Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean!

Mr. President! Free Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean! Please join fellow GOPUSA activists in petitioning President Bush for a full pardon for Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos.

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>"....the U.S. Conference of Mayors recently reported that the Clean Water Act alone cost cities with populations greater than 30,000 more than $3.6 billion in 1993. From 1994 through 1998 the ten studied mandates will cost cities $54 billion..."

Bolstered by a growing grassroots movement to reassert constitutional limits on federal powers, the states are taking a variety of actions to resist the federal government, including simply refusing to comply with Federal mandates they cannot fund.

Many states have also been passing their own legislation to combat federal mandates, initiating lawsuits against the federal government based on the Tenth Amendment and other constitutional issues and suing to recover the costs of federally mandated programs for illegal immigrants.

But it remains to be seen just how much help the courts are likely to be in the states' efforts to break free of the smothering grasp of the federal government. To date, they "have ruled that regulations set by federal agencies have the same force of law as associated legislation."

Unfortunately, the core problem is the attitude of politicians that it's acceptable to levy taxes by hiding them from public view, which will require far more to cure than litigating constitutional issues. It will take an aroused, informed electorate that refuses to be bamboozled any longer and starts electing representatives who will truly represent their constituents and not just themselves. And, who knows how long that may take.

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NOTE: Read more of Harris Sherline's commentaries on his blog at "opinionfest.com."

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

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