Who;s Got the Hammer

March 31st, 2010


Who has the hammer?

That heading might have a strange meaning, but in reality it is a very powerful statement with all the turmoil in Washington. As a result of swinging the Hammer, the State of South Dakota is joining with many other states to sue the United States Government for violation of States Rights. (Sounds like a history lesson coming on doesn’t it?)

First of all, let me explain what the Hammer is. Now don’t get me wrong here. I am putting the blame equally on the Republicans and the Democrats. This is a biased article, but not about them. (I’ll get to that in a minute.) Back to the Hammer. It is my firm belief that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats give two hoots and a holler about health care. What they do care about is who controls the leadership in the House and the Senate because whoever controls that controls the hammer. THEY will decide what is good for the people of America. I said in my letter in the Argus Leader this week that Power corrupts; Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.

It is a funny thing about power. Even at the lowest levels of government there is power. Some say that the lower you get on the food chain the more corrupt one becomes. Anyway, once you have this power, what do you do with it? People that have had the hammer know the feeling that comes with it. They feel invincible. They can do anything they want because they have the Hammer.

In the first case you use it to wield a program that you say will help the people. Hence the health care reform bill. The Democrats are for it, and the Republicans are against it so now we have a meeting of the minds, and Nancy Pelosi has the Hammer. She knows if she gets this through, other legislation that follows will be hers to decide if it is good or bad, whether it will give her more power or less. Whichever was she decides to go, she wields the Hammer and that is the way it is going to go. It sounds like I’m making this up, but this is exactly what happens inside the Beltway in Washington.

Let me regress for a minute. Do you remember in your history books, one of the reasons for the American Revolution? It was a tax levied by King George against stamps, and tea. The revolutionaries declared this taxation without representation and this was the beginning of the Revolutionary war. Well Guess what? The Republicans are viewing the health care issue as not whether or not it will be good or bad for us but the federal government is taking away a states right by declaring that everyone in the United States MUST have health care. This is taxation without representation and a violation of the 1st Article of the Constitution. The Attorneys General in 38 states agreed and filed a lawsuit in federal court that this mandate is unconstitutional because it is in fact a tax and we have no option to decline it. That is case number one

Case number 2 is that South Dakota has joined with 14 other states saying that the standards set down by the Environmental Protection Agency concerning carbon emissions are too strict and will cause 1000’s of business’s money because they will exceed the carbon standard. Let me give you a big FLASH! The biggest violator of these standards will be the Hyperion Oil Refinery. When Hyperion received their air permit last August, it was based on the fact that the air in South Dakota is so pristine that they can run at an amok and still not reach the standards set by the Clean Air Act of 1994. Well guess what? When they reach that level, which was permitted by the state DENR by the way, nobody else can emit any pollutants because they will then exceed the standard. I tried and several other people tried to warn the authorities that this would happen but nobody would listen. I had a letter printed in the SCJ to be careful because if Hyperion does come here, there will be no growth in Sioux City so far as manufacturing industries are concerned. I was pooh poohed about this and accused of being ‘chicken little,’ and the sky was falling. Now the states are suing the EPA because their standards are too strict. Be careful what you ask for because you might get it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when the big bear has an itch it will scratch it, and you had better move away. So who is going to get the blame when and IF this refinery comes for companies not to be able to build because they will exceed the standards? You can bet your bottom dollar that it won’t be the refinery, it will be the EPA. Sometimes one cannot see the forest for the trees can we? The very pollutants that they will be releasing; carbon dioxide (19 million tons), nitrous oxide, methane and HFC’s are the biggest concerns for the EPA. If only people would look at the long range plan once in awhile. I just read the paper on Friday and the SCJ was touting that the population was at 144,000 and the future is really looking rosy. A dead rose maybe.

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