I Paid Cash For My Clunker

Mr. Obama, I don't need "Cash for Clunkers".

About 20 days ago, I bought a 1993 Mercury Tracer Wagon.

I paid cash for my clunker.

$950 + $300 in minor repairs (needed a new power steering hose and serpentine belt). No debt. No taxes. No fees. It cost $35 total to register it for 2 years in the State of Arizona. The guy I bought it from had just run it through emissions so I didn't even have to pay for that. Maintenance costs are minimal. It gets me where I'm going. Has ice cold A/C (essential for Arizona summers). It's all I need.

What does a brand new Toyota Corolla cost, MSRP? $15,000? What percentage of people who are driving clunkers in the first place are going to have $10,000 cash to drop on a new car?

A new car that will depreciate 10+% the minute they drive it off the lot, probably more since the resale market will now be flooded with that model. They'll be paying a few thousand in interest over the life of the loan, too.

So, in addition to having more people upside down in their home mortgages, the government is now encouraging more people to become upside down on new car loans.

And they are funding this whole program with more government debt.

Not only that, they are promoting this as some way to "save the environment, resources, etc." while they turn around and order the destruction of perfectly reusable/recycleable engines and car parts.

But that is our current administration's philosophy, isn't it? We must manage our resources wisely by destroying them. We must get out of debt by incurring more. We must cut spending by increasing it. We must avoid bankruptcy by spending more than we take in.

No, thanks.

I paid cash for my clunker.

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Reading Is Fundamental

Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.) is all over the news today thanks to this gem of a quote:

I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.

“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

Congressman Conyers, I would ask you: "what good is VOTING on a bill you haven't read"?

Here is some sound wisdom from one of our founding fathers:

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow."
-- James Madison, Federalist no. 62, February 27, 1788

My Own Declaration of Independence

"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." -- The Declaration of Independence

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana, The Life of Reason

Over the course of this current General Election cycle, as the list of Presidential Candidates from the two major political parties (Democrat and Republican) has slowly been whittled down to the two remaining before us, I've repeatedly asked myself the question: "Is this the best we can do?"

Up until just a few days ago, I was prepared to cast my vote for John McCain who, in my opinion (pardon the cliche) is the "lesser of the two evils". Then a friend of mine mentioned the Constitution Party.

I was obviously aware of the existence of additional Presidential Candidates. Names like Ralph Nader pop up in the news occasionally, but I had never really considered the possibility of voting for a third party candidate.

Until now.

Why? Because, in my heart of hearts, I don't believe Barack Hussein Obama or John McCain will move this country in a direction consistent with the U.S. Constitution, the intent of our founding fathers, and my own core values.

I believe both major parties have become corrupt, drunk on their own power and influence, beholden to special interests, corporations, and the highest bidder before their own constituents. They have dragged us down a road that leads away from the very values and principles that have helped build this great nation, and can only end in failure and destruction.

And we are responsible. We have let it happen. How? By settling for "the lesser of the two evils".

Evil is evil, no matter how you look at it. Whether we are driving towards the edge of a cliff at 70 mph or 50 mph, we are still heading for ruin. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. Unless we slow down completely and turn around, we soon may not have many freedoms left to defend.

The past 2 general elections, I voted out of fear. Fear that the other guy would get in office and mess things up more than they have been. Fear that if I voted 3rd Party, it would be "throwing my vote away". Fear of the unknown.

Where has it gotten us? Under George W. Bush, government has grown like never before. Our borders have been left open for illegal immigrants to come as they please and sap our resources, only to send the money the earn illegally back to their home countries. We have become more entangled in the affairs of other nations, even waging costly war against them without an official declaration from Congress. Government spending has gone through the roof with no end in sight.

McCain has given me no reason to believe he will change any of this. He talks about cutting government spending, then turns around and approves a $700 billion bail out for failing financial institutions.

And don't get me started on Obama. I think he's dangerous. From his very own writings, he is a racist, a radical leftist who has little if any regard for our Constitution, no respect for our armed forces, police and law enforcement officers, openly associated with domestic terrorists, and believes our very way of life is "fundamentally flawed". I am not making this up. I am not saying this just to stir people up. Anyone who does any impartial investigation into who Barack Hussein Obama really is will find everything I have said to be true. Just read his own books and you will see this man's true colors.

So why, you ask, if I think Obama is so dangerous would I not vote for McCain?

Because evil is evil.

I know John McCain. He is no conservative, at least not by my standards. Sara Palin is great, but she's not running for President, is she? And I will not hope for something terrible to happen to McCain just so Palin can become President in his place. It will not change the fundamental and pervasive corruption of the Democrat and Republican parties. We've all seen it. Let's not deny it, now. That's what's gotten us into this mess.

What we need is REAL CHANGE. The only way to bring that about is to stop supporting these corrupt parties with our donations and votes. Time to start voting on principle.

The moment we compromise our principles is the moment we surrender.

For the first time in my life, I am voting for the President based on PRINCIPLE. Not out of fear. Not out of some artificial sense of "duty" or "obligation" to a party that once stood for and represented what I believe in. I will vote for the Presidential Candidate who I feel most closely represents my own principles.

One such Presidential Candidate is Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.

Not only is he a man of principle and integrity, but he and his party represent the values and principles I hold dear, and represent a growing push to return to the Constitution upon which our country was founded.

This is my own "Declaration of Independence". I declare my independence from the status quo. Independence from corrupt leaders and organizations. Independence from settling for the "lesser of two evils", or as Chuck Baldwin so eloquently put it, the "evil of two lessers".

For the first time in my short voting career, I will vote for the Presidential Candidate who most closely represents me. And I will continue to vote on principle every election hereafter.

In the 2008 General Election, I will vote for Chuck Baldwin.

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." -- John Quincy Adams