Americans Have Had Enough

It's no surprise that 60% of Americans think we should throw out the entire Congress. I would actually expect that number to rise in the coming weeks. Our so called political leaders, if you can call them that, have worked extremely hard to earn this type of sentiment. It's been decades in the making and likely not to change anytime soon.

In good conscience it would be very difficult for me to associate myself today with either one of the two major parties. If I had to choose it would come down to the one that is the lesser of two evils. One thing I know for sure is that we've got a group of individuals in Congress, many of which forgot long ago why they were elected. I do not know of one member that truly has the will much less the charisma to be a bipartisan consensus builder. Democrats and Republicans have become experts at spouting their own party dictated political talking points, and are unwilling to do anything but blame each other for the dire problems we have.

John F. Kennedy said in his 1961 Inaugural Address, "So Let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.  Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us." There's not on single member of Congress that's exempt from what amounts to a blatant failure to live up to the expectations we justly placed in them when we made the decision to send them to Washington. Those words President Kennedy spoke in 1961 hold even more truth today.

The time for blame must come to an end. Whether they realize it or not, our Congressman have pushed this country and its Constitution to the brink of doing irreparable damage to the very foundation of what once made this nation the most unique in all the world. We no longer have the time for the never ending hypocrisy and political rhetoric that somehow seems to causally manifest into false hope that somehow tomorrow is going to be miraculously different. It took decades for Congress to become the dysfunctional, hyper partisan institution it is today. It's an institution that has been corrupted by anger, self serving emotional power and greed, made up of an overwhelming majority of individuals too weak to do the job we elected them to do.

In this new media/social media era, we've got a group of individuals representing us, many of which haven't had an original thought in years, trying to convince us that they know what's best. They function like a group of robots that receive their daily marching orders and then have their helpless staff members send out the same old material to their weary, disheartened constituents. We're tired of sending people to Washington that say they'll be different, that we hope will be different, yet ultimately end up being just another part of the problem, incapable of offering real solutions.

There are many of us that may not like certain parts of Obamacare, but it is the law of the land. It's one thing for the Republican Party to prove a point, it's an entirely different thing to perpetuate an ongoing government shutdown in an economy that has in reality never moved completely out of recession. If the Affordable Care Act does in fact pull the hinges completely off of our economy as many have said, the Republicans would have one heck of a platform to run on in 2014. Instead they'd rather show Americans that in spite of what they'd like us to think, when it's all said and done, their motivations are no different than the Democrats. They would foolishly rather keep posturing politically over doing what's best for the country. If Speaker Boehner had any control over the fractured party he's presiding over, he'd of held a press conference a week ago on the heals of Senator Cruz's filibuster, and told the American people that while he and his Republican colleagues believe funding Obamacare will have tragic consequences, the party is not willing to put the country through a prolonged shutdown that could further harm our economy, and further dissuade confidence. We did the best we could, he should have said, but now it's time to move on for the good of the country. Had he of done that, it would have been a win for the Republican Party. That potential win in my opinion has turned into a major loss.

Today, it's more than clear that the American people have had enough. We don't trust Washington and all it stands for. That goes for both Democrats and Republicans. This country has an overwhelming amount of very real, very serious problems that should unite our elected officials and encourage them to put aside the divisiveness that for decades they have been unable to get beyond. We are not too big to fail. No entity or government is too big too fail. We've seen mega financial institutions fail in the last few years and we've seen countries on the verge of failing. We are rapidly approaching $17 trillion dollars in debt. Our individual share of that debt is nearly $53,000.00 per American, yet the chuckleheads in Washington want to argue about Obamacare. No matter how you cut it, we've been cooking the books in this country for far too long. I know it, you know it, and we have no choice but to make sure Washington knows it. It's time for Congress to get back to conducting the people's business, or go home and stay home.

When Do We Stop Taking the High Road?

As I rushed home to watch the tragic events unfold in Boston, my inner being was filled with emotions that that felt familiar. It wasn't till I turned on the television, and goose bumps filled my body that I realized I hadn't felt those same feelings since September 11, 2001.

