Navigation

Archive | March, 2010

California Tenth Amendment Center: 420 Friendly

By on March 31, 2010 in Drug War, Sovereignty Movement 3

Here’s a blog post I found, or at least the part that relates to California Tenth Amendment Center:

“So, will the Teabaggers who support “State’s Rights” even to the point of secession over health care take to the streets and defend California should it legalize marijuana for recreational use?”

I can’t speak for the ‘Teabaggers’, but California Tenth Amendment Center backs up all who are resisting Federal encroachment. The marijuana community have certainly been the boldest camp within the entire circle of recent state sovereignty activism, demonstrating that standing up to DC can be successful. Legal usage of medical marijuana in California is now in it’s 14th year and despite crackdowns by Federal thugs, Cali’s growers, collectives and patients have stood their ground. It would seem that at least in the Golden State, people under the influence of Federal drug-war propaganda are in the minority.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Continue Reading

Utah Governor signs eminent domain to seize federal land

By on March 31, 2010 in Sovereignty Movement, State Sovereignty 10

An effort seen as fundamental to funding of public education was taken to the next level by Gov. Gary Herbert.  Saturday he signed the legislation authorizing Utah to use eminent domain to seize federal lands.  In an update the Wall Street Journal has written a solid article on the action which sets the pace for other states to follow and legal battles ahead. 

Take some time to read the article.  Also, don’t forget to thank Gov. Herbert and the legislators who helped move Utah toward fundamental sovereignty under the 10th Amendment duties of all states.

In War Between States and Fed, Utah Strikes Latest Blow

Continue Reading

A Constitutional Convention Needs Years of Preparation

By on March 31, 2010 in Activism, Commentary 6

Since most Blog writers do not elucidate their worldview up front and create an interest to discover what the writer has to say, out of respect for the reader’s time, I consider it an act that should be a requirement for all writers.

I say this because I have spent the last six years consuming thousands of essays, and hundreds of books that claimed to be reporting events affecting the present socio-political environment in North America. Unfortunately, ninety percent of what I have read was a waste of time, simply because anyone with eyes wide open and a lust for freedom should instinctively know they could never obtain freedom from the effects of other peoples’ actions. Hopefully, this letter will not waste the reader’s time, but bring them to an understanding of why we are controlled instead of free.

The following are just a few examples: Joe six-pack comes home tired from an occupation he has no interest in, flops down of the sofa completely exhausted, and fries his mind and body for six hours with beer and television, pops the ole lady and goes to sleep. The academian, with a reading speed of twelve hundred words per minute, and a near photographic memory spends four hours a day reading other peoples’ writings, then another eight hours thinking of how he can get credit for a new idea. Frustrated with the world’s inability to recognize his genius, he goes to bed unaware of his patient wife. In between these extremes are hundreds of personalities, hell bent on obtaining their cognition of utopia with the least amount of effort.

If this sounds to you like humanity has a plan, this writer admits he has missed it. The good news is that quantum physics proves beyond doubt that all matter is in motion, and that motion is totally controlled by some unknown super intelligence. This is the extreme academian’s explanation for the existence of the Lord God Almighty, whether they realize that or not, is still left up to the reader’s opinion. Personally, I have no doubts about all matter having been created, and it is in constant movement towards its predetermined and totally controlled destiny. If that statement offends the reader, then this is a good place to stop wasting your time.

Hopefully, all of the above has left the reader with the opinion that the writer has spent considerable time and effort searching for an intelligent answer to humanity’s absolute inability to co-exist in harmony. That is, assuming the reader is a thinker. It appears that thinking has joined the model T ford, as humanity now considers the absence of absolutes, from not thinking, as justification for not being capable of it. Now, the reader should have perceived why I am so convinced that the present call for a constitutional convention, as an attempt to improve government, is premature.

