GOP Representative Buyer Blasts Acting Dem Speaker

“This is why the people have thrown you out!”

Bishop introduces Repeal Amendment

Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.

Today, Congressman Rob Bishop, Co-Chair of the 10th Amendment Task Force proposed the above amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Repeal Amendment.

This amendment would provide states with the authority to “repeal any federal law, regulation, tax, or unfunded mandate if two-thirds of the States are in agreement.” The Repeal Amendment would provide a targeted way to reverse particular congressional acts and administrative regulations the public opposes.

Outgoing Utah House Speaker, Dave Clark, was with Congressman Bishop this morning.  “On every policy issue Washington, D.C. has faced they have had a choice between more freedom or more government. Time after time, on issue after issue, they have chosen the path of more government over more freedom,” he said.  “That is not the approach that made America prosper. The Repeal Amendment may be the only way to push back the federal government’s encroachment on sovereign states rights.”

Congressman Bishop pointed out that the U.S. Constitution, as drafted by the Founders, designed a system that created a balance of power between state and national government, but whose balance has been eroded.

“I’m proud to sponsor the Repeal Amendment in Congress because it is a simple, transparent tool that can help restore balance and reduce the concentration of power in Washington,” Bishop added. “While the Repeal Amendment will not immediately turn the tide of a power-hungry, overreaching national government, it is an arrow in the quiver of states and a solid first step that can be taken to begin restoring the balance of power our Founding Fathers intended when they drafted the Constitution.”

Utah Senate Committee Changes

Over the long holiday weekend, Utah Senate president Michael Waddoups released the committee assignments for the next two years. As expected, Senator Dan Liljenquist‘s audacity in running against a sitting President cost him a seat at the leadership table. Senator Dennis Stowell will replace him as the vice-chair of Executive Appropriations. Senator Liljenquist will continue to chair Retirement and Independent Entities and is the new Senate chair of the Ethics committee.

Other Waddoups supporters were rewarded with plum assignments – Senator Margaret Dayton remains the chair of Rules, Senator Chris Buttars – rumored to have switched his vote to Waddoups at the last minute – got Public Ed Appropriations (instead of Senator Stephenson, the current chair), and the chairmanship of the Health and Human Services Standing Committee.

Speaking of the Health and Human Services Committee – its composition has also changed. It now has 4 Republicans, including one who makes a significant portion of his living from Medicaid, and 2 Democrats, leaving one to wonder if Medicaid reform would even have a chance to make it out of committee. When questioned, President Waddoups said he may appoint an additional member of leadership to sit on that committee.

Specifically addressing Medicaid reform, however, Waddoups spoke clearly and emphatically on that issue. “It is one of the key issues for our caucus,” he stated. “No one is better suited than Senator Liljenquist to get these reforms passed.” There is significant grass-roots support for Medicaid reform – and some heavy-duty lobbyist opposition. It will be one of the most-watched issues on Capitol Hill this year.

Now the feds are coming after your garden with S510

Senate bill 510 is up for a vote in the US Senate today. Based on the pre-Thanksgiving cloture vote, it will likely sail through the Senate – but it shouldn’t.

This bill – originally co-sponsored by Utah’s Orrin Hatch, who then voted against cloture – sprang forth as a way for the government to “ensure” that our food supply is safe. After all, no one wants to be affected by salmonella or e-coli, right? Of course we don’t – but neither do we want the government turning us into a nanny state, regulating even our backyard gardens and our heirloom, seed-saving efforts.

S510 is one more example in a long line of bills extending the feds reach. This bill puts ALL food production – even from your own backyard – under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. It’s a bit of a stretch to see how homegrown tomatoes are a threat to national security – but then again, these are the same people intent on humiliating people who fly with naked digital screening and intimate pat-downs.

While currently “allowing” you to eat the food you grow, S510 would cripple small farmers – including backyard farmers who want to sell their produce at the local farmer’s market. It gives the government blanket permission to stop food production and sales anytime, anywhere – no court order needed. The penalties are imprisonment and fines. The regulations are onerous and unrealistic applied to small operations. One example cited in “Food Safety News” demonstrates the difficulties this bill presents:

The FDA’s own guidance just published for processing cut leafy greens, which any local garden that prepares a salad mix for sale to local restaurants is potentially subject to, estimates that it would take a trained corporate team 100 hours to develop an appropriate safety plan, not to mention the cost of tests that such a plan would have to require. The husband-and-wife team likely operating a produce farm for a local food market, in addition to their off-farm jobs, don’t have a spare two-and-a-half weeks to create a plan, let alone the expertise of a team of food technologists, lawyers and engineers necessary to come up with a plan in 100 hours.

