Chicago Monday AM, April 6, 2009
Dear Mr. Pascarella:
It was good to see your plump of the White Sox in the National Review symposium. I've been a Sox fan all my life, even my last 34 years here at 5100 North LSD. You may know 100 times more about Chicago than I do (your being a junior at the UM and managing editor of The Michigan Review are all I need to know that you know all sorts of other things better than I do, too) but your statement that the Sox play "a grinding style of baseball that appropriately represents the hard-working Irish population of south Chicago, puzzles me.
"South Chicago" (unlike "Wrigleyville") is one of Chicago's 76 US census recognized neighborhoods, and being on the south side of Chicago is certainly a very pro-Sox neighborhood. But it never was particularly Irish, and sure isn't now. Did you mean the Sox play "a grinding style of baseball that appropriately represents the hard-working Irish population of Bridgeport, the Chicago nabe where Comiskey park has been located since 1910?"
Bridgeport was where a big wave of Irish came in to help build the Illinois/Michigan canal in the 1840s, and many descendents remain (including two guys named Richard Daley (in spirit, at least.)) But thanks again for your fine writeup in National Review. I've been a subscriber for 50 years, and you sure fit right in.
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago 60640
PS Here is a little story also connecting National Review w/ the Sox I think you might like:
In 1999 I went on the NR Baltic cruise w/ WFBJr (and a few others.) One of the stops was Wurnemunde, Germany. I certainly had never been there, but the town especially intrigued me because it is a big seaside summer resort, like my home town of South Haven MI, but considerably larger. They have a main street paralleling the beach, but a few blocks in. It is a very wide street, maybe wider than South Haven's 10 widest streets put together (I guess that is an exaggeration, but they have a real wide main street.) I stood on the side watching a sea of "summer people" passing up and down, then saw, way on the other side, four guys, staring in wonder like me, and one of them was wearing... A Chicago White Sox warmup jacket!
Wow! I had to investigate. So I struggled thru the crowd, finally got to them, and they looked pretty scared. Turns out they were sailors from the Philippines, from a visiting freighter.
So I confronted the jacket guy: "Do you know who they are?" pointing to the jacket front. I think there was only one of the four who spoke English (I know The Philippines are the 2nd largest English speaking country in the world, but they have lots of people there, and some don't speak English.)
He gave me a relieved look, like he had worried I was going to arrest him, then blurted: "Chicago Sox!"
So I introduced myself, and the 5 of us talked for a few minutes, and I started to go back. But I had a brain storm, turned around, asked: "Do you know the song?" They looked at each other, shaking their heads 'no.'
So I started singing: "Nah nah nah naaaah, Nah nah nah naaaah, hey heeeeeeey, goodbye!" and explained how it was the most famous fight song in the majors.
They seemed to like it, but the one guy who seemed to know English pretty good asked: "That sounds like such a sad song... why would a baseball team use it?"
Me: "Sad?!? Only for the other pitcher, 'cuz he just got booted out of the game by the Sox!" I said the words a time or two more, then took off. I looked back and saw them singing, and could just barely hear them, too, over the crowd.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Card check and the Pledge of Allegiance
Chicago Wednesday PM, April 1, 2009
Editors, Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
A letter in the Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Wall Street Journal "Court Might Uphold 'Card Check'" compares the lack of anonymity under 'card check' union voting with the lack of anonymity in a public-school classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, where a student "whether he recites the pledge or not, will be seen as expressing himself...."
A vote is a group choice, while public recitation of the Pledge is a promise, to support the nation as an institution, which seems reasonable considering the pupil would not even be going to a public school if it wasn't established by the government. Of course, the poor little 'pledge', written by a defrocked minister (rolling in his grave over the addition of the words "under God") is hardly up to the task.
Replacing it with the first 71 words of the Declaration of Independence ("When in the course of Human events..." thru ""the consent of the governed",) followed by the last 32 words ("And for the support of this declaration" thru "our Sacred Honor.") would be a promise expected of every citizen, as are the promises of the President to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" and members of the Armed Forces to "obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me...."
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640
Editors, Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
A letter in the Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Wall Street Journal "Court Might Uphold 'Card Check'" compares the lack of anonymity under 'card check' union voting with the lack of anonymity in a public-school classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, where a student "whether he recites the pledge or not, will be seen as expressing himself...."
