09/3/15

One Messy Affair

I am referring, of course, to the whole business of the votes in Congress on the Iran deal.

Netanyahu has come out with a statement, echoing what I and others said yesterday, that things can still change, and we must keep fighting.

Those who oppose the deal have already achieved a major goal in publicizing its various faults and weaknesses – its dangers. At this point, the majority of the American people understands those dangers and is opposed to the deal.

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As there seems some confusion, I want to clarify once again: there are two votes anticipated. The first on whether to accept the deal. In that case, a simple majority of members of Congress suffices., as it will be couched in the negative: we do not accept. And if that vote is taken, those opposed to the deal should hold sway – it should be rejected.

It is with regard to this vote that I wrote yesterday about the “moral majority” – the more reject the deal, the greater the moral and political impact. Whatever happens subsequently, a majority of Congress will be on record as having declared against the deal.

Remember this, and use it: If Obama wins, it will not be because a majority of the Congress was with him. It will be because of the games that have been played, games that make it possible for Obama to win with a minority of the Congress voting with him.

For a better understanding of this, see Andrew McCarthy on the Corker Bill, which set the current process in place:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/421349/congress-must-ditch-corker-bill-and-treat-iran-deal-either-treaty-or-proposed

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There is talk that the acceptance of the deal might never come to a vote – because a filibuster might be instituted: The rules of the Senate permit members to speak for indefinite lengths of time, thus preventing a vote from being called. I say there is “talk” about this, but it is not at all clear that it will happen. Senate rules require at least 2/3 of its members – or 60 Senators – to vote for cloture, to close debate. Reversing the numbers, that means Obama would need 41 Senators to vote against cloture, so the filibuster could continue. He does not have nearly that number now.

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If the deal is rejected by a vote of Congress, the president will veto it. And this is where Mikulski’s declaration in support comes in: it means that – right now – the opposition does not have the necessary number to override the veto.

We will continue to work, in hopes of a change in this situation.

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It was my dear friend Sharmaine who advanced the most important suggestion in this regard, one I am remiss for not having mentioned sooner:

“…the timing for the vote is perfect after Rosh Hashana…We need to pray ….. For heavenly intervention on the vote!”

Amen on this. Please!

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There have been a good many other suggestions as well that have been sent to me, broadly in line with the McCarthy piece from July, cited above. There are multiple suggestions that this deal is really a treaty, and illegal or unconstitutional as currently structured. There is the suggestion (advanced in American Thinker by Skloroff and Bender) that the Senate must sue the executive, “triggering a confrontation between the judicial [Supreme Court] and the executive branches.”

I do not intend to consider these various thoughts – which have merit – in any detail, however. This is because it is my perception that there are a good many wimps among the Republicans in the Senate. They failed the nation in the first place, when they agreed to the current configuration for voting, which puts the onus on those who are opposed to the deal, rather than the other way around. And I simply do not believe that they are about to take on Obama in any seriously confrontational fashion.

In the exceedingly unlikely event that they would do so, it has to be because some Republicans of courage in the Senate have considered various legal ramifications and have decided to move forward. It must come from within the Republican ranks of the Senate. It SHOULD come from their ranks, but…

What I do see as a possibility is that a scheme may be devised by the Republicans that is less confrontational. but has the effect of at least partially blocking what Obama intends to advance. For example, there may be a push for reinstatement of sanctions.

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I speak of Republican wimps, and I would like to use this opportunity to enlarge on this comment. Many of us celebrated when Republicans gained control of the Congress. Today, many of us mourn the way in which that Republican majority has failed the nation. I am not saying that there are no Republicans in Congress who have courage and integrity; I am saying the Republican majority bloc has not moved with determination and strength – in pursuit of a clear-eyed vision for the nation.

Just as there was unconscionable game-playing with regard to how the vote on the Iran deal would be structured, so have there been multiple other instances in which Obama has secured the upper hand when he should not have been permitted to. Now I hear that the deal should have been a treaty, and that what Obama has done is not legal. But the Republicans agreed to it! Just as they acquiesced in a dozen other instances in which the president has played fast and loose with the rules.

Is it that the president has the nation in his thrall? Or that he plays such hardball that there is hesitation to move against him? One matter is very clear: he plays the race card, which makes opponents uneasy about taking him on, lest they be charged with racism.

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What we see again and again is that the president has no compunction about dancing around the truth, and evading direct promises that have been made. All politicians do this to some extent, but he is an all time master. We’ve seen this with “absolute” assurances he offered on the Iran deal, which have turned out to be no assurances at all. Yet somehow, he has managed to get away with it, when Congress should have called a halt.

Add to this the telling of bold-faced lies. I mention this here because only days ago, he did a webcast for the American Jewish community. “We’re all pro-Israel,” he declared. “We’re all family.”

Can anyone really believe this, after seeing that he agreed to a situation for Iran that will increase terrorism against Israel by Iran’s proxies?

“Nothing in this agreement prevents us from continuing to push back forcefully against terrorist activity,” he offered reassuringly.

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/LIVE-STREAMING-Obama-gives-special-Iran-deal-address-to-North-American-Jews-413590

Right… give Iran access to increased numbers of conventional weapons and huge sums of money, all of which will serve to bolster Iran’s terror proxies such as Hezbollah, and then provide assurance that there will be action against terrorism.

I am not sure how he says all of this with a straight face. But he does, and manages without eliciting wholesale outrage. I have not read of anyone who asked him, “What do you take me for, a fool?”

This tells me that America is in a very bad place.

06/12/15

Why Are TPA & TPP Being Referred to as Obamatrade?

