How far we’ve come or “Welcome Back McCarthy”

A little background information:  John McCain on CodePink

First a little background information (for those of you who passed 5th grade civics class I apologize for the review; it’s more for our illustrious representatives):  The opening to the founding document and the highest law in the land begins with “We the People,” includes numerations of rights assured to the people (including Freedom of Speech and Expression), and has been interpreted by one of our greatest Presidents as meaning a nation, “for the People, by the People, and of the People.”  Even our Declaration of Independence describes the fundamental principles on which liberty is founded and includes, in part, a description of legitimate government as being, “Government by consent of the governed,” and assures us of the right to alter or abolish any unjust government that has become so oppressive as to be tyrannical in nature and practice.  Above all though, these documents make it clear that the entire purpose of the legislature (state and/or federal) is to listen to the constituency and act according to what the people want (while protecting the minority from abuse).

Now the current way things work:  The legislature is elected by infusing commercials with misinformation and relying on the comparatively tiny amount of voters that participate.  Once in office, the majority of them rely on “Campaign Contributions” from special interest groups while conveniently ignoring the pleas of their people (or at least the ones without money).

All of this leads me to the group CodePink, a women’s anti-war group that frequents congressional hearings (their right as citizens) and are routinely thrown out for “disruptions” no different than Republican disruptions in a Democratic congress and vice versa.  A good deal of them are Mr. McCain’s constituents, yet because of their unpopular opinion, he calls them scum.  Sen. Feinstein (D) threw them out of a CIA confirmation hearing because of less than audible disruptions: Audio of Hearing and no Congress or Executive has given credence to this large movement (a very poignant fallback to the difficulties of the Suffragettes).

If the problem is not evident by now, let me spell it out.  While I may agree with CodePink and what they are trying to do, that point is irrelevant.  I disagree with Westboro Baptist Church, the KKK, and many other bigoted groups, but they still have the right to express their opinions (so long as they do not interfere with others self-same rights) and should be heard in the context of their overall populace representation.  That is what Freedom of Speech means!  I may not like what you say (or I may support it on different levels) but everyone has the right to be heard.  Government employees at every level are duty bound to hear and give credence to their citizenry.   If they feel it is interrupting their important “business” (you know, bilking the public and so forth), their responsibility would be to offer truly public hearings that would allow those voters to express themselves and give the legislature (Executives and Justices as well) the full picture, regardless of personal opinions.

So let CodePink speak, at the very least, with equal opportunity as the wealthy special interest groups.  Their message is sound and agreed with by 66% of American (27% Approve): American Current War Support. And their message is not in least bit unsound:  CodePink.  Yet the opinions of the citizens (unless they pander and flatter to those with money and/or power) are ignored even though Congress works far less than anyone in any country (not counting their “vacation” which come out of your taxes).  To verify, follow this link (the blue days are work days and Congress is paid even when they don’t work):  Congress work days and what they spent their time on (bear in mind some activities overlap and were done at the same Time:  Congressional Breakdown.  This is the President’s priorities (golf is more important than poverty apparently): Presidential time.  Finally, the Supreme Court works 5 hours per day(End of October to beginning of June, excluding  federal holidays, can choose which cases to accept, recesses frequently and takes an enormous amount of time to be even heard and thus works a maximum of 143 days or 715 total hours:  Work days Supreme Court Calculator.  The point being that no elected official works enough to even logically say they can’t listen to their constituency.

CodePink deserves to be heard and McCain’s comments are indicative of how Congress feels and by extension how the government feels about our populace.  They are so disconnected sitting in their golden mansions an deaf ears that they use the guise of democracy (which we have none nor are we headed towards it again) and placate the people with plenty of gadgets, games, and make sure no one notices the clear violations of the social contract (for example, several wars that are killing our young people in droves but few efforts are being made to change things because as long as we have “Candy Crush” we can ignore our attempt to occupy the world and keep our populace ignorant by reducing education, science, etc.).  If we were to educate our young and old people we might understand CodePink, and at least have rational debates on the many viewpoints out there.

