The US Constitution is a contract between the government and those governed. It delineates the powers that We the People allow our government to have. It is the law of the land and it is unique in the history of the world.

The House of Representatives opened with a reading of the US Constitution. The Republicans chose to have read the current document leaving out the items that had been changed. This upset liberals and among them was Jesse Jackson, Jr. who believes that reading the current, amended Constitution, glossed over history, particularly the part that dealt with slavery.

While the Constitution does not mention slavery (in the original document) there is no doubt it was addressed. Article 1, Section 2 discusses representation and how people are counted. In it, there is the three-fifths clause. The document says that the number of people will 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.

Notice that it does not say slaves but there is no doubt, and history supports the fact, that the three-fifths applied to them. This part was changed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

According to Jackson, not reading this clause shows that the Republicans glossed over the racist part of the document where slaves were only considered to be three-fifths of a human.

Of course the clause does not make slaves three-fifths of a person. It was a method to count the census and determine how Representatives would be apportioned. It was made this way as a method to end slavery and not to mark slaves as less than a full human.

Slave owners wanted all slaves counted so that they would have greater representation in Congress. If all the slaves were counted, the southern slave owners would have many more members in the House and any efforts to end slavery would have been defeated based on the numbers. By reducing the population, the Founders were able to reduce the number of Representatives from the slave states. This was a balance between those who wanted no slaves counted (because they could not vote) and those who wanted all of them counted so they would have greater numbers of Representatives.

It is important to note that the three-fifths number is from an earlier attempt to organize when the Articles of Confederation were being revised. The slave owners did not want any of their slaves counted when it came to taxing because they would have had to pay more taxes. At that time the three-fifths rule was a compromise agreed upon though the measure eventually failed.

When it came time to compromise on the population used to determine representation, the three-fifths rule was a method that had previously been agreed to so it was inserted to gain passage of the Constitution and to limit the number of Representatives from slave owning states.

Glenn Beck has mentioned that our Constitution is a great document because the Founders gave us a way to change or add to it. This allows us to correct injustices and to add things necessary to run our country. The beauty is that we leave the changed parts in the document so that anyone reading it at anytime can see what we did and how we changed. The three-fifths clause changed because of the Fourteenth Amendment just like the Twenty-First Amendment changed the Eighteenth. The beauty is that both of the changed parts remain but are superseded by newer parts.

Beck thinks that the entire document should have been read to show our scars and how we advanced. Jackson thinks we should have read it in its entirety as well though his reason is to show the racist part of the Constitution. The reality though, is that Jackson is incorrect because Article 1, Section 2 was not racist. It was merely a method to count people or representation and to limit the power of slave owners. If he took the time to learn he would see that this was a brilliant move to eventually end slavery.

I do not disagree with Beck or Jackson about reading the entire thing if the purpose of the exercise was an educational one. Then each section could be read and people could see why we did what we did and how it was changed.

But the reading in the House was designed to present the document in its current form, the form in which we must apply it. The Republicans were simply reading the rules as they now apply.

The Founders wanted to end slavery and they worked on that. Yes, it is true some of them were slave owners but about 70% of those who signed the Declaration of Independence were not slave owners and most of our Founders released their slaves.

George Washington’s will freed his slaves upon the death of his wife, Martha, and provided for the care and education of their children until the age of 25 out of funds from his estate.

As an educational tool the Constitution should be read in its entirety so that people can understand our history.

But for the exercise that took place in the House the only parts that needed to be read are those that currently apply because it is those to which we will hold our members of Congress accountable.

UPDATE: The usual suspects are upset. Seems they want to take the country back to slavery.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

A gunman entered the Discovery Channel building in Maryland and held people hostage for a while. Fortunately the police took the guy out and no one else was hurt. I am thankful that no one was hurt and pray for those affected.

