Post your Consitutional Amendment ideas here

[RCA]

1) There should be an amendment that outlaws all forms of torture, both foreign and domestic. This would immediately clear up all the BS floating around in the news today.

2) Electronics in the voting process needs to be outlawed. The includes diebold touchscreens as well as electronic scanners.

3) Political parties should be outlawed or somehow put on a level playing field with individuals.

With these three amendments 90% of all the shenanigans could be wiped out overnight.

[bcreps85]

4) Knowingly authoring, or being involved in the authoring of a law that is unconstitutional will result in the immediate forced resignation of public office.

5) Any time a public official expresses their loyalties to another country, they are forcibly removed from their public office. (LOOKING AT YOU OBAMA)

6) Putting foreign interests above those of America (ie Israel) is treasonous, and punishable by DEATH.

[Myerz]

7) Candidates are only allowed to raise $20,000,000 to fund their campaign during each phase, with a total of 3 phases.

8) All presidential debates will be regulated for fair time and Q&A distribution

9) No candidates will be allowed to receive any finances from corporations.

[forsmant]

1) The budget must be balanced, with exemptions to times of declared war.

[SovereignMN]

1. All voting must have verifible paper trail.
2. Remove anchor-baby clause from 14th amendment.
3. Repeal the 17th amendment so that Senators are appointed by State legislatures.

[jabrownie]

1. Maximum of two terms in federal office total.
2. Anyone who's held federal office is never allowed to become a lobbyist.
3. All federal office positions are paid 2x minimum wage.

[ChickenHawk]

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

I figure if it's in there twice they will have a harder time saying it doesn't exist.

[Banana]

Outlaw owning more than one media outlet, and no media corporation may span more than a state.

[Edu]

Right to travel written same as 2nd amendment.
Right to privacy protected, no databases, no national ID. (4th amendment on steroids)
No direct taxes. (oops, that's already there, so how are they doing it?)
The words "United States" shall always mean the government.
The words "several States united" shall always mean the several States united.

And the big one:
The government can never own a human being, even if they volunteer. (ends the IRS instantly)

[Richie]

I take issue with people that say that there should be a FEDERAL law prohibiting electronic voting. Have we forgotten who we are? We're Constitutionalists! The Constitutional (and practical) approach would be to work from the state level to bring back paper voting.

[obsolescence]

Some of these proposals are very un-libertarian and not Ron Paul-like...

[Revolutn]

How about we just reinstate the legally ratified "original" 13th ammendment.

The Titles of Foreign Nobility Clause.
Which said that no one holding a title of foreign nobility could hold office.

This would mean that there would be no......drum roll please....are you ready for it.....

LAWYERS to hold political office.

Reason:
All Attorneys are members of the BAR.
The BAR = the British Accredited Registry.

Reason being in old England, it was the Kings court, and commoners were not permitted to speak in the Kings court. Only specially recognized persons were allowed.
Each of them were Registered
with the court...which remember belongs to the King.

Thus, anyone who is a member of the BAR holds a Title of FOREIGN NOBILITY.


Can you even imagine how much better our society and country would be if lawyers hadn't been mucking about in government for the last nearly 200 years?


Ahhhh now that sounds like an Utopia worth pursuing......

[southerntrendkill]

How's this one.

The Government Really, Really, Really...... needs to follow the............

"Constitution of the United States of America."

I'd really like to see that!

[yongrel]

Repeal of the 16th & 17th Amendments would be nice.

[literatim]

I take issue with people that say that there should be a FEDERAL law prohibiting electronic voting. Have we forgotten who we are? We're Constitutionalists! The Constitutional (and practical) approach would be to work from the state level to bring back paper voting.

Amending the Constitution is a Constitutional approach.

[TheConstitutionLives]

Every public servant (police, mayor, tax collector, etc.) every two years must take an exam on the History and Application of the Constitution they swear to uphold. Included in the exam are questions pertaining to Rights vs. Privileges. Define both, etc.

[Revolutn]

In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

WTF?!

I know you're a good guy I followed a lot of your posts in the past man, but 0 points for that idea, that's extremely elitist!


PS
You would also have excluded, me, my co-worker, my brother, my mother, my father, my maternal grandmother, my maternal grandfather, my maternal aunt and her son/my cousin, all of whom I know cast votes on Super Tuesday for RON PAUL in their respective states.

[Banana]

Every public servant (police, mayor, tax collector, etc.) every two years take an exam on the History and Application of the Constitution they swear to uphold. Included in the exam are questions pertaining to Rights vs. Privileges. Define both, etc.

ooo, ooo great idea! (a little history: China's bureaucracy was very long standing and relatively successful during medevial times because instead of nobility, they had to pass a rigorous multi-day essay exam with a limited supply of ink and paper and a ration of rice and water in order to hold a political position. The better you did, the higher you could go)



In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.


As much as I would love this, I'm afraid I can't endorse this in good conscience. See, the real problem would be whom will we entrust to administer the exam? Wouldn't that give a routine to usurp power from people? Remember, they used to have literacy tests to exclude blacks in South.

[AFM]

I like the amendment that was proposed that said that for every bill proposed, congress must state which clause in the Constitution gives them the power to pass it.

[N13]

In the same way that we have spearation of Church and State, we need Spearation of Corporations and State.

[Edu]

Could we have another branch of government that checks all proposed bills, like the supreme court, but before they are voted on?

[Revolutn]

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

And I'm sorry that you didn't see the value of the multiple responses to your authoritarian proposal.

I saw your ads you ran, they were awesome, and you really hit the major points of Ron Paul's liberty positions very well, so surely you can not tell me you do not comprehend the level of hypocrisy you are promoting in the idea of limiting the RIGHT of voting to a mere privilege of a select few?

[Banana]

I like the amendment that was proposed that said that for every bill proposed, congress must state which clause in the Constitution gives them the power to pass it.

The intention is great, but the problem is that they'd just find a bunch of clauses and refer to it again and again and again, which would just add to the paperwork but not really guaranteeing constitutional-ness of the bill.


In the same way that we have spearation of Church and State, we need Spearation of Corporations and State.

Oooo, that's good one. Ironic too as there is no actual clause "Separation of Church and State", but I definitely do think we do need a separation of state and corporation. That would solve so many problem of corporates and lobbyists' unholy alliance.


I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

Remember that Founding Fathers believed people were endowed with inalienable rights, and pretty sure that would include vote.

Besides, I think delegates makes helluva lot of sense. A bunch of people come together and they know they're not that hot on political issues but can trust Mr. X to represent them to do his homework in electing the best official and adopting platform. This is farther more democratic than arbitrarily excluding a group of people because they couldn't meet the criteria (and who will make sure the criteria won't be unduly rigged?)


Could we have another branch of government that checks all proposed bills, like the supreme court, but before they are voted on?

It's usually the job of legislative staff to do that. The real problem is we don't have honest politicians there who doesn't think that Constitution is more than just a goddamn piece of paper.

[lucynuts]

First amendment for me would be to send Frank Luntz and a bunch of other neo-cons to small island and watch them play survivor island for real.

[HollyforRP]

I like all of the ideas!

Especially with the voting system.

1. Voting:

-There should be harsh penalties for any form of interference for those who want to vote including Candidates conspiring and spreading mis-information by phone, email, snail mail, media outlets.

*Media should not feel threatened by higher powers. This takes away from freedom of the press. Media will be required to give equal coverage during the debate. If someone is blackmailing or bribing media and there are candidates blacked out, it will be investigated for conspiring to tamper with the election.

*No more electronic voting machines.

*Showing an ID will be mandatory. You must be an American citizen to vote.

*Non violent voter watch groups will be encouraged to ensure poll workers are not giving misinformation. Voter watch groups will be allowed to video tape without security guards threatening them. Non-biased watchers will be appointed to make sure there is no voter tamperment.

*Any officials caught pushing buttons to sway the election will be held responsible and punished.

*There will be no voter disenfranchisement allowed period.

-------------

2. Freedom from the press

*In times where public figures and private citizens are hounded by the press unwanted, it will be viewed of as stalking.

The press has not only helped give publicity but also helped destroy lives and create an illusion that public figures deserve to be stalked because of how much money they make and because the press made them a star.

*Any media outlet that has captured photos of a celebrity on the spot without a formal agreement to an interview will have to pay royalty fees to the celebrity for profiting off of someone's image.


*Private citizens and celebrities are protected by harrassment of the press that overstep the boundaries of privacy laws.

*This does not apply to court cases and actual upcoming news, mutal agreement to interviews.

*Media will not be allowed to incriminate citizens turning the individual into guilty before proven innocent case. Grilling of a citizen over an upcoming court case or playing the role of a prosecutor for all to see is a case of character assasination.

(This idea came to me after Melinda Duckett who ended her life one day after Nancy Grace grilled her over her missing son painting Melinda Duckett as a murderer. Nancy Grace also showed a preference for Melinda's ex-husband Josh Duckett who had some crooked cops in his family.)

This is a disgrace to journalism.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2448050


-----------

3. Anti-police brutality act

* Police officers are not supposed to be militant. Their duty is to protect and serve the people. Instead, now they view every single person as a potential criminal.

*Officers will not just get a slap on the wrist for brutality. Depending on the case, minimum will be a fine; abusing any citizens using any weapon, objects to use as weapons on citizens or beating someone will be a fine plus losing job; Murder will be investigated fully. The officer will have to sit in jail. If jury finds the officer guilty, the officer will get the same amount of time a citizen would.

*Psychological torture on non-violent criminals is not allowed.

*Anyone in the police caught covering up crimes will be charged with covering up the crime. Backing up a crooked police officer(s) and covering up a police officer's crime will result in job loss immediately if on a low scale. If on high scale cover up, possible prison sentence and loss of job immediately.

[forsmant]

No One wants an amendment for balanced budgets?

[AJ Antimony]

28. The use of electronics or any other form of advanced technology is hereby strictly forbidden in the process of any election.

29. All votes for the election of any federal position must be recounted.

30. Attaching items to bills in Congress is hereby forbidden. Each bill will address one piece of legislation and one piece only.

31. Any notion of pre-emptive war is strictly forbidden.

32. Expansion of the Judicial branch. When Americans lose faith in the Supreme Court, they may hold Judicial Conventions in which when 3/4 of these said legislatures agree, may remove Justices from the Supreme Court on the notion that they are not defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States.

33. All mentioned Conventions in this Constitution shall be defined by the following: That each convention consists of at least 50 individuals, that the Presiding officer of each convention be the Governor of the state, and that the state decides the selection criteria or process of choosing the 50 delegates.

