Everyone happy about the elections? No? No wonder.

Are we ever really happy about elections? Well a lot of us were happy about the election results in 2016 because we dodged a bullet named Hillary. But here’s the sad truth about elections.

Get this through your head:  Congress will NEVER vote to reduce their power or their spending.

Go to ConventionofStates.com and find out how we can achieve that without the consent of Congress. It takes 34 states to pass the Convention of States Resolution in their State House & Senate to trigger the convention. We already have 12 states that have done so. Help us get to 34!

Aloha, Mikie ~just a blogger (fightin’ like a girl)

~Psst, tired of politics? Check out Travel in the Categories drop down menu (right side panel) for my blogs posted from interesting locations during my travel adventures.

Louise Slaughter Died Yesterday. She Was 88 Years Old. She Was A Sitting US Representative

No disrespect meant but, really? Didn’t this lady have better things to do? She fell one day and died a week later. She had served in Congress for more than 3 decades and in local politics before that. That’s too long. At eighty-eight she should have been enjoying her golden years, spending time with family and grand-kids or enjoying hobbies, not serving in Congress!

The Special Election to replace Representative Trent Franks who resigned after it came to be known he pressured a staff member to be a surrogate for he and his wife who apparently could not have children cost Arizona taxpayers $3.5 million. One California Assemblyman’s decision to vacate his seat early cost Fresno County taxpayers a half-million dollars – enough to pay for four sheriff deputies! Special elections are held all the time, but taxpayers having to foot the bill for a Representative or Senator who dies in office after being there way too long is just another good reason for term limits.

This is another promise candidate Trump made that I hope he keeps! There are many ways to drain the swamp. Term limits is one of them. But don’t fool yourselves Congress will never vote for term limits. It will have to be done through an Article V Convention of States.

Aloha, Mikie ~just a blogger (fightin’ like a girl)

~Psst, tired of politics? Check out Travel in the Categories drop down menu (right side panel) for my blogs posted from interesting locations during my travel adventures.

This Is Why We Need Term Limits

It’s as plain as the nose on your face:  we need term limits! But here’s the rub. Congress will never vote to limit themselves or their power. That too is crystal clear. This is why we need a Convention of States whose focus is limited to these items and these alone:

• imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government
• limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government
  
• limiting the terms of office for federal officials and for members of Congress

And here are just a few illustrations why this is so badly needed. It’s dang hard to find either the House or Senate actually in session more than 2-3 days a week and Congress is loaded up with too many old farts, many of whom are sick, near death or have Alzheimer’s Disease. I’m not kidding!

This from Breitbart:

• Sen. Thad Cochran’s office announced Monday that it his “intention to return to the Senate when his health permits.” Cochran is 79 and would have lost the last election but was propped up by Senate Majority Leader McConnell.
• Sen. John McCain has an inoperable brain tumor. He is 81 and will die before his term expires yet he insists on staying to gum up the works as he did on the recent repeal vote on Obamacare.
• Orrin Hatch of Utah is 83 and can’t seem to call it quits.
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein plans to run again and will be 91 at the end of her term if she wins reelection.
• Sen. Johnny Isakson, 72, was away for two back surgeries early in 2017, two years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
• Sen. Chuck Grassley is 84 years old
• Sen. Richard Shelby is 83
• Sen.Jim Inhofe is 82
• Sen. Pat Roberts is 81
• Sen. Barbara is 81 -and a whole slew of them are in their upper 70s.

And that’s only the Senate! Let’s be honest. Not being ageist or anything but really. Think of your own parents or yourselves if you’re up there in age. How sharp are these people? And wouldn’t they enjoy doing something else (anything else!) besides sitting around micro-managing our lives and running up the national debt?

Go to www.ConventionofStates.com and help us bring power back from Washington DC (District of Corruption!).

