The Orwellian “Bank Secrecy Act” of 1970 forces banks to report large financial transactions to federal agents. As with all “federal” laws, since its passage, requirements have gotten tougher, more expansive, and secretive. For example, the “Suspicious Activity Report” invokes a gag order, and nullifies the already-lowered dollar limit such that any financial activity at all may be secretly monitored by federal agents.
Some might think increasing secrecy, power and spying is good; that it keeps us safe.
But voters make decisions on information that is increasingly missing or proven false. It’s foolish to believe that politicians we claim we don’t trust are honest with us when it comes to programs that actually fund their cronyism; like “civil asset forfeiture” programs.
While few know it, police forces now take more money and property from USA citizens by “civil asset forfeiture” (as opposed to “criminal asset forfeiture,” which requires a conviction) than do all other criminals, combined.
This “forfeiture” at gunpoint doesn’t require charges of any crime, or any warrant. Increasingly, this is done with foreknowledge of money movement, and taken with devices like the “Electronic Recovery and Access to Data” or ERAD (as in eradicate?) machine.
While all this was initially intended to fight drug trade and terrorism, it is in practice irrelevant to either, and is encouraged to fund police departments.
It is literally armed highway robbery. This “policing for profit” must be stopped, not expanded.
ETATTA did not go through regular order, and was rushed to the floor under suspension of the rules. No amendments were considered, debate was limited, and, as usual, few representatives actually read the bill before voting on it.
This carelessness is apparent in the practical force of the law proposed – that in violation of the USA Constitution’s Article I Section I, Article II Section I, Article III Section I, and Amendment IV, bureaucrats in executive agencies are granted even more power to write rules, judge their efficacy and infractions, and at least recommend, and ultimately execute, new actions as already imposed upon Americans as by “civil asset forfeiture,” without warrant, probable cause, or conviction of any crime. Furthermore, ETATTA expands the role of the Treasury’s power of spying and enforcement to non-monetary assets – essentially encompassing all property.
Politicians have blurred the lines between good-guy and bad-guy, dividing us by class and race, imprisoning a higher percentage of citizens than any other nation, and making us less secure and prosperous to boot.
In other words, ourgovernment has become what it’s supposed to protect us from.
I have a written plan to restore respect for the badge and restore faith in all our important institutions. It’s an already well-respected plan to not only police the police and govern government, but also to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
USA wonks nodded their smug comprehension, apparently thinking that at least we elect our lawmakers on this side of the pond. At least our lawmakers can be fired.
But we don’t fire them. Nor can we; because most of our laws aren’t written by people authorized to write laws. And we didn’t elect them.
You see, while the “lawmakers” in the US Congress are of course overpaid, arrogant, and almost completely corrupt, they’re practically irrelevant now.
Unelected bureaucratsin innumerable federal agencies (DOE, FDA, FCC, USDA, IRS…) and even private organizations with governing powers like “The Federal Reserve System,”make thirty times as many regulations as does the US Congress, though Article I Section I of the Constitution for the USA restricts all legislative powers to only congress. Even if counting only those regulations that affect USA citizens directly, bureaucrats wrote sixteen times as many laws as did the US Congress.
Some say the rapidly growing regulatory burden amounts to around$15K per year for every USA household. Whatever the actual cost, unregulated regulation is literally criminal, and very destructive to our prosperity, independence, opportunity and of course, freedom.
What’s worse is that these agencies are also, quite unlike our US Congress, heavily armed against us.
They have been granted legislative, judicial, and executive powers (armed with SWAT teams and military gear…the USDA has machine guns! Even the federal DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION is armed now!!!) without checks and balances, without an electoral accountability, and without any constitutional authority.
I propose a sunset rule or constitutional amendment – a 10-year expiration date for all non-constitutionally specified agencies, laws, powers and programs to gracefully remove, or at least review for reinstatement, everything that’s not specifically written into the constitution.
I propose a Rule of Law reboot, to affirm that politicians must obey laws too…at last.
I propose we stand down our global military “whack-a-mole” machine, and concentrate on defending our homeland instead of browbeating and manipulating the world.
