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By Cassandra Effect, February 9, 2010 10:06 am

Anthem BCBS of California to raise premiums by 39% in 2011!

In an attempt to plug into populist anger against high insurance costs, US Health and Human Services Cabinet Secretary Kathleen Sebilus accidentally proves that when a company has monopoly power, its prices are not held down by market pressures. Any chance that Obama, the Constitutional Scholar, would will be willing to consider using the Commerce Clause to open states up to interstate competition for health insurance? Don’t count on it.

From Reuters:

“These extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy,” Sebelius wrote to Anthem Blue Cross President Leslie Margolin.

While it was unclear what, if any, steps the U.S. health department could take, Sebelius said she was “very disturbed” and was “closely monitoring” the Anthem situation. State authorities in California — the nation’s most populated state — are also investigating the reported rate hike.

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By Cassandra Effect, January 11, 2010 8:18 am

U[dated 1/28/10 - Its not free anymore, but is priced at $5 per lecture ($250 for all 10).   Still a good price for what amounts to a college level course on constitutional law.

Henry Holzer, Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn Law School  is offering a FREE on line course on American Constitutional Law!  It starts on the week of January 17th through a ten lecture series he will post on his blog HERE for the next ten weeks.  

Henry is offering a paid option where you can participate via skype live during the lecture - info on the lecture is below and full info can be downloaded HERE  

Like many other Americans, I am deeply concerned about our nation’s future.

Yet with a few notable exceptions there is hardly any knowledgeable defense of our founding document to be found anywhere.   

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By Cassandra Effect, December 24, 2009 12:21 am

Another fantastic article from Tennessee State Representative Susan Lynn’s.   She is so eloquent in describing the nature of Freedom in our country – and the perversion of it by the moochers and looters  - the Conservative Women speak TRUTH TO POWER.  They are our best hope for the future.   Palin , Bachmann and now Lynn!   be sure to get a feed subscription to her blog HERE

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Let’s look at some of the foundational principles of American government; the principles that made our nation great.

The purpose of our government is to secure our rights

The Declaration of Independence established the American view of the rights of man and the duties of government. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” They concluded by stating that our “separate but equal station” with Britain and other governments of the world would give us “full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.”

Our Constitution, drafted in 1787, used the Declaration of Independence as a guide to governance. The Constitution up-holds the purpose of our government, to secure our rights, and provides seventeen specific powers to the federal government in Article 1, Section 8. Two years later a Bill of Rights was added by the states in order to prevent misconstruction and abuse of federal powers; succeeding amendments bring the total number of enumerated federal powers to 30. None of those 30 powers grant general legislative authority to the federal government. In fact, such powers belong only to the states; called police powers – states pass laws to secure the rights of individuals.

So what they created is the freest county in the world – with a government that recognizes mans’ unalienable rights, and whose purpose is to secure those rights for its citizens’. In the United States, all have freedom and all understand that we can express our freedoms until we infringe upon another’s freedom. Except where individual actions may infringe on the unalienable and Constitutional rights of another, our government is to stay out of the affairs of the people and of business.

Our government cannot take-away or infringe on our rights

Our nation, our Constitutional Republic is based upon natural rights. But just what are unalienable rights and Constitutional rights? An unalienable right is a natural right granted to man by our Creator; described ever so simply as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in our Declaration of Independence and it is also a Constitutional right. Life is, well, life. Examples of liberty are freedom to believe, or become, or protect yourself; a right to your speech, your reputation, and the things you create. Pursuit of happiness is freedom to make your own way, own your own property or live anywhere; a right to what you earn.

Constitutional rights such as trial by jury, to bear arms and vote don’t seem natural. They are not natural, but they do serve to directly secure our natural rights. For instance, who judges our actions is very important because we can lose our liberty as punishment. Arms are not natural – but protecting yourself, especially from your own government, is a natural right. Therefore, the right to bear arms serves to secure your natural rights. The right to vote protects your right to self-determination and liberty, even speech. All in all, unalienable or Constitutional, our rights are rights which no government can take-away, question or alter, they are unalienable. No social contract can cause us to surrender these rights.

