Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Larry Craig on the other side of the wall


Now that the Larry Craig saga has mostly stalled out (only pun in this post, I swear) - I wanted to point out something he talked about in attempting to defend himself through the whole ordeal.

During his October 16, 2007 interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Craig explained his view that:

"Well-- it's always been a great privilege, Matt, to represent Idaho in Congress. And that's all I've really ever wanted to do is to go there, to be their defender, to be that wall between government and the citizen. Because government, as you know, can be very daunting to the average person."

This is why Larry is wrong: As Abraham Lincoln pointed out - our's is a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" - the belief that there needs to be a wall between people and their government does not scan. The government is the people, the people are the government.

Larry Craig is just getting in the way.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Symbols of Government










Some of you may have heard about Jim Broussard last week.

Jim Broussard is a U.S. Army Veteran who became angered after hearing that a business in his town of Reno, NV was flying the flag of Mexico above the U.S. flag.

Taking matters into his own hands, Broussard proceeded tothe business in question and with his US Army issued knife, cut down the flags.

Now, the debate over flag burning vs. freedom of speech has a long history and this episode only adds another chapter.

No matter where you come down on the debate, flags and other symbols of government are things that most people in this nation hold to be sacred.

Symbols of government is important because govenrnment is important.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

If government can help, Veto it.

These are the only two reasons I can think of that Bush why Bush vetoed the S-CHIP bill.

1) He does not feel that making sure sick kids have a way to see a doctor is an important priority...compared to say, what we're spending to be in Iraq for a few days.

2) He believes S-CHIP is a first step to universal health care for all Americans. If S-CHIP continues to be successful, then its possible it will set a precedent for other government programs that might help Americans stay healthy.

Either answer reflects some twisted values. I suspect all things being equal, Bush doesn't want kids to be sick. Which means his true motive is answer #2. If S-CHIP and other programs like it work, then it undermines the whole philosophy that government programs can't help people.

The truth is, government can and does help people all the time.