Friday, June 28, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
'State sovereignty'
Big government is no friend of the average, hard-working, liberty-loving American … or the soft-headed, big-government-loving emotional adolescent for that matter. To the government elites consolidating power in America’s impending police state, they are one and the same.
Breathe deep and you can almost smell the fear. That’s because this is not our America. Ironically, the beast now coiling its tentacles around our throats is of our making.
We became a nation of gullible, trusting dolts when we forgot George Washington’s warning that “government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Therefore: The time has come make our case for State Sovereignty...
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for a People to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with their current form of government, and to resume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience have shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Sovereign States and the citizens thereof; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current Systems of Government. The history of Barack Hussein Obama, the President of the United States, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
President Barack Hussein Obama has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good, when he authorized the murders of Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Kahn, American citizens, and separately, al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, none of whom were ever charged with a crime in a court of law; thereby nullifying the 5th Amendment which states that "NO PERSON shall be deprived of Life, Liberty, or Property… without Due Process of Law."
President Barack Hussein Obama has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them, by refusing to identify and deport illegal aliens, and then denying the Sovereign State of Arizona the right to defend its own borders.
In collusion with Treasonous Members of Congress, President Barack Hussein Obama has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has attacked elected representatives repeatedly,for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
President Barack Hussein Obama has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
President Barack Hussein Obama is trying to make the Supreme Court Of The United States dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and their relevance.
President Barack Hussein Obama has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
President Barack Hussein Obama is forming among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies of Private Mercenaries without the Consent of our legislatures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing or ignoring the free System of American Laws, establishing therein an Arbitrary government by Executive Order, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example, and fit instrument for, introducing the same absolute rule into these Individual Sovereign States:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments, and ceding authority to offices funded by, and accountable to, the Federal Reserve.
For bypassing our own Legislatures, and declaring himself invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever, including our very right to Life, President Barack Hussein Obama has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against Us.
President Barack Hussein Obama has plundered our economy, ravaged our industry, and destroyed the lives of our people. During his first term in office he has carelessly spent as much money as every President that preceded him combined. With a National Debt topping 16 Trillion dollars Our Great Republic is teetering at the precipice of financial collapse due to his wanton disregard for the solvency of the Nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama is at this time forming large Armies of Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama has quashed all attempts at Justice aimed at a violent Black Nationalist organization known as the New Black Panthers who haveintimidated voters at polling places, called for the Murders of white citizens, and have issued "Dead or Alive" rewards; felonies ignored by the Department of Justice at the behest of the President seeking to inflame racial tensions in the United States.
President Barack Hussein Obama, by power of Executive Order signed on March 16 2012, has re-instituted the abominable practice of Slavery in the United States; the wording in the Executive Order is plain for all to see: "to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation." (Sec. 502) Forced Labor without compensation is abhorrent to the sensibilities of the Citizens of these Sovereign States and will not be tolerated.
President Barack Hussein Obama has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, and the Sovereign States of the Middle East, the merciless Savages of the Muslim Brotherhood and their military wing known as al-Qaeda, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
President Barack Hussein Obama has provided Material Support to the Enemies of the United States, namely the Terror organizations known as al-Qaeda and Hamas; as well as providing weapons to Central American drug cartels, an act which has resulted in the murders of thousands of Mexican and American citizens, including members of the United States Law Enforcement community. These groups are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department and any Material Support of them is a Felony for which others have been imprisoned.
President Barack Hussein Obama has directed the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Military, and the nation’s Covert intelligence agencies to train, supply with weapons, and provide air support for al-Qaeda Terrorists in Libya; a Felony. He directed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens to arrange the transfer of advanced shoulder-fired missiles stolen by al-Qaeda from Libyan armories to affiliated al-Qaeda groups currently fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; a Felony.
President Barack Hussein Obama has proven himself utterly incompetent in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces. Having ignored pleas for help from Ambassador Stevens for months, he stood by and watched as our Consulate was overrun by the Merciless Savages of Ansar al-Shariah, ordering Assets in the vicinity to “Stand Down.” Then he relieved of their commands for disobeying orders, Flag and General Officers of the United States Military, who had attempted to save our Ambassador and the U.S. Citizens under his care.
For two weeks after the attack on the Sovereign Territory of the United States Consulate in Benghazi, President Barack Hussein Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and their surrogates engaged in a pattern of deceit over the attack on the Consulate; lying to the American People about the events of September 11th 2012 and engaging in a cover up of monumental proportions. The Executive Branch of the government of the United States of America has lost all credibility in the eyes of the American People.
We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, call for the immediate impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama for High Crimes and Misdemeanors against the People, including the crimes of Dereliction of Duty, Treason,and Murder.
We call on any of our Representatives in the House, and those in the Senate, any who still have an ounce of integrity, to uphold their oaths of office, and to support and defend the United States Constitution from ALL enemies, Foreign and Domestic, as they have sworn to do.
We call upon Patriots in the Armed Forces and Civil Authorities to refuse any Unlawful Order, including the forced disarmament of American Citizens, their forced detention without Due Process, their rendition to Foreign Shores, or their arrest on any Charge without a Warrant that has been signed by a Judge, and which has been issued upon probable cause.
We call upon ALL Americans to stand firm on the United States Constitution as it was written so long ago by Men who strained against the yoke of Tyranny. Natural Rights do not diminish over time, nor can they be legislated out of existence; they can only be forfeited willingly. We call upon ALL Americans to Honor the Sacred Blood which has been shed for the Liberty of ALL Americans, and hold fast to the rights which Nature and Nature's God has apportioned us.
We, therefore, the People of these United States of America, by Popular assent, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these United States, solemnly publish and declare: That these United States are, and of Right ought to remain, Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Federal Government in its current form, and that all political connection between them and the Obama Administration, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor. The time has come for the Will of the People to once again be heard, before the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.
So say we all.
http://bobpowell.blogspot.com/2012/11/impeach-obama-now-new-declaration-of.html
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience have shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Sovereign States and the citizens thereof; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current Systems of Government. The history of Barack Hussein Obama, the President of the United States, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
President Barack Hussein Obama has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good, when he authorized the murders of Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Kahn, American citizens, and separately, al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, none of whom were ever charged with a crime in a court of law; thereby nullifying the 5th Amendment which states that "NO PERSON shall be deprived of Life, Liberty, or Property… without Due Process of Law."
