Sunday, June 21, 2009
Open Petition
You willing to stand up for OUR country? I put in 18 years serving the people and the Constitution of this country. Are you willing to serve and be counted?
Congress - smongress. Get a REAL job.
You will find if you read this blog at all that I tend to vent by posting other peoples words. This is due to a variety of factors between lack of time to verbalize on my own and a tendency to not be very eloquent.
One of the earliest reasons I learned to dislike politicians in general was the realization that while I, someone in the military - representing those who could possibly be called upon to die for the country - was at the mercy of the federal budget for a simple pay raise. Money to feed my family, get a car or just take a vacation was held hostage at a whim by the Congress and political battles. And then, one day, I discovered that Congress had the ability to vote themselves a pay raise. Now wait - what person in their right mind (much less a Congressman or Senator) would NOT vote themselves the ability to earn more money.
The following information is another one of those epiphany's. My friend Roy was talking about Congressional retirement. Maybe you knew this before. But the sentiment expressed here is 100% spot on. There is not one reason why a federal politician should NOT be held to the same standards as the rest of the workers in this country. Who in the HELL said they were better than us?
START A BILL TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7, 800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275, 000.00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA..! ZILCH....
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK "!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer).We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month After retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen.. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us Then sit back and see how fast they would fix it.
One of the earliest reasons I learned to dislike politicians in general was the realization that while I, someone in the military - representing those who could possibly be called upon to die for the country - was at the mercy of the federal budget for a simple pay raise. Money to feed my family, get a car or just take a vacation was held hostage at a whim by the Congress and political battles. And then, one day, I discovered that Congress had the ability to vote themselves a pay raise. Now wait - what person in their right mind (much less a Congressman or Senator) would NOT vote themselves the ability to earn more money.
The following information is another one of those epiphany's. My friend Roy was talking about Congressional retirement. Maybe you knew this before. But the sentiment expressed here is 100% spot on. There is not one reason why a federal politician should NOT be held to the same standards as the rest of the workers in this country. Who in the HELL said they were better than us?
START A BILL TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7, 800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275, 000.00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA..! ZILCH....
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK "!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer).We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month After retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen.. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us Then sit back and see how fast they would fix it.
Political stances - or - What the hell just happened?
I'd like to think that I'm relatively intelligent and aware of the way things are. After all I've been around for nearly half a century - probably at least half of that somewhat aware of my place in society and the eternal loop of life and death.
Like a good number of persons of my generation with no true promise of a future and no funding for college (or grades to support scholarships) I elected to join the military - for what was supposed to be a single tour. Eighteen years later I found myself retiring during the Clinton draw down of the military forces.
While I never saw any combat or direct combat support - I do subscribe to the attestation of President Regan that the American military helped defeat Communism and con the cold war. I was part of that.
When I graduated high school politics was a blur to me. I didn't know one party from the other. After my time in the military I counted myself as a Repbulican. Again withotu truly knowing what that meant. Now I consider myself to be more of a Libertarian. Most of this "growth" has simply been a name change. My core beliefs in our society have never truly changed.
I am a firm believer that the individual is responsible for themselves. We are all given the same opportunities. In my degree program I had a class in Cultural Diversity where the professor postulated that some person in this country are not aware of the opportunities because they don't know what questions to ask. To this I reply balderdash (well stronger words). In this day and age of mass media you have to be deaf and dumb not to know about opportunities for education, job training, etc. The individual chooses to not take advantage of them.
I am also a proponent that the money I earn is just that - MY MONEY! I may have to pay taxes, but its MY money to pay. Not pay in to give to someone else. pay in for my share. The ones getting my money better damn well be doing something positive and paying their own taxes.
Which leads me to the government in general. I can't tell you how I came to this, but I realized very early in life (High School) that this country was founded as a collection of States. Each of these states voluntarily joined into a Union for the common good and defense. Thus the federal government was born. To provide for common defense, common trade, international relations. NOT to control the states. In fact the states are supposed to be in control of the federal government.