A vote is a group choice, while public recitation of the Pledge is a promise, to support the nation as an institution, which seems reasonable considering the pupil would not even be going to a public school if it wasn't established by the government. Of course, the poor little 'pledge', written by a defrocked minister (rolling in his grave over the addition of the words "under God") is hardly up to the task.
Replacing it with the first 71 words of the Declaration of Independence ("When in the course of Human events..." thru ""the consent of the governed",) followed by the last 32 words ("And for the support of this declaration" thru "our Sacred Honor.") would be a promise expected of every citizen, as are the promises of the President to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" and members of the Armed Forces to "obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me...."
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Congress deals a blow to 'honest budgeting'
Chicago IL Saturday AM, March 28, 2009
Editors, Washington Post
Gentlepeople:
The Washington Post Thursday, March 26 Article "Congress deals a blow to 'honest budgeting'" notes Congressional leaders "were spooked by a Congressional Budget Office analysis of President Obama's $3.6 trillion proposal that found the government would run a deficit of $9.3 trillion... over the next decade," adding that Obama's budget "was a 10-year financial plan" that "endeavored to be more honest."
Some might doubt the honesty of a 10-year plan offered by someone constitutionally limited to eight years of office, but this man wrote two autobiographies before he was 50 years old, so I guess it's all right.
Even a single autobiography at this age would be audacious considering the thin experience pool it had to work with: four crucial pre-teen years slogging thru the mud of Indonesia, eight years as an Illinois state senator (a job requiring no more skill than a third string Washington Redskins jock strap attendant, without the responsibility.) Beyond that, it was 'Community Activist', a Chicago euphemism for Democrat vote hustler.
The article continues approvingly describing Obama's budget contributions such as putting aside "$250 billion for more funding for fiscal stabilization" and "providing relief from the alternative minimum tax." This is a remarkable performance from someone who has never met a payroll, whose most important management duty of his life has been organizing senate office Christmas parties, and who made his first buck-stops-here decision only ten weeks ago. The lightness of this resume is even more startling compared with three of his four immediate predecessors: multiple term governors of the largest, second-largest, and 30th-largest states. Even the incredibly incompetent George W Bush was managing partner for 5 years of a private sector entity with a $60 million annual payroll.
Next, the Post notes that Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress "want to spend more on education, energy and other popular programs." A quick computer enabled search of the United States Constitution shows that of its 8,000 words, not one of them is 'education' or 'energy'. Could the Democrats be proposing evading the Constitution?
Ah, but you say: "General welfare clause" to which James Madison, in his Federalist #41 wrote: "Some [Constitution critics] ... have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power to "provide for the... general welfare of the United States" amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the... general welfare.... "Had no other... definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution... the authors of the objection might have had some color for it.... But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?"
And sure enough, following that semicolon are 17 specific clauses defining what Congress can do, but again no mention of the words education or energy, nor health, homeland, housing, transportation, agriculture, or security, either.
Next The Post grumps that neither Mr. Obama nor Congressional Democrats "want to level with voters about the need to pay for such programs (Education, energy, etc) through increased taxes." Even this proposition gets cloudy when you consider that the Commerce Department's 2009 Statistical Abstract of the United States shows 65% of the $2.3 trillion total of the US government income in 2007 came from the bank accounts of a very small portion of voters, employers, and even this group is further special in that it can pass on the cost of these taxes to their customers, a pretty much constantly growing segment of a growing national economy, all but eliminating the need for ballot box influence.
A national political commentator recently suggested that rather than the federal government spending $trillions to jump start the economy, wouldn't leaving that 65% of federal income undisturbed with the voters do an even better job? But of course that would allow no 'redistribution', and on top of that, the voters might save it instead of spend it - a practice you could never accuse the federal government of.
According to generally accepted, natural, fundamental laws of economics, what the President and Democrat Leaders of Congress are proposing will only make things worse, unavoidably leading to the country failing, at which point the President can announce (with the aid of his ever present teleprompter, confident smile, and perfect delivery): "The country is too big to fail. To prevent it, we are nationalizing the entire economy: every private sector organization is hereby made a unit of the federal government, every citizen, and non-citizen, are now employees of the federal government, everyone has equal income, and healthcare. May the force be with us."
