‘The Man’ – Making a Case for Better Police…

From: GemStatePatriot.com                                     by Rich Loudenback

Most people take police for granted and give little thought to the fantastic ‘value’ they are for our taxpayer dollars. Because, inside that symbolic uniform is a multi-talented individual that must ‘perform’ daily to impeccable standards and unfortunately for a pittance compared to his worth.

Incidentally, let me digress a moment. If a female officer of the law should appear at my door with questions or whatever, in my eyes she is ‘The Man.’ I’m as tired as most people of all this PC speak and sensitivities about gender. It does get ridiculous to be all inclusive all the time when the obvious is apparent. When I say policemen, I’m sure that most people acknowledge the existence and inclusion of policewomen. With deference to the ladies, since this column is titled ‘The Man’ and it is my column, I will be the lazy, old fashioned, creature of habit that I basically am, and do it my way. Besides, I really doubt that God is a she.

Now, back to police work. Policemen must naturally know law, (federal, state, county and city); keep abreast of applications and changes; collect evidence, operate various equipment including computers and firearms; undergo physical training; keep up with constant paperwork; work irregular hours; be on call 24/7; live with stress; be prepared to risk their lives; be expected to accurately testify in court maybe months after an event; are constantly vulnerable to lawsuits and be effectively assertive as well as making judgement calls about applying phycology when necessary.

No matter what they are paid for all this to be done well, in most cases, I believe most of them are grossly underpaid. If we were paying more closely to their worth we would attract what we should want in these positions and that would be the very best we can find.

A website named Payscale.com reports as of Jan. 2016 that the median pay A Police Officer earns an average salary of $48,337 per year in a range from $31,981` to $82,266.

Preliminary statistics released by the FBI last May show that 41 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014. An additional 45 officers were killed in 2015 in line-of-duty accidents, which include officer deaths that are found not to be willful and intentional.

RECENT EVENTS, CONSIDERED

Now, dealing with the big current news about the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota last week. We should not prejudge these sad events, but the news we see does not look well for the police. My personal opinion is that irrespective of the competence of the police, emotional stability or and in the Minnesota case grabbing a gun thought to be a Taser might have happened. Both these killings were a disaster. I think it possible that the caliber of the people in uniforms might have been better. My heart goes out to the families of the slain men and from what I saw, it is my opinion that it wasn’t a black white thing, but over emotional actions on the part of the police without consideration of race. But, I could be wrong.

FAR MORE WHITES KILLED BY U.S. POLICE

Citing The New Observer.com article ‘Far More Whites Killed by U.S. Police’ last November, “Far more white people than blacks are killed by police in America, both proportionally to their population sizes and in real numbers, completely contrary to the anti-white propaganda put out by the “Black Lives Matter” campaign and its allies.

“According to statistics maintained by the far-left extremist Guardian newspaper in Britain, more than half of all people killed by US police this year have been white, while only 25 percent have been black.

“The Guardian’s statistics are contained in a tally of police killings maintained by that newspaper on a site titled “The Counted.” This was set up by the far-leftist newspaper with the intention of “proving” how “racist” the police in America are—an aim which has now completely backfired in face of the facts.

“According to the Guardian’s tally, of the approximately 1001 people killed by police this year in America, 502 were white, 250 were black, 163 were Hispanic/Latino, 18 were Asian/Pacific Islander, 13 were American Indian, and 54 were other/unknown.” – Unquote The New Observor.com

CITIZENS: GIVE THANKS

Compensation, work load, lack of incentive, stress, danger, attitudes of the public they work so hard to protect and serve, obviously all contribute to recruitment and turn over problems in police departments.

Sure we would like to pay them more, but there is a thing called budgets. OK, but what are we getting for our money in those budgets? There is always waste and misdirection of funds to be dealt with, but I think all lives would be better and safer if we were able to attract the cream of the crop in police work. I say the prioritizing of deserved pay for these fine patriots is necessary and long overdue. Out with the chaff and in with the cream of the crop. Not in the budget? Find a way. It should be a priority. You win in the long run by stopping turnover and expensive re-training and costs of errors and incompetence.

They are called by many different nicknames: Bears, Smokey, Boys in blue, COP (Constable on Patrol), Copper, County Mountie, Flatfoot, Fuzz, Gumshoe, and who know why, Pig, which should be a crime. But always respectfully, my favorite nickname will always be ‘The Man.’

Is The Heartland Institute Smoke and Mirrors?

 

This is a reply to the Heartland Institute’s Kyle Maichle’s July 6, 2016 Letter to the Editor posting “Not so, sir” which is in response to my My Turn column titled ‘The Unrelenting Con-Con Con’ published June 21st in the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Allegation #1. The ASL (Assembly of State Legislatures) killed a proposal for an Electoral College style system of delegate apportionment:

Paraphrasing Christian Gomez of The New American magazine (TNA) in his article ‘Republicans and Democrats Working Together:’ “On June 12-13, 2014, the Indiana State Legislature hosted a meeting of state legislators, composed of both Republicans and progressive Democrats, to prepare for a future Article V “convention of the states. Formerly known as the Mount Vernon Assembly and renamed at the June meeting, ASL appears to be the brainchild of Republican State Representative Chris Kapenga of Wisconsin.

…. Further quoting Mr. Gomez: “Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 Congress is granted the power to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution” Article V’s constitutional mandate that Congress, “on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments.” Constitutionally, Congress has and will execute all the powers it deems necessary for calling a convention. This would likely include choosing the location and date of the convention, allocation of delegates from the states (whether proportional by population, congressional district, one per state, etc.), the method of ratification for any proposed amendments to the Constitution, and all other preliminary rules associated with the convention.”

…. “Put simply, the power to establish such rules resides exclusively with Congress. It is not a state-led process as Kapenga and others in the pro-Article V camp maintain.”

Allegation #2. The Idaho Legislature also has authority to codify in their state statutes additional mechanisms to control the conduct of delegates and limit special interest influence:

Mr. Gomez again, “Of course, once an Article V convention actually convenes, it would then be free to create its own agenda, including possibly even coming up with a new ratification process, as was the case with the Constitutional Convention of 1787. But this historical fact underscores even more the fact that the states cannot bind the work of the convention.”

…. “Despite Kapenga’s denial that a “Convention of the States” and a “constitutional convention” are the same thing, the text of this Article V application, cosponsored and introduced by a leading ASL delegate, demonstrates otherwise.”

Allegation #3. Mr. Loudenback also misleads Idahoans by citing a false statement by Joe Wolverton of The John Birch Society. Wolverton claims that conservatives are working together with progressives to re-write the Constitution of the United States. This is false:

Continuing with Mr. Gomez, “Despite the inclusion of pro-Wolf-PAC supporters such as Democratic State Representative Raymond Dehn of Minnesota in the ASL’s ranks, Representative Chris Kapenga and Senator Jason Holsman are eager to invite even more Democrats to further change the future makeup of the room. Why such a bipartisan eagerness to invite the Left to help make changes to the nation’s Constitution? The answer might lie in an e-mail from Michael Farris’ Convention of States, a project of Mark Meckler’s Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG).

“In an e-mail from Eric Burk, the Grassroots Coordinator for CSG’s Convention of States Project, Burk expressly states: “The plain and simple truth is that unless we can get both support from Republicans and Democrats, we cannot hope to get our application passed in 34 states.

“If the Right is making such bipartisan concessions now, before an actual Article V convention has convened, imagine how much further they would be willing to compromise at a second constitutional convention. What exactly would the results of a new, modern-day, “great compromise” be?

“Those who love the Constitution should be wary of Article V convention advocates who all too easily give false assurances as to the safety of such a convention. The Constitution need not be amended, but rather should be defended by upholding it. Changing the Constitution will not correct man’s failure to properly interpret or willingly obey it. Only through an informed electorate and the educational efforts of grassroots constitutionalist organizations dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution will this latest bipartisan assault on the Constitution be thwarted, assuring the continued blessings of liberty for America’s posterity.”

Allegation #4. They are not collaborating with Wolf-PAC which is a progressive group vying for a separate convention for campaign finance reform.

Mr. Maichle, I did not specifically identify Wolf-Pac as a collaborator. However, if you went to my version of this at GemStatePatriot.com which included links including the one to Joe Wolverton’s article “Socialists and Soros Fight for Article V Convention” via the linked words, “socialist and progressive collaborators,” Joe Wolverton stated that: “Wolf-Pac is one of the groups that this reporter suspects many Levin listeners would be surprised to know is their compatriot in a call for a con-con.

