You Could Start By Reading The Constitution

When is it that they stopped teaching American History in this country?

On the advice of the Alternative Hippo, I called the Pennacchio campaign to get Chuck's reaction to today's news that the Senate would not be inconveniencing Dear Leader by doing their job and providing a check to his ever-growing executive power.  Lucky for me, Chuck picked up the phone so I ended up getting an interview with the candidate.   It was short and sweet because when it comes to upholding the Constitution, Chuck doesn't need a lot of time to think about what's the right thing to do: (emph mine)

It's impossible to believe these people have even read the Constitution, let alone studied American history. The checking authority the Congress has is exercised through their specific Constitutional authority to pay the bills. If they believe a program is unconstitutional all they have to do is stop paying the bills. Conversely, interfering with the Chief Executive's sole authority to wage war is not Constitutional. But why bother adhering to the Constitution when a press conference and a little media face time might do?

Chuck Pennacchio:  I wouldn't get any floor time, but I'd be able to do a lot.  I'd put out a press release.  I'd hold a press conference.  I'd build coaliton (sic) of progressive folks in Congress to fight this.  I'd go back to constitutents (sic) to rally people around the cause.  I'd remind them that this  war is illegal and that the war resolution is unconstitituional (sic).

Geesh! I'm far from perfect, but can they even spell? So, another Dem wanna be wants to get between Chucky Schumer and the cameras, at least there's credit due for that. Via Levin at NRO

The necessary and proper clause does not empower Congress to seize explicit constitutional authority from the president. Congress has the specific authority to defund the NSA program or any aspect of the war on terrorism. There's no doubt about that. This is the ultimate power over war. But it does not have the authority to seize power from the executive branch to micromanage wartime decisions.

Some of these people are the very same individuals who still think FDR was the second coming, even though he was far more imperialistic than Bush has ever appeared and tried to unconstitutionally pack the Supreme Court.

On February 19, 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage to one of 10 internment camps—officially called "relocation centers"—in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas.

Two important legal cases were brought against the United States concerning the internment. The landmark cases were Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), and Korematsu v. United States (1944). The defendants argued their fifth amendment rights were violated by the U.S. government because of their ancestry. In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the U.S. government.

The great irony is that these people think they have some idea of what they're talking about. If it weren't for the MSM, no one would be paying attention to them at all. Constitution be damned! We want to have a press conference. I'm sure the White House press corps would be impressed.

Comments

[Paulo]

Absolutely brilliant!

In my very humblest opinion I am not altogether certain if there is an elected official who has any real perspective with what the United States Constitution espouses.

In fact I am so bleeping tired of the notion of "...it's unconstitutional" when those who are all puffed-up and high and mighty do not have a clue as to the contents, moreover, the meaning of the document.

The behavior of this leftist party is so abhorrent I find I don't care to listen or read any more of their rubbish.*

The only entity I can muster up that is remotely close to these lame-brains is of course, the White House press corps and the New York Times.

Paulo

* Rubbish--> Translated from Hellinistic Greek literally means "human excrement."

[Bullgator]

* Rubbish--> Translated from Koine Greek literally means "The New York Times."

[suzyqueue]

When is it that they stopped teaching American History in this country?

How about a simple 7th grade civics class? Or maybe a HS sophomore level poli-sci class?

[Paulo]

How about a simple 7th grade civics class? Or maybe a HS sophomore level poli-sci class?

Posted by: suzyqueue | Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 08:19 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey suzyqueue, Bullgator, et. al.,

I had a marvelous professor whilst in grad school. Dr. Golf, a human being that has forgotten more than I will ever know, stated to our class that he never reached a period in any of his classes through high school and 2nd year college study where he even got passed WWII.

Not to be misunderstood, what he meant as do so many others is that, the curriculum in the USA is structured in such a way that starting from Western Civilizations then each year thereafter trying to cover the 5 epochs (Eras) as well as World History and US History most grades and classes are usually interrupted at the Civil War.

Very little is ever covered regarding Civics anymore. Most of the normal schools offer Civics these days, yet, there exists a 98% fail percentile when a child (Elementary, Middle, High School) student is asked what comprises Congress? Imagine that only 2% actually stated both, the House and Senate!

To be fair however, there are some good districts out there that cut way back on their elective offerings to ensure the students could at least understand bill to law exercises.

Education is the USA is in dire straights and that I believe is putting it mildly. Several states are now only certifing teachers who hold advanced degrees in their respective fields. So someone please tell, or help me with this debachable. Get a Master's or PhD in History to teach disrespectful, arrogant, wannabe rappers, where the world has been and what if anything, the present generation has learned?

Until American parents come to the realization that the problem with their kid's learning is them (parents) then the government could literally continue to pour billions annually into education, however, to no avail.

Paulo

[shonane]

Only the US Congress has the authority to declare war.

[Phoenix]

Suzyqueue, Paulo,

I spent twenty years in high school public education and eight years in middle-school, elementary education. I can say unequivocable that having an MD or a PhD does not make a good teacher. The most useless courses on the planet are education courses. I have a PhD in useless 501 ED courses, and not one made me a better teacher. Passion and knowledge of your subject makes you a good teacher. With those two elements, the rest falls into place, including the most important 'discipline'. If you are a poor teacher, you will have discipline problems. Teenagers, for all their bad image, are the coolest, and if they specialize in one thing it's the Holden Caulfied genius for spotting a phony.

