Great American Journal

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody." - Barack Obama, thinking it's good to spread the wealth around to people who don't earn it.

Senator Obama says that he wanted to spread your wealth around... Senator Obama claims that he wants to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes on the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don't pay taxes. That's not a tax cut, that's welfare. America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by redistributing wealth; we became the greatest nation by creating new wealth. - John McCain

"Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S," - Joe Biden. See the video of Joe Biden spelling out the 3 letter word "J O B S."

"Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can change that." - Thomas Sowell

"Our opponent... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect—imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America. We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism." - Sarah Palin

"You need profit to hire people, Obama, not government! A tax cut based on hiring people doesn't cover the cost. I don't even think Obama cares or even knows this. He's a socialist. He simply cannot bring himself to leave businesses alone." - Rush Limbaugh

LIES OF THE WEEK

"We kicked—along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." - Joe Biden, who doesn't know that Hezbollah has never been kicked out of Lebanon by anyone.

"We will not Christmas-tree this bill. The times are too urgent. Everyone has their own desires and needs. It’s going to have to wait." - Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) before the bailout bill was larded up to 451 pages with $1.3 billion in pork bribes to get it passed.

"Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fact that [Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers] had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I was eight years old at the time and I assumed that he had been rehabilitated." - Barack Obama

"The notion that people don’t know who I am is a little hard to swallow. I’ve been running for President for the last two years. I’ve campaigned in 49 states. Millions of people have heard me speak at length on every topic under the sun. And I’ve written two books which everybody who reads them will say are about as honest a set of reflections by at least a politician as are out there." - Barack Obama, saying read my book, not my birth certificate, school records, and history of association with ACORN and other unsavory people. And for God's sake, don't look into my campaign contributions.

"Every single false charge, every single baseless accusation is a simple attempt to get you to focus on something other than what’s affecting your family and your country." - Joe Biden, pretending that the case against Obama will not effect your family and your country.

THE LAST WORD

Election Reform We Can Believe In

Today, many Americans believe the credibility of our election process has become corrupted to the point that it can no longer be considered viable and valid. One of the reasons is that there are far too many outside special interests influencing elections that have no business being involved in this important constitutional process.

One of the biggest problems we currently have with voting is the large numbers of ignorant or uninformed voters who know virtually nothing about who or what they are voting for. They vote because they have been told that it is their civic duty to vote and if they fail to do their civic duty, they are not good citizens. Sorry to be the one to dispute this theory, but it’s just not that simple.

How long have we been hearing from government, public officials, special interest groups, and civic minded individuals that it is the civic responsibility of every eligible citizen to get out and vote on election day? When do we ever hear any of them say that it is equally the responsibility of every voter to become informed and knowledgeable about the candidates and the issues upon which they are expected to vote? This is the other half of voter responsibility that is never mentioned or promoted by election activists.

To combat this problem, some have suggested that voters should be required to pass a simple exam on the candidates and issues before voting. This may sound like a good idea but it would never be practical for the simple reason that it would cause huge delays at the polls and even longer voter lines. To avoid that, any such exam would have to be administered before election day and that would create a whole new set of problems such as the inconvenience to the voters as well as affording the opportunity for cheating by those so inclined. Critics would insist that eligible voters were being disenfranchised by the test. It would result in constitutional challenges that would tie up the courts for years to come.

There may be another way of approaching this problem, which involves changing the attitude being promoted regarding elections. That is; stop telling the public that everyone must vote; that it‘s your civic responsibility, and that you‘re a bad citizen if you don‘t. Instead, we need to promote the concept that you are encouraged to vote only if you are knowledgeable and informed on the candidates and the issues, and concerned about where your country is headed. People must be made to understand that simply voting without knowing the facts and the candidates only serves to corrupt the election with guesswork and undermines the credibility of any election.

As a AAA member, I occasionally receive a letter from the AAA asking me to vote for new board members. I never return the ballot because frankly, I don’t care. I don’t know anything about any of them and don’t have the time or interest to research them. Why should I be dragged to the polls to vote for people I know nothing about? Any vote I would cast based - on the sound of the names only - would simply corrupt the election. I am perfectly content to rely on those who know who these people are to do the voting.

We should understand and respect the choices of many millions of people in this country who have no interest in politics and avoid learning anything about the government and the candidates running for office. They should not be made to feel guilty for failing to vote on election day if that is not where their interests lie. We should not be encouraging them to vote if they have no interest or knowledge of whom and what they are expected to vote for.

I have more respect for a person who says “I didn’t vote due to lack of interest,” than I have for a person who voted - without knowing the first thing about who and what they voted for - simply because he or she was expected to. Of course there will always be a large voting block who will just vote the default party line simply because they are loyal Democrats or Republicans. That is their right, just as long as they are not being pressured and dragged to the polls by political activists.

Recently, I sent a little 10 question News IQ Test to a number of friends. Those who have previously expressed some interest in news and politics by subscribing to my newsletters, responded with scores above 80%. Those who have expressed to me previously having no interest in news and politics scored either below 30% or didn’t respond at all. I respect their right to fill their time and minds with anything other than news and politics if that is their choice, but are these the kind of people we want electing our national leaders?

Voting should be left up to those civic minded citizens who have an interest in, and take the time to educate themselves on national politics, the issues, and candidates on the ballot. The votes of politically informed citizens should not be cancelled out by the votes of ignorant and uninformed voters who really have no interest in the running of our country or who is charged with that responsibility.

How do we restore credibility and validity to our election process? There are several changes that need to be made. One, I have just discussed above - stop encouraging people to vote who don‘t care. Another one is the repeal of the McCain/Feingold 2002 Campaign Finance Reform Act. This is one of the primary reason for the election process having become as corrupted as it is today. I wonder of John McCain would have co-authored and supported this bill had he known at the time that it would cost him the election. It should be noted, however, that the version of the bill that passed was not the version that McCain wrote.

Whenever Congress gets ahold of an issue like this, they tend to complicate it beyond all understanding with pages and pages of legal jargon and compromises that provide exceptions and loopholes for nearly every conceivable way of allowing those who do not wish to follow the rules to escape them. This law, passed in late 2002, had been in the works in Congress since 1995. I think election reforms can be much simpler and direct.

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