34. Presidential candidates may no longer raise funds from the public or spend money on anything other than traveling.

35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

36. 22nd Amendment repealed. An individual can serve two terms as President of the United States without question. To qualify for an additional term, the incumbent President must have an average approval rating of 85% in the final three years of his current term. If a President is this successful in his terms in office, in theory he will have no term limit. The approval rating will be determined by a Division I University with the Universities rotating with each administration. Only an incumbent President may qualify for a third or more term.

[nakor667]

Repeal of the 16th amendment. Government never should have been given the power to tax the income of individuals. It punishes productivity, aggravates millions, and is completely unnecessary to finance federal government.

Rights of non-citizens. Are illegal aliens granted constitutional rights? Prisoners in Gitmo? Astronauts in space? Ambiguity on whom the constitution applies (and where) really need to be defined, and the ability for government suspend rights guaranteed by the constitution nullified.

Abortion. Currently the federal government has no authority over abortion, either to make it legally available for women or to prohibit it. Despite what the courts say, there is nothing in the constitution that addresses this. If there is going to be a federal policy, lets amend the constitution to establish it as a right or make it illegal; otherwise the federal government should stay the heck out of it.

Secession. This issue is so huge, I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed before. Heck, we fought a civil war over this! The constitution sets out criteria for joining the United States; it makes no mention of leaving the union. This really needs to be addressed: people should be free to have the choice to leave the union without violence, preferably by popular vote of the state (Hawaii would be the first to go). Also covered should be the splitting up of states (like Texas or California), merging (Dakotas), and eviction or kicking out of a state by the rest of the country (which may happen to California eventually).

Highest law of the land. This one shouldn't be necessary, but there should be an amendment that says the US Constitution is the highest law of the land, above organizations like the UN, NATO, NAFTA, the proposed North American Union, and any other international organization. Also there should be *no* circumstances under which the constitution should be suspended, be it martial law or what have you.

[Edu]

No One wants an amendment for balanced budgets?See post #4 (I don't like the war part because they would run continuous wars)

[homah]

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

so bill gates can't vote, but someone who graduated community college with a 2.0 can?

for most people, a college diploma is simply a piece of information they can put on their resume. it isn't necessarily indicative of intelligence.

[silverhandorder]

1. Constitution is not open to interpretation. Anything not given in constitution is a state right.

2. Government can not hold any secret from it's citizens. Military technology and plans may remain undisclosed. Anything that does not significantly expose the nation to imminent danger must be disclosed. Public can have access to any document in the federal government.

3. No notion of socialism is acceptable. Only voluntarily funded programs allowed.

[HollyforRP]

28. The use of electronics or any other form of advanced technology is hereby strictly forbidden in the process of any election.

29. All votes for the election of any federal position must be recounted.

30. Attaching items to bills in Congress is hereby forbidden. Each bill will address one piece of legislation and one piece only.

31. Any notion of pre-emptive war is strictly forbidden.

32. Expansion of the Judicial branch. When Americans lose faith in the Supreme Court, they may hold Judicial Conventions in which when 3/4 of these said legislatures agree, may remove Justices from the Supreme Court on the notion that they are not defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States.

33. All mentioned Conventions in this Constitution shall be defined by the following: That each convention consists of at least 50 individuals, that the Presiding officer of each convention be the Governor of the state, and that the state decides the selection criteria or process of choosing the 50 delegates.

34. Presidential candidates may no longer raise funds from the public or spend money on anything other than traveling.

35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

36. 22nd Amendment repealed. An individual can serve two terms as President of the United States without question. To qualify for an additional term, the incumbent President must have an average approval rating of 85% in the final three years of his current term. If a President is this successful in his terms in office, in theory he will have no term limit. The approval rating will be determined by a Division I University with the Universities rotating with each administration. Only an incumbent President may qualify for a third or more term.

Especially agree with the bolded!

[Banana]

I like all of the ideas!

Especially with the voting system.

1. Voting:

-There should be harsh penalties for any form of interference for those who want to vote including Candidates conspiring and spreading mis-information by phone, email, snail mail, media outlets. [quote]

+1

[quote] *Media should not feel threatened by higher powers. This takes away from freedom of the press. Media will be required to give equal coverage during the debate. If someone is blackmailing or bribing media and there are candidates blacked out, it will be investigated for conspiring to tamper with the election.

+1 for blackmailing/bribing/tampering. Not sure if we really should legislate media, though...


*No more electronic voting machines.

*Showing an ID will be mandatory. You must be an American citizen to vote.

*Non violent voter watch groups will be encouraged to ensure poll workers are not giving misinformation. Voter watch groups will be allowed to video tape without security guards threatening them. Non-biased watchers will be appointed to make sure there is no voter tamperment.

*Any officials caught pushing buttons to sway the election will be held responsible and punished.

*There will be no voter disenfranchisement allowed period.

+1


2. Freedom from the press

*In times where public figures and private citizens are hounded by the press unwanted, it will be viewed of as stalking.

The press has not only helped give publicity but also helped destroy lives and create an illusion that public figures deserve to be stalked because of how much money they make and because the press made them a star.

That's too much legislating, IMO. I would rather push for a stronger libel law (see British's stance on libel and media. I think they struck a perfect balance over there)



*Any media outlet that has captured photos of a celebrity on the spot without a formal agreement to an interview will have to pay royalty fees to the celebrity for profiting off of someone's image.

Who will qualify as celebrity. I really don't want to force media to pay royalty to the likes of K-Fed and Brit. Do you? ;)


*Private citizens and celebrities are protected by harrassment of the press that overstep the boundaries of privacy laws.

*This does not apply to court cases and actual upcoming news, mutal agreement to interviews.

*Media will not be allowed to incriminate citizens turning the individual into guilty before proven innocent case. Grilling of a citizen over an upcoming court case or playing the role of a prosecutor for all to see is a case of character assasination.

(This idea came to me after Melinda Duckett who ended her life one day after Nancy Grace grilled her over her missing son painting Melinda Duckett as a murderer. Nancy Grace also showed a preference for Melinda's ex-husband Josh Duckett who had some crooked cops in his family.)

See above RE: libel.


This is a disgrace to journalism.

I so totally agree that media is in a bad shape. However, I'm not 100% sure whether this is proper consitutional amendment or best left up to state to legislate. I think I would lean toward latter so we can experiment what legislation will work best in regulating media.


3. Anti-police brutality act

I believe this is best legislated by states, IMO.


No One wants an amendment for balanced budgets?

Damn. :D


28. The use of electronics or any other form of advanced technology is hereby strictly forbidden in the process of any election.

29. All votes for the election of any federal position must be recounted.

+1


30. Attaching items to bills in Congress is hereby forbidden. Each bill will address one piece of legislation and one piece only.

+10


31. Any notion of pre-emptive war is strictly forbidden.

That's a policy, and will cause more problem if made a law, IMO.


32. Expansion of the Judicial branch. When Americans lose faith in the Supreme Court, they may hold Judicial Conventions in which when 3/4 of these said legislatures agree, may remove Justices from the Supreme Court on the notion that they are not defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States.

Congress already hold the powers to impeach justices, IIRC.


33. All mentioned Conventions in this Constitution shall be defined by the following: That each convention consists of at least 50 individuals, that the Presiding officer of each convention be the Governor of the state, and that the state decides the selection criteria or process of choosing the 50 delegates.

34. Presidential candidates may no longer raise funds from the public or spend money on anything other than traveling.

?


35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

+1


36. 22nd Amendment repealed. An individual can serve two terms as President of the United States without question. To qualify for an additional term, the incumbent President must have an average approval rating of 85% in the final three years of his current term. If a President is this successful in his terms in office, in theory he will have no term limit. The approval rating will be determined by a Division I University with the Universities rotating with each administration. Only an incumbent President may qualify for a third or more term.

I disagree.

As I explained in other place, POTUS and all Congress positions are *NOT* leaders, head-of-state, lawmakers, king, whatever. They are properly public servants, bound to the will of people. By imposing term limits, we ensure that we don't get stuck up in cult of personality where we just need one rotten but charismatic individual to pervert our institutions.

[Danny]

How about the Liberty Amendment, which was introduced in the House by Ron Paul back in '03 and has already been endorsed by several states:

http://libertyamendment.org/

This is right up our alley:


The purpose of this Amendment is to give full force and effect to the Constitution of the United States; to restore freedom and lost liberties to all Americans; and to restore sovereignty to the United States of America, the States and the body of the People.

The Liberty Amendment will renew personal freedom – the ability of individuals to exercise their God-given rights with a minimum of dependence on, and interference from, the Federal Government. It will restore to ourselves and to future generations the advantages which we inherited from our forefathers – advantages which made us the most fortunate people on earth.

Economic freedom, without which no freedom is possible, will be renewed by terminating federal competition with free enterprise and interference in "our" economy. When this has been accomplished, federal personal income, estate, and gift taxes will be unnecessary. So this Amendment will further renew economic freedom by terminating these taxes.

The Liberty Amendment is designed to regain the Constitutionally guaranteed powers reserved to the States and to the people. We are requesting that all States consider the urgent need to save the sovereignty of the States, the United States in its true Constitutionally framed Republic, and the Individual Liberty of all of our People.

[american.swan]

My suggestion would be...
All citizens are solely citizens of states and as such the federal government has no right to govern, tax, or arrest state citizens. (maybe needs some modification)

[Fields]

1. All voting must have verifible paper trail.
2. Remove anchor-baby clause from 14th amendment.
3. Repeal the 17th amendment so that Senators are appointed by State legislatures.

+1

[sratiug]

Make lying illegal for anyone in government, especially police and prosecutors.

Make it illegal for a judge to instruct jurors on the law.

Repeal 16th and 17th amendments,

Re-repeal the 18th along with the original repealing amendment that allows regulation of alcohol by adding language forbidding the regulation of any food, drink, plant, inhalant, drug, or medical advice or treatments.

[voytechs]

We should amend the constitution to provide mandatory life sentences to any politician breaking the constitution. It should be treated as highest treason against the people of this country. We'd be 68 senators less including McCain after yesterday's vote for torture.

[american.swan]

Really most of these ideas can be chalked up to the founding father's not understanding the laziness of the people and how they aren't interested in this sort of thing and people lie.

The system the founding father's set up doesn't work when the citizens are lazy and a group of rich bastards have plans to take over the government.

The south should have won the war. The USA today is too big for it's own good.

