Slavery and the Constitution

     Over the past week I have heard many on the news who are picking on the Republicans for leaving out the parts of the Constitution that pertain to slavery. In my opinion they should have read those parts but I can also understand why they did not read them. Those items were abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment. So why read it? I get that. Now that is dispensed with I have read discussions on various news sources of people who say that the original intent of the Founders when writing the Constitution was to limit blacks from voting or owning property or that its purpose was to enforce slavery. Once and for all my friends that is an utter lie.
      Under the Articles of Confederation there was no defense system, no power to raise money, no executive, no Judiciary and any amendment was to be passed by every State. States had the power to tax other states and trade froze. The point is there was no unified system to hold any State to. One would think that is a good thing, but think on slavery… just how long would slavery had lasted without a united federal government to change that law throughout the entire country.
      The Constitution did not support slavery in any means. The word “slave” is never mentioned in the text, instead a slave is referred to as a person and duly so. There are three areas in the Constitution where slavery is talked about; the Three-fifths Compromise (the Enumeration Clause), the service and labor clause (the Fugitive Slave Clause) and the prohibition of the importation of slaves into the United States. There were two definite divisions in government the Free States and the Slave States. During the Constitutional Convention in 1787 those who realized that the unrest in the United States could not go on much longer there was a need for a stronger, more robust National Government. Instead of revising the Articles of Confederation they set to start from scratch and the United States Constitution was born. The free states wanted to see slavery abolished and of course the slave states disagreed. After several attempts for one side to appease the other the above mentioned clause were added. In my opinion it was the beginning of the end of slavery.
      Some have said that the Enumeration Clause was added BECAUSE blacks were considered on three-fifths of a person. That is a load of nonsense ladies and gentlemen. The clause reads, “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.” The clause was added because the slave states wanted each slave, none of whom could vote and a vast majority could neither read nor write, be counted when it came to apportionment of Representatives and electoral votes for the presidency. They would have had an overwhelming majority for much longer then they did with the Three-fifths Compromise. As it stands the free states said that if you consider those people property than you cannot count them all. It turns out that it had differing effects. The South had seven more seats in the House of Representatives than they normally would have based on voter population. Their largest victory was in electoral votes. It is said that had the South not gotten this compromise that northern abolition-minded Presidents would have been elected as early as 1800 and Slavery would have been abolished sooner. I believe had not the compromise been added there would have been slavery much much longer for there would be NO United States at all! It took a Civil War to end slavery and I am certain that there is no way that the slave states prior to that would have gone with the abolishment of slavery.
     On further note, the free states won a victory with the abolishment of the importation of slaves by 1808. Yes, there was a provision that the Federal Government could Tax Slaves being imported which was a punishment for importing them and NOT a statement of worth. It was also a compromise with the slave states. This clause reads, “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.”
      Lastly there was the Fugitive Slave clause that said, “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” Yet another compromise to the slave states. The whole point is that there was no way for the Framers to get all the States to ratify the Constitution without these compromises and without that Slavery could probably have gone on for many years after the date of the Civil War.
     Slavery is an abomination to mankind and its practice goes against the intent of the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL MEN [emphasis added] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Thomas Jefferson also said, “There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him.”
     This from George Washington, also a slave owner, in a letter to the Marquis de Lafayette; “[Y]our late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it.” Washington and his wife owned over 300 slaves and upon his death all his slaves were freed and taken care of by the Washington estate.
     Benjamin Franklin also owned several slaves over his lifetime and said this in 1789, “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.”
Almost all of the Founders realized that slavery was a horrible if not completely evil condition and many wished to do away with its practice. If only it had never come to the continental United States to begin with but alas we cannot undue what was done and now must continue to strive forward. Those clauses were redacted by the Thirteenth Amendment which states, “1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” It is our sole responsibility to grow from the past by learning and revisiting it in the light of objective thought and by the grace of our own Creator and not to continue to fight over issues that no longer exist. We are reasoning creatures because we were created that way to think and to find ways to better our lives. So why pick on the GOP for leaving out a redacted part of the Constitution? Was it a historical reading to learn our past or was it a reading to remind all our elected officials that the Constitution is still and, God help us all, will forever remain the Supreme Law of the Land.

Hey Republicans…. We are Watching you…

     The election is finally over and the Republicans took over 60 seats in the House of Representatives, the first time such a shift has happened since at least 1938. There is more to this story then the House however and what it means for us as Americans. There were also major shifts in State legislatures and Governorships. This is a bottom-up wipe out of the Liberal Socialist machine and a direct repudiation of the policies of the current administration. Yet still more work needs to be done. In 2012 the Presidency and more seats in the Senate to grab up for Conservatives. That being said, I once again stress that we need CONSERVATIVES and NOT REPUBLICANS! This isn’t a Republican resurgence this is a Conservative resurgence and the Republicans are on the chopping block too.
     Republicans… this is your warning. Downsize the Federal Government, cut taxes, cut spending, attempt to repeal ObamaCare or actually repeal it, start reforming Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid… OR ELSE. Fail in this and you will be replaced to. The American people are so tired of the liberal left and the RINOs that we are going to crush you all politically if you do not comply with our wishes. Promote individual responsibility, get the government back under Constitutional control. Do what needs to be done. This election isn’t the end, IT IS THE BEGINNING! NO COMPROMISE, NO SURRENDER! Start immediately by pushing legislation that empowers the American people instead of enslaving them. Who cares if it gets vetoed or doesn’t pass the Senate. PUSH OUR AGENDA! No more spending and no more freebies…

     Remember Senator McConnell and Congressman Boehner… we ARE watching and we mean business.

The WikiLeaks Fiasco

     There were 400,000 classified documents leaked once more to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange‘s website is once again under fire. According to ABC news the documents detail over 109,032 deaths in Iraq only 23,984 were labeled as insurgents. So now we have a PVT Manning character adding to the Afghan leak with this latest detestable contribution. We have people all over the globe and all across America who want this transparency and want no classified information to exist. So, for these people, I want you to go to your local recruiter and VOLUNTEER in either the Army as an Infantryman or Cavalryman or the Corps as an Infantryman or some other combat arms MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) and take your happy butt to where the politicians send them.
     PVT Manning was an analyst, this guy is never ever in the fight. An office geek, computer nerd and power-point ranger. As a Soldier, his life is minimally impacted by a leak. His ilk will have to go through classes on OPSEC (Operational Security) and many lectures and briefs and of course ever more stringent security measures, but his life being in danger? Not really, the chances increase but not significantly. For the true Soldier, those who are constantly in the fight (this includes soft jobs like Transportation and others who are always in convoy and even some Human Source Intel guys) life becomes very, very precarious. The common things you hear are that there will be retaliation, and this is true, but what will also happen is that Public Opinion is affected.
     Much like my wife, many of you will ask, “What does that have to do with endangering a Soldier’s life?” The answer is just this, the way the public views our military dictates how the generals and politicians dictate the ROE (Rules of Engagement). The ROE is the rules that all Soldiers must follow that determine who, what, when, why and how a Soldier can either attack a target or even defend himself. There are also Use of Force rules for self defense that usually never change, however, the ROE blurs the proper justification of using those rules. Already the overly stringent ROE is killing Soldiers by the day. It is also a preventer to the military from making true headway in Afghanistan. To top it all off there will be backlash and retaliation from the Muslim Extremist. There will be increased attacks both home and abroad.
     I have been reading comments about this issue and I would like to highlight a few of them that I have read and respond in my own limited way.
“We do have a business over there and it is just that. Business. The plan goes like this.Manufacture weapons on a mass scale. Manipulate a war through business (reads government) connections.War starts . Higher casualties=more weapons used=sales=PROFITSomebody is living the dream. Some bodies have ended.” You are an idiot. Is there money being made by someone? Yes there is. However, if you feel that the only reason America is over there is for some business to make money you need to be slapped. We go over there with all our weapons already, some used for decades. The only weapons are the ones that were already in the works to replace the M4 Carbine and so on.

“All you idiots saying “This is war!” as if that justifies all the murder and atrocities – - if that’s the justification, then why were the Nazis convicted of war crimes after WW II? And think about this, morons – - – WE HAVE NO BUSINESS OVER THERE. Let me repeat that – WE HAVE NO BUSINESS OVER THERE! What would OUR reaction be if OUR country was invaded by a foreign army?! WE would be the “insurgents” then! Think, stupid people, THINK !!!!! We have blood all over our hands because we like to bully the world, and we do that by enlisting a bunch of non-thinking doormats who worship Authority, who love to play Macho Men and who have no integrity whatsoever. Julian Assange is a hero!”
 Let me ask you a question? What would you have done in their situation? Situations, the majority of which, are filled with circumstances where a decision must be made and made right then and there. I know there are only two answers; 1. You would react either the same or similarly and you live. 2. You will not act and you and 8 other Soldiers have a 50% chance of dieing horrifically. Yet, people like this will never be the one who stands up to tyranny. This armchair general will dictate from the side. The question of whether or not we should be there is absolutely a moot point, we are there. Since we are there we have an obligation to the Iraqi people. Yes, it IS war and as such many many atrocities happen. It is very saddening and disheartening but is 100% going to always happen in EVERY WAR! This person has obviously never talked to the people in Iraq personally as I have. When I interviewed Iraqis in 2003 the opinion was not that we were invaders but that we were welcomed. Have we made mistakes? Yes humans are flawed. This man needs to do something with his life than comment on things he has no ideal about. You can hear his hatred and disgust with Soldiers, those who do everything they can for our freedom, in his words. Comments like “…Non-thinking doormats”; “worship Authority” and “no integrity” make the case that this man only cares about what affects his life and his beliefs. That the efforts of others to uphold freedom do not matter. He hates the military, the must obviously all be liars and untrustworthy. They are stupid and love to be told what to do. Really? Is that your everyday Soldier? I know quite a few who would adamantly disagree with that broad generalization of our military. This person exclaims that “Julian Assange is a hero!” Is this true? Of course it isn’t. What this man is engaged in is borderline espionage. Releasing a nations classified documents to the world at large where even the enemy can peruse them. This man is a cancer of liberty just solely for the reason that he endangers the life of Americans.

