Category: Government

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I re-read this today.

Yes, I know it’s weird. 

I re-read The Constitution about once or twice a year.

When I was testing printers for a living, I often Printed The Constitution as a test case. It was my way of making sure that people who might otherwise have never read the document had an opportunity to.

It’s surprising how many people haven’t read it, and equally surprising how many people came to my cubicle asking for me to print copies for them. 

We should remember that The Constitution is a document that defines our government AND its limits.  

You don’t have to be a constitutional scholar to read The Constitution. It is a remarkably straight forward document to build a nation on.  I’ve alway believed that the directness of the language was intentional, and the document was to be comprehensible to the general public.

I once had a grand time citing Amendment VII as my reason for refusing to enter into binding arbitration. I was probably citing and using the Amendment incorrectly.  Nonetheless, I did get out of the HR department of a company I worked for, without losing my right to have legal representation and trial by jury if it became necessary.

Allow me to introduce you to my friend,

The Constitution of the United States

Happy reading.

With gratitude to 

National Constitution Center

525 Arch Street

Independence Mall

Philadelphia, PA 19106

(215) 409-6600

www.constitutioncenter.org

For producing a very nice PDF of this document.

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Been out of it for a couple of days… All I can say is DAMN!

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My ISP was having some difficulties with packet loss and their problems were affecting my ability to get email and upload to the blog.

Paraphrasing Poltergeist 

“I’mmmm BAAACCK!”

The question is what do I talk about first?

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The Bundy Ranch v the BLM?

I hate to even think about what could have happened if someone had squeezed off a shot during that standoff. That’s how really bad things happen really damn fast. I personally don’t think Mr Bundy has a leg to stand on legally. OF more concern to me is that we had an armed standoff at all. 

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When you start looking at issues surrounding the Bundy standoff. You can’t help but stumble over reports of other events where one could say that the US Government is overstepping its authority and behaving very much like a totalitarian entity.

There are currently issues over land between Texas & Missouri due to the ever changing nature of a river that had traditionally marked the boundary line between the states and ranchers in the area. The BLM is taking an interest and stands to usurp something like 90,000 acres without compensating either the states or the landholders.

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The EPA is attempting to assert control over many bodies of water, including watering ponds on farms and ranches. They are also making noises about assuming control of dry or seasonal creek and river beds.

Meanwhile The Border patrol has become a nuisance to Arizona ranchers whose property abuts the buffer zone between the US / Mexico boarder They’re doing things like cutting fences or leaving gates open without so much as a “by your leave.” 

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These supposed events are concerning because they’re in general, never picked up by the main stream media but are reported in local area papers. On an individual basis these seem like minor local issues but when you view them from the “orbit” of the internet it does start to look like a quiet conquest.

With government oversight, come government control. With government control, come fees, fines, and increased taxation (whether it’s called a tax or not.) This seems to be the source of the underlying embers that almost burst into flames at the Bundy ranch.

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The FDA is being reported as sticking their noses into a long standing arrangement (100+ years) between Beer Brewers and farmers regarding grain. The Beer uses the grain to make beer, then the waste material is usually given to farmers / ranchers to mix with feed stock. This arrangement takes care of the waste without requiring anything other than a farmer / ranchers willingness to haul the used grain away.

Now, the FDA is wanting to regulate this equitable arrangement in the name of public health even though there has never been an instance where the public or the animals have been harmed. Some old traditions bacme old traditions due to the test of TIME. It’s not in the best interests of Farmers or Ranchers to engage in an activity that is detrimental to their livelyhoods. So does the FDA really need to be involved? Probably not, but you can expect for their fees and inspections and whatever the hell else they’ll do to drive up the cost of a beer, and possible the cost of food too.

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The newest revelations about the IRS internal memos?

Just WHO is Lois Learner afraid of? She claims she’s in fear for her life and that’s why she doesn’t want to testify. REALLY? Can’t her employer The United States Government protect her & her family? Or is it the US Government that she’s afraid of?

The Ukraine?

