Did you Know that as the Head of State in Australia, the Queen of England has certain powers over the government? In 1975, for example, the Queen's representative in the country at the time, Governor General Sir John Kerr, fired the Prime Minister in response to a government shutdown. Kerr then appointed a replacement, who immediately passed the spending bill to fund the government.  Three hours later, Kerr dismissed the rest of Parliament. Then Australia held elections to restart from scratch. And they haven't had another shutdown since!

 

I for one wish that we had a system in place where we could do something similar aside from the standard voting process every two years.

 

The fact is, Presidents have no Constitutional authority to do most of the things they claim they can do. They can only ask the Congress to do what they want. 

 

Our so-called representatives have sold us out so many times it makes me sick to my stomach... and what do we all do? We not only let them keep their jobs but we also allow them to give themselves a raise for the fine job of screwing us. Last time around they gave themselves a $4,500 raise. When was the last time you received a raise like that?  The way we've been holding our representatives accountable is to let them keep their $174,000 a year base salary job, so they can stick it to us for another two years! In case you're wondering, that's $14,500 a month!

 

During the 2013 government shutdown 1.3 million workers went without pay, over 800,000 civilian employees were furloughed. And the hard working men and women in the military were not paid as scheduled.  Federal law enforcement agents, doctors and nurses working in federal hospitals, air traffic controllers for the Department of Defense, at least half of the civilian workforce, and the full-time, dual-status military technicians in the US National Guard and traditional Guardsmen were furloughed and not paid while the shutdown was is in effect. Shutdowns also affect municipal governments, closing schools and suspending utilities and worse, and yet members of congress are paid because their pay cannot be altered except by direct law. This needs to CHANGE!

 

If we are ever going to get a grip on our government, we're going to have to start acting like the employers that we are.  Congress is supposed to work for US, not bankers and corporations. What would you do If you owned a company and none of your employees listened to you, they lied to you, didn't do the jobs you gave them to do, and in fact, were actually working for your competition and selling your company down the river as fast as they could?  I don't think you'd keep them on and give them a raise!

 

We Have a Constitution People! If followed, it limits the ability of the Federal government to tax, regulate and control our lives. THIS is the job we're hiring representatives to do for us. We're not hiring them to crank out endless streams of legislation that complicate our lives, cost us money and serve the interests of the 1 percent.

Strict adherence and enforcement of the Constitution is the ONLY thing that makes it a LOT harder for those with the most wealth to seize the powers of government and use it for their own purposes.  Our Congress has abdicated its responsibilities and handed the powers of government over to corporate interests that have absolutely no allegiance to this nation, to the Constitution, and certainly not to playing fair.  Both major political parties are complicit.  They have shredded the Constitution and Bill of Rights in exchange for filthy lucre.

 

There is a mountain of evidence, a small fraction of which is posted all over the web, to prove that powerful corporations, through their control of our election process, the legislative powers of government, the courts, the international treaty process, the world's currencies and of course, virtually total control of our mainstream media, have just about totally taken over our country.  If we don't take control of Congress away from them, and fast, by a massive act of civil disobedience, we are simply not going to survive as a nation much longer the way things are going.

 

So here's the bottom line. If you're one of those people that bitches and belly-aches and complains about what Congress is doing to us, and you are not helping to make sure the people doing it are removed from office, then you have no right to complain! At the very least, don't you think holding them accountable should mean the people WE KNOW ARE BETRAYING US lose their seat in Congress? 

 

If most people continue to vote the way they usually do, in a way that allows most incumbents to be re-elected, how are we holding any of them accountable for anything? We should deliberately vote for an incumbent's strongest competitor in order to make sure the incumbent will be voted out of office.

 

Vote for America in the upcoming elections, not a political party.

 

Later...