Tuesday, March 17, 2009
535 members of Congress and the Constitution
by
Molly the Robin
Applying the Constitution seems to be very difficult, for many of you have different ideas about what the Constitution actually says. Does it mean that freedom of speech can be restricted by "caging", a practice where police separate by fences peaceful protesters from those who need to observe the protests? Do regulations on freedoms restrict those freedoms? A good rule of thumb is that any restriction on the people ought to be made upon the government authorities as a check and balance.
All the restrictions on Constitutional rights and all spending issues emanate primarily from 535 members of Congress. If the country is in financial trouble or disarray it is those 535 members of Congress who are responsible and accountable. If the country's policies, foreign and domestic fail, the accountable body of government is Congress, for they have the purse strings of all branches of government. Your Congress through its spending powers can begin and end wars, begin and end government departments and begin and end the mountain of waste and inefficiency in government.
Failure and success of your country ultimately resides in your Congress, those 535 members. Failure and success of the country is their true legacy. The costs of Health care and Social Security are unsustainable, but why? From my reading in libraries, if your members of Congress had simply established an account for each of these benefits since the 1960s there would be sufficient funds for these programs. But your members of Congress decided long ago to spend money gained from these programs for the general fund adding it to the pool of available funds for government salaries and budgets for all those other optional departments of government. Your members of Congress will have caused the financial shortfalls in Health care and Social Security in the near future by apparently not doing their jobs and failing in their oaths of office.
An effective and resourceful U.S. Congress might have and, in my view as a bird, could have created a basic universal health care system with the vast sums expended on health care by the government. Instead, it became primarily a profit center for insurance companies and a burden for private companies as well as incurring hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and corruption within the U.S. health care system. It is as if the Congress has no responsibility once laws and regulations are in place to review them, a mark of irresponsibility and a substandard work ethic as well as a lack of ethics in providing the best and most effective government for the American people.
When will members of Congress of both political parties-republicans and democrats be called to account to balance the national budget and allocate resources for their financial obligations to the citizens of the country? How much mismanagement and waste can a government sustain before there is a financial collapse system endangering all the citizenry of the country?
Our flock has greater diversity of participation in our governing lives than your Congress and we can address failure easily while you flounder and wallow in it for long periods seemingly unable to make beneficial and constructive change.
by
Molly the Robin
Applying the Constitution seems to be very difficult, for many of you have different ideas about what the Constitution actually says. Does it mean that freedom of speech can be restricted by "caging", a practice where police separate by fences peaceful protesters from those who need to observe the protests? Do regulations on freedoms restrict those freedoms? A good rule of thumb is that any restriction on the people ought to be made upon the government authorities as a check and balance.
All the restrictions on Constitutional rights and all spending issues emanate primarily from 535 members of Congress. If the country is in financial trouble or disarray it is those 535 members of Congress who are responsible and accountable. If the country's policies, foreign and domestic fail, the accountable body of government is Congress, for they have the purse strings of all branches of government. Your Congress through its spending powers can begin and end wars, begin and end government departments and begin and end the mountain of waste and inefficiency in government.
Failure and success of your country ultimately resides in your Congress, those 535 members. Failure and success of the country is their true legacy. The costs of Health care and Social Security are unsustainable, but why? From my reading in libraries, if your members of Congress had simply established an account for each of these benefits since the 1960s there would be sufficient funds for these programs. But your members of Congress decided long ago to spend money gained from these programs for the general fund adding it to the pool of available funds for government salaries and budgets for all those other optional departments of government. Your members of Congress will have caused the financial shortfalls in Health care and Social Security in the near future by apparently not doing their jobs and failing in their oaths of office.
An effective and resourceful U.S. Congress might have and, in my view as a bird, could have created a basic universal health care system with the vast sums expended on health care by the government. Instead, it became primarily a profit center for insurance companies and a burden for private companies as well as incurring hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and corruption within the U.S. health care system. It is as if the Congress has no responsibility once laws and regulations are in place to review them, a mark of irresponsibility and a substandard work ethic as well as a lack of ethics in providing the best and most effective government for the American people.
When will members of Congress of both political parties-republicans and democrats be called to account to balance the national budget and allocate resources for their financial obligations to the citizens of the country? How much mismanagement and waste can a government sustain before there is a financial collapse system endangering all the citizenry of the country?
