Funny how that works. We say “no” and they respond, “we know what’s best for the American people.”  Ever get tired of hearing that phrase?

We have a “Lock Box” but Social Security was raided long ago. Ask the folks in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona how “border security” is working out for them and now the ubiquitous debate over a “debt ceiling” that has, near as I can tell, ALWAYS been raised. Talk about the need for “Term Limits” but only for the President? Seems Congress has authority over us and barely any over themselves.

As we should, we counsel young men in our country, “No means No” and that there are boundaries we must always honor. When someone asks you to stop, you stop. Plain and simple.

Perhaps we need to send our groping politicians to a remedial class, reminding them of what happens when we ultimately reach our last straw.

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All of a sudden, shocked from slumber by the sounds and shuddering of roadside gravel and debris shooting up under the fenders, the rumble strips edging the driving surface on the right shoulder make it seem as if you’ve blown both passenger side tires at the same time. The driver swerves to the left to avoid the guardrail and fishtails for a few seconds, screeching rubber with each swerve left and then right. You grab the dash board, slam your foot into the floor boards as if your imaginary brake pedal is going to do you a bit of good only to have your seatbelt sense the commotion and lock you rigidly into your seat. Thankfully, you look over at the driver just has he/she is regaining control of your car.

Without missing a beat, you say….”All-righty then, guess it’s time for me to take over.”

Do you remember the old Greyhound commercial? “Go Greyhound and leaving the driving to us” the marketing jingle went. You think, kind of cool. Kick back, relax, let somebody else handle the steering wheel and the stress of the open road. Makes sense. Surrender the pressure, the headaches, the monotony of moving from here to there. Recline in a cushy seat and let someone else take over for you.

As me move into 2012, we are all getting a stark and sudden wakeup call.

You see, a couple of hundred of years ago, as a country we decided to let the politicians do the driving for us. We had happiness to pursue, unalienable rights to exercise, places to be, things to do. Out Constitution set up enumerated powers for our government and the Lex-Luther-want-to-be-politicians so that we could safely surrender the wheel for a bit. Problem is, you and I nodded off a bit longer than we first thought we would and now the bus driver* politicians behind the wheel have damn near driven us off a cliff. (My apologies to real bus drivers.)

You and I are busy living, exploring, cavorting and dreaming. We are thriving at every turn. Only problem, while we’ve been building our futures the political class has been crafting a nightmare. While we’ve spent our time gamboling with our families and friends, the politicians have been gambling with our futures. Dems and GOP’s, turns out, are both lousy drivers and we either retake the wheel or we are going to crash and burn.

Now, the entrenched politicians will continue to urge us “not to worry, we can regain control of the vehicle” as their white-knuckeled grip on the wheel tightens even more. Regardless of the expert, educated opinions of the media faceplates, political parrots and blaring ideologues, not unlike the Kevin Bacon character in Animal House screaming “All is well! All is well” as all Hell was breaking lose, it’s time for Independents to drive again. Should you get your daily dose of Lotus from Fox News or MSNBC, it’s time to reawaken or to paraphrase Milton “Awake, arise or be forever fallen” because we need to get back in the driver’s seat before our politicians jackknife off the bridge up ahead.

We had a nice rest. Perhaps if we retake the wheel for a decade or so we can rid ourselves of substandard political drivers and one day, in the future, hit the passenger seat once again. That day however, is not today.

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By Brian Brawdy

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” according to the Declaration of Independence.

1. Life….if you are here reading these words, you’ve been given Life.

2. Liberty….the optimal and natural state of affairs or “operating system” for Human Beings, free from most interference while you are on this planet.

3. Pursuit of Happiness…YOU must pursue it in your own way, on your own terms, setting and achieving you own self-dictated goals while securing your personal happiness.

The Declaration of Independence does not state…Life, Liberty and Happiness….the “pursuit” is the gem in the paragraph.

“Leaning forward” types misread the document by suggesting that happiness in a noun, a “thing” the “collective” should be given, they have a right to it. The rest of us realize that the pursuit of happiness is a self-imposed verb, something to be achieved, not accepted. It’s an action, not a handout. Some among us don’t care much for the word “pursuit.” Want to piss off a Progressive? Remind them that We the People have a “right” to pursue nearly anything we want. What we do not have is the right to expect someone else to pursue happiness for us and then extort a portion of it from them.

In fairness, Dems do it. The GOP does it. It’s done for individuals and corporations alike and it is contrary to nature itself and the very spirit of our founding. When our Constitution gave the Congress the power to provide for the “general welfare” it did so expecting future legislators to provide and secure a truly level playing field where one and all can pursue their own happiness.

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by Brian Brawdy

In a recent interview on Fox News, long-shot Presidential candidate Rick Santorum misquoted the United States Declaration of Independence 2 times and I’ve not been able to shake it. One would think that, at the very least, Mr. Santorum would do a bit of fact checking before he spoke. In his defense, so few politicians do, but that does not lessen his blunder.

