This has been a long-time coming — and mirrors what a lot of pw readers have been advocating for quite a while now: states showing the federal government that in a constitutional republic whose founding documents were meant to protect individual, state sovereignty, and constrain the power of a federal authority, all it really takes to break the hold of the federal Leviathan is to simply tell it no.
Then the hold mirage of federal dominance crumbles:
The Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”) today announced the launch of an enhanced State Sovereignty Project devoted to persuading all 50 states to aggressively exercise their authority to serve as a check on the ever-growing and often extra-constitutional power of the federal government.
CFIF’s State Sovereignty Project employs a grassroots-driven approach to encourage governmental authorities closest to the people – governors, state and local legislatures, state attorneys general and other state constitutional officers – to reclaim and exercise the structural powers granted to them by the U.S. Constitution as a bulwark against federal encroachments on state sovereignty and erosion of the individual liberties of the people they serve. Specifically, CFIF will employ and enhance its numerous forms of paid advertising, earned media, social media and editorial materials, among other methods, as part of an ongoing broad education effort to promote localized grassroots activism.
“With increasing frequency, the federal government seeks to expand its constitutionally limited powers and authority well beyond what the Founders envisioned,” said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella. “Yet all too often state and local elected officials who are closest to the people are acting more as cheerleaders for centralized federal policies advocated by the leaders of their respective national political parties than as a necessary check on expanded federal power. The result has been an erosion in the defense of state sovereignty and loss of individual liberty.”
In addition to federally mandated education policy, obstruction of common sense state efforts to stem and deter voter fraud and even federal efforts to influence what food we eat and automobiles we drive, to name a few, CFIF pointed to ObamaCare and various actions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) that extend beyond its authority as prime examples of federal overreach that need to be countered.
“The U.S. Constitution not only provides for a system of checks and balances within the federal government, but also a check by the various states on the federal government and its thirst to expand beyond its limited enumerated powers,” Mazzella said.
“While we are delighted to see some states start to fight back against some of those federal power grabs, those efforts are too few and far between,” Mazzella said, referring to the involvement of various states in challenging ObamaCare and similar efforts against some, but not all, suspect EPA actions.
“To fully protect their sovereignty, their economies and the individual liberties of the people they serve, all 50 states and their respective leaders have a duty to act with more frequency and consistency against increasing federal power and control, regardless of the ideological form or partisan shape it takes,” Mazzella continued. “That will only happen with sustained and informed public pressure, which CFIF seeks to encourage and inspire with this initiative.”
As I said after yet another surreal “conservative” SCOTUS ruling, Jan Brewer should tell the people of her state that, because the federal government won’t enforce our borders — and in fact is acting extra-Constitutionally to claim “prosecutorial discretion” with respect to which illegals it will keep and which it might prosecute or deport — she is calling on the state’s law enforcement apparatus to tell both the federal government and several members of the Supreme Court to get stuffed. Governors of states being sued for trying to shore up their voter rolls should do as Florida did and tell the Justice Department to kindly kiss its ass. States being denied access to natural gas and oil should defy the EPA. And no human should ever, ever, let any government official claim he has the right to regulate his or her exhalation.
Long ago (and rather infamously now) I suggested that we were heading for a demographic civil war in this country, one that would involve disobedience by states and a movement of voters to states that will protect their rights against federal encroachment.
Let’s hope this project from CFIF is the (organized) start of just such a thing.
(h/t nr)
…all it really takes to break the hold of the federal Leviathan is to simply tell it no.
Didn’t I just read a Small Wars Journal article about something like this?
– All it would take is a Constitutional convention, which should be convened every 25 years automatically anyway.
Good Lord, BBH, NO!
We’d be lucky if we got the old Soviet Constitution imposed on us if we had another Constitutional Convention.