Aloha, Mikie ~just a blogger (fightin’ like a girl)

~Psst, tired of politics? Check out Travel in the Categories drop down menu (right side panel) for my blogs posted from interesting locations during my travel adventures.

Are You In Favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment? Term Limits? . . . . Then You’re In Favor of The Convention of States

Raise your hand if you think Congress is ever going to pass term limits. Yes, the same Congress that has for the last 6 years 100 years sat back while the progressives (affectionately knows as the ‘progs’) have systematically destroyed our country. Congress is not going to do anything to limit the growth of government. Nor are they ever going to reign in federal spending or federal over-reach, or the illegitimate 4th branch of government (the unelected federal bureaucracy).

Our founders, the mostly chubby, old and yes -white guys (get over it!) with funny hairdos purposefully wrote into the US Constitution (2 weeks before the end of the Constitutional Convention spearheaded by George Mason) a provision specifically giving ‘We the People’ a way to overcome a tyrannical federal government.

So even if you don’t know it, if you are in favor of term limits and a balanced budget amendment you are in favor of an Article V Convention of States. Give it a look.

Given the public’s discontent with both parties in Washington and how it works, (think Gruber); for themselves and against the People, and given the ground-swell of conservatives recently elected (governors, Congressmen & Senators) the momentum is with us. Learn more about it and sign up to volunteer at ConventionOfStates.com.

The governors do not have to approve of the applications and once 34 applications are received Congress cannot stop the convention and has NO SAY in how it is run, the amendments put forth or anything else. But do be assured they will fight it and try to demonize it because it puts them on notice “We the People” are not going to take it any more! Florida, Georgia & Alaska have already passed the Convention of States application in their legislatures. 3 down, 31 to go!

Remember, as government grows the stature of the citizens is diminished.

Aloha, Mikie ~just a blogger (fightin’ like a girl)

~Psst, tired of politics? Check out Travel in the Categories drop down menu (right side panel) for my blogs posted from interesting locations during my travel adventures. 

Flip-Flopping We Can Believe In & Separating the Wheat From the Bull-Crap

The 2012 Presidential campaign has been kicked off and Obama is flip-flopping so much you would think he’d grown scales -a fish suddenly found dockside -out of water and gyrating every which way, to get re-elected.

It’s hard work telling the good guys from the bad because a majority of both parties are self-serving crooks! I am constantly maligned as Republican, but it ain’t so! I haven’t forgotten it was the Bush White House and the GOP that pushed through the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill in 2007, supposedly to help millions of seniors defray their prescription costs. It was a total scam and a victory for big Pharma. The key provision inserted by lobbyists prohibited Medicare and the Fed govt. from using their vast purchasing power to negotiate lower prices.

How’d that work out? Here’s how: take a look at the price the Veteran’s Administration was able to negotiate for these 2 popular cholesterol drugs compared to the best price Medicare got:

• 1-year supply of Lipitor through the VA = $520.49
  1-year supply of Lipitor through Medicare = $785.40

• 1-year supply of Zocor thru the VA = $127.44
• 1-year supply of Zocor thru Medicare = $1,485.96

Pay attention closely to what each side is talking about in the budgets offered up recently; the compromise on the 2011 budget $38 billion is a drop in the proverbial bucket, but for all the bitching and moaning you’d think the world was coming to an end.

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina just introduced an amendment to the Constitution for term limits. This would put an end to career politicians only interested in amassing power and money for themselves. You want to separate the wheat from the chaff, look who’s signed on to S.J. Res. 11 as co-sponsors. If you don’t see your Senator on the list let them hear from you!

1. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, NH
2. Sen. Tom Coburn, OK
3. Sen. John Ensign, NV
4. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, TX
5. Sen. Ron Johnson, WI
6. Sen. Mike Lee, UT
7. Sen. Rand Paul, KY
8. Sen. Marco Rubio, FL
9. Sen. Pat Toomey, PA
10. Sen. David Vitter, LA

These are the ones with your best interests at heart. BTW, they’re all Republicans and several are Tea Party favorites.

