Month: August 2010

All the social and national elements of the civilized world are represented in the new land, their peculiar characteristics are to be blended together by the all-assimilating power of freedom. This is the origin of the American nationality, which did not spring from one family, one tribe, one country, but incorporates the vigorous elements of all civilized nations on earth.

Carl Schurz, German immigrant and Republican leader, speaking in 1859; he became a leading backer of the 14th Amendment. (via EJ Dionne)

Just askin, but do these Republicans want to be tied to wanting to change this historic, post-Civil War amendment, which made former slaves and their children full citizens in this country? At a time of 10% unemployment and two wars, do politicians really want to debate a Constitutional Amendment from the 19th century? For the GOP, does this help them with their problem at wooing non-white votes?

NBC News “First Read”; if the MSM is noticing this trend and commenting on it, even in what (to them) is a web backwater for mouth-breathers, I can only assume it’s starting to get some real traction among serious people. This, of course, is bad for The Democrat.

… Proposition 8 was premised on the belief that same-sex couples simply are not as good as opposite-sex couples. Whether that belief is based on moral disapproval of homosexuality, animus towards gays and lesbians or simply a belief that a relationship between a man and a woman is inherently better than a relationship between two men or two women, this belief is not a proper basis on which to legislate.

The arguments surrounding Proposition 8 raise a question similar to that addressed in Lawrence v. Texas, when the Court asked whether a majority of citizens could use the power of the state to enforce profound and deep convictions accepted as ethical and moral principles through the criminal code. The question here is whether California voters can enforce those same principles through regulation of marriage licenses. They cannot. California’s obligation is to treat its citizens equally, not to mandate its own moral code. Moral disapproval, without any other asserted state interest has never
been a rational basis for legislation. Tradition alone cannot support legislation.

Judge Vaughn Walker, overturning California’s Proposition 8, in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (via savingpaper)

Tomorrow is Obama’s birthday, not that we’ve seen any proof of that… What? We haven’t seen any proof of that! They tell us August 4th is the birthday; we haven’t seen any proof of that! Sorry. It is what it is.

Rush Limbaugh, birther.
Until he and all the rest of these pitiable individuals admit that Obama was born in Hawaii, Hawaii is and was then a state in these United States, and that his mother was a citizen of same, they must be hounded daily, at every public appearance large or small, about these “beliefs.” And the DNC (or an affiliate thereof) should be paying for said hounding.

And these programs that you mentioned – that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward – are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.

Sharron Angle, apparently trying to one-up herself. The real secret is that those numbers on the back of your Social Security card are, in fact, what OMM 0910 will call you in the glorious socialist afterlife. So get to memorizing such that you’ll answer His call.

Kevin Drum visits the fever swamps so we don’t have to. Some of the explanations for this clearly nefarious number on the back of a (modern) Social Security card:

im researching it but from what I’ve gathered that is a bank routing number linking you as property of some royalty british bank.

My friend’s card has red numbers. Mine are of another color and I don’t know why.

That sounds like an observation that probably needs to be explained through conspiracy. Wait for it. Ahhh, here it is:

the red numbers on the back of the social security card are your EIN, employer ID number. If you’re just a regular John Doe citizen, you’re an employee of the US Corporation, and are in fact yourself a corporation. That’s why you use the number on the front, your employee ID number (SSN). Supposedly, if you have a replacement card issued to you, the number on the back will come in red ink, and you can use it to declare that you’re a soveriegn American and not a citizen OF the United States….If you use the number on the back, the “tracking number for blank cards” printed in red ink, you’re claiming ownership of the card and the chattel property it represents. You are the chattel property. If you don’t, they “own” you. You’re their chattel property, and you’re being used as collateral on the bankruptcy the US Govt. filed to the international banking houses back in the 1930’s, the time of the great depression.

So, with the red ink, I can declare myself a sovereign nation, but with the blue ink, I’m still chattel property, but I only have to obtain a card with the red ink, declare myself a sovereign nation, and then stop paying my (clearly illegal) taxes. What if I start with the red ink and the new one comes in blue?

well to answer your questions about the red numbers on the back of your cards when i was working for the government i learned that during the great depression the government started investing in the world market in our names and using our ssn #’s so that if that ever happened again they could pay out the unemployed.

Most likely carried out at the department of redundancy department; however, they were declared redundant and payed out into unemployment sometime in the 1930’s. But, fully rational though it is, don’t pause too long to think about it because we now find ourselves at the root of all far-right conspiracy theory: separating the rubes from their money.

