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Will a "Super Congress" Gut the Constitution - Just Like the Federal Reserve?
Ryan Grim has an update on his story about the "Super Congress", which I discussed yesterday:
The Super Congress amounts to an institutionalization of the gang structure that exists informally in the Senate, where a small number of lawmakers write legislation behind closed doors and then announce it to the public? Legislation written by the Super Congress would be extremely difficult for individual members of Congress to stop.
No wonder both liberals and conservatives hate the proposal.
Indeed, the Founding Fathers' vision of prosperity has been destroyed - and we've gone from the "wealth of nations" to the "debt of nations" - at least in part because our political system has been subverted by non-Constitutional committees and entities.
For example, the country's most powerful "agency" - the Federal Reserve - is actually no more federal than Federal Express. The Fed itself admits (via Bloomberg):
While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.
For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in a lawsuit - Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) - that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act.
As the long-time Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (Charles McFadden) said on June 10, 1932:
Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies ....
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Will a "Super Congress" Gut the Constitution ...
It was abandoned 90 years ago.
GW rants about the song they're playing while Titanic is sinking.
Go get a life GW, qiuit posting this drivel.
George keeps trying...what do you do? At least the lips I am showing are my own...
Dup
One can sympathize with the impatience expressed here. The notion that the "lines in the sand" actually mean nothing but endless humiliating retreats is indeed sobering.
However, and in defense of the work of GW and others, the reality is that each person comes to understanding in his own way, in his own time. By writing in the hortatory mode, GW keeps creating moments for individuals to suddenly get clear enough to say, "my God! He's right! What have I been thinking all these years? Time to do something about it!"
It is rather like the scene of preaching. One can indeed end up preaching to the choir,, and we all know that preaching tends to be boring and repetitive. But not always! Moments come when the connection is made, and lives are changed. That's why dedicated preachers keep going.
Thanks GW. BTW--when are you going to take on the Israel Lobby?
Nice avatar, suits you.
I have a theory that trolls change their pic more than they change the tactics.
I just contacted my Congressman and he told me "everything is just fine."
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LHIWTmYm8Nc/Swnah_Ca32I/AAAAAAAAAHs/D8o87FnJd3...
I regret my internet cam was on....
As if the current two-party system weren't unrepresentative enough!
The Congress and the President haven't respected the Constitution on any other issue, and they certainly won't be starting now.
The Senate needs to be impeached - especially the Dem side.
You get that feeling because none of “us” have grown a pair large enough to act. I know we are all buying precious metals & lead, stocking up on rations, looking for self-sustainable property to purchase and talking to the attic insulation guy, solar panel installer guys, window installer guys and whoever else will listen but no one has stood up and said: Enough.
I don’t even know how to say “Enough.” So very sad. What is the answer? Organize a national group of millions who stops paying taxes? Organize a national group of millions who withdraws all of their funds from specific banks? Organize a national group of millions with the pledge to identify local-only business and stop buying from huge national chains? Organize a national group of millions who agrees to barter needed services for essential goods and foodstuffs?
I have had enough—enough thinking about this [whatever this is], talking about this and planning for this. I want this to stop and I am willing to step up to the plate.
That's all an individual citizen can, and needs, to do. And anyone who isn't doing all those things has no right to complain about the system.
The chances of a single leader standing up and saying "Who's with me?", without being gunned or shouted down by 50,000 different partisan interests, are as close to absolute zero as liquid nitrogen.
Revolution starts with a small group---maybe even just the vision of one individual---then spreads outwards from there ... until a critical mass is inspired into taking the system down. Quite frankly, we don't have time for that now.
buddy i tried to give you my first ever green arrow thing but it didn't let me...
aint teething troubles abitch
Hey,
If I said Dave hated ALS and the Posse, would you know what I was talking about?
Have a good one.
#41
You may want to check out Americans Elect ( http://www.americanselect.org/ ).
Looks like a serious attempt to create an electoral option that doesn't fall into the Third Party trap of Ross Perot/ Ron Paul.
"Organize a national group of millions who stops paying taxes? Organize a national group of millions who withdraws all of their funds from specific banks? Organize a national group of millions with the pledge to identify local-only business and stop buying from huge national chains? Organize a national group of millions who agrees to barter needed services for essential goods and foodstuffs?"
until something much better comes along, i say yes to all of the above.
one thing tho, zerohedge demographics say that most readers access zh from the east coast and europe.
los angeles, where i live is barely a spec in the demographics, as is most of the western us.
something to keep in mind. people are not ready.
not enough pain and too much fear of what they would lose.
