One Happy Dog Speaks

You can find the following information on the White House site http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/28/presidential-memorandum-presidential-determination-respect-child-soldier

But I’m going to repeat it here:

SUBJECT: Determination with Respect to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008

Pursuant to section 404 of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA) (title IV, Public Law 110-457), I hereby determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA with respect to Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen; and further determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive in part the application of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA with respect to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to allow for continued provision of International Military Education and Training funds and nonlethal Excess Defense Articles, and the issuance of licenses for direct commercial sales of U.S. origin defense articles; and I hereby waive such provisions accordingly.

You are authorized and directed to submit this determination to the Congress, along with the accompanying Memorandum of Justification, and to publish the determination in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

Now I know I am not ‘with it’ when it comes to politics until election time… but I put in bold what bothered me… in the actual act it talks about waiving the act… but here is one of the criteria:

the government of such country is taking reasonable steps to implement effective measures to demobilize child soldiers in its forces

Really, Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen have shown steps to get rid of child soldiers? Really? I’m starting to wish I lived in another country… though I love the USA and just wish this nonsense would stop. Maybe, just maybe I’m reading it wrong… any input?

Received this in an email… it says what I have said in the past… and still agree with!

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise .Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/13/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.

Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.

The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

From an email I received:

This rather brilliantly cuts thru all the political doublespeak we get. It puts it into a much better perspective.

Lesson # 1:
* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts: $385

Let me point out that the “National debt” is really 4+ times the number above when you include the current value of social security and medicare benefits.

My thoughts: How many years have we let this go on? Unbelievable…

I saw the SchoolHouse Rock when I was kid… remember it? Here I found it on youtube and am embedding it here:

Started way back and got out of hand after the civil war… and never got back under control. Scary. 100 years and we still elect people that can’t control the spending of the government. Mine Mine Mine… I swear that is all I hear when I listen to the speeches about why ‘that official’ must have money… I have yet to hear, “We need to cut what we spend in our state”. Not happening huh? Any ideas on what should be done?

I laughed when I read that above… then realized, it was way to close to the truth… sigh…

Then again in a french maid costumes I might get more attention. Yaa, nothing like an overweight, old lady in a sexy costume to get everyone’s attention. Then again, they would be rolling on the floor laughing so much I would never be heard. What do I want to say? That’s the problem… I have a lot to say about the politics going on… like cut the salaries of our congressmen FIRST and many other items on those lines … like THEIR travel budget… Presidential Fund… yaaa… that doesn’t need to come out of my taxes. Make them work for a living and LEAVE their jobs to be a congressman and pay them a SMALL stipend until they go home. Hence, they won’t want to stay. It is NOT to be equivalent to what they made, it is to supplement them being away for a SHORT period of time. Sigh… I think I need some sleep… More on this later.

My mom sent me this in an email (and no she did not originate it):

“Fathom the hypocrisy of a Congress that requires every citizen to prove they are insured…..but not everyone must prove they are citizens”.

My mom is a wise woman. She sends stuff to make me laugh, to make me remember and… to make me think. Like this quote. So many things run through my mind. My kids, their future, my future, my country, my ability (or inability) to fix this, does it need fixing, how is it going to change my life….

What goes through your mind when you read it?

This was sent to me via email and I found it to be accurate as it was written by Robert Hall from Snopes.com…

I wish my ability to write and express these sentiments were this good… It is how I have felt for the last couple of years… I did have a good friend remind me that none of this was backed up by facts. And he was correct. Yet it is amazing how much I feel these things until I realized it is because “I” have been effected by them. I have felt the frustration of being ‘stereotyped’ and unable to get support because I was a white female with a job. I can’t imagine what it would be like as a man.

I have friends that are LEGAL immigrants and then I have watched things happen in our community because of the illegal immigrants. I have watched the tolerance change and what can and cannot be said. It scares me. I watch how I am paying our mortgage but if I had let it slipped I would have been able to get government handouts and wonder why I bother. Then I am scared again because that thought actually passed through my brain. Ok, read this and you’ll understand better.

This should be required reading for every man, woman, and child in the United States of America.

“I’m 63 and I’m Tired”
by Robert D. Hall

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Al lah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but thinks that Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I #@*# sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheadedDaniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the ” Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m real tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to see the world these people are making. I’m sorry though for my granddaughter.

Robert David Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served 5 terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

Funny, but my hubby swears I swing one direction then the other when it comes to politics… though I think this says it best… and in case it doesn’t show up right on my blog “You are best described as a:

Centrist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. ”

You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an… Economic Conservative (63% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Thanks to Pamibe for the test link!

Lately I have been coming up with a list in my head of things I think I would do if I were President. Like convince the public to make a limit for 2 terms in Congress, change them from salary to a stipend, we must all have the same health care, same for retirement, and more… understand I am just as disappointed in the Republicans as I am in the Democrats. Then I read this:

(It’s long winded but makes good points – I’ll write more at the end of it)

545 PEOPLE–By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them..

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits….. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it’s because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

I like that idea. Get rid of ALL the ones that are in their now. All of them. The election is coming up. Do NOT elect the same person back. Pick a new one and put them in the seat. Pass the word so enough people in your state can all vote a new person in. Good luck!

Seems I can’t keep my nose out of trouble. I signed up for something at some point and now I get interesting emails that keep me thinking. I was sent THIS LINK to vote on the House Resolution 615. What I found more interesting where the comments below. I have not read every comment, but quite a few. It has been very civil. It has also shown both points of view on the health care topic.

One of the comments mentioned about the health care bill:

In the law there are over 800 instances where it says, “…the Secretary shall…”, and what the Secretary “shall” do is write thousands of rules and regulations that will make the law very different than what the politicians didn’t read before they passed it.

Huh? Is that true? I guess I have more research to do on where my life is being directed by our government. I shall also have to make sure the Secretary believes the same stuff I do if that statement is true… OH, why am I so interested in health care? Because I need it for my family. With all the issues we have, I need good health care to cover the costs and keep the costs low enough for us to afford. And no, I didn’t like the health care bill that was put out initially… yes I did read quite a few pages of it but gave up after a while. I didn’t like what I read at the beginning, I’m sure I wasn’t going to like the rest. Now it looks like I’m going to have to go do it again so I’m better prepared to vote. Sigh.