Goodbye to Texas

I've been more than irritated with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and his not so subtle asides about seceeding from the union because of Washington. Perry cites such atrocities as gun control, taxation, abortion, stem cell research and general interference with the way Texas wants to do business. Considering the problems Texas has with their prison system, education, health insurance, border lands and general all around bigotry, it's surprising that they haven't seceeded already.

In fact, Washington, let me be the first to suggest that we throw them out of the union. I'm not sure they're worth the expense and aggravation. I listened to the leader of the so called Tea Party group, a Texan, on Chris Matthew's 'Hardball' the other night and the man is a moron. His grasp of history was practically non-existent and his conservative values rejected the fact that our current economic woes stemmed from the brilliant work of Reagan, Bush (1) and Bush (2) in deregulating business practices and spawning an SEC that was proficient only through its neglect of whatever rules still existed.

And yet, no words of protest until we have a Democrat in office. Not a sound. George Bush started two wars, neither of which targeted Al Queda. He failed miserably in stopping the Republicans from spending money like children in a candy store, lured Ted Kennedy into helping him create "No Child Left Behind" laws and then refused to fund those programs, developed TARP to ostensibly keep credit flowing, but refused to put any kind of regulation on this money. The result, of course, was that AIG and the biggest banks split it up amongst themselves as bonuses.

Let's call it "The Raping of America". We can call ourselves a democracy and we can call ourselves capitalists but we aren't really either. We are, for all intents and purposes, an oligarchy dedicated to the proposition that if it isn't good for the super rich, then it isn't good. But I have developed a top five actions for the country to take which would allow us to pay down our debt and to allow for national health reform (single payer) among other social legislative initiatives that have been too long in the making.

1) Stop the war in Afghanistan and Iraq NOW. In the same vein, close the military bases in Germany and Saudi Arabia (as a beginning).

2) Cut military spending by AT LEAST one-half. This year we spent over $620 billion. China spent $84 billion.

3) Produce legislation which prevents influence peddling on Capital Hill. No more economic imperialists that can literally buy votes.

4) Legalize marijuana, sell and regulate licenses to growers, and TAX the sale of it. This will reduce the prison population, lower the crime rate and help us all. I read somewhere that 56% of Americans favor the legalization of marijuana and that the remaining 44% think it is already legal. I know, bad joke.

5) Pass and strictly enforce a balanced budget initiative which includes a severe
reduction in the number of governmental bureaucracies. For instance, why do we need the NSA, CIA, FBI and Homeland Security?

Anyway, thoughts of a dry brain in autumn - waiting to go south. 10/17/2009