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Title: ‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World
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URL Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/u ... tml?_r=2&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065
Published: Feb 7, 2012
Author: Adam Liptak
Post Date: 2012-02-07 12:22:52 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 293
Comments: 26
WASHINGTON — The Constitution has seen better days. Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning. In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that “of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written charters modeled directly or indirectly on the U.S. version.” A quarter-century later, the picture looks very different. “The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere,” according to a new study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia. The study, to be published in June in The New York University Law Review, bristles with data. Its authors coded and analyzed the provisions of 729 constitutions adopted by 188 countries from 1946 to 2006, and they considered 237 variables regarding various rights and ways to enforce them. “Among the world’s democracies,” Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, “constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s.” “The turn of the twenty-first century, however, saw the beginning of a steep plunge that continues through the most recent years for which we have data, to the point that the constitutions of the world’s democracies are, on average, less similar to the U.S. Constitution now than they were at the end of World War II.” There are lots of possible reasons. The United States Constitution is terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights. The commitment of some members of the Supreme Court to interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning in the 18th century may send the signal that it is of little current use to, say, a new African nation. And the Constitution’s waning influence may be part of a general decline in American power and prestige. In an interview, Professor Law identified a central reason for the trend: the availability of newer, sexier and more powerful operating systems in the constitutional marketplace. “Nobody wants to copy Windows 3.1,” he said. In a television interview during a visit to Egypt last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court seemed to agree. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” she said. She recommended, instead, the South African Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the European Convention on Human Rights. The rights guaranteed by the American Constitution are parsimonious by international standards, and they are frozen in amber. As Sanford Levinson wrote in 2006 in “Our Undemocratic Constitution,” “the U.S. Constitution is the most difficult to amend of any constitution currently existing in the world today.” (Yugoslavia used to hold that title, but Yugoslavia did not work out.) Other nations routinely trade in their constitutions wholesale, replacing them on average every 19 years. By odd coincidence, Thomas Jefferson, in a 1789 letter to James Madison, once said that every constitution “naturally expires at the end of 19 years” because “the earth belongs always to the living generation.” These days, the overlap between the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and those most popular around the world is spotty. Americans recognize rights not widely protected, including ones to a speedy and public trial, and are outliers in prohibiting government establishment of religion. But the Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care. It has its idiosyncrasies. Only 2 percent of the world’s constitutions protect, as the Second Amendment does, a right to bear arms. (Its brothers in arms are Guatemala and Mexico.) The Constitution’s waning global stature is consistent with the diminished influence of the Supreme Court, which “is losing the central role it once had among courts in modern democracies,” Aharon Barak, then the president of the Supreme Court of Israel, wrote in The Harvard Law Review in 2002. Many foreign judges say they have become less likely to cite decisions of the United States Supreme Court, in part because of what they consider its parochialism. “America is in danger, I think, of becoming something of a legal backwater,” Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia said in a 2001 interview. He said that he looked instead to India, South Africa and New Zealand. Mr. Barak, for his part, identified a new constitutional superpower: “Canadian law,” he wrote, “serves as a source of inspiration for many countries around the world.” The new study also suggests that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted in 1982, may now be more influential than its American counterpart. The Canadian Charter is both more expansive and less absolute. It guarantees equal rights for women and disabled people, allows affirmative action and requires that those arrested be informed of their rights. On the other hand, it balances those rights against “such reasonable limits” as “can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” There are, of course, limits to empirical research based on coding and counting, and there is more to a constitution than its words, as Justice Antonin Scalia told the Senate Judiciary Committee in October. “Every banana republic in the world has a bill of rights,” he said. “The bill of rights of the former evil empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours,” he said, adding: “We guarantee freedom of speech and of the press. Big deal. They guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of street demonstrations and protests, and anyone who is caught trying to suppress criticism of the government will be called to account. Whoa, that is wonderful stuff!” “Of course,” Justice Scalia continued, “it’s just words on paper, what our framers would have called a ‘parchment guarantee.’ ”
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#1. To: christine (#0)
Of course, TJ thought revolution every 20 years, or so, a good thing.
Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson Stupid, treasonous bitch! What the people of the world, and sadly enough even many Americans, fail to understand is that the Constitution is NOT self enforcing. If it were we would have a far smaller government and would not be in conflict with most of the rest of the world most of the time. Perhaps not too many of our rights are specifically mentioned in the Constitution but then the founders didn't set out to catalog all of them either. The 9th and 10th amendments were written specifically to protect the numerous rights people already had before there was such a thing as government (called common-law rights). Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton The human herd stampedes on the fields of facts and the valleys of truth to get to the desert of ignorance. Saman Mohammadi "If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner." Mencken "..if the military is going to defend our freedoms, then we need freedoms to defend. Our freedoms must be restored before the military can defend them..." Lawrence M. Vance Você me trata desse jeito só porque eu sou preto. Junior (my youngest son)
Propaganda - PsyOps. What the argument boils down to is the old argument of the far left - "the Constitution is out dated", or in its other variation "the Constitution is a 'living' document" - meaning of course that they can twist it any way they want. It has already been perverted and twisted, but it still remains a bit of an impediment to the people who want to turn this country, and the world, into a Bankster controlled totalitarian hell. What this article is, is conditioning to accept the enemy line that our Constitution needs revision to be more in keeping with the ideals of the Bilderbergers for world control. Try as they might the Bilderberg/NWO/Rothschild all the little people are inferior and would be slave master mentality has not been able to get around "The Bill of Rights". Oh, they keep trying - the TSA is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment, but the first and second amendments leave no wiggle room. If the U.S. Constitution has lost any of its sheen it is not by its restrictions but that it has been perverted and violated foully by the Kleptocratic Banksters who have subverted it. There is only one real failing in our wonderful Constitution and that is that it lacks the means to rein in a government bent on destroying the guarantees of that glorious achievement short of revolution - it lacks a check enforceable by the governed upon the power of the tyrants in Washington and the Robed Perverts of the Corrupt Courts. The pseudo-demokracies being installed in all of the other nations as of late have been perverted from the get-go by the monsters behind the scenes who have used the American Military to overthrow governments contrary to the Masters and Mistresses in the City of London Banking District. The Bilderberg/NWO crowd wants to discredit the key concept of the American Constitution - that the powers of the government are granted to it conditionally by We The People. What the Bilderberg NWO crowd wants to replace it with is that privileges are granted by the government and that the governed have no voice in that. As long as Thomas Jefferson's words echo in the background they know that their rule is illegitimate and they fear that WE THE PEOPLE will finally say, "ENOUGH!" Already the tide has reached its nadir and they are fearful of the righteous judgment of which they are most deserving. That is why we now live in the most parlous times as the rats are beginning to get nervous and their neckties grow tight. Excellent post, O_I.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton The human herd stampedes on the fields of facts and the valleys of truth to get to the desert of ignorance. Saman Mohammadi "If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner." Mencken "..if the military is going to defend our freedoms, then we need freedoms to defend. Our freedoms must be restored before the military can defend them..." Lawrence M. Vance Você me trata desse jeito só porque eu sou preto. Junior (my youngest son)
ENUFF Z NUFF (That is the name of a band!) Jefferson had it right! ;) "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
Thank you for the kind words. right on and solid.
The CONstitution was a Jewish contract on Christian America....a classic bait and switch...by deception thou shalt do war....Revelation 20:7-9.
"...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
see Psalm 2:1-3 Constitution has seen better days. Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. no; the First Charter of Virginia of 1606 proclaiming Christianity for America is the founding document for the country called America [Micah 4:1-2]. People had come and gone in America before that cross was planted for Christ [Psalm 2:6]. The CONstitution is the antichrist founding document for the Judeo-Masonic-Jesuit-British Corporation known as the United States, MASQUERADING AS GOD [Ezekiel 17:7-10/Mat. 15-13 (The Eagle in Ezekiel 17:1-6 is God and the Vine is Christ: Matthew 15:1)]. It's "sacred text" is often contrary to the Word of God. It is an object of idolatry. The Constitution: The God That Failed (To Liberate Us From Big Government) "...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
"....For most of the political spectrum in America, the document represents their interpretation of how to make this mortal coil paradise. Even in libertarian circles, it is taken as an article of faith the Constitution is a brilliant mechanism to enlarge liberty and keep government at bay. That is a lie. The document was drafted in the summer of 1787 behind closed doors in tremendous secrecy because if word leaked out of the actual contents and intent, the revolution that had just concluded would have been set ablaze again. They were in a race against time and did everything in their power to ensure that the adoption took place as quickly as possible to avoid reflection and contemplation in the public square that would kill the proposal once the consequences of its agenda became apparent. They were insisting that the states ratify first and then propose amendments later. It was a political coup d'état. It was nothing less than an oligarchical coup to ensure that the moneyed interests, banksters and aristocrats could cement their positions and mimic the United Kingdom from which they had been recently divorced. The original charter of the drafters was to pen improvements to the existing Articles of Confederation. Instead, they chose to hijack the process and create a document which enslaved the nation. Federalist in the old parlance meant states rights and subsidiarity but the three authors of the fabled Federalist Papers supported everything but that. Their intent and commitment was to create a National government with the ability to make war on its constituent parts if these states failed to submit themselves to the central government. As Austrian economists have discovered, bigger is not necessarily better. The brilliant and oft-dismissed Articles of Confederation (AoC) and Perpetual Union are a testament to voluntarism and cooperation through persuasion that the Constitution disposed of with its adoption. Penned in 1776 and ratified in 1781, the spirit and context of the Articles live on in the Swiss canton system and are everywhere evident in the marketplace where confederationist sentiments are practiced daily. The confederation's design divines its mechanism from what an unfettered market does every day: voluntary cooperation, spontaneous information signals and the parts always being smarter than the sum A. confederation according to the Webster's 1828 dictionary is: 1. The act of confederating; a league; a compact for mutual support; alliance; particularly of princes, nations or states. I would advise the readership to use the 1828 Webster's dictionary to accompany any primary source research you may undertake to understand American (& British) letters in the eighteenth century. It is the source for the contemporary lexicon. It is even available online now. Here is a simple comparison of the two organizing documents: ` Articles of Confederation vs. Constitution ....." [see chart] The Constitution: The God That Failed (To Liberate Us From Big Government) http://www.lewrockwell.com/buppert/buppert29.1.html God said He would make His people Israel ["The Church is Israel Now" @ preteristarchive ] a strong nation and a company of nations [see "the act of confederating" above] [Genesis 35:11], and kings [THESE kings: Revelation 5:9-10] would come from Israel's body [Galatians 3:29]. The States each had their own constitutions, and all but one noted God. Some people say the CONstitution was never properly ratified. Maybe the Confederation is more in line with what God had in mind for America. Maybe it's time to let the CONstitution wither on the vine. Just a thought. ----------------- btw, the British-Israel kooks, the hidden hand that runs the world, thinks the "company of nations" refers to "Great" Britain [see also "British-Israel, A Little IDentity Crisis" at seekgod.ca ]. In fact, British-Israel has enslaved us for 400 years: Genesis 15:13-14: Galatians 3:16, 17....29: "The United States Is Still a (Judeo) British Colony, Extorting Taxes For The Crown" at apfn.org ] By Deception thou shalt do war. "...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
P.S. Christianity is UnCONstitutional www.famguardian.org/Subje...ate/TestOath/14xtheoc.htm see also "George Washington's Lasting Gift to Generations of Jews" at csmonitor . Note Justice Ginsburg said "freedom of religion" is what [got the Jews' foot in the door] to let Jews rise so high in America. "see how they reward us to come to cast us out of this nation you have given us to inherit." [2 Chronicles 20:11/Psalm 2/John 10] "...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
Some people say the CONstitution was never properly ratified. Maybe the Confederation is more in line with what God had in mind for America. Maybe it's time to let the CONstitution wither on the vine. Just a thought Common Law 12 - Bible Believers or The British Legal System "...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
One of your better one's O_I......
Thank you sir.
The document was drafted in the summer of 1787 behind closed doors in tremendous secrecy because if word leaked out of the actual contents and intent, the revolution that had just concluded would have been set ablaze again. They were in a race against time and did everything in their power to ensure that the adoption took place as quickly as possible to avoid reflection and contemplation in the public square that would kill the proposal once the consequences of its agenda became apparent. They were insisting that the states ratify first and then propose amendments later. It was a political coup d'état. It was nothing less than an oligarchical coup to ensure that the moneyed interests, banksters and aristocrats could cement their positions and mimic the United Kingdom from which they had been recently divorced. I think this is one of those rare points of disagreement or at least honest difference. Yes, there were multifold influences upon the Constitution and Thomas Jefferson, that staunch advocate of limited government and individual liberty for ALL was gotten safely off to France before the Constitutional Convention, but despite the unwholesome influences by such as Hamilton, a sound document was forged. It was by no means a perfect document, but in its basis it was sound and wholesome. It was and is a sacred document - in the same way that a written prayer is a sacred document. It was not perfect, as it showed the hand of man, but it was a plea, a prayer, that this nation should know a wholesome government deriving from the consent of the governed. Despite the influences of the Rothschilds a noble basis was formed for the new nation. The defects of our Constitution are simply that it lacked sufficient checks upon the powers of government and that it had no firm and established mechanism of self review and correction other than of armed insurrection. The "Bill of Rights" addressed the concerns of those who did not like the weaknesses installed by the Rothschild Cat's Paws, but that one lack of means of correction short of armed insurrection was never corrected. That alone rather than any other defect is what has brought us to the juncture at which we arrive today. The corruption was allowed to gain foothold, and absent a mechanism to enforce honestly the written Constitution, it has spread throughout the body politic, and now we find the patient quite ill and suffering from delirium. The CONstitution says what it says. Recall, the Bill of Rights was added because some of the states said they needed more assurances that the People would not be tread on as the British did to them. The most important of them is the 2nd Amendment, "The right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This is the guarantee that protects all of the rest of the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
I have a slightly different take. While I regard them all as important I think I would go with the 1st Amendment as preeminent. The guarantee of freedom of speech underpins all the others. The Second Amendment is there as a last ditch effort to defend the first.
For all of it's flaws, perceived or otherwise, our Constitution is the best one on the planet.
#2. To: christine (#0)
In a television interview during a visit to Egypt last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court seemed to agree. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” she said. She recommended, instead, the South African Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the European Convention on Human Rights.
#3. To: christine, James Deffenbach, Lod, Jethro Tull, IRTorqued, abraxas, randge, BTP Holdings, wudidiz, Lady X, CadetD, all, *US INDUSTRIAL WAR MACHINE* (#0)
‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World
"...that governments are instituded among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...
#4. To: Original_Intent (#3)
#5. To: Original_Intent (#3)
As long as Thomas Jefferson's words echo in the background they know that their rule is illegitimate and they fear that WE THE PEOPLE will finally say, "ENOUGH!"
#6. To: James Deffenbach (#4)
#7. To: Original_Intent (#3)
the most factual thing ever posted by buckeroo
I have no freaking' clue. buckeroo posted on 2010-07-24 21:33:00 ET
#8. To: christine (#0)
(Edited)
#9. To: christine (#0)
(Edited)
‘We the People’
#10. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#9)
(Edited)
#11. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#8)
(Edited)
The CONstitution was a Jewish contract on Christian America....a classic bait and switch...by deception thou shalt do war....Revelation 20:7-9.
