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No. 13 — June 20, 2009

No. 14 – July 4, 2009

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8 Responses to “Special Edition – June 28, 2009”

• Doc Dolan Says:

  Kudos John!

  I am glad there is more than just me out there thinking, and asking, the very same things. In my last term at college I had to “write a new amendment” to the Constitution, with supporting arguments. Most of what you wrote about were exactly the things my “new amendment” cured. The prof was suitably impressed, but he stated … “and do you EVER think something like this would get passed into law?” My answer of course, “no, sadly, as the politicians will NEVER let it happen. They have become just too powerful.”

  July 1st, 2009 at 8:58 pm

• Gerrit Kuiken Says:

  I congratulate guest writer – John Hanrahan – and might comment at a later time about some of his points – but I do want to bring attention to what is a common misconception regarding Congressional Salaries/retirements as he stated:

  “Rules like retirement that is their own creation that gives them the ability to retire after a term in office with full salary for the rest of their lives.”

  This statement is simply untrue – probably owing to the false emails that have been circulating around the Internet for years. Congress does pay into social security & yes, they do have a retirement system they also pay into. The amount of federal retirement they receive is based upon how long they served, how much they paid in, etc and which system they are enrolled in when they became a congress person, the older Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the newer Federal Employment Retirement System ( FERS) .

  As of 1998, the average annuities for retired congress members was $50,616 under CSRS and $46,908 for those that retired under FERS. It would be the rare congress person that would receive anywhere near their full salary (total retirement restricted to 80% of their active pay) who may have been elected while relatively young – served for perhaps 25 years and then lived to a very ripe old age – might get up to a million or so in pensions – but that’s not typical – if you are interested in seeing more detail about congressional retirements – see:

  http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp

  I agree that there should be term limits of two 6 year terms for Senators and six 2 year terms for Representatives. But that also has a unintended down side – that by limiting congress person’s longevity – with more frequent turn-over – you lose a lot of corporate memory – so legislation that was proposed in the past, didn’t work and was corrected – is more likely to be repeated over and over again. Also – when you limit terms – the bureaucrats who serve on congressional staffs become even more powerful – cuz they aren’t term limited and would have much more influence over inexperienced legislators – ditto, permanent civil service employees in all the agencies, would have the advantage over having inexperienced legislators who are supposed to be overseeing them, but don’t have the experience to even know what it is they should be looking for!

  The old saying, be careful what you wish for – you might get it. Term limits isn’t all positive and no down side! There are disadvantages to having frequent turnover in congress as I have pointed out and there are other problems as well – which will probably be pointed out by others.

  An idea I would favor – would be to change the number of allowed representatives per state – based on a fixed number of voters – such as one representative allowed per 550.000 people. Smaller states would end up with only one Representative, as is now the case – but would continue with 2 Senators. But the more populated states would end up with more representatives – and the total number of representatives would increase by perhaps 1/3 from the present 438 to somewhere around 583 representatives.

  The effect of this change would be that each representative would have a smaller physical district/number of people to cover and might be closer to his constituency And the voters would know their rep and tend to hold him/her accountable. . In the larger populated states, typically, representatives are now representing around 750,000 people.
  Under the new numbers formula (one representative per 550,000 persons) – California, the most populated state (Jul – 2008) with 36.7 million people would go from their present 53 representatives to 66 representatives. Washington State would go from the present 9 representatives to 11.

  Also – this new ratio of voters per representative would tend to lessen the disparity in the present Electoral College where the smaller states have more Senators/Representatives per capita then the more populated states and therefore more clout.

  I think it is ridiculous that at some point – the total number of Representatives was fixed at 435 (with 3 for the D.C.) and hasn’t been increased to keep pace with the increasing population.

  At an earlier point in time in our nation’s history – each representative represented a much smaller number of people – but with the expanding population – are finding themselves with larger and larger districts/voters and therefore – they are not able to get around to every area of their districts – ever more remote.

  We in the far N.W. Washington – only see our U.S. Representative, Rick Larsen up this way a couple times a year as he is headquartered further south and represents parts of 4 counties! With the number voters per representative fixed to some number, such as 550,000 people (the number represented at present in the smaller states such as Wyoming), the total number of representatives would increase at the same rate as the population increase – so that they would represent the same number of voters irrespective of the total U.S. population. And be closer to their people. Comments?

  July 2nd, 2009 at 12:37 am

• Doc Dolan Says:

  Sorry Gerrit,

  The LAST thing we need right now is MORE LIBERAL POLITICIANS!

  IMHO – there should be FAR LESS politicians than we have now. In this day and age of high technology, fast travel and even faster communications, a politician is now able to communicate both ways with his or her people, rapidly and effectively. Most don’t. Most won’t, lest we find out what they are really up to! We don’t need more politicians that won’t communicate with us anyway! We need less of them!

