BLAME THIS DYSFUNCTIONAL U. S. GOVERNMENT

 ON THE AMERICAN

PEOPLE WHO VOTED THEIR REPRESENTATIVES TO OFFICE

July 18, 2011

      The eleventh hour has come for our government leaders to do something about our national debt and budget deficit.  They say, the only way to avoid a national calamity to the point we cannot pay our government bills, since our authorized debt has exceeded our debt limit of 14 trillion dollars, is to vote an increase in that debt, so they can pay the bills they themselves have collectively caused and passed along for us the American people to pay.

      This problem of our national debt has been going on for the last ten plus years, starting with, president Bush and the republican congress who voted the rich a big trillion dollar tax break in the year 2000, his first year of office.  He and his republican congress then voted to start two unwarranted wars, because of the 9-11 disaster, when one war would have been too many and unnecessary to send an army to fight the Afghanistan government to get at about a hundred terrorists training in their country.  They forgot that, the twelve terrorists who caused 9-11, were trained in the U. S. by U. S. citizens at Florida pilot's schools and used four U. S planes to destroy the twin towers and damage the pentagon and kill three thousand Americans.  Ten years later, we are still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq with no end in sight and no hope of a victory.

       Bush raised the National debt from a surplus, to eight trillion dollars in eight years without a whimper from the republicans or the American public.

       Obama, elected as a reform president, with a "can do" promise, in two years added another six trillion dollars to the national debt, with a democratic congress to help him reach the national debt limit.  His promises of change were all for the worse not better and his "can do" promises turned into "can't do."  Unemployment doubled in one year while the economy has worsened to the point the American people voted out the democratic House of Representatives and gave the majority to republicans once more.

       Instead of the relief from the unemployment and economic problems, the republican house only interest was to try to repeal Obama health care bill passed by the previous democratic congress and force Obama to extend the tax credit for the rich for two years while agreeing to extend unemployment benefits for the unemployed for only one year.   All that action wasted six months time while the problem with the national debt limit and budget, deficit festered to a crisis.  With the presidential and congressional election only 18 months away in 2012, it was time to play politics, with the republicans stubbornly working exclusively to defeat Obama and replace the democratic president and senate with their republican candidates.

      To make a bad situation worse, the Republican Party and its members are withholding approval of and extension of the national; debt until the democrats and Obama approve an extension of the tax break for the rich while demanding huge cuts in Medicare and Social Security.  They even oppose making the necessary elimination of loopholes in the tax code and the aid to the oil producers who are crippling us with high prices.

     In the meantime the American people continue to suffer with high unemployment, foreclosures and more layoffs.  No one, in Washington, has a plan for the future to help the economy and find jobs, since they are too busy destroying each other.

(ONE MAN'S SOLUTION TO THE PRESENT PROBLEMS IN OUR COUNTRY)

OUR U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN DYSFUNCTIONAL FOR MANY YEARS.  BUT, FORTUNATELY, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN FIX IT, IN 2012.

July 14, 2011

      After another day of lack of progress at the White House meeting of the two party leaders to fix the debt limit crisis, most everyone in their right mind knows it is all about politics as usual, Democrats against Republicans and not what is best for the needs of the American people, they are supposed to represent.  The American people don't want a debt increase.

      Our two major political parties have such a strangle hold on the operation of our government that it fosters the lack of legislation and progress on the major problems facing our nation and, we end up with   stalemates and endless bickering, instead.  Both parties want a debt increase, but on their own selfish terms as to what are best for their political party.

       As a result of the last few national elections, we have seen a series of shifts in the control of the house and senate in congress, and at present we have a Republican controlled house, a Democratic controlled senate and a Democrat in the White House.  In addition, the now famous Tea Party, an arm of the Republican Party, has its own agenda and demands as members of congress who must be heard and satisfied.

       Each party controls the members of their party in each house of congress they control by a majority.  The Republicans control the house, all its committees and thusly have control of all legislation and money bills and decide which bills come out of committee for a vote in the house.  The Democrats control the senate in the same fashion, but their role is to advise and consent to bills sent them by the house, who initiate all legislation on money matters.

      All this has happened because of the rules approved by both houses of congress by their own elected members, who are almost always controlled by their respective political party, by money contributions and influence, intimidation and threats of ostracism from committees and the group.

      The sad result, inevitably, is that the party's interests trump the needs and wishes of the American people from the district or state who elected them and for whom, once elected  they are sworn by law  to represent.

      Each political party's interest is to perpetuate their power and control of all the three branches of government and to control all legislation for the benefit of all their party members and all its supporters both financially and philosophically.

       Unfortunately, that control by either political party is not what was envisioned by our forefathers, when they adopted our U.S. Constitution which makes no mention or provision for political parties.

