Stephen Colbert's Congressional Testimony

NRAMARINE said:

The word "citizen" these days is bull$#!+. A citizen is someone who takes an active part in the protection, and prosperity of their community. A citizen takes personal responsibility for maintaining the integrity of their nation, and upholding not only it's laws but also it's traditions and core values. Just being born here should not make you a citizen, a legal resident, but not a citizen. Why do we allow people to vote who have no interest in actually understanding the system? These people simply vote in whoever gives them icecream and welfare checks. The word citizen is a joke today. It used to mean something real. Now all it means is so called "entitlements".

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I totally agree with this statement.

I came to the United States when I was 18 months old in 1967 and have lived here in Colorado since then.
I finally decided to get my US citizenship a few years back because I was tired of all the political BS that seemed to be rearing its ugly head...more so than in years past.
It took me a total of 10 months to go from sending in the application along with the fees to getting sworn in and handing in my 'green card' for a US Naturalization one. It was one of the best days of my life.
The main reason was because I wanted to vote.
I was finally angry enough with the current political arena in DC to get off my ass and do it.
I did all my schooling here in CO, went to college here in CO and started working when I was 15 while finishing school.
Although I have not have had the privilege of serving in the Armed Forces, I consider myself a true patriot.
Someone who loves his country and would do anything to protect it, including giving his life.
I believe that the system we have in place for US citizenship is way too easy.
Wait X amount of years, get married to someone and wait X amount of years, take an extremely easy test, write something like 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' on a piece of paper and you're done......
As long as you're not a total tool, you're pretty much in.

Ok, I am off of my soap box....for the moment.

Stay safe everyone, and NEVER give up.....EVER.

NRAMARINE said:

The word "citizen" these days is bull$#!+. A citizen is someone who takes an active part in the protection, and prosperity of their community. A citizen takes personal responsibility for maintaining the integrity of their nation, and upholding not only it's laws but also it's traditions and core values.

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I don't know - it sure seems like you've watched Starship Troopers one too many times, if you really think that's how you define what a "citizen" is. In the film, they define the word "citizen" basically the same way that you did. Of course, the whole point of the film was that their society was a fascist one (the underlying theme is basically "what would happen if a group like the Nazis had won and fascism had taken over.")

NRAMARINE said:

Just being born here should not make you a citizen, a legal resident, but not a citizen.

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Take it up with the founding fathers. Imposing arbitrary rules in order to dictate who gets to vote and who does not is a slippery slope. I wonder how gung-ho you would be about the idea if the criteria they set forth meant that you could no longer vote...

But of course, the people who suggest these sorts of changes never consider that when spouting off about how people who disagree with them (or don't meet their arbitrary criteria) shouldn't be allowed to vote.

NRAMARINE said:

Why do we allow people to vote who have no interest in actually understanding the system?

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Because it's in the constitution? As we like to point out to those who disregard our 2nd Amendment rights, the constitution is not a salad bar that you can can pick and choose from, accepting only the parts that we like/agree with.

Let's see, I don't think being fluent in the english language ( which all the ballots are in by the way) is arbitrary. Nor do I believe that asking someone to be able to hold a grasp of our system, that can be obtained in a highschool civics class, before they are allowed to make decisions that affect us all is arbitrary either. If you can pass the way too easy citizenship class, you already know more than the average democratic voter. Name the three branches of govt, explain briefly their responsibilities, and understand how the legislative process works. As for the constitution, here's a crazy idea......teach it in schools, and test them on it. Read the darn thing sometime, it's not too much to ask. Most people could probably read and understand it in the time it takes to read this blog. I say again a citizen takes personal responsibility for their community and nation. How can you do that if you have zero liability? If you have no skin in the game, you don't get to raise the stakes.

I served with an immigrant from Cuba. He floated over, went through all the BS, got his citizenship. The same day he walked into a recruiter's office and signed up. The ink was still wet on his paperwork. When his family asked him why he told them " This country gave us freedom, now I will do my part to ensure that freedom is still here for others willing to pay the price for it." That's a citizen. And a man I am proud to know and call my friend. He is currently serving in Afghanistan as a scout sniper in the USMC.

Ps "Starship Troopers" ? Never saw it. I am referring to the historical meaning of the word citizen. Y'know, Rome, Greece, USA pre 1900. Also the age to vote IMHO should be raised. Simply because as a society we tend to spoil our kids and they mature slower. Again, they don't understand responsibility, so they vote with their emotions and not their heads.

luv_jeeps said:

I totally agree with this statement.

I came to the United States when I was 18 months old in 1967 and have lived here in Colorado since then.
I finally decided to get my US citizenship a few years back because I was tired of all the political BS that seemed to be rearing its ugly head...more so than in years past.
It took me a total of 10 months to go from sending in the application along with the fees to getting sworn in and handing in my 'green card' for a US Naturalization one. It was one of the best days of my life.
The main reason was because I wanted to vote.
I was finally angry enough with the current political arena in DC to get off my ass and do it.
I did all my schooling here in CO, went to college here in CO and started working when I was 15 while finishing school.
Although I have not have had the privilege of serving in the Armed Forces, I consider myself a true patriot.
Someone who loves his country and would do anything to protect it, including giving his life.
I believe that the system we have in place for US citizenship is way too easy.
Wait X amount of years, get married to someone and wait X amount of years, take an extremely easy test, write something like 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' on a piece of paper and you're done......
As long as you're not a total tool, you're pretty much in.

Ok, I am off of my soap box....for the moment.

Stay safe everyone, and NEVER give up.....EVER.

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Glad to have you on board. Where did your parents immigrate from? My great great grand parents came over from Ireland just after the civil war.

NRAMARINE said:

Let's see, I don't think being fluent in the english language ( which all the ballots are in by the way) is arbitrary. Nor do I believe that asking someone to be able to hold a grasp of our system, that can be obtained in a highschool civics class, before they are allowed to make decisions that affect us all is arbitrary either.

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Then you clearly don't understand the document that you supposedly swore to defend. You don't get to decide who does and does not get to vote, nor do you get to decide who is considered a "citizen" as opposed to a "legal resident." :banghead: The right to vote is granted to all US citizens who are of age (with some exceptions, of course, which I don't necessarily agree with.)

The fact of the matter is, a stupid person's vote counts just as much as an intelligent person's does. The dirt-poor person living in the sticks's vote counts just as much as the rich person living in a big city's vote does. This is how the founding fathers wanted it and that is how it is. No amount of vitriol or whining will change that. You may not agree with it, but then again, that really doesn't matter. Again, the Constitution is not a salad bar that you can pick and choose from.

Choosing who gets to enjoy the right to vote based on arbitrary (yes, arbitrary) criteria (like whether or not they've served in the military, or whether or not they agree with your political ideals, or even whether or not they speak fluent English) is un-American and goes against everything our founding fathers fought for. A natural born citizen is just that, regardless of what you think or want.

I'm not intereted in getting into a heated back-and-forth with someone who clearly picks and chooses what parts of the Constitution he thinks should be adhered to, so I will leave it to you to have the last word, just as I would with an anti-2nd Amendment poster.

LV XD9 said:

I don't know - it sure seems like you've watched Starship Troopers one too many times, if you really think that's how you define what a "citizen" is. In the film, they define the word "citizen" basically the same way that you did. Of course, the whole point of the film was that their society was a fascist one (the underlying theme is basically "what would happen if a group like the Nazis had won and fascism had taken over.")

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WRONG, WRONG WRONG!!! that movie was a gross perversion of Starship Troopers by R Heinlein. the society was not about fascism, was not fascist, it was libertarian! the book was written as a counter to the anti-defense mentality that was happening in the 50s and was to showcase a free society that was heavily militarized and armed. And the part about citizen vs civilian was to highlight that those who are not willing to defend themselves and more importantly society should not make societal decisions. This was countered though with the fact that citizenship was only earned after LEAVING the armed service. Sorry if I'm coming across harsh, but that movie and many things surrounding it irritate me highly.

Daylen said:

WRONG, WRONG WRONG!!!

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Oh, well I guess if you put it in all caps and repeat it three times, you must be right. Oh, wait... no, you're not.

Daylen said:

that movie was a gross perversion of Starship Troopers by R Heinlein. the society was not about fascism, was not fascist, it was libertarian! the book was written as a counter to the anti-defense mentality that was happening in the 50s and was to showcase a free society that was heavily militarized and armed. And the part about citizen vs civilian was to highlight that those who are not willing to defend themselves and more importantly society should not make societal decisions. This was countered though with the fact that citizenship was only earned after LEAVING the armed service. Sorry if I'm coming across harsh, but that movie and many things surrounding it irritate me highly.

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1. I was talking about the movie, not the book, which is why I said "watched Starship Troopers" and not "read Starship Troopers." The movie is far different from the book, as you should realize. Hell, Verhoeven didn't even finish reading the book.
2. The society in the movie most certainly was a fascist society. Verhoeven has said as much in both the commentary and also in other behind-the-scenes docs for the movie. You may have missed it (although how you could have missed the obvious SS uniform that NPH is wearing by the end of the film, I'll never know,) but it was there if you're paying close enough attention.
3. Verhoeven has flat-out stated that the society in the film is what he envisioned a society would be like if a Nazi-like regime had won and taken over. Just because you didn't get what he was trying to show/say in the film, does not mean that the message wasn't there. Don't believe me? Watch the film with the director's commentary. Or don't. I really couldn't care less.

Alright, the movie sucked and was a gross perversion of both the book and the American Way.

Now that that's agreed on, can we get back to the illegal workers stealing jobs we don't want? Why, I ask myself, don't the millions of unemployed across this nation move to these states and push these workers out of the country by demanding these jobs? It worked in the Great Depression, I hear. Of course, dust bowl farmers didn't get near the level of subsidies as today's unemployed.

Jack House said:

Freaking hilarious. :lol:

[video=youtube;k1T75jBYeCs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1T75jBYeCs[/video]

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Colbert is funny on his show. Every other time I've seen him outside of his own forum he just kinda falls flat for me. I didn't think this performance was that great before congress.

Was it a waste of taxpayer money? Sure, but it's nothing compared to the trillions that've been wasted so far this year on far stupider and less entertaining things.