COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Is Mark Levin on to something here with The Liberty Amendments? He claims he has found a way for the States to bypass Congress and restore Constitutional rights.




State-Initiated Constitutional Amendment Process Has Long History -Article V of the Constitution authorizes states to initiate amendments with a convention. 
February 28, 2011
In the face of growing federal power and mounting deficits, some want states to call for a convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would rein in the federal government.  Article V of the Constitution authorizes states to initiate amendments with a convention.  Critics claim no one really knows how the process works and calling a convention would open the door to mischief by Congress, the courts and convention delegates.  But states frequently applied for an amendments convention between 1789 and 1913.  A study of that history reveals much about how states can -- and cannot -- use the Article V process today, says Robert G. Natelson, a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute. 
Natelson's research confirms that:
  • For the most part, Americans stayed close to the original understanding of Article V and the important ground rules governing the process.
  • Historically, there has been a sharp distinction between an Article V convention and a general constitutional convention.
  • Likewise, a majority of Article V applications were limited to particular subjects.
  • Most people agreed the amendments convention would be a creature of the state legislatures that controlled the convention agenda, while convention delegates would have discretion over an amendment's actual language.
Although the state-initiated Article V process has not yet led directly to adoption of a constitutional amendment, its history from 1789 until 1913 shows a remarkable continuity in its use and a consensus on the process involved, says Natelson.
Source: Robert G. Natelson, "Learning from Experience: How the States Used Article V Applications in America's First Century," Goldwater Institute, November 3, 2010.

58 comments:

  1. That would be interesting to do an end run on Congress and the US media.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. Altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification.

    Amendments may be proposed by either:
    two-thirds (super majority) of both houses (i.e. the Senate and the House) of the United States Congress; or

    by a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (i.e. at least thirty four [34]) of the currently fifty [50] united states.

    To become part of the Constitution, amendments must then be ratified either by approval of:
    the legislatures of three-fourths (at least thirty eight [38]) the states (of the current fifty [50]); or
    state ratifying conventions held in three-fourths of the states.

    Congress has discretion as to which method of ratification should be used.

    Any amendment so ratified becomes a valid part of the Constitution, provided that no state "shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the senate," without its consent.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) There's a reason why none of those attempts were ever successful; don't you think?

      Delete
    2. After all, we might end up with an Amendment that says you can't pass anything at all down to your own children.

      Or inducts all 18 year olds into the Army.

      Or provides for free heroin at Wal-Green's.

      Or sells off all the public lands.

      :)

      bob

      Delete
    3. Disappearing post syndrome -

      I am glad it's hard to amend, but Uncle Sam has become a little old and stinky and badly needs a bath.

      bob

      Delete
    4. "Or sells off all the public lands."

      ---

      If the funds are used to establish an interplanetary park on the moon, I'm all in favor.

      Delete
  3. On Monday, conservative talk radio host Mark Levin said former officials in the George W. Bush administration attack Sarah Palin because they favor expanding government.

    ...

    He then noted that when Palin speaks out against crony capitalism and the permanent political class, she comes under "personal, vicious, brutal attack," not just by Democrats but by Republicans as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah is thinking of running for the Senate from Alaska. Wouldn't she be a great addition!

      bob

      Delete
    2. Limbaugh often speaks about how much beltway repubs revile and fear actual conservatives.

      Boehner is a great example, as is Ryan wrt Immiagration.

      Rush hasn't completely got there yet, but Rubio is a classic example of how quickly a whore can become a beltway darling.

      ...tutored by one of the Best: Jeb Bush

      Our boy Jeb quickly turned Marco into a stain on his parent's legacy.

      Jeb in 2016 !

      Delete
  4. It’s an election year and Cassandras of every political persuasion are predicting the destruction of America unless we all jump on their particular bandwagon.

    ...

    Levin feels that tyranny and utopianism are inextricably interrelated:

    Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and deligitimize his nature. Political utopianism [or just plain utopianism] is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology.

    ...

    But utopianism is far more all-encompassing than any of those particular “-isms”:

    Utopianism is irrational in theory and practice, for it ignores or attempts to control the planned and unplanned complexity of the individual, his nature, and mankind generally. It ignores, rejects, or perverts the teachings and knowledge that have come before—that is, man’s historical, cultural, and social experience and development.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like Levin.

      gnite

      bob

      Delete
    2. What total, unambiguated horseshit. :)

      Delete
    3. Then indeed, there must be hope. :)

      Delete
    4. REPORT: DOJ spent tax dollars to help organize, support 'Justice for Trayvon' protests...

      Rufus fund-raised for Obama's love-child, Travon, by performing as BHO's (bottom) gay sex partner in their made-for-cable porno flik.

      Delete
    5. Holder and Reverend Al are Freedom Fighters to the max.

      Delete
  5. That's weird:

    I haven't listened to Levin in 2 years, but I recorded it this morning, and the little bit I listened to before going to town was just this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Obama ignores existing law, as do Democrats in California, Illinois, and elsewhere.

    He will just as readily ignore new laws and ammendments, as will the courts.

    As Ruth Bader G'berg says:

    "If I were starting a new country today, I would not use the US Constitution."

    ReplyDelete
  7. On this day in 1804, in Weehawken, N.J., the most famous duel in American history was fought, between Vice President Aaron Burr and former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. Burr infamously shot Hamilton in the stomach, and the founder of the nation’s financial system died the next day in New York.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Did you ever think that you would see the day when an employee of the NSA, turning top secret documents over to the press, would be more popular than the sitting US President?

    Obama Job Approval: Qunnipiac @ 44% | RCP Average @ 44.6%

    Edward Snowden: 55%

    I didn’t and if you told me I would be happy about it, I would have laughed. We haven’t changed. What used to be our government, now their government, which we have to serve, is the problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spitzer and Weiner Aim to Serve and Score Again.

      Delete
    2. News Report on Spitzer and Weiner with Commentary by New York Professor.

      ...Prof is clearly a Post-Stroke Survivor, rounding out the New York Ass Clown Circus.

      Delete
  9. >>>President Obama vs. George Zimmerman: America Loses
    By Karin McQuillan


    As the Zimmerman prosecution falls apart, the country faces the threat of race riots. A case that lacked any evidence of malicious murder was wrongfully brought to court under political pressure. And our president, who instigated this mess, is floating above it all, having moved on to other things. Will Obama speak out to avert the racial violence he set in motion? Unless he sees some political advantage, the answer is no.

    ((((Judicial Watch has obtained documents disclosing that the Department of Justice actually helped organize demonstrations and protests against George Zimmerman.))))<<<

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/president_obama_vs_george_zimmerman_america_loses.html


    When Zimmerman is acquitted, and the ObamaPhone empowered flash mobs start hitting on 'crazy assed crackers' around the country, we can thank:

    Barack Obama

    Coming soon: ObamaMobs

    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See Doug - Thu Jul 11, 05:57:00 AM EDT, Bobo!

      Delete
  10. How many Korean Pilots does it take to read an airspeed indicator?

    "Regulations required three pilots of Flight 214 to 'monitor and challenge' one another."

    Pilot says he was blinded

    Momentary flash occurred about the same time the crew realized the plane was flying too low and off center, investigators say.

    "Remain Seated 'til Your Feet Get Toasty"

    The flash wasn't the only perplexing revelation. Hersman said the crew ordered the passengers to remain seated once the plane came to a stop, delaying the evacuation for 90 seconds.

    A flight attendant had initially asked the pilots whether she should begin an evacuation, but Hersman said she was told not to, as the pilots were apparently still consulting with flight control. An announcement was then made over the intercom telling passengers to "stay in your seats," Hersman said.

    A cabin manager in the middle of the airplane then noticed a fire outside the craft and asked a flight attendant to tell the crew. That's when the evacuation began, Hersman said.

    "We don't know what the pilots were thinking," she said, adding that after crashes pilots sometimes wait for instructions from the control tower. "We certainly want to take a look at that. Hindsight is 20-20. We need to understand what they were thinking and what their procedures are" before making a judgment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Tower, this is Flight 214,
      the tail and landing gear are missing, and the plane is on fire.

      Please advise.
      "

      Delete
    2. While the pilot at the controls of Flight 214 had a clear task at hand, Anthony said, the monitoring pilot's job was to keep a close eye on instrumentation and report his findings - including diminishing air speed.

      "One guy flies the plane, but the other guy monitoring is just as important," Anthony said. "There needs to be an ongoing communication, back and forth, in a relationship that says, 'This is what I see, what do you see?' "

      He added, "Just by the process of calling out and discussing, you reach synergy and discover solutions."

      Cultural challenge

      Tullo, who has traveled to Seoul to train pilots for Asiana and Korean Air, said it is more difficult to teach the method to pilots raised in a culture that defers to seniority.

      "A lot of students had trouble correcting someone who was 'in charge,' " Tullo said. "We realized we were not going to change cultures or personalities, but we wanted to change their behavior in the cockpit - and just in the cockpit. Because for safety reasons, it's not only acceptable to challenge each other, it's demanded. It's required."

      Hersman cited crew resource management regulations during a news conference Wednesday and said her investigators would focus on whether the junior pilots on Flight 214 challenged their superiors, and whether the senior pilots welcomed the feedback.

      "Getting slow on final is not a mortal sin," Tullo said. "I'm sure it happens on a daily basis. But someone in the cockpit monitors and then the pilot corrects. That happens every day, too."

      ---

      ...yeah, low and slow on final may not be a mortal sin, but if not corrected, it is fatal.

      Delete
    3. NTSB chair attracts notice with poise, ambition

      Raised in West Virginia, she lived in different parts of the world as the daughter of now-retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Walt Hersman. She married her high school sweetheart, a software engineer at Lockheed Martin, and they have three elementary-school-age children.

      She runs triathlons and frequently brings in brownies for her staff, said one Capitol Hill transportation source. "She really tries hard to cultivate an image of this supermom," said the source.

      She sees the NTSB, which has 400 employees and an annual budget of more than $100 million, as a different sort of agency.

      "One of the hallmarks of the NTSB is our transparency," Hersman said this week. "There are a lot of organizations and groups that have advocates. We are the advocate for the traveling public. We believe it is important to show our work and to tell people what we are doing."

      ---

      Jeeze, 400 employees and a budget of $100 million.

      The TSA and other agencies burn through that on weekend junkets.

      Delete
    4. In my next life, I'm going to wear some cool government jacket.

      I saw a TSA Slob in Costco and almost saluted.

      Delete
  11. Prosecuter argues White Hispanic is guilty of child abuse in death of Obama's son, Travon.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mr. Z is the nations first White Hispanic.

    ...courtesy of the NY Times.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Trayvon Martin was 17. Z forgot to ask for his age.

    bob

    ReplyDelete
  14. .

    I found this quote in a National Journal article on the ratings decline of MSNBC to be rather amusing,

    Critics also suggest that MSNBC no longer has much diversity in the evenings. It's not that MSNBC needs a conservative host. It's that the nighttime hours from 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM are too erudite, too sophisticated and too earnest to hook a wide swath of viewers.

    Those hours encompass the Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Lawrence O'Donnell shows.

    Too funny.

    Erudite?

    Sophisticated?

    Earnest?

    All three are liberal butt-boys for the Obama administration. Erudite? Hard to be erudite when you only think with one side of your brain, the liberal side.

    Sophisticated (def. from the Urban Dictionary)

    An exercise in sophistry that if you don't understand this (whatever) at least as well as I'm pretending to, then you're obviously a moron!

    That definition would fit all three.

    Too Earnest?

    From the Cambridge dictionary:

    Too serious or determined, especially too serious and unable to find your own actions funny

    Well, maybe there wasn't as much irony as I first thought.

    However, rather than the explanation offered by the National Journal, I would argue the decline in the MSNBC ratings can be explained in five words, Sharpton, Matthews, Maddow, Hayes, O'Donnell.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With raw rabid talent like that I'd think they would have no viewers at all.

      bob

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. What is it about being a butt-boy for the "Obama Administration" that's wrong?

      Delete
  15. the Rachel Maddow is HOT!

    ...I've seen her on the U-Tubie.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lawrence O'Donnell reminds me of The 'Rat on speed w/o the horse, hat, or space.

    ReplyDelete
  17. The prosecution is now asking the Judge to add third degree felony murder. Heh. And child abuse. Heh, heh.

    What is third degree murder? It is the unintentional killing of another human being during the commission of another crime. What is the other crime? Child abuse! Heh, heh, heh. TM was only 17.

    Z should have asked.

    What a TOTAL FARCE.

    bob

    ReplyDelete
  18. "What is the other crime? "

    He got out of that Truck, Dude!

    ...and he's a WHITE Hispanic.

