Every so often (actually a lot) a bill comes along (well, come to think of it pretty much all of them…) that needs to be stopped dead in it’s tracks. And I don’t mean we need to put a leash on it. I mean we need to shoot it between the eyes and put it six feet underground. And the “Livable Communities” act (S. 1619) authored by Sen. Christopher Dodd is just such a one.

A quick overview of the bill gives us more than enough reasons to immediately toss this in the legislative bonfire: It is a form of Sustainable Development, top down control that turns our communities into little soviets, driven by non-elected boards, councils and regional governments. Sustainable Development is at the root of the destruction of private property rights; it employs population control, dictating how many children you may have; and it is at the root of the Obamacare mess. The most important issue with this particular bill, is that Dodd’s is the first bill to mobilize Sustainable Development through federal legislation.

The Livable Communities act is nothing more than sustainability in (a very poorly thought out) disguise. Republicans in the House have criticized similar legislation saying “the program’s aim is to impose a Washington-based, central planning model on localities across the country.” Granted these are established Republicans, most of whom I trust as little as I trust the Democrats. However they are correct on this point. Sen. Dodd’s bill would give the federal government overriding power in your local community. Whereas now state and local governments are (supposedly) sovereign in all things having to do with the growth of the community, they would no longer have a say in land use, housing, transportation or infrastructure planning if this bill were passed.

This, (as with all other unwanted government interference in our lives) is another “service” that we would have to pay for the use of. Of course they spew all the usual meaningless drivel at us: “oh, this won’t be mandatory!” or “it will only affect your community positively!” these are all LIES. This will affect every American in one way or another, and not positively. Once it is passed all talk of these laws not being compulsory will disappear so quickly it will look like a sixth grade magic show. Senator Dodd himself promises that this is “purely voluntary’, but upon closer examination of the bill we find that it sets up a new permanent federal office: The Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities” for the enforcement of this bill the “Development Czar” if you will. Sounds voluntary to me.  Not to mention the added strain this puts on the wallet of every taxpaying American.

A system with similar housing requirements was recently implemented in Oakland California. To bring their homes into compliance with the regulations every homeowner was forced to replace roofs, windows and appliances. This cost each of them an average of $35,000. Think about that for a minute and consider whether you can afford an unnecessary $35,000 dollar home makeover. Then consider that you won’t even be spending that money on what you really want in your home, but rather what the “rules” say you must put in your home.

Senator Dodd’s bill has already passed the Senate Banking Committee and is headed for a floor vote. We must not let this bill pass. We must stop it dead in its tracks and bury it beneath a landslide of contempt. This is a violation of not only our 10th amendment rights but more importantly our basic right as human beings to choose our own lifestyle. Under Sustainable Development there can be no property rights. No individual liberty, no free enterprise, and no limited government. America’s choice is liberty or sustainable development. You can’t have both.

On August 3, 2010 the National Parks Conservation Association put out a press release entitled “Senate Urged to Pass Bill with Full Funding for Popular Conservation Program“. If you can find the fallacy in this title you know the truth about this debate. The outright lie that they insert so calmly into this title is the single word “popular”. Now we all know that popular is a qualitative word and can technically be used without ever telling a real lie. However they don’t tell you that their sample group for determining the popularity of this bill did not include the people who will be affected by it.

Sitting up in a penthouse in New York city or a mansion in Beverly Hills it is hard to imagine the devastation that this kind of bill causes. When the federal government takes private land to use for their national parks, wildlife reserves or what have you they destroy the livelihood of the person who owned that land. The farmer in Montana who has not only worked for his entire life to build up what he has now, but has had the farm in his family for generations is forced into a city where he does not belong and has no desire to be. He loses his life and his American dream is destroyed to make way for that of the NPCA. This is wicked, irresponsible and wrong. It is also a violation of the rights of all Americans and especially those affected by this.

So ask yourself this: Who is this bill popular with? I guarantee it is not those that this really matters to.

Republican “Conservative” Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, has gone green. We always knew McDonnell was a flip-flopper, but we put him in office anyway in case he was better than the other guy. Well he isn’t. Labels like “Republican” and “Conservative” have lost all meaning.  Here in Virginia our great governor will be hosting the first “Virginia: Energy Capital of the East Coast- The Governor’s Conference on Energy.” It will be Oct. 12-14, 2010 in Richmond.

