Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

How are we doing on the 1st Amendment?

Not so good, I'm afraid.  'Course, you knew that.

For 2008, Reporters Without Borders ranked the United States as the 36th in the world.  36 isn't scraping the bottom of the barrel but it seems low for a country that likes to go on and on about free speech being one of our greatest rights.

What do the top 20 on the list have in common?  "What they have in common is a parliamentary democratic system, and not being involved in any war."

Countries that are involved in war have to restrict press and push propaganda. 

In addition to not having those things in common, we find ourselves in a position where 6 companies pretty much own all of the corporate media outlets.  6 companies decide what Americans are allowed to hear.  Not good.

Thank god for the Internets.

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Sword Point Sunday - A Great Example?

I'm bringing back the Sword Point game with a chance to earn more points each Sunday.  The prize is a $25 gift certificate for Amazon.com and the rules are simple.  Each week, a question or poll will be posted on this blog.  Vote on the poll or answer the question and you receive Sword Points.  Answers may be submitted in the comment section or you can answer the question on your own blog and link to it from the comments section.  First person to 100 points gets the prize.

Today's question has a bit of homework first.  Watch the following clip and then answer the question:

Now answer the two-part question:

1.  Do you think it's appropriate to speak the truth to the Prime Minister so harshly?  Is it disrespectful?  Should it be done more often?

2.  Would something like this fly in America?  Obama is headed down the same path.  Should one of our representatives stand up and tell the truth?  Would Congress raise its dismal approval rating by telling the truth or would they hurt their credibility going against the Messiah?  Have they been too complicit?  Would they be speaking against themselves?

Turnabout

It may be fair play but the recipient of their own type of action isn't always appreciative in the display of fairness.  Observe:

How Much Money Does the Federal Reserve Have?

Let's find out, shall we?

HR 1207 has been introduced in the House and so far has 48 Congessional Representatives behind it.  The bill would make it possible for Congress to audit the Federal Reserve.  It seems assinine to me that our government gave complete control of our money over to a bunch of private banks without Congressional oversight.  This bill aims to fix that.

Personally, I think we should get rid of the Federal Reserve but that hasn't seemed to get much support yet.  So, at the very least, let's see what they are doing with our money.

Send your representative an email and let them know that this is a common sense bill that you would like to see backed.  If you don't have your reps email, click on the link above and enter your zip code and you'll be taken to a listing and links for your rep.

For those of you late to the party, the Federal Reserve is one of the biggest factors in the bubble/burst cycles that this country goes through, of which we are in the middle of the bad half of that combo. 

Support the Federal Reserve Transparency Act by telling your representative to support the Act.  We need to get control of our money back or at least see what they are doing with it.  We can do it if we make enough noise.

If you find that your rep is already on board (like mine was), then send them a thank you and ask them to continue to support the bill (like I did).

We need to keep this from getting swept under the carpet.  Go.  Now.  Write.  Do it.

Look, Something Shiny!

I cover a lot of political and economical stuff now and with the current situation, it's pretty much a downer.  So, to offset that, I was going to start posting something positive in my life on Thursdays.  However, since it goes against my very nature to ever follow through with a plan, here's something that I ran across that I felt I needed to share.

Still, hopefully, this at least made you smile a little bit.

QotD: Letting Go

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-- Raymond Lindquist

Sunday, the power was out for several hours so Trey decided to play with plain ole regular non-electric toys.  He couldn't find one of the pieces to one of his transformers so he and I decided to clean out his toy closet.  We would find his toy and have everything organized when we got done.

In the process, we made decisions on what to keep and what we should give to charity.  I let him decide.  To my surprise, he decided that he was done with his Thomas the train and the miles of tracks.  We bagged it all up and put it by the door.

We never did find the piece he was looking for so he ended up playing with his cars instead.  We did get his toy closet much more organized. 

I was happy to see that he didn't hold on just for the sake of holding on.

