Democracy Downgraded

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
 
Buzz Flash,
 
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with grade to reason . . .

Robert Frost, Reluctance, 1913
 
 
From reason to what's reasonable. A wide gap for this country's citizens to cross. People are hurting and wondering why, when in MSM they read that the U.S. crisis is over. Wouldn't it be reasonable for all of us citizens to hear the truth and then try to deal with it? Or, do we have to wait until we see people in long lines for jobs and food and people living in cars or more and more just out on the street, all the while, our Congress discusses reasons and what is reasonable.
 
Twenty percent of people out of work or working at just anything to get by is not reasonable. The constant hype by MSM from one thing to another in order to remove the real news from the front-page news is not reasonable. The flu, for instance, has been reported to have already reached its peak, and yet media is peddling the vaccine that has just arrived and we are told it arrived in small amounts.
 
U.S. democracy has been downgraded by our big guy media, other corporations, and Congress to the point that it is no longer important, a much lower standard has been accepted and over the years, high standards are no longer expected, unless the person is found in bed with someone else. Bedroom follies still excite people (which is not the point, it's their example and their lack of job responsibility), while our government and the loyalties towards the people and to what is important to the citizens of this country are almost laughably nil . . . until elections, that is.
 
People like Senator Lieberman should have been put out of office years ago and yet, Connecticut still forces him upon the rest of this nation. He is arrogant about his willingness to go against the American people. Arrogant! People like Lieberman, who can't work for the people of this nation, should be put out of work with the rest of this nation. People, he helped to put out of work. A sign that he has been at the same job for too many years, and as a Democrat and should have supported the Democratic Party candidate for Connecticut instead of running against the Party, if he was a true to the heart Democrat. That's what the Democratic Party gets back for supporting him all of those years.
 
Healthcare, good jobs, manufacturing jobs for products made in USA, healthy food . . . yet, people are put out of their homes, laid off and companies flee to other countries, even today, and our Congress still does nothing about this.
 
Every year, 76 million Americans are sickened and 325,000 are hospitalized from consuming contaminated food -- and 5,000 of these people die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Our food safety law clearly is not up to the task. Unbelievably, the Food and Drug Administration only inspects food factories on average once every 10 years, checks less than 1 percent of food shipments imported from China and other foreign countries and doesn't even have the authority to force food companies to recall contaminated foods. (snip)
 
Our current food system is broken and in need of reform. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed bipartisan food safety reform legislation in July 2009 that would update the law and strengthen the system: Now the Senate must act. Your Senators have the opportunity to change course and help protect children, families, senior citizens and all others from foodborne illness.

Top 10 Riskiest Foods (Page 12) | Healthy and Green Living

But what we really, really need . . . more money for military.
 
Obama Signs $680 Billion Military Bill, a Victory Over Lobbyists - NYTimes.com
 
As of October 20, the United States has a total resident population of 308 million.
 
Demographics of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
A victory over lobbyists?. . . How long was this amount debated? Are we Americans stupid? How do you get what you want and yet both sides can save face . . . you ask for something way out of line and then you get what you want. We are talking about $680 billion dollars for military. Why in the hell do we need that much money sunk into U.S. military? According to our population, that's three more zeros than our population, and if my math is close at all, those dollars represent at least $2,000 per person in this country that goes to U.S. military, not to healthcare, not to jobs, not to food . . . to military, in order to kill people cleaner, safer. Think about it, what is a life worth in today's world . . . we are either leaders around the world or we are not. Peace will not come from a military provided with such funds. It only makes the world want to arm themselves. Bush accomplished that . . . and the debt, death, and destruction that Bush and his ilk brought to this nation, still goes on . . . and, yet, we Americans have had to listen to day after day whether or not we could get single payer healthcare, which is what we need, or public option healthcare . . . and, many in Congress did not want Americans to have either one.
 
Maybe Congress and the Executive Branch can sell this kind of change to the people, but the world knows better and they will not buy it.
 
The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete.
Call it Plan B for dealing with Iran, which recently revealed a long-suspected nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom. (snip)
 
The 15-ton behemoth — called the 'massive ordnance penetrator,' or MOP — will be the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal and will carry 5,300 pounds of explosives. The bomb is about 10 times more powerful than the weapon it is designed to replace.
The Pentagon has awarded a nearly $52 million contract to speed up placement of the bomb aboard the B-2 Stealth bomber, and officials say the bomb could be fielded as soon as next summer.
 
Pentagon Wants Bunker-Buster Bomb Sooner
 
Oh, yeah, speed it up. We need to keep killing. I still remember the horror of the descriptions of those weapons used in Iraq, tested on innocent people who were stopped at U.S. military checkpoints, trying to get the hell out of Iraq.
 
