National Treasure
The movie National Treasure was on the tube the other day and Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) recites a part of the "Declaration of Independence" that has really struck home in the crazy land that is called "The United States." I wanted to share this with you because it gets diectly to the heart of the matter! No doubt, I will have Obama police watching me from now until he is voted out of office but it is a risk that I will gladly accept in the pursuit of taking my country back.
Of all the ideas that became the United States, there's a line here that's at the heart of all the others. "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."
As Ben Gates goes on to say, Americans (The People) are charged with not only the RIGHT but a RESPONSIBILITY to protect the Country and ourselves from TYRANNY. In my humble opinion, America is today facing the largest threat of Tyranny since the days of the founding fathers. When the Congress and the President FAILS to LISTEN to the will of the people that they are charged to represent, then surely this is Tyranny. Now my question is, "Did the founding fathers already perceive that one day we would face this Catastrophe that is happening in this Country?" A very famous quote from Thomas Jefferson leads me to believe that the answer is in the affirmative.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson
Stop Making Excuses
Mr. Obama, I challenge you to stop making excuses for everything by laying blame on President Bush and Republicans! Yes, while President Bush was in office, the deficit and debt soared. He made hard decisions that were unpopular but he made those decisions based upon his oath to "Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic." I would like to remind you that while the President puts forward budget recommendations to the Congress, indeed it is the Congress that controls the purse of the United States and during the last two years of the Bush adminstration, it was your party that was in the majority. Therefore, your excuses are without merit. Moreover, you have held the office for over a year and we are facing the largest deficit in just one year than all other President's have faced in the history of the US.
You mentioned just recently that you were not an idealogue! The American People are still waiting for the proof of that statement.
Your Hard Earned Money
Remember the speech during the campaign where Obama stated that the "Pork Barrel" would end. He expected Congress to send him a bill that was free of earmarks and pork, else he would Veto it. Check out these facts:
During the Defense appropriations bill that was signed into law just before the end of the year, government watchdogs found $4.2 Billion Dollars of PORK! This is just ONE bill Ladies and Gentlemen. In all, Congress added in 1,720 pet projects, including:
·$5 million for a visitors center in San Francisco
·$23 million for indigent health care in Hawaii
·$18 million for the Edward Kennedy Policy Institute in Massachusetts
·$1.6 million to computerize hospital records in Oakland
·$47 million for anti-drug training centers around the country
·$20 million for the World War II Museum in Louisiana
·$3.9 million grant to develop an energy-efficient solar film for buildings
·$800,000 for minority prostate cancer research
·$3.6 million for marijuana eradication in Kentucky
·$2.4 million for handicap access and a sprinkler system at a community club in New York
Lawmakers also added $5 billion for two destroyers, 10 C-17 cargo planes and to develop a jet engine the
Pentagon neither wants nor needs. Critics call it classic pork -- projects that may save jobs, but not money. To be fair to the Obama administation, this was a result of a must pass bill that funds our troops and ongoing defense spending and would have been disasterous if delayed by a Veto. CAN ANYONE SAY "LINE ITEM VETO!"
Concerned Citizens & The Power of the Internet
You may have noticed that, suddenly, congress decided that they didn't need $500 million in new airplanes to fly them and their families to Hawaii and Paris. That was LARGELY the result of the visibility of the story on the internet, with millions of emails crossing the country and making their greed obvious.
Here's an even bigger issue, and it would raise the same indignation if forwarded to all your friends and all your friends' friends who, in turn, will pressure Congress into changing this expensive, outrageous system.
LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT! KEEP IT GOING!!!!
Propose this in 2009:
START A BILL TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Representatives do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except that it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA!!! ZILCH!!!
You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds "OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us and see how fast they would fix it!