President Barack Hussein Obama has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them, by refusing to identify and deport illegal aliens, and then denying the Sovereign State of Arizona the right to defend its own borders.
In collusion with Treasonous Members of Congress, President Barack Hussein Obama has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has attacked elected representatives repeatedly,for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
President Barack Hussein Obama has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
President Barack Hussein Obama is trying to make the Supreme Court Of The United States dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and their relevance.
President Barack Hussein Obama has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
President Barack Hussein Obama is forming among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies of Private Mercenaries without the Consent of our legislatures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing or ignoring the free System of American Laws, establishing therein an Arbitrary government by Executive Order, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example, and fit instrument for, introducing the same absolute rule into these Individual Sovereign States:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments, and ceding authority to offices funded by, and accountable to, the Federal Reserve.
For bypassing our own Legislatures, and declaring himself invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever, including our very right to Life, President Barack Hussein Obama has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against Us.
President Barack Hussein Obama has plundered our economy, ravaged our industry, and destroyed the lives of our people. During his first term in office he has carelessly spent as much money as every President that preceded him combined. With a National Debt topping 16 Trillion dollars Our Great Republic is teetering at the precipice of financial collapse due to his wanton disregard for the solvency of the Nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama is at this time forming large Armies of Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama has quashed all attempts at Justice aimed at a violent Black Nationalist organization known as the New Black Panthers who haveintimidated voters at polling places, called for the Murders of white citizens, and have issued "Dead or Alive" rewards; felonies ignored by the Department of Justice at the behest of the President seeking to inflame racial tensions in the United States.
President Barack Hussein Obama, by power of Executive Order signed on March 16 2012, has re-instituted the abominable practice of Slavery in the United States; the wording in the Executive Order is plain for all to see: "to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation." (Sec. 502) Forced Labor without compensation is abhorrent to the sensibilities of the Citizens of these Sovereign States and will not be tolerated.
President Barack Hussein Obama has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, and the Sovereign States of the Middle East, the merciless Savages of the Muslim Brotherhood and their military wing known as al-Qaeda, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
President Barack Hussein Obama has provided Material Support to the Enemies of the United States, namely the Terror organizations known as al-Qaeda and Hamas; as well as providing weapons to Central American drug cartels, an act which has resulted in the murders of thousands of Mexican and American citizens, including members of the United States Law Enforcement community. These groups are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department and any Material Support of them is a Felony for which others have been imprisoned.
President Barack Hussein Obama has directed the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Military, and the nation’s Covert intelligence agencies to train, supply with weapons, and provide air support for al-Qaeda Terrorists in Libya; a Felony. He directed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens to arrange the transfer of advanced shoulder-fired missiles stolen by al-Qaeda from Libyan armories to affiliated al-Qaeda groups currently fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; a Felony.
President Barack Hussein Obama has proven himself utterly incompetent in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces. Having ignored pleas for help from Ambassador Stevens for months, he stood by and watched as our Consulate was overrun by the Merciless Savages of Ansar al-Shariah, ordering Assets in the vicinity to “Stand Down.” Then he relieved of their commands for disobeying orders, Flag and General Officers of the United States Military, who had attempted to save our Ambassador and the U.S. Citizens under his care.
For two weeks after the attack on the Sovereign Territory of the United States Consulate in Benghazi, President Barack Hussein Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and their surrogates engaged in a pattern of deceit over the attack on the Consulate; lying to the American People about the events of September 11th 2012 and engaging in a cover up of monumental proportions. The Executive Branch of the government of the United States of America has lost all credibility in the eyes of the American People.
We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, call for the immediate impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama for High Crimes and Misdemeanors against the People, including the crimes of Dereliction of Duty, Treason,and Murder.
We call on any of our Representatives in the House, and those in the Senate, any who still have an ounce of integrity, to uphold their oaths of office, and to support and defend the United States Constitution from ALL enemies, Foreign and Domestic, as they have sworn to do.
We call upon Patriots in the Armed Forces and Civil Authorities to refuse any Unlawful Order, including the forced disarmament of American Citizens, their forced detention without Due Process, their rendition to Foreign Shores, or their arrest on any Charge without a Warrant that has been signed by a Judge, and which has been issued upon probable cause.
We call upon ALL Americans to stand firm on the United States Constitution as it was written so long ago by Men who strained against the yoke of Tyranny. Natural Rights do not diminish over time, nor can they be legislated out of existence; they can only be forfeited willingly. We call upon ALL Americans to Honor the Sacred Blood which has been shed for the Liberty of ALL Americans, and hold fast to the rights which Nature and Nature's God has apportioned us.
We, therefore, the People of these United States of America, by Popular assent, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these United States, solemnly publish and declare: That these United States are, and of Right ought to remain, Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Federal Government in its current form, and that all political connection between them and the Obama Administration, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor. The time has come for the Will of the People to once again be heard, before the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.
So say we all.
http://bobpowell.blogspot.com/2012/11/impeach-obama-now-new-declaration-of.html
AMENDMENT X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed and from which all specific political powers arederived; the intentional independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign interference.
Sovereignty is the power of a state to do everything necessary to govern itself, such as making, executing, and applying laws; imposing and collecting taxes; making war and peace; and forming treaties or engaging in commerce with foreign nations.
The individual states of the United States do not possess the powers of external sovereignty, such as the right to deport undesirable persons, but each does have certain attributes of internal sovereignty, such as the power to regulate the acquisition and transfer of property within its borders.
The sovereignty of a state is determined with reference to the U.S. Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.
West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2.
STATE, government.
This word is used in various senses. In its most enlarged sense, it signifies a self-sufficient body of persons united together in one community for the defence of their rights, and to do right and justice to foreigners. In this sense, the state means the whole people united into one body politic; (q.v.) and the state, and the people of the state, are equivalent expressions. 1 Pet. Cond. Rep. 37 to 39; 3 Dall. 93; 2 Dall. 425; 2 Wilson's Lect. 120; Dane's Appx. Sec. 50, p. 63 1 Story, Const. Sec. 361.
In a more limited sense, the word `state' expresses merely the positive or actual organization of the legislative, or judicial powers; thus the actual government of the state is designated by the name of the state; hence the expression, the state has passed such a law, or prohibited such an act. State also means the section of territory occupied by a state, as the state of Pennsylvania.
2. By the word state is also meant, more particularly, one of the commonwealths which form the United States of America. The constitution of the United States makes the following provisions in relation to the states.
3. Art. 1, s. 9, Sec. 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another, nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.
4.-Sec. 6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.
5.-Sec. 7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from, any king, prince, or foreign state.
6.-Art. 1, s. 10, Sec. 1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payments of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
7.-Sec. 2. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of congress. No state, shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
8. The district of Columbia and the territorial districts of the United States, are not states within the meaning of the constitution and of the judiciary act, so as to enable a citizen thereof to sue a citizen of one of the states in the federal courts. 2 Cranch, 445; 1 Wheat. 91.
9. The several states composing the United States are sovereign and independent, in all things not surrendered to the national government by the constitution, and are considered, on general principles, by each other as foreign states, yet their mutual relations are rather those of domestic independence, than of foreign alienation. 7 Cranch, 481; 3 Wheat. 324; 1 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 489, 504. Vide, generally, Mr. Madison's report in the legislature of Virginia, January, 1800; 1 Story's Com. on Const. Sec. 208; 1 Kent, Com. 189, note b; Grotius, B. 1, c. 1, s. 14; Id. B. 3, c. 3, s. 2; Burlamaqui, vol. 2, pt. 1, c. 4, s. 9; Vattel, B. 1, c. 1; 1 Toull. n. 202, note 1 Nation; Cicer. de Repub. 1. 1, s. 25.
STATE, condition of persons. This word has various acceptations. If we inquire into its origin, it will be found to come from the Latin status, which is derived from the verb stare, sto, whence has been made statio, which signifies the place where a person is located, stat, to fulfill the obligations which are imposed upon him.
2. State is that quality which belongs to a person in society, and which secures to, and imposes upon him different rights and duties in consequence of the difference of that quality.
3. Although all men come from the hands of nature upon an equality, yet there are among them marked differences. It is from nature that come the distinctions of the sexes, fathers and children, of age and youth, &c.
4. The civil or municipal laws of each people, have added to these natural qualities, distinctions which are purely civil and arbitrary, founded on the manners of the people, or in the will of the legislature. Such are the differences, which these laws have established between citizens and aliens, between magistrates and subjects, and between freemen and slaves; and those which exist in some countries between nobles and plebeians, which differences are either unknown or contrary to natural law.
5. Although these latter distinctions are more particularly subject to the civil or municipal law, because to it they owe their origin, it nevertheless extends its authority over the natural qualities, not to destroy or to weaken them, but to confirm them and to render them more inviolable by positive rules and by certain maxims. This union of the civil or municipal and natural law, form among men a third species of differences which may be called mixed, because they participate of both, and derive their principles from nature and the perfection of the law; for example, infancy or the privileges which belong to it, have their foundation in natural law; but the age and the term of these prerogatives are determined by the civil or municipal law.
6. Three sorts of different qualities which form the state or condition of men may then be distinguished: those which are purely natural, those purely civil, and those which are composed of the natural and civil or municipal law. Vide 3 Bl. Com. 396; 1 Toull. n. 170, 171; Civil State.
TO STATE. To make known specifically; to explain particularly; as, to state an account, or to show the different items of an account; to state the cause of action in a declaration.
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
A doctrine and strategy in which the rights of the individual states are protected by the U.S. Constitution from interference by the federal government.
The history of the United States has been marked by conflict over the proper allocation of power between the states and the federal government. The federal system of government established by the U.S. Constitution recognized the sovereignty of both the state governments and the federal government by giving them mutually exclusive powers as well as concurrent powers.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, arguments over states' rights arose in the context of Slavery. From the 1870s to the 1930s, economic issues shaped the debate. In the 1950s racial Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement renewed the issue of state power. By the 1970s economic and political conservatives had begun to call for a reduction in the power and control of the federal government and for the redistribution of responsibilities to the states.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates represented state governments that had become autonomous centers of power. The Constitution avoided a precise definition of the locus of sovereignty, leaving people to infer that the new charter created a divided structure in which powers were allocated between the central government and the states in such a way that each would be supreme in certain areas.
Nevertheless, defenders of states' rights were concerned that a powerful, consolidated national government would run roughshod over the states. With ratification of the Constitution in doubt, the Framers promised to add protection for the states. Accordingly, the Tenth Amendment was added to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment stipulates that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." This amendment became the constitutional foundation for those who wish to promote the rights and powers of the states vis-à-vis the federal government.
In the early years of the Republic, states' rights were vigorously protected. An early argument involved whether or not states were subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the federal government. In chisholm v. georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 1 L. Ed. 440 (1793), a South Carolina businessman sued the state of Georgia in order to collect for payment of supplies. The state of Georgia maintained that it was a sovereign body, and so could not be sued since it was not subject to the authority of federal courts. The Supreme Court dismissed this argument and ruled that the conduct of the states was subject to Judicial Review. In response, states' rights advocates pushed for passage of the Eleventh Amendment, which limits the rights of persons to sue a state in federal court.
In 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison proposed the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves to clarify the role of states in checking the powers of the federal government. The resolutions were in response to passage of the alien enemies and sedition acts of 1798 (1 Stat. 570, 1 Stat. 596), which restricted a number of personal liberties. In proposing the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798, Jefferson argued that the "sovereign and independent states" had the right to "interpose" themselves between their citizens and improper national legislative actions and to "nullify" acts of Congress they deemed unconstitutional. The resolutions started the seed of the doctrines of nullification and interposition, later employed by New England states during the War of 1812, and by South Carolina in opposing federal tariff legislation in 1832.
From the early 1800s until the end of the Civil War in 1865, states' rights played a major role in the U.S. political process. The doctrine was most fully articulated in the writings of South Carolina statesman and political theorist john c. calhoun. Calhoun contended that if acts of the federal government ran contrary to state or local interests, then states had the right to nullify said acts. Calhoun further proposed that states had the right to dissolve their contractual relationship with the federal government rather than submit to policies they saw as destructive to their local self-interests. Followers of Calhoun linked states' rights to slavery, and thus, protecting slavery became the equivalent of protecting regional Southern interests. In 1860, seven Southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The constitution of the Confederacy began, "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its own sovereign and independent character …."