I fear, however, that we have past this point.  The income divide is too great and the people too indolent to make the changes necessary.  I encourage CodePink and any of those who share the beliefs of a free, peaceful, and united nation to join together in arms to set up and defend a nation founded and sealed on truth, justice, liberty, equality, and brotherhood (sisterhood, etc.). We have been oppressed and insulted by the wealthy rulers long enough,  We must join together and exercise our right to revolt: Declaration of Independence.  If a new and better nation that listens and addresses your complaints, concerns, ideas, etc. sounds like a place you would want to be a part of, feel free to contact me.  If you believe we can save this current United States, please contact me for a rational discourse.  I am always looking for new ways of looking at things.

Foundational Documents:

John Locke

Federalist Papers

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Thomas Hobbes

US Constitution

SCOTUS Oaths of Office

All Other Oaths of Office

Voter Turnout 2014

Historic VEP

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Part II: The Executive Department of “The Ideal Government”

Our current Executive Branch is bloated and inefficient. Through the guise of regulatory activity, its agencies create their own laws which are separate and above what Congress has enabled them to do. Our own NSA is a perfect example of this. Whether or not they were empowered to do so, they used the Patriot Act to justify the whole-scale spying on US citizens and US allies. They are not alone in their activities as each Department creates for themselves entire structures of regulations which are at best tangential to the original vague laws that authorized their goals. It is my goal to eliminate that red tape through remembering the purpose of the Executive Branch and limiting it to that purpose: to enforce the laws Congress has established. Thus I think the following structure would allow us a far better, and far less greedy Executive Branch.
Article I The Executive Branch

Elections

All elections should be based on the popular vote alone and the Electoral College should be disbanded. It is a hold-over from the days when calculating the popular vote and verifying it was tedious and could leave the nation leaderless if there was a dispute. This is no longer an issue.

The President

The President is the face of our nation, and the commander of our police force. As it stands, he holds powers outside of what the Constitution has given him. The Executive order allows him to create temporary laws and temporary military movements that can have wide-ranging and possibly destructive powers. His appointment of justices and other officers (ambassadors, etc.) even when confirmed by the Senate is an archaic and useless measure that is best left to the people through election. Only the power of veto still serves a purpose, though it is abused for partisan reasons.

The President, under my construction, would have only the power of veto without additional powers approved by congress. As the face of the nation, the President has no business in the budget, no business in moving and commanding troops without permission from congress, and no business issuing executive orders (law-making should be vested solely in one branch, not muddled into many). The President need not appoint anyone as all offices can now be expedited through the election system and chosen by the people. The President should be the bearer of the peoples’ will to other nations and the very essence of what it means to be American. He should be our ambassador to other nations, supervising other ambassadors and ensuring that the image of America is consistent.
He should retain the power of veto with one caveat, all vetoes should be ruled by the Supreme Court as either just or unjust. If a veto is made based upon threats to pass or not pass other legislation the President’s party holds interest in, then the veto is unjust and should be disregarded. If the veto, however, is made based on solid legal theory and holds the interest of the people and not the party, then it should be ruled just and upheld. (Overcoming said veto will be address in the legislative part of this series). The President should be no younger than 25 and no older than 65, should have served in at least 2 other elected positions, and should have attained a Master’s degree or higher. The President is elected for 4 years and may be elected twice. Because of the benefits the members of the Executive Branch receive, they should never be paid more than the minimum wage at the time (this includes ALL members of the Executive Branch)

The Vice-President

The Vice-President should serve as President of the Senate and should hold no other duties apart from serving temporarily as President should the need arise due to death or illness of the President. The VIce-President should be elected separately from the President and meet all the qualifications to be President. The Vice-President should serve at most 2 terms of 4 years

The Line of Succession

Should anything happen to the President, an election should be called as soon as possible to elect another. The Vice-President should serve as President during the interim. THe other lines of succession should remain in place, however all should be temporary until a proper election can take place. No person should assume office simply because of misfortune and all offices should be filled with the choice of the people as soon as possible.