        Even though, one or the other political party member is usually elected to congress,  the constitution provides he or she, then is duty bound and obligated to represent all the inhabitants of their respective district or state and not only the interests of one party or the other, or only it's members or supporters.   Once elected, a congressional and presidential office holder represents, all Americans.  Be they Democrats, Republican or Independents and their obligation is to tend to the needs and desires of all their constituents, exclusively and no one else.

      Unfortunately, today, our present elected members of congress are controlled and vote in lockstep with their party's wishes and demands, instead of their duty and obligation to their constituents.  That is why we have a continued stalemate and lack of progress by our government leaders, they represent everyone but the people they were elected and duty bound to represent, the American people.

      This problem has become progressively worse over the last fifty years, and is never resolved, except politically, in the best interest of each political party and not the best interests of the American people.  This has resulted in the worse recession this country has experienced in the last eighty years.  It has lasted almost as long as the great depression of the 30's and will become worse, unless and until the American people take the matter into their own hands with their combined vote at the polls.

THE CHARADE BY OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES IN WASHINGTON

ABOUT THE NATIONAL DEBT AND BUDGET CUTS

July 11, 2011

          Last November, the Republican Party obtained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and that put a crimp in the Democratic Party's plan to extend the debt limit to 20 trillion from the present 14 trillion.  In addition, before that election, the democratic controlled house, senate and White House had absolutely no plans to cut spending to reduce the annual government budget deficit of about one and a half trillion dollars a year.

          Since January, 2011, the republican controlled house decided, since they now had control of the nation's purse strings, they would embarrass president Obama's plans to unilaterally extend the national debt limit, by obtaining some republican mandated concessions of their own, before the August deadline when the government is said to run out of money because of the stated debt limit stated above.  The house had the power to do what they wanted about the budget deficit and national debt, as they should, but did not have the stomach for financial crises because of the threat of the U. S. Senate or the president's certainty not to go along with only "republican planned cuts.

          Everyone should know that, when President Clinton left office, the U. S. Government had a surplus in the treasury, not a deficit. And in eight years of president Bush's reign in office, he quickly spent the surplus and put us in debt for eight trillion dollars more.

          President Obama and the democratic controlled congress, not to be outdone, overspent another six trillion dollars in the next two short years, obsessively to help the economy, only to have the economy and unemployment worsen.

          Everyone in government knew since January 2011, that something drastic must be done to cut one and a half trillion from the yearly budget just to make it balance, while the 14 trillion dollar debt must be addressed at the same time so as not to pass this debt to our children and grandchildren.     But with both political parties in control of their respective party members in congress only the same bickering, stale mate and lack of progress can be expected.

          Even though a joint committee of republican and democratic members have been meeting for months with vice president Biden, they have been unable to resolve the problem of where the cuts should come and negotiation have fallen apart.  Now, president Obama and leaders of both houses of congress have been meeting, some progress has been made but in the main they have agreed they cannot agree to a solution to this problem.  Because in the main they are looking for benefits for their party members and not what is best for their country.  Remember, the national election of 2012, is just around the corner and political points for re-election must be made by both parties.

          In any event, as a result, neither party has proposed an adequate plan to balance the budget or to eliminate the national debt.  The republican plan a 200 to 300 billion dollar cut yearly in the budget over the next ten years which would amount to a three trillion dollar total cut over that period, while the president and democrats call for a 3 to 5 trillion dollar cut over the same period.  Both plans sound okay, but in reality both fall far short of eliminating the yearly budget deficit this year as should be done to stop the bleeding of our money and stop any increase in our national debt.  In reality, under both plans, the budget would not be balance for about five years, while the national debt would increase to 17.5 trillion dollars in the next five years.  By then, we will be spending .50 cents of every dollar the government takes in on taxes, just to pay the interest on the national debt.  If you continue with this, charade and plan by both parties the national debt will not be paid off for another 50 years, at least.

          At that rate, our children and grandchildren will be saddled with our politician's debt to the point taxes will need to be doubled to pay it off so we are finally out of debt by the year 2062.  A date, chances are, none of us read this will be here to enjoy.

          These are the best plans our political leaders and politicians can come up with in a country deep in a recession, with unemployment rising beyond the real 15% jobs being shipped overseas with our industry potential while our  gas, drug, food and  health prices, remain twice what the ordinary American can afford, while nobody does anything about these crippling problems to our economy, while home prices and values are falling daily and foreclosures mount while the national construction industry is at a standstill, as a result.

          If the American people do not wake up to these problems and throw out these worthless politicians in our government, and find the solutions themselves, in ten years we will NOT have a country to serve us or to serve and be proud of!

