To coin a well-worn phase, "The definition of insanity is to do the same things over and over and expect different results". Anyone with an ounce of sense can apply that to the current state of affairs in Washington DC and the political climate in general.
Veterans are probably more in tune to the status quo in government affairs than the general public as we have been dealing with government bureaucracy since we made the decision to enter the military service. Not many bothered to read the fine print of their enlistment contract and didn't find out about "at the convenience of the government" (COG) clause until much later.
Termination for the convenience of the government, is a contractual right to terminate the contract in whole or in part due to requirements no longer existing for the products being procured, to a lack of funds, to advances in the state of the art rendering obsolete the product covered by the contract or for any other reason the contracting officer determines is in the best interest of the government (the product in this example is the soldier).
According to attorney Edwin James, well-versed in contract law, it should be noted that due to the complexity of products (yes, in military service, the enlistee is a "product") being developed and used, and to the very nature of government contracts, disagreements and disputes are bound to arise. A contractor should not be hesitant to appeal a contracting officer's decision which it believes to be unfair or unwarranted….Right. And we have seen how that has worked out for the many Veterans who have been denied claims for Agent Orange and other cases beyond the control of the Veterans which have resulted in what any reasonable human being would view as unfair or unwarranted.
Today Washington DC embodies everything that could exemplify the rationale "at the convenience of the government", much of which can be looked upon as the very tyranny the Founding Fathers warned about…
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
— Daniel Webster
At the heart of so much of the conflict for the last century in Washington and the politicians who seem to settle in like a case of gonorrhea after being elected, is the 10th amendment. The toxic power of the federal government today was never envisioned when our country was founded. The power grab, like a spreading plague, has been gradual and slowly creeping upon us like the BLOB (an early 1958 Steve McQueen cult movie about an alien life-form consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows). But to those who know and study the US Constitution the 10th Amendment seems fairly simple to understand. So WHY have we chosen to give up our sovereignty to the federal bureaucrats?
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.
Note: In both U.S. v. Sprague and U.S. v. Darby, the Supreme Court has ruled the 10th is a truism — that is that it really doesn't add power to either side of the state and federal coin, that it is merely declarative. Justice Harlan Stone, in delivering the unanimous opinion in Darby:
"The amendment states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered. There is nothing in the history of its adoption to suggest that it was more than declaratory of the relationship between the national and state governments as it had been established by the Constitution before the amendment or that its purpose was other than to allay fears that the new national government might seek to exercise powers not granted, and that the states might not be able to exercise fully their reserved powers."
So…for those of us who are not Constitutional scholars, someone please tell us how the federal government has managed to literally take over our lives, plunder our federal treasury, and bury our children and grand children into a $16 trillion debt (and growing to $22 trillion by 2016) they can never repay.
The power to govern the citizens of the US is granted to the federal government by the people…something most everyone who attended high school should know (even with 25% not bothering to graduate), yet a large majority of those coming through our school systems today believe our freedoms have been granted to us by the federal government, not God-given as so eloquently stated by our Founding Fathers.
Art. 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows…
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; (SAY WHAT??? What has happened here?)
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
The below figures are from Devvy Kidd, Columnist and American patriot; Administrative Officer for the Department of the Army, where she was responsible for contracts and budget management oversight in excess of $8,000,000.00; former Contract Administrator for the Department of Air Force, Air Force Space Command at Peterson AFB, Colorado (While at Peterson AFB, she filed a fraud, waste & abuse against her own job.) Devvy's husband John is a retired United States Army Colonel…all on the same team as us.
From Kidd's own writings…I can't find anywhere in Art. 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution whereby Congress is authorized to legislate the following:
Education (States being much closer to home would be far more efficient and effective).
The EPA (All states already have their own environmental protection agency. But, those of us who have done the research know the EPA derives much of its jurisdiction from international treaties. When the miscreants in the Outlaw Congress want to go around the U.S. Constitution, they do it through treaties. The EPA is there only to destroy capitalism and personal property rights
Federal Department of Labor (The General Government has no constitutional authority to dictate to private employers what they can and cannot pay their employees).
ALL foreign aid is unconstitutional because the thieves in Congress have never had the legal authority to steal from we the people to give to any country for any reason, period. "In fiscal 2008, the government spent a total of $11.427 billion in international assistance programs, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. In fiscal 2011, according to the statement, it spent $20.599 billion—an increase of $9.172 billion, or 80 percent, from 2008."
HHS –(Health and Human Services) is 100% unconstitutional. What that cabinet does falls under the Tenth Amendment: "Another not unimportant consideration is that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the state." Joseph Story, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
And probably most egregious use of our taxpayer money is what President Obama is shoving down our throats next. "Obama Budgets $307 Billion For the African Internet, etc. The “Alliance For An Affordable Internet” is a public-private partnership which intends to build a huge, expensive African Internet. Its headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, now dubbed “Africa’s Silicon Valley”." Every penny borrowed with the debt slapped on the backs of the US Taxpayer and every penny unconstitutional. These politicians have no shame when it comes to spending our money, so WHY do we keep reelecting them to drive us into insolvency?
As we ask ourselves "WHY" to so many of today's political questions let me close with a couple of real tidbits that ought to make you want to explode. It points to the stupidity of the people who the ill-informed voters continue to re-elect without any consideration as to their mental stability or capability.
- The Sequestration…does anyone understand what this is all about? Certainly 98% must not. The Sequestration was Obama's idea from the git-go in an effort to get Congress to agree to settle the last fiscal cliff. His own words were, "I will veto any attempt to stop the sequestration" after it was initiated in 2011. This week he tried to run as far away from those words as fast as he could, but he was caught in the headlights of superstar journalist Bob Woodward. WHY hasn't the press even questioned Obama's attempt to declare Sequestration as the fault of the Republicans when in fact it really is no big deal other than a first step to reigning in irresponsible government spending?
- In a Thursday press conference, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters warned of job losses totaling 170 million if the sequester goes through. Waters’ warning comes at a time when there are only an estimated between 135 and 143 million jobs in the United States.
- Added to Maxine Waters brilliance (courtesy of eblogger.com… Back in 2008, Waters was lecturing oil company executives at a congressional hearing when she plainly stated her true intentions: “Guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be about socializing … uh, umm. … Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies"…obviously never heard of the Postal service, Amtrak, Sociual Security, Medicare, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac!
- This is too good! Here's more… As a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, Waters played a key role in allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s reckless actions that led to the housing meltdown. Here is Waters, at a 2004 congressional hearing, (and yes, that is the same “Frank” Raines that vastly overstated Fannie Mae’s earnings in order to receive $90 million in bonuses). “We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines.”
- And from a 1993 interview with the Los Angeles Times: “Policy, for the most part, has been made by white people in America, not by people of color. And they have tended to take care of those things that they think are important. Whether it’s their agricultural subsidies, or other kinds of expenditures that are certainly not expenditures for poor people or for people of color. And so we have to band together and keep fighting back"…I guess people of color don't eat food. Ms Water's elevator obviously doesn't go to the top floor and if a bird had her brain it'd fly backwards!
- Another real political "rising star of brilliance" is Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson who (probably due to too many drugs in his youth and is a growing candidate for the Darwin Awards), told Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command during Congressional hearings: "My fear is that the whole island (Guam) will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize". Doubt me…see for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg.
WHY are we following these so-called LEADERS?
…And I cannot sign off without mentioning "sequestration" and what it really means. Let's say you have a job making $100,000 a year. You and your family have been living on that all year long. The boss says next year you will get a 10% raise and you go tell momma and everyone is happy. The boss comes back the next day and says…"Gee, I am sorry, we miscalculated the amount of the raise you were going to get and it is only going to be $7000 ($3000 short of what the original raise was going to be for all the math majors we have amongst us). That means next year you are only going to get $107,000 for the year. This is what sequestration is all about…a CUT IN THE AMOUNT OF THE ANTICIPATED RAISE. It's all a smoke screen which is what the government automatic base budgeting is all about….always an automatic increase.
Is your family going to starve this year because you are only going to get $107,000? Is your family financial plan in total upheaval? ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT OUT OF THE TRILLIONS IN GOVERNMENT SPENDING, $85 million cut in anticipated increases is going to cause Armageddon? By the way, that's about a 2.5¢ cut in every dollar being spent. Have you not had to make a heck of a lot more adjustments in your own business or home budget than that 2.5¢ in every dollar you spent these past years?
WHY do we believe these clowns?
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