With the clock running out on a new US-Russian arms treaty before the previous Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires on December 5, a senior White House official said Sunday said that the difficulty of the task might mean temporarily bypassing the Senate’s constitutional role in ratifying treaties by enforcing certain aspects of a new deal on an executive levels and a “provisional basis” until the Senate ratifies the treaty.
I think about this, and find myself hoping that they really don’t mean that. Admittedly, since this is the armed forces, and Obama is Commander in Chief, they can do this easily. But, it shows a lack of respect for the Constitutional process (and I question its legality). With this attitude. they could sign any treaty they want, and enforce it, without ratification by the Senate (just don’t let it go up for a vote). Instead, they should be requesting consideration from the Senate to review and vote on ratifying it as soon as it is signed.
233 years ago, a groups of brave men risked the lives in a desperate bid for freedom from a tyrannical government. Now, please turn up your speakers for the national anthem and read the following:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
I decided to change out the stock on my AR and went looking for my AR armorers tool. I looked all over my workbench (no luck, and knocked over a stack of ammo boxes). I then went and looked in my toolbox for something to make do, and found it in there (DOH!). It then took me about a minute to switch from fixed stock to collapsing stock. Now, I need a carbine length upper.
When people on the government’s terrorist watch list have tried to buy guns or explosives in recent years, the government has let them the vast majority of the time.
That’s the finding of a new report by the Government Accountability Office, sent to lawmakers last month and released publicly Monday.
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The GAO provided the report in response to a request from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey. The GAO said Lautenberg had requested an update to a 2005 report.
In a statement Monday, Lautenberg said, “this new report is proof positive that known and suspected terrorists are exploiting a major loophole in our law, threatening our families and our communities. This ‘terror gap’ has been open too long, and our national security demands that we shut it down.”
The statement said Lautenberg is introducing legislation that would give the U.S. attorney general “authority to stop the sale of guns or explosives to terrorists.”
There is a huge problem with this, nobody on the terrorist watch list has been found guilty of anything. At one time, Senator Edward Kennedy was on the list. The list just has names. And, if your name is similar to someone’s name on the list, you are hit with the same restrictions (this has happened to two-year-old). If we allow the government to arbitrarily restrict this Constitutionally protected right, what is to stop them from restricting others? What is to prevent them from putting all of the current (or future) administrations’ opponents, on this list? What will prevent them from adding you, your friends, and/or your family to this list? This very list is the problem. Unless it is modified such that being put on the list is the result of a court action, where the accused is allowed to defend him/herself, the terrorist watch list needs to go away.
This is a program that teaches at risk teen females self-respect and decision making through manners and deportment. I think this is a great idea, and it should also be implemented for young men. Good manners and self discipline are required to be successful in the USA. As to the scholars who say that teaching these behaviors emphasizes one culture over another, I have a few things to say. One, good manners used to be a part of the African American culture in the USA. But, some people started calling that degrading names. Also, not looking people in the eye was expected of minorities and the poor before the civil rights movement. When people try to denigrate teaching the disadvantaged the social and cultural skills to successful, I want to ask them why they are trying to hold these people back. I am little tired of people trying to pass him self-destructive behaviors as cultural behaviors that need to be maintained. If it is a behavior that harms people (whther themselves or others), it should not be protected or encouraged. In some cultures slavery and mutilation of women is acceptable behavior, but it is not right.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that you do not hace constitutional right to DNA testing after conviction. I hate to say it, but they are right. However, since there 3 states that refuse to allow this, I think this is an instance of where we need either a federal law or (better yet) a constitutional amendment. I think that anyone convicted of a crime should have the right to testing that can prove their guilt or innocence. However, there should also be a consequence when the testing proves your guilt. They should have their sentences extended by at least 25% (a 10 year sentence becomes 12.5 years). If they are facing a death sentence, all appeals are ended and they are executed within the next 30 days. My biggest problem with the death penalty is the certainty of guilt. There needs to be hard physical evidence tieing the accused to the crime (not eye-witness testimony).
Both articles contain assumptions that I think are bogus. In the first article, they make the assumption that global warming is continuing. Based on various articles I have read, it appears that global temperatures are either leveling off or falling slowly. The second article makes the assumption that the farmers can not adjust to this. The fact is, temperatures have only fallen to the levels we saw in the late 1980s. Until we see winters in the Dallas area worse than the ones I saw in the early 1980s, I won’t be worried. I remember a week (the week before spring break) with a foot of snow on the ground. The winter of 1989 Dallas did not get above freezing for over 2 weeks. Global cooling is nothing to panic over, yet.
Overall, I think people need to realize how little power man has over global temperatures. The biggest factor in global temperatures is the sun. This does not mean pollute all we want and be as inefficient as we want. It means that we have to carefully analyze any energy and environmental problems to make sure that they do not cause harm.
Apparently it comes as a surprise to some people, but not all Hispanics (or women) think alike. Why should race, ethnicity, gender or even class determine one’s point of view on political or legal issues? What’s more, when it comes to Hispanics, there is often not even a single, shared culture that might create a common bond.
….
But for most Hispanics who were born in the U.S., our primary identity is as Americans. In the largest poll of its kind in 2002, nearly 60 percent of third-generation Hispanics used the term “American” as either the only or first term to describe themselves, and 97 percent said they use American to identify themselves at least some of the time.
Still, the media and most politicians seem to think Sotomayor’s ethnic heritage and gender are relevant to the story of her Supreme Court nomination. She’s the first female Hispanic to be named to the highest court in the land, and that must mean something, the thinking goes. But what? Frankly, it was only a matter of time before a Hispanic reached the court. True barriers – meaning disqualifications based on race, ethnicity or gender – simply don’t exist anymore.
As Ms. Chavez says in her column, it’s not about race or gender, it’s about a liberal President, choosing a liberal jurist ro replace a liberal Justice.
