Congress has Trashed the Constitution

While I do not here defend AIG’s actions, or the plan to pay out large bonuses, I am most concerned about the suspension of the rule of law that HR. 1578 proposes. By taxing a group of people without benefit of trial and after the fact; Congress is in conflict with the Constitution it has sworn to uphold and protect. The sections of the Constitution that are in question lie in Article 1 and deals with ‘Ex post Facto’ law and ‘Bills of Attainder’.

A bill of attainder is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution. H.R. 1578 does punish a group of people without benefit of trial and it is in conflict with the laws of our nation.

An ex post facto law or retroactive law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law. H.R. 1578 seeks to punish a group of people after the fact and it is in conflict with the laws of our nation.

Passage of this bill or any other aimed at punishing people for making income is very bad for our country and not in keeping with the legacy of the United States of America. Please stop and think on the repercussions of these actions.

Who will the next group to be targeted for punishment through taxes? Who will decide what amount of income is egregious and worthy of punishment? How low will the next income bracket be that is offensive? It is a slippery slope we stand on. We as a people must watch our step.

Celebrate Freedom

The Texas Independence Day Celebration

Texas is the only state in the Union that was ever an independent country. We Texans have hung on to that Independence. We've always been loud and we've always been proud of who we are: Texans! Therefore we celebrate!

March 2, 1836 dawned, frigid and gray; cutting winds blew through glassless windows. Texians - as they styled themselves - huddled close, pulled blankets tight, and gave birth to a dream. At the Town of Washington, fifty-nine representatives voted into existence a sovereign nation: the Republic of Texas. Tennessean George C. Childress had drafted the independence document. In word and spirit it borrowed heavily from Thomas Jefferson'' original 1776 declaration. No matter.

Anglo-Celtic Texians proudly embraced the values and traditions of their founding fathers. "The same blood that animated the hearts of our ancestors in '76 still flows in our veins," one frontier preacher affirmed. Still, not all the delegates were of that blood. Four Mexican residents signed the declaration on behalf of their Tejano constituents.

The delegates could not have picked a worse time to declare independence. To many contemporary observers, such confidence appeared reckless.

As delegates brazenly declared Texas independent, the artillery of Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna hammered the walls of the Alamo. Just four days later his troops would assault the crumbling fort and wipe out every rebel defender. At the same time, General José Urrea's division swept northward through the coastal prairies. He would subsequently capture the entire rebel command of Colonel James W. Fannin, Jr. following the Battle of Coleto on March 19. Acting upon Santa Anna's orders, Mexican troops executed Fannin and the majority of his Goliad garrison, some 342 men. The twin defeats at San Antonio and Goliad generated panic among Texian settlers who fled toward the Louisiana border. The "Runaway Scrape" they called it. To declare independence amid all this chaos seemed more than unduly hopeful. Indeed, to most it resembled a fool's errand.

On April 21, General Sam Houston's vengeful army swept the Mexican camp at San Jacinto and the skeptics recanted. On that momentous afternoon, enraged Texians slaughtered 650 Mexican soldados and took another 700 prisoner. Most important, the following day Texians captured President-General Santa Anna. At San Jacinto Texians won a great victory, but only with the capture of the Mexican dictator did the battle become decisive.

The date is not a state holiday; public schools do not let out; newscasters rarely recall the event. Those who love Texas remember. Always.

Now, would you now join me in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Pledge to the Texas Flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America; and to the Republic for which it stands one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Honor the Texas Flag. I pledge allegiance to thee: Texas, one and indivisible.

Budget Process

Barak Obama has submitted his first ever US budget today. It is a REAL shocker. $3.6 Trillion dollars of spending. Many of those programs are worthwhile endeavors or sound very nice in theory. Let's break that down in reality. Barak Obama said that this budget will be paid for by raising taxes on ONLY those households that make over $250,000 a year or corporate entities. Well, I am here to burst that bubble with some cold hard numbers.

If the government raised taxes on those households that make over $250,000 a year to tax 100% of their income (and IF Paul Revere did not ride down the road shouting "The tax collector is coming") ; the government would collect $1.3 trillion dollars. That leaves $2.3 trillion in unfunded expenditures. Let's put that in terms we can all understand.

