Free Republic

Now that we have been painted into a corner with the passage of this Constitution-trampling explosion of government, we have only 4 options left before things get ugly: 1) Vote them out in 2010. This option requires much patience and will not actually mean anything unless those elected actually reverse all the spending, bailouts and takeovers. Most likely, Democrats will be punished for a few years while Republicans ride the tidal wave of public outrage into office, at which point they will throw us some symbolic scraps from the table, rather than making a serious commitment to uprooting federal tyranny....

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Congress has the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance and that there is no constitutional limit on Congress’ power to enact such mandates, adding that this unlimited authority stemmed from the Commerce clause of the Constitution. And apparently 59 other Democrat senators agree with her. It is my understanding that the intent of the commerce clause is to assign the responsibility of regulating commerce (the transportation and trading of goods with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes) to the central government, taking the law-making responsibility for...

The Senate’s passage of a massive health-care reform bill yesterday morning was greeted by partisan applause by Democrats, but President Obama noted that “we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law.” We don’t expect reconciling the House and Senate versions will prove all that difficult, but another aspect of Obamacare that deserves closer examination is whether it passes constitutional muster. Republican senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and John Ensign of Nevada this week offered an amendment stating Congress lacks power...

FAIRBANKS - A Fairbanks lawmaker has proposed the Alaska Firearms Freedom Act, which seeks to stop the federal regulation of guns and ammunition made and sold within Alaska. Republican Rep. Mike Kelly said federal rules should only apply to firearms sold across state borders, where the U.S. government has constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. The bill easily passed the state House of Representatives in April after picking up 11 co-sponsors. It now sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Its chairman, Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, said he will schedule a committee hearing this winter. The bill could place Alaska into...

Obamacare, as critics have dubbed the president's plan to socialize health care, will be flooded with lawsuits if it ever becomes law, according to an organization that works to protect rights and liberties of Americans. In an alert issued this week, Liberty Counsel, run by President Mathew Staver, promised his organization "is prepared to challenge the constitutionality of the bill since Congress has no authority to require every person to obtain insurance coverage and has no authority to fine employers who do not provide the coverage standards that are required in the bill." "In addition," he warned, "the bill still...

According to CNSNews, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Congress has the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance and that there is no constitutional limit on Congress’ power to enact such mandates, adding that this unlimited authority stemmed from the Commerce clause of the Constitution. If this were true, then the congress has no constitutional limits whatsoever. On anything. If they can regulate private citizens as interstate commerce, then they can "regulate" anything and anyone. This makes the entire idea of constitutional limits null and void. The federal government can require and mandate that all citizens purchase: Health...

The Superhighway to Serfdom 23. Dec, 2009  Written by: Brian Roberts Comments (6) In 1944, nobel prize winning economist F.A. Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom to describe the typical path tyrants use to lead free people from freedom to servitude. It’s not as long of a road as you might expect. In fact, it’s easy to see that America is on it and the pedal is to the floor. If you haven’t seen the illustrated road to serfdom, spend 5 minutes here: http://mises.org/books/TRTS/ (I’d guess we’re probably on step 9 or so.) The founder’s were fully aware of the road...

I am ashamed to see so many American politicians supporting an unconstitutional bill on health care reform. The government has no place in running the health care industry or forcing/mandating health care upon American citizens. This is an unjust action and form of socialism. The Health Care Bill 3200 is an infringement on our rights and liberties. In all of history a program like this has not been successful and has in fact, increased the debt of that state or nation. Lawmakers are employed by the people and for the people, not for yourselves and your own interest. To add...

Beware of the Sleeping Giant– Sarah Palin warned the big government democrat-socialists: Tomorrow’s Health care Takeover vote Will cause the sleeping giant to awaken and take action. “Average” Americans will take action as light shines on big government growth and corruption. The democrats have bribed enough senators and will vote tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM EST to take over health care. May December 24, 2009 be the beginning of the end of big government socialism in America. We Will Never Forget.

