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fpbWhat is positively cretinous is to do so when the gift comes from a party and an Administration that have literally violated every article of the Bill of Rights except for an obsolete one, and would probably violate that one too if it ever occurred to them. Don't you see the relationship? The politicians inventing pseudo-rights that do nothing for most people except distort and devalue the central relationship in most lives, while at the same time they are taking away your real, basic, inviolable rights? Do you find it strange that the same Administration that is eating away at all the guarantees of the Constitution, has also enthusiastically taken part in the invention and forcible imposition of a supposed right that the Constitution's writers would not even so much have rejected as have laughed themselves stupid at?
This is what the Obama administration and its various outliers have done to the Bill of Rights.
First Amendment – Freedom of religion
Violated by "hate speech" laws. Violated by the HHS Mandate, on which no religious leader of any importance in America has any doubts, and which is the subject of dozens of legal challenges as I write. The HHS mandate, which was not passed by Congress and is not a law, nonetheless compels all employers, without right to conscientious objection, to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients, on pains of being subjected to ruinous fines ($1,300,000 per day). This act of administrative tyranny, unworthy of a country of laws, is intended to flatten any principled opposition to abortion and contraception.
Second amendment – freedom to bear arms
I premise that I think this amendment is obsolete and in need of rethinking. Nonetheless, such as it is, it is the law of the land, and notoriously under constant, underhanded attack. The law of the land ought to be reformed legally, and if, as it has been argued, the monstrous and criminal Fast and Furious operation had something to do with further discrediting the Second Amendment, then that just shows how wrong it is to use underhanded means.
Third amendment - freedom from billeting
To the best of my knowledge this clearly obsolete amendment has not been violated. But let's keep it quiet, just in case we give Ms.Sebelius or Ms.Napolitano ideas.
Fourth Amendment - Investigation, search and confiscation to be carried out only by a warrant and according to the forms and limits of the law.
Often violated, especially in the case of warrant-less phone tapping.
Fifth amendment - provision against self-accusation
Universally violated by American prosecutors' oppressive addiction to plea bargains, whose purpose is obviously to get the accused to accuse himself. The Obama administration is not particularly guilty of this, but neither has it done anything to change matters, and it has merrily used it when it suited them. An interesting paper on the matter: http://www.judicialstudies.unr.edu/JS_Summer09/JSP_Week_4/JS710Wk4.LangbeinTorandPleaBargtxt.pdf
Sixth amendment: open, correct, codified and swift trials.
Universally violated - see Fifth Amendment. Violated in Guantanamo since Bush II but also, enthusiastically, by Obama. Violated by the “kill list” known to be kept by Obama and his people.
Seventh amendment - right to a trial by a jury of one's peers
Violated in Guantanamo, violated by the "kill list”.
Eighth Amendment - torture, excessive punishment and vexatious and ruinous fines are forbidden.
Violated by the punishing fines of the HHS mandate. Violated by the commonplace practices of American courts - see Fifth Amendment. Violated by the torture in Guantanamo and elsewhere amd by special rendition. On the matter of torture, it is important to remember that Obama was elected on a promise not only to stop it but to punish the guilty. Well, if by "to punish" he meant "to reserve their posts in the new administration and carry on their practices", he certainly did. He even kept Bush II's Secretary for Defence.
Ninth amendment - the people's rights are not restricted to those mentioned in the Constitution.
Ultra-violated! Just how many uncodified rights, such as privacy, are annihilated in the enormous wake of comprehensive powers such as the Mandate's or the Patriot Act's?
Tenth amendment - The Constitution defines the federal government's powers, all undefined powers being reserved for the States and the people.
Violated to the point of being a joke. Fields of contention between intrusive federal authorities and state and local authorities are too numerous to mention.
All right, folks. This us what the current administration, alone or in cahoots with others, is taking away or allowing to be taken away. Is it not obvious that a supposed right, championed as it is by an administration that otherwise devours rights, is at least dubious? How can it have anything to do with actual, "certain and inalienable" rights, when the same people who destroy them against the people's will are pushing it on the people against the people's will?
Think about it.
This is what the Obama administration and its various outliers have done to the Bill of Rights.
First Amendment – Freedom of religion
Violated by "hate speech" laws. Violated by the HHS Mandate, on which no religious leader of any importance in America has any doubts, and which is the subject of dozens of legal challenges as I write. The HHS mandate, which was not passed by Congress and is not a law, nonetheless compels all employers, without right to conscientious objection, to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients, on pains of being subjected to ruinous fines ($1,300,000 per day). This act of administrative tyranny, unworthy of a country of laws, is intended to flatten any principled opposition to abortion and contraception.
Second amendment – freedom to bear arms
I premise that I think this amendment is obsolete and in need of rethinking. Nonetheless, such as it is, it is the law of the land, and notoriously under constant, underhanded attack. The law of the land ought to be reformed legally, and if, as it has been argued, the monstrous and criminal Fast and Furious operation had something to do with further discrediting the Second Amendment, then that just shows how wrong it is to use underhanded means.
Third amendment - freedom from billeting
To the best of my knowledge this clearly obsolete amendment has not been violated. But let's keep it quiet, just in case we give Ms.Sebelius or Ms.Napolitano ideas.
Fourth Amendment - Investigation, search and confiscation to be carried out only by a warrant and according to the forms and limits of the law.
Often violated, especially in the case of warrant-less phone tapping.
Fifth amendment - provision against self-accusation
Universally violated by American prosecutors' oppressive addiction to plea bargains, whose purpose is obviously to get the accused to accuse himself. The Obama administration is not particularly guilty of this, but neither has it done anything to change matters, and it has merrily used it when it suited them. An interesting paper on the matter: http://www.judicialstudies.unr.edu/JS_Summer09/JSP_Week_4/JS710Wk4.LangbeinTorandPleaBargtxt.pdf
Sixth amendment: open, correct, codified and swift trials.
Universally violated - see Fifth Amendment. Violated in Guantanamo since Bush II but also, enthusiastically, by Obama. Violated by the “kill list” known to be kept by Obama and his people.
Seventh amendment - right to a trial by a jury of one's peers
Violated in Guantanamo, violated by the "kill list”.
Eighth Amendment - torture, excessive punishment and vexatious and ruinous fines are forbidden.
Violated by the punishing fines of the HHS mandate. Violated by the commonplace practices of American courts - see Fifth Amendment. Violated by the torture in Guantanamo and elsewhere amd by special rendition. On the matter of torture, it is important to remember that Obama was elected on a promise not only to stop it but to punish the guilty. Well, if by "to punish" he meant "to reserve their posts in the new administration and carry on their practices", he certainly did. He even kept Bush II's Secretary for Defence.
Ninth amendment - the people's rights are not restricted to those mentioned in the Constitution.
Ultra-violated! Just how many uncodified rights, such as privacy, are annihilated in the enormous wake of comprehensive powers such as the Mandate's or the Patriot Act's?
Tenth amendment - The Constitution defines the federal government's powers, all undefined powers being reserved for the States and the people.
Violated to the point of being a joke. Fields of contention between intrusive federal authorities and state and local authorities are too numerous to mention.
All right, folks. This us what the current administration, alone or in cahoots with others, is taking away or allowing to be taken away. Is it not obvious that a supposed right, championed as it is by an administration that otherwise devours rights, is at least dubious? How can it have anything to do with actual, "certain and inalienable" rights, when the same people who destroy them against the people's will are pushing it on the people against the people's will?
Think about it.
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no subject
Date: 2012-11-08 01:27 am (UTC)(This is the one gleam of hope about the HHS mandate, and it's a significant one. But of course it doesn't come close to the shattering realization that to most of the country freedom of religion and the rule of law are nowhere naer as important as the right to have other people pay for your contraceptives.)
I don't know what new attacks will be launched on the churches (especially the Roman Catholic Church, of course) in the next four years, but it's as close to certain as anything can be that attacks will be made.
*
The tenth amendment has been a dead letter for years -- I'm not sure there's even a fringe movement seriously attempting to revive it, though if there were I would join
no subject
Date: 2012-11-08 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-08 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-08 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-08 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-15 04:30 pm (UTC)The thing that I find funny is simply that anyone thinks that any given candidate is going to be sunshine and roses. The moment that anyone states that they're running for an office, they're showing a desire to control other people. Quite often it's not that someone votes FOR a candidate, but votes AGAINST a candidate.
Look up a Keith Olberman video from his time on MSNBC. He did a rather telling one about Bush, pointing out how Bush had shredded the Constitution. Does that make Obama blameless for his part in not fixing things? Hell no! But it DOES go to prove that he's just following in the footsteps of every president who preceded him.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-15 07:19 pm (UTC)I never said that Bush II respected the Constitution. In fact, I pointed out that one of Obama's worst betrayals of his own electoral platform has been to protect and enlist Bush II men with their heritage of torture and illegality.