Northern leaders were also prepared to manipulate the concept of states' rights. As early as the 1820s, Northern legislatures enacted personal liberty laws as devices to block the enforcement of the federal fugitive slave law. Such laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in prigg v. pennsylvania, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 539, 10 L. Ed. 1060 (1842). However, when Congress enacted the more stringent Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Northerners responded by again creating personal liberty laws in general defiance of federal fugitive slave policy.
The defeat of the South in the Civil War ended the dispute, and Congress enacted the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, in part, to prevent states from denying certain basic rights to U.S. citizens. Although the Supreme Court substantially restricted the power of these amendments during the late nineteenth century, it did so indirectly, relying on states' rights arguments to justify its actions. The judicial philosophy of the times was also marked by laissez-faire capitalism. Thus, the Court would invoke the Tenth Amendment to strike down federal laws that were characterized as hostile to state interests and then use the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down state legislation that sought to regulate business, labor, and the economy.
This trend continued into the twentieth century. Until the 1930s, the Court frequently used the Tenth Amendment as a device for striking down federal measures, from Child Labor Laws to major pieces of President franklin d. roosevelt's New Deal legislation. Hundreds of state regulatory statutes were also overturned. Only when the states sought to restrict unions or control dissenters did the Court sustain these efforts.
By the late 1930s, however, New Deal policies had dramatically increased the size and power of the federal government. Proponents of states' rights argued against extensive use of the Commerce Clause, which gave the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce, and the federal government's power to tax for the General Welfare. Given the desperate economic situation, such arguments fell on deaf ears. By the end of World War II, centralized authority rested with the federal government.
States' rights were revived in the late 1940s over the matter of race. In the 1948 election, Democrat Harry S. Truman pushed for a more aggressive Civil Rights policy. Southern opponents, known as the "Dixiecrats," bolted the Democratic Party and ran their own candidate, J.strom thurmond. Their "states' rights" platform called for continued racial segregation and denounced proposals for national action on behalf of civil rights.
Desegregation efforts of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Supreme Court's decision in brown v. board of education of topeka, kansas, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954), which ruled that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional, also met with Southern resistance. Segregationists again argued for state sovereignty, and developed programs of massive resistance to racial Integration in public education, public facilities, housing, and access to jobs.
Beginning in the 1960s, other states' rights proponents started stressing the need for local control of government. One reason was the introduction of federal Welfare and subsidy programs. The concern was that along with federal money would come federal control.
By the end of the twentieth century, a number of efforts were being made to curtail the broad power of the federal government. For example, inNational League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833, 96 S. Ct. 2465, 49 L. Ed. 2d 245 (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce when it extended federal Minimum Wage and overtime standards to state and local governments. Determination of state government employees' wages and hours is one of the "attributes of sovereignty attaching to every state government," attributes that "may not be impaired by Congress." Less than ten years later, however, the Court overruled National League inGarcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U.S. 528, 105 S. Ct. 1005, 83 L. Ed. 2d 1016 (1985). Nevertheless, the 5–4 majority in Garcia and the Court's difficulty in articulating a coherent Tenth Amendment Jurisprudence have left this area of states' rights muddled.
The 1980s saw a major shift in government policy. President ronald reagan agreed with the public that the federal government was becoming too involved in state government affairs. As a result, a major focus of his administration was to reduce the size and power of the federal government.
States were given more authority to experiment with policy initiatives, especially social programs, which had previously been directed from Washington. Subsequent administrations followed suit.
In the early 2000s, however, political analysts commented that a new trend was afoot: both Republicans and Democrats were pushing for federal laws that would preempt state laws, especially state laws that attempted to regulate financial corporations and other types of business.
Further readings
Drake, Frederick D., and Lynn R. Nelson. 1999. States' Rights and American Federalism: A Documentary History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Knowles, Robert. 2003. "The Balance of Forces and the Empire of Liberty: States' Rights and the Louisiana Purchase." Iowa Law Review 88 (January).
Mason, Alpheus Thomas. 1972. The States Rights Debate: Antifederalism and the Constitution. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
McDonald, Forrest. 2000. States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776–1876. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.
Richey, Warren. 2002. "Terror Could Tilt High Court on States' Rights." Christian Science Monitor (February 11).
Sample, James J. 2003. "The Sentences that Bind." Columbia Law Review 103 (May).
Thursday, June 20, 2013
''There is a anger boiling in America''
It is the anger of millions of hard-working citizens who pay their bills, send in their income taxes, maintain their homes and repay their mortgage loans -- and see their government reward those who do not.
It is the anger of small town and Middle American folks who have never been to Manhattan, who put their savings in a community bank and borrow from a local credit union, who watch Washington lawmakers and presidents of both parties hand billions in taxpayer bailouts to the reckless Wall Street titans who brought down the economy .
It is the fury of the voiceless, the powerless, the ordinary nobodies of Flyover Country who are ridiculed, preached to, satirized and insulted by the Celebrity Loudmouths of the two Left Coasts, the Jon Stewarts and Keith Olbermanns, the Paul Krugmans and their ilk.
It is the salted wound of the millions who see that ruling Democrats in Congress are not listening to them but are willfully ignoring public opinion and the verdict of recent elections in passing a huge new health care entitlement when the existing entitlements of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are already broke.
It is the frustrating helplessness of citizens who revere the Founding Fathers and the genius of the Constitution that they wrote, who actually believe the words of the Constitution mean what they say, not more and not less.
They who watch politicians and the courts stretch and bend that Constitution, finding "rights" not enumerated, powers never granted, meanings unimagined -- believe that their country is being redefined without their consent.
Most of the angry are not out marching in the streets, waving signs or shouting into bullhorns. And they are not smashing windows or phoning death threats to politicians. They are simply waking up angry in the morning, and going to bed angry at night.
And their resentment is multiplied by the media's efforts to portray them all as dangerous, crazy people, and by the effort of certain Democrats to tar them with brush of violent intent.
