The following was sent to leaders of the Democrat Party:

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Why are Democrats so afraid of the Republicans?

Why are Democrats so afraid of standing up for their progressive values?

Why are Democrats so afraid of a Republican filibuster? What have you got to lose that you haven’t already lost and are now ready to back down on? The filibuster will only delay the process. Well, it’s been delayed anyway. Their goal is to kill it – little by little and they keep succeeding. Stop playing their game. Make them filibuster.

Democrats are losing on health care and lost in Mass because they keep backing down. This is backed up by the only exit poll taken in Mass.:

“Generally speaking, do you think Democrats in Washington, DC are fighting hard enough to challenge the Republican policies of the Bush years, aren’t fighting hard enough to change those policies, or are fighting about right?”

• NOT ENOUGH 37%
• TOO HARD 15%
• ABOUT RIGHT 21%
• NOT SURE 27%

When will Democrats learn how to win consistently? When will Democrats learn from the success of last November instead of repeating the mistakes of that got us to this low point one year after the election for hope and change?

George Lakoff said in The Policyspeak Disaster for Health Care,

“The first rule of effective communication is stating the positive in your own terms, not quoting the other side’s language with a negation.”

When will Democrats stop paving the way for a major Republican victory in November? When will Democrats call their bluff?

Let them filibuster while you and the other Democrat leaders come up with a new plan to keep hope and change alive.

Conservatives without conscience (CWC) want life protected at all costs while it exists in the womb. Once you are born, however, CWCs believe “you’re on your own.” Your life after birth and your health are totally up to you – even though they are both subject to many systemic factors:

• your parents,
• your parent’s genes,
• drunk drivers,
• contaminated peanut butter,
• exploding gas tanks (Think Ford Pinto),
• improperly tested medications,
• contaminated air, water or soil,
• violent criminal acts, or
• any abuse by others.

Protecting life against all the things we can’t control is a moral issue. That’s why we need health care for all citizens – not just those that work for companies that provide health insurance or those that are rich and healthy enough to afford their own insurance.

Germany’s health care system is totally private and covers every citizen from birth to death. Citizens pay for insurance. Profit is allowed for providers of health care but insurance is non-profit. In fact, in all other democracies which provide health care for all their citizens, health insurance is non-profit.

Why does America let 20,000 citizens die each year due to lack of health care? Why does America let 700,000 families a year declare bankruptcy because their health care costs exceed the limits of their health insurance, if they have insurance? Why …? Profit for insurance companies.

Profit above life is morally wrong!

Mr. Holder,

Every time the executive branch of our federal government erodes the rule of law, our nation takes one more step toward its end. To delay that end, there must be a thorough and complete investigation of any laws that were broken. There should be a restoration of those broken laws and those responsible should be prosecuted for their illegal actions.

This investigation should be done by Congress, or the Department of Justice, or both working together to restore the rule of law.

In particular, we, as a country, cannot ask others to respect human rights when we are violating the rights of both our citizens and those we accuse of perpetrating crimes against our nation.

Please appoint an independent prosector to help restore the rule of law with respect to any violation of human right through the use of torture and prosecute those rankng individuals that are responsible for the violations.

Here is a quote from the movie “Swing Vote:”

Nations have followed the same historical path:
From bondage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy, back to bondage.

We, as a nation, are somewhere between complacency and apathy. If, as the Attorney General, you don’t act, we move closer to apathy.

We need moral clarity and prosecuting violations of human rights through the use of torture is a good place to start.

Mr. Presidnet,

I am writing to you concerning indefinite detention of suspected criminals/terrorists. On July 3, you told the Associated Press that the idea of indefinite detention gave you” huge pause.” However, huge pause does not mean you oppose it or intend to stop this GWB policy. ‘Huge pause’ sounds like you are holding something back or avoiding the exposer of your actual intent.