Our flock has greater diversity of participation in our governing lives than your Congress and we can address failure easily while you flounder and wallow in it for long periods seemingly unable to make beneficial and constructive change.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Superpower Incompetence or Homeland Insecurity
by
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I was flabbergasted at what I have been seeing on your television news because they usually try to minimize bad news by covering it lightly, ignoring it or being deceptive about it. But this story has legs in Mexico as well as along the U.S. and Mexican border. While your country is flexing its muscles as a superpower with costly aircraft carriers, endless military technological schemes and about 1000 U.S. military bases around the world, yet right in your backyard violence is flaring in Mexico and along the border with your country and spilling over in your country. Hundreds of people are being killed in the streets in running gun battles.
There is no news about the value of homes in the American southwest that have declined because of the lack of security resulting in more crimes-burglaries and home invasions. If that doesn't affect national security what does? This is another example of the mainstream television news failing to inform the American people the lack of effective government administered by republicans and democrats.
The Mexican drug cartels are even in Atlanta, Georgia as it is a hub for their operations for the eastern and southern states. In fact, the U.S.A. Today newspaper story called Mexican Drug Cartels Plague Atlanta said that Mexican drug cartels were operating in 195 cities in the United States. Can you imagine this? What has your government been doing for the last 20 or 30 years? What have democrats and republicans being doing? Making things worse?
Your government is spending about a trillion dollars on security counting the Defense Department, Homeland Security and all those alphabet soup security agencies you have established. Right now it looks like Homeland Security ought to be called Homeland Insecurity.
If the American people weren't so lackadaisical those blundering, fumbling and ineffective democrats and republicans would have been supplemented and supplanted by political parties sharing political power and reducing their monopoly on power. In addition, their form of government is very costly and expensive with so little to show for it, not security, not safe food and drugs and not effective government. These democrats and republicans always have the same answer, it could and would be a lot worse without their kind of government policies. The answer to them is simple: with new and fresh and more political parties sharing power it would likely be much better than it is today.
How long is their show going to go on? How many more mishaps can these two parties sustain: 9/11, economic meltdown for lack of government oversight, unsafe food and drugs, massive drug cartels invading the country, lack of a national high speed rail system, lack of an efficient national health care system and a few dozen more things.
If we had republicans and democrats in our bird world we would have reduced their influence long ago. I'll be flying off now.
by
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I was flabbergasted at what I have been seeing on your television news because they usually try to minimize bad news by covering it lightly, ignoring it or being deceptive about it. But this story has legs in Mexico as well as along the U.S. and Mexican border. While your country is flexing its muscles as a superpower with costly aircraft carriers, endless military technological schemes and about 1000 U.S. military bases around the world, yet right in your backyard violence is flaring in Mexico and along the border with your country and spilling over in your country. Hundreds of people are being killed in the streets in running gun battles.
There is no news about the value of homes in the American southwest that have declined because of the lack of security resulting in more crimes-burglaries and home invasions. If that doesn't affect national security what does? This is another example of the mainstream television news failing to inform the American people the lack of effective government administered by republicans and democrats.
The Mexican drug cartels are even in Atlanta, Georgia as it is a hub for their operations for the eastern and southern states. In fact, the U.S.A. Today newspaper story called Mexican Drug Cartels Plague Atlanta said that Mexican drug cartels were operating in 195 cities in the United States. Can you imagine this? What has your government been doing for the last 20 or 30 years? What have democrats and republicans being doing? Making things worse?
Your government is spending about a trillion dollars on security counting the Defense Department, Homeland Security and all those alphabet soup security agencies you have established. Right now it looks like Homeland Security ought to be called Homeland Insecurity.
If the American people weren't so lackadaisical those blundering, fumbling and ineffective democrats and republicans would have been supplemented and supplanted by political parties sharing political power and reducing their monopoly on power. In addition, their form of government is very costly and expensive with so little to show for it, not security, not safe food and drugs and not effective government. These democrats and republicans always have the same answer, it could and would be a lot worse without their kind of government policies. The answer to them is simple: with new and fresh and more political parties sharing power it would likely be much better than it is today.
How long is their show going to go on? How many more mishaps can these two parties sustain: 9/11, economic meltdown for lack of government oversight, unsafe food and drugs, massive drug cartels invading the country, lack of a national high speed rail system, lack of an efficient national health care system and a few dozen more things.
If we had republicans and democrats in our bird world we would have reduced their influence long ago. I'll be flying off now.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Snippets of Reality Information
by
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
In an eggshell or in a nutshell, as you might say, are nine issues in the forefront of your country, although there has been a consistent and continual omission of them, primarily by your television networks where the majority of your citizenry receive their snippets of reality information.
