Ethics

Since the Catholic Church scored big with its first Seven Deadly Sins back in Century No. Six they've recently decided to do a sequel (Seven Deadly Sins II?). Predictably, the new Deadlies are a mix of politically correct, socially manipulative and ruling-class-friendly injunctions. And vague. What is "obscenely" rich? What is "social" justice? The church, of course, is full of deadly sins itself, such as pedophilia and power-drunkenness. The Vatican, with all its gold and ivory inlaid art treasures and bejeweled crucifixes and priceless paintings and statuary and such is "obscenely" rich. What they could and should have done was identify real sins that really make real people in the real world worse off, like these:

Is the problem of Congress' massive spending due to lobbyists the real problem? Congress fails time and again to end it. Where do they get the authority? Where do they get the money?

Why do wealthy people feel guilty because of their wealth? Why do they announce that they feel the need "to give back?" Is it because they "took too much?"

From the "Anything to keep power" cabal, comes the latest on how to screw Dr. Ron Paul...

Many states, in an effort to shut out Ron Paul are now closing their primaries. That means that only Republicans can vote in the Presidential primaries for a Republican candidate. Many states are doing this quickly and quietly and giving people very little time to learn about the new rules. For example, New Hampshire decided only a week ago that you will now have to change your party affiliation by October 12, 2007 or it will be too late to do so. New Hampshire also has a closed primary and only Republicans and possibly Independents will be allowed to vote for Ron Paul.

Madame Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation not because I do not sympathize with the plight of the oppressed people of Burma , particularly as demonstrated by the continued confinement of Aung San Suu Kyi. Any time a government represses its citizenry it is reprehensible. My objection to this legislation is twofold. First, the legislation calls on the United Nations Security Council to “take appropriate action” with regard to Burma and its internal conditions. This sounds like an open door for an outside military intervention under the auspices of the United Nations, which is something I do not support.

No matter how many times their Political Mommies and Daddies abuse them, they will keep crawling back for more. They will keep paying taxes and voting and believing pretty-sounding lies and going to jail even when they didn't hurt anyone. All because someone told them that they're good little Citizens and should always love someone else more than they love themselves, like a televangelist or a flag or a social welfare program or anything else that makes them feel warm and cozy while they're living under some Politician's thumb.

Mr. Chairman, the situation facing us now in the mortgage industry has its roots in the Federal Reserve's inflationary monetary policy. Without addressing the roots of the current crisis, any measures undertaken to improve the situation will be doomed to fail.

As with asset bubbles and investment manias in past history, the fuel for the current housing bubble had its origins in monetary manipulation. The housing boom was caused by the Federal Reserve's policy resulting in artificially low interest rates. Consumers, misled by low interest rates, were looking to consume, while homebuilders saw the low interest rates as a signal to build, and build they did.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Indeed some of the most malignant growth of our government has been nurtured under a cover of darkness.

Literally, in the dark hours of the morning at the end of the year, it has become tradition for the Appropriations committee to rush the famous omnibus bill to the floor for a vote, mere hours after it is introduced. The vote took place at 4 am the last time an omnibus spending bill was before us. We had all of 4 hours to deliberate on almost 1400 pages of important legislation. My colleagues somehow found this acceptable, however, and the bill passed 212-206.

Another NAFTA nail is about to be hammered into the coffin Washington is building for the US economy. Within the next few days our borders will be opened to the Mexican trucking industry in an unprecedented way. A "pilot" program is starting which will allow trucks from Mexico to haul goods beyond the 25 mile buffer zone to any point in the United States . Officials claim this is being done with utmost oversight, but Americans still have their legitimate concerns. Rather than securing our borders, we seem to be providing more pores for illegal aliens, drug dealers, and terrorists to permeate.

Congressman Ron Paul took action today to shield American homeowners from an outrageously unfair IRS tax policy by cosponsoring The Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act.

H.R. 1876 bars the IRS from considering partial mortgage forgiveness as income subject to taxation.

Under current law, only two categories of individuals pay taxes when selling their principle residence: those who have been able to realize a capital gain of more than $250,000 ($500,000 on a joint return) and those who lose the equity in their home and are forced to pay taxes if the lender forgives some portion of the mortgage debt.

“In these difficult times with the credit crunch and housing market downturn, some homeowners are finding it more and more difficult to avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. If the bank allows a homeowner leeway and renegotiates with them in lieu of foreclosure, the IRS should not victimize the homeowner for doing the best they can to pay their debt.” Stated Congressman Paul.

Now is not the time to increase the tax burden on struggling homeowners. Strict reins must be put on the IRS by Congress to limit as much as possible the damage it does to the taxpayer and to the American dream.

Almost thirty years ago, as mayor of the City of Cleveland, I  
confronted the money, the power, and the arrogance of private  
corporate interests seeking to rob our citizens of one of their most  
valuable public assets: a municipal electric system that provided low-
cost power to much of the city, Muny Light. As I observe the  
political machinations regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor and related  
attempts to turn publicly financed highways into privately controlled  
profit centers for giant corporations, I find the similarities chilling.

Faced with dwindling support of the Iraq War, the warhawks are redoubling their efforts. They imply we are in Iraq attacking those who attacked us, and yet this is not the case. As we know, Saddam Hussein, though not a particularly savory character, had nothing to do with 9/11. The neo-cons claim surrender should not be an option. In the same breath they claim we were attacked because of our freedoms. Why then, are they so anxious to surrender our freedoms with legislation like the Patriot Act, a repeal of our 4th amendment rights, executive orders, and presidential signing statements? With politicians like these, who needs terrorists? Do they think if we destroy our freedoms for the terrorists they will no longer have a reason to attack us? This seems the epitome of cowardice coming from those who claim a monopoly on patriotic courage

The recent and tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota raises many questions in Americans' minds about our aging infrastructure, and what is being done to maintain it. Questions such as: "Was I-35 an isolated accident or are we approaching days when crumbling bridges and bursting pipes will be regular features on the evening news?"

The poor ratings on the inspection report of that bridge, and similar deficiency findings on as many as 25% of our bridges suggests the latter. Estimates on what it will cost to bring deficiencies in our infrastructure back up to par range from massive to astronomical.

"Reason for Toll Roads" just came in as a search engine phrase. ARGH! You've got to be kidding me. Have you no shame? Do you not pull your head out of the consumerist narcissistic sands long enough to even know just what a pork ridden boondoggle toll roads have become (and pretty much have always been...)?

Okay, at least they're searching, but still, it's been 3+ years of blatant corruption, blatant theft, and obvious double speak out of a certain Governor of Texas.

There is still no such thing as the free market. It is a system entirely rigged to serve the interests of certain groups with wealth enough to buy influence over government....