The Constitution, The Contract With the States, Pt. 1

Friends,
When the American colonists decided that they had had enough of England’s onerous rule they took action. Two of the more celebrated events took place in Massachusetts, the Boston Tea Party, on 16 December 1773 and the “Shot heard around the world” at Concord on 19 April 1775.

Even though much of the early action took place in the New England area all 13 colonies were involved and contributed to the effort. Each of them sent representatives to the first and second Continental Congresses but they were first and foremost individual colonies. The Congresses tended to be rather contentious affairs with each colony’s representatives fighting to ensure the interests of his own colony was fairly represented.

This emphasis on the interests of the colonies carried over into the writing and ratification of the Articles of Confederation, written by the direction of the Second Continental Congress. Under the Articles the states maintained a mostly sovereign position within the whole. The union was a very loose confederation and that was the way the states wanted it. One of the main complaints against the Articles was that there was no power of taxation; the central government had to ask for funds to operate, to wage war, to carry out diplomatic missions, etc. and the states were not obligated to accede to the request. It was recognized by the states that there needed to be a structure to bind them together but it was not going to be a strong central government like that which they were battling at the time. The emphasis was on the freedom and sovereignty of the individual states.

This sovereignty was so important that the smaller states came to feel that they did not have commensurate economic power or balance with the other, larger states. The concern was that the larger states’ economic power would dominate them. Also, the larger states felt that they contributed more to the Union but each state had only one vote and therefore the small states held too much power.

These concerns were addressed and corrected by the establishment of the US Constitution in 1788. Like the discussions in the Second Continental Congress over the provisions of the Articles, the Constitutional Convention was no less “spirited.” For four months in the summer of 1787, delegates from all of the states met in Philadelphia to hammer out the Constitution. A great deal of the discussion and dissention was based on how to fairly represent the states. The result was the Constitution without any amendments.

With the emphasis on States’ Rights, the Constitution was ultimately drawn up as a contract between the States to establish the federal government. This is an important concept, that the states established the federal government by use of a contract called the Constitution.

The new nation had just come through a long war to free themselves of the tyranny of a strong central government and these new states needed some assurance that the new federal government would not become the same type of tyrannical government from which they had just freed themselves. The states intended to ensure that that would not happen by writing certain guarantees into the contract, the Constitution. These guarantees set down the duties and responsibilities of the federal government and the states. There were also restrictions that delineated the relationship between the federal government and the states. This relationship was quite clear. The states were still in the driver’s seat and the federal government served at the pleasure of the states.

In addition, the states’ representatives were concerned about the rights of their citizens, so, to the end of the contract they added a codicil, the Bill of Rights. Make no mistake the first nine amendments in the Bill of Rights were meant to guarantee the rights of the individual and the Tenth Amendment specifically told the federal government where their authority ended. This was the contract drawn up by the states to set down the limitations and responsibilities of the federal government.

This has merely been a primer on the background and reasoning underlying the drafting of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In my next Discourse I will delve a bit more deeply into the relationship requirements and limitations set down by this contract.

As always, your comments and discussions are welcome.

Dan

The Four Scandals

Friends,
This is another in the on-going series of Global Warming articles written by Andy Pico.
Enjoy,
Dan

The Four Scandals
The Massive Scientific Fraud known as Anthropogenic Global Warming or Climate Change is collapsing with unprecedented speed like a house of rotten cards built on quicksand. The revelations of scientific misconduct now coming from some of the core scientists have reached a daily flood with example upon example of fabricated data, pre-conceived results, perversion of the peer review process, manipulation of station data to fabricate or exaggerate warming trends, reliance on environmentalist advocacy fiction substituting for peer-reviewed research, and so on.

This is a scandal of monumental proportions. Many of the claims of the Climate Change Alarmists have become little more than comedy punch lines.
In reality, there are four scandals, each built upon the others and closely linked. These linked scandals did not start out as such. The building fraud was more of a case of various individuals and groups jumping onto a convenient bandwagon headed in a direction the perpetrators each wanted to go for their own reasons.

The first scandal is the obvious one, the fraud of AGW science built upon a theory the original author himself disavowed almost a century ago. Once started, scientists jumped on board in pursuit of research grants and many other reasons. Most of them fell for their own fraudulent science and ignored the violations of basic scientific processes and ethics. With the recent admissions by some of the scientists at the core of this fraud that no statistically significant warming has occurred in a decade and a half, that the debate is not closed and there is no real scientific consensus (as if such a thing were even credible, valid or legitimate) the collapse of the Scientific Fraud of AGW stands exposed.

The second scandal is the political scandal of those who jumped on the AGW bandwagon to push a political agenda and to simply pull in votes. The political agenda is one of control and the seizure of energy markets through governmental over-regulation. The marriage of environmentalist extremist groups and opportunist politicians resulted in an agenda leading to a world-wide movement that would have derailed freedom, individual liberties, economic prosperity and life itself for many. Other agendas included population control measures, unelected international government controls, and the stifling of economic freedom resulting in poverty and starvation for hundreds of millions.