1. The Iraq war has become a trillion dollar invasion and occupation that is not enhancing the security of your country. It has done the opposite, for independent analysis has shown that terror networks have been spawned by your reckless military adventure causing hundreds of thousands of innocents to be killed, marshaling overwhelming motivation against your country. The millions of Iraqis living in refugee camps in Syria and Jordan are seldom, if ever shown on television or their stories told.
2. U.S. Government ownership of Amtrak with its multi-billion dollar annual subsidy has prevented the development and construction of a national high speed train network which could have been a massive financial boom and boon for your country by providing more alternatives to travel. But your democrats and republicans were not interested in it, they were interested in other less important but equally costly things.
3. The massive shift of manufacturing abroad was permitted by favorable tax laws for private industry so they could maximize their profits at the expense of job and employment security, which is ultimately the most important national security issue. Are you sure you know who these Republicans and Democrats are really working for?
4. Government funding for urban renewal and pet projects for a particular district without any overall national strategy to benefit the entire country has been shown to be a folly of trillions of dollars in mismanagement of public funds by neglecting roads, bridges and a national high speed train system.
5. Your national government's spending policies have caused the economic decline of the United States by being unable to allocate resources effectively or efficiently. It mis-allocates resources endlessly to the detriment of the nation.
6. Health care costs are rising uncontrollably because government has created an uncontrollable system. A universal system to prevent illnesses would save enormous sums, but your two political parties, republicans and democrats, do not have sufficient incentive to create an effective and efficient health care system. Providing a universal health care system is too difficult for your elected officials. It is much easier for your elected officials to spend trillions of dollars on wars, war equipment and technology and bailouts for the financial industry than provide health care for its citizenry. Your national politicians may not have much in common with the citizenry. Many of them, including their leadership, lead lives not of quiet desperation, but of quiet luxury.
7. Your television networks and cable news programming scrupulously avoid placing accountability on both political parties, namely democrats and republicans, for the current economic decline and collapse of the country. Your television networks and those approved to be on television have stated that the fault is yours, you the American people, for spending too much on credit, causing the economic difficulties. Your television networks seldom, if ever, state that the regulatory system that democrats and republicans set up was negligent and grossly ineffective. They are guilty of malfeasance.
8. The number of articles and television programs that show the American people how to save money is endless-from meals to gasoline to "stop overpaying for things". Now, the number of programs and articles on how your government can reduce spending and become more efficient and effective is zero, nada, zilch. Your American television media's role appears to be that of cheerleader with its abundant favorable reporting and commentary on whatever your government does or for that matter what it does not do. It can be reliably stated that your media, especially television network news is an arm of government in many cases and rarely criticizes it partner by showing film footage that contradicts or undercuts the government. One of your presidents, Lyndon Johnson was no fool, for in drafting legislation for television he was able to have the opportunity to buy a television station of his very own.
9. Your government is unable to downsize or realize it is too big and incapable of managing itself. If your Founding Fathers had known how reckless in spending and foreign policy the last two or three generations have been they would have included within the Constitution a prohibition of spending more money than the government annually receives and additional expenditures approved by the citizenry. Your television networks refuse to report on the failures of your government and focus on it. They will focus interminably on the frivolous and unimportant. Your democracy is looking frail and a little weak. Yes, you have a democracy, but one with minuscule accountability and a re-election rate for members of Congress that rivals the old Soviet Union.
If my flock ran its affairs as you do in your country we would be clearly labeled failures and incompetents, but in your system of democrats and republicans, failure means more money, promotions or re-election. It is a foolproof system to avoid responsibility and accountability with the great assistance of your television networks which enjoy their profits and existence provided legislation from republicans and democrats.
I'm glad we don't have these democrats and republicans running our government.
by
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
In an eggshell or in a nutshell, as you might say, are nine issues in the forefront of your country, although there has been a consistent and continual omission of them, primarily by your television networks where the majority of your citizenry receive their snippets of reality information.
1. The Iraq war has become a trillion dollar invasion and occupation that is not enhancing the security of your country. It has done the opposite, for independent analysis has shown that terror networks have been spawned by your reckless military adventure causing hundreds of thousands of innocents to be killed, marshaling overwhelming motivation against your country. The millions of Iraqis living in refugee camps in Syria and Jordan are seldom, if ever shown on television or their stories told.
2. U.S. Government ownership of Amtrak with its multi-billion dollar annual subsidy has prevented the development and construction of a national high speed train network which could have been a massive financial boom and boon for your country by providing more alternatives to travel. But your democrats and republicans were not interested in it, they were interested in other less important but equally costly things.