They are embittered, too, by the rhetoric of a triumphant president who turns on its head Winston Churchill's heroic attitude promising defiance in defeat but magnanimity in victory.
For a president of a deeply divided country, defiance in victory is not an endearing posture.
It has all the persuasive charm of a Chad Ochocinco victory dance in the end zone of the opponent's stadium.
These quietly angry people gather in their churches while their religions are called divisive and their beliefs are labeled as bigotry, and they pray for a better day. They talk among themselves in their Main Street cafes, at the Rotary club or at their kids' softball games, seeking others who understand their frustration and will not respond with arrogant dismissal.
They are tired of being told they are too stupid to understand the country's complex problems, too rooted in the past to find solutions, too selfish to share what they have worked for with everyone else who wants it.
They are not reaching for guns or for pitchforks. They are holding their anger within, waiting for their time, watching those in power over-reach and over-indulge.
Their wound is deep, and it will not be salved by more presidential speeches, Congressional hand-outs, or promises of wonderful things to come.
They no longer believe any of that. Their quiet rage abides, waiting till it can be expressed in that silent place behind the curtain where the ballot lists the names that they have now committed to an angry memory.
By Mr. Curmudgeon:
A sick feeling in the pit of America’s collective gut is starting to manifest. A new CNN poll finds “President Barack Obama’s approval rating dropped eight percentage points over the past month, to 45%, the president’s lowest rating in more than a year and a half.” Obama’s dramatic change of fortune, said CNN, is the result of “a massive U.S. government [National Security Agency] surveillance program,” the “Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups,” and “the administration’s handling of last September’s attack in Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead.”
More than two hundred years after Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the individual’s natural right to live free, average Americans no longer recognize their nation as the “land of the free.” And the Executive isn’t the only branch of government to suffer a drop in public confidence. A Gallup poll finds a mere 10% of Americans approve of Congress.
We must not forget – no official holding public office shot their way to power. The very people now losing faith in big, intrusive, authoritarian government elected them all. That’s because the politicians never tell us what we need to hear – only what they know the gullible voter wants to hear.
In 2008, candidate Obama told Ohio’s Joe The Plumber that “spreading the wealth around is good for everybody.” Next year, average Americans will see their health care premiums skyrocket under Obamacare, with an aggressive IRS serving as the inescapable premium collector.
Nancy Pelosi once said that “free-riders” (those who can pay for their health care but don’t) “make health insurance for those who are taking responsibility more expensive.” The “free-rider,” in the eyes of Obama and Pelosi, is not the uninsured person whose health care taxpayers must fund, but the American worker struggling to earn enough to put food on the family table. The IRS, therefore, will target the hard-working, tax-paying “free-loader” on behalf of the “responsible,” which in the new America is defined as those dependent on Uncle Sam.
The assumption among Obama voters was that the president would take the wealth of others to “spread around” and not theirs. That was an irresponsible assumption (and I mean “irresponsible” in the classic sense, not as understood in the new and improved ObamAmerica).
And Republicans don’t get a free-ride as far as blame is concerned. Establishment Republicans blurred the distinctions that once separated the two parties by adopting big-government statism and dubbing it “conservatism.” Progressivism that began under Republican President Theodore Roosevelt remained virtually unopposed within the GOP until the rise of the Tea Party.
Calls for a return to constitutional restraints on government is why the establishment Republican commissioner of the IRS allowed his agency to target groups with “Tea Party” and “Patriot” in their titles.
Obama, like the Progressive politicians in both parties that preceded him, despises the Constitution for its “essential constraints,” as he once said in a radio interview. The problem, said Obama, is that the Constitution “is a charter of negative liberties.”
By “negative liberties” the president meant the Constitution’s enumerated constraints upon government and its power to infringe upon our individual liberties – such as freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the right to be secure in our “persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
The Constitution’s “negative” aspects do not injure the individual citizen but the power-mad, government authoritarian.
The IRS targeting of the Tea Party, coupled with the federal government’s unprecedented spying on a once free press and people, are driving down the approval ratings of our big-government president and his bipartisan, big-government Congress.
Is a picture beginning to form in your mind?
Big government is no friend of the average, hard-working, liberty-loving American … or the soft-headed, big-government-loving emotional adolescent for that matter. To the government elites consolidating power in America’s impending police state, they are one and the same.
Breathe deep and you can almost smell the fear. That’s because this is not our America. Ironically, the beast now coiling its tentacles around our throats is of our making.
We became a nation of gullible, trusting dolts when we forgot George Washington’s warning that “government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
This is long but all true..
THE SCANDAL ...
Bob: "Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?"
Jim: "You mean the Mexican gun running?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean SEAL Team 6 Extortion 17?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the State Dept. lying about Benghazi?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the voter fraud?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the military not getting their votes counted?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean that 3 or 4 of Obama's friends were mysteriously murdered when they came forward with claims he was gay?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president demoralizing and breaking down the military?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the Boston Bombing?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president wanting to kill Americans with drones without the benefit of the law?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million and right after it declared bankruptcy it was sold to the Chinese?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president arming the Muslim Brotherhood?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The IRS targeting conservatives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The DOJ spying on the press?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Giving SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and right after they declared bankruptcy the Chinese bought it?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The NSA monitoring our phone calls, e-mails and everything else?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from jails and prisons and falsely blaming the sequester?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's threat to impose gun control by Executive Order in order to bypass Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's repeated violation of the law requiring him to submit a budget no later than the first Monday in February?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The 2012 vote where 115% of all registered voters in some counties voted 100% for Obama?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate's advise-and-consent role?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "HHS employees being given insider information on Medicare Advantage?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "I give up! ... Oh wait, I think I got it! You mean that 65 million low-information voters stuck us again with the most corrupt administration in American history?"
Ya Think....
THE SCANDAL ...
Bob: "Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?"