Let’s get something straight about the 2nd Amendment that has little to do with personal protection or fighting off an ungoverned government:
The second amendment is about citizens taking PERSONAL responsibility for violence!Citizen militias are much, much less likely to reelect warmongers and meddle with other people’s countries. And we willingly, anti-constitutionally, surrendered our militia system in 1903 to build a professional, global, war machine. …Just what our founders warned us to never, ever do.
The USA Constitution‘s Article I, Section 8:15 does grant Congress the rather scary authority, “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”
Politicians (including judges) apparently stop reading here, thinking this grants the federal government essentially total military power and authority over everything, including you; you uppity citizen.
Article I, Section 8:16 further grants Congress authority “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”
This is considerable power over militias, but look at the delimiter, “…governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States…” (bold is my added emphasis)
That should make us think about what the state constitutions say about the “Part of them” not governed by the feds, but we’ll get to that shortly.
Article I, Section 10:3 provides enough confusion in today’s context that, without the state constitutions, you might get the wrong idea about militias: “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress… keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace …or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.” If you can’t “keep Troops” in peace time, how could a state respond to invasion or other imminent danger?
Article II Section 2 should provoke some thought, though: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”
So, the POTUS is NOT the CIC of the militias until an actual declaration of war by the US Congress. The militias aren’t “federalized” until an actual declaration of war by the US Congress. And an actual declaration of war by the US Congress hasn’t happened since WWII.
Again, this won’t make proper sense without state constitution context.
So, for Indiana, for example, the Indiana Constitution’s Article 5, Section 12 is where things ought to start coming together: “The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and may call out such forces, to execute the laws, or to suppress insurrection, or to repel invasion.” (again, boldface is my emphasis, but you really ought to be raising your eyebrows now. This is even as amended in 1984. This is still law!)
Here’s Article 12, Section 1 of the Indiana Constitution, which was amended as recently as 1974:
“A militia shall be provided and shall consist of all persons over the age of seventeen (17) years, except those persons who may be exempted by the laws of the United States or of this state. The militia may be divided into active and inactive classes and consist of such military organizations as may be provided by law.”
OK, there it is, Hoosiers. I’m supposed to be in the militia, arthritis and all. So are you. Anybody over 17, unless a conscientious objector or otherwise excluded by law, is the militia. We are constitutionally to be more like Switzerland, where kids learn gun safety early on, and everybody plays a part in the defense of the Canton/County, state and nation. And we used to be until around 1903. Even more recently, kids still learned gun safety…in public schools!
So, now, still, by law, you are supposed to be trained in the use of weapons, as a militia member, including the sort of weapons that’d make Nancy Pelosi scream, as in Indiana’s Article I Section 32, “…for the defense of themselves and the State.”
(This is why, dammit, you have to read both your state and federal constitutions to get the whole picture when it comes to anything having to do with politics.)
There’s more, of course, but I need to get to the point: We’re not doing any of this at all, and we need to. Pronto.
Without going into how, why or when we became a global empire of fear and aggression, I want to as quickly as possible, and by big steps, nullify this self-destructive mess, and enforce/invoke/do the constitutions, as written; to restore our freedom, prosperity, opportunity, justice and security, for all.
I want to stand down our professional, global, permanent war industry. That would not only reduce the obvious blowback of constantly blowing up other people’s countries and people and wedding parties, it would make us more secure here at home.
And a lot richer!
We could afford to actually keep the promises we make to our soldiers in both regular and “National Guard” ranks. We’ve currently no way to keep up with the escalating costs of medical care and pensions. Not until we massively cut our global monstrosity of destruction, and return our military to its proper role and structure in national defense. Real national defense.
I want kids to learn about both the danger and proper use of weapons. That would not only raise up a nation better able to defend itself, it would also greatly reduce the irresponsible, stupid accidents, and unchecked violence in places like Chicago (where guns are essentially illegal and therefore ubiquitous in all the wrong hands) we now suffer.
