Thursday, January 6, 2011

THE WINGNUTS ARE HERE!


"The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

(Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.)"

My republi-clown friends left out that little part of the Constitution so I thought I would post it for those of you who are not familiar with that very important document. "Oh field, stop it, there you go being messy again, you know that portion of the Constitution was Amended. It's called the 14th Amendment, field." WHOOPS. Sorry, it was Amended; bad field Negro.

It's just that all this reading of the Constitution by all these strict constructionist made me want to go back to the strictest interpretation of that fine document. As it was originally intended by those who framed it, that's all.

I swear, these newly elected officials are a trip. And why did some of those dumbocrats in Washington even participate in this silly symbolic exercise?

"Some 135 lawmakers from both parties participated in the reading of the document approved in 1787 and in operation since 1789. Leading off was new House Speaker John Boehner, who recited the "We the People" preamble. He was followed by outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who read Article I, Section 1 that gives legislative powers to Congress.

The document, long a subject both of reverence and wrangling, has never been read in its entirety in the House, and the event, coming on the second day of Republican control of the chamber, was a nod to the tea partiers who returned Republicans to power.

Tea party backers often cited the Constitution in arguing that Washington is ignoring the limits of federal power outlined in the document.

Democrats went along, but before the reading started they asked why Republicans chose to omit sections, including those pertaining to slavery, that were later amended. In particular, they asked about the Article I, Section 2 clause that classified slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of congressional apportionment and taxation.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., asked why those elements of American history were being left out, "given the struggle of African-Americans, given the struggle of women."

"We fail to show the American people that imperfection is not to be feared and that our ability to constantly improve on what the Founders gave us is a blessing, not a reason for divisiveness," Black Caucus member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said.

Goodlatte said he and others had worked closely with the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service in coming up with the most accurate presentation of the Constitution. He noted to Jackson, son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, that another pioneer of the civil rights movement, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., had been asked to read the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery. "
[Source]
Isn't that special? Now that would make for a very nice little bit of symbolism now wouldn't it?

Symbolism is nice, but get with me when stuff like this stops happening in A-merry-ca.

Of course, when half of the people who populate this country dwell in the "Twilight Zone", a more perfect union is going to be that much harder to come by. "except Obama, except Obama"...Oh my! A birther outburst in the congressional chamber. Not surprising given the folks who now occupy most of the seats in that venerable body. The Capitol police removed the wingnut, but I am guessing that most of the elected wingnuts present were secretly saying, yesssss.

"Williams: I'm curious as to how much responsibility you feel specifically because of something that happened this morning. During the reading of the Constitution, Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, was reading a portion of the document, interrupted by someone who heckled from within the chamber. It was to express doubt over the president's American citizenship. Provided you believe the president is an American citizen, you've got 12 members co-sponsoring legislation that does about the same thing, it expresses doubt. Would you be willing to say, "This is a distraction, I've looked at it to my satisfaction. Let's move on"?

Boehner: The state of Hawaii has said that President Obama was born there. That's good enough for me.

Williams: Would you be willing to say that message to the 12 members in your caucus who seem to either believe otherwise or are willing to express doubt and have co-sponsored legislation?

Boehner: Brian, when you come to the Congress of the United States, there are 435 of us. We're nothing more than a slice of America. People come, regardless of party labels, they come with all kinds of beliefs and ideas. Uh it's, it's the melting pot of America. It's not up to me to tell them what to think." [Source]

Yesssss!

No comments:

Post a Comment