Heads Up A Weekly edition of News and Views from around our country October 4, 1996 #3 by: Doug Fiedor fiedor19@eos.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please Distribute Widely ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DERELICTION OF DUTY Would you fire an auto mechanic who was "fixing" your car without first knowing exactly what was wrong? Would you fire a physician who prescribed drugs for you without first studying the actions and interactions of the medications? Would you hire a lawyer to defend you in court who never prepares for trial? Then, why do you allow your Members of Congress to vote to approve bills that affect our lives without even bothering to first read them? Forget, for a moment, the fact that no person can completely understand many of these bills without first doing a few hours studying of corresponding laws. How about when no person in the room even bothers to give a cursory read to the bill under vote? Such is exactly the case with some of the most important bills to pass Congress. Quite often, no Member of Congress reads or understands them before the vote. These are busy people, these elected ones. No time to be bothered with that foolishness! Even on a good day, when there is plenty of time, the staff of a bill's author will write a short summary to pass around. Some Members of Congress will only read that. Others will read nothing. Yet, every Member of Congress gets to vote on the bill. Bills, and sections of bills, are studied in committee, of course. And, depending on how many of the elected ones turn up for the committee meeting, usually four or five Members of Congress know what was originally in the bill. But, the bill presented for approval by the chamber as a whole is often quite different from the one that passed a committee. Therefore, it is not uncommon for unelected staff members to sneak a few things they want into bills -- which then become law. That's one of the perks of the job, folks! Congressional staff has been doing that for many years. And, why not? Often no one, not even the supposed author of the bill, will read it before the vote. Prosecutors do, however. Judges, too. This month was the end of session. One of the last bills to sail through Congress was a 2,000+ page appropriations bill. Senate records show that no person in the Senate had yet read the bill, but it passed. And the President immediately signed it into law -- without anyone in the White House studying it first. A dozen or so oppressive add-ons were sneaked in. They all passed along with the original bill. We citizens will not know exactly what all was added for a while. But never fear; eventually, prosecutors will tell us. GRAFT IN THE WHITE HOUSE Tony Coelho, subject of Brooks Jackson's 1988 book "Honest Graft," is back operating in Washington again. He was hired -- where else -- as a high level advisor in the Clinton reelection campaign. As Democratic House Whip, Tony Coelho was most famous for turning practices that any normal American citizen would consider to be graft and bribery into a Capitol Hill political art form. "Coelho specializes in raising [soft] money, and spending it by the millions to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives," Jackson writes. "He runs a modern-day political machine, a sort of New Tammany Hall in which money and pork-barrel legislation have become the new patronage." He is also as far to the political left as anyone in Washington. Coelho bragged of his practice of carrying around envelopes containing one, two or five-thousand dollars each. These envelopes were then passed out to other Democratic House Members as a reward for votes delivered, or a bribe for a vote desired. He called it "campaign contributions." Federal prosecutors called it "graft." For these reasons, and a host of others, Tony Coelho was forced to resign from the House in disgrace. The deal was resignation or prosecution -- he choose to stay out of prison. Word on the street in Washington is that Coelho has a direct line to Bill Clinton any time he wishes to call. Birds of a feather, folks. Birds of a feather. . . . UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES In the U.S. v. Lopez case, the Supreme Court knocked down a federal law that prohibited the possession of guns near schools. "No Constitutional authority" to make such a law, the Court said. The Commerce Clause cannot be used to regulate items no longer in commerce -- in this case, an item that has been sold to the end user. Lopez is a good, fair opinion. And it should apply to every product, not only to guns. The White House, of course, feels otherwise. The decision would cause the executive branch to loose power over the people. That is exactly the crux of the problem. There is much, much more to this than just gun control. To apply the Lopez decision to all goods and services equally could effectively gut the central government's control over our everyday life. Regulatory agencies would not have much to do. Government agents would have to be laid off. The EPA . . . well, you get the idea. . . . One reason we have not seen changes in the operation of government after the Lopez decision is that the executive and the legislative branches of government only follow Supreme Court decisions when they wish. And the Lopez decision is one they definitely do not wish to obey! Strict obedience to the Lopez ruling would drastically change the function of the central government. It would almost be like returning to the way government was pre Roosevelt (FDR). We can't have that, say the powers that be. So, the "fix" is in. A Senate memo says Bill Clinton mandates that Congress find "some way around the Constitution" to restore the gun law struck down in Lopez. No doubt! Because, in so doing, Congress would also reaffirm its (and the administration's) authority to continue regulating everything under the Commerce Clause. So, Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) did just that, and then some. A Congressional aid said that the fix is hidden in that huge appropriations bill somewhere. And the Constitution?? It's still interesting to read. But, in fact, that has effectively been a dead issue since Roosevelt. You think not? Pick any function of any regulatory agency. Then try to find anything resembling Constitutional authority allowing the central government to do that. Fat chance! People of Wisconsin, please do the citizens of the rest of the country a big favor and fire your unconstitutional senator. Sending people like Herb Kohl to Congress is ruining our country. DRUGS, THE CIA AND YOU There have been some strange developments over the CIA cocaine scandal. Good old fashioned outrage is developing! Consequently, Federalism may be starting to work again. Cities, such as San Francisco. Los Angeles, and even Cincinnati are putting the government on notice over the CIA's involvement importing illegal cocaine into the United Sates. Civic leaders are outraged, as they should be. They want heads to roll, as they should. And they demand action now, but they will not get it. Remember folks, when government wants to hide something from you the citizen, they label it "national security." This is no different. Also, this scandal permeates all three branches of government. If everyone involved went to prison, as they should, the federal prison system might end up needing a place the size of the Grand Canyon to hold them all. Half of Congress knew about it. Half of the CIA knew about it. Some in the FBI knew about it. Half of the DEA knew about it. Federal prosecutors sprung arrested drug pushers. Federal judges, in cooperation with federal prosecutors, turned loose convicted drug pushers. With a wink and a nod, they all did this in obedience of that most holy of political powers: National Security. An old radio buddy from Detroit asked the only correct question last week on a national radio program: "How can we trust this government?" Hey, Joe! We cannot. Vigilance, Joe! Constant vigilance is what is necessary. We the People have become secondary to the goals of government. There's been a roll reversal here, Joe. You're still a liberal, so you missed it! Originally, the federal government was supposed to serve the people. Now, it is the people who, through taxation and regulation, are to serve the federal government. So let's give up those delusions of grandeur feelings that we are important. We are not. When the subject is a central government goal, any number of us may be used or abused. We're an expendable commodity, Joe. Remember that! This is only one example. And Joe, since the central government refuses to obey the Constitution, it no longer deserves the consent of the governed.