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10 Reasons Why Obama Will Get Re-Elected

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Sunday, 22 July 2012
in Politics

10 Reasons Why Obama Will Get Re-Elected

 


#1   Mitt Romney
—Need I say more? Going into a general election, the incumbent always has the

advantage, and it’s pretty tough to beat an incumbent. To do so, the opposition needs a really

strong candidate. In this case, the Republicans need a Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, Mitt

Romney isn’t that candidate. First, he comes across as an elitist…just like Obama. However,

the liberal media is going to exploit Mitt Romney’s wealth and paint him as out of touch with

normal Americans. Second, Romney is going to lose a debate with Obama. There’s no doubt

that Obamacare will be a big issue, regardless of what the Supreme Court does. Obama will

simply say that he modeled Obamacare after Romneycare in Massachusetts. That will suck the

life out of the room. Look, Mitt Romney has no credibility on this issue. He was for it before he

was against it. Sound like another politician from Massachusetts…John Kerry…who was also a

loser.   ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#2   The Polls don’t lie—Let’s consider another factor in this election…the polls. These polls are

pretty well dialed in. The pollsters have this down to a science. Look back at 2008. At this

point in the 2008 election, John McCain was the Republican nominee. Hillary Clinton and

Obama were still battling it out for the Democratic nomination. John McCain never led either

of the challengers in the hypothetical polls and the polls had him trailing all the way to the

election…and he ultimately lost. To date, only one Republican has beat Obama in a head-to-

head match-up and that candidate is Ron Paul. Sadly, he’s not going to be the nominee, and

we’re stuck with Romney who has never led Obama in a head-to-head match-up in the polls.

He’ll likely suffer the same fate as McCain.    ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#3    Battleground States—This election may ultimately hinge on a couple of battleground states

like Florida and Ohio. In both states, Mitt Romney isn’t doing well with blue collar voters. Take

Florida, for example. The election will be decided by the voters in the I-4 corridor from Tampa

to Orlando and up to Jacksonville. You’ve got a lot of blue collar service industry workers there

who are predominantly younger and they just don’t like Mitt Romney. If they vote, Obama

wins. If they don’t vote at all, slight advantage goes to Romney.     ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#4   Economic data being manipulated—Notice how the unemployment figure that gets reported

in the media keeps dropping yet job creation isn’t enough to actually bring the figures down?

You guessed it…the figures are being manipulated. This isn’t new, however. The data is always

suspect. For example, the unemployment figures don’t include the unemployed who have given

up searching for work or those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. Each week,

a lot of unemployed folks are exhausting their benefits and dropping out of the statistics. So

naturally, the unemployment figure is going down. If these people were actually counted in the

figures, we’d have an unemployment figure of somewhere in the neighborhood of 18%. As we

get closer and closer to the election, the unemployment figures are going to continue to drop

which will look good for Obama. And what do you want to bet that gas prices are going to fall as

we get closer to the election?

 

At the end of the day, has the economy improved since Obama took office? No. Real estate

markets still suck; foreclosures are going to continue to increase and prices will continue to

drop. The real unemployment isn’t any better and will continue to get worse. Gas prices are

almost double what they were when Obama took office. Food prices are higher than four years

ago, even though the inflation figures say there isn’t any inflation despite the massive amount of

money printed by the Federal Reserve.

 

So, are you better off than you were four years ago? No, but the data that is going to be

presented to the public will make voters think things are better than they were four years ago.

ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#5    Voters not able to think for themselves—This one is pretty easy. The general public and voters

don’t think for themselves. They’re actually pretty dumb when you boil it down to the simplest

terms. They generally won’t consider all the facts and they won’t consider all the things that

Obama has done that are ruining America. They simply don’t care. They’re too busy with

their insignificant daily lives to take the time to educate themselves about the issues and how

the President’s decisions impact America, their future, and their lives. So, they go about their

business and as long as they’re doing all right—they’ve got a job, the lights come on, gas in the

car, etc.—they don’t care and they’ll vote for the incumbent because everything seems ok and

he seems like a good guy and Mitt Romney seems like the bad guy—the rich, evil Republican.

The voters are lazy and apathetic, and they’ll find reasons to justify not voting for another

candidate over Obama or they just won’t vote, which is in essence another vote for Obama.

They are victims of political spin and they aren’t smart enough to realize it. They’ll believe the

negative attack ads that Obama’s re-election campaign will launch against Romney without ever

verifying the facts or questioning the validity or substance of the ads.    ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#6    $1 billion war chest—Obama has a fundraising machine that is far superior to Mitt Romney’s.

At the end of March, Obama had over $100 million in the bank for the re-election campaign—

ten times as much as Mitt Romney. For the campaign cycle, Obama has raised nearly $200

million while Romney has raised only about $90 million. Obama’s base and contributors

are energized and they’re giving a lot of money to the re-election campaign (let’s call it the

Committee to Re-Elect the President or CREEP to borrow a term from the Nixon era). By most

accounts, it looks like Obama will have about $1 billion to spend on the re-election. Romney

hasn’t even energized the Republican base, and they don’t seem too willing to open their

wallets at this point. Every day that goes by, Romney falls further and further behind Obama

when it comes to fundraising. Don’t get me wrong…Romney has a powerful machine that is

raising money but he’s dwarfed by the President’s re-election machine. If Romney expects to

have a flood of money after the convention in Tampa to rival Obama’s political war chest, he’s

living a fantasy. He’ll get plenty of donations, but it will be too little and too late at that point.

ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#7    Charisma—I’ll give this to Obama…he is very charismatic. And he might be a really nice guy…but

he doesn’t know what he’s doing and he’s ruining the country. However, his charisma is a very

valuable asset in the election. And he promotes this superstar image that all the younger voters

really like. They think he’s one of them. I’ve often said we need to measure candidates by who

you feel would most likely sit at the bar and have a drink and conversation with you. In this,

Obama has that quality hands down in the minds of a lot of voters. I don’t have that perception

of him, but a lot of people do. He’s got the charisma and Mitt Romney doesn’t. It’s just that

simple. Why do you think Obama polls so well among women voters and Mitt Romney doesn’t

poll well among women voters? It’s all about charisma. Obama has plenty of it. Romney has

none.    ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#8    Election Fraud—Why did JFK and Obama get elected? Election fraud plain and simple. It’s

pretty easy to stuff the ballot box with dead people or illegal votes when you control a handful

of election officials in various states. Why didn’t the media put more focus on the fact that the

entire Dallas Cowboys football team voted in Ohio in 2008—no doubt for Obama? We’re just

now starting to hear about investigations into election fraud in Indiana in 2008. Obama may

not even have had enough signatures to get on the ballot there, but he did and he’s president

now. Still no big media coverage of this. If this happened in Indiana and Ohio, where else did it

happen? And now we know why Obama and the liberals oppose voter ID laws—they won’t be

able to stuff the ballot box with dead people or multiple votes or illegal immigrant votes.

 

It’s pretty simple…Obama doesn’t want to lose and will do anything and everything to stay in

power. The machine will do what it has to do to help, particularly in swing states. Pretty ease to

stuff a few ballot boxes in Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, New Hampshire

to ensure an Obama win.

 

And let’s not forget what I also constitute as fraud…the Black Panthers intimidating voters

outside polling locations in places like Philadelphia. It’s not stuffing the ballot boxes but

preventing people from voting by intimidating them ultimately favors one candidate. Thus, it

constitutes fraud. Can you imagine the liberal media hysteria had the KKK been outside polling

stations on Election Day 2008? It just goes to show the hypocritical nature of the media. It was

ok for the Black Panthers to intimidate votes but it wouldn’t have been ok for the KKK to do the

same thing.    ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#9    Media Brainwashing—The media is clearly biased in favor of Obama. They swoon over him like

he’s a rock star. They’ve definitely drunk the kool-aid when it comes to this guy. The media

does nothing more than brainwash viewers with liberal propaganda, and it goes back to the

fact that the public is so stupid they don’t know they’re being brainwashed and manipulated

by the media. First off, anyone who relies on a comedian for their news shouldn’t have the

privilege of voting; you’re obviously too stupid or you think this is a joke. Either way, you

 

don’t have the intellectual capacity to cast a very important vote. These comedians have

no journalistic credibility or integrity. They’re just propaganda machines for the socialist

progressive movement. Second, if you blindly accept what the media tells you is true as being

true without thinking about it or rationalizing it or verifying it, you probably don’t have the

capacity to vote. The media has an agenda whether you think they do or not. And this is for

both parties mind you. Let’s look back at the Dan Rather controversy regarding claims about

George W. Bush’s National Guard service records. Dan Rather knew those documents were

false yet didn’t care about the truth; he was more interested in a story and in smearing the

Republican president. I would guarantee that he was still sore that Al Gore lost the 2000

election despite Dan Rather’s own efforts to anoint Gore president by 8:00 on election night

2000 and was looking for anything and any opportunity to smear President Bush. But there are

millions of people in America who believed what Dan Rather said. There are millions of people

who are convinced that Dan Rather wouldn’t lie to them. Dan Rather said it, so it must be the

truth. This is manipulative propaganda, folks. People need to think for themselves.

 

So how is this going to play out in the 2012 election? Easy to see that the mainstream media

is clearly in the back pocket of President Obama. They’re going to do and say anything to help

him get re-elected. They’ll stop at nothing—outright lies, smear campaigns, you name it. They’ll

keep telling viewers that things are getting better in the economy all thanks to Obama and

people will believe it. There’s an old saying about if you keep telling someone the same lie

that eventually they’ll believe it. That’s exactly what the media is going to do to help with the

president’s re-election.    ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

 

#10    Gary Johnson, Libertarian—I’m probably more a libertarian than anything but libertarians don’t

win many national elections. The only thing the libertarian candidates do is take votes from the

Republican candidate. Gary Johnson is a good guy with some good ideas, but he isn’t going to

win. Ross Perot was a great third party candidate, but all he did was take votes from George

H.W. Bush in the 1992 election in critical swing states which ultimately handed the election to

Bill Clinton. Ralph Nader is accused of taking votes from Al Gore in 2000 and costing him the

election. Gary Johnson isn’t a strong third party candidate of the Perot caliber or even of the

Nader caliber, but he could potentially take votes of moderate Republicans or independents in

crucial battleground states. That could be enough to tip the state in favor of Obama. In 2008,

for example, Obama won North Carolina by only 14,000 votes. Wouldn’t be too hard for the

libertarian to ensure that Obama keeps a slim margin in states like this, particularly given the

less than energizing candidate Mitt Romney.   ADVANTAGE OBAMA.