The wacko who did this is obviously mentally ill and he made demands that demonstrated that he was deeply disturbed. He wanted Discovery to run programming telling people to stop having their parasite babies and all kinds of other way out stuff including programming that discussed global warming and how we are hurting the planet. Worried that people might start saying someone like Al Gore must have riled this guy up and caused him to kill, the cheerleaders for the left over at Media Matters Tweeted this:

Discovery Channel hostage-taker is the perpetrator of a crime-not liberal, conservative or a chance to score points

It is understandable that the left’s mouthpieces would make such a statement. You see, they are ALWAYS making these kinds of claims. If someone asks “are you a Muslim” and then assaults the person, well Glenn Beck had to have incited the guy. If some guy flies a plane into the IRS building or an illegal gets the snot beat out of him or a shooter takes out someone the rant from the left is that People like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Palin and many others are the ones who caused it by putting ideas in the heads of crazy people.

When the shoe is on the other foot the excuses start to fly. To be certain, those of us on the right have always maintained that crazy people carried out the bad acts and that no talk show host had anything to do with the violence.

But the left does not buy it as people like Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz scream about the loudmouth right wing hate mongers who incite violence and they refuse to accept that some people are wackos and do bad things. Of course, these folks barely have an audience but still…

Now that a person who was spouting what was clearly leftist doctrine caused the problems we get a tweet telling us is it a crazy person and we should not be using the events for political gain. I am sure that Olbermann will lead with this and will point out how the left incited the guy.

Or will he try to pass it off as inspired by the right?

I will not blame it on anyone other than the guy who did it. He is at fault and he is responsible. Finally, Media Matters agrees with me. But you can bet they will not feel that way the next time some wacko does something while spouting off his conservative views…

Because Media Matters does not give credence to violence being incited by any person or group:

To combat all of those pesky accusations that the right-wing media has been inciting the fringe to violence, Beck made sure to add this jewel into his monologue: Charleston City Paper

Notice that MM does not say the rumors are false or unfounded. No, it mocks the idea that they are false by calling them pesky. In other words, MM is giving credence to the idea that the right (and Beck in particular) incites violence.

But, but, but, it is just some crazy guy is what we get when there is a hint that a lefty did something bad.

And this my friends is why Media Matters does NOT Matter. It is a left wing rag that fabricates things to advance the progressive Socialist agenda. It is a shill for the Democrat party and it works hard to protect Democrats. It is not to be trusted.

They got it right today but not because they intended to. They got it right protecting their precious Democrats.

Let us keep their Tweet in mind and see how they respond the next time some supposed right winger commits an act of violence.

I am taking bets that MM will blame it on conservative talk…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Al Sharpton is still smarting from the humiliation he suffered this weekend. This racist pathological liar smeared Glenn Beck and the people who attended the Restoring Honor Rally as a bunch of racists.

The Sharpton morons had a picture of MLK and Glenn Beck with the word Dream pointing at MLK and the word Nightmare pointing at Beck. The nightmare was the for Sharpton who had to realize his mojo is no longer any good. Sharpton is decidedly bitter because of his inability to rally the troops while Beck gathered over half a million people to the mall, people who were peaceful and non violent. There were probably more people of color at the Restoring Honor Rally than at the Sharpton take back the dream rally (or whatever this moron called it).

Sharpton was supported by a mostly black crowd and labor union members who carried signs like the one pictured in this post. Take a look at it and see if you can find the problem.

These folks are a product of the public school system. I have no doubt that there were plenty of people at the Beck event who can’t spell but I bet they would have checked the work before taking it out in public.

Then again, maybe this is not so surprising. After all, it is union work…

Cave Canem
Never surrender, never submit.

Moron Liberal’s Sign

The usual post rally numbers game is underway and people are saying that as few as 87,000 and as many as 1 million people attended the Restoring Honor event in DC. The liberal left needs to minimize the numbers because the bigger the numbers are the weaker its position becomes.

