Some are More Equal than Others

A new ad campaign has begun in the DC Metro system with posters featuring an 8 year old Florida girl asking “President Obama’s daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don’t I?” The easy answer is because Obama’s daughters go to a prestigious private school rather than a government-run public school.

The real question that should be asked is, “Why are government schools good enough for other people’s kids, but not his?” Earlier this year he and the Senatorial Democrats had a chance to help low income students escape failing DC public school, and they did not.

Back in March 2009, the Senate Republicans proposed an amendment to the $410 billion omnibus spending bill that would continue and expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This Amendment was killed by the Democrats, ending the program.

In May 2009, President Obama set aside enough money in the budget to let the students currently enrolled in the program to finish. How generous of him to not pull the rug out from under these kids, while his daughters attend private school. The compromise by Obama, however, does not allow any new students to enroll in the program and escape their failing public schools. This video from Reason.TV shows some of the people who are hurt by the actions the President and Senate.

These actions are typical of progressives like Obama and Senate Democrats. Costly and ineffective government programs are good enough for the common people, but not for the political elites. They are trying to force a health care plan on us in which they will not participate and they do not send their kids to the schools they claim are good enough for the rest of us. They have one standard for themselves and another standard for us.

This also appeared at ATR.org.

Union Chief Facing Corruption Charges

Just when you thought Unions (the people who brought you bankrupt auto industries, failing pensions, and organized crime) were starting to clean up their act, the Union Chief of the New York District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America and nine others are facing corruption charges.

The 29 charges include “racketeering, bribery, fraud and perjury.” Bribes of about $1 million were paid to the men by contractors so they could pay workers below union scale, hire illegal immigrants and non-union workers, and skip contributions to the union’s benefit fund.

This is not the Union’s first brush with these types of accusations. In 1990, Manhattan prosecutors brought up similar charges in a civil racketeering lawsuit. The lawsuit led to a court appointed “corruption monitor,” which is still in place and as effective as most government appointed regulators.

The Union’s “history of mob influence, labor racketeering and bribery” has not caused politicians to distant themselves. Just six weeks ago, Mayor Bloomberg released a press release that the union had endorsed him for a third term. At a recent Union event, Michael J. Forde, one of the men facing indictment, introduced the Mayor as their “endorsed candidate” and gave him a hug.

Another man included in the indictment is Association of Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York executive director Joseph Olivieri. Olivieri has strong ties to the Genovese crime family, according to the FBI and law enforcement officials. The indictment does make reference to the Genovense family, but as of now, they are not included in the indictment. The investigation is ongoing.

Lev. L. Dassin, the acting United States attorney who announced the charges, said, “Instead of protecting the financial interests of union members and their families, corrupt union officials and the contractors who bribed them are charged with betraying the carpenters’ union and its benefit funds to enrich themselves.”

For more information, visit the AWF Union Transparency Page.

 This article also appeared at ATR.org.

Don’t Read the Bills, Just Vote No

There has been a lot of heated debate about whether Senators and Congressmen should read the 1000+ page bills that are being proposed, most notably the healthcare and Cap and Trade bills. Protestors at town hall meetings are demanding their representatives read every page of the bill before voting for it.

This seems like a reasonable request, though many senators and congressmen have taken offense to the idea that they read these bills. Representative John Conyers didn’t know what the point was in reading it because he wouldn’t understand it anyway. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer laughed at the idea of reading the health-care bill saying, “If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes.” Representative Henry Waxman admitted he didn’t know the details of his own Cap and Trade bill. And Senator Arlen Specter said they couldn’t read the whole bill, because they have to “make adjustments very fast.” There is a simple solution to this issue, Senators and Congressmen don’t have to read the bill, just vote no.

It is a waste of everyone’s time to try to read 1000+ pages of a bill just to find out it is a bad bill. There is a handy, “cheat sheet” if you will, for every member of Congress to tell them whether or not they need to read any piece of legislation. It is called the U.S. Constitution. “What’s this U.S. Constitution you speak of?” A Senator or Congressman might ask. I’m glad you asked. It is a clever document written by some wise men in the late 1700s that tells the federal government exactly what they can and can’t do; some might even go as far as to say it is the “highest law in the land.”

