Click here to read the All American VFW Post 9182 Press Release regarding this matter, and learn what you can do to help restore the pensions of 26 elderly veterans who fought for American interests, and their homelands, long before I would ever wear the uniform of an American soldier.

Article 1 defines the legislature, what the legislature can do, and what the legislature cannot do. Looking back at “key issues” over the course of the last several decades reveals that Article 1 is irrelevant.

Article 2 defines the executive, see above.

Article 3 defines the judiciary, and again we see large irrelevance.

Even the much vaunted Bill of Rights is but a shell of meaningless words today.

All of that said, I’m not sure why I still react to political ploys as if the Constitution still play some role in the way our government works. If you do believe in the Constitution, and the principles therein, you have no representation in government. It’s an interesting place to be in the land of the “free.”

There are guidelines as to exactly how our nation’s government is meant, or even allowed, to function. These guidelines are relatively simple to understand, having been written largely in plain English. To further simplify matters, they are not excessive in number. Surprisingly enough, in the face of such simplicity, the highly non-partisan guidelines of the Constitution are almost entirely ignored by all three branches of our government. These are the same people proposing to reform a system their own actions brought to ruin. The guidelines they seek to impose, while not even within their rights to legislate, are not simple to understand and are tremendous in number. Does this sound even remotely similar to a recipe for success to, well, anyone?

Proponents of the current House bill take great joy in climbing to the top of the hill and shouting that the free-market solution has failed us. This makes me pause and think, “What free-market solution?” There is no free-market in the United States. Pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, doctors, nurses, and laboratories are far from free within their own markets. What makes these people so certain that increasing bureaucracy within these same markets will cure the problems?

If this is meant to help the suffering auto-industry (ie: ours), shouldn’t American manufacturers have some qualifying vehicles people are actually interested in purchasing? It doesn’t strike me as something highly beneficial to the American auto-industry to have the government subsidizing the widening of the gap between foreign and domestic auto sales. From the outside, it looks like this is doing exactly what we do not want to be doing – generating tons of debt. The government does not have money, so every dime they put up is ultimately debt. You can call it “savings” if you want, but that requires you to ignore simple things like “definitions” of “words.” As that debt is ultimately the tax-payer’s, those that use the credits really get hit twice – once on the government books, and again with their new car payment.

If the savings are meant to come from the gas pump I’m going to have to go ahead and raise my trusty BS flag. Right now my truck gets a lovely 16mpg. I don’t drive it often, but that’s because I’d rather be on my motorcycle. Assuming I drive 300mi per week, and gas is $3 per gallon, I spend about $225 a month on fuel. Now, if I did the same thing in a vehicle that gets 30mpg, I’d spend about $120 a month. Moving vehicles is sure to save me $105 per month, right? Wrong.

My truck is 12 years old, even full coverage insurance on the vehicle is less than $100 per month. With my excellent driving record, and my freedom from the under-25yr-old-males-are-insane insurance bracket, full coverage (often required for financed vehicles) on even a new subcompact is over $200 per month. The difference in insurance premiums alone just killed all but a cheeseburger’s worth of the “savings.” We’ve not even touched on the part where my truck is paid for, and a new car comes with payments.

Let’s say that by some miracle you get a car, after the $4500 rebate, for $10,000. Then lets say they give you 0% financing for 5yrs. You’re going to pay $167 per month for five years. You’re now spending $167 per month more than you were before, fuel savings or not. Even if your insurance premiums stay dead even, the payments exceed the fuel savings by over $40.

It seems that in the last few years we’ve seen several economic sectors explode in the face of rising consumer debt (and over-extension). Is the auto-industry somehow exempt from this? If you couldn’t afford the vehicle without the $4500, can you really afford it with the money? Or is that just enough to bring your payments down to the level where eating Ramen and SPAM three times a day is still possible? Did Congress consider any of the above when they authored and passed the bill? I say all of this as one that was actually interested in the program, and was close to turning the aforementioned truck in for CARS credit. Then I did the math.

Somehow, this passes by the public without notice. Some point to the “liberal media”, but even the “liberal media” ignore encroachment on the liberal ideology. While I find it hilariously laughable that anyone can say that “liberal bias is a myth” with a straight face, real stories do tend to be covered about as objectively as humans, a quite subjective species, can cover a story. The gatekeepers, from reporters to editors, ultimately decide what is important enough for public consumption. Liberal or not, those gatekeepers fail us all by ignoring the government actions that matter, instead focusing on packaged drivel that does not matter.

Lest anyone get confused about the rightful claim to virtue, I invite you to a harsh reality: Democrats and Republicans are, as surprising as this may seem, human. There is no party active in our government today that can claim to have upheld family values, civil liberties, peace, justice, or the Constitution throughout history. Without fail, everytime the direction of politics in the United States changes, the mudslinging overshadows real business.

Democrats, we get it. You are not the only party to regularly engage in extramarital affairs. Republicans, we get it. You are not the only party that panders to your base with undeliverable promises. Both parties, we get it. When your bases calls you out on a forgotten campaign promise, you shift responsibility elsewhere.

