An Interesting Article

I ran across an interesting article today ranking the House and Senate members as most liberal or conservative. Surprisingly some of the more well-known characters were not on the list. Among the most liberal senators are John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Dick Durbin, and Barbara Mikulski. President Obama's replacement, Roland Burris is ranked in a tie as the most liberal senator.

The most conservative senators' list has these well-known people: Jim Imhofe (most conservative), Jim Bunning, John Thune (beat Tom Daschle for his seat), and GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

On the most liberal House member list was very few names that I recognized although Jesse Jackson Jr, Henry Waxman, and Louise Slaughter were familiar to me. Among the most conservative House members are California's Tom McClintock, John Shadegg, and Mike Pence.

You have to love Oklahoma. Their two senators, Imhofe and Coburn, are ranked in the top 4 most conservative senators. Arizona and Texas each have two House members ranked in the top 10 most conservative. So my 3 new most favorite states are Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. Utah, often proclaimed as the "most red" of the 50 states did not have a single senator or House member make either list. Utah may be the most Republican, but they are not the most conservative.

The most liberal delegations are all in the Northeast with the exception of Hawaii - Massachusetts (most liberal delegation), Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The most conservative delegations are in order: Idaho, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia. Once again that "most red" of the states, Utah, is missing from the list.

Democrats' Double Standard

By now you have heard that the Democrats are threatening to use the "nuclear option" to cram socialized medicine down our throats. My how times have changed. Click here to see a video show Democrats calling such actions an "arrogant power grab". You should recognize several of the faces. The first two even had recent promotions.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Congress' historic low approval rating of 10%.

Contract From America

Sounding like Newt Gingerich's 1994 Contract With America, the Tea Party Movement is drafting a new Contract From America. They are asking for input on the following items that they will be releasing April 15. Items to be voted on are:

• Amending the constitution to require a balanced budget and a two-thirds majority for any tax hike.
• Permanently repealing all tax hikes scheduled to begin in 2011.
• Requiring every bill in Congress to be made public seven days before any vote can be taken and all government expenditures authorized by any bill to be easily accessible on the Internet before the money is spent.
• Requiring each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.
• Permitting all health insurance plans to be sold anywhere in the United States through the purchase of insurance across state lines. Allow small businesses and associations to pool together across state lines to buy insurance.
• Adopting a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and “replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words — the length of the original Constitution.”
• Imposing a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.
• Allowing Americans to opt out of Social Security and Medicare and instead put those same payroll taxes in a personal account “they own, control and can leave to whomever they choose.”
• Preventing any regulation or tax on the Internet.
• Improving education by eliminating ineffective and wasteful programs, giving parents more choices from pre-school to high school and improving the affordability of higher education.
• Authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition.
• Prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from using funds to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
• Creating a Blue Ribbon task force that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs.
• Blocking state and local governments that receive federal grants from exercising eminent domain over private property for the primary purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenues.
• Preventing the EPA from implementing costly new regulations.
• Placing a moratorium on all earmarks until the process is fully transparent. Also requiring a two-thirds majority to pass any earmark.
• Making all lawmaking regulators, including presidential appointed czars, be affirmatively approved by Congress and signed into law by the president.
• Audit the Federal Reserve System.
• Making sure the federal government does not bail out private companies. The government should also immediately divest itself of its stake in the private companies it owns from recent bailouts.
• Amending the constitution to require congressional term limits. No person shall be elected to the Senate more than twice or to the House of Representatives more than four times.
• Making all regulations “sunset” after 10 years unless renewed by congressional vote.
• Broadcasting all non-security meetings and votes on C-SPAN and the Internet.

The new contract stands in contrast to the 1994 document, in that it originated with the people and not from elected officials. More than a thousand ideas for the contract were submitted and edited down to 20 through the help of hundreds of Tea Party activists and a series of online surveys.

Personally I find this document much stronger than the Mount Vernon Statement covered in our last post. This document is full of substance; substance that will make a difference. The Mount Vernon Statement is a desperate attempt by the elites to remain elite.

The Mount Vernon Statement

A group of conservative leaders have drafted a document providing a framework for what they believe called The Mount Vernon Statement. This appears to be a pre-emptive move to retain the leadership of the conservative movement; a move that appears to be designed to not lose their prominence to the rapidly expanding Tea Party Movement's Contract From America.

The key points of the Mount Vernon Statement are as follows:

• It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.
• It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.
• It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
• It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.
• It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.

I think there is more substance to the Tea Party Movement's statement which we will examine in our next post. See you then!

28th Amendment?

A friend of mine sent me an email proposing a new amendment to the Constitution - a 28th amendment. I love this one.

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States".

How can you disagree with something so obviously right? What possible argument could there be against this? Its so obvious, so simple, and so needed that it is brilliant. Whoever thought this up deserves a medal.

February 11

Did anyone notice that February 11 has come and gone without Iran's promised "harsh blow to the global arrogance" promised by Iran's President Ahmadinejad.

You Gotta Love It

CBS Finally Gets It

Mark Knoller of CBS finally gets it. He wrote an article entitled Obama Says Bipartisanship, But What He Wants Is GOP Surrender. Essentially he writes that when the President calls for bi-partisanship, it actually is a code word for capitulation. Just like compromise is a code word for giving into liberals. Can you believe it? A journalist at the liberal CBS finally gets it? Amazing!!!!

Ahmadinejad is Mouthing Off Again

The Iranian President is threatening global power on February 11 of this year. Here is what he is reported to have said in a cabinet meeting.

"The nation will deliver a harsh blow to the 'global arrogance' on this year’s anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism. If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred, liberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles."

How do crazies like this get in power anyhow? H/T Drudge.