Undecided Democrats are being promised campaign perks and lucrative committee assignments. They are being threatened with decreased fund-raising support, primary opponents and the loss of committee chairmanships. President Barack Obama has even lobbied members one-on-one aboard Air Force One.

The White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle has been feverishly sending out unsolicited email messages to federal employees in an effort to build support for President Barack Obama’s health reform package over the last several weeks.

DeParle’s unsolicited emails have been regularly coming to some federal employees’ official government email inboxes for weeks without permission or request, causing some federal employees to feel threatened by the overt political language. (WT – this could be considered a means of creating a hostile work environment, which is illegal)

The ranking member of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee is opening an investigation into the “secret deals” that the White House and Democrats made with various healthcare stakeholders.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sent letters today to six organizations asking them what agreements, if any, they made with the Obama administration in exchange for their support of (or lack of opposition to) healthcare reform.

And let’s not forget what is important to Obama, and it is not a 3 letter word (j-o-b-s)

On no other issue has President Obama put in as much effort and displayed as much passion as on health care.

Since launching his campaign for health care reform with a White House forum on March 5th of last year, Mr. Obama has delivered 54 speeches and statements on the issue.

That is out of 471 speeches since taking office 424 days ago. Why the need to speachify so much if the legislation is so super duper wonderful? Whatever happened to jobs and the economy being the #1 priority?

If it is so great, why are States already planning lawsuits? Why are there threats of lawsuits over the individual mandate? Legal challenges over “deem and pass“? If Democrats thought the process was ugly prior to any passage, just wait and see if it actually passes. Feels like 1776

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;…..

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

Editor’s addendum: “We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution.” — Abraham Lincoln

“…[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
-James Madison

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.” – Samuel Adams

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Shortly before midnight on Sunday, Democrats released a 2,309 page health care bill that will start the process of reconciliation — but don’t let that fool you, it’s not the actual reconciliation bill with all the changes you’ve been reading about. Instead, as Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member on the Budget Committee, explained to me last week, this is just the “shell” bill — the vehicle that Democrats need to get moving on health care. Once the bill gets approved (likely Monday), Democrats will send this phantom bill over to the Rules Committee, where it will be stripped, and then they’ll insert in all of the actual changes that they’ve negotiated.

Why all of the theatrics?

Well, under the reconciliation rules in last year’s budget, any reconciliation bill would have to have been submitted to the Budget Committee by October 15, 2009. It just so happens that earlier versions of health care legislation cleared the Ways and Means and Education and Labor Committees last year. So Democrats just dusted that legislation off, and are using that as the vehicle to begin the reconciliation process. That’s why, for instance, if you look through the 2,309 page bill that was released Sunday night, you’ll find a public option, which leadership has indicated would not actually be in the final bill. (Interestingly, the student loan bill is also tacked on at the end.)

Just a “simple up or down vote,” remember?

Constitutional democracy? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitutional democracy.

Michelle Malkin has a taste of the table of contents, at least prior to the Democrats getting around to inserting in all the provisions not in the bill. The Democrats are expressly attempting to thwart the Will Of The People, as John Boehner points out

“Democrats may run Washington, but the American people are in charge of this country,” Boehner said. “The moment a majority forgets this, it is writing itself a ticket to minority status.”

Why would they do this? They don’t have the votes.

R.S. McCain, along with mentioning that the election of Scott Brown hurt the Dems ability to ram this through in a Constitutional way, writes

This whole Pelosi procedure is nothing but a thumb in the eye of the Constitution.

Gateway Pundit, through a commenter, points out the illegal alien and ACORN provisions.

Question: will any group, including the GOP, have the cajones to challenge the Constitutionality in court if passed?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

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A secret administration memo has surfaced revealing plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres from Montana to New Mexico, halting job-creating activities like ranching, forestry, mining and energy development.

As for that pre-Hopey Change concept of consent of the governed:

President Obama could enact the plans in this memo with just the stroke of a pen, without any input from the communities affected by it.

