Whatever happened to our representative government?

It is very plain, a large majority of the citizens of the U.S.A. oppose, climate change (fake), Cap and Tax, national healthcare, stimulus on stimulus, higher taxes, and basically, everything the administration has done since day one.

Why, are the elected represenatives ignoring the very people who elected them? In Banana Republics such as Venezuela, this is what goes, but not in the USA. We are becoming a weak, passive, herd of sheep who allow those who believe they know better to run our lives.

And if we dare not speak up, we get what we deserve.

It sickens me, everyday it is so open, what they are doing. They are not hiding what actions are occurring in Washington. They have the gall to stand up in front of us and tell us what will be.

Weither it be the Tea Party Party, The Republican Party, or whoever, a group must stand for the Constitution.

Look in the mirror, who do you see. We can organize, right here in Chattanooga. We must band together somewhere, why not here? Do any of you fear the local government? Do you fear being denied the right of free speech by the local administrations. I hope not. I hope and pray we could begin a peaceful organization right here, right now, to mobilize and speak back. We must expose the lies and corruptions and the loss of our cherished freedoms.

I welcome any thoughts, anytime, we must do something. Complaining is a form of change, but only a thought. We will be discounted as nuts, revolutionaries, right-wing lunatics, the lunatic Bible and gun toters. Freedom of speech, the right to assembly. The right to bear arms, the tight to practice religion - these are freedoms at peril. The government is enslaving your children, grandchildren and beyond with their (to borrow an overworked word from our President) unprecedented
spending.

Let's speak together, as a voice for the truth in the USA. The time has come.

Mitchell Thurmer
Signal Mountain
mthurmer4300@comcast.net

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I recommend that you look into the group Campaign for Liberty. We have a local Hamilton County group which meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month to discuss concerns related to their mission statement, which is "to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity."

Please make plans to join us on Jan. 30, from 2-5 p.m. at Woodland Park Baptist Church, as the Hamilton County Campaign for Liberty and the Chattanooga Tea Party holds the first in a series of debates. For this debate, we will get to know the seven Republican Candidates for the 3rd Congressional District who have responded to our invite for this event.

Being upset about things going on around you is one thing. Getting involved and working together with others who are like-minded with these concerns is something else altogether. Don't let it be said that you did nothing. If you learn more about our efforts, and the mission resonates with you, then get involved!

David Shinn
dshinn27@gmail.com
TN 3rd District Regional Coordinator

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Dear Mitchell,

Glad to see you’re all fired up about big government spending and our freedoms slipping away at an (to borrow an overly used phrase from
Beck) alarming rate. But I have to ask, where were your concerns when
the last administration was spending money like Pac Man Jones at a strip club? What about when the Patriot Act was instituted? The Patriot Act was the biggest infringement on the American people’s rights that was ever brought forth by a sitting President. Don’t remember hearing from you back then either. Back then you guys were saying “If you don’t have anything to hide who cares if the government reads your email”.

Your sudden change of heart is odd, that’s all I’m saying. Kind of makes me question your sincerity and motives.

Glenn Scruggs
Harrison, Tn.

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Well said Mitch. Such thoughts have been weighing on my mind the last
week or two and building to a crescendo that I may have to go into
therapy if this insanity doesn't stop soon.

Every week it gets worse and all we hear from Congress is words and
more words. Nothing but words. So someone writes a good bill that the
majority of the country supports. So what? By the time the bill reaches the President, it is practically worthless after all the compromises, special interests, arm twisting and payoffs.

We have 100 senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine supreme court justices. These 545 people are the ones and only ones who are directly responsible for everything good and bad about our country! They make the decisions. Nobody else!

Our Secretary of State is nothing more than a messenger with a blank
checkbook running all over the world writing bad checks to any country
that will just "like us for a little while." This week the Prez tells
Hilliary, "give them 100 billion for improving the air they breathe.It's only money." Sure, our money.

Did anyone ask you if they could give a 100 billion of your hard earned tax money they take from us each week? I doubt seriously if any of this administration could even balance their checkbook.