Let's say your family has $100,000 of income per year. Let's then say that you spend $163,000 in the course of the year. Would your bank cover $63,000 in overdrafts? Would they loan you the extra $63,000? What about next year? Could you spend that $63,000 (or more) of "unfunded expenditures" over and over again without any repercussions? THAT is what this budget does. 63% of the spending (and that is ONLY in my 100% taxation example) is NOT funded by tax dollars collected. That is not fiscally responsible.

I have some suggestions for our erstwhile elected leaders in their budget process for FY 2010. Perhaps this is new to some of those elected leaders or perhaps they have simply forgotten how to budget in the real world. Hopefully, this will spark some common sense.

When starting with a new year's budget, you need to identify the amount of money that will be available for expenditures. Take the sum of taxes collected in the last year that you have data for - say 2007. Now, since we all know we are in a "recession", subtract oh, say 10% from that number for contraction of incomes (and thus taxes collected). This should be a good number to start with for estimating purposes. This is the sum total of money that you have to spend. Whatever budget you come up with, you cannot exceed this number because then you will be spending money you don't have.

Now, identify all the items that you have in your expense listing that are necessities. This is not "like to have's" or "wish list" items. This is items that if you don't pay, bad things happen. For instance, the light bill for the Capitol, salaries of the military force, rent or mortgages on federal buildings. So, detail that list of items that were paid in that last year you have data from and determine if there have been any inflationary increases (like energy bills). Subtract those amounts from your available funds.

Now, make a list of all the things you spent money on last year that weren't absolute have to's and determine if there are cuts you want to make to this list or increases that must be made for any reason. This would be items like International Support for instance; are there any cuts you can make in these items. Is there any items that you want to grow? Subtract the amount you decide will be spent on these items from the available funds. What you have left is your "discretionary funds". This is money that you can spend on new programs or raises for salaries or other items that you want to introduce or to pay off debts that have been incurred.

Make a list of all the outstanding debts that are left over from other year's budgets. This is your unfunded liabilities list. Some of the "discretionary funds" need to be applied to these items so that you can start to "balance" your debt load. You cannot simply add new programs without making some inroads into paying these debts. Determine what debts will be paid and subtract those amounts from your available discretionary funds.

Now, identify all those new items you would like to put in place. Things that are the "nice to have's"; "want to have's"; "wish list" etc go on this list. Prioritize these items in order of importance or desire. Add up the totals for these new programs and see if they will fit into the budget. If they do, great. If they do not have the funds to cover the spending, you have to do one of two things - cut some of these new programs from the list or make cuts in other budget items.

Once you decide what will be in your expenses list and what will not, add them to your list of expenditures and subtract the amounts from your available funds. Note - remember you cannot go below zero and you should plan to have a small amount left over (say 5%) for reasonable and unexpected expenses. (This is called SAVINGS)

Folks, this is not hard. All US households do this process in some form or another all the time. (Granted some do this better than others) You cannot just shoot pie-in-the-sky budgets into the air and think that you can spend money you don't have and have no hope of ever paying for.

This is called FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. Let's entreat our elected officials to apply some.

Racism Cuts Both Ways

Yesterday some cowardly anonymous poster commented on a blog post that I wrote almost two years ago about Illegal Aliens and my thoughts and feelings on that topic. The poster asserted that I am racist because of my belief that illegal aliens harm America and need to leave the U.S. to go back where they came from.

Well, I wanted to clear up a couple of points for Mr. Anonymous.

First - my son is Hispanic. His father, who died in service to this great country, was Mexican and Native American. I could not love my son more if I lived twice as long. I am proud of him, his heritage and his father.

Second - I - through my family have a mix of heritages in my background - Gaelic, Italian, Native American and I welcome the history and traditions of all of those ethnic parts. But, at the foundation of it all, I am American and I deeply love my country.

I have heard many arguements about Illegal Aliens. These arguements try to pull the heartstrings and make you empathize with individuals who "just want a better life" or who "work hard at jobs no one else wants". That is baloney.

This is America. The land of opportunity. If you want the opportunity to live here; be proud of the country and come here legally. Learn the language and become American. Love your roots and history but, if you want me to stand with you - love the country you want to build that future in - or leave because we don't need detractors.

For the Love of a Horse in One's Life

To have a horse in your life is a gift. In the matter of a few short years, a horse can teach a young girl courage, if she chooses to grab mane and hang on for dear life. Even the smallest of ponies is mightier than the tallest of girls. To conquer the fear of falling off, having one's toes crushed, or being publicly humiliated at a horse show is an admirable feat for any child. For that, we can be grateful.

