Tag Archives: U.S. Constitution

Taking All Comers

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in America, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Taking All Comers
by Ted Vaughan (subconch)
~Originally published in American Thinker, 04.29.2013

Back in June of 2012, President Barack Hussein Obama, through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced that his administration would be circumventing the Congress, and thereby the U.S. Constitution, by unilaterally implementing elements of the DREAM Act, a legislative proposal dealing with minor aliens which repeatedly failed to become law.  When the memorandum was issued, Obama was campaigning for re-election in November. 

In case we forgot how it works around here, Congress makes laws pursuant to the Constitution, and more specifically, Congress has the sole power “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.”  The President oversees the execution of laws made by Congress.

And is it not enough, with the responsibility for carrying laws into effect, for enforcing them, that the executive needs to encroach upon the authority and duties of legislators?  Is it not enough that he has the power to veto legislation presented him by the Congress during his term?  Is it not enough that the President commands the greatest military power on earth when Congress calls it?  Is it not enough that he has, in concurrence with the Senate, the power to make treaties, and to appoint Supreme Court judges, ambassadors, and other officers?  Is it not enough that the President has the power to pardon offenses against the United States? Is all of this power not enough, that he ought to take on the mantle of lawmaker as well?

Apparently not, as Obama’s DHS, calling their actions (or inactions) an “exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” peeled off an estimated 800,000 certain illegal aliens for exemption from current immigration law.  They halted the deportations of these certain illegals, or granted deference to them when encountered, and ordered the establishment of a “clear and efficient process” for determining their eligibility for this newfound legal status and authorize them to work in this country.

“Certain” illegals were defined in the DHS memo, almost verbatim from DREAM Act language, thus: Under age 16 when they came here, and had been here at least five years, and were under age 30, and were in school or were high school grads or equivalent or had served in the military, and weren’t criminals (forgetting of course that they had to have committed fraud to enter the latter institutions).

Incidentally, discretion is a matter of independent judgment, based on extenuating, individual, isolated circumstances.  Obama and the DHS may be making an independent judgment with respect to existing immigration law, but to then ignore the law where it applies to certain hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants is not discretion, it is lawlessness.

Anyway, in August of 2012, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), acting at the discretion and as a subsidiary of Obama’s DHS, began processing applications from certain illegal immigrants to verify their new legality under the newly established “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) extralegal program.

After seven plus months running, the latest monthly report on the DACA process is out, courtesy of the USCIS portal, revealed by this recent story from the Washington Times.

99.5%!  That’s the approval ratio of applications processed thru March 31 2013.  Total applications processed: 269,693; Total approvals: 268,361; Total denials: 1,377.

24K gold is barely this pure.

Our government found a mere 0.5% potentiality for fraud or ill intent within a population of 270,000 foreigners here illegally?  Where can you find that level of integrity among any group of humans?

But we are consoled in the above mentioned Times piece that DHS expects the approval ratio to drop, to be fair, and “Indeed, the approval rate already has dropped from 99.8 percent just a month ago.”  Really… that’s what they say.  Furthermore, we are assured in the article by an immigration integrity consultant (retired head of USCIS fraud branch) that advanced analytical predictive technology is being employed to stop any potential fraud, since interviewing all these certain illegals in person is not an option.

This is a “clear and efficient process”, you see, implemented by executive algorithms of multicultural perfection.  And this may serve as a model for future grants of amnesty.

Continuing with the DACA report, it also tallies the applicants’ countries of origin.  The majority are Hispanic countries (Mexican, Central & South American), and within our hemisphere, including Caribbean.

Interestingly, approvals totaling 10,319 originate from the other side of the planet, like South Korea (5,476), the Philippines (2,370), India (1,750), and Pakistan (723).  It makes one wonder how these blocs might be inclined to vote here in the U.S., or if any got the memo that their counterparts were getting a free ride.

The report cleverly lists “Top Countries of Origin”, so as to justify leaving out the nationality of 1,918 approved applicants.  268,361 Cumulative Total Approved, minus 266,443 Approved-to-Date by Country (add them up yourself), equals 1,918 of undisclosed origin.  At least this information is not readily available on the USCIS site.  Wouldn’t you like to know where the 1,918 are from?  Canada, maybe?

Suddenly, inexplicably, thoughts come to mind of certain Chechen immigrants radicalized as Islamic terrorist bombers; 26 yr. old green card holder Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and 19 yr. old “U.S. citizen” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, naturalized September 11, 2012.

These two barbarians murdered and maimed innocent Americans… and both were here legally, sanctioned by the same system that clearly and efficiently takes all comers, as a matter of political course.  No doubt these monsters would have been welcomed among the aforementioned 99.5%, had they been in that pool.