The Republican party is not moving fast enough to find a real leader
with the experience to save our country before it's too late. The Obama administration is running at warp speed over the wishes of the
American people and I have never felt so helpless in my life. By the end of the next three years you won't recognize our country.

If you want your country back, here's how to do it. It's not a new concept. We start a grassroots movement word by mouth. We start by small groups meeting in homes once a week or restaurants or anywhere we can and as we grow we move to larger places and when we reach a consensus on the most important issues we let the media know who we are as we grow, more experienced and capable individuals will come that can lead a national grassroots movement.

The only other option I know would be a militia and that is definitely the last resort.If you care anything about your country, please tell us what you think. You have been given a forum here to express yourself. Use it.

Bill Watkins
watkins238@aol.com

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Mitch, the last time I checked, we still had a "Representative government," locally and nationally.

Our "representatives" may not stand with our personal point of view at all times, but they are elected to office to serve in our stead. We don't have a monarch appointing representatives for us, we choose them ourselves.

I happen to dislike our representatives at this time and take pride in the fact that I didn't vote for them. I do take the time to inform them how I would like them to vote, but I'm only one voice in our city, county, and state. I'm sure there are many that disagree with my political point of view and inform our representatives how they would like them to vote also. That is how a representative form of government works.

I think you presuppose to speak for everyone by stating the "large
majority of the citizens in the U.S.A. oppose climate change (fake)."
I happen to agree that climate change is a very real and vital problem
that must be faced. I'm not a doomsday prophet, but I think it would
be a big mistake to do nothing.

You speak of our children and grandchildren facing a huge tax bill because of unprecedented spending. That is something I worried about for the last nine years while our Republican friends spent money like "drunken sailors."

I am as much concerned about that as I am the climate we leave behind for
our kids and grand-kids to live in.

We live in the United States of America. The greatest nation that has
ever existed on the face of this earth. I'm ashamed that our great
nation has the 31st rated health care system among industrialized nations. We pay more money for less care than any other nation and have the audacity to brag about how wonderful our system is. We deny health care to children, elderly, and our poor adults solely because of ability to pay. Then we brag about what a wonderful "Christian" nation we are.

Mitch, it is more than past time to do something about health care in this country.

The stimulus you speak of that "everyone opposes" may just have saved
us from the single biggest economic collapse we would have ever experienced. Allowing GM, Chrysler, and major banks to go "belly-up"
would have been disastrous to our nation. Money would have been frozen, and a snowball effect would have taken hold, causing our way of life to collapse completely.

Every single reputable economist has
stated how the stimulus package's saved our economy. Oh, by the way,
the "T.A.R.P." money was asked for, and approved under the previous
administration. That is one of the few things "Dubya" got right.

You speak of higher taxes and I just have to ask which taxes you are talking about? No taxes have been increased by this administration.
There was a major tax reduction enacted soon after Obama took office.
It was targeted to those earning less than a quarter million dollars a
year. I got the first tax cut I had seen in 13 years with that one.

There has been talk of increasing the percentage of tax money collected on incomes over a quarter million dollars a year, but nothing has been done as yet. That means those making over a quarter million a year pay a smaller percentage of their income on taxes than I do. That's ok though, because I have never complained about the privilege of paying taxes, that just means that I am doing well.

I'm really curious which rights are being taken from you? I consider
myself very well informed, and I have yet to hear the first thing about your freedom of speech, religion, assembly, bear arms, or any other right being under threat.

When Obama took office, the NRA
whispered that he would take your guns from you and the nation went off the deep end buying guns and ammo in record amounts. In fact, there's an ammo shortage because of it. Fact is, Obama has never said one word about infringing upon your right to bear arms. The NRA sure boosted their numbers and income with that one.

I have no problem with a local "grass roots" movement to bring about a "voice for truth" as long as the word "truth" is based on facts and not conjecture. Just because you may disagree with the current administration, doesn't make you right and them wrong. Nor does it
make them right and you wrong. It just means that you can't see eye
to eye on what direction this country needs to take.

One thing you should keep in mind is that you don't have the responsibility of representing what is best for "all the people." Your views are driven solely by emotion, without a foundation built on "truth."

Rod Dagnan
roddagnan@comcast.net