It is the height of sophistry to support one’s position by misinterpreting, misquoting, or taking entirely out of context the words of credible people. That goes doubly when it is the Founders being abused.
Two U.S. senators and a television interviewer have been guilty of this sin against decent debate. The senators are Democratic Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and our own Harry Reid. Both were citing Founders as support for passage of the acronym torturing DISCLOSE Act — Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections. The bill would require any group spending more than $10,000 on political ads to file a report within 24 hours and reveal the names of those who donate more than $10,000.
Whitehouse took to the floor of the Senate to push the latest edition of the DISCLOSE Act proclaiming, “Madam president, in 1822 the Founding Father James Madison wrote: ‘A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.’ A vote for DISCLOSE is a vote to arm the people with the power that knowledge gives, to arm them with the popular information about elections — information necessary to prevent this great popular government of ours from becoming a special interest farce, information necessary to protect this democracy from the tragedy, as John McCain predicted, of scandal that will result.”
But Whitehouse left out the first sentence of Madison’s letter to W.T. Barry: “The liberal appropriations made by the Legislature of Kentucky for a general system of Education cannot be too much applauded.”
The man who was one of the three who wrote the Federalist Papers anonymously was talking about education, not the unbounded right of the people to know precisely who is backing which candidate or issue by spending their own money. He had no qualms citing the anonymous works of Thomas Paine or John Locke or Montesquieu.
A couple of days later, Sen. Reid descended to the well of the Senate and said, “Thomas Jefferson, one of our great presidents, once said, quote, ‘The end of democracy will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed corporations.’”
The problem is that authoritative research says the quote cannot be found in any of Jefferson’s writings and appeared nowhere until 1994, according to Monticello.org. It is apparently an amalgam of quotes and interpretations. It can be found in countless locations on the Internet, but never with any indication of when, where, or to whom.
But Reid managed to even take a misquote out of context. The rest of the invented passage talks not about corporate speech corrupting politics but about debt: “I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity is but swindling futurity [on the greatest possible scale].”
Reid would have difficulty heeding that warning no matter who said it.
The third act of Founder abuse came in an interview by CNN’s Piers Morgan with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Morgan said he thought super PACs funded by billionaires have been effectively buying elections. “And that cannot be what the founding fathers intended. Thomas Jefferson didn’t sit there constructing something which was going to be abused in that kind of way.”
Scalia replied, “No. I , I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better. That’s what the First Amendment is all about. So long as the people know where the speech is coming from.”
Many pundits interpreted that as Scalia saying Jefferson would be supportive of disclosure of political spending, though that is not exactly what he said.
What makes it difficult to believe Jefferson would back such a bill is that Jefferson, along with Madison by the way, was one of the anonymous backers of scandalmonger Philip Freneau and his National Gazette newspaper, which savaged President Washington while Jefferson was in his cabinet. Such a law would have forced Freneau to reveal his secret backers.
Thomas Mitchell is a long-time Nevadan. You may share your views with him by emailing thomasmnv@yahoo.com. Read additional musings on his blog at http://4thst8.wordpress.com/
Photo Credit: Talk Radio News Service (Creative Commons)
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Look at that man’s face. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something strange about this Harry Reid’s face. He just looks like a kiddy watcher.
Hey I have thought that too, but never wanted to say it, I said to myself come on, you despise him but don’t go THAT far, but I still think it, now I know I’m not alone………………
He looks like the kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And has a hand full of cookies and then says he didn’t take any cookies Bush took them.
The ONLY reason that Harry Reid and Sheldon Whitehouse want to pass a bill that would require all donors that give over $10,000.00 provide a list of their names is so that BO can expand his “Hit List” or “Enemies List” so that he can sic the IRS, CIA, FBI, ATF, DEA any every other agency that he controls, including the DOJ, on them to make their lives miserable. He could also use the NDDA to make them disappear if he considers them to be a threat to the Nation.
I believe the last quote was by Henry Ford, who founded the motor company….but have loaned out my book on quotes so could be somewhat wrong…..
Reid and Whitehouse opened their lying mouths and inserted their feet, or maybe something else. This is called treason. If they can misquote our Founding Fathers and use it out of context then they need to go back to history class and/or get out of office — this is what we prefer. Who else in DC has misquoted our Founding Fathers? As for donors giving $10,000 or more it is none of queenie obozo’s business. He gets contributions for $10,000 or more. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. See website: http://www.haasstrep68.com page 4 for the history of treason or if you want help remove obozo from office.
When ones mind is lost in a fog of his duties, his leadership is in negative array ,and his job is of a utmost position, he needs to be relieved of his duties ASP! My you get help soon Mr Reid.
