38 Comments

1. Mister Snitch!:

Solid column Roger. I especially liked this line:

“larger and larger swathes of the U.S. economy has been colonized by the federal government”

Well put.

Dec 20, 2008 - 7:55 am 2. ricpic:

Short of revolution what’s a “little guy” to do? Seriesly, did I, did the majority of my fellow citizens want to be systematically discriminated against and simultaneously forced to pay for our own demotion to second class citizens? Obviously not. And yet it happened. The Mexican invasion; affirmative action; a judicial system that endlessly turns ‘em loose to prey on us again; the cost of maintaining American military bases in what? 70 countries? It goes on and on and the fact that 70% of the population wants none of it means bubkas to the anointed ones. Why vote? At least there’s a smidgen of dignity left in admitting that one is a serf, as opposed to participating in the charade.

Dec 20, 2008 - 9:08 am 3. John Emerson:

Do you have any evidence that Franken is doing anything underhanded or fraudulent? Coleman was ahead by 0.007% of the vote, then the recount changed things by about 0.02%, and now Franken is ahead by about 0.014%. Monday Franken’s lead will probably go down to something like 0.004%. These are tiny numbers, and there’s nothing odd about these tiny swings.

Elections and recounts in Minnesota re transparent and nonpartisan multipartisan (there’s a strong third party). None of the claims of cheating have checked out so far, and you can be confident that the Republicans have been on the case.

Dec 20, 2008 - 9:24 am 4. John:

Having spent the last 15 years watching the government devolve into this … thing … it has become, I have sadly drawn this conclusion:

You have two choices: give up or leave.

The vast majority of people are too busy trying to pay their bills to pay attention to quandaries like the Clintons running around the planet collecting sacks of cash while Hillary is placed in charge of foreign policy.

That’s why they voted for Obama. Knowing little or nothing about him, they hoped it would somehow be different this time around. Now they know better.

Or leave. Find a free country, if there is such a place. That’s what the Europeans did 400 years ago.

So you can give up or you can leave. But do not for a single moment think things will change or even less likely, that you will change them. The entrenched powers will not yield.

The government is corrupt; our democracy a farce and the republic died with the 16th and 17th amendments. Give up or leave because we are never going back to freedom.

Dec 20, 2008 - 9:54 am 5. Stephen Macklin:

John,

Clearly you have already decided. I, however am not quite ready to throw in the towel on America. I still believe in the possibility that people will wake up and see. I still believe in the possibility of an electoral revolution.

Dec 20, 2008 - 10:38 am 6. Kathy:

Leave? Not a chance. I’m standing my ground right here & will fight this crap as best I can.

For the defeated: you can do something. Stay out of the way & don’t gum up the works.

Dec 20, 2008 - 11:39 am 7. keithacita:

many union workers have mandatory drug testing.all local and state workers and more importantly all state and federal elected officials should. we can stop the confusion, if this continues they will destroy this great country. my guess is a large number are on prescription drugs.

Dec 20, 2008 - 12:10 pm 8. DaveinPhoenix:

John Emerson: You’re concentrating on the details and forgetting the big picture: For most of the first part of the 20th century in America, citizens understood that the voting system is not perfect; mistakes are always made…we are all human. But in the end, mathematical odds even out and although Democrats may lose one close election by a few votes, another is lost by a Republican in the same manner. But that is when America was a nation of adults. Now we are ruled by the children of America who want perfection in a very human voting process. Do we really want to go back and count every single vote in every single election in the past 50 years in America to make it all perfect ? Do we want to throw a temper tantrum over every single vote and undermine the entire voting process of this democratic republic ? Or do we want to grow up and accept victory and defeat with dignity ? Do we want elections dragging on for years, or do we want to grow up, America, and face the fact that close elections go both ways in the end – so long as we don’t start muddling up the process which has worked relatively well for the first 200 years of this nation ?

Dec 20, 2008 - 12:42 pm 9. Ten:

How many of us write our liars in Congress weekly? If we spent a tenth the time doing that we do here lamenting our plight, would we be here, lamenting our plight?