Aloha, Mikie

Dare2Kerr@gmail.com

I Love You Mayor Bloomberg-Even Though You Waffled on Term Limits

Yeah, how utterly political of him. In 2008 as he neared the end of his last term as NY City mayor, Bloomberg successfully orchestrated the overturn of term limits so he could run for a third term. But now he’s for term limits again. Go figure.

But I’ll forgive him for being a politician if he and New York lawmakers pull this off! According to the Daily Caller, the mayor warned Friday that he may be forced to lay off as many as 20,000 teachers. Nobody loves the necessity for teacher layoffs. Those are real people with families who will be severely impacted, but states and cities all over the United States have over spent and now it’s time to pay the piper.

Teachers who don’t teach.

What I love is the secret compromise between lawmakers and Bloomberg aides that would allow the mayor to fire between 2,000 to 4,000 non-classroom teachers. Teachers who don’t teach! This includes teachers under disciplinary action, some of whom have languished in rubber rooms with full pay and benefits for years!

The Caller says the plan would also target members of the “absent teacher reserve pool” — which includes nonworking but on-the-payroll teachers from schools that have been shut down because of poor performance — and teachers assigned only to “administrative functions.”

Teachers who don’t teach sort of rubs me the wrong way, not unlike what we hear when “non-essential’ state or county workers are advised to stay home in bad weather or other circumstances, begging the question, “if they’re non-essential, why do we have (and pay) them?”

But the real news in the NY Bloomberg story of getting rid of non-teaching teachers is that it will overturn state law that previously required the city to fire teachers on the basis of seniority not competence. What a concept, but make no mistake, this is huge!!!

Of course, the union opposition to such a plan that makes sense and is good for the public is fiercely intense. But these are extreme and intense times and what a catalyst for much needed change.

In the meantime I love Mayor Bloomberg and wish him and New York well. We’ll have to see what happens.

Aloha, Mikie

Dare2Kerr@gmail.com

Gotta Love It!

A directive from America to Congress. And I like it. Who wouldn’t?

I’ve taken this from an awesome website, The-Freshmen-50. The founder, Brian Miller running in Arizona has never held or run for office before but he strongly believes that 50 fiscally and legislatively responsible freshmen candidates (not veteran politicians already tainted by the corruption so pervasive in Washington DC) can be found and elected.

Baby-faced and innocent

HERE’S THE PLATFORM:

Apply the Law Equally: All laws that apply to all citizens also apply to Congress

Term Limits: Amend the Constitution to limit Congressmen and Senators to no more than 12 years.

Enforce Congressional Ethics:

1. Mandatory, annual tax and expense audits of every member
2. No member of Congress or their staff, can ever be hired as a lobbyist to Congress, paid or otherwise.
3. Change rules so that only 50% of the ethics committee need to approve an investigation (fewer allegations swept under the rug)

Read the Bill: Prior to a final vote, every new bill must be read out loud by one or more of its sponsors in its entirety, on the floor of the House. Same for any amendments. Members may not vote on the bill unless they were present for the entire reading.

Reform the Federal Tax Code: Replace the current federal tax code with a clear, simple and fair tax code which includes:

1. Tax only once
2. Tax at one rate
3. A Constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority for any new tax hike

Balance the Budget: Amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget, unless sanctioned by a three-fifths majority in both House & Senate.

That’s it. It sure would be a different world wouldn’t it?

I will revisit this concept again covering various aspects of it, but in the meantime, please visit The-Freshmen-50.com website to contribute, give your input, get updates and see who support the platform and want to be a part of the Freshmen 50 .

Aloha, Mikie

Dare2Kerr@gmail.com
Share: GetOffYourButts.com

Remember in November!

Get a Grip!

I don’t know which is worse being unable to sit after back surgery long enough to get a decent blog going, or having my hard drive crash after downloading a Norton anti-virus renewal, thereby having the choice completely taken away!

