Sunday, January 13, 2008

TWO HILLARYs!

Today, I was watching Tim Russert's "Meet The Press" program, and his guest was Democratic Party's Presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

After the first few minutes into the program, I noticed something strange:

Hillary was using the words "I", "Me" and "US (as in her and Bill Clinton)" at an alarmingly large number of times! Almost as if she was obsessed with herself!

Over the years, I had admired Hillary for her bold stands on issues, and her commitment to issues related to children and poverty in particular, and her commitment to act on behalf of these two unrepresented constituencies. All along, I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to it than met the eye, but I could not put my finger on it.

Today, I did!

I saw two Hillarys:

One Hillary is the one she believes in and portrays as an honest, dedicated, caring and compassionate person;

The other Hillary is the one we all see in real life: self-justifying, obfuscating, conniving and in a convenient context that she has created for herself, on her own terms!

Throughout the hour of justifications of her position on Iraq war and velvet-glove attacks on Barak Obama, the underlying message was "ME, ME and MINE".

While attacking Obama on his 2002 anti-war speech and his subsequent "support" of the war in 2005, 2006 and 2007, she conveniently side-stepped the fact that she not only AUTHORIZED this obscene war, but supported it all along.

Never did I hear one word of regret of her position, other than saying that she made a mistake of believing in Bush! This sounds like a convenient way to cover up her own REAL mistake in pre-authorizing the war!

On the other hand, when I was watching Barak Obama's speeches - the victory speech in Iowa and the concession speech in New Hampshire- I noticed that he used the words "You" and "Us" almost all the time and used "Me" and "Mine" very rarely.

Could it explain the fundamental difference between these two candidates? I believe it does.

Honesty counts, and it counts even more so in this Presidential election than at any other time, because DISHONESTY is what has brought us to these perilous times!

Perhaps more revealing than this convenient logic is her serious lapse of knowledge of our Constitution! Our Constitution expressly PROHIBITS an unprovoked and pre-emptive war against any nation in the world. It also prohibits the Congress from delegating the authority to declare a war to the President of the United States. This is one of the major pillars of the separation of powers.

One would think that being a graduate of Law School and a practicing Lawyer for many years, Hillary would know and understand our Constitution. It appears that such is not the case. If she had any doubt about these fundamental tenets of our Constitution, all she had to do is to WALK THE FEW STEPS to the doyen of Constitution, Senator Robert Byrd, who would have set her on a straight path.

There is one more issue that is gnawing at the conscience of "We, the People". That is the issue of political dynasties. So far, we have had twelve years of George H.W. Bush and 7 DISASTROUS YEARS of George w. Bush. In between these two, we have 8 years of Bill Clinton, and subsequently 8 years of Hillary Clinton in the Senate! Counting in this year as Bush's last year in office, that comes to the dynastic rule of two families for 36 years!

Is this what we want in our government? Are we to assume that there are no other competent people in our country qualified and willing to serve our country as President? Unless we accept the cockamamie idea of genetic superiority, the resounding answer is "NO"!

At present, Barak Obama has shown the courage, charisma, intelligence and the fortitude to stand up to such a formidable political machine. If we decide to get away from the toxic dose of tokenism and racism, and for a moment put aside the fact that Hillary is a woman, and no woman has ever been elected as a President, and also that Barak Obama is an African-American, and no African American has ever been elected as a President, it stands to reason that we should choose the most qualified and competent person to pull our country out of the current mess and lead us to a better future for the next 4 -or possibly 8- years.

One of the most important qualification would be to know, understand and appreciate our Constitution and to take the oath of office that formally declares the obedience to the Constitution of the United States. It is an oath that has to be taken with full understanding, conviction and commitment. Our present President has been reported to say that our Constitution is "A goddam**d piece of paper". Look what happened over the past seven years because of disregard for this most important document that governs the function of our Government and gives us citizens the fundamental and unalienable rights. Our country is in a political, moral and financial morass! We have hawked our future to China, Saudi Arabia and other wealthy nations of the world, and we are entering into a bankruptcy on all of these three fronts.

