Franklin P. Adams (1881 – 1960), Nods and Becks, 1944

                  There are so many questions on as to why we use the Electoral College? What are the benefits? What are the dangers? Is it an outdated bit of history? Can we get rid of it? All these and more I will attempt to answer and as usual I throw out the history books and return to the original documents and the actual records of past elections so here we go….

                         To some people The Electoral College is an anachronism badly in need of retirement. It was created during the Constitutional Convention in 1787; the Electoral College was thought to add stability to 13 loosely knit states where communications and travel were slow and illiteracy high. The debate over how to choose a president was perhaps the most contentious one of the Convention and involved a number of fundamental issues: federal vs. state powers, balance of powers between the branches of government, big state vs. small state rivalries, and slavery. Delegates were concerned that voters would lack sufficient knowledge of the candidates to make an informed choice and only local favorites would receive popular support. Proponents of the Electoral College wanted the most knowledgeable citizens from each state to select a president based on merit. For a young country experimenting with democracy and forged in revolution, the Electoral College was seen as less risky than direct elections.

             On the other side of the ledger we can look at the original intent as to why did the founding fathers place the Electoral College into the constitution in the first place. We left the “old” world to escape government and various other types of oppression, prosecution and persecution. Why not have the people vote directly for their leaders in our utopian “New” World? Some suggest that America was never intended to be a true democracy (Which is a valid point. In 30+ years of studying I have yet to find ‘Democracy’ even mentioned), but rather we were given a representative republic. Some will argue that this ensures that the candidates pay attention to states with small populations rather than spending all their time, energy and policy-making focused on the large states. This is a fear well-founded as if you look at the current Electoral College map….

             The people in California, or Florida, or Texas, or even New York would be electing our leader based on the desires of the population dense states totally ignoring those in the “Fly Over” states. (For my friends in South America the Term Fly over means those areas the leaders fly over on their way to their next meeting). Since the numbers are set by the population in each state the ones with the highest population gets more votes. The “One person one vote” concept.

              The problem with this method is that thru the Electoral College, some votes have more value or are given more weight than other votes. For example Wyoming has 160,000 people for each electoral vote, while Illinois has more than 550,000. Awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate with a popular vote plurality in the state means millions of voters are disenfranchised. Essentially, votes are taken away from those supporting the losing candidate and added to those supporting the winning candidate in what is known as “Winner take all” rule. In comparison, a direct popular vote – with its one-person one-vote system – is the foundation of democracy. The fact of the matter is that the founding fathers were still the ones with the power in this new world and it’s suspected that they were less than confident that the masses were capable of choosing the “right” leaders. The Electoral College offered a safety net in case the populace voted for the “wrong” candidate.

This method is ensconced in Article II Section 1 of the Constitution and explains the process as follows:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.  [Article II Section 1 Clause 2]

               Notice that only the number of Electors for each state is determined by following these instructions.  The actual senators and representatives in office are precluded from involvement.  The Framers were very careful to be sure that no special privileges were to be given in the nominating process to support the incumbent advantage in either the position of president and vice-president or to those then serving in the House of Representatives or the Senate since these bodies would cast the final votes for the President and the Vice-President respectively.  In fact any elected official or federal government employee is also precluded from being an Elector.  They really wanted to protect against setting up a system for any kind of political payoff. As we can see there was one body to nominate the presidential candidates (the Electors), and a separate body to elect the President (the House of Representatives). The vice-president would always be the remaining candidate with the most electoral votes after the president was selected.  Only a tie in this situation would be decided by the Senate.

                Originally each elector each Elector wrote down two names.  In other words they named or nominated two candidates for president.  Every time we write-in a candidate we nominate that candidate.  This means originally there were no Pre-printed ballots. This is important because this proves  there was no other or separate nominating process and that process were not described in detail in the Constitution that fact alone would be evidence of a serious design flaw in the Constitution.

                  I have found that even mentioning the word nominate seems to excite some degree of opposition and resistance among those with whom I have discussed this, namely Constitutional law professors.  Some of the professor’s take it as a ‘suggestion’ or recommendation totally ignoring the explanation of Connecticut Senator Uriah Tracy which he made during the Senate debate on the 12th Amendment Dec. 1, 1803.  Mr. Tracy actually uses the word nominate when he said “The Electors are to nominate two persons, of whom they cannot know which will be president.”  Later in the same speech Mr. Tracy also says “As the Constitution stands each Elector is to write the names of two persons on a piece of paper called a ballot.”  This statement cannot be misread to mean anything other than what they state.

               In fact the Electors went so far as to meet in their separate states on the same day to avoid the chance of collaborating with the Electors from other states during this process.  It appears that the Electors were able to freely discuss among themselves which individuals were to be nominated by their own state.  They were not however, forced to conform to the nominations of other Electors from their state.  There was no winner-take-all attitude at this level.  That would be contrary to the concept of nomination.  Each individual Elector’s decision of whom to nominate was preserved and respected.  The Electors were not to be influenced by men from other states in this function.  In this way, the “will” of their state in this matter was also preserved.  To protect against the anticipated bias that the Electors would have in favor of only choosing men from their own state, each Elector could nominate no more than one individual from his state.  The list of all nominees and the number of votes for each was then transmitted to the Seat of Government for the candidate selection and voting processes.

             The best defense of the Electoral College can be found in Federalist paper No. 68 in which Alexander Hamilton explains and defends the Electoral College system….

    March 12, 1788

To the People of the State of New York:

The mode of appointment of the chief magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.  [Little else in the Constitution has escaped criticism and even received approval from those opposed to its passage.]  The most plausible of these, who has appeared in print, has even deigned [thought worthy] to admit that the election of the president is pretty well guarded.  I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm, that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent. [It sounds like Mr. Hamilton thinks it is a pretty good method.]  It unites in an eminent degree all the advantages, the union of which was to be desired.

(Italics are my comments)

                It is at this point the duty of the Electoral College is complete. The whole design and purpose of the Electoral College was to get the individuals most fit for the office of president nominated.  The Electors were only to be involved in the first phase of the process.  Presidential candidate nomination was the prerogative of the Electors.  They had no right, duty, or responsibility to be involved in the other 2 phases of the process.  Designating which of the nominees was to be only a vice presidential choice was not part of the prerogative of the Electors.  After the Electors completed their task of nomination and the results were tallied and sent to the seat of government it was time to move on to step 2 of the process which included what I sometimes refer to as the shortcut.  It is described as follows:

Step 2, Candidate Selections. Was only AFTER the counting of the nominations.  This was to happen in a combined meeting of the House and the Senate.  If the above nomination were overwhelmingly in favor of a particular candidate he would become President, bypassing the deciding vote of the House of Representatives. If no candidate can be elected then we move to….

Step 3, the final Vote. In the absence of an overwhelming nomination for a particular candidate, the President would be chosen from up to 5 favorites of the Electors by the House of Representatives with each state casting 1 vote.

The winning candidate must meet 2 criteria that must be met for an overwhelming nomination:

1) Over half of the Electors must have written his name on their ballot, and

2) He is the candidate who has the highest level of confidence (not tied).

                The actual fairness of the Electoral College is that even though the Representatives vote, the small states have as much say as large states when the election goes to the House.  This demonstrates that the office of president is not to be confused with a king of the people.  He is a president of the states.  A majority of the states must vote for the president not merely a plurality.  This is a majority of the states, not a majority of the population, or a majority of the Representatives.

To summarize the original design of the system:

1)  The nomination process was accomplished by the Electoral College and amounted to a weighted vote.  The reason for using the number of senators and representatives rather than only the number of representatives was to give the smaller states more say.  In other words, the more populous states have a larger voice although not a proportionally larger voice as to who the candidates for president are to be.

2)  The candidate selection was to take place as the nominations were opened and counted in the joint meeting of both houses of Congress.  An overwhelming support for a particular candidate coming from the Electors who were not permitted to collude between states was taken as the will of the people and was not to be overridden.

3) Unless a majority of the total number of Electors nominated the same individual, as determined in the joint meeting, the field of up to 5 candidates would go to the House of Representatives where each state would have an equal vote for the president regardless of population.

