Dear Vice President Biden
I am writing to comment on the task before you concerning firearms in the United States. I'm not really sure just WhY I am writing. Maybe I'm concerned that the debate I'm hearing isn't addressing the problem. I do not expect anything I say here to influence the outcome of this problem. But I have been listening , paying attention to the debate and I just wanted to share my views.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
I believe that we are facing a potential Constitutional crisis. I know you know what the Second Amendment says. I only state it here to help clarify my remarks for other people who might read this. But we need to change some things that are proving to not work. Putting armed guards in schools seems sort of like stationing an ambulance at the bottom of a dangerous cliff rather than building a fence at the top. And I'm sure that at least one mall in the United States has a security guard who has never fired his weapon in simulated combat conditions. But I fear that a political party now believes that it should legislate its ideology, demanding the people bow to the minority because they are right in every sense of the word. And our highest court rules by the law as seen through a conservative lens and not through the lady's blindfold.
I hear pundits all agreeing that hunters are responsible gun owners and users. These pundits are all agreeing that whatever changes are made should not impact hunters. I hear them agreeing that hunters might need to take three or five bullets into the field and that they usually only use one or two. Hunters don't need 30 round magazines. This may be true but it has nothing to do with either a well regulated Militia or the security of a free state.
The pundits consider self defense. The Supreme Court has considered self defense as a reason for an individual to keep an arm (but not necessarily bear it). The NRA runs a monthly column in its magazines titled "The Armed Citizen" where people successfully protect themselves or others. Nice, often inspirational, but these individuals are not acting as part of a well regulated Militia and are not acting in defense of any free State. The Second Amendment does not care if you have a pistol under your pillow, or use it to shoot a rapist.
The pundits talk about "everyone being able to agree" that military style assault weapons with high capacity magazines have no business on our streets, in our schools or in the hands of private citizens. Unfortunately, military style assault weapons are EXACTLY what the Second Amendment protects. Not the weapons on the streets in the hands of untrained people. A well regulated Militia would not be well regulated if it is not armed with the most efficient, modern weapons available to them. It would also fail in definition if the individuals in said Militia are not highly trained.
SOME pundits talk about the necessity of PRIVATE militias and heavily armed private citizens as the only defense against the United States government becoming tyrannical. That government would be in violation of the ENTIRE Constitution and its overthrow is already mandated by the oath sworn by every government official and every member of the existing and various well regulated Militias (eg. state operated National Guards and State Police) in this country. By the way? It is the GOP today that is trying to impose minority rule. It has been the GOP that instigated Watergate, The Iran-Contra disgrace, the Iraq war, laws that impose religious tests and dogma and "enhanced Interrogation." It is the GOP that has tried to nullify much of the Constitution.
The pundits are talking loud and long about the "need" for better mental health care in this country. They include many from the conservative camp. The same people who want to repeal Affordable Health Care, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the very vehicles that will fund better mental health care. As with most talking points, these serve only to stifle and discourage intelligent , meaningful discussion and action. And need I point out that the Second Amendment has absolutely NOTHING to do with mental health?
No, I fear your job is next to impossible because the only way I can see this problem being fixed is a process similar to the one this country used to fix the 18th Amendment. We now need to revise or replace the second Amendment, and for the following reasons:
- this is not the year 1791 ( the year 10 of the 12 proposed amendments in the original Bill of Rights were ratified by Virginia). Guns have changed, society has changed.
- the prevalence of unregulated or poorly regulated firearms in our cities is responsible for a LESS secure State, in that a significant number of a cities citizens live in daily fear of an indiscriminate and poorly regulated chance of being shot.
- the current Second Amendment does not address the problem of keeping firearms out of the hands of people who abuse their current rights or violate current laws
- the current Second Amendment does not protect hunters, target & competition shooters, collectors or individual citizens who can demonstrate a need to carry a weapon, as nothing they do contributes to the security of a free State or meets the concept definition of a well regulated, Militia
So - what to do? Fix the Second Amendment. Fix it so it addresses well regulated Militias. Fix it so it protects hunters and collectors and shooters and everyday citizens. Require licensure including demonstration of competence for ownership. Fix it so gang bangers and criminals and the deranged are not protected by the highest law of the land.
- Protect the right of the INDIVIDUAL States united under this Constitution to each keep a well regulated Militia equipped with the most technologically advanced weapons possible.
- protect the individual's right to keep arms but with the following caveats
1. It becomes the responsibility of what ever civil authority (either state or federal) that issues licenses to trade in lethal Arms to co-ordinate integration of that seller's access to a national database
2. It remains the responsibility of the Arms seller to only sell to actual persons who pass a background check and to keep full and complete records of every transaction.
3. It BECOMES the responsibility of the Arms seller to add to the same background database, a description of each weapon purchased by such individuals
4. It becomes the responsibility of the Arms BUYER to provide real traceability for every weapon he or she purchases. Any lethal arm purchased must be producible or a valid traceable document of transfer must be produced
5. A private citizen may transfer ownership of a lethal Arm to another private citizen, provided he keeps a producible record of that transfer, and the new owner remains traceable
6. Any lethal Arm that cannot be produced or dead end document of transfer, will result in a $10,000 fine levied on the last person with provable custody of said Arm.
7. The Selective Service laws of the United States will be amended to allow any natural person between the ages of 16 and 30, convicted of a lethal Arm possession violation, or convicted of attempting to gain such ownership or possession or uses a lethal arm in the threat or commission of a crime will be remanded to what ever branch of the United States military in need of people for an enlistment period of not less than six years. Such inductees shall be subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and shall be given priority status for posting to hazardous duty or combat postings.
People above age 30 will be remanded to Americorp, or similar organization, yet remain subject to UCMJ.
8. No well regulated Militia has ever provided handguns as the principle offensive weapon to any potential combatant. Hand guns were never intended to be considered as an Arm carried by a well regulated Militia. So even if nothing else is done, impose infringement on the right of unregulated people to possess unregulated hand guns.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Monday, July 11, 2011
If the republican'ts ran a business the way they want to run the country
Okay Here is another analogy.