The problem with our high school system is that it tries to do too much. Example: 9th grade - Geography. 10th grade- world history. 11th grade - American history. 12th - Government. The school year is 180 days. Because of assemblies, field trips, snow days, bomb threats, a teacher is lucky to glean 165 days out of the 180 for actual teaching. The classroom time is 50 minutes. 6 of those minutes is used up in attendance and homework assignment. 44 minutes to teach. That 44 minutes can be interrupted by a variety of things: passing out papers, discussing homework, reviewing quiz results, sending a kid out who has been called to the office by a phone call on the teacher's desk, a call from the office on the teacher's phone to find out if a kid is in class, ....on and on. Then, if you have a rowdy class, you have to settle them down. With luck, you might manage 36 minutes of actual teaching the subject. With that, you have 99 hours to teach ALL of the world's history, or ALL of America's history, or ALL there is to know about our government.

When I first began teaching we had wonderful textbooks. I watched as the political correctness, multicultural, interdisciplinary eras came through and restructured the whole education system. I'll put it this way - kids haul their tomes around in bookbags on wheels because those books are so stuffed with the aforementioned crap that they weigh up to 12 pounds.

It's not the kids' fault, it's not the parents' fault, it's not the teachers' faults, it's not the government's fault. It is asking too much of a system that is burdened by the demands of the politically correct and by the pace of technological progress that we can barely keep up with as we struggle to incorporate it into our education system. Progress has a price. Picture the education system as The Red Queen running as fast as she can as the scenery passes her by.

The best answer as far as I am concerned is to have forced civil service for two years before any student is allowed to go on to college. And, yep, I think a branch of the military should be set up to manage it.

[suzyqueue]

Passion and knowledge of your subject makes you a good teacher.
Posted by: Phoenix | Sunday, February 19, 2006 at 08:04 PM

Phoenix - I could not agree with you more. I had the very good fortune to have a Civics teacher, with no advanced degrees, who not only kept our attention, but challenged us to engage in our subject - and we responded! I was only 12 at the time, but I can still remember how much I enjoyed the class and the teacher. I wish I could go back and thank her for what she gave to me; hopefully, she realized it by seeing a group of young kids excited to learn about what could be very dry material. Another incredible piece of my HS educational good fortune came about during my sophomore year. The HS I attended was associated with Univ. of WI, and our "social studies" class was taught by a team of young, bright, excited UW teachers. They each brought different knowledge to the course; they were able to build a context within which they could help us understand some US history, discuss current US and world events, and tie it all into a solid understanding of how the US government works - and why. The scope of the class was broad, but the real focus was very narrow; because of the unusual teaching method, the team was allowed to lead the students to that focal point in very creative ways.

These four teachers all shared the passion and knowledge that you mentioned - they loved teaching, and any of their students who were willing to listen and make the effort reaped huge rewards. At the time that I was in HS, "PC" was a term that hadn't even been coined yet. Fortunately, people were ignorant of the need to be PC and I was allowed to learn.

[Dan]

Only the US Congress has the authority to declare war.
Yay! Ten points. Now get to the part where only the Executive has the authority to wage it.

[Bill]

And if you want what I consider the best book on the US Constitution, of course, it's my own, it is available online in PDF form through the links at my site.

Too much discussion on the net is full of crap. 1) ONLY Congress may declare war and that is the full extent of the socalled war power. The proof lies in the next section of the Constitution wherein Congress is separately granted the power to suspend habeas corpus. The separate grant to suspend habeas corpus provides explicit evidence of the narrowness of the power to declare war. If it was a broad power, there would be no need to separately grant the power to suspend habeas corpus. 2) Congress, and only Congress is empowered to make the rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces (Article I, Section 8 - read it there). The President DOES NOT have the power to make the rules for the government and regulation of the armed forces. His sole authority is to be Commander in Chief and the President must follow Congress' rules. He is NOT the authoritarian, totalitarian head of the military. 3) The necessary and proper clause is NOT A GRANT at all. It is an expository statement that actually limits the powers of Congress to those laws that are both necessar and proper to carrying out the powers delegated by the Constitution to the federal government. Any law that is not both necessary and proper is not a valid law.

Government operated education in the US has always been about controlling the masses. Even those writing in response to this blog are brain-washed, including me. I hopefully awoke and learned a lot from the people who actually wrote the Constitution. Be cautious in what you read. Do like and and purchase original books from the late 1700s and early 1800s. There is constant revision on going and with the schools controlled by the government since the inception of public education, most of what many generations learned is bull.

IMO, 99% of the Supreme Court decisions are full of crap. The SC works to protect itself by using 6 methods of interpretation including whether or not the decision is prudent, i.e. will it cost any of them their clout. One of the best decisions was Ex parte Milligan, 1866 in which the court wrote:

The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times [p*121] and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false, for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it which are necessary to preserve its existence, as has been happily proved by the result of the great effort to throw off its just authority.

Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866)

Again, go read my book online. It's in essay form with references to more actual Constitutional information than most people can stomach.

Bill