A Constitutional New Year

Message to Politicians:  It's The Constitution, Stupid!

It is crystal clear, from the writings of the founders and from the constitution itself, that the Federal Government is to be a limited government with specifically enumerated powers.  Those powers not mentioned in the constitution are retained by the states and the people.

I tuned into the Rush Limbaugh Show last Thursday as I was running around getting some errands done. Walter E Williams, Economist of the People, was filling in, and as usual, he was on fire!  Here is the gist of his argument:

Article 1, Section 8 lists the specific powers delegated to Congress by the people. Unfortunately, Congress has stretched the General Welfare clause so out of shape, general welfare now means whatever they want it to, to include picking your pocket for the welfare of those who choose not to work, or the electoral welfare of pork laden politicians.

Jefferson predicted this over 200 years ago

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."

He also said this:

"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless."

It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please."

An indefinite, unlimited government...

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions." -- James Madison, "Letter to Edmund Pendleton,"

"[T]he powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction." -- James Madison, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention [June 6, 1788]

Federal Government's Powers are Limited and Enumerated

When some lib ignoramus accuses you of cherry picking quotes, drop these bombs on them:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. --9th Amendment to the US Constitution

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. -- 10th Amendment to the US Constitution

Frederic Bastiat also had something to say about our venal, constitutionally ignorant politicians and their dirty intertwinings with businesses and special interests:

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." -- French economist, statesman and author Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

Our arrogant politicians think they know better than the men who wrote our constitution and formed our government.  It's time to wrench their dirty, stinking hands off of the levers of power. They have led us to the brink of financial bankruptcy, but this was preceded by a moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

Register to vote.  Get ten like-minded family, friends and co-workers to do the same.  Then help them get to the voting booth.  The ballot is the last non-violent means we have to restore sanity to our great nation.  I have faith in God that we can do it.   

For a quick guide to getting yourself up to speed on the constitution, see US Constitution Made Easy!


Senator Orrin Hatch has written a straightforward article explaining why the proposed health care legislation is unconstitutional.  Read it Here.

Michael Moore is a Fat Hypocritical Capitalist Pig

Liberals are stupid. Two examples:

They burn the flag, a symbol of the nation that guarantees the right to burn the symbol of the nation that guarantees the right... Get the picture? Like a dog chasing its own tail, or worse, eating its own excrement.

The second example is even easier: Michael Moore declares capitalism evil--nevermind the fact that the system has made him a millionaire. So I guess he is evil for using that evil system to take money from poor schlubs who pay to watch his chintzy imitations of Leni Riefenstahl.

Well, Dr. Walter E. Williams, Economics professor at George Mason University, has the cure.

First, he gives a classic textbook definition of capitalism and our republican government's role in that system:

Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private ownership and control over the means of production. The distribution of goods and services and their prices are mainly determined by competition in a free market. Under such a system the primary job of government is to protect private property, enforce contracts and ensure rule of law.

Next, he destroys Moore's ignorant assertion that capitalism is evil. (Why do I say Moore is ignorant? Because he says capitalism should be replaced with democracy. The first is an economic system, the second is a system of government. And actually, captialism provides the most democratic marketplace. But Mike has never let the facts get in the way of a good bon mot.)

Back to Dr. Williams:

Moore's film features priests who say capitalism is anti-Christian by failing to protect the poor. This is pure nonsense and revealed as such by asking, "If you're an unborn spirit, condemned by God to a life of poverty but allowed to choose the country in which to be poor, would you choose a country near the communist end of the economic spectrum or the capitalist end?"

If you chose the United States, you'd find that according to the government surveys, the typical "poor" American has cable or satellite TV, two color TVs, and a DVD player or VCR. He has air conditioning, a car, a microwave, a refrigerator, a stove, and a clothes washer and dryer, and whether he has health insurance or not, he is able to obtain medical care when needed.

Try to find that in Cuba, Russia, China or North Korea. If we buy into the nonsense of Moore's priests, the world's poor people are incredibly stupid. Whether fleeing legally or illegally, their destination country is likely to be closer to capitalism than their departure country.

Dr. Williams goes on, in one succinct paragraph, to explain how this mess that Moore lays at the feet of capitalism is really the fault of an overweening, anti-capitalist government. I highly recommend you read the full article.

BTW, you Michael Moore fans: You're suckers. You don't really think this overfed millionaire actually believes in the self-loathing liberal porn he peddles to you, do you? Can you say, "Baaaaah?"