The Invasive and UnConstitutional Census of 2010

Below is a letter that has been written and sent to any politician that may care about this upcoming and UnConstitutional Census of 2010. I hope that you find time to send a letter to your politicians as well. Feel free to use my letter.

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I am very concerned with the upcoming Census. Our nations Constitution provides for a head count every ten years to ensure all Americans are properly represented. I believe this is a good thing. However, after looking at the upcoming questions presented in the “Questions Planned for the 2010 Census and American Community Survey” found at http://2010.census.gov/2010census/pdf/2010ACSnotebook.pdf I am very concerned of what the Census is becoming.The Constitution quite explicitly dictates in Article 1, Section 2, as well as in the modification found in the 14th Amendment, that the purpose of the Census is to help apportion direct taxes and Representatives. I can think of no reason why the government needs to know anything more than the number of people in a home so why is this Census asking such questions as my ancestry, my marital history, my VA disability, my journey to work, my vehicles, my kitchen facilities, my rent amount, and so much more?

Can you please tell me in all honesty why the Federal Government needs to know these items to properly apportion direct taxes and Representatives? And if the Federal Government does not need to know this information and I do not answer the questions that are Constitutionally unnecessary, am I going to be fined as rumor has it? I expect your answer on this issue.

If I am not mistaken, then I propose that the Arizona legislature draft legislation protecting all Arizona residents from any fines or redress for failing to provide unnecessary and possibly unconstitutional information for the upcoming Census. I strongly believe the ninth and tenth amendments provide for the protection of the citizens of Arizona from an intrusive Federal Government.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

I believe I retain the right to be secure in my home, that the contents therein are protected unless I am suspected of performing some act or action which could be harmful to others, in which case a warrant would be required, not a Census, there is no valid reason why I need to provide any other data for the Census.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The Constitution requires a Census every ten years for the purpose of determining representation ONLY, I can find no other need in the US Constitution for conducting a Census. Therefore, there is nothing else that can or should be added to the Census other than a head count of LEGAL Americans. The power to count the people is clearly given to the Congress, the power to count or track anything else is not.

I am certain that you are aware of precedent in the matter of States resolving to ignore a Federal mandate due to Constitutional concerns – The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. In these Resolutions each respective state drafted it in defiance of the Aliens and Seditions Act.

http://www.constitution.org/cons/virg1798.htm

http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm

I respectfully request the State of Arizona protect my property and my family from fines and redress regarding all unnecessary questions pertaining to the 2010 Census.

IG Stupidity

Sorry About Our President

On the site sorryaboutourpresident.com there are some interesting comments. Some against Bush, others against Obama, and others against the citizens who are laying down letting it happen. Not that I agree with all said, but good to see people thinking outside the box…

Post 2557: I would like to apologize most profusely not for our presidents both past and present, but for our citizens. While it is easy to lay blame at the feet of our presidents, these men would have never been allowed to have such control were it not for the ignorance and apathy of the American public. They fall for the same tricks again and again, believing that either Democrats or Republics will save them while never fully exploring those implications and understanding that the system itself is to blame rather than any individual political party. I apologize for our Christians. I apologize for our capitalists. I apologize for our ignorant masses who would rather watch sports and Prime Time television than follow the independent media, organize protests, and ask real questions.
I apologize for America herself but believe that there are people like me out there and that one day, we will make a difference. Give us time.

Old and new are the same…

Post 2555: Dear World, I apologize for my fellow American citizens for being so blind to see that the new boss is the same as the old. Unfortunately, the wars will continue and new ones will be waged. Secret torture prisons will still be open, free trade will continue to under mind national sovereignty; while enriching the few and impoverishing the masses, and the dumb asses of American people will continue to be tricked by globalist fascist into caring out their empire.

And others who just can’t come to terms that someone they didn’t like was elected more than once by the current voting system employed in America.

Post 2077: Sorry everyone. I fail to understand how he was elected… twice.

Ode to America

FROM ROMANIA: RECOGNITION (AND ENVY) OF THE AMERICAN ETHOS AND ÉLAN !

Subject: Editorial from a Romanian newspaper; An ode to America

Why are Americans so united? They don’t resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are.

Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: “God Bless America!”.

Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There were Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together.

The American’s solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I don’t know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn’t sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you green with envy because you weren’t able to sing for your country without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests. I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to bow before a fellow human? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy. What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money?

I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.

Only freedom can work such miracles!

(Original here)(Confirmed True by Snopes here)

Ron Paul words on HR1207

Here is the speech given on the House floor by Congressman Ron Paul when he was introducting HR1207.

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HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2009

* Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. Throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. How long will we as a Congress stand idly by while hard-working Americans see their savings eaten away by inflation? Only big-spending politicians and politically favored bankers benefit from inflation.

* Serious discussion of proposals to oversee the Federal Reserve is long overdue. I have been a longtime proponent of more effective oversight and auditing of the Fed, but I was far from the first Congressman to advocate these types of proposals. Esteemed former members of the Banking Committee such as Chairmen Wright Patman and Henry B. Gonzales were outspoken critics of the Fed and its lack of transparency.

* Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight of its operations. While the conventional excuse is that this is intended to reduce the Fed’s susceptibility to political pressures, the reality is that the Fed acts as a foil for the government. Whenever you question the Fed about the strength of the dollar, they will refer you to the Treasury, and vice versa. The Federal Reserve has, on the one hand, many of the privileges of government agencies, while retaining benefits of private organizations, such as being insulated from Freedom of Information Act requests.

* The Federal Reserve can enter into agreements with foreign central banks and foreign governments, and the GAO is prohibited from auditing or even seeing these agreements. Why should a government-established agency, whose police force has federal law enforcement powers, and whose notes have legal tender status in this country, be allowed to enter into agreements with foreign powers and foreign banking institutions with no oversight? Particularly when hundreds of billions of dollars of currency swaps have been announced and implemented, the Fed’s negotiations with the European Central Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, and other institutions should face increased scrutiny, most especially because of their significant effect on foreign policy. If the State Department were able to do this, it would be characterized as a rogue agency and brought to heel, and if a private individual did this he might face prosecution under the Logan Act, yet the Fed avoids both fates.

* More importantly, the Fed’s funding facilities and its agreements with the Treasury should be reviewed. The Treasury’s supplementary financing accounts that fund Fed facilities allow the Treasury to funnel money to Wall Street without GAO or Congressional oversight. Additional funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and the Term Securities Lending Facility, allow the Fed to keep financial asset prices artificially inflated and subsidize poorly performing financial firms.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would eliminate restrictions on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve and open Fed operations to enhanced scrutiny. We hear officials constantly lauding the benefits of transparency and especially bemoaning the opacity of the Fed, its monetary policy, and its funding facilities. By opening all Fed operations to a GAO audit and calling for such an audit to be completed by the end of 2010, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

No Law or Rules: Just Obama

President Obama used the first-person singular pronoun “I” 34 times on Monday when he announced he was nationalizing General Motors.

He used “Congress” once and “law” not at all.

As Obama described it, the government takeover of General Motors was Obama’s decision made for Obama’s reasons.

“Just over two months ago, I spoke with you in this same spot about the challenges facing our auto industry, and I laid out what needed to be done to save two of America’s storied automakers,” said Obama.

“From the beginning, I made it clear that I would not put any more tax dollars on the line if it meant perpetuating the bad business decisions that had led these companies to seek help in the first place,” he said. “I refused to let these companies become permanent wards of the state, kept afloat on an endless supply of taxpayer money. In other words, I refused to kick the can down the road.”

To prevent GM from becoming a ward of the state, Obama made it the property of the state.

“I decided then,” said the first person in chief, “that if GM and their stakeholders were willing to sacrifice for their companies’ survival … then the United States government would stand behind them.”

Here, I, Barack virtually identified himself with the United States government.

He did not say he would ask Congress to enact legislation to provide the executive with the funds needed to purchase 60 percent of GM or with the legal authority to restructure the company and oversee its business plan.

He said: “I decided then … the United States government would stand behind them.”

Remember: In December, Congress specifically declined to enact legislation authorizing the president to bail out the auto industry–let alone to purchase an auto company. What law now gives Obama authority to buy General Motors? The White House says, when pressed, it is the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But that legislation was written specifically to allow the Treasury Department to purchase assets from “financial institutions.” It says nothing about buying auto companies.

And if Congress has not enacted a law authorizing the president to take ownership of an auto company, who will say when he must surrender it?

And where does the Constitution say the government can take ownership of an auto company, let alone at the individual initiative of a president who cannot point to a duly enacted law that clearly expresses the deliberated will of the people that he should have that power.

The first person in chief explained on Monday how he first vetoed and then approved GM’s and Chrysler’s restructuring plans in order to make them undergo the “sweeping changes” he deemed appropriate.

“The original restructuring plans submitted by GM and Chrysler earlier this year did not call for the sweeping changes these companies needed to survive–and I couldn’t in good conscience proceed on that basis,” said I, Barack.

Since then, Obama explained, the new GM CEO, who replaced the CEO Obama forced out, “has worked tirelessly to produce a plan that meets the strict standards that I laid out at the beginning.”

