MSNBC Meet the Press 12-24-06

MSNBC Video

This discussion is very important. Plain and simple, you need to watch it. I am so glad to have been in classes at Palm Beach Atlantic University that focus on issues surrounding this topic.

My favorite theme of this discussion is the issue of "civility" as Rick Warren discusses, and I am glad a Christian was given the opportunity to address it, and took the opportunity to do so.

American Empire: The colony of Bolivia

Bolivian miners fought to the death the week of October 6, 2006 over access to that nation’s tin mines. These tin mines have been Bolivia’s single most important resource in the last 100 years. Therefore the nation’s economy has ebbed and flowed with the world price of tin. The miners are obviously fighting for the chance to stay alive with what little income they can get.

I encourage you to read the following information, it will certainly open your eyes to what the underlying problems are in that nation and region.

COMIBOL and the Triangular Plan: A case study in dependency

Bolivia - history

Country Studies - Bolivia

Union Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers

Mark Foley

Who has not read the ABC releases of he instant messages he wrote to the then 16 year old boy? What Mark Foley did is disgusting and he deserves to be held accountable to the law. Yet I must admit that I struggle to say that he needs forgiveness, and he needs the help of his family to become a better person. Scandal does not help anyone, but rebuilding someone's life does. [I edited this comment because I thought about how I would want to be treated in his case]

What gets me about the whole thing is that Congress wants Foley held accountable but screams bloody murder when William Jefferson (not Clinton) had charges brought against him for money that was found in his freezer.

I was in Borders Bookstore last weekend and saw how many books there were about the Bush Adminsitration, how he and others in the administration have lied to the country, and then I saw other books like Bankrupt that detail how morally and intelligently inept the Democratic Party is. My question is, "where are all the books detailing how morally bankrupt the party leadership is on both sides of the aisle?" Who is writing the New York Times bestseller about how we can't trust any of the elected officials? When are we going to realize that the party system as we know it is destroying this nation? WHEN?

Someone has to innitiate a process of change. Either two candidates vow to run their campaigns in a clean manner, or the press starts publishing articles on the full history and policy plans the candidates have, or we need to demand it ourselves. Something needs to change, or this country isn't going to be able to survive for much longer. Domestically we are corrupted, and internationally we are an empire. No nation has ever survived long with internal corruption and a far reaching empire.

Write your local paper and congressman. Tell them you want your country back and lay out the steps they need to take.

Israel overreacting?

As I watch the news about Israel and Lebanon I wonder who is really to blame for the conflict. We all know that Iran is supporting terrorism against Israel, and that Syria and Iran are allied in this effort. But is Israel really overreacting, or is there something more to this? I would speculate that Israel recognizes America's weakened position, and feeling the effects of our poor ability to maintain an effective State Department, they are going out and acting on their own. We haven't seen this kind of action by Israel since the Six Days War.

I am not trying to knock Condi Rice, I know she is capable and is trying to change the State Department - it’s a worthy task but can’t be done by only the Secretary of State. The problem is that we have a complete idiot for president. He has no creativity, or foresight. Yet it’s not just his fault, previous presidents have been inept at evaluating government bureaucracy and streamlining it to perform like a well oiled machine. The most obvious example of this failure by our presidents is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. It seems that every time a president doesn’t understand the bureaucracy he creates another arm of it that makes sense to him. I have a suspicion that the National Security Agency was created to do the job a president wanted, but now we live with it, and a host of other intelligence agencies, all not cooperating and sharing information so that we have events like September 11^th.

Poor Israel is caught in our own nation’s demise. With us, so too goes the Jewish State. I don’t blame them for bombing the hell out of those terrorist groups. Do you think for one second that if the Ku Klux Klan was as well armed as Hezbollah and occupying the southern states along the Mexican border that Mexico would not one day attack American cities in the southwest in order to protect themselves from the racists to their north? Israel does have a right to defend itself, yes, but President Bush does not have the right to use that statement as a crutch for his failure to do something with our foreign policy bureaucracy. Just because you have the oil and defense industries in your pockets does not mean that you can blindly ignore the international community and destroy the career of one of America’s celebrated commanders. Colin Powell was sacrificed on the alter of presidential ego, but at the same time, we are now beginning to see that Bush has been sending our diplomatic abilities and tradition to the slaughter houses ever since he got into office. Idiots like him believe that America’s military and economic strength are unchallengeable, but yet look what happened. You ignore our diplomatic strength, our tradition of being rational people who think first and shoot later, and the whole world goes kaput and now our military and economic strength are nothing to speak of. Iran and North Korea know it and are running all over us like a tennis court.

