Still Pissed at Current State of Our Country

Yesterday's rant got me fired up, so I'm going to pickup where I left off regarding our country's skew from the original founders visions.

The first problem we need to overcome as a country is the huge rift between Democrats and Republicans. Of course people are going to have different ideas and the two parties will never agree on alto of things, but that isn't what I'm talking about. Different ideas are actually healthy for the country. No, what I'm talking about is the near hate that the two parties have for each other. If you take a Democrat and Republican and have them answer a 10 question survey in private, and then put them in the same room together most of the time you will not get even close to the same results. The reason being when they get in the same room, they'll disagree with the other till their deathbed because it's better for the other side to be wrong than both sides be right together.

This is not just silly, it's stupid. So, with that out of the way I am about to hit you up side the head with a mack truck. Quit blaming the President and Co. for the mess we are in. The mess we are in started long before this group came to lead. You can't blame Republicans or Democrats. I know what your thinking, "No, he's wrong, at the very least the war in Iraq is the Presidents fault". Well, yes, but your not looking at the broad picture as that's only the smallest detail in a portrait of shame. The real blame belongs on the heads of the American nation.

A lot of our problems as a country started back a couple of generations. I read another good blog post this morning discussing this here. Freedom of speech, privacy, religion, and the freedom to have different ideas have all been reduced to nothing leaving only the idea's of freedom in our constitution instead of the ability to pursue those freedoms at the hands of the baby boomers and their offspring. But I'll leave that to Steve Olson's post and comment section.

The most recent turn of events of course happened on 9/11. It was on that day the the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil took place. Since Americans aren't used to these types of attacks absolute panic ensued. I can't recall for how many days I watched coverage of the rescue attempts running in the background while everyone asked how could our government have let this happen over and over. There is a saying "hindsight is 20/20". It means that you can always look at events in the past and find things you could have done better. However what Americans don't seem to understand is the number and magnitude of these types of threats that are declared on America every single day. If the government acted on every single one, we might as well shut down every official government building, every memorial, every hub of business, and every public event from here on out.

Lots of these threats have merit, lots don't. The point is that we take our safety here for granted. Every single day these kinds of things could occur, and the fact that you can probably count on 1 hand the # that have succeeded on American soil is something that should be weighing on your mind far heavier than the thought of someone making a bad call and one occuring. People aren't perfect, and that alone is enough to keep our government from being so either.

With accusation after accusation from the American public that enough wasn't done to prevent 9/11, our government took action. The cries they could hear were "You didn't protect us, how could you have let this happen, will you let it happen again". So in the best way a government can, a shift in focus was moved to safety and security. They tried to explain to the public that they can't act on every threat because it would encroach on our freedom and ability to live our daily lives without their constant meddling. The answer given to them "We don't think that's a very good excuse, are you going to provide us safety or not". And so the government has started doing just that. And now that everyone's anger over 9/11 has subsided, we are pissed off about airport security measures, wire tapping laws, and the ability of federal agencies to get private records without court authorization. We'll there is no one to blame but the people that kept saying that the government should have done better, and that's the American public itself.

It was also immediately apparent that no matter what security measures were taken here on the home front, it would never be enough. So we launched our war to eradicate terrorist's and terrorist states. America screamed when we invaded Afghanistan, but said they'd support it if we killed Bin Laden not understanding that terrorist networks work more like a hydra than a snake. If you cut off the head, the network doesn't die, it just grows a new one. So to really eradicate the terrorist threat, we have to take away their money, their weapons, and their harbor's of safety. This led to the war in Iraq. Most people don't see the link because Bin Laden was several countries away, but the link doesn't come from him. It comes from safe harboring of Al-Qaeda top officials, and it comes from the availability of some of the worst weapons imaginable if they were to make it to our soil.

But we didn't find any WMD's your saying. Well, there are two replies to that, first is, we know they had them within the last decade and that they haven't used them up. And that meant they were either still there, or were sold on a black market. You didn't really think Iraq just got rid of its entire stockade of chemical and biological weapons with no trace of even a disposal ground in Iraq did you?

