Im just throwing up a post and venting some frustration, becuase I cant keep it in anymore. What the hell are our so called "leaders" doing these days? They are wasting so much time and so many tax dollars to see which baseball players juiced up or whether or not the "spygate" tapes were destroyed to cover up some vast conspiracy amongst the NFL. WHY? We have young men and women dying oversees every day, Iraqi/Afghanistan civilians being living in fear of dying, Economies of major global players collapsing, countless american civilians losing jobs, homes, lives, etc., turmoil in so many countries. Why are our politicians wasting time and money on these hearings? What good will they accomplish? What purpose do they serve?

Here's my take on what purpose they serve. They serve the self-indulgent politicians, thats who. Instead of crossing party battle lines and doing the job they were hired to do, they would rather hold true to their party NOT their people and play mind games with the american political system. Thats unacceptable! What ticks me off even more is that there arenn't more law abiding, upset, tax payers like myself who are expressing their rage with this going on. The american people are becoming so complacent and so dependpend on the "unbiased" news sources that they no longer can think or speak for themselves and what they truely believe in. America shouldn't be about what republicans want or what democrats want, it should be about what the people want. Well, if the people allow this behavoir to go on in our capital, than guess what, nothings going to change! It shouldn't be about whats conservative or liberal, it should be about whats right and whats wrong, it should be about what makes sense, and what doesn't.

The american government is so full of self-serving, selfish, biased, beaurocratic, men, it makes me sick. They are refusing to take positive steps based on schoolyard tactics. Its becoming more of a popularity contest than anything else. It's going to be the youth of today and tommorrow that are going to pay the price for the mistakes of these men who can't stand in the same room, compromise, and serve the country and the people who put them in the office.

How many american families can't afford to put a roof over their heads, and yet they are sitting high and mighty living off of our tax dollars, recieving free medical care, and a nice retirement package after service. For those who have acutally made a difference, I don't congratulate you, I don't bow down to you, that is why you were put into office.

If you are between the age of 18-30 and do not vote, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you have no right to look back and be upset with what happens. Now is the time to stand up and use your right and your privledge to vote, and make these self-serving politicians realize that we will not be complacent anymore.

I'm ashamed of anyone of ANY age that isn't voting!

And yeah, can understand the kind of frustration you are feeling while writing this entire post. Self-serving is exactly what our current administration is. While Bush leaving office will help the country in numerous ways, there are still some large issues that loom over this nation like a huge, ominous black cloud.

1.) Economy - This has probably become the number 1 issue because the government finally agreed that "yeah, we are in a recession". It takes a huge beating of the DOW on Wall Street, home mortgage crisis and rising gasoline costs to finally look at it without bias and say, "yeah"?

2.) Health Care - It is incredibly expensive. Our elderly can't afford to pay for it, so Medicare and state aid has to come in to pick up the bill. They sure can't go out and get a premium policy to cover whatever could arise just on their Social Security check each month. Medicines are sometimes outrageous and there are those taking 5-8 different types each day!

3.) Immigration - Build a fence/wall, hire more border guards or start deporting on a grand scale. Maybe better yet, make them a forced labour camp where they work only for their food and then ship them back with no other monetary or material assets. Then if they keep coming back we know they are starving to death.

4.) Military - We are NOT the world's police. We don't even have enough of our own police forces to keep crime down. So we are going to step up and try to keep the peace world-wide just from setting our own sad example domestically? That's like going next door and saying "What a messy house" when your own is worse!

5.) Taxation and Spending - Our government spends WAY more than it makes. So we either need to come up with a feasible way to tax the citizenry or to get some half-way adept financial thinkers in office that can say "Hey, where is this money supposed to be coming from for this"?



It ails me to consider that whatever good ideas make it to Washington not only get caught up in the bureaucratic machine, but that they are traded away for gaining momentum for other issues that are only temporary fixes or like you'd mentioned... party victories.

As a current employee of a major palm beach area hospital, I can tell you that our healthcare system is in so much trouble, I really don't see any other way of fixing it other than crumbling up the piece of paper and starting fresh.

Those who have medicare/medicaid or are uninsured think they have the right to use the emergency room as their private doctors office. The emergency room should be for just that, EMERGENCIES. Unless your health and life is in jepardy, or you are suffering from an acute, contagious ailment, the ER should be your LAST RESORT.

