Does anyone have a problem with the reading of the US Constitution on the record

[Jackson]

It appears to me that those congressmen and women got off on the wrong foot by not staying and listening to the Constitution! We were impressed, but certainly not with their behavior!

 

[mdn2000]

Liberals should just state they intend to eliminate the Constitution. That is what the Liberal's actions indicate.

 

[Sallow]

Of course it's a publicity stunt. Does that mean it's a problem? Not really. Most of what happens on the House and Senate floor is a publicity stunt for the cameras. What's one more?

Well of course it is..

They seem to completely miss all the stuff about levying taxes to pay down debts. Because one of the rule changes was to take tax cuts out of the mix when figuring out budgets.

Even the most "real" conservative business person doesn't do that..

I could just see it.

Gosh..lets cut the price on our product. Doesn't affect revenue in the slightest.

Kind of like you keep missing the part about actually paying down those debts, not running them up.

Me?

Chief..go back through these threads. I was against the Tax Compromise. I am all for cutting expenditures. We are in two unpaid for wars that were started by an Administration that thought they were slick by making the "Emergency Spending" and keeping them off budget...so it looked like they added nothing to the deficit.

 

[Valerie]

I saw it as a symbolic gesture and I really don't understand how it could be so upsetting to anyone...

 

[Sallow]

Republicans use the the Constitution to oppose anything the Left does to counter the concentrated power of corporations over government and social life.

However, if you look at how they conduct the War on Terror, you realize that they have zero respect for the Constitution.

If they get the White House in 2012, they will only need one more attack to shut down the free press and enact Martial Law.

People don't get it. The standard political tool for concentrating power and destroying freedom is the threat of an enemy. An enemy allows the state to move more of its behavior out of the light, away from the press, and under the safe umbrella of "National Security". Read Orwell. This is how right wing political organizations seize power. By inflating a real or fake enemy, they distract the serfs with fear. Behind the scenes their donors loot the treasury and create their own laws.

The goal of the Bush War on Terror is to erode the line between enemy combatant and political opponent. Welcome to the old Soviet Union. Wait until 2012. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Look into the Homeland Security Department created by the Bush Administration. It is the largest, most expensive, most secretive bureaucracy ever created. For all their mistrust of government, you never hear Republican voters criticize this piece of BIG GOVERNMENT. You never hear Republicans criticize the Patriot Act or the Pentagon budget. Why? Because they trust and love government. They believe everything the government says, save stuff that has to do with social programs or taxes. Their faux-hatred of Government is talk radio astroturf, i.e., manufactured populist-rage designed by corporations to hinder the government's ability to tax, regulate, or break their monopolies.

The Republican voter is placed in a hermetically sealed bubble of Death Panels & WMDs. The bubble is filled daily with hyper-masculine John Wayne rugged individualism. Don't look now, there's the gipper, riding into town on his white horse, wrapped in the flag. He's come to vanquish the liberal muslim socialist marxist gay islamo-fascist bureaucrats who stole your country, as you clutch your steering wheel ever tighter, enraged.

[psst: attention morons. Reagan's Iran-Contra and Bush's War on Terror have been two of the greatest threats to the Constitution in history]

Bush Re-Authorizes Martial Law Provisions
Iran?Contra affair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A hidden world, growing beyond control | washingtonpost.com

This is pretty much correct. With a caveat. Conservatives do hate the part of government that reminds us it is the servant of the people. What they want it to be is the attack dog for the Corporate interests. That's why they want to gut the commerce and general welfare clauses and focus on the defence clause.

 

[goldcatt]

You aren't paying attention. They cited the constitution. They said the bill was unconstitutional. I got it.

You talk like a politician. Very good show.
Specifically. Their rule states "require a SPECIFIC Constitutional authority in every bill introduced."
I am paying attention. You are dancing around the facts like a monkey on fire.

the specific constitutional authority is that it is unconstitutional, in other words,,, let's talk slow,, the is no basis for the health care bill that is in the constitution,, that makes it unconstitutional. There. ya got it now?

So in your opinion Congress has unlimited authority based on no Article, Clause, Section or Amendment of the document to pass any piece of legislation repealing anything majority partisan leadership considers unconstitutional simply because they consider it unconstitutional?

Interesting reasoning. That has to be a first.

 

[AmericanFirst]

Maybe it reminded some of the delusional wingnuts there that the INTENT of the Constitution was to have a strong central government, not some Balkanized mess of mini-countries like some of the 'nuts think.

No, the intent is to unite a free people without big gov't. The constitution is meant to limit gov't powers. The liberals do not like that so they ignore it or try to claim it is a changing document, bullshit. I love it when liberals cry about the constitution, they show their true colors, commie red.

 

[blastoff]

Anyone who thinks every House member had at one time or another read the entire constitution is a dope IMO.

 

[Sallow]

Maybe it reminded some of the delusional wingnuts there that the INTENT of the Constitution was to have a strong central government, not some Balkanized mess of mini-countries like some of the 'nuts think.

No, the intent is to unite a free people without big gov't. The constitution is meant to limit gov't powers. The liberals do not like that so they ignore it or try to claim it is a changing document, bullshit. I love it when liberals cry about the constitution, they show their true colors, commie red.

No it didn't. The government has very broad powers. The federal government is given supremacy by the Constitution. What the constitution sought to limit was the government's ability to inhibit indivdual liberty.