And I want our armies out of the control of all the wrong people. You know that our government sold out. If you’re reading this, you probably know a good part of our global weaponry is unleashed in service to our financial sector’s fiat currency scams, the “petrodollar” scheme, the CIA (which I’d like to kill, gut and mount on the wall as a warning to future generations that we must never allow such a thing again) and the military industrialists we were warned about by a dozen USA Presidents.
There’s nothing civilized about delegating away all our violence and acting like it’s right. The damage we do to our own children’s lives, minds, bodies, careers and family lives, just to soothe our trembling nerves, is both embarrassing, and sin.
“Nullification” as a legal doctrine, is very simply, invalidating a law by ignoring it, ruling against it, writing it out of existence, or refusing to enforce or obey it. When states nullify a federal law, it’s often called “interposition,” but that’s just fancy talk.
Among too many who even understand their meaning, the words “nullification” and “interposition” have somehow acquired a simultaneously religious, conspiratorial and rebellious meaning.
That is weird, because nullification and interposition happen every day, everywhere in the USA.
If you look up the terms on a legal site or Wikipedia, you will likely read that the practice has never been upheld in court. But that’s bunk-in-action.
Sometimes it’s overt; such as when President Obama and the DOJ nullified the Defense Of Marriage Act in 2011; or when Obama essentially nullified the 2006 Secure Fence Act (he wasn’t wrong about DOMA – the church should never have handed marriage over to Caesar). Or when the FCC started regulating the internet in violation of a federal court order (very wrong). …Or when Kim Davis attempted to nullify both a Judge’s and Governor’s nullification of an Amendent of the Kentucky Constitution which nullified the federal constitution (that was a lot of nullification, and Davis was wrong to do it).
Or when states decriminalize the use of a plant that never should’ve been criminalized by “federal” “law” (both of those words having by now lost all their original meaning).
Sometimes the nullification is from ignorance. Who’s read their state constitution, for instance…so how would anybody know when politicians violate it?
Sometimes it is by brute force when a ‘roid-raging cop nullifies rights literally to death.
Our constitutions have been effectively nullified by the endless stream of political prohibitions and mandates, subsidies and taxes, regulations and corruption absolutely prohibited in the clear writing of our constitutions, both state and federal.
However you look at it, and from every level of government, from the citizen on up, nullification happens every single day.
Every Single Day.
Let that sink in a minute.
Every day.
It happens.
All the time.
Everywhere.
Up to now, there’s been a malevolent direction to that nullification…
In order to make governments, bureaucracies, corporations and programs bigger, costlier, more heavily armed and aggressive, more intrusive, more secretive and even more corrupt (though that last part is getting very hard to do), constitutions at both state and federal levels, had to be nullified.
Not all nullification has been bad. Courts have nullified what used to be the “settled law” (stare decisis) of past generations in some good ways. Slavery exists now mostly in other countries, and our Jim Crow laws are gone, thank God. But the power the federal government gobbled up in the meantime has been used to heap entirely different evils upon us, such that now, our trans-generational debt/theft machines and their incessant wars are about to cause us horrible grief.
Our country is ours, collectively. But my vote is mine alone. It is my weapon. I won’t waste it anymore on the status quo mess. I mean to use my power of peaceful revolution as intended.
So here’s all that I will vote for:
I want two things from every level of politics, and every politician:
2. Nullification of everything else from from our lives.
I want our constitutions, state and federal, reinstated, by nullifying everything that violates them. In other words, I want to go legit, and govern our government…as is the actual, written law.
And I won’t vote for any less than that.
But let’s take this one step further… A big step further.
What are citizens supposed to do when the government oversteps its bounds and stomps on our rights? Are our only weapons in the ballot box and ammo box? Must we resort to courts that are more often than not the actual defenders of corruption and constitutional violations?
Claim our rights! Resist! Peacefully disobey! In the streets, in our homes, in our businesses and in juries, we are to nullify!
Article I Section 19 of our Indiana Constitution even enumerates the right of juries to nullify laws: “In all criminal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts.”
In other words, we should, as individual citizens in the ordinary course of our lives as well as in official civic duties, nullify all laws, actions, agencies, taxes, fees, programs and agents that transgress their written authority.
