NunoftheAbove

Greg Abbott has thrown down the gauntlet in the debate over universal health Care.  With the Senate and House working behind closed doors to piece together a compromise that will be palatable to the far right and the blue dogs, the Texas Attorney General points out that ultimate fallacy of the legislation.

Abbott say among other things that the proposal violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.  This argument predates the incredulity of the Nebraska Compromise mandates that 49 states will be forced to pay for the increased state obligation created by the health care bill.  While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed seems quite content with entering into this corrupt bargain in order to ensure the vote of Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb), the rest of the nation is screaming foul.

While this monstrous bill may eventually be passed in some form or another, for citizens to sit back mutely is unacceptable.  Failure to protest is consent by silence.

The complete letter can be found at this link

During the eight years of Bush-42, much was made about his frequent trips to his ranch in Crawford, TX, however most of the MSM press never actually understood the appeal of the place.  Yes, the most expensive hotel room goes for $139 a night and the cost of a meal at the Coffee Station, the only restaurant in Crawford, will run less than $10 with tip, but the 90 degree plus summer days seemed to turn off many of the press corps which travel with the president.  They even ponied up $26,000 to air condition the local school gym which became the press briefing area.  After the bean counters in the corporate news offices figured out how much they were saving on hotel and food for their reporters, the a/c tab probably seemed like a bargain.

For Bush vacations were about renewal of the spirit and he found his balance while cutting down mesquite trees and putting up fences.  Manual labor, hard, hot work for a man who was carrying the weight of a country under attack on his shoulders.

President Obama vacation this year has taken him back to a place that he is familiar with as well. He spent much of his youth in Hawaii and only last year returned their following the death of his grandmother.  This year, the time off doesn’t carry the same cloak of grief, but a time of family fun and recreational relaxing all at a price that would make some Americans a little uncomfortable. Although there are accomodations available for less than the rate of $750,000 daily rate for beachfront house that will house the Obama clan, there is still the issue of feeding the rest of the entourage.  The most parsimonious diner will find it hard to find anything on the menus of Honolulu for less than $22.  But the weather is beautiful allowing time for golf which will add $100 to the expense account.

It is certainly easy to see why the press would prefer Obama over Bush.  Of course it is always easy to choose Paradise over Inferno, especially if someone else is picking up the tab.  And with this president, all spending is considered an answer to the recession.

The 2010 elections are coming up soon.  It is time to begin the fight that will bring back a government for the people instead of against the people.  Change we can believe in  has proven to be nothing more than a hollow slogan mouthed by a socialist who wants nothing more than cradle to grave legislation which will imprison citizen rather than empowering them.

To save our country, the Constitution must be protected and followed.  It is the DUTY of all freedom loving Americans’

From those fine folks who brought us Amtrak, US Post Office, and $400 toilets seats.  This is a present the taxpayers can not afford.

“[The Supreme Court] was at first considered as the most harmless and helpless of all its organs. But it has proved that the power of declaring what the law is, ad libitum, by sapping and mining slyly and without alarm the foundations of the Constitution, can do what open force would not dare to attempt.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Livingston, 1825.

And so it has come to fruition that the “harmless..organ” has become a powerful and unencumbered force in driving public policy in the United States. When Jefferson envisioned a government for the people and of the people, he insisted that all branches should carry equal weight, but the Supreme Court has shown its ability to usurp the other branches by being the ultimate arbiter in the interpretation of laws.

The question of why judges wear black should be asked and the answer would be that it would make them outwardly identical, and so the hope would be that their judgments would also be symmetrically tied to the letter of the law.  However, President Obama has said that he will nominate judges who have empathy and “real-life” experienes.

What he means is that he wants judges who will base their interpretation of what they feel is the law not what is written in the law.  And with that, and his nomination of Sonia Sotomayer, he has ripped off the blindfold of lady justice.

