Yes, Your Taxes Are Going Up

Another Obama lie which will be excused and ignored by his supporters. Of course, everyone knew it was a lie at the time anyways.

Hat tip: Reason TV

Madison on Group Identity Politics

Federalist 10:

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

...

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.

No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the balance between them. Yet the parties are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail. Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign manufactures? are questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets.

It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole.

The inference to which we are brought is, that the causes of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.

...

From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.

...

It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniences will be found to lie. By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the representatives too little acquainted with all their local circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you render him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures.

...

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

I bring this up now because it is important to point out that the Founders were aware of the danger of special interest groups and that people would divide themselves up by group identity, whether that was by race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, or any other identity. The Founders knew that this would be the death of a nation. (Here's a fun cartoon making the same point.) The destruction of state autonomy is what elevated identity politics to the national level. The only way to guard against mob rule is to restore states' rights to their proper Constitutional place.

So Obama appeals to Hispanics, women, business interests, Christians, and gays, and Republicans appeal to business interests, women, Christians, gays, and Hispanics. And, of course, each blames the other for crass political maneuvering. But discerning people need to be able to see through cheap political theatrics and support a Constitutionally-limited federal government. All politicians have to engage in appeals to special interest groups to some degree (it's hard to get elected without votes). But remember that policy is the ends, and politics is the means. Too many people get those backwards. With Democrats calling public debate "terrorism", this is more important than ever.

Hyperinflation Nation - The Documentary

With Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and Tom Woods:










Share this with everyone you know. Thanks to Michael Shanklin.

Moynihan on Napolitano

Michael Moynihan discusses the rapidly expanding federal government with Judge Napolitano:



The government has been expanding ever since the 17th Amendment allowed power to be centralized in the federal body. It's past time to repeal it.

Hat tip: Liberty Pen

Supreme Court Throws Out Sotomayor Ruling

"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."

Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.

Kennedy's opinion made only passing reference to the work of Sotomayor and the other two judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven.

But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.

"This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.

Apparently, the dissenters are claiming that the Court should not be controlled by empathy. The question of empathy, though, is what group gets empathy. Some people think Latinas should get more sympathy, but the Court today agrees to provide equal empathy for all, otherwise known as equality of law. Justice is blind to group identity, and the Supreme Court today upheld that truth.

Sotomayor may just lose because of this.

Double Whammy—Obama Care & Cap-and-Trade

Double Whammy—Obama Care & Cap-and-Trade; by Peter Schif; TakiMag.com

Misguided government policies have already dealt vicious body blows to our economy, but that hasn’t stopped politicians this week from launching two new kicks to the groin: a national health insurance plan and a carbon emissions regulation system called “cap and trade.” Even if these plans could achieve their desired ends, which is highly unlikely, I would have hoped Washington would refrain from throwing more monkey wrenches into the economy until it shows some signs of resurgence. The last thing we need right now is to further encumber our economy with higher taxes and additional regulations. ...

Comment: At this time all I can offer is a quote from the late Rick James, "Cocaine is a terrible thing," because the only way I can figure a group of adults would do something this stupid has to be from a drug induced stupor.

And Now for Something a Little Different

All this policy talk is feeling rather tedious. Let's catch a movie. How about "The Silence of the Regulated"?



Hat tip: Instapundit

Cooling Off

Update: The climate change bill passed the House. Just as a reminder, if there were no 17th Amendment, this bill wouldn't stand a chance in the Senate.

Original post:

As much as I'd like to reprint this entire article, I'll just tease you with this nugget:

Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting.

Today's the big day. Make sure to call and threaten your Senators (with legal repercussions, of course)!

Update: I just found this video of Peter Schiff discussing this legislation on Glenn Beck:

Kennedy Bill Creates Massive Database

Ted Kennedy Bill Could Send Your Gun Info Into A Massive Federal Databas; Gun Owners of America

At the center of the plan is what's called a "universal mandate." What this means is that you -- and virtually everyone in the country -- will have to buy as much health insurance as the government demands, and that insurance plan will actually have to be approved by the government.

If you work for a small business, the business will buy the insurance on your behalf. But you may be saddled with an enormous part of the cost. And, if the employer's contribution is too large, you will be fired.

If you fail to buy TeddyCare, as the government orders you to do, the IRS will fine you, garnish your wages, put a lien on your house, and, ultimately, put you in prison.

How much will you have to spend on your TeddyCare insurance? Teddy's not saying.

The portion of your paycheck that will have to be forked over to Teddy's latest social experiment will be revealed ONLY AFTER THE MASSIVE HEALTH CARE BILL IS SIGNED INTO LAW.

This should set off alarm bells in your brain, because, for instance, the average family policy is currently $12,700. "So," proclaims Teddy, "everyone's going to get a subsidy to pay for this." There's going to be a "chicken in every pot," and no one's going to have to pay for it.

Yeah, right. If you're a welfare mother, the government will pay for your TeddyCare, and it would pay for it -- the first time -- by taxing employer-provided health benefits of working Americans. But if you a "working Joe" your Kennedy-subsidy will be a microscopic fraction of the cost of your mandated TeddyCare insurance policy.

Read the whole article here.

The Stateless State?

Americans just might find out that life goes on even without the government:

An unprecedented number of states have only days left to pass their fiscal 2010 budgets.

At least 19 states are still hammering out their spending plans as the recession wreaks havoc with their finances and sparks fights between governors and lawmakers. If spending plans aren't approved, state workers may not receive their paychecks and some government offices may shut down.

