Saturday, August 14, 2010

Think First

Before You Vote...
With the November elections coming quickly there are just a few things you need to do. When deciding which candidate, ask yourself these questions:

  • Is your candidate an incumbent?
  • Have they been in office more that two terms?
  • Are you happy with their voting record?
  • Did your candidate for for the Stimulus, ObamaCare or Cap & Trade?
  • Can we afford what they voted for?
  • Are you personally out of work?
  • Are you better off now than before the Democrats became the controlling party?
You get the idea. Start being a little more careful before pulling the voting lever. Don't vote for people who have put America so far in debt. You grand children will thank you!

Friday, August 13, 2010

What Checks and Balances?

Founders Words
Our greatest Founding Father, George Washington, understood the importance of the separation of powers. They provide the essential checks and balances in order to maintain equilibrium and a free state for all citizens. Here are his words on these thoughts:

"These powers [of the federal government] are so distributed among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches... that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people... It is provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction of tyranny... than any other government hitherto instituted among mortals."

and

"It is important... that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories and constituting each the guardian of the public Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transparent benefit which the use can at any time yield."

Where We Are Today
Over time America has allowed Congress, the courts, and the President to "acquire" powers never designated in the Constitution. These acquisitions have been over the past 100 years or so. Most of these "acquired powers" came in the form of seizure and not by Constitutional amendments or rule of law. This is wrong and today we are seeing the results of what happens when the checks and balances are removed from the equation. Our government is NOT representative of the people, by the people, or for the people. Instead, it is becoming the government of special interests like trade unions, and power mongers who are "ruling" America by ignoring the principles set forth in the Constitution.

Action To Take
It is clear that Americans need to take-back their individual freedoms and liberties by peaceful means. We must eliminate the corruption and power hungry members of both political parties before they completely destroy our country.

Vote-out any incumbent that has supported the crazy and irresponsible spending in Washington, DC in the November elections. We can correct the problem in the White House in 2012 the same way.

In the mean-time do NOT allow the lame duck members in Congress to continue with their process of "Fundamentally Changing America." Recall them or find reason to charge them with violations of office.

Don't Give Up The Ship! Fight Back and save YOUR country!!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Government Jobs too Pay Well!

The bureau of Economic Analysis just released information regarding compensation levels by industry. The significance of this information indicates bold facts that Obama and the Lame Stream media never tell you. Namely, the Federal Governmenet employees are doing extremely well while the rest of Americans are suffering. The private sector continues to struggle with record breaking unemployment and job losses of a collosal nature. Many Americans have taken pay cuts to keep their jobs and yet they continue to fund Federal employees with generous salaries and extravagant benefits during hard times. Why is this?

Average Wages
Let the numbers prove the point:

Federal Employees Continue to Prosper

Wages Plus benefits
The difference is even more noticeable when you include total compensation (benefits):


Ask yourself: Why this disparity? Do they deserve this in hard times? Shouldn't they cut back too?

Job Security


Ask yourself: Why do Federal Employees have better job security? How can they justify these numbers?

Quit Rate


Apparently Federal employees know they have it too good to quit.

Ask yourself: Why should we contimue to support this disparity with taxpayer's money? How can this administration justify thesenumbers? THEY CAN'T!!

BIG Government has to feel the BAD economy like we do. They need to cut-back salaries and experience more layoffs so we can get control over our national debt.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Congressional Reform Act?

Fixing Congress
There are a few good ideas circulating around the Internet. This one captures several thoughts on how to get rid of the corruption in Washington, DC.

With the midterm elections just around the corner, it is imperative that YOU make the right choices. You need to determine if the candidates you vote for would be willing to support these initiatives BEFORE you vote them into office. Ask candidates in a public forum whether they would support these initiatives or not. If they do, get them to put their pledge in writing.

Term Limits for ALL Congressmen & Their Aids - A maximum of 12 years, as follows:
  • Two, Six-year Senate terms
  • or
  • Six, Two-year House terms
  • or
  • One, Six-year Senate term and three, Two-Year House terms
There should be no exceptions and no one is grandfathered. If present candidates have served longer than the prescribed times, they are done at the end of their term with no pensions.

No Tenure/No Pension -- A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no government pay when they are out of office.

Social Security -- Congress must participate in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

Retirement Plan -- Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. They get NONE from their government service.

Pay Raises -- Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will be based on merit and decided by the taxpayers every 6 years.

Healthcare -- Congress must participate in the same health care system as the American people. If ObamaCare is not repealed, they must participate in it. If it is repealed, they can choose their own private healthcare coverage.

Lobbyists -- Lobbying will be an ILLEGAL felony punishable by 10 years in prison. 20 years if committed by a former Senator or House Representative.

Campaign Finance -- Political campaign funding shall not exceed $1,000 from any individual, union, organization, corporation, or political entity. Violations will be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison.

Serving in Congress is an honor not, a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serving their term(s), then going home and back to work.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

DEMs Won't Admit It

Progressives Admit Failure? Never
It's a fact that the Democrats/Progressives (party in control) will not admit that the Obama Stimulus plan (sometimes called "Obamanomics") is a failed economic policy. Reason: It's too close to the midterm elections to admit failure. Actually, Progressives NEVER admit their failures. (But some are smart enough to be distancing themselves from the President).

However, taxpayers are well aware that the Stimulus plan has proven to be an extraordinary waste of their borrowed money. It is a true Colossal Blunder! Regrettably, it has failed miserably to create the jobs Obama promised and it hasn't generated any economic growth-just the opposite. That's no wonder because it was written by the Apollo Alliance (not Congress) and former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, a professed Communist and Jeff Jones, former Weather Underground Radical. The monies were squandered to special interest groups instead of creating jobs, or just left sitting there doing nothing. Remember Obama's promises of unemployment being held below 8%? POOF!! Now we're watching the numbers start to go even higher beyond the record highs, while he plays golf and his wife parties on. Such arrogance is disgusting! This is the Progressive way. They don't feel YOUR pain!!

With the economy stuck and "official" unemployment holding strong at 9.5% (unofficial estimates are closer to 20%) the public is wondering what new surprises Obama has in store for us. Remember: Always watch both of his hands. While his wife (the new distraction) is busy attracting negative attention pissing away taxpayer dollars vacationing in Spain you know that Obama is up to no good. His latest brainstorm is to let Barney Frank's Freddie Mac to borrow another $1.6 Trillion dollars to bailout failing mortgage holders AGAIN! This time they don't have to ask Congress for the money. The latest scheme is to just let all home owners with underwater mortgages get a free ride by paying off their debts, hoping that they will vote for the DEMs in the fall elections. Of course taxpayers will have to borrow this money in order to do so. But does Obama really care? Quite the contrary! Frankly, it would have been cheaper to give all of the Stimulus money to Fannie and Freddie rather than to give them both unlimited borrowing power forever at our expense.

We all know that this is unfair, STUPID, and unaffordable - especially when we have to borrow the money to provide yet another bailout. It is really becoming clear that Obama and his cronies in Washington, DC are REALLY trying to bring down our economy - NOT FIX IT! Obama is finding out just how hard it is to destroy America in spite of his attempts to do so.

What Next?
How many times will we allow the incompetence to continue? How many Trillions of dollars will we allow to be thrown away? Isn't it time to stand up and be counted? Do you care about America? Isn't it time you showed your concerns? Isn't it time you got active?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Power Grab

Granted Presidential Powers
In case you were wondering, the President does have a detailed job description. It is clearly spelled-out in the Constitution. The duties of the President are as follows:

1. Leader of over 360 million Americans.
2. Commander over a military force to protect America.
3. Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Branch of the government.
4. The chief diplomat in handling foreign relations.
5. The chief architect for needed legislation.
6. The conscience in granting pardons.

One of the Executive Powers is to be able to create the Presidential Cabinet. These are the heads of the various departments of the government. Their duties are to administer the affairs of major departments and to collectively serve as an advisory council to the President. There are 13 posts which are given the title of "Secretary." They are as follows:

  • Department of State
  • Department of the Treasury
  • Department of War
  • Department of Justice
  • Department of the Interior
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • Department of Commerce
  • Department of Labor
  • Department of Agriculture
  • Department of Housing and Urban Services
  • Department of Transportation
  • Department of Energy
  • Department of Education
Note:There is NO MENTION OF PRESIDENTIAL CZARS in the Constitution. They do not exist.

Unfortunately, practically all of the "expanded" powers of the President over the last 200 years have been acquired without amendments. In other words, grabbed over time. In fact, the Executive branch has now acquired huge amounts of discretionary powers way beyond what the Founders ever intended. This extravagant expansion of power was done with the encouragement of Congress along with the consent of the Supreme Court.

It's becoming abundantly clear that this administration thinks that they can create their own legislation without the need to interact with Congress at all. This has to be stopped because it is unlawful and exceeds the powers originally granted. Just because they do it doesn't mean that they can or should.

The good news is that the American people can use the Constitution to dismantle this usurpation of power in a peaceful way. Number one, we can all vote someone into power who is willing to recognize this problem and to do something about it. Number two, the states can call for a contention under Article V to provide whatever amendments are necessary to bring the matter back under control. This maybe what will be required to fix today's problem.

Action To Take
Propose a Constitutional Convention to diminish the excessive powers taken by the Executive branch.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Featured Article - Who Makes the Laws?

Who Makes the Laws, Anyway?

The difference between administrators and legislators has been blurred

by Charles Krauthammer - syndicated columnist.



"Last week, a draft memo surfaced from the Homeland Security Department suggesting ways to administratively circumvent existing law to allow several categories of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and, indeed, for some to be granted permanent residency. Most disturbing was the stated rationale. This was being proposed “in the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” In other words, because Congress refuses to do what these bureaucrats would like to see done, they will legislate it themselves.

Regardless of your feelings on the substance of the immigration issue, this is not how a constitutional democracy should operate. Administrators administer the law; they don’t change it. That’s the legislators’ job.

When questioned, the White House downplayed the toxic memo, leaving the impression that it was nothing more than ruminations emanating from the bowels of Homeland Security. But the administration is engaged in an even more significant power play elsewhere.

A 2007 Supreme Court ruling gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate carbon emissions if it could demonstrate that they threaten human health and the environment. The Obama EPA made precisely that finding, thereby granting itself a huge expansion of power and, noted the Washington Post, sending “a message to Congress.”

It was not a terribly subtle message: Enact cap-and-trade legislation — taxing and heavily regulating carbon-based energy — or the EPA will do so unilaterally. As Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch noted, such a finding “is likely to help light a fire under Congress to get moving.”

Well, Congress didn’t. Despite the “regulatory cudgel” (to again quote the Post) the administration has been waving, the Senate has repeatedly refused to acquiesce.

Good for the Senate. But what to do when the executive is passively aggressive rather than actively so? Take border security. Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) reports that President Obama told him about pressure from the political left and its concern that if the border is secured, Republicans will have no incentive to support comprehensive reform (i.e., amnesty). Indeed, Homeland Security’s abandonment of the “virtual fence” on the southern border, combined with its lack of interest in completing the real fence that today covers only one-third of the border, gives the distinct impression that serious border enforcement is not a high administration priority absent some Republican quid pro quo on comprehensive reform.

But border enforcement is not something to be manipulated in return for legislative favors. It is, as the administration vociferously argued in court in the Arizona case, the federal executive’s constitutional responsibility. Its job is to faithfully execute the laws. Non-execution is a dereliction of duty.

This contagion of executive willfulness is not confined to the federal government or to Democrats. In Virginia, the Republican attorney general has just issued a ruling allowing police to ask about one’s immigration status when stopped for some other reason (e.g., a traffic violation). Heretofore, police could inquire only upon arrest and imprisonment.

Whatever your views about the result, the process is suspect. If police latitude regarding the interrogation of possible illegal immigrants is to be expanded, that’s an issue for the legislature, not the executive.

How did we get here? I blame Henry Paulson. (Such a versatile sentence.) The gold standard of executive overreach was achieved the day he summoned the heads of the country’s nine largest banks and informed them that henceforth thefederal government was their business partner. The banks were under no legal obligation to obey. But they know the capacity of the federal government, when crossed, to cause you trouble, endless trouble. They complied.

So did BP when the president summoned its top executives to the White House to demand a $20 billion federally administered escrow fund for damages. Existing law capped damages at $75 million. BP, like the banks, understood the power of the U.S. government. Twenty billion it was.

Again, you can be pleased with the result (I was) and still be troubled by how we got there. Everyone wants energy in the executive (as Alexander Hamilton called it). But not lawlessness. In the modern welfare state, government has the power to regulate your life. That’s bad enough. But at least there is one restraint on this bloated power: the separation of powers. Such constraints on your life must first be approved by both houses of Congress.

That’s called the consent of the governed. The constitutional order is meant to subject you to the will of the people’s representatives, not to the whim of a chief executive or the imagination of a loophole-seeking bureaucrat."