Fwd: An Open Letter to Our Nation’s Leadership

[Roy Pitchford]

I am generally not the type of person that forwards emails or reposts stuff, but I felt this was worth passing on.

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I am Janet Contreras, a concerned, home-grown American citizen. I am 53, and I have been a registered Democrat all of my adult life. Before the last Presidential election, I registered Republican because I no longer feel the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. I now no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me.

There must be someone, please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me you are there and are willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please do it now.

You might ask yourselves what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me? These are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

* Illegal Immigration—I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S. I am not a racist. This not to be confused with legal immigration.

* TARP Bill—I want it repealed and no further funding supplied to it. We told you “NO!” but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze! Repeal!

* Czars—I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the Czars. No more Czars. Government officials answer to the process not the President. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

* Cap & Trade—the debate on global warming is NOT over, there IS more to say.

* Universal Health Care—I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

* Growing Government Control—I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Please mind your own business; you have enough to do with your REAL obligations. Let’s start there.

* ACORN—I do not want ACORN or its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them on every real estate deal that closes. Stop all funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audit and investigation. I do not trust them with the taking of the census or with taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before the taxpayers get any further involved with them. It walks like a duck and talks like a duck—hello… stop protecting political buddies. You work for the people. Investigate.

* Redistribution of Wealth—No. If I work for it, it is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth I support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do want me to hate my employers? What do your have against shareholders making a profit?

* Charitable Contributions—although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities where we know our needs best and can use local talent and resources. Butt out, please. We want to do this ourselves.

* Corporate Bail Outs—knock it off! Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we will be better off just getting to it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful, like ripping off a band aid. We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us a chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

* Transparency and Accountability—how about it? No really, let’s have it. Let’s say we give the “buzz” words a rest and have some straight, honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with cleaver wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

* Unprecedented Quick Spending—stop it, now. Take a breath. Listen to “The People.”

Let’s just slow down and get some more input from some “non-politicians” on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.

I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant nor a violent person. I am a mother and grandmother. I am a working woman. I am busy, busy, busy and tired, tired, tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of
the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawns and wash our cars on weekends, and be responsible, contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same, all the while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding our Constitution and believed in the checks and balances to keep you from getting too far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think that I find humor in hiring a speed reader to unintelligibly ramble through a bill you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not! It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face! I am not laughing—the arrogance!

Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it, but you expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children? We did not want that TARP bill. We said “NO!” We would repeal it if we could. I am not sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all the recent spending. From my perspective, it seems that you have all gone insane.

I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back!

You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington.

[ryan costa]

most of the issues mentioned in said letter didn't exist when the constitution was written.

Nearly anyone who showed up could be a legal resident. maybe not native americans.

If our small government ancesters didn't want Mexicans they shouldn't have had the Mexican-american war.

in the 1850s there were strong popular movements to ban more Irish and more Catholics.

not many national laws on drugs. local laws banning or taxing alcohol or licensing rights to produce or market cropped up all over. you could also be placed in irons or horsewhipped for cussin' too much.

teen pregnancy was the norm. shotgun wedding or not.


It was much harder to crash a horse when hopped up on booze than to crash a car when hopped up on booze or crack or that stuff Rush Limbaugh was addicted to or that Cocaine Glenn Beck is rumored to have enjoyed.

Don't worry about global warming. cap and trade may be a scam, but our foreign policy is geared toward "national interests" concerning oil and oil imports. 2 trillion dollars to invade Iraq.

healthcare topped out mostly at blood letting and crudely setting broken bones. opium was easy to come by. even easier than westlake high school kids get it.

if you want the laws of the past you gotta go back to the living conditions of the past. the economic conditions of the past.

for a while big business and casual motorists denied automobile use caused smog. remember smog? it was pretty bad in some american cities. remember acid rain. do the acid rain dance. no free market solution presented itself. most consumers did not willfully make individual choices to prevent this.

[Brian Pedaci]

I don't agree with all her points, so I couldn't give it a full-throated approval. I do agree with the main thrust of the piece, which is that our government (both the present and past administration, as well as Congressional leaders) need to remind themselves daily that their power derives from the people. Sometimes it seems as though they think power emanates to the people from Congress and the White House.