Who among the pure 270,000 DACA recipients will plant the next bomb, or rape the next child, or beat and rob the next unsuspecting American?

It is beyond reprehensible that the Executive Branch of our government would assume for itself unconstitutional powers for the sake of political expediency and favor, if that is the whole of their motive. And it is unforgivable that they would then execute those usurped powers in a manner now proven to be too perfectly irresponsible to claim incompetence.

NC Stands for Religious Liberty – Press Lies, Belittles – Nothing New

17 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty, Politics

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Alas, it is nothing new that slander, propaganda, and the ridicule of large swaths of the American body of people passes for “news” these days. Sometimes though, it just gets under the skin, you know, even if you are aware that it’s meant to get under your skin. The New York Daily News gives us one recent example in its attack on Christians, The U.S. Constitution, and North Carolina state legislators.

I’ll get to that, but first, some background.

Mar. 13, 2013: ACLU-NCLF files federal lawsuit (Lund, et al. v. Rowan County) seeking a judgment that the Rowan County Board of Commissioners practice of opening their meetings with Christian prayer violates the US and NC Constitutions, and therefore seeking to ban the practice.

Mar. 19, 2013: Rowan County Board of Commissioners votes unanimously to fight the lawsuit after a public meeting, which of course, opened with a prayer. Nearby Forsyth Co., NC lost a similar court battle that lasted 5 years and cost $280,000, culminating in a decision which prompted nearly two dozen NC communities to stop prayer in government meetings.

Apr. 01, 2013: General Assembly of North Carolina passes House Joint Resolution (H.J.R. 494), proclaiming (introducing) “The Rowan County, NC, Defense of Religion Act of 2013”. The NC General Assembly in this resolution, both generally and with respect to religion, is asserting state sovereignty, “declaring that the State of North Carolina does not recognize the authority of federal judicial opinions arising from the exertion of powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States”.

US Constitution, Amendment I:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

US Constitution, Amendment X:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

NC Constitution, Article I, § 13: Religious Liberty:

All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.

NC Constitution, Article IX, § 1: Education Encouraged

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, libraries, and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

…and then, from charlatans and propagandists at the New York Daily News we get this:

Headline: Let us pray! North Carolina lawmakers propose bill that challenges U.S. Constitution
The ‘Defense of Religion Act’ would allow prayer in public institutions, including schools. Opponents say it would overturn a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

“Let us Pray!”??? Does this not ring of condescension and ridicule? “Oh look, the stupid little rednecks want to pray.” Demeaning, snobbish, elitist, disgusting.

“Challenges U.S. Constitution”??? This is a flat out LIE. The resolution honors the Constitution, and challenges the authority of the federal government where it dishonors the Constitution.

And don’t you just love it how people, when it suits them, hold up Supreme Court precedent as beyond reproach. The fact is that the Court has gotten it wrong before in their rulings, and will again, and nobody is above criticism or censure in our system.

Washington's bound copy of the Acts of the First Congress

Washington’s bound copy of the Acts of the First Congress

The Daily News article is adorned with an image of George Washington’s beautifully bound copy of the “Acts of the First Congress” encased in glass. Beneath the image reads the caption: “The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights proclaims a separation between church and state. The new bill would specifically allow the County Commission of Rowan County, about an hour north of Charlotte, to continue opening its meetings with Christian prayers.”

“The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights” implies theses are divided entities, which is misleading, and to what end I don’t know. But what follows is another blatant falsehood, the assertion that the Constitution “proclaims a separation between church and state”. Read the 1st Amendment above, and find that proclamation.

The United States Congress may not “establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.” was James Madison’s interpretation of this clause when discussed in the House of Representatives Aug. 15, 1789. In other words, the 1st Amendment is about protection from federal religious coercion.

Speaking of the U.S. House, it has opened its proceedings with prayer since the beginning, and still does to this day. To suddenly allege this practice is and always was unconstitutional is absolute drivel.

The story concludes with the following quotes:

From the ACLU: (the bill’s sponsors) “fundamentally misunderstand constitutional law and the principle of the separation of powers that dates back to the founding of this country.”

From a “legal scholar”: “They basically want to ensure that a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings have no validity either here in Rowan County or here in the entire state. They’re basing it on — to put it mildly — discredited legal theory that the states can deny the power of the federal government within their jurisdiction.”

No Constitutional provision forbids prayer in public institutions, and any federal laws or rulings to that effect are invalid and unconstitutional inventions. States are among the separate powers that date back to founding of this country, so far back in fact that they predate and even created the powers of the federal government. And where states deny specific power to a federal government adrift of its Constitutional bounds, it’s not “legal theory”, it’s duty.

Finally, and since the NY Daily News saw fit to display with prominence President Washington’s book because hey, it looks cool and official and says “President” on it and people would never doubt a story with that picture, I leave with this:

George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Tell us again, you who seek to bastardize our principled founding and rip out the heart of our Christian heritage, how it is that your mythical separation of church and state ought to be considered as a valid “interpretation” of Constitutional protections of liberty; tell us again how there is no place amidst government for religion and morality; tell us again that hayseed states have no right to defend themselves against an overbearing, increasingly tyrannical and centralized federal government; tell us, so we at least know that dishonor has a name.

~tdv

Related:

Image credit

Video: “Publius Huldah Shows Federal Gun Control is Unlawful” [Update]

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty, Politics

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

It is uncanny that we have come so far as a nation that when we are reunited with fundamental truth, that even the many who purport to defend such truth are taken aback by it, finding it too extreme to fully embrace, as if truth is somehow impracticable given the multitudinous so-called “precedents” that buried it. Truth is feared, so it is deemed pliable to whims and political popularity.

Such is the case with federal gun control; that in truth it is unconstitutional at its core and thereby unlawful; that no federal power to govern our right to bear arms was ever intended by the founders or authorized by us; and that while some in government stand against the current onslaught against our natural right to self-defense, they also cede other infringements as reasonable, so as to seem reasonable.

