This got me wondering: how long, exactly, is our Constitution?  How many pages did it take our country’s founders to lay out the structure and functions of our Federal Government? 

Easy to answer.  I found the Constitution online and copied it into a Word document, in Times New Roman 12 point type. So how long is it? 

Including the preamble, all signatures and all 27 amendments, it’s 20 pages. 

Without the signatures and amendments, it’s 11 pages. 

Think about that.  The entire foundation of our country – the complete design for our entire government — is clearly explained in only 11 pages. 

No single Amendment is a full page.  Many are only a single sentence. 

Yet the bill that was passed on June 26, 2009 by 219 of our elected representatives — people to whom we’ve entrusted our Constitution, men and women who have sworn an oath to uphold it – was more than 1200 pages long.  That’s over 100 times longer than the U.S. Constitution!  And not one member of Congress, NOT ONE, read the whole thing!  

A word comes to my mind to describe this: “INSANE.” 

I cannot believe that this type of legislation and legislative behavior is what the signers of our Constitution intended when they invented Congress. 

Therefore, I am respectfully proposing a 28th Amendment to our Constitution.  I call it the Brevity Act. 

No law, bill, resolution or any act of Congress shall exceed 2000 words, including all footnotes, amendments and signatures.  Congress shall not vote on any item longer than that.  Each item requiring a vote shall be read aloud in its entirety in session to a majority of members.  Those not in attendance may not vote on the item.   

2000 words is about 5 single spaced pages in a 12 point Word document.  If it’s longer than that, then it’s too complicated to be a single law or bill, so it must either be cut or turned into multiple bills, each requiring a separate vote.  

Furthermore, a Brevity Act should be part of every State Constitution, County Charter and City Charter. 

To those who would oppose this Act because it would require Legislatures to vote separately on every single item in the budget, I say, it’s about time! 

And to all challengers to the 219 Congressional morons who voted to pass a bill which they never read, here’s your campaign speech: 

My opponent voted for a Bill he/she never read.  Only an idiot would do that.  Would you walk into a voting booth with a blindfold on and just push some buttons?  Or would you read and consider what you’re voting on before you vote?  I promise I will not vote for anything I haven’t read in its entirety. 

Let the debate begin!

I heard today that the eighteen million jobs that are supposed to be created by the Obama Over-Stimulating Bill are to be paid at union wage. It is a small detail. Apparently it was in the fine print that nobody had the time to read because if the bill wasn’t passed quickly global warming, excuse me, climate change was going to gobble up the middle class which would collapse the banking industry and lead to the collapse of the American car industry. Who wants to be stuck driving a Honda made in Tennessee that might run flawlessly for three or four hundred thousand miles when you could get a Buick that will probably be dead before you finish paying for it?

So now that these jobs have to be paid at union wage instead of prevailing wage we know two things. First, there won’t be as many jobs created as predicted. The Obama administration has revised the number down to 346. Second, we know how the AFL-CIO could afford the Fontainebleau for a week. So much for unions not getting any money from the bailout as we have heard so many leftists claim. While I’m on the subject of jobs … exactly how do you tell if you “saved” a job?” Is there an objective standard like when a pitcher saves a game in baseball or can the administration simply say that any job which didn’t disappear was saved? I can see the headline now in whatever dinosaur newspaper still exists in a year or two: “Obama Saves Thirty-Six Million Jobs.”

Doubtlessly, we will soon hear the squawking from the left about raising the minimum wage again. There is a whole army of soft headed folks in government and in the community organizing business who believe that if you squandered your educational opportunities, made bad life decisions and feel that having cable and an iPhone is more important than buying health insurance you should still live the easy life. Let the person who busted his backside starting a McDonalds pay you $83 an hour. They call it “living wage.”

Here is how the theory goes; if these greedy people who own businesses would pay more soon poverty would disappear. Of course so would the McDonalds but let’s not let that little fact get in the way of a good redistribution of wealth scheme. The McDonalds owner could just raise the price of the dollar menu to sixteen dollars and see what happens.

I know what happens. The guy who runs the garage and Jiffy Lube down the street comes by for lunch and has a cheeseburger and fries and pays the 32 dollars, so far so good. The next morning the newly un-poor burger flipper takes his car in for an oil change and what do you know an oil change is now four hundred dollars. Keep raising the minimum wage, you do it often enough it could work but I don’t think so.