[Roy Pitchford]

Mr. Costa,

With all due respect, I don't even understand how some of your comments are connected to the letter. Blood letting and opium, the freedom of Iraq, crashing a horse??
If I may be so bold, in fact, your statement that to have "laws of the past you gotta go back to the living conditions of the past" is extremely silly and I will explain why... (If I may also be really knit-picky, consistent capitalization makes it easier for everyone to read. I'm just saying.)

Let me ask you this: Do you consider the Constitution to be a "living" document?

- If yes, it shouldn't matter whether the issues existed or not. The courts can interpret the Constitution to fit with the current issues, that is their job according to that same Constitution, and your statement is foolish.

- If no, then I would hope you should see how severely Congress and Presidents (both the Rs and the Ds) have destroyed the freedoms and liberties the Constitution stands for. If this is the case, your statement is again foolish. If you do not see what has been done to our Constitution, I suggest you open your eyes and look around.

Why will I soon lose the freedom to buy an American-made incandescent light bulb, invented by Ohio's own Thomas Edison?
Why did the CEO of GM not have a right to keep his job?
Why did the AIG executives not have the right to safety in the wake of the contractually-legal bonus scandal while Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac execs got just as much money and barely the same scrutiny?

[Bill Call]

Let me ask you this: Do you consider the Constitution to be a "living" document?

Those who believe that the constitution is a living document believe the constitution hiders their ambition.

During the past several months President Obama has praised Hamas, Hezbollah, the PLO, the leadership of Iran, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. During that same period he has expressed disdain for democratically elected leadership in countries like Israel and Columbia. Does that tell you anything about the man?

[ryan costa]

The Constitution was a document made up of compromises by revolutionaries with competing interests. Most Americans lived on farms or ran their own small shops/mills/tool-and-dies/etc. No 401(k)s. No mutual fund managers. no Health Insurance. most professional positions required little formal education. the superintendent of the school district usually didn't have a Ph.D. How are residents going to know how to feel about their property values if their school district superintendent has no Ph.D and the neighboring School District's Superintendent has a Ph.D?

Iraq is/will cost way more than the stimulus bill. As I understand it, much of the stimulus bill will basically go to trying to maintain and repair existing highways and bridges, and other infrastructure. I assume all of it is eventually paid for by taxes. In the interim Uncle Sam borrows most of the money from the more productive economies of Germany, Japan, and China. Between invading Iraq and having reliable bridges and highways, I would choose the bridges and highways.

When the executives at AIG signed their contracts with AIG, I assume they intended to be paid with profits AIG earned doing whatever AIG does. When AIG required many Billions of dollars in Federal Bailouts, it would have made sense for Uncle Sam to have those high-performing executives waive those contracts before bailing them out. As it is, much of the money AIG got was then used to pay AIG's gambling debts to other Investment Banks that also required/got multi-billion dollar bailouts.

But so what? Fannie and Freddie guys got less criticism? Did they? I don't know. However, whether you live in a grand house in the suburbs or elsewhere, you're basically just as subsidized by the government as the average CMHA client. Uncle Sam lowers the interest for everyone. the tax write-off of interest payments is a subsidy to every homeowner's lifestyle. the expanding rotting urban cores chase up housing prices and development outside the core. the developers, construction workers, Real estate Agents, Mortgage Brokers, all owe their few decades of prosperity to Fannie and Freddie and the feds. The smartest folks made hundreds of millions of dollars - or billions - churning the mortgages up into junk bonds and credit default swaps.

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Acknowledging the sovereignty of other nations within their borders is basic decency. Free States in America tolerated the South's endless desire to expand slavery for 70 years!

