live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Bob Schulz explains his plan for a Continental Congress in Philadelphia among representatives from all of the states to discuss action plans for dealing with violations of the Constitution.
Jon Roland
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
things going my name is Hank goals I'm with people here in Texas our main speaker is going to be Bob
0:07
Schultz he's the chairman of We the People foundation for constitutional education and we're going to talk about
0:14
how we get back to our constitutional republic Bob Bob can probably give you a bio if
0:21
if people are often are not familiar and want to know something I don't know if he wants to go through all that but uh
0:29
maybe a little a little short one but um let's just welcome him Bob Schultz from
0:34
weed people Foundation
0:56
thank you all very much for coming it's good to be back thank you Ron for
1:02
opening up the facility again this might be my fourth or fifth time here over the
1:07
years um pretty important uh issue I think to be
1:13
most important for in my life I've been addressing government wrongdoing for a
1:18
long time but this project that we're embarking on now is hands down the most serious and
1:24
important of them all our constitution our Republic is I'm
1:30
sure I don't have to tell Patriots In This Crowd that are been aware of what
1:35
has been happening to the country but the Republic is um
1:41
endangered it's hanging out the Constitution is hanging by a threat there are
1:47
people running in government that are seem to be bent on transitioning
1:54
our constitutional republic to a democracy everything is getting couched in political terms we don't like what's
2:00
going on vote for somebody else is what we're being led to believe so what we're going to do is talk a
2:06
little bit about what the Constitution is what it isn't and what the founders
2:13
did when they found themselves in a very similar situation
2:18
and um what the uh what they did to hold the
2:24
government accountable what they tried to do before they eventually separated decided for separating and then what I
2:31
think we have to do to I see no other choice I've been doing this kind of work
2:36
for a long time and we've been attempting to hold the government accountable by uh constitutional means
2:42
non-violent means using the right to petition Clause provision which we find in both
2:49
our state and federal constitutions so just in a nutshell I don't have to tell you all for sure
2:55
um Constitution is a set of principles what I'm holding here is put out by the Cato Institute that's got the
3:01
Declaration of Independence and which is the chart and the Constitution which is the bylaws
3:07
and those are the founding documents we by the terms of these documents we
3:14
the people have set up the government by the terms of these documents we have enabled the government to do its job but
3:21
we've also heavily prohibited and restricted to government from doing a lot of things okay so the
3:27
gov this constitution is a set of principles to govern the government we're not mentioned except when do
3:32
people adopted and it's all that stands between us and total tyranny and despotism
3:40
uh what we're going to what I'm going to do is uh ask we've got a couple of
3:45
PowerPoint presentations to facilitate the discussion move it right along
3:50
um both the the first one of these is on our website now our web if you want to
3:56
know more about us and the foundation uh it's all in this corporate brochure that we have if you need if you'd like some
4:02
more of these let me know I have plenty of them in the van this is the first of um
4:08
meetings across the country uh where if the city every day now
4:14
we have plenty of these on hand they're not obviously not to be easily
4:19
discarded we put a lot of effort into these a lot of expense and we pay royalties as you'll see on some of those
4:26
Graphics that are included so that tells you pretty much who we are if you have questions about my personal
4:31
background and what I've been doing um just there'll be plenty of time for
4:36
questions and answers we can get into that for those of you who don't already know
4:43
um all right what we're going to do is uh begin first with a PowerPoint
4:48
presentation that is already on our website and then we're going to switch to a
4:54
PowerPoint presentation that had put together for this tour that we're on
5:01
a little bit of overlap but we'll get through these pretty quickly you'll get the pretty good idea of
5:07
the project that we're embarking on this continental congress not to be confused with a constitutional convention they
5:14
are different things entirely okay people are because using them Continental Congress
5:25
the first one the founders after well let me back up the French and Indian War
5:32
ended in 1763. and the French are out of here the English are left with a standing
5:39
army standing armies elsewhere around the globe the ruler you see has been the most powerful government on the face of
5:45
the Earth and they decided to treat the early Americans differently than they were treating their people back
5:52
and our people Jefferson in particular would submit petitions for redressing
5:58
grievances to these uh to the government and as the Declaration explains their
6:05
repeated petitions were answered only with repeated injuries and that eventually caused them to
6:12
separate but what they did back in 1774 they didn't decide to separate they
6:18