Dec 20, 2008 - 12:43 pm 10. heathermc:

back in the day, it was easy to recognize “The Enemy:” they were richer than I am; or poorer than I am; or they had a different accent; or they looked different. But we live in a mature wealthy society, where for our own individual reasons, have given up our more onerous responsibilities to The Government. Who, for example, would not put their aged parent with alzeimers into a ‘facility’, rather than devote their time to looking after them. Who wants to stay at home and live in a small home so that we can have more than one child??? Who will stay at home and homeschool one’s children??? Who feels ashamed if it is necessary to go on welfare???

You see, all of these personal and social burdens were met by a combination of church and family and village. We live quite differently now.

Our enemy? That all caring nanny, the bureaucracy that cares for us. I am a very pessimistic person: I believe that our society must totally die before this bureaucracy is destroyed. Check my website, ‘www.knapdalepeople.com’ in the ‘celtic section’: I have a couple of quotes there, from St Patrick and St Gildas, on the world at the end of the Roman Empire.

In the Toronto Transit system, at one time, the Ontario government put up placards extolling its own services to The People. Interestingly, The People were PLAYING, gamboling among green parks and gardens; there was not one person actually ‘working’ in those dream posters.

Dec 20, 2008 - 12:51 pm 11. John Emerson:

DaveinPhoenix: as far as I can tell, you misunderstand everything. Elections in the past were less civil and less honest than they are today. Remember Boss Tweed? There were hundreds of guys like him in various places.

The recount in Minnesota is automatic and required by law, and not Franken’s idea. Nobody seems to understand that we’re coming to the end of an orderly, routine process. It’s slow, but it’s not an entertainment event, and there’s no reason to hurry.

Coleman never was the winner, because the recount was obligatory. A winner might be declared at the end of December; if that happens, that will be the first time there’s been a winner. There is no winner now.

Coleman was ahead for awhile, then Franken went ahead, and on Monday the gap will get closer and Coleman might pull ahead. Then there are two categories of problem ballots to look at. This is all the way it’s supposed to happen. A lot of people in Minnesota are working to get this done right,

People are getting upset for no real reason, and people are also making false accusations against Franken. No one has to like him, but he isn’t stealing any election.

Dec 20, 2008 - 1:47 pm 12. Dr. Lumplevin:

“larger and larger swathes of the U.S. economy has been colonized by the federal government” (Roger)

Does this not justify their pay increase? They are taking more responsibilities – running banks,housing finance institutions, auto industry, trying to control the world’s weather patterns….

I get exhausted just thinking of all the wonderful stuff they do.

Dec 20, 2008 - 1:51 pm 13. DavidN:

I think your point about Palin is a good one. I also think that it’s the key to the disgust with which a large portion of the left greeted her. They prefer John McCain, because he’s a gracious *loser*, not a winner. The only other episode in modern politics that rivals hers is Dan Quayle. Dan’s not exactly of the same stamp as she (his family is better connected, etc.) but the amount of revulsion which greeted his nomination by George H. W. Bush was amazing. I sincerely believe that a large portion of this grew out of a realization that they’d not taken Bush seriously, eight years before when he was Reagan’s V.P. choice. Bush went on to win the presidency in succession to Reagan, something no Democrat would have suspected could happen in 1980. So, everyone decided to take no chances with his choice for V.P., not underestimate him, and rip him to shreds with ridicule and innuendo. I know that Quayle didn’t help himself, what with all of the gaffes he made. Think about that for a minute: Biden’s made more gaffes than Quayle, already, but he’s the V.P., and he’s merrily installing his son as his successor in the Senate.

Palin isn’t one of that small class of people who rule the country. Obama, by marriage (his father-in-law is in local Chicago politics) and by school (Harvard Law, editor of the Law Review, no less), is definitely part of the power elite, though his rise to his current post was meteoric. One of the curiosities of the past campaign has been the media explaining away the attacks on Palin. The chief assertion is that McCain probably wishes he’d picked Bobby Jindal or someone else instead. Trust me, if he’d picked Jindal, instead of CSI Wasilla you’d have had CSI New Orleans, and it would have gotten just as ugly. The whole thing wasn’t Palin’s fault, it was the media, and they’re not going to stop now. At least through the end of the Obama administration in 2016, no one who runs against him can have *any* skeletons in their closet, and even if they don’t, someone will just make up rumors, all of which will be faithfully reported in the media. The interesting thing will be to see what happens next. Clinton had the media running this sort of interference for him, so does Obama. Who will be their next Crown Prince?