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Does anyone really believe that Vladimir Putin is concerned in the least about what President Stompy Foot thinks? Don’t get me wrong Putin is not a nice guy but he’s doing what he things is best for his country ( Or Himself) and he’s not in the habit of asking permission. 

Potential for World War III?

There have been some writers comparing the flashpoint issues for WWI and WWII to what’s happening in the Ukraine.

I’m not sure that I completely agree with their assesment that WWIII could be in the offing but the correlations are interesting to read. I doubt Putin would move it to an all out war against NATO but hey no-one thought a strange little houspainter would end up Chancellor of Germany either.

President Obama’s trustworthy polls?

This one cracked me up. Approximately 60% of Americans believe that Obama is actively lying to them one way or another. Now that’s really gotta piss President Finger waver off.

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The President was on TV again today defending Obamacare and as usual took the opportunity to reiterate that Republicans are BAD and that their continued desire to revisit Obamacare isn’t in the public interest. Whoo Hoo 8 million people signed up. Lets see, there are approximately 313.9 Million people in the US. Does that mean a whopping 3% of the population signed up. Whoooo impressive!

I’d have been more impressed if this 8 million had ALL been previously uninsured people instead of poor schmucks that lost their insurance and had to find something on the exchanges.

I’d have been more impressed if there wasn’t a recent editorial by a lady that had called something like 92 doctors in New Jersey only to find out that her shiny new obamacare card wasn’t being accepted because the doctors didn’t want to deal with the smaller payments obamacare would provide for their services, and the increased overhead and oversight from the government.

I’d be more impressed if, instead of Pres. Stompy shaking his finger at Republicans he’d actually listen to what the vast majority of Americans are bitching about regarding having their health insurance screwed with.

I’d really be impressed if ALL of Congress, including that idiot Harry Reid had to sign up with Obamacare through the exchanges. (Hey Harry, let see if you’re smart enough to use the damn internet shall we?)

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I have no idea what the hell is going on anymore. I feel like I’ve walked through the looking glass into bizzaro world.

In short, HOLY CRAP BATMAN!

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Don’t know what to think…

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The BLM sending guys to a ranch with guns?

Tasering a guy? Tossing a woman to the ground? Establishing a “Free Speech zone?” REALLY? Are you fucking kidding me?

Supposedly all this over a tortoise?

Additional information being reported that the BLM has shot & killed more of the tortoises than cattle ever trampled?

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The ranchers family has been in the same place, grazing the same land for over a hundred years?

Other stories being reported about the BLM tossing two Shoshone women off their land for having a few horses, goats, and cows. The women in question were supposed to be subsistence level farmers and had nothing other than their home and animals.

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His death followed his wife’s mysterious death in a single car accident on a desert road near their home.

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These are the kinds of stories we’d expect to hear coming out of The old Soviet Union, but these are stories from America.

We have examples like Ruby Ridge, and Waco where all may not be as was reported and our Government may have over stepped constitutional boundaries.

Oh let’s not forget Wounded Knee 

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Native Americans look at the government with considerable suspicion and they’re justified in doing so. How many treaties were broken?

How many times did our Government take back land because the powers in that government wanted what was under the land?

Based on history, I find myself asking what is it the BLM really wants and why do they want it? 

Reports have surfaced implying Senator Harry Reid is somehow involved. I dismissed those reports until Senator Reid made the statement “It’s not over” regarding the Bundy ranch.

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If he’s not involved why make the comment? Surely a Senate Majority Leader has better things to do with his time, unless he had a personal interest in the outcome the the range war between the Bundy’s and the BLM.

As I’ve read the material becoming available online ( and I admit readily that digital data is not reliable ) I’ve come to see that the BLM may in fact have prior claim.

The land in question was aquired via the Treaty of the Guadalupe Hildalgo. However the Bundy family has been grazing on the land in question since the 1880s. 

Who has rights to what is something that the courts have decided or will decide.

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I’m a lot more concerned about the force shown by the government and their apparent willingness to use that force without hesitation.

I’m concerned about the slow response of the media to the escalating confrontation. 

