Dems Get Their 60 Votes

Democrats in the senate got the 60 votes they were hoping for keep their "Health Care Reform" bill viable.  They've used a few of their old tricks to rope in one wary senator.

However, Sen. Ensign doesn't believe this is the kind of 'reform' that we need.

..."It's a massive increase in government, as shown by this bill," Mr. Ensign told a reporter off the floor later, spreading his arms wide as if to encompass the stack of papers that comes in at more than a foot tall and, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, weighs in at more than 20 pounds.

The bill contains the word "tax" 511 times and includes 18 tax hikes, according to Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative lobby group. It uses the word "require" more than 1,000 times, the word "shall" more than 3,500 times, and talks about studies required by the bill 150 times. READ MORE>>>

We The People: "Liberty Itself May Be Lost"

I got this in an email. I'm not entirely sure how, since I'm fairly sure I'm not a subscriber to their newsletter. However, the founder of the We The People Foundation has some strong words for our government.

PENNSYLVANIAREVOLUTION.COM PRESS RELEASE:

We The People Foundation

For Constitutional Education, Inc.



www.WeThePeopleFoundation.org


CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 2009: 

Delegates of the People to convene in Philadelphia

to address constitutional crisis



Public Information meeting to be held in

Harrisburg, PA on Sunday, Jan 25

On Sunday, JAN. 25th at 1:00 pm, the We The People Foundation will hold a public meeting to promote local awareness of the People’s historic initiative to address our nation’s escalating constitutional crisis. The meeting will be held at the Harrisburg Comedy Zone at 110 Limekiln Road, New Cumberland, PA 17070 (717 920 5653).
...
“It is no secret that for decades, the U.S. Government has operated well outside the relatively straight forward language and original intent of the provisions of our Constitution,” said Bob Schulz, Chairman of the WTP Foundation. “Unfortunately, these acts of the Government are deliberate violations of fundamental Law and have resulted in the destruction of the Liberty of the People.” 


The People have documented and confronted many of the Government’s constitutional violations including the war powers, privacy, 2nd Amendment and immigration abuses, as well as the banking and money violations that are the root cause of the current financial system meltdown. The People have also recently challenged the legal authority of the apparently bottomless Fed and Treasury economic bailouts. To date, the Government has refused to be held accountable. 



“We have reached a point where the People, much like our Founders, must carefully consider the course of current events and take actions to defend our unalienable Rights and interests, or Liberty itself may be irretrievably lost,” Schulz added. “The most disturbing of all the violations is our Government’s refusal to be held accountable in any manner. Not only has the federal Judiciary refused to wrestle with the underlying constitutional wrongs, the Supreme Court has refused to declare the authority of the People to directly procure relief under the First Amendment’s accountability clause. This is the essence of the constitutional crisis that must be addressed, and time is of the essence.”

For more information on this meeting visit Pennsylvaniarevolution.com.

While I'm not very aware of this foundation, I completely agree with them in their main points. We've lost a great many freedoms in the name of 'security'. I want those freedoms back. Security can never be guaranteed, but freedoms can be.

This is why our founding fathers were very explicit in our constitution about liberty and used very harsh words in The Declaration of Independence.

If the Declaration of Independence were addressed to the United States would it fit?

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness... The history of the present Federal Government of The United States of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

...

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

...

The Government is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny... (remember Blackwater in New Orleans?)

Certainly, some things hold true when held against our government but we're nowhere near the tipping point.

Will the tipping point come before reform starts? I hope not.

Pay attention though because this could be an interesting 4 years.

Happy New Year!

Dang this is the third time at least that I've started a post and lost part or all of it... third times' the charm.

I hope everyone's 2007 went well, and I hope everyone has a great 2008.

Now that it's a new year it's important to start the year off right, by reminding our Senators and Congressmen that they're only in office to represent their constituents.

I thought I'd like to alert you to some of the most notable acts that need to be acted on of 2007.

One of the best resolutions introduced in 2007 is HR 4900 which was introduced just before the winter recess of 2007. It's called, The “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2007".

For too long the BATFE has has been able to make and change it's own rules and has had to answer no-one. Hypothetically speaking if one were to convert a firearm to an illegal machine gun it would be illegal. However, if an employee of the BATFE were to convert a firearm to an illegal machine gun and mail it (illegally) to a private citizen the private citizen would be guilty of possessing a machine gun while the BATFE would be exempt from any repercussions.

However ATF abuses aren't just hypothetical situations, just ask Red's Trading Post (Interviews 1, 2) and KT Ordnance (Alert, Interview, Newstory). In addition to these two businesses many others have been targeted unfairly or even lost their FFL (Federal Firearms Liscense) completely as a result of small paperwork errors.

Among some of the more noteable provisions are:

• Requires BATFE to establish clear investigative guidelines.
• Clarifies the standard for “willful” violations—allowing penalties for intentional, purposeful violations of the law, but not for simple paperwork mistakes.
• Permanently bans creation of a centralized electronic index of dealers’ records (read as a list of who to confiscate from)
• Repeals the Brady Act’s “interim” waiting period provisions, which expired in 1998

While this act isn't perfect, it's a good start.

Please be sure to contact your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121, and urge him or her to cosponsor and support H.R. 4900, the “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2007.”


Secondly, there are two other bits of legislation which desperately need to be acted upon and passed so they do not die like in past sessions of Congress.

These two are the Senate S. 388 (govtrack.us) and the Congress' H.R. 861 (govtrack.us), National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2007.

I've had my concealed carry permit for several years now.

Like every other legal concealed carry permit holder of The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I've never been convicted or found guilty of a violent crime or felony; I've never renounced my citizenship; I am a legal resident of the United States; submitted myself to background checks; I am not an unlawful user or addicted to any drugs or alcohol legal or illegal; I've submitted several character references; and I've had the approval of my county's Sheriff in order to receive my Concealed Carry Permit.


However, while my driver’s license that bestows me the privilege to drive (automobile related deaths are nearly twice as high as firearm related deaths, and nearly 5 times as high for deaths of children) is recognized by every state of the union; several foreign countries; and our own federal government the same is not true for my Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearms with legalizes me to exercise my Constitutional Right.

Unfortunately, none of the states which share a border with Pennsylvania recognize Pennsylvania’s License to Carry Firearms; that means that I have to remove my firearm and leave it at home to legally travel to neighboring states.

The notion that I need to be disarmed before I can legally travel to a neighboring state is ridiculous and frankly it discourages me from visiting those other states. After all, I stand a much larger chance of dying as a result of a violent crime when I'm disarmed so why would I want to put myself at risk?

Please read the NRA’s fact sheet regarding concealed carry and these two pieces of legislation.

Please be sure to contact your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121, and urge him or her to cosponsor and support H.R. 861, the “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2007.” Also, please contact your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121, and urge them to support S. 388, “… to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.”