  The several states are supposed to be sovereign states, not federal funding tools. To grant federal representation in the House strictly on raw population would give too much of an influence to certain areas of the country where massive breeding and collecting welfare (while they work off the books) are the two major concerns of life – places that almost exclusively elect Democratic Liberals! I suggest you read Constitutional history surrounding what went on with the writing of the original document and how it actually came to be how it is written – and WHY. So instead of curing what ails our government it would only exacerbate the problem and make it even worse! Your example of CA gaining seats verifies my position exactly. The CA liberals are already far too powerful in national government, and you want to give them MORE power? Hello!

  The illegal Mexicans are already voting in uncontrolled hordes, and they are 100% supportive of the democratic liberals who give them everything for free, thanks to groups like ACORN and LaRaza – who tell them exactly how to accomplish that task and how to avoid prosecution and prolong deportation if caught. CA has openly admitted it knows about it, but is powerless to stop it short of mass arrests and deportation, which according to the liberal rules is now illegal – the illegal’s “have rights”! AND those who wish to deport them fast are mostly prohibited by too many groups like LaRaza from being able to do that with any kind of efficiency! As a nation, how very stupid and wasteful of MY and YOUR tax dollars, is it to catch someone in a crime – support them for the next 10 to 30 years (better than most have ever lived before and at taxpayer expense of course) and THEN deport them? I say as soon as they are arrested, and found to be illegal, deport them – fast! No trial, no appeals, no nothing – ship them out! They ARE NOT CITIZENS AND AS ILLEGALS THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS UNDER OUR LAWS! Period! If they wish to benefit from the rights of American Citizens then they must become a citizen legally – BEFORE they get the rights!

  Putting it more bluntly and laying down an example that is a bit closer to home …

  How would you feel if I broke into your house, ate your food, showered in your shower, partied in your yard, used your BBQ, used your laundry and slept in your bed? All without asking to become, or being accepted as, a member of your family? When you caught me doing it I said “Its OK man, I am here and you have to treat me as a full member of your family, because I got inside your house while you weren’t looking, I have the same rights as your sons, daughters and wife. There’s nothing you can do about it either. If you don’t let me stay and benefit from your work, just like a full member of your family, I’ll scream discrimination and continue to live in your house, eat your food, sleep in your bed, all while my free lawyers fight those that you have to pay for, to get me out of YOUR HOUSE! This is America and I have rights!” You would be mad as hell and just a bit upset right? RIGHTLY SO! Guess what? They are doing that on a NATIONAL LEVEL and our liberals are letting and even HELPING them do it! And you think we need MORE LIBERALS? How very blind you are. Wake up and smell the coffee – or learn Spanish, you’ll need it soon if you live in the southwest!

  Funny how already in the west and southwest 80% of ALL mid-level managerial positions REQUIRE YOU, an American Citizen, to be bi-lingual in Spanish to even apply for the job! Does this strike anyone besides me as a bit odd? We don’t even force the illegals to learn our language in order to allow them to rip us off!

  During a ‘gab session’ right before I recently graduated from college I overheard a conversation at the next table over in the break area. A very nice looking woman was telling her friends “I got three partial scholarships and a Pell Grant with a phony social security card, because we are on welfare and unable to work. She admitted she was Guatemalan and had come here illegally through Mexico 15 years ago. She drove a brand new Dodge Charger to school, except on the days she brought her hubby’s full size Hummer. She told her friends that “At my house we speak Spanish – that is all I teach my kids, if ‘they’ want them to learn English, ‘they’ will teach them at school – I am not going to. In a few years [her and her husband] will have made enough money that [they] will go back to Guatemala with their new college degrees and belongings and live like kings for the rest of their lives – all paid for by the US Taxpayers! Needless to say – I turned her in. Last I heard her and hubby were in an ICE detention facility and ‘fighting’ their illegal deportation procedings. The school rescinded all the degrees they had already received – they had been what are called ‘professional students’ for many years taking every course and degree program they could. I was also told they were both arrested for numerous counts of federal and state fraud, which means the taxpayers are now going to support the entire family for the foreseeable future – but at least they got caught! The saddest thing is they are NOT unique!

  UNTIL WE STOP THEM it is only going to continue. You and I are going to continue to pay for it as well. The Liberal Democrats and yes, many Republicans as well, are seeing to it that we have to. The only way to fix it is to get them ALL out of office and put in those people who WILL LISTEN to the real American people and cure it, before it is too late!

  July 4th, 2009 at 9:25 am

• John Says:

  As far as term limits, it is important that we the poeple have an opportunity to turn over the population in Congress. Those old boys who have seniority and position seem to run things and put the squeeze on the other guys if they don’t want to play according to THEIR rules. Until other voters make a change, our representatives are not working for use all time. Term limits would help make a change we cannot. After all, the congress is not a profession, its a convention of representatives that are there for the best interest of poeple, not the coporate America.

