Happy Presidents Day! Well, let's get right to it. The problem with our government is that it is controlled by two parties taking turns. Now its the Republicans who control the House and Senate. Combined with a Republican president, it is a dictatorship. The result is a stupid war, uncontrolled spending, the favoring of powerful lobbyist, and corruption. The Vice President has assumed unprecedented power. I thought he was supposed to spend his time fishing and playing golf. What does the Constitution say about the duties of the Vice President? He is to replace the President if conditions dictate that he does so and he presides over the Senate. He has limited voting power in the senate, being allowed to vote only if there is a tie in voting. He actually does not run the Senate. Most of the time the president pro tempore does this. See more at http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556365/Vice_President_of_the_United_States.html. Spend more time fishing and hunting Mr. Cheney. Watch where you are pointing that rifle or shotgun. A definition of the current administration is arrogance and name calling. The result is stupid actions. Take the MedicareRx Plan. (Nobody else will take it.) Other than giving two billion to the pharmaceutical companies, putting a zillion insurance companies into the spoils system, and confusing the zimdeezus (new word just for this article) out of us old folks, what has it done? Ive tried to get through to AARP to decide what I should do but I cant get through their telephone lines. Ive sent them e-mails but they dont answer. They are swamped by the confused. Today, a competitor is coming to our home. I think it is called Humana. They dont charge for Medicare Supplemental Insurance or for the MedicareRx Plan. Some of my friends have joined them recently. I can hardly wait until the agent gets here. My problem will be how to get into AARP to cancel my supplemental insurance which is costing us over $500 each month. The Iraq war exemplifies the spoils system. When Cheney was Secretary of Defense he found that contractors could supply troops at lower cost than the military. This gave Halliburton a tremendous windfall. Cheney resigned from government and joined Halliburton (who is charging about $20.00 for each meal served in Iraq). Who says those Wyoming boys are dumb? Cheney is loved in Wyoming. He is the reason Wyoming has over a billion dollars surplus in their state budget (I think our local rag said $2 billion). Why couldnt Cheney do that for the country too? He still has time to work on it. The administration is mixing church and government. The reason is explained as financial. Someone told me that Catholic relief efforts are mainly paid for by our government. Is that so? Well the Catholics are more efficient than the government. (The Knights of Columbus also make a mean hamburger at out county fair.) What ever happened to the separation of church and state anyway? Katrina proved that we are not safe. If a disaster happens, you had better be a Mormon or a member of the Salvation Army. They were the first to help the fire victims in Arizona a couple of years ago. The Red Cross came drifting in more than a week later and immediately tried to take over all relief operations including things that didnt belong to them. They said they had a mandate from our government. Well, that didnt work in Arizona. The site director was out of there within a few hours and a new one came in with humanity in her veins. All it took was a phone call from a prominent citizen. The Red Cross, their reputation again soiled, had to get on television and thank the other organization for their superb job of handling refugees while they were getting organized. Where was the government all this time? Ask the Gulf Coast folks hit by Katrina. They will explain things to you. (Yes, the Forest Service put out the fires. I salute them. We lost a herd of over 400 elk in that fire, or more precisely, when the two fires joined forces trapping the elk. That was a loss of 4% of the elk population on the Mogollon Rim. Can you say mugy yawn?) To improve our government we first must do what the Congress did to the presidency, they limited the number of terms he could serve. Its time to limit the term of service in Congress to 12 years. Members of the House that have already served 10 years would be restricted to one more 2-year term. If a congressman can not get what he wants in that amount of time, he is just too blasted greedy. I also would like to see a law that prohibits acting members of Congress from putting their names on public projects. Unneeded roads and bridges to build their egos are not in the public interest. Lobbyist would not be allowed to give money or any other perks to members of Congress. They could speak for their clients but they could not donate financially or in any other way to benefit a member of Congress. No hunting or fishing or golf trips; not even lunch. If money does the talking, the people do the walking. (Did you thing that phrase was cute? If its original, credit me.) We Americans need to think more about others than ourselves. When our media covers the news of the world, the story usually gets broadcasted only if Americans are involved. When we count war casualties, we only count American casualties. The New York Times claims to publish all the news. Take a newspaper like that. I think the Christian Science Monitor covers the world too. During Bush War I, I listened to foreign news stations to learn what in the heck was really going on. Did you know that there were others there fighting besides the Marines? I use to travel abroad frequently. That is when I would learn what is going on in the world. Foreign newspapers and television stations actually cover world news. I think that Fox covers the world news in 80 seconds. Not knowing world events and not understanding what other peoples think and do continually gets us into trouble. I will say this for the President. He told his pilot that he wanted to go to Mongolia and the pilot actually found the place. Mongolia is a supporter of Bush War II. Bush was there for four hours. I dont know if he rode a Mongolian pony. Dont you just hate it when old men rattle on? Happy Presidents Day! |