I was at the rally and I believe there were closer to a million people than to 87,000. The New Carrollton Metro station had 8000 to 10,000 people in line when I arrived. It took nearly 2 hours to get to the train and when I did get on the train the line down below was longer than when I arrived. The entire Mall was surrounded by people and the crowd extended to the Washington Monument. The open area to the left (when looking at the Lincoln Memorial) was completely full of people and the right had densely packed groups way into the wood line (they cannot be seen from the overhead shots but they were there and they were packed in there).

The crowd was mostly white (as is the population of this country) but there were quite a few people of color in attendance. I saw many, many people who were not white and they appeared to be enjoying themselves. In fact, two women of color were walking next to me on the way to the Mall and one looked to the other and said; “Can you believe he asked me where the Al Sharpton event was? I told him over there where those 10 people are. I am going down here where everyone else is.” She was amused that the person would assume that since she was not white she would be on her way to see Sharpton rather than Beck. She got a huge laugh out of it as did everyone with whom she shared the story.

I understand that the left is upset by all the attention non liberal groups get and it needs to fight it any way it can. This is why everything is labeled racist. But minimizing the crowd at this event and repeating the same tired lines about it being very white is getting old. Whites are a majority of the population and when one considers that 95% of blacks are held captive on the Democrat plantation then it is easy to see why throngs of blacks are not at these types of events. However, rejecting the validity of an event because it has too many people of one color and not enough of another makes no sense and is very dangerous. Those who think that any rally that consists of mostly white people is not valid would have to invalidate the Al Sharpton rally that consisted mostly of black people.

Additionally, this picture of the Martin Luther King “I have a dream” speech shows the crowd to be almost all black. No whites are found in the picture of the crowd. I am sure some were there but since whites made up 60%-70% of the population (probably more like 80% back then) at that time then this crowd is disproportionately black. I find that perfectly acceptable but if we are going to use the diversity of color at an event to give it credibility or validity then MLK’s speech was not credible and not valid. I would also point out that Obama’s inauguration had huge numbers of blacks in the crowd, numbers that were hugely disproportionate to their representation in the country. Does this mean that event lacked validity?

There are plenty of pictures of the crowd and they tell a story that makes it clear more than 87,000 people were there. MLK had 200,000 to 250,000 at his speech and the Restoring Honor pictures show more people than attended King’s speech so it is logical to assume that there were more than 200,000 people there. I think that the number is 600,000 to 1 million but have no way of knowing and no agency does any official counting.

It would be interesting to know how many Metro tickets were sold. That would give a good indication of how many people were there.

Suffice it to say that the event is not well received by liberals who cannot grasp the concept of honor and who cannot see anything but racism in such events. It will drive them nuts for some time to come.

I also add that there were many people opposed to Beck having this rally in the same place where MLK had his speech and on the same date that the speech occurred. Al Sharpton was very upset about this claiming that Beck was against what MLK stood for (which Sharpton erroneously believes to be the removal of state’s rights) and challenged Beck to debate the Ground Zero Mosque issue, which Sharpton supports. This challenge came as Sharpton appeared on Geraldo Rivera’s show. So does anyone else find it ironic that Sharpton complains about the location of Beck’s rally but dismisses this concern (location) from people opposed to the mosque? Thanks to Rick for this insight.

Anyone want to wager that the people offended at Glen Beck’s choice of location for his Restoring Honor rally in DC (where Martin Luther King held his I Have A Dream speech) are the same people defending the location of the mosque at Ground Zero?

Anyone?

We will hear more in the days ahead…

Here are some great pictures and interesting takes on the rally:
Affirmative Action Counting for DC Events
Leftists Could Find No Racism at Restoring Honor Rally
Wrap Up and Whitewash (Plus, who is cleaner and where is the racism)
An enormous and impassioned crowd (and from the New York Times no less)
Washington Compost (the added “mostly black” to the Sharpton crowd report later, probably in response to a comment asking why it was not reported the same way as the RH Rally)
CNN article Note how many comments refer to the WHITE crowd
Why is there this assumption that MLK and his speech were a black only thing?

