The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume 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 hath shewn, 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 Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain 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._____He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good._____He 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._____He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only._____He 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._____He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people._____He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within._____He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands._____He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers._____He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries._____He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance._____He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures._____He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power._____He 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 Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:__For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:__For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:__For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:__For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:__For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:__For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:__For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:__For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever._____He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us._____He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people._____He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat 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._____He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands._____He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.__
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 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 Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and 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 divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall Geo Walton.
Wm Hooper Joseph Hewes, John Penn
Edward Rutledge.
Tho Heyward Junr. Thomas Lynch Junr. Arthur Middleton
John Hancock
Samuel Chase Wm. Paca Tho. Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Th Jefferson Benj Harrison Tho Nelson Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton
Robt Morris Benjamin Rush Benj. Franklin John Morton Geo Clymer Jas. Smith Geo. Taylor James Wilson Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney Geo Read Tho McKean
Wm Floyd Phil. Livingston Frans. Lewis Lewis Morris
Rich. Stockton Jn. Witherspoon Fra. Hopkinson John Hart Abra. Clark
Josiah Bartlett Wm. Whipple
Sam Adams John Adams Robt Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins William Ellery
Roger Sherman Sam. Huntington Wm. Williams Oliver Wolcott
"This is not simply another four-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We the People reclaim control over our government." –Donald J. Trump
What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again. It is a contract between myself and the American voter — and begins with restoring honesty, accountability and change to Washington
Therefore, on the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC:
First, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;
Second, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);
Third, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;
Fourth, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;
Fifth, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;
Sixth, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
On the same day, I will begin taking the following seven actions to protect American workers:
First, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205;
Second, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership;
Third, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator;
Fourth, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately;
Fifth, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal;
Sixth, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward;
Seventh, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure.
Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
First, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama;
Second, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States;
Third, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities;
Fourth, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won't take them back;
Fifth, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur — all vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.
Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:
1. Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with two children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from seven to three, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.
2. End the Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
3. American Energy and Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over ten years. It is revenue neutral.
4. School Choice and Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to gives parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make two- and four-year college more affordable.
5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.
6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-site childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.
7. End Illegal Immigration Act. Fully funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a two-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a five-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.
8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force on Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.
9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values.
10. Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.
On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government.
This is my pledge to you.
And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people.
Nature's God won't be issuing us any 5-4 decisions.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume 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 hath shewn, 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 Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain 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._____He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good._____He 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._____He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only._____He 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._____He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people._____He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within._____He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands._____He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers._____He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries._____He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance._____He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures._____He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power._____He 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 Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:__For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:__For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:__For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:__For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:__For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:__For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:__For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:__For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever._____He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us._____He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people._____He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat 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._____He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands._____He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.__
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 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 Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and 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 divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall Geo Walton.
Wm Hooper Joseph Hewes, John Penn
Edward Rutledge.
Tho Heyward Junr. Thomas Lynch Junr. Arthur Middleton
John Hancock
Samuel Chase Wm. Paca Tho. Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Th Jefferson Benj Harrison Tho Nelson Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton
Robt Morris Benjamin Rush Benj. Franklin John Morton Geo Clymer Jas. Smith Geo. Taylor James Wilson Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney Geo Read Tho McKean
Wm Floyd Phil. Livingston Frans. Lewis Lewis Morris
Rich. Stockton Jn. Witherspoon Fra. Hopkinson John Hart Abra. Clark
Josiah Bartlett Wm. Whipple
Sam Adams John Adams Robt Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins William Ellery
Roger Sherman Sam. Huntington Wm. Williams Oliver Wolcott
very God-fearing, America-loving citizen who happens to be a public servant has both the right and the patriotic duty to ensure his entrusted powers are never exercised in any way that would cause the government we instituted, either for our state or more locally, to act in direct violation of our common morality and personal consciences, whether based on religious convictions or not. No power so exercisable can ever be just, because no such power can ever be or has ever been derived from the consent of the governed.