The leadership of Iran is more or less elected. Its as elected as Senators and Presidents were in America for the first 40 years or so. refusing to castigate it isn't the same as supporting or praising it. It is merely acknowledging America is incapable of improving Iran: we tried before: we helped the Shah overthrow Iran's secular democracy in the 1950s. The Shah was a way bigger jerk than Saddam Hussein: he was eventually overthrown by a popular revolution. Revolutions are not about ideology -they pick up whatever ideology is handy. Revolutions are about throwing out the group you perceive to be separate and domineering. The popular revolution in Iran 30 years ago just happened to be religiously conservative. NASCAR dads and Hockey Moms. According to legend, shortly after he was elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to reduce gasoline subsidies to his fellow Iranians: Iranians love to drive cars as fastly and powerfully as they can. this was very unpopular. So Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began talking more trash about interfering outsiders. 36 years ago American Republicans tried to help the Saddam Hussein-like Shah of Iran develop nuclear power: this was so they would have more oil to export.

I don't think China and Russia and Germany and Japan and south korea will lend Uncle Sam the money to invade Iran. Iran is three times the size of Iraq, was not crippled by 12 years of economic sanctions, and is much more mountainous. It would probably cost 3 times the two trillion Iraq is expected to cost. I don't see Toby Keith at the train station holding a war bond promotional sale. I don't see Toby Keith at the shopping center in Westlake promoting the sale of War Bonds.

[Roy Pitchford]

The Constitution was a document made up of compromises by revolutionaries with competing interests.

I disagree with you. The interests of the Founding Fathers were not competing...liberty, freedom, the pursuit of happiness. Many of the FF disagreed on the methods for meeting those interests, or disliked each other, but were still able to overcome those differences.

When the executives at AIG signed their contracts with AIG, I assume they intended to be paid with profits AIG earned doing whatever AIG does. When AIG required many Billions of dollars in Federal Bailouts, it would have made sense for Uncle Sam to have those high-performing executives waive those contracts before bailing them out.

Government should have no role in running any business (coughAmtrakcough), including waiving contracts. If the government could do that, it makes all contracts worthless, plus it is unconstitutional. The government is to blame for the "bonuses" anyways since they are the ones that capped executive salaries.

As it is, much of the money AIG got was then used to pay AIG's gambling debts to other Investment Banks that also required/got multi-billion dollar bailouts.

You're absolutely right. Our tax dollars did go to other banks through AIG...
13 billion to Goldman Sachs
7 billion to Merril Lynch
5 billion to Bank of America
13 billion to UK banks
17 billion to German banks
19 billion to French banks
5 billion to Swiss banks

All total 44 billion to US interests, 62 billion overseas. Outrageous stuff. I will grant you this point. makes the 165 million for the bonuses seem like chicken feed.

But so what? Fannie and Freddie guys got less criticism? Did they? I don't know.

Were they protested by ACORN and the SEIU?? No, not that I heard. They only got $210 million...

The leadership of Iran is more or less elected. Its as elected as Senators and Presidents were in America for the first 40 years or so. refusing to castigate it isn't the same as supporting or praising it. It is merely acknowledging America is incapable of improving Iran: we tried before: we helped the Shah overthrow Iran's secular democracy in the 1950s. The Shah was a way bigger jerk than Saddam Hussein: he was eventually overthrown by a popular revolution. Revolutions are not about ideology -they pick up whatever ideology is handy. Revolutions are about throwing out the group you perceive to be separate and domineering. The popular revolution in Iran 30 years ago just happened to be religiously conservative. NASCAR dads and Hockey Moms. According to legend, shortly after he was elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to reduce gasoline subsidies to his fellow Iranians: Iranians love to drive cars as fastly and powerfully as they can. this was very unpopular. So Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began talking more trash about interfering outsiders. 36 years ago American Republicans tried to help the Saddam Hussein-like Shah of Iran develop nuclear power: this was so they would have more oil to export.

I don't think China and Russia and Germany and Japan and south korea will lend Uncle Sam the money to invade Iran. Iran is three times the size of Iraq, was not crippled by 12 years of economic sanctions, and is much more mountainous. It would probably cost 3 times the two trillion Iraq is expected to cost. I don't see Toby Keith at the train station holding a war bond promotional sale. I don't see Toby Keith at the shopping center in Westlake promoting the sale of War Bonds.

Who's talking about invading Iran?

