Northern Illinois Patriots

Every teenager remembers living at home under the autocratic rule of their mother and father. They were told what to eat, how much to eat, when to go to bed, how to dress, what they can read, the music they can listen to, who they could have as friends, how much allowance they could have, where to live, and generally how they must live their lives.

There is an old expression: “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Fast forwarding, things have not changed a whole lot since the time we were children. This time is it government that has become our surrogate parent. Government tells us what we can eat and drink and how much we can eat and drink, what we can wear, the music we can listen to, the movies and cable programs we can watch. Government tells us where we can live, the type of home we may have, and how it must be constructed. Through public education they tell us what we may learn and what we must think and when we may worship our Creator.

Government tells us the cars we must drive, how we may drive, and where we can drive. Government monitors the conversations we have, the places we go, what we read, what we see, and who we associate with. Government is too busy telling us what we must do rather than listening to what we want to do. Government tells us how much we can earn, how much of it we may keep, and how we must spend it. They tell us they know what is best for us while they squander our hard earned money and steal from our piggy bank.

There is only one purpose for our Federal Government: to secure the unalienable rights endowed by our Creator, to allow us to live our lives as we see fit, in accordance with the laws of God and man. Rather than enjoying the freedoms secured through the right of passage into adulthood we are Moving Back With Our Parents.

James Madison stated, “It will be of little avail to the people if the laws are so voluminous they cannot be read or so incoherent they cannot be understood.” The Ten Commandments is only 10 sentences long. Our Constitution is a mere 20 pages long. Both are concise and written in language that is common sense and easily understood. Evil men with an insatiable appetite for power and control have distorted and perverted both for personal gain.

Article 1 Section 8 of our Constitution grants Congress the power to “Regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among several States, and with the Indian Tribes. Regulate meant to make regular or uniform, and facilitate the free flow of goods but not, except in the case of danger, prohibit the free flow of and good. So why would our founding fathers incorporate a Commerce Clause? Prior to the Constitution each State determined how they would regulate and tax and commerce. Without uniform trade regulations commerce among the States would be made more difficult.

No clause has been more disputed or generated more cases of litigation. From the beginning Chief Justice John Marshall saw no limitations for Congress and left its interpretation and enforcement completely up to their discretion. For politicians, it is not about the free flow of goods, it is about power and control and the unfettered ability to tax. They now control and tax every aspect of commerce whether it is goods or services, written or oral, optional or mandatory. Through the unconstitutional health care reform bill we are now required to purchase a product whether we want it or not.

It is not about helping the American citizen; it is about stripping away the rights endowed by our Creator. It is about imposing the same tyrannical form of government and control that was rejected by our Founding Fathers prior to the Revolutionary War. The American electorate has been complicit in this usurpation of power. More concerned with living off the government dole than electing office holders willing to follow the tenets of our Constitution we have become spectators in the systematic dismantling of the greatest nation the world has seen.

Few can forget journalist Bob Woodward and the Watergate scandal. Liberals applauded when he and Carl Bernstein brought down Richard Nixon when the President participated in a cover up of a break in at the Watergate Hotel. They lauded his unrelenting pursuit of the truth. But once he decided to present President in an unfavorable light the Obama administration decided to do what they do best, launch an all-out personal attack.  

In his book, “The Price of Politics”, Woodward reported that automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House. The sequester cuts were the brainchild of Chief of Staff Jack Lew and Congressional Relations Chief Rob Nabors. Obama personally approved of the plan from Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved. Nabors told others that they checked with the president before going to see Reid. A mandatory sequester was the only action-forcing mechanism they could devise.

Now fast forwarding, the President is claiming that it was the Republicans that proposed sequester and are responsible for the budget cuts. The irony is: there are no actual budget cuts just decreases in the amount of increase. Spending for 2013 will be higher than spending in 2012. The fact is even with sequester, the cuts amount to a mere 2.4% hardly a blip on the radar. Contrary to what the President has said, the cuts are only $44 billion not $88 billion and of that $44 billion only $22 billion affects the military with an annual budget of $1 trillion.

Woodward recently said in an interview that Obama is showing “A Kind Of Madness I Haven't Seen In A Long Time”. His remarks were in response to the President’s statement that he would not deploy the U.S.S Harry Truman to the Persian Gulf, citing budget concerns. The President is now asking for Republicans to compromise on the sequester, which is already a compromise and is asking for yet another tax hike. When it comes to launching an attack on Bob Woodward, President Obama is not just attacking a journalist, he is Attacking an Icon.

There was a time when Detroit, Michigan was the showcase city of American. It was synonymous with the auto industry, prosperity, unionization, good paying jobs, and the future of America. Today, on the verge of bankruptcy, Detroit is the poster child for everything is wrong about Liberalism and Socialism. With Democrats having a stranglehold on the city for decades, it is now on economic life support.

