor or huddled masses. At least only the most liberal unrealistic ones wearing rose colored glasses think we can.
Last year a few thousand people arrived at our border illegally. They filled buses, trucks, various forms of transportation supplied by some of the most amoral individuals alive today -- smugglers of human beings. These individuals, sometimes called coyotes, sell false hope of better futures to desperate parents who want a chance at the U. S. A. for their children.
When the numbers of abandoned kids reaching our country was over 52,000 (now 57,000) this year, United States citizens began to demonstrate -- to say "no more", "we've had enough, "send them back". And according to the current President, many (possibly most) will be sent back.
But before your children are returned to you, this country has to feed, clothe, shelter them and provide them with a hearing. Our current and immediate past presidents have both made decisions that brought on this crisis concerning immigration. President George W. Bush signed a law which makes it illegal to send children back without due process. President Barack Obama offered a type of amnesty to children who were innocent bystanders in their family's bringing them here illegally. But that applies only to those already here.
The court system dealing with undocumented workers in our country is sorely pressed. It is not prepared to deal with tens of thousands of children, most arriving alone, who have to be cared for until they receive the hearings President Bush's law requires. But the coyotes, who care nothing about anything but taking your dollars, keep slipping them over the border by the vehicle load.
These people, slugs that they are, don't tell you of the dangers your children, or even your adults, will face. Have you heard of the truck loads of people who smother to death en route? Have you heard of the bodies discovered in the deserts where people die from thirst or the elements? Have you seen the televised pictures of your children crammed together like sardines in a can while they wait for the courts to review their cases? You haven't? Well, perhaps your priests, your teachers, your merchants can give you warning about what is going to happen should you decide to abandon your children to coyotes and the hand of fate. Yes, you abandon your children!!!
First of all, we have gangs in our country, too. A lot of Hispanics are caught up in these gangs. The gangs often use violence to threaten children into their groups. There are frequent shootings -- usually called "drive-bys" - where Hispanic kids are killed. A few years ago, an Hispanic neighbor of mine was being sought as a suspect in such a shooting. Then he, himself, died in a drive-by. Having more money in America makes killers more mobile and increases, not decreases, the chance of death. We also have drugs here thanks mostly to Mexican cartels. But we also have drug manufacturers here. I don't use illegal drugs, but if I did, I know of four places to buy them within walking distance of my house. I can see some from my porch. However, I have to drive six miles to buy groceries.
Also, you need to accept the fact that most of the children you send will not be living in the Hollywood Hills in a $6,000,000 mansion. Very few American children do either. Your babies will probably be living in crowded inner city communities, a lot of which are considered slums. A lot of U. S. A. born children live there, too.
Some North Americans like to have Hispanics come to the states where climates are warm. They put your people to work as migrant farm workers. Why? They say that Americans don't like to do such hard work and besides, they can get illegals to work for less wages and without benefits such as paid vacations and holidays and health insurance. In other words, your people are happily exploited. We have some homegrown slugs here, also.
Housing is a concern as well. A lot of Hispanics help their friends and families come to the United States. They hide them in their rented apartments until work can be found and they can move elsewhere. But do you know what? Our laws do not allow more than two persons per bedroom. If your friends get caught with more than that, they can be evicted. They will lose their own homes because they try to help you.
Now, one of the arguments many USA citizens use to justify people coming here illegally, is that this is a country built of immigrants. Well, that's true, of course. But I speak to you not only as a fourth or fifth generation descendant of immigrants, but also as a fifth or sixth generation descended from a Native American. And I am saying to you that we have too many undocumented people here right now. We definitely do not need more. We need you to take responsibility for your own families and make for them as good a life as possible. If your cities are too violent, move to the country. Use those thousands of dollars to relocate locally rather than wasting them with the coyotes.
You see, this country has been in poor financial health for several years now. I can't imagine how isolated you must be not to have heard that. Our unemployment rate has gone down to 6.1 per cent -- finally! Do you understand what that means? That means that 61,000 out of every 1,000,000 Americans who should be working cannot find jobs. That does not count the ones who no longer qualify for unemployment insurance because they have been out of work too long. It does not count the ones who are trying to start businesses because they gave up looking for jobs. It does not count our homeless/jobless people who beg for quarters on the street. They have started begging quarters in the local Price Chopper grocery stores.
