Obama Administration Commits Record Number of Violations of Federal Law

The Obama administration continues to operate as if it is above the law. Numerous violations of the Hatch Act are simply ignored, as no other branch of government is able to limit this out-of-control executive.

The Hatch Act prevents most federal employees from doing political work while on duty, in uniform, in the office or in a government vehicle. Even exempt federal employee are only allowed to engage in political activities provided their actions don’t amount to coercive use of the office to which they have been appointed and most importantly they cannot pay for political activities with taxpayer dollars. All of these rules are being routinely violated by the Obama administration. The Hatch Act is officially known as “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.”

The Office of Special Counsel has reported that only one of Obama’s cabinet-level departments has adopted safeguards to prevent violations of the Hatch Act, and that even those fall short of what is necessary to comply with federal law. In 2010, the Office of Special Counsel received 526 complaints of violations of the Hatch Act by the Obama Administration – a record number for any administration in any year since the Hatch Act became law in 1939.

One example of the misuse of taxpayer resources is the gift of the use of the Blue Room of the White House to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in March for a meeting with campaign contributors. The DNC sent out invitations to meet with the President in the White House and taxpayers footed the bill for the event.

Another example is Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expenditure of over a million dollars during the 2010 mid-term elections to pay The Ogilvy Group to promote ObamaCare to American voters. This gross violation of federal law was only uncovered recently due to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch.

Instead of following federal law himself, Obama is now spending millions of taxpayer dollars — dollars which come from both Democratic and Republican pockets — on a bus tour of the U.S. which is obviously part of his re-election campaign. The tour is visiting only those states where his naive economic policies have done the least damage — he is cowardly avoiding those people who have been most damaged by his incompetence.

Most tellingly, Obama has abolished the White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA) and merged political affairs into day-to-day government operations. This has almost completely destroyed transparency regarding the amount of taxpayer-funded campaigning conducted by the Administration. Instead of having one office to audit, concerned parties must now audit every White House office — except that this is not allowed due to national security restrictions. Obama has successfully made it impossible to monitor his administrations violations of the Hatch Act.

The use of taxpayer dollars and resources in funding his 2012 reelection campaign certainly gives Obama an edge over his Republican rivals. It will be interesting to see if this edge is enough to overcome the damage done by his poor performance in office.

Not So Secret FBI Program Tracks Surplus Store Customers

The FBI has begun a program to monitor people who shop at military surplus stores, calling them “terrorists”and trying to convince surplus store personnel to spy on their customers for the government.

The brochure below “Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Military Surplus Stores” describes the program to the surplus store personnel.

Store personnel are told that people who “demand identity privacy”or ‘”insist on paying with cash” are suspicious and may be terrorists. Personally, this motivates me even more to always pay with cash so that the government has more difficulty profiling me as a terrorist. This brochure seems to imply that buying survival gear with a credit card could result in a FBI raid on my home. If paying with cash can help prevent a FBI raid on my home, it seems like a good idea to me.

According to the program brochure, purchases which could identify me as a terrorist include:

• Weatherproof ammunition or match containers
• Meals Ready to Eat
• Night Vision Devices; night flashlights; gas masks
• High capacity magazines

Weatherproof ammunition containers, also known as “ammo cans” are used for long-term storage of all sorts of gear — including both ammunition and food. Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) are food packets which are designed for long term storage. Is the government really worried about people who are storing food? Or really, as that is now proven, why is the government worried about people storing food? Why would the government not want us to have food? I don’t mean to be paranoid, but that strikes me as very worrisome.

Why does the government worry about “night flashlights”? What use is a flashlight during the day? What terrorist attacks have been made using flashlights? Does it really seem that the purpose of this program is to identify and track terrorists, as claimed? Doesn’t it seem that this program is more targeted towards survivalists — towards anyone who is actively working to make themselves less dependent upon the government?

The government also uses this brochure to continue their mindless was against “high capacity magazines.” “Low capacity magazines” are useless for almost all purposes. Should we all replace the gas tanks in our cars with “low capacity gas tanks” to make the government feel better? Perhaps we should live in “low capacity houses” too? Why would the government be so afraid of efficiency?

