LAWYERBRUCE: Nov 15, 2010

Monday, November 15, 2010

Politics; Let's get it right

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.

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

How about them Bears. The game I watched was very similar to a traditional NFL football game, with offense and defense. The Bears had too many penalties but they won.

I watch the talking heads on Sunday morning. If you do it right, you can watch ABC, FOX and then NBC. I sure miss Tim Russert. David Axelrod was on two of the shows. He and president Obama just don’t get it. Everybody knows the tax cuts are going to be extended at least until after the 2012 election, even Obama has hinted at this but his people will not commit to it. That is why nothing gets done. Both sides play games until some magical moment occurs, which is generally some obscure, meaningless event, and then they do what everybody knows is going to happen and what everybody wants. This obscure event allows them to spin it in their favor like they would never have agreed to the inevitable if it were not for this event.

Stop the games. Do your job or get the hell out of the way. If Congress were the crew on a ship, they would have two choices, fish or cut bait. It is a lot better to fish. So, Congress, fish or cut bait. You are not serving the people, rather you are self-serving.

I respect most politicians. It is not easy to run for office. It is rare when a politician has never lost an election. The candidate stands up for a position, under goes intense scrutiny and even the winners have nearly one-half of the voters vote against them. I have never run for office but I complain about those that do but I truly have a respect for the person who at least tries. The politicians do not usually begin their careers as incompetent hacks, most of them just become that way once they are in the club and see how it works.

Unfortunately, the way I see it, from the outside, it doesn’t work. Change is hard to bring about. It is nearly impossible for the lone shining star leading the way. Discouragement sets in and the do-gooder accepts the status quo rather than continue to pound his/her head against the stone wall of establishment.

The voters made a good start two weeks ago by voting over half of the incumbents out of office. I hope this train, now rolling down the tracks, does not lose steam or find a hill too steep to climb. The news this week about budget reduction is a good start. It will be a hard pill to swallow but it is good medicine. I hope the politicians do not strip it of its teeth and then claim victory. Let the world defend itself. Let the intentionally poor and unfortunate suffer with the rest. Let Israel join the majority and quit cashing that persecution check. Let’s pay the extra gas tax, if it is used to build better roads and bridges, thereby putting people to work. Let’s quit borrowing money to send it overseas as foreign aid. Haiti is not our fault, let charities deal with it and other countries, not just the USA. Let the Middle Eastern countries and their oil riches come to the aid of mankind instead of trying to intimidate and control it. The churches should pay property taxes like every other business and individual. Don’t spin the tax code and claim we are getting a tax cut. Tell me what I owe, treat me like an adult, spend the revenue on America first and I will pay it.

Read every law before you vote on it. Get rid of oversight boards and committees you appoint to watch yourself. We are not morons even if some of you are. We elect you, we pay you. Do not hire outside consultants and pay for studies. You have a large, well paid staff. You knew what the problems were and how to fix them during the campaign. Now that you are elected, do what you said you would do. If I wanted a consultant or a study done, I would have voted for the consultant or the person doing the study.

Stop forcing business to explain every minute detail to the consumer. Stop the paperwork overload you have forced on business. The free market economy and capitalism was around before anyone alive today was, let it work

End the duplicity in government agencies. Dominoes Pizza has been advertising the improvements to its pizza recipe. They changed because the cheese board in the Department of Agriculture gave them a great deal on cheese and other ingredients. During this same time period, another arm of the Department of Agriculture is telling us ad nauseam about obesity. One arm is giving away cheese to promote more eating while another arm is telling us to stop eating. Unfortunately, government agencies have more than two arms.

As it exists now, an agency is given a budget. It is in its own best interest to go over budget so next year their budget will be increased. If an agency head is properly doing his/her job and coming in under budget, their budget next year will be reduced. No one wants that in the world of government.

Notable births on this date:

1882 Felix Frankfurter Vienna Austria, US supreme court justice (1939-62)

1887 Georgia O'Keeffe Sun Prairie WI, painter (Cow's Skull)
1887 Marianne Moore St Louis, poet (Pulitzer-1951-Collected Poems)
1891 Erwin Rommel German field marshall (WW II-African campaign)
1891 W Averell Harriman US, (Gov-D-NY)/ambassador to USSR (1943-46)

1919 Carol Bruce Great Neck NY, actress (Lillian Carlson-WKRP)
1919 Joseph Albert Wapner La, judge (People's Court)

1925 Howard Baker (Sen-R-TN), presidential chief of staff
1929 Edward Asner Kansas City KS, actor (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant)
1930 Whitman Mayo NYC, actor (Grady-Sanford & Son)

1932 Petula Clark England, singer (Downtown, My Love)

1937 Yaphet Kotto NYC, actor (Brubaker, Alien, Raid on Entebbe)

1977 Peter Mark Andrew Phillips 9th in sucession to British throne

Notable deaths on this date:

1958 Tyrone Power actor, dies of a heart attack at 44
1963 Fritz Reiner conductor (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), dies at 74
1978 Margaret Mead anthropologist, dies in NY at 76
1983 John LeMesurier actor, dies at 71
1984 Baby Fae who received a baboon's heart, dies at California medical center

Notable events on this date:

1492 Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco
1492 In Spain, 6 Jews & 5 Conversos are accused of using black magic
1660 1st kosher butcher (Asser Levy) licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam)

1763 Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon begin surveying Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania & Maryland
1777 Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress
1791 1st Catholic college in US, Georgetown, opens

1806 Explorer Zebulon Pike sights Pikes Peak

1864 Sherman burns Atlanta
1869 Free postal delivery formally inaugurated

1939 Nazis begin mass murder of Warsaw Jews

1959 Richard Hickock & Perry Smith kill Clutters-In Cold Blood

1977 President Jimmy Carter welcomes Shah of Iran

1979 ABC-TV announces it would broadcast nightly specials on Iran hostage

1982 Funeral services held in Moscow's Red Square for Leonid I Brezhnev

1988 PLO proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizes Israeli existence

1989 "Batman" is released on video tape

1990 Producers confirm that Milli Vanilli didn't sing on their album-It has never been the same since

Don’t forget to buy my book. They are going fast. More on that coming soon.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN