When I first heard about this idea, my thought was, "Okay, what is the text of the call for a convention." Some quick research showed me that lots of states over the last 230 years have called for an Article V convention on one subject or another, but if California calls for an Article V convention to adopt an amendment calling for universal healthcare and Alabama calls for one to propose an amendment to restrict the use imminent domain, I could easily see Congress saying, "These are two different calls for a convention, so until 34 states adopt the same resolution, we can ignore these." I wanted to see what the text was. Now, advocates have drafted uniform verbiage and resolutions using that verbiage are working their way through state legislatures. Once 34 adopt, Congress has no choice but to pick the meeting place and time.
Incidentally, this approach (draft uniform verbiage and share across the United States) was what George Mason and the Anti-Federalists did in 1787-1790. The end result was the Bill of Rights.
Well, this process is more about the state legislatures which will be the locus of power and activity. State legislatures call for a convention. The state legislature select the delegates (each state having one vote in the Convention), the state legislatures approve or decline the amendments that come out of the process. The "people" are not directly involved in this process. The state legislatures are not great, but they are not the power-hungry megalomaniacs one finds in DC and even if they were as megalomaniacal as DC-ites, they would be decentralizing power to 50 state capitals, meaning 1/50th of the power that used to be in DC.
Correct. A convention of the states and a constitutional convention are two, completely different things.
Sorry BiB, this is just incorrect. They can try their own wacko version of COS but all the amendments would be agreed to before anything started. This gives the power back to the states that the 17th amendment stole from them. They can give the state delegations very specific parameters to operate within. My big worry is this ques. "Do I really want the AL state legislature making decisions on my behalf?" That place has some genuinely stoopid people in it.
True enough, but the virtue of this approach is that it takes out of Federal hands entirely the decision on how much power the Federal government should have. This was supposed to be the central tenet of the Progressives, letting disinterested parties decide matters because, being disinterested, their decisions would be better.
The people of America have no gravy train, it has been stolen by politicians and crony donors. Some are appeased by the pittances promised to them and continue to vote to be controlled. A few others are bought off by money in the form of bailouts, grants, or subsidies that are used to enrich them so they can turn around and return potions to the politicians who made their windfalls possible. Political correctness is used to divide factions and give cover to the problems caused by government. The citizens who pay attention are angry and that is why this election cycle is not being controlled by the usual parties who decide who will be the nominees. The media has overstepped and their bias has been exposed so their talking points from the elites are being largely ignored. The calls for the voice of the people to be heard and government to reigned in are not over imagined burdens placed on them by Washington. Washington is the problem, Washington has convinced the takers they will provide them with a gravy train. It cannot be sustained.
Guilty.
I'd just like to say hello to all the Federal law enforcement community looking in and ask that they spell my name correctly when they write it down.It is also designed to prevent the only other way mentioned in the Declaration and when you mention it you get put on a watchlist
Yep, if we had a $19 trillion cash assets and were running $500 billion/year in surpluses, this might be a different deal.
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I've often wondered what sort of under-the-hood security some of the forum DBs have. With a name like yours, without direct access to the user DB, they'd have a tough time finding you.
Meh
Touché.Meh
Forget hacking the database. Cross reference all the information in his posts and they'll figure out who he is. NYBF might be difficult, Tidewater shouldn't be.
Well, let me put the kettle on and break out the scones, if I'm going to be having company.Meh
Forget hacking the database. Cross reference all the information in his posts and they'll figure out who he is. NYBF might be difficult, Tidewater shouldn't be.
I think Professor Obama addressed this on NPR. He (mis)conceptualizes rights as "things the government is supposed to give you free," and finds the Founders wanting.
I believe the cost of a college education has risen astronomically, and I'd bet if you tracked the rise in tuition/college costs and the amount of Federal money going to college loans, I'd bet there is a direct (and, I would argue, causal) relationship between the two.
