End of Civil liberties?

We can all recall the yelling, shouting and jeers as the NY Times wrote of “Secret Prisons” that the US had set up in some countries to house detainees captured while fighting US troops abroad. America was compared to the worst tyrants in history. Sen. Shumer of NY, Sen. Durban of Il, Kennedy, and others screamed that this was evil and no one should be housed in secret places, or warehoused. Recall, the people held there were terrorists, bent on the attack and destruction of US soldiers, US interests, and if possible, the US homeland.

Today I saw this. Note the article specifically says

“…the city had long planned to build a new holding facility for the DNC”

This is not a normal jail, this is a jail built to hold anyone who is opposed th the Democtatic Party! Senator Obama and his party are so afraid of actual people messing up his media big show, they have a SECRET JAIL set up? I understand the need for jails, because all sort of nutcases and moonbats will show up to scream and shout and make faces and try to disrupt the convention. That is to be expected, and Denver and the DNC would be stupid not to be prepared to handle it. But, until some reporter uncovered this, it was a secret jail. This is just wrong. Was the plan that any one arrested would be whisked away, hidden from sight, so the glorious Obama could seem to be ascending to his throne with no objections?

Help me understand this… a city is building a jail at the request of a political party? I am baffled. I know that the CCCP build jails for enemies of the party in the Soviet Union, and they do so in Communist China, but this is the USA, right? Why are city officials building .. and again this is right from a city spokesman

Undersheriff Bill Lovingier, the city’s director of corrections. Lovingier said the city had long planned to build a new holding facility for the DNC, which triples the processing speed of the city jail. Lovingier said the Steele Street warehouse will be able to process 60 arrestees an hour.

Just what the hell is going on here?

As Always

Keep the Faith.

The Rev

Political parties: Animal Suits and the End of the Republic

I sat in the car the other day, listening to some news announcer drone on and on about various political battles going on. In this case, apparently there is some senate or house committee in charge of something or other who want, no they DEMAND that some member of the executive branch come and sit in front of them and answer all their grandstanding questions while cameras rolled. Some lawyers from the administration, following the precedents set by so many past administrations have claimed that private conversations between various officials are confidential and privileged. Thus they are covered under the cloak of ‘executive privilege’, and thus are entitled to ignore a ‘Congressional Subpoena”. And anyone who knows anything about the Constitution (so the executives say) just KNOWS that the legislators can’t order the executive to do anything.

 Or there’s this:

The members of one party are complaining that as the majority of congress is currently held by the other party, and they have no way to obstruct them. They cry that the OTHER party, (the one in the majority) is thwarting the Constitution, by preventing “Checks and Balances”. It would seem that the political branches seem to feel that the “checks and balances” alluded to in the founding documents relate to party balance. See, if the donkeys outnumber the elephants in the legislative branch, they are required to show greater deference to the elephant party because they must have ‘checks and balances’. Imagine, they say, if one group of animals, were to get control of the legislative branch AND the executive branch, well then WHOAH it’s the end of the world!!! Because then there might no longer be any ‘checks and balances’ on the one group of animals. Thus, in order to restore the ‘balances’ the one strong group of animals is REQUIRED to do what the weak group of animals wishes. Of course none of this respects the fact that it is supposed to be the voters to whom these representatives answer, and not the big groups that dress up as donkeys or elephants.

No, none of this is actually faithful to the document to which all these animals swear allegiance. It has now become a game of checks and balances. Not for the purpose of restraining the power of the government as the founders intended. The checks and balances, like all the other games played by the zoo in DC are the games played for the cameras, to amuse the masses, while the animals take over from the zoo keepers, and run things for themselves. They have taken Mr. Lincoln’s famous description and stood it on it’s ear. We now have Government of the people, by the bureaucrats for the Party Elites. And unless something happens, it shall never perish from the face of the earth!

When the nation was founded, the House of Representatives was set up as the legislative branch to represent the will of the people. The Senate was to represent the interests of the several States. ( Article 1, Sec 3) This assured two things: First that the federal government would be restrained by the interest of and power of the states, and second there would be a brake slowing the legislative branch, preventing action out of passion or populist overreaction.