We need a political and moral savior!

Who would that be?

Hillary?

Obama?

Or someone else?

You decide!

But do remember the history! If you don't, it is bound to repeat itself, and you would have nobody to blame but yourself.

If that happens, and when your children and grandchildren ask you a few years down the line why we are such a poor, third rate country, be sure to tell them the truth!

Peace and Blessings!

Friday, January 4, 2008

TAKING BACK OUR COUNTRY!

Now that the political season for Presidential election has started in earnest, let us try to figure out how we can take our country back from the ruthless gang that hijacked it 7 years ago.

They hijacked our country because we fell for the dirty tricks and bald-faced lies. We did not question their integrity or their truthfulness. We never questioned their judgment or their competency. Above all, when we found out the truth about their lies, deceits and their usurping our Constitution after calling it a "GODDA*N Piece of paper", we did not stand on the street corners and rooftops and condemn their actions.

To make the matters worse, we elected Democrats to a majority in the Congress and they put incompetent "leaders" like Nancy Pelosi, who usurped the Constitution also, and declared Impeachment "Off the Table" and dishonored her oath of office.

We took it all lying down!

Is this what we are going to do in this election?

If we do, we might as well write off our democracy and our form of government, and say goodbye to our country that has stood up for 230 years as a champion of democracy and freedom, and as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.

If we want to take our country back form these scoundrels and install it back to its glorious pinnacle, we must do something
NOW, something that will assure our success for this election and all the future elections to come.

First of all, let us identify the disease that is causing so much damage to our country:

In one word, it is the power of money.

Money from lobbyists;

Fat cats pumping huge amounts of cash into the party coffers;

Money flowing into creating and putting out so-called" issue ads";

Political Action Committees doling money out to candidates, their parties and using it to flood airwaves and print media;

Big corporations asking their employees to pay for the fund-raising and then reimbursing them for that amount, effectively corrupting the system;

Money from phony off-shore corporations outside the reach of our laws.

There are several other "devices" used by corrupt politicians and corrupt corporations and even foreign governments to rob the power of our vote.

The disease on our political system is the cancer of money. Like any good doctor, we should not treat the symptoms (like what we have been doing for the past umpteen decades), but go to the root cause and nip the root cause of the disease in its bud.

If we want to stop money from polluting and corrupting our system of government, we must remove money from the system. We can accomplish this in four fundamental ways:

1. Term Limits: "One Term And You Are Done" system of representation - strict term limits of one term. Our Congressmen, Senators, State legislators and even our local government leaders have used their elected offices as a means of perpetuating their power and creating a
lucrative career for themselves. Our representative government DOES NOT NEED career
politicians to be at the public through all of their adult life and make it gold mine to get Pensions, healthcare, retirement benefits and all other perks. We don't need these kind of "perpetual public servants", and we can't afford this system either! One term limit eliminates all of this colossal waste of resources and opens the field for constantly rejuvenating representation that is not stuck in neutral. "OTAYAD" should be our mantra!

2. Death of Lobbying: Completely eliminating the lobbying system that corrupts our government. This insidious monster is eating our democracy for lunch. If citizens or corporations want to redress a problem, the only Constitutional way is representation by petition. Even a single penny used to promote this in an illegal way should disqualify the individual or the corporation for that term of the Congress, which is two years.

All Presidential and congressional candidates should use public financing and nothing else. If someone wants to raise the issue of freedom of speech, the simple answer is money is not speech. Only a living, breathing person can speak! Freedom of speech should be strictly used by that standard and new laws should be passed to put this beast to pasture, once and for all.

3. Media Bias: This issue is often raised, but never settled. The fundamental role of the media is to report news and facts, and not to make them up. Networks and newspapers "declaring
winners and losers" is totally out of character of our system of government. Every media outlet must be established by a charter and any violation of that charter would cost that medium loss of its charter.