McDonnell will be holding this conference to help Virginians learn how to gravitate to “alternative and renewable energy sources”. The governor says it is to ” fully develop our domestic energy resources in order to provide reliable, low-cost power while helping to reduce our dependence on foreign sources. This means developing all of our energy resources, traditional, alternative and renewable, and making the most of conservation and efficiency…. (N)ew and expanding energy businesses will be an important part of our economic recovery and growth in the years ahead. Working together, we will make Virginia the “Energy Capital of the East Coast.” We will make Virginia the Energy capital of the east coast. This does not sound like the conservative Republican we thought we were voting for!

For those of you who need a quick refresher on why Sustainable Development and alternative fuels are the wrong answer to any of America’s problems be they environmental or economic, please read: Green Machines Killed Tweety and Green Jobs Means Lean Jobs. Sustainable development essentially destroys the American dream. Under sustainable development there can be no free enterprise, individual liberty, private property or state or national sovereignty. Global governance and common property are the rule of the day under sustainable development.

The main problem with this is not that McDonnell is once again proving that we should never have put our trust in him, but because this same kind of thing is taking place all across the country! Men who claim to be one thing are put in office and immediately become another. They are the reason there is a Tea Party! America is sick and tired of being lied to and disregarded. Our elected officials bow down to the UN and the major corporations and if they ever give a single thought to the American people it is not evident. Men like McDonnell are odious money and power mongers. They want nothing more than the benefits that their position offers and will do anything to make a buck, anything to get ahead.

McDonnell does not care about job creation or a cleaner environment,  he cares about the government and corporate subsidies his new green initiative will generate. Our great governor is nothing but the lowest form of dirtbag, but we’re fooled because he wears a suit.

It’s time that partisan labels are done away with and we stop voting along party lines. A change needs to occur because all over the country scum like Bob McDonnell are elected into state and federal offices that they have no business occupying. This agenda is not “Conservative”, hell it’s not even traditionally “Republican”. These days when the Donkey turns around you see the Elephant. The Republicans and Democrats are flip sides of the same coin.

These kowtowers are the reason there is a revolution going on in this nation. The people are finished with letting big government run their lives and worst of all sick of the men who say they will restrain big government and do nothing but aid and abet it. It’s time for a real change. Don’t tread on me.

In “CLEAR Away Your Choices (And Your Jobs) Part 1″ we looked at how the CLEAR act completely removes freedom from the free market.  But this act has a doubly negative effect and therefore must be looked at in two articles. This article will focus on the impact that CLEAR will have on the economy and the employment situation in America. (For a description of CLEAR see part 1.)

The CLEAR act will have a domino effect:

The CLEAR act is a bill that would, by auctioning off carbon based fuels to companies create a revenue of one billion dollars per year (meanwhile increasing energy prices for everyone). It would put this money into the hands of federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife service and the National Park Service. This money would be used to lock away huge amounts of the precious and very necessary, natural resources such as water, oil and minerals. This obviously will cause the available supply to plummet while the demand will remain the same. This in simple economics, causes prices to sky rocket.

Another (unauthorized and unaccounted for) billion would go to agencies for the specific purpose of buying up land. Maybe buying is the wrong word, since what will be happening in reality is that they will be grabbing the land and throwing token checks to the landowners in lieu of a purchase.  There is no way a private land owner can fight these buyouts, since their land would be condemned by these agencies if they refuse to sell.

Once these lands have been “purchased” landowners will be forced to find somewhere else to live, as these tracts of land will now become a part of the ever growing stockpile of wildlife reserves. This in turn forces farmers and those in the rural west to move to cities. These cities become mega cities and the rural west is destroyed.

The biggest wake up call here is that the CLEAR act has already passed the House and moved into the Senate. We need to stop it before it’s too late. This is a basic and blatant violation of property rights guaranteed to us in our constitution.

One thing that our leaders do, better than anything else, is use disaster to their advantage. It doesn’t matter if it’s George Bush or Barack Obama they all seem to  be trained in this art from the earliest stages of their political careers. It doesn’t matter how horrific the disaster,  they will always find a way to turn it for their gain.

