The re-election circus

The founding fathers never meant for our type of government to mutate into such a monolithically constructed monster as it has become.
To the left is a picture of my relative President John Adams.
The founders felt that the honor bestowed upon them to represent their fellow citizens was reward enough and that they served at the will and behest of those people. Many did not accept any monetary compensation at all and worked in other occupations to allow them to do so. George Washington, for example, even with his personal wealth very badly diminished, did not accept any compensation for his service as the general of the armed forces or as the President of the United States. Many others paid all their own expenses even when their homes were destroyed and their personal fortunes lost.

Benjamin Franklin, for one, felt that public services was never meant to be a perpetual activity but that many citizens would oblige themselves to serve as they could. He felt that if a person was in political office very long, our form of government would evolve into a form of monarchy where little kings or monarchs ruling segments of the country. He also felt that there should never be a spirit of completion between candidates for public office. If there were, he felt that the vanquished would work against those who had defeated them and only work to avenge the defeat rather than work to support those currently in office.

Consider this with what we have today with the two major parties divided and actually working not for the good of the country but to protect their party looking for some favorable position so as to win election the next time. Also consider that some have been in office for generations even considering that the areas of the country they represent have done poorly and these persons have done little for the people they represent but have enriched themselves greatly.

Consider that many of these political folks have never held high paying job outside government in their lives, but now after being in office for years have somehow amassed large fortunes. How can that be, considering that to be elected requires great amounts of money and the pay for those political positions is no way near close to the sum of what they should have been given as payment for their service?

Some have represented areas with high unemployment and poverty yet the citizens keep electing them year after year. For heaven sake some are in cities that have professional sports teams that have replaced the coaches many times yet their incompetent representatives remain. How tragic is this?

There are members of congress who have abused their office and betrayed the folks who have supported them. Many have been caught taking money or payments from organizations or companies for favorable votes for those payments. They have been discovered many times and still voters continue to vote them into office time and time again. Sometimes they are censured but are very seldom actually removed from office or voted out of office.

Remember this at every election. Do your best to get term limits in place. There are some good folks in congress, but we have got to get people of true American values with ethics back into running our country. As it is now the extremists in both parties are running the show and tragically bringing our beloved country down. Let’s do something about it at election time, both locally and nationally.

People in congress do not fear or respect us anymore. They fear the loss of funding and support from their parties for re-election much more than those of us who put them in office.

Join me in doing what you can to change this abysmal situation.

The President’s Health Care Speech

I do wish that anyone in this current administration would stop with the obligatory “I inherited such a mess” introduction. Very seldom does anyone on the president’s team ever start any interview without saying something like this, as if anyone in the US does not know there were and remain many problems. To me it is kind of like trying to rebuild your marriage by slapping your wife in the face to start a conversation.

I watched the president’s speech the other night about Health Care Reform. All was going well and I agreed with most of what he was saying up to when he said he wanted a public option as part of the proposed insurance exchange. I wish someone would tell me how a public program no matter if it is not subsidized by the government, will not have an advantage over a private (for profit) insurance company.

You see the problem is that a private insurance company is a corporation and has stock holders and must make a profit to stay in business. A government plan would not need to make a profit and if it is anywhere near as good as the private coverage and is lower cost, it will drive the profit driven companies out of business. How can any profit driven business compete against a non profit entity? Why is this so hard to understand?

The President and others say over and over that the public option must support itself, but they neglect to mention that it will not have to make a profit and thus it is unfair to say things will be equal. Seems to me that those who are pushing for the public option do not care and would just as well drive those evil corporations out of business. Never mind that they probably work for a corporation and that our system is built on capitalism.

Another thing I find counter productive is to say that Republicans just want to say no and do not want health care reform. I think both parties want reform, but there are other ways to get the job done. I am absolutely against the public option. All the rest of the major points the President brought forth, I do agree with. BUT BUT BUT… Here is the big kicker.