3. The massive shift of manufacturing abroad was permitted by favorable tax laws for private industry so they could maximize their profits at the expense of job and employment security, which is ultimately the most important national security issue. Are you sure you know who these Republicans and Democrats are really working for?
4. Government funding for urban renewal and pet projects for a particular district without any overall national strategy to benefit the entire country has been shown to be a folly of trillions of dollars in mismanagement of public funds by neglecting roads, bridges and a national high speed train system.
5. Your national government's spending policies have caused the economic decline of the United States by being unable to allocate resources effectively or efficiently. It mis-allocates resources endlessly to the detriment of the nation.
6. Health care costs are rising uncontrollably because government has created an uncontrollable system. A universal system to prevent illnesses would save enormous sums, but your two political parties, republicans and democrats, do not have sufficient incentive to create an effective and efficient health care system. Providing a universal health care system is too difficult for your elected officials. It is much easier for your elected officials to spend trillions of dollars on wars, war equipment and technology and bailouts for the financial industry than provide health care for its citizenry. Your national politicians may not have much in common with the citizenry. Many of them, including their leadership, lead lives not of quiet desperation, but of quiet luxury.
7. Your television networks and cable news programming scrupulously avoid placing accountability on both political parties, namely democrats and republicans, for the current economic decline and collapse of the country. Your television networks and those approved to be on television have stated that the fault is yours, you the American people, for spending too much on credit, causing the economic difficulties. Your television networks seldom, if ever, state that the regulatory system that democrats and republicans set up was negligent and grossly ineffective. They are guilty of malfeasance.
8. The number of articles and television programs that show the American people how to save money is endless-from meals to gasoline to "stop overpaying for things". Now, the number of programs and articles on how your government can reduce spending and become more efficient and effective is zero, nada, zilch. Your American television media's role appears to be that of cheerleader with its abundant favorable reporting and commentary on whatever your government does or for that matter what it does not do. It can be reliably stated that your media, especially television network news is an arm of government in many cases and rarely criticizes it partner by showing film footage that contradicts or undercuts the government. One of your presidents, Lyndon Johnson was no fool, for in drafting legislation for television he was able to have the opportunity to buy a television station of his very own.
9. Your government is unable to downsize or realize it is too big and incapable of managing itself. If your Founding Fathers had known how reckless in spending and foreign policy the last two or three generations have been they would have included within the Constitution a prohibition of spending more money than the government annually receives and additional expenditures approved by the citizenry. Your television networks refuse to report on the failures of your government and focus on it. They will focus interminably on the frivolous and unimportant. Your democracy is looking frail and a little weak. Yes, you have a democracy, but one with minuscule accountability and a re-election rate for members of Congress that rivals the old Soviet Union.
If my flock ran its affairs as you do in your country we would be clearly labeled failures and incompetents, but in your system of democrats and republicans, failure means more money, promotions or re-election. It is a foolproof system to avoid responsibility and accountability with the great assistance of your television networks which enjoy their profits and existence provided legislation from republicans and democrats.
I'm glad we don't have these democrats and republicans running our government.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Lip Service Accountability Or Unaccountable Government
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
There is an expression going about now that one of the reasons for all these government financial bailouts is that the companies are too big to fail, the consequences are too dire for the country. Maybe your government is too big to succeed. Maybe your government is too big to succeed in making food and drugs safe, maintaining the infrastructure of roads and bridges and developing high speed rail service to mention a few things. Your government is failing at these things and where is the accountability? In our bird world we would never have allowed things to get so out of hand.
There is so much talk and even scores of articles on accountability in your government, but hardly anything changes. The cost of government continues to rise while more of your citizenry struggle more and more to survive. Accountability is enshrined in your Constitution with the balance of power among your three branches of government. If your Founding Fathers had known that two political parties would dominate to such an extent that once one party had both the executive and legislative branches they would collude to side step and avoid accountability they would have outlawed political parties or allowed many political parties to participate in the electoral process without any hindrance.
Who is accountable when tainted food emanates from factories never inspected that kills many people every year? Who is accountable when drugs, especially anti-depression drugs, are allowed into the market place that have side effects that cause countless suicides? The lack of oversight and supervision of the Food and Drug Administration ought to be laid at the feet of members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats. These elected officials prance around as if its got nothing to do with them. It is their job to make sure federal agencies are operating effectively and efficiently for the American people so that food and drugs are safe. When have the public airwaves, especially television networks exposed this national ongoing and continual negligence? Maybe your country has entered the Accountable Free Zone, the effects you are witnessing daily.
