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Recent comments by Indiana Senator Evan Bayh are proof of what we already know, Washington (and Harrisburg) are cesspools of partisanship and massive government bloat, waste and mismanagement. He admits that for the most part, Congress is ineffective and spends its time between political bickering and campaigning for re-election. We should be impressed by his candor and forthrightness in verbalizing those thoughts. His comments since announcing he will not seek re-election, are refreshingly blunt. You know things are falling apart when the insiders are this disgusted. Yet we the voters continue to fiddle while America burns, content to reelect the same career politicians over and over again. Isn't it logical to assume that if some of these career hacks have been in Congress 30, 40 or even 50 years and things are this screwed up, that they are the problem and not the solution? If Bayh is correct it should come as no surprise that things are as mismanaged as they are. In the upcoming election we need to "retire" as many of these incumbent politicians as possible , since most don't know how to step away gracefully on their own. If you still need a reason, think of it as helping an addict kick his habit. It's something you can feel good about.
Hey, maybe it's time we admit we aren't as great as we think? It's easy to say you're great but, are we really? Many blowhard politicians like to say it but, as we know, they like to say a lot of things that sound good but, aren't accurate. Now this isn't to say there aren't any great Americans or that America hasn't accomplished great things throughout her history but it's necessary to consider the big picture. Sadly, looking at the big picture means considering in your evaluation the last 40 years of monumental decline in our nation. This slippage includes areas like education, economic power, increased crime and violence and the destruction of family. In fact if you think about it for a minute we are pretty average. at best. Here are some examples that might make one rethink how we perceive our nation's strength and importance in the world. These rankings come from http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com.
America ranks 15th out of 30 in college and university graduation rates with 36.5% completing their degrees. We cocky Americans like to think we are smarter than everyone else but, in this category Iceland is first at 63.1% We aren't even in the top ten on this one.
In employment growth rates we come out as 26th out of 30. This isn't very encouraging for our economy and shows these politicians are not giving us jobs, as they promise, but rather , "jobbing us."
In terms of reading we are a dismal 18th. Enough said here. It is startling to note that we great Americans rank 49th in Life Expectancy behind such countries as Singapore, Macau and Andorra. Wow, shove that in your pipe and smoke it. All our technology and medical marvels can't buy us a longer life than a Singaporian (sic) or a Macauan (sic), pretty sad.
Regarding satisfaction in family life we rank 9th at 89%, trailing India at 96%. America ranks 18th in freedom from corruption, 15th in Broadband access, 24th in Press Freedom......WHAT? Doesn't everybody always refer to the First Amendment? How in the h*ll can we be 24th in Press Freedom? If this on doesn't put a knot in your bonnet, nothing will.
Okay now not to beat a dead horse here but you get the idea. In fairness, there are many categories in which we rank quite high but the point is we aren't number one in everything like so many arrogant Americans believe. In fact in many categories, we are far from it.
Unfortunately, only a few decades ago we were much higher up on most if not all of these categories but our rapid cultural decline in the last 40 or so, has without question, diminished us greatly.
I don't believe we can begin to rebuild our greatness until we take a long and impartial look in the mirror, and get off the high horse regarding how we view ourselves. It's evident we aren't going to get the truth from the politicians, since giving us that might make them look bad. Looking too long at career politicians like Arlen Specter, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, John McCain, or any others like them who have "served" us for so long, might make us realize that we have been played by these guys and their ilk. If they had truly been doing their jobs and cared about the country, instead of focusing on partisan and localized politics, and keeping themselves in power for decades, perhaps America would be a lot better off. We need to recognize we are on the downside of the mountain in regards to America's greatness and we need to do something about it sooner rather than later.
Well, Primary Day is behind us and it appears encouraging that some housecleaning has been done by the voters. Particularly here in PA as the Democrats "dumped" Single Bullet Specter. Looks like that missile took one too many turns. Joe Sestak who was nominated by the Democrats appears to sound like a different kind of politician. (But hey don't they all when they are running) I'm going to withhold opinion on him until I have more opportunity to check him out. He will be running against the Republican Pat Toomey another guy I've got to investigate more closely. As an Independent voter in PA, where we have a closed primary (which really sucks), I am not able to vote for anyone in May but I will certainly be involved come November. At this point I'm thinking "anyone" is better than what we have now. Specter, was a political opportunist, who changed his party affiliation only because he knew the Republicans were not going to nominate him. Geez, the guy is 80 years old, has had every major medical malady know to man and yet he want to go back to DC for six more years. Really Arlen, it's time to go out to the pasture and smell the cow chips. The lifetime politicians just don't know when enough is enough. I don't care how many wonderful things you did in your career, it's time to move on. How many of these drooling, diaper wearing old farts do we need in Congress? After 30 years of your guiding the ship of state our country should be Nirvana by now. Is it? I don't think so!