In the event the reader requires facts, and rejects intuitive conclusions, here is a fact that anyone, regardless of their intelligence, should be aware of and very concerned about. Democracy is a tyranny of the majority by the minority, and who in their right mind would expect the two to co-exist in harmony? A Republic is an open invitation to an oligarchy, through their previously acquired wealth-power. No government in the known history of humanity has ever ruled without using force. Now, don’t you agree that it is just a little presumptuous to think humans have the ability to promote and protect cultural diversity, by writing a set of rules few ever read, and fewer are willing to obey; and that is assuming they can understand them.

If that conclusion is too pragmatic for you, then let us consider the overwhelming obstacle of controlling a diverse cultural society without the use of force. Does it now appear that we have a problem? If the reader really believes an instrument can be written that will inspire humanity to conform to it out of some sense of duty, love, or reason, then by all means please get started. BUT! Before you do, please do not overlook these facts. The United States of America is, and has been, under the control of people that are not subject to being controlled by any instrument, for as far back as you want to research. The existing constitution is the product of their control, and they are only inches away from initiating absolute control over every facet of every citizen’s life, by controlling their life sustaining resources. That is not a world I want to grow old in, so please, all of you who admittedly are much more intelligent that I could ever dream of being, get busy and rewrite the old one, or write a new one, and I will spend the rest of my life supporting and praising you.

That is assuming it works, and I can grow old with no more intrusions into my private life, no more taxes that lower my standard of living, no more license to buy in order to operate a business, keep possession of my home and other personal property, and no more laws that assume I can’t wipe my backside in the right direction or choose a doctor of my choice. DARN! My spell and grammar checker puked after that last sentence.

I have concluded it would be more realistic to solve the problems of a diverse cultural society by giving them fifty different Sovereign States to choose from, instead of each state being dominated by a central leviathan and forced to conform to one single constitution. I have also concluded a long time ago that I would participate in an election for the first time in my life, if the candidates had first supplied the state with a written agreement clearly elucidating their comprehension of their state constitution, and how they would use it to preserve peace and harmony, promote sustainable growth in commerce and agriculture, and protect the state from outside influence. Each elected officer of the state would remain subject to a citizen plebiscite in the event of misconduct or incompetence. This author does not intend to itemize all that is needed to administer a state. That’s for smart people.

If the reader is still convinced that a new constitutional convention will solve, or even marginally improve life in America, and has taken personal offence with this writer’s admitted inept attempt at being an entertaining surreptitious curmudgeon, just chalk it up to ignorance and or exasperation with the people I honestly admire being unable to improve my life. All I ever wanted was to be free, equal, and happy.

Continue Reading

Republic, Yes! Democracy, No!

By on March 31, 2010 in Founding Principles 1

I recently came across a very well thought out commentary by Nelson Hultberg titled, “America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy!”

Over the past couple of years, I have desperately attempted to inform friends, family, and even strangers about the form of government our founders designed. Understanding our form of government (and its underlying principles) is vitally important to the survival of freedom and liberty.

This excerpt in Mr. Hultberg’s commentary addresses the confusion most citizens seem to have around our democratic process:

“The democratic process, in its republican form, was meant to be mainly the ability to remove politicians from office peacefully. It was meant to be a method to transfer power, not a method to define the scope and size of government.”

Before we form our opinions of “how things should be,” I caution my fellow citizens to first grasp the scope of the federal government (which is defined in the Constitution) coupled with federalism (i.e. a system of governance where two governmental bodies have jurisdiction over their respective inhabitants). Otherwise, those opinions may continue to lead us down the path of happy-faced tyranny.

Continue Reading

From the “Left Out of the Textbook” Dept.

