Open Letter to Ed Snowden

Dear Ed Snowden,

     Although I'm pretty sure that you will never know the existence of this letter to you, I thought I would write it anyway.  There are some things in my heart of hearts that require communicating, even if only to the emptiness of the Internet.

     I am quite frankly appalled at the actions taken by our government since you came forward as the man who leaked information about the N.S.A. spying on all of us world-wide.  My country has proven to be a bully.  Quite a few of the politicians have publicly proven themselves [in my view] to be idiots with no spine.  It is obvious to me that the N.S.A. will continue to do what it is doing for as long as it can.  This is the danger in providing no meaningful oversight to any agency.  I watched what happened with the T.S.A. and I am now watching it again with the N.S.A.  That the F.I.S.A. court rubber-stamps anything that the N.S.A. wants to do is a mere formality-- a hideous kangaroo court-- and of little comfort to those of us who believe in "liberty and justice for all." 

     I was heartened to read that you do not have regrets about standing up for what is right.  You are the true patriot in this.  Not Obama or his ilk who want you brought back to the motherland as a condemned spy even before trial.  You are an hero.  You are my hero, Ed.  I think that if we had ever met, we would have been friends.

     I hope that you are able to leave Russia for a safer place soon.  Although Russia will not extradite [so far], the actions of their police regarding the throwing of dissidents and suspected dissidents into prisons which are basic torture chambers makes me wary of you living there for very long.  So even if you do wind up at the airport or a refugee camp or in an apartment somewhere for awhile out of necessity, I wish you safe passage to a country which will not kowtow to the wishes of the bossy United States.  And once you get there, I wish you both safety and happiness.

     President Obama, like many others who are not techies, confuses the words "safety" and "privacy."  It appears to me that he seems to believe that the more safety one has, the less privacy one is entitled to by necessity.  He doesn't know that safety which is not self-generated is a mere illusion.  He thinks-- I guess-- that destroying all anonymity and privacy will protect the American people from ourselves.  But we don't need surveillance.  Big Government is odious.  I don't want that.  Like you, I don't want to live in a country that polices every e-mail and communication for a list of suspect words.  But I am still here and you are not.  I watch what has happened to and what is happening to Bradley Manning and I know that Daniel Ellsberg has the right of it.  In order for you to have any chance at a life, you have had to sacrifice pretty much everything.  Thank you for not selling out, Ed.  The easier action would have been to shut up, stand down, say nothing.  You chose the rights of the people who inhabit this world over the directives of the government.  For that, I thank you.

     Although countries are caving left and right, I have to believe that there is a place for you and that you will get there.  Whether it is one of the three in South America or some other country, you deserve to be awarded asylum and hopefully citizenship someplace else.  Please know that there are bunches of us here in the United States who are rooting for you.  Be well, Ed.  

                                      Sail Strong!


                                       radical sapphoq       

One Trillion, Two Trillion, Three Trillion, Four

I been reading bits about making a trillion dollar coin and I think to myself, I don't know very much about economics but I believe the people who are seriously considering this are either on drugs or ought to be.  If this is a stunt that Obama and some others are considering in order to force agreement about what to do about the national debt, it stinks.  If this is a sneaky way to artificially create a higher debt ceiling without Congressional approval, it stinks.  In short, I think the whole idea is stupid.

I don't know much about economics but I do know about fake paper money that kids and some adults use to play board games.  If I grabbed up a handful of that fake paper money and went to the bank with it, I would not have any more money in there than I already do.  If I tried to pay for weekly groceries with it or even crickets for the frog, I would go home without.  Meanwhile, we the nation just keep spending what we haven't got.  And to make things worse, we spend money on nations in foreign places that don't even like us in the first place. 

I understand that a certain amount of national debt floats around out of necessity for obscure to me economic reasons that I don't get.  But cripes people, enough is enough.  I don't care when we did hit that whoa spot or even which politicians or presidents that people wish to blame.  My point is that we are going to have to make some tough choices if we want to truly lower the amount of debt that we as a nation owe.  Thus, I have some proposals which we can call the ten/ten/ten plan:

1).  Quit lending other nations money for any reason.

2).  Quit giving other nations money for any reason.

3).  No more bail-outs for any reason.  This is a sink or swim deal.
If you can't swim, then get out of the water.

4).  Take our entire budget, all the pork barrel projects and all the stuff that our government funds and cut everything-- all of it, no exceptions-- by ten percent for the next ten years.

5).  Raise taxes by ten percent for the next ten years for everyone.

6).  Freeze any new government mandates on the states for the next ten years.  Every time there is a mandate, we end up paying for it.  ENOUGH.

7).  Cut salaries of all of the politicians in Washington D.C. from
the President right on through Congress people, Representatives,
aides and all of that by ten percent for the next ten years.  No raises.
And dump the high tech professional lobbying groups.

8).  Get rid of the expensive private planes and gas guzzlers that any of the politicians ride around in.  Let them take regular planes like anyone else, preferably economy class.  No chauffeurs either.  No more free coffee.  If there is a community coffee pot, and a politician wants some, let them pay ten dollars a cup-- to go toward the budget.  These people have lived large on our backs for too long.

9).  No more bossing other countries around for any reason.  No more committees meeting in order to try to boss around the internet world wide.  No more prosecution of people living in other places for what they do on the internet.  If their own countries aren't going after them, we shouldn't either.  No more interference in their wars, who they get to lead their countries, funding of any military groups other than our own, nada.  Zip.  We live in a great country but we are not the be all and end all of all the other countries.  So how about that we quit acting like we are.  NO INTERFERENCE IN THE AFFAIRS OF OTHER COUNTRIES, PERIOD.

10). Require regular high school students to pass at least one course in world economics before graduation.  A few of those kids are going to be politicians and hopefully the next crop will have a bit more knowledge about economics and how to budget than the current crop does.

Enough is enough.  I don't want any stinking fake coin for any reason.  If we want something different, we got to do something different.  Pulling together would be a great start.  If we do this stuff now, it will be difficult for the next ten years.  Everyone will whine but then perhaps we will get over it.  And become the great country that we profess to be.

I love my country.  It's all the idiocy that happens in D.C. that I can't stand.

radical sapphoq

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/el-erian-trillion-dollar-platinum-164708243.html

http://www.neprepzone.com/article/20130111/MONEY/701119948

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1357912800.php

http://news.yahoo.com/blog-commenter-invented-trillion-dollar-coin-105820842--politics.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/10/legend-trillion-dollar-coin-grows-as-white-house-declines-to-rule-it-out/