“I think philosophically her statements indicate an approach to judging that is outside the mainstream,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, senior Judiciary Committee Republican, said in a nationally broadcast interview. Appearing on another news show, Democrat Chuck Schumer declared: “She’s not far left. She’s not far right. She’s mainstream.”

Source

But is she mainstream?  Looking at just one of her decisions, and the most well publicized, she ruled against firefighter, Frank Ricci’s suit alleging that his Constitutional rights were denied.  In a recent Supreme Court decision, however, her ruling was overruled saying that the city of New Haven was guilty of reverse discrimination for throwing out the results of a fire department promotional test on which no blacks and only a small number of Hispanics did well.

In her ruling against Ricci, she demonstrated her empathy for minorities while completely ignoring the Civil Rights statues.  Adding another judge that interprets laws from the heart instead of the head will continue to implement laws that uphold one citizen against another based on the perception of intent.

Sonia Sotomayor’s life may be inspirational, but she is exactly the kind of jurist that will lead to a imbalance in the division of power Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers worked so diligently to establish.

The cowardly Huffington Post is again showing its nasty side by featuring a story  portraying their concept of a Palin 20012 presidential platform featuring degrading remarks about mentally challenged individuals. This, of course, is a direct jab of Palin’s last child, Trig, who has Down’s Syndrome.

In Sarah Palin’s resignation announcement she complained about the treatment of her son Trig who always teaches her life lessons. She said that the “world needs more Trigs, not fewer.” That’s a presidential campaign promise we can all get behind. She will be the first politician to actually try to increase the population of retarded people. To me, it’s kinda like saying the world needs more cancer patients because they teach us such personal lessons.

Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a Large HEAD-START Program.

She will then encourage women to hold off on pregnancies until their 40’s just to mix up some chromosomes.

She now is in favor of abortion only in case of diploid birth.

Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter.

This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job

Source

A tip of the hat to NewsBusters who snagged this post before it was taken down due to emails from offended loved ones of the retarded. Well, duh, what moron wouldn’t find it offensive. Why is it that the absence of sensitivity is only noted by liberals when it comes from their critics.

Included at NBs’ is a screenshot of the original HuffPost screen provided by a reader that proves that the slime job was actually posted before it was jerked.

Maybe HuffPo didn’t take note of what happened when David Letterman tried to make serious, personal issues food for political criticism.  Perhaps advertisers of the Huffington Post should be made aware that their consumers do not appreciate such callous, insensitive tripe.

The recently re-elected President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be feeling some nostalgia watching out his windows at the turbulence in the streets of Tehran.  Does he long for his Revolutionary Guard days and the bringing down of the old-guard as the streets burn and the bullets whiz?  Maybe he just wants to don the mask of a terrorist and join in just to get the old buzz again.  But then again, there is no embassy of the great Satan to take over, so he huddles behind his loyalists and multilayers of security.  My how things have changed — and that might be his undoing.

When the Muslim students attacked the embassy,  the newspaper was still the mainstay of most news buffs and satellite television was in its infancy.  With the first commercial television satellites only five years old, transmissions from the other side of the world were possible,  but there was many technical issues and logistics to consider.   Following the embassy takeover,  media, print and television, carried the story as their lead news story.  As is true with most news stories, interest in the hostage situation eventually waned as other national and world events took precedence.  One show, however, was to rise to prominence during the hostage crisis and bring a dramatic change in the way people get their information.

Looking back at this point in history it is amazing to realize the primitive nature that was the news media of the day.  There were no 24/7 news shows, no CNN, no Sirrus, no internet.  Most people didn’t know what a computer was much less be able to envision the way in which they would change the delivery of information.  There was, however, a new television program which premiered on ABC just days before the embassy takeover.  Nightline was a half-hour show that in an almost suicidal move went up against late-night television king, Johnny Carson.  ABC’s president, Roone Arledge, began to see the show as a way to capitalize on the public’s new found patriotism following the hostage-taking by offering updates on the crisis while at the same time not taking time away from his traditional nightly news program.  With the dramatic title, Iran Crisis, America Held Hostage, viewers could follow the unfolding of a news event on a daily basis.  Replacing the original host, ABC anchor Frank Reynolds, veteran ABC reporter Ted Koeppel began chronicling the Iranian incident and a producer had the idea of adding the number of days which had elapsed since the original takeover to the title of the program.  Although the hostage situation only last 444 days, the format for the show was set, and it was the predecessor to the plethora of news shows that have followed on both network, cable, and satellite television.

