A modest proposal for a new century . . .

Joe,

My problem with passports is that they are expensive--more than $100 now if memory serves--and that would be a hardship for too many Americans who do not need and cannot afford them. (I suppose they could be offered free of charge based on need.) But a national identity card could be made as safe and would be available free of charge precisely because everyone would be required to have one. If the government in its infinite wisdom decided to charge us for that too, as is likely, then it would have to be made available free of charge for persons under a certain income level. Of course, my original proposal still stands and, if adopted, it should solve this and countless other problems.

We will have a computer chip implanted in our forearm that serves as our Social Security, national I.D., credit card and medical record. If it's not implanted (like it is done in dogs), it will be somehow attached to us.

A little bit like the number of the beast?

Ann

Please answer my question--Thanks.

alice wrote:

Please answer my question--Thanks.

It would have had to involve Congress, Alice.

Ann

That explains it all-Thanks. It won't happen. Congress can't get anything done.

Ah, Alice, you and I know that this was planned for now to interfere with those who traditionally vote Democrat. All the pretty talk about ID's would not be an issue if elections were not so close.

The Republicans learned with the election of President Obama that if they wanted to steal the election this time, they would need to put the skids on the voters that took him over the top: the youth vote, the elderly vote, the disadvantaged vote, the poorest voters, etc. What better way than to make it appear that "voter fraud" suddenly, this election year, required draconian election law revisions in the states with Republican majorities. Each state that implemented these laws did so with variations, some more limiting than others.

These laws are not written by state legislatures. Just like the heinous laws regarding a woman's right to make choices about her own body, these laws are written by national lobbyist organizations and given to Republican State Legislatures in a format that they just need to tweak for their individual states.

Just as the Republican Party cannot sell tax breaks for the wealthiest and a profit-making free for all by eliminating public serving regulations so they incorporate the religious right to sell republicanism from the pulpit, they have made a hue and cry for "eliminating fraud" to mask their efforts to suppress the vote.

They are just very clever. If they were less clever, people of good will seeking honest elections would not take up the hue and cry to "eliminate fraud" and provide more support for voter suppression before a critical election, potentially tipped by people giving up on their vote because getting to the polls and being counted has been made complicated. Complication alone turns off many voters, especially the poor, elderly, and similar groups.

If voter suppression was not the issue, these changes could be implemented immediately after the election and incorporate absentee voter registration and voting, a more likely area of potential voter fraud. However, those who vote absentee generally vote Republican. Therefore, that area of potential fraud is ignored.

It's all such a fraud, Alice, that I just get tired of typing about it. I was on the phone last night with an intelligent man I love who told me President Obama took money from Medicare to fund Obamacare which every thinking person knows is not true. He left me to listen to the news - FOX and friends. By the way, he is a person of extreme wealth who does not want to pay one penny more of taxes to benefit those who are in need because they made "bad choices." After all, he is successful because he made the right choices. He had the crystal ball of perfection and deserves his wealth and perks and the less advantaged be damned - they chose their fate. Yes, the children chose their hunger; those with birth defects chose the circumstances of their birth; the laid off construction workers chose the housing bubble burst.

Alice, you are a person of intelligence and heart. How do people get so stuck in their own entitlement beliefs and think no one helped them? Even my friend went to school on the GI Bill and loves his "mad money" from Social Security. He called me a socialist for wanting universal medical care and didn't get it that he wants his Medicare and is much a socialist as me unless he's willing to let it go...ignorance among the intelligent and educated is the hardest to understand.

9/12/2012

I think " NATIONAL ID CARD," is a great idea, they have used it

in Europe for years.....

Cheers..Joe..

DK ,
It drives me cray

Alice,

I missed your earlier post on "answer my question" and don't know if it was intended for me. But I'll try anyway. Election fraud and votes cast by individuals not entitled to vote is very old news and a very old practice--it is not new and is not just an issue in this election. What motivated states to enact legislation on the issue now is certainly in part motivated by politics--but that does not mean it is wrong or improper. There were significant irregularities with the Kennedy election that Nixon chose not to pursue. There are irregularities at the local level that both parties benefit from and in some cases encourage. Inconvenient arguments can be dismissed as politically motivated, and there is certainly some of that by both sides I have repeatedly stated previously--Republicans wanting to end illegal votes that harm them and Democrats wanting to retain the illegal votes the status quo facilitates because it helps them.

What drives me crazy, by the way, is the often repeated falsehood-as-fact that "Bush stole the election." Every vote was counted by reputable (LIBERAL) newspapers and media sources after the dust settled and, please get over it folks, BUSH WON. You can be upset about it as I will be if Obama wins a second term by the power of his personal charm and ability to recite with great vigor facile slogans. (I'll be non too pleased if Romney wins too, so I guess I'm in for a grand old time either way.)

Folks can also bash Fox News until the cows come home (I watch them and CNN) but please don't pretend that MSNBC or NPR are objective, honest stewarts either. The latter are precisely the same distance from the center (or, for that matter, truth) as the former, just in different directions. Our own prejudices, predilections, and point of view colors our world. That's fine. We have the right to believe as we like--including in alien abductions, Big Foot and the fact that the lunar landings/mars landings are hoaxes perpetrated by our government. We are not entitled to label any of these beliefs (or our value system) as TRUTH and then point and snicker about the idiots that disagree with us. That is what extremists do. All republicans are not greedy, wealthy, uncaring fools--and neither are all Democrats, for that matter. Whether and to what extent wealth redistribution is a good or a bad thing is open to debate by people of good conscience. God only knows what the truth is, and she is rather silent on the matter.

9/13/2012

Victor...



BRAVO..........



Cheers.....Joe...

9/13/2012

Don...

God bless you friend !

Cheers..Joe..

Well said, Don.

I do not believe I have called anyone ignorant. I have often stated that I do not like labels = on me or on anyone else. I do have strong opinions about legislation that affects my life and those I love. I do have beliefs in my responsibility to help those who don't have the same tool box to get through life in this wealthy country as others and I want to add tools to that box. I don't believe that legislatures have the right to make my choices regarding my physical body or any woman's choices in that regard a mater of law. I resent the comments made by the furthest right wing of the Republican party that demean women. Voter suppression affects elderly women since they live longer than men. Women of color receive a double whammy in terms of their incomes and glass ceilings regardless of those marched across a stage. Therefore, many working poor do not have insurance or sufficient income to buy enough food to feed their families. I believe in this wealthy country, we can all provide contributions to a tax structure that helps them become greater contributors to the tax structure through the benefits of health, education and workplace opportunity. I believe that those who have benefited the most from the U.S. economy have obligations for returning a measure of their benefit. I note among my republican friends and loved ones an abandonment of this thought. They believe they are somehow divinely entitled to their wealth through their own perfection of choice; and those who made less perfect choices are free to flounder - which really means free to poor health, lack of food and death.

I can go on to list more of my beliefs, but I have shared them before. I know that Rupert Murdock owns the FOX empire, has tried to buy more of the media, owns The Wall Street Journal and is a powerhouse in all matters related to the Republican Party. I listen to FOX and CNN and NPR and MSNBC and ABC and whatever news is closest to my activity at the time. I personally am appalled at the venom and truth twisting that is integral to any station that broadcasts under the FOX label. I do not hear commentators from the other news sources shouting and yelling and name calling and driving the listeners to their own frenzy. I can only take so much of any FOX station and must move it to another with a few real reporters instead of those whose own fortunes are made up of commentators who feed on fears, angst and hates of people who see a changing world and are frightened by their lack of control. I do know that media in general is considered "liberal leaning," but I have the discernment to note what is fact and what is opinion. Unfortunately, many people do not have the education or experience to make those comparisons. Today's news is generally provided by commentators who feel free to incorporate their bias rather than journalists who once concentrated on facts.

I have three main issues for this political campaign: I believe in universal health care and see the positive impacts of this legislation already. I believe a wealthy country can provide affordable health care (note, not free) to all its citizens for the sake of everyone. I would rather not push the grocery cart following those without health care who are carrying disease and illness that I'd rather not catch. Healthy children perform better in school and their brains and bodies develop better. They will be the future. Elderly need dignity at the end of their lives. Small businesses have pleaded for insurance policies they could afford to provide benefits to their employees. Romney has loudly proclaimed his first act is to repeal "Obamacare" though recently with dips in the polls he has changed his position, then the party changed it back, that he might keep the best parts from his perspective. Oh my...

I believe that my body is my own. No man is entitled to legislate whether abortion, birth control, or any other medical issue is appropriate for me or any other woman. Women need access to screening for their health care and medicine to meet their needs. It's been difficult enough to get medical research for specific women's health - in the past all medications were dispensed based on research according to men's bodies. While it appeared a joke when women suggested that men's bodies have the same attention to detail, it is difficult being a woman subject to men's evaluations of our place in the world. Fortunately, many more men are recognizing the value of women as partners; but the demeaning of women is still part and parcel to the right wing of political parties influenced by the religious right where man is king and head of the household by divine intervention. Of course, the Bible was written by men. Fortunately, Christ set a good example (that is often ignored) and so have other prophets in a few other more progressive religions.

The world today is complex. This economy has gone through a tremendous struggle. I lost everything I had saved, my job, and my opportunity to gain full time employment according to my talents under the Bush Administration. I shared the fear of many people to say anything negative about that administration for fear the FBI would appear at the door or the phone would be tapped. Anyone with an alternative opinion or question was labeled a "non-patriot" or "non-supportive to our troops" which was a lie. My friend did have such a visit in California. I lost the value, the real value not the inflated one, of my my home. I watched the downfall under President Bush and it was a terrible time of fear, uncertainty and the loss of dignity for many U.S. citizens and those who wished they were citizens. I have watched frenzies of hate created toward those who willingly did the worst jobs that no one else would do. I watched blame distributed everywhere but squarely on the shoulders of the excesses of the Bush Administration and the laxity in regulation of greedy, global corporations and the excesses in wealth shipped out of the country. I am not ignorant and I have substantial education and work experience credentials in the private and pubic sector, the military and civilian jobs, education and private business - more credentials than the average person with one career all their lives. I want no return to the experiences of the eight years under Bush. I won't repeat more.

I feel the chaos in the world that will continue and the continued need for forward progress in these United States needs consistent leadership that has borrowed from both political parties and is open to the needs of all the U.S. citizens, recognizing the needs of the least of us and those of the wealthiest. This is not the time to change to a party that has nothing better to offer than what is already in place. Anyone who admits it knows that no qualified republican would risk his future career by running against President Obama and that's why we had a field of unqualified candidates that left Romney as a place holder for the party. Again, I quote Grover Norquist, the wealthy lobbyist who controls the Republican contingent in congress, "we just need someone with enough digits to sign what we hand him." I heard that statement in a speech given by Grover Norquist and was in shock that he would admit so clearly that elected representatives did not represent their districts but were obligated to one non-elected lobbyist and the power of the money that pays for campaigns.

I did not fight in wars, but I worked for the 8th U.S. Army in Seoul, S. Korea from 1974 to 1979. Many of the men and women with whom I worked were veterans of the Korean War and the Viet Nam War and multiple other deployments. At that time S. Korea was under military curfew and a Korean Airlines cargo plane made an error and flew over the capitol and warning shots were fired. Shrapnell fell over the city. It was terrifying. I was picking up a retired military officer at a hotel; he had sought cover believing the city was under attack from the north while my driver hustled me to the cellar. I am a mother of three sons. I want a president who isn't a cowboy and thinks carefully about committing to war.

I have been unfriended on facebook because I no longer am quiet about the hate mongering and disrespect to this President. It started in the Congress and spread across the nation and has been fueled by the talk radio stations, most of which are owned by FOX. Today I heard former governor Charlie Crist say he was brought up to believe the Office of President was worthy of respect regardless of the party of its occupant and he was courteous to President Obama when he was in Florida and Crist was the Republican governor, grateful for the help provided to the desperate state in its time of economic crisis, hurricanes and BP oil spills. That's my belief.

I served the Republican Party as a political intern in Washington D. C. for the National Association of Manufacturers and studied to be a political lobbyist for the NAM. I was a fully indoctrinated Republican by the best. To quote Charlie Crist, I did not leave the Republican Party, they left me. I believe in fiscal responsibility and the minimum government to meet the needs of a civilized society. I believe that small businesses are the heart blood of a growing economy. I believe in time of economic stress the government needs to play a major role and then reduce that role in times of economic progress. I believe the second half has not been accomplished - growing government continues to grow. However, this is not the year to reduce government. I will fight for its reduction in future years when full employment and a fair taxing structure brings us to a balanced economy. Then, logically, government programs will lose their necessity.

Victor

Thank you for your answer. I voted for Bush and he did not steal the election.
It is easy to overlook my posts. I am a retired accountant and am direct and to the point.
I wonder if you missed my request for your birthday celebration date also?

I agree with Victor and Don, and apologize in case I have let my emotions get involved to the point that I overstepped. I try not to, and will work even harder to re-read my posts thoughtfully and edit before I post.

I think that we are approaching - in a broad way - something like the line between free speech and hate speech that is being discussed by the media right now, in connection with the crisis going on in the middle east. Please don't think I m saying that they are the same thing, or that anyone here is saying anything based on feelings of hatred for those who disagree with their political perspectives. I am only saying that maybe we could find something positive in all the current mess by focusing on objective debate. We feel strongly about the issues, and that is a good thing. We just need to remember that our friends with different experiences - and therefore different points of view - fell just as strongly, and have just as much of value to contribute.

Ann

Alice, I always see and respect your posts. I guess I am wordy. I want to be perfectly clear. My stepmom taught me about hate: it's like trying to hand someone a piece of hot charcoal; you get burned first. I feel no hate in my heart, ever, thanks to the beauty of her soul - she had plenty of reason to hate but lived each day well, seeing only love around her. She shaped my heart to be accepting and tolerant, yet passionate about my own beliefs.

I really believe that how we treat our fellow travelers on this journey is a reflection of our character. Those who hang onto their wealth with no desire to share with the less fortunate lose ground in my heart, and that includes people I love and care about.

I once had excessive wealth and privilege. It was a lot easier than today's life of counting pennies; yet, I believe I have known more joy in the years since the wealth disintegrated than in the years surrounded by excess. I know who my friends are; I know who loves me. I know the joy of the simplest things and that no amount of material success brings real happiness; real happiness is being surrounded by the the blessings of the natural world and the family and friends who sustain each other.

I also know that just a step below my lifestyle is hunger, illness, and desperation among those without sufficient resources to even provide food for their families. There but for accidents of life, go any of us. I must do my part for my fellow travelers, however small it might be. My beloved stepmother gave all her food to the food bank to help those with less than her; I found her drinking Slim fast because she had no money for fruits or vegetables. I had to watch her - she would give away the clothes in her closet. I started having the clothes I bought her stitched with names of her grandchildren so she would not give them away.

I'm sorry to say that those of my Republican friends that still remain are not feeling generous toward those with little, whether the friend is religious, wealthy or both. They share a feeling of their perfection that makes them deserving of their comfort - and others less deserving. I don't like that in them. I would rather be labeled a "do-gooder liberal" than a cold-hearted right wing republican. I'm neither.