Jim: "You mean the Mexican gun running?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean SEAL Team 6 Extortion 17?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the State Dept. lying about Benghazi?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the voter fraud?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the military not getting their votes counted?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean that 3 or 4 of Obama's friends were mysteriously murdered when they came forward with claims he was gay?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president demoralizing and breaking down the military?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the Boston Bombing?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president wanting to kill Americans with drones without the benefit of the law?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million and right after it declared bankruptcy it was sold to the Chinese?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president arming the Muslim Brotherhood?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The IRS targeting conservatives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The DOJ spying on the press?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Giving SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and right after they declared bankruptcy the Chinese bought it?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The NSA monitoring our phone calls, e-mails and everything else?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from jails and prisons and falsely blaming the sequester?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's threat to impose gun control by Executive Order in order to bypass Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's repeated violation of the law requiring him to submit a budget no later than the first Monday in February?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The 2012 vote where 115% of all registered voters in some counties voted 100% for Obama?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate's advise-and-consent role?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "HHS employees being given insider information on Medicare Advantage?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "I give up! ... Oh wait, I think I got it! You mean that 65 million low-information voters stuck us again with the most corrupt administration in American history?"
Ya Think....
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
"TEA PARTY RALLY BIGGER THAN OBAMA SPEECH IN BERLIN"
When Barack Obama gave a speech in Berlin in 2008, he drew a crowd of 200,000. Wednesday's speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate was a little less popular.
White House pool reporter Elmar Jakobs estimated the crowd at only 4,500.
Obama's Berlin crowd may also have been smaller than the crowd of several thousand who turned out for the Tea Party Patriots' 'Audit the IRS' rally and for a rally against the immigration bill held at the Capitol on Wednesday.
One unofficial estimate put the crowd size at 7,000 to 10,000 at its peak.
Both rallies lasted several hours.
Photo: Judson Phillips via Instapundit
Glenn returned to D.C. on Wednesday to give his first speech at a Tea Party event at the Capitol since Restoring Honor. Thousands showed up for the Tea Party Patriots ‘Audit the IRS’ event that coincided withthe press conference, featuring Reps Bachmann, Gohmert, and King, to block any immigration legislation from passing through the House.
The ‘Audit the IRS’ event kicked off at 12pm ET, following the press conference on immigration. Glenn joined conservatives leaders like Dana Loesch, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rand Paul, and many others to speak at the event. While most focused on the issue of the IRS audits targeting conservative and religious groups — Glenn took on the fundamental basis of the issue: Civil Rights.
With the Black Robed Regiment at his side, Glenn tackled issues of equal rights, faith, and leadership in front of the large Tea Party crowd. He noted that a statue of Fredrick Douglas has just been dedicated just a few steps from where they were standing, inside the Capitol.
“A man born into slavery, but who knew instinctively that he was not born a slave,” Glenn said to start his speech. “No man is.”
Glenn highlighted that all Civil Rights movements boil down to one thing: Man’s quest and desire for power.
“Someone has always been on the losing end of the stick of power,” he said. ” Blacks are the most obvious, the Chinese, the Native Americans — but let’s not forget the Irish, the Catholics, the Mormons, the Jews, and now it seems all those of faith that will not conform.”
But for those that believe the solution lies in putting the “collective” ahead of the individual, Glenn issued a stern warning…
“For those that think men make progress collectively, I warn you, history teachers: You couldn’t be more wrong.”
“We are redeemed one man at a time,” he continued. “There is no family pass ticket or park hopping pass to life. One ticket — one at a time. man doesn’t vanquish hatred or bigotry. the target keeps moving. From the blacks to the Irish; atheists to Christians. But as always there are a few leaders: Ben Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, Booker T Washington, Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
They know that the march toward freedom never ends, man must be ever vigilant and pray less with his lips and more with his legs.”
They know that the march toward freedom never ends, man must be ever vigilant and pray less with his lips and more with his legs.”
Glenn closed his speech by reminding the crowd that if they’ve been looking for a leader, and they haven’t been able to find one, it might be because they’re the leader they’re looking for. And it’s time to take a stand.
“Let us, today, raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.”
See Glenn’s complete remarks below:
Today, inside, they dedicated a new statue of another American giant, Fredrick Douglas – a man born into slavery, but who knew instinctively that he was not born a slave. No man is.To keep a man a slave you do much the same as the cruel circus masters did to the elephant around the turn of last century. Clamp heavy chains around their legs and stake them to the ground. Then beat and terrorize them. After a while you no longer even have to stake the chain; the elephant gives up and just the mere rattle of the chain convinces the elephant there is no hope, so they give up and do what ever it is the circus requires.Fredrick Douglas was lucky enough to live in a house where he was taught to read, write and think. He knew God did not make men masters over others. Nor did he ever intend any man to impose unrighteous dominion over another man or beast.
It is time we remind ourselves of this truth again, and begin to rise up against the intimidation before the handful of peanuts from our new political circus masters is considered a kindness and not the symbol of evil cruelty.In the building behind me, they are now excusing storing all data, phone calls, financial transactions, geotracking on every American for our “safety,” while allowing anyone to cross our borders either on foot or in underground tunnels without any worry or consequence.They have not suspended or fired butpromoted those at the IRS who rattled the chains of control to any group that disagreed with their policies. And now, after pushing misery and death through the so-called “Arab Spring” in country after country, they are plotting a new war with Syria. This will bring death and destruction the world over. We are told that we need to pick sides and arm those who are so far down the scale of decency that even Vladimir Putin asked Americans if they knew that those we are arming have literallyeaten their enemies on the battlefield.The fact that he even needed to ask that question, and that most have never even seen the video of the commander of the rebel troops on TV engaging in this ungodly horror, is an indictment of our government officials and our media.
I am surrounded today by some modern-day spiritual giants. All from different faiths, different backgrounds and many different views. But we all have one thing in common. We don’t recognize our country anymore and because we know that God is just, we tremble for our children’s future.We wonder, are we even worth defending anymore? If so, why? Who are we? And will we even notice or care when the chain is finally snapped around our legs?What will be written about us? The greatest generation has passed. We who are historians will watch.Will it be said that none called for justice not one pleaded for truth? They trusted in vanity and spoke lies. They conceived mischief and brought forth iniquity.What is it we even believe as a people anymore? Where did we get these ideas that now seem so popular?