You may not understand either that our country -- our government -- is broke. We are so far in debt that we have to borrow from other countries to pay just the interest on our loans. We cannot really afford the $4,000,000,000 that our President is asking from Congress to take care of the burden of your children. Sure, our credit is still good, but if it gets so bad we cannot make our payments, then our credit will no longer be good. We have to have enough income from taxes to pay these loans and one of the reasons we do not have is because of undocumented workers who hide out and are paid illegally "under the table". These illegals do not pay taxes.
Now, we have a legal immigration system in our country. It screens candidates and takes them in proper order, rather than shipping them by the thousands to become a national burden to an already burdened country. Most Americans welcome people who arrive at our door legally. But we do not want and cannot afford anymore illegals at this time. And you cannot afford to commit the negligence and abuse that you have been committing toward your own kids by sending them here alone. If you cannot afford to keep your children, then simply quit having them. When God told Adam and Eve to go and populate the earth, there was hardly anyone on it. Now most nations, especially their cities, are overcrowded.
Whatever you may have heard about President Obama's Executive Order concerning children brought here illegally, it was not a free ride. These children had to have already been here for some time. It was not a blanket of approval for the future. They must learn to speak, read and write English. They must attend college or serve in the U. S. military. They must remain law-abiding individuals and they must line up behind, not in front of, immigrants who arrived legally. It is a long and hard process for acceptance.
Predictions are that 150,000 more of these children will arrive next year. So, we are having to drastically increase our border patrols (more expense we cannot afford). We are, no doubt, going to have to speed up the process of changing, by law, the decisions of the two presidents mentioned above. And we will have to make tougher and tougher laws to protect our own children and grandchildren.
Americans tend to have a soft spot for kids. Sometimes it is to our own detriment. So, don't exploit the obvious. If you have a child, it is your responsibility to rear them. We have our hands full with our own. We can no longer take care of your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. Don't waste your hard earned dollars, because you will just get most of the children back again. Besides if this keeps up, it will mean our financial ruin and we will all be out of luck by then.
Once again, your children are your responsibility, not ours. We did not conceive them. We cannot afford them.
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door." Emma Lazarus
Romantic, isn't it? Per Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, this is the inscription that was put on the Statue of Liberty in 1883. I'm not sure "we've come a long way baby" is a good thing at this point. This country certainly no longer can handle all your tired, poor or huddled masses. At least only the most liberal unrealistic ones wearing rose colored glasses think we can.
Last year a few thousand people arrived at our border illegally. They filled buses, trucks, various forms of transportation supplied by some of the most amoral individuals alive today -- smugglers of human beings. These individuals, sometimes called coyotes, sell false hope of better futures to desperate parents who want a chance at the U. S. A. for their children.
When the numbers of abandoned kids reaching our country was over 52,000 (now 57,000) this year, United States citizens began to demonstrate -- to say "no more", "we've had enough, "send them back". And according to the current President, many (possibly most) will be sent back.
But before your children are returned to you, this country has to feed, clothe, shelter them and provide them with a hearing. Our current and immediate past presidents have both made decisions that brought on this crisis concerning immigration. President George W. Bush signed a law which makes it illegal to send children back without due process. President Barack Obama offered a type of amnesty to children who were innocent bystanders in their family's bringing them here illegally. But that applies only to those already here.
The court system dealing with undocumented workers in our country is sorely pressed. It is not prepared to deal with tens of thousands of children, most arriving alone, who have to be cared for until they receive the hearings President Bush's law requires. But the coyotes, who care nothing about anything but taking your dollars, keep slipping them over the border by the vehicle load.
These people, slugs that they are, don't tell you of the dangers your children, or even your adults, will face. Have you heard of the truck loads of people who smother to death en route? Have you heard of the bodies discovered in the deserts where people die from thirst or the elements? Have you seen the televised pictures of your children crammed together like sardines in a can while they wait for the courts to review their cases? You haven't? Well, perhaps your priests, your teachers, your merchants can give you warning about what is going to happen should you decide to abandon your children to coyotes and the hand of fate. Yes, you abandon your children!!!
First of all, we have gangs in our country, too. A lot of Hispanics are caught up in these gangs. The gangs often use violence to threaten children into their groups. There are frequent shootings -- usually called "drive-bys" - where Hispanic kids are killed. A few years ago, an Hispanic neighbor of mine was being sought as a suspect in such a shooting. Then he, himself, died in a drive-by. Having more money in America makes killers more mobile and increases, not decreases, the chance of death. We also have drugs here thanks mostly to Mexican cartels. But we also have drug manufacturers here. I don't use illegal drugs, but if I did, I know of four places to buy them within walking distance of my house. I can see some from my porch. However, I have to drive six miles to buy groceries.
