Crabby Blogging Lady

Well, at the insistence of Don E. Chute (he used CAPS AND EVERYTHING!), I took the Nolan Chart Quiz. I think I had taken this a year ago, maybe. I see that my views haven’t changed one bit, thank you very much.

I am NOT a Libertarian, however. I hate it when quizzes marginalize you into a colorful section on a graph.  I do not believe that we should legalize (or encourage) pornography, pot-smoking, “escort” services, polygamy, and blaspheming activities. I think society has every right to ban these activities as unwholesome to a nation and society. (By the way, I am an American history scholar who has read and studied the Constitution and the writings of the Founding Fathers, and they believed the same thing!).

ANYWAY. So the Nolan Chart says I’m a Libertarian. When I’m not.

What I am is a Federalist, for lack of a better word. Read The Federalist Papers: that’s what I believe. I believe in a federal government for the purpose of unification, and defense, and world trade. AND THAT’S IT.

Everything else– all powers not given to the federal government by the Constitution nor prohibited by the States, are GIVEN TO WE THE PEOPLE.

Oh gee, that has a familiar ring to it. *gasp* Could this possibly be the Tenth Amendment?! Why, yes, boys and girls, it IS!

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Well, the next question to be asked is: Do we still retain the original form of representative government given to use by the founders?

And boys and girls– we do not. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the Patriot Act. Sorry, we no longer have a Constitutional republic. What a shell game. We can’t do anything anymore without the federal government breathing down our necks: get a job, cash a check, use our transportation, make a phone call, have a baby.

But even before that blasted “Act,” something else radically altered our form of government 100 years previously; it was when the Progressive idjits in government CHANGED state representation to have senators elected by popular vote instead of state legislatures. This occurred in 1913 (gee, the same year as the Federal Reserve Act and Income Tax– those Progressives SURE were busy, weren’t they?). Hello, there was a REASON that the Founders included the state legislatures the way they did– to make sure that the larger states (which had higher population and more urban centers which are the renowned bastions of wicked sinners) did not control the entire federation. It was called the New Jersey Plan, written by William Paterson. You see, back THEN, the states cared about equal representation.

Since the Progressive tyrants have eliminated that check and balance, our nation is basically controlled by the big (liberal) states: Florida, New York, California, and Texas. Even though all the states still retain two senators per state, the state legislatures themselves have lost their representation in the federation, therefore allowing the federal government to usurp power more readily (in such things as education, eminent domain, mandated and/or unfunded social programs, government-funded home insurance quotes, blah blah, etc).

So that was really the beginning of the end, 1913.

Back to the Nolan Chart. Those quizzes are meaningless. I think they have good intentions, but they are meaningless because the people who REALLY know what American government is all about are going to be marginalized, as I was. These quizzes don’t truly represent the original intent of our form of government. Why are we tut-tutting about health care and Social Security?! The larger issue is that the federal government has totally usurped power. Why isn’t that part of the discussion? Why aren’t we spending our time defending the Constitution and Bill of Rights, instead of bickering over government HMOs and Granny’s pension and whether the government can allow teenagers to kill off their unborn babies?

Politics always gets me worked up. Good gravy. I feel so much better. I haven’t had a rant like this in, gee, three or four days! Thanks, Don.

WHAT a CRAPPY reason to spy on people and (once again) break the presidential oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.

Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation ago are ambiguous at best. On Friday, the first federal appeals court to consider the topic will hear oral arguments (PDF) in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices.

In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in their–or at least their cell phones’–whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that “a customer’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records” that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.

You know, the prez doesn’t take an oath to protect the American people from terrorists; he doesn’t take an oath to protect is from ourselves, either. He takes an oath to

“….to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution

Is that such a difficult thing to do??

The legal question regarding the cell phone surveillance is: do the phone companies have the right to store in their databases our conversations, and give that information to the government? Well, so our conversations are not technically our own, is that it? It all comes down to who OWNS us and who owns our data, doesn’t it? Does this go the same way for the mail– the post office owns our mail, technically, because we use them to deliver it? Information seems to be the key here. You can’t BE a person without information. Information is property, isn’t it? Isn’t this what the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights alludes to?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I tell ya, folks, break out those tinfoil hats!

I’m quite, quite sure that the ONLY reason Google and the NSA are teaming up is to help protect Google, yes yes.

Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks

The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.

Sources familiar with the new initiative said the focus is not figuring out who was behind the recent cyberattacks — doing so is a nearly impossible task after the fact — but building a better defense of Google’s networks, or what its technicians call “information assurance.”

…Despite such precedent, Matthew Aid, an expert on the NSA, said Google’s global reach makes it unique.