[-lotus-]

Government shall not classify citizens, either by race, creed, class, denomination, physical attribute, or by any other qualification or singularity. All legal citizens of these United States are now and forevermore free individuals, sovereign entities protected from harm foreign and domestic by their appointed government but especially from their appointed government.

[Mauiboy86]

1) presidential, congress and senate term limits of 4 years maximum
2) outlaw assfaces like murdock from owning more then one media company
3) repeal the 16th ammendment and the federal reserve
4) zero tolerance for illegal aliens, will be deported immediately
5) make gun ownership manditory for all homeowners
6) no one family can hold the same office position twice
7) make it illegal for members of congress, senate or executive offices to allow no bid contracts on companies they have equity in. Hell make all no bid contracts punishable by death.
8) delete the department homeland security
9) Repeal the patriot acts and burn every copy
10) get the federal government out of public schools
11) repeal presidential directives..all of them!
12) ban unconstitutional roadblocks by city and state police for seatbelt or whatever checks
13) take guns and tazers out of city police officers hands
14) dismantle or thin out the cia, ins, nasa, fbi, atf, dea etc.
15) repeal Nafta, cafta and all free bullshit agreements
16) put to death every member of the CFR, SPP and the trilateral commission for treason.
17) no subsidies to foreign countries, and no goddam ethenol for gas bullshit
18) Make hemp a legal and manditory cash crop which we can use for clothing, fuel, and just about everything else.
19) make all fiat currency illegal
20) get our military out of countries asap after any conflict for any reason.
21) not send out military into other countries unless they shoot first and we have proof
22) get out of the damn middle east forever!
23) Make me president so I can make sure all this gets taken care of in my first week of office.

[zakkubin]

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

The electoral college has a purpose though. To make sure the areas of very high population do not have all the influence. However, I think we should do away with the delegates and SUPER DELEGATES.

Just give every state so many "points" and they automatically go to the candidates proportionally. Other rules would be needed for a brokered convention. Perhaps just make all the states "winner take all".

An amendment that is needed is addressing the issue of who votes first. Maybe a rotation of states? Or all on one day? But having Iowa & New Hampshire go first is not cool.


As far as the test I think it's funny but wouldn't support it. We should all have the right to vote. But I completley understand your problem. I share it. Why do our votes have the same value as someone who goes to the pole and ask their buddy who to vote for at the last minute? Crazy talk. It's one of the faults of a democracy along with mob rule. Majority of votes can impose on the minority.


Ok so how about a compromise?

We all know a college degree does not make one smart much less well informed. So why not a "test" about the candidates?


Step 1 - Offer some VERY basic reading about each candidates positions.
Step 2 - Random questions about random candidates.
Like True or False- John Mccain plans to immediately bring U.S. military troops home from Iraq.
True or False- Hillary Clinton advocates universal health care.


Unlike others I WANT electronic voting on touch screens. The test would be offered on these screens and would only be 5 or so questions. ( It's just meant to make you read the article because you do not know what questions will be asked)


Step 1- (The reading) should be sent out to EVERY registered voter before hand and offered at the poles by staff.


Step 2- Would only takes about 30 seconds. If you missed 2 out of 5 simple questions then it would ask you 5 more. After a few times a staffer would come over to "help you" by answering the right questions then you could vote. ( I"m sure some would say send them to end of line)


So the point is not to deny people the very real right to vote. However, it does attempt to make people informed about the BASIC issues.



This makes other complications. Like who makes the reading? Well maybe just a word limit is used then each candidates campaign will actually type the information. This would need to be submitted at the time the candidate makes his/her candidacy official. That way there is plenty of time for anyone to bring up grips about the submitted information. ( It shouldn't be so detailed to spur up controversy but may )


In closing. I'm not big on federal gov. being involved with a lot of things. But voting for president is one exception.

Just throw the smartest people in various fields in a room to develop the perfect voting system. Give them requirements and it will be built.

My requirements off the top of my head:

- Touch Screen
- Paper Trail
- Serial # of vote to Receipt
- Results offered in REAL TIME via internet, tv, in room
- Paper trail goes directly into sealed CLEAR box. ( if a recount is needed I want this thing to be opened with the jaws of life not a paper seal & in public )

Many more requirements but you get the idea. Then invite some old people and high school girls to test it out. Tweak then use in local elections or something.

When it's PERFECT I want every state to use this system. However, checks and balances should still be in place. States should be able to have control over certain things and challenge things. But the actual system needs to be uniform.

Ok thats my rant... Hope someone reads all of this.

[Eponym_mi]

In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

Yes, we only want smug cocksuckers to make decisions for us.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[nbhadja]

Amendment- Politicians that do or vote for anything unconstitutional in office get the death penalty.

Imagine a world without Hillary, GWB, McCain, Obama, Romney, Huckabee, Edwards etc. :)

[nodope0695]

Seems to me that the constitution protects life, liberty and property...hence by its very nature, it would prohibit torture. The trouble is, our "leaders" have forgotten about the constitution, if they've read it at all.

[Eponym_mi]

1. No bill having signed into law shall remain in effect for a period greater than 12 years, unless the bill shall have passed by a majority of three-quarters in favor within both houses
2. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, communications, travel, commerce, and business transactions, against unreasonable searches, monitoring, or seizures, shall not be abridged, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
3. The 16th amendment is repealed
4. The 17th amendment is repealed

[american.swan]

1) presidential, congress and senate term limits of 4 years maximum
2) outlaw assfaces like murdock from owning more then one media company
3) repeal the 16th ammendment and the federal reserve
4) zero tolerance for illegal aliens, will be deported immediately
5) make gun ownership manditory for all homeowners
6) no one family can hold the same office position twice
7) make it illegal for members of congress, senate or executive offices to allow no bid contracts on companies they have equity in. Hell make all no bid contracts punishable by death.
8) delete the department homeland security
9) Repeal the patriot acts and burn every copy
10) get the federal government out of public schools
11) repeal presidential directives..all of them!
12) ban unconstitutional roadblocks by city and state police for seatbelt or whatever checks
13) take guns and tazers out of city police officers hands
14) dismantle or thin out the cia, ins, nasa, fbi, atf, dea etc.
15) repeal Nafta, cafta and all free bullshit agreements
16) put to death every member of the CFR, SPP and the trilateral commission for treason.
17) no subsidies to foreign countries, and no goddam ethenol for gas bullshit
18) Make hemp a legal and manditory cash crop which we can use for clothing, fuel, and just about everything else.
19) make all fiat currency illegal
20) get our military out of countries asap after any conflict for any reason.
21) not send out military into other countries unless they shoot first and we have proof
22) get out of the damn middle east forever!
23) Make me president so I can make sure all this gets taken care of in my first week of office.

You forgot our friend FEMA!

[AJ Antimony]

Banana, I will respond to your assessment of my amendments.

I tried quoting your message but it didn't work so bear with me...

Regarding state conventions removing Justices, I think this should be thrown in there because we all know Congress, which votes unconstitutional, isn't going to impeach those who uphold unconstitutional.

Regarding #33, the Constitution never defines what a state convention really is for states to ratify amendments and the like. This is an attempt to define a convention and obviously isn't close to perfect.

Regarding #34, a Presidential candidate really shouldn't be draining $100 mil from the American people nor should they even be spending that money to campaign.

George Washington said it best--he never campaigned because he felt a true President shouldn't need to go around begging for votes

Regarding #36, repealing 22, the only reason I am for no Pres. term limits is WHAT IF three things were to happen--1. Great Depression, 2. Real war, 3. A truly amazing man is elected and is a terrific President. The most important of these, IMO is #2. Look at WWII. Would the Allies/US have won the war if 1/2 through it the Americans were forced to elect an entirely different administration with entirely different policies about the war? But even though I don't like 100% term limits, that's why I included the 85% thing. Basically, only the truly amazing Presidents would qualify for a third term.

[Joe Schwartz]

Repeal the Commerce Clause.

[JK/SEA]

An amendement to restore the Monarchy.

[Alawn]

Here is mine. I'll call it the "Money Amendment." It might be slightly redundant with the current Constitution but they are stupid so I have to make it really clear for them.

"Section 1: There shall be no central bank and Congress shall not delegate its power to coin money or regulate the value thereof

Section 2: There shall be no fractional reserve banking

Section 3: All money must be backed by gold or silver. Gold and silver may not be taxed at any federal, state, or local level.

Section 4: Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, gifts, real property, or a general sales tax

Section 5: No taxes shall be enforcible on the federal, state, or local government or on the people from any foreign entity."


(section 5 is to prevent any sort of UN tax)

Also

"The federal government shall have only those powers specifically stated in this constitution."


The commerce clause is a disaster so something has to be done about it. I'm not sure what but maybe:

"The power of congress to regulate commerce amoung the state shall be limited to commerce from one state to another. It does not include the power to regulate commerce within a state. It does not include the power to regulate primary production, such as farming, hunting, fishing, or mining. It does not include the power to regulate services, securities, or communication. It does not include the power to regulate manufacturing, transport, retail sales, possession, use, or disposal of anything. It does not include the power to regulate anything that might have a "substantial effect" on commerce, or the operations of parties not directly related to the actual transfers of ownership and possession."


War Amendment
"All wars must be formally declared. The declaration must be done beforehand or in the case of an extreme emergency it may be declared immediately afterwards"

World government Amendment
"The United States shall not be part of any world or regional government. No treaty can change any part of the this Constitution."

[tangent4ronpaul]

Congress shall pass no unfunded mandates. All current unfunded mandates are to be immediately repealed.

For every new law Congress passes, they must review and repeal 5 existing laws, until such time as the total number of Federal laws number less than 400. At that time, the total must be kept under 400 laws.

Any law that is considered unconstitutional by the public via collecting 100,000 signatures, shall be put in the queue for mandatory review.

All laws must be on a single subject and no “trailers” may be attached that are not on that specific subject. All laws with such trailers will have the trailers immediately repealed if they are not on the same subject as the original bill.

All bills under consideration must be posted for public comment IN THEIR FINAL FORM, one month prior to being voted on for public comment. Any change due to public outcry shall reset the posting time, with the changes presented and highlighted. In short, no law may be passed in less than 2 months.

All bills must be written by members of Congress. Any law that was in whole or part written by lobbyists shall be immediately repealed.

No bill shall be longer than 4,504 words – the length of the US Constitution without signatures or amendments, and no member of Congress may vote on a bill until they have read it in it's entirety.

Any law over 50 pages shall be immediately repealed.

Any bill that was passed into law between the hours of 10pm and 7am EST shall be immediately repealed.

