Okay, I admit it.  I was born in Kansas!

However, when I say Jayhawkers are against the Obama stimulus package, I am not just referring to myself.  If you’re really not that familiar with Kansas and its politics; here’s some “cliffsnotes” on the topic.  First, lets identify what the hec a “Jayhawker” is.   By the way, the mythical image to the left is a Jayhawk.  As an aftermath of the Civil War, a Jayhawker came to be known as any native Kansan.  During the Civil War, the label was quite different.  

Jayhawkers is a term that originally applied to guerrilla fighters during the American Civil War in Kansas who often clashed with pro-slavery partisans, as well as Missouri militia units. The name was also used by or applied to some Kansas regular troops.1

So, when I say Jayhawkers are against Obama’s massive spending spree, I referring to many native Kansans and both of the State’s United States Senators, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts.  I am a dual citizen (Canadian and U.S.) and a native Kansan.  Arguably, my last legal residence in the United States was in my home state, Kansas.  Therefore, I keep track of how the elected officials that represent Kansans vote in the U.S. Congress.  Moreover, these elected officials here from me by email and of course I am on their general outbound email list.   This post contains Senator Brownback’s open letter to his constituents concerning his vote against the Obama political bologna. Also included below are links to his audio statement along with the audio statement of Senator Roberts.  As I write this post, it is the night before Obama releases to the public his official budget wherein he has included yet another bailout spending program for home “borrowers” (note I did not say home “owners”) which will be in excess of what the United States Government spent going to the moon.  So, you can certainly say with complete accuracy that Obama has decided to “shoot the moon.”   The original settlers of Kansas and their children; and their children’s children have got to be rolling over in their graves—”what a disgusting position the United States people have put themselves in.”

All of you Kansans; make hay!  

Do you remember on the campaign trail how Obama used to love to talk about his “mother” being from Kansas?  You know, that sort of intentional but implicit condescending imagery that because his “mama” was simple folk from Kansas, he himself could be trusted.  Even Kansas voters fell for that garbage.  Shame on you Kansas!  Well, in any event, all of you Kansas folk had better make hay while the opportunity lasts.  Get yours (government handouts) while you can–but just hope your Kansas ancestors can’t see you now.  During the Great Depression, no people in the United States represented the sacrifice and suffering more so than the rural farmers of Kansas that stuck it out, worked hard, and never looked for a government handout!  I can say that because my ancestors were a part of that group of people that made it through hard times on their own without expecting the government to bail them out.  Shame on you Kansas for being one of the states that went Blue For Obama.   To hear Senator Pat Robert’s statement on the floor of the Senate, click here.

Senator Sam Brownback’s Statement. 

We wanted to take a moment to write to you to tell you about the events that unfolded in Washington late last week regarding the Democrat’s stimulus package. Senator Brownback voted against Senate passage of the stimulus package. You can hear audio of Brownback’s Senate floor statement regarding the stimulus bill by clicking here or by visiting the web site. This is what Brownback had to say about the bill: “I voted against the stimulus bill because a huge increase in government spending is not the answer our economy needs. There are some good provisions in this bill, but not nearly enough to outweigh the overwhelming bad. This stimulus package threatens to be the beginning of our next bubble – a big-government bubble, where we try to use debt and leverage to spend our way into prosperity. We are considering an amount of spending that, even when adjusted for inflation, far outstrips the New Deal, the Louisiana Purchase, the Marshal Plan or the Moon Race.”                     The stimulus package, passed by both the House and Senate, has a $787 billion price tag. It is the single biggest increase in the deficit in American history. The bill increased the debt limit to an all-time high of $12 trillion, and represents 5.5% of the GDP.    

The hastily constructed bill being labeled as stimulus is not a good plan to help our economy weather the recession. It is a highly leveraged, speculative bet on larger government and massive long-term spending as a cure for our economic troubles. This is the largest spending bill ever and it’s been done in the most rushed fashion I’ve ever seen. In conference, the bad parts of the bill got bigger and the good parts got smaller.

In the history of the Republic, the largest stimulus package we’ve had was 1.5% of GDP; this bill is over 5.5% of GDP, although most of this bill isn’t stimulus, it’s simply big-government spending. There is only $76 billion in actual stimulative tax cuts in this bill, out of $787 billion; less than 10% of this bill offers true stimulative tax cuts. With this spending plan we are using a speculative bet on government, using our children’s future as leverage.

Senator Brownback is very kind when he says the spending plan is a speculative bet on government using “our children’s” future as leverage.  I believe Obama is spinning our children and grandchildren’s financial future on a roulette wheel!  What say you?

 

Two of my three sons are Jayhawkers (today, I’m not sure if they will admit it).  Today, the only thing I am proud of about being from Kansas is that the two United States Senators from the State of Kansas had the guts to stand up and vote against the insanity despite the fact that there was plenty of pork in the barrel for Kansas as well.  Go on you both!  I used to think that I would probably have been better off financially if I had remained in the U.S. as opposed to having moved to Canada for personal family reasons.  Today, I am convinced without doubt that I am better off financially living in Canada.  God bless Senator Sam Brownback, Senator Pat Roberts, Canada, and may God bless Ron Paul as well.  

 

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas

Stillborn from the Beginning


A truly free market works precisely because it relies on the self-serving desires of most people acting as a manifold of countervailing forces against all the other self-serving desires in the system. Everyone acting in his own self-interest with a baseline of standards (no theft, no fraud, etc.) ensures that the average wealth per capita is raised. That is, while self-centeredness is ignoble, it is the reality of the human condition, and any economic system which pretends that this can be changed outwardly in, i.e., by external forces (read: government) pressing an ideal onto human lives, only works to create and increase misery, because it is based on fantasy. Communism and its attenuated form, socialism, are noble ideals but are fatally flawed for three major reasons.

First Reason: Perversion of Incentive


Communism and socialism do not just hope for, but rely on the good of mankind in aggregate to work. In fact, apropos to a previous discussion, all political purveyors of socialism/communism are selling hope and the value received is far less than the value paid out by the buyer. Believing in the current goodness of mankind, or rather in the goodness of every individual such as to expect that he will act in the best interest of others is rank madness. Socialism wrecks the ability for people to appropriately measure value for themselves by robbing them of incentive. When the fruits of labor are taken from a person in order to redistribute them in aggregate to everyone else, including him, he resents the theft of his labor but also comes to reliance upon the redistribution.

Jamestown and Plymouth

In Thomas J. DiLorenzo’s book, How Capitalism Saved America, he recounts the story of two early colonies in America, Jamestown and Plymouth. In both, the settlers. . .

Click here to read the entire article.                 Attention: Teachers.  Education Questions posted soon.

Air Force One cost more than $56,000 per hour to operate.

According to Geobytes.com, it is 110 miles from Washington D.C. to Williamsburg, Va.  Thursday, February 5th, Obama traveled to the Democratic House of Representatives weekend spa retreat being enjoyed at Williamsburg, Virginia.  By the way, taxpayers are footing at least part of the cost of this “working get-a-way.”  Tough times, eh?  Obama decided to go there to make a politicial campaign hooray over the spendulus package that he is trying to coerce the American people to accept.  I was watching Fox News channel at the very moment the program was interrupted for Obama’s unannounced speech at Williamsburg.  Here comes Obama on stage as if he’s out on the stump.  I have to admit, I am not really impressed with the President of the United States trying to act “cool” on television.  There’s just something not quite right with the President regularly using slang.  “What’s going on democrats?”   In any event, not long after Obama was on the stage, he said to the audience, “Thank you for giving me an excuse to use Air Force One.”  His words, not mine!  I was immediately stunned.  I didn’t know how far Williamsburg, VA was from Washington DC but I knew it wasn’t far and was most likely a fairly short drive.  After the speech, I immediately hit Google to obtain the distance.  I thought to myself, ‘why would he use Air Force One to travel such a short distance?’  Moreover, why would he say he did so on national television?  Not smart in either instance.  I would guess that most Americans have no idea what it cost per hour to fly a jet aircraft, much less know the cost of operating Air Force One with all of its attendant costs other than just fuel.  We all know how most politicians think with respect to the intelligence quotient of the American people, or lack thereof.  Obama was quite proud that he had the “excuse” to use the aircraft and was puffed up about it.  Hey, Obama!  What’s wrong with Marine One (the helicopter) that other President’s use to travel between the White House and Camp David, Maryland? 

