The Sky's The Limit

Today the unbelievably short-sighted legislature in Massachusetts approved the National Popular Vote (NPV) bill which would award all the electoral votes in the state to the candidate who won the national majority (popular) vote.

This is a crazy action by the legislators in my state. Why? Because they have now effectively silenced the voices of the voters in the STATE of Massachusetts through their inane action. Why? Because there will be situations in the future where the state of Massachusetts will vote for candidate A but candidate B will win the popular vote. In this case, the will of the voters in this state will be muted.

But there is also another situation that may render the will of the voters in Massachusetts perpetually irrelevant. This would be if there were a bloc of say four or five populous states, perhaps in the midwest and west, whose total vote count are significant with respect to the rest of the country. With the NPV in place in Massachusetts and elsewhere, these four or five states could end up to be “king makers” for a long, long time. Because their votes highly influence the popular vote, and as such once the majority threshold has been reached, Massachusetts will just go along with the flow. This to me is CRAZY. And an irresponsible action by the Massachusetts legislature.

[As an aside, I wonder what the hyper-partisan, Democrat crazies in the MA legislature would have thought if their enactment of the NPV was just BEFORE the 2000 or 2004 elections? Suicidal and apoplectic come to mind immediately!!]

Finally, I’m a little perturbed with the process by which this important electoral change was handled. This change is is direct contravention to the Massachusetts Constitution. As such, if backers of the NPV wanted this to be enacted in Mass., then this change should have gone through the established Constitutional amendment process. But it didn’t, and I’m not convinced that the manner in which the Legislature handled this change will pass constitutional muster.

Until then, we’ll have to live with the hyper-partisan inanity that is the Massachusetts legislature. Here’s hoping that there is a swift challenge to this bill and furthermore that the MSJC has more common sense and Constitutional fealty than our elected representatives. I certainly won’t be hanging by my thumbs until then, that’s for sure.

News stories today are speculating that in order to balance this year’s budget that the Massachusetts state legislature is considering cuts to local aid to cities and towns. This action, if taken, would be yet another hard slap to the face to the taxpayers in the Commonwealth.

Why?

Because the individual taxpayers fund the madness that is administered by the solons on Beacon Hill. Without us taxpayers — the proverbial money tree — the legislature wouldn’t have any resources to codify their grip on our fine state. Without our tireless financial contributions via income and sales taxes, how would our elected betters pay for the patronage jobs they dole out to family and friends? How would they fund their pet projects? How would they fund their pay raises??

So many questions, so little time.

But decreasing local aid without undertaking dramatic cutbacks and reorganizations of state government would be a hypocritical step. After all, where would the shortfall from state local aid reductions come from? In a word, taxpayers. Local real estate taxpayers. The same folks who pull cash out of one pocket to feed it to the state (and to the feds) are the same folks who’ll have to fish around in the other pocket for the “missing” money. Yes, we are the money tree, whose fruit is always hanging from its branches. There is NEVER a time, at least to politicians, when the money tree lays bare and there is no fruit to pick.

Well, I’m here to tell my august legislature that the money tree is bare. Buck nekked bare. Lying fallow, waiting for nourishment before it will blossom again. And, oh by the way, not waiting for the “fertilizer” that it is constantly fed by craven politicians. Where there was once easy pickens, there is none.

What can’t our “representatives”, who are supposed to be in touch with their electorate, understand this simple fact? Why must we be once again insulted and affronted with the threat of the loss of local aid, given the amount of revenues (of all kinds) that the state collects from us citizens. This constant threat of local aid cuts, BEFORE a single cost cutting measure is implemented in the hierarchy of state government, is getting to be a tired threat.

And I guarantee a threat that won’t elicit fear, but ire. If local aid is cut in Massachusetts, without a significant cut in the state’s budget elsewhere, then I GUARANTEE that it will be an interesting election season this fall. I promise that I will work tirelessly to “retire” those gutless legislators politicians who take this opportunity to push the “Easy Button” (apologies to Staples!) in lieu of doing the heavy lifting that we hire them to do. We’re all tapped out, and we’re not going to take this abuse of government any more. We may not look angry, but I assure every single one of you on Beacon Hill that we are. And our displeasure will be recorded on the first Tuesday in November.

So, follow through with this scheme to reduce local aid at your own political peril. You have been warned.

Let the games begin!

Yes, this morning a new item that appeared on the White House bill of fare for Barack Obama after the remarkable win by Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Humble pie.

