Tyrannical Federal Government Kicks Down Doors

So now we find out that the Department of Education is authorized to have armed agents and the ability to kick down your door if you're suspected of some kind of shady dealings with school loans. What about if you're way behind on your loans? Can they kick down your door then too? Where does this stop?

The main problem appears to be the Homeland Security Act of 2002 that gave any agency with an OIG the power to carry weapons and conduct these actions. This is very troubling as it's supposed to be the Department of Justice that performs law enforcement -- they're the ones trained properly and act as professionally as can be expected under dire circumstances like raiding a home. But the question is, who makes the decision to give the go ahead for such raids in the first place? An agency like the DoE executing these actions is like the local high school principal kicking down your door with a dozen armed school administrators because your child has been playing hookey or stealing other children's lunch money. It'd be ridiculous if it wasn't so dire and scary for what it represents to a supposed free society.

Congress has given away so much power to the executive branch that Congress has nearly become a subservient branch instead of an equal one with the ability to check the other two which are running amok these days. Separation of powers between the three equal branches was supposed to prevent things like this. But Congress, having created countless agencies like the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with Legislative power (issuing regulations), Executive power (enforcement), and Judicial power (adjudicating objections of the exercising of the other two powers), has us living under a tyranny in many aspects due to the unchecked power of these unelected bureaucrats. And it continues non stop with bills like The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare") that create boards of bureaucrats with power over what treatment you get or the Department of HHS grabbing the power to issues waivers to "ObamaCare" that it wasn't even granted in the legislation. These agencies actions of unconstitutional, and many of the agencies are unconstitutional.

This is why, more than ever, conservatives need the reins of power for many election cycles to reverse all this damage that statist "liberals" in both parties have caused. Congress needs to pass legislation destroying many of these agencies, and reclaiming powers that were granted either explicitly or implicitly through vague language from the ones that remain intact. And that's just the start, people.

The 28th Amendment to the Constitution

The 28th Amendment to the Constitution has been proposed, and it's a good one. All 47 Republicans in the Senate have signed on to support a Constitutional amendment that would fix the financial problems in the country from getting any worse -- overnight.

The biggest aspect of the amendment states that the federal government can spend only 18% of the nation's GDP unless a declaration of war has been made. This by itself is huge in that it would immediately reduce government spending from the outrageous rate of 25% of GDP that it is now under Obama, to 18% .. lower than it was during the Bush Administration.

Other aspects of the amendment include needing super majorities of Congress to raise taxes and the debt limit, requiring Congress to balance the budget and the President to submit a balanced budget. This amendment will finally force the spendaholics to put a finite amount of money where it is needed most -- prioritize in other words -- just like we have to do in the real world. And since there's a cap on spending, statist "liberals" will not be able to balance the budget by increasing taxes and spending at the same time -- they can only spend a set amount of money per fiscal year.

It's nice to see the new Senators like Mike Lee and Rand Paul getting a coherent solution put together and supported. Of course this is a long way from being approved -- super majorities of the Senate and House have to approve the amendment before it is sent out to be ratified by the States. The good news however is, since so many State Legislatures were taken over by Republicans in the 2010 race, if the amendment can get out of Congress then it is almost assuredly going to be ratified.

Still a big if -- but it's just the beginning of gathering support for this. If statist "liberals" refuse to go along -- which they undoubtedly will -- they will have to be exposed and further voted out until this thing is passed. This has to be made the top priority and campaign issue alongside the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This political one-two punch to the statist "liberals" will be the combination to knock them out of power and get the financial health of this nation turned around in short order.

Does the law mean anything today?

Yesterday a federal judge in Florida hearing the lawsuit by 26 states against what everyone now calls "Obamacare" ruled that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. He went further, taking the government's argument that without the mandate the law was unimplementable and agreed thereby throwing out the entire law and issuing a de facto injunction against implementation.

However, not hours later did the regime already show its condescension for the law by attempting to justify its intent to defy the court. The regime's only course of action is to comply with the ruling until they appeal. This is not the Third World where the dictator trashes a so-called independent judiciary and over rules them. This isn't a democracy where you can say the people don't agree. This is a republic where each branch of government has checks and balances against each other and if the democrats want to over rule the judicial ruling without appealing then their only option is to start over and rewrite the legislation and make it legal under the Constitution.

If Obama and his minions take any other path than the two mentioned above, it's time to drag this regime before that court and declare them in contempt and once done, remove them from office through the allowed Constitutional process. This is not a game folks. These are serious transgressions against the republic and Constitution and puts our freedom in a precarious state. It cannot be tolerated by any president not matter who they are or what label or mantle they wear.

Otherwise the law means nothing anymore, and we see in Tunisia, Egypt and other places, past and present what results. And the United States of America is better than that; the people are better than that, and the rule of law must be respected.