MSM's favorite soap opera is in the news again today, and I would love to know who CNN polled to say that two-thirds of those people think Palin is a good role model for women. Maybe, if you are a Republican, yes. Frankly, I get suspicious when I see so much sass going back and forth between these two, Palin and (I guess he's an ex) ex-son-in-law, because it keeps them in the news, and we thinking Americans understand that most of our corporate news enjoys entertaining much more than reporting serious situations. And, in accordance to the Bush GOP profile and their arrogance, Palin thought she was a good candidate for VP . . . I would have more respect for her if she had turned them down. She's clearly an image of her own imagination . . . that, she has. Looks and a gift of gab seem to be what it takes today, with the Bush GOP, at least. More obvious signs of how our democracy and the responsibility that goes along with it has been so downgraded that selling one's loyalty is also common place.
 
This airing of the family's dirty laundry comes as a new CNN poll on Palin showed 71 percent of those surveyed think the former GOP vice presidential nominee doesn't have what it takes to be president. However, nearly two-thirds said she's not a conventional politician and is a good role model for women. One big plus for Palin, CNN's polling director noted, is that most Americans believe "she cares about people like them."
 
http://www.sphere.com/2009/10/29/the-point-palin-johnston-feud-heats-up/
 
Call it backward, stupid, arrogant, or plain disrespectful . . . and it is said to be a 'longstanding' policy? Any American citizen on the street, who has suffered through a traumatic event in their life, understands what PTS is, and, it doesn't take a great amount of imagination to understand why some of these young people come back from war so stressed out . . . training does not prepare them for the death and destruction of real combat, real war.
 
Is that so hard for Congress to understand or is it simply because so many of them have failed to serve in U.S. military . . . or, is it because their lives are pretty safe and secure, and they feel that they want to punish those who are so frail and mentally straught that they take their own lives . . . that, they can't face life any more or even their own families . . . and, the fact that they served this country in such a way and it actually harmed them, yet, in the eyes of Congress, they should not hear from their Commander in Chief? Is that not downgrading this country and our own people? Shame on anyone who thinks this is the right thing to do. Well, if some think protecting those who rape, instead of protecting their victims, is okay . . . what more can we expect. Much, much more. We can expect respect for those who have served and been hurt so much that they kill themselves, what a price to pay trying to serve our country, and we Americans must expect real change . . . and, this policy must be changed.
 
Below an excerpt of an article by Amy Goodman
 [After making inquiries, the Keeslings discovered that this was not because of an oversight. Instead, it's because of a longstanding U.S. policy to deny presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who take their own lives.]
 
The War Condolences Obama Hasn't Sent | CommonDreams.org
 
Because U.S. Democracy had been downgraded, we Americans have become the downtrodden . . . oppressed and mistreated by those in power, and ignored. We cannot afford compromise after what this country has gone through for the last thirty years, and especially the last eight years of the Bush GOP regime.
 
"Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another -- too often ending in the loss of both." Tryon Edwards (d. 1894), American theologian.
 
We have to listen to those who lived in the past. Ask many Americans today . . . do they feel that they live in a democracy and ask them if they understand what it is supposed to be like, living in a democracy.
 
Again, I have to listen to those who came before us, and when I do, I always think of how much I miss the voice of Senator Ted Kennedy, who was a great leader and was not afraid to speak out. In his book, America Back on Track, he lists seven challenges and the first one is, "The first challenge is to reclaim our constitutional democracy and keep it vital for the future. From 2006 and we are still unable to say that our Congress and our Executive branches resemble checks and balances of power. Certainly, the Bush GOP have done nothing except refuse to work for the people, and the Democrats have tried to please them, humor them, instead of making them accountable for the eight years they supported a criminal Bush GOP regime.
 
"Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.: James Russell Lowell, Bigelow Papers, 1867.
 
I think the lesson here is that we Americans cannot accept change that comes with compromise, as it will not amount to change at all . . . . I'm not expecting miracles, however, we still have to listen to the Cheneys/Bushes/Rove comments when they should be preparing for accountability, following investigations . . . we are downgraded as a leader in the world today because of them and many innocent people lost their lives and their livelihoods because of them.
 
Where's the justice for all . . . who is going to speak for the dead and who is going to save those who are still living? We Americans brought about change in Congress and the Executive Branch, but our work is not done. It's quite evident that we Americans have much more work to do, and those members of Congress should take notice. That's not a compromise . . . that's a promise.
 
As I write this, a news item about the Healthcare bill coming from the Democrats in Congress . . . a wait and see . . . sorry, but, I won't hold my breath. I wanted the U.S. to have the kind of health care that Canada has for their people.
 
Thanks Buzz Flash,
 
Shirley Smith

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

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