Ladies and gents since I have been away for awhile, I would like to reiterate my position for any new members.

Our country's problems are "our" fault. We have failed to maintenance the machine and now it is breaking down. We are distracted form important things by minor squabbles and misdirection. We have so many things thrown at us at once to divide us into "self" interest groups. We need to have "1" interest. Restoration of our Constitutional Republic via reimplementation of the separation of powers. There is only one way to start this process.
1. Remove all incumbent representatives for the next few elections. This will breakdown the special interest infrastructure. 2. Push for legislation that "no" corporation of any kind may support a candidate in any fashion whatsoever (not even dinner at a CEO's house). And I do mean "any corporation" Non profit, Union, C, S. you name it. The entity cannot vote, therefore it should not be allowed access. This will begin to change the atmosphere at the Federal level. I have another one you might like. How is it your "state rep" is a federal employee? Do away with the entire federal payroll and insurance infrastructure for reps by putting them on the state employment rolls. They would get the state insurance plan and pay scale and should make less than the governor. That's a start and I welcome comment and discussion.

Take care

Hello All,

I have been away from the board for quite awhile. I want all to know, I went and visited friends in the states around 4th of July. We had a layover in PA so I got on the internet and was astonished to find next to no 9-12 participation in Philadelphia. Now admittedly the internet is not the end all be all; but a group with about 20 members and "0" events? This is the birthplace of our country! Philadelphia should have the strongest 9-12 participation in the country. I will tell you I was disheartened by this. I expected a great deal more information on local activities. If your in Philadelphia and a 9-12er let me know. I have friends that would like to find you.

Not True!

I have a poor connection and I can hardly get on. I also do a lot of fieldwork so not always in range of the network. All the comments on all the vent pages were all for the same day over the weekend. Seems pretty lively to me. For me venting is fine, but at some point we need to get moving. If we're out doing, its hard to post. I hope that's what's going on. You want to talk silent? I gave up this fight long ago (25yrs) because no one and I do mean NO ONE would pay attention and I "knew" I was alone. I could hear crickets! Think of the length of time, how long have the most anti-American and corrupt politicians been in office? What did I see then? and How long have I known where this was heading? Its been really cold. I have been proven wrong by Glenn and everyone here! I am not alone! Now that I know this it is time to go back to work. Its starting to warm up for me!

The cool thing is they are both the same tax with a different name! So what they are really saying is "huge tax. no option". That is the creativity right there. They have figured out how to make you believe that the same program is the lesser of two evils and hey still get paid! Brilliant! Now if we could get them to put that same effort into actually paying attention to us, we'd be getting somewhere.

Support the states rights movement; then go after the only thing that catches their attention; "money". Your senators and congressmen should be state employees! They are from and work for your state! Why should they get any better pay and benefits than the janitor at your state capitol?

Also make it illegal for any politician to be influenced in any way by any corporation. I mean any, no matter how big, no matter how small, unions, non-profits, LLCs, trusts, ANY!! AIG contributed big to candidates Dodd and Obama and look at the helpful legislation they got out of it. This is just the most glaring example, this occurs on all sides.

Frankly this is the position i've taken as well. With so many wonderful utopian, perfect societies the US keeps getting compared to; Canada, France, England, Cuba, why don't all the socia lists just move? Why stay in a country you hate and be miserable when you could easily go to an already long established society that has everything you say you want? Its a win win. No need to compare, just go there!

Bravo,
I have posted this very same thing several times in response to tax reform posts. The Federal income tax was originally started as a "temporary" Govt program to help fund the war effort. then repealed. However our reps started thinking about all the really cool things they could do with this money "like pay themselves". They were so impressed with themselves at how smart they were they kept trying to re-institute, but the Supreme Court struck down their attempts as Unconstitutional. so our reps amended the Constitution (16th amend) to avoid the Constitutional argument and made it permanent. Do you see how long this has been going on? We're talking about early 1900's here. You are the first person, outside of myself that I have met with this same view. If we can get more people on this wagon, we might have a shot at fixing this.

Not at all. I feel they are not the same thing and honestly do not understand how they were interchanged. Care to weigh in?

I think this would become a long merry-go-round of semantics. I respect your view. I feel speaking, writing or signing words is speech. Body language or other such actions are expressions and the two are not interchangeable..

Hi Battleforce,

For some reason I cannot see your post to respond, but did recieve a notification. To your question of defining speech. From my side, views and opinions are "expressed" through speech. Speaking alone is not expression. Speaking is a stand alone form of communication. If one says,"I think public nudity is fine" They are expressing an opinion through speech. One can express this same opinion without speech by the physical act of removing one's clothes in the public square; so in my view they are not the same.