After all, as Ben Franklin said, “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God!”
I intend to deliver the following to the Governor’s Office with a press conference at noon on July 4 on the east steps of the statehouse.
I believe this is the the most appropriate date (and a date upon which I’d staged yearly protests until 2008). I think it’s the most appropriate place to start for this Step One (a polite request to the correct officer).
I hope a good number of people, including you, can show up to join me:
Dear Governor Daniels,
We have read our state and federal constitutions. We understand their purpose and legal authority. And now we both understand, and suffer, the breadth and depth of our society’s transgressions against these fundamental laws.
These transgressions have occurred by public choice, and progressively over many generations, so we did not see the damage we were doing. But we do see that damage now.
It would be both tedious and unnecessary to detail the errors and resultant harm done, or to list our many reasons for wanting the illegality to end.
We will supply at least a partial list of serious grievances and injuries if that would help you remedy the breach of social contract that caused them. But our requested remedy is both simple and proven to work better for liberty, security, prosperity and justice than anything else yet tried in the history of human governance:
We ask only that you execute Rule of Law under existing Indiana and federal constitutions, exactly as these laws are written.
Governor Daniels, we want these laws to be enforced without exception, all the time, as soon as possible. They are few enough that everyone can know them; simple enough that everyone can understand them; and important enough that everyone, particularly agents and officers of government, should obey them all without exception, proviso or privileged classes, all of the time.
The laws leave no room for selective enforcement, or preferential treatment by corporate abstraction, class or process. All citizens are to be equal under the laws, and no person is above the laws. No legitimate political authority exists outside of that granted by the plain sense of our constitutions. All governing agencies, actions and rules that exist outside constitutional limitations are, by the clear words and purpose of the constitutions, null and void.
If any part of a constitution is so unclear as to prohibit enforcement, there is a constitutional process for clarifying it in print. But we herewith submit annotated copies of each constitution on the expectation that you will see little that is vague or open-ended in either contract. These annotated constitutions are also freely available online at:
We understand that as seriously as we have failed over the generations, it will take some time to restore legitimate authority to our civil government, and peel back the false accountabilities and destructive dependencies accumulated over generations. We propose that five years is more than sufficient to phase out all illegal political entities, processes, rules, precedents, actions and taxes; and to enact amendments and phase-out plans necessary to ensure full constitutional obedience.
Yet current budget and social conditions demand all possible speed, and history demonstrates an invariable and harsh penalty for delay. Please do immediately employ the legal and political authority that is yours, to restore what is, by law, ours.
Thank you
Here are a few specific conclusions drawn from a simple reading of the constitutions, and requiring immediate action:
Precedents, in courts or in policy, are not law; nor are “Executive Orders” law. Only the legislative branch can write laws, and then only in the domain authorized. Courts may not write laws, bureaucracies may not write laws, and executives may not write laws. Therefore, all such illegal “laws,” regulations, orders, rules and mandates are null and void. They must be declared so, and denied enforcement, as quickly as possible.
Baseless currency is illegal. Mandated, monopoly currency issued by unconstitutional transnational private banks, is illegal. Therefore, we ask for a restoration of specie payments and gold and silver-based currency as quickly as possible.
It makes no sense, nor is it constitutionally permissible, to tax private property owners for our Common Schools. We certainly don’t need taxation to facilitate the current wide and deep discrepancies between rich and poor, and it is illegal. We ask for the restoration of a constitutional Common School fund as quickly as possible.
There can be no serious doubt about what a Common School system actually is. No other education system is in the authorized domain of state or federal government. We ask for the end of any political involvement in education outside of what’s authorized as a legitimate Common School system; or at least amend the constitution to describe new limits.