The Constitutional Ramifications of the Decision in the
Casey Anthony Murder Case

July 5, 2011

              Ever since young Caylee Anthony, the two and a half year old daughter of Casey Anthony went missing on June 15, 2008, her case has been a "cause celeb," mainly because she was missing for about 31 days before her absence was reported, not by her mother and caregiver, but by her loving grandmother Cindy Anthony on July 16, 2008 in a 9-11 call to police.

     
              For the next six months her mother, repeatedly lied about Caylee's whereabouts, giving different versions to everyone, including the investigating police, until December 11, 2008 when her scattered bones were found dumped in a swampy area near their home in Orlando, Florida.

              It was no small wonder that her mother, the only person who had her custody was charged in her death.  Her repeated lies to everyone for those 31 days, about the whereabouts of Caylee, made it clear to most everyone that only she had something to do with her death, since only she knew where she was for those 31 days which culminated in her death sometime during that period, while the search was on for Caylee and the police continued to investigate the case.
      

              After a six month runaround by Casey, when the remains were found near the Anthony home, where Casey had lived until June, the police justifiably arrested her since they had evidence of "the smell of death" in Casey's borrowed car trunk and the fact she had borrowed a shovel from a neighbor in early July, 2008 and the six months of troubling pathological lying and lack of cooperation by Casey.
     

              By this time the media attention had been focused on this case for at least five months and due to the antics of Casey Anthony, most everyone had already come to the conclusion that she was responsible for her daughter's death.  But the sad part is that all across the country, lawyers and news commentators, each freely and openly expressing their opinion that Casey was guilty of Caylee's death also, adding to the frenzy of the public to voice their opinion.

    
              The problem with all this media attention and hype is that it makes it difficult for the defendant to have a fair trial, if the area is saturated with opinioned persons.  That was the first problem with this case, since the jury, eventually had to be selected from Pinellis County because of the pretrial news.   
     

              The problem with the news media using attorneys at law for opinions on cases they know nothing about is that they tend to influence the listener or viewer because they are attorneys.  This is a tragedy for the defense lawyer trying the case and may strongly influence and negate the legal presumption of innocence of the defendant before his peers.

              When the medical examiner performed the autopsy on Caylee's remains now reduced to a sack of bones she could not determine the cause, date, or manner of death, a very important necessary finding in a murder case, which needs to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  The county prosecutor was obviously influenced by public opinion against the defendant Casey Anthony so he proceeded with a first degree murder charge, knowingly aware he had a near impossible task.  It is obvious he was relying on public opinion against Casey to win the case.

  
              All the prosecution's efforts to come up with forensic evidence, such as the odor of decomposing bodies, computer searches for chloroform and the position of duck tape over the decomposing skull of Caylee, hoping to tie Casey to a charge of first degree murder, fell far short of the necessary requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt while their persistent arguments in this regard continued to lose the patience of the jury in the end.

              The prosecution ingeniously tried to include the murder felony rule into the case by charging Casey with abuse of her child in order to avoid the lack of evidence of premeditation, but their overreaching was detected by the jury and rejected.

   
              They were so cock sure of a conviction on their question of first degree murder they never bothered to offer any evidence of simple manslaughter, which probably was the case.
              In the end, the vigilant jury rightfully had no choice but to determine the prosecution had failed to meet their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the central issue in this murder case, and thusly returned a decision of not guilty on all counts except those pertaining to lying to police officers.

              Therefore, we should all take pride in the fact that justice for the defendant was had in this case as it should be had, because of the overreaching of the prosecution in charging Casey with murder.  Justice for Caylee did not happen, because of the wrongful zeal of the prosecution team.

  
              In the end we should all renew our faith in the constitutional right to a jury of our peers to make the right decision in every case as presented and without emotion.

              Of course, all the credit must be given to the defense team whose tireless efforts finally exposed the truth in this case.  

              This was an accident, to a loved one that spun out of control.

THE REAL MEANING OF THE 4^TH OF JULY

Updated on July 1, 2011

       This year, as in the last two hundred and thirty five years, we will celebrate the anniversary of the signing of our declaration of independence by the thirteen colonies in America in 1776.    It was a very solemn occasion and a sheer act of defiance against the British crown who had ruled over them since the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts in the fall of 1620.

      As a result, the country was thrown into an eleven year war that only ended after many failures and few victories by our patriots who chose to risk losing their lives and property, rather than to continue under the yoke of British rule, in order to be free.   When the U. S. Constitution was signed in 1787, the signers, all patriots said to their countrymen,"we have given you a democracy run by the people, but it is up to you to keep it alive and thriving."

       Today we celebrate this occasion with much fanfare, with parades, picnics and displays of fireworks and fun to the great entertainment of every inhabitant, proud to be an American.  Little thought is directed to those patriots who fought and died, against all the odds, to win the freedom and independence, we enjoy today.