4. Judiciary: All Federal and State Judges, including the Supreme Court Judges, should be nominated or appointed a for a fixed term of seven years. These positions should also not be
a life-long feeding trough, with all kinds of benefits and perks. Right now, Judges are asking for more pay because their brethren in private practice are making much more money. If this is the case, they should be free to leave their benches and go into private practice after meeting the "Revolving Door" laws and rules, and let the Free Market take care of it. To save them the hardship, we should establish a fund to pay for their "Relocation" to private practice.

To accomplish all of this and even more positive changes, we need to elect people who will do this job, and do it right.

That is where our current business law comes to our rescue. All business agreements are usually formalized by a contractual agreement and obligation. We can bring this system into public domain by asking every political candidate to sign a contract defining the terms and conditions of his/her candidacy for an elected public office.

THIS SHOULD BE THE STARTING POINT OF OUR MARCH TO RETAKE OUR COUNTRY AND OUR GOVERNMENT BACK FROM THE CULPRITS.

Here is a draft of the proposed agreement:


********0********

AFFIDAVIT OF CONTRACT TO SERVE AS AN ELECTED FEDERAL OFFICIAL

I, _________________, hereby declare my desire to be a candidate for the elected office of (__________ for the Congressional district # ____) (Senator for the State of ________) (the President of the United States).

Under the penalties of Law and penalties of perjury, I hereby promise to :

a. Serve only for one term during my lifetime, as defined by the Constitution.

b. Use only public funds for my campaign and will not accept any other money or
property in lieu of, from any person or any other entity whatsoever,
including myself.

c. I will not use any abusive, untrue or objectionable material to hurt my
opponent/s' chances for a fair election.

d. I will not allow from my campaign staff or volunteers working for my
campaign to do anything illegal, immoral or unethical to damage the campaign
of my opponent/s.

e. I will faithfully support legislation to clean up our government, support
legislation to eliminate lobbying in any form, and support legislation to
establish OTAYAD laws.

f. I will faithfully support laws to limit judiciary term for Supreme Court,
Federal Appeals Court and Federal Court judges to seven years.

For my faithful service as a citizen legislator, I will accept a payment of ($1,000,000 spread across the term of two years of my office in monthly payments equal to this sum divided by the months for the term of office, payable on a monthly basis for my service in the House of Representative) ($2,000,000 spread across the term of six years of my office in monthly payments equal to this sum divided by the months for the terms of office, payable on a monthly basis for my service as a Senator in the U.S. Senate) ($4,000,000 for my services as the President of the United States for a term of four years, divided by the number of the months of the term of the office, and payable on a monthly basis).

I will not demand or accept any other payment or any property or favor in lieu thereof.

This I swear upon my honor and upon the Constitution of the United States of America.

Signed __________________________ on the ______day of _________of_____

Witnessed by ____________________ on the ______day of _________of_____

Witnessed by ____________________ on the ______day of _________of_____


SWORN AND EXECUTED BEFORE ME: _________________________________

On the _________day of ______of _________of ____

Notary Public. License issued by the State of __________ # _______expiring on_______ __________


*******0*******

The first legislative body elected under these rules would be the House of Representatives and 33 or 34 Senators, and the President.

This plan would also offer the same terms and conditions to the remaining 66 or 67 Senators, apportioned to their remaining months in their term in office with the same per month remuneration as the newly elected Senators under this plan.

This election will also serve notice to the remaining 66 or 67 Senators that they should co-operate with these newly elected Senators, in passing the new legislation, or their proportional share of compensation will sunset at the end of their term and they will not be entitled to any of these sums.

Over a period of two Congressional election cycles, (4 years) we will have a clean government operating under clean and enforceable rules.

All journeys in life begin with the first step, and this journey of revival of our Democracy is no exception.

Let us take the first step and start on this journey that will give a clean government to us and to our children and grand-children.

Then we can proudly say, "We saved our country and our Constitution from savages!"

Peace and Blessings!