What's $40k amongst friends?
Tim Geithner looked like he was going to do something rash as he sat there and the committee revealed he hasn't paid more than $40,000 in income taxes. That is class. This is the man who is going to become Treasury Secretary
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A wise man once told me something. Actually he was my grade 11 English teacher. He quoted something from the bible, that i had never heard before..
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9
Ontario politics are similar to what is happening down south. A horribly unpopular incumbent is thrown out and a new leader, with a new approach comes in to much fanfare. And then well things don't really change. This has happened with a conservative leader coming in and then with a liberal leader following him. (And those are the actual names of the parties, I'm not talking agendas here.)
I was talking to some UK based friends on a forum, and I said a lot a of people maybe surprised when not everything they thought would change actually does. Let's see how accurate I was with that comment.
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It's funny you'd mention Ecclesiastes because I was just thinking about this concept yesterday. For the very reason you're implying. o__O
a lot a of people maybe surprised when not everything they thought would change actually does.
There will be some well-meaning wishful thinkers who may be disappointed, but not exactly surprised. However, the ideologues will never get it because they don't want to get it, and if the day should come when this president's failures are staring them in the face, they will find something or someone else to blame rather than accept that their expectations or agenda might be what's flawed.
As a conservative, based on his campaign rhetoric, President Obama's plans and intentions scared me a great deal. However, since winning the presidency I admit he has made (what are to me) more sensible and centrist decisions than I would have expected. I very much wish to support Obama and see him succeed in restoring the economy, maintaining national security, and working to facilitate a climate of national unity and bi-partisanship. We need all those things desperately, and he has my prayers and full support.
What remains, nevertheless, is my fear and absolute loathing that this country should be dragged any further down the road to socialism that it already has been. His allusion to spreading the wealth is particularly troubling, as there is as yet no sign on the horizon that the willing hearts and accountability he also speaks of actually accompany the sacrifices that will be demanded from the few.
Edited for typos. :\
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My opinion on the matter for what it is worth is that for all the bluster and rhetoric that both parties spout while they are in office, you only have to look at what they do once they leave politics to see the real person.
You'll see the stripes on the tiger then.
Until former politicians are no longer allowed to join their pals and sit on the boards of corporations nothing will change. Until you make it more difficult, or heaven forbid it, stop allowing investigators and heads of SEC departments to be able to leave their jobs and go directly to work for the people they are supposed to regulate, nothing will change.
Individuals may want to be different, and heck they may actually try to serve their constituents in a moral and upstanding way. But in my opinion, governments are run by the masses and not by individuals. If the culture in a government is that you cash your cheque for as long as you can, and then bugger off to your new job working for a corporation then really what's the point?
I mean everyone does it. It's so damn bloody common, it makes a mockery of the whole "I'm working for the people" line that every tom, dick and Harriet use when they are campaigning.
If you ever have the time or the inclination I would suggest reading a book called "The National Dream" written by Pierre Berton. It is about the goal that the first prime minister of Canada, Sir John A Mcdonald, had about building a railway right across the country and the fight he had to actually get government to do it. Whenever I get frustrated or despair with the quality of elected leader we have now, I think about that book and remember there was a time when leaders not only led, but risked more than just their reputations to actually do something worthwhile. When politicians actually wrote speeches themselves, and didn't rely on spin doctors, media analysts and tv writers. Some of the oratory sections in that book are wonderful. And makes the speeches today (as good as they are to be fair) seem like the work of hyperactive children.
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