For those who might need a quick refresher course on the Declaration of Independence, here is the open. “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…” (Italics mine)

The Second paragraph opens with, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Italics mine)

The final paragraph is also important to our current discussion. “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. (Italics mine)

From some of the debates and correspondence around the time of the Declaration, Articles of Confederation and our Constitution we learn of terms such as “Architect of the Universe” and “Governor of the World” when referencing The Divine.

Our founders and framers took great pains in making certain that our country and our union protected from persecution, the religious beliefs of its citizenry, as myriad they may be or become. They realized that you cannot legislate the relationship between the individual and their Maker and any attempt to do so would be inauthentic. The First Amendment to Our Constitution in the Bill of Rights states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”  Pretty straight forward. NO to “establishment of religion” and NO to “prohibiting the free exercise” either. They chose the words “endowed by their Creator” not “our” Creator to signify that each individual came to the understanding of The Divine in their own accord and in their own fashion. Any attempt to codify publicly what must, by our very human nature, take place personally and privately would surely lead to failure.

Now, it’s not as if they did not have the command of the word “our” in that they reference it clearly in the “pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Their choice of wording were both brilliant and sublime. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the best, 10 being the least, Mr. Santorum scores a 2 in both the chances of winning category and his knowledge of founding documents.

Contrary to the naivete of Mr. Santorum and misguided readings of our framing documents and his “we are endowed by our Creator” line, our founders knew the one universal truth that many today seem to forget or refuse to acknowledge. The Divine, the “I am that I am” leaves it to the individual to rekindle their unique relationship with the Godhead. If a government or a group, however well intentioned, attempts to regulate that relationship, it is never genuine and therefore forced, contrived and insincere. It is in personal, not collective salvation that counts and our framers knew it.

By leaving out the word of God in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, the founders preserved our sacred right to revive our relationship with The Deity in the privacy and fashion of our own hearts. If any one of us is wrong in our interpretation and relationship, it will then be left to God and not to any government of puny men, to set the record straight.

Endowed by their Creator says it all.

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You can, as many have throughout the ages, call God many things. The Divine, The Almighty, The Creator, Architect of the Universe, Finger of Providence, Lord, Omniscient, Omnipotent and so on. Left over from my days at Sunday School I seem to remember God answering Moses when asked about a title, “I am that I am.” Pretty crafty.

So, God is what he is and that “is” is a Libertarian.

Spend but a few minutes in the Garden of Eden and this fact becomes clear and incontrovertible.  The Creator has one rule, not thousands of them and seems pretty content letting Adam and Eve make their own decisions and live their own way. It’s safe to say that The Divine was the grand inspiration behind the Bill of Rights and that’s what makes our Declaration of Independence and Constitution so very unique and special. Our framers seemed providentially sparked and in tune with the most natural of legal implications.

Freedom runs deep.

Of all entities to grant freedom of speech, The Divine granted it to the reviled serpent. Knowing in advance both the content and long term gravity of those words , still they were not squelched. That being the case, who are we to exercise control over the words of another?

Freedom of Assembly must have been a biggie for The Lord or Eve never would have been permitted to hang with the serpent in the first place. As for a free press, no way Adam gets to hear how good the forbidden fruit was if Eve was prevented from telling her story.  Of all the lessons of the Garden, that a free press is untouchable is story number one.

As for the 2^nd Amendment, The Finger of Providence was quick on the trigger. The “right” of Defending oneself is set in stone once the cherubim take their stations armed with “flaming swords.” Interestingly, could they not have been tasked with guarding the forbidden fruit at the outset? Given the “host of heavenly angels”, it’s pretty clear a police state was not the original intent.  Guess The Divine isn’t a dictator.

The Architect of the Universe crafted Life, gave Adam and Eve Liberty to choose their path and eventually evicted them to Pursue their own happiness after the Fall, yes?

God and limited government go hand in hand.

If The Creator is both All Knowing and All Powerful then, we must by simple necessity, be lead to one additional truth. Perceiving–in advance–the outcome of Eden and having all the abilities to foresee and control the ultimate result, The Divine opted to be the First Libertarian.

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By Brian Brawdy

That a certain Texas Congressman will never be “President Paul” should do little, if anything to discourage those who believe in his Constitutional message. It’s true that Representative Ron Paul is running the race of his life, a long, uphill climb into the stiffest of headwinds that he simply cannot win. That is, unless we reframe the race he is running.

As the lead off in a restoring the Constitutional Republic relay race, Ron Paul is unmatched. Over the course of his political career he has worked tirelessly to reawaken the original intent of our Founders, rekindling in a new generation of Americans the precious understanding that freedom runs deep in our DNA and that there is a direct and inverse relationship between the growth of politics and the death of Liberty. Thanks to him many now see that when it comes to politics, what’s “normal” of late, has little to do with the limited and restrained form of political intrusion our founders originally envisioned.