Unless there is some basic flaw in our innocent-until-proven-guilty legal system, which has worked for so long and handled many other very evil criminals, I request that this policy be reversed or at least suspended to force a different context for evaluating it’s need.

I can understand the citizenry being intimidated under the exposer to demagoguery, but you are in position to know much more. You also have the legal background.

Remember, every promise broken only makes it easier to break the next one.

After asking others to support the above effort, I got this one response:

You mean the public option which is the government supplied option that will be offered if you still want to use your own health care? That public option will eventually destroy the regular private option so we will eventually only have the government option. The government should not be in this at all. This is government take over. …

I responded with the following:

Our Declaration of Independence refers to “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – life being the key unalienable right here.

The government is the only entity that should be overseeing the healthcare of its citizens. It is the moral obligation of our government to protect and empower its citizens and protecting our health should never be subjugated to profit, which will trump our lives if it means more [profit].

Our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are of absolutely no concern to the corporations of healthcare. Profit is king.

Profit is great, however, it has no place when it comes to any moral issue involving our protection and empowerment. If it is, we lose – our “unalienable rights” are taken from us for the sake of profit. WRONG!!!

(Natural rights (or inalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent upon the laws, [profit,] customs, or beliefs or a particular society or polity)

Mr. President,

There was an exclusive news report on MSNBC tonight. The main point was that instead of reemphasizing what you have said in public about letting the Justice Department decide about prosecuting wrong doings of the previous administration, you instead said, in a private meeting today, that this issue is settled. You did not repeat that it’s up to your Attorney General. This, and other Bush leaning actions worry me and here’s why.

The Lucifer Effect documents how “bad barrels” produce “bad apples.” How one’s environment changes who you are. How good people come to do bad things. (Think Abu Ghraib and The Stanford Prison Experiment.)

I think that “inside the beltway” represents the bad barrel of the country and that the longer one is inside that beltway, the greater the chance that a good man will be adversely affected.

Please recognize the threat of the bad barrel and keep true to your heart and we the people. Keep empathy in the fore and help the country relearn that the government is here to protect and empower all of us – not just the mega rich.

By the way, it also sounds like we are losing the healthcare battle in the Senate to profit.

Thank you for taking on this tough job in these bad times!

Mr. President,

I agree with not prosecuting the lower level CIA employees for their part in bad policies produced by Bush II and company. These torture policies built a bad barrel that took these good people and made them do bad things – turned them into “bad apples.”

I also ask that you back up your words with your action. Show that you mean what you believe …

Pardon the only American’s that fell victim to these torture memos. Pardon those “bad apples” from Abu Ghraib. Pardon Sgt. Ivan Frederick and the others ‘framed’ by the torture memos.

More on bad barrel’s
- The Lucifer Effect:
- The Stanford Prison Experiment:

More on Sgt. Frederick:

Pardon The Abu Ghraib 11

Mr. President,

Thank you for authorizing the release of the CIA torture guidelines from the previous administration.   This is another step toward undoing the wrongs of the past.

I also agree that the hands-on implementers of those guidelines are not the ones that should be prosecuted.   Punishing them is not the solution to the problem any more than was the prosecution of low level enlisted personnel was the solution for the torture at Abu Ghraib.  Is the problem a few bad apples or a bad barrel that confines the apples? Who is ultimately responsible?    (Refer to The Lucifer Effect by Philip G. Zimbardo.)

I can also agree somewhat with looking forward and not to the past, when it is appropriate.  Trouble is no one knows what the future will bring and we all know about the vision acuity of hindsight.

I’m an engineer.   I use historical information to help plan the future, meet customer requirements and make a profit.   I use lessons learned to update procedures and minimize the possibility of repeating the mistakes of the past.  How else are we going to get to the moon again or maintain the sovereignty of a nation?

But when I look forward to the next time a person with an authoritarian personality is elected president of the United States and wonder if the recent wrongful Bush II administration policies are still in place, I see a very probable end to our democracy.    We came as close as ever to a dictatorship under Bush II.  We need to trash his wrongful policies and the sooner the better.

