The Descent

The arbitrary date most historical texts designate as the de facto end of the Roman Empire in the west is September 4, 476 AD. On that date a German chieftain, Odoacer ascended to the Imperial throne in Ravenna deposing the reigning Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus. The date is a convenient but arbitrary construct in that Roman bureaucratic administration continued for many decades after Romulus had retired to a comfortable life in Campania with an annual pension of 6,000 silidi. . Heretofore all Roman emperors, be they usurpers or members of dynastic families, had been undisputed citizens of the Empire.

Not a few students of history continue to draw parallels between the Roman Empire and the global role that has devolved to the United States during the last several score of years. One can be forgiven for perceiving an eerie resemblance between events occurring on that date in the 5th century and those of January 20, 2009 for the simple reason that the recently elected US president continues refusing to offer conclusive and credible documentary evidence that he is constitutionally eligible to serve in his present capacity.

In his recent book, The Ruin of the Roman Empire (which your humble blogster is just completing) James J. O'Donnell posits that in point of fact, the true author of the so called "Dark Ages" of western civilization is the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian who sent his general Belasarius to "re-conquer" the western provinces from the romanized "barbarians" we know as Goths, Ostrogoths and Vandals.


In any event, the administration of government here in the US will doubtless continue for the immediate future, but as the old cliche goes: "Nothing is Forever" and you dear reader are free to evaluate the prognostications of both doomsayers and Pollyannas.

In the meantime keep your powder dry and:

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

cross posted at: Eternity Road

A "Man of the People"

The deeds of Honduras' president in exile Mel Zelaya give new meaning to the quote from the George Orwell classic "Animal Farm": "All Animals are Equal. Pigs are however more Equal".

On Sunday 28 June Zelaya was flown from Honduras to San Jose in neighboring Costa Rica. It was only a matter of hours until the usual Leftist suspects in the hemisphere including Hugo Chávez, the Castro brothers, Daniel Ortega and our very own marxist messiah denounced the Honduran government for the supposed "coup".

In less than the first 5 days of his exile the "Man of the People" managed to run up charges on his government credit cards to the tune of USD $80,000.00+. Those silk suits used for strutting before the UN General Assembly apparently don't come cheap. Understandably the Honduran government canceled his credit cards in addition to the lease of 50 luxury cars and other perks.

The chancellor of Honduras confirmed that Mel Zelaya ordered the withdrawal of 40 million lempiras [USD $2.8 million] from the Central Bank of Honduras.

When the investigations were made at the presidential house, black garbage bags filled with thousands and thousands of dollars were found, as well as in almost every drawer.

Investigations documented over 600 million lempiras [USD $31.2 million] worth of expenditures that Zelaya had spent on his quest to hold the “opinion poll” to allow the fourth vote [to remain in office beyond the constitutional term limit].

It appears that the lawfully elected government of Honduras has been expelled from the Organization of American States while Cuba has been invited to join.

More here

h/t Daniel Duquenal

Thank You Greenies!

As if the economic situation in the country and especially California is not bad enough, just the other day Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga ordered work to be stopped on the upgrading of the Chevron Martinez refinery a short distance north of Berkeley.

To achieve the upgrade of the 107 year old refinery Chevron obtained a permit from the city of Richmond and hired over 1,000 workers late last year. Those workers will be idled by the court order but interestingly enough an attorney for the luddite environmentalist groups "Earthjustice" and "Communities for a Better Environment" Will Rostov, argues that they should be retained on the payroll. This lends new meaning to the old soviet workers truism: "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work."

It would be interesting to learn if the Greek goddess of retributive justice, Νέμεσις (Nemesis) will intervene in the state of California and assure that judges such as Ms Zuniga and attorneys such as Mr. Rostow are compensated by IOUs soon to be issued from Sacramento in lieu of legal tender.

h/t: Thomas Lifson

The "Fair Tax" coming soon?

For each of the last six years a bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman John Linder (R-Georgia) which would eliminate the Federal income tax and replace it with a sales-like tax on all commercial transactions in the US. The bill (HR 25) which currently has 55 co-sponsors has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

A book touting the bill has been co-authored by Congressman Linder and Neal Boortz, a libertarian talk radio host based in Atlanta. In the interest of full disclosure: your humble blogster has not read the book but believes he has a decent understanding of the legislative intent of the author.

The bill as introduced would abolish the current income tax, capital gains and estate taxes, eliminate the IRS and tax the sale of all goods and services at the rate of 23%. The proponents of the idea allege that the Fair tax is revenue neutral and would fund "current government expenditures at their present level". Provisions are included in the bill to re-emburse households for "basic living expenses".

The good news thus far? The present Byzantine tax code disappears as well as the gestapo-like Internal Revenue service. Also down the tubes is the ability of politicians to utilize the tax code for social engineering and to buy votes from various and sundry special interest groups. Labor and savings are not taxed and only consumption falls under the purview of the avaricious government. What's not to like?

Here are just a few of the possible down sides. Enactment of the legislation as written implies radical changes to, or outright repeal of the 16th Amendment. This requires the usual super majorities in Congress as well as ratification by the legislatures of three quarters of the states. No mean task in view of the politicians' addiction to the wielding of the taxing power at both the federal and state levels. The creation of fiat (paper and electronic) money by the politically manipulated Federal Reserve Bank as well as ongoing budgetary deficits will continue to exert inflationary pressures resulting in the temptation of Congress to raise the initial 23% rate higher.