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago, IL 60640
Editors, Washington Post
Gentlepeople:
The Washington Post Thursday, March 26 Article "Congress deals a blow to 'honest budgeting'" notes Congressional leaders "were spooked by a Congressional Budget Office analysis of President Obama's $3.6 trillion proposal that found the government would run a deficit of $9.3 trillion... over the next decade," adding that Obama's budget "was a 10-year financial plan" that "endeavored to be more honest."
Some might doubt the honesty of a 10-year plan offered by someone constitutionally limited to eight years of office, but this man wrote two autobiographies before he was 50 years old, so I guess it's all right.
Even a single autobiography at this age would be audacious considering the thin experience pool it had to work with: four crucial pre-teen years slogging thru the mud of Indonesia, eight years as an Illinois state senator (a job requiring no more skill than a third string Washington Redskins jock strap attendant, without the responsibility.) Beyond that, it was 'Community Activist', a Chicago euphemism for Democrat vote hustler.
The article continues approvingly describing Obama's budget contributions such as putting aside "$250 billion for more funding for fiscal stabilization" and "providing relief from the alternative minimum tax." This is a remarkable performance from someone who has never met a payroll, whose most important management duty of his life has been organizing senate office Christmas parties, and who made his first buck-stops-here decision only ten weeks ago. The lightness of this resume is even more startling compared with three of his four immediate predecessors: multiple term governors of the largest, second-largest, and 30th-largest states. Even the incredibly incompetent George W Bush was managing partner for 5 years of a private sector entity with a $60 million annual payroll.
Next, the Post notes that Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress "want to spend more on education, energy and other popular programs." A quick computer enabled search of the United States Constitution shows that of its 8,000 words, not one of them is 'education' or 'energy'. Could the Democrats be proposing evading the Constitution?
Ah, but you say: "General welfare clause" to which James Madison, in his Federalist #41 wrote: "Some [Constitution critics] ... have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power to "provide for the... general welfare of the United States" amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the... general welfare.... "Had no other... definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution... the authors of the objection might have had some color for it.... But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?"
And sure enough, following that semicolon are 17 specific clauses defining what Congress can do, but again no mention of the words education or energy, nor health, homeland, housing, transportation, agriculture, or security, either.
Next The Post grumps that neither Mr. Obama nor Congressional Democrats "want to level with voters about the need to pay for such programs (Education, energy, etc) through increased taxes." Even this proposition gets cloudy when you consider that the Commerce Department's 2009 Statistical Abstract of the United States shows 65% of the $2.3 trillion total of the US government income in 2007 came from the bank accounts of a very small portion of voters, employers, and even this group is further special in that it can pass on the cost of these taxes to their customers, a pretty much constantly growing segment of a growing national economy, all but eliminating the need for ballot box influence.
A national political commentator recently suggested that rather than the federal government spending $trillions to jump start the economy, wouldn't leaving that 65% of federal income undisturbed with the voters do an even better job? But of course that would allow no 'redistribution', and on top of that, the voters might save it instead of spend it - a practice you could never accuse the federal government of.
According to generally accepted, natural, fundamental laws of economics, what the President and Democrat Leaders of Congress are proposing will only make things worse, unavoidably leading to the country failing, at which point the President can announce (with the aid of his ever present teleprompter, confident smile, and perfect delivery): "The country is too big to fail. To prevent it, we are nationalizing the entire economy: every private sector organization is hereby made a unit of the federal government, every citizen, and non-citizen, are now employees of the federal government, everyone has equal income, and healthcare. May the force be with us."
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago, IL 60640
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Snarlin' Arlen shows his core value...
...getting reelected.
Chicago Wednesday PM, March 25, 2009
Editors, Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
Your editorial of Wednesday, March 25 "The Power of 41" notes one of those rare occasions when Senator Specter of Pennsylvania acts like a Republican for a change, backing a filibuster of the "Free Union Bosses from the Tyranny of the secret ballot" bill. You add that for this to occur, there's probably a reelection campaign coming up: "Mr. Specter is undoubtedly hoping that by getting on the right side of what has become a grassroots issue for the GOP, he might avoid an ugly primary battle for his Senate seat next year."