~Digger


 

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6 Signs You’re A Subversive - Part 1

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Friday, 15 June 2012
in Politics

6 Signs You’re A Subversive



First, I think it’s appropriate for this article to make the distinction between communism, socialism, and social democracy.  Second, it’s necessary to define subversive to understand how this relates to the topic at hand.  All definitions come from www.wikipedia.com.

 

Communism is a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order.  According to communist theory, the only way to abolish capitalist inequalities is to have the proletariat (working class), who collectively constitute the main producer of wealth in society, and who are perpetually exploited and marginalised by the bourgeoisie (wealthy class), to overthrow the capitalist system in a wide-ranging social revolution.

Socialism is an economic system characterised by social ownership and/or control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy, and a political philosophy advocating such a system.

Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy.  The term has taken over from ‘sedition’ as the name for illicit rebellion, though the connotations of the two words are rather different, sedition suggesting overt attacks on institutions, subversion something much more surreptitious, such as eroding the basis of belief in the status quo or setting people against each other.

 

 It is my contention that there is a vast subversive movement in America right now with these subversives attempting to erode our values and corrupt our system of government.  These subversives are attempting to pit Americans against Americans with the goal of causing our political and economic systems to collapse.  Here are some signs that may suggest someone is a subversive.  If you know someone who exhibits these characteristics, be aware and be advised that they may be a subversive working against America.  Contact your local law enforcement officials at once if you believe someone you know is a subversive.

 

·         You support Obamacare

Universal healthcare is a crown jewel in social democracy, socialism and communism.  Obamacare is a vast government takeover of our healthcare system and takes away the decision making from you and your doctor and puts it in the hands of a few bureaucrats.  These bureaucrats makes the rules on who gets what treatment and who lives and dies and who is worth saving and who isn’t.   More importantly, the individual mandate allows the federal government to force you to purchase something.  If this law is allowed to stand, where does the government’s ability to force you as an individual to buy a good or service or to do something end?  If you’re an able bodied individual and you don’t have health insurance, here’s  a novel concept—get a job where they offer insurance as a benefit or else get a job and pay for it yourself.  If you’re an able bodied individual capable of working, it shouldn’t be my responsibility or your neighbor’s responsibility to pay for your healthcare.  Someone has to pay for it; it isn’t free contrary to popular belief.  If you believe Obamacare is a good policy, you’re probably a subversive.  After all, universal healthcare goes against everything that we as a nation or any capitalist nation stand for. 

 

·         You support Occupy Wall Street

 

If you are one of the mindless, lazy, ignorant individuals who supports the Occupy movement, you really have no clue how the world works.  Capitalism created your iPhone and iPod and iPad.  Capitalism is what created your Prius.  Capitalism resulted in the create of the technology you use.  Capitalism convinced you that you need a Starbucks or a bottled water.  Capitalism resulted in the creation and proliferation of social media—Twitter, Facebook, and the likes.  Capitalism provides you with cheap goods from Wal-Mart.  Capitalism resulted in the creation of the video games you play in your parents’ basement while you don’t work.  You can thank capitalism for the pharmaceutical products you use to treat the sexually transmitted disease you picked up from some skank you picked up in the tent city during your occupy movement.  Guess what?  These are all businesses.  They’re all making money whether you understand that or not.  They’re not doing these things out of the goodness of their hearts.  They’re doing it to make money.  If you want to destroy capitalism, you can kiss all those things good bye.  Consider the former USSR.  Hell, they couldn’t feed their people, keep the lights on, provide adequate health care or life saving treatments, good cars, and the list goes on.  If you want that kind of life, get the hell out of here.  If you don’t support capitalism, you obviously favor either socialism or communism or some form of those philosophies.  If you support the occupy movement, you evidently are brain dead, you’re not competent to vote, you don’t contribute anything positive to society, you’re lazy, and you’re a loser.  Why is it that you don’t have a future?  It’s not because of the big bad businesses or capitalism—it’s because you’re lazy and ignorant.     