Read ‘Republicans and Democrats Working Together’ by going to my original article at GemStatePatriot.com and click on the linked words state legislators being in control of the process.

In this article, TNA’s Christian Gomez stated: “Mr. Dehn, who not only cosponsored SF 17, the Minnesota Senate version of the Wolf-PAC application, but also was the lead sponsor of the House version, HB 276. On the first day of ASL’s Indianapolis meeting, Dehn introduced himself as the “most left” leaning legislator present.”

Now my question. Is the Heartland Institute on the right side of the Climate Change fight merely to draw conservatives into their lair for exposure to their mantra that only a Con-Con can save us from the problems stemming from not following the Constitution, budgets, and enforcing laws? And again, who in their right mind could believe in the first place that the limited amendments they claim to want to create would be followed any more than current law.

The answers to righting America lies in adherence to law, law enforcement and nullification by responsible patriotic representatives elected by engaged citizens who are educated and informing others to also rid our system of ruinous leftists and neocons.

A quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “A constitutional convention is a horrible idea. This is not a good century to write a constitution.

“Although COS would have one believe that a constitutional convention is a “different creature entirely” from an Article V convention or “convention of the states,” as they call it, this is simply not true.”

June 23rd ‘Independence Day’ for the Brits – Inspiration…

THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING REALLY BIG

Congratulations to our brothers in the United Kingdom for throwing off the shackles of their recent One World Government (OWG) mindset masters of the European Union (EU) made up of unaccountable, unelected, powerful global elitist who know what’s best for everyone about everything.

Other than Obama’s immigration plan being dealt the big blow by the Supreme Court yesterday, this is about the best news we have heard in a very long time. Seems during the world of Obamaville, all news has been bad, wrong, unconstitutional and bull%@#*! Now, if Sweden stands with their proclamation that they will follow the Brits and leave the EU also, then things over there might be on their way to a saner, more productive, more secure world and become even closer to other liberty loving countries such as ours. Especially if ours, does likewise and follows common sense and spurns the lying, conniving, treasonous, thief the sorry democrats are running for president.

Hopefully, this BREXIT event will create a domino effect in the world. By that I mean, wouldn’t it be great to start hearing a run of really good news for a change? Like other countries in the EU smelling the coffee and rediscovering liberty, national sovereignty and control of their borders. And then, we here in the U.S. need doing the same.

NOW IT IS OUR TURN FOR SOME GOOD NEWS

We need the same kind of good news in liberty loving America where our freedoms have been at first slowly eroding to recently being rapidly sucked away from us by our Manchurian President and our establishment run Congress.

Donald Trump may not be perfect, but he understands capitalism, has the experience to recognize how things must work to meet accountability standards, knows how to responsibly negotiate, gets things done under pressure and time constraints, is most certainly not given to the world of political correctness and not afraid to do some firing for which there is an abundance of need. And most importantly, he is clearly an authentic ‘born in America’ non-Muslim, American who will not try in every way to deceive us while constantly finding new ways of hurting us.

I believe, as soon as the Donald is up and running with some constitutional knowledge and political experience under his belt, he will begin eliminating strangulating regulations and taxes that cripple our businesses’ ability to compete in the world market. Taking that financial burden off the backs of American businessmen would allow them to pay higher wages and truly charge our commerce with its vital lifeblood, the freedom to compete.

STOPPING THE TPP IS A MUST AND WOULD BE GREAT NEWS!

Thankfully, Trump gets it on the damage the passage of the deceitful Trans Pacific Partnership will do to America’s competitiveness and most importantly to our sovereignty as a liberty loving nation of opportunities born of our freedoms. The establishment, run by the shadowy Council on Foreign Relations in lockstep with their comrades at the UN, and our own sorry global corporatists would have us all believe that this is all about fairer trade and nothing could be further from the truth. Of the 29 chapters of this deceitful ‘trade’ agreement there are only 5 chapters that actually deal with trade. The other 24 chapters are structured to take over control of much else.

