Tag Archives: President

Mark Caserta: Raise your hands to fight!

24 Nov

The battle belongs to the Lord!

Mark Caserta is an opinion columnist and editor for Free State Patriot

Have you looked around lately?

It’s as though people are walking about dazed and confused as to how our country hit rock bottom so rapidly.  Drivers stand at the fuel pumps shaking their heads at skyrocketing gas prices.  Grocery carts seem less filled as shoppers attempt to navigate incredible pricing.  Lines at benefacting institutions inundated with people hoping to be able to provide for their families this time of year.

I downloaded a police scanner to my phone the other night, simply needing traffic information, and I had to delete it!  The flurry of activity of the downtrodden and hopeless was inescapable!  It made me anxious and irritable, just as the mainstream media news does to so many people!

There was a time when evil tried to disguise its antics, but that’s no longer the case.  It’s ramped and in your face!  Government officials are wielding the power they’ve finagled to obtain for years.  “We the People” have become the enemy of the left.  The Constitution of the United States is being portrayed as an antiquated document written by white supremacists in an era falsely portrayed by historians.

I’m appalled at those claiming to have “awakened” to social injustice in our nation when they don’t know the first thing about history!  It’s akin to those engaging in a riot when they haven’t a clue why they’re there.  They simply join the emotions of the moment.

Abraham Lincoln once was quoted as saying, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next”?  I believe we are in the season of harvest for just that sort of progressive planting by liberals. 

For decades progressives have fought tumultuously to remove any semblance of God from society, beginning with the classroom.  Without the Bible, morality and principles fall on a sliding scale commensurate with the movement of the day.  Activity one witnesses on mainstream television would have been deemed highly inappropriate even 20 years ago.

Liberals operate in a process called, “desensitization”.  Their modus operandi is to gradually move the needle of acceptable behavior with an infinite number of small victories.  Incorporated into a long-term plan, these wins moderately but consistently produce an altered degree of acceptance.

We essentially have become desensitized to the behavior and allow it to exist.  Yes, we allow it.

Why do you think the Bible says dozens of times that God’s Word is everlasting? It brilliantly reflects the holy, unchanging character of God Himself!  God knew that mankind, in their consistent failures, would attempt to change the rules to accommodate their lustful behavior.  Hence, removal of God’s Word is prerequisite to an adaptive and progressive lifestyle.

So, what does all this have to do with what’s happening around us?  Everything!  Understand, God’s strength is made manifest in our weakness.  We must humble ourselves and seek His face in resolving the world’s problems.

No man or woman is going to be able to repair the devastation in which we find ourselves.  God may choose to use them as an instrument, but His Will and Works will be the key.

Every election season, people ask me how they should vote.  I will continue to recommend they become knowledgeable about the issues and pray about how and for whom to vote.

Only God knows at this point. 

I heard a pastor from my church recently say, “When I raise my hands to fight, I raise them like this!”  He had his hand raised in the air, praising God!

Good words for us all.

Obama acts is if he’s above the law; he’s not

29 Apr

one bill at at time

Feb. 27, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

What liberals refer to as “obstructionist” tactics by Republicans in blocking the socialist policies of Barack Hussein Obama, conservatives call “preserving the Constitution.”

It’s interesting that while the president has often referred to himself as a “constitutional law professor,” the title is somewhat gratuitous. While never a full-time or tenured professor, he did teach courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago as a “senior lecturer.”

Unfortunately, rather than use his knowledge to adhere to its provisions, the president has chosen to test the boundaries of our government’s founding document.

Article II, Section 3 of the U. S. Constitution, sometimes known as the “Faithful Execution Clause,” is best read as a duty that qualifies the president’s executive power. By virtue of this power, the president is required to “take care” that our nation’s laws are “faithfully executed.”

But not only has Obama been derelict in his duty to protect our laws, he’s an offender.

As Democrats are so fond of reminding Republicans, Obamacare is now the law of the land.

But despite the fact The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was indeed signed into law in 2010 and ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court, President Obama believes it’s within his power to make changes without Congressional action!

Our Constitution clearly grants legislative powers to Congress. The president does not have the authority to arbitrarily “alter” legislation signed into law.

