Nearly 100 years ago, a newly elected president signed off on the 17th amendment thereby sending it to each state for ratification. The amendment was ratified with amazing speed by the required number of states. Clearly, serious injury was inflicted upon the founders' vision of the United States and has never been more evident than in the 2008 election cycle. What went wrong? Direct election of Senators sounded like such a good idea. Even today many people would, at first glance, say being able to directly elect their Senators is a good thing. However, as Thomas DiLorenzo explains, the 17th amendment has been a national nightmare. Time to wake up!

The election cycle of 2008 provides an excellent example of why the 17th amendment should be repealed. Consider Exhibit 1: Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana. The good people of Big Sky country need to know that he has no concern in looking out for the interests of Montana. Why? Watch this commercial:

Ninety-one percent of donations from outside Montana

When almost every dollar of campaign contributions comes from those who could care less about what's good for the state of Montana - is the august Baucus of the same attitude? His health care boondoggle of a bill requires all citizens to obtain health insurance. The penalty for not doing so is a fine of up to $25,000, a year in jail, or both. Stick with me here: Mr. or Mrs. Montana Citizen is found to be in violation of the law written by their own senator. The judge declares them guilty, and stipulates a sale of all or a portion of their assets to pay the fine, and places them on probation. If Mr. or Mrs. Montana Citizen does not obtain health insurance by a certain date then they will be sent to prison for one year. Senator Max Baucus could not be reached for comment regarding the plight of his "boss," a citizen who voted for him. Max Baucus' arrogant condescending behavior regarding his health care bill illustrates the tyranny of direct election of senators. He doesn't have to answer to the people of Montana since the state of Montana is not funding his seat at the table.

If, as the Constitution originally proscribed, direct election of senators was forbidden, then the Montana state legislature would appoint someone to represent the state's rights and interests in Washington, D.C. There would be no contributions from outside the state, no long reelection campaigns to draw him or her away from the state's concerns, no lifetime career arrogance. Each senator would be sent to the nation's capital funded by the state they represent rather than by campaign donations from who knows where. With each state having a vested and exclusive interest in their senators the likelihood of arrogant gasbags growing ever more disdainful of "the chattering class" that elected them, to quote Chuck Schumer, would be near zero.

The American Thinker has posted an excellent review of the original intent and reasons for senators being appointed rather than directly elected. Senators were meant to be ambassadors from the states. Since ratification of the 17th amendment in 1914 corruption, the supposed reason for approving the change to direct elections for senators, malfeasance if not outright breaking of the laws has increased exponentially.

In this era where state legislatures are trumpeting state sovereignty under the 10th amendment we should also demand that the 17th amendment is repealed so that perhaps the greatest states right of all is returned to each state.

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Countrywide Financial Corporation relationship map - Muckety.com

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Others have done a much more thorough job of explaining how much a trillion dollars worth of ObamaCare really is but here are a few examples:

at 89 cents each - apx. 112.35 trillion candy bars
at $2.69 a gallon - apx. 371.74 billion gallons of gas
at $4.50 per cup - apx. 222.22 billion cups of gourmet coffee (Starbuck's)
at $14.99 per CD - apx. 66.71 billion compact discs
at $39.95 per pair - apx. 25.03 billion pairs of jeans
at $799.00 per unit - apx. 1.25 billion laptop computers
at $2995.00 per unit - apx. 333.88 million riding lawnmowers
at $14,999.00 per unit - apx. 66.67 million mid-size economy cars
at $138,000.00 per home - apx. 7.24 million average-size houses

Of course, these are estimates not exact prices or precise quantities. As the saying goes: Close enough for government work! ;-)

Keep in mind the trillion dollar figure being tossed around in the halls of Congress is JUST THE STARTING POINT.

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Ronald Weinland, author of 2008 - God's Final Witness is probably not available for comment today. I'm just guessing that he, like so many before him, is trying to make up some excuse to explain why he is not a false prophet. All of 2008 passed, and now the first six months of 2009 are in the history books, and yet the United States of America is still a world power, still an independent nation.

Here is an excerpt from page 126 of his book:

"When this book is published at the end of summer of 2006,
(with distribution in full swing in the fall), there will be a
maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be
plunged into the worst time of all human history.

By the fall of 2008, the United States will have collapsed as a
world power, or it will have begun its collapse and no longer
exist as an independent nation within six months after that time.
There is a marginal, six-month window of time that God has not
yet revealed concerning this specific moment of time. This will
be revealed some time soon after the distribution of this book
begins."