What do these issues have to do with free trade:? Climate change • sustainable development • internet regulation • homeland security • the military • labor • patent and copyright including intellectual property rights • land use • food • agriculture and product standards • natural resources • the environment • professional licensing • competition • state-owned enterprises • government procurement policies as well as financial policies • healthcare • energy • e-commerce • telecommunications and other service sector regulations.

What person in the U.S. Congress has read all 5500 pages of the TPP chock full of legalese? So they are going to vote on it without knowing what is in it again? That’s a treasonous way of serving in Congress. Our senators and representatives were elected to know what they are voting on for our good and in keeping with our Constitution as per their oaths they swore to uphold. So not reading all this and knowing full well what is in it and how it will affect us makes them a sham.

What do international courts have to do with free trade? Nothing, but it is all part of the pending Free Trade Agenda as per the 151 house democrats’ letter to Obama back in November 2013 opposing fast track that was renamed Trade Promotion Authority, the secrecy, and all these un-related issues that should not be included in these negotiations. See: 10 Reasons Why You Should Oppose TPP and TTIP. Also, see: TPP & TTIP are bad enough, but TISA is catastrophic.

Members of the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) fanned out across Capitol Hill in April to support a national goal of balanced trade and smart tax reform while opposing dumb trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Also, a must read is “The People’s Economic Impact Statement for the TPP.”

According to a new report the United States is expected to see the smallest impact on GDP from the Trans-Pacific Partnership among member countries. On January 7, a letter showing opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership by more than 1,500 organizations that signed it was delivered to Congress. I’m proud to report that our neighboring city of Spokane, WA’s city council unanimously voted to oppose the TPP.

MAYBE THE BIG QUESTION SHOULD BE WILL THEY TAKE THE MONEY?

Do you remember when Congress voted to give up their exclusive responsibility for negotiating trade to Obama (a guy that couldn’t negotiate his way out of a wet paper bag) in a bill named the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in May 2015? “The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters” reported The Guardian for their votes to ‘fast track.’ Risch, Crapo and Simpson voted Yay. Labrador Nay.

U.S. Representative Raul Labrador told me at the Lincoln Day Dinner that he expects the vote on the TPP ‘trade’ agreement to come up in the lame duck congress after the election.

It will probably be Obama’s last ‘grand stand’ accomplishment for his ‘legacy building,’ and his last best shot at taking us down. Americans need to awaken to this treacherous threat to our liberties and our very sovereignty called the TPP and help stop it.

Truly, now Americans need the resolve of the Brits to get back to what brought us as liberty minded healthy capitalists that understand what we are about and rid ourselves of our socialist progressives and neocons in government that would lead us toward ‘controlling’ socialist style globalism.

Kudos to the Brits for the inspiration and…God Save the Queen.

The Unrelenting Con-Con Con

From: GemStatePatriot.com                                        by Rich Loudenback

No other issue facing us today can take down our beloved country as we’ve known it literally overnight like the proposed convention of the states which would actually be a constitutional convention (con-con) no matter what they want to call it.

Legislators should not be taken in by professionally prepared hype based on ‘doctored’ information presented as fact. Legislators need to ‘patriot up,’ do the hard work and do right by their oath to follow and protect our wonderful Constitution.

In the first place, why should anyone believe new amendments will be followed any more than current law? It’s illogical to think that adding or changing rules will compel chronic rule-breakers to follow new rules. What are we going to say, “We really mean it this time?”

There are many good reasons why for 229 years America hasn’t had a new national constitutional convention (con-con). Historically, Americans have understood that a con-con will set its own rules, its own agenda and can even change the ratification process just like they did in 1787. This is how we got our current Constitution.

Salivating, originating forces of the many different calls really just want the door to a Con-Con opened, understanding full well once they’ve convened they can change anything and everything. These are very devious people with clandestine designs for our future who are being followed by the naïve and over trusting.

Legislators should not fall for poker face promises & hyped un-researched proclamations. They need to do the research, the hard work themselves. They owe it to us, their constituents that hired them and all our grandchildren. Aren’t you curious why there are so many different organizations all calling for single issue Con-Con’s? As Vince Lombardi would say, ‘What the Hell is going on here!’

Idaho Legislators cannot control what will happen if an Article V Constitutional Convention is called. The Congressional Research Service says a likely scenario is that delegate apportionment would be based on the Electoral College model, which would give Idaho FOUR delegates out of 535!

