Politics

Who's to blame? Passive pastors

Wayne — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:25:38 -0400

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1681

Government Accountability

Wayne — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:49:02 -0400

How is government held accountable? The ultimate means of accountability is via the Second Amendment, though all levels of government work overtime to castrate this God-given right, even going so far as to pollute our very culture with anti-defense nonsense. In theory, elections should be a means of holding elected officials accountable. In practice, ballot access is controlled by the government and its colluding bifactional Republicrat Party. (Georgia is possibly the worst state for ballot access. I've seen this fact at work firsthand.) Division of power is also supposedly a means of holding government accountable. Each branch battles for power against the others, usually keeping the others from expanding beyond Constitutional limits. Occasionally, they conspire—via unspoken, mutually beneficial choices, not necessarily openly—and the citizens are the losers. Other times, there are unchallenged power-grabs. Bush Jr. did several of these, but Obama has risen to new heights of corruption.

Numerous Inspectors General have been fired, "retired", blocked, or otherwise had their power of oversight stripped of them. These positions were created so that there would be impartial parties (yeah, right) to report on government waste and corruption to the American people. Let's set aside the fact the organizations being audited by these IGs are largely unconstitutional. The IGs do not report to the President (or its usurper), per se, but to both the legislative and executives branches. Appointments and firings must clear both branches, I believe. Obama and his cronies, though, have seen fit to render unilaterally several IGs impotent or worse. Senator Grassley is leading the Congressional inquiries into these matters, but frankly, he's not raising the alarm enough.

Human nature is tainted with sin. In government, the very essence of which is power over others, it is our nature to grow increasingly corrupt. Were it not for the Founding Fathers' numerous protections against corruption (many of which have been thoroughly bypassed), our governments would naturally slide very quickly into despotism. It's important to understand this natural trait of government. Good government is not a stable entity. Good government is a delicate balancing act, fragile, and easy to tip toward tyranny. Even small changes can have accelerating effects toward evil.

Obama's now established pattern of eliminating or controlling inspectors general is a significant change in a precariously balanced federal government. (I assert that this "balance" is already quite a ways down the slope of tyranny, but there are fragile forces attempting to keep it from sliding further.) As power-grabs go, this pattern is a small one. However, it's not just another power-grab. It's a very significant lurch down the slope of tyranny. Any familiarity with German history just prior to WWII will reveal many such lurches as Hitler set the stage for his dictatorship. Individually, they may seem insignificant, but when you zoom out to see the bigger picture, they are easily recognized as very dangerous moves.

IGs subjugated? Check.
Ever increasing Executive authority (e.g., "czars")? Check.
An illegal alien as President? Check!
Manufactured, bogus crises available to be used as excuses for more power centralization? Healthcare...check. Global warming...check. Economy...check. Crime...check. Sexual deviants' "rights"...check. Offended Muslims...check.
Perpetual wars? Crime. Drugs. Poverty. Terrorism. Check.
The ability to wage war without Congressional declaration? Check.
Police state? Check.
Gun control? Check.
Government-controlled education? Check.
Dumbed-down populace wholly ignorant of the principles of freedom? Check.
Fascism? Let's see: nearly complete control over private enterprise via oppressive taxation, omnipresent regulation, and now "bailouts". Yep, check.
Total deprivation of privacy? Government has the ability to monitor all financial, consumer, and communication transactions. There is nowhere to hide. Check.
"No-knock" warrants? Midnight raids? Militarized police? Warrantless searches? Random checkpoints? Travel "papers"? Property seizure without due process or recompense (RICO, imminent domain)? Loss of habeas corpus, no trials or representation, indefinite imprisonment incognito (PATRIOT Act)? Check, check, and check.
Total disregard for Constitutional limitations, let alone as originally written and intended? Check.
An unelected, unrestrained, foreign entity openly usurping national sovereignty? Enter the U.N. and its domestic collaborators, and check.

Do we really need handwriting on the wall, too? The stage is well set. We stand on the threshold of tyranny the likes of which the world has never seen. I expect Obama's policies will simply be the last few straws being intentionally placed on the camel's back. With so few obstacles remaining to keep utter totalitarianism at bay, every single one usurpation counts. Not only must we oppose every little power-grab, but we must reverse the countless, established ones, too, if we are to hold our governments accountable. Demand Obama's authority over IGs be renounced, the IGs be reinstated, obstruction of their oversight duties be criminally charged, and some modicum of faith be restored in an otherwise disposably evil fedgov.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1679

Police State in Gwinnett

Wayne — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:19:29 -0400

Gwinnett County Police practice "regulatory checkpoints" wherein they check your license* and registration*. They're using a SCOTUS-created loophole in the Fourth Amendment—there is no such loophole, regardless of what the SCOTUS says. That's just what we need: while the fedgov is busy destroying any semblance of individual rights, denying Natural Law, and trampling on the Constitution, local government chooses to destroy any semblance of individual rights, deny Natural Law, and trample on the Constitution. Thanks, jerks. I guess they'd rather be counted among the enemies of freedom than its defenders.