By: Nancy Salvato

In an article by Connor Wolf called This Is The Difference Between TPP And TPA (Hint: They Are Not The Same Thing), he explains that these two bills are linked together because Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is a means to fast track passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I am confused by this line of reasoning because as a stand-alone bill, TPA is intended to provide transparency to all trade negotiations by soliciting public and congressional input throughout the process, however, TPP as a stand-alone bill, is a behemoth and most of the information to which the public has access has been leaked. Furthermore, it was negotiated behind closed doors. According to the verbiage of TPA, if TPP is not negotiated using TPA guidelines, the fast track option is negated. So why do news outlets and a wide range of legislators portray these two bills disingenuously? Bundling the TPA and TPP as one idea called Obamatrade is no different than bundling immigration reform and border security, which are two separate issues. One is about drug cartels and terrorism and the other is about how we manage people who want to immigrate to the United States.

Challenges TPA hopes to remedy throughout the negotiating process and in resulting trade agreements have parallels to challenges facing the US and its allies when agreeing to make war on the foreign stage. While one president may assure allies that US troops will assist in gaining and maintaining freedom, i.e., Iraq, a new administration or congress may change the terms, leaving a foreign country abandoned, with the understanding that the US cannot be relied upon to meet its agreed upon obligations. When negotiating foreign trade agreements, this same realization comes into play when negotiations that took place in good faith are undermined by a new administration or congress that change the terms. TPA hopes to create a set of consistent negotiating objectives when hammering out trade agreements, allowing agreements to transcend administrations and congresses.

The following excerpts from a letter written to President Obama from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R, AL) would alarm any person who understands the division of powers and checks and balances built into our rule of law. Posted in Exclusive–Sessions to Obama: Why Are You Keeping Obama Trade’s New Global Governance Secret? Sessions explains:

“Under fast-track, Congress transfers its authority to the executive and agrees to give up several of its most basic powers.”

“These concessions include: the power to write legislation, the power to amend legislation, the power to fully consider legislation on the floor, the power to keep debate open until Senate cloture is invoked, and the constitutional requirement that treaties receive a two-thirds vote.”

Understanding that Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Representative Paul Ryan have gotten behind TPA, it would be short sited and irresponsible not to probe further into why they aren’t exposing these violations of our rule of law.

According to The Hill’s Daniel Horowitz in TPA’s ‘Whoa, if true’ moment, Cruz and Ryan have explained, “most of the content of the bill is actually requirements on the executive branch to disclose information to Congress and consult with Congress on the negotiations.” Congress would be informed on the front end, as opposed to debating and making changes to what was already negotiated. This is important because as Cato Institute’s Scott Lincicome and K. William Watson explain in Don’t Drink the Obamatrade Snake Oil:

Although trade agreements provide a mechanism for overcoming political opposition to free trade, they also create new political problems of their own, most of which stem from the inherent conflict in the U.S. Constitution between the power granted to Congress to “regulate commerce with foreign nations” (Article I, Section 8) and that granted to the president to negotiate treaties (Article II, Section 2) and otherwise act as the “face” of U.S. international relations. In short, the executive branch is authorized to negotiate trade agreements that escape much of the legislative sausage-making that goes in Washington, but, consistent with the Constitution, any such deals still require congressional approval—a process that could alter the agreement’s terms via congressional amendments intended to appease influential constituents. The possibility that, after years of negotiations, an unfettered Congress could add last-minute demands to an FTA (or eliminate its biggest benefits) discourages all but the most eager U.S. trading partners to sign on to any such deal.

TPA, also known as “fast track,” was designed to fix this problem. TPA is an arrangement between the U.S. executive and legislative branches, under which Congress agrees to hold a timely, up-or-down vote (i.e., no amendments) on future trade agreements in exchange for the president agreeing to follow certain negotiating objectives set by Congress and to consult with the legislative branch before, during, and after FTA negotiations. In essence, Congress agrees to streamline the approval process as long as the president negotiates agreements that it likes.

For a really good argument for fast tracking, watch the video that can be found here:

Here’s why the TPP is such a big deal 03:24

K. William Watson explains in What’s Really in the New Trade Promotion Authority Bill? TPA will actually bring more transparency to the negotiating process:

The current bill would require the administration to provide public summaries of its negotiating positions. This will give the public something concrete to debate without having to resort to conspiracy claims or wild theories. It will also help everyone see more clearly how negotiators intend to implement the negotiating objectives of TPA.

It will also require that every member of Congress has access to the full text of the negotiations from beginning to end.

If TPA actually does what it is intended, a bill like TPP could not possibly be held to an up or down vote because it would not have been negotiated using the processes as outlined. Or could it? This administration passed Obamacare, which is a tax; they wanted comprehensive immigration reform and secure borders yet they openly courted Latin American countries to bring their kids to the border; they said they’d be the most transparent administration but there has been a dramatic lack of transparency, one must pass the bill before knowing what’s in it.

Perhaps what it all boils down to is what Rick Helfenbein writes about in Trade promotion authority, a Washington drama:

There are other conservatives like Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) who remain adamantly opposed to giving the president (presumed) additional authority. Jones said of Obama and TPA: “Given his record, I am astonished that some of my colleagues are so eager to fork over even more of their constitutional authority to the [p]resident for him to abuse.”

While this article addresses the issue of TPA, it doesn’t begin to address the arguments against TPP, for example The Guardian’s C. Robert Gibson and Taylor Channing’s conclusion that, “Fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments, was only possible after lots of corporate money exchanged hands with senators.” That is an article for another day.

Nancy Salvato directs the Constitutional Literacy Program for BasicsProject.org, a non-profit, non-partisan research and educational project whose mission is to re-introduce the American public to the basic elements of our constitutional heritage while providing non-partisan, fact-based information on relevant socio-political issues important to our country. She is a graduate of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Academy for Civics and Government. She is the author of “Keeping a Republic: An Argument for Sovereignty.” She also serves as a Senior Editor for NewMediaJournal.us and is a contributing writer to Constituting America. Her education career includes teaching students from pre-k to graduate school. She has also worked as an administrator in higher education. Her private sector efforts focus on the advancement of constitutional literacy.