Any bill that was passed into law when fewer than 3/4ths of the members of Congress were in attendance shall be immediately repealed.

Any bill that points to another law and makes modifications of a single word, sentence or paragraph shall be immediately repealed.

If a law is to be modified, it must be reviewed in it's entirety as to if it is Constitutional and if it has in fact had the desired effects on the problem it was passed to solve.

All laws should sunset and be reviewed for Constitutionality and effectiveness before they are voted on to be continued.

Any law that was passed on the basis of emotional appeals for justification and that used anecdotal evidence to support the need for it shall be immediately repealed.

All Federal Regulations must be passed by Congress, and not enacted by the agencies that wrote them. No agency or branch of the Federal Government may have more than 50 regulations and the regulations must abide by the same length, review, Constitutionality, and sunset provisions as Congressional laws. No more than 20 agencies may have regulations of any sort.

Congress shall operate under a modified PAYGO system, where every year it's budget shall be determined by not only paying off the DEFICITE (the interest on federal loans and debt), but also after paying off a portion of the DEBT, ideally at least 5% of the original total every year BEFORE spending on anything else.

The US Government shall not outsource or award no bid contracts.

No agency of the US Government shall operate at a profit or as a revenue generating entity using products developed at taxpayer expense. Reports, books, tapes and software shall be available at cost.

All government patents and products developed at taxpayer expense, including highways, bridges, printed matter, etc. must be public domain and may not be given to private industry to use on an exclusive basis.

The practice of using approved vendors by federal agencies for materials acquisition is to stop immediately.

Any member of Congress that has any ties to a corporation, may not vote on legislation that benefits that corporation. Stock ownership, close personal ties and former employment count.

Whichever of the 2 major parties has a minority in Congress shall have their votes weighted as a handicap so that voting along party lines would result in a 50/50 tie if everyone voted.

All voting for federal office or delegates shall be conducted in the following way:

All ballots must be paper and placed in a clear container with a lid having a slot. These containers shall be in full public view from the beginning of voting till the votes have been counted. They are to be sealed with the same type of holographic security tape used in high security government instillations (SCIF's) and further protected with serial numbers and signatures. Upon the close of voting the public is welcome to come watch and participate in the count. Those doing the count shall be chossen by lottery and equally divided between the 2 parties with a republican and a democrat paired for each voting counting team. The votes will be counted in full public view twice (by different counters) and any discrepancies between the counts will result in starting over with different people counting. At no time shall the containers leave the public view until the counting is finished and results posted.

All votes shall be counted immediately after the election and no delay is permissible. If at any time the ballot boxes leave public view, the election must be repeated from scratch for that precinct.

Entrance and exit polling by the media or reporting on same before final results are released shall be banned.

Any media organization shown to favor one candidate over the other shall immediately have their broadcast license revoked. This includes debates, broadcast and publication.

Delegates shall be awarded by county or congressional district or via a caucus process. No more winner take all states.

No money may be borrowed by the federal government from foreign countries or business interests.

No new money may be minted unless $1 is taken out of circulation and destroyed for every new $1 produced. No new money can be minted until after 1% of the total US Dollars in circulation today are removed and destroyed per year. This is to continue until the value of the dollar is once again in line with the value of gold and silver, and then must be kept in balance.

All the gold in Ft. Knox must be inventoried on live TV and the results released to the public. There must be full disclosure of all past transfers of gold from Ft. Knox along with the reason.

The federal reserve is to be immediately be abolished.

No company or corporation may control over 5% of a business market, if that business market has revenues in excess of 1 billion dollars a year.

All I can think of right now...

-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

blimp!

This is a good thread!

-n

[constituent]

"Congress shall pass no laws [.]"

"The Right of the People to Abolish"
-not as a human right, but as a legally
protected check on the gov't.

admittedly the wording would have to be worked.

[Rhys]

Congress shall pass no laws or establish any orginazation to garnish the wages or earnings of an individual; nor shall congress establish any laws or orginazations to regulate the value of trade or currancy.

that would end subsidies, taxes and the fed.

[Join The Paul Side]

1) Anybody seeking the United States Presidency should be subject to take a competency test on the Constitution, Economics, and Ethics prior to announcing their campaign. Those who score low in any field of the test shall be automaticly eliminated from running for office. (which would have eliminated Bush in 2000, and McCain in 2008) :D

[leonster]

Add the word "expressly" to the 10th amendment...

[Sematary]

Ok, I've only read the first page of this and I'm already disgusted. All the suggestions are to "outlaw" this or that and most of that having to do with voting procedures, campaign finance law, etc...
Do you folks really believe that is what the constitution is there for? The amendment process wasn't put in place so we could outlaw shit. The amendment process was put in place so that the rights of the people could be protected and rights that were previously overlooked and getting stepped on (such as the right of women to vote) could be enshrined in that document.
The one and only time an amendment was added to "outlaw" something, it failed miserably and had to be rescinded. All the suggestions I'm seeing are anti-constitution.

The only amendment I would personally offer would be to see our nation go to a parliamentary process so that there would be more voices from more directions in our legislature.

[Sematary]

I never should have read this thread. I've suddenly lost hope that we can make any real changes because what seems to be happening is that the people in this revolution who supposedly hate big government want to use the constitution to settle their own pet peeves and almost everything I've read is not a constitutional issue but an issue of law and most of it would involve the government getting MORE involved in our daily lives. Has anyone learned anything from this process yet?
Ban voting machines? People want to create an AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION for that? Are you kidding me? That's not what the amendment process nor the constitution are there for. I can see creating laws that would guarantee that the voting machinery in use and the ensuing count are correct, but banning them and using the power of the federal government to do it? That's ludicrous.
I am so disappointed right now.

[ronpaulhawaii]

In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

???????????


First amendment for me would be to send Frank Luntz and a bunch of other neo-cons to small island and watch them play survivor island for real.

LOL


I never should have read this thread. I've suddenly lost hope that we can make any real changes because what seems to be happening is that the people in this revolution who supposedly hate big government want to use the constitution to settle their own pet peeves and almost everything I've read is not a constitutional issue but an issue of law and most of it would involve the government getting MORE involved in our daily lives. Has anyone learned anything from this process yet?
Ban voting machines? People want to create an AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION for that? Are you kidding me? That's not what the amendment process nor the constitution are there for. I can see creating laws that would guarantee that the voting machinery in use and the ensuing count are correct, but banning them and using the power of the federal government to do it? That's ludicrous.
I am so disappointed right now.

+1

ISTM that task chair legislating goes with the territory. The only things that dissappoint me is the time people waste on threads like this,

[edit- I suppose entertainment is not really a waste of time. We are supposed to be having fun with this...]

(and the fact that the OP doesn't know how to post in the correct forum.;))

[brandon]

52. All persons must wear purple on thursday.

[literatim]

1) Define life at conception.
2) Remove anchor-baby clause from 14th amendment.
3) Repeal the 17th amendment so that Senators are appointed by State legislatures.
4) The budget must be balanced, with exemptions to times of declared war.
5) For every bill proposed, Congress must state which clause in the Constitution gives them the power to pass it
6) All federal elections must have a paper trail.
7) Pass original 13th Amendment which bans people with titles of nobility from running for a federal office.
8) Repeal the 16th Amendment.
9) Forbid the federal government from taxing the people.
9) Outright forbid a central bank.
10) Remove individual status from corporations.
11) Add the word "expressly" to the 10th amendment.
12) Forbid subsidies for foreign entities including the U.N. and foreign countries.
13) Forbid long term military occupation.
14) Remove the ability of the federal government to have a standing army.
15) Forbid corporate subsidies.
16) No money may be borrowed by the federal government from foreign countries or business interests.
17) No taxes shall be enforcible on the federal, state, or local government or on the people from any foreign entity.
18) Forbid federal courts from ruling on State issues.

[nullvalu]

In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

Worst. Post. Evar.

[the_bee]

I say anyone to be elected to any federal or state position of power should have to live as an average person for minimum of five years on an average salary of not more than 65,000 a year period. :mad:

[LibertyEagle]

Remember that Founding Fathers believed people were endowed with inalienable rights, and pretty sure that would include vote.



Yes, but once upon a time, weren't only land owners able to vote? I'm not sure about returning to that, but there might be some merit in only allowing those who are not directly on the federal government dole, to vote. It's always seemed very strange to me that those who benefit from feeding at the federal government trough, can vote for someone who will increase the size of said trough.

Thoughts?

[PatriotG]

We should amend the constitution to provide mandatory life sentences to any politician breaking the constitution. It should be treated as highest treason against the people of this country. We'd be 68 senators less including McCain after yesterday's vote for torture.

Im not sure life sentence is necessary but I think this is good.

Maybe 25 years no chance of parole.

A good example would be this undeclared war in Iraq.

When A politician goes against (clearly) whats stated in the constitution, its treason.

End Of Story

25 years, no chance of Parole.

By the way there are some good ideas in this thread.

1) Define life at conception.
2) Remove anchor-baby clause from 14th amendment.
3) Repeal the 17th amendment so that Senators are appointed by State legislatures.
4) The budget must be balanced, with exemptions to times of declared war.
5) For every bill proposed, Congress must state which clause in the Constitution gives them the power to pass it
6) All federal elections must have a paper trail.
7) Pass original 13th Amendment which bans people with titles of nobility from running for a federal office.
8) Repeal the 16th Amendment.
9) Forbid the federal government from taxing the people.
9) Outright forbid a central bank.
10) Remove individual status from corporations.
11) Add the word "expressly" to the 10th amendment.
12) Forbid subsidies for foreign entities including the U.N. and foreign countries.
13) Forbid long term military occupation.
14) Remove the ability of the federal government to have a standing army.
15) Forbid corporate subsidies.
16) No money may be borrowed by the federal government from foreign countries or business interests.
17) No taxes shall be enforcible on the federal, state, or local government or on the people from any foreign entity.
18) Forbid federal courts from ruling on State issues.

[Smiley Gladhands]

35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

+1

[klamath]

How about just following the consitution as it is written. Putting a million admendments will do nothing to to stop people that are violating the constitution now from violating it with all the new admentments. The more words you write into a law gives lawyers and politicians more room to twist them to fit what they want. "It depends on what the definition of IS, is."
It sounds like most of you just want to pass more laws at a federal level but call it the constitution?

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

1) There should be an amendment that outlaws all forms of torture, both foreign and domestic. This would immediately clear up all the BS floating around in the news today.

