Dept. of Interior Land Grab: 10 Million Acres of PRIVATE PROPERTY

In a dramatic behind the scenes power move by the federal government over the states, the Interior Department (the same guys responsible for our wonderful BIA - Bureau of Indian Affairs) is moving forward with an agenda to seize over 10 million acres of private land for federal control. Like many of the most heinous crimes against this country that the federal government has committed over the past many years, this one is being done out of the main eye of the public and without much debate - save Sen. DeMint who is TRYING DESPERATELY to rally the public on this issue:


From the Washington Times:

"A secret administration memo has surfaced revealing plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres from Montana to New Mexico, halting job- creating activities like ranching, forestry, mining and energy development. Worse, this land grab would dry up tax revenue that's essential for funding schools, firehouses and community centers. President Obama could enact the plans in this memo with just the stroke of a pen, without any input from the communities affected by it."

According to the article, the ability for the federal government to perform land grabs in a case such as this is part of the 1906 Antiquities Act, however, we are witness to another case of the federal government using soft loopholes to centralize power.

What is more, this land is high energy land - land in the western states known to have large amounts of natural resources, mines and oil fields currently in operation in some cases. The intent is to shut down mines and oil operations as part of an environmental lurch left. This shut-down will cost thousands of additional jobs, though this seems an obvious trade-off to all those miners and other employees and private land owners ON THE LAND NOW... I mean, it's the environment, and the climate, and if THAT isn't a national treasure/monument, I don't know WHAT is...

Under the Antiquities Act, it appears that by Presidential Discretion land can be 'consumed' by the fire of the federal government, without approval from the state governments or private property owners, for the sake of "science" - in this case climate science. The text reads, in part:

American Antiquities Act of 1906
16 USC 431-433

Sec. 2. That the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected: Provided, That when such objects are situated upon a tract covered by a bona fide unperfected claim or held in private ownership, the tract, or so much thereof as may be necessary for the proper care and management of the object, may be relinquished to the Government, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to accept the relinquishment of such tracts in behalf of the Government of the United States.

Congress has a history of passing bad law, law that could otherwise be deemed unconstitutional, and law that seldom makes sense on the ground. This act is prime example of a carte-blanche authority for the federal government to acquire private land under the guise of science... when climate and environmental science is the 'science-de-jour', does our protection from unconstitutional land seizure vaporize?

This brings me back to the topic of Nullification. It is up to the states and the people of the states to openly reject, TO OPENLY REJECT the doctrine of the federal government - be it done by Republicans or Democrats... The Federal Government is existing outside of the confines of the Constitution - so much so that this nation is not even a shadow of its founding self... it is, in fact, nothing at all resembling a free nation of free people...

Ahead of SOTU, Obama makes "Giant Leap" to the Right

In what appears to be an historic defeat of Obama's radical leftism, the past few days have been witness to, perhaps, the greatest lurch toward the center from the far reaches of the radical left. Obama, the same President who believes that the Auto industry, Healthcare industry, Banking industry, etc have no place in a capitalist free market has proposed a very radical idea in regards to human space exploration - Give it to the free market.

The White House has decided to begin funding private companies to carry NASA astronauts into space, but the proposal faces major political and budget hurdles, according to people familiar with the matter.
The controversial proposal, expected to be included in the Obama administration's next budget, would open a new chapter in the U.S. space program. The goal is to set up a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit—and eventually deeper into the solar system.

As a veteran engineer in the aerospace industry, as well as a former employee of the NASA run Orion/Ares programs, I (for the first time since he has taken office) applaud the President. Where the Ares I rocket was nothing more than a money funnel and engineering disaster, private ventures like Space-X have developed and test flown the predecessor to their human rated launcher capable of servicing the ISS for about 1/10 the cost of NASA's Ares. Their Falcons are greener, cheaper, currently in production, and fully reusable. NASA has had one barely successful test of a mock-up Ares concept vehicle which revealed the further nightmare to follow (less about a Billion more dollars a year to fix), which is extremely inefficient, acoustically non-viable for human space flight, and economically impractical. The novel concept of eliminating governmental restrictions on human space flight, opening the frontier to start-ups which promotes innovation in space exploration technologies leaps and bounds above what the old dinosaur (NASA) could possibly conceive, is nothing short of Goldwater style governing.

This idea of privatization has already made heads explode at the "two liberal for Obama" (2L4O) lefties, such as BlueLyon (who can be found in my daily blog recommendations section). The left is up in arms that "The One", with the power of a near super majority and all his grace, has in one short year surrendered to the opposition on the fundamental philosophy of state run EVERYTHING. The very idea of private ventures taking governmental bureaucracies to task on ANYTHING is in direct contradiction to the Marxist values embraced by Obama and his ilk on the left, leading one to wonder - WHY?

Why has Obama endorsed a spending freeze for all federal government agencies except defense? Why has Obama endorsed a tax cut the likes of first term George W. Bush? Why this sudden lurch to the right?

The answer is clear - it is election year and a great number of Alinsky style leftists are positioned to lose their seats, losing power for the left in the final two years of the Obama presidency. Obama's power of persuasion has been met with defeat after defeat on everything from major elections, such as last week's MA Senate Race, to the simplest task of bringing the Olympics to America. He has quickly become the least popular president after his first year in office, setting the stage for being the least popular president in the history of the country. The implementation of a Socialist Empire in America is crumbling... As such, the spending freeze, tax cuts, and budget cuts are being proposed by a man eager to win back the hearts and minds of the independents ahead of the 2010 election with hopes that in two more years he can ram through socialist ideal after socialist ideal.