If we compare the United States of America to a corporation, the President is the CEO, John Boehner is the "Chairman of the Board, Congress is the board of directors and the Citizens of this country are the stock holders. Now I need to point out that unlike all other corporations, each stock holder each gets one vote and can not vote the number of shares [read that, the number of successfully bribed politicians ] he or she holds.
So - We have the CEO saying that the corporation has been losing money and needs to cut expenses and increase profits in order to take care of the stock holders, who expect a return on their investment. That investment can be described as; Sons and daughters raised and - for a few - lost to war and other service, taxes paid, allegiance given and volunteerism performed.
We have the Chairman of the Board saying that we need to cut expenses - including dividends paid out to the stock holders but we can not and will not and dare no even consider trying to increase income for this corporation. Read his lips "NO NEW INCOME!"
We have the board of directors insisting that they continue to draw their large compensation packages but refuse to consider ANYTHING that will help the stock holders. In face, some of the members of the board of directors are trying to introduce corporate by-laws ht will authorize outright stealing investments from stockholders.
And we have stock holders. A minority - that has been getting way too much attention, feel that the only way for the corporation to continue is to dissolve the quality control department (regulation enforcement and citizen protection) and the legal department (Justices that are not privately and wholly owned "house niggers") and the human resources department (Hiring and training). We should liquidate the corporate retirement fund and use it to pay for current corporate expenses.
The majority of the stock holders just want to go about our lives and leave a better place for our children. We are willing to pay our FAIR SHARE to purchase the stock that enables us to enjoy out voting rights.
But another minority feel that they should be able to buy more votes and vote those votes "enbloc" They are will to buy the votes of the directors, BUT THEY ARE UNWILLING TO BUY SHARES IN THE CORPORATION!
So - I ask you President Obama - "How can you consider negotiating away the retirement and health protection benefits that we, the citizen stockholders, are purchasing with our own money. Money that you withhold from our paychecks and unemployment benefits with no options to opt out of the plans. Withholding that you do not levy on the rich. Withholding that you will not decrease in proportion to toe decrease on benefits you are willing to allow. And getting less product for more money is a price increase - a TAX increase. How can you consider negotiating with the republicans again. WHERE IS YOUR Czechoslovakia? When will you finally realize that you cannot appease these rabid conservatives? When will you go to war against those who seek to destroy this country, its government and its Constitution by "STARVING THE BEAST TO THE POINT WHERE IT CAN BE DROWNED IN THE BATHTUB?"
And I ask you Speaker Boehner, How can you think this country can survive by living off of the retirement plan of its poorest citizens?
Do you hate The United States of America so much?
And I ask you - the citizens of this country - HOW can you expect something for nothing? Where is the tradition of this great country that says that "as long as I got mine, I want some of yours, and some of his, and some of hers, but I get to keep mine? Where is the future of re-writing our our history to do things like remove Thomas Jefferson's opposition to a state sponsored church from our text books just like George Orwell predicted we would, to allow for religious INtolerance and purity tests like the Soviet Union used to do, To redefine a citizen as someone CONCEIVED in the United States so we will need o post conception police in our bed chambers just like the Chinese Dynastic Emperors were forced to do?
Citizens, When are we going to rise up and demand that EVERY ONE - PERSON AND CORPORATION - PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE.
When are we going to lock the legislature into their respective chambers and not let them out until they pass a tax code that we can understand?
When are we going to demand that, when doing the business of the Country and the Constitution, when debating legislation on the floor of the legislature, that everyone who speaks must first take the oath to "speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"
THIS is how we take our country back, and THIS is from whom it needs taking
Peter Bradley
Narragansett, RI
If we compare the United States of America to a corporation, the President is the CEO, John Boehner is the "Chairman of the Board, Congress is the board of directors and the Citizens of this country are the stock holders. Now I need to point out that unlike all other corporations, each stock holder each gets one vote and can not vote the number of shares [read that, the number of successfully bribed politicians ] he or she holds.
So - We have the CEO saying that the corporation has been losing money and needs to cut expenses and increase profits in order to take care of the stock holders, who expect a return on their investment. That investment can be described as; Sons and daughters raised and - for a few - lost to war and other service, taxes paid, allegiance given and volunteerism performed.
We have the Chairman of the Board saying that we need to cut expenses - including dividends paid out to the stock holders but we can not and will not and dare no even consider trying to increase income for this corporation. Read his lips "NO NEW INCOME!"
We have the board of directors insisting that they continue to draw their large compensation packages but refuse to consider ANYTHING that will help the stock holders. In face, some of the members of the board of directors are trying to introduce corporate by-laws ht will authorize outright stealing investments from stockholders.
And we have stock holders. A minority - that has been getting way too much attention, feel that the only way for the corporation to continue is to dissolve the quality control department (regulation enforcement and citizen protection) and the legal department (Justices that are not privately and wholly owned "house niggers") and the human resources department (Hiring and training). We should liquidate the corporate retirement fund and use it to pay for current corporate expenses.
The majority of the stock holders just want to go about our lives and leave a better place for our children. We are willing to pay our FAIR SHARE to purchase the stock that enables us to enjoy out voting rights.
But another minority feel that they should be able to buy more votes and vote those votes "enbloc" They are will to buy the votes of the directors, BUT THEY ARE UNWILLING TO BUY SHARES IN THE CORPORATION!
So - I ask you President Obama - "How can you consider negotiating away the retirement and health protection benefits that we, the citizen stockholders, are purchasing with our own money. Money that you withhold from our paychecks and unemployment benefits with no options to opt out of the plans. Withholding that you do not levy on the rich. Withholding that you will not decrease in proportion to toe decrease on benefits you are willing to allow. And getting less product for more money is a price increase - a TAX increase. How can you consider negotiating with the republicans again. WHERE IS YOUR Czechoslovakia? When will you finally realize that you cannot appease these rabid conservatives? When will you go to war against those who seek to destroy this country, its government and its Constitution by "STARVING THE BEAST TO THE POINT WHERE IT CAN BE DROWNED IN THE BATHTUB?"
And I ask you Speaker Boehner, How can you think this country can survive by living off of the retirement plan of its poorest citizens?
Do you hate The United States of America so much?
