If you have any general questions or questions for Mark Meckler, please leave a comment below and we’ll reply as soon as we can. If you’d like to start a discussion about a particular topic, please use the Citizens Forum. Thanks.
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I am running for Congress in Missouri’s 8th district against Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. I am a tea party type of candidate and ran in the 2010 elections in the Republican primary. I am running again in 2012.
You have said you are wanting to help get the incumbents out of office. I could use your help.
Sincerely,
Bob Parker 417-457-6111 or cell 417-257-8711
I am a Democrat and my next door neighbor is a Republican. While we have different views on some matters, we agree on Marriage Equality for Gay and Lesbian families and we are working together on this.
What is Citizens for Self Governance’s position on Marriage Equality? How do you feel about big special interest institutions like the Catholic and Mormon Churches interfering with our self government?
Thanks for your interest and question. Regarding Gay Marriage and many other policy issues regarding specific laws or policies, as an organization we do not take a stand. We do, however take a stand on WHO should decide this matter. We believe that policy should be legislated as close to those affected by the law. For instance. Gay Marriage may be popular in your state (based on polling) and not in mine. If your state votes to enact Gay Marriage laws, I support your right to decide that. If my state should oppose Gay Marriage laws and the laws reflect the will of the people, I would support that as well.
We believe that if we engage the citizens to get involved, devlove power from D.C. back to the states and local governments, break the Left vs. Right Paradigm (as you are doing with your neighbor) and remove unpopular representitives from office who don’t reflect the will of the people, we will have effective Self-Governance.
Regarding the churches and special interests interfereing with our Self-Governance, the answer is to hold our elected officials accountable to what they are doing. This can be accomplished by engaging the citizens to be aware of what their representatives are voting on and for. Who is getting special favors and how popular the politicians. According to Rassmussen Reports, Currently Congress has a 6% approval rating. However 83% of Congressmen running for reelection are running unopposed in the primaries this season. This disconnect is our issue. If we put up credible candidates in the Primary elections, many of these crony capitalistic out of touch, unaccountable politicians will lose. When that happens, these officials will pay much more attention to what us citizens want them to do.
I have just finished reading a Newsweek article entitled “Jailbreak!” where I was introduced to Citizens for Self Governance and their efforts in prison reform. As a taxpayer and an educator of 20+ years (the last three in the Texas prison system) I am interested in being able to help this organization in the areas of prison reform and reducing recidivism. I want these men to rejoin society and be positive, influential members of not only their families but also their communities.
I have read your mission statement and understand that the focus of the organization is bigger than just prison reform but it is where I can be intially most effective for you. Who do I contact so that I can work on the ground for Citizens for Self Governance?
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for your interest. Please feel free to contact me at mike@citizens4selfgovernance.org and we can set up a time to discuss your ideas. It is people like you that have the right idea that “If it’s to be; it’s up to me” Lets pool resources and see what we can do.
What is the groups position on the war on drugs?
The war on drugs has been a complete failure. The bloodshed in Mexico is almost a daily reminder. The current strategy is expensive and is in need of drastic reform.
Greetings – I also just read the “Jail Break” article reference to your new organization and wish you all well. As an adviser to the Public Banking Institute, we welcome your initiative to transcend partisan positions in pursuit of our common democratic interests. Ditto for us. Our objective is to wrest control of the creation and control of the public’s money from the global banking cartel and return it to the people — in doing so we can reduce or eliminate our bondage to a debt-based economy. One example of our work is the Move Our Money coalition which calls on states and municipalities to recover control over their assets by removing their accounts with the too big to fail banks and invest in their local economies instead. We’ve all got much work to do, but it’s critical we all get on board to save what’s left of America’s democratic promise.
On the business side of things, we’d like to discuss how our organizations can support each other moving forward. If interested, please respond to this message. Good luck! (www.publicbankinginstitute.org)
Thanks for the props. We like your interest in reducing the size and scope of the Federal Government. Thanks for fighting the good fight with us.
Your stated mission is “4. End the cycle of incumbency”.
