Sovereign Commentary: Some of the most important news stories on the web with accompanying comment. Special attention to China, Illegal Immigration, the growing Police State, and the slow death of the Constitution for the United States of America with special focus on First Amendment and Second Amendment issues.

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Ron Paul for President!

Last week, Ron Paul of Texas announced his candidacy for President of the United States. I, for one, will be re-registering as a Republican so that I can vote for him in the Republican primary; and I suggest all Libertarians do the same. Here's an example of why I think he's an excellent choice:

"Ron Paul is a true American statesman," said Don Zimmerman, who ran for Texas representative in District 50 last year. "He has a long history of upholding American values, and I am happy to endorse his campaign." The presidential hopeful plans to re-establish the Constitution as the sole determinant of new legislation. "For Rep. Paul, each piece of legislation must be examined for its constitutionality. If the Constitution does not allow it, then it must be opposed," Zimmerman said.

Paul bases his campaign on a number of freedom principles, including the doctrines that the lives and actions of people are an individual's responsibility, not the government's, and that the government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges, Paul said on his Web site. Tony McDonald, chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas, said the congressman has a good share of support among conservatives and libertarians on campus.*

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Congress Considers Empowering Local Police to Enforce Immigration Laws

A bill has been introduced in the House and the Senate this month called the Scott Gardner Act. In short, it allows state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws. In addition, the Senate version specifically compels state agencies receiving federal money to actively share information with the federal government in the interests of enforcing immigration law. The title is "To improve sharing of immigration information among Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials, to improve State and local enforcement of immigration laws, and for other purposes."(1)

Ordinarily, I am not in favor of enhancing federal power, but immigration is clearly within the enumerated powers on Congress, this is permissible.(2).

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(1) H.R. 1355 I.H.; S. 850 I.S. 110th Cong. (2007)
(2) U.S. Const. art. I sect. 8

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Technorati Tags:
News Politics News and Politics Congress Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement Local Police H.R. 1355 HR 1355 S. 850 S 850 Scott Gardner Act

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Monday, March 05, 2007

Valid Skepticism of the "Human Cause" Theory of Global Warming

I noticed a piece on Urshanabi's blog, Future Musings and Desultory Glances on global warming.

He points to evidence uncovered by Astronomers that Mars and Jupiter are getting warmer each year.(1) There are no humans on Mars and Jupiter. Why do you suppose those planets are getting warmer? And why should the reason the earth is getting warmer be any different from the reason these planets are getting warmer? Or am I not allowed to ask these questions?

National Geographic is not afraid to ask such questions. A recent article began with the following: "Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural--and not a human-induced--cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory."(2) I think this theory deserves some looking at. Because if climate change is natural, we can do nothing about it except prepare for it. And that would be better than wasting our time trying to limit our own industry thinking that it will have an effect.

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(1) Urshanabi. "Warming and Climate Change is Not Limited to Earth," Future Musings and Desultory Glances, 2007 March 03, http://fmdg.blogspot.com/2007/03/warming-and-climate-change-is-not.html; citing: Robert Roy Britt. "Mars Ski Report: Snow is Hard, Dense and Disappearing," SPACE.com, 2001 December 06, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_snow_011206-1.html; and Sara Goudarzi. "New Storm on Jupiter Hints at Climate Change," SPACE.com, 2006 May 04, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060504_red_jr.html.
(2) Kate Ravilious. "Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says," National Geographic News, 2007 February 28, para. 1, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html.

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Technorati Tags:
News Politics News and Politics Science Astronomy Mars Jupiter Global Warming Climate Change

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Sunday, March 04, 2007

Representative Carolyn McCarthy Seeks Abrogation of the Second Amendment by Congress

David Schantz over at A Republic, if you can keep it has posted an article warning us about H.R. 1022.(1)

In a word, the bill is an unconstitutional restriction on the Second Amendment, which it's author, Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York is required to have taken an oath to uphold.(2)

This new ban would go farther than the Clinton gun ban, which in itself was an over broad restraint on the fundamental right of the People to keep and bear arms. "[F]ederal, state and local law enforcement agency studies showed that guns affected by the ban had been used in only a small percentage of crime, before and after the ban was imposed... [T]he nation's murder rate [is] 43% lower than in 1991, and the re-legalized guns [are] still used in only a small percentage of crime."(3) It doesn't make any sense to re-institute the Clinton ban and even less sense to expand its scope to include guns that weren't considered dangerous enough to be included the first time.
Congress-critters like this Carolyn McCarthy need to be removed from office for violating their oath to uphold the Constitution. To introduce a bill that clearly infringes the right of the People to keep and bear arms is an unambiguous attack on the Constitution and therefore a violation of the oath taken to uphold it.

We really need to try to amend the Constitution to allow citizens to sue to remove congress-critters that try to pas laws contrary to the Constitution. That's the only way we will ever stop them from trying things like this. After all, it's not like they're policing themselves... H.R. 1022 is a prime example of this fact.

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(1) David Schantz. "H.R. 1022," A Republic, if you can keep it, 2007 February 25, http://arepublic.blogspot.com/2007/02/hr-1022.html.
(2) U.S. Const. art. VI
(3) Schantz.

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Technorati Tags:
News Politics News and Politics Congress Constitution Tyranny Gun Control Second Amendment McCarthy Carolyn McCarthy

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