Specter's Folly

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.“ Paine, Thomas Common Sense-1776

After the infiltration of a Nikita Khrushchev speech by the Israeli Mossad, and the information obtained was digested by the world, the American Communist Party imploded, sending out shrapnel in heavy direction. The New Left was organized as a direct result, and, my friends, after nearly fifty years of tireless protests, canvassing, filling our universities with Marxist professors, and paying off their constituents in the form of welfare, they may be able to declare victory. The defection of one Arlen Specter from the GOP to the party of Stalin has completed the trifecta in American Politics.

The White House is occupied by one of its own, by virtue of the immense wisdom of the electorate, the House of Representatives is listing farther and farther to the left, almost to the point of capsizing, and the U.S. Senate has obtained the Holy Grail of protocol, The Filibuster-Proof majority. Al Franken’s seat is being kept warm by Ms. Pelosi via a huge bag of ACORNs, and his victory in Minnesota is a given. This political party has been tireless, focused, and united.

The GOP, by contrast, has been anything but. The RNC abandoned Gingrich’s Contract with America, fired Haley Barbour (or asked him to quit), who at that time was the architect primarily responsible for gaining majorities of both houses of congress for the first time on forty years. That proved to be the apex of the GOP, the top of the bell curve, and ever since that day have been flying on fumes.

The Iraq debacle is a microcosm of GOP strategy; limited vision, reactionary and fluid strategy, rules of engagement determined by non-military officials, and no plan for withdrawal of troops. Sound like Vietnam?

The Left jumped on mistake after mistake, and have a clear mandate to govern accordingly. Yes, I said mandate. We, as Americans, ultimately get what we ask for and deserve.

I attended a Tea Party “protest” in Cincinnati, and was witness to the attendance of Comrade Obama’s paid leg breakers. It cold have been a Crips reunion. The sad thing is, these thugs are paid for with taxpayer dollars, yet another example of our esteemed elected officials in Washington seizing control of another segment of society.

We can realistically equate current events with the tobacco conspiracy. Once smoking was eliminated from domestic flights, Katy bar the door, the end result was inevitable. The health factor means nothing if people choose to smoke. You would think that the Feds would have learned from the time of Prohibition that Americans don’t respond well to edicts originating in Washington.

But, Joyce, you are all over the place on this one. Not really. I have pointed out events that are grossly mismanaged, and are part of a much larger agenda that has been in place since the early sixties. It could be argued that this agenda has its origins in the days of the New Deal. We are experiencing increased control by a central government and the steady and rapid decline of state sovereignty. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....?

The Republicans have thrown principle out the window for the security of elect ability, not unlike Senator Specter of Pennsylvania. We now have one, big, happy family in D.C., with Republicans masquerading as Democrats, and Democrats wearing the cloaks of conservatives.

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”- Thomas Jefferson, letter to E. Carrington May 27, 1788

Our president should be indicted for treason and abuse of power by using the U.S. Constitution as toilet paper, seizing banks, automakers, and soon, the privately owned healthcare system. The ball is rolling, and it may be impossible to stop.

“The pump don’t work ‘cause the vandals took the handles.”

Bob Dylan-Subterranean Homesick Blues

Regulatory Extortion

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, 6 April 1816

Thomas Jefferson was most certainly not born with the gift of prophecy. I’m fairly sure he did not consult an ancient seer residing in some cave far up in the Blue Ridge mountains. He did not read tea leaves, depend on Tarot cards, or employ an astrologer to assist him in day to day decisions.

Jefferson was born with the gift of forward thinking based on personal experience and more importantly, the historical significance derived from the decisions and policies of our predecessors. He may have been referring to what had already transpired during the young and brief history of our nation.

Alexander Hamilton feared anarchy, and as a result took a very liberal view of the U.S. Constitution, most notably granting broad powers to the Federal government. Jefferson, on the other hand, felt that the Constitution’s 10^th amendment was very clear, granting powers not specified to the states. This disagreement led to the formation of the two-party system which we know so well today. Hamilton, Adams, John Jay, et el, were “loose constructionists”. There political philosophy dictated more power to the central government for the “Greater Good”; hence the party was called the Federalists.

Jefferson couldn’t have disagreed more with this thinking. The U.S. Constitution was written with the express purpose of granting the central government with a very limited roll in governing, while allowing each sovereign state to decide what would be more advantageous for them. Jefferson’s party was called the Democratic Republicans.

Jefferson could see very clearly what would and could happen if the Feds were granted expansive powers to usurp the rights of each sovereign state. Fast forward to modern America, and we have the Feds doing exactly what Jefferson feared. For example, The Uniform Drinking Age Act (1984) gave each state a five year window to change their laws to the minimum age of 21. If not, interstate highway funding would be cut off. Another example is to pay off states with a highway slush fund that lowered the legal alcohol blood limit to .08.

How about the “Tobacco Settlement”? The Feds blackmailed the tobacco companies through regulatory extortion by “allowing” them to stay in business if they paid a few hundred millions dollars to lawyers, plaintiffs, federal, state and local governments.

The Mother of All Shakedowns may be the Community Reinvestment Act, in which the Feds mandated private banks to loan mortgage money to those who had no intention of repaying it. For those banks who declined to participate, the Feds would regulate them out of business. The CRA has brought us to this point in history where we all face an uncertain future, largely because of our leaders in Washington using political muscle and employing figurative leg breakers to apply pressure to those in private industry who really didn’t want to play the game. Did I mention Microsoft?

There are many more examples of Federal Blackmail, but I think you get the point. Jefferson saw this as a possibility 200 years ago, when Hamilton wanted to start a national bank. Since then, the two party system has morphed into essentially one enormous political machine where right is wrong and wrong is right. We live in a country where 65% of the citizenry believe our current administration is on the right track. We live in a society that would allow for the redistribution of wealth, “because it’s the right thing to do”, where the clever and industrious are punished, where those who go to work everyday to provide for family are penalized. Complacency is the rule, so long as we are “provided for”.

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. – Samuel Adams

The United Socialist States of America (USSA)

In a higher phase of communist society... only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.-Karl Marx

During the early part of the 20^th century, the Communist Party USA, specifically post World War I boasted a membership of over 60,000 Americans, eclipsing its rival, The Socialist Party of America’s 40,000. They were credited with laying the foundation of labor unions, whereas, on the surface appeared as a positive step in dealing with the exploitation of the working class. By the 1950’s membership was estimated at 200,000.

With the start of the Cold War, the Red Scare, and McCarthyism, the party began to break apart with members leaving the party, going underground, or creating splinter groups that ranged from Democratic Socialist to card carrying anarchists. In 1962, the Mossad infiltrated a speech given by Nikita Khrushchev, where he spoke of Gulags, purges, and other grim topics that were, up until this point in history, a well kept secret.

Upon this revelation, the Communist Party USA imploded, and for all intent and purpose all but disappeared. This vacuum became the basis for the New Left, an offshoot of the CPUSA. The disillusionment and disintegration of the party was fueled by the fact that there really was no “utopia”, as Marx had prescribed in his writings. The Soviet Union, prior to 1962, was the model by which the CPUSA had hoped to build here in the USA. They didn’t count on the fact that with all power residing with a central government, those that disagree usually disappear. They completely disavowed the notion that freedom is an inherent trait granted by birth; freedom to decide, freedom to move, freedom to succeed or fail, freedom to exercise the unlimited potential of the human spirit.

“Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.”

This quote is prophetic as we, as Americans, have begun the process by which we will forfeit our freedoms in search of that very same “utopia” which eluded the American Communists. As D.H. Lawrence so eloquently predicted in 1922:

“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.”

Samuel Adams implored his fellow countrymen to make a choice:

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

He is, in essence, saying that freedom is not free, that with liberty comes great responsibility, and that the only currency that can be used to “purchase” freedom is sweat and blood. As Jefferson conveyed in a letter to William Stephen’s Smith in 1787:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

We are faced with the very decisions the Founders had to deal with 235 years ago. The Communists are waking up. They see the gulf between our Republic and their Utopia narrowing. Socialism is defined as a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism. The fact that our Federal government is in taking control of private industry under the guise of “recovery” would preclude that the transition is well under way. The TEA party movement is a great start, but like other grass roots movements, my hope is this will grow into a groundswell of activism, so we don’t repeat history, which so often happens when we don’t learn from our mistakes and forget about the blood that has been spilled to create and maintain the greatest system ever implemented in the history of man.

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”-Voltaire

Let us awake from our slumber.

Tea Party Pooper

"Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not tamely submit -- appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free." -- Joseph Warren, 1775

Dr. Joseph Warren was not only a physician, but a soldier during our struggle for independence. History has remembered him as an “original patriot”, twice delivering public commemorations of the Boston Massacre while British troops watched on.
He was one of many that had the vision, passion, courage, and intestinal fortitude that would take a theory, an idea, and turn it into the foundation that would become the greatest nation in the history of the world. A British musket ball would take his life at Bunker Hill in 1775.
At this period in history, these ideas had to be conveyed to those that would listen, through the press or oration. You had better believe the conspirators in the back rooms of taverns chose these individuals very carefully. These individuals who would deliver the message, as well as sell its content had to be very savvy in public speaking. They were also charged with articulating a passion that was believable. Dr. Warren was one of these patriots with the right stuff.
I attended the Tea Party protest on April 15th on Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio, anticipating a high energy and quite possibly an historic moment. There were thousands in attendance. Anti-tax signs were everywhere. Several groups of anti-protesters were there as well. There seemed to be a subdued energy that was waiting to erupt. It was a glorious moment.....up until the time the scheduled speakers took the stage and, well, spoke.
I don’t mean to diminish the efforts of the organizer. To put this together in seven weeks is astonishing. But an enormous opportunity was lost in the high pitched, monotone voice that delivered a message that reminded me of a John McCain campaign speech. Flat, zero passion, devoid of any vocal inflections to excite or incite. The content of the speech lacked imagination, and left me feeling empty and very disappointed. In today’s world, a little theater goes a long way.
Look what it did for a mid-western senator with no experience in anything.
We, as “new” patriots have a very, very long road ahead of us.

“Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution.” -- Joseph Warren, 1775