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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Get us out of Afghanistan! - Letters to my Reps

To: Representative  Todd Russell Plats, Senator Pat Toomey, and Senator Bob Casey:
Following is a copy of an email that I sent to you in Oct 2009. Since that time over 1200 of our young people have died in Afghanistan & Iraq, many more have been horribly maimed and disfigured:
Oct. 2009:  "Bring the troops home from Afghanistan. It is unrealistic to believe that the current administration will do what is necessary to responsibly prosecute this military action. I understand that the complete destruction of the Taliban would be in the best security interests of this country; however, it is not realistic to believe that is going to happen under the current administration. Neither is the complete destruction of al Qaeda, which has havens and cells spread throughout the world. It is even unrealistic to believe that we can permanently deprive al Qaeda of Afghanistan as a launching ground or home base for terrorist attacks since that depends on wresting control of all territory in the region from the Taliban. I also understand how tempting it might be to some politicians to try and craft some politically advantageous half-measures that would leave our troops stranded in enemy territory (again) without a clear objective, exit strategy, or the absolute best support we can provide. To allow that to happen again, especially after what we learned in Vietnam, would be a tragedy and a moral outrage."
Today: Our troops can no longer call in close air support without getting it approved by higher-ups back at headquarters. Barack Obama has proposed requiring our special operations forces to conduct their ops only in daylight and his administration has leaked vital operational secrets to those who are trying to kill them. Iraq is helping fund Iran's nuclear program. Afghan troops and police are slaughtering our troops at will, troops that were unarmed while on base until just this week. The well-being of our troops has been subjugated to the ambitions of our politicians. Our calls to bring the troops home have been ignored and instead politicians have tied their hands and interfered with their attempts to employ tried and true combat techniques getting even more of our precious young people maimed and killed. Like I said: a tragedy and a moral outrage. We've got to stop this nation-building junk and get back to defending our country. Really, that's all we are able to do anyway. Focusing on anything else is recklessly dangerous and ridiculously naive.

Ethanol Sucks! - Letters to my Reps

June 30, 2008

I heard something on the radio yesterday that I just couldn’t believe.  I was listening to a “money” talk-show and the guy said that there is a 40% tariff on Brazilian ethanol.  Please tell me that you guys aren’t taxing the best and least expensive ethanol in the world at an additional rate of 40% after MANDATING that at least 10% of our fuel be ethanol at a time when gas prices are approaching $4.00 per gallon and our economy is grinding to a halt!

If you are, then I’ve got to ask, WHY?! 

Who is this supposed to help?  You mandate ethanol use and then you turn right around and effectively prohibit the sale of the least expensive and highest quality ethanol in the world here in the US?

Again, who is this ethanol initiative supposed to help?  It sure doesn’t help me at the gas pump.  Turning a staple food source into fuel sure isn’t good for the starving children of the world.  It’s not even good for the environment!  (US ethanol production actually increases our total CO2 output and even our total fossil fuel consumption.)

OK, I know who it’s supposed to help.  There is only one group in this country that benefits from this and that’s the ethanol producers and, by extension, corn farmers. 

Please repeal this unethical tariff. 

Better yet, reverse course on this whole immoral ethanol initiative.


August 25, 2012

Today was a good day.  I found a new source for ethanol-free gas.  Now I can buy that chainsaw that I’ve been wanting.  You see, I decided not to buy any more gasoline powered tools until I found a source for ethanol-free gas because I knew that the ethanol that’s in the gas now would just eat them up.  I’ve lost 3 lawn mowers, 2 line trimmers and a chainsaw to that junk!  I wonder if all the environmentalists figured all that smoke that billowed out of each of these tools as they burned up into their fancy equations?

What am I saying?  Everyone knows that ethanol isn’t really being produced and mixed into the nation’s fuel supply for environmental reasons.  There are no sound environmental reasons to do that.  Everyone knows that  it takes more fuel and produces more pollution to produce a gallon of ethanol than is saved by it’s use at its eventual destination.  Even the environmentalists have moved on. We all know why we are being forced to sacrifice our lawn equipment and pay higher food prices at the grocery store:  It is called corruption.

Come on guys!  I’d be embarrassed if I was you.  This is not going unnoticed.  It has become one of the most glaring signposts of the corrupt times in which we live.

Oh, what I’d give for the good old days when corruption was too complicated and obscure for us dummies back home to notice it. 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Screw you John Roberts!

07/07/12
Once again the media is all abuzz about something and almost everybody is totally missing the most important point.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court, via John Roberts, ruled that The Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) was indeed constitutional under the 16th Amendment, the Income Tax Amendment.
Now, everyone, is all worried about how this is going to impact their...fill in the blank: insurance, healthcare, taxes, candidate’s chances of winning in November…whatever. What everyone seems to be missing is the fact that this ruling has unleashed two completely new animals upon the land… the "tax-mandate" and thetax-fine.”
 
This is nothing like a regular tax-penalty, you only incur a tax-penalty by doing something wrong that involves the reporting, filing, or paying of your income taxes regardless of how those taxes are incurred.

This new “tax-fine,” that Justice Roberts has created, on the other hand, is a penalty for violating some "tax-mandate" that does not need to be related to the reporting or collection of taxes at all. It could be anything. And, apparently, it doesn't need to comply with anything else in the constitution other than the 16th Amendment.  As long as it is enforced by the Internal Revenue Service it is, by definition, constitutional.

In the good old days, if you didn’t make any money, or just a little money, then you didn’t have to pay the government anything. Those days are over. Now, every year, even before you’ve earned your first penny, you owe the federal government money and it’s up to you to do, or not do, what the federal government tells you to do, or not do, in order to avoid that tax-fine. Right now that just means that you have to buy a health insurance policy that meets the government’s standards. Well, ok, you also have to prove that you purchased that policy and that it meets all of those ever-changing government standards…, but that’s all…for now.

I say, “for now”, because anybody that thinks that the government is NOT going to use these brand new tools for a whole slew of initiatives, programs, enhancements, controls, and intrusions just as fast as they can get them down on paper and onto the legislative floor just doesn’t understand how our legislative system works. I’m sure lobbyists are already lining up at our legislators’ doors with all kinds of requests and huge campaign donations. Just think, the government can now tell you what to do and what to buy under the 16th Amendment without all those pesky constitutionality questions getting in the way! John Roberts and the Supreme Court have cleared the way, let the 21st Century Gold-Rush begin!

It will start with things we all agree on: Did you replace the batteries in your smoke detectors? Prove it or pay up! Did you recycle your recyclables? Prove it or pay up!  ...But it will eventually move into grayer areas like: Did you get your recommended health checkups? Prove it or pay up! Did you you get your regular dental cleanings & checkups? Prove it or pay up!  Did your children get their required vaccinations? Prove it or pay up! Did your pets get theirs? Prove it or pay up! Did you get the recommended maintenance on your vehicle? Prove it or pay up! Did you drive the speed limit? (thanks Progressive Insurance) Prove it or pay up! Did you change your furnace filter regularly? Prove it or pay up! Did you get to work on time? Prove it or pay up!

Some might say that we already have that. Their usual example is auto insurance: We are already required to provide proof of insurance to register our vehicles each year.  There is a difference, however: The IRS doesn’t come after you if you fail to buy auto insurance. You don’t automatically owe the government money if you choose not to buy auto insurance. If you are caught out on the roadways without insurance, then you are charged with a crime and provided with due process as detailed under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution. (Look for an “auto insurance mandate” to be one of the first “tax-mandates” issued to remove this flaw from their example.)

And that brings up the 2nd big change that the “Robert’s Ruling” has wrought in U.S. law: Forget about “innocent until proven guilty” or “the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury” or any other pesky “due process” rights. Now it’s, “guilty until you prove yourself innocent to some government bureaucrat”.

Since a tax-fine is a legal penalty for failing to comply with the law, will failure to pay this fine result in jail time like with all other fines? If you are late paying your tax bill and that bill includes a tax-fine, will they haul you off to jail rather than just send you a bill or, at worst, garnish your wages. like they do now? And, does a tax-mandate violation go on your permanent record? (You did break the law after all, even if you did pay the fine on time.) And, will you have to disclose all your past tax-mandate violations on employment and license applications? Will outstanding tax-fines come up on your credit report or on the computer screen of the police officer who just pulled you over?   And, can the IRS search your records to see if you are guilty of a tax-mandate violation without a warrant? I mean, they don’t need a warrant to conduct an audit, do they? So, if they suspect that you might be guilty of a tax-mandate violation, couldn’t they just demand to see all of your records at any time without showing any kind of probable cause? I know that they can do that now and get you for tax evasion but with tax-fines, if each “proof of compliance” doesn’t hold water, like a health insurance policy that doesn’t cover abortions for example, will that result in additional charges, fines and jail time or will they all just be prosecuted as tax evasion? …

So many questions!

Some would say that, as a practical matter, constitutional rights are a thing of the past anyway, that the 16th Amendment already took away most of those rights and that whatever rights we had left have long since been destroyed by the convoluted ”logic” of the judicial elite that have controlled our government since its early days (Google "Wickard v Filburn").

I don’t completely disagree, but still, I find the Roberts' Ruling remarkable. It is sad and tragic beyond words. This may be nothing less than the final nail in the coffin of what was a brief brilliant flash of human dignity and goodness in an otherwise relentless human saga of brutish oppression, slavery and suffering. That brief flash being a constitutional government that, for the first time in history, enshrined the ideals of individual liberty, equal human rights, and a free market; a country that made great and unprecedented strides towards achieving a better way of life for mankind; a time that spawned a truly miraculous, almost magical, explosion of innovation and wondrous technology.
Our Constitution now lies bleeding on the floor after a cowardly betrayal by utter fools who destroyed that which they swore to protect.

All the conservative pundits on TV and radio say that all we have to do to correct this injustice is to repeal Obamacare. Repealing Obamacare won’t do a thing to undo this new precedent, this brand new “tax-fine” that guts our Constitution and marks the end of the most glorious era in human history.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Re.: Act of Valor (the movie)

Scene where the SEALS caught the arms dealer on his yacht and then got him to spill his guts by simply appealing to his better nature could have come right out of a Saturday Night Live skit.  Really unexpected dose of satire in the middle of an otherwise serious movie that effectively highlighted the absurdity of the ban on water-boarding.

How times have changed since this story took place, back then we were  fighting against FARC (the Colombia based Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerilla organization).  Under Obama, in 2009, we supported a FARC-backed attempt to set up a Hugo Chavez-style dictatorship in Honduras.

(Yeah, I know, you never heard about that.  Long story short, Hugo Chavez buddy and FARC endorsed President Manuel Zelaya tried to declare himself perpetual dictator of Honduras in clear violation of the Honduran constitution.  That didn't go over so well with the Honduran legislature, court system or military who immediately united to remove this wannabe dictator from the country.  Well, constitutions don't carry too much weight with the Obama administration apparently and they immediately branded this a "coup" and took all available actions short of military intervention to compel the Honduran government to accept this Chavez puppet as their new dictator.  I know it's unbelievable.  I'll try and find my other post on this and re-post.)