[ryan costa]

Are you disappointed with Amtrak? the interstate highway system made commercial passenger rail obsolete. the Feds had to suck up a lot of land and spend a lot of money building the interstates. I enjoy taking the interstate highways to the nicer places in berea or westlake or lorain. For some reason nearly every city isn't as nice as it used to be. For some reason America is ever more reliant on oil imports. Even more than in the early 1970s.

in the mid 19th century Commercial rail benefited from land grants twice the size of Texas, financing by government issued bonds, the economic growth enabled by the Greenbacks(Legal Tender Act of 1862, etc), settlement of lands west of the Appalachians made possible by cheap federal land or the homestead acts. This greatly increased demand for steel. free market heroes like Andrew Carnegie could now become much more successful producing steel than otherwise.

the neocons spend a lot of time/spent a lot of time nitpicking whatever is going on in Iran. Just like they did with Iraq before invading Iraq. both are piss-poor nations in relation to America's overall military power and global political power. but it gave them something to do that got a lot of people excited. George Bush told everyone it was as great as World War II. but the celebrities weren't showing up to promote the sale of War Bonds. I stood outside Tower City waiting for Rush Limbaugh and Sylvester Stallone to show up and encourage men wearing button up shirts, ties, hats, wristwatches, and walking canes to buy war bonds. None of the people outside Tower City were selling War Bonds.

[Roy Pitchford]

[quote="ryan costa"]Are you disappointed with Amtrak?[/quote]
With Amtrak itself? I can't say I am or am not. I've never rode on Amtrak.
With the tax sinkhole it is? Definitely.

[quote="ryan costa"]the interstate highway system made commercial passenger rail obsolete. the Feds had to suck up a lot of land and spend a lot of money building the interstates. I enjoy taking the interstate highways to the nicer places in berea or westlake or lorain. For some reason nearly every city isn't as nice as it used to be. For some reason America is ever more reliant on oil imports. Even more than in the early 1970s.[/quote]
Commercial passenger rail doesn't have to be obsolete, but it does need to be updated so it can properly compete with other forms. Bullet trains could compete with air travel for longer trips. Laying down more track would let more people get where they need to go. Looking at a 2007 Amtrak map, a trip from Phoenix to Flagstaff would force you to run through San Bernadino.
However, it should not be the Feds. Feds have already proven that they can't run a railroad.
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You are changing the subject. I'm not even sure you really answered my question about the Constitution being a "living" document.

You disagree with the initial letter...I get that. I would like to understand why. Are you completely in favor of higher taxes, more debt, government control, etc.? Are there areas where we DO agree (besides the AIG bail-out)?

[ryan costa]

sprawl and outsourcing are intrinsically tied to escalating debt and oil addiction and the 'national interests' that go with oil addiction. Reaganomics is a continuing failure and an escalating failure.

which taxes do you want to raise? which do you want to lower? Reagan raised taxes for most Americans and their descendants, and they cheered him for it. He played a Bruce Springsteen song in some of his appearances and commercials.

which federal programs do you want to shrink or erase? Nobody threw more Americans in Prison than the Reagan Administration. that's kind of expensive. The villains of America are described in a book called Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser: Many of the worst villains in america have jobs as federal prosecutors, judges and legislators. the rest are ex-urban Home Owners Association members who conjure up zoning preventing big farms from building bunk houses for their illegal immigrant workers: the HOA are afraid the bunk houses would hurt their property values, so the migrant workers sleep in ditches and plastic bags in the woods.

enormous subsidies are given to sprawl and big box retail. it is a public policy that produces more spillover costs - real or legal - than any other. American consumerism is a paradigm that produces more defective people than any other. Our schools will always be enormously expensive because they have to overcome the habits students learn as american consumers. but the districts will compete with each other by how many teachers have master's degrees: that's pretty expensive: it requires taxes: No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate from the Republicans.