What else will you do to protect the future of our nation?  May I suggest you consider reversing one particular  Bush signing statement.   

G. Bush wrote the following when he signed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY08, H.R. 4986, with which the Democrat Congress tried to restore the Insurrection Act to its original language which had be changed in 2006:

“Provisions of the Act, including sections 841, 846, 1079, and 1222, purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as Commander in Chief. The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.”

Thank you for any consideration you might give to my thoughts.

In late March, I received the following response from Congressman Ron Paul to my request to support the EFCA:

Dear Mr. Hailey:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding my position on collective bargaining. Please be assured, I do support the right of all Americans to join the collective bargainingorganizations of their choice. However, the federal government has no constitutional authority to dictate to employers the circumstances under which their employees can, and cannot, join a union. Furthermore, legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act forces all workers to accept union representation even if they do not want union representation. Therefore, I could not support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Thank you again for contacting my office. Please feel free to do so in the future with any other questions, comments, or suggestions.

Sincerely,

Ron Paul

I responded with the following:

Congressman Paul,

As you know, a key element of our American democracy and society is checks and balances. Checks and balances are critical for protecting citizens from abuse by some institutions and some individuals who have let excessive wealth and power rob them of their ability to empathize as they strive to maximize self gain.

My experience as an engineer for the aerospace industry in the NASA area and as a union rep for tens years has proved to me that businesses can abuse their power over employees and that it is the responsibility of the government to empower employees so they can protect themselves against such abuse.

The way the law works now it leaves the election up to the company. They always decide for it, even if the ‘show of interest’ cards submitted represents a majority of a class of employees. This gives management the upper hand in the process and reduces the employee’s ability to organize against abuse.

The current law reduces check and balances and must be changed to rebuild the check and balance of the original, post depression, law. If necessary the government must step in to rewrite the laws they already have on the books.

This country is not about me. It’s about we the people and we need checks and balances over those who abuse their powers.

We the people are ultimate check and balance on the government and we asked for change last November. Were you listening to what the nation said?

P.S.   The EFCA does not, as you state, force “all workers to accept union representation even if they do not want union representation.”    This happens now with every election since a 100% vote for representation is highly unlikely.  

Using your logic, you should be opposed to your own election to Congress, since you represent me even though I didn’t choose you.  

Your conservative worldview has held sway for many years. Your conservative cognitive policy has changed the minds of many and perpetuated many unfortunate ideas, values and principles. But we the people have started to recognize what has happened, what has gone terribly wrong and that there is a lot we have to fix.

Your team has lost. Your core membership represents less than a quarter of the voting public.

Your moral authority is badly tarnished and waning.

Your principles of the unquestioning obedience to authority, the “you’re on your own” view of those not like you, the blind support of the imperfect free market, and the insistence on pull yourself up – are on their way out.

Your belief in direct causation and a male dominated identity limits your understand of all those who voted Democrat.

Your preference for profits and profiteering over supporting the common wealth, which helped create the profit, says clearly that helping we the people is secondary to your helping corporations.

Your insistence on turning over governance of we the people to corporations means our safety, education, welfare, health and security are secondary to profits.

Your ideas for what is right for America are wrong. Your ideas are not what the authors of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution had in mind when they broke with the single-party authoritarian rule of England. In fact, your ideas are probably the same as the Loyalists of the late 1700’s.

The bottom line is that “conservatives without conscience” lack empathy, respect and responsibility for those fellow citizens not like them – the majority of us.

Please stop insisting the you want to do what is right for America. You’ve had decades to prove that your ideas work, but they have failed. You can’t pass the buck for our situation to others below you. You and your recently departed leaders are entirely responsible for the mess we are in.

Please stop your petty attempts to delay our inevitable change and start helping to fix what you broke.

We no longer want what you have to offer.

With respect,