The third scandal is the financial one. The artificial carbon market including such risky schemes as carbon credits, carbon off-sets and carbon trading under various names is built on the first two scandals. The financial bubble of carbon trading is quite literally built on nothing more than hot air and adheres to no standards consistent with securities trading or financial regulations. Carbon trading has been a fraud from the start and those who have pushed this scheme have been nothing more than carbon profiteers. As the Scientific Scandal crashes, the entire basis for the Carbon Swindle evaporates. This is a world-wide financial bubble about to burst and add to the stress of financial markets worldwide. The holders of carbon credits should take a close look at just what it was they bought.

The fourth scandal is the media cover-up and whitewash. Here in the U.S., the media have largely been complicit in pushing the Scientific Fraud, have aligned with the Political Agenda and ignored the Financial Swindle. Now that the Scientific Fraud is collapsing, the media here in this country for the most part continues to ignore it, cover it up, or white-wash the investigations. The media overseas, in contrast, are covering the daily meltdowns much more thoroughly. The failure of the national “Mainstream Media” will further fuel the declining readership and ratings of what the broad population has come to recognize as the Propaganda Press. The victims of media outlets such as NPR and PBS can be excused in their ignorance, but to remain so in the face overwhelming evidence of fraud and corruption can only be classified as willful ignorance.

The monumental combination of fraud and deceit crossing science, politics, financial and the media will go down in history as the greatest attempted fraud and swindle of all time. As the financial bubble of carbon swindling bursts, the hearings on securities fraud must soon follow.

Andres Pico, of Colorado Springs, is a retired Navy Commander, Naval Flight Officer and project manager in the defense industry. He is a signatory of the Manhattan Declaration.

More on States' Rights - The Census

Friends,
I have written about States’ Rights several times in the past. A couple of links to previous articles are here and here. Sometimes I feel like the guy standing out in the middle of the forest who wonders, “If a tree were to fall, would anyone hear it?” There is a growing movement for States’ Rights taking place in America now as discussed in this New York Times article.

There are examples of states such as Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and others that have stood up and told the federal government that they are not going to kowtow to their every whim. Now let us take a look at the latest example of government action in excess of their powers, namely the Census.

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution states “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” The Constitution is quite specific as to the purpose of this enumeration which we have come to know as the Census. The Census is to be taken specifically for determining how many Representatives are to serve in the House from each state. There is to be one Representative for each 30,000 persons, but each state shall have at least one Representative.

Now, let us fast forward to today. I received my Census form in the mail a couple of days ago and looking at the envelop, it starts off telling me that I am required to complete the Census form and return it. Depending on to whom you listen, failure to do so could land you a fine from $100 to $5000. I’m sure the fine is on the high end if you falsify some information.

To be perfectly honest, I did not find anything on the form to be terribly objectionable but I have a serious question as to what the requested information has to do with determining how many Representatives a State will have. The very first block looks like the only legitimate question on the whole thing. It asks how many people live in the house. Well, that takes care of the enumeration part, but then they start to break it down into the characterization of the residents. Are there children; nonrelatives; roommates; who owns the dwelling; is the dwelling an apartment; etc.? They asked my phone number in case they don’t believe my answers and have to call me. They ask for my name and my wife’s name and what our birthdays are. They ask what our race is. They didn’t leave me a place to say “My race is American.” They even asked if my wife or I sometimes live or stay somewhere else.

As I said, none of these questions were particularly objectionable, but I have to ask what business is this of theirs? What does it have to do with deciding how many Representatives Colorado sends to Washington? Do we get more Representatives if we have more Cubans? Do we get more Representatives if we have more Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin people? I wonder what the weighting factor is for each racial group.

I’m sure you are asking by now what this has to do with States’ Rights. Well, I'm glad you asked. Included in the envelop was a blue flyer from the Director, US Census Bureau, whoever that is, that states all of this information is important because it is used to determine not only the number of Representatives, but also how much government money my neighborhood receives. I looked up and down my road (I live out in the country, kind of) and was not able to spot any box where they were going to put my neighborhood’s money. It says that this money is to be used for children, the elderly, and our roads. We are in trouble. There aren’t many children along our road and, depending on the cut-off age, not a lot of elderly. Also, the last time I checked, our road belongs to El Paso County, not the federal government.

Where is the federal government getting all of this money it is doling out? It is getting it from you, me and our State. This money rightfully is not the property of the federal government. It is our money that they are redistributing to people and areas that do not pay as much as we do. In other words they are making everything and everyone the same.

This is where our States’ Rights come in. It is long past time that we tell the federal government that we don’t want their help with our children, our elderly, our roads or anything else. The federal government works for us, not the other way around! Over the past 200 years that concept has been lost. It is time that the citizens of the States stand up and inform the government of their contractual responsibilities.

That is a great segue into the next article which will be out in a few days.

As always, I welcome your comments and discussion.
Dan