Letter to John Shadegg

A letter I sent to John Shadegg


Glad to hear you are trying to educate congress on their authority through the Enumerated Powers Act.  Incredible that should a thing should be needed, as though it wasn't clear enough (9th and 10th Amendments).  One thing is missing for the Constitutionally illiterate.   Please clarify this to your colleagues and revise the act if you must submit it again to Congress.  

There are no powers granted to the government in the Preamble to the Constitution.   I have heard that according to House rules many bills cite the authority under which they should be implemented, which is a step in the right direction.   But rumor is they all say that they are promoting the general welfare.   “Promote the general welfare” is not a power of congress.  The powers of Congress are listed in Article I, section 8 and no where else.  Only a power monger would think otherwise.  (And they added Section 9 to tell Congress what they cannot do.)  

Again – there are no powers granted to the government in the Preamble.   This is only an introduction to the purpose of the Constitution and the government to be formed.

Idiot = Arpaio

“Idiot!”  - Napoleon Dynamite

Sheriff Joe is sending about 80 Arizona policemen to Texas and Louisiana to arrest and harass citizens of another state.  The news backed him up on his claim last night that this won’t cost taxpayers anything because the federal government will pay for it.  Where are the Feds getting their money?  

More on Washington

More on Washington

American Minute with Bill Federer
September 19

Like the Roman leader Cincinnatus, who twice led the Roman Republic to victory in battle and twice voluntarily gave up his power to return to a life of farming, George Washington led the American Republic to victory over the British, resigned, then, after having served two terms as President, chose to return to a life of farming at Mount Vernon.
In an age where ambitious men relentlessly sought political power, the world stood in awe as Washington voluntarily gave up his powerful position and on this day, September 19, 1796, delivered his Farewell Address.
He stated:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.
In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars...
Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion...
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle...
Morality is a necessary spring of popular government...Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"

___
www.AmericanMinute.com  1-888-USA-WORD  Permission granted to
reproduce.

New post on Washington

I wrote on Washington's Farewell Address and posted it at Small Green World

Williams on FEMA

Williams on FEMA

Don’t you love Walter Williams?  Cracks me up.  Has a great article here.  Look at his quotes from other Presidents facing disaster.   Why couldn’t Pres. Bush say as Cleveland did, “The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."  

Wetlands are fine

Wetlands are fine
“Environmentalist” is a bad word.  They are evil, cruel, vicious people-haters who would rather commit suicide than damage snail habitat.   They will also kill you and your children to save the environment.  Don’t listen to anything they say.

They are upset about the damage that the storm (have you heard of Rita yet?) will cause to the wetlands.  Salt water is poison to freshwater water wetlands they explain.  Do they think we are stupid?  Is this the first time saltwater has ever been sprayed on the Texas coast?  Amazing that the wetlands ever developed.   I am glad that there were no hurricanes in the region for millions of years so that the ecosystem could develop.  Too bad it is all so fragile as to be wiped out this season.  They say it will all be gone, take some pictures as you evacuate.  Of course, they blame it on people and their interference and not the storm after all.

Blog Spam

Blog Spam
I added word verification to the blog settings because nerds keep spamming my blog. I am tired of deleting them. Just follow the instructions if you want to add a comment.

Is Rita that big a deal?

Is Rita that big a deal?

Tired of the coverage yet?  I’d rather watch Senators not ask Roberts any good questions on C-SPAN.  All the meteorologists said that the hurricane would be downgraded to CAT 3 by Friday.  Will it be CAT 2 before it makes landfall.   This has to be over reaction to Katrina.    But the tragedy of Katrina was government failure.  Someone told the Feds they were in charge even though they are already $600 BILLION in debt this year and have NO Constitution authority to act in case of natural disasters.  FEMA has got to be disbanded or everything will become an emergency.  The lesson to learn was: don’t listen to the government.   They are not there to help.  Buy water, get out of floodplains, and buy a gun.  You’ll be fine.  

Notice how Bush preemptively called Texas a disaster area and rolled in to take control?  If we let them they will lock everyone up and say, “Its for your own good.”  

High Gas Prices are Your Fault

High Gas Prices are Your Fault

Yes, you. I am blaming you. You have allowed the executive to usurp legislative authority and that always leads to tyranny. Call your congressman and demand that he do his job which is to write law and allow no other body to write law. We have high gas prices because the Executive allows the stupid EPA to make up idiotic laws, the effect of which is that we don’t have enough refineries.

Disband the EPA. They are unconstitutional.

