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To President George W. Bush,

In spite of everything, I still think you have been a good President. I have stood by your side and did not let the media shape my perception of your Presidency. I even flew to Colorado as part of your 72-Hour campaign in 2004. When we arrived you were 4 points down in the polls. We delivered the state to you with a three percentage point surplus. I am proud that I was able to help re-elect you.

President Bush, there is one desperately urgent thing you need must do before you leave office: you need to issue a Presidential Pardon, or commute the sentences of, wrongfully imprisoned Border Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

Agents Ramos and Compean are being held in deplorable conditions to the severity of their so-called crime. They have been placed in solitary confinement for shooting a Mexican drug lord who was convicted of smuggling $1.4 million of cocaine into the country. They were charged with, get this, “discharging a weapon while committing another crime”. I was not aware that two border security agents doing what the public expects them to do is a crime.

That this charge, intended for application against those committing crimes against the United States, would be applied to two border security agents whom discharged their weapons in the line of duty is laughable. It is a travesty of justice that cannot be allowed to pass and left to the hands of the administration of Barack Hussein Obama. We know full well what President Elect Obama’s position on anything related to firearms will be- he will seek the maximum penalty allowed by law. Agent Ramos and Compean would have no chance of pardons once he gets in.

Mr. President, I am asking that your sense of decency, goodwill and patriotism break through whatever sort of political maneuvering that has kept you from acting so far.

Border security agents Ramos and Compean discharged their weapons after believing a high-profile drug smuggler was armed and threatened the security of others. How can you, a Republican who is supposed to stand for principals of secure borders and national security, not see the outrage of imprisoning two federal agents as a direct result of carrying out their responsibilities? We must stand behind those defending us.

Mr. President, please do not leave office without pardoning or commuting the sentences of Border Security agents Ramos and Compean. The very sense of duty that guides all of those serving this country would be at stake should these charges be allowed to stick. Mr. President, please for the sense of all that is right and good, please please please do the right thing.

History will be your judge Mr. President, please leave no doubt as to were you stand. Pardon Agent Ramos and Compean today.

The standoff starts now.

The only real solution to this mess:

It is time for a college football to have a playoff system. No more excuses, no more defending the undefendable. No more big money calling the shots. The fans want a true national championship system. It is time to give it to them.

Related: ESPN- Despite efforts, Boise State might come up empty

We have already discussed how the TARP bailout funds are inconsistent with the Founders’ intent, up next is a series of discussions as to whether or not the TARP funds are consistent with the Constitution. 

Under the cover of night, Citigroup has now joined some of the trillions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer owned equity assets. As if to cap off the warning as to how riddled with corruption, graft and cronyism this whole bailout fiasco has become, we now learn that Citigroup’s director is none other than former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin.

Can libertarianism survive this insanity? I don’t fault Citigroup, AIG, JP Morgan Chase.. any of them. I fault Washington.

Socialism exceeds the allowable mandate of the Constitution. In this republic, Federal Government has only 24 lawfully delegated constitutional powers. Only one of those powers seems expressly applicable here- to regulate commerce among the states. So, carried forward, does the package we are being presented fall under the auspices of proper Federal Authority?

The bailout was sold to us under duress. We were told, verbatim, that this bailout package was of such imminent need that the entire economy would collapse should it not be passed. Lo and behold now after the fact, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has “announced” that he is no longer buying troubled assets from banks and financial institutions, rather he is, “directly investing” in the financial system.

My friends, we have been hoodwinked. We have be sold a false bill of sale.

For the interstate commerce clause to be applied Treasury Secretary Paulson would have to provide evidence that buying troubled assets from banks could help stabilize interstate commerce. And certainly, that case could be made. However, that is no longer the application of the TARP program. Paulson’s job, following a proper constitutional framework, is to show how government equity ownership in financial institutions themselves falls under guise of “regulating commerce among the states”.

Such a case cannot be made. Equity ownership, outside of what is needed to preserve and produce the proper functions of Government, is a right reserved to the people. Forcing banks, such as Well Fargo whom did not want to accept the TARP funds, to surrender equity ownership to the government under duress does not seem to meet constitutional muster.

Just how big of a constitutional crises is this? Bloomberg notes:

The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.

BTW- here is a list of entities whose equity, whose freedom, was purchased with the price of socialism.

And to think, now ABC, NBC and CBS are lining up for bailouts too. Yeah that’s just great, government ownership of the news media!

Next up- can Treasury Secretary Paulson make an argument for equity ownership in private enterprise on basis of the General Welfare clause?

CATO: Obama’s Shock Doctrine

Goes along well with the, “Kerry Doctrine” no?

ESPN: College Football scores

Related Newsmax- Dick Morris: Bush Hands Over Reins Of U.S. Economy To E.U.