Welcome to a new area named Ragman’s Rants. This area will contain my thoughts….er….rants on topics that are on my mind. A little disclaimer though – my thoughts won’t always contain views from both sides of the fence. That being said, lets get on with it.
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Obama has only been in office for a few weeks and he has already killed innocent women and children with authorizing the recent missile strikes in Pakistan.
Obama is calling for the government to be more open. When asked about the missile strikes, a response of “no Comment” was received. So much for the government being more transparent
Obama is calling for the increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan.
Obama is calling for close to 1 Trillion dollar stimulus package.
Sounds like more of the same to me. Got change? I think not.
(see what one long time congressman has to say about it) (Youtube)
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9 Comments
Obama has done some good things, including putting in place ethics standards that would prevent former lobbyists from coming to work in the government in the areas that they once lobbied.
Obama has done some bad things, including waiving his own ethics standards in the case of Bill Lynn, a former lobbyist who is now a nominee for a position in the defense department.
It would have been nice if Obama could have stuck to his own standards for a least a week.
Dobie,
Putting ethics standards is never a bad thing. But why not expand on it and make all lobbyists illegal. That would be real change. Because keeping lobbyists from coming into positions of influence doesn’t curtail them from using dirty politicians. Here’s a novel idea – how about ethical politicians as well.
Check out this article:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php
I wish she would have cited her sorces a little more, but it’s still beautifully written.
I’m sorry, I think I got the wrong link. This should be the right one.
http://campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=5
A very well written letter indeed. Unfortunately I believe that most of what she is saying is true. My only wish is that we could have leadership in this country that wasn’t so brainwashed into believing there is no consequences for their actions.
All great nations fail. That is a simple fact of history. It would be a tragedy if this great nation only made it 230 years due to the arrogance of power hungry politicians.
Lee,
Thanks for the link… Loved the article.
In theory, there is nothing wrong with lobbyists. The idea of people joining with others that share their views is a very old one. I am sure at one point we had a group of cave people sitting around that thought fire was good, and another group that thought fire was bad sitting in a different (much colder) cave. There is nothing wrong with sending a representative of your group to Washington to talk to your Congressmen about what your group believes. The theory works fine, until you add money into the mix. Then it becomes about buying (or at least appearing to buy) votes. But the answer is not to try to stop people or groups from lobbying their government – it is to put in place (and enforce) harsh restrictions on our elected officials and non-elected bureacracy.
We need to increase funding so that when Congress people need to go on “fact finding” missions – it is at tax payer expense, not a lobbyist group. There needs to be strict guidelines on who goes on these missions, and how much work vs. fun takes place.
We need to ban all gifts to members of our government. If someone wants to go out to eat with a lobbyist to discuss an important issue, they need to be buying their own steak.
We need campaign finance reform. While this would actually require a constitutional amendment, I would like to see put in place a directive that says elected officials cannot accept a campaign contribution from anyone that cannot vote for them. Not more contributions from people in other states, districts, businesses, unions, people from foreign countries, or special interest groups.
Take the money away from lobbyists, and they lose their power.
Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.
Who sings that song.