Nobody threw more Americans in prison than the Reaganites and Neocons and their mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Dick Feagler's grandpa the cop could smack a few punks on the side of the head without a big deal being made out of it or having to formally arrest them: but he had to live in the neighborhood he patrolled. If he pissed too many people off he was gone. or they'd give him the hairy eyeball at church or the local bar or the local butcher shop or on the front porch. Today cleveland cops make enough to live in westlake.

dunno what "living document" means. NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA, and the WTO violate our constitutional right to elect representatives who can change trade policies, tariffs, duties, etc on a year to year basis. those are the biggest violations of the Constitution. there isn't much protest against the biggest violations of the constitution. There were in Seattle. Those protestors are dismissed as hippies, anarchists, punks, gays, communists, or "Liberals".

I've got good news. you will probably die in a car accident before you die from another Saudi Arabian fringe terrorist attack. About 40,000 americans die in automobile accidents a year. there is no national memorial in DC or matching postcards. Plain Dealer Editor Kevin O'Brien tells me automobiling is our individuality and freedom. There is no national memorial to the casualties of our freedom and individuality in Washington DC.

We could get off oil addiction pretty quick with some common sense laws. lower speed limits. cars with a lot less horse-power. purchase premium taxes on horsepower. Hey: it is still a lot damn faster than walking or riding a horse. That will never happen: I don't know if it is constitutional or not. I do know the big three did little or nothing about smog on their own. most consumers did nothing about smog on their own. GM did a lot of lobbying to get lead into gasoline from the get go: they succeeded even though the particular lead additive was known to be highly toxic: tetra-ethyl lead was optioned as a nerve gas in World War I: they argued they needed it to stretch out oil supplies, then promptly applied it to greater speed and acceleration instead.

The Constitution is a good root document. However, the Austrian School of Economics is completely nonsensical. there is usually some intertwining between "constitutional" parties, Austrian School subscribers, and globalists. Henry Carey and Thorstein Veblen are the only dead economists who should matter.

We could get rid of most social welfare programs. but that would require going back to our free market roots in healthcare and law enforcement. looking the other way in most cases of abortion or infanticide. propping sick people up in bed at home with booze, opium tinctures, ether, or marijuana until they finish dying. Maybe geriatricide.

I was outside Tower City after work today. Glenn Beck didn't show up to sell war bonds to pay for Iraq. Glenn Beck's wife didn't show up to sell war bonds to pay for Iraq. Americans spent about 185 billion 1940s dollars on war bonds in world war II. Iraq is due to cost two trillion so far. all to get revenge on some fringe saudi arabians who are mostly already dead.

[Roy Pitchford]

which taxes do you want to raise? which do you want to lower?

Lower corporate taxes to bring businesses back. When the people have more to reinvest in their businesses, it promotes growth. More people with jobs means less people government hand-outs and more people capable of paying other taxes.
Lower capital gains taxes to increase investment in said businesses (promoting even more growth), many of which will turn around and provide higher dividends to those that invested in them.

which federal programs do you want to shrink or erase?

Pork. Money for local projects should come from local people, if they support it. I'm sick of supporting the California Sea Otter Fund.
Money given to ACORN (I'm sorry, COI), until such time as they prove they are actually doing what they claim.
Reduce Congressional pay/benefits. Being in Congress was never meant to be a full-time job.
There's more, but these would at least be a start. If the federal government would return some power back to the states, they could shrink.

No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate from the Republicans.

Forget No Child Left Behind. I think a few more of them need to be left behind. Teachers need to do their jobs and fail kids that deserve to fail. It may hurt their feelings...yah, well, suck it up dummy and repeat that 5th grade!

Nobody threw more Americans in prison than the Reaganites and Neocons and their mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Dick Feagler's grandpa the cop could smack a few punks on the side of the head without a big deal being made out of it or having to formally arrest them: but he had to live in the neighborhood he patrolled. If he pissed too many people off he was gone. or they'd give him the hairy eyeball at church or the local bar or the local butcher shop or on the front porch. Today cleveland cops make enough to live in westlake.

I think we agree on this. I'm in favor of city employees living in the city where they would, but I would not legislate it. Give them incentives to live in the city and then they would have a vested interest in the success of the city. Police, Fire, Teachers, etc.