 

·         You want everything to be fair

 

Here’s a news flash:  Life isn’t fair.  It never has been fair and it never will be fair.  If you want everyone to have the same amount of everything because it’s fair, you’re a communist.  If you want something, work for it.  You may not be able to have it today, but if you work hard and make sacrifices along the way you can ultimately get what you want.  Sadly, the people who decry that it isn’t fair that someone has more than what they do are the same people who are lazy and don’t want to work. Case in point—the entitlement generation of you people who feel they are entitled to everything but don’t want to work for it.  How did this happen?  Their parents spoiled them and didn’t want them to have to work for anything.  They didn’t teach their children about values and the value of dollar and about hard work and rewards for hard work.  No, parents failed their children by giving them everything they wanted and not making their children make choices, do without, or make sacrifices.  They raised a generation of kids who wanted it to be Christmas every day!

 

Oh, and how about the people who are being subsidized by the federal government…welfare recipients, college students who are getting loans to go through college and live on, people who have milked the unemployment system without ever even looking for a job.  These are people who expect everything to be handed to them, because they don’t want to take a menial job that they feel is beneath them.  Why should I work when I can sit at home on my fat ass playing video games and get Uncle Sam to send me a government check?  It’s not fair that I don’t have a nice car, so I want the government to give me one or take one from someone else and give to me.  I need to make more money sitting here playing video games, so why doesn’t the government tax the people who are working and making money so that I can have some more folding money to go buy cigarettes, alcohol, and video games.  

 

Where has this led?  A whole generation and group of people who don’t want to work for anything and want it handed to them and expect the government to hand it to them.  Oh, and if you have something more than they do because you actually worked hard and earned a good living and made money and made wise decisions and didn’t waste money on frivolities, they want the government to take from you and give to them. Why?  Because that’s what would be fair.  If you subscribe to this way of thought, you’re definitely a subversive…whether you realize it or not.   



There are only 3 signs here...

Look for the next blog post to finish this up tomorrow!

 

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7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #7 Political Correctness

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 26 April 2012
in Politics

7 Stupid Issues in America Today

 

Americans and the media regularly debate a host of social, moral, and religious issues. It is alarming to

see the emotion that many individuals have invested in these issues. Clearly, emotions have clouded

the rational judgment and logic of these individuals. It is good to be passionate about what you believe

in, but such passion is a detriment when trying to work to solve the problems of America and society

and often leads to divisiveness and animosity towards those with opposing views.

 

The debates seem to intensify during each election cycle when the politicians are grilled on their

positions and beliefs on some very divisive social issues. There are many clearly established laws that

relate to the issues being debated. While it may be interesting to see how politicians or candidates feel

about these issues in helping decide who gets your vote, their positions are largely irrelevant as their

ability to change established laws is somewhat limited. Further, these issues are irrelevant when it

comes to solving the greater challenges of America and restoring our greatness as a nation.

 

To me, it seems like there are seven stupid issues that people talk about, particularly in an election year,

and to which they attribute too much importance.

 

Issue #7:  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

 

Political Correctness—This one really gets under my skin, as I’m sure it gets under your skin too.

We can’t call people fat or short. We can’t use the term midget or dwarf. We can’t say retard.

If you’re offended by certain terminology, get thicker skin. It’s not like these terms are a slur

or racist. They’ve been perfectly acceptable terminology for decades. You can be politically

correct if you want, but don’t look down your nose at me because I’m not.

 

Oh, and let’s not forget that we have to preface ‘American’ with something else like African,

Italian, Chinese, Japanese. If you’re an American, why do you have to preface it with some

other nationality. If you’re more proud of that than you are of being an American, go there.

They’ll be glad to have you and you can live happily ever after.

 

Kids can’t lose these days. If you’re on the winning team, you get a medal and a pizza party.

And if you’re on the losing team, you also get a medal and a pizza party. There are no losers in

today’s society. Guess what kids. The real world doesn’t work that way. There are winners and

losers. You’re one or the other. Get used to it—it’s reality.

 

We can’t talk about Christianity or celebrate Christian holidays because it may offend someone.

This country was founded on Christian values. If you’re of another faith, you’re welcome here

 

and we’ll tolerate you, but we’re not going to bend over backwards for you and marginalize

Christianity because you don’t like it. Did you hear about the university recently that stopped

recognizing Christian holidays because some Muslim or Buddhist complained? Ridiculous. What

do you think would happen if we went to Tehran and complained about their taking off Islamic

holidays? What do you think they would do to a Christian who complained? Got news for you,

you wouldn’t live long enough to find out. There’s an old saying…When in Rome, do as the

Romans do.

 

A friend recently criticized me over my objection to political correctness, saying I was

insensitive. I find that quite offensive. I’m not saying we should deprive someone of their

ability to worship freely or make them drink from a different water fountain or use a different

bathroom or whatever. Political correctness has been taken way too far. If you’re too sensitive

or you’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, get over it. The world is tough and can be a lot

crueler than getting called fat or being called a midget or having to listen to a Christian prayer at

a pep rally or seeing a nativity scene in front of the courthouse at Christmas. We’ve got bigger

problems in this world. Channel your energies spent on political correctness to solving some

real problems. We would be a lot better off. Otherwise, get a life.

 

 

As history has shown (think Prohibition), attempts to legislate morality have generally failed miserably.