People, and this is not limited to citizens of the United States, wake up and smell the manure. We are smack in the middle of an age in which your phone can access more information than even existed at the height of the Roman Empire. Start accessing that information. Learn something. When that happens on a large scale, “yes we can” have some “change you can believe in.”

I would check things more often, but one of my youngest sister’s friends spilled water on my Macbook Pro. Making life quite a bit more complicated for me than needed. You see, a photographer without a computer on which to process photos can’t do a whole heck of a lot of work. I suppose if I had any film equipment I’d be in the game. Perhaps that’s a good excuse for me to purchase some darkroom equipment, so I can at least shoot B&W 35mm (I do actually have a film EOS body) when my digital world is turned upside-down. At any rate, the MBP appears fixable, and I’ve ordered a 24″ iMac to serve as my main processing machine. I will keep the MBP for mobility, but I’m going to do the majority of my processing at a desk anyway, thus the desktop.

My younger brother Phillip graduated from Louisiana Tech on Saturday, so I drove out there to see that (and to help him and his future wife move to Little Rock).

Longest. Graduation. Ever.

Bobby Jindal was the speaker for the commencement, and gave a pretty good speech. I don’t believe that he’s actually convinced of a single thing he said, but he’s a politician so that’s to be expected. Jindal strikes me very much like a Republican Obama. Pretty words, no substance. A few people in the crowd remarked that Jindal will be our next President. In my lifetime, I’d like to hope there’s potential for an actual “change” instead of this vicious cycle of fail in which we seem to be stuck.

In other news, you know that problem I was having attaching to people I met post-war? Seems to be resolved. I don’t know if it was just time that fixed it, or the meditating, or what. Things aren’t crystal clear where all of that is concerned, I’m just pretty happy to know at least that part of me isn’t “broken” anymore.

Oh, this wouldn’t be complete without noting that I no longer have that T/C Encore in .260 Remington. That rifle has been replaced with a Savage 110 in .270 Winchester. Soon, I will put some glass on it and go zero a 130gr load.

Also, someone feel free to buy me the Canon 5DMK2.

Click here for some politics related to the issue above.

Click here for a glimpse into Justice Souter.

Click here for talk on opening the internet in censorship-heavy nations (Iran, China and others).

Senator Arlen Specter has changed party, leaving the Republicans and joining the Democrats. While Specter has stated that he will not be an automatic vote, the balance of power has certainly shifted such that a filibuster has become incredibly unlikely. Equally worrisome is the announcement that Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, a 1990 appointment by President George H. W. Bush, intends to retire.

Why do these moves, by two single members of two different branches of the federal government, provide room for worry? Each change ultimately results in a lack of effective opposition. Such a lack of opposition has proven, time and time again, to be greatly detrimental to workings of this country. Left unchecked both parties have, on several occasions, crippled the United States. The Executive Branch is now steered entirely by a welfare-liberal administration. Counting the two conservative cabinet-level members as balance would be foolish at best. The Legislative Branch has come to a similar fate, with both houses controlled by the welfare-liberal ideology. Following the first Supreme Court appointment opportunity to be given to President Barack Obama, the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States will also likely follow the welfare-liberal ideology (rather than the text to which it should adhere).

Now, much can be said about the path that ultimately led to this end. The Republican Party has been on a self-destruct course for several years, ignoring their constituency at every turn. As it stands now the leadership is hardly worthy of the title, and the party stands fractured at every level. There exists no major platform from which one may push for a return to the principles of a conservative (or classical-liberal) movement. While the Democratic Party is by no means a cohesive unit with a singular and clear focus, the party is far more united in purpose and intent. Combine that with a leadership immensely popular within their voter base, and you have a strong platform from which you may push forward a welfare-liberal agenda.

Where we go from here will be interesting, though I fear without meaningful oversight the potential for wrong turns to result in catastrophe has risen exponentially.

Students from Texas State University speak out against the Federal Reserve while supporting H.R. 1207, a bill calling for an audit of recent Federal Reserve activity. More from The University Star.

Climate change heretics or rational thinking from a genius of science. CAUTION: Incredibly long read (8 pages).

Not looking good in Mexico. Many of Mexico’s government institutions are just as corrupt as the cartels, making this an interesting battle to say the least. I’m still planning to spend a month there this summer.

Suggestion that more government is the answer. Decide for yourself.

Bad news for Iraq I’m afraid. This is definitely not what is needed to secure anything that resembles lasting peace, or even provide for the possibility of such a thing. Even worse, there is apparently now neo-Zarqawism. It would appear that the bomb we dropped on him didn’t vaporize his influence.

Twitter and Politicians? While I use the social-networking medium myself, I know if I’m tweeting, I’m generally not paying too much attention. Hopefully, our members of Congress are all paying as much attention as humanly possible right now.

More unconstitutional legislation is surprising from such a scholar of constitutional law. Well, it would be surprising if it were not for the tremendously consistent pattern for circumventing that document.

Tuition freeze talks in Texas. That should be well received by college students across this state. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about such things.