IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.

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

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Read the rest of this entry »

The announcement today that Governor Palin is resigning at the end of July comes as a bit of a surprise.  I can imagine the weight that her political career has had on her family.  The attacks ( and that is what they were) on her character and members of her family have been relentless, even after the election was decided.

If the decision was to protect them from future attacks and bring some peace, I admire it and respect it.  It is also the end of her national political career.  That being said, there are other things to pursue in this life and I am sure she will be successful with whatever path she chooses.

If the decision was made to elevate the fight and dedicate time specifically to the fight, it could prove to be very good timing.  There is a void, in the public space, of high profile people criticizing the President and his policies.  The Repulican Party leadership has been quiet, too quiet in my opinion.  There is pent up demand for leadership, national leadership, to stand against the rising tide of statism.  If she chooses to take the fight to them, it could prove an interesting dynamic.

Good luck to Governor Palin, regardless of the path.  She has conducted herself with honor and character—we would do well if more public servants followed her example.

A message from the small businessman who wants to expand his business, make a greater profit and hire more people:  Decrease my cost of doing business!  Lower the cost of success!  Allow my business to make more money, which invariably gets invested in more equipment, more square footage and more people.  People who create capital, people who buy capital and people who do not need government assistance to live.  In short, get out of the way!

A message from the healthcare executive confronting expanding demand with decreased margins:  Decrease my cost of doing business!  Dramatically reduce the 125,000+ pages of federal regulation currently burdening the healthcare industry.  Regulation that attempts to control costs dramatically reduces efficiency and my ability to competitively bid.  Allow for fair but controlled settlements in medical malpractice lawsuits.  Insurance companies must be able to predict exposure, with the current ‘lotto’ amounts of punitive damages, they are unable to do that.  Dramatically reduce the amount of state level minimum mandates on insurers.  These mandates drive up the cost to insure despite not being applicable to a vast majority of insured.  This will allow me to buy more capital, make more money and inevitably, hire more people.  Get out of the way!

A message from the venture capitalist looking to fund new businesses:  Decrease my cost of doing business!  The regulatory environment is stifling the ability of my industry to fund, grow and exit from businesses with a profit.  A high degree of failure is a part of my business and I recognize that I must fail in order to succeed.  For this high failure rate, I get a high return on those businesses that succeed.  My industry has been the engine behind the technological revolution of the past thirty years, yet now we are stagnating.  The future of American job growth will be driven by small innovative businesses that venture capital is expert in finding, growing and helping to succeed.  This job growth will not happen with current financial regulations growing and subsequently burdening our industry with higher hurdles.  Competition and winning are in our blood—we will buy more capital, make more money and increase jobs providing that the government can GET OUT OF THE WAY.

A message from the American citizen:  Reduce the control that you are attempting to exert on my life, my liberty and my pursuit of happiness.  As I stand in line at the post office with three people in line and ten people behind the counter, I wonder how you are going to drive cost out of the healthcare industry by increasing government control.  As I stand in line at the DMV with twenty people and thirty people are behind the counter, I wonder how you are going to drive cost out of the healthcare industry by increasing government control.  As I look back at our nation’s history, I am still searching for the industry that was formed, or grown or improved by a dramatic increase in government control.  I do not need the government to take more of my money and then tell me, with increased frequency, how to spend the money that I have left.  What I need is more of my own money.  More of my own money to invest in my business.  More of my own money to invest in my own home.  More of my own money to fund my kids education.  More of my own money to buy the things that I need, that I want and that will make my life better.  With more of my own money, I will save more money, invest more money and live the life that I choose.

Get out of the way!

President Barack Obama and his administration are putting together a patchwork of policies, both domestic and foreign, that are placing a heavy blanket over individual freedom and liberty.  Whether it is discouraging protestors in Iran or siding with would-be tinpot dictators in Honduras, the President is taking a decidedly passive, in fact discouraging, stance toward the rule of law and the expression of liberty.  Domestically, the exponential growth of the federal government and consolidation of executive power at the White House ( through the numerous czars ) are both counter to increasing the real and economic freedom of Americans.

The weight of President Obama’s policies will be with us for a long time.  As Michael Ledeen notes,

“To our great shame, we were unprepared for the uprising of the Iranian people, which had become highly likely in the runup to the “election,” and which, we should have been aiding for years with better communications, strike funds for workers, open calls for freedom, and insistence that political prisoners be freed. Worse yet, in the first days following the explosion, our leaders seemed annoyed that the Iranian people had interrupted efforts to strike a bargain. The president first took credit for the “robust debate,” then suggested there was no real difference between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad, warned that it would be counterproductive for him to be seen “meddling,” and then, when the dimensions of the street massacres were too large to ignore, criticized the repression and finally spoke warmly of Mousavi.

Iran is still simmering; there is still fire beneath the ashes of the savage repression, and no one knows what the tens of millions of anti-regime Iranians will do in the coming weeks and months. But we do know what the regime will do, both to its own people and to us: continue to wage its 30-year war. The big question is whether we will respond effectively.”

We have effectively been denying the intentions of Iran for over three decades and through multiple administrations.  However, the U.S. has never seen the opportunity to give credence to freedom in Iran like we are seeing now.  Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has chosen to take a pass, and, in doing so they will effectively allow the mullahs and the revolutionary guard to seize greater control over that troubled nation.

