Dear President Obama,
Who are you trying to please?
The people who elected you or the people who thought you were the anti-Christ before you got elected and still haven't changed their minds?
Please do what is best for the country, you are the leader. Don't let yourself be led around by those who wish to continue bankrupting our country (and ruining other countries) due to the War on Drugs, which is exacerbating every problem the prohibitionists decry, or those who think that somehow a single-payer system is going to end up costing each of us more for healthcare while reducing what's available. How is it not obvious that if we ALL pool our resources, we can cover everyone and better than we do now?
What did the Founding Fathers pledge to each other?
• Continuously shop for the lowest labor costs.
• Always figure out the most expensive prices vendors can charge.
• Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
• Our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
• Exploit natural resources for the benefit of a few.
• Legislate and force their religions—or professed abstinence from—on others.
Yes, they pledged their lives, FORTUNES, and sacred honor to each other. We all live in this country but I feel more like it's a pack of wolves hunting the prey and fighting each other for dominance. Any sense of teamwork we had was killed off by the hateful, crying "commie," "socialist." Don't you think it's ironic that many of these people's parents gladly took their belongings to collection points and gave them away for free to be melted down and used as communal property to fight Hitler? Seems to me the way some think now, they hate what their parents did, it was not capitalistic, they should have sold it to our begging government. They probably wish their parents could've sold their old brass spitoons on eBay to whatever govt. agency was the highest bidder.
To pretend corruption and conflict of interest doesn't exist or "won't happen" is foolish. This is why those who designed our govt. put checks and balances in place.
You really need to whip the Congress into shape, they've been practicing the removal of checks and balances for decades! Give them a tongue lashing, which does not need to be public, pick them up and set them back down 180° from how they seem pointed.
All those people shouting "Nazi" and such… Here is the ONLY comparison I see.
You are well aware that hateful Hitler's loud mouth and minion convinced many people that the Gypsies were bad, the Jews were bad, the blacks were bad, etc… I'm sure many of them thought, "gee, others must feel this way too" and they went along with the bullies. After WWII many ordinary Germans were sorry they went along with it.
The comparison I see is that some of the loud-mouths are basically just describing themselves, and those in the upper echelons of political power are just like the mild-mannered Germans who were overtaken by the bullies.
Get out the charts and graphs, do like the senators do up at the front of Congress with their huge placards. Show people the dire straights we're in and rushing towards!
C'mon! What did Bob Marley sing? "Wake up! Stand up! Stand up for your rights!" Well, you are president and you have a whole lot more rights to get things done and get the message out than many of us who voted for you. This is why we voted for you, so you could do them. We didn't vote for you, so you would do the will of those who DID NOT vote for you.
In any case, it's my firm belief that many of these 50 & 60 somethings who are screaming loudest will benefit the most from cutting down the unfruitful for-profit healthcare system that benefits from denying coverage so they can pay bonuses and stock dividends to a miniscule percentage of our population.
Like I wrote in another essay. The cops DO NOT care who the backseat driver was who told the driver to ______ that led to the accident. They only care about the person in control. And you are in control. (At least 1/3 of it.) But you are the "head," so you need to stick your neck out every once in a while. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.
Tips on who to contact:
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition for lots of statistics on this failed Drug War.
http://LEAP.cc/
MPP - The hosts of one of the groups to which I will post this essay. A source of more information.
http://MPP.org/
Bill Moyers and Wendell Potter - at least watch the interview Bill conducted; but invite them both over for huge insight in to the healthcare issue.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html
Respectfully,
Andrew Bairnsfather
P.S. As usual you are welcome to contact me directly, however, I am sure I will just point you at others who know more than I do.
The country of Irate yesterday announced it had launched, "The Finger," an enormous missile, in a show of defiance at the ability to learn from others' mistakes.
Irate's Supremely Exalted Leader I-Yah-Tol’-Y’all I-Was-Ah-Nut-Job shouted, "We are a great super-power! We don't care about seismic activity in our country, the fact we have sunshine nearly 24 hours a day, and that oil that bubbles up to the surface of our wonderful land during earthquakes.
"What do we care about all those sources of energy at our fingertips when we could create toxins of such a strength, in our own borders, that cause hair to fall out very quickly?
"We demand to make the same mistakes the Great Satan has made. We will build nuclear power plants at huge expense and have incessant infighting on where to store the waste.
"We will be sure to waste tens of billions of dollars, taxed from citizens, and hand it over as a jobs program to those in the nuclear sector, thus ensuring our country has high-paying jobs.