                   The Vice president follows the same election path as the President with the exception that in the event there is no clear winner the Senate picks the President and the House of Representatives picks the Vice president. That being said one other important detail needs to be explained with regard to the final election in the House.  If a state has an even number of Representatives or if by abstaining from a vote one of the Representatives effectively puts a state in that position, a state may come up with a tie and negate its vote. And unlike Vegas rules, the tie does not go to the house.

                The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of president, will never fall to the lot of any man, who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.  [If you take the word of the losing presidential candidate (the words used while campaigning using our current methods of election) the above statement is adequately and ably refuted.]  Talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single state; but it will require other talents and a different kind of merit to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of president of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.  [The method of selection is wholly to be credited with this prediction.]   And this will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the constitution, by those, who are able to estimate the share, which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration. Though we cannot acquiesce in the political heresy of the poet who says:

“This speaks to the design of the electoral process as designed in the Constitution.  In other words get a good administration with good leaders time after time by the process rather than by politics or just plain luck”.

                That statement sadly does not always reflect the reality of the situation.

                In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that was composed of thirteen large and small States jealous of their own rights and powers and suspicious of any central national government. The 13 original states contained only 4,000,000 people spread up and down a thousand miles of Atlantic seaboard barely connected by transportation or communication (so that national campaigns were impractical even if they had been thought desirable). They also believed, under the influence of such British political thinkers as Henry St. John Bolingbroke, that political parties were mischievous if not downright evil, and felt that gentlemen should not campaign for public office (The saying was “The office should seek the man, the man should not seek the office.”).

                Since the 12th Amendment, there have been several federal and State statutory changes which have affected both the time and manner of choosing Presidential Electors but which have not further altered the fundamental workings of the Electoral College. There have also been a few curious incidents which its critics cite as problems but which proponents of the Electoral College view as merely its natural and intended operation.

                The legal way to stop the Electoral College is thru what is called an Article 5 Convention. What has to be done is to introduce a bill thru Congress to appeal or modify the Constitutionally mandated Electoral College. This bill must then make its rounds and to pass it must be voted on and ratified, or accepted by, 2/3^rd’s of the Senate, 2/3^rd’s vote of the congress and passed by 3/4^th’s of the states’ I have been told that that’s too hard to do. The Founding Fathers enshrined a way to change what mistakes they knew that we, as fallible men, would make in our experiment to self-govern. It was never meant to be easy to change the law of the land but it IS possible.

Pirates of the Caribbean.

Boy oh boy oh boy. Where can l even start with this one? As you all know I am all about the rights of the individual. As a strict Constitutional Originalist (I follow the original meaning and intent of the constitution), I will start with the first amendment. You know the one about our troubling right of freedom of speech. Here I am starting off by violating the new proposed SOPA law,

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The reason this is against the law is that I copied it from the internet and I will post it here now without proper attribution from its original source. Now if I used it as a line of a speech in front of live people then there is no problem. But using the narrowest definition of the SOPA law I am committing online piracy. First the FCC is a government agency that controls the airwaves. While the Constitution specifically prohibits their very existence none the less they will be the controlling agency here.

Brief side note here for my overseas friends, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and its little brother PIPA (Protect IP Act), here’s what the government can do to foreign websites under even the narrowest reading of SOPA section 102 and PIPA section 3:

1. Order internet service providers to alter their DNS servers from resolving the domain names of websites in foreign countries that host illegal copies of videos, songs, and photos.

2. Order search engines like Google to modify search results to exclude foreign websites that host illegally copied material.

3. Order payment providers like PayPal to shut down the payment accounts of foreign websites that host illegally copied material.

4. Order ad services like Google’s AdSense to refuse any ads or payment from foreign sites that host illegally copied content.

Now these rules don’t apply to domains that end in .com, .net, and .org, which fall under US law — the government has been seizing US domains used for piracy since 2010, and just seized 150 domains last month. Also as an added side benefit for the government, the next sections, SOPA section 103 and PIPA section 4 require payment processors and ad networks to shut down accounts if they receive the right kind of letter from a copyright owner — a system modeled on the heavily criticized notice-and-Takedown provisions of the current Digital Millennium Copyright Act that requires a service like YouTube to pull down infringing content after the copyright owner complains. That system has been abused on occasion, but it ultimately works because it allows YouTube to avoid direct responsibility for the actions of its users — it would have been otherwise sued out of existence.

I already covered the 1^st amendment on free speech BUT what the congress can do and are hiding behind IS found in Article 1, section 8 of the constitution under their enumerated powers.

“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”.

So by this reasoning Congress is perfectly in its power to regulate ‘copyrighted’ materials (funny how they totally ignore the “for a limited time” part).

What I have a very big problem with is that SOPA section 104 offers legal immunity to ISPs that independently block websites that host illegally copied material without any prompting from the government. That’s a major conflict of interest for a huge ISP like Comcast, which also owns NBC — there would be nothing stopping Comcast from blocking a foreign video service that competes with NBC if it could claim it had a “reasonable belief” it was “dedicated to the theft of US property.” And indeed, Comcast is among the companies that support SOPA.

My official policy for this website is that I cannot tell you what to think but I hope to teach you how to think. With that being understood these totally insane rules at least theoretically restricted to foreign sites — defined by SOPA as sites with servers located outside the US. That’s important to know: at its simplest level, SOPA is a kneejerk reaction to the fundamental nature of the internet (I know from history you can’t legislate human nature) , which was explicitly designed to ignore outmoded and inconvenient concepts like the continuing existence of the United States. Because US copyright holders generally can’t drag a foreign web site into US courts to get them to stop stealing and distributing their work, SOPA allows them to go after the ISPs, ad networks, and payment processors that are in the United States. It is a law borne of the blind logic of revenge: the movie studios can’t punish the real pirates, so they are attacking the network instead.

Q & A’s about SOPA/PIPA

1. What’s the justification for SOPA and Protect IP?

Two words: rogue sites. (term for Web sites that happen to be located in a nation more hospitable to copyright infringement than the United States is).

2. Who’s opposed to SOPA?

Most of the Internet industry and a large percentage of Internet users.

Here’s a current list of opponents.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn

3. How would SOPA work?

It allows the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted offshore Web site that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to make the target virtually disappear. It’s kind of an Internet death penalty.

4. How does SOPA differ from the earlier Senate bill called the Protect IP Act?

Protect IP targeted only domain name system providers, financial companies, and ad networks–not companies that provide Internet connectivity. Because SOPA is broader, even some companies who liked, or at least weren’t vocally opposed to, the Senate bill aren’t exactly delighted with the House version.

5. What are the security-related implications of SOPA?

One big one is how it interacts with the domain name system and a set of security improvements to it known as DNSSEC. The idea of DNSSEC is to promote end-to-end encryption of domain names, meaning there’s no break in the chain between, say, Wellsfargo.com and its customer. Requiring Internet providers to redirect allegedly piratical domain names to, say, the FBI’s servers aren’t compatible with DNSSEC.

6.What will SOPA require Internet providers to do?

A little-noticed portion of the proposed law goes further than Protect IP and could require Internet providers to monitor customers’ traffic and block Web sites suspected of copyright infringement. Talk about monitoring internet movement, they would use “Deep packet inspection”, meaning forcing an Internet provider to intercept and analyze customers’ Web traffic, is the only way to block access to specific URLs.

7. Are there free speech implications to SOPA?

Oh yeah. Section 103 says that, to be blacklisted, a Web site must be “directed” at the U.S. and also that the owner “has promoted” acts that can infringe copyright.

Here’s how Section 101 of the original version of SOPA defines what a U.S.-directed Web site is:

(A) The Internet site is used to provide goods or services to users located in the United States;

(B) there is evidence that the Internet site or portion thereof is intended to offer or provide such goods and services (or) access to such goods and services (or) delivery of such goods and services to users located in the United States;

 (C) the Internet site or portion thereof does not contain reasonable measures to prevent such goods and services from being obtained in or delivered to the United States; and

 (D) Any prices for goods and services are indicated or billed in the currency of the United States.

