Why I fight

My objection lies not in the registry, but in the ex-post-facto application of new rules, regulations, and punishment to the registry. However, at the same time, tracking all those who have different registry requirements as the laws change would be prohibitive for law enforcement, and thus unenforceable.

To extend this, the problem lies in the fact that it is a blanket law, and a blanket registry, not fully subject to the judiciary and jury, which is a direct denial of specific legal rights.

The way I see it, there are specific guarantees under human rights issues, as well as civil rights. We get so caught up in civil rights that we only see the amendments to the Constitution, rather than the codicils that were built in under common law. In addition, we tend to blind ourselves to the histories and natures of the constitutional argument.

That's ignoring the parallels to a certain European country in the 1930s-1940s, which it has gotten to be a losing argument to bring up, regardless of how accurate your information is.

Thing is, these rights are not granted by the constitution. They never could be. Just as those powers could not be grasped by the government save for the acquiescence of the people. Further, the permission of the people had to be that of all of the people. The Several guarantees, under the constitution, were for the equal treatment of all people, and the recognition of those rights.

These rights were recognized as innate rights, just as those we term as 'civil' rights were at the time of the Constitution. Such was the nature of the original constitution, that not all those rights could be listed, and it would be silly to list the right to walk down the street, or the right to wear a hat. It would be equally silly to list the right to breathe, or the right to seek housing and food.

This is the nature of substantiative due process, it deals with the 'substance' of the law, as compared to procedural due process which deals with the 'procedure' of the law.

We've lost so much in the knowledge of what our rights are.... that I feel it's time to enumerate the most important.

We have the right to freedom of expression.. and the corresponding duty to temper that right where it might affect others. (libel, and slander, and the 'fire in the theater' example)

We have the right to travel without limitation or restriction, upon public roads and highways, without regard to legal status, color, race, religion, or any other separation.

We have the right to freedom of association, and freedom of speech and thought. You cannot be jailed, nor tried simply for your associations, though your actions regarding those associations can be, and are culpable.

You have the right to freedom of belief and religion, insofar as that right does not attack the rights and freedoms of others (I.e. you can speak, promote your religion, but you cannot attack others religions using it, nor can you use it to quell free speech, quell the due process of law, nor destroy any other right with it, including life, liberty, or property)

You have the right to question the government, (and even the duty to do so) and the right to petition for the redress of grievances against that government. (So long as that redress is proportional to the injustice involved within the grievance)

You have the right to trial by jury, including the right to jury nullification, according to the Zenger and Bushell trials, and the Federalist Papers. Further, this right extends to the argument of law in front of the jury, though the argument of evidence may be done out of sight, due to the exclusion arguments automatically revealing that which is to be excluded from the jury.

Links to Jury Nullification:
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fed83.htm
[quote]It will add great weight to this remark, in relation to prize causes, to mention that the method of determining them has been thought worthy of particular regulation in various treaties between different powers of Europe, and that, pursuant to such treaties, they are determinable in Great Britain, in the last resort, before the king himself, in his privy council, where the fact, as well as the law, undergoes a re-examination.[/quote]
[quote]This is jurisdiction of both fact and law; nor is it even possible to separate them. Though the common-law courts of this State ascertain disputed facts by a jury, yet they unquestionably have jurisdiction of both fact and law; and accordingly when the former is agreed in the pleadings, they have no recourse to a jury, but proceed at once to judgment[/quote]
[url]http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/history-jury-null.html[/url]

You have the right to equal treatment under the law: I.e. the right to not have targeted legislation. This right is upheld in all cases of law, including federal, state, local, and county law. This right is of two parts... selective legislation, and selective enforcement. If one passes a law attacking a particular class of individuals (I.e. attacking college freshmen, for instance) it is selective legislation. If the attack is a selective enforcement, it is going after a selected class, without going after an equally dangerous or more dangerous class that is friendly toward the enforcing agency.
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fed57.htm

We have the right to free travel, including interstate, and international travel, according to international law and treaty. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (strongly authored and influenced by Elanor Roosevelt) guarantees this right, and further, it is part of the reason for the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution. (New York and a nearby state were in a tiff a the time, and using tariffs and limitations on travel as economic weapons. This also occurred at the beginning of the Civil War, limitations on economic travel and effective tariffs on the goods in the Southern States.)