It’s time for “change” alright! Today, as we prepare for the 2012 elections and beyond, it’s helpful to remember these two things.

First, our Government isn’t broken, it’s the politicians running it that need fixed. Not unlike a vehicle involved in an alcohol-related car crash. It’s not the fault of the automobile, it’s the intoxicated operator behind the wheel that’s to blame. Our Constitutional republic form of government isn’t at fault for the situation we find ourselves in, it’s the politicians drunk with power that need a field sobriety test, the type that only We the People can administer. Their joyride is in its final miles.

Secondly, those espousing a Libertarian message and world view need to pick up the baton from Congressman Paul and begin running. If we sit on the sidelines of the field, the race will surely be lost. Those who support his ideas CAN eventually win only after they identify and support candidates that can get into the arena and battle it out with the “pinheads” that habitually attack Libertarians and political Independents without fear of reprisal. We’re done taking it on the chin.

The old breed of Libertarianism is in the final turn. Now is the time for them to pass the baton to a energized, new breed of political hybrids ready to take hold, to fight the track and winds full-on, and anchor the final leg.

Let the mainstream media faceplates and the political class bureaucracy continue to malign our efforts and intentions out of ignorance and arrogance. Liberty’s race is about to heat up and their days are surely numbered.

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A great eye (and ear) opener is the 2001 Chicago Public Radio interview on WBEZ with then Senator Obama.  Once that piques your interest, there is a powerful article, packed full of details today at GetLiberty.org on Goodwin Liu. It’s author, Bill Wilson the President of  Americans for Limited Government writes, “And no other judicial nominee of Obama’s better embodies that philosophy than Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu.”  According to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Lius’s  “statements, writings and records show a willingness to put [his] own views ahead of the dictates of the law and the Constitution.”

Just what we need, yet another political figure putting their own views ahead of Our Constitution.

Listen to the BEZ piece. Read the article. Take a stand. Just say NO to Goodwin Liu.

This is just one of many Liberty’s Lines in the Sand moments. Here is the link to contact the U.S. Senate and let them know, via phone and/or email and let them know how you feel.

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Shocker, I know. Obamacare is good for everyone but certain friends of government officials.

Here’s the thing, we could ramble on about equal protection, about fairness, about political corruption and the like, or we could simply ponder this question.

If it requires waivers for some, is it not a bad idea for all? Seems to me, same could be said for subsidies. If subsidies are good for some, should they not be good for all? Better yet, since waivers and subsidies are bad practices for some, should they not be bad practices for all.

Level the playing field Mr. President and let Ms. Pelosi know you are doing so!

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Sadly, the concept of baby steps and 20 Minute Victories can work for ill as well.

A perfect example of this can be found in a must-read article today by Stephan C. Webster over at The Raw Story with the title, Obama admin. claims right to censor ‘unclassified’ materials. In a thumb nail, the case against a former National Security Agency (NSA) big-wig Thomas A. Drake took a strange turn when attorneys from the Obama administration claimed that the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and the National Security Agency Act of 1959 (NSAA) could be used in a criminal case that deals with the passing of ‘unclassified’ information.

‘Unclassified’ information, treated in a particular instance as ‘classified’ information just to make the government’s case easier to prosecute? Are you kidding? They can now rewrite the rules, midstream as they see fit?

When government attorneys attempt to circumvent and stretch laws to fit their needs, throwing the concept of Due Process and our Constitution under the bus, it should give us all a wakeup call. That the government, bureaucrats and attorneys already stretch and pervert the meanings of the Commerce, Supremacy and General Welfare clauses of our Constitution, now they can waltz into court and creatively violate the original intent of certain statutes just to fit their needs.

When will we all finally say enough? As government officials slowly, methodically chip away at our rights, when bureaucratic baby steps are taken to strip our rights–hoping we will not notice–when government attorneys attempt to alter the rules as they go along, when will it be too much for you to take?

NO MORE 20 Minute Victories for those trying to kill our Constitution!

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Now we see, once again, the perfection of individual states being the ideal testing-grounds for the rule of law is under attack by the federal government in general and specifically the NLRB. The National Labor Relations Board has decided to punish the Boeing Corporation for choosing to open a plant, a plant that brings real employment (not shovel ready jobs), to Charleston, South Carolina, one of 22 right-to-work-states. Funny, in a state that does not force its workers to join a union, the Obama Administration and the NLRB is now forcing Boeing to force workers into unions. Force is force, is it not? Now that’s some “free market” alright.

The folks in the Palmetto State seem smart enough to me to make that decision for themselves.

The NLRB will not force Boeing to play buy its rules, it will simply pressure the company to vote with its feet. Odd in that it is forcing it to do tomorrow exactly what it is chastising the manufacturer  for doing today.

When will it finally be too much? When will the federal government finally overstep its bounds once and for all? Better yet, when will we stop bending over and taking it yet again?

Shameful!

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