The land grabs are to be justified by unilaterally designating them as “monuments” under the Teddy Roosevelt era Antiquities Act. The government has its eye on over 13.5 million acres, including

a 58,000-acre area in New Mexico. The memo said this should be done so the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard will be better protected. Are these animals going extinct? No. The bureaucrats wrote that the land should be locked up to “avoid the necessity of listing either of these species as threatened or endangered.”

But our land isn’t being stolen just for the animals. The thoroughly debunked global warming hoax once again comes into play.

In Nevada, the Obama administration might make another monument in the Heart of the Great Basin because it, supposedly, is a “center of climate change scientific research.”

Also, the government needs to seize land to assure that it isn’t used to meet our energy needs.

In Colorado, the government is considering designating the Vermillion Basin as a monument because it is “currently under the threat of oil and gas development.”

Think of the jobs that could be created were this land to be used productively instead of turned over to the lizards and prairie chickens.

The progressive authoritarians controlling the federal government are quite literally stealing our country away from us.

On tips from J and LouieLouie. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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Barack Obama should not only try harder to kick his smoking habit, his team of doctors warned, but they also recommended ‘moderation of alcohol intake’.

It’s not as if voters weren’t warned in advance that the Anointed One is prone to substance abuse. Here’s Chairman Zero describing his own habits in one of his pre-accomplishment memoirs:

Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow [cocaine] when you could afford it. Not smack [heroin] though.

Regarding the doc’s advice that Zero stop smoking…

Last year Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The law allows the Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban sweet flavourings and block labels such ‘low tar’ and ‘light.’

Also to be filed under H for Hypocrisy, from nearly a year ago:

One of President Barack Obama’s campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.

The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.

This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.

To be sure, Obama’s tax promises in last year’s campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.

“I can make a firm pledge,” he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

But smoking is bad, so Big Government must discourage us from doing it. New taxes on alcohol, “blow,” and reading lies off teleprompters soon to follow. Not smack though.

On a tip from Nancz. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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So, with that said, here is some info from the National Precinct Alliance:

The Freedom Force Strategy

The American people find themselves in the very difficult position of having to reform their government from the bottom up, after decades of public neglect which allowed politicians from both political parties to behave as though the U.S. Constitution doesn’t exist any longer.

State legislatures have been forced by over-reaching federal policies, to restate, reclaim and reassert Tenth Amendment rights just to defend the citizens of their states from oppressive policies coming out of Washington DC.

These recent events have caused a great awakening in the American populace, which has manifest in numerous patriotic activist organizations like the many Tea Party, 912, Town Hall and We the People movements across the country. We refer to these combined common efforts as “the patriot movement” which is much bigger and broader than any individual faction of the movement.

Early efforts to protest and petition elected servants of the people have fallen on deaf ears… and

American patriots determined to protect and preserve freedom, liberty and prosperity for future generations, find it necessary to take specific tangible actions via constitutional processes, in an organized strategy to reclaim control of their nation.

In this mission, if we fail to plan, or to organize with tangible strategies, then we have planned to fail and the price of failure is unacceptable.

Operations like the Tea Party, Town Hall and 912 movements have done a great job of waking folks up, getting them engaged in protesting their runaway government, identifying the very real assault on American freedom, liberty and prosperity. But now, patriots have figured out that these activities fall short of the mark of affecting change.

Despite popular rhetoric about a “leaderless movement” and “no need for unified efforts” that work in concert with each other in an organized fashion, real and tangible solutions to very real threats to Americas future require planning, strategizing and organizing between the more than 2000 patriot groups in the country today.

A very well organized assault on our country cannot be defeated by a disorganized and fractured resistance.

Freedom Force has been formed to address certain specific challenges facing the patriot movement and the need to work together to reclaim control of the United States of America.

Freedom Force is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation focused only upon helping the patriot movement unify in tangible strategies designed to return control of the runaway government to the American patriots. Freedom Force has NO ties or loyalties to any political party, or special interest group.