In a sovereign state where the people have determined among themselves the provisions of natural marriage most societally proper and meaningful for them, under our present Constitution no one else has power to alter or abolish any of those provisions. They know they are not being hateful but factual when they declare that promoting genealogical dead-ends is not nor could ever be in their or their society's best interests. Any public servant who assists some outside attempt to promote such is betraying their sacred trust. Indeed, the oath of office every public servant in this country takes to support our Constitution, so help him God, means his only legitimate response is to use all his powers to effectually render void and a nullity any and all such attempts. As former Congressman John Hostettler points out:
In explaining the supportive role that the states would play in the proper operation of the federal government, Alexander Hamilton put it this way in Federalist Paper No. 27:
"the legislatures, courts and magistrates of the respective members [i.e., states] will be incorporated into the operations of the national government, AS FAR AS ITS JUST AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY EXTENDS; and will be rendered auxiliary to the enforcement of its laws." [Capitalization original.]
Thus, properly understood, preemption only applies to the "JUST and CONSTITUTIONAL authority" of the federal government. Given that (i) the law of domestic relations and marriage policy has never been made the "JUST and CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY" of the federal government (except for the District of Columbia and federal territories) and (ii) the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies only to a limited set of protections in state-administered legal processes, there is no "lawful" basis for a claim of preemption in this case.
The duty to disregard any federal judicial usurpation of the states' lawful jurisdiction of marriage policy flows from another constitutional clause which invokes a duty to an even higher authority than any temporal legal system, federal or state. Immediately following the Supremacy Clause, Article VI of the Constitution provides that "the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers... of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution." Known as the "Oath or Affirmation Clause," this provision requires every state official to swear or affirm their fidelity to the U.S. Constitution. In explaining the profound relationship between the Supremacy and the Oath or Affirmation Clauses, Alexander Hamilton highlighted the limited application of both. Once again in Federalist Paper No. 27, Hamilton remarked:
"the laws of the Confederacy, as to the ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE objects of its jurisdiction, will become the SUPREME LAW of the land; to the observance of which, all officers legislative, executive and judicial in each State, will be bound by the sanctity of an oath." [Capitalization original.]
It's clear that state officials are "bound by the sanctity of an oath" to observe "the laws of the Confederacy." However, that oath is limited in its application to the "ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE objects of" the Confederacy's jurisdiction. The power to overrule the states' restrictions on marriage policy has never been added to the "ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE objects of" the jurisdiction of the United States. Therefore, without the future addition of such authority through the process set out in Article V for amending the federal Constitution, no order pursuant to any such opinion is "lawful."
Finally, it cannot be overemphasized at this juncture that no provision of the U.S. Constitution elevates an opinion issued by the federal judiciary — including an opinion issued by the U.S. Supreme Court — to the level of the "supreme law of the land." Indeed, there is only one time that I have ever heard that the U.S. Supreme Court was so consumed with pride to have even uttered such a radical principle. SeeCooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1, 18 (1958) ("[T]hat the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment enunciated by this Court in the Brown case is the supreme law of the land, and Art. VI of the Constitution makes it of binding effect on the States 'any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.'").
This aberrational statement of the Supreme Court should be viewed as a very lonely exception to the view of Blackstone as embraced generally by our Framers that "the law and the opinion of the judge, are not always convertible terms, or one and the same thing; since it sometimes may happen that the judge may mistake the law." I.W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 71 (Univ. Chi. facsimile ed. 1765).
Additionally, no provision of the U.S. Constitution obligates any elected official — federal or state — to "be bound by oath or affirmation, to support" an opinion issued by the federal judiciary.
If it had been the intention of the Constitution's framers to exclusively delegate all questions of Constitutional finality to the unelected, life-tenured members of the U.S. Supreme Court — and to relegate every other elected office, federal and state, to a position of subservience to the decisions of that Court, Article VI of the United States Constitution would have been the place in the U.S. Constitution where this peculiar doctrine would have been made obvious. From its omission, it is clear that this was never the Framers' intent.