05/30/15

The Americans

By: Paul E. Vallely and Charles Jones
The American Report

Published by Stand Up America

For: Limited Distribution

The AMERICANS strongly believe that life, liberty, citizenship and the pursuit of happiness are the unalienable RIGHTS of every American Citizen that cannot be taken or transferred. However, not until We the People become brutally frank with ourselves and with each other will the Constitution be taken off the shelf and once again become operational. Only then can the Republic can be restored and preserved in its original ordained Constitutional Power and form.

We The People have suffered enormously since 1913 under the combined rule of two domineering political parties of 536 elected politicians along with those they have appointed. Tax and Spend, along with whatever it takes to rule, is the quest of one of the domineering parties. In the opposing party, weak backbones, failing to stand up and lead for what a majority of citizen voters want, coupled with the elite of the party stealthfully blending in with the tax and spend party, have destructively allowed the confiscation of far too much of the wages and retirement incomes from the citizens who pay income taxes.

These facts are now becoming more recognized with the most recent dastardly additions of: countless political deceptions, lies, national economic destruction, purposeful job-killing, the stealthful demise of America’s middle class, no Administration help for the massive unemployment of Black Americans plus the politically purposeful illegal alien invasion of the United States. Along with forty percent of the people within the fifty state borders who are receiving food stamps. This all is treason to each separate state and to the citizens within the several states and it is perpetuated by the elected and appointed inside the Washington DC beltway.

The Constitution requires that all laws must be faithfully executed, but far too many are not and have not been – – – specifically by the Executive Branch. Nor has the Oversight Power of Congress been exercised to ensure Executive Leadership enforcement of United States laws. These self-serving political failures have become destructive to the well-being, liberty and happiness of most American citizens. It must be recognized that “New Guards” for future personal safety and National Security must peacefully be put into place by citizens beginning with votes at the ballot box. Failed leadership can no longer stand if the Constitution and the Republic are to be preserved for our children and all future generations.

A deep look has been taken into the several national crises by “The Americans” leadership who care greatly about the Republic, the People and the Constitution. Necessary and workable solutions have been developed to help solve and fix what has without question stunted our Nation’s ability to clearly, legally and peacefully function as a Constitutional Republic.

KEY NATIONAL ISSUES that must be solved if the separate and collective States of The United States of America are to become economically solvent, remain peaceful and nationally secure are:

The Constitution of the United States as originally established and amended will remain in absolute and total effect. The original XIII Amendment as written and ratified is an operational Amendment and will be adhered to immediately. (The original XIII Amendment was falsely hidden by less than honorable men of the times). Congress shall make all laws necessary for carrying into execution the Powers authorized in the Constitution and that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. Constant Congressional leadership oversight will be maintained at all times. All Laws requiring Executive action will be faithfully executed upon receipt from Congress by the President and appropriate departments and selected agencies of Government under the President’s sworn responsibility and authority.

A strong National Defense of well-trained Active Duty, Guard and Reserve Forces maintained with proper equipment that can deter any enemy activism, or fight and win if deterrence fails will be assured by both the House and Senate of the US Congress for the protection of “We the People” and the preservation of the Constitution and the Republic. Readiness at all times will include a nuclear capability to win if Congress declares war against an enemy aggressor. The United States Military will in no way be used against United States Citizens. To do so will trigger expeditious Congressional actions to immediately and permanently remove anyone exercising such orders from elected or appointed office.

The United States Government cannot rebound from the man-made economic crises without satisfactory employment for a majority of American citizens. In turn, satisfactory and sustainable employment for American citizens simply cannot be achieved with the excessive tax rates that now exist for US businesses and the American people. All political plundering of the people’s wealth via taxation will be stopped. Our banking system and wealth management has been corrupted with the 1913 establishment of the Federal Reserve System, placing monetary and economic control in the hands of a few (now partisan) individuals. The Federal Reserve System will be abolished and all US Government financial and economic functions will be turned over to the US Treasury including the coining and printing of currency and the issuing of currency. US green-back bills will be printed and a one –for- one exchange to replace Federal Reserve notes will take place.

The IRS will immediately be abolished and that form of US government taxation will cease and desist. A zero-interest National Debt will be established at the US Treasury and a GDP annual growth limit not to exceed 3% will be tied to the previous year GDP growth. A transition to a “fair or flat” tax must be accomplished as a priority.

The Illegal Alien Invasion of the United States will be stopped with a Secured Borders Double Fence on The US Southern Border and more Border Guards stationed on the Northern Border. All US borders will be further controlled and severe penalties (financial and incarceration) for employers who hire illegal aliens. Foreign countries will have named financial and trade restriction obligations to the United States for all of their citizens who come over US Borders illegally. There will be absolutely no jobs, no social services, no welfare nor medical services allowed to be provided to illegal alien invaders. (Emergency medical care only will be provided until they deported to home from which departed). American jobs are for US citizens, returning military veterans, part time high school students and the elderly. When US employers cannot find workers and can fully justify seeking foreign workers, Government permission will be granted for hiring temporary foreign workers.

The DHS with functions for national security and FEMA for emergencies have both grown far beyond the intentions of reasonable and responsible leadership control, budgeting, manpower, equipment and facilities. Deceptive political intentions for the potential use of facilities, weapons, massive purchases of ammunition plus military-type vehicles and railroad cars are greatly objectionable to American citizens and an insult to the economic deficit of the Nation. America’s leadership needs to be well-versed with the Active Military, County Sheriffs, Local Law Enforcement and National Guard overall capabilities within the continental limits of the United States that can handle any and all emergency situations, foreign or domestic, that might be faced. The DHS will be disbanded and certain functions will be merged into the Department Of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Interior (DOI). The FEMA name will be changed to “The National Emergency Agency” (TNEA) and manpower will be greatly reduced and merged into the DOI to be used for national emergency situations only. Their budget and emergency dispatch activities in the east, central and western parts of the country will be managed through the three numbered Air Forces of the Air Force Reserve Command. All weapons, munitions and military-type vehicles will be transferred to the DOD immediately. All holding and or compound-type facilities will be closed and transferred permanently to local governments for non-detention uses only.