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

The New Black Panther Party has been in the news lately for a few things that have happened since the 2008 election. On election day two NBPP members, dressed in military style clothing, wielded a baton at a polling place in Philadelphia and intimidated voters. Despite what they or their apologists claim, they intimidated voters. It was all caught on video and it is obvious to even the most dense among us.

The Obama Justice Department dropped the case and got an injunction against the baton wielding moron. He is not allowed to be a polling place until 2012, just in time to intimidate people when Obama runs for reelection.

The same moron was caught on video saying that the blacks needed to kill some crackers and their babies in order to get racial equality. Just imagine what kind of outrage there would be if a KKK member had said the same things about black people.

And yet, the state run media is generally silent on the issue.

The NBPP is a small group of militant black men who think society has done them wrong and that they have to fight against the injustice of white America. They demand reparations for slavery and I agree with this. I believe we should pay reparations to any person who was held as a slave in this country. If you can find a former slave then pay him. Otherwise, shut up. The descendants of slaves deserve no such thing.

Hell, the descendants are better off than if their ancestors had remained in Africa. I am in no way condoning slavery. I think that slavery was a horrible institution in this country. It is immoral and wrong. But it happened nonetheless. The people who are here now that are descendants of slaves have better opportunities than if they had been born in Africa. Otherwise they would go back there.

No, the NBPP is content to stir up racial turmoil based on perceived injustice. The leader, Malik Shabazz, is an accomplished lawyer but it appears as if the rest of them are a bunch of deadbeats who have never held a real job. They are content sitting around stirring up trouble and blaming whitey for all their problems.

The reality is they are a bunch of cowards who have an inferiority complex and a genuine jealousy of white people. They are true racists who want to kill the crackers and their babies.

The problem is that Eric Holder has given them a pass on their intimidation so look for more of it in the future.

If you encounter any of these thugs at the polls just stomp their guts out because no matter what they do, they will get a pass.

The NBPP has made veiled threats against Glenn Beck and has vowed to show up in DC on 8/28 when Beck talks at the Lincoln Memorial. I think I might just show up for that little show and I am sure thousands of other patriots will show up as well. Let’s see how these cowards act then.

I bet they wet their pants like all cowards with a small penis complex.

Geraldo takes Shabazz to task

Never surrender, never submit.

Not long ago Nancy Pelosi was tearing up and telling us how she was worried about the rhetoric she was hearing and how she had heard it before and it led to violence. She was discussing TEA Party members and equating them to the Harvey Milk incident where one Democrat killed another over a job dispute. But that was good enough for her to paint the TEA Party movement as violent extremists.

Looks like she was right about the violence though. One of her Democrats, Bob Etheridge of North Carolina, assaulted a college kid on a public street and the incident was captured on video.

The student saw the Congressman walking down the street and asked him if he supported the Obama agenda. Etheridge swatted the camera he was holding and grabbed the young man’s right wrist. The Congressman kept asking the student who he was and the answer was a college student working on a project. At least two times the student asked the Congressman to let go of him but the grip was not released until the Congressman released it and spun the student around while grabbing him by the back of his neck and pulling him in tight. The student was able to get free and moved away.

I wonder what it was that set Etheridge off? Was he on his way back from a five martini lunch and feeling a little cocky? No matter what anyone thinks about the student asking the question the Congressman had no right to put his hands on him. The Congressman assaulted the student and should face charges.

The student appeared frightened and uncomfortable. He obviously did not know what to do and finally broke free. I wonder what would have happened if the student had defended himself and injured the Congressman. Do you suppose Pelosi and the state run media would be calling the student a violent TEA Party activist? This Congressman got lucky in that he grabbed someone who did not defend himself. I know a number of people who would have broken his arm off and beaten him with it.

Bob Etheridge has apologized. He said that having a bad day was no excuse and then used it as an excuse. This apology is not sufficient for what took place. Etheridge should be charged with assault and stand trial for attacking the student. It is all on video and cannot be denied.

