Monday, August 24, 2009

Cash for clunkers is a success? How do you figure that?

By: Dan Clements August 24, 2009

Almost 650,000 clunkers were removed from America’s highways and byways in what the Obama administration is touting as a resounding success. The final price tag will be around 2.9 billion dollars, give or take a million. And how did America benefit from this? Well let’s take a look and see.
Charities across America who relied on people to donate there clunkers for a tax deduction are hurting for cash that would have been generated from the sales of those clunkers at auction. 650,000 clunkers would have gone along way in funding these charities.
Used car lots are out about 650,000 cars. A lot of Americans rely on the use car market for their next car to get from point A to point B. An inexpensive used car could make the difference between getting to work and going hungry.
Auto repair shops are short 650,000 cars to work on. Clunkers need maintenance and auto mechanics need clunkers to maintain. It will be some time before more cars reach the status of clunker, so what are the auto mechanics going to work on in the mean time?
Auto parts store are short 650,000 cars to sell parts for. There are a lot of shade tree mechanics like me who do as much work on their own cars as we can to save a buck or two. Those shade tree mechanics and other non mechanics that traded their clunkers in won’t be visiting the auto parts store anytime soon.
Car dealers are in a credit crunch now, because our wonderful government is very slow in paying them the $4500 for each clunker they helped to take off the road. And a lot of the news cars bought were not from GM or Chrysler. They were from the other American auto makers and some foreign auto makers too!
The biggest looser in this whole mess was the American people! Capitalism took a big hit, and many American showed us all just how much they don’t mind being socialist! Isn’t legal plunder by the government a wonderful thing!
So was cash for clunkers a success? Only if you are bent on the total destruction of what America should be under the U. S. Constitution! Socialist world wide are praising the Obama administration for their work in this area. Socialist’s in America are thinking they are one step closer to a workers paradise. And they wonder why constitutionalists like me are upset at what is happening to our country!
We need to get back to the rule of law before it’s too late. And that means that we need to bring this rouge government back under the rule of law by any legal means necessary, or we won’t have any law left to live under!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Socialists are nuts!

By; Dan Clements July 4th 2009

I was listening to Forbes on Fox news and they had a socialist on there, his name is Mike and I didn't catch his last name, and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter, all socialist sound the same and have the same message.
They were talking about health care and as usual the socialist were spouting lies about President Obama's plans for national health care. Mike was talking about shared risk and cost in a government run plan. Is he kidding? Are socialist that stupid? Do they think we are that stupid? Does anyone really believe that as a whole the nation will share the cost of a national health care plan? What kind of drugs are these folks on?
First, if the numbers that the administration are using about the uninsured are correct (and they are over inflated) then we will start with 50 million uninsured to put on the government doll. Then add another 119 million that will lose their current plans because employers will drop them off their plans in favor of reducing the cost of doing business. Then add all the illegal aliens and this is a formula for disaster.
Second, how many of these folks I just mentioned can afford to pay for their health insurance? The 119 million probably can, but what inventive do they have to keep paying when the government is willing to pick up the tab and pass the cost onto the tax payers? So if the vast majority of those receiving national health care don't pay for it were is the pool of payers to share and shift the cost? The only cost shifting I see will be to the American tax payers!
These socialist make me sick. They want to make sure everyone gets whatever they want in life no matter if they deserve it or not. Believe it or not not everyone needs or deserves health insurance or health care! You might think that's a cold hearted statement, but it is the truth!
Some people are just starting out in their young adult lives and they look at the cost risk of health insurance and decide they don't want insurance at this time in their lives. As people get older and start families, they reevaluate their lives and start getting insurance for the family to cover unexpected medical expenses. Towards the end of our lives is when we need the most insurance so we can live out are lives in some semblance of dignity.
There are those in America that go through their lives taking everything they can without giving anything in return, I'm talking about those in our society that can work and contribute, but refuse to! These are the people that do not need or deserve health insurance or care. First, if they needed insurance they should get a job and obtain it that way. Being poor is no excuse for not having health insurance. My wife and myself make just above minimum wage and we have health insurance. Second if you are not willing to work, why do you expect anyone else to carry you through life? There is a difference between able and not able to work, and I'm talking to those who are able to work but refuse to!
Bottom line is socialism is trickle up poverty. In order for socialist to sell socialism, they have to lie about it and try and tug on people's heart strings in order to make it palatable! By the time socialism makes people sick to there stomachs it's hard for people to turn away from it!
Don't let the socialist fool you, they are trying to take over every aspect of our country and our lives! And socialist like Mike are selling the American people down the river! People who are supporting, or promoting the socialistic moves of this government are traitors to freedom and liberty everywhere, especially here in America!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Amnesty Watch Marathon weekend June 27 and 28 2009

