This is Constitution Day; the official White House photo for the occasion is on the left. Obama issued a proclamation for the occasion that is knee-deep with his usual Statist hokum. Obama declared: “Our Constitution… secures the privileges we enjoy as citizens, but also demands participation, responsibility, and service to our country and to one another.”
But the Bill of Rights was not a “Bill of Privileges.” The Bill of Rights recognized the pre-existing rights of American citizens—it did not bestow those rights on a conquered populace. Americans of the Revolutionary Era would only permit a national government to come into existence if the leaders of that government would solemnly pledge to limit their power in perpetuity. The Bill of Rights was not “radical” according to the beliefs of Americans of that era; instead, it codified rights both long recognized in English common law and purchased in blood during the Revolution. The Constitution was almost rejected because many people believed it vested too much power in the federal government.
Insofar as government officials violate the rights recognized by the Founding Fathers and codified in the Constitution, then the government is illegitimate. Congressmen and the president take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. When as they scorn that oath, they transform themselves into a predator class, and politics becomes little more than promising and pilfering. If rulers can ignore the Constitution, citizens have the same type of freedom that slaves had on days when their masters chose not to beat them.
As far as Obama’s record on obeying the Constitution – well, this blog is overstocked with examples of his contempt for citizens’ rights.
Eight years ago, for Constitution Day 2006, I had some fun on this blog on how Americans should celebrate the day in a proper George W. Bush spirit. Here’s the highlights and some excellent suggestions from commenters:
1) Wiretap your neighbor. If he discovers it and complains, ask him whose side he is on and what does he have to hide. Send the tapes of all conversations to the local FBI.
2) Capture and torture an illegal immigrant. If he confesses, turn him in. If he doesn’t confess, try new methods to extract the truth.
3) Notify your mortgage company that you appended a secret “signing statement” when you signed the mortgage. Thus, you are relieved of any duty to continue monthly payments.
What are other appropriate Bush-style ways to celebrate the anniversary of the Constitution this week?++
+MarkN September 17, 2006 at 11:57 am
Write a letter-to-the-editor outing your neighbor as a secret CIA agent. Then, when the letter is published, write another letter in which you excoriate the newspaper for “aiding the terrorists” and accuse the newspaper of treason.
+al lorentz September 17, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Accuse your neighbor of being involved in drug use and confiscate his property claiming that his property is not entitled to due process of law. Tell him he can have it back if he can prove that he is innocent. Make the process of proving his innocence more expensive than the actual property is worth.
+Tom Blanton September 17, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Real Americans should celebrate Constitution Day by doing their part to fight the war on terror in their own neighborhoods.
First, identify that neighbor whom you suspect may pose a gathering threat. Things like facial hair, unusual schedules, and bringing in unknown materials in shopping bags are sure signs that something is up.
Next, notify all the other neighbors that the suspect neighbor is a madman who is building bombs in his home to kill everyone in the neighborhood.
Then, go to the suspect neighbor’s house and ask to look around. If he resists or if he refuses to let you rip up the floors in his house, it is obvious that he must be hiding something.
Finally, wait until the suspect neighbors go to sleep, blow up their car, set their tool shed on fire, break out their windows, enter their home, tie them up, make them take off their clothes and put bags on their heads, play a Spinal Tap CD really loud, and interrogate the family until they admit to their evil plans.
In the event these people don’t talk, drive them over to your cousin’s house and tie them up in his garage and have him interrogate them from time to time.
Meanwhile, be sure to report to your Neighborhood Association how you have made the neighborhood safe, but not completely safe.
Repeat the process with a new suspicious neighbor.
I’d like to report that there have been no major terrorist incidents in my neighborhood since 2006.
What this neighborhood needs is to have all the trailers wired for constant audio/video surveillance. Hopefully, there will be some attacks in the neighborhood and folks will see the importance of surveillance, despite the expense. After all, if they aren’t hanging out with al Qaida or ISIS around the patio, what have they got to hide? It seems to me that a few grand a year seems cheap to keep the terrorists from winning.
Yep – because if Virginia falls, then the entire nation is lost. Same as in 1865.
Tom – are there any updates on the regulatory onslaught that was threatened against your neighborhood? I hope the bureaucrat [redacted] have not been making you & your neighbors miserable.
The code enforcers have displaced about a dozen families so far and they threaten to displace about 25 more. They were to condemn a few last week but the church ladies were here and they left – the bad press seems to have had some effect, at least while people are watching.
The owners may sell as the punishment being inflicted against them is tremendous. They will sell to investors that will keep the park open, but the sales price will be about 20% of what the City has the property assessed for. The family that owns the place are getting old and are tired of fighting the City year after year and they can’t agree on how to proceed.
So, in the end, the owners of the land lose, about half the residents lose, and the new buyer will have many headaches dealing with the City no matter what they do.
But it’s not terrorism when the government does it.
I’m sorry they are putting you and your neighbors through such grief.
Have you gotten any coverage of the editorial page of the Times-Dispatch? This sounds like a classic “govt. gone wild” story.
Would it be worthwhile for you or one of your neighbors to pen an oped & run it by the Wash. Post – which loves to point out the problems with governance in Virginia? (Or at least it did until voters chose a Democratic governor).
If you want to post a ‘guest editorial’ here, you’re certainly welcome.
Bart Hinkle did some editorializing and the weeklies did features which contained propaganda from both sides but emphasized the correct side. A coalition of churches, Hispanic organizations and a legal aid group has been pretty vocal with City Hall. All of this has slowed the city down and caused them to proceed with caution, but “the law” is somewhat on their side and also gives them the advantage as they have unlimited resources and the victims have few resources.
For example, an untrained bureaucrat can assert there is a structural defect and this is deemed to be a fact unless an owner hires a structural engineer to do a report refuting it. To do so costs hundreds of dollars in professional fees. Like civil forfeiture, your property is found guilty until proven innocent.
The code enforcement method of criminalizing poverty includes “Community Assisted Public Safety” or “CAPS” where code enforcers, cops, and other bureaucrats join forces to do a warrantless “stop and frisk” on your home, car, person and any infraction, real or imagined, no matter how trivial is enforced.
But don’t worry, those who are made homeless are offered counseling, social workers, relocation services, etc. – in other words, progressive punks dehumanize adults and offer them the their text book solutions to the various problems of living in order to help them adapt to state-approved methods of collective life. Just think, before the bureaucrats showed up, these unenlightened citizens weren’t aware they needed the help of the CAPS teams.
I’m sorry you’re getting reamed by all this.
The CAPS folks remind me of the stories from the 1950s & early 1960s of urban renewal – popularly known as “Negro & Puerto Rican Removal.” Govt. officials would come in, confiscate homes, pay the owners pennies on the dollar on the true value, and wish them well in finding a healthier place to live.
Same thing happened in the county where I was raised, when the state of Va. & the feds colluded for ‘redneck ethnic cleansing’ to expel residents to create the Shenandoah National Park.
Have you or someone else been hammering the county/state with FOIA requests? That can contribute a little sand in their gears.
Is there a web site where folks are rallying for this fight?
If you want to post any links here, let ‘er rip.