Happy Fourth of July! From the ushistory.org website: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. New Hampshire: Massachusetts: Rhode Island: Connecticut: New York: New Jersey: Pennsylvania: Delaware: Maryland: Virginia: North Carolina: South Carolina: Georgia:
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Friday, July 03, 2009
The Declaration
Thursday, July 02, 2009
The Washington Post Can be Bought;
They just got into trouble because the marketing pitch was a little too truthful, offering “access to reporters, Obama Administration officials, etc. for cash, preferably in small, unmarked bills:
“ Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive 'salon' at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.
The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."
But now that the news is out, the “salon” has been canceled. Weymouth, however, makes it clear that selling access will continue as part of the Post's attempt to build a revenue stream, though with a bit more discreet marketing strategy:
“ She made it clear however, that The Post, which lost $19.5 million in the first quarter, sees bringing together Washington figures as a future revenue source. 'We do believe that there is a viable way to expand our expertise into live conferences and events that simply enhances what we do - cover Washington for Washingtonians and those interested in Washington,' she said. ' And we will begin to do live events in ways that enhance our reputation and in no way call into question our integrity.'”
The translates as nothing is really going to change, we just hope that we don't get caught again.
For this scheme to work, the Obama Administration officials have to “know” that they are going to get good coverage. If they get burnt at one of these sessions, they no longer show up, and the Post's revenue stream dries up. This is a built in incentive for the Post to skew coverage the Administration's way. Not that they really needed much encouragement.
Since the Post seems bent on demonstrating that they have no integrity, there's no real need to question it is there?
Update (03 July09): Perhaps published a bit too soon, since the Post is reporting that, unsurprisingly, the audience at Obama's healthcare town hall meeting were mostly plants:
“ In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for "tweets."
The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.”
On the other hand, maybe Shear and Vargas just didn't get the memo in time.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
TARP, Stimulus, Healthcare, Cap-n-Trade, and the Culture of Corruption
A small vignette on why extensive government involvement in business never works out as planned: the interests of the country rarely outweigh the individual interests of the governing class.
Take Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI). Just like every other government official, he's busy gaming the system to benefit himself, in this case by bullying the Treasury into bailing out a bank where he was an investor.
“ Inouye reported ownership of Central Pacific shares worth $350,000 to $700,000, some held by his wife, at the end of 2007. The shares represented at least two-thirds of Inouye's total reported assets. Inouye has requested a delay in filing his annual financial disclosure for 2008, which was due this spring, and he declined to provide the current value of his investment. Since the end of 2007, the bank's stock has lost 79 percent of its value.
Central Pacific was founded in 1954 by a group of World War II veterans including Inouye who were emerging leaders in Hawaii's Japanese American community.”
So he's not just another investor, but someone who helped to found the bank.
I'm sure that it's just a coincidence that the regulators changed their minds about this bank after receiving a phone call from the Senator's office. Natch, he's also busy claiming that he didn't do anything illegal. It's a variant on the Jimmy Dimora defense – “I'd didn't do anything that any other Senator wouldn't do”. This only illustrates the larger problem.
With the government controlling more and more of the economy, investment in lobbying is probably has the highest rate of return for most businesses.
Large and small – from the Inouye getting a personal bailout, to Chris Dodd's sweetheart mortgage deals, to Charlie Rangel's Caribbean Condo Adventures, to just about every Obama appointee's failure to pay taxes, to the AIG mess, we're going to see lots more of this sort of thing.
Fortuntately, there's still an opportunity for the small businessman – county officials are a significant bargain compared to congressmen.
Jimmy Dimora Goes on Offense
In a classic move, he's claiming to be a victim of a frame up orchestrated by the Cuyahoga County GOP (yes, I know, all three of them), and the Department of Justice. But hey, if Kevin Johnson can get the Americorps Inspector General fired, this tactic is worth a shot.
And there's anti-Italian prejudice as well, just to make a point (emphasis mine):
“ Dimora blasted the Cuyahoga County Republican Party, its chairman Rob Frost, its former chairman Jim Trakas and the Cleveland Plain Dealer for what he alleges is unfair treatment and, among other things, attacks on Italian Americans.
He maintains his own innocence and says he will not resign as county commissioner. Dimora says he has done nothing wrong or anything different than other elected officials.”
Jimmy, I think that's what's got all of us concerned.
Update& Bump: The Plain Dealer has a story on the Dimora presser here. Lots of good comments. Two of the best:
ExAngeleno:
“If you're gonna paint yourself as a victim, you're gonna need a lot more paint...just sayin'.”