Therefore, state officeholders remain bound by the sanctity of the oath they took which binds them to uphold their respective state constitutions and the laws which define and regulate marriage in their particular member of the Confederacy. They cannot be considered "good soldiers" by doing anything else.
epublicans will hold 31 of the country's 50 governorships next year [and also up to] 69 of the 98 partisan state legislative chambers — more than at any point in history." This further bodes well for the first-ever convening of a convention of states for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
If all thirty Republican-controlled legislatures and Nebraska's, along with just three of the remaining states' — eight of which have a Republican-controlled house or senate — send an application for it to Congress, the Congress must call that convention. Then, as Alexander Hamilton says in Federalist Paper 85, "We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority."
Their application would provide the time and place of convening the convention for proposing amendments as well as interim rules of its proceedings, such as—
The convention meet for that purpose at the place in which the most numerous branch of the state legislature first making such application is sitting, on the one hundred and twentieth day (Sundays excepted) after application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States has been made, and be composed of delegates appointed by the several States, with each State appointing, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, at least one delegate (but in no event more than five), provided no Senator or Representative in Congress, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, be appointed a delegate;
All votes in the convention be taken by States, the delegation from each State having one vote, with a quorum to do business consisting of a delegate or delegates from a majority of the States, and a majority of all the States being necessary to an agreement, approval, or adoption of the convention on any question, order, or resolution;
The convention choose its president and other officers, determine the rules of its proceedings, punish delegates for disorderly behavior, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the States expel a delegate, and keep a journal of its proceedings and publish the same after it adjourns sine die; and
The articles approved by the convention be proposed as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress.
It would resolve, also, that—
This application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the United States Constitution until at least two-thirds of the legislatures of the several States have made application to the Congress of the United State to call a Convention for the specific and exclusive purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States reading substantially as those contained in this resolution;
If Congress proposes, within 90 days after the legislatures of two-thirds of the States have made that application, all the amendments to the Constitution of the United States identical with those contained in this resolution, then this application shall no longer be of any force or effect; and
This application be deemed null and void, rescinded, canceled, and of no effect in the event that a convention for proposing amendments includes purposes other than providing for amendments to the Constitution of the United States reading substantially as those contained in this resolution.
Finally, every state legislature making this application would request each of the others make it too, and would transmit certified copies of it to them and to both houses of Congress and the U.S. representatives and senators from that state.
After the first legislature sends this application to Congress, the others need send only their concurrence.
As it so happens, Georgia's legislature made an application last March for an Article V convention for proposing amendments that "impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress." Alaska's then Florida's followed suit a month later using the same language. The strategy is particular subjects rather than particular amendments; and the amendments suggested here for that convention each falls within one of those subjects.
When this application is made by the legislatures of 31 more states, we'll be closer than we've ever been in living memory to "erecting barriers against the encroachments of the national authority."
he parasites on our land have no energy for anything other than sucking, both literally and figuratively. They wait and look for somebody else to sustain their so-called lives. Whether that body be yours or the not-so-honorable office holder's greedily making yours a source of their sustenance, it's all the same to them. The latter provides them HOSTizens to suck dry in exchange for the privilege of being able to provide them more and more such sources. You provide them the necessary veins until, once your own life's blood is completely drained and you're left no other choice, you have to start sucking too. Eventually, yes, only the office holders can be the winners. But since at that point there remains no body for the parasites to hang onto, everybody winds up a loser.
The above has become the story of America. The reason it has is that for too long we the so-called citizens have been letting ourselves and others rewrite it that way. The Founding Fathers drafted and, as Framers, composed the original — a timeless classic that keeps proving to be the best possible story for us. Whenever our forebears lived that story, this became a land full of constructive energy and progress. Whenever they didn't, it quickly devolved into one mired in misery.
Free and independent states aren't built by parasites, only brought down by them. The hard work of paying attention and flicking the parasites off whenever their ravenous sucking jaws try to latch on is the only chance our land has of staying free and independent. True citizens are, yes, the only ones who can make that happen. Indeed, they innately have the upper hand, especially in this year's mid-term congressional elections.
