Click here to listen 12-30-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

The first Liberty Tree in Boston was so named in 1765 by the Sons of Liberty, a small group of private citizens not unlike today’s “Tea Party”. Among it’s notable members were Sam Adams, James Otis, Paul Revere and John Hancock.

As their numbers grew, the concept of the Liberty Tree did too. Soon nearly every colonial town had it’s own “secret” public gathering place, often identified by a red flag hoisted on a pole at the top of the tree. Those plotting to claim their God-given rights would gather under the Liberty Tree to discuss how to throw off the bonds of tyranny.

In 1775, loyalists cut down the original Liberty Tree and used it for firewood, but the fire they struck lit a flame of freedom that led to the Declaration of Independence and “We The People” became a “shining city on a hill“.

I’ll be taking a break from our daily meetings Under the Liberty Tree for now, not to retreat, but to reload. In the meantime, set up your own Liberty Tree, talk about freedom, and lets make 2012 the year that we reclaim government of, by, and for the people.

I’m David Madeira, and I hope to see you soon, Under The Liberty Tree.

Click here to listen 12-29-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Ad Astra per Aspera is the motto of the State of Kansas. It’s latin for “To the Stars with Difficulty” and was coined by statesman, lawyer, orator, and scholar John James Ingalls.   A Massachusetts native who moved to Kansas in response to an advertisement in 1859, Ingalls wrote that “the aspiration of Kansas is to reach the unattainable; its dream is the realization of the impossible.”

How fitting that Kansas is leading the way when it comes to enacting the Tea Party’s supposedly impossible agenda. Newly-elected Governor Sam Brownback abolished three state agencies this year, eliminating over 2,000 bureaucrats. The Washington Post whines that “Funding for schools, social services and the arts have been slashed…” and Kansas turned down a $31.5 million federal grant to implement ObamaCare.

But Brownback’s just getting started. He actually created an “Office of the Repealer” to find laws and regulations to be put on the chopping block.

The Governor says “The states are to be the laboratory for democracy. Why not here and why not us and why not now?”

Why not indeed!

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-28-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush spent Christmas at Camp David, the exclusive country retreat of Presidents just 60 miles from the White House. They reportedly did so to allow their Secret Service details to be close to home for Christmas.

Not so President Obama, who’s family Christmas vacation will cost taxpayers over $4 million, according to the Hawaii Reporter.

The lions share of that, over $3.5 million, was “…for separate travel for the president and his family, $151,200 for housing for security, $72,216 for staff to stay in one of Hawaii’s most luxurious resorts, the Moana Surfrider in Waikiki, and local police protection and ambulance detail for $260,000.”

Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi is stuck on the Big Island at the Four Seasons Resort. Her humble suite rents for just $10,000 a night.

Now before you think I’ve gone all Occupy Wall Street “envy your neighbor” on you, I haven’t. I’m happy for the luxurious lives of our elected representatives. I just wish they’d stop borrowing on our children’s future and let us keep a little more of what we earn.

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-27-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Earlier this month, Democrat Senator Harry Reid proposed 1.9 percent surtax on million-dollar incomes, claiming it won’t stifle job creation because:

“Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They’re impossible to find, and they don’t exist… Only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars, probably less than 1 percent, are actually small business owners. And only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction are traditional job creators…Most of these businesses are hedge fund managers or wealthy lawyers. They don’t do much hiring and they don’t need more tax breaks.”

That’s a great line, but it defies both logic and IRS data.  Paul Rodrick Gregory writes in Forbes that “There are 236,883 tax filers with incomes of a million dollars or more. By Harry Reid’s count, only …2,361 of them, are business owners, and a tiny fraction of them create jobs….[This means that] the average millionaire-owned business earns almost a hundred million dollars, and all, except 118 of them, do this without hiring anyone.”?

And Reid said that Sharon Angle was crazy. Lock this guy up!

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-26-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Social Security ran deficits for the last two years and since the only funding for the popular retirement program comes from the payroll tax, Congresswoman and Presidential Candidate Michelle Bachmann told CNN’s John King she opposed extending the cuts because…

“This isn’t going to create jobs John.  That’s the President’s problem in all this. He said if we lower the payroll tax, that it will create jobs. There’s not a shred of evidence it created jobs. All it did John, is blow a $111 billion hole in the Social Security Trust Fund.

It put at risk the Social Security Checks for senior citizens. I’m not willing to do that. What I want to do is have a permanent solution that’s actually going to create jobs. So what we have to do is abolish the tax code and lower the tax rates on businesses so we can create jobs.

