Retro 3: The American Freedom Pyramid: Where It Should Be Vs. Where It Is Today

Note: Given the Thanksgiving holiday this week and the resultant preparations, family visitors, and other commitments, we will be rerunning the top rated and most popular blog posts from the past five years. These posts cover a wide variety of political class insanity, wasteful spending, inane quotes, and other idiocy and are the discussions that most resonated with our readers. We will be back next week with fresh material, starting with our monthly update on "Political Class Insanity."


Thursday, November 18, 2010

The American Freedom Pyramid: Where It Should Be Vs. Where It Is Today 

 
An important part of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," is the understanding of what I call the Freedom Pyramid. The Freedom Pyramid tries to imagine what our founders had in mind when the put the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and a government based on individual freedom together. The ideal American Freedom Pyramid fits together as follows:

• The base and foundation of the pyramid is the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.
• Sitting on top of this base level is the government structure that the founders defined to implement the liberty principles and concepts of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in a limited government manner.
• This government structure serves all of the country's citizens equally in guaranteeing each person's rights and freedoms as defined by the base level documents.
• And finally, the pinnacle of the Freedom Pyramid is our own individual rights, freedom, and liberties. 

These concepts are graphically illustrated below:
 

 There are a few important characteristics of this pyramid. The power in the pyramid flows up from the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution to our individual freedoms which is the pinnacle of our country. Government exists to serve the citizens and the country and is just the mechanics for implementing the tenets in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Finally, the political class appears nowhere in the Freedom Pyramid structure.

This structure has served the country and its citizens quite well over the past two centuries. Americans were usually the freest people in world, which allowed the country to grow into the most prosperous ever. The Freedom Pyramid concept placed individual freedom above all else, including the government and the political class, whose sole purpose should be implementing the concepts and principles of the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

However, over time, we have allowed the American political class to pervert this original Freedom Pyramid concept:

• Today, individual citizens and their freedom and liberties are no longer at the pinnacle of the pyramid, having been replaced by a self serving political class.
• This political class uses government functions and institutions to enlarge, entrench, and enrich itself. Examples at this level abound and include earmark abuse, favorable campaign finance laws, Congressional voting district gerrymandering, excessive Congressional benefits and perks, confiscating large amounts of citizens wealth and income via taxes, and a general low priority for the needs and desires of the country's citizens.
• The political class uses their increased power to divide the country into various and competing tribes and voting blocks of citizens, "energizing their bases" as needed and demonizing those not in their bases or tribes.
• This increased power of the political class and their abuses of power results in diminished individual rights and freedoms.

 These concepts are illustrated in the current day, perverted Freedom Pyramid below, where the only Americans with the freedom and power tend to be our politicians:
 

 As you can see in this pyramid, the Bill of Rights and Constitution are no longer vital to this pyramid's structure since the often act as an obstruction to the needs and desires of the political class rather than their original intent, the foundation of the country. Also, the power is driven down from the political class and is imposed on American citizens and their freedom.

We need to recognize how far we have deviated from the concept of the first Freedom Pyramid. The reality of America today is that we no longer live in a free country. We do not get true freedom in our election processes since the political class has rigged the voting process to favor existing officeholders and existing political parties. 

We do not get true freedom while under our excessive tax burden. When an individual is forced to pay more than 30% of their annual income to all levels of government, that individual's freedom to send his or her kids to a better school or to start a business or to save for retirement or to go on a vacation is severely limited: you cannot have political freedom without financial freedom. We do not get true freedom when politicians call individual citizens racists, Neanderthals, un-American, smelly, and other derogatory names just because they dare to disagree with a politician's programs.

If we ever want to get back to the right Freedom Pyramid, where individual citizens are in charge and the political class and the government the run are subservient, we need to implement most, if not all, of the steps laid out in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Some of the most important steps include:

1. Step 1 - reduce the size and budget of the Federal government by 10% a year for five years.
2. Step 6 - allow only individual American citizens to contribute to election campaigns, forbidding unions, corporations, PACs and other organizations from flooding the election process with money. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech to individual Americans, not organizations.
3. Step 7 - allow only citizens that are affected by an election to contribute to election campaigns within that election. For example, political parties would not be allowed to accept campaign contributions from someone in Kansas and send/funnel that money to be used in an election campaign in New Jersey. 
4. Step 14 - stop gerrymandering Congressional voting districts to almost guarantee the re-election of incumbents.
5. Step 17 - eliminate the Democratic Party's "Super Delegate" process which has the potential of voiding the votes of all voters who voted in Democratic Party Presidential primaries.
6. Sep 34 - hold politicians sitting on Congressional committees accountable for their respective government areas of oversight and remove them from their committee positions if that committee falls short of serving the country, e.g. all members of Congressional Intelligence committees should have been removed from those committee posts on September 12, 2001 for their inability to foresee the 9-11 terror attacks. 
7. Step 39 - institute term limits for all Federal political seats.

