Nice Going Judges

[karlsie]

Tucked within the auto bail-out package is a seventeen percent raise for federal judges. Not they are in particularly dire straits; their average income is $160,000 a year, plus, but they feel they should keep up with the pay increases of other federal employees. The muscle flexing of the federal branch has been perplexing me for awhile; now it's starting to down-right worry me. Also on their agenda, is a debate over the second Constitutional right for citizens to keep and bear firearms. They say this has never been addressed by a federal court and it's time to bring it to attention. Hmm. So are we now a federally controlled government, with no true state rights and no true voice in the decision making process? I think this is a subject Subversify should tackle.

[Maya]

Communism I say. Well not technically. Just covered by a facade of generic American citizen freedom heists. But it is a good idea Karla.

[Mr. Subversify]

I think the problem is that many of people don't really care about an authoritative federal government. The populace in some southern states has a strong states rights streak lingering from the civil war, and some of the rural populace residing in midwest and western states have a distrust of the federal government that was a result of Goldwater libertarianism. A person in New York City might respond to your salary quote with " So what? My Uncle makes more than that managing a night club in Queens" followed by "That Giants Receiver shot himself in the leg last week, maybe the Feds should re-examine the 2nd".

The problem needs to be presented in a context that allows people to understand the larger ramifications, because most of the population doesn't walk around with firearms ( and you know the NRA hates that) or understand the desire for restricted federal power.

[karlsie]

I totally agree. The issue for me isn't really the salary the federal judges request; although i think it's rather obscene to tuck it in the bail-out package while America flounders with its new found debt; but a perception that the feds are increasing in power, and what the significance might be. On the one hand, federal intervention has seemed like wisdom to many people. Few people have murmured over federal jurisdiction in state laws they felt disagreement with as long as the federal judgment didn't disagree with their own choices. Few have set up any great fuss over homeland security. The shake down of the legislative branch seems like justice; yet, i still wonder why they are doing this. Many of the fallen kings are old and set in their ways. They played the bureaucratic game when it didn't seem bad to do so. As long as they were taking care of their State, who cared if there was a little pocket lining?

I also consider; with the dissolution of the middle class, over-production, dwindling industry, the American tax-payer and strawman associates, do not create enough assets to stabilize the dollar. Our richest federal reserves are in our natural resources, many of which lie in federally protected lands. Essentially, the federal government has the greatest economic power. Perhaps because of the sensationalist media press, it's seemed at times to simply be a witch hunt. With a weak legislature and a judicial branch that must consider our Bill of Rights and whether or not they are legitimately ours, i begin to wonder exactly how much power the federal government intends to assume and what they plan to do with it.

I'll probably do the article. The little disquieting voices have been festering up in me for awhile.