My copy of the U.S. Constitution, which I got for free from the Cato Institute, is about 4 inches high by 3 inches wide, and including a Preface, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution with all Amendments, is 58 pages.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution lists the powers of the Legislative Branch and Amendment X of the Bill of Rights states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Basically, if it doesn’t explicitly say the federal government CAN do something that means it CAN’T.

Let’s practice. We will start with the Cap and Trade energy tax bill which was passed by the House a few weeks ago. No one could have possibly read this bill before it was passed, because an official copy didn’t even exists. No problem though, all they had to do was look in their trusty Constitution and see what it has to say. It does not have a section granting the United States the authority to regulate invisible gases. Ok, so now we look at the Amendments section…not there either. It’s not in the Constitution, therefore Congress can’t do it, so Vote no.

On to Healthcare. This is a heated debate, so let’s consult the Constitution. Again, nothing in there about the government providing health care, health insurance, or anything else having to do with doctors or medicine. It’s not in there, so you don’t have to read the bill, just vote no.

This works with other bills as well. The Employee Free Forced Choice Act (EFCA) would allow the government to step into negotiations between Unions and Employers and arbitrate their contracts. The Constitution does not say anything about the Federal Government arbitrating contracts between two private organizations. Vote no.

It is unfortunate that no one in the government had found their handy Constitution sooner. Does it allow them to use tax money to bailout banks? No. Does it allow them to use taxpayer money to buy auto companies? No. Does it allow them to “Stimulate” the economy by printing paper money out of thin air? No. It does allow them to borrow money, but it also says, “No state shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Depts.”

If reading the Constitution is still too much for the average Senator or Congressman, there is an even shorter way to decide how to vote. All they have to do is consult one part of the Declaration of Independence, “[T]hat 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 Powers from the Consent of the Governed”(Emphasis mine).

Before voting for a bill they only need to ask two questions. First, will this bill deny anyone of their Life, Liberty, or Pursuit of Happiness? For example, if one person is forced to pay for the health insurance of another that is denying him of his Liberty to spend his money in the manner he chooses without coercion. Second, because the rights of government are derived from the rights of the governed, does the average citizen have a right to do what is proposed in the bill? For example, can Joe Sixpack down the street, go to his local factory and force them to reduce their carbon emissions? If he doesn’t have the right, how did the government derive their right from him?

This should help to simplify things and allow members of Congress more time to raise money for reelection campaigns, go to luaus at the White House, and enjoy all of the other perks of being in Congress.

This also appeared on ATR.org.

Shut up about Obama’s Birth Certificate!

We are six months into Obama’s first term as president and rather than focusing on outrageous spending and money creation, oppressive regulations, and a general loss of liberty which has been accelerated since the Bush Administration, there are still stories about Obama’s Birth Certificate. Why? What is the point and the goal of talking about this?

Let’s assume that he doesn’t have a US Birth Certificate for a second. Ok, now what? Now we remove him from office? Joe Biden becomes President? Is that really an improvement? How would we benefit from having the guy who admitted the country is going bankrupt and then said we should spend more to get out of it, as President?

Or would this invalidate the entire ticket? John McCain becomes President? We have another election? How long would that take and how much would that cost? Is it really a good idea to add political instability to the economic instability? The economy is already suffering in part to huge amounts of uncertainty; how would not having a President lessen that uncertainty?

If we assume that we could get Obama out and replace him with someone else, let’s say we vote in a nice conservative Republican. How does X President (it really doesn’t matter who) change anything? Wouldn’t progressives still control the House and Senate? Wouldn’t the Senate still have 60 votes? It might be somewhat difficult to override a veto in the House and Senate, but after ousting their President, do you think any Democrats would side with the Republicans on anything again?

A new President, no matter who it was, would do nothing to stop the Federal Reserve, the bailouts, or the stimulus. Sonia Sotomayor would probably be pushed through even faster under the guise of maintaining stability. Their reasoning would be that we wouldn’t want to have a President removed AND only 8 Supreme Court Justices.