We had a similar situation in the fall of 1991, when Senator Specter uncharacteristically was a strong supporter of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme court. The Senator had no problem with a primary challenge in 1992, but he was forced to pull a squeaker win in the general that fall.
But going back five years from that the Senator was finally able to vote his conscience, against the nomination of the finest legal mind of a generation, Robert Bork, conveniently only eleven months after a healthy election win in November 1986.
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640
Chicago Wednesday PM, March 25, 2009
Editors, Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
Your editorial of Wednesday, March 25 "The Power of 41" notes one of those rare occasions when Senator Specter of Pennsylvania acts like a Republican for a change, backing a filibuster of the "Free Union Bosses from the Tyranny of the secret ballot" bill. You add that for this to occur, there's probably a reelection campaign coming up: "Mr. Specter is undoubtedly hoping that by getting on the right side of what has become a grassroots issue for the GOP, he might avoid an ugly primary battle for his Senate seat next year."
We had a similar situation in the fall of 1991, when Senator Specter uncharacteristically was a strong supporter of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme court. The Senator had no problem with a primary challenge in 1992, but he was forced to pull a squeaker win in the general that fall.
But going back five years from that the Senator was finally able to vote his conscience, against the nomination of the finest legal mind of a generation, Robert Bork, conveniently only eleven months after a healthy election win in November 1986.
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
"Everyone hates ethanol"...
...and why not?
Chicago, Tuesday AM, 24 March 2009
Editors, The Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
A letter in the Monday, March 23 WSJ "Break the Addiction to Foreign Oil" is not a particularly coherent response to your Monday, March 15 editorial "Everyone Hates Ethanol" ("Researchers... recently found that ethanol... reduces carbon emissions by up to 59%." Doesn't "up to 59%" include everything from zero thru 58%?) The letter's closing line goes completely over the edge: "The benefits of ethanol are irrefutable -- greater energy independence, cleaner air and enhanced economic growth." Has the writer and his 'Growth Energy' associate, Retired Army General Wesley Clark, considered that ethanol comes from a 2-dimensional space, the surface of the earth, and only 1/3 of that not covered by salt water, further limited by its inability to grow just anywhere, such as nearly uncrossable, let alone untillable, mountains, vast deserts, thousand-foot thick ice caps - all sorts of corn-unfriendly places.
Oil on the other hand comes from a 3-dimensional space, all that's under the surface of the earth, and the entire surface, covered by water or not. The depth of this space is ultimately limited to 4,000 miles, but so far we've only tried the first eight miles, and that in only a very few locations.
The WSJ editorial board is accused of having an "addiction to foreign oil" preventing it from looking at "homegrown alternatives." Aren't some of those 'alternatives' ANWR and the continental shelf, currently in the death grip of the environmentalist wackos?
Arnold H. Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640
Chicago, Tuesday AM, 24 March 2009
Editors, The Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
A letter in the Monday, March 23 WSJ "Break the Addiction to Foreign Oil" is not a particularly coherent response to your Monday, March 15 editorial "Everyone Hates Ethanol" ("Researchers... recently found that ethanol... reduces carbon emissions by up to 59%." Doesn't "up to 59%" include everything from zero thru 58%?) The letter's closing line goes completely over the edge: "The benefits of ethanol are irrefutable -- greater energy independence, cleaner air and enhanced economic growth." Has the writer and his 'Growth Energy' associate, Retired Army General Wesley Clark, considered that ethanol comes from a 2-dimensional space, the surface of the earth, and only 1/3 of that not covered by salt water, further limited by its inability to grow just anywhere, such as nearly uncrossable, let alone untillable, mountains, vast deserts, thousand-foot thick ice caps - all sorts of corn-unfriendly places.
Oil on the other hand comes from a 3-dimensional space, all that's under the surface of the earth, and the entire surface, covered by water or not. The depth of this space is ultimately limited to 4,000 miles, but so far we've only tried the first eight miles, and that in only a very few locations.
The WSJ editorial board is accused of having an "addiction to foreign oil" preventing it from looking at "homegrown alternatives." Aren't some of those 'alternatives' ANWR and the continental shelf, currently in the death grip of the environmentalist wackos?