Politicians of your two major parties have taken the country to a disastrous and costly war in both human and financial ways, yet there has been no accountability for those who voted for the war. There has been no accountability for those who voted for removing restrictions on the financial industries causing the economic meltdown of the country. The penalty for for democrats and republicans for wrecking the economy and starting an unnecessary and optional war: nada, nil, zilch. Some were even appointed to high office. Your form of politics is as close to foolproof as possible to avoid blame of any kind.
Where is your accountability? I think I know what it is. It is lip service accountability. Your politicians talk about responsibility and accountability, but nothing changes. There are no concrete sanctions and repercussions involving accountability. They are seldom answerable for their actions. With a 98% re-election rate for members of Congress accountability becomes just lip service.
Since money is the key for everything in government I think the citizenry ought to prevail in having financial sanctions against politicians. At least remove a substantial portion of their pensions for their upkeep when they start an optional war which becomes a catastrophe. Instead of rewarding them with future higher appointed posts and heavily laden pension packages, bar them from becoming a candidate by mid-term referendums, requiring them to get a majority of votes to continue in office. Change, change, change. Change how politicians are elected and continue in office. Everything is changing except your politics. It is the same or worse than it was in the past. What is wrong with change for your politicians?
When government agencies fail glaringly like the FDA, it is not solely the failure of the agency. It is a failure of both the executive and legislative branches of government. It is a blunder, breakdown and omission of the presidency and members of Congress. It is their collective job besides fighting over money and where money should be spent to provide the oversight and supervision of all government agencies. If they are unable to provide effective and efficient oversight over each federal agency the government is too big, too unmanageable and too unweildy. If the elected representatives cannot oversee the government and provide effective and efficient oversight it will not get done. If the elected members of Congress cannot devise a system to provide for oversight, the government is too bloated to be effective.
Accountability is just lip service by democrats and republicans as they merrily make their way around the country and overseas while at the same time simulating accountability in mock and pseudo and sham sessions of accountability because nothing changes or there are no major improvements in legislation or governing to make a more effective and efficient government for your people.
I'll be going off now to my park where things make sense and my flock never behave so badly or so reprehensibly.
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
There is an expression going about now that one of the reasons for all these government financial bailouts is that the companies are too big to fail, the consequences are too dire for the country. Maybe your government is too big to succeed. Maybe your government is too big to succeed in making food and drugs safe, maintaining the infrastructure of roads and bridges and developing high speed rail service to mention a few things. Your government is failing at these things and where is the accountability? In our bird world we would never have allowed things to get so out of hand.
There is so much talk and even scores of articles on accountability in your government, but hardly anything changes. The cost of government continues to rise while more of your citizenry struggle more and more to survive. Accountability is enshrined in your Constitution with the balance of power among your three branches of government. If your Founding Fathers had known that two political parties would dominate to such an extent that once one party had both the executive and legislative branches they would collude to side step and avoid accountability they would have outlawed political parties or allowed many political parties to participate in the electoral process without any hindrance.
Who is accountable when tainted food emanates from factories never inspected that kills many people every year? Who is accountable when drugs, especially anti-depression drugs, are allowed into the market place that have side effects that cause countless suicides? The lack of oversight and supervision of the Food and Drug Administration ought to be laid at the feet of members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats. These elected officials prance around as if its got nothing to do with them. It is their job to make sure federal agencies are operating effectively and efficiently for the American people so that food and drugs are safe. When have the public airwaves, especially television networks exposed this national ongoing and continual negligence? Maybe your country has entered the Accountable Free Zone, the effects you are witnessing daily.
Politicians of your two major parties have taken the country to a disastrous and costly war in both human and financial ways, yet there has been no accountability for those who voted for the war. There has been no accountability for those who voted for removing restrictions on the financial industries causing the economic meltdown of the country. The penalty for for democrats and republicans for wrecking the economy and starting an unnecessary and optional war: nada, nil, zilch. Some were even appointed to high office. Your form of politics is as close to foolproof as possible to avoid blame of any kind.
Where is your accountability? I think I know what it is. It is lip service accountability. Your politicians talk about responsibility and accountability, but nothing changes. There are no concrete sanctions and repercussions involving accountability. They are seldom answerable for their actions. With a 98% re-election rate for members of Congress accountability becomes just lip service.
