Smart Pills for America

I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, but for the life of me I don’t understand how it is possible for any intelligent person to think that by returning to policies that were instigated in 2000 by George Bush and with which we lived for 8 years; that gave us two wars (unpaid for, BTW); unequaled and unrestricted spending while reducing taxes and therefore reducing revenues to pay for everything; that brought the country to it’s economic knees by fostering an environment of non-regulation resulting in debt that is only now being fully realized;

will somehow be better than:

a reversal of the downward spiral in unemployment caused by those policies; a steady creation of jobs (albeit not as robust as we all would like); the salvaging of the automobile industry and the agreement by all major auto companies to increase average mileage to over 54mpg by 2025 and thereby reduce our dependence on foreign oil; the relentless pursuit of terrorists and the bringing to justice or killing of most of the bad guys; the passage of a health care law that will for the first time provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions as well as create insurance options for 45 million people who currently aren’t insured under the old system; an administration that has reduced spending more than any of the last 50 years.

What am I missing?  Is the populace so misguided and susceptible to fallacious arguments and misrepresentations? 

Or are they just dumb people with no memory?

Sartre is Chuckling!

I am so sick of listening to all these politicians flap their lips and be without conscience when it comes to telling the truth.  It is so nakedly obvious that all of these people are pandering to whatever audience they speak to. 

What is missing from all the political debate is someone who actually can articulate what is wrong with our system and present concrete steps to fix things that are egregiously wrong.

What is also missing is that we as citizens have to admit to some of the things that are egregiously wrong and submit to solutions that are presented.

That takes a leader who can be compelling in his or her arguments, and persuasive to the American people.  They must have the personality to rally all of us to sacrifice and accept the reality of the things, that in our heart of hearts, we know are wrong with our system and our society.

In the entire of field of Republicans, there isn’t anyone like that.  The only two candidates who were even close were John Huntsman and Ron Paul.  Paul actually has a grip on what is wrong, but his solutions are too extreme.  Huntsman never displayed the charisma to lead.

So what we are left with are the people I referred to in the first paragraph of this essay.

Then there is Barak Obama.  Obama is the closest to my political orientation, but unfortunately he has been ineffective as a leader.  The simple fact is that he has been stymied at every turn by the minions of those whose mantra is ‘anything that Obama proposes needs to be crushed because it is Obama proposing it’.  Oh yeah, they also don’t like him because he is black.

There is no question that the man is an intelligent, capable potential President, but he is not the leader that is able to make all of us come together to accomplish what needs to be done to fix some of our worst problems.  He is ineffective.

The unfortunate truth is that if we elect him to a second term, he won’t be any more effective, because he just doesn’t know how to be.

So where does that leave us?

It means that on election day of this year, we have a Hobson’s Choice, instead of a path to solutions.  Unless……

Unless we all wake up and realize that we are the ones who elect our senators and representatives.  We must act to clean out the sludge that is gumming up all the works of our Congress.  Without real people who will grapple with the problems, in the spirit of compromise and rational actions, we are doomed.  We will forever be at the mercy of special interests and the legislators we elect who hold out their hands for the spoils of these interests in violation of the sacred trust we put in them to represent us.

And, we must look for a third party individual who can lead….someone who can make us understand that we must take action in all our best interests.  That person must speak in a way that inspires and persuades.  So far, I don’t see that person on the scene, but we can hope….

In the meantime, at least in Obama we have a humanist and not a Republican.  Now if only he could lead……

"Ain't Nothin Virtual about this Circle!"

"President Obama has said he will not accept contributions from lobbyists, but at least 15 of his biggest fund-raisers work in lobby shops and are unregistered. Meanwhile, the Republican candidates have taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists. And there are no limits on donations to unregulated “super PACs”.

Congress has shown little interest in tightening these requirements, in part because lawmakers don’t want to close off a lucrative career in lobbying after they leave office. More than 400 former lawmakers have become lobbyists or consultants in the last decade.

Eric Lichtblau reported in The Times on Sunday that former Representative William Delahunt, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, is making $15,000 a month lobbying for a wind energy project for which he personally earmarked $1.7 million while in Congress. Experts said they had never heard of a lawmaker benefiting so directly from one of his own earmarks. The practice of earmarking has largely been curbed, but the abuses of lobbying will continue to spread until Congress finally decides to act" 

I read this in the New York Times yesterday.  So let me get this straight----I pay my tax money and these bozos play with my money while they are in Congress.   Then they leave office with the hope and dream of continuing to receive my tax money in the form of fees for giving advice to the new legislators spending my tax dollars, who also have the hope one day of sucking fees from my tax money by giving advice to the next group of bozos in Congress who follow them.  This is an ‘industry’ that works at perpetuating its own existence using our tax dollars.  If they were terribly efficient and very productive, and truly governed with the country’s interests at heart, do you think we’d be in the position we are now?  This is corruption in it’s most pure form.  Election day is a chance for the average tax payer to take back control of our American Destiny.  Select wisely…..