Funny thing here is look at WikiLeaks which has posted internal documents not only from governments but also copyrighted documents from U.S. companies and has threatened to post more, it’s hard to see how it would not qualify for blacklisting.

8. Who supports SOPA?

The three organizations that have probably been the most vocal are the MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

9. Could SOPA block Tor? (Tor is a program I use that protects me by bouncing my communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching my Internet connection from learning what sites I visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the IC/TCP protocol. That’s why I cant be traced by my IP address)

It could. SOPA targets anyone who “knowingly and willfully provides or offers to provide a product or service designed or marketed by such entity…for the circumvention or bypassing” of a Justice Department-erected blockade.

Where it goes from here is an open question that depends on where the House Republican leadership stands. Because the House’s floor schedule is under the control of the majority party, the decision will largely lie in the hands of House Speaker John Boehner and his lieutenants. Another possibility is that there could be further House hearings on the security-related implications of SOPA, a move that would delay a final vote. An aide to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith previously said that there’s no indication yet as to any further hearings, but after the committee debate in December, don’t be surprised if it happens.

Ouch, my readers really made me think on this one today (I got a headache now)

Till next time….

G. K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936)

                First part of September I will be turning 53. Contemplating my mortality I am posting rambling thoughts on the truths that I have learned and witnessed in my life. I am currently writing a book on simple common sense ideas and truths that I have found to be irrevocably true. I have included a few quotes from famous conservative pundits because this is my Blog and I have found them to be true time and time again. Some of these you will realize most of these are indeed true. Some of you will have heard these concepts before but that does not take away from their truth. And some of you will just outright reject them as is your God Given right to do so not only as an American, or Australian, or Canadian. or English, or even a Russian, but it’s your God given right as a human being….

There is a God..He is all powerful.

“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.” – Ronald Reagan.

Wheat bread is so much better than white.

No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity.

Hockey is so much more fun to watch than baseball.

“Hearing politicians tell us “we” can’t “afford” a tax cut is like listening to a glutton tell you he can’t “afford” a diet. – Ann Coulter (In no other context do people talk about “paying for” money they don’t have).

I can’t pay for your refusal to give me money because I need a yacht”. — Ann Coulter.

Each of us are standing in the palm of God’s hand, most of us don’t even realize that.

Liberalism stems from ignorance.

Ronald Reagan is the best president of the 20th century.

Attending Church is not optional for a Christian…according to the Bible.

Abortion is murder.

The hamburger is the single greatest food of all time.

People who smoke are among the least brightest people on the earth.

The ACLU is evil and will be the organization that sets the foundation for Christian persecution in America.

American’s are too fat…Hey, can someone hand me that Twinkie?

Rap music is as a whole terrible, country music as a whole is terrible.

Quentin Terintino is the most overrated film maker of our time.

Adam Sandler hasn’t made a funny movie since Happy Gilmore.

U2 is a so-so band.

George W. Bush is the right man for the job, he will go down in the history books as one of the greats.

“We’ve finally given liberals a war against fundamentalism, and they don’t want to fight it. They would, except it would put them on the same side as the United States”. — Ann Coulter

Soy Chocolate Milk isn’t half bad (if you’re really, really thirsty). (Major revision here, “Bad is just bad:).

Cleaning toilets is way easier and much more pleasant than cleaning windows.

The Passion was one of the most beautifully made and truthful movies of all time.

“You could afford your house without your government – if it weren’t for your government”. — Rush Limbaugh.

A warm chocolate chip cookie and a cold glass of milk is one of the greatest combinations of all time. It’s the closest thing to heaven on earth that can be had.

Barry White had himself a deep voice.

Jesus Christ is our first, last, and only hope.

Elvis was fat when he died.

The best motivator for a senior to get good grades is getting accepted into a major university.

There’s no such thing as eating too many cookies, too much chocolate, or drinking too much Starbucks coffee.

If you’re late for an appointment, the police officer (that you needed last week and couldn’t find) will be right behind you, signaling for you to pull over so he can have a nice little chat.

All the stuff you promised when you were a teenager that you would never do or say to your kids, you will do and say when they become teenagers.

Kids really don’t appreciate their parents until they have kids of their own.

All the stuff you think you’re getting away with? You’re not.

Remember that your parents were kids at one time.

Your child’s hearing problem will suddenly disappear when you call him down for his allowance.

Don’t ever say, “I will never do that,” because you will.

In a blink of an eye, your newborn baby will be off to college; take lots of pictures while he or she is still young.

A good partner in life can lift you up and help you achieve things way beyond your dreams. A bad partner can hold you down and destroy those dreams.

Marriage is never bad; people are.

Most of the time you don’t get out of life what you think you should; you get out of life what you’re supposed to.

Some of the happiest people I’ve met have been the poorest, and some of the most miserable people I’ve met have been the richest.

You never get lost driving when your fuel gauge reads full.

You never get lost unless you have to use the bathroom really, really bad.

Once opened, a street map is impossible to fold back up the correct way.

As soon as you tell The Wife you know where you are going, you will get hopelessly lost.

The person who needs a vacation the most is the person who just came back from one.

The stock that went nowhere but down when you owned it will go through the roof right after you sell it for a loss.

It’s a very bad idea to buy stock in an airline when it files for bankruptcy the next month.

And this one really hurt: you buy $2,000 of a certain donut stock, right before the new low-carbohydrate, low-sugar craze sends the stock into the toilet.

The seminars on retirement aren’t important to you until you reach 40, then they’re the most interesting meetings you’ll ever attend.

The toes you step on at work will one day be connected to the very person you seek a promotion from.

The geeks from your high school are still geeks, unless of course they know a lot about computers. Then they’re called computer consultants and cost $125 an hour.

The kids who were jerks to you when you were in high school and were in and out of the principal’s office have all grown up by now. They’re still jerks, but now they’re just in and out of jail.

No phone call after 11 p.m. is ever good.

When we’re young, we spend our time trying to look old, and when we’re old, we spend all of our time trying to look young.

No one ever drops over to visit when your house is clean; they wait until it’s filthy.

Don’t wear anything white when you eat Italian food (Are you listening Mary?).

The small country town where you grew up was in the middle of nowhere and held nothing for you to do. It seemed to have more cows than people, and you couldn’t get away from it fast enough when you were grown and went off to college. Now that you have a family, that same small town out in the middle of nowhere that had nothing for you to do looks like the best place to raise your family. Too bad a one-acre lot will now cost you $70,000.

And so, Life goes on….

]]> http://uberconservativepatriot.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/our-elected-officials/feed/ 0 foundingpatriot http://uberconservativepatriot.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/our-march-to-independence/ http://uberconservativepatriot.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/our-march-to-independence/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:11:55 +0000 foundingpatriot http://uberconservativepatriot.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]> “My country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope.”

Herbert Hoover (1874 – 1964)

                  Just who were the signers of the Declaration of Independence? That question was just like I like my pitches in baseball, High and slightly outside. It appears that once again our history is being rewritten by the current regime in the NEA and claiming that the signers were Elite snobs who were trying to set up their own Monarchy to control the masses. Well at least they got the 13 original colonies right. I was suppose to write on the Electoral College and how it works but I will get back to that at a later date. I will close out this blogg year with a history lesson with a reprint of 1 I did about 3 years ago.

The secret to teaching history is to pique the curiosity of the student to the point where they want to learn more without giving them too much information and losing their interest. So hold on fellow travelers as we take a ride.

In 1776 there were 13 original colonies. The first Continental Congress was attempting to build a representative republic with each state having a representation in congress based on the population of that state. Pennsylvania sent nine delegates followed by Virginia with seven and Massachusetts and New Jersey each with five. Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and South Carolina each sent four delegates. Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina each sent three. Rhode Island, the smallest colony, sent only two delegates. Nine of the signers were actually born outside of the colonies but were selected by the people of their state to represent them. Of the 56 signers two were brothers and two were cousins. One signer was even an orphan.

On the question as to where they “Old Coots?” the average age of a signer was 45 (remember that in today’s society everything appears to be relative, with myself being 52, well, there you go). Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania was the oldest at 70 and Thomas Lynch Jr. of South Carolina was the youngest at 27.