May God help anyone brave enough to assert his rights at such checkpoints. If history is any indicator, such patriots will likely be Tasered until they comply or die.

Today's "checkpoint" featured over 20 cops, cars, lights, bikes, the works. It was a large show of force. If anyone who was actually a criminal saw this, they'd simply veer off, go through a nearby neighborhood, turn around, etc. In other words, the tactic is utterly without value except—here comes the golden nugget!—if their goal is to assert their totalitarian authority over the general populace.

*The very concept of government licensing and government registration of anything flies in the face of Natural Law, violating God-given rights to property, among others. This means the very basis for the checkpoint, even if such a Constitutional loophole existed (it doesn't), is bogus.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1666

Not even trying

Wayne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:32:01 -0400

They're not even pretending to be fair, impartial, logical, or in any other way connected to reality. CBS and the New York Times, ABC, the rest of the propaganda networks, the Obama administration, the Democratic Party, Leftists, and other psychotics don't even to bother trying to disguise their lies and fabricated worlds. They don't even pretend to care about reality anymore.

It's a bit odd watching our culture implode. Part of me feels like a lonely voice crying in the wilderness (not to diminish the other, few, lonely voices doing likewise). Part of me is enraptured, much like watching a train wreck, as I witness all semblance of truth quickly fall away. Like almost all movies, I know the ending in advance, so the plot is a bit spoiled, losing some of its "fun". Even so, I feel a sense of fascination at how an entire society can so quickly move away from truth and reality with very little opposition (save those few, lonely voices in the wilderness). Were I seeing this in a movie theater, I'd conclude there was some evil mastermind, an archvillain, who had somehow infected an entire population with a mind-control agent and was methodically inducing mass psychosis toward the goal of his own world domination. Hmmm...

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1660

Education

Wayne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:37:18 -0400

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2009/06/turnabout-...

[T]he government has absolutely no business being involve [sic] in education for a variety of Constitutional, practical, and freedom-related reasons.

...and Biblical.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1659

Blogger facing charges

Wayne — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:20:18 -0400

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528031,00...

HARTFORD, Conn. — A New Jersey blogger is due in a Connecticut courtroom to face a charge of inciting violence against state lawmakers.

Harold "Hal" Turner of North Bergen, N.J., is set to appear in Hartford Superior Court on Monday.

The 47-year-old former radio talk show host, who now broadcasts commentary on his Web site, urged his blog readers earlier this month to "take up arms" against Connecticut lawmakers and suggested government officials should "obey the Constitution or die."

Turner was angry over legislation that would have given lay members of Roman Catholic churches in Connecticut more control over their parishes' finances. The bill, brought by state Sen. Andrew McDonald and Rep. Michael Lawlor, was withdrawn in March.

Turner's lawyer says the case is about freedom of speech.

I must admit I tend to agree with him. I find tyranny to be the greatest enemy of this nation, and by definition, the enemy to freedom. I find it consistent to suggest Constitutional violations by lawmakers as treasonous actions, punishable by the death penalty in some cases. I do not believe it's time for such justice to be executed by the people at large. Instead, this justice should be incorporated into our rule-of-law. On the other hand, I believe tyranny is growing at a rate that I can reasonably predict armed rebellion in my lifetime. I can certainly empathize with this blogger's anger.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1656

Fair Tax Insurance

Wayne — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:25:10 -0400

I just read Norris' article, "David vs. Goliath of government agencies", and his endorsement of the Fair Tax. Ignoring for a moment my hatred of all taxation (sans individual, voluntary contract), I have one very serious concern about the Fair Tax plan.

My understanding is that the bill allows for a transitional period wherein both income/payroll taxes and sales taxes exist simultaneously. Pragmatism of transition aside, I find it highly likely the fedgov will not relinquish one for the other, eventually amending this law—or flatly ignoring it as the fedgov is wont to do—to maintain both forms of federal taxation indefinitely. History shows governments do not surrender power, especially the power of taxation, without at least the threat of force. Once the fedgov has the power to tax both income and consumption, I believe it will not give up either, perhaps capitalizing upon some supposed crisis or another (probably of its own making) to justify its sins.