Santa, you listening? Could you please give us some sanity in Congress this Christmas? After rushing headlong to approve a healthcare bill that many Constitutional experts say is blatantly unconstitutional, the chief idiots of the insane asylum that we call 'Congress' are now frantically attempting to show that the measure doesn't run afoul of clear Constitutional provisions. Perhaps the Einsteins among the Democratic leadership should listen to a statement made by their own President--that's right, Barack Hussein Obama.

Looks like the steadily growing list of constitutional, ethical and political outrages that constitute the Harry Reid version of Obamacare is sparking a rebellion in the states, as AP reports South Carolina's attorney general plans to investigate the vote-buying that surrounded the proposal in the Senate majority leader's office. According to AP, South Carolina's Henry McMaster is being joined by the attorneys general of Michigan and Washington state in a suit to determine the constitutionality of the Obamacare proposal. Their initiative was prompted by a request from South Carolina's two senators, Lindsay Graham and Jim DeMint, both Republicans. Attorneys-general in...

Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) are questioning the constitutionality of the Democrats’ Senate version of the healthcare bill.  On behalf of the Republican Steering Committee, the official caucus of conservative senators, the two raised on the Senate floor yesterday a Constitutional point of order that will compel a vote by the full Senate today on the bill’s constitutionality.   The point of order will either be waived -- by Democrats who don’t care about the constitutionality or are willing to ignore the issue -- or it will stand and the healthcare bill will be dead until the...

Wither Sovereignty http://threatswatch.org/analysis/2009/12/wither-sovereignty/ Executive Order Amended to Immunize INTERPOL In America - Is The ICC Next? By Steve Schippert, Clyde Middleton | December 23, 2009 Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other "International Organizations" as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.

Looks like the steadily growing list of constitutional, ethical and political outrages that constitute the Harry Reid version of Obamacare is sparking a rebellion in the states, as AP reports South Carolina's attorney general plans to investigate the vote-buying that surrounded the proposal in the Senate majority leader's office. According to AP, South Carolina's Henry McMaster is being joined by the attorneys general of Michigan and Washington state in a suit to determine the constitutionality of the Obamacare proposal. Their initiative was prompted by a request from South Carolina's two senators, Lindsay Graham and Jim DeMint, both Republicans. Attorneys-general in...

WOW! It's so easy. Let them pass their stupid bill. Note what terms are used as descriptors such as "patient", "doctor", "heart", "transplant", etc. REPLACE every one of these words with a new and different descriptor to be used in common everyday practice. Instead of "doctor", use "woctor", instead of "patient", use "bimbo", etc. This would make every bit of the language of this legislation NON-APPLICABLE and a useless. Let them have their bill. Then we the people will simply invent new terms for EVERYTHING in it.

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...

Every once in a while one gets an insight into the sad state of higher education in the United States. Back in 2008, when my agent was attempting to market the manuscript of what recently appeared in two companion volumes under the titles Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic and Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect, he ran into an unexpected snag. None of the editors at the trade presses he approached had ever...

Just in ...

Although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to allow Democrats to move up the vote on the Senate version of ObamaCare so that Congress could go home for Christmas, Republicans are far from giving up the fight. Even before Congress has a chance to work out a successful compromise between the House and Senate versions of the bill after the holidays, Congressional Republicans and conservative organizations are preparing legal challenges to the bill should it reach Obama's desk.

SAN FRANCISCO — It was the week before Christmas when Irv Sutley, a former warehouse worker, first saw the offending ornament in a government building in Sonoma County, just north of here. “I was turning around in the lobby, and I noticed the tree,” Mr. Sutley said. “And then, I noticed the angel.” Mr. Sutley, an atheist, said he then went to the office of the county Board of Supervisors. “And there was a star,” he said. Technically, neither stars nor angels belong to any particular religion. But to the mind of Mr. Sutley, 65, a veteran who has fought...