He dared not buck I, Barack.

Eventually, Obama said he was putting another $30 billion in tax dollars into GM on top of the nearly $20 billion the company has already received.

“Understand, we’re making these investments not because I want to spend the American people’s tax dollars, but because I want to protect them,” said I, Barack. “What we are doing–what I have no interest in doing–is running GM.”

This passage may be more worthy of the used car salesman in chief than the colossus who just seized an auto company.

I, Barack may claim he does not want to run GM but in almost the same breath he says he will guarantee GM warranties and that the “new GM” will produce the cars he envisions.

“And I want to remind everyone that if you are considering buying a GM car during this period of restructuring, your warranties will be safe and government-backed,” said Obama.

“So I’m confident,” said I, Barack, “that the steps I’m announcing today will mark the end of the old GM and the beginning of the new GM; a new GM that can produce the high-quality, safe and fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow; that can lead America towards an energy independent future; and is once more a symbol of America’s success.”

I, Barack’s GM will never be a symbol of America’s success. Unless Congress begins asserting its constitutional authority in defense of free enterprise, however, it will be concrete evidence of America’s slide into socialism–a system where the state controls the means of production as a means of controlling the people.

(Original here)

Sotomayor Speaks to Lady Justice

I thought that this was amusing since I posted about Lady Justice a few weeks ago…

The Police State of Arizona

More photo radar cameras are on tap for the city of Phoenix.

Officer William Fisher said the additional cameras will target more than just red-light runners.

Fisher said there currently are red-light cameras at 12 intersections and two vans which do speed enforcement around schools and school zones.

“They’re talking about maybe adding some intersections — maybe speed on green or mid-block speed and maybe some enforcement around the light rail,” said Fisher.

He said cameras also will be used for secondary infractions, like expired tags, cracked windshields and seatbelt violations.

The cameras will be installed later this summer.

The exact locations have not been decided, according to Fisher.

“Usually how they pick the intersection is by statistics, by red-light running tickets or collisions in that intersection,” he said.

(Original here)

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Why is this scary to me? First off, I want to face my accuser, not be threatened through the mail with a photograph. Secondly, reviewing for second-hand offense? That means that someone has to sit there and watch us all the time. This is a police state everyone. The government, in the name of safety or whatever other crap they come up with, is going to sit there and monitor what we do. No bueno.

GM Down the Tube

So much for the Big 3. GM filed for bankruptcy today, becoming the country’s second automaker after Chrysler to go under in just over a month. Today was the end of the 60-day period the Obama administration gave GM to come up with a successful viability plan. The administration will give the car maker $30.1 billion in federal assistance to support GM’s restructuring plan. General Motors will enter into bankruptcy protection and is expected to emerge as a new company in 60 to 90 days.

I never thought the automakers had any long term strategy. Where are the smaller and more fuel efficient cars? Where are the cars of the future? They made tons of profits on SUVs and stopped being competitive with smaller cars. That killed GM when the gas crisis hit last year. They did not shift their focus to alternative energy vehicles. Most car makers didn’t care about making cars that would save gas because they were in bed with big oil! Everyone knew GM had too many car models and they couldn’t support it.

Bailing out the auto industry didn’t help solve the basic problems of the industry. Stop throwing good money at a bad problem! Federal money only slowed down the change that the auto industry needed to make. They needed change from top to bottom.

Here’s why I think GM went into bankruptcy and why it’s the best possible scenario for the company. Bankruptcy will allow GM to restructure and get out of some of their contracts. The bankruptcy process is not a bad thing. In fact, it should be embraced. Bankruptcy allows companies to do tough things they could never do in the normal course of business. It has helped many companies turn themselves around and come out even stronger. KMART went bankrupt a while back – they are thriving now. I expect to see GM do the same…

That’s How I Roll…

Gaydos

(Original here)

Romer, Bernanke, and the Flying Donkeys

In 1992, Christina Romer published an article titled “What Ended the Great Depression?” in The Journal of Economic History. In her introduction, Roper explains how America recovered from the Great Depression:

This paper examines the role of aggregate-demand stimulus in ending the Great Depression. Plausible estimates of the effects of fiscal and monetary changes indicate that nearly all the observed recovery of the U.S. economy prior to 1942 was due to monetary expansion [emphasis mine]. A huge gold inflow in the mid- and late 1930s swelled the money stock and stimulated the economy by lowering real interest rates and encouraging investment spending and purchases of durable goods. That monetary developments were crucial to the recovery implies that self-correction played little role in the growth of real output between 1933 and 1942.

Mrs. Romer is now the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and was the co-author the administration’s economic recovery plan.