Our forbears came to these shores not for free stuff, but for freedom. The chance to make their own way, create a different life. They came here because they knew that God made them free to make their own way in life, take the risk, do their best and take responsibility for their own lives.They came here because they wanted to serve Him in the way they believed, not as they were told.But how many care about our history? And, of those who do care, how many really still believe?Some things are worth believing in. That the little guy can make it. Every single life has value and is worth living. That honor and integrity do matter. That justice will prevail – if not in this life – then the next, and that God does exist. And what we do in our lives matters.It is the meek and the humble that inherit the earth. Have we forgotten?We have declared ourselves masters of the earth — spread our troops all over the world, taught the world how to do banking like we do it here in America. Even though we can’t even master ourown homes, protect our neighborhoods, or simply balance a check book. How grotesque and garish we must appear to those looking in.I, for one, still believe in the silly notion of truth, justice and the American way.Since our founding, a good percentage of our fellow citizens closed their eyes to the civil rights of all Americans. “I’m okay. I don’t want to think of the bad things going on. I am busy. It doesn’t affect me. It can’t be that bad and even if it is, I am just one person and what can I do about it anyway?”Nothing has changed, except the chairs at the table.Someone has always been on the losing end of the stick of power. Blacks are the most obvious, the Chinese, the Native Americans, but lets not forget the Irish, the Catholics, the Mormons, the Jews, and now it seems all those of faith that will not conform.For those that think men make progress collectively: I warn you, history teaches that you couldn’t be more wrong. We are redeemed one man at a time. There is no “family pass” ticket or park hopping pass to life. One ticket, one life at a time.
Man doesn’t vanquish hatred or bigotry. The target keeps moving. From the blacks to the Irish. Atheists to Christians.
But as always, there are a few leaders: Ben Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They know that the march toward freedom never ends; man must be ever-vigilant and pray less with his lips and more with his legs.They never forget that truth, justice, and freedom are the wellspring from which the waters of man’s civil rights come. And so they must be upheld for all men – those you know, those you do not, and maybe more importantly — they must be upheld for those who you do know but do not like or agree with at all.If they are lost for one, in the end they are lost for all.In the past, these historic stands which we now call civil rights movements were done by a small but dedicated portion of our citizens which led to great shifts in our culture. But those movements always came from the same institutions … the church. And usually not the church with the popular preacher, but the one who put it on the line to tell the people the truth.Preachers like these men, who know that we are all born free, but that freedom comes at a great price — a profound responsibility to stand against injustice, hatred and bigotry. Our pulpits have gone quiet out of arrogance, fear and apathy. Their faith is found in the wisdom of man and not in the power of God. For some, losing tithing checks or the gold Rolex watch has become more important than losing man’s freedom.Whatever the reason, too many are no longer willing to call evil by its name. There is no vision. And when there is no vision, the people perish.I humbly suggest to you that Martin Luther King knew the answer, and he lost more than congregants during his long march. Students are taught that his vision came from the ideas of Gandhi. Maybe a new radical 20th century progressive philospher was the one that taught MLK that “although we be free of all men, when we choose to make ourselves servants to all, we gain the more.”Let’s get a couple of things straight. What MLK and Gandhi did was not progressive or new. It was an ancient idea. Hollywood, Woodstock, nor the hippie culture was the source of power of the 1960s freedom movement.
God was.He was leading those who risked their lives over that bridge in Selma, not Janice Joplin, Columbia University, or a labor union. It wasn’t John Lennon that taught people about love and peaceful resistance — that job fell on the shoulders of a Jewish carpenter. And it is there that we will find the answers that will break the chains that are being forged for a new generation of slaves.The rights that so many Americans ignorantly preach about so often are not really their rights. They belong to God and they are given to us for stewardship. They are pretty important and obvious. So obvious that we used to say they were “self-evident,” meaning that humans don’t need to be taught; you instinctively know that you have a right not to be executed without a trial, held without charge, searched without warrant or spied upon without cause.The government is no longer the protector of those civil rights, and so we must be. When we are told that it is okay for the IRS, EPA, ATF, FBI or anyone to hassle, threaten or intimidate others because of their skin color, religion or political belief, we stop being the country that we all want to build, and start being the country the world should fear.The long train of abuses regarding these rights are the same MLK marched against, and the very same our dusty founders warned us about losing.Men may make progress, but man never changes. Man loves power and money. No matter the skin color, religion or income level. These symbols of our nation make men drunk with power, who then justify their lust for more by claiming they are public servants. The only difference between Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. is that at least Vegas has the decency to admit the town is full of hookers and crooks.We must sober up and admit that too many of the Republicans and the Democrats have played us, lied to us and stolen from us, while the getaway car was driven by the media. A media that can no longer claim with a straight face the role of journalist. Journalists print the things the powerful don’t want printed. What they do is public relations. Those PR firms will not print the truth about the average American who finds himself concerned with the direction of our country today. So we must.
We are not violent. We are not racist. We are not anti immigrant. We are not anti-government. And we will not be silent anymore.Those who wish to use unrighteous dominion over mankind are not enemies of ours; they are enemies of God, and He will not be silent much longer either.We will no longer accept the lies, the corruption, or the information and data gathering. It is evil. And we come here today to send a message that we will surround all of those who wish to stand and break the cycle of corruption. We will use ourselves as shields to protect those in the system, the elected officials or whistle blowers with the courage to stand.