Look at my arms,you will find no party hand-cuff on them. Signed,Davy Crockett
Reid is a dufus. Doesn’t say much for the people in Nevada. He is either senile or just plain ignorant.
What ddo you expect from a person who fixed the election in Nevada. He had Electricity cut off statwide, three times election afternoon because he was behind. HE is the Bottle-Neck in the Senate. He is the Reason nothing significant gets passed..
We Have Met the Enemy and the Enemy is Islam.
By: C.T.Farrell
NOLA – 2012
The Declaration of Independence begins with a preamble under the heading “The Unanimous Delaration of the Thirteen States of America” and continues, ” When in the Course of human events, It becomes necessary for one people to disolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate but equal station to which the laws of Nature and Nature’s God…,” the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible, “…entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Said preamble needs now, in our time manning our ship of state, to be ammended by inserting desperately needed sentiments after the words “… It becomes necessary for one people to disolve the political bands which have connected them with another…,” to read as follows, ‘…as when intolerable ideological beliefs – so defined based on the actions of adherents to said ideological beliefs be they religious tenets or not – have defined themself as the enemy of the Liberty with which all men have been endowed by their Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible.”
Case in point: the murderous cult of Islam has throughout its history openly advanced doctrines espousing world domination and the subjegation of, that is to say the ‘dhimmitudinization’ of, all non-Muslims.
‘We the People’ must recognize and rightly address that the principles embraced and expounded in the orthodox teachings of Islam are evil and incompatible with any freedom loving society.
The murderous cult of Islam is a religious system, but also an economic system, a military strategic doctrine, a legal system (Sharia), a political ideology, an oppressive cultural mandate on all societal institutions and should not be tolerated in the United States.
It was the contention of the Signers of The Declaration of Independence in recognizing the entitlement of separate and equal station availed by the laws of Nature and Nature’s God, the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible, unto a free nation that any such nation’s citizens should rightly exercise the action of decently respecting the opinions of mankind in the Course of human events by declaring the causes which should impel them towards separation from, as in the trial of their time, Great Britain.
Americans today should too respect the opinions of mankind in the Course of human events and declare – as we face the trial of our time an enemy every bit as seemingly insurmountable in its challenging magnitude as Great Britain seemed unto our Founding Fathers: the worldwide expansion of the murderous cult of Islam – the causes which now impel us unto the separation from, rejection as legitimate of and exclusion from civil discourse of the murderous cult of Islam and all its adherents and / or advocates.
America must determine to defeat Islam.
Some argue that there are ‘moderate’ Muslims, but there is no ‘moderate’ Islam. To permit Islam to flourish within any society is an invitation by said society for the disease like viral spread of Islam. Islam is a murderous cult which openly pronounces its world domination agenda and aspirations of a one world Caliphate.
Holding truths which are self-evident, as did our Founding Fathers, rejects the toleration of any encroachment upon those truths by malevolent ideologies which deny the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, recognized and revered in America’s founding documents from Whom all men are endowed with certain unalienable Rights. (That same Creator deleted multiple times from quotations from the Declaration of Independence by the criminal usurper to the office of the president of the United States of America, Mr. Barack ‘King Hussein’ Obama Jr., the ‘Manchurian’ Muslim from Mombasa.)
The truth that ‘…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ rings familiar and true in the hearts of all those who would call themselves Americans. Those words, a tintinnabulation resounding for generations within the very soul of ‘We the People,’ of the United States of America, echoe the very Spirit of 1776 – the Spirit of Liberty, the Holy Pneuma of God, the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible.
That American Spirit, revered and saluted symbolically in America’s Liberty Bell – though cracked and silent – ring loudly in the hearts of all who assent to the truth that all men are, in fact, endowed by their Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible, with Liberty.
The Declaration of Independence continues, ‘That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from consent of the governed, – that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right fo the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light or transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. BUT WHEN A LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES AND USURPATIONS, PUSUING INVARIABLY THE SAME OBJECT EVINCES A DESIGN TO REDUCE THEM UNDER ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM,…” AS IN THE PRESENT SITUATION UNDER THE ILLEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT OF THE CRIMINAL ILLEGALLY OCCUPYING THE PRESIDENCY, “…IT IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY, TO THROW OFF SUCH GOVERNMENT AND TO PROVIDE NEW GUARDS FOR THEIR FUTURE SECURITY.”
America is now in dire need of ‘New Guards’ against the toleration of the murderous cult of Islam.
“Freedom of Religion!” cries the undiscerning citizen.