Also, you need to accept the fact that most of the children you send will not be living in the Hollywood Hills in a $6,000,000 mansion. Very few American children do either. Your babies will probably be living in crowded inner city communities, a lot of which are considered slums. A lot of U. S. A. born children live there, too.
Some North Americans like to have Hispanics come to the states where climates are warm. They put your people to work as migrant farm workers. Why? They say that Americans don't like to do such hard work and besides, they can get illegals to work for less wages and without benefits such as paid vacations and holidays and health insurance. In other words, your people are happily exploited. We have some homegrown slugs here, also.
Housing is a concern as well. A lot of Hispanics help their friends and families come to the United States. They hide them in their rented apartments until work can be found and they can move elsewhere. But do you know what? Our laws do not allow more than two persons per bedroom. If your friends get caught with more than that, they can be evicted. They will lose their own homes because they try to help you.
Now, one of the arguments many USA citizens use to justify people coming here illegally, is that this is a country built of immigrants. Well, that's true, of course. But I speak to you not only as a fourth or fifth generation descendant of immigrants, but also as a fifth or sixth generation descended from a Native American. And I am saying to you that we have too many undocumented people here right now. We definitely do not need more. We need you to take responsibility for your own families and make for them as good a life as possible. If your cities are too violent, move to the country. Use those thousands of dollars to relocate locally rather than wasting them with the coyotes.
You see, this country has been in poor financial health for several years now. I can't imagine how isolated you must be not to have heard that. Our unemployment rate has gone down to 6.1 per cent -- finally! Do you understand what that means? That means that 61,000 out of every 1,000,000 Americans who should be working cannot find jobs. That does not count the ones who no longer qualify for unemployment insurance because they have been out of work too long. It does not count the ones who are trying to start businesses because they gave up looking for jobs. It does not count our homeless/jobless people who beg for quarters on the street. They have started begging quarters in the local Price Chopper grocery stores.
You may not understand either that our country -- our government -- is broke. We are so far in debt that we have to borrow from other countries to pay just the interest on our loans. We cannot really afford the $4,000,000,000 that our President is asking from Congress to take care of the burden of your children. Sure, our credit is still good, but if it gets so bad we cannot make our payments, then our credit will no longer be good. We have to have enough income from taxes to pay these loans and one of the reasons we do not have is because of undocumented workers who hide out and are paid illegally "under the table". These illegals do not pay taxes.
Now, we have a legal immigration system in our country. It screens candidates and takes them in proper order, rather than shipping them by the thousands to become a national burden to an already burdened country. Most Americans welcome people who arrive at our door legally. But we do not want and cannot afford anymore illegals at this time. And you cannot afford to commit the negligence and abuse that you have been committing toward your own kids by sending them here alone. If you cannot afford to keep your children, then simply quit having them. When God told Adam and Eve to go and populate the earth, there was hardly anyone on it. Now most nations, especially their cities, are overcrowded.
Whatever you may have heard about President Obama's Executive Order concerning children brought here illegally, it was not a free ride. These children had to have already been here for some time. It was not a blanket of approval for the future. They must learn to speak, read and write English. They must attend college or serve in the U. S. military. They must remain law-abiding individuals and they must line up behind, not in front of, immigrants who arrived legally. It is a long and hard process for acceptance.
Predictions are that 150,000 more of these children will arrive next year. So, we are having to drastically increase our border patrols (more expense we cannot afford). We are, no doubt, going to have to speed up the process of changing, by law, the decisions of the two presidents mentioned above. And we will have to make tougher and tougher laws to protect our own children and grandchildren.
Americans tend to have a soft spot for kids. Sometimes it is to our own detriment. So, don't exploit the obvious. If you have a child, it is your responsibility to rear them. We have our hands full with our own. We can no longer take care of your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. Don't waste your hard earned dollars, because you will just get most of the children back again. Besides if this keeps up, it will mean our financial ruin and we will all be out of luck by then.
Once again, your children are your responsibility, not ours. We did not conceive them. We cannot afford them.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Who Am I To Be Judge And Jury?
"'. . . Who am I to be judge and jury? I don't think I'd have the right not to print it.'" John Cotton, Reporter. Character in The Fly On The Wall, Tony Hillerman, Harper Fiction, 1971.
