The people spoke; the process worked. Yes, it was raucous and divisive, but change this fundamental should not be enacted quietly. This is not midnight basketball or school uniforms. This is the future of government-worker power and the solvency of the states. It deserves big, serious, animated public debate.

Quote:

The system works

By Charles Krauthammer, Published: August 12

Of all the endlessly repeated conventional wisdom in today’s Washington, the most lazy, stupid and ubiquitous is that our politics is broken. On the contrary. Our political system is working well (I make no such claims for our economy), indeed, precisely as designed — profound changes in popular will translated into law that alters the nation’s political direction.

The process has been messy, loud, disputatious and often rancorous. So what? In the end, the system works. Exhibit A is Wisconsin. Exhibit B is Washington itself.

The story begins in 2008. The country, having lost confidence in Republican governance, gives the Democrats full control of Washington. The new president, deciding not to waste a crisis, attempts a major change in the nation’s ideological trajectory. Hence his two signature pieces of legislation: a near-$1 trillion stimulus, the largest spending bill in galactic history; and a health-care reform that places one-sixth of the economy under federal control.

In a country where conservatives outnumber liberals 2-1, this causes a reaction. In the 2010 midterms, Democrats suffer a massive repudiation at every level. In Washington, Democrats suffer the greatest loss of House seats since 1948. In the states, they lose over 700 state legislative seats — the largest reversal ever — resulting in the loss of 20 state chambers.

The Tea-Party-propelled, debt-conscious Republicans then move to confront their states’ unsustainable pension and health-care obligations — most boldly in Wisconsin, where the new governor proposes a radical reorientation of the power balance between public-sector unions and elected government.

In Madison, the result is general mayhem — drum-banging protesters, frenzied unions, statehouse occupations, opposition legislators fleeing the state to prevent a quorum. A veritable feast of creative democratic resistance.

In the end, however, they fail. The legislation passes.

Then, further resistance. First, Democrats turn an otherwise sleepy state Supreme Court election into a referendum on the union legislation, the Democrats’ candidate being widely expected to overturn the law. The unions/Democrats lose again.

And then last Tuesday, recall elections for six Republican state senators, three being needed to return the Senate to Democratic control and restore balance to the universe. Yet despite millions of union dollars, the Republicans hold the Senate. The unions/Democrats lose again.

The people spoke; the process worked. Yes, it was raucous and divisive, but change this fundamental should not be enacted quietly. This is not midnight basketball or school uniforms. This is the future of government-worker power and the solvency of the states. It deserves big, serious, animated public debate.

Precisely of the kind Washington (exhibit B) just witnessed over its debt problem. You know: The debt-ceiling debate universally denounced as dysfunctional, if not disgraceful, hostage-taking, terrorism, gun-to-the-head blackmail.

Spare me the hysteria. What happened was that the 2010 electorate, as represented in Congress, forced Washington to finally confront the national debt. It was a triumph of democratic politics — a powerful shift in popular will finding concrete political expression.

But only partial expression. Debt hawks are upset that the final compromise doesn’t do much. But it shouldn’t do much. They won only one election. They were entrusted, as of yet, with only one-half of one branch of government.

But they did begin to turn the aircraft carrier around. The process did bequeath a congressional super-committee with extraordinary powers to reduce debt. And if that fails, the question — how much government, how much debt — will go to the nation in November 2012. Which is also how it should be.

The conventional complaint is that the process was ugly. Big deal. You want beauty? Go to a museum. Democratic politics was never meant to be an exercise in aesthetics.

Not just ugly, moan the critics, but oh so slow. True, again. It took months. And will take more. The super-committee doesn’t report until Thanksgiving. The next election is more than a year away. But the American system was designed to make a full turn of the carrier difficult and deliberate.

Moreover, without this long ugly process, the debt issue wouldn’t even be on the table. We’d still be whistling our way to Greece. Instead, a nation staring at insolvency is finally stirring itself to action, and not without spirited opposition. Great issues are being decided as constitutionally designed. The process is working.

Notice how the loudest complaints about “broken politics” come from those who lost the debate. It’s understandable for sore losers to rage against the machine. But there’s no need for the rest of us to parrot their petulance.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-system-works/2011/08/11/gIQAKPXc9I_story.html

Gun-grabbers around the globe believe they have it made.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced the Obama Administration will be working hand-in-glove with the UN to pass a new “Small Arms Treaty.”

Disguised as an “International Arms Control Treaty” to fight against “terrorism,” “insurgency” and “international crime syndicates,” the UN Small Arms Treaty is in fact a massive, GLOBAL gun control scheme.

I’m helping lead the fight to defeat this radical treaty in the United States Senate and I want your help.

Please join me by taking a public stand against this outright assault on our national sovereignty by signing the Official Firearms Sovereignty Survey.

Ultimately, the UN Small Arms Treaty is designed to register, ban and CONFISCATE firearms owned by private citizens like YOU.

So far, the gun-grabbers have successfully kept the exact wording of their new scheme under wraps.

But looking at previous versions of the UN Small Arms Treaty, you and I can get a good idea of what’s likely in the works.

If passed by the UN and ratified by the U.S. Senate, the UN Small Arms Treaty would almost certainly FORCE the U.S. to:
*** Enact tougher licensing requirements, making law-abiding Americans cut through even more bureaucratic red tape just to own a firearm legally;

*** CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL “unauthorized” civilian firearms (all firearms owned by the government are excluded, of course);

*** BAN the trade, sale and private ownership of ALL semi-automatic weapons;

*** Create an INTERNATIONAL gun registry, setting the stage for full-scale gun CONFISCATION.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that this is NOT a fight we can afford to lose.

Ever since its founding 65 years ago, the United Nations has been hell-bent on bringing the United States to its knees.

To the petty dictators and one-world socialists who control the UN, the United States of America isn’t a “shining city on a hill” -- it’s an affront to their grand designs for the globe.

These anti-gun globalists know that so long as Americans remain free to make our own decisions without being bossed around by big government bureaucrats, they’ll NEVER be able to seize the worldwide power they crave.

And the UN’s apologists also know the most effective way to finally strip you and me of ALL our freedoms would be to DESTROY our gun rights.

That’s why I was so glad to hear that the National Association for Gun Rights is leading the fight to stop this assault on our Constitution!

The truth is there’s no time to waste.

You and I have to be prepared for this fight to move FAST.

The fact is the last thing the gun-grabbers at the UN and in Washington, D.C. want is for you and me to have time to mobilize gun owners to defeat this radical legislation.

They’ve made that mistake before, and we’ve made them pay, defeating EVERY attempt to ram the UN Small Arms Treaty into law since the mid-1990s.

But now time may not be on our side.

In fact, we’re likely to only have a few weeks to defeat the treaty when they make their move.

And we definitely don’t have a President in the White House who will oppose this treaty.

So our ONE AND ONLY CHANCE to stop the UN Small Arms Treaty is during the ratification process in the U.S. Senate.

As you know, it takes 67 Senate votes to ratify a treaty.

With new pro-gun champions joining me in the Senate, rounding up enough votes to kill this thing should be easy, right?

Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Even with the Republican tidal wave in 2010, there still isn’t a pro-gun majority in the Senate to kill ratification of the treaty.

You know just as well as I do how few Senators are truly “pro-gun.”

Not only that, but many Senators get “queasy” about killing treaties for fear of “embarrassing” the President -- especially with “international prestige” at stake.

They look at ratifying treaties much like approving the President’s Supreme Court nominees.

Remember how many Senators turned their back on us and voted to confirm anti-gun Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor?

A dozen more only voted against Sotomayor after receiving massive grassroots pressure from the folks back home.

So if we’re going to defeat the UN Small Arms Treaty gun owners have to turn the heat up on the U.S. Senate now before it’s too late!

Do you believe the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Second Amendment are the supreme law of the land?

Do you believe any attempt by the United Nations to subvert or supersede your Constitutional rights must be opposed?

If you said “Yes” to these questions, please sign the survey the National Association for Gun Rights has prepared for you.

Your survey will put you squarely on the record AGAINST the UN Small Arms Treaty.

So please put yourself on record AGAINST the UN Small Arms Treaty by signing NAGR’s Firearms Sovereignty Survey.

Dear fellow American,

If we’re going to defeat the UN’s Small Arms Treaty gun owners have to turn the heat up on the U.S. Senate now before it’s too late!

Please sign your Firearms Sovereignty Survey and put yourself squarely on the record AGAINST ratification of the UN’s Small Arms Treaty.

For Freedom,

Rand Paul
U.S. Senator (R-KY)

http://www.nagr.org/UN_RP_Survey1.aspx?pid=rs1

Stories like this makes me wonder if the Democratic Congress of the Bush days and the current Democratic Administration are responsible for the stall in the US economy, the millions of lost jobs, revenues (Taxes) and more. All of which creates more dependence on a already over self burdened government safety net is causing the so called shortage of tax revenues. Read for yourself and discern your own conclusion.

Canada-Colombia trade pact begins as U.S. deals stall

Camp: Americans now ‘disadvantaged’

As several free-trade pacts negotiated under President George W. Bush continue to collect dust, other countries are moving ahead with their own trade deals, a scenario many say puts U.S. industries at a competitive disadvantage and risks American jobs.

Colombia and Canada began a major trade pact this week that allows Canada to export wheat, among other items, tariff-free. The deal took effect almost five years after the Bush administration signed its own free trade agreement with the South American country.

But the U.S. deal with Colombia, as well as similar trade pacts the Bush administration inked with Panama and South Korea in 2007, have yet to be ratified by Congress — stalled first by Democratic opposition regarding labor issues, and later as President Obama reworked the deals.

“Today’s entry into force of the trade agreement between Canada and Colombia means that — for no good reason — U.S. workers and exporters are now disadvantaged in Colombia, a key export market for American-made goods and services,” Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican and House Ways and Means Chairman, said Monday, the day pact was took effect.

Colombia, South Korea and Panama, meanwhile, have implemented numerous trade agreements with countries other than the U.S., including a significant deal between South Korea and the European Union that went into effect July 1.

The EU also signed a trade agreement last year with Colombia and Peru.

China — one of the U.S. most vital trading partners — has sought trade inroads with Latin America as well, signing a free trade deal with Peru in 2009 and implementing another with Costa Rica this month.

Business leaders also have complained the United States is losing crucial market share to China, Canada and others without the Colombia, South Korea and Panama deals.

A 2009 study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned the delay of the three pending trade deals has put at least 380,000 American jobs at risk.

Failure to implement the U.S. free-trade agreements, while other trading partners go forward with theirs, also would lead to a decline of $40.2 billion in U.S. exports of goods and services, the report said.

“These trade agreements are one of the best ways to create jobs in America now,” chamber President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Donohue said earlier this month.

Mr. Obama in December finalized an updated version of the landmark free-trade pact with South Korea that promised to boost the domestic automotive industry and support tens of thousands of American jobs. The deal would be the largest since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1994.

Mr. Obama had held out for almost two years on the Korean pact in an effort to strengthen the deal in the favor of U.S. auto industry.

The administration in April also announced it was moving forward with its deal with Colombia after it secured labor concessions from that country. But the president has held off sending the trade deals to Congress for ratification over a funding dispute for the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, a union-backed initiative that compensates workers affected by increased imports or shifts in production outside the U.S.

The Obama administration initially wanted to attach a TAA funding provision to the South Korean trade pact — a move opposed by Republicans.

The administration and congressional leaders now are negotiating a compromise that would allow Congress to vote on TAA funding separately from the trade pacts.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in our dealings with the Senate leaders, and hope and expect that that … process will be resolved and we’ll get this done,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday.

“We definitely agree that passing those trade bills and making sure we have a process that allows for [them] and the TAA to go forward will be very beneficial to the economy.”

A Main Stream Media Blackout or do they fear him? Even FOXNews played a part in this exclusion

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