The employer mandate, which requires businesses employing 50 or more full-time employees to provide health insurance or pay a fine, was scheduled to take effect in 2014, but has been delayed entirely or in part, twice, by the president!

The fact that Obamacare is poor legislation doesn’t grant the president powers exceeding those afforded him by the Constitution.

And in the first case of its kind, the Supreme Court is now arguing the legality of four “recess” appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2012. The Constitution allows the president to make temporary appointments to those positions that otherwise require Senate confirmation, but only when the Senate is in recess. The problem is — the Senate was not in recess!

Three federal appeals courts have already ruled that Obama overstepped his authority in these appointments.

It’s obvious the president is following the “executive version” of the liberal playbook which calls for continuous contestation of preconceived limitations designed to “progressively” tilt the scales of totalitarian power to the left.

President Obama is arguably the most liberal president in our nation’s history. If he’s successful in these attempts to bypass our nation’s laws, what leftist policies will he pursue in his remaining years in office?

The U.S. Constitution is not merely a guideline to be consulted by those it was written to regulate. It’s the supreme law of the land written to protect the rights of all Americans and must be protected.

It’s time Americans “tether” President Obama to the Constitution and hold him accountable for adhering to its precepts.

This president is not above the law.

Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

Words of Wisdom: Doug Smith

19 Mar

To my blog family: This is a must read in response to a question about the day in which we live from a wise compadre, Doug Smith Reagan
——————————————————————————————

I don’t concern myself with eschatology so much anymore. although I used to. The end? Well, it will come when it comes, and neither me, nor anyone else will know in advance. So live life as if today were your last day. Someday you ll be correct, and you will waste less of the time you have.
Now, that being said, I do think we are in a dangerous world. If you were looking at an Olde World map, there would be many places marked ” Heere there be Dragons. ” There are, as there have been always, wolves, bandits, men who believe that they can and should take what others have if they have the strength to do so. It is a lazy and evil attitude. It says I will not work hard to have what you have, I will not emulate your hard work and gain the same rewards you gained, I will wait for your work to be done and hit you and take it.

It began with Cain. It has never stopped. Unfortunately, there are also, and have always been, naïve , childlike men who believe in the world as they think it ought to be, and refuse to see the world as it is. And when these naïfs manage to get in control with high sounding but empty words, the results are based in the reality of what an adult would expect.

You don’t let your 4 year old drive your car, because you know what to expect. You don’t let a dangerous animal near your family, because you know it may attack. You build fences to keep out the bear. If it comes to close, you shoot at it. You let it know that you are as dangerous as it is. Otherwise it will come into your camp and eat your food, and perhaps, you.

I first noticed these things when Jimmy Carter was President. But in looking back across my lifetime, I have now noted a pattern. JFK met with Khrushchev, and that hungry old bear left with the impression the man was weak and feckless. A spoiled rich boy, not able to do anything without his daddy s money; Nikita saw no challenge in the man. His bumbling betrayal of the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs reinforced the impression that there was no substance to the man. And so we got the Cuban Missile Crisis. And I, along with millions of other children, were taught to cower under a desk to protect me from a thermonuclear blast hitting the Nickel Plant. Although the popular myth of the time was ” the Bear blinked, “, we now know that in fact, Kennedy quietly agreed to what he wanted all along. A few months after the Crisis passed, we removed our missiles from Turkey. A weak President, a challenge by a bandit, and a loss to America.

Jimmy Carter s weakness and incredibly naïve reading of world politics gave us the Mullahs in Iran, the hostage crisis, and gave rise the the modern Islamic terrorist threat we see around today. It makes a fine statement on those naïve supporters that a weak man who facilitated more violence and armed conflict than perhaps any other 20th century President was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On the other hand, they also awarded it to Woodrow Wilson, who was re elected based on staying out of WW1, and launched us into it a month later.

