Unisky

2011-12-13T18:50:00.008-05:00

Land of the Tuk-Tuk

The author has lived in Iran and Thailand, the locations of the forthcoming novel Land of the Tuk-Tuk. Fiction is sometimes dismissed as inaccurate reality, however, it may sometimes reveal what historians and others have overlooked. It is a novel infused with our world in an age where many seek vampires and aliens in outer space. The novel Land of the Tuk-Tuk is a journey here on earth that may be useful for some.

2011-11-05T13:38:00.003-04:00

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen." Henry David Thoreau from Life Without Principle.

Now this nation has been in the thrall of the financial speculator industry of Wall Street to such an extent that it has been massively publicly funded. The decoupling of Wall Street from the center of the financial universe of the United States is essential, instead of Wall Street being America's Sun it ought to be one of its distant stars.

Why would the national political leadership allow mortgages to become a financial product called credit default swaps that would endanger the fiscal health of nation?

2010-08-26T19:58:00.003-04:00

The American people need a wake up call of information on their country so they can move forward as a country in prosperity, peace and in a more sustainable way so that the earth itself and its environment take precedence-something the American Indian and many other native peoples have known. Our foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been instigated not with deliberation but with aberration.

2010-03-22T10:16:00.006-04:00

What do people write? What kind of a world has been created and by whom? We have all created the kind of environment we inhabit. In my view the writer is to explore accurately the kind of world we have through experience and imagination. Graham Greene said that for him there were two kinds of writing: literary or serious and entertainments. Is it possible to combine the two? Or does entertainments refer only the frivolous and enjoyable, like card tricks and magicians' antics?

George Orwell wrote that early in life he "noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper." He also wrote that "anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness." Also he wrote, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." A final quote from Orwell also rings true, "To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle."

So that struggle to see what is in front of one's large or small nose is among the most worthwhile goals for writing.

2009-09-25T12:20:00.039-04:00

The play Thoreau is creatively based on the life, works and words of Henry David Thoreau. The play accurately depicts Thoreau life by telescoping portions of his life in one summer. All of Thoreau's works were read as well as several biographies to write this play. Why publish a three act play you might ask. Because Thoreau's work, his writings, have pinpointed as well as clarified our world, our government and the importance of our environment. His work, therefore, is timeless and applicable to all ages.

Some of the six stories in Stellar Energies To America written as fiction are based on experience like the Vietnam War novella A Final Quietus while two stories, Animal Park (first published by Swans and can be read at my Links minus the two Emily Dickinson poems on robins that I quote before the story begins) and The Man Who Became a Box are fantasies. The two Emily Dickinson poems are included in the Fictionaut posting of the story Animal Park, Parts I & II.

However, in the story Animal Park a robin was witnessed by the author to be looking at herself repeatedly in car door mirrors. For several days in a row this robin flew to an unoccupied parked car to gaze at herself in the mirror, landing on the crevice of the window on the driver's side of the car and then flying to the opposite car door mirror. The robin became Molly. A man becoming a box is a fantasy, but in our dreams all things are possible.

Why not write those stories based on fact and experience as non-fiction you might ask. Sometimes facts alone are insufficient to highlight and bring alive the reality of the world. The citizens of a country need a perspective that encompasses a fuller picture of their country and their countrymen, not a partial and insular version.

A superpower that stumbles is inevitably led by stumblers who make mistakes and blunders with the footprint of the American people.

2009-06-30T08:32:00.011-04:00

Honesty and Ethics Deficit

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 where most Americans get their information is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.

Your society and politicians have either abandoned or neglected honesty and ethics to such a degree your honesty and ethical deficit is far greater than your national budget and debt deficits. Your two most recent wars-Vietnam and Iraq were based on falsehoods and there were no political sanctions or legal repercussions for such dishonesty, such as impeachment and removal from office or even removal of pensions and government subsidies. The embedded political parties have no intention of utilizing such measures. Impeachment and removal from office have been utilized so seldom in 250 years one might think that the American politician is among the most honorable, honest and effective elected officials the world as ever seen, making them a model for the world to follow.

Your free press, especially television news, gives the same view and impression. How fortunate for your politicians, unfortunately, it is a disaster for the American people. Change is everywhere, except for the "official political class" and all other political parties are considered false and have no legitimacy. Political monopolies are acceptable in your democracy, which is a democracy but with a wholly lopsided building that does not provide safety and security for the majority of Americans. The lopsided and unbalanced structure of the government can be corrected and improved with reconstruction.

Think of democrats and republicans as your employees. Two employees who waste your company's time, often spend money needlessly and wastefully and occasionally do their jobs well. What do you do? You fire them and replace them with people who know your concerns and accomplish their jobs effectively and efficiently. Find other political parties and create other political parties who are not mired in the agendas of lobbyists. The status quo has been failure, which your television networks dare not mention, for their game is profit, not in informing you of the information required to make informed decisions about your elected officials.

Your society uses such things as the credit report as a substitute for honesty, job skills, character when several of the people who founded the country were either heavily in debt or bankrupt and their honesty and ethics far surpasses those today with excellent credit reports who created the recent economic meltdown and causing the financial bailout by the political class who probably had more to lose financially on Wall Street than the average American.

Abandoning ethics and honesty is like setting sail on a boat with a severe leak and expecting to survive an ocean voyage without a major mishap.

The superstructure of institutions whose foundation is power and money without honesty and ethics will undoubtedly collapse through its own corruption and incompetence which are the products of an honesty and ethics deficit.

We birds learned this so I don't understand why you upright worms can't learn it. Some things are really hard to learn and maintain- your is honesty and ethical conduct-especially in your political and educational systems. Parenting too has this gap-the honesty and ethical gap for there is no insistence on honesty or ethics.

Well, I'll be flying over to a wooded area near the park where we reside. Hopefully, your kind won't cut it all down this summer for some financially profitable development project. I believe in profit without too much destruction of our home, which is planet earth.

2009-06-28T18:09:00.006-04:00

Spendthrift Government

By

Molly the Robin

There is endless talk and miniscule reporting on national health care today. Your government is the largest in the world because it spends the most money, yet your embedded Democrats and Republicans cannot figure out a cost-effective and humane way to provide health care for all of its citizens. It means they really do not want to provide it or they are incapable of doing so. In either case the embedded political parties have shown their mismanagement of the economy and the budget for at least two generations culminating in the latest financial bailout of the greedy and corrupt financial system-yet few people have been held criminally liable. Why oh why? Is it because the corruption is embedded so deeply? The debt and deficit your government runs up only make the citizenry poorer while the government elites and the institutions and industries they favor all do quite well at the expense of the country.

When the two entrenched political parties went to war in Iraq they did not calculate the costs which now soar into the trillions of dollars adding future health care costs of the soldiers. The maimed Iraqis undoubtedly have dubious health care future.

Chronically unsuccessful workers are either fired or removed from their jobs, except in the political arena where round the clock financial and managerial mayhem are immune from change. A wall of impunity and immunity has been erected to protect them and their parties. It is a wall made up of laws, regulations and most importantly a complicit and mutually beneficial way to govern to protect them from competition. The free press generally is weak in criticizing them, for they are partners who need one another for their mutual benefit and profit. Favoritism has become an American pillar of political and economic life weaved into law.

Your Democrats and Republicans have built a wall of incompetence prohibiting other political parties from participating in your democracy. Allowing their incompetence to continue endangers the nation. A failed democracy from within causes the worst kind of abuses, for the people are mere mannequins.

Your Democrats and Republicans have built a costly and unnecessary military empire at the expense of the citizenry. Intricate and expensive military and national security strategies did not prevent the horrific day 9/11. The attack succeeded not because you spent too little on security, but because of incompetence on the part of your government. Now you are spending too much on security for little purpose against a tactic you call "war on terror". How do you have a war against a tactic by criminals?

As we birds together in the park to discuss our affairs all have a voice. We do not waste nor do we ignore or abuse our fellow creatures. Your great economy and country and natural abundance have been severely abused for a few at the expense of the many. You have no longer created a government of the people, by the people and for the people. You have created a government of the few, by the few and for the few. Fairness and justice and freedom still exist but they are relegated to smaller and smaller corners of your country.

We birds conduct our affairs fairly without favoritism. We sing our songs to praise our way of life every day.

2009-06-17T12:18:00.005-04:00

"Why, the Government is merely.....a temporary servant....its function is to obey orders, not originate them." Mark Twain

"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble...." Mark Twain

Elephantiasis 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 where most Americans get their information is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.