2) Electronics in the voting process needs to be outlawed. The includes diebold touchscreens as well as electronic scanners.

3) Political parties should be outlawed or somehow put on a level playing field with individuals.

With these three amendments 90% of all the shenanigans could be wiped out overnight.

Our interpretation of the Constitution can either be simple or complex. The simple interpretation of it reduces to the civil concern our forefathers had with the collective happiness of all American citizens. Just the opposite in comparison, the complex interpretation of the Constitution reduces down to focus on the legal aspects of it in terms of right or wrong. This second legal way of interpreting the Constitution not only breeds hatred in courtrooms but also creates unhappy American citizens who have to be dependent on lawyers.
The purpose in ammending the Constitution is to 'clarify' it in regards to its civil purpose -- the perfect ideal our forefathers envisioned in regards to our life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Any legal changes in the Constitution brought about because of the complex considerations of right or wrong endangers this simple civil interpretation.
The civil purpose that our forefathers designed into the Constitution is its real value for the vast majority of us and its true lightning in a bottle. Once it is gone it is lost forever. Therefore, we should cherish the Constitution to the point that we would never endanger its sovereignty beyond an ammend -- "ammend" meaning that we should only clarify the meaning in the Constitution in regards to the civil purpose that we be as happy as possible as a nation.

[Revolution9]

In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

Worst one yet. Yer a person who wants to see drug users charged heavily and put behind bars. I think your young self may need to reroll all these marbles around in your mouth and get a grip on what freedom and liberty and The Constitution is all about.

Randy

[aravoth]

The constitution doesn't define when life is concieved and it's not supposed to. It defines the limits of the goverment.



Originally Posted by Hamadeh View Post
In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

College degrees mean nothing, except that people wasted 4 or more years of their life getting a degree that they got by driving of the cost of education up by taking out student loans that put them into a debt that they pay off until they're 50, just to get a peice of paper that will garuntee them a job they hate for the rest of their life, and in the meantime they'll make less money than the guy who didn't waste his time like that.

anyway, The constitution isn't there to regulate morality, or enforce your moral code, it's there to keep you from being a douche bag and forcing people to live under your will.

I can however see the absolute need for outright forbidding a central or national bank in all it's forms, since the existence of one denies economic freedom to the common folk. Other than that, it should say, "don't fucking change me"

[HOLLYWOOD]

1.) Federal Government Officials, as Public servants, cannot use their Federal Employment and/or history to profit. ie, Books, Movies, Magazines, etc. deals. All and any money, must be deposited into the Federal General fund only.

2.) Remove ALL legislation that Discriminates against the American citizen: No more double jeopardy, double fine/penalty crimes, no special financial and/or educational benefits for certain groups only. (last was Kennedy's push on loan forgiveness for public employees)

3.) All property owned by a citizen, is not subject to search, without a court WARRANT.

4.) Banned - all road checks/stops of transportation vehicles Unconstitutional

5.) Ban all BONUSES to Federal Employees, especially the ones that are given money to just stay in their positions.

6.) BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT - on revenues only, not that GDP crap

7.) NO IMMUNITIES of ANY SORT into legislative bills for Past, Present, or Future Illegal or unconstitutional actions by any body.

[98Tokay]

In order to vote, you may not have a college degree.

[NeoRayden]

I believe this is the most important. To bann a formal political party structure.

Everyone must run as an independent and on equal ground.

George Washinton said it and am saying it now.

Political Parties are the death of our Republic.

[affa]

We have the electoral college, tell me thats not worse than my idea, why should a vote for a uninformed media watching uneducated person be counted as the same as someone who is educated, knows about our constitution, knows about the race?

I dont know maybe I do have a little authoritarian person in me.

It's been my observation that anyone proposing limitations to voting always chooses limitations which retain their right to vote while limiting the voice of others.

Think on that.

The problem with limiting the right to vote for a section of population is that population loses its vote and voice. College is not a true indicator of intelligence - in fact, many would consider college just one more level of formal indoctrination (depending on what college we are talking about). That is, it's quite possible that some people with less formal education are 'freer thinkers' than those who spent a long time learning from textbooks. Textbooks are biased.

I could go on.

[Tdcci]

5.) Ban all BONUSES to Federal Employees, especially the ones that are given money to just stay in their positions.

The rationale for raising wages for Federal Employees is so they don't seek money from lobbyists/other corrupt practices. Do you disagree with this?

[Moobi]

Yes, but once upon a time, weren't only land owners able to vote? I'm not sure about returning to that, but there might be some merit in only allowing those who are not directly on the federal government dole, to vote. It's always seemed very strange to me that those who benefit from feeding at the federal government trough, can vote for someone who will increase the size of said trough.

Thoughts?
I believe that's correct. Only property owners voted because the only federal laws that affected any citizens directly were about real property. And if I don't own property, what right do I have voting on laws that I am not the subject of? There may be valid counters to this logic for certain circumstances, but I think the principle is correct.

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

I believe that's correct. Only property owners voted because the only federal laws that affected any citizens directly were about real property. And if I don't own property, what right do I have voting on laws that I am not the subject of? There may be valid counters to this logic for certain circumstances, but I think the principle is correct.

You are burying the simple civil purpose in our U.S. Constitution, the pursuit of happiness, with that of the legal question of right or wrong. In order to preserve it, we should always hold the civil meaning in the U.S. Constitution over the legal.

[fedup100]

Thankfully, a Republic does not use mob rule to make such important decisions. The founding fathers gave us a perfect Constitution and the original needs no and will have no changes.

[Mesogen]

1) There should be an amendment that outlaws all forms of torture, both foreign and domestic. This would immediately clear up all the BS floating around in the news today.

It's called the 8th amendment.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.


2) Electronics in the voting process needs to be outlawed. The includes diebold touchscreens as well as electronic scanners.
I think that in election for Federal positions, the Federal government does have some say in how the states run their elections. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that there should be uniform federal elections standards. We really need to clean up our pathetic elections in this country.


3) Political parties should be outlawed or somehow put on a level playing field with individuals.
Nah, when you clean up the election laws, the parties won't have so much power over individuals. They will be instruments of democracy once again, instead of instruments of corporate power.

I'd add amendments that change elections.

They would provide for a national primary for president (not party primaries, an 'open' primary) followed by a run-off between the top two from the primary (that are not from the same party).

[Mesogen]

In the same way that we have spearation of Church and State, we need Spearation of Corporations and State.

Corporations are created by the state. It's just that now, the government is beholden to the coporations instead of the other way around, which is the way it used to be.

[LittleLightShining]

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take their tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligible to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

I am not college educated. Apparently a college education doesn't give one a leg up in the spelling department. To be honest, the most well-informed people I know are not college (indoctrinated) educated. And they haven't begun their adult lives mired in debt. Don't get me wrong, a college education is a fine thing, but a Constitutional amendment mandating one in order to vote is a very disturbing idea.

[Mesogen]

Thankfully, a Republic does not use mob rule to make such important decisions. The founding fathers gave us a perfect Constitution and the original needs no and will have no changes.

So we should still use the 3/5 rule? It would come in handy for states with lots of illegal immigrants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-fifths_compromise

The 3/5 rule was probably the one thing that led to the civil war and all kinds of strife beforehand.

(edit: About "mob rule" : any guess how the Constitution was formed? That's right, democratically. Any guess as to how its amended? You guessed it. Mob rule.)

[Mesogen]

And all this crap about "the constitution doesn't ban things"?

Which constitution are you reading?

Here's just one example:


Article 1 Section 10 - Powers prohibited of States

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

[billyjoeallen]

We need a constitutional amendment guaranteeing personal, financial and medical privacy.

The 4th amendmend gives us some protection, but not nearly enough.

[Elliott]

In order to be eligible to vote you must have a college degree.

I'm with you in spirit, but I think an IQ test and a supplemental history/current events test would be more appropriate. Questions like:

Who is the Vice President?
How many states are in the union?
Saddam Hussein was the president of which country?
What country attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor?
etc...

Everyone wouldn't need to be a genius, but should have at least moderate (100 score) intelligence. People beneath that level cannot even begin to comprehend the complexity of politics. If you watch "Jay Walking" on The Tonight Show, it's terrifying to imagine that these people actually have the ability to vote.

PS. I have an MBA and I'm personally quite smart. But I also have several good friends without degrees who are terribly intelligent. I have two friends who have been MENSA tested to easily exceed the "genius" standard and neither has been to college. Likewise, I know many morons who do in fact have degrees. Some morons even have graduate degrees.

[Danny]

The rationale for raising wages for Federal Employees is so they don't seek money from lobbyists/other corrupt practices. Do you disagree with this?

Banning lobbyist contributions is a violation of freedom of speech, and we should be fighting for their rights. Frankly, i'm shocked to see that so many Ron Paul supporters would be thrilled to have the Constitution amended to enact some form of campaign finance regulation.

Our goal needs to be to limit government to the powers defined in the Constitution. When this happens, companies will have no reason to hire lobbyists because it will be understood that government doesn't have the authority to pass the laws that they want.

[fedup100]

So we should still use the 3/5 rule? It would come in handy for states with lots of illegal immigrants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-fifths_compromise

The 3/5 rule was probably the one thing that led to the civil war and all kinds of strife beforehand.

(edit: About "mob rule" : any guess how the Constitution was formed? That's right, democratically. Any guess as to how its amended? You guessed it. Mob rule.)

Illegals are illegal......Ron Paul will tell you and I will tell you, we won't be dickering with the original Constitution.....have fun dreaming.

If it ever comes a time when this type of ideas= voting = changes by the populace to the constitution, you can kiss your ass and your Country goodbye.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Banning lobbyist contributions is a violation of freedom of speech, and we should be fighting for their rights. Frankly, i'm shocked to see that so many Ron Paul supporters would be thrilled to have the Constitution amended to enact some form of campaign finance regulation.

Our goal needs to be to limit government to the powers defined in the Constitution. When this happens, companies will have no reason to hire lobbyists because it will be understood that government doesn't have the authority to pass the laws that they want.

Freedom of speech is a right of individuals. Lobbyists support the right of corporations that have snuck in under the guise of "corporate person hood" - a legal fiction giving them the rights of an individual, in fact more rights than an individual, but immunity from having to follow many of the laws real individuals have to and a get out of jail free card if they break the law.

The Constitution is supposed to protect us from corrupt and predatory businesses interests, not protect those same interests. No where in the Constitution does it say the right of the corporations to...