This economic crisis was caused by a centralized government. This is another good reason to not put all of our eggs in one basket. Decentralized federalism protects people from bad ideas. Only bad ideas cannot tolerate competition. That's another reason why people blame the failure of their bad ideas on the freedom of some to not participate.

Will any states pass the deadline and be forced to shut down? I hope so. The police and emergency services are all locally controlled. Maybe people will see that life outside the shadow of the state isn't so bad.

Joel's visit to Washington

Joel's visit to Washington; The Farm Blog

Something a little different: From the conclusion of the Joel's post:

...No face time. No interaction. I was just supposed to listen, catch the euphoria bug, and leave elated and thankful that the Democrats were finally in charge. Of course, I don't think the Republicans would be any better, but the postulating and self aggrandizement was both disgusting and palpable. Anyway, I finally decided to leave at the end of the second panel. As I walked out, I realized I had navigated to the end of the comment line and since only 6 people were in front of me, I might actually get to say something. So I waited.

`And they got to me. Here is the best I remember what I said:

I'm amazed that after half a day of talk about green jobs and energy, I have not heard the word food, the word farm, or the word agriculture. I represent the local food movement and the pastured livestock movement, and we are tried of being marginalized, criminalized, and demonized by the USDA and this government. I'm a bioterrorist for letting my chickens run in the pasture. What good is it to have the freedom to own a gun, assemble, or worship if I can't choose the fuel to feed my internal 3 trillion member community of bacteria to give me the energy to go shoot, pray, or preach? I propose that we have a Constitutional Amendment that allows every American citizen the right to choose their food. Government bureaucrats should not come between my mouth and my 3 trillion member internal community."

`Other speakers had waxed on about health care and all sorts of things. I couldn't have talked more than one minute, when Sen. Udall interrupted with: "If you just looked inside the USDA, you would find tremendous support for local food."

I was the only speaker interrupted, the only one who mentioned food, farming, or agriculture, and the only one who didn't ask for more government money. And when I responded that I had looked inside and it was not a pretty picutre . . . they cut my microphone off. Enough of you, Salatin. We don't want your type around here.

Thus endeth Mr. Salatin going to Washington. I think I'll write some more books.

Comment: This posting, from the renowned farmer Joel Salatin, sums up much of the "green" movement in my mind. They are fixated on solving environmental issues through industry and government, when the real green issue is our food, which could be solved through nature and our local communities.

Salatin says above, "Of course, I don't think the Republicans would be any better, but the postulating and self aggrandizement was both disgusting and palpable." That says a lot about the US Senate, and Congress as a whole...time to repeal the 17th and remove some of the hubris, what do you say?

Are Americans Weaker Than the People of Iran?

An excellent question by Fabius Maximus. A good read, but I'm afraid the answer may be "yes". However, you should read what he has to say.

Montesquieu said that a democracy which was too large would die from a thousand special interests. Though America's federal government was created as a federal republic and never intended to be a democracy, that's what we became with the 17th Amendment. Now, it seems, we're just proving him right. We've been divided and conquered by race, gender, class, and a variety of other interest groups. No one cares about what's best for everyone anymore; they're willing to tear other groups down because they believe that lifts their group up. Like this:

Health Care Hypocrisy

Top-of-the-post update: Well, comment really. The only way to fight this is to point out the fallacy of believing that the government can pass a law making something free. Most supports of socialized health care believe they are extending benefits to those who cannot afford the health care they need. That fallacy is the problem, and that is what needs to be explained to people. Passing a law to make something free does not give people more of what they need. It reduces the available supply while reducing incentives to produce more. That creates shortages, which will eventually wind up killing people, just like it does in every country with government-run health care. (Additional comment: Try askign if we all deserve the same insurance the President has, and point out that that's not what he's offering the "little people".)

Original post below:

Rounding up reactions to President Obama's hour-long infomercial last night, many astute observations were made. Several people highlighted this exchange:

Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it's not provided by insurance.

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn't seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he's proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if "it's my family member, if it's my wife, if it's my children, if it's my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.

"There's a whole bunch of care that's being provided that every study, that every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier," he said.

Gibson interjected that often patients don't know what will work until they get every test they can.

"Oftentimes we know what makes sense and what doesn't," the president responded, making a push for evidence-based medicine.

Emphasis mine. While Ed Morrisey refers to the first exchange as "hypocrisy", and William Jacobson calls it "fraud", that second exchange is what worries me as much. Here, Obama is using the royal "we", meaning that those people "smarter than us" will determine for us what treatements they think are best. We will no longer be allowed to think and decide for ourselves. Does everyone remember the case of the kid who was forced to go through chemotherapy? Now imagine that he's an adult who wants a treatment that will be denied under Obamacare. If government takes the position of buying everything for us, it has to ration somehow. That's why Obama won't promise to deny his family treatment not authorized under Obamacare, just like he won't send his daughters to public school. The plans of the elites for the public are never the same as their plans for themselves. This may be a good time to remember Tocqueville's warning:

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things;it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

Michelle Malkin asks who's funding the Obamacare campaign.

John Stossel wants to put individuals in charge. (Watch Sick in America)

Jeff Poor points out that the President is doing all the talking in this conversation.

John Galt asks if we really understand the problem.

Update: I've got to include video of Michelle Malkin discussing how the elites are propagandizing in favor of socialized health care.



Update: Apparently, the infomercial was a ratings disaster.