The executive branch would have restricted power, as the legislative branch(es) represented the people and states respectively. The legislative branch was divided, acting and representing different interests. The Supreme Court would resolve disputes arising between the branches, and when issues of the Constitution arose.

          The 17^th amendment, severed the ties between the Senate and the states, and established new ties to popular votes; and the nature of the Senate was altered.Direct popular vote  altered the essence of the body.  Now pandering for popular votes became a necessity. This eventually bore the monster child now known as ‘gerrymandering’ which creates virtually permanent seats by dividing districts by party affiliation. (Here come those animal suits again) Now we begin to see why the style of costume is becoming more important than the district or state represented.  If the donkeys are in control, they can draw the lines to create more and more donkeys. When the elephants are in control they do their best to stamp out grazing land for donkeys. Once your herd holds the upper hand, either legislatively, or in the executive branch, you can create grazing land for your kind. You can create lots of pet projects for your pals, or a new bunch of bureaus in the executive branch for the folks who wear your kind of coat. None of this benefits the citizens of the Republic. The Judiciary has earned life time jobs for themselves, and found it safe to defer to the legislative branch rather than the document all this is supposed to be built upon. Why risk upsetting the other two branches, who after all are responsible for appointing and confirming you to your job.

See, the problem seems to be that these elected representatives, who are voted into office by the people in various districts and sundry states have developed very strong ties to their animal suits. If one of the representatives, (or members of the multitudinous manifestations of the executive) comes under fire for doing something stupid, like say, hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in his freezer, or attempting to rebuild his house with diverted campaign contributions, then all the animals who wear the same costume bray or trumpet and rush to defend the besmirched honor of their fellow animal. Matching animal suits take priority over almost everything else. The good of the people whom they purport to represent, or the Republic, for which they are supposed to support is ignored, except when more funds are required to keep the party going for another couple of dances. Then they screech and dance and point fingers at the other kind of animals and plead that with just a few more dollars they can keep the other animals at bay for a little while longer.

Storm’s coming

Deacon Kharma says:

So here I sit, contemplating this country and its direction these days. It’s a country that seems less and less the way the founders planned it. I see a storm that’s coming; will it destroy all that we’ve worked for? Possibly, it could. The country was built to weather storms but it has been weakened by poor stewardship. Most would say “look, we have it better than anyone else”. Yeah we have it better than any other country out there, as far as freedoms. Just because we use other countries as a litmus test, is that a true assessment? Shouldn’t we be comparing our rights to those we had, rather than those remaining rights of other countries farther along the primrose path to all the different “isms”, fascism, socialism, communism, and Marxism? There is an ominous cloud here in the United States that has been brewing for some time since, in my opinion Lincoln. Much like a storm cloud, it starts off small in the distance and grows until you have to turn in the completely opposite direction to avoid seeing it. Here I sit writing about the one that is hanging over our country also half covering the sky. We have kept ignoring that cloud but it is so big now you almost can’t ignore it. I find myself contemplating how we will turn to avoid seeing it. It’s getting harder because it’s almost, if not already, overhead.

I contemplate recent words that have been played over and over from the wife of our current Democratic Party candidate. She hasn’t been proud of her country in her adult life. On the surface, I immediately recoil from that statement but in retrospect, how far off is she? Of course what she meant was not relevant to my thought process. She means to refer to ridiculous accusations and assumptions of race and her skewed judgment of fairness and our lack of sufficient socialism. Wait though, is her basic statement of lack of pride in our country valid? Unfortunately, as much as I hate to agree with her, yes. The core statement is valid. We have drifted, no, violently swung toward socialistic and fascist viewpoints.

