This appears to be the mantra of the new Obama administration every time they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  They say that they are going to monitor the new stimulus money to make sure that the companies receiving it uses it responsibly and do not waste it.  After all, it is taxpayer dollars being used.  By the way, shouldn't every American receive shares of all of these companies as collateral or something?

Recently, AIG gave bonuses to some more of their executives for doing such a "great job".  Some of the executives do not even work for the company any longer.  The language was put into the bill by Chris Dodd from Connecticut.  Wait a minute, doesn't AIG have corporate offices in Connecticut?  I am sure that it is just a coincidence.  But, I do wonder who received the most campaign contributions from AIG during the last election cycle?  Let's see, who could that be? That's right, it was Chris Dodd, Mr. Countrywide mortgage deal guy himself.  I am sure that it was just another coincidence.  After all, Mr. Dodd is really tight with Barney Frank and both of them are financial geniuses who swore up and down that Fannie and Freddie were very sound financially, so I am sure that the campaign donations had nothing to do with the language in the stimulus package.  Yeah, right!

Well, at least our government is making sure that France does not get any of taxpayer's stimulus money.  Oops again.  As it turns out, AIG gave $15BILLION to French banks.  I know, I know....that's what AIG does.  It insures banks against loses in investments that were touted as stable by Dodd and Frank.  But that was with private money before.  Now, it is with United States taxpayer money.  Our children's money.  Why doesn't France give AIG some bailout money, I mean stimulus money to bailout their own banks?  Then again, why should they when the United States will do it for them.

Now, Obama says that starting next time our government will make sure that we do not waste any stimulus money.  That's right, there will be a next time because the stimulus plan will not stimulate the economy so Congress is considering, yet, another stimulus.  By the way, that is why they stopped calling it a stimulus package, it is now called something like the American reinvestment, no wait....the American...forget it, I can't keep up.  It is like our government calling "global warming" climate change now because it has been getting colder.

Well, at least our new government came up with a reasonable budget....wait for it..that's right, it is the biggest budget in United States history.  My question is this, why do we need such a big budget if we just spent TRILLIONS of our children's dollars?  I think that, at least, some of the money would have offset what would have been needed in our regular budget.  You really can't blame the government because Timothy Geitner has been working really hard, after all, he is the only guy in his office.  People that are slated to work for him either back out or have too many problems to get appointed to his office.  The Treasury Department is like the Bermuda Triangle of government.

When are "we the people" going to realize that we have to stop electing and re-electing these "politicians"?  We have the power to change all of this but we must use it in order for it to work.  When are we going to realize that our "elected officials" are so in bed with the lobbyists and special interest groups that "we the people" do not matter to them.  They know that we are going to elect them again because that is what we do.  I said it during our last campaign and I am sure that I will be saying it during this campaign, "the only special interest group that should be in Washington, D.C. should be the American people."

Thank you and God Bless the United States of America,

Edward

Remember when you were a child and you got in trouble for doing something stupid and you tried to defend your position by stating the ever popular, "well my friends are doing it."  To which your parents would state, the just as popular, "If all of your friends were jumping off a bridge would you do it too?" You wanted to answer "yes" but you knew that was the wrong answer.  Today I was watching the usual news channels with all of the political pundits going on, as they always do, about the government.  I noticed that no matter what the subject matter there seemed to be a constant answer.  The answer was, "Well, that is what we got when the Republicans were in charge." 

Nancy Pelosi recently came under fire for using our armed services as her personal air force.  She was adamant about our government keeping large planes ready for her use.  She also got some heat for trying to take her husband on a trip to Iraq with her.  When the "pundits" were asked about this they replied that this is the same thing that happened when there was a Republican Speaker of the House.

Today, President Obama, behind closed doors, signed our nation's $410 billion spending bill.  This spending bill has over 8500 earmarks.  That is right..over eight thousand, five hundred earmarks.  When Democratic leaders and pundits were asked about all of these earmarks, their response was, "well, 40% of them are from the Republicans."  Stinking less does not mean that you don't stink. By the way, Obama signed this bill despite his promise to end earmarks and make the government more transparent and more ethical.  Nancy Pelosi promised the same thing yet they had to use the Freedom of Information Act to get the information about "Pelosi Airlines".  President Obama should have been a man of his word and vetoed this bill and demanded that all earmarks to be removed.

When many of the members of President Obama's administration came under scrutiny for tax problems, their response was that the Republicans were just as bad.  When Barney Frank came under scrutiny about his complete and thorough buffoonery regarding his responsibilities on the Financial Services Committee, his response was that it was the Bush administration's policies that caused all of the problems.

When Democrats come under fire for anything they have a tendency to blame the "failed polices of the Bush administration".  However, let us not forget that Democrats have been in charge of the House of Representatives since 2006.  Since then, they have set the agenda for bills to be presented on the floor for debate, they have come up with the budget and they have put in the earmarks (not the President).

Now, elected official must do their job, you know the one that we are paying them for.  They need to stop the blame game and do not use the excuse that it is alright for them to continue with their illegal activities, their tax evasion, their paying off special interest groups with political favors for campaign donations, their doing nothing on the taxpayer dollar, their not living in the state that they are supposed to represent, their cavorting with bad people, and all of the other despicable acts.  You know who they are.  This is not "change we can believe in", this is being a coward and doing what they want because all of their friends "are jumping off of bridges."  This is politics as usual, it has to end and we have the power to end it.  We did not do it in 2008, we must in 2010 because these leopards are not going to change their spots.  These times call for real leaders; leaders of business..leaders of men...let's elect them.

May God bless you and the United States of America,

Edward

First of all, I would like to clear up a few items.  Were there failed policies of the Bush Administration?  Perhaps, in fact, for the sake of argument, let us say yes.  The last eight years....blah, blah, blah.  Let us also consider that, despite these so called failed policies, the citizens in our country were doing pretty well up until 2006 and were kept safe since 2001.  What changed?  You guessed it, we elected a Democratic Congress.  That is not to say that our congress acted democratically, more correctly, our Congress was run by the Democrats.  Nancy Pelosi and her cronies would not allow a single substantive debate regarding any of the major issues that we are having to deal with right now.  In fact, we were told by Barney Frank that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in great financial shape.  Either he was too stupid to know any better or he knew what was going on and chose to do nothing about it because democrats believe that every American is entitled to own a house, whether or not they can afford it.  I do not care which is the case, either way he should not be in charge of the financial services committee, nor should he even be a congressman.  This is just one example, there are many others.

You see, the majority party in congress has the responsibility of setting the agenda with regard to which items will be placed on the schedule to be discussed, debated and ultimately voted on.  Remember the "drill here, drill now" mantra?  Congress was never allowed to vote on that due to the fact that Nancy Pelosi did not want to, period.  Our government has gone from being a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" to being a government "of the politician, by the majority party and for the special interest groups who put them there".  This is not the way our founding fathers wanted it and this is not the way to solve our problems.  It has been said that those that fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it, and our politicians (for lack of a better word) are playing a dangerous game with the futures of our children and grand-children.

Let me be clear, we can not spend our way out of this economic recession, soon to be a depression.  Japan tried for 10 years and now they are in a major depression.  They have a GDP growth rate of -10%, during the great depression we had a GDP growth rate of between -2% to -12%.  When companies do a bad job, they need to fail, no matter who they are or how big they are.  We can not bailout these companies because; number one, it probably will not work; and number two, if we take all of the risk out of being in business we will promulgate this corruption that has run so rampant throughout our big businesses, Wall Street and, most importantly, our government.  Forget special interests, the only special interest that there should be in Washington in us, the people.

Let me tell you straight up, this culture of corruption does not know race, it does not know sex, it does not know religion, and it does not know party affiliation.  There are bad people on both sides of the aisle because our government, like big businesses, got too big for their own britches and lost sight of their priorities.  In 2006, we Republicans got slapped around and it was a sobering wake up call.  Unfortunately, it was a little too late and we lost in 2008 also.  But, let there be no mistake about it, we are awake now and there are some good people ready to put our government back where it should be..in the hands of  "the people". 

It is time for us to take back our government from those who continue to game the system for their own selfish political and financial gain. Now, hear what I just said, we need to take it back.  Our politicians are not going to just give it back because we have let them have a good life off of us citizens for far too long, besides, if we eliminate lobbyists, most of them will not be qualified to work anywhere else.  By take it back I mean we need to "vote the bums out".  We have got to stop being so ignorant as to say that, "I have voted Democrat (or Republican) all of my life and that is how I am going to vote".  That is just plain stupid.  Why would you vote for some criminal just because they are affiliated with one party or the other?  If you were on jury duty on a trial for someone who was accused of harming a child, and the evidence against them was overwhelming, would you cast your vote as not guilty just because of their political affiliation?  Well, that is exactly what you are doing every time you vote for one of these criminal incumbents.

Let me give you an example.  I am running for congress in one of the most Democratic districts in our nation against an incumbent who has been our "representative" for over 12 years.  In 12 years, he has not passed a single bill; he has broken his oath to uphold the constitution by not even living in our state; he is being investigated by the F.B.I. for money laundering; he is very connected to the impeached Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich; he received serious illegal campaign contributions from Harry Sargeant III and that is only the tip of the iceberg.  But he holds one of the safest seats in Congress because of the demographics of his district.  Am I saying these things because I am running against him?  Absolutely not! I am running against him because of these things.  Is it a tough, uphill battle?  You bet, but my kids and your kids deserve a better congressman than this.

Do you want to talk about change?  Well, I do too.  This type of situation around the country needs to change but, it is up to us to change it.  We need to get more involved in our government.  We need to find out the truth about our elected officials.  We can not rely on the fact that someone belongs to a certain party so they must be good or bad.  We must hold our elected officials accountable and we must tell them, as Donald Trump did so many times on his television show, "You're fired", when they fail to adequately represent us. 

Remember, we may get the government that we deserve but let's make sure that we give our children the government that they deserve.... and this is not it.

May God bless you, our children, our troops and the United States of America,

Edward