But for others still, fundamental truth is entirely reasonable, and arguing for it is as paramount as the truth itself. Our friend of liberty and the Constitution has shared with us just such an argument in a recent speech, with logic and a fortitude that is sorely lacking in our government “representatives”. I hope you will watch and share:
Publius Huldah Shows Federal Gun Control is Unlawful
(on her blog: “Understanding the Constitution”)

~~~

Update: 03.07.2013 ~add video

Found this related video after posting the above and wanted to add it here for the sake of posterity, and as well to show the application of truth in the context of a more official setting.

This is the Feb. 27, 2013 Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding SB0250, a Bill that expands existing TN law to address unconstitutional federal action in the State with respect to firearms and ammunition, seeking to declare those actions a nullity, or to make them void, invalid, and illegal in the State of TN.

The focus of the hearing includes both the question of the Constitutionality of federal gun laws, and the fundamental question as to who is the final arbiter of the Constitutionality of ANY Federal Act.

At the 25:20 mark begins testimony by Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center.
At the 31:00 mark begins statement by Constitutional scholar Publius Huldah, followed by a Q&A session with her that runs from 37:30 to 1:03:00.

It is all wonderfully informative, though unfortunately rushed, and I hope you’ll watch.

Re: The Case FOR The Constitution; In Search of the Greater Summaries.

24 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Related: FYI, I’ve updated my post: Somebody Needs to Make the Case For The Constitution to include the full article as published on American Thinker.

I’d hoped that its publishing might encourage (or bring forth) the greater summaries than my own on this, “the greatest governing document ever devised”. But to that end it is apparent that some promotion is needed to draw those who have it in them, whoever they be, whatever their station, to make their case for the Constitution of the United States, with the aim of inviting our countrymen to it.

Why? Well, it’s under attack, and those who are against the Constitution are increasingly open with their disdain for it. Even our government presumes to place itself above that which governs THEM, and that which protects US.
The Constitution is a GOOD THING, and people need to know this, and know why, lest they be swayed by charlatans to throw away the underpinnings of the greatest society known to man. It’s simple really, though it seems it ought to go without being said, it still needs to be said.

Honestly, I think that the merits of the United States Constitution should be the central focus of political discussion in our time. I applaud the many who already make the the case, but there should be more if it, and it should be everywhere.

Alas, promotion is no suit of mine. I’m just a regular person, but as I have a number of friends-of-the-Constitution on twitter, I’ve made an attempt at getting something started, circulating there the “hashtag” (a keyword or theme) #CaseForTheConstitution . The idea was simply to get people writing tweets, posting quotes, or sharing links in support of our Constitution, and that some of these might find their way outside the confines of twitter, or light a similar spark in other, more generally visible venues.

If you have something to add, something to share, something you’ve written or read; be it poetic, or artistic, be it philosophical, or witty, or flat-out simple truth; if you’ve a better way or place to go about it altogether, then by all means… WE are all ears and eyes. As well, use your social networks and blogs, but PLEASE confirm the truthfulness in what you share!

Below are some contributions to the hashtag #CaseForTheConstitution on twitter (you don’t need an account to view them all). Note that many are mine, only because I was trying to get the tag started. Hope to find this post regularly updated :]

First, a few links:

Making the Case for the Constitution

Continue reading →

“Somebody Needs to Make the Case For the Constitution”

09 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

The folks at American Thinker have seen fit to publish an article I’ve written entitled:”Somebody Needs to Make the Case For the Constitution“. Though AT’s interest has everything to do with content and nothing to do with this author, I am of course pleased, grateful, and honored to be included among such fine company, if only for a time.

To the content of the article, I think the subject matter is clear enough, though it’s not so clear exactly who this “somebody” is. I don’t know, maybe it’s you… It is also somewhat ambiguous to some as to the reasoned urgency of “making the case”, but to the same this will be evident once the case is made.

Judging from some of the reactions to it thus far [on A.T.], I want to make a few quick comments: 1.) The article means not to imply that “nobody” is currently, vigorously making the case for the Constitution, 2.) some consideration as to whom, primarily, the case needs to be made, is in order, and 3.) being that the article is bit of a clarion call, it was hoped that it might encourage greater summaries in defense of the Constitution. ~tdv

Update 02.24.2013: Posted the complete article here

Continue reading →

Randoms: We the Foolish, At the Heart, Absurdity the Illustrator.

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty, Politics, Random

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

With so much law, with so broad the scope of govt, when does the phrase “law abiding citizen” become synonymous with “FOOL”? @

We spend much of our life’s labor buying a decent home. Now, each taxpayer’s portion of the national debt is just as much labor: $146,000 @

#ObamaFoeAmerica: Overwhelm, bankrupt, distract, intimidate, corrupt, divide… ~Thank God we have the Constitution to keep us focused. @

Every political thing boils down to the U.S. Constitution, and to the Constitutions of the States respectively. THIS is WHY they EXIST. @

When, to even the foolish it is evident, the destruction that leftist power was responsible for, will they be held responsible for it? @

Rush: “You want to stop abortions, require they be done with a gun.” @

Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, but nobody’s entitled to my opinion…  @

Myths make the truth look stupid. @

Note: The preceding random musings are mine, except as quoted/linked. ~tdv (@subconch) The @ symbols take you to the specific quotes on twitter if you care to RT, Favorite, or Reply.

RE the Constitution; a Month’s Miscellany

