Under a new act, see Clean Water Restoration Act S.787, Democrats are trying to change the definition of “Waters of the United States” to include ALL waters.  This would include navicable AND unnavicable if they have their way.  Ponds, streams and runoff from rain into temporary streamlets on private property will be under federal jurisdiction and control.  Private land/water use will be subject to licensing, permits and fees for use by the feds, not just the states. 

SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended–

(1) by striking paragraph (7);

 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (8) through (25) as paragraphs (7) through (24), respectively; and

 (3) by adding at the end the following:

‘(25) WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES- The term ‘waters of the United States’ means all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.’

  

This bill will supercede any state or local laws with it’s passage.  They will effectively have the power to tell you if/what/when you can plant a field, raise cattle, or drain a swamp.  There are already local and state laws regulating some of these things but this goes way beyond them.  Even though you are still paying taxes on that land, whether you’re able to do anything with it will no longer be your choice.  The Feds will be able to step in and stop you.  They will be able to take your land without giving just compensation. 

The scariest part of this bill, to me, is that it moves us a step closer to the level of control the UN wants in our country.  Six days of talks with delegations from around the world including the U.S., culminated on March 22, 2009 with the annual ”World Water Day”   The theme for this year was “Shared Waters-Shared Opportunies” or “Transboundary Waters”.  This is a quote from the United Nations website about “World Water Day” in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Special focus will be placed on transboundary waters. Nurturing the opportunities for cooperation in transboundary water management can help build mutual respect, understanding and trust among countries and promote peace, security and sustainable economic growth.”

More on the UN water issue later.

We have justices who are transnationalists and a president who is willing to hand over the U.S. to a global government.  How long do you think you’ll be able to have a say about what goes on in your own home, on our own property?  The federal government is trying to take our land and our water.  They are trying to manage the air we breath through Cap and Trade. 

Introduced by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) on April 2, 2009, this bill is currently sitting in the Senate Environment and Pulic Works Committee where Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is the Chair.  A list of this bill’s co-sponsors is hereand a list of who is on the subcommittee is here.  We must not allow this out of the committee.  This is about more than just water.  If it is allowed to go forward and pass in the Senate, our rights as property holders will be changed forever.

Pitchforks, anyone?

State lawmakers signed into law yesterday that formed “Islam Day” in Hawaii.  They just want to “recognize ‘the rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions’” of Islam.  Does anyone else think this is scary?  Is this the U.S. or England and France.  We’ve seen how well bowing to Islams demands do for those countries in the past.  This was the beginning for them.  Then there were demands for special protection and rights.  And who can forget Shiria Law.  Yeah that’s a great idea for the U.S. while we’re fighting their terrorists right now.  Why in the world would we bow to them (oh yeah our pres already did that) and cater to their whims?  Didn’t they have a little something to do with 9/11?  Don’t we have some of them in custody somewhere?  <sarcasm btw, JLenard>

You can read the full AP article herebut here’s a piece of what the appologists in Hawaii said. 

“We are a state of tolerance. We understand that people have different beliefs,” said Sen. Will Espero, a Democrat. “We may not all agree on every single item and issue out there, but to say and highlight the negativity of the Islamic people is an insult to the majority” of believers “who are good law-abiding citizens of the world.”

Now I realize that not every Muslim is a terrorist.  But the infiltration is slow and quiet just like they’ve done in other countries.  It’s a pattern they’ve used before and we would to well to take care not to lower our guard.

There’s an amendment being voted on today in the House which will stop Acorn (or entities like it) from getting federal money if it is under indictment for voter fraud.  This is not a watered down amendment pertaining only to convictions at the top levels.  Introduced by Rep Bachmann (R-MN), it would effectively put a stop to the gushing of taxpayer money into their hands.  Please put the call out this morning as this is being voted on TODAY!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPwvIEKifzU

There are things we can do stop stop the flood of fraud in DC and this is one of them!  We need to support all our representatives who really are working hard to fight there.

Once again, Homeland Security is running into problems with their definitions.  In addition to labelling anti-abortion and illegal-immigration activists as domestic extremists, they go on to say that

A “left-wing extremist” is described as someone who opposes war or is dedicated to environmental and animal rights causes, while a “right-wing extremist” is someone who is against abortion or for border enforcement.

In another section

And, the “tax-resistance movement” is described as “groups or individuals who vehemently believe taxes violate their constitutional rights.”

The criteria in the listings are a willingness to advocate or engage in criminal activity or plot acts of terrorism.

Roger Mackin, the head of the I&A responsible for the report that suggested veterans were being recruited to commit terrorist acts in the U.S., was replaced late last month. Ms. Kudwa said then that the personnel moves were categorically not related to the veterans-related story reported by The Washington Times in mid-April.

Of course not!

The Times is reporting on the latest stimulus spending oversight meeting.  How can they follow the money when no one is doing the following?  Instead, they say it’s up to US the taxpayers to find out where it’s going!

“We are, in essence, deputizing the entire American citizenry to help with the oversight of this program,” said Rep. Brad Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s subcommittee on investigations and oversight.

“I’m going to have millions of citizens to help me,” he said, comparing run-of-the-mill Americans to inspectors general, the high-ranking officials charged with ferreting out waste and abuse in federal agencies.

“I’m going to have a million little IGs running around,” the chairman said Tuesday after his testimony before the subcommittee.

This is the accountability and transparency of the Obama administration?  YOU do it.  It’s too big for us.  And if this weren’t enough, the people who were supposed to be at this meeting to “follow the money” and make sure there was no funny business going on with it, only three of the ten members even bothered to show up! 

While Mr. Miller and the panel’s top Republican were there, only Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Pennsylvania Democrat, also came along to the hearing. Absent were Democratic Reps. Steven R. Rothman of New Jersey, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Charlie Wilson of Ohio, Alan Grayson of Florida and Bart Gordon of Tennessee. Republican Reps. Brian P. Bilbray of California and Ralph M. Hall of Texas also skipped the session.

A word of warning for you, gentlemen.  We are holding YOU accountable.  We sent you to Washington, we can send you home! 

And they wonder why we’re so angry and feel disenfranchized.  Did they not think this was important enough to spend their precious time doing the people’s business? 

This is classic though:

Mr. Broun was most interested in Mr. Obama’s claim that the recovery plan would create “or save” 4 million jobs, but noted that the number of jobs “saved” is likely unknowable and that since the president took office, 1.3 million jobs have been lost.

“How do you plan to verify the actual number of jobs created?” he asked.

“Sir, we haven’t really received any information about that on the Web site,” Mr. Devaney said.

Has Mr. Devaney has been getting lessons from WH Press Sec. Gibbs???  Which members seats are up for reelection in 2010?

According to the New York Times, the former Secretary of Education in South Carolina will be named as the new head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission.  This following the dismissal of Nancy Nord for possibly taking trips paid for by some of the companies she was supposed to be regulating. 

Ms. Nord defended the trips as legal and bemoaned the overall criticism as unfair. She said complaints were motivated more by politics than a desire for meaningful change.

Unfortunately, Ms. Tenenbaum’s record is anything but good news for consumers.  During her tenure in South Carolina she greatly expanded the Dept of Ed, repeatedly asked for (and recieved) millions of dollars with no system of accountability to make sure her new programs work.  Were the schools better when she left than when she first came in?  Not so much.  Still ranked in the bottom 2 or 3 out of the whole country.  She left quite a legacy in our state, but it wasn’t a positive one. 

What will she do at CPSC?  I think you’ll be able to look forward to increased regulation, further expansion into the private sector and a nice newly padded budget (another $107 million) for them.  Nothing new?  We couldn’t wait to get rid of her after 8 years in charge of our kids.  We’ll see how she does in charge of their toys.

It sounds like it according to an email from one Tea Party organizer.  Eric Odom, from TaxDayTeaParty.com, sent out an email sounding disappointed that things were not moving forward the way he had hoped in the aftermath.   Read the whole Huff Post article here.

 I’m writing you because I find the Tea Party effort in a very disconcerting position at the moment…

Since day one, I’ve strongly held the opinion that there should never be an “official” coalition or group to “oversee” the Tea Party effort. In fact, my belief is that doing so is impossible.

This caused problems between myself and a couple other national organizers because some of us shared vastly different opinions on how this movement should function.

Yes, we had a website. And yes, our website had sponsors (some of which, by the way, I was not very happy about), but I believe our sponsors did help us get an early nudge that we needed for mass attention, and in turn, mass collaboration.

But to me that should have been the end of it. In my view, our goal should have always been to simply facilitate an environment where local organizers could take the lead in this movement.

Sure, our website had difficulties… but that was a learning process for us and one we learned great lessons from. That said, we did everything possible to stay out of the way of local organizers. We didn’t try and tell organizers what to do or say, we just tried to provide advice and help others share their experiences.

Essentially, our function as a website was solely to market local Tea Parties and help organizers collaborate. That was it!

After saying this though, Odom goes on to give talking points which don’t seem to be in the spirit of the parties themselves.  He tells people to focus on healthcare, card check and internet taxation.  Well, wait a minute.  This does not sound like standing for lower taxes and out of control spending.  He does tell them to focus on local issues and organizing locally after that. 

Keeping in the spirit of the parties will keep the movement alive.  If leaders, whether they want to be or not, get distracted by side issues, we’re lost.  The comments after this article in the Huffington Post are full of giggling libs.  The carnivores are salivating, waiting for any sign of weakness and that’s just what Odom showed them.

I’m sorry.  I thought this article was funny as much as a sad state of our country right now.  A story from the AP tells of an 18 and 21year old stealing a calf, killing it with arrows then cutting off steaks and eating it at their campsite.  They were unemployed and hungry. 

Stubbe said the two “decided they wanted something to eat,” led the calf out of the barn, shot it with arrows and cut its throat.

The two gutted the animal and sliced off steaks, leaving the carcass behind, the investigator said.

They were arrested and arraigned Wednesday on burglary charges. Police said more charges are pending, including cruelty to animals.

While I don’t advocate theft, they picked a prime cut of meat to steal.  The worst part of this story, though, is that they could be facing cruelty to animals charges which is rediculous.  Yes, they should be tried for burglery and theft.  But are they saying that deer hunting with a bow and arrow is cruelty?  Does that make all hunting and all the American Indian traditions illegal?  Boy Scouts?  I can see PETA jumping on this one very quickly!

In a Friday New York Times article, Seeking to Save the Environmentwith a Thesaurus,  environmentalists and the Obama White House were reported to be trying out new names for global warming and cap and trade.  New studies have been done and Congress and the Administration are being told the new names they can use in their talking points.  I wonder how many of them we will hear on the Sunday morning talk shows.  All this is a new effort to sway public opinion back towards favorable alarm.  With global warming the last on the list of American’s concerns, they need to do something to push it back into the forefront of our minds. 

According to ecoAmerica, Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” 

Unfortunately, Americans have proven to be willing to accept this kind of newspeak propaganda.  With the advent of political correctness, we have already shown ourselves to forget words, to cause some to be illegal, to have others be termed “hate speech”.  The point is that we are allowing others to dictate what we are or are not allowed to say.  Where will this stop?  What else will be taken out of our vocabulary until we are saying things like “doubleplusungood”?

“Energy efficiency” makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of “saving money for a more prosperous future.” In fact, the group’s surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term “the environment” and talk about “the air we breathe, the water our children drink.”

Yes, the Republicans do this too.  Trying to expose Cap and Trade by calling it a tax (no wait, that was a Dem who said that).   Well, they do.  You get the idea.  This is nothing new but I’m just sick of it on both sides.  Can’t we just say what we mean and mean what we say anymore?

The firm, ecoAmerica, apparently did not want this information released until later this month but an email was sent out to news groups by mistake.   Please excuse my cynicism, but the Administration has shown that it does not do things “by accident”.  Letting this come out on a Friday afternoon is sure to be overlooked and our language subtly changed forever.  One last question though.  Who paid for the study???