The “Restoring Honor” event at the Lincoln Memorial was inspiring. That should be just the beginning of a “Restoration Movement.” We don’t really need a revolution in America; all we need to do is restore what once was. I have a suggestion for another aspect of our Founding that needs to be restored—a suggestion that some will call unrealistic, yet one that the Founders considered essential.

Let’s restore the provision in the original wording of the Constitution that allows state legislatures to choose a state’s senators who serve in Congress.

Article I, Section 3 says, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof.”

The reasoning was lucid: the people of each state already had direct representation into the national government via the House of Representatives; it was necessary as well to provide representation for the state governments in the national Congress. The goal was to make sure that laws passed by each state were not going to be overturned by the national government without good reason.

It was one of those key checks on power; it was to provide balance in the federal system.

Why did this change?

Read the rest.

A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e

Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona

Mitchell campaign in meltdown; moves signs — drawing more attention to his record

We had to chuckle when we got an email from the David Schweikert for Congress campaign about campaign signs. The Schweikert campaign put up signs next to Mitchell’s campaign signs saying things like “Union Owned,” “Hides from Voters,” and “Supports Obamacare.” Mitchell reacted by complaining to the media and taking his signs down and putting them up elsewhere. This is the sign of campaign in disarray. The last thing in the world Mitchell wants is more attention drawn to his voting record, which includes voting for Obamacare and union-backed card check. Mitchell is running from his record but moving his signs and complaining to the media makes his record even more obvious!

The State Department included a Justice Department lawsuit against Arizona’s immigration law into a United Nations human rights report to show how U.S. rule of law can be an example to the world, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Arizona immigration law included in an Aug. 20 report to the U.N. high commissioner on rights came up during the preparation period, when teams went around the country gathering ideas for the report.

Crowley said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton included the dispute in the report because she thought the U.S. could serve as “a model” to other nations.

“The universal periodic review, we believe, can be a model to demonstrate, you know, to other countries, even other countries on the Human Rights Council, this is how you engage civil society,’ Crowley told reporters.

“And the Arizona immigration law is a good example of how we are debating this as a society. There is a legal case ongoing. And this issue will be resolved under the rule of law,” he said.

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The Obama Administration has some explaining to do.  Politico reports in a Friday story that 2011 could be a tough year for an Administration facing numerous oversight hearings on issues ranging from the controversy over the Justice Department’s handling of the New Black Panther Party investigation to the numerous bailouts administered by Obama Administration officials. Specific allegations from Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) regarding the use of government sponsored propaganda should raise ethical flags, if not legal ones, for Americans who don’t want tax dollars used to promote the big government ideas of President Barack Obama.

From Politico:

If President Barack Obama needed any more incentive to go all out for Democrats this fall, here it is: Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority.

An investigation of the Obama Administrations use of government sponsored propaganda to promote the left wing agenda of the President is one of the areas planned for investigation. A report from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released August 16, 2010 indicates that members of the Obama Administration may have broken the law implementing the President’s pubic relations and propaganda efforts. Congressman Darrell Issa, Ranking Member of the Committee, has been a critic of the Obama Administrations misuse of federal monies and he has put out this staff report, “Analysis of the First Year of the Obama Administration: Pubic Relations and Propaganda Initiatives.”

The Report summarizes:

Since the beginning of the Obama Administration on January 20, 2009, ordinary Americans have financed and been exposed to an unprecedented number of public relations and propaganda efforts. Federal spending for public relations contracts rose to historically-high levels during the Bush Administration. Under one-party rule in 2009, the White House used the machinery of the Obama campaign to tout the President’s agenda through inappropriate and sometimes unlawful public relations and propaganda initiatives. Congress buoyed the Administration’s propaganda efforts by increasing federal spending on public relations for the first time since 2005.

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The U.S. Border Patrol told the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office that one of its agents working in the Nogales area was shot at from the Mexican side of the international boundary early Monday morning.

Dispatch received the call at 4:23 a.m., said Lupita Perez of the Sheriff’s Office. She said the Border Patrol contacted her office “out of courtesy,” and that the actual incident occurred around 2 a.m. on the Buena Vista Ranch near Kino Springs.

“It was approximately five gun shots coming from Mexico towards his direction,” said Perez, who added that the agent said he could hear the bullets whizzing past him. She said the shots came from a vehicle. “Nobody was hurt and no property was damaged.”

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EPA’s Gun Control: Update #2

Not that this was going anywhere anyway, but someone at the EPA must have gotten a few phone calls about their open comment period on this truly screwy idea from either the White House, Congressional leadership, or perhaps both. Just two days ago, the EPA announced that they would take comments until the end of October as to whether they agreed that lead-based ammunition and fishing sinkers amounted to such a dire threat to the environment that the EPA should ban both. Looks like they heard enough comments, at least on ammunition:

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Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate and millionaire businessman Buz Mills is taking on a new challenge.

He’s focusing his fundraising efforts on helping two Arizona sheriffs defend themselves against lawsuits challenging Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Mills is chairing the Border Sheriffs, a new non-profit organization set up to raise private funds to cover the legal fees of Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, two of the state’s 15 county sheriffs named in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil-rights groups.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio also is named as a defendant in a separate lawsuit filed by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, but he is not part of the Border Sheriffs group. None of the other four Senate Bill 1070 lawsuits name any sheriffs as defendants.

Mills said the goal of the Border Sheriffs is not to defend SB 1070, which he supports as a tool for law enforcement, but to help the sheriffs on the front lines. Cochise County shares about 80 miles of border with Mexico, and Pinal County is a major corridor of travel for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

“Helping them raise funds lets them focus on their main job: protecting Arizonans against this international violence,” Mills said.

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Hundreds of thousands rally in Washington.

Radio and television personality Glenn Beck today hosted hundreds of thousands of rallying citizens from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In what was an amazingly apolitical rally, Beck and his fellow speakers focused on three themes: faith, hope, and charity.

The event, billed by its organizers “Restoring Honor,” harkened back to revered American leaders, from the Founding Fathers to Martin Luther King Jr., and religious figures, particularly Moses, whom he continuously referred to as “the man with the stick and burning bush.”

Offering a grim picture of where the country is today, while refraining from critiquing specific politicians or even particular policies, Beck hit a hopeful pitch, urging his minions to be more like the great Americans and religious figures he praised.

“Do we no longer believe in the individual, and the power of one individual?” Beck demanded. “No!” the crowd adamantly answered. “One man can change the world….That individual is you!”

“Pick up your stick and stand!” Beck commanded the crowd, suggesting that what can save America is a Moses-like figure, committed to God and caring for all who follow his lead.

Beck’s religious undertone was the current that carried the whole show.

Read the rest.

The Environmental Protection Agency has denied a petition filed by environmental activists seeking to ban lead in ammunition, saying such regulation is beyond the agency’s authority.

The agency’s decision, announced Friday shortly after FoxNews.com published its report on the issue, sided with hunters and fishermen who had argued that the such regulations weren’t allowed under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

“EPA is taking action on many fronts to address major sources of lead in our society, such as eliminating childhood exposures to lead,” the agency said in a written statement. “However, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.”

A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e