Jim Headrick's Blog

I was watching a rerun of West Wing where President Bartlett and Sam Seaborne were playing chess.  The President kept saying to Sam, “look at the whole board before you make a mover.”  He said this several times while Sam was guessing what was happening politically in the situation room.

Sam did a good job guessing.  It was written that way, but the phrase I keep remembering is ‘look at the whole board’.  For a chess player this means a lot, but it should mean a lot to the thousands of elected officials in this nation. 

In chess if you play your game without paying attention to the possible strategy of your opponent you will get beaten.  If you make any move without a reason, you will get beaten by your opponent.  In running this great nation of ours we have to do two things well.  We have to make deliberate moves that benefit the nation as a whole, and we should never make stop gap moves that kicks the can down the road.  Sorry for the younger readers.  ‘Kick the can’ is a physical activity game that requires nothing but a can and some kids.  What I mean is we should make things happen to perform a specific purpose.

Our legislators waste a lot of time doing things they need not do.  Let’s suppose they passed a law that say you can’t throw anything out the window of a car.  Wait a minute; they did pass such a law.  It is micromanagement at its finest.  It cannot be enforced to a degree that makes a difference, so we post signs costing into the millions of dollars.  We have few neighborhoods that help, and we send the prisoners out to pick up debris.  We cannot control everyone’s life to that degree.  At some point we have to let people be responsible for themselves.

We used to look at the whole board.  When I was young, if an adult saw me doing wrong, they had no problem telling me so.  I also had no problem obeying.  We lived in communities then, and if I didn’t obey, he or she would tell my father. 

Our legislators should ‘look at the whole board’ and figure out the balance between micromanagement and placing the responsibility on the public to protect ourselves unless it is at a degree that a professional should do it.  See the problem.  Look at the whole board.

Are we looking at the whole board or do we think we are paying someone to do it for us?  Even if that is so, did you vote?

The responsibility is ours not the people we elect and not the bureaucrats working for us in our government.

We go through life as though it was some magical experience.  The real terrorist in this country are those people that have the privilege of voting and don’t vote.  Many of the people that do not vote will say my vote doesn’t count when actually they mean that they are too lazy to keep up with current events and have no idea what is going on.

The people that have been elected to govern us clearly have not been doing their job.  It isn’t their fault that they get re-elected on the grounds that they will stand in the way of government progress.  That is the fault of the voters.  If we are so stupid to believe that we don’t deserve to know the real facts confronting Congress, we deserve what we get.  When Congress holds a hearing confronting any agency for not doing their job properly but could not answer the same questions about their own job, the responsibility is ours.

I watched the hearing wher Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS tax-exempt unit declined to answer questions.  I applaud her for doing so.  Any question she answered would have been wrong.  Once they find something to blame they will quit asking questions and go to the next reaction, but do nothing about the IRS problem. 

Clearly the IRS did something wrong that has come to the surface.  The questions, when they are answered, will stop there.  How many rights has the IRS stepped on for many other people?  I saw my father-in-law and my father (two separate cases) approached by IRS who simply said you owe us X dollars.  Prove you don’t.  Both were exonerated after spending many dollars defending themselves.  I had an IRS lien placed on me at one time that cut off any chance I had of raising money I badly needed.  A small lien tied up thousands of dollars in property value. 

IRS is a badly run department that has hurt many people.  As short term fix will do nothing to help that.  We have an opportunity to set some oversight, not just for the IRS, but for all the agencies.  This is badly needed.  The Congress members will tell you that we can’t afford to do that, but the reality is that we have to do that.  It should not cost us anything to do that.  Too much discretion is given to agencies which allow the wasting of much appropriated funds.  Making people accountable is what business does every day.

We need an oversight agency that is accountable to Congress only.  Within that agency there can be experts in every field needed.  Congress members are making decisions now that they are not capable of making.  They just don’t have the expertise.  Even if they did have the expertise who they have appointed in their staff it might be a relative or someone that helped them in their campaign. 

I know in my simple mind that I can’t have the answer to this dilemma, but there are people in the government that are much smarter that I am, but they need a direction to begin planning.

The present groups that want to have a constitutional convention mostly want a smaller government and not a larger government.  They most probably will never understand that an overview department will save money in the beginning then it should stabilize. 

I end with a question.  What is the definition of insanity?  Most will say it is doing something over and over again expecting a different outcome. 

Many things in the government have to change in order for the government we love to survive.  Let us control the changes without the changes ultimately controlling us.

STAY INVOLVED AND VOTE !!!!