 Many of the other 50 steps are also important but implementing these listed above would go a long way to getting us back to the true and rightful Freedom Pyramid concept for this country.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

 

The Freedom Pyramid: Where It Is And Where It Should Be

Given that we are going to the polls on Tuesday in a major election, I thought it would be worthwhile to review one of our most popular posts of all time. The concept of the Freedom Pyramid seems to have touched a nerve relative to the fear that our democracy, and the liberties associated with our country, are endanger of fading away forever.

Please consider this post and the concept of freedom, however you personally define it, when voting next week. Our democracy may depend on it.

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An important part of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," is the understanding of what I call the Freedom Pyramid. The Freedom Pyramid tries to imagine what our founders had in mind when the put the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and a government based on individual freedom together. The ideal American Freedom Pyramid fits together as follows:

1.The base and foundation of the pyramid is the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

2.Sitting on top of this base level is the government structure that the founders defined to implement the liberty principles and concepts of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in a limited government manner.

3.This government structure serves all of the country's citizens equally in guaranteeing each person's rights and freedoms as defined by the base level documents.

4.And finally, the pinnacle of the Freedom Pyramid is our own individual rights, freedom, and liberties.

These concepts are graphically illustrated below (double click on the picture for a larger view):

There are a few important characteristics of this pyramid. The power in the pyramid flows up from the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution to our individual freedoms which is the pinnacle of our country. Government exists to serve the citizens and the country and is just the mechanics for implementing the tenets in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Finally, the political class appears nowhere in the Freedom Pyramid structure.

This structure has served the country and its citizens quite well over the past two centuries. Americans were usually the freest people in world, which allowed the country to grow into the most prosperous ever. The Freedom Pyramid concept placed individual freedom above all else, including the government and the political class, whose sole purpose should be implementing the concepts and principles of the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

However, over time, we have allowed the American political class to pervert this original Freedom Pyramid concept:

1.Today, individual citizens and their freedom and liberties are no longer at the pinnacle of the pyramid, having been replaced by a self serving political class.

2.This political class uses government functions and institutions to enlarge, entrench, and enrich itself. Examples at this level abound and include earmark abuse, favorable campaign finance laws, Congressional voting district gerrymandering, excessive Congressional benefits and perks, confiscating large amounts of citizens wealth and income via taxes, and a general low priority for the needs and desires of the country's citizens.

3.The political class uses their increased power to divide the country into various and competing tribes and voting blocks of citizens, "energizing their bases" as needed and demonizing those not in their bases or tribes.

4.This increased power of the political class and their abuses of power results in diminished individual rights and freedoms.

These concepts are illustrated in the current day, perverted Freedom Pyramid below, where the only Americans with the freedom and power tend to be our politicians:

As you can see in this pyramid, the Bill of Rights and Constitution are no longer vital to this pyramid's structure since the often act as an obstruction to the needs and desires of the political class rather than their original intent, the foundation of the country. Also, the power is driven down from the political class and is imposed on American citizens and their freedom.

We need to recognize how far we have deviated from the concept of the first Freedom Pyramid. The reality of America today is that we no longer live in a free country. We do not get true freedom in our election processes since the political class has rigged the voting process to favor existing officeholders and existing political parties. We do not get true freedom while under our excessive tax burden.

When an individual is forced to pay more than 30% of their annual income to all levels of government, that individual's freedom to send his or her kids to a better school or to start a business or to save for retirement or to go on a vacation is severely limited: you cannot have political freedom without financial freedom. We do not get true freedom when politicians call individual citizens racists, Neanderthals, un-American, smelly, and other derogatory names just because they dare to disagree with a politician's programs.