Here We Go

So it begins. The United States has become just like the rest of the Socialist West. The entire political debate from now on will be centered around this disaster that is national health care. Every election will now be about first repealing it, then, if and when that fails, how to "fix" all the problems this monstrosity is going to cause.

Next up: legalizing all illegals so they can suck on this newly grown government teat, let them get legal jobs, so millions more illegals can come take the underground jobs they leave behind.

The slope this country has been sliding down to hell on has just gotten a lot steeper.

November is going to determine a lot. Unfortunately the road to getting rid of this monstrosity will involve getting a majority in the House, 60 votes in the Senate, and the Presidency as well. I'm not holding my breath for the courts to stop this nightmare.

Four Supreme Court Justices Support Book Bans

Yes, that's right. That is actually the flip side of today's Supreme Court decision. In today's 5-4 ruling in favor of first amendment free speech rights, the Court struck down the campaign finance "reform" laws like McCain-Feingold that suppress people's ability to express opinions and disseminate information before primaries and general elections.

I've read comments far and wide on boards throughout the day of people that have railed against this decision. It's a sad fact that the class warfare of the left has insidiously wormed its way into people and makes them see this as a victory for "big corporations" and not a victory for free speech.

When it comes down to it, the suit was not brought by ExxonMobile or AIG. It was brought by a non-profit organization that wanted to release and advertise their political film about why Hilary Clinton was not qualified to be President. And a government bureaucrat told them they would be fined and possibly imprisoned if they did so. (Excuse me? Is this the United States or the old Soviet Union?) because it was within one of the "reform" laws' periods banning such activity.

Even though this was a victory, the scariest part to me was during oral arguments one of the Justices asked the government's lawyer if this content had been in book form would it be the government's position that that too would be illegal? And the government answered: yes. In a second round of arguments Justice Ginsburg offered the government and out and asked the question again for "clarification". Again the government's lawyer answered yes, it would be our position this would be illegal in book form, but you should "trust us, we have never enforced such things." At this, Chief Justice Roberts leaned across the bench and said "we don't place our First Amendment rights in the hands of bureaucrats."

So yes, as free Americans we have won a victory pushing back those who would infringe upon our basic Constitutional rights. But Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the government, and in essence with the prospect of banning books. The next time you wonder what the big deal is over a Supreme Court nominee
is all about, perhaps you should remember this. If just one more person on that court such as Kennedy had gone the other way, next week, next month, or whenever it was convenient, YOU might be sitting in jail for writing something poliltical within a 30 or 60 day window of an election...

The Slow Death of Federalism

It's been a long, slow, death march for federalism as the rough hands of the statist thugs drag it to the gallows.

The reality in American government today is so distorted from what the Founders had worked so hard to build that I highly doubt they'd even recognize this country today as the one they created.

Today the federal government blackmails the States and wields authority over them using the financial carrot and stick that may as well be an iron cudgel. It used to be that if one State placed an unfair burden on any citizen or group of citizens, they could move to another State and escape the high taxes or targeted legislation. When the federal government gets the power over you, you cannot escape without giving up on the country entirely. And then where will you go?

As we watch the social experimentation states such as California teeter on the edge of collapse, the federal government wants the power to do all of that and more, and when the collapse comes, both financial and of our liberty, we will not be able to escape it.

William Buckley once said he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than 2,000 faculty members at Harvard. Well I would rather be governed by the first 535 names in my phone book than this insane Congress. The point is that a random number of people taken out of your local phone book are much more likely to share your concerns being in your own community than some detached elitist at some stuffy university or in federal government. Just because they have a PhD. doesn't mean they know what's best for anybody other than themselves. Professors and politicians certainly don't know what's better for me than I do. Those professors and politicians that think they do are nothing more than an aristocracy in waiting using words and studies full of skewed "facts" to convince you to give over your liberty to them, their ideas, for the "greater good". (Look at the federal Congress today. How many of them already walk around like they are royalty? How many already ignore you?)

When you allow someone that has no idea who you are, or what your concerns are to govern you, you enable them to do to you what they will, all the while believing they are doing what's best for you. This is one of the many reasons why the federal government was supposed to have power over limited things such as printing currency, foreign relations, and raising the military, and the individual States and the people were to take care of everything else. The federal government, as designed by the Constitution of the United States, was to have little to NO impact on the lives on the individual citizen. It's much harder for State officials to ignore you. They live in your state. And it is even more difficult for local officials to ignore you. They live in your town. Yet we keep giving more and more power to people who can so easily ignore us and have no real interest on the impact some new law has on us, because they live no where near us.

Yet here we are, in 2009 and you cannot escape the oily fingers of the federal government. And now they want to dictate to you your health insurance, your doctor, and following that it will be what you eat, what physical activity you do... because you are overweight (or will be) and cost everybody more in taxes...

Keep it up people. Let's see if by the 300th birthday of the nation we can make this place truly unrecognizable.