Rights are of no cost to anyone else

My freedom of speech costs you nothing. Your freedom of religion costs me nothing.

The liberal error; confusing needs with rights; confusing positive and negative

What liberals tend to do is to believe that they can “create” rights out of needs and then demand those rights from the government in the form of services – such as for health care. The liberals’ major mistake is that they not only misunderstand what rights are but they also misinterpret rights as “positive rights” – in other words, that the government has an obligation to provide a particular right to each citizen.

For example, we have laws against crime, and in the past there have been times when citizens have sued the government because the police didn’t arrive in time to prevent that crime. While you have a natural right not to be harmed, there is no right to expect that the government will prevent you from becoming a victim of a crime; the government is not at any fault or liability in this instance.

Liberals need to understand that rights are natural and negative. There cannot be a natural right to health care. Making health care a right requires infringing upon your rights and the rights of others. Aches and pains are natural but there is no natural right that someone must tend to your every ache or pain. To take resources (money, labor or goods) from one to give to another violates our natural right to our own property. For the government to force you to buy something that is not for the purpose of protecting the rights of another, such as liability car insurance, is a taking of your property in direct violation of your rights.

America is about freedom

Defending our nation from foreign invaders, serving justice through the courts and constructing an orderly monetary and bankruptcy system are enumerated powers in the Constitution. Each of those federal powers helps to secure the continuance of our government, our liberty and our property. Government financing of health care is not an enumerated power of the federal government nor is health care a natural right.

In fact today, the federal government does thousands of things not enumerated in the Constitution – and although it has become customary in Washington, this is why millions object. You can’t fundamentally change the fact that the whole point and most unique feature of our American government is that the government cannot infringe or take-away our natural, unalienable or Constitutional rights.

Federal legislators have had a good time through the 20th and now 21st century infringing on the states, and satisfying the Liberals by creating all kinds of programs and laws that spend trillions and trillions of dollars, all of it at direct expense to individual freedom and liberty and states’ rights.

What most of us want liberals to understand is that the most important basic principle of our American government is – America is about freedom. The citizen is in charge. He is not just a funding source for the federal legislators’ – there are limits to federal power and purpose. It is the American people that have always solved the problems of our nation – and we must be free in order to continue to do so.

By Rep. Susan Lynn
District 57
Tennessee

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By Cassandra Effect, September 17, 2009 6:07 am

HERE is a fantastic free online educational program .  If you home school your kids, or not, take some time this week to go through this with this – or even just yourself – its very well done!

Thank you James Madison!

Read about my experience with James Madison at  Reports from the Patriotic Roadtrip – visiting Jefferson and Madison

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By Cassandra Effect, August 11, 2009 6:42 am

Powerful letter from Cassandra Effect reader and Patriot Erick Beckerwerth slamming those elected officials who seek to silence dissent.

This is an open letter to the President, all members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.  I Eric Paul Beckerwerth residing in Wylie Texas do hereby put on notice, any and all, elected officials who wish to silence our dissent.   We will NOT be silenced!  This letter will be served to the Executive branch and all members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.  I will also send copies to selected media outlets, hoping they have the courage, patriotism, and journalistic integrity to publish. 

In the past couple of weeks it appears the Executive branch along with select members of the U.S. House have insinuated that, we the people, should keep silent unless our political opinions and discourse are in line with the CURRENT majority party and their proposed legislation.  I have included a couple of notable quotes. 

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”-www.whitehouse.gov

“I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking.  I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess”-President Barack Obama

I would assume the above criticism does not include select Democrat representatives who pushed through sub-prime lending standards resulting in the collapse of the mortgage market.  Let us dispense with the finger pointing as there is plenty of blame for both parties.

