Arrrgh, Politics

All right, most of you know I'm fairly conservative and did not vote for Barrack Obama in the election, but I have to say I am passing fed up with these expletive deleteds who complain President Obama isn't keeping his campaign promises.

Hello? Have you lived through a presidential election in the United States? Did you pay attention? I don't care who got your vote, he did not ... I repeat ... did not ... fulfill his campaign promises. He didn't even fulfill most of them. He barely fulfilled some of them, and none of those were the ones you really cared about.

What are we, collectively stupid? Every election is the same old same old ... promises to fix the world out the wazoo, until he gets into office and learns the reality of the situaton he just inherited. The mark of a true Man is how he then handles himself; does he blame the previous administration ad nauseum, or does he get over his bad self and get on with the job?

My jury's been out on President Obama ... not that I feel he's actively been a shit, but passively? Oh, please! The man has had ample opportunity to reign in his party members, but done nothing. It embarrasses me that the leaders of my country, which I truly believe is the greatest place on Earth to live, behave in such an immature manner. No wonder we're the sworn enemy and/or laughing stock of half the free world, damnit.

Today I got this in an e-mail, and just couldn't resist commenting. It’s supposed to be a guest column written in a newspaper late last year by retired professional Norma White:

You want change? Try these ideas

Each presidential candidate is giving his rendition of the changes he wants for America. Here are a few that I believe all Americans want.

• Limit Congress from serving more than two terms. That is all that presidents are allowed. On the face of it not a bad idea, but they are elected officials, so howsabout we just continue to exercise our right to vote them out of office? Besides, I'll bet there are quite a few cases where the incumbent is the lesser of two evils.


• Stop Congress from voting for their own raises. How did that ever get started? I have no idea whether or not this is true, but if it is, I'd like complementary perks, please.


• Stop paying for lawmakers' high-priced insurance premiums. After all, they are only part-time employees. They might pass some law changes on the insurance companies, if they had to find one. Couldn't it then be said that anyone who's insurance is currently subsidized by his/her employer is guilty of overstepping the very same boundaries? I defy you to locate anyone who would accept a low-priced premium when offered a choice.


• Stop paying lawmakers their full salary after serving just one term, or at retirement. We need to get rid of that pension plan; they've let other companies get rid of theirs. You were lucky to get 40 to 50 percent of your salary after working somewhere for 35 years, but they get 100 percent. Now I know this one isn't true ... there are all kinds of variables that go into determining pension payouts: age of retirement, years of service, etc.


• Make Congress pay into the Social Security system. They make laws for it. If they spent some of their own money, they might be interested in making it solvent. Members of Congress do pay into Social Security ... as do many illegal aliens, seeing as employers are required to have documentation proving citizenship or visa status.


• Stop handing out aid to illegal aliens. If we did, then Medicaid and the food stamp program would have enough money to aid the aged and the poor. The only illegal aliens getting Medicaid and food stamps are those who have falsified documentation ... and guess what? Plenty of bonafide citizens are doing the same.


• Secure our borders. What a dumbass sentiment ... it cannot be done, people. If it could, we'd have done it already. China built a wall. Germany did, too. 'Nuff said.


• Stop allowing babies born to illegal aliens in the United States automatic U.S. citizenship. What?!? Okay, this is actually the dumbass sentiment. What the hell makes one a U.S. citizen? Being born here! I ... oh ... I am speechless.


• Stop the abuse of our benevolent welfare system. I know people who work in our welfare system and believe me, it ain't all that "benevolent". We feed children free meals three times a day until they are 17. Where? No place I've ever lived! Churches give away good, clean clothes. Churches give away good, donated, clothes ... and furniture, and automobiles, and all sorts of stuff that most people who don't need to get their stuff for free consider to be junk and wouldn't be caught dead with. Companies buy and donate school supplies. Yes, they do, and good on them! Have you seen the differences between public schools in the United States?!?! If you have, you should be ashamed. Ashamed! Emergency rooms provide health care at taxpayer expense and the food stamp program is buying food at home. So? I have a far bigger problem with nursing homes, police departments, and for-profit hospitals turfing the elderly, drunk, indigent, and uninsured to local federally funded emergency rooms. If that wasn't happening, we taxpayers would truly only be paying for actual emergent care, which is very, very, necessary. Regardless of your insurance status, if you don't have the information on you, or aren't able to communicate it, and wind up in the ER, they're going to treat you anyway, bubba, because that's what they do. That is their socal contract. What are parents doing for their children? Umm, would that be the single parent working two jobs just to keep her head above water? The couple working full time to pay the bills? The countless other situations of imperfection that rule this great nation? What aren't parents doing? Comparisons between raising children today and raising children even a decade ago are like comparisons between apples and hammers.


• Have a computer program that cross checks Social Security numbers with fingerprints to stop fraud on many fronts. Use it on voter registration, too. Difficult to implement, seeing as it would be illegal (can't use SSN as identification) ... besides, even fingerprints can be faked these days. Let's just spit-check everyone, everywhere, for DNA analysis. What a fun time that would be, hawking for identification purposes!


• Stop bailing out mortgage companies and banks that give loans to people who cannot afford them. But they didn't ... they bailed out businesses that, on paper, made legitimate decisions. It was, among other things, the initial mortgage-granters that fudged the numbers and/or provided false information. But I do believe the bailout should have been far more circumspect; I don't just hand over cash to anybody, restriction-free, so why should my government?


• Stop companies from paying CEOs and other executives outrageous salaries and bonuses while doing away with workers' pensions. Why? When times are good, no one has a problem with outrageous bonuses, and they can't just "do away" with pensions; they can stop contributing and look to provide alternate options, but that doesn't mean they're allowed to keep what's already in the pension. That's just plain illegal (yes, I know it's been done, but not legally). The issue is failing businesses honoring bonuses before business committments, which is just sinful. Completely different scenario.


• Stop all unnecessary spending so we will have the money for our nation's security, and to help needy and elderly Americans. A nice sentiment, but what do you suggest? These sweeping statements are always easy to make, but put your money where your mouth is and come up with a plan.


• Stop permitting anyone to have a photo with their face covered on driver's licenses. Where the hell is this allowed? Or do you mean facial hair? If it's facial hair, how about having the photo updated annually to give a better rendition of how the person really looks?

Whoever wins the presidency will not be able to make these changes. Only members of Congress can do this, as they are the lawmakers. I don't believe Congress is interested in changing anything, do you? See, all this does is infuriate me. This type of simplistic rhetoric isn't part of the answer, its part of the problem. Most of this stuff Congress wouldn't be able to touch with a ten foot pole, anyway.