“Depleated uranium. Google it. See what we are doing to them and our soldiers. It extermination of a people and crimes against humanity.”
     Depleted Uranium is bad, very bad. If you are exposed to depleted uranium you will get sick and be at high risk of death and cancers. Depleted uranium is used in armors and tank shells and is harder than tungsten steel. We use it in shells to kill tanks at a greater range than their tanks have. So that our Soldiers have a higher probability of living and it works quite well. We use it in armors so that when inferior, softer shells hit the armor it does not penetrate and our soldiers live longer. In all cases the depleted uranium is encased in metals that do not allow the uranium to leak our radiation and is only dangerous once exposed. When one of our shells hits the bad guys it is exposed and anyone who comes in contact or in proximity will probably get sick. Here is the thing, we send people in to clean up the mess when we are able to minimize the impact. That material saves lives on a daily basis in theater and yes it takes lives too.  Is it extermination? No, it isn’t a mass casualty producing material and we minimize contact as much as is possible. Our Soldiers are even briefed and go through classes yearly on depleted uranium and how to minimize their and civilian exposure to it. Crime against humanity? I don’t think so. I would rather save as many American and host nation lives as possible than have a more even war where the casualty count is drastically higher, military AND civilian.

“Look peope, if we have evidence that our country is killing and torturing civilians in a war that was never declared, in a war that the troops are disengaged in due to the constarints that they have , in a war that generals are resigning froimm and a war that has bankrupted this counrty for the last ten years then we have already lost this war. The so called terrorists have caused this country to lose it’s identity and become what we are fighting against. A military complex that is oppressing and killing people. If you think that a government that is doing this to innocent people across the globe what do you expect them to do to you. Think it over well my friends. We are wrong and we need to get our troops out of there.”
     So now Americans are terrorists? The enemy are “so called” terrorists? Has this dummy ever been to an overseas military post? The military are slaves to the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) made with the host nation. Iraq is the one dictating how much we can and cannot do. Oppression? We do need to leave Iraq and Afghanistan, but we need to leave it better off than we took it. We still have a responsibility whether we like it or not.

   So what to do about this? I think that if this PVT Manning is guilty he should be jailed for life without parole. This Assange guy needs to be prosecuted and spend the rest of his days in prison as well. If anything, for what this does to American Soldiers and civilians who fight so that these idiots can have their opportunity to live freely. Australia needs to turn Assange over and shut down Wikileaks for good. Just one mans opinion.

By the way… if you want to be taken seriously, try editing your comments BEFORE you post them.

Live Like the French! Keep ObamaCare?

     It has been reported that Senator Judd Gregg stated; from The Hill: Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said that repealing the new healthcare reform law — or looking to defund it — were not good options.
    “I don’t think starving or repealing is probably the best approach here,” Gregg said on the Fox Business Network. “You basically go in and restructure it.” In the Red State blog, Erick Erickson lays the claim that if certain candidates are not elected into the Senate that the establishment elitist will keep the law intact. I absolutely agree with Mr. Erickson’s stance. If Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Marco Rubio are not elected we will have business as usual from the establishment Neocons and RINOs.
The left will have their way and Big Government and High Taxes will continue indefinitely.
     Perhaps, though, that isn’t so bad? We can live the life that the Left touts is the best. We can live like the French. So before everyone votes on November 2nd let’s look at what is at stake for all of us should we keep ObamaCare. Mind you all that this won’t happen immediately so do not get to happy with our situation. This will take some years since ObamaCare isn’t a total Single Payer System just geared to be one over long periods of time. With taxes coming Social Security will have the illusion of being in the black for a few more decades, although unemployment benefits may help expedite that. First a glance at France as an economy.
     The French are ranked 8th in the world in PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) as of 2009 (European Union is ranked number 1). France’s National Debt is a whopping 77.5% of GDP as of fiscal year 2009. Where as the United States debt is 52.9% (we have some spending to do!). Let’s talk Taxes… VAT (Value Added Tax) is a crushing 19.6% (unless you order install labor then it goes down to 5.5% – so get someone to install your TV!); there is a variable property tax and you get taxed more for each additional resident unless they are over 60 years of age. If you earn $54,478 – $67,182 a year you pay 42.62% in income taxes (with certain deductions available)! There is also an additional 7.5% Social Tax (Social Security) and since it is in debt you pay another tax to pay that which is 0.5% and if you are paying property tax you get hit again with 2% for social tax. In 2009, French unemployment was at 9.1%.
     The French healthcare system is actually already similar to the U.S.; doctors are free to prescribe any treatment they deem necessary are many are self-employed. But there is a problem… France’s mounting debt is partly owed to this system. But wait… there is more; there is a shortage of beds that is little seen outside of France and hospitals are being shut down to cut costs. Wait times at private hospitals for normal procedures exceed 90 minutes. French doctors get paid an average of $77,088 which is roughly half of what the NHS (Britain’s National Health Service) gets and works 48-50 hours a week. Still many wage earning French still buy supplemental private health insurance.
     France’s Social Security is 85.4% paid for by the public or government (for those over 65). The average person in France earns $43,000 a year and when they retire at age 60 they receive 53.3% of their income averaged over 25 years. Sounds pretty good to me. LET’S DO IT!
     Now for the reality of things in France. We have all heard of the riots and strikes going on in France do to the government wanting to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 just to help offset costs. These strikes have led to the destruction of private property and even a fuel crisis. Schools, businesses, energy and transportation services are on strike in protest to a two year increase in retirement age. This from the Guardian: “Their faces contorted with hatred, hundreds of thousands of protesters yesterday wreaked havoc across France, burning schools and cars, and fighting running battles with riot police. Bloody clashes erupted in 300 towns and cities, sparked by austerity measures aimed at dealing with the global financial crisis.”
and…
 ”This confrontation is getting harder by the day, more violent by the day, particularly with the growing involvement of young people from schools but also from disenfranchised suburbs. Confrontations with police are becoming routine, with their share of looting and even the burning of a school in Le Mans.”
All of this comes as we realize as a country that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt and have ZERO funds. It comes as ObamaCare begins taking hold. All of this comes like an evil harbinger of the night to warn us.
     I ask you, is this what you want for the future of your country? Economic insolvency, entitlement mentality that leads to riots because the government cannot make good on their promises that you will be taken care of. No… not this man, this man believes that the answer lies in individual responsibility. Planning your own destiny, leading the way to your own future. So fight America! Fight through the electoral process! Get those incumbents and establishment elitist who believe they know what is best for you out of office and away from our incomes. Because Anarchy is the way of entitlements and true democracy. True democracy leads to mob rule and in that scenario, those who have the might make the rules. This is a perfect situation to learn from. Do not forget Italy and Greece are in similar circumstances. This is your America and your Liberty and you must fight for it. Vote November 2nd and continue to support the true Conservatives who wish to help fix this debacle.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Yk2m1iy7Cs0?fs=1&hl=en_US

Red State / Posted by Erick Erickson: Senate Republicans May Not Try to Repeal Obamacare
The Hill; Gregg: Repeal not best tactic on healthcare law
CIA World Factbook
French Property.com
Bureau of Labor Statistics
France 2009: Pensions at a Glance
The Guardian

Fear and Loathing in Texas, Nevada, Delaware, California and Alaska

     I am by far not a journalist. Everything I post, although based in fact is MY opinion. Some who read this post will be upset with me for our differences. I do believe that this nation is at a turning point where danger lurks just in the next room. America is currently failing. We have sub-standard legislation, untold corruption in the District of Columbia, Congresspersons who feel the Constitution is wrong, Oath Keepers having their children abducted from them by the government (later returned), unconstitutional laws being hammered out daily and so on and so on… The whole place is filled with Marxist Socialists and we are being overwhelmed by the left. America isn’t Europe… we left Europe because of their Monarchies and Tyrannies. Why would we want to go back to that standard. Social programs where everything is free? NOTHING IS FREE PEOPLE! It all comes at a cost; taxes, taxes, taxes, insurance premiums rising anywhere from 10% – 50% depending on what state you live in.
     I have a question… how do you “pay” for a “tax cut”? That is our money you hooligans! You make your budget fit our tax rates not the other way round. Get rid of some of this garbage. Department of Education? NOT a Constitutional function. Leave education to the States and the People. Department of Energy? What kind of energy do they create? NONE, they create paperwork and bureaucracy.
     Time has come ladies and gentlemen to decide whether or not you want to live in Greece or America. I personally choose America. I want people to have pride in their States (VIVA LA TENNESSEE!!!), pride in themselves and lastly pride in our nation. I want people who are poor to have the opportunity to become wealthy. I want people in the poor inner cities to break out and to improve themselves and their neighborhoods. I want every American be they white, black, Hispanic or Asian or WHATEVER to have the SAME OPPORTUNITIES as anyone else! The difference with me and the left is how we do that. The left’s idea of equality is affirmative action where mine is leave us the hell alone and allow us to excel based on merit and not on color or language or nationality. The left’s idea of equality is to give people money through welfare, food stamps, minimum wage and unemployment where mine is more jobs so that we can work and earn an honest days pay for an honest days work. Human nature tells us that if you give someone something to do nothing then nothing is what they will do. So this is what it comes down too… Vote. We must vote on November second, for our State’s and Country’s sake.
     You may be asking who I would endorse? Simple, I support the best person for the Job. There isn’t a “PERFECT” Candidate, there never was and never will be. People are flawed and as such will never be perfect. I support the most Conservative candidate I can find. So what does this mean for the current elections?

