“The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.”
— James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States, 1790

“[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes.”
— Alexander Hamilton, letter to James Bayard, 1802

I’ve thought about this for a while. Many of you know that I believe our current federal government has stepped way over the boundaries imposed upon it by the Constitution, and that it’s long past time to correct that. To that end, here are more than a few quotes from our founders and from other wise men of the day, contrasted with statements made by our current crop of “leaders,” or with the state of affairs as it stands today. You be the judge.

If you ever needed proof that politicians don’t truly represent the people, but instead represent their pocketbooks and their “legacy,” all you have to do is look at the agreement signed by Washington’s governor “Chris” Gregoire and Seattle’s mayor Greg Nickels. If you need further proof, simply look at how long this “public safety emergency” sat in limbo waiting for a resolution.

For that matter, if you’ve long believed that politicians live in a fantasy land where prudence, foresight and simple intelligence are meaningless, all you need do is listen to (or read) the words coming out of the governor’s mouth.

"No one, is my opinion, is going to have to pay for cost overruns," she said.

Is anyone surprised? Via: http://publicola.net/?p=16697#

Public records from the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT), available here, contain a number of disturbing revelations about the process that led WSDOT to move forward with the deep-bore tunnel on the downtown waterfront early this year.

Emails, internal memos, and other agency documents reveal that WSDOT appointed longtime advocates for the deep-bore tunnel as “experts” on tunnel costs; redistributed tunnel costs to make the price appear lower; and failed to study the surface/transit/I-5 alternative, subbing in a faux four-lane “surface” alternative that included none of the transit and surface-street improvements in the surface/transit/I-5 proposal

The records come from a massive public-disclosure request filed by Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel, which is suing the state over the tunnel project, arguing that WSDOT is illegally moving forward with the tunnel before completing a state-mandated environmental review.

Among the information revealed in the records released by WSDOT:

If you read my blog at all, you know that I’m absolutely against government funded healthcare programs – at least at the federal level. The Constitution doesn’t authorize them so we shouldn’t even be having the debate about whose plan is better, or whether the program will be cost neutral or not.

The power to create a government funded healthcare program lies with the States. That’s if they want to do it and if their own constitutions allow it. So instead of having a national debate on the issue we ought to be able to focus on the merits and deficiencies of such plans at a local level.