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Current Events vs. Founding Documents

This column presents facts regarding the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine's book Common Sense, the Wisconsin State Constitution, and various other documents in reference to modern topics. Mark hopes to encourage interest in those works so that others can consider whether our government is practicing within its constitutional limits. In the last category, he may indicate his opinion. Mark is a resident of New Berlin and a member of Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty. Visitors are encouraged to visit the following sites for more information on the United States Constitution and Thomas Jefferson's views on politics and government.

 

Free Speech and EPA Employees

free speech

 Entry 11 

 Current Event

As reported by  - FOXNews.com on November 17, 2009(full article available on line)

Laurie Williams and husband Alan Zabel worked as lawyers for the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in its San Francisco office for more than 20 years, and they know more about climate change than most politicians. But when the couple released a video on the Internet expressing their concerns over the Obama administration’s plans to use cap-and-trade legislation to fight climate change, they were told to keep it to themselves.

….

 "Cap-and-trade with offsets provides a false sense of progress and puts money in the pockets of investors," Zabel said in the video. "We think that these restrictions might not be constitutional," he said.

 Their bosses in San Francisco approved the effort by Williams and Zabel to release the tape, but after an editorial they wrote appeared in the Washington Post, EPA Director Lisa Jackson ordered the pair to remove the video or face disciplinary action. 

 VS

 The power which the Obama administration is taking to restrict speech conflicts with the limited authority granted by the constitution.

 Founding Document

 The Constitution, First Amendment

 Declaration of Independence:

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

 We the People:

If our elected officials choose not to, then we must take action to stop these abuses.

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