The Moon?

Earth is the Cradle of Mankind,
But one cannot stay in the cradle forever.

If you’ve been following the GOP political campaign circus of late, you could hardly avoid Newt Gingrich’s proposal to build an American Lunar Colony. And you could hardly miss the ridicule being heaped on him from left and right alike. But, before we question his sanity, we might want to remember that prior to Mr. Obama’s decision to scrap the NASA program, it was official (and quite popular) US policy to “return to the moon” by 2020, as the next step in the route to Mars. So, if Newt’s got the wrong idea, so do a lot of other folks. Understand that I’m not particularly endorsing his presidential campaign, but he has brought up a point that’s dear to my heart, and one that I wish all the candidates would address.

The big opposition view in our society’s current thinking about space flight is apparently “why waste the money”, or in words of one syllable “we can’t afford it”. The political right looks at the burgeoning national debt and gets hysterical whenever someone mentions spending even more money. The left on the other hand is quite comfortable with spending a few trillion more dollars, but they want the money dumped into ObamaCare and/or a vastly expanded welfare system under the guise of “redistributing the wealth”. But there are some of us on the middle ground that see a different sort of alternative. Just how much money are we talking about when we say “Lunar Colony”? One guesstimate predicts somewhere around the high side of $130 billion, spread out over the next eight to ten years. Well, let’s consider that the price of an F-35 jet fighter is about $156 million, while the B-2 bomber costs an average of $737 million per copy. Nuclear submarines cost us anywhere from 5 to 13 billion dollars, each, while a nuclear carrier has a sticker price of about 22 billion dollars to build, and in well in excess of $168 million a year to operate! The 2009 defense budget was $680 billion dollars, and quite a bit more in suplimental “wartime” spending. HEW on the other hand has an annual budget of around $700 billion. You can figure that the US annual budget is almost $3 trillion dollars, and NASA’s current $17 billion cut of that is quite a bit less than the cost of building just one nuclear carrier. That’s not very much in comparison with the rest of the budget. Sure, it’s going to be expensive, but with those numbers spaceflight isn’t unaffordable, and we would be creating hundreds of thousands of high paying American jobs as well. Remember the Apollo lunar landing program? When a shortsighted Congress cut the funding, high-tech unemployment skyrocketed, and we soon had PhD’s pumping gas at the corner service station.

Part of the manned spaceflight bad press comes from so many highly specialized space scientists claiming that we can do the science far cheaper with robotic craft. I’m quite sure we could… if the darn things worked properly… all the time! How many space missions have you heard of lately that failed, due to any number of “minor” glitches? How many times have panicky remotely controlled software fixes saved a mission, or at least a part of it? In general the highly successful mission of the Opportunity Mars Rover is an aberration, abit a happy one. There’s a reason that aerospace engineers (and the flight dynamics people) call Mars the “planet of death”, and any mechanical or electronic equipment can fail, usually at the worst possible time! If those expensive lost missions had been manned, how many of them could have been saved by a flight engineer with a toolbox and a few spare parts? Remember the Mars mission that crashed because a computer programmer forgot there’s a big difference between miles and kilometers? Could a human pilot or navigator have spotted the problem and saved the mission? Quite probably. The Viking Mars landers of the late ‘70’s conducted tests to detect signs of life. One experiment came up positive, but the results of the other two failed to reveal any organic material in the soil, leaving many to believe that the positive results were caused by non-biological chemical reactions from soil conditions. That argument rages on today, and could have been readily settled at the time by a on-scene scientist or two. Certainly, in some cases a robotic system is indicated for several reasons, as the various multi-year photographic flights to the outer planets show… but a robot can only do what it’s previously been told to do… and when something breaks, will the computer programers have always anticipated every possible failure? No, there’s lots of argument for manned spaceflight, and I rather think that space exploration of the future will be manned, and have a lot of robotic assistance.

Throughout history, humanity has been blessed (or cursed, depending on your viewpoint) with people who are never quite satisfied with a humdrum life. They are driven to find something newer or better, or just to see what’s on the other side of the mountain. These are the explorers, the “long hunters” and mountain men, the colonists, the pioneers, who will happly risk everything in search of their personal El Dorado. Thousands of years ago explorers began spreading humanity across the face of the Earth. More of them came to the new world a few hundred years ago and preformed a near miracle of nation building. Certainly there are those in each generation that are quite happy in their nice warm, safe, totally boreing little niche in their all to familiar world, and they are quite welcome to stay home if that’s their desire. But in America our ancestors were a bit more adventurous than most, and being a somewhat cranky and disruptive sort, were dissatisfied with their stifiling old world society, it’s rules, regulations, taxes, and overcrowding. They picked up their marbles, left their homeland, and went on to build a new country that became the showpiece of Earth. Those sort of people are still with us, and, being fresh out of new lands for them to explore, the population pressure is again building, and we’ve got to find a relief valve, a means for them to go pioneering, lest they disrupt that nice safe world prefered by the stay-at-home types.

Another problem facing humanity is the fact that we’re running out of accessable resources. For the most part we’re now mining low grade materials to feed our industrial demands, and even those materials are getting scarce. (Globally we use about 3 billion tons of iron and steel each year, and little of that is recycled.) We’re running out of energy sources as well. What’s going to happen when the oil finally runs out? The enviro’s object to our burning coal, they won’t let us develop nuclear fission, and their alternate “green energy” programs have been a total flop so far. Yet the sun each second puts out about forty million times as much energy as we need on Earth, which leaves the possibility of building efficient space based solar power systems to solve our energy problems… until the sun burns out in a few billion years.

It would be nice if we could develop a new supply of natural resources… before we’re reduced to living in an updated version of the stone age! The moon, and the near Earth asteroids, contain a plentiful supply of just about everything we need here on Earth, and to live and work in space itself. Professor John S. Lewis, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona states that an asteroid only two kilometers in diameter, and assuming typical meteorite composition, would be worth (at todays prices) around 300,000 trillion dollars! That’s about the gross GLOBAL product for a very long time into the future! In one dramatic estimate, Professor Lewis highlights that main belt asteroid 3554 Amun as potentially having $20 trillion in gold beneath its surface, along with another $8 trillion in iron and nickel, $6 trillion in cobalt and $6 trillion in platinum! Humm… anyone for a gold rush in space?

Due to its proximity to Earth, the Moon is often discussed as the primary target for space colonization, an idea with its good and bad points. To start off, it’s fairly easy to get there, at least in comparison to a trip to Mars or Venus. Then, once on the moon we can, in reasonable safety, learn the tricks to living and working in space, which is going to prove a necessity to the future of the human race. Additionally, the moon has only one sixth Earth gravity, which makes it much easier and cheaper to launch deep space missions (including a trip to Mars) than it is from Earth’s surface. The main drawback to utilizing moon resources is that some of the materials we need are lacking… but we can get those materials from the near Earth asteroids, which are even easier to reach from Earth orbit than the moon is! Many people say it can’t be done, yet the Department of Defense had quite viable plans to build a permanent lunar base… in 1958. That’s ten years before Apollo flew. The science was done decades ago, now it’s simply a problem of engineering, and of course finding the will to make the effort.

We couldn’t, even if we wanted to, specify the political systems, religious beliefs, or social mores our descendants will live under. But in the question of space colonization, we have in our hands should we decide to use it, the power to leave them a shining future in which they can choose their own way.

A GI's Christmas

The holiday season is upon us, and despite my best efforts I’m still a long ways from being prepared. I guess that’s about normal, as over the last sixty plus years I have yet to be ready for Christmas! Even so, I can’t help but remember the days long ago when I served in the US military and had little to look forward to except a lonely Christmas Eve in some strange and far away places. Actually, “strange” is hardly the proper term for some of them… I’ve stood alert hangar duty on Christmas day a couple of times, I was once unfortunate enough to be subjected to a pretty respectable rocket and mortar barrage on Christmas Eve, and like most GI’s, I’ve often had nothing to do other that sit around the NCO club soaking up a few bottles of suds. (If you catch me at the right time I might even tell you about a certain Easter Sunday I spent hiding in the bushes while the bad guys sat around almost within touching distance, enjoying their Nuc-nam and rice!) No, holidays, particularly Christmas, are not an easy time to be a serviceman stationed in a strange and often hostile land, a long ways away from home and family. “Care Packages” were particularly valued, especially if they contained a batch of Mom’s home made cookies, and probably the best gift of all was a long rambling letter from the folks at home. Christmas carols came over AFN (the Armed Forces radio Network), and Santa Claus kept his distance for fear of being shot down (if he did show up, it was probably in an armored personnel carrier)! Then too, the strains of “Silent Night” hardly sound proper when punctuated by the roar of aircraft engines as fighter-bombers take off to drop hate and discontent on other peoples heads. And “Joy to the World” hardly fits when the artillery guys down the road are shooting off a few salvos of Christmas greetings from Uncle Sam.

Still, despite my maudlin reminiscing, the military went to a lot of effort to make the holidays bearable for young soldiers. Generally, in somewhat peaceable area, the barracks rats (the young bachelors) would take the duty on Christmas so that the married guys could be home with their wives and kids. In a combat zone like Vietnam it didn’t matter, Christmas was just another workday, as the much vaunted “Christmas Truce” was little more than a propaganda ploy by Charlie. ‘Course in our case the married guys returned the pulling duty favor a few days latter when we had a big party coming up. It’s interesting to note however, that in both World Wars the troops (in Europe at least, and across the hatreds of war) would declare their own impromptu Christmas Eve cease fire, and in the unexpected silence of the night would sing the old familiar carols to each other. The same happened during our civil war, when groups of opposing soldiers would meet in the middle of “no mans land”, and sit around for a couple of hours singing the old tunes and discussing their plight, all the while smoking Confederate tobacco and drinking Union coffee, until some rather indignant officers put an end to that!

In my day, for the most part nobody got stuck with KP on Christmas, as that was traditionally handled by the senior officers and NCOs. The chow wasn’t all that bad, particularly considering that the mess hall was cooking for hundreds (or even thousands) of soldiers. No, we got a real live properly cooked meal (although probably not up to Mama’s standards), and it certainly beat out ‘C” rations, ‘K’ rations, or MRE’s! If you were up on the firing line, dinner was probably served from insulated containers and might still be lukewarm when you got it, but at least it was the traditional Christmas dinner and not the inevitable hardtack and salt pork of Civil War days. A proper salute is due the cooks and bakers; as they put a lot of extra effort into those holiday meals! Where I was at, it was another tradition that the Commander, accompanied by the First Sergeant, would make a round of the maintenance area on Christmas Eve with a bottle of whisky, sharing a tot of cheer, and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

While we may have felt sorry for ourselves during my soldiering days, we had things infinitely better than some in that long line of American soldiers stretching out through our nations history. Consider the tired and hungry American soldiers at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, or remember the words of George Washington’s letter to Congress while at Valley Forge in 1778… "To see the men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie upon, without shoes...without a house or hut to cover them until those could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience which, in my opinion, can scarcely be paralleled." I doubt that Christmas was very enjoyable for the men of the Army of the Potomac at Falmouth in 1862 either, or we might consider the plight of the soldiers and marines at Frozen Chosin in 1950. The Cold War may be over, and our troops may be coming home from Iraq, but many others still stand in harms way in Afghanistan this Christmas, risking sudden death or painful wounds. American soldiers still watch, far from home and family, over the shaky truce in Korea, and to keep the antagonists separated in Kosovo. They still stand guard in this dangerous world,at lonely outposts, from the frozen artic to blistering deserts to the silent depths of a cold dark sea.

