Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The U.S. Census: head count or domestic intelligence gathering?

By Daniel Clements May 20, 2009

In 2010 the United States will go through a process that is laid out in our Constitution called the census. The United States has been performing a census since 1790. The purpose of the census was to do a head count of the American people for purposes of determining congressional districts for representation of the people at the federal level.

The US Constitution in article 1 section 2 clause 3 states ‘the actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the worst meeting of the Congress of the United States and within every subsequent term of 10 years in such manner as they shall by Law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 30,000 but each State shall have at least one Representative;’

The original intent of the U.S. Census was to do a head count for the purposes of representation of the people. This seems to me to be a very simple straightforward task that is to be undertaken by our federal government. It has since been morphed into something quite different.

The U.S. Census that will be taken in 2010 will be a very long form with a lot of questions pertaining to personal information that the government does not need in order to take a head count of the American people. What is the purpose of the U.S. Census? According to the government website, the census is a count of everyone living in the United States every 10 years. The census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The next census is in 2010 your participation in this census is required by law. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Federal law protects the personal information you shared during the census. Census data are used to distribute congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and distribute $300 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year. You can go to this website http://2010.census.gov/2010census/ and read for yourself about what the U.S. Census has become.

My question to the U.S. Census Bureau is, where in the world did you ever get the idea that you needed to collect data other than the person is alive and kicking, and a US citizen? This is just one more example of how our federal government has become overreaching. In my humble opinion this is no more or no less than the federal government trying to manipulate and plan what goes on in the lives of the citizens of the United States. The federal government has no Constitutional authority to collect any information in the census outside of the name, address and citizenship status of We the People. I have looked at my pocket Constitution and can find no amendment to the Constitution that would authorize the federal government to gather the information it wants during the census.

Seeing how this is not the proper role of the federal government, the collecting of personal information during the Constitutional census, we need to ask the question why is the federal government requiring this information to be collected? So they can be good nannies and distribute tax dollars that have been collected. This money they distribute is used to buy votes. I don't care if the government assures me that my personal information will be protected, my question is who's going to protect me and my personal information from the federal government who should not have it in the first place?

This is just one more example of how the federal government has overstepped its Constitutional authority when it comes to governing We the People! An enumeration of the people should be just that an enumeration, not a domestic intelligence gathering exercise. Because in the final analysis that is what the U.S. Census has become!

If the American people don't wake up to the fact, that their federal government is operating outside the constraints of the Constitution, the American people will wake up one day in a country they no longer recognize or voted for!

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The People’s Grand Jury

By Daniel Clements April 2, 2009

When I started my radio show ‘BACK to BASIC’ in October of 2007 I was looking for a political answer in my life, I just did know what the question was. For the next one and a half years I was searching for that question, and today I found that question. The question is how can I, one individual stop a tyrannical government from destroying our nation? I knew the answer to this question was out there and it always seemed to be just out of reach.

Last night while listening to Andrea Shea King’s radio show on blog talk radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stations/HeadingRight/ASKShow I heard an interview she was doing with a gentleman named Carl Swenson. Carl Swenson heads up a group called rise up for America and can be found on the web at http://www.riseupforamerica.com/ On March 28 a grand jury in the city of Stockbridge Georgia returned an indictment against Barak Hussein Obama Regarding the matter of his American citizenship. The indictment that the grand jury handed up against Barak Hussein Obama has been delivered to the proper authorities in the state of Georgia.

The answer to my question is found in the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution. The Fifth Amendment reads ‘No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of war or public Danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence To be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, Liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.’ The long sought for answer to my question is the Grand Jury system.

The Grand Jury is sometimes referred to as the fourth branch of government. It is a system that has been leftover from British common law and is still in force today through the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Mr. Leo Donofrio wrote an article called ‘The Federal Grand Jury is the fourth branch of government.’ It can be found at http://www.cusc.org/editorial/3563.htm. I urge you to go read Mr. Leo Donofrio’s article and pay particular attention to the historical and legal references that are quoted in the article. In 1946 the Federal rules of Criminal Procedure Was adopted to simplify law procedure in the criminal law. Nowhere in rule six or seven have pronouncements been eliminated. Only in note Four were pronouncements addressed and then they were deemed only to be obsolete.
Two justices of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Powell in 1972, And Justice Antonin Scalia in 1992, Stated that the Grand Jury was rooted in centuries of Anglo-American history. Nowhere have I found any modification to the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. There have been no new amendments Added to the United States Constitution that would modify the Fifth Amendment. Congress cannot pass a bill, and the president cannot sign said Bill into law to change the United States Constitution. In order to do away with the Grand Jury there would by necessity need to be a new amendment added to the constitution to change the Fifth Amendment. Also according to Mr. Leo Donofrio’s Article Grand Juries can be convened by We the People without a prosecutor or permission from a sitting judge. The only thing that is necessary for a grand jury to be legal is that it be sworn in by a sitting judge. It is my understanding that a Grand Jury can be seated on a State and Federal level.