George Bush’s most notable example would be 9/11. This horrible attack was still a fresh wound when he used it to rush past congress by declaring a state of emergency and never declaring war. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are now using another American disaster to spur on their green initiatives.

The Gulf oil spill was (and is) obviously a terrible disaster, but these political hacks are not above using it to get their legislation passed. Another new bill has been introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) similar to Reid’s bill which I wrote about in my article “Piggy Back Tax!” same bill, different name. If you remember a land grab called CARA from eight years ago, it’s back. Only this is called “The Carbon Limits and Energy for American Renewal” or “CLEAR”

What this bill would do would be to auction off rights (yes, I said rights) to use power sources that create carbon emissions. Essentially what this means is that companies who have already paid their energy bills will then have to bid on whether or not they will be allowed to use that energy. If they can’t pay the price, they’ll just have to find a “greener” solution. My first question for Senators Cantwell and Collins is, when did American businesses start having to pay for the luxury to use the fuel that they bought? The “good” about this bill, they say, is that 75% of the revenue gained from the auction will go directly to the American people! This is supposed to offset the rising taxes that (even they admit) will inevitably arise on gasoline, coal and other carbon based fuels. Another “good” result of this bill is that, by raising the tax on carbon based fuels, it will give Americans the incentive to “choose” greener alternatives. What made me almost fall out of my chair laughing is that in her explanatory video Sen. Cantwell says that her bill will “harness the power of the free market, not government to find the least costly technology solutions.” This quite frankly nonplussed me. There is nothing “free” about taxing businesses to narrow the choice range for the American people. This is government manipulation of the free market, not honest use.

So to sum up this half of my argument against “CLEAR” I say:

1. Why not let the free market actually do it’s job? If your “green technology” is really the best solution the market will gravitate to it.

2. I hope I’m not supposed to jump for joy when you say I’ll be getting 75% of the revenues. This will do nothing for my wallet when you raise energy taxes and gas prices. Why not just leave the energy taxes alone? Then I won’t need your blood money.

and

3.  As an American I do not appreciate government trying to limit my choices in free market, nor do I appreciate any Senator regulating what kind of fuels I or the company I work for can use once we have purchased it.

(A follow up article will be published on the negative affect CLEAR will have on the economy and the unemployment crises in America.)

Racism. That word has divided many nations and been used for all sorts of gain. But what is racism?

Those who opposed Barack Obama in 2008 were racists because they clearly did not want a black man in office.  Those who oppose universal healthcare or welfare are racists because they don’t care about  underprivileged children. Racism is defined as: “the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races.”  However those who use it to describe political opponents seem to have a different definition. In politics: anyone who disagrees with your opinion is a racist. And when you paint your opponent as a racist it has to seem as though all you care about is minorities.

The golden rule to this use of moral high ground however is that you can only use it to attack white people. If you say that any race other than Caucasians are racists then you yourself become the worst kind of racist.  If race was left out of everything entirely and no one was called a racist then true racism would die out.  But it has to be kept alive for political gain.

Those who claim that they are not racists while attacking those who they say are, are the only reason race is still an issue in the United States. They have taken a serious issue, that if it had been left to die would have, and turned this country into a hot bed of political correctness. One cannot open his mouth in today’s society without having a label slapped on him, usually having to do with racism.

It’s time to expose the real racists: The ones using minorities for their own political gain.

Federal land grabs. If you live out west you know all about them. No matter how they are disguised or by what organization they are sanctioned a land grab is legalized theft.

Out in Montana this is a clear and present danger. The Federal Government (or some subsidiaries thereof : ie. The House Natural Resources Committee) are trying to pass HR 5101 or “Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2010″. This is the first in a line of bills (which they hope to pass in quick succession) to culminate in the Y2Y (Yellowstone to Yukon) a transcontinental wildlife conservation corridor. Now this all sounds fine and noble. But what is under the surface of this initiative?

Y2Y would in affect take huge tracts of privately owned land and turn it into a wildlife preserve, making it impossible for the farmers and landowners to do anything with their land but sit on it until they have it bought out from under them by an environmental protection group.  If this bill were passed it would take 2.5 million acres of Montanan land and turn them into wildlife preserves, with a possible 8.5 million to follow.