The Department of Energy will be abolished and certain specified oversight functions would be moved to the Department of Commerce.

The Department of Education will be abolished and its functions and all funding responsibility will be returned to each individual state, territory and the District of Columbia.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be abolished with responsibilities and functions removed to each individual state. Conflicts will be resolved at the Department of Commerce while working with the states.

In addition, selected Agencies will be moved from the National Capitol area and disbursed into the interior for cost-effective and long-term security reasons as well as seeking more diversified hiring of high quality civilian personnel throughout a larger portion of the Nation. (Rust-belt areas of high unemployment in the mid-west and other locations of far greater physical expansion capability will be given priority consideration for these moves and jobs.

The partisan and destructive Democrat Affordable Health Care Plan will be repealed and pre-2009 Medicare Programs will be fully reconstituted. Necessary changes and revisions to the existing Social Security System to ensure self-funding.

The Executive order that allows unions to exist in government and do collective bargaining in any and all tax-payer funded government jobs will be rescinded.

It will be the policy and understanding within the entire Republic to recognize each County Sheriff as the Elected Senior Law Enforcement Officer in each respective County and that a well-regulated militia, if formed, will be responsive to his Constitutional Sworn Oath as necessary requirements for security of a free state.

The United Nations will be defunded from the excessive monetary proportions US taxpayers have been forced to fund and a strong effort will be made to move this overbearing activity out of the United States. Politicians must come to realize that no United Nations deliberations can override the US Constitution.

Education, kindergarten through grade twelve, is a fundamental right for American school-age children and is a responsibility of county or city taxpayers to insure funding for that right. Citizen school children in far too many public schools have been denied that fundamental right to an education due to handicaps in classroom and interferences caused by countless non-English speaking children plus overcrowding and scarce tax dollars used to accommodate illegal alien school children. In addition to US Borders becoming secure, the 5 to 4 decision by the Burger Supreme Court that allowed all who choose to attend American taxpayer-funded schools regardless of citizenship will be revisited using Chief Justice Burger’s dissenting opinion as grounds for new litigation.

Defund the United Nations and have moved from New York to a location such as Athens, Greece, where the original nation-state was established.

Begin a systematic process to reorganize the Department of Defense into an organization of National Security that can prepare us for today and tomorrow with “forward strategies” that secure America.

It is the general consensus of The Americans Project that If the Republican Party does not hold the line in the US House of Representatives to secure the Southern US Border, plus demand existing immigration laws be faithfully executed by the Executive Branch, then stop all Senate Immigration Reform and also stand firm for defunding Obama-care, the results will be the demise of the Republican Party in the 2014 and 2016 elections. The 2008 and 2012 Presidential elections were lost because many Republican and Independent voters stayed home. There must be Honest National Leadership in place for the America First voters who care about the Constitution, the Republic and a secure future for their children.

Independent Constitutional Leadership selected by The Americans Project will be that Leadership. It will also become more evident to the voters that the course the Democrats have planned for America is destructive far beyond the imagination. This nation is being torn apart daily as the crises facts become known. Also most disturbing to Americans who care is the fact many are not confident We the People have a Constitutional Government in place because to this date absolutely no one has seen one document verifying Constitutional qualification of the person occupying the White House. Congress ignores all petitions for a redress of grievances and the Judiciaries at all levels of government have dismissed every attempt at addressing a legal option. The Democrat Party leadership signed two separate and different documents certifying eligibility to run for office as well as re-election eligibility. This is pure and simple elected and appointed sworn politicians run amuck. Enough is enough. If the United States of America and the separate states are to survive these greedy self-serving destructive political onslaughts, new leadership in existing elective offices is a must for every citizen.

Our government (all branches) of, by and for the people has lost control and has led us down a very destructive path of tyranny, corruption, cover-ups and deceit. We have to a degree lost the necessary checks and balances designed to provide an essential balance of power. That has led to a far-reaching federal government and an infringement on states’ rights. We must save the Republic and the country before we get to the point of no return. A National Call to Action is required by all of us to get our country on track! God save the Republic!

THE AMERICANS PROJECT

Paul Vallely
Major General, US Army (Ret)

Charles Jones
Brigadier General US Air Force (Ret)

05/30/15

Emergence of a National Police Force

By: Andrew Kopas – Guest Columnist
Stand Up America

With the recent shooting in Ferguson and deaths in New York City and Baltimore of residents there involved in criminal activity at the time of their arrests, there is an outcry from the likes of civil rights activist Al Sharpton and others for nullification of state’s rights and the takeover of local and state police forces nationwide by the Federal Government, specifically by the Executive Branch.

BESTPIX BALTIMORE, MD - APRIL 27: Demonstrators climb on a destroyed Baltimore Police car in the street near the corner of Pennsylvania and North avenues during violent protests following the funeral of Freddie Gray April 27, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray, 25, who was arrested for possessing a switch blade knife April 12 outside the Gilmor Homes housing project on Baltimore's west side. According to his attorney, Gray died a week later in the hospital from a severe spinal cord injury he received while in police custody. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX ***

BESTPIX BALTIMORE, MD – APRIL 27 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In all of this, keep in mind that Obama has very successfully used “straw man” arguments to advance his objectives. In this particular case, the “straw man” argument being put forward is that all law enforcement agencies across America are inherently racist and that only his takeover of them will fix these racist organizations.

He has essentially painted a bull’s eye on the backs of our local and state law enforcement personnel and endorsed instead the criminal element in America that has responded by assassination style shootings of law enforcement personnel in NYC and most recently in Mississippi as well.

The nationalization of our local and state police forces is indeed a very bad idea and should be adamantly opposed by both the states and the general populace for several reasons.

First and foremost, it would bring ALL organized armed personnel, namely the American Military, Homeland Security, and all local and state police under the direct control of one man, namely Obama and any future Presidents of the United States.

That would in turn allow for tremendous abuses of that power that we have already seen in this Administration, such as use of the IRS and DHS against what he perceives to be his domestic enemies, namely anyone who opposes him and his policies.

Remember the National Police Force Obama Promised in 2008?

Secondly, if he decided to fully seize power and set aside the limitations of the Office of President imposed on him by the Constitution of the United States, which he has already done in a number of particulars such as with illegal immigration, failure to enforce DOMA, bypassing Congress unilaterally in matters of treaty negotiations, etc., there would be no armed force except the American people directly to stop him.

But without organization and leadership, the probability of that successfully happening on a national scale is remote.

In fact, he could use all of the organized armed forces at his disposal, including local and state police who would be under his direct control, to put down any such opposition that the people might undertake.

As reported in The Daily Bell on December 7, 2011, as early as 2009 Obama advocated “a civilian police force to match the size and power of our armed forces.” One has to ask the question “Why” such national control is required vs. local law enforcement properly trained and equipped to deal with any domestic terrorist threats?

His expansion of the Homeland Security Department has followed that pronouncement, as has his use of the NSA to go far beyond its mandate and monitor the communications of every man, woman and child in America.

And the fact that he is actively promoting and funding illegal immigration on a massive scale in America today without screening for terrorists crossing our borders begs the question of if he indeed wants to see an increase in domestic terrorist attacks like we have seen in many places across the USA such as at Ft. Hood, Oklahoma, Boston and most recently in Garland, Texas with the expressed purpose of forcing the need for such a national police force under his direct control to put down such attacks?

Obama has gone on record on more than one occasion to praise the Chinese Communist form of government and other authoritarian regimes that are essentially dictatorships based on central government control over all aspects of their citizens’ lives including how many children they can have, how they worship, how they communicate with each other over the Internet, and even how they assemble.

Do we want a man with the belief that an authoritarian form of government is preferable to a democratically elected government with clear separation of powers between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches as set for in our Constitution to have the kind of unlimited power that nationalization of our local and state law enforcement agencies would give him?

God forbid!

03/15/15

The Faustian Pact Between Obama And Iran

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

As the Democrats scream “Traitor!” and are off on another black is white, up is down tirade after the letter signed by 47 US Senators, all Republicans, was sent to Iran pointing out the minor detail that any agreement made between Obama and Iran without approval by the Senate is unconstitutional, Obama readies a deal nevertheless that he claims he will explain to America after it has been reached. How very dictatorial. How very suicidal for America and Israel.

Let’s get this straight… the traitors here are Barack Obama and any on the Marxist Left who cut a deal with Iran for nuclear capabilities without Congressional approval, by skirting constitutional law and by seeking UN intervention. You don’t get to redefine ‘treason’ as you see fit. I think you have the words ‘patriot’ and ‘traitor’ confused. The first rule of treason is to call the other guy a traitor. You see the true treasonous responses in President Obama’s own reply to the letter which encouraged all this loose talk about treason. “It’s somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran,” he told reporters. “It’s an unusual coalition.” And what would be an act of treachery without the Queen of Transparency, Hillary Clinton, who held a press conference ostensibly to explain why she hid her work product at the State Department and then made similar statements. Although no one asked her about the GOP letter, she gave her opinion: “Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians, or harmful to commander-in-chief in the middle of high stakes international diplomacy.” Typical Leftist bull crap – blaming those who are trying to save the Republic as being in cahoots with the Iranians when it is so blatantly the other way around. Spoken with a true forked tongue. The Marxists even stooped to calling Tom Cotton, “Tehran Tom.” How very Orwellian to brand someone with that moniker who went to Harvard Law School and enlisted in the US Army to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then you have John Kerry chiming in. His reaction was one of “utter disbelief” that these rogue Senators would go behind Obama’s back during talks with Iran. And the chorus of “treason” was shrilled even louder after Kerry’s proclamation. They seem to have forgotten that some of their own (including Kerry, as a junior Senator) have met with enemy foreign leaders in defiance of a president of the other party on many occasions, as Kenneth Timmerman points out. In an exchange with Marco Rubio, Kerry said he had shared details of the negotiations with the Saudis and other Sunni allies, but that he wouldn’t do the same with Congress. So, our leaders are to be kept fully in the dark until the deal is set, but they’ll gladly share info with foreign, and some would say ‘enemy’, states. How comforting.

The White House on Saturday wrote a letter warning US senators to withhold legislation that would “likely have a profoundly negative impact on the ongoing negotiations” regarding Iran’s nuclear program, the Huffington Post reported.

The Founders Didn’t Fail—We Are Failing The Founders

By: Benjamin Weingarten
The Federalist

Conservatives are understandably depressed in the wake of Speaker Boehner and the Republican-controlled Congress’ predictable caving on executive amnesty.

Let me stop right there by emphasizing that I only said conservatives. Were our republic healthy, every single American would be depressed that President Obama’s amnesty—which on dozens of occasions he said he did not have the authority to enforce—will continue apace to the benefit of lawbreakers at the expense of American citizens.

Americans would be further demoralized at the notion that our president politicized the sovereignty of our nation represented by failing to protect its borders, all in a transparent attempt to win a permanent Democratic majority—which the shortsighted Republican establishment seem perfectly fine with, since they want immigration and the idea of “those racist Republicans” to become non-issues.

Some are lamenting the cowardice of our representatives, and to that I quote a former NFL Coach: “They are who we thought they were!”

I have even seen one article arguing that the Constitution itself has failed. But the Constitution and our Founders did not fail. Human nature has not changed between 1787 and 2015. There were undoubtedly plenty of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century booze-swilling, cigar-smoking iterations of John Boehner lumbering around Capitol Hill.

What has changed is the size and scope of government, the number and composition of people who are voting, and the public’s general indifference to and acceptance of the greed, graft, lying, and all matter of corruption that have become commonplace in public life. There is also a heck of a lot more bread and circuses to keep us fat, happy, and distracted from what our supposed leaders are doing.

Government Is Too Big to Control

Entitlement reform is not going to capture the imagination of the American people like a llama chase or the color of a dress. And it bears noting that many of the Founders themselves were involved in sordid activities, and even willing to accept a king.

But that king’s powers would have looked downright puny compared to those President Obama wields today; and what corrupt politicians did way back when feels less offensive than the systemic abuse and political malpractice on display now, in part because the nation our founders—exceptional citizen legislators—entrusted us with was substantially smaller and less intrusive.

Today, when you have hundreds of agencies and millions of pages of laws, when the federal government is among the largest employers in the world, hyper-regulating almost every aspect of our society, creating arcane and byzantine rules designed to reward one set of constituents or another over and above the American people, not to mention the rule makers, rule interpreters and compliance officers themselves—this naturally creates not only an unwieldy and unaccountable federal government, but one that will invite and reward people willing to pull the kinds of shenanigans we see today.

To the percentage of the public that is actually informed as to what is going on in government, there are simply too many egregious things occurring on a daily basis, not to mention again the Siren song of bread and circuses, for anyone to keep track of it all or know where to focus one’s energies and pitchforks.

The Failure Is Our Fault

What defines an informed voter itself is of course open to interpretation, given what the majority of people are taught in our hallowed Democrat-controlled community organizing institutions, also known as schools; and given that one can read The New York Times, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Vox, and watch “The Daily Show” each day to qualify as informed by today’s standards, without knowing anything about what the other half of the country thinks and believes.

On amnesty specifically, as a lame-duck president without control of either house of Congress, Barack Obama is completely unchained, simply running roughshod over our laws. That a supposed constitutional scholar is rendering the system of checks and balances and separation of powers meaningless; that the executive branch is usurping the legislative branch, while congressmen say one thing and stand by idly doing another, is not a reflection that the Constitution or founders failed.

Rather, these travesties reflect that the American people are failing the founders.

We elected Barack Obama twice, in spite of his words, actions, and associations, which have unsurprisingly led to these disastrous six-plus years. The presidents who preceded him were not much better, though no one would have posed the question of them as Mark Steyn recently dared: “If he were working for the other side, what exactly would he be doing differently?”

We elected the congressmen who with rare exceptions (see Lee, Sen. Mike) continue to stand by while Rome burns, and who are derelict in their duty to defend and protect the Constitution, including against its brazen violator who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Welfare Versus Defense: Who Wins?

We have failed to persuasively enough make the case that we cannot thrive as a nation just by slowing government’s rate of growth and hiring smarter technocrats, but must literally be slashing the federal budget by 50 percent, abolishing agencies en masse, allowing Americans to opt out of the welfare state (including programs which can only pay my generation back in devalued dollars like Social Security), ensuring that we have not small deficits but massive surpluses to pay down our debt so the interest alone does not consume all the money we pay to the feds each year, and demanding a massive devolution of power back to the states and the people where it rightfully belongs.

And if our fellow Americans choose to live in socialist basket-case states, they are free to do so without reaching into your and my pockets at the point of a gun.

At root and underlying all of these issues, we have allowed the Left to control the media, academia, and the rest of America’s key cultural institutions, such that the vast majority of our fellow citizens are reflexively progressive and cannot even conceive of the types of changes I just mentioned. This is how the radical, morally and economically bankrupting leftist policies can be considered mainstream, while freedom can be considered fascistic.

This inherent progressivism narrowly underlies Republican acquiescence to the growing leviathan, and dictates the type of leaders that America broadly finds palatable, which has led us to this perilous place in our history in which all of our worst enemies are ascendant, while we are fast on the road to bankruptcy and serfdom, with our only choice between welfare and defense.

When entitlements and our armed forces are sitting side by side on the chopping block, which do you think a war-weary, economically pummeled American public is going to choose?

We Need a New Generation of Savvy Statesmen

No, the Constitution hasn’t failed, and our founders haven’t failed. We the people have failed during the hundred-year progressive march. So now we are burdened with the doubly difficult task of trying to win the long game of culture and the short game of politics.

I have much more faith in the latter over the former—that over time the chances are greater that we develop the strategy and tactics to beat an establishment incumbent class than win America’s cherished cultural institutions, which form our national soul.

Our national soul determines whether the Constitution is a piece of parchment or enshrines principles like equal rights for all and special privileges for none, that law resides above man, that men are not angels and that we must compel government’s non-angels to control themselves, and that the most important thing in America is protecting the rights of the minority, the most important of which is the individual.

And the inspiration for our national soul should reside not in our Constitution but in the Declaration of Independence that breathes life into it, a majestic document that we have ignored for far too long.

Don’t Blame Boehner—Blame Us

In any event, we the people have all the leverage in the world. The Boehners and Mitch McConnells will listen to us when the political cost of siding with the Chamber of Commerce is so great that their political lives depend on it.

Using the power of the purse as a lever to control the president, or threatening let alone bringing forth articles of impeachment are political remedies, and they are not being used not only because the Republican establishment that makes up the majority of the majority in Congress are risk-averse and often spineless, but because the majority of the American people are not demanding it.

That impeachment brings howls of racism alone shows a failure of our culture to separate the original sin of slavery from the demerits of the job done by this president, to separate identity politics from the individual.

