If this doesn’t scare you, you’re not paying attention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX41SkKN0tQ

Ah, now we’re playing Sam Adams’ tune…….

The Constitution Working Group of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has produced the following Statement of Beliefs as a platform for recommended future actions to solve the Nation’s problems, including BAILOUTS, CORPORATE PERSONHOOD, WAR, UNSOUND MONEY AND DEBT.  

The Constitution Working Group asks that these Beliefs now be considered by ALL People in and out of the Occupy movement.  Ponder these and make known your approval: 

·         All People have Natural Rights — Simply Because They Are Alive;

• We the People have Instituted Government to Secure our Rights;
• According to our Governing Documents, Sovereignty rests with the People - 
  Here in America, the People have the Ultimate Power;
• The Constitution & Declaration of Independence are inextricably intertwined;
• Every Principle, Prohibition, Restriction and Mandate of our Governing Documents represents a Guaranteed, Individual Right;
• The People are the Source of All Political Power – no one gets into office unless WE put them there;
• All Elected Officials are limited by our written Constitutions – If Not Authorized in writing, such acts are UNLAWFUL;
• The Constitution is not a Menu;
• The Constitution cannot Defend Itself;
• Individuals and Small Groups cannot prevail in attempts to hold government accountable to their State and Federal Constitutions;
• A Critical Mass is needed, i.e., 3-5% of population;
• Very few in and out of public office can recognize when government is obeying or violating the Constitution;
• The way our system of governance is working is in sharp contrast to the way it is designed to work;
• We don’t change the Constitution by ignoring it; there are provisions within it to make changes;
• All that is happening is our fault; the People have allowed it to happen;
• The People have always had the ultimate power in America and have always been the final arbiters of constitutionality;
• Most of what is causing our National distress NOW can be traced back to violations of the Constitution.

Where are those alleged bomb-throwing anarchists eh?

Yes, this is one of many working groups and has no force of consensus in the form of having passed a General Assembly.

Yet.

But this ought to make those of you who have claimed that the “Occupy” movement is somehow intended to remove our Constitution and replace it with Marxism (or worse) sit down and smell the coffee.

Why not tea?  Because the so-called Tea Party couldn’t be bothered to put this at the forefront of what they stood for.  They turned into “Guns” (that one’s actually in the Constitution), “Gays” (uh, that’s not, and in fact is exactly the opposite of what the tea party claims in this regard!) and “God” (uh, again, First Amendment; freedom of religion is not we choose, you obey when it comes to religion is it?)

The flame-out you’ve seen among those who claim to be in the linear descendant chain of Sam Adams’ political thought comes from the fact that they couldn’t be bothered to actually call a general strike.  To actually interrupt commerce so as to protest taxation.  To engage in proportional response to the looting that has taken place — for instance, by handing out fliers in front of every TBTF bank branch across the country asking people to boycott and naming their admitted crimes (you have so many to pick from and the best part of choosing from the ones admitted to is that it’s in their own words!) and more.  In short, to do as Sam Adams did, and believe not in the tired old divisive politics of BS and hate but rather to focus on The Constitution and its restoration.

Hell, among so-called “Tea Party” folks I can’t recall any, other than a handful of bloggers (myself and FedUp included) who have called for or participated in any sort of direct action.  We have a few over on Tickerforum sporting American Flags next to their names — they have participated in some sort of peaceful and lawful direct demonstration.  But where are the so-called “Tea Party” on this score? 

Absent, that’s where.

So into the vacuum steps “Occupy Wall Street”, and out of the Constitution working group comes this.  Not bomb-throwing anarchy, not some sort of wild proposal to re-write The Constitution to be a leftist, Marxist dream ticket, but an actual statement of principles that is fully in concordance with SAM ADAMS, THOMAS JEFFERSON and the rest of those who were part of the REAL Tea Party.

If you recall when I first started blogging about “OWS” I pointed out that there was about a two week period where I hadn’t written anything as I was feeling my way around the edges of what this movement really was — doing my own investigation, my own background work.  Since that time I’ve been a supporter predicated on it being a lawful exercise of one’s Constitutionally-recognized rights.

I also pointed out that there was real risk in this movement — that the people there had gotten the “who dunnit” right, but that most of them didn’t understand how it happened.  This is not surprising; the “how” is difficult and those who did the scamming made it intentionally so. 

Well, this Statement of Beliefs is not the end of the debate as to whether OWS will turn into something both powerful and positive, but it is a clear statement of purpose in the right direction.

Those of you on the right who have claimed that this is all some sort of anarchist or communist movement have egg on your face this morning.  The knee-jerk reaction will undoubtedly be to both ignore this document and work product and sling mud.

The constructive thing to do is what I’ve been trying to do since I made my decision on how to proceed — engagement, education and promotion of both a positive and lawful message and set of principles.

You now have a a platform from an actual OWS working group that no true Sam Adams’ political devotee can argue with.

We will now find out from the commentary and actions of these groups within the next days and weeks whether those who claim to be “Tea Partiers” really are Constitutionalists or whether they are in fact defecating on Sam Adams’ grave.

Ps: Yes, before you ask, I am well-aware of who owns that domain.  This is called engagement folks, and it’s what I’ve been preaching.  See….. it works!

It’s time for the protesters to bone up on the law.  Specifically, due to this:

Tennessee state troopers for the second straight night arrested Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol.

And for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed arrest warrants of the arrested protesters.

The Tennessean newspaper reports that Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could “find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza.”

Now these cops are cooked — and not just the city either — the cops are PERSONALLY liable.

Here ‘ya go folks… here’s your ticket to own some cop homes, cars, boats (if they have them) and other possessions.

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia

Go get ‘em Nashville protesters.  It’s time to take these cops willful and knowing violation of your civil rights, as you have a judge who has declared your arrest unlawful and in violation of those rights, right back to court and tattoo each and every one of them with a nice fat civil judgment.

In short, you’ve been screwed out of your house.  Now go get some redress and evict a few of these jackbooted thugs from theirs, legally, and render them homeless.

The best way to stop this crap is to render the so-called “law enforcement officers” doing it penniless.

And A Note To Governor Haslam:  You were elected GOVERNOR, NOT King.  It was during the middle ages that Kings commonly decided to unilaterally impose or change laws upon the peasants when they did something he didn’t like.  You see, Mr. Haslam, we live in a Constitutional Republic, not in a feudal state.  I’d like to refer you to the 1st Amendment to our Constitution.  You might try reading it.  You also might want to try looking at Article 1 of the Tennesee State Constitution.  For your convenience it was also apparently posted  in the Courtyard.

If it isn’t becoming clear by now, our overlords have utterly no regard for the rights we have as human beings; the rights that are supposed to be clearly protected under the US Constitution.

He was Standing Stone Still Amid Tear Gas in Oakland – Clutching a Copy of the U.S. Constitution

In our coverage of the police assault on peaceful Occupy Oakland demonstrators Wednesday, we ran the inspiring photo of a man standing in front of a line of riot police, wearing a sailor’s uniform, holding a Veterans For Peace flag and clutching a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

But what we didn’t realize at the time — not apparent from the photo, but seen in the following, remarkable video — he was also standing stone still as tear gas canisters were exploding all around him…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzkdqdgw35k

I can’t help but look at the faces of the police in gas masks, presumably from the Oakland PD (though there were some 17 other agencies there that night) in that haunting video, as they look at the sailor, and wonder what they must be thinking to themselves as that hero stands facing them. We have previously written about the extraordinary violations of the First Amendment that have occurred across the country during these otherwise peaceful demonstrations. What thoughts are going through the minds of those men — all of whom are undoubtedly also a part of the same “99%” for whom Occupy protesters are fighting — during that moment?

And, as another photograph now reveals, look who happens to be standing right next to the sailor seen above, in the moments just prior to the Oakland PD’s tear gas assault…

That’s right. That’s Scott Olsen standing next to him on the right, the former U.S. Marine and two-tour Iraq vet whose skull was fractured just minutes later that night by a police projectile, sending him to the hospital in critical condition. The two short videos below document the incident, and the moment when cops actually toss in a flash-bang grenade amidst a number of demonstrators trying to frantically administer first aid to Olsen…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ

This one specifically highlights what happened during the attempt to aid Olsen…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLyUK0t0vQ

A bit of somewhat encouraging updated news on Olsen: His condition has been upgraded from “critical” to “fair” and he is reportedly now breathing on his own and “responding to his mother who is at his side.”  His parents flew in from Wisconsin to be with him yesterday.

There are still worries about the possibility of brain damage, though a report I saw late last night said that, for the moment, doctors have determined he won’t need to have surgery in hopes of reducing the brain swelling he experienced in the hours following the injury.

VFP has created a Scott Olsen Fund to collect donations to help offset medical expenses.

Finally, last night, Oakland’s Mayor Jean Quan (D), who had ordered the police assault on the two prior evenings, decided to not wait in line last night to speak to demonstrators at their General Assembly meeting, according to on-the-scene tweets from Mother Jones’ Gavin Aronsen.

Instead, after claiming she was not allowed to speak, she issued the following statement on her Facebook page…

Well, she had me right up to her last request, #4: “We are asking you not to camp overnight. Frank Ogawa Plaza is open for free speech activities between 6 am and 10 pm.”

I guess I missed the asterisk in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment where “free speech activities” are confined to certain convenient hours.

Anyone who has that little understanding of our nation’s owner’s manual — particularly after allowing her police to behave as they did — needs to resign immediately. It’s time for you to step down, Mayor Quan.

BradBlog

While the debate over the raising, lowering, or demolishing the debt ceiling is new(ish), the fact that the federal government’s financial house is in disorder is a situation that has existed for over a century. The last few Presidents (of both parties), in collusion with an all too compliant Congress (regardless of which party was in the majority), have spent money on a scheme of government expansion that would drive any nation into the abyss of fiscal desolation in which America now finds itself.

For example, Democrats, whether in the White House or on Capitol Hill, zealously protect their core bloc of voters by throwing themselves in front of any legislative attack on any of the myriad entitlement programs that assure their electoral success and support.

Republicans, on the other hand, are equally vigilant in their watch over the corporate welfare that lines the pockets of their big oil, big bank, military industrial complex-connected cronies. Some of this money, they rightly assume, will find its way into their own campaign coffer, thus perpetuating the cycle of deceit and destruction.

In a constitutional analysis of the misplaced loyalties of the two major political parties and the eviscerating effect they have on the economic stability of our country and the long-term existence of the Constitution upon which it is built, we find that there is more than profligacy at the heart of our current dire situation.

While the dedication on both sides of the aisle to careering headlong into the unforgiving brick wall of bankruptcy is reckless and deplorable, it isn’t the spending that is the disease eating away the very nerves and fibers of this nation.

Fortunately for us and our posterity, within the four corners of our founding charter are found both the cause and the cure of the malady threatening the body politic.

Our Founding Fathers spoke often of the sovereignty of the several states and of the restraint on unchecked growth that they were meant to be on the federal authority. Witness this statement from Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Number 28:

It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system that the State governments will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.

And this from James Madison from the same set of letters:

But ambitious encroachments of the federal government on the authority of the State governments would not excite the opposition of a single State, or a few states only. They would be signals of general alarm.

By another name this ingenious structure is known as federalism. This uniquely American experiment was declared by the “Father of the Constitution” to be the only form of government “reconcilable with the genius of the people of America.”

Given the sine qua non of this vital aspect of our governing structure, it should be alarming to all the citizens of this republic that our elected representatives have ignored this fundamental principle (often purposefully); worked year after year, decade after decade to demolish the walls that protect the sovereign states from unlawful and unconstitutional attacks by the federal government; and have passed one bill after another that increases the size of the behemoth on the Potomac and makes resistance to its usurpations nearly futile.

This assault on federalism is not limited to those presently occupying offices in Washington, oval or otherwise. Potential presidential candidates espouse a variety of causes that betray their ignorance on the importance of the perpetuation of our federal structure.

State sovereignty, of course, is one of the two legs upon which federalism stands. The other is a federal government endowed with a very specifically limited enumeration of powers.

It is often difficult for self-proclaimed advocates of the Tenth Amendment to accept the full panoply of possibilities present in that one little sentence of constitutional and republican genius.

For example, there is no constitutional grant of authority to the federal government to establish rules for marriage, immigration, health care, or education, yet with the exception of Ron Paul, the entire slate of Republican candidates for President supports one or more of the preceding initiatives.

Why would these soi-disant proponents of small government reach so deeply into their pockets to surfeit big business’s appetite for tax breaks, grants, sweetheart loans, and bailouts? Regardless of the rhetoric, these “Republicans understand they can’t cut as deep as necessary and with a few notable exceptions, don’t really want that,” writes Bill Flax in Forbes. “They spend too, just on different constituents.”

On the other side, the Forbes piece notes, “Democrats realize it’s much easier to spew class warfare than devise meaningful plans. Besides, increased dependency trends well for their statist tendencies. [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner we’re up to 80 million checks a month.”

Everyone is familiar with the dance. And, although the dancers occasionally rotate, the beat remains the same. That is likely due less to the fact that Americans aren’t bothered, than by the fact that the same coterie of DJs has been spinning the records for at least 80 years.

How does that familiar tune go? Republicans brand Democrats as “tax and spend liberals” who are closet socialists. Democrats slam Republicans for being mean to seniors, children, the poor, and minorities. Neither side is ready to make any admissions against their own interests and rededicate themselves to timeless and proven principles of federalism.

A brief restatement of the situation was provided by the Forbes piece quoted above:

If Boehner doesn’t budge on taxes, Obama threatens to deny social security. Like a local school board who loses a levy and stops busing, politicians relish punishing recalcitrant taxpayers. Obama would rather slam seniors so he can blame Republicans than lead. Washington underwrote a study measuring the impact penis size has on the sex lives of gay individuals. There is plenty to cut before curtailing payments to retirees.

Another understood, though unspoken, truth is that if something doesn’t change quickly and drastically, then the brilliantly illuminated fabric of our republic will continue unraveling until all that remains is a tattered cloth suitable only for inspection by historians and archeologists. For example, during the debt ceiling pantomime, Republicans, specifically Paul Ryan, offered a “Cut, Cap and Balance” proposal that, despite its name, called for increases in spending and the national debt (the “cuts” were only cuts in future projected increases; they were not cuts in the absolute sense).

The Forbes piece described the flaw in the plan: “Both plans maintain the fatal flaw of social spending: federal involvement.”

And what of the much-touted block grants, beloved by “conservatives” and neo-conservatives alike.

Block grants would likely improve efficiency, but why even involve federal agencies? Why funnel money to Washington and back just so Congress can attach strings? These programs ought to revert entirely back to states. Such would honor the Founders’ intent and put decisions closer to taxpayers keeping them engaged. State governments, sans printing presses, might even better maintain fiscal discipline.

Again, the cure for all the nonsensical and nefarious half-measures (many if not most of which are created, designed, and promoted by the same shadowy cabal of globalists) is a rapid return to the safe harbor of federalism.

reinvigoration of the sovereignty and manly spirit of resistance among the states is the remedy for most of what ails the country. Constitutionalists know that less talk of “cutting spending” or “reducing the size of government” and more undiluted talk of holding our elected representatives accountable for every vote cast that permits the federal government to exceed the boundaries of the narrow, specifically defined sphere of authority that was originally granted it by the states and the people.

Apart from his work as a journalist, Joe Wolverton, II is a professor of American Government at Chattanooga State and was a practicing attorney until 2009. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Tenth Amendment Center

No, not in theory; I mean literally.

Readers of FedUpUSA know that I don’t post Alex Jones.  This is primarly because I disagree with his positions on a number of things, but on this point he is correct.  The Super Congress has officially made the United States a dictatorship.  Snuck in with the debt ceiling legislation that was supposed to ‘save us all’ – is a frightening circumvention of the checks and balances of the power of our 3 branches of government.

This is not a partisan issue, either.  Both Republicans and Democrats agreed to this.  Indeed, NO ONE on either side of the aisle objected to this!

