From the Inbox

Today's entry contains a very good idea - one that could go a long way toward putting the country back on its feet and back on the right track. However...

Let's get to the e-mail first:

Please consider forwarding, if you agree.

I have cleaned this e-mail of all other names, sending it to you in hopes that you will keep it going and keep it clean. This is something I believe in and I hope you all read it all the way through.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months and 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past , present and future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

LET'S FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree, pass it on. If not, just delete. You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going.

Now for the "However..."

According to the National Archives (www.archives.gov):

The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. None of the 27 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed by constitutional convention.

Now, what do you suppose the odds are of any Congressperson introducing such a thing to their peers? Hmm...

If our politicians were the kind of stand-up people with the necessary gumption to cut their own throats for the good of the country, well, we really wouldn't need such an amendment now, would we?

Obama's #1 "First 100 Days" goal

Imagine having a constitutional scholar in the White House:

Maybe it’s his background teaching constitutional law.

If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.

Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama

Other goals for his first 100 days: work out a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq; make progress on alternative energy plans and launch legislation to reform the health care system.

I don't know about you, but I'm sleeping better tonight. . .

Is John McCain eligible for Office?

Where were ya born, son?

Article 2 -Clause 5 of the United States Constitution: Qualifications for office

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

By the time of their inauguration, the President and Vice President must be:

* natural born citizens (or citizens at the time of the Constitution's adoption)
* at least thirty-five years old
* inhabitants for at least fourteen years of the United States.

The natural born citizen clause is a subject of debate. No law or court ruling has ever established the precise definition of a natural born citizen. It is generally agreed that a natural born citizen of the United States is any person born in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. But it is not firmly agreed if this definition should also include persons born in United States overseas territories or persons born to United States citizens living abroad.

To date, no one has been nominated for President or Vice President by a major political party. Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, ran unsuccessfully in the 1968 primaries (Like father, like son). He was born in Mexico. . .

However, the almost certain GOP nominee this year, John McCain,was born on August 29, 1936, at the Coco Solo Air Base in the then American-controlled Panama Canal Zone! While I certainly do not wish to give the Republicans a way to eliminate him, the question must be asked - IS John McCain eligible to run for president??

There is currently a movement to abolish the natural born citizen clause and allow immigrants to be President, thereby also eliminating the controversies regarding the definition of natural born. It has received exceptional support from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who was born in Austria. However, as the law now stands. . .John McCain? Where were ya born, son??

U.S.Constitution is undeliverable - Even by Claus himself

Well. . .at least he tried:

December 20, 2007, Washington, DC - This morning, Santa Claus (in the person of noted constitutional lawyer Bill Goodman) drove his sleigh to the White House to deliver thousands of copies of the U.S. Constitution to President Bush.

Americans from all over the country - more than 37,000 of them - asked that a copy of the Constitution be delivered to the President in their name and cordially requested that he make time in his busy schedule to read it.

"While I was going over the list of who's been naughty and nice," Mr. Claus said, as he prepared for his visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, "I heard from many people who feel the President hasn't been doing a very good job of upholding his oath to 'preserve, protect and defend' the Constitution."

Responding to an urgent request from the Center for Constitutional Rights, Claus stepped in to bring messages from Americans who felt the President might need a refresher course in the Constitution. Citizens want to remind President Bush that the Constitution forbids torture and spying on Americans without a warrant, requires that prisoners get a fair hearing of the charges against them before a real court and makes the government's treaty obligations, such the Geneva Conventions, the law of the land.

"These Constitutions will make great holiday reading," Claus continued. "I want to be sure that the President has plenty of time to look at them before he decides on his New Year's resolutions."

Hat Tip: Worldwide Sawdust

Danny Glover - Rescue the Constitution!

The video that FOX News refused to run:



Visit Beyond Guantanamo for more information. . .

First Freedom First

This weekend I posted about the upcoming "Blog Against Theocracy" event on the upcoming weekend. Masson had some concerns about this movement:

"This effort makes me a little uneasy for reasons that I cannot yet fully articulate. I have been pretty clear in my opposition to Dominionist political efforts and influence. But this effort feels broader somehow. Maybe I’m wrong, but the tone of Blog against Theocracy doesn’t seem to make nice distinctions between people of faith who hold certain moral and world views but are content to live and let live while doing their best to improve the world and those people who don’t do much to improve the world but, instead, spend their energy seeking to make government a vector for their views. I’m o.k. with the former, very opposed to the latter."

Hopefully the comments and links provided him have erased his uneasiness about this matter, but I would also like to offer up the following video, from First Freedom First, via Blue Gal, to accentuate the message and spirit of the event:




I hope we can all work together as Americans, with respect and tolerance for each other, to protect our common rights as citizens of our great nation. And I look forward to reading YOUR posts on the matter this weekend.