We come here today to respectfully, but with the power of the spirit, demand to be treated as an equal member of society. I am a man, and I will be treated as such. I answer to only one king and His kingdom will come, His will be done. We have chosen sides and we choose God. America as a nation must do the same, as well.We come today to declare our independence, to reaffirm our founding principles. We, as a nation, acknowledge a creator. We acknowledge that he gives certain natural, guaranteed rights to man. We declare that government exists primarily to protect these natural, God-given rights. He has established right and wrong. He is just and therefore, man must pay for his mistakes either now on Earth, or through God’s justice later.There is no such thing as social justice. Only God can balance things out, and we are not God. But honest and decent men can fight for and establish equal justice.There is no such thing as collective salvation. We, however, are going to be judged on how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters. Thus we must serve them, help them with charity toward all. “Malice toward none,” Lincoln said. God said it slightly differently – vengeance is mine.Anyone who speaks of punishing their political enemies in on the wrong side. It is clearly evil and we have a responsibility to say so.America: it is now your time to rise up and boldly declare those same self-evident truths that changed the world, and demand that those truths remain the basis of our laws.My civil rights will not be trampled, and I say this not for me but for my children, and all those who yearn to breathe free. Those who make your Apple products at Foxxcon, those who languish in prisons in Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela. Those homosexuals who are stoned to death in the streets of Egypt or Iran, while our so-called civil rights leaders hold coffee klatches with third graders in the White House.We will stand not for our job, house or income, but we will stand for those immigrants who came here the right way, and not have their dreams destroyed by increasing competition at the lowest rung of the ladder while keeping the brightest and best minds out of the visa pool allowing for little competition at the top.We will not pervert women’s rights and twist it into a gross silent defense of abortion doctors in Philly and Houston while turning our eyes from the forgotten women who have never had the civil right to walk alone on a street without a man, or to drive a car in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, and even those who now cower in fear with their faces covered in states like Florida, Virginia, New York and Minnesota.We will not waste another second shadow boxing the demons of the past when the fight to end actual slavery is still happening today. Call it what you will, but those who make your iPad in China – those who make your cute little Mao purses – are the very people you claim to care so much about. They are the ones yearning to breathe free. And worse, there is the oldest form of human degradation man has ever known, the sex slave trade that currently has in its coils over 2 million children. The biggest source of this evil is a wide open hole in our Arizona border.We beg the American people to wake up and help the 8-year-old children being sold into sex slavery. The press may say, ‘How dare these men declare themselves the next Martin Luther King or civil rights leaders?’How blind to believe the civil rights movement ever ended. The civil rights movement never ends, and it never will. It has been marching since the beginning of time. Where Martin Luther King started is where Gandhi left off, and where he started, Abe Lincoln left off, and before that Whitfield all the way back to Moses. God has not moved. We have. But it is never too late. We are not at the mercy of these events. We can alter the course of history. We can stand against the dangerous arc of this story.But we need people who are willing to speak truth.The last century was a century of genocide. A century where collectivist, national socialist, and communist evil rose up again and again… swallowing up the lives of millions. It happens every time man says the collective is more important than the right of the individual. That one phrase becomes in the end – every time – a license to kill anyone deemed to be standing in the way of progress.But evil met its match. Goodness eventually prevailed. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lech Walesa and Mother Theresa awoke the world. They gave their lives to the pursuit of human rights. They took the side of justice against injustice; they held aloft the torch of freedom to push out the darkness of hate. These men and women lived difficult lives. They often lived shortened lives. They were often born to relative privilege, but willing to take on suffering. They did want not to martyr themselves. They would have happily lived to the end of their natural lives in comfort… but to the righteous, there is no comfort when evil has taken root.But the cause of human rights has been taken over by organizations who share little with the individuals who led the movement. Human rights was once a cry for justice. Now it used as a threat. These organizations have become bullies and grotesque parodies of the principles they pretend to represent. They criticize free nations and spare the unfree. They denounce nations like Israel and America, who have high standards for freedom, and leave alone nations that have no freedom at all. They are nearly comical in their double-standards.They are no more than the enforcers or the attack dogs of those who wish to keep men confined in spaces they design. Whatever moral force they once had is spent. Their time is up. And so, we dismiss them. Today we take back the phrase “human rights” and place it where it belongs, as the first half of God’s plan for humanity. The second half is responsibility.
If we want to be endowed with rights – real human rights, we have to act with responsibility. We must not be comfortable with rights. We must be comfortable with responsibility.Who will protect your rights better? A king, president or you?Who will protect the truth? A reporter, a labor union or you?Who will protect and teach your children to seek truth? A textbook committee, an education bureaucrat, or you?Did a commission of wise men stop the Holocaust? Did a committee of Congress end Jim Crow?No. In each case, the work was done by individuals who would not abide convenient lies.They saw injustice and they called it out. They saw their nation wage war against a single group and they said “not in my name.” They didn’t wait for the conventions of society to catch up to God’s laws. They pushed. They pressed. And they were victorious.Each of us have been waiting for a leader to rise from among us. And none have. How many have been called and refused to serve? How many must have failed to heed the call for the Lord to make it all the way down to us?I pray now that those who have heard the call to rise up in the tradition of peaceful resistance do so now before, as it was with Bonhoeffer, it is too late. I beg those with eyes and ears to heed the call and begin to train under the exact system used by MLK. Search his words out. You will find that your history professors and civil rights activists left out the real author of the words of Gandhi, King and Bonhoeffer.Read them, ponder them, and risk living them. Even though they will make you a target of the NSA, having your name on their list as an enemy may in the end be the way your name is forever etched in his book of life.Pastors, priests and rabbis: I challenge you. What have you done with your knowledge and priesthood power that those without have not done this week? If you cannot answer that with power every day, what does that say about you?Average citizens and college students: I challenge you. Martin Luther King didn’t take a class, get a certificate and a bunch of permits. He saw injustice, studied eternal truths, exercised discipline and marched.
If you don’t find a leader, perhaps it is because you were meant to lead.Christians: I believe in the free market. If your preacher is too afraid to preach it from the pulpit, maybe you should preach it from the street corner. Many are called. Will you answer?Our spiritual body is out of shape and we need intensive training right now.Get back to God, and know that some things are true and worth believing in. The good guysdo win in the end. Evil does not stand unless good men never rise up. The time is now and we are the people the world is waiting for. We must never stop being the shore that others can come to for shelter and hope.But to do so we must realign ourselves with truth and rise up and stand. This is the vision. We must preach good tidings to the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to those held captive. To declare vengeance belongs to God and God alone. We must give unto those who mourn — beauty for ashes and water the trees of righteousness. We shall not perish.
I can’t help that most of us don’t like to hear the truth, but hear it we must: George Washington told us religion and morality are the only stable and lasting basis of individual life and public policy. If we are to survive, they must be part of our public policy rather than driven from it.It is no longer enough to just be a good person. We must work to be the next Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King. It is noble to strive to be the size of the bronze giant they dedicated this morning in the building behind me. Fredrick Douglas’ time was in the 1800; King’s time has passed. This is our time. This is the next long march toward civil rights and we shall overcome.Stand without fear, lock arms and stare down the bullies that wish to enslave mankind yet again.
Honor, courage and love are what is required, and they are contagious. Spread the word and proclaim liberty throughout the land.“Let us, today, raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.”
'Evil will stand if good men do nothing’
I think .. John Adams Heard You Glenn... Good Job.
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