Agenda July 2, 2011
1) The Pledge of Allegiance
2) Introductions
3) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.
4) 10 principles of Liberty approved at our last board meeting
1) No eminent domain for private gain.
2) Enforce federal immigration laws. No amnesty. Deport illegal aliens.
3) Make tax and zoning laws fair, simple, and apply them equally to
everyone.
4) Cut taxes by cutting government spending.
5) Post all government salaries, contracts, and budgets online.
6) Repudiate (refuse to pay) all state government debts incurred without
voter approval in violation of our State Constitution. Repudiate all federal
government debts incurred for purposes not permitted by Article I,
Section 8 of our Federal Constitution.
7) Bring “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” back
to our public schools and local governments. Let parents apply taxpayer
money spent to educate their children to the qualified schools they choose.
Don’t force public employees to pay dues to unions they don’t want to
join. Let elected officials again decide what salaries, pensions, and benefits
to pay our public “servants”.
Hold frequent non-binding referendums (public votes) on
all issues of public importance.
9) Term limits for all elected officials. Pensions for none.
10) Make a public audit of the Federal Reserve Banking System.
Audit, reform, or abolish the Federal Reserve Banking System and
have Congress establish a stable currency secured by precious
metals, or assets with recognized and stable values. Have the
United States withdraw from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and any Organization which purports to require the U.S. Government
to spend money without appropriation by Congress pursuant to the
U.S. Constitution.”
5) Liberty and Prosperity has a new website: www.libertyandprosperity.org
6) Radio shows: Saturday morning WVLT 92.1 FM 8:00 – 9: 00 Am
http://wvlt.com/listenlive.html
Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 3 to 4 PM on 1400 WOND
WOND is now under new ownership and they have now fixed their
Internet connection: http://tunein.com/tuner/?StationId=21757&
7) Events:
Many members of L & P were away last Saturday at Campaign School, which
was an all day class that was beneficial to all.
The Fair School Funding Resolution was submitted to Northfield City Council,
lets see if they pass it next month. You can do the same in your town, ask how.
a) July 4th Smithville Parade gathering at 8 AM at the food town shopping plaza. Our position is J-83. We need as many volunteers as possible.
Picnic after parade. Everyone bring something to share.
b) Movie Night Movie for rest of year:
1. 07/13/11 “Nine Days That Changed The World” http://youtu.be/u-KirlURR2A
2. 08/24/11 “Amazing Grace” http://youtu.be/Q6Cv5P9H9qU
3. 09/14/11 “The Birth of Freedom” http://youtu.be/QLpGs5zlcxM
4. 10/19/11 “A City Upon A Hill” http://youtu.be/oQsCW1hbOGw
5. 11/16/11 “Fire From The Heartland” http://youtu.be/JqmPm-AfGqg
6. 12/14/11 “In the Face Of Evil” http://youtu.be/cOi4VaFpzvM
How can an over 55 community be changed to all ages after the community has
been operational for several years? This is what is happening to Absecon Gardens
in Absecon NJ. Stay tuned for more information as we dig deeper into this scheme.
9) Topics for Discussion: We can discuss these topics or what every you want to
discussion:
a) How can we make Congress accountable to the constitution and to the
people?
Can we have a principled and limited government and what would it take?
I would believe if I asked folks on the street, I’m sure they would give the
following answers:
a) It would take too much time and effort
b) It already a lost cause
c) It doesn’t matter any longer, the changes to our society has changed too
much that the constitution is not a valid document.
d) There is no hope any longer
Do you agree or do you think we still have a chance to safe this country?
A recent news story portrayed the same story how American students
don’t know our basic constitution and history. Well if our students don’t
know this, do the parents of these students know the same material? Do
our elected leaders know what our constitution is? It appears that they
don’t.
I recently took a civics test, which I missed three questions out of 33, one
that I still believe I was right, but that is not to be debated here. But after
I saw my results, I saw the same results from members of Congress, which
had dismal results. Most elected leaders couldn’t answer the basic civic
questions.
So how do we expect our elected leaders to know what the rule book says
if they never studied it?
This becomes our Procedural change that we need to make in Congress:
1) In the 2010 freshman class of Congress, all were required to read and
listen to classes on the constitution, which drew criticism from the
liberal media, but provided the ground work for our newly elected
leaders.
