Two Different Worlds - The Governmet and The Rest Of Us. It's Time To End It.

The government and its employees owe us an explanation and a heap of apologies for abusing our tax dollars and our trust.

 Look at the abuse  of which we've been the recipients. We've seen  many of the agencies being loose with our money for entertainment purposes which they claim as workshops.  We've seen our military getting stiffed on their benefits.  We've seen them shove legislation down our throats that is so bad they've had to rush it through without even testing the roll out software lest a challenge actually be won. We've seen how the IRS has gone after the non-profit designations of organizations daring to use the term patriot or something similar in their names.  We've seeing them punish J.P. Morgan Chase for the very favor they asked of them - buying up those lousy mortgage backed securities held by Bear Sterns and Washington Mutual.

Why all of this?  The parties I'll cede to poor judgement stemming from a tin ear, arrogance and greed.  The inability to get our veterans affairs straightened out is sheer incompetence. The The health care debacle and the IRS witch hunt are both vengeful power plays as is the Morgan Chase affair.  In the latter case it's because one time golden boy Jamie Dimon had the audacity to criticize Obama's handling of the economy.

For pure pettiness, however, a case in Arizona takes the cake and should scare you to death that the government is going to play a major role in your health care.

A study showed that there was no such thing as affordable housing for deaf seniors.  Think about the needs of the deaf.  Phones, doorbells, fire alarms, etc.  With that in mind HUD helped fund a 75 unit apartment building in Tempe Arizona specifically designed for seniors who are deaf or deaf/blind.

It is now 99% occupied but HUD is threatening to pull all federal housing aid to Arizona because this unit violates civil rights law!  It gives preference to those who are - deaf!  Citing some regulation they should have been aware of, they now say only 18 hearing impaired people can reside there.

Not that 75 apartments solves the housing problem for the hearing impaired but it's a start.  The building should be a prototype for other senior housing, not something to get caught up in governmental regulation and red tape.

It isn't just the politicians that are strangling the life out of the country.  It's the government bureaucracy as a whole.  Where else could you work where you'd get back pay for having been laid off and collect unemployment to boot?

If Ted Cruz and his ilk really want to fight for us make everything equal. Every single thing. The sooner government and government workers have to play by the same rules we do, the sooner this nonsense will disappear.  It's always more fun to bully the underdog or toy with him or ignore him completely.  The trouble is we're the underdog.

Government - Why We Disparage Them

So tell me, does the widow of a Senator worth 56.8 million dollars really need a token gift of one year of his Senate salary -  $174,000?

Does the President really deserve an unlimited debt ceiling when he's borrowing to pay interest on the interest of our loans?  Interest on the interest!

What sort of message is sent when Harry Reid agreed to increase spending on a construction project in Mitch McConnell's Kentucky to get his cooperation? Increase it by $1.71 billion.  Billion!

The middle of February the whole process begins again.  What have we gained?  Absolutely nothing.  The administration has no intention of cutting spending nor fixing a very broken Obamacare system.  The Tea Party has no intention of trying to reconcile with rank and file Republicans.  Perhaps it's time for them to form their own party and see if they can maintain their solidarity.  They may find being vocal is nothing more than being vocal.

Perhaps the best thing that could happen at this point is for them to go on recess . Excuse me.  Wrong terminology.  When the Senate is on recess it's referred to as State Work Periods; the House calls theirs Constituent Work Weeks. How often do you see any of your representatives during these periods?  I figure they work about as much on recess as they do in Washington which isn't much.  Maybe with the current climate it's better that way.

Today being the 17th of October, the linked recess calendar shows they have a total of 23 days out of 49 during which both houses will be in session. That would take us to Christmas eve, not counting week ends.  In that time they need to figure out what they're going to do when the funding issue comes due again plus the President says he wants immigration reform done. Ha!  And don't forget Obamacare.