Is it incompetence in government or simple ignorance in judgment that allow the problems in Bengasi, the IRS scandal, Watergate and many other scandals we know about plus, I am sure, thousands of secret questionable situations we do not know about that is causing the problems?  I submit to you that it is neither incompetence or ignorance causing the problems.  It is secrets that cause of the problems.

There are three kinds of secretes in our government today.  The first one is declared secretes.  These are secretes supposedly and sometimes correctly declared for the benefit of the public.  That is someone decides the public should not have a need to know certain subjects of details because the subject matter might be leaked to our enemies and ultimately cause harm to our nation.  This is a legitimate secret, but is too often used to protect someone or something from harm due to mistakes in judgment or wasting money. 

The second is to protect people or procedures in our government that allow certain people to be protected from decisions they might have made or are aware of that were made which was not to the best interest of the public.

The third is the most dangerous of all.  When an employee is hired in any company or government they are given a lecture on ‘the chain of command’ and usually sign a contract agreement to follow ‘the chain of command’.  This is done so the management system works well and is very necessary to support productivity UNLESS someone is keeping a secret or just doing something blatantly wrong.  When what we call ‘a whistle blower’ comes forward and tells their immediate supervisor what is concerning them, and the supervisor says keep that under your hat.  The potential whistle blower then believes the agreement they have with the company or government agency prevents them from alerting people that might need to know that secret.

In my opinion the government, banks, and other corporations constantly have members sign documents that take away your right to be good citizens.  The court cases that confirm we cannot put something against the law in a contract and expect it to hold up, are always after the whistle blower has lost much personal wealth and stability in their lives.

Until there is a law that protects the employee from being asked to sign documents that do not conform to the law.  Lawyers get off scot free by presenting such documents to corporations as legal documents.  People cannot agree to agree later.  A person cannot agree to give up their right to speak on behalf of their own well being.  Nothing is forever and prices can’t change automatically without an index automatically.  The contracts just get worse and worse just like the laws passed by Congress just get more and more ridiculous. 

Where did we lose the value of honor which is written into the Constitution throughout this wonderful document?  We are supposed to have honor in the executive branch of our government.  We are supposed to have honor in the legislative branch of our government.  We are supposed to have honor in the judicial branch of our government

In our judicial department from the counties to the Supreme Court of these United States every judge has his or her own agenda as to what should be done.  There are interpretations that do not come close to following the intent of the first Congress.

As we watch the hearings on the IRS and Bengasi progress watch the agenda change from searching for the truth to partisanship. 

I am constantly hearing some of the members of Congress expound loudly with conviction in their voice that President Obama and others should be impeached from office.  The cause seems to be that they are incompetent and are not doing their job. 

If this is a case that should be considered let’s see what the merits are.  The President and others were involved in the process.  They made decisions they thought were correct at the time and stood by those decisions.  The question of making the right decisions or wrong decisions should never be in question.  The fact is that if they did the right or wrong decision, they did it based on the information they had to rely upon.

Further if doing their job the best they can is a reason for impeachment, then I submit that the majority of member of Congress should be impeached.  The members of Congress have not done their job or voted for any bill I am aware of in the last 30 years that had to do with the welfare of those that sent them to Congress.  It seems from the bills that have been passed that at least 90 percent of the bills that have been passed have to do with the lobbyist that give generous donations to the campaigns of those that support their cause.

I propose the following. Let us put together a hearing in the Senate that investigates each member of the House to see if they are doing their job competently and at the same time put together a hearing in the House to investigate each member of the Senate to determine if they are working competently.

Our Congress spends more time figuring out ways NOT to do their job than they spend doing their job.  Their job is to first and foremost obey and defend the Constitution.  Every time a Senator or Representative does anything in contradiction to the constitution he or she should be impeached.  For instance, if the budget isn’t passed every year the person or persons standing in the way should be impeached and if guilty removed from office with no benefits.  Every time a special interest lobby contributes to a campaign for re-election of a Senator or Representative, and that Senator or Representative votes for something not in the interest of the citizens such as; putting off legislation that would improve fuel mileage mandatory increases (which is possible now), delaying hydrocarbon emissions (which can be done now), cutting the budget of the FDA so that the food we eat in the United States is safe and labeled properly, delaying the infrastructure upkeep for the roads and bridges we travel every day, (one of my favorites) continuing to support the OIL and MEDICAL interest by voting restrictions then giving them an enormous amount of time to comply while continuing to give themselves pay raises; they should be impeached with all benefits being stripped from their package.

Jesus said, before you take the speck out of the eye of your neighbor; first remove the log from your own eye.

