Liberty Maven

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “I’ve come to expect that even nobly conceived laws will be manipulated and distorted for private ends. But once in a while I hear a story that gives me the queasy feeling that I’m nowhere near cynical enough.” — Christopher Hayes, The Nation

Prior to Congress deciding it could use tax policy to re-engineer America’s energy use from on-high, the paper industry had been 70% fueled by something called black liquor, a natural by-product of the paper making process. In other words, the paper industry was inherently energy efficient, until Congress got involved.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized a 50-cent per gallon tax credit for mixing gasoline or diesel with an alternative fuel. To get the credit, paper companies began to mix diesel with their black liquor. In other words . . .

• The government is paying the paper industry to use a less efficient, environmentally-destructive fuel!
• The cost of this scam could reach $8 billion this year. [Source: The Nation]

Congress could mess up a train wreck.

At first glance, this appears to be an example of “unintended consequences,” but this assumes we really know what Congress intended . . .

• The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was 1,273 pages.
• The House passed the bill just one day after it was filed.
• The Senate passed it one day after that.

It’s impossible to believe that any member of Congress had the chance to read and completely understand the bill. This means that those who voted for it didn’t really know what the intention was. Someone could have wanted the paper industry to have a hidden subsidy. But if the Read the Bills Act had been in force, the Energy Policy Act would have been . . .

Read More »

Wow, this one is a doozy!  A ton of new bills were introduced in Congress on Friday: 188 in total.  For those who haven’t read this series of articles from the beginning, there are a few things to keep in mind…

When taking a look at the list below, keep in mind that the U.S. Constitution, which created our Federal Government, clearly enumerated 18 specific functions that it is given.  For all other things, the 9th and 10th amendment make it clear that the individual states have the power.  Note that it states in the Constitution that it is the Supreme Law of the Land, which can be usurped by no other.  This means that all opinions to the contrary made by the Supreme Court are technically invalid.  Throughout the past couple of hundred hears the Supreme Court has rule one way or another on some “interpretation” of the Constitution, but in fact no interpretation is necessary, as the intention of the founding fathers are quite clear.  For example, if the “general welfare” clause or the “interstate commerce” clause was intended to be used as a catch-all for any arbitrary piece of legislation, then the 10th amendments which reads:

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.

would be completely meaningless.  So simple logic, in addition to the writings of Madison and other founding fathers, dictates the notion that the Federal Government was set up to have very little power, and that these United States are intended to be a loose federation of sovereign states.

Only due to politician’s greed and overwhelming desire for power does the Constitution get relegated to the trash heap.

So, despite the  noble intentions of many of these bills, it doesn’t mean they are legal.

No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.
– 16 Am. Jur. Sec. 177 late 2d, Sec 256

Of the bills introduced yesterday, these are ones that are clearly not legitimate functions of the Federal Government  [as always, my commentary will appear in red]:

• HR1892 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 102 North Main Street in Cedarville, Ohio, as the “William ‘Brent” Turner Post Office’.
• HR1929 – To establish the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Investigative Commission to investigate the policies and practices engaged in by officers and directors at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac responsible for making the decisions that led to the enterprises’ financial instability and the subsequent Federal conservatorship of such enterprises.  [Keep in mind that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been basically nationalized, which is, of course, unconstitutional.]
• HR1925 – To designate as wilderness certain Federal portions of the red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin Deserts in Utah for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.
• HR1924 – To amend the Indian Law Enforcement Reform Act, the Indian Tribal Justice Act, the Indian Tribal Justice Technical and Legal Assistance Act of 2000, and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to improve the prosecution of, and response to, crimes in Indian country, and for other purposes.
• HR1922 – To require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold at least 1 public hearing before issuance of a permit affecting public or private land use in a locality.
• HR1921 – To establish an Office of Public Advocate within the Department of Justice to provide services and guidance to citizens in dealing with concerns involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and for other purposes. [Fantastic!  Create another layer of bureaucracy to help people deal with bureaucracy...]
• HR1978 – To authorize the Attorney General to make grants to improve the ability of State and local governments to prevent the abduction of children by family members, and for other purposes.
• HR1977 – To require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to study drywall imported from China in 2004 through 2007, and for other purposes.
• HR332 – Providing that the House of Representatives will focus on removing barriers to a prosperous economy and therefore renew the dream.  [Reading the full text of the bill it all sounds nice, but it's really nothing more than platitudes.  Nothing will come of this.  It's not recommending anything concrete.]
• HR1971 – To provide for the elimination of duties on certain comforter shells
• HR1970 – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to exempt unsanctioned State-licensed retail pharmacies from the surety bond requirement under the Medicare Program for suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS).
• HR1969 – To promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam.  [Oh god. Oh god, no! Haven't we gotten ourselves into enough jams with this interventionist crap?]

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Yesterday in Congress, fifty-one new bills were introduced.  Due to recent controversy, and for those who start reading this series of articles in the middle, I will include the following boilerplate information in every article.

When taking a look at the list below, keep in mind that the U.S. Constitution, which created our Federal Government, clearly enumerated 18 specific functions that it is given.  For all other things, the 9th and 10th amendment make it clear that the individual states have the power.  Note that it states in the Constitution that it is the Supreme Law of the Land, which can be usurped by no other.  This means that all opinions to the contrary made by the Supreme Court are technically invalid.  Throughout the past couple of hundred hears the Supreme Court has rule one way or another on some “interpretation” of the Constitution, but in fact no interpretation is necessary, as the intention of the founding fathers are quite clear.  For example, if the “general welfare” clause or the “interstate commerce” clause was intended to be used as a catch-all for any arbitrary piece of legislation, then the 10th amendments which reads:

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.

would be completely meaningless.  So simple logic, in addition to the writings of Madison and other founding fathers, dictates the notion that the Federal Government was set up to have very little power, and that these United States are intended to be a loose federation of sovereign states.

Only due to politician’s greed and overwhelming desire for power does the Constitution get relegated to the trash heap.

So, despite the  noble intentions of many of these bills, it doesn’t mean they are legal.

Of the bills introduced yesterday, these are ones that are clearly not legitimate functions of the Federal Government  [as always, my commentary will appear in red]:

• HCR89 – Supporting the goals and objectives of the Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets.
• HCR86 – Authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for the unveiling of a bust of Sojourner Truth.
• HCR87 – Observing the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and calling on all responsible nations to uphold the principles of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
• HR298 – Congratulating the on-premise sign industry for its contributions to the success of small businesses.
• HR299 – Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that public servants should be commended for their dedication and continued service to the Nation during Public Service Recognition Week, May 4 through 10, 2009, and throughout the year.
• HR300 – Congratulating Camp Dudley YMCA of Westport, New York, on the occasion of its 125th anniversary.
• HR301 – Honoring the life of Dr.John Hope Franklin

Read More »

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “The only things that are immortal in this world are government programs and cancer cells in petri dishes.” — Jim Babka, President, DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Future historians may someday come to identify one day this week as a day of ruin. Here’s why . . .

Congress will pass a budget this week. We believe this budget will create a condition of permanent annual TRILLION dollar deficits. Please follow our logic . . .

* Government programs never die. They live forever, growing constantly larger.
* The Obama-Democrat budget contains a host of new programs covering all aspects of YOUR life — health care, energy, education, housing, charity, EVERYTHING.
* These programs won’t die, instead they’ll just grow larger.
* We think the same thing will hold true even for many of the bailout programs that are supposedly temporary, because very few government programs are ever really temporary.
* Therefore, the trillion dollar deficits these new initiatives are causing today will also live and grow forever.

In the short-term this will cost your family a minimum of $27,800 per year, or $9,200 per person.

In the not-so-short term these trillion dollar annual deficits will crash head-on into the un-funded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare which have risen to $56.4 trillion dollars, your share of which is a whopping $184,000!

And none of these statistics include the associated increases in top-down, one-size-fits-all government regulation. For instance, plans are already well advanced to turn the American health care system into a giant HMO, with federal bureaucrats deciding what medical treatments you can and cannot receive.

We must repeat, once these new programs are launched they’re unlikely to ever shrink again, let alone die. Government programs really are like cancer cells in a petri dish, which live unless the scientist in charge of them forgets to feed them. Something similar may happen in the case of our cancerous government . . .