Black’s Law Dictionary is America’s most trusted law dictionary. Its definition of a constitutional convention: “A duly constituted assembly of delegates or representatives of the people of a state or nation for the purpose of framing, revising, or amending its constitution.” Renaming it a “Convention of States” doesn’t change what it is.

Beware of false Constitutionalist. The Federalist Papers are not government documents. Our Constitution reigns. They’re making many assertions about state legislators being in control of the process that are simply not supported by Article V and are disputed by the Congressional Research Service, numerous law professors, constitutional scholars and judges who have warned about the dangers of a modern convention and the damage it could do to our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

In this beyond highly politicized world today, who in their right mind would believe convention delegates would send the results to state legislators for endless debate and legal challenges lasting months or maybe years for such ratification? They would select like-minded delegates for ‘safe’ special ratifying conventions with hand-picked members, all with special interest baggage, who will do the convention’s bidding. Legislatures won’t have a chance. Ratifying conventions are the stacked deck these slick designers are counting on and would be a rubber stamp. [Utah’s legislature would not have repealed Prohibition. The rules for Article 5 were used to pass it through a ratifying Convention.]

Quoting Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. of The New American magazine, “The various purportedly unrelated efforts by self-professed conservatives, socialists, and progressives to call for a new constitutional convention are moving forward. Many otherwise well-meaning state legislators are falling for their common line that such a convention is the only way to save the Republic.

“The self-professed conservatives, on one hand, insist that if a new convention isn’t held, the growth of the federal government will go on forever until all power is consolidated in Washington, D.C.

“Their socialist and progressive collaborators, however, are pushing for an Article V convention as a means of finally changing all the things they believe are wrong about our form of government.

“Rhetoric and political leanings aside, the result of either scenario is a new Constitution. Of course, the Convention of States (COS), the Compact for America, and other Article V proponents on the right, argue up and down that they are not calling for a new constitutional convention. Then, as if that weren’t enough, they criticize those of us who oppose their movement for being “false constitutionalists,” and for believing that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was a “runaway” convention.”

We don’t have a constitution problem, we have an adherence problem. The ‘fix’ is following law, law enforcement and nullification. These are the real serious efforts that would surely work and needs being done, especially a lot of nullifying of unconstitutional laws & regulations such as Governor Otters nullifying future federal gun laws in the state of Idaho. See the article “Praise Be to Governor Otter“ at GemStatePatriot.com.

Recently the wise legislators of Montana defeated 3 applications for Con-Cons: SJ7 – Convention of the States and HJ3 – Wolf PAC were both killed in committees and HJ4 – Compact for a Balanced Federal Budget was voted down 77 – 23. Utah defeated HJR 3 – The Countermand Amendment and HJR 14 – Convention of the States. And Wyoming stopped SJR4 Convention of the States, HJR 4 Balanced Federal Budget (BBA) failed in the Senate committee and HB75 Compact for America (CFA), Compact for a Balanced Budget (CFBB) failed in Senate committee.

REVEALING FACTS ON APPLICATIONS AND RESCISSIONS

The simple reason there has been historically so many forthright rescissions to states’ calls for conventions is that the states eventually came to their senses and recognized the formidable dangers of a convention.

Since applications have been recorded and tracked, there have been over 400 various applications for an Article V convention. 49 of the 50 states have at one or more times filed for an Article V Convention. Idaho has been listed for calls 6 times all the way back to 1910 and a most recent rescission in 1999.

Since 1988, 17* states have rescinded all of their constitutional convention calls after awakening to how fatal a Con-Con could be and the real root interest ($) behind them. Rescinded Con-Con calls: AL 1988, LA 1990, OR 1999, ID 1999, UT 2001, ND 2001, AZ 2003, VA 2004, SC 2004, GA 2004, MT, 2007, OK 2009, WY 2009, NH 2010, SD 2010, and TN 2010. *Actually FL had rescinded its Con-Con calls in 1988, but passed a new BBA Con-Con call in 2010.

Given the numbers of applications it’s amazing that we’ve been blessed with forthright rescissions prevailing like they have due to awakenings of the fatal dangers a Con-Con would pose to our Constitution if one were called.