For Ahmadinejad, Nightline must have been a great ego boost.  For 30 minutes a day, he could enjoy the angst Americans were feeling over being bested by a group of radicals in a country most couldn’t even locate on a map.  What he might not have considered, however, was the reaction that was rising up from the Great Satan.  The embarrassment would quickly turn resolve and that resolve would turn to anger.  Possibly even more disgusting to the  Americans than the hostage-takers was the ineffectiveness seen in Washington’s ability to resolve the crisis.  And this wave of emotion would throw the hapless Jimmy Carter out and bring in the hawkish Ronald W. Reagan.

In the same way, a new wave is taking over Iran right now.  The protestors in the streets are by and large young people who are tired of the strict reins of the theocracy to which Admadinejad owes his power.  Attempts to eliminate the spread of information is not as easy as it was in 1979.  Tech savy and loaded with cash, the youth of Iran are broadcasting their rebellion faster and easier than could have ever been imagined when the Muslim students scaled the walls of the American embassy.  Twitter, camera and video phones, Skyping have not only spread the news of the rebellion within Iran but around the world as well.

It is too early to tell whether the current Iranian crisis will be succsuccessful, but it is for certain that in this fight technology is the first weapon of the protestors.  For Almadinejad who came to power through violence, it must the a cruel irony to see himself going down not because of superior firepower but superior thumbpower.

The Tea Party Protesters of last week need to look no further than this country’s founding document to establish their legitimacy.  The Declaration of Independence empowers the citizens with the right to use whatever force is necessary to implement a government which governs with prudence and responsibility thereby protecting the rights of its citizenry.

None of the rallies called for the abolishing of our current government, but they all called for a government that is fiscally responsible and limited in size.

“The importance of these tea parties is to let our elected officials know that there’s a lot of people out there who are unhappy. They’re not Republicans, they’re not Democrats, they’re everyday Americans who are concerned about our taxes,” said said T.J. Welsh, an organizer of a protest attended by thousands in Jacksonville, Florida.

Financial-industry and automotive bailouts were launched at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency, but many demonstrators aimed their words and signs at the Obama administration, criticizing it in part for the recently passed stimulus package.

Protesters on Wednesday said that like their colonial forebears, they felt their voices were not being heard by their government.

Source

Like the Tories of colonial America, some people dismissed the protesters as insignificant and misquided. Speaker of the House, Nancy Peolsi (D-CA), disdainfully referred to the demonstrations as “astroturf” rather than “grassroots.” Reports of the size of the demonstrations were often diminshed while some reporters were openly hostile towards the participants.  CNN’s Susan Roesgen referred to the events as “anti-government and anti-CNN” and verbally chastised a middle aged man who was in attendance along with his 2 year-old daughter.  The video of this encounter quickly hit the internet with CNN quicklyresponding citing copyright claims and demanding the Youtube take it down.

Along with God-given rights, our Founding Fathers provided for an unfettered press to act as a watchdog to expose the errant acts of the government.  What they didn’t anticipate is a press which is a partisan supporter of certain politicians with which they share ideological camaraderie.  The MSM has become nothing more than an arm of the most liberal of the Democratic party.

Before there were Democrats or Republicans, there were men who believed in the ideals of democracy.  They envisioned a society with rights that were derived from God not from humans whose fickle, self-centered interest can be self-serving.  However in a political atmosphere in which for some God does not exist, how can those rights be perpetuated?