You have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, and declared guilty by a jury of your peers. This ensures the full application of the jury, and full argument before the jury. In a criminal case, there must be an absolute certanty that the person is guilty, and that the law is valid, prior to the presentation of a punishment for an act against society.

You have the right to work toward a home, or other property, and no man has the right to deny you such. Economic reasons may prevent it, our own actions may prevent it, but nobody can take that for which you have worked, save by due process of law, and the full application of that law.

You have the right to security of your possessions, your person, and your family. No person can take away your home (via Civil Forfeiture), nor can they take away a family member save for crimes done by that family member.

You have the right to be judged on your own actions, and not those of any other person. Guilt by association is not a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Further, if any class is judged guilty until proven innocent, the entirety of jurisprudence falls. We have the right to ague our innocence, as well as to remain absolutely silent, as often anything we say is used against us in a court of law... even if it is absolutely truthful.

You have the right to privacy (though our 'loving' congress has been doing everything they can to remove this right). This right was, and is guaranteed, under the searches and seizure clauses of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This right to privacy was enshrined largely because of the Magna Carta, and the British habit of marching into homes, ransacking them, inspecting everything there to look for crimes, and in some cases creating them for civil forfeiture, as well as for criminal charges.

You have the right to vote. For no reason was this right to be removed from any citizen, save the reason of commission of treason against the Federal Government. No person could be denied this by Federal Law.

You have the right to protect yourself. You have the right to defend yourself, your home, and your community, and this right goes one step further into a duty to do the above.

You have the right to state that an action done to you was wrong, and more, to remonstrate for the remediation of that wrong.

You have the right to enjoy public places, without limitation, so long as you do so lawfully and do not remove the rights of others.

You have the right to remain free of the harassment of others. No man has a right to harass.

You have the right to prevent self-incrimination, and the commitant right to not name those who would incriminate you in a criminal trial.

You have, further, the right to contract, and the enforcement of that contract as a civil statute, for the redress of grievances done under contract, tort, or escrow law.

You have the right to restitution for properties seized under Eminent Domain, and restitution equivalent to the fair market value of that land.

You have the traditional right to request to speak on the floor of the Congress, though this has been limited in recent years.

You have the right to the restoration of those 'civil' rights at the end of the term of your sentence, as, up until 1933, all rights were restored automatically at the end of one's sentence. (Another Omnibus Crime Act)

You have the right to self-determination. This right is limited in that such self-determination must not remove the same from others. In other words, murder is verboten, simply because of the recognition of the rights of others.

You further have the right to make choices as will determine your health and future prosperity, and the right to suffer by those decisions should they be wrong.

You have the right to do whatever you want... so long as you accept society's right to stop you if that steps on the rights of others.

You have the right to make economic decisions, and bear the burden of poor choices.

Up until the credit companies lobbied congress, you also had the right to bankruptcy, every seven years, to clear out extortionate debt.

You had the right to not be charged money for being loaned money, (usury)

All these rights, and not an exhaustive list.

For instance, most do not realize that they have the right to challenge the law as presented by the police, and as presented by the prosecutor.

We have the right to express reservations against a contract, as well as to not be placed under duress in the contract.

We have the right to protect ourselves from extortion. This includes extortion under the color of law.

I could go on for hours. All these rights were once recognized, they were thought so innate that no man even bothered listing them.

Our rights end where another's begins. Some rights are commingled with other's rights. Some extend and increase the rights of others, and of ourselves, some of those rights limit our rights, and those of others.

But they are rights, independent of the government, independent of anything but your existence as a human being.

The place where society comes in, is in the recognition of those rights of others, and the embrasure of them, in order to complete, and preserve, the rights of all.

This is the nature of wisdom. It is personal responsibility, for one's own actions, and the several and collective responsibility for those with whom you choose to group.

And that's what we've forgotten. We do not need the laws as they stand, so long as we remember that the rights of others are just as important as our own. It is the purpose of law to remind us of the rights of others. It is the balance of justice, wherein the proper punishment is levied, and mercy, wherein the facts and law of the case are tried, and mitigating factors associated. These are the sides of the balance of justice... and justice must be balanced with mercy, and part of that mercy is rehabilitation, and the opportunity for such.

So long as there is any class of persons, that are subject to unequal treatment under the law, these rights cannot be recognized.