      However,  every American, whether natural born or naturalized, has that inner feeling of  love for this country and way of life, to the point they will fight and die for America, just as those patriots did so many years ago to preserve it  for us and future generations to enjoy in freedom.

       Yes, it is proper for us to celebrate our freedom, but at the same time we should reflect, remember and be grateful to those men and women, who have sacrificed so much so we may remain free and keep our democracy.

       At the same time, we must remain ever vigilant to prevent others from eroding our freedom or way of life. Today, our nation faces threats to our freedom from within and without our country.  North Korea and Iran brazenly challenge and insult us daily as does Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro from as close ninety miles away.  We have been mired down in a combat with the Taliban in Afghanistan because of the bombings in New York and Washington by the forces of Osama bin laden, who has been captured and dispatched under the sea.  The nine year fight in Iraq has drained our lifeblood of our brave armed forces in a seemingly endless struggle, for a cause no one can justify.

      China, our nemeses in Korea at the North Korean border in 1954, and the oil Arab nations of OPEC have been draining our money in return for their oil and cheap products, while our local oil producers join in for excessive and shameful profits, at the cost of the American consumer.  We are losing two trillion dollars a year to them with the imbalance of trade, which has reduced our assets and placed us at their mercy for credit.  Our factories have run overseas because greedy unions have priced their goods out of the market.

       To meet these challenges, finally the president announces we will soon be free of our commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq, so we may turn our needed attention to solve the problems presented by the threats of North Korea and Iran which are equally damaging.

       Our forces have been strained to the limit and we are incapable to take on any other military challenge, at this time, and our enemies know this fact.

       That is the reason American voters disclaimed the actions of President Bush and his administration and elected a majority of democrats in congress in 2006.  Americans wanted the war in Iraq to end and for our brave fighting men to finally come home.   Instead, the new democratic congress voted the bush administration the necessary funds to keep the war going through 2008 for a "surge" and, as a result, the will of most Americans was denied.

        This was the reason why the democratic candidate, Obama won the presidency back in 2008.    The American people wanted a change in direction in the war and a change from the same-old way congress and the bickering between the democratic and republican members have stalled any meaningful action. 

       Instead, president Obama formed a cabinet composed of old line politicians, while giving the democratic congress the green light to pass a stimulus bill full of pork projects that only aided the congressmen votes for re-election and did little or nothing to aid the growing unemployment problem in the country. With unemployment at about ten percent, and climbing monthly at the rate of nearly half a million people, the country needs jobs.  Even with the change of majority of congress from democrat to republican, has done little to stop the bickering and get us back to work.  Obama, congress and the Bush administration, have given and wasted three trillion dollars to Wall Street and the nation's banks and another half trillion to the failing auto industry, while unemployment keeps rising.  All these expenditures were driven by the lobbyists who have controlled our politicians for years with fat contributions to their campaign funds.  It does not take a genius to realize that unemployment is our main problem with the economy,  without work, people cannot feed their families and pay their taxes so the local state and Federal governments can afforded to provide the services needed by the people and country.  At the same time, real estate values are falling, because of the mortgage foreclosures, which continue to depress values and hurt the ability of municipalities to collect sufficient taxes to balance their budgets.  

       Until something drastic is done to stop these foreclosures and stabilize real estate prices, and to put our ten million unemployed workers back to work, we will have a depression even worse than that experienced in the 1930's.  Without these corrections implemented soon, the country and democracy we have enjoyed since 1787, will wither and die.  This is the equally threatening danger of our collapse from within. It is caused by the lack foresight and action by our elected officials, for the last ten years.  We cannot afford the free trade agreements our past presidents and congress have foisted upon us and our working force.  We must replace this folly with a balanced trade policy, based on an equalization of our imports and exports.   This will balance our trade and eliminate our crippling trade deficit and put most Americans back to work. If we had poured all that stimulus money into a program for the alternative energy we should have started in the 1970's, we would be free of our dependence on oil in this country and that trade imbalance would have been eliminated by today.

        The fact that Obama and congress have done little or nothing with regard to these simple solutions, should convince everyone that they all have sold out to the lobbyists instead of the critical needs of the American people.  When this happens and the elected officials represent moneyed interests instead of the American people they are bound by law to represent, we have a breakdown of our government, of the people and by the people, and we are left with a government of politicians and special interests, instead.  Things are now so bad, congress wants to increase the limit on the national debt and pass the bill to our children and grandchildren, "enough is enough!"

        So as you celebrate the 4^th of July this year, think about who is running this country and who they represent, and where this country is heading.  It is time for the American people to rise up, organize and take control of their country back from the professional politicians.  They are only interested in themselves and their own agenda and not the people they should represent.  We, the people have allowed this to happen because of our refusal to vote them all out of office.