Didn't Used to Care.

It's been awhile since I last wrote, I know but please don't rag on me for not keeping the blog up to date.  I have been busy with being a father.  It is a busy job, being a father, and if you are one you know just how busy and stressful it can be.  I am not making excuses, I am just owning my lack of time, energy or maybe even desire to write a blog post but something struck me today that motivated me to write.

If you are paying attention to world events, I don't have to tell you there are some horrendous things happening around the world these days.  From civilian planes being shot out of the sky by warring children with weapons that no one should have to religious fighting killing innocent people all over northern Africa.  There is a never ending stream of deadly wars with no justification that lay waste to thousands of lives and waste treasures of those fighting.  Watching this all unfold is like watching small children fighting over a toy they both want.  No reason can stop it but unlike children pulled apart by their parents, warring countries just keep on waging war.

Along with these deadly wars, our planet faces incredibly difficult obstacles to overcome in the years and decades ahead.  Unbridled growth in populations, and the irresistible drive for corporate profits have created problems of their own and if these are not resolved, our civilization will end.  Very little of this is new.  Sure the overpopulation of the world is a relatively new issue but war has been just as brutal if not more so over the decades.  The problem is, we all know these things are killing us all and we don't seem to care.  All of these wars and strife is taking away from the energy it will take civilization to solve the problems we need to solve in order for our society to continue.  The future looks bleak and those causing the problems don't seem to care.

All of this strife in the world really bothers me and not just a little bit.  I worry about it a lot and it makes me angry that it only gets worse.  I am making myself sick worrying over it all and then today it dawned on me that it hasn't always been like that.  I never used to worry about the state of the world like this before.  I have always been interested in the news, read papers and news magazines all the time but it never really made me mad before.  As I thought about this more and more today, I realized why all this bad news is getting to me now and not years prior.  I realized that I am a father now and I wasn't then.  It's been ten years now that I have been a father and while I wouldn't trade one second of those ten years for all the money in the world, all of those ten years haven't been dancing and singing.  Not only have there been those difficult times like when my son fell down or when I had to say no when he desperately wanted me to say yes, or any number of other difficult fatherly situations but all the brutal things going on in the world really piss me off.

They piss me off, not because they will effect me, but they will affect my sons life and if he has kids they will be affected even more so.  Had I never had children, I really don't think I would give one good damn about the world destroying itself bit by bit, ocean by ocean, tree by tree.  Once again, fatherhood surprises me, unfortunately for me, it isn't a good surprise.  Still though, I wouldn't trade fatherhood for all the money in the world.

Tim

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Sounds like a Great Plan to me.

Sounds Like A Great Plan To Me:

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.



Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011



1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.



2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5.. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.



6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

Please share this link to all you know.

Kathie had a good night!

Congratulations to Kathie Tovo on her win.

It was a nip and tuck there towards the end, thanks to the piles of cash developers threw at her opponent. Kathie hung in there and in the end won a resounding win.

Kathie will bring to city council an honest voice and speak for the neighborhoods that developers are chomping at the bit to develop into unaffordable housing for the privileged few.

I took a drive out to Stiener Ranch the other day with my son to show him where I used to work more than 10 years ago. As we drove towards the lake on Quinlan Park road, the vastness of the $500k+ homes was staggering. In the last 10 years hundreds of these behemoths have been built and they line the road and reach back into the land around the lake covering every empty space that used to be there. Then it struck me, these are the people that the developers are targeting for our central city neighborhoods and by the looks of the commute, there are plenty of them who would jump at the chance to buy a central city mac-mansion.

Fortunately for us, we now have two council members who are sensitive to neighborhood issues and with Imagine Austin looming we are lucky to have had Kathie step up and take a shot!

Tax revenue job one.

Politics has become a four letter word. For evidence of this, look at the parallels between the Park-PUD (a.k.a. Pico-PUD) and the 2011 Austin City Council elections and in particular, the run off between Kathie Tovo and the incumbent Randy Shade.

To begin with, the Park developer went straight for a PUD designation for a tiny parcel on Barton Springs Road. After city staff reviewed the PUD proposal, they recommended against it. It then went before planning commission where it was unanimously voted down. That was in January of 2010. Later that year, all of the sudden and with little notification, it popped up on the councils agenda. When it was read, Council Spelman sounded like a used car salesman trying to sell an old broken down heap to an unsuspecting little old lady. Riley didn't sound like a car salesman but one could easily see that he had been bought. The only honesty came from Morrison, who voted against it. Unfortunately, she was the only no vote so it sailed through with a super majority

Clearly the passage of this PUD was guaranteed behind closed doors and with lots of money by developers with deep pockets. The same interests that are currently fighting a dirty fight to steal the run off election from Kathie Tovo, the clear choice in the regular election.

It would seem silly that a run off election is held if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, but that is the position that we find ourselves in now. Tovo took nearly 47% while Shade got barely 33%. The runoff will cost the taxpayers of Austin over $500,000 so that Shade can attempt the impossible. History doesn't lie, Tovo winning this election is nearly a certainty and Shade knows it. Unfortunately, her backers don't care. They think they can purchase this election as they purchased the Park-PUD. Keeping Shades seat on the council will assure them a super majority that developers count on for projects like the Park-PUD. Projects that exploit our town and drive housing prices so high that only the elite can afford to live in the central city. This isn't NYC, but it would seem that our current city council cares only about building the largest tax base possible and the developers are only too happy to oblige.

Shade needs to go. She lied to get into office and she has held true to the big developer interests for her entire term. Along with Shade, all those that voted for the Park-PUD need to go. They don't care about building a sustainable Austin. We need a council that will listen to the community and focus on sustainability.

Welcome to Mars

This is Mars. You are a guest so behave yourself or you will be vaporized.