Update: Breitbart headline: "Obama Won’t Pledge to Keep Family on Public Health Plan if They Become Sick"

Update: Reason TV highlights this video:



Update: CATO scholars dissect the Democrats' health care scheme:



Update: Another Reason TV video:

Stimulus FAIL II

Credit for the original image to Innocent Bystanders.

Of course, it goes without saying that the so-called stimulus never would have passed if the Senate had performed its original function. Repealing the 17th Amendment is the best way to curb future abuses of power.

Stimulus FAIL

Needless to say, if we'd had a Senate that protected federalism, the so-called federal "stimulus" never would have passed. repealing the 17th Amendment would protect against future abuses of power.

Got Democracy? The Algernon

Got Democracy? « The Algernon;

Repeal the 17th Amendment and replace it with another one establishing term limits. After hearing the recent arrogant comments made by the Ma'am, Barbra Boxer that she should be addressed by the title of ”Senator” because she worked ...

Proper Role Of Government: Proposed Amendments

Proper Role Of Government: Proposed Amendments; By Michelle

Prohibition is an obvious example, but also the 16th and 17th amendments serve to abridge the freedom of the people egregiously. Other amendments have been necessary and proper, such as the 14th (though the 14th has been so twisted and skewed by the judicial branch that it ... As strong as an amendment would seem to the people, it would in effect only be a bandaid, as government comes up with more and more reasons to get around it and an entitled mass demands its repeal. ...

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009; Open Congress.com

Note: While this being put forward in the House, the consequences of its passage are decremental to our country and freedoms.

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 - Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this Act or a state system certified under this Act and such license has not been invalidated or revoked. Prescribes license application, issuance, and renewal requirements.
Prohibits transferring or receiving a qualifying firearm unless the recipient presents a valid firearms license, the license is verified, and the dealer records a tracking authorization number. Prescribes firearms transfer reporting and record keeping requirements. Directs the Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system.

Prohibits:

(1) transferring a firearm to any person other than a licensee, unless the transfer is processed through a licensed dealer in accordance with national instant criminal background check system requirements, with exceptions;
(2) a licensed manufacturer or dealer from failing to comply with reporting and record keeping requirements of this Act;
(3) failing to report the loss or theft of the firearm to the Attorney General within 72 hours;
(4) failing to report to the Attorney General an address change within 60 days; or
(5) keeping a loaded firearm, or an unloaded firearm and ammunition for the firearm, knowingly or recklessly disregarding the risk that a child is capable of gaining access, if a child uses the firearm and causes death or serious bodily injury.
Prescribes criminal penalties for violations of firearms provisions covered by this Act.

Directs the Attorney General to:

(1) establish and maintain a firearm injury information clearinghouse;
(2) conduct continuing studies and investigations of firearm-related deaths and injuries; and
(3) collect and maintain current production and sales figures of each licensed manufacturer.
Authorizes the Attorney General to certify state firearm licensing or record of sale systems.

Comment: Pass this on and alert your friends and family; write your Congressman and tell them in no certain terms you oppose this bill.

S. 787: Clean Water Restoration Act

S. 787: Clean Water Restoration Act

Clean Water Restoration Act - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to replace the term "navigable waters" that are subject to such Act with the term "waters of the United States," defined to mean all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting them, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution. Declares that nothing in such Act affects the authority of the Secretary of the Army or the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the provisions of the Clean Water Act related to discharges:

(1) composed entirely of return flows from irrigated agriculture;
(2) of stormwater runoff from certain oil, gas, and mining operations composed entirely of flows from precipitation runoff conveyances, which are not contaminated by or in contact with specified materials;
(3) of dredged or fill materials resulting from normal farming, silviculture, and ranching activities, from upland soil and water conservation practices, or from activities with respect to which a state has an approved water quality regulatory program; or
(4) of dredged or fill materials for the maintenance of currently serviceable structures, the construction or maintenance of farm or stock ponds, irrigation ditches and maintenance of drainage ditches, or farm, forest, or temporary roads for moving mining equipment in accordance with best management practices, or the construction of temporary sedimentation basins on construction sites for which discharges do not include placement of fill material into the waters of the United States.

Comment: This is a major assault upon private property, food production and natural resources.

S.909 Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act

S.909 Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act - Adopts the definition of "hate crime" as set forth in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (i.e., a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim or, in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person). Authorizes the Attorney General to:

(1) provide state, local, or tribal law enforcement agencies with technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the investigation or prosecution of violent crimes and hate crimes; and
(2) award grants to assist such agencies with the extraordinary expenses associated with the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. Authorizes the Office of Justice Programs to award grants to state, local, or tribal programs designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles. Authorizes appropriations to the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the Community Relations Service, for FY2010-FY2012 to prevent and respond to hate crime acts. Amends the federal criminal code to prohibit willfully causing bodily injury to any person because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of such person. Amends the Hate Crimes Statistics Act to expand data collection and reporting requirements under such Act to include:

(1) crimes manifesting prejudice based on gender and gender identity; and
(2) hate crimes committed by and against juveniles. Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit the exercise of constitutionally-protected free speech.

Comment: This bill targets religious beliefs, and is another measure to remove the 1st Amendment from our civil rights.

The Gold Standard in Humor

US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

The THINK 3 INSTITUTE: "Repeal the 17th Amendment"

The THINK 3 INSTITUTE: "Repeal the 17th Amendment" By Samuel Wilson

"Repeal the 17th Amendment". My mention of this slogan on a sign carried at yesterday's "tea party" event in Albany has created some confusion among readers, and I wasn't exactly certain myself if the protester knew, ...

Republican Senator Seeks Details on Possible First Lady ...

Republican Senator Seeks Details on Possible First Lady ...FOXNews

A top Republican senator is asking whether First Lady Michelle Obama's office played any role in last week's firing of former service ...

It's Time Washington D.C. Heeded the Constitution

It's Time Washington D.C. Heeded the Constitution; By Tenth Amendment

Being the last mechanism left in the constitution to restore the republic… I hope this works!!!! Next the states need to form a constitutional convention and repeal the 16th and 17th amendment! Dan Says: ...

Dodd: Giving the Fed More Power...

Dodd: Giving the Fed More Power is like Awarding a Son a “Bigger, Faster Car Right after He Crashed the Family Station Wagon;" Washington's Blog

The chairman of the senate banking committee - Christopher Dodd - quoted a critic of the plan to expand the Federal Reserve's powers as being:

like awarding a son a “bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon.” He added that he hadn’t made a conclusion on the issue.

The critic is correct.

The Fed caused the Great Depression, according to Bernanke himself. The Fed largely caused the current financial crisis. The Fed creates new "money" out of thin air, and then charges massive amounts in interest to the federal government, impoverishing the nation and stealing its natural wealth. And the Fed has refused to tell Congress or the American people where the trillions of dollars in bailout money are going (see this, this, this, and this).

And the Fed is not even really a governmental institution. The Fed itself states that its 12 member banks are private institutions, owned by private banks.

However, Dodd's statement that he hasn't yet made up his mind about expanding the Fed's powers is just for show. In fact, Dodd and House banking committee chair Barney Frank were involved with Summers and Geithner every step of the way in drafting the plan to give the Fed more power.

Read the rest here.

Let’s dump the 17th Amendment and Relabel Progressives

Let’s dump the 17th Amendment and Relabel Progressives; Save the GOP

The 17th Amendment allows for the direct election of U.S Senators, and is widely viewed as a “champion” Amendment for those who called themselves Progressives 100 years ago. Today, the Democrats consider themselves to be the ...

Have Monsanto, Oxfam America, Gates, Rockefeller and more teamed up to foist GM onto Africa?

Have Monsanto, Oxfam America, Gates, Rockefeller and more teamed up to foist GM onto Africa? Food Freedom

Congress may pass the Global Food Security Act – Senate Bill 384. This would “boost spending on foreign agricultural development and nutrition programs from $750 million in 2010 to $2.5 billion by 2014. …the money can go to ‘biotechnological advances appropriate to local ecological conditions,’ including genetically modified seeds.’”

The major producer of GM seeds worldwide is Monsanto. Monsanto have also spent $2 million lobbying to have this bill passed.

>Various groups appear to be promoting improved seed and sustainable agricultural for Africa. They also seem to be supporting the Global Food Security Bill from behind the scenes. These groups are the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Together they have established the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

>Could these groups’ real agenda be to force GM seeds on Africa? ...

Senator Moves to Provide Aid to Auto-Parts Suppliers

Senator Moves to Provide Aid to Auto-Parts Suppliers; Wall Street Journal

Sen. Sherrod Brown said Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation to provide more aid for auto-parts suppliers, ...

Comment: The handouts are never going to stop now...

Slavery apologies and the reparations question

Slavery apologies and the reparations question; Walter Olsen; Overlawyered

“The Senate unanimously passed a resolution [Thursday] apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery.” [WaPo] Not altogether surprisingly, if you ask leading reparations advocates Randall Robinson and Charles Ogletree, Jr., whether this should reignite talk of reparations, they say yes. My City Journal article of last year explains why I think the latter very bad idea never picked up the political momentum its advocates expected.

Stephen Bainbridge has this response to the resolution’s sponsor:

“You wonder why we didn’t do it 100 years ago,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the vote. “It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice.”

Memo to Senator Harkin: We had a collective response. It was called the Army of the Potomac.

Democrats Bury ‘Community Transformation’ Plans in Health Care Bill

Democrats Bury ‘Community Transformation’ Plans in Health Care Bill; CNSNews.com

Senate Democrats inserted a wide-ranging provision for “Community Transformation Plans” in their half-completed health care bill, outlining the proposal on page 382 of the now-615 page bill, major sections of which have yet to be written.

Some Republicans have criticized the provision as a means to funnel money to liberal activist groups under the canopy of “community organizations,” whereby they will use the funds to promote big government health care but also monitor people’s eating and exercise regimens in the name of “healthy lifestyles.”

In the bill, the Affordable Health Choices Act, community transformation plans would be carried out using federal money and be overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC would distribute the money as well as coordinate the various state, local, and “community” entities responsible for carrying out the plans.

According to the bill, both state and local governments are eligible for the grants, as are “national networks of community-based organizations,” a group which is not defined in the bill.

Comment: Explain to me how we are supposed to have any faith in any politician when both parties are actively subverting this nation and the citizenry? Do you think one REPUBLICAN is willing to take a stand against this asinine BS? Hell no, they are right there with Teddy Kennedy and Dodd screwing you and me and moving this crap through the system because they are without ethics or morals. STOP DRINKING THE KOOL-AID!

Boy, if you people don't understand that this has all the elements necessary for a police state you obviously are either spending too much time watching "American Idol" or "ESPN." WAKE UP, TURN OFF THE TV!

Senate to vote on FDA power to regulate tobacco

Senate to vote on FDA power to regulate tobacco; apnews.myway.com

The Senate votes Thursday on legislation that for the first time would give the government control over the production and marketing of tobacco products, a long-sought goal that supporters say could save lives and millions in health care dollars. The FDA also would have the power to restrict tobacco mark product...

Comment: Government controlling the means of production...does that phrase trigger anything in your head?

Senate Puts Soft Drink Industry Under FDA

Bill puts soft drinks under FDA control; SmartBrief

A bill approved by the Senate puts the soft drink industry under the control of the FDA and tightens rules on soft drink packaging and advertising. ...

Senate Committee Looks to Complete Energy Bill

Senate Committee Looks to Complete Energy Bill Markup as Floor; New York Times

After several delays, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to wrap up major energy legislation this week after ...

Comment: You really need to read the complete article to see why our energy sector is so screwed up. The number of oligarchs in the Senate that have their hands in this sector is truly amazing, and is greatly disconcerting because you know that the citizenry's well being isn't even being considered.

Senate offers new plan to secure driver's licenses

Senate offers new plan to secure driver's licenses: The Associated Press

The Senate wants to replace a Bush administration program to secure driver's licenses with a plan that would cost states less money.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the new plan, which was introduced Monday, would refine the current program and not gut the security requirements of the ID law passed shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Napolitano says the new proposal is a recognition that states are not adhering to the requirements of the Bush administration plan.

The National Governors Association helped write the new proposal.

The 2001 attacks were the main motivation for the original law. The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states.

Comment: This is not true, motivation resided in an agreement the US made with the United Nations well before the supposed terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The attack was nothing more that the vehicle they used to institute the plan.

Drivers licenses are not the purview of the federal government, but the states. This is one step to a national identification card and should be fought in every state.

Senator Feingold Supports New Tobacco Control Bill

Senator Feingold Supports New Tobacco Control Bill; WKBT

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold is an [original] co-sponsor of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The Senator says the legislation is ..

Comment: Feingold's action will create a new and lucrative illegal business area for organized crime. Maybe Obama will appoint a Cigarette CZAR to perpetuate another government social issue failure.

Senator Snowe Sponsors Legislation to Combat Childhood Lead Poisoning

Senator Snowe Sponsors Legislation to Combat Childhood Lead Poisoning; The Exception Magazine

The bipartisan "Home Lead Safety Tax Credit Act of 2009" was sponsored in part by Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME). The announcement below was first ...

Comment: Haven't the oligarchs milked this issue long enough?

Affirmative Action to Guide Senate Hearing on Sotomayor

Affirmative Action to Guide Senate Hearing on Sotomayor; Scrappleface

Since Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor appears in a newly-released video claiming she got into Princeton and Yale, despite substandard test scores, because of her ethnic and economic heritage, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced today that it would alter the confirmation hearing process to avoid “the risk of anti-diversity”. ...

Dodd's wife serves on health care company boards

Dodd's wife serves on health care company boards; The Associated Press

The wife of a senator playing a lead role on a national health care overhaul sits on the boards of four health care companies, one of several examples of lawmakers with ties to the medical industry.

Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, serves on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living, and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals, a financial disclosure report the senator released Friday shows.

Sen. Dodd, D-Conn., is filling in for ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will soon start work on a health care bill. Dodd will shepherd the legislation through the Senate.

Dodd, who as Senate Banking Committee chairman also has been an architect of the nation's financial industry and housing rescue plans, did not file a new disclosure report outlining his personal finances as most other senators did in May. The Senate was releasing those reports Friday. ...

Comment: Let me state for the record, there is no conflict of interest here...

Taking the Reins

This is a long article and I'm only going to quote a small part of it:

In just the last few months, legislatures in five states -- Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota -- have passed resolutions asserting their sovereignty and asking the federal government to "cease and desist" from meddling in their business. Similar measures are pending in about two dozen other states, including seven out West.

"There's a lot of people in the federal government saying: 'Do this. You must do that. We're the boss,' " said Republican state Rep. Brad Klippert, co-sponsor of sovereignty legislation pending in Olympia, Wash. "That's not true."

Several Republican governors, including Sarah Palin in Alaska, Mark Sanford in South Carolina and Rick Perry in Texas, have gone beyond symbolism, turning down a portion of federal stimulus funds -- and rejecting the strings attached -- as a way of expressing their independence from Washington. That has sometimes meant going to court and fighting fellow lawmakers eager to accept the money.

The latest movement appears aimed at Obama, who, in just a few months, has increased the size and scope of the federal government more dramatically than any president in decades.

Advocates deny that, citing a litany of grievances that include the No Child Left Behind education bill, which imposed strict federal testing requirements, and the Real ID law, which dictates costly national standards for driver's licenses. Both were signed by President George W. Bush.

Read the whole thing here.

Napolitano on Your World with Cavuto

Senior Democrat Says Obama’s Czars Unconstitutional

Senior Democrat Says Obama’s Czars Unconstitutional; Ken Klukowski; Townhall

HT: InfoWars

Last week President Obama appointed yet another “czar” with massive government power, answering only to him. Even before this latest appointment, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate wrote President Obama a letter saying that these czars are unconstitutional. President Obama’s “czar strategy” is an unprecedented power grab centralizing authority in the White House, outside congressional oversight and in violation of the Constitution.

As of last week, Czar Kenneth Feinberg has the authority to set the pay scale for executives at any company receiving government money (and how many aren’t, these days?). Czar Feinberg has the power to say that someone’s pay is excessive, and to make companies cut that pay until the czar is pleased.

Congress did not give Czar Feinberg this authority. For that matter, Congress has not authorized any of the czars that President Barack Obama has created. Over the past thirty years presidents have each had one or two czars for various issues, and once the number went as high as five. But now, by some counts President Obama has created sixteen czars, and there may be more on the way. Each of these has enormous government power, and answers only to the president.

Ever since this practice of appointing czars began years ago, it has always been considered possible that they are all unconstitutional. But it never built to a critical mass to elicit a court fight. These czars were few and far between, and rarely did anything that seriously ruffled any feathers. But President Obama has taken this to an unprecedented level, to the point where these appointments are dangerous to our constitutional regime.

This has become too much for the longest-serving senator in U.S. history to stomach. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. Even though Senate rules vest most powers in the Senate majority leader, the president pro tempore is a constitutional officer, and third in line to the U.S. presidency (after the vice president and the Speaker of the House). This office is held by a Democrat, who has been serving in the Senate since before Barack Obama was even born.

Senator Byrd wrote a letter to President Obama in February, criticizing the president’s strategy of creating czars to manage important areas of national policy. Senator Byrd said that these appointments violate both the constitutional system of checks and balances and the constitutional separation of powers, and is a clear attempt to evade congressional oversight. (Didn’t this White House promise unprecedented transparency?)

Read the rest here.

Comment: I am not a lawyer, but I think Article 2, Section 2, of the US Constitution is clear:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

These Czars typify the imbalance of powers between the Legislature and Executive Branches, and the impotent Senate body, who are beholden to special interest that favor the creation of Czars.

Boxer's Hubris

There's a telling video on RealClearPolitics with Senator Boxer snapping back at a General during a Senate committee hearing demonstrating her hubristic nature.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to a General at a hearing yesterday: "Do me a favor," she said. "Could say senator instead of Ma'am It's just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it, thank you."

Obama Extends Federal Benefits to Same-Sex Partners

President Barack Obama, whose homosexual supporters have grown frustrated with his slow movement on their priorities, is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, a White House official said.

Obama plans to announce his decision Wednesday in the Oval Office, the official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president hadn't yet signed the presidential memorandum. The official said Obama would release more details Wednesday.

The decision is a political nod to a reliably Democratic voting bloc that has become impatient with the White House in recent weeks.

A few questions: First, isn't this the proper role of the legislature?

Second, why is the government subsidizing sexual relationships of any kind in the first place? Do people really need a subsidy in order to have sex?

Third, from where does the federal government get the authority to do anything like this? There's certainly nothing in the Constitution about giving "benefits" to anyone. None of the founders received marriage benefits, health benefits, social security, or anything like that. Federal benefits should be restricted, not expanded.

Unfortunately, the federal government will not begin to limit itself until the 17th Amendment is repealed.

Ron Paul on Socialized Health Care

It bears repeating that before the 17th Amendment the Senate acted to keep power decentralized. Unless we repeal the 17th Amendment, it will be necessary for people to establish strong lines of communication in order to point out why every crisis does not need to be met with an expansion of the leviathan. That's going to be a losing battle, but it's one we have to fight while working to repeal the 17th.

Another Dick Has a "Very Good Crisis"

Dick Durbin managed to cash in on the stock market collapse:

As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway's Class B stock, the disclosure shows.

As Brian says, Dick Durbin is another reason to repeal the 17th Amendment. Until the federal government gets out of the financial regulation business, this kind of corruption is going to happen. I'm reminded of this.

Mob Rule

From the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation:



One great benefit of repealing the 17th Amendment would be that states would have more power to protect minorities. Before the 17th Amendment, states were moving quickly to end slavery and promote racial, class, and gender equality. The federal government, particularly the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, moved quickly to quell the prosperity and equality that resulted from empowered states, which led to the War for Southern Independence, among other things. The 17th Amendment allowed the federal government much more power to pit one segment of society against another, as seen here:



Free states are better than centralized government. Repealing the 17th Amendment would give states more freedom, and people more freedom too.

The 17th Amendment didn't unite America; it allowed the federal government to divide Americans and pit them against each other.

Interested in a First Edition of Volume I of The Federalist?

Indiana National Guard Capt. Nathan Harlan was a high school junior when he paid $7 for a 1788 first edition of volume one of "The Federalist" — a two-volume book of essays calling for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

...

The divorced father of three was 16 when he bought the 227-page book in 1990 after his mother spotted it among book stacks as they browsed at a South Bend, Ind., flea market.

...

The essays were penned by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, all of whom used the same pseudonym to focus attention on their pro-ratification arguments.

"It's one of the great political documents to come out of America," Dimunation said. "And the favorite parlor game of the late 18th century was who wrote which essay."

After displaying his find in a shadowbox for 19 years, Harlan decided in April to sell it on eBay in part to make some money but also because no one else in his family appreciated the book.

...

Harlan owns just a single volume, and its leather cover has been replaced, but the auction house estimates it will sell for $8,000 to $12,000. James Gannon, Heritage's director of rare books, calls that range "very conservative" and says bidding could push the final price between $20,000 and $30,000 because the book is sought-after.

Harlan will get all the proceeds. Heritage is waiving its standard 20 percent seller's commission in recognition of his upcoming service in Iraq. He plans to save most of his auction earnings after paying a few bills.

Imagine...

The original purpose of the Senate was to prevent the federal government from becoming too powerful. Too many people think that the judiciary can fulfill that role. As I've noted in many places, Thomas Jefferson knew that the judiciary couldn't do that. However, the 17th Amendment fundamentally altered the power structure of the federal government, with disastrous results. I mention all this as a means of introducing Paul Starobin's recent oped in the Wall Street Journal:

Today’s devolutionists, of all stripes, can trace their pedigree to the “anti-federalists” who opposed the compact that came out of Philadelphia as a bad bargain that gave too much power to the center at the expense of the limbs. Some of America’s most vigorous and learned minds were in the anti-federalist camp; their ranks included Virginia’s Patrick Henry, of “give me liberty or give me death” renown. The sainted Jefferson, who was serving as a diplomat in Paris during the convention, is these days claimed by secessionists as a kindred anti-federal spirit, even if he did go on to serve two terms as president.

The anti-federalists lost their battle, but history, in certain respects, has redeemed their vision, for they anticipated how many Americans have come to feel about their nation’s seat of federal power. “This city, and the government of it, must indubitably take their tone from the character of the men, who from the nature of its situation and institution, must collect there,” the anti-federalist pamphleteer known only as the Federal Farmer wrote. “If we expect it will have any sincere attachments to simple and frugal republicanism, to that liberty and mild government, which is dear to the laborious part of a free people, we most assuredly deceive ourselves.”

In the mid-19th century, the anti-federalist impulse took a dark turn, attaching itself to the cause of the Confederacy, which was formed by the unilateral secession of 13 southern states over the bloody issue of slavery. Lincoln had no choice but to go to war to preserve the Union—and ever since, anti-federalism, in almost any guise, has had to defend itself from the charge of being anti-modern and indeed retrograde.

I've only quoted a small bit. You really have to read the whole thing.

Freedom From Choice

"The Public Plan Deception" from Verum Serum:



Repealing the 17th Amendment would return the Senate to its role of maintaining decentralization of power, and this kind of thing would not be an issue. States that wanted socialism would be free to suffer under them, and smarter states would be free to prosper. The only ideas that cannot tolerate competition are bad ideas, which is why proponents of bad ideas always want to make them universal.

Hat tip: Hot Air.

Major News: Billions in Bonds Seized in Italy

Japan is investigating reports two of its citizens were detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland.

“Italian authorities are in the midst of the investigation, and haven’t yet confirmed the details, including whether they are Japanese citizens or not,” Takeshi Akamatsu, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said by telephone today in Tokyo. “Our consulate in Milan is continuing efforts to confirm the reports.”

It is unknown whether the bonds are real or counterfeit. If they're real, then some government is secretly trying to divest itself of U.S. bonds, which bodes very poorly for America's economic situation. If they're counterfeit, then there may be hundreds of billions more counterfeit U.S. bonds in Europe, which bodes very poorly for America's economic situation.

This news sure is taking a long time to reach major news outlets.

Majority of House Cosponsors Ron Paul's Bill

A good first step.

Congressman Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, has reached and surpassed the level of 218 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, which means it is now cosponsored by a majority of the members.

The 218th cosponsor was Dennis Kucinich (OH-10), and the bill has since received its 222nd cosponsor.

“The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for HR 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy,” said Congressman Paul. “I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure.”

Hearings on Federal Reserve transparency are expected within the next month, as part of the Financial Services Committee's series of hearings on regulatory reform.

Freedom Watch - June 10th

Judge Napolitano has Ron Paul and John Stossel on his show. This one is really, really good. Here's the first one to get you started:

On Flag Day Fly Only Your State Flag

On Flag Day Fly Only the Ohio Flag; Aude Sapere

HT: Ohio Freedom Alliance

I am not about rah rah flag waving cheerleader stuff, but on June 14th, instead of flying the US flag, why not fly the Ohio flag in solidarity for states rights, 10th Amendment and the state sovereignty movement.Why should we fly a flag that represents tyranny rather than freedom and liberty?

Comment: Why not fly your state flag this Flag Day (June 14th) and support state sovereignty, and if asked why you aren't flying the federal flag, then tell them about state sovereignty and how the 17th Amendment changed the course of US history.

Peter Schiff on The Daily Show

Senate Panel to Work on Health Overhaul Next Week, Dodd Says

Senate Panel to Work on Health Overhaul Next Week, Dodd Says; Bloomberg

The Senate health committee will begin work June 16 on a plan to revamp the U.S. health-care system, said Senator Chris Dodd, who plans to manage the bill for ailing panel chairman Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Comment: Our country can expect the same concern for this bill that Dodd paid to the bail out and mountains of financial bills he has passed during his career.

Senate vote nears on tougher tobacco laws

Senate vote nears on tougher tobacco laws; USA Today

The Senate could pass a bipartisan bill as early as Tuesday that would require larger health warnings on cigarette packs, ban candy flavorings, ...

US Senate Democrats unveil healthcare bill

US Senate Democrats unveil healthcare bill; Reuters

Leading Senate Democrats unveiled on Tuesday a plan to revamp US healthcare that calls for sweeping insurance ...

Irked Grassley Tweets Obama in France, 'You Got Nerve'

Irked Grassley Tweets Obama in France, 'You Got Nerve;' Washington Post

Asked to respond to Grassley, White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said: "President Obama is gratified that the Senate is working hard to bring a health ...

Supreme Court choice could reignite culture wars

Supreme Court choice could reignite culture wars; Christian Science Monitor

But as the Senate prepares to hold confirmation hearings for Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, many of the hot-button issues dear to ...