The greatest danger your humble blogster sees in the movement of this legislation through the enactment process is the power of both houses of the Federal legislature to attach amendments. Heretofore the proposal has garnered little support from members of Congress from either party for obvious reasons. That situation is likely to change very soon for the following reason.

If the provision for repeal of the 16th Amendment is stripped from the bill the distinct possibility exists that the final version could be the enactment of the so called "Fair Tax" in addition to retention of the income tax. This euro-like monstrosity would be the "wet dream" of our current crop of collectivist politicians. We would for all intents and purposes be saddled with the European system of a progressive income tax in addition to an extremely regressive value added tax.

As Ms Duckwell says: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

cross posted at: Eternity Road

Birds of a Feather...

Graphic courtesy of: The Real Nicaragua.com

On 22 January of 1980 your humble blogster experienced the doubious honor of viewing what passed for a Nicaraguan (Sandinista) jail from the inside. The account of that saga can be read here. At the time, Daniel Ortega was "president?" of that unhappy nation. Since then, Nicaragua has experienced its ups and downs with recent emphasis on the downs by having returned the Marxist child rapist Ortega to the presidency.

One day in 1998, Zoilamerica, [Ortega's stepdaughter] a militant Sandinista, walked into one of the counselling centres she had established to challenge the cult of machismo and abuse of women and told her friend, psychiatrist Marta Cabrera, 'I want to talk.' The story she told was that since she was 11, Ortega had fondled, abused and finally raped her.

With the recent events in neighboring Honduras seizing the attention of the media, one can not be blamed for wondering what on earth is going on. A simple explanation by way of analogy is probably appropriate:

Let us suppose that in June of 2008 with the November election upcoming and George W. Bush due to be term limited out of the White House he decides to stage a special election to decide if he should be allowed to be a candidate in the November election. Houston, we have a problem. There's a little matter of the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution which clearly states that "chimpy bushitler mc halliburton" cannot be a candidate in said election. Not to worry. Since various administrations routinly ignore the Constitution, Bush proceeds to stage the special election (which he probably intends to rig anyway) but the supreme court declares the special election to be illegal and orders the military to prevent it by any means; which it proceeds to do.

That is the simplest analogous description of what has transpired in Honduras. However, Honduras being a smallish republic of about 7.5 million souls, outside powers feel free to intervene, and local governments led by those of the Marxist persuasion are lining up to flex their international muscles by restoring their soul mate Mr Zelaya to the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa (this aparently includes the Obamessiah).

The Messiah's international hands off policies only appear to apply to entrenched despots and not to democratic governments attempting to apply the rule of Law.

When in the Course of Human Events...

It seems like only yesterday we were treated by the leftists to the refrain that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism". Actually that was during the administration of "chimpy bushitler mc halliburton" which concluded a mere 5+ months ago.
Now that the political left is in the catbird seat it seems that the refrain has gone down the memory hole along with the hoola hoop and the Studebaker. The current terms used to characterize the left's political opponents are: "terrorists, right wing extremists and those guilty of "treason" (against the planet?).

In the following question posed to Speaker Karen Bass (D LA) of the California Assembly she stated:

Q. How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work?

A. The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue [tax increases]. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue [tax increases] and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair.

Free speech exercised by opponents objecting to collectivist agenda items is ALWAYS "unfair".

Recent characterizations of conservative and libertarian protesters of far left policy positions as "right wing and potential low level terrorists " continue almost unremarked except in the alternative media (internet and talk radio) which are in turn attacked as "terrorist")

In just the last few days the scam of the erstwhile religion of the global warmistas was used as a cover for the passage in the US House of Representatives of the most draconian tax and power legislation in recorded history. The occasion of the debate on this outrage elicited the assertion of one leftist "economist" on the payroll of the New York Times (Paul Krugman) that opponents of this abomination "are guilty of treason against the earth"
Could the time be approaching when it is appropriate to take down the musket above the mantle in order that it should be cleaned and oiled?

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Politically Driven Socioeconomic Suicide

While the wall to wall 24-7 Michael Jackson death freak show has occupied the attention of the MSM circus attendees, truly catastrophic events have transpired. On Friday June 26th by a vote of 218 to 212 the US House of Representatives passed Waxman-Markey, the largest tax bill in the history of organized crime government.

We are duped into believing that we, or the planet, will benefit by the micro-regulation and macro-taxation of our behaviors. Prostituted scientists and "climatologists" in black robes had christened natural, life-sustaining carbon dioxide a "poisonous pollutant." The over-reaching Environmental Protection Agency teamed with the pathetic Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to steamroller legislation before their gig was up. (Way too many inquiring minds had been exposing the AGW urgency, as presented, to be fraud. The Australian Senate is rejecting its own version of Cap-and-Trade. The EPA has been caught red-handed censoring a global-warming study that was inconvenient. New EU Parliament Group includes climate skeptics. The Polish Academy of Science is challenging man-made global warming. The earth’s temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of CO2. Green jobs are found to be a cost not a benefit to our national economy.)

Only in a society dumbed down for two plus generations by forced immersion in the government indoctrination centers skools could the nonsense that a colorless odorless gas (CO2) necessary for sustaining life itself be accepted as a poisonous pollutant needing to be taxed and regulated using political duress by a substantial portion of the population.