Please beware my friends of people who want to charge you money for this information. I paid out a pretty penny so far and the information I received is conflicting. I have some friends that are working with a “Patriot” who has gladdly accepted many thousands of dollars from them as a fee to help them and so far all that has happened is they got there bank accounts closed for righting fraudelent checks. Nobody has been arrested though so that is interesting but I am following there progress closely.

Now, of course, Drum helpfully points out that one with either a blue or red number could just check this stuff out, for free, and discover that:

Sequential Control Number. On the rear of a legitimate card there is a sequential control number. The control number is a combination of alpha and numeric that bears no relation to the actual social security number on the card. However, the computer records of the Social Security Administration should show a correlation between the control number and the social security number and name on the card.

Which is just what the Bilderbergers want you to think, chattel.

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there’s a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life’s earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks. I have this look like, “What the heck are you talking about?” I’m trying to hide that look and look clueless. I figured clueless was better than argumentative. So they said, “You don’t know this?! You are a member of Congress, and you don’t know this?!” And I said, “Please forgive me. I’m just ignorant of these things.” And then of course, it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff. And now you have the feeling of anti-Semitism here coming in, mixing in. Wow.

–and–

I refused to use the word [socialist] because I have this view that the Ninth Commandment must mean something. I remember one year Bill Clinton—the guy I was out to get [when serving on the House judiciary committee in the 1990s]—at the National Prayer Breakfast said something that was one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard from anybody at a gathering like that. He said, “The most violated commandment in Washington, DC"—everybody leaned in; do tell, Mr. President—"is, ‘Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’” I thought, “He’s right. That is the most violated commandment in Washington.” For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I’m conservative. We disagree…But I don’t need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

Breaker 1-9

A

“The bottom line is I’m not an expert [on coal mining], so don’t give me the power in Washington to be making rules. You live here, and you have to work in the mines. You’d try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don’t, I’m thinking that no one will apply for those jobs. I know that doesn’t sound…” […] “I want to be compassionate, and I’m sorry for what happened, but I wonder: Was it just an accident?”

–Rand Paul

B

Until about 1900, nearly all anthracite coal breakers [removed] impurities [in the mined coal] by hand, usually by boys between the ages of eight and 12 years old known as breaker boys. […] The breaker boys would sit on wooden seats, perched over chutes and conveyor belts, picking slate and other impurities out of the coal. Breaker boys worked 10 hours a day for six days a week. The work was hazardous. Breaker boys were forced to work without gloves so that they could handle the slick coal better. The slate, however, was sharp, and boys would leave work with their fingers cut and bleeding. Many breaker boys lost fingers to the rapidly moving conveyor belts, while others […] had their feet, hands, arms, and legs amputated when they moved among the machinery and accidentally slipped under the belts or into the gears. Many died when they fell into the gears of the machinery, their bodies only retrieved at the end of the working day. Others were caught in the rush of coal, and crushed to death or smothered. The “dry” coal kicked up so much dust that the breaker boys sometimes wore lamps on their heads to see, and asthma and black lung disease were common. […] The practice of employing children in coal breakers largely ended by 1920 because of the efforts of the National Child Labor Committee, sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine, and the National Consumers League, who educated the public about the practice and succeeded in passing child labor laws.

–Wikipedia on Breaker Boys.

See, I always thought that the practice ended because 8-12 year olds simply quit applying for such dangerous work.

Constitutional Conservatives

I guess the name is meant to imply they are really focused on changing the Constitution in every conceivable way. Jonathan Chait helpfully collects the most recent examples:

  1. The Flag Desecration Amendment
  2. Balanced budget amendment
  3. Supermajority to raise taxes
  4. “Parental rights” amendment – the right of parents to “raise their children as they see fit, introduced last year by Jim DeMint and Peter Hoekstra.
  5. Human life amendment, banning abortion
  6. The Federal Marriage Amendment, banning gay marriage
  7. Believing that the DC Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, Lisa Murkowski proposed an amendment giving the District a single voting representative.
  8. Last year, Jim DeMint introduced a term limits amendment (3 terms in the House, 2 in the Senate).
  9. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told The Hill on Monday that Congress “ought to take a look at” changing the 14th Amendment, which gives the children of illegal immigrants a right to U.S. citizenship.
    McConnell’s statement signals growing support within the GOP for the controversial idea, which has also recently been touted by Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Added to the necessary questions queue: To save us some time, which parts of the Constitution do you actually like and wish to preserve?