What was the fourth largest city with a population of 4 million has plummeted to a mere 700,000 inhabitants. Sixty percent of the children are living in poverty. In the past 10 years, 48% of manufacturing jobs have been lost with an unemployment rate of 18%.  Approximately one third of Detroit’s 140 square miles are either derelict or vacant. Public schools are a nightmare.

The city has closed dozens of schools and cut off service to “heavily blighted areas”. There are approximately 34,000 empty homes and 91,000 vacant lots. The median price of home in Detroit is only $9,000 with some selling for as little as $100. More than half of its streetlights are not working. The murder rate is 11 times higher than New York City with justifiable homicide rising by 79% in 2011. The number of police officers has been cut in half. Many bus drivers refuse to drive their routes because of the threat of violence. Gangs with AK 47s terrorize gas stations.

Detroit is just one city that is indicative of the cities and states that have implemented Democratic sponsored policies that punish success and reward unions and those that choose to live off the government dole. States such as Texas, Indiana, and Wisconsin that have embraced capitalism, controlled government spending, passed right to work laws, and created business friendly environments are reaping the rewards of Conservatism and capitalism.

Democrats and Liberals continue to embrace the destructive ideology of big government and wealth redistribution the core tenets of Keynesian Economics, Socialism, and Marxism. Free markets and a business environment conducive to economic growth, the answer to balanced budgets and responsible government are the anathema of Democratic Federal, State, and Local politicians. What we are seeing in Detroit and we will continue to see in many cities and states that have adopted the Democratic platform is Liberalism on Display. 

Our nation was founded and settled by rugged individualists who sought religious freedom and the opportunity to fulfill their personal ambitions. They neither asked for nor sought a free ride. They suffered illness, disappointment, misfortune, and hardship. But they preserved, remained optimistic, never losing sight of the goals they set for themselves. But they understood the perils that awaited them and the realities of the world in which they lived.

We now live in a nation of selfish demanding citizens, content with living off the labors of hard working successful individuals, oblivious to the perils that we now face. We have amassed $16 trillion in debt, $6 trillion in just the past four years. Trillion dollar deficits are common place. Anemic growth in the GDP makes economic recovery unlikely. The housing market will not recover until Americans obtain meaningful employment.

Unemployment remains high with two million fewer jobs now than four years ago. Almost half of the jobs being created are low paying, part time, or temporary. Net family worth continues to decline while personal debt continues to climb. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are on the verge of bankruptcy. As the Federal Reserve prints worthless money at a frenetic pace hyperinflation is just around the corner. Voluminous and burdensome regulations have created a toxic business environment with few prospects of expansion or job creation.

Oblivious to a nation in dire peril the electorate fills their waking hours with texting, mindless reality programs, IPods, Gameboys, Xboxes, IPhones, and the most violent and lurid movies and television series imaginable. Maybe they just have too much time on their hands, maybe they lack the mental capacity to comprehend the dangers we face, or maybe they just don’t care. What we are witnessing is a nation In Denial.

The Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed. Put more concisely, the only purpose of government is to secure or defend our individual liberties. It is we the people that give the Federal government power.

The Declaration of Independence is the philosophical basis for the establishment of the Federal government. The Constitution is the blueprint for our Republic. While an oblivious electorate has been suffering a “death of enslavement by a thousand rules” selfish power hungry politicians have been busy dismantling and subverting our Constitution.

Every regulation has four consequences. It first removes a liberty guaranteed by our Constitution. We no longer have the option not to follow that regulation. Secondly, it exacts a direct cost to the consumer. If the government requires that you purchase a product you must purchase that product. The third consequence is government oversight. To insure compliance a government agency must be added or expanded to monitor compliance to the regulation. And lastly, taxes must be raised to fund the government agency.

Government has not taken our freedoms; we have ceded them by electing politicians that have a complete disdain for our founding documents and our unalienable rights. Our Constitution, barely twenty pages long has been replaced by thousands of pages of regulations. As James Madison said, “It will be of little avail to people if laws are so voluminous that they cannot be read or so incoherent they cannot be understood.” Our regulations are both voluminous and incoherent.

A government that has become powerful enough to give us everything we want is now taking away everything we have. But millions of citizens who desire only to breathe the air of freedom demand as did Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty.”

 Just when we thought that the Democratic Party could sink no lower and had run out of groups to demonize they upped the ante. They decide to go after God, yes, that’s right, go after God. With a compliant submissive media at their backs they feel no power on earth and apparently no power in Heaven can stop them.