TEXAS:
     Good lord please, this should be easy. Governor Perry is a no-brainer. Far from the perfect candidate, he has his share of mistakes and dirty work. But once you look at what Bill White has done for the city of Houston the choice is obvious in my opinion. Both have created debt. Taxes? Forget it Bill White is the traditional sleight of hand Liberal there seemingly lowering property taxes in Houston while secretly raising commercial property taxes.
     Bill Flores or Chet Edwards? Here is Chet’s voting record…. according to ontheissues.org:
Chet Edwards on Abortion
    * Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Jan 2007)
    * Voted YES on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005)
    * Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)
    * Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
    * Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
    * Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
    * Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
    * Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
    * Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
    * Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
    * Rated 45% by the NRLC, indicating a mixed record on abortion. (Dec 2006)

Chet Edwards on Budget & Economy
    * Voted YES on $192B additional anti-recession stimulus spending. (Jul 2009)
    * Voted YES on additional $825 billion for economic recovery package. (Jan 2009)
    * Voted YES on $15B bailout for GM and Chrysler. (Dec 2008)
    * Voted YES on $60B stimulus package for jobs, infrastructure, & energy. (Sep 2008)

Chet Edwards on Education
    * Voted NO on allowing school prayer during the War on Terror. (Nov 2001)
    * Voted NO on allowing vouchers in DC schools. (Aug 1998)
    * Voted NO on vouchers for private & parochial schools. (Nov 1997)
    * Voted NO on giving federal aid only to schools allowing voluntary prayer. (Mar 1994)
    * Rated 100% by the NEA

Chet Edwards on Energy & Oil
    * Voted NO on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution. (Jun 2009)
    * Voted YES on tax credits for renewable electricity, with PAYGO offsets. (Sep 2008)
    * Voted YES on tax incentives for energy production and conservation. (May 2008)
    * Voted YES on tax incentives for renewable energy. (Feb 2008)
    * Voted YES on criminalizing oil cartels like OPEC. (May 2007)
    * Voted YES on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies. (Jan 2007)
    * Voted NO on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. (Jun 2006)
    * Voted NO on scheduling permitting for new oil refinieries. (Jun 2006)
    * Voted NO on authorizing construction of new oil refineries. (Oct 2005)
    * Voted YES on passage of the Bush Administration national energy policy. (Jun 2004)
    * Voted YES on implementing Bush-Cheney national energy policy. (Nov 2003)
    * Voted NO on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels. (Aug 2001)
    * Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Aug 2001)
    * Voted YES on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol. (Jun 2000)
    * Rated 50% by CAF, indicating a mixed record on energy independence. (Dec 2006)

Chet Edwards on Families & Children
    * Voted YES on four weeks of paid parental leave for federal employees. (Jun 2009)
    * Voted YES on establishing nationwide AMBER alert system for missing kids. (Apr 2003)
    * Voted YES on reducing Marriage Tax by $399B over 10 years. (Mar 2001)
    * Rated 23% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-family voting record. (Dec 2003)

Chet Edwards on Foreign Policy
    * Voted NO on reforming the UN by restricting US funding. (Jun 2005)
    * Voted YES on $156M to IMF for 3rd-world debt reduction. (Jul 2000)
    * Voted YES on $15.2 billion for foreign operations. (Nov 1999)

Chet Edwards on Government Reform
    * Voted YES on Congressional pay raise. (Jun 2009)
    * Voted NO on requiring photo ID for voting in federal elections. (Sep 2006)

Chet Edwards on Gun Control
    * Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
    * Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record. (Dec 2003)

Chet Edwards on Health Care
    * Voted YES on regulating tobacco as a drug. (Apr 2009)
    * Voted YES on overriding veto on expansion of Medicare. (Jul 2008)
    * Voted YES on Veto override: Extend SCHIP to cover 6M more kids. (Jan 2008)
    * Voted YES on adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility. (Oct 2007
    * Voted NO on denying non-emergency treatment for lack of Medicare co-pay. (Feb 2006)
    * Voted NO on limiting medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000 damages. (May 2004)
    * Voted NO on capping damages & setting time limits in medical lawsuits. (Mar 2003)
    * Voted NO on establishing tax-exempt Medical Savings Accounts. (Oct 1999)

Chet Edwards on Homeland Security
    * Voted YES on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant. (Sep 2006)
    * Voted YES on continuing intelligence gathering without civil oversight. (Apr 2006)
    * Voted YES on federalizing rules for driver licenses to hinder terrorists. (Feb 2005)
    * Rated 67% by SANE, indicating a mixed record on military issues. (Dec 2003)

Chet Edwards on Immigration
    * Voted NO on reporting illegal aliens who receive hospital treatment. (May 2004)
    * Voted YES on extending Immigrant Residency rules. (May 2001)
    * Rated 0% by FAIR, indicating a voting record loosening immigration. (Dec 2003)

Chet Edwards on Jobs
    * Voted YES on extending unemployment benefits from 39 weeks to 59 weeks. (Oct 2008)
    * Voted YES on restricting employer interference in union organizing. (Mar 2007)
    * Voted YES on increasing minimum wage to $7.25. (Jan 2007)
    * Voted YES on $167B over 10 years for farm price supports. (Oct 2001)
    * Rated 80% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record. (Dec 2003)
    * Allow an Air Traffic Controller’s Union. (Jan 2006)

Chet Edwards on Tax Reform
    * Voted NO on retaining reduced taxes on capital gains & dividends. (Dec 2005)
    * Voted NO on making permanent an increase in the child tax credit. (May 2004)
    * Voted NO on making the Bush tax cuts permanent. (Apr 2002)
    * Voted NO on $99 B economic stimulus: capital gains & income tax cuts. (Oct 2001)
    * Voted NO on Tax cut package of $958 B over 10 years. (May 2001)
    * Voted NO on eliminating the Estate Tax (“death tax”). (Apr 2001)
    * Voted NO on eliminating the “marriage penalty”. (Jul 2000)
    * Voted NO on $46 billion in tax cuts for small business. (Mar 2000)
    * Rated 26% by NTU, indicating a “Big Spender” on tax votes. (Dec 2003)
    * Rated 67% by CTJ, indicating a mixed record on progressive taxation. (Dec 2006)

Chet Edwards on Welfare & Poverty
    * Voted YES on instituting National Service as a new social invention. (Mar 2009)
    * Voted YES on providing $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers. (Jun 2006)
    * Voted NO on responsible fatherhood via faith-based organizations. (Nov 1999)

Now I am not sure about you, but my vote is with Flores. Flores seems to me to be a Pro-Life, Pro-2nd Amendment, limited Constitutional government candidate. Again, no one is perfect but I choose that over this voting record ANY DAY. Just one more case of getting rid of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda of Progressivism (Socialist Marxism).

NEVADA:
      It comes down to this, one of the single most important elections in this nation. Sen. Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. I don’t need to continually beat the dead horse of the evil that is Harry Reid, everyone should know by now that he is one of the great destructors of our nation and the Constitution. Harry Reid is as Marxist as they come, continually subverting our values and beliefs… HE MUST BE DEFEATED! The choice is overwhelmingly simple, the ONLY choice is Sharron Angle. Angle has proposed common sense solutions for what ails us today and is a limited government candidate. I suggest anyone in Nevada thinking of putting Reid back in the Senate think very carefully on it. Looking at Nevada’s unemployment rate, I honestly can’t see anyone voting for this destroyer of liberty again.

DELAWARE:
     The race between Chris Coons and Christine O’Donnell is another hot race that I am concerned about. Who to choose? On Coon’s web site, it states, “Chris also believes it is important to directly help those who have suffered most in this crisis by increasing aid to the unemployed and expanding training programs to help those transitioning through careers.
He will continue to strengthen America’s economy through strategic long-term investments in infrastructure, training and workforce development. Chris will use his position in the Senate to fight for trade agreements that contain good labor and environmental standards that will help to create new American jobs, not ship them overseas.”
     Let me tell you what that means in case you think it sounds good all you Delawareans… It means that he promotes the same BS garbage policies on the economy that the current administration, Senate and House touts. MORE SPENDING AND MORE TAXES AND MORE REGULATIONS! Does adding billions of debt to cover the unemployed help the economy? NO. Is it compassionate, perhaps, but it isn’t the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to CREATE jobs, not give free money to the “masses” who are out of work. That is just another ploy to ensnare you into dependency on the government. How have those infrastructure jobs helped us so far? Little; lets try looking at the unemployment rate for construction workers standing at about… oh… 17.2% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Good labor and environmental standards…” more like higher taxes and greater amounts of bureaucracy. More red tape that businesses must go through to set up and create products and jobs. That will mean less revenue for them and less jobs jobs for you!
     “He also is calling for a nationwide  cap and trade program that will help establish a price on carbon and unleash the creativity of American ingenuity to help solve this crisis.” Cap and Trade… more like Cap and Tax. The Cap and Trade will lead to corruption and the buying and selling of tax credits to get around the intent of the legislation. It will tax businesses for using carbon credits beyond their normal “allowed” amount. It will lead to industries solely created to trade in carbon for profit, while in itself isn’t bad, what is the point of the legislation if all it does is keep the status quo? I am totally against it in any form. The idea being to gently tighten the reigns until a certain amount of emissions are obtained. Unrealistic to say the least. The Free Market will solve things as consumer demand rises for cleaner and better energy. When it comes down to it tax credits are more then enough to promote clean energy.
     “Chris applauds Congress for passing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a landmark effort to restore regulatory balance to Wall Street and our financial markets overall. Chris will work hard once in the Senate to make sure that Congress ensures proper oversight and encourages responsibility while still preserving the ingenuity and flexibility of the American financial system.” Hey Chris… America has a news flash for you. We know where the failure is… that failure isn’t deregulation at all. The failure comes when you have politicians in bed with Freddie Mac and Fannie Maye telling the American people that the are just fine while simultaneously pushing for more and more sub-prime loans to people who cannot afford them! What are businesses to do? Sit on these bad loans? NO, they bundled them and got rid of them! This is the work of Barney Frank and Chris Dodds and others who push this liberal leviathan forward and NOT deregulation.
     “Although he does not believe it is perfect, Chris supports President Obama’s landmark health care legislation and is committed to working across the aisle to make it better.” He supports the monstrosity that is ObamaCare. That alone makes me sick to my stomach. We all know what kind of legislation this is, no amount of tweaking will fix it. Individual mandates, business mandates, fines that are cheaper for business to pay than to insure employees. Taxes, taxes and more taxes. Really Delaware? Seriously?
     Needless to say I support Christine O’Donnell and will continue to do so. Is she religious? Yes. Is she Pro-Life? Yes. The bigger question is whether or not she is a Constitutional Candidate and I believe she is. We know what Coons stands for and I would rather give Christine the opportunity to make good on what she stands for in the Senate. Free-Markets, Right to Life, Lower Taxes, Families and small Government. Sounds like a winner to me. I do not listen to the mass media, especially the likes of Bill Maher who is himself a Socialist. So what if as a teen she dated someone who was “wiccan”, that doesn’t mean diddly squat. At least she isn’t the self-proclaimed Bearded Marxist. Let me tell you all something. Up until the last two years I was a Druid… that’s right. A Pagan, similar to Wicca. Nature based religion honoring ancestors and all that noise. I myself have come to realize how wrong I was and have converted back over to Christianity. Does that mean I am any less Pro-Life, less conservative? No, not in the least. If anything it makes me even more conservative from being on the other side. That argument is stupid and serves only to misdirect the voter from the real issues at hand. Do not believe it people. Do not fall for that rhetoric, we are smarter than that.

