9/12: May 13, 2009

Wow! I attended another 9/12 meeting tonight. It was awesome. There are lots of things going on which should encourage even the most depressed conservative.

Independent Caucus: This is an independent movement to take our government back from the "Big Money" special interests. This group intends to send every Congressman/woman a Pink Slip...and a Tea Bag from thousands of people in their districts nation wide. And they intend to film the reaction at each Congressional office when the bag is delivered.

We watched a video presentation about why it is so hard to unseat an incumbent Congressional politician. Why do 94% of incumbents get re-elected when they have only a 10% approval rating? "Big Money" from lobbyists makes it almost impossible to fund a challenger adequately .

Montana: Two days ago, the Governor of Montana signed into law a bill which says that firearms, ammunition or associated equipment, manufactured in Montana are NOT under the control of the federal government. It is a state's rights issue and it will go to the Supreme Court. This is a big deal.

Patrick Henry Caucus: Carl Wimmer, a member of the Utah Legislature started the Patrick Henry Caucus in Utah. He was on Glenn Beck last week talking about the landmark Montana legislation. Utah is working on a similar, but more broad state's rights bill. Texas is moving forward with similar legislation. We watched this portion of the Glenn Beck program. It was inspiring. Utah intends to take back all state's rights bestowed by the Constitution.

Larry Bodily explained how the federal government usurped state's rights back in the 1930s. They did it over the issue of interstate commerce. Apparently a farmer, who owned a bakery, was growing his own wheat, making bread products and selling them all within his state...no interstate commerce. The federal government had no control over him or his products under the then current Constitutional law. They used him as a test case. They came up with the screwball argument, that because he was NOT engaging in interstate commerce he was actually affecting interstate commerce negatively... therefore he could be regulated and taxed. The supreme court upheld that action...following which anything and everything could be defined as falling under the definition of interstate commerce...controlled and taxed by the federal government.

Glenn Beck was beside himself when one of his guests, who was a retired judge, said that this would the biggest supreme court case since Roe vs Wade...and the current conservative court would reverse a 70 year old law. Glenn begged the supreme court members to "eat your vegies...stay healthy...don't any of you dare die on us". The whole audience applauded after that short video clip.

There is a Tea Party at the Utah State Capitol next Wednesday at noon to celebrate the formation of the Patrick Henry Caucus to take our States' Rights back. Think I may go. This is getting exciting!