1. Do you favor term limits?
2. Are there incumbents that agree with your mission that you hope will be re-elected?
Rich,
We are not strongly pro or con. Term limits exist in many states around the country, and have not proven to be the solution many considered them to be. California (where I live) is a great example. We have term limits in place, and the state is a governance disaster of epic proportions.
The most important form of “term limits” is an engaged and informed American electorate.
I’m not aware of any incumbents who are entirely in line with our mission. Most electeds buy into the R vs. D paradigm, and play the game of the fights. In fairness, the entire system is designed to have them do this.
Mark
Has anyone ever studied how America has come to this sorry state in our 230 year history that has spawned all of the grass roots movements forming around our country? I would suggest that every ill in our country today began with the ratification of the 17th amendment. Read the following letter and I think you will agree. A grass roots movement to repeal this hideous act is paramount before it’s too late. If the current President is re-elected it will most certainly be too late. Check out restorefederalism.com
An open letter to the Legislators of the 50 United States of America
In 1913, our states lost a valuable check and balance over the federal government. If you were to review the original wording of the Constitution, you would find that the founders, in an effort to protect states’ rights and the integrity of the states, provided for states’ representation as an equal party through the Senate to the people’s representation in the federal government through the House of Representatives. They provided to the states checks and balances over the three branches of the federal government by giving the Senate specific and proprietary powers over the actions of the Federal Government.
•The Senate was given power to provide advice and consent on all Executive appointees and this included judicial appointees, notably the Supreme Court and Federal inferior Courts – circuit courts, etc.
•The Senate had the sole responsibility to ratify all treaties submitted by the Executive Branch, giving the States some control over foreign affairs.
•The Senate became an equal partner in the passage of legislation with the House of Representatives.
•It functioned as the jury in matters of impeachment of all Federal officials, the Chief Executive, and Jurists.
The ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment effectively neutralized the power of the States to control the federal government and rendered the 10th amendment moot. Upon ratification in 1913, the Senate of the United States was now responsible only to the people by direct election and no longer was each Senator responsible to the legislature of their respective state.
Was the Seventeenth Amendment a good thing? Let us give one example. Today Congress regularly provides mandates for the States, called unfunded mandates, to spend money on education initiatives, managing illegal alien populations, or supporting medical care for those with no medical coverage, at local hospitals, etc. Now that the Senate is not responsible to the states, it regularly agrees with the House on these mandates, as the alternative would be federally funded programs requiring an increase in taxes. Instead an unfunded mandate requires the states to increase taxes or reduce other services. This ill advised Amendment has fostered an uncontrolled, unchecked federal government in size and power. It has created a federal government that has usurped the power of the states on numerous occasions. We now have federal departments that duplicate states agencies, like the $66 billion annual budget of the Department of Education?
When this country was founded it was no coincidence that is was named The United States of America. It was not named the People’s Republic of America. The States were to provide for the laws and services required of government and the Federal Government was required to provide the necessary laws to protect the States (common defense), regulate commerce and trade between States, and provide for a consistent and standardized basic set of rights for all people of all these United States. “States Rights” were so important that we fought a Civil War over them. In 1913, the states either willingly or unwillingly abdicated their role as an equal partner with the federal government by ratifying the Seventeenth Amendment. This Amendment replaced a provision in Article 1, Section 3, which stated: “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one Vote…” No longer was the Senate the “upper” house with responsibility to the States.
Additionally, there has always been concern whether House Joint Resolution 30 was properly adopted. It sent the amendment to the states for ratification. There has also been much concern whether the requisite number of states properly ratified the Amendment or whether the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, was overzealous in declaring the Amendment ratified.
The Amendment was intended to solve a problem of ambiguity about the election of Senators by the state legislatures. The legislatures would often be deadlocked on the election of a Senator, thus not send a Senator to represent the state or the majority party of the legislature would change and the legislature would recall the sitting Senator. In stead of fixing these issues, the Amendment killed a fly with a mallet. It wiped out all states rights in the functioning of the federal government. The Amendment gained traction and popular support because Randolph Hearst felt that the repeal of the Amendment would give his newspaper chain unprecedented clout in the direct election of Senators and would serve provide the same clout for those issues his newspaper chain supported, thus he put the full weight of his newspapers behind shaping public opinion – it became a populist movement.
