The American Form of Government

Cloudy

What is the difference between a democracy and a republic? What type of government did our founding fathers secure for us?

Clear

An Open Letter to Washington

Clear
I am not the least bit CLOUDY on any of the concerns in the following letter.

To ALL elected officials in Washington:

WE THE PEOPLE are very upset. We are voicing very strong opinions every day, and need to be heard instead of being called "un-American" or "mobs" or "astroturfers!" So, please, listen!

REDUCE THE DEFICIT! REDUCE THE DEFICIT! REDUCE THE DEFICIT! REDUCE THE DEFICIT! This should be the number one job of the federal government! It should be the ONLY job until we are debt free. DO NOT ACCEPT A SALARY UNTIL IT IS DONE!

NO BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS! NONE!! They can apply to work here, pay taxes, learn English, take the test and the oath, and become CITIZENS! This applies to ALL nationalities of people who are here illegally and benefiting from my tax dollar.

NO MORE STIMULUS SPENDING! Do not spend ONE MORE PENNY until something is done about the deficit or a balanced budget is passed. Do not spend money you don't have. All TARP money not spent up to this point should be put towards lowering this immoral deficit.

NO CZARS! The President is, unfortunately, free to associate with any and all of his radical, socialist and communist friends who DO believe in euthenasia, sex with animals, governmental ownership of businesses and redistribution of the wealth "for the common good." BUT NOT ON MY DIME! NO federal money should be spent on their salaries, their office space, their staffs, their power bills, their office supplies, or their existance. Outlaw the use of public funds for any position that is not ELECTED or APPROVED by the Senate.

REDUCE THE FIRST LADY'S STAFF! What arrogance and waste! How many people does it take for her to do so little? IMPOSE LIMITS on who can slop at the public trough!

NO CAP AND TRADE. Every plant, every animal, every microbe affects the climate, but NO ONE is absolutely sure that disaster is impending. Most extinctions and severe climate changes happened long before man every arrived!

NO UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. Just fix what is wrong, don't hijack it! Pass torte reform to keep doctors in the profession. Lift mandates for unnecessary tests and procedures. Allow insurance companies to engage in interstate commerce. FIX MEDICARE and MEDICAIDE first, then come back and ask us to trust that you can run more of it!

NO VALUE ADDED TAX! How about no more tax increases, period! If government handouts and entitlements can't be funded, so be it. Most of them are pork and have generated a population of people dependent on others, capable of working for themselves, but with no incentive to do so.

REDUCE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! How many new agencies, with office space and staff are going to be created by the new healthcare bill alone? It's been estimated that EIGHT new buildings would have to be erected! The STATE should be regulating more and more of what the federal government is arrogantly assuming.

STOP ACORN! I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated, and stopped. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. And, while you're at it, look into illegal activities of SEIU and other unions that get their way by force and intimidation.

CHANGE THE CENSUS FORM! You are allowed to know HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVE IN MY HOUSE. It is not the business of the federal government to know the number of hours that I work, when I leave my house, or my phone number. We've already seen too much illegal, unethical and immoral information gathering by this White House! I proudly flagged myself because of my "fishy" blog. It is my right to think as I do and to speak as I will.

BALANCE THE BUDGET! It is simple. Millions of Americans do it. Spend no more than you take in. Print no more worthless money! DO NOT ACCEPT A SALARY UNTIL IT IS DONE!

LIVE LIKE US! Elected officials should have to live by the same standards, under the same programs, that they impose on us. If a public option for socialized medicine does pass for this country, every elected official should be forced to have it and no other supplements!

NO REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH! I work for my money. Others can work for theirs. I've worked three jobs simultaneously most of my life because I wanted to provide well for my children.

LEAVE US TO BE CHARITABLE. Churches, civic groups, and individuals have always taken care of those who cannot take care of themselves. If we aren't taxed to death, we'll continue to do so without help or interference from the federal government.

