The massive health care overhaul bill cleared the necessary Senate committees last week and will now be debated by the full Senate. I think this whole thing needs to be put in proper prospective, and an E-mail I received this past week paints the situation pretty clearly:

     I have to put my two cents in on the David Letterman scandal.  For years now this hypocrite has been taking pot shots at other people who get caught up in some sleazy scandal involving sex.  It is now amusing to watch as he has become the target of other comedians for the same kind of thing that he has making jokes about for years.

     Then there is this, courtesy of the “genius” department at the Associated Press; Writer David Bauder wrote in a column on Tuesday that “money may be the motive” behind producer Robert Halderman’s attempt to blackmail David Letterman over his sex scandal with women who work on the set of “The Late Show“.  “Money MAY be the motive”?  Gee, ya think?

     Speaking of sleaze bags, I was reading today that Levi Johnston, the former fiancé of Bristol Palin, (daughter of Sarah Palin), is going to pose for playgirl magazine. Isn’t this guys’ 15 minutes of fame up yet?  Here’s a guy that dropped out of high school, got a teenage girl pregnant and then dumped her because “he didn’t want kids”, and is now trying to profit from his relationship with the Palin family.  No word yet on whether this loser is paying child support.

Just a few thoughts on the mid-term elections that are now just over a year away.  In a recent Associated Press poll, only 28% of respondents said that congress is doing a good job addressing the issues.  This would seem to indicate that the other 72% of Americans either do not trust or have a severe lack of confidence in the current members of congress.  Their approval numbers are roughly the same as George W. Bush’s when he left office in January of this year.  Clearly, it's time for some more CHANGE, and I think it's time we ask ourselves what kind of people we want representing us in Washington D.C.

Currently, of the 100 Senators in Washington, 54 of them are lawyers.  In the House of Representatives the percentage is not quite as high but there are still 162 members or 36%, who are law school graduates.  While I recognize the necessity of lawyers in society, the argument can be made that they should not make up the majority of our government.  I believe this to be contrary to the intentions of the founders of our nation when they sought to provide "checks and balances" in all areas of government.  James Madison wrote about preventing the tyranny by a government in the same hands in Federalist paper #47.

Today, lawyers make up roughly one half of 1% of the total population, yet the judiciary, the legislative and the executive branches of the United States government are all dominated by members of the bar association. We've been electing lawyers to Congress for the last 30 or 40 years, and now when legislative bills are written there is such a degree of complexity and are so extensive that few people other than a lawyer can wade through all the legal jargon and understand them.  The best current example of this is the massive health care legislation currently being debated in the congress.  Sen. Thomas Carper (D.-Del.), said the language is in fact so confusing that he does not intend to read it and called the whole thing "gibberish".   I think we may be forgiven for believing that this is perhaps intentional, enabling congress to sneak things past the American people by using language the average American, or members of congress for that matter, either does not understand or have the time it takes to decipher.

On Sep. 17, 2007 Rep Bruce Braley (D-IA), introduced to the House of Representatives H.R. 3548 or the Plain Language in Government Communications Act.  Though this bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate it would establish plain language as the standard style for all government documents that are issued to the public.  The plain language standard would apply to any document that explains how to obtain a government benefit, a service or how to file taxes.  It covers all letters, notices, publications, forms, and instructions.  It does not however cover federal regulations or proposed laws in the United States Congress, which means it does nothing to address the concerns of the previous paragraph.  It may come as no surprise then that Congressman Braley is a lawyer.  Prior to being elected to congress in 2006, Mr. Braley specialized in representing workers who had been injured on the job or were terminated unfairly.  In other words, he made his living by suing people.  Reminds me of another attorney turned politician who made a lot of money chasing after ambulances.  Former Senator John Edwards was a "personal injury lawyer" before getting into the racket known as politics.  Mr. Edwards claimed in his presidential campaign a few years ago that there are now "two Americas", one for the super rich and another one for everyone else.  I don’t need to tell you which one he lives in.

Aside from the fact that lawyers always seem to make things more complicated than they need to be, I often have questions concerning their common sense and even their integrity. (shocker)  We all know the story of the woman at McDonalds who spilled coffee on herself and then sued, but that is far from being an isolated incident.  In 2002 a man from New York filed another lawsuit against the same fast food chain because he became obese eating nothing but their hamburgers.  Both of these cases won in court and the plaintiffs and their lawyers were awarded millions of dollars.  The silliness does not stop there though, just ask the tobacco companies who have paid billions in lawsuits.  Regardless of your views on smoking, people should be well aware of the dangers posed by cigarettes.  There's been a warning label printed on the side of each pack since 1966.

In the movie "Wall Street", Gordon Gecko coined the phrase; "Greed is Good".  The phrase could be the national motto for the legal profession because your average lawyer is the embodiment of greed.  Only a person consumed by greed would have taken the case of a woman in New York City who decided to commit suicide by laying down on the subway tracks.  She survived, sued the city and was awarded $14.1 million dollars.  Last, but not least, there is the thief from Framingham, Massachusetts who stole a car from a parking lot, drove off and crashed the car.  The thief was killed in the accident but his family sued the parking lot owner for making it too easy to steal a car from the lot.  Cases like these and many more across the country have all been made possible by attorneys obsessed with the desire for more money and a "win at any cost" attitude.

There is a recognized need for tort reform in this country, but I submit that it will never happen as long as the majority of elected leaders are lawyers.  The Plain Language in Government Communications Act needs to be re-written to require that all congressional bills are written in simple to understand english.  It has been promoted before that a so called "Good Faith Debate" requirement be added to the bill that would require all bills be posted on the internet in plain English for a specified amount of time before they can be voted on in congress.  We've heard politicians give "lip service" to transparency before but have never seen actually seen it happen, and I don't believe we ever will as long as the place is dominated by career politicians and lawyers.  Yet we Americans continue to elect these same people to represent us in the halls of congress and trust them with the future of a nation.  Maybe it's time we began looking for a different kind of leader to do the job.

When it comes time to vote in the next election, I encourage everyone from all sides of the political spectrum to select people who do not have a law degree.  We've had enough of people with a "win at all cost" attitude who are willing to take whatever side or position that benefits them the most.  We need people who actually know what it's like to make a payroll or balance a budget with limited funds.  It's time to send some people to Washington who understand what it's like dealing with all the regulations created by other people.  A college education is a fine thing, but maybe a person who works in a factory might do a better job in congress than someone who went to Harvard or Yale.  It's hard to imagine that anyone could do worse. 

“Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day…” Barack Obama’s inaugural address, January 20, 2009.

It’s not likely that anyone from the White House will read this, or take suggestions, but I have a few random thoughts on this.

I don’t think North Korea should get $98 million to help persuade Kim Jong-il to give up nuclear weapons, and we might want to worry about our own borders before we send $500,000 to Libya to help them secure theirs. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez was recently at the United Nations telling everyone how great his country is doing under socialism, so maybe they don’t need the $6 million the state department wants to send there to promote “civil society.”

The City of New York celebrated communism on Wednesday night. Red and yellow lights shone from the top of the Empire State Building in tribute to the 60^th anniversary of China’s communist government. The building is routinely lit with different colors to mark holidays and special events, such as the Fourth of July and St. Patrick’s Day, but maybe we should limit that honor to American holidays and events. Building manager Joseph Bellina called the lights a “high honor” and Chinese Consul General Peng Keyu, who flipped the switch on the lighting, said he was "honored and delighted."

I’m guessing that this wasn’t the only time the Chinese have recently been “honored and delighted”. Just last week another celebration honoring the 60^th Anniversary of the communist government in China was held in Washington D.C, right across the street from the White House.

It is interesting to note that this public relations coup we have handed the Chinese also marks another anniversary. It was 20 years ago this year that the Chinese military crushed a student-led movement in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

No news yet on Chinese plans to honor America on the 4^th of July in Beijing.