It's said they do a lot of work while on these recesses but it's not the same as sitting down and talking with your colleagues.  Personally I don't see much happening other than the usual bickering after the lull  from this last go round becomes history.  Frankly, I don't see much happening until we get an entirely new administration in place which unfortunately is three years away.  For that I'll be looking at governors who have track records. I'm tired of amateurs who think we're too unaware to know they are just that.  I'm leaving Tea Parties for little girls or the Brits.  If I want nastiness I'll look to comments on everything politic on the web.  If I want malaise I'll look at our current government.  For pure peace of mind I'll open my window and listen to the flow of our water fall.

They Deserve Better

It started with sequestration when White House tours were canceled.  Not suspended for they have not yet been put back in practice.  Because they cost the government a stupendous $17,000 a week.  How many of those tours could be run for the cost of one of the President's golf outings  for which we pay dearly?

Now we have another crisis on our hands.  The funding of government programs in return for a variety of choices in trying to mend the debacle in the making that is Obamacare.  Nix.  Nothing.  Shut down everything that will be a disruption to the everyday citizen like barricading the World War II Memorial where Honor Flights of veterans come often. This memorial was privately funded and is staffed with unpaid volunteers.  The excuse for the barricade is that park staff is qualified to give CPR.  You know, I rather think those who accompany the veterans on these trips also have knowledge of the technique and as far as I know 911 works even in D.C.

This is nothing but pure pettiness.  Say what you will about the stupidity of how the Republicans have been handling the Obamacare debate, but the Democrats, especially the White House, should be given no slack when it comes to their response.

The youngsters and the veterans, the future of our country and those have served it well, have both been slapped in the face by this White House. It has disgraced itself beyond words.

What, I wonder, are we in between the two generations going to do about it?  It's time, you know.

There's Something Fundamentally Wrong

The Greatest Obstructionist

There is something fundamentally wrong when Congress can approve legislation without first having read it.

There is something fundamentally wrong when it passes that legislation with the support of only one party and one house.

There is something fundamentally wrong when the minority of a party totally disregards the opinions of the majority and holds them hostage to a singular way of thinking.

There is something fundamentally wrong with leadership who cannot or will not lead.  If it costs a career in politics so be it.  There are others. Do it for the country who elected them and in which they too live.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a government that exempts itself from the laws forced upon its people.

There is something fundamentally wrong when neither party is willing to negotiate in good faith.

There is something fundamentally wrong when the Senate majority leader single handedly can prevent legislation from going to the floor for debate.  It's not his government; it's ours.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a President who will negotiate with know terrorist states for dubious ends yet will not negotiate with the opposition party. He is a mere mortal, not God nor King.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a President is so enamoured by his own ego and self-righteous sense that rather than lead a debate opts to do nothing.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a people who allow themselves to be run roughshod over because they are too apathetic to become informed.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a people who elect the people who do this to them what's more allow them to remain in office.

I am so thoroughly disgusted with government as a whole I put a Dogwalk pox on it's entirety.

Government As Soap Opera - When Will The Other Shoe Fall?

The deal that has been made with Syria is so rife with "what ifs" I can't begin to count them.  On that issue I'll say little today other than it was far too easy and the one player who basically has been seldom heard is Syria itself.  As I watch the next episode unfold it will be to see who double crosses who and when.

Meanwhile back at the White House Obama is getting ready to go to Asia.  The pivot that he's been hyping off and on.  Shifting our attention to the next area of the world in which to impose ourselves.  That's a secondary story line. Do you feel the resentment building?  I do.  Especially in those predominantly Muslim countries.

While the cat is away the mice in Congress will parallel it with the upcoming battle for one more continuing resolution to fund the government.  It is like a soap isn't it?  Thirty years running you have the same main characters unless they die from old age and the same story lines.  It's amazing.

Back to the drama.  I'd like to see a change in the story line but fear I won't.  It isn't the time for the Republicans to remain being stupid but I fear they will.  The issue is defunding Obamacare or shut down the government.  Please.  Don't do this.  Get creative.  Yes, Obamacare is a mess. And the President should have learned from the Syria debacle he really needs Congress with him.  But he doesn't learn either.  The problem here is no foreign entity can bail him out of this one. No one will bail us out either if the government shuts down.

The military will be left without pay.  We seniors will be left without our social security checks and the poor without welfare and food stamps. That doesn't even scratch the surface of the total impact it would have on the country.  Remember, the bigger the government, the bigger the impact and we have a doozy.