Starting with borderline unconstitutional removal of States’ rights of secession, to the worst offender in my opinion, FDR. We have given our rights away with thunderous applause, all to gain some little glimmer of security. Either the illusion of financial security to physical security, we have signed it away with glee. FDR and his government administrators gave us the illustrious Social Security System that is in perpetual distress and various throes of death. It is still kept on the life support of increasing funding from those who have been taxed without representation: us and our children! Further, he illegally confiscated gold and based the dollar on nothing, thus violating the Constitution. They also unjustly altered legal contracts that mentioned alternate payment in legal tender of gold. Such alteration of legal contracts is expressly forbidden in the same Constitution. Even the internment of Japanese citizens of the United States in “camps” happened under this much vaunted president, violating the Fifth Amendment. In my opinion the beginning of the end was under this criminal.

We have presidents using federal dollars to blackmail States into giving up their rights and those of their citizenry, like under Reagan, and a democratic congress, who elevated the drinking age to twenty one years old. No federal dollars for your state unless you deny adults their adult choices. Well, at least some of them. You can still vote and join the military! Whew, what a terrible thing that would have been to follow your own logic on adulthood and decisions by elevating voting and military decisions! Great communicator my rump! More like the great obfuscator and his complicit pals Congress.

We have removed rights to redress for grievances and even have found citizenry hit with “SLAPP” (Strategic Lawsuit Against Private Participation) lawsuits when they sue for grievances. What about those who are ruined financially or had reputations ruined in legal battles for non-crimes just to have the government prove a point. The government can out spend anyone legally. Funny thing is if you look at it, is that our tax payer dollars are funding the government to sue us into submission. I think that Thomas Jefferson addressed this when he said “To compel a man to furnish money or goods to propagate that which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical”. We have Congress conducting hearings (court) on things that have no bearing on legislation. Barry Bonds, in congress and charged with perjury on something that is a local legal law enforcement matter (See much earlier post on Bonds on the Church Site)? All because they say he lied about something that wasn’t in their purview to judge? Wow!

Shall I continue further into this and not only look into the growing cloud that is here but step into it? Let us consider the wisdom of some of the decisions on “Eminent Domain” made by the Supreme Court, I.E. Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469. It looks like another great pearl of wisdom from the great defender of the Constitution. I thought you could take my property for “public use” with just compensation. Well now you can take my land and redistribute it for private use to generate a little more revenue for government use? Yeah, that’s what the Founding Fathers meant. (See also Berman v Parker (1954) “urban Blight” Public use is not Public purpose. Hawaii v Midkiff (1984), Penn Central Transport Co v New York (1978, )Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council,Inc v Tahoe Regional Planning Agency ( 2002))

We have free speech zones now enjoyed by both President Clinton and George W. Bush. Zones where you may exercise a right? Wow how gracious of the fatherland. So now freedom of speech is protected for offensive “art” and offensive musical lyrics but what the founders originally meant it for, we can only do where we are told to? The right to peaceably assemble, means only here and there? OR perhaps the latest push for federal ID? Super! Papiere gefallen?! We also have free speech lessened by to whom and when we can give to a campaign. (see Mcconnell v Federal Election Commission (2003) I.E. Mccain-Feingold) Not that I’m a fan of how much money is thrown at elections that could be used for more urgent needs, but it is a right.

Shall I continue on to the abuse and outright ridiculous application of the Interstate Commerce clause? Perhaps how it has been used as a bypass around the second amendment and allows a non-elected-unaccountable-to-the-people entity to abuse the citizens that dare take the second amendment at face value? Or perhaps it’s application of the second amendment in the Miller case without the defendants present or represented? Or even the other portion of the Second Amendment with regards to militia, being trashed. Now if you want to have a gun you cannot be a member of a militia, which was the other half of keeping and bearing arms in defense of or nation. So half of the Second Amendment is cut out?

Perhaps it is even foreign entanglements and alliances that were warned about by the founding fathers and our UN membership? What wonderful things have we seen come from this? We have seen our taxpayer dollars go to embezzlement, backdoor deals to countries we have embargoes against, and hosting those who hate us and allowing them on our soil. Speaking of allowing on our soil, what about the storage of dangerous phosgene without our consent or knowledge?