After I run for Congress I am going to run for President as soon as I turn 35 years old – if we still have a United States by then!

I Need to Run for Congress

My government has failed me! I am governed by ignorant, corrupt, and uncreative morons. We have a State Department and intelligence community that can’t speak the languages of the world. We can’t maintain relations with countries to prevent problems like the current Middle East crisis between Israel and Lebanon-Syria-Iran. Iran and North Korea are playing the United States like a ping pong game. The most the U.S. can deliver are words. Our national borders are broken, millions of illegal aliens are abusing the social services granted to American citizens, and billions of dollars leave the country every year for Mexico. America is Mexico’s #1 source of revenue – out performing their oil market. Not to mention we have untold numbers of sleeper agents in the U.S. and all I need to know that is common sense. What else to you expect from 20 plus years of no border security and ineffectual customs, border, and FBI agents? What is the root cause of this crippling position? Why are we under attack from all directions, including Chinese espionage and a national debt now almost 9 trillion dollars? I know it like a nursery rhyme, except this one is dark and R-rated. Corruption. The pursuit of power by the wealthy, God bless their souls to save them from eternal damnation. Their ambition makes them blind to the real needs of Americans. They have failed to be responsible governors of this country and it is time for them all to go! I fear that we may not be around for another 20 years unless something happens in this nation and the people wake up, stop playing their stupid game of party politics and start electing average Americans to represent us. We need economists and certified public accountants to be elected to turn our fiscal troubles around. We need college professors and high school teachers to get elected to turn our public schools around. We need small business owners to get elected to create an atmosphere for competition and growth. Above all we need people who will be honest and use common sense and go after the facts and pursue solutions and damn the consequences to their precious political career.

I am dead serious about running for Congress. If you are serious about getting people elected who have what it takes to run a country, I need your help. The system is exclusive, and I am not one to back down to hat kind of challenge. I’ll wage war against it with the kind of tactics I know will work, the kind no one has ever thought to use before… a direct appeal to the population, though distracted by the process, know there has to be something better. I know why Congress has had low approval ratings for over a decade, it’s because people are sick and tired of getting idiots who they wouldn’t trust in a room alone with their checkbook. Aren’t you sick of it? Is America finally tired of this corruption yet? Are you ready to save the country before it bleeds to death? Then let’s find some people to run for congress and take back our country damn it!

Why "We the People" elect Senators

I do not believe Senators should be elected by the people. Why, you might ask me do I support an idea that seems so contrary to democratic principles - ideas which I supposedly support on WeakleyReport.com?

Because the U.S. Senate was not designed to be a branch of Congress that was directly responsible to the public. The people are prone to be emotional and the Congressmen are prone to do anything not to upset their electorate. Take for example the Immigration issue currently tearing this nation apart. Lets say a bill is proposed in the House of Representatives that says we must grant citizenship to all illegal aliens currently in the country, and the registration process is due to begin 6 months after the signing of the bill, and continue on for a total 4 months.

Now, I have issue with this, and I hope everyone else does too, because you can see that every illegal is going to do his best to get to America sometime in the next 10 months. It will be chaos at the border! Well, in our scenario the House of Representatives is swamped with letters and emails and public demonstrations by those who support it. While they are not responsible to these people, because many of them do not vote, the Congress still fears the mob surrounding the capitol building. So the House votes it in. Now, if we had a Senate which was elected by the state legislatures as it was originally designed, we could rest assured that this group of 100 men and women will deliberate their very best on a course of action.

Now let me tell you why I think we would have a different class of people serving in the Senate if they were appointed by the legislatures and not popularly elected. We are somewhat familiar with the judicial appointments Bush made, and how much of a hot button issue the nominations were. Well, I can tell you with absolute certainly that the nomination and appointment process of Senators would come nothing close to being that controversial. And that means we would have, on average, qualified and intelligent people serving in the Senate.

Local legislators do not run their elections on who they plan to vote for to be a Senator. Also, the appointment of only two people to a body of 100 is of no major significance. While Presidential elections never really revolve around Supreme Court appointments, the national controversy and public pressure comes around only because it is an appointment to a body of nine members. Two votes out of 100 is nothing, and and so the issue of Senatorial appointments would never be an issue in local elections, not really would the time come when the appointments raised much public interest. If anything the people of the states would demand professional, qualified, and educated people to serve. I cant imagine people writing their state legislators demanding that a billionaire from the state's largest agricultural company be appointed to the Senate, yet we elect people just like that every six years, and we elect them without term limits.