That’s right, the formerly hubris-soaked POTUS will now have to ramp down his goals now that it’s not a sure bet that his agenda can’t be rammed down our throats any more like feed down the gullet of a pâté goose. If he’s a realist, he’s going to have to eat a heaping helping of humble pie and change his political tack from hard left to more centrist. He can make this adjustment kicking-and-screaming, or he can change for the benefit of the American people. And we all know that ‘change’ is an entrenched word in his lexicon.

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then the legislative power that Obama let slip through his fingers by his politically-hyperactive agenda must have left him with a god-man syndrome not experienced since the Pharaohs. Oh what a power trip it must have been. But the operative word in that last sentence is ‘must’…because Obama is now assuredly (and essentially) a lame duck as a progressive and he will have to adapt to circumstances beyond his control in order to create or salvage a presidential legacy for himself.

Because it’s all gone for him. Over the span of a mere thirteen hours the voters in the bluest and ‘moonbattiest’ of the United States sent a rejection notice regarding Obama’s agenda, in particular regarding health care, to him and the remainder of the megalomaniac, Democrat-controlled Congress. Even to the most hardened Democrats in Mass., the stench of backroom deals, special interests cave ins and liberty infringements in Washington was just too much. At their core, even the most politically-marbled Democrats are still US citizens with an acute awareness of their Constitutional rights and liberties.

So, here we are at the 1st anniversary of his inauguration. What lesson will Mr. Obama take away from the amazing result of yesterday’s special senatorial election? Will the unexpected and improbable result be the cause of introspection and a re-evaluation of the unpopular policies of the current administration?

My first inclination is NOT LIKELY! The president and his advisers are motivated progressives, and they will be unwilling to let the gold ring of health care “reform” slip from their grasp from this setback, regardless of how the tea leaves read. Does anyone think that the results of a single election will chasten these hard line oligarchs and one-worlders?

However, and there always is a however, these are also craven politicians that we’re talking about. I believe that Obama and his minions enjoy their position and their power, and if they don’t do SOMETHING then they will enjoy a short tenure in their positions. Whether they admit their recognition of the plain and simple truth or not, they do I assure you. The present political zeitgeist is the oxygen in the atmosphere that they inhabit. Without their finger on the pulse of the public they cannot craft an adequate populist stance on issues.

So, if Obama and the Democrats don’t engage in the requisite introspection and contrition after Scott Brown’s victory, then it’s up to us to DEMAND IT. We need to make it abundantly clear that we first and foremost want public servants willing to do our bidding…and not craven politicians who feather their own nests using swag and support from special interests and party politicos. We expect them to learn their lessons from this watershed moment in Massachusetts, and we need to impress upon them that if they don’t, they will be gone on our terms, not theirs.

Because the premiere lesson to be learned from last night’s victory by Senator-elect Brown is that the political positions in the White House and in the Congress don’t belong to them, they belong to us.

And yesterday should have been a shining reminder of that one simple fact…

Okay, the campaign is just about over. Not many hours remain in this fight to be our next U.S. Senator, and the choice couldn’t be clearer.

On the one side, we have the Democrat Martha Coakley who represents the entrenched, corrupt majority party in Washington, DC (and in our home state of Massachusetts). Candidate Coakley has closely aligned herself with the contemptible and unpopular Obama legislative agenda, and she has indicated she will be a reliable 60th vote for all his cockamamie schemes. She is undoubtedly a cog in the powerful Democratic political machine.

On the other hand, we have Republican Scott Brown, an independent-minded statesman who has directly indicated that he will be the 41st vote for a successful Republican filibuster to derail the odious Obamacare legislation that is now being conferenced behind closed doors by the Democrat leaders.

Scott has run a magnificent, positive campaign that has focused on his citizen-centric political philosophy. He understands and has understood that the seat he is running for belongs to US, the people of Massachusetts. He has worked hard, criss-crossing the state –  shaking hands, meeting people and getting his message out there. He wants the job because he wants to REPRESENT us and be a voice for our concerns. And his observation during the last senatorial debate that it “isn’t the Kennedy seat, not the Democrat’s seat — it’s the people’s seat” galvanized even the most skeptical fence-sitting independents (and erstwhile Democrats) who sat on the fence until that time.