So while you enjoy this holiday season, home and hearth, the company of your family, and I would hope a scrumptious Christmas dinner, take a moment to remember those millions of young Americans, past, present, and future, who gave up their Christmas so that you might have yours.

From the Fogarty household to yours, A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Vets

With my well known propensity to get quite upset when I feel that that America’s military veterans are being mistreated or just plain forgotten in the rush of “politics as usual” in Washington, you’ll generally find me involved in our local veterans organizations, and taking part in various Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. As the high point of Veterans Day a few weeks ago, I attended the assembly at Grangeville High School where Pat Sullivan’s history class did their usual fantastic job of honoring our local veterans, reminding everyone that freedom is not free, and that which many Americans take so lightly was paid for with the blood of a veteran. I make no secret of being very proud of my status as an American veteran, and with that I’m sometimes asked to define “veteran”… so at the risk of tooting my own horn, I’ll try to answer that question.

Quite often a veteran is described as someone who, at some point in his life, wrote a blank check to the American people, payable “up to and including my life if necessary” (a lot of those checks have been cashed through the years). Simplified, and according to the dictionary, “A veteran is defined by federal law, moral code and military service as "Any, Any, Any"... A military veteran is Any person who served for Any length of time in Any military service branch. A war veteran is any GI ordered to foreign soil or waters to participate in direct or support activity against an enemy. (Any GI sent in harm's way.) A combat veteran is any GI who experiences any level of hostility for any duration resulting from offensive, defensive or friendly fire military action involving a real or perceived enemy in any foreign theater.” In short, a veteran is one of those folks who fought the nations wars, so that you wouldn’t have to. Well over a million American servicemen have died in the wars and conflicts this nation has faced since the first colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775 to fight for our independence. They’ve died on American soil and on foreign soil, they’ve died at sea, and they’ve died in the air. Every one of them gave his life for this country, for our people, and our distinctly American culture. They gave their lives so that generations of Americans yet unborn could live in a free nation.

So, what else can veterans do, or rather, after the war, how do veterans live up to the American Legion’s motto of “Still Serving America”?

Well, nothing quite as spectacular as fighting a blood and guts war, but veterans in general are people who take citizenship, civic responsibility, and patriotism very seriously. Consider how many veterans gravitate to public service jobs as firemen, policemen, and Emergency Medical Technicians. Many more serve with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol, or perhaps they merely volunteer many hours of their time with a variety of community service organizations. They’ll be found sponsoring children and youth activities such as Little League and Legion Baseball teams, the Boys State education program (the Ladies Auxiliary sponsors the Girl’s State program), High School Oratorical Contests, Scouting sponsorship, Jr. Shooting Programs, and they donate thousands of dollars annually to assorted scholarship funds. Veterans serve thousands of hours each year in the Veterans Administration Voluntary Service Program, helping other veterans who are patients in VA medical facilities, along with other Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation programs. We commonly do Flag etiquette education, Flag Retirement, and Color Guard Details. Veteran’s organizations work closely with the Family Support Groups of deployed soldiers, ship thousands of “CARE” packages to those deployed troops, and support programs to provide free telephone calling cards to soldiers overseas. Veterans continue their service to America in hundreds of ways, by still serving in their communities. Being realists, they can usually be counted on to be well informed on the issues, and they vote with our countries best interests in mind, rather than blindly following some half-baked political or economic theories.

It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

If you value your liberty, thank a veteran… you’ll find him around someplace, wherever a helping hand is needed.

Land Exchange

The proposed Upper Lochsa land exchange seems to be the “hot button” subject here in Idaho County at the moment, so… I’ll weigh in on the subject, along with nearly everyone else who lives around here, and a lot of folks that don’t. For starters, and at the risk of getting everybody mad at me, I’ll say that I can sympathize with our County Commissioners on this bucket of worms, as they’re caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place! It looks like whatever they do will be the wrong thing in the eyes of the community, and that’s a bad place for any politician to find himself.

The problem started when WPT (Western Pacific Timber) purchased nearly 40,000 acres of privately owned land on the Lochsa River drainage. The land has been logged in the past, replanted, and is currently growing quite nicely. WPT’s plan was to “trade” these 40,000 acres to the forest service who would love to get their hands on it (probably so that they can take it out of production, decommission the roads and trails, and in general ban public access in the interest of environmentalism). The proposal was to trade for other (timbered) forest lands scattered across northern Idaho. Past that point, WPT’s plans get rather murky.

As required by their own regulations, the Forest Circus… Service, asked for public comment on the proposal, which is what brought the County Commissioners into the discussion. Knowing that they can only make suggestions, their response to the Forest Service quite clearly states that they much prefer “Option A”, which is “take no action”, or in other words “fugid aboudit”. However, being realists, they also recognize that the federal government is going to do whatever they (and the environuts) darn well please, no matter what the local folks wish, or who gets hurt.

But now things start getting sticky. Along with all the usual problems they face, the Commissioners understand that their primary job is to take care of the County as a whole, which means to keep us economically afloat, working, and out of bankruptcy court, unlike what some eastern communities are presently facing. Economically however, the county faces a disaster, in that the Craig/Wyden and SRS funds (handed us as a result of the feds cutting off our timber supply), are about to end, and that could very nearly put us completely out of business! That loss is about 10 million dollars a year into the county coffers, and will no longer be available to an annual budget of roughly 13 million dollars. Adding to that problem, if we loose 40 or so thousand acres of private land and the taxes (about 12% of our property taxes I understand) that go with it, we’re in the position of “now what?” Remember the assorted public services that the majority of our voters demand the county provide? Well, they have to be paid for somehow, so with a major budget shortfall, which ones do you want eliminated? How many school teachers do you want to lay-off? I suppose we could just ignore our roads, but what happens when they go completely to potholes? Our justice system will take a hit I’m sure, and I pity the sheriffs department, trying to “protect and serve” without the wherewithal to do so. Indigent health care, mandated by state law, is going to get hurt, and I suppose parts of energy assistance as well. Just about everything the county does is going to be cut back of necessity! Sure we can buffer the impact somewhat, by increasing local taxes, but where do we draw the line on that?