decided to send a few delegates representing the 13 colonies to Philadelphia to Independence Hall just
6:27
to talk about those readences that were building up that they were
6:32
filing with the government and the government was not responding responsibly
6:39
so they got together to talk about that and to decide on a course of action that's all they did and that's all they
6:46
decided to do when they headed out to Philadelphia and it was only during the course of that Continental Congress
6:53
particularly with the Persistence of atoms that eventually they decided to
6:59
separate and there was no choice but to separate them yes I could hold Mike for
7:04
a little closer so we can get on here yes okay that's a good idea all right
7:10
so um uh and we find ourselves in the in the same position we have been those of you
7:18
who are familiar with our organization I'm sure most many of you have been petitioning your government in one way
7:24
or another for a redress of grievances particularly grievances
7:30
dealing with a violation of your state or federal constitutions and maybe not happy with the response you got well we
7:36
as an organization me in particular have been petitioning our government intelligently
7:43
rationally professionally our federal government for 20 years I did that with some measure of success but in the late
7:51
90s I began to petition the federal government because of its violations of the
7:57
Constitution maybe not expecting the relief we were asking for
8:02
but clearly setting out to establish a record just as the founders did they were justified in taking the action they
8:10
did because they could point to a record of repeated
8:15
infringements on their rights and their repeated attempts for redress for remedy
8:22
redressing its remedy and governments abuse of them answering their petitions
8:27
only with repeated injuries as the cons as the Declaration of Independence explains
8:33
so we set out some years ago and have been petitioning with the assistance of
8:39
constitutional scholars in a very professional intelligent rational women we have been submitting either to the
8:46
petitioning either the Judiciary or members of the executive and legislative
8:51
branches directly and Congress O'Connor was the president and so forth and without a response clearly without a
8:58
responsive response um and so we have reached this point where we think we need to bring
9:07
up to three people from all the 50 states together in Philadelphia not an Independence Hall but they have a new
9:13
facility a few years old called Constitution Center on the other side of the Liberty Bell that's now sits between
9:18
the Constitution Center and Independence Hall to discuss these violations of our
9:24
Constitution are repeated attempts for remedy to these grievances governments
9:30
continued abuse their deaf ear that they've turned to
9:36
this and and then settled on a course of action but at the same time and this is
9:41
key at the same time communicating back to the people in their states through
9:48
State websites which will become the sort of the pot Valley stove around which people will gather and no matter
9:55
discussion boards and chat rooms and so forth these delegates in
10:01
Philadelphia will populate their state websites they'll have a responsibility of doing
10:06
that every day those people back home will know what these delegates have been discussing what they've been debating
10:12
what they've been deciding and then when they settle on the course of action hopefully there'll be five percent uh or
10:18
more of the population that is properly up to speed and willing to collectively
10:25
participate in a collective action to put a collective foot down against the tyrants of our day
10:32
so with that is an introduction Hank if you could uh a little run through these pretty
10:38
quickly to give you some basic grounding in some of the principles that are involved here
10:48
the First Amendment in its entirety it reads Congress on making the law of respect in the
10:53
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or
11:01
of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances so there are
11:07
five freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment in the order that they mentioned it's worship speech press
11:14
assembly as we're doing here today and then petition for a redress of grievance
11:19
petition for a remedy of grievances Everyone by now is familiar with the
11:26
first four of those freedoms they're familiar with the rights of the people and the obligations of the government under the first Four Freedoms they have
11:33
been the subject matter of lots and lots of lawsuits gone all the way to the Supreme Court lots of people have chimed in and you
11:40
know and so we by now we pretty much know the full Contours of the meaning of
11:46
those first Four Freedoms unfortunately the last of those five freedoms the
11:53
right to petition for the redress for a remedy of grievances especially violations of the Constitution
11:59
no court in an entire history of America has ever declared what those mean what
12:04
are the rights to people of the obligations of the government under those last ten words it is those ten
12:10
words are the accountability clause there are benches over here or steps if
12:17
someone would like to sit on students yes
12:25
cheers up over here we get a couple of hands to set some chairs up
12:33
foreign
13:05
thank you okay so what does the uh these last ten words what do they really mean where they come from what role did those
