Lords of Death Forums Lords of Death Forums LoD General Discussion On this Clinton/Bush debate below..

I never really understood how badly this country can function until the following example of how a group of Demo and Repub Congressmen fucked the US.
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<br>I have been heavily involved in monitoring and speaking with my industries efforts to reform the postal system. My company has actually committed over a million dollars earmarked for postal reform use to a lobbying group. Lets take just one issue the postal service is attempting to correct.
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<br>Curent Law says that if you are a retired military serviceman you receive a pension. This pension is paid by the US govt and is part of a military budget that is passed and voted on. Here is the catch..
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<br>..if after retiring from the Military you go to work for the postal service for any length of time a few things happen.
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<br>One is the USPS pays you a pension. 2nd is the USPS is now responsible for paying your military pension. Big deal you say since they both come out of the US Treasury eventually right? Wrong to an extent.
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<br>Here is what the copngressmen did. In that years budget or that period there wasnt enough cash in the budget for the PORK in there state that they promised to the people that funded their election so they put in a fix. They transfered the pension responsibility of retired Military working for the USPS onto the postal service. The USPS is not part of the federal budget therefore they stole from the US taxpayers to pay for there election. How did they steal? Because the Millions of dollars the USPS needed to make up for this added cost left them in the red. They then passed a rate case increase to make up for this red ink since the USPS postal union refused to make cuts. Direct mail suffered because postal budgets that were in place now had to pay a rate increase which lowered the piece count they could mail out to customers. This lowering of USPS volumes did what? Your right it raised there costs per M which caused more red ink. So the US treasury had to buck up and pay for it which was a cost not in any "BALANCED" budget or any budget. Adding to the deficit by creatively financing your own election is fucked.
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<br>PORK or ART as Stretch put it is whats wrong with this country. Our system is fractured and Congressmen and Presidents care less for doing what they were elected for and more on how not to be a ONE TERMER.
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<br>Recently Bush created a Presidential Commitee to study Postal Reform and that committee released its findings a month or so ago. Bush already signed into law a change in how the USPS factors its retirement which changed a mathmatical formula that would have costed the USPS nearly $30 billion for an accounting error. I believe it was HR 735 if you care to look it up. Imagine if the USPS had to raise rates on postage to pay for it. Imagine the volume of mail that would no longer be put thrugh the USPS, costing jobs at the USPS, Direct Mail houses, Ad agencies etc...
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<br>Government is full of this type of wrongdoings that I illustrated above. Check out the impact of HR 735 here
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<br>http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=4106&sequence=0
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<br>Now that Bush signed this into Law the net costs will have to be budgeted for rather than thrown on the US taxpayer by raising postal rates
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<br>[LoD]Couls
<br>Lord Shaved Plums
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<br>"If you shave them they will come"<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by [LoD]Couls on 09/15/03 08:26 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Why the fuck does my federal taxmoney go to the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) ?
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<br>What the hell do I, in Chicago, care about some gallery in New York that shows pictures of a man with a bullwhip up his ass?
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<br>Why does my money go to some sick fuck who wants to show a recreation of the Virgin Mary made of elephant shit?
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<br>Start cutting this crap out of our budget. If you want to see a whip in some homo's ass, you should pay for it yourself.
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<br>Fucking liberals.<br><br>Welcome to the Center.

I remember signing a petition about that USPS stuff a while ago, believe it or not USPS gets screwed in a lot of ways. Sucks to be them :/<br><br>

Governments (ours included) have been stealing money from taxpayers and putting it where it doesnt belong for hundreds of years.
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<br>Its the nature of a "career politician" to do whats best for being elected and re-elected, not whats best for the nation. Why? Because its their career thats why. What are they going to do if they arent in office?
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<br>Thats the differance today in our country's leaders from when it was founded. When our country was founded, all politicians were citizens and businessmen who were not interested in a career of politics, but their own interests in whatever fields they were in. They took leaves of absence from their businesses and professions to become public servants for a time, returning to their lives when their service was up. They had no vested interest in being re-elected, most of them really didnt give a rats ass about re-electtion. Therefore their decisions were based on what was best, as a citizen, not a person who had nothing to return to should their career in politics go to shit. Lobbies meant nothing to them, most of them were already wealthy and didnt need lobby money to take care of them, because they were already successful citizens. Again, the power of the lobby dollar didnt make the decisions, but what was best for the citizens, because they were going right back to being one when they were done.
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<br>In short the problem with our Congressman and Presidents today is most of them are career politicians, not citizens in public service.
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<br>A great book about how the typical government abuses its power and steals from its people only to misappropriate the funds is called "The Law" by Frederick Bastiat. It was written a few hundred years ago by a Frenchman (I know I know, dont freak out just because hes French hes not the typical French Liberal). Although it was written a few hundred years ago, what he says in this book is timeless, has occurred in every single government since Babylon, and still applies today. I highly recommend it.<br><br>Ashenshugar
<br>CO, Weapons of Mass Destruction
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So your saying the NEA is causing the USPS to go bankrupt!!!
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<br>Way to miss the subject big guy. And yes, the NEA is a waste of space, as are politician groupies.<br><br>

It was the title of my post.
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<br>Segues allow the writer to change the subject by relating to a piece of the original discussion.
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<br>Thanks for taking the time out to learn something new. Even flea-infested hippies have that ability.<br><br>Welcome to the Center.

Terms limits are the answer to this country's problems.
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<br>This is supposed to be a nation represented by normal citizens in government not perfumed princes that we have now.
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<br>We should be electing successful businessmen as our governors, senators, presidents, etc.
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<br>And since they will not be worrying about re-election, the lobbies will have no influence because the promise of more campaign money will be gone.
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<br>One term for any government official sounds about right.<br><br>Welcome to the Center.

Gray Davis is a political whore. It is Gray Davis' weak spine that put California in this mess. EG.. Davis gets huge sums of campaign support from the Prison Guard Unions. 90 Days into his term the unio0n receives a 37% pay raise. He is a prostitute sitting in Sacramento waiting to be whored out to the highest bidder regardless of how bad it hurts his state or country
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<br>Now Clinton took cash like Davis did, but he had a backbone when it came to standing up to a lot of them.<br><br>[LoD]Couls
<br>Lord Shaved Plums
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<br>"If you shave them they will come"

I'll let the republican shit go because he has no choice but to be republican. he likes his money so he can't be democrat.
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<br>I give him credit for not being Libertarian or some gawd awful buchanen supporting nazi.<br><br>

now it's you who is the naive one. Even successful businessmen can't be trusted as politicians. All you have to do is look at the tobacco lobby or the automotive lobby to see that (though not so much to the extent of the tobacco lobby - i think the auto lobby protects the planet more then ppl give credit).
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<br>People crave power, now matter how poor, rich, or unsuccessful. It's human nature to crave the ability to have influence over anyone or anything. Once people get that power on any level they will fight tooth and nail to protect it. Politicians are inherently corrupt (not all but most) and no amount of term limits or limits on soft money is gonna change it. All it does is force them to find ways around it.<br><br>