That is why I argue for the repeal of laws, and the restoration of rights for all persons, not just offenders. It's giving back personal responsibility to the citizens of the country. Giving them back the right to try, dream, climb, fall, and suffer for their actions... but also the right to have an end to their mistakes. it is the right to be free, and the right to live, love, experience... and be human.
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

From Wikipedia


* Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

* Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

* Article 3.

Everyone has the right to live, have liberty, and security of person.

* Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

* Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

* Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

* Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

* Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

* Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

* Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

* Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

* Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

* Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

* Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

* Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

* Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

* Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

* Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

* Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

* Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

* Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

* Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

* Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

* Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

* Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

* Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

* Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

* Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

* Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

* Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

[edit] Structure and legal implications

The document is laid out in the civil law tradition, including a preamble followed by thirty articles. It was conceived as a statement of objectives to be followed by governments. Some international lawyers believe that the Declaration forms part of customary international law and is a powerful tool in applying diplomatic and moral pressure to governments that violate any of its articles. The 1968 United Nations International Conference on Human Rights advised that it "constitutes an obligation for the members of the international community" to all persons. The declaration has served as the foundation for two binding UN human rights covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It continues to be widely cited by academics, advocates and constitutional courts.
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An open letter to the Congress

Ladies and gentlemen of the congress,

I hereby exert, and utilize my granted power, and right to remonstrance, and to redress of grievances. But in proportion to the magnitude of this right, is the right of the Congress to know what grievances it has perpetrated, and the pains of the people, and the failings of, not just the congress itself, but of the system involved in the Congress.

The congress was composed of two houses, so as to deliberately slow the debate of bills, the passage, and thus to prevent the passions of the people from undermining their own security, as well as preventing individuals from pushing laws both unconstitutional and unjust upon the people.

We as a nation have forgotten who we are. You as congressmen have forgotten as well, and you should be ashamed of what you have become.

You are the guardians of the constitution, as much as the people are. You are the guardians of the power of the legislature, and guarding against the incursions of the judiciary and the executive branches.

You have failed. Not from action, but from inaction, not from ill intent, in general, but from apathy. You have forgotten your duties in the everyday, humdrum cares of the world, in the fight for reelection, and the ebb and flow of legislative deals, and compromises.

Upon some things, there is no compromise. Those things are the rights of the people, guaranteed in the Constitution, and the duties and limits enshrined in the Federalist Papers, the Constitutional Congresses, and in the body of the Constitution itself.

Your failure is so egregious, as to stand as an attack upon that constitution, and a violation of that constitutional oath that you took upon entry into office. It stands as a shameful example of the waste and bigotry of men, an example of the partisanship and pecuniary interests running rampant upon the floor of the congress.

I am ashamed for you, and ashamed of you. In proportion to the powers wielded by the congress, were the limitations placed upon that power, and the protections of the people in regard to that power. You have usurped those protections, bypassed the protections, and run rampant over the constitution itself.

You have removed the rights of classes of citizens, failed to control a spiraling national debt, created a federal reserve which prints paper money with no worth, and incited the people to give up further on their constitutional protections. You have passed bills which remove the incentives for actual education, then complain of the falling standards. You have removed rehabilitation from criminal systems, and created the largest system of incarceration in the world. You push those who enter into this incarceration system into the fringes of society, where they cannot, and do not, have a chance for the redemption and rehabilitation which was intended in the criminal justice system from the beginning. You have set yourselves up as judge, and jury, and chosen to let the police attempt to enforce laws which are vague, unclear, and in some cases contradictory.

Further, you have grasped powers, denied specifically to the Federal Government, placed upon the people more and more sanctions and prices, and linked our welfare to the oil futures market, which has long demonstrated its volatility.

You introduced a system of taxation which has driven the industry out of the nation, created systems of law and punishment which impermissibly commingle the civil and criminal code, and take away more, and more rights in the interests of security...

but whose security? Who becomes more secure through these laws? The congress itself. They're more and more guaranteed to be re-elected, as the paper vote goes away and the electronic vote enters in its stead. This electronic vote has no oversight from the people, nor does it have the protections against chicanery that even the old Greek system of pebbles had.

Nor does this allow our nation to maintain a system of voting that is anonymous. When we have the identification chip... how long until you require it to vote... and monitor us to make sure we are making the 'proper' vote?

You cede additional powers to the president, in order to gain more for yourself under Interstate Commerce, you claim that the rights of some are not as important as the rights of others, in your bills, and further, in many cases, claim de facto immunity due to the service in congress.

After these things, how can we hope that you will keep your word? When outrage explodes across the nation, you turn with the tides of public opinion, rather than holding to your oath to the Constitution.

This is not the part of wisdom, nor the path which the Founding Fathers wished.

Look to the Federalist Papers.... Look to the Constitution. Look to the very arguments for and against its founding... and ask yourself if your actions truly reflect that.

Then grieve for what you have created, for it is a monstrosity that cries out from the earth with blood on its hands, crying your shame to the world.
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Open letter to the people

In every man's life, it comes a time to look at one's dreams, look at what is real, and what is not, look at one's history and one's condition, and determine what direction is necessary and proper for that man's life to go.

Such is the nature of nations, as well, a nature that, by the nature, and composition of humanity, is often usurped. Our nation stands clawing at the edge of the precipice. I know not if we can pull ourselves out, given the nature of the trap prepared before us.

Those that would steer the nation, in the opinion of this writer, have steered it wrongly. They have bound us, and riveted upon us chains no less binding for being simply paper and legal documents. We hold on, not from hope, but from the determined survivalism that is part and parcel of our very humanity.

Look around yourselves. Look beyond the news, beyond the sound bytes, beyond the blurbs that make up everyday television, and look at the core of our society. Prices rise every day, every day men, and women, more and more desperate to make ends meet. Our prison population rises by leaps and bounds, our nation crying out from its roots against what occurs.

The blood of the innocent and the guilty alike is on our hands. To wash ourselves free of this blood, what method might we use? Shall we imprison more men, claiming that it is not working to imprison few? Shall we imprison all? If registering a few works not, does it not follow that registering all might? With the government implementing plans for a national identification card, and implanted tracking chips, how long can we still exercise our rights?

How long until these devices are required to drive, to vote, to have medical care, to live? How long until they become so ubiquitous that nobody thinks anything of them, but there is no more security? When crime becomes a way of life for the nation, is it not a maxim that the crime will rise to the highest possible level, and that to surpress competition, that such crime will use any power to prevent both the revelation of their crime, as well as to prevent any others from becoming powerful enough to challenge them?

The government does not grant, or guarantee your rights. It cannot, those rights are innate, and subject to none other but God and your own soul and conscience. If you choose not to exercise them, that is your choice. But look around you, look at your children, look at your parents. Are we really so much better off? Are we really more free, or are the chains about us so tight now that we cannot see the freedoms we've lost?

When our nation is so blindfolded, so coddled, that its civilians cannot stand on their own, and are powerless to protect themselves against the predators and criminals of society, what guarantee do we really have? We have only one guarantee, the guarantee of all civil societies, the guarantee of the right to self-protection, self-actualization, and self-rule.

This is the right, ultimately, that we are giving up, and refusing to work toward. We are educated, bred, taught, to comply and fit in... if we do not, we are placed at the fringes of society, placed in prison, and ultimately banned from society even after we have paid the debt that was owed.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

And is there any peace in those chains?

When one has made an oath to the Constitution, can one stand and allow a constitutional crisis to continue? Can one close their eyes to that crisis and pretend that it does not occur? If I were to do so, I would be as guilty as those who created the crisis, guilty before not just myself, but my people, my society, and even the children that the legislature claims to attempt to protect.

What is the price of freedom? We give up security, ostensibly granted by the government, for the opportunity to create that security ourselves. We grasp back our rights, the rights to life, liberty, property, and freedom of choice, freedom of will, and all the pains and processes committant with it.

Our nation is one of free men... but how free are we now? Can we test the walls of our cells? Can we see the limits of our chains? When the bounds about us are bound tightly enough, can we even perceive what it is to be free?

Ladies and gentlemen of the nation... our constitution is in crisis, and the tearing apart of the document continues every day. It is our idleness, our idolatry for security, our zeal for punishment that allows it, without realizing that any right we deny others... we also deny ourselves.

Though my heart is full of fear, there is only one course which can, and must guide my footsteps, and that is the course of restoration of that constitution, and of the rights of the people. It is only in this manner that we can guarantee, and maintain the rights of the people for our children, and our children's children.

I cannot hold back my opinion, nor hold back the facts. The facts stand before a weary world, untrammeled, and unexplored by so many. Look at them, then look at yourselves. Is it really so great a stretch from where we sit until complete slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God... I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty... or give me death.
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