The President, if he could be realistic for a brief moment, should delay implementation of the entire bill until it's sorted out.  He won't.  Harry Reid and the Democratic obstructionists like Chris van Hollen should resign.  The Tea Party purists should also resign.  Of course they won't.  It's the formula. Same story, 200th episode!

Shutting down the government won't solve anything but will succeed in making the people even more angry than they already are.  Maybe we need to contact our congressional delegations with the verve we did in opposing a military strike in Syria.  This time tell them to grow up, work together and get this budget mess straightened out.

While they're at it they should consider changing a few rules about how they do business.  It is flat out wrong when one individual be it John Boehner, Harry Reid or Barack Obama can prevent legislation from being debated or moved forward or enforced on personal whim.

If they find dictatorship so attractive I'm sure Syria or Russia would indulge them.

Drone Wars

A simple answer to a simple question was the outcome of 12 hours of filibuster by Senator Rand Paul over whether the President has the constitutional right to use drones to kill Americans on American soil.

Put simply, he does.  There are of course mitigating circumstances.  And no, he is not going to bomb an American citizen in Starbucks - unless that citizen is in combat mode against the United States. That's one of those mitigating circumstances.

As for Mr. Paul's filibuster, he should have done some home work on the examples he used, like Jane Fonda could have been taken out for doing footsies with the North Vietnamese.  Wrong. She was not part of, planning to nor actually committing  aggression against the United States.  Just using bad judgement but then so have Sean Penn, Jimmy Carter, Oliver North, Michael Moore, et al in their profuse praise of the recently departed Hugo Chavez.

Today Senators McCain and Graham, two of the most prominent Republican mavericks in the Senate chose to belittle Mr. Paul's efforts.  They too are wrong. He got his answer, in writing, from the Attorney General.  Mr. Graham still does not have the answers he was demanding on Benghazi so I'd be a bit more prudent than condescending in my judgement of a junior colleague.

There is still the question of government over reach.  We know they are capable of it by looking at their reaction to the sequester.  Considering that, written and detailed assurances of what can and cannot be done are essential. They shouldn't have to be asked for in the first place.

Very little that happens in Washington stands alone.  There are other drone worries that could also escalate.  Perhaps they aren't getting the same scrutiny because they come under another department.  You guessed it.  Homeland Security.  They have a fleet of custom designed drones that can identify people carrying guns and also track cell phone signals.  The department seems to be building it's own army what with it's armoured vehicles and weaponry.  Now drones.

While currently unarmed, the same Predator B military version carries Hellfire missiles which means the ones in domestic use can be modified.

This isn't to say they would be used to detect armed citizens or randomly monitor your cell phone use or modified to take out an offender, but then again why not?  The question is do you have the right to privacy or do you not?  Just like military drone attacks can hit innocent victims so too can domestic drones pick up information to which they have no right.

I give Rand Paul an A for effort in bringing to attention loosely drawn language on the rights of Americans.  I give McCain and Graham an F for pomposity and condescension.  As for the rest of us I'll  give an incomplete for not being as aware as we should be as to how everything connects. At times it's referred to as connecting the dots.  A game well worth knowing how to play.

Pure Evil

The world has gone mad, completely mad and both Christians and Israel are sitting in the cross hairs of the manifestation of hatred and evil beyond belief.

I could not believe this headline when I read it, Arab Spring Run Amok: 'Brotherhood' Starts Crucifixions.  Crucifixions?  Are you kidding? No. According to WND radical Muslims have begun crucifying those opposed to Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi. Naked.  On trees in front of the presidential palace.

I could not believe what I was seeing so I searched about a bit and found other articles reporting the same news. Apparently the victims can be anyone with extra brutality reserved for Christians.

Well, here we go again.  Savagery in the name of religion.  It seems it's not only a normal part of Islamic doctrine but obligatory according to the Quran.  Therefore the Muslim brotherhood is obliged to include it in their legal code in order to comply with Shariah.

