The naysayers have been chiding me for weeks with the claim that there is no scandal in Washington, but every day another tidbit slithers out from under the capitol dome. This week it’s the revelation that Big Brudda is storing our every move, courtesy of our friendly communications providers. Of course it’s all in the name of national security, and prominent Senators like Graham and Feinstein point out that no one is watching you, we’re just holding your records in case you talk to the wrong people. Only then would it be necessary to follow your tracks to the terrorist cell, which could be your Uncle Murray who wore a “Live Free or Die” t-shirt to the airport last week. And they’re right in one sense; we do live in dangerous times and there are people out there who want to kill us. It’s just unlikely that Uncle Murray is one of them.
But we live in a nation of 300 million people and everyone over the age of three has a computer and/or a cell phone. Obama has done his best to hire enough civil servants to track that kind of volume, but some slip through the cracks. Case in point: Boston. Despite all the warning bells, two suicidal wannabes managed to pull off the marathon massacre. The only solution is to hire more cubicle spies to keep tabs on us, and each other.
So you add this new scandal to the IRS and the Justice Dept. targeting reporters and you start to see how our protectors are slowly but surely eroding our rights and our privacy. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s run by Democrats or Republicans, they come and go. It’s the entrenched bureaucracy that runs the government. Most just follow orders and do whatever it takes to keep their jobs, but there are a few who actually believe the Constitution means something. At great risk to their careers they stand on the side of the Pennsylvania Avenue puffing on whistles and hoping that someone will notice.
There are a lot of folks who will shrug it off and rationalize that “their guy” is still better than the alternative. I see many younger people who don’t see a problem with the creeping encroachment. Hey, the government is giving me free healthcare and capitalism is rotten. The answer to bad government is…more government?
Republicans are salivating at their prospects for retaking the Senate next year, and maybe adding to their majority in the House. Right. It’s just a rigged game of musical chairs, and their agenda is at least as offensive as those they seek to replace.
So I’ll just keep voting for third party candidates, even though none of them really has anything better to offer. The point is to make a statement, to let the Republicrats know that I am mad as hell and I’m not going to vote for it anymore. I may be a voice in the wilderness, but at least I know someone is listening and recording my every move.
I wish I was important enough to track or be spied on. Reminds me of this:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-18yearold-demands-right-to-be-sexually-harass,1012/
Ryan, believe me you ARE important enough if for no other reason that you have the ability to think for yourself.
Maybe that kid should just give in to his feminine side…Like, “I’m feeling girlish today so I think I’ll use the girl’s shower after P.E.”
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1266&search_keywords=
“(f) A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs, and activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”
What could possibly go wrong?
You might want to pose the same question to the military who is even now investigating over 26,000 sexual misconduct cases from last year alone.
I believe the only vote wasted is the vote not cast. I try to vote for the best candidate regardless of the party. I have voted for Republican and Democrat. But most of my votes have been third party. I voted for Nader twice. Hell I voted for Larry Harmon in 84. Reagan was a lock and I didn’t like his politics or those of Mondale. Larry Harmon, aka Bozo the Clown, came out stating America should “put the real clown in office”. He ran under the P.U.L.L platform; peace, understanding, love and laughter. You gotta say laughter like Bozo did. Yea Bozo didn’t qualify as the best candidate but he was a worthy protest vote.
Third party voting given the 2 party cluster is a viable choice.
I agree with your reasoning to a point, but consider that a vote not cast is in it’s own way an indictment of an election process terribly flawed. Voting for the “right” candidate is a tricky proposition: those making logical, thought-provoking comments are immediately vilified, outshouted and denigrated by the more powerful, better financed political machines. We are totally inundated with conflicting and in too many cases, totally false information. Then there’s the unassailable fact that 3rd party candidates NEVER have the backing of the true president-makers, the banks, unions, big corporations and yes, even foreign interests. Their presence on the ballot, regardless of the number of supporters, is barely tolerated and all too often completely ignored just as Ron Paul was omitted from many of the most important presidential debates. Our voting system may be flawed but more significantly, it’s those who should be monitoring all the lies and outright propaganda during these elections who need to be more vigilant and vocal about the injustices being perpetrated. Believe me though when I say that the entire process is far too convoluted for the average voter to understand and only want to be on the winning side and to hell with what is right…er correct. “Right” has a dirty connotation these days as does is opposite, the “left”.
RL, great update of the all-seeing eye.
How did you know about my Uncle Murray?
RL- They are reading your blog too.
I guess government spying depends on your perspective. My daughter, a Verizon wireless customer who will leave next month for a two-year gig in China, figures NSA’s snooping is a warm-up for what she’ll experience in the Middle Kingdom.
A vote for the status quo is a wasted vote. Both parties are controlled by the same interests and those interests are not the average Americans. If we could get 10 house members and 5 senators that are not from either the D or R camp we could actually see a shift in how the parties govern. The two party tyranny has set it up for that to be almost impossible.