And what makes you think they’d obey a new one any better than the one we’ve got?! It’s already illegal to treat people differently based on their “race”, but there goes the administration, looking to impose “affirmative action” on school discipline…
Exactly. We already have a Constitution, and it’s a damn fine one. If it needs tweaking we have the amendment process. For things like term limits or having Congress vote on some super majority basis to overrule SCOTUS
Of course a cynic would say why not get a new Constitution; no one pays any heed to the one we have.
– Guys, who said anything about rewriting it. We need to REAFFIRM it, not rewrite it.
While I get your point, the problem with a full-on Constitutional convention is that the law of unintended consequences would likely bite. Hard.
– So then which is worse, allowing lawless governance to continue essentially ignoring our founding documents, or at keast trying to reassert them and taking our chances. Seems to me we don’t really have a choice.
– When the Federal goverment, an entity which only exists by accord of a majority of soveriegn states, starts suing those very same states from which the entirety of any and all powers that it enjoys springs, for simply trying to enforce the laws then you know your government is turned upside down and totally out of control.
A convention won’t reaffirm shit. It will allow every two-bit law professor who can catch the ear of a governor to insert their pet “right” into it. Yeah, Glenn Reynolds would get to go — and for each of him there would be five Prof Lefty McHateWhitey.
We’d certainly lose the electoral college in favor of the national popular vote.
And, man, can you imagine what would happen to the 2nd?
Oh, and the 1st would get some new funny clauses about protecting people’s “dignity” — after which you’d never be able to say anything about Islam but “Allahu Akbar!”
Yeah, shits out of control. But giving the asshats a chance to write our natural rights out of existence? All you’d be doing is admitting we can’t preserve our rights by the vote; next step would be a shooting war.
(And, really, you trust George Soros’ hand-picked Secretaries of State to manage the ratification? If it were an improvement it would be shot down in 3/4ths the states and if it were evil incarnate it would won in the same.)
Amen. I like everything about this post; the comments are even better.
Crawford is right. Another Consitution would leave us pining for the State-oriented glories of the EU there would be so much mandatory affirmative declarations.
– Well then, as the man said, if you’re unwilling to duke it out for your rights then don’t bitch if others usurp them.
(And I do completely agree with your fears and they are certainly tangible and real. I just don’t think pacively letting it go on ad-nasua is the answer.)
“Well then, as the man said, if you’re unwilling to duke it out for your rights then don’t bitch if others usurp them.”
But aren’t you offering a false alternative BBH?
That is, the question of standing up for the uniquely American political philosophy doesn’t simply boil down to whether another Convention is held or no, but rather, (granted, tautologically) whether we stand up for the uniquely American political philosophy or not.
– Maybe the CC isn’t the right, or even neccessary avenue, but if things continue something has to give.
– If its a case of the Republic no longer being the wish of the majority then so be it. But personally I think thats a load of bullshit. The Left has used every trick in the book to “force multiply”. They are in reality less than 15% of the population at any given moment. The one thing; they’ll fight tooth and nail to avoid is a popular vote on almost anything you can name.
– 26 states are counter-suing the Fed. Maybe thats the way it can happen. I just know, as you all do, that something needs to be done.
I think any convention would need to be held after we kick the commies out. We could start by repealing some of the amendments (like electing senators by popular vote) and adding an amendment to clarify the commerce clause to mean what it originally meant, and not what it has become.
I think a simple amendment statement that the 2nd amendment is an individual right, just like all the others in the bill of rights, would be proper as well.
If we cannot do that much, a convention would be a disaster.
Of course, this also requires legislators that actually follow the intent of the constitution. They only exist in the minority right now.
Declaring it time to re-write the Constitution isn’t “duking it out” for our rights.
I oppose the idea because I don’t want the idiots most likely to carry it out anywhere near the levers of power. I see fighting the idea of a Convention as fighting to preserve my rights.
– At one time I would have said let them fight it out in the courts, but after the Roberts ambush I no longer have any confidence in that approach.
– But at this point it seems its the only choice left.
– But at this point it seems its the only choice left.
you don’t think say 25 governors calling for the elimination of the epa wouldn’t be effective in calling attention to the uselessness of this agency in its present form.
