He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good

Well, let’s see. Mr. Obama has refused to get Congressional permission to continue to be involved in the Libyan conflict. There is also encouragement for him to raise the debt ceiling without the consent of Congress.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

How about the Obama Administration’s attacks on Arizona? Or maybe the way that the administration sided with the United Nations against Texas over the exucution of a child murderer/rapist?

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

The Federal Government consistently refuses highway funding or other funding to states unless they change their laws to bend to the will of the Feds. This essentially negates the state legislatures where  the individual has a larger voice. It works to dilute the representative voice of the individual.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

How about Harry Reid’s Christmas Eve vote on Health Care in the middle of the night?

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

The closest we came to something like this is FDR threatening to stack the Supreme Court with judges who wouldn’t rule his methods unconstitutional. But we haven’t really had a President try something like this yet.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

So far, so good.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

This has blame to go around. Mr. Obama refuses to execute the current immigration laws and attacks the states who try. Congress refuses to acknowledge that our immigration laws are atrocious. We need to secure our border and then fix our convoluted immigration system.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

 Mr. Obama attacked the Supreme Court in his State of the Union Address. While not preventing their rulings from affecting law, he has begun the process of challenging them.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

We have pretty much prevented this with the Constitution.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

This just screams of the multitude of Czars that Presidents since Nixon have appointed.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

We have standing armies, but we have mostly agreed that it is a good thing these days, so we have the consent of the legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

This sounds very much like the Patriot Act did with homeland security. Warrantless Searches.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

We have had several Presidents who belong to the New World Order and have subjected us to the whims of the UN for decades.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

Neither of these are an issue today.

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

While our trade hasn’t been cut off, our products have been taxed to the point of making trade almost impossible. Our cost is so inflated that it makes it impossible to compete with other nations.

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

Obamacare is opposed by 57% of the nation, but is enacted anyway.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

Again, the Patriot Act.

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

Our government has yet to violate these to my knowledge.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

There are many examples of this. The Department of Homeland Security declared registered indepenents, returning veterans and right wing supporters possible terrorists. Gay and lesbian couples have no protections under the law.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

The government has yet to wage physical war against us.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

I believe that the character of our current government is marked by every act which may define a tyrant and is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Luckily our forefathers had the good sense to give us the ability to redress these problems without violence. We have the ability to reform our government at the ballot box. Please remember this when you vote.

Today is the day we celebrate the creation of this great nation. Let us ask ourselves what we can do to keep it that way.

May everyone have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day!

In California, the legislature decided that there were businesses that were not being fleeced by the California government. So, a law was passed requiring online retailers who have business operations in the State of California to collect online sales tax. Up until now, states require the individual to pay sales tax on items purchased online. California feels too many people are not doing that, so it decided to put the burden on business.

Amazon.com uses an associate program across the country. Basically, a business will sell it’s items through Amazon and Amazon collects a fee. It works well for both, as businesses get a better online presence for their products and Amazon gets a larger product selection. Leave it to government to find a way to take a successful economic model and destroy it. This new law would require Amazon to collect sales tax on all purchases from users in California because it has associates in California. Amazon had a simple response. It terminated it’s relationship with all of it’s associates in California the day the bill was signed. Overstock.com reacted the same way. How many businesses working with these two companies have now lost a great deal of revenue because the government always wants more? How many will have to close their doors. How will this help improve the economy in California? But then what do you expect from a state whose tax policies are shaped by the Board of Equalization? Next they’ll just start calling it the People’s State of California.

But Atlas is shrugging in Maryland also. Maryland decided to balance it’s budget on the backs of the producers in the state, so it created a millionaire tax bracket and raised the top marginal income tax bracket to 6.45%. Combined with some local taxes, that made the state tax as high as 9.45% in some cities.

The response from the millionaires: they left. One third of the millionaires in the State of Maryland have left. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2008 there were roughly 3,000 million dollar income tax returns filed. In 2009: 2,000. Could some of that be because of the recession? Sure. But not one third. So, here we see that when the producers tire of being fleeced, they will leave. Just as they did in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

It’s time that the people of this country are reminded that in a country that is supposed to be based on equality, class warfare goes against everything in which we believe.

“How so?” You might ask. Let’s look at his run for Senate in 1994. That’s the one where he said,  ”I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.” How about when he ran for Governor and he said, “I promised that if elected, I’d call a truce – a moratorium, if you will…I vowed to veto any legislation that sought to change the existing rules…I fully respect and will fully protect a woman’s right to choose.”