The office holders parasite wranglers, on the other hand, know it's an uphill battle to prod their charges into stop being SIT-ON-YOUR-ASSitens long enough to agree to be dragged into a polling booth and cast a ballot for somebody they never heard of or cared hearing about before. After all, there's no more "Barack-the-vote" to readily zombify the parasites into becoming one mindless, lockstep-marching horde.
No one can deny there's a general, pent-up disgust with how the rewritten story is playing out and with its self-appointed editors who keep insanely red-penning us all into an increasingly unavoidable corner. What kind of ending has the parasites winding up on top, literally crawling out from the desiccated corpses that left them stuffed, but now are no long able to feed them? It would be the end, all right, where no one lives happily ever after or even, for that matter, lives. Needless to say, America — the last, best, most shining hope of mankind — will be gone too. Good thing, because who would want to try living in the bleak and inhospitable world that must remain?
The fundamental question is whether that pent-up disgust bursts before Tuesday, November 4, and leaves the parasites and their prodders scrambling for the safest shadows they can find in its wake. It will decide nothing less than who reclaims or retains full control of the story and all of its content.
So, yes, we can believe either that we're all doomed or that true citizens turning out in droves and voting this and every November is going to help completely remove the present massive infestation as well as forever repel the parasites and stop them from infesting our land so again.
Joe Bell, 95, had come out on the drizzly morning to cheer on the runners in the 8-kilometer race from downtown San Jose to Santana Row. The event's charity partner is the Pat Tillman Foundation, which funds scholarships for military veterans and their spouses.
The runners, in turn, showed their appreciation for Bell's long-ago service, detouring from the course to shake his hand.
hen the Georgia House passes the application, the Senate secretary will transmit copies of it to the presiding officers of each of the legislative houses in the several states, requesting their cooperation.
[T]he General Assembly of the State of Georgia hereby applies to Congress, under the provisions of Article V of the Constitution of the United States, for the calling of a convention of the states limited to proposing amendments to the United States Constitution that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.
Since the states control everything that happens in their convention, and three-fourths of them must ratify whatever amendments it proposes before they become adopted, there's no danger of a so-called runaway convention that ends up fundamentally transforming our Constitution into Øbamarx's ejaculate-crustified copy of the The Communist Manifesto.
For now, this appears the best alternative to some short-lived Civil War II in which beta/blue states wind up conquered and occupied by alpha/red ones.
f that Teh Horror™! means We the People's true representatives in Congress get to smite and forever bury Demøtyrants' Øfascist"Care" just as We the People demand, We the People won't mind living in a rare state of unabridged Freedom for a few weeks or months before having to "live" again under this government's unending tyranny.
Teh Horror™!
Except, without Demøtyrants' Øfascist"Care", this government's unending tyranny won't be as utterly intolerable as it would be with it.
Teh Horror™!
...only for Demøtyrants and their Øfascist"Care", that is.
Fortunately for the American people, he's not the only public servant who takes his solemn oath very seriously. (LANGUAGE WARNING)
A
lthough Chief Mark Kessler was fired by the borough council after he posted this video, he and his many thousands of liberty-loving supporters continue to stand up for all of our rights, "even for those who oppose our constitution."
o, Mr. Present. They aren't "bumps in the road." They're heroes who died fighting al-Qaeda terrorists emboldened by weakness you did build in a more destabilized Middle East you made happen.
The president's policies have made it harder to recover from the deepest recession in seventy years, exposed the military to cuts that no one can justify, compromised our national-security secrets, and in dealings with other nations, he has given trust where it is not earned, insult where it was not deserved, and apology where it is not due.
From Berlin to Cairo to the United Nations, President Obama has shared his view of America and its place among nations. I've come here today to share mine.
I am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of America. I am not ashamed of American power. I take pride that throughout history our power has brought justice where there was tyranny, peace where there was conflict, and hope where there was affliction and despair. I do not view America as just one more place on the map, one more power to be balanced. I believe our country is the greatest force for good the world has ever known, and that our influence is needed today as ever before....
A just and peaceful world depends on a strong and confident America....
Now our leadership depends, as it always has, on our economic strength, on our military strength, and on our moral strength. If any one of those falters, no skill of diplomacy or presidential oratory can compensate. And today, as you know, the strength of our economy is in jeopardy.