13:13
the right to petition for redress play in the uh traveling in the country and what should
13:20
it play what meaning should we be given to it today so we'll talk about the
13:27
right to petition next life you can't read this but the first
13:35
recorded mention of the right to petition what it means you find in the
13:40
Magna Carta the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. remember back then the monarchy
13:46
had absolute power the king and queen I mean they could do whatever they wanted he couldn't sue them
13:53
um absolute power they were considered representatives of God you know on Earth and so forth could do no wrong and so
13:59
it's a pretty historic significant thing that the Magna Carta is the Cradle of Liberty everything evolved you know
14:06
since then and uh to give you some idea of the meaning of the right to petition
14:14
we find six section 61 of the Magna Carta in breeds and this thing the king
14:20
sign this document I mean this is it was signed of course
14:25
he was confronted with some of the Barons and of course
14:31
some of the community people in the community they had their pitchforks and so forth and so there was sort of a you
14:36
know a little threat behind all of this but the fact of the matter is the king did sign it and it says in section 61 if
14:44
we are chief justice we meaning the monarchy he and the queen or our chief justice our officials or any of our
14:51
servants offended any respect against any man or transgress any of the Articles of the
14:59
piece or of this security and the offense is made known to four of
15:05
the said 25 Barons they shall come to us or in our absence from the kingdom to
15:10
the Chief Justice to declare and claim immediate redress so the people if they
15:16
feel their rights of being violated they can petition uh the monarchy
15:21
if we are in our actions abroad to Chief Justice makes no redress within 40 days
15:27
Reckoning from the day on which the offense was declared to us or him the Chief Justice the forbearance
15:34
shall refer the battle to the rest of the 25 Barons who made the strain upon and assail Us in every way possible
15:42
with the support of the whole Community or of the land by seizing our castles lands possessions or anything else
15:48
saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children until they
15:53
have secured such redress as they have determined upon having secured redress the redress they may then resume their
16:01
normal obedience to us pretty significant here you have the monarchy saying if you people if the people have
16:09
some great that feel we're infringing on there natural rights bring your petitions to
16:17
us we have 40 days to respond if we don't you have the legal right
16:23
to take everything we own our lives our castles everything except my life the life of the queen of the life of our
16:30
children and the life of the chief job and then once you've secured your remedy then you are obligated to restore
16:38
your allegiance to us pretty significant what do you think of it
16:43
next slide so we have in um and and following that
16:49
day the right to petition grew and grew and was applied and followed and give
16:55
you a little story in around 18 uh 16 um
17:01
between 16 15 1650 um the king had leanings towards wrong
17:07
Catholicism and so he thought he'd do a pretty cool thing he would he issued a proclamation and he said the people of
17:13
the Kingdom have the right to worship any way they want to worship and I would
17:19
like this Proclamation read from every pulpit in you know England on this particular day and there were Bishops
17:27
Cardinal that thought oh gee wait a minute there's a problem with this uh if we go along with this we will be
17:34
admitting that this right to worship comes from the King rather than from God so they sent a contingent of six Bishops
17:40
to talk to the king about this and the King heard they were coming and he was Delight until they got there and they told him
17:47
what was on their mind and he immediately put them in the dungeon and and there was a trial thank God there
17:52
was a trial and they obtained the services of a
17:58
and they the virus to argued among other things that gee they were just petitioning they came for a redress of
18:03
this grievance and the jury acquitted them so the the right to petition uh the
18:09
government for a remedy to grievances uh grew and grew and found its way to our Shores and was very much a part of our
18:18
founding documents and very much a part of our system of government here for
18:25
many years up until around 1830 uh if people if you had a a grievance against
18:33
your government whether it's County state or federal say
18:39
you submit your petition for redress to your Congressman until about 1830 your
18:44
petition for a redress of a grievance always went to a committee
18:51
look in Congress every Monday was the day they dealt with petitions for redress agreements and you always got an
18:57
answer compare that with today okay and so what happened in 1830 to begin to
19:03
change all this the southern Congressman prevailed they had it you know with these
19:11
petitions for redress from abolitionists to end the practice
19:17
of slavery and so they prevailed that they got a rule passed in the house that any more of these petitions from
19:24
abolitionists would be permanently tabled first time government on these
19:29
Shores ever went on record saying we don't have to listen or respond to the people and it's sort of been you know
19:35
