After spending a lifetime in politics John C. Calhoun (U.S. Senator, Vice President of the United States, Secretary of War) wrote his brilliant treatise, A Disquisition on Government, which was published posthumously shortly after his death in 1850. In it Calhoun warned that it is an error to believe that a written constitution alone is “sufficient, of itself, without the aid of any organism except such as is necessary to separate its several departments, and render them independent of each other to counteract the tendency of the numerical majority to oppression and abuse of power” (p. 26). The separation of powers is fine as far as it goes, in other words, but it would never be a sufficient defense against governmental tyranny, said Calhoun.
Last December, when Tennessee Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Juliet, said she would introduce legislation which would declare null and void any federal law the state deems unconstitutional, some people were horrified. Rep. Lynn was specifically targeting the health-care reform legislation that was pending at that time. But the reaction that many people had to her language was not an expression of their support for Obamacare.
On 27 May 1861, the army of the United States of America (the Union) – a nation which had been formed by consecutive secessions, first from Great Britain in 1776, and then from itself in 1788 – invaded the State of Virginia,1 which had itself recently seceded from the Union, in an effort to negate Virginia’s secession by violent force. Read More...
New World Order
Compendium of State Sovereignty Resolutions and Nullification Acts
The Tenth Amendment Center, an organization seeking to promote the original concept of state sovereignty, has gathered information on various actions taken by state legislatures in protest to current federal actions. The actions involve issues on both the conservative and liberal ends of the political spectrum. Read More...
Illegal Health Reform
Originally Posted At The Washington Post
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey
President Obama has called for a serious and reasoned debate about his plans to overhaul the health-care system. Any such debate must include the question of whether it is constitutional for the federal government to adopt and implement the president's proposals. Consider one element known as the "individual mandate," which would require every American to have health insurance, if not through an employer then by individual purchase. This requirement would particularly affect young adults, who often choose to save the expense and go without coverage. Without the young to subsidize the old, a comprehensive national health system will not work. But can Congress require every American to buy health insurance? Read More...
The Hollowing Out Of American Federalism A short history of the destruction of state sovereignty
Originally Posted July 11, 2009
Revised October 16, 2009
By Lawrence A. Hunter Ph.D.
What Is The Federal System Of Government? Many people mistakenly equate “Federalism” with decentralization. A federal system is certainly a decentralized system but it is also much more. The defining characteristics of federalism are... Before the term “states’ rights” became contaminated by its identification with the efforts of some states to perpetuate slavery and later racial segregation, “states’ rights” concisely described the states’ legal and political autonomy although the term always constituted a shorthand reference to states’ constitutional and political autonomy vis-à-vis the national government as opposed to natural rights, which only individuals possess. Read More...
The 2nd American Revolution
Originally Posted At Lew Rockwell
By Gerald Celente
August 14, 2009
The natives are restless. The third shot of the “Second American Revolution” has been fired. History is being made. But just as with the first two shots, the third shot is not being heard. America is seething. Not since the Civil War has anything like this happened. But the protests are either being intentionally downplayed or ignorantly misinterpreted. The first shot was fired on April 15, 2009. Over 700 anti-tax rallies and “Tea Parties” erupted nationwide. Read More...
We watched as they destroyed the financial sector by forcing banks to give loans to people that could not afford them… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our financial sector.
We watched as they destroyed a once powerful automotive industry through excessive regulation and labor union control… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our automotive industry.
We listened as they verbally assaulted capitalism when government regulations were to blame. Read More...
How can Congress get around the Tenth Amendment and regulate almost every aspect of American life? One way is by claiming that the Tenth Amendment doesn’t apply because Congress is merely acting within the scope of its enumerated powers. But to make this claim, one must assume that some of the enumerated powers are much broader than they really are. One of the enumerated powers cited by advocates of the modern monster-state is the Commerce Power. This derives primarily from two sources: Read More...