#12. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#10)
Neither the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, nor any subsequently .... This brief identifies the chains with which they, the Merchants of Venice, their direct ... A recent revelation shows that the Constitution of the USA is "Ultra Vires" because it was never ratified -- by either the .... www.biblebelievers.org.au/cmlaw13.htm
10/12/2006 www.biblebelievers.org.au/cmlaw1.htm ... The Constitution was never properly ratified; and, is, therefore .... The merchants controlled the city and their walls held off ...... The Merchants of Venice bastardized the many courts of ... moneyonaccount.com/downlo...%20Eldon%20G%20Warman.pdf
see under "Treason" in BLUE type, page 69.
#13. To: Original_Intent, bump this please. (#3)
#14. To: Jethro Tull (#13)
#15. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#9)
....For most of the political spectrum in America, the document represents their interpretation of how to make this mortal coil paradise. Even in libertarian circles, it is taken as an article of faith the Constitution is a brilliant mechanism to enlarge liberty and keep government at bay. That is a lie.
#16. To: Original_Intent (#3)
(Edited)
What the argument boils down to is the old argument of the far left - "the Constitution is out dated", or in its other variation "the Constitution is a 'living' document" - meaning of course that they can twist it any way they want.
#17. To: BTP Holdings (#16)
#18. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt, Original_Intent, BTP Holdings (#12)
-Alex Kurtagic
#19. To: christine, All (#0)
Intel Hub article: New York Times Publishes Hit Piece Against US Constitution As FBI Demonizes Everyday Americans As Possible Terrorists [sic] These attacks also seem to be a way to promote new documents that are crafted to make it clear that the government gave the people their rights rather than the obvious fact that they are inalienable and god given. You can download the Mp3 version of the podcast here. 15 min. YouTube of the broadcast: INSANE: New York Times Publishes Hit Piece Against US Constitution I disagree on some points but it's a great rebuttal to the NYT junk, nevertheless. He also speaks in the last couple of minutes on electronic vote fraud: suggests using printouts as paper ballots for hand count comparisons. I would suggest 4 printout copies to be counted and compared: 1 for the voter, 1 for the precinct, one for the State, and one for the Federal Election Commission. Joe Joseph, speaking during an emotionally charged Intel Hub News Brief Podcast, outlined this disgusting attack on the very foundation of this country and the ridiculous examples and excuses used to demonize the Constitution.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#20. To: Original_Intent (#17)
Without the 1st, you cannot have the others. But, the 2nd still guarntees the rest will stand, even if the gooberment fails us. The guarantee of freedom of speech underpins all the others. The Second Amendment is there as a last ditch effort to defend the first.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#21. To: GreyLmist (#19)
Good idea. Now let's see if it can be implemented. ;) I would suggest 4 printout copies to be counted and compared: 1 for the voter, 1 for the precinct, one for the State, and one for the Federal Election Commission.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#22. To: Lod (#1)
It seems we are overdue for one. ;) TJ thought revolution every 20 years, or so, a good thing.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#23. To: X-15 (#18)
Nice comic, er, that really is not funny at all. Madison said redistribution of wealth is not in the plan. ;)
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#24. To: BTP Holdings, all (#21)
Good idea. Now let's see if it can be implemented. ;) Should be easy to implement. Only those who want to steal elections might object and then they'd out themselves. I would suggest 4 printout copies to be counted and compared: 1 for the voter, 1 for the precinct, one for the State, and one for the Federal Election Commission.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#25. To: X-15 (#18)
100% correct ;) For all of it's flaws, perceived or otherwise, our Constitution is the best one on the planet.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#26. To: GreyLmist (#19)
True. They are indeed scumbags. ;) These attacks also seem to be a way to promote new documents that are crafted to make it clear that the government gave the people their rights rather than the obvious fact that they are inalienable and god given.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
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