My friends are so obtuse as they describe their great choices in life; they have no idea how they are damning me for the choices I have made that led to my financial demise. Yes, I chose to help someone else in need, a family member, and it broke me the same as illness breaks many families today - before the Affordable Care Act. So, I am "less than" because I made poor choices for my own financial future. So, those friends want to meet at restaurant I cannot afford and offer to pay; "meet me at XXX; my treat." They take me shopping with them to pick out their exhorbitant decorator items. They suggest we go in their car to the event at a local hotel because "valets treat you better if drive a Lexus instead of Hyundai." They just don't get it.

DK,

No one can say it as clearly as you can. I understand. No one can fully sympathize or identify with another unless they are in the same shoes.

Its the same way with health--blame yourself if you lost it. They have great health and it is easier to blame than realize it could and will happen to them.

One friend's young daughter came to my modest home for me to help her with some homework and give her mom a free day. She came in the door and said in all innocence, "why isn't your house pretty like ours?" My home is modest but styled comfortably. Her home is like a palace with columns and marble floors and granite counters and oversize furniture and 16 foot ceilings and rooms opening onto the pool with the lake beyond. My little house would fit in her living room. Her mom drives a BMW and I swear they own stock in Disneyland from the number of cruises and trips to the park. I'm glad for their life of privilege; my friend is a gracious and hard-working person who deserves the life she had made for herself. My young friend has coach purses and label clothes. I just smiled. She's a sweet girl. We are shaped by the environment in which we live and will judge life and others by that experience unless we look for a broader point of view and a deeper understanding of our reason for walking this earth.

Diane, both your posts tell me who you are. You have every right to voice your views/opinions and to point out the wrong that exists. I believe that people who complain truly care. Those that say nothing, either don't care or have no opinion of value.

I happen to agree with what you said in your posts. When speaking out, one can expect resistance. That resistance if often caused by truths that cause someone discomfort.

I encourage you to speak your mind. It is a mind with wisdom.

Thanks for your insights.

What Abe said.

Don, Thank you, and God Bless you for your service and your voice.

I've said it before and am glad to say it again. I love this forum! (Thank you, Shelagh). And I certainly respect the grace and eloquence of our colleagues here--both the brief, to the point (Alice, Joe, Abe et. al.) and those who, like me, sometimes go on a bit, but with more clarity (and perhaps more sense) than I.

9/14/2012

I understand DK's thoughts and Alice's thoughts, I have lived a middle class life what was a middle class life now seem to be getting harder with the price of food and gas skyrocketing, yesterday gas was here $3.55 today $3.65 when it's going to stop I don't know, I do know they'll use the middle east as an excuse, to me a very poor excuse and someone has to do something fast because many people travel a great distance to get to work, food shop. Here where I live you don't have buses near by and their slow as a donkey ! Where I shop is five minutes away a mall with ALbertsons, Sunflower Market ( like a Trader Joes) Pharmacy, Ross Dress For Less, etc. I try not to use the car too much if I want to go to as they call them here big box stores I do it once a month the nursery is less than two miles,so I try to fill up twice a month, before I retired I filled up three times a week in order to go to work.What takes five minutes by car , I tried one time walking to the store which took twenty minutes and it was hell on me because I have a heart condition, I never tried that one again. But as I've realized over the decades poliiticians lie to the public and the public accepts it which disturbs me, we have to be more demanding and call them on the carpet every three months, do a report card on every dam politician in this country if they get an F in everything they do then they loose their job no second chances. Plus take away their perks they make more than enough money to pay for health care, lunches, haircuts,oh yes and cut their staff in half no need for a politician to have all these people doing their dirty work ! So dear friends we're all in the same boat, only God knows whats going to happen, oh yes I read late tonight that the Govt. is on high alert their afraid of mass demonstrations in this country by the arabs..I do say that the idiot who made that film should be thrown in jail or sent to one of the arab countries to be dealt with...

Cheers..Joe...