There is another issue: I think the terms to which people are elected to the Senate would change, mostly because there are term limits on the State legislatures, and a new group means a chance for new Senators. But also, you remove somewhat the public perception of a Senator, or at least you remove the nagging problem of people voting for someone simply because they know his name - a real travesty in a democratic nation. And I think that spells out the true purpose for why we used to have a senate that was elected by the State legislatures...

The public is often times too ill-informed. We are emotional, our moods change with the winds. That is why the Senate was removed from the people by one degree and each given a six year term. They enjoyed some autonomy, a little bit of what the Supreme Court members enjoy, having life terms. ... Oh, and just in case your wondering why the President enjoys so much power, and appears to control the more powerful branch of government... Its because of public opinion, and the fact that for some reason the popular will of the people has had some bearing on how the Electoral College makes its decisions on who should be president. Our constitution would work if we just allowed it to.

"You are Here"

A Washington Times article today detailed the disturbing results of surveys conducted with 510 persons from Dec-Jan of this academic year. Geographical illiteracy is becoming a major problem in the United States.

It is very sad to see the state of the education young people are getting. Being a product of the public education system in Florida I know all too well how poor education is. I practically taught myself throughout high school.

The new initiative being launched by National Geographic is called “My Wonderful World” and it is meant to help teachers educate students about geography. National Geographic is coming together with 4-H, American Federation of Teachers, Asia Society, Association of American Geographers, National Basketball Association, National Council of La Raza, National PTA and the Smithsonian Institution and hopes to enlist businesses, all to help promote this important goal of teaching America’s children about geography.

WeakleyReport.com is thrilled to announce that (well I am thrilled to announce) that I will be helping to promote these important educational goals on my website and in my local community. I encourage you to do the same. I will be launching a new segment of my website, since this story has given me the kick in the pants to actually get motivated to doing it. The section of my website will be devoted to education, and its importance to a strong democratic society. If we do not know our history, we do not know our freedoms, and we will loose them.

I appreciate your support of WeakleyReport.com and your support for “My Wonderful World.” Help educate America!

The Ugly Scar of Slavery

Slavery is an ugly blemish on America’s history, yet for all that we have managed to overcome since the days of 3/5 of a person slavery is not dead in the United States. Slavery is, despite the efforts of the United Nations and freedom loving countries, a booming market. Many people from Latin American countries and from Asia pay thousands of U.S. dollars to traffickers who will take them illegally to the U.S. To pay for this service most work in sweat shops, but many more will work as prostitutes. It’s not just the U.S., it’s global, and it’s much worse in other countries.

Human beings, forced to work for years under threat of death – or worse the death of a family member or child. Children, little girls who should be riding tricycles and eating ice cream cones are forced into prostitution.

The side effects of this disgusting reality are even more disheartening. The spread of AIDS and other STDs in Africa is in large part due to men who have sex with these women and children prostitutes, getting the disease from the child and taking it home to their wives, who give birth to children with life threatening STDs.

They money made from the slave trade is surely linked to terrorism, whether fundamental Islam, or other forms of terrorism in the local countries. Drugs are not doubt a partner industry with the slave trade, as is modern day piracy. A whole host of criminal enterprises are interconnected with the slave trade. And worst of all people’s rights as human beings are being violated, and the peace and security the rest of the world’s free people have is threatened by pandemic diseases, drugs, and o host of other illegal troubles.

So how can it be stopped? Well there is hope, and it begins with changing the lives of one person at a time. I strongly encourage you to research International Justice Mission. This organization is dedicated to the rights of human beings as creations of a loving God who made us ALL equal. The women of the sweat shops, the girls of the sex trade, and the men and boys of bound labor need your help.

One of the most powerful things you can do to help IJM and millions of slaves around the world is to write your state representatives, your governor, your Senate and House representatives, and the President. Let them know that you care about these injustices. It will make all the difference in the world when IJM lobbies in Washington for action.

"Talk Is Cheap, Gas Is Not"

These are the words of NY Senator Charles Schumer (D) who said them in response to President George Bush's announcement that recognized the gasoline prices crisis. I could not agree more, but what I hope Sen. Schumer realizes is that I hold him and the President equally responsible for the outrageous prices I pay at the pump.

Congress is a power hungry, money thirsty monster. It cares nothing about the people. "Lawmakers" have campaigned on Health Care before using the argument that elderly persons often choose between eating and buying prescription drugs. I demand to see someone stand up for my plight of choosing between food and gasoline!!!

Florida's legislature has also been approaching the issue of gas prices. Everyone wants to seem like they are for the people. I dont believe a word of it. Their travel expenses are paid for, and many live comfortably enough thanks to the ability to write off expenses as part of being a representative.