By: Dan Clements June 29 2009

It’s Monday Morning and I’m just trying to get my head around the information overload form all the shows this weekend hosted by The Conservative Alliance Media Network (www.conservativealliance.org) (www.zeroamnesty.com) in the immortal words of the long time Chicago Cub’s radio announcer Harry Caray “ holy cow”
Subjects ranged from crimes by Illegal aliens to how much of the government money, our taxes, are being wasted by Illegal aliens every day in this country. We talked about healthcare, welfare, identity theft, taxes, cultural destruction, and much more. There were a whole host of panel discussions on a lot of these subjects.
Most of what was aired over the weekend, you will not find talked about in the lamestream media, or by our cowardly politicians in Washington D.C. In regards to our elected officials’, they are found wanting with the facts about all the problems with illegal aliens, starting with what to call them. Illegal aliens are not immigrants in any way, shape, or form! They are not undocumented, because they steal people’s identity daily to be able to work here! Or they overstay their visas, and wreck havoc on our legal immigration system!
Illegal aliens come here uninvited; will not melt into our distinctively unique American culture. Illegal aliens want to remake this country into a third world cesspool, like the one they came from (Mexico), instead of staying in their own country and changing things!
Illegal aliens are cowards in that they run away from their problems in their home country, instead of changing things in their country. And their governments encourage this behavior, because if they didn’t then the people may get the idea that a change in government is called for and they would be on the outside looking in or dead!
And our politicians and bureaucrats are literally breaking the law everyday they allow this illegal alien situation to continue! We have laws on the books that are not be followed or enforced. We have state and local Politian’s turning a blind eye to what is happening to our country and the rule of law. We have mayors that are aiding and abetting these criminals by claiming a sanctuary status for their cities. The law is the law and to break it just because you don’t agree with it or to gain political point with certain constituents is an impeachable offense! Any American, who breaks these laws, should be brought to justice, from the President of the United States, to the lowliest of citizens!
Folks this weekend a group of Americans came together and voiced our opposition to the powers that be! WE are mad and we will not take it anymore! This weekend the country has been put on notice, stop illegal aliens now or we will not have a country to call our own! The time is well past to have put in place a border fence that would stop something forty foot tall, hairy, with fangs from coming across our southern border! This fence is to keep undesirables out not people in this country.
We need to take a hard long look at our current immigration policy and see if we need to let all the people in we are letting in now, or make them stay in their own countries and make their country better for themselves and their fellow countrymen! We cannot solve the world’s problems by importing them here. We need to keep that intellectual capital in the countries that need it most.
If you are an American and you care about OUR country, please help us fight this pox on our country, illegal immigration, and hold our elected and unelected officials accountable for breaking this nation’s laws!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The U.S. Census: head count or domestic intelligence gathering?

By Daniel Clements May 20, 2009

In 2010 the United States will go through a process that is laid out in our Constitution called the census. The United States has been performing a census since 1790. The purpose of the census was to do a head count of the American people for purposes of determining congressional districts for representation of the people at the federal level.

The US Constitution in article 1 section 2 clause 3 states ‘the actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the worst meeting of the Congress of the United States and within every subsequent term of 10 years in such manner as they shall by Law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 30,000 but each State shall have at least one Representative;’

The original intent of the U.S. Census was to do a head count for the purposes of representation of the people. This seems to me to be a very simple straightforward task that is to be undertaken by our federal government. It has since been morphed into something quite different.

The U.S. Census that will be taken in 2010 will be a very long form with a lot of questions pertaining to personal information that the government does not need in order to take a head count of the American people. What is the purpose of the U.S. Census? According to the government website, the census is a count of everyone living in the United States every 10 years. The census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The next census is in 2010 your participation in this census is required by law. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Federal law protects the personal information you shared during the census. Census data are used to distribute congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and distribute $300 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year. You can go to this website http://2010.census.gov/2010census/ and read for yourself about what the U.S. Census has become.

