Will The Center Hold, Part 2: Western States Taking Back The West, Rebelling Against the NSA Spying On Citizens, and More

Yesterday and today are updates to a series of posts we did last month regarding the pushback of state and local governments and private citizens against an overreaching, oppressive, and generally inept Federal government. On a whole range of issues, from Obama Care to gun control to Common Core education standards to the national debt and many more, those outside of Washington are finally standing up for their rights, the Constitution and common sense.

Yesterday’s update kick off post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/06/will-center-hold-update-part-1-texas.html

1) A New Mexico county government is the latest non-Federal government entity to rebel against a Federal action. The New Mexico Otero County Commission voted to instruct the local sheriff to open up a Federal Forest Service gate so that cattle of local ranchers could reach a water source.

The action told the sheriff to "immediately take steps to remove or open gates that are unlawfully denying citizens access to their private property rights."

"That Constitution is in breach right now and it is our duty, it's our civil duty — if we want to keep our nation free and keep our country as it was intended to be by our forefathers — to stand up and take this type of action," said Mr. Ronny Rardin, one of the county commissioners who voted to open the gates.

This is part of a larger and growing issue across the west between locals and the Feds regarding access to western grazing lands and water sources. The first salvo in the push back was with the Cliven Bundy confrontation in Nevada. And now a county government in New Mexico is telling the Federal government to step aside also.

2) From the Bundy ranch in Nevada to Otero County in New Mexico we now move northward to Utah. The state government of Utah recently passed legislation that demands the Federal government cede control of 30 million acres of land that fall within the borders of the state.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill earlier this year that intends to snatch a massive amount of land from the overreaching hands of the Federal government to help build the state’s economy and resources. The belief, at least in Utah, is that state and local politicians and citizens can do a better management and conservation job of the state’s wilderness lands than a far away Federal bureaucracy that has shown itself to be mostly inept in any thing it does.

I doubt that the Obama administration is going to hand over any land to a state government so it could get real interesting, and real dangerous, if Utah decides to execute the legislation with or without the approval of Washington.

3) The Governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, recently signed a Kansas state bill that nullifies local gun control laws and brings uniformity to Second Amendment rights and laws across the state. The law also expands on the places that allow the carrying of a firearm, similar to Georgia’s “guns everywhere” law. 

According to the Kansas City Star newspaper, the law would strip cities and counties of their power to regulate firearms, and would nullify existing gun control laws, effectively allowing open carry of firearms across the state.

Both of these actions are obviously in conflict with the Obama administration’s desire to shred the Second Amendment and Americans’ rights to defend themselves and their families.

4) According to a recent Reuters news report, even the government loving state of California is getting into the push back action against the Federal government. A recent piece of legislation that is working its way through the California state government, having recently been passed by the state senate with only one opposing vote, would require the Federal government to have a real warrant from a real judge if it wants the cooperation of California officials in searching residents' cell phone and computer records.

This is probably in direct response to the Edward Snowden leak that proved that the Federal government, via the NSA and other government entities, were shredding the Fourth Amendment rights of American citizens with warrantless searching and eavesdropping on American citizens' communications: "The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is very clear. It says the government shall not engage in unreasonable search and seizure," said the bill's author, Democratic State Senator Ted Lieu, of Torrance. "The National Security Agency's massive and indiscriminate collecting of phone data on all Americans, including more than 38 million Californians, is a threat to our liberty and freedom."

Well said, Senator Lieu. And even better news, Reuters reports that several similar measures have also been introduced in eight other states including Alaska, Arizona and Oklahoma. Also, Montana has passed a similar law affirming the Fourth Amendment and mandating that state agencies operate in terms of it. 

The California bill would not permit state law officials in the state to assist any Federal organizations looking for records of phone calls, Internet use or other electronic activity by residents unless a warrant has been issued by a judge. Which raises another point of confrontation between citizens wanting to live in a free country again and a Federal government that continually stomps on that desire: what happens when a renegade NSA employee violates state laws and spies on a California resident? Interesting times.

