These are the times that try men's souls

“THESE are the times that try men's souls.” The rest of that quote is; “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.”
That quote from one of our founding fathers, Thomas Paine, in his writing, “The Crisis” which was the sequel to his writing of “Common Sense” is as apposite today as it was back in the winter of 1777-1778. They were written in Paine's pamphlet 'American Crisis' during the winter of Valley Forge as a way to encourage soldiers and the public to continue to fight in the Revolution despite the many severe hardships the war was putting everyone through. In these times we face different obstacles. They may not be as physical but are nonetheless trying. We must now continue the fight to get our country back from the Washington elite, the panjandrums of the beltway. They have lost sight of the fact that we sent them there to do our bidding. They work for us, we don’t have to step and fetch for them the way it has been for all together too many decades.

The second shot heard round the world was fired in Massachusetts once again since April 19th 1775.
That phrase is in the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" 1837, and describes the impact of the Battle at the Old North Bridge in Concord Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. Emerson wrote the "Concord Hymn" for the dedication of a battle monument very close to his family's home, and the words are meant to emphasize that a critical event happened at this location that triggered something of global importance. The entire stanza is: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled; Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

I figured since all the talking heads and mind numb politicians are spouting oh such wonderful platitudes, I should expand on their cherry picking of words and maybe fill in some of the gaps left by their liberal education. I’m sure most of them never research what they say. They just regurgitate what they are given and sit there looking so damn smart. How about they all get over themselves and do what they are supposed to be doing.

Now we find the people of Massachusetts have spoken for all of us with their vote and that speech would include the words, “We the People”. We must all do our part no matter how small to keep the momentum going to take back our country from the solons that have gone astray. These self aggrandizing self proclaimed doyens think it’s all about them. Do we need all the reform they are talking about? I’m sure some of it is necessary. Isn’t it just too bad that they don’t put as much effort into illegals entering the country, or the care of veterans, the homeless, etc. The strange thing is that a lot if not all of these problems plaguing our country can be solved with common sense and not just throwing piles of money at a problem. Case in point; the “war on poverty,” without going into too great detail suffice it to say the “war on poverty” is nearly 50 years old and has cost 7 trillion of our hard earn dollars and the outcome as we all know is depressing and has been basically ineffectual. So let’s see if we can’t persuade our representatives to use some common sense, take the time to actually read the bills and act accordingly. With our urging perhaps we can actually get them to do the right things.

The Washington shuffle

Splain this to me, will ya?

How is it that taking money out of the economy for let’s say, oh, maybe a stimulus package or something and then redistributing it to friends and payback schemes constitutes any kind of stimulus whatsoever? Shovel ready my butt. Hey how about all this wonderful transparency they banged on about during the campaign. It’s more like this; ok let’s blame Bush for all these ills and then while people are jumping up and down on that band wagon we can do twice as much in a negative way as ever the old administration did. Totally no transparency, more ear marks that anyone can even count, lobbyists coming out our ears, useless governmental programs galore, growth in bureaucracy that heretofore is unprecedented, the eroding of our freedoms at an alarming rate, how about them czars aye! Cool. (Sarcasm filter must be off)
I never thought that another administration could make the former look good (totally a figure of speech here) Compared to Obama, Bush was a piker, a neophyte, a tyro. Obama comes up with ways to screw the proletariat that are oh so slick and get the plebeian all excited about hope and change and then puts the boots to us in inventive ways the likes of which have only been seen in the most egregious of political arenas. (i.e. Chicago etc.)
Who would have ever thought anyone would be longing for the good old days when people took responsibility for their actions instead of playing the blame game. A time when we thought things were covert and spendthrift like, and we were mad because of the implementation of policies that in retrospect were not as nefarious as fist thought in comparison to today’s atmosphere. We find that case to be negligible compared to this take over and indebtedness heaped upon the quotidian masses.
Okay, let’s recap, no jobs, no increase in the cum by yah foreign policy, total secrecy, Gitmo fiasco, terrorism policy? Economy in the crapper, ear marks out the wazoo, czars the likes of which even mother Russia has never seen, healthcare that would be totally a boondoggle a quagmire,. How’s that hope and change working out so far? The only change I see is less freedom, more government involvement and the road to perdition. That may be pessimistic, but gees it’s just one thing after another. Cheats and sleaze everywhere you look in this administration. I’m not saying there aren’t a fair share in every administration, but this one is a shining star, the epitome to the corruption of politics.
How about all the takeovers and regulations on the private sector? Granted, some of the stuff sorely needed to be regulated, but then again that’s what Bush tried to do during his administration with the lending institutions to avoid just exactly what happened, but noooo! Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and their ilk put the kibosh to that something like three times. Had Bush been able to put those regulations on the banking and lending industries we would be in a much different position right now. The house of cards came tumbling down and it started with not being able to regulate the lending industry when it was needed.
When Regan was president we also had Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now Obama is the pres. and we have no hope and no cash.
Look guys we need to break this insane mold. We need to elect people who are out of the system and if we elect enough of them they can change it. If we only put in a token few, by the time they make all the deals they need to so they can get stuff done they will then be part of what we sent them there to abolish. I’m afraid it is time for another revolution, one of forthrightness and morals that will truly change the face of politics. We must start getting back to the original consept that our founders enacted. It’s to bad, we thought maybe Obama was going to do that. He talked the talk and still does, but there is no walking the walk that I can see. It appears he caved to the pressures of Washington and his party. We Independents are going to have to carry the day in up-coming elections and do the best we can to bring about real honest to goodness change. I’m waiting for a candidate that will say the hard things, the things that are not necessarily PC, but what is right for the country. One that will pay no attention to the politics as usual, one that will profile if need be. One that will really stop the lobbyists and earmarks not just pay lip service to the problems. One that will be serious about healthcare and let the private sector do its thing. One that will keep government out of our lives and make the hard decisions no matter what. Once again Obama talked the talk but didn't and isn't walking the walk. The person this country needs may or may not be out there. I haven’t heard of one that fits that bill, however I am ever hopeful as I once was about this administration.