According to data obtained by a New Jersey news service from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Obama administration doled out over $400 million in awards and merit pay incentives to federal employees last year. That's up about $80 million over last year.

On June 2, the Massachusetts House passed by a vote of 113 to 35 a resolution to support the adoption of a national popular vote in Massachusetts. The bill now will be sent to the State Senate for deliberation.

The borders around Montana are being blurred by an overreaching federal government bent on obliterating state sovereignty and assuming all governmental power unto itself. That's the opinion of Rex Nichols, a candidate for sheriff of a rural county in Montana. Nichols is a retired police officer and he's on a mission — to stop the freight train of federal absolutism in its tracks and restore power to the state and local governments.

On May 10, 2010, President Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens at the end of the Supreme Court's 2009–2010 term. A significant entry in the catalog of Ms. Kagan’s remarkable achievements is her deanship of the über-prestigious Harvard Law School. In 2003, she was named, as the school’s first female dean, to succeed Robert C. Clark, who had held that post for over a decade. While manning the helm at Harvard Law, she attracted attention of alumni and observers for steering the ship away from the tried and true “case-law method” of studying the law.

Last week the President of Mexico set off on a human rights lecture tour of Washington, D.C. and chief among his claque of foot tappers was the President of the United States.

If Representative Ron Kind (D-Wis.) has his way, the federal government will soon mandate that state agencies maintain a database of how fat the kids in their jurisdiction are getting. Too fat or too skinny, the government needs to know.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) favors the offering amnesty to illegal aliens. During an address to the Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Summit on Wednesday, Pelosi informed those in attendance that she would like to see a “path to legalization” laid for those currently in this country who entered without documentation.

With a jerk of the knee so violent it probably broke their own jaw, the Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 Wednesday to boycott Arizona businesses. The measure (applicable only to government contracts) is reportedly in response to Arizona’s recent enactment of the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, or S.B. 1070, which enforces existing federal law requiring immigrants to provide proof of legal status.

As the November 2010 elections approach, it is the sacred duty of every Constitutionalist to be aware of the differences among the various parties and factions promoting themselves as friends of the Constitution, advocates of small government, and proponents of lower taxes.

On May 1 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during his commencement address to the University of Michigan, President Barack Obama made the following suggestion to the assembled graduates, families, and friends:

The second way to keep our democracy healthy is to maintain a basic level of civility in our public debate. These arguments we're having over government and health care and war and taxes are serious arguments. They should arouse people's passions, and it's important for everyone to join in the debate, with all the rigor that a free people require.

But we cannot expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down. You can disagree with a certain policy without demonizing the person who espouses it. You can question someone's views and their judgment without questioning their motives or their patriotism. Throwing around phrases like "socialist" and "Soviet-style takeover;" "fascist" and "right-wing nut" may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, or our political opponents, to authoritarian, and even murderous regimes.