A Nony Mouse opines:

“If you don’t want government run health care, then kindly refuse to participate in government run retirement – Social Security. While you’re at it, make sure you don’t enroll in Medicare too.”

Unfortunately, refusing to pay the FICA payroll tax (funds both Social Security and Medicare) winds up with humour-impaired people with big guns showing up at your house with a Federal Arrest Warrant.

Something about “tax evasion” — which the Federal Government appears to take altogether too seriously.

Otherwise you think I wouldn’t refuse to participate? Hell, yes, I would refuse — I’d take that money that the government currently steals out of my paycheck and invest it my own damn self.

Not only would I actually receive the benefits of MY OWN SODDING MONEY, but I’d avoid those pesky little “Flemming v. Nestor” problems.

Thank you for playing, though.

LawDog

… Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy became eligible yesterday to vote in Chicago. And New Orleans.

Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.

LawDog

… the Constitution of the United States of America.

Learn it, live it, love it.

It is the Founding Document of the great Nation in which we live, and it is the fountain-head — the sole source — of the powers, rights, duties, obligations and responsibilities of the Government, to wit:

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;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

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;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

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;

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

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.

I don’t see one sodding thing in there regarding the power of Congress to establish and maintain a national health-care program.

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

I don’t see one bloody snippet in there regarding the power of the President to establish and maintain a national health-care system.

I don’t give one sweet damn if the thousand pages of Obamacare were actually the Lost Dead Sea Scroll, or if the idea came straight from the lips of Odin All-Father Himself — if the Constitution doesn’t authorize Congress to do it, it is unlawful, it is illegal, and it is treachery.

You want Government-run Universal Health-care — then you Amend the Constitution to allow Congress to do it — the instructions for the Amendment process are listed and enumerated in Article Five of that document.

For the best part of my adult life, Congress and the various Presidents of this Union have, at best, ignored the Constitution, and, at worst, actively crapped on it.

And I am Sick. And. Tired. Of. It.

No more. My line is here.

You want Government-run National health-care? You do it right — you get the Constitution amended to allow Congress that power.

Until then — go to hell.

LawDog

The name of the Marine is David William Hedrick, at least, according to the information sidebar at the YouTube site.

And I do believe that I owe Mr. Hedrick a beer.

God bless the USMC.

LawDog

We here at Rancho LawDog are somewhat irritated — but by no means surprised — to discover that President Obama has decided to utilize sermons and the altar to give his badly damaged healthcare plan a moral boost.

On the morning of Wednesday the 19th of August, in a call conveniently left off of the White House schedule, President Obama asked about a thousand Jewish rabbis — currently preparing the sermons and messages for the High Holy Days — to include an appeal for universal health care in their homilies from the altar during this most holy of times.

This call to the rabbis — intended to be off-the-record — was Twittered by several of the attending rabbis.

Goodness.

I have to wonder — as I sit here contemplating Thomas Jefferson’s Separation of Church and State — how some folks would have reacted had other (previous) Presidents attempted to use the sermon, the pulpit, and Sunday morning church service to push their political agendas.

Especially if these other Presidents had arranged for secret, off-the-record, sub rosa phone meetings to convince religious leaders to work political goals into the preaching, lecturing, proselytizing and Religious Text Of Your Choice-banging.

I’d like to think that those Certain People who would have absolutely lost their minds in an Internet apoplectic fit had prior Presidents attempted to do this thing, would have the same reaction now that our current President has done it.

I’d like to think that, I really would — but I won’t be holding my breath.

LawDog

I like tortilla soup.

Matter-of-fact, a good chicken tortilla soup is one of my comfort foods, so I was damned near ecstatic when LawMom called me to say that she had sampled the tortilla soup at Cheddars, and that it had passed muster.

So, after a particularly nasty day at work, I trundled into The Big City for a nice bowl of chicken-y goodness.

‘Bout my fourth spoonful — om nom nom — and I notice a distinct green tint to the mass occupying the bowl of the spoon, and I decide that Cheddars is generous with the avocado …

… and then I bite into it.

