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Part 86 Reforming the Legislature:
January 19, 2004:
Now it is time to take a look at our legislature. I insist that reforming our legislature is of the highest priority. Right now, it is really stupid. We need new people in every chair on both sides of the aisle in both houses. We need people with integrity who can think. Here is part of the why of it. All of these current people are all too easily influenced, not just by money, but also by threats. There are all kinds of buffoons running around Washington pretending that they represent enormous numbers of people.
Let's take as examples the AARP lobby and the NRA lobby. In fact, these hucksters only represent themselves and a few private interests. Most of the people who joined these organizations joined for other reasons. They did not give licence to these con artists to represent them in Washington. Our real representatives are too easily intimidated by these liars and buffoons. That is because they have been bureaucrats for so long they have lost the capacity for discriminate thought.
Considering that, some may suggest that we might as well just abandon our government as it currently is and start over. I don't think so. Our system of government should not be abandon, it should be restored. That requires dedication and discipline. Abandonment requires nothing more than cowardice. We should not discard what has been created in over 200 years of effort. Our philosophy of democracy has stood the test of time. Now it seems to have gone sour.
Rather than run away from that, we should examine our recent actions to see where we went wrong. We need to give up those things which have driven us to this point. Specifically we need to let go of our greed, selfishness, and cowardice. We need to reaffirm our age old principles of responsibility and service. We need to become a community once again. We need to begin to trust our principles again.
Everywhere I look I see people abandoning our traditions. We have abandon our traditional tools, our traditional institutions, and out traditional values. Abandonment is a cowardly act. The courageous actions would be to find out what is wrong and make the system work. There is nothing wrong with the two houses as defined in our constitution. There is nothing wrong with the principles of separation of power as they are constituted in our three branches of government. What is wrong is the gradual degeneration of these institutions caused by the lack of accountability. We need to make our institutions accountable to the people. We cannot do that with the people who are currently there. They must all be replaced.
Let's just look at the quality and integrity of the people we need to get rid of. Why not start with Congressman Janklow of South Dakota. He is just one man who has committed manslaughter. He was speeding, ran a stop, and destroyed a motorcycle with a human on it. He was previously in violation twelve times and he still had a driver's license. He thought he was above the law because he was a congressman. If he had not been a big shot republican, would he have had his license suspended? He has finally been convicted of manslaughter but it's too late for the dead man. Janklow is not the first or only politician who thought he was above the law. He is just one who got caught.
That is just one rather isolated situation, but it gives one example of power run amok. Another issue is that every one of our legislators is for sale. They even sell out to each other. For instance, look at the most recent spending bill that passed through these houses. This was reported on December 4, 2003 by ABC News. It is a pork barrel money bill. 243 billion dollars was approved, all of it special interest pork barrel. It has no relevance to the good of the country whatsoever. This is just one reason why we need to dump all of these fools into the gutter and replace them. It establishes very clearly that there are no honest people in congress.
In another situation of blackmail, federal style. Recently Larry Craig of the Senate held some Air Force promotions ransom to force the Air Force to send some aircraft to his home state. These are promotions earned by our service men in combat situations. Craig said, in effect, tough crap for them. I have blackmail power and I will use it. In theory the Senate has an ethics committee. I wonder what they do when they are not hiding under a blanket.
Let us also look at nominations for public office. It has reached the point where no rational and thoughtful person will accept a nomination by the President of the United States for any high level position. Why should they subject themselves to the evil vicious butchers on capitol hill. It is better to go into industry where they can make big bucks and keep a low profile. The destructive, hate filled, revenge seeking, representatives in our congress have created a situation where the very best of our people will avoid public service like the plague. So we end up with the hacks and suck ups. We get the people who are willing to be humiliated just so they can have a little power.
The problem is, these congressmen have eliminated the word loyal from the concept of loyal opposition. Without that concept, opposition can only become evil, vicious, destructive and counterproductive. Nothing good has come out of Washington in 20 years. And, more and more, our state and local governments are adopting the federal model. It's difficult to see where anything good is coming out of government anywhere.
It doesn't matter which. It could be the liberal clan beating the bushes in the back woods until they finally find a silly woman and con her into believing she can waltz in and trash Thomas then waltz out again. It could be the vicious chairman trashing Tony Lake. It just doesn't matter. They are all filth. Trash is the only game they know.
Here is one you may remember about our respect for Law. There was an American lieutenant Colonel who used life threatening intimidation, a more subtle form of torture, to get information from an Iraqi prisoner. Now, he may be up for court martial. Some senators are trying to get him off because he claims his acts saved some American lives. That does not wash.
That Colonel violated international and American law. Regardless of the justification, that is wrong. If we let that stand, we are no different that the people we are fighting. Either we are about ethics and law or we are about nothing. There can be no compromise or yeah but! To keep the moral ground we pretend to, we must be impeccable. But congress wants it both ways. They want to hold Hussein accountable but let the Colonel off.
I could go on. There are thousands of instances of dishonesty,
stupidity, and corruption in congress, but that is enough to make
the point. We need to reform the Senate and the House. To do that,
we need to replace everyone in both houses.
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