Good Americans...

I wonder how many card carrying Americans at this very point in time, are facing ruin at the hands of the IRS or other government bureaucracies. I am not opposed to paying my Fair Share, to live in the country in which I was born, and the country I love. I have not however been asked for my Fair Share in my lifetime. I am questioning the bold inequities between rich and poor. Why celebreties are sent a ten thousand dollar tax break because they own farm land in Montana. How it is that multi-millionaires are in need of tax payer money to own and operate their own vacation land. I read a story today about the outgoing head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC, having commissioned a portrait of himself at the cost of 148,00 dollars. The artist hired was not even a native American. He said he could not find a native American artist that fit the bill. I would love to know where this money came from, you and I? Or was it part of funds designated to benefit tribal causes. Either way I find it an astounding waste and a self indulgent attempt at pompous immortality. Buddy, you want to be remembered? Do something noble with the trust and power given you by the American people. Do you feel you've left so little behind that you need to hang on a wall to prove you existed? How about a nice photograph then? At most this might cost a thousand bucks, with a nice frame and perhaps a little brass nameplate. I'm even willing to bet there's a native American photographer out there that could pull this thing out of his hat. Oddly a few hours after reading this story, I went looking for it again so I could get the guy's name right and to make sure i had correctly read the numbers. The story was gone. Vanished from the web like Jimmy Hoffa. I Googled it, used every search engine and news agency I could summon. GONE. Now how do you suppose this could happen? A national story about government waste blotted out in a few short hours.I guess what I'm getting at here is that the American public is made to stand by and watch their hard earned dollars wipe the butts of elected and appointed government officials, while, after being robbed they worry about how to heat the house for the next month. Can this really sustain trust in government? Why does no one seem to express outrage as to how their money, entrusted to public servants is wasted?We could indeed go into how the illustrious George W. Bush has squandered everything this country had going for it, around the world and at home. Let's leave that for later. I would ask you to take a good look at the candidates running for president at the moment. Taking a good look precludes getting your information from what is commonly considered television news. DO NOT let the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity influence your decisions. Search the web, listen to NPR or the BBC, who actually report the news. If you grew up in the years following the vietnam war, you will remember news reporting. Walter Cronkite and his peers of the day, reported the news. They did not make it, nor make it up. Fox "news" is not news. It is show business. How many times a day do they have to repeat Brittney Spears' name and dilemma in order to stay on the air? Wolf Blitzer and the "situation room"? Come on CNN, I'm supposed to get the image that you have your own little inside line to the white house? Is the "situation room" situated in a bunker below the oval office? We are being fed the idea that there are only a few viable candidates running for the highest office in our land. Far from the truth. Make up your own minds. MAKE UP YOUR OWN MINDS! Ron Paul who would cut the legs out from under government waste, has just this day been cut from the next debate held by Fox. He has already been deemed an unviable candidate by media "news". Also on this day Dennis Kucinich was cast out by ABC as a waste of space on the stage for the next debate hosted on that network. Dennis Kucinich is a guy who speaks from his heart. He's sadly been labeled a crackpot because he may have seen something in the sky he could not identify. He's also been known to utter words like peace and love on the earth. However I do not recall any stories about him though,that pertain to airport men's rooms. This country needs it's heart back. Could it be possible that were certain programs cut from government candy bowls we might see health care affordable or available to everyone? How about we trade the war on drugs for a healthy population?Possibly, the most important issues in our history as a country are at stake in the next year. A country I sadly find it harder and harder to make a living in. I want very much to ply my trade and go back to believing this to be the land of opportunity again. It seems more and more unlikely every day.
Labels: America, Bill O'Reilly, IRS, Ron Paul