Until and unless we devote all of our efforts to winning the long and short games with a constant, strategic, relentless full-court press, we are going to see amnesties ad nauseum, Obamacare not only not abolished but metastasizing, the federal budget and debt continue skyrocketing, comparatively small things like the Export-Import Bank chugging along and, yes, the welfare state expanding and our defenses shrinking while Islamic supremacists, Russia, China, and their proxies grow ever-bolder and more confidently bellicose.

We the people have much work to do if we want to keep any semblance of our republic, as Benjamin Franklin challenged us to do. And we hold the power in our hands.

But do we have the will and capability to exert it?

Ben Weingarten (@bhweingarten) is publishing manager and editor of TheBlaze Books. Ben is a graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in economics-political science and contributed to outlets including the Breitbart sites and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

01/16/15

Citizens’ Mandate: Stop the Fundamental Transformation of America

By: James Simpson
American Thinker

The pundits puzzle and debate reasons for the sweeping nationwide GOP victories in November, while Democrats en masse engage in an epidemic of unhinged denial. But for the rest of us, the reason is crystal clear: this president and the Democratic Party are ruining our country. November was not a victory for Republicans, but rather an historic, nationwide, sweeping repudiation of Obama’s leadership and policies. Nonetheless, the GOP did get a mandate:

Stop Obama in his tracks! NOW!

To make this unerringly clear, a veritable who’s who of the conservative movement have issued a Citizen’s Mandate to the GOP. It demands that Republicans:

Stop the President’s “Fundamental Transformation” of the country;
End Executive branch overreach;
Restore Constitutional balance of power among the three branches of government;
Bring an end to the perennially unpopular Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare;
Stop the President’s Executive Amnesty;
Hold the Executive branch accountable for its myriad abuses of power and its national security failures both foreign and domestic;
Insist Obama put the interests of the United States of America first among nations.

The Mandate states:

The November election was a repudiation of President Obama’s dramatic expansion of government power both through legislative and executive actions. The voters demanded that Congress stop this President’s fundamental transformation of America using every power at their disposal, restoring Constitutional balance of power, and ending the Executive Branch abuses against both the citizenry and the foundational concept that individual rights are derived from God, not government.

The GOP had a sterling opportunity to begin this process during the lame duck session immediately following November’s elections. Congress needed to pass some kind of spending measure to keep the government open past December 11. They could have simply enacted a short term continuing resolution (CR), keeping the government open until the new GOP majority Congress was seated. Democrats, including the president, indicated they would not oppose such a move.

Instead the GOP House leadership, in collusion with House Democrats and the Senate, put together a massive omnibus spending package for the entire federal government. Dubbed “CROmnibus,” the bill included full-year funding for the entire federal government except the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which received a short-term CR funding the agency until February 28, 2015.

Incredibly, it gave Obama a green light for virtually all of his most onerous agendas. Obamacare is fully funded for all of fiscal year 2015, none of the EPA’s outrageous “greenhouse gas” regulations were even challenged and the EPA got a boost in funding to boot!

Obama hailed the measure, saying:

We are better positioned than we have been in a very long time. A new future is ready to be written. We’ve set the stage for this American moment. And I’m going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize it…

When Obama celebrates a Republican-sponsored spending bill from the House of Representatives, we should be horrified. When the GOP hands him his agenda on a silver platter immediately following an election repudiating same, it is time to panic.

GOP leaders promised to confront Obama’s executive amnesty, once the new Congress was seated, by denying funding for it in the DHS budget. They came through on Wednesday, passing amendments to the DHS appropriations bill that halt much of Obama’s amnesty through DHS This includes the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which motivated the mass migration from Central America over the past three years, Obama’s November “executive amnesty” for about 5 million illegals, and other actions – five amendments in all.

But there are two problems: 1. some or all of these measures could be stripped from companion Senate DHS funding legislation, thereby providing DHS full funding without any restrictions; and 2. at least some of the executive amnesty is implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Unaccompanied Alien Children program, and other agencies. HHS and the others were all fully funded in the CROmnibus.

Obama has promised to veto this legislation if it passes the Senate, and while it is theoretically possible that some Democrats may support these proposals, it is doubtful they would risk defeating the president given his reputation for vindictiveness. Furthermore, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already said Republicans will not risk shutting down government if they can’t get their way on immigration. So Obama is likely to win on this one too.

The Citizen’s Mandate says this cannot stand. Enough is enough! It is an articulate counterpoint to GOP cowardice. It clearly and succinctly demands Members of Congress honor their oaths of office and their responsibility to the citizens who elected them:

Our Message to Congress:

Now is the time to use every power at the disposal of the legislative branch to fight for basic Constitutional freedoms and stop the expansion of the federal government…

It was the President’s agenda that was on the ballot, and the voters delivered a landslide mandate to fight and stop it…

Failure to fight Obama’s transformation using each and every means at Congress’ disposal is a betrayal of that mandate, and in a broader context, a betrayal of your oath of office to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.

The Mandate also lays out critical specific policy issues that must be addressed immediately. These are existential threats that must be addressed, all resulting from Obama’s disastrous leadership. For example:

Halt the National Labor Relations Board’s overreach and abuse of power
Define our enemy – no more “workplace violence”
Cease Guantanamo Bay releases – stop “repopulating the Global Jihad’s leadership”
Stop Iran from getting the Bomb
Support our military – the military has been crippled by constant deployments, drastic budget cuts, radical social engineering, purging leaders and lack of modernization, training and readiness.

The Mandate demands serious hearings to hold Obama, Holder and other administration officials responsible for their reckless, destructive and illegal actions. It also demands Congress return to regular order – i.e. no more thousand page bills passed in the middle of the night with no time for review. There is a legislative process that has been successful for 200 years that gives Congress and the people adequate time to consider legislation. We need to restore that process. Finally, the federal government needs to reduce its signature, drawing back to limits set by the Constitution.

