Why Not Out of a Job?

When I am at work and I have something that is vital to the company I stay until it is completed or the fire is out.

When there were proverbial fires in the office I didn’t go to my boss asking for a raise and a promotion with the firestorm in the background.

I would have considered it unethical to ask to be assigned to the project I just allowed to fail when the majority of the company decision makers thought that I was doing a terrible job.

Why would I keep an employee that left their duty station during an emergency to take a smoke break?

Congress did exactly those things. Led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, opposed by some, Congress felt it was a better idea to take a break from all their hard work. While the country/company is floundering and facing struggles the employees decide on their own to take a break.

Find out if your representatives opposed the break and wanted to work.

If they like the time off from work…

Why don’t we try to make it more permanent for some of them?

Federalist

fed·er·al·ist [fed-er-uh-list] - an advocate of federalism.

What a great definition, taken strait from a dictionary, but I still can’t decipher what a Federalist is. I thought this would be a good thing to discuss today.

During the embryonic stages of our country there were some who wanted a strong federal government and others who wanted a stronger state government. A strong federal government would be the final authority and could tell the states what to do, a weak federal government and a strong state government would allow each state to define and create laws they felt were best for the people in that state.

The Constitution would always remain the “Supreme Law of the Land” in either case.

Three of the Founding Fathers (James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) wrote a series of pamphlets and articles that were later combined and called the Federalist Papers. These advocated a strong federal government.

Many people (The Anti-Federalists) had problems with a strong federal government because it might pave the way for some of the same tyrannical powers that they had recently fought to expel from North America. The compromise became the established rights that the federal government could not ignore or violate; we call it The Bill of Rights.

The Federalists and their opponents agreed upon the Tenth Amendment “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.”

The great political minds that founded our country agreed upon one thing, that the federal and state governments are limited by the Constitution. The States have more authority than the federal, but ultimately power belongs to the people.

I hope I don’t have to tell you,

We are the people.

Only one party should vote?

President Obama said “It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election.”

I was disappointed in how partisan the president was with this statement.

It is inexcusable for any American to sit out of any election, but to chastise only his party shows a disturbing lack of character.

I don’t know how to interpret this statement as anything less than “It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election, but conservatives can, and we hope they do.”

We should all vote and on Election Day I encourage all my liberal friends to vote just as much as I do my conservative friends. I would hope that they all make a decision that is in line with their core principles and vote for people who represent those principles.

It is discouraging that on both sides of the aisle there are individuals that would be more than pleased with the other party staying home.

We all need to vote for the best candidate we can find. It is pathetic when the political rhetoric discourages citizens to vote.

The canned response from every politician should be,

“Everyone Should Vote!”

Wiretapping: Now they want to read my email?

Today was an article on wiretapping email and other internet provided services (Blackberry, Facebook, …etc.) Essentially the government (drafted allegedly by the Obama Administration, I don’t know who it was, that is why I use allegedly) wants to be able to require all the internet traffic to be available to be accessed and wiretapped for interception.

I don’t have a problem with legal wiretaps for three reasons: one I really don’t have anything to hide, two I don’t think the government really cares what little old me is doing, and three a warrant is needed to wiretap. I support the legal authorities being able to get a lawful wiretap that has been approved by judge that usually has to be provided with just cause. I don’t have issue with the legal system using all the tools needed to solve crimes and protect us from terrorists.

Why am I writing this if I don’t have a problem with wiretaps? Well, the main reason is that we know that there are radical Islamic figures like Anwar al-Awlaki who while in the United States and actively in contact with people who later turn up as 9/11 hijackers, and the government wants to look at my Facebook page.

It isn’t like the people who are planning this stuff and spouting out the hate across the world are hiding. They are standing at the podium at the UN building.

Once again I see how inefficient the big government is at finding the source of the problem. It isn’t the encrypted MySpace photos or the grandmother who has to take her shoes off in the airport. Who thinks it is a good idea to let the same people who couldn’t figure out the Fort Hood shooter who had links to Anwar al-Awlaki might have had an Islamic connection. What is the government going to ask for next? A set of keys to everyone’s home in case they want to look around?

The government doesn’t do a very good job of looking for criminals, why should all of our communications be less secure because of a habitually incompetent government?

Next they will want the combination on my luggage*

*Which happens to be 1,2,3,4,5

Founding Fathers Friday

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness – Thomas Paine

My wife gave me the idea to do Founding Fathers Friday!

It will be a weekly quote from one of our Founding Fathers or another individual who promoted liberty and individual freedom. Something that I hope keeps us thinking during the weekend.

U.N. Happy:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the U.N. today. This is the same person who is leader of a country that stones women to death. Why is this person using a forum that was founded to create peaceful earth as a podium to spew his hate?

When the U.N. was formed it was supposed to be something like the Star Trek Federation, everyone gets along and tries to make the whole universe better. Unfortunately it has become something more like a sycophant psychotic circus that has the most brutal dictators giving lectures on leadership, governments that oppress on human rights committees, and alleged allies trying to undermine our constitution.

The United States has a sick relationship with the United Nations. Like that of a parent and a drug addict child. The U.S. continues to fund the sick child in hopes that it will become a force for good, but ultimately the child returns to their self-destructive habits. The U.N. is that sick child that spends billions on silly programs and does little to help those who starve or die of curable diseases.

It has come time for some tough love. The U.N. needs to get into rehab and straighten itself out before it gets any more money to fund the damaging course it has followed for the past half century.

Let them keep the building, but we the American people need to keep the child out of our pocketbook.

Our money should not fund an organization

that makes so many people UNhappy.