Even as California struggles with a catastrophic fiscal crisis and other states scramble to avoid the same fate, Democrats in Washington are proposing health care measures that would add hundreds of billions of dollars of spending to state budgets. Thus far, very little of the debate surrounding the push to overhaul the nation’s health care system has focused on the federalism concerns raised by several provisions within legislation pending in Congress. Taken together, the measures will impose a raft of new financial and regulatory obligations on individual states. Read More...
As Britain and France battled each other in the early 1800's, enterprising Americans wanted to take advantage of the war by transporting goods for both sides, across each nation's blockade lines. The violation of the lines angered both governments, but Britain most of all. In a move widely hated in America, Britain started to seize U.S. ships and "impress" the sailors on the ships, claiming that they were actually British citizens and subject to British law. But President Thomas Jefferson was not looking for war, and worked hard with Congress to pass laws to exert economic, rather than military, force. Read More...
New Federalism, Old Illusions
Lawrence A. Hunter, Ph.D
June 26, 2009
An editorial in the Washington Examiner Friday ran under the headline “Conservatives must rediscover federalism.” When I read it, I had a feeling of déjà vu harkening back to the Reagan days of “New Federalism” when I was research director of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR).
I had come to ACIR from the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee on Capitol Hill at the behest of the Commission’s chairman Bob Hawkins. Hawkins at that time also was chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Studies, an early think tank founded in 1974 by Ed Meese and other Reagan associates intent on building an intellectual foundation beneath what later was characterized as “The Reagan Revolution.” Read More...
• The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 are among the most important documents in American history. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote the Resolutions in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, under which the federal government violated the First Amendment and exercised powers beyond those authorized by the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8). The relevance of the Resolutions continued through U.S. history to today's USA PATRIOT Act. Read More...
An Intellectual Crisis In American Federalism
By Dr. Lawrence Hunter and Ronald J. Oakerson
May 27, 2009
Generations of students have been taught that the Supreme Court of the United States is the great umpire of the American political system, an impartial referee policing the boundaries of authority between institutions of government and between government and the individual. The role of the Court, as commonly understood, is to protect against an improper and unconstitutional exercise of power by any institution of government vis-a-vis any other institution or individual, including the actions of both federal and state governments in relation to one another. Yet from 1936 to 1976, the Court did not overturn a single act of Congress for encroaching unduly upon
the powers of the states. Read More...
The Kentucky And Virginia Resolutions Guideposts of Limited Government
By William J. Watkins, Jr.
In 1885 Woodrow Wilson noted that criticism of the Constitution had ceased upon its adoption and "an undiscriminating and almost blind worship of its principles" had developed (Wilson 1885, 4). A survey of American political discourse after the Constitution's ratification reveals that its provisions were often quoted in such a manner as a minister would quote the Gospel. Considering that the history of Anglo-American liberty is, in many respects, a history of great charters and the events leading to their adoption, American reverence for the Constitution is not surprising (see Brooks 1993). Of course, the Constitution is not the only document in the pantheon. Read More...
Totalitarianism In Democracy; Tyranny By Committee
Lawrence A. Hunter Ph.D.
July 23, 2008
Princeton University professor emeritus Sheldon Wolin, viewed by many scholars as one of the deans of American political theorists and widely recognized as a liberal, argues in his recently published book Democracy Incorporated that the United States has evolved into a new political hybrid in which economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled, producing what he calls “inverted totalitarianism.”Wolin states the thesis of his book this way:
"It is possible for a form of totalitarianism, different from the classical one, to evolve from a putatively 'strong democracy' instead of a 'failed one.'"
Wolin, Sheldon S., Democracy Incorporated:Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008... ReadMore. . .
The Virginia Report Of 1799-1800
Touching The Alien And Sedition Laws; Together With The Virginia Resolutions Of December 21, 1798, The Debate And Proceedings Thereon In The House Of Delegates Of Virginia, And Several Other Documents Illustrative Of The Report And Resolutions... Read More...