sort of downhill is this right to petition has it took John Quincy Adams eight years to get that rule repealed
19:43
but the damage of course had been done so now we fast forward to
19:50
1774. again the founders the 13 colonies set some Representatives
19:57
off to Philadelphia to talk about their Grievances and what they could do about it and while they were in session the
20:04
Continental Congress in session they one of the acts they passed unanimously was
20:10
an act entitled a continental congress to the inhabitants of Quebec it was an act to
20:16
be sent up there to encourage them to get to get behind this developing
20:22
Revolution uh in our uh country or and uh
20:27
if we can um well today page Act and um
20:34
in this eight page Act which ought that little uh you don't have to click on a hang but this little
20:41
PDF was sibled out here if you click on there when you go to the website click on there you'll get the full text of the eight page act but in this a page act
20:48
the founders are talking about the great rights the grand rights of individuals
20:53
and in talking about the first of those what they call the Grand rights the right to government based upon the
20:58
consent of the people they said this it's it's down in the right there but if
21:05
you go to the next slide you'll get a larger Titan okay you want to advance it once
21:10
these words are in that act if money is wanted by rulers who have in
21:17
any manner oppressed the people they may retain it they may retain their money until the aggrievances are redressed and
21:23
thus peaceably procure relief without trusting to despise petitions or disturbing the public tranquility and
21:31
you find that in the the same page Act passed unanimously by the Continental Congress
21:37
you find it in journaled one of the Continental Congress on page 105. so what are they saying here they're saying
21:44
um retaining your money if you have Grievances and you've petitioned and the
21:50
government is is violating your rights you have the right the fundamental right to retain your money uh
21:58
thus peaceably procuring relief it's a non-violent solution to problems that we
22:04
have with our government without trusting to despise petitions they knew of course for the Magna Carta
22:10
run forward they knew that the people had the right to petition but they also do equipment doesn't like opposition for
22:15
many quarter in fact they despise these petitions when they get them from us right so without trusting to the
22:21
despised petitions we can retain our money and procure relief without disturbing the public tranquility
22:28
next slide in Jefferson very good with words it
22:34
wasn't much of a public speaker but he could really write and this is where he put it well the privilege of giving or
22:41
withholding our money is an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative which left altogether
22:46
without constraint may be exercised to our great oppression and all history shows how efficacious its intercession
22:53
for redress of grievances and establishment of Rights and how in Provident would be the surrender of so
22:59
powerful a mediator there how dangerous how wrong it would be to give up this
23:06
power that the people have of giving and retaining their money in order to redress Grievances and establish rights
23:13
next these uh this uh
23:20
you'll find this there's a lot of text but what this says in effect is this
23:27
all these other rights that you find in the First Amendment are derivative
23:33
rights they all derive from the pre-existing essential right to hold the government
23:40
accountable by petitioning for redressing as the the
23:46
historical record shows and everything is noted here and so on as the record
23:52
shows Parliament what good is the right to petition the
23:57
king if Parliament couldn't get together and talk about it
24:02
I mean you know the king had the right to dissolve parliament and put another one in if he didn't like what they were doing and he did it often
24:09
so the right to free speech derived from the
24:16
pre-existing right to petition for redress and what good is the right to petition for redress if you couldn't
24:23
write about it or get together and talk about it in Parliament or anywhere else so these
24:29
other these fundamental rights that we do know about speech press and assembly their
24:35
derivative rights they derive from that fundamental right to be able to hold your government accountable
24:42
think about it what the founders had given us this wonderful system of governance in the
24:48
founding documents without giving us the people some means
24:54
within the Constitution itself to hold the government accountable
25:01
non-violently of course there's the Second Amendment but would they have given us without
25:06
that those ten words right to petition government for redress of grievances
25:13
it was put in there as a critical element of the overall balance of power
25:18
between the people and their government next slide thank you
25:23
also it's clear from the historical record that Congress the government
25:31
anyone petitioned whether it's the Judiciary or the president or the
25:36
Congress members they are obligated to respond and we clearly prove that with
25:42
our historical documentation on our it's all part of this PowerPoint presentation
25:50
um on the website go ahead honey so then we uh bring that brings us to
25:56
the uh 1776 and the Declaration of Independence
26:02
uh Hank if you could click on the PDF it'll bring up the Declaration
