and just what would you expect a jews opinion to be? On Apr 23, 12:35 pm, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > "Americans – especially conservatives – delude themselves when they express > the view that it might be possible to restore constitutional government. How > would this happen? Who would enforce the Constitution? Why would the federal > government ever give up its monopoly of constitutional interpretation and > return to the pre-1865 world where all three branches of government were > often given equal weight in constitutional interpretation, as well as the > citizens of the free, independent and sovereign states? The central state > murdered hundreds of thousands of its own citizens in order to achieve this > monopoly status, and it will never just give it up."In Defense of Seditionby > Thomas J. DiLorenzoTimemagazine’s Joe Klein recently appeared on a Sunday > news show where he accused Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin of "sedition" because > of their criticisms of the Obama administration’s expenditure of trillions of > dollars of corporate welfare in the form of bailouts; its Soviet-style > nationalization of automobile, banking, student loan, and mortgage > industries; its historically wild spending and borrowing binge; its forcing > of socialized medicine down our throats in the face of overwhelming public > opposition; and its plans to tax American capitalism into bankruptcy. Anyone > who criticizes such things should be thrown into the Gulag, says Klein. > Another talking head on the same television show as Klein screeched that Rush > Limbaugh should also be indicted for "sedition" for the crime of criticizing > King Obama. > Sedition, Joe Klein informed us (reading off of a napkin), is a threat to > "the authority of the state." But the key question is: authorityto do > what?Does the American state have unlimited "authority" to do everything and > anything the Marxist in the White House, the former senator from ACORN, can > dream up? If they can nationalize automobile companies, banks, and the > healthcare industry, do they also have the "authority" to nationalize the > grocery industry, home building, steel manufacturing, and everything else? > Joe Klein obviously believes so. In so doing, he supports the "authority" of > a totalitarian state. Opposing totalitarian government is "sedition" > according to Joe Klein and his fellow network "news" show talking heads. > The original design of the American government was that the only "authority" > the central government was to have was powers delegated to it by the free, > independent, and sovereign states in Article 1, Section 8 of the > Constitution. All others are the responsibility of the people, respectively, > and the states, according to the Tenth Amendment, which Thomas Jefferson > considered to be the cornerstone of the document. These powers were delegated > to the central government for the benefit of the sovereign states, who > appointed the central government as their agent – mostly for issues regarding > war and foreign policy – by adopting the Constitution. That’s why treason is > defined by the U.S. Constitution in Article 3, Section 3, as follows: > "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in waging War > againstthem, or adhering to their Enemies, and giving them Aid and Comfort . > . ." As in all the founding documents, "United States" is in the plural, > signifying that the free and independent states were united in delegating > certain enumerated powers for their own mutual benefit. Thus, "waging War > against them" means the states. Waging war against the free and independent > states is what constitutes treason under the U.S. Constitution. That’s why > Lincoln’s invasion of the Southern states was the very definition of Treason. > As I wrote inThe Real Lincoln, the one unequivocal good that came of > Lincoln’s war was the abolition of slavery. But the worst thing that came of > it – the thing that was the real purpose of the war – was the centralization > of virtually all political power in Washington, D.C., and the essential death > of the Jeffersonian system of states’ rights or federalism that was the > essence of the pre-war Constitution. After 1865, the federal government > became the sole decision maker with regard to the limits of its own powers. > It exercised this decision-making power through the federal judiciary and, as > the Jeffersonians had always warned, it eventually declared that there were, > in fact,nolimits to its powers. > It didn’t take long for the federal government to declare the idea of natural > rights, the bedrock of the Jeffersonian philosophy of government, to be null > and void. It did this by adopting the income tax in 1913, along with the > creation of the vast legalized counterfeiting scheme known as the Federal > Reserve. The income tax effectively declares that all earned income is the > property of the state, and that the state will inform us from time to time > how much of our own income we may keep to live on by setting the income tax > rates. The Fed and the income tax made it possible for the government to > finance a limitless explosion of statism just four years later with American > entry into the wordwide disaster of World War I, which led to the most > destructively bloody century in all of human history. > The income tax and the Fed finally centralized all political power in > Washington, as it became trivially easy for the central state to conscript > millions of men for its wars, spend mind-boggling sums on things like a > welfare state and the nationalization of education that have no > constitutional authority whatsoever, and to easily bribe any state government > that voices the least bit of dissent by threatening to withdraw federal > grants to the state. More than half of the American population is bribed and > manipulated in a similar manner today as recipients of myriad federal > subsidies. > By the 1930s the central state was sick and tired of what it considered to be > contemptible constitutional