>545 vs 300,000,000 > > EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS >JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY >THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE. > >Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.
Well he'll just have to keep on doing it until he gets it right. :-) Only he won't because he retired around that time, keyhole vision intact. (The article date is September 29, 2008, a month before the election.) This piece is a red herring. Plenty of people like to see it that way, but it's a dead end view. "Vote all of them out of office"? Er, didn't you just do that? >Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and >then campaign against them.. Not so, it's a common tactic when you get Wall Street on one side of the coin and Madison Avenue on the other. Eg, for a current example with a bit of history to it, the posts we've had here about industrial agriculture, bird flu, Tysons et al, swine flu, Smithfields et al, Tamiflu, scare-mongering, vaccines, Novartis, fake persuaders, etc etc. Creating problems and then campaigning against them is more or less what Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" is all about, it's just business as usual. That gets closer to real causes than Reese does. Reese focuses on a symptom, his politicians are just prostitutes, not the paymasters. Global warming denier Senator James M. Inhofe, for instance, "voted in favor of big oil companies on 100% of important oil-related bills from 2005-2007, according to Oil Change International." <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_M._Inhofe#Climate_change> But would he have managed to keep his Senate seat if he'd voted any other way? How much progress has been made with campaign finance reform since Granny D walked across America in 1999? <http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg27750.html> As against, say, the bail-out trillions? <snip> >... I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in >cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. That simple, just say no. Especially if it's the President, one might think. From the horse's mouth: >... However, I think that overall Carter was closer to a decent >human being than any post-World War Two president. In 1978 he >invited 1960s anti-war activist and leader of Students for a >Democratic Society (SDS), Tom Hayden, to the White House. (Think >George W inviting Michael Moore.) As recounted by Hayden, in their >private conversation he said to Carter: "You are the elected >President of the United States, yet I'm concerned that you have less >power than the chairmen of the boards of the large multinational >corporations -- men we don't elect or even know." > >"After looking pensively out the Oval Office window, President >Carter nodded and said, 'I believe that's right. I've learned that >these last 12 months'." [16] > >[16] San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 1978 -- The Anti-Empire Report, William Blum, February 3, 2007 <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer42.htm> Wall Street on one side of the coin and the White House on the other. The only surprising thing about it is that he said it. Wrong 545 people, Charley, sorry about that. And they're not people. Best Keith >545 PEOPLE >By Charlie Reese > >Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems >and then campaign against them.. > >Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans >are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? > >Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against >inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? > >You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. > >You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on >appropriations. The House of Representatives does. > >You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.. > >You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. > >You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does. > >One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine >Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 >million are directly, legally, morally, and individually >responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. > >I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that >problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated >its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally >chartered, but private, central bank. > >I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound >reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to >coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one > cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 >million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or >reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the >legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. > >Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you >that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this >common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a >normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal >human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and >criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president >can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept >it. > >The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole >responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and >approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the >House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority >party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve >any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it >over his veto if they agree to.. > >It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not >replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of >incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single >domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 >people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people >exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow >that what exists is what they want to exist. > >If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. > >If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red .. > >If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ. > >If they do not receive social security but are on an elite >retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want >it that way. > >There are no insoluble government problems. > >Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom >they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose >gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give >the power to regulate and from whom they can take this >power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that >there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," >"inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they >take an oath to do. > >Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. > >They, and they alone, have the power. > >They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who >are their bosses. > > Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... > > We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess! > > > > Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.. > >What you do with this article now that you have read it........... >Is up to you. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