Anyway, as an alternative, the county commissioners suggested that the entire land swap take place within Idaho County, and thus leaving our local tax base relatively unscathed. Part of that process includes suggesting to WPT and the Forest Service that assorted forest lands within the county could be traded without doing quite as much damage as the original proposal. Most of the county suggested lands were in two fairly large plots, one behind Harpster and the other up near Glenwood. That put everything back into the forest service’s decision making process. The Forest Service, and the Nez Perce tribe, joined forces in looking at the county proposal (which has not yet and may never be accepted) and changed the entire county proposal around, deciding that the majority of those exchangeable lands should be in the vicinity of Grangeville and Riggins. And that brought on a scream of agony from the commissioners… and a whole lot of the county’s citizens!

So now we have the “Stop the Swap” movement on the scene, vehemently protesting the whole idea! Much of this protest objects to the “privatization” (read that as posting “No Trespassing” signs) of prime recreational lands that at present are accessible to hunters, snowmobilers, 4 wheelers, berry pickers, and whomever. Unfortunately, the protests are directed primarily at the county commissioners, instead of where our objections might do some good, which is the US Forest Service… and of course the US Congress! After all, Congress has the exclusive power to manage and dispose of public lands and property (Article IV, Section 3 of the constitution states: "The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States;"). With that, federal land management agencies have no actual authority over public lands, they have only the authority which Congress has specifically delegated to them. (‘course I don’t recommend that you run off into the woods, and totally ignore whatever regulation you happen to be upset about.)

Part of the “Stop the Swap” anger being directed at the commissioners is based on the precept that constitutionally the County Commissioners are the final authority over everything that happens within the county. While this is quite true, it, and everything else having to do with state or local rights, haven’t been enforceable since General Lee surrendered to the big government people at Appomattox Courthouse! You know who big government is, the bureaucrats who happily ignore the Constitution… and a Congress that lets ‘em get away with it. So, how about a way to handle things right at the top…

According to the census bureau, there are about 16 thousand people presently living in Idaho County. There are also a lot of folks in other areas objecting to the swap… If only half of us wrote a lot of letters and made a flood of phone calls to our congressmen, vehemently objecting to this entire land exchange, and trying very hard to calmly (and intelligently) state our case, I wonder if perhaps we’d finally get some attention from those in Washington that actually make the decisions. Remind them of their constitutional duties, tell them that you’re quite upset with this whole exchange deal… and… you might want to mention that there is an election coming up, and that you are a voter.

Al-Walaqi killing

A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves.

-Author Unknown-

As could be expected, the recent killing of Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, and three of his associates has brought about a flood of protest on this side of the pond. The political left, libertarians, and of course the ACLU, are all weeping, wailing, and protesting that al-Awlaki, who just happened to be an American citizen born in New Mexico of Yemeni parents, was “executed” by the US government without benefit of legal “due process”. The Associated Press reported that in a serious blow to al-Qaida, U.S. forces killed two American citizens who played key roles in inspiring several attacks against U.S. targets, cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and Samir Khan, who edited the Jihadi Internet magazine, were killed in the course of a U.S. airstrike on their convoy in Yemen. Al-Awlaki apparently was targeted in the killing, but Khan was a fortunate case of “collateral damage”. Presidential candidate Ron Paul joined the civil liberties parade in protest, saying; "No one likes these kind of people, but I also like the rule of law and I like our Constitution, that you don't just target people, assassinate them, someone who has not been charged and you have no proof of anything."

Well, Okay, I can understand the concern. We are after all, a nation under law, law that considers people to be innocent until proven guilty. With that, it often seems that nearly every week we see headlines about some person or other that was convicted of crimes involving murder and the death penalty, and incarcerated for often very long periods of time before they were suddenly proven innocent and finally released. So we can readily see that even the law does make mistakes. But Al-Awlaki is an entirely different situation. While he was born in the U.S., his family moved back to Yemen where his father was a government official when he was seven years old, which hardly makes him an American in any but name! Secondly, he received a radical Islamic education which imbued him with a deep hatred of everything non-Islamic. Finally, any American citizen who knowingly and willingly attacks the United States is guilty of high treason, which is punishable by death. In this case, Al-Awlaki most certainly did, repeatedly, urge Islamic jihad against American citizens (which included both the Ft. Hood shooting and the somewhat less than brilliant “Underwear bomber”). Ergo Sum, sentence carried out by means of a missile launched from a U.S. drone.

There is another aspect of this incident that does concern me greatly however, in that now our government can order the death of American citizens without benefit of a trial… or even proof that a crime has been committed! Remember not long back when the news came out that the government was spying on Americans? Apparently there is a secret panel with the authority to authorize internal spying by government agencies, in a witch hunt for supposed evildoers. This panel can authorize spying on anyone in the country from a bonafide terrorist, to a suspected drug dealer, to, I imagine, a political opponent! (Sort of a “Watergate done legally” I think.) Done by direction of the president, such spying is in direct violation of our constitutional rights. You might also remember that we were solemnly promised such spying would be limited to catching bad guys, and only used in very few cases at that. Shortly thereafter we found out that numerous federal agencies including the FBI, were spying on us wholesale! Now, Reuters News Agency reports that “American militants” like al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions. There is no public record of the operations or decisions, nor is there any law authorizing the panel, or anything laying out the ground rules by which it operates. The role of the president in the process is kept rather vague, probably in the interest of plausible deniability.

