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Congrats to the 2008 National Cheer Champs!

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A look into what we are in for with Obama’s one-sided government. Spooky.

The key to the Ron Paul Revolution:

During the debates in the Republican Presidential primary, even though I am a 10-term sitting Representative Member of Congress, I was challenged more than once on my Republican credentials. The fact that I was repeatedly asked how I could be a Republican when I was talking a different language than the other candidates answers the question of how the Republican Party can slip so far so fast.

My rhetorical answer at the time was simple: Why should one be excluded from the Republican Party for believing and always voting for:

• Limited government power

• A balanced budget

• Personal liberty

• Strict adherence to the Constitution

• Sound money

• A strong defense while avoiding all undeclared wars

• No nation-building and no policing the world

How can a party that still pretends to be the party of limited government distance itself outright from these views and expect to maintain credibility? Since the credibility of the Republican Party has now been lost, how can it regain credibility without embracing these views, or at least showing respect for them?

I concluded my answer by simply stating the Republican Party had lost its way and must reassess its values. And that is what needs to be done in a hurry.

I am so tired.

It is becoming impossible to take a stand for the constitutional principals of limited government, smaller taxes and personal freedoms.

George Washington once wrote, “Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness”(Circular to the States, May 9, 1753). How far have we fallen.

Government is acting without restraint and without respect for the limitations imposed on it by the Constitution.

James Madison summed up the powers granted to the Federal Government in Federalist #41:

That we may form a correct judgment on this subject, it will be proper to review the several powers conferred on the government of the Union; and that this may be the more conveniently done they may be reduced into different classes as they relate to the following different objects:

1. Security against foreign danger;

2. Regulation of the intercourse with foreign nations;

3. Maintenance of harmony and proper intercourse among the States;

4. Certain miscellaneous objects of general utility;

5. Restraint of the States from certain injurious acts;

6. Provisions for giving due efficacy to all these powers.

Correct me if I am wrong, but among the powers Madison listed the themes of restraint and diligence bear strong weight. We are blazing an unforged and unencumbered path to audacious federal power. I am afraid the rule of law is no longer written, no longer tested and no longer universally accepted as what is necessary to protect our inalienable rights. Government power is, as it seems now, all about protecting us from failure.

Lets be quite clear, Federal taxation must be consistent with specific listed and delegated powers of the Federal Government. Again, from Federalist  #41:

Some, who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.

Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it; though it would have been difficult to find a reason for so awkward a form of describing an authority to legislate in all possible cases. A power to destroy the freedom of the press, the trial by jury, or even to regulate the course of descents, or the forms of conveyances, must be very singularly expressed by the terms “to raise money for the general welfare.

So I ask simply, to those who voted in favor of this and other coming bailouts: Where does the Constitution give you the authority to use taxpayer money to bail out privately held companies?

We need to be very concerned over this assumption to act on the Federal Government’s part, to not question the underlying premise of authority is to ignore the very arguments Madison made in favor of ratifying the Constitution and granting the Federal Government powers of taxation. 

Some more resources:

CATO: Is The Bailout Constitutional?

The Heritage Foundation: The Housing Bailout: Constitutional Infirmities Remain, but a Ray of Hope

freedom isn’t free

Does anyone else out there feel completely demoralized by Obama’s victory?

I know I am.

The utter rejection of constitutional principals frightens me. I just cannot get over how people warmly embraced socialism under the guise of “Hope and Change”. This can only end in bad things, we certainly cannot expect to remain free peoples much longer if government is expected to serve up the answer for life’s hardships.

There is a part of me that just wants to walk away from political pursuits. Fine, you want socialism, you can have it. Don’t say I didn’t present the route of freedom and liberty first. But I can’t do that, I still have to live here. I still have still have to pay my forced conscription to this enterprise via taxation. I have no choice but to stand up and be counted.

Freedom, Liberty, Limited Government. The Spirit of 1776. These are the things I cannot let go of. These are the things I would rather die of exhaustion defending than to let pass on moments whims. These are the only routes our Constitution affords. No amount of lies can overcome their truths.

Rest now my friends, come January 20th the fight for our very freedom will be on.

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Ok, so Barack Obama is now our President-Elect. That very thought cringes me to the core. And yes, he is America’s president, or will be as soon as the Constitutional electors meet. I didn’t vote for him, but he does assume the mantle of the American President. The constitutional process was followed.

But, I still wonder how many will be willing to put up with the Senator’s tax hikes?

Considering how much his definition of the ultra-wealthy keeps changing, I can’t help but think that pretty soon all small business owners will be within Senator Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” philosophy.

For example, take your average small business, the economic engine of America. Let’s assign the business owner a modest $50k salary. Add in three employees to help him run shop, at a modest $25,000 a year salary, and you are already at $125,000 in payroll alone. Then we would need to talk overhead expenses, inventory, insurance and taxes. In short, this small business would easily run well past even the higher of Obama’s numerous tax thresholds of $250,000 a year.

So, how many small businesses, seeing massive tax hikes coming their way, won’t take preventative steps to meet the bottom line?

Consider this: the unemployment rate in this country is spiking.

I can’t help but think that the combined crippling effect of the economic downturn combined with Obama’s tax plans will mean more businesses will need to trim costs to stay afloat. Suddenly one or two of those workers in our example, for instance, are cut to part-time hours. Or maybe the costs in the shop are raised, inventory reduced, or business re-investment curtailed.

There is another drastic proposal as well. Business owners could suddenly go John Galt and decide that cooperating with insane taxes and regulations are no longer worth the incentive to produce.

