The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Government, Pelosi-Style

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Q.  How many people does it take for President Obama to take part in the G20 summit?

A.  Almost 500.  Including senior officials, staff, support personnel , news reporters and some 200 Secret Service agents.  And let’s not leave behind the president’s new armored limousine and several presidential helicopters for those short jaunts.  How is this is being accomplished?  By using military aircraft, which is causing our military to hire more foreign contractors to help resupply U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.

One official said the problem was not only the vehicles and helicopters that were needed for presidential security, but also the unusually large number of people traveling with the president (which includes a team from the White House kitchen to prepare his food, a White House medical unit, and, of course, assistants that include a secretary, a press officer and several bodyguards for the First Lady). The official said U.S. taxpayers are paying twice for airlift, once for Air Force jets that are not available for a war zone and again for foreign contractor aircraft that are.

Q.  What’s the most effective way to get a criminal to squeal?

A.  Give them immunity, of course.  ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) has been giving illegal immigrants work visas in exchange for testimony against their employers.  At a hearing last Thursday, it was revealed by ICE director Marcy Forman they are targeting only businesses that exploit illegal immigrants with low pay and subject them to harsh working conditions.   “We’re seeing history here today,” Representative Harold Rogers said. “A new policy now says we will not raid or prosecute … an employer, so long as the employer does not exploit the worker. That is de facto amnesty. If you are treated fairly, we’re not going to prosecute,” Mr. Rogers said, who added that he was “disgusted.”

When Does It End? Part 2 of 2

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After posting Part 1 of this piece, I went about my day’s business.  Finally sitting down to watch the evening news I saw that 2 more people had gone on murderous rampages at opposite ends of the country.  One, a father who murdered his 5 children in Graham, Washington, the other a man in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who set up an ambush for the local police department, leaving 3 of them dead.

And a nation still reeling from the senseless slaughter of dreams of a better life in America in Binghamton, New York casts about clumsily trying to understand.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.  As noted in Part 1, what we are reaping are the consequences of a collective swing of the moral compass.  Once pointing figuratively to a rigid north and its iron-clad roles based on both gender and race, over the last 40 years it turned south and is now lodged there firmly.  But as we shed not only our clothes during that “summer of love” along with ideas about roles we knew weren’t in synch with the equality upon which this country was founded, we also tossed what I call the basics.  We grabbed our individuality like some brass ring on a merry-go-round but at the same time we let go of our personal responsibilities with regards to the expression of them.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  This is a basic law of physics and in terms of a human life it means that every action we take has a consequence.  Sometimes the consequence is intended, sometimes it is unexpected and then for better or for worse.  But just as we own our actions, we also own their consequences.  For example, if we work hard, we expect the result, the consequences, to be a comfortable retirement.  But if we choose to take some easy way out, to try to cheat the system, so to speak, then there is a chance the results, the consequences, will not be in our favor.  That’s called a risk, and as we’ve watched events unfold with the housing and banking industry and “toxic assets”, sometimes we lose.  And lose a lot.

But we still own it.  And we own the ripple effects of our choices as they impact others, creating situations like Binghamton and Graham and Pittsburgh and so many others.

I said that this Part 2 would address “how” we can save ourselves from the despair now gripping our nation.  So let us begin.

Step 1:  We must all, as individuals, accept that we, the people, own this whole, stinkin’ mess.  Understand that it is both our actions and our inactions, most of them the sum total of incalculable small ones, that put this country where it is today.  Today’s problems aren’t the banks’ fault, they aren’t “big bad” business’ fault, they aren’t the government’s fault.  They are our fault.  You.  Me.  Every single one of us.  We are the banks, we are “big bad” business, we are the government.  WE OWN THIS.

Step 2:  Take a good hard look at our assumptions.  It’s obvious that they, just like some 15% of Americans, aren’t working.  The biggest and most deadly assumption that I hear when talking to people is the faith put in our elected representatives.  The majority of the time it’s a blind faith since most couldn’t tell you who represents them in Congress if you dangled a hundred-dollar bill in front of them.  Most people have no idea what Congress does all day, unless they happen to catch a mainstream-media news story about it.  And even then they don’t understand the implications, nor how often other insidious amendments are buried in a particular bill.  They get it when it’s explained to them, however, and, interestingly, often don’t agree.

Step 3:  The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights are required reading.  It’s a fact of life that you can’t play any game if you don’t know the rules.  Like Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, said to Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”, “You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back….”  I can’t emphasize this enough.  These 2 documents are our power and they are the means by which we can right today’s wrongs.  They are, however, under unbelieveable assault every single day.  Proposed amendments to the Constitution are introduced in Congress on a regular basis but do nothing except chip away at our rights.  The truth is it ain’t broke, folks, and it don’t need any fixing.  Especially the kind of “fixes” currently on the table in Congress. 

What does need to change is our understanding of what these documents mean and that we, the people, actively exercise the rights given to us by them.  A look at these documents as they originated can be seen here; another good site is here.  To understand the intentions of the Founding Fathers when drafting the Constitution, it is also important to read what are called the “Federalist Papers“.  Despite all our technology, the basics of life today aren’t very different than they were 223 years ago; we must listen to these wise men as much today as did the early colonists.  Listen to them as if our very lives depended upon it because…they do.

Step 4:  We must all take the time to review the work our elected representatives – our employees – are doing.  Go to websites like thomas.gov and opencongress.org and look around.  Sure, bills are sometimes awkward to read, but I promise that you can get the gist of them.  See what your elected representatives – your employees – are introducing as legislation, what they are signing on to cosponsor (support), and how they are voting. 

Step 5:  Let your elected representatives – your employees – know what you think of their work.  Congress operates on the theory that no news from their constituents is good news.  They don’t want to hear they are going against the wishes of those who sent them to what they see as a cushy, power-tripped job but if we, the people, expect things to change, communicating with our elected representatives – our employees – is critical.  They must come to understand that they are being watched and that when they fail to protect this country and its citizens there are consequences.  This will only happen if we, the people, take the time to contact them.  You don’t have to write a novel, just a few short sentences about the issue will suffice.  When an issue is critical and time is of the essence, call their office and leave them a message. 

Step 6:  President Obama has promised the “most open and accessible administration in American history”, promised transparency, and says he wants to know what we, the people, are thinking.  TELL HIM.  If you are disgusted with his inability to select cabinet position nominees that are honest taxpayers or if you agree with his warnings to North Korea, let him know.  If you think his ideas about the national budget are wacked, if you think goverment shouldn’t be in the car business, tell him.  While it may come as a surprise to some, Barack Obama is no one special and he is certainly not some Messiah.  He is just another American (giving him the benefit of the doubt for purposes of this example) who was selected to do a job in much the same way that you and I are interviewed and hired for a position.  Like our Congress critters, the President of the United States works for us and he is responsible for upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.  (Remember Step 3?)  He is rather like the CEO of our corporation and as such is subject to review and given direction by the board of directors – we, the people.

Step 7:  Vote.  Vote in every election and learn to vote with your dollars.  Support ethical companies, whether they are media outlets or manufacturers.  Demand honesty from every business, from the worker bees to the boards of directors, and when it is not forthcoming, take your business elsewhere.  You are a stakeholder in every business and have a responsibility to hold them accountable so let them know why you choose to do your business with them or why you choose to do your business elsewhere. 

Step 8:  Understand how your money is being used or abused.  This is closely related to Step 7, but bears addressing on its own.  Most of us have investments, be it mutual funds, 401ks, or a retirement plan, and I venture to guess that most of us have no idea how those funds are invested.  We hand over our money and let someone else decide what’s going to make our nest egg grow.  Yet there are often companies in the mix who do not operate ethically or honestly and, personally, I do not want to support them and neither should you.  Let me give you an example. Your neighbor, someone who has become a very good friend over the years, someone you consider “family”, is let go from their job after 20-odd years.  They are a good person, a responsible person, living within their means and often working on salary more than 40 hours a week because they believe in their employer and believe it’s the right thing to do.  You’d be upset right along with them, wouldn’t you?  You’d be even more upset when you discover that the company made almost $2 billion in net profit that quarter, and your friend’s firing is solely to make the numbers “look good” for the next quarter, wouldn’t you?  How about if you learned that the company’s CEO and other top executives are due five-figure bonuses at the end of the year if they make those nefarious “numbers” but the workers, the people who do the “grunt work” that creates the company’s ability to sell goods and services and thereby be profitable, won’t see a penny?  And what if you learn those “grunt workers” take a pay cut along the way, too, and there is no intention by the CEO or executives to give any of it back?

It’s a disgusting scenario but it happens more than you think.  And the reason it happens is so that those dividend checks can have one more penny per share.  This is where the problems with our moral compass are most clear, at least to me, so I have to ask:  is it worth it?  Would you willingly destroy the lives of others, some of those people your neighbors and your friends, just to get one more penny in dividends?

I’ve posed this question to numerous people and the answer is always “no”.  So what is the answer?

Step 8:  Exercise your rights as a shareholder.  Read the annual reports of the companies where your money is invested and read them with an eye towards honesty and fairness.  (You can get the list of your mix from your brokerage firm.)  Certainly, those who take the most risk are entitled to reap the most reward, however, every business has both shareholders and stakeholders.  Employees, whether or not they own stock, are stakeholders, and as such must be taken care of the same as shareholders who get dividends because the reality is that it is the good employees, the “best and brightest”, who make a company successful.  The role of the CEO and executives is to be the “public face” of a company and in big companies they have very little knowledge – if any, since the job of CEO isn’t necessarily industry-specific any more – about what it takes to do the work required on a daily basis to successfully meet the company’s contracts.  Executive compensation, whether excessive or not, is set down in black and white and if you disagree with the way a company is run, especially those taking money out of the pockets of some employees simply in order to line the pockets of other employees, tell the board of directors.  It is their job to set things like executive compensation and they will do whatever they think is best – which is most often decided inside some kind of bubble because they never hear from individual shareholders.

When you get a proxy statement from a company in which you’ve invested, read it carefully and don’t let someone else cast it for you.  Take some time to learn about who is on the board of directors, who is being proposed to serve on it, understand any issues being presented, and send the proxy back by the deadline.  This is your ability to have a say in how the company is being run, a right given to you when you bought stock, so in the same way you must vote for representation and vote with your dollars, so, too, must you exercise your right as a shareholder and take care of your employees.  It is perhaps the simplest way to put honesty back in big business and negates the need to lose money through unionization.

Step 9:  Talk to people.  Discuss issues like responsibility and honesty and ethics, and encourage others to see they do hold the power to effect change.  Your awareness of our rights and the issues we face, your willingness to do what is right every day, to accept your responsibilities both personal and civic, are a lesson, an example. 

In the end, problems like the despair that is setting off murderous rampages aren’t about anyone versus anyone else, they aren’t about lunatics or guns, they are about us being in this mess together.  Together we must find our way out of them by each of us, as individuals, going back to basics.  That is where we will find real change and it is the only source of real hope.

When Does It End? Part 1 of 2

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The news yesterday was filled with up-to-the-minute reports about the tragic shooting in Binghamton, New York that ended with 14 people shot to death, including the apparent suicide of the gunman.  Certainly, this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened; the list includes 3 senseless “killing sprees” last month alone.

Such actions by those who, for all intents and purposes, look like a regular person, just like our friends, neighbors – just like us – becomes fodder for tabloid speculation.  What causes someone to open the door to that secret, inner place that would allow fellow humans to be hated so much that they become expendable things?  Just what kind of pain do such actions attempt to assuage?

The truth is that we will never know.  There have always been those whom we would define as mentally ill, there have always been those who become addicted to things that alter the brain’s chemistry and allow for the loosening of behavioral regulators.  And the truth is that each of us is closer to this kind of “snapping” than we would ever admit.

Despair always plays a large part in the course of human events.  For to reach the point of feeling utterly hopeless and unable to alter one’s circumstances can be met with only resignation or anger.  I will argue that neither one is, in and of itself, a bad thing.  There are times in our lives when we must meet our circumstances with resignation for there are things we cannot change, such as the death of a loved one.  There are also times when we must become angry.  A deep and righteous anger against tyranny is what founded this country.

In a news conference about the Binghamton shootings, New York Governor David Patterson voiced despair when he said, “When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can’t even keep track of the incidents?”

The answer, Governor Patterson, is never.  As long as there are humans living in groups, in the same way that there will always be prayer in schools as long as there are tests, there will always be sporadic outbreaks of violence.  It is the nature of the beast, and as such, something over which we – the collective – really have no control.  We must resign ourselves to the fact that we are one with Nature, a part of the circle of life, and subject to the same overriding rule of the survival of the fittest.  The only difference between humans and other species is that we have tools that make inflicting deadly harm on one another much easier.

But that doesn’t put the anger of despair out of the picture.  It is possible to address the circumstances that breed this kind of tragic action in response to despair, however, anger used simply in retaliation has never worked to solve anything.  Knee-jerk reactions like banning guns, banning immigrants, or banning bonuses for that matter, is not the answer for the roots of the problem go much, much deeper, reaching right down into the collective mindset of American society.

It is this mindset that must be addressed but it can only be addressed at the level of the individual.  It requires a collective awakening to the loss of basic values then those values must be recouped by individual action.  You simply cannot legislate morality, despite the administration’s misguided attempts to do so as evidenced by the recent passing of legislation enhancing the “opportunity for “national service”.  Personal goodness and actions consistent with the definitions of morals and ethics in behaviors all begin at home.  They are learned from our parents, from our extended families, from our neighbors.  They are reinforced by ethical and moral teachers, business owners, and others with whom we interact.  Religion plays a part, but the ability to recite chapter and verse from some ancient book is not necessary to know that treating others fairly creates a world that contains more harmony than discord.

Life is all about choices, and I believe that too many people forget that regardless what happens, they always have a choice.  We may choose to hand over our power to another person, but we can always make the choice to take it back.  There are rules of engagement for everything we do, and though sometimes they may not seem very clear, they are there and we have the ability to learn them and to use them.  If we so choose.

I’ve noticed, for whatever it may be worth, that many of the people “snapping” are those who were raised during or after that pendulum swing to “anything goes” that took hold in the late 1960s.  Manifestation of the 60s ideologies of equality and sharing were long overdue, to be sure, but in the giddy aftermath of reaching them what can be termed blind liberalism resulted in a generations that have been raised with few, if any, real ethical or moral boundaries.  Too much indulgence awarding a shameless materialistic mentality is now manifesting in an entitlement mentality as the reality, the natural law, if you will, that equal opportunity does not guarantee equal results continues to hold sway.

Without a strong moral compass, as it has been lately labeled, without an understanding of what it really means to live freely, we find ourselves staring at these blood-spattered messes, looking for someone to save us from ourselves.  There are those, like the President and so many in Congress, who are more than happy to take our individual power and the rights inherent in them and use them for their own purposes.  And they are doing just that – enslaving multiple future generations to a life beholden to paying off debts we cannot afford.  They are willing to sell off America and her sovereignty to the rest of the world as an apology for the success of the truths upon which this country was founded, willing to extinguish the beacon of the light of Liberty to pacify some false, unnatural belief in entitlement.

This is wrong.  No one can save us from ourselves but us.  I grant you that the results of our placing our power and our faith in the hands of those who fail to see the beautiful truths contained in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and who refuse to uphold them is cause for despair.  But I say that we can no longer afford to indulge in the resignation of despair.  We must move to tightly grasp and then to act with the same righteous anger that moved the Founding Fathers to throw off the shackles of European monarchal slavery.

How?  We have many choices.  We will explore them in Part 2.

Stupidity Vs. Common Sense

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“May the best man win.”  It’s heard all the time when humans decide to compete against one another.

But what does the “best” really mean?  When a test is applied equally, because of our individual strengths and weaknesses there will be winners who meet the criteria, and losers who do not.  But it apparently means nothing when it comes to racial quotas.  Despite situations where lowering the bar simply for the sake of “diversity” can have deadly consequences.

Watch this and weep.  It is a case where stupidity (in the form of fearing lawsuits) trumps common sense.

Get a grip, America.

Phone Sex For Journalists and Other Government Giggles

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Sending journalists to a phone sex outfit when they dial a phone number to connect to folks at the G20 meeting gives the administration’s claims of transparency a whole new meaning.  Of course, the administration once again demonstrates that caring about accuracy – especially in cases like this, when news needs to be reported – is something to be sarcastically dismissed.

There was better transparency in the administration’s warnings that this year’s budget was going to be “expensive”.  And though many of us told them we didn’t want it, both the House and Senate have gone ahead and put multi-trillion dollar deficit budget proposals on the table anyway.  Burying our nation’s as-yet-to-be-born grandchildren under an incomprehensible amount of debt.

This goes splendidly with today’s announcement that unemployment has reached 8.5% nationwide, the highest it has been since 1983 (when we had 23% less people living here).

But if Representative Jack Murtha has his way, that niggling little problem won’t affect some people.  He’s trying to score some $20 million in earmarks for current or former clients of PMA; included in the $134 million he’s earmarking overall. 

I had to laugh at an article about the still-undecided Senatorial election in Minnesota.  Politico reports that Democrats are loading their guns against Norm Coleman (R), on the chance he prevails and so adds another Republican voice in the Senate.  J.B. Poersch, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is quoted as saying, “These [several unresolved investigations] are really serious ethical issues, and the longer Republicans entangle themselves with someone like Coleman, the more damage he does to them.  We’re going to bring them up anyway, but they would be better off if he was out of the Senate.”

He could have been talking about almost anyone in Washington.  Exactly how do they manage to say such things with a straight face?

The New Democratic Math

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It’s no wonder the President and Democrats in Congress can’t come up with a balanced budget.  In their hazy world, they replace all a “1” with a “3”.

We’ve watched this “new math” play out through ACORN’s attempts at voter registration and the help they give their members navigate paying their mortgages, and in the way cabinet nominees to calculate the taxes they owe, then yesterday it was reported that Democratic campaign organizers proudly collected a very large number of signatures supporting the President’s budget.

Unfortunately, when you take a closer look, it turns out they made THREE COPIES of the documents they handed to Congress and added up the tnumber of signatures on all the copies to come up with their final, reported number.

There’s inflation for you.

Why Is Murtha Hiding Under Pelosi’s Skirt?

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That’s the question asked by Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ).  He’s raised a motion several times asking for an investigation into the correlation between campaign donations and earmarks, notably those concerning defense lobbyist organization PMA (raided by the FBI earlier this year).

Not surprisingly, his motions are inevitably tabled, silenced by the Democrats; though more and more “Blue Dogs” are going on record as agreeing that this is a matter worth consideration of the House Ethics Committee.

But House Speaker Pelosi seems to be keeping Representative John Murtha – poster child of PMA lobbying efforts – under her skirt…heh.  While it’s not her place to force an investigation, what with the incestuous relationships that now make up the administration, as an alleged “senior” member she can certainly make it known that investigating ties between lobbyists and earmarks is overdue and encourage Democrats to at least offer their own version of the Republican requests.

But then she’d have to lift her skirt and you can bet that Murtha’s “problems” won’t be the only thing found hiding there.

Enough Is Enough: Energy, ACORN & HR 1388, Tax Cheats & Illegals, And The Supreme Law of The Land

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It’s time to stop.  Just stop.

Every day we learn more and more about selfish idiocy that created the big problems directly affecting all of us.  The new administration has taken great advantage of the situation- taking control over things that are fundamentally and Constitutionally not their responsibility.  AND WE HAVE LET THEM.

Oh, sure, some people are speaking out, but this administration continues to call them names and make fun of them.  It seems that most of the population sits and stares stupidly at their dwindling 401k funds, wonders if they’ll be able to continue to pay their upside-down mortgage, then wonders if they’ll even have a job tomorrow.  Some sit there with their hands out, looking for Pater Obama to give them something for nothing.

In today’s news, it is being reported that Congress is unveiling their latest proposal for an “energy bill“.  Pay attention – it’s all about leading us into cap and trade and in the end raising the cost of EVERYTHING that we, the people, use – and eat – every single day.

Yesterday, the Department of Transportation released a report outlining new fuel economy standards.  These are on top of the increased fuel economy standards put in place in 2007.  So while on the one hand we bail out the auto companies and the President replaces CEOs, on the other hand they are adding inordinate costs to the auto makers.  Costs that the consumers will not recoup for some 8 years (if at all).  In effect, “President Barack Obama directed the Department of Transportation” to set the automakers up to fail.

Last Friday, the Senate killed an amendment to the National Service Act (H.R. 1388) that would exclude funding for ACORN.  Yes, ACORN will continue to reap massive financial benefits from the federal government, despite their never-ending illegal activities – ranging from outright voter registration fraud to breaking and entering.  Funny that you don’t hear very much about all this, isn’t it?  The more I read about them, the more I feel I need to go take a shower; it’s hard to understand why the media keeps ignoring tabloid-worthy after tabloid-worthy problem, though after all the campaign donations ACORN made, it’s easier to understand why Democrats simply deny it.

And in what is becoming old news, or perhaps simply business as usual in this new administration, yet another cabinet nominee, House and Human Services candidate Nancy Sebelius  is revealed to have somehow not paid all her taxes.  (Senator Grassley doesn’t think this is a big deal.  Please tell me that’s an April Fool’s Day joke.)  Just like all the other failed nominees, she is a poster child for the “rich” – the very same folks the administration asks to be “patriotic” by paying more taxes.  Congessional liberal leaders like Feinstein, Kennedy, Kerry, Kohl, Pelosi, Rockefellar are all mulitmillionaires, yet get their panties in a bunch about Wall Street bonuses and pass ex post facto laws to stop them.  While they and their Congress brethren hand out “traditional” bonuses – made up of our hard-earned tax dollars, of course – to their own employees.

We also have a little “human interest” story.  Another lawbreaker getting a break, and using the excuse of our administration-derided health care system as justification:

Barack Obama’s Kenyan aunt lost her bid for asylum more than four years ago, and a judge ordered her deported. Instead, Zeituni Onyango stayed, living for years in public housing.

Now, in a case that puts the president in a tough position both personally and politically, Onyango’s request is being reconsidered under a little-used provision in U.S. immigration rules that allows denied asylum claims to be reheard if applicants can show that something has changed to make them eligible.

Such as the ascension of her nephew to the presidency of the world’s most powerful country.

Onyango’s reasons for seeking asylum have not been made public, and her immigration hearing will be closed at her lawyer’s request.

Onyango’s lawyer, Margaret Wong, may also argue that she needs to stay in the United States for medical reasons. Onyango, who has been photographed walking with a cane, has some kind of a neurological problem, said Mike Rogers, Wong’s spokesman.

All these things upset me to no end.  But awareness is only the first step.  Action must be the second.  Honestly, folks, we don’t have to take this lying down.  There is power in numbers and it is imperative that everyone who cares about stopping the dangerous direction in which the administration is taking this country raise their voices in loud and insistent protest.

When was the last time you told your elected representatives to stop the bullshit…errrr…stop the madness?  If you need to find them, go here.  Tell them you’re tired of their hypocrisy.  Tell them you don’t want the government to be running the private sector.  (Put an “i” for “I won” in the word “run” and you get “ruin”.)  Tell them you don’t want bailouts and handouts.  Tell them you want less government, not more.  Tell them to get themselves out of the way of our Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms and allow capitalism and the free market to do what they have always done – help we, the people, create the opportunities to pursue our individual, unique happiness.

Frankly, all current government programs and most of its operations should be eliminated.  Collectively, our federal taxes should fund only the military and the national infrastructure.  Government’s only business is to oversee that we all play nicely in the sandbox together.  Private enterprise  is not the government’s business.  Government doesn’t belong in our factories, in our boardrooms or bedrooms, or on our car lots.  Government doesn’t exist to pay anyone’s medical bills or to insure they have a cell phone in their pocket.  If states or local municipalities want to fund such things, then let the people who make up that state or municipality pay for it.  Let them reap their own benefits but not subject the rest of us to the expense of their failures.  Simply put, this “minimalist’ government is what the Founding Fathers gave us in the Constitution.

Go back and read it.  The Constitution is the “supreme law of the land” and, as such, gives the federal government only the powers “necessary and proper” to:

  1. Collect taxes
  2. Regulate interstate commerce
  3. Coin money, regulate currency, set standards of weights and measures
  4. Declare war
  5. Raise and maintain an army and navy

It explicitly denies the federal government:

  1. The writ of habeas corpus cannot be suspended unless in cases of rebellion or invasion, when deemed necessary to national safety.
  2. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law can be passed.

Everything else falls to the states, per the 10th Amendment (“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”)  Such sovreignty was by design in order to avoid the problems inherent in a central, all-powerful seat of government.  (Think North Korea.  Think Venezuela.  Think Iran.)  The individual states, like the people of the United States, are to be seen and treated as equal but allowed to operate individually.

Note for the record that the taxes on AIG and other bailout bonuses can be interpreted as ex post facto law.  Meaning, they are passed and encompass something that has already occurred.  This would be similar to a state deciding to institute the death penalty and then executing people serving a life sentence for a crime that would fall under the new law without due process.

I don’t know if it’s ignorance or laziness or a combination of both that has put so much garbage into the American definition of government, but in the same way some shout that AIG and the auto companies should be allowed to go into bankruptcy, so, too, should our government be stripped down and reorganized.  The power, the control, must be returned to the people, to the states, but I fear wresting it from the smarmy, greedy hands that now sit in Congress and the White House will prove very, very difficult.  For to do this would require great courage in terms of personal responsibility.  We would each have to face our individual failures and unfortunately it is always so much easier to blame someone else than look in the mirror.

But if the buck doesn’t stop here, just where does it stop?

The Secret Tax (Popping The Cap Off Global Warming)

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It’s fun to speculate sometimes.  It’s often called “dreaming”.  I’m sure that most every one of us has, at various times, fantasized about what we’d do if we won the lottery.

But in the world of science, speculation has only a very small place.  It is the spark, the germ, the seed that spurs action to collect actual data, evidence, by using rigorous control to avoid swaying results towards a specific conclusion.

Unfortunately, when money is in bed with science such objectivity too often goes flying out the window, almost as fast as Pelosi and Reid slam the door on Republicans when they schedule a budget planning meeting.  The evidence is gathered with a prevailing eye on what supports the initial speculation, since the spark, the germ, the seed was only about finding a way to make money.

That, boys and girls, is the story of global warming.  It is a tale filled with misadventures, missteps, and downright stupid mistakes, but all used to support only a way that someone can make lots and lots of money.  There isn’t anything the least bit altruistic about it.

In a minority report from the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, it is becoming more and more clear that the ideology of global warming is misguided at best, and at worst a means of global entrapment for the benefit of only a few.  That the United Nations remains a big proponent leads me to believe it is mostly the latter, for who has more vested interest in world domination than the U.N.?  And who has been Al Gore’s staunchest ally in leading the hue and cry against the dangers of global warming except the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?

No one.  Until our President, Congress, and various members of the new administration bellied up to the old cap and trade bar and plunked down their money for a lottery ticket.  And though the numbers on their ticket don’t match the numbers displayed by those bouncing little ping-pong balls, they’re plotting and scheming to rig the machine to get the balls to drop in the order they desire.  They are, unfortunately, irritating our allies with their threats of economic penalties for those countries who won’t play along with their little get-rich scheme at the expense of the American taxpayers.  What it will also do is drive jobs overseas since the United States will no longer be competitive in the global market.  Something you might want to consider when you’re promising to “save or create 3.5 million jobs”, don’t you think?

It was a year ago that well-regarded scientists from around the world released what is called the “Manhattan Declaration”.  If you’ve never read it, it’s your lucky day for here it is in its entirety:

Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change
“Global warming” is not a global crisis

We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change,

Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method;

Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;

Recognising that the causes and extent of recently-observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed ‘consensus’ among climate experts are false;

Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change.  Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing human suffering;

Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder:

Hereby declare:

That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity’s real and serious problems.

That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.

That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.

That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation, and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.

That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.

Now, therefore, we recommend –

That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as “An Inconvenient Truth”.

That all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.

Agreed at New York, 4 March 2008.

It’s pretty plain English to me.  And if you do some simple research, their case is well-documented and well-supported.  No one is saying that humans don’t need to start cleaning up their collective act, our trashing of Mother Earth can’t go on forever.  But to use “junk science” as a way to create a real climate change – a climate of fear – so that people willingly go along with the destruction of their economy is not only unfair, but as hypocritical as all the carbon disgorged by the jets that fly Al Gore and others to meet face-to-face (instead of using cost-effective internet live-meeting technology) to weep and wail about “global warming” aka “climate change” aka “climate extremes”.  Trust me, the latest round of nasty weather in the Midwest is perfectly normal and you don’t define warming by posting the last frost date for this year (used by gardeners) as coming later than the last frost date of last year.

The mainstream media isn’t thrilled about reporting this.  But just because the mainstream media thinks that supporting the administration in this lunatic delusion will somehow curry favor that will keep them operating doesn’t change the facts.  In the most simple of terms:  global warming is not a threat.  It does not need to be addressed at this time.  And it certainly doesn’t need to be addressed by the economic suicide of cap and trade.  Think about this:  Control carbon and you control the very air we breathe.

I’ll leave you with this sobering excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:

Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing “polluters,” not workers. Hardly. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity — in this case the right to emit carbon — and then mandates that businesses buy it, the costs would inevitably be passed on to all consumers in the form of higher prices. Stating the obvious, Peter Orszag — now Mr. Obama’s budget director — told Congress last year that “Those price increases are essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program.”

That ought to put the frost on your cornflakes.

American Slavery In The 21st Century

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We all know that President Obama is real big on giving.  That is, of other people giving.  He merely sits back and basks in the warmth of the applause.  Or is that the warmth from the raised thermostat of the Orchid Office?

While watching television this evening, I saw an odd commerical.  It was for an organization called “City Year”.  I decided to do some investigating because it smelled an awful lot like a candidate for funds set aside in the stimulus bill for the “civil service” touted in such flowery language by our Campaigner-in-Chief.

And sure enough, City Year is right in lockstep with Obama’s socialistic agenda.  Alan Khazei co-founded City Year in 1988 and served as its CEO until 2006.  Listed as a non-profit with the IRS (status obtained only within the last 2 years), its 2007 annual report shows net assets of $26,775,138.  It holds over $8 million in investments; and it answered “yes” on IRS form 990 to the question of whether the organization attempted “to influence national, state, or local legislation, including any attempt to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum” but, interestingly, no dollar amounts were included for “expenses paid or incurred in connection with the lobbying activities”.  It received government grants to the tune of some $5.6 million.

One thing always leads to another and so came a check into “bethechange.org”.  This little outfit bought the domain name on 1/11/08 but isn’t listed with the IRS as a non-profit.  It, too, touts Alan Khazei as its founder and CEO and its basic goals are the same as City Year.