And I ask you - the citizens of this country - HOW can you expect something for nothing? Where is the tradition of this great country that says that "as long as I got mine, I want some of yours, and some of his, and some of hers, but I get to keep mine? Where is the future of re-writing our our history to do things like remove Thomas Jefferson's opposition to a state sponsored church from our text books just like George Orwell predicted we would, to allow for religious INtolerance and purity tests like the Soviet Union used to do, To redefine a citizen as someone CONCEIVED in the United States so we will need o post conception police in our bed chambers just like the Chinese Dynastic Emperors were forced to do?
Citizens, When are we going to rise up and demand that EVERY ONE - PERSON AND CORPORATION - PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE.
When are we going to lock the legislature into their respective chambers and not let them out until they pass a tax code that we can understand?
When are we going to demand that, when doing the business of the Country and the Constitution, when debating legislation on the floor of the legislature, that everyone who speaks must first take the oath to "speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"
THIS is how we take our country back, and THIS is from whom it needs taking
Peter Bradley
Narragansett, RI
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Why President Obama is not a leader
Here is why I do not think President Obama is a good leader. Since being president, he has been consistent in letting republican'ts set the discussion, tone and topics of the national debate. President Obama has let the republican'ts water down, weaken and obstruct needed legislation with impunity. If President Obama was a leader, we would have a robust economic recovery law that spends most of it's money on creating jobs by funding infrastructure projects. President Obama let the republican'ts remove jobs money and replace it with tax cuts that don't work. If President Obama was a leader, we would have a single payer medical health law. At the very least, Medicare should have been extended to people between 45 and 65. Abortion would not have been an issue because the women covered are too old to have babies. Speaking of abortion - IT IS LEGAL! I can think of no other issue where a legal thing has so many laws proposed to try and restrict and eliminate it. If President Obama was a leader he would demand that all abortion restrictions on abortion must also automatically apply to handgun ownership also. President Obama has also elected to support and defend criminal acts and policies left over from the Bush administration, shameful. If President Obama was a leader, he would have increased tax revenue by allowing ALL the Bush tax cuts to expire. President Obama would have simply said that it is time for every citizen, regardless of income, to start paying their fair share and eliminate ALL tax breaks, instituting a single payer system. If President Obama was a leader ,the Senate would have voted on the 350 bills sent to it by Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives when he had a majority. If President Obama was a leader he would drive home the point that the people who benefited most from the Bush tax cuts - the ones that republican'ts keep saying create the jobs - these people shipped all the jobs overseas and now even the middle class doesn't pay income taxes BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO INCOME! If President Obama was a leader he would use the language taught to us by the republican'ts, CONSTANTLY using phrases such as - "The failed policies of the republican congressional majority between 1995 and 2007..." If President Obama was a leader, the republican'ts would not be able to use the same talking points today that they were using 2 and 3 and 6 years ago
Saturday, April 16, 2011
I am a Conservative
I’m a Conservative???
I am a conservative. This is a surprise to me. I did not know I am a conservative. I always thought I was a progressive liberal. But as I watch this country move through the 21st Century, I realize that I am a conservative. I think the biggest surprise for me is coming to the realization that being a conservative can be a good thing. Conservatism isn’t bad; there are just bad conservatives afoot today. Here is why I have decided that I am a conservative.
A Conservative is, by definition, n, 1. Someone who is reluctant to consider new ideas or accept change. 2. Someone who supports the doctrine of beliefs of conservatism. Moderate (adj.) Traditional (adj.) Traditionalist (n.) Synonyms – Traditional, Conventional, conformist, unadventurous
I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s. The United States of America enjoyed a position of eminence in the world. These United States, as a nation, were Number 1. There was nothing we couldn’t do. We were not afraid. We left our doors unlocked. We paid our debts and we paid our fair share. We were strong and proud and rich. We had an affluent middle class. People working in factories could afford to buy a house in the suburbs and two cars and only one person needed to leave the home to work. The United States of America was not afraid of anyone! We had the Best health care system in the world. We had the Best schools in the world. We had strong churches and strong community groups. People could afford to go to college. People could afford to work their way through college. People knew they would have a job when they graduated. My life was assumed to have a better future than my parents’ lives.
We, as a country, were so affluent, so rich, and so powerful that we could declare war on poverty. We were strong enough, and brave enough, and smart enough that we could acknowledge that we had problems with poverty and equal rights and –yes- freedom. We were brave enough to fluoridate our water to reduce tooth decay and give out children beautiful smiles. We were brave enough to allow women to not only decide when they got pregnant, but if they wanted to be pregnant. We were brave enough to acknowledge that we could not force belief or obsequiousness in any God. We were smart enough to know that any God that needed our help wasn’t much of a god to begin with. We were brave enough to oppose a war that we had no business fighting. We were caring enough and wise enough to admit that our senior citizens were eating cat food and dying earlier than need be because they couldn’t afford to go to the doctor or hospital and had to choose between eating and taking medicine.
That is the United States I am conservative for. That is the United States I wish to go back to. The United States that exists now is a different place. I don’t know when it started but it might be with Ronald Reagan. Comedians have long lampooned the government of the United States, usually for good reason. Will Rogers was probably the best, if not the most popular and best known. I don’t remember any member of government ever saying that government cannot solve problems because government is the problem before Reagan. To me, this is the departure point from the Great United States to the declining United States. Our Constitution was written because our first government – under the Articles of Confederation – did fail. And it failed because it wasn’t strong enough. Our government is only the flesh and blood of our Constitution. When Reagan said that government was other problem, he was saying The Constitution was the problem. Today, the conservative republicans want to nullify the Constitution.
But even Ronald Reagan knew the power of the middle class as the driver of greatness for any country.