How are we going to pay for it? This is what I have heard is the President’s method to pay for the plan. Cut waste in Medicare and eliminate the Medicare Advantage program and charge insurance companies a fee for their luxury plans for the rich policy holders. My wife and I and millions of others on Medicare are in the Advantage program. It will cost us a lot more for comparable coverage if this program is eliminated. If there is waste and corruption in the current Medicare system, then stop it now and show us the saving for a few years and then go ahead with the changes.

Here is what Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, a top advisor to the Obama Administration’s health reform efforts, wrote in the Feb. 27, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality of care are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change." I believe he is telling the truth and we should take him at his word.

The president says that he will not sign a bill that adversely affects the national debt. And if it does he will make cuts to adjust for the extra costs. More cuts to Medicare????? Medicare is in big trouble and in my opinion one of the behind the door advantages of the rush to change the health care system is to fix the Medicare mess on the backs of current and future Medicare recipients.

The Van Jones Brouhaha

The title of this Blog is Me and Glenn Beck. As I have said before that is the title of the blog but it is really not about Glenn Beck or his show. I admit I am a fan and I do watch his show regularly, as I do much of the programming on Fox News and other Fox broadcasts. With few exceptions I think their coverage is by far the best.

I do not care for Sean Hannity that much as he is a biased Republican and never sees anything worthwhile in any Democrat living or dead. I am a Conservative now, but have been a Democrat most of my life until the Democratic party took a sharp turn to the left, my support departed with that event.

If you do not believe the power of Fox news, what other network has even the President noted as talking about other things, bringing up fear tactics and other derogatory remarks? Nobody not even the President of the US likes people criticizing them. President Obama, is very thin skinned and does not take to anyone in the press saying anything other than complementary statements.

Fox News tells it like they see it and he can not stand that. He seldom calls on their reporters for questions during speeches he makes on TV. He has had ABC and NBC in the White House and given exclusive interviews. Why not Fox News? Is he afraid they will ask some hard questions?

If I were him, I would have them in and talk about the issues and explain to that audience why he feels like he does. I would ask for their input and what I could do to represent their audience better. Wouldn’t that snuff out the fuse if he actually asked for their help? He could shut up some he disagrees with during that time. I can not understand why he ignores the critical media instead of meeting it head-on. Is he afraid?

The recent brouhaha over Green Czar Van Jones is a perfect example of why I like Fox News and Glenn Beck specifically. Why in the hell did it take so long for people in Congress and the main stream media to uncover this radical advisor to the president.

Until he resigned under pressure, much of the nation had not heard of him and his background. Glenn had been doing everything he could to bring his past to light for weeks with video of Mr. Jones’s speeches and links to his other activities.

Where was the mainstream press in all this. After he resigned I watched the Sunday morning news shows and they finally talked about him and asked others notable people their opinions about him. Some of the main stream media tried to paint him as a minor player, with little influence. Also that he made all these statements a long time ago in his youth. Bull crap, he made many of them recently.

Calling Republicans assholes. Saying that WHITE PEOPLE had purposely poisoned people of color with pollution. That WHITE PEOPLE had knowingly sprayed emergent workers in fields with pesticides. That the Bush administration had conspired in the 9/11 attack and had approved it.

He admitted that he got in with other black radicals while in jail and after that he was a communist for 10 years. 10 years from the date he said that would be 2005, not really in his youth is it? But the press, Howard Dean, and even Joe Biden our VP said the loss of Van Jones in the administration was a loss to the country.

Can you imagine what would have happened if even a low level advisor to President Bush had a background something like this man had but on the other side. Lets say he had been a member of the Klu Klux Klan in his youth. While in jail he met white supremacists and for 10 years had been a white extremist. He claimed that Democrats were assholes and that black people where sending poison into white areas of the city and killing emigrants by spraying them with chemicals. And that Bill Clinton had encouraged the bombing of our embassies.