Ric had an interesting thought on the topic of a constitutional convention:
I was unhappy while searching for this but it was enjoyable to remember that he had a different twist on this and then find that, yes, of course he did. The idea of a limited, conditional (and binding?) permission for the convention (“and no others will be”) lessening the scope of possible outcomes is something worth thinking about if the larger idea were to be considered. Is that feasible? I don’t know.
– As I stated nr – possibly this is a workable approach, but with friends like Roberts who needing enima’s.
Btw, I consider the State Sovereignty Project discussed in this post to be exactly what we need at this time.
Washington really does require compliance. It really does require the cooperation of the governed.
I would be for a new Constitution with the guiding mandate that it can only contain that which a drunk 3 year old can be taught to write in crayon on a 3 x 5 index card.
possibly this is a workable approach
after roberts, this is the best route. if we can get 30 states to sign on we theoretically have 60 senators and probably a majority in the house. and having 30 governors with their bully pulpits in 30 states preaching small fed gov’t to their citizens is a new sort of check and balance. on the domestic side the president would become a constrained position as originally defined.
– I would say the chances for success, sadly, will go up if more states face insolvency, as it looks like they surely will. Chances also improve if the 26 win the border enforcement suit.
– A few solid successes in the manner of Wiscosin would do wonders.
One thing i would like to thank JG…and many others here (including, yes, Crawford) is a sort of clarification of the sites that are intellectually worthwhile. Stuff like FIRE, ALG and thi new lot are precisely where I should be lending what hand I can.
Not loving the Tobacco lobbyist background of these guys. Love what they represent, not how they got there.
Not loving the Tobacco lobbyist background of these guys.
is tobacco a legal product and do the producers have a right to petition the fed gov’t?
DEMON TOBACCOOOO!!!!!!!!
NR, Totally.
I’m conflicted. A health nut, I despise tobacco but respect people’s choice to use it. But its founder, WT Humber, was a world class liar for the Tobacco Institute. The TI, lied, amazingly so, for decades about the defined health risk of using tobacco.
So when that ended, their assets were transferred to CFIF, where they continue to do some back-channel Tobacco stuff.
A lot of wrong has morphed into some right.
Crawford,
I don’t demonize it. Its just a bad product that its manufacturers lied about for decades.
Bah! No one is taking my smokes from me.
I’m conflicted. A health nut, I despise tobacco but respect people’s choice to use it. But its founder, WT Humber, was a world class liar for the Tobacco Institute.
yes the “health nut” might be the problem. i do like epa psas telling us radon causes lung cancer. did those earlier studies control for radon? oh my no but don’t let a “crises” go to waste as a ballerina once remarked.
Its just a bad product that its manufacturers lied about for decades.
the “science is settled” really?
No one should Leigh.
But you don’t kid yourself about the effect of those smokes, largely because Big Tobacco was forced to acknowledge their olympic levels of dishonesty.
oh and roddy i don’t buy the lead stuff either since the “scientists” tend to study poor black folks and they say it is the lead that makes them stupid. maybe they be stupid?
NR,
I don’t gamble, because, well, I don’t.
But I really like the odds of the science that states that consistent smoking (of cigarrettes) is a major factor in increasing your odds of stuff like emphasyma and cancer.
Let’s be clear: we all know 90 year olds who puff away and 40 year olds who die from lung cancer without having touched a butt, but on balance, it’s clear enough that there is a link.
largely because Big Tobacco was forced to acknowledge their olympic levels of dishonesty.
what was big tobac’s “dishonesty”?
Lead is a scam of epic proportion, nr.
Whoa, NR, I’m not Mike Bloomberg, repurposing every press release into some bid for expanded government control. I like to work out and try and moderate the garabage intake. That’s it–a personal thing.
Science has made a lot of banana peel oriented mistakes when it crosses the border into advocacy.