20 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty, Random

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

…from the abyss that is my twitter timeline, a filled void of never-again-to-be-seen-after-they-may-have-initially-been-seen, opinions-and-musings-and-references-and-pleasantries-shared-with-similarly-minded-patriotic-countrymen, what follows is a lunar cycle’s compendium of constitutionally-connected commentary :]

Court to King Obama: “There is no, ‘Trust us, changes are coming’ clause in the Constitution.” #obamacare #antiReligion ~tweet
ref: Court Rebukes Obama Administration’s “Trust Us” Revision of the HHS Mandate

art.I,§6,c1: “… Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law…” Who makes “law”, again? the king, silly ~tweet
ref: Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers

The year’s Perfect, let’s Riot~> Constitution 101: Changing Definitions ~tweet

Interesting: Webster’s 1828: “Liberty of the press… subject to PUNISHMENT for abusing the PRIVILEGE” ~tweet

Press “publishing what is mischievous to the public or injurious to individuals” was Punishable in 1828!? ?what law? ~tweet

Notice how FreePress thinks it’s better than FreeReligion & RightToBearArms? What a snob, that FreePress. Like it’s not on the same page. ~tweet

Respectfully, why would govt adhere to a Balanced Budget Amendment when govt ignores the Constitution as it is? @SenRandPaul #bba ~tweet

Ask Heritage: What Are The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012? …& Guess how many by Constitutional authority of Congress? ~tweet

Unreal: Mark Green on Hannity said “230 years, there was never an individual right to own a handgun. Scalia found it a few years ago” #LYHBT ~tweet

If liberals really think that there’s no right to own guns, then why don’t they just take them ALL from us? Where’s the issue? ~tweet

Why we’re here…~> “We already gave up on the Constitution” by Jim Antle, Daily Caller, 01.01.13, re: Seidman solution… ~tweet

Art. VI, cl.3: Congress et al “…shall be bound by #Oath or Affirmation, to support this #Constitution” ~DEMAND they reconcile their acts. ~tweet

#LowInformationVoterThoughts The U.S. Constitution (225) is outdated, yet the Communist Manifesto (164) is… not. ~tweet

Publius Huldah briefly on Fed #GunControl (shouldn’t be any), the #BBA (how to REALLY balance), and the con of the #ConCon ~tweet

The Constitutional Convention: The truth, and the danger.~> “No, no Con-Con” by Henry Lamb ~tweet

Wonder if the people with such zeal to discard the Constitution ever considered where they’d be now if it were never created or ratified? ~tweet

Yes! These takers of property, of security, and thereby liberty, are “Imposters”, and illegitimate! #MolonLabe #guns ~tweet

Executive Orders have the force of law, ONLY as they implement (constitutionally pursuant) current law. They are NOT law, on their own.
Any order issued by the Executive that intends to legislate, or otherwise subvert the Constitution, is simply INVALID.
Obama has no more authority to ‘make’ gun laws than he has to, say, single-handedly outlaw Christianity. #MolonLabe #2ndAmd
~01.09.13 tweets: @ @ @
art.I,§.1: All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Guns… mental health… Equally outside the scope of the federal govt. They’ve NO business in our holsters, OR in our heads. ~tweet

It’s not about guns, it’s a validation of rightful Liberty. A great, great article.
Our 2nd Amendment Right: The Militia is the Key by Alan Keyes, 01.10.13

This 2nd Amendment fight, though CRITICAL to liberty, leaves me the sense that we’re being HERDED… away from something else. #justsayin ~tweet

Madison, Federalist No.49, par.10: (paraphrased) Public REASON alone ought control govt, as govt ought temper public PASSION. ~But govt incites passion, controls reason. ~tweet

Geraldo just said bad guys can get guns because of STATES RIGHTS!!! That must be NEXT on the list, huh? #amd2 #amd10… no matter ~tweet

Would YOU attend such an assembly in defense of our Gun Rights~> “Wishing For The 1%” ~jonolan #FirstForSecond ~tweet
~Gives new meaning to the phrase “Gun Show”…Amendments merge. ~tweet

MARK LEVIN: “I’m not into imperial presidents who act imperial and speak imperial and Obama forgets there’s a Constitution. Yes, he keeps telling us he won reelection. Congratulations, but guess what? The Constitution wasn’t up for election, it’s not up for a referendum. He has to comply with it, too.”

“The Constitution of the United States is a political contract between the States; a national compact.” ~from Webster’s 1828 definition of “compact” ~tweet

The federal government is not a party to the constitutional compact, but a function of it.  ~tweet

~Note: Except as quoted, the preceding thoughts are mine ~tdv (subconch)

Who Says it Can’t Happen Here?

19 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Who says it cannot happen here? Who wants to give up enough freedom that we’re certain to find out? This our liberty, the assaults upon it, our defenses, the historical brutality of authoritarian govt… this is not a game, the United States is not a TV show.

From the comments on this article, which I shared in my last post, from the American Clarion, regarding our God-given right to keep and bear arms, the 2nd Amendment, the primary reason it ought not be infringed, and the utter lack of authority the federal government has to interfere with this right, Publius Huldah (the article’s author) had this reply to a commenter:

Liberals can’t think. Once one understands this, one sees that liberals never pose a challenge on intellectual grounds.

James Madison, in the 2nd half of Federalist Paper No. 46, speaks of the armed citizens (farmers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, teachers, clerks, etc – i.e., the Militia) defending themselves from an overreaching federal government. If the federal government is using only slingshots, then the Militia needs only slingshots.

If the federal government is using fully automatic weapons and hollow points; then the Militia needs fully automatic weapons and hollow points.

If the federal government has fully automatic weapons and hollow points, but the people have nothing because the federal government has disarmed them, then democide is on its way. You can count on it.

We must not forget (although the liberals probably never knew this) that the leading cause of death in the 20th Century was….. civil governments murdering their own People. They did this by the hundreds and hundreds of millions.

That last bit sort of struck me in the chest, and reminded me of some research I found some months back. To expand on her point, I posted the following reply to hers, all this I share here because I find it especially instructive:

~~~

Here is a 1993 essay entitled “How Many Did Communist Regimes Murder?” by Rudolph J. Rummel, out of the University of Hawaii. “Democide” is defined there as non-war murder by government. The statistics are mind-blowing, and they are NOT JUST NUMBERS. I found no correlation to the armed status of these peoples, but it goes to Publius’ last point. It is stunning the level of ignorance to the inherent barbarity of an ideology, variants of which are openly championed today, when its dangers were seemingly self-evident some short 20 years ago. And in light of the unmistakable parallels to today, with respect to the pathways to these democides, it is more than questionable the intelligence of those who would ever seek to disarm themselves in lieu of govt. “security”.

R.J. Rummel:

Few would deny any longer that communism–Marxism-Leninism and its variants–meant in practice bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal gulags and forced labor, fatal deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions and show trials, and genocide. It is also widely known that as a result millions of innocent people have been murdered in cold blood. Yet there has been virtually no concentrated statistical work on what this total might be.

Mr. Rummel estimates in this essay, numbers since revised upward, a midrange (conservative) total of 110 million murders by communist democide from 1900-1987, and at the higher end estimates 260 Million Murders. By comparison, there were 38 million battle-dead in all wars (int’l & domestic) of the same period. The Soviet Union alone (midrange) murdered 62 million, and China (PRC) 35 million.

Rummel:

How can we understand all this killing by communists? It is the marriage of an absolutist ideology with the absolute power. Communists believed that they knew the truth, absolutely. They believed that they knew through Marxism what would bring about the greatest human welfare and happiness. And they believed that power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, must be used to tear down the old feudal or capitalist order and rebuild society and culture to realize this utopia. Nothing must stand in the way of its achievement. Government–the Communist Party–was thus above any law. All institutions, cultural norms, traditions, and sentiments were expendable. And the people were as though lumber and bricks, to be used in building the new world.

Constructing this utopia was seen as though a war on poverty, exploitation, imperialism, and inequality. And for the greater good, as in a real war, people are killed. And thus this war for the communist utopia had its necessary enemy casualties, the clergy, bourgeoisie, capitalists, wreckers, counterrevolutionaries, rightists, tyrants, rich, landlords, and noncombatants that unfortunately got caught in the battle.

~~~

Please visit the above thread for more informative commentary. And note that P.H. also has this article up on her site now, here, with more discussion.

~~~

A Translation of the List of President Obama’s 23 Executive Actions to Address Gun Violence

19 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in Liberty

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

A Translation of the List of President Obama’s 23 Executive Actions to Address Gun Violence
White House line items in black. ~Translations in red.

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Grow the gun-forbidden list, I say.(see end)

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Circumvent, rewrite current federal HIPAA law, ‘cause I want to, so States can add more people to the mental portion of the gun-forbidden list.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Bribe the States with DOJ money Congress didn’t give me, to add even more people to the gun-forbidden list, when they can’t use the HIPAA excuse.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list.Tell the A.G. to figure out what other kinds of people, what other kinds of reasons, we can add people to the gun-forbidden list.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
~ Make sure that when the police take a gun for any reason, they don’t have any reason to give it back.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
~ Tell people that have to check the list for themselves, that now they should check the list for others.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
~ Posture, spend, propagandize. Slogan: “Gun Abstinence is Better than the Other Kind”

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
~ Interject. Spend. Prepare to harass gun and safe makers, make guns and safes more expensive, punish, prod, nudge. Protect the consumer masses from evil capitalistic greedy negligent dangerous manufacturers of gun-related stuff. Prepare to enrich lawyers.

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
~ Grow the where-the-guns-have-been list.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
~ Grow the where-the-guns-have-been list. The DOJ knows about losing guns pretty well.

11. Nominate an ATF director.
~ Nobody has been confirmed in 6 years? How about Rosie O’Donnell (“I don’t care if you want to hunt, I don’t care if you think it’s your right. I say ‘Sorry.’ it’s 1999. We have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison.”)… perfect.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
~ Proper, our way, consistent, everybody’s the same, training. So I can say I did it, so I can say I spent it, so you know who saved you. You hicks can’t figure out how to defend yourselves, can’t figure out how to hire your own experts, you know.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
~ Posture. Tell the police to ignore, minimize, for now, stabbings, hit-and-runs, bludgeonings, poisonings, crucifixions, beheadings, malicious electrocutions, and arson-related killings, because I say so, because I say gun.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Misdirect, Posture. Spend money that Congress didn’t say I could spend, tell the CDC to figure out why people kill people, classify guns as a disease, gun violence as a public health crisis, and then classify gun control as a miraculous vaccine that makes it so people don’t kill people.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
~ Tell the A.G. to harass gun makers to make guns that don’t kill people. Control the market, be the market, dictate, for the little people.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Encourage doctors to harass their patients about stuff that’s none of their business, and then of course, rat their patients out.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list, I say. Encourage doctors to rat out their patients for any off-hand remarks they make, thereby painting targets on their patients’ backs, and forever branding them as psychopathic.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
~ Posture. Spend money that Congress didn’t say I could spend, stick my nose more into school business, so I can take credit for their hiring of SROs (cops tailored for school environments), something, as I said, those hicks just cannot do, without ME.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
~ Posture. Again, figure it all out for the knuckle-draggers, so I can say that I did, but for now, just schools and churches, because the kids are always worth the exploit, and the Christians are mad at me, so…

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Tell the States what they already know. Invent something they don’t know. Make sure they spend money.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Campaign for PPACA, or MeCare. Make sure it’s equally as cheap for listees to get on the mental health services list as it is to get abortifacients.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
~ Grow the gun-forbidden list. Same as item #21, but I really mean it. And have more people committed, I think.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius(HHS) and Duncan(Education) on mental health.
~ Posture, misdirect, distract, propagandize, demonize. Tell my people to get inside the heads you people… for the people… at least while I get that other stuff done that you’re not looking at.

??What else might be done with this list??
??What checks are in place to prevent fraudulent and corrupt manipulation of the list??
!!None of this, none of what Obama proposes to Congress, has anything to do with the Constitutional purview of the federal government!! Check out this paper by Publius Huldah.

~tdv

NICS Index Brochure  National Instant Criminal Background Check System
FULL DETAILS: Fact Sheet on the President’s Plan to Reduce Gun Violence
 

FFL: Federal Firearms Licensees: Retail store or Pawn Shop. Required to do background checks w/ NICS.

NICS: National Instant Criminal Background Check System: by the FBI, one-stop ID of those who cannot buy a gun. Maintains its own list, and accesses NCIC, III, and other lists. NICS Index contributed to by local, state, tribal, and federal agencies, and frequently in emergencies, mental health institutions, psychiatrists, police departments, and family members. 3 day turnaround or gun gets sold. Only FFLs req’d to check with NICS prior to sale, not private owners.

NCIC:  National Crime Information Center

III: Interstate Identification Index:

Prohibited (gun-forbidden): convicted of or indicted for crime carrying 1+yr sentence, fugitives, user or addict to any controlled substance, adjudicated as mental defective or been committed, illegal alien or here on nonimmigrant visa, dishonorable discharge from us armed forces, renounced us citizenship, has restraining order, convicted of domestic violence

Who’s REALLY “Ginning Up Fear on the Part of Gun Owners”? Hint: It’s not other gun owners.

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in America, Liberty, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Mon, 01.14.2013, Barack Hussein Obama:

As far as people lining up and purchasing more guns, I think that we’ve seen for some time now that those who oppose any common-sense gun control or gun safety measures have a pretty effective way of ginning up fear on the part of gun owners that somehow the federal government is about to take all your guns away. And there’s probably an economic element to that.  It’s obviously is good for business.

So, according to O, 2nd Amendment supporters and evil capitalists are ginning up gun owners’ fears.  Why, because they dare mention what left wingers are saying about the issue? And this from the insulting premise that gun rights advocates oppose “any” kind of gun safety measures, as if to say none exist already. To counter this manipulative craft, I thought I’d lay out some real reasons that gun owners might be worried, and should be.  For brevity, I’ll stick mostly with what has “ginned” people up since the Dec 14th 2012 Newtown CT killings, and before Obama made this asinine and malicious statement.

Firstly, this President has shown his disrespect for the U.S. Constitution, and everybody knows it, even his supporters, who applaud him for it, particularly when that disrespect serves them.  So if Obama and friends don’t like the Constitution generally, why would anyone expect that they’d respect its 2nd Amendment protections, specifically?

Then there is the “never let a crisis go to waste” mentality, famously spewed by his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel a few years back.  True to form, just five days after Newtown, Obama used the deaths of those children to have his way with Republican “folks” on the fiscal cliff debate, saying “After what we’ve gone through over the past several months, a devastating hurricane and now one of the worse tragedies in our memory, the country deserves the folks to be willing to compromise for the greater good.”  The point: If he is willing to dance on graves of little kids over something entirely unrelated, what else might he be capable of using it for, especially if he can fake a relation?

Oh, and I’ll add, the President did virtually nothing on gun issues in his first term (a good thing), presumably for gun-grabbing’s unpopularity, and he wanted a second term, which now he has, which means now in his mind he has been mandated king and supreme ruler of America, which means he can now openly not care about popularity, and which, altogether, means he is more dangerous to the Constitution and our general liberties than before.

And, if I may further digress, consider as another possible reason for increased gun sales: the general fear of impending economic collapse in America, and the aftermath that it would bring; a fear exacerbated by the fact that the same Democrat politicians in the White House and Senate that have been destroying our economy, that have racked up Six Thousand Billion Dollars in NEW national debt, that have devalued our money, etc., these same people are still in power after the November 2012 elections.

So who’s to say what percentage of recent increases in the gun market applies to people suspicious of an ever increasingly power-hungry government, anyway?  Could be, that many just saw the news of the shootings and said “The country’s gone insane. I’m gettin’ a gun.”

Back to fear ginning… That IS what I was talking about, is it not?  To the extent that folks are buying more firearms out of fear of inevitable government confiscation of the same, the following rhetoric and real intentions, vomited from the bellies of anti-gun, exploitative, opportunistic reactionaries, is the real source of unease.

~~~

Sun, 12.16.12: Obama vowed to use “whatever power this office holds” to prevent “more tragedies like this.”
~ See above on O’s view of Presidential power.

Tue, 12.18.12: White House says President will “actively support” reinstatement of federal assault weapons ban, will support upcoming Feinstein (Sen. D-CA) legislation, close the “gun show loophole” on background checks, and stop sale on high-capacity ammo clips. W.H. said Obama pleased that pro-gun Democrats are with him.
~ “Assault weapons” only look scary, fire one bullet per squeeze, and are less destructive than other weapons that don’t get banned because they don’t look so scary, FYI.  Basically, every weapon is an assault weapon, when wielded by a person committing assault, even if they are using the weapon as a club, which also means an assault weapon doesn’t have to be a gun. It’s a manipulative terminology, nothing more.

Thu, 12.20.12, Reuters: Unburdened by re-election worries and empowered by law to act without Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama could take action to improve background checks on gun buyers, ban certain gun imports and bolster oversight of dealers. […]  The administration also has leeway to act in how it defines certain categories of people prohibited from buying a gun.  Federal law bars anyone “who has been adjudicated as a mental defective,” but it does not specify whether that means only a court can disqualify someone, said Michael Volkov, a former Republican Justice Department official now at the law firm LeClairRyan.
~ The Congress makes law, and NOTHING “empowers” the president to make law without Congress. This is ridiculous. Read the Constitution.  Also, insinuating that the President and his boys have the power to “categorize” us for the sake of prohibition, is as sick as the insinuation.

Thu, 12.20.12: Andrew Cuomo (D-Gov.-NY) [assault weapon] “Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option…”
~ Confiscation. um… confiscation… thoughts from the Governor of NY. Think about that.

Sat, 12.22.12: “The Journal News”, an upstate NY paper, published on their website an interactive map indicating the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in two NY counties, including the classification of the permit, i.e. unrestricted, premises, target, hunting, etc.
~ This an open assault on law-abiding gun owners, meant solely to demonize them, and out them as if they were sexual predators. One direct consequence of this maliciousness is the invitation to gun thieves to burglarize the homes. The other consequence is the possible identification of those who are not armed, another invitation to criminals.

Thu, 12.27.12, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) posts summary of legislation to be introduced in 2013:
* Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of: 120 specifically-named firearms; Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
* Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by: Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test; Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.
* Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. *Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment; Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include: Background check of owner and any transferee; Type and serial number of the firearm; Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint; Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
* Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration.
~ Looks like a whole lot of banning, and a whole lot of confiscation, unless you want to be booked and catalogued like a common criminal in order to keep “certain” arms that you already own, and a whole lot of criminalizing innocent law-abiding citizens for not wanting to be booked… Have you started shopping yet? And on that last bullet point, one has to ask HOW MUCH funding, and more importantly, one has to ask what place it is in the first place, for the federal government to legislate alcohol, tobacco, or firearms inside the country at all. Again, read the Constitution.

Sat, 01.05.13, Mark Green on Hannity’s show: “230 years, there was never an individual right to own a handgun. Scalia found it a few years ago”
~ There’s a novel idea! If you can’t take people’s liberty outright, pretend that that liberty never existed to start with.

~~~

Just remembered this is a blog post, and not a book…

These are only a small sampling, of course, of where it is those of the liberal anti-gun persuasion in media and in power, who are in fact the REAL cause of angst among gun owners, NOT gun rights advocates. Obama is flat out lying, making a straw man of law-abiding Americans who respect liberty, so that he can beat them with a stick.

Every progression in aggression against gun owners and their rights creates an equal progression in distrust of the government insisting on this aggression, and it naturally follows that the people WILL increase their measure of defense against a government that assaults them, and WILL assault them.

~tdv

Hat tip to Jeff Goldstein, and his site protein wisdom, whose archives over that past month served as a guide to put together much of these examples. Jeff’s analysis on this issue (and myriad other issues) has been reliably informed and informative, truthful, justifiably blunt, and to say well-written would be an insult. And the commenters over there as well, comprise a plethora of intelligence and smartness, and a prime example of true liberty loving Americans. Just my unaffiliated opinion. You should check it out.