Alex Jones covers the high points of the horrifying new powers that this new small group of people has in this video.  Watch it.  Pass it to everyone you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w23nF4wsMqw

It is also worth reading the article from the Huffington Post:  Super Congress Getting Even More Super Powers In Debt Deal

Our Republic is being destroyed right before our eyes – all because those in power refuse to stop borrowing, spending and giving money to the banks.

On March 26-27, the National Constitution Center will host an interactive, interdisciplinary forum and workshop titled “Can We Talk? A Conversation about Civility and Democracy in America,” in which FedUpUSA.org has been asked to take part. 

Below is a response to last week’s question: “What can we learn from the budget showdown in Wisconsin about building the political consensus needed for long-term solutions?”

Unfortunately, this is reality when it comes to the subject of economics.  The time to build a consensus ended in 2003 just prior to the massive real estate bubble blown as a result of terrible economic policy.  Economics is not a partisan issue, although both sides of the aisle have made it so.

The biggest lesson to be learned from Wisconsin is that when there is no money, there is no money.  This is our reality, like it or not.  Partisanship has made Wisconsin into an argument over unions.  This is not the real issue.

To generate revenue, the nation must be productive, or generate GDP.   Because our economy was built on what amounts to a giant Ponzi scheme that relied upon private sector spending on consumer goods (like houses, cars and iPods), which accelerated in 2003, and collapsed in 2007, right now, the majority of our ‘GDP’ comes from deficit spending .

Quite frankly, this is the only thing that is keeping us from recognizing a full-on economic depression.  If you raise taxes, you subtract directly from what is left of private spending.  Refuse to raise taxes and the government is forced to continue to borrow.  For each cut in spending there is a corresponding cut in GDP.  The current House spending bill proposes to cut $61 billion from the budget, which would decrease GDP by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the next quarter according to Goldman Sachs.

As a nation we took in approximately $2 trillion in federal tax revenues (source:IRS 2010).  We spent almost $4 trillion.  To spend only what was taken in, you would have to decrease government spending by 42%, or $1.7 trillion for calendar 2010. Removing that would result in a decrease in GDP of 50% !   (The definition of a depression is a contraction in GDP of 10% or more year on year.)  This is the mathematical fact of our situation and I am not the only one who realizes this.  Goldman Sachs came out with a report on February 23, 2010 that says much the same thing.

The United States no longer produces anything but debt.  You can’t get out of debt when it is all you produce.  We’re stuck in a box that is slowly being crushed.  The only thing we need to have a consensus about is the numbers on paper and the reality of our situation.

Stephanie Jasky is the Founder and Director of FedUpUSA.org.

National Constitution Center

CNBC’s Santelli rants about NY Times and other critics of congressional Constitution reading
‘Father’ of the tea party movement rips members of House of Representatives that object to the reading of the Constitution.

Keepin’ it real Rick.    Thanks.

So as I sit here waiting for my pie crust to chill so it can be rolled out, and prepare to stick my extremist pumpkin pie and extremist turkey breast in the oven, along with all the other fixings that I’m preparing for dinner today, I thought I’d muse a bit on what we should hope for out of our CHRISTmas this year.

Hope, of course, is one of the three things that all organized religion attempts to teach.  The other two are faith and love.  But do we really find them in organized religion – of any stripe? 

There have been many times over my life that I’ve doubted the existence of God.  But never more than in the last few years, as the trappings of what our nation began with, The Constitution, drawn by a few dozen wise men, guided by provenance, has been systematically shredded into confetti and used for toilet paper.

To be sure this is not exactly a new thing.  Our tripartite system of checks and balances was utterly trashed in days gone by, with two of the most-egregious examples being FDR’s attempt to pack the Supreme Court and the introduction and passage of the 17th Amendment, which instantly and permanently eviscerated the 10th Amendment – part of the grand bargain by the colonies for the adoption of The Constitution in the first place.

Indeed, if one looks back through the outrages of Federal Government expansion, you’ll find they pretty much began with the 17th Amendment, and the reason is clear: Its passage removed the ability of The States to block federal legislation.