"The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action..." - Hamlet
Thus usury doth make debt-slaves of us all...
This is every week now. Gigantic broad strokes in Law, Government, and Economics. All unscrutinized by the public.
None of them close to legal, ethical, asked for, or condoned by the ones who live here. This government train is off its tracks.
Why is no one in congress saying or doing anything really at all? No angry generals, no nothing.
Impeachment is the only answer, period.
If your not saying or yelling that on the hill every second, then you are worthless, useless and a harmful risk to americans and all hope is dying out. This snowball is massive and only gaining speed now.
Impeachment is the only answer, period...
Didn't you get the memo. Impeachment is now illegal. That whole gerrymandering thing was becoming such a hinderance, they just decided to do away with pretenses and annoint themselves as sovereign in perpetuity.
i agree wholly ideologically, but havent you noticed that by now a full guy fawkes style fucking blown up revolution is the answer??
what do you have to lose??
your "investements"?
I ask respectfully, what exactly are you afraid of losing that you see as unsustainable?
the rabble? or the system??
let's git the shit going! how long you gonna wait?
what are you afraid of losing? what are you afraid of?
do you have ANY sense of ethics? morals?
justify your life for me as if i was your child!
why should you????
because you are not a reptile.. because youre frekin human. mean ANYTHING??
This is the way the NeoCons and Libs intend to marginalize the Tea Party.
The Tea Party should report to Koch Industries rather than Congress.
Excuse me GW, but I drop off all my packages at the Federal Reserve and they're delivered on time and under budget. That's even better than Federal Express. So I agree, they are not Federal Express.
On the other hand, I don't understand why we tolerate the Fed. Why is everyone waiting for the other guy to do something?
"Why is everyone waiting for the other guy to do something?"
Many of us Americans have done and are continuing to do something to restore life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
http://therepublicfortheunitedstates.org
Any experience with that lester? I have been looking into that in my state.
Any feedback?
pods
The new super Congress will be referred as the "Congressional Express"
-Slogan: "When you absolutely need to screw over the America People in record time, use Congressional Express!"
hey sac, how come i cant junk codi?? his quote box is blocking the up/down arrows!
and once you go up or down you cant go back to even?
edit: oh i see how it works now, on the cumulative. thas cool sac!
If it meant that no pork could be added to their bills in "resolution" -- just straight up or down votes, I might warm to the idea. Frankly, if there was a way (yeah, I'm dreaming) to just get the smartest few up there (or least ignorant) to write the bills, we'd probably be better off than we are now.
We need a "no spending without a budget" law. No "continuing resolutions".
No more bills that cram 20 things into one bill. Makes it too easy for one side to make claims the other side voted for or against something they had no choice about.
No bills that need a law degree to understand.
No bills that require more regulations to be written by the unelected and un-fire-able.
No one on the dole gets to vote, period. That worst trick of the statists is go get everyone somehow on the dole so that can't be suggested.
If you're going to legislate a 5 year program, that counts against the budget now, including any shutdown costs if you have to shut it down.
No bills with more than a 10 year lifetime. 100% sunsetting would keep them busy re-passing them so we wouldn't get so many bad ones.
Gheesh, we all have to do things like this in our everyday lives, and 535 of the smartest sociopaths on earth can't do it?
Maybe a little off topic GW (although entirely relevant) but this may interest you. I posted this a little earlier deep down another thread.
CHASE BANK - MODIFY FAIRLY OR FACE $100,000,000 LAWSUIT FOR FRAUD
Any "Super-Congress" will be bought and paid for by TBTF.
As an aside...if you hold any sway with TD please do what you can to bring back the "Junk" button.
It's not much of a hardship going without it - but the world was a better place having it one click away.
finally an article truly worthy of my handle and avatar.
Allow me to ask you a very real question.
Does the Constitution pertain to you if your signature is nowhere to be found upon it?
The constitution pertains to you, because it is the contract by which we consent to be governed as citizens. It doesn't need your signature, it's like using software without signing a contract, use implies consent. If you vote, pay taxes, pull over for the cops, or call for regulators to do their jobs, you are consenting to be governed. You can opt out by renouncing your citizenship or revolution.