  Congressional retirement is far better than what I get and I never had a break in service. My dad had his SS benefit based on the last quarters he worked, which were very few since his boss did not keep him working all year. Also, he was a hard working painter, but when it came to hiring a another trademen he worked with every day, he had to pay 2x the salary he made.

  More representatives, wow, a new idea; but also added overhead to our budget to pay for these guys and their perks, less govenment, and representatives working for the people, that’s what we need.

  You say you see your representative only a fee times a year. So what is new, I never see mine and he has less territory than Mr. Larson. However, he has email, phone numbers, a district office, how come you don’t use those avenues of communication. After all, your taxes are paying for them!!

  Hang in there Doc, maybe someday, someway, somehow, we may see changes. But not until people learn to use the vote and take a chance on a rebel in office. We need a new party, or a third one to imbalance the current activities.

  July 5th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

• Doc Dolan Says:

  John,

  A third party is a good diea. Unfortunately I have visions of the third party kind of being like a Soldier stepping in between a Sailor and a Marine who are fighting. All of a sudden (for those that have not experienced it first hand) the Sailor and Marine are thumping on the Soldeir until he is beaten down, then they go right back to their own fight!

  I think the only way we will see any change at all is if the people get together and REMOVE between 70% and 80% of the incumbents, state and federal. Elect NON-Politicians and put the fear of the people in those that are left! Then and only then do we have half a chance of saving our nation. If we don’t, sooner or later, there will be anarchy and revolt. Sad but true. As Sean Connery said in The Hunt For Red October ..”a little revolution now and then is a good thing, no?” History and many historians have been telling us we are about due. I hope it does not come to that, I would like to think Americans are really better than that in this day and age, but with this administration in charge … I just don’t know anymore.

  July 7th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

• John Says:

  Doc:
  With a third party, there is another faction in the fight, the people. Maybe if the other two start betting on the other one, the people may (MAY) use their vote and vote in that third party which they would make them think about thier stategy. What would happen if those other two would take a moment to stategize against the third party and then one of them win, now who has to work together? We had a chance once, but the leader did not let it go the right way, then another stepped and screwed up the whole thing, now it is gone because people didn’t fight. What if all the other existing parties banned together to make one party. There are all kinds of scenarios and it just takes a leader to follow through to help make a change. People just are not smart enough to take a chance, they listen to the orator and good feeling goose bumps and go for it. They just don’t know how to vote for a rebal once in while. After all, California went with Arnold, and we are still in debt. Oh well, what do we know, we are just another American who can’t get past those who are not willing to change and take a chance. Let’s elect Palin and vote out all the Congresional incumbents and see what happens. Between the Arabs, Chinese, wild Koreans, sneaking Russians, we just cannot have peace as they just will not sit at home and take care of their own. We need to rid of the bullies, maybe that would change the elections here in America.

  July 8th, 2009 at 1:04 am

• Doc Dolan Says:

  John,
  You hit the nail on the head! Unfortunately, as I have been finding out and seeing FOR YEARS people are so involved with themselves and their own lives, they just won’t take the time or make ANY effort to effect any change because “it doesn’t affect me”. I have been fighting that attitude here in Nevada for years and years, starting with the helmet law repeal in our state – 11 years ago. Almost NO ONE would even bother to make a 1 minute FREE phone call to get our bill passed! Even bikers! They just would not “see” that it was NOT ABOUT THE GOOD OR BAD OF HELMETS – it was about another of our freedoms being taken away as logical adults! Even after explaining it to them as “their basic rights as Americans being legislated” … I got answers like “I don’t ride, so it doesn’t matter” or ” I like helmets”. They just didn’t give a damn unless it was taking the personal rights to something they did or liked to do. Until then, it just didn’t matter! If we could ACTUALLY GET A FEW MILLION PEOPLE INTERESTED it would work! However, they would have to know and be ready for attacks from BOTH political parties, because they would be afraid of losing their power and BOTH would pull out all the stops to “shut down the upstarts”! Every time it has been tried – people were NOT ready to do what needed to be done – against ALL opponents! Until they are … it won’t work! I would back something like that emphatically! Unfortunately, in relation to national census numbers, I am almost alone! A million of us are still “alone” … only a major shift in the attitudes of MILLIONS will it be accomplished. I see our chances better at ‘forcing the Republican/Conservatives (NOT the Neo’s) to do what we need. They already have the infrastructure to accomplish it.

  July 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am

• Doc Dolan Says:

  John,

  FYI … see the Telegragh – Issue 9 – Comments section, for the text of my college paper on the Loss of Personal Freedom.

  Doc

  July 9th, 2009 at 11:46 am