There's no place for angels atop Christmas trees, according to one California man who successfully lobbied for the removal of religious symbols at county buildings after spotting a yuletide decoration last week. Stars and other religious emblems were ordered removed from Christmas trees in all government buildings in Sonoma County on Monday following a complaint by Irv Sutley, a disabled 65-year-old Marine veteran who said the symbols were "extremely offensive" and part of the "cult" of Christianity. Sutley said he filed the complaint with acting County Administrator Chris Thomas on Dec. 18 after noticing an angel atop a six-foot tree...

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and his counterparts in Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Texas and Washington state are probing the constitutionality of the bribe given to Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) in exchange for his vote for Obamacare. The backroom deal which has been called the Nebraska Compromise and the Cornhusker Kickback, permanently exempts Nebraska from paying Medicaid costs that all other 49 states must pay. In a letter to Attorney General McMaster, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) wrote "We have serious concerns about the constitutionality of this Nebraska compromise as it results in...

Patriots, the time has come. We no longer can depend on the electoral system. We can no longer depend on our voices being heard from the streets. It is time to take a new direction in our efforts to restore our Constitutional Heritage. That directions is: STATES' RIGHTS VIA STATE NULLIFICATION OF ALL FEDERAL MANDATES THAT ANY STATE IS WILLING TO FIGHT THEREIN FOR THEIR RIGHTS! Unlike the "commerce" and "general welfare" clauses in the US Constitution that have been distorted and spun through many past United States Supreme Court rulings and can be argued forever, the 9TH and 10TH...

Going into Monday morning's crucial Senate vote on health-care legislation, Republican chances for defeating the bill had come down to a last, macabre hope. They needed one Democratic senator to die -- or at least become incapacitated. At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon -- nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation's passage -- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," he said. "That's what they ought to pray." It was difficult to escape the...

Members of the Democratic Caucus Akaka, Daniel - (D - HI) 141 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-6361 E-mail: senator@akaka.senate.gov Baucus, Max - (D - MT) 511 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-2651 Web Form: baucus.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm Bayh, Evan - (D - IN) 463 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-5623 Web Form: bayh.senate.gov/WebMail1.htm Begich, Mark (D - AK) 825 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202)224-3004 Web Form: begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailSenator Bennet, Michael - (D - CO) 702 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-5852 Web Form: bennet.senate.gov/contact/ Bingaman, Jeff -...

My fellow Americans you all are overlooking the obvious or refuse to accept the premise that we are not dealing with Americans. I read that it is unconstitutional; it flies in the face of the rule of law; a legal body cannot bind its equal. I agree whole heartily with all of these arguments, but again I repeat, you are denying the obvious. Until you accept the obvious, who we are really dealing with and after accepting that realization you’ll understand what needs to be done next and it has nothing to do with waiting for elections next November. These...

There is a major misrepresentation in this country when it comes to the Bill of Rights. A recent letter to the Readers' Forum said that "nearly everything that makes an American proud to be one comes from the Bill of Rights. Freedoms to speak, print, read, assemble, pray, petition the government, and keep and bear arms." Even at the tea parties, they get it wrong when they say the Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms. The fact of the matter is the Bill of Rights gives us nothing. The Bill of Rights is simply a confirmation of...

This black American, LtCol Allen West (USA, ret) says it the way it is. HOORAH, Colonel. Spot on. LtCol West's Speech on YouTube >> Article in World Net Daily >> ALLEN WEST FOR CONGRESS 2010 >> The Demorats have just proven beyond any shadow of doubt that they do not care what Americans overwhelmingly think about healthcare. They don't care the debt they've saddled us with for generations. They don't care about this assault on American civil liberty. THROW THEM OUT IN 2010. The fight is on. This is not a drill.

GETS FORMER SEQUOIA CO. VP NAMED AS ADVISER TO U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION Earlier this month, Obama made his first official move to corrupt and undermine the 2010 elections. The move consisted in the little noticed appointment of a technical adviser to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The importance of the appointment was explained at The Brad Blog last Monday. The Official Press Release of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission read as follows: U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 1225 New York Ave. NW – Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005 For Immediate Release December...