Attorney General Eric Holder is an Idiot

As you might be aware, violence from Mexico is spilling over into the United States, making it more dangerous for Americans that live near the border.

Eric Holder has an idea.  Impose a ban of semi-automatic weapons for U.S. citizens.

I don't think I can add anything to that.  Holder's stupidity shines right through.

I will add a quote from Rep. John Tierney (D - Mass):

"We don't want to get distracted by the gun industry lobby of the NRA trying to talk about (how) every attempt to bring some sanity to the situation is somehow an attempt to get rid of everybody's Second Amendment rights," he said. "That's a red herring."

Yes, John, damn those Constitutional Rights for being such a damn nuisance of a distraction.  If we could just do away with the Constitution, your job would be so much easier, wouldn't it?

And what the hell kind of sanity is it to disarm Americans to stop Mexican violence?  Give me an ass-hat for today's runner up.

Tenuous ties between current events and government action can be done.  Bush mastered it.

"Today Saudi Arabian terrorists blew up the World Trade Center.  My idea for retaliation is to kill one million Iranians."

"We got cho back, Mr. Prez."  For a while anyway, until it starts to destroy our Constitutional Rights and the *our* economy.

Trying to pull it off when Constitutional Rights and the lives of *Americans* is at stake, is going to be a much tougher sell.

People who don't live near Mexico, you know - like, say Massachusetts, might think banning guns is nice and all but people on the border will probably fight the law and then, if it passes, ignore the law. 

Our government is well aware that the actions it is taking is leading toward a revolution and they will be looking for any way to hinder violence aimed back at the government.  Disarming the citizens of their guns and Constitutional Rights is going to be a recurring theme during the next few years.

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The Right Thing for the Wrong Reason

I read an article yesterday that I can't seem to find today but I'm sure you can find a similar one if you care enough to search.  The article stated that the Republicans are against Obama's budget because it's going to bankrupt the country.

True enough but the thing that gets me is that you know if McCain would have been chosen by the media and Diebold machines to be president, he would have been doing the same thing.

What have the Republicans been doing for the last 8 years?  Bankrupting our nation, that's what.

Now, suddenly, they think it's a bad idea?  They don't give a rat's ass about whether or not the country is bankrupt.  They are just making a play for the next election.  Which ever group of Republicrats is in power gets more money from lobbyists and special interests.  You know that Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are scoring BIG time right now. 

By screwing over the country for the last 8 years, the Republicans have probably taken a pay cut in their bribe money.  To get that back, they are going to make noise about Obama's bad choices.  Then, if they win, they'll just keep on doing the same thing that they are criticizing now.

It's just a game to them where score is counted by the amount of dollars they can put in their own pockets. 

Looks like blogging may have to wait until Tuesday

You see, we had a bit of nasty wind storm come through here, with a titch of snow, and the power was out for about 5 hours.  It came on in time for me to get an assignment and a test done that were due today.  My college participation hangs on a cyber-thread out here in the middle of no where.

Political Science is all done now.  I didn't try very hard on the last test because:

1.  I was short on time.  I know - weird, me short on time.

2.  I think I had enough points that even if I failed that test, I was going to get an "A" in the class.  It's hard to be motivated when the results don't matter.

Now that PoliSci is done and I have free time (ha), I'm going to sign up for a Personal Fitness Instructor certification course.  It's a must do.  It's supposed to take 4-6 months but I'm going to try and have it done by July 1st if that's possible. 

Probably a very short post tomorrow because I have a test due.  Tuesday, with a bit of good will from Ra, I should be back on my blogging schedule.

QotD: Lobbying

Today, I took the last test for my Political Science class so I should be back to regular blogging starting on Sunday.  For now, let me share you one last quote from my text book:

"More than 25,500 lobbyists spent at least $1.6 billion lobbying Congress in 2002.  This comes to 48 lobbyists and more than $3 million per legislator."

And this is the money that *is* reported.  I'm thinking about running for office.  That's some good bank.