Something which Conservatives are deconstructing on a daily basis. "Enemy Combatant" should have been a term that drew rage from anyone interested in preserving indivdual freedoms. Instead it drew cheers from Conservatives. When you guys quote from the film Revenge of the Sith, "So This Is How Liberty Dies...With Thunderous Applause", this was exactly what Lucas was talking about.

 

[Gadawg73]

You aren't paying attention. They cited the constitution. They said the bill was unconstitutional. I got it.

You talk like a politician. Very good show.
Specifically. Their rule states "require a SPECIFIC Constitutional authority in every bill introduced."
I am paying attention. You are dancing around the facts like a monkey on fire.

the specific constitutional authority is that it is unconstitutional, in other words,,, let's talk slow,, the is no basis for the health care bill that is in the constitution,, that makes it unconstitutional. There. ya got it now?

Every legal challenge to a law deemed unconstitutional ever made in the history of the United States in court and in most legislative bodies has a specific Constitutional Article and section cited.
All legal bodies require it.
The Republicans specifically stated they WOULD REQUIRE A SPECIFIC CITE the same as what legal bodies require.

For the seriously misinformed: The current bill, which I support, is a challenge to the constitututionality of the health care bill.

From your previous posts I doubt you "got it now".
Most likely you do but your ideology forces you to act like you don't.
Shame.

 

[Gadawg73]

You talk like a politician. Very good show.
Specifically. Their rule states "require a SPECIFIC Constitutional authority in every bill introduced."
I am paying attention. You are dancing around the facts like a monkey on fire.

the specific constitutional authority is that it is unconstitutional, in other words,,, let's talk slow,, the is no basis for the health care bill that is in the constitution,, that makes it unconstitutional. There. ya got it now?

So in your opinion Congress has unlimited authority based on no Article, Clause, Section or Amendment of the document to pass any piece of legislation repealing anything majority partisan leadership considers unconstitutional simply because they consider it unconstitutional?

Interesting reasoning. That has to be a first.

He knows better but is playing merry go 'round games.
Left wing does the same thing or worse.
Conservatives know better.

 

[Montrovant]

I think it was political theater. It doesn't matter if it was driven by Reps or Dems; it doesn't matter that there was nothing wrong doing it; it doesn't even matter if it was a good idea. I'm pretty much of the opinion that everything done in the higher levels of government is political theater until I can be convinced otherwise. It is, unfortunately, the nature of politics (and I don't just mean US politics).

That said, let me be clear that I am not offended by the reading. I don't think reading it accomplished anything or changed any minds, but I can hope that at least some of our esteemed members of congress hold at least some regard for the constitution. So, color me unimpressed but perfectly accepting of the reading.

 

[Sallow]

You aren't paying attention. They cited the constitution. They said the bill was unconstitutional. I got it.

You talk like a politician. Very good show.
Specifically. Their rule states "require a SPECIFIC Constitutional authority in every bill introduced."
I am paying attention. You are dancing around the facts like a monkey on fire.

the specific constitutional authority is that it is unconstitutional, in other words,,, let's talk slow,, the is no basis for the health care bill that is in the constitution,, that makes it unconstitutional. There. ya got it now?

Lets talk slower.

Section 8 - Powers of Congress

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

All in once clause.

 

[xotoxi]

I think it should be read 2 or 3 times a year, in both houses, to remind all of the members what they swore to "support and defend" when they took the job.

They should read it thrice annually: on the first day of session, just before July 4th recess, and on the first Monday after Oct 22nd.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

its come to my attention that some on the left view congress reading the constitution into record as a solely a publicity stunt and should not be done

what say you?

It's stupid and moronic .. just a stunt for stupid people.

It demonstrates that America is a nation of morons.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

its come to my attention that some on the left view congress reading the constitution into record as a solely a publicity stunt and should not be done

what say you?

It's stupid and moronic .. just a stunt for stupid people.

It demonstrates that America is a nation of morons.

Is there something that you fear they might hear and make them think about what they are doing?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

yes it's a publicity stunt. and the implication is intended to be that they're "constitutionalists".

Why did Nancy Pelosi agree to go along with it then? Or did you miss the fact that both parties were doing it?

Just grandstanding and the dems did not want to appear to be against the constitution.

How would refusing to grandstand be going against the Constitution? The chamber was all but empty by the end of the reading anyway, yet no one I know of is trying to claim the people that left are against the Constitution.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

politicians already wasting time

say it aintso

its amazing that on the first few days the GOP foists a ridiculous ineffective effort thats doomed to failure as a fufilling of their "promise" and then sets up a day of "reading" the Constitution ;

hey about doing some actual WORK your first few days instead of starting off by doing the same bullshitting that will be occuring at the end of the year

Why is reading the Constitution wasting time? What makes you think that politicians cannot delegate working out things to their staffs?

 

[kaz]

I like the requiring the specific Constitutional authority for any introduced legislation better. But I have no problem with this. The problem is that neither side will understand it any better then they do now. They both believe the Constitution is a sledge hammer when it can be used in favor of their position and it's toilet paper when it doesn't

 

[Quantum Windbag]

its come to my attention that some on the left view congress reading the constitution into record as a solely a publicity stunt and should not be done

what say you?

I think elevating the constitution to a sort of biblical mythological document is stupid, just like uber-nationalism is stupid.

It's a set of rules that they should attempt to follow, not worship.

And yes, they did it for showmanship...so they are USING as a TOOL what they pretend to worship.

That is the problem here, some people think trying counts.

The Constitution is a set of rules the government is required to follow. They do not get points for trying, they only get points for actually doing it. Do regular people get points for trying to follow the law, and not have to worry about actually breaking it?