AMERICA ISN'T AMERICA ANYMORE

Au revoir, Freedom - it was nice knowing you.


Why do I say that? Let me tell you something:

In 1979, I witnessed a man - a university professor - charged, tried, convicted and thrown in prison for three days for the crime of refusing to participate in an election.

In the same country, at the same time, I witnessed a man have his passport seized and prevented from travel outside of the country; because of his religion. The man was Hindu - of the Hare Krishna sect - and he was denied freedom of movement because the Hare Krishna movement was perceived by the government as a threat to that country's society.

The name of the country where these events took place was Australia.

I love the country of my birth. I believe it is the most beautiful country in the world. There are wide open spaces, a balmy climate, enlightened people, fantastic surf beaches one hundred miles long, rain forests teeming with exotic creatures; everything from salt water crocodiles to koalas to kangaroos to fairy penguins. But for all this, there is something that we have over here that Australia does not have:

A Bill of Rights*

The United States Constitution - specifically the first ten amendments a.k.a. the Bill of Rights - is a remarkable document. It's essentially a contract between the United States Government and the Citizenry - you and me - outlining in detail hwo our Government is set up and how laws are made, our basic rights, and constraints placed upon the Government.

Not that this means anything anymore. In the short span of a remarkable month, we have seen the current occupier of the White House, Barack Hussein Soetero Obama, rip up, shred and piss on the Constitution of the United States.**

This image of Obama's friend, political mentor and author of Dreams from My Father is an appropriate symbol of the Obama Administrations' disregard for the rights of the American people.

According to the Constitution, the Government of the United States can not tell us to buy anything. They can not dictate to us to buy a car or a computer or a telephone. We are not required by law to use the Post Office - we can go to a private carrier like UPS or DHL. The Government can't order us to buy a flag, or even a copy of the Constitution. All they can do is tax us; this is permittable under the Constitution.

A further constraint; there are three types of taxes that the Constitution allows: fees - such as postal fees, etcetera; excise taxes - these are the sales tax we pay on gasoline; and income tax (and it took an amendment to the Constitution to allow this - the Sixteenth Amendment).

And yet Obamacare - the Affordable Healthcare Act - was determined to be Constitutional by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roberts on the grounds that the Government's requirement on us to purchase health insurance - is considered a tax.

But this new tax - i.e. Obamacare - is going to be collected by private sector insurance firms. We are required to buy health insurance - it is a tax; a new kind of tax not covered by the Constitution - and there are fines and a new 16,000-man army of IRS agents to enforce this new kind of tax - already written into the healthcare act.

Really? REALLY? How can it be this way?

There is only one way it can be this way: for the Supreme Court of the United States to collaborate with the Obama Administration and the Liberals in Congress in rendering our Constitution meaningless.

Now they can tell us to buy something - an incredibly bad piece of legislation was twisted and wordsmithed and rewritten by the Supreme Court in a way only a lawyer could do to the point where a good or a service is now a tax. What can they tell us to buy next?

Well, we all need healthcare, they say, and some people did not have it. Fair enough - what's next? Food? Clothing? Shelter? If we don't buy brocolli, it is now a tax. If you drink a Big Gulp, it is now a tax. A national uniform? A house? We all have to buy a house?

What about our retirement? We have to buy that. How difficult will it be for the Government - in searching for a way to bail out Social Security - to nationalize our 401K plans? That's a stretch, you say? Not really - they nationalized the student loan industry; at the stroke of a pen Obama took that source of revenue away from the financial sector and the banking houses, and now they have just in effect nationalized the healthcare industry.

And bear in mind; the massive political effort to nationalize healthcare - the trodding on of our rights as free men & citizens, the violation of our social contract with the Government, and the assumption of trillions in future debt to finance this bureaucratic nightmare - was done with the best of intentions.

Never forget and always remember; the Road to Hell was paved with good intentions.


- STORMBRINGER SENDS

* The Bill of Rights guarantees:

Freedom of Speech, religion, and assembly. Freedom to Bear Arms - they step all over this one. The right not be forced to house and quarter soldiers during peace time.

Protection from unreasonable search - police must obtain a search warrant before conducting searches.

Guarantee to due process of the law before imprisonment, or confiscation of property without fair compensation, protection against double jeopardy (being tried twice for the same crime), and the right to refuse to testify against oneself; i.e. the right to remain silent.

The right to a fair and speedy trial in criminal issues: trial by impartial jury of one's peers, right to an attorney, to confront witnesses, and to compel witnesses to testify.

No excessive bail, or cruel and unusual punishment.

That the listing of certain individual rights should not be construed to deny individual rights that are not listed, and that powers not appearing in the Constitution are retained by the states, or by the people.


** Witness: law by fiat - Obama's remarkable pronouncement of amnesty to illegal aliens effectively made the DREAM Act law of the land; this despite the fact that this act was voted down in the Legislature.

How can this be? How can the President of the United States take a measure that had been introduced into Congress as a bill, debated, voted on and defeated, and turn around and make it law. Really? REALLY? How can it be this way?

The same thing with the Gay thing - albeit vice-President Foot-in-Mouth Biden forced Obama's hand on this one - we can count the Defense of Marriage Act null and void. Never mind that this was voted on by a majority in Congress; the Obama Administration simply refuses to enforce the law.

In other words, law by fiat.

Likewise with the Arizona immigration law ruling in the Supreme Court. Due to geographical location, Arizona has unique challenges regarding that are legitimate security issues. In short they are overrun by illegals, people are getting hurt and getting killed, and the United States Government is largely ignoring the issue. In an attempt to get as handle on an out-of-control security and law enforcement issue, Arizona wrote a state law - mirroring existing Federal law - so that their own state law enforcement agencies could protect & defend citizens where the Feds have failed and outright refused to enforce the law.

Where did this get the State of Arizona? Lawsuit by the United States Government - i.e. the Obama Administration - that went all the way up to the Supreme Court, where remarkably, it was ruled that the State of Arizona could no enforce Federal immigration policy - laws that are already on the books - which left Justice Scalia fuming that Arizona is no longer a “sovereign state.”

LIBERALS BEWARE ! ! ! November is coming . . .