It reminds me of the old joke about the guy who invests $100,000 in mutual funds and then gets cryogenically frozen for two hundred years. He gets warmed up and runs to the nearest Internet café orders a coffee and goes to his account online, his balance; 300 million dollars! Overjoyed that his plan has turned out so well he get up to pay and the clerk says, “Latte and ten minutes of Internet time, that’s six million.” Or as the punch line to one of my favorite hillbilly jokes goes, “We gotta get a bigger truck!”

Despite all the sit-downs Obama had with the Republicans – apparently too many for Speaker Pelosi’s tastes – and despite the fact that the House version of the Stimulus Bill contained specific tax breaks for which the Republicans had asked – though not to the degree they wished – not a single GOPer would break ranks, step up and vote for the bill.  A surprisingly “my way or the highway” attitude for the minority party whose eight years of good cogitating was a major factor in whipping America into the stellar fiscal shape we find ourselves.

When three Republican Senators voted for the Senate version of the bill – Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Maine Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins, who in particular worked tirelessly with moderate Dem Sen. Ben Nelson to try and reach a true bipartisan compromise – they were immediately put on a “hit” list by the conservative National Republican Trust PAC.  The PAC’s executive director Scott Wheeler stating: “We just want to send a message that we’re going to have a long institutional memory, and we’re going to remind your constituents of what you did.”

What they did?  What’d they do?  Vote for a bill that might ultimately not be big enough to get the country out of the worst economic mess most Americans have ever lived through?  Wouldn’t it be punishment enough to dis-invite them to some soirée held at South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson’s whites-only country club?  To be fair, Dawson resigned his membership to the Forest Lake Country Club in Columbia, SC last September.  That was just a gratuitous dig I had to throw in because…I wouldn’t have been allowed into the club to hand it to him personally.  But to the point of Trust PAC’s tactics; sure, it’s not unusual for one political party to target another political party over a vote.  But for a party to head hunt their own…?

And then, of course, there’s Judd Gregg.  Never mind that Gregg himself lobbied for the job of commerce secretary, never mind New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch making a deal to appoint Republican J. Bonnie Newman to Gregg’s seat.  When it came time to engage in the greater good Gregg, in his own words, realized he could not be a “team player.”  Worse, working with the president he “couldn’t be Judd Gregg.”  Political solipsism if ever there was.  Gregg being something like the T.O. to the Senate.

Regardless of the Republicans’ centrist deceptions, I would hope that Obama continues to rise above and reach out.  Hopefully there will be others such as Specter, Snowe and Collins who put the people’s work above myopic party ideology.  But if nothing else, as the economy improves, President Obama’s actions will serve to shame the lip servers of bipartisanship into taking up true residence.

For more perspective, visit www.thatminoritything.com

I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it.  Clearly, I am just too simple minded to understand the efficacy of the so-called Stimulus Bill. I run the idea past my Common Sense center in my cerebral cortex and all I hear is a dial tone.  And if I get really quiet … I can hear a distant scream. 

I’ve watched President Obama make his case on national television.  I keep waiting for the entire Washington press corps to bust up laughing.  I keep waiting for news anchors to crack up mid-sentence and not be able to continue, doubled over.  I keep waiting for an incensed public to storm Pennsylvania Avenue and demand their money back.

But then … I must be stupid.

I am reminded of two scenarios from my past.   The first one was when my older brother fell in love.  A beautiful Costa Rican girl, thick accent, beautiful face and figure; my brother was over the moon.  The rest of my family fell, as well.  This girl had the ability to make us all laugh.  Until I started to discover that she was actually not a very nice person.  Nasty, in fact … though I seemed to be the only one who caught it. 

When brother announced their engagement, I decided to send up my first trial balloon warning.  It was discounted by him and the rest of the family.  “Oh, it’s just her accent, you misunderstand her.”  Half-believing, half-hoping they were right, I paid even closer attention to this girl’s words, and more importantly, her actions.  After several weeks, my honest assessment was that the woman, beneath her beauty and charm, was venal, narcissistic, selfish, and cruel.  It was all about her, little else mattered, and she was looking to tie her boat to my father’s small fortune through my brother.  I confided as much to my brother, and implored him to make a closer evaluation before he proceeded to tie the noose.  Again, my warnings were laughed off. 

So… he married her.  She looked beautiful and charming coming down the aisle. 

Seven years and three children later, she had turned my brother’s life into a living hell.  I’d give you details of her exploits but I’m saving them for my horror novel, “Nightmare From Costa Rica.”  But I can tell you this, she looked beautiful and charming every step of the way.

The second scenario was when I went in to buy my first new car.  After struggling through a series of used junkers, I had worked my butt off, saved my money and was determined to slap it down on a brand new, tricked-out VW bug.  It had the hot race steering wheel, the cool Blaupunkt, the chrome wheels, the fat meats on the back and every little fun, hip accessory I could imagine.  But the salesman on the showroom floor blew it for me.  Any fool could see I wanted the car, but he told me I had to buy today, because only today would the special sale price be in effect.  Only today would the extended warranty be enacted.  Only today could I buy this car and be happy about my decision.  I had to ‘buy now!’ I thought long and hard about it, realized I don’t like to be pressured into buying anything, even if I want it; and this guy was almost bullying this nineteen-year-old, first-time new car buyer.

I walked out of the showroom.

I ended up buying the same car at another dealership two weeks later, with more extras and at a lower price.  Wouldn’t it be nice if Congress had the same sales-resistance?

But enough of that, I want to feel good about myself, and I want to feel good about America.  I don’t want to think; thinking’s hard, and my head is starting to hurt.  I just want to feel.  I want to feel good, like my brother did with his new Costa Rican girlfriend, and I want to fall in love.  And we are in love… with Barack Obama!  He is beautiful and charming.  My gosh, the man has taken charm to an art form.  I thought Bill Clinton was smooth.  Forget about it!  Great smile, nice energy, wonderful sense of humor. Charms the pants right off of me. 

So I was listening to the President’s first press conference yesterday, sans pants …thrill up the leg… and it occurred to me:  He didn’t spend 20 years in Rev. Wright’s church to learn Black racism or ‘Black Liberation Theology,’  No, no, no!  He spent 20 years in Rev. Wright’s church to learn how to preach!  And I have to admit, the Reverend Obama is even more amazing than President Obama.  Forget his uncanny skill at reading a teleprompter, going from left to right and back so smoothly is looks, not like he’s reading, but that he’s simply ‘inclusive.’  And his raised-chin pauses for emphasis … masterful.  He exudes authority and poise.  And sincerity.  He cares, dammit.  And he knows what he’s talking about, just look at him.  What’s that, you say?  What is it he is actually saying?  Well…I can’t really tell you, but he is saying it so beautifully … so charming …does it really matter?

Well… yes, actually.  It does.  A lot.

I listened to as much of the Hurry-Up-and Let-Me-Spend-A-Trillion-Dollars-of Your Money sales job as I could take.  Which I must admit, wasn’t all that much.  But I did catch an interesting little gem as the president addressed those who suggested it would actually be more economically prudent to not spend a trillion bucks and just let market forces work, period. The non-partisan CBO, specifically.

“What I won’t do…is return to the failed policies of the last 8 years…that got us into this crisis in the first place.” – Barack Obama, Feb 9, 2009  

Even though Congress was controlled by the Democrats from 2006-2008, I am going to go out on a limb here, and assume that the president is talking about failed Republican policies.  (Is that a fairly safe bet, you think?) 

REALITY CHECK!  Mr. Obama has been so busy concentrating on his campaign, his transition, and now his consolidation of power, that he apparently slept through the economic meltdown, so out of touch is he with what caused it.  Earth to President Obama:  It wasn’t the ‘failed’ Republican policies that took us to this point.  What caused bank failures and the economic meltdown was the failure of the housing market which itself was caused by banks being forced to give out bad housing loans.  That gem of irresponsibility, the Community Reinvestment Act (introduced and enacted by Jimmy Carter and the Democrat Congress and later bolstered by Bill Clinton) literally forced banks to abandon prudent fiscal policy and instead, hand out loans to people who otherwise could not qualify to buy a home.  And Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were right there leading the charge.  Not to sound ‘partisan’ or anything, but the people running these two Government Sponsored Enterprises:  yep … Democrats. 

 Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner came on TV this morning, and told us ‘how we got here.’ His explanation sounded somewhat logical … but conspicuously missing was any mention of the above involvement of the Democrats forcing Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae to give out bad loans.  That’s like trying to explain how an internal combustion engine works, and failing to mention anything about gas fumes igniting and expanding within a closed cylinder. 

What Geithner left out in his address this morning was that George Bush, Alan Greenspan, John McCain and the Republicans in Congress, fearful that unsafe fiscal practices by Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae could lead to economic disaster, attempted to establish oversight on these GSE’s, but were rebuffed by … Democrats.  Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer, Charlie Rangel, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, et al.  Anyone who isn’t aware of this hasn’t been paying attention.  The Democrats, not the Republicans, are responsible for fomenting the economic conditions that lead to the housing bubble bursting.

Also missing in Mr. Geithner’s speech was any mention of monies paid out by Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, six-figure sums, to Democrats Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, and John Kerry.  And payments for what?  Cooperation incentives?  ‘Performance’ bonus.  Hush money?  What? 

And another thing:  Geithner said the root cause of the meltdown was individuals and businesses borrowing funds they couldn’t pay back.  And so the solution proposed is … to borrow and spend even more money, at an unprecedented rate — and not gradually, but aggressively? 

Clearly, the lunatics have taken over the nuthouse.

So now we are supposed to let the very same people who took us into this economic mess … straighten it out.  And use our money to do it!   Which wouldn’t be so bad … if that sort of thing worked. The fans of Keynesian economic theories are lovers of history revision.  (Just look at how they distort the history of the past eight years.)   Democrats love to try to spend us out of recessions.  It doesn’t work.  And if you say, FDR I’ll tell you FTS! 

FDR’s liberal spending policies extended the depression.   It took WWII to bring this country out of it.

But now Congress is being pressured to pass this spending bill and do it now!  There’s no time to lose, we don’t have time for further discussion, no time for debate.  We have to pass the bill now, yank the lever, press the button … pull the trigger.

What the hell is the rush!???   I’m missing the soup lines.  I look but I don’t see throngs of homeless people trying to warm themselves by the oil drum fire.  I have not had to swat the flies off of a little starving child once in the past month.  I must have missed the food riots in Los Angeles as starving hordes prowl the streets looting Vons and Ralphs stores.  And have you been on the freeway lately?  I would think that if the ‘crisis’ was as bad as our President says it is, the 405 would resemble a ghost town.  But there I am, jammed in, trying to shuttle my butt over the hill to L.A. in the same old rush hour slog.  Okay, I’ll admit that the banking and financial markets are in monstrous disarray.   And that yes, it could probably be considered a crisis. But … the end of the world type of crisis?  The we-are-screwed-so-let’s-throw-capitalism-out-and-become-a-socialist-nation type of crisis?   Uh … not in my movie.

But we are told we have to go a trillion dollars into debt or the world is going to end, and we have to borrow it immediately!  (Even though it will be two years before the money would even start to get spent.) And where do we borrow it?  From China!!  Am I the only one left who sees this as an absurdly stupid recipe for disaster??  Two words: Tiananmen Square.   I was there two years before the tanks rolled over the peaceful protesters, and I can tell you … things haven’t changed in the ‘People’s Paradise’ all that much since.  Oh, you saw the Olympics on TV and they all look so advanced and peace-loving and civilized?  The people, yes.  The totalitarian Communist  regime, nada.  So sure … let’s reduce our dependency on foreign oil, but increase our dependency on a Chinese Communist oligarchy??

This is insanity on such a grand scale … that no one can really believe it.  So we refuse to.  History is replete with examples of world events so startling that the populace was literally frozen with surprise, and stunned to inaction.  Students in 1989 Beijing faced a wall of AK-47 rounds.  The Soviet tanks rolled through the summer streets of Prague.  The Jews were ejected from their homes and herded into Nazi camps.  The twin towers tumbled in Manhattan.

And now … with the derisive laughter from my Leftist friends still echoing in my ears … my accusations of Obama being a ‘socialist’ have just been confirmed by … Newsweek magazine.  For once we are in accord.

Tyrants and despots can only come to power through the pretense of crisis.  Otherwise the people would not stand for it.  It’s How to Boil a Frog, 101.  If we are convinced of a crisis, we can also be convinced that ‘emergency measures’ are in order.  Sweeping executive powers must be invoked.  Individual liberties must be compromised and ‘temporarily’ suspended.  Dissension must be stifled and freedom of speech deferred; the media – newspapers, television, and radio must be managed, dominated, and/or censured.  Individual business must be manipulated and controlled.  Personal property stops having any meaning whatsoever.  The State dominates.  Only the State provides.  The State becomes everything.  So comrades…  Socialism starting to sound better and better?

Maybe we should walk out of the showroom.