As your government escalates in size and budget the crises that occur in war and peace become larger and larger leading even a bird like me to conclude that your government through its actions and inactions is becoming a major problem itself from trade policies, budget and fiscal policies, financial and banking policies to fabrications of threats to justify invasions and finally total lack of accountability in wrong doing by elected political leaders by Congress and finally the citizenry of the country who apparently believe they are powerless or they are just apathetic.

The final result is jerry-rigged government whose future for the citizenry is perpetually clouded and uncertain creating more hurdles and obstacles than pathways to freedom and justice. It is clear your citizenry need the freedom to solve their own problems. Government ought to ensure justice and fairness by eliminating and minimizing corruption and crimes and creating an environment for a prosperous economy. Your government wants to control more with its every failure.

The elected representatives of your two embedded political parties have discovered a perpetual piggy bank which they draw from creating an expensive and increasingly jerry-rigged and jerry-built government. This costly and debt ridden government edifice will fall and collapse, unfortunately, on the same citizenry that it claims to be for and benefit unless there is a course reversal.

There are ten of thousands of examples of the missteps of this government contraption your power and money hungry two entrenched and embedded political parties have created with the politicians they run for election. Justice and fairness are harder and harder to obtain for the citizenry. Dismantling this inefficient and often ineffective expensive contraption of your government is necessary and imperative which includes trillions of dollars in irresponsible and wasteful over spending making the American people poorer by misallocation of resources creating a less prosperous economy. Rebuilding it from the foundation, which is your Constitution, is necessary and imperative keeping in mind strengthening your Constitution so it will always be applied.

Who says there cannot be a peaceful revolution in government? The established politicians, their political machines, their minions in television news programming and prominent print news organizations always opt for the status quo in government for it benefits them to do so.

Mankind claims it has a brain and is smarter than we animals. Start by really proving it. Creating machines while destroying the earth and one another is not smarter than we so-called animals. Between the Vietnam War and the Iraq war your country's ethics vanished in its own black hole. Can you retrieve your ethics? That might well be a pivotal crux of human culture. As the elected politicians sidestep around problems and issues without solving them you the citizenry are bamboozled into quicksand.

I'll by flying off now. It is another great summer ahead. The trees and bushes are lush where I am. The sky is blue with scattered clouds that linger and cool the temperature as well as hide the sun. Your government ought to try to emulate the sun.

2009-06-13T08:13:00.026-04:00

GERRY-RIGGED AND GERRY-BUILT 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 where most Americans get their information is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.

After flying over your country and studying and reading from public libraries articles and news stories it is abundantly clear that your government through Democrats and Republicans has jerry-rigged and jerry-built for over two two generations a government contraption of programs, agencies and departments that are essentially self-serving with minimal benefit to the majority of the citizenry despite trillions of dollars spent annually.

A classic example is the result of the Congress Online Project Study "E-mail Overload in Congress-Managing a Communications Crisis". Excuse after excuse is cited in the study why members of Congress cannot answer their emails from too many lobbyists sending emails to emails outside their districts. As a bird I could easily devise a system separating emails from individual constituents from everybody else. If members of Congress do not know their jobs, do not know who is their employer or do not care about their constituents the current situation is the result.

A conclusion of the Congress Online Project puts the burden on the citizen, just where it does not belong by stating, "Citizens must recognize that congressional offices are not and cannot be capable of responding electronically to every every American." It is not a question of whether members of Congress can respond electronically to every American, the question is, does every member of Congress have an obligation to answer electronically every individual constituent? Notice how every obligation and responsibility of the U.S. Congress and government in general is often deflected or ignored from checks and balances to responding to constituent emails!

In essence they are incapable of representing their constituents as technology advances and it can be said that they are not adequately representing their constituents. Members of Congress spend trillions of dollars annually, much of it on dubious projects, yet answering their constituent's (citizens and voters) emails are a major problem. Maybe members of Congress and their embedded political parties are the problem by not understanding their jobs through design or ignorance.

How would we birds and animals exist with such an unbalanced and overloaded system of government as yours? It is a beautiful day for flying over the trees and bushes and the blue sky is my canopy.

2009-05-12T18:59:00.017-04:00

Financial Shortfall or Deficit or Meltdown Looming for Social Security and Medicare- More Chronic Failures of the Embedded Political Parties

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 where most Americans get their information is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.

On and on it goes. Newspaper articles are abuzz about the shortage of funds available for so-called entitlement programs. (Your national security is as much an entitlement program considering the trillions of dollars allocated to it for many decades.) The financial and management problems continue to mount decade after decade. National debt soaring. National deficit soaring. Yet it is services and benefits to the citizenry that are the problem that need adjustments in cost cutting and greater restrictions.

But all other government functions and spending that often produce negligible results despite their enormous costs in both the military and civilian sectors does not need to be reduced substantially or at all.

Now, it is certain that there ought to be at least two other political parties to help curtail government and focus government resources on its primary role utilizing prudence and fiscal responsibility. Unless the failure of the embedded political parties is not corrected the country will further decline, especially in government services that are essential.

Right now the government has created an empire it cannot afford but one which is often counterproductive for the maintenance of a country where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is becoming a burden caused primarily by the embedded political parties who seldom get any blame or criticism for their massive failures and ineptitude in governance.

Can't your country establish at least one or two more political parties to help solve the country's problems? When someone in our world cannot solve a problem they are either fired or others come to their assistance. But your kind dribbles and fumbles along with the same embedded parties for far too long creating more and more intractable problems in government. On issues of war and peace the fumbling and bumbling costing trillions of debt and financial waste including countless human lives continues abated signals a nation gone adrift with rulers who have become adept at pandering and misleading with a generally compliant press. The rulers are not interested in freedom, for they are constantly limiting freedom in the name of security. Your rulers are interested in retaining and enlarging their power as well as access to wealth, often using government to dole out millions of dollars to favorite groups and industries at the expense of the people.

I'll be flying off now hoping you will build upon your democracy from a minimalist one to one that is closer to maximum democracy strengthening your checks and balances, not weakening them.

2009-05-03T14:57:00.052-04:00

TELEVISION NEWS SHIELDS GOVERNMENT=UNSCRUTINIZED or SCANTILY SCRUTINIZED TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ANNUALLY AND UNEXAMINED LAWS

AND (REFORM YOUR MINIMALIST DEMOCRACY)

UNREGULATED GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT UNREPORTED OR SUBSTANTIALLY UNDER-REPORTED BY THE MAINSTREAM TELEVISION MEDIA WHICH BENEFITS FINANCIALLY FROM THE EXISTING LAWS REGARDING THE CREATION OF TELEVISION NETWORKS.

EXAMPLES OF CENSORSHIP BY THE MAINSTREAM TELEVISION NETWORKS AND CABLE NEWS PROGRAMMING:

CENSORED: THE NUMBER OF VIETNAMESE CIVILIANS KILLED AND MAIMED IN ANOTHER OPTIONAL WAR BEGUN WITH LIES

CENSORED: MILLIONS OF IRAQI REFUGEES WHO HAVE FLED THEIR COUNTRY

CENSORED: THE NUMBER OF IRAQI CIVILIANS KILLED AND MAIMED IN A RECENT OPTIONAL WAR BEGUN WITH LIES

CENSORED: THE TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS LOST THROUGH WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE IN MILITARY AND CIVILIAN CONTRACTS

CENSORED: THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT ON THE U.S. ECONOMY AND THE AMERICAN CITIZENRY BY THE TWO MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES-DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS

CENSORED: THE WASTE IN EDUCATIONAL SPENDING IN THE U.S.A. WITH INSUFFICIENT ACCOUNTABILITY

CENSORED: THE INCREASING FINANCIAL DISASTER OF THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM ON THE COUNTRY WITH WOEFULLY INADEQUATE OR MEANINGLESS CHECKS AND BALANCES ON THE PARTIES OR WITHIN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

CENSORED: THE NUMBER OF ELECTIONS WHERE THE INCUMBENT IS RE-ELECTED WITH OR WITHOUT AN OPPONENT AT A 95% RATE

CENSORED: THE EXTENT AND HARMFUL EFFECTS OF THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-CONGRESSIONAL COMPLEX ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

CENSORED: THE REASONS FOR LACK OF GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT ON THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY AND THE FINANCIAL BENEFICIARIES OF SUCH A POLICY

SOLUTIONS: 24/7 ACCOUNTABILITY OF LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIAL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT IN FINANCIAL AND POLICY AUDITS ON EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE USING THE EXISTING AND EXPANDED STRUCTURE OF THE GENERAL ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORTING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

MORE THOROUGH AND INCISIVE REPORTING BY THE NEWS MEDIA ON GOVERNMENT FAILURES AND SUCCESSES BY MERGING THE BEST PRINT REPORTING INTO TELEVISION NEWS PROGRAMMING.