Freedom Force goals are based solely upon the Charters of Freedom, and our strategies are based solely upon peaceful and constitutionally grounded uses of the existing system of self-governance, aimed at returning the American people to their leadership roles as prescribed by our founding documents.

Our Stated Challenges

• A runaway federal government acting at odds with both states and individual rights, and beyond the enumerated powers afforded the federal government via the US Constitution
• Fiscally irresponsible elected officials who have driven the most prosperous nation ever known to mankind, to the brink of bankruptcy
• A federal government which has adopted a “top down” view of power, at odds with our principles of self-governance of, by and for the people and their individual right to live free
• Returning the US Constitution to its rightful place as the supreme law of this land
• Re-educating the American populace which has been carefully misinformed for decades, via the failing state run education system, the internationally controlled US press and the entertainment industry
• Protecting 1st, 2nd and 10th Amendment rights, along with all “unalienable” rights
• Unifying the patriot movement employing organized tangible strategies without offending anyone’s ego
• Dealing with profiteers in the movement who are exploiting the grass-roots volunteers
• Directing patriots towards real solutions and away from all “mock” solutions that waste time, energy and resources needed to restore our country to greatness
• Address the use of PACs (Political Action Committees) to redirect patriot funds into partisan interests often at odds with the patriot movement

Our Strategy

Our strategy is not to “control” anyone. We have no interest in interrupting the productive efforts found in many of the local or regional patriot groups. Our strategy is simply to develop tangible action oriented and results driven initiatives that can make a real difference, rather than just “send a message.”

To accomplish this, Freedom Force has “strategically partnered” with several significant patriot groups already operating on the ground, with track records of success in their initiative-specific operations of expertise.

Four ways to be part of Freedom Force

• A Strategic Partner – is a patriot organization which is focused upon and directly engaged in a specific tangible initiative vital to the overall Freedom Force strategy for reclaiming America through peaceful and constitutionally grounded activism.
• A Strategic Alliance – is a patriot organization that participates and promotes the strategic initiatives within Freedom Force and its partners, in addition to its own internal organizational initiatives.
• A Member – is an individual who believes in, participates in and supports the Freedom Force strategies and initiatives by engaging with Freedom Force and its strategic partners and allies.
• An Advisor – is an individual with special expertise in a particular area of interest to Freedom Force and our partners and allies.

Our Strategic partners

Freedom Force has many new strategic allies coming on board, which we are not yet ready to publicly announce.

But the rumors of division and an inability to unify in common purpose is false. We are being very successful in building strategic alliances with numerous patriot organizations behind the scenes, which is where such an effort is much easier to accomplish. When we do release a list of strategic allies in the near future, folks who thought it couldn’t be done will be shocked and those who do not appear on that list will hope to appear on that list soon after.

We have three strict rules about alliances with other organizations…

1. NO profiteering on the volunteer works of patriotic citizens
2. NO direct or indirect affiliation or financial interest in partisan or special interest organizations
3. NO wasted energy, time or resources on non-tangible or “mock” initiatives

We will not knowingly align with any organization involved in any of the three counter-productive activities. End of story… So if an organization does not appear on our list of allies, there is a good chance that they are engaged in one or more of these activities.

Internal Initiatives

Freedom Force also has a few key internal initiatives which are already operating below public radar. For strategic reasons, we do not discuss these initiatives openly at this time. These particular initiatives are of a sensitive nature. Information on these actions are “close hold” and available only on a “need to know” basis at present. We can only hope that our members and allies understand the need for a certain level of security.

Unifying the Right in Tangible Action

Unlike the left, which functions on group think and group actions, the right is made up of free-thinking independent minded individuals not accustomed to “community organizing” concepts. The right is made up of self-sufficient individuals accustomed to meeting life’s challenges on their own.

