We’re working to elect politicians, but we believe the ultimate answers don’t lie in government, but rather in private-sector liberty, industry and the resulting dignity…and often prosperity. We need to elect people who are willing to diminish the power of their offices and thus to increase their positive impact on the general welfare.

The politician who does best is the one who directs attention away from himself to the real engines of happiness in our Constitutional Republic — individuals and their voluntary associations.

We don’t need more politicians who want to help people through government programs. We need folks who want to become guardians of freedom by reducing the oppressive, confiscatory power of government.

We need politicians who see a problem and think…

1. How can government diminish its role as the cause of that problem?
2. What will happen if government does nothing about it?
3. How can we remove impediments to private-sector solutions?
4. How can we enhance individual responsibility, and thus, human dignity?

I find this ironic and rather amusing. Apparently, Obama’s election has indirectly reduced murders in the US, because as the “bitter gun-clingers” prepare for whatever instability the uncertain future may hold, criminals are afraid to attack an armed populace.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (Amendment II to the U.S. Constitution)

This take-off on Aesop’s fable The Ants and the Grasshopper was emailed to me by a friend, and appears to be adapted from Jim Quinn. Enjoy!

Old Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast…

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

What’s the moral of the story? Be careful how you vote in 2010!

If a conservative is a vegetarian, they don’t eat meat.
If a liberal is, they want to ban all meat products for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy.
A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is will take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal wants any mention of God or religion silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that his neighbors pay for his.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1bYMkR5h4Y

As an eyewitness, I can testify to the fact that these were mainstream Americans, not some radical fringe group. I saw both young and old, black and white, most of whom traveled all night by car or bus to be there. The event was marked by politeness and cheerful enthusiasm—not what you would expect for a “mob.”

As a volunteer, I can also testify that the event was grassroots from top to bottom (I haven’t seen any “astroturf” checks in my mailbox!) Personally, I spent $1000 of my own money to be there along with several in my family.

In such economically difficult times, what would drive middle Americans, including many who had never protested before, to take this kind of action? Was it because Obama won the election, as some accuse us? No, we are acting from a sense of outrage, frustration, and fear. Outrage, because our views and values are being trampled by Congress. Frustration, because they are not listening to us. And fear, because we see our free Republic being transformed into a fascist form of government.

The focus of this rally, and all the “tea parties” across the US was not the President or any particular party. It was Congress. Democrats and Republicans alike no longer protect and defend the Constitution of the United States—the only thing their oath of office binds them to.

Rather than letting our economy heal itself, they are bleeding it. Rather than fixing the real causes of skyrocketing healthcare costs, they are taking actions that will eventually kill the quality of America’s world-class healthcare. They are leaving our borders open and endangering our security. While pretending to champion the cause of minorities, they encourage murdering the unborn, the coming generations that could keep America great.

As we marched down Pennsylvania Avenue chanting, “Yes we can—throw you out!”, I realized that Americans are tired of double-dealing and political games. Expect an overhaul of Congress in 2009, 2010, and 2012 (see goooh.com) and watch as this imperial ruling class joins the ranks of the unemployed, one person at a time.

What do you do?

The 2010 elections are more than a year away. Will America as we know it still exist then? If Barack Obama in his first 6 months in office can spend more than every prior U.S. President combined, what might the next year hold? TARP, the “porkulus” bill, socialized medicine, Cash-for-clunkers, Cap-and-tax… all the while ignoring the real solutions to the problems we face. What will they do next?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Americans have had just about all they are willing to take–especially in Texas.

Yesterday (Aug. 29th) “thousands of Texans poured into the capitol and other major cities across the state to demand that their elected officials immediately deliver an ultimatum to Washington: ‘sovereignty or secession’”, according to a report by IL tea party organizer Robert Moon.

This is only the latest evidence of something I’ve been convinced of for weeks now: that secession is not merely a possibility, it is an inevitability, if things do not change. So why not leverage that looming threat to make some real progress, while averting the motivating cause for secession and thus preserving the Union?

My flyer from Patriot Academy promoting HJR28

I was recently in Austin, TX on the house floor acting as a state Representative in a mock legislature which is part of a conservative training program called Patriot Academy. The bill that I brought, HJR28, addressed this very issue:

1. By sending a clear “cease and desist” warning message to Washington with teeth–Texas means business (this was no ordinary resolution. House Joint Resolutions must be passed by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the senate).
2. By setting forth a specific list of potential violations of state and individual sovereignty, any three of which occurring within a 10-year time frame would trigger an automatic Texas secession.
3. By giving the people of Texas the opportunity to ratify the action.

This is truly a Texas-style way to telling Congress and the President that “we’re drawing a line in the sand and it stops here. We mean business.” (Unfortunately, it did not pass the House at Patriot Academy.)

Is this a bluff? No. Would Congress listen? I think so. But if they don’t start listening soon, I wholeheartedly advocate secession as a last resort to preserve our freedom.

Read the text of HJR28 below:

By: Hill, J. and Gattle, J.                     H.J.R. No. 28

A JOINT RESOLUTION

warning the Federal Government to cease and desist all acts of tyranny or precipitate a Texas Secession from the United States of America.

WHEREAS, the inalienable right of every Citizen of the United States of America to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is endowed by their Creator alone and that to protect these rights “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,” and

WHEREAS, the people of Texas resent and decry the imperial attitude, profligate spending, and unconstitutional actions of all three branches of the Federal Government, and

WHEREAS, the outcome of the “War between the States” does not preclude the “inalienable right of the people to alter, reform, or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient”:

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

That if any three of the following actions are taken before January 1st, 2020 by any branch of the Federal Government, namely:

1. Enacting HB2454 (“Cap and Trade”) or similar legislation, or
2. Creating a Federal public option for providing healthcare,
3. Creation of a new tax or significantly raising the overall tax burden, or
4. Failing to enact H.R. 1207 (“Federal Reserve Transparency Act”) or similar legislation, or
5. Enacting H.R. 1964 (“Freedom of Choice Act”) or similar legislation to completely legalize abortion, or
6. Attempting to confiscate arms or taking any action abridging the right to self-defense, or
7. Passing any future legislation without full reading and adequate deliberation, or
8. Taking any action grossly violating any part of the Bill of Rights, or
9. Exhibiting any further behavior demonstrating no desire to decrease the power of the Federal Government and to increase the power of the States,

That the statehood of Texas shall be rescinded and the Republic of Texas shall have the sole right to govern the affairs of the people of Texas under a republican form of government, effective six months after the aforementioned conditions being met. Be it further resolved that this proposed Joint Resolution be submitted to the voters for ratification on the uniform election date established by the Texas Constitution.