We've long known the Muslims are bound to wage war against Christians who in many instances are synonymous with the west.  Us.  Are we not a 'Christian' nation?

Israel is in trouble because they thwarted an attack by Hamas trying to cross into Gaza.  Morsi used this as an excuse to purge the top ranks of the military, those who were fighting to preserve some degree of sanity.

We sit here taking no stand on the slaughter that continues in Syria.  We have taken a back seat to the entire theater of war that has been going on in the middle east for years, giving thumbs up to dictators who we declare redeemable but who never are.  Mubarak.  Ghadafi.  Al Assad.  Karzi.  Now Morsi.  We only give the thumbs down when it's apparent they can't extract themselves from the destruction they reigned down upon themselves.  Why is this?

I know the country is tired of war.  We get into them for all the wrong reasons and stay out of them for the same. Our foreign policy is floundering if indeed we have any.  Leading from behind is not a policy.  Or is it?  That makes it even worse.

Morsi is instituting a reign of terror to consolidate his power.  He will be attending a summit in Iran this month.  That does not bode well. He has an invitation to visit the White House in September.  They will try to convince us he is a moderate.  One more monster we wanted to see in power.

All I can do is ask why?  What are we thinking?  Al Assad is slaughtering his own people by the tens of thousands.  Morsi is having his opposition crucified.  This is pure evil.  Period. Yet we neither hear it, see it nor speak it.

We give Israel the cold shoulder, leaving them to fend for themselves.  We welcome these governments with open arms.  Something is drastically wrong.  We are the west.  We are mostly Christian.  We are targeted. Don't ever think we're not.  Just look at the number of our soldiers being murdered by the Afghans who we're training and providing with the very weapons they use.

Somehow, in the grand scheme of things, I could care less what Mitt Romney paid in taxes the last ten years or whether or not he releases that information.  You want something taxing to worry about?  Consider the future as the countries of the middle east fall like dominoes to the Islamic radicals.  Consider too, these monsters are beginning to be put into office by their own people.

What will we be putting into office?  Better yet, what have we put into office?

Government Intelligence As An Oxymoron

Much has been written lately about the TSA overstepping the bounds of human decency in their near strip searches of the elderly and the very young, not to mention everyone in between!  Sometimes I have to chuckle when I picture them trying to implant a bomb in an elderly person that they would set off themselves.  And a rug rat still in diapers couldn't do it at all.  I know kids are smarter younger, but there are also limits!

 Do you ever wonder how big that bomb would have to be to actually take down a plane? Is there really technology that such a powerful bomb can be implanted without showing at least a bump under the skin?  And where would they put it to make access easy without some noticeable contortions? By  the time it blows granny to smithereens would there be not so much damage but rather a mess and a bunch very of irate passengers?

Okay, you can see where my head is today, but now for the serious side.  The justification for TSA procedures comes from "chatter".  We can't take the chance that no one has been corrupted.  Meanwhile the terrorists know the buzz words to use, keep us in a tizzy and no doubt are enjoying our jumping through hoops immensely!

On the flip side, there is a real danger of something going boom and it isn't the diaper set.  It's the nuc Tehran is getting closer and closer to being able to build yet we refuse to acknowledge that possibility.  Let's face it, when they get the bomb a whole lot more than one airplane is at risk.  Try a city.  Or a country.  Maybe even ours!

Why are we in denial this is happening while the rest of the world including our allies and the U.N. are watching with grave concern?  The last assessment made by our intelligence was in 2007.  When Fred Fleitz tried to expose those doing the assessment, or the lack thereof, his criticisms were censored by the CIA and the Office of the Director of Intelligence. Fleitz recently retired after a twenty five year career with the CIA, DIA,  the State Department and the House Intelligence Committee staff.  I would think he knows his way around the subject and that his findings and concerns mesh with those of our allies and the U.N.

It seems to me if our government can tie itself up in knots over chatter, they just might not want to keep their heads in the sand when it comes to truth.  When the Iranian Revolutionary Guard posts on its website that the day after an Iranian nuclear test would be a normal day, one might be led to believe they are planning such a test.

What, me worry?  Nah.  After all, I didn't hear it on the grapevine!