The networks would have found him, put permanent satellite feed trucks outside his home. Identified every living and dead relative of this person. All the talking heads on the nightly news and morning shows would have sermonized for hours about this national menace. Nightline would have probably had a 2 hour special. Time magazine and Newsweek would have had his photo on the cover and the New York Times would have his picture on the front page with exhaustive remarks about him and his close ties to the Bush administration.

Now of course the media is not giving positive remarks about Glenn Beck or Fox News. They are still painting him as a lunatic and fear monger. They are not apologizing about their ineptness but they must be embarrassed that with all their supposed expertise and investigatory resources that they blew it.

Just consider this fact. You can at this time go to the NBC official gift shop and purchase Obama, merchandise of all kinds. I know you can get a Chea Pet head of our great leader, along with tennis shoes, T-shirts, basketballs, and many other items. Do you remember all those same things for George Bush? Ya right!!!

I have blogged about this before, and no need to talk about it anymore, but the mainstream media of all kinds are just lap dogs to Obama. They ask him softball questions, and offer mostly positive stories and features. Even when something is obviously screwed up they put a positive spin on the event.

I will continue to watch Glenn Beck. Some things he says I do not agree with. Some things he talks about are a little out of context and over the top, but many many things he investigates I have checked out myself at other resources I have found and he is right on with most of what he talks about. He is sometimes over the top, but his show is supposed to entertain as well as inform so I have no problem with some of the things he does.

I Have Deep Concerns

My family for as long as I can remember have been Democrats. My father was always in a labor union. I used to look in his union magazine especially around election time to see who the union was pushing for offices both nationally and local. They always favored the Democratic candidate. I asked my dad if he was going to vote for the candidate and he said he was. I asked him why and he told me the Democrats were for the little guy the working man. I said are there no Republicans who are for the little guy? He said as long as his union wanted him to vote for a candidate he was bound to vote that way. I said something like even when guys heading your union are known gangsters? He said guys like Dave Beck, and Jimmy Hoffa had done a lot for him and he would vote for who they suggested even if it were a horses ass. End of discussion.

I made a promise to myself that I would never blindly follow just one party and I would research a candidate and vote based on their past, education, and what their plans for the future were, not just party. However, I have supported Democratic candidates most of the time. I now consider myself to be an independent and vote for candidates nationally who will value and protect the constitution. I want a smaller federal government, one that will let states and local governments do the heavy lifting and do just those things that MUST be done at a national level.

I saw a new face in 2004 at the Democratic Convention making a sterling speech. He was an articulate and charismatic speaker and I was sure that in a few years as a US senator, he would make a good candidate for President. Evidently other people in politics felt the same way. Even if he has little experience, the powers to be pushed and supported him and now he is in fact the President. I feel he is just the masthead of the group. I feel he represents what in my estimation is a truly evil group of ultra liberal, socialist people in the world who want to change our country from what it was intended to be into a European style government.

What happened to the Democratic party I remembered? We used to be more moderate and a little right of moderate. Now we are in the grips of far left extremist as bad as what I used to be upset about in the far right of the Republican party. I want the party back but I do not know how to get the course correction without voting everyone out and starting over. The DNC ( Democratic National Committee ) controls the purse strings for members of congress and if you want TV money to campaign, you must go along with what the party heads say or they will not give a candidate the funds to campaign and they will be defeated. This is blackmail, and to be honest I do not know what to do about it. It is in both parties and that is why for the past few decades there has been more and more polarization and little compromise between parties.

I am scared for the country I love and my family has been involved with from about 1630. I list here a write up by Lou Pritchett a former vice president of Procter & Gamble. Pritchett worked for that company for 36 years. I agree with his concernes and hope you will read them and if you disagree or have suggestions please leave your comments. You do not have to leave your name. I am very interested in why you do not agree.

Dear President Obama:
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America, and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and "class," always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the "blame America" crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer "wind mills" to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use "extortion" tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett