Thursday, March 29, 2012
Ineptocracy
Since we are all watching the case of Obamacare in the Supreme Court I thought I would send an article by one of my favorite writers, Thomas Sowell, in which he talks about some of the history of a key element of the case which is interstate commerce. Few of us were old enough in 1942 to have been aware of this case but it was this specific case that opened the flood gates to federal government reaching into our private lives.
Thomas Sowell
When a 1942 Supreme Court decision that most people never heard of makes the front page of the New York Times in 2012, you know that something unusual is going on.
What makes that 1942 case -- Wickard v. Filburn -- important today is that it stretched the federal government's power so far that the Obama administration is using it as an argument to claim before today's Supreme Court that it has the legal authority to impose ObamaCare mandates on individuals.
Roscoe Filburn was an Ohio farmer who grew some wheat to feed his family and some farm animals. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined him for growing more wheat than he was allowed to grow under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, which was passed under Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce.
Filburn pointed out that his wheat wasn't sold, so that it didn't enter any commerce, interstate or otherwise. Therefore the federal government had no right to tell him how much wheat he grew on his own farm, and which never left his farm.
The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution says that all powers not explicitly given to the federal government belong to the states or to the people. So you might think that Filburn was right.
But the Supreme Court said otherwise. Even though the wheat on Filburn's farm never entered the market, just the fact that "it supplies a need of the man who grew it which would otherwise be reflected by purchases in the open market" meant that it affected interstate commerce. So did the fact that the home-grown wheat could potentially enter the market.
The implications of this kind of reasoning reached far beyond farmers and wheat. Once it was established that the federal government could regulate not only interstate commerce itself, but anything with any potential effect on interstate commerce, the Tenth Amendment's limitations on the powers of the federal government virtually disappeared.
Over the years, "interstate commerce" became magic words to justify almost any expansion of the federal government's power, in defiance of the Tenth Amendment. That is what the Obama administration is depending on to get today's Supreme Court to uphold its power to tell people that they have to buy the particular health insurance specified by the federal government.
There was consternation in 1995 when the Supreme Court ruled that carrying a gun near a school was not interstate commerce. That conclusion might seem like only common sense to most people, but it was a close 5 to 4 decision, and it sparked outrage when the phrase "interstate commerce" failed to work its magic in justifying an expansion of the federal government's power.
The 1995 case involved a federal law forbidding anyone from carrying a gun near a school. The states all had the right to pass such laws, and most did, but the issue was whether the federal government could pass such a law under its power to regulate interstate commerce.
The underlying argument was similar to that in the 1942 case of Wickard v. Filburn: School violence can affect education, which can affect productivity, which can affect interstate commerce.
Since virtually everything affects virtually everything else, however remotely, "interstate commerce" can justify virtually any expansion of government power, by this kind of sophistry.
The principle that the legal authority to regulate X implies the authority to regulate anything that can affect X is a huge and dangerous leap of logic, in a world where all sorts of things have some effect on all sorts of other things.
As an example, take a law that liberals, conservatives and everybody else would agree is valid -- namely, that cars have to stop at red lights. Local governments certainly have the right to pass such laws and to punish those who disobey them.
No doubt people who are tired or drowsy are more likely to run through a red light than people who are rested and alert. But does that mean that local governments should have the power to order people when to go to bed and when to get up, because their tiredness can have an effect on the likelihood of their driving through a red light?
The power to regulate indirect effects is not a slippery slope. It is the disastrous loss of freedom that lies at the bottom of a slippery slope.
Thank Mr. Sowell
This case, if settled in favor of the government, will put an end to any idea that government has any limits of how or to what extent in can reach into and direct our lives. So a great deal more is on the line than medical services within the Obamacare law…
Although the purpose of the Supreme Court is to deal with these kinds of constitutional issues, I feel bad for the judges who will, given their individual histories, vote to keep this incredible law in place. History will not be kind in recanting their contributions to the court.
Meanwhile our President is running around the world doing what many describe as the "Obama shenanigans."
Let me start by saying, I don't think this message that our President is sending to President Vladimir Putin through Medvedev needs any comments from me… I think he is clear and to the point with our allies, that the missile shields that were supposed to protect them and us from Russian aggression is going out the window when he is reelected and flexible.
Here is the exchange that most readers have heard and seen:
OBAMA: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
OBAMA: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
MEDVEDEV: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir [Putin].
Given all that he has done in his first term in office can we not imagine what all else he has in store for America and it citizens in his flexibility statement during his second term? The fact is we can't. We are Americans. How can we possibly imagine that a government we created could ever turn on its citizens….It is/was a government for and by the people…. The government was us and we are the government with our elected representatives serving us.
What makes this so sad is that for the first time in our lifetimes has any president had such a disrespect of our nation and its people? What is also surprising is so many of our brother, sisters, cousins, neighbors, elected representative don't seem to have a clue as to what his goals are nor the long term impact of what he is doing.
(Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - (A new word to me.) A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.)
Things have changed. Things often look the same but are not…. Take a few minutes and watch the video below. I had to watch it twice before I could begin to accept what I was seeing, what I was hearing, even though I knew when the various laws went into place.
You may need to download this video before you watch it. On my satellite site it plays in a broken fashion. (Or you may need to copy the link in your browser and go directly into the site.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcUZLd3yXOM
Ron
docnick37@gmail.com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
Monday, March 26, 2012
TAX RALLY
A message from Mark Mayfield to all members of The Oxford Tea Party on The Mississippi Tea Party!
Time: April 14, 2012 from 9am to 1pm
Location: Oxford Conference Center
City/Town: Oxford
Website or Map: http://www.teapartyoxford.com
This year’s theme for our Tax Day Rally is going to be based around you!
We have already invited numerous public officials from Lafayette County to attend this event. In addition to hearing from them about what they have been doing, we want to give you the opportunity to let them know what is on your mind by answering the following question:
If you could change one thing the government does with your tax dollars, what would it be and why?
Submit your answers on our web site.
(Even if you can't attend please submit your questions and ideas to the web site above.)
Ron
Docnick37@gmail.com
Time: April 14, 2012 from 9am to 1pm
Location: Oxford Conference Center
City/Town: Oxford
Website or Map: http://www.teapartyoxford.com
This year’s theme for our Tax Day Rally is going to be based around you!
We have already invited numerous public officials from Lafayette County to attend this event. In addition to hearing from them about what they have been doing, we want to give you the opportunity to let them know what is on your mind by answering the following question:
If you could change one thing the government does with your tax dollars, what would it be and why?
Submit your answers on our web site.
(Even if you can't attend please submit your questions and ideas to the web site above.)
Ron
Docnick37@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Day of Reckoning
A society without means to detect lies and theft soon squanders liberty and freedom…
I know yesterday's voting was supposed to bring some kind of clarity to the political campaigning… The number of people voting was down from the last election cycle. What this confirmed, at least to me, is a lack of enthusiasm for the candidates. Is this the writing on the wall? Will this same lack of interest carry into November?
Or could this simply mean the voters have accepted that Romney will be the presidential candidate?
Well, I hope all the candidates have gotten their fill of cheese grits and go home…. They have been guests who have stayed to long, imposed on our good manners and generally made a confusing mess. Long before November I am going to want all the candidates to go home, crawl in a hole for the next two years and keep their mouths shut.
With all this hoopla do any of us have any clearer picture of the character, moral values, beliefs, or goals for the country of any of these candidates than we had a week or two ago before yesterday's voting?…. Or a month ago..I got lots of 'robo' calls from the candidates saying they were the best one to lead the country….I feel like a prisoner of hope… because I'm not smart enough to know if any of them are worthy or capable to do the job of president that is needed.
One of these men will end up in the political contest against a president who is topping each of them in early polling with supporters who are enamored and fully committed to him…
"WASHINGTON – A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling the economy -- with a record number who "disapprove strongly" -- amid soaring gas prices and an uncertain fiscal future, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey out Monday found.
The poll found that 50 percent of those surveyed strongly disapprove of Obama's economic performance -- the highest in the poll's history. A total of 59 percent gave the president negative marks on the economy.
With rising gas prices hitting Americans at the pump, 65 percent said they found Obama's handling of the issue unsatisfactory. Of that number, 52 percent were said to "disapprove strongly" and only 14 percent "approve strongly" of Obama's performance on gas prices.
However, it appeared that the responses could have been based in part on political ideology, with Democrats less likely than Republicans to say that gas prices have taken a toll on their families, the study found.
The president also fared poorly on other issues. Sixty-three percent of Americans gave him negative marks on the country's budget deficit, while just 16 percent strongly approved of his work in that area. Asked about the White House's energy policy, 48 percent disapproved with Obama's performance.
Obama's handling of foreign policy, and specifically the war in Afghanistan, was almost evenly split between those who approved and disapproved -- 46 percent approved while 47 percent disapproved.
Regarding the president's overall job performance, 50 percent said they were unhappy with Obama and 39 percent strongly disapproved of his performance, while just 28 percent strongly agreed that he was doing a good job.
Asked who they would vote for if the presidential election were held today, 47 percent said they would vote for Obama if his opponent was:
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- but he would not be re-elected as 49 percent threw their support behind Romney. Against the former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Obama received 49 percent to Santorum's 46 percent.
The survey had a margin of error of four percentage points. ( 4 % is a lot.)
This is a polling report out of the Washington Post….
Polling manager Peyton M. Craighill and polling analyst Scott Clement contributed to this report. "
Thanks yuys for the report.
So the point here is no matter how the polled voters feel about the job Obama is doing ,on many different fronts, they will vote for him again… (Healthcare bill was not part of this study.. Good thinking.) The whole report is amazing…. Also, these same Obama supporters are very worried that conservatives will get into power again and destroy their country. Does this sound like a familiar worry?
If the country is not radically divided now it will be before the elections. The more radical the more difficult for the independent voters to come down on one side or the other… They will be the deciding voters…. Gas prices, food prices, unemployment numbers and our president's poor performance are what is impacting them and everyone else but will these problems be what decides their votes…?
I was reading an article yesterday chastising the Tea party…. The writer's point was the Tea Party is preaching to the choir. First, I realized the rightness in the article and secondly, I realized I had no idea how to educate/enlighten others as to our beliefs and principles…. There was a young woman in Alabama that Cavuto was interviewing last night on his show. The Tea Party there was supporting a candidate running against a sitting Republican. In disbelief Cavuto said to her that if successful you run the risk of your new guy being beaten by a liberal democrat. She said, "Yes we do see the risk but it is a issue of principle…." Cavuto shook his head and ended the interview. In that moment it was clear that he, along with many others who fill our nightly news, don't have a clue as to what the Tea Party is about…. From time to time I also forget.. I catch myself thinking about which candidate is the most electable…. and this is what keeps the political game going.
When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing.
When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you.
When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
Ayn Rand, 1958
I could be wrong but I don't believe corruption is more wide spread today than it was in the eight or ten congresses before this one. Certainly it is becoming harder to keep corruption hidden…. Probably some kinds of corruption more than others.. The problem for voters is that the idea of corruption is so rampant it has become almost acceptable.. If they get caught the house and senate ethics committees seem to offer little or no punishment. There are many elected moral men in office…. But like the adage about one bad apple in a barrel spoils the whole barrel. This is why we need to replace them all…. If we leave some in office the new folks we elect sooner or later will be tainted.
This is the modus operandi of the political class… They know how to educate and barter well with money and power. If our newly elected go along they will get along and be taken into the elite ruling class.
I don't know and can't find who was selected in all the other political contest. The presidential candidates over shadowed everything else.
Before I hit the send key let me draw attention so something Obama is doing that is very disturbing. Some may remember in Obama's first campaign he spoke of creating a army for inside the country. This idea seemed to have been dropped. Dropped because it seemed politically dangerous… But like everything else he promised he is following up and testing the waters for a homeland militia. Watch the 'youtube' video below… There are many ways this could be spun or rationalized but the core idea and activity is simply frightening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcUZLd3yXOM
Ron
docnick37@gmail,com
http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
I know yesterday's voting was supposed to bring some kind of clarity to the political campaigning… The number of people voting was down from the last election cycle. What this confirmed, at least to me, is a lack of enthusiasm for the candidates. Is this the writing on the wall? Will this same lack of interest carry into November?
Or could this simply mean the voters have accepted that Romney will be the presidential candidate?
Well, I hope all the candidates have gotten their fill of cheese grits and go home…. They have been guests who have stayed to long, imposed on our good manners and generally made a confusing mess. Long before November I am going to want all the candidates to go home, crawl in a hole for the next two years and keep their mouths shut.
With all this hoopla do any of us have any clearer picture of the character, moral values, beliefs, or goals for the country of any of these candidates than we had a week or two ago before yesterday's voting?…. Or a month ago..I got lots of 'robo' calls from the candidates saying they were the best one to lead the country….I feel like a prisoner of hope… because I'm not smart enough to know if any of them are worthy or capable to do the job of president that is needed.
One of these men will end up in the political contest against a president who is topping each of them in early polling with supporters who are enamored and fully committed to him…
"WASHINGTON – A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling the economy -- with a record number who "disapprove strongly" -- amid soaring gas prices and an uncertain fiscal future, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey out Monday found.
The poll found that 50 percent of those surveyed strongly disapprove of Obama's economic performance -- the highest in the poll's history. A total of 59 percent gave the president negative marks on the economy.
With rising gas prices hitting Americans at the pump, 65 percent said they found Obama's handling of the issue unsatisfactory. Of that number, 52 percent were said to "disapprove strongly" and only 14 percent "approve strongly" of Obama's performance on gas prices.
However, it appeared that the responses could have been based in part on political ideology, with Democrats less likely than Republicans to say that gas prices have taken a toll on their families, the study found.
The president also fared poorly on other issues. Sixty-three percent of Americans gave him negative marks on the country's budget deficit, while just 16 percent strongly approved of his work in that area. Asked about the White House's energy policy, 48 percent disapproved with Obama's performance.
Obama's handling of foreign policy, and specifically the war in Afghanistan, was almost evenly split between those who approved and disapproved -- 46 percent approved while 47 percent disapproved.
Regarding the president's overall job performance, 50 percent said they were unhappy with Obama and 39 percent strongly disapproved of his performance, while just 28 percent strongly agreed that he was doing a good job.
Asked who they would vote for if the presidential election were held today, 47 percent said they would vote for Obama if his opponent was:
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- but he would not be re-elected as 49 percent threw their support behind Romney. Against the former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Obama received 49 percent to Santorum's 46 percent.
The survey had a margin of error of four percentage points. ( 4 % is a lot.)
This is a polling report out of the Washington Post….
Polling manager Peyton M. Craighill and polling analyst Scott Clement contributed to this report. "
Thanks yuys for the report.
So the point here is no matter how the polled voters feel about the job Obama is doing ,on many different fronts, they will vote for him again… (Healthcare bill was not part of this study.. Good thinking.) The whole report is amazing…. Also, these same Obama supporters are very worried that conservatives will get into power again and destroy their country. Does this sound like a familiar worry?
If the country is not radically divided now it will be before the elections. The more radical the more difficult for the independent voters to come down on one side or the other… They will be the deciding voters…. Gas prices, food prices, unemployment numbers and our president's poor performance are what is impacting them and everyone else but will these problems be what decides their votes…?
I was reading an article yesterday chastising the Tea party…. The writer's point was the Tea Party is preaching to the choir. First, I realized the rightness in the article and secondly, I realized I had no idea how to educate/enlighten others as to our beliefs and principles…. There was a young woman in Alabama that Cavuto was interviewing last night on his show. The Tea Party there was supporting a candidate running against a sitting Republican. In disbelief Cavuto said to her that if successful you run the risk of your new guy being beaten by a liberal democrat. She said, "Yes we do see the risk but it is a issue of principle…." Cavuto shook his head and ended the interview. In that moment it was clear that he, along with many others who fill our nightly news, don't have a clue as to what the Tea Party is about…. From time to time I also forget.. I catch myself thinking about which candidate is the most electable…. and this is what keeps the political game going.
When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing.
When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you.
When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
Ayn Rand, 1958
I could be wrong but I don't believe corruption is more wide spread today than it was in the eight or ten congresses before this one. Certainly it is becoming harder to keep corruption hidden…. Probably some kinds of corruption more than others.. The problem for voters is that the idea of corruption is so rampant it has become almost acceptable.. If they get caught the house and senate ethics committees seem to offer little or no punishment. There are many elected moral men in office…. But like the adage about one bad apple in a barrel spoils the whole barrel. This is why we need to replace them all…. If we leave some in office the new folks we elect sooner or later will be tainted.
This is the modus operandi of the political class… They know how to educate and barter well with money and power. If our newly elected go along they will get along and be taken into the elite ruling class.
I don't know and can't find who was selected in all the other political contest. The presidential candidates over shadowed everything else.
Before I hit the send key let me draw attention so something Obama is doing that is very disturbing. Some may remember in Obama's first campaign he spoke of creating a army for inside the country. This idea seemed to have been dropped. Dropped because it seemed politically dangerous… But like everything else he promised he is following up and testing the waters for a homeland militia. Watch the 'youtube' video below… There are many ways this could be spun or rationalized but the core idea and activity is simply frightening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcUZLd3yXOM
Ron
docnick37@gmail,com
http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
Monday, March 12, 2012
True Grits and Mr. Charlie
Tuesday is a day we discover if or maybe to what extent common sense is still part of the social fabric..I'm not bright enough to find any of it in the political campaigns or most of the political candidates. Well if it 'ain't' there what happened to it? Where did it go? Did someone take it? And the answer is - Da,,,What do you mean common sense…..?
Growing up we would hear this word used often… Common sense seemed to be something everyone knew and believed… and when you learned what 'the' common sense was you simply did it…. Simple example: Carrying debt was a bad thing and saving was good common sense… Now debt is a good thing and saving is a bad thing. Hundreds of other examples could be given but the point is that something very bad has happened. Like some unique kind of virus has spread through the political and social groups that has destroyed out ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, and truths from lies…
Common sense seems to be rooted in values, beliefs, and principles…. the very things that bind people together into a societies - a culture. When government, liberal media, and other subgroups start tampering with these core values the first loss is 'common sense.' With that loss we los the ability to measure things that are going on around us and are impacting us everyday. Even the simplest of things, such as, "debt is good- saving is bad.'
So Tuesday is a common sense test for Mississippi voters but the test results will not be fully recognized until November.
So as we stare at the ballot know that what is being voted on is not this person or that person but the hidden question do we want government directing our lives...
I keep this article in my archives and every now and then when I am feeling lost in all of the political nonsense I reread the article….This is one of those days….
Mr. Reese has been a writer for the Orlando Sentinel for almost a half century and this was his last article before retiring. Some writers are able to say things simply that cuts through all of the confusion, outright lies, political slogans, reality spins, and all the other accepted behaviors from elected politicians. I say "accepted" because that is in fact what we have done as voters and citizens.
545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Thanks, Charlie
Under our watch this national has lost its way….
Under our watch the moral fabric has been torn…
Under our watch the dream has been lost…
Under our watch the 'shining city' is in shambles...
Since we find ourselves in a time of reckoning as a nation we need be sure we see, understand, and accept our part in this national atrocity.
So long as the voters continue to point fingers at our elected employees the longer it will take to find our way back and restore the country to some semblance of a place we have known.
The reason the 2010 elections did not strike fear in the hearts of every politician is because they have seen this before. What they have never seen before is for the voters keeping up the task of replacing them election after election.
The 2012 elections offers us a unique opportunity… If we can replace another sixty or seventy politicians in the House along with enough new Senators to give us control of the Senate then and only then can we take a deep breath and feel we are taking our government back. That is our mission.
If this mission is accomplished, we can live with a "Romney" as president or even a second term with Obama. Congress has the real power.
Would there were a silver bullet…. BUT two successful election is a row will strike fear in the hearts of ever professional politician at the federal and state level. That is the goal. If they don't fear us, they will not serve us. We know this because of what these elected employees have 'writ' on our nation's wall for the last few generations.
Congress is the power in Washington but we are the power in the nation. When we forgot this they forgot this.
Time is running.
How may of us know who is running for the senate in what states? What senators are in trouble in their states? What do we know about the people running against these sitting senators? Why is it even important that we know? We can't vote for them but what we can do is offer financial support and that is usually needed when running against an incumbent politician. When a few million people send a few dollars to candidates in other states it makes all the difference in the campaign and often the outcome.
It's a cool sunny spring morning here… The ducks are on the pond doing what they do and the gray crane is hunting his breakfast. It's after nine in Washington and Washington is beginning to do what it does…At Piney Hawk, in north Mississippi, things look 'as usual' … however, instincts are telling a different story. A story of loss, of danger, and of betrayal.
Here in Mississippi the new governor and the newly elected members of the house and senate are doing just what they promised they would do in their campaigns. Also, they are including the Tea Party folks in the process. What more could a poor boy want?
The simple answer to that question is: Washington.
Whatever happens in the election in November will happen to all of us and to each one of us. We are Americans and our destiny will be shared.
Ron
docnick37@gmail.com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
Growing up we would hear this word used often… Common sense seemed to be something everyone knew and believed… and when you learned what 'the' common sense was you simply did it…. Simple example: Carrying debt was a bad thing and saving was good common sense… Now debt is a good thing and saving is a bad thing. Hundreds of other examples could be given but the point is that something very bad has happened. Like some unique kind of virus has spread through the political and social groups that has destroyed out ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, and truths from lies…
Common sense seems to be rooted in values, beliefs, and principles…. the very things that bind people together into a societies - a culture. When government, liberal media, and other subgroups start tampering with these core values the first loss is 'common sense.' With that loss we los the ability to measure things that are going on around us and are impacting us everyday. Even the simplest of things, such as, "debt is good- saving is bad.'
So Tuesday is a common sense test for Mississippi voters but the test results will not be fully recognized until November.
So as we stare at the ballot know that what is being voted on is not this person or that person but the hidden question do we want government directing our lives...
I keep this article in my archives and every now and then when I am feeling lost in all of the political nonsense I reread the article….This is one of those days….
Mr. Reese has been a writer for the Orlando Sentinel for almost a half century and this was his last article before retiring. Some writers are able to say things simply that cuts through all of the confusion, outright lies, political slogans, reality spins, and all the other accepted behaviors from elected politicians. I say "accepted" because that is in fact what we have done as voters and citizens.
545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Thanks, Charlie
Under our watch this national has lost its way….
Under our watch the moral fabric has been torn…
Under our watch the dream has been lost…
Under our watch the 'shining city' is in shambles...
Since we find ourselves in a time of reckoning as a nation we need be sure we see, understand, and accept our part in this national atrocity.
So long as the voters continue to point fingers at our elected employees the longer it will take to find our way back and restore the country to some semblance of a place we have known.
The reason the 2010 elections did not strike fear in the hearts of every politician is because they have seen this before. What they have never seen before is for the voters keeping up the task of replacing them election after election.
The 2012 elections offers us a unique opportunity… If we can replace another sixty or seventy politicians in the House along with enough new Senators to give us control of the Senate then and only then can we take a deep breath and feel we are taking our government back. That is our mission.
If this mission is accomplished, we can live with a "Romney" as president or even a second term with Obama. Congress has the real power.
Would there were a silver bullet…. BUT two successful election is a row will strike fear in the hearts of ever professional politician at the federal and state level. That is the goal. If they don't fear us, they will not serve us. We know this because of what these elected employees have 'writ' on our nation's wall for the last few generations.
Congress is the power in Washington but we are the power in the nation. When we forgot this they forgot this.
Time is running.
How may of us know who is running for the senate in what states? What senators are in trouble in their states? What do we know about the people running against these sitting senators? Why is it even important that we know? We can't vote for them but what we can do is offer financial support and that is usually needed when running against an incumbent politician. When a few million people send a few dollars to candidates in other states it makes all the difference in the campaign and often the outcome.
It's a cool sunny spring morning here… The ducks are on the pond doing what they do and the gray crane is hunting his breakfast. It's after nine in Washington and Washington is beginning to do what it does…At Piney Hawk, in north Mississippi, things look 'as usual' … however, instincts are telling a different story. A story of loss, of danger, and of betrayal.
Here in Mississippi the new governor and the newly elected members of the house and senate are doing just what they promised they would do in their campaigns. Also, they are including the Tea Party folks in the process. What more could a poor boy want?
The simple answer to that question is: Washington.
Whatever happens in the election in November will happen to all of us and to each one of us. We are Americans and our destiny will be shared.
Ron
docnick37@gmail.com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Civic Awakening - Oceania
We must not forget we are the earth in which the American Dream grows. We are we… We are the people…. We are the hope…We are the nation.
“The greatest danger facing us is ourselves. We have an irrational and rational fear of change … Through our representative form of government we have given over to politicians our power …….. This change is rational fear….. Irrational fear springs from the idea that we can't take back our power…. There is a civic awakening… The people are speaking…. The 'good ol boys' are being turned out one state at a time, one district at a time, one school board at a time, one court at a time…. This is the time of transition…. Each new generation is charged with protecting the nation and the rights of the people in the nation…. This idea is not a 'thought-crime'. We, like the ones before us, are accepting this responsibility. So what's the big deal? Or is it a big deal? Yes it is….Is this a familiar deal? Yes it is … Will we have to do this again and again? Yes we will…. The lust for power is a human experience that is reborn in each new generation. Power can be achieved in many different ways and government is one of the most obvious….
The leader, Big -Brother equals = The Party = Oceania…. What silly nonsense trying to link Oceania 1984 with America 2012 in the same sentence… America could never be an Oceania… Oceania was ruled by an oligarchic dictatorship through The Party…. Pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public control of the people couldn't be something that our government would or could ever do to American citizens.
Orwell looked at the socialist road that England had set its foot on in the early part of the last century and could only see Oceania as the destination….. When we finally accept what we have done and look clearly at the socialist road that we have created for America, what do we see as the destination?
Our president, other elected leaders, big business, and academia make up our political class and slowly over many congresses and presidents have begun to function much like the leaders of Oceania…. They freely take our money, they attack our freedoms through regulation, they attack our beliefs, our religion, and liberal media, certainly part of the political class, benefit from their support of each encroachment by nightly in their News Speak filling our air waves and assuring us that what government is doing is a good thing. After enough repeating we say, "Oh sure this is good for us" because we heard it here, there, and everywhere…
Within the political class each group has its purpose and task of garnering and centralizing power to and for the their combined best interests. This is the 1% group that our (Ministry of Truth) the liberal press decries but actively supports. This process is not about who earns lots of money or is paying a 'fair share' of taxes but who has the power to control and direct. Big Bbrother said the enemy was outside and attacking Oceania in an ongoing war…. Our government says we are in a perpetual war and under constant threats of attack by forces outside of America and that we are inconstant danger and they will protect us from these terrorists…
With each ' protective step' our government creates we lose a little more of our freedoms and our rights as citizens. Recently we were outside the country and in order to leave the host country and return we went through five check points where the same searches were used. Getting through these check points took longer than the flight back. What should have been a five hour travel day lasted over eleven hours. A friend told a similar story of reentering the country on a driving trip into Canada. Since the Home Land Security Act became law, with its one hundred and eighty thousand employees, are we safer? We must not be because Home Land Security is growing in employees and offering up new controls daily…
Reagan said, "Government is the problem." What a difficult idea to grasp. As government expand and controls more and more of our lives we become more dependent, less able, and more willing to give Big Brother more control. Get some adult beverage, Goggle up the national registrar and see how many new regulations have been imposed on individuals and businesses this past year. Besides regulations that impact individuals directly, know that all regulations on business impacts individuals indirectly. Wonder why all our representatives don't know that. Wonder why we all don't know that?
People who see the power that government is garnering and how it is imposing itself in every aspect of our lives, one has to also wonder why the people who think about government in a liberal/progressive way don't worry about the loss and danger. The question is not, are we on the road that leads to Oceania, but are we there yet? Certainly the political class is committed and actively taking us there…. Directed by our president, cheered on by the Dems and their cohorts, the liberal media.
But between here and Oceania someone has turned on a blinking red light. That someone 'be' us. Last night in all the hoopla something happened besides Romney winning Ohio. Little attention was given but maybe the biggest news of the evening was in OH-2. Representative Jean Schmidt was defeated in a major upset by conservative challenger Brad Wenstrup. She is the first of those who voted for the debt ceiling deal … She was the first to pay the political price… Dennis Kucinich is a Dem and was the next to go in Ohio. Been in office a long time and ran for president twice… In north Mississippi there is a growing question as to a second term for recently elect district 1 representative. Nunnelee's voting has not been as conservative and consistent as he promised.
We may or may not get a candidate for president that speaks with a clear believable conservative voice. However, in this election cycle, replacing members of the House and Senate is the major task. These are the people in Washington that have the power to make a course correction and limit the recently acquired power the President taken for himself along with the cadre of bureaucrats.
Mississippi, at the national level, can contribute by continuing to replace our representatives. No one ever mentions our senators so I guess everyone is happy with them… Both seem to be very adept at porkmanship.
Romney won a bunch of states yesterday… Good for him. (I guess.) Here is a current tracking poll:
Obama 48 - Romney 42
Obama 49 - Santorum 41
Massachusetts poll (same day)
Obama 55 - Romney 38 (Note: This is a very liberal state.)
What seems important to me is the folks in Massachusetts know something about Romney we don't know…. They were not going to give him a second term. If he is our candidate, Obama's campaign will lets us know what we don't know about him.
If we were looking at Romney in any other context other than the leader of the nation here is what we would see and say about him:
"Look: a great country takes all types, and Mitt Romney is one of the kinds of private citizen who contribute enormously to making America great. He’s smart, articulate and fantastically disciplined and hard-working. He was a fabulously successful businessman, intimately involved in the development of many new and growing businesses during his career in venture capital and private equity. He ran the Salt Lake City Olympics well, rescuing it from a corruption scandal as well as the challenge of handling the extra security that came from hosting the Games just five months after September 11. He’s obviously a good family man, a man of faith and unquestioned personal integrity. He seems like the kind of guy anyone would be glad to have as a next-door neighbor or a son-in-law. He’s the kind of shirt-off-his-back guy who would ride out in the dark on a JetSki to say a drowning family and their dog, or shut down his entire business for days to help a co-worker rescue his kidnapped daughter, or give 15% of his income to charity. (True stories.) If we lived in a world without ideological conflict and were simply choosing a manager from among our most upstanding citizens to be a political leader, Mitt Romney would be near the top of anyone’s list."
This is a quote from RedState….
BUT in this context we are considering someone to be our leader and who would be the most powerful man in the world….That becomes a different kind of Romney story.... When a person or a candidate makes decisions based on their beliefs, values, and principles you don't see a lot of 'change of heart' in core issues but when they pander to the political wind change comes often. There is a long history of changes with Romney on core issues. He says his history and strengths is top down management which is great if you want big government.
Enough said…
I was whining about New Albany getting a forty mile walking/bike trail in a recent article well I am happy to tell you that Oxford is getting a four hundred and fifty thousand dollars bike track also…. (I wonder if any tax payer in Alabama knows their tax money is building bike trails in north Mississippi.) Both are part of Obama's Rebuild America scheme… Obama is bonding with lots of city fathers across America….
Outside the political campaign, a short note about the political class. Carbonite pulled its advertising support from the Rush Limbaugh radio show over a remark he made about a young woman who was at a 'committee meeting' explaining to our representatives why tax payers should pay from her birth control pills along with the other meds she might need related to her activities.... The American stock holders sold off their of Carbonite and the stock plunged 12% the next day.... There are many ways to skin a cat but if it’s a public company, such as Carbonite, that is in need of a conservative political lesson just sell their shares and don't buy their product. CEOs of companies are smarter than politicians…..and stockholder don't have to wait two or six years to fire them…
Isn't it dazzling the amount of money being spent on bashing the other candidates in this election cycle by the Romney campaign. What was it , four or five to one in Florida… To hear tell Obama will even spend more…..He has done 191 funder raisers so far and a few at thirty thousand a plate dinners…. Campaigning is costly… Bashing other candidates is considered a good thing and the cornerstone of political campaigns. The sad part is that it works….
Europe is unwinding, people are still losing their homes, unemployment numbers are higher than is being reported and, the debt is rising. CBO (Congressional Budget Office) just informed us that February was the biggest deficit month we have had in our history, 229 billion… Government borrowed that money from somewhere (or just printed it) and the interest we will pay will be around 300 million per month….
We have to replace them all….
Oh well, spring is here in North Mississippi…Trees are leafing out, roses are leafing out and the male robins are showing up in mass.
If we are able to get this government back on some reasonable track let us all have "Never Again" tattoo on our forehead.
Ron
Docnick37@gmail,com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
“The greatest danger facing us is ourselves. We have an irrational and rational fear of change … Through our representative form of government we have given over to politicians our power …….. This change is rational fear….. Irrational fear springs from the idea that we can't take back our power…. There is a civic awakening… The people are speaking…. The 'good ol boys' are being turned out one state at a time, one district at a time, one school board at a time, one court at a time…. This is the time of transition…. Each new generation is charged with protecting the nation and the rights of the people in the nation…. This idea is not a 'thought-crime'. We, like the ones before us, are accepting this responsibility. So what's the big deal? Or is it a big deal? Yes it is….Is this a familiar deal? Yes it is … Will we have to do this again and again? Yes we will…. The lust for power is a human experience that is reborn in each new generation. Power can be achieved in many different ways and government is one of the most obvious….
The leader, Big -Brother equals = The Party = Oceania…. What silly nonsense trying to link Oceania 1984 with America 2012 in the same sentence… America could never be an Oceania… Oceania was ruled by an oligarchic dictatorship through The Party…. Pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public control of the people couldn't be something that our government would or could ever do to American citizens.
Orwell looked at the socialist road that England had set its foot on in the early part of the last century and could only see Oceania as the destination….. When we finally accept what we have done and look clearly at the socialist road that we have created for America, what do we see as the destination?
Our president, other elected leaders, big business, and academia make up our political class and slowly over many congresses and presidents have begun to function much like the leaders of Oceania…. They freely take our money, they attack our freedoms through regulation, they attack our beliefs, our religion, and liberal media, certainly part of the political class, benefit from their support of each encroachment by nightly in their News Speak filling our air waves and assuring us that what government is doing is a good thing. After enough repeating we say, "Oh sure this is good for us" because we heard it here, there, and everywhere…
Within the political class each group has its purpose and task of garnering and centralizing power to and for the their combined best interests. This is the 1% group that our (Ministry of Truth) the liberal press decries but actively supports. This process is not about who earns lots of money or is paying a 'fair share' of taxes but who has the power to control and direct. Big Bbrother said the enemy was outside and attacking Oceania in an ongoing war…. Our government says we are in a perpetual war and under constant threats of attack by forces outside of America and that we are inconstant danger and they will protect us from these terrorists…
With each ' protective step' our government creates we lose a little more of our freedoms and our rights as citizens. Recently we were outside the country and in order to leave the host country and return we went through five check points where the same searches were used. Getting through these check points took longer than the flight back. What should have been a five hour travel day lasted over eleven hours. A friend told a similar story of reentering the country on a driving trip into Canada. Since the Home Land Security Act became law, with its one hundred and eighty thousand employees, are we safer? We must not be because Home Land Security is growing in employees and offering up new controls daily…
Reagan said, "Government is the problem." What a difficult idea to grasp. As government expand and controls more and more of our lives we become more dependent, less able, and more willing to give Big Brother more control. Get some adult beverage, Goggle up the national registrar and see how many new regulations have been imposed on individuals and businesses this past year. Besides regulations that impact individuals directly, know that all regulations on business impacts individuals indirectly. Wonder why all our representatives don't know that. Wonder why we all don't know that?
People who see the power that government is garnering and how it is imposing itself in every aspect of our lives, one has to also wonder why the people who think about government in a liberal/progressive way don't worry about the loss and danger. The question is not, are we on the road that leads to Oceania, but are we there yet? Certainly the political class is committed and actively taking us there…. Directed by our president, cheered on by the Dems and their cohorts, the liberal media.
But between here and Oceania someone has turned on a blinking red light. That someone 'be' us. Last night in all the hoopla something happened besides Romney winning Ohio. Little attention was given but maybe the biggest news of the evening was in OH-2. Representative Jean Schmidt was defeated in a major upset by conservative challenger Brad Wenstrup. She is the first of those who voted for the debt ceiling deal … She was the first to pay the political price… Dennis Kucinich is a Dem and was the next to go in Ohio. Been in office a long time and ran for president twice… In north Mississippi there is a growing question as to a second term for recently elect district 1 representative. Nunnelee's voting has not been as conservative and consistent as he promised.
We may or may not get a candidate for president that speaks with a clear believable conservative voice. However, in this election cycle, replacing members of the House and Senate is the major task. These are the people in Washington that have the power to make a course correction and limit the recently acquired power the President taken for himself along with the cadre of bureaucrats.
Mississippi, at the national level, can contribute by continuing to replace our representatives. No one ever mentions our senators so I guess everyone is happy with them… Both seem to be very adept at porkmanship.
Romney won a bunch of states yesterday… Good for him. (I guess.) Here is a current tracking poll:
Obama 48 - Romney 42
Obama 49 - Santorum 41
Massachusetts poll (same day)
Obama 55 - Romney 38 (Note: This is a very liberal state.)
What seems important to me is the folks in Massachusetts know something about Romney we don't know…. They were not going to give him a second term. If he is our candidate, Obama's campaign will lets us know what we don't know about him.
If we were looking at Romney in any other context other than the leader of the nation here is what we would see and say about him:
"Look: a great country takes all types, and Mitt Romney is one of the kinds of private citizen who contribute enormously to making America great. He’s smart, articulate and fantastically disciplined and hard-working. He was a fabulously successful businessman, intimately involved in the development of many new and growing businesses during his career in venture capital and private equity. He ran the Salt Lake City Olympics well, rescuing it from a corruption scandal as well as the challenge of handling the extra security that came from hosting the Games just five months after September 11. He’s obviously a good family man, a man of faith and unquestioned personal integrity. He seems like the kind of guy anyone would be glad to have as a next-door neighbor or a son-in-law. He’s the kind of shirt-off-his-back guy who would ride out in the dark on a JetSki to say a drowning family and their dog, or shut down his entire business for days to help a co-worker rescue his kidnapped daughter, or give 15% of his income to charity. (True stories.) If we lived in a world without ideological conflict and were simply choosing a manager from among our most upstanding citizens to be a political leader, Mitt Romney would be near the top of anyone’s list."
This is a quote from RedState….
BUT in this context we are considering someone to be our leader and who would be the most powerful man in the world….That becomes a different kind of Romney story.... When a person or a candidate makes decisions based on their beliefs, values, and principles you don't see a lot of 'change of heart' in core issues but when they pander to the political wind change comes often. There is a long history of changes with Romney on core issues. He says his history and strengths is top down management which is great if you want big government.
Enough said…
I was whining about New Albany getting a forty mile walking/bike trail in a recent article well I am happy to tell you that Oxford is getting a four hundred and fifty thousand dollars bike track also…. (I wonder if any tax payer in Alabama knows their tax money is building bike trails in north Mississippi.) Both are part of Obama's Rebuild America scheme… Obama is bonding with lots of city fathers across America….
Outside the political campaign, a short note about the political class. Carbonite pulled its advertising support from the Rush Limbaugh radio show over a remark he made about a young woman who was at a 'committee meeting' explaining to our representatives why tax payers should pay from her birth control pills along with the other meds she might need related to her activities.... The American stock holders sold off their of Carbonite and the stock plunged 12% the next day.... There are many ways to skin a cat but if it’s a public company, such as Carbonite, that is in need of a conservative political lesson just sell their shares and don't buy their product. CEOs of companies are smarter than politicians…..and stockholder don't have to wait two or six years to fire them…
Isn't it dazzling the amount of money being spent on bashing the other candidates in this election cycle by the Romney campaign. What was it , four or five to one in Florida… To hear tell Obama will even spend more…..He has done 191 funder raisers so far and a few at thirty thousand a plate dinners…. Campaigning is costly… Bashing other candidates is considered a good thing and the cornerstone of political campaigns. The sad part is that it works….
Europe is unwinding, people are still losing their homes, unemployment numbers are higher than is being reported and, the debt is rising. CBO (Congressional Budget Office) just informed us that February was the biggest deficit month we have had in our history, 229 billion… Government borrowed that money from somewhere (or just printed it) and the interest we will pay will be around 300 million per month….
We have to replace them all….
Oh well, spring is here in North Mississippi…Trees are leafing out, roses are leafing out and the male robins are showing up in mass.
If we are able to get this government back on some reasonable track let us all have "Never Again" tattoo on our forehead.
Ron
Docnick37@gmail,com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
Friday, March 2, 2012
Sure We Can - (Well Maybe)
I find if I can write things down they stop rattling around in my mind. Here are my TWO TOP rattlers of the morning.
ONE: At a time of record deficits, cutting back on military spending has caused a lot of worry and debate. Our military defends our country and protects from the 'bad' guys. Our military has built a new soccer field for detainees at Camp 6 in Guantanamo Bay -- at a cost of $750,000 to taxpayers. They say it'sbecause the detainees (militants) like soccer. Now since the detention camps opened in 2002, some half dozen cases have been prosecuted -- four ended in plea agreements with minimal jail time.
Two: (Closer to home….) New Albany, Mississippi somehow got 9.6 million dollars to tear up forty miles of railroad track and paved it so it will be a walking trail and a bike path…. They say this project will create jobs and help businesses. Who got them the money and from where? Clearly taxpayers' dollars but who got them the money? Where did such an idea come from? I know that New Albany needs help but a forty mile walking path. (?)
After reading this one-two punch over coffee this morning I had to wonder how this country runs at any level?
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve
48.1
Disapprove
48.1
Direction of Country
RCP Average
Right Direction
34.8
Wrong Track
59.0
Generic Congressional Vote
RCP Average
Republicans
43.4
Democrats
43.2
Here are Real Clear Politics average polls….. Notice congress generic polls are now tied…. So half the folks see Dems and GOP in the same light. Also, and I think very importantly, notice the tie with Obama on approve versus disapprove. What becomes, once again, critical is the independent voter. It seems that group has a history for voting for whom they perceive to be a strong leader. Like the rest of us, they are staring at Mitt and Rick with a big question mark popping up in their minds.
This missive may be the ten thousandth time I have suggested that everyone needs to take a look at Newt Gingrich in some other way than what has been the past measuring stick…. I think this because 1) Our two leading candidates clearly support some form of national health plan. I can rationalize how Rick could be off base BUT Mitt has a history with this kind of dangerous legislation. 2) Neither of these two candidates will speak directly to the issue of how they would cut government growth or spending other that vague generalities . 3) Already the polls are raising the question of each of their abilities to beat Obama in the general election……
The November vote will be for or against a President who in his first term in office has kept every promise he made… He has worked tirelessly to expand government, expand social programs, raise taxes, created a national health plan, and is in the process of spreading the wealth around…..
Many of us discount what Obama has accomplished because we don't believe in what he is doing…. And in doing so we assume the majority of the voters feel the way we do… Big mistake…because trust in a politician keeping his word is paramount for most voters. On our side we only have one candidate, Newt Gingrich, who has a track record of making campaign promises and keeping them… Rick was voted out of the senate by voters of his state. Do you know how seldom this happens? (They saw something in him they didn't like….and they know something about him most of us don't know.) Poor Mitt…. He just wants to be president really bad... If the nation's life wasn't on the line I don't know how much I would care….. Donations are slowing down for him so he may have to drop another 50M into this campaign just like the last one.
Not long ago I ran an article written by one of Newt's daughters concerning rumors about her mother's and father's relationship. Silly me…thinking that because of what she was saying was different than what the liberal press was reporting would make some difference in how Newt is being judged.
Being a slow learner, I want to try again and this time address the ethic charges against Gingrich. This article is once again from one of my favorite web sites, TownHall, and the writer is Byron York:
The Romney campaign has been hitting Newt Gingrich hard over the 1990s ethics case that resulted in the former speaker being reprimanded and paying a $300,000 penalty. Romney mentions it often, and his campaign made the ethics case the focus of the most widely viewed attack ad of the Florida primary.
Given all that attention, it's worth asking what actually happened back in 1995, 1996 and 1997.
The Gingrich case was extraordinarily complex, intensely partisan, and driven in no small way by a personal vendetta on the part of one of Gingrich's former political opponents. It received saturation coverage in the press; a database search of major media outlets revealed more than 10,000 references to Gingrich's ethics problems during the six months leading to his reprimand. It ended with a special counsel hired by the House Ethics Committee holding Gingrich to an astonishingly strict standard of behavior, after which Gingrich in essence pled guilty to two minor offenses. Afterward, the case was referred to the Internal Revenue Service, which conducted an exhaustive investigation into the matter -- and then, three years later, completely exonerated Gingrich.
It's that last part of the story you don't hear about much.
At the center of the controversy was a course Gingrich taught from 1993 to 1995 at two small Georgia colleges. The class, called "Renewing American Civilization," was conceived by Gingrich and financed by a tax-exempt organization called the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Gingrich maintained that the course was a legitimate educational enterprise; his critics said it had little to do with learning and was, in fact, a political exercise in which Gingrich abused a tax-exempt foundation to spread his own partisan message.
The Gingrich case was driven in significant part by a man named Ben Jones. An actor and recovered alcoholic who became famous for playing the dim-witted Cooter in the popular 1980s TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard," Jones ran for Congress as a Democrat from Georgia in 1988. He served two terms, but lost his seat due to redistricting. Attempting a comeback, he ran against Gingrich in 1994 and lost decisively. After that, it's fair to say Jones became obsessed with bringing Gingrich down.
Two days before Election Day 1994, with defeat in sight, Jones hand-delivered a complaint to the House Ethics Committee. (The complaint was printed on "Ben Jones for Congress" stationery. ) Jones charged that Gingrich "fabricated a 'college course' intended, in fact, to meet certain political, not educational, objectives."
Jones teamed up with his friend, Democratic Rep. David Bonior, to push the case relentlessly. Under public pressure, the Ethics Committee -- made up of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats -- took up the case and hired an outside counsel, Washington lawyer James Cole, to conduct the investigation.
Cole developed a theory in which Gingrich, looking for a way to spread his political views, came up with the idea of creating a college course and then devised a way to use a tax-exempt foundation to pay the bills. Cole didn't argue that the course was not educational; it plainly was. But Cole suggested that the standard for determining wrongdoing was whether any ill intent lurked in Gingrich's heart, even if the course was unquestionably educational.
It is hard to con vey today how much the media became preoccupied with the case, and how much pressure fell on Gingrich and Republicans to end the ordeal. In January 1997, Gingrich agreed to plead guilty to the previously unknown offense of failing to seek sufficiently detailed advice from a tax lawyer before proceeding with the course. (Gingrich had, in fact, sought advice from two such lawyers in relation to the course.) Gingrich also admitted that he had provided "inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable" information to Ethics Committee investigators. That "inaccurate" information was largely Gingrich's contention that the course was not political -- a claim the IRS later would support.
Why did Gingrich admit wrongdoing? "The atmosphere at the time was so rancorous, partisan, and personal that everyone, including Newt, was desperately seeking a way to end the whole thing," Gingrich attorney Jan Baran said in 1999. "He was admitting to whatever he could to get the case over with."
It was a huge victory for Democrats. They had deeply wounded the speaker. But they wanted more, and they pressed the IRS to investigate.
Experts examined every word Gingrich spoke in every class; they examined the financing and administration of the course; and they examined how the course might have fit into Gingrich's political network.
In the end, in 1999, the IRS released a highly detailed 74-page report that concluded the course was, in fact, a legitimate educational exercise. "The 'Renewing American Civilization' course was educational ... and not biased toward any of those who were supposed to be benefited," the IRS concluded.
Bottom line: Gingrich acted properly and violated no laws. Of course, by that time, Gingrich was out of office, widely presumed to be guilty of something, and his career in politics was (seemingly) over. Now he's having to fight the fight all over again.
As the historian Gertrude Himmelfarb observed more than a decade ago, “What was once stigmatized as deviant behavior is now tolerated and even sanctioned; what was once regarded as abnormal has been normalized.” But even more importantly, she added, “As deviancy is normalized, so what was once normal becomes deviant. The kind of family that has been regarded for centuries as natural and moral – the ‘bourgeois’ family as it is invidiously called – is now seen as pathological” and exclusionary, concealing the worst forms of psychic and physical oppression.
My point is this: Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God.
Thanks, Byron
Well, the big day is coming with SUPER TUESDAY…. It would be nice IF next Tuesday offered us some closure. I fear not…. Iran has its equivalent of super Tuesday today…. I don't expect much of a change there either. Inflation in Iran is running 20% plus there… If we had 20% inflation here I predict, with confidence, what American's voters would do……
Just a few of numbers to mull over:
November elections will take place in 249 days, 9 hours, and 55 minutes
Actual Unemployment 23,044,093
US Retirees and SSI 66,797,723
Food stamps 46,784,780
Liability Per Tax payer 1,041,436
Unfunded liabilities 117,834,017,737,930
Does anyone have any ideas as to how we are going to pay these bills?
Click on the link below and hear/see Senator's Reid's stand on the current conflict between religion and government.
Have a great day…
Ron
Docnick37@gmail,com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/07/harry-reid-%E2%80%98totally-supports%E2%80%99-obama-going-against-catholic-church-over-mandatory-contraception-coverage-video/
ONE: At a time of record deficits, cutting back on military spending has caused a lot of worry and debate. Our military defends our country and protects from the 'bad' guys. Our military has built a new soccer field for detainees at Camp 6 in Guantanamo Bay -- at a cost of $750,000 to taxpayers. They say it'sbecause the detainees (militants) like soccer. Now since the detention camps opened in 2002, some half dozen cases have been prosecuted -- four ended in plea agreements with minimal jail time.
Two: (Closer to home….) New Albany, Mississippi somehow got 9.6 million dollars to tear up forty miles of railroad track and paved it so it will be a walking trail and a bike path…. They say this project will create jobs and help businesses. Who got them the money and from where? Clearly taxpayers' dollars but who got them the money? Where did such an idea come from? I know that New Albany needs help but a forty mile walking path. (?)
After reading this one-two punch over coffee this morning I had to wonder how this country runs at any level?
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve
48.1
Disapprove
48.1
Direction of Country
RCP Average
Right Direction
34.8
Wrong Track
59.0
Generic Congressional Vote
RCP Average
Republicans
43.4
Democrats
43.2
Here are Real Clear Politics average polls….. Notice congress generic polls are now tied…. So half the folks see Dems and GOP in the same light. Also, and I think very importantly, notice the tie with Obama on approve versus disapprove. What becomes, once again, critical is the independent voter. It seems that group has a history for voting for whom they perceive to be a strong leader. Like the rest of us, they are staring at Mitt and Rick with a big question mark popping up in their minds.