Millionaire Richard Branson was laughed at when he said he wanted to build a refinery to guarantee a supply of cheap gas for his plans. Why? Because even though this guy can do about anything, including start a company that will beat NASA to the moon, no one thinks he can beat the EPA and actually build a new refinery. He’ll have to do it in a third world country. Posh, posh, civilized people don’t build such silly contraptions as refineries.

Democracy

"Democracy is the most vile form of government... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
- James Madison

Judge Roberts is not pro-life

Stare Decisis
Family Research Council (FRC) bashed Sen. Schumer and Leahy weeks ago for their defense of stare decisis (settled law) when referring to abortion and the corrupt power of the courts to decide legislation. Today they applaud Roberts for not answering questions regarding even though he has said that Roe v. Wade is settled law. Roberts has said that the abortion decision has been decided and he will follow the law. This is not a pro-life position. Why does FRC continue to support a man for the Supreme Court who said,

“ROE VS. WADE is the settled law of the land … There’s nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent.”

....

portions of FRC press releases

FRC Applauds John Roberts' Roe v. Wade Response
The error occurred while processing an element with a general identifier of (CFFILE), occupying document position (44:1) to (44:104). -->September 13, 2005 - Tuesday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 13, 2005


Judge Roberts refused to give hints or projections about how he might evaluate a future abortion case before the Court, but carefully stated what the law is on the matter of stare decisis and repeatedly pledged to follow the rule of law.


To: Friends of Family Research CouncilFrom: Tony Perkins, PresidentJuly 28, 2005 - Thursday
Stare Decisis: (stah-ree duh-sigh-sis) n.Stare Decisis is a Latin term meaning "to stand by things decided." The phrase is used in common law to express the notion that prior court decisions must be recognized as precedents, according to case law.

gun rights

"How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could could prohibit, in like manner,the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?"-- James Madison (Federalist No. 41, 1788)


This works on an individual basis as well.
"How could the carrying of handguns be safely prohibited, unless we could could prohibit, in like manner,the preparations of criminals"


Armed populace is the best guarantee of freedom. Carrying weapons is a right.

End Federal tax Withholding

This bill would change the world. My congressman is a co-sponsor, is yours?

End Federal Tax Withholding

-- Click Below to Support the Federal Tax Withholding Repeal Act:
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/issues/alert/?alertid=7963521&type=CO

ALERT: Want to start a REAL tax revolution?
Simple -- show the average American taxpayer just how much the government is taking from his paycheck every time. He'll get hopping mad in no time flat... and so will millions of others. Bam -- instant tax revolution. Well, we've got a chance to make it happen. Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) is looking for supporters to co-sponsor his bill, the "Federal Tax Withholding Repeal Act of 2005" (H.R. 3409), which would repeal the law allowing the federal government to withhold federal income taxes and social-security taxes. Instead, this bill would implement a system in which employees would make quarterly payments to the federal government. Wouldn't that quarterly check-writing experience be an eye-opener for the American taxpayer? You betcha. Let's light the fire, shall we?
TAKE ACTION: As one blogger noted, "Federal withholding is primarily responsible for the lack of tax outrage in this country. When the ignorant masses apply for jobs, they don't care how much their actual salary is, they only want to know what their 'take home' pay is going to be... "There is also a large contingent of taxpayers that view their tax refund as a good thing. Ask them how much they paid in income taxes last year and they say something like, 'I didn't have to pay anything. I got money back!'"
Right now, the federal government WANTS "ignorant masses" when it comes to the withholding tax. Let's change that. Click to send a FREE message to YOUR Congressman, asking him or her to support the "Federal Tax Withholding Repeal Act" (H.R. 3409):

Bastiat and Katrina

Bastiat and Katrina

More bad economics. Bad logic leads to bad conclusions. There are some claiming that the destruction will cause an increase in jobs but this fallacy was described over 150 years ago by Bastiat. Williams tries to set it straight….. again.

As reported in "Gas Crisis Looms" (Aug. 31, 2005), written by CNN/Money staff writer Parija Bhatnagar, Mr. Chan said, "Preliminary estimates indicate 60 percent damage to downtown New Orleans. Plenty of cleanup work and rebuilding will follow in all the areas. That means over the next 12 months, there will be lots of job creation which is good for the economy."

Bastiat wrote a
parable about this which has become known as the "Broken Window Fallacy." A shopkeeper's window is broken by a vandal. A crowd formed sympathizing with the man. After a while, someone in the crowd suggested that the boy wasn't guilty of vandalism; instead, he was a public benefactor, creating economic benefits for everyone in town. After all, fixing the broken window creates employment for the glazier, who will then buy bread and benefit the baker, who will then buy shoes and benefit the cobbler, and so forth.