We have evolved a long way in my lifetime. In my youth, reporters were inclined not to tell the American public -- the common man -- the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For instance, they committed sin of omission by not revealing the probable extramarital activities of past presidents. Then there was the incident when a man hoping to be his party's presidential candidate got his campaign blown out of the water because his affair was revealed. By the time a sitting president's extramarital affair was "outed", the general public said, well, that's not nice, but it is the couple's business. And what does it have to do with his ability to lead the country anyway even if it is a little tacky?
This situation is just the surface of a reporter's dilemma when researching and writing an article. They used to believe it was their job to determine what the American public could and should be able to handle. Fortunately, most of them now understand it is their job to report the facts and the truth as it becomes visible, whatever their personal preferences. It is also their job to trust their readers (at least most of them) to be able to decide the relevance and importance of these facts.
In the novel mentioned above, the reporter's life was being threatened over a story he was writing. Two men had already died over it and John Cotton was being threatened openly.
A group of people were committing fraud with taxpayer funds in order to line their own pockets. Exposure of the people would mean their careers and families would be ruined. It would also ruin the political life of the governor because it happened on his watch and he wanted to run for Congress.
But didn't the perpetrator's of the crime realize they might get caught? Why did they not worry about the shame to their families before they did the deed? Is it a reporter's job to care take the families of the criminals?
Part of the dilemma was that the governor truly did not participate in the crime. Also, he was, by even the reporter's judgment, the best candidate for the job. So, the country might lose the best candidate because of the crimes of others.
This is not unlike what we have going on right now. The IRS has messed up. It is hard not to LOL that we get to see them in the hot seat for a change. The Veteran's Administration has messed up big time. The immigration issue has just about exploded in our faces. And the current Administration is being blamed, kind of like the governor in the fiction described here.
And, of course, the other party is exploiting every flaw, hoping it brings the Senate and the presidency back to them. And it may, at that. But it is still the reporter's job to present the facts, the truths and to trust the American public to discern the best candidates for the jobs, whoever they might be. It is the job of the citizens to separate the wheat from the chaff and vote the best choice available. I think we usually do that rather well.
We have evolved a long way in my lifetime. In my youth, reporters were inclined not to tell the American public -- the common man -- the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For instance, they committed sin of omission by not revealing the probable extramarital activities of past presidents. Then there was the incident when a man hoping to be his party's presidential candidate got his campaign blown out of the water because his affair was revealed. By the time a sitting president's extramarital affair was "outed", the general public said, well, that's not nice, but it is the couple's business. And what does it have to do with his ability to lead the country anyway even if it is a little tacky?
This situation is just the surface of a reporter's dilemma when researching and writing an article. They used to believe it was their job to determine what the American public could and should be able to handle. Fortunately, most of them now understand it is their job to report the facts and the truth as it becomes visible, whatever their personal preferences. It is also their job to trust their readers (at least most of them) to be able to decide the relevance and importance of these facts.
In the novel mentioned above, the reporter's life was being threatened over a story he was writing. Two men had already died over it and John Cotton was being threatened openly.
A group of people were committing fraud with taxpayer funds in order to line their own pockets. Exposure of the people would mean their careers and families would be ruined. It would also ruin the political life of the governor because it happened on his watch and he wanted to run for Congress.
But didn't the perpetrator's of the crime realize they might get caught? Why did they not worry about the shame to their families before they did the deed? Is it a reporter's job to care take the families of the criminals?
Part of the dilemma was that the governor truly did not participate in the crime. Also, he was, by even the reporter's judgment, the best candidate for the job. So, the country might lose the best candidate because of the crimes of others.
This is not unlike what we have going on right now. The IRS has messed up. It is hard not to LOL that we get to see them in the hot seat for a change. The Veteran's Administration has messed up big time. The immigration issue has just about exploded in our faces. And the current Administration is being blamed, kind of like the governor in the fiction described here.
And, of course, the other party is exploiting every flaw, hoping it brings the Senate and the presidency back to them. And it may, at that. But it is still the reporter's job to present the facts, the truths and to trust the American public to discern the best candidates for the jobs, whoever they might be. It is the job of the citizens to separate the wheat from the chaff and vote the best choice available. I think we usually do that rather well.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Tunnel Vision
A friend shared a message being forwarded to others on Facebook, saying that the Supreme Court ruled that President Barack Obama broke Constitutional law by making appointments during three-day Congressional breaks, instead of waiting ten days. Now, if the friend and the other Republicans sharing this message had watched the CBS Evening News the night of the ruling, they would know that President George W. Bush and President William J. Clinton broke the same law -- and that all three did it multiple times. The exact number of times was shown in a visual.