Arnold H. Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640
Sunday, March 22, 2009
WSJ loses its editorial balance for a minute...
WSJ Editorial "Bowling Pins and Needles" Saturday, March 21, 2009:
"President Obama is getting lashed by the political correctness police for a comment on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno Thursday that his bowling skills were "like the Special Olympics or something." Mr. Obama's attempt to make light of his poor score may have been in poor taste, but the real gutter ball goes to anyone trying to score political points off the remark.
"Even before the show aired, the White House apologized for the gaffe and Mr. Obama called Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver from Air Force One. Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton hurried to assure the world that President Obama believes the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives people with disabilities an 'opportunity to shine.'
"Of course he does. Even if the joke was unbecoming, Mr. Obama was clearly trying to make fun of himself, not special needs children or adults. The best response came from Special Olympics bowling champion Kolan McConiughey, who has bowled five perfect games in the past four years and challenged the President to a match. 'He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily'. Mr. McConiughey said.
"The Special Olympics took the opportunity to admonish that 'words hurt and words do matter.' Yet it's impossible to believe that Mr. Obama doesn't understand that these Olympians are great -- and the best way to show that would have been to treat them as tough enough to get past a wisecrack."
I responded:
Chicago Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:28 PM
Editors, Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
What possible good do you see in wasting 243 words of the most valuable opinion space in Journalism on defending Obama from “getting lashed“ for another outrageous tongue slip that tells much more about him than the people he insulted. Sure he apologized to everyone in sight, and I'm sure Special Olympians are no more immune to Obama worship than any other segment of the population. You say “Mr. Obama was clearly trying to make fun of himself….” That’s for sure, by clearly comparing himself to special Olympians.
Did you have similar WSJ editorials chastising the ‘political correctness police’ for their lashing of misspelling ‘potato’ and mispronouncing ‘nuclear,’ neither remotely demeaning anyone other than the speaker?
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago 60640
"President Obama is getting lashed by the political correctness police for a comment on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno Thursday that his bowling skills were "like the Special Olympics or something." Mr. Obama's attempt to make light of his poor score may have been in poor taste, but the real gutter ball goes to anyone trying to score political points off the remark.
"Even before the show aired, the White House apologized for the gaffe and Mr. Obama called Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver from Air Force One. Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton hurried to assure the world that President Obama believes the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives people with disabilities an 'opportunity to shine.'
"Of course he does. Even if the joke was unbecoming, Mr. Obama was clearly trying to make fun of himself, not special needs children or adults. The best response came from Special Olympics bowling champion Kolan McConiughey, who has bowled five perfect games in the past four years and challenged the President to a match. 'He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily'. Mr. McConiughey said.
"The Special Olympics took the opportunity to admonish that 'words hurt and words do matter.' Yet it's impossible to believe that Mr. Obama doesn't understand that these Olympians are great -- and the best way to show that would have been to treat them as tough enough to get past a wisecrack."
I responded:
Chicago Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:28 PM
Editors, Wall Street Journal
Gentlepeople:
What possible good do you see in wasting 243 words of the most valuable opinion space in Journalism on defending Obama from “getting lashed“ for another outrageous tongue slip that tells much more about him than the people he insulted. Sure he apologized to everyone in sight, and I'm sure Special Olympians are no more immune to Obama worship than any other segment of the population. You say “Mr. Obama was clearly trying to make fun of himself….” That’s for sure, by clearly comparing himself to special Olympians.
Did you have similar WSJ editorials chastising the ‘political correctness police’ for their lashing of misspelling ‘potato’ and mispronouncing ‘nuclear,’ neither remotely demeaning anyone other than the speaker?
Arnold H Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago 60640
The New Tork Times actually says something resonable...
...for a change:
New York Times Friday, March 20, 2009 Editorial "Political Animal Behavior 101"
"Congress is regularly mocked for earmarking taxpayer money to study exotic life cycles; this year’s favorite target is the Mormon cricket’s pestilential threat to agriculture in Utah. Too bad the Capitol has no appetite to study the ultimate in symbiotic survival: the relationship between campaign donors and the customized appropriations they are fed by grateful lawmakers.