What about the recent disastrous use of public safety as a ruse to erode rights? From no knock raids and resultant deaths of innocents when the wrong house is attacked, to the shameless use of law enforcement as alternative revenue generation for the government. Instead of citizens who volunteer to arbitrate and help keep the peace we have professional ticket writers and professional thugs who are less concerned with the Constitution and more about that next ticket or that adrenalin rush as they kick in that door to grandma’s house.

On that public safety point, we find ridiculous things like seatbelt violations which should be a personal choice made by an adult, but instead is a revenue item? Let me get to that item here too. Instead of a competent adult’s personal decision on his own body and property and life, an impersonal lawmaker’s decision is substituted. Perhaps we’d like them to decide what foods we eat too? Or since those terrible tobacco and alcohol products are health hazards, we should get those folks and tax them too? We have lawmakers who continually make more laws until we are all criminals at some point or another. We have too many ways to be taxed, fined or have to pay a fee for everything we do. I won’t dwell on this too much because real public safety such as border enforcement has run completely amok.

Our borders have been open to the foulest of criminals yet nothing is done. We get tickets and jail for the slightest infractions yet a significant portion of Mexico and South Americans are here breaking laws, murdering and enjoy sanctuary in cities such as San Francisco and New York. Our citizens are kidnapped in places like Laredo Texas and nothing is done. We have incursions of Mexican military escorting drug lords and caught on film wearing the very night vision equipment we gave the Mexican Government and we do nothing. Yet when we have people, even legitimate police and border agents of the U.S. defend themselves the Mexican Government demands and receives their prosecution.

My God, I could drone on and on but the hour is late and the storm is indeed overhead. I leave you with the corruption in politics and the favors that our congress receives for all they do for those with money. Or perhaps we could consider a president that was impeached for perjury about fornicating in the sacred office that our forefathers held dear. Or perhaps we could consider the current refusal and excuses about the ten years it would take to get oil prices down if we drilled now despite the fact it is exactly ten years since the last time we heard that. Maybe we could consider the bathroom Bing Crosby, Larry Craig, tap dancing his way into the bathroom hall of fame. Wait, even funnier is the story of William Jefferson and the FBI catching him “cold”, bribe money in the freezer. Another example of corruption is the recent Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and his undocumented gifts for votes that we have recently been made aware of. I might even have you remember the death and the subsequent attempts to hide that death of Mary Jo Kopechne. I would also invite you to remember Patrick Kennedy slamming into a police barricade after a night of hard drinking and blaming it on Ambien. Then he further refused to comply with the arresting officer stating he was a US congressman. Further, since he was on official congressional business, they couldn’t detain him.

We have a storm upon us and maybe we too should consider exactly what to do because we can ignore it no longer. The time is at hand and what will we do? The founding fathers lay their very lives property and sacred honor they held dear, at the altar of freedom and liberty. They suffered and died to build what we have in answer to the last storm. This time, I see an “everyman for themselves” mentality instead of a consideration of good for the people and the republic. I fear we’ll get what we can and let everyone else get their own God-damned goodies. Wonder what it’ll look like after this storm? Maybe it’ll resemble the looting in New Orleans, just maybe?

Wish I’d Said That!

One of my role models, the irreplaceable Mr. John Wrisley, has a post up. this falls into the category of “I sure wish I’d said that”

Persistent Poo Bahs of Positivism

Ever since Vice President Spiro Agnew called me a “Nattering Nabob of Negativism” I have wrestled with the problem of commenting on political and economic events without sounding excessively negative.  Agnew wasn’t picking on me, directly.  He painted news media in general with that label.

For years I have been a proponent of honest money, efficient government, and individual responsibility.  This is negative, of course, to the majority of Americans who prefer money of constantly depreciating worth, over-blown inefficient government, and higher taxes.  Pointing out that a dollar today buys only a fraction of what it did thirty years ago is a “negative” observation because it suggests that the U.S. dollar is unreliable.  To say the dollar is doomed will bring calls for one’s head as a critic who is not only negative but unpatriotic as well

Read the whole thing here:   John Wrisley, ” The Curmudgeon’s Corner”