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Georgia, Tom Coburn Call for Constitutional Convention
Slate ^ | 2/6/14 | Dave Weigel

Posted on 02/07/2014 9:04:18 AM PST by taildragger

Two months ago, Emma Roller and I wrote about the possibly historic Assembly of the States in Mount Vernon. Momentum had been building oh-so-slowly on the right for a new, state-led constitutional convention, which could pass amendments far quicker than the Congress could. (And no one sees a scenario, any time soon, where there'll be 67 conservative votes in the Senate to pass amendments.) The reaction: Largely just a lot of doubt that this would come to anything.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government
KEYWORDS: 17th; article5; corburn; levin; statesrights
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To: JRandomFreeper
"It goes back to the states for ratification, the same as any other amendment. You need to do some research. /johnny"

Who says it would have to go back to the States? Many state legislatures could provide that their delegate to the convention has authority to vote on behalf of the legislature for any amendment proposed by 2/3's of the state delegates to the convention. If the numbers worked out right amendments could be proposed, accepted, voted on and ratified, within an hour's time.

61 posted on 02/07/2014 10:30:06 AM PST by circlecity
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To: JRandomFreeper
"The convention of states can only propose amendments. It doesn't pass them. The amendments go to the states, like any other amendment would do. /johnny"

Not if the legislature gave its delegate to the convention the power to vote for the acceptance of any amendment proposed at the convention by 2/3rds of the states.

62 posted on 02/07/2014 10:31:49 AM PST by circlecity
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To: circlecity
'shall call a convention for proposing amendments'

/johnny

63 posted on 02/07/2014 10:31:50 AM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: familyop

Politicians of every stripe love power.

Given that maxim, plus our national decline, I find it amazing that state legislators didn’t clamor long ago to reassert themselves in the senate.

It is time. Article V.


64 posted on 02/07/2014 10:33:43 AM PST by Jacquerie (Democrats soil instituitions.)
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To: Triple; circlecity
I think it is our best chance to avoid a 40 slump into socialism/tyranny.

At some point, probably shortly after the next assembly of states this coming June, there will a coordinated old media attack on our efforts.

Good. Bring it on. Let's debate America's first principles instead of Sandra Fluke's groin. We'll win that debate.

65 posted on 02/07/2014 10:39:16 AM PST by Jacquerie (Democrats soil institutions.)
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To: circlecity

Once again, I have to tell you that you are seriously off the rails. None of your concerns are remotely connected with reality.

Here’s one piece of reality for you to chew on: the ratification of amendments proposed by the Article V Convention ARE NOT RATIFIED BY THE CONVENTION.

Each State must vote on each amendment separately to the convention, either in the state legislatures or in special state ratifying conventions - but still state by state.


66 posted on 02/07/2014 10:41:06 AM PST by John Valentine (Deep in the Heart of Texas)
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To: circlecity
Not if the legislature gave its delegate to the convention the power to vote for the acceptance of any amendment proposed at the convention by 2/3rds of the states.

This can only be described as a lie. The process does not, cannot, and will not ever work that way. Are you on drugs?

67 posted on 02/07/2014 10:43:11 AM PST by John Valentine (Deep in the Heart of Texas)
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To: circlecity
Article V provides two ways to amend the constitution.

The danger from a runaway state initiated amendment convention is also present in runaway congressionally sponsored amendments. Neither has happened.

OTOH, do we not have a runaway, consolidated government in DC?

68 posted on 02/07/2014 10:43:30 AM PST by Jacquerie (Democrats soil institutions.)
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To: John Valentine
"Each State must vote on each amendment separately to the convention, either in the state legislatures or in special state ratifying conventions - but still state by state."

And nothing would prevent any given state legislature from giving authoriy to its delegate to the convention to vote on ratifying any proposed amendment that got the go ahead by 2/3's of the states. Nothing. It could all be done in an hour.

69 posted on 02/07/2014 10:43:34 AM PST by circlecity
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To: John Valentine
The low-information conservatives will always be with us. I don't know how many times I had to explain SC run-off elections to low-information freepers that freaked out because Graham had so many conservatives running against him.

/johnny

70 posted on 02/07/2014 10:44:33 AM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: circlecity
And nothing would prevent any given state legislature from giving authoriy to its delegate to the convention to vote on ratifying any proposed amendment that got the go ahead by 2/3's of the states. Nothing. It could all be done in an hour.

ON this notion, you are so utterly, profoundly, and irredeemably wrong, that I have to wonder about you. Humans are not normally capable of such obtuse wrong-headedness.

71 posted on 02/07/2014 10:47:35 AM PST by John Valentine (Deep in the Heart of Texas)
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To: circlecity
"This can only be described as a lie. The process does not, cannot, and will not ever work that way."

Why not? Where's the constitutional provision to prevent this from happening? Please enlighten me.

