Category Archives: American Politics

Checks and Balances

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[pullquote]the three branches are still one government[/pullquote]We are familiar with our tripartite form of government, wherein each of three branches acts to check the impulses and balance the actions of the other two.  There is another level at work here, and I find it clarifying to recall that the three branches are all still subdivisions of one entity, the government.  The other trinity here is a set of relationships between God, Man, and government, and this is made explicit in the Declaration of Independence.

As a rule of thumb, I find that where Constitutionality comes into play, I prefer whichever course brings the status of things in closer accord with the Declaration.  This sort of action is typically undertaken by the Supreme Court, but is not limited to … Continue reading →

Romney Stumbles

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Seems The One (Okay, The Other One) is having some trouble.  Let me tell you why:

[pullquote]”I have already implemented your program, and ten years down the road, I can tell you now–it simply does not work.”[/pullquote]Mitt Romney had a golden opportunity to seize the nomination and skewer the president.  In my opinion, all he needed to do was cast off his illegitimate offspring, RomneyCare.  He should have said that he used the laboratory of democracy called Massachusetts, with its rich history of political innovation, to see once and for all if a large role for government can improve critical services in health care.  He would have been in a unique position to assail the president on ObamaCare.  ”I have already implemented your program, and ten years down … Continue reading →

Supreme Court On Trial

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This pivotal case before the Supreme Court is a bridgehead for a conservative restoration of government.  Our government is required by law to be run according to the Constitution, not according to the counter-Constitutional wishes and dreams of progressive Supreme Court Justices.  The question is, upon which shore will this bridgehead be located?

  • If ObamaCare is upheld, then the Supreme Court demonstrates itself sufficiently unmoored by generations of complicated precedent from the plain meaning of the Constitution that it no longer has the moral authority to interpret the document.
  • If ObamaCare is struck (stricken?) down by the Court, then the full function and trend of the government stands accused of the same problem, but by the Supreme Court rather than just by the supposed “rabble” of the … Continue reading →

Legal Question

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[pullquote]Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) called the CLASS Act “a Ponzi scheme of the first order” — WaPo 2009[/pullquote]If a law is made under fraudulent circumstances, is it a law?  I realize that this is ridiculously vague, and I just happen to have an example in mind — ObamaCare.  It is my understanding that (let me be brief) the Slaughter rule was not invoked because budget-neutral reconciliation offered a way to pass the bill piecemeal, but only with the addition of the CLASS Act.  Well, the CLASS Act fell away long ago, and nobody was suroprised–it was always doomed to fail, an accounting trick designed to make the bill eligible for reconciliation rather than committee work on new bills.  Or something.

I realize that the … Continue reading →

Harshing the Congressional Buzz

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I might be more inclined to believe the GOP’s claim to be waiting for the cavalry before taking on the enemy if they didn’t have all their guns aimed at the cavalry.  If you understood that right off, you are Tea Party.

Boehner has been negotiating with his enemy while fighting against his allies. He is one of those who faults the Tea Party for not recapturing the Senate as if that were in a different universe than the six seats gained there (it wasn’t the Tea Party that put us down to 39 F’n seats!) and sixty or so picked up in the House.

The recent history of the national electoral landscape looks like this: the GOP lost in 2006 and 2008. The Tea Party won in … Continue reading →

Draft: Against All Enemies: Domestic Enemy

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If you, like I, have sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution, now is a very good time to decide what that means for you. I have decided what it means for me.
A man who lays claim to bravery in risking his life for his country, but who will not risk his career for the same, is a coward and a liar. Continue reading →

RonPaulstiltskin and the Loughnertarians

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Loughnertarians.

Have you argued with any Ron Paul people? You may be familiar with that infuriating style of argument they use, where they don’t listen so much as they parse, and scan your words for opportunities to demand definitions. They construct non-sequitur syllogisms on the fly, rife with false dilemmas, and while you’re trying to understand what tortured, twisted point they’re attempting to make, they convince themselves that they’ve proven you wrong. Take that, etc.

It’s not conversation, and it’s not even argument. It’s a strange form of self-reassurance by talking to others, a delusion that if they just masturbate hard enough in public, we’ll all be converted. I figured out where I have previously heard this disturbing pattern of high-functioning mental derangement:

Jared Loughner.

I viewed/read his … Continue reading →