Today, both Houses of the Congress are inured with special interests. These are interests often in opposition to your state’s best interest. You see it in your daily legislative activities. Can you honestly say that the Senate is protecting the interest of your state as was intended? Since sufficient validity questions exist and the result of the abdication of states rights radically altered the functioning of the United States of America, the review of and repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment may very well be in your state’s best interest. The so-called affordable healthcare bill would never have made it past the House were it not for the 17th Amendment.
It is time for our states to take back its rightful place along side its partner, the federal government and start the process to repeal the ill advised Seventeenth Amendment. The repeal should also remove the ambiguity of the election of Senators by the states. It is suggested that in a bicameral legislature each house gets one vote and it is assigned to the candidate with a plurality, with the chief executive of the state having a vote to break the tie, should one exist. It is also suggested that the recall of a Senator should be subject to the supermajority of each house of the legislature.
Gaylon,
I’m in complete agreement with you. In fact, I wrote about this in my book, Tea Party Patriots, The Second American Revolution.
Unfortunately, Constitutional Amendments are capstones to national change, not foundations. What I mean by that is that people in the states have already made the decisions on a broad scale which then result in the passage of an Amendment. The 17th Amendment is a perfect example. Many states were already electing (in non-binding, popular votes) their Senators before the 17th Amendment was even proposed.
This means to me that the key is to do exactly what you are doing, which is to educate people about this idea, to see if we can begin to get it to spread state by state, without proposing such an Amendment. The Amendment will come when the time is ripe.
Mark
The Benghazi-gate issue was an outrage and was important as a tool to help expose the Administration and his campaign, before the election. BUT do you believe that since the election is now done and over, that it is anymore but turned into a tool for Ambassador Rice’s appointment to the position of US Secretary of State… or more?
The morning network media shows seem to be playing this up as another platform to show how this abused woman is able to overcome all this adversity. Then they show the GOP Senators that she has to face, and they look like they have struck a deal with the Obama camp to make Rice look good for her approval through Congress.
So, should the Tea Party and Grassroots Conservatives Groups stay away from the Benghazi-Gate issue/story?
There are rumors (more than rumors) that on the Fiscal Cliff issue that is heating up, (and has been given a deadline) has been decided upon. By both the Republicans and the Democrats, now intend to continue with a show to fool the public by beating each other up, but the issue has already been agreed upon between them.
If this is true, the GOP ruling elite is making deals between them and the Democrats to protect their ruler-ship within their parties and then possibly blaming the Tea Party for the Fiscal Cliff issue?
So if there is nothing we can do to make a difference on this issue, and the best thing for us to do is not insert ourselves into this issue? Then afterwards, do we get very loud, with press releases, interviews, etc to expose this combined deception by our two parties after whatever their agreed upon outcome is reached?
Dear Mr. Meckler,
I shall keep this short. I thought that greatest single greatest and most important interview that Hugh has ever done was the one done yesterday with you and your two colleagues regarding self governance. Thank you for spending the time to do that.
My interests lie in becoming a ‘rainmaker’ with regard to doing my part to elect true red conservatives for public office. No soft red pastels bud pure red conservatives. Our infamous “Shining City on the Hill” has begun to dim. I, like many others, are very distraught at the results of the recent elections. So please Mr. Meckler, could you refesh my memory of the site that you mentioned to Hugh that would tell me how to become a conservative activist. Ultimately I would like to become a conservative political consultant. Could you point me in the right direction? Primary, Primary, Primary!!!
Respectfully,
Tom Oatman
210-462-6686
Mark, need your input on this. I was contacted by Brad Kempo, an attorney from Vancouver stating he wants the Tea Party out in front on the issue of impeaching Obama. When speaking to him he mentioned your name and said you were on board with the issue. He stated he wanted to use the Tea Party and other conservative groups to get the information out to the public. Have you heard of the gentleman, read his information, and if so what is your general opinion. I am very hesitant to pursue this farther with this individual.