NO CORPORATE BAILOUTS! You have no business being so overtly communistic!! If a business can't make it, another will step up! Let it happen because of free enterprise, supply and demand...not COMMAND.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY! The President has harped and harped about "transparency," yet he will NOT disclose documents about his past; birth certificate, passport, school records, early employment records, etc. Mr. Obama, put up and we will shut up! We still don't know how all this TARP money has been spent, because there is NO accountability, NO transparency, NO truth from our president and democratic leaders.

SLOW DOWN! Do not EVER AGAIN try to ram legislation through Congress. If people need time to read bills and debate, so be it. Post bills on the Internet and give the public time to weigh in with their elected officials. The last time I looked, WE THE PEOPLE were the true governing voice!

UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION! What we fear the most is what is happening. When candidate Obama said he would fundamentally transform this nation, he meant it! Congress is helping him lead us away from democracy. Don't participate! Fight it! Question the constitutionalily of all that you do, or we will be questioning your ability to be our representatives in government. Save the Republic from this Socialistic takeover by radical community organizers.

I'm proud to be an American. I want future generations to be able to say that, too. Never in my 60 years have I been so ashamed of my government. Never have I seen so much spin doctoring of rhetoric to justify such unethical behavior. Never have I heard so many lies and contridictions. This is the worse administration I've ever witnessed, and the public by far agrees with me.

Thank you.

When Push Comes to Shove

Cloudy

I spent 30 years at the same job. When I took that job, right out of college, it was at the fastest growing and largest 3 year high school in the state, a school that had just opened the year before. To staff this new school, about half of the faculty was veteran teachers from within the system, and the other half was young, idealistic, fresh-out-of-college fledglings. Needless to say, we were also a bit rebellious, being children of the 60s! But we weren't bad. We were just 21 year olds! We just wanted to wear blue jeans. (Many of us didn't own much else!)

After two wonderful years of finding my wings, enjoying my students, knowing that I had found the perfect job for me, I was called into the principal's office and told to resign.

I was flabbergasted! I was speechless! And, of course I was too young and naive to know what my rights were. He rattled off a list as long as my arm of things I had done wrong; a list that included having a man over for dinner, not going to Sunday School, and taking a trip to San Antonio with a man. I only spoke once during this whole time. It was in response to the San Antonio trip when I meekly whined, "But, my mother said that I could!" When he was finished, he told me to turn in a letter of resignation the next day. I very quietly said, "I don't know if I will because I don't think I have done anything wrong."

If that had been it, I would have gone home and written that tear-stained letter. But his reaction shocked me! After my response, he shoved his chair back, stood and leaned over his desk, and pounded on it with each syllable of putrid, fiery anger that spewed from his mouth, "If you don't, young lady, I will ride you until you wish you had! I will ride you until I put you in the hospital with a nervous breakdown! And don't think I can't! I've done it before!!"

Clear

It clicked. It hit. I got it.

He was wrong. What he was doing was wrong and I would never have questioned it if I hadn't been pushed by that outburst.

To make a long story short, I worked there for 28 more years, and he was gone at the end of that one.

As I wrote in an earlier blog, socialists came to believe years and years ago that Americans could be "nudged" into becoming governmental "sheep."

The ‘nudge’ idea came from the Socialist Party during the years of FDR. The party once ran candidates against FDR until they realized that he and his desired ‘Second Bill of Rights’ were already socialistic! Norman Thomas, the socialist leader and presidential candidate said: The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

And it could easily have happened this year. The main stream media and young people had canonized Obama. We needed some action, and he was willing to make some bold decisions to get us out of this economic debaucle. I thought he was going in the wrong direction, but we were at a point where no one else had ever been in our history! I would have sat quietly and let him take more and more and more if...IF... he and Pelosi hadn't begun to push.

They wanted to push this health care down our throats so hard before the August break, that it made us all sit up and take notice. Then we found out the ACORN criminal thugs and the SEIU goons had turned push into shove.