"Democratic leaders in the House have been swatting back Representative Jeff Flake as if he were a Mormon cricket as he repeatedly proposes that the ethics committee start a
cause-and-effect study of earmarking and campaign money. Mr. Flake, a Republican from Arizona who is an earmark battler, is now calling on the committee to investigate the large donations to defense appropriators made by the PMA Group, the lobbying
powerhouse that recently shut itself down after an F.B.I. raid over election-law violations.
"Mr. Flake has picked the right place to start the investigating: some of the PMA Group’s lobbyists learned their craft as staffers in the appropriations subcommittee led by
Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania. Once in the free-enterprise zone, the PMA Group scored numerous defense earmarks and doled out generous gifts to Mr. Murtha and other subcommittee members.
"This relationship cries out for an ethics inquiry. And we are pleased that Mr. Flake is refusing to be discouraged by his colleagues’ lack of courage. He reports that he picks up a few more supporters with each new challenge to the House ways of doing business. Mr. Flake is now bolstered by Peter Visclosky, a top Democrat on appropriations who announced after the F.B.I. raid that he’s returning $271,000 in donations from the PMA
Group.
"Mr. Visclosky has endorsed Mr. Flake’s quest, urging fellow Democratic leaders to push for an investigation of how the PMA Group’s clout worked. Of course, everyone on the Hill already knows the answer. But the best hope of ending this cynical influence trading is for the taxpayers to hear the full and shameful truth."
I respond:
Sunday, March 22, 2009 4:40 AM
Gentlepeople:
The New York Times deserves as much commendation for their Friday, March 20, 2009 Editorial "Political Animal Behavior 101" as its subjects, Congressmen Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, and Peter Visclosky, Indiana Democrat, for their David-like attack on Congressional earmarks. But your closing comment "the best hope of ending this cynical influence trading is for the taxpayers to hear the full and shameful truth," well-meaning as it is, from past experience is not real encouraging.
The solution is found looking upstream, in this case at the 2009 Statistical Abstract of the United States, that says in 2007, 65.64% of the total federal income that year ($2.568 trillion) was 'withheld' by employers from employee paychecks. 'Withheld' is a euphamism for the entire amount coming into the feds as checks on employer bank accounts and immediately deposited to the US general fund, no better demonstrated than the fact that if any of those checks fail to arrive, it is the employer who goes to jail, never the employee.
The employers are not real happy with this, but 1) they don't have enough votes to complain, and 2) unlike the employee, they can pass it on to customers, which has worked just fine for 75 years of a regularly expanding national economy. So 535 people control 2/3 of the federal income that no one cares about, to the exteant of needing to take it out of their personal accounts and send it in. Result: earmarks. No number of editorials or letters to congress creatures has had any effect in the 66 years it has been going on.
There is an way to fix this. Get 218 members of the House of Representatives and 60 Senators, and an agreeable president to sign it in to law, and change paragraph 3402 of United States Code Title 26 — 'Internal Revenue Code' Subtitle C 'Employment taxes' Chapter 24 'Collection Of Income Tax At Source On Wages... from "every employer making payment of wages shall deduct and withhold upon such wages a tax..." to "every employer making payment of wages shall pay all of those wages to the employee...." Leave the tax calculation with the employer so that with the check they include a stern note telling the employee how much the feds are expecting him to send in within 30 days. Would it be easy to do? Probably not all at once, but a good place for the "frog in boiling water' technique: over a three-month quarter convert the 0.1 percent of the population w/ names starting with 'x' to a new, real 'pay-as-you-go' system, add in a new letter every quarter for 26 quarters, thru the 20% of the population w/ names starting with M and S.
Would this be inefficient? Certainly for an insatiable federal bureaucracy, but instructive for a growing portion of the electorate, sending in sizable checks every month from their own bank accounts. Questions would arise: Is the federal level the best to run health care? Education? retirement? What did the founders think of this approach? Apparently not much, since they not only didn't authorize it in the Constitution, but in fact wrote specifically prohibiting it. Little did they envision their add-on 'general welfare' clause being beaten within an inch of its life, finally threatening the very existence of the country.