This is the worst kind of theft and violation of personal property rights. When theft is disguised as a righteous crusade to save the planet, and becomes federally mandated, legalized and supported by the public, something is wrong. You can bet the public wouldn’t support this bill if it involved their front yard, not to mention their livelihood.

Y2Y is a poison. A cancer that would spread and cover the entire west and more if allowed to go unchecked. This bill and others like it should be taken very seriously by us as Americans, and we should do all we can to stop them from being passed into law.

And again, these are not righteous crusaders out for animal rights. They are the worst kind of power hungry thieves. A land grab is nothing more than a show of power and outright theft.

Watching President Obama is like watching a robot programmed to one word: Green. No matter the problem the solution is always to “go green”. Not enough jobs? Go green! Oil spill? Go green! No matter the crises the cry is always the same. Go green.  Well according to the Washington Post perhaps “going green” is not the answer on creating jobs in Michigan.

This article explains all about how Obama plans to save our struggling economy, and create new jobs with new factories that will produce batteries for electric cars. The article also includes the information that Major manufacturers have not sold any electric cars in the U.S. and that Hybrid vehicles make up less than 1% of the 250 million vehicles on our highways.  But most interestingly to me, the article explains that the only announced customer of this new factory is the Chevrolet Volt, a new line of electric cars being produced by none other than government owned General Motors! So Obama’s only customer is essentially, himself.

The numbers: The factory is slated to produce 15 mil. battery cells per year. GM is slated to produce 30,000 new Volts in the coming year, which will each (supposedly) require 288 battery cells. That is a demand of 8,640,000 battery cells. This is less than 60% of the supply coming out of the factory each year. Apparently Obama has created “new math” this will not only allow him to oversupply his demand, but it will also help him to keep factory workers in their jobs even when they’re not selling any of the product they are producing!

In short if the demand is less than the supply, all 300 of the new jobs created by this factory will be gone in a year.

In a recent article in the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid’s newest energy bill is dubbed “modest”. Now I’m unsure as to what criterion they have used to call this a modest bill, but if this is the norm now I’m afraid American standards of modesty have tanked in recent years.  There is nothing “modest” about this bill.

I have written in less detail about this bill before in my June article Piggy Back Tax. In that article I focused on the fact that Sen. Reid is trying desperately to sneak a new Cap and Trade initiative through with his Gulf of Mexico response bill. This cannot be allowed to happen.

What the Washington Post refers to as a “modest bill” would wreak havoc on the businesses of America and put an unnecessary load on the taxpayers. At one point in the article I almost laughed out loud. It said: “By gradually increasing the cost to companies of the carbon dioxide they produce, the United States can generate revenue and marshal market forces to encourage businesses to invest in greener technology.” This may sound all well and good on the surface, however the “United States” would not gain revenue from these tariffs but rather the United States Federal Government.

A more fitting name for Cap and Trade is a Blackmail Tax. Essentially the government is blackmailing people into making their business “greener”, and they will tax all those who do not comply.

This tax (for Cap and Trade is a tax) has no place in a free market. It places restrictions and fines on private companies for the gain of the Federal Government.

Over the past years it has been becoming harder and harder to go into the business of agriculture because of three simple letters: EPA. The EPA is the worst enemy of anyone attempting to become an Agricultural entrepreneur. Their latest strike has been against the dairy industry. Recently the EPA classified milk (yes, the kind you drink) as oil (yes, the kind they spilled in the Gulf).

The negative impact that this has on the dairy farmer is not immediately apparent until you understand the kind of regulations and sanctions placed on those who store oil on the premises of their business. They must all have special spill proof storage tanks in place. The EPA stipulates that anyone who stores more than 1,320 gal. of milk at a time must have these containers.

Let’s talk numbers: It would cost approximately $2,500 for a certified engineer to secure the milk plus whatever the cost may be to actually build these containers (this cost will vary based on the amount of milk you store). With 2,299 dairy farms in the state of Michigan alone it would cost $5.1 billion to safeguard all the milk there. This is $5.1 billion that the state of Michigan cannot afford to spend.

The entire agricultural industry will be destroyed by regulations if we do not stop the madness and control the EPA and other radical environmental agencies.  We have to understand that the food on the shelves of the grocery stores does not get there by magic. It is supplied by the agricultural industry of America. That is one industry we cannot afford to destroy with regulations.