Ramblings of Sarge

Winds of Change

Yes, the winds of change are blowing.  To the pleasure of many and to the dismay of some, they are predominately leftward in nature.  In the religious world, we live in a post-modern society where moral relativism is the flavor of the day.  Without moral absolutes, society is free to act in whatever manner can be rationalized as good.  In our political world, trans-nationalism is the new threat to national sovereignty for our country and every other.  As if it wasn't bad enough to have the Supreme Court justices move from determining constitutionality of laws, to interpreting the Constitution as they see fit, to legislating from the bench, we now see them considering international law in their determinations.  There is a familiar pattern that has emerged for those seeking societal change.  If legislative efforts fail, go to court to have change dictated.  If the courts offer no help, make it an international issue to pressure change.  The Constitution has been on its deathbed for quite a few decades now.  It is to be referred to by politicians when necessary for their ends and it is to be ignored when it is in their way.  This includes all three branches and all political parties. Such it is with global this and global that, crisis this and crisis that.  Remember the bailouts that couldn't wait until Monday without catastrophic consequences?  The weekend came and went without complete collapse of society as we knew it.  The crisis to pass bailout and stimulus packages caused our legislators to vote on bills they admittedly didn't read.  Now we are trapped with burdens we didn't want.  Spending now and billing future generations is not moral, it is generational theft.  It is our version of the federal Poncy scheme known as Social Security.

• One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
• But probably the BIGGEST KEY benefit to developers cloaked in this "Stimulus Bill" is the ability to carry back losses for 5 years instead of 2. They tried to push this in the Housing stimulus in September but got so much blow back from citizens that they took it out. Now its back, hidden under the guise of helping ALL businesses."The legislation also would allow businesses to carry back net operating losses for five years, instead of the current limit of two years. This provision would generate cash through tax refunds for companies that now are losing money but previously were profitable." (Note the use of the words "cash tax refunds". This is cold hard cash in the billions coming to these guys from us)
• Sen. Daniel Inouye says $198 million for Filipino war veterans was included in the $787 billion “stimulus” bill to preserve the “honor” of the United States. What’s the logic?Don’t those 18,000 Filipinos, who fought alongside America GIs in World War II, deserve a vote by U.S. Congress on their own merits? I think they do. Why hide the cash in a bill 4,000 times bigger than the $198 million?
• What else? Are there 3,999 similar items in the “stimulus” bill? Is it a stimulus bill, or is it just an excuse to pay everyone that Congress has ever dreamed of paying?

How about the international transfer of wealth known as Climate Change.  In the 1970's the news magazines had the dramatic cover stories of Global Cooling and the impending ice age.  In the 1990's the same magazines, and grant recipients that promote such issues to keep the cash flowing, were declaring Global Warming and the certainty of melted ice caps and flooded coast lines.  Waking up to the fact that it can't be both, the situation was created for both to be working together in Global Chaos for the early 2000's.  School children have now been indoctrinated from early years through "higher" education as to the "fact" that it exists and that we are indeed the guilty party.  This farce will succeed in transferring our wealth to developing countries as a guilt complex continues to be placed upon our citizenry.  When the carbon tax, or cap and trade, failed to gain traction in the Legislature, the administration simply had the EPA declare carbon dioxide a pollutant and a danger as a green house gas.  Nancy Pelosi says that the legislation will be reintroduced.  Meanwhile, the federal government has started the tax ball rolling by laying the groundwork for forcing industry to start measuring the very thing every human exhales and every plant transforms into the oxygen we breath.  Why not start with the largest green house gas element, water vapor?  The cap and trade system is an artificially created commodity market that will transfer money from industry to others.  It is taking from one and giving to another, or as President Obama said in his campaign, spreading the wealth.  Do you think you are unaffected?  Everything a producer spends, including taxes, is a cost in production and added to the price of goods and services for the consumer.  Think about this when your energy rates double and triple. This country has never been stupid until the education system was nationalized.  We allowed the government to dictate the agenda for what was needed to be learned by our youth.  We allowed the responsibility to be moved from our households, to the states, and eventually to the federal government.  We allowed the unionization of the teachers to prevent us from making sure that the best teachers were rewarded and that the poorest were removed.  We allowed the basics to be pushed aside for social issues.  We allowed the majority to be imposed upon by many minority stakes.  We have allowed the dumbing down of America.  There is no need to wonder why our schools are failing and our kids are in trouble.  What federally run operation is ever successful?  The military could be one exception, at least until the politicians get involved and weaken it by revealing things that our enemies should not know or by slashing the budgets and pointing fingers later when a crisis arises.  It was communist revolutionary Lenin who said, Give me one generation of youth, and I will transform the entire world (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia 2002). Ronald Reagan said, "Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them." "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."  "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" In a quote attributed to Nikita Khrushchev, former Soviet dictator, "When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to heal, so that you can skin them again."  This is what is happening to the "middle class".  The turnip is being squeezed dry.  Class warfare has been employed as never before.  During the past election cycle I heard the terms rich and greed more than ever before.  Profitability and wealth were demonized relentlessly to garner votes from the lower income levels including those who are dependent upon the welfare state we have created.  The powers to be seem to be stopping just short of taking over industry, leaving skin to heal so they can continue to garner cash flow for social reconstruction. By completely taking over the banking, auto or energy sectors, the politicians would have no one to blame when the inevitable failures occur.  By influencing them with tax dollars and regulations, they can continue to blame others for mismanagement and corruption while appearing to be the white knight that is only seeking to protect the interests of the American public.  It is much like passing a bill with the support of only a couple members of the opposing party and then calling it a bipartisan effort.  It is merely cover for the eventual blow back from the public as they endeavor to share and even shift the blame to someone else. "We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism".  Nikita Khrushchev So here we are watching liberty and sovereignty die.  Our new global society will require the death of our dollar, the death of our uniqueness, and the death of our individuality.  We are now servants to the system, the federal machine.  We are a long way from the people and the states creating the limited Federal government to serve very specific needs of the citizens.  Consider the following quotes from Joseph Stalin and see how closely they apply to our time. "Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed" "Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas." "It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." "Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts." "When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use." And finally, "America, is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within." Mission accomplished, almost. How Liberty Dies