If we ever want to get back to the right Freedom Pyramid, where individual citizens are in charge and the political class and the government the run are subservient, we need to implement most, if not all, of the steps laid out in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Some of the most important steps include:

•Step 1 - reduce the size and budget of the Federal government by 10% a year for five years.

•Step 6 - allow only individual American citizens to contribute to election campaigns, forbidding unions, corporations, PACs and other organizations from flooding the election process with money. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech to individual Americans, not organizations.

•Step 7 - allow only citizens that are affected by an election to contribute to election campaigns within that election. For example, political parties would not be allowed to accept campaign contributions from someone in Kansas and send/funnel that money to be used in an election campaign in New Jersey.

•Step 14 - stop gerrymandering Congressional voting districts to almost guarantee the re-election of incumbents.

•Step 17 - eliminate the Democratic Party's "Super Delegate" process which has the potential of voiding the votes of all voters who voted in Democratic Party Presidential primaries.

•Step 34 - hold politicians sitting on Congressional committees accountable for their respective government areas of oversight and remove them from their committee positions if that committee falls short of serving the country, e.g. all members of Congressional Intelligence committees should have been removed from those committee posts on September 12, 2001 for their inability to foresee the 9-11 terror attacks.

•Step 39 - institute term limits for all Federal political seats.

Many of the other 50 steps are also important but implementing these listed above would go a long way to getting us back to the true and rightful Freedom Pyramid concept for this country.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/

Maxine Walters Insanity Vs. Tea Party Sanity and The Freedom Pyramid

Maxine Walters is a Democratic Congresswoman from California. I believe she has been in Congress for a very long time. Thus, one would have hoped that she would understand our democracy and the right of citizens to freely hold any opinion they want, its called freedom of speech, without being hassled by government officials who have a different opinion of reality.

Recently, Ms. Walters publicly and ridiculously challenged the Tea Party and its followers to "get it on," as if she wanted to step into the alley for a knife fight. A little while ago Ms. Walters went on an infamous rant and wished that all Tea Party members would "go straight to hell." Very mature.

Apparently, Americans with a different opinion than Ms. Walters is reason enough for eternal damnation in her eyes. Forget about the Bill Of Rights, forget about freedom of speech, forget about thinking on your own, you are going to meet Satan if Ms. Walters gets her way.

This is a perfect example of the Freedom Pyramid problem we have in this country. If we were true to our roots as a democracy, we would be operating in the following democracy paradigm (double click on the chart for a larger view):

This is how our Founding Fathers viewed our democracy. Government, and the political class that operates it, were subservient to individual citizens. We were at the top of the Freedom Pyramid and were supported by the political class, not dictated to by the political class. This was supposed to be how we remained a free people in a democracy.

Unfortunately, Ms. Walters and the rest of our politicians have perverted this concept of the Freedom Pyramid to the point where the political class is at the top of the pyramid and dictates downward the terms of our personal lives to us, robbing us of our freedoms and liberty in the process (the Constitution and Bill Of Rights have disappeared in this perversion of our democracy):

Obviously, Ms. Walters falls into this perverted view of our democracy, dictating how anyone who disagrees with her should go to hell. If we were operating in the original Freedom Pyramid environment, we would be the ones telling our politicians to go straight to hell since they would be serving us.

Which brings us back to the Tea Party. The following list contains the official principles of the Tea Party. After reading them, please ask whether those who honestly believe in these principles should go "straight to hell:"

1] That all powers not expressly delegated to the Federal government are the sole domain of the states, as set forth by the Founding Fathers in Article 10 of the U. S. Constitution.

2] In fiscal responsibility and the prudent use of public funds.

3] In limited government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers and for the reasons that they stated.

4] In the rule of law and its uniform application at all levels of government and society.

5] In the national sovereignty of the United States, its proper defense and security, to include her borders.

6] In the personal rights and responsibilities of every U.S. citizen, as expressed by the Founding Fathers.

7] In the free market as the basis of all business conducted within our borders.