All of this ties back to AmeriCorps, which was the subject of much debate as the “GIVE act” wound its way through Congress with a price tag of some $6 billion over 5 years.  While one nefarious inclusion – that of “mandatory service” was removed from the “GIVE act”, it is instead now part of HR 1444, which includes studying (in part), “The effect on the Nation, on those who serve, and on the families of those who serve, if all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were required to perform a certain amount of national service.”

Now, I’ve nothing against people volunteering to help other people.  It’s part of what makes this country great.  And I put a good thousand volunteer hours myself every year.  But paying people to volunteer?  That negates the definition of the word.  And the government paying people to volunteer?  The government then defining the recipients of the altruistic impulses of its citizens?  Good deeds or no good deeds, the whole thing smells a little fishy to me.

In the end, it’s always a matter of following the money.  In this case, the nice salaries that people like, for example, Alan Khazei collect by sitting on the boards of a non-profit – $315,500 from City Year in 2007.  (He also serves on the boards of Citizen Schools, Harvard Alumni Association, New Profit, Inc., Share Our Strength, and on the Advisory Board of America’s Promise, the Partnership for Public Service, and the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, though from what I can tell, without pay.)

So let’s go snooping around a little more.  AmeriCorps has burgeoned since former President Bill Clinton penned it into existence in 1993, and while it includes generally-lauded programs like Habitat for Humanity and the Scouting programs, it also funds City Year and Citizens Schools.  It is run by the Corporation for National and Community Service, and in a 2004 longitudinal study (updated in 2007) they commissioned to measure the impact of AmeriCorps, it was determined that “there are no statistically significant effects of participation on education or teamwork and other life skills behavior outcomes.”  Nor does participation have “significant impacts on measures of educational attitudes or degree attainment”.

In other words, while people helping people is a good thing, having the government control the volunteering of young people and having the oxymoron of the government paying for it is a waste of the taxpayer’s money.  Of course, paying below-poverty wages to people so they can perform “volunteer work” for federal, state, or local government agencies (yes, some assignments are to do government work) is good business for the government but the government does not exist to be in business in the private sector (Tim Geithner’s misplaced wishes to control “threats” to the economy aside). 

This is just plain and simple badness and money that this country can ill afford to spend.  People will help people – that is the American way.  Legitimate non-profit organizations that serve legitimate purposes do not need government handouts to be successful. 

Besides, whose job is it, really, to instill values, such as helping others, in our young people?  I do not believe it is, in any way, a function of government.  The job of instilling values belongs to parents.  And I don’t mean Pater Obama.

There still remains the more serious matter of the 13th Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

While this administration’s mad dash to replicate itself like some rogue cancer virus is frustrating, to find we are staring at yet another and decidedly direct assault on the Constitution as stated in HR 1444  is utterly infuriating.  Wonder what Representative John Conyers, Jr, chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary and sponsor of HR 40 (reparation proposals for African-Americans) thinks about involuntary servitude? 

In the case United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931 (1988), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Thirteenth Amendment did not prohibit compulsion of servitude through psychological coercion but “victim’s vulnerabilities are relevant in determining whether the physical or legal coercion or threats thereof could plausibly have compelled the victim to serve.”  Yet one item in HR 1444 states, “(8) The means to develop awareness of national service and volunteer opportunities at a young age by creating, expanding, and promoting service options for primary and secondary school students and by raising awareness of existing incentives.”  Think that might be something you’d call “psychological coercion”?

Referencing the same case, the U.S. Department of Justice clearly spells out, besides peonage (“debt servitude”) and involuntary servitude, what is considered the coercion of forced labor:

Whoever knowingly provides or obtains the labor or services of a person–

(1) by threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against, that person or another person;
(2) by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or
(3) by means of the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process

I believe it to be quite clear that HR 1444’s sponsor James McDermott, and co-sponsors Patrick Kennedy, Dutch Ruppersberger, Christopher Van Hollen, James Moran should all be called out as traitors.  By introducing this legislation they fail to act in the best interests of their constituents by upholding the 13th Amendment as it clearly states is their responsibility, and in turn they betray this nation.  Any other Congress critter who goes along with it should be considered a traitor as well.  This country was founded by those who knew full well the evils of servitude both literal and figurative, and we, the people, have continued to work towards removing it as we have grown as a nation.  To even consider undoing this critical freedom, regardless the flowery phrases used to clothe it in some maniacal distortion of definitions of goodwill, is inexcusable.