My question to the U.S. Census Bureau is, where in the world did you ever get the idea that you needed to collect data other than the person is alive and kicking, and a US citizen? This is just one more example of how our federal government has become overreaching. In my humble opinion this is no more or no less than the federal government trying to manipulate and plan what goes on in the lives of the citizens of the United States. The federal government has no Constitutional authority to collect any information in the census outside of the name, address and citizenship status of We the People. I have looked at my pocket Constitution and can find no amendment to the Constitution that would authorize the federal government to gather the information it wants during the census.

Seeing how this is not the proper role of the federal government, the collecting of personal information during the Constitutional census, we need to ask the question why is the federal government requiring this information to be collected? So they can be good nannies and distribute tax dollars that have been collected. This money they distribute is used to buy votes. I don't care if the government assures me that my personal information will be protected, my question is who's going to protect me and my personal information from the federal government who should not have it in the first place?

This is just one more example of how the federal government has overstepped its Constitutional authority when it comes to governing We the People! An enumeration of the people should be just that an enumeration, not a domestic intelligence gathering exercise. Because in the final analysis that is what the U.S. Census has become!

If the American people don't wake up to the fact, that their federal government is operating outside the constraints of the Constitution, the American people will wake up one day in a country they no longer recognize or voted for!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The People’s Grand Jury

By Daniel Clements April 2, 2009

When I started my radio show ‘BACK to BASIC’ in October of 2007 I was looking for a political answer in my life, I just did know what the question was. For the next one and a half years I was searching for that question, and today I found that question. The question is how can I, one individual stop a tyrannical government from destroying our nation? I knew the answer to this question was out there and it always seemed to be just out of reach.

Last night while listening to Andrea Shea King’s radio show on blog talk radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stations/HeadingRight/ASKShow I heard an interview she was doing with a gentleman named Carl Swenson. Carl Swenson heads up a group called rise up for America and can be found on the web at http://www.riseupforamerica.com/ On March 28 a grand jury in the city of Stockbridge Georgia returned an indictment against Barak Hussein Obama Regarding the matter of his American citizenship. The indictment that the grand jury handed up against Barak Hussein Obama has been delivered to the proper authorities in the state of Georgia.

The answer to my question is found in the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution. The Fifth Amendment reads ‘No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of war or public Danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence To be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, Liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.’ The long sought for answer to my question is the Grand Jury system.

The Grand Jury is sometimes referred to as the fourth branch of government. It is a system that has been leftover from British common law and is still in force today through the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Mr. Leo Donofrio wrote an article called ‘The Federal Grand Jury is the fourth branch of government.’ It can be found at http://www.cusc.org/editorial/3563.htm. I urge you to go read Mr. Leo Donofrio’s article and pay particular attention to the historical and legal references that are quoted in the article. In 1946 the Federal rules of Criminal Procedure Was adopted to simplify law procedure in the criminal law. Nowhere in rule six or seven have pronouncements been eliminated. Only in note Four were pronouncements addressed and then they were deemed only to be obsolete.
Two justices of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Powell in 1972, And Justice Antonin Scalia in 1992, Stated that the Grand Jury was rooted in centuries of Anglo-American history. Nowhere have I found any modification to the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. There have been no new amendments Added to the United States Constitution that would modify the Fifth Amendment. Congress cannot pass a bill, and the president cannot sign said Bill into law to change the United States Constitution. In order to do away with the Grand Jury there would by necessity need to be a new amendment added to the constitution to change the Fifth Amendment. Also according to Mr. Leo Donofrio’s Article Grand Juries can be convened by We the People without a prosecutor or permission from a sitting judge. The only thing that is necessary for a grand jury to be legal is that it be sworn in by a sitting judge. It is my understanding that a Grand Jury can be seated on a State and Federal level.

I can understand why politicians would want to do away with The People’s Grand Jury. Nowhere is there any provision in election law to recall a politician once they are elected. And the way the two party systems are set up today it is almost impossible to unseat an incumbent politician, even when the politician is operating outside of the constraints of the United States Constitution. I do not recommend that the People’s Grand Jury be used to overturn elections, but when politicians become tyrannical and operate as if they are above the law; the people need to take a course of action in order to protect this great country from tyrants and would be dictators. We as citizens of the United States of America have not only a right but a duty to seat a People’s Grand jury to root out evil in our government and the bureaucracies it controls.

I have been considering this course of action with some fear and trepidation because I know how easily a People’s Grand Jury can be used for partisan political purposes. But let me be the first to warn anyone who would try to abuse the People’s Grand Jury system for their own personal ends, you will be found out and laid bare before the court of public opinion by myself and other members of the new mainstream media. The United States Constitution is the basis on which all of our laws are based and must be considered in all of the People’s Grand Jury considerations. By using the United States Constitution as our standard for judgment we can be reasonably assured that the People’s Grand Juries will be just and equitable to all citizens Involved.

In a way I am glad that President Obama Has fought the inquiry into his American citizenship. I believe this has awakened a sleeping giant in the American people, called the rule of law. What the founding fathers tried to accomplish with the establishment of state governments, and the state’s establishing the Federal government, was a level playing field for all citizens, both natural and naturalized to live on. In a Constitutional Republic all men and women are equal, from the poorest of the poor, to the richest of the rich, from the least political among us, to the holder of the highest political office in America.

But if we are to be a nation that believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness we need to be able to hold one another accountable before the law. No one is above the law and no one should be able to break the supreme law of the land, the United States constitution. Those to whom we give consent to govern over us should remember that they are citizens just like everyone else in America. And when our politicians no longer feel that they are accountable to We the People, our only recourse is to hold them accountable before the law through the People’s Grand Jury system. Sometimes we can’t wait for elections, because too much damage can be done by the politicians, and People’s memories are way to short.

I urge you to please listen to Andrea Shea King’s show and read the articles I have cited above and make your own determination about the people’s grand juries. Time is running out for this great Republic that we call America, we need to act quickly in order to save our constitution, our country, and perhaps even our own lives.

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The G20 protests

By Daniel Clements April 1, 2009

As I was watching Fox and Friends this morning on the Fox News channel I heard Gretchen and Brian discussing the protests at the G20 summit and they described all the protesters as Anarchist. Now most of the time the hosts of Fox and Friends are very careful when they report on a story, but this time when reporting about the G20 summit they accused all of the protesters of being anarchist.

I host a radio show and try never to make a blanket statement. I always try to investigate and research a subject before I report on it. I went on Google to find out what groups were protesting the G20 summit. In my research I did find some groups that were there to cause trouble. But there were some groups there that have legitimate grievances to air during the protest. To say that every one there protesting was there to cause trouble is not only false but an outright lie.

I believe it is a fundamental right of people everywhere to protest what their governments are doing in their name, especially when those governments infringe on people’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that civil protests are another form of redress of grievances by the people. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are God given rights that cannot be arbitrarily taken away from people by their governments. People give up these rights and allow their governments to take them a way, when they sit idly by and suffer wrongs by their governments.

These protests at the G20 summit are a symptom of a larger problem. Some of the protesters targeted the bank of England because it is part of the world banking system. The world banking system is in large part Responsible for the global economic meltdown. And make no mistake, the Federal Reserve here in America is part of the world banking system and is at the top of the list of those responsible for the economic crisis here in America. The Federal Reserve is a private institution and is not accountable to We the People, and is resisting every effort by the people to be held accountable for any of its actions.

The larger problem I spoke of earlier is that the free market system is not allowed to operate on its own. Governments all over the world try to control things they do not understand. In the free market system individuals and groups of individuals determine how best to go about interacting with each other during the course of living out their lives. Governments are instituted among men to enforce contracts between individuals and to ensure that the playing field is level for all participants. Free markets can only exist where people have freedom and liberty.

The problem that faces us today is that governments all over the world are trying to control the free market system. The very nature of the free market system cannot be controlled, because people who participate in the free market system will always do what’s in their best interest despite what governments may want them to do. History is littered with the dead corpses of failed government attempts to control the free market system. In the end the free market will always win out no matter how much the government would like to control it, because again people will always do what is in their best interest.

I will acknowledge that some of the protesters at the G20 summit have no business being there. If all you want to do at the G20 summit is cause trouble then you should just stay home. Protesters who cause trouble at protests do more harm than good, because their message gets lost in all the excitement and all people remember about a group that causes trouble is the trouble they cause.

But getting back to my original point, if you’re going to report a story, any story, you need to get your facts straight and correct from the beginning and quit using blanket statements when describing the events or people. I like Gretchen and Brian and will continue to watch Fox and Friends on the Fox News channel, but I cannot and will not allow falsehoods to go unchecked or unchallenged. So please Gretchen and Brian in the future to your research and stop using blanket statements.

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

The arrogance of our elected and unelected leaders

By Daniel Clemens March 31, 2009

Lately as I watched the news I cannot help but think about the arrogance of our elected leadership. They busy themselves governing ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ without regards to what we the people want them to do. They forget that they cannot govern over us without our consent.

It has become abundantly clear that the present government of the United States is operating outside of the constraints of the U.S. Constitution. President Obama’s treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke Have asked Congress for unprecedented powers to take control of nonbanking financial institutions.

I do not want you to misunderstand me, I know that the U.S. Constitution Gives power and authority to the Secretary of the treasury over the coining and money supply of the United States. But nowhere in the constitution do I read that the Secretary of the treasury has the power to unilaterally step into a private company and control it. Nor do I read in the constitution where Congress has the power to grant to the Secretary of the treasury the power to control private companies.

And this past week Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, asked Congress and president Obama to give them authority to investigate private nonbanking financial firms they deemed would put the country into another financial crisis if they were to fail. The companies they would target are financially sound at the moment and pose no immediate risk to the economy.

If the American people allow this, the Secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve will be able to effectively crush any non banking financial institution. You might be asking yourself how they will be able to accomplish this. Just imagine the New York Times reporting on a possible investigation of company XYZ. Just the simple suggestion of an investigation by the Federal government will work to drive the stock prices down, and scare investors away from company XYZ. Once the company has become devalued, this will be the only excuse the Federal government needs to nationalize any nonbanking financial institution. And why stop there? Any company The Federal government deems too big to fail will come under the government microscope and be ripe for nationalization.

The financial difficulties we are experiencing now are not the result of free market capitalism. They are a direct result of government manipulation whether through direct legislation, over regulation, lack of oversight, bribery, or outright “Mafioso” style tactics by our congressmen and or unelected bureaucrats. If the markets are allowed to work they will take care of bad behavior and poor decision making by those who participate in the markets.

And let’s not forget the two Congressmen most responsible for the financial crisis we’re going through now, Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd. I am still waiting for the investigations to begin with these two men. Just because you are a sitting congressman should not protect you from prosecution when you perpetrate a fraud on the American people.

The American people need to start getting involved with the people who they give consent to govern them. The time is well past for the American electorate to just sit idly by and watch our freedoms and our liberties be destroyed by those we have given consent to govern us. Besides picking up and reading the Bible on a daily basis, we need to start reading the U.S. Constitution on a daily basis as well. If we don’t know and understand our founding documents how can we ever expect to hold accountable those we elect and give consent to govern us?

If the American people don’t do something soon to stop this train wreck that is happening with our economy and rein in our unconstitutional politicians, I fear that this country that our founding fathers blessed us with we’ll be lost and we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Contract law is the basis for a civilized society!

By Dan Clements 03/16/2009

Wikipedia tells us “A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act which is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement. [1] That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.”
How are a contract and the law that enforces it the basis for a civilized society? Using the Wikipedia definition of a contract, we exchange promises with each other, groups, or business. When we fail to live up to those contracts there are only two remedies that we can use. One remedy is we enforce the contract through force that we employ ourselves, or we can go to court and use the force of law and it’s penalties to enforce the contract. If we enforce the contract ourselves, two things happen, 1; the outcome is not guaranteed, and 2; the society doesn’t benefit from the outcome by making the outcome common law that would apply to the society as a whole.
Contracts can come in two main forms, verbal and written. Verbal contracts can be enforced by law, but the burden of proof can sometimes come down to a he said, she said situation unless there are witness to the verbal contract. Written contacts are more binding and easier to prove what both parties promised to do. Sometimes wording in written contracts make a huge impact on the performance of the contract. That’s why written contracts should be carefully worded not to only follow the letter of the promises in the contract, but also the spirit of the promises in entering the contracts.
Let me be real clear here, if you are entering a contract with the idea that if things go wrong with my performance of the contract, I can just go and get an attorney and get out of that contract, you are not acting in good faith from the start of the contract process! Now I realize that sometimes life happens, and sometimes unforeseen things happen that neither we nor anybody could foresee or control. When the aforementioned happens, we should go to the person in who we have entered the contract with and see if the contract can be reworked or relief can be had. But it should always start with the parties that are involved, and then if a satisfactory outcome can not be reach, then and only then should the matter come before the law for adjudication.
These principles can’t be applied to the current economic crisis because people on both sides of the contract process were not acting in good faith and could foresee the outcome of their choices, but refused to live in reality!
What is happening today is too many people make promises with the intent that if things go bad; they are going to break their promise and walk away from their obligations found in the contract that they entered. People who do this are not acting as good moral agents, and when this happens, society breaks down and everything comes to a screeching halt!
Politicians enter into a contract with those they govern. Publicly traded companies have a fiduciary contract with their share holders, not only to make them money, but to be good stewards of their investments. Marriage is a contract, and a lot of folks don’t live up to their obligations in the marriage. People enter into real-estate and mortgage contracts with certain expectations. The borrower says they have sufficient means and ability to service a mortgage, and the lender has the stability to be able to lend the money to the borrower. You name the contract, and both parties are expected to live up the agreements stated in the contract.
I’m a New Testament Christian and I have a verbal contract with God, which is sealed in the blood of Jesus through baptism. God has made promises to me in his word, and has expectations of me in order to receive his promises. If I fail to live up to my end of the contract with God, I should have no expectations of God delivering on his promises to me.
James Madison said in Federalist papers #51 “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Men are not angels and that is why we need contracts and the Law in order for our society to exist. If men and women could be trusted to keep their word, then verbal contracts would be all sufficient. However since we are not angels and people break their promises; we need to hold each other accountable before the law and each other!


Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given

Arlen Specter a “Profile in courage” are you kidding me?

By Dan Clements 03/15/2009

I found this little blurb on a website called 'propeller'.
“Three cheers for Senator Arlen Specter Posted By Spadecaller
We may need to add a chapter to President John F. Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage. This new chapter would be to honor Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter.
Every once in a while, a member of the U.S. Congress distinguishes himself or herself by doing the right thing, regardless of whether or not it will help secure a primary election or general election win, regardless of whether or not it would be the best thing for the political party he or she belongs to.
Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove must be delighted. In the words of Chris Matthews, "Senator, you're the last of the Mahicans!" Matthews was commenting on the dearth of progressive Republicans these days. But look at all the health problems, which Specter has conquered. He will probably get to win out over the right-wing venom as well. And he has certainly earned a chapter in Profiles in Courage.”
Arlen Specter a profile in courage? Are you kidding me? I love how liberals and the lamestream media twist facts and situations around to make them mean something totally different. They try to use these things to advance their agenda and to defeat their enemies.
Arlen specter was not courageous when he and two other RINOs voted for the porkulus package. What is there about the perceived going against the will of the people that is courageous? Liberals in 1913 passed the 17th amendment that took control of the Senators from the state legislators, and put it into the hands of the governed. Liberals and RINOs can't have it both ways. Either those we give consent to govern us listen to us and follow our lead, or they go back to being beholden to the state legislatures, there by restoring the original checks and balances placed on the federal government by the founding fathers as explained in federalist papers 51 by James Madison.
If Arlen Specter would have been following the U.S. Constitution, when he voted for the porkulus package, that would have been at least correct and constitutional. The fact that all other republicans voted against the porkulus package save three, wouldn't have made Senator Specter courageous, just a good republican, if he would have voted against it. To go against the republicans on this bill doesn't make Senator Specter courageous either, just unconstitutional in his thinking.
And once again the liberal mind set shows it's true colors and contempt for the U.S. Constitution, and all things moral and lawful! Liberals clap and cheer when the law is broken, and find those who point out the law breaking, or follow the law contemptible. Folks let me be clear, republicans are just as much responsible for the economic mess we are in as are the democrats. The republican party is no more the home of conservatism, than the democrat party is. As far as I'm concerned they lost the right to claim conservatism after what they did the last time they controlled congress and the White house.
Arlen Specter needs to be soundly defeated in 2010! We need men and women who revere the U.S. Constitution and are of a higher moral fiber than the current crop of politicians we have now. We need to reinstall the balance of power between We the People, State, and Federal government! We can only do this by going back to what made this country great, our faith in God, our founding documents, and our individual freedoms!
Courage is doing what we know to be right, not what others tell us is right. For this reason alone Arlen Specter is not courageous!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political Internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Union rules or free market rules?

By Dan Clements 03/14/2009

There has been a huge debate going on recently centering around the secret ballot that employees enjoy now when asked whether or not to organize a union where they work. Its called card check or the Employee Fair Choice Act. EFCA will allow union organizers to call for an open vote, where they and anyone else who wants to know who voted which way can! If EFCA passes congress this will open the door for abuse by the unions and businesses to be able to intimidate workers to vote the way they want them to vote. EFCA should never see the light of day. Why open the door for possible abuse by all parties concerned? Why are unions pushing so hard for this legislation? Because with the union ranks hovering around 14% of the US workforce, and American workers being better informed about how free market economics and competition can make their lives better than any union could ever hope too, American workers are rejecting union ideology for freedom!
Unions would have workers believe if they went away today, that the workforce would spiral into chaos, and then there wouldn't be anyone to protect the worker. Unions make the argument that if they were not here that wages would go down and we would be working for little to nothing per hour. Unions would have you believe that work place safety would suffer without them. Unions would have you believe that all aspects of the workers life would suffer without them. Unions use coercion to get what they want. What about this is freedom?
Let us also not forget the added cost to businesses and goods that unions artificially add to the price of everything they produce. This happens through artificially higher wages, benefits, and unreasonable staffing requirements. Union wages, benefits and staffing requirements are not set by market forces, they are negotiated and forced on the markets.
I don't buy into the arguments about unions being responsible for 40 hour work weeks, safety, and other so called workplace advancements. Unions have never been 100% of the workforce, so what made all non-union businesses treat their workers well? In a nutshell it's competition! It stands to reason in a free market system, in order to keep good employees, you have to be fair with them. You have to treat them the way you would want to be treated. If you don't treat people well in the work force, there is always someone out there that is willing to treat workers better than you do. At some point the market reaches a balance point when it comes to workers and how you treat them.
There are always employers out there who are willing to go the extra mile to keep their employees happy, and when that happens it forces other employers to do the same or suffer the consequences of their actions! Competition affects all aspects of businesses and work life. It improves safety, benefits, salaries, moral, prices, and cost. Markets should always be the instrument to set all aspects of a workers work and a businesses function.
When ever an outside entity tries to control work or business through arbitrary and artificial means, and does not have anything at risk in what they are trying to control, they end up destroying it instead of making it better. Unions and government fall into this category. People are better able to gage and decide what is best for them, as well as entrepreneurs, because they are the only ones that know themselves and limitations better than any union or government can!
So when it comes to choices and voting, lets keep it secret! And remember when it comes to choices, let freedom be our guiding rule!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com

Monday, February 16, 2009

Capitalism without the ‘Golden Rule’?

By: Dan Clements February 3, 2009

February 3rd on my radio show ‘BACK TO BASIC’ we swerved into the subject of what brought our economy to the place it is at today. As always some conspiracy theories came to the forefront of the discussion, and after we weeded through them, we got down to what I see as the nuts and bolts of the problem.
Jesus tells us in Mathew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Do you understand what Jesus is saying here? YOU treat people the way you want to be treated! Wow what a concept! Can this really be applied to Wall Street? Can and should we have free market capitalism with a moral standard? Should free market capitalist use a Christian value system to do business by? I say an emphatic YES!
I will be the first one to defend publicly traded companies against the government setting salary caps, and dictating how and where a company spends its money. On the other hand, I will be the first to criticize a publicly traded company for doing irresponsible things with the share holder’s money. What I see with the CEO’s and executives of a lot of the companies traded on Wall Street is a sense of entitlement that is vastly over rated. What these folks project to the rest of the country is that I deserve all the perks I can get, no matter how much they cost the company.
Ok, I agree that there is not a magic formula to figure out how much a CEO or executive is worth, and they for the most part have a specialized skill set to be able to run or help run a company, however when the salaries and perks run into the multi millions of dollars, you need to step back and ask is this too much? Now we are talking about publicly traded companies that have stock holders that actually own the company. My question is where are the voices of the stock holders when it comes to directing the board of directors? As a share holder, when you receive in the mail a notice of a vote about the stocks you own do you read it and vote, or turn over your vote to a proxy to vote for you? I think the lazy voter syndrome has hit Wall Street at last, and we always get what we vote for.
Now lets talk about Mathew 7:12 and apply it to what is happening on Wall Street. A lot of banks and financial institutes were buying and selling a lot of paper that in the end wasn’t worth the ink and time it took to create it. The question that should have and still needs to be asked is would I want some one to sell me this financial vehicle? Remembering that as a CEO or executive, will this benefit my share holders? As a CEO or executive, am I looking out for the best interest of others or am I chasing after the all mighty dollar at any cost no matter the risk?
As a CEO or executive are my interactions with the political process above board? P J O’Rourke once said “as long as buying and selling is controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold will be legislators.”
As a politician, do you always govern in the best interest of those who put you in that position? Remember that it is only by the consent of the governed that you are in government in the first place.
As a citizen, do you depend on the government for your daily bread, even though you could supply your own daily bread? Do you realize that by taking from the government, you by proxy are stealing from other productive citizens? I’m not talking about folks who can’t fend for themselves; I’m talking about folks living off the government dole, who could otherwise support themselves, but refuse to do so. (And I’m not talking about government employees; they are a whole other story.) These folks need to ask themselves if they would like someone stealing from them. The answer is most likely they would not like that.
Whether you are a CEO, a politician, or an ordinary citizen, we need to always ask ourselves if what we do in life, or how we treat other, is the way we want others to treat us. Do we live by the golden rule or do we let gold rule us? Think about it!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

What is Socialism anyway?

By Dan Clements 01/13/2009

On my show today ‘BACK TO BASIC’ a discussion ensued in the chat room about what socialism is. Too many people try to define socialism to their own likes. My listeners know that I define words and ideas from a standard source. If we are talking about the Bible, I use the Bible. If we are talking about the U.S. Constitution, then we go to the founding documents. If we are talking about political ideologies, we need to go to an encyclopedia or dictionary to define these terms.
First let’s define what socialism is. Merriam Webster defines socialism as
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
Ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods is what this country is heading for if we don’t do something now. Most people don’t realize that what president G W Bush and the U.S. congress did in 2008 was a text book example of socialism. Anytime a government involves itself beyond regulation and oversight and injects itself into the day to day operations of the free market, picking winners and losers, it takes a step toward control of the free market and attempts to use social control of production and distribution of goods. This is exactly what is happening in America.
Healthcare was brought up on the show and this is a perfect example of the government attempting to control the distribution of goods and services the healthcare industry has to offer. There is not one example outside of the military, where government intervention into the free market has been a success as most people define success. And if we continue down the path that we are on now, our healthcare system will be no better than any other country that has socialized medicine.
The problem with socialized medicine is that the government first gives healthcare away, and then when the cost gets to high then they need to start rationing healthcare and picking and choosing the winners and losers, literally in life’s lottery!
And the only way the government can give us all healthcare, is to tax ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ so they can have the money to buy the votes of those citizens who think it’s a good idea to live off the backs of others.
If you want healthcare in America, go out, work and either get healthcare as part of your benefit package, or pay for it out of pocket. You say you can’t afford healthcare out of pocket? Then look at your finances and prioritize. Do you need to take that 2-3000 dollar vacation each year? Do you need to trade in your car every year to keep up with the Jones? How often do you eat out? The bottom line is if you really wanted healthcare, you would find a way to get it.
From my point of view, socialism is about control and staying in power. Through socialism, votes are bought by promising to take care of people in their daily lives. Socialism looks at the country as an entity in and of itself. It fails to see a country as a group of individuals.
When you as the government give to the citizens, something they can go and earn on their own, you diminish the whole not only on a national level, but on an individual level because we as a people stop learning from failure. Socialism does not allow failure; it seeks to take failure out of the equation of life. It’s like giving someone the wrong treatment for gangrene, if not treated and taken care of it will kill the whole body not just a limb! If we are not allowed to fail and learn from our failure, we will die as a people, because we will not know how to handle true diversity. Socialism is gangrene to any country and must be removed or the country will die!
We need to get back to the U.S. Constitution and start allowing Americans to fail and learn from that failure. Sometimes this can be hard to let people fail, but without the incentive or possibility of failure, we stagnate as a people and then die as a country!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com