A healthy American economy is what underwrites American power. When growth is missing, government revenues fall, social spending rises, and many in Washington look to cut defense spending as the easy way out. That includes our current president....
Strategy is not driving the president's massive defense cuts. In fact, his own Secretary of Defense warned that these reductions would be "devastating." And he's right.
And that devastation would start here at home. Mark my words: Those cuts would only weaken an already stretched VA system and our solemn commitment that every veteran receives care second to none. If I am President of the United States, I will not let that happen.
This is no time for the president's radical cuts in our military.... The regime in Tehran is drawing closer to developing a nuclear weapon. The threat of radical Islamic terrorism persists. The threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation is ever-present. And we're still at war and still have uniformed men and women in conflict.
All this and more is going on in the world. And yet the president has chosen this moment for wholesale reductions in the nation's military capacity. When the biggest announcement in the last state of the union address on improving our military was the Pentagon will start using more clean energy, then you know it's time for a change....
Lives of American servicemen and women are at stake. But astonishingly, the administration failed to change its ways. More top-secret operations were leaked, even some involving covert action going on in Iran.
This isn't a partisan issue; it's a national security crisis. Just yesterday, Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, who's chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, and I quote, "I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks." End of quote.
This conduct is contemptible. It betrays our national interest. It compromises our men and women in the field. And it demands a full and prompt investigation by a special counsel, with explanation and consequence. Obama appointees who are accountable to President Obama's attorney general should not be responsible for investigating the leaks coming from the Obama White House.
Whoever provided classified information to the media, seeking political advantage for the administration, must be exposed, dismissed, and punished. The time for stonewalling is over....
And let me be very clear: These events make the decision we face in November all the more important. What kind of White House would reveal classified material for political gain?...
The operating principle of American foreign policy has been to work with our allies so that we can deter aggression before it breaks out into conflict. That policy depends on nurturing our alliances and standing up for our values.
Yet the president's moved in the opposite direction.
It began with the sudden abandonment of our friends in Poland and the Czech Republic. They'd courageously agreed to provide sites for anti-missile defense systems, only to be told, at the last hour, that the agreement was off. As part of the so-called reset in policy, missile defenses were sacrificed as a unilateral concession to the Russian government.
And if that gesture was designed to inspire good will from Russia, it clearly missed the mark. The Russian government defended the dictator in Damascus, arming him as he slaughtered the Syrian people.
We can only guess what Vladimir Putin makes of the Obama administration. He regained the Russian presidency in a corrupt election, and for that, he got a congratulatory call from the Oval Office. And then there was that exchange picked up by a microphone that President Obama didn't know was on. We heard him asking Dmitry Medvedev to tell Mr. Putin to give him "space." "This is my last election," he said. "After my election I'll have more flexibility."
Why is it that flexibility with Russian leaders is more important to him than transparency for the American people?...
[T]his is the president who faltered when the Iranian people were looking for support in their struggle against the ayatollahs. That public uprising was treated as an inconvenient problem for the president's policy of engagement, instead of a moral and strategic opportunity. That terrible misjudgment should never be repeated. When unarmed women and men in Tehran find the courage to confront their oppressors, at risk of torture and death, they should hear the unequivocal voice of an American president affirming their right to be free....
President Obama is fond of lecturing Israel's leaders. He was even caught by a microphone deriding them. He's undermined their position, which was tough enough as it was. And even at the United Nations, to the enthusiastic applause of Israel's enemies, he spoke as if our closest ally in the Middle East was the problem.
The people of Israel deserve better than what they've received from the leader of the free world. And the chorus of accusations and threats and insults at the United Nations should never again include the voice of the President of the United States.
There are values and causes and nations that depend on American strength, on the clarity of our purpose, and on the reliability of our commitments. There is work in this world that only America and our allies can do, hostile powers that only we can deter, and challenges that only we can overcome....
I've been critical of the president's decision to withdraw the surge troops during the fighting season against the advice of commanders on the ground. The president would have you believe that anyone who disagrees with his decision is arguing for endless war. But the route to more war — and potentially to attacks here at home — is a politically timed retreat....