In our example the business owner, seeing his taxes double and wage requirements drastically increase by mandate of the government, closes his shop and moves on to a new industry where he does not have to hire any help. Three people are automatically out of work to start. Then the manufacturers of the goods he sells in his store would take note. While his shop alone isn’t enough to notice, if enough small business owners participate in a economic protest the result could be a big chill on the economy. Add in the business owner’s accountant, insurance agent, janitorial service- you get the idea- no industry would be spared.

I believe that the economy is floundering because people have lost the incentive to produce. If failure is rewarded with bailouts and profit labeled as greed, the quickest way to prop up the bottom line is to run and inefficient business model. This, of course, requires taking even more from those running successful operations to give those who don’t operate with a sound business plan in mind.

This, ultimately, is why socialism leads to marxism. Eventually the producers will be forced to produce for the betterment of “society”. How short it is from “too big to fail” to “must not fail”. We should all be very concerned, the free market’s very survival is in our hands.

80% of registered voters in Idaho turned out to vote.

A quick read of Google News headlines suggests that 80% holds in almost every state.

That would be a the most voter turnout since 1968, a record 62.5% of eligible voters.

Oh and don’t believe the lie, this was not a complete landslide for Obama:

Barack Hussein Obama- 64,058,829  (53%)

John Sidney McCain- 56,500,062  (46%)

Sorry Barry, 46% of the people in this country still reject socialism.

TEARS! tears! tears!
In the night, in solitude, tears;
On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand;
Tears—not a star shining—all dark and desolate;
Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head:
—O who is that ghost?—that form in the dark, with tears?
What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there on the sand?
Streaming tears—sobbing tears—throes, choked with wild cries;
O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps along the beach;
O wild and dismal night storm, with wind! O belching and desperate!
O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and regulated pace;
But away, at night, as you fly, none looking—O then the unloosen’d ocean,
Of tears! tears! tears!

“Tears” by Walt Whitman

 ___

CNN: Election 2008

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”  John 14:27

Tomorrow a bell will toll. Will it be Liberty’s bell? Or, America, will it Toll For Thee?

We have so much as stake in this election. I simply cannot believe how long it has taken to get the MSM to report on the true nature of the junior Senator from Illinois.

Over the weekend revelations came out about how Barack Hussein Obama wants to “bankrupt” the coal industry.

Let’s be quite clear, Obama wants massive tax increases on energy, massive regulations that will drive up the cost for consumers.

From the WSJ:

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can,” Obama said. “It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

And later on USNews.com:

“I think it is important to send some price signals to change behavior. It’s not going to be painless. Power plants are going to have to adjust how they generate power. They will pass on those costs to consumers…. A lot of us who can afford it are going to pay more for a unit of electricity; over time the electricity bill goes back down as technology catches back up.”

We are not done yet. From MarketWatch.com:

Obama: “I think it is appropriate for us to impose a windfall profits tax on our oil companies.”

And from CNN.com:

Obama’s promises about supporting clean-coal technology will be put to the test. His vow to keep coal part of the fuel mix is at odds with government forecasts that mandatory cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions would likely lead to the shuttering of scores of coal-fired power plants and reduce demand for coal.

And let us not forget Obama saying he wished, “gas prices would have risen a bit slower” when gasoline was $4+ a gallon this summer. 

This is a defining election for our times. We can choose a path of liberty, prosperity and energy or we can choose a path of regulation, government handouts and shuttering of the economy.

At the end of the day I feel I have done everything I could with LedeAgenda.com to warn my readers of the true nature and policy positions of Senator Barack Obama. That 51% of this country is considering voting for him makes me question the direction my country is going and my patriotism. I clearly do not have the same concepts of America that some of my fellow Americans out there do.

It makes me feel sick inside. I do not want to be friends with these kind of people. I do not want to associate with people who share Obama’s vision for America. I certainly do not want my daughter educated by them. How can anyone out there think that Barack’s policy positions are ok? Seriously half the country thinks like this socialist-fascist? Really? I’m stunned.

However I do know this: should Barack Obama get elected, I will look forward to treating him with the same level of respect that liberals have treated President Bush the last eight years. Not My President. Don’t Blame Me, I voted McCain! And I guess, at the end of the day, dissent is the most patriotic form of expression.

Unbeknownest to me John McCain is a big fan of Robert Jordan from Ernest Hemingway’s, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, the inspiration for today’s post.

From NYTimes.com:

John McCain has long spoken of his affection for, and identification with, Robert Jordan, the protagonist of Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” After I interviewed McCain this past summer — a conversation in which we discussed Jordan at some length — I reread the conclusion of the novel. The lingering image of the final scene is not one of death but of Jordan, the college professor who has come to Spain to fight the fascists, wounded yet still alive, taking aim at the enemy, his heart still beating against the forest floor. Hemingway does not kill Jordan but leaves him there, engaged to the end in the battles of his time.

McCain sees himself in the same way: as a warrior who never gives in, and never gives up, no matter how hopeless the cause. “Oh, I reread it all the time,” McCain told me. “Robert Jordan is what I always thought a man ought to be.” Jordan’s essential creed is encapsulated in a sentence that gave McCain the title of one of the books he has written with his aide Mark Salter: “The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.” It’s not hard to see how the line would resonate with a romantic fatalist like McCain.

Wow there are some good games this weekend, almost all of them on TV too.

Just need my Broncos to keep on rolling and Utah to lose at some point….. love them BCS dreams….

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The worst Halloween scare?: