A Disgruntled Veteran on “Taxation without Representation”

A Disgruntled Veteran on "Taxation without Representation"

Bill Ernest, Jr.

Like millions of Americans, last fall, I called my Senators and my representative to ask (to beg? to pray? to plead!) with them not to vote for that TARP Bailout... and last winter, I again did the same when it came to the Ominous Omnibus Stimulus Package. I recently called again about Tax & Crap (Cap & Trade, whatever) all with much the same results: a blatant disregard of the will of the people by those entrusted to exact the people's will... only because in my misspent youth I used to abuse drugs and alcohol has this Disgruntled Veteran ever been involved in a bigger waste of time. Voters used to worry about their elected officials owning stock in companies, nowadays it seems our biggest worry should be the corporations owning stock in politicians, pulling their strings like oh-so many "Pinocchio"s on Stromboli's stage. The people in Washington no longer listen to the men & women who make America run, but cower and collaborate with the Bankers who think they run America, but who have run this great nation into the ground.

My best and, unfortunately, worst example of this can be found in my own Senator, Senator John McCainJohn McCain. I first became aware of this true American Hero when I was but a child and my family watched a movie about Vietnam POWs with Hal HolbrookHal Holbrook as Naval Aviator Jeremiah Denton Jr. (future Admiral and U.S. Senator): eating pumpkin-soup, suffering outrageous torture, and blinking out Morris code messages to the folks back home in vile propaganda films. My father took that opportunity to explain to me what it meant to be an American, to be a Patriot, and the sacrifice, suffering and service that all citizens may be called upon to endure in order to protect freedom and fight tyranny. I also learned the tale of POW-McCain and the unabashed heroic commitment that he showed to his fellow captives in the Hanoi Hilton; I have always admired McCain for that and have casually followed his career over the years... I thought he was the best man for the job in 2000, not Bush-the-Younger. That being said, I also think that his defeat in the 2000 primary season broke that man and left behind the glad-handing Constant-Candidate that we have today.

Candidate McCain (circ. 2008) was handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity last fall, when he so franticly left the campaign trail to race home to Washington in order to meet the current congressionally created economic calamity head on. All of America, including members of both parties in the legislature, was looking to him for guidance. He had the chance to stand firm with the people of America, who were bombarding all the members of the legislature with their desperate pleas to vote "no" on the Banker Bailout Bill. He did not. While he could have kept his head when all those around him were losing theirs[i], he did not. Maverick McCain voted with the rest of the bought-and-paid-for-politicians and handed over $800 billion-with-a-B dollars of tax-payer money (with no oversight) to the biggest assemblage of evil villains since James-Bond-Week on TBS.[ii] When his chance for greatness called, he did not answer.

It was then that I knew that Old Sailor McCain didn't have enough spinach left in his can for this fight... and he did not. The Constant Candidate McCain chose the status quo; he chose to go-along-to-get-along. The man who holds the #3 spot on the top ten list of accepters of AIG campaign dollars (only Senators Chris DoddChris Dodd and some first-termer named Barry Obama took more[iii]) voted not in the best interest of the people whose trust he still holds, but voted in lock-step with the best interests of the financial wizards of Wall Street whose wallets have for years propelled him into the cushy Washington position that he still holds. Conservative Impersonator McCain and the rest of the Distinguished Representatives from Goldman-Sachs[iv] padded the pockets of precisely those who had caused this mess in the first place[v].

After he betrayed his own constituents with his disastrous vote, he then proceeded to wage the most half-hearted Cialis-needy campaign that I have had the misfortune to witness in my lifetime and I lived through Gore, Dukakis[vi], and of course; Bob DoleBob Dole[vii]! He hamstrung his own supporters with scolding scalding admonitions when valid but unseemly questions were raised about his opponent and then allowed members of his own staff to join the media and the rest of the happy throng in the public gang-rape of his running mate's reputation. He seemed to have lost himself somewhere along the way.

The world might be a different place today, had he just said "Nay." Instead of being president, Mr. Clean McCain became an "also ran." Or even if he had still lost, with that one vote he would have at the very least been regarded today as a genius. He would have been seen as a titular-martyr for the loyal opposition and THE leader of the Republican Party. But, he is what he is now; a footnote in history and it is time for the people to leave him there in all his fabled glory. The Old War Hero has faded away, as the old saying goes, and left behind a shadow of the former man and a sad caricature of what it used to mean to be "John McCain." To take the true measure of a man you should ask his peers. By this I do not mean his cronies on Capitol Hill, who have forgotten what it means to be a regular American, but the brave Veterans sitting in the waiting rooms of the Phoenix V.A. Hospital... you might find their perspective is unique.

Now he wants the good men and women of Arizona to send him back to Washington, again. Again! Enough, already! When the people can longer expect their duly-elected officials to carry out the overwhelming will of the people: Then is that not Taxation without Representation? Did we not settle all this a couple of hundred years ago, or so?

In 2010, voters all across the nation will also have the opportunity (unique in all the world) to peacefully overthrow a corrupted government at the voting booth... and we must. This is not about liberals and conservatives and this is not about left and right; it is about wrong and right. Democrat and Republican incumbents alike who have gone along with the plundering of our country must be held accountable for their irresponsible records and be sent home to live out the rest of their years as private citizens. We cannot allow them to burden our children with all this out of control spending. These worthless paper dollars (that they are printing all-the-live-long-day and night to keep up with Obama's runaway circus train[viii]) just may prove to be the kindling for the next Great American Tea Party.

In 2010, let's party like it's 1776 and throw these dang bums out!

[i] ...To paraphrase Kipling.

[ii] Picture (Treasury-Chiefs) Hammerhead Hank Paulson and Tiny Timmy Geihtner as (the henchmen) Jaws and Odd-Job doing the dirty work, while Ben BernankeBen Bernanke "Blowfeld" sits back and strokes a fat Persian cat (named Kashkari, perhaps?) in his lap.

[iii] As reported by ABC News: http://www.abc4.com/mostpopular/story/AIG-donated-money-to-Obama-Dodd-McCain-Romney/eJ5N53UC10izFizAyq_gPQ.cspx Check out the Top 10 list...

[iv] See ABC News Story: "Congress' 43,457, 362 Reasons to Help Goldman-Sachs" at... http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Blotter/story?id=5891663&page=1

[v] See Rolling Stone Magazine 1082-83 "The Great American Bubble Machine" or read excerpts at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine

[vi] Watching Dukakis and Bush Sr. debate was like watching Barney Fife vs. The Incredible Mr. Limpet in a silly slap fight.

[vii] Bob Dole later appeared in an ad for Viagra, which is interestingly enough nowhere to be found on YouTube.

[viii] See the Article "Obama as Casey Jones: The Runaway Circus Train Keeps on Rolling" at: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/3543084-casey-jones-rollin-adhd