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The Information Gathering habits of a Grouchy Old Man
All of the colleges I attended, during that period of my formal education, had exceptionally good libraries, as did the Community College in which I taught the classes of American Government and Urban Studies for more than a quarter of a century. Now in retirement, if I wish to avail myself of the uses of a decent library, I must travel some 12 miles from my home, on sometime overcrowded and unsafe roadways. I have almost given up doing so.
Instead, I utilize the Internet on a daily basis to access the sources of the information I wish to review. Each morning, while having my second cup of coffee, I visit the internet pages of the Auburn Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
Later in the day, I generally visit Barnes & Noble, via the internet, to read reviews of books of interest to me, that I might wish to purchase. I then order the volumes I want to buy which are sent to me via Parcel Post and delivered to my doorstep in a few days. When they arrive, I stack these volumes on a table next to my desk where they await my reading. After reading each volume I then place it in a proper location in the shelves of my personal library, for further reference.
Each afternoon I usually turn on my television and open the CNN Channel and watch it as I listen to what the people on the programs are discussing. Sometimes, but not often, I take notes of what these talking heads have to say.
Some of the most important information I wish currently to gather deals with scholarly evaluations of the failures of the Presidency of George W. Bush.
I would also like to obtain and read scholarly evaluations of President Bush's implementation of his successful domestic and foreign policies. However, to date, I have not located where I can purchase any such books.
I am about a third of the way through my reading of the 23 volumes I have to date acquired, that deal with George Bush's foreign and domestic policy blunders. So far, my reading of these books has validated my belief that George W. Bush is, by any objective measurement, the most incompetent, and ill-advised President in our nation's history.
He seemingly has a child-like mind, and is obviously superficially and poorly educated. From even my distant observations of Mr. Bush, I conclude, with I think a great deal of certainty, that any papers he submitted as the author, in fulfillment of his college class requirements, were written by someone else
A few of the books that I have stacked in the pile beside my desk, and which I am presently reading, that chronicle Bush's Follies are:
1. Impeach The President; The Case Against Bush & Cheney
By: Dennis Loo & Peter Phillips
2. The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
By: Vincent Bugliosi
3. When Presidents Lie; A History of Official Deception and Consequences'
By: Eric Alterman
4. The Greatest Story Ever Sold; The Decline and fall of Truth in Bush's America
By: Frank Rich
5. FRAUD; The Strategy Behind the Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You
By: Paul Waldman
6. Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush
By: Center for Constitutional Rights
If your reading appetite has not as yet focused your attentions on any of these volumes I respectfully suggest that you contact your favorite book seller and buy, borrow, and hopefully not steal, a few of the above books and read them. Then ask yourself, "Is coming to understand the ethics, integrity, and intellectual capacity of President George W. Bush worth my reading a few books? Further, if good old George has such obviously marginal abilities, what does that say about the education, informed understanding, thought process, as well as the behavior of us, the voting population of America?
More later
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You must be bored out of your mind. You are fixated. Go do something.....clip paper clips together into a chain.....do something.......
Often we will all look for the specific culprit to blame when things have gone wrong. Not one man runs a country...we all run the country we live in. We all are part and parcel to the problems we face today. You can read all the books you want but this will not change the above facts. Advisors come in many forms and from many departments all looking out for themselves first and the American people second. This is how it was set up and this is how it will remain.
Me me me seems to permeate our society at all turns and this disease is growing larger each and every day. We we we is seldom heard as we all have been led to believe our identities have a labeled criteria of specific individuality that is easily exploited by those enjoying power control positions. I now wonder how much truth is in the books we all read or the shows we all watch or the commercials that entice our wallets and our minds to behave and act like someone or something we are not.
To blame one person for the actions of a nation would be foolish at best and would not represent an intelligent approach to any of the current problems facing our great country or the world at large. We have allowed a great deal of misrepresentation to be taught to all of us at all stages of the education process, both in private and public schools.