Two legal theories have been advanced concerning the legalities; that the actions were permitted by Congress when it authorized the use of military forces against militants in the wake of the 9-11 attack, and they are permitted under international law if a country is defending itself. But US District Judge John Bates wrote "Can (the president) order the assassination of a US citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organization?" With the Patriot act, government has the power to declare just about any dissenter a potential terrorist. And “anyone” could cover a lot of territory from tax protests, to members of an opposing political party, to actual members of Al-Qaeda! Anyone who disagrees with the fed’s could be labeled a potential terrorist and placed on the hit list! I’m certainly no legal expert or Constitutional scholar, but I have yet to see anywhere in the Constitution where this is allowed, something that Congress can’t seem to understand!

A short lesson from history here… Martin Niemoller was a German pastor and avowed anti-Communist who supported Hitler's rise to power. Later, with Hitler’s insistence on the supremacy of state over religion he became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler. In 1937 he was confined in concentration camps until 1945. His crime was "not being enthusiastic enough about the Nazi movement." He issued a public statement shortly the war that's quite well-known and often quoted.

“First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Certainly, Anwar Al-Awlaki, or Achmed the dead terrorist for that matter, should have been blown away, a long time ago, so I’ll offer my congratulations to the shooter for a good hit. But I am also very much afraid that this incident is setting a really bad precedent, as we’re granting the executive branch of our government the power to kill any U.S. citizen deemed a threat by our politicians, and that includes you, me, or the guy down the street… and that with no judicial oversight, or any of the rights guaranteed us by our Constitution. If we allow such gross misuse of power to continue, we are driving yet another nail in the coffin of our constitutional republic.

Spendocrats

“Suppose you were an idiot, and then suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself.”

-Mark Twain

The “Spendocrats” are at it again. If it wasn’t so pathetic, the recent “debt deal” between Capitol Hill and the White House (with its aftermath) would be rather funny, or at least according to my somewhat twisted sense of humor. The debt problem arises from the Congressional habit of spending more taxpayer money than the IRS collects each year, and that dates back to FDR’s “New Deal” socialism of the 1930’s. Granted that social welfare programs aren’t the only cause (I expect “cold war” expenses had a lot to do with the national debt as well), but I do believe that the long term federal effort to make the American populace dependant on government largess has just about destroyed this nations economy. In case you’ve been hiding out in the woods for the last seventy or so years, in 1929 the socially approved crap game of the American stock market crashed, it led the United States (with the rest of the world soon following), into the “Great Depression” of the 1930’s. That of course pushed the American public into massive unemployment, bank failures, personal and corporate bankruptcies, the loss of many people’s life savings, and a whole lot of social and political unrest. Enter the do-gooder socialists with a spending program to “end the depression”, a program that nearly eliminated the national treasury with huge “make work” spending programs.

That spending gave us Social Security, the TVA, Hoover Dam, and the Golden Gate Bridge well enough, but contrary to popular belief it did nothing to end the depression, and in fact extended the misery for several additional years. It also gave us a bureaucracy and a welfare state that has been expanding at a logarithmic rate ever since. Under several democratic presidents since then, Congress has been happily handing out tax dollars and borrowed money to state and local governments along with their welfare bureaucracy, in a mad attempt to curry political favor and to “buy” votes ever since. Currently, to keep up that spending spree and pay the interest on those borrowed funds, the US Government as authorized by Congress consumes approximately 20% of our gross national product every year! Now, at the beginning of the 21st Century, our national debt exceeds our ability to pay it off, and the interest alone puts a severe strain on our nation’s finances. This in turn led to the fight in Congress, and the threats of defaulting on our debts unless Congress raised our debt limit.

The congressional battle as I understand it, was essentially a disagreement about raising the debt ceiling which the Democrats preferred so that they could continue borrowing more money and spending our future. The Republicans on the other hand opposed raising the ceiling, and instead preferred to attack the problem by curtailing government spending (I doubt that would have actually happened), which in turn would have made a lot of potential voters who are presently feeding at the government trough quite unhappy. Everything focuses on the debt burden which must be reduced, so that if our taxes are not to be increased yet again, then government spending must go down, and the compromise reached does neither, it merely ignores the problem for another year or two. Now of course, the DNC spin doctors are blaming the Republicans, George Bush, the Tea Party, corporate America, and all those greedy rich people who don’t particularly wish to redistribute the rewards of working hard all their lives.

I receiver the following in an e-mail not long back, and will paraphrase a bit…

Remember the old story about the ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER? Wherein the ant works
hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter, while the grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed, and the grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

The moral of the story is; be responsible for yourself.

Now we have the modern upgraded version of the story…

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter while the grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving. CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing “We shall overcome”. Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake while he damns the ants.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, the Tea Party, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid claim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.

(My apologies to the original author of this tale.)

The House of Representatives contains 435 members, while the Senate adds another 100 people to the fumbling committee running the show. Thus we have 535 “Spendocrats” who are solely responsible for the mess we now find ourselves in. They and only they determine the revenue rate, they and only they determine the spending. When things, good or bad, happen to the United States, it is because “they” want it to happen that way.

You might want to remember this story as you prepare to vote in 2012.

Osama bin Laden

They who can give up liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

The public reaction to the long overdue death of Osama bin Laden continues to amaze me. Many of us of course cheered the demise of the person responsible for the violent deaths of thousands of Americans, and for our ongoing wars. And naturally there were a good many people who were pretty well “ho-hum” about the whole thing. From the loony left we still hear a good deal of weeping and wailing that our killing of the “Great Sheik” will anger Muslims world-wide and cause them to attack us. I guess that is correct in part, as I understand that radical Muslims are still quite upset over loosing their fearless leader, but consider, with or without Osama, when did they not attack non-Muslims (or anyone else that disagrees with ‘em) at every chance? Then to, there are those folks who immediately suspect yet another government conspiracy, that Osama is well and fine, and probably living the life of Riley in Iran. With only slightly less fanfare we also have those who are constantly arguing the case against the CIA’s use of unconventional interrogation to find out where this nutcase was hiding.