I can understand why politicians would want to do away with The People’s Grand Jury. Nowhere is there any provision in election law to recall a politician once they are elected. And the way the two party systems are set up today it is almost impossible to unseat an incumbent politician, even when the politician is operating outside of the constraints of the United States Constitution. I do not recommend that the People’s Grand Jury be used to overturn elections, but when politicians become tyrannical and operate as if they are above the law; the people need to take a course of action in order to protect this great country from tyrants and would be dictators. We as citizens of the United States of America have not only a right but a duty to seat a People’s Grand jury to root out evil in our government and the bureaucracies it controls.

I have been considering this course of action with some fear and trepidation because I know how easily a People’s Grand Jury can be used for partisan political purposes. But let me be the first to warn anyone who would try to abuse the People’s Grand Jury system for their own personal ends, you will be found out and laid bare before the court of public opinion by myself and other members of the new mainstream media. The United States Constitution is the basis on which all of our laws are based and must be considered in all of the People’s Grand Jury considerations. By using the United States Constitution as our standard for judgment we can be reasonably assured that the People’s Grand Juries will be just and equitable to all citizens Involved.

In a way I am glad that President Obama Has fought the inquiry into his American citizenship. I believe this has awakened a sleeping giant in the American people, called the rule of law. What the founding fathers tried to accomplish with the establishment of state governments, and the state’s establishing the Federal government, was a level playing field for all citizens, both natural and naturalized to live on. In a Constitutional Republic all men and women are equal, from the poorest of the poor, to the richest of the rich, from the least political among us, to the holder of the highest political office in America.

But if we are to be a nation that believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness we need to be able to hold one another accountable before the law. No one is above the law and no one should be able to break the supreme law of the land, the United States constitution. Those to whom we give consent to govern over us should remember that they are citizens just like everyone else in America. And when our politicians no longer feel that they are accountable to We the People, our only recourse is to hold them accountable before the law through the People’s Grand Jury system. Sometimes we can’t wait for elections, because too much damage can be done by the politicians, and People’s memories are way to short.

I urge you to please listen to Andrea Shea King’s show and read the articles I have cited above and make your own determination about the people’s grand juries. Time is running out for this great Republic that we call America, we need to act quickly in order to save our constitution, our country, and perhaps even our own lives.

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The G20 protests

By Daniel Clements April 1, 2009

As I was watching Fox and Friends this morning on the Fox News channel I heard Gretchen and Brian discussing the protests at the G20 summit and they described all the protesters as Anarchist. Now most of the time the hosts of Fox and Friends are very careful when they report on a story, but this time when reporting about the G20 summit they accused all of the protesters of being anarchist.

I host a radio show and try never to make a blanket statement. I always try to investigate and research a subject before I report on it. I went on Google to find out what groups were protesting the G20 summit. In my research I did find some groups that were there to cause trouble. But there were some groups there that have legitimate grievances to air during the protest. To say that every one there protesting was there to cause trouble is not only false but an outright lie.

I believe it is a fundamental right of people everywhere to protest what their governments are doing in their name, especially when those governments infringe on people’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that civil protests are another form of redress of grievances by the people. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are God given rights that cannot be arbitrarily taken away from people by their governments. People give up these rights and allow their governments to take them a way, when they sit idly by and suffer wrongs by their governments.

These protests at the G20 summit are a symptom of a larger problem. Some of the protesters targeted the bank of England because it is part of the world banking system. The world banking system is in large part Responsible for the global economic meltdown. And make no mistake, the Federal Reserve here in America is part of the world banking system and is at the top of the list of those responsible for the economic crisis here in America. The Federal Reserve is a private institution and is not accountable to We the People, and is resisting every effort by the people to be held accountable for any of its actions.

The larger problem I spoke of earlier is that the free market system is not allowed to operate on its own. Governments all over the world try to control things they do not understand. In the free market system individuals and groups of individuals determine how best to go about interacting with each other during the course of living out their lives. Governments are instituted among men to enforce contracts between individuals and to ensure that the playing field is level for all participants. Free markets can only exist where people have freedom and liberty.

The problem that faces us today is that governments all over the world are trying to control the free market system. The very nature of the free market system cannot be controlled, because people who participate in the free market system will always do what’s in their best interest despite what governments may want them to do. History is littered with the dead corpses of failed government attempts to control the free market system. In the end the free market will always win out no matter how much the government would like to control it, because again people will always do what is in their best interest.

I will acknowledge that some of the protesters at the G20 summit have no business being there. If all you want to do at the G20 summit is cause trouble then you should just stay home. Protesters who cause trouble at protests do more harm than good, because their message gets lost in all the excitement and all people remember about a group that causes trouble is the trouble they cause.

But getting back to my original point, if you’re going to report a story, any story, you need to get your facts straight and correct from the beginning and quit using blanket statements when describing the events or people. I like Gretchen and Brian and will continue to watch Fox and Friends on the Fox News channel, but I cannot and will not allow falsehoods to go unchecked or unchallenged. So please Gretchen and Brian in the future to your research and stop using blanket statements.

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Copyright © 2009 by constitutionalwarrior.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.