#83 Gerry's kids

In 1812 the word "gerrymander" was coined when the Massachusetts legislature redrew the boundaries of state legislative districts to give an advantage to Governor Gerry's party, the Democrats.  His plan was to group together most of the state's Federalists followers, allowing them to win in that district while his party, the Democratic-Republicans, took control of all the other districts in the state. The term eventually became part of world political vocabulary, and the practice is still in use today.

In other words your vote is manipulated by the party in power to give them the votes they need to be reelected.  Most of the time if country areas are lumped together then it favors GOP.  If cities are lumped together it favors DEMs.  But look at some of the lines that are drawn to go out of the way to lump some of these together.  Below are two examples.  Iowa and Ohio for the geographically impaired.  Iowa looks less confusing and looks to be more fair.  But these are the proposed lines for the new redistricting by the Democratic Party.  Registered republicans are lumped together so they only get one district while the other three will fall to the Democrats.  Ohio is no better.  If you look at some of the lines drawn there, you see counties split up to belong to certain districts.  Boehner's district used to have a city of 70,000 in it.  Now it has been moved to a more suburbanized area to give him more of an advantage.  Pelosi has San Francisco.  It's not split up at all.  She gets 80% of the vote each time.  After all, it is San Francisco.

The point is, we are tired of getting the same political figures each election.  But the reason why we keep getting them is because we are being manipulated by them.  Get rid of gerrymandering and make them fight for the real causes of America, not just for their own political gains.

#82 The Budget (for Dummies)

With the debt deadline and Congress' vacation time coming soon, our government has its hands tied.  Not tied to the work it is supposed to be doing but tied to time.  They have a plan, several of them, but no one wants to compromise.  Since when is compromise a dirty word?  Since political parties became promise makers instead of promise keepers.  The answer to this whole situation is easy.  Compromise.  They have two plans for now, just meet each other in between.  But just in case they can't figure that out here are some simple steps they should be taking to help the budget.

Step 1-  Balance it (and then improve it)

• Make an amendment to the Constitution.  Sounds easy enough.  Make the spending that one does equal to the amount of what one brings in as income.  If you can't afford something, don't buy it.  If it is not needed, don't buy it. 
• Even better than balancing the budget though;  get a surplus.  But not one that is short-termed that only relies on government subsidies, summer jobs, vice taxes, or erasing some of the bills that are on the ledger (which has been done in the past), but a real surplus.  And maintain it!

Step 2-  Make cuts

• Where?  All across the board.  If the item is no longer needed then why pay for it?  If you have a car that just sits on four blocks in your driveway, without tires being available, why have it?  You pay insurance on it.  It sits and rusts.  It depreciates.  Get rid of it.  If there is something that the US no longer needs, then get rid of it.  If it is needed but it is expensive, then try for a more efficient model.
• Education, police protection, fire protection, military, hospitals, and some other things are quite necessary but have not been managed well.  There can be cut backs in these fields without cutting quality like getting rid of higher paid management that is failing in their job.  Stop the double dipping.  Closing installations that are not productive or needed can be another cut.  Such as, schools that do not have a certain number of students but still need a certain amount of classes to get a full education can be consolidated with other schools.  Military bases in places like Germany are no longer needed.  These should not be cut as much as everything else though.
• Taking an equal amount from everything else across the board (but higher than the ones already listed)  means all would be fair to all items on the budget.  Some things no one wants to cut.   And it would be difficult. But we didn't get here in debt so easily.   It will take hard sacrifice to get back like they did in the 1950's after the Great Depression.  Yes, even Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.  People have to know that creating your own savings accounts and taking your own responsibility is needed.  You can't rely on everyone else for everything.
• Stop giving money to "allies", especially if they are inconsistent. The heck with Pakistan. Stop making China the most favored nation in trade. Canada and Mexico should be our best of trading partners. No more free trade with countries that are not keeping it as fair as we are, like Japan did with cars in the 1990's.  Get us out of the UN so we are no longer bound by their rules or dues.
• No more pork barreling which is wasted money.   Make lobbying illegal.
• Stop borrowing money.  Why is it that we are borrowing from a country that doesn't even believe in capitalistic ideas anyway?
• Get an exit plan for the war(s).  Start turning the responsibility over to those who we fought for.
• Stop raising the debt ceiling.  Raising it just gives you more room for excuses to keep spending money you don't have.

Step 3-  Create revenue

• Not so much by raising taxes, although a little is not going to hurt us.  If we raise taxes by 1%, we will start to feel the squeeze of the serpent (Don't tread on me).  But a measly 0.1% will not be felt so much.  And with 150 million in the work force, that still could add up some revenue. 
• Close all of the loopholes in the tax codes.  Revise the codes completely.  Having a flat, fair tax will pay for a lot of things.  And no one can complain about it.  The liberals can't say that only the top 1% gets all the breaks and the conservatives can't say that those living off of welfare get a free lunch.
• Stop importing more than you export.  If an American company goes to China to build a sweatshop, stop importing their product.  If an American wants to travel to China to get it, fine.  There are things like duty taxes when they return.  If they don't want to support Americvan business then they should pay.  A free market does not mean we have to allow it into our country.  It only means our people have the right to create products and buy products on their own.  If they want to buy it by mail order, then you can raise the taxes on that method of payment like the USPS does.  If they buy it over the Internet, then make them claim it on their taxes.

Step 4- Make Congress accountable

• Wait a minute.  Oh yes, they are accountable for it.  Then make them pay for it.
• Congress says that if they can't get the debt situation controlled by August 2 then social security checks won't go out.  Our military won't get paid.  Well, one thing they should do if they can't compromise is don't pay their own paychecks.  That should also be an amendment.  If the budget can not be balanced, then the first paycheck to be cut is Congress'.  That will make them compromise and work faster.

Note:  this post might change with new ideas

#81 NEA Anyone?

It's been said here before and shown how the party that claims to represent everyone, allows personal freedom, and discriminates against no one is just as dictatorial as Hitler, Mussolini, an especially Stalin.  But what is worse are those who support these people, especially certain unions.  The NEA (National Education Association) has just endorsed the re-election of President Obama.

Sure, everyone knew that was coming.  There is no chance that this group would ever endorse any kind of Conservative candidate with all of their leaders being who they are.  That's not the problem.  They endorsed him faster than any other candidate they have endorsed in history.  That is not the problem.  Giving money to his campaign is not the problem.  But how they are giving him money is. 

http://www.laborunionreport.com/portal/2011/07/nea-delegates-vote-to-take-32-million-from-teachers-to-fund-political-warchest/

Teachers are now being forced into giving part of their dues to a candidate that only a little more than half support.  Even the liberal organization itself voted 72-28 to support him.  Is this fair?  Do teachers have to be forced into paying for a man's campaign that one does not agree with?  Shouldn't there be an opt out policy like when you pay your taxes?

Isn't the NEA and groups like this supposed to be examples of what they preach?  $32 million dollars that could go into our schools.  $32,000,000!  Why would an incumbent need to raise money to be re-elected?  People know who this man is already.  It's not like no one knows what he stands for.  But the NEA, those who are worried about education, are taking $32 million dollars out of educators' pockets when a lot of this money could be used by teachers to enhance their rooms, to spend it on paper, computer programs,  hands-on lessons, pencils, and oh yeah...books.  But alas, the liberal agenda speaks up again out of both sides of their mouths.

The question is, where are all of the liberal, freedoms for individuals, live and let live, people?  Where is the outcry from this?

If this was coming from a large corporate slave driving business owner, you know, one of the top 1%, and he forced his employees to give $10 to Donald Trump to run for president, then the aforementioned groups would be at the headquarters of that corporation protesting and perhaps threatening boycotts, lawsuits and everything else.  But, alas, the conservatives who are engulfed in unions due to necessity and force have to shut up and give in to this encroachment.