In effect, the onerous obligations under the Reid Bill would convert private health insurance companies into virtual public utilities. This action is not only a source of real anxiety but also a decision of constitutional proportions, for it systematically strips the regulated health-insurance issuers of their constitutional entitlement to earn a reasonable rate of return on the massive amounts of capital that they have already invested in building out their businesses.

To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature, The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and...

Having a great deal of respect for Levin, Hannity, Beck, Rush and many others on the Conservative talk show circuit, I cannot for the life of me understand why the Patriots have such a fear of even mentioning or discussing with their callers the question of Eligibility. I am not referring to the Birther Movement, but the Constitution and the Natural Born Citizen requirement within that document in order to hold the highest elected office in the land. The current resident of the White House has fully disclosed that he is not a Natural Born Citizen as required by the...

Money Quote:The dangerous idea that the democratic accountability of national governments should simply be dispensed with in favour of "global agreements" reached after closed negotiations between world leaders never, so far as I recall, entered into the arena of public discussion. Except in the United States, where it became a very contentious talking point, the US still holding firmly to the 18th-century idea that power should lie with the will of the people

So, yeah. I'm a Mormon. :) My rant below is my personal opinion and not to be taken as the official position of the LDS Church. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I believe the Book of Mormon is a volume of scripture and a companion to the Bible in talking about God's dealings with His other children on the earth...the ones who migrated to the Americas. More about that here.What I want to bring to your attention is that what we've been going through with this left vs. right infighting is nothing new....

It's ironic that the more we describe our Constitution as a "living document," the more we turn it into a dead letter.  As to this terminal state, consider the current debate over healthcare reform.  How many politicians give the constitutionality of the mammoth bills spawned by the Houses even the slightest consideration? Why, Nancy Pelosi must not have, as she was so "shocked" when asked about it that the only reply she could muster was "Are you serious?  Are you serious?!"  When leftists do deign to consider the matter seriously, they may take a leaf out of esteemed intellectual Ruth...

Jim....There are 100's of Freepers here:CALLING ALL PATRIOTS...WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE????!!!!! and in your own thread, here:If healthcare passes the socialist coup d'etat has advanced beyond the point of no return! who are begging for someone to step up to the plate and provide a platform that will give Conservatives the ability to get the attention of Washington....no...."PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN THEM!!! Spectre said it best: "WE NEED A PLAN PLEASE SOMEONE STEP FORWARD We need a LEADER who is not afraid of their political future. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE STEP FORWARD “ I respectfully submit that...

For the past year and a half, I have worked endlessly for answers to questions that should have been voluntarily answered. Questions to which we, still, do not know the answers. Just like this very day, we Americans seem, some reluctantly, to allow our Government to pass into law a Bill which no one has read and few have even seen, if in fact it even exists! — Even though the Health Care Reform Bill will control everyone’s ability to provide health care for themselves and even their loved ones — Unbelievable! I also found it unbelievable that, back then...

According to the latest news, Harry Reid has the 60 votes needed to pass Obamacare. While the legislation itself is not available for reading, to my knowledge, the Congressional Budget Office did report on it December 19. I parse that CBO report here so we know what is about to happen to us. The CBO does not make the accounting all that easy, despite its many tables of numbers. The number Democrats like to cite is that this plan will reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the 10 years from 2010 to 019. Imagine that, more people insured and...

Let's face it FRiends, if the unconstitutional healthcare bill passes, the socialist coup d'etat will have advanced well beyond the point of no return! There is nothing in the constitution that authorizes this illegal federal power-grab and plenty that forbids it. If the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Marxist attempted coup pulls this off without the people resisting to the hilt, then they'll have no restrictions whatsoever on implementing the rest of their Liberty killing Marxist agenda. America will be no more. The whole idea of our constitution is to severely restrict the federal government to only its dozen and a half expressly listed...