The Cabinet

The President’s Cabinet should stay as small as is necessary to enforce the laws of Congress. They should never have the power to create regulations that serve in any way or in any semblance as law. As will be addressed in the section on the legislature, laws should be sufficient clear and well defined to allow them to be enforced with no additional regulations. Internal regulations (Hiring, firing, etc.) should be permitted. The Secretaries of the Cabinets should be no younger than 30 and no older than 70 and should have attained at least 1 Doctorate in the field they wish to be Secretary of. They should also be elected officials who serve a term of the same length of the President they are elected under.

The Fed

The Fed should be abolished and replaced by an elected regulatory agency.

THe Bureaucracy

The officers and employees of the various cabinets should stay as small as is possible to enforce the law. They are entitled to minimum wage at the time and are hired by the President. Their conduct, whether official or not, is a direct reflection upon the President and any and all actions taken by them should be regarded as actions by President. Their actions, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses as well as those of all federal and state employees should be published for public inspection and their homes and families will be protected by the US Marshals and the State Police.
They must at all times restrict their actions to enforcing the law and must never attempt to interpret it, go around it, use any loopholes in it or any similar action. They must never, without a court order, use secretive techniques on anyone. This includes the military who must abide by civilian law and whose Secretary of Defense must be elected from the highest ranking members of each branch.

Emergency Powers

Upon the vote of 51% of Congress, or by a special election called by the President in which 51% of the nation agrees, the President may, for a specific and exact period determined by the people or Congress, whichever is applicable, take full command of the military for the express purpose of defending the nation against an aggressor.

Removal of an Executive

Should any member of the Executive Branch prove incompetent, or incapable of filling their duties, he or she may be removed upon recommendation of a member of the House, who, upon obtaining at least 51% of their fellow Representatives and 2/3 of their Senators may take said recommendation to the Supreme Court who, after reviewing all the evidence will decide whether or not to issue an order of no confidence. Upon said order the Executive will be removed and an election will take place to replace said officer.

END
This of course is not a perfect design and would require a great deal more discussion to come up with something perfect. The fact of the matter is that the current Executive Branch has taken for themselves powers not intended for them to have. Take for example the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. This entire Department was created as a fear reaction to 9/11. We have no need for an entire department to be created to do something many other departments already do. The NSA would be another perfect example. The CIA handles foreign intelligence (and domestic) and the FBI handles domestic concerns (and foreign to some extent). In addition, each branch of the military has intelligence operations. The NSA was created so we could spy on people we weren’t supposed to be spying on with our legitimate means (Geneva Convention, what’s that?). This is the effect of a bloated and misused Executive Branch. We haven’t seen anything of our Vice-President, nor has he been doing his job as President of the Senate, so why are we paying him? Another example. Time after time we can find perfect demonstrations of a fat, bloated, and lazy Executive Branch and a doddering nation unwilling to see that we can make a better way.

Well, let me know what you think and any suggestions to make this design I present to you better. The next segment will be The Legislature.

Welcome Back! Part 1 of “The Ideal Government”

I apologize for the delay but I have been contemplating a solution to the problems inherent in our government.  At the moment our government is inefficient, overpaid, not listening to their constituency, spying on their own people as well as their own allies, and has on numerous occasions threatened the very existence of our Union.  In the Senate they have misused the power of unlimited debate to simply block the passage of laws that the people desire (Filibuster).  In the House they have refused to use their power to remove elected and/or appointed officials who have transgressed the public trust (Impeachment).  The laws passed rarely reflect the desire of the people and those elected are rarely qualified to do what a public SERVANT should do.  Our elected officials are wealthy and indulgent while the average American is middle class and quickly losing all they own to the wealthy.  Those in power have made sure that power is retained by the wealthy and prohibit those who represent the interests of the middle class from possibly winning an election (winning an election is directly related to the amount  of money put into a campaign, rather than platform or qualifications).  Watching Congressional Hearings and speeches is a cavalcade of idiocy.  Congress refuses to do what we pay them handsomely for with most speeches given to an empty house  and debates are nearly non-existent.  Congress does not alone share in this damnable indictment.  Our President ignores and acts directly opposite to the people, delegates authority to his bureaucracy who creates law (regulations carry the force of law) not based on true science, but on those they pay to create the conclusions they wish.  The Department of Defense, the IRS, INS, CIA, FBI, US Marshalls, NSA, FDA, and most importantly the DEA all infringe on liberty unnecessarily, harass  the populace continually, and refuse to listen to science, unless it involves groups like the MPAA (who rely on obscure and unwritten rules.  Literally, they just watch a movie and make an arbitrary decision) or special interests who pay to have their “science” justify a particular regulation.  The President has become a neutered dog and parrots whatever sound bite sounds good.  Rather  than lead our nation, he allows ignorant and bloated morons whose pay and benefits are NOT commensurate with their qualifications and who rely on inaccurate data to lead us to fear everything from Marijuana to trans fats (Its amazing how both have been around forever and never caused massive problems until Bloomberg (Sieg Heil Bloomberg!) banned them and now just looking at trans fats can cause a heart attack)(Also, just to clarify, neither trans fats that are in even soda pop and marijuana, which the AMA and numerous other truly scientific agencies have approved in its smoked form as a medicine and is SUBSTANTIALLY  less dangerous than the legal drug Alcohol).

