Roanoke Tea Party

Let’s recap the good and the ugly from the lame duck Congressional session that is wrapping up. Then info on Agenda 21, Eminent Domain and our very own John Edwards and the well intentioned but fatally flawed repeal amendment. Lots to cover!

The good.

The DREAM Act is dead. No thanks to our 2 US Senators. For Webb and Warner, being wrong is so predictable. More on why this bill was so horrible.

The Omnibus Spending Bill was killed.The GOP was ready to cave and pressure from the grassroots made them stand up and kill this pork filled monstrosity. Goodlatte was listening as well. He came out with a public message opposing this, I guess he didn’t want us to come back and march around and protest again to get him in line.

The Democrats had to admit that their economic policies are completely flawed. Dick Durbin dropped this priceless quote this week. “The president has a big victory here.  It’s big because it means there won’t be a tax increase at the first of the year.”

Obama = Bush

That’s the big tax increase the Democrats have been clamoring for for a decade. If I were a true liberal, I would be furious. But the truth about the tax the rich nonsense from the Progressives has been completely undermined by reality and the DNC leadership. Nothing new…Obama admitted during this debate in 2008 that his policies were about “fairness” and not logical economic plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po7J0f5TMrQ [This video is now private...]

The Bad….

The Food Bill Passed..it’s unconstitutional and Federal oppression…just the things government does best.

The Compromise Bill Passed. Yes it’s really good that the tax cuts didn’t expire in the middle of a depression. No, it doesn’t make sense to compromise on extending unemployment and adding hundreds of billions to the deficit. We are on our way to forever unemployment benefits…welcome to the Soviet Union boys and girls….here is more on the wranglings and a list of the 36 GOP Congressman wo were courageous enough to vote against this….

Goodlatte did vote for this…here is his explanation. This could be a microcosm of his legislative history. Compromise and accepting the progressive nudge to the left. We are fine withthe government shutting down. We are fine with a Congressman who stands on principle. And this why we continue to have concerns about Congressman Goodlatte. But Goodlatte is running par with the “normal” politicians. We need a lot more like the 36 who said NO to this…and we’d like one here in Roanoke.

The GOP managed to stave off a lot of bad stuff. But a progressive in power means the Constitution/Economy is in danger. We’ll see what the new Congress has in the intestinal fortitude department. They will need it.

As for the critical upcoming state legislative session

Donna Holt from Campaign for Liberty  was in Roanoke Tuesday and gave a good presentation on the Agenda 21 issue. We will present more information on this on January 13th and we will be coordinating with other groups to get some PR for this issue prior to lobby day. More to come SOON. We have to kill this on the state and local level.

I was also in Richmond, Tuesday AM for a legislative session with Tertium Quids.  We talked about a lot of legislation…but two big things were clear.

Our property rights, the basis of our liberty, are under assault and on top of repealing HB 3202, we also need to support the Constitutional Amendment to limit Eminent Domain. One big obstacle to this could very well be our State Senator, John Edwards.

As a Roanoker, you would think that Edwards would be first in line to protect you from overreaching government seizure of property. Roanoke was the epicenter of Eminent Domain abuse in 2007. Politicians keep trying to gut the great laws that were passed in 2007 to protect citizens from government/corporate raiders.

Yet John Edwards  has been quoted as saying that with the eminent domain laws“…we [the General Assembly] can come back and look at it another year and see if tinkering needs to be done.”

We don’t need tinkering with property rights. We need the 2007 eminent domain laws to be part of the State Constitution to avoid tinkering now and forever. It is unclear where Edwards will fall on this. But anything short of a Constitutional Amendment is a failure, and anything short of full support should be a reason to oust Senator Edwards. Edwards has a lot of power in his Senate Committee role and we will be spending a good deal of time encouraging Edwards to do the right thing. I urge you to call him today and ask him to support the Constitutional Amendment.