Turning raw milk producers into felons and small organic farmers into “seed smugglers,” this bill is a move to destroy the small farmer that is the heart and soul of America’s “bread basket.” Instead, monopalistic companies like Monsanto will grow even larger and control even more of the world food – and seed – supply. Genetically modified food and seed, that is. Bad seed must be rooted out.

The FDA has a list it calls “sources of seed contamination” has now defined “seed” as a “food.” Our seeds can now be controlled through “food safety” – and with this bill, the FDA sets out requirements for “seed cleaning” – a process that could easily cost a million dollars in structure and equipment to meet the new standards.

Assurances of “that’s not what we mean” or simply “trust us” ring a little hollow, don’t you think?

You can call your Senators offices and let them know how you feel. Senator Bob Bennett’s number is 202-224-5444 and Senator Orrin Hatch’s number is 202-224-5251. Both voted against cloture.

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” William Arthur Ward

There is so much to be thankful for this year. Permit me a moment of personal indulgence. I’ve had a remarkable year and I am so grateful. I also am keenly aware that many are struggling. Those of us who are so blessed have a responsibility to reach out and help others.

I have a family that I dearly love. Support from them is what allows me to do what I do. I couldn’t ask for a better husband. Mr. Hill or Mr. on-the-Hill, as he is fondly called, is the greatest cheerleader ever. My kids are a close second.

I have so many dear, dear friends. Some have been friends for a while and some are new. All are fabulous! (And yes, I mean you.) What a ride this year has been! Thank you for blessing my life.

I have so enjoyed blogging – and I am very grateful that so many of you are willing to read what I write. Thank you for sharing your views with me and letting me share mine with you. I like to think I have grown as a blogger. I am excited to launch the new, improved “Holly on the Hill” blog at the beginning of the year. I am also grateful that I can be a political activist, be involved in campaigns, in issues and in movements that are important to me.

I am beyond grateful for the ability to spend my time doing what I love. I know how blessed I am to live in a country where we can continually create new opportunities for ourselves – and that if I fall on my face, I can pick myself up and try again.

This year has been one of learning and growth. Some of the lessons were hard – really hard – but in the end, the knowledge gained was worth it. I am grateful for those who stood by me while I was learning.

I am grateful for the Pilgrims who crossed the ocean “not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls”, who dug more graves than built huts but still worked hard and found reason to give thanks.

I am grateful for Founding Mothers and Fathers “who more than self their country loved,” who were willing to risk everything for the “grand experiment” we call America.

I am grateful for the blessings of liberty. I am grateful to live in this country where I can express dissent with my government and not worry about disappearing in the middle of the night. I am grateful for the opportunity to cast a vote for the person I believe best represents me and for the ability to recall them when they no longer do. I am grateful for a process that allows “We the People” to hold our elected officials accountable. I am grateful for openness and transparency. I am grateful that so many men and women are willing to invest so much to get this country back on the right track. I am grateful that SO MANY good people ran for office this year – and that many, many more were actively involved in those races.

I am grateful for social media – and the Internet in general – and the fabulous tools they are.

I am grateful to our military – the greatest in the world. I am grateful to be from a military family and proudly claim the title of “Air Force brat.”

I am thankful to live in Utah. I am grateful to be surrounded by people who want to help their neighbor, who believe in leaving this world a better place than they found it – and who know we don’t need some onerous, expensive government program to do it. I am thankful for a state that balances its budget, that is business-friendly and family-friendly.

I am also grateful for those who realize there IS a proper role for government.

Finally, I am grateful to that God who watches over us all, who loves us and wants us to live lives of joy and service. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Securing our airplanes

Americans are making it pretty clear that digital strip-searches and intimate groping as the first line of defense is simply going too far. We need to be more effective and less invasive.

There are several possible alternatives.

A recent report from the Pentagon showed that dogs are the BEST at detecting bombs. After spending $19 billion and trying to create mechanical “sniffers”, the bottom line is that dogs detect the presence of explosives far more reliably than machinery. An article in “Wired” starts this way:

Drones, metal detectors, chemical sniffers, and super spycams — forget ‘em. The leader of the Pentagon’s multibillion military task force to stop improvised bombs says there’s nothing in the U.S. arsenal for bomb detection more powerful than a dog’s nose.

Next, we need to use intelligence to screen, well, more intelligently. Let’s get past the political correctness that prevents us from doing the best job possible and actually learn from the people with the safest airline and the safest airport in the world – the Israelis.

A 2006 Boston Globe article outlined some of their security practices:

The safest airline in the world, it is widely agreed, is El Al, Israel’s national carrier. The safest airport is Ben Gurion International, in Tel Aviv. No El Al plane has been attacked by terrorists in more than three decades, and no flight leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked.

The Israelis check for bombs and weapons too, but always with the understanding that things don’t hijack planes, terrorists do — and that the best way to detect terrorists is to focus on intercepting not bad things, but bad people. To a much greater degree than in the United States, security at El Al and Ben Gurion depends on intelligence and intuition — what Rafi Ron, the former director of security at Ben Gurion, calls the human factor.