So, it’s now time to take action. It’s time to cast our precious votes. It’s time to take back our government and restore sanity and balance to the political circus in Washington. We in Massachusetts have the unique opportunity to loudly reject the far-left policies of the Obama-Reid-Pelosi troika, and to reset the thinking and the political landscape in the nation’s capital. Certainly we can accept and embrace the status quo in government and allow our Constitutional rights to be run over roughshod, or we can act as the first patriots did in our great state and chose the candidate who will act as a brake to the unpopular, socialist plans. And the candidate who will observe unwavering allegiance to the Constitution.

Please join me tomorrow as I cast my vote for Scott Brown for U.S. Senator. Scott has the demonstrated legislative record, temperament and background to be an outstanding United States senator. I believe that he will make us proud of our vote for him, and as a result we will finally get a long-overdue balance of political viewpoint in our senatorial delegation.

Get out tomorrow and vote for Scott.

GO SCOTT, GO!!!!

Until I read Massachusetts Senate Bill 2028, I don’t think I’ve read a more sweeping piece of proposed legislation that tramples on both the US and state Constitutional rights of citizens in our Commonwealth. And for this bill to have been unanimously passed by the MA Senate speaks volumes to the (not so) hidden contempt that they have for the Constitution or us citizens.

The link to the bill on the Mass legis system may be found HERE.

Now, I understand that this is 2009 and we’re almost to the point where we’re flying around in Jetson’s cars. Society is, after all, advancing. But the one thing that cannot change is the relationship of the average citizen to their constitutional rights, regardless of how much time has passed since our adoption (as a country) of this document.

Senate bill 2028, under the guise of an emergency, a pandemic, allows the government to intrude into our lives in ways that are in direct opposition to the constitutional rights of the individual. For example, in Section 2B (b), during a declared health emergency the Mass. Public Health Commissioner may authorize:

1. to require the owner or occupier of premises to permit entry into and investigation of the premises;
2. to close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated any building or facility, and to allow the reopening of the building or facility when the danger has ended;
3. to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material;
4. to restrict or prohibit assemblages of persons;
5. to require a health care facility to provide services or the use of its facility, or to transfer the management and supervision of the health care facility to the department or to a local public health authority;
6. to control ingress to and egress from any stricken or threatened public area, and the movement of persons and materials within the area;
7. to adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste and human remains, provided that religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased person shall be followed to the extent possible when disposing of human remains, whenever that may be done without endangering the public health;
8. to procure, take immediate possession from any source, store, or distribute any antitoxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the commonwealth as may be necessary to respond to the emergency;
9. to require instate health care providers to assist in the performance of vaccination, treatment, examination, or testing of any individual as a condition of licensure, authorization, or the ability to continue to function as a health care provider in the commonwealth;
10. to waive the commonwealth’s licensing requirements for health care professionals with a valid license from another state in the United States or whose professional training would otherwise qualify them for an appropriate professional license in the commonwealth;
11. to allow for the dispensing of controlled substances by 103 appropriate personnel consistent with federal statutes as necessary for the prevention or treatment of illness;
12. to authorize the chief medical examiner to appoint and prescribe the duties of such emergency assistant medical examiners as may be required for the proper performance of the duties of the office;
13. to collect specimens and perform tests on any animal, living or deceased;
14. to exercise authority under sections 95 and 96 of chapter 111;
15. to care for any emerging mental health or crisis counseling needs that individuals may exhibit, with the consent of the individuals.

Also found in Section 13 (95) (b):

1. to vaccinate or provide precautionary prophylaxis to individuals as protection against communicable disease and to prevent the spread of communicable or possibly communicable disease, provided that any vaccine to be administered must not be such as is reasonably likely to lead to serious harm to the affected individual;

So, now we have a proposed law, written under the aegis of “public safety” that essentially declares martial law on its citizens during a time of health crisis…and it thwarts or abridges many of our constitutional rights and liberties like the right to privacy, the right to freely assemble, and the right to have control of our own bodies. Perhaps the Massachusetts Senate was taking advantage of presidential adviser Rahm Emmanuels’ theory that you should never let a crisis go to waste. So, why not use a pandemic or other health situation to unleash a major governmental power play?

The Constitution is set up as a framework that defines and then assures the protection of the personal rights and liberties enumerated within it. Furthermore, the government is society’s watchdog that our rights are vigorously protected. Senate bill 2028 replaces the precious rights of the individual and substitutes the needs of society at large in their place. This is not only wrong, it is madness. Each individual person is the custodian of their rights and liberties. If each of us allows our rights to be abridged or co-opted by legislators who claim to be looking out for our collective interests, then we can expect to have our individual rights either ignored or trampled by future  well-meaning legislation that can be dreamed up by our “protectors.”

