Tag Archives: congress

An Open Letter to Rand Paul

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Many of the sentiments expressed in this letter are really intended for almost every member of Congress. Unfortunately, there seems like little hope for most of them to do what is in the best interests of our country as a whole.

Dear Senator Paul:

In February of 2013 I wrote to you and said this regarding the confirmation of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense:

“He clearly is unqualified and you were wrong to give your consent. I pray to God this man’s appointment does not lead to needless bloodshed or an avoidable sacrifice of American lives.”

Now we know Chuck Hagel rubberstamped President Obama’s decision to exchange five dedicated Taliban jihadists for one American army deserter (and the Obama administration is now trying to deflect some of the blame to Mr. Hagel). I fear this foolish prisoner exchange will encourage the jihadists to target Americans for the purpose of ransom. In fact, I have no doubt the orders have already gone out to do so.

Would any appointee chosen by Obama for that position have rubberstamped his decision to release these five Taliban killers? Probably. But you and I knew from his performance at the confirmation hearings that Chuck Hagel was not up to the job of defending American security. You made a stupid political calculation. Some things are worth a fight and you refused to do it. (I don’t think a man of John Bolton’s character would have rubberstamped anything George W. Bush desired).

Dear Senator Paul, I still think you are one of the good guys left in Congress, but I am losing faith in you. Stop running for President, stop with the political calculations and do only what you can now to save our country from the madness of this Administration.

Sincerely,

Frotho Canutus 

Be Happy! You Were Lied to for Your Own Good!

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“If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?” –John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

Recently, LZ Granderson, a commentator and writer for CNN News said this during a TV debate about Americans’ distrust of  President Obama vis-a-vis Obamacare:

“The question is, which lies can you live with? And, time and time again, Americans have said we can deal with the lies that President Obama tells us because we believe in his heart, he has the best interest for the American people. Every president is going to lie to you. Every politician is going to lie to you. The question is, which lies can you live with?”

So there you have it, America. A peek into the dark, twisted world of “progressive” logic.

Dear hard-working, patriotic Americans: LZ Granderson says he is speaking for you. He has anointed himself to be your spokesperson, partly because he claims to know what you all are thinking, but more importantly because he thinks he knows what is best for you. Yet Mr. Granderson does note cite his sources. How does he know all this? Did Gallup run a national poll that included a question like:

“If you agree that President Obama has your best interests at heart do you believe it is okay for him to lie to you about the most important issues that affect your health and well-being?”

No, there have not been any national polls that have posed a question like that and even if there were none would support Granderson’s false claim that “Americans have said we can deal with the lies that President Obama tells us.” If there was such supporting evidence Granderson would have certainly produced it by now.

I have a question for Mr. Granderson. If progressive, liberal policies are clearly so good for America in the minds of liberals like Mr. Granderson, then why would President Obama and the Democrats have to lie to the American people about the policies they want to impose on us? For instance, why did they tell us we could keep our doctor and our health plan when they knew it was not true? Why did they tell us that the new healthcare law would make health care more affordable when it will actually drive up most insurance premiums and add to our national debt? If their vision of America is clearly so superior, why doesn’t it sell itself. Why are the lies and deception necessary?

The answer must surely be that the liberal elite think that regular, hard-working Americans are clearly too stupid to recognize what is in their own best interest. That is in effect what LZ Granderson is saying. If he is correct, that Americans are too dumb to figure out what is in their own best interest, then surely the current batch of elected miscreants in Washington is the product of that stupidity. When I contemplate who populates Congress and the White House, I wonder if they are not absolute proof of the collective stupidity that Granderson alludes to. Sometimes it’s difficult to think otherwise.

What it really comes down to is this, if we live in a culture where lies are tolerable, even desirable, as in Mr. Granderson’s world, then how can citizens hope to make informed decisions about politics and policies that directly impact their lives? The problem is, they cannot. If we are continually deceived by politicians and their cheerleaders in the media, who claim to have our best interests at heart (and we would be foolish to believe their claim that they do), then we will more often than not elect people who create far more problems than they solve. Liars, cheats, and power-hungry fortune seekers are surely not attracted to Washington by the lure of solving America’s problems. They are there for much less honorable reasons.

“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” — Stephen King

It is frightening to contemplate, but think about it – by the logical extension of his belief that Americans need to be lied to for their own good because they are clueless, Mr. Granderson and other progressives could argue that there really is no need to have any elections at all. If the masses are too ignorant to know what is in their best interest, then what is the purpose of letting the ignorant vote? In the liberal, progressive mind our representative form of democracy is just a big show, an expensive waste of time and money. Perhaps Mr. Granderson thinks we should just scrap our Constitution and just let the “intellectual elite”[1] run the country. Or perhaps, on the other hand, the progressive liberals think the electoral process is a necessary show, one that gives the illusion that the people are the masters and the politicians their representatives. Either way, the fact that a man with views like Mr. Granderson is given a platform on a major news network to air his anti-American sophistry is clear evidence that our Constitutional Republic is under attack from within.