This is just more smoke and mirrors on the part of the President. This is what people hate, all across Iowa. I just came from Brooklyn Iowa and I guy said ‘Why is Congress doing this to Senior Citizens?’ I’m with him. He’s exactly right I told my Republican Colleagues last year – don’t fall for this gimmick from President Obama.”

Why exactly is she not leading in the polls in Iowa? Didn’t we say we were ready to handle the truth?

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-23-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Two thousand years ago a decree went out from Caesar that all the world should be taxed.  Joseph went to a city called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his intended, who was great with child by a miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit.  While they were there, the time came for her to give birth to her firstborn son, who she wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Shepherds in a nearby field, keeping watch over their flock that night, were filled with fear when an angel of the Lord, wrapped in glorious light, suddenly appeared and said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that is for everyone. This very day a Savior is born. He is Christ the Lord. You will find Him in Bethlehem wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

No sooner had the angel finished speaking than a multitude of heavenly hosts appeared. As if with one voice they said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-22-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Senator Coburn just release his annual catalogue of particularly egregious wasteful federal spending.

Coburn’s “Wastebook” says that while “Congress deadlocked over whether or not savings could be found by closing loopholes within the complex tax code… the IRS approved roughly $1 billion in tax credits .. for energy efficiency home improvements to individuals who did not even own a house….

While Congress bickered over whether or not the salaries of federal employees should be frozen, the federal government paid $120 million to federal employees who were deceased.

Congress cannot now even agree on a plan to pay for the costs of extending jobless benefits to the millions of Americans who are still out of work.  Yet, thousands of millionaires are receiving unemployment benefits and billions of dollars of improper payments of unemployment insurance are being made to individuals with jobs ….

And remember those infamous bridges to nowhere in Alaska that became symbols of government waste years ago?  The bridges were never built, yet the federal government still spent more than a million dollars just this year to pay for staff to promote one of the bridges.”

No wonder we’re broke!

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-21-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

Monday, Newt Gingrich praised Iowa voters who ousted three judges for legalizing same-sex marriage by court order.  “I commend the people of Iowa,” he said, “for sending a strong signal that when judges overreach … they can find a new job,”

The lawyer class in both parties is having a reaction fitting a professional soccer player faking an injury.  Michael Mukasey, who was a federal judge until he was appointed Attorney General by George W. Bush, called Gingrich’s ideas “dangerous, ridiculous, totally irresponsible, outrageous, off-the-wall …reduc[ing] the entire judicial system to a spectacle.”

Wow. He uses more adjectives per sentence than Newt.

Establishment over-reaction notwithstanding, it would appear that the facts are on Newt’s side, as pointed out by uber-liberal talker Thom Hartmann.

Hartmann points to the Constitution, Article Three, Section Two which says “[T]he Supreme Court shall have appelate jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.”  He also quotes Jefferson, who called the idea that judges are the ultimate arbiters “a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy…”

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

The folks at Occupy Portland realized that doing drugs and urinating in public wasn’t solving the income inequality that has been exasperated by the Obama recession, so they decided to kick it up a notch by interfering with the work of those who earn their living making sure people can get the things they want when they need them.

According to Port of Portland spokesman Josh Thomas “Hundreds of workers were impacted by the protest activities …, including approximately 325 longshore workers, 200 truckers, and a number of other individuals relating to tenant operations at Terminals 4, 5 and 6. For many of these workers, it meant a day without pay.”

But don’t expect these protestors to grasp the irony of stopping income inequality by taking away the income of fellow 99%rs. They’re not even qualified to procreate.  One protestor placed her four year old daughter on the tracks. When asked why she would put her own defenseless child at risk, she said:

“The thing is, I have faith in humanity. I don’t think that any person driving a train is going to plow through a bunch of peaceful people with children.”

Would it surprise you to know her name is Lotus?

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com

Click here to listen 12-19-11 UTLT

I’m David Madeira and I’ll see you in a minute… Under the Liberty Tree.

When the President was asked if he over-promised, he replied:

“I didn’t over-promise and I didn’t underestimate how tough this was going to be.”

Didn’t over promise? Remember the heady days of the campaign when you secured the nomination?

“I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth.”

Just how long did you think all that was going to take? “I always believed that this was a longterm project.”  That’s not what you said when you started.

“I’ve got four years. [crosstalk] A year from now I think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress. But there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”

A one-term proposition indeed.

I’m David Madeira, and I’ll see you online, at UnderTheLibertyTree.com