“When you rise to the level of Google . . . you’re looking at a company that has taken great pride in its independence,” said Aid, author of “The Secret Sentry,” a history of the NSA. “I’m a little uncomfortable with Google cooperating this closely with the nation’s largest intelligence agency, even if it’s strictly for defensive purposes.”

The pact would be aimed at allowing the NSA help Google understand whether it is putting in place the right defenses by evaluating vulnerabilities in hardware and software and to calibrate how sophisticated the adversary is. The agency’s expertise is based in part on its analysis of cyber-”signatures” that have been documented in previous attacks and can be used to block future intrusions.

The NSA would also be able to help the firm understand what methods are being used to penetrate its system, the sources said. Google, for its part, may share information on the types of malicious code seen in the attacks — without disclosing proprietary data about what was taken, which would concern shareholders, sources said.

Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a privacy advocacy group, said companies have statutory authority to share information with the government to protect their rights and property.

So… because Google has crappy security, some chatty employees, and China is spying on us (even though P-BO just took China off our “nations to watch for spying on us” list), we need to monitor the Americans more! How come it’s like this every single time– every times somebody attacks US, WE get fewer freedoms and are monitored more?!?!

Are Americans REALLY this stupid? Will Americans really buy into this crap??

probably.

Our country bought into the 9-11/Patriot Act fiasco…. the “stimulus” packages… the “too big to fail” crap… the health care “reform” crap that will enslave us to the 3rd generation to pay for it… the Savings & Loans of the 90s… the RFID chips in OUR passports… the “separation of church and state” lie… it’s just too, too much sometimes. Our country (and therefore our freedoms) is going to hell in a handbasket. Hello?! Yet what’s the biggest concern for most Americans– Taylor Swift, Tiger Woods scandals, and Brangelina divorcing?!

What is going on?!

Yeah, I’m depressed. It’s really rough to be working 28-hour days and barely scraping by, enduring the gloomy January cold, and reading the worst headlines in history, all the while public officials are having a bonfire with the Constitution in outdoor fireplaces. They’re not even sneaky about trashing our liberties anymore– they’re arrogant enough to wipe it all over our faces! And even worse, a large proportion of the population does not care!!

This guy sure has a lotta sense. It’s Ray Stevens, and I’d never heard his stuff before (although I have heard his name). I say we vote for HIM! I love his references to the Hokey Pokey: we put the right one in and left one OUT. Bwahahah!!!

I love his baseball hat, and the way he uses it as a prop. Nice touch. And that Granny wig, uh huh. Musta been on sale, one of those gifts for her on clearance. It’s a homegrown video, all right. And that’s why I LIKE it! We need to get back to WE THE PEOPLE again.

Rock on, Ray!!! You got my vote should you ever run.

Hat tip to Northview Diary for the video.

Well, did you play P-BO Bingo last night? I found a website where I could watch the State of the Union address over the Internet (thanks, Marcia!). So we started it up…. and…. tried to watch and listen…. oh, the agony.

I tried. Like Bill Clinton said, “I tried really, really hard. It was the hardest thing I ever tried.” Yeah, I’m lying, too. I didn’t REALLY try hard. I did try, a little. It was just too nauseating. After hearing Nancy Pelosi’s slimy (and thankfully brief) introduction, the applause go on and on and on and on and on and on (like those loud TVs at circuit city or something), and then hearing Obama discuss how he “knows” our “anxieties,” I could bear no more, not even for a game of Bingo.

Mr. Obama, you LIE. You do not “know the anxieties” of Americans. You KNOW OF them, but you do not know them. If you truly KNEW them, then that last thing you would be doing is pushing that idiotic health care takeover and planning another “stimulus” package (“and this time, for the ‘little guys’!”). PUH-LEASE. Just slash taxes, cancel the Federal Reserve Act, ditch the IRS, get the military out of domestic policing actions, and RESIGN! THAT’s what THIS American wants! Americans want to be LEFT ALONE. Quit trying to “create jobs”!! (SEE, I TOLD YOU!!). Quit trying to GOVERN us! I want to govern MYSELF. Isn’t that still allowed in this country?????????

So did anybody play the Bingo game? I’m curious. I wonder how P-BO scored.

I haven’t watched a State of the Union address in a long, long, time… probably not since G.H.W. Bush. And it wasn’t pretty even back then.

But I JUST may decide to watch it! Know why? Because I got a card for Barack Bingo! Or, as I call it, P-BO Bingo! Come on, kids, let’s play!

How to Play: Mark off any words that President Barack Obama uses in his State of the Union speech tomorrow night.

Oh sure, I know good ol’ P-BO will be distracted with his teleprompter (it would be SO COOL if it malfunctioned tonight!) and all the glittering security cameras. But there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll score a BINGO. He hasn’t let us down yet!

Now I have to figure out where to get a TV so I can watch….