"Stimulus" Ignores Small Business

Across the nation, local firms can expect to lose billions of economic stimulus dollars to large multinational corporations, thanks to a government contracting scheme that puts paperwork speed ahead of community recovery.

In Montana, that means qualified building firms are out of the loop, while many millions in federal construction funding will go to a California company that recently earned a stern rebuke for its failures in Iraq - a war-profits scandal that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It's a farce," said Dewey Swank of Kalispell's Swank Enterprises. "It stinks of politics and big special interests."

Of course, Obama owes a lot to those large multinational corporations that financed his campaign. And he is working hard to pay them back:

President Barack Obama originally sought $83.4 billion for the two wars and more foreign aid for countries like Pakistan.

But then he too sought more -- $4 billion extra to combat H1N1 swine flu and $5 billion to back credit lines to the International Monetary Fund, which is trying to help developing countries weather the global economic downturn.

After insisting on all this federal spending, isn't it a little late for this?

President Barack Obama sought on Tuesday to show he was serious about improving the U.S. budget picture as he called on Congress to pass new limits on tax cuts and spending programs to avoid adding to deficits.

As any student of history knows, the national debt did not explode until passage of the 17th Amendment. The only way to restore the federal government to fiscal common sense is to repeal it.

Update:

Found this video of Richard Ebeling, the former president of FEE, on Neil Cavuto making the same point, but much better than I can:

Citizens should be allowed to elect midterm senators

Citizens should be allowed to elect midterm senators; Danbury News Times

The people of Connecticut ought to have the right to elect their US senator, should a vacancy occur midterm. The premise of the right is no different than ...

In Illinois, Sen. Roland Burris has been maligned for how he sought the appointment from then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich for the seat that opened when Barack Obama became president. In a recently released FBI recording of a conversation with Blagojevich's brother, Burris can be heard expressing interest in the seat and discussing raising money for the governor, who since has been impeached. Burris denies wrongdoing.

Connecticut has had enough of its own political scandals in recent memory. Let's not perpetuate the monikor "Corrupticut."

In signing the bill, Rell would be relinquishing the power to appoint a senator to a vacancy. But she would be returning the power to the people.

That's where the power belongs.

Comment: Sadly, the writer has little understanding of US History, but this is the case for much of our country when it comes to the organization of our government at the founding.

This issue has nothing to do with power, but with checks and balance. So more appropriately, the imbalance caused by direct elections needs to be corrected and balance restored along with the representation of the state Mr. or Ms. Newtimes writer.

Corker: GM should reimburse auto dealers

Senator: Chrysler, GM should reimburse auto dealers; Bizjournals.com

A proposal in Congress would require Chrysler and General Motors to use any government funds they receive to fully reimburse their rejected dealerships for ...

Wickard v. Filburn

Wickard v. Filburn « Tarpon's Swamp; By tarpon

Filburn Supreme Court ruling, along with the 17th Amendment, have done more to make the Federal Government the force it now is in American life … Both need to be fixed, to recover States Rights. You know what that case means? ...

Leviathan

Dan Mitchell points out that the stimulus isn't doing any good:




This reminds me of something Milton Friedman said:




This is all based on a series of logical fallacies, such as this one:




Because someone has to take the credit or blame for everything that happens, they will insist on having more and more power to control everything. That's why leviathan grows through a series of crises. Milton Friedman warned us of the danger of looking for the "savior" who will save us all. Dan Mitchell was absolutely right to point out that Obama is just continuing and expanding Bush's big government policies, and we'll continue to see the same disasterous results.

GOP leader not ruling out blocking Sotomayor

GOP leader not ruling out blocking Sotomayor; The Associated Press

The Senate's top Republican says it's "way too early to know" whether his party will try to block a vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation.

Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell says he thinks using Senate rules to try to stop judges is a "bad idea," but that it's still a tool that "may or may not be employed at some point."

Other senior GOP senators have said they don't foresee using the tactics.

Comment: Throwing republicans a dog snap; but really it's just one big party. Hell, I'm willing to bet there was more diversity of opinions in the old Soviet Union than there is in Washington City.

Republicans Complain About Plan for Insurance

Republicans Complain About Plan for Insurance; New York Times

Despite the Republicans' concerns, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and its senior Republican, Senator ...

Comment: Wouldn't it be nice if there was at least one US Senator, from either party, that was fighting this on the grounds that this health care plan is a co-mingled form of socialism and fascism?

Nanny Republican Senator Urges Tobacco Ban

Republican senator urges tobacco ban; United Press International

A Republican US senator [Tom Coburn]who also is a physician is seeking to ban cigarette smoking and other tobacco use. ...

"What we should be doing is banning tobacco," Coburn said recently on the Senate floor during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill. "Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine. And even if they are not addicted to the nicotine, they are addicted to the habit.". ...

Comment: Who is he kidding, this is big TAX business!

If we really wanted to make a difference in health we would stop the importation of processed food from China and start encouraging local and regional farms. We should be supporting small and mid size farms, and food freedom. It's the highly processed food with the mountain of additives that is harming our health. It is the mountains of corn sugars and additives, not tobacco!

I smoke cigars and have no issue with my choice. This whole anti-smoking BS is not "American;" it is socialist/fascist crap. Maybe we should demand tobacco that isn't treated with chemicals, like our food!

And wouldn't know it, it's a REPUBLICAN wanting to control your life, all for your health. Next thing you'll know we'll have Snowe telling us it for the children.

Well enough of my rant...