Who is really in charge of the government?

Answer 1

Rumsfeld and Cheney are running the show in Washington

In 1969, when Rumsfeld was Nixon's Secretary of State, Rumsfeld gave Cheney his first job in DC as his assistant. Ever since, those two have been running the show when a Republican is in the Oval Office. In 1975, when Rumsfeld and Cheney both were in the Ford Administration, they gave Bush SR his job as Director of the CIA.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/view/

Answer 2

As of today I would say the balance of power has shifted to the congress, which is wrong, they are all to be equal. Also there is the issue of corruption in congress by multi-term careerists.

The real problem in America today is stupidity, special interest and/or laziness of the voter. How does a person who takes bribes on video, laughs about the ineptness of the FBI and puts $100K in a freezer get elected 8 times? And then the Senate leaders yell and scream about separation of powers. Yes they are right, it is about their power and even if it is against the law, you will not thwart their power.

You have career politicians running the government, not citizen legislators. Many accuse the career corporate CEO of only working for themselves, not the stockholders. Career politicians are NO different and they seem to think they are above the law and expect preferential treatment. If the only issue to remaining in power is to obtain cash, buy some votes with special interests and have the media spotlight, then the incumbent has it easy, all at your expense.

In the Senate there are:
44 Dems averaging 20.8 years in Congress
55 Reps averaging 16.1 years in Congress

these numbers begin to make it look like career politicians are in control, who have lost touch with you the citizen and are more entrenched in their own careers.

For the Senate, if you were to use two terms or 12 years in Congress as a term limit
25 Dems would need to leave and 25 Reps would need to leave.
Those Dems are averaging 27.1 years in Congress
Those Reps averaging 24.0 years.

80% of Dems in the Senate have been there more than 12 years
58% of Repubs have.

46% of Dems in the House have been there more than 12 years
32% of Repubs have.

Ben Franklin said of congress, "They are of the People, and return again to mix with the People, having no more durable preeminence than the different Grains of Sand in an Hourglass. Such an Assembly cannot easily become dangerous to Liberty. They are the Servants of the People, sent together to do the People's Business, and promote the public Welfare; their Powers must be sufficient, or their Duties cannot be performed. They have no profitable Appointments, but a mere Payment of daily Wages, such as are scarcely equivalent to their Expences; so that, having no Chance for great Places, and enormous Salaries or Pensions, as in some Countries, there is no triguing or bribing for Elections"

If you like the current political system continue voting along partisan lines. If however you are tired of the corrupt ways of elections and would like to see Franklins words be true again, vote for change.

Our country is being run by career politicians who for the most part appear to have lost touch with what you want, and are focused on what they want.

You can change this NOW.
1. Quit your partisan sniping, it is childish and only serves to remove the focus from the real problem in America.
2. Enlist your friends and family in the fight and ask them, if they agree about Congress to do the same.
3. Vote against the person who has 12 or more combined years in Congress
4. This will require in many instances you having to vote for someone outside of your normal party, but you are a patriot and you can do what is right.

Show congress in this next election that we the people are running things in this country, not career politicians. And we are going to do what is right.

I will end now with a favorite quote of mine.

“If a legislator is "safe" from competition, or if he represents groups with the same economic and political beliefs, he does not have to change his ideas or respond to the needs of the broader population. He can rest content with a mediocre, absentee performance knowing he will be returned to office. And as he is returned year after year the seniority system gives him immense control over people from other parts of the country whose views he need not heed at all.” -Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Decisions for a Decade

Answer 3

Corporations

Answer 4

The very same organizations that brought the magic bullet to John F. Kennedy for wanting to get us out of Vietnam! And people still think one lone gunman did that!

Answer 5

Me....

Now watch the entire tax code go up in flames :)

Answer 6

The Almighty Dollah!!!

:(

Answer 7

THIS is who:

PNAC ( http://www.newamericancentury.org/... ), the Project for the New American Century is a Washington-based think tank created in 1997. They want the United States, by way of economic and military force, to bring the rest of the world under the umbrella of a new socio-economic Pax Americana. The New World order.