His opponent in the upcoming race is Renee Elmers. I urge those in that Congressional District to vote her in and the Pelosi thug out.

Yes, Obama said to get in their faces and it looks like at least one member of Congress did. The state run media went nuts over allegations (that have never been proven true) of TEA Party members spitting on a black Congressman and calling him names. No video has ever surfaced but the state run media ran with the story.

This video shows a Congressman clearly attacking a person on the street. When will the state run media call for his head? When will Obama say he acted stupidly and suggest a beer summit? When will Nancy Pelosi get all weepy and say that she has seen this kind of violence before (which would be true because all the violence has come from Democrats)?

Articles:
Yahoo News
ABC News
Glenn Beck (video)

Never Surrender, never submit.

I wrote yesterday about the liberal left and its assertions that people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity incite people to murder. The feeling of those on the left is that the “hate” speech of these talk show hosts incites people to go out and commit crimes, particularly murder. This is not a new thing as Bill Clinton tried to blame the Oklahoma City bombing on Rush Limbaugh instead of on Timothy McVeigh. The left looks everywhere to find someone to blame except the person who actually committed the crime.

The issue now is the death of three police officers in Pittsburgh who were murdered by some guy who was reportedly worried that Obama would take guns away. I have no doubt that Obama would like to do away with guns but this guy went about expressing his concern the wrong way. But he, and only he, is to blame for this terrible crime.

The rap world is full of gang bangers who sing about killing, shooting and all kinds of violence toward women and the public in general. In 1992 a song came out entitled Cop Killer. It was by a group called Body Count (with Ice T) and it was about a person who was fed up with police brutality so he took matters into his own hands. This is the first part of the song:

I got my black shirt on.
I got my black gloves on.
I got my ski mask on.
This sh*ts been too long.
I got my twelve gauge sawed off.
I got my headlights turned off.
Im bout to bust some shots off.
Im bout to dust some cops off.

Im a cop killer, better you than me.
Cop killer, f**k police brutality!
Cop killer, I know your familys grieving,
(f**k em!)
Cop killer, but tonight we get even, ha ha.
Lyrics Freak

There was an uproar about this song. Police survivor groups were not happy with it but there were those who defended it particularly against the tighty whitey George H W Bush administration and their political correctness.

For what its worth I don’t care about the song. The radio has a lot of stations and I know how to work the dial and no one was ever forced to buy it. However, the question is, does not this kind of music actually, directly, incite violence against cops?

People can claim that the conservative talkers play on the emotions and fears of people and put suggestions in their heads about becoming violent. I do not see it that way. These people are not causing anyone to commit crimes. If people are doing this they are doing so on their own. I don’t believe that there are veiled messages of hate and violence from conservative talkers any more than I think Obama is sending veiled messages of violence to people he tells to get in their faces, channel their anger, or if they bring a knife he [Obama] brings a gun because they like to brawl in Philly (which is actually what they did to intimidate voters in that city).

Should we claim that Obama caused Black Panthers to stand in front of polling places with night sticks to intimidate people? If Beck and the others are responsible for the recent violence then Obama is responsible for the actions of those who threaten violence in order to help him.

Should we now start blaming Hollywood and its assorted liberal actors who perfrom in violent movies that feature a lot of people, including cops, being killed. If conservative talkers are responsible for violence then the Hollywood crowd certainly shoulders the burden of blame for violence because a lot of their movies have overt acts of aggression. Where was the liberal uproar when the film about George W Bush being assassinated was released? That certainly gave a message of violence and could have triggered all kinds of violent behavior.

People are responsible for their own actions. I know this is a difficult concept for the left because they always have to have someone to blame. There always has to be a victim class and there always has to be some evil person (usually Republican) who is to blame for it. Personal responsibility is not a strong suit of the left as finger pointing is their favorite past time.

