So, I just got off the phone with my brother back in Texas. It was an interesting conversation to say the least. The thing everyone needs to understand right off the bat, id that he is a diehard Libertarian. I've learned to take everything he says with a grain of salt. His ideas, while a bit extreme in nature, and ill-thought out, at least have the best intentions at heart.
He's still under the presumption that the Patriot Act gives blanket authority for the NSA and CIA to wiretap his phones at will. In truth, he couldn't be more wrong. As I tried to remind him that in order for the wiretapping to take place there has to be Probable Cause (PC). No different than a Police Officer pulling someone over or entering a private residence without permission. Reasonable PC has to exist, and you would then have to be able to back it up in a court. In this case it would be a FISA court. The biggest thing to understand with all of this, is that the average citizen is in no way targeted for surveillance. the CIA and NSA in no way have the manpower, the capabilities, and the inclination to wire tap the phone lines of every last person in the country and listen to their phone calls back and forth between them and the pizza delivery place, or Gramma. It's just not feasible. What they do is find PC with one person individually, be it they make frequent overseas calls to known terrorist organizations, they contribute large sums of money to terror groups, etc... There has to in some way be a logically deduced relationship between the individual and terrorism. Yet for some reason he's still up in arms thinking that the Government has violated his rights. Suuuuuuuuuuuuure.
Also in our conversation he stated he believes that every group within government that has an acronym should go away. IRS, CIA, NSA, FBI, etc... I gotta say that this idea is pretty retarded. As much as I dislike the IRS, they do serve a fundamental purpose within the existence of our nation. As a country we do need a method of collecting revenue. And, while paying taxes does suck, it is a necessity if we wish to survive as a country. Now, I do agree with my brother that the American public is taxed entirely too much, and for frivolous programs that should have gone away decades ago. However, eliminating the IRS is not the way to go about it. Nor is eliminating the FBI or CIA. Both of these organisations maintain the security and integrity (what little is left) of our national borders from within and externally. Without these two organizations, believe me, this country would be really screwed. Not to mention I would have to argue that once their failures outnumber their success, classified and unclassified, then we should talk about dismantling them. Then and only then. Right now, we need them too much. Whether anyone likes to admit it or not, they play far too important a role in our National Security to even consider getting rid of them.
Another topic that got brought up in our conversation was eminent domain. I couldn't agree more with him about this topic. It's just flat out wrong, and yes unconstitutional. Businesses and government do have the right to offer someone compensation to move for the development of an area, but to flat out force them out, is just wrong. And, I would argue that the individual citizen would then have a case against the government. Ownership of property is a liberty that is guaranteed under our living Constitution. This is one of the few things that I do agree with my brother on. That and we do need to shrink our government, and in turn lower taxes due to a lot of these useless programs sucking up money and not providing any return. Our current government is pumping all of our hard earned money into frivolous spending that none of us will ever see the fruits of it's labor. Meanwhile we slave away in our own jobs, so that we can support someone else's family, and not our own. Does anyone else see a problem with that? I'm not going to play partisan on this one, because both sides have screwed the pooch here. Republicans are just as much to blame. Until half of these idiotic taxes are in place get removed, then I will be constantly pissed and hold everyone in government accountable. It's just unrealistic to continue to increase taxes and expect everyone to maintain their current way of life. We're creating a welfare state. The more taxes increase and get pumped into welfare programs, the more people are going to fall into the welfare trap, because they can't maintain. I guarantee we're going to start seeing a rise in welfare families in the next decade unless we stop being stupid. When it comes to balancing the budget, the answer is not to increase the income, but instead decrease the output of money. Duh.
I want to take this opportunity now, before I close out this blog entry, to challenge our elected officials. Have some balls. It's ok to lower taxes and cut programs. Most of the republicans have already promised to do so.....now it's time to actually go forth and do it. Your constituents would appreciate it, and you'll probably have a better chance of getting re-elected. Not to mention folks will actually have money in their pockets to actually have enough gas to drive down to the polling precincts. Let's use our heads, Folks. That's why we got 'em.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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2 comments:
"and ill-thought out" What does that mean? Explain why Libertarian ideas are "ill-thought out"
Why do we need the IRS? The government only uses income tax revenue to pay the interest on the over a trillion dollar debt the US now has. The Republicans do have a large chunk of the blame on the debt that will ultimately be passed on to the next generations.
Libertarians like to use the term Demlicans and Republicrats because both parties get the American people farther into debt with pork and wasteful spending, both parties are power hungry and lie to the American people, AND both parties (and this is the most important) believe that the answer to America's problems is more government and more government control.
But you have nothing to worry about. The Libertarians and Constitutionalists will never get our way. We just pray that at least we'll still have drugs and alcohol at our disposal when our dear country gets completely turned over to the New World Order. Mission Accomplished.
BTW... you're my brother in law and I love you. you're family, my daughter's uncle, but your comment about Cindy Sheehan offended me. You and I don't know what it's like to lose a child and I hope we never have to. I hope you never have to lose a good friend or worse, a family member in a War. Until you have been in Ms. Sheehan's shoes, you can't judge how she handles her grieving.
Also Jon, if you believe in having and open mind, at least try and understand the heartache that anti-War Americans feel. We were lied to about WMD's and continue to hear in the news about our men and women being killed in an unconstitutional and needless war. You can argue that Afghanistan and Iraq were threats but they didn't blatantly threaten us, as lets say, Kim Yong-il (and when did we invade North Korea? maybe if they strike oil we will?). The Bush administration has effectively given the American people the brush off, treating us like we don't deserve an explanation.
I hope that if you ever do go to Iraq, that you don't become disabled somehow. I don't know if you are aware of this but the United States does a piss-poor job of caring for it's Veterans. It's WRONG how these men and women go to war, return, and are denied help from the government that sent them into harms way. I know that a soldiers intention is to be courageous and fight knowing the risks, but I am sure that they didn't ask to spend the rest of their lives mentally ill.
There is a former flight nurse who served in the Air Force and Bryan and I went to see her speak and she has done volumes of research and has even seen the tragic trauma US servicemen have had to endure. http://www.thepowerhour.com/
Rebekah, a civilian with a civilians POV
hmmm... very intersting... I have to say as someone that has worked at one of these places that could "tap your phone", that it is not true at all! There is an instruction that will not let us tap anyones phone in the united states. even if Osama bin Laden was known to be in Arkansas, we would have to get a warrant to listen in, and he would be informed of such warrant...
As for the war... If you volunteer for the armed services, you should know what you are getting into. If you can't handle pressure, and people shooting at you, and the mental things that go along with it, then maybe you should find another profession. I am in the military, and am happy with my career choice. I have gone to the Persian Gulf twice during this war, and would go again if sent. Have pride that there are a few people giving you the right to speak your mind.
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