Or would they? A passing comment on air the other day indicated that if a president we like does something wrong, we tend to forgive them. But if the president is from the other party, it is received with anger.
Whatever happened to our ability to think? It's almost like we check our brains at the door with our coats when we join one or the other parties. We turn over our common sense to politicians, a faction of the universe that has a history of being notorious liars.
Another comment recently made by a Republican was that the Republican Party has become a red necked party in the last few years. Has it? Well, I do know a number of red necks that say they are Republicans. So how come the rich, white collar, business level Republicans are still running the party then? The Republican Party of today is certainly not the party that holds the well being of the common man at heart.
How do I know this?
The Republican House of Representatives does not want to tax the rich very much. At least they say they don't.
The Republican House of Representatives does not want to support Head Start and public schools as much as previously.
The Republican House of Representatives does not want the EPA at all, apparently, much less do they want them to control the air emissions of big industries.
The Republican House of Representatives wants to cut Social Security (chained CPI) and Medicare. Why? The rich can get along without it, and they don't care about the rest of us.
The Republican House of Representatives wants to eliminate the Affordable Care Act so health insurance companies can go back to gouging the public.
The Republican House of Representatives does not want to help the poor. That would mean less assistance with medical expenses, heating fuels, and food.
The Republican House of Representatives likes the idea of collecting money to help rich farmers.
The Republican House of Representatives doesn't want to pay America's bills, thus risking a bad credit rating. Remember that they did not want to raise the debt ceiling to pay them?
But see, such is my point. We affiliate ourselves with a party and don't always evaluate what they are doing.
For a red necked blue collar worker to be a Republican takes a lot of tunnel vision.
We need to know how our parties vote and make our decisions based on their votes, not what they say they will do.
Yes, I sometimes have a problem viewing my party without rose-colored glasses, too. But I'm getting better at it. In fact, I'm getting so good at it that a friend asked recently if I were sure I am a Democrat. You see I differ with them on gun control, what causes global warming and a few other issues -- and I don't mind saying so.
We need to make our evaluations and place our votes on issues, not on Party Affiliation. To do otherwise is a form of tunnel vision.
Or would they? A passing comment on air the other day indicated that if a president we like does something wrong, we tend to forgive them. But if the president is from the other party, it is received with anger.
Whatever happened to our ability to think? It's almost like we check our brains at the door with our coats when we join one or the other parties. We turn over our common sense to politicians, a faction of the universe that has a history of being notorious liars.
Another comment recently made by a Republican was that the Republican Party has become a red necked party in the last few years. Has it? Well, I do know a number of red necks that say they are Republicans. So how come the rich, white collar, business level Republicans are still running the party then? The Republican Party of today is certainly not the party that holds the well being of the common man at heart.
How do I know this?
The Republican House of Representatives does not want to tax the rich very much. At least they say they don't.
The Republican House of Representatives does not want to support Head Start and public schools as much as previously.
The Republican House of Representatives does not want the EPA at all, apparently, much less do they want them to control the air emissions of big industries.
The Republican House of Representatives wants to cut Social Security (chained CPI) and Medicare. Why? The rich can get along without it, and they don't care about the rest of us.
The Republican House of Representatives wants to eliminate the Affordable Care Act so health insurance companies can go back to gouging the public.
The Republican House of Representatives does not want to help the poor. That would mean less assistance with medical expenses, heating fuels, and food.
The Republican House of Representatives likes the idea of collecting money to help rich farmers.
The Republican House of Representatives doesn't want to pay America's bills, thus risking a bad credit rating. Remember that they did not want to raise the debt ceiling to pay them?
But see, such is my point. We affiliate ourselves with a party and don't always evaluate what they are doing.
For a red necked blue collar worker to be a Republican takes a lot of tunnel vision.
We need to know how our parties vote and make our decisions based on their votes, not what they say they will do.
Yes, I sometimes have a problem viewing my party without rose-colored glasses, too. But I'm getting better at it. In fact, I'm getting so good at it that a friend asked recently if I were sure I am a Democrat. You see I differ with them on gun control, what causes global warming and a few other issues -- and I don't mind saying so.
We need to make our evaluations and place our votes on issues, not on Party Affiliation. To do otherwise is a form of tunnel vision.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Nice Try, Boehner -- How About Doing Your Work?
Well, John Boehner is trying to throw another wrench into the works at the House of Representatives. He spends so much time ranting, raving, crying and accusing the President of misadventures that he just can't get his own work done.