“The fact is that Reagan was able to push his tax cuts through both Houses of Congress, but he never pushed through any reduced spending programs. His weak leadership in this area makes him directly responsible for the unprecedented rise in borrowing during his time in office, an average of 13.8% per year. The increase in total debt during Reagan’s two terms was larger than all the debt accumulated by all the presidents before him combined. From 1983 through 1985, with a Republican Senate, the debt was increasing at over 17% per year. While Mr. Reagan was in office this nation’s debt went from just under 1 trillion dollars to over 2.6 trillion dollars, a 200% increase. The sad part about this increase is that it was not to educate our children, or to improve our infrastructure, or to help the poor, or even to finance a war. Reagan’s enormous increase in the national debt was not to pay for any noble cause at all; his primary unapologetic goal was to pad the pockets of the rich. The huge national debt we have today is a living legacy to his failed Neo-Conservative economic policies. Reagan’s legacy is a heavy financial weight that continues to apply an unrelenting drag on this nation’s economic resources.”[1]
I mention the economic legacy of Reagan because I find the beginning of our trouble in his administration. That was when I first heard the death knell of the middle class. I first experienced the unconstitutional oxymoron of a private government war [with the Iran-Contra affair]. In one sense Reagan was right. His government was not the solution it was the problem. The middle class cannot exist if the government enacts policy and law that diverts the wealth of the nation away from the middle class. This is not new thinking! Francois Quesney, an 18th century French economist figured out that “Poor Peasants = A Poor Kingdom = A Poor King. France didn’t listen to him and thus had to experience the horrors of the French Revolution as a direct result of economic inequality. Reagan also offered the first overt attacks against unions when he disappeared the Air Traffic Controllers Union. I find it poetic justice that it was at the Reagan International Airport recently that an airplane could not contact the control tower because the only controller on duty had fallen asleep because he had been forced to work extra shifts and was then fired because he fell asleep. To me, that is the legacy of Ronald Reagan and a non-union United States.
But mostly, my country, the nation that I grew up loving, ceased to exist on September 11th, 2001. On that date, the Republican Party decided that Citizens of the United States of America needed to live in fear. We needed to abandon the high ground we had occupied all during the “Cold War.” We started acting like the Communists in the old Soviet Union and Red China and North Korea. We started Brain Washing people we didn’t like. We started erecting Concentration Camps or Gulags. Granted, Sunny Cuba isn’t Siberia – weather wise – But - we were trying to force confessions using tactics we learned from the Soviet Union. We used tactics on our prisoners that we taught our servicemen to resist if they ever got captured by the other side. We used the people who had been teaching that resistance to administer the torture because they were the only ones who knew how to do it. We ignored our legacy of Christian fair play (unless including the Church’s inquisition) and bowed down to “the dark side.”
But worse than that, Every Time republican or conservative politicians got anywhere near a microphone, the people were reminded to be afraid of the Terrorists! Be afraid – Be afraid – Be afraid. Be afraid of Moslems. Be afraid of bringing criminal mass murderers to trial. Be afraid of treating them like criminals, they are unlawful combatants and must be tried by a military tribunal (Doesn’t that word even sound pro-Soviet and anti-American?). Be afraid of the next attack. Be afraid we can’t stop the next attack. We have to get lucky all the time – they only have to get lucky once.
THAT is not the United States I want to live in. I don’t care if you are Timothy McVey, or Gerald Laughner, or Kalid Sheik Mohammed or Scott P. Roeder. I refuse to be afraid of you. And here’s why – If you are a terrorist, or commit a terrorist act, and I become afraid of you r your ilk – THEN YOU WIN. A terrorist, or terrorism, has just beaten me.. And every speech that has been given by a conservative republican politician since 2001 has carried the message that I need to be afraid.
No – That is not my United States. That is not my country. That is not how it was in the “good old days” when I was taught to duck and cover so I could survive the nuclear bomb blast and still get home to the fallout shelter after school.
Another thing is money. When did we go from the most affluent nation on earth to a country so poor that we can’t teach music to our children? When did the Republican Party decide that Bernie Madoff was a good financial role model? When did we decide that most of us didn’t deserve or couldn’t afford to get old? When did we decide that we couldn’t afford to retire until we are ready to die? When did we decide that even though the Congress has raided Social Security every year since 1935 and siphoned off the surplus money it collected, the money doesn’t have to be paid back?
Congressman Ryan is now the face of modern republican conservatism. But make no mistake, his policies started in the Reagan Administration. When did they decide that Social Security was an unfunded liability and a threat to this nation’s future (actually that’s a bad example, the republicans consistently thought Social Security was a bad idea since 1935)? When did they decide to default on the $2.7 trillion in government bonds that Social Security holds now? When did they decide to turn Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would dwarf Bernie Madoff (again unfair to Congressman Ryan. Bush pushed to privatize Social Security after the 2004 elections)? When did conservatives decide to default on the full faith and credit of the United States of America? Congressman Ryan knows what a Ponzi scheme is. You take money from investors and promise big returns. But you don’t invest the money you spend the money. You spend it on yourself, and your friends. Then you get more people to invest and you take some of their money and give some of it to the earlier investors, pretending that is what their investments (that you already spent) earned for them. Then you have to get more money from more investors and give some of that money to more investors while you continue to spend everything else. That is exactly what you are proposing to do. For years, since 1935, Congress has been collecting money (mostly from poor and middle class people because they never reach the tax cutoff). Congress collects that money through payroll withholding. Only the wealthy, who are not subject to withholding, don’t have to pay their fair share. The money that is collected goes two places, and two places only. One, It goes to people who have already retired. Yes, since 1835, the Government of the United States has been paying retirement benefits out of the money it collects from payroll taxes and not from the interest that money has earned. That is good Ponzi. Using your income to cover your outgo. But now, the conservative republican congress is proposing that we just write off that pesky $2,700,000,000,000, that’s 27 followed by 11 zeros. That is BAD Ponzi. We just blithely tell our own citizens that the money is gone. Sorry! I know you are upset but there is really nothing that I can do. I didn’t spend that money Previous Congresses spent it. You remember those congresses, right? Ronald Reagan and supply side trickle down economics? George W Bush and his insistence we spend down the SURPLUS he got from Bill Clinton because a surplus meant that the government was taking in more money than it needed. You remember the TWO tax cuts for the wealthy people that were going to erase the national debt and create all those jobs? You remember the trillion dollars spent for a war in Iraq that we never needed to fight? You remember the Medicare part D plan that borrowed money from China to give to the drug and insurance companies? You remember the unregulated financial markets that wiped away what money and equity the middleclass might have managed to save?
None of that was the fault of the conservative Republican Party in 2011. This is the 2011/2012 Congress and things are going to be fixed. Things are going to be fixed because that is what the American People sent the conservative republicans to Washington DC to do.