Ford was tested by the Vietnamese and responded strongly. And we had a period of relative peace. Reagan and Kaddafi reached an understanding. Khadafy would shut up and not support terrorists against US interests, and Reagan would not bomb his tent anymore. He was winding up again during the Clinton years, and had an active WMD program. But strangely, in the month that the Iraq war started, he contacted the Brits and began to negotiate shutting it down. 9 months later, the US airlifted 25 metric tons of material and equipment for producing nuclear weapons out of Libya.

So now? We have weak, inexperienced, feckless, naïve leaders at the helm of the strongest nation in history. Common sense, and the evidence of my eyes, tells me that bandits and bullies will press their advantage. What will happen exactly? I don’t know. It will not be in our interests. Make no mistake, the bandits and bullies of the world pay attention to US politics. They do what they can, through propaganda or money, to put the sort of leaders in place that are beneficial to them.

The times are perilous. Our leaders are ineffective. Elections have consequences. Real, life and death consequences. The numbers tell us that Obama got fewer votes in 12 than in 08. 4 million Republican voters sat out the election, because Romney was an admittedly imperfect candidate. Yet if those 4 million had done what I did, ie held their noses and voted, Romney would be President. Elections have consequences.

If you are a Republican who sat at home in 2012 because you wanted Gingrich, or Herman Cain, or some other candidate, then YOU are as responsible for this second 4 years of trouble under Obama as the ” give me ” crowd who voted for him as Santa Claus. Don’t whine about how bad it is, and whine OH what can we do anyway, if you didn’t bother to cast your vote. You like what you have now? No? Then don’t sit home this fall. Don’t sit home in 2016. Don’t ever sit home again if you have breath in you.

William F Buckley said ” Support the most right leaning viable candidate. ” Wise words. A very conservative candidate with no hope of winning is a waste of time. A failure to vote for a candidate who is not all you want, but is closer than the opposition is politically no different than voting for the most radical leftist out there. And thus we suffer with Barack Obama. I hope this dangerous world scares every conservative, every Christian, to the point that they will never again fail to vote, and get their friends out to vote. THAT is the thing we can do. There may be more, but when we fail to do even that, then shame.

” All that is required for evil to win, is for good men to do nothing.” That applies to Barack Obama s dealings with Putin and Iran and North Korea and China. But it applies equally to the electorate and Barack Obama. Find the good as you see it, and support it all you can. Failing to do this means that evil will gain. Whether Obama is evil or naïve and misguided, I cannot say. I don’t see inside him. But his actions are such that they permit evil to gain ground. So when we permit him to win, we do the same thing.

Now, the WV 3rd race between Rahall and Jenkins is getting national attention, because for the first time there is a real chance that a Dem will lose the district. Pulling power from the Dems in Congress lowers Obama s ability to do the misguided things he does. Capito has a real chance to capture the Senate seat of Rockafeller. WV could be one of the states that wrests control of the Senate from Harry Ried and finally puts the brakes on the Obama agenda. So there is something you can do, if we are still around in November.

Christians are wont to say, I will do such and such if the Lord tarries. Don’t worry about that. Do the right thing today. If the Lord comes, you ll hear about it, trust me. Meantime, do the right thing today.

Ok, that’s my take on it.

9 hours ago · Like · 1

Mark Caserta: Social progressives are ruining America

16 Mar

GOD'S WORD VS MANMar. 13, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

America is in a state of rapid decline, with nearly every measure of society spiraling in efficacy.

Socially, our nation is becoming morally anemic. While understanding the family unit is God’s foundation for our purposeful growth, progressives have waged a relentless attack on traditional marriage. Their tenacity has successfully moved our nation to the acceptance of same-sex parents with the term “partner” used over the time-honored titles of “husband” and “wife.”

As purity loses its value and augmented by the declining number of marriages in our nation, more and more babies are being born out of wedlock. A 2012 study sponsored by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia shows that nearly half of “first” babies born in the U.S. are born to unwed mothers.

Economically speaking, our nation’s financial woes have never been worse. Washington continues to spend money we simply don’t have and five years into the Obama presidency, Americans have little to show for the president’s $787 billion stimulus package.

Under this administration, the labor force participation rate is the lowest in three decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of people relying on food stamps is at a record high at 48 million, or a 49 percent increase since Obama took office.