Let me remind you Mr. President that we live in a Representative Republic.  Let me refresh your memory, sir, and any members of Congress who do not understand exactly what this means.  It means that I Eric Beckerwerth along with my fellow citizens elect a certain individual to be our voice, and our vote in the House of Representatives and Senate.  When you tell these people to “not do a lot of talking” and “to get out of the way” you are in essence telling me and my fellow citizens to shut up.  I did not vote for you and you ARE NOT my voice.  My voice is Congressman Ralph Hall, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and Senator John Cornyn.  I understand that there are differing political opinions and ideas, which give rise to our different representatives.  Each of whom possess a wide array of differing ideology.  I do not pretend to believe, nor would I necessarily want, all voices in Congress to be the same.  It is what has made this nation so great for over 200 years.  It is this very thing which was used to weave the fabric of our nation, and its founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  The very same Constitution you, President Barack Obama, promised to uphold and defend on January 20, 2009.

You may not like dissent, sir, you may not agree with it.  But it is up to you to defend it.  If you will not defend it, then I ask you, what kind of nation have we become, and under whose leadership did it “change”?  I do not agree with your politics or ideas but I would never try and silence them. 

When a certain individual in a prominent leadership position within the U.S. House of Representatives refers to dissent at Town Hall meeting as a “Mob”, and accuse them of wearing “swastikas” , it is highly irresponsible, verging on dangerous.

“I think they’re Astroturf… You be the judge. “They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.”-Nancy Pelosi

  I would not begin to insinuate the Democratic Party is like the Nazis of the 1930’s and 1940’s.  However, since a certain leader within the Democratic Party felt obligated to equate those at town hall meetings with the Nazis I thought I would give all members just a few items from the Nazi platform.

• Against Capitalism and Big Bank
• Against all tobacco products
• Supported Abortion and euthanasia
• Supported a Nationalized healthcare system

Which party most resembles this ideology?  I would like to stress again that I am not comparing the Democrats of the United States to the Nazi party.  However, as you can see, it is real easy to throw political stones to fit ones political agenda.  This needs to stop! 

We are not a nation of political parties, rather one nation, under God, and united under a central Government.  At present it would appear you want to defend only the rights of those with your political ideology while diminishing the rights of those who do not. 

President Obama you are one of the biggest advocates for community organizing.  You lavished high praise upon those involved in your election.  Currently, you give speeches asking the people to organize and go door to door in favor of your healthcare.  Yet the very thing for which you commend your supporters, you are condemning.  Town Hall meetings bring our voice to each of our respective ELECTED representatives, who in turn carry their vote, our vote, back to Washington D.C.  When individual Americans believe their elected officials are seizing their rights, and assuming power not granted by the Constitution it is their duty, your duty, to make their voices heard, whether you agree or NOT.

We must debate, sir, on the merits and the facts of any bill, and of any idea.  If we believe an opposing point of view is clouded in lies we should not attack with accusations.  Rather, we should debate with civility, without accusations, and without fear of suppression.  I, and I hope my fellow citizens have had enough.   All we want are the facts.  It is your duty, our duty, to expose any misconceptions or lies with concrete facts.  Just as in a court of law both sides present their facts and let the jury, in this case the American people, decide.  If you believe there are lies, I tell you to put forth the truth.  I think of a quote from Galileo “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”.  I promise you if you put them out there the American people WILL discover them.  My fellow citizens are smart, perceptive, and discerning .  It is time to stop the accusation, the name calling, and the intimidation and present the facts.  Let the American People decide for themselves what the truth is.  After all, it is Saul Alinsky who once said

 “My only fixed truth is a belief in people, a conviction that if people have the opportunity to act freely and the power to control their own destinies, they’ll generally reach the right decisions.”

I commend you sir on your election to the office of the President of the United States.  However, it is time to start acting Presidential and stop using the power of the office and the bully pulpit to control the lives and destinies of the people of the United States of America. 

Respectfully,

Eric Beckerwerth 

More at:

Lies, Misrepresentations and Weasel Words from the White House FAQ on Health Insurance Reform, part 1

White House reacts to health care dissent with more defensive propaganda

Nancy Pelosi calls health care dissent UNAMERICAN!