Do our votes count?

Ask yourself this, if George Bush had not been awarded the Presidency in the disputed election of 2000, would we be in Iraq? If more people had looked closely at his record and achievements, would it even have come to a court decision? At the time, I could not believe it would even be a close race, after all what had he done in his life? In the end it was probably people who thought exactly that, that gave him the election. I think it was more the people, who did not bother to vote at all, that gave him the edge he needed. So if you are tired and don't feel like going out or don't think your vote counts think of that.

Campaigns & Reform

I have just been wondering when the recession will be over for the actual people of this country. We hear all of the reports about how the banks are posting profits. How Wall St. is recovering. What about Main St? Where is the help for them? Where is the help for us, the people? When will we be able to start posting profits again? When will they hear us? The people of Main Street are about to have the only say to which they are entitled. Well here it comes! Election time! Maybe as we enter the Midterm Election Season we should all be wondering just how democratic is our election process?
November 3, Election Day, is coming up. After that it will be the campaign season. All the people who are up for the Midterm Election will be out there campaigning. They will be telling us how much they have helped us and how much their opponent wants to screw us. However, I think this season I am going to be looking more closely at their funding. I will be wondering who paid for all these ads and everything else that goes into a campaign. Every campaign season I wonder why there are more ads attacking opponents and not so many extolling the virtues of any particular candidate. Is it because the opponent is so bad or because they themselves have not done the greatest job? Or, is it a question of cash? Why so many ads in the first place and how are it democratic when only people with lots of money can run? Where do they get all that money? Also, is it not somewhat obscene that so much money is spent on campaigns, when so many people are suffering economic losses, jobs lost, homes lost and lives lost?
We have all heard about campaign finance reform, but does it ever happen? No. Why? Well it is freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a good thing, I love it. Except that in the case of Campaign finance, whose speech is being protected and who is denied any speech at all? Are the candidates, who are all out there telling us that they feel our pain and kissing our babies going to work for us, if we elect them, or are they going to be working for the people picking up the tab so that they can tell us they feel our pain and kiss our babies? Somehow I believe it is the later.
Do they take our money, sure they do, but is it our money that means the most to any campaign or is it the corporate interests? Well of course it is the corporate interests they give far more money then we do. Far more often then we do. Just as it is the corporate interests that have more input in how, when and why laws are written or revised. When a politician finally loses a seat, where do they go? They obtain employment from the very corporate interests who they worked for while in office. We need to take a long hard look at how our government is run and by whom it is run. It is certainly not by us. Perhaps campaign finance reform should be voted on by the people it affects most, the voters and not the people who benefit from it.

Protests and outrage?

I have been trying to put together something on health care but the debate has been so long and strange. It is hard to put my thoughts together in any coherent fashion. Maybe because it has been so incoherent. What have we see? Protests and many of them. I have seen people, American people, attending town meetings not to learn or to question but to disrupt. I have seen people strutting around these meetings with guns strapped to their hips. I have seen many, many people who receive socialized medicine, for that is what Medicare is, out there whining about how they deserve it, while others do not. I have seen American people coming out, to protest, protest against...what? Helping other Americans obtain Health care. I have seen politicians outright lying, talking about "pulling the plug on grandma" and having "death panels". People who think that by providing a viable option for Health care that more people can afford, we will be giving up our rights. That somehow, stemming the tide of death brought about by the lack of affordable insurance causes would be un-American. Why is health care for all Americans something we would protest?

Where were the protesters, when, for the first time in the history of this country, we were marched off to war, to attack another nation? Where were the protesters when the cost of that was left out of the budget? Where were the protesters when our President joked about the fact that no Weapons had been found? Where were the protesters when our government decided that our e-mails and phone calls should all be monitored? When we tortured? When we were lied to? When the man behind 9/11 was said to be irrelevant? So much to be outraged about, so little outrage. So sad.

I have listened to Senators and Congressman blather on about the cost of health care reform and saying that it will bankrupt this country. Where were they when the money was flowing into Iraq to rebuild that country, while our own country went broke? When money simply disappeared into a vortex never to be seen or heard of again? Now they want to become fiscally responsible. Now, when we are trying to do some good for the people of this country, now, we must watch our nickels and dimes, when trillions have be thrown away. Or maybe not thrown away, maybe just put into the pockets of politically connected companies. Was it just an accident that the company that made the most money from the War in Iraq was once Dick Cheney's employer? So little outrage, so very sad.