It's a mistake — and sometimes a tragic one — to think that firmness in American foreign policy can only bring tension or conflict. The surest path to danger is always weakness and indecision. In the end, it's resolve that moves events in our direction, and strength that keeps the peace.
I will not surrender America's leadership in the world. We must have confidence in our cause, clarity in our purpose, and resolve in our might.
This is very simple: If you don't want America to be the strongest nation on earth, I'm not your president. But with his cuts to the military, you have that president today.
The twenty-first century can and must be an American Century. It began with terror, war, economic calamity. It's our duty to steer it onto the path of freedom and peace and prosperity.
Fewer members of the Greatest Generation are with us here today — and they can't hold the torch as high as they have in the past; they're getting older. It's now our turn: We've got to seize that torch they've carried so gallantly and at such great sacrifice. It's an eternal torch of decency and freedom and hope. It's not America's torch alone. But it's America's duty and honor to hold it high enough so the whole world can see it.
I love America. I love what America represents. I love the sacrifice America has made for Freedom throughout the world.
This is a critical time for our nation — a time of choice. The time to determine what America is going to be over this century. You know where I will lead it: We will have another American Century with freedom blossoming and prosperity for all of our citizens, because I believe in America. I believe in you.
I salute you. And together we'll make sure we keep America the hope of the earth.
Thank you so very much. And God bless the VFW and the United States of America.
So long as we declare we are a free people, it is our right and our duty to throw off despotic government.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume 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 hath shewn, 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 Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain 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._____He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good._____He 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._____He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only._____He 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._____He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people._____He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within._____He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands._____He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers._____He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries._____He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance._____He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures._____He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power._____He 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 Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:__For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:__For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:__For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:__For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:__For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:__For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:__For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:__For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever._____He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us._____He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people._____He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat 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._____He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands._____He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.__
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 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 Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and 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 divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall Geo Walton.
Wm Hooper Joseph Hewes, John Penn
Edward Rutledge.
Tho Heyward Junr. Thomas Lynch Junr. Arthur Middleton
John Hancock
Samuel Chase Wm. Paca Tho. Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Th Jefferson Benj Harrison Tho Nelson Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton
Robt Morris Benjamin Rush Benj. Franklin John Morton Geo Clymer Jas. Smith Geo. Taylor James Wilson Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney Geo Read Tho McKean
Wm Floyd Phil. Livingston Frans. Lewis Lewis Morris
Rich. Stockton Jn. Witherspoon Fra. Hopkinson John Hart Abra. Clark
Josiah Bartlett Wm. Whipple
Sam Adams John Adams Robt Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins William Ellery
Roger Sherman Sam. Huntington Wm. Williams Oliver Wolcott
"I don't care who our candidate is; and I haven't since the beginning of this. I haven't.
"Ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate.
"And that's what the Tea Party is. We are there to confront them ['these people(ØWSbautomatons) who are the definition of un-American'] on behalf of our candidate.
"I will march behind whoever our candidate is. Because if we don't, we lose.
"There are two paths. There are two paths.
"One is America, and the other one is Øccupy. One is America, the other one is Øccupy.
"And I don't care: Along the way, along the way, along the way — and I'm not a candidate. I'm never going to be a candidate. I'm just a goofball from Los Angeles who wears goofy shoes. Promised people I would shave. Didn't. Promised to take a shower. I got too caught up talking to everybody. And here I am, kind of a mess. But kind of excited to be here.
"Because over the last three years I've realized that the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement is not what ABC [Adulating Baracrook's Cømmies] and CBS [Cømmie Baracrook's (p)Sycøphants] puts on the screen. They try to portray you in the worst possible light.[™]
"And when I walk through CPAC — where I travel the United States to meet people in the Tea Party who care — black, white, gay, and straight:
"Anyone that's willing to stand next to me to fight the prøgressive left, I will be in that bunker.
"And if you're not in that bunker because you're not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you:
Packages and school supplies raised through these organizations are transported to Iraq, free of charge, by FedEx, then distributed to Iraqi children by our brave freedom fighters.