And with millions of Americans out of work, liberals have conveniently forgotten the “shovel-ready jobs” promise president-elect Obama made in December 2008. “I’m confident … our 21st century investments will create jobs immediately,” Obama said while speaking in Chicago. “We’ve got shovel-ready projects all across the country.”

But the jobs never materialized. And although many struggling families took this president at his word, this “executive miss” gave Obama a little “chuckle” while meeting with his jobs council in 2011. He remarked that “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.”

Internationally, America’s relationship with the world has never been more problematic. We’ve opened ourselves to unprecedented challenge by countries across the globe who have longed for a moment in time when the “mighty” U.S. would falter under dysfunctional leadership.

Barack Obama set the stage early in his presidency when he took his international “apology tour” on the road. In less than 100 days, the president apologized on three continents for what he views as the sins of America and his predecessors, lavishing his country with descriptors like “arrogant,” “dismissive” and “even derisive.”

While hardly words of a patriot, this admission of fault and subsequent “passive” leadership has emboldened our enemies and alienated our allies. This administration’s failure in its goal to “reset” relations with Russia is only the most recent example of impotent leadership, and might indeed reinstate a Cold War.

Progressives are destroying our nation. Their ideology is depreciating America both domestically and internationally, and the American people are paying the price.

America can once again become the beacon of freedom and liberty across the globe simply by returning to the conservative principles which made us great.

It’s time to stop the progressive movement and “reset” American exceptionalism.

Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

Mark Caserta: Obamacare works, but not for America

9 Mar

imagesMar. 06, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

Liberals keep telling Americans that Obamacare is working, and they may be right.

In fact, last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Americans that all of the Obamacare “horror stories” simply aren’t true.

“There’s plenty of horror stories being told,” Reid said from the Senate floor about Republicans. “All of them are untrue, but they’re being told all over America.”

I’m not sure Betsy Tadder from Illinois would agree.

In an interview with Fox News last fall, Ms. Tadder shared the uncertainty she now faces after her health insurance carrier canceled her policy.

Betsy Tadder previously paid $454 a month for a plan she liked, but it was set to end in December. After searching her options, the cheapest replacement plan she could find will cost her $871, nearly twice the cost of her canceled plan and with a much higher deductible.

“I could stretch my budget to afford a policy, but the deductible is $12,700. I don’t have $12,700 to pay for a deductible on Obamacare,” Tadder said. She went on to explain that her income was too high for subsidies, but too low for a better policy.

It’s interesting Senator Reid would accuse Republicans of lying about Obamacare when the president’s entire signature healthcare reform bill was sold on a series of lies.

The president misled Americans by promising they could choose to keep their healthcare plan or doctor if they wanted. He also led Americans to believe the typical family would receive a $2,500 annual reduction in their annual premium. Both were dubbed lies by Politifact.com.

And Americans were lied to about Obamacare providing affordable health insurance for every American. Based on the Congressional Budget Office’s February 2014 Baseline analysis, 31 million non-elderly Americans will be left uninsured by the year 2016.

So in the midst of the deception and with millions of Americans having already lost their health insurance, why would liberals keep insisting Obamacare is working?

I submit that Obamacare isn’t about providing affordable healthcare to more Americans at all.

It’s about fundamentally changing America with increased government control in our lives.

Understand the entire success of Obama’s plan depends on the Marxist principles of redistribution. People who once had affordable healthcare are being forced into a “community” of buyers where those “who have” support those “who do not.”

Socialism openly declares that “their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.” And life’s possessions are taken “from each according to his abilities” and redistributed to “each according to his needs.”

And liberals qualify the millions of canceled policies by telling American’s they simply weren’t smart enough to figure out their policies weren’t any good. But no worries, we now have a leader who knows what’s best for everyone.

Is this really the America we want to leave for our children? Do we really want the government making these decisions for us?

Obama’s ideology better aligns with The Communist Manifesto than with the U.S. Constitution.

Yes, Obamacare is working all right. It’s working against America.