Yesterday, we were blatantly reminded of the fact that no matter whether internal or external, there are those who wish to do what they can to shatter what America stands for. The majority of them are sick individuals that do not share the values we possess or remotely identify with the freedoms we hold sacred, yet we as a nation have done a poor job of reminding anyone, much less ourselves of this. Those who seek to destroy us are becoming more and more aware that our moments of genuine unity are fewer and farther between, and our politicians spend most of their time ripping our nation apart at the seams.

Friends, we have seen this before, all to recent in our Nation's brief history. The scars of 911 should be be forever etched in the forefront of our minds, and the minds of those too young to remember. While our politicians briefly unified for the good of the country on that day, they quickly fell back into their oh so familiar ways of partisan bickering and divisiveness. To those who seek to destroy us, they are once again able to mock the unbecoming value we place on the threats they have yet to purvey, knowing that our vigilance will be short lived, and soon we will resume the internal turmoil that continues to destroy the very fabric of our founding.

Many have said today that the goodness that exists among us us will always conquer the few that seek to destroy us. While this may be true, the more we continue to divide ourselves, the more we allow our politicians to let politics to divide us, the sooner we again will face those fearless monsters that that will do what they can to use our own hypocrisy to divide us once again.

We must find a way to bypass our own chaos within that those who attacked us are so fervently ready to exploit. They see it, we all as Americans should see it, yet we continue to believe we can fool the world while we briefly join together to mourn the loss of our own. When terrorists do what they did yesterday, and attempt to destroy our existence, we must never hesitate, we must never waiver,  and we must always be consistent in our response when it comes to their demise.

While the good in this country far outweighs the bad, we cannot pretend that pure unadulterated evil does not exists in this world. It does exist and it will not be satisfied till we are destroyed. It's up to us all  as Americans to do what we can to make sure that never happens and to realize that there are times when we don't have to take the high road.

Politics 101 From Comic-Con

Every year around this time hundreds of thousands of loyal fans come together for America's largest Geek Fest, San Diego Comic-Con. It makes no difference whether your democrat or republican, conservative or liberal, loyal fans of all types come together to share their love of pop culture and everything it entails. Clearly the camaraderie that develops year after year is one of the many reasons for SDCC's continued growth and success.

In the spirit of Comic-Con it's time for our elected officials to put aside their partisan political differences and do what we elected them to do. They must find the will to work together and do what's best for the constituents they represent. I know, what a novel idea. The blame game must come to an end. It's time to retire the talking points, put differing ideologies aside, and work together to pull America out of what quite possibly may be the greatest pending economic collapse in history. 

We no longer have time for backbiting and infighting. We've cooked the books in this country for far too long and without making serious, difficult changes, we are destined to see tougher days ahead. We cannot spend our way into prosperity any more than we can tax our way there. Politicians must put aside their partisan differences and work together for the greater good of all of us. Clearly what they've been doing and continue to do is not working. They are more worried about getting re-elected than doing what's best for the country. We have reached an economic boiling point, and have no more room for divisiveness and political posturing. 

As a wise politician once told me, there is no political liability in being honest. It's time for the Americans we elected to represent us to stop pandering to special interest groups,  stop allowing campaign contributions to dictate their priorities, and more importantly, LEAD. A lot of politicians are followers these days and obviously that's not working out too well for any of us. As a wise Vulcan once said, we all deserve the opportunity to live long and prosper. If members of congress are unwilling to do what it takes to right our path, then please get the heck out of the way and let us vote for someone who can.

Supplying Dose of Realism

As printed in “The Waco Tribune Herald”, February 2, 2008, Guest Column by Thomas Leath
Two weeks ago in one of the financial newspapers one so-called economist said we weren’t in danger of a recession. I thought to myself: This so-called economist is in fact an idiot. I’m no economist. I am a very informed American who doesn’t appreciate my government not being honest with me about the state of our economic affairs.

The government is bailing out Americans who were stupid enough to buy houses they couldn’t afford, Oil is near $100 per barrel. Gold is approaching $1,000 per ounce. Foreclosures are at an all time high and climbing. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates repeatedly since September. Unemployment numbers are rising.

Don’t throw water on my back and tell me it’s raining. This country has major problems. The world has major problems. We are headed for a global recession and things are going to become progressively worse. That’s not pessimism my friends. That’s realism.

China’s appetite for oil rises progressively. The U.S. government talks about becoming less dependent on oil. But the petroleum industry lobby contributes millions and millions of dollars to the pockets of our elected officials. Let’s be real. That’s not going to change anytime soon. It sounds good on the campaign trail, but it’s all talk. China is but one of many examples of how other economies can wreak havoc on our own.

As with life, our country is putting off dealing with the tough issues like energy conservation as long as it can. I’m afraid that’s not going to work out well for us. Challenging days are most certainly ahead. A dose of realism would serve us well as we look to an uncertain future.

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Unfortunately much of my wording was edited. (I really hate that.) Another advantage of blogging your own material on your own site. Regardless, I think I was on to something!

What Obama Should Propose, but Won't

It doesn't take a rocket scientist or an economist to figure out that our hubris filled president is going to ask for billions more in spending tonight. You'd think by now he'd of figured out that we can't spend ourselves into job creation any more than we can spend ourselves out of a recession! There's no doubt in my mind that he's come up with another rob Peter to pay Paul scenario that will be less of a job creator than the near trillion dollar stimulus plan that was hobbled together a few months after he took office.

 It's not complicated Mr. President. We are in a worldwide economic recession like we've never seen in history. Your liberal ideology and labor union loving mindset will not create jobs. Your massive slashing of the defense budget will not create jobs. The American Jobs Act you are going to share with us tonight will in no way pull this economy back from the brink. A jobs bill that calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending, no matter how you slice it up, will not right our fettered path. Desperate times call for bold, decisive, confidence building measures. This is a  concept you are most certainly not familiar with Mr. Obama, but you should surround yourself with those who are.

Tonight, you should offer to all but eliminate cumbersome payroll taxes over the next 12 to 24 months. You should put a freeze on capital gains taxes over the next two years. You should encourage confidence in business owners of all sizes by instituting a moratorium on the time frame companies are allowed to write off capital expenditures, decreasing this from many years to a few years. Furthermore you should lower the corporate tax rate to at least 20% and immediately initiate a bridge building effort to bring America's greatest companies corporate headquarters back home. We should be ashamed that many of them would rather be based out of a p.o. box in Ireland rather than America due to our overly excessive corporate tax rate. You must move to do away with job crushing regulations, many of which you initiated, that are stymying business growth to the brink of disaster. Last but not least Mr. President, you should also announce an across the board spending freeze for the next 36 to 48 months that applies to the federal government. It won't balance the budget, but it's a start. Every quarter we should re-evaluate these initiatives and make adjustment where needed.

Albert Einstein defined insanity by doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Again, I submit to you that we cannot spend our way into job creation any more than we can spend our way out of the dire economic straights we're in. We must, you must put special interest groups aside. You can in no way in good consciousness continue for example, to put the interests of labor unions above the greater good of We the People of the United States of America. These types of favoritism and cronyism must stop. We do not have the luxury, you do not have the luxury of continuing to play the blame game. We are all on the same boat, many of us hurting, starving for change and real, genuine leadership. Maybe, just maybe you haver it within you to bring us back from the brink. My heart tells me that you will go down by far, as the worst president in history. As I've said many times, you are without question the biggest marketing fraud perpetrated on the American people in Presidential campaign history. I doubt very seriously I will hearing any rhetoric from you tonight that changes my mind.

Good luck tonight Mr. President. Your gonna need it!

AT&T, T-Mobile Merger BAD for Consumers

The proposed AT&T, T-Mobile merger simply put, is bad for consumers.

My first initial thoughts about AT&T acquiring T-Mobile brings back vivid monopoly memories of the 1980's. Before deregulation, for many of us AT&T (formerly Southwestern Bell) was the only residential phone service game in town. If your mind ever erred with regard to that fact, their arrogant and many times rude customer service representatives would be more than happy to remind you.