-n

[Danny]

Freedom of speech is a right of individuals. Lobbyists support the right of corporations that have snuck in under the guise of "corporate person hood" - a legal fiction giving them the rights of an individual, in fact more rights than an individual, but immunity from having to follow many of the laws real individuals have to and a get out of jail free card if they break the law.

The Constitution is supposed to protect us from corrupt and predatory businesses interests, not protect those same interests. No where in the Constitution does it say the right of the corporations to...

-n

I don't think anyone is going to disagree with you that most lobbyists are bad. The question is about the best way to stop them. As a Ron Paul supporter and believer in limited government, I really don't think that more government and more laws is the answer. You simply aren't going to be able to create a law that keeps lobbyists and corporations out of the game without squashing individual freedom of speech or third parties at the same time.

The answer has to be freedom for anyone to give as much money as they want to any candidate they want, but at the same time a Constitutionally limited government where there are no favors or votes to sell. Lobbyists really aren't the problem. The problem is a system that tasks elected officials with wealth redistribution. With so much up for grabs, can you really blame the corporations for going after it?

Ron Paul is a perfect example of how this would work. RP gets no money from lobbyists. It's not that he refuses lobbyist donations, he will accept money from anyone. Lobbyists are just smart enough to realize that RP is voting with the Constitution, which doesn't allow him to vote for handouts.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Lobbyists really aren't the problem. The problem is a system that tasks elected officials with wealth redistribution. With so much up for grabs, can you really blame the corporations for going after it?



I thought I had a pretty good plan to fix this in post 56. It's kind of buried now, so I'll repost:

Congress shall pass no unfunded mandates. All current unfunded mandates are to be immediately repealed.

For every new law Congress passes, they must review and repeal 5 existing laws, until such time as the total number of Federal laws number less than 400. At that time, the total must be kept under 400 laws.

Any law that is considered unconstitutional by the public via collecting 100,000 signatures, shall be put in the queue for mandatory review.

All laws must be on a single subject and no “trailers” may be attached that are not on that specific subject. All laws with such trailers will have the trailers immediately repealed if they are not on the same subject as the original bill.

All bills under consideration must be posted for public comment IN THEIR FINAL FORM, one month prior to being voted on for public comment. Any change due to public outcry shall reset the posting time, with the changes presented and highlighted. In short, no law may be passed in less than 2 months.

All bills must be written by members of Congress. Any law that was in whole or part written by lobbyists shall be immediately repealed.

No bill shall be longer than 4,504 words – the length of the US Constitution without signatures or amendments, and no member of Congress may vote on a bill until they have read it in it's entirety.

Any law over 50 pages shall be immediately repealed.

Any bill that was passed into law between the hours of 10pm and 7am EST shall be immediately repealed.

Any bill that was passed into law when fewer than 3/4ths of the members of Congress were in attendance shall be immediately repealed.

Any bill that points to another law and makes modifications of a single word, sentence or paragraph shall be immediately repealed.

If a law is to be modified, it must be reviewed in it's entirety as to if it is Constitutional and if it has in fact had the desired effects on the problem it was passed to solve.

All laws should sunset and be reviewed for Constitutionality and effectiveness before they are voted on to be continued.

Any law that was passed on the basis of emotional appeals for justification and that used anecdotal evidence to support the need for it shall be immediately repealed.

All Federal Regulations must be passed by Congress, and not enacted by the agencies that wrote them. No agency or branch of the Federal Government may have more than 50 regulations and the regulations must abide by the same length, review, Constitutionality, and sunset provisions as Congressional laws. No more than 20 agencies may have regulations of any sort.

Congress shall operate under a modified PAYGO system, where every year it's budget shall be determined by not only paying off the DEFICITE (the interest on federal loans and debt), but also after paying off a portion of the DEBT, ideally at least 5% of the original total every year BEFORE spending on anything else.

The US Government shall not outsource or award no bid contracts.

No agency of the US Government shall operate at a profit or as a revenue generating entity using products developed at taxpayer expense. Reports, books, tapes and software shall be available at cost.

All government patents and products developed at taxpayer expense, including highways, bridges, printed matter, etc. must be public domain and may not be given to private industry to use on an exclusive basis.

The practice of using approved vendors by federal agencies for materials acquisition is to stop immediately.

Any member of Congress that has any ties to a corporation, may not vote on legislation that benefits that corporation. Stock ownership, close personal ties and former employment count.

Whichever of the 2 major parties has a minority in Congress shall have their votes weighted as a handicap so that voting along party lines would result in a 50/50 tie if everyone voted.

All voting for federal office or delegates shall be conducted in the following way:

All ballots must be paper and placed in a clear container with a lid having a slot. These containers shall be in full public view from the beginning of voting till the votes have been counted. They are to be sealed with the same type of holographic security tape used in high security government instillations (SCIF's) and further protected with serial numbers and signatures. Upon the close of voting the public is welcome to come watch and participate in the count. Those doing the count shall be chossen by lottery and equally divided between the 2 parties with a republican and a democrat paired for each voting counting team. The votes will be counted in full public view twice (by different counters) and any discrepancies between the counts will result in starting over with different people counting. At no time shall the containers leave the public view until the counting is finished and results posted.

All votes shall be counted immediately after the election and no delay is permissible. If at any time the ballot boxes leave public view, the election must be repeated from scratch for that precinct.

Entrance and exit polling by the media or reporting on same before final results are released shall be banned.

Any media organization shown to favor one candidate over the other shall immediately have their broadcast license revoked. This includes debates, broadcast and publication.

Delegates shall be awarded by county or congressional district or via a caucus process. No more winner take all states.

No money may be borrowed by the federal government from foreign countries or business interests.

No new money may be minted unless $1 is taken out of circulation and destroyed for every new $1 produced. No new money can be minted until after 1% of the total US Dollars in circulation today are removed and destroyed per year. This is to continue until the value of the dollar is once again in line with the value of gold and silver, and then must be kept in balance.

All the gold in Ft. Knox must be inventoried on live TV and the results released to the public. There must be full disclosure of all past transfers of gold from Ft. Knox along with the reason.

The federal reserve is to be immediately be abolished.

No company or corporation may control over 5% of a business market, if that business market has revenues in excess of 1 billion dollars a year.

All I can think of right now...

-n

[DamianTV]

We need a constitutional amendment guaranteeing personal, financial and medical privacy.

The 4th amendmend gives us some protection, but not nearly enough.

+1

Privacy is considered a PENUMBRA RIGHT and is not explicitly defined. It needs to be explicitly defined.

Any and All Rights as established, now and forthcoming, in the Bill of Rights shall not be disregarded, waived, or volunteered away by any Civil Agreement or Contract.

----

If you download software, they cant make you waive any of your rights, specifically the 4th as a penumbra for right to privacy, to use their software.

If you get a job, your employer does NOT have any legal authority to stand on to make you do what they want at home. On the clock is different. At home is NOT their business. Yes that includes drugs too. Do drugs at home and I dont care. Do them on my business and Im gonna have a problem. However, even ON the clock, they still have to respect all of your Rights.

If you buy a can of soup, it doesnt give the party you bought the soup from the legal authority to sell your private financial information to anyone without your knowledge and explicit concent. Reason for this is that is what insurance companies are all ready trying to do. Insurance companies want to know what you buy at the store so they buy information you give away with club cards, so they can turn around and say you eat too much bacon and we are gonna have to raise your rates. Not that they are any more inclined to pay anyway.

----

And someone needs to come up with something about the f***ing RIAA.

[Mesogen]

Illegals are illegal......Ron Paul will tell you and I will tell you, we won't be dickering with the original Constitution.....have fun dreaming.

If it ever comes a time when this type of ideas= voting = changes by the populace to the constitution, you can kiss your ass and your Country goodbye.

You said the original Constitution was the way to go. Before the Bill of Rights. Before the 13th amendment. Maybe you meant the original Articles of Confederation?

It had the 3/5 rule that said slaves counted as 3/5 of a person for census purposes.

Is this what you had in mind? Because if it is, states with lots of illegals could use them in the census (at the 3/5 rate) and get more representatives in Congress. Is this what you want?

And the part in the original Constitution where it says it can be amended (Article 5), should we keep that?

[BigRedBrent]

2) Electronics in the voting process needs to be outlawed. The includes diebold touchscreens as well as electronic scanners.

Well actually electronics could be used to decrease voter fraud. Someone already brought up that machines could be used to print you results on paper for you to review and you would keep a receipt for your own records. With the receipt you could use a code from it to make sure your vote was counted. As well as computer counting an entirely separate process of hand counting would also be used to verify the computer totals. I am sure even more intelligent things could be added to this process to limit voter fraud even further.

So it would make it simple to vote and later verify your vote as well.

[Alex Libman]

To start...

"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade ..." -- around page 1083, Atlas Shrugged.

Since this would mean an end to all income and sales taxes, a practical implementation of this might have some sort of a gradual step-by-step plan for capping government spending as percentage of GDP.

When fully implemented, that amendment should make federal monopolies (ex. post office, federal reserve, etc) and prohibitions impossible, and limit the size of government drastically, so we can have a little fun with further amendments...

All "civil servants" shall be made to wear a large yellow "G" at all times. Any "G-man" who displeases any taxpayer shall be made to prostrate himself on the ground until apology is accepted, or be fired if apology is refused.

Implant a streaming camera into the forehead of every high-ranking civil servant at their expense, with 24/7 audio and video being streamed live to the Internet and permanently archived. No one in Washington should be able to scratch his balls without his "constituents" knowing about it! (Stockholders may demand the same of their corporate executives.)

A herd of highest-ranking members of the U.S. armed forces should be forced to jog butt-naked across any country we're thinking of initiating force against (including sanctions), with the words "we don't want to invade you" written on their chest and back in the local language. This should be a constitutionally-mandated requirement before ANY military action can be taken (with the theoretical exception of a full-scale invasion on any U.S. state, or returning fire in a confirmed intentional nuclear strike against us). If they don't shoot them, the military operation cannot proceed. (False threat of "American imperialism" is the only thing keeping those totalitarian regimes in power...)

Torture and execution shall be legal only for civil servants who lie us into a trillion-dollar war...

[Number19]

...Remember that Founding Fathers believed people were endowed with inalienable rights, and pretty sure that would include vote...The right to vote was EXTREMELY restricted by our Founding Fathers. Our nation was not founded as a "democracy" and in fact, the founders had an aversion to the concept.