Yet that fundamental construct – a modest and weak federal government and a comparatively strong set of state governments, is exactly what all those in our nation signed up for roughly 235 years ago.  The Constitution is in fact a contract – but like all contracts, it is only as good as the willingness of the parties to enforce it.

Liberals of all stripes talk incessantly about “The living Constitution.”  That, of course, is a crock.  The Constitution is a set of black letters arranged on a very-dead tree.  Yet it is not inflexible – the means to amend it to suit the needs of the day is embedded within.  For better or worse that path was allowed, and in some cases, such as the 17th Amendment, I argue we so amended it foolishly, in the heat of political “wedge issue” arguments that in fact date back to the founding of politics itself.  Yet when a liberal wants something he can’t have under The Constitution he typically ignores the constraint - such as those who argue that the black letter language of The Second Amendment means that only ”The National Guard” has the right to bear arms never mind that The Constitution was drawn when “The National Guard” was comprised of every able-bodied man, keeping and bearing his own arms suitable for military purpose (which most-certainly include rifles and handguns), whether organized into military units or keeping their own homes and land safe from potential – and actual - marauders.  Such a force comprised of all citizens willing to bear their own arms in what we now call The United States in fact dates back more than 370 years, to the 1630s!  In 1903 the “organized” role of the National Guard was subsumed into the Army Reserve force, where it remains.  But the original militia envisioned by the founders did not (of course) disappear – it remains in the form of every citizen willing and able to bear arms in defense of the nation, of the state, and of him or herself.  It’s just inconvenient to acknowledge that fact when you’ve got a particular agenda you want to pursue – like Statist or even Marxist control of the people.  How soon we forget that one of Hitler’s first acts was to disarm the population, and that this almost-certainly made possible mass-murder of Jews and dissidents.  In short, The Left keeps some damn strange bedfellows.

Conservatives of all stripes talk incessantly about “The Rule of Law.”  That too is a crock, considering that The Rule of Law most-certainly includes all of The Bill of Rights – not just the parts congruent with what they want to do if and when convenient.  The Constitution provides, among other things, that in all matters of controversy that exceed $25 in value, and for all criminal offenses no matter how petty, you have a right to trial by jury.  Try to assert that right for a traffic offense carrying a $200 fine and see how quickly you’re ruled against.  The 4th Amendment prohibits searches and seizures without a warrant specifying probable cause and the specific item(s) to be searched for and seized under that probable cause, yet I don’t recall the last time I saw an alleged Conservative actually demand that all of the illegal searches and seizures that take place every day in this country cease.  The Constitution also provides for explicit equal protection under the law, yet we have a multitude of Statutes that explicitly violate same, not to mention blatant refusal to prosecute black-letter crimes – even admitted crimes – when the criminal is some powerful institution like a bank.  The Right keeps some damn strange bedfellows too, when one considers the admitted and alleged crimes involved - organized tax fraud, breaking and entering, burglary, theft, money laundering in support of drug running and terrorism - to name just a few.

We have Statutes that are wantonly and willfully violated without recourse every single day.  One such example is The Federal Reserve Act which explicitly mandates price stability.  Those two words are clear and bear no interpretation or argument.  Yet Ben Bernanke and those who have come before him have continued to hold the office while asserting that “2% inflation annualized” meets the mandate.  Really?  In 1776 an 8th grade education was sufficient for anyone to know that over a mere 50 years such a mandate would result in the devaluation of saved capital by 63%, and over 100 years, almost the duration of The Federal Reserve to date, it would result in an 86% devaluation.  Never mind that the actual rate has been closer to 3%, resulting in a devaluation of about 95% over that time. Such is the nature of compound functions.  How this sort of thing comports with the word “stable” is beyond anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size. 

That we, the people, have and do permit this is proof positive that our shoe size exceeds our intellect.

Then we have so-called “Security Apparatus” such as the TSA.  A pilot was recently “disciplined” for disclosing via videos what I’ve talked about repeatedly since 2001 – The TSA provides no security of meaning at all.  Proof of this is found in the fact that airport employees simply go through a card-reader door to get to “sterile” areas of the airport and are not searched on the way in – or the way out.  This, of course, leaves a wide-open path for someone to either impersonate a worker (trivial if all you need to do is duplicate or steal his access card) – or bribe him or her.