We also spent a good deal of time on the Repeal Amendment. The more I hear and read on the Repeal Amendment, the more I think this is a supreme waste of time. Speaker of the House of Delegates, William Howell did little in his presentation to persuade me (nor did his cohort former VTPP President and possible US Senate candidate Jamie Radtke)

It’s a shame the increasingly fractured state federation of Tea Parties has allowed Jamie’s political ambitions to get them roped into support of  this really lame idea.  But it’s hard to blame most of these groups since the facts below were not shared with the Tea Party groups by the federation leadership…the repeal amendment was presented in a very disingenuous way to these groups by VTPP leadership.

It’s sure good to be independent of a group. Here are the irrefutable facts against the Repeal Amendment from Jim Vetterlays.

The States Already Have the Power
An amendment to the Constitution is not needed.  The States already have the power to “nullify” unconstitutional federal over-reach.  In 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts.  Adams and the federalists passed the Acts to suppress criticism of the President and Congress.  Madison and Jefferson contended that the Acts were void as they were unconstitutional.  Further, this determination could be made by individual States under the compact agreement between the States that created the Federal government as its limited agent.  Given that Jefferson and Madison are the fathers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, this concept of State nullification has high pedigree and legitimacy.  This topic is covered extensively by Thomas Woods in his book “Nullification”, and at the 10th Amendment Center.
Some argue that the ultimate arbitrator is the US Supreme Court under Article III of the Constitution especially given the Marshall court’s Marbury decision.  However, James Madison was quite clear in the Madison Report of 1800 that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter among the branches of the federal government, but is not final arbiter regarding matters between the States and the agent it created- the Federal Government.  Thomas Jefferson repeated these same sentiments during his lifetime.
Although most have never been taught this history and we have largely strayed from exercising these State powers, it does not mean that we cannot reassert these powers.  These powers have been used and are currently being asserted by many courageous States, including:

• Wisconsin’s righteous refusal to acknowledge the Federal Fugitive Slave Act and the supporting Supreme Court ruling requiring escaped slaves to be returned to slave-holders prior to the Civil War
• California’s Medical Marijuana law and practices
• Twenty five states passed legislation opposing the Federal Real ID Act and are not implementing the law
• Seven States have passed Health Care Freedom Laws to oppose of “ObamaCare”, and legislation is pending in 16 other States.

Impracticality of a 2/3rd Hurdle
Current powers allow individual States to say “no”.  The proposed Repeal Amendment requires 2/3rds of the States.  This hurdle effectively creates a new, higher threshold.  Therefore, it limits our existing freedoms and liberties and does not expand it. Realistically, how likely is it to get 2/3rds of the States to agree?  Maybe under the right conditions once in a blue moon but probably not very often.  This proposed Amendment would be a tool that will rarely be effective.
Law of Unintended Consequences
Supporters of the proposed amendment may contend that this amendment supplements existing Constitutional liberties.  However, we know too well how the very words we hope will protect us are used in the future against us.   Interpretations around the general welfare and commerce clauses are classic examples.  And promises are promises.  The Federalists promised anti-federalists that the Constitution would expressly limit Federal power at the time the Constitution was debated during ratification.  Despite those promises, the Federalists promptly moved to extend Federal powers after ratification, and the rest has been the history.
This proposed Amendment will likely be twisted and be used to assert primacy and overrule existing State powers and remedies.  This is the very nature of the problem – how well-intended language is reinterpreted and misused to limit liberty and expand central powers.   Is this a chance worth taking given the track record in Washington?
The Rightful Solution
The proposed Repeal Amendment is well intended but impractical and harmful.  It will divert valuable energy and focus away from solutions at the State level.  The States have the power to say “no”.  We need to enforce the existing Constitution from our State Capitols, and not amend the Constitution.
This is why we created the FFVA and why we have issues with the Repeal Amendment. The FFVA was blessed by the author of Nullification.

http://freedomforvirginiansact.org/

We definitely will not be pushing for this in the next session. Our efforts will be focused on property rights protection.

Our focus for 2011 will be on the upcoming state lobbying efforts and Nov. state races and staying on Goodlatte’sheals. We’ll focus on US Senator’s next year.  Trying to affect Webb and Warner is just a waste of time. We are stuck with them until we can unelect them.

We have some announcements coming soon. Stay tuned.