I have Jefferson's Parliamentary Manual before me. (I have an old set of Jefferson's complete works) In it, he carefully delineates both the rights and the obligations of Representatives and Senators. When you read this, you realize that they were supposed to work, not delegate everything to minions then sit in state and vote by rote.

DownsizeDC.org sent me a request to urge my alleged representatives to support the "Read the Bills Act." As readers of my column may have noticed already, I'm tired of pussyfooting around with this criminal gang. I call it the way I see it. Just thought you might enjoy reading my thoughts.

By the way, I've printed out and read the entire bill, and if passed, it would not only eliminate a lot of lousy legislation of the past, but would ensure that all bills be brief and to the point. There is another movement afoot to legislate that all bills be single purpose. That would effectively bar the current practice of adding billions of pork to "must pass" budget and social legislation.

The Read the Bills Act merely restores what the original duty of Congress was. Somewhere along the line, as I understand it, the House and Senate yawned and unanimously voted that they no longer had to read any of these boring, convoluted bills prepared by staff and lobbyists, but merely needed the title read and a vote taken. I presume this included periodically yawning and voting for another end of session tax supported pay increase for the August Body.

Two things are needed to perhaps reform the functions of Congress.

1. All bills and legislation is to be single purposed. A bill addresses an issue and only that issue. Any amendments have to be directly addressing that issue. No pork, no side issues, and especially, no riders. All bills must be published and the discussions open to scrutiny. All votes to be by roll call so the constituents will know who supported or opposed what.

2. The Read the Bills Act, which ensures that all legislators be present at the reading of bills and that all discussions be open, and that all legislators certify that they have read and understood the bill before them including any amendments. Before they can bring it to a vote.

Number one, above, will make bills more concise, and will eliminate the custom of putting expensive pork or special interest giveaways in so called "must pass" legislation.

Number two will ensure that there will be no more "Gone With the Wind" sized bills introduced and voted on, unread by anybody but staff and lobbyists.

If we keep working on this, perhaps we can clean up the cesspool known as Washington D.C. Here's my letter, below:

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Congress needs to start reading the laws it passes. Please introduce DownsizeDC.org's "Read the Bills Act." I know you have the power to introduce this legislation on your own, without waiting for anyone else. I urge you to do so. This is a much-needed, common sense reform. I can see no justification for not introducing it. I'm telling my friends about it, and I look forward to hearing that you've introduced it. You can find the text of the legislation here: http://www.downsizedc.org/rtba_legislation.shtml

My personal comment to you:

We realize this is a revolutionary idea, that a legislator should read, discuss and understand the bills he or she is going to vote on, but it is a good idea.

How many of you would have voted for the mis-named Patriot Act, had you actually read it? How many of you would have voted for it if you had actually read and understood the Constitution of the United States and its first ten amendments, commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights?

Remember the oath you take at the start of each session? To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

The three greatest threats to the Constitution of the United States today are the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial Branches of the United States Government.

All of the things that We the People have worked for, fought for, and died for, are being systematically destroyed because you people neglect that oath of office and trample upon the Constitution every day! You do it in the name of expediency, in the name of pork, of illicit power, and to pay off political debts to your wealthy supporters.

You do it by submitting bills that are hundreds of pages long, filled with amendments and addendums, unread by anybody, discussed for a few minutes in the abstract, then voted upon by a bare quorum at late Friday night or before long weekend sessions, so nobody is aware of what has been done to them until it is far too late.

Start turning this around. Read, then support the "Read the Bills Act." Pass it, and then start paying attention to the legislation you are asked to pass. Make it short and concise, discuss it well with the well-being of the nation in mind before you vote. Then vote for the good of We the People and the United States, not your private agendas.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this letter, and urge you to contact your representatives with the same or something similar. (Click here to do so online).  Frankly, I think these self-serving bastards are much like Al Capp's General Bullmoose. "What's good for General Bullmoose is good for everybody!" Even when it ain't.

Well, we'll see what happens, I guess.

Pax vobiscum,

Steve Osborn

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey that no one can take for us, or spare us."
-Marcel Proust

In a previous article, The Immorality of the Iraqi War, I spoke of four Linchpin basics required to yield a healthy and moral Society.  Those four were the  " Rule of Law", "Financial Viability", "Guaranteed Rights of Redress" and "Morality and Fidelity of our Government".  Those four basics must be maintained by equal checks and balances, much as our great Constitution was designed to provide checks and balances. 