26:09
we don't have a white screen here which is a real disadvantage but um
26:15
you see the PDF right there on the screen yeah oh yeah okay you want to scroll up
26:26
move it to the right a little bit and scroll up
26:33
you've been moving it to the left can you move it to the right all right well I can do it this way
26:47
all right uh I'll paraphrase um so there they were the founders that
26:55
went to Philadelphia to talk about their problems and what to do about them they started in 1774 by 1776 they had
27:03
come to the conclusion uh that they were going to have to separate and the doc the Declaration of
27:10
Independence what it says in in essence is look we owe it to the world to
27:17
explain why we're doing this right a respect for the opinions of mankind
27:24
leads us to want to explain why we're doing this and so in the first March
27:30
paragraph you have some of the words you're all quite familiar with of course go back just a little bit get it there
27:38
yeah okay so we hold these truths we sell that oven and all men are created equal they are
27:44
endowed by they're created with certain unalienable rights that's key of course our rights don't come from government
27:50
your rights or individual rights you have them simply because um you're alive
27:57
um and and where people become alive is debatable in our society I understand
28:04
but we have them because you have life and they don't come from government
28:10
they're unalienable they're endowed by their creator they do not depend upon
28:16
the will of any majority whether it's a majority of the people voting on Election Day or whether it's a majority
28:23
of the people voting in the halls of Congress or whether it's a majority of the people voting on the on the bench at
28:28
the Supreme Court your individual rights do not depend upon the will of any
28:33
majority please understand I'm sure most of you do but that's not what's happening in our
28:39
country today we're transitioning to a democracy and and oh gosh let's not uh
28:45
hold um Mr Obama's uh to the natural born citizen Clause let's not have improve
28:52
his eligibility under the Metro board citizen Clause of the Constitution because uh to do so would be to overturn
28:58
the will of all of those 65 million people that voted for him you know it
29:04
just drives me crazy but anyway um all right so um
29:15
the property Pursuit of Happiness that to secure these rights governments
29:22
are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government that whenever any form of
29:27
government becomes disruptive of these engines right of the people to alter our fellowship Institute and so forth then
29:34
we have um you want to scroll down now we have a
29:40
listing of the Grievances if the Declaration of Independence is
29:45
five pages in here three of those pages are devoted to a listing of the Grievances okay we don't have to go
29:52
through all of them but just go down slowly Hank so people can get a feel for what those grievances are and you really
29:58
should go back today and spend a little time just review that Declaration of Independence
30:04
because that's where we are again we've reached that point we've got to get together and discuss these issues and
30:09
what we're what as a free people what we're going to do about it
30:20
many of these grievances they had back then are being Revisited upon us you'll see as you go through your
30:27
versions of your copy of the Declaration okay scroll to the
30:33
keep going I'll tell you when to stop Hank
30:38
keep going
30:44
okay now a little a little higher yeah that right there now after that
30:51
listing of grievances this paragraph that is two sentence paragraph that
30:56
begins in every stage of these impressions the scholars call that
31:02
the Capstone grievance it is clearly the grievance which kept
31:08
all the others it is the grievance more than any other that led to the separation here's what it says
31:14
in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms
31:20
our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury a prince whose character is thus marked by
31:26
Every Act which would Define a tyrant is unprofit to be the ruler of a free people
31:31
they would consider themselves free and they petitioned over these violation of their rights
31:38
their repeated petitions were answered only with repeat and injury and they decided that a prince or a
31:45
government whose Every Act is is a defines a tyrant it's unfit to be the
31:51
ruler of a free people and the rest of it of course goes on and and says basically you know we're out of here if
31:58
you don't like it come get us so that's the Declaration of Independence you want to go to the next
32:05
go out of that PDF and go back to the PowerPoint thing okay
32:10
and so here are those words the Capstone grievance and every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for
32:17
redress in the most humble terms our repeated petitions have been answered only with repeated injury a princess
32:22
character was thus marked by Every Act which may Define a tyrant is thus unfit to be the ruler over Free People
32:28
the Capstone rhythms next slide egg next slide there's a preamble to the
32:34
Bill of Rights it essentially says that you know they were passing the Constitution out to be ratified by the
32:42
13 states and um the preamble to the uh
32:51
constitution in effect says a number of the states want a a Bill of Rights
32:59
before they'll approve the Constitution and so so that they would be
33:05