Can Investors Trust Moody’s Ratings?

Standard and Poors recently joined Dagong Global Credit Rating in downgrading the ratings of U.S. long-term bonds.  S&P issued a fairly minor downgrade, from AAA to AA+, but it was the first credit downgrade of the United States government ever issued by a U.S.-based firm.  The response from the government was to accuse S&P of malice and threaten them with official inquiries into their business practices — which could potentially lead to a loss of their ability to do business in the United States.

S&P is the largest credit rating agency in the United States.  The third largest agency, Fitch Ratings, is on schedule to complete a review of United States sovereign debt by the end of August.  At that time, it may issue a downgrade.  Fitch has stated that it “projects that US government debt, including debt incurred by state and local governments as well as the federal government, will reach 100% of GDP by the end of 2012, and will continue to rise over the medium term – a profile that is not consistent with the United States retaining its ‘AAA’ sovereign rating.”

Moody’s, the second largest US-based rating agency, has a serious problem.  Moody’s largest shareholder is Warren Buffett, who currently owns huge sums of U.S. Treasury Bills.  Mr. Buffett stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if Moody’s issues a downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt.  Given that sort of conflict of interest, can investors really expect Moody’s to issue an objective rating?

Mr. Buffett himself admits that he does not use Moody’s ratings — that he maintains his own private ratings separate from those of his firm.  Perhaps that is the most important lesson we can learn from Mr. Buffett.

Escape ObamaCare and Get a Free Vacation

ObamaCare has more than doubled the premiums I pay as an employer to provide health insurance for my U.S.-based employees.  This has contributed significantly to my decision to stop hiring Americans and focus all job creation overseas.  At the same wages, non-US employees are significantly less expensive in terms of total costs than US-based employees. Due to the enormous rise in costs, we have been forced to change to a lower-quality health care plan.  We now pay much more for insurance which provides much less in terms of coverage.

One area which has been hit exceptionally hard has been dental coverage.  We had to drop it entirely.  All of our dental costs, including my own, are now paid out-of-pocket.  This caused me to start looking seriously at alternatives.

One surprisingly affordable alternative is dental tourism — leaving the United States for affordable and quality dental care.  I discovered that it is less expensive for employees to travel to Kotor Montenegro for dental work than for them to get the same work done in the United States.

Obviously this isn’t true for simple cleanings, but for more complex procedures the savings can be significant.  The cost of a root canal moves from $1,000 to under $100.  The cost of a crown moves from $1,500 to under $200.

These savings exist because these Montenegrin clinics are part of the free enterprise system.  Unlike the United States, the government of Montenegro does not legislate every aspect of the operation of a private dental office.  The result is higher quality dental work at significantly lower prices.

My employees can work online from Kotor during their stays, so we lose almost nothing in terms of productivity.  Or, if they wish, they can take time off and explore the region.  Either way it is a big win for them and very popular — especially as they have less paperwork to deal with at the dentists office.

Republican Presidential Candidates — Time to Thin the Herd

The 2008 Republican presidential primary was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did it waste hundreds of millions of dollars which could have been better used defeating Barack Obama in the general election, it also ended with the nomination of John McCain — a candidate who only managed to look marginally acceptable to most Republican voters because he was running against Barack Obama. If the Democrats had fielded a half-way decent candidate, the election would have been a landslide. As it was, it was a disaster for the Republican Party and for the nation.

We now have an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and to make better decisions for the party and for the nation. There are no shortage of candidates, both declared and undeclared. Let’s take a look at each of the contenders — in reverse polling order based upon RCP averages.

Rick Santorum – 2%

Sorry Rick, your experience as a Senator includes losing your seat to a Democratic challenger. Americans don’t re-elect losers. Find a real job.

Jon Huntsman – 2.4%

Jon, working for Barack Obama isn’t the sort of qualification the nation is looking for right now.  Your entry into the campaign was met with stunning silence and nothing you have said or done has given potential voters any reason to change their lack of interest in you.  Luckily for you, your family is unimaginably wealthy.  Perhaps it’s time to dust off your keyboard and restart your rock band.

Tim Pawlenty – 2.4%

Tim, you could have been a contender — until you had the limited wisdom and bad luck to draw Michelle Bachmann as an opponent.  She whipped you.  You might as well buy yourself a leather collar and a ball-gag.  Your career is over.

Newt Gingrich – 5.2%

Newt, you’re one of the intellectual giants of the Republican party, but as a candidate you’re a complete failure.  5.2% from a candidate with as much name recognition as you have  is an unmistakable message from the voters.  Stop running for office and get back to doing what you do well — strategizing.

Herman Cain – 5.6%

I love you man, but this just isn’t working.  As an outsider, you have to make a huge entry or you flop.  Your campaign has run out of money and flopped.  Americans, it seems, just aren’t ready to believe in a real outsider.

Ron Paul – 9%

There’s no way Ron will drop out of the primary, because he’s not in it to win.  He’s in it to promote his luddite isolationist views which Republican voters will never accept.  Ron is everyone’s favorite crazy uncle, but he’s not really taking votes away from other Republican candidates — Ron Paul voters only vote for Ron Paul.

Sarah Palin – 10%

Sarah isn’t even running and she’s polling 4th.  Sarah, as a favor to the party and the nation, quit being coy and state for the record that you aren’t running.

Michelle Bachmann – 10.2%

Michelle, you’re unelectable because women won’t vote for you.  Women lean liberal and more liberal women would vote for OJ Simpson than for a strongly conservative female candidate.  Take your 10.2% and negotiate early for the VP role.  You can choose the next president by picking the right running mate.

Rick Perry – 16.2%

Rick, welcome to the campaign.  Everyone loves you now.  Don’t screw it up.  You are very likely to be President soon.  Don’t screw that up either.

Mitt Romney- 21%

Mitt, you’re only in the lead because your competitors are mostly competing for the same conservative voters, but don’t drop out.  You are the middle-of-the-road RINO candidate.  Republican voters need to be able to choose between a truly conservative candidate and a moderate alternative.  You are today’s version of 1964′s Nelson Rockefeller.  What would have happened if the Republican party had chosen Rockefeller instead of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 primary?  Would the nation had been saved from the disastrous L.B.J. presidency?  You could be President soon if the voters lean left during the primaries and right during the general election.  Hang on!

The Consent of the Governed

The United States Declaration of Independence begins:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Houston, we have a problem. A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey discovered that only 17% of voters believe that the federal government has the consent of the governed. A full 69% of American voters do not believe that the current U.S. government does enjoy the consent of the governed. Only 14% of voters polled were not sure. The political middle is slowly disappearing as the nation divides itself into the statist minority and the freedom-loving majority.

Additional data from related Rasmussen polls are even more elightening. 63% of Americans polled agreed with the statement “No matter how bad things are, Congress can always find a way to make them worse.” This echoes the famous wisdom of Thomas Paine, who wrote “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.”

46% of likely Voters believe that most members of Congress as corrupt. Thomas Jefferson wrote “When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.” This standard does not appear to represent by our current generation of kleptocrats.

Unlike many similar polls in the past, Americans are not happy even with their own representatives. Only 32% of voters now believe their own Congressperson is actually representing their best interests and only 31% believe their Congressperson is the best person for the job. 62% of respondents would, if it were possible, replace the entire Congress and start over again — while only 15% would choose to keep the current Congress.

Only 14% of likely U.S. Voters believe the country is heading in the right direction, and many don’t see that situation improving — ever. 51% say that America’s best days are in the past and only 32% think that America’s best days are in the future.

It appears that those Americans have forgotten what follows immediately after that opening excerpt from the Declaration of Independence:

“… That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

This is a very high standard for Americans to live up to. It is a standard to which our forefathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Frankly, I don’t believe that we’re up to the task. We get the government we deserve, and it seems to me that the current generation of Americans is getting the government it deserves. Our lack of will to live as free individuals has left us defenseless against the predations of the federal government. Until we learn once again to stand on our own two feet, we will never deserve the freedom for which our forefathers fought and died.