What is happening to the USA??? Give us your input.

[DiscoBiscuit]

The Constitution is the principal vehicle authorizing bigger federal government. Eight short years of Articles Of Confederation sent state representatives to Washington demanding federal arbitration.

Instead of considering others' opinions on constitutionality, check the legalese of legislation regarding constitutionality. Typically in the preamble you'll see references to the Constitution and or amendments of - plus translation and how these translations apply to the laws we make.

After all, the constitution isn't explicit in all areas and where it isn't, interpretations vary. These variations have to be considered before translation and application to law takes place. After the AOC dissolved, even the founding fathers acknowledged the broad nature of the commerce clause of the Constitution.

All that aside, the Constitution lays out express direction of how amendments are to be added, changed, repealed, etc.

'Unconstitutionality' is a common battle cry but the answers are often in the details of legislation and or judicial rulings. The folks making these decisions are elected representatives the states send to Washington, not some innate vacuum that sucks power from the states. And if the Judiciary finds lawmakers acted unconstitutionally, the Judiciary may judge accordingly.

 

[dagnabit]

no one ever mentions the preamble to the bill of rights...
lots of times iv'e even had people tell me there is no preamble to the bill of rights.
i think it perfectly expressed our founder's fear of an overreaching federal government.
just for fun:

THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.:

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

amendments to the constitution were intended never to limit the rights of the people in any way.
they were intended to limit the government's ability to usurp our rights.

hence language like"congress shall make no law" and "the right of the people shall not be infringed" or "secure in their persons" like "reserved for the states or the people"


many people forget intent.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Tom Coburn: $30 Billion In Millionaires Aid Is 'Sheer Washington Stupidity'

First Posted: 11/14/11 01:27 PM ET Updated: 11/14/11 03:21 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- Millionaires are receiving billions in taxpayer-funded support every year that helps them pay for everything from child care to bad debts to boats and vacation homes, according to a report released Monday by Sen. Tom Coburn.

People who individually earned more than a million dollars in 2009 even managed to collect a total of nearly $21 million in unemployment insurance.

"From tax write-offs for gambling losses, vacation homes, and luxury yachts to subsidies for their ranches and estates, the government is subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and famous," wrote Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, in an accompanying letter.

"Multimillionaires are even receiving government checks for not working. This welfare for the well-off -- costing billions of dollars a year -- is being paid for with the taxes of the less fortunate."

Calling the giveaways "sheer Washington stupidity," Coburn detailed in the study more than $30 billion a year that comes out of the U.S. Treasury to aid people who make more than a million a year.

For Coburn, who describes his survey as the first-ever compilation of federal aid for the richest, such a startling figure makes no sense when most of the country is struggling to get by. He also thinks it reveals some sensible targets for Congress' stymied debt-trimming super committee.

"Even in these difficult times, the United States remains a land of opportunity and not everyone is in need of government handouts," wrote Coburn in the accompanying letter.

"The income of the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans has risen dramatically over the last decade. Yet, the federal government lavishes these millionaires with billions of dollars in giveaways and tax breaks," he wrote, referring to the growing income gap recently documented in stark fashion by the Congressional Budget Office.

"The government's social safety net, which has long existed to catch those who are down and help them get back up, is now being used as a hammock by some millionaires, some who are paying less taxes than average middle class families," Coburn contended.

And what the report "reveals is sheer Washington stupidity with government policies pampering the wealthy costing taxpayers billions of dollars every year," Coburn argued.

Coburn totaled up all the federal money for millionaires over several years that his office could find. Among the handouts for the well-heeled are:

• $18.15 million in child care tax credits
• $74 million in unemployment checks
• $89 million for preservation of ranches and estates
• $316 million in farm subsidies
• $608 million in business entertainment deductions
• $9 billion in retirement checks
• $21 billion in gambling losses
• $28 billion in mortgage breaks for mansions, vacation homes and yachts

Some of the payments, such as for Social Security and Medicare, stem from payroll taxes and are not means-tested when they are paid out. Advocates of such payments believe the government made a promise to individuals that it must keep, regardless of their wealth.