Still we are treated to the sight of Dick Cheney on television, telling us what a good job he and his friends did. Giving Scooter Libby awards, I guess for taking the fall. What good job? Who in this country is flourishing right now? Not the people who work hardest in this country. Not the small business people, who, everyday wake up hoping that they won't be overdrawn. Not the people who wonder if they should buy their persciptions or food for the family. Not the people forgoing medical treatment so as not to beggar their families. Not the people losing their homes.

The banks that get to charge overdraft fees are doing OK. The drug companies who get to buy more television time to expound on the wonders of drugs that improve the sex life, they are doing okay. The Health Insurance CEOS for whom every claim denied is a new boat or vacation home, they are doing just fine. Not those mortgage companies who get paid off by the Mortgage Insurance companies and then just for fun get to resell a home that was lost by an American family, they are doing just fine. So little outrage, so very, very sad.

How can we as a country use budgeting as an excuse to continue the way health care is provided or not provided? How can Americans continue to allow other Americans to die for lack of it?

Where are the protesters now? Where is the outrage?

Tarp & explainations, there aren't any

Have we become tired yet of explanations that explain nothing. Back in the good old days of the Clinton administration we had tons of bucks laying around to investigate every time Bill Clinton sneezed. At the time I thought the investigation should have been about how much money was spent on trying to catch him at something, anything. Where is that spirit now when investigation is so obviously needed. Where is the investigation when we have been taken to war on a lie. Where is the investigation when the cost of that war was hidden from us, why was it considered not part of the national budget? Where is the investigation when on the way out of office the largest looting in American history took place.

Now we have those good folks in Washington telling us all the things we can not afford. Like health care for Americans. Don't worry though, we have help for all those duped into bad mortgages. They call it TARP. Oh no, wait a minute, that money has gone to the people who perpetrated that fraud upon thousand and thousands of Americans. The folks roped into those mortgages just sit and wait and lose their homes. Their children do not go to college, their health declines because they can't afford Health Insurance, their marriages decline although some, I am sure get stronger, because each other is often all they are left with. Those are the lucky ones. Many just sit almost paralyzed because all they can do is sit and watch as their American dream crashes and burns. Many still work, hard, everyday just to pay the mortgage because for many of us our home is what we have left.

I have been lucky so far because mine is not as bad as some. I was foolish enough to refinance, but lucky enough to have at least gotten a halfway decent mortgage. I have watched my business collapse so even with a halfway decent mortgage it is not much help. After all no bailouts for the small business. I have spoken to several other people who are worse off, it is funny how ones own personal disaster is mitigated in the mind when you look at someone Else's.
I spoke with one family who obtained their mortgage in 2006, don't worry they were told, in a year and a half you can refinance into a fixed rate. Not to worry. Well, when the time came they either got no response or when they did they were told that they were unable to do that at this time. The broker who did the mortgage blatantly lied to them. Now the principle sum after three years would be less don't you think, after paying on it for three years, it would be less that is just logical....but no... the principal is now $37,000.00 dollars more. How can that be you ask, well nobody I know knows. The simple laws of mathematics say this can not be so, the powers that be say "No that seems about right". Not to me it doesn't. If there is a law somewhere that says something like that is legal, then there is something really wrong. I will bet you that not a single politician has a mortgage that does that. If they can allow this to happen to you, to me, to anybody then they are not doing their job. Another person I spoke to, says when she called to find out how long it would take to get a modification, first she had to call ten times, only to be told that it would be maybe a year...or two! When the big financial bailout happened it happened in the blink of an eye. It happened so swiftly many people don't even know what happened.

All I know is that this must stop. The feudal system was never supposed to be the model for this country. However here we are a country of serfs working for a government, who works for the corporate interests that keep them in power. We need to wake up! All we have left is our vote. They may have the majority of the money, but let us stop allowing them to buy our votes. They finance all the campaigns and now they can do it with taxpayer money. I think if you look at the state of the American citizen and the small American Business, they are not doing for the good of the many, but for the good of the few.