EASING RESTRICTIONS ALLOWING OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES PARTICIPATION IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS ENDING THE WINNER TAKE ALL SAND BOX SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT WHEN ONE PARTY DOMINATES LEGISLATION. COMPROMISE CREATED THE CONSTITUTION, NOT THE DOMINATION OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS BY ONE GROUP OR POLITICAL PARTY.

LIMITING GOVERNMENT REVENUES AND SPENDING OF GOVERNMENT UTILIZING A COST-BENEFIT COMPONENT EMPHASIZING EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

OPEN ENDED SPIGOT OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING A FISCAL DISASTER. PAY ALL GOVERNMENT SALARIES BASED ON THE MEDIAN INCOME OF AMERICANS. GOVERNMENT SERVICE MEANS BEING A SERVANT TO THE PEOPLE WITH JOB SECURITY.

BALANCE THE NATIONAL BUDGET BY ENACTING A LAW TO DO SO.

PROFESSIONAL LOBBYISTS OUGHT TO BE PROHIBITED FROM MEETING WITH ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES. PERMANENTLY PROHIBIT ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES FROM WORKING AS LOBBYISTS WHEN THEY LEAVE GOVERNMENT SERVICE

EXECUTIVE BRANCH ALREADY HAS TERM LIMITS-WISELY INITIATED VOLUNTARILY BY PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON. ENACT TERM LIMITS INTO LAW FOR LEGISLATORS. FOR EXAMPLE, FIVE TERMS FOR MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THREE TERMS FOR U.S. SENATE. LONGER TERMS SUCH AS 30 TO 40 OR MORE YEARS IS MORE LIKE ROYALTY OR MONARCHICAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

DEVISE NEW AND INNOVATIVE LAWS THAT STRENGTHEN THE FREEDOMS OF THE CITIZENRY AS WELL AS GREATER OVERSIGHT OVER GOVERNMENT. THE GREATEST DANGER TO FREEDOM IS GOVERNMENT AND EVERY STEP THAT GOVERNMENT TAKES THROUGH LAWS THAT RESTRICT FREEDOM OUGHT TO HAVE COMMENSURATE RESTRICTIONS AND LAWS ON GOVERNMENT FROM OVERSTEPPING ITS AUTHORITY ON THE CITIZENRY INCLUDING CRIMINAL PENALTIES AGAINST GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

MORE SOLUTIONS:

THE UNITED STATES: JUST LEAVE THE WORLD ALONE
USE DIPLOMACY, OBJECTIVE AND FAIR DIPLOMACY FOR ALL PARTIES
BEFORE U.S. RESOURCES ARE UTILIZED OVERSEAS COUNTRIES OUGHT TO BE REQUIRED TO APPLY FOR ASSISTANCE IN DETAIL-ECONOMIC, HEALTH, INFRASTRUCTURE, EDUCATION AND PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND NON-PROFITS OUGHT TO BE INTEGRATED TO FULFILL THIS MISSION.
IN CRIMINAL ACTS LIKE 9/11 LAW ENFORCEMENT WITH SPECIAL MILITARY FORCES SHOULD APPREHEND CRIMINALS, NOT INVASION OF ENTIRE COUNTRIES.
MUSTER THE POLITICAL COURAGE TO UTILIZE IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE SO LESSONS CAN BE LEARNED FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
CONTINUAL LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT PROMOTES FAILURE AND CORRUPTION
TRUE ACCOUNTABILITY MEANS REMOVAL FROM ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICE, TRY IT, IT MIGHT DO YOUR INCREASINGLY MINIMALIST DEMOCRACY A WORLD OF GOOD
MANDATE TELEVISION NETWORKS AND STATIONS BE AUCTIONED EVERY 25 YEARS
LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TELEVISION STATIONS OWNED BY ONE CORPORATION.

Molly the Robin

If we ran a railroad like you run yours, that is Amtrak, we would have been out of business long ago. And we would have had a conscience not to deceive and misrepresent our actions to the people. We do not need the guarantee of a free press because everyone in our domain is usually scrupulously honest, sincere and fair. Dishonesty and deception is a rarity for us, not a commonplace occurrence visiting us every morning and night.

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 where most Americans get their information is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.

In your era television news has created a News Shield by minimizing and often neglecting to report on the mismanagement, mistakes and gross inefficiencies of government protecting the political establishment because it is mutually financially beneficial to do so. The incomplete coverage of news protects elected officials by removing or limiting adverse facts and information becoming an asset and benefit to elected officials. As a result, television news is often Just Junks news.

As I fly across this country it is clear that the television news does not focus much on government spending. For instance, I read something in the library written by someone who calculated that it costs about $400,000 to maintain a private in Iraq or Afghanistan. Now somebody ought to figure out how much your foes are spending to maintain their lowest level fighter in the field. That's a story and what are the implications of such a story in warfare today.

Your species may think it is superior to us, but believe me you are not superior. The death and destruction you have wrought to your own kind as well as to our environment on this planet is ultimate negligence and ignorance.

I flew over Amtrak trains and they cost a lot of money to operate at a loss while the fares across country to other states is not competitive with air travel. Slow and costly government run trains in a free market-now that doesn't make sense.

The cost overruns in the military and even in the educational system go unexamined every day while the expenses keep spiraling upward and onward. Meanwhile the educational system is good in some places and very bad in other places. You've even got an expense Department of Education that can't seem to get it right, except their budget.

On and on government department after government department never scrutinized, never criticized, never held accountable for very much, if anything from health care to education. Where are the improvements, the efficiencies and effectiveness in foreign and domestic policies?

Well, there is talk of change in every election, but the change never benefits the American people substantially, only marginally at times. Mostly, things get more expensive and worse.

The greatest asset your elected politicians have is the apathy of their constituency and the Junk News on television day after day avoiding the financial scrutiny of the national government, one might think they are partners in a great financial scheme that is very profitable for them.

You can't say you have a lawless society, but you can say you have obedient, compliant, subservient, obsequious elected members of Congress who are "wrapped around the party's little finger" and "under the party's thumb" who pass suspect laws. A country of the people, by the people and for the people has been supplanted by a country "of the party, by the party and for the party". The two monopoly parties that is. Freedom is contained in two often politically mischievous parties who have little accountability and some elected members do not even have an opponent, for they "run" unopposed called a non-election election.

I'll be flying off now, but it sure appears that your government's policies and outcomes are often expensive failures which were passed into law without the elected representatives even reading the laws. They just usually follow the orders of their party leaders and vote on laws they do not read.

2009-03-17T11:37:00.006-04:00

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.

2009-03-14T16:48:00.006-04:00

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.

2009-03-09T14:35:00.006-04:00

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.

2009-03-03T12:44:00.013-05:00

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.

2009-03-01T18:56:00.007-05:00

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.

2009-02-22T08:02:00.014-05:00

Political Royalty

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 landed in the patio of a retiree who has a lush garden with many delicacies. There was a tablet of paper on a table and I read what she had written. I heard her on the telephone talking very passionately about politics and she said that she would like to write a column for a newspaper because she had never done it. So here is her column, a real American retiree from your educational system:

What we have here in the United States of America is our very own political royalty who ride in luxury limousines to luxury homes sometimes on government planes to luxury hotels at luxury resorts and back to the luxury limousines to one of their luxury homes where they feast on the finest organic free range meats, seafood, and the finest and freshest organic vegetables and beautiful fruits few of us citizens can afford.

As a taxpaying citizen standing in line for everything, standing in line at the airport, at the supermarket, at the DMV, waiting at the doctor's office, waiting and standing in line while the political royalty whose salaries we pay live another kind of luxury life. A life of privilege which I cannot afford. I only pay them so they can afford it without using their own money.

Meanwhile, for the actual job I pay them to do, which is to make laws to keep us free and safe seems to be lost somewhere. Let's see, roads, bridges, trains, unsafe lakes, rivers and drinking water polluted, cities crime ridden, industry jobs outsourced. Household products foreign made, a question about my credit card takes me to a foreign land. My groceries, fruits and vegetables are mostly imports. What- we can't grow our own grapes or broccoli anymore? We can't make a wrench, a wreath or a towel anymore.

Crimes in the public schools have increased when they should have decreased 20 years ago. The obscenities on TV and the movies have become commonplace and accepted. This is our America today.

The superstate that has been created in your country is for the benefit primarily of those in the national government, lobbyists and the industries the lobbyists represent, often to the detriment to the majority of the American people. A new slogan has emerged for the republic: A country for the few, by the few but of the many.