Dec 20, 2008 - 1:56 pm 14. heathermc:

the real thing about Today is that we are each and every one of us,in every way, trading our liberty for our comfort.

Did you know… the latest tragedy, is that SOME PEOPLE who are aged, CANNOT SELL THEIR HOMES, so they cannot shuttle into an “assisted living” facility!!!!

Dec 20, 2008 - 6:00 pm 15. zanne:

Ten:

How many of us write our liars in Congress weekly?
Ten, I bitch weekly. I get a nice little form letter that encourages me visit “their website”. Washington gives themselves a raise…they should be deported!

Dec 20, 2008 - 6:44 pm 16. elvis:

I’m with zanne. We need to be done with these people in Washington.

Dec 20, 2008 - 7:34 pm 17. K:

Sort of a collection of complaints.

I don’t like Franken and regard his views as crap. But the election recount looks fair to me. If an election is close enough then a mistaken decision is just bad luck for the eventual loser. It isn’t as if the wishes of the electorate were ignored, they just weren’t quite clear enough.

Life isn’t fair. Coleman may lose despite getting the most votes. Or Franken might. Those seeking perfection will not find it on Earth.

I do think some close elections are decided in the counting room rather than the voting booth. I just don’t see that in Franken-Coleman.

The individual can’t do anything about added taxes or fees. If NY levies 88 or 388 more it doesn’t matter; all you can do is avoid some and mitigate others. You can also decide if you want to keep living there. The government in the US is truly out of control and incompetent and we are heading for massive problems. This means at city, county, state, and federal levels.

As far as the media and Palin. Just politics and amoral people. She is a reasonably able person who doesn’t happen to be a Democrat or support several liberal positions. So she gets attacked and demonized. And that will continue all her life. Morons will drive miles out of their way to spit on her grave in 2108 even if she never runs for office again. Such is life.

Dec 20, 2008 - 11:25 pm 18. Grover:

Time for a taxpayer revolt – Palin the ‘little guy’ in 2012; don’t support the MSM; no new taxes. That’s how we can get the attention of the Elite. Most importantly: PRAY. It is God who gave us ‘certain inalienable rights’; only He can take it away.

Dec 21, 2008 - 8:01 am 19. Kathy L.:

Congress has been voting themselves pay raises all along. It is outrageous. I have been outraged about this for a long time, but I didn’t think they would have the nerve to do it again this time. Wrong !! I would feel differently if I knew they worked hard, put in long hours, etc. They don’t even work a full work week, they leave town on Friday to spend the week ends at home, I don’t know how much time they actually spend working. Pelosi said, when the Dems took over,they would be the most ethical, hard working congress,but so far I don’t see it. It is just more of the same. I heard that Ted Kasynski the Unabomber, has a higher approval rating than congress. I believe it.

Dec 21, 2008 - 8:18 am 20. jd:

Personally, I think people are just “outraged out”. They see Congress giving their money away with reckless abandon, giving themselves big raises, taking over businesses right and left, and generally ignoring the voters’ wishes about almost everything. 700 billion just vanishes like a cheap card trick and no one in the media can tell you where it went or what it was spent on. Seems to me that printing money as fast as you can is a receipe for runaway inflation. Maybe we should go out and buy things with the money we have left before the government gets it or before it’s devalued.

Dec 21, 2008 - 8:49 am 21. Douglas:

No new taxes? What about no taxes? Go to your employer, tell them you have 12 children/dependents then tell the IRS to go to Hell on April 15. Won’t happen, there aren’t enough people with balls.

Dec 21, 2008 - 11:37 am 22. The Historian:

DISASTER ON THEIR WATCH MERITS A RAISE?
We need to get rid of our reprehensible representatives and the earliest opportunity:

http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/economy-in-crisis-congress-gets-raise.html

Dec 21, 2008 - 12:17 pm 23. Are you kidding me? « Bold Colors Blog:

[...] A raise for Congress, Sarah Palin, and a poem Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Who is John Galt?An Elected Aristocracy that the Electorate Cannot Reach…SickeningJob losses in November — the worst since 1974 [...]