As to their occupations 18 of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers, and 4 were doctors. 42 signers had served in their colonial legislatures and were statesmen, not politicians, well versed in the needs of their people. 22 were lawyers but William Hooper of North Carolina was “disbarred” for the high crime of “Speaking out against the Crown”. 9 of the signers were judges and Stephen Hopkins had even been Governor of Rhode Island.

Only 2 signers had been members of the clergy.  John Witherspoon of New Jersey was the only active clergyman to attend (he wore his pontifical’s to every sessions). A look at their “Faith” backgrounds shows almost all were Protestant Christians with Charles Carroll of Maryland being the only Roman Catholic.

Looking at their educational background, 7 of the signers were educated at Harvard, 4 each went to Yale and William & Mary, and 3 went to the College of New Jersey (you may know it now by its quaint name of Princeton). The Reverend John Witherspoon was president of Princeton and George Wythe (the other clergy) was a professor at William & Mary. A side note and possible trivia question, “Who was one George Wythe’s most famous student?”  None other than the Author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. 17 of the signers served in the military during the American Revolution. Thomas Nelson was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and then commanded Virginia military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William Whipple served with the New Hampshire militia and was one of the commanding officers in the brilliant and decisive Saratoga campaign.

Oliver Wolcott led the Connecticut regiments that were sent to defend New York, and he led a brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of General Burgoyne. Caesar Rodney was a major general in the Delaware militia, and John Hancock was the same in the Massachusetts militia.

What befell those military members during the revolutionary war? In total five of them were captured by the British during the war. Captains Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton of South Carolina were all captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780. Colonel George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. Richard Stockton of New Jersey, who never recovered from his incarceration at the hands of British Loyalists, died in 1781. Colonel Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote to John Adams that he was “hunted like a fox by the enemy — compelled to remove my family five times in a few months, and at last fixed them in a little log house on the banks of the Susquehanna . . . and they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians.”

What of the hardships that befell their families? Sadly Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by the British during the war. John Witherspoon’s three sons fought in the war and one, a major in the New Jersey Brigade, was killed at the Battle of Germantown. Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis’s New York home was destroyed and his wife was taken prisoner. John Hart’s farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey, and Hart died while fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Thomas Nelson of Virginia lent large sums of their personal fortunes to support the war effort, but were never repaid.

Fifteen of the signers went on to participate in their states’ constitutional conventions, and six,  Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, James Wilson, and George Reed later went on to sign the United States Constitution. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts attended the federal convention and, though he later supported the document, refused to sign the Constitution.

Also after the Revolution, 13 of the signers went on to become governors, and 18 served in their state legislatures. Sixteen became state and federal judges. Seven became members of the United States House of Representatives, and six became United States Senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became justices of the United States Supreme Court.

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each went on to become vice president, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson became president. Even the sons of two of the signers, John Adams and Benjamin Harrison also became president.

Five of the signers went on to play major roles in the establishment of colleges and universities. Benjamin Franklin was a founding member for the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson helped establish the University of Virginia, Benjamin Rush started Dickinson College, Lewis Morris went to establish and serve as the first chancellor of New York University, and George Walton started the University of Georgia.

As you can see these men had nothing in common but their recognition of the inherant goodness of the common man and his capacity to recognize that our rights are gifts from God. Gifts not to be coveted and I will explain what that means later. Have a safe and happy New year and please either have or be a designated driver. I want to see you back here next year….

ACORN Scandals – In 2009, Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe, two private citizen journalists, went into several ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)  offices across the U.S.A. and made hidden video recordings. They posed as a prostitute and pimp attempting to purchase a house with ACORN’s help, for the purpose of prostitution using very young girls illegally brought into the country from South America. ACORN representatives were filmed offering advice on how to subvert the law to gain home loans, offered to assist with tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. ACORN was already under an ongoing investigation for voter fraud. Several employees were convicted of voter registration fraud in 2007. In 2008 they were under investigation for voter fraud in 14 states. In addition, Citizens Consulting Inc., the umbrella group controlling Acorn, was paid $832,000 by the Obama campaign for get-out-the-vote efforts in key primary states. President Obama got his start as a community organizer at ACORN in 1992, and in 1995 he defended ACORN in a key case upholding the Motor Voter Act, the very law that mandated postcard registration that flooded election offices with bogus registrations.

a priori – from cause to effect; from a general law to a particular instance; valid independently of observation.

abolitionist – one who favors doing away with slavery.

absolutism – the principle or the exercise of complete and unrestricted power in government.

acid rain – a theory that pollution rises into the atmosphere and chemicals are  returned to earth in the rain.

ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union. Nonprofit, nonpartisan litigation and lobbying organization which, among other activities, defends “freedom of expression, privacy, due process, and equal protection on behalf of anyone, no matter how unpopular the issue.

ad hominem – appealing to a prejudice or emotion, to discredit what someone believes.  Instead of addressing the opposing side’s argument or position, you make a personal attack on their character.

affirmative action – laws mandating increased numbers of women and minorities, especially in employment.

altruism – sacrifice of the self for the welfare of others.

amendment – an alteration of or addition to a bill, constitution, etc.

anarchist  – one who seeks to overturn, by violence, society and government, with no intention of establishing another orderly system.

Anarchist  (libertarian) – this anti-american faction is made up of far-left extremists from the communist, socialist democrat, and environmentalist movements.  They condemn capitalism, advocate intolerance and violence, utilizing terrorist methods to implement change.

Antifederalist – a person who opposed the adoption of the proposed U.S. Constitution.

Anti-Semitearbitrary – one who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews. Sometimes used as a label for those who criticize Israel or it’s policies, in order to intimidate and stifle disagreement.

Articles of Confederation – the constitution of the 13 American colonies, adopted in 1781 and replaced in 1789 by the U.S. Constitution.

atheism – the doctrine or belief that there is no God or gods.

attorney general – the chief law officer of a country or state and head of its legal department.

autarky – national economic self-sufficiency.

autocracy – a government where uncontrolled or unlimited authority is in the hands of one person.

axis-of-evil – countries to be attacked; Bush administration hitlist (currently includes Iran, North Korea, and possibly now Syria -

threatening moves against Cuba and Venezuela also made by this regime)

B

bear market – a declining or tending toward a declining in prices.

bigotry – intolerance of anyone else’s creed, belief, or opinion.

bill – a form or draft of a proposed statute presented to a legislature.

Bill of Rights – a formal statement of the fundamental rights of the people of a nation; such a statement incorporated in the U.S. Constitution as Amendments 1 – 10, and in all the state constitutions.

bi-partisan – representing, characterized by, or including members from two parties or factions.

blow-back – the threat of American-made weapons being turned against American troops

Blue Dog Democrats – Democrats that frequently take Republicans or Independents political positions.

*brute force* hacker attack – one of most widely used forms of attack.  It  tries using every possible code, combination, or password until it finds the one that works.  Some methods used to circumvent a brute force attack:  1) imposing a delay between failed attempts  2) locking the account after so many failed attempts and 3) requiring that two or three issued words,  be typed back by you, to prove you are a person and not a computer, and 4) when you sign up for the account you answer 2-3 random questions.  You can then be challenged to give the correct answer to one of the questions before you can proceed.

budget – an itemized estimate of expected income and expense and a plan of operation based on such an estimate.

bull market – a rise in prices. Characterized by favorable prospects for the economy.

bureaucracy – officials using fixed fules and a hierarchy of authority characterized by red tape, delay or inaction

Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) – The term BDS refers to a seriously paranoid state-of-mind, that affects some liberals. They blame President George W. Bush for virtually every ill in the world.

They also oppose any position advocated by the President just because he supports it, regardless of the position’s merits. They become totally, foolish, unreasonable and belligerent in their opposition.

C

cabinet – a council advising a sovereign, president, etc.

campaign finance reform-Federal laws that are supposed to curtail corporations, issue-oriented advocacy organizations, and labor unions from communicating with the public about those who hold or seek public office via ads, as well as contributions.

capitalism – an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained by private individuals.

casuistry – application of general ethical principles to particular cases of conscience or conduct.

caucus – a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on party policy

censorship – suppressing books, plays, music, newspapers, speech, etc. because they are considered morally or politically objectionable.

chancellor – the chief minister of state as in Germany.

chaos – a state of utter confusion and disorder.