This argument is as ridiculous as the 9/11 Truth arguments and it serves the same purpose. The 9/11 Truthers waste their time following a stupid conspiracy theory and serve only to make libertarians (and a lot of progressives, but their entire philosophy is crazy) look like nuts and discredits the sane libertarians. The Birth Certificate argument is the conservative equivalent. It makes conservatives and Republicans look like nuts, idiots, racists, and sore losers. Following this path accomplishes nothing except providing some small (but unlikely) glimmer of hope that it could get rid of Obama. It would not fix any of our problems; it would not shrink the government or restore freedom or capitalism. All it could possibly accomplish would be to remove Obama from office.

If removing him from office wouldn’t reverse the path we are on, what is the point? Do the Republicans do this because they are upset that their progressive candidate lost to the Democrat’s progressive candidate? The situation today would be very similar if McCain had won, so removing Obama doesn’t solve anything. Or is it because he is black? Most people who oppose Obama do so because they oppose his policies and philosophy and could care less about his skin color. Ultimately, by continuing with this farce, we are no longer discussing his destructive policies or furthering our goal of undermining them. Following this path will discredit those of us with legitimate complaints against his agenda, and paint us as racists who just can’t stand the idea of having a black man in office. I’m sure, however, that there is a minority of small-minded (read: stupid) people that do oppose him because of his skin color. Those people should be shunned from the movement and we should not allow them to distract those of us with rational and intelligent claims against the President and the progressive agenda in Washington.

Not only is this path dangerous because it discredits our side, but it overlooks the fact that Obama is a master of misdirection. If he has a Birth Certificate why doesn’t he just go on TV and show everyone? This is likely part of his plan. Conservatives and Republicans would be forced to stop talking about it if he debunked it. They would stop wasting their time with this pointless argument and focus on what Obama is really doing. Obama is a political magician. He has us all focused on his left hand while his right hand pulls a Climate Bill/ Energy Tax or government health care plan out of his FDR top hat. While we discuss superfluous things like where he was born, The Fed materializes trillions of dollars out of thin air.

If your goal is simply to get Obama out of office at all costs, then nothing I can say will stop you from wasting your time. However, if you have higher goals in mind, like restoring liberty and capitalism to this country, then I applaud you for realizing that this birth certificate debate is an inane distraction from the real problems we face.

My Email to Wal-Mart

The following is an email I sent to Wal-Mart urging them to rethink their support for the government health care plan. They replied with a generic form letter which was exactly the same as the response another person I know received. If you would like to contact them visit http://walmartstores.com/contactus/feedback.aspx.


"Please forward to the Corporate Headquarters:

I am outraged to learn that Wal-Mart is supporting the ridiculous Socialized Medicine scheme being proposed by the President and Congress.

I realize that Wal-Mart believes this will lower costs by passing the burden of health coverage to the government, however, this is a shortsighted and dangerous game that you are playing. The health care system does need some work, though it is still the best system in the world, just ask all the Canadians that come here when they don't want to wait in long lines in Canada.

The solution, however, is not more government, it is less! The solution lies in the free-market not in government control. People should be given more freedom, lower taxes, and greater choices. Wal-Mart should know this better than anyone.

Your company, while acting in its own interest to make money and become the biggest supermarket in the world, has done more to improve peoples' lives, especially the lower class, than any government program in the history of man. If you believe the government should provide health care, maybe you also believe the government should provide food and should come up with a bipartisan supermarket reform bill? Food is much more important than health care, I need food everyday, so you must also believe that food is too important to be left up to the free-market and should be provided by the government. Maybe the government should use tax money to make low cost food retailers to compete with you, you would support that, right?

If you are going to get in bed with the leaches in Washington, DC and support a system that will increase taxes, take away our freedom, destroy capitalism, and destroy our health care system, than that is not a bed I would like to be in, and will no longer shop at Wal-Mart.

Please, go back to doing what you do best: providing quality goods at low prices and do not sell out yourself and your country by supporting dangerous government schemes for shortsighted gains. Do not change your mind because you will lose me as a costumer, because I will be insignificant compared to the pain you will suffer if supporting a course of action that continues to drive this country towards socialism.

First they came for the banks, then they came for the auto industry, now they are coming for health care, next they pass EFCA, and Cap and Trade, and then they regulate profits and prices, and salaries, and then one day you will wake up and wonder what happened to your company, your country, and your freedom? Once you start this chain of events, you will not be able to stop it. Stop it now before it is to late. Do not support your own destruction!!!"