As a result, there is no shortage of ideas or leaders on the right. That’s why we have 2000 leaders leading in a hundred different directions at the moment, each equally certain that they have the right plan and can accomplish the goal all alone, as they have done all of their lives.

But this challenge is different from anything they have ever faced before.

• The leftist movement is massive, international.
• It is VERY well organized, around the globe and in America.
• It is VERY well funded.
• They play by no set of rules, other than the Rules for Radicals.
• They plan on taking no prisoners and are happy to destroy every American in their quest for a New World Order.
• And they are years ahead of the opposition, already in full control of the White House, congress, the judicial system, the press and academia.

In short, they control everything today. So, mounting a successful counter-movement is made much more difficult by the fact that the right currently controls none of the tools needed to stop the left from steamrolling forward.

The Money Thing – Money is Power

It doesn’t matter whether or not we like it. Reality is inescapable and one reality is, in politics, money is power. Every political strategy requires funding at some level and usually, the best funded ideas move forward.

To date, Freedom Force has thousands of members across the country who have “pledged” financial support for the operation and to say that we are very grateful for that support would be an understatement.

As of today, we have not yet asked anyone to send in a single penny to fund the many activities already underway. ALL of it has been done with internal “out of pocket” funding by the founding members of Freedom Force, and the volunteer efforts of many great patriots.

For the first time in my life, I am actually receiving mail from people upset by the fact that we have not yet asked them to send their money in. What a great position to be in, with so many wonderful patriots anxious to do their part! Many have even written to up their pledges because the web site won’t let you change your initial pledge amount. – Thank you all!

We have not asked you to send money yet for two very good reasons…

1. Our initial estimates are changing as we have begun to build a network of patriots willing to use their own talents and resources to make a difference for their country. We do not want to ask for more than we really need, or ask any sooner than we actually need the funds.

2. As we have been able to fill in vital parts of our strategy through strategic partnerships, those operations are able to raise funds directly and we recommend that Freedom Force members support those operations directly so that Freedom Force funds can be dedicated to internal initiatives managed by Freedom Force directly, reducing the need for funds.

But fear not… We will ask for the pledges to be acted upon very soon, as those funds become necessary and as we are able to disclose more information about all of the Freedom Force objectives and initiatives. Thank you for your patience and continued support!

At this time, we ask that you help spread the word by sharing the Freedom Force story with as many fellow patriots as possible, encouraging them to become a member of Freedom Force, pledge support for our objectives and strategies, and engage with our partners and allies immediately.

We do not have to wait on funding to be productive in the patriot effort immediately. Get in the game wherever you best fit, but get in the game.

Our country’s future depends upon what each of us is willing to do in the effort to restore America to that shining city on the hill, and the beacon of freedom and liberty all around the globe.

www.FreedomForce.us

www.NationalPrecinctAlliance.org

www.ourcaucus.com

www.thevoicesofamerica.org

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A mere three days before President Obama’s supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House yesterday released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support. So after election defeats in Virginia, New Jersey and even Massachusetts, and amid overwhelming public opposition, Democrats have decided to give the voters what they don’t want anyway.

Ah, the glory of “progressive” governance and democratic consent.

“The President’s Proposal,” as the 11-page White House document is headlined, is in one sense a notable achievement: It manages to take the worst of both the House and Senate bills and combine them into something more destructive. It includes more taxes, more subsidies and even less cost control than the Senate bill. And it purports to fix the special-interest favors in the Senate bill not by eliminating them — but by expanding them to everyone.

How could we possibly afford that with the economy already staggering under the burden of government debt? We can’t, as Democrats well know.

Some explain the Dems’ unconscionably irresponsible behavior as inter-generational theft, assuming our children and grandchildren will pick up the bill. Others refer to the Cloward-Piven strategy, the objective of which is to enable a great leap forward into coercive collectivism by causing our system to collapse under the weight of entitlement spending. Given Comrade Obama’s radical background, the latter explanation is probably more accurate.