The freedom of religion determined by and for ‘We the People’ in the First Amendment to the Constitution needs not be extended unto adherents to the murderous cult of Islam. The words ‘…a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object…’ define Islam’s multi-faceted strategy, that is to say ‘design,’ of military jihad, legal jihad (sharia), political jihad, religious jihad, economic jihad, educational jihad, etc.
Islam, as well as the agent of Islam practicing taqqiya illegally occupying the Oval Office, advances an invariable pursuit of an object: namely, a one-world Caliphate and evinces a design, the strategy of dhimmitude, to relegate Americans under the absolute despotism of Islam to the status of dhimmis.
It is our right, our duty, to throw off the illegitimate administration of Mr. Barack Obama and to throw out of our country – this land of the free – adherents to the murderous cult of Islam who in any way, shape or form promote jihad of any stripe. It is as much our right, our duty, to throw off the government of the criminal in the White House as it would be to throw off any such government that would arise which might so clearly meet the description of a government as that of which our Founding Fathers attempted to warn us.
It is the right and duty of those who would defend the Constitution and American Liberty founded upon the Rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, to exclude adherents to the murderous cult of Islam from the religious freedoms purchased with the Blood of Jesus Christ and the blood, toil and treasure of American patriots. Islam is far more than a religion and the doctrines and tenets of its political ideologies, cultural mandates, economic principles, legal sytem of Sharia, military regulations, etc…, additional to its religious dimension prohibit Americans from rationally tolerating the murderous cult as a welcomed element within the fabric of American society.
America must expel all Muslims who embrace jihad of any stripe. Political jihad, religious jihad, economic jihad, military jihad, etc….
If Americans do not take the drastic steps now to quash the disease like spread of Islam within her borders future generations of Americans shall suffer the same fate as citizens of many other non-Muslim countries Islam has occupied and/or conquered in its history. Future generations of Americans shall have to take up the fight under far worse conditions wherein the murderous cult lf Islam shall have entrenched itself more deeply and with far greater numbers within our borders.
The presence of the murderous cult of Islam is an invitation to all the many dimensions of jihad.
No free society should tolerate the multi-faceted dimensions of seige employed by the murderous cult of Islam.
America must determine to defeat her enemy and demand nothing less than unconditional surrender from Islamic interests.
America is paralyzed in the fight against Islam by her inability to define her enemy. Islam shall continue to advance on all fronts until such time as America recognizes the murderous cult for what it is and defines it as such. America can not defeat an enemy she is incapable of defining.
History clearly illustrates that compromise with the murderous cult of Islam inevitably leads to subjegation.
We must not tolerate the usurpation of the presidency by a Muslim practicing taqqia. Mr. Obama must be taken into custody and charged for his crimes against ‘We the People’ of the United States of America.
Impeachment would not suffice. To impeach the imposter one would necessarily need to recognize his legal occupation of the Oval Office which is NOT now and has NEVER been the case for he was illegally elected while fraudulently representing himself as constitutionaly eligible to be president.
Mr. Obama fraudulently usurped the office of president and, to add further insult to injury, presented ‘We the People’ with forged documents in a cover-up of incomparable magnitude. Mr. Obama is not the president. He has never been the president. He is a criminal illegally occupying the White House.
The illegal election of the ‘Manchurian’ Muslim from Mombasa must be retro-actively abrogated. Everything his illegitimate administration has accomplished complicit in the crime of many centuries – the inconcievable crime of usurping the presidency of the United States of America – must as well be retro-actively abrogated for it was all accomplished in the commission of crimes against ‘We the People’ and our Constitution.
To permit Mr. Obama’s accomplice, Joe Biden, to succeed him in the perpetuation of the crime is ludicris. Mr. Biden would then be put in a position where he could issue an Executive Order pardoning Mr. Obama for the most horrendous crimes committed against the American People in our country’s history.
Government officials in Hawaii, administrators at Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Republican and Democrat party officials, and many others complicit in the crimes of Mr. Obama must be brought to justice along with the agent of Islam, Mr. Obama, one way or another. “Let’s Roll.”
The Icky Witch And The Coward Lion With Barry Oz Soetoro Lets See Pelosi, Reid And Obama!!! “If You Pay People Not To Work, And Tax Them If They Do Work, Do Not Be Surprised If You Find A >Lot Of People Not Working!!How About A Budget Harry Reid, Then 20 Years Ago You Voted For “Audit The Feds”Harry Reid And You Are Collecting A Govt Check?? For What??That Chi-Town Obama Thugs Should All Be Sent To Sheriff Joe For 5 Years. God Bless America And The Romney Family With The Lady Of The Year “Susan Daniels”
It6′s time for Obama,Hillery,Reid,Pelosie, bloomberg and any who think like them to go and can be done in Novermber as a start!!