Presidents beginning with George Washington have used Executive Order for getting mission accomplished on the work they need to do. In fact, here are the totals used by Presidents during my lifetime. The figures are per Wikipedia.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 3,522
Harry S. Truman, 907
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 484
John F. Kennedy, 214
Lyndon B. Johnson, 325
Richard M. Nixon, 346
G. R. Ford, 169
Jimmy Carter, 320
Ronald Reagan, 381
George H. W. Bush, 166
William J. Clinton, 364
George W. Bush, 291
Barack Obama, 197 (As of 3-20-2014)
Rumors are spreading that President Obama has used the policy more than previous presidents. This is more Republican fiction (as you can see from the figures) meant to keep Congress off task and win more congressional seats at midterm, as well as the next presidential election.
I don't know where these people get the idea that being the party of no and leading the do nothing House of Representatives, is mature professionalism. It is the behavior of school children being obstructionists and bullies on the playground.
Grow up, Mr. Boehner. Set a better example for your junior members. Let's see how Congress can work together for a while.
And, before you start accusing the current president of misbehavior, you need to get your facts straight. Others have done this work quite well for you. Look it up. You know, you've heard of the internet haven't you? Information and facts are just a few keystrokes away. You ought to try it sometime.
Presidents beginning with George Washington have used Executive Order for getting mission accomplished on the work they need to do. In fact, here are the totals used by Presidents during my lifetime. The figures are per Wikipedia.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 3,522
Harry S. Truman, 907
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 484
John F. Kennedy, 214
Lyndon B. Johnson, 325
Richard M. Nixon, 346
G. R. Ford, 169
Jimmy Carter, 320
Ronald Reagan, 381
George H. W. Bush, 166
William J. Clinton, 364
George W. Bush, 291
Barack Obama, 197 (As of 3-20-2014)
Rumors are spreading that President Obama has used the policy more than previous presidents. This is more Republican fiction (as you can see from the figures) meant to keep Congress off task and win more congressional seats at midterm, as well as the next presidential election.
I don't know where these people get the idea that being the party of no and leading the do nothing House of Representatives, is mature professionalism. It is the behavior of school children being obstructionists and bullies on the playground.
Grow up, Mr. Boehner. Set a better example for your junior members. Let's see how Congress can work together for a while.
And, before you start accusing the current president of misbehavior, you need to get your facts straight. Others have done this work quite well for you. Look it up. You know, you've heard of the internet haven't you? Information and facts are just a few keystrokes away. You ought to try it sometime.
Monday, June 23, 2014
A Zipper Would Be Nice
I've grown fond of former President George W. Bush since he left office. During his book tour, it became apparent he has a great sense of humor. I guess it's asking a little much, though, to expect a sitting president to be a comedian while carrying a load of trouble on his shoulders.
But most of all, I appreciate how he refuses to critique or second-guess the current president. What a gentleman! He's one of the few individuals willing to give the man a pass and let him make his own decisions.
A while back we had Condoleeza Rice spouting about how much better she would do things. And now, former Vice President Dick Cheney has come out of the woodwork to express himself.
The interview on This Week was interesting if uninformative. The more he was pressed to tell exactly what steps he would take to do it differently, the more he sidestepped the answer. He just kept saying the President should recognize it's more of a problem than just this situation in Iraq and Syria.
Really, Mr. Cheney, you don't think the man knows this? Let's see what clues he might have. In Africa, rebel groups kidnapped a whole group of girls that he had to try to help rescue. Iran is a little quiet now, but periodically causes distress. Hamas has kidnapped three young boys. Pakistan, a supposed ally, harbored America's number one enemy for a long period of time and then got ticked off when Navy Seals slipped in and took him out without their official permission. India is a little restless. Piracy was a big issue for a while. Afghanistan sort of wants us to leave troops behind but isn't willing to make any compromises to keep them. The Afghan government expects and accepts financial aid from our country while accepting dollars from our enemies as well -- and then badmouths us. Russia is taking parts of Ukraine away from Ukraine and seems to want more. Egypt erupted to get freedom and wound up with disaster. We can't even bear to talk about Syria. North Korea wants their ball friends to tell the President to call their leader so he won't have to "do war". Then he gets centrifuges. Different sects of the same religion can't seem to get along amongst themselves much less with other religions. Crazy people are willing to kill for converts. I'm sure Allah appreciates this -- and yes Sheldon Cooper, that is sarcasm. Dead people cannot become converts. But, then, it looks like they kill because they like it.