CALIFORNIA:
     Everyone knows that California is a bastion of liberalism, the home of Marxists, yet there are many who are Conservative and continue to suffer underneath the likes of Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi. California suffered greatly under the Governorship of Jerry Brown and voters know full well what they are getting into with him. The guy lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger for crying out loud. Do Californians really want the massive debt and joblessness to continue with a double down effort? Meg Whitman, although not the most Conservative person in the world, is a far cry better than Jerry Brown. She supports tax cuts for Californians, budget caps, 2/3 majority vote for budgets and tax increases, supports border security and opposes amnesty. She gets my vote for for the effort in that State!
     As for the Senate race between Carly Fiorina and Barbara Boxer, this is another no-brainer. Boxer has voted and supported all the Socialist agendas promoted by Reid, Pelosi and the Obama Administration. A cancer for California, Boxer continually eats away at the fabric of the world’s third largest economy and will vote again and again to tax business out of the State. Fiorina, again more a moderate than a Conservative is the obvious choice for California. Fiorina opposes tax increases and wishes to promote small and family owned businesses. She opposes earmarks and wishes to limit federal salaries. She claims to want to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with genuine bipartisan reforms.
Fiorina supports forcing D.C. to cut spending and pay down debt as opposed to print and spend. Carly has my vote.

ALASKA:
     Joe Miller and Scott McAdams race in Alaska is another pivotal race where the saboteur is another GOP candidate, Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Joe Miller is my kind of candidate, he answers his questions by referring to the Constitution and that’s how it should be. The things that the Constitution do not allow belong to the States and the People of the States. He is for limited government and lower taxes. Miller is a Reagan Conservative if I have ever seen one and he definitely has my vote. Yet his race is being sabotaged by one of “our own” Lisa Murkowski, after suffering a sad loss at the Primary has submitted herself for a write in campaign. Sore loser… take a seat Lisa, you voted for the left long enough. You are as Liberal as Pelosi or Boxer. People of Alaska, do not be fooled into thinking this Senator is working in your best interest. She cannot win with a write in campaign it only serves to take votes away from Miller and allow another true leftist in power. Scott McAdams is that leftist. Scott wants to “cut” taxes for lower and middle income families (lower incomes pay no taxes or get them all returned plus some), yet opposes cutting taxes for the “rich”. Sounds like more of the same rhetoric to me. Cut all the taxes if you want fairness and equality in the tax code make them all the same. He says he wants to reduce the deficit but supports the President’s “deficit commission”, which is more money for a bunch of dummies coming up with more taxes. He supports ending bailouts and special programs for corporations who ship jobs overseas. Sounds a lot like protectionism to me. Why don’t we just stop them altogether Scott? Sorry, but he is just another Marxist in moderate clothing.
     Unfortunately there are many races around the country I would love to touch on but cannot. When in doubt I say vote for the most Conservative. We need to support the PEOPLE (not Politicians) running for office that are true Conservatives so that we can win our country back and reign in this Marxism that has been eating away at us for the last 120 years or so. The choice is yours people, research and vote. Do the right thing for yourselves, your children, their children, our States and our Nation!

Congressman McGovern: “I Think The Constitution Is Wrong”
Baby snatched for dad’s politics back with parents
   Reunited! Newborn returned to family where father accused of being ‘Oath Keeper’
Rick Perry for Governor
Bill White for Texas
Americans For Prosperity
Bill Flores for Congress (Texas)
Chet Edwards for Congress (Texas)
On The Issues
Senator Harry Reid
Sharron Angle for Senate
Chris Coons for Senate
Christine O’Donnell for Senate
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Jerry Brown for Governor
Meg Whitman for Governor
Barbara Boxer for Senator
Carly Fiorina for Senator
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Joe Miller for Senator
Scott McAdams for Senator
Senator Lisa Murkowski

The GOP’s “A Pledge To America” …and what it means for us

Late last week the Republicans in Congress came out with their Pledge to America, very simply titled “A Pledge to America”. The beginning of the document is stuffed full of nostalgic bits and pieces from our beloved Constitution and Declaration of Independence. It made me swell with pride at reading it. Now let me get something straight from the outset. I do not wish to write this to in any way sabotage the GOP’s chances of taking the House or Senate in November (as if my small readership would even do that). I am, however, very skeptical of the claims that NOW they MAGICALLY care. I write this because I feel that, while it has some meaning behind it, it is mainly there to solidify even more power in the existing federal regime (in this case “Establishment Republicans). It claims that the American people are standing up and speaking out and how this document is a promise to the people that the Republicans are listening. The document is a dedication to the people that if the Republicans take the majority in Congress that they will whole heartily take on the tasks of correcting our errant path and begin heading back to the Constitution. So let’s look inside and see what it is they propose and we will examine a bit of truth about what will and what will not happen.
“We pledge to honor the Constitution as constructed by its framers and honor the original intent of those precepts that have been consistently ignored – particularly the Tenth Amendment…” The American people would love this. Can it be done? Yes. Will it be done? I am not so sure about that. It would be incredibly difficult to undue the damage that has been done to the Constitution. The Federal Government is in every aspect of our lives and it would be very small changes first, followed by ever increasing changes in the way the government interferes in our lives. It would mean a stop to subsidies, welfare, food stamps, Social Security, abolishing the Federal Reserve, the Department of Education, numerous other bureaus that are to many to name, the BATFE and other Alphabet Agencies that work above the law everyday in the name of justice. It is however, a start.
“We pledge to advance policies that promote greater liberty, wider opportunity, a robust defense, and national economic prosperity.”
Well that would mean taking the government completely out of the business of… BUSINESS! Greater liberty? Ending the Patriot Act and all the illegal wire tapping and Internet abuses would help.

“A plan to create jobs, end economic uncertainty, and make America more competitive must be the first and most urgent domestic priority of our government.” …”By permanently stopping job-killing tax hikes, families will be able to keep more of their hard-earned money and small businesses will have the stability they need to invest in our economy and help grow our workforce.”
Tell me something Congressmen, short of a Constitutional Amendment, how is it that you will PERMANENTLY STOP ANY tax hike? The only other way is if we continue electing you and that is if we can trust all of you to do the right thing. That is part of the reason we are in this position to begin with, we trusted a politician to do his job.

“If we’ve learned anything over the last two years, it’s that we cannot spend our way to prosperity. We offer a plan to stop out-of-control spending and reduce the size of government.”
“With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels…”
Common sense exceptions? I get the troops and veterans, but it has been known for decades that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are FAILING.

“Instead of pushing off our long-term fiscal challenges, we will reform the budget process to ensure that Congress begins making the decisions that are necessary to protect our entitlement programs for today’s seniors and future generations.”

You are kidding right? Entitlement programs? When ARE we going to address that? Would it not be better to do away with those sad and tarnished failures and institute a privatized and free-market solution now while we still can? Those Seniors that are on it now and those who will be in 15 years can understandably be kept on. But a REAL CHANGE a REAL REFORM is what is needed now. Not a half hearted attempt at votes. This statement is disgraceful.

“By cutting Congress’ budget, imposing a net hiring freeze on non-security federal employees, and reviewing every current government program to eliminate wasteful and duplicative programs, we can curb Washington’s irresponsible spending habits and reduce the size of government, while still fulfilling our necessary obligations.”
“We will also prevent Washington from forcing responsible taxpayers to subsidize irresponsible behavior by ending bailouts permanently, canceling the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

I applaud this at least, a very minute beginning but one nonetheless.

“We offer a plan to repeal and replace the government takeover of health care with common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs. We will enact real medical liability reform; allow Americans to purchase health coverage across state lines; empower small businesses with greater purchasing power; and create new incentives to save for future health needs. We will protect the doctor-patient relationship, and ensure that those with pre-existing conditions gain access to the coverage they need. We will permanently end taxpayer funding of abortion and codify the Hyde Amendment.”

That’s what I am talking about…. get rid of that Constitution and values destroying monstrosity of debt.

“We recognize that these solutions are ambitious, and that we are proposing them at a time of intense public distrust in politicians and the political system. That’s why we are offering a plan to reform Congress and restore trust so that we can put power back where it belongs: in the hands of the people. We will govern differently than past Congresses of both parties. We will require that every bill contain a citation of Constitutional authority. We will give all Representatives and citizens at least three days to read the bill before a vote. We will make sure that the floor schedule and operations reflect the priority of revitalizing the economy, and ensure there is an open process that makes it easier – not harder – to eliminate unnecessary spending on any legislation that spends the people’s money.”

I think people need longer than three days to read 1,000 page plus bills. Why don’t we just set ourselves up for failure now?

Our Plan to End The Uncertainty and Create Incentives for Job Growth

• Permanently Stop All Job-Killing Tax Hikes: We will help the economy by permanently stopping all tax increases, currently scheduled to take effect January 1, 2011. That means protecting middle-class families, seniors worried about their retirement, and the entrepreneurs and family-owned small businesses on which we depend to create jobs in America.

… how are we doing that again???

• Give Small Businesses a Tax Deduction: We will allow small business owners to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their business income. This will provide entrepreneurs with a much-needed infusion of capital for investment and new hiring.

• Rein In the Red Tape Factory in Washington, DC: Excessive federal regulation is a de facto tax on employers and consumers that stifles job creation, hampers innovation and postpones investment in the economy. When the game is always changing, small businesses cannot properly plan for the future. To provide stability, we will require congressional approval of any new federal regulation that has an annual cost to our economy of $100 million or more. This is the threshold at which the government deems a regulation “economically significant.” If a regulation is so “significant” and costly that it may harm job creation, Congress should vote on it first.

• Repeal Job-Killing Small Business Mandates: One of the most controversial mandates of the Democrats’ government takeover of health care requires small businesses to report to the Internal Revenue Service any purchases that run more than $600. This 1099 reporting mandate is so overbearing that the IRS ombudsman has determined that the agency is ill-equipped to handle all the resulting paperwork.. We will repeal this job-killing small business mandate.

I like the tough talk from the previous statements. There should be over-watch on what “agencies” do that can harm businesses. I am always for Tax Cuts, but I would like to see a TAX REFORM MORE!

Our Plan to Put Government on a Path to a Balanced Budget

• Act Immediately to Reduce Spending: There is no reason to wait to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending. Congress should move immediately to cancel unspent “stimulus” funds, and block any attempts to extend the timeline for spending “stimulus” funds. Throwing more money at a stimulus plan that is not working only wastes taxpayer money and puts us further in debt.

There is SOOOO much more that can be done immediately than stopping stimulus monies. I think the GOP should work a bit harder on that front.

• Establish a Hard Cap on New Discretionary Spending: We must put common-sense limits on the growth of government and stop the endless increases. Only in Washington is there an expectation that whatever your budget was last year, it will be more this year and even more the next. We will set strict budget caps to limit federal spending on an annual basis. Budget caps were used in the 1990s, when a Republican Congress was able to bring the budget into balance and eventual surplus. By cutting discretionary spending from current levels and imposing a hard cap on future growth, we will save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

There is a problem with this… IT ONLY WORKS WHEN THE PEOPLE IN OFFICE WANT IT TO! There HAS to be an Amendment for this to even come close to sticking. On top of that, we all know the left doesn’t care about the Constitution so why would they listen. There has to be MORE.

• Reform the Budget Process to Focus on Long-Term Challenges: We will make the decisions that are necessary to protect our entitlement programs for today’s seniors and future generations. That means requiring a full accounting of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, setting benchmarks for these programs and reviewing them regularly, and preventing the expansion of unfunded liabilities.

Once again, we should be talking about reforming these horrible programs and re-privatizing them. Quit pandering for votes and have an HONEST discussion about getting rid of them and replacing them with something better.

Overall the Pledge is a start on what needs done, but there is so much to do and let us be honest with ourselves. It would take more than just a simple majority to make any of this happen. At best we can resolve to stop the madness and create a stalemate where nothing is gained or lost. It will take a Super Majority in both the House and the Senate to enact anything that will be worthwhile. That means that all you activist out there need to continue the rally call not just for the short term but probably through the next generation. We can get our Government back from these Socialists and the so-called Republicans but it will mean a lot of work and it will mean years and years of hard work. Keep up the fight for Liberty!

A Pledge To America – http://www.gop.gov/resources/library/documents/solutions/a-pledge-to-america.pdf

Freedom, It’s Destruction and How We Can Fix It! Pt 10

Border Security and Illegal Immigration

     Border Security: As of late, the amount of drug cartel violence, illegal immigrant crossings and kidnappings for ransom have stepped to the forefront of American lives within the border states. The Federal Government has been completely inept in dealing with this growing invasion from the south. Violence, drug and gang activity has been reported in Virginia; New York; Texas; California; Arizona; Vancouver, British Columbia,Canada; Toronto, Ontario, Canada and many many more places. What will it take to secure our borders from access to illegal aliens and  terrorists? A wall, a fence? Why is it the government seems inept to prevent these persons from crossing over the border. Terrorists at this very moment are plotting against America on our own soil. Holding pro-Sharia law rallies without allowing film crews or news sources near, a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Illegal aliens drain our health care systems and increase costs of health care. They get welfare and other benefits and do not pay taxes or provide proof of citizenship. They get free access to our schools and struggle because they do not know English. Something must be done. How is it that we could possibly allow this to happen?

     There was a time when we required quotas. In 1917 the first appeared that had a threshold literacy requirement, however, no Asians were allowed to immigrate. In 1952 the McCarran-Walter Act established the basic structure of our current immigration laws. It was partially flawed, requiring quotas for Asians. However it created a Preference System as well, meaning that those with special skills that were needed in the workforce had preference in status. Real damage was done in 1962 when laws were passed granting nonquota immigrant visas for certain aliens eligible for fourth preference (i.e., brothers, sisters, and children of citizens) as well as creating a record of lawful entry and provided for suspension of deportation for aliens who have been physically present in the United States for at least seven years in some cases and ten years in others. This means that any brother, sister or children could be granted automatic immigration visas artificially ratcheting up the quotas. It also meant that illegal aliens already present were granted amnesty. In 1965, we thankfully abolished the racial quota system. However, we continued down the road to out of control immigration by allowing first come, first served visas for relatives of U.S. Citizens and resident aliens under the guise of family reunification. They also established two categories not subject to numerical restrictions; immediate relatives and special immigrants. The former being the worst apple. On December 18, 1967 we facilitated the expeditious naturalization of certain non-citizen employees of U.S. nonprofit organizations, meaning that we granted further amnesty. In 1977 we permitted adjustment to permanent resident status for Indochinese refugees who are natives or citizens of Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia, were physically present in the United States for at least two years, and were admitted or paroled into the United States during specified periods of time; more amnesty. Again in 1979, the Panama Canal Act allowed admission as permanent residents to certain aliens with employment on or before 1977 with the Panama Canal Company, the Canal Zone government, or the U.S. government in the Canal Zone, and their families. More amnesty. Finally in 1980 we did away with refugees as a special immigrant category.

     The first real change was done in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) which prohibited employers from hiring undocumented immigrants as well as prohibiting discriminating against legal alien workers. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act, authorized legalization (i.e., temporary and then permanent resident status) for aliens who had resided in the United States in an unlawful status since January 1, 1982; more amnesty. Authorized adjustment to permanent resident status for Cubans and Haitians who entered the United States without inspection and had continuously resided in country since January 1, 1982; more amnesty. Everyone should like this one, in the Immigration Act of 1990 it revised all grounds for exclusion and deportation, significantly rewriting the political and ideological grounds. For example, repealed the bar against the admission of communists as nonimmigrants and limited the exclusion of aliens on foreign policy grounds; communism roams free and it shows. It also amended the substantive requirements for naturalization: State residency requirements revised and reduced to 3 months; added another ground for waiving the English language requirement; now we don’t even need to speak English in an English speaking country. With all this legislation there is no wonder why we can’t secure the border. Instead of securing the borders we grant amnesty. How much common sense does that make? How hard can it be to apply for citizenship? Well it does cost some money, a whopping $675.00 total! Want a list of vocabulary words required by the test?

• Abraham Lincoln
• American flag
• America
• Presidents’ Day
• How
• can
• a
• colors
• George Washington
• Bill of Rights
• U.S.
• Memorial Day
• What
• come
• for
• dollar bill
• capital
• United States
• Flag Day
• When
• do/does
• here
• first
• citizen
• Independence Day
• Where
• elects
• in
• largest
• city
• Labor Day
• Who
• have/has
• of
• many
• Congress
• Columbus Day
• Why
• is/are/was/be
• on
• most
• country
• Thanksgiving
• lives/lived
• the
• north
• Father of Our Country
• meet
• to
• one
• government
• name
• we
• people
• President
• pay
• second
• right
• vote
• south
• Senators
• want
• state/states
• White House

What about that civics test? Here are a few questions and answers.

A: Principles of American Democracy

1. What is the supreme law of the land?

      the Constitution

2. What does the Constitution do?

      sets up the government

      defines the government

      protects basic rights of Americans

3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?

      We the People

4. What is an amendment?

      a change (to the Constitution)

      an addition (to the Constitution)

5. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

      the Bill of Rights

6. What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?

      speech

      religion

      assembly

      press

      petition the government

7. How many amendments does the Constitution have?

      twenty-seven (27)

8. What did the Declaration of Independence do?

      announced our independence (from Great Britain)

      declared our independence (from Great Britain)

      said that the United States is free (from Great Britain)

9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?

      life

      liberty

      pursuit of happiness

10. What is freedom of religion?

      You can practice any religion, or not practice a religion.

11. What is the economic system in the United States?

      capitalist economy

      market economy

12. What is the “rule of law”?

      Everyone must follow the law.

      Leaders must obey the law.

      Government must obey the law.

      No one is above the law.

B: System of Government

13. Name one branch or part of the government.

      Congress

      legislative

      President

      executive

      the courts

      judicial

14. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?

      checks and balances

      separation of powers

15. Who is in charge of the executive branch?

      the President

16. Who makes federal laws?

      Congress

      Senate and House (of Representatives)

      (U.S. or national) legislature

17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?

      the Senate and House (of Representatives)

18. How many U.S. Senators are there?

      one hundred (100)

19. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?

      six (6)

20. Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators now?

      Answers will vary. [District of Columbia residents and residents of U.S. territories should answer that D.C. (or the territory where the applicant lives) has no U.S. Senators.]

AMERICAN HISTORY

A: Colonial Period and Independence

58. What is one reason colonists came to America?
      freedom
      political liberty
      religious freedom
      economic opportunity
      practice their religion
      escape persecution

59. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
      American Indians
      Native Americans

60. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
      Africans
      people from Africa

61. Why did the colonists fight the British?
      because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
      because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
      because they didn’t have self-government

62. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
      (Thomas) Jefferson

63. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
      July 4, 1776

64. There were 13 original states. Name three.
      New Hampshire
      Massachusetts
      Rhode Island
      Connecticut
      New York
      New Jersey
      Pennsylvania
      Delaware
      Maryland
      Virginia
      North Carolina
      South Carolina
      Georgia

65. What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
      The Constitution was written.
      The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

66. When was the Constitution written?
      1787

67. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
      (James) Madison
      (Alexander) Hamilton
      (John) Jay
      Publius
In their defense the tests are about 100 questions long. They do explain the gist of what America is but they fail to convey the message of WHY America is. They do not go into detail at all, you are expected to have read all that history and to have taken it in, understood it all and it’s meaning. The fix is to secure the border and better integrate immigrants into our society and not just how but why we function as we do. The reason why we are supposed to have a limited government and not a test on the cliff notes. 

     So what does Mexico think of all this? If anything the Mexican Government is not only allowing the incursions of illegals and terrorist onto sovereign U.S. soil, but encourages and aids them as part of what is called revanchism. This is from The Second Mexican War by Lawrence Auster. “The Mexican invasion of the United States began decades ago as a spontaneous migration of ordinary Mexicans into the U.S. seeking economic opportunities. It has morphed into a campaign to occupy and gain power over our country—a project encouraged, abetted, and organized by the Mexican state and supported by the leading elements of Mexican society.” Like most assaults on America these days, it is incremental, one little piece at a time. There are a number of goals of the Mexican people and it’s government and those are;

“(1) Political revanchism—to regain control of the territories Mexico lost to the U.S. in 1848, thus avenging themselves for the humiliations they feel they have suffered at our hands for the last century and a half;

(2) Cultural imperialism—to expand the Mexican culture and the Spanish language into North America; and especially

(3) Economic parasitism—to maintain and increase the flow of billions of dollars that Mexicans in the U.S. send back to their relatives at home every year, a major factor keeping the chronically troubled Mexican economy afloat and the corrupt Mexican political system cocooned in its status quo.

These motives are shared by the Mexican masses and the elites. According to a Zogby poll in 2002, 58 percent of the Mexican people believed the U.S. Southwest belongs to Mexico, and 57 percent believed that Mexicans have the right to enter the United States without U.S. permission. Only small minorities disagreed with these propositions.

Meanwhile, for Mexico’s opinion shapers, it is simply a truism that the great northern migration is a reconquista of lands belonging to Mexico, the righting of a great historic wrong. “A peaceful mass of people … carries out slowly and patiently an unstoppable invasion, the most important in human history” [emphasis added], wrote columnist Carlos Loret de Mola for Mexico City’s Excelsior newspaper in 1982.

You cannot give me a similar example of such a large migratory wave by an ant-like multitude, stubborn, unarmed, and carried on in the face of the most powerful and best-armed nation on earth…. [The migrant invasion] seems to be slowly returning [the southwestern United States] to the jurisdiction of Mexico without the firing of a single shot, nor requiring the least diplomatic action, by means of a steady, spontaneous, and uninterrupted occupation.

Similarly, the Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska told the Venezuelan journal El Imparcial on July 3rd, 2001:

The people of the poor, the lice-ridden and the cucarachas are advancing in the United States, a country that wants to speak Spanish because 33.4 million Hispanics impose their culture…Mexico is recovering the territories ceded to the United States with migratory tactics…[This phenomenon] fills me with jubilation, because the Hispanics can have a growing force between Patagonia and Alaska. “

There are also the statements of the Mexican Government such as…

“You are Mexicans too, you just live in the United States.” -  President Ernesto Zedillo told a 1994 convention of the radical-left Mexican-American lobbying group, the National Council of La Raza.

“The Mexican population is 100 million in Mexico and 23 million who live in the United States.” – One of Fox’s cabinet officers, Juan Hernandez.

As Heather Mac Donald writes in her important article in the Fall 2005 City Journal:

Mexico’s five-year development plan in 1995 announced that the “Mexican nation extends beyond … its border”—into the United States. Accordingly, the government would “strengthen solidarity programs with the Mexican communities abroad by emphasizing their Mexican roots, and supporting literacy programs in Spanish and the teaching of the history, values, and traditions of our country.”

The head of the Presidential Office for Mexicans Abroad said: “We are betting that the Mexican American population in the United States … will think Mexico first.”

     President Zedillo in 1997 denounced attempts by the United States to enforce its immigration laws, insisting that “we will not tolerate foreign forces dictating laws to Mexicans.” [Italics added.] The “Mexicans” to whom he was referring were, of course, residents and citizens of the U.S., living under U.S. law. By saying that U.S. law does not apply to them, Zedillo was denying America’s sovereign power over its own territory.

Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda’s non-negotiable demands—“It’s the whole enchilada or nothing”—that he issued in a speech in Phoenix, Arizona in 2001. America, said Castañeda (as recounted by Allan Wall), “had to legalize all Mexican illegal aliens, loosen its already lax border enforcement, establish a guest worker program (during an economic downturn) and exempt Mexican immigrants from U.S. visa quotas!” He also demanded that Mexicans living in the U.S. receive health care and in-state college tuition. As Castañeda summed it up in Tijuana a few days later, “We must obtain the greatest number of rights for the greatest number of Mexicans [i.e. in the U.S.] in the shortest time possible.” What this adds up to, comments Wall, is basically “the complete surrender of U.S. sovereignty over immigration policy.” And why not? As Castañeda had written in The Atlantic in 1995: “Some Americans … dislike immigration, but there is very little they can do about it.”

As reported in the November 23, 2002 Houston Post:

Mexico’s foreign minister, Jorge Castañeda, said his country would begin a “bottom-up campaign” to win U.S. public support for a proposal to legalize 3.5 million undocumented Mexican workers in the United States. Castañeda said Mexican officials will begin rallying unions, churches, universities and Mexican communities…. [Castañeda said:] “We are already giving instructions to our consulates that they begin propagating militant activities—if you will—in their communities.”

La Voz de Aztlan, the radical Mexican-American group that seeks to end U.S. “occupation” of the Southwest and form a new Mexican nation there, writes at its website:

One great hope that came out of the Zapatista March was that generated by the “alliance” that was forged by some of us in the Chicano/Mexicano Delegation and our brothers and sisters in Mexico. The delegation met with officials of the Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) in Mexico City and discussed strategies that will increase our influence in the United States and further our collective efforts of “acercamiento.”

Here are some crimes listed by Auster: 

Mexico’s violations of our laws and sovereignty

Let us now consider some of the specific actions by which the Mexican government is carrying out the strategy outlined above:

- The Mexican government publishes a comic book-style booklet, Guía del Migrante Mexicano (Guide for the Mexican Migrant), on how to transgress the U.S. border safely (“Crossing the river can be very risky, especially if you cross alone and at night … Heavy clothing grows heavier when wet and this makes it difficult to swim or float”) and avoid detection once in the U.S.

- As Heather Mac Donald puts it, Mexico backs up these written instructions with real-world resources for the collective assault on the border. An elite law enforcement team called Grupo Beta protects illegal migrants as they sneak into the U.S. from corrupt Mexican officials and criminals—essentially pitting two types of Mexican lawlessness against each other. Grupo Beta currently maintains aid stations for Mexicans crossing the desert. In April 2005, it worked with Mexican federal and Sonoran state police to help steer illegal aliens away from Arizona border spots patrolled by Minutemen border enforcement volunteers—demagogically denounced by President Vicente Fox as “migrant-hunting groups.”

- While the Mexican government sends police to protect illegal border crossers against criminals, rogue Mexican soldiers protecting drug smugglers have threatened U.S. Border Patrol agents, and even engaged in shootouts, as reported in the Washington Times in January 2006. Rep. Tom Tancredo says the activities of these renegade Mexican troops in support of drug traffickers amount to a “war” along the U.S.-Mexico border, and he has urged President Bush to deploy troops there.

- Meanwhile, sheriffs from Hudspeth County, Texas testified before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations this month at a hearing titled “Armed and Dangerous: Confronting the Problem of Border Incursions.” They spoke of a dramatic increase in alien and drug smuggling. “The U.S./Mexico border is the weakest link and our national security is only as good as our weakest link,” said one sheriff. “Our border is under siege.” We need to understand that whether the Mexican government is behind the border incursions or is merely unable (or unwilling) to stop them, it ultimately doesn’t matter. As I said at the beginning, the Mexican war on America is supported by all segments of the Mexican society, even, apparently, the criminals. The situation is thus analogous to Muslim razzias or raids—irregular attacks short of outright invasion—used to soften a target country in anticipation of full scale military conquest. The outlaws and smugglers and the renegade soldiers may not be official agents of the Mexican government, yet they are serving its purposes by sowing mayhem along our southern border and demoralizing our population.

- A major role in Mexico’s revanchist war against America is played by the Mexican consulates in the U.S., reports Mac Donald. Now numbering 47 and increasing rapidly, they serve as the focal point of Mexico’s fifth column. While Mexico’s foreign ministry distributes the Guía del Migrante Mexicano inside Mexico, Mexican consulates, unbelievably, distribute the guide to Mexican illegals inside the U.S.

- After the U.S. became more concerned about illegal immigration following the 9/11 attack, the Mexican consulates were ordered to promote the matricula consular—a card that simply identifies the holder as a Mexican—as a way for illegals to obtain privileges that the U.S. usually reserves for legal residents. The consulates started aggressively lobbying American governmental officials and banks to accept the matriculas as valid IDs for driver’s licenses, checking accounts, mortgage lending, and other benefits.

- The consulates freely hand out the matricula to anyone who asks, not demanding proof that the person is legally in the U.S. Here is Mac Donald’s summary of the wildly improper role played by the consulates:

Disseminating information about how to evade a host country’s laws is not typical consular activity. Consulates exist to promote the commercial interests of their nations abroad and to help nationals if they have lost passports, gotten robbed, or fallen ill. If a national gets arrested, consular officials may visit him in jail, to ensure that his treatment meets minimum human rights standards. Consuls aren’t supposed to connive in breaking a host country’s laws or intervene in its internal affairs.

- As an example of the latter, the Mexican consulates automatically denounce, as “biased,” virtually all law enforcement activities against Mexican illegals inside the U.S. The Mexican authorities tolerate deportations of illegals if U.S. officials arrest them at the border and promptly send them back to the other side—whence they can try again the next day. But once an illegal is inside the U.S. and away from the border, he gains untouchable status in the eyes of Mexican consuls, and any U.S. law enforcement activity against him is seen as an abuse of his rights.

- The Mexican consulates actively campaign in U.S. elections on matters affecting illegal aliens. In November 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, which reaffirmed existing state law that requires proof of citizenship in order to vote and to receive welfare benefits. The Mexican consul general in Phoenix sent out press releases urging Hispanics to vote against it. After the law passed, Mexico’s foreign minister threatened to bring suit in international tribunals for this supposedly egregious human rights violation, and the Phoenix consulate supported the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s federal lawsuit against the proposition.

- The consulates also help spread Mexican culture. We are not speaking here of the traditional activity of embassies and consulates in representing their country’s culture in a friendly and educational way to the host country; we are speaking of consulates acting as agents of the Mexican state’s imperialistic agenda. Each of Mexico’s consulates in the U.S. has a mandate to introduce Mexican textbooks (that’s Mexican textbooks) into U.S. schools with significant Hispanic populations. The Mexican consulate in Los Angeles bestowed nearly 100,000 textbooks on 1,500 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District this year alone.

- It has also been proposed that Mexicans in the U.S. vote in Mexican elections in designated electoral districts in the United States. Under this proposal, California, for example, might have seats in the Mexican Congress, specifically representing Mexicans residing in that state. The governing PAN party of President Fox has opposed this idea, not out of respect for U.S. sovereignty, but out of fear that most Mexicans in the U.S. would vote against the PAN. Meanwhile, another of Mexico’s three major parties, the leftist PRD, urges the designation of the entire United States as the sixth Mexican electoral district.

     So why is it that our own Government denies all of this? Are they not Constitutionally mandated to protect us from invasion? Are they not supposed to protect us against further terrorist attacks? Yet they do nothing. Border security is just as bad now as it ever was, the Border Patrol is undermanned and underfunded. Still nothing. Border Patrol agents are constantly jailed for protecting U.S. citizens as drug runners are moving back and forth across our borders. What needs to be done and why are they not doing it!

1. Independence Forever: Why America Celebrates the Fourth of July by Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
2. The Declaration of Independence
3. The Constitution of the United States of America
4. Income Tax – History  // Law Library – American Law and Legal Information
5. Read The Stimulus
6.H.R. 1105 Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009
7. Omnibus Spending Bill: Huge Spending and 9,000 Earmarks Represent Business as Usual by Brian M. Riedl
8. Omnibus Bill Earmarks
9. Ricci Vs. DeStefano
10. The International Judge by Daniel Terris, Cesare P.R. Romano, Leigh Swigart
11. Berkeley Law School symposium: “Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation – A Latina Judge’s Voice”
12. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
13. Gun Control – Take That! And That! The Gun Control Debate Continues, Further Readings by Rubin Carter
14. Georgia Carry.org
15. Dred Scott v. Sanford
16. United States v. Miller
17. The Brady Handgun Control Act, Public Law 103-159, H.R. 1025 – 103rd Congress
18. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, H.R. 3355 in Title XI, Subtitle A
19. National Firearms Act of 1934
20. District of Columbia v. Heller
21. United States v. Cruikshank (1875)
22. Presser v. Illinois (1886)
23. ATF Abuse Web Site
24. Library of Congress: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
25. Association of Communities for Reform Now (ACORN)
26. Current Minimum Wage Rates
27. Minimum Wage Resources – Heritage Foundation Research
28. Raising the Minimum Wage: Another Empty Promise to the Working Poor – Richard V. Burkhauser, Cornell University; Joseph J. Sabia, University of Georgia
29. The White House.gov Web Site
30. Ice Age Timeline
31. The Real ‘Inconvenient Truth’
32. Debunking Global Warming, Global Myth by Edmund Contoski
33. Waxman-Markey Bill; H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009
34. Wind Turbines: The Whole Truth
35. The Heartland Institute
36. H.R. 3200 America’s Health Choices Act of 2009
37. The Real Cuba
38. Immigration Law – A Brief History
39. The Second Mexican War

40. Naturalization Guide

Important Links:

1. The Declaration of Independence
2. The Constitution of the United States of America
3. The Heritage Foundation
4. The Great Global Warming Swindle
5. The Heartland Institute

Minor Delay

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please be patient with me as I am still without internet for the time being. I will post Freedom, Its Destruction and How We Can Fix It! Part 10: Border Security and Part 11: The Obama Czars as soon as I am able. In the meantime please keep watch on the Healthcare reform Bills as they move there are new nasties afoot within Congress to take even more of our freedom. One such thing is the ability for the government to access your bank acounts and withdraw the money to pay for the care you recieve. We as a country are in dire strights as this crippling legislation ponders forward. Stay vigilant and be sure that in 2010 to vote for a representative that will work for the people instead of themselves.
Thanks for the patience,
Jay Simmons

Freedom, It’s Destruction and How We Can Fix It. PT 9

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

In 1913 the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified forever changing the Constitution. The original passage in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, reads as follows “No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” While the origin of taxation goes all the way back to colonial times, the income tax dates back to the Civil War, 1862; in an attempt to regain lost war revenue. At that time only 1% of the population was required to pay the tax. In 1867 a flat tax was proposed and entirely repealed in 1872. Income tax is by far the most oppressive and unconstitutional of taxes ever emplaced on the people of this country. In 1892 the Populist Party used the Income Tax as a rally point and in 1894 the Wilson-Gorman Tarriff Act or the Income Tax act of 1894 was signed into law. In 1895 in Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan and Trust Co. the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Income Tax Act of 1894 as unconstitutional for it failed to meet the requirements laid down in Article 1, Section 9. In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment changed the Constitution to allow for the income tax. In 1913 it was a small and paltry flat tax, easy fooling the constituents. By 1932 in progressed to a “Graduating” or “progressive” tax. Meaning that the more you make the more you pay. “After World War I, the War Revenue Act of 1917 imposed a Maximum tax rate for individuals of 67 percent, compared to a rate of 13 percent in 1916.” (4) The rate was lowered down to 25% in 1926. However it was increased to 63% as well as limiting exemptions from $1,500.00 to $1,000.00 for singles and $3,500 to $2,500 for married couples during the Great Depression. The Wealth Tax Act of 1935 increased the maximum tax rate to 79%! In 1942, the Revenue Act raised it again to 88% and again the Individual Income Tax Act of 1944 raised it to 94%! The current rate as of today is 35%.
The power to lay and collect taxes resides ikn Article 1, Section 8 and reads;
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
In the Article covering the governments prohibitions, Article 9, it reads;
No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
This clause is important, for this is the clause that was forever changed by the Sixteenth Amendment.
The Sixteenth Amendment reads;
Amendment 16: Income taxes
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
February 3, 1913.
I do not mind paying taxes for the general upkeep of the government. The problem here is that they have taken away from the freedom of the people. Let us take a look at the amount of taxes each citizen will pay in Sierra Vista, Cochise County, Arizona. Arizona is ranked one of the lowest in the nation for income tax. We will use a $100,000.00 gross income with no deductions, Joe Snuffy, age 25, just as an example.
Tax 1: State Income Tax: 4.24% ($4,240.00)
Tax 2: Vehicle Registration: $8.00 ($4,248.00)
Air Quality Research Fee: $1.50 ($4,249.50)
Vehicle License Tax (instead of Personal Property Tax): 60% of base retail and is reduced by 16.25% for each year the vehicle is registered
in AZ. For example, for a new vehicle that costs $25,000, the first year assessed value would be $15,000 and the VLT would be $420.00. The second year the assessed value would be $12,562.50 and the VLT would be $363.06. ($4,669.50)
Tax 3: Property (Real Estate) Tax ($220,000.00 home in Sierra Vista not near a school): 6.58% – City and 5.10 – County total 11.81%
($16,479.50)
The rate is per $100.00 of assessed value.
Tax 4: Federal Income Tax: 28% for this example ($44,479.50)
Now let’s say that Joe Snuffy owns a business and profits $75,000.00 a year after overhead.
Tax 5: Corporate Income Tax: 34% an additional $25,500.00 in taxes. Not to mention state taxes.
The state of Arizona also charges additional taxes to business for the privilege of operating in Arizona called the Privilege Tax. If Joe or his business invests in stocks, property, bonds, municiples or precious metals the they would both pay a Capital Gains Tax. That is a double taxation by the federal government. Triple if one takes into account the fees and taxes of a purchase that the state levies. In 2010, the zero percent Capital Gains Tax for Tax bracket 10% and 15% will expire and rates will go up to at least 15%.