When you leave people in positions of power for too long, the power becomes the most important thing. Term limits must be set, campaign financing must be fixed, we as a people must come together and demand it. We deserve health care, we deserve to live our lives in the homes we work for and most all we deserve a say in how our country is run. As I said, those folks in Washington only have the power that we give them, let's take it back.

In the beginning....

In the beginning there were angry Americans. These angry Americans formed an alliance. They wanted no government without representation. They wanted to be free of a government that taxed them to finance a lifestyle that none of them could have dreamed of for themselves or for their children. These were our founding fathers. Patriots and revolutionaries. We celebrate their birthdays and revere their memories. They worked and fought to make their lives and the lives of their children better.

I know that my parents worked to make my life better then theirs as did so many of their generation. I was gifted by my parents with a love of country and respect for the way we governed ourselves. In the last decade that has eroded and now in seems like a faded nostalgia of a bygone era. The middle class of this country is now an endangered species.

We have watched, silently for the most part as our country was hijacked. Taken over by first an administration that cared nothing about the will of the people, when Dick Cheney was asked about the people who disagreed with the direction that the administration was taking he said "So?" They thought nothing about lying to us, make no mistake they did lie, and taking us into a war that has done nothing to keep anyone safe. All it did was cost lives, cost us the respect of most of the world, cost taxpayer money, all the while making Haliburton rich. It has turned us into a country known to attack without clear reason, into a country that is known for torture. All the while hiding the financial cost and tell us our economy was sound and all was well at home, even though homes were being lost all over the country and medical catastrophes were bankrupting families and incomes were stagnant. The corporations and Wall Street were making hugh amounts of money after all. Don't worry we were told, it will trickle down.

Then as they were about to leave power, surprise, it was time for a financial decline brought about by banks and corporations, who had spent the last eight years taking advantage of the corporate friendly administration and the lax oversight. They had told people don't worry refinance, we can lower your payments later...don't worry buy this house we can make it affordable later. After 9/11 George W. Bush told us the most patriotic thing we could do was shop. Unfortunately while we were shopping, economic disaster was coming right at us. Then there it was total and complete financial disaster! We were told we need to bail these corporations out NOW. No time to think or debate, no time to do it in a manner that would protect the taxpayers money, but don't worry it is going to be a Toxic Asset Relief Fund, so it will save the Companies at the same time it is saving American Families from foreclosure. Except that is not what happened.

Enter the new administration. Historic, New, Change We Can Believe In...so far...not so much. The banks took our money, continued to foreclose on families, froze the credit markets after jacking our interest rates. and continued to hand out bonuses. AIG took our money in a separate transaction. Why? Who really knows, because it is to big to fail. My small business and countless other small businesses, they can fail but then we don't support the spa industry by having our sales meetings at resorts. What has been done about it.....well not so much. Apparently they have contractual obligations to overcompensate employees who fail to do a good job and bring the country's economy to it's knees.

Now our government rolls on, politicians continue to not answer questions. We have Federal Government, State Government, Local Government and Even School Boards which are like a tiny governments in themselves. They tax us, they spend our money. Instead of being good stewards of all the extra money that comes in during economic good times they think of new ways to spend it. Then, when times get hard, they sit in their offices and think of new taxes or taxes they can raise, because after all they know what is good for us. Soda bad, new tax good!
Why not repeal the Bush Tax Cuts, why not have our officials use their own cars, buy their own gas, fly no frills on Commercial Airlines. Why not have the senators and congressmen and women buy their own health insurance (that may make reform more attractive to them).

It is time to get angry again, it is time to demand a clearer say in our government. It is time that the men and women who work hard, as hard as any CEO, get treated fairly. Our President, this evening will be giving an address at a fundraiser, it costs $15,000.00 a plate. That amount of money could help a family stay in their home, could help a family get health insurance, that amount of money could do a lot of good for a lot of people who are struggling now just to make a living, to feed cloth and educate their children. Instead it will go to help those folks in Washington, to continue to fund their quest to keep their job to the exclusion of actually doing their job.

Once again Americans are getting angry, we need change and we can believe all we want but if we do not unite to demand it, change will not come.
We need:
Health care Reform
Term limits
Campaign Finance Reform
We need to be able to ask a question, and have it answered
We need a clearer voice and a say in the way this country is governed

It seems we may have gone full circle. Do you feel as though you really have a say?