Click photo to enlarge Sherman "Tony" Fontano with his dog, 'Magnum', at his San Jose home Thursday... ( Patrick Tehan ) * « * 1 * » After his brothers watched a newscast about the national movement to carry guns in public, they told Sherman "Tony" Fontano he could do that himself. Two San Jose police officers also said it would be OK. So this week, Fontano, 74, put his unloaded .357 Magnum into his waistband and took a walk with his girlfriend. But he was soon surrounded by police who had their own guns drawn. Unfortunately, nobody had mentioned...

Some say that because State governments may require drivers to buy car insurance, the Federal Government may require that everyone purchase health insurance. That is too simplistic, that argument. Simply stating that point should be enough to refute it. States may do many things that the Federal Government may not, and if you do not drive a car, you do not have to buy car insurance. This legislation would require individuals to have health insurance simply because they exist, even if they never see a doctor for the rest of their lives.

Creeping Socialism: The Political Kudzu of Our Time SWD Another autumn closes and each tree with the distinctive leaf, shape, tone and tint of its individual species adds an inimitable beauty all its own to the forest of which it is a specialized part. The oak is not the elm; the elm is not the ash; nor the ash the maple. A singular splendor unique to each variety sets apart and distinguishes it from every other. Yet in concert, the solitary glory of each enriches the full symphony that is the forest. As any traveler in the South knows, however,...

Rick Perry, where are you? In Texas, and across the Nation, we are watching the inexorable advance of unconstitutional federal legislation across our borders. What recourse do Texas citizens have when the federal checks and balances established by our Founding Fathers are overrun? We will be looking as we vote for our next Governor for strong, principled leadership.

tly sent the following letter to our senior senator, Max Baucus: Max, let's start out by saying that you have been doing a good job for Montana in recent years and that is why I have voted for you every time you have been on the ballot. That, I'm afraid, is about to change if you keep going down the path you are on concerning the requirement for health insurance or risk a fine. This is unbelievable and un-American. You see Max, until recently I had no health insurance and made too much money for Medicaid. I was stuck in...

(912 on the mall) The left's anti-American coup d'etat on America, made possible by the first radical Marxist in the White House, calls for distinctly American counter measures. Dr. Jack Wheeler has "a strategy for any Republican wanting to get elected or re-elected to Congress in 2010, and for any Tea Partyer wanting to take individual action now against a government that ignores the Constitution -- Defund and Disobey." Here's an excerpt of "The Double -D Strategy for rescuing America": Let's talk about the Defund D first. The Founders in their usual brilliance place the power of the purse in...

I recently wrote (Raise the Army of Texas) that the congressional oligarchy could be broken if the states exercised their Constitutional right to send as many representatives to Congress as they are permitted by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. Article I, Section 2 imposes a limit on representation and not a requirement. A state may send fewer representatives to Congress than it is allowed but would be foolish to do so. Congress arbitrarily imposed a stricter limit on the states in direct violation of the Constitutional limit. The result has been the concentration of great power in few...

As 2009 comes to a close I am reminded of the pattern(s) of behavior regarding B. Hussein Obama and his goal to fundamentally change America. Maybe it has to do with Christmas looming on the horizon, Obama tinkering with the auto industry and all the layoffs that caused (my family and I thank you for that one, from the bottom of our hearts you charming Marxist) or perhaps it has to do with your using the Constitution as a place to wipe your shoes as you destroy America, or any number of things that you have done illegally, amorally, and...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution “charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.”

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution “charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.” The words “health” and “well-being” do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The Congressional Budget Office has determined that in the entire history of the United States the federal government has never mandated that Americans buy any good or service. Both the House and Senate health care bills, however, include provisions that require all legal residents of the U.S. to purchase health insurance, a provision whose constitutionality...

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." They say they want to encourage dialogue via these billboards. Great. I'll start. The billboard says that Islam is "the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham,...