The texture was … wrong. And not just a little bit wrong, I mean football bat wrong.

Probably because it was a tree of broccoli.

Yes, I realize that chunks of broccoli are properly referred to as “florets”, but there was a bloody partridge hiding amongst the branches on this one.

“Okay, self,” I say to my self, “Probably just a stray lost piece of broccoli fell into the soup tureen — odd, but worse things happen.”

And then I came up with Broccoli Tree #2. I’m of the impression that this one had a tyre swing dangling from one of the branches, but I might be mistaken.

Folks, I hate broccoli. And somehow I don’t think broccoli is native to Mexico. Or Mexican cooking.

I realize that broccoli is cheap. And the fact that it is allegedly healthy probably eases the old conscience of folks what use the bloody plant as filler.

But, for Freyja’s sake, some food is sacrosanct! Mexican food should not be contaminated by broccoli!

When my legions of flying monkeys complete my quest for World Domination, anyone caught sneaking broccoli into non-broccoli-type food will be summarily defenestrated.

*snarl*

LawDog

The left side of Blogworld is buzzing a bit about the recent instances of armed citizens carrying firearms at rallies protesting the Government in general, and some policies in particular.

We have noticed that in each and every case to date, the rifles have remained slung and the pistols have remained in their holsters; no shots were fired, no one was muzzle-swept, and everyone went home.

As might be expected, I think.

The Brady Bunch, as usual, is all up in a tizzy. As I refuse to link to those parasites, Gentle Readers will have to use Google to find their own links. Suffice it to say, Little Sarah One-Note’s sock puppets are their usual hysterical selves.

*sigh*

There is a theory that explains that gun-grabbers hate guns so passionately because they are afraid of what they would do if allowed unfettered access to firearms — and they think everyone else has the same uncontrolled urges.

In other words, Paul Helmke doesn’t trust himself around guns, therefore he doesn’t trust me with them, either.

I used to think that was an all-together simplistic answer for a complex problem.

These days — I don’t know. I’ve seen less poo flung in the primate house at the Dallas zoo than at some gun-grabbers press conferences (metaphorically speaking. I think.)

Ah, well.

LawDog

During the last Presidential ruckus, various folks were exposed to the whacky world of citizenship as it relates to the ability to run for the office of POTUS.

Part of that ruckus involved the Senate passing a resolution declaring that Senator McCain was a natural-born citizen, an act that I found to be completely unnecessary and little more than a “bread-and-circus” act for the gratification of the Public.

It was only later, during a informal debate with a political figure that I learned — to my horror — that it appears that most law-makers were actually taking that resolution seriously.

When I pointed out that the First Congress of the United States had actually put that question to rest some centuries back, this lawmaker was flabbergasted.

*sigh*

I hereby offer to sponsor the 28th amendment to the United States Constitution: “The possession of a law degree hereby bars the person so possessing that degree from holding any elected office at the Federal level, as does the possession of a degree in political science.”

We’ve got enough lawyers and PoliSci types in Federal Government now — and look where that’s gotten us. We need more historians in Congress, and fewer lawyers. That way we might actually be able to avoid passing laws to cover things already dealt with.

That, and the whole “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” thing.

Just a thought.

LawDog

I have discovered recently that we are not supposed to refer to the mentally ill as, well, mentally ill. There is — and I can see the point — a stigma attached to being “mentally ill”.

The accepted “alternative label” is: “consumer”.

*blink, blink*

If I’m taking someone who’s a tetch throwed-off to the Crisis Unit, or the State Home For the Half-A-Bubble-Off-Plumb, and I hear that they are a “consumer” — well, the first thing that crosses my little mind is a quote involving fava beans and a nice chianti.

Hmm. Oh, well, probably just me.

LawDog

Why is it that the same people who state that there’s no point in reading bills that cross their desks …

… are the same folks who accuse protesters of not understanding the health care bill?

If House Members are advised not to read the bill because they don’t have two days and two lawyers on hand to explain it to them (see above video) — how are those House Members in a position to tell anyone that the protesters don’t understand the bill?

Just wondering.

LawDog