I'm glad.

Without the push and the shove, the nudge would have worked.

We were right on the brink of socialism. Those in power and these socialist "community organizers" had been setting the stage for years and years.

We've got a long way to go to keep it from happening, but at least we know that the threat is real and we must stay the course and fight it with our voices, our signatures, our emails, our letters, our faxes and our phone calls.

Spread the word, America! Democracy is our only option!

(Image from www.healthcare4me)

The Boom Lowered on Boomers!

Cloudy

What turned a professed “Generation-Xer” into a “Baby Boomer” expert? Laura Lorson’s blog, “Welcome to the Summer of Hate,” is supposed to be a humorous look at the older American’s that make up part of the “sleeping giant” that’s been flocking to town hall meetings; but, instead, it’s insulting and demeaning.

Forty years ago, long-haired, incense-burning baby boomers were subjecting us to "The Summer of Love," and they got all worked up and piled into VW micro-buses and drove out to upstate New York, rolling around in the mud and taking drugs, and generally alarming their parents with the threat of — I don't know — communes. Now, it's 40 years later, and gray-haired, incensed boomers are subjecting us to what I guess you might want to call "The Summer of Hate," to judge from the pictures of people's faces contorted with rage, calling each other names that they used to reserve for "The Man." Now, instead of the peace and harmony, make-love-not-war thing, they're getting all worked up and piling into tricked-out minivans and driving out to their congressional representatives' offices, rolling around in their Medicare-provided scooters, yelling about the cost of drugs and generally alarming their parents with the threat of — I don't know — health care.….From Woodstock to apoplectic rage, in 40 short years… I keep expecting some fella to go up to a podium and announce, "Hey, everyone, the brown Maalox that is circulating around is not too good."

Someday this arrogant, ignorant little cuss may be in a walker with someone calling her life worthless, and, if I’m still around, I’d like to hear from her then.

We, the Baby Boomers, have spent most of our lives working, paying taxes, raising families, going to church, paying into Social Security, saving towards our retirements, voting and being productive members of a free society. We’ve been frugal and wise. We paid for our houses and burned the mortgages. We paid, or helped pay for your college educations. Now we are helping our elderly parents who can’t feed or dress themselves, because we know that is the right thing to do, even though we know your generation will change very few Depends.

We are at the town hall meetings, writing blogs, corresponding with members of Congress and the White House, because we want you to have the same chance to the pursuit of happiness that we have had. We want you to live in a democracy. We want the Constitution to protect you, as it has us.

We don’t want the government to coddle us like your generation does. We want to work and earn respect. We don’t want handouts and entitlements. We value liberty over government mandated “security.”

And, for you Boomers out there, “Stay the course, old timers!” We’re seeing a victory over single-payer, socialized medicine for the USA, but we still have to defeat Cap and Trade, rid the capital of ridiculous Czars and get a balanced budget! Keep your voices strong!



Summer of Hate

NO, OBAMA! NO!!

Cloudy

What in the world is this administration, Czars and our democratic congress doing??? It appears they are going to not only bankrupt me, but generations to come! And, why are they in such a hurry to do it? Why does it seem as though they are in the business of ‘ramma jamma dingdong’ governing? How can they make wise decisions when they don’t even take time to read bills? Do they really want to transform the USA into the USSA or the United SOCIALIST States of America overnight? (I think they should be required to spend one day per every 5 pages of a bill before they can vote on it. Maybe that would cut out the ridiculous pork and the NASCAR approach to duping the nation!)

Clear

I want to vomit. But, instead, I must work tirelessly to bring us back to being a free country, a capitalistic nation, a government of “we the people.”

I am very clear that I oppose big government, and I opposed the exponential growth of the federal government that we have seen over the last few months. I am very clear that I believe that the Constitution established the best possible government for people who desire to be free, desire to earn a living, and desire to think and invent and discover and improve the standard of living for themselves and others.