"We have studied the Great Satan closely and our conclusion is we will mimic their current status of being like a cluster of ticks sucking on each other."
"What do we care about our neighbors and their concerns about our rockets falling on them. We are ready to sacrifice our children's future by paying for massive weapons and racing to build bigger and more destructive devices, like the U.S. leaders and military. Do I expect to be around in 80 years and have to pay off the bills? Ha ha ha. Like them I plan on retiring before I have any grey hair.
"Who knows, our rockets may even fall on us, but I've got a bunker! Shacks and houses are for the little people. Mighty mansions are for those God favors.
"I recommend all you imperialist swine watch the video below of how our great country of Irate plans on taking advantage of our citizens, in your footsteps.
"Long live nuclear waste!"
See the video here.
I have not read extensively about this issue or heard your comments.
But my first thought about people who want to see more photographs of prisoners being abused is, surely we've seen a representative sample of the awful things that happened. Aren't those who did it punished or in the process of?
I would say to those who want to see the unreleased photos, "use your imaginations sickos. Let those sitting in judgment (official judgment) have access to all of them, but let there be closure, and justice, to this episode."
By the way, how's progress on my list of suggestions going?
(sarcasm on)
The government's plan to ensure teenagers deal drugs is working really well!
Continue to make marijuana illegal so that adults do not want to get caught, and use kids as their proxies.
I guess you could make the punishments for dealing drugs as harsh for teens as it is for adults; maybe what is needed is more heavy-handed punishment, you know what they say, "spare the rod…"
The only problem I foresee with making penalties for teen dealers the same as adults, is that this will cause the adults to use pre-teens as their proxies.
But what the hey? The govt. has been ignoring common sense and the obvious for decades! Why change? Maybe you should just make penalties for pre-teen dealers just as harsh as those for adults!
Hm… Maybe what you should recommend is making the penalties for pre-teen and teen dealers outrageously harsh, harsher than for the adults! This could keep the adults from using kids as their proxies.
I've read posts on the Internet from the Religion Against Marijuana (RAM) crowd who think there should be the death penalty for drug dealers. Public executions, just like the old days, ahh the old days. How many children do you think the RAM crowd needs to kill in public before the adults who used them as proxies will stop doing so?
I think all you need to do is volunteer the heavy handed tactics and they will gladly go along with them! Don't call it water boarding, call it "bong boarding," be like former administrations and just invent clever names to disguise what you are doing. Make George Orwell proud.
(/sarcasm off)
You know the racist wolves that surround you are astonished at your authority and can't help but think to themselves, "I sure wish we'd caught his bony behind red-handed snorting or smoking! He sure wouldn't be where he is now!"
I was deeply saddened to hear you tease the notion of ending the prohibition on marijuana and the greed inspired violence, and keeping all the money trading hands in the untaxed black market. Clearly there are millions of people who benefit from this plant, as a medicine or religious sacrament, or both.
The biggest issue you will have to deal with when ending marijuana prohibition are the people dressed in black who will hate you for it, even though they are the high priests of RAM and supposedly hate the supposed harm it causes, they will go to great lengths to cause harm and make it look as though it's due to marijuana. Parallels to this have been written about in many stories, portrayed in numerous TV shows, and movies, and you can see it in action in the current season of Heroes on NBC (2009).
Drew
P. S. Our own govt. scientists have concocted something from the marijuana plant and found it prevents neurological problems like my Dad is experiencing. What is the hold up?! Why should some school-yard-mentality bullies have the power to keep my Dad (and many others) in a state of suffering?! Patent #6,630,507. The main caveat here is my Dad is not a big fan of pills, I also feel he is not into smoking. But my mother is a good cook. I have many religious reasons too for ending prohibition, but will not share them here, now. Feel free to contact me any time.
Dear Brother Barack,
The "war on drugs" was not started as some half-hearted attempt to overthrow a dictator.
The "war on drugs" has had dozens of decades of money, human might, weapons, and propaganda thrown at it.
The "war on drugs" has already had decades of "surges" applied to it.
Do not fall for the lame logic that continues to whisper in the ears of power, "if we could just have more money, we'd win," or "if we could just send in more troops with a surge against the cartels, we'd win." You are only the latest in a long line to hear those lines. Those doing so are more addicted than the worst offenders. In fact, I would say that many of them are in the same boat as the cartels who don't want this war to end, and many of them are in their pockets too!
Call in LEAP and hear from folks who have been involved in this battle for their whole careers!
Who put your in power? Was it donations from big pharmaceutical companies? Was is huge alcohol vendors run by people with so many houses they don't know how many they own? Was it the privatized prison system that is interested in bigger and bigger profits?
