Prepare To Take A Swan Dive!

     Thanks to politics as usual, it looks as if the economy is going over the fiscal cliff with weights tied to it's ankles! I've been reading the news daily over  the past couple of weeks, and it's been the same story day after day. Republicans claim the Democrats will have to save the economy, knowing full well they'll block any attempt at passing something. Democrats saying that Republicans are sitting back and doing nothing to stop an inevitable calamity.

     Both parties are to blame for where we're at right now, and it's the system that keeps anything substantial from being done to fix it. The problem is all those politicians afraid to do anything because they're too worried they won't be re-elected if enough of their constituents aren't happy with them. I don't think anyone is going to be happy if we end up in a double-dip recession! Is this going to be what it takes to start a revolution in this country in which heads will be put up on spikes? Don't think it couldn't happen here, it has before. What do you think encouraged those colonists a couple hundred years ago to overthrow their "rightful" government and form a new country?!

     This could end up being our "winter of discontent" in which the American people finally have had enough and rise up in open revolt against the Federal government. The problem is, it's exceedingly unlikely that we'd end up with anything better than we have at the moment. Look at some of the nations around the world the last few years that have over-turned their governments, I don't see any of them becoming stable, peaceful countries that you'd want to go vacationing in!

Who...for our next president?

I've been very critical of the Bush administration over the last seven years, and for good reason. I've also been critical of the Republican party, mostly because of the Bush administration, and perhaps that's not such a good reason.

I know for a fact that I do not want to see Hillary Clinton become President of the united States, not because she is a woman, but because she isn't the "right woman". Hillary Clinton as President would be a huge mistake. I've been promoting Barak Obama as a good candidate for our next president, but I sometimes wonder as others do, does he have the experience to be a good president?

On the Republican side, I used to like John McCain years ago, but thought in recent years that he was coming off as fake. Perhaps I was just letting my judgment be colored by my views on George W. Bush. I hate it when I hear McCain talk about being in Iraq for years to come...but he's probably right. We, (America) have made a huge mess in Iraq, and it would be a morally reprehensible act to leave it in the state we've created through the Bush Administration's inept handling. Senator McCain, being a military veteran himself would likely have a good perspective on the kinds of things that need to be done in Iraq to stabilize it, and eventually, get American troops reduced there to the point that they would once again govern themselves.

Certainly, the Democrats who have controlled both the Senate and the House for the past year and a half haven't shown any ability to improve the situation at home or abroad. So who says that a Democrat in the Oval office would be any kind of improvement?! Between now and May when Indiana will hold it's primary, I've got some thinking to do, and a lot of research to do before I decide which way my vote will go. I'm hoping that others around the country also will take a long look at what will steer this nation back onto course.

What are Democrats thinking??

Well, we voted in a Democratically controlled Congress and Senate, showing the nation that indeed the American people are unhappy with the direction of the country, and that we don't want our sons and daughters dying in the Middle-East. Our Democratic leaders aren't even in power yet though and what are we hearing from them, talk of bringing back a draft...a draft that would target men and women between the ages of 18 and 42! For GOD'S sake, what are these people thinking!!??

Do they really think that a country that has said in poll after poll that we DO NOT WANT A WAR, that we'll just sit still and calmly accept a draft...a draft that would not only tear children from their parents, but possibly parents from their children? While by the time this draft could be enacted, I would be outside the proposed age limits, my wife would not, and my son will be turning 17 in just six months. No power on GOD'S green earth will send either my wife, or my son to a foreign country to die for George Bush's folly!! The United States government can go to HELL before I'll let that happen. The leaders of this country had better start listening to the will of the people in this country, or we're going to have to resort to extreme measures to make sure that the government of this country is indeed representative of the peoples' will.

A first step in the right direction...

Well, Voters have spoken, and spoken loudly...Democrats have taken control of the House, and the Senate. The question now is, will Those we've given the power to in a fair and democratic election process, take the reins and use that power as they've been promising to for the past 18 months?

Let's hope so. This could be the beginning of repairing the holes that have been eaten into our democratic fabric after the post-9/11 hysteria. While I still don't see us getting out of Iraq immediately (we've created too big a mess there for that!) I do at least now see a light at the end of the tunnel, whereas before I saw little hope that we would ever dis-entangle ourselves from the chaotic mess that Iraq has become.

In the upcoming weeks, we'll have to keep a close eye on the out-going Republicans, making sure they don't sneak something in before the shift of power. Then, we'll have to keep an even closer eye on those we've put into power, to make sure they don't abuse it!