The second takes us back to that "hindsight is 20/20" again. We know we didn't find any now, but at the time we had plenty of reason to think they were still there. You also didn't expect them to tell our weapon inspectors the full truth after delaying their inspections for many many months. So what happened to them? We don't know, and that's why the government is afraid. So there we are, in Iraq, can't find the WMD's so we can dispose of them, and now the government is scared for the first time since the cold war.

I'll give that a minute to sink in, because most of America has returned to the mindset of we are safe here and nothing can harm us mindset. Well, we aren't invulnerable, and now there are some nasty weapons unaccounted for, last scene in a country that's ruling party hated the west and everything we stand for.

And as much as we'd like to get out, we can't do it quickly. We invaded the country because of the threat it represented to us, even if not directly. But we have to stay there for the sake of the world economy. It has absolutely nothing to do with "Big Oil" or politicians making money off of it. If you think that's the case, feel free to go buy stock in Haliburton, or trade some oil commodities and maybe you'll learn a thing or two. What it does have to do with, is that a large supply of oil for the world has serious potential to be cut off or stagnate if Iraq breaks out into a civil war.

If that were to happen it would indeed have a global impact. You think gas prices are high now, wait until a world supplier goes on hiatus. The biggest impact wouldn't even come from filling up your car, it comes from the sudden inflation on nearly everything because of businesses increased costs to manufacture, package, and distribute. And with rapid inflation a recession is likely to follow. And not just here in America, this would have impact in many industrialized countries.

There are always more sides to a story than can be scene. And while most of this could be discussed here in America on a local scale, it isn't something that we are just going to broadcast to the world. I mean if we don't finish our work in Iraq, then the screw ups and blunders we've had in the recent past will pale in comparison to the worldwide turmoil we create by leaving to soon. So lets finish the job right. Then when it is done, bring our troops home and tell our government that we screwed up as well, we are willing to sacrifice some of our safety in exchange for our freedoms back.

The road is coming to a fork, it's time for us as a nation to either take responsibility for our actions and make amends, or continue to allow our country to unravel while looking for scapegoats as the old group moves out and new one moves in.

Illegal Immigrants are Paying Taxes!!!

Read the topic again, let it sink in. Immigrants are breaking into our country in hopes of finding jobs usually consisting of long hours, bad pay, and hard work. Three things that most Americans try to avoid at all costs. Then, to top it off, they risk having themselves deported to pay the very taxes that we hate, in hopes of buying themselves citizenship.

As Americans we all hate this time of year and even though most people understand the need for taxes, we still complain about them and hate then entire process of filing our tax returns every year. So why do illegal immigrants take such risks for something that even citizens of the United States dislike to a point of hate at times. It's because very few Americans remember what it is our nation has earned. Very few understand why other countries despise us at times and envy us at others. And hardly anyone has a clue to the reason's that millions around the globe want the chance to live in our country of freedom.

Our country has become jaded by corrupt news that concentrates on only running the most negative stories because they get the best ratings. Our pride and patriotism has been silenced as countries around the world whisper to us for help in stopping terrorism and nuclear threats while also shouting at the top of their lungs to condemn us for doing just that. We no longer feel as free in our country as we once did thanks to"human rights" extremists slowly get more and more things labeled as not "politically correct". The rights that this country was created to protect are being revoked by the same laws put there to keep them intact. Corrupt lawyers, judges, and activist groups are slowly demoralizing us from the inside out.

So it is no wonder that Americans can't understand why immigrants risk so much by repeatedly invading our country. Yet at the same time so many of them feel violated that there are immigrants living in our states being protected by our laws without being true citizens. What right do those people have? I would be willing to wager that 97% of Americans here today could have their roots traced back to immigrants. So at what point did we become deserving but other immigrants haven't?

I'll be honest, I don't think that question has an answer, but I think it is time we re-evaluate our situation. If immigrants are willing to come here, learn our laws, learn our history, learn our language (that's English for those that still don't know), appreciate our freedoms, and still want to be hard working tax paying citizens, I see no reason for us to turn them away. Everyone claims they are taking American jobs, but I can't recall the last time I saw good ol Bob or Sam standing in front of a Home Depot begging for work. No, I'm pretty sure I saw them at the corner of 5th and Broadway begging for handouts.