I’ve never heard of this, so if he is telling you that I am on board with this, that’s simply untrue. I am unaware of any grounds for the impeachment of the President. I think your hesitancy is appropriate.
Mr. Kemp relayed something similar to me. Only he claims to have spoken with your father. I can’t remember if he said he had spoken with you or not. BTW, be sure to tell your father, mother and especially your wife “Hello.”
Excuse me…. Mr. Brad Kempo
Personally, I have sat on the side lines, content to just vote the GOP ticket, however since Obama has been elected and now twice, I can no longer sit on the side lines. Further since Obama is now using the Sandy Hood tragedy as a catalyst to attack and dismantle the 2nd Amendment (a long time goal of progressive liberals/statist/socialist), I absolutely can no longer sit out. Obama declared war on American’s who own and want to purchase firearms. Worse inspired by Obama’s blatant attack on our Constitution the State of Calif’s elected officials are moving ahead with new anti-gun regulations that will turn millions of law abiding citizens into felons based on the firearms & ammunition they currently own.
This 2nd amendment crisis now focused in Calif is a political opportunity to rally not just conservative, but moderates and even liberals both Republican & Democrat. This is one of the stated goals of C4SG.
Mark, I know you are a tired warrior, you have spend years fighting this fight, sir I challenge you to come back to California and help organize the effort to join citizens who appreciate their 2A & gun rights, organize the effort to stop the new proposed legislation, organize the effort to recruit/rally the groups, and individuals to win both local and state election seats. We can not wait, we are at a tipping point, we need experienced leaders who know how to achieve this. Prove that your concepts are not just talk, form the plan, the strategy, the work required, the recruiting effort. PROVE your concept here!
The NRA has a grassroots program in Calif called NRA Members’ Council Program (NMCP). NRA Members’ Councils are NOT hunting or gun clubs. NMCP is a 2A rights issue grassroots effort to get NRA members and concerned citizens involved in this fight. I just volunteered to initiate recruiting to create a Sac Area NMCP group. I have zero experience at any of this, but no one else is doing anything locally in the Sac area, so I’m stepping up. The NRA’s money, lawyers, lobbyist are the tip of the spear, but without a grassroot effort to make our voices heard at the local and state level we will certainly lose this fight. Most agree that our 2A constitutional rights are the lynchpin for all our Constitutional rights. If Obama and the anti-gun, anti-2A, progressive-liberal, socialist, statist are successful in infringing or circumventing the 2A all of our rights are in jeopardy.
Please contact me, I need guidance, but I also challenge you to get involved locally in this Calif fight or maybe you can help me with contacts in other organizations that will help.
Thanks for your organization and example.
Dennis
I’m already personally in the fight and work closely with Gun Owners of California.
I forgot to mention that the NRA has two paid representatives for Calif. One is specifically in charge of grassroots. If you can meet and they are willing to accept some guidance their efforts will be more productive. IMHO they need the help.
Mark,
I know you are involved beyond anything I could possibly imagine. 1st I am NOT a gun enthusiast, I have a couple of weapons for home/personal defense, but as I said I can’t sit out any longer. I started reading and posting on Calguns, and it is apparent that many others are just like myself, and feel the need NOW to get in this fight, many are NRA members. They have been content to pay membership & the occasional donation. We both know that while donating is critical, it takes people to do the heavy lifting. Because of the NRA’s clout, and vast membership which appeals to both Democrats & Republicans I see a local grassroots effort that can cross those lines.
I heard you speak in Nov at the Placer Tea Party meeting, this is what you talked about, getting involved locally to begin to influence local politics. So here I am, following your suggestion.
So how about some guidance? Would you be willing to exchange email and or contact info, so I can seek advice? So far there isn’t even a group, I start the recruiting effort next Monday. Would you be willing to make a grassroots presentation at our 1st or 2nd meeting? (Hopefully there will be a meeting).
BTW, the problem with that Placer Tea Party meeting wasn’t who was there, the problem was who was NOT there. 90 % were near or at retirement age, there were very few 25-45 working stiffs there. That is one of the reasons I think this 2A effort is important, it appeals to all ages, conservative/moderates/even a few liberals. There is great potential for all the political goals we both agree on.
Can we talk? You have my email.
respectfully,
Dennis
THE FRAUD OF FRAUD and THE CRIME OF CRIMES
Government and political corruption exists at multiple levels and its main element is payoffs, both to and from persons in power. And as it must be in order to exist, fraud controls the manner of payment.
We hear a lot about fraud investigation. There’s much going on. It’s an ever-widening field. But what we don’t get to hear about is fraud protection—the highly successful covert operation whose goal is the prevention of fraud detection. Causing us to believe fraud prevention can successfully be addressed without comparable effort being directed at elimination of fraud protection is the “fraud of fraud.”
And the “crime of crimes” is the segment of the extensive, politically motivated, fraud-protection operation which destroys the personal, financial and professional well-being of individuals deemed to be a threat. Not surprisingly, victims cannot obtain help; their pleas are ignored. Neither are they allowed civil or human rights as may otherwise be provided by the Constitution or the law of the land, such as the right to due process.
With the aid of continuous surveillance of victims—wiretapping, computer hacking, hidden tracking device on vehicles, bugging of residence and office, etc.— persons or organizations who may come to the aid of a victim are identified and then caused to break-off all further communication. As said by Thomas Jefferson, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Based upon well documented records of prompt cooperation, or more accurately, collaboration, by all without exception; what likely is so—perhaps through abuse of authority of the Patriot Act whereby false claims do not need to be proven or even made known to the public — is that victims are marked as enemies of the state and/or a threat to national security.
The most shocking tool sometimes used for neutralization of victims of the concealed operation is doctors; psychiatrists or any professional who does counseling or psychotherapy. The new Hippocratic Oath: I promise to do harm; I will share your secrets; I will opine you are paranoid so your claims will not be believed; I will have you committed to an asylum. Use of the tool is not theoretical. It has been proved! And its use is encouraged by one of the most prominent organizations engaged in teaching about fraud examination; when that organization is contacted by victims, as a matter of policy it responds by recommending, “you should see a doctor.”
There’s much more to be said. But first must be said what is going on. And then, God willing, more can be done to restore true justice and democracy in America.
Respectfully submitted,
Herbert “Hal” Rosenthal, CPA, CFE, CFF
Forensic Accountant, expert witness, author, lecturer, Korea veteran—and a Victim, now Blacklisted!
Scary stuff. A government not accountable to its citizens can spin out of control in many ways.
I am representing TPOT in the Oakhurst, CA area. Our Committee has learned a little about a “plan” you are initiating that originated in Wisconsin 10 years and in Texas 20 years ago. We understand that you have employed the originators of this plan and will be launching it in California. We were not told the name of the plan and are not sure if this might be your “Citizens for Self Governance Program. We would like to learn more about the plan and perhaps initiate some of its features in our area and/or support these endeavors.
Thank you,
Terre
Hi Terre,
please feel free to reach out to me via email at mike at selfgovern.com and we can discuss your question further.
Best Regards,
Mike Ruthenberg
National Coordinator
I posted something on Citizens Forum almost two months ago . . . just curious why I can’t find it anywhere on the Forum, even though my Log-in profile shows me as having posted it?
Hi! Mike,
I heard you speak on “Freedom in Action” this AM and part of the discussion was about the progressives taking our language and misusing it.
You made a comment about this administration using the term “self-governance” now for their own intents and purposes.
Maybe we should call ourselves the “Citizens for Personal Accountability and Responsibility” I bet they would never touch that!
Thank you for what you are doing. I so agree that it has to start on the personal and local level.
Debra
P.S. Keep watching how they use that term “shelter in place” and where. It seems to me that they want to get us used to hearing it, so when they want to get us to cower in our homes (Marshall law), we will comply willingly because it sounds like it is for our own good. Instead of using the citizens to help.