A Clean Slate

It's 2010. A new year. A new decade. A clean slate.

Last year, the Democrats showed their true colors: red. The red of socialism and communism. It is clear from Congress's attitude that they have no respect for the American people. A"Health Care" bill that has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with generating more federal tax revenue has passed both houses in different forms. The vast majority of Americans don't want this legislation which will reduce access, disincentivize innovation, and lower the quality of care. Congress and the administration want it because without it, the fiscal stress of social security, medicare, and the plethora of unfunded (and unnecessary) entitlements Congress (mostly Democratic) has created over the last 150 years will force the elimination and reduction of those federal entitlements and programs. Make no mistake, if this bill passes, the money raised will NOT be used for health care; it WILL be used to fund programs we do not want or need.

Contrast this with what all Americans want and need: security. On November 5, a Major in the US Army killed 13 and wounded 42 fellow soldiers and Americans on a US military base in the heart of Texas and America. Nidal Hasan, suggested to his peers that any Muslim could, should, and was justified in killing American soldiers. The Major was in contact with radical Imam al-Awlaki and US intelligence knew it. His business card stated that he was a "soldier of Allah." On Christmas day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a flight from Amsterdam bound to Detroit with a bomb in his pants. He had no passport. He had no luggage. He paid for his ticket in cash. His father had reported him to the US embassy in Nigeria months previous. His name had been on a list of people who had terrorist contacts for three years. The bomb in his pants went undetected. Only the bravery of the passengers on the plane saved them from being victims. The budget of Homeland Security is $43B, and according to them everything went smoothly and their system worked.

Both of these men have been provided the full protection and access to the American legal system, despite the fact that they are enemy combatants of a "Nation" that has not signed the Geneva Convention. Neither of these men have the right to protection under American Law or the Geneva Convention. In fact, both of them should have been interrogated to the full extent -- including torture -- then tried and executed as ununiformed agents of the Islamofascist Nation commonly referred to as al-Qaeda but which has many other incarnations. Both of these men were and are Islamofascists; fascist Muslims. To call them terrorists or fanatics would be to misconstrue their nature. They are soldiers of a Muslim Nation that believes the world is theirs and we are the infidels who deserve only death. We are at war with them and have no chance of winning until we recognize it. Just as it was difficult but not impossible to identify the Catholics who soldiered the IRA, so it is with the Islamofascist Nation. It must be done: the Muslims who are part of this Fascist Nation should be identified and prosecuted. Ignoring them until they act -- as this administration seems to prefer -- is not a choice.

When this country was created, the founding fathers knew that the job of the federal government was to provide for the common defense and security, and to facilitate commerce between the states and other nations. Period. Today, the federal government wants to regulate our exhalations and force us to purchase what we do not want, need or desire. At the same time, they are unwilling to fight a war that we did not start but that we must finish.

The founding fathers were pretty smart. They knew what happens when governments become corrupt. They provided us with many checks and balances. Unfortunately, we have gotten lazy. Believing that most of our politicians had our best interests in mind, we let them stray from the rules and make laws that were unconstitutional. They ignored what is important to us and focused only on what is important to them. The courts tried to keep them in check, but once the box of the "interstate commerce" clause was expanded by the courts, Congress and the Office of the President were only interested in filling their pockets with our cash. The founding fathers would be aghast at what the federal government has done to this country.

However, as I said, the founding fathers were pretty smart. They provided the people with a method to rein in an unresponsive federal government: a Constitutional Amendment created and passed by two thirds of the states.

It's a new year. A new decade. If the federal government is unwilling to limit itself to its responsibilities of the common defense and security, and to facilitate commerce between the states and other nations, perhaps the states need to have a Constitutional Convention and refocus them by redefining their powers and nullifying the bad legislation from the last 150 years that is bankrupting our nation .

Time to populate the clean slate and a clear and simple vision. Time for Americans to take their nation back, to be safe, and to prosper.