Some other payments, such as the millions received by the wealthy to preserve land or to use alternative energy sources, arise from programs that proponents consider beneficial overall, even if the rich get the money.

But Coburn doesn't see much justification for these payments, considering how well the wealthy have done over the last 30 years compared to everyone else. "Fleecing the taxpayer while contributing nothing is not the American way," he wrote.

He also sees policies that help the rich avoid taxes as government-sanctioned redistribution of wealth.

"Americans are generous and do not want to see their fellow citizens go without basic necessities. Likewise, we expect everyone to contribute and to demonstrate personal responsibility," Coburn wrote.

"Government policies intended to mainstream wealth redistribution are undermining these principles. The tragic irony is the wealth in these cases is trickling up rather than down the economic ladder," he continued. "The cost of this largess will thus be shared by those struggling today and the next generation who will inherit $15 trillion of debt that threatens the future of the American Dream."

Coburn does not argue that taxes should be raised on the wealthy, however. Simply ending giveaways for people who don't need them would help, and he recommends limiting or cutting payments to millionaires in the safety net programs; ending farm and conservation payments to the rich; means-testing tax breaks and other payouts; and reforming provisions of the tax code that help pay for vacation properties and mansions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/14/tom-coburn-30-billion-millionaires-tax-breaks_n_1092692.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...illion-millionaires-tax-breaks_n_1092692.html

All that to say Grover Norquist has hijacked revenues (and nearly an entire party of lawmakers)

You can't do what you're suggesting, Tom. 98% of your house cousins signed the pledge.

Now go out there and ask the job creators why they haven't created jobs with 31 years of tax cuts and bennies for the top.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...illion-millionaires-tax-breaks_n_1092692.html

 

[zenoonez]

[/URL]

All that to say Grover Norquist has hijacked revenues (and nearly an entire party of lawmakers)

You can't do what you're suggesting, Tom. 98% of your house cousins signed the pledge.

Now go out there and ask the job creators why they haven't created jobs with 31 years of tax cuts and bennies for the top.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...illion-millionaires-tax-breaks_n_1092692.html

And I thought all the reasonable Republicans were gone... Thats okay, he will be beaten by a far right Tea Party candidate in the next election or he will not seek another term. That seems to be the fate of honest elected officials. I am not a religious man but God help us.

 

[highonmt]

And I wasnt likening humans to dogs, I was talking about selling grills to place in the mouths of actual canines. Dogs are too smart to buy them, but their idiot owners will.


And Chad Johnson, or Ochocinco as he would like to be called, is the epitome of my statement about the average Americans main priority.

Attempting to look "cool" while at the core being a classless dumbfuck.

There is a great deal of truth in your statements but it is not really the fault of the dumbasses it is the fault of the society to force upon them an educational system designed to make them fail. The main message of modern public shooling is if you look cool you really don't need to be smart. Smart people are portrayed as weird and outliers...so even smart kids are forced by social pressure to underperform. We need major reform in our schools no god damn cell phones/video games or tv in schools... we are teaching entitlement. Uniform dress and real discipline to instill the idea that performance leads to success and lack thereof leads to trouble. We also need trade schools for kids not interested in higher education and not just ignore them as stupid and turn them out to the welfare roles to breed... Cutting funding to schools is THE main tool that is being and has been used to gut our society and has allowed people that can barely speak or write eg GWB to become leaders and role models. I hire highschool kids at my business and constantly have to yell at them to stop texting while talking to customers, to start working or they will lose their job both of which seem to come as a great suprise to them. Many can't tell you where Iraq is or what we are doing there...most don't know who Thomas Jefferson or John Adams were or any other president before clinton for that matter. I often recite the preamble and ask where this is from some say the bible some say it's a poem only 2 so far knew what it was. Children are the future of our country time we started cultivating our future rather than ignoring it.
HM

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

- I often recite the preamble and ask where this is from some say the bible some say it's a poem only 2 so far knew what it was.

When they become national politicians, they'll learn how to pontificate.

House Minority Leader John Boehner was fired up and ready to go at the Tea Party rally today.

