AWARENESS!

[SithLaird]

This is an e-mail floating around, and I thought it worthy of us as forumgoers to read this.

Tell me what you think, and whether or not you're now glad to be aware of this (or if you've already heard this speech before :) ) and/or whether you'd like to flame my butt off.

Have at thee!

Subject: You have to read this and send it on!!! Oh so true.. You may not like his politics but Rush hit this one on target 2day Love him or loath him, he nailed this one right on the head.............

I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving the country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just
don't criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I just can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a
family member in the September 11 attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.

If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable. Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are
the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.

Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.

We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to
that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.

You see where this is going, don't you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It's just really sad.
Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live
in low-rent housing. Make sense?

However, our own U.S. Congress just voted themselves a raise, and many of you don't know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month, and most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They also do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn't have to pay into the system.

If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, you may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed you in harm's way receive a pension of $15,000 per month.
I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.

"When do we finally do something about this?" If this doesn't seem fair to you, it is time to forward this to as many people as you can.If your interested there is more.......................

This must be a campaign issue in 2004. Keep it going. SOCIAL SECURITY: (This is worth the read. It's short and to the point.)

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during selection years. Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security. Many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no
congressperson has felt the need to change it. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die, except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their
wives may expect to draw $7,800,000 - that's Seven Million, Eight Hundred Thousand), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00. These little perks they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan.

The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Fund--our tax dollars at work! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into -- every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer) --we can expect to get an average $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. And that change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social
Security plan with the rest of us and then watch how fast they would fix it.

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will revolve. WE, each one of us... can make a difference..

How many people can YOU send this to?

By Rush Limbaugh

[Ted-Easton]

It may sound harsh, but why should the US government pay the victims of Sept.11 or Oklahoma at all?
Security agencies are constantly working to prevent such things (and they often do), but it's not the fault of the US government that they died.
It's impossible to monitor the movements of each and every citizen in the US, and even if it was tried, once the words "Big Brother" are said, everyone freaks.

[Alejandro1]

I'm very glad that someone posted this, and I can tell you now that Rush is completely right. Reading that, I'm shocked and appauled to see the disparity between what 9/11 families and dead soldier families get paid. And furthermore, wanting more money on top of the millions they've already gotten; that's terrible. Soldiers who fight in the front lines and take bullets only get a fraction of that. . . makes me sick.

The fact that the politicians set their own salaries just makes me want to vomit. Furthermore, those bastards set their own pensions and get out of social security payments; can't... hold... back.... gonna.... tosss... ittt.... allll... *falls over and vomits repeatedly on the ground*. It's time that the citizens... no wait, it's coming up again *leans over and vomits*. It's time that the citizens start an initiative to stop this madness.

[dudeitsallama]

Can we revolt now?

Okay, maybe that's a little extreme, but come on! The last time Americans revolted it was because they were being taxed on tea and stamps. It wasn't even a particularly high tax and the money went to help keep Britain together which was having financial problems after spending all of its money to protect us from the French and the Indians. Now, we're paying high taxes so the asshole politicians can give themselves raises and our soldiers can go die in the desert so the oil companies can get at that Iraqi oil.

And, it's not just the taxes. People suspected of terrorism are being deprived of their constitutional right to due process. People exercising their freedom of speech are being labeled as traitors. I'm not seriously calling for a revolt because things haven't gotten that bad yet, but something needs to be done. We didn't take it back then. Why are we taking it now?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present [Dictator] of [The United States of America] [George [II]] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

He has taken office by fraud and without the consent of the majority of the American people.

He has allowed the rich to remain so while the poor become poorer.

He has, without our consent, waged war against foreign peoples in our name.

He has deprived prisoners of their right to due process.

He has defiled the name of his country through his dealings with foreign powers.

He has ignored the democratic decisions of the United Nations.

He has spoken in favor of limiting the freedoms of speech.

For these grievances: let's dress like Indians, steal Bush's cocaine stash, and throw it in the ocean.

[Ted-Easton]

For the first time in history, I agree with dudeitsallama.

[dudeitsallama]

At 7/30/03 10:26 PM, Ted_Easton wrote: For the first time in history, I agree with dudeitsallama.

What have you stongly DISagreed with me about? I haven't noticed much.

[FUNKbrs]

Let us all unite and stamp out the evils of government and corporate corruption! We must make our great country stronger through new reforms and equality for every red blooded and patriotic American!

Man, I love propaganda.

oh, and I've always loved Rush Limbaugh.

[Commander-K25]

It's wrong to blame this on President Bush. These sort of "entitlements" are something the left has always lobbied and pressed for.

It is not the government's business to compensate people for tragedies. To put it bluntly, shit happens. Just because you've suffered does not mean that you're "entitled" to some sort of compensation. Unfortunantly, that's what we've been told for decades.

The current culture of entitlement/victomolgy is all about "nothing being your fault". Something bad happens? Then somebody must be to blame, somebody must owe you something.

[FlyingAce]

At 7/30/03 05:13 PM, Ted_Easton wrote: It may sound harsh, but why should the US government pay the victims of Sept.11 or Oklahoma at all?
Security agencies are constantly working to prevent such things (and they often do), but it's not the fault of the US government that they died.

Here here!

[Ted-Easton]

No, I'm not (and I don't think anyone else is, save dude may be- he's a little unclear on that) saying that we should be compensating the victims of sept.11.
It isn't the responsibility of the government to give you money every time something bad happens to you.

"I lost my dog." - $50
"My car broke down." - $250
"I stubbed my toe." - $5.....etc.
The above is the next step with the line of thinking that people should get compensation for their misfortunes.

And dude, I meant that I haven't always disagreed, but this is the first time you've said something that I agree with strongly.

[SithLaird]

I agree, compensation for being in the wrong place at the wrong time is rather stupid. After all, yer not supposed to be there when it happens, right?

But I think that this mostly just stems from the society of victims we're becoming. Everyone sues everyone else, and now life is just miserable. And the economy sucks to boot.

Oh yeah, and every time somebody says Big Brother I get the heebie-jeebies, the hair stands up on the back of my neck and does some PT, and I start getting pretty paranoid.

Black Helicopters, anyone?

[SithLaird]

VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

[dudeitsallama]

At 7/31/03 08:39 AM, Ted_Easton wrote: No, I'm not (and I don't think anyone else is, save dude may be- he's a little unclear on that) saying that we should be compensating the victims of sept.11.
It isn't the responsibility of the government to give you money every time something bad happens to you.

"I lost my dog." - $50
"My car broke down." - $250
"I stubbed my toe." - $5.....etc.
The above is the next step with the line of thinking that people should get compensation for their misfortunes.

And dude, I meant that I haven't always disagreed, but this is the first time you've said something that I agree with strongly.

I definitely don't think that people should be compensated for 9/11. At least not in amounts ranging in the millions. Maybe a card saying "sorry about your loss" and a few hundered to a thousand dollars. Tops. The only reason I think the families should get anything is that the government did have some information on the attack before it happened and did not act on it. There are hundreds people all over the world who lose their relatives in acts of terrorism or the acts of an oppressive dictator every day, and they don't get anything. It's unfortunate that so many people died on 9/11, but their families need to stop trying to cash in on their deaths.

As for the families of the soldiers who died, they should get MUCH, MUCH more than what they're getting. And that money should come out of the pockets of all the greedy politicians who sent those troops into Iraq to liberate the oil. I'm sick and tired of rich assholes getting richer from the suffering and deaths of good people.

[noalarms]

In Communist Russia, political opponants were executed, and the cost of the bullet was billed to their family. Just as capitalist America is the opposite extreme of this, so is this compensating for unpredictable, (almost) unpreventable occurances. The money is doing nothing to honour the dead. True, it may be helping to set straight lives thrown into turmoil after the event. But I agree entirely, it's not the government's place to do that job.

I also agree entirely that the pension scheme etc is entirely wrong and unjustified. However, its also not my place to give much of an opinion, as I'm English, and its not (or won't be) my taxes. But you got my sympathy, and I think a lot of problems like that should be addressed within the American government (and our own, I guess) before they feel they have any right to get involved in other countries' governmental affairs. Not that I'm fully against the war in Iraq, and not that any government will ever be perfectly run, but still. The blind leading the blind and all that.