Those 26 quarters would cover three elections of the House of Representatives, reelection of the entire Senate, and election of a president. People would be asking the candidates these questions, and voting on the answers. And congresscreatures would forget how to spell 'earmark', let alone use it. This is the only way the voters will ever unnderstand "the full and shameful truth" of why congress throws money around.
Arnold H. Nelson
5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL
Just after I sent that, I sent the following to some friends:
What a breakthru!
I just sent a letter to the NYTimes where I used the sentence "Little did they [the Founders] envision their add-on 'general welfare' clause being beaten within an inch of its life, finally threatening the very existence of the country."
I been wanting to use it for a long time, but today decided to find out how true it was.
So I went to the Federalist papers. I have them on my HD (192K words) and can search just fine, but recently acquired a new research tool: A 700 page paperback, $8 from Amazon, "The Federalist Papers, by Clinton Rossiter." Apparently Mr. Rossiter lived, breathed, and slept w/ the Papers for the last 40 years of his life (I think ended by suicide not too long ago, unfortunately.)
I look in the index and find "'general welfare' clause," pointing to James Madison's Federalist #41, where St. James himself writes:
"Some [Constitution critics] who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power ``to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,'' amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare....
"Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it.... A power to destroy the freedom of the press, the trial by jury, or even to regulate the course of descents, or the forms of conveyances, must be very singularly expressed by the terms ``to raise money for the general welfare.'' But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?" [Me: !!!!!]
I'm finally catching on, so go directly to US Constitution (also on HD) Article One Section Eight. And there's that semicolon, separating the infamous 'general welfare' Clause 1 from clauses 2 thru 18:
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;
Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--
And Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."
Mw again: I've read those 17 clauses many times, but have never found anything remotely requiring executive departments of Energy ($20bn in 2007,) Homeland Security ($39bn,) Housing and Urban Development ($45bn,) Labor ($48bn,) Transportation ($62bn,) Education ($66bn,) Agriculture ($84bn,) and Health and Human Services ($672bn.)
New York Times Friday, March 20, 2009 Editorial "Political Animal Behavior 101"
"Congress is regularly mocked for earmarking taxpayer money to study exotic life cycles; this year’s favorite target is the Mormon cricket’s pestilential threat to agriculture in Utah. Too bad the Capitol has no appetite to study the ultimate in symbiotic survival: the relationship between campaign donors and the customized appropriations they are fed by grateful lawmakers.
"Democratic leaders in the House have been swatting back Representative Jeff Flake as if he were a Mormon cricket as he repeatedly proposes that the ethics committee start a
cause-and-effect study of earmarking and campaign money. Mr. Flake, a Republican from Arizona who is an earmark battler, is now calling on the committee to investigate the large donations to defense appropriators made by the PMA Group, the lobbying
powerhouse that recently shut itself down after an F.B.I. raid over election-law violations.
"Mr. Flake has picked the right place to start the investigating: some of the PMA Group’s lobbyists learned their craft as staffers in the appropriations subcommittee led by
Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania. Once in the free-enterprise zone, the PMA Group scored numerous defense earmarks and doled out generous gifts to Mr. Murtha and other subcommittee members.
"This relationship cries out for an ethics inquiry. And we are pleased that Mr. Flake is refusing to be discouraged by his colleagues’ lack of courage. He reports that he picks up a few more supporters with each new challenge to the House ways of doing business. Mr. Flake is now bolstered by Peter Visclosky, a top Democrat on appropriations who announced after the F.B.I. raid that he’s returning $271,000 in donations from the PMA
Group.
"Mr. Visclosky has endorsed Mr. Flake’s quest, urging fellow Democratic leaders to push for an investigation of how the PMA Group’s clout worked. Of course, everyone on the Hill already knows the answer. But the best hope of ending this cynical influence trading is for the taxpayers to hear the full and shameful truth."
I respond:
Sunday, March 22, 2009 4:40 AM
Gentlepeople:
The New York Times deserves as much commendation for their Friday, March 20, 2009 Editorial "Political Animal Behavior 101" as its subjects, Congressmen Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, and Peter Visclosky, Indiana Democrat, for their David-like attack on Congressional earmarks. But your closing comment "the best hope of ending this cynical influence trading is for the taxpayers to hear the full and shameful truth," well-meaning as it is, from past experience is not real encouraging.