And this is where I say:
No
This plan, this vision is not the America that is the greatest country in the world. This plan, this vision is not the United States of my good old days. It is not the United States on my children’s childhood, or of my childhood, or of my parent’s childhood. This is the United States of their parents, childhood. This is not Norman Rockwell America of the Republican Party. This is not the America of true conservatives.
This is the United States of the 1880’s. This “New America” will let our seniors starve and die early from preventable conditions, starving and homeless. This new America will turn it’s back on science (Creationists never developed a new pharmaceutical – ever) This New America is embracing and imposing parochial religious beliefs – just like the Taliban does. Same God – Different Prophet / Savior. This America will embark on ethnic wars against ourselves. This America passes laws against freedom – Yes a woman’s right to choose the timing of her own reproduction is freedom. Freedom means choice. If I don’t have a choice I don’t have freedom. If you do not like my choice you are free to not do as I do. This America will bring back economic bondage stronger than any pro-slavery laws where the workers are given no choice but to follow the rules, work for a pittance, don’t get sick or you will be refused whatever menial job has been left as not outsourceable. This is the United States where we don’t pay our debts and don’t pay our fair share. This is Congressman Ryan’s America and the current conservative republican’s America.
BUT I AM A CONSERVATIVE AND IT IS NOT MY AMERICA
[1] United States National Debt. An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing. By Steve McGourty Update History: Fifth revision started 14 Oct 08 21 September 2008, fourth Revision 6 May 2007, third Revision June 2006, second Revision April 2005, first Revision July 2003, Original
Thursday, February 10, 2011
An open letter to Senator Mitch McConnell
On Wednesday, Feb 9th, while listening to a story about Social Security on NPR, I heard Senate Minority Leader, Republican't Mitch McConnell say that the United States needs to end the unfunded liability of entitlement programs such as Social Security. This same story also stated that since 1935, Social Security has taken in $2,500,000,000,000 ($2.5 Trillion) more than it has paid out. this money is now in the form of United States Bonds which replaced the money over the years by congress people of both parties who raided the fund to help balance budgets of yesteryear. They took the money and left IOU's. Two and a half Trillion dollars worth of IOU's. I do not see that as an unfunded liability. I see that as an obligation debt by the government to the people of the United States.
Without seeing the actual paper of these bonds - if they really exist at all - I just know that somewhere on them is the phrase "Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America." These bonds represent money that was taken out of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of weekly paychecks of hardworking citizens of the Untied States of America. This money is called Social Security Tax and Medicare tax or FICA tax and is itself not deductible as a tax when these same citizens figure their income taxes. Senator McConnell, this $2,500,000,000,000 is not unfunded. I wish you would stop trying to steal it. The United States sent Bernard Madoff to prison for running a Ponzi scheme where he paid out money to old investors with the money brought in by the new investors. This is exactly what you are trying to do with the "Full faith and credit of the United States of America." I would rather you introduce legislation to renig on the Trillions of dollars in bonds that you sold to China and Saudi Arabia for the truly unfunded liabilities of the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq war and Medicare part D that YOU legislated the last time you were the Majority Leader.
Senator McConnell - I ask you, is theft from the American worker one of the core Republican't Family Patriotic Values that you wish to promote for this new century? For that is what you are doing. You took the money. You took it in good faith. You borrowed it. You left a note in the till saying that when we needed it it would be there. Well now we need it. This year, Social Security took in less money than it paid out. This happened partly because the American working population is getting older. It also happened because since the year 2001, those great republican't principles of lower taxes, less regulation, bigger government, more privatization of government services, preemptive wars, exporting jobs, and subsidizing the rich and powerful put this countries work force in the sewer. You allowed all the equity of the small investor to be sucked away by En-Ron, and Lehman Brothers and such. You did it. We the little people didn't do it. YOU did it.
How dare you refer to the money you took to make yourself look good in the eyes of your masters as an unfunded LIABILITY? How dare you even utter the idea that it might be possible to let that money just disappear into the ether or the bank accounts of multinational corporations or foreign nations? You have taken, several times, a solemn oath to the people of the United States of America, who established and ordained our Constitution. It seems that the value you place on your solemn oath is somewhat less than the value you place on "the full faith and credit of the United States of America."
Senator, The good news is that the TEA party is right. The bad news is that the TEA party is right. If you wish to be the leader to end the financial, fiscal, economic crisis that you helped create, here is what you need to legislate and/or have Congressman Boehner legislate, depending on the powers granted you by the Constitution.
Cut the defense budget by 30% Let the profession military men we hired figure out how to keep this country safe with the money they have left. If they can't do it, fire them and get someone who can do it.
End ALL foreign aid until we are solvent again. giving money to other countries at this time in out history is no different from the alcoholic who spends the families rent money buying drinks at the bar for all his buddies so he can look like a big shot.
End ALL corporate subsidies and sweetheart contracts including all agricultural subsidies. Don't tell me prices will go up. They are already going up! They are just being masked by delayed economic reporting, smaller packages and other tricks.
Take the money that has been saved by items 1, 2 & 3 and invest it in our infrastructure and energy independence. That will put people back to work in jobs that cannot be exported.
Institute a new tax philosophy not just a new tax code. Every American should be PROUD to pay his or her fair share to keep this proud and great country running. Everyone uses government services so no one should be exempt from paying his or her fair share. That fair share is arbitrary but...If a person earns less than $100,000 that person pays 10 % in income tax. If a person earns $100,000 to $500,000, that person pays 20 %. If a person earns over $500,000 they pay 30%. No deductions, no exemptions, PERIOD. And all income is subject to payroll withholding, even the rich people. And income means INCOME. Money one gets this year, be it from hard labor or selling a stock or the demise of old Aunt Bertha. You get it YOU PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE!
Tax businesses at the same rate. No deductions, no exemptions. They all enjoy government protection and other services.
Americans get fair market value for any natural resource taken from public land or public trust. The only collection agency in the Unite States Government is the IRS. This reduces the size of government.