At any rate, if bin Laden isn’t dead, I’m sure that he’ll appear on worldwide TV one of these days, and like Mark Twain once did, announce that “the reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated”. But for now, even Al-Qaeda has publicly admitted that he’s gone and they have appointed his successor. The proof of his death will probably be when the UN complains about fish in the Arabian Sea suffering from food poisoning! Personally, no I don’t think he should have been buried at sea… his mangy carcass should have been slathered with lard, sewn into a pig skin, and hung on public display in New York City’s Times Square, Muslim idealism and sensitivity be dammed! But still, the good thing about the sea burial is that there’s no body and no martyr for the radicals to declare a holy shrine or whatever they do when their leader runs off to paradise. But barring a body to display, I would like to see the famed pictures that Mr. O has decided to keep secret.

Just goes to show ‘ya though, attitudes do change! In 1941 the Empire of Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor killing 2,400 people (mostly military personnel), and sinking a bunch of ships. Once the shock had died down a bit, the American people reared back on their hind legs, bared their fangs, and in four years had extracted a most terrible revenge on the Japanese Empire. Sixty years later the 9/11 attack killed almost 3,000 people (nearly all unarmed civilians), knocked down the pride of New York City, and brought about a completely different response. In a fit of panic, the American people blamed themselves for the death and destruction, doing the “sackcloth and ashes” thing while weeping piteously, and allowed Congress to pass the ill named “Patriot Act” which stripped us of many freedoms guaranteed us by our Constitution, as well as creating the Department of Homeland Security which effectively makes us a police state! Keeping the armed forces in the game (despite having military veterans declared “potential terrorists”), we have the US Northern Command tasked with all sorts of specialized jobs in direct support of the DHS. Additionally we have the Transportation Safety Administration (those “hero’s” who draw a fat government paycheck for groping children and strip searching elderly ladies at the airport) cluttering up the scene and costing us billions of dollars every year. Huh… if all this had happened to the Americans of 1941, the government would have two major fights on their hands, one overseas against our attackers, and the other with the highly irate American people who were demanding their freedom back! Well, I for one have a hard time believing that modern day Americans are so terrified of another Islamic attack that they literally give up their freedom and beg the government to “protect” them from a few wild-eyed radical nuts. The folks I grew up with were quite capable of handling a few terrorists all by themselves! We really don’t need the DHS though, a few million pistol packing Americans with a bad case of mad would, I’m sure, convince the terrorists that it would be much safer to stay home and blow each other up! And on that note, heaven help the miserable soul that tries to terrorize my wife! He will, in short order, find himself flayed alive and hung out to dry! (She tends to get a bit difficult when someone disturbs her peace and quiet.)

Certainly we live in interesting times, but you can bet your bippy we're not going to make things any less interesting by apologizing to the world for every perceived wrong, and running about in a completely mindless pursuit of “Safety and Security at any cost”. I also find it strange that the home of a people who once challenged (and beat) the worlds premier colonial power in a war over individual liberty and freedom is so rapidly giving up that liberty today in a mad search for security, while at the same time the young people of the Middle East are rising up in protest, and demanding their freedom from totalitarian rule!

Other that a possible spasmodic attack or two, Al Qaeda's day is done and gone. Mr. O apparently figures that the war is more or less over, and wants to bring nearly 30,000 troops home, while Leon Panetta, our new defense secretary tells us that al-Qaeda is defeated. Yet Congress, in its infinite wisdom, extends the insidious Patriot Act for another four years and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says "Even as we mark this milestone, we should not forget that the battle to stop al Qaeda and its syndicate of terror will not end with the death of bin Laden", both inferring that only government can save us from continued attack by Islamic fundamentalism. Well Ms. Clinton, I notice that the Islamic world has not risen up in yet more anger and rage at the US, but rather they are angry and raging well enough, rebelling against the very same totalitarian fundamentalism that created bin Laden, and from which he drew his strength!

As for Osama himself, I can only hope that the last thing he saw in this world was an irate US Navy SEAL, and the last thing that went through his mind was an American 9mm bullet. I would also have liked to see the look on his face when he found out that paradise ran out of nubile virgins a few hundred suicide bombers ago!

Articles of Confederation

Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Tom Paine

I’ve been pretty well out of circulation of late, for reasons involving my somewhat shaky health and the resulting extended “vacation”. But I have used much of that time doing some in-depth research into our Constitution… how it came into existence, why we have it, and just what it all means. No easy task I assure you, particularly for someone who has never been noted for brillant scholarly aptitude! In this case I’m using four particular items, the text of old Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Anti-Federalist Papers. There are also quite a number of essays on various aspects of the subject that make quite interesting reading. (All of this is available on-line if you’re so inclined.)

First a bit of history. The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft a constitution for a union of the states in June 1776 (one day after they appointed a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence), and sent the draft to the states for ratification in November 1777. This early constitution became the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” in March 1781, although they were more or less in effect long before they were fully ratified. (Remember that communications were rather slow in 1777.) Under the Articles, the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically handed over to the central “national” government. The Articles were created out of a perceived need to have "a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States." The unicameral Central Government was empowered to make war, negotiate diplomatic agreements, set weights and measures, operate the Post Office, regulate foreign commerce, collect customs duties, serve as the final court for disputes between states, and resolve the many issues regarding the western territories. (It also established term limits for Congressmen.) Under the articles, Congress could make decisions, but had no power over the states to enforce them. Any changes to the articles required the unanimous approval of the states. The majority of lawmaking also rested with the states, leaving the central government extremely weak, which posed a major problem when dealing with foreign powers. Passing any national laws required the approval of nine of the thirteen states as well. Congress was denied the power of taxation, and denied the power to run up a national debt. It could request money from the states, but was powerless to enforce such a request. Nor was the central government allowed a standing army, being limited to only enough troops to garrison various forts and arsenals. Congress was also denied the power to regulate interstate commerce, which left a lot of state tariffs and imposts creating havoc with the economy of the day.