Individual freedom, secure borders, limited government, personal responsibility, fiscal integrity. Are any of these principles reasons to go "straight to hell?" Darn, we are talking about basic freedoms to run our lives, our businesses, and our families the way we want. It is the political class that should go straight to hell for their antithesis of these principles:

• Rather than prudent use of public funds, the political class has run up a total national debt of almost $16 TRILLION without resolving any major issue facing most Americans (lost war on drugs, failing public schools, escalating health care costs, etc.)
• Rather than fiscal responsibility, our political class allows the government it operates to lose well over $200 billion a year via criminal fraud and waste in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other Federal programs and billions more in other wasteful endeavors.
• Our Federal government is anything but limited, taking over control of our retirement funding via Social Security, our retirement medical care via Medicare, our pre-retirement medical care via Obama Care, our student loan programs, etc.
• Our political class does not often uniformly apply rule of law, often using the laws of this land for their own political gains and leverage, with Obama's latest declaration he will not enforce existing immigration laws because he is upset with a recent Supreme Court decision being the most recent abuse of this principle.
• With well over 10 million illegal aliens in this country, it is pretty obvious the political class has not secured our borders, resulting in drug smuggling, people smuggling, and cartel violence and money corrupting our country.

We could go on and on but it is politicians like Congresswoman Walters who have perverted the original concepts of this country, not the Tea Party. The above simple concepts of the Tea Party are dedicated only to freedom. They do not want to restrict women's rights. They do not make a judgement on pro choice vs. pro life. They do not make a judgement of straight vs. gay. They do not make judgements on religious preference or non-preference. They do not divide America via rich vs. poor, white vs. non-white racial lines, blue states vs. red states like our political class does.

No one should be told to go straight to hell in this country for simply having an opinion, especially to have this fate wished on them from a so-called national leader. We need to get back to the original Freedom Pyramid concept and restore sanity to our political processes before the whole country goes "straight to hell."


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of our times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Retro # 15 - The American Freedom Pyramid: Where It Should Be Vs. Where It Is Today

I will be at an event with family and friends this week so my time to write will be curtailed. Thus, I will be reposting some of our most popular discussions in this blog from the past couple of years for your new enjoyment and review.

This post happened over two years ago but has consistently been viewed by our readers many times over the ensuing years. It graphically portrays how we have let the political class in this country hijack our political processes and the associated freedom that we should all be enjoying in this country. The post lists some necessary steps that all Americans need to take to return to the original concepts of liberty in this country.

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Thursday, November 18, 2010



The American Freedom Pyramid: Where It Should Be Vs. Where It Is Today

An important part of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," is the understanding of what I call the Freedom Pyramid. The Freedom Pyramid tries to imagine what our founders had in mind when the put the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and a government based on individual freedom together. The ideal American Freedom Pyramid fits together as follows:

1.The base and foundation of the pyramid is the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

2.Sitting on top of this base level is the government structure that the founders defined to implement the liberty principles and concepts of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in a limited government manner.

3.This government structure serves all of the country's citizens equally in guaranteeing each person's rights and freedoms as defined by the base level documents.

4.And finally, the pinnacle of the Freedom Pyramid is our own individual rights, freedom, and liberties.

These concepts are graphically illustrated below (you can double click on the picutre to get a bigger, clearer view):

There are a few important characteristics of this pyramid. The power in the pyramid flows up from the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution to our individual freedoms which is the pinnacle of our country. Government exists to serve the citizens and the country and is just the mechanics for implementing the tenets in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Finally, the political class appears nowhere in the Freedom Pyramid structure.

This structure has served the country and its citizens quite well over the past two centuries. Americans were usually the freest people in world, which allowed the country to grow into the most prosperous ever. The Freedom Pyramid concept placed individual freedom above all else, including the government and the political class, whose sole purpose should be implementing the concepts and principles of the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

However, over time, we have allowed the American political class to pervert this original Freedom Pyramid concept:

1.Today, individual citizens and their freedom and liberties are no longer at the pinnacle of the pyramid, having been replaced by a self serving political class.

2.This political class uses government functions and institutions to enlarge, entrench, and enrich itself. Examples at this level abound and include earmark abuse, favorable campaign finance laws, Congressional voting district gerrymandering, excessive Congressional benefits and perks, confiscating large amounts of citizens wealth and income via taxes, and a general low priority for the needs and desires of the country's citizens.

3.The political class uses their increased power to divide the country into various and competing tribes and voting blocks of citizens, "energizing their bases" as needed and demonizing those not in their bases or tribes.

4.This increased power of the political class and their abuses of power results in diminished individual rights and freedoms.