The reason Dems are willing to vote themselves out of office over healthcare is that once socialized medicine has been passed, it cannot be repealed. If ObamaCare is rammed through, America will never recover from it, just as it never recovered from the disastrous programs imposed by FDR, which continue to bleed us toward eventual bankruptcy to this day.

The difference is, the crop of socialists now in the White House don’t have the patience to wait for America to bleed to death gradually. That’s why Obama et al. are slashing open arteries left and farther left to make the red ink flow. Once it becomes clear that the debt can never be repaid, our currency collapses, and our savings become worthless, our helplessness will clear the path for Fundamental Change.

On a tip from Varla. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.

Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion I do not think the letter works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.

Some of those involved with the statement said that the 1960 “Sharon Statement” served as their inspiration. The Sharon Statement, intended to give some ideological umph to Goldwater conservatives, is an effort that works much better as a rallying cry to action. Sadly, the Mount Vernon Statement falls a little flat in this respect.

Historically I have two minor qualms about the newest effort. First of all its name doesn’t resonate. Yes, George Washington was the indispensable man of our early republic. Without him the warring factions facing off in political battle during our early republic just might have strangled this baby in its crib. But, as steadying a force as he was, Washington was not really the ideological or intellectual father of our nation. He was the father that kept the kids from beating each other up, the father we looked up to as a model of comportment, the man we looked to as the solid rock of the family, certainly, but he wasn’t the idea man. For that we looked to men like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams among many others.

So, naming this letter after George Washington’s estate seems a bit odd. Better that these folks should have met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia and called this the Philadelphia Statement, the Independence Statement, or some such thing. The words “Mount Vernon” are obviously meant to lend historical heft to the document but they just don’t succeed as a meaningful ideological association. In fact, it’s sort of hollow. Are we naming our bedrock ideological principles for the man that didn’t craft them? That seems a bit odd to me.

Secondly, I find fault with this paragraph (my bold):

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The word “recognizes” is not the correct word to use for what the founders thought about the word “virtue.” They didn’t merely “recognize” virtue existed. They built their entire political edifice on the insistence that our political leaders practice virtue and that they base their every move on the need to be seen as civically virtuous. This is an idea about which few of our political leaders today have the slightest clue, not to mention that the public is generally ignorant of what the founders meant when they discussed public virtue. Sadly, this letter doesn’t help us regain a proper perspective on the founder’s idea of public virtue.

The Mount Vernon Statement missed an opportunity to better explain what virtue in government could mean as a rallying cry for today’s conservative movement.

The Mount Vernon Statement is a fine little history lesson but compared to the Sharon Statement, it just doesn’t seem to as immediately take on the issues that we face. Where is the discussion of the destruction of our educational system, where is the warning against our worst foreign threat, where is the assertion that our system of jurisprudence has been undermined? All these things are broadly implied by the Mount Vernon Statement, granted, but one wishes that today’s problems were more directly addressed.

While we don’t want a statement that names names or attacks specific policies directly — that would detract from the essential universality of such a statement of principles — still to my mind the Mount Vernon Statement is a bit too broad. I feel that we need something a tad more direct. The Sharon Statement was perfect for its mixture of what were then current issues and timeless conservatives principles.

Should you have signed onto the Mount Vernon Statement, or should you feel that you’d like to do so, I can find no harsh words for you. As I said, there is no great harm done by this effort. Unfortunately, there is also correspondingly little succor that this effort can lend to our cause. It seems like a nice history lesson but as a manifesto to rally around it is more like a staid assertion than a battle cry. It is eminently forgettable.

Part Two

Yes, it’s easy to criticize. Surely it will occur to the minds of many readers of my criticism here that I should offer solutions along with my criticisms. So I offer the following basic idea of what I’d consider a better “statement” than what resulted from the efforts at Mount Vernon, Virginia. I’ll call it the “Huston Statement” for lack of a better title and since, well, I’m the one writing the thing.