There is a causal link between smoking and health issues, mainly heart disease. Of course, it is difficult to sort out whether it is smoking that is primarily responsible or lifestyle, diet, air quality, dental hygeine (really), and what part of the country you live in.
Lying about the link between cancer and tobacco, actively denying them in fact.
it’s clear enough that there is a link.
roddy i buried my dad last year. he hadn’t smoked in 25 years. he had copd. the doc listed the cause of death as smoking. i don’t buy what these tools are selling anymore. that’s why i like getting conservative governors organized to preach small fed gov’t to their constituents and calling on the fed reps and senators to get with this endeavor.
I’d say we’re looking at a great deal of agreement here on the main issue along with some peripheral disagreement.
Which is what humans do. We’re sorta cool that way. (This is why I enjoy cranky’s facetious echo chamber”
Stupid phone.
I was cut off when I was expressing my appreciation for cranky’s “pw is such an echo chamber” comments at this point in the thread.
NR, let me extend my personal respects to you and yours. Everyone has to bury their folks but you want it to be a more natural thing. I am sorry.
Your skepticism is warranted on many things and, let’s be clear, who fucking died and left me a genius on health issues?
BH, well put.
Obama says we need a “soul searching” over gun violence.
OK, here goes: I’ve never committed any. No one I know has every committed any. I don’t want to commit any, and don’t plan on it.
I’ve never used or bought illegal drugs that were transported by accessories to murder. The Won can’t say that.
I’ve never made a straw purchase, or had underlings order straw purchases to be made. The Won can’t say that.
My soul is clean. Now will someone please make it clear to the JackAss-in-Chief that HIS ISN’T?!
Lying about the link between cancer and tobacco, actively denying them in fact.
see that’s “the science is settled” thing that doesn’t work for me. radon? and even radon is based on what?
that’s why i like decentralization. less chance of pinheads getting it wrong.
but you want it to be a more natural thing
roddy my dad’s death was a “natural thing” he was 80 years old. but back to the lead thing: i worked at a lead chem factory in phila in the early ’80’s. it is an interesting experience to wake up on a sunday and read on the front page of the phila inquirer and find your employer is killing port richmond. anyways scott walker should be the guy pulling this state sov. stuff together. he beat back the local parasites and can go on to take on the fed gov’t roaches.
The science is settled on tobacco, though nr. I wouldn’t lie to you.
That said, alcoholic beverages are a bigger health issue and cause of death than is smoking. Often the two go hand in hand. Which is why I said upthread that is difficult to sort out an exact causal factor in deaths that aren’t the result of accidents or old age. (See other factors I mentioned @7:14.)
Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t be wrong.
Health issue-wise, Jeff. Not the “second hand smoke” bullshit.
That said, alcoholic beverages are a bigger health issue and cause of death than is smoking
The thing about cigarettes is their addictiveness. I have done about every drug there is, been addicted to about a third of them, and nothing comes even remotely close to cigarette addiction.
Nothing.
Not true, BMoe. I quit smoking in 3 days. It took me smoking a pack a day to quit dipping.
The science is settled on tobacco, though nr.
science is never settled. the truth has no agenda. the truth is fascist/eugenic ideas like hitler had were a proggtard fav. see:sanger. that’s why i think pushing this state’s sov. stuff is important. strip the fed gov’t of those functions it should not have.
Re: lead. There is a town nearby to us (actually was a town) that was a place that made its living mining lead chat. The entire town is full of chat piles.
About three years ago Our Betters™ found the place to suddenly be a bad, bad place to live and raise a family. It was so bad and dangerous that everyone in the town had to sell out and move away before the lead made them all die. Some people refused to leave so The Betters told them they had to replace all of the windows in their homes because there might be lead in the frames that held the glass. The only firm that was allowed to replace the windows was from Our Betters and they charged very very high fees to do so.
Most of the people who were refusing to leave were very old and couldn’t afford to replace all their windows. They gave up. Sold their home to Our Betters and now live somewhere else.