When you first posted and talked about the 1850s, I said that we didn't need to go back that far for everything. This is one exception. In fact, go back farther than that. Bring back the public stocks, pillories and prangers! Call me cruel, but I consider humiliation a powerful motivator. Much cheaper. If that's too drastic, than at least run things more like Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona.
I'd also favor public executions. By moving them behind closed doors creates a detachment from reality.

We could get off oil addiction pretty quick with some common sense laws. lower speed limits. cars with a lot less horse-power. purchase premium taxes on horsepower. Hey: it is still a lot damn faster than walking or riding a horse. That will never happen: I don't know if it is constitutional or not. I do know the big three did little or nothing about smog on their own. most consumers did nothing about smog on their own. GM did a lot of lobbying to get lead into gasoline from the get go: they succeeded even though the particular lead additive was known to be highly toxic: tetra-ethyl lead was optioned as a nerve gas in World War I: they argued they needed it to stretch out oil supplies, then promptly applied it to greater speed and acceleration instead.

You bought a Segway, didn't you?
To be serious, I agree, in principle, about reducing our oil consumption, but its not going to happen overnight and car companies are not going to make a profit if they build cars that no one wants.
I heard a story about GM before the bankruptcy...GM has a hydrogen fuel-cell car. They've had it for decades. They have (or had) enough money to retool their production one time and one time only. The problem is that the government won't make a decision about where they want the future to go and stick with it.

By the way: I own and ride an electric scooter because its cheaper (look at that capitalism!) than driving to and from work or to do my shopping around town.

I was outside Tower City after work today. Glenn Beck didn't show up to sell war bonds to pay for Iraq. Glenn Beck's wife didn't show up to sell war bonds to pay for Iraq. Americans spent about 185 billion 1940s dollars on war bonds in world war II. Iraq is due to cost two trillion so far. all to get revenge on some fringe saudi arabians who are mostly already dead.

Who goes to Tower City anymore?? I think Glenn was at Crocker Park and his wife at Avon Commons.
Maybe that's besides the point.
You can stop with the Iraq war $2 trillion stuff...I get it.

[ryan costa]

you can take three or four kids to soccer practice or football practice in a Ford Focus. Or in a Minivan or SUV. During World War II there was massive public service propaganda encouraging Americans to car pool, walk, take public transportation(rail), and simply consolidate their errands more. This was when we were a net exporter of Oil. some say it was mostly a circuitous way of saving wear on rubber tires.

No. there is no realistic leadership on achieving any measure of energy independence. or even reducing oil imports.

If you're like me you watched a lot of western tv shows and movies growing up. the public hangings didn't seem to prevent crime. the most popular plots of the western tv shows and movies was violent crime and violent justified responses. a horse thief knew he'd be hanged or shot in the attempt. Executions are a good way to get rid of people not worth keeping around. but they have little value in preventing crime. Public executions do little to prevent crime: they become a spectator sport. Just like the Jerry Springer show did not reduce the number of people who deserve to be on the Jerry Springer show.

Reagan's corporate tax cuts engineered a spectulative boom in stock trading and leveraged buy-outs. but they did not increase investment in production relative to GDP:
http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/Gre ... tion-r.htm

[Roy Pitchford]

[quote="ryan costa"]If you're like me you watched a lot of western tv shows and movies growing up.[/quote]
Actually, no I didn't.
How old do you think I am?

[ryan costa]

American "growth" being what it is, it is only a matter of time before Crocker Park is Tower City-ed up. Given the acceleration of progress, I'd give it about 12 years. Glenn Beck will have to visit a new mall in Grafton by that time. He'll have to board a heavily subsidized airline and take the heavily subsidized highways to the new crocker park in Grafton.

The foundation of modern Conservative principles are the sentiment engendered by over a century of western dime novels, western movies, and western television shows. If America has invaded Nigeria or Iran by that time, he can help sell war bonds.

[Roy Pitchford]

The foundation of modern Conservative principles are the sentiment engendered by over a century of western dime novels, western movies, and western television shows. If America has invaded Nigeria or Iran by that time, he can help sell war bonds.

"Is old Russian proverb: "go west young man."
--Peripetchikoff from the movie One, Two, Three