Remembering that I am one man, not a committee of 80 some high-powered conservative operatives, here are the ideas I thought of while reading the Mount Vernon Statement, humbly offered as a basis upon which to further the discussion:

The Huston Statement

Since our political climate has long since drifted from the first principles of our founding and since we now face a crisis threatening to tear down our American moral center we commit ourselves to re-establishing our American character.

We believe that our Constitution and the principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence form the best guide by which to nurture our American character and provides a firm bedrock upon which to build a government.

We as Americans believe:

That as individuals we have the right of self-determination, to be free of overweening involvement in our lives by government at all levels from local, to state, to federal.

That as free men we must strongly assert that we are responsible for ourselves, our family, and our property and that others owe us nothing but to observe our rights as we observe theirs.

That our liberties depend on our civic virtue and that it is up to each of us to become informed citizens.

With these God-given liberties in mind, that our representatives must strive to keep government out of the lives of the people to the greatest extent practicable and that they should honor the principles of limited government as handed down to us from our founders.

And we assert that adherence to these principles will act as a beacon of freedom to the world, that we should actively promote them abroad giving succor to all those that would follow in our footsteps, and that we should not lend legitimacy to foreign bodies or nations that retreat from them.

We affirm that:

Private property is sacrosanct

The market-based economy free of government meddling must be preserved

Employees must be free of compulsory associations

Governments must be accountable to the voters not to judges and unions

Communities have the right to draft standards without federal approval

Education is a local responsibility solely under local and state control

It is freedom of religion, not freedom from religion

And that our Second Amendment rights are God-given and cannot be infringed

Additionally, we as Americans also reaffirm that legislation is the rightful duty of our constituted bodies of representatives and not the venue of capricious judges. Ruling from the bench is no better than the ill-considered tyrannies from the throne from which we so long ago rebelled.

Finally, let us understand these principles to be an affirmation of our American character, one that has made our nation the richest and strongest nation in human history. Any force, whether domestic or foreign, that wishes to materially alter this character is an enemy to our nation and one that should not be treated lightly but faced squarely and with resolution.

Well, this is how I see a statement of principles that are geared to today’s issues but are still the sort that attest to our timeless conservative ideals.

I hope this can serve to continue the discussion that the Mount Vernon Statement started.

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The ostensible purpose is to prevent “discrimination” against homosexual children. Since most children are too young to be homosexual, the real objective must be something else — namely:

The purpose of this bill is not what is being stated, but is quite simply to mandate in public schools one acceptable viewpoint on the issue of homosexuality, using purported violence or harassment as the rationale, and the power of the feds as the hammer. … In summary, this is an attempt to promote sexual deviance and its expression and silence those who want to protect children from such corruption.

As with everything coming out of Washington lately, another goal is to weaken federalism and consolidate increasingly intrusive centralized power.

Federal governmental intrusion and sweeping new unregulated powers in what are local and state matters are proposed in this bill. Enforcement will primarily be through federal agencies, which will craft new regulations to back up this bill’s provisions with the President’s approval.

But the main point of the bill is to facilitate the brainwashing of small children with the progressive kakistocracy’s depraved sexual agenda, suppressing any speech deemed unsupportive of homosexual deviancy. As Jim Hoft puts it:

In other words, if you oppose radical sexual material detailing sex between first graders or promoting S&M but the Safe Schools Czar or some other official believes it is appropriate — tough. If you disagree with books romanticizing child rape or books with pictures of men having sex — tough. If you oppose weekend student-teacher seminars with fisting lectures and gay bar guides — tough. If government officials want to promote this in your child’s classroom then you’ll just have to get used to it.

On a tip from J. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.

I wonder when the left, and Obama, will pitch the same type of fit they enjoyed while Bush was president? I’ll get to that in a bit

Mr. Obama has not given up hope of progress on Capitol Hill, aides said, and has scheduled a session with Republican leaders on health care later this month. But in the aftermath of a special election in Massachusetts that cost Democrats unilateral control of the Senate, the White House is getting ready to act on its own in the face of partisan gridlock heading into the midterm campaign.