Even though I am not a doctor and have very little medical training, I am sure that in the past doctors tried potent "downers" on hyperactive children. But after lots of experimenting, you know what? They found that ritalin, a "stimulant" of some sort, was what made hyperactive children calm down! What's the moral of this little story? Sometimes the solution is ironic.
Call LEAP today, here are some names to ask for: Howard, Jack, Norm, Peter, Matt (many more).
Since you are a man of prayer, here is a religious perspective. Who came out to defeat Goliath? Was it someone even bigger? Or was it some kid? Something totally unexpected, laughed at and scorned by the leaders, and seemingly totally underpowered?
Where was the King of the Universe born? In a marble palace with a silver spoon in his mouth on silk sheets to beautiful and famous parents? Um, not according to the story! He was born in a smelly barn, his bassinet was a feeding trough for large animals, his young-teen mother was considered by some to have slept around, later he was homeless and wandered around without any visible job. The irony!
Here is a pop-culture fiction reference. What brought down the invaders in "War of the Worlds?" Was it bombs? Was it tanks? Was it a surge of army men dressed in black, kicking in doors unexpectedly?
Please consider ending this war to be parallel to how many have viewed political elections (before you came along). Many people did not like either option, either candidate, they just "voted for the lesser evil."
Surely it should be obvious by now that the ills that prohibition was designed to combat have spawned significantly more serious ills!
Begin by ending the government-imposed unconstitutional religion of hate against marijuana. People undergoing cancer treatment could be benefitting, perhaps people like my Dad who is, I'm told, getting Alzheimer's disease could benefit--or at least partake in studies, and many other people suffering who are currently hiding, could come to the light and share their experiences, for the scientific advancement of society. The only people winning now are the weapons vendors, the adrenaline junkies, the non-taxpaying black market traders, vicious cartels, for-profit prisons, and big pharma.
You don't have to like, or agree with the cartels, but putting them in "suits," regulating them, and taxing them is much better than the accelerating downhill slide that prohibition has caused since its inception, and this includes Prohibition version 1, and Prohibition version 2!
Don't believe for one second this "sends the wrong message to children." Those who are actually children (vs. teenagers…) will not even know what is going on. It won't be on their radar at all. Do I remember self-adulation of adults patting themselves on the back about the message they were sending children, when I was a child? Ha! I thought adults were boring, talked about boring things, and I couldn't wait to get back to video games, board games, reading, climbing trees, etc… This is, and will be, an adult hang-up. Do you remember Nixon's antics? If you were like most kids at the time, you probably were more interested in basketball, music, and other social issues.
I could go on and on with reasons. But I've written enough for today. Please, again, give this serious thought. I am not asking you to enter a beauty contest or popularity contest. I am sure there are many like me who are ready to pack up and leave the US if our best shot at leadership just falls in with the same-old same-old crowd of power and money abusers, whose minds seem beyond repair from drunken self-righteous power and money grabbing while continuing to ignore our very own Declaration of Independence and Constitution and the facts that are before us.
Respectfully, Drew.
P.S. You may call me any time.
I am not an expert in stem cells, so I am willing to go along with the notion that stem cells are important.
But I must say that "bud" cells are very much worth investigating too!
In fact, some botanists would say the only reason for stem cells is so they can produce bud cells!
Dear Barack, you can help stop the suffering! Act now!
My Dad, whom I love, is turning 81 soon and is supposedly getting Alzheimer's. Each year, for decades, he spends months figuring out complex tax codes, a waste of a time for someone who wrote the software that got men off the moon. He does NOT spend months doing taxes because he has off-shore accounts, or oodles of businesses or holdings, he was an electrical engineer (forced into early retirement) and anal, and someone who loves the USA.
Do you know how angry I am?!!!
Take away the shame and illegal laws against a plant that could help him! A plant! We're not talking some strange concoction that comes out of a spigot off of some strange refining, distilling, apparatus, a Rube Goldburg machine! A plant! Bud cells off the end of some stem cells!
I liked your speech tonight.
Keep up the good work.
-Drew
Taking a risk here... posting a quick update to my previous post. I added what I hope are some more convincing reasons. However, the post can now be found here:
Since y'all are considering spending a bunch of money, want to see it come back to you, want to help society and promote green energy and green jobs, then this idea is for you!
How do tax cuts help people who regularly eat cans of beans? Are they spending a lot of money?
How do tax cuts help people who keep their thermostat at 45°F, 7° C ?
The tax system is complicated beyond control. It is a waste in and of itself. We are overrun by people who promote complexity versus simplification. Please see the other short essay I wrote: Dear Barack, I Doubt Your Nominees Are the Problem. Complex Tax Codes Are!.
Need any one else besides me who says that? Here are people who make money from this unneeded complexity.
(I'm not sure it's possible to fully convey how hideous the color of this ad is.) Due to some limitation somewhere I had to change the way I was showing these graphics... please now see them in this other short essay: Complex Tax Code Madness Breeds Corruption
I have heard a few reasons why there are some people who want lots of tax cuts.
Today I want to share with you something I've been noticing for a few decades now. This is not to say you are not a smart man, but I wanted to mention it anyway, since I am sure you are now being especially manipulated in this way.
For quite some time I've noticed that various people use the tone of their voice and how loud they talk, to assume an air of authority or righteousness.
This is most easily seen in various TV interviews, but I am sure it's happening all around you now. When a person in the wrong, or with faulty logic, is asked a question, often they will talk in a monotone voice that's an attempt to portray, "I am really a nerd who knows more than you, let me now talk in a monotone voice to baffle you with BS, and hopefully you will forget what I'm talking about as I hypnotize you with my monotone talking."
In conclusion, please don't think I am saying all monotone talkers are just trying to hide something. I am saying that it's but one strategy used by those in the wrong.
Dear Barack,
While I am not an expert in the matter of your appointments, and I am not an expert in taxes, I must tell you this.
OUR TAX CODES ARE SERIOUSLY SCREWED UP AND BORDER ON EVIL! If not actually going over that line!
I am willing to go with your first choices for these jobs. I am willing to overlook misc. infractions.
I heard that before being officially asked to take the position you offered, Mr. Daschle checked with his accountant to make sure his tax situation was ok. It seems it wasn't. Well the first thing that popped in my head was, "how can his accountant be an accountant, if the accountant is not accountable!" Isn't the accountant paid to make sure the taxes are paid and other things relating to finances?!
So now Mr. Daschle is humiliated due to his accountant not doing his/her job.
What sense does this make?
What is the moral of this story?
OUR EVIL TAX CODES ARE TOO BURDENSOME TO KNOW IF THEY ARE BEING FOLLOWED OR NOT!!!
You know things are screwed up when even accountants can't follow them!
I am NOT saying taxes are evil, that's a discussion for another day. But how they are implemented is something only the devil loves. TAX EVERYONE THE SAME PERCENTAGE! This is only fair.
Maybe Tom is responsible somehow for the current state of the tax codes, and this is just one example of what Jesus says, "when the blind lead the blind, the both fall in a pit." But maybe not, maybe he's totally innocent, I have no idea, and I don't consider it important for me to know.
What I DO consider important is you follow my advice in Dear Barack Obama and simplify our tax codes, even to the point of a flax tax where everyone pays the same percentage.
From what I've heard, you're a man who believes in parts of the Bible. I URGENTLY ADVISE you to take a look at Matthew 23, and in particular Matthew 23:3-6. It is clear one of the things that falls under Jesus' anger are the lawgivers putting heavy burdens on us (expecting us to be able to understand our tax codes), but don't lift a finger themselves. How many politicians do you think do their own taxes? I bet NONE. I bet they pay "accountants" to do their taxes for them! Now what sense does it make when the accountants don't even understand, or follow those tax codes because they are so complicated?
Here is what God says in the Bible: fix things, make them simple and straight forward.
You are the leader now, please lead. So what if there are some jerks who choose not to follow? As long as you are headed in the right direction it doesn't matter. It is the proverbial fool's errand to try to get everyone to agree with you, some people are stubborn just to be stubborn, like a child, testing the parents' resolve. Some people have a crooked conflict of interest they are hiding. Whatever the case is, being open is a great start, educating the public is a great start, reading my list I link to above is a great start.
Please! Things are too desperate to sit around watching football!
You are welcome to contact me at any time.
Dear Mr. President, I want to be hopeful, I want to our country to do well, I want archivists to not have to goof around with proprietary data formats.
I was upset to read that your inauguration was being broadcast using a MonopolistS proprietary video format.
Please live up to your promises for openness; openness in its many forms. And this includes using and promoting open, publicly documented protocols and file formats. At least use codecs that are controlled by Standards Organizations, and not one company.
Thank you, Drew.
Months ago i started a list of things I want to see government leadership address. (I wish I could say my list was complete, without spelling errors, or grammatical errors. But I've worked to be concise.)
I have divided my list into two parts:
