January 12, 2011

TUCSON: EMBLEMATIC

ONLY THE CONSTITUTION CAN SAVE US FROM OURSELVES
 

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Our prayers are with Rep. Giffords, the families who have lost loved ones, and all of those who have been impacted by Saturday’s horrific events in Arizona.

Despite the talking heads in mainstream media and otherwise, this event is about a person who was suffering from mental illness, who was not connected to any political party, institution or ideology, but who was clearly influenced by political vitriol.

The social media sent out by Loughner, shows a confused and distraught malaise about America and its government in general. The establishment media and political “duopoly” has predictably seized on this high profile tragedy, furthering divisiveness and more vitriol. Meanwhile, thousands of our citizens at home and troops abroad continue to suffer the effects of our system of governance gone terribly awry.

Perhaps the cause doesn’t matter as much as the vitriol around it. The positive signs patriots saw coming from Washington last week – the historical reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House; the inclusion of the Rule requiring all bills must cite their constitutional authority – now need to translate speedily into real and genuine results. We need to move back towards the Supreme Law of our Land and quickly, for without our Constitution, we have no rudder or steady course on which to focus the energies of our elected officials and our People.

Coincidentally, it was Rep. Giffords, entering her third term, who read the First Amendment on the floor of the House last Thursday: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the Right of the People peaceably to assemble, and to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances.”

In 2008, American citizens who acted on their First Amendment Right to Petition for Redress of Grievances, twice served Giffords, and the 534 other members of Congress, lawful Petitions concerning violations of the Constitution, in an effort to try to stop the devastating impacts on America. On constitutional grounds, these Petitions for Redress sought answers to legitimate, well-researched questions regarding the Federal Reserve; tax on labor; Iraq Resolution; Patriot Act; failure of Presidents to enforce the immigration laws; federal gun control laws; and the steps being taken toward a North American Union. The Petitions were not seeking the impossible. As you are aware, the Petitions were ignored.

IF we were following the Mandates, Principles and Prohibitions of our Constitution and our elected officials and the People were committed to that course, our system of governance and the issues we face in America would be held within the boundaries and structure of that Constitution. The mental and emotional energies of this country, individually and collectively, would be focused on a common sense course that would negate and ultimately render impossible the political vitriol taking place in our society today.

Are we capable of seeing what we are doing to destroy ourselves?

When we ignore the sound judgment and dictates of the Constitution, and rely instead on the emotions that mark the political and electoral process to settle issues that directly affects the Rights, lives and Liberty of the People, we invite vitriol, which we have seen escalate into violence.

The political arena has become a place where opponents are expected to “hit” one another as hard as they can with everything from sharp and caustic language to negative advertisements. The political arena was NEVER intended to be the judge of the Constitution. Yet, it is this arena where individual Rights. Liberties and Freedoms, guaranteed by the Constitution are being “settled.” Predictably, the result is tragedy on many levels, including human life.

Most of the issues being fought over in the political arena, including immigration, war, money, debt and spending, relate to constitutional mandates, not political discretion, i.e. individual Rights that do not depend on the will of the majority. These are guaranteed by the letter and spirit of the Constitution, period. It’s so simple; if we follow the Constitution, our Rights will be protected, our national distress and calamities will diminish and our forward progress will return. However, we don’t get it yet and we are paying the price for our lack of understanding.

The problem is our elected officials and judges have been all too slow when it comes to understanding and upholding the Constitution, and all too quick to have violation after violation thrown into the political arena where emotions pile on and divisiveness ensues.

Judges, for instance, have been routinely dismissing for “lack of standing,” lawsuits (each a First Amendment Petition for Redress of Grievances) relating to clear violations of individual Rights guaranteed by the Constitution, refusing to listen or respond to the merits of the cases. In error, they justify their dismissals by saying, “The Petitioner’s harm is political in nature and should be taken up with Congress because his harm is no different from the injury suffered by all citizens.” This position treats America as a pure Democracy under the rule of man and whim, rather than a Constitutional Republic under the rule of law.