But what I do know is I am so sick of hearing the apologist Democrats still blaming things on Bush! I mean come on, get a grip. People were actually saying the reason Coakley lost in Massachusetts was a back-lash against the previous 8 years. Hello, if they hated Republicans so much why then oh geniuses of the left, did they replace Kennedy with a Republican? It just doesn’t compute.

Then in the Washington Post this morning E.J. Dionne, gumba that he is, blathers on with the tired, old storyline that Republicans in Congress are now empowered to continue their course of obstruction. How in the world can you call them obstructionists when they haven’t even been included in the process? All those deals behind closed doors to secure Senate votes for Health care

• $300 Million to Mary Landrau dubbed the Louisiana Purchase
• A free pass on Medicaid increases to the entire populace of Nebraska -at the expense of the rest of the 49 states
• The $60 Billion deal excluding favored union members from health care premium taxes

can be laid entirely at the feet of the Democrats because Republicans weren’t invited to the party!

The other phrase they can’t help regurgitating over and over is that the Republicans are the ‘Party of NO’. That too could not be further from the truth. 

Conservatives have offered alternatives from the beginning that make sense as the Heritage Foundation points out. They have continually called for portability of insurance to create real competition among insurers. (OMG just imagine what the Hawaii health-care landscape would look like if HMSA had any real competitors!) Another reform that made sense, The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009 (H.R. 2520 and S. 1099), has long advocated a universal system of tax credits for health care regardless of income or employment status -and not based on who donated the most to Obama’s election campaign. Tort and medical malpractice reform is only given lip service by the Democrats, but until you get meaningful tort reform and limits on outlandish awards for pain and suffering, you only force medical practictioners to continue costly defensive medicine and naturally, the cost going up, up, up.

Now lest I be taken for a Republican, I am not. I claim to be Independent and a conservative, but from recent history at least, the only alternative is to vote Republican this next go-round. And I hope Republicans get a clue this time because if they want to keep taking earmarks, ignoring their constituents and only working for more power and their own re-election, we’ll have to do the same to them-

Vote ’em Out!

Aloha, “Mikie”
email:  Mike@MikeSells.com
Get Off Your Butts!

Loreal or Lady Clairol?

How out of touch is this guy? Our beloved Senator from the 50th State, Daniel K. Inouye is quoted in the paper this morning while speaking to the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Kona, that Americans need to spend more, adding, “People may think saving their money is the best financial bet, but, the senator said, “the money saved may cost workers their jobs” -unless they’re in the Union (my annotation, hee-hee). And as an aside by the way, he said:

“It may please you or it may not please you, I’m the No. 1 earmarks guy in the U.S. Congress.”

Uh, hello . . . isn’t that kind of thinking responsible for how we got in this mess to begin with? Definitely it is, and I think it’s about time, no make that way overdue for him to retire. And not just because he’s 85 years old and been in Congress for 47 years!

Loreal or Lady Clairol?

Here are some of his recent and past votes in Congress:

• Voted YES for original Stimulus Package under Bush
• Voted YES for all Bailouts so far
• Voted YES for extending funding for the Cash for Clunkers program
• Voted YES for the 2009 Economic Spending bill
• Voted YES for the 2nd Economic Spending bill
• Voted NO requiring reinforced border fencing
• Voted YES in confirming Timothy ‘the tax cheat’ Geithner as Treasury Secretary
• Is all over in favor of huge government health-care take over

Is the kind of behavior your own family or a small business displays in these tough times when so many are broke or out of work or furloughed or cut back in hours? Of course not! It’s time more of us and especially our elected officials started to live within our means. IF THERE WAS EVER A CASE FOR TERM LIMITS – HE IS IT!

That’s it for now!
Aloha, “Mikie”
email:  Mike@MikeSells.com
Now Get Off Your Butts!
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