CIA – Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. federal agency that coordinates governmental intelligence activities.

circuit court – the court of general jurisdiction in some states.

civil rights – the rights to personal liberty established by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and certain Congressional Acts.

civil war – a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

class – dividing society into groups where the members of each group share basically the same economic and political characteristics.

Climategate – In 2009 there was a hacking of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the Univ. of East-Anglia, in Norwich, England. Over a thousand emails were taken and the contents placed on the Internet for all to see. Controversy arose because the emails revealed that several climate scientists had colluded to withhold scientific information, interfered with the peer-review process to prevent dissenting scientific papers from being published. These scientists also deleted emails and to prevent data from being revealed under the Freedom of Information Act. They also manipulated data to make the case for global warming appear stronger than it is.

Kevin Trenberth of the Nat’l Center for Atmospheric Research; Richard Somerville, a distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Philip D Jones a climatologist at the U. of East Anglia, were three of the scientists who had some of their emails made public.

Code Pink – Women for Peace – a group of feminist anti-war, anti-capitalism, Marxist activists. The leader, Medea Benjamin is a Socialist/Marxist. This group organizes protests, some of them violent. The Marxist World Worker’s Party plays a crucial organizing role in their anti-American activities.

collateral damage – bystander casualties, ecological destruction and environmental contamination with potential to keep causing both

for long term

collectivism – centralized control of the social and economic elements of a society, especially the means of production.

communism – a system of social organization in which a totalitarian state, run by a single self-appointed political party, controls all economic and social activity.

competition – two or more entities, such as corporations, vying for the greatest amount of profits, prizes, acknowledgments, etc.

congress – the national legislative body of the U.S. consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

conscription – the draft. Mandatory enrollment in the military.

Conservative – Represented by the Republican party, or  political Right.  One who generally favors economic liberty, free markets, private property, privatization of business and lower taxes. They claim to want less, or limited Government. They respect the dignity of the individual, prefering personal freedoms over equality.  They support a strong national defense and their champion is probably Ronald Reagan.

conspiracy – an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons.

The Constitution – the fundamental law of the U.S. framed in 1787 by the Constitutional Convention and carried into effect March 4, 1789.

Constitutional Convention – the convention of representatives from each of the colonies (except Rhode Island) that met in Philadelphia in 1787 to frame the U.S. Constitution.

Continental Congress – one of two continental assemblies that first met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, and afterward met from 1775 to 1789, during which period the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation were adopted.

creationism – the belief that God created the universe, including all life, in its present form precisely as stated in the Bible in the book of Genesis.

cyber terrorism – a surprise attack by a  foreign terrorist group, or individuals with a political agenda, using computer technology and the Internet to cripple or disable infrastructure.

D

Darwinism – the theory that the origin of the species is derived by descent, with variation, from parent forms, through the natural selection of those best adapted to survive in the struggle for existence.

Dawa ..  A duty to encourage fellow Muslims to piety. It also refers to proselytizing and  encouraging others to study and convert to Islam.

debunk – .to expose a sham or falseness by presenting a truthful explanation

Declaration of Independence – the public act by which the Second Continental Congress on July4, 1776, declared the colonies to be free and independent of England.

decriminalization – the elimination of criminal penalties for the possession or use of something.

deficit – the amount by which a sum of money falls short of the required amount.

democracy – a form of government to which the supreme power is vested in and exercised directly by the people or by their representatives elected under a free electoral system.

democrat – One who advocates social and economic equality and government efforts, through tax-supported programs, at achieving this equality. Democrats favor liberal or progressive positions, some of which include opposition to the Iraq war, diplomacy over military action, globalism, welfare programs targeted to the poor, global warming, affirmative action, balanced budget and unionized labor.

democratic republic – a nation that favors states’ rights rather than a strong national government.

depression – a prolonged and very severe recession. The economic crisis which began around the time of the stock market crash in October 1929 and continued through the 1930s.

determinism – a philosophical concept which postulates that all events, including human actions, are predetermined.

Dhimmitude .. An Islamic superstructure that denies equal rights. A non-muslim can practice their own religion but are considered inferior. Those who accept Islam due to force, fear or cowardice are inferior.

dialectic – the art or practice of a logical discussion as of the truth of a theory or opinion.

dictator – one who assumes absolute control without the free consent of the people.

disinformation – false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth

doublespeak – language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning

doublethink – maintaining a contradiction in mind as one speaks the opposite of one’s own belief.

Dow Jones Industrial Average – a weighted average of thirty stocks chosen by Dow Jones and Company as representative of the size and financial performance of the premier corporations in America.

downsize – reduction of employees

E

earmarks – a term used to describe a very specific type of pork barrel spending. The earmark is usually a reward offered to politicians to get their votes on bills they would not otherwise support. A good example is the Obama Health care bill; Sen. Ben Nelson D-NE was given the “Nebraska Kickback” for his vote; and Sen. Mary Landrieu D-LA received what was called the “Louisiana purchase” for her vote. The earmark is inserted into a bill to benefit a special project for the politician involved. Pork barrel spending is often referred to as a “back room deal” during which taxpayer money is allocated without benefit of a public hearing or review.

Ecoterrorist – political terrorism; a person who uses sabotage, arson and violence in order to achieve environmentalist aims

egalitarian – characterized by the belief in the equality of all men.

embedded reporters – reporters who are absorbed into an advancing military unit, and who may even dress like soldiers, so that

they can make realtime reports from the front line.

empirical – depending upon experience or observation alone, without using science or theory.

Enlightenment – a trend during the 18th century that favored the power of human reason. It was believed that knowledge could only come from observation guided by reason and that through reason, continuing progress in knowledge, achievement, and morality could be sustained. Further, that through education, human nature could be changed for the better.

eliminationist – originally a term used to describe Hitler’s plan to eliminate the Jews. Today it is often used to describe a group of environmental radicals who have apocalyptic environmental views that treat humans as a disease. Many believe animals are more important than humans. Eliminationists support programs for humans, such as: forced abortions, putting sterilizing agents in drinking water, other means of forced sterilization, and extermination.

environmentalism – advocating working towards the protection of air, water, animals, plants, and other resources from pollution and its effects.

Environmental terrorism – political terrorism; the use of sabotage, arson and violence in order to achieve environmentalist aims.  The Unabomber, Chaim Nissim and James Jay Lee were all environmental terrorists.  Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Front (ELF), Greenpeace and Earth First! are organizations that support violent tactics.

ethnic cleansing – the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group, also known as Genocide .

equality – the state in which all people, regardless of their individual characteristics and abilities and without any special privileges or advantages, have the same opportunities for economic, social, etc. achievement.

Eugenics – improving the human gene pool by discouraging procreation by persons with undesirable traits.

evolution -   a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations; also : the process described by this theory

executive branch – one of the three main branches of the U.S. government which consists of 10 offices and 14 departments which are led by the President.

F

fascism – a totalitarian governmental system that emphasizes nationalism and racism and is led by a dictator.

federalist – one who advocates a strong central government.

FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigations. A federal agency charged, by the Attorney General, with investigating certain types of violations.

FCC – Federal Communications Commission. A board that regulates broadcasting and interstate communications.

FDIC – a public corporation established in 1933 which insures, up to a specified amount, all demand deposits by member banks.

Federal Reserve System – the U.S. federal banking system that is under the control of a central board of governors (Federal Reserve Board) with a central bank (Federal Reserve Bank) in each of the 12 districts. It has wide powers in controlling credit and the flow of money.

feminism – the doctrine of advocating social and political rights for women equal to those of men. (see NOW)

food police – individuals or groups who use a political bias as a standard to determine what is, and is not, healthy or appropriate for

human consumption.

free enterprise – an economic idea which states that a capitalist economy can, through supply and demand, regulate itself in a freely competitive market without governmental interference.

free shit – a slang term for welfare, food stamps, social security, Medicaid, public education, foreign aid and other items financed with taxpayer money and given by government to people who claim to have a need for them.

free speech – the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc.