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

It would be easier for us to achieve happier lives as Americans by reestablishing an unbiased media along with a true 2 party system than it would be for us to create another law or ammendment that might endanger the Constitution by the altering of its civil meaning irreparably.
Besides, the unreported significance of the Ron Paul movement is the broad support he has attracted from both the liberal and conservative ends of the political spectrum. When we bicker about the sanctity of the Constitution, we divide ourselves up as half of us concerned with bringing the other half of us to an unhappy justice -- which brings little satisfaction to our souls while such behavior festers hatred.
Because of the misguided notion that we can find happiness in vengence, our profit in this nation has disappeared while we have become wholly consumed with a need for more law makers, more lawyers, more courtrooms and more police officers. As our hatred increases for each other in these courtrooms, there becomes a need for even more law makers, more lawyers, more courtrooms and more police officers. Of course, our civil right to be happy as American citizens has taken a back seat to our vengeful quest for half our population to bring the other half of us to an unhappy state of justice.
More importantly, this in turn has hindered my ability to go fishing.
Having the ability to go fishing because it makes me happy is the primary civil purpose of the U.S. Constitution. If it weren't for this cherished civil concern in our Constitution, then we could just trash it, change it or use it for toilet paper. Instead, we as Americans would be better off going to war because, as has become our culture, it is better to be dead than to be an unhappy American.
Here is my cool boat that I like to go fishing in. It is a ten foot porta-bote built in the USA and cool as all get out!. As it will folds up to look a lot like a surfboard, it sits 3 and will plane out at 20 MPH with only a 5 horse power Nissan! Here is the kind of boat I have below:
http://www.porta-bote.com/
In their pursuit of happiness, some Americans might not desire the 5 hp Nissan I have but the new powerful Yamaha 350 like the one posted here:
http://www.nauticamarine.com/event.php?event=14

[Number19]

Could we have another branch of government that checks all proposed bills, like the supreme court, but before they are voted on?Costa Rica has controls on their government of this nature.

[Number19]

Government shall not classify citizens, either by race, creed, class, denomination, physical attribute, or by any other qualification or singularity. All legal citizens of these United States are now and forevermore free individuals, sovereign entities protected from harm foreign and domestic by their appointed government but especially from their appointed government.Excellant - you show a good sense of constitutionality.

[Number19]

...Secession. This issue is so huge, I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed before. Heck, we fought a civil war over this! The constitution sets out criteria for joining the United States; it makes no mention of leaving the union. This really needs to be addressed: people should be free to have the choice to leave the union without violence, preferably by popular vote of the state (Hawaii would be the first to go). Also covered should be the splitting up of states (like Texas or California), merging (Dakotas), and eviction or kicking out of a state by the rest of the country (which may happen to California eventually)...Another excellant point that shows an understanding of constitutional requirement.

[Number19]

Ok, I've only read the first page of this and I'm already disgusted. All the suggestions are to "outlaw" this or that and most of that having to do with voting procedures, campaign finance law, etc...
Do you folks really believe that is what the constitution is there for? The amendment process wasn't put in place so we could outlaw shit. The amendment process was put in place so that the rights of the people could be protected and rights that were previously overlooked and getting stepped on (such as the right of women to vote) could be enshrined in that document.
The one and only time an amendment was added to "outlaw" something, it failed miserably and had to be rescinded. All the suggestions I'm seeing are anti-constitution.

The only amendment I would personally offer would be to see our nation go to a parliamentary process so that there would be more voices from more directions in our legislature.There are a few posters here who seem to have an understanding of constitutionality.

[angelatc]

1) There should be an amendment that outlaws all forms of torture, both foreign and domestic. This would immediately clear up all the BS floating around in the news today.

2) Electronics in the voting process needs to be outlawed. The includes diebold touchscreens as well as electronic scanners.

3) Political parties should be outlawed or somehow put on a level playing field with individuals.

With these three amendments 90% of all the shenanigans could be wiped out overnight.

I would like to see the 17th Amendment overturned. That would end the silly debates over term limits. Every time the governor changed, the Senator would change too. I'd take cronyism over lobbyists any day.

I would like to see the duties of the Supreme Court restricted and clearly defined. I would like to see the number of Justices firmly set, too.

I would not permit any type of secret court.

All government records would become public record after 20 years.

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

There are a few posters here who seem to have an understanding of constitutionality.

As legal business in courtrooms is divided up into criminal and civil proceedings, the legal interpretation in the U.S. Constitution is divided up into laws concerning the relationship between the state and individual civil rights. Therefore, we can divide the Constitution into two different kinds of interpretation:

1) First, we can either use right and wrong to interpret the Constitution in legal terms so that a little more than half of us, the majority, can bring a little less than half of us, the minority, to an unhappy justice; or,

2) We can use compromise to interpret the Constitution in civil terms in regards to our collective happiness as a nation.

Using the first point of view to interprete the Constitution has created a social disease in our nation called Injudicialism -- the point in which a nation erodes from its primary civil purpose of collective happiness to that of a legal system of law makers, courtrooms, lawyers and police officers.

Unfortunately, as more legal cases take place in such an Injudicial system, it needs even more law makers, courtrooms, lawyers and police officers to grow and function. Eventually the nation's economy becomes a shambles because of high taxes while its legal system becomes criminalized to the point that no amount of prisons can house the millions of prisoners produced.

So, as an Injudicialized nation produces law makers, courtrooms, lawyers and police officers as its offspring, countless prisoners in prisons become its waste byproduct. This system will ultimately lead to civil war in the United States because of our shared Amercian culture to be better off dead than unhappy.

The second point of view used to interpret the Constitution entails that citizens be responsible. In such a responsible society, its people develop a common culture through the use of civil compromise rather than legal bickering. This compromising is necessary in the quest to keep our collective civil right, the happiness of every U.S. citizen, in favor of the Injudicialized system our nation has eroded to today.

As Ron Paul supporters, we are a movement. The media has clearly missed this phenomenon because, well, they have had a clear agenda to ignore him outright while as his supporters we are not defined in the same typical political campaigns of "leftest and rightwingers" or "liberals and conservatives." Much to the contrary, Ron Paul supporters are sophisticated in that we represent the full range of both ends of the political sprectrum.

Reconizing the greatness of what it is to be an American citizen as defined in the U.S. Constitution is what makes us cheer together as uncommon supporters of Ron Paul. Even the naive media itself has had to admit that he represents a clear portal into what is the civil purpose of our Constitution -- our collective happiness as American citizens.

[tangent4ronpaul]

blimp!!!!


This is an important thread!

-n

[Fox McCloud]

Amendment XXVIII: The Constitution shall not be construed as to allow for the creation of a Centralized banking system, nor any of its extensions, and subsidiaries. It should be dually recognized that the Gold Standard, defined as 1/20th an ounce of gold per dollar, be necessary and proper to protect the people and keep within sound government

This would end the Fed instantly, and greatly limit spending (it'd force a balanced budget).

Amendment XXVIV: In order to preserve properly preserve access to reliable news media, and with the intention of creating competition, it is necessary that the FCC and it's subsidiaries be abolished. Following abolishment, all Spectrum is to be auctioned off or appropriated to corporations, agencies, and organizations. All spectrum is to be recognized, by the government and individuals, as private property.

Amendment XXX: A strict interpretation of the Constitution is to be required to preserve the Liberty and Freedoms of the people--Any public entity or officeholder involved in distorting, damaging, or amending the Constitution so as to create conflict, is to be punished, and the damage undone.

Amendment XXXI: Follow the Constitution, STUPID!


Here's an Amendment we will never see, but hey...if we suddenly had a whole bunch of people following the philosophy of liberty...maybe one day we can establish an Anarcho-Capitalist society (won't ever happen, and I don't really support the idea...but hey, it's just an idea).

Amendment CCXVII: In keeping with the philosophy of Liberty and Freedom, it is deemed necessary to abolish the State, and all forms of government, in accordance with establishing a Maximum Effective Free Market mechanism, and Maximum Effective Civil Liberty mechanism.

[american.swan]

I propose an amendment that all adults over 18 CAN vote, and all land owning adults MUST vote.

I propose an amendment that all citizens must be provided with independently researched candidate voting records and ethics violation information and civil rights information.

I propose that primary elections are state wide holidays and national election days are nationwide holidays.

I propose that before voting each voter must say a pledge that they take responsibility for any fascist activity that their candidate performs while in office and that they pledge to vote the person(s) out of office as a result of such acts.

I propose that the first ten amendments be removed from the constitution, because it is "ink on paper" and therefore currently doesn't protect us.

[satchelmcqueen]

Couldnt read them all but....


1 the electorial colledge will be done away with in a presidential election.

1.2 the delegates will be done away with in a presidential election.

2 There will be 2 popular votes to determine the President every 4 years. One in Feburary to narrow the field to 6 candidates, and a final vote in November to detremine the winner.

3 All news outlets (paper and media, video) will be held accountable under the penalty of fines for each infraction of biased reporting and or supporting any one candidate. All new outlets must give equal coverage to all candidates after the first Feburary popular vote.

[satchelmcqueen]

And....

3... Each of the 2 popular votes in Feb and Nov must last for 1 week...Sunday at 12:00am to Saturday 12:00pm to ensure that all people get a chance to vote so as not to interfer with their work schedule.

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

Posted below are some lyrics by Supertramp from their "Crime of the Century" album that go like this:


Maybe I'm mistaken expecting you to fight
Or maybe I'm just crazy
I don't know wrong from right
But while I am still living
I've just got this to say
It is always up to you
If you want to be that
Want to see that
Want to be
That way

The profound wisdom of this song can be used to describe a similar living situation we have in the United States today where we irresponsibly choose to be gratified by a perpetual legal system -- a system that is fueled by hatred while it, in turn, produces and fuels hatred. Instead of us choosing to deal with our collective culture as Americans, a contentment we acheive through a collective effort of discipline and compromise, we choose instead a quick fix acheived through the gratification of legal conflict.

We arrive at this cruel legal system by dividing ourselves up into a "right" party, whether it be "conservative" or "liberal," so that we can shirk all responsibility by blaming all our problems on the other "wrong" party. In order to create such a system today, we have had to create an incredibly massive and expensive network of law makers, courtrooms, lawyers and police officers. As we know full well today, for us to live in this legal money-pit requires further employment of even more law makers, courtrooms, lawyers and police officers (not to mention the countless numbers of prisons that we have had to build to house these endless numbers of prisoners created by our viscious cycle of criminalization.

So, as responsible American citizens, the choices we choose are up to us. We can either choose to interpret the Constitution in terms of our civil happiness, one which is acheived through our collective effort to compromise in order to find a common American culture -- beyond party and political lines; or, we can choose to continue to interpret the Constitution in legal terms while continuing to live in the cruel legal system such an unwise decision has produced.