Dec 21, 2008 - 12:28 pm 24. gaetano catelli:

re: “Detroit is not in trouble because their executives travel by private jet but because 1. they are burdened with unsustainable labor contracts, 2. ruinous pension and health-care obligations, and 3. they make cars that people do not want to buy.”

it isn’t economically feasible for Detroit to remedy 3, because 1 & 2 impose a handicap relative to foreign-owned carmakers in the neighborhood of $1500 per vehicle. only larger, hence less fuel efficient, vehicles are pricey enough to allow sufficent markup to offset this handicap. the recent spike in oil prices combined with recession nixed that workaround.

if i recall correctly, what has been keeping Detroit’s auto companies alive is the profit they were making on acting as their own de facto bank in extending auto loans to dealers and end users. that path has been blocked by the credit market freezing up.

GM claims to be making a profit in its markets in the developing world, which the UAW contracts don’t cover. i haven’t seen this claim contradicted, so i assume that GM *does* know how to make cars that low income people want to buy. CEO Rick Waggoner claims that Buick is the *number one* selling car in China. unless contradicted, this claim provides further evidence that GM’s problem in the US is not lack of know-how or willingness, but rather an unsustainable disadvantage in costs.

recently i heard an auto industry analyst say on NPR that during the decade from 1996 to 2006 alone, GM paid out (or had to set aside due to accounting rules) $21 billion in healthcare costs. if the government, instead of GM, were in the role of healing the sick, that money could have gone to engineering more popular cars at a cost that would allow for a profit.

as for Congress, Mark Twain had this to say: “There is no native criminal class except Congress.”

Dec 21, 2008 - 12:37 pm 25. Grace:

I have a feeling that what we’re waiting for in the case of Congress voting itself a raise is for this to be egregious enough to resonate on the left as well as the right. That’s a matter of our relative demographics — we conservative types usually prefer to work inside the system and don’t “do” outrage very well — but it’s also just a testament to how thoroughly we’ve been marginalized. Mainstream media skews left and in spite of the lovely ability of alt-media to make us all feel like we’ve got a voice, most people don’t consider it real unless they’ve read it in a newspaper or seen it on TV news (and Fox doesn’t count).

I can hardly believe how content most people are with having opinions and analysis coming to them continually from a left-of-center vantage, but, in my circle at least, that’s the way it is. Conservatives being mad is utterly discounted.

Dec 21, 2008 - 5:23 pm 26. elvis:

That’s because we don’ get angry grace. it’s time to marginalize the left of center.
They do not have all rights to anger. In fact they have no reason to be angry.
WE DO!

Dec 21, 2008 - 7:37 pm 27. zanne:

Agreed Elvis. But what worries me is the political anger is exhausted by the daily news beating. The average citizen is afraid to read or hear anything.

Dec 21, 2008 - 9:07 pm 28. Petipace:

Clarification:

Congress did not vote itself a pay raise. It doesn’t need to. The raises are automatic – have been for 20 years. Apparently, this helps ensure the high ethical standards we expect from our elected officials.

Dec 21, 2008 - 10:13 pm 29. R Stevenson:

Great post…however it should be mentioned that at least one US Congressman, the very honorable MIKE PENCE (R-Indiana), REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE RAISE!!!

RHS

Dec 22, 2008 - 9:10 am 30. Quick links around | The Anchoress:

[...] Lots of folks have already heard they won’t be getting bonuses or raises in 2009; most of us will feel lucky to remain gainfully employed. But congress sure did take care of itself. [...]

Dec 22, 2008 - 1:16 pm 31. jonesy55:

Maybe congressional pay should be indexed to median household income or something like that, we have the same problem in the UK, MPs are pretty much the only people who can decide their own pay rise to be paid with other people’s money.

Dec 22, 2008 - 2:17 pm 32. thegre8_1:

WHY? If private sector did their jobs like Congress does their jobs we would have 98% unemployment and only the UAW would have jobs.

Dec 22, 2008 - 3:11 pm 33. thegre8_1:

Douglas I’m with you President Government can’t spend what we won’t pay. Oh yeah they will just print the money. If 100 million taxpayers claimed the max allowed on their W4 that would hurt big time.Same thing if small business stop making quarterly tax payments. Or the oil companies do likewise. Not enough b@lls in this banana republic.

