A History Lesson and K Street

During the founding of our great nation, there was an argument that we would all find familiar. It was a question as to where the power shall lie. James Madison, a Democratic- Republican (Yep), was a advocate for the federal government. He wrote a number of papers called the federalist papers. I want to focus in on Federalist number 10 and how it applies today.
In Arguing for a well constructed union, he knew how important it was to control factions. The following is his definition, not mine;

"By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuatedby some common impulse, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanant and aggregate interests of the community"

The causes of factions should not be removed because the only way to do it is by removing liberty. He goes on to explain that the only alternative is to control the faction's effects. This was the basis of why the power should fall with the federal government. My friends, this is simply no longer true.

We see many factions and this is nothing new. Every group on K Street is a little faction. You and I belong to factions whether it be ACLU, ACLJ, NRA, or any other letters you can put together. They can be The Christian Coalition, Rainbow Push, or Move On.org. They are all factions. This is not the problem. Factions have always existed. The problem is that these lobbies give better gifts, promises, and deals to our representatives. Naturally, a man or woman in Washington with corrupt principles would want to see them before citizens. It seems that they all do it except for maybe a dozen good apples.

When the vast majority of representatives are putting factions ahead of citizens, we are no longer controlling the effects of the factions. Our representatives are in the penthouse of a high rise. The elevators are for K street and the stairs are for Main street.

James Madison could not have foreseen the power trip we have today in Washington. Those individual factions in great numbers have made individual citizens unnecessary in Washington. The two parties behave like a a conglomerate of factions. James Madison's Democratic- Republican Party has become The Democratic and Republican Megafactions. Do they represent us or K Street?

Enabling vs. Empowering

Empowerment is a beautiful thing. It reaches into the soul of those who feel a complete lack of control and builds hope. It may be a movement where everyone is involved for a common good, a policy that pulls people from the trenches, or a frustrated middle class guy who discovered blogging. Gandhi empowered and offered a course on passive resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. took that to our country and was instrumental in the Civil Rights movement. Although the momentum that he created was strong enough to carry other groups that were left out, he absolutely deserves his holiday. It was so important that the civil rights movement happened. It strengthened the words of our forefathers and quite simply, is right. Really, judging people by their skin? How truly fearful and archaic. There was another young man working in the trenches of the civil rights movement and he was empowering at the time. Al Sharpton was a soldier of empowerment but now, I will use him to illustrate enabling.
He is still a leader but his power and influence now only comes by holding minorities in a victim role. I feel that Marin Luther King would be quite ashamed of him today. I'm not suggesting that the disease of Racism is gone but Rev. Al is teaching youth that they cannot make it in the country. All of a sudden, anyone who does make it out of poverty is not keeping it real. Any crime or even allegation of one, he is there on his soap box crying racism. He extorts random events and blows them out of proportion. If anyone is led to believe that they cannot overcome barriers, they stop trying and develop a feeling of hopelessness. There are empowering black leaders on the rise. The perfect example is Barack Obama but that brings up another problem; enabling policy.
A huge one is reparations. To suggest that the tax payer or industry should pay people who were not victims for things that dead people did to other dead people is completely bizarre. If it happens, I will certainly go after the Catholic church for reparations. You see, I am left handed. Although I have had minimal struggles (scissors, soda machines, etc.), the catholic church used to force left handed people to use their right. They were even hit for using their left! In Latin, left has the same root as sinister. Should I advocate to have sinister removed from the language or made a crime to use in certain places? My people were oppressed too. As a matter of fact, all of us have a history of oppression somewhere. Should Mitt Romney sue because his ancestors were cast out to Utah? Remember the line from Shawshank Redemption? "Get busy living or get busy dying." One of these is for victims and the other is for survivors.
We need more empowering policy. Have you ever got a overtime check? Here you are putting in extra hours to make some cash to get ahead. The government should not tax that at all but what do they do, they tax it a hell of a lot more! Do they realize that they are that they are fostering a work ethic to do just enough to get by? For the love of God, we have to have empowering policy. I know people who want to work but stay on welfare because they get more money or can't afford to lose Medicaid. When we become an enabled country, and all dependence is on the government, we will become lazy and entitled. Our entitlement is air! Part of the problem with schools is enabling parents to be lazy and entitled. The schools are there to teach, not to raise our children.
When I thought of what I wanted to write about, I did not know it would evoke such frustration. If you were offended, read it again because you clearly misunderstood.