We need to listen to what some in the TEA party are saying and restore the Government of the United States of America to the people of those United States. You need to introduce legislation that makes it a Federal Crime, punishable by not less than 20 years in a federal maximum security prison for any person to fund or attempt to fund any political contribution for any federal congressional campaign in any state other than that persons legal voting state of residence. This includes a person who signs a corporate check or carries an anonymous suitcase full of money across state lines. Rhode Island legislators are elected by the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to represent those people. They should not have to cater to the interests of people from Maryland or Texas or Montana. Likewise, Texans should not have to be represented by a senator who was financed by and thus beholden to a Rhode Islander. The United States are just that - united but sovereign states (do you tenthers like that?) Campaign finance laws between the states should be no different from the laws that prohibit money from foreign countries to influence our national elections.
It's time we stopped pretending that legislation based on religious views is not prohibited as a religious test. If you want smaller government then get it out of a persons overies. Get it out of civil marriage. Get it out of the textbook business. The Constitution states rather plainly that a citizen is a person BORN in he United States. It does not state a person conceived in the United States. Come on Senator - how would you enforce that? Have sex police on the borders? Require witnesses to any valid conception. Issue conception certificates? Even the bible celebrated the Nativity - The birth of Jesus. That's what Nativity means - The Horoscope at the time of your birth. Yeah, yeah I know, you have the immaculate conception, but that was Mary, not Jesus. Freedom means Free. Freedom cannot exist without choices. Let people have the freedom to choose their families and their partners without government interference.
LEGALIZE recreational drugs and prostitution and tax the stuffing out of them. That would end a large government expenditure for the crime and punishment of the people caught in the illegal drug trade. It would also improve health and decrease sex trafficing because you could license ( for a fee) sex workers. Just like lawyers and doctors, they could create their own bar exams and internship programs and become taxpaying citizens. If you make it legal, you put all the illegal out of business OVERNIGHT! You get a big piece of the billions of dollars now literally going south (of the border) and you use some of that money to fund the prevention programs you need whether drugs are legal or not. Stop punishing "sin" and tax it!
And finally, not wishing to be like the founding fathers, Moses or Glen Beck, I will stop with the 11th suggestion. Let foreigners come into this country an work LEGALLY. But here's the catch. they get a special social security number. They pay the same payroll taxes citizens pay but they do not qualify for social security or medicare. That is the deal. Come to this country, work, make money, even send the money back to your family in the land of your birth. Be covered by our minimum wage laws and OSHA regulations and labor laws. You can even have children who are born here become citizens at birth! But if you are not a citizen, plan on going back home when you retire yourself. We'll let you work here because our labor force is getting smaller and older and we need your young blood to do the jobs. You will pay for our retirement and in return we will give you more money than you can earn back home. That's the deal. If you accept the terms -Welcome to the United States.
Pete Bradley
Narragansett, RI
Without seeing the actual paper of these bonds - if they really exist at all - I just know that somewhere on them is the phrase "Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America." These bonds represent money that was taken out of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of weekly paychecks of hardworking citizens of the Untied States of America. This money is called Social Security Tax and Medicare tax or FICA tax and is itself not deductible as a tax when these same citizens figure their income taxes. Senator McConnell, this $2,500,000,000,000 is not unfunded. I wish you would stop trying to steal it. The United States sent Bernard Madoff to prison for running a Ponzi scheme where he paid out money to old investors with the money brought in by the new investors. This is exactly what you are trying to do with the "Full faith and credit of the United States of America." I would rather you introduce legislation to renig on the Trillions of dollars in bonds that you sold to China and Saudi Arabia for the truly unfunded liabilities of the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq war and Medicare part D that YOU legislated the last time you were the Majority Leader.
Senator McConnell - I ask you, is theft from the American worker one of the core Republican't Family Patriotic Values that you wish to promote for this new century? For that is what you are doing. You took the money. You took it in good faith. You borrowed it. You left a note in the till saying that when we needed it it would be there. Well now we need it. This year, Social Security took in less money than it paid out. This happened partly because the American working population is getting older. It also happened because since the year 2001, those great republican't principles of lower taxes, less regulation, bigger government, more privatization of government services, preemptive wars, exporting jobs, and subsidizing the rich and powerful put this countries work force in the sewer. You allowed all the equity of the small investor to be sucked away by En-Ron, and Lehman Brothers and such. You did it. We the little people didn't do it. YOU did it.
How dare you refer to the money you took to make yourself look good in the eyes of your masters as an unfunded LIABILITY? How dare you even utter the idea that it might be possible to let that money just disappear into the ether or the bank accounts of multinational corporations or foreign nations? You have taken, several times, a solemn oath to the people of the United States of America, who established and ordained our Constitution. It seems that the value you place on your solemn oath is somewhat less than the value you place on "the full faith and credit of the United States of America."
Senator, The good news is that the TEA party is right. The bad news is that the TEA party is right. If you wish to be the leader to end the financial, fiscal, economic crisis that you helped create, here is what you need to legislate and/or have Congressman Boehner legislate, depending on the powers granted you by the Constitution.
Cut the defense budget by 30% Let the profession military men we hired figure out how to keep this country safe with the money they have left. If they can't do it, fire them and get someone who can do it.
End ALL foreign aid until we are solvent again. giving money to other countries at this time in out history is no different from the alcoholic who spends the families rent money buying drinks at the bar for all his buddies so he can look like a big shot.
End ALL corporate subsidies and sweetheart contracts including all agricultural subsidies. Don't tell me prices will go up. They are already going up! They are just being masked by delayed economic reporting, smaller packages and other tricks.
Take the money that has been saved by items 1, 2 & 3 and invest it in our infrastructure and energy independence. That will put people back to work in jobs that cannot be exported.
Institute a new tax philosophy not just a new tax code. Every American should be PROUD to pay his or her fair share to keep this proud and great country running. Everyone uses government services so no one should be exempt from paying his or her fair share. That fair share is arbitrary but...If a person earns less than $100,000 that person pays 10 % in income tax. If a person earns $100,000 to $500,000, that person pays 20 %. If a person earns over $500,000 they pay 30%. No deductions, no exemptions, PERIOD. And all income is subject to payroll withholding, even the rich people. And income means INCOME. Money one gets this year, be it from hard labor or selling a stock or the demise of old Aunt Bertha. You get it YOU PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE!