Perhaps the members of the legislature need to be vigorously reminded that they represent us, not rule us! Because truth be told, the provisions of 2028 sound more like commands from an autocratic ruler rather than carefully crafted provisions that first and foremost protect the individual rights of the citizens they purport to protect.

Now, having said what I just said, I don’t want to see a pandemic kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of citizens. But I personally would rather take the chance of succumbing to the swine flu or some other pathogen with all of my Constitutional rights intact than surviving with rights provided to me (via 2028) as a cog in a larger machine.

When all is said and done, damn it, we are freeborn Americans with protected rights. These rights are too precious for me to allow them to be superseded FOR ANY REASON. Because once we start to slide down the slippery slope that is embodied by Senate bill 2028, we can expect to see our rights further eroded with future, well-meaning, legislation.

In these matters you can count me out!

Our new senior senator held his first (and probably only) town meeting on health care at the Somerville High School last evening. Newspaper accounts have described this as a meeting with more proponents than opponents of health care “reform.” I agree, particularly since this event was heavily advertised and organized by Barack Obama’s “Organizing for America” (OFA). In fact, Kerry’s event was termed by OFA as part of the Listening Tour. You can see a PDF of the event from their website HERE (interestingly, all references to this town meeting have been scrubbed from the OFA website — curious!).

From the news clips that I saw, Kerry did precious little listening, particularly to the opponents of Obamacare. In fact, Kerry came to Somerville not to listen, but to preach. He was trying to convince the hoi polloi that Obamacare is a good deal for them, even with all the evidence to the contrary.

What occurred in Somerville, though, was more of an echo chamber than a stop on a Listening Tour due to the craven Astroturfing of the event by OFA. The reason there were more “supporters” of Obamacare present because they were asked to go…organized by Obama and his crafty minions at the DNC.

At one point, when a woman in the audience questioned him regarding his fealty to the Constitution, he shot back “what kind of person are you…what kind of country should we be?”

I didn’t see the woman’s reply, but mine would have been that there isn’t a single word about compassion in the Constitution. The United States is a constitutional republic. And Senator Kerry, you took an oath to uphold the Constitution.

If you want to practice compassion, you have the personal resources to do so. You can start a trust or fund (with like-minded, compassionate, liberal socialists) some private health care organization to subsidize and provide “affordable” health care to those in need. NOTHING stops you as private citizen Kerry do either of these, or more…but that three centuries-old document written by divinely inspired patriots, does. The Congress has no Constitutional power to provide anything based on compassion…and the Congress has no power or authority to grant the citizens of our country “rights.” Rights like the right to health care, one that has never been mentioned in the Constitution. Rights come from God, not from men!

Beyond your flaccid and ineffectual remarks in Somerville, Senator, you should demonstrate that you practice rigid fealty to our Constitution, even if it puts your political ambitions and future in jeopardy. In Massachusetts all we can hope for is a well funded and organized challenge to you in 2014. The citizens of this great state deserve much better and less effete and detached representation from those we elect.

The recently-vacated US senate seat resulting from the death of Senator Edward Kennedy does not belong, as the press would have us all believe, to a family or an individual. He may have been elected and served in this seat for 47 years, but the seat is not “his”, nor does it belong to his heirs or the Democratic party.

It belongs to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as described below:

Part the First

Art. V. All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are the substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them.

Art. VI. No man nor corporation or association of men have any other title to obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive privileges distinct from those of the community, than what rises from the consideration of services rendered to the public, and this title being in nature neither hereditary nor transmissible to children or descendants or relations by blood; the idea of a man born a magistrate, lawgiver, or judge is absurd and unnatural.

The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780

This simple fact needs to be remembered and understood by our state legislators and the media in their attempts to rush towards the last wishes of Senator Kennedy. The Senator was a man, to whom all the provisions of our state Constitution applied. Even Articles V and VI, although they be inconvenient to the political aims and motivations of the state Democratic party.

Hopefully, even in our modern day, politically-supercharged government, it will be recognized that we are a nation of laws and not men when it comes to not only the individual citizen, but also for those who serve in the government.

I think that each of the members of the Massachusetts legislature needs to put the political stagecraft and hypocrisy aside, grab their copy of the Massachusetts constitution and read it, and then demonstrate their fealty to it with their actions in the coming weeks.

We citizens of Massachusetts deserve no less!