There is civil war and terrorism everywhere. We get one firestorm stamped out and another pops up. We get called in to help in situations then get blamed and hated when we do. But, you somehow feel the need to go on air and tell the man that he can't see the big picture while you can. And, to think, you are not even in the inner circle that hears the worst information. When pressed for what exactly he should do, aside from leaving more of our kids there to get blown up by terrorists, you've got no answers.
I think some members of The Round Table got it right. All this Republican hot air is meant as distraction to keep the government from solving the real issues. Of course, they also hope if they hash and rehash the same situations over and over, they will win all the key political positions next time. Maybe this will work, but then it didn't last time, did it?
If you have nothing more constructive than this to say, Mr. Cheney, a zipper on your mouth would be very nice.
Oh, yeah. I neglected to mention that you rushed to inform us when pressed, that your own mistakes were past and had no bearing on the current situation. Two questions on this. Didn't the mistakes you made get us into a lot of this mess? How come you Republicans keep bringing up past Democratic errors if the past doesn't have anything to do with the present?
But most of all, I appreciate how he refuses to critique or second-guess the current president. What a gentleman! He's one of the few individuals willing to give the man a pass and let him make his own decisions.
A while back we had Condoleeza Rice spouting about how much better she would do things. And now, former Vice President Dick Cheney has come out of the woodwork to express himself.
The interview on This Week was interesting if uninformative. The more he was pressed to tell exactly what steps he would take to do it differently, the more he sidestepped the answer. He just kept saying the President should recognize it's more of a problem than just this situation in Iraq and Syria.
Really, Mr. Cheney, you don't think the man knows this? Let's see what clues he might have. In Africa, rebel groups kidnapped a whole group of girls that he had to try to help rescue. Iran is a little quiet now, but periodically causes distress. Hamas has kidnapped three young boys. Pakistan, a supposed ally, harbored America's number one enemy for a long period of time and then got ticked off when Navy Seals slipped in and took him out without their official permission. India is a little restless. Piracy was a big issue for a while. Afghanistan sort of wants us to leave troops behind but isn't willing to make any compromises to keep them. The Afghan government expects and accepts financial aid from our country while accepting dollars from our enemies as well -- and then badmouths us. Russia is taking parts of Ukraine away from Ukraine and seems to want more. Egypt erupted to get freedom and wound up with disaster. We can't even bear to talk about Syria. North Korea wants their ball friends to tell the President to call their leader so he won't have to "do war". Then he gets centrifuges. Different sects of the same religion can't seem to get along amongst themselves much less with other religions. Crazy people are willing to kill for converts. I'm sure Allah appreciates this -- and yes Sheldon Cooper, that is sarcasm. Dead people cannot become converts. But, then, it looks like they kill because they like it.
There is civil war and terrorism everywhere. We get one firestorm stamped out and another pops up. We get called in to help in situations then get blamed and hated when we do. But, you somehow feel the need to go on air and tell the man that he can't see the big picture while you can. And, to think, you are not even in the inner circle that hears the worst information. When pressed for what exactly he should do, aside from leaving more of our kids there to get blown up by terrorists, you've got no answers.
I think some members of The Round Table got it right. All this Republican hot air is meant as distraction to keep the government from solving the real issues. Of course, they also hope if they hash and rehash the same situations over and over, they will win all the key political positions next time. Maybe this will work, but then it didn't last time, did it?
If you have nothing more constructive than this to say, Mr. Cheney, a zipper on your mouth would be very nice.
Oh, yeah. I neglected to mention that you rushed to inform us when pressed, that your own mistakes were past and had no bearing on the current situation. Two questions on this. Didn't the mistakes you made get us into a lot of this mess? How come you Republicans keep bringing up past Democratic errors if the past doesn't have anything to do with the present?
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Partisan Politics
"George Washington . . . clung to an unrealistic view of America in which a spirit of national unity and harmony would prevail, warning about the 'baneful effects of the Spirit of Party' in his Farewell Address . . .". From 7 Events That Made America America by Larry Schweikart, Sentinel, 2010.
Schweikart reports that President Washington was especially worried about sectional parties oriented around the issue of slavery.
So, from the beginning, party politics have had a negative effect on running the country. First, as just stated, we had slave states against non-slave states. Then, it evolved into the north versus the south; liberal versus conservative; big government versus small; don't spend versus we must pay our bills; war versus negotiation; international peace keeping versus mind our own business. As of today, we have ourselves locked into so many positions versus positions, that the government can no longer function.
Another item Schweikert pointed out was that back in the day, the elite in state and federal legislatures spoke for the common man. And how else could the states and the country have been run? We had the problem of travel. There was no internet. The likes of George Washington, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, etc., probably were the intellectually elite in our nation. So, wealth and learning did go hand in hand back then.