Tax businesses at the same rate. No deductions, no exemptions. They all enjoy government protection and other services.
Americans get fair market value for any natural resource taken from public land or public trust. The only collection agency in the Unite States Government is the IRS. This reduces the size of government.
We need to listen to what some in the TEA party are saying and restore the Government of the United States of America to the people of those United States. You need to introduce legislation that makes it a Federal Crime, punishable by not less than 20 years in a federal maximum security prison for any person to fund or attempt to fund any political contribution for any federal congressional campaign in any state other than that persons legal voting state of residence. This includes a person who signs a corporate check or carries an anonymous suitcase full of money across state lines. Rhode Island legislators are elected by the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to represent those people. They should not have to cater to the interests of people from Maryland or Texas or Montana. Likewise, Texans should not have to be represented by a senator who was financed by and thus beholden to a Rhode Islander. The United States are just that - united but sovereign states (do you tenthers like that?) Campaign finance laws between the states should be no different from the laws that prohibit money from foreign countries to influence our national elections.
It's time we stopped pretending that legislation based on religious views is not prohibited as a religious test. If you want smaller government then get it out of a persons overies. Get it out of civil marriage. Get it out of the textbook business. The Constitution states rather plainly that a citizen is a person BORN in he United States. It does not state a person conceived in the United States. Come on Senator - how would you enforce that? Have sex police on the borders? Require witnesses to any valid conception. Issue conception certificates? Even the bible celebrated the Nativity - The birth of Jesus. That's what Nativity means - The Horoscope at the time of your birth. Yeah, yeah I know, you have the immaculate conception, but that was Mary, not Jesus. Freedom means Free. Freedom cannot exist without choices. Let people have the freedom to choose their families and their partners without government interference.
LEGALIZE recreational drugs and prostitution and tax the stuffing out of them. That would end a large government expenditure for the crime and punishment of the people caught in the illegal drug trade. It would also improve health and decrease sex trafficing because you could license ( for a fee) sex workers. Just like lawyers and doctors, they could create their own bar exams and internship programs and become taxpaying citizens. If you make it legal, you put all the illegal out of business OVERNIGHT! You get a big piece of the billions of dollars now literally going south (of the border) and you use some of that money to fund the prevention programs you need whether drugs are legal or not. Stop punishing "sin" and tax it!
And finally, not wishing to be like the founding fathers, Moses or Glen Beck, I will stop with the 11th suggestion. Let foreigners come into this country an work LEGALLY. But here's the catch. they get a special social security number. They pay the same payroll taxes citizens pay but they do not qualify for social security or medicare. That is the deal. Come to this country, work, make money, even send the money back to your family in the land of your birth. Be covered by our minimum wage laws and OSHA regulations and labor laws. You can even have children who are born here become citizens at birth! But if you are not a citizen, plan on going back home when you retire yourself. We'll let you work here because our labor force is getting smaller and older and we need your young blood to do the jobs. You will pay for our retirement and in return we will give you more money than you can earn back home. That's the deal. If you accept the terms -Welcome to the United States.
Pete Bradley
Narragansett, RI
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
My own bi-partisian national debt reduction plan
1-Rewrite the personal income tax law
Make less than $50,000 per year, pay 10%
Make $50,000 to $500,000, pay 20%
Make more than $500,000 pay 30%
No deductions
No exemptions
ALL income is subject to withholding
2-Eliminate ALL Federal subsidies, depreciation allowances, etc. for businesses, industries and corporations operating in the United States.
Stop ALL foreign aid payments. In order for a country to re-qualify for United States foreign aid, they must submit to an audit of where the money has gone and how it has been used in the past 25 years. If more than 30 % of the money cannot be accounted for - no more foreign aid.
3-Eliminate all funding for congressional staffing. Corporations are writing our laws anyway and then paying to have the legislation introduced. Since the corporations are funding the legislative process there is no need to saddle the tax payer with duplicate costs.
4-Cut $200,000,000,000 from the defense budget.
Make less than $50,000 per year, pay 10%
Make $50,000 to $500,000, pay 20%
Make more than $500,000 pay 30%
No deductions
No exemptions
ALL income is subject to withholding
2-Eliminate ALL Federal subsidies, depreciation allowances, etc. for businesses, industries and corporations operating in the United States.
Stop ALL foreign aid payments. In order for a country to re-qualify for United States foreign aid, they must submit to an audit of where the money has gone and how it has been used in the past 25 years. If more than 30 % of the money cannot be accounted for - no more foreign aid.
3-Eliminate all funding for congressional staffing. Corporations are writing our laws anyway and then paying to have the legislation introduced. Since the corporations are funding the legislative process there is no need to saddle the tax payer with duplicate costs.
4-Cut $200,000,000,000 from the defense budget.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
torture as cancer
I believe that the Constitution of the United States has cancer.
My understanding of cancer is that it usually takes decades of exposure to toxins before cells become cancerous.
Today we are faced with a cancer of the Constitution.
It may have started with two cancer cells, Cheney and Rumsfeld
Did they get their start in the Nixon administration? I think so. I think they believed, and still believe, that Nixon was right and that he was above the law while he was president and that a unitary executive branch is best for this country.
They first appear in public, and with power under Gerald Ford. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. The cancer Nixon started was not thoroughly killed by irradiation of the bright light of public scrutiny. Cheney and Rumsfeld and crew were allowed to continue to silently grow and infect others around them. The tumor was regrowing.
The cancer grows, quietly and becomes more powerful
Through Reagan and Bush, 41. Through Iran-Contra where the United States hired people like Eugene Hassenfus to run cocaine into black neighborhoods and to sell weapons to Iran to raise money to fund an extra-constitutional war.
A temporary seeming remission during Clinton. But the military continued to privatize their support services. Now, instead of having Army cooks, we subcontract the jobs out to Halliburton and pay Blackwater (I mean Xi) to guard the civilians. If we had that arrangement during the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans would have won their Argonne offensive because then e had an army that could fight in depth. We had cooks who were soldiers first.