And yet we have just (2008) suffered through yet another vainglorious politician evolution of greed, blatant out and out lies and grandstanding of the worse sort. Frankly I never paid attention to Obama before the election. Never looked into his past or any of the other issues. I was a Repbulican and I voted straight Republican because the alternative was NOT something that I belived in. But hey, we've had Democratic presidents before. So if the worse happened - how bad could it be.
Well I never envisioned anything of this magnitude. People voting for a president NOT because of what his positions were but who he was - worse insinuation was just because he was black. Well I'm here to tell you that from my perspective we have just elected what could very well be the beginning of the end of America as we know it. I don't truly belive that he will declare a dictatorship - not even given a horror of eight years of this. But he has done more than enough damage already (and not even 6 full months in) to jeopardize our national wealth and international standing. And with that damage comes the very real perspective of internal strife and potential attacks within the continental boundaries.
For that reason alone I'm pissed. In researching politics in general I have come to believe that I am more of a Libertarian than anything else. Unfortunately without some miracle the number of people who feel that way will probably not be enough to overthrow the standard political parties - or even make them sit up and take notice. And we'll be stuck with politics as usual for our lifetime.
Like a good number of persons of my generation with no true promise of a future and no funding for college (or grades to support scholarships) I elected to join the military - for what was supposed to be a single tour. Eighteen years later I found myself retiring during the Clinton draw down of the military forces.
While I never saw any combat or direct combat support - I do subscribe to the attestation of President Regan that the American military helped defeat Communism and con the cold war. I was part of that.
When I graduated high school politics was a blur to me. I didn't know one party from the other. After my time in the military I counted myself as a Repbulican. Again withotu truly knowing what that meant. Now I consider myself to be more of a Libertarian. Most of this "growth" has simply been a name change. My core beliefs in our society have never truly changed.
I am a firm believer that the individual is responsible for themselves. We are all given the same opportunities. In my degree program I had a class in Cultural Diversity where the professor postulated that some person in this country are not aware of the opportunities because they don't know what questions to ask. To this I reply balderdash (well stronger words). In this day and age of mass media you have to be deaf and dumb not to know about opportunities for education, job training, etc. The individual chooses to not take advantage of them.
I am also a proponent that the money I earn is just that - MY MONEY! I may have to pay taxes, but its MY money to pay. Not pay in to give to someone else. pay in for my share. The ones getting my money better damn well be doing something positive and paying their own taxes.
Which leads me to the government in general. I can't tell you how I came to this, but I realized very early in life (High School) that this country was founded as a collection of States. Each of these states voluntarily joined into a Union for the common good and defense. Thus the federal government was born. To provide for common defense, common trade, international relations. NOT to control the states. In fact the states are supposed to be in control of the federal government.
And yet we have just (2008) suffered through yet another vainglorious politician evolution of greed, blatant out and out lies and grandstanding of the worse sort. Frankly I never paid attention to Obama before the election. Never looked into his past or any of the other issues. I was a Repbulican and I voted straight Republican because the alternative was NOT something that I belived in. But hey, we've had Democratic presidents before. So if the worse happened - how bad could it be.
Well I never envisioned anything of this magnitude. People voting for a president NOT because of what his positions were but who he was - worse insinuation was just because he was black. Well I'm here to tell you that from my perspective we have just elected what could very well be the beginning of the end of America as we know it. I don't truly belive that he will declare a dictatorship - not even given a horror of eight years of this. But he has done more than enough damage already (and not even 6 full months in) to jeopardize our national wealth and international standing. And with that damage comes the very real perspective of internal strife and potential attacks within the continental boundaries.
For that reason alone I'm pissed. In researching politics in general I have come to believe that I am more of a Libertarian than anything else. Unfortunately without some miracle the number of people who feel that way will probably not be enough to overthrow the standard political parties - or even make them sit up and take notice. And we'll be stuck with politics as usual for our lifetime.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Introduction
This is my first real time effort to get my thoughts out to the ether - well internet at least. I don't expect in anyway for this site to become something historic, sweeping or even moderately interesting for those who do not know me or have some level of interest in the things of which I attempt to write.
Since this is a placeholder post I'll leave the introductions to a later post. In the meantime, here I'll stay for awhile.
Since this is a placeholder post I'll leave the introductions to a later post. In the meantime, here I'll stay for awhile.
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