Dec 22, 2008 - 3:18 pm 34. Thinking Person:

I’m thinking it’s almost time to drop the word “elected” from in front of the word officials. They seem to be keeping their offices now through osmosis or in what is soon to be Sen. Caroline Kennedy’s way, through political lineage. The idea of sending representatives to Washington to represent us is gone. They represent whomever is paying for their next reelection. Anyone notice how many of our representatives voted for the bailout when the majority of the public was against it? So much for the voice of the people.

Dec 22, 2008 - 4:19 pm 35. The Historian:

AMERICANS DON’T KNOW BASIC CIVICS
It is so bad that college graduates cannot pass a simple civics exam:

http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/elected-officials-flunk-easy-civics. html

Dec 22, 2008 - 5:14 pm 36. Will Becker:

Believe it my friends,Socialism is here,and it will only get worse. You know if Americans could stand together,we could save our country.

Dec 25, 2008 - 10:06 am 37. Sandy:

I think that the members of Congress should start & realize that they are SUPPOSED to be working for the citizens they supposedly SERVE. They should NOT be in control of voting themselves pay raises (as they are grossly overpaid)& I think, in my opinion, that voting themselves is a GROSS CONFLICT OF INTEREST & just a poor display of their supposed intelligence to vote themselves a pay raise what with the way the economy is now. I know how they got voting themselves a pay raise into law ( because THEY have to PASS a bill before it becomes law. If they think they need a pay raise, they should ask the citizens they work for and WE should determine IF they get it or not(is it ANY wonder that taxpayers think the government is corrupt with these type of actions going on? They seem to have lost the perception of their jobs. Also, I have been trying to get them to change the age requirement regarding the Earned Income Tax Credit Form. Since the credit is based on the income you earn, the requirement that in order to qualify you must be between ages 25 & under 65 at end of the year, should NOT be in the rules. I am doing the same job and just because I have turned 65, I no longer qualify. I feel, in my opinion, that I & others like myself are being discriminated against because of my age. I have contacted ALL the appropriate Washington officials and gotten nowhere because I am only one person who is apparently complaining about this & the I.R.S. laws can only be changed by them.What can be done to change these problems.I would bring a class action suit against them for discrimination if I found out I could do so, maybe then they would wake up and change it. One last thing, what was it I heard on the news about (as part of that stimulus bill they are now working on) that they wanted to purchase NEW GOVERNMENT CARS? What is that about & WHY does the Government need new cars? If these GOVERNMENT CARS are for these overpaid politicians, then in my opinion, THEY CAN PAY FOR THEM THEMSELVES out of their own pockets fro m their over inflated paychecks which they voted for themselves. Can you check into this? & I think there are quite a few items included in this so called stimulus bill that would be better labled “PORK” as I really don’t see how giving money to the ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT and other items like to do with a golf cours are going to stimulate anything.These politicians are so used to living so high on the hog that they don’t seem to realize that they have virtually killed the goose(the people) who lays their golden egg(their lifestyles) and yet they expect people on Social Security to live on hot air in comparison. If you are living on Social Security and get a cost of living raise, then food stamp people want to know about it so they can cut your stamps, so where is your cost of living raise???? plus when you turn 65, they take: $96.40 per month for MEDICARE (which I realize is cheap) but if you don’t take it when you turn 65 then they penalize you 10% per yr. increase in the cost for every year that you haven’t taken it since you became eligible for it.How do they expect people who have worked most of their lives to feel? I was .getting: 554.00 per month in widow’s benefits & when I turned 65, it got knocked back to: 457.00 per month, along with the approx. $ 4,000.00 I make from being self-employed & I see them making so much money & hear abouthow much more they make writing books, giving speeches, and etc. and the extravagent parties they throw. No I don’t think they are worth the kind of money they get!!! They hire their friends & relatives and make sure they are paid well and in my opinion they live a lavish life style. NO WONDER they like to spend a fortune getting elected so they can vote themselves MORE money. A politician should be elected because of what he or she believes in NOT on how RICH they are and can outspend their competition.

Feb 4, 2009 - 2:56 am 38. Sandy:

I told all the politions whose offices I contacted that I didn’t want any standard form letter, so guess what, I haven’t heard from any of them & have not gotten any results regarding th4\e change I would like to see made regarding that Earned Income Tax Form law with the age requiirements.

Feb 4, 2009 - 2:59 am

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