Our Constitution has been described as a document of “negative Rights”…but that’s not quite accurate.  Much of the Constitution describes what the government MUST do…and how it must conduct itself (treaties, commerce, etc).  It’s really the Amendments that are “negative”.  The first 10 amendments became known as the “Bill of Rights”, but are littered with phrases like “Congress shall make no law”, such & such “shall not be infringed”, and this & that “shall not be violated”, etc. 

i.e., OUR Rights were secured by protecting us from the Federal government.

If you’ve ever ridden the Autopia at Disneyland (and if not, why not??) you know that the cars move pretty freely on the track…but only so far left or right.  There’s a rail that runs down the center that ensures this.  If you actually steer the car, and avoid bumping into the rail, you can go slightly faster.  But even if you take your hands off the wheel the car will continue to be more or less “steered” by the rail…though the ride will be MUCH jerkier.

Our Constitution was intended to keep our “car” on the track…it’s up to us to steer well enough to make the ride as smooth as possible.  That “rail” was always there, ensuring that we could focus on our own lives, and the government couldn’t drive us too far Left or Right before the car lurched back the other way. 

Thus many, hell, MOST Americans grew complacent.  The “rail” was there, right?  And although the rail has been tinkered with over the years, by Courts, Congress and Presidents, it pretty much still goes where it was intended…or did until Obama came along. 

We now have an activist President who wants to “fundamentally transform” our nation…and an activist Congress determined to help him.  The combination of an activist President with total control of Congress (including a “filibuster-proof” Senate) is rare in our country’s history.  FDR and Wilson, for example, had some of this, but really used emergencies (including war) to push laws and changes, many of which still haunt us.  But they did not remove the “rail” (as much as they wanted and tried to).

Obama wants the damn rail gone!  He wants to “drive” our Autopia car over whatever cliff he wants to, and he wants us to like it, dammit.  But time is running out for Barry.  His “filibuster-proof” Senate will certainly disappear, even if the Democrats retain control.  He may not have his pet troll as Speaker of the House once the new Congress is seated.  And the Supreme Court remains balanced on a knife’s edge…with Anthony Kennedy being that edge.  If Barry’s gonna rip the rail out of the track and drive us so far Left we can’t find our way back he has to hurry, and a “Lame Duck” session of Congress may be his best chance…barring an “EMERGENCY!!”.

Over the years Americans have grown complacent, and why not?  The “rail” has ensured that whether the government tried to steer carefully and avoid the rail, or took its collective hands off the wheel and allowed (or caused) us to bounce along it, we would always wind up more or less going forward.  That is changing.

So if you go to Disneyland, be sure to ride the Autopia, and note the rail in the track.  Don’t think of it as limiting your freedom, think of it as limiting the Government’s ability to take your freedom away!!  The cost of a ticket to Disneyland is about $75 these days.  All things considered it’s a pretty cheap reminder of the Price of Freedom.

With apologies to Will Rogers. The City of Harrisburg is defaulting on its bonds this month –

On Sept. 15, Harrisburg, Pa., was scheduled to make a $3.29 million payment on the bonds it issued to build a trash plant. But, the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the dough.

“The city’s budget is in deficit,” said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson. “We’re looking for ways to trim the budget just to keep services going.”

“Now the chickens have come home to roost,” the mayor said in a statement released Wednesday.

In May, Moody’s knocked the rating on its general-obligation bonds three notches to B2 — five steps below investment grade. To put that into perspective: Moody’s rating on Greece’s government debt sits at A3 — still investment grade.

“It’s a warning to holders of bonds issued by financially stressed state and local governments,” said John Lonski, chief economist for Moody’s Investors Services. “Credit crisis is still with us.”

And in, fact, many on city council have been floating the idea of bankruptcy.

Source

And the mind set is they have to default to keep services running? What the heck do they think paid for the infrastructure to have services with?

This is your city run by conservative capitalists –

(Nagasaki today)

This is your city run by socialist democrats –

(Detroit today)

‘Nuff said?

University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato says, “It not an anti-incumbent year; it’s an anti-Democrat year.”

Here’s the video.

Hat tip: Freedom’s Lighthouse

I am going to work on a more reader-friendly format, but here are the Week 1 College Picks. A chart would nice, but Word Press is not always forgiving, so I went the safe route.

Illinois is the only team no one picked. Bolded team is the pick:

RP: Pittsburgh @ Utah, Illinois vs. Missouri, Connecticut @ Michigan, UCLA @ Kansas, Purdue @ Notre Dame, Colorado @ Colorado State, Oregon State vs. TCU, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

Deckerd: Pittsburgh @ Utah, Illinois vs. Missouri, Connecticut @ Michigan, UCLA @ Kansas, Purdue @ Notre Dame:, Colorado @ Colorado State, Oregon State vs. TCU, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

MI Conservative: Pittsburgh @ Utah, Illinois vs. Missouri, Connecticut @ Michigan, UCLA @ Kansas, Purdue @ Notre Dame, Colorado @ Colorado State, Oregon State vs. TCU, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

Andrew S (Mr. TLS): Pittsburgh @ Utah, Illinois vs. Missouri, Connecticut @ Michigan, UCLA @ Kansas, Purdue @ Notre Dame, Colorado @ Colorado State, Oregon State vs. TCU, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

Bc3b: Pittsburgh @ Utah, Illinois vs. Missouri, Connecticut @ Michigan, UCLA @ Kansas, Purdue @ Notre Dame, Colorado @ Colorado State, Oregon State vs. TCU, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

Mullet: Pittsburgh @ Utah, Illinois vs. Missouri, Connecticut @ Michigan, UCLA @ Kansas, Purdue @ Notre Dame, Colorado @ Colorado State, Oregon State vs. TCU, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

Last summer car sales increased dramatically because of teh Cash for Clunkers program, which cost taxpayers $3 billion. In August of 2010 dealers and manufacturers paid the price as vehicle sales dropped to their lowest level since 1983. Every major manufacturer except Chrysler was down. Ford was -14% (vs. August 2009), GM -25%, Honda -33% and Toyota -34%.

Auto sales: Worst August since 1983

The cost to the taxpayers for every Cash for Clunkers sale was $24,000 per vehicle. All the program did was move the purchase decision ahead for many customers as the government offered rebates of up to $4,500. In addition, the program scrapped a number of perfectly good vehicles increasing the cost and reducing availability for Americans dependendent on inexpensive transportation.

Taxpayers ended up paying an average of $24,000 per vehicle for the cash-for-clunkers program over the summer when sales that would have happened anyway are taken into consideration, says car-buying research site Edmunds.com.

The program, which cost taxpayers $3 billion, gave car buyers up to $4,500 in incentives to trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers to buy new fuel-thrifty cars. It was intended primarily to spur sales, and the economy.

But Edmunds.com says a lot of those sales would have happened anyway, with or without the clunkers program. Of more than 690,000 vehicles sold, only about 125,000 of the sales were entirely due to the government’s added inducement, Edmunds.com says. The rest of buyers just got lucky by getting the government to kick cash into deals that they would have proceeded with anyhow. When the cost of the program is spread over just those extra incremental sales, the total is $24,000 per vehicle.

Read more:

Hat Tip: CNN Money and edmunds.com

Family insurance costs skyrocket 14%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — American workers are taking yet another blow to their wallets this year — a whopping 14% jump in costs to insure their families.

The spike comes even as premiums for family coverage rose only 3%. This discrepancy is a result of cost-conscious companies shifting more of the insurance burden onto employees.

Employees are paying about $4,000 to buy family insurance in 2010, $482 more than they did last year, the Kaiser Family Foundation said Thursday.

Companies still pay the bulk — nearly $9,800 for a family of four — but that was down a little from 2009.

The Kaiser survey was conducted between January and May 2010 and polled more than 3,000 employers nationwide.

Over the past five years, employees share of insurance premiums have risen 47%. That has outpaced a 27% jump in overall premiums and an 18% increase in wages, according to Kaiser.

Read more:

Hat tip: CNN Money

We have all known it in our bones, that the Democrats really represent something else other than what they pretend to be. So when you hear this –

“It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but . . . it’s a free country,” Patrick said on the “Jim & Margery Show” on WTKK-FM. “You know, you got to, you got to respect that freedom.”

– you have to admire that the guy spoke his mind and the truth in what he believes. HotAir has the clip up here.

The frightening thing is that except for now, any other time in our history such a remark would not let you run for dog catcher let alone Governor. A doubtful sign of our times that such a comment would even be an acceptable quote even if said in jest.

Here is even more honesty masked as an attack –

With the help of James L. Moody, chairman of the Sangamon County (Ill.) Democratic Party, Hare — the same guy who said, “I don’t worry about the Constitution,” when asked about the Constitutionality of ObamaCare — filed a complaint Aug. 27 with the Federal Election Commission.

Hare’s target: Veterans for the Constitution, a group of military veterans whose stated mission is to seat Conservative leaders who truly represent the people and do not see the Constitution as an obstacle but as a document the founding fathers intended be upheld at all costs. The group, according to spokesperson Ken Moffett, is comprised of only a handful of active members who have managed to raise a whopping $6,000.

Source

Yes, this is the same Phil Hare that essentially implied “What Constitution?”. If you have within your means we need to support this group, Vets4Constitution. Give what you can as they will probably need the cash for a inquiry and legal defense. Hare is a Tory and he needs to be taken down.