The rationale was that if one of the three Governing bodies (The Executive, The Senate, and the House) tried to usurp the role of another, those checks and balances would be buffers to intercept and block the runaway Governing body, bringing it back into compliance with the Constitution.  And those framers, with great wisdom, placed a fourth body to rule on the constitutionality and the application of Laws arising from the Governing bodies, The Judicial body has as its purpose the charge to interpret and rule on the what is constitutional and what is not constitutional.  They are not to make law.  Therefore, this body is there to provide checks and balances to our rule of law.

So what is currently the most egregious problem with our Government?  I submit that the most potentially damaging problem we have today is the failure of our elected officials to observe the Rule of Law  - our Constitution - especially our Federal Government officials who took an oath to uphold that Constitution and apply it in their governance.  The current Executive, the Bush Administration, has promoted a movement away from the framework of our rule of law, such that this Executive, swelled with the success it has had in snubbing the law, is now emboldened enough to begin thinking of making inconsequential the Congress and the Supreme Court.  In other words the Bush Bunch is flirting with freeing their governance from - the rule of law.  They proclaim that to properly protect the people, they must not be constrained by  - - law!

As a result, we are more and more being governed by fewer and fewer people.  In fact we are perilously, if not already, past the point of no return, to becoming an Oligarchy.  There are two governing agents in our United States:  Those that we elect, and those who hold influence over those that we elect - A "Shadow Government", one that has great influence in policymaking and Governance, over every part of our daily lives.  This Group provides Lobbyists to influence our elected representatives, spreading money, power and influence, as bribes to provide favor for the agenda of the few.

Well, if the problem is a drifting away from the Governing structure put forward by our Founding fathers  - The Rule of Law, then what allows this to not only continue, but to expedite this failure of our system?  I submit that the cause is A.D.D., Attention Deficit Disorder, of the American Public.  We have become so "Party First" and "Spin Oriented," that truth has no place in our vocabulary.  Either we are in a state of denial, or we just don't realize what the truth is.

We the Citizens of America need to return to the rule of law.  Not just a law for the masses, no, we need to bring especially those we have elected into compliance with the Constitution - the law governing our government.  They were elected for this purpose! 

We definitely need to repeal the Patriot act, the MCA, and end the wars now.  Then, we need to "strike at the root".... look at HOW the politicians wage aggressive wars, and remove their power to do so in the future:  We must somehow get some veto-proof legislation in place that will forever bar Congress from abdicating their duty in times of war.  And there needs to be some legislation that will forever bar a President from "deciding" what non-constitutional actions will be exercised, and what constitutional actions will be ignored.

How are we going to do this?  First, we the people must strengthen our influence so that we can bring to heel the Republican or Democratic Party when they stray.  Both must be made inconsequential, or at least responsive.  This can be done by exercising your vote with thought.  Select a third party to start suppoting; the Populist Party is one that advocates a return to Constitutional Law, and works to place representatives in Government, beginning at the Local level and progressing to the National Level.  It will take some time.

Neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party is willing to toe the line.  It is not in their best interests to allow competition to grow and become strong.  That is why they have worked together to promote legislation to make it extremely difficult if not impossible for a third party to succeed.  Nevertheless, their stranglehold must be broken.  As I said, they won't do it, so the People of America must take the initiative.  We either must induce change or we must force change.  A change of direction back to the basics.

But this Linchpin "The Rule of Law" properly enforced on the powerful as well as the weak, the rich as well as the poor, all races and classes, equally on each, to each as a private citizen, restored to its solid foundation, will be accepted by the people when there is visual evidence that the law is applied fairly and equally.  When it becomes solidly entrenched, no would-be dictatorial president, senator, or congressman will be able to return to any office because the people will not allow it.

The key to taking back our country from the War mongers, the lobbyists, the immoral, is a resolve to see it through, a vision of a return to Constitutional Law, an urgency to return to what our country was founded on and what has made us the greatest Nation on Earth. 

There are those who would sacrifice our greatness for personal gain.  A group of those people now occupy our government.  Everyone knows about Eisenhower's statement concerning the Military-Industrial Complex, but he also made the following observation:

"America is great because America is good - and if America ever ceases to be good - America will cease to be great."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a speech in Boston, September 21, 1953.

America has ceased to be good.  Returning to the Constitution will bring us back.

by Cliff Carson [send him email], who is a freelance writer and Populist Party contributor.