NRO: In Closed-Door Meeting, Cantor Warned of ‘Civil War’ ( among Republicans)..

[LadySkinsFan]

Well, I hope I can inject a little more sanity into the Texas version of Blue!

[Burgold]

Which part of the constitution says that it is in the purview of the federal government to make laws regarding violence between 2 people? Is the man in Virginia and the woman in Maryland, and the man's fist stretches across state lines? Why do we need to prevent states from coming up with their own punishment for crimes - and why do we only do this for violence against women and not all crimes?

Is this a real question? I can see someone argue that the laws could be redundant because assault is already illegal as is other forms violence that is enacted by one person to another, but are you really questioning whether it is legal to criminalize violence between two people?

[Larry]

Rick Perry was a Democrat....we do blue differently

Wow. It's amazing the way the GOP just keeps doing that, every time we see a politician who does exactly the same thing as all the other Republicans.

Just claim that nobody is a Republican, if they have a record.

---------- Post added March-2nd-2013 at 01:43 PM ----------

Is this a real question? I can see someone argue that the laws could be redundant because assault is already illegal as is other forms violence that is enacted by one person to another, but are you really questioning whether it is legal to criminalize violence between two people?

It's just a really extreme "carry the point to absurdity" version of the Constitution.

See, the Constitution doesn't explicitly state that Congress has the authority to, say, declare murder illegal.

Granted, the Constitution doesn't explicitly authorize Congress to pass any criminal laws whatsoever. Doesn't authorize any punishment, either.

There's nothing in the Constitution that says that the Judicial branch will have trials.

But, those powers are kind of implied, by the terms "Legislative" and "Judicial". (At least, to me.)

[thebluefood]

Wow. It's amazing the way the GOP just keeps doing that, every time we see a politician who does exactly the same thing as all the other Republicans.

Just claim that nobody is a Republican, if they have a record.

Has the GOP become right-wing versions of hipsters?

"Naw, that guy's not a Republican. He's a RINO poser. So lame."

"Yeah, I was conservative before it was cool."

[twa]

Just claim that nobody is a Republican, if they have a record)

what part of was did you not grasp?

our blue is generally redder than some of ya'lls purple

[Burgold]

what part of was did you not grasp?

our blue is generally redder than some of ya'lls purple

You got to admit that ever since Bill Clinton the meaning of "was" "is" and "did" has been a little nebulous.

[twa]

You got to admit that ever since Bill Clinton the meaning of "was" "is" and "did" has been a little nebulous.

only for progressives....but they were already a bit unsteady on positions

---------- Post added March-2nd-2013 at 08:46 PM ----------

kinda OT...but on this day long ago real civil war war under way

The Unanimous

Declaration of Independence

made by the

Delegates of the People of Texas

in General Convention

at the town of Washington

on the 2nd day of March 1836.

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.

When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.

When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.

Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.

The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.

In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.

It has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected.

It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government.

It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.

It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government.

It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power.

It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation.

It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution.

It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation.

It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.

It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments.

It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination.

It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers.

It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrranical government.

These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self government.

The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.

We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.

http://www.lsjunction.com/docs/tdoi.htm

[LadySkinsFan]

This story is why we have the Violence Against Women Act. I have no doubt that without it, the situation will devolve right back to this kind of behavior.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog/wp/2013/02/28/magazine-after-dad-shot-mom-a-family-deals-with-the-haunting-legacy-of-gun-violence/?hpid=z7

Name the problem: male violence. And as I've written before, it is up to men to fix it, because the victims, women and children, can't.

[twa]

This story is why we have the Violence Against Women Act. I have no doubt that without it, the situation will devolve right back to this kind of behavior.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog/wp/2013/02/28/magazine-after-dad-shot-mom-a-family-deals-with-the-haunting-legacy-of-gun-violence/?hpid=z7

Name the problem: male violence. And as I've written before, it is up to men to fix it, because the victims, women and children, can't.

I'd say this is the problem

In the days after the shooting, Fran was in and out of surgery. And she decided not to press charges. She wanted Ken to get a job and pay child support, she says now, because that would most help the children. "I had six children. I couldn't work."

nut up

[LadySkinsFan]

Now, it's not up to the woman whether she'll press charges or not, if there's probable cause of the crime of domestic violence, assault and so on, the perp will be arrested and tried. Too often, women would refuse to press charges just like this woman did. Remember, this was in the 60s.

Nice try on the "blame the victim" meme, twa. Didn't work.

[Burgold]

It's funny. I bet if you asked the question... "Should a man hit a woman?" We'd get the answer no with limited caveats 90% of the time. If that's what we believe why would anyone have a problem with a law that seeks to defend women from abuse?

[twa]

Nice try on the "blame the victim" meme, twa. Didn't work.

if you act like a victim you will likely be one (be it male or female)

bur, equality is defending everyone equally

[Larry]

Admiring the "rah, rha. Go, Texas!" post. Which, while completely off topic, did contain the really amusing clause that the reason Texas decided to secede from Mexico was because they objected to being part of a federal government which catered to the majority religion, and the military. "both the eternal enemies of civil liberty".

[twa]

hey it has republicans and civil war .....the matter was more than simply cater though