Israeli airport security, much of it invisible to the untrained eye, begins before passengers even enter the terminal. Officials constantly monitor behavior, alert to clues that may hint at danger: bulky clothing, say, or a nervous manner. Profilers — that’s what they’re called — make a point of interviewing travelers, sometimes at length. They probe, as one profiling supervisor told CBS, for “anything out of the ordinary, anything that does not fit.” Their questions can seem odd or intrusive, especially if your only previous experience with an airport interrogation was being asked whether you packed your bags yourself.

Unlike in US airports, where passengers go through security after checking in for their flights and submitting their luggage, security at Ben Gurion comes first. Only when the profiler is satisfied that a passenger poses no risk is he or she allowed to proceed to the check-in counter. By that point, there is no need to make him remove his shoes, or to confiscate his bottle of water

They also put all checked baggage in a pressure chamber that will trigger any possible explosive devices and they pay particular attention to passengers from countries at war with Israel. We should learn from that. Mr. Shoe Bomber and Mr. Panty Bomber both got on flights originating outside of the US, where multiple red flags were ignored.

Last week, Michael J Totten, an independent foreign correspondent, wrote about the TSA and Israeli security:

Terrorists have yet to use the same weapon twice, and the TSA isn’t even looking for whatever they’ll try to use next. I can think of all sorts of things a person could use to wreak havoc on a plane that aren’t banned. Security officials should pay less attention to objects, and more attention to people.

The Israelis do. They are, out of dreadful necessity, the world’s foremost experts in counterterrorism. And they couldn’t care less about what your grandmother brings on a plane. Instead, officials at Ben Gurion International Airport interview everyone in line before they’re even allowed to check in.

And Israeli officials profile. They don’t profile racially, but they profile. Israeli Arabs breeze through rather quickly, but thanks to the dozens of dubious-looking stamps in my passport — almost half are from Lebanon and Iraq — I get pulled off to the side for more questioning every time. And I’m a white, nominally Christian American.

If they pull you aside, you had better tell them the truth. They’ll ask you so many wildly unpredictable questions so quickly, you couldn’t possibly invent a fake story and keep it all straight. Don’t even try. They’re highly trained and experienced, and they catch everyone who tries to pull something over on them….They don’t put anyone into a “porn machine.” There’s no point. Terrorists can’t penetrate that deeply into the airport.

The system has its advantages, though, aside from the fact that no one looks or reaches into anyone’s pants. Israelis don’t use security theater to make passengers feel like they’re safe. They use real security measures to ensure that travelers actually are safe. Even when suicide bombers exploded themselves almost daily in Israeli cities, not a single one managed to get through that airport.

Isn’t it time that we started working smarter and stop treating everyone as suspects?

Chaffetz: Stop the TSA porn

Congressman Jason Chaffetz proves once again to be ahead of the curve. More than a year and a half ago, he introduced an amendment to a TSA authorization bill that would ban whole-body imaging machines as first-screening devices at airports. Calling the machines “TSA porn“, he said: “Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”

A couple of months later, the amendment passed easily, with bipartisan support on a 310-118 vote. It was then sent to the Senate where it languishes in some back room, not likely to see the light of day before the 111th Congress adjourns.

The Deseret News ran an editorial this week calling for the lame-duck Congress to pass this bill. They point out that:

It is more than a little disconcerting that the full anatomy of passengers can be displayed in high-resolution to perfect strangers employed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). And despite the TSA’s protestation that images are not saved, the fact that the Internet is now awash in images that were supposed to have been erased provides us little comfort as this high-resolution technology becomes even more pervasive. Passengers also might justifiably harbor the same kind of doubts that respected radiologists at the University of California and Columbia still have about the safety of this radioactive procedure.

and further:

This procrastinating Congress has left a slough of critically important legislation undone. The long-forgotten Whole Body Imaging Limitations Act might seem a lower priority than providing a budget for the federal government, clarifying tax rates and ratifying treaties. Nevertheless, it seems to us that even a fractured lame-duck Senate could agree on striking this sensible balance between safety and decency before families travel this holiday season.

Chaffetz bill not only did not get support from Utah’s Senators, one – outgoing Senator Bob Bennett – actively fought the Chaffetz legislation. In fact, he introduced legislation with Democrat Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that would REQUIRE digital strip-searching machines to be the first line of screening at every US commercial airport. One more reason to “call him home.” Oh wait ……

Don’t touch my junk!

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Benjamin Franklin

The current situation with the TSA is a perfect example of what happens when we trade liberty for supposed security. Toss in some bizarre notion of political correctness that prevents us from targeting suspicious passengers and we end up with a government agency that supervises taking (and storing) naked pictures and groping would-be fliers.