No federal taxes… Humm, interesting. So if Congress wanted to spend some money on a pet project they could A.. try to talk the states into paying for it, or B.. pay for it out of their own pockets. And no Executive branch to hand out “stimulus packages”, “health care plans”, or to plague us with an army of bureaucrats! No Federal Judges… equally interesting… no activist judges to legislate from the bench! No standing army either (the state militias filled that role), which would make starting a “preemptive war” rather difficult. While many of us today would consider such stringent governmental limitations to be advantageous, at the time those limits came to be considered severe weaknesses, as without some central control the states were usually squabbling amongst themselves. (Picture the Congress of the era as a sort of mini UN, and equally ineffective.)

As the weaknesses of the Articles became more and more apparent, people began asking for changes which would create a stronger national government. As more states became interested, Congress approved (in 1787) a convention of delegates from each state "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation" to "render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union." All well and fine, except those delegates got carried away with their commission, and using the Articles as a template, wrote an entire new Constitution, the one we live under today.

The new Constitution was adopted by Congress and ratified by the individual states because it did solve the problems of the time. It also, perhaps unwittingly, laid the groundwork for many of the problems we face in our own age. As one pundit recently wrote, “it seems like the US Constitution was written by lawyers and financiers, to enhance the power and authority of lawyers and financiers.” He’s definitely got a point there! And Congress, in its infinite wisdom, seems unable (or at least unwilling) to do anything about those legal and economic problem that plague us today. From its inception our Constitution has been used by our politicians as an instrument to enhance Federal power, generally to the detriment of the individual states. Unfortunately it’s also been the weak link in every attempt to slow that Federal expansion, and so far has proven incapable of rolling back Federal power in every attempt made. So… what can be done, legally and properly, to correct this situation?

Stay tuned for my next exciting installment of the continued saga of the US Government, the Articles of Confederation, and the US Constitution.

More Nullification

The debate over nullification rages on, with the Idaho House having passed a nullification resolution (HB 59), despite the statement of Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s office that the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” is constitutionally legal, and thus cannot be nullified. Mr. Wasden is our state’s chief lawyer after all, and in holding that office I would hope he’s properly qualified even if I do completely disagree with his legal opinion. However, as I understand the Constitution, the US Congress does not have the authority to order state legislatures to do its bidding, but they can compel the states to do as they are told, in that Congress can place conditions on any federal funding it offers the state. For example, in the 1980s, all states had to raise their drinking age to 21 or the federal government would hold back 5% of the dissenting state's highway funds. In a similar manner, all states must follow federal education guidelines, or risk loosing their federal educational funding. This sorry situation has developed over the last seventy-five years, beginning with FDR’s New Deal and the dispersal of federal funding in response to the great depression. Since that time, the several states have become more or less dependant on federal largess to keep their assorted “entitlement” programs alive, and a lot of politicians in office.
A Federal Union is a good way to do business, as long as the member states willingly retain their membership. When however, they are forced to remain part of the union against their will, or to “do things” that the citizenry opposes, it becomes a repressive political system. (This observation also applies to just about every field of human endeavor, from sports teams to marriage to political relationships.) Objecting to federal force, the effort by Idaho lawmakers (sponsored by Representatives Vito Barbieri and Judy Boyle, along with Senators Monty Pearce, Steve Vick and Sheryl Nuxoll) to nullify Obamacare suffered some temporary setbacks, but was passed and declares the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010’ (Obamacare) to be "not authorized by the Constitution of the United States," and therefore is, "null, void and of no effect regarding any Idaho citizen." Cheers to the Idaho House for at least trying, and jeers to the Senate for letting the bill die. (Or, as County Commissioner Skip Brandt said: “There’s to many lawyers in the Senate”.) The loony left, the mainstream media, and of course the Feds all object to nullification, claiming that the individual states do not have the authority to nullify anything, citing the “Supremacy Clause” of the Constitution. However, one should never assume that a politician at the national level would support the idea of nullification, as one seldom mentioned function of government (and any bureaucracy) is to keep itself in power, while expanding that power by any means possible.
The supremacy clause can be found in Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution, stating: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” Does this mean that any and every law passed by Congress and signed by the President becomes the "supreme law of the land," even if it violates expressed provisions of the Constitution itself? Apparently so according to many judges, members of Congress, and "legal scholars" who hold such a view of federal absolutism. And that’s the position taken by Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.) at a town hall meeting last year. Responding to a question about Obamacare, Rep. Stark replied that the rulers in Washington "can do most anything in this country," followed by "I think that there are very few constitutional limits that would prevent the federal government from [making] rules that could affect your private life." The questioner then asked: "If they can do this, what can't they do?" Rep. Stark replied "The federal government, yes, can do most anything in this country...." So far, the Supreme Court seems to take a similar view, and would make nullification unconstitutional. Today’s politicians have no difficulty in finding those legal scholars who will support that interpretation, although personally I’d rather take the word of the folks who wrote the constitution. Since the start of the administrative state with FDR’s new deal, there have been plenty of folks in the federal courts and academia pushing for unlimited federal power.
Now, I’ll ask a question: Are civil laws meant for citizens but not the police? Are moral laws meant for laymen but not clergy? Are constitutional limitations meant for states but not the feds? (It’s certainly looking that way in Sodom-on-the-Potomac!) Our federal government has a long history of violating Constitutional limits, but several of these recently passed laws may well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, as pointed out by lawmakers in nearly a dozen states who have been talking quite seriously about nullification… of Obamacare, the Environmental Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and gun control. The Loony Left of course has been weeping and wailing about the potential loss of their pet programs, and of late have begun telling us that such action might start another Civil War… despite the fact that the American people don’t have a history of throwing a rebellion every time they get mad at the folks on Capitol Hill. And quite unlike some of our more excitable neighbors around the world, Americans do have a habit of voting with a ballot rather than a bullet.