2) Back in the mid 90’s Congressman Shadegg of the 104th Congress
put forth the Enumerated Powers Act. This is a proposed law that
would require all bills introduced in the U.S. Congress to include a
statement setting forth the specific constitutional authority under
which each bill is being enacted. In every Congress since the 104th
Congress as introduced the Enumerated Powers Act, although it has
not been passed into law. At the beginning of the 105th Congress,
the House of Representatives incorporated the substantive
requirement of the Enumerated Powers Act into the House rules
and is required for all bills being submitted.
Sadly, I can’t say the same for the Senate, it is still in Committee
after all of these years.
Our elected leaders of today need to follow the same path as
Congressman Col. David Crockett, who back in April 1829 fought a
bill that would have given $ 20,000.00 of tax payers money to the
benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several
beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The Speaker was
just about to put the question when Crockett arose:
“Mr. Speaker–I have as much respect for the memory of the
deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if
suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not
permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the
living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I
will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the
power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every
member upon this floor knows it. We have the right,
as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please
in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to
appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals
have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the
deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the
war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard
that the government was in arrears to him.
After being told that he wouldn’t get this farmers vote,
Congressman Crockett convinced his colleagues that it was wrong to
use taxpayers money for non-constitutional items.
So to condense this down for the procedural side of change, we need
to have our congress follow our constitution and only what is
declared in those fine words be followed.
b) How do we get the population back engaged in our government?
We need to teach civics and the responsibilities that are required of
this republic to know and participate in it. If I had it may way, I
would want all to take a civics test to ensure they know what the
responsibilities are, but that would never fly.
c) New Jersey lawmakers tonight voted to enact a sweeping plan to cut public worker
benefits after a long day of high-pitched political drama in the streets of Trenton and
behind closed doors.
Union members chanted outside the Statehouse and in the Assembly balcony, and
dissident Democrats tried to stall with amendments and technicalities. Although they
successfully convinced top lawmakers to remove a controversial provision restricting
public workers’ access to out-of-state medical care, they failed to halt a historic defeat
for New Jersey’s powerful unions and a political victory for Republican Gov. Chris
Christie.
“Together, we’re showing New Jersey is serious about providing long-term fiscal
stability for our children and grandchildren,” Christie said in a statement released
after the vote. “We are putting the people first and daring to touch the third rail of
politics in order to bring reform to an unsustainable system.”
Christie and Republicans banded together with Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D
-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) to advance the bill despite
opposition from the majority of Democrats who control the Legislature.
d) RGGI is back: The Democrats claim Gov. Christie doesn’t have the authority to
unilateral authority to withdraw the State from the compact.
This bill has now moved out of committee and will be up for the full senate to vote
and house.
S2250 Repeals “Global Warming Response Act” and related sections of Regional Greenhouse
Gas Initiative implementing law sponsored by: Senators Doherty, Oroho, Ciesla,
A.R.Bucco, O’Toole, Addiego, Bateman, Beck, Kyrillos, Pennacchio, Connors, Cardinale,
Sarlo, Allen, Van Drew, S.Kean and Singer
The following senators are not yet on board with repeal of the RGGI Cap & Trade energy
tax.
Contact them now and tell them to vote “NO” on S2946!
Sen. Minority Leader Tom Kean (R-21) | SenKean@njleg.org | 908-232-3673
Sen. Jim Whelan (D-2) | SenWhelan@njleg.org | 609-383-1388
Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-3) | SenSweeney@njleg.org | 856-251-9801
Sen. Fred Madden (D-4) | SenMadden@njleg.org | 856-401-3073
Sen. Donald Norcross (D-5) | SenNorcross@njleg.org | 856-547-4800
Sen. James Beach (D-6) | SenBeach@njleg.org | 856-429-1572
Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-14) | SenGreenstein@njleg.org | 609-395-9911
Sen. Shirley Turner (D-15) | SenTurner@njleg.org | 609-530-3277
Sen. Bob Smith (D-17) | SenBSmith@njleg.org | 732-752-0770
Sen. Barbara Buono (D-18) | SenBuono@njleg.org | 732-205-1372
Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-19) | SenVitale@njleg.org | 732-855-7441
Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-20) | SenLesniak@njleg.org | 908-624-0880
Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-22) | SenScutari@njleg.org | 908-587-0404
Sen. Richard Codey (D-27) | SenCodey@njleg.org | 973-731-6770
Sen. Ronald Rice (D-28) | SenRice@njleg.org | 973-371-5665
Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-29) | SenRuiz@njleg.org | 973-484-1000
Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-31) | SenCunningham@njleg.org | 201-451-5100
Sen. Brian Stack (D-33) | SenStack@njleg.org | 201-861-5091
Sen. Nia Gill (D-34) | SenGill@njleg.org | 973-509-0388
Sen. John Girgenti (D-35) | SenGirgenti@njleg.org | 973-427-1229
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-37) | SenWeinberg@njleg.org | 201-928-0100
Sen. Robert Gordon (D-38) | SenGordon@njleg.org | 201-703-9779
Why does PSEG want to keep the taxpayers of NJ and rate payers from knowing how much
Of these credits they have purchased?
Governor Christie budget address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpUgKdRmaY0
Quiz spoken about in discussion 1
http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692
| Are You Smarter Than a Politician? | ||||
| Of the 2,508 People surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions. This table shows the “knowledge gap” for each question: the difference between the percentage of common citizens who answered correctly and the percentage of officeholders who answered correctly. | ||||
| Theme of Question | Citizens | Elected Politicians |
Knowledge Gap |
|
| 1. | U.S. – Soviet Tension in 1962 | 70.09% | 56.51% | -13.58% |
| 2. | Declaration of Independence | 83.09 | 69.78 | -13.31 |
| 3. | Sputnik | 74.1 | 62.82 | -11.28 |
| 4. | Definition of Free Enterprise | 41.45 | 32.08 | -9.37 |
| 5. | M. L. King’s “I Have a Dream” | 80.5 | 71.5 | -9 |
| 6. | Electoral College | 65.88 | 57.31 | -8.57 |
| 7. | Scopes “Monkey Trial” | 67.76 | 59.21 | -8.55 |
| 8. | Susan B. Anthony | 80.84 | 72.98 | -7.86 |
| 9. | Power to Declare War | 53.6 | 45.82 | -7.78 |
| 10. | Business Profit | 49.11 | 41.38 | -7.73 |
| 11. | International Trade | 37.47 | 30.45 | -7.02 |
| 12. | FDR’s Government Programs | 66.63 | 59.73 | -6.9 |
| 13. | Abortion | 50.77 | 43.94 | -6.83 |
| 14. | Federal Branches and Foreign Policy | 54.71 | 48.39 | -6.32 |
| 15. | First Amendment Freedoms | 79.58 | 73.32 | -6.26 |
| 16. | Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas | 29.49 | 23.29 | -6.2 |
| 17. | FDR and the Supreme Court | 25.07 | 19.24 | -5.83 |
| 18. | Taxes and Government Spending | 27.7 | 22.12 | -5.58 |
| 19. | Free Markets vs. Centralized Planning | 16.25 | 10.71 | -5.54 |
| 20. | Action Prohibited by the Bill of Rights | 26.41 | 21.24 | -5.17 |
| 21. | Commander in Chief | 79.04 | 74.46 | -4.58 |
| 22. | Anti-Federalists and the Constitution | 38.22 | 33.82 | -4.4 |
| 23. | Source of phrase “a wall of separation” | 18.92 | 15.07 | -3.85 |
| 24. | Policy Tool of the Federal Reserve | 43.12 | 40.48 | -2.64 |
| 25. | Powers of the Federal Government | 75.01 | 72.69 | -2.32 |
| 26. | World War II Enemies | 68.76 | 66.58 | -2.18 |
| 27. | The Puritans | 19.1 | 17.32 | -1.78 |
| 28. | Definition of a Progressive Tax | 51.26 | 49.97 | -1.29 |
| 29. | Three Branches of Government | 49.65 | 49.32 | -0.33 |
| 30. | Definition of a Public Good | 27.6 | 28.03 | 0.43 |
| 31. | Gettysburg Address | 21.06 | 22.95 | 1.89 |
| 32. | Fiscal Policy for Economic Stimulus | 36.07 | 39.93 | 3.86 |
| 33. | Lincoln–Douglas Debates | 19.06 | 23.62 | 4.56 |
