Brick’s Blog

     Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions. Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”

    I just spent the last hour reading Paine’s “Common Sense”. I was struck by the above passage, which Paine used to argue against hereditary succession among monarchs; and how well, it translates today to our governing elite. Each day Washington and our supposed leaders prove their disconnect with the America people. I remain ready at “a minute’s notice” to take back this country.

     And here’s another great piece of advice from Paine for those clowns in D.C. for what their purpose should be:

Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer on governments Dragonetti. “The science” says he, “of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense.”- Dragonetti on Virtue and Rewards.

     I e-mailed both of Virginia’s Senators twice with my opposition to the Omnibus package with all its earmarks. I encouraged both to vote with Bayh and Feingold against the package. I reminded them all Americans are attempting to live within their means, so why shouldn’t the government. Of course, both of our spineless senators supported the Omnibus package. 

     This is the third time our junior senator has responded prior to our senior senator to my e-mail. His response acknowlged my complaint, but certainly didn’t address it. One of the points I made in both notes to Warner was that his e-mail contact form allows for a “Topic” choice from 50 different items -absent that 50 choice menu is the topic of the “Budget”. Considering budgetary matters are one of the true enumerated powers granted these clowns, he might want to make it a topic choice. See for yourself here. Of course, animal rights, nutrition, and reproductive health are topic choices. I’ll let you know if the Budget ever gets added to our junior Senator’s choices for Topics worthy of his contact.

     I got 4, yes 4, emails from my pal, Jim Webb, yesterday. All 4 of the emails were sent at the same time and all had different numeric jibberish (Senator Jim Webb’s response to your message.|GUID#IA093a5bc1-4fd1-474c-b8fc-380f457ecd2e) in the subject line. Just for fun, I clicked on the “FROM” tab in my Outlook program to see if I had gotten any other responses from our senior Senator. Well, as Gomer Pyle would say “surprise, surprise.”

     It seems I had received an earlier response from “Webbie”. (Listen, if Maureen Dowd can knickname her antagonists, so can I!) On October 28, 2008, in what must have been my complaint on TARP, I had received a response from Clown Boy. Now, hears the best part. The first 2 paragraphs of the response are EXACTLY the same. Below are those 2 paragraphs:

            “Thank you for contacting my office regarding the ongoing economic crisis and the federal government’s response.  I appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with me.” 

            “The United States is facing an economic crisis that is causing American families to fall behind.  Communities are being hard hit by home foreclosures, the economy is not producing enough jobs, and consumer confidence is down.  As your U.S. Senator, I am committed to supporting policies that will help mitigate the economic crisis and will help restore basic fairness for all Americans.”

     Now, we all know old Jimmie can write a helluva good letter, but don’t you think in the 4 plus months that have passed between October 28, 2008 and March 3, 2009 that “Webbie” could change the wording in his response so you MIGHT believe he’s actually doing something about the “economic Ocrisis”?