Constitution

The 10th amendment of the Constitution states:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

And yet, we see congressional members inserting into bills all kinds of projects that benefit only their own state and often only a single town in their state.

Poor Richard's Rule of Pork is:

"If the Constitution does not require a spending item to be engaged in by the federal government and the state is not prohibited from engaging in that spending item, that spending item MUST be engaged in by the state or not at all." Or, to simply it: "If the State is permitted to do it, the Federal government should not be involved."

Obviously, a museum in Anywhere, USA is not required to be created by federal spending nor is it prohibited by the state from creating it on its own. If the ...

In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled that "Freedom of Expression" is covered by the first amendment to the constitution which reads as follows.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Obviously, the word "expression" does not appear here. Further, the entire Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10) was meant solely as protection of individuals from the abuses of government. However, the only reason that government exists in a free society is to protect people from the behaviors of bad individuals.

The founding fathers would never have allowed pornography as a "right" under the 1st amendment. Pornography has nothing whatsoever to do government. They would have rightfully prosecuted pornography ...

Its time that the corrupt politicians in Washington, DC be bypassed so that the People can amend the constitution without the interference of politicians influenced by special interests. I would propose an additional manner to amend the constitution as follows:

1) Petitions must be signed (this could also be done via the Internet and other verifiable manners) amounting to a specified percentage of the population (say 5%) supporting the amendment to get the amendment on a ballot.

2) If successful, the amendment would require a 2/3 majority in the next election.

3) If successful, the normal 3/4s of the states would then be required to ratify the amendment within a stated time frame (say 5 years).

So, if we want term limits, we can get it. If we want English as the national language, we can get it. If we want a line item veto for the President, we can get it.

Note that the above process simply allows a 2/3 vote of ...