While I am unapologetically Pro-Life, not agreeing with me on this one issue would not necessarily keep me from voting for you. However, lying about it would. Now that he’s trying to court conservative voters, he is completely pro-life and was just faking it in Massachusetts. Sorry, I don’t want another liar in office.

He supported the original Brady Bill and said he would have signed it into law and, in fact, did in Massachusetts. He declared himself a lifelong hunter, only to be shown to have never held a hunting license. I’m not hunter. I don’t like the idea of killing animals that I don’t have to kill. I support hunting, just don’t want to do it. I don’t have a problem with Mitt not hunting, I have a problem with him lying about it.

Let’s look at his companions. Everyone learned that you are who you associate with when they saw Obama was just like the people he knew in the past. In the state of Florida, Mitt Romney’s finance team includes State Senator John Thrasher. Thrasher has been charged 3 times with ethics violations, recently proposed building Jack Nicklaus golf courses in State Parks to attract visitors (Florida has more golf courses than any state in the country and Jack Nicklaus, a friend of Thrasher, would have made millions off the deal). Are these the people we want in the White House?

That is just the tip of the iceberg as to why I oppose Mitt Romney’s run for the White House. What are yours?

Dan, Captain William Mayhem (THE Pirate Magician of St. Augustine), and Aimée

Monday June 6th will be the final airing of The Riggsby Report on WFOY. Due to increase in the cost of airtime we will have to stop broadcasting our show. We have been on the air for almost 2 years now and we hope that you have enjoyed it as much as we have.

We will continue our blog and will be looking for opportunities to get back on the air. We’ve enjoyed the interviews that we’ve been able to do. We’ve had Mike Huckabee, Joe the Plumber, Marco Rubio, Jeff Atwater, Julio Robaina, and many others. We’ve had countless Scallywags, Paladin’s and people who R-Wrong.  Both Aimée and Dan have had to make Dinner and more than a few people were loco.

It’s been an honor getting to come into your living rooms every week and I can’t begin to tell you how much we have enjoyed getting to talk to our callers. We will miss you.

My wife Aimée is so very good about making it a point to thank those who have served. She goes that extra mile on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to my fellow veterans and the men and women serving today. However, today isn’t about us. Veterans Day is a day set aside to honor our nations veterans. Today is Memorial Day. There is a reason that Memorial Day ceremonies are often held in cemeteries.

Today is the day we honor our fallen. Today is the day we honor those men and women who pleged their lives to their country and had their country take them up on their offer. Today is the day we thank the widow who had to bury the love of her life because of her love for her country. Today is the day we thank the children who grew up without one of their parents because their freedom took prescedence over the ability to see them enjoy it. Today is the day we thank the mothers and fathers who spent their lives putting their children first, only to bury that child because he put them first.

You see, today isn’t a day to honor those who served. Today is the day to honor those who sacrificed. I am honored to have served my country. I am most honored to have shared the uniform of so many brave men and women who, when called to make the ultimate sacrifice decided that our freedom was worth more than their lives. And it is these brave men, women and their families for whom I pray when I bow my head in the cemetary.

God Bless you all and God Bless the United States of America.

One of St. Johns County greatest attributes behind Tourism is Agriculture.

And, Hastings as the Potato Capitol of Florida was the best place  to host the traditional Hasting Potato Cabbage Festival.  From the attendance at the Festival it appears that many are getting back to the basics and their agricultural roots!  This event was an example of American farming families coming together through community spirit to celebrate our counties Agriculture heritage. 

As quietly as it is kept Agriculture has been a tradition in our family for generations, and farming greatly influenced my life.  This Hankering for farming and agriculture extends from both parents, but more so from our mother’s family who are Tennesseans, and part of that Johnson Clan, yea that Johnson!  Those experiences as a youth helped form our conservative views.

Actually, the Council of Aging will be featured a film about my mother’s life on the farm during Older American Month, entitled the Good Life.  This was a series of interviews of seniors who seemed to be living a good life.  The film was produced by Flagler College students, and after watching the student’s great work on all the films I realized how much of an influence my mother and her family have had on us.  And, it inspired me to pin this article on Agriculture, and our lives.