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The debauchery on Capitol Hill continues unabated, with an amazing ninety-three new bills introduced yesterday in Congress, many of which attempt to do the same thing.  How many of these bills do you think are Constitutional?  (Answer: very few).  Here are some of the worst:

• HR1652 – To require institutions receiving certain assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program or the Federal Reserve to have employee bonus payment plans approved in advance of the payments being made.  [Each member of Congress must operate in a bubble, and/or they're all hoping for the "credit" if their bill is passed.  This is at least the fifth bill on this subject in the past three days!]
• HR1656 – To require TARP payments to be conditioned on the top 10 highest wage earners at a company having repaid any bonuses received during the previous 5 fiscal years.  [Six!  Ok, let's review.  We have HR1542 by Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D-NY], HR1572 by Rep. Michael Thompson [D-CA],  HR1582 by Rep. Steven LaTourette [R-OH], HR1603 by Rep. Charles Wilson [D-OH], HR1652 by Rep. Christopher Murphy [D-CT], and now this one from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA].  Are these people working in a vacuum?  Could the process be any more inefficient?]
• HR1650 – To enhance the oversight authority of the Comptroller General of the United States with respect to expenditures under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.  [Yet another TARP regulation bill.  The full text of the bill is not currently available, so I couldn't tell if it specifically mentions employee bonuses so I could add it to the list above.  Why don't these people just come out and admit that this TARP garbage is immoral an unconstitutional in the first place?]
• S-651 – A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose an excise tax on excessive bonuses paid by, and received from, companies receiving Federal emergency economic assistance, to limit the amount of nonqualified deferred compensation that employees of such companies may defer from taxation, and for other purposes.  [Number 7, by Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT]…]
• HR1649 – To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants to reduce the size of core curriculum classes in public elementary and secondary schools, and for other purposes.
• HR1645 (also S-638) – To provide grants to promote financial and economic literacy.  [While I think it's critical that people become more financially and economically literate, government should certainly not be the teacher, or else we'll end up with more Keynesian nitwits that have destroyed our economy to date.  Rather, people can take Chris Martenson's Crash Course for free, and read books like Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson and Tom Woods' Meltdown.]
• HR1643 (also S-648) – To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a prospective payment system instead of the reasonable cost-based reimbursement method for Medicare-covered services provided by Federally qualified health centers and to expand the scope of such covered services to account for expansions in the scope of services provided by Federally qualified health centers since the inclusion of such services for coverage under the Medicare Program.
• HR1642 – To provide loans and grants for fire sprinkler retrofitting in nursing facilities.
• HR1641 – To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a study of the Cascadia Marine Trail.
• HR1640 – To amend the Truth in Lending Act to protect consumers from usury, and for other purposes.  [Caveat emptor.  The process of buying a home would be much quicker and hassle-free if not for the myriad of regulations and bureaucratic red-tape imposed by the federal, state, and local governments.]

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In our continuing series detailing some of the bills being introduced into Congress on a daily basis, we have forty-four more bills introduced on March 4th, 2009.  Here are some of the more egregiously unconstitutional ones:

• HR209 – Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Daughters of Penelope, a preeminent international women’s association and affiliate organization of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA).
• HR206 – Honoring the efforts and contributions of the Montgomery, Alabama, Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction.
• HR1296 – To achieve access to comprehensive primary health care services for all Americans and to reform the organization of primary care delivery through an expansion of the Community Health Center and National Health Service Corps programs.
• HR1295 – To mitigate mortgage foreclosures, facilitate and include fairness in housing recovery, and combat mortgage fraud, and for other purposes.
• HR210 – Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that providing breakfast in schools through the National School Breakfast Program has a positive impact on classroom performance.
• HR1316 – To provide for appropriate notification of communities and homeowners of establishment of flood elevations for purposes of the National Flood Insurance Program.
• HR1297 – To establish the Hawai’i Capital National Heritage Area, and for other purposes.
• HR1253 – To require that limitations and restrictions on coverage under group health plans be timely disclosed to group health plan sponsors and timely communicated to participants and beneficiaries under such plans in a form that is easily understandable.
• HR1259 – To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the distribution of the drug dextromethorphan, and for other purposes.
• S-525 – A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the importation of prescription drugs, and for other purposes.

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D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — from “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.

President Obama gave a speech Tuesday night. He asked the American people to believe many impossible things at once. He claims he’s going to . . .

* Continue to intervene in the economy and bailout irresponsible companies and individuals
* Revolutionize health care
* Transform energy and the environment
* And cut government spending too

It was an “Alice in Wonderland” performance. His speech, to once again guote from “Alice,” demonstrated a complete mastery of “The different branches of Arithmetic — Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”

It’s hard to decide which, of all his many impossible ambitions, is the most frightening. However, since we can only fight one impossible thing at a time, we choose this one . . .

President Obama called for “cap and trade” legislation to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

“Cap and trade” would . . .

* Cap CO2 emissions
* Sell CO2 emission permits to businesses in amounts equal to the cap
* Allow companies to trade and/or sell these permits to allegedly create a market for innovations that would reduce CO2 emissions
* Use the proceeds from the permit sales to create a vast new research bureaucracy to help corporations cope with the cap

As a practical matter, “cap and trade” will . . .

* Raise your electricity and gasoline bills
* Provide politicians with new tools to control the economy, hand out favors, and punish enemies
* Be as ineffective in doing “research” as the Energy Department has been
* Probably (if the example of Europe is a reliable guide) have little impact on over-all CO2 emissions

Even if you accept that human CO2 emissions are causing problematic global warming, a government run “cap and trade” system isn’t the best way to deal with this problem. Here are some points to consider . . . Read More »

The veneer on the Barackcuda’s real agenda has worn thin even before he takes office.

by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published January 13, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article5792.html
Previously on this site I have avoided articles centered on religion, Israel-Palestine, and global warming even though I have very strong views on these three “taboo” topics.  This column started off as antiwar and will remain focused on monetary policy for reasons I explain in the Money Matrix series, but recently I have felt like writing about the Gaza situation and now about Global Warming theory. C’est la vie!

Part 1 is on the Browner selection, Part 2 is on climate change theory.

President-Elect Barack Obama has named Carol Browner as Global Warming Czar. I confess I have no idea why naming unelected individuals to a made-up, unconstitutional office post and then giving them the nickname of an aristocratic Russian emperor is such a beloved tradition with US presidents – drug czars, poverty czars, terror czars – the American people have seen them all and quite frankly they all have not done much. Obama has really shown us his true colors by, among many other “stellar” picks, retaining Bush’s Secretary of War Robert Gates, making former Israeli Defense Force mechanic and Civilian National Enslavement proponent Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff, and a lifetime bureaucrat, the 70-year-old Leon Panetta as CIA Director who has zero CIA experience unless he was undercover in the House of Representatives for the 16 years and for 4 years as Clinton’s Chief of Staff, in which case he sure fooled us!  Now we have outright socialist czarettes placed into power!

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Once again, the seemingly tough questions and their very obvious answers are poised right in front of us.  Take, for instance, the question of the day:

Call it an economic and environmental murder mystery in the making: Will a cash-strapped Detroit kill the electric car -- again?

Detroit hasn’t been able to compete with the Japanese or even the Koreans for quite some time. Those nations are building better vehicles for a lower price to the consumer and “they have done it with lower wages, health-care benefits and retirement plans.”

The U.S. companies say they need $25 billion in taxpayer money to help convert to building smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Many are afraid that if Detroit does not somehow obtain it’s $25 Billion from the taxpayers that consumers won’t get vehicles they need, such as the Chevy Volt.  Well, who needs the Chevy Volt, and who needs Detroit?

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When I heard William “BJ” Lawson speak for the first time in person I said to myself, “This is the Ron Paul Republican who can win”. Then I checked out his opponent David Price and immediately thought, “I know Lawson can win.” At first glance, the problem is the heavily Democratic North Carolina district he is in, but if you dig a bit deeper, Lawson is the perfect candidate for a district of this kind. He is not your normal present day Republican. Lawson has the ability to attract those on all sides of the political spectrum much like Ron Paul did during his own campaign.

Below you will discover the Liberty Maven rankings for BJ Lawson on the Paul-O-Meter, where candidates and current lawmakers can be rated on how closely they are in line with Dr. Ron Paul on the issues. To learn about the Paul-O-Meter methodology please see this article. You may also assign your own rankings or request a candidate be added to the system.

Continue reading to see if BJ Lawson truly deserves the moniker “Ron Paul Jr.”

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