I have done about every drug there is, been addicted to about a third of them, and nothing comes even remotely close to cigarette addiction.
some times it comes down to the individual
High blood sugar is so toxic that insulin will force the production of fat rather than let it escalate out of control. If that happens, you get fat – and THEN you eat more. And exercise has the same effect. If your body is producing fat from blood sugar, exercise makes you incredibly hungry, so you end up eating more than you exercise away.
It’s really biochemistry that drives the process. If insulin is working properly, you eat until your blood sugar reaches a saturation level, and you stop. You just can’t eat any more.
What’s maddening is that this was conventional wisdom until the late 1960s. And then a charismatic Harvard professor named Jean Meyer convinced the world that we needed to get everyone to eat a low-fat diet. The government signed on, and now we have an obesity epidemic.
link
Three smokers in my immediate family have quit smoking cold-turkey. Out of three smokers in my immediate family.
I don’t agree with it being hard to quit, B Moe. I have quit for long stretches of time. 10 years once. Cold turkey and didn’t agonize over it. I can’t smoke at work, no big deal.
My dad quit 25 years ago because my step-mother didn’t like him smoking. Maybe it’s genetic.
why is smoking or growing tobacco a fed gov’t issue?
It might be a very differentiated thing by each person’s brain chemistry. I’ve taken my share of drugs and the only thing I’ve ever become addicted to is nicotine.
This is neither here or there on the issue of states re-asserting their primacy in our American scheme of governance though, right?
These words seemed to have a direct effect on another person close at hand who responded, “It is not paranoia, sometimes, to think the government is out to get us. I don’t think is necessarily deliberate. But the whole prussian school system, the fact that, for pepole in their 20-30?s (educated by the government, who owe their school loans to the government) eventually derive their eating style, their mortgage patterns, retirement plans, their healthcare consumption to the government.”
link
the only thing I’ve ever become addicted to is nicotine.
native american h8ter;
This is neither here or there on the issue of states re-asserting their primacy in our American scheme of governance though, right?
you got to start somewhere. me epa. take this down the rest follows.
Heh, nr.
At the end of the day it’s a choice I’ve made in the past and might continue in the future. I’m the only one to blame. I’m not an innocent child. I’m an adult making choices.
The feds can go get fucked in their efforts to save me. In three rounds I’d take most those soft bastards apart. They should consider eating fewer carbs and running windsprints until they puke but you don’t see me passing new laws and taxes about it.
Well not yet, bh.
I fucking hate Illinois nazis.
Heh.
– I’ll just be happy if we can shed this round of the great Socialist experiment without completely going off the rails.
– It would be nice to get back to where we can look at the Left as something God gives us from time to time for us to abuse, and mock at our leisure.
At the end of the day it’s a choice I’ve made in the past and might continue in the future. I’m the only one to blame.
don’t tell sandra fluke she be not into it!
we can look at the Left as something God gives us from time to time for us to abuse,
no stoopid be eternal even roundup says that
– Eistein said that the most common element in the universe is stupidity.
– I’ve not seen anything in my lifetime that would seriously dispute that.
Speaking of which, where has happy been? I expected him to join in with the anti- Chick-fil-A fervor. Staunch. Like Bill Quick, who wants the state to identify and punish the haters in this particular instance. Chase them out of business and out of town. Have the society shun the haters. For the good of true classical liberalism, I suppose.
Speaking of which, where has happy been?
at patterico
http://patterico.com/2012/08/06/quick-links-4/#comment-1033335
“at patterico”
– He sent hinself down to the minors.
Wherever he is I’m willing to bet he’s already shown how he never meant a word of previous apologies.
It’s who he is now. It’s the choice he made.
– I’m pleased to say I’ve never once had to apoligize for a tasteless insensitive comment. But then I’m just a tasteless insensitive prick, so I’ve got that going for me.
– feets should stick to Gay Brazilian basket weaving sites or some such.
I only smoke when I’m low on oil….