72 posted on 02/07/2014 10:47:36 AM PST by circlecity
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To: John Valentine
"ON this notion, you are so utterly, profoundly, and irredeemably wrong,"

Why? because you said so? You certainly have not been able to articulate a reason why this couldn't happen. I'm still waiting.

73 posted on 02/07/2014 10:48:41 AM PST by circlecity
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To: JRandomFreeper; gopno1; Hostage
It appears that too many are working too hard at big government spending on state and local levels. Maybe the current generous economic activity is too much for them. They should take some breaks, tone it down.

America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the/print

The Fragmenting of the New Class Elites, or, Downward Mobility
http://volokh.com/2011/10/31/the-fragmenting-of-the-new-class-elites-or-downward-mobility/

Environmentalism and the Leisure Class
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2835601/posts

The New Upper Class and the Real Reason We Dislike Them
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2843575/posts

Are you a member of the political class?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/are_you_a_member_of_the_politi.html

Downton’s Class System — and Ours: We have a ruling class that despises the free market and does...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3024119/posts


74 posted on 02/07/2014 10:50:58 AM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: circlecity
And nothing would prevent any given state legislature from giving authoriy to its delegate to the convention to vote on ratifying any proposed amendment that got the go ahead by 2/3's of the states. Nothing. It could all be done in an hour.

Let me answer you in this way: yes, a state could authorize it's delegate to do nearly anything it wanted to, but a vote to ratify even if offered at an Article V Convention would be utterly without effect since an Article V Convention has NO POWER to ratify Amendments. None. It can only PROPOSE them; to be ratified they must be acted upon by each of the States, individually.

Let's try to scale back the nonsense, OK.

75 posted on 02/07/2014 10:53:22 AM PST by John Valentine (Deep in the Heart of Texas)
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Folks, take another look at that "police state." Who's going to the wrong addresses? Who's getting away with various kinds of assaults? Who is doing the illegal snooping on you?

The locals!

Who passed all of those commie regulations against building your own home, producing a few items in your own shop and against other healthy endeavors?

That's right! The local commies. And they won't stop sucking huge on federal funds. They're only wanting to control those federal funds more in order to...you got it! Funnel more of them into their state and local governments.


76 posted on 02/07/2014 10:58:52 AM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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And who pandered to those local gossips to put so many hard working men out of business and increase the obesity of your state and local governments? Both local parties! That's right!

How Dramatically Did Women's Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?

JOHN R. LOTT Jr.
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) (download links for whole document at bottom of page)

September 1998

University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 60
Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 107, Number 6, Part 1, pp. 1163-1198, December 1999

Abstract:
This paper examines the growth of government during this century as a result of giving women the right to vote. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 1870 to 1940, we examine state government expenditures and revenue as well as voting by U.S. House and Senate state delegations and the passage of a wide range of different state laws. Suffrage coincided with immediate increases in state government expenditures and revenue and more liberal voting patterns for federal representatives, and these effects continued growing over time as more women took advantage of the franchise. Contrary to many recent suggestions, the gender gap is not something that has arisen since the 1970s, and it helps explain why American government started growing when it did.


77 posted on 02/07/2014 11:02:21 AM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: John Valentine
"but a vote to ratify even if offered at an Article V Convention would be utterly without effect since an Article V Convention has NO POWER to ratify Amendments."

It wouldn't be the "convention" voting to ratify it would be the state delegates that had authority to do so voting to ratify. The constitution says nothing about where or when the ratification vote has to take place. If enough state delegates (3/4 of all states) with the legislative authority to do so voted to ratify the amendments just minutes after they were approved by 2/3 of the State delegates then it would be a legitimate state ratification. Nothing in the constitution would prohibit this.

78 posted on 02/07/2014 11:03:40 AM PST by circlecity
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And what fuels the little bandwagons of personal insults on political discussion boards (e.g., the Giuliani debacle)? Yes! Local hysteria! It's everywhere!

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Hysteria \Hys*te"ri*a\, n. [NL.: cf. F. hyst['e]rie. See
     Hysteric.] (Med.)
     A nervous affection, occurring almost exclusively in women,
     in which the emotional and reflex excitability is
     exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished,
     so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes
     the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into
     paroxism or fits.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The chief symptoms are convulsive, tossing movements of
           the limbs and head, uncontrollable crying and laughing,
           and a choking sensation as if a ball were lodged in the
           throat. The affection presents the most varied
           symptoms, often simulating those of the gravest
           diseases, but generally curable by mental treatment
           alone. Hysteric





79 posted on 02/07/2014 11:05:19 AM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: circlecity
And what did it get us? The most liberal and anti-conservative Republican Speaker and House leadership ever. Again, be careful what you wish for.

What is your solution reverse Police State America 2014?

80 posted on 02/07/2014 11:05:48 AM PST by Jacquerie (Democrats soil institutions.)
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