According to reliable research in 2006 by the House of Representatives, it cost more than $56,000 per hour to operate Air Force One.  Probably costs a little more today than in 2006 but who’s counting penny’s right?   Now, we don’t actually know what it costs to operate Air Force One per air mile, but we can do some basic math.   So, I’m thinking that a round trip of approximately 220 miles probably cost U.S. taxpayers at least $25,000 t0 $30,000 for Obama to make that trip.  Do you care?  

How Much College Tuition Could Be Paid For?

Obama’s campaign speeches included much about helping every young American that wanted to attend college to be able to go to college.  Of course, what that meant was that Obama was promising to spend taxpayer money to pay for college educations in part, if not entirely.  Now in these troubling times, times in which Obama refers to as the worst financial crisis in American history, don’t we have a right to expect Obama, the alleged proponent for “change”, to act responsibly and not waste taxpayer’s dollars?  Do you remember Obama promising that he was going to pay for his programs by going through the U.S. Government Budget “line by line” to cut wasteful spending?  Do you remember that?  I do.  I am shocked that Obama spent a wasteful amount of money going to Williamsburg in the first place, much less by using the most expensive form and manner of travel that is available to him.  For every single hour that Air Force One operates, your government could have paid for the annual tuition in 2004 for an in-state resident of Wyoming for 24 years!  Okay, how about this; 24 students in Wyoming for one year!  Okay, I understand that Obama is not from Wyoming.  Let’s look at the average annual tuition cost for an in-state student in Illinois.  An hour of flight time on Air Force One would pay for the annual tuition for more than eight Illinois students in 2004.  So, if you’re Mr. Obama faced with the opportunity to take your first flight on Air Force One or send several kids in Illinois to college for a year, which do you choose.  If you following Obama on Twitter, you probably would have received advance notice of his decision.  Obviously, Obama felt that the need to do a hooray to the American people on television under the guise of speaking to the House democrats was far more important than sending kids to college.  So much for change you can believe in.  I say, it’s business as usual with the same old Chicago style politics.  Obama could have really impressed me and a bunch of other people if he had simply ridden in his limo.  I’m sure he could have accomplished just as much work from the back seat of his limo as he accomplished while sitting in Air Force One.   

Don’t get the wrong message here.  I do think the President should go ahead and use Air Force One; I just don’t think Obama should have used Air Force One to travel to the House Democrats weekend spa retreat much less use so much badly need tax payer dollars to fly 110 miles.  The most disturbing thing to me was that while appearing on national television he touts the fact as if it was being cool.  Not cool Mr. Obama.  What do you think?  Am I way off base here?  Leave your comments, Diggs and stuff here.

This is post number 2 of a series of articles on the President Obama’s use of Executive Orders to govern His royal subjects.

I want to go on the record today by stating that neither political party is innocent and each session of Congress since the early Thirties is guilty of a shameful abrogation of their duties and responsibilities as representatives of the people. No less shameful is the fact that the American citizens continue to abase themselves by allowing their elected representatives to cower from their duties in favor of simply allowing the President to abuse and mock the Constitution.

In my lifetime, I have witnessed countless individuals gripe, bitch, moan, groan and complain about the government’s inaction and/or action without their expressing opinions and wishes to their elected officials. I would be less than honest if I did not also admit that for much of my life I have been one of those individuals. Nonetheless, as I grow older and watch this continuous eroding of liberties and the continuous self-serving cowardice of Congress, I find myself finally motivated to take action. The least action that each American owes to himself, and his or her children, is to express their opinion on issues to their respective Representatives and Senators. Moreover, each of us have a serious duty to hold these people accountable–yet we do not.  There is no excuse particularly in light of the birth of the internet and how simple and easy it is to communicate with one’s representatives in Congress. For the sake of freedom and liberty, send an email dammit!

In my first post on this topic, (Executive Orders Suck) I identified the argument that is often used by the self-proclaimed experts (usually Presidents include themselves in this group) to attempt to justify the use of Executive Orders on most any issue that the President feels a compulsion to act.  Therein, I stated:

The folks that justify the use of Executive Orders argue that under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which states that “. . .he (the President) shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, . . ., therefore the President can issue Executive Orders.

The New Use of Executive “Memoranda”

Executive Memoranda historically have been used to provide directives to members of the Executive Branch of government. Historically, these Memorandums are less prestigious than Executive Orders. Obama has recently used an Executive Memorandum to Secretary of State Clinton to govern his citizens without issuing the directive as an Executive Order. I have been curious why Obama did not use his alleged Executive Order power but chose to place his directive in this form. It appears that Executive Memorandums are not required to be published in the Federal Register unlike Executive Orders. This may have been a substantive factor in his decision.

Nonetheless, Obama used his quasi King like power in the form of a Memorandum to Secretary Clinton to reauthorize the use of tax payer funds to support overseas family planning initiatives that promote abortion! This form of enacting law is disguised in the title of the Memorandum; Mexico City Policy and Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning. The Memo was published on Friday afternoon, January 23, 2009 to draw less attention than if it had been issued earlier in the week.

Regardless of your position on the abortion issue, which is not the subject of this post, the fact that we are being governed by Executive Order rather than through a representative government of the people, and by the people is clearly evident.1

The phrase Mexico City Policy refers to an Executive Order issued by President Reagan in 1984 wherein Reagan expanded the application of the The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 to withhold U.S. foreign aid to organizations that used its resources to:

to engage in a wide range of activities, including providing advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available.2

Prior to Reagan’s order, the Act itself barred recipients of U.S. foreign aid to use such aid . . . “to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”

So, as a brief summary, Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act which included a prohibition against any voluntary person or agency receiving funds to financially support abortion. In 1984, Reagan issued an Executive Order expanding the prohibition to include any person, agency or organization that used any funds to support or pay for abortions. In 1993, this issue became a political football when Clinton rescinded Reagan’s Executive Order. In 2001, President Bush reinstated the policy. Now, Obama has ostensibly rescinded the policy again–by using an Executive Memorandum–not by a published Executive Order.

Must we conclude that in 1984, Congress did not have a problem with Reagan’s expansion of the application of the Act that it had passed in 1961? The question that comes to mind: What did the American people think or want. We must then also conclude that when Clinton took office and he rescinded the Reagan policy, Congress did not have a problem with that either. What did the American people think or want–who knows? In 2001, when President Bush took office and rescinded the rescission, we must conclude that Congress could not have cared less. What did Americans think or want? Now that Obama has, or is attempting to, rescind the rescinded rescission, we have no idea of whether Congress has taken official notice of Obama’s action because there is no notice in the Federal Register.  Must we assume that Secretary Clinton sent a copy of the memo to each member of Congress? What do American citizens think or want. Who knows, and who cares? After all America, it’s your money.  Just send your hard earned money to Washington; let them do whatever they want with it and stop griping, moaning, and complaining about it.

For those few of you that actually care and would like to know more about the abuse of your liberties by proclamation and executive orders, see a well written article by Henry Mark Holzer a Brooklyn Law School Professor, How Americans Lost Their Right To Own Gold And Became Criminals in the Process.

Furthermore, for those few of you that will make a decision to at least tell their representatives how they feel about the issue of Executive Orders and any other important issue concerning their Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, click on the following link to send your Congressional Representatives an email. Thank you in advance for caring, and thank you for posting your comments.

Attention: Teachers and home-school parents.  Here’s a link for Questions that can be used in an educational curriculum.

1. See: The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln.
2. See House Congressional Record, May 23, 1995.