I came across a old newspaper article about your military building new bases and homes and recreational facilities including golf courses and pools in the Philippines costing a billion dollars when the dollar was worth double or more than it is today. Well, at that time the U.S. military just assumed the Philippine government would permit them to stay another 100 years. It did not happen and that billion dollars worth of construction was lost.

Now, that does not compare to the amount of money lost and stolen in Iraq which is now in the tens of billions of dollars. If we included the waste, fraud and abuse in domestic spending it is in the trillions of dollars. What lessons have been learned by the national government about spending the people's resources? That's something you've never seen discussed on the television networks.

It really is expensive maintaining an empire and the least of it has been in propping up dictators in the name of freedom around the world: Marcos in the Philippines, Shah in Iran and many more you can read about in the book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer.

The irony is that in the United States has one of the most expensive educational systems in the world, yet the majority of the American people are blissfully unaware of their country's own history-foreign or domestic.

Simon Bolivar said something that might have some applicability: It is a terrible truth that it costs more strength to maintain freedom than to endure the weight of tyranny.

I'll be flying off now. It's getting late.

2009-02-19T10:17:00.006-05:00

Organized and Legalized Corruption

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 up later than usual and watched a t.v. news show from a lilac bush located on the side of a four season porch with a bank of windows. It was after 9:00 p.m. way passed my sleeping time. I was just ready to fly to go to sleep when the guest of an MSNBC show Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security advisor in the Carter Administration said,

" We're close to being bankrupt. You know Washington and I know Washington. What we have in the city is well organized legalized corruption." He was talking about the Legislative and Executive Branches of government in Washington, D.C.

If the network had known he was going to say this it is unlikely he would have been on the show. It is interesting that the host of the show never pursued this monumental statement and never asked if he would return to the show to discuss it further and in more detail!

The idea that the government of the United States has developed into organized and legalized corruption and is not an important topic to be focused on in mainstream television news means the producers of news tacitly are working with the government. There is nothing like mutual interests and benefits of huge current and future profits of parties concerned to concentrate the mind. Democracy to be vibrant and strong confronts its weaknesses and shortcomings in order to progress. A weak democracy seldom confronts its defects, failings, inadequacies and flaws, for it revels in its power assigning ever more resources to government at the expense of the citizenry.

Now, it is unlikely that we will ever see a televised discussion on the topic of organized and legalized corruption in the government. Also it is unlikely that there will be a televised show on how to reverse this corrosive development.

Tonight I will sleep at my usual time in order to be more rested for my early morning flights.

2009-02-16T19:09:00.007-05:00

It’s the Parties!

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 I just watched on one of your soft and shallow information television news networks say that Senator Reid has introduced legislation providing for funding of a new high speed railway link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Your government never has compiled and completed a prioritized list of infrastructure projects. Instead your elected leaders reward their districts and you might think that all your country needs are subsidized trips to casinos. In the poorest countries lotteries and gambling are a major focus in the society. Your elected leaders appear to be planning the same fate for your country.

I have seen Amtrak from Buffalo to Albany to New York city and that line is old, slow and needs sprucing up to say the least. I have flown along aside this Amtrak train and it takes forever to get anywhere with so many stops. Going to Florida on Amtrak takes a long time as well as not being cost effective for many, if not most passengers. The cost is several times the cost of a roundtrip by air. Just try to cross the country by train. Maybe you’ll get to your destination in one or probably two weeks at a cost that you could fly several round trips between L.A. and N.Y. Is the Boston to Washington, D.C. train newer and faster than the Amtrak train from Buffalo to New York City because U.S. Senators use that line? Is the Amtrak line between New York City and points north and west old and dilapidated because the two most recent U.S. Senators never use that line themselves?

Most of the trains in your country are old and slow while trains in Europe and Japan are fast and efficient making your trains look out of date. Why is that? The politicians don’t seem to care and your citizenry are so enamored by the automobile that train service gets short shrift. Is it in your national interest to neglect modern rail service?

Your government subsidizes the air line industry and owns the substandard Amtrak line (when compared to those trains in Europe). Your government decided on its own to support and fund airlines over rail lines. Now that fuel is expensive that isn’t such a good idea. There apparently was no foresight in having a passenger rail line the country could really use to cross the country or even go to New York City from Buffalo in a few hours instead of traveling nearly a day. The politicians can say the people don’t care about fast rail service or they would know it.

Those politicians are really clever. They set up the Internal Revenue Service to catch citizens who mistakenly make a deduction of a couple thousand dollars and freeze their assets (the bank must comply or face criminal penalties). In this case it was a middle aged woman who calculated her income. The IRS first contact with her was freezing her assets. No inquiry and no discussion. I watched and listened on a lilac bush the woman tell her story to someone on the phone while she was on her deck. Did the IRS freeze the assets of new Secretary of the Treasury when he made a mistake regarding his taxes? Favoritism may well be the Achilles Heel in any society, for it breeds distrust. The trust quotient in your society is diminishing by the day and has been occurring for a long time.

When the national government “loses” billions, tens of billions and even trillions of dollars in spending in the United States and overseas there is often little accountability. One might even dare say that members of the government (elected and non-elected alike) engage in the most reckless financial manner with impunity and rarely is there a financial crime for anyone in government, despite the fact that tens of billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars are lost or stolen or never recovered. That is the manner that your government conducts business in war and peace, day in and day out. If it continues in this manner it is most likely to come crashing down, most devastatingly on the American people who were so polite and sheepish during the episode of wanton and reckless empire. It all starts with momentous legislation that members of Congress do not read. Their party leaders tell them what to vote on-something like the old Soviet Union where everyone here made fun of the strict party line they all followed. Luckily the library window was open upstairs and I flew right in while nobody was around and did a lot of reading on these matters.

It seems to me that the country is in a financial mess because the two political parties controlling the government caused it. Now the current dominate political party will spend more money trying to extricate the country from the financial meltdown both political parties caused through inattention, incompetence and mismanagement. It’s funny and strange beyond belief that the hundreds of billions given to banks, investment and insurance companies during the Bush bailout has done little for the national economy. How was that money spent? Why was it spent so quickly? I think it was done to protect the assets of those in power as well as those in the banking and investment industries. If they had been allowed to fail the country would know when, where and how to assist the economy if needed. Again, panic for the benefit of the few was the order of the day.

Government of the political parties, for the political parties and by the political parties seems to be the government you have today, something which the first and probably your greatest president, George Washington, warned against in his Farewell Address. I think you respect people and their wisdom by abiding by their words, not by discarding and violating their words. Something like abiding by the Constitution and showing respect by doing so. I’ll be flying off now.

2009-02-11T10:30:00.010-05:00

OVER STRETCHED, OVER EXTENDED, OVERBLOWN

By

Molly the Robin

I’m only a bird but it is as plain as the beak on my face that your national government is over stretched, over extended and overblown. 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.

Parameters, limits and focus of your national government are lacking. By trying to rule the world, in a way, even a small way is not your mission. Your government’s role ought to be limited to creating an excellent judicial system including supervising the financial industry. The phrase “justice delayed is justice denied” ought never to be applicable. Providing effective national security, health care, infrastructure, safe and sanitary foods and social security ought also to be your main functions including an independent and neutral foreign policy. The cost of government ought always to be reasonable, not unreasonable. Unless there is a definition of what reasonable costs are in government prescribed in the Constitution the country will more likely lurch from economic crises caused by government.

Finally, protecting the earth itself ought to be your ultimate mission in all things you do. The earth is fast becoming a garbage dump of toxic stew. Unless you treat the earth with more respect and even reverence you will destroy everything. Today, you are failing in all these endeavors. Why? Because the mission of your government is everywhere instead of focused somewhere. Your country is not a leader, but solely a follower after wealth, power and influence. The American Indians said trod lightly on the earth, do not create ruts, vast filth and reckless killings.

It seems to me that your government’s actions during this financial meltdown, which is really a fiasco made by government through its inattention and lack of oversight, is in protecting itself instead of the American people. If the American people have less money, cutting back on their spending and reducing their lifestyle choices to some degree, why isn’t the government planning on downsizing substantially. The national debt and deficit are exploding, increasing to enormous, exorbitant, excessive and vast levels. The result is a weakening economy and dollar. The interest on the debt is never or rarely reported. Why? Is the annual interest payment on the national debt insignificant? Why is your national television media so reluctant to address the financial and fiscal matters of the country in detail? The answer is that television ratings do not justify exposing and revealing such a critical component of your government. So much for the value of your public air waves for illuminating the financial plight of your nation.

Solutions can only occur with a bedrock of honesty and commitment by your leaders or new leaders need to emerge. There is so much lying, mendacity and duplicity by humanity that you are making us all sick, including the earth. I read in a library recently that your kind even lies in casual conversations about little things as much as big things. In fact, most of you can’t even talk without lying. Now, how long will it take your lying to destroy everything including the earth?

If the elected members of government cannot provide effective oversight over government agencies and departments, the federal government is too big, too unweildy, too cumbersome and too ponderous. An expensive failure is often the fruit of government agencies and departments unless there is oversight by the people through their elected representatives.

Solutions in our bird world are often simple if leaders are truly committed to the flock.

2008-12-09T14:08:00.004-05:00

Breaking All the Rules

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 have heard the expression, “playing by the rules” many times. Someone who plays by the rules is admired. But those who break the rules are disliked or out of favor. We robins play by our rules to live without too much rancor. Now, you upright worms walking easily break rules regularly. But from all my reading in libraries and viewing on your generally self-serving television news I can easily infer that your government has broken all the rules and the citizenry are either apathetic or in unison with their government.

Your government broke the rules on honesty about the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. In each case there was dishonesty going into war and your government so easily was able to ramshackle its way into war. The vast destruction of human lives and enormous suffering inflicted in each case was scrupulously avoided by your televisions news where most of your citizenry gets its news, nicely censored without the need of a propaganda ministry.

The corruption and incompetence of your government in contracts, military strategy and governance has been wiped clean on the television news, but documented very well by the print media. Television is king because that is where most of you get your filtered news. Television reporting and commentary on government is usually done by well-to-do, politically well-connected cliques and unelected talking heads who have little in common with the people and policies that are presumed to benefit-the American citizenry. For television’s public air waves the average American is like a mute mannequin hovering in the background to be seen, but seldom heard.

Your government broke all the rules by neglecting to supervise and regulate the banking and financial industries causing a massive financial collapse pledging $7.7 trillion dollars to save the economy. Your two main political parties provide the most minimum accountability for the government; hence the American people are under the illusion that their government is competently managed. The political parties have been very busy cushioning themselves from competition, a hallmark of capitalism which they deny to others in a political monopoly.

Ryan Grim and Joseph K. Vetter reveal in “You’ve Been Had” that “In the end, we found that the federal government wastes nearly a trillion dollars a year.” The waste, fraud and abuse are so overwhelming that your average citizen is numb to it, like someone standing senseless on the edge of a cliff. The politicians and the parties they represent appear to have no responsibility and accountability in their continuous failures in domestic and foreign policies often characterized by panic. Those who criticize them and their government are soon blacklisted and censored on television by a compliant media, always eager to please for political access.

Your government’s deficit spending adds to a monumental debt with soaring interest payments in the hundreds of billions dollars annually breaking all the rules applicable to the average citizen.

Breaking all the rules for government has become a national pastime. But the citizenry must beware, for if they break the rules it can involve the force of the law upon them. Luckily, the government and the two political parties decide for themselves that it is all right to break all the rules with obedient television news networks defending massive and chronic mismanagement of government.

Occasionally a member of Congress or a wayward politician or lobbyist whose behavior is so egregious and flagrant the law must be invoked against the offender. However, the mismanagement, incompetence and legalized corruption in government is so pervasive that the news media, especially television, dare not even comment on it for bringing the two party system in total disrepute, possibly causing their future to be clouded with uncertainty. Therefore, change is anathema and status quo is so preferable, for it is comfortable and profitable for those producing and reporting television news, a “public air wave.”

Impeachment and conviction are like lost cousins in the desert, forever abandoned by apathy and fear. Lying about wars and reckless with the public purse squandering monumental sums of money and mismanaging the national economy are not a reason for removal from office, for political jobs are not about the country but about politicians, their political party, their families and supporters. It is about their selfishness for private gain under the canopy of public service by breaking all the rules in war and peace.

We robins go after worms without panic as often as we can and live with a measure of integrity that I rarely see with your politicians and politically apathetic citizenry. I would say good luck, but it’s beyond all that now. The hard work of becoming honest imbuing the individual with integrity is a long journey without which the Constitution is but mere paper with no applicability.

I’ll be flying off now.

2008-10-29T18:48:00.010-04:00

Sanitizing the News

by

Molly the Robin

Now I've done quite a bit of reading in libraries, newspapers and magazines, and I've learned so much. But then I watch television news programs from porches and decks but I never see or hear about such things as the cost of putting boots on the ground in Iraq at $400,000 annually for each soldier, millions of Iraqis have fled Iraq to reside in Jordan or Syria, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead since the war began and countless thousands wounded, sanitary conditions are unacceptable, especially in hospitals because there is a shortage of water and electricity and on and on.

Now, I watched the major networks and cable news shows but there is nothing on vital matters concerning Iraq. Lots of trivia and junk news but little real news. As a robin who learned how to think only a few years ago it is clear to me that the majority of the real news is sanitized, suppressed and deleted. I think it is also called censorship. With all your freedom of speech and press why is there so little reality based news based on facts and actual film footage of millions of Iraqi refugees who fled their country, the human devastation. Sanitizing or censuring the news creates a population living in political darkness and shadows never really seeing or understanding well the world they live. Decisions made on faulty or incomplete information are usually wrong. We birds fly high and see the scope of the land.

The same can be said for the $700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street and the banks. Financial institutions are facing a major financial collapse, yet neither the politicians nor mainstream television networks which are “public airwaves” are doing little to elucidate the problem or its causes, instead they speedily spend hundreds of billions of dollars of public monies for private financial sector institutions. I think the total spent is over one trillion dollars. Maybe the television networks have decided its really not that important for the American citizen to know and get explanations on more than a trillion dollars in the largest welfare scheme of the U.S. government for private companies. Favoritism has always been a bystander in American government and society doing little things, now it is becoming the father of the American government doing big things.

The television news seems unable or reluctant to probe the causes of the financial failure? Is the government responsible, if so how? What mistakes were made? Was there corruption? And if so by whom? Was there incompetence by the federal government? Was the Congress of United States responsible? Or the presidency? Or both? I did see a bit on this issue, but it lasted only for a minute.

It is clear there is a deliberate attempt to suppress the important news on Iraq and the financial meltdown on television news where most people still get their information. Hundreds of billions of dollars and trillions of dollars of government spending, mismanagement and possibly corruption are ignored or so briefly mentioned it is forgotten so easily. It could be called self-censorship. American society often condemns or looks down on welfare recepients, but now that the American financial institutions and private companies are receiving trillions of dollars of government money there is no sign of them being called welfare recepients. They are so esteemed that they are not allowed to fail, in fact their failure is equated to our failure, for without them we are all lost. This is probably a matter of self-interest over public interest.

The mainstream television media doesn't appear to getting to source of this problem, for their own profits might be affected adversely. We have now entered the age of creeping socialism, welfare and self-censorship of the private sector. The wealth of the public sector is now being channeled to the largest private financial institutions and corporations for the public good. Maybe the United States government is unwittingly modelling itself after Communist China where public and private sectors merge for the public good.

Any dictatorship would approve of American television news coverage on such subjects as Iraq, government contracts and the recent financial collapse and providing trillions of dollars of public monies to the private sector. Explanations, blame, accountability are rarely provided on television news. That could become politically harmful for some, therefore, television seldom blames anyone. Great for the politicians and political parties. No blame=sitting pretty indefinitely.

Well, from what I understand it is not the job or obligation of television news to cover these overriding and important issues. Their job is to make a profit on the "public airwaves" and provide a modicum of news. The result is lots of concealment of real news that might be very damaging to the political parties and their leaders managing the government for the benefit of all the people.

My name is Molly and I am a 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 will be flying on now.

2008-08-01T11:14:00.005-04:00

Total Failure

By

Molly the Robin

The speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on CNN (July 17, 2008) said, "You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject" and then she went on to say "we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again."

That's pretty strong stuff calling the current occupant of the White House a "total failure". There may be some partisan debate about his competency in the White House, but one thing is clear it is not a White House now, it is more like a Dark House with an elective war instigated with bogus claims and "intelligence" on Weapons of Mass destruction in the hands of a tyrant who was more an international braggert swaggering a bit like our inhabitant of the now Dark House who said "bring 'em on" at the outset of the Iraq war and said "Mission Accomplished" at the conclusion of ousting the dictator of a poor country whom the United States government assisted in supplying Weapons of Mass Destruction against Iran during the Iraq-Iran War.

Food and fuel prices have doubled and tripled during the tenure of the now "total failure" presidency of George W. Bush. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on a dubious war and occupation, over 4000 Americans have been killed and several times that number have endured horrendous wounds, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed and injured and the total cost of the war is estimated at over two trillion dollars on the national credit card. Now, do the American people know what the interest rate is on the national credit card or even the total amount owned on it? No, they know nothing or very little because the "public airwaves" do not mention it or cover it or report on it. I wonder why? Is it their job to do so?

If George W. Bush is such a total failure why did the Speaker of the House take impeachment off the table? By taking impeachment off the table did she take the Constitution off the table? If an elected leader is proven incompetent why should he stay in office one minute longer than necessary? Total failure=impeachment. In impeachment and conviction of incompetent leaders the American people win big time. But it cannot happen now because political parties are more important than the Constitution of the United States.

If impeachment cannot occur is there a way to at least financially penalize the president and vice president? Why not garnish their entire wages for the remainder of their term and maybe beyond? Let garnishment be the new impeachment, for it is likely to be far easier to pass financial censure than impeachment.

Some believe that people tend to rise to the height of their incompetence. With a total failure presidency that theory is becoming more valid. We birds have no such trait. We soar, every one of us.

Whether the current occupant's administration is the worst our country has ever endured is an easy judgment to make. But one thing is clear, your mainstream television media, otherwise known as the public airwaves will never lay a glove on this presidential occupant or any other for that matter because it is not their job or responsibility. Unless there is major reform of the public airwaves the American citizenry who relies on television news for their information to make election decisions will always be in the dark being a perpetually low information citizen.

My name is Molly and I am a 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 because you humans think you are not as bad as you really are or not as good as you think you are. I have been reading everything and I am learning lessons from history.

I will be flying on now.

2008-06-20T16:29:00.009-04:00

Modern Feudalism

By

Molly the Robin

My name is Molly and I am a 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 because you humans think you are not as bad as you really are or not as good as you think you are. I have been reading everything and I am learning lessons from history.

I’ve been reading about feudalism in the Middle Ages. Luckily, the school libraries are closed on week-ends and frequent holidays. I usually find a window partially open where I can fly in and read to my heart’s content in a quiet atmosphere. Today, United States appears to have created a system of Modern Feudalism with a technological twist. The presidency is the Monarch, Congress is the Nobility and Lobbyists are the Courtiers and Supporters including the television media. The Courtiers provide a large pool to draw upon for high positions for government service. The American people are increasingly Vassals with little direct or indirect input into decision-making and legislation. When was the last time a representative solicited your advice or opinion on pending or future legislation? When was the last time you received a satisfactory response from a member of Congress on major issues of the day?

In feudalism war was initiated by the Monarch with input from the Nobility. There was no need to consult or require the approval of the Vassals-the people or to even convince the vassals for the need for war. Today, the president, like the Monarch before him, only needs to suggest the need for war without real proof of its need or without showing a great necessity for war. He only needs to speculate on dire future consequences for not going to war for there to be war. The Congress in the run up to the Iraq war played the role of Nobility quite well by providing the approval and funding for war.

The Vassals are quick to accept the dictates of the Monarch for the majority feel powerless and incapable of effective actions to counter the Monarch. The television media, which is the primary vehicle of information for the Vassals does not question the Monarch, it only reports like a parrot the proclamations of the Monarchy. There is no obligation for the television news to provide the necessary facts and information for a fully functioning democracy. The public airwaves are for profit by its owners and the requirements for providing news and vital information on government are so minimal as to be negligible.

The run up to the invasion of Iraq the mainstream television media did not provide any sustained contrary information to the propaganda of the Monarchy. In fact, it was “unpatriotic” to question the Monarch’s desire to go to war. Even now long after the invasion and occupation of Iraq we know that information for going to war was bogus, unwarranted and deliberately misleading. No action as yet has been taken by the two political parties to provide accountability to the Monarch, which is further indication that we have now a Nobility in the Congress serving the American people.

The funding for the Iraq War goes on unabated by the Congress of Noblemen and Noblewomen. The free press functions only if it is without political censorship. Television news generally with few exceptions provides the necessary censorship so that facts and information contrary to the political establishment never or rarely sees the light of day on the television networks.

Now, a potential new war with Iran is looming and again there is little opposition to it from the television media because it is not their role to provide information contrary to the Monarchy. Issues of national and international import are marginalized on television because there is no effort to sustain the information and facts to justify needed changes in the federal government’s role in food and drug safety, crime, infrastructure, foreign policy, domestic policy, major institutional or corporate scams and myriad other issues facing the nation.

Who did the Iraq war benefit? Oil industry, military contractors, mercenary contractors and builders of billion dollar embassy compounds complete with supermarkets, gyms and secure offices. How was the security of the United States advanced by the Iraq war? Oil and gasoline prices have more than doubled as a result of the attack and occupation of Iraq. The national debt is several trillions dollars more since the president as Monarch took office. The security of the United States is continually lauded by the Monarch and its minions in the press. The fact is that the time between the first and second World Trade Center attack was more than eight years. Eight years from the last attack would be the year 2009.

Monarchs and Noblemen like empires for their wealth and power they can extract and use. The United States by any measure has become an empire with hundreds of military bases and large embassies around the world.

Are the American people better off today with this current vast American empire than they were 10, 50 or 100 years ago? A presidential candidate has said that the U.S. military may be stationed in Iraq for 100 years. A future Monarch would easily say we will be in Iraq for 100 years. A president representing a healthy democracy would never want to station American troops in a foreign country for 100 years or even decide to launch an optional war against Iraq.

The United States may well have evolved into a modern feudalist society and state with its version of Monarch, Nobility and Vassal. It is said that a monarch’s wife once said, “Let them eat cake” referring to the vassals.

As I perch in trees across the country I often see “dollar stores” springing up everywhere. Today, it seems the feudal lords provide their vassals with “dollar stores” for their sustenance and say, "Let them go to dollar stores."

2008-01-19T12:25:00.001-05:00

Outsourcing Congress

By

Molly the Robin

My name is Molly and I am a 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. At first I did not think at all, but seeing myself in mirrors sparked my brain and ever sinceI have been reading everything about this wonderful country in local school libraries that are often closed. I just read parts of The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce and he says politics is "a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles-the conduct of public affairs for private advantage". So I got to thinking.

The newspapers are full of stories about outsourcing. There has been considerable discussion of outsourcing of American jobs to low cost countries such as India, China, Singapore and countries in the Caribbean Basin. On and on the controversy goes. The loss of jobs is hemorrhaging the U.S. job market according to some observers and many local economies are wrecked with the reduction of substantial employment.

The source of considerable national debt is the spending habits of the United States Congress. They usually spend significantly more money than your country obtains in taxes, necessitating borrowing. The national debt is now over eight trillion dollars and climbing fast, very fast. With outsourcing of jobs the country’s debt as well as its trade deficit will dramatically increase. New solutions are desperately needed. A quick fix is in order if ever there was a need of one.

There is a solution to your problems, outsource both Houses of Congress. No academic from any institution no matter how poorly endowed can easily refute or gainsay the merit of outsourcing the entire Congress, except those who lobby the Congress for money. Companies in Japan or India or elsewhere could easily do the work of Congress for considerably less expense and fanfare than we presently endure. Competitive bidding will be utilized. The benefits are enormous. In the outsourcing contract the American people can insert the illegality and forfeiture of contract for any pork barrel spending programs. Members of Congress are notorious for, “Help my district and I’ll help yours” concept. A contract clause preventing pork barrel waste and abuse spending will save American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually. Cost overruns will be a thing of the past in outsourcing the Congress, for there will be a clause eliminating cost overruns, saving additional billions of dollars. The American people will not only have a vastly less expensive government, but their taxes will be reduced. The new government department would be named Legislative Outsourcing.

Membership in Congress would be a part-time job, only meeting a few months a year and periodically award the Legislative Outsourcing contract. Congress would become a permanent part-time position with no perks and privileges, at least not more perks and privileges than the average American. Members of Congress would evaluate the contractor and government programs with benchmarks, something they do not do now.

The outsourcing contract will clearly specify that the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be strictly adhered to without undue fudging and misinterpretation-providing for forfeiture of contract.