Healthcare needs such a revamping, and not just for the elderly. What about all of the kids, teens, college students, and every day worker who either can't afford insurance, can't qualify for insurance, or both? I think the term "per-diem" should be done away with. If you have an employee who is working 36 hrs or 5 days a week, whichever, than the employer should offer some kind of benefits package.

Per-diem is just a fancy way of saying 'we want you to do the work of a full time employee, but not get the full time employee's benefits.



The economy is another issue. We need a fiscally responsible administration. An administration that isn't afraid to meet spending issues head on, even if it pisses off key political allies. How about doing the following.

Any senator or representative who misses a vote or fails to cast a vote, should not get paid. If I didnt show up to work, or just didnt do my job, I wouldnt get paid, so why should they? Also, why are they entitled to a steep salary and government provided healthcare, even after they are out of office? Just seems that they should be doing this to serve the country, not get a nice check and free healthcare. Granted they're salary should be commensurate on experience, but cmon, be realistic. If our economy isn't doing well, than don't you think the guys at the top should be willing to take a pay cut? Look at what some of the CEO's have doe, they slashed there own salaries and cut there own bonuses for the good of the company they serve.



As for foreign policy and immigration:

Do SOMETHING, all this sitting around the camp fire and talking about the problem, isn't going to SOLVE the problem. As much as I would like to see a mass deportation, I know for a fact taht it is impossible to do without spending billions of tax dollars.

Instead, streamline the way people get legal visas and greencards. Make it a federal offense to hire illegal labor. Pass laws that make it easier for LEO's to locate, arrest, and deport any illegal citizen that has broken the law. Develop a system that is able to track the thumbprints of any illegal that has commited a felony offense, deport them, and if a LEO catches them again ANYWHERE in the USA than they should be arrested and sent to a federal prison. Hell, I would even be in support of making it mandatory for any unnatural citizen to serve in the millitary for 2 years as part of the legalization process. That would solve our millitary shortage issue.

As for foreign policy we need to focus on whats going on on our own soil. However, I do feel that terrorist groups around the world are a threat. Not just to the US, but to every free, organized government. We need to re-strengthen our NATO and UN ties. Get the entire world to focus on this problem, not just us, and stop focusing on the middle east. There are terrorist groups all over, including right here at home. Any group that acts against a government, should be deemed a terrorist cell, and law enforcement and millitary assets should be used to bring those groups to justice in an international court.

Again, this will take lots of compromise among world governments and leaders. Which will require they stop bickering like pubecent schoolgirls, and fess up to the problem, and offer a rational solution to a growing global threat.

As for our imperialistic attitude, we need to figure out a way to fix what we broke, and bring our troops home. This doesnt mean cut our losses and run, leaving IRAQ on there own, but rather, create a international, UN/NATO peacekeeping force to help the IRAQI government solidify there country and get back on there feet. Also, Iraq needs to help Iraq.

All in all, politicans around the world just need to stop bitching and whining because there cultural viewpoints don't quite match with somoene elses. The world we are in is beyond the cultural and historical differences. THe onyl way we will have a world to live in for the future, is to come together in a global effort to right the wrongs of previous and current generations.

That is all.

I mostly agree with your viewpoints on these matters.

I've seen this being abused. Also been a bit guilty in a way, once as a child and once with my mother. It seems as if doctor's see patience when it is a matter of convenience. Was telling a poker bud that we only need doctors to do the scripts for medical prescriptions in so many instances. Nowadays, it seems as if you visit your family doctor, they do the basic nursing tasks for their records and send you off with lots of free samples. They didn't pay anything for them so it is almost ALL profit margin. We are basically paying for their waiting room comforts and their "patient" rooms. So when Mom complained of chest pains (and she almost never complains), then I certainly didn't mind rushing her to the ER (when she asked) to get hooked upon to an EKG.

Sad but true. Companies are just trying to find ways to keep an employee a temporary or part-timer to save on their paying for benefit packages/retirement. Never understood how a company could pay some untrained temp $21.00 hour for a $10.00 per hour job... and then turn around and say they are saving money; but guess it must be true! The fact that they kept doing it for months only seemed to emphasis it's validity.

Not sure I want anyone voting on any issue/candidate if they aren't really "for" that issue. Politics probably depends upon abstained votes to get some action. But the fact that they don't want to deal with it and then send it off to one of a hundred sub-committees is just a nifty way to say "Let's BURY this issue!" Maybe they could dock them in pay for each issue they seem to handle in this manner.