Legal or illegal, people are going to do what they want. Prohibition made alcohol illegal, but it didn’t

stop people from drinking. Ultimately, Prohibition was repealed. Drugs are illegal, but people still

choose to use them. We’re not going to stop that. In the larger picture, don’t we as a nation have more

important issues than those I’ve outlined? If we’re all dead because the terrorists attack us, does any of

this really matter? If our nation is bankrupt and our financial system collapses, does this really matter?

If the federal government continues to amass unprecedented powers and our liberties are taken from

us, do these issues really matter? These issues only create negative energy that detracts from the real

issues. Let’s focus our energies on issues that we can collectively resolve to make America stronger,

more secure, and financially stable. Without that, these other issues don’t really matter and only divide

us more than they unite us. The enemies of liberty will attempt to exploit the people on these issues,

preying upon their emotions, distracting them while their freedom comes under attack and is stealthily

snatched away.

 

This is the lst one in a series of 7 stupid issues.  Read more on the other issues here:

Read: 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #1 Abortion

And: 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #2 Separation of church and State

As well as: 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #3 Pornography

Read: 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #4 Gay Marriage

And: 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #5 War On Drugs

As well as: 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #6 Gambling

 

Thank you!

 

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7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #6 Gambling

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 26 April 2012
in Politics

7 Stupid Issues in America Today

 

Americans and the media regularly debate a host of social, moral, and religious issues. It is alarming to

see the emotion that many individuals have invested in these issues. Clearly, emotions have clouded

the rational judgment and logic of these individuals. It is good to be passionate about what you believe

in, but such passion is a detriment when trying to work to solve the problems of America and society

and often leads to divisiveness and animosity towards those with opposing views.

 

The debates seem to intensify during each election cycle when the politicians are grilled on their

positions and beliefs on some very divisive social issues. There are many clearly established laws that

relate to the issues being debated. While it may be interesting to see how politicians or candidates feel

about these issues in helping decide who gets your vote, their positions are largely irrelevant as their

ability to change established laws is somewhat limited. Further, these issues are irrelevant when it

comes to solving the greater challenges of America and restoring our greatness as a nation.

 

To me, it seems like there are seven stupid issues that people talk about, particularly in an election year,

and to which they attribute too much importance.

 

Issue #6: GAMBLING

 

Gambling—Gaming is one of the best industries around and it is highly profitable, generating

thousands of jobs and something like $7 billion in tax revenue for the states alone. Yet, there

 

is a whole group of people out there that oppose gambling on religious or moral grounds. As

I mentioned before, we can’t legislate morality but people are still trying to force their beliefs

upon others and deprive them of the free will to make decisions whether to engage in gaming or

not. Let’s get real. After all, this is 2012, not 1912. Gambling isn’t going away anytime soon.

 

I recall that South Carolina had the video gaming parlors for years back in the 1990s until the

Bible-thumpers wanted to put an end to the industry…and they did. Successive attempts to

bring gaming back in different forms have failed, and the self righteous morality police even

attempted to stop the casino boats from docking in Little River. It’s just absurd. The federal

government has even gone after the on-line casinos that are offshore and shut them down

here in the U.S. Tens of millions of dollars are wasted in breaking up the gaming parlors or

sweepstakes parlors or whatever form they take. How much tax revenue is being lost when the

industry is shut down? How many jobs are being lost? How much economic impact is being

lost?

 

Furthermore, isn’t it just plain hypocritical to have a legalized lottery in a state but prohibit

other forms of gambling? Let’s consider the lottery. You buy a ticket for a dollar. The numbers

are drawn randomly. If you match the numbers you win. If you don’t, you lost your dollar.

There’s no limit on the number of tickets you can buy. Now, let’s consider a casino. You take

your dollar to the roulette wheel and put it on red or black. Your odds of winning are just about

fifty-fifty. If you bet on black and it comes up black, you double your money. If it comes up red,

you lose your dollar. What’s the difference between the casino and the lottery again?

 

Also read:  7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #1 Abortion

7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #2 Separation of church and State

7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #3 Pornography

7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #4 Gay Marriage

7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #5 War On Drugs

7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #6 Gambling

 

 

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7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #5 War On Drugs

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 26 April 2012
in Politics

7 Stupid Issues in America Today

 

 

Issue # 5:  WAR ON DRUGS

 

War on Drugs—This has been a vast failure for the past fifty years, and drug cartels are bigger

and badder now than ever before despite our federal government spending something like $15

billion annually. I think we could have found a better way to use that money. For $15 billion,

we could probably nuke the drug producing regions in Colombia and elsewhere. Not a politically

good thing to do, but it would effectively reduce part of the problem.

 

Here again, just because drugs have been illegal hasn’t stopped people from buying them and

using them. Instead, it has created an entire underground economy. I don’t support drug use

and think it’s a reprehensible activity, but let’s go ahead and legalize it, regulate it, and tax it.

The underground economy would virtually disappear, there wouldn’t be any need to be fighting

the drug cartels, violence along the border associated with drug cartels should go away, and the

governments can make money off the industry and use the funds for police and educating kids

about the dangers of drugs.

