us-first.us Blog

This Story reports that our fine, compassionate, supposedly fiscally-conservative President Bush (and I am sure most members of Congress – who are also not particularly bothered by spending someone else’s money) want to throw in yet another $1 billion to extend federal housing benefits to those who lived in areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita until March of 2009 — four and one-half years after the fact!

Has anyone ever heard of getting a job and an apartment?  Yeah, it might not be as nice and comfy as what they once lived in — but I have my own bills to pay.  One year…to allow people to get something going.  But, 20 months later…and we still have 100,000 people (and their dependents) still sucking the federal tit — with the pocketbook of each hard-working taxpayer, including those who did whatever it took to get something going for themselves after the storm, being a milk duct?  It’s time to let that tit dry up so that they must start to feed themselves for a change…

It is time that We The People put US-First and tell them that their days of putting me first are over.  Am I being cold and heartless when I myself got laid off in July of 2001 and was not able to get decent-paying work until June of 2005?  I worked odd jobs and put in an absolutely hated year with Wal-mart.  (It’s not meant to be a slam on Wal-mart, they do well with what they have to work with.)  I was born and raised in Minnesota and now live in suburban Houston, Texas — and they could not pay me enough to go back to that cold and snow — unless that was where I had to go to get work which paid for food on my table and a roof over my head.  I started looking out-of-state when I decided that would be preferable to continuing my time with Wal-mart.  Luckily for me, my luck finally changed not long thereafter…  I first paid-off all the bills which I had accumulated after draining every last cent of my savings, I am now getting my house back in order after having to postpone five years of needed repairs.  Oh…I never went down to the unemployment line.

One of our soldiers, Sgt. Jim Wilt, who is fighting for us in Afghanistan to preserve our way of life, is quoted in this story as asking that we as a society pay the same respects to one of our soldiers when he falls in battle as we have done to the victims of last week’s massacre at Virginia Tech.  I will go one step further and ask that we pay more respect to each fallen soldier because they each – with forethought and well before the day of their death – put their life on the line for us.  Those killed at VT initially did not — although we all have heard of the hero professor who did put his life on the line for his students after the shooting started — and he paid for his decision with his life.  The respects that we have all paid to the murdered at VT was by order of our President Bush, who ordered that all flags at federal facilities — which includes military bases in Afghanistan – be flown at half-staff.

My statement is in no way meant to diminish the lives or deaths of those who were murdered — I am outraged that such evil is in the world.  None of them deserved to die like that.  The bastard should just have turned the gun on himself and put us all out of his misery.

Sgt. Wilt – I — and many other Americans –appreciate the sacrifice that you are willing to make for us.  Such is an expression of true love, when a man is willing to lay down his life for one whom he does not even know exists.

The flag should not have been flown at half-staff for these murder victims in the first place.  It is not appropriate to fly the flag at half-staff at the passing of ”ordinary” Americans — including myself.  Each one of their lives was as precious as anyone else’s life.  But, in the same sense as any soldier, they were not “special enough” to warrant a symbol of national mourning at their passing from among us.  That honor is reserved for our most public figures — and none of these people were known to any significant portion of the public before the bastard openned fire — not even the hero professor.

OK…it’s not, since we don’t have such a system of government here…and I don’t want us to change to a parliamentary system as they have…in Ukraine.  But, we can draw some analogies between their current situation and what has been going on over here as of late.

Their Constitution creates a divided government similar to our own, although the lines of demarcation and the associated checks and balances are not as clearly stated as in our own Constitution.  Their President Yushchenko — who has the constitutional authority to conduct their nation’s foreign policy — just as our President Bush has the same authority for the US — has been leading Ukraine away from Russia and towards Western Europe and NATO.  Their Prime Minister Yanukovich – a member of the legislative branch of government who does not have direct authority to dictate foreign policy — is pro-Russian and has been in a battle with Yushchenko over this and some other issues since taking office.  He has traveled abroad without the blessing of the president — just like Speaker Pelosi and some Republican legislators — and speaking other than the “official line” to other nations.

The final straw came when Yanukovich attempted to enlarge his majority in the Verkovna Rada (Ukraine’s national parliament) enough to override any presidential veto — but by means not specified in their Constitution.  To wit, Yushchenko exercised his constitutional duty and authority to dissolve parliament and call for new elections — to be held on May 27th.  As you might guess, this has thrown things into quite a tizzy over there…

Perhaps Speaker Pelosi and the rest of her legislative compatriots who are not abiding in the place assigned to them by the US Constitution should take a cue from events in Ukraine and get back in their place.  We will be electing a new president next year — let her and anyone else who believes that we ought to follow a different foreign policy than that being  pursued by our current president enter the race.  Or, let them yank on the purse-strings — which authority they do have and should exercise if they want to curtail any of the president’s policies.

(This particular article should not be taken as an endorsement of President Bushes foreign policy or as condemnation of Speaker Pelosi’s views on what our foreign policy ought to be.  Those are separate issues.  It is how she and her compatriots are attempting to get their views implemented that is at issue here.)