Since money is the key for everything in government I think the citizenry ought to prevail in having financial sanctions against politicians. At least remove a substantial portion of their pensions for their upkeep when they start an optional war which becomes a catastrophe. Instead of rewarding them with future higher appointed posts and heavily laden pension packages, bar them from becoming a candidate by mid-term referendums, requiring them to get a majority of votes to continue in office. Change, change, change. Change how politicians are elected and continue in office. Everything is changing except your politics. It is the same or worse than it was in the past. What is wrong with change for your politicians?
When government agencies fail glaringly like the FDA, it is not solely the failure of the agency. It is a failure of both the executive and legislative branches of government. It is a blunder, breakdown and omission of the presidency and members of Congress. It is their collective job besides fighting over money and where money should be spent to provide the oversight and supervision of all government agencies. If they are unable to provide effective and efficient oversight over each federal agency the government is too big, too unmanageable and too unweildy. If the elected representatives cannot oversee the government and provide effective and efficient oversight it will not get done. If the elected members of Congress cannot devise a system to provide for oversight, the government is too bloated to be effective.
Accountability is just lip service by democrats and republicans as they merrily make their way around the country and overseas while at the same time simulating accountability in mock and pseudo and sham sessions of accountability because nothing changes or there are no major improvements in legislation or governing to make a more effective and efficient government for your people.
I'll be going off now to my park where things make sense and my flock never behave so badly or so reprehensibly.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Two Party System Glued to Government
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
Now it is so clear that your Democrats and Republicans together caused the current economic turmoil in the country by deregulation, lack of oversight of the financial system in the country and chronic overspending. They have been unable to devise a system of government that will not fail economically, for programs that directly benefit the American citizen are not sustainable and will likely go broke-Medicare and Social Security.
A problem cannot be solved unless it is identified, including those responsible. There may be powerful political forces including those in network television that want to divert, obfuscate and deny for political purpose the failures of government because those failures rest at the feet of those controlling the government: Republicans and Democrats.
How do your citizens replace and discharge Democrats and Republicans? How do your citizens even have shared political power with the two political behemoths? Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, yet the Republicans and Democrats have a lock on the system, for it is they who will determine how new parties will participate in the democracy. It is the two parties that set the rules, making it difficult if not impossible for other parties to participate in the political process.
Well, that means you cannot replace Democrats and Republicans. You cannot fire them. You cannot remove them. They are cemented to the government and many of their actions are to make the bond between themselves and government unbreakable. They are the government and Constitution seems to be what they say it is. Patriot Laws decide your freedoms, not the Constitution. Their laws may constrain you and your media, especially your television networks will not even let you know. In fact, independent candidates for public office do not have the right to advertise on television, for it is at the discretion of the networks and television stations. Previous independent candidates sometimes had their political advertisements blocked from the public airwaves. That would never happen to the Democrats and Republicans. Their political ads and their surrogates have free rein in the political marketplace.
If the Democrats and Republicans are cemented to the Constitution, their collective weight might drown the whole system.
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
Now it is so clear that your Democrats and Republicans together caused the current economic turmoil in the country by deregulation, lack of oversight of the financial system in the country and chronic overspending. They have been unable to devise a system of government that will not fail economically, for programs that directly benefit the American citizen are not sustainable and will likely go broke-Medicare and Social Security.
A problem cannot be solved unless it is identified, including those responsible. There may be powerful political forces including those in network television that want to divert, obfuscate and deny for political purpose the failures of government because those failures rest at the feet of those controlling the government: Republicans and Democrats.
How do your citizens replace and discharge Democrats and Republicans? How do your citizens even have shared political power with the two political behemoths? Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, yet the Republicans and Democrats have a lock on the system, for it is they who will determine how new parties will participate in the democracy. It is the two parties that set the rules, making it difficult if not impossible for other parties to participate in the political process.
Well, that means you cannot replace Democrats and Republicans. You cannot fire them. You cannot remove them. They are cemented to the government and many of their actions are to make the bond between themselves and government unbreakable. They are the government and Constitution seems to be what they say it is. Patriot Laws decide your freedoms, not the Constitution. Their laws may constrain you and your media, especially your television networks will not even let you know. In fact, independent candidates for public office do not have the right to advertise on television, for it is at the discretion of the networks and television stations. Previous independent candidates sometimes had their political advertisements blocked from the public airwaves. That would never happen to the Democrats and Republicans. Their political ads and their surrogates have free rein in the political marketplace.
If the Democrats and Republicans are cemented to the Constitution, their collective weight might drown the whole system.