 

I’ve said it before if we want to pay for Social Security or Medicare or pay down debt let’s

decriminalize drugs and regulate and tax them. Taxes on cigarettes raise about $18 billion per

year for local and state government and the fed. In addition to taxes, there would be some

revenues generated for the government from the underground economy associated with drugs

as those monies filter into the broader, general economy. The tax revenue along with the

savings in spending on the war on drugs could help in many ways. Why waste money fighting a

losing battle?

 

Also read  7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #1 Abortion7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #1 Abortion

And  7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #2 Separation of church and State

And  7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #3 Pornography

And  7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #4 Gay Marriage

 

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7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #4 Gay Marriage

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
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on Thursday, 26 April 2012
in Politics

7 Stupid Issues in America Today

 

Americans and the media regularly debate a host of social, moral, and religious issues. It is alarming to

see the emotion that many individuals have invested in these issues. Clearly, emotions have clouded

the rational judgment and logic of these individuals. It is good to be passionate about what you believe

in, but such passion is a detriment when trying to work to solve the problems of America and society

and often leads to divisiveness and animosity towards those with opposing views.

 

The debates seem to intensify during each election cycle when the politicians are grilled on their

positions and beliefs on some very divisive social issues. There are many clearly established laws that

relate to the issues being debated. While it may be interesting to see how politicians or candidates feel

about these issues in helping decide who gets your vote, their positions are largely irrelevant as their

ability to change established laws is somewhat limited. Further, these issues are irrelevant when it

comes to solving the greater challenges of America and restoring our greatness as a nation.

 

To me, it seems like there are seven stupid issues that people talk about, particularly in an election year,

and to which they attribute too much importance.

 

Issue #4: GAY MARRIAGE

 

Gay Marriage—Yes, I think traditional marriage is between a man and a woman, but do I really

care if gays and lesbians get married? Hell, no. Am I a little uncomfortable with the whole idea

of gay marriage? Absolutely, but who am I or who is anyone to deprive two people of being

together? If they’re in love and want to spend their life together, have at it. You know the only

people who win here—the divorce attorneys. There’s absolutely nothing to suggest that gays

and lesbians will have a lower divorce rate. I suspect they’ll be just like the rest of America

when it comes to the success rate of marriages.

 

I guess there is some mistaken belief that if we outlaw it, people won’t be homosexual anymore.

That’s quite a fallacy. It’s still going to go on whether they can get married or not. You mean to

tell me that politicians will support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and think

it will pass but yet they can’t seem to get a balanced budget amendment put together. Really?

Let’s get some priorities straight first.

 

Let’s make it legal so maybe we don’t have to see the marches and rallies anymore, so it’s not

so in your face all the time. Once they get the right to get married, there won’t be any need to

be so public about being homosexual. They won’t be waving their flags and all that stuff. They’ll

live life just like everyone else, the opponents of it will soon forget about it, and everyone will

just move on to bigger and better things.

 

Read 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #1 Abortion

Read 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #2 Separation of church and State

Read 7 Stupid Issues in America Today - Issue #3 Pornography

 

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Solution #8 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 27 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #8:

 

 

Vote Them All Out and Start Over—Well, this idea is pretty simple. What we’ve got in

Washington, D.C. right now isn’t working. So, let’s get rid of all of them. Wipe the slate clean,

and start all over. If you’ve been in the federal government before, whether elected or not, the

people just shouldn’t vote to you. If we keep electing them, we’ll just get more of the same as

former members of the Congress or of the government will come out of the woodwork to get

back into some position of power. Each and every seat in the Congress belongs to the American

people, not one individual or any particular party. We don’t have peerages in America where

you get a seat if you have a certain hereditary advantage. The American people need to wake

up and smell the roses. The people in Washington aren’t working for you. They’re working for

themselves and they will do or say whatever it takes for self preservation—for keeping their

seat and position. The media is biased and is going to push certain candidates who support a

particular agenda. Let’s educate the American people about how they’re being taken advantage

of by the politicians and their special interest financial backers and lobbyists in Washington.

Let’s find some good, hardworking American citizens and taxpayers to run for these seats

and let’s get them elected. Let’s tell the media to start reporting the news and not trying to

make the news so that the voting population can be informed about the candidates, their

qualifications, and their goals for America. Let’s get people elected to the Congress who aren’t

career politicians or lawyers but who are interested in saving America from the self destructive

path that we’re being led down.

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Solution #7 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 27 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #7:

 

 

Make Congress Like Jury Duty—This is a pretty revolutionary concept. Let’s make serving in

the Congress like jury duty. If you meet certain qualifications (education, citizenship, etc.) and

if your number gets called up, you’re going to be the congressman or senator for the next two

years or six years, respectively. If this system is good enough to determine a person’s fate in

a court of law, why wouldn’t this work in running our country? Your number gets called, and

you’ll be expected to show up in Washington to serve your term. While in Washington, these

people can be housed and fed as part of the package, given a per diem and salary as previously

discussed, or a combination of this. I think it would bring more common sense to Washington

and make the Congress more like our Founding Fathers had envisioned. And, it does away with

endless campaigning that diverts time resources from the candidate and billions of dollars that

could be better spent elsewhere on campaigning. There are millions of American citizens and

taxpayers who have good ideas that could help our country. However, politicians are always

telling us why our ideas won’t work and why their ideas are the best. Does anyone else find this

 

insulting? It sounds like the members of the Congress are intellectual elitists—you know, the

kind of people who know better than you and who, therefore, should do the thinking for you.

