Force Congress to Cite Constitutional Authority for Bills! John Shadegg (R-AZ) has reintroduced H.R. 1359, the "Enumerated
Powers Act", a bill that highlights the importance of the Tenth Amendment and forces a continual reexamination of the role of the federal government.

As Barry Goldwater wrote in "The Conscience of a Conservative":

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for......................."

After viewing the first 5 episodes of HBO's John Adams series while rereading McCollough's biography "John Adams"--I'm more and more impressed how far their vision extended into the future when writing our Constitution. Yes, the Federal government passes mandates that have to be instituted, but do not fund, and then when the mandate causes all sorts of problems, do they ever come back and repeal them or fix the law---it would be wonderful if they would would do this, cite chapter & verse of the Constitution which allows this law--but I'll not hold my breath waiting on it to happen! "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

After viewing the first 5 episodes of HBO's John Adams series

Satchamo_thanks for the tip

I don't subscribe to HBO, but I plan to order the series as soon as it's released. One interesting fact I discovered on the HBO site was that on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams dies at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts at the age of 91, and his last words are "Thomas Jefferson survives." But, in fact, Thomas Jefferson had died earlier that day at his home in Monticello.

http://www.hbo.com/films/johnadams/

I knew they both died on July 4, 50 yrs after. But I had only seen John Adams' last words and did not realize that Jefferson died first, so always assumed Jefferson died last. The music for the series is something else--the CD comes out April 22. See this link:
http://www.varesesarabande.com/upcoming.asp?list_PagingMove=%3E&ListAbsolutePage=1&qfkeyword=&artist=&title=&description=&upcoming_id=&size=
It's a combination of drums (sound native American), snares, fiddle (Irish jig/Celtic) that the composer builds on and then keeps adding things--the intro & closing music really sets the stage.