A baggage screener was arrested in 2008 for stealing more than $200,000 worth of electronics from the pass-through X-ray belt that your carry-ons go through.  She was caught when she allegedly stole a camera belonging to CNN, which they found listed on eBAY for resale.  Oops.  Nor was this the only incident of this type - as of 2008, 465 ”officers” have been fired for theft.   Left unsaid, of course, is that if I can steal something from your bag I can put something in it too, and that “something” might be a bomb.

Then there’s the fact that just a few days ago a man accidentally carried on a handgun – it went right through the security check at the airport X-ray machine.  It wasn’t a little gun either – it was a .40 pistol!  Experts tell us that the “fail” rate to catch weapons carried on approaches and in some cases exceeds 70%.  Are these people sleeping at the monitor?  Again, if that’s the “accidental” failure rate how hard is it to bribe one of the men or women watching that X-ray machine at an “appropriate” time if you have nefarious intent? 

We’re told that we should “submit” to full-body X-rays which will do nothing about this problem, since a carry-on bag isn’t, of course, on your person.  And we continue to accept that the “underwear nut-burner” would have been “caught” with such screening even when 70% of the time guns, which are a hell of a lot easier to spot than a splotch of explosives splayed around one’s genitals, are missed by people using the same technology at much higher power levels and resolution with your carry-on bags and despite the fact that the crotch-bomber was walked around security and check-in formalities by someone – therefore, scanner or not, competent operator or not, he would not have been caught by it!

The truth is this: While there are plenty of terrorists nearly all of them are cowards.  Oh sure, they’ll try to send a bomb in a toner cartridge from Yemen (exactly how many toner cartridges are manufactured in Yemen, may I ask?) while they sit on the ground chortling at their grand attempt to blow a plane up.  There are terrorists who will pack a van full of what they think are explosives and park it near a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, intending to kill dozens if not hundreds of people, including children, by remote control using a cell phone while safely beyond the expected blast radius.

There are damn few terrorists, and most of them seem to have an IQ well below room-temperature, who are willing to die in the commission of their intended act.  This appears to be a matter of innate wiring of the human brain, and is a good thing.

But in our mass-hysteria we allow “Big Sis” to tell us that a risk that is 100 times less likely to result in our injury or death than the simple drive to the airport to catch our flight suddenly requires that we forget that the 4th Amendment to The Constitution exists.  Never mind that nearly all of the arrests and prosecutions that the TSA manages to actually commence (despite their bungling success ratio) have nothing whatsoever to do with airline security – the arrestees are, by and large, busted for things such as drugs. 

Isn’t it funny how the “Security Theater” game, complete with entirely-inept employees that can’t detect a gun 70% of the time in a carry-on bag, thereby rendering them in my opinion unfit to ask “would you like fries with that”, manages to get us to give up one of our fundamental rights by waving around a risk that is documented to be 100 times less likely to kill you than the drive to the airport?

Who’s the dummy when our collective IQ is so low that we fail to detect and refuse to accede to this obvious and intentional lie?

So as we celebrate CHRISTmas this year, let us pray that should God actually be out there that we not receive material gifts under our tree, or even the love of our fellow man.

No, let us pray that the New Year brings a sense of outrage.  A demand for justice.  A bent to prosecute, not loot.  A demand that each and every of our Constitutional Rights be respected and that those who try to abrogate them be ejected from public service and jailed.  That we become a people unwilling to sit still and twiddle our thumbs (or other bodily parts) while the roughly 6% of our population that is psychotic and malevolent strips the productive people and assets of this nation to the bone, then throws what’s left into our own funeral pyre and uses what’s left of The Constitution to ignite it.

We have the ability to demand that these acts stop and that those who committed them in the past, throwing people from their homes, blowing serial asset bubbles through lies and obfuscations, stealing through misrepresentation and fraud or making promises that were known to be fundamentally unsound and impossible to keep be identified in public, indicted, prosecuted and imprisoned.

We, the people, can take this nation back.

It is within our power.

We only need the will, and the Grace of God, to do so.