Can understand why they had a French Foreign Legion. :) That is EXACTLY what we need. It would kill two birds with one stone. Deport them and ship them overseas to patrol in Iraq (or wher'ere)... so ideal it is scary!! That way they can't just cross a river... but have to cross an entire ocean. Maybe the number of Cuban drownings will be reduced now that Fidel is gone.

And it would be great if all of these illegals that want the benefits from our economy/society would be willing to FIGHT for it first.

People who want to become a citizen should be required to serve in the millitary. It does make sense, lots of sense. However, many will argue that this will undermine what makes our millitary so great. They depict our army as highly trained volunteers.

I agree, volunteers make better soldiers, becuase thats what they sign up for. I dont mean force these poeople to server, no by all means they have a choice.

Option 1:

Remain an illegal, stay in ther country, or be deported and possibly detained after repeatedly being caught illegally in the country.

Option 2: Volunteer in the amred services (notice how I dindt say army, if they can qualify for another branch, than by all means.) Serve two to four years mandatory and then get your citizen papers. This would be a way of "earning" it. Hell, I would shake there hands if they went through with it, at least it shows they are willing to fight for the country and not just rely on and take advantage of the socioeconomic programs this country offers blindly.


I dont really see any human rights issues with this. However, Im sure poeple will twist it into a two headed monster. If they have a problem with it, then ship the illegals to there country and let them take care of this population.

I agree that some form of military service would be ideal. But the problem becomes how to regulate who might be able to enter the service. Anyone who wanted to enter the United States legally? That would open up a gaping hole in terms of potential terrorists who might join only to gain access to weapons and confidential information, and use such things against us. Those who are in the country illegally? Again, same deal - many do not have papers and we would have little way of verifying identity and background. I'm sure the military authorities would have problems assigning foreign-legion type units to particularly confidential areas like front-line combat.

Do these things necessarily make the idea unworkable? I don't think so. Extensive interviews of potential soldiers would be necessary in my opinion, to ensure that they do in fact have the correct "ideals" behind wanting to serve in our military - that they are willing to fight to be included in our society. The sort of heartwarming stories that might come from a program like this would definitely be a credit to our country.

On the other hand, would we be forced to resort to racial segregation in terms of possibilities of entry? Plenty of people might say that they would be more trusting of a would-be Hispanic immigrant than a Muslim one - and I'm not saying that they're necessarily right, but that the viewpoint surely would exist.

I'm not healthy enough to have high blood pressure.

Agreed.

How many of them did it to themselves?

Agreed. Instead of actually dealing with the issue of rising healthcare costs the federal(and some states) government are passing the problems on to insurance companies and taxpayers(and in some states employers). Which then rises healthcare costs even more.

Bingo. Recently when I had a cold a coworker told me to go to the emergency room to get some prescription medication for it. I told her a cold is not an emergency.

Doctors and consumers abuse insurance.

I still like my tax idea but that could work pretty well too.

Absolutely not.

well voting to abstain is one thing but not showing up is another. Not just for voting either. They should show up to debates and whatnot as well.

After reviewing my post comment regarding anyone acting against a government should be labled a terrorist cell. Let me clarify and retract part of that statement.

Anyone who kills INNOCENT people, takes hostages, etc. is more like it. Im all for a peaceful, NON-VIOLENT demonstration against government and their actions. Thats what the country is based on, but if you or your group kills innocent people and/or takes hostages, than guess what? You deserve to go to jail and/or die a horrible death just like any other terrorist.

I think the world has seen enough bloodshed. Its time men start acting and fighting with words and actions instead of bullets. That will never happen, and innocent people will continue to die. Its a shame.

If it is set up like how the French handled their Foreign Legions, then I think those security issues you bring up are greatly reduced. They would be forced to serve over-seas for at least 2 years (if not longer). While anyone currently within that service would have the ability to do great harm... it wouldn't be as if they had access to critical military secrets nor advanced weaponry.

The more that I think about this idea, the more it seems to make sense. The French may have made them serve 4 or even 6 years before granting citizenship. And their military records while they were there were a kind of established background.

Does it open it up for terrorist infiltration? Sure. Couldn't that kind of infiltration occur anyway? Most definitely. I'll be the first to agree that morale or even level/time of training is something that will suffer. But then it may become renowned world-wide as a wonderful way to integrate illegals (and their families) into a country. Besides, if they have family members wanting to make there homes here, why would they take any kind of harmful course.