This from my local paper on the Constitution, with locals comments. CJOnline

Letter: Constitution in peril: CJOnline / The Topeka Capital-Journal - Letter: Constitution in peril
Published Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Constitution is more fragile than people realize, and only the people of the United States can protect it.

The Constitution exists only so long as our government respects it and is held accountable by the people. The Articles of Confederation used to be our highest authority, and the process used to replace it with the Constitution was illegitimate under the Articles of Confederation. In other words, powerful men decided it should be replaced, and the majority bought into it.

The lesson is that our form of government can change whenever the people give our leaders the power. Our government has been eroding the meaning and function of the Constitution during the Bush administration so that one day it may be a meaningless piece of paper.

This threat to our Constitution isn't a partisan issue. It should concern every American. The Constitution is all that preserves our government "of the people" against a government that rules a people. We must protect our constitutional rights for future generations.

JASON LANTZ, Lawrence

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Reader Comments
+ 2 Rating Posted by: topekavoter at Apr 17, 2008 at 04:20:11 AM
What he said. Go Jason!

The constitution is intended to protect the rights of all citizens not deny them.

Kansas Equality Coalition - Welcome

Posted by: markzlatnik at Apr 17, 2008 at 07:40:18 AM
I don't think you can point the finger only at the Bush administration. Individual freedoms have been under attack by bureaucrats that don't have to answer to the voter, activist judges with an agenda regardless of the constition, and the democratic party by trying to say that the 2nd amendment is not an individual right even though all of the other amendments deal with personal rights.

+ 3 Rating Posted by: michaeljamison at Apr 17, 2008 at 07:49:47 AM
Perhaps we need a "Constitution Party" that would restore the losses inflicted by both the republicans and the democrats?

Posted by: chasss at Apr 17, 2008 at 10:20:33 AM
Jason
What about Pres. Clinton selling secrets to the chinese on missles during his admin.. What about lying under oath. The constitution is brittle. Think of the rights a person has lost in the last 20 to 30 years. Think about it a moment..........Now where would we be with out losing these rights.

Posted by: nobody at Apr 17, 2008 at 10:20:43 AM
The 2nd amendment is the right that allows all others to exist. The intent behind it was so that the government would live in fear/respect of "We the people." That right, and therefore all others, began to be infringed in 1919 with the imposition of an excise tax on handguns as part of the "War Revenue Act". This was the beginning of the trip down the slippery slope that has brought us to today, where crime is rampant and law-abiding, upstanding citizens are unable to protect themselves from the dregs of society without paying unreasonable fees and having their privacy invaded by being fingerprinted and entered into a database. It is a citizen's duty and obligation in a free society to be armed and prepared to prevent themselves and those around them from being victims. Responsibility goes hand in hand with freedom, and if you are unwilling to shoulder some responsibility, you don't deserve any freedom.

Posted by: topekavoter at Apr 17, 2008 at 11:30:14 AM
Marklantnik, I know this is called the opinion section but...
One person's "activist judge" is another person's judge interpreting the constitution. It would seem that to label a judge "activist" depends upon whether or not one agrees with the ruling. Many of the rulings made by the judges are not popular. Judicial oversight is a part of the system of checks and balances. Without a strong judicial branch, the legislative and executive branch will and have take over.

Posted by: NUMBER1EAGLE at Apr 17, 2008 at 12:11:19 PM
Remember the words of William Penn;
"Those who will not be governed by God, will be ruled by tyrants".

+ 1 Rating Posted by: NUMBER1EAGLE at Apr 17, 2008 at 12:48:09 PM
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered why, if both Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices -- 545 human beings out of the 300 million -- are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party.
She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses -- provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. (These comments by Charlie Reese, a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel)


+ 1 Rating Posted by: CrazyLarry at Apr 17, 2008 at 02:21:26 PM
The republicrats and democans are one in the same...bought and paid for by big business. We the people, need to shake up this system...a country of 300-million people is to be represented by only TWO parties--what a joke. This system is totally corrupted and some day the people will realize that and take the government back.

Posted by: heidis at Apr 17, 2008 at 04:11:55 PM
I'm voting for Obama mostly for the fact that he is a constitutional law teacher. It'd be wonderful to have someone in the White House who doesn't use our Bill of Rights and such as toilet paper

Posted by: erviltnec at Apr 17, 2008 at 07:29:53 PM
While you were watching the play-offs or "Survivor" the country was sold to the "Military Industrial Complex." We have a corporate Congress, corporate candidates and a corporate media to promote the corporate agenda. Forget about freedom and the Constitution, those are things of the past. Americans will keep paying outrageous gasoline prices and *****, but do nothing else. They will keep electing special interest puppets and wonder why nothing is getting done. They will keep seeing big business getting perks and tax credits while they keep living paycheck to paycheck. A national strike and election boycott would be the only way to stop this corporate fascism from continuing to rule.

__________________
Yea can't keep the words of your great leader.

Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

Mlurp:

I believe there are legal restrictions related to quoting people from another discussion board.

I agree with the letter. On too many occasions the problem has been both Bush Republicans voting to violate the constitution and Democrats being their enablers.

The Democrats need to grow some "cajones."

__________________
National Debt =

From my desk in California it is not so much Bush but the attack since 82 that has been unrelenting. I do not consider tricky dicks acts to be an afront on the constitution but on
American public.
Both parties has been a part of the dismemberment of the constitution by virtue of their own end gains. The citizenry are the only people getting screwed. Did you know that it is almost impossible to discharge your debts with bankruptcy? Used to be you could keep your house and cancel all other debt. There are other un citizen laws that benefit big business.

__________________
If you set out to fail and do, have you?

Actually, the dismemberment of the Constitution goes back all the way to Marbury v. Madison but the dismemberment has been happening at a faster pace since FDR.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Since this is a nation "for the people," if the people want to erode the constitution, shouldn't they be allowed too?

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

But it isn't the people that are eroding the Constitution, it's the federal government that's doing it.

Where the hell is that rolls eyes smiley when you need it?!

But to answer your question, the Constitution can only be changed legally by the amendment process.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."