Please note that the argument above isn't being made with the purpose of doing away with the 2 party system in the United States; but, rather, the argument is being made with the purpose of solidifying the sovereignty of the U.S. Constitution by holding its civil intent in regards to "the pursuit of happiness" as the primary purpose over any legal interpretations one might make in regards to the document being right or wrong.

[Fox McCloud]

1 the electorial colledge will be done away with in a presidential election.

1.2 the delegates will be done away with in a presidential election.

2 There will be 2 popular votes to determine the President every 4 years. One in Feburary to narrow the field to 6 candidates, and a final vote in November to detremine the winner.

Totally unconstitutional...the founders put the electoral college in the Constitution to protect liberty---going to a direct democracy system would only undermine it further (besides, Democracies are the worst form of government).


3 All news outlets (paper and media, video) will be held accountable under the penalty of fines for each infraction of biased reporting and or supporting any one candidate. All new outlets must give equal coverage to all candidates after the first Feburary popular vote.

Not really Constitutional, since you're regulating the media ;) The end problem, as I said earlier is the FCC.

[Truth-Bringer]

4) Knowingly authoring, or being involved in the authoring of a law that is unconstitutional

or committing a felony or violating one's oath of office in any way will result in life imprisonment.

[Truth-Bringer]

No future amendment may be enacted that deprives any individual of unalienable rights, personally or economically.

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

or committing a felony or violating one's oath of office in any way will result in life imprisonment.

The Whig party was started because of the powers the Administration had gained relative to the powers of Congress during that time. When a Whig party President won election, they served philosophically with the idea that their position should be submissive to the Legislative branch of the Government.
Our Executive branch today has once again grown too powerful. It has grown powerful because of our own irresponsibility. We have become addicts who desire to have the Federal Government tell us what we want to hear. What we want to hear from them is that we will continue giving us our fix of free money at the expense of the livlihood of our grandchildren.
This is why our grandchildren feint when listening to Obama. They are looking for a miracle worker who will save them from being enslaved to the massive pit of debt we plan on leaving them.
In regards to anything concerning the Federal Goverment? Who cares? Isn't it about time we quit doing so? Just consider that a President should be held to such a high standard that he or she should be shot when committing just a misdemeanor against the sovereignty of the U.S. Constitituon. And yes, this would include lying about walking around the White House with ones penis hanging out while later claiming that oral sex isn't sex.
So, giving the President a life sentence for committing felonies does little more than pay a bunch of lawyers a lot of money to do nothing. Especially when you consider the next tyrant to take over the Presidency can just forgive his or her actions.
Tyrant you say? Well, Thomas Jefferson basically called George Washington a tyrant. We need to realize that tyrants are the nicest people in the world. They are well mannered gentlemen and ladies who delegate out cruelty over us because they operate and live long distances from us. They are insulated from the unhappiness we suffer.

[fx57]

How's this one...

Congress shall pass no law which regulates commerce within a state.

That should wipe the majority of the bad federal laws off the books, since they seem to be based off loose interpretation of the commerce clause. This includes drug laws, legal tender laws, the Fed, gun laws, etc.

It would clarify the commerce clause back to its original intent.

Here http://www.fff.org/freedom/0895g.asp they propose repealing the commerce clause completely:

Congress and the states shall make no law interfering with production and commerce, foreign or domestic.

[TastyWheat]

I can't put it into the right words, but we (the people) need a way to get the Supreme Court more involved. The Constitution is being spat on every day and they're using none of their power to stop it. Once they call something unconstitutional that's it, final word.

[Banana]

Erm, are you sure of that?

Judicial activism?

[acptulsa]

Amend the Twelfth Amendment so a presidential race in which the top candidate does not get 50%+1 of the electoral vote does not throw it into the House of Representatives.

[Ronin Truth]

Tough to beat TJ.



"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution - taking from the federal government their power of borrowing." -- Thomas Jefferson

[Chaotic Neutral]

I would favor an amendment that required an orderly transition from coordinated fractional reserve to 100% reserve and a reestablishment of some sort of metallic standard.

Once converted over, the amendment would abolish blanket government insurance guarantees of deposits and would prohibit government from suspending specie redemption requirements and would prohibit the emission of unbacked notes.

[AZJoe]

Amendment to Repeal the Constitution.

[Ender]

Amendment to Repeal the Constitution.

Back to the Articles of Confederation.

[acptulsa]

I'm ready to make it unconstitutional to do any polls about elections. Outlaw all election polls but the election itself.

Let's eliminate any way to know who's winning the 'horse race' and stop distracting ourselves from the candidates and issues.

[Jerry C]

1. Eliminate the Federal Reserve and outlaw the use of central banks.

2. Repeal the 16th amendment, abolish the IRS and have all federal taxes apportioned as was originally written in the constitution.

3. Nullify all executive orders and outlaw the use of any further executive orders.

4. All federal, state and local elections must have a verifiable paper trail.

5. Outlaw Gerrymandering

6. Nullify all federal and state laws requiring vaccination or any other medical procedure.

7. All proposed bills must be read aloud, in full before voting on the bill and any member of congress that leaves during this forfeits their vote on the bill.

8. All legal tender must be backed by gold, silver or other precious metal.

9. Nullify all election laws restricting third parties and third party and independent candidates.

[osan]

Amendment Zero: The whole of the people shall be passed a pistol and all issues settled thereby.

[Sonny Tufts]

2. Repeal the 16th amendment, abolish the IRS and have all federal taxes apportioned as was originally written in the constitution.

The only taxes the Constitution has ever required to be apportioned are direct taxes, which are limited to capitations and property taxes. Repealing the 16th won't help, since the taxing authority comes from I.8.1.

[Weston White]

The only taxes the Constitution has ever required to be apportioned are direct taxes, which are limited to capitations and property taxes. Repealing the 16th won't help, since the taxing authority comes from I.8.1.

Amend. 16th is perfectly fine just they way it is at present. It is only that its intended context has been misstated by many decades of continued IRS propaganda--and a Congress filled with pedophiles and/or that are concerned islands under too much weight tip over and/or who believe Mars is closer to the Sun than our Earth.

Abolishing the IRS certainly would help in setting constitutional taxation back onto the correct path within America--Amend. 16 taxes income as a gain or profit (e.g., increase in personal or professional financial wealth), but not financial capital as an equal conversion, exchange, or quid pro quo.

[Jesse James]

Abolish the American government

[GunnyFreedom]

Violation of the Oath of Office by the introduction or promotion of anti-constitutional legislation or regulation shall be a felony constituting a class of treason, with the severity of the punishment concordant with the severity of the offense, from the minimum felony count in the jurisdiction wherein the case is tried, up to capital punishment by public hanging. Guilt and punishment to be decided by 3/4 vote of a 144 member empaneled grand jury.

[mrsat_98]

Acknowledgement of TONA Title of nobility amendment.

[Weston White]

Violation of the Oath of Office by the introduction or promotion of anti-constitutional legislation or regulation shall be a felony constituting a class of treason, with the severity of the punishment concordant with the severity of the offense, from the minimum felony count in the jurisdiction wherein the case is tried, up to capital punishment by public hanging. Guilt and punishment to be decided by 3/4 vote of a 144 member empaneled grand jury.

Nice, would only add that since America is a democracy, it should only require a quorum. :D

[Sonny Tufts]

Violation of the Oath of Office by the introduction or promotion of anti-constitutional legislation or regulation shall be a felony constituting a class of treason, with the severity of the punishment concordant with the severity of the offense, from the minimum felony count in the jurisdiction wherein the case is tried, up to capital punishment by public hanging. Guilt and punishment to be decided by 3/4 vote of a 144 member empaneled grand jury.

Will this grand jury (whose members may have no legal training whatsoever) also decide whether the legislation was unconstitutional?

Regardless of who decides that issue this smacks of the old system of common law crimes, under which someone could be punished for doing or failing to do something at a time when he could not possibly have known that his action or inaction was illegal. Not all constitutional issues are clear cut, and reasonable minds can differ on whether a particular piece of legislation is constitutional. No one in his right mind would ever agree to serve as a legislator under such a system. If a legislator introduces a bill to codify a state's law of defamation but neglects to include a different standard for public figures (see New York Times v. Sullivan), is he to be jailed?

Incidentally, if the bill is never passed, who would ever have standing to complain that someone introduced it? You're getting very close to criminalizing thoughts.

[Weston White]

Will this grand jury (whose members may have no legal training whatsoever) also decide whether the legislation was unconstitutional?

Regardless of who decides that issue this smacks of the old system of common law crimes, under which someone could be punished for doing or failing to do something at a time when he could not possibly have known that his action or inaction was illegal. Not all constitutional issues are clear cut, and reasonable minds can differ on whether a particular piece of legislation is constitutional. No one in his right mind would ever agree to serve as a legislator under such a system. If a legislator introduces a bill to codify a state's law of defamation but neglects to include a different standard for public figures (see New York Times v. Sullivan), is he to be jailed?

Incidentally, if the bill is never passed, who would ever have standing to complain that someone introduced it? You're getting very close to criminalizing thoughts.

My thoughts:

Seems pretty clear cut to me, grab a copy of the U.S. Constitution and determine the corresponding enumerated power; oh what is that cannot find one, then move for a commission to discuss the necessity of adding a new amendment to provide said enumerated power, otherwise consider the matter resolved.

Libel and slander are matters for the states to contend with, not a federal matter, so it is outside the context of this discussion. In any case, the public figure exception was born in common law anyway; therefore, there is no reason why the same would not apply under this proposal.

As to the bill never passing as stated in context of the proposal: "the severity of the punishment concordant with the severity of the offense"

El perfecto.

[Seraphim]

1. Eliminate the Federal Reserve and outlaw the use of central banks.

2. Repeal the 16th amendment, abolish the IRS and have all federal taxes apportioned as was originally written in the constitution.

3. Nullify all executive orders and outlaw the use of any further executive orders.

4. All federal, state and local elections must have a verifiable paper trail.

5. Outlaw Gerrymandering

6. Nullify all federal and state laws requiring vaccination or any other medical procedure.

7. All proposed bills must be read aloud, in full before voting on the bill and any member of congress that leaves during this forfeits their vote on the bill.

8. All legal tender must be backed by gold, silver or other precious metal.

9. Nullify all election laws restricting third parties and third party and independent candidates.

Now we're talking :D!

[Jesse James]

Abolish the American government

:D:D