Obama acts is if he’s above the law; he’s not

3 Mar

2013-01-16T174655Z_521997241_TB3E91G1DDYFP_RTRMADP_3_USA-GUNS-OBAMA

Feb. 27, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

What liberals refer to as “obstructionist” tactics by Republicans in blocking the socialist policies of Barack Hussein Obama, conservatives call “preserving the Constitution.”

It’s interesting that while the president has often referred to himself as a “constitutional law professor,” the title is somewhat gratuitous. While never a full-time or tenured professor, he did teach courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago as a “senior lecturer.”

Unfortunately, rather than use his knowledge to adhere to its provisions, the president has chosen to test the boundaries of our government’s founding document.

Article II, Section 3 of the U. S. Constitution, sometimes known as the “Faithful Execution Clause,” is best read as a duty that qualifies the president’s executive power. By virtue of this power, the president is required to “take care” that our nation’s laws are “faithfully executed.”

But not only has Obama been derelict in his duty to protect our laws, he’s an offender.

As Democrats are so fond of reminding Republicans, Obamacare is now the law of the land.

But despite the fact The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was indeed signed into law in 2010 and ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court, President Obama believes it’s within his power to make changes without Congressional action!

Our Constitution clearly grants legislative powers to Congress. The president does not have the authority to arbitrarily “alter” legislation signed into law.

The employer mandate, which requires businesses employing 50 or more full-time employees to provide health insurance or pay a fine, was scheduled to take effect in 2014, but has been delayed entirely or in part, twice, by the president!

The fact that Obamacare is poor legislation doesn’t grant the president powers exceeding those afforded him by the Constitution.

And in the first case of its kind, the Supreme Court is now arguing the legality of four “recess” appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2012. The Constitution allows the president to make temporary appointments to those positions that otherwise require Senate confirmation, but only when the Senate is in recess. The problem is — the Senate was not in recess!

Three federal appeals courts have already ruled that Obama overstepped his authority in these appointments.

It’s obvious the president is following the “executive version” of the liberal playbook which calls for continuous contestation of preconceived limitations designed to “progressively” tilt the scales of totalitarian power to the left.

President Obama is arguably the most liberal president in our nation’s history. If he’s successful in these attempts to bypass our nation’s laws, what leftist policies will he pursue in his remaining years in office?

The U.S. Constitution is not merely a guideline to be consulted by those it was written to regulate. It’s the supreme law of the land written to protect the rights of all Americans and must be protected.

It’s time Americans “tether” President Obama to the Constitution and hold him accountable for adhering to its precepts.

This president is not above the law.

Obamacare projected to cut employment

13 Feb

obamacare 3 years laterFeb. 13, 2014 @ 07:11 AM

MARK CASERTA

Can it get any worse for Barack Obama and his signa­ture healthcare law? Until now, the Obama administra­tion has only had to worry about stories of canceled health plans, low enrollment and a botched website rollout. But now they’ll have to figure a way to counter last week’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures regarding Obamacare’s projected impact on jobs and the economy.

Last week CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf delivered testimony on Capitol Hill that the Affordable Care Act will create a “disincentive for people to work,” adding fuel to Republican arguments that the law will hurt the economy.

The non-partisan CBO report found that more people would opt to keep their income low to stay eligible for federal health care subsidies or Med­icaid. The workforce changes would mean nationwide losses equal to 2.3 million full-time jobs by 2021, the report said.

House Speaker John Boehner believes the report validates the GOP’s longstanding concerns.

“For years, Republicans have said that the president’s health care law creates uncertainty for small businesses, hurts take-home pay, and makes it harder to invest in new work­ers,” Boehner said in a state­ment. “The middle class is get­ting squeezed in this economy, and this CBO report confirms that Obamacare is making it worse .” Interestingly, the mounting evidence against the presi­dent’s healthcare law has even liberals admitting the bill may be flawed. Yet many still sug­gest it will provide affordable healthcare for everyone.

Time truly dissipates the facts, so allow me to refresh the memories of forgetful liberals.

Pre-Obamacare, based on a 2011 study by the Department of Health and Human Services, there were approximately 25 million people in our nation uninsured. But according to the CBO, once the bill is fully implemented, the end result will be approximately 30 mil­lion people still left uninsured! Sure, there will be new people getting health care coverage. But liberals ignore the mil­lions who have already lost their coverage and the millions more projected to lose their coverage when the employer mandate takes effect in 2015 for larger businesses.

Liberals also ignore the fact that Barack Hussein Obama knowingly misled Americans into thinking they could keep their healthcare coverage if they liked it.

“No matter how we reform health care, I intend to keep this promise,” Obama told a Town hall in Wisconsin. “If you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan.” This grandiose misrepresen­tation won Obama the Politi­fact “Lie of the Year” award. Attempting to rewrite history by claiming what he “actually” said was Americans could keep their plan “if it hasn’t changed since the law passed” was deemed a “pants on fire” lie by Politifact.

Sadly, this legislation was deceitfully sold to Americans and is being blindly supported by liberal minions who believe this president can do no wrong.

But when the smoke clears, Obamacare will have had a devastating impact on jobs and our economy.

And Barack Obama will have forged a legacy of failure at America’s expense.

Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dis­patch editorial page

Mark Caserta: Americans will not succumb to tyranny

6 Feb

bill of rightsFeb. 05, 2014 @ 10:06 PM

The Herald-Dispatch / 2014

I’ve always honored the word “republic.”

A hallowed term that echoes through the halls of Congress, it embodies the spirit of every man and woman who has given their life to secure our nation’s form of government.

A republic is a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives as compared with a monarchy or a form of government where power rests in a single individual.

But, then there’s the presidential executive order.

An executive order is a remarkable power given to the president of the United States to enact law without the input of our elected representatives. Executive orders can only be given to federal or state agencies, not to citizens.

While it’s true that from the founding of our nation, American presidents have issued various types of executive orders, the practice isn’t without controversy.

The Constitution applies a “broad” brush stroke in defining the president’s power of executive order and there are some legitimate applications. But a chief executive to whom such sweeping power is afforded must be held to the highest possible standard.

If a president is proven to enact law irrespective of the wishes of the American people and their elected officials, it’s my belief such actions threaten our republic and fall under the periphery of Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which calls for impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Last week, during Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, the president unabashedly previewed his intent to circumvent Congressional representatives if they are unwilling to pass legislation aligning with his ideology.

“I’m eager to work with all of you,” Obama told lawmakers. “But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Why does this president perpetually patronize Americans with his insistence that he knows best? In bypassing Congress, he literally eradicates elected representation for individuals or families unable to represent themselves and fundamentally threatens the liberty of every American.

Legislators like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) believe Obama is clearly “outside the bounds” of his constitutional limitations.

“This threat that the president’s going to run the government with an ink pen and executive orders, we’ve never had a president with that level of audacity and that level of contempt for his own oath of office,” King told CNN last week.

And for Democrat legislators to “cheer” the president as he promised to bypass them in the legislative process in his State of the Union address is symbolic of anemic liberal leadership, and frankly mind-numbing.

The very precept of our republic is being ostentatiously challenged in a manner which threatens our liberty and representative form of government.

Our country did not become the greatest nation in the world on the back of any single individual. For Barack Obama to espouse wisdom transcending the combined counsel of our elected representatives is a quintessential display of tyrannical rule.

And Americans will not succumb to tyranny.

Mark Caserta: Americans can’t compromise privacy for security

30 Jan

NSA
Jan. 30, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

Do Americans have a fundamental right to privacy from government intrusion into their lives?

The right to privacy, in many ways, has been taken for granted to some degree by the American people. Each of us has grown accustomed to having the liberty to establish varying boundaries in our lives that we simply expect others to respect.

But the right to keep those boundaries might be in peril.

While the Constitution contains no “express” right to privacy, courts have ruled the Bill of Rights creates “zones of privacy” which protect us from government intrusion in many areas of our lives. Our Founding Fathers believed that smaller, less intrusive government was necessary in enabling Americans to be free.

I’ve been tentative about weighing in on National Security Agency (NSA) systems analyst Edward Snowden and his “whistle blowing” of our government’s security techniques to the world. But it’s time Americans begin processing how this information may impact our future personal freedoms.

