Thursday, February 16, 2012

Ralph Nadar and Bruce Fein Criticize Constitutional Crimes in U.S.



Harvard Law School Forum presented a lecture by both Ralph Nadar and Bruce Fein. They spoke about many issues pertaining to our government violating the Constitution of this great nation they were given the responsibility of leading.

Within Bruce Fein's part of the talk, he spoke about how each citizen is responsible for our government's actions. Fein said it is, "not an option to be a spectator in politics." As John F. Kennedy warned fifty years ago, there needs to be open debate and dissent in order to maintain liberty and an honest government.

One of the issues Fein brought to light is the fact that, according the the Constitution, only Congress has the right to authorize war. This was meant to be a check on the President's power. Within this limit, only Congress can authorize the money for war. Obama has found a way around this check. He has found a way to get money from the Pentagon instead. Since it is not audited, they are able to do this. According to Fein this is enough grounds for impeachment. He spoke about our fundamental rights, that have been laid out by our forefathers in the Constitution, being eroded as a result of non enforcement.

Ralph Nadar highlighted issues that have come to the forefront since 9/11. He pointed out that the United States government waited until after it was clear that there was no chance for a second strike to then declare a war on terror. Since this time "national security" has been a major issue for this nation.

Nadar points out a few items, much more immanent than the dangers being focused on, that should be considered under "national security". Some of these are the 45,000 people who die each year because they do not have health insurance, 58, 000 deaths per year due to work related issues, 100,000 deaths each year from hospital malpractice and more. Hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths to citizens of the United States that are not even considered a part of "national security."Instead huge amounts of money, that this country does not have to spend, is used to kill alleged terrorists who live on the other side of the world. In addition to killing these men, innocent women and children are killed in the process.

Ralph Nadar said, "when it goes on year after year it becomes institutionalized." These practices that are not doing any good for our country, and taking funds and liberty away from the people, become normal over time. In the past decade alone liberty has been taken from the hands of the people, and unwarranted power has been placed in the hands of the government. All of this in the name of "national security."

Below is a link that Nadar and Fein referred to during their lecture. The article highlights how freedom has been lost in post 9/11 America.



John Adams would agree with Bruce Fein and Ralph Nadar. He warned two hundred years ago, "the jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing."

As a nation we need to wake up to this fact. We need to voice our dissent to our Constitution being violated, and fiercely defend liberty.

One way to do this, as Nadar and Fein both advocated, is harassing the government until the National Defense Authorization Act (which allows the government to arrest any citizen they suspect is a terrorist, and hold them indefinitely without a trial) is repealed. Go to the link below, look up your Senators, and email them insisting that this Act is repealed. Then share the link with your friends.




This is one small step on the road to freedom.



Below is a link to their full lecture if you would like to watch it.






(can you locate me at the beginning of the video?)

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Constitutional Crisis - Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig

Harvard's Institute of Politics launched their winter events; Larry Lessig, professor at Harvard Law School, was the key note speaker. He gave a very compelling talk about our Constitution being in crisis, and proposed a solution to fix this.


He began by saying that Congress is corrupt. Only, it is not the politicians themselves that are corrupt, it is the system in which they work. People in Congress spend 30-70% of their time raising money for Congress itself or their campaigns. As a result of this they are dependent on funders, not the people (only .01% of the population give $10,000 or more for campaigners). So when they pass laws they have funders in mind, not the people. This system leads to three things:


1. Money buys results in Congress


2. People lose confidence in the institution (only 9% of the population has confidence in government)


3. Low trust leads to low participation


What is the solution? Citizen funded campaigns.


"Grant and Franklin Project"


In this system everyone gets $50 of tax money back as a democracy voucher. This voucher can than go towards their candidate of choice. The candidate can only get this money if they agree to use only these funds for their campaign. The absolute most money that can be put towards a candidate is $100. That way there will only be small money funding. Using this system, if something is going wrong in Congress, it is at least known it is not a result of money corruption.


This is a good start, but there is another issue that needs to be resolved.


There is a super pac dynamic. Shortly before election day an incumbent (someone who is already in Congress and is going for re-election) is almost ensured to win. Than a super pac of $1million is dropped on the opposing side's campaign. To protect themselves Congressmen/women have "super pac insurance." The premium they have to pay is acting a certain way; passing certain laws and voting down others. This ensure that money will be there when and if they need it.


Many people in Congress are concerned with setting up their lives after Congress, in which they will be able to benefit from this system and make a lot of money. As a result of this a new Bill would not easily be passed to change this system.


What is the solution? An Article 5 Constitutional Convention.


An Article 5 Constitutional Convention is different than a total Constitutional Convention where the Constitution can be thrown out and re-written. An Article 5 Constitutional Convention needs to be called by 34 states, and can only add amendments. Then 38 states need to ratify (support) any amendment that is made.


Proposed 28th Amendment:


"Congress shall have power to limit, but not ban, independent political expenditures within 90 days of an election"


This way politicians will not always be paying their "premium" and voting for big business interests. They will actually be able to vote in the interest of the people.


These proposed plans are very thought provoking, and they sound like sound solutions. The only question is, is it possible to actually get both Public Funding for Elections and a new Amendment? Is there enough support to set these plans in motion?