But, like the patience of the American people, the authority of Congress to impose conditions upon the states is not limitless, and the states do have a few teeth of their own.
The Jeffersonian doctrine that recognizes states’ right to reject unconstitutional federal law is not a new concept, and has been used of late. In 2008, our state lawmakers rejected the federal government’s REAL ID Act, which would have required everyone to carry a national ID card. At the time, the Legislature declared the federal law to be “a violation of the principles of federalism contained in the 10th amendment to the Constitution of the United States”, decreeing that “the state of Idaho shall not participate in the implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005.” As I remember things, this didn’t cause the state to secede from the national government, nor were we invaded by federal forces. In fact, the bill was passed unanimously, signed by the governor here (and similarly in 21 other states), and today we don’t carry a national ID card. When California voters approved Proposition 215 to allow the use of medical marijuana, the word "nullification" was brought up. Opponents of the proposition cited the supremacy clause as usual, claiming the state had no authority to violate federal marijuana laws. But millions of Californians voted to violate those laws anyway. And, when the Supreme Court ruled that state-level medical marijuana laws were illegal, the dispensaries didn't start closing up shop. By 2005, nine other states that had joined California in passing those medical marijuana laws. After the Supremes told the nine states that such laws were a no-no, how many of them were repealed? None, and since that time yet another five states have joined up. Think about it, there are now 15 states actively defying Congress and the Supreme Court on that one issue, and they’re getting away with it. That, more than anything else, is what nullification is all about… state action which results in ill considered federal laws being rendered unenforceable. The idea is popping up in legislatures all across the nation, as irate conservative citizens push their anti-spending, anti-imperial government agenda.
Let all your state and federal representatives know your opinion about these onerous laws they’ve been cramming down our throats, and remind them that if they’d like to keep their cushy jobs, they might want to remember that you do vote.

Nullification again

As I’ve previously commented, Nullification is the legal argument that the Sovereign States have the right to invalidate (nullify) any federal law which the state has deemed unconstitutional. This is based on the fact that that the sovereign states created the Union, after they formed the Continental Congress and fought (and won) a revolution, after they tried the unwieldy Articles of Confederation, and after they wrote and adopted the compact called the Constitution of the United States. As such, the separate states are the ultimate authority on deciding the limits of federal power. Nowhere in the Constitution do I find anything that says the states ever surrendered that authority! Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both authors of our Constitution, argued that the states are the ultimate interpreters of the Constitution and can "interpose" to protect state citizens from the operation of unconstitutional national laws. Under this legal concept, the States and not the Federal Bench, are the ultimate interpreters of the extent of the national Government's power. A somewhat more extreme step towards enforcing state sovereignty is the related action of secession, by which a state ends its affiliation with the Union.
In a unanimous 1958 ruling, the Supreme Court wrote that states were bound by the Constitution's Article VI, mandating that U.S. laws, when vetted by justices, "shall be the supreme law of the land." While I’m certainly not a legal authority, I seriously question the right of the Federal Bench to proclaim their authority over an inferred right of the soverign states! While the concept of nulification is a little used tool in our nations legal system, it has, over the last couple of centuries, been brought to the forefront in various legal arguments, most notably in 1828 by John C. Calhoun, then vice-President of the United States, in arguing against the tarriff bill of that year. Calhoun argued that the individual states had retained the right to veto any act of the federal government that violated the Constitution. Jefferson and Madison argued that if the federal government had the right to judge the extent of its powers it will continue to grow, regardless of elections, the separation of powers, and other limits on government power. In an effort to retain their power, the Supreme Court rejected the idea of nullification, determining that state governments had no power to nullify federal law, either openly by state legislators, state executive, or judicial officers, nor can federal law be nullified indirectly by them through evasive schemes.
We commonly speak of keeping our federal government strictly limited. To that end, the United States has a written Constitution which specifies the rather short list of those powers entrusted to the federal government. Additionally the Tenth Amendment makes it quite clear that any power not specifically granted to the federal government resides in the states, period, end of sentence. That is all well and good, but how do we restrain a government that is (following what seems to be a law of nature) always trying to expand its powers? The framers of the Constitution were well aware of the tendency for power to concentrate and expand, leaving Jefferson to often speak of the calamity that would result if all power were vested in the federal government.
The Constitution is a barrier to such tendencies, but no constitution can enforce itself. Checks and balances also provide little guarantee of limited government, since the three federal branches can simply unite against the independence of the separate states and the rights of the people, which is precisely what Jefferson warned was already happening in 1825: “[I]t is but too evident, that the three ruling branches of [the Federal government] are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic.”
Therefore we need a mechanism to keep the federal government limited and unconstitutional measures out of the law books, and that is the constitutional remedy known as nullification.
Examples of direct nullification attempts are rare, with one being the recent Virginia Health Care Freedom Act to prevent the federal government from requiring mandatory insurance coverage. In 2009, a state sovereignty resolution passed both chambers of the Tennessee legislature, and while relatively toothless, it was the first time such a resolution had been signed by a state governor. Since then, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, and Oklahoma have passed similar resolutions, and several other states are taking a long look at the possibility. I, like many others, have high hopes for nullification, but remember, its one thing to pass a symbolic resolution, but it’s going to be quite another to make it stick.