These concepts are illustrated in the current day, perverted Freedom Pyramid below, where the only Americans with the freedom and power tend to be our politicians:


















As you can see in this pyramid, the Bill of Rights and Constitution are no longer vital to this pyramid's structure since the often act as an obstruction to the needs and desires of the political class rather than their original intent, the foundation of the country. Also, the power is driven down from the political class and is imposed on American citizens and their freedom.

We need to recognize how far we have deviated from the concept of the first Freedom Pyramid. The reality of America today is that we no longer live in a free country. We do not get true freedom in our election processes since the political class has rigged the voting process to favor existing officeholders and existing political parties. We do not get true freedom while under our excessive tax burden. When an individual is forced to pay more than 30% of their annual income to all levels of government, that individual's freedom to send his or her kids to a better school or to start a business or to save for retirement or to go on a vacation is severely limited: you cannot have political freedom without financial freedom. We do not get true freedom when politicians call individual citizens racists, Neanderthals, un-American, smelly, and other derogatory names just because they dare to disagree with a politician's programs.

If we ever want to get back to the right Freedom Pyramid, where individual citizens are in charge and the political class and the government the run are subservient, we need to implement most, if not all, of the steps laid out in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Some of the most important steps include:

•Step 1 - reduce the size and budget of the Federal government by 10% a year for five years.

•Step 6 - allow only individual American citizens to contribute to election campaigns, forbidding unions, corporations, PACs and other organizations from flooding the election process with money. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech to individual Americans, not organizations.

•Step 7 - allow only citizens that are affected by an election to contribute to election campaigns within that election. For example, political parties would not be allowed to accept campaign contributions from someone in Kansas and send/funnel that money to be used in an election campaign in New Jersey.

•Step 14 - stop gerrymandering Congressional voting districts to almost guarantee the re-election of incumbents.

•Step 17 - eliminate the Democratic Party's "Super Delegate" process which has the potential of voiding the votes of all voters who voted in Democratic Party Presidential primaries.

•Step 34 - hold politicians sitting on Congressional committees accountable for their respective government areas of oversight and remove them from their committee positions if that committee falls short of serving the country, e.g. all members of Congressional Intelligence committees should have been removed from those committee posts on September 12, 2001 for their inability to foresee the 9-11 terror attacks.

•Step 39 - institute term limits for all Federal political seats.

Many of the other 50 steps are also important but implementing these listed above would go a long way to getting us back to the true and rightful Freedom Pyramid concept for this country.


*****************************************

"We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Obama's Abuse of The Constitution and Bill of Rights - An Artful Depiction

To many Americans, the Obama administration is one of the most abusive and dangerous administrations in the history of this country when it comes to upholding the tenets, spirit, and rules of government laid out in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. When any President is sworn into office, he raises his right hand, puts his hand on the bible and swears to uphold the laws of the land and execute his duties as President as laid out in the Constitution.

Many, many times this President has abused that oath he has taken:

Abuse #1 - Regardless of how well someone might think the war against Qaddafi went, there is no doubt engaging our military forces in that war was a violation of the Constitution and the War Powers Act. Obama needed to get Congressional approval to continue that effort beyond a short period of time, permission that is required under the Constitution, and permission that was not even asked for, never mind granted.

Abuse # 2 - One of nation's most enduring and beautiful beliefs is that every American citizen is entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Another belief is that every American citizens is guaranteed due process of law to defend his actions to a jury of his or her peers. Again, no matter how well it turned out, the Obama administration abused these tenets, life, when it unilaterally decided to assassinate Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading anti-American terrorist that had taken refuge in Yemen.

Yes, al-Awlaki was a bad dude. Yes, al-Awlaki wanted to kill Americans. And yes, the country is probably safer and better off now that he is dead. However, it raises a horrible specter of a U.S. President, who is in charge of the largest and most powerful military force in the history of mankind, can decide without any judicial review and approval and  without Congressional review and approval to kill an American citizen because, yes, al-Awlaki, was still an American citizen.

Once a line like this is crossed once, it becomes easier to cross that line a second time. It becomes even easier to cross it a third time and before you know it, we have ourselves a dictatorship government that can unilaterally decide to kill or imprison any citizen without trial. The potential for abuse is very strong. Think about the great despots of our time. Mubarak in Egypt, Assad In Syria, the Shah in Iran thirty years ago, etc. They very quickly found it easy to trample on individual rights and abuse "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for their own personal and political gain.