Regardless, if conservative talkers have any blame for these acts of violence then rappers share that blame as does Barack Obama. We cannot have two sets of rules. If veiled messages from conservative talkers cause violence then the same kind of messages from Obama cause violence. If these are true then the blatant call for violence from rappers is definitely to blame for violence as is the overt violence in Hollywood productions. When a guy like 50 Cent is worshiped by young kids because he was shot 9 times then there is a problem that reaches far beyond anything conservative talkers say.

It is a tragedy that the people in Oakland, Pittsburgh and New York were murdered but the only people responsible for the deaths are the people who did the murdering.

Let’s stop the finger pointing and let’s stop trying to affix blame to people who are not responsible.

Gateway Pundit has a post up indicating that a Syrian obtained media credentials from Al-Jazeera TV in a plot to kill Barack Obama. The suspect was arrested last week and indicated that he intended to stab Obama with a knife and that if he had failed there were other accomplices to complete the mission.

There you have it. A peace loving Syrian who would never otherwise consider harming another human being suddenly, and without warning, went off the deep end and became involved in a plot to kill Obama. Something must have caused this man to resort to violence because we all know these peace lovers would never do anything that harmed another, Allah willing.

So was it Glenn Beck who caused this? The left likes to blame him for all the other violence taking place. In fact, the right gets blamed for a lot of the violence that takes place. Commenters here have suggested that my words and the words of others here could cause people to do violent things. The MSM and the blogosphere are on a non stop rampage against the likes of Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity claiming that they incite violence. I guess Beck drove this Syrian over the edge.

The reality is, each of these people is responsible for his own actions. I do not, nor will I ever, accept responsibility for the violence caused by another. People are accountable for their own actions. I can understand how the left has trouble with this because they cannot grasp the concept of personal responsibility. To them it is always someone else’s fault. Obama blames everyone under the Sun and his favorite target is George Bush. It is inherent in their design, point fingers and blame others.

The whole incident raises another issue as well. Wasn’t The Evil Won supposed to unite the world so we could all stand around holding hands and singing Kumbaya? He was supposed to bring us all together so we could sing the Coke song and live in perfect harmony and all that.

Now he has some Syrian wacko trying to kill him. It just seems to me that the “can’t we all just get along” strategy is not paying off.

I am sure that Olberman and the rest of the MSM will continue to blame Beck et al for the violence. They pinned the Pittsburgh cop murders on Beck. It was all his fault, they say.

So who is responsible for the cops killed by Bill Ayers? I mean, he is a liberal and he is a close friend of Obama.

Maybe Glenn Beck caused that too.

Personal responsibility. Something the left would do well to learn.

From Ms. Underestimated

Today Monica Ramos and Patty Compean got some FANTASTIC news! The ladies were on Beck this afternoon, and both described their surprise and shock at the news of their husbands having been given clemency. You see, the wives had come on the show today originally to make one final plea to President Bush. But they didn’t have to.

Their husbands have spent the last two years in solitary confinement in prison. Who are their husbands? Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting a repeat-offender drug smuggler as he tried to cross into the U.S. Yes, I know, they were found guilty by a jury of their peers (and an over-zealous prosecutor), but their punishment was more than severe.

In one of his final official actions in office, President George Bush commuted their sentences today so they will be released on “time served.” Both men had been given 11- and 12-year terms in prison, which is a bit much considering the shenanigans of Johnny Sutton, the U.S. Prosecutor, and all of the facts that were omitted from the jury during the trial.

Monica Ramos also relayed a more disturbing story of what has recently happened to her family, and it is one more reason why I’m glad Ignacio “Nacho” is going to be home soon. According to police reports, someone recently broke into the Ramos home, and not only was it ransacked, but their two dogs were beaten bloody. This was an obvious message to Nacho and his family, so it’s no wonder Monica was so delighted at today’s news. Even though they don’t get to come home immediately, they will be able to do so when their sentence expires in March of this year.

On the show, both ladies expressed their gratitude for President Bush for this final act, thanking him on the air, and Beck even expressed gratitude of his own.