But by this time, we have a country filled with elite and learned individuals, many of whom could do a better job in government than many who are sitting in the chairs.
The definition of elite back then was land owners. Those were the guys that got to vote. There is a little of that elitist thinking today, as well. There are many making our laws who see wealth as the one and only indication of success. The wealthy are the elite in their opinion. It doesn't seem to matter to them if the big bucks were earned or inherited. Having the dollars, in their opinion, makes them superior.
But there are a lot of individuals out there practicing law and medicine or teaching in universities whose credentials are as good as or better than the credentials of our government officials. These individuals see knowledge and learning as the symbol of success. They sacrifice the big bucks in favor of seeking and sharing information.
Other people see success as caring for others and serving their fellow men. To each, his own goals.
I'd be hard pressed to pick which of these are the elite who should be making decisions for the "common man", wouldn't you?
The original authors of our country's laws traveled home great distances to learn what their constituents wanted and then travelled back to place their votes and enact our laws. Today we can pick up our phones or go on line and let our politicians know our wishes.
What was once an efficient method of making and implementing our laws has become a cumbersome system of bumbling partisan bickering and our "elite" representatives have locked themselves into destructive power struggles. Consequently we find ourselves in stalemate after stalemate, quarreling over how much to tax and whom -- how much to spend and why -- whether we should have big government or small (when none of them work very well anyway) -- and whether the lawmakers are the true elite or just the overachieving common man.
Whatever we should be, it should work. It does not. Why? We are too partisan. We are too stuck in our party positions. We are too dependent on the same representative sample of individuals saying the same things and voting the same ways and sitting in the same government seats, not doing their jobs well.
We need to regroup and start again. I'm sure all Americans are long past ready to experience George Washington's dream of a "spirit of national unity and harmony from which our government could move smoothly forward" -- unrealistic or not.
Schweikart reports that President Washington was especially worried about sectional parties oriented around the issue of slavery.
So, from the beginning, party politics have had a negative effect on running the country. First, as just stated, we had slave states against non-slave states. Then, it evolved into the north versus the south; liberal versus conservative; big government versus small; don't spend versus we must pay our bills; war versus negotiation; international peace keeping versus mind our own business. As of today, we have ourselves locked into so many positions versus positions, that the government can no longer function.
Another item Schweikert pointed out was that back in the day, the elite in state and federal legislatures spoke for the common man. And how else could the states and the country have been run? We had the problem of travel. There was no internet. The likes of George Washington, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, etc., probably were the intellectually elite in our nation. So, wealth and learning did go hand in hand back then.
But by this time, we have a country filled with elite and learned individuals, many of whom could do a better job in government than many who are sitting in the chairs.
The definition of elite back then was land owners. Those were the guys that got to vote. There is a little of that elitist thinking today, as well. There are many making our laws who see wealth as the one and only indication of success. The wealthy are the elite in their opinion. It doesn't seem to matter to them if the big bucks were earned or inherited. Having the dollars, in their opinion, makes them superior.
But there are a lot of individuals out there practicing law and medicine or teaching in universities whose credentials are as good as or better than the credentials of our government officials. These individuals see knowledge and learning as the symbol of success. They sacrifice the big bucks in favor of seeking and sharing information.
Other people see success as caring for others and serving their fellow men. To each, his own goals.
I'd be hard pressed to pick which of these are the elite who should be making decisions for the "common man", wouldn't you?
The original authors of our country's laws traveled home great distances to learn what their constituents wanted and then travelled back to place their votes and enact our laws. Today we can pick up our phones or go on line and let our politicians know our wishes.
What was once an efficient method of making and implementing our laws has become a cumbersome system of bumbling partisan bickering and our "elite" representatives have locked themselves into destructive power struggles. Consequently we find ourselves in stalemate after stalemate, quarreling over how much to tax and whom -- how much to spend and why -- whether we should have big government or small (when none of them work very well anyway) -- and whether the lawmakers are the true elite or just the overachieving common man.
Whatever we should be, it should work. It does not. Why? We are too partisan. We are too stuck in our party positions. We are too dependent on the same representative sample of individuals saying the same things and voting the same ways and sitting in the same government seats, not doing their jobs well.
We need to regroup and start again. I'm sure all Americans are long past ready to experience George Washington's dream of a "spirit of national unity and harmony from which our government could move smoothly forward" -- unrealistic or not.
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