Capital Gains Tax Rates
Type of Capital Asset Holding Period Tax Rate
Short-term capital gains (STCG) One year or less Ordinary income tax rates up to 35%
Long-term capital gains (LTCG) More than one year 5% for taxpayers in the 10% and 15% tax brackets (zero percent starting in 2008)

15% for taxpayers in the 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35% tax brackets
Collectibles One year or less STCG tax rates up to 35%
Collectibles More than one year 28%
Small Business Stock Gains (Section 1202) More than five years 28% on the gain not excluded
Real Estate Main Home One year or less STCG

More than one year LTCG taxed at 5% or 15% after any exclusion amount
That is a lot of tax money.

Tax 6: Social Security and Medicare Tax: The 2009 tax rate (combined) is 7.65% for an employee and 15.3% for the self-employed. Since we have established that Joe owns a small business he is taxed $15,300.00 annually ($59,779.50).
Tax 7: Federal Unemployment Tax: Joe’s business gets hit again with a standard 6.2% (certain deductions for State unemployment taxes bring this to .8%) Joe’s Business now pays $31,700.00 without Capital Gains Tax.
Tax 8: Inventory Tax (State Dependent): Joe’s Business has a warehouse full of boats, an appraiser comes in and appraises these items then Joe has to pay the State taxes because it is then considered income. Luckily Joe gets over a bit, he is in Arizona and they do not have an inventory tax.
There are also literally hundreds of other forms of taxes we pay as well. Sales tax for example.
Sierra Vista Sales Tax (2007): 1.75%
County: .5%
State: 5.6%
And that depends on the services used. That’s a 7.85 Sales Tax. For every dollar you spend you pay an additional .0785 cents. for every $100 it is $7.85. Doesn’t seem like much does it. Now take into account everytime you go to the store.
Then we have gasoline. The Federal Gas Tax rate is 18.4 cpg (cents per gallon). In Arizona (using the same example) the State adds an additional 18 cpg. So for every gallon of gas you pay 36.4 cents. A 20 gallon fill up twice a week costs you $14.56. A year’s worth of filling up totals $757.12.
Let us say that Joe Snuffy goes to Wal-mart twice a month to purchase household items and he spends $200.00 total. He goes grocery shopping twice a month spending $500.00 total. Adding his gas taxes of $757.12, his grocery taxes of $39.25 and his Wal-mart taxes of $15.70 gives us a total of $60,591.57 a year and taxes. That doesn’t take into account furniture, Christmas, birthdays, religious holidays, vacations or other niceties in life one may want. Nor does that take into account other such things as investments or business. So if a man or woman earns $100,000.00 they end up paying well over half in taxes. What would happen if everyone payed half their incomes on taxes? There would be a lot of destitution in this country. I make around $55,000.00 a year and without deductions I would be paying my 25%. I would still not be in the poverty line though. Nor would I accept handouts. I would simply get another job and work more hours, continuing to better myself. I would then have to pay more taxes.
The Sixteenth Amendment left nothing to protect against the dangers of double, triple or indirect taxes. Where is our representation at? The Statists love to talk about fairness and equality, but how is it fair that being successful means that you must pay more than everyone else in percentages? Isn’t 10% of $300,000 still more than $3,000? Why must the American Dream be punished by higher and higher taxes. At the end of this series we will examine the many ways we can earn quality tax revenue, cut spending and finally bring the constitutionality back into taxes.

1. Independence Forever: Why America Celebrates the Fourth of July by Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
2. The Declaration of Independence
3. The Constitution of the United States of America
4. Income Tax – History // Law Library – American Law and Legal Information
5. Read The Stimulus
6.H.R. 1105 Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009
7. Omnibus Spending Bill: Huge Spending and 9,000 Earmarks Represent Business as Usual by Brian M. Riedl
8. Omnibus Bill Earmarks
9. Ricci Vs. DeStefano
10. The International Judge by Daniel Terris, Cesare P.R. Romano, Leigh Swigart
11. Berkeley Law School symposium: “Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation – A Latina Judge’s Voice”
12. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
13. Gun Control – Take That! And That! The Gun Control Debate Continues, Further Readings by Rubin Carter
14. Georgia Carry.org
15. Dred Scott v. Sanford
16. United States v. Miller
17. The Brady Handgun Control Act, Public Law 103-159, H.R. 1025 – 103rd Congress
18. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, H.R. 3355 in Title XI, Subtitle A
19. National Firearms Act of 1934
20. District of Columbia v. Heller
21. United States v. Cruikshank (1875)
22. Presser v. Illinois (1886)
23. ATF Abuse Web Site
24. Library of Congress: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
25. Association of Communities for Reform Now (ACORN)
26. Current Minimum Wage Rates
27. Minimum Wage Resources – Heritage Foundation Research
28. Raising the Minimum Wage: Another Empty Promise to the Working Poor – Richard V. Burkhauser, Cornell University; Joseph J. Sabia, University of Georgia
29. The White House.gov Web Site
30. Ice Age Timeline
31. The Real ‘Inconvenient Truth’
32. Debunking Global Warming, Global Myth by Edmund Contoski
33. Waxman-Markey Bill; H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009
34. Wind Turbines: The Whole Truth
35. The Heartland Institute
36. H.R. 3200 America’s Health Choices Act of 2009
37. The Real Cuba

Important Links:

1. The Declaration of Independence
2. The Constitution of the United States of America
3. The Heritage Foundation
4. The Great Global Warming Swindle
5. The Heartland Institute

A Lesson in Economics

And this from the Wall Street Journal. If you thought that manufacturers were going to stand for higher taxes to bail out the masses of people who free load, check this out!

How Buck Knives Decided to Move HQ

BY DENNIS NISHI
JULY 14, 2009

In late 2004, C.J. Buck made one of his toughest calls as CEO of knife-maker Buck Knives. He decided to relocate the company from San Diego, Calif., where it had been headquartered for 62 years, to Post Falls, Idaho.

Big retail chains were pushing them to lower prices and reduce costs by outsourcing to Asia. Mr. Buck wanted to do as much manufacturing as possible on-site but worried his California headquarters put the firm at a cost disadvantage.

Mr. Buck spoke with writer Dennis Nishi about his decision. Here are edited excerpts:

Your business went through some big changes before you decided to move. What happened that made you consider leaving California?

We [had gone] from having over 20,000 small cutlery dealers like Don’s Hardware store and some chains to a few big accounts like KMart, Wal-Mart, JCPenney and Montgomery Ward. We saw tremendous volume increases because they could really move product. But price became a big factor and our margins began to get squeezed.

We were committed to controlling quality by manufacturing our knives on-site. [But] being in California put us at a 20% cost disadvantage. A lot of our competition were in far more business-friendly states.

Couldn’t you just raise your prices?

These large accounts really capped our ability to raise prices.

What was the tipping point that led to the move?

Two things. Workers Comp rates in Southern California had gotten out of control. There was also a serious resource issue that was scary with rolling blackouts and water rationing that all led to uncontrollable utility bills. We had to make a major change.

We considered becoming a marketing-only company and outsourcing all production, or having assembly done in Mexico. The third option was a combination of adopting lean manufacturing, the Toyota production system, and moving out of California. We chose number three, which was the one most conducive to the brand.

Did San Diego or California offer you any incentives to stay?

The state did not. San Diego tried its best, but a municipality just does not have the resources to compete with a state.

What were you looking for in a new location?

We didn’t want to have our corporate headquarters in one place and operations somewhere else. Wherever we moved, [our] family had to enjoy living in the new place. So lifestyle was a key factor. We looked at places that had a business-friendly legislative climate and looked like a nice place to live.

Why Idaho?

We initially looked at Tennessee and the Pacific Northwest. My grandfather had roots in Washington state, but things seemed too similar there to California. We ended up choosing Idaho because the legislative climate is so pro-business that we knew we’d still be in a good position ten years down the line. They also offered us a substantial training grant.

How did you prepare for the move?

We had about 240 employees when we left, and we took about 60 with us. We wanted to take our brain trust of employees so we could get up and running in 90 days. Each of the managers was tasked with choosing the right team for the job. We also premade 90 days worth of inventory and moved in our slowest period, which was January.

Did moving put a strain on the company?

Hugely. And this is where I beat myself up. It ended up being a bigger cash drain than I anticipated. Part of the reason is that it took a while to sell our old building. We did eventually sell it, but we took a bath.

How long did it take to reestablish the company?

It took us three years to really stabilize. We had problems hiring and keeping employees in the beginning. There are easier ways to make a living than knife-making and the unemployment rate dropped, so we had to raise wages. I had inherited the original employees we had from my father and rebuilding a new team in Idaho made me appreciate what goes into the process.

Overall, how has moving worked out for you?

We’ve been seeing a nice uptick in the last few quarters, though we project a compression in sales overall. We feel we’re well positioned when the economy turns around. Moving allowed us to refocus the brand to get back to our roots.