I dare you all to read this letter with an open mind. It was written and then read on the Glenn Beck show by a real American hero

I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?
Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:
One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.
Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.
Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!
Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.
Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Whywhat do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please tryplease stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.
I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.
From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.
We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.
Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Thank you so much for this report! I actually found myself having to really think about my feelings on the issue! It was well balanced and ethically provoking!

I see it like this: While not having many choices in life, homeless people have the choice to make money however they see fit.

Many homeless people don't beg for money because it's degrading--they recycle bottles. It's a personal-ethics question WHY they do it, but there shouldn't even be a question as to IF they should be able to do it.

This is news? This has been going on back when I worked in the House in the early 1990's and was reported in Roll Call.

Just another example of the lobbiests "using" the system. These guys have far too much influence in washington as it is, now they're too lazy to even wait in line to bribe their favorite politician.

I honestly believe that a complete and across the board ban on any and all professional lobbiests is long past due.

Who are our politicians working for, is it the people who elected them, or the people who fills their pockets, nevermind, we all already know the answer to that question.

The people who fill politicians pockets is us, by giving them an endless access to our government checkbook, an ever increasing personal department budget, lifetime health and retirement benefits and more.

Regarding the homeless, good for them, better to earn a living as a line holder than begging in front of a restaurant. "While many homeless are indeed needy, unfortunately, many more are there by choice. In my business I had access to national travel for 25 years, and also influence on job hiring in the cities I visited. Whenever I saw someone begging, I would chat with them, and then GUARANTEE them a job if they went to the address I put on the back of my business card the next morning. NOT ONE, in 25 years, took me up on my offer. That is okay, it is their choice, but I firmly believe in the "teach a man to fish rather than give a man a fish" life process.

As we turn our society more and more into a "daddy state", I say the only way to fix this is to fire those responsible. There are over 500 members of Congress, and I challenge you to fire your rep or Senator at the next election. If you think "yours" is a good guy, you are sadly mistaken.

This is still news? This has been going on since the 1990s. Staffers use to do this for extra money. They could get in the building before it was open to the public and be at the front of the line. Then the leadership got wind of it and ruled it an ethics violation and stopped them. Then the lobbyist turned to the homeless because would wait outside all night long.

JB
I can't blame the homeless. It's money for food I hope. My point is why don't those corporate big wigs stand in there own dam line.Instead of submitting a bill in congress, get the u.s. Employment people or the civil rights people to get a federal judge after them for not witholding income tax, S.S., city, county and state taxes and watch the bigwigs jump ship then. Of course they probably have a way around this all already.

I beg to differ, he is going to be significantly better than any Republican president in the last 40 years and probably all of the Democrats as well. Remember he has to reverse the tide that has taken the last 40-50 years building - it's ridiculous to think that he can do that in 100 days and it's ridiculous to think that he can even make a dent in it without getting the momentum on his side. That's where you and I come in - we voted for him now it's time to support him in turning this monstrous ship of state around.

We can do that by looking for the positive directions he is taking and supporting those and by raising opposition to those things that aren't in line with the way we think this nation should go. But to say that he is no better is a gross mistake and will not help you or anyone else in the end.

Yes We Can!

If I were a cynic after more than 20 years in DC, I'd think some masterful PR operative had come up with the idea of using the homeless to provide cover for an otherwise outrageous abuse of the spirit of democracy. But it's probably just another example of the free market at work.

I appreciate the sweetness of Jason's approach, but he was far too polite. Line standing is just another example of the Congress-for-hire phenomenon, no more nor no less egregious than the hundreds of millions of dollars in legalized bribes which our elected members accept every year.

Of course lobbyists won't stand in land in order to do the job for which they are getting paid hundreds of dollars an hour to do; they have less taxing schemes for racking up those billable hours.