G

GDP – measures the value of all goods and services produced within a given nation’s borders no matter what the producer’s nationality.

GNP – measures the value of all goods and services in a given nation’s economy and is determined by adding up all consumer, government, and investment spending both world-wide and domestically.

Gestapo – the German state secret police during the Nazi regime.

Global Warming – an increase in the earth’s atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect supposedly resulting from pollution

Global Warming Movement – a name given to an environmental movement that claims that humankind is to blame for any increase in the average temperature of the Earth.

globalization – to make a worldwide government in scope or application for the purpose of increasing the interdependence of the world’s markets and businesses. Globalization is currently  being promoted by the United Nations.

God – the Supreme Being, the creator, and ruler of the universe.

grand jury – a jury designated to inquire into alleged illegalities to determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.

gravitas – high seriousness (as in a person’s bearing or in the treatment of a subject). Used by Al Gore during the 2000 Presidential election to portray himself as experienced. This unfamiliar word was suddenly being used by numerous members of the media and became ridiculed as orchestrated political spin.

greenhouse gases – gases in the atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation. Environmentalists believe that fossil fuels have increased the levels of carbon dioxide. There is much controversy if this is a natural occurrence in nature or man-made.

H, I

hard money – political donations given by individuals and political action committees and subject to federal contribution limits of $1,000 to a federal candidate, and $20,000 a year to a political party. (see Soft Money)

homicide bombers – terrorists who kill themselves while murdering others. This term is used as a harsher way to describe a suicide bomber.

Homophobia – fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Labeling someone Homophobic, is a strategy sometimes used by the “politically correct”, to intimidate and stifle legitimate disagreement on homosexual issues.

Illuminati – persons possessing or claiming to possess superior understanding and knowledge.

impeachment – a formal accusation in Congress or state legislature against a public official and the resulting trial.

independent – The principled independent voter is registered as an independent and  is not affiliated with a political party.  He is motivated to vote and to acquire information out of a sense of civic duty (nonpartisan).  The most prevalent however,  is the moderate independent.  He is a partisan, belonging to a political party, but is a centrist who does not identify with the radical movements of that party.  Independents are often seen as the deciding vote in a two party system election.

Intelligent Design – the theory that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by a designing intelligence

Islamophobia – fear of or aversion to Muslins or others of the Islamic faith.  A belief that all Muslims are terrorists. Labeling someone Islamophobic, is a strategy sometimes used by the “politically correct”, to intimidate and stifle legitimate disagreement on Islamic issues.

isolationism -  a policy of national isolation by abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations

inflation – a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services.

IRS – Internal Revenue Service. An agency of the U.S. Department of Treasury responsible for encouraging taxpayers to voluntarily comply with the tax laws and regulations. It also provides information and assistance to taxpayers and takes action when necessary and appropriate to enforce the law.

J

Jazyia .. a tax imposed on non-muslims in Islamic countries.

judicial branch – one of the three main branches of U.S. government whose function is to administer and enforce the laws of the United States.

junk science – a term used to describe false or misleading research that is offered as real science, but which was not obtained using the accepted scientific method . The term “junk science” is often applied to deceptive environmental and health studies.

justice – the quality of conforming to principles of reason, to generally accepted standards of right and wrong, and to the stated terms of laws, rules, and agreements, etc. in matters affecting persons who could be wronged or unduly favored.

K, L

Kyoto Protocol – a political effort put forward by an anti-industrial group that would require a new United Nations “green police” empowered to enforce compliance and monitor each nation’s adherence to agreed limits. The UN will task the satellites, interpret their data, mete out fines, punishments and allocate energy consumption between nations. Kyoto would subject the U.S. to crippling restrictions based on politically motivated data.

labour party – a political party in Great Britain, formed in 1900 and characterized chiefly by broad social reforms.

labor union – workers who organize in order to, among other things, promote higher wages and better working conditions.

Laffer curve – a curve illustrating the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues. The curve reflects the fact that tax revenues are low for both very high and very low tax rates.

laissez-faire – the theory that government should not interfere in the direction of economic affairs.

legislative branch – Congress, which is comprised of the Senate and the House of Representatives. One of the three main branches of the U.S. government consisting of elected officials empowered to make, change, or repeal laws.

Liberal – Represented by the  Democrat party, or the political Left.  A Liberal is one who generally leans towards Democratic Socialism and even some degree of Marxism. They support the welfare state, Social Security and Socialized Healthcare. They believe that by raising taxes, and redistributing wealth, Government can eliminate the social inequalities they abhor. Their champion is probably Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Libertarian – (classic libertarian) – promotes tolerance, free will, and small government.  They respect the individual rights of every person to include religion, speech, press and assembly.  They advocate Capitalism, because it promotes free markets, private property and economic freedoms.

libertarian – (anarchist libertarian) – this anti-american faction is made up of far-left extremists from the communist, socialist democrat, and environmentalist movements.  They condemn capitalism, and advocate intolerance and violence.

Lobbyist – to promote (as a project) or secure the passage of (as legislation) by influencing public officials

Log Cabin Republicans – a political organization which consists of gays and lesbians who are supporters of the Republican Party.

M

marginal tax rate – the amount of one’s additional (marginal) earnings that must be paid explicitly in taxes or implicitly in the form of a reduction in the level of one’s income supplement. Since it establishes the fraction of an additional dollar earned that an individual is permitted to keep, it is an important determinant of the incentive to work.

Marxism – a system of thought developed by Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, which is the basis for the theoretical principles of communism. (see communism)

Masculism – The ideological flip side of feminism. It teaches that sexual equality laws serve primarily women and have created significant unconstitutional discrimination against men.  They claim that these laws are “anti-male” discrimination laws which have been used to justify the vilification of men and the curtailing of men’s rights.

Medicaid – a government program financed by federal, state, and local funds for hospitalization and medical insurance for persons of all ages within certain income limits.

Metrosexual – A term to describe a heterosexual urban male, who is vain, self-indulgent and grooms himself in clothing recommended by  homosexuals.  A kind of narcissistic, insecure masculinity shaped by film, advertising, and fashionable expensive  clothes. These men are sometimes referred to as “girly men”.

militant – vigorously active, aggressive, or combative.

military – U.S. armed forces comprised of the Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marines.

militia – all able-bodied males between the ages of 18 and 45 considered eligible for defensive military service in times of emergency.

minimum wage – the lowest wage payable, by law or union contract, to a company’s employees.

misanthropy -  hatred and distrust towards the human species and human pro-creation.  Some radical environmentalists elevate animals in order to grant them human rights and view humans as animals, and would like to see laws enacted forcing  human sterilization and/or genocide.

In 2010, James Jay Lee, environmental misanthrope, using explosives took hostages at the Discovery Channel for their programming for children, childbirth  and the promotion of  families, in general.

misogny – hatred, fear. and distrust of females.  Manifested from jokes demeaning women, pornography, to violence against women. Sometimes comes from a patriarchal society that supports male-domination, subordinating women, not giving them access to power or decision making.

monarchy – a state in which the supreme power is vested in a hereditary sovereign such as king, queen, or emperor.

monopoly – a market situation characterized by a single seller of a good or service for which there is no comparable substitute and by factors that make it difficult for other firms to enter the market for that product.

Moonbat – a term used to describe alarmists, fanatical anti-war activist,  environmental extremists, and other radicals and politicians.  It is perceived that they have sacrificed sanity for uniformity .. like mad dogs barking at the moon. Their prophets include Gov. Jerry Brown, CA  (Gov Moonbeam) and more recently, Cindy Sheehan (Mother Moonbat).

morality – the rules of right and good conduct.

MSM-  Mainstream media.  This is a reference to the major television networks, radio shows, and newspapers.

N

nation building – undertaken after war to help rebuild the political and economic infrastructure of a country.

national socialism – the principles and practices of the Nazi party in Germany. Grounded in military authoritarianism, opposition towards democracy, and the belief in the physical, moral, and cultural superiority of Nordic people, it idealized the state. (see Nazi)

nationalism – devotion to the interests of one’s own country.

