Michael1942's Blog

All of us have seen our share of Lawyer shows, where the leading actors and associates persuade the juries to render verdicts under extremely adverse conditions.This persuasion while based in some facts have more to do with appealing to the passions and innate biases of the jurors. Put this scenario in the nation’s capitol and you have the impasse on the budgetary problems the country faces.The two major parties and their assorted sub groups have in some cases used the media to create a pall of financial ruin for us if we do not support their view. The true story is simple, The Congress (not the President) has failed to keep close tabs on our finances and now as a national election nears, they are politicking us into a deeper hole. I listen to and read numerous pundits (political and financial), with all of this information the one thing that is always there is that our Congress (local and federal) have taken care of themselves better than they have taken care of us. We would be better off hiring a theater troup if we want to be entertained as our legislators are attempting to do. The onus is now on the voters to begin weeding out the old guard in the Congress. We have in place term limits for the president and now we need to do the same for the congress!

Is our Congressional leader really serious? The honorable(?) John Boehner is still practicing politics on the back of the people. As I understand it there was a potential agreement on the table and Mr. Boehner et al have made statements that belie their words. Please stop trying ad lib your way out of your duties and do the job. He along with his cohorts on the other side of the aisle have spent more time doing an out of step waltz than necessary. You cannot please everyone so just do the right thing instead of trying to deliver on campaign promises (which you never keep). Our Congressional members have failed to deliver except in one area- they have divided this country into racial and ideological segments to the detriment of us all. If we were to relive that day in 1776 when the founders decided to become independent from England perhaps the Congress will understand what their job is really about.

This appointment is no where close to being correct politically or otherwise. We have in this Governor , a Blago in Quinn clothing. As his term in office continues so do the States’ problems. We have traded one Governor in on a clunker after buying a junker!

“Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday gave a highly paid position to the daughter of the Illinois Supreme Court justice who swore him into office and a powerful Chicago alderman who was a major campaign donor.
Attorney Jennifer Burke, 41, was named to the Illinois Pollution Control Board, a post that pays $117,043, Quinn’s office said.
She is the daughter of Justice Anne Burke and 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke, chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee. Jennifer Burke works for the city as an assistant corporation counsel supervisor. As of last month, her annual salary was $99,948.
Reached by phone, Justice Burke said she had not heard of her daughter’s appointment and that it is “absolutely not” connected to political donations to Quinn. The justice said she had no further comment.
Disclosures showed the Friends of Edward M. Burke campaign fund loaned Quinn $200,000 during his campaign for governor and donated more than $52,000 since Justice Burke swore Quinn into office in January 2009 following the ouster of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Quinn’s office also rejected the notion that campaign donations played a role in the appointment. Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson defended Jennifer Burke’s nomination, saying she most recently focused on regulatory and environmental protection issues for the city.”
The source of this information is from “the Dome section of the Chicago Tribune”.

Due to the inability of our Congress to do their jobs we are in danger of default (maybe). Where does the “gang of six” and other high profile Congressional members find the time to appear on television when they should be doing their talking in the Congress where it will do the most good? Is it election time already or still? These elected officials have been running for office since Mr. Obama became President while shirking the duties of their offices. Now at least one of them is proposing the President be given the power to raise the debt ceiling without a constitutional action allowing such a move. The point appears to be having the President do something illegal to allow possible impeachment or some other action to remove him from office. We have possibly the most inept and shortsighted Congress in decades, instead of doing what they are elected to do, their main focus seems to be staying in office. They all appear to crave the media attention like so many ham actors who have appeared in too many “C” grade movies (this may be a disservice to the actors).

Politics-as defined in most dictionaries-the art or science of political government, another definition: the conducting of or engaging in political affairs, often professionally. Looking at the current Congress we have professional politicians who have no clue as to the needs of ALL of the people. These so called representatives of the people are swayed by either the loudest or most influential segment of the public. With the advent of mass media they have become devotees of sound bites and headline grabbing blurbs which do not give a full view of what is really needed to solve the massive problems we the little guys face daily. Someone mentioned that we should recall all of our representatives, my reply to that is that we can but only in the voting booth. It is unfortunate that many of us lose sight of the whole picture and concentrate on our own immediate needs and situations. Benjamin Franklin stated during the signing of the declaration of Independence :”We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”. This still applies as the American public is as oppressed as the our founders were, while we can not be as easily “hung”, we are still being treated as second class by our very own elected officials. Our Congress over the years has enacted laws to their benefit while ignoring for the most part the needs and right of the voters. Why is it that Congress is not subject to the same retirement and medical benefits as their constituents ? This is due to their quietly enacted laws controlling their annual COLA, retirement and other perks that would be envied any Private sector manager. The question is: “Will we hang together or hang separately”?

In reading the local paper daily, I often look through the financial pages to keep my eye on the ball. Today a reader wrote this to Malcolm Berko:
The writer was complaining about President Obamas politics and its eminent ruining of the country. Mr. Berko’s response was:”There are lots of folks like you who have their tutu’s in a tizzy. They strongly dislike Obama and blame him for our huge deficits, our high unemployment rate, problems in our schools, the recession, crashing real estate prices, immigration, Social Security, taxes and even the weather. However as I discussed in my Private letter: “Many Americans are using Obama as a scapegoat because of his skin color and his visibility. The blame- 100 percent of it belongs to the 535 members of Congress.” In short, the White House does not make immigration laws, Congress does. the White House does not write tax laws, Congress does. The white House did not cause Fannie Mae to lower standards and hence forth fail, but Congress did, the White House did not expand the coverage and cost of medicaid, Congress did. The White house did not write legislation that forced medicare to overextend itself, but Congress did. And the White House did not write laws forcing Social Security to be more generous with it’s benefits, but Congress did. Get this through your thick skull: The culprits are the 535 members of Congress. There’s little difference between Congress and a circus midway, which a famous showman succinctly summed up: ” A sucker is born every minute P.T. Barnum
declared, and a Congressman born every hour to make sure no sucker is spared.” Congress is a metastasizing cancer that is turning us into worms by sucking the marrow from our spines.” To add my spin to this, there is still a bit of Racism in America so some of the opinions of the writer may be based in that.
I have had this opinion of Congress and have written it a number of times but it is not always published, as a country we have not moved as far from pre civil war racism as we would like to believe. Political rhetoric does not solve problems, upright elected officials does.

Why is it the much maligned state of Illinois’s legislature can take a pay cut (even with some objections) and the Federal Congress cannot? With the economic problems faced by the country and by extension the public (voters), what is the problem with the Congress (many of whom are among the top 3 to 5 % of wealthy Americans) taking a hit along with the voters (their constituents)? The old saying “walk a mile in my shoes and you will understand” should apply here. This is not an exact rendition of this saying but it is close enough for government work. I take the actions (or lack of) of our current Congress as a personal affront and will do my part to correct this problem in the voting booth. We as voters must remember our elected officials are not Sainted and above the Constitution, they are just men and women we elected to do our work and they have failed regularly. In their failure our economy had been placed on a slippery slope to a depression like situation. We are victims of pre-election rhetoric with no real substance in reality and will quickly be forgotten after the elections.