WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT PART ABOUT “FOR THE PEOPLE?”
In case you haven’t noticed, we the people have become expendable - you, me, the guy down the street or in the next state. If it hasn’t touched us personally it is just because we have not yet been in the way of the movers and shakers making a buck or advancing their agenda.
How else can we explain all the elected officials who mouth words of concern but continue to prove a total lack of concern by their actions?
- The way the people of New Orleans were treated during and since Hurricane Katrina.
- The way the Pentagon puts dollar interests and politics before the welfare of those they send off to fight and die for them – lack of properly armored vehicles, issuing incompatible weapons and ammunition, and lying to families about how their loved ones are killed.
- The way mercenaries, hired by our government, kill innocent civilians and are not accountable to anyone for their actions.
- The way the veterans, (you remember - those troops everyone claims to support), are not properly cared for when they come home with brain injuries, missing limbs, post traumatic stress, and other life altering wounds.
- The way corporations avoid responsibility for illnesses caused by chemicals in the work place, and pollution of rivers, groundwater and even the air in residential areas surrounding their plants.
- The way government agencies, created to protect the people, instead benefit big business at the expense of we the people who pay the price in illness, lost livelihood, homelessness, death from treatable diseases, and death by incompetence in war zones.
- The way our government promotes poverty in other countries by lending “aid” which destroys their economies and leaves them worse off than they were before we “helped.”
- The way we are told over and over that our problems - lack of health care, outsourcing of jobs, failing infrastructure – are a priority with our leaders but strangely things continue to get worse and solutions never materialize.
So when the people talk about change, regardless of which specific issue they are talking about, it really boils down to one change – putting “for the people” back into our government. That one change will be the beginning of solutions to the issues that concern us all.
So when you hear John McCain talking about making the tax cuts permanent, look at the economy, look at the deficit; when you hear him talking about staying in Iraq, look at the economy, look at the deficit, and most particularly, count the wounded and the dead; when Mr. McCain talks about drilling off shore and in Alaska for oil, look at what the hunger for oil has brought us – wars, environmental destruction, high gasoline prices, and high heating costs; when John McCain talks about continuing the Bush policies, think about the fact that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
Comments
The operative misperception here is that “we the people” means everyone. In fact, it has been interpreted by the powerful and sleazy as “only some of the people.” These are the same types that Orwell wrote about in Animal Farm when he said, “all pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others.” Of course, as it turns out, the term pig is also very appropriate (no offense meant to our real porcine animal friends).
That is a good list, but most likely very incomplete. As for John McCain, he is a blathering old fart willing to say or do anything to get his hand in the cookie jar (in his case the Oval office). You can almost witness him salivating when he mentions the White House. He is no longer a “maverick,” but more closely akin to a pathological liar and inept wannabe president. If it weren’t for his Siamese twin following him around in the person of Joseph Lieberman, he would appear even less competent. How many advisors have already been forced to leave his campaign because he had no clue as to their true natures?
It’s not surprising that the GOP comes up with such a candidate. This is the same group that brought us those other bright lights of intellectual non-acuity and brain flatulence – namely George Bush, Dan Quayle, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan (touted as great, but in reality, perhaps persistent but one can shy of six-pack). And lest we forget, there is Richard Nixon, an exception because he was very bright, but unfortunately he was also hopelessly paranoid and emotionally insecure.
So as the party goes, so go the supporters, or should that be reversed? The GOP in large part is comprised of a bunch of greedy money and power grabbers. It is no coincidence they target the uninformed and/or intellectually unmotivated as their base and support group. No one else would stand for their chronic lies, misdirection and misinformation. No one else would allow themselves to be consistently hurt by these people, and continue to support them because they are easily convinced that it is the "other" side that is evil. Those few who are smart, I would surmise are crooked.
Posted by: Stephen | July 19, 2008 03:14 PM
My list is just an off the top of my head thing and you are right; it is way short of being complete. Perhaps you will join me and add to it. If the list gets longer and longer maybe people will be struck by something on it and start to recognize just how out of sync the government is with the needs of the people. The old “different strokes for different folks” theory applies to this kind of list because often it isn’t until something affects people personally that they begin to see the truth.
The more I see of McCain the more I am embarrassed by and for him. Did you see his unbelievably inept performance on the Viagra vs birth control question? I can’t help but wonder if the GOP didn’t let McCain have the nomination because they figured this election is likely going Democratic and they wanted a candidate they wouldn’t mind throwing away. After what his own party did to McCain when he ran against Bush in 2000 they may have felt they owed him the opportunity to tilt at windmills especially since the damage is already done to their unraveling agenda.
Speaking of agendas… what is the McCain campaign agenda? It appears to be made up of 20% flip flopping on what he will and will not do as president, 70% criticizing whatever Obama is doing at the moment, and 10% sticking his foot in his mouth or looking foolish. If he can’t run a campaign any better than this, just think what a disaster it would be to have him running the country.
Posted by: Trish | July 19, 2008 07:52 PM
Still no one has answered the question of which is this, Is Obama qualified to run for the highest office in the land? If he wasn't American born, then the rest should be academic. Just today the controversy over the fake birth certificate has risen again. http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12993.htm
You're mistaken if you think most of the "religious right" is enamored with John McCain. If they vote for him it will simply be that they consider him the lesser of the two evils. Both McCain and Obama are members of the CFR and that's where the myth of change ends. Both will surrender the soverignty of the US to a world body and a world court, and through it all they will think they are doing the world and their country a favor. The founding fathers are turning in their graves.
Posted by: Publius2 | July 21, 2008 08:53 PM
Publius2: I published your comment even though it has nothing to do with the blog you were supposedly commenting on. But I am asking that you not use my blog as a platform for swift boating efforts against Barack Obama. If you want to repeat this kind of rubbish, get your own blog. If you want to offer fact based comments, you are welcome on my blog anytime.
Your source for the claim that Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery is none other than Pamela Geller’s blog Atlas Shrugs.com. This is a right-wing blog written by an Ann Coulter wannabe. Her source, “a document forensic expert” is conveniently un-named except for the online name “Techdude.” The reason given for this omission of a real name is “security.”
By golly there it is again - today’s favorite copout. Whenever those who wish to say things without supplying real facts to back them up need an explanation for their lack of verifiable sources, out come the words “security reasons.” PULEEZE!
More valid sources for finding the truth about this and many other Internet cirulated “news items” are a couple of non-partisan fact checking sites:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jun/27/obamas-birth-certificate-part-ii/
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/has_obamas_birth_certificate_been_disclosed.html
The Internet supplies a podium for anyone to say anything. And those who want to believe something can always find an Internet source to back it up. Whether that back-up source is accurate and valid is something all too many fail to question.
As far as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is concerned, I don’t disagree. But in today’s world, since most influential politicians are members, it is hard if not impossible to find presidential candidates who are not. How the CFR operates and what can be done about it, is a whole other subject.
Posted by: Trish | July 24, 2008 02:38 PM
Publius2, I noticed you have conveniently failed to mention the controversy over John McCain's birthplace and qualifications for being president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/politics/28mccain.html
McCain was born on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone, a U.S. territory, which isn't quite the same as "natural born" in the United States, as required by the Founding Fathers.
Though I think both arguments against the qualifications of Obama and McCain are specious, I figure you should mention both if you are going to make an issue of one. And, I would trust the MSM a lot more than a right wing spin site.
Some of us listen to and read news from various places, not just those with the bias we prefer!
Posted by: Stephen | July 24, 2008 03:48 PM