    A Cross would not be too much for him to bear up that hike/hillclimb to Salvation.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Egypt's Coptic community is alarmed over the constitutional road map issued on Monday by interim president Adly Mansour. The Sharia closed circle that has stifled Egypt's efforts since the 1820s to produce a pluralistic society based upon a secular consensus has not been defeated.
    A Coptic activist group, Egypt's Maspero Youth Union -- named after the brutal Maspero massacre, during which the Egyptian military targeted and killed dozens of Coptic Christians, and injured some 300 -- responded with understandable anguish to the declaration by interim president Adly Mansour. The Maspero Youth Union characterized as "shocking," the 33-article document, which outlines the roadmap for the transitional period anticipated to last six months.
    The declaration's first article combines Articles 1, 2 and 219 of the suspended constitution -- article 219 having been added by avowed Muslim Sharia supremacists to clarify the meaning of "principles of Islamic sharia" mentioned in the second article. Here are the aforementioned articles from Egypt's recently suspended Constitution, which, it should be noted, had been approved, just this past December, 2012, by a total of 64.0% of Egyptians, (10,543,893/16,472,241), including 67.5% (162,231/240,224) of Egyptian expatriates.
    Article 1: The Arab Republic of Egypt is an independent sovereign state, united and indivisible, its system democratic. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab and Islamic nations, proud of belonging to the Nile Valley and Africa and of its Asian reach, a positive participant in human civilization.
    Article 2: Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation.
    Article 219: The principles of Islamic Sharia include general evidence, foundational rules, rules of jurisprudence, and credible sources accepted in Sunni doctrines and by the larger community.
    According to an Al-Ahram report yesterday (7/10/13), the "new" and "hybridized" article 1 now,
    ...states that the Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic system based on citizenship, that Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is its official language and the principles of sharia law derived from established Sunni canons are its main source of legislation. [emphases added]
    Although I do not share, at all, Maspero Youth Union's hagiographic assessment of the true impetus behind Morsi's removal, I fully agree with their understanding of the "new" constitutional declaration, and its dire, tragic implications for them, and any hope of establishing the long elusive modern secular consensus Egypt so desperately requires.
    Maspero Youth Union has issued this plaintive statement:
    The [constitutional declaration] is not compatible with the ideals of the 30 June uprising... that went out for a civil state that upholds religious and cultural diversity
    The depressing spectacle unfolding (again) in Egypt confirms the doleful wisdom of this observation by the great Indian historian of Islam, K.S. Lal:
    Muhammad could not change the revelation; he could only explain and interpret it. There are liberal Muslims and conservative Muslims; there are Muslims learned in theology and Muslims devoid of learning. They discuss, they interpret, they rationalize -- but all by going round and round within the closed circle of Islam. There is no possibility of getting out of the fun­damentals of Islam; there is no provision of introducing any innovation


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. July 11, 2013
      Mama Mia, More Sharia in Egypt
      Andrew G. Bostom

      Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/07/mama_mia_more_sharia_in_egypt.html#ixzz2YhIvrYcQ
      Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook


      Well, damn, I was hoping for more than this.


      >>>>Muhammad could not change the revelation; he could only explain and interpret it. There are liberal Muslims and conservative Muslims; there are Muslims learned in theology and Muslims devoid of learning. They discuss, they interpret, they rationalize -- but all by going round and round within the closed circle of Islam. There is no possibility of getting out of the fun­damentals of Islam; there is no provision of introducing any innovation<<<<


      bob

      Delete
  20. The Judge, showing some good sense, just ruled against the prosecution's third degree murder request.

    bob

    ReplyDelete
  21. Exceedingly strange -

    Not only a very rare "June" Surplus,

    but, a Huge June Surplus.

    $117 Billion Surplus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scratching my head here too.

      bob

      Delete
    2. How To Get Rid of Fleas Fast -

      hubpages.com
      Eliminating Pests › DIY Home Pest Control‎


      Sep 5, 2012 - There are special flea ointments that you can purchase from your veterinarian. This ointment is generally squeezed in between the shoulder ...

      Delete
  22. BBC News -

    US allies Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Chile have joined other Latin American nations in demanding answers from Washington over spying allegations.

    ReplyDelete
  23. BEIRUT – Syrian rebels have a new source of weapons and cash from inside Kuwait, and their benefactors in the oil-rich state are sending the aid to the most militant and anti-West factions involved in the fight to topple Bashar al-Assad.

    The role of Saudi and Qatari governments and individuals in the funding and arming of Islamist fighters in Syria has been well known since the civil war began more than two years ago. But now, guns and money are flowing from private sources and Salafist-controlled NGOs based in Kuwait, and they are going to rebel factions aligned with Al Qaeda.

    “We are collecting money to buy all these weapons, so that our brothers will be victorious,” hard-core Sunni Islamist Sheikh Shafi' Al-Ajami announced on Kuwaiti television last month, listing the black-market prices of weapons, including heat-seeking missiles, anti-aircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

    Days later, Al-Ajami addressed a small throng outside the Lebanese Embassy in Kuwait and gleefully described slitting the throat of a Shiite Muslim in Syria.

    “We slaughtered him with knives,” Al-Ajami said to shouts of “God is Great.”

    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/11/money-guns-flowing-from-kuwait-to-syria-most-radical-rebel-factions/#ixzz2YlufhxES

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meanwhile the easiest open source data point on direct US military support of Kuwait ...

      Jan 14, 2013 - The number of US forces in Kuwait has grown to about 15,000 in recent weeks, including two combat brigades, as troops have withdrawn from ...

      Delete
  24. http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2013/07/world/snowden-route-options/?hpt=wo_c1

    Reports have indicated that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has accepted Venezuela's offer for asylum. The challenge now: Getting from Moscow, Russia to South America. Below are some potential routes Snowden could take out of Russia.

    Tom Foreman: Route options to Venezuela
    Is Snowden worth the risk?

    ReplyDelete