Then the full symptomatic eruption happened during Bush 43. Just the right mix of carcinogens and precancerous cells got mixed together. The body of this nation was subjected to a terrible shock. We all (most of us) bought the big lie. We could not see that giving George Bush – and, by extension, the people who had their hand up his butt like a sock puppet – Giving George Bush war powers was no different from giving any other redneck an ax handle, a six pack and a pick-up truck.
Our Constitution has been exposed to eight years of rapid and unimpeded growth of Constitutional Cancer. The tumor has not yet killed the Constitution.
Smoking causes cancer, right? Stopping smoking is a preventative method of avoiding the disease.
But once cancer is present, it continues to grow even if the victim stops smoking.
Now, by pardoning torturers and justifiers of torture, and orderers of torture and promising to just not ever do it again, the country is trying to cure cancer by just stopping smoking. We pretend that the the concept of the Unitary Executive is behind us. We say that we will no longer torture. We do not repudiate unwarranted invasions into the private lives of our citizens. We seek to protect some of the people, the CIA civilians, who tortured in the name of The United States of America. Yet we do not pardon the military people who, acting under the very same legal determinations, followed their orders in military prisons and were scapegoated and themselves sent to military prisons.
Once the disease starts, appeasment and promising to change do not rid the body of the Constitution of the cancer. If those things worked then Gerald Ford’s pardon would have worked – and it didn’t.
The patient may get a few more years of life if surgeons cut out the big, easy to get pieces But the patient will still die of the cancer because it is still there and will grow back.
It may even metastasize and spread to other parts of the body.
Sometimes a person with lung cancer dies because the cancer spreads to the liver or the brain and those tumors kill the person first.
Is this what we want of our Constitution? Is this what we want for our country?
I for one do not.
Therefore – I am sending this to my president, my senators, my representative and several various public media outlets.
I am imploring those with the power, I’m begging, I’m asking nice, I’m saying Please
“Please, If we are truly a nation of law (and we are a nation of law because we legitimize our government through the set of law we refer to as the Constitution) independently and publicly investigate every abuse of power, real or imagined, that makes up the legacy of the Bush Cheney Administration.
This will not be so hard to do. PBS has already a half dozen programs outlining abuse. Even the Comedy channel has researched and developed numerous “news” stories.
Surely Congress, and the Justice Department can do as well, if not better.
My pledge. Just as Gerald Ford’s putting the past behind us by pardoning Richard Nixon cost him my vote in 1976, not investigating torture and other abuses of power and office between the years of 2000 and 2008 will cost President Obama my vote in 2012.
My understanding of cancer is that it usually takes decades of exposure to toxins before cells become cancerous.
Today we are faced with a cancer of the Constitution.
It may have started with two cancer cells, Cheney and Rumsfeld
Did they get their start in the Nixon administration? I think so. I think they believed, and still believe, that Nixon was right and that he was above the law while he was president and that a unitary executive branch is best for this country.
They first appear in public, and with power under Gerald Ford. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. The cancer Nixon started was not thoroughly killed by irradiation of the bright light of public scrutiny. Cheney and Rumsfeld and crew were allowed to continue to silently grow and infect others around them. The tumor was regrowing.
The cancer grows, quietly and becomes more powerful
Through Reagan and Bush, 41. Through Iran-Contra where the United States hired people like Eugene Hassenfus to run cocaine into black neighborhoods and to sell weapons to Iran to raise money to fund an extra-constitutional war.
A temporary seeming remission during Clinton. But the military continued to privatize their support services. Now, instead of having Army cooks, we subcontract the jobs out to Halliburton and pay Blackwater (I mean Xi) to guard the civilians. If we had that arrangement during the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans would have won their Argonne offensive because then e had an army that could fight in depth. We had cooks who were soldiers first.
Then the full symptomatic eruption happened during Bush 43. Just the right mix of carcinogens and precancerous cells got mixed together. The body of this nation was subjected to a terrible shock. We all (most of us) bought the big lie. We could not see that giving George Bush – and, by extension, the people who had their hand up his butt like a sock puppet – Giving George Bush war powers was no different from giving any other redneck an ax handle, a six pack and a pick-up truck.
Our Constitution has been exposed to eight years of rapid and unimpeded growth of Constitutional Cancer. The tumor has not yet killed the Constitution.
Smoking causes cancer, right? Stopping smoking is a preventative method of avoiding the disease.
But once cancer is present, it continues to grow even if the victim stops smoking.
Now, by pardoning torturers and justifiers of torture, and orderers of torture and promising to just not ever do it again, the country is trying to cure cancer by just stopping smoking. We pretend that the the concept of the Unitary Executive is behind us. We say that we will no longer torture. We do not repudiate unwarranted invasions into the private lives of our citizens. We seek to protect some of the people, the CIA civilians, who tortured in the name of The United States of America. Yet we do not pardon the military people who, acting under the very same legal determinations, followed their orders in military prisons and were scapegoated and themselves sent to military prisons.
Once the disease starts, appeasment and promising to change do not rid the body of the Constitution of the cancer. If those things worked then Gerald Ford’s pardon would have worked – and it didn’t.
The patient may get a few more years of life if surgeons cut out the big, easy to get pieces But the patient will still die of the cancer because it is still there and will grow back.
It may even metastasize and spread to other parts of the body.
Sometimes a person with lung cancer dies because the cancer spreads to the liver or the brain and those tumors kill the person first.
Is this what we want of our Constitution? Is this what we want for our country?
I for one do not.
Therefore – I am sending this to my president, my senators, my representative and several various public media outlets.
I am imploring those with the power, I’m begging, I’m asking nice, I’m saying Please
“Please, If we are truly a nation of law (and we are a nation of law because we legitimize our government through the set of law we refer to as the Constitution) independently and publicly investigate every abuse of power, real or imagined, that makes up the legacy of the Bush Cheney Administration.
This will not be so hard to do. PBS has already a half dozen programs outlining abuse. Even the Comedy channel has researched and developed numerous “news” stories.
Surely Congress, and the Justice Department can do as well, if not better.
My pledge. Just as Gerald Ford’s putting the past behind us by pardoning Richard Nixon cost him my vote in 1976, not investigating torture and other abuses of power and office between the years of 2000 and 2008 will cost President Obama my vote in 2012.
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