No, LZ Granderson’s vision for America will only lead to our ruin. We must not accept it. The best thing we can do at election time is to support only those who are the wisest, most honorable and virtuous amongst us. If we can manage to do that collectively, most of our current and future problems will be solved. But it requires a different mindset, one that truly looks at the long term and insists on doing the greatest good for the most people, not just preferred groups. Hopefully, we are a little more advanced than just a bunch of wild, uncivilized scavengers fighting over the remaining spoils of another’s successful hunt, tearing at each other for our turn at someone else’s discarded carcass. Wouldn’t it be better to focus our attention not on what we can steal or scavenge from our fellow men, but rather on being excellent at something that other men and women value and will pay us handsomely for. That has a far better chance of leading to a general happiness in the United States and is far preferable to “Life, Slavery and the Pursuit of Carcass.”

Frotho Canutus

“Human government is more or less perfect as it approaches nearer or diverges farther from the imitation of this perfect plan of divine and moral government.”
–John Adams, draft of a Newspaper Communication, Circa August 1770

“Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the “latent spark”… If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?”  –John Adams, Novanglus, 1775

“I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!”  –John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, November 2, 1800

 “All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”  –Sir Winston Churchill

“Time and time again, Americans have said we can deal with the lies that President Obama tells us…” — LZ Granderson

Link to video of Granderson speaking on CNN here: MRC LINK

[1] Progressive liberals.

HOW TO IMPROVE CONGRESS

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Since members of Congress are constantly inventing new laws aimed at controlling the behavior of the American people, I think it’s time we turn the tables on them. We need to create new incentives/disincentives to curb their bad behavior. I’ve got a couple of ideas.

I have been wondering why Congressional pay is not commensurate with the benefits Congressmen and Congresswomen confer on American society. I mean really, the U.S. Senate under Harry Reid’s misleadership did not pass a budget, as required by law, for three years in a row (fiscal years 2010-2012). By my math, and considering that the federal debt is $16½ trillion, rather than paying members of Congress six figures with lifetime pension and benefits, they should be paying us back for the damage they are doing to our country. Seriously, they should be paid very little at best. Maybe $50,000 to start and decrease their salary by 10% for every year they serve. This, I think will encourage people who want to serve in Congress for the right reasons, not for selfish ones. Let’s take the perks and the profits out of the job. If the incumbents don’t like this new arrangement, let them find a better paying job in the real world.

One unintended consequence of this new pay scale for Congress may be that it creates an incentive to engage in funny business. Therefore, if a member of Congress is convicted of taking bribes worth $10,000 or more there should be a mandatory minimum 10 year jail sentence. And since politicians love having buildings named after them we can honor their vanity by renaming federal prisons after any of them are convicted under the new system. As an example, instead of using the boring name Federal Correctional Institution, Oakdale we could re-name it the William J. Jefferson Federal Prison. It has a nicer ring to it wouldn’t you agree? Jefferson was a Louisiana congressman who, you may remember, was sentenced in 2009 to thirteen years in federal prison for accepting bribes. Federal agents actually seized $90,000 in cash from Jefferson’s kitchen freezer. It’s time to heap buckets of disgrace on any Congressman- turned-criminal who only pretends to serve the interests of the American people.

Oh, and while we’re at it, do you think it would be too much to ask Congress to eliminate the taxpayer-funded Senate Hair Care Services? Oh….the hardship!

Dear Reader: Please let me know if you have any ideas of your own to help improve Congress.

Frotho

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING…

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Washington Politicians have once again shown that they are bent on destroying America. Wake up people, before it’s too late!

For future Americans the American Dream will become the American Nightmare.

Yesterday, while most of you were sleeping peacefully, the President and Congress agreed to a budget deal entitled The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. This budget agreement is further proof that these misfits in Washington are taking the American people down the road to ruin.  Look no further than the title of this law to expose the first lie. How is raising the highest tax bracket from 35% to 40% “Taxpayer Relief?”  How is the increase in capital gains tax and dividend tax from 15% to 24% “Taxpayer Relief?” Who is foolish enough to fall for such political gibberish? So guess what, if you have money invested in a retirement plan your taxes are going up. How is that for TAXPAYER RELIEF?!!

The Congressional Budget Office has crunched the numbers on this new deal and estimates that it will increase the national debt by $3,971,177,000,000 (about $4 trillion) over the next ten years versus if no deal had been reached and we had gone over the so-called “fiscal cliff.” Don’t these miscreants in Washington get it?! We need to reduce our national debt burden, not increase it.