Vice President Dick Cheney is a founding member of PNAC, along with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is the ideological father of the group. Bruce Jackson, a PNAC director, served as a Pentagon official for Ronald Reagan before leaving government service to take a leading position with the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. William Kristol, famed conservative writer for the Weekly Standard, is also a co-founder of the group. The Weekly Standard is owned by Ruppert Murdoch, who also owns international media giant Fox News.

PNAC's ideology can be found in a White Paper produced in September of 2000 entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century."

According to PNAC, America must:
* Reposition PERMANANTLY based forces to Southern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East;
* Modernize U.S. forces, including enhancing our fighter aircraft, submarine and surface fleet capabilities;
* Develop and deploy a global missile defense system, and develop a strategic dominance of space;
* Control the "International Commons" of cyberspace;
* Increase defense spending to a minimum of 3.8 percent of gross domestic product, up from the 3 percent currently spent (which Bush has already done)

When Bush assumed the Presidency, the men who created and nurtured the imperial dreams of PNAC became the men who run the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the White House. On September 11th, when the Towers came down, these men saw their chance to turn their White Papers into substantive policy. On September 20th 2001, Bush released the "National Security Strategy of the United States of America." It is an ideological match to PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" report issued a year earlier. In many places, it uses exactly the same language to describe America's new place in the world.

Most ominously, this PNAC document described four "Core Missions" for the American military. The two central requirements are for American forces to "fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars," and to "perform the 'constabulary' duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical regions." In order to bring this plan to fruition, the military must fight these wars one way or the other to establish American dominance for all to see. According to the Washington Post and The Nation, the final slide of this presentation described "Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot, and Egypt as the prize" in a war that would purportedly be about ridding the world of terrorism. Bush has deployed massive forces into the Mideast region, while simultaneously engaging American forces in the Philippines and playing nuclear chicken with North Korea. The American people, anxiously awaiting some sort of exit plan after America defeats Iraq, will see too late that no exit is planned.

Our government has been financing research with Monsanto and Dupont to genitically alter seeds so they produce plants who's seeds will not germinte. This will force farmers/nations to rebuy seeds each year from whoever controls them.
( http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c... ) I believe they already have the patent, or are in the process of applying for it. Think of the implications, not only could we bomb the "f" out of you, but starve you too...until you comply.

Terrorism will INCREASE, and the coming wars will take millions of lives, but that is an acceptable sacrifice for them, as the world would be easier to control with a significantly smaller population.

Eventually, there WILL be American dissent; the citizens will attempt to rise up against the government that's been ripped from under us. That was what the "War on Terror" has really been all about: Constitutional changes that empower the Presidency, protect government from the people, and eliminate citizens rights, (Patriot Acts I & II, and last week's "torture" bill).

In preparation for what's to come, our civil rights, liberties, freedoms, guarantees of due process, and protections from unfair treatment by our own government have been severely diminished by the Patriot Acts. Last week's "torture" bill shifted some powers from Congress to the President, further empowering him. Together, both documents VAGUELY redefine "terrorist" to easily implicate ANY American citizen as a "potential terrorist" or "potential enemy combatant" simply by the words MISSING from the document, that would protect us from such. While all this had been loudly pointed out in Congress, the bill was still passed, as is.

Consider also, the true role of FEMA, according to the bill that created that agency. In a (very vaguely defined) "national emergency", they take FULL CONTROL of industry, transportation, wages, employment, can relocate populations, enforce forced citizen labor, money, credit, utilities, communication, media...they BECOME our goverment, and cannot be reviewed by Congess for at least 6 months.

PNAC wants American domination and control over every nation on our world. WE will be the cannon fodder. Our nation is quickly becoming militarized, and we no longer have a say in the matter. WE are "acceptable losses" in their game of greed and power.

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty"
Thomas Jefferson

Answer 8

Karl Rove.

Tom DeLay used to help but not anymore.

Answer 9

big business..corporations like phillip morris ..national rifle association... people like ted turner

Answer 10

corporations