5) Consider a recent article from the United Liberty website. The Tenth Amendment Center has reported that at least two of the five state government nullification bills that passed last week will keep the Federal government from tracking cell phone data in their states without a real, legal, court approved warrant.

In Minnesota, house bill SF2466, passed with deep bipartisan support in both the Minnesota state House and Senate. The bill bans law enforcement agencies in Minnesota from obtaining tracking information on cell phone users in the state without a warrant.

In Missouri, Senate Joint Resolution 27 also protects citizens’ information by adding electronic communications as one of the objects protected by the state constitution. The resolution will likely be up for a vote by Missouri residents this November after it passes the House.

Also in Missouri, legislation that would keep Missouri out of the Federal government’s plans to expand the Common Core educational standards has also passed last week. House Bill 1490 allows the state to regain control of education standards and processes, keeping the Federal government away from interfering with local educational boards and guidelines.

6) In both South Carolina and Tennessee, the Federal ban on farming industrial hemp has also been nullified by state government legislation, actions that are likely to increase the productivity and viability of those states‘ agriculture industries. Both states passed bills that allow local farmers to grow industrial hemp in their states. In Tennessee, Governor Bill Haslam has already signed the proposal into law. South Carolina’s Governor, Nikki Haley, is expected to sign the bill into law in the near future.

That will do it for today. From anti-snooping to western land management to education standards to gun control to protecting the Fourth Amendment, Americans are finally taking off the blinders and telling the Federal government to get out of their lives. The Feds had their chance to do good and blew it. Time for the locals to take over and see what good they can do, the ineptness Federal government has set that bar pretty low.

Which gets us back to the same question we have been constantly asking over all of this push back activity against the Federal government: what happen if the Federal government passes a law that no one obeys?

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.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Ten Shut Down Government Functions That Should Stay Shut Down

Over the pasty two days we have been reviewing a lot of the insanity, lunacy, stupidity, and pompousness of the political class relative to the unneeded and embarrassing “government shutdown.” It is unneeded since the Federal government has been putting annual budgets together for over two hundred years, an act that seems beyond the intelligence and ability of the current set of Washington politicians to accomplish.

It is embarrassing since if these people cannot even put together a budget, do we really expect them to have the capacity to solve the war on drugs problem, fix our failing public schools, get our national debt under control, etc.? If this is the best we can do for leadership in Washington, than this is truly an embarrassment for the entire country.

The first look at the Federal government shutdown resulted in the development and proposal of the CABA - The Congressional Adult Behavior Act. This proposal has seven components that tries to put rules and restrictions in place so that Washington politicians start acting liking adults rather than childish, bratty, name calling little kids.

The second look at the shutdown went through the many government agencies and functions that were NOT shutdown, with independent estimates indicating that although the Federal government was supposedly shutdown because it had no budget, about 85% to 90% of the Federal government was still functioning. 

We raised the following issue: since most Americans were unaffected by the 10% to 15% of the government that  was deemed nonessential and was actually shut down, maybe it was time to stop doing those functions altogether and save the taxpayers the expense of paying for some government functions that did not affect them. Doing so would put about $4,000 back into the pockets of EVERY American family EVERY year.

Those two discussions can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/10/caba-congressional-adult-behavior-act.html

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/10/only-in-washington-shutdown-that-is-not.html

Today we will look at a sample of ten Federal functions that are not operating and you decide whether or not you can live without them. They were found on the Freedom Works website and I have included some of the sarcastic barbs that Freedom Works attached to some of the unneeded functions. 

While reviewing these functions, keep in mind that Nancy Pelosi has recently asserted that there is no unnecessary spending being done by the Federal government, that not a single dollar can be pared from the Federal government’s bloated spending. We think that many, if not all, of these following ten government functions dispel that theory, a theory that we absolutely kill every month when we do our monthly political class insanity posts. The first insanity post from this month can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/09/october-2013-part-1-political-class.html

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The Ten Nonessential Government Functions That Maybe We Can ALWAYS Do Without, Courtesy Of Freedom Works

1. The Bureau of Land Management has halted donkey adoptions.

Because, as it turns out, most of that is accomplished online and the website for the Bureau of Land Management is currently down. Though they did put up a website to tell users of their website that they can't access the website. So there.