Issues involving the Constitution do not belong in the political arena. Yet, People acting in earnest in defense of their Rights and the Constitution, come to the Courts seeking relief and find they are slapped back, while the violations are permitted to continue. It is an insane paradigm and in sharp contrast to the way the system is designed to work.

Elected officials in the Congress and the Executive branch have also been compounding the problem as they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to those citizens who have been trying to stop the wrongs through First Amendment Petitions for Redress of Grievances regarding these violations of the Constitution. Not understanding the RELIEF America would have with the Constitution as their guide and therefore lacking the necessary constitutional conscience to ensure the process is fulfilled, they instead choose to have the issues settled by the give and take of the political process.

Can you see the layers of destructive effects this disobedience has caused?

The cause of the white hot rhetoric and escalating vitriol in the political arena is twofold. First, there is the irrefutable fact that our elected officials have strayed from the boundaries the Constitution has drawn around their power. Second, we have the clear record of the fact that our elected officials and judges have absolutely refused to allow the Government to be held accountable to the Constitution by the People, refusing to honor their obligation to respond to First Amendment Petitions for Redress.

The American People cannot help but wonder if those running our political parties have struck a deal with our Judges to protect our elected officials from being held accountable to the Constitution, despite their gross abuses.

Here we are, in a society where an overwhelming number of our citizens are “trained” to weigh every controversy in political terms, are largely ill-informed about the Constitution (what has happened to civic education?) and are much more likely to react emotionally in these chaotic economic times.

The current approach to government, at least up to now, has been a recipe for vitriol in a land where government was chartered to be republican (small “r” the philosophy, not capital “R” the party) in both form and substance.

What would America be like today if our elected officials honored their duty to stand by the dictates of the Constitution, especially the accountability clause of the First Amendment? What would America be like if common sense was revisited by our leaders, rather than blindly following the instructions from their political parties and other special interests?

What if the loyalties of our elected officials flowed to the Constitution, rather than the political forces that continue to foster tragedies world wide?

We so want to believe that 2011 will be the year we find out, but it may take more than an iron will to see it through.


NYSBOE: More of the Same

The New York State Board of Elections has formally asked the Court for a second time to dismiss our case challenging the State’s decision to count votes in secret using computer-controlled vote counting machines.

The Commissioners have moved to dismiss the Complaint on the ground that Plaintiffs Schulz and Liggett “lack standing” to sue because the injury to Schulz and Liggett is no different than that suffered by any other voter in the state. That is, the state of New York has asked the federal court to dismiss the lawsuit because the constitutional injuries suffered by Schulz and Liggett arising from having their votes counted in secret and not knowing, reliably, if their votes are being accurately counted, without special expert knowledge, is no different from the injury to all other citizen-voters whose votes are also counted in secret.

Again, the State has responded to Plaintiffs Schulz & Liggett’s claims of injury by asking the Court for an Order dismissing the Complaint on the ground that the Petitioner’s lack standing to maintain their constitutional challenge because their injuries are no different in kind and degree from those of everyone else in the State, even though those injuries deprive fundamental Rights and are clearly zones of interests to be protected by the U.S. Constitution under Article I, Sections 2 and 4, the Seventeenth Amendment, Article III, Section 2, and the “accountability clause” of the First Amendment.

In sum, the State does not want the Court to hear the case and decide it on the merits of the claims. The State would have the claims treated as a political question, rather than a Constitutional question, settled not by a court of Law but by the give and take of the political process, prone as it is to strife, fueled by campaign contributions and influenced by those who are the recipients of its beneficence.

Last Wednesday, January 5th, we filed our Brief in Opposition to the State’s Motion to Dismiss.

We earnestly ask everyone to read the Brief and its Appendix A, in full; it’s instructional, not just for the future of the public nature of elections, but in terms of seeing what is happening to America. We are in a rush to the bottom and need a mid- course correction.

As you read these documents which reference the historic 2009 judicial ruling by the Constitutional Court of Germany (the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court) prohibiting all electronic voting machines, please realize that alleged violations of the (German) Constitution are not settled in the political arena, but are determined by the Constitutional Court, where every citizen has standing to bring Petitions for violations of fundamental Rights. Who among us would have thought that Germany could be a role model for America in the fulfillment of our own Constitution?
 

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