More Timeless Wisdom via Thomas Paine

Poor Madison has been carrying all the weight lately. He was an exceptionally wise man on issues of liberty and gov't. It's amazing that he was surrounded by a cast of characters that also exhibited exceptional understanding and wisdom.
One fiery patriot was Thomas Paine.
He had trouble controlling his temper on issues related to freedom, liberty, revolution and tyranny. He was, as some say today, inflammatory. I call it passionate.
Sadly, later in life he died alone, penny less, and insane.
His contributions to our Constitution and Republican gov't are truly priceless. I wish he were here with us today.
At least his words and wisdom are still with us, even though no one seems to remember them.
Here is a little reminder.

But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain...let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791

If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

These next two are my personal favorites. Short, to the point, and very timely.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Once again, the Founders reach out to us from the past to aid us during desperate times.
Only a fool or a tyrant would fail to accept their assistance, freely given, when so much is at stake.
Is it the fool or the tyrant that currently inhabits the halls of our government?

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"The Constitution cannot enforce itself" and George Bush as “the foetus of monarchy”

thanks to the liberal doomsayer who pointed me to this fine piece by adam cohen in today's nyt...

Given how intent the president is on expanding his authority, it is startling to recall how the Constitution’s framers viewed presidential power. They were revolutionaries who detested kings, and their great concern when they established the United States was that they not accidentally create a kingdom. To guard against it, they sharply limited presidential authority, which Edmund Randolph, a Constitutional Convention delegate and the first attorney general, called “the foetus of monarchy.”

[...]

When they drafted the Constitution, Madison and his colleagues wrote their skepticism into the text. In Britain, the king had the authority to declare war, and raise and support armies, among other war powers. The framers expressly rejected this model and gave these powers not to the president, but to Congress.

The Constitution does make the president “commander in chief,” a title President Bush often invokes. But it does not have the sweeping meaning he suggests. The framers took it from the British military, which used it to denote the highest-ranking official in a theater of battle. Alexander Hamilton emphasized in Federalist No. 69 that the president would be “nothing more” than “first general and admiral,” responsible for “command and direction” of military forces.

The founders would have been astonished by President Bush’s assertion that Congress should simply write him blank checks for war. They gave Congress the power of the purse so it would have leverage to force the president to execute their laws properly.

[...]

The Constitution cannot enforce itself.

[...]

Members of Congress should not be intimidated into thinking that they are overstepping their constitutional bounds. If the founders were looking on now, it is not Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who would strike them as out of line, but George W. Bush, who would seem less like a president than a king.

we've just got to keep the drumbeat for getting rid of these people going strong... i first started banging my drum during hurricane katrina, not that i was exactly a bush supporter prior to that, but, for me, that was the last straw... for the umpteenth million time, our republic is in serious danger, and it is up to us to see that it changes course...

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Maybe there is something to this income tax protest after all

What if we could end the war by ending funding for the war, but not by waiting for the NeoCon co-dependents in Congress to act, but by acting ourselves?
From the folks at Cryptogon.

Attorney Acquitted on Federal Income Tax Charges
July 19th, 2007

Maybe the Browns should have hired this guy for their trial…

Via: Shreveport Times:

A Shreveport attorney who has challenged the government for years on the legality of filing federal income taxes has been acquitted on charges he failed to file returns.

A federal jury unanimously found Tommy Cryer not guilty this week on two misdemeanor counts of failure to file.

And according to Cryer, the prosecution dismissed two felony charges of tax evasion prior to trial.
[...]
“The court could not find a law that makes me liable or makes my revenues taxable,” Cryer said. “The Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot impose an income tax on anything but the profits and gains. When you work for someone you give your service and labor in exchange for money, so everything you make is not profit or gain. You put something into it.”(emphasis added)

I have discovered, in my research of the writings of the Founders, that there is a precedent for this idea.

Cryer was indicted last year on two counts of tax evasion. The indictment alleged he evaded payment of $73,000 in income tax to the Internal Revenue Service during 2000 and 2001.
[...]
“I determined that my personal earnings were not 100 percent profits, some were income,” Cryer said. “I refuse to file, I refuse to pay unless they can show me I have a lawful reason to pay.”
“What I earned was my own personal labor. I am giving something in exchange. I’m giving my property and I don’t belong to anyone else.”
Cryer says he stopped filing returns more than 10 years ago after he investigated claims that income tax was a sham. He contends the law doesn’t actually tax personal earning.

Hmm, I bet the crooks in DC act on this with legislation PDQ. Can't have folks running around exercising their rights by not paying a tax that isn't supported by law.
They might not be able to continue corporate globalization, the war, or the end of the US Constitution.
How would you like to join a class action suit against the Federal Gov't to recover all the income tax you ever paid?

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Speaking of the United States Constitution

as anyone knows who reads this blog regularly, our on-going national constitutional crisis is a big issue here... i thought that a perspective on that crisis from perhaps THE leading constitutional scholar in the country would be apropos...

mark graber at balkinization comments on professor walter murphy...

For those who do not know, Professor Murphy is easily the most distinguished scholar of public law in political science. His works on both constitutional theory and judicial behavior are classics in the field. Bluntly, legal scholarship that does not engage many themes in his book, briefly noted below, Constitutional Democracy, may be legal, but cannot be said to be scholarship. As interesting, for present purposes, readers of the book will discover that Murphy is hardly a conventional political or legal liberal. While he holds some opinions, most notably on welfare, similar to opinions held on the political left, he is a sharp critic of ROE V. WADE, and supported the Alito nomination.

you can listen to audio or watch a video of professor murphy's speech in a variety of formats at the link below... it's highly informative... his major theme is that the bush administration's constitutional agenda has focused on loosening governmental responsibility and decreasing civil liberties...

The Constitution, Dead or Alive?
Walter F. Murphy, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus, Princeton University

(Sep 19, 2006 at Princeton University; part of Constitution Day events co-sponsored by the Pace Center and the Program in Law and Public Affairs)

(note: professor murphy's speech begins at 4'08" into the program and ends at 43', followed by a q & a session...)

amy goodman at democracy now also interviewed professor murphy about his difficulties in traveling to princeton in april to attend a conference... apparently, his speech last september landed him on the terrorist "watch list"...

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