Virginia Resolution Of 1798
RESOLVED, That the General Assembly of Virginia, doth unequivocably express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this State, against every aggression either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. Read More...
The Kentucky Resolutions Of 1798
Resolved, That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government... Read More...
Kentucky Resolution Of 1799
THE representatives of the good people of this commonwealth in general assembly convened, having maturely considered the answers of sundry states in the Union, to their resolutions passed at the last session, respecting certain unconstitutional laws of Congress, commonly called the alien and sedition laws, would be faithless indeed to themselves, and to those they represent, were they silently to acquiesce in principles and doctrines attempted to be maintained in all those answers, that of Virginia only excepted. To again enter the field of argument, and attempt more fully or forcibly to expose the unconstitutionality of those obnoxious laws, would, it is apprehended be as unnecessary as unavailing... Read More...
Urgent Petition
Sign the petition to stop Social Security Cuts and send a fax to every Member of Congress demanding they cut other spending, NOT SOCIAL SECURITY.
An analysis of four years of Medicare prescription records shows that some doctors and other health professionals across the country prescribe large quantities of drugs that are potentially harmful, disorienting or addictive. Federal officials have done little to detect or deter these hazardous prescribing patterns.
Read Full Story
Two House Republicans have told constituents they oppose proposed cuts to Social Security and veterans benefits by reducing the cost of living adjustment. President Barack Obama included the plan, known as chained CPI, in his annual budget.
Read Full Story
Treatments and their risks and benefits play out differently in the elderly population. Diabetes is rarely the only ailment affecting people in their 70s and 80s; most must cope with several chronic conditions, along with their associated medications. That makes keeping blood sugar at reasonable levels a complicated business involving lots of tradeoffs.
Read Full Story
If you have a parent, grandparent, or child just getting into computers for the first time, do the world a favor and teach them these basic misconceptions before you end up getting the call to come over and clean the horse manure out of their processor.
Read Full Story
The US has announced that it will provide militants in Syria, now openly admitted to being Al Qaeda terrorists, with $123 million in military aid - while cancer care for seniors at home is being rationed.
Read Full Story
(VIDEO) Obama vowed he would never cut Social Security. Now he is proposing a change in the cost-of-living measure (the so-called "Chained CPI") to do just that, all the while he denies it will cut benefits for current retirees.
Read Full Story
With Obama pushing for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the best chance of stopping those spending reductions could be the GOP’s blanket opposition to higher taxes. Although GOP leaders insist that entitlement cuts should be a big part of any sweeping deficit deal, they also have been unwilling to concede to Obama’s demand for higher taxes to get them, which could be a deal killer.
Read Full Story
President Obama will propose cuts next week to Social Security and other entitlements as part of a renewed effort to strike a long-term deficit-reduction deal with Republicans, the White House said Friday. Obama will embrace a plan — known as chained CPI — that would reduce cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients through a more restrictive measure of inflation, according to officials first cited by Reuters and The New York Times.
Read Full Story
At a recent Denver Post editorial board public forum on gun legislation, U.S. Rep Diana DeGette was asked by a male senor citizen how he could defend himself under the new Colorado gun laws. DeGette said, “The good news for you, you live in Denver. The Denver PD would be there within minutes. (laughing) You’d probably be dead anyway.”
Read Full Story
ObamaCare price controls are causing cancer clinics around the country to turn away thousands of Medicare patients while medical bureaucrats blame the sequester. The real culprits are ObamaCare's $715 billion Medicare cuts and the rigid price-control formulas ObamaCare relies on to effect the cuts, which healthcare providers had deluded themselves into believing Congress would override with new legislation. Blaming the sequester is a convenient dodge to hide the true effects of ObamaCare and price controls, which are putting old people out in the cold and into an early grave. It will only get worse.
Read Full StoryRead All Recent News