At the end of last year we were once again seeing a less friendly, less customer oriented AT&T. Not only have they dropped in recent customer surveys, but we've seen glimpses of them becoming more controlling in regards to how they deal with customers. For example, AT&T was one of the first wireless providers to decide to do away with unlimited data plans. To make things worse, for those of us that have grandfathered unlimited data plans and use too much data, well, they've got a solution for that too. If Ma Bell doesn't like the amount of data your consuming, they reserve the right to "Throttle" the speed in which your mobile device uses data. In other words, even though your paying for unlimited data, use to much and we'll force you to use less. Can you imagine how emboldened AT&T will become should they be allowed to acquire T-Mobile? I can, and there's just nothing positive about it.

Wireless providers including Verizon and Metro PCS seem to be somewhat neutral on the merger, while Sprint is firmly against it. Verizon and Metro are clearly under the assumption that should the merger be approved they will both benefit from AT&T having to divest itself of assets these two will surely want to acquire to better their own networks. The problem is that this doesn't necessarily benefit us. As far as I'm concerned the increased use of multi-band phones and roaming agreements between T-Mobile and AT&T would benefit consumers much more than a full blown merger.

AT&T has proven by their past actions that when there is less competition, they are more likely to try and put the screws to their customers. This is a commonsensical fact. In this case fewer carriers is not better. In the technological age we live in, mobile phone technology is changing at an ever increasing pace. AT&T and T-Mobile are the only GSM carries in the United States. Since GSM is the standard for worldwide mobile phone communication technology, I shudder to think what will happen if AT&T becomes the only provider here in the U.S. T-Mobile serves a great purpose in as much it helps keep both AT&T and Verizon in check when it comes to pricing structure. With the merger yet to go through, both Verizon and AT&T are already modifying their data plans to create potentially explosive costs. You can bet your last dollar that more will indeed become less bang for the buck for the consumer should this merger be approved.

You may click here to be redirected to the FCC's comment board to weigh in with your opinion. Comment numbers 11-65.

Not my Father's Congress

For 12 years my late father served as an impassioned, loyal public servant as a member of The United States House of Representatives. He did so purely for the love of country and the constituents he had the chance to represent. Although not in ideological agreement with many of those he served with, Marvin Leath was able to forge relationships that transcended party affiliations. Leath's Law of Loyalty was based on finding common ground, rising above purely political differences to serve the greater good. He did this by developing political relationships that were not defined by campaign contributions from special interests or careless demagoguery from political opposition. There was no other possible way a small town conservative banker from Waco, Texas could have had the personal relationships he had with the likes of Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, Ron Dellums, Barbara Boxer, just to name a few. In his day, in his time, his philosophy was life is nothing but relationships. In fact, when he retired, political scholar Norman Ornstein called him,"A Bridge Between the Parties." He's the only politician in history I know of that retired with a 96% approval rating and name recognition of 98%. That's a fact.

The Congressman once said,"Well, relationships--I learned--I think I was about six years old that relationships--human relationships are what makes the world go round. It's not that youto get to know somebody or be nice to somebody just so you can get something out of them. It's just that if I don't know you or you don't know me, neither one of us can influence each other about anything, because we don't have the respect or the trust or the understanding." Further more he said,"I've spent my entire life making relationships, which means that if you've got those kind of relationships, your fortunate enough that you can pick up the telephone and do more in five minutes than some people can in six months because they dont 'have the relationships. They don't--and not only do people have to know you, they have to trust you."(From the Oral Memoirs of James Marvin Leath, Baylor Institute of Oral History, 2001)

Where has my father's vision for America gone I often wonder? Sure, I speak of him often, but that aside to this day he's the best, most effective politician I've ever known. Sadly, our governing bodies have seemingly turned into entities that care more about the fight than they do about what's best for our country. They rely more on high priced consultants to create their views rather than the people that elected them. Political talking points, often filled with half truths and innuendo have taken the place of remembering why they were elected in the first place. Walking the middle and political correctness have taken the place of creating policy based on what's just and right. As dad used to say, there's not one degree of political risk in being honest with those you serve. Well, today there's a lot of dishonesty and heck of a lot of political liability that goes along with it. There's no working together, no real bipartisanship. Today America has a government none of us should be too proud of. The road we're headed down cannot be navigated by the tools we're using. Today members of opposite parties are simply unable despite their disagreements, able to agree on how to govern. The ways in which our elected representatives are choosing to navigate our government is not working. Without change it is doomed to fail and that my friends benefits none of us.