arguments that limited the size and scope of > government. FDR condemned the Constitution as the irrelevant scribblings of a > lost generation, and advocated massive socialistic government intervention > whereby the government would magically "guarantee" everyone a high-paying > job, high food prices for farmers, a "decent home," all the medical care you > could want, freedom from fear of old age, sickness, and accidents, and of > course, state-funded education. This was the essence of FDR’s childish wish > list of an "economic bill of rights." Of course, government cannot promise > anyone anything without also confiscating the income of someone else to pay > for it. Nor can it "guarantee" any of FDR’s pie-in-the-sky wish list unless > the laws of economics are repealed, which of course they can never be. > Since states’ rights had been obliterated by Lincoln’s war, there was no > longer any effective opposition to totalitarian-minded political hacks like > FDR. He appointed enough Supreme Court judges to create a situation that, by > 1937, the Court was prepared to reverse generations of prior decisions that > attempted to enforce the Constitutional constraints on government. And they > succeeded: According to Andrew Napolitano, author ofThe Constitution in > Exile, not a single federal law was ruled unconstitutional between 1937 and > 1995. The legal scholar Bernard Siegan made the same point inEconomic > Liberties and the Constitution. For more than seventy years, Americans have > lived under a judicial dictatorship that rubber-stamps all expansions of > federal power, no matter how at odds they may be with the Constitution > itself. The body of "constitutional law" that has developed during this time > is nothing more than a bundle of tongue-twisting legalese designed to subvert > and destroy any lasting vestiges of constitutional limitations on the powers > of the central state. > In short, the government in Washington, D.C. has not been a government by > consent since 1865. In response to the declaration by American citizens > residing in the Southern states in 1860–61 that they no longer consented to > being governed by Washington, D.C., the U.S. government waged war on the > entire civilian population of the South, killing some 350,000 fellow American > citizens, which is more Americans than died in all other wars combined. This > number includes at least 50,000 civilians. On top of that, Southern cities > and towns were burned to the ground, bombed, and plundered. The plundering > continued for a decade after the war during the laughingly named > "reconstruction" period. > Americans – especially conservatives – delude themselves when they express > the view that it might be possible to restore constitutional government. How > would this happen? Who would enforce the Constitution? Why would the federal > government ever give up its monopoly of constitutional interpretation and > return to the pre-1865 world where all three branches of government were > often given equal weight in constitutional interpretation, as well as the > citizens of the free, independent and sovereign states? The central state > murdered hundreds of thousands of its own citizens in order to achieve this > monopoly status, and it will never just give it up. > It is the Washington establishment, which includes its media lapdogs like Joe > Klein, that is guilty of sedition. The legitimate "authority" of the state is > spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. It is the Washington establishment that > has abandoned that legitimate authority and granted to itself essentially > unlimited powers. Therefore, there can be nothing more patriotic and > "American" thanopposing everything the central state proposes doingthat would > expand its scope and powers in any way. Without any kind of constitutional > constraints or meaningful citizen control, the federal government is nothing > more than another criminal gang, as Murray Rothbard often said. The fact that > it is a very large gang does not make it any more legitimate. The TEA Party > protesters and all others who oppose the oppression of the central state > should ignore the puerile rantings of the Joe Kleins of the world and remind > themselves of what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence > when he said that menare endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable > Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – > That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving > their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form > of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the > People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government . . . > (emphasis added)."TEA Party" activists claim that they are Taxed Enough > Already. That’s not good enough. If they took their own rhetoric about > constitutional government seriously, they would recognize that what is needed > is at least a 90 percent reduction in federal taxes, not merely being > satisfied with being taxed "enough already." > Since such a tax reduction is not likely to be achieved with the cooperation > of the Washington establishment, no matter who is elected president, the only > real prospect for success is to take seriously the words of Thomas Jefferson, > author of America’s Declaration of Secession from the British Empire, and > organize numerous peaceful secession movements. Let them have their > ACORN/Democratic Socialists of America-inspired, socialist utopia on the > Potomac. The rest of us can watch with great amusement as they ruin their > small society, impoverish themselves, and turn it into a Third-World swamp, > which is what Washington, D.C. started out as several hundred years > ago.http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo184.html > > > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help seehttp://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community athttp://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
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