Inflation, Economy, Jobs, Energy, Radical Islam, Environment

ONE SOLUTION

Oh Yeah, all of these problems have one solution. I have heard all of the asses and elephants talk about them separately but no one puts them all together. We better put them together soon before they all get worse. Remember, this is the nation who took an idea from theory to reality in a short time and ended WWII with it. That was 63 years ago. 39 years ago the nation sent men to the moon in a Yugo, and they lived! We can do this.

GOAL: Lead the world in alternative energy

OBJECTIVE: Identify and eliminate the barriers

PLAN: Cancel all congressional holidays until resolved

MEASURED OUTCOME: The Dow at 16,000, Unemployment below 3%, Carbon Credits no longer exist (do they anyway?) , Less than $200.00 a month per household spent on transportation and home energy, Radical Islam disolves as the middle east joins the rest of the world and the 21st century

Pretty Interesting huh? Here's what needs to be done.

The next industrial revolution is coming fast and it is alternative energy. It has to begin in the United States and soon. It is going to create massive green industry and we already have the infrastructure and resources in place. With industry comes jobs and a booming economy. When it begins, greenhouse gasses will disappear as well as the sin tax. When the world begins to use our products, oil prices will fall and oil rich countries will be more interdependent on the rest of the world. Their culture will assimilate because of the interdependence and women will no longer be lashed for being raped. Maybe when we all assimilate, we too can find time to pray five times each day.

We must remove the barriers. If politicians cannot help, they can at least get the hell out of the way. I would rather have them help. Create real incentives for this to be realized. Give grants to universities who are leading in the technology. Award them (or the basement inventor) for benchmarks and breakthroughs. Permanantly cut industrial taxes for the major industries who begin production immediately or help them reconfigure the factories. It will cost but the rewards are priceless. Help make the unions realize that without jobs... there is no point in unions. We have to keep jobs in the country. Either reduce regulations and restrictions or hold all international manufacturers (who export to us) to the same standard that we have in the United States. All of you in Washington should be ashamed if not punished for allowing lead in our children's toys when we stopped using it ourselves nearly 30 years ago. What the hell is wrong with you? Oh, K street, I see. These changes do not have to wait and the measured outcomes above are more than possible, they will follow necessarily.

Freedom and Responsibility 1

We can never be free of the responsibility to preserve freedom- Me 2008

Ladies and gentleman, this is our failure. Accepting it will lead to resolving it. We let it go. This middle class works hard and when it is time to relax, we do. When it is time to vote, we do. Where we fail is when we pick someone to represent us, we do not hold them accountable between elections and when the elections come around, they look squeeky clean. We have these vague memories, "Didn't he get in trouble for embezzlement, or insider trading?" We have to hold them more accountable. Our freedoms are eroding before us each time a law is passed and the laws that are passed wouldn't be on their own merit.
I would never suggest that China is more free than the United States but let us take a look at direction. They have a booming economy at least in part because people have recently been allowed to own property meanwhile here, the courts have recently expanded eminent domain to buisnesses that can generate more taxes. Now China is not nearly as free as we are but I ask you, which country is heading in the right direction?
We are caught up in emotions that we have taken a momentary lapse of reason. We put way to much stock in voices like Al Franken or Ann Coulter without realizing that they represent the absolute freaky fringes. They are hell bent on dividing and are completely void of reason. If the two of them raised a child together, it might actually be human or better yet, American. It is time to unite. We cannot afford to get torn apart much more. The nation simply cannot go to where congress has already.
We cannot just show up for elections. Everytime we count on the federal government or give them another responsibility, we also give up freedom. Freedom and responsibility are completely tied together. Our tragedies illustrate this and they also illustrate our ability to unite. Lets look at 9/11 and Katrina.
9/11 sucked. For the love of God, I hope no one reading this would disagree. We felt violated and scared. What else happened? We immediately reacted emotionally and gave the federal government the ability to pass laws that had failed as bills before. They packaged it in the most patriotic way imaginable. The USA Patriot Act. Benjamin Franklin once said something along the line of "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither." This is exactly what he was talking about. Don't get me wrong, if our government wants to wiretap international calls from terrorists, I would not defend the terrorist or those who are speaking to them in our country. I have a big problem with many other parts of the law. My point is that the government failed us and used us in response to 9/11. I was wondering if we would have to change the Star Spangled Banner to The land of the not as free, and the home of the not as brave. Is this not accurate? Freedom runs in our blood and any erosion of it make America anemic. The funny thing is that our government has now turned this into a wedge issue. More so, it appears to have landed on the wrong side. Go Figure?
Katrina was a failure of government at every level, especially locally but certainly federally. They gave out the ATM cards for people to use where there were no stores, restraunts, or anything. Were they expecting everyone to buy a boat? FEMA gave us all of the evidence that we need to dissolve that agency.
For both of these tragedies, who contributed time, money, and resources? United Americans did. We sent the money. We volunteered. We sent the generators, water, tools, etc. When we are united, we can and have accomplished miracles.
Dn't tell the government I told you so but we can unite without tragedy!