This missive may be the ten thousandth time I have suggested that everyone needs to take a look at Newt Gingrich in some other way than what has been the past measuring stick…. I think this because 1) Our two leading candidates clearly support some form of national health plan. I can rationalize how Rick could be off base BUT Mitt has a history with this kind of dangerous legislation. 2) Neither of these two candidates will speak directly to the issue of how they would cut government growth or spending other that vague generalities . 3) Already the polls are raising the question of each of their abilities to beat Obama in the general election……
The November vote will be for or against a President who in his first term in office has kept every promise he made… He has worked tirelessly to expand government, expand social programs, raise taxes, created a national health plan, and is in the process of spreading the wealth around…..
Many of us discount what Obama has accomplished because we don't believe in what he is doing…. And in doing so we assume the majority of the voters feel the way we do… Big mistake…because trust in a politician keeping his word is paramount for most voters. On our side we only have one candidate, Newt Gingrich, who has a track record of making campaign promises and keeping them… Rick was voted out of the senate by voters of his state. Do you know how seldom this happens? (They saw something in him they didn't like….and they know something about him most of us don't know.) Poor Mitt…. He just wants to be president really bad... If the nation's life wasn't on the line I don't know how much I would care….. Donations are slowing down for him so he may have to drop another 50M into this campaign just like the last one.
Not long ago I ran an article written by one of Newt's daughters concerning rumors about her mother's and father's relationship. Silly me…thinking that because of what she was saying was different than what the liberal press was reporting would make some difference in how Newt is being judged.
Being a slow learner, I want to try again and this time address the ethic charges against Gingrich. This article is once again from one of my favorite web sites, TownHall, and the writer is Byron York:
The Romney campaign has been hitting Newt Gingrich hard over the 1990s ethics case that resulted in the former speaker being reprimanded and paying a $300,000 penalty. Romney mentions it often, and his campaign made the ethics case the focus of the most widely viewed attack ad of the Florida primary.
Given all that attention, it's worth asking what actually happened back in 1995, 1996 and 1997.
The Gingrich case was extraordinarily complex, intensely partisan, and driven in no small way by a personal vendetta on the part of one of Gingrich's former political opponents. It received saturation coverage in the press; a database search of major media outlets revealed more than 10,000 references to Gingrich's ethics problems during the six months leading to his reprimand. It ended with a special counsel hired by the House Ethics Committee holding Gingrich to an astonishingly strict standard of behavior, after which Gingrich in essence pled guilty to two minor offenses. Afterward, the case was referred to the Internal Revenue Service, which conducted an exhaustive investigation into the matter -- and then, three years later, completely exonerated Gingrich.
It's that last part of the story you don't hear about much.
At the center of the controversy was a course Gingrich taught from 1993 to 1995 at two small Georgia colleges. The class, called "Renewing American Civilization," was conceived by Gingrich and financed by a tax-exempt organization called the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Gingrich maintained that the course was a legitimate educational enterprise; his critics said it had little to do with learning and was, in fact, a political exercise in which Gingrich abused a tax-exempt foundation to spread his own partisan message.
The Gingrich case was driven in significant part by a man named Ben Jones. An actor and recovered alcoholic who became famous for playing the dim-witted Cooter in the popular 1980s TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard," Jones ran for Congress as a Democrat from Georgia in 1988. He served two terms, but lost his seat due to redistricting. Attempting a comeback, he ran against Gingrich in 1994 and lost decisively. After that, it's fair to say Jones became obsessed with bringing Gingrich down.
Two days before Election Day 1994, with defeat in sight, Jones hand-delivered a complaint to the House Ethics Committee. (The complaint was printed on "Ben Jones for Congress" stationery. ) Jones charged that Gingrich "fabricated a 'college course' intended, in fact, to meet certain political, not educational, objectives."
Jones teamed up with his friend, Democratic Rep. David Bonior, to push the case relentlessly. Under public pressure, the Ethics Committee -- made up of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats -- took up the case and hired an outside counsel, Washington lawyer James Cole, to conduct the investigation.
Cole developed a theory in which Gingrich, looking for a way to spread his political views, came up with the idea of creating a college course and then devised a way to use a tax-exempt foundation to pay the bills. Cole didn't argue that the course was not educational; it plainly was. But Cole suggested that the standard for determining wrongdoing was whether any ill intent lurked in Gingrich's heart, even if the course was unquestionably educational.
It is hard to con vey today how much the media became preoccupied with the case, and how much pressure fell on Gingrich and Republicans to end the ordeal. In January 1997, Gingrich agreed to plead guilty to the previously unknown offense of failing to seek sufficiently detailed advice from a tax lawyer before proceeding with the course. (Gingrich had, in fact, sought advice from two such lawyers in relation to the course.) Gingrich also admitted that he had provided "inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable" information to Ethics Committee investigators. That "inaccurate" information was largely Gingrich's contention that the course was not political -- a claim the IRS later would support.
Why did Gingrich admit wrongdoing? "The atmosphere at the time was so rancorous, partisan, and personal that everyone, including Newt, was desperately seeking a way to end the whole thing," Gingrich attorney Jan Baran said in 1999. "He was admitting to whatever he could to get the case over with."
It was a huge victory for Democrats. They had deeply wounded the speaker. But they wanted more, and they pressed the IRS to investigate.
Experts examined every word Gingrich spoke in every class; they examined the financing and administration of the course; and they examined how the course might have fit into Gingrich's political network.
In the end, in 1999, the IRS released a highly detailed 74-page report that concluded the course was, in fact, a legitimate educational exercise. "The 'Renewing American Civilization' course was educational ... and not biased toward any of those who were supposed to be benefited," the IRS concluded.
Bottom line: Gingrich acted properly and violated no laws. Of course, by that time, Gingrich was out of office, widely presumed to be guilty of something, and his career in politics was (seemingly) over. Now he's having to fight the fight all over again.
As the historian Gertrude Himmelfarb observed more than a decade ago, “What was once stigmatized as deviant behavior is now tolerated and even sanctioned; what was once regarded as abnormal has been normalized.” But even more importantly, she added, “As deviancy is normalized, so what was once normal becomes deviant. The kind of family that has been regarded for centuries as natural and moral – the ‘bourgeois’ family as it is invidiously called – is now seen as pathological” and exclusionary, concealing the worst forms of psychic and physical oppression.
My point is this: Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God.
Thanks, Byron
Well, the big day is coming with SUPER TUESDAY…. It would be nice IF next Tuesday offered us some closure. I fear not…. Iran has its equivalent of super Tuesday today…. I don't expect much of a change there either. Inflation in Iran is running 20% plus there… If we had 20% inflation here I predict, with confidence, what American's voters would do……
Just a few of numbers to mull over:
November elections will take place in 249 days, 9 hours, and 55 minutes
Actual Unemployment 23,044,093
US Retirees and SSI 66,797,723
Food stamps 46,784,780
Liability Per Tax payer 1,041,436
Unfunded liabilities 117,834,017,737,930
Does anyone have any ideas as to how we are going to pay these bills?
Click on the link below and hear/see Senator's Reid's stand on the current conflict between religion and government.
Have a great day…
Ron
Docnick37@gmail,com
Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com
http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/07/harry-reid-%E2%80%98totally-supports%E2%80%99-obama-going-against-catholic-church-over-mandatory-contraception-coverage-video/
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