Most people on top state positions don't seem to have a habit of relinquishing their post voluntarily, much less due to health reasons. There's no lack of such examples in US history either. A classical example is Woodrow Wilson. In 1919 he suffered a massive stroke, after which he in principle should have remained in hospital. But his doc and his ( Read more... )

The terms 'Constitution' and 'crowdsourcing' may not usually appear often in one and the same sentence. But if you put them in a Google search today, you'd instantly get a suggestion for adding a third word: "Iceland". Because Iceland has become the first country in the world to venture asking its own citizens how they want their basic law to look ( Read more... )

My last post (unfortunately) descended into bickering about the nature of rights.  Two issues arise: first, the nature of rights and how they are assertable; second, whether dominant theories of constitutionalism privilege particular political viewpoint (especially a neo-conservative viewpoint about the role of the State).

The latter point I thought ( Read more... )

In 'Does Australia have a Constitution?' Howard Schweber and Kenneth Mayer argue that a constitution has two components.  First, it establishes the organs of the state, defining and legitimising them, and establishes the mechanisms for resolving political conflict.  Second, it defines the limits of authority for those organs ('usually (but not ( Read more... )

For the TL;DR set:

That's exactly right. In fact, President Obama has not only maintained the position of George W. Bush in the area of national securities and in civil liberties, he's actually expanded on those positions. He is actually worse than George Bush in some areas.And, for the mods: This article provides objectivity and facts by two ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I've come to believe the more I read about the idea of so-called strict constructionism that it is a nonsense concept, never seriously adhered to by any of its own titular adherents. The first means by which I come to this conclusion is a very simple one: the origin of the Constitution itself. Y'see the very concept of a United States in Congress ( Read more... )

http://www.thegrio.com/politics/lawsuit-claims-obama-cant-be-president-because-hes-mulatto.php

Lawsuit claims Obama can't be president because he's 'mulatto'

Tuesday, Gordon Warren Epperly filed a lawsuit in Alaska ( Read more... )

Question 1:
Just watched Romney's speech at CPAC while I was having lunch.  Apparently, it is a core conservative belief that the genius of the Constitution is to be found in its vision of a citizenry that achieves prosperity by freely pursuing individual happiness without government intervention.  Yet it is apparently also a core conservative ( Read more... )

Some time ago, I asked the forum in the Friday Lulz tradition to imagine a world where money was excluded from the political arena. Few bit, most of those dismissed, probably for the same reason that people don't sit around dreaming of what the sky would look like green instead of blue.

Ah, it turns out (through NPR, of all places) that others ( Read more... )