Instead of claiming to be God's messenger maybe he should have done like Barack Obama and act like The One who will save the world from disaster. Folks, as if there was not enough of this game leading up to the year 2000, we continue to hear from preachers, teachers, and self-proclaimed prophets who claim a special insight or message from God about the end times. They may be sincere, but they are sincerely wrong. Don't kid yourself though, the majority of these people just want you to buy their products, attend their conventions, and play pin-the-tail-on-the-rapture with them.

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Some random thoughts, somewhat tongue-in-cheek at times, on what will happen if the crap and tax (also known as cap and trade) legislation becomes law.

If coal is left in the ground because it is too expensive to mine then power plants will either cease operations or retool to meet new requirements. Either way plugging in that hybrid will cost you more. Why? Reduction of energy available will make utility bills spike. Having to retool power plants for natural gas, wind, solar, and whatever else will make utility bills spike. Shock! Those big evil power companies won't be the ones who pay for the stupidity of Congress and Obama - their customers will!

If we reduce carbon emissions then trees will die. Take that, you silly tree huggers! If trees die then contractors won't have a supply of wood for building. No wood, no houses. But at least we won't have to worry about showerheads that automatically shut off after "X" number of gallons of water are dispensed because we won't have homes to live in. However, business could be really good for stores specializing in camping equipment. Oh wait, the government must issue a permit before you can light a lantern or cook on an open fire. And there will be hell to pay if you roll out your sleeping bag on top of a type of grass protected under mandates.

++Insert tribute to Billy Mays here++ BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!! If you agree to have your thermostat replaced with a satellite controlled model that will be more efficient then you can also have a second one absolutely free! NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY?! The question is moot. Congress will decide the price and if you argue with them you will be required to attend a civics class taught by Professor Joe Biden on how to be patriotic.

---beep---beep---Oh darn, that is my computer alerting me that I'm about to use up my alloted time on the internet. Remember, we must all save the earth by reducing the amount of bandwidth we use each day.

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Most everyone has heard or read about the tragic wreck that happened on the Washington, D.C., area Metro Transit Red Line earlier this week. Let me say straight up that I'm not trying to make light of this event but it does provide a vivid example of how government runs things.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said the system failed to heed a 2006 warning to upgrade or eliminate its oldest train cars, including the lead car of the train that slammed into another train Monday, killing nine people. Despite NTSB concerns that the 30-year-old cars couldn't withstand a crash, the officials said the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority didn't act.

--from the Wall Street Journal article linked to above.

Public transportation, light rail in particular, is being promoted by some groups and politicians as an answer to traffic headaches in many metropolitan areas. However, reality met with the law of unintended consequences earlier this week. The dangers lurking in these outdated, overused cars in use by the DC Metro Transit were well known by the authorities. So why wasn't action taken to help prevent a disaster like the one on Monday? A glaring, disturbing pattern, year after year, is a primary culprit. The pattern of insufficient funding for the upkeep of the Metro Transit cars. In other words, caring for the rail system was RATIONED because public funding was routinely cut. The Light Rail Myth

We are told it will cost, for example, 300 million dollars to build a light rail system but extreme environmentalists and politicians often forget about those pesky little things called maintenance, operating expenses, and depreciation. Why should they care? Unlike in the business world, Congress will just raise taxes or ask the Federal Reserve to print more money if it turns out to be an ill-conceived plan.

One could also consider the congressional oversight of the mortgage and financial markets another train wreck that resulted in the market meltdown of the past couple of years. The federal government demanded that banks and lending institutions make bad loans even though many had warned again and again that a financial markets and housing crash would ensue. A Completely Preventable Crisis

I suggest that the Metro Transit tragedy is also a preview of what ObamaCare would be like. As the population continues to increase, and the incentives for innovation are obliterated by a national or socialized health care system, funding will be a perpetual concern for politicians. Which line will get the needed maintenance? Why spend needed money on repairing older models (senior citizens) or defective cars (people)? Rationing of care will become urgent as ObamaCare slides into an unsustainable bottomless pit of despair. Kiss Your Access Goodbye

Unfortunately, Monday's tragedy was not the first nor will it be the last disaster coming down the line from Washington, D.C. How many more train wrecks, literally and figuratively, must we endure before realizing that public funding of industry will always, uh, jump the tracks?

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