My Presentation, Part 2.

Day 1,919, 21:05 Published in USA USA by Clint Carmel

As many of you loyal readers know, I have decided to run for Congress. There are quite a few reasons for this, and today I will be addressing those and explaining where I personally stand on the issues.

However, I must make two things clear at the start.

First, this will be my first term in office, and regardless of whatever horse-hockey I or any other candidate tells you to get your vote, the reality of the situation is I will completely lack seniority, and therefore most of my days will be spent fetching coffee for more senior congressman. This is called 'paying your dues,' and is a simple reality of politics. Which presumably explains the 'bacon' thread.

Secondly, I happen to be in the We The People Party, which I support very much as I happen to be a person and not a rock or tree; however the key principle behind this party is that there are many diverse opinions in it. A vote for We The People might be a vote for me or it might be a vote for Stanisha or Edu Kudame. Ultimately the order of the list is determined by PP Oblige.

Who, by the way, looks very handsome today.

All right, with that preamble out of the way, I will talk a bit about Congress, and my feelings on some issues.

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One area I feel very strongly about is Education. Here in Colorado we have some excellent training facilities, but they need to be improved. One of my goals in Congress is to enact legislation to allow newer citizens like myself to have access to educational funds to help us train and grow into the fine adults we should be. Certainly there always seems to be funds available for guns and food, but what about our minds and souls? And what about our college gyms? Those need more financing than us new citizens are getting.

It should be noted that I never ask anyone to do what I will not. As I believe in educations, and I am running for Congress, I have taken the liberty of studying our eConstitution. (Found at http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,3745.0.html ) I am sorry I never got to know Jasper Signa, but a big thank you to him for posting it.

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Another area I feel very strongly about is our Judicial system. Here in the eUSA we do not seem to have one, and I mean to change that. A government like ours is clearly not functioning well with just an Executive and Legislative pair or branches. We need a Judicial system to handle much of what is going on: as long as I have been here, I have been hearing stories of corruption and anarchy, of partisans here on false pretenses and of elitists draining our coffers.

I am very much a man of Law and Order, and I see no reason why we can't appoint some sort of Chief Justice in the same way as we appoint Ambassadors. There are many accusations going back and forth that are killing the morale of eUSA because new citizens like myself do not know what to believe. Whether trials take place on eusaforums or on #IRC, they can easily be adjudicated. (Translators will be provided as necessary.)

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I have been asked how I feel about taxes. This is a very touchy subject, and-- let's face it-- no one likes revenue agents. It would not matter if the tax was 1% or 50%, there are people who would object to it. As a new citizen earning a few measly dollars a day, I am sad to find a good 25% or so of my paycheck going to taxes. Especially as I don't get anything back.
Where is this money going? How is it being spent? One thing I plan on doing when I get to Washington is finding out some answers, and letting you all know. If I find that our taxes are being spent frivolously, I will be the first to request that they be lowered.

This is my first run for Congress, but I have worked at the local and state level, and one thing I have learned is that if you have to throw money at a problem, you'll already thrown your hands up and quit on finding a better solution.

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Immigration is another touchy subject. In one way I am for it, and in one way I am against it. This is not waffling, as there are two types of immigration, and I will talk about both.

First there is the type that most of you think of: someone is living in Mexico or Canada, and they cross the border and immigrate to the United States. For the moment, I am against this sort of immigration as the bulk of it appears to be partisans who truly do not have our best interest at heart. I am, however, quite good at dealing with things on a case-by-case basis and if someone from New Zealand, Great Britain, South Africa or Belize wants to come, pass the Citizenship test of being able to read, write and speak English and answer a history test of eUSA history, then they are free to come in.

All that, however is simply the first type of immigration. One area where I see many of you have not been diligent is in the second type of immigration: the birth of children who never existed before day 1920. As of today, I have brought into this world 10 such children, which to me is a far more important achievement than how strong I am.

I am all for this sort of 'e-baby' immigration, and I have created a presence around the web-- such as my Squidoo page-- that is meant to make eRepublik a safe, fun, and welcoming place. If every person reading this simply did the same, and brought in 1 more English-speaking person, we would suddenly have Yugoslavians only taking up 8% of our population. So before you blame anyone else-- be it RGR or someone from Kosovo or even someone in another political party-- ask yourself if you yourself have done enough to increase the amount of Americans in America.

It took me 10 minutes to call my (real life) brother Nevade Nick in Vermont on the phone and talk him through joining, and we got him up to speed in less than an hour. I'm not saying you need to run out and get 10 friends or family members, but surely everyone out there has at least one (1) person that finds you worthy of clicking buttons for an hour.

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Foreign Policy:

I have no opinion on any policy that took place before the administration of President Fingerguns. I wasn't here. It would be like having an opinion of V1 or Rising. Or having an opinion of World War 2 or the Civil War. We are in the place where we are at now, and there's no point in my blaming or praising others for this. I wasn't there, and because I wasn't around I simply feel it would be arrogant to talk about such matters.

However, you do have a right to know where I stand right now. Right now, I am an Ambassador working under Black Baroness. This has given me much knowledge I would not otherwise have gained; a simple glance at my friends and contacts list will show people from every country in the world on it.
I work for President Killah, and I feel he is doing an excellent job. It is why I am working for him. I only work for people I respect. Period.

If I did not approve of how the State Department was currently handling our foreign affairs, I would not be in it. I'm a grown man, and I will not feed any grudges or animosities of the past by saying "we should have allied with these guys 2 years ago but President so-and-so was wrong last year." That accomplishes nothing.

In general, our alliances should only have one goal: to increase the Manifest Destiny of the United States around the world. Any alliance or treaty that hampers expansion is bad; any that increase the amount of territory, supply centers, regions and so forth is good. Make peace with 68 countries and conquer 1. Then make peace with 67 countries and conquer 1. Then make peace with 66 countries and conquer 1. 70 battles later everyone is speaking English and it's all done and over with. Be in the game of war to win it all, or don't play and go home. There's no in-between. This is the Carmel Doctrine in a nutshell.

I take the longer, broader view of things. It might be day 2000 before some of this can be implemented, but with no vision and no plan, it will be day 3000 or day 4000 and we'd still be waffling between wars, alliances, and various other decisions.

-- I am Clint Carmel, and I approve this message.

PS I do enjoy BLTs. Why that is the #1 topic in Congress, I have no idea, but I'm all for bacon. Vote accordingly.