A wake-up call: Do you get the feeling something terrible just happened in the USA?

Like so many in this great country of ours, I’ve been asleep at the wheel. Oh, I’ve been cognizant of the trials and tribulations of government at work but have not become as strong a voice and advocate for change as I should have.

Right now I feel like I have been awakened out of a deep slumber. The warning bells have been going off around me as I have witnessed the collapse of governmental sanity and responsibility. I will take the actions of our government in the past few months as the wake up call I should have heard long ago.

It is at this point I would like to suggest any left leaning, liberal or progressive follower of the present bunch of goons condoning the work of or the actions of the present administration, tune out… take a walk or go back to sleep. You will certainly not like my screed, my opinion or the words that are about to grace this article.

And to my fellow conservatives, middle of the road politicos, independents, moderates and those awakened by the same wake-up call, get this… I am really, really angry. In fact, I am actually stunned by something that happened recently, and it should have brought all of you to your feet with a rabid feeling of outrage and a sense of incredulity and even consternation.

We all know there have been many reasons for us to get angry, disillusioned, skeptical, concerned and activated as affected Americans.

The past three-plus years have been rife with missteps, misspeak and untruths. Promises broken and promises remitted. Hope and change was promised and is happening but it’s not what people expected. Transparency became lost in a maze of obfuscation, secret meetings behind locked doors and outright brazen prevarications.

So what was it that got my hair (what there is left of it) afire and caused me to heed ‘the wake up call’ of the day? A few months ago, the president signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act. Sounds innocuous enough and really reads like it is something the folk should be supportive of. Right? I would advise all caring Americans to check it out for themselves. Read it. That would certainly be doing something I’m sure not many of our lawmakers did. I’m often reminded about the Obamacare bill, all 2,500-plus pages of it, that happened to be voted on and passed without our paid representatives having read same. Transparency got lost again in the mass confusion of those paid representatives of ours.

My angst arises from an exchange that took place between Director of the FBI Robert Mueller and a House committee that was holding hearings on the FBI budget.

Part of the dialogue had to do with a question regarding the NDAA that allows for the killing of American citizens suspected to be terrorists. This is something that has certainly been done already but only on foreign soil. The question to the director was about whether the Act also covered the killing of suspected American terrorists ... on American soil. THE DIRECTOR DID NOT KNOW. HE DEFERRED TO THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. The Director of the FBI did not know. That is absolutely frightful. It terrifies me and has implications too horrible to imagine.

How could this ever get passed by a responsible Congress when they wrote the bill and even beyond that, how could the president of the United States sign a bill with such a declaration in it? What possibly could be the motive? Might be an interesting question for our two senators. Where were they? Watching our backs or scratching theirs?

And for all of you who gather on the left of the political aisle and have continued to read my screed, what say you? Probably doesn’t concern you since you must believe that killing squads within our country’s borders can’t be all bad. I haven’t heard anything about it from the mainstream media and we all know they are the watchdogs of society. Right?

I feel there are just too many strange things going on in America that need answers or better yet needs different management at the top.

In fact, and this may arouse those that don’t really care about the everyday workings of America, but Secretary of Defense Panetta, testifying before Congress, got the attention of everyone in the hearing by stating that in the event of any proposed conflict, it is the policy of the present administration that the United States must first get the permission of the International community before they can act. Did you understand that? Before the secretary of defense or the president even considers going to Congress, they would have to get the permission of what? The UN? Then, after the fact, go to Congress for permission!

Smell anything yet? Hear the alarm on your wake-up call?

And before anyone gets their shorts in a wad, check it out for yourselves. Don’t listen to me. I only bring these egregious acts to your attention. Now it’s up to you.

You can either wake up, stand up for what is right or just crawl back into your cocoon. No pressure. Right?

Gerald Molen, of Bigfork, is a longtime Hollywood producer and worked on such films as “Schindler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” “Twister,” and “Minority Report.”