The world is a dangerous place and no one can guarantee that either they or others won’t face a dangerous but unknown threat.  However, if Sentor Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has her way, at least one potential risk factor will be eliminated for American consumers.

The threat, a widely used chemical called bisphenol A.

BPA is used to create polycarbonate plastic products that are clear and durable. It’s also used in resins that coat the inside of many food and beverage cans.

Source

Feinstein’s proposal would ban the use of BPA because high doses have been linked to reproductive abnormalities and cancer in animals.

The proposal would ban BPA from food and beverage containers. Proponents say the precautionary principle requires such a ban because high doses of BPA can cause reproductive abnormalities and cancer in animals.

Scientists don’t know whether these low levels of BPA pose a health risk. So arguments about the proposed ban tend to involve discussions of precaution.

The precautionary principle dates back to at least the 1930s, says Jonathan Wiener, a professor of law, environmental policy and public policy at Duke University. He says there are at least three basic forms of the principle, though one scholar found 19 variations.

Weaker versions of the principle say it’s OK to take precautions against a threat to health or the environment even if it’s not clear that the threat has caused any harm. Stronger versions say it’s essential to take precautionary action.

The basis for Feinstein’s legislation, however, does not meet the criteria of any of the accepted versions of the principle because it calls for banning a substance not because it has proven to be harmful but because it has not been proven to be safe.

“If you do not know for certain the chemical is benign, it should not be used,” Feinstein said.

That standard is untenable — it is impossible to prove a negative.  No one can say that anything is perfectly safe.  Even water, taken in extreme quantities, can cause death.

Even supporters of the ban on BPA such as Dr. Ted Schettler, Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network,  disagrees with Feinstein’s rationale for banning the substance.

“They say the precautionary principle requires you to ban something if you have the slightest glimmer that it might cause harm,” Schettler says. “That is not what it does. It does ask you to look carefully, whether there are alternatives, and then look at the range of activities available to you.”

What is being mandated by this legislation is more of the misguided, over reaching of government regulation.  It won’t be long before citizens are told that they must stay in bed at all times because the world is a dangerous place and the only way they can be protected from some impending doom is to hide under their bedcovers until they die.

The Obama campaign promised change and that has certainly been the case.  For example, over a half dozen potential  presidential appointees have changed from wannabees to has beens.  Now revisionism seems to be the key phrase for the most recent bailout scandal with even venerable Democratic Senator Chris Dodd having the change his story on what he did and what he knew.

On Tuesday Dodd said he had not been a party to crafting of the bill which provided the exception for the payment of bonus to AIG executives after the insurance giant took billions from the government bailout.

“I agreed reluctantly,” Dodd said. “I was changing the amendment because others were insistent.”

If we are to believe Dodd, one of the most senior Democratic Senators crumbled under the pressure of the other committee members.  So is this change that brings stability in a time of crisis?

Of course, central to this snafu is Tim Geitner, the Treasury Secretary whose own nomination was almost derailed due to his failure to pay taxes on years of undeclared income.  Is this man who now admits not only personal culpability in his own financial missteps but knowing about the loophole that allowed for the payment of the AIG bonuses really the person who can right financial capsize of the United States?  Does he represent the change that Obama promised for more transparency in government or is he the continuation of politics of personal gain and the good old boy system of reciprocal back scratching.

Americans are loosing faith quickly with an administration that is unable to find capable subordinates and a Democratic party that continues to recklessly blow through tax dollars.  The playing loosey goosey with the serious business of running a country in the midst of an economic crisis cannot continue.

Change is not the panacea to America’s problems.  Prudent decision, both those of fiscal responsiblity as well as those of leadership choices, are not to be made by throwing a dart and hoping that any shot, even one attempted by a blind man, is better than the status quo.  President Obama must get the ship of state on a well-planned, well-managed course of action or the only change that he will be remembered for will be in the fastest reversal of poll numbers ever experienced by a sitting president.