Graham Glass, etc.

Impeachment

The US President and members of Congress all take an oath to defend the Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

One of the ways that Congress defends the Constitution is to monitor the actions of the President and remove him/her from office if the President violates the constitution. This is done via the process of impeachment and was designed into the US Constitution by the founding fathers as one of many checks and balances in the US political system.

It's clear from the 35 articles of impeachment that have recently been presented by Dennis Kucinich that the President violated his oath. It's also clear from the inaction of Congress in the face of overwhelming evidence that they have also violated their oaths. Here's a great video that covers this topic.

I think the founding fathers would be very disappointed to see how the US has lost its way. I know I am.

Capitalism

Check out this nicely written article about Capitalism.

Subprime Primer

If you want to understand the subprime crisis, click here for a fun and illustrated guide.

New Ron Paul Book #1 at Amazon

Ron Paul's new book: The Revolution: A Manifesto, is currently the #1 best selling book on Amazon. I bought it a few days ago and am halfway through reading it. Highly recommended.

Update (05/08/08): The book is now #1 on the NY Times best seller list as well.

Quotes of the Day

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

P.J. O'Rourke

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

Albert Einstein

Who pays the Federal Income Tax?

I found this information about taxes very interesting; according to this report:

• the top 1% of taxpayers earn around 15% of the total income and pay around 30% of the total income tax
• the top 5% of taxpayers earn around 30% of the total income and pay around 50% of the total income tax
• the top 50% of taxpayers pay around 95% all the income tax

Note that this refers only to federal income tax, and does not include state tax, property tax, social security tax, airport tax, gas tax, sales tax, and all the other taxes that we're subject to.

Ron Paul on CNN

Nice video of Ron Paul on CNN.

Obama on Being Tough

Obama on what it really means to be Tough:

Ron Paul featured on Colbert Show

Ron Paul featured on Colbert show:

As Colbert says, "it would be funny if it weren't so sad"....

Ron Paul and Education

As any reader of this blog knows, I'm a huge fan of Ron Paul because he supports the vision of the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution. In addition, I'm of course a big fan of improving the education system and the founder of edu 2.0.

So why do I support Ron Paul's view that there should be no Department of Education?

To understand my position, it's important to understand US history. When the US constitution was created, the individual states wanted autonomy . They didn't want, say, New York telling Connecticut how to spend their tax dollars.

So they crafted a constitution that allowed the Federal government to raise tax dollars for things like wars that involved all the states and left individual states to raise tax dollars for their own initiatives, including education.

To prove this, here's a quote from James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution and the fourth president of the United States:

If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America. - James Madison

So to clarify matters, Ron Paul is not against government funding of education, he's against federal funding of education. He believes that individual states should have the freedom to provide education according to their own principles, and let the people of each state vote with their feet.