A Call To Arms On The War On Error

We need a new war. No, not with Iran. We need a new war, right here, in America.

We hear a lot about the War on Terror. In the name of the War on Terror any citizen, such as Jose Padilla, can be declared an "enemy combatant," tortured, and locked up indefinitely without any legal recourse and without the right to know the evidence used against him.

Using the War on Terror as a justification the administration slipped a little-noticed rider into a federal appropriations bill last fall. That rider voided the Posse Comitatus Act. This means the president, without congressional approval, can declare martial law at any time for any reason, even for a perceived possibility of a potential threat (the famous one per-cent doctrine).

Our phone calls, our e-mails, our snail mails are tapped. There is no privacy. RFIDs (radio frequency identification) have been embedded in products allowing others to trace our movements. Soon some states will have RFID drivers licenses so that every time someone goes through a tollbooth, cashes a check, or gets close enough to a scanner, the government will know just where you are.

Those are just some of the liberties Americans have given up in the name of the War on Terror.

But what about the War on Error? What have we done on that front? That's the real war we have to fight, right here, at home. And, every single one of us is a soldier.

We need a War on Error that looks extremely closely at any reasoning calling for war with Iran. We need a War on Error that looks coolly and dispassionately on sending more troops to Iraq while not having enough troops in Afghanistan. We need a War on Error to find out where, exactly, the money promised to New Orleans and surrounding areas went, and for what, and to whom, and when was it sent and why has so little been accomplished?

We need a War on Error on all of the candidates from both parties. We didn't elect them to run around the country, raise money and create sound bites. We elected them to stay in the House and the Senate and do their jobs: preventing further errors from happening and fixing the errors that exist.

I intend to be a one-person army. I have a few ideas. Here's my first plan of attack.

The election is 20 months away. Every day a soldier dies. Every day six other soldiers are wounded, some severely. Every day millions of dollars go down the drain. Every day our national deficit goes up and up while we sell off our independence to places like China.

I don't want to hear what candidates promise to do for me in 2008; I want to know what they did for me today. It's that simple: did they do their jobs today?

1. If contacted by a candidate or a national party for donations, tell them that you are not giving one red cent to people who are away from their elected posts this far from an election.

2. If contacted by mail, write that sentiment out on the card that they've so helpfully included in their postage-paid return envelope.

3. Do not go to the rallies, the speeches, the candidate appearances. Stay home. Remember - "Don't tell me what you'll do for me 2008, tell me what you did for me today."

4. Contact your own representatives, (especially your House rep who is up for re-election in 2008), and tell them that you will be scrutinizing their job performance quite closely. Make a special point of telling them that you'll be looking just as carefully at the times they did not cast a vote as those votes they did cast. Were they doing the job the were elected to do, or were they out stumping for a pal?

5. Tell all of them that the way to impress you is not to shake your hand or kiss your baby or make a speech; you intend to vote only for veterans of the War on Error.

Let them hear it loud and clear: if they want your money, your efforts as a volunteer, and especially if they want your vote, they'd better be marching in the Army of the War on Error. Double time.

Written by pinko