The RAnts of RA

The next Presidential Election is just around the corner and I can hardly wait. Then I got to thinking about the way voters have really been boxed in over the years.  Laws have been enacted that have  all but guaranteed a Republican or a Democrat would lie their way to the White House.  The entire election process has been corrupted and no longer functions properly.

It just doesn’t seem to me like we are getting the bright, honest men of integrity to run for office these days. Perhaps, we need to make some changes to our current system to better the odds to encourage fine leaders to run for office.

On my wish list for changes that should be made before the next election:

Mandatory Testing for Public Employees

• Anyone running for public office, must submit to an I.Q. test. Those with I.Q.s under 80, are disqualified to run. That should weed out at least 50% of those currently in office.
• Any candidate running for office must have his own house in order. Just like most other positions of trust, prospective candidates must submit to a credit check, chexsystems and he or she must be current with all IRS obligations. That should take care of the other 50%, leaving us with a clean house.

I watch for those campaign mailers and save them each election year. I like to pull them out when I make my choices and consider how well thought out the materials are. In other words, how effectively are they using their own resources. I pay closer attention to the smaller pieces of mail because these are the people who know how to stretch a dollar bill and still get the job done.

I personally hate getting those  huge things that won’t even fit easily into our mailbox.  I know those things are costly and they are a huge waste of money. Even the elderly don’t  need 3 inch type and if they do, it makes far more  sense for that person to grab their eye glasses or magnifying glass — because if their eyes are that bad, you know they  have their own.

The  government  — those who work for the people — must start thinking before spending.  Government workers need to let people do for themselves, and stop trying to take care of everyone. It’s time you start to do the job you were hired for.   Period!

I have a question. Why is it that taxpayers are paying the freight for children to be educated at public schools? Schools keep crying for more money, but do you realize that most parents could pay less to send their child to a private school than it costs to educate a child in the public school?

If we are paying for a private school education, why are our children still expected to received a “standardized education?” Maybe that is part of the problem. We have the resources to create a tailor-made  educational system that is better suited to the needs of a growing child. Just ask John Taylor Gatto, he proved it 20 years ago.

If children are going to be continually tested and grilled throughout their academic careers, maybe we should subject the teachers to standardized testing each year as well. And while we are at it, let’s just extend it to all public workers.

Related articles

• Thousands of students transfer to private schools as Indiana implements nation’s most extensive voucher program (educblog.wordpress.com)
• Private schools’ cash boom (heraldsun.com.au)
• The Year of School Choice (cnsnews.com)

Have you noticed the rising prices at the grocery store? The gas gouging that is going on right now is shameful. If the feds were truly interested in helping to keep gas prices down, they would ease up on some of those taxes.

Just like Halliburton is getting filthy stinking rich off the war in Afghanistan, these oil companies are raking in the profits. Take a look at their bottom lines. It makes me sick to even think about it. The last time I checked was a couple years ago and they make even more profits now.

The way I see it, we are in a class war, “the haves” against “the have-nots”. Those who have mega-bucks are stealing the land through “foreclosure” laws — the redistribution of wealth — the money is simply shifting hands on a major scale. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about it.

We saw the same thing happen back in the 70’s, when  Jimmy Carter was in office,  coincidentally another Democrat. What is it with these Democrats? Until now, I’ve always said Jimmy Carter was the worst president we’ve ever had and yes, I understand we’ve had some horrible presidents in the past. As far as I’m concerned, Obama is hands-down the worst president in our nation’s  235-year  history.

I hang my head in shame because I loathed the behavior exhibited by President Clinton, but it pales in comparison to the loathsome and despicable displays by the current White House squatter.

Most of us are simply holding our breath, trying to tread water, until the next Reagan comes along to save the day.  The Gipper  was a man of strength and honor who I look upon as a modern day hero. He wasn’t a perfect man, but any woman who has ever been married knows without a doubt such a creature does not exist. (Husband’s note: I almost take offense to that.)

I have to tell you this: I believe in this nation. I believe from the depths of my heart that God is moving and shaking things up. God is still in control. Now is the time to pull together, to seek God’s will and pray for a wise, respectable man to lead the U.S.A. out of chaos and back to sanity. Or have we all lost our minds?

I have been watching this entire election, from a distance really because I haven’t read any news articles, we turned the cable off again about six months ago. I am so thankful because I would have sat here mesmerized only to listen to the pundits drivel on about every nuance of certain candidates.

2010 Campaign Mailings

For once, I wasn’t the only person complaining. Many of the people I spoke to, were so sick of the phone calls and constant bombardment that they decided to simply stay home and not vote. I seriously considered it myself and I am the first person to encourage others to vote. I’ve been known to taunt anyone within earshot with, “If you don’t vote, you don’t have any complaints coming, so be sure to keep your mouth shut if you don’t like the way things are being run.” or more colorful words to that effect.

I am holding Ron Paul personally responsible for my coming completely unglued this week. I couldn’t figure out why on earth we were getting so many political phone calls and so much political mail this year. Every piece of political material I looked at with great concern. Most candidates were chatting up how we need to cut spending, be more fiscally responsible, all the while spending millions of dollars, wasting tons of trees for huge advertising campaigns.

With every new  avalanche of mail, I could only shake my head and wonder how on earth they could run a fiscally responsible state, when they couldn’t even run a thrifty campaign.

Then I wondered what I had done to deserve so many political phone calls. My husband and I work from home and basically work around the clock on many occasions. We squeeze every dollar, so our home phone is our business phone. Our phone rang on average 6 times a day with political ads and those under-handed Republican sponsored “surveys” that really weren’t surveys. I find that kind of stuff very distasteful, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I can remember one evening, when we were on a scheduled conference call with a client, and were about ten minutes into our conference, when the Steve Poizner’s campaign computers were set to autodial our telephone. He interrupted our conference call six times. I was so angry when I hung up that I immediately tried to contact his staff but was only able to find an email or answering machine.

I finally was able to reach someone on his staff the following day, and they apologized “but it could take up to 12-hours to stop the calls.” I voiced my opinion then resigned myself to having to wait another 12-hours, only to have yet another call come in from his team two-days later. And three more yesterday.

I tried using my call blocking service (that I pay for) to block Steve Poizner from calling, after all, it was a regular (916) area code, not an 800 number but  AT&T’s phone  system would not allow me to block his calls.

In all the years I have been old enough to vote, I have never had this much mail or this many telephone calls and I couldn’t figure out why, until I realized, I had changed my voter designation from Libertarian to Republican, so that I could endorse, then vote for Ron Paul in the last presidential election. I guess since I registered as a Republican the party feels I am fair game.

I called AT&T to complain about the telephone calls, which on some days numbered over a dozen. AT&T couldn’t or wouldn’t help me. I tried to find contact information for the FCC to file a complaint but they have changed their system once again and I wasn’t able to find the proper link again.

I have singled out Steve Poizner because he was by far the worse offender, as far as making me lose my mind this month but he wasn’t alone. Meg Whitman team called way too much as well.

AT&T provides our local services, we have a wonderful package with all the bells and whistles, which we pay dearly for (over $250.00 per month). I want to know why if I am paying for this phone service and I have paid for call blocking, why I am not getting the services I am paying for? It’s my telephone! I pay my bill, each and every month! Can someone tell me why I can’t block any telephone number that I want, it’s certainly not because we don’t have the technology to do so?

My only wish is that I had kept a  log of  all the calls. I am sure I could get the list of incoming calls from  AT&T some how.

Are you sick of the campaign calls? The wasteful mailings. You should see how HUGE they  are. I’ve never seen anything like it.