Horses teach us responsibility. Unlike a bicycle or a computer, a horse needs regular care and most of it requires that you get dirty and smelly and up off the couch. Choosing to leave your cozy kitchen to break the crust of ice off the water buckets is to choose responsibility. When our horses dip their noses and drink heartily; we know we've made the right choice.

Learning to care for a horse is both an art and a science. Some are easy keepers, requiring little more than regular turn-out, a flake of hay, and a trough of clean water. Others will test you - you'll struggle to keep them from being too fat or too thin. You'll have their feet shod regularly only to find shoes gone missing. Some are so accident-prone you'll swear they're intentionally finding new ways to injure themselves.

If you weren't raised with horses, you can't know that they have unique personalities. You'd expect this from dogs, but horses? Indeed, there are clever horses, grumpy horses, and even horses with a sense of humor. Those prone to humor will test you by finding new ways to escape from the barn when you least expect it.

Horses can be timid or brave, lazy or athletic, obstinate or willing. You will hit it off with some horses and others will elude you altogether. There are as many "types" of horses as there are people- which makes the whole partnership thing all the more interesting.

If you've never ridden a horse, you probably assume it's a simple thing you can learn in a weekend. You can, in fact, learn the basics on a Sunday, but to truly ride well takes a lifetime. Working with a living being is far more complex than turning a key in the ignition and putting the car or tractor in "drive."

In addition to listening to your instructor, your horse will have a few things to say to you as well. On a good day, he'll be happy to go along with the program and tolerate your mistakes; on a bad day, you'll swear he's trying to kill you. Perhaps he's naughty or perhaps he' fed up with how slowly you're learning his language. Regardless, the horse will have an opinion. He may choose to challenge you (which can ultimately make you a better rider) or he may carefully carry you over fences - if it suits him. It all depends on the partnership - and partnership is what it's all about.

If you face your fears, swallow your pride, and are willing to work at it, you'll learn lessons in courage, commitment, and compassion in addition to basic survival skills. You'll discover just how hard you're willing to work toward a goal, how little you know, and how much you have to learn.

And, while some people think the horse "does all the work", you'll be challenged physically as well as mentally. Your horse may humble you completely. Or, you may find that sitting on his back is the closest you'll get to heaven.

You can choose to intimidate your horse, but do you really want to? The results may come more quickly, but will your work ever be as graceful as that gained through trust? The best partners choose to listen, as well as to tell. When it works, we experience a sweet sense of accomplishment brought about by smarts, hard work, and mutual understanding between horse and rider. These are the days when you know with absolute certainty that your horse is enjoying his work.

If we make it to adulthood with horses still in our lives, most of us have to squeeze riding into our over saturated schedules; balancing our need for things equine with those of our households and employers. There is never enough time to ride, or to ride as well as we'd like. Hours in the barn are stolen pleasures.

If it is in your blood to love horses, you share your life with them. Our horses know our secrets; we braid our tears into their manes and whisper our hopes into their ears. A barn is a sanctuary in an unsettled world, a sheltered place where life's true priorities are clear: a warm place to sleep, someone who loves us, and the luxury of regular meals. Some of us need these reminders.

When you step back, it's not just about horses - it's about love, life, and learning. On any given day, a friend is celebrating the birth of a foal, a blue ribbon, or recovery from an illness. That same day, there is also loss: a broken limb, a case of colic, a decision to sustain a life or end it gently. As horse people, we share the accelerated life cycle of horses: the hurried rush of life, love, loss, and death that caring for these animals brings us. When our partners pass, it is more than a moment of sorrow.

We mark our loss with words of gratitude for the ways our lives have been blessed. Our memories are of joy, awe, and wonder. Absolute union. We honor our horses for their brave hearts, courage, and willingness to give.

To those outside our circle, it must seem strange. To see us in our muddy boots, who would guess such poetry lives in our hearts? We celebrate our companions with praise worthy of heroes. Indeed, horses have the hearts of warriors and often carry us into and out of fields of battle.

Listen to stories of that once-in-a-lifetime horse; of journeys made and challenges met. The best of horses rise to the challenges we set before them, asking little in return.

Those who know them understand how fully a horse can hold a human heart. Together, we share the pain of sudden loss and the lingering taste of long-term illness. We shoulder the burden of deciding when or whether to end the life of a true companion.

In the end, we're not certain if God entrusts us to our horses--or our horses to us. Does it matter? We're grateful God loaned us the horse in the first place.

Author Unknown