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Archive for the ‘political’ Category

I heard on the news last night that the DNC has taken out an ad calling Americans dissatisfied with the government “angry mobs”.   Apparently, if you disagree with what comes out of Washington, you have no right to protest.

Pardon me, but the last time I checked, America WAS still a free country.

Has it ever occurred to these people that folks are MAD?

I know in our own community, there is an overwhelming sense of frustration at our elected officials for not listening to their constituents.  People are tired of having bailouts, handouts, stimulus, and everything else shoved down their throats and told they have to like it.

Funny that when Bush was in office and people protested his policies, it was a different story.  At that time, they were just “peaceful protests”.  It appears we have a double standard on our hands.

The DNC claims that the Republicans have paid people to go to these town hall meetings and shout, yell, or otherwise be disruptive.

I am not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat, so take that for what it’s worth.  I consider myself an Independent.  The Republican party has not paid me to feel the way I do, and I happen to AGREE with what people are saying in these town hall meetings.

More often than not, I find myself yelling at the television over the stupidity coming out of Washington.

My personal opinion is that folks in Washington are so out of touch with middle class, mainstream Americans, they have no idea why we should be upset.  They claim they are doing what they are for “the good of the people”.

Hogwash.

Ask your representative what laws we have that give them the right to force these policies on us.  Ask them if they are willing to go on the national health plan they are proposing.  Ask them if they can live on what the average national salary is and live in a home that is on the national average as well.

They aren’t willing to do any of that.

That’s the point.

They want to tell us how to live, but are not willing to abide by the same rules themselves.

And this new Cash for Clunkers plan?  What are they going to do when folks start defaulting on these loans they’ve taken out?  This is a BILLION DOLLARS of our tax money being spent on this program.

How higher does the deficit have to go before it is enough?

The bottom line is this – people are frustrated.  Many of them have lost jobs.  Many are facing homelessness.  Most of us have lost something in this economic downturn.

We are tired of Wall Street executives getting OUTRAGEOUS bonuses with our tax dollars for a job they have NOT done well.

We are tired of Senators buying new airplanes for themselves because they don’t want to fly coach with everyone else.

We are tired of  “too big to fail” when regular businesses who make bad decisions are forced to close or go into bankruptcy.

We are tired of flooding our representatives phone lines begging them not to vote for things only to be told they will vote “for what seems best to them”.

In short, we are tired.

We are tired of not being listened to.  We are tired of being told that this administration “inherited the problem”.  Sorry folks – unemployment is worse now than it was in January.  It is officially your baby – you rock it.

We are frustrated.

We are average people.

We are all races, creeds, and colors.

Daring to speak out against what we know is wrong?

What did you really expect?

People can only be pushed so far before they start to push back.

Elections are coming in 2010.

I will personally vote for ANY candidate other than who our current incumbants are, just to get them out of office.

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As in, have we hit bottom yet?  I don’t think so based on lots of late night, bleary-eyed searches on the internet.  I heard this morning on the news that GM will need another $70 BILLION dollars in help before this is all said and done.

At what point is it enough?

I’ve been pondering a post about this for a while.  Granted, this is a layman’s point of view – I am not an economist, nor do I play one on tv, but I do pay attention to what’s going on in the world around me.

I realize there are a lot of factors at work here leading up to the economic mess we are in today.  However, there was a tipping point last year that was very clear from my perspective – the point at which consumers literally came to a crossroads and had to make some tough decisions.

What was that tipping point?  Gas prices.

When gas prices rose to almost $4 a gallon (and higher in some parts of the country), consumers literally had to decide between paying their mortgages and putting gas in their vehicles and food on their tables.  I know it put a serious dent in our budget, along with everyone else we know.

At that same time, food prices started rising, and have never come back down.  Gas eventually fell lower than I thought I’d ever see again in my lifetime, but food prices are continuing to go up.  More on that in a minute.

Now this isn’t rocket science – everyone can see when a family is stretched thin financially, it doesn’t take much for the house of cards to come tumbling down.  As people struggled to pay for food and gas, slipped behind on their mortgage payments and other bills, it publicly unearthed some very serious flaws with our financial system here in the US.

People borrowed money to pay for houses and cars they knew they couldn’t afford.  Greedy bankers eagerly loaned them the money knowing they wouldn’t be able to make the payments.  Some of the older folks have a saying for this – it’s called, “where two fools met.”  Banks did unspeakable things with volatile  loans – packaging them into bundles and selling them off to other companies, knowing it was just a matter of time before it all came to a head.

But there is a bigger problem at work here.  Corruption on levels previously unheard of within our political AND economic system.  Congressmen have their fingers in this mess, are hugely responsible for what has happened, yet they try to blame the companies when THEY are the ones who voted for deregulation, bailouts, and lots of sweet perks while patting themselves on the back for what a good job they did.

All of this “bailout” money that was supposed to solve our financial problems hasn’t done a thing – I can’t tell anything is any better, can you?  Companies are still laying off, people are still losing their homes, and families are still struggling to make ends meet.  People who have worked hard all of their lives for what they have are losing everything they own.  Yet the government is still printing money left and right, and guess who’s paying for all of these corporate bailouts?  Yep – the American taxpayers.

As previously mentioned, food prices continue to rise, and there is every indication they will continue to do so.  We have fewer and fewer farmers every year.  We are importing food at a never seen before rate, and are rapidly descending into a deeper abyss than ever imagined.

We personally know many families where someone has been laid off.  My husband is still working (thankfully), but his hours have been cut due to the slowdown.  If it hasn’t hit your home yet, be thankful – it’s a matter of time before it does.

An elder at our church told me recently that I had “lived the best years of my life already”.  It was a sobering statement.  I agree with him completely – I cannot see any way things will right themselves within my lifetime.

I encourage you to vote with your feet if you live in a state where they are continuing to pile on more taxes.  There are 50 states in this Union, and there are surely other places to live where freedom to use your money as YOU see fit still exists.   VOTE THEM OUT when the 2010 elections come up.

Our freedoms are not free – they have been bought with a price.  Our very way of life is at stake.

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Are you tired of what’s been happening in Washington and Wall Street?  Sick of seeing trillions of our tax dollars being wasted frivolously?  Concerned about what this financial mess bodes for future generations? Tired of contacting your representatives and getting the standard canned response?  Fed up with your representatives not representing your opinions and values?  Then stand up and make a difference!  There are Tea Parties scheduled all across our nation on April 15th.

To find a Tea Party near you, here’s a couple of links:

http://taxdayteaparty.com/

http://www.the912project.com

Also check out:  VoteThemOutIn2010.com

I realize I am a small fish in a big pond, but there are a LOT of small fish who feel the same way I do.  This is not a Democrat/Republican issue – I feel BOTH sides are to blame.  There should be term limits on our Congressional Representatives – some of them have made lifetime careers out of their political seats.

It’s time for new faces in Washington!

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