Me me me did not just happen...we we we allowed it to happen.
Obewan,
I am not blaming one person. I have great concern about the health of the Republican Party. As a good LIBERAL Democrat. I believe we need them around to use as examples of the thangs wrong with our Democracy.
Jerry
Jerry,
Do you really think we have two parties running the government? Parties are for the peasant citizens....to feel like they are or have importance and are designed specifically to keep us citizens divided....you have no voice when it comes to running this country and it is simply irrelevant as to what party you are in. I guess you never made it inside the back room discussions and cigar smoking policy makers meetings......they were not attended by just one party. Here some info to digest...
n article from the Orlando Sentinel.
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.
The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court Justices. 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic
problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.
In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered,
but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's' responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.
The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the
House? She is the leader of the majority Party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.
If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his Veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems!!!
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they
can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation,' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They and they alone, have the power.
They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
Charlie and Rabidog,
Our nation is a Representative Democracy not a direct one. I happen to be of the opinion that, with all of its imperfections, it still treats grassroots powerless people like me and you pretty well. I am mostly a product of a public education system. UCLA where I got my BA degree was a great experience for me, as was most of the more than 70 graduate level of classroom instruction I took after I got through my masters program at California Lutheran University. During my time as a classroom student, the thing that drove me in these classes, was that I liked being able to have meaningful conversations with intelligent purity ladies that were sober. This is a difficult thing to arrange while in a bar.
During the years I spent as a classroom teacher I had the summers off and took the time to travel in Mexico, Central America, Canada, Europe, as well as most of Africa. In retrospect, I, over many years, came to believe that visiting the nations of the world as I did made me a better teacher and a more understanding person. I believe that if one develops an understanding of many of the cultures and differing beliefs of the peoples of the world one becomes more tolerant and less ridged about his or her personal view of the world being the only proper one.
Jerry, you are fast becoming my favorite Poli Sci professor.
Bush is history, have you heard any of the talking heads at CNN say that?
Who do you suggest Obama bring in as an energy advisor? Hugo Chavez. In your travels through South and Central America did you get the chance to visit Che's tomb, it's the shrine of the leftist movement south of the border. Obama's supporters seem to be impressed by his accomplishments, to wit, the posters in some of the campaign offices.
Anyway, I didn't want to pass the opportunity to say hi and wish you a great evening.
Jerry,
There will always be hope. You appear to have very high credentials in the educational field and are a world traveler. Could you please explain why the mother holding her child by the river as the child feeds from her breast in Ethiopia is perceived by us as unhappy and discontent with her simple pure life? Could you please explain how with so much education our country leads the world in pollution and CO2 emissions? Could you explain how we could have.. as an intelligent nation... dropped two nuclear weapons on Japan 60 years ago? Could you please explain how our intelligent scientists found it acceptable to detonate nuclear weapons in the upper atmosphere creating two new Van Allen belts around the entire globe and some how convinced Russia to do the same thing producing the first ozone hole...which is still growing? I guess Nevada because it was so large...must have made it OK for them to spew radioactive fallout all over the country and her citizens... in order to test these same devices above ground? Even I know as a simpleton... that sticking my hand in the fire will burn me.
Clearly awarded credentials or years of education are not a guarantee for the student that he or she will achieve an applicable level of intelligence. Surely all these intelligent well educated and groomed people should have and could have done much better. I am afraid that one thing that was not taught was the way mind control and manipulation of the human spirit is the true intellect and these techniques are used frequently in creating the current insanity present in our World today. Simply we have been lied to...through our educational and faith built systems.
Obewan,
My long time gitting an education and my continuing use of the things I have learned have convenced me thay I still have a lot to learn. I approch each day with this in mind.
Jerry
Jerry,
Your education is invaluable and yes the internet will open your mind to the new age fast approaching. An understanding of the truth is the only education I am seeking.... before I leave this form of existence.