2. The USDA "Meat and Poultry Hotline" is no longer available to take calls about the safety of that mystery meat that's been sitting in the back of your fridge for a decade.

Now, if you don't know if you might get food poisoning from green chicken, the government is unavailable to help you. And if you have questions about the name of a specific type of bacteria that landed you in the bathroom for 36 hours, you'll just have to use a (privately-funded) resource like WebMD.

3. No one is currently advising the government on matters pertaining to the "fine arts."

And just when it seems that someone might have gotten a photograph of Banksy tagging up an NYC alleyway. Shame.

4. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has been forced to shutter a number of its offices.

Of course, the Broadcasting Board of Governors mostly uses its websites and offices to talk about what people who are not Broadcasting Board of Governors do, but that's beside the point, right?

5. The Post Office is running, but the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee has been temporarily suspended.

That said, you can still vote on which commemorative stamps you'd like the USPS to issue online, so at least the government has learned about citizen empowerment and free opinions.

6. We will be unlikely to hear from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugurations. 

Not that there are any planned until 2016. But in case we need an emergency inauguration (which, frankly, we hope doesn't happen) we're out of luck.

7. The US Board of Geographic Names, which is apparently charged with naming US geographic items, doesn't even have its website running.

America, if you can avoid discovering new geographic items that would require names for at least the foreseeable future, they'd appreciate it.

8. The Clinton Presidential Center has closed some of its permanent exhibits.

We'd call this the "Washington Monument Strategy" but something tells me no one is going to be too hurt at being turned away from seeing a collection of Hillary Clinton's White House-era pantsuits.

9. The University of Hawaii has halted its research into rat lungworm disease.

Unfortunately, it's probably hard to convince private donors that it's necessary to figure out why a type of vermin is falling prey to another type of vermin, so it's the government's responsibility. Except not right now.

10. A full third of the speakers for the Illinois River Coordinating Council were forced to delay their trip to scenic Peoria, Illinois.

I believe that the river coordinators could not coordinate a conference call. Also, who cares if they have to miss a trip to Peoria? There's nothing in Peoria.

Now, of course, there are some things that the government does that are very valuable, but when you would never have noticed a few key very important elements of the government (according to the government) are missing, it sort of makes you think about whether we really need it all, especially when it comes out of our pockets.

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Again, these ten items and the associated sarcasm comes from Freedom Works. But their sarcasm rings true. Do we really need to fund a standing committee on geographic names, can’t  we find a creative sort already employed by the Interior Department to come up with new names when needed? Do we really need a stamp advisory committee, can’t we find someone already employed in the Post Office to do that job as part of their regular job? 

You get the idea, we fund these functions that seem to last forever and get bigger and more expensive over time for reasons that were not important to begin with. As we have proposed many times, the Federal government needs a good spring cleaning where we go through every nook and cranny of all government entities, and throw out those old toys, clothes, and bad birthday gifts that have been taking up space (and taxpayer wealth) for years for no good reason. Households do it, why shouldn’t Washington do it?

And what better time to do it? These functions, and probably hundreds more like them are already shut down and no one cares or notices that they are no functioning. What better time to keep them dormant until we see a reason and a true need to do what they supposedly do. And if such a need does arise, maybe there is a cheaper and less expensive way to do it.

Ashleigh Brilliant once said: “I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.” Same with me. Either pay me the big bucks to serve on the Stamp Advisory Committee or get rid of it since it serves no purpose in my life or the lives of just about every other American.

As an aside, at our website for our book, www.loathemygovernment.com, you can vote on a variety of government functions and expenses from past years to decide whether or not they would have been important in your life. To date, the vast majority of voters have said these government expenditures were not important enough to have taxpayers pay for them, with the majority of expenses receiving 100% thumbs down on whether they were a worthwhile government expense.

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.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w