Individual Mandate Penalty a Tax? If YES – Then What?

Editor’s Note: For an overview of the health care case oral arguments at the Supreme Court, click HERE. “Nothing is certain but death and taxes,” they say. Unfortunately, there’s some UNcertainty about what is, and is not, a tax at the U.S. Supreme Court, and Monday we all got a chance to listen in on… more

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Supreme Court Oral Arguments on Health Care: From Outside the Chamber

I’ve been fascinated in listening to the oral arguments at the Supreme Court (click HERE for basic information about the argument schedule and subjects to be covered). But, I’ve also been frustrated. It’s as if I am a child, out in a corridor, listening to a conversation coming from inside a room. It’s a strange… more

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Does Democracy Balance the Income and Influence Equation?

Members of the Occupy Lincoln group noticed our recent article, “Occupy Lincoln Tipi Smokes and City Ordinances Burn, Officials Fiddle” and left a number of comments there.  Because we’ll be referring to some of those comments in the body of this article, we’ve linked directly to them so those who wish may see a particular… more

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Questions: What Is Justice? Does It Exist?

We here at GiN have been focused a lot on the City’s handling of the Occupy Lincoln issue, first and foremost because of the need for justice – the need for justice for all. Since it’s Sunday, a day of rest and reflection seems appropriate. In considering what I might share here, I wondered what… more

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NE Unicameral on TransCanada Pipeline: Torturing Words, Logic & State Sovereignty

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that… more

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Moral High Ground: It’s Not Just for Progressives Anymore

In what was overall a very thoughtful, well-delivered speech, Sen. Marco Rubio reacted to the passage of the bill increasing the debt ceiling by describing two competing visions for the future of our country. “Patriotic, country-loving Americans can disagree on their future vision of what kind of country we should be. But this division, this [...]

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Senator Haar Proves His Popular Vote Bill Is Ill-Advised

Thanks to Don1 for letting me know that Senator Ken Haar appeared on KLIN’s DriveTime Lincoln show to talk about LB583, (to download and read on your computer, click here) his bill that would award all of Nebraska’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in Presidential elections. Yesterday we published an [...]

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NE Senator Wants Popular Vote for Presidency

One of our members sent us a copy of the letter he wrote to Nebraska District 21 Senator Ken Harr, who introduced the very ill-advised LB583 “Adopt the Interstate Compact on the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by Popular National Vote” (If you prefer to read the bill online without downloading the [...]

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Unconstitutional: Who Decides? States via Nullification or Supreme Court?

“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make anything mean nothing or everything, at pleasure.“ Many people are seeking solutions to rein in the growth of government, most particularly [...]

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