The solution is found looking upstream, in this case at the 2009 Statistical Abstract of the United States, that says in 2007, 65.64% of the total federal income that year ($2.568 trillion) was 'withheld' by employers from employee paychecks. 'Withheld' is a euphamism for the entire amount coming into the feds as checks on employer bank accounts and immediately deposited to the US general fund, no better demonstrated than the fact that if any of those checks fail to arrive, it is the employer who goes to jail, never the employee.
The employers are not real happy with this, but 1) they don't have enough votes to complain, and 2) unlike the employee, they can pass it on to customers, which has worked just fine for 75 years of a regularly expanding national economy. So 535 people control 2/3 of the federal income that no one cares about, to the exteant of needing to take it out of their personal accounts and send it in. Result: earmarks. No number of editorials or letters to congress creatures has had any effect in the 66 years it has been going on.
There is an way to fix this. Get 218 members of the House of Representatives and 60 Senators, and an agreeable president to sign it in to law, and change paragraph 3402 of United States Code Title 26 — 'Internal Revenue Code' Subtitle C 'Employment taxes' Chapter 24 'Collection Of Income Tax At Source On Wages... from "every employer making payment of wages shall deduct and withhold upon such wages a tax..." to "every employer making payment of wages shall pay all of those wages to the employee...." Leave the tax calculation with the employer so that with the check they include a stern note telling the employee how much the feds are expecting him to send in within 30 days. Would it be easy to do? Probably not all at once, but a good place for the "frog in boiling water' technique: over a three-month quarter convert the 0.1 percent of the population w/ names starting with 'x' to a new, real 'pay-as-you-go' system, add in a new letter every quarter for 26 quarters, thru the 20% of the population w/ names starting with M and S.
Would this be inefficient? Certainly for an insatiable federal bureaucracy, but instructive for a growing portion of the electorate, sending in sizable checks every month from their own bank accounts. Questions would arise: Is the federal level the best to run health care? Education? retirement? What did the founders think of this approach? Apparently not much, since they not only didn't authorize it in the Constitution, but in fact wrote specifically prohibiting it. Little did they envision their add-on 'general welfare' clause being beaten within an inch of its life, finally threatening the very existence of the country.
Those 26 quarters would cover three elections of the House of Representatives, reelection of the entire Senate, and election of a president. People would be asking the candidates these questions, and voting on the answers. And congresscreatures would forget how to spell 'earmark', let alone use it. This is the only way the voters will ever unnderstand "the full and shameful truth" of why congress throws money around.
Arnold H. Nelson
5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL
Just after I sent that, I sent the following to some friends:
What a breakthru!
I just sent a letter to the NYTimes where I used the sentence "Little did they [the Founders] envision their add-on 'general welfare' clause being beaten within an inch of its life, finally threatening the very existence of the country."
I been wanting to use it for a long time, but today decided to find out how true it was.
So I went to the Federalist papers. I have them on my HD (192K words) and can search just fine, but recently acquired a new research tool: A 700 page paperback, $8 from Amazon, "The Federalist Papers, by Clinton Rossiter." Apparently Mr. Rossiter lived, breathed, and slept w/ the Papers for the last 40 years of his life (I think ended by suicide not too long ago, unfortunately.)
I look in the index and find "'general welfare' clause," pointing to James Madison's Federalist #41, where St. James himself writes:
"Some [Constitution critics] who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power ``to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,'' amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare....
"Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it.... A power to destroy the freedom of the press, the trial by jury, or even to regulate the course of descents, or the forms of conveyances, must be very singularly expressed by the terms ``to raise money for the general welfare.'' But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?" [Me: !!!!!]
I'm finally catching on, so go directly to US Constitution (also on HD) Article One Section Eight. And there's that semicolon, separating the infamous 'general welfare' Clause 1 from clauses 2 thru 18:
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;
Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--
And Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."
Mw again: I've read those 17 clauses many times, but have never found anything remotely requiring executive departments of Energy ($20bn in 2007,) Homeland Security ($39bn,) Housing and Urban Development ($45bn,) Labor ($48bn,) Transportation ($62bn,) Education ($66bn,) Agriculture ($84bn,) and Health and Human Services ($672bn.)
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