I gave up assholes for Lent last year, this year I chose Congress. My snarky husband suggested that I could have killed two birds with one stone by sticking with assholes.
My lack of commentary on current events or the jackasses committing the latest rounds of egregious congressional follies has more to do with my growing discontent and hardening belief that nothing will change up north until a significant portion of our populace decides that the crowd running D.C. is wrong about nearly everything. We all know there isn’t a single Federal bone backing any of the bodies currently occupying our seats of power.
The people who don’t pay anything want more, the people who do pay want more, the elected folks who want to keep their lips firmly suckled to the public tit give an enthusiastic yes to more of everything. Except when the cameras are rolling and the need to pander to some popular NO constituency will keep their jolly fat asses well employed at our doomed expense.
Make every working man cut three checks to Washington every April out of their own bank accounts and you’ll see a vast, seismic shift back towards limited government and fiscal conservatism. Directly paying income tax, social security and medicare/medicaid straight up would be a stunning eye opener to most working citizens.
Sever the third party disconnect between people and their take home paychecks and you’ll see some serious change in the halls of power.
WTG Daphne. And I vote with your husband about joining your two birds together.
Our Washington has become a cesspool for “what’s in it for me?” and “let’s see how much I can make out of the public’s money?” gangs of legalized thieves.
We need to end all contributions by businesses to the silliness of our elections and force the Supreme Court to accept the fact that we only want businesses doing business. Speaking of that, whatever happened to Taft-Hartley?
Fuck if I know, Catmoves.
Let’s put Taft-Hartley on the list of questions all voters should answer correctly before they receive their punch cards.
I’m also for severing the disconnect between the consumers of health care and the bills for it.
If you’ve given up assholes, does that mean I’m no longer welcome here?
The state government in this Washington is spending us all down the river, and now they are pushing through more tax bills, now that they have tossed out I-960, which the voters approved, requiring two-thirds majority before the raise taxes. The voters be damned, as clearly we are too stupid to know what is good for us.
I have heard three wonderful proposals within as many weeks now. Together they’d put us well back on the right road.
Daphne’s “pay straight” idea is one.
Second: Any elected official and anyone working for government or receiving benefits from it must pass frequent random drug screenings. Also, they automatically lose their office/job/benefits upon conviction of a felony. It’s a free country, be a wasted thug if you like, just not on the taxpayers’ tab.
Third: Voters must have proper ID and pass a voter literacy test. The INS test for new citizens seems comprehensive and fair. Ballots will be PAPER or other permanent hard media, and all ballots will be kept secure and isolated at least until elections are certified by the state.
Bonus idea from me: Politicians receive benefits not exceeding whatever their average constituents get, and their expenses will be legally monitored by whoever they defeated in their last election. Maximum salary for ANY elected office, including the President, is the nationwide average for teachers.
2010 looks to be a crucial year. If things don’t turn around soon we’ll have to kill all the bloodsucking, grandbaby-raping politicians, and boy do I ever hate having to scrub blood out from under my fingernails.
Shut your sweet mouth, Buckskin, you’re not an asshole.
We are undoubtedly getting the government we deserve. When the party of evil gets out of hand, the party of stupid will put things in enough order just well enough for the party of evil to resume giving it to us good and harder. The leftest state could not have survived all this time without conservatives to jerry rig it on the fly.
The only way to make certain government does not abuse its power is not to grant it in the first place. We are now eighty years removed from practicing that. But we will chatter about the politicians.
Russell Kirk believed that the final of three checks upon the incessant experimentation of leftists was the coming of catastrophes which teach men to distrust their own opinions. We have already been through the other two.
Daphne, I know a few folks (well, maybe more than a few) who would dispute that.
I’m allergic to stupid, the reaction being to bring out my inner asshole.
I continue to be pessimistic about our long term prospects simply because the worthless, stupid cast of characters in Congress and the Executive Branch reflect the will of the stupid, illiterate, undisciplined voters who put them into office. John Adams said that the preservationof liberty depends on the intellectual and moral character of the people. Take a trip to Walmart and evaluate how that test currently works out. On a more positive note, I like your Blog Daphne!
[...] my favorite Austin blogger who isn’t me (Daphne at Jaded Heaven): My lack of commentary on current events or the jackasses committing the latest rounds of [...]
Actually, Daphne. I think it will take more than just acknowledging the incompetence and the institutionally widespread corruption that permeates D.C.
It’s going to take radical and revolutionary revolt to remove them — all of them — from office. It won’t and can’t be done at the ballot box, as they’ve so rigged and stacked the game in their favor as to make it nearly impossible to throw out the entrenched and harder to elect honest and decent men into a broken and crooked system.
[...] quote from here. “Make every working man cut three checks to Washington every April out of their own bank [...]
I’ve always wanted a constitutional amendment that would mandate a ballot on which politician (from each state: so lucky Illinois) should be executed.
Should clean things up lickety split.
In my adult lifetime, exactly one Federal Agency has been eliminated – the Interstate Commerce Commission. In all that time, the government has grown continually in scope, expense and power, even under the ‘conservative’ administrations.
I don’t believe the brain-dead feebs who are ‘running’ this country can fix it now, even if they had the will to do so and were permitted to try.
Oh my, I agree with everyone today. That’s a first.
SED, well I’m not feeling too hopeful either after the Texas primary results. Every single incumbent won with easy margins, the career politicians by wide spreads.
Most people like things just the way they are.
Not for long.
I’m not so sure, James. The People seem to have a vast capacity for cramming ream-loads of bureaucratic shit down their openly ignorant throats.
@James: Which party is evil and which one is stupid?
Daphne, Daphne, Daphne…..common sense is more priceless than the hollowed out, lead filled gold bars filling Fort Knox thesed days. You are right to be flummoxed and vexed at our Assholian Kleptocratic Congress. It is as if they believe that WE will believe what they keep saying about the health care bill LOWERING our taxes. Gawd I wish they would all just commit harikari….but that would require them to have some sense of honor or shame. They have neither.
I personally hope to see the truck drivers of America circle the Bastards’ Lair on the Beltway and not let any goods or services get through or out. A total blockade of Washington D.C would be a good thing. There are so many fun ways to wage a war, you know. It doesn’t need to come to flying planes into buildings and suchlike. Tax protests can be more than empty symbolic photo ops.
In Billings, Montana, around 1987, the citizens revolted against the high property taxes and filed protests with their tax returns, which required the tax assessors to have to investigate all the protests…and wouldn’t ya know? They all had to be reduced! I look forward to a good tax war, ‘cuz I know I got mad bartering skillz, girl friend.
The “Washington Post”‘s “Style Invitational” asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply a new definition:
My all-time favorite:
Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an asshole.