“An administration that has no respect for Congress, the courts or the Constitution has been found in contempt for reissuing a drilling moratorium that a U.S. district judge found overly broad. The Obama administration’s trouble with the courts has continued with a judge’s ruling last week that the Interior Department’s reinstating of a drilling moratorium followed by a de facto moratorium via an overly restrictive permitting process constituted contempt. The administration had issued a drilling moratorium in May in waters deeper than 500 feet after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off Louisiana that resulted in the spill of more than 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In June, Martin Feldman of the Eastern District Court of Louisiana struck down Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s original moratorium, saying it was overkill based on flawed reasoning. … So the administration went back, rearranged a few words and a few deck chairs, and reissued its moratorium. That one was officially lifted in October, although the permitting process, which mysteriously includes shallow-water wells, has had the effect of continuing the moratorium. Feldman was not amused. ‘Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance,’ the judge said in his ruling. ‘Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the reimposition of a second moratorium … provides this court with clear and convincing evidence of its contempt.’ … It is not so much that the Obama administration differs with the law, but that it considers itself above it — even above the Constitution.” —Investor’s Business Daily

The Vernacular Vigilantes are at it again!  Armed with lists of words that can harm and incite vengeful uprisings, the VV has implemented “Operation Word Repression” aimed at targeted those incendiary linguistic bombs and neutralizing their explosive effect on the poor mindless drones called Americans.  One such offender, a repeat offender I might add, was this poor humble columnist.  How was I to know that….word…was on the list?  So now, I have been relegated and equated to the likes of Stalin, Hitler, Manson, and that’s just the cute cuddly ones.  It seems the Left is firmly convinced that my fellow citizens are nothing more than lemmings blindly following violent pathways triggered by certain metaphorical terms.  Wow, that’s…that’s really scary and I don’t want anybody doing anything bad or untoward because I wrote a word not sanctioned by the VV or OWR.  So I will try not to write…that word.

Those on the Left may want to heed a few cautionary notes before they charge headlong into a perceived tactical opportunity.  First, taking advantage of a woman who can’t speak for herself is unseemly at best.  Ms. Giffords is known for her staunch defense of the Second Amendment and other Constitutional Liberties.  Those scrambling to use her situation to silence political foes and advance agendas against gun owners may find her peevish to say the least when she regains her voice.  No one likes to be exploited.

All of those volleys fired at Conservatives may have a ricochet effect when the public starts comparing the OWR lists against the speeches, debates and bullet points used by all public officials rather than just the ones targeted by the VV.  The uncomfortable feeling of taking cover from friendly fire might be the Vernacular Vigilantes’ to enjoy as their own words came back to bite them.   The American people will lose faith in any political leader who spends more time dodging verbal landmines than speaking to and connecting with their people.  The hard working voting public will not change who they are to accommodate the pretentious.  If the Left continues to shoot themselves in the foot, they will find themselves marginalized by the very public they hope to manipulate.

At the very onset of the Tucson Tragedy, the hair trigger response of the Left to villianize the Palins made a disgusting painful situation all the more repulsive.  Now across the nation the VV has taken aim at Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and, here in Maine, even little old Andy Torment in an effort to squelch our voices.  I, for one, intend to use every literary tool at my disposal to expose the hypocrisy of the left wing bomb throwers.  I will not retire, capitulate or be silenced for fear of using certain terms deemed inappropriate by the Left or the VV.  Now see, I wrote a whole column without using the word “crosshairs”….oh…oh, I better run for cover.  As the lists of unacceptable words from the Left grows, one wonders how soon it will be before they start burning books….

Maine Independent Contractors have found an ally in the Blaine House.  Several months ago in the crosshairs (oops, did I use that word?) of a withering barrage of audits under a directive from former Governor Baldacci, it is doubtful that any independent contractor could have even conceived of ever uttering that introductory sentence.  Yet as of January 20^th, 2011 per executive order of the new Governor LePage, that same Misclassification Taskforce created by Governor Baldacci was abolished.  This act was not done as a favor to independent contractors but more out of deference to simple common sense. 

Independent workers do something that the Maine economy is starving for.  They work.  Governor LePage would prefer that they continue to do so.  The Governor has taken that Executive Order one step further by introducing legislation that would require all the Regulatory Agencies to have a uniform set of compliance laws.  This columnist takes some personal satisfaction in these developments.  Terry Whittemore, Toby Arno and I formed an alliance called the Maine Independent Contractors Alliance.  While it is still in the formation stages, MICA has already faced necessary battles.  Terry and Toby joined me in Augusta to speak before a panel on the labor issues and the audits facing independent contractors.  In this forum, we presented three simple ideas we thought were essential to a commonsense resolution to the conflict.