The Citizens’ Mandate boldly speaks our concerns. Now we need to flood Congress with calls and letters to support it. You know what you have to do.

James Simpson is an economist, former White House budget analyst, businessman and investigative journalist. His regular column is DC Independent Examiner. Follow Jim on Twitter & Facebook.

01/12/15

The Dismantling of Federalism

By: Nancy Salvato

It wouldn’t be surprising, if polled, that many United States citizens would feel disenfranchised when it comes to politics. Though the right to vote and petition the government is supposed to make sure the people’s interests are considered, we the people are not given standing to question the constitutionality of laws, i.e. The Affordable Care Act. Political parties are no longer able to moderate the positions of the most extreme members of our society, who feel compelled to take law into their own hands, i.e. exhibiting anarchy against the rule of law in response to the Grand Jury’s decision not to indict in the events surrounding Ferguson. Extremism, lack of understanding, apathy, an agenda driven 4^th Estate, all work against the citizenry in exercising their rights and responsibilities with fidelity in today’s society. How did it come to this?

One of the earliest Supreme Court cases to set precedent (A decided case which is cited or used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent case—ninja words) for our rule of law was Marbury v Madison. What happened is this. Before leaving office at the end of his term, 2^nd President John Adams appointed a slew of judges to the federal courts to maintain an ongoing Federalist Party influence during upcoming Democratic-Republican President Thomas Jefferson’s tenure in office. John Marshall was unable to deliver all the commissions before our 3^rd President began his term of office and Jefferson refused to have the remainder of the commissions delivered. William Marbury, who was to receive a commission, was not pleased with this turn of events and applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus, to force delivery of the commissions.

Angered by the appointment of the “midnight judges” Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party controlled congress attacked the Federalist controlled courts, removing many of the appointees by repealing the Judiciary Act of 1801, under which authority many of the appointments were made. To prevent an appeal on the subject, they determined the Supreme Court would not reconvene until 1803. By doing so, the executive and legislative branches appeared to be cementing their authority over the judicial branch.

The newly appointed Chief Justice John Marshall was in a bind. He did not want to further anger the Democratic-Republicans, fearing the administration would go as far as to simply ignore any decision made by the Supreme Court, if it appeared to further a Federalist agenda. Yet, he truly believed that Marbury’s commission was legally binding and should have been delivered. He resolved this conundrum, at the same time elevating the judiciary branch as co-equal to the other branches, by determining that the power to issue a writ of mandamus –given to the Supreme Court as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, was actually “unconstitutional.” Therefore, he could not issue a mandate regarding the commission, satisfying Jefferson. At the same time, Marshall established the power of judicial review, ensuring the other branches abide by the Constitution, as interpreted by the Judicial Branch. In doing so, this elevated the status of the Judicial Branch, giving it the sole power to determine the constitutionality of law – a power for which it was never intended, but is now associated with this branch.

Influenced by Baron de Montesquieu, the Framers intended to prevent tyranny by dividing the powers delegated to the federal government into three branches of government, which could check and balance each other. In addition, according to the 10^th Amendment, powers not delegated to the federal government were to remain with the states and the people. If the constitutionality of a law is in question, this determination is presumably up to the states and the people to decide. The precedent for this is called nullification.

“If the feds pass a law that a state deems to be outside the boundaries of its proper constitutional authority, the state will simply ignore the law and refuse to comply with it.” – The New American

This idea, that the states could declare a federal law null and void because it violates the compact between the states and the federal government, eventually leads to the secession of the southern states from the union.

Because most people associate the Civil War with making good on a promissory note to those who were not treated equally under the law, the precedent for nullification is lost on the majority of citizens. This is problematic because citizens have no standing to bring questions of constitutionality before the Supreme Court and states have lost the main check and balance intended to ensure their interests were defined and respected by the federal government with passage of the 17^th Amendment—which eliminated the choosing of senators by the state legislatures and having them directly elected by the people. There is currently a movement to remove the last check and balance of the states with the elimination of the Electoral College.

There are currently a number of issues against which the states and people seem to be rendered powerless.

1) Immigration: By not enforcing the laws that Congress has passed on securing the border and immigration, the Executive Branch is marginalizing the Legislative Branch.

2) Obamacare: By unilaterally changing the text of the Affordable Care Act without seeking the changes legislatively, the Executive Branch is manipulating written law by decree, marginalizing the Legislative Branch.

3) Gitmo: Mr. Obama is “transferring” enemy combatant prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in an effort to empty the prison, in effect forcing a “closing” of the facility, something that Congress has passed legislation to prevent.

4) EPA: Using Executive Branch decreed regulations instead of seeking legislation from Congress, Mr. Obama is effectively legislating by regulating, and affecting many pieces of legislation Congress has passed to affect pro-economic growth.

Now that the new Congress has been seated, the President Obama has promised to veto any legislation that doesn’t further his agenda. It would seem that more than ever, the states and the people must reassert the powers which were never given to the federal government in order to prevent the tyrannical practices taking place at the federal level.

James Madison, in Federalist 51, writes,

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

It seems that the failsafe measures which were put in place to oblige the government to control itself have been breached. It is up to the states and the people to restore the natural order once again.

Nancy Salvato is the Director of Education and the Constitutional Literacy Program for Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan research and educational project whose mission is to re-introduce the American public to the basic elements of our constitutional heritage while providing non-partisan, fact-based information on relevant socio-political issues important to our country. She is a graduate of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Academy for Civics and Government. She is the author of “Keeping a Republic: An Argument for Sovereignty.” She also serves as a Senior Editor for NewMediaJourna.usl and a contributing writer to BigGovernment.com and FamilySecurityMatters.org.