He even held up his pocket copy of the Constitution, pledging to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the pre-amble:

'We hold these truths to be self evident ..."

Oops.

That would be the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence that he's reading.

The pre-amble to the Constitution (some of us can still sing the Schoolhouse Rock version):

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
​

Asked about the mixup, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel shot back: "Both texts are vital to the liberty beloved by every American."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1109/Boehner_mixes_up_Constitution_and_Declaration.html

 

[_Ina_]

Excuse me,people,but did u watch Gasland?! they want to start(may be they already started) to use this fracking here in my own coutry! i want to know do u saw what is going on with people who lives near this shit?! Excuse me,but why the Americans let this thing happens? all this starts from your country and coming here in Europe! this is your biggest problem,u wont have water soon,neither do we hope u realize what your politicians do with other countries and off course with u!.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Let's take closer look. Wouldn't you consider the fact that the people who contribute unlimited amounts of money to these politicians are the same folks who contaminate your drinking water?

Instead of pointing the finger at big bad government, try narrowing your focus. Try recognizing big bad government that legislates big bad special interests, i.e. gas frackers.

When it comes to mitigating your concerns, you won't see any from the private sector. It makes sense that rich polluters point the finger at government. What's astonishing is the adversely affected public pointing in the same direction.

 

[trichrider]

nothing to see here....move along.

 

[SpasticGramps]

The Constitution has no bearing in our lawless Banana Republic.

Remember that commercial that compared drug users to terrorists?

Indefinite Military Detention of U.S. Citizens Not Blocked By The Senate For The Second Time Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday blocked a second attempt to spare U.S. citizens from potential indefinite military detentions and was set to vote on a third effort to do the same later in the day.

Under a provision of the mammoth defense authorization bill, the military would be granted the authority to detain and hold anyone indefinitely if that individual is suspected of having ties to al Qaeda, including any American arrested in the United States.

EDIT: So I looked up paradox in Webster's and another Huffington Post article states it nicely in relation to this proposed act.

The new amendment specifies that the current practices may not change, although it also says explicitly that the military can pursue Americans at home.

 

[dagnabit]

every senator in bold has violated their oath of office they should be recalled immediately and barred from public office.

Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Nay
Ayotte (R-NH), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Begich (D-AK), Nay
Bennet (D-CO), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Blumenthal (D-CT), Yea
Blunt (R-MO), Nay
Boozman (R-AR), Nay
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Brown (R-MA), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Nay
Chambliss (R-GA), Nay
Coats (R-IN), Nay
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Collins (R-ME), Nay
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Coons (D-DE), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Franken (D-MN), Yea
Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Nay
Grassley (R-IA), Nay
Hagan (D-NC), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Heller (R-NV), Nay
Hoeven (R-ND), Nay
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Nay
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Johanns (R-NE), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Johnson (R-WI), Nay
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Kirk (R-IL), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Nay
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Lee (R-UT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Nay
Lieberman (ID-CT), Nay
Lugar (R-IN), Nay
Manchin (D-WV), Nay
McCain (R-AZ), Nay
McCaskill (D-MO), Nay
McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Merkley (D-OR), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Moran (R-KS), Nay
Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Nay
Paul (R-KY), Yea
Portman (R-OH), Nay
Pryor (D-AR), Nay
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Risch (R-ID), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Rubio (R-FL), Nay
Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shaheen (D-NH), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Snowe (R-ME), Nay
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Toomey (R-PA), Nay
Udall (D-CO), Yea
Udall (D-NM), Yea
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Warner (D-VA), Yea
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
Wicker (R-MS), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Yea

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

We deserve that.

 

[dagnabit]

we?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Yes.

 

[dagnabit]

You dont support that shit do you?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Do I support it when you step in shit?

 

[SpasticGramps]

We deserve that.

How do you mean?

 

[dagnabit]

How do you mean?

Thats what im trying to figure out...
but someones default is obtuse.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Other way around on the list I'm afraid dag.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

How do you mean?

IMO, we deserve to face the reality we impose upon ourselves. It's fallout from a corrupt concept that says we must impose military justice on terrorists.