Campaign Finance Reform

Okay, now this is just rediculous. Here we have people from inside of Washington. They work for half of the year and make six figure incomes. They vote on their own raises and have an annual cost of living increase above $4,000.00. They cater to K Street, ignore Main Street, all while simutaneously destroying Wall Street. By the way, I'm not even talking about the senate yet.
So now they want this job called the Presidency. Sure it sounds pretty, but why do they want it so much? Between K Street "Perks" and the jobs that they have during the 6 months they are not working, they surely could make more than the President. Sorry, I digress.
My point is that they want us to send them money and in the past I have. They open the envelope and pile up the checks. Do they say "sucker" with each one they open or just for the really big ones? They already take a third of my money and piss away most of that. Why should we give them more? Hope? Nope, Ive been down that road and it is a dead end. Hope comes from within us, our churches, our teachers, and our community. When we take our government back, only then should we give money to people to run for office. First we have to create a new understanding in Washington. The understanding that they work for us. We will need to see this understanding in action and not just lip service.

The Liberty Project

The Liberty Project is a very grassroot movement; just me so far. It involves real systemic government change using two tools. The first tool is the internet. The second tool is your vote. There are about two hundred million people who know how to use the internet better than I. The second tool is my specialty. You must first realize that, regardless of political affiliation, your vote has been relatively ineffective in changing a system run by greed, corruption and K street. There is sense of relief when you realize this. Here is what The liberty Project is:

1) Voting out all incumbants for 6 years. We can replace every elected official in 6 years.

2) Advocate for open primaries. Our choices currently suck! If each of us could vote in the democratic and republican primaries, neither our country nor our government would be polarized. Only then could we get on with being American.

3) Until we have open primaries, switch parties. Yep, that is exactly what I said. If you are liberal, most of the candidates in the democratic primary will have similar views but you could maximize your vote by voting for the most moderate candidate in the republican primary. If you are conservative, the same applies to you. If you are independent, either stay that way and wait for the rest of America or jump from party to party as much as I do.

4) Accept that any piece of legislation that cannot pass on its own merit, should not be law. We elect people to make decisions, not deals. If our founding fathers looked at a bill today, they would think we have lost our minds. Today, we cannot even fund our troops without increasing the cigarette tax and creating a wildlife preserve for orange alge at the same time. We do not need all of the pork or line item veto. We simply need to write bills that make sense.


Remember, we do not have to be so divided that we forget how much we have in common. Think about your liberal and conservative friends and how much you have in common besides politics. I bet it looks nothing like our elected officials. The funny thing is, believe it or not, both parties came out of one; Thomas Jefferson was a Democratic- Republican.

Stuck in the middle with you

Every election it seems we get duped. The candidates tightly embrace their parties emotional issues and no change every comes from them. Why? If they actually did anything about any wedge issue, they wouldn't have that wedge in the future. The most amazing part is how inconsistent they can be when they bifurcate the issues. For example, pro lifers typically fall in the same party as those supporting the death penalty and vice versa. As a matter of fact, we can learn a great deal by looking at the abortion debate.
For such a serious issue, it sure is looked at in a shallow way by our politicians. When is someone going to do anything but run on it? We are so divided and warped regarding this issue that there has been little progress in reducing abortions. It seems self evident that pro lifers do not like abortions but I have never seen a pro choice advocate with the bumper sticker "I love abortions". If you suggest a hundred different ways to reduce the demand; that is when the real freaks come out screaming "It is about the principle." No it is not. It is about supply and demand. When you reduce the demand, you will reduce the number of places supplying. Who will argue that it is the principle if you reduce the number by 75% over two terms? Yep, The freaks on the fringes.
It is time to pull this country back to the middle and back to the middle class. It appears that a fat elephant and a stubborn jackass are tearing my flag. The Liberty Project can put these animals in their place.