Problems of Our Government

One of the problems with government now days is that politicians have too much lea way of the facts. There is too much disinformation out there that overshadows the facts. These people work for us, but they work under their own rules. We as a people should demand that our leaders are held to a certain level of conduct both while in office and campaigning. All politicians should be held to statements of fact and have the references to back up what they say. If they claim that the other party voted a certain way, they should have to be able to prove their claims. There should be no innuendos of misconduct, or unethical motifs if there isn't any facts of it. Everyone makes honest mistakes at times, but when they do there should be a public acknowledgment if and when mistakes are made. If anyone is continually making mis-statements either on purpose or by their lack of knowledge of what's going on they should be fined, if the practice continues they should be replaced. There should be a lot easier way of expelling dishonest, unethical representatives from our employment, instead of slapping them on the hand and allowing them to continue being employed by us. The people should have media and news programs that they can trust as being factual and unbiased. Having honest, truthful information at the fingertips of everyone is essential to an informed public and an informed voter.

These people that supposedly work for us, are fat off our tax dollars. They have all the perks, health care, generous pensions, and the list goes on and on, all at our expense. With the technologies of our time why are we paying for our representatives to travel from their home states to the capital, they could use video conferencing or other such means of communication. Not only would we save the cost of their constant traveling back and forth, but they can have all their supplies, notes, proposals all in one spot in their own state capital building instead of hauling everything back and forth, just think of the savings in airfare, fuel, pollution, wasted travel time, multiple housing accommodations or hotel costs car rentals, cab fees, multiple offices, heating and air conditioning all them places, all could be eliminated, or at least cut a lot. Once the system is in place, it stays there and whoever is in office has it to use. If this would have to be implemented in fazes, it should start with the states farthest from Washington and states that are the poorest.

Every two to four years all salaries and pensions should be adjusted to average privet sector equivalent job rates. Their health care should be at the same level as the rest of us, so either all their care isn't free, and easy to get, and the best money can buy, or ours is. These people are not kings. If we can't afford such perks for ourselves why would we provide them for our employees? Our representatives run around like teenagers at college abusing their first credit cards. It's fun while it lasts, but eventually it will catch up with us. Our government should be run like a business, not running on a deficit constantly, we should be coming out a bit a head so we can invest in the future. We are doing everything for immediate gain and profit instead of having the vision to look ahead to the future. We should be looking out for our best interest as a country instead of looking out for the best interest of big corporations making obscene record profits. Corporations have no business in government, they have their votes and donations of the individuals, just like everyone else, but they should not be free to donate to political parties period.

The process of voting for our representatives is getting to be a real joke. With all the disinformation and lies, it's a circus and no one knows what to believe.

Our representatives public life should be all business and being there and taking part in the task at hand. When they are doing their job in their public capacity politicians should be professional, honest, efficient, and ethical. They shouldn't be spending their time in between elections in a continual campaign mode. On the other hand their private lives unless they are involved in illegal activities should be that, private. If it isn't illegal or if they are not trying to pay for their private lives with their public funds, or if it isn't affecting their public responsibilities, their private lives should be left out of politics. I guess you could argue that maybe their involvement with the KKK or something might affect the way they vote on things, but in a way that is a public display...

Okay, so I don't have all the answers, but the point here is to get others thinking. How can we shake things up, reduce costs, improve our government. If you have any suggestions feel free to post your opinions, I reserve the right to remove offensive posts, but you can disagree with me without profanity.

Yet Another New Beginning: Politics in a changing world

With the recent shooting in Arizona I have really mixed feelings about everything political. Let's give our prayers to the survivors of the people who got killed and the people injured during this tragic senseless event. I was hoping that maybe this might be a wake up call against the climate of our political events of late. As of today though I realize this is never going to happen. I think our news media, political, and justice systems are really broken in this country. During the last couple of elections the tone of things has just gotten out of hand.

I believe in the 1st amendment and free speech, but there are limits. It has always been against the law to say certain things, for an instance, you can't stand up and yell fire in a crowded theater. I thought there were laws against slander where you can't publicly say untrue things about people, but in our political arena this seems to be common practice. I also thought you couldn't make threats against other people, and I even thought that you couldn't incite a riot or incite violence, but perhaps I'm wrong because you can see this go one everyday, specially in political settings.

Now before anyone starts getting bent out of shape, I don't think that the shooting actually had anything to do with Palin's gun slogan remarks, I'm not going to point the finger at Palin or her other Republican buddies and say that it was their fault this troubled person went postal, but I do think that the other issues the Arizona Congresswoman has had with people smashing her office door and making threats does have to do with the Republican Tea Party getting everyone riled up into a frenzy with prophesies of doom and hate speech. Pretty much all everyone was hoping to get out of Republicans after this horrific event were statements denouncing the strong language used during campaigning and against violence of this kind directed towards innocent people and politicians. This was not a demand for an admission of guilt, it was just a statement that was hoped to come to try to help deescalate some of the hot emotions that have been inflamed more and more the last few of election cycles. Instead we first got some double talk about how posters and things said were misconstrued, then came the cry of we can say anything we want as it is protected by the 1st amendment. I'm sorry, but these weren't just harmless metaphors, these were cries to come to arms and take back their country from people who don't have the same opinions that they do. What's even more disappointing/saddening/stupid is it wasn't that long ago, that these were the same people that were calling for the assassination of the founder of Wikileaks for exposing some mostly embarrassing, but some possibly criminal things that have been going on in our government and other governments around the world. These people have been bending over backwards trying to figure out how to strip any 1st amendment rights from Wikileaks to stop information that should be coming out of our major news organizations if they weren't all on the dole with these people in power, or it would maybe be more correct to say if they didn't have the people in power on their doles.

It's too bad that the tragedy of what's happened, the lives lost and lives damaged are getting lost in the back and forth finger pointing and arguing about who's to blaim.