Snowden revealed a top-secret program code-named “PRISM” operating under the provisions of the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the government uses to collect personal data from American citizens indiscriminately and regardless of suspicion of wrongdoing.

Investigations have confirmed that data such as video chats, photographs and emails are collected from the servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and other online companies.

My position has been this is an infringement upon the privacy rights of Americans. While Snowden “appeared” courageous in his whistle blowing, he should have presented his case through the proper venues — an error which will likely keep him from ever returning home.

But then last week, two leading members of the House Intelligence Committee revealed a classified Pentagon report that found Edward Snowden’s leaks have compromised U.S. military tactics and put troops in danger.

Republican committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers and ranking Democrat Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger said that Snowden stole approximately 1.7 million intelligence files that “concern vital operations of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.” Since this information has already aided the enemy, Snowden is now pegged a traitor.

“The vast majority of the material was related to the Defense Department, and our military services,” Rogers said in an Associated Press interview last week. “Clearly, given the scope and the types of information, I have concerns about operations that would be ongoing in Afghanistan.”

It’s important for Americans to maintain perspective here and not be swayed by political affiliation.

Our government has been exposed (albeit by a traitor) “experimenting” with the boundaries of privacy afforded by the U.S. Constitution.

In 2013, President Barack Obama, himself a constitutional lawyer, told Americans they were “going to have to make some choices” balancing privacy and security and defended the NSA surveillance program vigorously.

Consider this: If our privacy isn’t protected by the Constitution, what then, defines the government’s limitations?

Americans should never be asked to give up fundamental rights to gain the government’s protection.

That’s a dangerous step backward.

Mark Caserta : Ignoring insurance mandate could be costly

26 Jan

irs
Jan. 23, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

Over the past several months, the Obama administration has primarily employed a “soft approach” in convincing individuals to enroll on their health insurance marketplace website.

But their approach will most certainly “broaden” in scope very soon.

March 31 is the open-enrollment deadline for Americans to purchase healthcare coverage as required by the Obamacare individual mandate.

Beginning next year, absent a qualifying exemption, the IRS will begin financially penalizing Americans who refuse to follow the Democrats’ marching orders.

Following this weighty deadline, the IRS will begin “casting its net” to capture what the administration calls a “shared responsibility payment” from individuals who chose “not” to purchase health insurance.

Now, the infinite details would be impossible to capture in a few words, but I’ll highlight the “big rocks.”

While the penalty begins small, it increases in subsequent years and could conceivably reach thousands of dollars per family per year once fully implemented.

The IRS website provides a sequential look at the increases over the next few years:

2014: $95 per person per year or 1 percent of your income.

2015: $325 per person per year or 2 percent of your income.

2016: $695 per person per year or 2.5 percent of your income.

2017: Tax penalty will increase by the rate of inflation going forward, or 2.5 percent of your income.

It’s noteworthy that these percentages are based on your modified adjusted gross income, which adds back certain deductions such as IRA contributions and student loan or higher education deductions. It’s also pro-rated for the number of months you are without coverage beginning after three months.

Currently, the only means the IRS has to collect the penalty is to withhold any money you would get back after filing your income tax returns.

“The amount of the shared responsibility payment will be included on the annual Form 1040 starting with the 2014 return taxpayers file,” Eric Smith, an IRS spokesperson told U.S. News. “It will offset any refund that would otherwise be due or will add to any balance due.”

Now there’s a laundry list of qualifying exemptions, many which benefit low-income Americans. For example, if the lowest-priced coverage available to you would cost more than 8 percent of your household income or if your income is less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, you’ll be relieved of any penalty.

Additional information can be obtained by visiting http://www.irs.gov.

The road ahead is marred with potholes of uncertainty. Higher medical costs, shortage of doctors and longer wait times are all possibilities. If insurance providers collapse under the changes, the government will most likely step in and “rescue” Americans with a single-payer, government-run, healthcare system.

This administration’s belief that Americans have “shared” responsibility in paying for other people’s health insurance aligns perfectly with Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” ideology.

Each of us must take personal responsibility and seek our best possible options while they’re still available.

But ignoring Obamacare’s individual mandate won’t be a choice.

Doing so could be costly.