There is no way to stop illegal immigration, to do so would cost far more money and resources than it would ever be worth. So if they are gonna be here, let em pay taxes, and let them do it without fear of being deported. If Americans are afraid of giving out citizenships, then pass a work visa law and lets end this standoff with ourselves. After all, America as a country is the only loser from this.

Besides, if we give enough immigrants that actually appreciate what this country has to offer the right to vote, maybe we can start doing away with all of the BS laws that make it illegal to do dang near anything in the public eye for fear that it might offend someone. I mean, if it offends them, isn't the better option for them to turn away/leave/flip the channel as opposed to passing a law that effects millions of other citizens that aren't offended?

Sorry for the side rants, I could literally go on all day about how skewed our laws have become from what their intentions were, but that wasn't suppose to be the topic of this rant.

Check out this link on immigrants paying taxes.

Email Spam

I'm not gonna give everyone a history lesson on how long email has been around and when the Internet began popular with the public. Suffice it to say long enough that we should have some solid laws for punishing spammers. And not just those based in the U.S. We've had enough time that global policies should be in place. It's not my place to determine what the extent of punishment should be, but obviously fines aren't working for the very small percentage of spammers that our laws allow us to prosecute.

Furthermore, I think prosecuting the spammers is pretty similar to killing the messenger. It's been done before and no one seems to think its wrong, but in the end he was still only the messenger. To solve the issue and end the war you have to target his master. It's time we start taking down the businesses that are hiring the spammers to begin with.

This has been an issue for a long time, so why the rant now? Because I read an article over at ars technica that says estimates indicate that 2007 will be the year that spam messages out number person to person emails. Is spam the most important thing going on in the world right now? Not even close, but it does impact millions of users and buisnesses every single day. And that I think is deserving of some better support from our law makers.

Termination Fees

Today's rant is gonna be short and sweet. Termination fees should be every bit as illegal as price gouging. Although for different reasons. Cell phone companies have been using them for years if you terminate there 1-3 year contracts early. The fees seem to have a national average between $150 & 250 per contract. The reason for these fees is to reduce customer turnover. It brings the companies some stability, however it also stagnates the market for lower income customers. They get locked in and don't want to take the hit from a large fee to change to a plan that will ultimately save them money in the long run with another company.

For the same reasons that monopolies are bad for the economy and consumers, termination fees are also slowing down progress. But instead of seeing them slowly die out as most of us would hope, they are instead starting to catch on in other industries. Check out this article where ISP's are now using them. You can find it here.

Unless you don't have a choice, I say boycott these ISP's. We already lost the battle with cellphone companies, but we don't have to lose the war.

Hospital calls 911?

What in the hell is going on out there? Apparently at a small hospital in Texas Steve Spivey was recovering from spinal surgery when he began to have problems breathing. There was no doctors currently at the hospital. As Steve's wife Tracy desperately tried to get staff to contact a doctor, she began CPR on her husband since no one else was. It was sometime in her 15 minutes of CPR that she heard someone call 911. Most articles I found regarding this don't make mention of the staff also calling the hospital surgeon back, but I found a few publications that quoted the Spivey lawyer as stating they did so. I was unable to find any reference as to his arrival or how far away he was when contacted.

Emergency crews were dispatched after the 911 call and an air tube was inserted before transport of Mr. Spivey. However upon arrival at a fully staffed hospital he was pronounced dead. So I ask again, how in the world can hospitals exist without a doctor on site at all times. Or at the minimum, have well trained staff on hand that are capable of stabilizing patients until further help can arrive. I find it simply unbelievable that a hospital can exist without one or the other. That's just asking for something like this to happen. Common sense folks, people sometimes have complications after surgery, either be prepared to handle that, or don't perform the surgery.

Here are some links on this story.
NYTimes
Boston Globe
CNN - Use the "Watch" link on the right side of the page for the video.