Is it enough to fool some people? Perhaps. Is it enough of a veil to mask a failed first year? Maybe for some. Is it enough to hid the fact that these proposals are merely a PR mirage to cover up his true agenda? Not likely. Congressional Democrats are going to eat this president alive for abandoning their core values on the public stage, their Alinsky/Marxist values, at a time when they have held more power than any party in history. Their disarray will be clear as the elections move closer, and without the "Blame Bush" message, the Democrats have nothing left to offer other than failed socialist policies... and the people are becoming well aware of this.

In the State of the Union speech tonight I have to wonder, will a teary eyed Democrat stand up and shout down the President with a resounding "You Lie(d)", as the hopes and dreams of the radical left are systematically renounced by the one who would "Fundamentally Change" America?

The Liberty Republican WANTS Healthcare Reform?

Astonishingly, Yes! However...

Obama has it wrong, the GOP has it wrong, the Federal Gummint has it wrong, and Liberal Scoundrels definitely have it wrong.

Let's look at some facts... Obama claims that the US spends more money than anyone in the world on Healthcare, but we have one of the lowest life expectancies per capita. How can that be? The answer: HEATH LEDGER. Heath died at age 28, adding a very low data point to our mortality schedule. In fact, you are more likely to die in an accident or murder in the US than anywhere else in the world. Americans have an unusual tendency to perish in homicides or accidents. We are 12 times more likely than the Japanese to be murdered and nearly twice as likely to be killed in auto wrecks. In their 2006 book, "The Business of Health," economists Robert L. Ohsfeldt and John E. Schneider set out to determine where the U.S. would rank in life span among developed nations if homicides and accidents are factored out. Their answer? First place.

First Place? So why all the fuss?
According to the Commonwelath fund, as reported by Newsweek, the answer comes down to Primary Care Visits. This report stated that nearly 25% of Americans reported waiting MORE THAN 6 DAYS when trying to schedule a visit with their Primary Care Physician.

New Zealand scored best, with just 3 percent waiting that long, followed by Australia (10 percent), Germany (13 percent), and Britain (15 percent). Canada rounded out the bottom, with more than a third waiting six days or more. Only 26 percent of Americans and Canadians reported being able see their doctor on the day they called, compared with 60 percent in the Netherlands and 48 percent in Britain.

"Where we do well is on …selective surgery," she says. Only 8 percent of Americans have to wait four months or more for an elective procedure, and 62 percent wait less than a month. In Britain, 41 percent of patients have to wait four months or more. The disparity between primary and elective care, says Davis, is mostly due to a shortage of primary-care docs in the U.S.; we produce more specialists because specialists earn a lot more.

AHA! The answer is staring us right there in the face... a free market healthcare system drove the best doctors into the higher paying specialties, because they could be compensated at a higher rate for their special talent! But that can't be the entire story... what about the reason why there isn't a swarm of young doctors looking to fill the vacuum in the Primary Care world. Therein lies the question.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) produced an article highlighting medical malpractice lawsuit statistics, with regard to patient deaths:
106,000 patients die each year from the negative effects of medication
80,000 patients die each year due to complications from infections incurred in hospitals
20,000 deaths per year occur from other hospital errors
12,000 people die every year as a result of unnecessary surgery
7,000 medical malpractice deaths per year are attributed to medication errors in hospitals
This totals up to 225,000 deaths each year, due to medical negligence of some nature. And that number is ever growing.
In 2006, a report was produced by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, in which it is stated that medication errors are one of the most common medical mistakes, causing injury or harm to at least 1.5 million people every year.

In a country that has become lawsuit happy over personal injury, and a medical field that has become increasingly complicated and overbearingly understaffed, it is no wonder that the number of PCP is in decline.

What about the 47 Million Poor Souls who are dieing RIGHT NOW because they don't have health insurance allowing them to even SEE a doctor? Well, the following illustration is, in fact, a very accurate representation of the Democrat's "numbers"


Now, let's talk Healthcare reform. I said I was for it... right... so why the Obamacare bashing and the attack of all those in the Fed? Because I want to reform the government OUT of the Healthcare business altogether.

The system, IMHO, should be reformed to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and any other agency or program aimed at government regulated healthcare. There should be a private, affordable, and truly competitive set of services that will provide low cost coverage for healthcare needs. The government should reform laws PROTECTING the doctors from malpractice lawsuits - 25% of which are won by the patients, meaning that 3/4 of all lawsuits are most likely frivolous - driving up insurance costs and reflecting in premiums.

Patients and their families need to be more realistic. For instance, a 98 y/o woman has lower G/I bleeding. She is rushed to the hospital, the doctors begin giving her fluids and units of red blood cells. They determine that the best chance is exploratory surgery to find the cause, time is of the essence. They operate, she dies, the family sues for being one of the 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgery.

What is the RESPONSIBLE THING TO DO HERE? First, start by understanding that Grandma is 98 YEARS OLD. It is most likely that her body was simply failing because it was done living. Nothing the doctors did could have saved her life - but inactivity would have also resulted in a lawsuit, I am sure.

Realistic expectations and responsible citizens are two solutions to the problem. Personal Responsibility of your own health, lifestyle, and habits is another solution. Finally, there should be a referendum of the states which officially cites the 10th amendment and that the Federal Government has NO AUTHORITY to collect taxes for, nor legislate or execute laws or practices related to healthcare.

My solution would encourage more local practices, community doctors, and incentivize healthy communities.