Open Letter to Mitch McConnell….we’re not as dumb as you thought we were.

Dear Senator McConnell:

Regarding your New Republican Agenda Survey……I have answered your questions here as I know they would be discarded if I sent them to the RNC, you, or anyone else trying to revive this dead elephant in the room.

These are my answers:

Continue the War OF Terror?

1.  If we are going to take the War OF Terror to the terrorists, capture their leaders and freeze their financial assets I believe it would be far more expeditious to start in Washington D.C..  We have an administration that lied us into war on false pretenses and we are now considered the biggest threat to world peace by almost every nation around the globe.  In addition, the millions, if not billions made by Bush & Co. on this war of aggression should be seized and held for the taxpayers of the United States and returned to them via another rebate. 

Disarm Iran and Korea?

2.  We are in no position to demand that any other country dismantle their weapons of any kind as we have proven in the last seven years in particular that we are not all the responsible ourselves. 

Continue the Wars? (and attack Iran??)

3.  Where were you and the Republican party when our troops were sent into Iraq without body armor?  Without weapons and proper equipment and training?  Oh…I forgot…..you were voting to send them over there.

The Patriot Acts

4.  You were one of those who never read the Patriot Act before voting on it.  Its obvious you still haven’t read it or The Security Enhancement Act (Patriot 2).  Neither act deals with terrorism, or even mentions terrorists unless there is a direct assault on liberty, civil rights or legal protections guaranteed in the Constitution.  I don’t believe any terrorist is living in fear of any laws that rob us of our freedom.

Illegal Wiretapping and Government Spying on US Citizens?

5.  Prior to the Pat Acts……the FBI had every legal right to wiretap when there was reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.  The laws that you have helped pass are not targeted to terrorists (expanded now in your survey to include terrorist sympathizers overseas).  These Acts do nothing but allow the unfettered spying on US citizens…ALL US citizens. How can overloading the system with billions of unnecessary eavesdropping and spying pieces of data, gleaned from domestic phone calls, emails, snail mail, net chats, any and all sources by people everyday, do anything other than bog down a system that was already dysfunctional?  We need the focus of intelligent and efficient intelligence agencies, not wholesale spying on everyone just for the sake of doing it.  This could start with dismantling Homeland Security.

Are we scared enough to claim everyone is a terrorist? 

5.  And please tell me how you identify these known terrorists?  Do they wear a sign?  A uniform?  How could you possibly determine in the massive amounts of information that is gathered daily and unnecessarily who is contacting a terrorist, and who is a terrorist?  The fact is you can’t! 

Build the fence?  Defend the border?

6.  Why not invoke that new Civil Assistance Plan with Canada and have them send their military down here to defend our border?  That would beat building a fence and we could maybe stop the illegal colonization of our country.

Should Democrats raise taxes to pay off the massive debt we accumulated?

7.  Should we stop the Democrats from raising taxes?  OOOHH!  That should snag the suckers.  Maybe the real question should have been:  Will the Democrats be forced to raise taxes to cover all the spending, tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%,  bail outs of predatory lenders,  loss of jobs,  and billions spent on this War OF Terror.  Considering the Republicans borrowed us into massive and unrepayable debt……this is really a moot point.

Continue the tax cuts so the wealthiest don’t have to contribute?

8. No. The tax cuts to those who didn’t need them should be stopped.  After all, we’re at war, the troops need those “tools”, and the economy is tanking big time.  Wouldn’t it be more patriotic to ante up when you have so much, than to expect those who are losing their jobs and homes, pensions and everything they have worked for to continue to finance those who contribute so little?

Should we allow multinational corporations to rape and pillage more of the country and then threaten you with your job if you object?

9.  Job killing environmental regulations?  And what jobs would those be? (I can’t wait for the answer to this one!)  I think what you are concerned about are those CAFTA provisions that you have not been quite successful at implementing just yet.  Read “trade illegal” regarding environmental obstacles to pollution and other “job killing” provisions. 

Could someone please balance the budget?  We’ve made such a mess of things!

10. A balanced budget amendment????  You’ve got to be kidding!  This from someone who has been part of the biggest expansion in government since its inception, who has helped kill the economy with massive borrowing and spending……and now you want a balanced budget amendment???  You are such a funny guy!

Fair trade or, corporate greed supported by this government?

11. There is a difference between free trade and fair trade.  The free trade policies of this administration and the 108th and 109th congress and now the 110th, have decimated our wages, jobs, caused massive home foreclosure, loss of health insurance and more families slip below the poverty line every day.  What do you think Mr. McConnell?  Do you think maybe its time someone put the brakes on this disaster and admitted that without regulation, without controls, businesses in the US (the few that remain) cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of the country?  Wage and price controls would be just the tip of the iceberg in what is needed to salvage our country from the pile of rubble the Republicans have helped to create.

Gay marriage will divert your attention from our corruption…Should we pass an Amendment?

14.  We have far more important issues that are of true priority without creating problems where none exists.  Don’t believe in gay marriage?  Don’t marry a gay person!  Problem solved!  With the divorce rate hitting 60% on those “traditional” marriages you trotted out there……I dont’ think you have a leg to stand on.  Your argument has no merit. 

Activist judges……are they only worthy if we picked them?

15. Activist judges?  Why not!  We just approved a several religious lunatics and a few even got on to the Supreme Court!  No one is more “activist” than than when they claim to be doing “God’s work!”

The federal government needs more of your money……blame someone else?

16. If Bush and other presidents hadn’t used the Social Security surplus (Bush has used it every year to finance the federal government to cover the loss of revenues from the tax cuts to those poor rich people) there would be no need to raise the SS tax.  But I’m sure you would have no problem raising the SS tax if it meant your wealthy friends could keep their tax cuts.