in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers a
33:11
a Bill of Rights that further declares and restricts we've had more restrictive
33:17
Clauses should be added and so forth okay egg what's interesting I find and checked
33:24
all the state constitution but I like the New Hampshire Constitution it has this um it's still there it was put in there
33:30
initially and it's still there today here's what it says um it's article 10 it's the right of
33:36
Revolution government being instituted for the common benefit protection and security of the whole community and not
33:41
for the private interest or emolument of any one may and family or class of men
33:46
therefore whenever the ends of government are perverted and public Liberty manifestly endangered and all
33:52
other means of redress are ineffectual the people may and of right ought to form uh reform the old or establish a
34:00
new government the doctrine of non-resistance this is key the doctrine
34:06
of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd slavish
34:11
and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind that it is nuts to
34:18
be abused have your rights trampled on and to adopt the doctrine of
34:23
non-resistance it just doesn't work um so much for the New Hampshire
34:28
Constitution Act of course the Ninth Amendment
34:33
um if here's what um
34:39
we have come down to believe those ten words mean in its simplest form
34:46
based upon our review thorough research of well it's common sense but I mean our
34:51
review of all the written record both overseas and here it means this if we
34:57
have some evidence that government is violating some provision of the Constitution
35:04
and we call them on it by petitioning for a redress and if they don't respond
35:11
or if they respond with repeated injury that we have the right to withdraw our
35:18
support from that government and it's in effect they have said this doesn't matter anymore well if that
35:24
doesn't matter anymore then why would we want to continue supporting them right that's what those that accountability
35:31
clause in the First Amendment means and if there's any some people say
35:38
you know we've had this issue in court some people say well gee it's Bob it says right here
35:46
that um people have the right to petition the government for redressing grievances it
35:51
doesn't say the government has to respond okay fine let's go to the 26th amendment
35:57
it says the people have the right to vote it doesn't say the government has to count the votes no of course of
36:02
course every right that is not enforceable is not a right you know of course uh uh there was an implied uh
36:11
requirement on the government why put it in there if Government didn't have to pay attention to it
36:17
so but if we have to we can always resort to the Ninth Amendment the enumeration
36:23
of the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to denyers disparage others retained by the people well okay if you don't think it's
36:30
embedded in the those 10 words then how about you know the Ninth Amendment we claim it
36:36
okay and of course the next slide is one other accountability clause and
36:42
that's the second amendment a well-regulated militia for being necessary to the security of this free
36:48
state the right of the people to keep the bear arms shall not be infringed being necessary to the security of a
36:55
free state if that isn't a demand that the obese well-regulated state
37:00
militias uh then what is it
37:05
so the absence of well-regulated state militias today is unconstitutional
37:12
and the and the National Guard is not the well-regulated state militia that's
37:19
uh referred to in the Constitution first of all there are many reasons but what I
37:24
like to give is first of all the weapons are over there in that Armory they're supposed to be over our you know mantles
37:30
or in our home someplace okay um let's go to the next slide Hank
37:38
on our website we have uh 10 or 11 law review articles which thoroughly discuss
37:44
the history of two of them in particular the first one up there is the vestigial Constitution by out of Gregory Mark a
37:53
professor Adam Fordham but it was he's out of Rutgers but his law review
38:00
article was published in the Fordham law review and another one um on here by here it is the rights as
38:07
it comes to Bill of Rights as a constitution by Aquila Marth Yale very thorough historical reviews of the right
38:14
to petition so on our website you can find your way they're all there and read
38:20
these floor review articles on that address the rights petition Hank
38:27
we have as I say been petitioning for redress agreements uh doing a we think
38:33
with the assistance of constitutional Scholars we have petitioning the the
38:38
Judiciary and petitioning Congress and the executive branch directly as we have
38:44
evidence of violations of the Constitution and these petitions were
38:49
redressed at least the ones the form that we prepare them in we view them as
38:55
depositions each one of these petitions for redress agreements is we have a series of one
39:03
sentence statements of fact so one sentence this is a fact we can support that we have evidence that that is true
39:10
and we add two words up front of each one of those single sentences admit a deny so government admit or deny this
39:18
admitted denying this and so forth facts um and so there's a series of questions
39:24
embedded in each of these petitions and they've all been served on the government and they refuse to respond
39:31
