Constitution Day

September 29, 2013

Constitution Day (September 17) came and went this year with no mention in the local newspaper.

More troubling to me, the local schools and university did not obey the law and teach students about the constitution.  http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/16/constitution.day/

Our Constitution is largely ignored except for those cases that involve the rights of each of us as individuals.  The portions of the Constitution that control how government is allowed to work seem to be treated as though they are irrelevant in today’s world.

The Constitution is not only the law, it is the supreme law.  I personally believe that many parts of it should be changed to reflect our situation in this 21st century.

The problem with ignoring it is that we end up with uncertainty.  How can we respect a law that contradicts the Constitution?

The document provides two ways to make changes.  Many have been made.  Historically most amendments are ratified within two years.  Waiting two years is not much to ask when the supreme law of the nation is being changed.

All three branches of our government are guilty of doing things in violation of the Constitution.  Why?  Some have decided that changing it the right way is too difficult.

How can we know what the rules are when government officials feel free to ignore them and then pretend that what they are doing is right?

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty.

Cato

8 Comments | El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Probably wrong

August 31, 2013

The New York Times is one of several newspapers that is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration (best known for their TSA people at the airport) is now also conducting searches at sporting events, rodeos, music festivals and other places instead of just at airports.  The searches are part of a program named VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response).

The TSA has grown over the years to have over 56,000 employees at 450 airports.  According to the Times:

“T.S.A. records show that the teams ran more than 8,800 unannounced checkpoints and search operations with local law enforcement outside of airports last year, including those at the Indianapolis 500 and the Democratic and Republican national political conventions.”

Warrantless

According to TSA officials:

“the random searches are “special needs” or “administrative searches” that are exempt from probable cause because they further the government’s need to prevent terrorist attacks.”

At a baseball game?  Exempt from probable cause?  What does this say about us?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Jail for the birds

August 28, 2013

Now the county has begun discussions about building a new jail facility to replace the one downtown.

According to newspaper reports the downtown jail costs about 26 dollars a day more to run per bed than the jail annex in far east El Paso.

Cost estimates for a new jail are not available yet.  Hopefully no one will ask the city chief financial officer.

If a new jail is built, what will happen to the old one?

Will they downsize it and open a few floors for other purposes?  There might be some advantages to creating cells for our local officials who end up getting sentenced to jail.  Maybe we could house them in the vacated sections so that they can serve their time while still holding office hours.

My guess is that the old jail will have to be torn down — after all it cannot possibly be made usable as anything other than a jail, we will be told.

Remember that after the public calms down about the ballpark and the wasteful move of city hall we will have to face the fact that city officials have told us that their plan is to move city functions to temporary facilities while plans are drawn up for a new municipal complex closer to the “government corridor”.

Yes, the plan is to tear down the old city hall first.  We all know that they have done that already.  Then they will refurbish a few old buildings downtown as temporary quarters for city functions.  They are doing that now.

After the dust has settled they plan to try to build yet another city hall closer to the county and feral  buildings downtown.  After all it is more efficient to have everyone in the same building.

What about the buildings that we are remodeling?  Those will be sold to developers who will then profit from our remodeling.  I wonder who in town has the money to buy those buildings?

Where oh where?

Don’t be surprised to find that the land under the current county jail turns out to be the site they propose for the new city complex.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | Ball park, City government, County Government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Knowing our place

August 6, 2013

I have often struggled with understanding what is fair for communities that because of their geographical location  have expenses that other cities do not have.

The communities that seem to be damaged every few years because of hurricanes or river flooding that get massive amounts of federal money to help rebuild raise the question of whether the rest of the nation should have to pay for something that could be avoided if the people in the zone moved to a safer place.

El Pasoan’s obviously live on the border with Mexico.  We have burdens and challenges because of the international crossing situation.  We are different from the communities that are damaged by natural disasters however.  Our costs are directly related to the rules and regulations that our feral government imposes.

For years we have suffered economically because the bridge crossing lanes are not fully staffed by agents who thankfully strive to make certain that those coming across the bridges should be allowed to cross.  I do not quarrel with the need to perform the checks.  I question why we do not have enough agents to open all of the lanes, thus decreasing bridge crossing times and increasing commerce.  Why don’t we get the money we need?

Insult to injury

Now we are told that we can have more agents if we will pay for them ourselves.  We won’t be able to set their policies and procedures though.

Other parts of the country get hand-outs even though they can control their situation.  We cannot control the agents but are told that if we pay more we can have what the central government should be providing already.

One of our city representatives was quoted in the El Paso Times the other day:

“As soon as the Congressman (O’Rourke) got into office, we begged him to help us with this and he has come through”

Begging?

We have to beg an elected official to do what is right for his district?  We have to beg to be allowed to use our own money to fix a problem that the national government has imposed on us?

What on earth has happened here?  Our elected officials think that the people need to beg? Our elected officials are so important and so much better than us that we need to beg?

Will they be passing a law that tells us how to worship them next?

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Immigration fallacy

July 11, 2013

In a recent conversation someone asked why we should be lenient with  the people living in the United States without legal  permission.  After all, there is a legal process.

I decided to look into the numbers and what I saw was enlightening.  Evidently the system gives preference to relatives of people who are living legally in the United States.  These numbers are from the National Foundation for American Policy.  I don’t know anything about them other than their chart claims to have taken the numbers from a U.S. Department of State visa bulletin.

These numbers relate to people from Mexico that want to come to the United States legally:

  • Unmarried adult children of a US citizen                                                       17 year wait
  • Spouses and minor children of permanent residents                                    6 year wait
  • Unmarried adult children of permanent residents                                       16 year wait
  • Married adult children of a US citizen                                                            16 year wait
  • Siblings of US citizens                                                                                        14 year wait

Some can get a green card through their employment, but as I understand it that does not help with the spouse or children.

There is also a green card lottery.  The U.S. allows 55,000 people a year through this system.  In recent years people from Mexico have been ineligible.

If you invest $500,000 in a high unemployment area and will employ ten people then you and your spouse and unmarried children (under 21) can qualify.

What would you do?  It seems to me that our politicians are not telling us the whole story.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

1 Comment | Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

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