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OH, For God Sake

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Late last summer the flood control folks from the county decided they were going to do us all a favor by digging out the wash that starts at the top of an 8000 ft mountain down to the desert floor.

This decision in turn subjected all of the local residents to months of ground shaking, rumbling, dust, speeding dumptrucks, damaged roads, and, in the end left us with a view that looked like a moonscape.

We weren’t pleased about what they’d done. We were over fucking joyed when the heavy equipment finally left and we were no longer in the middle of a fucking construction project. It was our Christmas present and we all sighed a deep sigh of relief.

Then in March, it rained! God forbid, it should actually rain!

What happened next was what many of us had predicted would happen. As I noted in an earlier blog any child who grew up east of the Kalifornia border and whose parents weren’t terrified of their child actually being … a child … knows what happens when you build a “Straight channel” down a slope and it rains.

The surrounding dirt fills in the bottom of the channel and dirt from the top of the slope comes tumbling down to fill in your carefully dug channel.

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(As a kid I lost more plastic army men in channels dug in my sandbox and back yard than I can shake a stick at. I’d love to see the archeologists face in 2000 years when they excavate my old back yard.)

However unlike the small channels dug with a garden trowel replicating the movie  “Guns of Navarone,” the channel behind our residences is deep enough and wide enough that when the material started moving, it really started moving.

Lets see, 8000 ft mountain, deep channel, nothing to hold material in place, (since they couldn’t take their excavations and concrete the barriers right to the base of the mountain because that is national forestry land), and what do you get?

A large movement of dirt, rocks, debris, and god knows what else all over cemented barriers and you still have the road (which is too low in the first place) flooded out and buried.

A child could have predicted what was going to happen. 

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All this is a rehash of what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future, provided Kalifornia doesn’t become a desert akin to the Sahara.

My gripe isn’t so much about the utter stupidity of this whole wash project itself. I’ve been pissed off for a while because absolutely nothing that the county said was going to happen, has happened (aside from the construction itself.)

My gripe is about the complete destruction of the peace & quiet.

Throughout the tail end of the summer when I should have been enjoying my back deck, I couldn’t. In the Fall when I’ve spent happy hours writing blogs, or my books watching the seasons change I was denied the simplicity of sitting on my deck in the early morning or evening watching the sun rise or set over the desert.

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We honestly thought that our Christmas celebrations were going to be disrupted with the clanking of bulldozers and dump trucks. As a result, I barely put up any lights or decorations because I simply couldn’t stand the horrific din of being at ground zero of a construction project.

I was recently away, I was in a very small town in FL. My folks home backs up to a swampy area which at one end is truly a swamp, the other end opens onto a lake. In point of fact it would probably all be a lake had it not been for some illegal dredging in the past 50 years.

The point is, I got used to the silence. The sound of birds, the sound of rain on the roof (No, NOT TIN! Thank you very much, although Tin roofs are making a nostalgic comeback on certain upscale yuppie homes.) The sounds of frogs, and splashes of fish making a meal of an insect on the surface of the lake. It was a quiet kind of noisy, the sounds were natural, familiar, and put me at ease.

Then I come home.

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And what does my first week home bring me? 

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, Rumble, rumble, diesel stench, and dump tucks racing up & down the road in front of my home. Endless noise of heavy equipment starting at 7am and ending at 5:30.

Because now you see, they have to empty all the dirt and rock from the channel they created. Yep they have an ongoing POS flood control thing to maintain. Guess that’s one way to keep people working.

Unfortunately, it’s not very convenient for me. Most of the year, we have the windows open taking advantage of the nice cross breezes we’re fortunate enough to have.

Last year, because of all the noise, dust and general chaos we kept our windows closed starting in August. You don’t even want to know about the electric bill because of the air conditioning use.

Here we are again, trapped in the house the temperatures are going up and pretty soon we’re going to either have to open the windows or start running the A/C.

All of which makes me want to do nothing but get in my car and leave! Again!

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At 7 am this morning the beeping that woke me wasn’t in fact a malfunctioning alarm clock but was instead, a grader driving up the newly created access road next to the wash. After slamming my hand on the “Snooze” button a few times to no avail, I seriously thought about calling a realtor. 