The following are additional thoughts for our consideration only:
Note: In case you’re wondering why I don’t address our Governor as “The Honorable;” titles like “The Honorable” or “Esquire” are specifically unconstitutional…and for good reason. Note: some media folk (particularly the Indianapolis Star) will do their level best to cubbyhole you to something easily dismissed. Resist their attempts to brand us “Tea Party,” “anti-government,” “anti-union” or anything else in the news. Stay on subject. Do not allow them to draw you into another subject that they’ll quickly apply to all of us. Please: Anythingyou say outside of Rule of Law under existing constitutions, as written, will ruinously derail our message. DO NOT BRING UP ANYTHING ELSE. No gay marriage, war, tax…anything but ROL under existing constitutions, as written. Please: Dress nicely, and come neatly groomed. Be as pleasant and yet firm, as possible. This would not be a good time for joking around or bringing/wearing props. This is serious; we must be serious, solid citizens. DO NOT FORGET: Weare the progovernment people. We want to govern our government, restore legality to our lawmakers and justice to our judiciary. Weare the ones who are legitimate, correct, and on the legalside of the law.
PLEASE NOTE: This is more of a mea culpa than a protest. We The People have what We The People have chosen repeatedly through the past hundred years. We must admit the error of our ways, and choose better. We have no cause for anger…not yet. Extra Special Double-Note: I repeat: we have gotten into our mess because nearly everybody has chosen it, progressively, and over generations. Most people still cannot imagine what kind of trouble we’re in. If they could, they would not believe that they’re to blame. Remember, we’re not asking so much of our politicians as we are of We The People. We’re asking voters/citizens to change themselves. It is a big enough task to get people of extraordinary political understanding to join us… let us try to show patient understanding to those who still just don’t get it. PS: I wrote that last note largely to me.
Here’s the key thing:
Tell everyone you know to check out the letter to our Governor, send it to their state legislators, and ask them to add their in-person support to our little endeavor.
Well, I got all agitated over a very bad idea from some very good folks, and sent a response to several people. So I might as well air it out here. In case you don’t know, Indiana HB 1065 acknowledges anti-constitutional “federal” and state firearms restrictions as law as it attempts to legalize what’s already legal by the clear wording of both state and federal constitutions. It also, not incidentally, pushes aside property owners’ rights.
It’s of course intended to be a positive step toward individual gun rights, but it’s yet another “incremental,” and “pragmatic” step backwards. It is, in other words, why the good guys are losing, and why we’re quickly reverting to our ancient, crude and ruthless authoritarian default state. Anyway, here’s pretty-much what I wrote a few days ago:
Indiana’s HB 1065 is a good example of everything bad…with us.
If we would only insist upon the constitutions, as written, then why in the world would we allow such a thing as HB 1065 to weaken the constitutional mandate? Have a look at Article I, Section 32 of our state constitution (https://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/indiana-constitution-book.pdf).
It is crystal clear:
“The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State.”
Why water that down? Why not insist upon it?
We vote for friendly demisocialists like Mitch Daniels because we’re idiots (today’s note: I have nothing against Mitch; it’s the people who voted for him that bother me). We rally around anti-constitutional bills as though they’re our friends because we’re idiots. We cast aside those who’ve been right for those who’ve always been wrong, and we throw away the best laws ever written for blithering nonsense that’s never worked.
Do we really think that new laws are better because they’re new? Why do we think future politicians will pay any more attention to them than to the foundational law that is the very basis of the lawmaking process…and to which they already swore an oath of support?
There are no shortcuts. Either we return to the constitutions as written (even if we have to write new ones), or we’re done…as a nation and as a free people.
Words must mean what they say. We must mean what we say.
We must know what we want, and say what that is…
People who promise to obey a flag and then step on the constitutions are not just stupid idolaters; they’re marauding oppressors.
I’ve personally seen an angry mob fire a mayor and city council. I’ve seen angry letter/email/phone call-wielding people pass bills, defeat bills, and even overturn laws. Having twice had 2.5 million people tell me to buzz off and take my constitutions with me, I know where the real power lies.
I’ve met the enemy, and it’s us. …Not our ideological foes…us.
We who claim to love liberty need no other enemies as long as we oppose what’s already been done on our behalf.
We can fix our problems anytime we want to. But we apparently don’t want to.
We rally around half-@$$ self-destructive nonsense and refuse to unite over what we really want.
Sigh… I tried.
But it’s not up to me.