They removed the mention of God and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from their platform. What it did was expose their fanatic atheistic view of our nation, a nation founded on Judeo Christian values. Our President has already proclaimed that we are not a Christian nation and has realigned the primary goal of NASA as a Muslim outreach. He ignored our traditional national day of prayer while embracing a Muslim holiday observance.

Only after realizing that might have stepped in it did they seek to amend their platform. But that could not be accomplished without ever further controversy. When a roll call of ayes and nays was called, seeking a 2/3 majority, it was obvious that the nays exceeded the ayes by a clear majority. After three roll calls with the same results, the chairman read the preordained results on the teleprompter.

A party, out of ideas and devoid of morals, jeered when both God and Israel were put back in the platform. If ever there was a reason to leave the Democratic Party this was it. Cult followers that have drunk the Kool Aid should start smelling the coffee. The Democratic Party Convention was indeed memorable. Democrats will be remembered as The Party That Bood God.

 Americans and certainly Christians will never forget the words of our President when he stated, “We are not a Christian nation.” Whether unintentional or deliberate, President Obama ignored over two centuries of our nation’s history as a Judeo Christian nation. From the Mayflower Compact to the Declaration of Independence, to our Constitution, from the halls of Congress to our national monuments, to our Courts and our Archives, the name of God and his teachings are indelibly etched into the minds and hearts of our citizens.

While our President clearly distances himself from any professions of his stated following of Christianity he had no problem remarking on Ramadan, an Islamic holiday. He said, “Even as Ramadan holds profound meaning for the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, it is also a reminder to people of all faiths of our common humanity and the commitment to justice, equality, and compassion shared by all great faiths.”

Is the Islamic faith he is referring to the same Islamic faith that chops off peoples’ heads, beats, stones, and oppresses women, hangs homosexuals, and promotes hatred? Is this the same faith that says a Muslim woman is worth half a Muslim man, that states they must slaughter all non-believers, that kills innocent men, women, and children in its name, and that is systematically destroying Coptic Christians?

The behavior of many practicing Muslims in no way mirrors the teachings and practices of Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, and other accepted religions. For the President to make such a comparison is non-factual and flies in the face of reason. While stating that we are not a Christian nation was he inferring that we are now A Muslim Nation?

 The Declaration of Independence states, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shown that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.

Whether it is our tolerance for suffering, our complacency, our apathy, or fear of change, we have allowed our Federal Government, whose sole responsibility is to secure our individual liberties, to seize the unalienable rights endowed by our Creator. Every regulation enacted by our government removes one of those rights.

Through decades of onerous, costly, and sometimes unconstitutional legislation, the Federal government controls the cars we drive, the homes we live in, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the places we work at, the schools we sent our children to, the clothes we wear, and the toys our children may play with. With the recent Supreme Court ruling of the expensive and highly unpopular health care bill, they now control the doctors we may use, the procedures we will be allowed to have, who will live and who will die.

A government that we have allowed to become powerful enough to give us everything we want will now take away everything we have. A nation that fought a war to free us from the bondage of the British Empire has once again been returned to bondage. When will sleeping Americans awake? When is Enough, Enough?

 If we have heard it once we have heard it a thousand times: President Obama single handedly saved the automobile industry and thousands of jobs. But for man who has a propensity for misrepresenting facts, distorting facts, and making up facts, what actually happened and what he says happened are two different animals.

The Treasury Department estimates that taxpayers will lose $23 billion to the auto bailout. None of those loses came from saving jobs but rather went to propping up the compensation of auto workers. The entire loss to the taxpayers can be attributed to funds diverted to the UAW.

 In an unprecedented action by a President he summarily forced a private sector CEO at GM to resign, stiffed shareholders, who should have had first claim on assets in a bankruptcy, gave controlling interest in GM to the unions, and caused the layoff of thousands of auto workers.

 While corporate CEO’s made some mistakes the decline of the automotive industry was directly related to labor costs. Detroit’s labor costs were 50% to 80% above other automakers such as Toyota and Nissan, with hourly rates $70 to $75 per hour.

The real reason for a government bailout was to spare unions the pain they would have suffered in conventional bankruptcy. GM and Chrysler owed billions to a trust fund for union benefits. In a conventional bankruptcy these would have been paid proportional to other unsecured creditors, receiving a fraction of what they were owed. Bankruptcy would also have allowed both companies to renegotiation contracts and compensation rates. Compensation rates would likely have fallen to the same levels are foreign based competition. Compensation rates were actually changed only for new hires.

 At $56 dollars an hour, GM still has higher labor cost than foreign competitors. The average taxpayer that bailed out the unions receives a mere $30 per hour with benefits inferior to unions. Rather than looking out for the taxpayer our President was running on Auto Pilot.