Egypt and the U.S.

Just a short post today. I have been watching closely the protests in Egypt and listened to banter back and forth about what this means to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Many in the U.S. seem to have the idea that this is bad for the U.S., it will destabilize the region, the new guys might not be as friendly to the U.S., the new guys might be radical Islamic, this will cause other countries in the area that have the same kind of political set up to revolt against it's leaders, etc., etc.

Here we are/were fighting two large wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with our leaders telling us that this is to promote democracy for those that can't have it. But here now is a large populace of Egyptians that are fighting for a democratic political system, and here we are arguing amongst ourselves if it is better to provide so much as a supportive statement for the Egyptian people, or try to keep the dictator in power some how because he is a U.S. yes man. How stupid are my fellow countrymen that they think they can spread democracy by the end of a gun barrel while destroying and leveling cities. In the dictionary this is the definition of a terrorist. Surely if we back the people we will be in a better position to negotiate with what or who ever the new leadership will be than if we continue to support the old and supply tear gas and rubber bullets to be used against the people. If we want to help spread the ideals of democracy, we must ourselves live by the ideals of democracy. We can't claim to have the best political system and then support dictators to rule over other countries. IF you change to a democracy, THEN we will help out financially, NOT before. If we expect other countries to follow the rule of law, we should be responsible to the rules of laws ourselves. None of this illegal getting fondled at the airport, secret government or secret prisons, no illegal wire, phone, bank, internet tapping, no no torture when there is, breaking international laws and agreements, or any of all the other things we do that don't follow the rules of law, but I digress.

I have a feeling what the real cause of anxiety to Egypt's surrounding countries and even some of the western countries and the U.S., is that something like this could happen in our country. We have many of the same things wrong with our country that Egypt has with it's country. A small percentage of the people controls a large percentage of the money and thus power. The people who are in power aren't doing things that are the best for their country, or it's people, only for the short term gain in their own pockets. The politicians that are supposed to be representing us and working for us are corrupt, working just to try to stay in power or get in power, voting along party lines with no regard to what their constituents want, for their own financial gain, without any compassion for the people caught up or destroyed by their greed. I think this is the real cause of concern of the U.S. and the world.

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.

Politically Speaking: Now What?

Well the midterm elections are past and the Republicans gained power in the House while the Democrats kept control of the Senate. The big question is what does that mean for us? It was quite a election season with not only the Democrats and the Republicans fighting in the ring, but the Tea Party was there also, with both the Republicans and Tea Party thinking of victory by riding each others coat tails. My feelings are that the Tea Party got owned by the Republicans, time will tell, but it already looks like there is some dissension between the ranks, and it's only been a couple of days since the election.

I tend to lean towards the Democrats, but I am frustrated and disappointed with their spinelessness. There were investigations of wrong doing by President Bush and some of his close associates that showed that he was doing things wrong and he was intentionally doing them even though he knew they were wrong. Why then is it that the subject of prosecuting Bush, and whoever else involved, such a taboo subject even from the Democrat side? To make things worse, now George Bush has a book coming out where he admits once again of his war crimes. Will the insanity never cease?

Bush basically passed his own pardon and pardoned everyone who took part in all the illegal activities before he left office, put people in key parts of the government, while he was in office, that would allow him to get away with doing things that were wrong. Don't forget that both Bush and Cheney got on national television and admitted that they gave the orders and supported water boarding and other torture techniques, had secret prisons, performed secret renditions, and crimes against the American people and the constitution by the unlimited phone and internet monitoring, arresting people in the middle of the night and not charge them of any crime for 5 years if at all, with no rights, and going against the Geneva Convention rules and international laws and agreements. This upsets me with the Democrats. When Obama stood there and said, let's not bother going back and dwelling on the past, but look towards the future in reference to prosecuting Bush I stood in shock... I think there were many others who had the same reaction. In my opinion the people's mandate for election a great majority of Democrats in 2008 was so that something could be done about the rouge, run away government that the Bush Administration turned into, that included bringing to justice the people who blatantly and openly broke the laws of our constitution and how our government is supposed to operate, both at home and abroad.

The other thing that I and I think many other people that supported Obama are disappointed about is the health bill. Not for the fact that it was passed, but how fast the best parts of the bill were negotiated out before it even came to vote, and then that it really never mattered any way because it was pretty much a straight party vote, so there never was any compromise from the other side at all. Many people would have liked to see the single payer option at least seriously considered. Health care should not be run by organizations that their main purpose is not health care, but stockholders profits, that's just wrong. We need to get rid of all the swindling, lieing, profit machines that we call health insurance companies. A lot of money could be saved if the government took care of people with that money instead of a big company not worrying about if they will break even, but make record profits. This was another thing that didn't make me too happy with the Democrats.

The thing with the Democrats in general is that it's hard to try to compete with the bullies on the playground while playing by the rules and bending over backwards trying to appease any of them. Both sides worry more about being elected, getting their side in power, or keeping their side in power, that they don't really seem to care too much about us. In all fairness I guess I have to say the Democrats tried, they came in at the worse time since the great depression and actually did some good, tried to pass some good financial reform, credit card reform, health care reform, it just was a little too slow to help them for the mid elections.

What will we see going forward? I fear not much different than we seen these last couple of years. In the mean time we, meaning us common folk, will suffer while they all have their pissing contests.

What do you think? Agree or disagree, feel free to leave a comment.

Campaign Finances

It's time we get rid of the party system, there has been too much party and not enough system governing the the country. Each candidate should be running on his or her own platform and not be constricted by their parties as to what they can or can say, can or can't do, they are supposed to be doing the will of their electorates, not their party, not the special interests that are funding their campaigns, our government is broke in it's present form. We need to change campaign financing to fix things in Washington. How can we expect our representatives to vote with the interest of the people at heart when it is special interests that pay to get them elected in the first place? We need to finance elections with money from tax payers, or a pool of some sort. Somehow we need to start with a pool of people to run for the positions in government and then a way to quickly weed out the unwanted or unsupported, then support the runner ups by providing them all with the same amount of airtime, but only by showing their records and/or platforms factually and get away from the smears, lies, and rhetoric. The American people need a way to make informed decisions on electing their representatives without having to worry about getting fleeced by the lies told by the opposition. This could also save a lot of money that is now wasted on elections that could be spent better in other places. This would remove the conflict of interests that come into play now when politicians have to vote on bills that affect the people that paid to get them into office. Because we all know money is not the way to gauge the support or popularity of a candidate when special interests and corporations can spend more than individuals, this is why we have all these bills and laws catering to special interests, companies and the wealthy.

Tax Breaks for the Wealthy

We are only talking about the top 2-3% of the population losing tax breaks, not being taxed extra. We have gave these same people a break the past 8 years or so, now they scream bloody murder that they are being unfairly taxed. How can that 2-3% of the population scare the other 97-98% that the government is out to take income away from them? How can that big a chunk of the population be so gullible? Where has the tax breaks that the top 2-4% of the population got us? The way they talk it will make the difference of there being jobs or not, where are all the jobs that were being developed during the last 8 years? There wasn't any jobs made in this country in the last 8 years, only over seas by the tax breaks of the wealthy. While the general public has been providing tax breaks for the wealthiest 2-3% they have reciprocated by sending jobs overseas creating record profits for the big corporations while the rest of the country goes broke. If you are in the top 2-3%, vote Republican, otherwise, wtf are you thinking?

Fiscal Responsibility

Fiscal Responsibility = Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has raised $96.2 million during his tenure, but he has spent $109.6 million. (The Washington Post)