I am not saying to ignore transgressions against the citizens of the government of the United States.  What I am saying is that if you spend your time criticizing people in the government trying their best to do your job, you do not have time to do your job, which is why you were supposed to be elected.  If you try to justify your existence in Congress by pushing your personal agenda ahead of those that sent you, you’re a crook.  If you benefit yourselves instead of looking to the needs of the community that sent you, you are a crook.

Most of the people that sent you to Congress work every day at a job that only allows them to earn a meager income compared to yours.  You are now officially a slave of power and mammon.

We have embassies around the world.  In some countries where there is a presence of religious factions that believe that violence is the answer to solving problem in the world, those embassies are in danger constantly.  This isn’t now and then, it is all the time.

In the case of Benghazi the State Department always refrains from calling the kettle black.  The fact is that if we had sent Arial support to the defense of our American Embassy in Benghazi the result would have been that according to the Libyan people it would have been an unprovoked attack on a simple demonstration. 

The State Department, as all departments in the US Government, always makes the same mistake.  They do not tell the citizens of this country the truth.  They seem to believe that we cannot handle the truth.  This puts us in further danger because we cannot properly vote for people that do not give us the truth, but we don’t know that unless we know what is happening. 

The fact is that no matter what the truth is in this case, we cannot win any argument.  It is good to hear what happened for the sake of future situations that might come up so let the hearings go on.  However, if there is an agenda in the hearing room that has nothing to do with finding out what happen so we can do better in the future, it is a useless process.

In absolutely every hearing that I have heard and seen on TV or radio, I have never seen questions that did not have an agenda from some of the Senators or Representatives of the House.  If we do not vote these people out of office we will never get our country back.

I remember several years back, probably when Reagan was shot and/or before, when the NRA’s slogan was “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”  I noticed today that I had not heard that slogan for quite some time now.  I became immediately obvious why not.  The background check for gun ownership is now on the minds of the public.  It becomes obvious to me that the gun lobby just wants to sell guns. 

I have had guns in my house since I was born.  My father had guns actually used for hunting and a souvenir he brought back from WWII.  I hunted with my family when I was young.  My cousin used a 17 shot semi automatic and I used a single shot.  My father taught me to aim well, so I only need one shot at a time.  The only reason I would need more is if some several nuts were holding me or other descent people hostage.  Then I would need one shell for each of them.

To keep some nut from killing other people is we need to keep those guns from the nuts that are out there in our midst.  The way we do that is to adopt the NRA’s position several years ago and agree that “Guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.” And do background checks.

The same people that supported President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney during their terms a presidency, have evidently forgiven these two people from leading us through unwanted or needed wars which brought us to the economic crises, and are now blocking any effort President Obama contemplates to govern us back into some economic and physical health for the individuals and the nation.  These people have freedom of speech and should be able to say anything they want, however the ones that I am referring to are US Representatives and Senators. 

Senators and Representatives are put in Congress to carry out the wishes of the people that sent them.  Instead these people run on a platform of trying to get everyone to think like they do.  This is an impossible task for anyone.  Even Jesus said you cannot think like I do, but I will forgive you if you faultier.

Whose fault do we think this is?  In my opinion it is the fault of the 50% of the people that do not vote.  I cannot believe in a Christian nation that the majority have such hatred for any minority race.  I cannot believe that the majority of the nation that there is a cast system in the United States.  Please remember that if 50% of the people vote only 26% controls the vote.  20% of that 26% or 5.2% of the voting population is controlling their followers and your life.

Any politician or a major stock hold will tell you that if they can control 10% of the vote they can control any group.  20% of the people look into the subject in which they are interested and make decisions to support their agenda.  The rest of the people listen to the 20% without doing any research on their own.

Which category are you in.  Are you a leader or follower?  If not a follower, do you do your own research?   

I am watching our esteemed congress at their very best.  Unfortunately their very best falls short of adequate. 

I really don’t know if the bill that was defeated in the Senate today is a good bill or not.  I do know that it didn’t pass.  The real tragedy is that the citizens of this great nation said to congress, “we have a problem with some people that can get and use guns that should not have them.”  Congress said, “We are not smart enough to fulfill your desire.”

This happens too often.  If they just can’t do the work, then tell us.  They said they could fulfill the needs of the citizens of the US when they ran for office.  Did they just lie, or did they just come to Congress to fulfill their own agenda?

This type of activity reminds me more of the ancient Roman Senate than the Senate of a Republic of the United States.  If you vote to send someone back to Congress because they can do something for you at the detriment of someone else, then you are clearly not part of the United States where I want to live.  If you actually look at the voting record of the congressional representatives, and do not consider that voting record when you vote, you might as well stay home.

I don’t know what the answer to the gun control bill should become to be.  However, I am very sure that one of the choices is not, NOTHING.