– Friction during sex?
Gibson Guitar agrees to pay $300,000 penalty to settle Lacey Act violations
– The sharks are circling, and the limo’s are catching the ambulances…..
Gibson Guitar agrees to pay $300,000 penalty to settle Lacey Act violations
30 governors can shut the stupid down
– They can keep hammetring Gibson (Charley doesn’t have a strong enough lobby position). Just keeps driving the value of my 1948 LS150 higher and higher.
30 governors eff up the 17 amend. “vote for your state or die politically.”
“I’m a member of Congress now, I don’t make too much money,” said Reid, whose net worth was estimated at $10 million in 2010. “But it’s all listed every year.”
– Yes yes Harry…..I’m sure all those years when you were beating your wife and molesting children you amased a 10 milrion dollar personal fortune by extreme self saceifice and absolute spartan saving habits of every nickls and dime.
– Still, there are all those nasty rumors that are floating in the air, hanging around like a beached whale, the lingering stink of payoffs and all that you see….I’m sure you can understand the concerns of voters.
– My best guess is Romneys camp is keeping its powder dry, waiting to spring an October suprose on the Wonce.
– Jug ears has more holes in his past than a piece of very ripe swiss cheese.
– Hey Barry…..Whats up with the fake SS number anyway?
My dad died of COPD at 81. I’d like to think he could have lived longer (his mother made it to 93, his eldest brother is now, I believe, 94) and that his last few years would have been more enjoyable if he could breathe worth a damn.
And it’s hard to overlook that Dad smoked most of his life while Grandma and Uncle John didn’t.
But life is full of trade offs and what you get with one hand you have to pay for with the other. I don’t know if Grandma or Uncle John in their healthy 90s could keep up mentally with my father, already dying in his late 70s.
Re: BBH’s link:
In other words, they did Jack Shit. Just like the police did with Loughner. And we’ll likely find out the same about the Wisconsin nut — that authorities knew he was a danger, but Couldn’t Be Bothered, as it would have taken resources away from their oh-so-important jobs of protecting illegals and maintaining the flow of graft.
I saw Minority Report. Watching the movie was okay. Living in it, I’m thinking not so much.
I heart chick fil a they make tasty sammiches and when mom died they sent us all these sammiches for breakfast one day they just showed up at the door god bless america
their president is not very good at keeping his eye on the sammich ball but that’s different than the whole company being stupid – it has a franchise model you know, plus there’s simply no way that this whole kerfuffle has in any way inspired presidents and ceos of companies across this failshit little country to stand up for bible marriage. I just got back from Minnesota and presidents and ceos there are actually doing the opposite.
The whole thing is a classic this-too-shall-pass thing really. In the long run it’s about tasty sammiches at a fair price, and that’s really all it’s about.
Fascists like tommy menino and Chicago’s whore mayor will continue to be the same sort of capitalism-hating demagogues what’ve made it so hard for Walmart to help more people – people like me – save serious money with everyday low prices to where their quality of life actually improves, and unless they attack Walmart in the name of gay marriage the chicken sammich brigades are really unlikely to bestir themselves I think.
But also I’m going on a great american road trip soon I hope for to restore my soul and I’m thinking of stopping at the hapeville dwarf house when I’m in Georgia cause of they have animated dwarfs how cool is that? I’d never have know about that if this whole dealio hadn’t happened. Also I want to go to Savannah.
have *known* about that I mean
Somebody just had to invoke the Ghost of Idiocy Past…
Can we stuff its head in a crapper until the bubbles stop?
murderous fiend
$4 billion in sammich revenue says otherwise. Some people can walk and have opinions at the same time.
Let me know if you are around Athens, ‘feets. I will buy you a Terrapin.
i sure will Mr. Moe
– Whack-a-feets, like a Whack-a-mole.
– You type his name and he pops up.
I thought it was because somebody crop-dusted metro LA with Viagra.
You summon a demon by speaking his name.
Sprites too, apparently.