Finally, the Judiciary has overstepped its bounds in that they have claimed the right of judicial review without any good reason (read Marbury v Madison) and without approval of the people.  They have created and vetoed laws which is not their right.  They have ignored the Court of the People, prohibited representation to attorneys which only they can license even when representation by a non lawyer is desired.  They have prohibited private criminal prosecution despite it working in every other civilised country and exists now only in despotic regimes.  They make access to the court and records expensive and difficult to obtain for all but the wealthy.  Judges are corrupt, preferring to stay with the old boys club where they listen and give deference to anyone with a JD, even when the other party has a valid case.  Judges do not understand or know the law and attorneys bend the rules and are allowed to.  Any question of a judge or attorney will place someone in contempt.  Judges are bloated, ignorant, incapable, overpowered, overpaid, and refuse to apply the law equally, even to the point of discrimination.

This is a short indictment of our system and so through the next  few weeks I will show you how to fix this. Perhaps with any luck we can call a Constitutional Convention and fix this system that is slowly but surely destroying this nation I love.  Let me know what you think would be part of a better government!

The Right to know

When Edward Snowden made his disclosures regarding the NSA’s actions against their own citizens and against our allies abroad, Americans responded with a less than adequate level of disgust. Senators, attempting to pander to their constituents called him a traitor and used words like “treason” and “terrorist”. Americans still did not respond. The question, however, remains one of immense importance regardless of the response of the citizenry. Do we have the right to know what the government is doing? In matters like the Manhattan Project it was an easy question to answer. During that time citizens knowing what the government was doing could have put the whole world at risk. This time, however, is much different. We are not talking about a weapon or even the plans of a war, we are talking about domestic surveillance of innocent people with the remote chance a threat might be found. As a free society, we have the right and the duty to know that our government is conducting these kinds of activities. We have the right to know when our government is putting us at risk by listening to our allies covertly. They are, after all, our allies and we should do everything we can to make sure that alliance is not jeopardized by some power hungry bureaucracy. Our senators responding by calling him names and attempting to extradite him so vigorously should raise the alarm that Snowden’s disclosures were only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed I wonder if this post will not subject me to surveillance by the government I have put my faith in to protect me. The right of the people to know the abuses of power of their government is an absolute. The right to privacy is what separates us from the people who seek to destroy us. It does not mean we are doing anything wrong (I use the restroom in private and I am not doing anything wrong, it is simply something I have the right to choose not to share with my government) it simply means we are exercising a fundamental right that all men and women should have. Snowden is not a traitor or terrorist, he is a refugee from a government that is rapidly heading towards a Big Brother kind of society. The reaction of the citizenry is not just disappointing, but disgusting. We can raise troops of protesters for a murder in Florida, but we can’t even raise a finger to petition our own government to stop their heinous crimes against their own citizens. Both issues are important, and we must, to continue to live free, react equally as vigorously to the revelations of Mr. Snowden as we did to the acquittal of Mr. Zimmerman. What do you think about Edward Snowden?