By on March 30, 2010 in History, Nullification 0

From a handbill that circulated in Milwaukee in the 1850s, in reference to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (emphasis in original):

All the People of this State, who are opposed to being made SLAVES or SLAVE-CATCHERS, and to having the Free Soil of Wisconsin made the hunting-ground for Human Kidnappers, and all who are willing to unite in a STATE LEAGUE, to defend our State Sovereignty, our State Courts, and our State and National Constitutions, against the flagrant usurpations of U.S. Judges, Commissioners, and Marshals, and their Attorneys; and to maintain inviolate those great Constitutional Safeguards of Freedom – the WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS and the RIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY – as old and sacred as Constitutional Liberty itself; and all who are willing to sustain the cause of those who are prosecuted, and to be prosecuted in Wisconsin, by the agents and executors of the Kidnapping Act of 1850, for the alleged crime of rescuing a human being from the hands of kidnappers, and restoring him to himself and to Freedom, are invited to meet at YOUNGS’ HALL, IN THIS CITY, THURSDAY, APRIL 13TH, at 11 o’clock A.M., to counsel together, and take such action as the exigencies of the times, and the cause of imperiled Liberty demand.

More where this came from in Nullification, my forthcoming (June 29) book.

cross-posted from the LewRockwell.com blog

Continue Reading

Arizona Firearms Freedom Act Passes Both Houses!

By on March 30, 2010 in Firearms Freedom Act, Sovereignty Movement 2

HB 2307, The Arizona Firearms Freedom Act, has just passed the senate with a vote of 22-8!

The proposed legislation confronts the position taken by most members of Congress that the “Commerce Clause”, found in Article I, Section 8, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, gives them nearly unlimited power to regulate anything which even remotely affects interstate commerce. Either one of these bills would challenge that claim, by exempting guns manufactured in Arizona from federal regulation, as long as they are stamped “Made in Arizona” and do not leave the state.

The legislative findings contained in this bill assert Arizona’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment and the people’s unenumerated rights under the Ninth Amendment. They also emphasize the fact that when Arizona entered the union in 1912, its people did so as part of a contract between the state and the people of Arizona and the United States.

It is very likely that this Firearms Freedom bill will be signed by Governor Brewer into law. This will add Arizona to the list of states like Montana, Tennessee, Wyoming, South Dakota and Utah that are arresting the evil of Congressional Commerce Clause Abuse (CCCA) by nullifying unconstitutional federal laws.

CLICK HERE – To view the Arizona Firearms Freedom Act (HB 2307)

CLICK HERE – To get email updates!

CLICK HERE – To Subscribe!

CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s printable Firearms Freedom Act Brochure (pdf)

CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s Firearms Freedom Act Legislative Tracking Page

Continue Reading

Oklahoma, Georgia Step Towards Health Care Freedom

By on March 30, 2010 in Health Care, Sovereignty Movement 7

The legislatures in Oklahoma and Georgia both took a step closer to health care freedom within their state boundaries. Both states are considering legislation known as the “Health Care Freedom Act,” which, is passed, would make public policy for the state that every person within the state is and shall be free to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services “without penalty or threat of penalty by the federal government of the United States of America.”

In Oklahoma, State Constitutional Amendments (HJR1054 and SJR59) have been approved by both houses of the legislature, and approval of amended versions are all that’s needed to put it before voters for approval in the coming election in November.

In Georgia, while similar constitutional amendments failed to garner the 2/3 vote to pass and are being reconsidered, Senate Bill 317 (SB317) passed by a vote of 31-16 and is in the House awaiting further consideration.

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution codifies in law that the federal government is one of limited, delegated powers – and that all powers not enumerated in the Constitution are reserve “to the States, respectively, or to the People.”

The founders, during the time of the Constitution’s ratification, made clear that a vast majority of regulatory powers would be left in the states – including social services, agriculture, mining, and more. Click here to read more.

Virginia, Utah, and Idaho have already passed a Health Care Freedom Act, and the Governor of each state signed it into law in March. More than two dozen other states are considering similar legislation or state constitutional amendments, including Arizona, where in November, voters will have the opportunity to approve or deny the resolution which already passed both state houses last year.

CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s Health Care Freedom Act legislative tracking page

The Tenth Amendment Center has released the Federal Health Care Nullification Act, which directly nullifies the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” on a state level. Click here to learn more.

Continue Reading