Even simple-minded folks like me understand that debts must eventually be paid back at some point. The primary way that any government pays off debts is by raising taxes – that is every government’s main source of revenue. Therefore, this immutable fact means that in the future American taxpayers will be coerced into paying off the debts we incur now. We are already $16 ½ trillion (and rising) in the hole. Who would like to stand here before us then and tell us with a straight face that this new Act which increases our public debt by trillions of dollars will provide “Taxpayer Relief?” It will do nothing of the sort and will only make the country’s financial condition far worse. Any Congressperson who voted for this fiscally destructive Act needs to be turned out of office at the next opportunity. They just don’t care about the damage they are doing to our country. They know they are covered with their nice salaries and retirement pensions and health care benefits and that’s all that matters to them. To hell with everyone else.

We have been hearing over and over from President Obama and the Liberals that the rich people are not paying their “fair share” and that the rich people have been sticking it to the poor and middle class. Rich people this, wealthy people that, blah, blah, blah! It makes me want to puke. All of this is nothing more than propaganda used by Liberals to hypnotize a majority of the least wealthy Americans into voting for Liberals.  It’s no more complicated than that.

I thought the point of sticking it to the rich people was to help ease the country’s financial burden. The problem with this is that it is a lie and President Obama and every lawmaker in Washington knows it. Raising taxes on the so-called “wealthiest” Americans might pick up the tab for about seven or eight days worth of Federal spending. It’s a drop in the ocean. If you have been led to believe that making the rich people pay their “fair share” will help solve this country’s fiscal problems, then you have allowed yourself to be deceived. Please try to become more informed about basic arithmetic and economics before you enter another voting booth.

We need nothing short of a revolution if we want to save the American Dream for future generations. We must change course now or sink.

One more thing: many of the pretenders in the media should be ashamed of the way they have covered this whole budget fiasco. They so often frame it as a duel between Democrats and Republicans – who has the upper hand, who is in disarray, which side caved, who saved face? – Most of them, who are Democrat cheerleaders and lackeys, ignore what really matters, which is, what policies are in the best long-term interest of the American people.

An American

ILLUSION vs. REALITY IN POLITICS

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In politics misinformation is routinely masqueraded around as the truth. That said, it’s no surprise that we just re-hired a president who claims that he can cut the federal deficit in a meaningful way by raising taxes on the wealthy. Putting that illusion aside, the truth is that we are now running record deficits despite the fact that president Obama claimed in 2008 that he would cut them in half and who, after spending $800 billion in stimulus money, had to admit that all those “shovel ready” jobs weren’t so shovel ready after all. It’s like an older child who resists the obvious truth that Santa Claus is only make believe. A majority of the electorate has chosen once again to perpetuate the Obama illusion.

One common talking point I’ve heard repeated over and over again is that President Obama would have accomplished so much more in his first term if it were not for Republican “obstructionists.” The people who repeat this falsehood are either dishonest or ignorant of the facts.

The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for the first two years (2009-2010) of the Obama presidency. To say that Republicans prevented Obama from being successful during his first two years in office is utterly ridiculous.

Does the Republicans-as-obstructionists theory apply to 2011-2012 after the GOP was handed control of the House? Only if one is willing to ignore certain inconvenient facts.  In May of this year the Democrat-controlled Senate defeated Obama’s budget proposal 99-0. That means that more Democrat Senators “obstructed” Obama’s budget than did Republican Senators. The important story there is that not a single member of Obama’s own party in the Senate voted for his 2013 budget. Obama was a victim of Democrat obstructionism.

But wait, there’s more proof that Republican obstructionism is a myth created by the left in order to deceive the folks. A year earlier, in May of 2011, Obama’s budget was rejected 97-0 in the Senate. Again not a single Democrat was willing to support the President’s budget. He received two unanimous no confidence votes from his own party. It doesn’t get any worse than that.

The Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a budget in over 3 1/2 years. That makes Senate majority leader Harry Reid the king of “do-nothing.” So how is it that Republicans got painted with this false distinction? Look no further than the purveyors of misinformation like the DNC, MSNBC, The View, MoveOn, Think Progress, the Obama campaign and other groups that favor Democrats. They have been complaining nonstop about Republican obstructionism since Barack Obama first took office. Why haven’t they been complaining about the do-nothing Democrats in the Senate as well? If you can’t figure it out on your own then nothing I say here will matter.

If large numbers of the American people continue to allow themselves to be manipulated and misled by politicians and the media then there is little hope for our country.  A wise man once said, “The very media, founded on communications and automata, especially television, can communicate illusion as well as reality, and that is all right as long as we know the difference.”

Canutus