Abuse #3 - And to make this abuse even worse, reputable press sources have indicated that an entire formal government process has been established within this administration to review and recommend future assassination targets, both Americans and non-Americans. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is now being systematically threatened in the name of national security and potentially political gain and suppression. Very scary.

Abuse #4 - The Defense Of Marriage Act was passed during the Democratic Presidential administration of Bill Clinton. It defined marriage as the union between one man and one woman, an obviously discriminatory and abuse of gay citizens' rights across the country. I find it a repulsive and freedom deprivation law that should be repealed as soon as possible. Denying rights to any American should not be institutionalized by a central government. That is more like a Taliban form of government than a democracy form of government.

However, it is the law of the land. It has to be enforced until repealed, that is how this country is supposed to work. The President of the United States cannot unilaterally decide what laws to enforce and what laws to ignore, that is not how the Constitution is set up.

Unless you are President Obama. He unilaterally decided that the law was discriminatory and that his administration would not defend it in court. Thus, although he had sworn to uphold ALL the laws of the land, as is his responsibility under the Constitution, that oath obviously had little impact on his actions.

The sad part of this whole affair is that he did not have to go down this road of Constitutional abuse. In the first year of his Presidency, his party held a majority of the seats in the House Of Representatives and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. He could have easily done this the right way back in 2009.

However, as we have noted many times in  this blog, Obama was too busy "playing" President that year than "being" President. He set the record for most foreign travel in the first year of an Presidential administration. He jetted off to Europe to try and get his home town of Chicago the Olympic games. He visited Europe other times, Asia, and went to Cairo to make a speech at a university.

He was all over the place except in Washington where he could have gotten this law repealed in a matter of days. Now, rather than repeal it via the Constitutional processes we have lived by over the past two hundred years, he decides he can just ignore the law and the underlying Constitutional processes that go with it.

Abuse #5 - After the Gulf Of Mexico oil rig spill, this administration put a drilling moratorium in place in order to understand what went wrong and to not repeat the tragedy. Sound reasoning. However, the moratorium went on much longer than most people. The issue eventually ended in the courts where proponents of drilling wanted the moratorium lifted.

A judge ruled in favor of the proponents and ordered the moratorium lifted, which was exactly what the Obama administration did. However, the President almost immediately replaced it with a second moratorium that was only a rehashed version of the first moratorium that the judge declared invalid, an obvious and thinly disguised attempt to get around the judicial ruling.

Consider what Judge Feldman, the presiding judge had to say about this blatant disregard for the rule of law:

“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance, Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt.”

Being held in contempt of court can certainly not be in accordance with the oath to uphold the laws of the land. And what is especially galling is the fact that the second moratorium was so blatantly a reimposition of the first illegal moratorium. It is essentially the executive branch of the government thumbing its nose at the judicial branch.

We could go on with other examples but you get the picture. Well, maybe you don't. The above examples are a lot of words to describe the contempt this President has for the Constitution but like they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Which is exactly what artist John McNaughton did in his Presidential mural and the accompanying YouTube video that can be seen at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KGlBHyVeYU

I find it a very powerful message, his work artfully displays and  captures the facts of Constitutional abuse listed above. I do not remember voting anywhere to void the Constitution and the form of government it lays out. The current political class, of which Obama is just one member, does not have that right to do so, only the consent of the governed can make those changes in a democracy such as ours. The picture could not be any clearer, as presented by Mr. McNaughton.

For a second picture of how our freedom and democracy have been abused and tainted by our current set of politicians, please visit the following post from this website about the Freedom Pyramid, the most frequently viewed post in the history of this blog:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/11/american-freedom-pyramid-where-it.html

Celebrate freedom everyday because with our politicians, you do not know how long you will have it.


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of our times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Retro #2 - The American Freedom Pyramid: Where it Should Be Vs. Where It Is

Due to massive family obligations in the short term, time will be at a premium for the next week or so. Thus, rather than rush through new posts, I am taking the opportunity to do a "best of" series of past posts. These "retro posts" have been the most popular posts in this blog from the past year or so. All of them have been viewed hundreds of times and seem to have made a connection to our readers vs. other posts and topics. Please enjoy them again or for the first time.