most recently on June 30th of this year every member of the House of the Senate
39:36
and the president were served by these petitions for redress of
39:42
grievances by one or more of their constituents
39:47
so constituents serve these people they didn't have the excuse of saying oh you know something comes in the office
39:52
as they like to as they'd like to do oh that's not for one of my constituents and they trash it okay
39:59
okay so we had these uh served on them and with proofs of service the person in the congressman's office who served it
40:05
who received it signed that they received it and the person serving it assigned so this proofs of service that
40:11
they were all served and no one has responded Rod ball did something different from
40:17
the others he submitted it to the clerk of the house to be given to the speaker they
40:24
are to be discharged according to the will of the house I had a intense
40:29
hour and a half discussion no one else in the office the Washington office of
40:36
Ron Paul but his chief of staff Tom Masala and we went through this there's
40:41
a reluctance on the part of the staff to respond to petitions for redress
40:46
agreements why because if we respond to your petitions then
40:53
everybody else is going to be submitting petitions for redress and they're going to be looking more away you know you're responded to we the peoples why don't
41:00
you respond to ours and they'll come in over the transom will be overwhelmed we don't have the staff we don't have the
41:05
budget and so forth excuse me you know I said Tom look yeah it might be a little busy at first but
41:11
once we get the government under control things will slow down you know every now and then there'll be a
41:17
petition for a redress but in any event it was a real bureaucratic response from
41:22
Franz spam and it was wrong it doesn't relieve Ron Paul of the response
41:27
individual responsibility of responding to these petitions in fact in 2001 I was
41:33
on a hunger Fest in Washington and we held a press conference down there with
41:39
Ron's help and Congressman to other house triangle because they weren't
41:44
responding to the first of these petitions we submit we submit and um Ron and Congressman
41:50
Bartlett were there and Ron made the statement there is an inherent right in
41:57
those 10 words that government must respond government has the obligation he
42:02
said to respond it's all part of the inherent right of petitioning for redress but nonetheless the staff he
42:09
really depends on his staff entirely and the staff prevailed
42:15
so you'll find these petitions on our website part of this PowerPoint presentation and
42:22
otherwise we have a petition for a redress it is
42:28
unconstitutional to apply the Armed Forces of the United States and hostility overseas without a declaration
42:35
of war it is unconstitutional do that the last time we declared war was World War II of course we haven't really won
42:41
any War since then but um and so Ron Paul did a great job when
42:49
uh you know the it's well understood now that President Bush has from day one has
42:55
always wanted to go into Iraq for whatever reasons and um and eventually someone you know said
43:03
well what about Congress and so because of the Constitution and so they prepare the White House prepared What's called
43:09
the Iraq resolution and they sent it over to Congress to be passed and then
43:15
to come back to him for a signature and if Congress passed that it would have been uh
43:21
I wish they went out ahead it would transfer the power of congress to declare war it would give the power to
43:28
the president essentially saying to the president you decide if we're going to go into Iraq and win and so forth instead of Congress doing their job but
43:35
the way it's designed to work if the president feels we have to apply the Armed Forces of the United States and hostilities overseas there's supposed to
43:42
be a debate on the floor of the house and the Senate and they're supposed to ask all the tough second and third order questions again to the bottom of things
43:48
and then declare war but that's not you know what they did so this Iraq
43:54
resolution that bush sent over to Congress fell to the house in in October
44:00
of 2002 so five months before we went into Iraq it fell to the house of the
44:06
national Relations Committee chaired by Henry High and on the second day October 3rd Ron
44:12
Pauls is a member of the committee his attorney came to speak and he did a really great job you know it's all in
44:18
the transcript we have it on our website we could easily get the full transcript of that hearing by going to house.gov
44:23
and then go into the appropriate House International Relations Committee then going to uh October of September 3rd of
44:31
2002. um but what he did was say to them look you're debating the wrong resolution
44:37
here and he said I'd like you to I'd like to substitute a resolution for
44:42
the one that came over from the White House if you pass this you'll be declared more and he made a great he did a great job
44:49
of quoting the Constitution the meaning of the War Powers close quoting Madison and so forth but when he was finished
44:56
is an indication of the problem we are now facing when he was finished uh
45:03
Henry Hyde said this events have overtaken the Constitution the Constitution is anachronistic and
45:11
inappropriate so in other words we're changing it so because you know we think it's
45:17
appropriate to do so so they passed went on and voted Ron's Amendment down and
45:23
then passed the White House Iraq resolution and there's nothing in the Constitution that gives one branch
45:31
the authority to transfer its power to another branch and yet that's what they do they have the White House the
45:38
president often these days more often usurping the power of congress and
45:44
Congress acquiescing all right so the Federal Reserve System uh we won't go through all of these but
45:51
the clearly the Federal Reserve System is unconstitutional
45:57
and for many reasons not the least of which is uh the money is not backed by
46:03
uh precious metals gold and silver the USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional it
46:10
violates the Privacy Clauses the Federal Reserve System Of course violates the money Clauses of the Constitution
46:16
scroll down a bit Hank there are tax Clauses in the
46:21
Constitution the current direct unapportioned tax on labor is unconstitutional
46:28
the um in Article 2 not only is which deals
46:34
with the power of the president not only is he required to take an oath to uphold the Constitution but he's also required
46:40
to quote Faithfully execute the laws now there are laws on the books
46:45
immigration Naturalization laws they've been there a long time whatever your belief or feelings about
46:52
immigrants illegal immigrants
46:57
um these laws are on the books and they're not enforced well neither party wants to
47:03
enforce those laws because they don't want to offend the Latino vote that's what it gets down to but they're there
47:09
if you don't like it reveal them but we're a nation under law let's obey the Constitution it's another area where the
47:16
country you know every time there's a an issue in the country and quick to go to the say what's new
47:22
what's the Constitutional connection here is this a political question
47:28
or is it a constitutional question if it's a political question as an organization we don't get involved
47:34
if they if government has the authority to do what it is they want to do
47:39
and it's a whether say the state sales tax goes from six percent to 700 7 and and under the state
47:48
constitution they have the authority to oppose the state sales tax then whether it's a six or seven percent uh figure
47:54
that's a political question for the give and take of society we don't get involved in that we only get involved
47:59
when there are violations of the Constitution to hold the government accountable so when these issues come up
48:05
and who could fail to recognize how intense this
48:10
immigration this illegal immigration issue is has become over these last few years and so you know we just go to the
48:16
Constitution and we say well what's the what's the Constitutional link here is there a violation of the Constitution
48:22
well there it is it's the Faithfully execute clause the governor if the president would
48:27
Faithfully execute the laws that congress passed then this problem will go away
48:34
okay North American Union there's no Authority in the constitution for the
48:40
government to stealthfully or otherwise develop a North American Union which
48:45
would in in essence eliminate the North and Southern barriers of the country there's no
48:52
authority to do that and so there's a petition for redress that's been uh
48:58
with the assistance of that Viera has been put together served and ignored the
49:05
right to keep the bear arms not only are the federal gun control laws unconstitutional but the absence of a
49:11
well-regulated state militia is also unconstitutional institution and foreign policy I for one
49:18
believe that because of uh and alcohol because of our presence and our
49:25
involvement in interfering in the internal affairs of foreign countries overseas propping up governments that are very
49:32
impressive in those people are fighting their government and it's true say in the Middle East and
49:38
elsewhere people are the same everywhere you know they want individual freedoms and Liberties and so they're always at
49:45
loggerheads with their government and if they so the government is the enemy as
49:50
Ronald Reagan said government is the enemy of Freedom that's true and if those people begin to see that you know
49:57
this government is what it is in large part because of the United States
50:02
foreign policy and so forth and it's Farm being the rest of it then maybe um that what happens is people begin to
50:10
see and say well the friend of my enemy is my enemy and they begin to direct their hostilities towards us and as they
50:17
direct their hostilities towards us we get a war on terror a war on terror
50:22
gives us a police state and it's all downhill so maybe we you know and so
50:28
there is a clause in article one right before the enumerated powers of Congress
50:33
that say look and doing all of these things that you're authorized to do here keep in mind the general welfare of the
50:39
country and the defense of the country right well is it is it in our general welfare does it serve our national
50:46
interest you know to interfere in the internal affairs of all of these countries around the globe if by
50:52
interfering they're directing their hostilities towards us that we get a police state out of it I don't think so
50:59
I don't think that's International best interest so anyway there's a petition for redress on our foreign
51:06
policy and of course since this list was prepared we have the bailout of AIG and
51:12
the 700 Bill to kind of bailout and all these
#Social Issues & Advocacy
#Legislative Branch
#Public Policy