Tyranny in Robes and Suits

Why does it need to be such a difficult issue?  Concerning President Obama, is he or is he not technically eligible to be president of These United States of America? The professional politicians of our day have trampled the Constitution under foot in pursuit of gaining and retaining power.  It has been a deteriorating situation as the years pass and the full time politicians feel the need to always be doing something in D.C. to justify their presence.  Unfortunately for we the people, the laws, regulations and uncontrolled spending have produced an oppressive atmosphere in our beloved country. The arrogance of our legislators, judges and executive has created a situation where even our freedom of speech is being threatened.  To challenge the validity of President Obama's qualifications is now looked  upon as lunacy and appears to be approaching criminal activity.  Court cases are dismissed without hearings for a variety of reasons.  Judges even mock those who bring the cases.  The political parties have no courage to stand up for what is right.  The people of this great nation are not being listened to on this issue or any number of other issues from the sanctity of life, to the definition of marriage, to the illegal alien invasion. The very oath taken by our federal officials is broken almost immediately after the swearing in ceremony.  The Constitution they swear to uphold and defend is only consulted when it supports what they want to do.  If it is in the way of their goals, it is as if it doesn't exist. The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." President Obama has, and has had all along, the power to put the debate to rest.  All he has needed to do, and can still do, is to produce a valid birth certificate.  What has been published on his website is not an actual birth certificate.  So the question that needs to be asked is, "What does President Obama have to hide?" A World Net Daily report explains, "Some of the lawsuits question whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time. Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born. Further complicating the issue are the reports he was adopted by an Indonesia man during his childhood and moved to Indonesia and attended school there. There also are questions on what nation's passport he traveled to Pakistan. Lawyers and plaintiffs in a multitude of lawsuits also have asked why, if a birth certificate actually reflects that Obama was born in Hawaii, has he spent sums estimated by observers of up to $1 million hiring various law firms to keep concealed his birth certificate, his college records and other documentation." Perhaps the birth certificate does not exist.  Concerning the Hawaii certificate, it is a certificate of live birth which is different from a birth certificate.  From Berg v. Obama, "Obama has tried to obfuscate the issue by providing a Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) from Hawaii authorities.  Said document has been proven as a forgery. The left-wing Annenberg organization factcheck.org has tried to obfuscate the issue even more, by declaring the forged document as real.  The primary issue however, is that the document in question is only a registration of birth filing, and not an official "Vault" Birth Certificate.  Registration was a method used by some to gain U.S. citizenship even after being born in a foreign country.  Many of Obama's relatives in Kenya say that Obama was born in Kenya, and flown to Hawaii after three days to enable the registration filing.  The above linked video of his Kenyan Grandmother suggests that Obama was born in Kenya, but is not conclusive." And what of his school records?  Is it possible that he used foreign student status to gain exchange student privileges and grants?  This is consistent with the ploys of today's politicians in general.  Use the details and facts when advantageous to achieving the goal, otherwise ignore them. Beyond the eligibility issue, other amendments and rights are under attack.  From free speech, to bearing arms, to freedom from involuntary servitude, all are being threatened.  It isn't all President Obama, in fact, it is mostly the Democrat controlled House and Senate.  The President still signs off on the issues and is therefore held to some degree of responsibility for the resulting actions and repercussions.  As we heard throughout the campaign, eight years of failed Bush policies was the cause of all of our ills.  Of course the opposition led Congress was not held accountable by our media. Back on November 7, 2008, I wrote about "America Serves" on change.gov which was President Obama's site on which he spelled out some of his plans.  This was a program that mandated community service under the guise of volunteerism.  Don't get me wrong, I do believe that volunteerism and community service is a good thing.  Once it becomes mandated by the Federal Government, however, it crosses the line and is no longer volunteer service. Amendment 13 - Slavery Abolished. Ratified 12/6/1865. History 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. I wrote, "That's it, the whole amendment.  It is pretty straight forward and easy to understand.  Involuntary servitude is not constitutional.  the phrase, "developing a plan to require" is the key point.  If the service is required, it is involuntary." Shortly after this article was written, along with a great many other articles decrying the proposed action, the website was changed.  So "by developing a plan to require" has been changed to "by setting a goal that".  Whether the word "require" is used or not, if the service is in fact required, the point that it is unconstitutional remains the same.    More information can be found at the linked article. And now it has become The Give Act.  Short Title- This Act may be cited as the ‘Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act’ or the ‘GIVE Act’. More details can be found at the Education & Labor site. A FOX news article states, "The legislation, slated to cost $6 billion over five years, would create 175,000 "new service opportunities" under AmeriCorps, bringing the number of participants in the national volunteer program to 250,000. It would also create additional "corps" to expand the reach of volunteerism into new sectors, including a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps and Veterans Service Corps, and it expands the National Civilian Community Corps to focus on additional areas like disaster relief and energy conservation." "We contribute our time and money under no government coercion on a scale the rest of the world doesn't emulate and probably can't imagine," said Luke Sheahan, contributing editor for the Family Security Foundation. "The idea that government should order its people to perform acts of charity is contrary to the idea of charity and it removes the responsibility for charity from the people to the government, destroying private initiative." "It's allowing taxpayer funding of the left-wing organizations," said Larry Hart, director of government relations for the American Conservative Union.  I think this is a problem that is rife throughout the federal government. When you dramatically expand the program, then you dramatically expand the ability for these left-wing advocacy organizations to get more funding. I don't see a lot of attention being paid to that, even from those who are critical. That's where the focus should be. Republicans tend to say its not that they oppose the program, they just want to spend less money. It's the program that's bad." On February 28, 2009, I wrote an article titled, When they silence the opposition. In the article I discussed the so called Fairness Doctrine and the less offensive sounding Localism.  Either way it goes, the democrats are looking to limit the effect of conservative talk radio hosts to challenge the performance of Congress and the White House.  Funny, one of the ten pillars of communism is: 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. The Constitution on the other hand states, Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Make no mistake, the Democrat Party leadership has made ample comments directed at silencing the opposition.  Witness the recent demonization of Rush Limbaugh.  This is a very popular tactic of the leftists in this country.  Allegations and screaming flies through the air in character assassination style.  Once out there, it cannot be called back in the sound bite society we live in. Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. This amendment is under constant threat and usually exists in a perilous state when Democrats are in control in both State and Federal governments.  I find it odd that people are willing to vote away a right that is actually in the constitution but will fight for supposed rights that are not.  For instance a vote against abortion or gay marriage is somehow voting away the rights of others.  Those items are not in the Constitution and should be State issues.  Instead we have the tyrrany of the Feds and Judges step in and impose their will based on their own agenda.  In the case of an ammendment being passed at the state level, a challenge will made saying that we can't vote away individual rights.  Yet the right to bear arms is regularly squelched and it does exist in the Constitution. I encourage you to watch this administration with an eye to their behavior and attitudes.  Everything seems to be a crisis and legislation needs to be rushed through.  When they say it is for our sake, for the good of the people or the nation, beware!  The smoke screens are many as they mask what is going on.  They cannot afford to let the people see what is really in this legislation because the result would be outrage that would stall the agenda they are trying to push through.  In the meantime our rights and liberties will be eroded as they continue to change our society forever. Just as a point of interest, I encourage you to review the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto. 1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state. 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. 8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. 10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.

"So, is the U.S. a "free country" today?  Hardly!  Not compared to what it once was.  Yet, very few Americans today challenge these Marxist institutions, and there are virtually no politicians calling for their repeal or even gradual phase-out."

I encourage you to visit the site for more reading on each of these planks.  Some are seeming all too familiar while others are on the horizon, being strengthened as our legislators throw money at every issue thinking that they are somehow being creative while they are really making us subservient to world rule as a debtor nation.  The collapse of our monetary system will be the next "bubble" to burst and will provide the needed impetus to transfer what little wealth we have left to others in the world.  Those who say that president Obama doesn't have Marxist tendencies ignore his past and most likely have not read the Communist Manifesto.  Yet, without knowledge of what Marxism entails, they will vehemently deny that he is Marxist.  It is looked upon as a derogatory term rather than a definition of his ideology.