An important part of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," is the understanding of what I call the Freedom Pyramid. The Freedom Pyramid tries to imagine what our founders had in mind when the put the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and a government based on individual freedom together. The ideal American Freedom Pyramid fits together as follows:

 

• The base and foundation of the pyramid is the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.
• Sitting on top of this base level is the government structure that the founders defined to implement the liberty principles and concepts of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in a limited government manner.
• This government structure serves all of the country's citizens equally in guaranteeing each person's rights and freedoms as defined by the base level documents.
• And finally, the pinnacle of the Freedom Pyramid is our own individual rights, freedom, and liberties. These concepts are graphically illustrated below:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There are a few important characteristics of this pyramid. The power in the pyramid flows up from the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution to our individual freedoms which is the pinnacle of our country. Government exists to serve the citizens and the country and is just the mechanics for implementing the tenets in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Finally, the political class appears nowhere in the Freedom Pyramid structure.
  
  This structure has served the country and its citizens quite well over the past two centuries. Americans were usually the freest people in world, which allowed the country to grow into the most prosperous ever. The Freedom Pyramid concept placed individual freedom above all else, including the government and the political class, whose sole purpose should be implementing the concepts and principles of the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.
  However, over time, we have allowed the American political class to pervert this original Freedom Pyramid concept:
  
  • Today, individual citizens and their freedom and liberties are no longer at the pinnacle of the pyramid, having been replaced by a self serving political class.
  • This political class uses government functions and institutions to enlarge, entrench, and enrich itself. Examples at this level abound and include earmark abuse, favorable campaign finance laws, Congressional voting district gerrymandering, excessive Congressional benefits and perks, confiscating large amounts of citizens wealth and income via taxes, and a general low priority for the needs and desires of the country's citizens.
  • The political class uses their increased power to divide the country into various and competing tribes and voting blocks of citizens, "energizing their bases" as needed and demonizing those not in their bases or tribes.
  • This increased power of the political class and their abuses of power results in diminished individual rights and freedoms.
   

These concepts are illustrated in the current day, perverted Freedom Pyramid below, where the only Americans with the freedom and power tend to be our politicians:



















As you can see in this pyramid, the Bill of Rights and Constitution are no longer vital to this pyramid's structure since the often act as an obstruction to the needs and desires of the political class rather than their original intent, the foundation of the country. Also, the power is driven down from the political class and is imposed on American citizens and their freedom.

 We need to recognize how far we have deviated from the concept of the first Freedom Pyramid. The reality of America today is that we no longer live in a free country. We do not get true freedom in our election processes since the political class has rigged the voting process to favor existing officeholders and existing political parties.

We do not get true freedom while under our excessive tax burden. When an individual is forced to pay more than 30% of their annual income to all levels of government, that individual's freedom to send his or her kids to a better school or to start a business or to save for retirement or to go on a vacation is severely limited: you cannot have political freedom without financial freedom.


We do not get true freedom when politicians call individual citizens racists, Neanderthals, un-American, smelly, and other derogatory names just because they dare to disagree with a politician's programs.

 If we ever want to get back to the right Freedom Pyramid, where individual citizens are in charge and the political class and the government the run are subservient, we need to implement most, if not all, of the steps laid out in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Some of the most important steps include:

Step 1 - reduce the size and budget of the Federal government by 10% a year for five years.

 Step 6 - allow only individual American citizens to contribute to election campaigns, forbidding unions, corporations, PACs and other organizations from flooding the election process with money. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech to individual Americans, not organizations.

 Step 7 - allow only citizens that are affected by an election to contribute to election campaigns within that election. For example, political parties would not be allowed to accept campaign contributions from someone in Kansas and send/funnel that money to be used in an election campaign in New Jersey.

Step 14 - stop gerrymandering Congressional voting districts to almost guarantee the re-election of incumbents.

Step 17 - eliminate the Democratic Party's "Super Delegate" process which has the potential of voiding the votes of all voters who voted in Democratic Party Presidential primaries.

 Step 34 - hold politicians sitting on Congressional committees accountable for their respective government areas of oversight and remove them from their committee positions if that committee falls short of serving the country, e.g. all members of Congressional Intelligence committees should have been removed from those committee posts on September 12, 2001 for their inability to foresee the 9-11 terror attacks.

 Step 39 - institute term limits for all Federal political seats.

 Many of the other 50 steps are also important but implementing these listed above would go a long way to getting us back to the true and rightful Freedom Pyramid concept for this country.






Our recent book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/