I think it is instructive to remember that in the spring of 1775 the founding fathers almost to a man considered themselves citizens of Great Britain, and wanted to keep it that way. They were actively lobbing their cause in parliament. A year later they were commiting everything to a revolution.
#41
HA! BRILLIANT #41!
THANKS.
Well written and explained.
Not sure I understand your meaning, but the Constitution was written with thepurpose of carefully defining and hence restraining the scope and power of government. A few islands of governmental power in a sea of personal liberty. Of course they have turned it around; now there is a sea of governmental powers, with only a few islands of liberty.
The Bill of Rights was added to further bolster and guarantee the primacy of individual rights.
Note that rights are not to be granted by government, nor are they granted by the Constitution. Our rights are "natural," that is, they come from simply being human. They are evidenced in the Constitution. These rights are also evidenced in the Declaration of Independence. As such it is one of the founding documents of this country, and is the law of this land.
So, does the Constitution pertain to you? And me? I sure hope so.
Brilliant statement. If only the other 329,999,900 non ZH American readers would understand what you wrote.
Natural rights are inalienable
As a federal citizen (think citizen of DC), you are contracted to be governed by Congress, which doesn't necessarily mean the Constitution.
Become a "state citizen" and be governed by the Constitution.
Does the Constitution pertain to you?
He who sleeps on his rights, has no rights.
I agree, those who believe their rights come from a piece of paper are selling themselves rather short!
Damn straight!
IF YOU DONT KNOW IT Inately, FUGGETABOUTIT.
Yes GW update your site, I haven't been able to comment there and I just to say thank you.
Definatly a question that needs to be asked, and acted upon. Tell everyone you know to fight for their frredom. Live free or die!
A Super Congress...egad, as if what we have now isn't bad enough.
It doesn't matter what form of revision we make to our system...as long as there are lifelong-career-minded politicians tied at the hip to bankers instead of true statesmen looking out for the good of their constituents, Congress will continue to bend toward what the people with the money tell them to do.
Don't we the citizens have the right to say no to this idea of a super-congress? i would also think that it is so much against what the founders stood for that it could be struck down by the Supreme Court.
GW - the founding fathers died when the FED came into existence.. why do you keep acting like each day was THE last straw... you are like the guy that keeps drawing lines in the sand and saying... don't cross THIS one, I really mean it!! oh.. ooh.. ok.. well don't cross THAT one now.. !!
The Constitution died when Lincoln invaded Virginia.
Best. But that behaviour is typical of US citizens. They invent new lines to cross anytime they see that the predictions from the way they see how things work are proven false.
If the way they envision the government to work fails, they draw a new line and say "if the government does this, people will move", the government does this, nobody moves, so here's a new "but if the government does that, people will move" etc...
Everytime they invent a new last straw that is going to break the camel's back... See people supporting that 9,11 is an internal job. What the US government has done is not enough to ignite the wrath of US citizens (and the US government did a lot) so 9,11 being an internal job was the new straw. If they could prove that 9,11 was an internal job well, US citizens would react and gather etc...
Actually CD had a great piece about these every moving lines in the sand. Or that need to find the one piece of information that would blow up the whole system. One thing that would open people's eyes.
We will never reach that point. It is almost like it was bred into us. Conflict resolution, absolute proof, etc. All of it will keep us harping on the next big thing. And we look to authority to tell us when they need to be tossed out. How messed up is that? There is plenty of information to convict, yet we still long for more.
I hope that the Mencken quote is true:
Avast, me hearties!
It's like a giant game of hot potatoe, with hand granades. They want the buck to stop someplace just not with them.
It also has the advantage of not requiring the lobby whores to purchase quite so many tools. Sorry to the sex workers, you really don't deserve to be lumped with such scum.
The unconstitutionality is just icing on the cake. Of course I'd be surprised in there were 12 people in both houses who have actually read the constitution enough to know this is unconstitutional.
#41
Why do I get the feeling that the most corrupt and thuggish statists will run the Super Congress? Why do I get the feeling that their districts will be carefully gerrymandered so as to make them unaccountable? Why do I get the feeling that Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits will be first big programs on the chopping block, and war, corporate welfare, and our endless police state will be last on the chopping block?