The Midnight Ride of Greg Budell

This is a copy of my September magazine column, published by Life Publications in South Florida. The column runs under the title "Male Call"


“Listen my children and we shall tell
Of the midnight ride of Greg Budell..
‘The Congress is coming, the Congress is coming!”

I’ve had it.
But before you continue reading this, make sure I haven’t been added to the White House Magazine Czar’s list of terrorist writers. You might get in trouble!
On September 12, we will mark the 8 year anniversary of the last date America was a real country- a real nation, rising under one flag as one people, vowing to avenge the loss of 3000 citizens from a real terror attack. While we grieved the losses and donated generously to take care of the victim’s families, there was one silver lining visible in the clouds still hovering over lower Manhattan and the Pentagon the next day.
We were all on the same page.
Now, I am pulling out the tie-dyes and preparing to rough it for one weekend so I can help this country come to its senses.
I will be in Washington DC, dressed in a shirt bearing the words “Don’t tread on me” on this September 12th. I am hopeful I can’t get there, as millions of other similarly angry Americans clog the eastern seaboard to let the boneheads in DC know we’re invoking the mantra of Howard Beale- “we’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore!”.
I don’t blame Barack Obama. Or Barry Soetero, or whatever our President’s real name is. I don’t blame the bloated, silver-haired Congressmen and Senators who have held their positions with Papal longevity due to the lack of term limits. I don’t blame Republicans or Democrats for the mess we face.
I blame my industry- the media.
Freedom of the Press has been our great protector. I joined the media in the Watergate era, when Woodward and Bernstein christened true journalism. Their hard work unveiled the corruption and lies rampant withn the Nixon Administration, and their efforts brought Tricky DIcky’s day to it’s embarrassing conclusion.
Every succeeding President has been held accountable by a watchdog media. No President has spoken a word that was simply taken at face value. Accountability has been inevitable whether the name was Reagan, Clinton or Bush.
Those days are over.
Now, the very Constitution that guaranteed that freedom of press has been diminished to paper rolled around cardboard tubes in DC restrooms, and the media has taken this administration off, content to play along with the program.
The American people have become their own media, using the Internet to do what the networks and newspapers have stopped doing. Investigate. Inform. Interpret.
I think health care reform is long overdue, but I’ll be damned if I will sit in front of a government board begging for a colonoscopy. I’ll be damned if I’ll be putting solar panels on my roof to make my house eligible for resale under Cap and Trade (thank you Henry Waxmuseum!) rules. I’ll be further damned if my daughter’s generation will be saddled paying down a debt run up with “stimulus” spending that creates no jobs but spends millions on worthy projects like horse contraception (look it up!).
We’re being “served” (“screwed”) by elected officials who spend every waking moment looking for new ways to pick our pocket with taxes, and a government that wants to- as Nutsy Pelosi said- monitor and regulate every waking moment of our day.
What about you? This magazine is distributed to the most successful citizens in South Florida. The media has not been very kind to you, has it? Suddenly, it seems “wrong” to have accumulated wealth, to have achieved the American dream through hard work and determination. They want to spread your wealth around for you, when I’d bet you’ve been doing a fine job of that on your own- supporting local retailers, using local services and writing a check to buy t-shirts for the local soccer team.
I host a 2 hour talk show every day that is now heard throughout middle Alabama and all over the country on-line. You know who’s calling these days? The people that trusted. The people that trusted that their elected officials would be looking out for their best interests while they were busy working, raising families and becoming pillars of the community.
The most heart breaking calls though, come from the Greatest Generation. These are folks who survived the Great Depression, gave the best years of their lives to fighting World War II and returned to contribute to a new America- folks who worked 40 or more years, got a gold watch and expected to relax and live out their lives. They don’t understand what’s happening. They don’t understand why we’re apologizing to countries they helped to free.
As General Colin Powell said, all we asked for in return for those sacrifices was enough land to bury those heroes who would not be coming back.
Now, these folks, in their 80s, have watched their life savings wiped out by corrupt investment firms, and are advised by cretins like the tax-cheating punk ex-Congressman Tom Daschle telling them “buck up- and deal with the realities of aging” .
We owe them a better deal than that, don’t we? We owe our children a better future than enslavement to government debt so they too- like we did- can reach for the stars and go for the American Dream.
You may heartily disagree with the Patriots heading to DC on 9/12. That’s fine. I am going to protest so you can continue to disagree and I can continue to write the things you disagree with.
I’ll tell you about it in October’s Male Call, unless of course, the Magazine Czar says no.