Casual BS is what's really destroying America | | Print | |
Saturday, 28 March 2009 | |||||||||||||
I was just sitting here minding my own business, and got this
illegally and dishonestly altered version of Charley
Reese's immortal article "Looking for someone to blame? Congress is a
good start", written in 1995, in my email this morning. (This article was written in reply to a forwarded email from a well-meaning friend. I sent it back to all of the people who were on the list.) I took about one hour of my life and $3.95 of my hard-earned money to track down the source, and found the original in the archives of the Orlando Sentinel. I am sending the original to you to read. I hope that you will take the two seconds that it will take to forward this email back up the line, and ask them to do the same. I have attached a screen shot of the article that I paid for, so that you know that I did not change one single word of what Charley wrote. This is a very different article than the one forwarded to me. I have also attached a Word document that compares the emailed article to the actual article. The crossed-out lines were not part of Charley (not Charlie) Reese's article. Those crossed-out lines represent more than one-half of the emailed article. Whoever wrote this email did not just change a few words...they changed the entire meaning. Now, ask yourself, why would someone do something so sneaky and dishonest? Perhaps because they wanted to dress up some lies and half-truths by changing someone else's words to fit their own propaganda agenda? And they wanted to make it sound credible by attaching a popular writer's name to it? How low can you go? I get many messages like this every day. I could find the source of each one, demonstrate its dishonesty and disinformation, and send it back whence it came. But I have a job, a family, and a place to take care of. If each one of you would research one of these emails once a week and send it back up the line, instead of forwarding it without consideration, there would be a lot less misinformation on the internet. I did not use any special powers to do this work. It just took some time. If you think that it is wrong of me to seek out the facts, I would like to talk about that with you. The degradation of personal and public integrity is the root cause of most of America's problems, in my humble opinion. Best regards, Deb Lagutaris Screenshot of article Comparison ***** Following is the text of Charley's article as copied from the Orlando Sentinel's archives. A screen shot of the website is attached so that there can be no question about whether I altered the article to fit some agenda of my own. Below that, please see the email I received. LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO BLAME? CONGRESS IS GOOD PLACE TO START
[METRO Edition]
Orlando Sentinel
-
Orlando, Fla.
Document Text
Politicians, as I have often said, are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Everything on the Republican contract is a problem created by Congress. Too much bureaucracy? Blame Congress. Too many rules? Blame Congress. Unjust tax laws? Congress wrote them. Out-of-control bureaucracy? Congress authorizes everything bureaucracies do. Americans dying in Third World rat holes on stupid U.N. missions? Congress allows it. The annual deficits? Congress votes for them. The $4 trillion plus debt? Congress created it. To put it into perspective just remember that 100 percent of the power of the federal government comes from the U.S. Constitution. If it's not in the Constitution, it's not authorized. Then read your Constitution. All 100 percent of the power of the federal government is invested solely in 545 individual human beings. That's all. Of 260 million Americans, only 545 of them wield 100 percent of the power of the federal government. That's 435 members of the U.S. House, 100 senators, one president and nine Supreme Court justices. Anything involving government that is wrong is 100 percent their fault. I exclude the vice president because constitutionally he has no power except to preside over the Senate and to vote only in the case of a tie. I exclude the Federal Reserve because Congress created it and all its power is power Congress delegated to it and could withdraw anytime it chooses to do so. In fact, all the power exercised by the 3 million or so other federal employees is power delegated from the 545. All bureaucracies are created by Congress or by executive order of the president. All are financed and staffed by Congress. All enforce laws passed by Congress. All operate under procedures authorized by Congress. That's why all complaints and protests should be properly directed at Congress, not at the individual agencies. You don't like the IRS? Go see Congress. You think the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency is running amok? Go see Congress. Congress is the originator of all government problems and is also the only remedy available. That's why, of course, politicians go to such extraordinary lengths and employ world-class sophistry to make you think they are not responsible. Anytime a congressman pretends to be outraged by something a federal bureaucrat does, he is in fact engaging in one big massive con job. No federal employee can act at all except to enforce laws passed by Congress and to employ procedures authorized by Congress either explicitly or implicitly. Partisans on both sides like to blame presidents for deficits, but all deficits are congressional deficits. The president may, by custom, recommend a budget, but it carries no legal weight. Only Congress is authorized by the Constitution to authorize and appropriate and to levy taxes. That's what the federal budget consists of: expenditures authorized, funds appropriated and taxes levied. Both Democrats and Republicans mislead the public. For 40 years Democrats had majorities and could have at any time balanced the budget if they had chosen to do so. Republicans now have majorities and could, if they choose, pass a balanced budget this year. Every president, Democrat or Republican, could have vetoed appropriations bills that did not make up a balanced budget. Every president could have recommended a balanced budget. None has done either. We have annual deficits and a huge federal debt because that's what majorities in Congress and presidents in the White House wanted. We have troops in various Third World rat holes because Congress and the president want them there. Don't be conned. Don't let them escape responsibility. We simply have to sort through 260 million people until we find 545 who will act responsibly. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Abstract (Document Summary)
Partisans on both sides like to blame presidents for deficits, but all deficits are congressional deficits. The president may, by custom, recommend a budget, but it carries no legal weight. Only Congress is authorized by the Constitution to authorize and appropriate and to levy taxes. That's what the federal budget consists of: expenditures authorized, funds appropriated and taxes levied. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
* This article is redistributed under the Fair Use Act, which permits copyrighted material to be distributed for educational purposes. -DL The text of the email I received follows: PEOPLE WITH COMMON SENSE WILL AGREE.
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