I can only watch as otherwise intelligent people do the same dumb things over and over and say that it’s the only way to go. As we plunge headlong into failure and oppression, the rallying cry is “that’s just the way it is!”
Sigh…
The law is already written that would make you free. If you compromise, you can only lose.
It seems to me that, increasingly these days, truth is not so much relative as it is democratic.In other words, truth is exactly and only what the majority say it is.Even in matters where the scientific method should cool judgments, “9 out of 10 doctors” or “most scientists agree” conclusively trumps the minority’s truth.
This phenomenon goes double where right versus wrong, good versus bad is involved.
There are plenty of currently newsworthy examples, from “Climate Change” to the economy, in which wrong is somehow voted into truth, and people suffer as a result.
But let us consider the Republic of Texas. There is still a slim chance that, at least in a way, truth could prevail over majority madness.
Of course “everybody knows” that states have no right to secede.The majority has concluded that the matter was settled conclusively with the Civil War – and States’ Rights lost.Because the majority so strongly believes this, a sort of perverse “Tinker Bell Effect” makes it so.
Legally, as far as written law goes, states do have the unambiguous right to secede.Even after the Civil War, the federal constitution was never amended to prohibit it, and the Texas Constitution is both clear – and couldn’t be more up-front about it.Here are the very first words of that contract:
To guard against transgressions of the high powers herein delegated, we declare that everything in this “Bill of Rights” is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate, and all laws contrary thereto, or to the following provisions, shall be void.
While it’s the longest of all state constitutions, the Texas Constitution has no “commerce clause” or other vague wording like “necessary and proper” that could be “interpreted” to authorize anything outside the black-and-white written words.
So, right off the bat, we see that Texas’ subservience to the Constitution for the United States of America depends upon the federal government’s obedience to that contract.If the federal government breaks its side of the contract, we technically no longer even have a federal government, and even the contract, as written, is wholly void as far as Texas is concerned.
It’d be their duty as both Texans, and as citizens loyal to the US Constitution, to oppose such a rogue power.
Could there be any doubt that the federal leash has snapped?Do any states have anything like “self-government” anymore?What law, what action can’t be overturned by federal courts, federal legislation, or federal action?
It may be oddly written, and I’ve learned that it’s not the best office-party icebreaker. But every Hoosier should read, understand and memorize Article I, Section 25 of the Indiana Constitution. It is short, unambiguous, and very, very important right now.
“No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.”
What could these words mean, but that even legislation does not create authority; laws depend upon authority.
It’s not only the Indiana Constitution that expresses this. All throughout our constitutional republic, allpolitical authority comes from our constitutions.
In other words, here in Indiana, as elsewhere under the Rule of Law established by our state and federal constitutions, politicians are not allowed to authorize themselves. All of their power is written into constitutions, or that power is denied.
Just as you mustn’t allow a bad dog to hold his own leash, we mustn’t allow politicians to “interpret” the constitutions that restrain them. “Legal precedent” and “case law” do not exist in our constitutions and have no legitimate power over constitutions. Therefore, for example, no federal official can interpret away any first amendment rights because federal authority over religion, speech, press, assembly and petition is very plainly prohibited (see the First Amendment to the US Constitution).All of our constitutions say this many times and in many ways; and constitutions were agreed upon and signed as solemn contracts (see the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1799).
Yet most politicians are routinely violating all of the laws that protect us from their historically demonstrated tendencies. They have thus abrogated their legal authority, and rule by force alone. Dick Cheney’s “nation of men, and not laws” is not just scary, it’s literally criminal. This affects you more than you’ve been told.
Perhaps the most every-daily-relevant example is in your wallet. State and federal constitutions mandate the use of gold and silver coin as money; and they’re clear that only our legislative assemblies have authority over this money.
But that’s not how your money works now. And the way your money works today, is to rob you right into your grave.
With all our record-breaking taxation, regulation and litigation, there is only one private enterprise in America that has never been regulated, audited, taxed or brought to justice. It is the so-called “Federal Reserve” Bank that’s been printing Monopoly money and charging you plenty for it since 1913. It’s not federal, there’s no reserve, and it’s most definitely unconstitutional!