He is also considering the use of recess appointments. Didn’t he whine about those when Bush did the same? That said, something seems to be missing from his signing statements agenda

Mr. Obama has already decided to create a bipartisan budget commission under his own authority after Congress refused to do so. His administration has signaled that it plans to use its discretion to soften enforcement of the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military, even as Congress considers repealing the law. And the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with possible regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, while a bill to cap such emissions languishes in the Senate.

Just like during a good chunk of his first year, his second year is going the same way, namely, he is still ignoring the economy and jobs, which are the top two priorities with the American people, as poll after poll after poll proves out. He is even planning a push on health care related issues through his Executive administrations.

After a bit in which the Times mentions that Obama has been critical over Bush’s use of signing statements, they mention

…but aides said last month that he still reserves the right to ignore sections of bills he considers unconstitutional if objections have been lodged previously by the executive branch.

Here’s a novel idea, one which apparently is eluding the Smartest Man On The Planet: do not sign the bill if it contains sections considered unconstitutional. Whip out ye olde Veto Pen, and send that puppy back.

As said and written ad nauseum, Obama is in way over his head. Furthermore, the notion that he cares little nothing about the plight of the American people has become crystal clear. Personally, I would not begrudge him the use of signing statements and recess appointments if he was at least engaged on the economy, but, at this time, he is divorced from reality, and caught up in his own little progressive world.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

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Since fourteen states have legalized the use of cannabis for sick and disabled people we here at NORML have reported on numerous stories of medical users harassed, arrested, and jailed by police. We have also reported on healthy adults in all fifty states whose lives are turned upside down by an arrest, sometimes losing student loans, jobs, children, pets, dignity, property, and freedom over a single joint, seed, or even a cannabis stem. When we and others bring up these insane injustices to the police who are making these arrests, we often hear the platitude that “cops don’t make the laws, we just enforce the laws.”

So why do we consistently see representatives of law enforcement opposing medical marijuana, marijuana decriminalization, and marijuana legalization efforts in state legislatures?

Well, Russ, buuuuuuuddy, it could be because police officers are allowed to speak their minds in this wonderful democracy (yes, I know, it is a Republic) our Forefathers bled for. It could be that law enforcement sees things happening in the real world with mary jane smokers that people who are doped to the gills, sitting on their couches, listening to Yes while playing Gears of War do not see.

Russ does bring an interesting amount of stats, polls, and figures to the debate, in effect, telling the police that they are wrong and should not be allowed to have those opinions. And this does beg the question, should loco weed be made completely legal? Not just for medical use, but, for all use, with, of course, the same type of controls and regulations that we have for alcohol and even prescription medicines.

On one hand, people will say that it is much easier to grow at home, so it will not be fully controlled, and tax revenue (yes, we would tax it) would decline. Of course, people can also make beer, wine, and hard liquor at home, and what is the quality control on that, much less lost revenue?

We can also look at the potential short term memory and motor function loss while high, and there are still no satisfactory studies which can discuss the long term effects of smoking ganja. Alcohol is legal, and we do know the health risks in both the short and long term, which are considerably worse than giggleweed, particularly when we throw in those pesky physiological and psychological addictions, something not present for sativa.

Personally, I couldn’t care less. I don’t smoke it. I have, back in boarding school, where you couldn’t get away with drinking, but, haven’t touched it since. I found it to be boring (just for transparency, I do not drink that much, either, and do not do drugs.) That said, my view of American Conservative theory, also known as Classica Liberalism, tells me that if it doesn’t affect me negatively, why should I care if it is legal and people smoke it? As long as I am not being subjected to the smoke, and to people who reek of hemp (and, yes, those of you who smoke it, you do stink. Try using a hit towel, and change your clothes before going out), no skin off my nose.

There are all sorts of arguments for and against legalization, but, to break it down, what is your opinion?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

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