The Constitution was not a document designed to restrain the people or the states, but to place restraints on the federal government the Founders were creating. This is an important distinction, but one few people today understand.

◼ From republicanism to tyranny: How did we lose our rights? - Personal Liberty

If an effort is to be undertaken by Americans in which they are to reclaim their rights under natural law (rights that are being stolen from them every day by the tyrannical fascist American regime), then an understanding of what has transpired to take away those rights must first be achieved. For if one does not know how his rights were taken from him, there is no way he can adequately labor for their return.

The Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, ostensibly, to create a vehicle to keep a check on government. It was a compact of states, and the document was ratified by the states (see Article VII). It was not ratified by the people in a mass election, but by the states one by one.

The Constitution drafted by the Founders was not intended to form a strong “national” government with heavily centralized power, but as a means to represent a group of states only on matters that concerned them all. The government was given a list of enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 14:

In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.

In Federalist No. 45 Madison wrote:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.

The Constitution was not a document designed to restrain the people or the states, but to place restraints on the federal government the Founders were creating. This is an important distinction.... KEEP READING

Obama is Hiding Iran’s Pursuit of Nuclear Bomb from Americans

◼ Obama is secretly accusing Iran of secretly shopping for nuclear gear. There’s one secretly too many in that sentence. - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page Magazine

There’s no reason for the United States to secretly warn Iran that it’s violating its terms.

If Iran is doing something wrong, the charges should be made out in the open. The US isn’t hiding it from Iran. That just leaves America. It means that Obama is hiding the information from Americans.

Obama has become complicit in Iran’s crimes by conducting this coverup. KEEP READING...

NFRW Round Table Newsletter December 2014

In this last issue of 2014, we share information about two key projects underway at the NFRW. The first is our updated web site and member database, which is set to launch on January 5. This new system will be integrated and streamlined, making the collection of member data much more efficient and timely.

The second is our initiative to attract young women to the Federation through the National At-Large Membership program and through a series of outreach tools.

We also highlight the Republican women elected to federal and statewide office in November. This is an impressive group of women, and we are so proud of each of them.

We've had a wonderful year and have accomplished much. As we pause to celebrate the holidays, please know how much we appreciate everything you do for the Federation. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

◼ READ the December 2014 issue of the NFRW ROUND TABLE ◼ [Kvisoft FlipBook]
◼ DOWNLOAD the December 2014 issue of the NFRW ROUND TABLE [PDF, 10 pages]

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and view PDFs. ◼ Download the software. HERE

What the NFRW's New Web Site, Database Means For You
Last year, the NFRW began building a new member database and web site. Work on this project has continued throughout 2014, and we are on target to unveil the new database and web site on January 5, 2015.

The objective of the project is to integrate and consoli- date all NFRW data and web sites into a single plat- form, and to streamline and simplify the online user experience for our members, clubs and states.

A Brief History of our Web and Database Systems
Let’s take a quick look at where we’ve been in terms of our e-systems. The NFRW member data- base has existed in electronic format since 1992. From 1992 to 2003, we had an in-house database which we maintained with the files or paper reports sent by each state federation. We developed our first web site in 1996.

In 2004, the NFRW moved its database to a web-based system, which was in use for the next four years. In 2008, a new web-based member database system came online, which allowed states to enter and access their member information, but did not allow for individual- ized reports.

In 2010, the NFRW built an online shopping cart, and created a second web site (RepublicanWomen.net) which features region, state and club web pages.

Current System vs. New System
The addition of all of these online features has led to more back-end databases – five in total – with duplica- tion and overlapping information in use.

With the new system, this burdensome and complicated duplication will be eliminated, and all of our databases and web sites will be integrated, consolidated and stream- lined into a single platform.

Another problem with the current system is that it is never completely up-to-date. It takes a long time for a member’s address or other information to be updated in the system because the data has to pass up the chain from the member to the club to the state and then to national. Completing this task can take months.

With the new system, individual members will be able to access their own record and make changes to their own personal information. In addition, each member will de- termine and manage her own username and password.

The new system will make it easier for state federations to manage their member data. Clubs will be able to directly enter their member records into the new database. This will happen either through downloading the list in Excel, updating it and then uploading the new file, or by adding an individual member directly into the data- base. The club will be able to produce a report directly from the database to send, along with a check, to the state federation.