What gets me is how some of my fellow citizens can vote for some of the clowns they do. People like Bill DeWeese, an indicted State Rep gets the nomination and Murtha Stooge, Mark Critz is able to win out as well. I'm sure the people of the Johnstown PA area are so addicted to the pork that Murtha brought in, that they are just hoping this lapdog can do the same thing. Everyone bitches about wasteful spending unless the waste is spent in their area, then, I guess it's OK? Greedy localized self interest trumps caring about the country and the Constitution. Well we all know that once the November election is over the cycle will repeat itself again. The politicians will go back to 'F**king us over again. Everyone will have a job as promised, taxes will be significantly lowered and we will all live happily ever after. Yeah right, in your dreams!
Well it appears 30 years of serving us is not enough for Arlen Specter. Specter is running again for another term and my question is WHY? I'm trying to figure out what compels a person to get elected to an office to serve the public and then NEVER want to leave. Specter is not alone in doing this sort of thing but what makes him different is his level of desperation in trying to hold on to his power forever. He is so desperate that he changed his party affiliation to Democratic, in order to avoid being defeated in the Republican Primary in PA. What makes a person think that they are doing such a great job and that no one else is capable of doing the same thing, namely, serving the public.
In my humble opinion, these career politicians are ruining the country. The Founding Fathers never intended to establish a system were a person would hold such power for 30 or 40 years. Our country was founded on the principle that a King ruling over his subjects like a dictator was a terrible idea. Even George Washington voluntarily left the office of President after two terms, establishing a precedent that lasted until Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940's. Yet, lifetime politicians like Specter don't get the hint and leave after a couple or three terms, he wants to be there till he dies. In this respect he is just like Ted Kennedy, Strom Thurmond or even John Murtha in his unwillingness to serve for a period of time and then leave. In fact in Murtha's case it took a bad surgical experience to retire him, otherwise he would have never left either. The only solution is term limits and don't look for that to ever happen since the politicians must put that restriction on themselves. We already know they will never do anything to threaten their stranglehold on power.
Recent reports indicate that the wife of John Murtha is being considered as a replacement for the long time Congressman.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10043/1035443-84.stm
What? Why? You have to be kidding. What makes her qualified? This shows how pathetic these political parties are. It's not about finding the best and most qualified replacement. No, it's about getting a familiar name out there on the ballot to insure they can keep the gravy train going. She may well be a nice lady and a great wife but, that in itself is not a reason to put her in such an important position. She slept with the guy and had his children but none of that matters in the course of being a top notch political representative. All the greed mongers in the Johnstown Democratic Machine want to do is have a Murtha in Congress. For god sake the lady just lost her husband and now there are those that want to, for selfish reasons, push her in to political office.
I know this sort of thing has happened before but regardless of which party it is, it is a stupidly ridiculous idea. How about we look for qualified candidates and urge them to run and not try to pass on a political office as if it were some form of noble title to be kept and passed on within a family. Haven't we had enough bad examples of this in our history? Power and influence passed on within a family for generations (aka Kennedys) flies directly in the face of the principles our nation was founded upon.
My guess is the weak minded people of Murtha's district will be glad to have her, as long as she can keep the massive pork coming.
John Murtha made no effort to hide his shameless work of bringing hundreds of millions of dollars of pork projects into his Johnstown area district . His claim that if he didn't take it, it would go elsewhere may have been true but, it shows a fundamental weakness in how our government operates in the modern era. Instead of looking at things from a national perspective, is it good for America, politicians like Murtha only think about their own local region. With all or most Congressmen thinking this way, it is no wonder our nation is in trouble. Building airports and roads and billion dollar underground tunnels (Pittsburgh) where they are not really needed is a national economic disaster in the making. The idea that funding any project you can get whether we need it or not, is putting another nail in our nations coffin.