Frustratingly, many of even my political friends and allies tell me that “we’re too far from the constitutions now; we can’t demand compliance.” But that’s like saying that once a criminal has done his deed, we, as a culture have failed, and that the criminal must therefore go free.
That is not sane. That is self-flagellating madness.
Others claim that this is a democracy (why minorities want majority rule is beyond me), and voters can choose anything – even self-destruction.
I concede that this is pretty much what is happening. But that’s both unconstitutional, and suicidal.
In each of my political races, and through all the years since 1995, I’ve proposed various plans to sunset all unconstitutional laws, agencies, powers and practices, and make the armed thug we call government go legit. That is the law, it is morally right, it is proven to work…
…and our current path has proven to fail every time.
The Russian Revolution dreamed of liberty, justice and equality for all, but produced Stalinist nightmares and social collapse. The French Revolution wielded the rhetoric but not the laws of our founders, so it was more about beheadings than freedom. Even our own nation’s not-so-distant history illustrates oppression, slavery, genocide and war. How can we think that now, with our government more powerful, secretive and intrusive than ever, we have put our ugly past behind us?
If you were to get curious and take the couple of hours necessary to read both the state and federal constitutions (yes, you really can read them without a federal judge telling you what they mean), you’d see that all of our biggest problems are unconstitutional.
Most taxation and government spending is unconstitutional. All military engagements since WWII have been unconstitutional. Pork, corruption, spiraling healthcare and education costs and tumbling dollars are all unconstitutional.
And every American constitution, both state and federal, codifies our right to alter or reform our government. The Texas constitution couldn’t be more clear that should the federal government break its side of the constitutional contract, then Texas is specifically free and sovereign. And that’s in the document’s very first paragraph.
Say what you will about our constitutions. Call them outdated, call them “agrarian.” But then read them. We have nothing better, and we’re headed toward a truly ancient and horrible default state without them.
John McCain says the media isn’t giving him a fair shake.He has no idea what it’s like to run as a Libertarian. But he also has no idea what it’s like to apply for a real job with a real interview.
What sort of press does any candidate (even Obama) get these days?When will we hear answers to the most basic, important questions that should be asked of every politician:
Are there any laws that politicians must obey without exceptions?Are there any rights that cannot be violated?Is there any property that cannot be seized?How much taxation is enough?What is the value of a human life, and who decides?What is the valid role of government?What is none of politicians’ business?And are your answers in writing somewhere?
How about we just stop that silly “two party system” fiction and start asking these critical questions?You know we need to.
Right now.
In the 2008 gubernatorial race, there is only one candidate even running for the constitutionaloffice of Indiana Governor.This man has already proposed overhauling state government.He has already proposed standing up to D.C. to demand federalism.Of course he’s proposed eliminating personal property tax.He has also already proposed eliminating CPS/DCS, phasing out public schools in favor of Common Schools (as is constitutionally required), stopping I-69, and in general, restoring what works and rejecting what’s failing in Indiana.And he also did this when he ran for Governor in 2000.
He was right on the facts and issues then, and he’s right on the facts and issues now.
Voters have heard none of this from their eyes and ears in the democratic process, the media.Voters rely on the media’s imprimatur of legitimacy, and yet all they hear about is Mitch Daniels’ money and incumbency, Jill Long Thompson’s “Green Jobs,” and that nebulous charge of “negative campaigning” that marks every race.
These states have come to their senses regarding Real ID, and have enacted law/resolutions to say so:
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Louisiana
Maine
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Utah
Washington
Unfortunately, Indiana is not on this list.Now, legally, it’s not necessary for a state to say anything about Real ID, because “disobedience” to such crime as Real ID is the duty of every state.States own federalism, after all.They are the only enforcers of it.
…What, did you think that the Supreme Court can police its own powers?That’d be akin to a dog holding its own leash.A very bad dog.
Anyway, a vote for me is a vote for governed government.I would demand Rule of Law as opposed to Rule of Tyrants.I’d restore the law, not flout and destroy it.
Without going into how, why or when we became a 
We Declare 