America has massive problems ahead. Let’s get some new ideas and new people from all walks

of life working together to solve these challenges. I think we would be surprised at how much

more efficiently and effectively the Congress would be.

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Solution #6 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 27 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #6:

 

 

Eliminate Riders and Amendments to Bills—Why should any bill put forth in the Congress get

amended to include legislation not in any way related to the original bill? Shouldn’t each and

every single bill get voted on by itself without riders or amendments? Shouldn’t the merits of

the bill itself be the chief factor in determining whether it passes and not because there was

some rider that got some votes to ensure passage? I think the majority of American people

would find this abjectly wrong. That’s why we have bills that are thousands of pages long and

that never get read by members of the Congress. It should be fairly simple—the proposed

legislation should fit on less than two pieces of legal paper. The Bill of Rights didn’t need much

more space than that. Do we really need these complex documents that no one seems to read

or understand? Absolutely not! Riders are simply another way that members of the Congress

slip in pet projects for their district or state that may not stand the muster of a vote by itself.

This needs to change. Obviously, the members of the Congress are too lazy or too busy or too

stupid to read the entire bill. But then again, would you want to read a thousand pages of

lawyer language? Simplification is the key. If the everyday man or woman can’t understand

what’s going on, why should we entrust members of the Congress who have admitted to not

reading the bills to know any better? Let’s try this: Put each bill on two pages. Post the bill

online for public review for at least thirty days prior to a vote. Let the people review it and if

they have questions or concerns or objections their voices can be heard online or via telephone

calls to their elected officials.

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Solution #5 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 27 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #5:

 

 

Balanced Budget Amendment and Massive Restructuring of the Federal Government—Not

only does this help to stop the profligate waste of taxpayer money in the federal government,

it would devolve many powers that have been usurped by the federal government back to the

states. After all, it’s easy to spend other people’s money, and the Congress is pretty good at

that. First, we need to substantially reduce the size of the federal government by restructuring

departments to reduce overlapping programmes and eliminating a number of departments,

agencies, and programmes. For example, the Departments of Education, Energy, and Housing

& Urban Development, just to name a few, could be permanently eliminated with education

being devolved to the states. Second, once the federal government has been restructured and

cut to a more manageable level, the Congress can develop a balanced budget rule with caps on

spending increases. The Congress would then have to work within the framework of how much

revenue has been generated to fund government departments and programmes. With less size

and scope of the federal government and limitations on spending, members of the Congress

 

would be forced to be more judicious when it comes to spending and would be required to

work within strict guidelines. Thus, the Congress wouldn’t be debating endlessly about deficits

and raising the debt ceiling. Not only is a leaner, more efficient federal government in the

best interests of the American taxpayers, it is also an effective means of streamlining incessant

budget debates over bloated departments. What taxpayer wouldn’t agree that tightening the

purse string is a good idea, particularly when it comes to members of the Congress who control

spending and don’t seem to care how much they spend?

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Solution #4 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 27 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #4:

 

 

Cut Congressional Pay, Benefits, and Time Congress is in Session—Members of the Congress

certainly wouldn’t like this, but let’s remember nearly 50% are already millionaires. If we can

take out the graft from lobbying and cut the pay and benefits and retirement, maybe we can get

some people elected who are actually interested in solving America’s great problems and not

just looking to fatten their bank accounts at the expense of the American taxpayers. Congress

should be part time and they should be held to account if they aren’t able to get the job done

in their allotted time frame. Let’s look at this scenario. Let’s say the Congress is in session

from January through March, the month of June, and again in October and November up to

Thanksgiving. Perhaps we should make it that all members of the Congress are paid $30,000 per

year for this part-time service or a per diem. The rest of the time, they need to go back to the

districts they represent and their jobs. If you work for someone else, your employer must hold

your job for you while you are serving in the Congress. While you’re back home, you’re going

to be hearing a lot from the people of your district and you’re going to have to explain to them

what was accomplished while you were in Washington, D.C. With this scenario, no one is going

to be getting rich from public service. Isn’t that how our Founding Fathers envisioned this? Isn’t

that, in fact, how they did things? In the early days, members of the Congress received a small

per diem of $6.00. They didn’t start getting paid a salary until 1855. Who’s going to accomplish

more—the Congressman only making $30,000 per year and having to work the normal job as

well or the Congressman who makes $174,000 per year and does this for a living with more

benefits from lobbyists? I think more gets accomplished by someone who isn’t financially

motivated for being there. If you’re going to serve as a Congressman and only make $30,000,

you’re probably there because you want to be there and you feel you can make a difference.

