18 Days to E-Day

RAIN Minus 18

Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese (former Orlando Sentinel columnist)

“Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we still have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices; 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!”

Say it ain’t so, Joe: "Joe the Plumber" isn't really a plumber. As the result of the mention of his name more than two dozen times in the 90-minute presidential debates, and Senator McCain’s tongue in cheek remark that he has fired his entire staff and replaced them with Joe the Plumber, he reached instant stardom. An internet company began selling “Joe the Plumber” tee shirts, baseball caps, buttons, and yard signs. But it seems that Joe got the same amount of pre-star status vetting as did the VP candidate – little to none. Turns out Joe the Plumber is actually a guy named Sam – Samuel J. Wurzenbacher, an unlicensed and unregistered employee of a small plumbing and heating company in suburban Toledo, Ohio. Had the McCain handlers set up their opponent with Joe, uh, Sam? A senior adviser to the McCain campaign said it had been in contact with the plumber before the debate but it apparently failed to look carefully into his background before McCain made an unwitting celebrity of him. Before the debate was even finished, three local television stations had parked live satellite trucks outside his home and the networks were rushing to interview him. He was portrayed as an “ordinary Joe,” a proxy for working people and an ordinary American.

Biggest plumber’s leak since Watergate: “Every Joe” turned out to be a 34-year-old plumber's assistant – not a registered plumber but a registered Republican with a quick racist remark that Barack Obama "can tap dance - almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr." Setting his toiletries aside, Joe/Sam the non-registered plumber shook hands with Senator Obama and told him he wants to buy the business he works for which would increase his income and therefore his taxes, although it turns out that higher taxes aren’t his only problem. There is no record of him in the database of the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, he is not registered to work as a plumber in Ohio, he had a lien against him by the Ohio Department of Taxation in January, 2007, for failing to pay $1,183 in property taxes. To add more egg to their faces, the business manager of the Toledo local of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters & Service Mechanics issued a statement complaining Joe the Plumber hadn't even undergone apprenticeship training.

A little blogging music Maestro… The odie by the late Rick Nelson, ”Fools Rush In.”

Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com

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