Nazi – a member of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, which in 1933, under Adolf Hitler, seized political control of Germany. (see national socialism).

Neo-conservative (Neocon) – the original neocons were Jewish-Americans, formerly socialist or communist, who moved over to the political right. Perceiving a split in the GOP, some came to use the term to vilify the “religious right” (Republicans that support Israel and Jews for biblical reasons).

More recently, the term “neocon” is has being broadened to include anyone who judges others using a “values” based morality, which includes the concepts of accountability and personal responsibility.

Neo-liberalism – Fundamentally a globalistic economic agenda. A program of reducing trade barriers and internal market restrictions

New World Order – a conspiracy theory regarding a supposed secret powerful and influential doomsday cult, generally referred to as the Illuminati or Bilderbergs, who are conspiring to rule the world.

NOW – National Organization for Women. An American organization that at one time had as it’s primary goal, promoting equal rights for women. It has evolved into a group promoting leftist and lesbian causes.

O

oligopoly – a market situation in which only a few companies dominate and compete in a given industry

omnicide -  Murder whose purpose is to destroy a species of humankind, utilizing weapons that are too terrible to be used, and whose use may result in the death of those using them as well as those they wish to kill. Suicide bombers commit omicide. The halocaust was omnicide.

One World Order – to make a worldwide government in scope or application for the purpose of increasing the interdependence of the world’s markets and businesses. One World Order is currently  being promoted by the United Nations.

outlays – monetary expenditures.

P

Pajahadeen/Pajama Bloggers – Jonathan Klein, president of CNN, airily dismissed the bloggers who dethroned Dan Rather as, “a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”

This elitist comment, evolved into the term “pajahadeen” or “pajama clad bloggers”, used to describe the bloggers who have risen up against the mainstream media to uncover and expose their intentional political deceptions.

parliament – the legislature of Great Britain made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

partisan – an adherent supporter of a person, party, or cause.

perjury – willfully lying under oath before a competent tribunal, about a point pertinent to a legal inquiry.

philosophy – pursuit of wisdom b: a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means c: an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs

PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A group that supports animal “rights” by protesting medical testing on animals and the use of animals to make clothing, cosmetics, and other consumables including food.

piracy – information copying prohibited by current law. Illegally copying and distributing such things as software, music and movies.

pluralism – the view that the world contains many kinds of existent, which in their uniqueness cannot be reduced to just one or two.

philosophy -

plurality – the excess of votes received by the leading candidate in an election in which there are three or more candidates, over those received by the next candidate.

plutocracy – the rule of the wealthy.

polarization – this is what happens when the extreme wings of a party take control and moderates find that they have lost power.

politically correct – a speech code designed to limit free speech, conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated. Politically correct is often referred to as “PC”.

politically incorrect – use of words deemed insensitive by the politically correct.

populist – a political party member seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.  In modern usage, being a populist, has become a political tactic.  A politician merely claims he is seeking to represent the interests of “ordinary people”, or that he is “one of them”.

pork barrel spending – a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative’s district. Often this money is for absurd projects such as $107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail; for private concerns such as $13 million for a private pleasure boat harbor in Cleveland; or money allocated to a powerful politician for a special project in his district, that will help him get re-elected. An example would be the Big Dig in Boston, a highway project which cost taxpayers about $22 billion.  Another type of pork barrel spending is the Earmark, which is generally offered to politicians to get their votes on a specific bill they would not otherwise support.

Pork barrel spending is often referred to as a “back room deal” during which taxpayer money is allocated without benefit of a public hearing or review.

positivism – that which has to be accepted as we find it and is not given to further explanation.

POTUS-  Presidents of the United States

prime rate – A rate banks use in conjunction with other rates such as LIBOR and Fed Funds to determine interest rates in lending transactions.

privatize – to convert businesses from government ownership to private ownership.

primary election – an election to determine which candidate will represent the party; or delegates from the State, who will then choose the candidate.   Some states have closed primaries (only declared party members can vote) or open primaries, enabling you to vote without declaring a party affiliation.

Progressive liberal – Favor diplomacy over military action, stem-cell research, the legalization of same-sex marriage, secular government, stricter gun control, global warming and environmental protection laws. Also includes abortion rights, affirmative action and a belief that our domestic and foreign policy should conform with international directive.

propaganda – The common use of propaganda is to use false or misleading information to promote a partisan and unbalanced picture. It is a deliberate attempt to change people’s views on a given topic through the use of deception and confusion, rather than persuasion and understanding.

property rights – the rights to use, control, and obtain the benefits from a good or service.

push back – Generally a reference to pushing back an enemy attack, forcing a retreat.  The political use, this term references dirty politics, such as when one party will lie *loudly* about whatever they have been caught lying about or doing.  The idea being to do or say whatever it takes, to demonize the enemy and force a retreat.

Q

quota – the number of persons of a specific race or gender required to be enrolled in a college, to be hired by a company, to be admitted to a club, etc.

R

racism – a doctrine that inherent differences in race determine individual achievement.

recession – a downturn in economic activity marked by two consecutive quarters in which there is a decline in real GNP.

republic – a state in which the supreme power is with the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen by them.

republican – often called “Conservative” and represented by the Republican party, or  political Right.  One who generally favors economic liberty, free markets, private property and lower taxes. They encourage personal responsibility, want less, or limited Government and privatization of business. They prefer personal freedoms over equality and they support a strong national defense.  Their champion is probably Ronald Reagan.

revenue enhancement – a term used to describe a tax increase, without having to call it a tax increase.

revisionist – Originally, it was a reference to the reexamination of the accepted “facts” and interpretations of history, with by a genuine desire to educate and correct history. However, it has become a term used to indicate that the history has been intentionally reinterpreted, to reflect a view that is not accurate in order to support an agenda.

S

S & L – Savings and Loan. Financial institutions that accept deposits in exchange for shares that pay dividends.

Science – knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena

Scientific Method – principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses

Script kiddie- a non-expert who who lacks knowledge, experience  or maturity.    He uses pre-packaged automated tools written by others .. he simply runs scripts created by someone else.

SCOTUS – Supreme Court of the United States

SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission. A board charged with regulating the public offer and sale of securities.

secede – to formally break away from an alliance or federation, such as a political union.

sexism – discrimination against women in job opportunities, education, military, etc.

sexual harassment – unwanted sexually-oriented comments or actions made towards an employee by a superior or co-worker that disrupt the working environment and/or affect said employee’s wages, opportunity for advancement, job security, etc.

Sharia .. the law of Islam that comes from the Quran and Muhammad. The views are interpreted by Shia jurists. There are many interpretations of Sharia which dictates common and civil law, politics, economics, sexuality, hygiene, diet, prayer, and fasting. Criticism of the Quran, Sharia and/or Islam can be punishable by death.

soft money – unlimited contributions to the political parties, from corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals. “Soft money” is

money donated to political parties in a way that leaves the contribution unregulated. (see Hard Money)

social democrat – one who advocates, through a democratic process, a slow transition to socialism.

socialism – a system of economic organization in which state owns and controls the basic means of production and where centralized planning, rather than market forces, determines the allocation of resources.

social security – a life insurance and retirement plan run by the federal government and funded through compulsory payments by employers and employees.

Socratic method – a teacher, by questioning his student, brings the student to recognize some conclusion without telling the student that the conclusion is true.

Spin – a political agenda, twisting truths or facts into something that “proves” your point of view.

suborn – to bribe or induce a witness to give false testimony.

subsidy – aid given by a government to a private commercial enterprise, a charity organization, etc.

suicide bomber – a Terrorist that kills himself in the act of murdering others.

surgical strike – an attack (usually without prior warning) intended to deal only with a specific target. Generally this is an attack using

guided weapons to hit one specific building, with minimal damage to the surrounding area.

syndicalism – Anti-capitalist, non-traditional socialist doctrine that sees the state as oppressive and advocates replacing the state system with production groups connected by a centralized agent which determines economic needs and organizes production. It is believed that working within such groups would unite workers and that this kind of unity would overcome diverging political and religious beliefs.