I am very clear that I can provide for myself. I have provided for my children. I have worked. I have paid my taxes. It has not been easy. I worked three jobs for many years after a divorce that left me with two very young children and very little child support.

I am clear that I do not want a National Health Care Plan. I have travelled abroad and have seen the yellow teeth. I have talked to people who cannot get appointments for themselves or their animals! They are willing to pay for good health care, but there is no one to pay.

Our health care system could use some reformation. Doctors should not have to pay exorbitant rates for malpractice insurance. They should not have to pay to protect themselves from people who neglect their own health, smoke, do drugs, live violent lives and come into emergency rooms for help, only to sue if any little thing is not to their satisfaction. I know that in my home town, most obstetricians quit their practice because of lawsuits over difficult births or birth defects in the children of indigent mothers who had spent the 166 days of their pregnancies drinking and/or using drugs without ever seeking prenatal care. That’s a fault of the law that allows these lawsuits, and those laws can be changed.

I also know that I have been spoiled by my medical insurance plan. I never realized it until I began to read about the “nanny nation” that our administration wants to create and began to look with new eyes at our constitutional rights.

I have the right to life (I can defend myself to preserve it, Judge Sotomayor!), liberty (I can choose to succeed and I can choose to fail), and the pursuit (may not get it, though) of happiness. The progressives of old chose for us. They made alcohol illegal and created a much greater evil in the violence of bootleggers and organized crime. Now these progressive want to extend our rights to good health and housing and adequate food and clothing and jobs. The constitution does not guarantee these things. It only guarantees our right to pursue them, as they are things that would bring about our happiness.

I do see, however, a difference in health insurance and health care.

I carry car insurance in case of a costly accident and/or injury. My auto insurance doesn't pay for oil changes or periodic tune-ups. It won't pay for a car wash or STP. I carry homeowners insurance in case of burglary or catastrophe, such as storm damage or fire. My homeowners insurance doesn't pay for normal roof maintenance, new paint or carpet cleaning. So why does my health insurance provide me with more than coverage in the case of catastrophic injury or illness? It just does. Maybe it shouldn't. Maybe this is where the system is "broken." Maybe I need to pay for my twice yearly dental visits and my eye exams and my well-checkups.

Someone suggested that we need to educate Americans about how to pursue good health. They KNOW!! You can’t watch television, listen to the news, read anything in print or online or look in the mirror without knowing you should exercise, eat more fruits and vegetables and give up smoking to be healthier. We KNOW that America is obese and that the number of cases of diabetes is rising as a result. We know! We CHOOSE however to live sickly lives. And we HAVE THE RIGHT to do so. If that costs us more, we should bear the cost. If I smoke, I pay more for my insurance. If I am obese, I pay more for my insurance.

I've never worked a day without a health insurance policy that allowed for periodic dental and vision exams, corrective lenses, yearly checkups and tests such as colonoscopies, mammograms, and pap smears. I've had to pay towards that policy and have had co-payments with each doctor's visit or treatment. It's something to which I’ve become accustomed. It’s something that has been offered.
I can live with paying for well-checkups. I am willing to take the responsibility for more of my own health issues. What I am NOT willing to abide, however, is for the federal government to tell me what I should eat, how I should live, what doctor I can see, what procedure can have, at what age I qualify for it, and/or how long I have to wait to be seen or treated. If people CHOOSE not to work, then they obviously choose to give up the benefits of a good income.
Instead of going to a national subsidized health care program, I would like to see the government back out of nationally subsidized ANYTHING!!

Don’t bail out a wino. Don’t bail out a bank.

Let those who want to succeed, and WORK to succeed, succeed. Government should do ONLY what we want it to do.

That means, citizens of the USA, that you must speak up! Don’t stay silent, wake up, and find out that your address has changed to the USSA.

You can speak out right now at: http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/362D79E8E7A8B703/

Contact your congressional representatives: http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm