By Jack Kelly

In most countries for most of history, people were pretty much locked into the social class into which they were born. But in America men and women of modest means could become rich — if they had an idea for making life better, and worked tirelessly to make their vision real.

Entrepreneurs such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs became very, very rich. The rest of us were enriched, too, by the fruits of their genius and their labor — the electric light, the automobile and the computer, and tens of thousands of other inventions and new, better ways of organizing things.

People who don’t have good ideas and who don’t want to work hard want to be rich, too. Some have found a way.

In the last two years, while middle class Americans have been struggling, the net worth of Members of Congress increased 25 percent.

“How do politicians who arrive in Washington D.C. as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires?” Sarah Palin asked. “How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us?”

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By Hugh Bouchelle

As long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules!

It is a simple principle, perhaps a little harsh, but it can be appropriate in a parent-child relationship.

But when the elected begin to treat the electorate like this, we have a problem. Unlike the parent who is sacrificing to provide for their children and has a natural responsibility to lead them with wisdom and authority into adulthood, our elected officials draw both their power (money) and authority (right to make laws) from the very individuals they propose to rule.

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By Chuck Baldwin

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies.”

I would argue that we, like our patriot forebears, have also endured “patient sufferance.” For at least a half-century, we have patiently endured the erosion and abridgment of our freedoms and liberties. We have watched the federal government become an overbearing and meddlesome Nanny State that pokes its nose and sticks its fingers in virtually everything we do. We cannot drive a car, buy a gun, or even flush a toilet without Big Brother’s permission. We are taxed, regulated, and snooped-on from the time we are born to the day we die. And then after we are dead, we are taxed again.

In the same way that Jefferson and Company patiently suffered up until that shot was fired that was heard around the world, we who love freedom today are likewise patiently suffering “a long train of abuses and usurpations.” In fact, I would even dare say that these States United have become a boiling caldron of justifiable frustration and even anger.

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By Michael Boldin

There are a few core beliefs that guide me in everything I do as the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center

1. Rights are not “granted” to us by the government — they are ours by our very nature, by our birthright.
2. ALL just political authority is derived from the people — and government exists solely with our consent!
3. We the people of the several states created the federal government — not the other way around!
4. The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that which has been delegated by the people to the federal government in the Constitution — and nothing more.
5. The People of each State have the sole and exclusive right and power to govern themselves in all areas not delegated to their government.
6. A Government without limits IS A TYRANNY!
7. When Congress enacts laws and regulations that are not made in Pursuance of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, the People are not bound to obey them.

These seven items — are what establish the proper role of government under the constitution. But sadly, an honest reading of the constitution as the founders and ratifiers gave it to us makes clear that MOST of what D.C does today is NOT authorized by the constitution.

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By Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Robbins

The Internet is a large-scale version of the “Committees of Correspondence” that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington’s failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.

People are asking, “Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?”

Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.

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By Jonathan Bydlak

We stand here today with a crisis of creativity in our country. We look around and see problem after problem: Poverty. Millions unable to get health care. People out of work. It’s easy for all of us, no matter what our political views may be, to agree on what the problems are.

But though we all see these problems, for too long, we have seen just one solution — let the government do it. It’s their job. It’s their responsibility.

Now, we are citizens today living under a government that doesn’t represent us — its people. And we have made the decision, together, that we can no longer refuse to take action.

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“We’ve got some altering and abolishing to do!”

Click below to watch video.

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Click Below to Watch Video

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The lone Republican lawmaker to support Democratic health care legislation has seen his fundraising drop by nearly 40 percent since his vote, and he is quickly burning through a dwindling bank account after resorting to a costly national fundraising operation.

Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, the unlikely congressman from New Orleans, is facing the perils of bipartisanship unlike any other lawmaker in Washington — trying to please a heavily Democratic constituency while relying on core conservatives for money to fuel his campaign.

Although Republican leaders have continued supporting Cao with money from their campaign committees despite his health care position, the conservative donors he’s courting around the country may not be so forgiving.

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By EILEEN SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON (AP) – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists who are U.S. citizens or live in the country legally and plot against the U.S. are just as big of a concern as international terrorists.

She says that when she started as secretary a year ago, the focus was largely on international terrorists who want to harm U.S. interests. But in the past year, more of the violent extremism that has been seen overseas is showing up in the U.S.

She says officials need to drill down and analyze the factors that make a young person, raised in the U.S., migrate to extremist beliefs and actions.

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By Mark Alexander

Ronald Reagan was, and remains, the North Star of the last great conservative revolution — and the next — if more Republicans will abide by their oaths to Support and Defend our Constitution and abide by their own political party platform.

At the most recent Republican National Committee confab, some members proposed a “Unity Principle for Support of Candidates” resolution, which identified 10 conservative principles, at least eight of which Republican candidates must support in order to receive RNC funding.

The measure failed, perhaps because more than a few of the current crop of politicos who call themselves “Republican” could not pass muster.

Subsequent to that failed motion, some Leftist intellectuals (an oxymoron, I know, but play along) opined that, based on Reagan’s record, not even he would have passed the test.

Of course, as Leftists are prone to do, they are contorting the record so it will comport with their hypothesis, or as Reagan said famously, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

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By Karl Rove

There has been a lot of talk about combining the tea party movement with the Republican Party. And on a small scale, that seemed to happen last week in South Carolina after state GOP representatives agreed to create a “Tea Party Republicans” group to coordinate activities with tea partiers in Greenville and Spartanburg.

This week, however, those arrangements fell apart as some tea party groups dissented from the decision. Other attempts to draw tea party groups into formal alliances are running into similar difficulties. That is a good thing. The tea party movement will be more effective than it otherwise would be if it refuses to allow itself to become an appendage of either major political party.

The tea partiers have made an important splash because they are not yet another auxiliary to the Democratic or Republican parties. Like the pro-life and Second Amendment movements before it, the tea party movement will have a bigger impact if it holds the feet of politicians in both parties to its fire. Each party must know it can win or lose swing tea party voters.

The movement arose spontaneously as ordinary Americans reacted to a rising tide of federal spending and debt, growing federal power, and the too-cozy relationship between Washington and corporate America.

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By Earl Taylor, Jr.

With the events of 2009 now a matter of history, it is clear to see that the election year of 2010 will be like no other we have seen. On the one hand we have those running the country who are openly opposed to any form of the Founders’ government based on limited, balanced, and carefully delegated powers.

On the other hand are those who are awakening to a sense of our awful situation—one that if not immediately and powerfully checked—will no doubt lead to a loss of the very liberty and freedom for which our Founders fought and died. The months leading up to the November 2010 election, with all the petitions, campaigns, promises, and media hype, will be intense, perhaps even brutal, as the two forces battle for control of Congress for the following term.

Once in a while a question will be posed such as this: What can we do when there really is no one on the ballot we feel like we can support? My answer is usually: Then you have learned not to wait until the election to start thinking of good candidates!

The process must begin very early. For 2010, it must begin now.

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From Newsmax.com

Marco Rubio, the 38-year-old son of Cuban immigrants and candidate for an open Senate seat in Florida, brought the house down with a powerful speech on American exceptionalism before thousands of conservatives, according to The Washington Post.

In the opening address at the three-day Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, Rubio delivered a fiery assault on President Obama’s economic policies and his administration’s handling of national security.

“They are using this downturn as cover, not to fix America but to try and change America, to fundamentally redefine the role of government in our lives and the role of America in the world,” Rubio said. “The good news is it didn’t take long for the American people to figure this out.” The crowd repeatedly interrupted Rubio’s speech with standing ovations.

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The Mount Vernon Statement:

We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.

These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.

Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

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By Ron Paul

Last week, the House approved another increase in the national debt ceiling. This means the government can borrow $1.9 trillion more to stay afloat and avoid default. It has been little more than a year since the last debt limit increase, and graphs showing the debt limit over time show a steep, almost vertical trend. It is not likely to be very long before this new ceiling is met and the government is back on the brink between default and borrowing us further into oblivion. Congressional leaders and the administration acknowledge that the debt limit will need to be increased again next year. They are crossing their fingers that the forecasts are correct and they will not need another increase sooner, even before the 2010 midterm elections.

Continually increasing the debt is one of the logical outcomes of Keynesianism, since more government spending is always their answer. It is claimed that government must not stop spending when the economy is so fragile. Government must act. Yet, when times are good, government also increases in size and scope, because we can afford it, it is claimed. There is never a good time to rein in government spending according to Keynesian economists and the proponents of big government.

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By PETER BAKER

WASHINGTON — With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.

Mr. Obama has not given up hope of progress on Capitol Hill, aides said, and has scheduled a session with Republican leaders on health care later this month. But in the aftermath of a special election in Massachusetts that cost Democrats unilateral control of the Senate, the White House is getting ready to act on its own in the face of partisan gridlock heading into the midterm campaign.

“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

Any president has vast authority

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