Dave5000:
“Dear Jimmy:
Fat, stupid and delusional is no way to go through life, son.
Sincerely,
Dean Wormer”
Ouch.
Update II: Kevin Holtsberry takes up flogging Dimora as well:
“Who knew the Feds were after over-weight Italians?”
Given the rise of the lifestyle police as the government takes over healthcare, this may not be as far fetched as it seems.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Horror of Horrors!
Obama is issuing signing statements.
For those of you hopium smokers out there, there's little difference between Obama and Bush when it comes to protecting the prerogatives of the Presidency.
Put that in your hopium pipe.
Moving the Goalposts
Even ABC’s Rick Klein has noticed that the Obama kidz have moved on to the “ switch” part of the “ bait-n-switch” of the stimulus bill.
The bill was passed as an emergency, with just about no one having any understanding of all of the details. It was supposed come with incredible transparency and accountability, and “ create or save” millions of jobs.
Even the weasel measure of “create or save”* hasn’t been good enough to cover up the ineptitude of this administration.
And we haven’t even gotten to the inevitable fraud and corruption that this is going to cause. Even Biden now admits that billions are going to be wasted.
Of course, the whole fraud thing is harder to root out, once you start firing the Inspectors General for investigating you politically connected supporters’ misuse of funds.
The TARP bill, passed under similar circumstances, is also notably laden with problems, from the AIG bonuses, to payments to distillers, to channeling money to GE.
Look for even more with the Obama / Pelosi / Waxman cap-n-tax bill.
So much for transparency, accountability, and openness. In Obama’s Bailoutistan, everything’s an emergency, there’s no time to even completely assemble the bills before congressional votes, and you can’t get taxpayer money to your cronies fast enough. .
* As long as there are 3 million Americans left with jobs, the bill’s a technical success. Woohooo!!!
Honduras: Coup or No Coup?
Well, when your Chavez-style “referendum” to make yourself President for Life is ruled illegal, your Supreme Court orders your detention, and your Congress votes you out of office, consider yourself lucky to be merely exiled to Costa Rica.
Given the fact that thugs like Ortega, Chavez, and the Castros are all protesting, it certainly sounds like Honduras did the right thing.
Funny, Pres. Obama doesn’t seem to be the least bit squeamish about meddling with Honduras’ sovereignty. Quite a contrast with his handling of the crackdowns in Iran.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Dennis Willard Wants to Ban Negative Campaign Ads
By which he seems to mean, ads that he personally doesn't approve of. More specifically, he's afraid that the fear of ads against Democratic candidates have stopped them from raising your taxes as much as Mr Willard would like.
He's also not too keen on anyone criticizing politicians, unless a) they are criticizing Republicans, or b) are members in good standing of the priestly MSM caste:
“ Stop making the false argument that a ban on negative campaigning is an infringement upon free speech.
No one has a First Amendment right to hire proxies to sling mud.”
Well, one man's mudslinging is another man's “ speaking truth to power”. Mr. Willard goes on:
“ Here's another idea: Ban third-party committees that run negative ads.
Individuals have rights. Committees don't. Ask a committee and see if it has a problem with being banned. You know the person who complains? Tell the complainers they can organize a third-party committee to smear a candidate with innuendo and hearsay, but they have to exercise their First Amendment right to look directly into the camera, identify themselves and speak their mind.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Willard's attempt to censor your right to political speech, here's the complete text of the First Amendment:
“ 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 redress of grievances.”
Gosh, certainly sounds like the people are supposed to have the right to free speech, or even Yoicks! Assemble committees to do so.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Recalling the Recall
Just shows that if you spend a ton of money, you can defeat a bad idea once in a while.
As you know, TBMD has been against the recall. Still, I found the Mayor’s campaign to save his job inspiring – it nearly inspired me to vote for the silly thing.
The campaign had three essential points: a) We could do worse; b) Warner Mendenhall was a nut who didn’t pay his taxes; and c) Warner Mendenhall was a nut controlled by a secret group of radicals.
I found c) most appealing; I’ve always wanted to be part of a posse of secret radicals. Indeed, based on the direct mail pieces, if this had gone on another week, the Mayor likely would have linked Mendenhall to the Masons, the Knights Templar, the Rothschilds, Area 51, the International Banking Conspiracy, the Loch Ness Monster, the Council on Foreign Relations, black helicopters from the UN, the FTC tax on emails, and Bigfoot.
Planted Questioners
At the Obama “news conference” yesterday. One wonders if the White House staff didn’t write the questions as well.
No doubt we’ll be getting more of the same with the ABC bootlicking infomercial for socialized medicine.
