A Few Constitutional Provisions for the Illegal Militia at Malheur

It always helps when supposed patriots have actually read the Constitution. It takes more than just waving it around or carrying it in your pocket. Yes, there are arguments about interpretation that have been going on since it was written, but the whole point was the political processes established to work out our differences - not for any definitive answer necessarily - just the opportunity to keep us working together to govern ourselves as a nation. And that's pretty inspired, IMHO. Just check out some of these when you claim to be an anti-government constitutional patriot:

First of all, its purpose. No big secret here. It's right up front:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Then, there's this little gem we federal attorneys tend to like:

Justice Scalia Frustrated and Annoyed

I met Justice Scalia once. It was at the dedication of the new federal court house in Albuquerque a few years ago. He was milling with the crowd as we had refreshments. Having never met a Supreme Court Justice, I went up and shook his hand. It was kinda creepy. I'll just leave it at that.

Scalia's impassioned dissent in the Arizona Immigration case indicates that the politically conservative jurist may be a little frustrated. Also, the separate dissents/partial concurrences of the other two conservative Justices, Thomas and Alito, indicate the conservative wing of the court is not well united. Having been quietly abandoned by their conservative Chief Justice Roberts joining the majority in this politically-charged issue, this all indicates to me that they may have lost to Obamacare. I still think it could be 6-3. I'll eat my words tomorrow as necessary.*

Money Is Imaginary

Even the Lord says it doesn't matter much. I mean, look at the lilies of the field! And the real treasures you take with you into the next life are so much more important and can't be taken away from you. And you might as well give what you owe to the government as it is that power setting up the financial system anyway. Well, He said it all much better.

Moderation Conquers Passion

Or maybe I'm just a coward.

Senator Mike "Tea Party" Lee had an open house in his offices two floors below us in the federal building this afternoon. I don't know anyone who went. I wanted to go really bad. Bad being the operative word because every time I started to talk about it with my co-workers, I got a little overly worked up. My colleagues thought they would have to hold me down instead of enjoying senatorial cookies.

John C. Calhoun Rises from the Dead!

Senator Mike "Tea Party" Lee addresses the Utah Legislature and says he represents "the sovereign state of Utah" when I thought he was elected to represent the People who live here and are sovereign in establishing the Constitution by "We the People" not "We the States." He preaches anachronistic theories of states' rights doctrine. He wants to repeal a portion of the Fourteenth Amendment. Lincoln is spinning in his grave while Sen. Calhoun is back and apparently advising Sen. Lee ("Lee" that rings some kind of bell - actually, it comes from John D. Lee, not Marse Robert. But people shouldn't be judged by their ancestors).

Maybe that's where I made my mistake. While I did not vote for him, I was hoping that much of Mike Lee's tea party enthusiasm was a pose and that once in office, he would mellow into a more responsible, rational conservative Republican like his father, Rex Lee. So far, no deal.

States' Rights Stink!

I admit that isn't very moderate, but it is passionate. And it wasn't me who came up with it.  Here's the quote: 

Moved by Joseph Smith, That every man in the meeting who could wield a pen write an address to his mother country. Carried.

Mayor [Smith] read the Memorial to Congress. The State rights doctrines are what feed mobs. They are a dead carcass --a stink, and they shall ascend up as a stink offering in the nose of the Almighty.

HIstory of the Church, Vol. 6 p. 95.

When I wrote my piece on Joseph Smith and States' Rights that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune a few months back, I didn't use the strongest quotes available. Brother Joseph was understandably incensed over the persecutions of the Saints by the State power of Missouri and the failure of the United States to provide any redress. His interpretations of the Constitution were rather strongly worded:

Utah and the Public Lands

OK, this post is obviously biased and influenced, but also fairly well informed because of my employment with the US Department of the Interior (But remember the disclaimer that I am not speaking in my official capacity on behalf of the Department!).

I was leaving the house last night to go to the church for Scouts and I heard a bit of Governor Herbert's State of the State address (that would have been fun to blog, but I had to go to Scouts.) Anyway, I heard him complaining about the Interior Department and the new plan to inventory "wild lands" which would seem to violate the settlement between Bush's Interior Secretary Norton and Utah Governor Leavitt from a few years back. Well, regardless of the merits of all that and whether the settlement may have been outside the authority of the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act ("FLPMA") and the inventory well within FLPMA, the Governor complained about the amount of federally-owned land in the State and threw out the line to great applause that the State is not a colony of the federal government! That is in line with the popular theme of Utah's overwhelmingly Republican Legislature some of whom are actually proposing to take federal lands, including national parks, by eminent domain.