Europe leads in the wrong directions.
No it’s not funny, Mr. President.
While watching this Pat Condell video posted nearly three years ago, consider the similarities and dissimilarities between Europe then and the United States of Obama now. The United States have long had a common currency and it would be very inconvenient were it otherwise. Aside from that, most of the similarities are unfortunate.
Ravenous Govblather Beast of Washington
Many of “our” elected officials are lazy, unresponsive and preoccupied with raising funds and then using them to campaign for re-election. Some are corrupt. However, the far greater multitudes of unelected bureaucrats, most often accountable only to themselves, are worse. We have little to say about what they do and what we (and even our elected representatives) manage to say rarely matters unless the needed political “suck” is available and used. Laws promulgated by our unelected betters bureaucrats, i.e. Federal Regulations, are far more numerous (and frequently more oppressive) than laws enacted by elected members of the Congress and signed by the President.
The Congress has encouraged and enabled this farce by passing legislation (often un-read by most legislators before voting on it) that expressly authorizes interpretation and engorgement by various Federal agencies — see, e.g., ObamaCare. It is a common practice. The numerous Federal regulations, as well as the fewer laws enacted by the Congress and signed by the President, are frequently disregarded, ignored or violated at will by those employed to enforce them.
Are the States of the United States of Obama being controlled much differently from Washington, D.C. than the “nations” of Europe are being controlled from Brussels, Belgium, the de facto capital of the European Union? Does “our” Feral Federal Government behave much differently in other respects?
Although America has a written Constitution, parts of it have been interpreted to the point of abrogation by the Executive and Judicial branches as well as on occasion by the Legislative Branch. How about the First and Second Amendments — the first of the ten amendments constituting the Bill of Rights?
First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievance. [Emphasis added.]
Second Amendment:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. [Emphasis added.]
How about the Tenth Amendment?
Tenth Amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. [Emphasis added.]
How about Articles I and II, providing for separation of the powers of “our” legislative and executive branches. Those, as well as parts of the Bill of Rights, have been circumvented by Executive Decree and Judicial Fiat.
Please see also,
The United States of Obama increasingly rejects freedom, domestically and internationally
and
The Bundy Ranch and Our loss of freedom, Part II
Why should we be concerned? “Our” benign Federal Government, to which we all are said to belong, knows what must be best for us, the fungible little people. It is pleased to take care of us generously (with what had been our own money) as we deserve and as “social justice” demands.
Right? Feel warm, fuzzy, happy and secure? Will what we do on November 4th make any difference? How about in 2016?
UPDATE:
A pertinent article was published today at The Washington Free Beacon titled
BLM Designated 50 million Acres Open for Solar Development in Nevada. It states,
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) designated over 50 million acres of public land available for solar development in Nevada, including nearly all of Bunkerville, the home of the Bundy Ranch. [Emphasis added.]
A map of “Proposed Solar Energy Zones” prepared by the federal agency in 2010 revealed that the government deemed over 70 percent of Nevada open to applications to lease public lands for solar projects. [Emphasis added.]
According to the document, 9.6 million acres were available for applications through the “Solar Development Program,” and an additional 40.8 million acres were available, though no action had been taken. The accessible land totals 50.4 million acres, or 71.7 percent of Nevada, which spans 70.3 million acres.
President Barack Obama has prioritized using public lands for green energy projects.
“When President Obama took office, there were no solar projects permitted on public lands,” the Interior Department said in July 2012, announcing a “roadmap” for the development of more than a dozen solar plants. “Since 2009, Interior has approved 17 utility-scale solar energy projects that, when built, will produce nearly 5,900 megawatts of energy—enough to power approximately 1.8 million American homes.”
“Thanks to steps already taken by this administration, renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar have doubled since the president took office,” they said.
Brussels, you may fall behind Washington unless you keep up with the program.
danmillerinpanama 
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I lived in Europe many years, and I saw the growth and development of the EU (and the eurozone) up close. Broadly speaking, in economic terms it has worked reasonably well, including removal of trade restrictions, ease of border crossing, and adoption of a common currency (the Euro). There are problems in all those areas, of course, but in general the advantages have been significant. The more significant difficulties have come in politics and public policy, where EU member nations can and do ignore Brussels whenever they want to because they retain their sovereignty. One major example in both areas is the Euro, which is used by only about two-thirds of EU member states.
The EU may superficially resemble the U.S., but the differences are huge. The EU is a voluntary union of sovereign states. The U.S. is a union of states and territories that were formerly sovereign but are no longer, at least in meaningful political terms. Terms like “parallel sovereignty” are sometimes bandied about to describe the relationship between the U.S. and states, but the term is meaningless.
A discussion of what “sovereignty” means can go back through a couple of thousand years of political theory, but the modern meaning is pretty clear. In order to be sovereign, a political entity (normally a nation state) must have supreme authority over its law making, people, borders, and international affairs. In addition, it must have at least some degree of international recognition. U.S. states have that kind of power only to the extent that they do not violate the Constitution, which is the Supreme Law, and the laws of the U.S. There can be arguments at the margins, particularly theoretical squabbles, but that doesn’t change the reality that the power of states is not supreme. And if there was a question of state sovereignty in the past, the issue was resolved definitively by force of arms a century and a half ago.
Dan, as far as the vast majority of our elected officials are concerned, especially the left-wing of such, the Constitution is just a pesky piece of paper which they have no problem in disregarding. No one’s there to enforce it anyway.
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
Re: following Europe, sure we are.
Maybe we should try following Canada, instead. I think it was either Churchill or Thatcher (faulty memory today) who said, “In my lifetime our problems have come from Europe, and the solutions have come from the English speaking world.” It was said in regard to the UK, but I think it applies to us as well.
Reblogged this on CLINGERS… BLOGGING BAD ~ DICK.G: AMERICAN ! and commented:
GyG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!