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Solution #3 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 27 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #3:

 

End Lobbying—Here’s a simple way to look at this issue: Lobbying=Corruption. Here how it

works. Congressman Doe or Senator Smith decide to retire and go to work for XYZ Lobbying in

Washington. Since they know a lot of people in the Congress, they have access to them to talk

about issues and problems; they can bend their ear and get the inside track as to what is going

on in the Congress. So, XYZ Lobbying is hired by the Anti-Widget group to get legislation passed

in the Congress to outlaw widget manufacturing. Senator Smith then schmoozes with members

of the Congress to try to influence their vote on the anti-widget bill. This may involve nice

lunches, trips, tickets to events, and so on. Oh, of course, it’s not that flagrantly obvious. It’s

usually disguised some other way so that it doesn’t come across as graft but that’s what we’re

talking about here—using money to influence the Congress. It happens each and every single

day.

 

There’s no money in politics; the money is in the graft. Lobbying corrupts the integrity of the

Congress and its members and is nothing more than good, old fashioned vote buying. Poor Rod

Blagojevich is going to be spending the next 14 years in prison for trying to sell the Illinois Senate

seat vacated by Obama when he was elected President. I’m not defending what he did by any

means, but if we’re going to put him in prison for that we need to start investigating the entire

Congress. What he did goes on everyday in Washington and every member of the Congress

 

has been lobbied for something. Let’s not be hypocritical about this. Every Congressman and

Senator should renounce lobbying and support legislation to ban the practice. Does anyone else

think it suspicious that most of the members of the Congress end up millionaires? Maybe that’s

why they’re not willing to ban lobbying.

 

Your Turn:

 

What do you think:  Is solution #3 something that can happen in our country?

 

Please comment!

 

~Digger

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Solution #2 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Friday, 23 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #2:

 

Strong Third Party—I have long argued that America needs a strong and viable third party. I

 

thought we came close to that with Ross Perot back in 1992. We need a good, solid third party

that’s made up of the centrists in both the Republican and Democratic parties, the moderates as

they are called, like the Libertarian party. If we had ten or twenty Libertarians in the Senate and

eighty or a hundred in the House and the rest of the seats were fairly evenly divided, it would

force compromise to get anything done and limit the ability of extremists in each party to force

through damaging legislation.

 

Let’s look at the United Kingdom. They’ve got three major parties: the Tories (Conservatives),

the Labour, and the Liberal Democrats. The Tories have 305 seats out of a total of 650 seats

in the House of Commons. Labour has 253 seats and the Liberal Dems have 57 seats. The

other parties have about thirty seats or so. As you can see, no one party won a majority to

form a government, so the Tories decided to work with the Liberal Dems to form a coalition

government. The Tories can’t get anything done without the help and support of the Liberal

Dems, who don’t always side with the Tories. It makes for an interesting working relationship

and lots of compromise. Wouldn’t this be a good thing in Washington, D.C.? It seems like a

lot more would potentially get done for the American people and less time wasted in bickering

between the two parties. Sadly, the two main parties aren’t going to let a third party be

successful and will work against any third party candidate. And it seems like the media is against

third party candidates as well. When was the last time you heard CNN or Fox News or CBS or

NBC or ABC mention a Libertarian candidate? I seem to recall as well that Ralph Nader when he

ran for President with the Green party wasn’t even invited to most of the debates. Why doesn’t

the establishment and the media want a viable third party?

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Solution #1 to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

Posted by Digger Cartwright
Digger Cartwright
Robert “Digger” Cartwright is the author of several mystery stories, teleplays, and novels including The Versa...
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 20 March 2012
in Politics

We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America

 

Today, I'll expand on solution #1:

 

·         Term Limits—Our Founding Fathers did not envision a system in which we had career politicians.  Serving in the government was an honor, but it was a short-lived responsibility.  Our leaders back then were planters, lawyers, tradesmen, businessmen, first and foremost.  They were politicians second.  They served their country then went home and back to their careers and business.  Were there some career politicians?  Yes, but nothing like the number of career politicians that we have today.  Term limits today would take away power in the hands of a few senior senators and congressmen who control powerful committees that make laws, develop budgets, etc.  Serving in the Congress should not be about amassing power because you’ve been there the longest.  Serving in the Congress should be about doing what is best for America. 

 

If you’re a newly elected congressman, the first thing that is going to happen when you get to the Capitol is that leaders from your party are going to say this, “You’re going to vote for this, this and this, and we’re going to put you on this committee and you’re going to do this.  If you don’t do what we tell you to do, you’ll be put in the icebox and never get anything for your district.”  The Congress shouldn’t work that way.  Each and every elected representative should be on equal footing with everyone else there.  Term limits would bring fresh blood and new ideas into the government on a more regular basis and perhaps do away with bitter, long running rivalries between certain personalities on opposing parties.  If the President of the United States has a term limit, why shouldn’t the members of the Congress also have a term limit?    

 

What do you think?

Do you see it?  

Do you see other solutions?

Please comment and join the conversation.

 

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