Perhaps we’ve been losing individual liberties since the adoption of the US Constitution 200-plus years ago.  James Madison proclaimed in 1788: “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” Bit by bit, we have lost our freedoms because we we are complacent, apathetic – or – shudder – we actually give up our liberties voluntarily.

A bit over 9 years ago, some people bent on the destruction of America, flew some planes into some buildings. We were shocked! Horrified! Outraged! And the majority of us rushed to give away our liberties for a chance at what we thought was more safety, more security under the guise of the Patriot Act. We have lost oh-so-much under that act. We can be spied on in our own homes. We can have tracking devices placed on our cars without warrants. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that the FBI has illegally collected thousands of U.S. telephone call records. We’ve also lost the right to “habeus corpus” – the right to be protected from unlawful search and seizure, as guaranteed in our 4th amendment.

Today, the TSA takes the violation of the 4th amendment to a whole new level. In fact, a former assistant TSA administrator admits “Nobody likes having their 4th Amendment violated going through a security line, but the truth of the matter is, we’re gonna have to.”

John Tyner headed to the airport earlier this month.  He opted out of the TSA porn machine and was led to the “pat down” area.  He describes his experience:

After setting my things on a table, he turned to me and began to explain that he was going to do a “standard” pat down. (I thought to myself, “great, not one of those gropings like I’ve been reading about”.) After he described, the pat down, I realized that he intended to touch my groin. After he finished his description but before he started the pat down, I looked him straight in the eye and said, “if you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.”

Charles Krauthammer wrote recently in the Washington Post about  Tyner’s quip:

Not quite the 18th-century elegance of “Don’t Tread on Me,” but the age of Twitter has a different cadence from the age of the musket. What the modern battle cry lacks in archaic charm, it makes up for in full-body syllabic punch.

Don’t touch my junk is the anthem of the modern man, the Tea Party patriot, the late-life libertarian, the midterm election voter.

Tyner’s not the only one whose junk is getting touched.  We have 8 year-olds being strip-searched in line, a 5 year-old disabled child forced to remove his leg braces, a breast cancer survivor forced to remove her prosthetic, and a bladder cancer patient who had his urostomy bag knocked off during the TSA groping, soaking him in urine.  We have a pilot traveling with his 18 year-old daughter who overheard a TSA agent on his headset saying “heads up, got a cutie for you,” and 2 other pilots suing Homeland Security for wanting to “touch their junk.”  In fact, one of those pilots, Michael Roberts, has described the scanners as machines who can “see whether a man is circumcised or a woman is menstruating. They can see everything.” Oh, and TSA workers know it.  Just ask Rolando Negrin.  He’s the TSA worker who went ballistic after his co-workers started mocking him for – well – the size of his junk.

As predicted, the Utah legislature takes $101 million

The Utah legislature convened a special session today to talk about taking the $101 million in “Edu-jobs” federal dollars. There were impassioned speeches – Senator Madsen’s was my favorite – and there were amendments and a substitute bill. There even was an awful lot of sauntering on the Senate side which generally means they don’t have the votes. That added slightly to the non-drama of the day. But, in the end, the House passed the resolution put forward by Speaker-elect Lockhart and accepted the money with 14 no votes. The Senate passed it on a 22-6 vote.

The House Reps who voted no were Dougall, Herrod, Noel, Sumsion, Frank, Mathis, Oda, Wright, Francis Gibson, Morley, Painter, Harper, Newbold and Sandstrom. The Senators were Buttars, Madsen, Stowell, Dayton, Howard Stephenson and Urquhart. Details can be found on the state website.

Interestingly, when this bill was passed on a federal level, only one member of the Utah delegation voted FOR it. Any guesses who?

Federal dollars and legislative posturing

Tomorrow, the Utah legislature will convene a special session for the purpose of voting on whether to take $101 million from the federal government.  Let’s be clear.  They will take the money.  But before they do, we’ll hear more talk about how the money is bad.  More talk about overreach by the federal government.  More about the usurpation of states’ rights.  But they will take it.

Why? Because the federal government has “barbed” the deal.  If the state decides NOT to take the money, the federal government can – and undoubtedly will – give the money directly to individual school districts. The legislature can have some control over where the money goes or they can have no control. The legislature is also very tightly bound by where they can spend the money. It can’t go for brick and mortar – it must go for personnel. So, for those states who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – balance their budget, it’s a reward for bad behavior. A bailout for irresponsibility. It punishes those responsible states who have balanced their budgets by giving them one-time money for on-going needs. They’ll also take it because more legislators want it than oppose it.

So – the special session will convene, the speeches in opposition will be given, enough people will vote no to prove their point – and the majority will vote to take the money. The biggest drawback? The lashing that will come from the far right for every legislator not “pure” enough to vote no.