Constitutional Convention Begins October 19

Believe it or not, in a barely covered announcement made on October 5, which I just ran across, a Constitutional Convention will commence on October 19. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito among others will preside. 23 proposed amendments and changes to the U.S. Constitution are on the agenda for debate.

Freedom, Jessica Lunsford, and America

She was 9 years old. Abducted from her bed in the middle of the night by a pedophile with a record of such crimes, she was terrorized, tied up with speaker wire, sexually molested and tortured, and suffocated. The perpetrator then discarded her body like garbage, used up, and no longer of any use to him. Jessica Lunsford is no longer with us.

We as Americans should never forget this young girl's name or, the terror and horror she experienced in her last remaining hours with us, her society, charged with her protection and care. America failed this innocent young girl, and many, many thousands of other boys and girls, women and men, who are subjected to similar kinds of terror, torture, humiliation, degradation, and too often death, at the hands of a society that profits in the billions of dollars each year from the exploitation of desire and want.

America !

She was born much as a child is born, bloodied, loved, cut from her bonds, but dependent. Her birth came with a hope, a vision, and a promise, marked so eloquently in her Declaration of Independence, "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."

As the Declaration state in the very next sentences, as if to anticipate the loathsome state of government without guidance or structure, and freedom without responsibility:

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.

Be Good, or Be Diminished

America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

Katherine Shrader, Associated Press, writes, that a new poll shows 56% of Americans believe Bush must work through courts in order to spy on Americans regardless of circumstances, including suspicion of links to terrorists. 42% say Bush is free to ignore the laws in his efforts to fight terrorism. Is fighting terrorists the number one priority in our Constitution? Or are civil liberties in the Bill of Rights the first priority? Which position is more Good?

Alito, Friend or Foe?

The President's nomination of a clear conservative to the Supreme Court is not a surprise. But, will Samuel Alito be a friend or foe to America's future. American business backs him. Republicans back him. The ultra right conservatives back him. Anit-abortionists back him. His record reflects a hostility to federal actions like affirmative action, his mother says he is anti-abortion, and if business is backing him, his record likely reflects opposition to consumer rights in matters of commerce.

US to Imprison for life without trial.

The United States has a plan to imprison for life terrorist suspects. Not a problem except for the fact that the U.S. doesn't have sufficient evidence to even indict them, let alone try these people in the courts and get a conviction. This kind of government action is precisely one of the reasons the Colonialists overthrew the British Government in the Revolutionary War more than two centuries ago. Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R), called it a "bad idea". I would go further and call it entirely UNAMERICAN. The Bush administration is showing its willingness to bury the most basic core principles set out in our Constitution for expedience. I cannot recall a more traitorous act against our Constitution by a sitting President.

REPEAL OF ESTATE TAXES

by David Remer, June 20, 2003 - PoliWatch.Org

Our Choice - Democracy or Aristocracy

This article (TomPaine) discusses repeal of the estate tax proposed by the US House of Representatives. The article is extremely well written by Chuck Collins and provides great detail about the myths and realities being bantered about to support such a repeal. At the heart of the issue however, is the Constitution of the United States and the Revolutionary War which won freedom and independence from the King of England and the aristocracy that ruled at the time. Our founding fathers despised aristocracy, which is defined by the New World Dictionary as "1) government by the best citizens 2) government by a privileged minority or upper class, usually of inherited wealth and social position".

Our founding fathers wanted government to be responsive to all free men of the nation regardless of class, social status, or even wealth. The estate tax prevents such an Aristocracy from becoming larger than it already is. Since we already know that money talks in D.C. louder than the individual voter's letters or emails to Congress or the President, repeal of the estate tax will create a larger aristocracy. The super wealthy already have inroads to elections, lobbying power, and influence upon our elected representatives that the middle class does not. It takes huge money to get elected, and an aristocracy can afford to insure a candidate that the money will be there, provided the candidate's views favor the aristocrat donor.

House Republicans and Democrats who support the bill to repeal the estate tax, are turning their backs on some of the most fundamental reasons the Revolutionary War was fought and the Constitution was written the way it was. The checks and balances between the branches of government were designed such, that no individual nor small group of individuals could wield tyranny upon the people by way of the government.

And while the preamble states the constitution is written in order to create a more perfect union and justice in the land, an Aristocracy of a minority of multi-millionaires and billionaires stands in direct opposition to the preamble and its intent. American aristocrats already have the ability to pull the strings of government both through the election process and through right of privilege to be heard by elected officials directly through visitation, dinners and lunches, fund raisers and expensive lobbying. A growing aristocracy through the repeal of the estate tax is antithetical to the patriots of this nation who fought and died in the Revolutionary War to establish this more perfect union and to free themselves from the aristocracy of England.

Some in Congress argue that they are trying to preserve small farmers from losing their farms. However, this is a ruse. Note the following from Chuck Collins' article, "At a June 17 press conference, Tom Bius from the National Farmers Union, which represents over 300,000 small farmers, called on Congress to "stop using farmers to front for complete estate tax repeal." The Farmers Union supports reforming the estate tax, but not repeal. The pro-repeal American Farm Bureau has not produced a single example of a farm lost because of the estate tax."

Also, congresspersons argued that estate taxes constitute double taxation. But, as Collins points out, "But the bulk of assets in taxable estates -- appreciated stocks and real estate -- is wealth that has never been taxed."

The repeal of the estate tax will face stiffer opposition in the Senate, but, without the response from the public in large numbers, the US will indeed grow the American aristocracy to the detriment of present and future generations of tax paying, hard working, citizens of modest means whose votes will be discounted and whose voices will be unable to be heard over the din of powerful money influences in Washington D.C. The estate tax is our best defense against such an aristocratic strangle hold upon the future generations of the American middle class.

Patriotism toward government opposed by founding fathers.

by David Remer, June 11, 2003

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
--Benjamin Franklin

The founding fathers of the American Constitution and Bill of Rights would be very concerned by what passes for Patriotism today. The "Love It or Leave It" patriots who would declare that any who speak against the actions of the American government were at least unpatriotic, and some would say traitors. The founding fathers had no love for government, not even our own. They assumed that power corrupts and that government is inherently a powerful force. Their lack of faith in politicians and government in general is to be found everywhere in the Constitution and Bill of Rights as well as many of their well documented quotes as Ben Franklin's above.

Informed Consent Essential to Democracy.

One of the most basic assumptions of a democracy is an informed voting public is essential. A democracy by definition is a people who are governed by the majority consent of the people. If a democratic nation is insufficiently informed, government direction will often be ineffectual in solving a nation's problems. However, if the voting public is misinformed by its leaders or a minority, then the government ceases to be a democracy, since, majority consent is not based on informed consent, and government is being directed by those who misinformed the public. All dictators of the 20th century knew the importance of misinforming the public and formally set up propaganda ministries to deliberately misinform the public in such a way as to retain support from the people.