The continuation of this denial of freedom was seen most recently in Honduras.  The Honduran President, Zelaya, attempted to circumvent his country’s constitution and remain in power past his legally mandated limit.  The Honduran Legislature and Supreme Court, to their credit, sided against this singular abuse of power.  The military, acting on the legal authority of the court and the legislature, removed Zelaya from office and he ended up leaving the country.  Zelaya is now being defended by Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro and Daniel Ortega.  These three men not only stand against freedom, they have spent their entire political lives attempting to deny freedom to their own citizens.  President Obama has taken the unprecedented step of standing with these enemies of freedom and calling for the reinstatement of Zelaya.

Here at home, President Obama has consolidated control of two automobile companies, multiple financial institutions and insurance companies within the executive branch.  He is attempting to nationalize the medical industry ( a full 20% of our GDP) and place everyday personal medical decisions within the control of the federal government.  At every opportunity, this President is taking away individual freedom and expanding the power of the state.

Rhetorical flourish aside, presentation aesthetics aside and coverage by the MSM aside, we must start to realize that we have an executive running this country who does not cherish and foster individual freedom—the very basis of our country and its multi-faceted success.

The opposition to President Obama needs to focus on the universal themes that have driven this country’s success.  We can focus on a wealth of examples displaying the wisdom of following a path toward increased individual intiative and liberty.  The examples that President Obama and his supporters will have on their side are non existent.  Limiting freedom limits opportunity, limits growth, and limits the very hope and change that President Obama claimed to be promoting.

Great video summary by the CATO Institute regarding President Obama’s healthcare initiative.  There also exists some great models for reforming the system at their website. ( http://www.cato.org )

If all of the Republicans voted against the cap and tax legislation, it would not have passed.  That is the simple truth.

Epic failure by the House Republicans.  They were unable to strike more fear in the hearts of their members than the Democrats.  This will correctly be billed as a bipartisan effort, it will not be hung on the Democrats and may, in fact, put wind in the sails of ‘moderate’ Republicans in the Senate.

The NRCC, as well as the Republican Party should yank all funds away from the reelection campaigns of the eight who voted with Speaker Pelosi, with Al Gore and with the increasingly discredited ’science’ of global warming.

Failure to bring the heavy hand down on these legislative symcophants will simply allow them to make more discrediting moves.

The Democrats are putting into play as much leftward leaning legislation as they can, as quickly as they can.  The idea is to overwhelm the opposition, utilizing their distinct advantage in the mainstream media.  Despite this strategy and the complicit nature of the drive bys, momentum is gaining against many of the liberal initiatives.  This is largely due to the fact that we are not a liberal country, we believe in individual liberty, we believe in the opportunity presented through increasing freedom and we do not believe in centralized control of large swaths of our economy.

The legislation hitting the books today is cap-and-tax, an opportunity killing initiative meant to placate the environmental special interest groups.  Man-made global warming is a myth, unproven by pier-reviewed and publicly accessible research.  That myth provides the basis for this legislation, which is being described by the Wall Street Journal as the largest tax increase in human history.  The Democrats are banking on the ’slow-burn’ nature of the tax ( it will be implemented in the future and phased in over several years) to minimize the immediate impact on their electoral chances.   The immediate impact of the legislation will be increased caution that it creates within the business community.  This caution will mean slower job growth and slower GDP growth—-not the things you want during a recovery.

During this ‘flooding of the zone’ with liberal initiatives, it is important that conservatives remain focused, keep our rebuttal simple, while focusing on universal themes that resonate with the American People.  Freedom, liberty and opportunity.  Will any of these initiatives promote those ideals?  Will any of this legislation increase our independence?  Will this liberal wish-list create a country with more opportunity for our children than we have?  The answers to all of these questions are no, no and no.

Disappointment.  That word adequately describes my reaction to the news that Governor Sanford has chosen to remove himself from the national scene through his personal actions.

I do not stand in judgement of his choice, that is between himself and his family.  However, Governor Sanford is a solid fiscal conservative that can speak to the need for limited government.  His voice will now lack credibility on the national stage.

As a kid, my only knowledge of the Battle of Midway was what I garnered from watching the movie, which featured Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda and a myriad of other great Hollywood stars.  The movie could not do justice to the sacrifice made by the members of our military, but it did make you appreciate the fragile nature of our country’s defense after Pearl Harbor.

Some six months after that devastating attack on Hawaii, the U.S. Navy launched an ambitious attack against a very powerful and successful Japanese military.  Much attention will be paid to the D-Day anniversary over the coming week, rightfully so, but Midway surely turned the tide in the Pacific and helped us to secure our footing and move on to eventual victory over the Japanese.

There are several sites that provide great information about Midway, I would like to forward a few:

Navy History

Wikipedia Summary

Navy Memorial Events

We should always give thanks to our veterans, regardless of what battle they fought or what service they provide.  However, there are certain campaigns that truly have saved our country—-Midway was one of those engagements.

As I awake every morning, the thirst for information and analysis is as strong today as it has every been.  The internet provides a wonderful avenue to quench this thirst as the news is up-to-the-minute and the analysis follows closely behind.  When time permits, I post some thoughts, share some of my own take, and, sometimes, vent.  Without exception, there is one site that I hit every morning and, quite frankly, several times a day—Powerlineblog.

The three men who occupy that space on the internet; John H Hinderaker, Scott W. Johnson and Paul Mirengoff, were all graduated from Dartmouth College and went on to pursue careers in law.  Their writing, while sometimes focusing on legal issues, is a broad based commentary on the political and cultural movements in our country.  Over the years, their posts have grown more in depth, providing an enjoyable and educational read.

As many of you know, Powerlineblog was heavily involved in bringing the fraudulent CBS News story regarding George W. Bush’s military service to light.

I strongly recommend adding their site to your daily reading.