REALLY?

I’m being driven out of my home, or mad, or both by a flood control project I didn’t ask for, to solve a problem that didn’t exist until they started mucking about in the wash in the first place, which hasn’t solved the problem.

I moved 90 miles from LA so that I could enjoy the quiet. 

If I’m going to have to put up with the noise and hustle & bustle, and never have a moments peace, I might as well be living in fucking Hollywood. It would sure make issues on the job front easier to solve!

So my faithful readers, use this as a cautionary tale and if the county you live in, decides to “Make things better, or safer… especially if they’re talking about a problem that you’ve never heard of or seen before…

TELL THEM TO FUCK THE HELL OFF!

Pull an Arthur Dent, lay down in front of the equipment. Protest, and if necessary, start yanking distributor caps of the machines in the dead of night. Believe me, no good will come of a project the county decides is best for everyone.

Excuse me I’m going to check zillow for comps on my house, maybe I can sell this place and not lose my shirt.

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Lets ride the Obamacare merry-go-round again!

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I swear, A LOT!

Especially when I’m having to deal with the complete and utter Bullshit that Obamacare is causing in average folks lives.

But I really start swearing when I’m having to clean up the mess Obamacare has introduced into my nice neat life. For the second time in less than a month it appears that my insurance is in an indeterminate state.

The primary hitch seems to be in the prescription coverage.

I spoke to a nice young lady a few weeks ago and she gave me the proper string of numbers and letters to have a prescription filled. I found out today that string of letters and numbers doesn’t work anymore.

Which loops me back to the problem that I was trying to solve several weeks ago that required me being on hold for 5 hours or so.

At the time I asked the nice young lady if there was a problem with my policy. She said nope, you’re paid up until March.

Uhh, it’s Feb 3rd and apparently there is something wrong with my insurance.

I’ve now been on hold for another hour and aside from the same repeating loop of music and a female voice saying,

“All agents are still assisting other callers please continue to hold and your call will be answered as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience.”

Nothing much has changed.

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As I sit here on hold I realized that if someone was trying to sort out this problem from their place of employment, they’d have to take a day off from work.

Think about the people in retail or the waiters and waitresses. Do you think their employers would accept the fact that they need to be on hold for hours on end just to sort out getting a prescription for their sick child?

Why should I as an independent business person have to ignore my clients and not get any work done because I’m dealing with Obamacare or the ramifications of Obamacare?

Does all this lost time get factored into the cost equations of implementing Obamacare? It should!

The boondoggle of Obamacare is not only canceling insurance for people that were previously insured, it’s creating a backlog of clients like myself who cannot get assistance when they need it.

People signing up doesn’t mean jack shit if those people can’t actually access the policy or services that they’ve bought and paid for.

Sarah Palin was wrong, there won’t be death panels.

There will simply be people dying of neglect. If you’d like to see how that plays out I suggest that you get hold of a movie called “The Hospital” sorry it’s not available on Netflix.  The movie has, George C Scott, Diana Rigg, Barnard Hughes, and Richard Dysart. It was made in 1971. The blurb on IMDB doesn’t sound like much but it’s really well done.

Well this time, it turns out the computers cancelled me on Jan 1st.

Might have been bloody nice if they’d told me I was cancelled. Of course that cancellation wasn’t supposed to have happened. Then again neither was my migration to another policy that wouldn’t have taken effect until March of this year, leaving me with no coverage for 2 months.

Again it would have been really nice if the insurance company had, oh… I don’t know, MENTIONED something to me about it.

Instead my only indications were that I suddenly didn’t have prescriptions coverage. Thank God I didn’t need to go to a hospital.

All this has been absolutely wonderful raising my blood pressure.

Everything is sorted out until Feb 15th When I get to go through another enrollment process and figure out if I’m eligible for subsidies.

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Subsidies?!?!? to pay a bill that I was capable of paying without assistance before Obamacare. I’m very confused about that. After all where does the money for subsidies come from?

Oh yeah from our tax dollars.

I guess this is what redistribution of wealth looks like.