Quote from Kissinger

Henry Kissinger wrote in his memoir Years of Renewal,

"The great statesmen of the past saw themselves as heroes who took on the burden of their societies' painful journey from the familiar to the as yet unknown. The modern politician is less interested in being a hero than a superstar. Heroes walk alone; stars derive their status from approbation. Heroes are defined by inner values; stars by consensus. When a candidate's views are forged in focus groups and ratified by television anchorpersons, insecurity and superficiality become congenital."

Sounds like Congress!

Hypocrisy Abounds Part III

The Senate just renewed the Patriot Act for another year!

Does anyone else remember how the Democrats demonized this Act and the Bush Administration for seven long years???????????????? There is way too much apathy among the American people. That is why liberals and progressives can get away with this shit.

Don't forget the slippery slope and cyclical nature of allowing little things like this go by undenounced:

Apathy leads to lack of accountability. Lack of accountability leads to arrogance. Arrogance leads to power grabs. Power grabs leads to quid pro quo legislation. Quid pro quo legislation leads to wasteful spending. Wasteful spending leads to prolonged economic malaise.

DUH!!!

Please wake up America and demand to be heard!!!!!!!

Hypocrisy Abounds Part II

Do any of you remember how the Democrats in Congress gave all of us a lesson in The Constitution, the Founding Fathers and the traditions of the Senate back in 2005 when the Republicans in the Senate threatened "the nuclear option" in order to get some of Bush's judicial nominees appointed (who the Dems had blocked for months on end)?

Then-Senators Obama and Biden, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Christopher Dodd, Max Baucus, et al lamented about how unfair it was that the Republicans were going to side-step the Democrats' prolonged obstruction of the nominee's up-or-down-vote. They took to the microphones and talked about how:

• Then Senator Obama (without a teleprompter) said this, "A change in the Senate rules that really, uh, I think would change the character of the Senate, uh, forever. [snip] Uhhh, and what I worry about would be th-th-that you essentially still have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply majoritarian, uhhh, absolute power on either side, and that's just not what the Founders intended."
  
• Then Senator Biden had this classic line, "

-->I say to my friends on the Republican side: You may own the field right now, but you won't own it forever, and I pray [to] God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing." Who 'owns the field' now and how are they handling it?

And then he said this, "-->This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power grab."

Hillary Clinton said this, "So this president has come to the majority here in the Senate and basically said "Change the rules! Do it the way I want it done," and I guess there just weren't very many voices on the other side of the aisle that acted the way previous generations of senators have acted and said "Mr. President, we are with you, we support you, but that's a bridge too far. We can't go there. You have to restrain yourself, Mr. President."

And then she said, "The Senate is being asked to turn itself inside out -- to ignore the precedent, to ignore the way our system has worked, the delicate balance that we have obtained that has kept this constitutional system going -- for immediate gratification of the present president."

• Chuck Schumer said this, "We are on the precipice of a crisis, a constitutional crisis. The checks and balances which have been at the core of this republic are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option. The checks and balances which say that if you get 51% of the vote you don't get your way 100% of the time. It is amazing. It's almost a temper tantrum."
  
  And then he said this, "

-->They want their way (banging podium) every single time! And they will change the rules, break the rules, misread the Constitution, so that they will get their way." [sound familiar?????]

• Harry Reid said this, "Mr. President, the right to extended debate is never more important than the one party controls Congress and the White House. In these cases the filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government."
  
• Senator Feinstein said this, "The nuclear option, if successful, will turn the Senate into a body that could have its rules broken at any time by a majority of senators unhappy with any position taken by the minority. It begins with judicial nomination, next will be executive appointments, and then legislation."
  
  And then she said, "

-->If the Republican leadership insists on forcing the nuclear option, the Senate becomes, ipso facto, the House of Representatives where the majority rules supreme and the party in power can dominate and control the agenda with absolute power."

Senator Dodd said this, "

-->Why have two chambers? What were the framers thinking about 218 years ago? They understood, Mr. President, that there is a tyranny of the majority."

Senator Max Baucus said this, "This is the way democracy ends. Not with a bomb but with a gavel."

Fast forward five years and what do you find? The Democrats in Congress trying to take control of one-sixth of the economy through the "budget" reconciliation process which will allow them to . . . . . circumvent the Senate rules (i.e. the filibuster).

Anyone with half a brain would ask, "what the hell does a health care bill have to do with a budget procedure?" or "Given everything the Dems said in 2005, shouldn't they back off in 2010?" Good questions! Why don't you call or email your Democrat Senator's office and ask?

Ram it down the American people's throat at all costs! That is the motto of the liberals and progressives in Washington. Sad, sad, sad!