The outsourcing contract will have quality controls, something that no longer exists in the Congress today. Also, the inability of the contractor to spend any more money than allocated will keep costs low. In other words, it would be a fixed amount contract, something unknown in bloated Congressional budgets. All government programs would be monitored continuously for effective and efficiency in order to provide the most benefit to the American people, not lobbyists of any kind. The outsourcing contractor might even be able to provide universal health care by eliminating all the waste, fraud and mismanagement in U.S. government. Your Founding Fathers had always intended the national government to be small and unobtrusive and never dominating the life of the country by squeezing it dry of its wealth through taxation and laws directing where the resources of the country will be targeted. The outsourcing contractor will provide continuously monitoring of government programs by feedback from the American people, the end users, in order to make programs useful and beneficial in cost-effective ways.

Starting outsourcing at the national level with the Congress is a great new beginning for the 21st Century by adhering to the Constitution and preventing the U.S. government from acts of war without declaring war by sidestepping the Constitution, for example, the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

Outsourcing is the answer to an overstuffed, overfed, puffed up and expensive problem called the Congress of the United States. The weightier and heavier Congress becomes a greater the burden for the American people. The diet for our Congress is outsourcing and the health of the American people almost demands it. The immense and intractable deficiencies of the two party system will be eliminated. Lobbying will be permanently eliminated saving hundreds of billions of dollars. The concept that the Congressional representative has only one client-each citizen in his district-not lobbyists-will be a reality, unlike the favored patronage system of influential industries, companies, organizations and institutions.

Everything will be in the outsourcing contract, something we did not have now in government. Outsourcing for Congress is an idea whose time has come. Outsourcing can be a win-win for the country and the American people. Since I looked at myself in that car door mirror things have become clearer and clearer.

2007-11-24T11:38:00.001-05:00

Catching Political Culprits

Molly the Robin

My name is Molly and I am a robin. I have been on a vacation visiting the Adirondack Mountains before flying south for the winter. I learned to think a short time ago by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. At first I did not think at all, but seeing myself in mirrors sparked my brain and I have been reading everything about this wonderful country in local school libraries. A fellow wrote about me in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do because you humans think you are not as bad as you really are or not as good as you think you are. The other half I’ll have to tell you myself. For starters my partner for life, Chester, has always been a bumbler or fumbler and without my guidance he would have never made it to the Carolinas in winter. Well that’s another story.

As I fly over your country, mine too, I see many things that need fixing. I know Americans don’t like criticism. They only want positive and constructive things said. Well, if you don’t criticize how will you or anybody else know things need fixing. So I would start at the top with criticism which is vital for anybody’s survival, even one’s country.

I read in a newspaper a story called: “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.” The first person to come to my mind is the current occupant of the White House. He started the ball rolling with prefabricated intelligence to start a war with Iraq by invading and occupying the country with the Armed Forces of the United States under authorization from the Congress of the United States more heavily influenced by professional lobbyists for corporations and foreign policy lobbyists than the American people who are too divided to have much impact on their own government and the political parties that represent them.

Now, the property of individuals, including American citizens may be seized by our government if they have “committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of: (A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq (B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.” Since the invasion such essentials as water supply and electricity have not equaled the pre-invasion levels of service. It appears that the current occupant of the White House has violated his own edicts and orders. Also right in the McClatchy Washington Bureau it was reported by Nancy A. Youssef that “U.S. troops shot 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints” just during the past year. Also that number does not include civilians, including women and children killed in raids or street battles or bombing runs across Iraq.

The Lancet report out of Great Britain concluded that the number of Iraqis killed since the invasion and occupation of Iraq is over a half million people and continues to escalate, including women and children. I’ve read in newspapers that there have been over several million Iraqi refugees, many of them well-educated, mostly in Syria and Jordan. There is no security for their families in Iraq.

Taking all this into consideration it appears George W. Bush and his administration have violated their own orders. As a robin who has struggled to survive in an increasingly dirty world it is clear to me that the current Bush Administration has overstepped its political bounds, for no one can arrest the president for violating the law. The only thing the American people have is the impeachment and removal process in the Congress. Since the Congress is more a creature of special interests and their own interests which run counter to impeachment and removal from office for rogue elected leaders the American people will continue to be political serfs forever searching for constructive and positive words about themselves and their country.

Your defense and security budgets are more than $700 billion dollars a year yet your own intelligence reports say you are not much safer now than that infamous date, September 11, 2001 when nineteen hijackers, most of them from your ally Saudi Arabia hijacked four jet liners.

As I fly over your cities and towns I see the sprawl overlapping and spreading. Now, I hope the weather isn’t affected by all this or I will be facing snow in summer. It sure is hard to catch those culprits with all that justice you have and all those billions of dollars for justice when you don’t have any now it seems to me. I’ve read about ethics and since you can’t make money pedaling ethics it seems to me that honesty may be on its way to extinction.

2006-12-05T15:21:00.001-05:00

PANICKING INTO MORE GOVERNMENT CONTROL

There has been a concern about big government from the inception of the United States. The Constitution is all about assigning specific powers to government and no more. More than one hundred years after the creation of the United States the phrase “Big Brother” arose to describe an overly powerful government threatening the freedom of the people. Now, we do not want to think our government too powerful, for our elected representatives would not consciously try to limit the freedom of the people. That is inconceivable. How could it happen? Why would it happen? Are we as free as the day we were born and as free as the people in 1782 in America?

Without a driver’s license or I.D., we could travel at ease years ago. Now, identification is mandatory because there are terrorists among us. Walking down the street years in the past would not require us show our driver’s license. Now, the police may ask for I.D. They do it to make our lives safer.

Years ago we could just buy a gun and walk out of the store. Now, we must be first fill out government forms giving our social security number because we may be criminals. Government must approve the sale of the gun. But that is for our safety because criminals are among us.

The price of safety is for the government to control more and more- not less and less. Speaking of less and less, there will be fewer street mailboxes because they are a potential target of terrorism, so they are being phased out. Times are changing for your safety.

Now the current driver’s license is being used as the national I.D. card and all drivers’ licenses will be standardized according to federal government law. Each person’s driver’s license will be tied to a federal databank with all the pertinent information available including social security number, tax records, employment and court history, address, telephone number and description. Because foreign terrorists inflicted such horrendous damage on September 11, 2001, we must lose some liberty and have government possess instantaneous information on each of us. Yes, foreigners from the Middle East, primarily Saudi Arabia and Egypt caused this insidious terrorism because we are their enemy by supporting Israel and by meddling in the Middle East in their view. For you see, we are all potential enemies. Instead of profiling those who have harmed this country, we make all Americans bare the brunt of their atrocities.

Any suspicious emails may be scrutinized and your computer may be surreptitiously entered to investigate whether a terrorist network lurks. Don’t worry; you will not be notified if this occurs because the government has special powers now that Congress has passed the Patriot Act. Do you feel safer that our government is in more control so they may protect us from more terror?

Police and the military are becoming more commonplace because there are more of them on the street, at airports, train stations and anywhere the danger of terrorism lurks. Will this make our nation safer? Tens of billions more dollars have been spent on the newly created Homeland Security apparatus. Were we a weak nation without the vast agencies of the FBI, CIA, INS and NSA before September 11th?

Does anyone wonder whether the Central Intelligence Agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service, National Security Agency and other law enforcement agencies had done their jobs well for the past twenty years would we have to surrender more and more of our liberty today? Had our laws been enforced, especially immigrations laws would we even have had September 11th? Why must our lives be scrutinized when the agencies of government may have failed us? Why give government more power when they may have not used the awesome power they already have to be effective on our behalf?

For many Americans our government is doing everything it can to protect us. Many Americans also believe that to be safe we must have more government control of our lives. Do you feel safer today with ever more government power over you? Is there any danger that government will abuse its newly expanded powers? The proof is slowly emerging that more and more innocent Americans are being swept into the panic pool of government ineptitude disrupting ordinary lives with commonplace government practices.

The Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act may have been passed in desperation, out of panic. If government chips our liberties away, we may never get them back. Doing things out of desperation is unwise. Why put the onus and burden on the American people first? Why wasn’t the focus on our government first? Did the law enforcement and intelligence agencies do anything wrong prior to 9/11? Were they negligent? Did they fully enforce our laws, including immigration laws? Why wasn’t there scrutiny on tracking visa holders from areas of the world where American policies are considered highly controversial by large segments or the majority of the local population? Was the 9/11 Commission a whitewash for the two majority parties to protect them and their administration of our government?

Before the American people’s freedom is tampered with our government itself must be tampered and poked and examined by the Congress and President, and finally the American people with the help of a free press.

Our founding father’s lives were on the line during the Revolutionary War that created and spawned this country. We need to protect our heritage, not slice it away inch by inch, yard by yard until we are a shell of the nation that existed at the outset and beginning of this great country.