As kids my older brother who is an NCAA graduate, and I spent our summers in rural Tennessee on our mother’s family farm.  We spent our summers there at our own request, because we were inspired by our roots thanks to our parents and relatives sharing stories and visiting the south prior to that time.  It’s a Southern Thang…

Thankfully, our “parents” also wanted us too have a strong work ethic, and know about the basis, i.e., from where we once came, and much like the Beverly Hillbillies who never forget where they came from even though they struck it rich with Oil! 

Heck to this day, my brother who is a Physician in Tampa drives a Ford 250 4 x 4 Diesel, and is married to a Wisconsin dairy farmer’s daughter (literally).  She too is an NCAA graduate.   Frankly, I feel more comfortable in a pair of redwing boots, Columbia pants and shirt on a John Deere Tractor or a Ford truck, with a gun and a dog.   Do not let the Brooks Brothers, Harts, Schaffer, and Marx, or Sir Joseph A. Bank’s customs made suites, and Washington, DC or northern attitude or upbringing fool you.

Likewise, many St. Johns County families are still involved in Agriculture. But, over the last fifty years the number of farmers within the county and US has decreased, which is sad! Because, at some point in time we will have to import more of our food and it will not be cheap nor top quality! 

As an economic case in point and according to the University of Florida, IFAS Extension St. Johns County leads the State of Florida in the production acreage of potatoes and cabbage.  An estimated 24,960 acres in the County are devoted to potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, turf grass, livestock, nursery stock, timber, and various small truck crops.

The economic impact of Agriculture and Natural Resource industries is over $171 million.  These industries provide 2,638 jobs.  Specific impacts include:

• Vegetables                                                          $45,000,000
• Environmental Horticulture               $48,000,000
• Labor Income                                                  $77,000,000
• Indirect Business Taxes                          $13,300,000

In the American model land ownership was an essential prerequisite for voting rights, which was built on relatively easy paths to individual farm ownership. However, the gradual modernization and mechanization of farming, greatly increases both the efficiency and capital requirements of farming.  This led to increasingly large farms owned by individuals or corporations.

It is the farm foundation that we call “getting back to basics.”  These basics include self-sufficiency, self-reliance, independence, family and God.

Life itself is simple, based in Agriculture, and the basics.  How so you ask?  We must plow, till, plant the seeds, water, pray and reaping a harvest, and pray again for the harvest.  Hence, we reap what we sow

Agriculture is the number two industry in Florida as it is in many southern states. And, many families evolved from the basics of farming into other professions such as Medicine, Law, Public Service, and Ministry.  Our desire to spend our summers on the farm was one of the greatest decisions of our lives, and it prepared us for today’s business environment and life in general.  

Unfortunately, farm ownership has decreased substantially over the last 100 years as has self-worth, self-reliance, and independence.  There by, causing some to become more dependent on government or socialist programs to provide for them. 

Not sure about you, but I am getting back to the basics and back to American democracy model that was laid out for us in the American Constitution by our founders fathers who set a great example of what America is about… Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as you define it.

Thanks Mom

http://www.riggsbyreport.com/favorite-segments/

Marco Rubio

As promised! Click here for the Marco Rubio interview in it’s entirety.

Let’s take everyone’s favorite analogy when discusssing environmentalists, the spotted owl. Now, imagine that the spotted owl truly will not adapt to it’s environment if humans change it. (It did, so now it’s a moot point, but it works for the example) According to Darwin, that is Natural Selection. The failure to adapt to it’s changing local environment would cause the extinction of the species. This is necessary under Darwin’s theory.

So, how is it that these people can support Darwin, but work against it at every junction? Could it be hypocrisy? Probably by some. Could it be that they don’t understand Darwin’s theory? That’s a good bet. Could it be that most of them don’t understand nature? That, to me,  is the best possibility. As many environmentalists seem to believe that man and nature are separate, that to me is an indication that they truly don’t understand nature. I’ve found that the most environmentally friendly people are usually hunters. (I am talking about true hunters, not the guy who hangs a salt lick off of a tree and sits in a little wooded hut drinking until a deer shows up to shoot. )  Most true hunters are also conservationalists that understand the balance of nature and the food chain. Maybe if there were fewer vegetarian “environmentalists” we might be better off. So that’s the phrase of the week. “Eat meat, save the environment!”

Happy Birthday

On May 7th, in a year long, long ago, Bill McRae was born. That led to his wonderful work on the Riggsby Report, so we are grateful!