1)    Enact legislation that would require all the Labor Regulatory Agencies to conform and enforce one set of compliance laws.

2)    Call for a hold on all audits and fines until such legislation could be enacted.

3)    Push the reset button.  In other words, give contractors a second chance to comply with a simple more targeted set of rules without the devastating weight of huge fines over their heads and families.

After meeting with the legislators, we sent our ideas to the Lepage transition team.  We were assured that it had been delivered to his Chief of Staff.  It seems the Governor has done us one better by abolishing the very agency that was inflicting so much pain on Maine workers.  He has also preempted the legislature by initiating his own bill, which would in effect accomplish MICA’s first request.

In conversations with legislators, I have found them reluctant to requite the fines already levied.  It was thought too difficult to reverse what has already been affected.  By abolishing the Misclassification Taskforce, it would seem Lepage has provided a valid platform to engage effective debate on the need to lift these fines from the tired backs of Maine contractors.

MICA, while still in its infancy, has clearly articulated one steady message to Augusta.  The leadership of Maine needs to focus on one word, simplify.  If it can accomplish the definition of this one word, perhaps our State Government can begin to bridge the divide of mistrust that has widened with the years of abuse levied against its own people.  The Maine Conservative Voice and Maine Independent Contractors Alliance applaud Governor LePage for his strong and resolute leadership in standing for the people of Maine.  Perhaps there really is hope for Maine after all.

Obsessive behavior is dangerous.  We have seen that in Tucson and now, sadly, we see it in our political leaders.  A bright beautiful young woman who held and still holds, we pray, a promising future as a politician, was shot.  Ms. Giffords is known for her strong opinions.  She is willing at times to go against her own Party if it violates her convictions and her constituents’.  Shamefully, before families could begin to mourn their dead, left-wing smear merchants began to affix blame to another bright beautiful young woman who also holds a promising political future.  Governor Sarah Palin likewise is known for her strong opinions.  She too is more than willing to take on her own Party when it is in the best interest of those she represents.  Neither Representative Giffords nor Governor Palin’s strength of leadership is a danger or menace to society.  Those who are obsessed with their demise are.

What has been most disappointing, perhaps sickening, is the willingness of Democrat leadership, most notably, Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Patrick Leahy, to engage in the Palin Obsession.  Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, these men have continued to beat an obsessive drum contending that Sarah Palin is somehow complicit in these murderous attacks.  Some journalists have inquired of the Senators if they have any evidence linking Alaska’s most famous resident to the obsessed madman in Arizona.  After quickly admitting they have not a shred of such evidence, the Democrat leaders return doggedly to their obsession.

Days ago, members of the far left blogosphere were calling for the assassination of Sarah Palin and we waited…we waited…waited some more and there was no “refudiation” of these horrible threats towards the Governor; in fact, a quick google, as of this morning, has Dick Durbin still obsessed with the Palins and Pat Leahy accused of being too drunk to give a speech on the floor of Congress.  Perhaps Senator Leahy has found something else to obsess about?  We might be able to find a positive there somewhere…maybe.

The frustration is steadily mounting in this country with the fact that Democrats seem determined to focus on anything but their jobs.  This can be no better exemplified than with the liberal fixation on vocabulary.  Maine’s own Chellie Pingree has called for the Republicans to stop using the term “job-killing” in legislation because it sounds too violent or…something.  OH….MY…WORD!!!  And they wonder why Americans are so disgusted with Washington!  It’s a safe bet that Washington would be disgusted with Washington.   Get to work, public servants, and quit making embarrassing spectacles of yourselves and our great Country.

Here are some more words that Ms. Pingree may call to be eliminated from public discourse:

Job killing: we’ve established that

Job inhibiting: that intimates that someone has some sort of psychosis in dealing with inhibitions towards work.

Job crushing: well that…that’s just messy

Job-strangling: thaaat’s kinda Stephen King, edge of night…ish

Job annihilating: way too Genghis Khan, it doesn’t roll off the tongue either

Trigger: a little too triggeresque.  I have no idea why Roy Rogers named his horse that, but it could explain why the cowboys kept shooting at each other.

Trigger man: triggerish and gender exclusive

Bullet points: this is so new violence meets old violence

War room: violence on so many levels all gathered in… one…room

Target: only Democrats can use this one

Bulls Eye: again, only the intelligentsia can handle these volatile terms and there could be some animal cruelty issues at play

We could go on forever and, really, that’s the point.  Americans want results.  Democrats don’t want to give them those results.  So they obsess over minutia in hopes that Americans will either be distracted or discouraged.  Let’s keep focused on the goals of liberty and not draw back.  Let’s make America ours again.