Those are the seen effects of repairing the broken window. What's unseen is what the shopkeeper would have done with the money had the vandal not broken his window.

The State and the Flood

The State and the Flood
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

"No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology," wrote Ludwig von Mises, and Gulf Coast residents know precisely what it means to be trapped—ostensibly by a flood but actually by statist policies and ideological commitments that put the government in charge of crisis management and public infrastructure. For what we are seeing in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region is the most egregious example of government failure in the United States since September 11, 2001.
Mother Nature can be cruel, but even at her worst, she is no match for government. It was the glorified public sector, the one we are always told is protecting us, that is responsible for this. And though our public servants and a sycophantic media will do their darn best to present this calamity as an act of nature, it was not and is not. Katrina came and went with far less damage than anyone expected. It was the failure of the public infrastructure and the response to it that brought down civilization.
.......


NASA spends and spends and still can't seem to make a reliable space shuttle. The public schools absorb many times more—thousands times more—in resources than private schools and still can't perform well. The federal government spends trillions over years to "protect" the country and can't fend off a handful of malcontents with an agenda. So too, Congress can allocate a trillion dollars to fix every levee, fully preventing the last catastrophe, but not the next one.
The problem here is public ownership itself.
.........

The list of public sector failures hardly stops there. The outrageous insistence that no one be permitted to "gouge" only creates shortages in critically important goods and services when they are needed the most. It is at times of extreme need that prices most need to be free to change so that consumers and producers can have an idea of what is needed and what is in demand. Absent those signals, people do not know what to conserve and what to produce.
Bush was on national television declaring that the feds would have zero tolerance towards gouging, which is another way of saying zero tolerance toward markets.
......

Moreover, every American ought to be alarmed at the quickness of officials to declare martial law, invade people's rights, deny people the freedom of movement, and otherwise trample on all values that this country is supposed to hold dear. A crisis does not negate the existence of human rights. It is not a license for tyranny. It is not a signal that government may do anything it wants.
.....

Read the whole thing here



September 2, 2005
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail] is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com and author of Speaking of Liberty.
Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com
Lew Rockwell Archives

Welfare destroys charity

Quote taken from Federalist Patriot

"I once thought there was too much poverty for private charity to make much of a difference. Now I realize that private charity would do much more—if government hadn't crowded it out. In the 1920s—the last decade before the Roosevelt administration launched its campaign to federalize nearly everything—30 percent of American men belonged to mutual aid societies, groups of people with similar backgrounds who banded together to help members in trouble. They were especially common among minorities. Mutual aid societies paid for doctors, built orphanages and cooked for the poor. Neighbors knew best what neighbors needed. They were better at making judgments about who needs a handout and who needed a kick in the rear. They helped the helpless, but administered tough love to the rest. They taught self-sufficiency. Mutual aid didn't solve every problem, so government stepped in. But government didn't solve every problem either. Instead, it caused more problems by driving private charity out. Today, there are fewer mutual-aid societies, because people say, 'We already pay taxes for HUD, HHS. Let the professionals do it.' Big Government tells both the poor and those who would help them, 'Don't try.'... When you rely on the government to help those who need it, you don't practice benevolence yourself. You don't take responsibility for deciding whom to help. Just as public assistance discourages the poor from becoming independent by rewarding them with fixed handouts, it discourages the rest of us from being benevolent. This may be the greatest irony of the welfare state: It not only encourages the poor to stay dependent, it kills individuals' desire to help them." —John Stossel

President Bush news conference

Here comes President Bush claiming the federal government has an important role to play.

They have played their role and messed up the country. People wouldn't need rescue if they had to take of themselves. Socialism breeds disaster.

Chertoff is scary. I don't like him anymore after watching his statements. He does not understand the proper role of government. Without that restraint he is dangerous.

The president has no authority to put price controls in place. Messing with strategic petroleum reserve is a flawed attempt to control the economy. He has no authority or obligation to control the economy or gasoline flow. We need a law to make loans from oil reserve impossible. It should only be used for war.

The private sector is the only legal source of disaster relief.

President Bush asked for $10,000,000,000 in aid. With 300 million americans that is #33 for everyone. I am financially responsible for 6 of those americans so I just "donated" $200.

no federal aid

Neither Congress nor the president have authority to give billions for hurricane relief. It is wrong.