I am all in favor of passing a law that holds representatives in Florida responsible for their own fuel expenses. We will still pay for airline tickets, but no more turning in receipts for gas you put in your car. And no tricky work trying to get a "company car" to take you around in either. I want you all to pay as much as I do for gas on a MONTHLY basis.

Americans Do Not Pick Strawberries

I have been following the immigration issue for almost as long as Lou Dobbs has been reporting on it in the spring of 2005. Every day he would come on at 6 pm EST and give some kind of new angle to the immigration issue. He is still going at it, and I like to believe that in some way he is responsible for bringing the issue to the national stage.

The nation is becoming ever more polarized on this issue… and nothing could be more detrimental than a Congress stuck with a divisive issue. You will do well to remember Terri Schiavo and how badly the members of Congress fell all over each other to back a horse.

Well this is an issue Congress needs to pay attention to, and find a solution for. I don’t think it will happen, at least not in our best interests – and I don’t mean the best interests of hot blooded patriots who are madder than a hornet over illegal aliens running all over the country either.

You see, I am just as torn over this issue as the whole country is. On the one hand I could not be any more irate about the idea of some millions of illegal immigrants simply being given citizenship. Not only is it exploitative politics, but its like putting up a big “Open House” sign to the world. If you want citizenship and don’t want to go through 10 years of paperwork just come on over and we will eventually just give you your Social Security Card in about the same time it would have taken to go through all the red tape.

A part of me wants to put them all on buses back to their homes. However, and I was sharply reminded of the consequences of my proposed ideas when a friend called me the other day. She and her family own a farm here in South Florida, one of very few left in the state as local governments keep running them out of town and big business farming takes over agriculture across the nation. She and the entire farming industry employ illegal immigrants to work the fields. She is afraid of loosing the farm, a part of her life that she has always known and loved. Even if we do come up with a solution that keeps industries working, and respects our national laws at the same time there is still a very good chance that some people are going to be mad examples of.

The IFCO case on April 21, 2006 is what prompted my friend to call me. Her father and other farmers in South Florida are very, very concerned about the future, as they should be since these are also working fathers supporting children in college.

I see a solution in which the enforcement of the law, coupled with a guest worker program that follows the meaning and logic of its name can become the compromise necessary to put our nation’s federal agencies on a path to responsible immigration control. But as many conservative Congressmen and comedian Carlos Mencia have already expressed, the actions of Mexican immigrants waving the Mexican flag will not help the situation.

Hackett Storm Shows Problem with Congress

Regardless of whether or not Paul Hackett, of southern Ohio, should be elected to the U.S. Senate is not the issue of this article. What I do think is that new people, sometimes regardless of political party, need to be elected to government. I am all for any effort which would reduce our dependence on the seniority system which is the root of most evils in Washington. Neither is that the issue of this article, well not a major issue anyway.

My problem is with the way in which candidates are funded, who they get their money from, and ultimately who they owe their allegiance to once they are elected. I’m talking about campaign finance reform, and its killing this country!

If you read today’s CNN story about Hackett you will read that it was New York Sen. Charles Schumer who was able to turn off the spigot which funded Hackett’s campaign. How does a senator get that much control over who gets to join the Senate? I’ll let you read the page from the Senate’s website that explains all about Campaign Committees.

It outrages me that this system of allowing senators of all people make such important decisions about campaign finance… how do we fix this problem? Term Limits, and citizens who are just as mad about this as I am getting elected to government.


CNN

FEMA Mismanagement or Applicant Dishonesty?

The Inspector General’s office of the Homeland Security Department and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have released reports of millions of dollars of wasted money in aiding Katrina victims.

While thousands upon thousands of victims are currently still displaced from this storm which is promising to have far reaching effects into our nation’s future FEMA has once again come under the scrutinous eye of the public microscope.

It is easy to blame the agency for its gross incompetence and almost boldfaced corruption, but what may be the case now is widespread corruption of applicants for emergency aid. The $2,000 debit cards are apparently a hot item. What is intended to help families buy food and other necessary items such as clothing are being applied for by persons with fake SSNs and identification cards.

I don’t blame FEMA for giving out these cards in the heat of the moment when their aim is to help people, fraud on the part of applicants is going to happen, and FEMA is taking the correct response by prosecuting freeloaders.

The agency isn’t completely without blame though. Being a Floridian, I am familiar with the corruption of FEMA. When Wilma ripped through Palm Beach and Broward counties, it was the people of Miami who benefited the most from emergency relief. While my neighbors and classmates in northern Broward and southern Palm Beach were tarping their roofs, people in Miami were getting millions to replace their cars and remodel their homes. Its time for FEMA to shape up or ship out.