Monday, October 11, 2010

Kirk and Giannoulias are en embarrassment

These thoughts are mine. They may be shared by many but I am speaking for myself. If you are offended, it was not intentional. If you continually get offended by my positions and opinions, you should change, I doubt I will.
October 11, 2010

I think it was in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. I guess he had nothing else to do. The Catholic Church sure wasn’t for this. It did not want another trade route to the Orient. It also didn’t want people to find the end of the earth, which was where Hell was. It might be better than what the Church was offering.

Thank God for the first quarter. The Bears are only capable of playing hard for fifteen minutes. I can see why Carolina is winless this season. They all count though. Go Bears!

It was embarrassing watching Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias “debate” on Meet the Press Sunday. It was a perfect example of what is wrong with politics today. Neither of them answered any question directly. They both sat there and called each other liars, cheats, out of touch and the problem. Giannoulias kept justifying the collapse of his family’s bank by saying it was no different than other failed banks. Sounds like the ‘Blago’ defense. It is OK because others do it too. He was asked over four times if he knew his bank was loaning money to gangsters, convicted felons and influence peddlers. His response was he didn’t know the extent of their criminal activities.

Kirk justified his lying about his military record by repeating he ‘wrongly misspoke’. Apparently he was not sure if he was under enemy fire or what war zone he was in. He was not sure what awards he did not receive. He was not sure if he was in charge of the ‘War Room’. That is nice, we have people who could be in charge but aren’t sure if they are in charge. That gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling of confidence in my government.

I have never seen a politician who has not said he/she would;

1.      Cut spending
2.      Lower taxes
3.      Create jobs
4.      Improve medical care
5.      Fix the welfare system
6.      Be independent
7.      Make a difference
I have also never seen a politician who had a real plan to accomplish any of these great ideas. Politicians lie about themselves in a positive manner, lie about their opponent in a negative manner, promise everybody everything, never give the details of any plan they talk about, raise money, distance themselves from old friends who are no longer popular, get involved in current stories they know nothing about in order to get positive publicity, talk to people they would cross the street to avoid before and after the election season, hire friends and relatives to high paying, short-term jobs working for the campaign and hire a spin doctor to feed dribble to the public after the candidate gets caught in a lie. If they win, they go to Washington DC, screw things up, come back twice a year with a big check for a photo op., make inaccurate claims about their accomplishments, if things are going badly, they blame their opponent or the other party and then start running for the next election.
Two year terms are too short for US Representatives. They are always working on keeping their job rather than doing their job. An Amendment to the Constitution should be drafted that changes a representatives term to four years with a two term limit. Campaigning should be illegal until forty days before the election. Fund raising should not be allowed until four months before the election. Lying during a campaign should be a crime. Every State should have the same right to recall an elected National politician by calling for a special election within sixty days if they get fifteen per cent of registered voters to sign a petition.

Something has to be done to the current system that is not working and results in the election of criminal, ignorant people and liars. Some offices would be better empty than filled by the morons we regularly elect. My thoughts may sound wrong or way out there but we have to do something. I am willing to consider any ideas.


BRUCE A. BRENNAN