2006-09-01T10:27:00.001-04:00

Honesty Has Become A National Inconvenience

We appear to have become a nation where “spin”, a euphemism for lying has become an accepted part of our lexicon. In fact, it’s not only considered acceptable but the underlying reasons for it are never questioned, or rarely questioned.

Our Congress has a penchant for war without declaring war. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution provided President Johnson with Congressional permission to begin hostilities against the North Vietnamese. The Johnson Administration fabricated the information that the North Vietnamese attacked a U.S. Navy ship. Our government went to war by lying and being dishonest to the American people. What were the consequences of this lie by government? Nothing. President Johnson declined to run for re-election not because he had lied but that the war was going very badly. The superpower had underestimated its North Vietnamese enemy by spinning its way into war.

Now fast forward to Iraq. The momentous Iraq war resolution was called: To Authorize the Use of the United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. The resolution passed both Houses of Congress on October 11, 2002 and the country went to war without a meaningful debate. A majority vote in the House of Representatives included 215 Republicans and 81 Democrats. In the U.S. Senate all the Republicans voted for the resolution except one and a majority of Democrat Senators voted for the resolution to use force against Iraq.

We now know the major reasons for going to war against Iraq were untrue. Some people actually claim it was all an honest mistake and President Bush erred on the side of pre-emption to protect the American people. And it’s only a coincidence that Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world. So again our government has spun our country into war. I think President Johnson believed he was protecting American people. Do we now believe that President Johnson was correct in committing the U.S. military forces in Vietnam? What was his legacy? Millions killed and injured. Cluster bombs buried in Laos and Vietnam have killed and maimed tens of thousands of Laotians and Vietnamese since 1975. Thirty years later people are still being killed and maimed, many of them children, by the bombs from the Vietnam War!

The country of Iraq is now in chaos. Security in the country is almost non-existent. Electricity is provided only a few hours a day to the Iraqi people, nearly two years after the U.S. took control of the country. Back to spinning and lying. Is it important for the American people to know that a grave mistake in intelligence and judgment occurred with the attack on Iraq? According to the British Lancet Report between 450,000 to 600,000 Iraqis have been killed in our invasion and occupation to bring them freedom and democracy as stated by the current occupant of the White House.

Would the price of this war be worth the human costs if the children of our national leaders were also part of American casualty count in Iraq?

Apparently, the 2004 presidential election result showed the American people trust a president who misled the nation into war or who bungled us into war. Has honesty become a national inconvenience in American culture where we support our country whether it is right or wrong? Are facts themselves a minor or irrelevant appendage to our government’s conduct in the world? Is the phrase my government my country right or wrong a mantra the majority holds at all costs?

Our language has now changed, for lying and deceit have become quaint, for it is now called “spinning”. In fact, many claim spinning is not lying; it is only showing the best face on an issue, putting favorable views on a particular subject. Is deliberating omitting crucial and factual information being honest?

Was the re-election of the current occupant of the White House a validation of "War is Peace" and "Ignorance is Strength"?

George Washington said, “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an “Honest Man.”

Two hundred fifty years after our independence as a nation, how are we creating honest men in our political leaders and in our society? President Johnson misled the nation into Vietnam and President Bush misled us into Iraq. Is our national government spinning us into the future? As a nation are we allowing and condoning all the spinning by politicians? It appears so. We no longer lie; we just spin our way to place where the truth no longer resides.

Spin has become a polite word that replaces and obscures lies that may backfire economically, culturally and militarily on our nation like a buried cluster bomb in Laos or Vietnam.

Our elected political leadership has spun us into war, but had they embarked on a plan to make the United States a great humanitarian vessel to help the world in times of crisis like the current devastation wrought by the giant tsunami in Asia the United States would be a permanent beacon of hope and salvation for the world.

Instead, we have embarked upon spinning our way to salvation, for honesty it appears has become a national inconvenience. Publicly it is bad manners to call our national leaders liars, but the thousands upon thousands of people, mostly Iraqis, who were killed by their decisions is a deafening silence in the United States with consequences that will be heard long after those arrogant decisions and decision-makers are gone.

2006-08-26T20:13:00.001-04:00

Of Lobbyists, By Lobbyists and For Lobbyists

Have we become a government of lobbyists, by lobbyists and for lobbyists? Do you have any real influence on your elected Congressional representative, Congressman, Congresswoman or Senator? Will your email be answered by a form email in an "auto reply" as your only response from your elected representative?

How did it occur that it became legal for prescription drugs to be advertised on television? Congress permitted the pharmaceutical industry to air their drugs on television. Why is the average consumer without any medical training exposed to advertising for prescription drugs that only a licensed physician can legally prescribe? How is it sound medicine that patients without medical training advise their doctor what medicines to prescribe based on a television commercial? It's all right because our Congress made it all right to do so. This is an example of the Power of Lobbying by professional lobbyists.

Examples proliferate from industry to industry as well as from organizations, which help influence foreign policy in such areas of the world as the Middle East. How do these lobbyists truly benefit the American people? The answer is simple: they do not benefit the American people. The benefits accrue to the industries and private organizations that have specific agendas, which often do not coincide with corresponding benefit to the American people. Every industry it seems has a lobbyist. Who, then, represents the American people to the elected federal representative? It is the elected representatives themselves who represents the American people, you say. Are our elected representatives schedules filled with meetings with lobbyists or meetings with average constituents? Who has more money to give? Lobbyists and the industries and organizations they represent or Average Citizens with or without a college education?

We have now become a country with a government of lobbyists, by lobbyists and for lobbyists. A private individual, such as Ralph Nader, with his exposé and attention on auto safety helped bring to the American people seat belts and air bags, which have saved countless lives and limbs. Do these lobbyists have the same commitment to the American people that Ralph Nader has demonstrated? Hardly. Their interests are often financial or strategic using American military and diplomatic leverage to help secure their international goals, goals that may not be in the interest of the American people, such as the United States being a "peace broker" in the Middle East for decades without achieving peace! Usually, if a negotiator fails to satisfy both parties in a disagreement another negotiator, a new negotiator is enlisted. However, not in the Middle East, only the United States is the primary mediator because no other country wishes to invest billions of dollars annually in failed peace negotiations for the parties concerned. American money in the billions of dollars annually is the currency of apparent endless diplomacy in the Middle East.

Whether it is foreign or domestic issues, policies and legislation, lobbyists dominate the American legislative scene. There is legislation that benefits lobbyists every year in every session of Congress. Is there a cost-benefit analysis for all legislation affecting the American people? There is no such calculation. So much work for Congress, for there are tens of thousands of lobbyists each representing an industry or organization that wants and needs beneficial legislation! It is a priority! Congress is overworked with all these lobbyists!

The nation's business is suffering, such as the health and safety of the American people in the drugs, foods and products they consume and use. If our water is so safe why are so many Americans purchasing additional water purifiers for their homes? If our air is so safe why are air purifiers sold in the millions? If our streets are so safe why are Americans spending billions of dollars annually on their security and personal safety? If we are such an accomplished superpower why is our national debt and annual deficit looming as a potential economic crisis? Is the nation's economic house in order or disorder? If it is in economic disorder or impending disorder how is the coziness of Congress with lobbyists consistent with good and sound policies and plans for the American people? If the country is in an impending economic crisis why is there no national alarm bell being sounded?

Oh, there is no economic crisis looming engendered by national government!, supporters of the status quo maintain and ask, Where is the proof? Rocketing oil prices, steep increases in cost of goods and services, huge and chronic national debt and deficits are real indicators for a precarious economic future for the country.

Why are lobbyists so prized by Congress? A member of Congress might reply: I need their money {campaign donations} to get re-elected. A constituent of a member of Congress might reply: He's the best member of Congress money can buy because he makes sure federal money gets to my district.

Finally, former members of Congress, their spouses, their family and friends, prize lobbying jobs. In fact, lobbyists are among the wealthiest and most prominent Americans working in Washington, D.C.

What happens to a people and nation with a government of lobbyists, by lobbyists and for lobbyists?

2006-08-25T18:57:00.001-04:00

The inconvenient truths are mounting from the lack of WMDs in Iraq to manufacturered threats from Iran to billions of dollars unaccounted for in U.S. government spending in Iraq as well as domestically in many areas of government from HUD to the myriad agencies of government that spend resources like there is no tomorrow.

Congress does not truly make our government accountable and as an institution Congress has permitted the executive branch to spend money without restraint. Where resources are needed like in natural disasters, more comprehensive health care and safety of food and drugs the U.S. government is often miserly. Government of the people, by the people and for the people is being turned on its head to mean instead a government of lobbyists, by lobbyists and for lobbyists. Who is government representing?