At the state level, the treasurer/membership officer will still be able to update the club files as she always has done, but now when she receives a check with a report issued from the database, her job will be much easier. All she will need to do is validate the informa- tion prior to sending her own state report to NFRW headquarters.

The new system will be user-friendly and permissions-based, so that:
• An individual member will have access to her own record;
• The club administrator will have access to the records for her entire club; and,
• The state administrator will have access to the records for all the clubs in her state.

Training Will Be Available
To help state and club administrators learn how to use the new system, the NFRW will provide online docu- mentation and tools. The NFRW Technology Commit- tee will also provide training.

January 5 is the official roll-out date for the new database and web site. Each member will receive her username and password either via email (if the mem- ber has a valid email address on file with the NFRW) or through her club president.
__________________
Note: This article is about the National Federation Of Republican Women's (NFRW's) NEW and IMPROVED website and database, not CFRW or HRWF. We at HRWF are, however, looking into converting to an online newsletter as well. In the meantime, we believe our site serves the same - but vastly better - purpose, with more up-to-date news and information. We hope you'll check back often, and we will include updates from NFRW and CFRW.

CBS News Fabricates Story That Michigan Bill Would Allow Doctors/EMTs to Deny Treatment to Gay Patients

◼ CBS News published a story on December 11 under the headline: "Bill would let Michigan doctors, EMTs refuse to treat gay patients." CBS News reports:  - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

Can doctors and emergency medical technicians legally refuse to give life saving assistance to a gay person, because of their religious beliefs? That question is being debated in the Michigan legislature.

The Republican-led House has approved the Michigan Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which essentially states that people do not have to perform an act that would violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.

"For example, a Christian doctor who does not believe in a gay lifestyle would not have to treat a gay patient," CBS Detroit legal analyst Charlie Langton said [emphasis added].

According to Michael W. McConnell, a professor at Stanford University Law School and former federal appeals court judge, the CBS story is false. "The exact same law has been on the books at the federal level and in many states for almost twenty years, and no such claim has ever been made. And if it were made, it would lose in court, probably unanimously," McConnell tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an email.

Indispensable to running the Big Con, said Jonathan, was “the stupidity of the American voter.”

◼ JONATHAN GRUBER: HONEST LIBERAL - Patrick J. Buchanan/Human Events

Brought before a House inquisition, MIT professor and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber burbled a recantation of his beliefs about how that triumph of liberalism had been achieved.

Yet, something needs to be said in defense of Gruber.

For while he groveled and confessed to the sin of arrogance, what this Ivy League con artist boasted about rings true.

Here, Gruber explained, is how we got Obamacare passed:

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure [the Congressional Budget Office] did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. OK? …

“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever … that was really, really critical to get the thing to pass. Look, I wish … we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not. …

“[I]f you had a law which explicitly said that healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed.”

Call it the new candor. Yet, is Gruber not right on almost all counts?

The “tortured way” the bill was written prevented Obamacare from being struck down by Chief Justice John Roberts, who bought into the line that the penalty for not buying health insurance was not a tax.

As for the “lack of transparency,” did not Speaker Pelosi, midwife to Obamacare, say, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Under Obamacare, “healthy people pay in and sick people get money.” Is that not true? Is it not true that had Obama and his party been honest like Gruber — that this was another rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul wealth transfer scheme — Democrats could not have passed it?

“Look, I wish … we could make it all transparent,” said Gruber, “but I’d rather have this law than not.”

Gruber is saying that, though the selling of Obamacare required obfuscation and deceit, it was worth it! We got Obamacare!

....And what did Gruber do that Obama himself did not do?

Bottom line: Gruber & Co. won; America lost. Though the nation did not discover how badly it had been swindled until Obamacare began to be implemented.

REPUBLICANS IN LAME-DUCK CONGRESS LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR

◼ link - Donald Lambro/Human Events

The nation’s divided Congress battled down to the wire this week over its budget for the rest of this fiscal year, hoping to avoid a government shutdown.

The $1.01 trillion spending bill must be passed before midnight Thursday, though at this writing few were placing any bets on meeting that deadline. Still, Congress has dodged budget deadlines before and may do so again — if for no other reason than to drive a stake through the heart of a bitterly divided, unpopular legislature that can’t seem to agree on anything except going home for the holidays.

This was the last gasp of a lame-duck Congress before the Republicans can welcome their strengthened majority in the House and take control of the Senate in January — and begin to chart a new agenda to deal with America’s most pressing problems....