Many people make resolutions to start the year, but I think a list of things that must be done to protect and preserve the Republic should be tallied.

1. President Obama must be defeated in 2012 and the obstructionist Democratic Party must lose power in the Senate to ensure both houses of Congress will be Republican and in a position to initiate real change.

2. The Environmental Protection Agency must be reined in with increased Congressional oversight and legislative limits on its rule-making capacity. Having fulfilled its 1970 mandate to clean the nation’s air and water, it should be scaled back to the maintenance of these functions.

3. Americans, despite the administration’s efforts to redefine and distract us, must keep clearly in mind the threat of Islam to the nation and the world. A Middle East in turmoil lays ahead for 2012.

4. To jump-start the economy, taxes and spending must be reduced across the board. A tax on consumption, rather than income would be a good start. Only 49% of Americans currently pay income taxes, the lowest in decades.

5. Obamacare must be repealed should the Supreme Court fail to rule that the Commerce Clause takes precedence over its requirement that Americans must purchase health insurance or be fined for not doing so.

6. A serious restructuring of Social Security and Medicare must be undertaken. Older Americans who have paid into the system—it is involuntary—must be ensured their benefits will be paid, but younger citizens should have the freedom and responsibility to structure their own retirement and health plans.

7. Access to the nation’s vast reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil should be increased and encouraged. Oil companies should be encouraged to build more refineries via tax credits and removal of “environmental” obstacles.

8. Congress needs to identify and fund the repair to the nation’s aging infrastructure.

9. Utilities should be encouraged via tax credits and other incentives to expand the national “grid” for the distribution of electricity.

10. Term limits for Senators and Representatives should be added to the U.S. Constitution in the same fashion the presidency is limited. Salaries, pensions, and perks should be capped. A permanent political class is a danger to citizens.

11. The Federal government should be downsized with the elimination of the Departments of Education, Labor, and Energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency. These powers should be returned to the individual States. (10th Amendment)

12. The nation’s military which has been significantly reduced in size and structure should be expanded with attention to the upgrade and increase of its naval fleet and aircraft.

13. Congress should reject and rescind all legislation based on “global warming” or “climate change” as the former has been demonstrated to be a hoax and the latter is meaningless insofar as the climate is beyond the control of humans.

14. The United States should significantly reduce its contribution to the United Nations and refuse to ratify any of its treaties.

15. Tort reform should be instituted to reduce the costs of health care.

16. The corporate tax rate should be significantly reduced from its present rate, one of the highest in the world, to increase expansion, new jobs, and competitiveness.

17. Public service unions should be illegal. The federal government does not permit such unionization and neither should states.

18. National Public Radio should no longer be funded. The “government entities” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be eliminated.

19. The federal government should be restricted or significantly limited from the acquisition of more of the nation’s landmass.

20. Strenuous efforts must be undertaken to reduce the national debt and deficit. A devalued dollar impoverishes everyone.

These are just a few changes which, if implemented, would go a long way to reducing the ills associated with a federal government grown too large, subject to crony capitalism, and corruption.

As John Adams said, “Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves upon the ruin of this Country.”

© Alan Caruba, 2012

 

WesternFront America

By SARTRE

The recent debt limit congressional circus must be a new Twilight Zone episode written by a computerized program straight out of central casting. Rod Serling must be turning in his grave. A twenty-first century rewrite of his exceptional Seven Days in May screenplay is certainly in order, this time with a different ending. If there are any confused or co-opted worshipers of the federal government left, what more proof do you need that the bipartisan political criminal class is determined to destroy this nation? Not convinced that this assessment is correct; then you need remediable instruction in arithmetic. Increasing the spending with more borrowed money cannot reduce the debt.

The world financial markets are voting with their money, that the U.S of A. will no longer be the leader of free market enterprise. The flow of hot money into Treasury Bonds is tantamount to feeding the alligator with the hope that eating forged paper will forgo its appetite for flesh. This is the same strategy used to shackle market makers and docile societies into accepting, that the world financial system must be saved from their own greed and pillage, so that the dependent vassals can continue to pay their tribute.

The beltway bottom feeders know just how to scare their pudden-head constituents. With the complicity of the corporate controlled media, the task of getting away with murder has been elevated to a supreme political art form. ‘Pols’ can fool some of the public with all the false causes and bogus reasons for the dysfunctional federal government, but can they escape the distrust in their deal making skills, that never resolve any substantive issues? Even the current New York Times and CBS poll, cannot hide the disgust with an 82% disapproval sentiment.

This level of discontent is expected by anyone who understands the decade’s long destruction of the fundamental nature of the “federalism” form of the separation of powers principle. Many observers recognize the gross offense of adopting a gang of 12 approach for shepherding their flock in Congress to accept the dictums in the Amerika version of the Soviet Politburo.

Cited in The New American, the good Napolitano, Judge Andrew weights in correctly.

“Napolitano raised another — and unassailable — objection to the legislation. Napolitano noted: “This is this Congress binding itself and all future Congresses to a simple up-or-down vote.” In that sense, the new “Super Congress” joint committee is truly revolutionary, and unquestionably unconstitutional. Under the Constitution, no Congress can bind a subsequent Congress with rules of procedure, which is why one of the first acts of every new Congress after an election is for the House and Senate to separately approve new rules.”

Our friends over at Prison Planet quote the indomitable Larry Pratt.

“This is a game changer, they’ve decided that we don’t need the House of Representatives to originate revenue bills, we’ll just have the ‘super 12′ do that,” said Pratt, adding that Barack Obama would become the de facto deciding 13th member.

Legislation decided on by the Super Congress would be immune from amendment and lawmakers would only be able to register an up or down vote, eliminating the ability to filibuster.”

This attempt to relegate the House and Senate to water boy status is clear proof that the first causality of the federal dictatorship is to eat their own noncompliant elements in the legislature. When a NeoCon disinformation and newspeak publication like The Weekly Standard jumps on the bandwagon, you better grab your ankles. “Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit reduction that the legislation creates.”

Purity of ideological devotion to the globalist integration of the former Republic is the true test of a collectivist commissar. Two world wars later and several police action conflicts removed, the extension of the garrison empire continues to expand. Name any definitive benefit that the populace gained from all the squander of treasure and the shedding of blood. All the time the bulwark of constitutional limited government is systematically dismantled.

The unfettered growth of government is the only reality that matters to the federal fascists. An economy that relies upon government spending for continuation is a zombie zone of the walking dead. The alternate media presents unending examples of this death march onto reservation of predatory prisons. An isolated cell awaits – with a number in place of your name. The silence of most occupants in the land of the timid breeds the sterile culture of fearful chickens. What more evidence does any citizen need that the federal government is organized and posed to repeat the same atrocities’ that totalitarian regimes committed in the last century?

What makes it much more acute is that a net of surveillance and a draconian database covers the entire globe. The satellite spy in the sky era extends to every aspect of communication, financial transactions and personal activity. The land of the free is now the camp of the interned.

How paradoxical, when you hear the regurgitation from progressive government lovers, that the federal and state agencies provide solutions, when the real irony is that these numb nuts are clueless what true populism represents, much less how to achieve a humane society.

Folks, the enemy have just declared itself as the Washington establishment and you are in the sniper sights of their full spectrum dominance scope. Research to your hearts content all the dire consequences of the despotic cabal that masquerades as your elected representatives. Notwithstanding, the pace of your own personal awakening; without direct and focused action, your fate is sealed.

An entire nation is not helpless resisting tyranny if citizens rebel. Only if you prefer denial to self-respect will the forces of treason prevail. Many Americans are not committed to liberty, and most fear personal responsibility of their own individual obligations. The hoi polloi never change history; they just accept the outcome. Isn’t this a prime reason why the Federal government continues to go on its merry way? The entire apparatus of the illegitimate bureaucracies steers the suppression of the will of the people.

The Obama nightmare is just one more leg in a complex plan to destroy the aims and purpose for fighting the American Revolution. The excessive conduct of federal loyalists loves their abuses of the public trust. When DC continually spends the people’s money and never has to pay back the unlimited loans, the lifestyle of the rich and famous, becomes part of government pensions and perks. There is no gambling risk or prospect of a loss as long as the taxpayer and future generations are providing the stakes.

There has never been a true civil war in this country. The War of Northern Aggression was waged precisely to prevent the Southern States from secession. The prospects of an enlightened and dedicated population taking up arms and defeating the military-industrial-security-complex require a miracle . . . turning water into wine. The creatures that dwell in this country are cloned cowards afraid of their own shadow. Forget about armed confrontation. Any attempt using violence plays into the hands of the Gestapo state.

However, developing a civilization of respectable civil disobedience is entirely in keeping with the best tradition of Western culture and Judeo-Christian teachings. Doubters can examine the recent book by Chuck and Timothy Baldwin, ROMANS 13: THE TRUE MEANING OF SUBMISSION for validation.

The federal government’s war against the Inherent Autonomy of the individual is the greatest danger to your own sustained existence and the survival of the nation. There is no way to reform a totally corrupt and crooked system of criminals. Families are being added to the extinct species list every day by a government that codifies same sex marriage and encourages abortions. Stating this factual axiom of civilized behavior is an unforgivable taboo to the Statists, who want the power over life and death and the eventual eradication of the family structure.

The core natural right and principle of individual self-defense is sacrosanct. Resistance to a despotic presidency and a crippled congress is a moral imperative. Defending, fighting and dying for the State, especially when that government is targeting you for annihilation, is absurd. The obvious elimination of witnesses to the diversion bin Laden raid illustrates just how ruthless the rogue government acts, even to their own special troops.

“A military helicopter was shot down in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops, most of them from the elite Navy SEALs unit that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.”

The unceasing slurs against the Tea Party movement by a scared system through the misdirection media and their globalist masters is a sure sign that citizen participation in the political process is an act of resistance against the evil empire. The warfare state has mobilized against the American rebels. As the financial temple collapses and prices escalate, the pressure for “PC” compliance spreads like wildfire. Singling out selected dissenters for retribution requires the rest of the country joining in an uproar of protest.

Your life is at stake, ban together for dynamic resistance and confrontation. There is no other alternative. The Federal Government has started another undeclared war, but this time their homeland security proceeds to eradicate all real patriotic citizens and champions of liberty. This Twilight Zone episode needs a conclusion where the mythical Jordan Lyman ( no matter what name he uses ) is removed and all ensuing presidential treason is justly punished.

“Published originally at EtherZone.com

 

WesternFront America

The 60 Minutes interview with Tyler Hamilton, Lance Armstrong’s former team mate is damning. Hamilton, one of Armstrong’s most trusted friends on US Postal under oath in a federal investigation of Armstrong said Lance cheated. He used EPO and engaged in blood doping to win the Tour De France. I don’t think anyone is surprised at this point. However, I once said whatever Lance did to win the Tour De France when it came to performance enhancement drugs was so advance there weren’t tests even developed.

The truth according to Hamilton is Armstrong’s methods were conservative enough to beat the tests and when he did test positive, well, the cycling world protected Lance and he reached deep in his pockets to donate to the right organizations to get them to look away. I am not surprised. Greg LeMond, America’s first Tour De France champion tried telling us, and he was demonized. The same excuse was made that LeMond warned of. Without the performance enhancing drugs, good riders were getting dropped by riders without the same talents. Therefore, everyone not just Lance engaged in doping. Of course, it has cost many cyclists their careers and even led Marco Pantani to suicide.

Lance Armstrong’s attorneys now want an apology from 60 Minutes for smearing Lance Armstrong’s name. That’s funny. So many of Lance’s friends including Hamilton and George Hincapie have come forward now, and their stories are the same. Lance Armstrong won not totally from once we were told.

I want to know why 60 Minutes is the bad guy. Listen to the interview with Hamilton. The incidents the United States Federal Government are supposedly using to build a case against Lance Armstrong happened where? Not in the United States where federal laws the US government regulates and enforces apply. The testimony that Hamilton said the feds are interested are stories from France, Switzerland, and Spain, sovereign countries outside of any control of the federal government, which means Armstrong’s only crime is that he is an American. None of this testimony should be used against Lance because none of it happened within federal jurisdiction.

It seems to me if Armstrong’s attorneys want an apology, perhaps they should push their efforts at a federal government gone out of control.

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

 

WesternFront America

In May Rasmussen Reports took a survey of a thousand adults asking if they believed that States have the right to secede. “One-in-five Americans believe individual States have the right to break away from the country, although a majority doesn’t believe it will actually happen.”

That a Tea Party movement sprang to life in the midst of the protests against Obamacare and then was instrumental in transferring political power in the House of Representatives in the 2010 election cannot be dismissed. People—lots of them—are increasingly wary of the central government, particularly one that has burdened them with more debt in the last three years than in the entire prior history of the nation.

In October, Pelican Press will publish “Rethinking the American Union for the Twenty-First Century” in which a number of scholars edited by Donald Livingston, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, examine the implications of secession, possibly by regional groupings of States, from the present federal government.

Prof. Livingston is a political philosopher and scholar, the author of two books on the British philosopher David Hume and may well be one of a handful of people who have given serious thought to the question of whether the present Union has either outlived its usefulness or, worse, become a sinkhole of power aggregating to itself total control over the States.

The Tenth Amendment clearly states that “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.”

That is true, but I doubt there is a single Governor of any of the fifty States who cannot enumerate the ways the federal government has wrested power from them while imposing costs. When Arizona finds itself the object of a federal legal suit to prevent it from trying to control its border with Mexico, you know there’s a problem.

In an article, “Decentralization for Freedom”, by Prof. Livingston, he raises some issues that are increasingly troubling to a growing number of Americans. He addresses the measures States can take “to protect their citizens from usurpations by the central government.” Among these are the passing of resolutions. “A continuous flood of resolutions from the States about the constitutionality of this or that issue (and widely publicized) would serve to educate the public.”

Thereafter, Prof. Livingston recommends a resort to the Tenth Amendment by State legislators and governors in order to recover usurped authority. We are beginning to see another measure, the refusal to accept federal funding as regards its centralized control of education.

Resistance to Obamacare is based on the question whether the federal government can require individual citizens to purchase something they do not want. The House has passed a measure to repeal it, but it is stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Reverse the situation and you have a federal government telling Americans what they cannot buy, as in the case of the 100 watt incandescent light bulb in use since the days of Thomas Edison.

“Genuine federalism in America can be recovered only by political action in the name of the State’s own authority and not by Supreme Court legalism,” says Prof. Livingston.
“To all of this it is often said that State interposition, nullification, and succession were eliminated as policy options by the Civil War. Brute force, however, cannot settle moral and constitutional question.” While Lincoln did “save the Union”, he did so at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of the South.

Clearly the central government has grown so large, so unwieldy, so wasteful, and so unresponsive to the problems and costs it has imposed that people are beginning to wonder why 435 Representatives in the House and 100 in the Senate should control the lives, the economy, and the education of more than 300 million people in fifty sovereign States.

The President virtually makes law with “executive orders” and the nine members of the Supreme Court exercises final authority of the constitutionality of laws. Congress is so divided by raw partisanship it is barely functioning.

“The only remedy,” says Prof. Livingston “is territorial division of the Union through secession into a number of different and independent political units.”

“The current central government of the United States hates inequality, but it also fears the people,” says Prof. Livingston, noting that “There is no law an American State can pass that cannot be overturned by the arrogant social engineers of the Supreme Court who in the last fifty years have played with the inherited moral traditions and federative policy of the American people like a quack with a hapless patient.”

“Constitutionally, this means that the States must reassert their sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and recall those powers they have allowed to slip out of their hands to the central government.”

This is not a call for anarchy. It is the realization that the modern presidency has aggregated to itself powers it does not have or, in the case of Libya, is ignoring the War Powers Act that limits its ability to engage the nation in conflicts Congress does not ultimately authorize.

It is the realization that every United Nations treaty the United States signs deprives it of its sovereign rights.

It is a call for consideration that regional groups of States with common interests might provide better government within such groups, leaving to the central government the responsibility to protect the nation via a common military, conduct foreign affairs, and return to the gold standard that would protect the value of a common currency.

When one-in-five Americans give credence to the right of secession, it is clear that the problems being experienced in all fifty States, the massive regulation of all activities within those States, the imposition of a centralized “core” curriculum to be taught in all schools, is arousing a rediscovered sense of liberty among Americans.

What steps must be taken to retain that liberty and even to restructure the Union are as yet undetermined, but they are increasingly entering the public debate.

There is no debate that something is terribly wrong when a president is elected whose eligibility and legitimacy is in serious question while the courts do nothing to address this critical constitutional issue and the Congress does nothing while sending bills for his signature.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 

WesternFront America

Why is Washington spending your tax dollars on an investigation of Lance Armstrong? What jurisdiction to do they have? Why do they want to make an example out of Armstrong and so many other Americans? It comes down to basically a couple reasons.

The United States government is broke.

Desperate bureaucrats hope to keep their jobs as they know government cuts are coming.

From small bunny rabbit farms set up to teach a child responsibility to the pinnacle of the European cycling through the International Cycling Union (UCI), the feds have launched an all out war on Americans without any Constitution jurisdiction. As I introduced the world to John Dollarhite, a Nixa man who sin was setting giving his son something to do to teach him responsibility, I overlooked the fact Mr. Dollarhite has a lot in common with seven-time Tour De France Champion Lance Armstrong. They are both victims of an overreaching government that has no Constitutional authority to justify the witch hunt against them.

Let’s take a look at Mr. Dollarhite. He faces $4 million dollars in USDA fines after grossing $200 in profit from selling a few bunny rabbits. His crime, he didn’t bow down to the federal overlord ruling Mordor on the Potomac and purchase permission from the federal government to sell bunny rabbits. Because of this, his Constitutional rights, namely his 8th Amendment, is being violated.

Dollarhite never engaged in interstate commerce, and so what authority the government has to even demand he purchase a bunny rabbit license is based on Americans ignorance of the Constitution with the threat of these bureaucracies, who almost always have their own police force. Even the Department of Education purchases shotguns to expand the American police state.

As well, magicians across the country report they are being harassed by the USDA and pushed to pay outrageous fines despite no real evidence their rabbits are being abused, unless you are a PETA type who believes pulling a rabbit out of a hat is abuse. That’s just silly, especially when you consider that rabbit never needs to worry about the predator prey relationship of living in the wild. Magicians, Hollywood animal trainers, and children’s bunny farms are all getting the attention of evil bureaucrats in DC.

So what does Dollarhite have in common with Armstrong? In my days of racing bicycles, I can’t recall seeing him in any peloton I entered. He doesn’t wear a Livestrong yellow bracelet. What Dollarhite has in common with Armstrong is they are both victims of an overreaching federal government.

So for the past year, the United States government has spent millions of your tax dollars to prove Lance Armstrong is a cheat. Though he has never failed on drug test and was put through the most intense program of drug testing, even having officials showing up at his house at strange hours forcing him to undergo testing, for some reason the United States government thinks its best for the general welfare of our Republic to investigate Lance Armstrong.

When it’s all over, it appears they are going to ensure one of the greatest comeback stories ever is scarred. On what Constitutional grounds do they have this authority to even investigate Lance Armstrong. Consider the facts.

It appears when everything is said and done, multiple bureaucracies from the FDA to the IRS is going to be pointing their police state guns in the face of Lance Armstrong demanding hefty fines which violate Armstrong’s Eighth Amendment rights, not to mention it appears this is really a matter that is for the French.

Armstrong lived and trained in Europe–not Austin, TX for most of the year. Armstrong and his teammates had homes in Europe and spent very little time in the United States.
Armstrong made rare appearances in American bicycle races, but most of his time was spent in Europe racing.

If Armstrong was doping, it’s very likely Italian doctor–not an American doctor–Michele Ferrari was supplying the resources needed. Ferrari is the controversial doctor connected to Armstrong who has been involved in other doping scandals. Once again, one has to ask were any Constitutional interstate commerce regulations violated or did the exchange and services just take place in Europe?

It is for these reasons, that it appears just like in the other cases, the federal government is pushing past their limits established in the Constitution. So what motivates the federal government to spend your tax dollars on proving Lance Armstrong cheated in Europe?

Probably the same thing that motivates the federal government to pursue magicians, raw milk producers, and children’s rabbit farms. The federal government is broke and they are issuing outrageous fines while taking away due process laws that rob their subjects of trial by jury. As in the case of Dollarhites, they were told the court they would face would be within the USDA itself–no jury of their peers. They call this tyranny in case you don’t know because it violates the Constitution.

Thousands of bureaucrats in DC are worried about coming budget cuts. They are working like salesmen on used car lots to push lemons to establish their worth to the government. Without any regard to Constitutional rights, they are willing to stomp on American lives to keep their hefty government paychecks coming with the promise of government benefits and pensions. All the while the very foundation of the Republic crumbles from their tyranny.

The federal government according to the United States has two main functions–provide a common defense to the states and play moderator in interstate commerce disputes (which includes treaties and agreements with other nations). How the United States got to the point where it believes going after a magician, a parent of a 12 year old teaching their child responsibility, or a legendary bicycle racer living in Europe is a sad story. It’s one that reminds once again of the lack of freedom and liberty that is now the United States. Ask yourself, are these bureaucrats any different than King George pushing the Stamp Act?

If the Dollarhite’s have committed a crime for selling a few bunny rabbits within the state of Missouri, then it is the business of the state of Missouri and not the federal government based on the Constitution.

If Lance Armstrong lived in Europe, raced in Europe, and allegedly doped in Europe, it is the business of the UCI and the counties in which he violated the laws while residing in Europe. The federal government has no rights to enforce their laws in a sovereign country like France.

I leave you with Thomas Jefferson’s words found in the Declaration of Independence:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Hits close to home these days, doesn’t it?

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

 

WesternFront America

Prior to the American “War Between the States,” the southern states began to nullify those laws passed by Congress they felt were overbearing, or would harm the people of the states in any way. It was a legal approach toward a too powerful federal government, which was created by the states to act as an agent of the states and not as the master of the states.

We don’t see much of that today. The federal government has had a great deal of success through their government run schools of re-educating the citizenry that the states are subservient to the federal government.

There are some reports that at least ten states are currently, or soon will be considering nullification laws in their sovereign states that would make ObamaCare illegal with their borders. Fourteen other states are suing in the courts in an effort to have ObamaCare overturned and tossed out. We wish them all good luck.

If a new bill, which has already been filed in Texas ahead of the 2011 session of the Texas state legislature should pass it would nullify Obamacare. The bill provides penalties of up to $5,000 in fines and up to five years in jail for anyone guilty of the “felony” of attempting “to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation” of ObamaCare.

The bill was pre-filed by Leo Berman, a Republican, from Tyler, Texas. It is House Bill 297 in case you would like to look it up.

The bill would simply nullify Obama’s federal health care law in the state of Texas. Texas HB 297 says that federal health care legislation is invalid in the state of Texas, is not recognized by the state of Texas, is specifically rejected by the state of Texas, and is null and void and of no effect in the state of Texas. The bill explains: “The federal Act is not authorized by the United States Constitution and violates the Constitution’s true meaning and intent as expressed by the founders of this country and the ratifiers of the Constitution.”

Just so everyone knows the bill is serious it says, plainly and simply the following: “”a person who is an official, agent, or employee of the United States or an employee of a corporation providing services to the United States commits an offense if the person enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the United States in violation of this chapter.” The bill goes on to say: “assumption of power by the federal government in enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590; Pub. L. No. 111-148) as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872; Pub. L. No. 111-152) interferes with the right of the people of this state to regulate health care as they determine is appropriate …”

Understand this: This nullification of a federal law within a state is legal. It is well within the scope of all the sovereign states. In fact, James Madison often praised as the writer of the Constitution, but undeniably one of those who did said that the states have a duty to assert their power as a sovereign state when the federal government oversteps its authority. Madison had this to say in the Virginia Resolution of 1798: “That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”

Somewhere along the line, Americans have forgotten that the states are sovereign. They are separate countries with their own governments elected by the people of those states. We have forgotten the formation of the federal government was an act of the states, not to create their own master, but to create a servant of the states.

I suspect many of the leaders of the various states are frightened witless that should they buck the federal government, the same thing will happen to them as happened to the southern states when they asserted their right to secede from the union and form their own country over their dissatisfaction with a federal government that had grown, even at that early stage of American history, into a near tyrannical regime. They fear the revenge with which the federal government savaged the southern states. It was called “Reconstruction” and it was damaged the southern states even more than the shooting war.

As a southerner, I am convinced the current federal government has stepped way across the line with ObamaCare and deserves to be confronted with nullification laws in as many states as believe it to be the act of a federal government grown intoxicated with power and intend to use that power to force their will on the people of the states who want no part of the takeover of a huge chunk of the US economy and intervene directly into the lives of Americans who do not want them there.

The states have a right, AND the DUTY, to say no. We will not bow to the will of an out of control federal government that has over-stepped its constitutional restraints.

ObamaCare is a slap in the face to freedom loving Americans across this great land. The states must band together to stop it and destroy it.

J. D. Longstreet

NOTE: Two articles you might enjoy reading on this same subject can be found at:

Tenth Amendment Center

And the

World Net Daily

********************

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

 

WesternFront America

… Cuts Need to Made on Larger Level Including Military.

PolitiMO posted an interesting article on the divide over earmarks in Missouri. The final sentence of the article was the most revealing. “Misssouri is 9th in taking most earmarks, bringing in $346,784,080 (or $59.99 per capita) between 2008 and 2010.”

Average it out. In the three years, Missouri has received just over $100 million per year in federal money for earmarks. Let’s put this in perspective.

According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources:

The typical Missouri vehicle uses approximately 600 gallons of fuel and is driven more than 16,000 miles each year. With more than 4.2 million registered vehicles in Missouri, that adds up to a lot of miles driven, gasoline consumed and money spent at the gas pump.

Let me tell you what else it means. It means a lot of federal revenue. Missourians pay the federal government 18.4 cents of taxes for every gallon of fuel sold. This tax is supposed to fund road projects and repairs, and earmarks are often used to return this money back to the state and your district. Do the math.

If you own one vehicle that meets the average according to the state of Missouri, you are paying $102 a year in federal fuel tax. According to PoliticMO, the average earmark equals $59.99 per person that gets returned back to the district. The population of Missouri is 5.9 million people.

According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, there are 4.2 million cars in the state of Missouri. Based on these numbers, knowing that average car in Missouri sends the federal government $102 per year in taxes and their are 4.2 million cars registered in Missouri, that amounts to $428.4 million a year sent to the federal government for road repairs.

If anything, we should be mad more of our fuel taxes aren’t getting returned to our state and districts and they aren’t earmarking the funds from the fuel tax enough to improve our roads and to make them safer.

We are paying $428.4 million into the federal government in a year in fuel taxes. In return, we have only gotten $346.7 million in return in the form of earmarks over the past three years from 2008 through 2010.

The truth is politicians are using this earmark issue to make you believe they are cutting wasteful government spending, but the truth is these politicians like Billy Long who are pushing no earmarks, aren’t willing to make necessary cuts in the federal budget from cutting out unconstitutional bureaucracies to a military budget that totals 46% of a military spending in the world.
Earmarks simply aren’t the problem. They are a deception to make you believe the federal government suddenly has some kind of moral responsibility to its people.

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

 

WesternFront America

Recently, I watched a conservative commentator on TV declare the America we used to know is dead.

I immediately thought: “Well, where has HE been?” Of course, America, as a constitutional republic, IS dead! We have been saying so for well over a year now — actually approaching two years. There is a little life left in her, but VERY little.

Ever since Obama dropped his hand, after taking the oath of office as President of the United States of America, the systematic disassembling of America has been underway.

You have to give Obama his due. He has kept his promise to “fundamentally change” America. THAT he has done.

Ron Ewart, in an article at the Canada Free Press, recently said the following: “Comes now a man who participated in a Chicago church for twenty years that preached “Black Liberation Theology”, a theology that believes, with vehemence and much gnashing of teeth, that white America is evil and white America is still trying to keep black Americans in a state of perpetual poverty, if not slavery. “

Mr. Ewart continues: “Obama’s whole background, from the day he was born, is filled with communists, socialists, Marxists, community activists and others who seek a massive redistribution of American wealth to those who have not found their way to, or have not taken advantage of, unequaled in any country… American opportunity.” (You may read the entire article (HERE).)

In an article at Uncommon Sense the following statement is made: “So America, can you connect the dots? In just 18 months we have watched the tightening of federal controls on states and citizens that is unprecedented in American history. Our freedom and our liberty is being usurped by an over reaching federal bureaucracy that has put us on a fast track to socialism or maybe even communism.”

The writer points out the following:

“We allowed the passage of a $787B economic stimulus bill.

The federal government has taken over two-thirds of the domestic auto industry.

The T.A.R.P. program passed at the end of the Bush administration was the first step in nationalizing the domestic banking system.

Using the EPA, the government has declared cabon dioxide a harmful gas and is on the path of regulating energy and the environment without regulation to further its’ agenda – bigger, more controlling government.

The FCC is working on a bailout plan for the mainstream media as well as regulations to destroy free speech. Clearly in their sights – the internet and conservative talk radio.
Recently the President signed a land grab order. Using the “1906 Antiquities Act” he ordered the federalization of 10 million acres of land in the west. This land grab will inhibit our ability to gain energy independence by cutting off access to needed resources.

The President continues his focus on “climate change” and “Cap & Trade” rather than job creation and economic growth.

Moody’s has repeatedly warned the government for the past 18 months that if we don’t reduce the debt and curtail government spending we will lose our national AAA credit rating. This will cause our interest rates to sky rocket and eventually our interest service of the debt will bankrupt the country.”

The writer goes on to mention the passage of ObamaCare and government funding for higher education. He says: “Education and Healthcare are not rights! Rights come from God not governments. This bill also includes the funding to hire 16,000 new IRS agents to aid in the enforcement of the new laws.” (Read the entire article (HERE).

If is especially distressing to realize that an entire country can be subjected to the death grip of socialism, in such a brief period of time. Our socialist Congress was elected in 2006 and our socialist President was elected in 2008 — and that sealed the deal. Elections, as we have been told, so often, have consequences. Unfortunately for Americans the consequences of the 2006 and 2008 elections turned out to be the loss of our constitutional republic created by our Founding Fathers. We swapped it for a socialist government made up of Statists, Socialists, Progressives, Marxists, a few Communists, and a handful of liberals. We also got, in the deal, a President who, much like Julius Caesar, would be a dictator, and — in fact, he has created a cohort of minions around him to do HIS will while at the same time being answerable ONLY to him.

Our new kind of American dictator is using the power of the president’s executive orders to force his will upon the people of the US. Is this an abuse of power? Some say YES! Certainly, if it is not – it OUGHT to be!

“Statism” is now the national religion in America. Some on the American left are declaring the state as sacred and taxes as a sacrament.

Americans were once among the most God-fearing people on the planet. No longer. Now, rather than praising God and turning to Him in time of need or crisis, our government is encouraging us to praise the state and turn to it for everything — including our sustenance. THAT is a hallmark of godless socialism.

Generations of American children were NOT taught, in our public school system, that the government of the US was founded to be a servant of the people of the states. As voting adults they don’t know the federal government is supposed to act according to the wishes of the people of the states.

They think it is exactly the opposite. Our over powerful central government now insists that Americans serve the federal government — and it has been that way since my southern ancestors realized where the US federal government was headed, decided they wanted none of it, pulled out of the US, and formed their own country. They were forced back into the union at the point of a government bayonet. Unfortunately, that bayonet has not been sheathed since. The power of the federal government has grown steadily ever since.

Progressivism, Socialism, Marxism, all demand that the individual basically live for the state contributing everything he owns to the god of the left, — the state.

This is where America is, in its evolution, today.

Men and women in America today have a decision to make. Americans who believe America was founded upon biblical truths, including “rights’ granted them by God, and God alone, are being told there is no such thing as rights not granted by the state. Never mind that our founding documents stress those God-given rights. Our new American socialist government views those founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution, as too old and too outdated to apply today. And the void left by those documents is being filled by a left-wing dictatorship.

Those of us, of the conservative persuasion, have danced all around creating another political party. We even have the Tea Party, which is doing a good job at educating the masses of Americans dissatisfied with this new socialist America. Truth be told, I don’t think the GOP, in its current iteration, is capable of doing much better than those leftists in power today.

I really think the time has come for an “American Party,” a true conservative political party with one goal — and that is — to return America to its founding principles as a constitutional republic — and keep it there. I don’t think I am alone in this conviction. All one has to do is look at the Tea Party. Could the Tea Party be the foundation for a new political party in America? It certainly could be.

One thing is certain. The US is far too deeply split to continue much longer as a nation of fifty states. One does not need a crystal ball to see what lies in America’s future.

Unless American citizens are willing to make the effort to rescue their nation, America will follow all the great nations of the past into the pages of history as a “has been” giant whose people were unable, or unwilling, to live up to the high ideals set for them by the founders of the country. For instance, when a nation will not protect its own borders that, alone, speaks volumes concerning the love that nation’s people have for their country.

To survive, America must right herself, find her true bearings, and stir herself back on course with renewed vigor and determination to clean up her government by throwing off the chains of socialism and restoring those precious ideals that saw her through nearly two and a half centuries of everything fate could throw at her.

President Ronald Reagan once said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

If we Americans choose to continue on our current course, we dishonor the men and women who founded this country and all the generations since who have loved her, cherished her, protected her and passed her on to the capable hands of the next generation. If we so choose, then America stops here.

The soil of this sacred ground, we call America, is soaked in the blood of patriots who gave even their last measure to preserve freedom for us. The souls of those long sainted American patriots watch from the ramparts of heaven to see how we will choose. We must not disappoint them.

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

E-Mail: longstreet1862@gmail.com

 

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States Distancing Themselves From The Federal Government.

NINTH AMENDMENT to the US Constitution: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

TENTH AMENDMENT to the US Constitution: 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.

As I have observed over the past few months the “State Sovereignty Movement” continues to sweep the nation with well over three-quarters of the fifty states taking action, through their respective state legislatures, re-establishing their “sovereignty”.

It is being reported that there are over 40 states with state sovereignty declarations as of this writing. If true, that is heartening.  There is no doubt the states have been relegated to second-class citizenship in the US.  That is just WRONG and must be corrected!

We found reports on the Internet stating that THERE ARE 12 NEW STATE SOVEREIGNTY DECLARATIONS IN PROGRESS, RIGHT NOW!! THEY INCLUDE ALABAMA. NEBRASKA, Rhode Island, WYOMING, WASHINGTON, INDIANA, KENTUCKY, GEORGIA, KANSAS, MISSOURI, MISSISSIPPI, AND MARYLAND!

WYOMING is the newest constitutionally sovereign state. The bill was signed into law on March 8^th, 2010. Utah did the same on the 25^th of February 2010. The debate continues in my home state of South Carolina, but my guess is it will pass the state legislature and be signed into law by the “Sandlappers” very soon now.

Here in North Carolina, House Bill H849 “supporting the state’s right to claim sovereignty over certain powers under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States” has been filed.

Here’s the full text:

Whereas, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: “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;” and

Whereas, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

Whereas, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

Whereas, today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and

Whereas, many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

Whereas, Section 4 of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States says, “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government,” and the Ninth Amendment states that “The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;” and

Whereas, the United States Supreme Court ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

Whereas, a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States; Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

SECTION 1.  The North Carolina House of Representatives supports the State’s right to claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government or reserved to the people by the Constitution of the United States.

SECTION 2.  The North Carolina House of Representatives urges the federal government, as the agent of the State, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of any constitutionally delegated powers.

SECTION 3.  The North Carolina House of Representatives further urges that compulsory federal legislation which directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.

SECTION 4.  The Principal Clerk shall transmit a certified copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation.

SECTION 5.  This resolution is effective upon adoption.

Read more on North Carolina’s efforts to re-establish its sovereignty HERE.

I took a look in my crystal ball and, for the life of me; I could see no indication of the effect the sovereignty movement will have on future relations between the states and their “agent”… the federal government. Only time will tell.

However, I must tell you, it does this old southern boy’s heart good to see “State’s Rights” again brought to the fore in the United States.

James Madison, The Founder we refer to as “The Father of the Constitution,” wrote the following: “To preserve the Republic, it is in the hands of the people. We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments”

As with all Americans we “Southerners” get a lot of things wrong.  But we have been right on the issue of “State’s Rights” all along.  See, southerners had a bit more than just a signature invested in the creation of the Constitution, itself. There was never any doubt, in our minds, about who “the greater” and who “the lesser” was/is in this association of states and federal government.  I must tell you, I am more than a little pleased to find the names of several northern and western states, and even northeastern states, included in the list of the names of the states involved in the State Sovereignty Movement.

Washington would do well to take notice, serious notice, of this movement. The Congress and the President may have forgotten, but it is “the boss” filing this complaint. It is very easy to sit in Washington and spend North Carolina’s money, or the money of the folks from Texas or Oklahoma.  But, believe me when I tell you that we have been paying attention and we do not like having our state’s treasuries looted by a heavy-handed federal government.

The current Congress would also do well to read up on the “Ordinance of Nullification” passed by my home state of South Carolina in 1828.  You can read it for yourself HERE. Suffice it to say State Sovereignty is NOT a NEW issue in this country.  It appears we will have to visit it — yet again.

© J. D. Longstreet

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

 

WesternFront America

A strong central government is a nightmare to freedom lovers everywhere, especially here in the United States. The Nightmare has become real, in the US, since President Abraham Lincoln tossed out the Constitution. We have never been able to recover the government our forefathers, the framers of the Constitution, intended.

The Founders and Framers foresaw a limited government subject to the States. Today it is exactly the opposite. Now the states are subject to the federal government. In other words the creation of the States… namely, the Federal Government has become a “Frankenstein” of sorts. This was NOT what the founders and framers intended. Not by a long shot.

Look at the recent ruling by the Supreme Court that medical marijuana use is illegal… even though eleven states have passed laws saying it is legal, in their states, for a doctor to write a prescription for a patient to use marijuana to relieve his, or her pain, on any number of other ailments.

This is raw power. And it is dangerous… dangerous in the extreme.

One of the real shortcomings of this country is its inability to study its past history and learn from its former mistakes. Even our public schools teach so little history, I’m talking about American History now, that the graduates, those schools turn out, are virtually ignorant of their country, and the rights they are granted under the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. As a result, rulings similar to the one, recently, on medical marijuana, is easily passed by a Supreme Court which is obviously out of control and needs to be reined in by the Congress.

Problem is… the Congress is out of control, too. They are handing down laws, which curtail our constitutional freedoms because “the people” are clamoring for security. Sorry, folks, but I don’t hear that clamor! I believe it is imaginary. A figment of minds so used to power they will grasp every chance to expand their controlling reach into our society.

Can we stop it? Can we bring citizen control back to our government? Not in our lifetimes or that of our children. We cannot even begin until we stiffen the spines of the American people. That will not be easy. The Leftist Media is continually feeding their readers the idea that they, as citizens, are helpless and their only hope is in government. And that, Dear Reader, is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place!

Those of us who believe in the original Constitution must be able to reach the populace with this message of truth. Those who would oppose us with their dying breath control the conventional means of communications, in the US.

So, we have gone to the Internet. Soon the Internet will be under attack by the Federal Government. They seek to control our speech out here in cyber space. Their actions smack of fear — raw fear of losing control. You see, if they don’t control us… we might speak the truth. Christ Himself said, “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free!” Therein lies the problem for our strong central government… the simple truth.

But we have to stand up like the sons and daughters of heroes that we are! Bound together by the common goal of Freedom, we can once again break the bonds of a strong central government and the power it has over our everyday lives. It may take decades. It may take a century, or two, but if we remain in the fight, we can win. But… that is the only way. It will take all of us, in the harness, pulling together to put our Republic back together again. Slackers need not apply.

Here’s something one of our founders and framers, John Adams, said:

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

Mr. Adams sums it up nicely.

We must not tarry. The goal is much too important. Our liberty, our freedom regained. That smoldering ember, down deep in your soul, is calling to you to answer the growing thirst for freedom again.

In November we have the Mid-Term election. This will be an opportunity to let your voice be heard loudly proclaiming that you want your birthright of freedom returned. Tell the government loudly and clearly that we choose liberty over security. We choose our freedom. As an American, it is our right!

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J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at:

http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

longstreet1862@gmail.com

 

WesternFront America