The 2nd Amendment

17. I fully support the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Tort reform….A good way to stop the common people from holding anyone accountable?

18. Medical liability and tort reform are just the current attempts to prevent everyday people from holding these demigods in the medical industry and pharmaceutical’s from being accountable for the harm they cause the public.  Considering that so many in congress are attorneys…….you might be shooting yourself and your trade in the foot with this one.

The Grand Old Party?  Or, How we destroyed an entire nation with greed and more greed.

19. & 20

We now call it the Greedy Old Party.  There is nothing to revive.  As it is, this party has shown us that given the power to change things, they will change it only for the benefit of a few.  The corruption that these last seven years in particular has exposed from supposedly religious, moral and family values officals is enough to drive the best of us away. 

You have spent us into abject debt, started wars of aggression, helped construct the biggest expansion in the size of government ever.  You have allowed corporations and multinationals to take our jobs, reduce our wages and quality of life all for the almighty “global trade”.  You are not conservatives, you are not compassionate, and I don’t believe you have a conscience. 

The Republican (neo-conservative) party has been the worst disaster ever to hit our nation.  And now you want us to donate to keep you going?  What happened? Did the corporate soft money dry up?  Did the lobbyists leave “k” street?  Get your money where you have gotten it while pretending you didn’t know that what you were supporting was going to destroy our nation.  Or have all the really big money suppliers moved to the cheap labor markets in foreign countries where they don’t need you any more?

The best thing voters could do is to vote every one of you on both sides out of office and start over.  Either that or dispense with the congress altogether.  Congress has become nothing but a huge siphon on the public and regardless of which side of the “isle” you pretend to be on……the fact is that you are not on our side. 

Since you can vote yourself raises and benefits any time you want, why not just go ahead and vote yourself some money to keep this pathetic charade going?  It wouldn’t be any less ethical than what you have done to us in the past.

Marti Oakley (c) 2008

 

 

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

As a person who tends to lean more to the left on most issues, I have to draw the line in the sand when it comes to the 2^nd Amendment to our Bill of Rights. This one amendment, more than any other signifies our freedom. This is the marker that separates us from other countries and societies. We have the freedom and the right to keep and bear arms. We have the right to defend ourselves…..even from our own government.

The repeated calls for repealing the 2^nd Amendment, or efforts to diminish its intent, usually come after yet another disturbing incident that was allowed to go totally out of control, and then incessantly broadcast by what is supposed to be our news sources until we reach a point of saturation. This is quickly followed by calls for disarming American’s.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear here; If someone is intent on killing you or several of you, not having a gun will not stop them. People are poisoned, stabbed, strangled, beaten to death, set on fire and die from multiple causes inflicted by another individual every day of the week. This is not because American’s have the right to own guns.

 

             I find it odd that more people die each year from drunk drivers than from gun incidents. Yet no one calls for another prohibition. There are no passionate pleas to ban alcohol; no diatribes on how alcohol consumption is killing innocent people. Besides, this might infringe on YOUR rights.

The right to keep and bear arms is not the cause of rampage killings. It’s the individual who decided to kill other human beings who is the cause. A gun can kill no one until an individual picks it up and uses it. Just like knives can’t stab anyone unless someone picks them up and uses them as a weapon. In a fatal car crash resulting from drunk driving……who or what is at fault; the vehicle or the driver?

The flaw in all the arguments for banning private gun ownership is that somehow by taking away this right, everything will be just peachy. It won’t be. The same individuals who are intent on inflicting injury or death to others will simply find some other means of getting the job done. People are the real threat……not the weapons they choose. Taking away the right to own guns does not and will not reduce that threat.

When the Bill of Rights was assembled, the second most important issue to the founders was this right to keep and bear arms. Of all the other rights enumerated, this was paramount in establishing a free society. They also knew that it is only when government has worked secretly against its own people they become afraid of them and seek to disarm them.

The 2^nd Amendment is the lynch pin of our freedom. As a nation we identify ourselves as free people by virtue of the fact that we can keep and bear arms if we choose to. And it is exactly this reason that so many want to see it repealed. The loss of this right would be psychologically devastating as so many would see it for what it is…..the true end of our freedom.

Right now the major source for attacks on the 2^nd Amendment, are being directed through the United Nations. Yesterday, Senator Obama put a bill on the floor of the senate called the Global Poverty Act. This act would mandate not only a 7% tax on our GDP, but also calls for the banning of small arms. Small arms and weapons includes, hunting rifles and shotguns, not just handguns.

Attacks on the 2^nd Amendment have come from all quarters. The efforts to paint it as “all liberals want to ban guns, and all conservatives don’t” is just more staging. The fact is, our government wants us disarmed; its just that no one wants to be seen as the perpetrator of this unconstitutional infringement on our rights.

Using the UN to implement the disarming of America also makes us vulnerable to international law as opposed to our own sovereign laws. International law does not recognize the right of the individual to defend himself, claiming that to do so is a crime in its self.

The UN also claims that this ban is necessary to protect women and children, and those who wish to commit suicide. This would be the same UN that sits by idly while hundreds of thousands die as a result of genocide. Where are there concerns about women and children and the suicidal then?

The real aim of the Global Poverty Act and its intent to disarm America is to make sure that we have no way to fight back. And as Americans, we most likely would.

For those who disagree with this, don’t worry about it. Once the North American Union is established we won’t have any rights at all, much less the 2^nd Amendment. One of the first things that will be done after the merger is complete is to abolish the bill of rights and then to disarm the public….. leaving you completely at the mercy of the military and local law enforcement.

Marti Oakley

copyright 2008