T

talking head – a talker on television who talks directly into the cameras and whose upper body is all that is shown on the screen

Taquiya ..  Permission to lie about, denounce or conceal one’s faith in Islam under physical stress or torture. Muslims are sometimes accused of using taquiya to disseminate false information, or lie for the furtherance of Islam. For example, the American Relief Agency, supposedly raised money for orphans. Later it was disclosed that this money was going to terrorist organizations.

Teabagger -  a slang term for the act of a man placing his scrotum in the mouth of a sexual partner.  Some members of the mainstream media made crude, vulgar jokes about the Tea Party movement, calling the protestors “Teabaggers”

Tea Party Movement -   A grass roots movement (it is not a political party) started in 2009.  The name references the Boston Tea Party protest of 1773.   The movement is made up of several independent organizations, which all came together under a powerful, leaderless Tea Party movement.  The movement  grew rapidly, protesting pork barrel and government spending, the appropriation of the banking and auto industry, government takeover of Healthcare, the national deficit, and earmarks from congressional backroom deals.  They showed up at Townhall meetings and decried politics-as-usual incumbents.  The movement backed candidates replaced many incumbents during the 2010 election cycle.

terrorism – Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. (FBI definition)

theory – a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation

think tank – a research institute or other organization of scholars, social or physical scientists, etc.

thought police – individuals or groups who use a political bias as a standard to determine what is, and is not, appropriate for others to think or say.

Tory – a member of the conservative party in Great Britain or Canada.

transgendered – exhibiting the appearance and behavioral characteristics of the opposite sex

Totalitarianism – A political system, generally Fascist, Socialist, and/or Communist, that recognizes no limits on it’s power and authority. Generally a Dictatorship that controls the media, the economy and takes over private enterprise. Propaganda and collectivism replace human and individual rights. Government sponsored terrorism puts an end to freedom. Probably the most successful type of Totalitarianism, was the Marxism-Leninism of the Soviet Union, which defeated the Fascists of Germany.

transsexual – a person with a psychological urge to belong to the opposite sex that may be carried to the point of undergoing surgery to modify the sex organs to mimic the opposite sex

tree-hugger – an environmental extremist who supports the restriction of logging.

Troll – to allure, entice and bait.  A person who gives false, outrageous, inflamatory, political statements,  or  insults, in order to provoke a desired response.  The internet troll wants to make a fool out of anyone trusting enough, to take his comments seriously.

Truther / Troofer – A conspiracy theorist who believes the 9/11 Conspiracy theory that George Bush and/or the U.S. was at fault for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.  The *troofer* believes that only he comprehends the *truth* and the rest of the people are ignorant for not seeing their truth. The word was coined by the New World Order conspiracy theorist types, who believe a powerful secret group is conspiring to rule the world.

truthiness -  a satirical term used to describe people stating concepts they  want to believe, rather than the facts.  Truthiness is felt emotionally and disregards actual evidence or intellectual examination.

tyranny – arbitrary and unrestrained abuse of power.

U

United Nations – an international organization, headquartered in New York City, formed to promote international peace, security, and cooperation under the terms of the charter signed by 51 founding countries in San Francisco in 1945.

unilateralism – a government acting on it’s own, in it’s own best interests. This would be opposed to going to the United Nations, to act jointly with other nations, on international principles designed to benefit “the many”.

urban legend – a story of doubtful authenticity involving incidents of the recent past, often including elements of humor and horror, that spreads quickly and believed to be true

utilitarianism – Judging actions by their consequences and the pleasure derived from them. The goal being the greatest amount of happiness for the most people.

V

vast right wing conspiracy – a term coined by Hillary Rodham-Clinton to describe the accusations of, and the investigations into, President Bill Clinton’s alleged misconduct and alleged illegal activities.

Vegan – extremist vegetarians who consume no animal food or dairy products. One who abstains from using animal products (as leather).

voucher – a government coupon given to parents that can only be used to send their children to the public or private school of the parents’ choice.

W

Watergate – an illegal break-in, by Republican campaign employees, at Democratic party national headquarters in Washington, D.C. during the 1972 presidential campaign.

Weapons of mass destruction – often referred to as “WMD”, they would include Chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons.

welfare – financial aid that is funded by tax dollars and given by government because of hardship or need.

wingnut(s) – Generally, a person who holds extreme political views.  The political usage:  A name hurled at people whose remarks you want to discredit, but are too accurate to dismiss.  The use of pejorative namecalling to demonize your opponents.

X, Y, Z

Zionism – a movement looking toward the segregation of the Jewish people, specifically seeking a Jewish legal takeover of Palestine.

-Vick Imbornoni

                If you have been watching the talking points from Washington on your nightly news cast you no doubt have heard the rehash of an old tried and true method of control called “Collective Salvation”. Most recently Obama supporters in the guise of a ‘grassroots level’ peoples movement “Organizing for America” has developed a program where they ‘educate, train, and organize’ young people to advance the “Organizing for America” agenda. In short, Barack Obama is taking our young men and women and turning them into his own army of the Faithful, his church of collective salvation. This collective salvation approach is yet another tool that has been used to attract and secure the loyalties of the next generation. (Think ‘Hitler youth’ or Red China’s youth re-education camps).

America has always recognized that all our individual rights as coming from our Creator, not the government. If they can sever your individual persona and link it to the collective, they have in effect replaced you own God given rights and responsibilities and replaced them with ‘gifts’ from the state which shall become your own God. To simplify the current version of the ongoing battle Collectivism is defined as the theory and practice that makes some sort of group rather than the individual the fundamental unit of political, social, and economic concern. In theory, collectivists insist that the claims of groups, associations, or the state must normally supersede the claims of individuals.”

Individualism is at once an ethical-psychological concept and an ethical-political one. As an ethical-psychological concept, individualism holds that a human being should think and judge independently, respecting nothing more than the sovereignty of his or her mind; thus, it is intimately connected with the concept of autonomy. As an ethical-political concept, individualism upholds the supremacy of individual rights.

The basic problem with this concept of collective salvation is that is ignores the doctrine of personal salvation as a gift from God.  It ignores the concept of justification. In short form, justification is the theological concept that man can know salvation because God’s grace is infused in the human soul. It is the personal acceptance of this gift and the individual willingness to allow this grace to fill our lives that we can achieve salvation. Collective salvation denies this belief that an individual’s recognition of this grace is sufficient. Collective salvation demands that only through obedience to the instrument of the collective Uber-soul as embodied by the State can we all be saved. This is the next logical step in taking religion from the hands of the Church and putting it into the unworthy hands of the State.

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

~Charles Austin Beard (1874 – 1948)

As we march lockstep over the edge of the abyss, we need people who can put on the brakes and return us to our constitutionally mandated “First Principles” . Am I that person? Who knows. I can give speeches and lectures untill I am blue in the face yet it all matters for naught if no one is listening. We are told that some secret power is granted to those of us who have attained a “Legal Degree” that allows a person to read and comprehend the “Magic Language” contained in the Constitution. What I WILL do here is prove that the original intent of the documents were not only explained in greatest detail and the Constitution was written in a ‘Framers & Farmers’ language. All of our founding fathers wer pompous old windbags who had nothing in common except the fact that realized they were fallible and were bound to make mistakes and leave things out but where their genius comes in is that they were smart enough to insert a process to fix those mistakes.

As I start off with a brief concept called “First Principles” which will explain what our founding fathers were trying to do and establish. There are 6 basic 1st principles,

1. Rule of law is a First Principle that mandates that the law governs everyone
2. Unalienable rights is a First Principle that recognizes that everyone is naturally endowed by their Creator with certain rights
3. Equality is a First Principle that recognizes that all persons are created equal
4. A Social Compact is a First Principle that recognizes that governments are instituted by the people and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed
5.  Limited government is the First Principle and it means that the protection of unalienable rights is the legitimate purpose and limit of government requires the government to be strong enough to fulfill its purpose yet limited to that purpose alone.
6.  The right to declare revolution is the final First Principle for when the other First Principles are being infringed by the government.

This is the begining of my blogg but fear not, I shall not cover politics all the time because some of the best learning moment come from just my everyday interactions with those around me so,

Till next time….