So I may not be accused of presenting problems without presenting solutions, I suggest we provide an effective solution to this and countless other problems for which the fedgov is infamous. First, lawmakers must be subject to the law, else there is no rule-of-law and the Constitutional Republic is truly dead. If lawmakers break the law, a citizens' grand jury ought to be able to indict and bring the accused to speedy trial. Second, more importantly, freedom demands penalties for violating the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, most especially for those wielding power over the rest of us. If we are to avoid Jefferson's recommended revolution every generation, I'd suggest the penalty for government officials (be they elected, appointed, or contracted, thus including all the little civil service tyrants) violating Constitutional limitations be akin to treason. After all, who is a greater enemy to freedom (defined as freedom from government intervention) than government itself? Only when individual rights are sacrosanct, protected by lethal force, can we have any insurance that government will suffer even its own legislation, let alone the supreme law of the land.

If government can be truly constrained to the Constitution and its own laws, then the Fair Tax has a reasonable chance to meet its goals. With rule-of-law insurance, countless other abuses will fade in the shadows of tried and executed government traitors. When governors fear for their lives at the hands of the governed, they will tend to govern wisely.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1655

Inspector-gate

Wayne — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:47:11 -0400

Speculation is beginning that the firing of three inspectors general may be Obama's Watergate. Sen. Grassley and the FBI are taking these incidents very seriously, as IGs are supposed to be nonpartisan watchdogs, identifying government waste, fraud, and abuse. These dismissals, though, smack of politics through and through. Congress and the FBI may be wondering just what Obama and his cronies want covered up.

Might the rule-of-law come back to haunt the antichrist-in-chief, after all?

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1653

United States

Wayne — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:00:23 -0400

Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution starts:

Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. (emphasis added)

Notice the plurality used to reference "United States". The United States are not the federal government but the 50 sovereign states themselves. The United States are not synonymous with the federal government. The United States are a federal collection of otherwise free and independent states.

In this country a "state" is wrongly perceived as what other nations would call a province. Properly understood, a state is a nation and not a province of a larger nation. Federalism, then, is akin to a tightly bound (say, via treaties) group of nations. In our case, federalism is a group of nations bound by the Constitution, our version of a comprehensive international treaty. Our culture needs to recover this mentality that the United States are not a single nation but a federation of nation-states.

When seen in this light, the fedgov loses much of its power. The reason for Constitutional limitations become clear. The intent of the Commerce Clause is made obvious. This is not one great nation, although its unity provides a kind of economic power as if it were one. (This is why the E.U. tries to imitate [badly] our federalism.) The states are free to be quite different from one another. They are free to withdraw from the federal "treaty", too (Lincoln's immoral enslavement of the states notwithstanding). Assuming federal membership is desired, the Constitution is designed to bind the states together enough that they won't fight among themselves, threatening the desired federal unity, but it is not designed to override state sovereignty or force membership in the federation.

Did the Constitution include the seeds of its own destruction? In addition to its plural "United States", the Constitution also uses the singular term "Union". By Lincoln's era, this singular Union was elevated beyond that of the plural States. No longer was it a federation of sovereign states; it was viewed by many as a singular union whose provinces were utterly subject to the federal [sic] government. Being the military victor, the Union took center stage, and the United States thereafter became a singular entity conflated with their federal government. And it's been downhill ever since.

The very simple act of keeping the United States plural can further the cause of freedom and federalism as our Founding Fathers designed. (Pardon the alliteration.) I've been using the term fedgov to mean the federal government, but in truth, the fedgov is not federal at all. The fedgov is the domestic enemy of freedom and state sovereignty. It is a perversion of what once was a federal government, a weak government designed only to help the independent States support each other. Take a page from the Leftist playbook by changing the definitions of common terms. However, rather than perverting the terms, we are restoring them to their proper meanings. Educate others on the terms and their real definitions. After a couple generations of culture shift back toward truth, we may yet reclaim freedom for these United States.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1652

Usurper openly violates federal law

Wayne — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:01:22 -0400

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A0000...

President [sic] Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum today that extends many benefits now received by spouses of federal employees to same-sex partners of federal employees.

Family advocates say Obama’s action is a direct violation of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and a big step toward redefining marriage.
...
"Treating same-sex partners as the equivalent of spouses is therefore a direct violation of DOMA and merely Obama's contribution to the clearly-stated, gay-activist agenda of redefining marriage and family."

Obozo violates the law all the time. This really isn't anything new, but it is a fairly clear case. Why aren't U.S. Attorneys prosecuting him for his illegal actions? When law enforcement fails to enforce the law, they become accomplices.

Truly the fedgov is above the law. This is just more evidence that the rule-of-law is dead.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://tuscanycircle.net/trackback/1651