A reading of the U.S. Constitution text was the first order of business for the Republican-controlled 112th Congress. Image: The White House
The U.S. Constitution text was read in the House of Representatives Thursday as Republicans kicked off the 112th Congress with blatant Tea Party pandering. The GOP-led sideshow was accompanied by controversy and melodrama. Republicans omitted passages of the original U.S. Constitution text, and a birther disrupted the proceedings.
Tea Party pandering on display
The reading of the U.S. Constitution text in the House was a Republican gesture to Tea Party activists who handed the party the majority in the 2010 election. The reading lasted about an hour and a half. It was a symbolic gesture to emphasize a new Republican rule requiring that all proposed bills must cite the section of U.S. Constitution text that permits them to become law. New Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, had the honor of reciting the preamble’s words:
“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Three-Fifths Clause doesn’t make the cut
Partisan bickering over the U.S. Constitution text began before it was read. Republicans insisted on deleting sections of the Constitution supplanted by amendments. One of those sections included the “Three-Fifths Clause.” The Three-Fifths Clause states slaves are only to be considered “three fifths of all other persons.” Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-Ill, said “Many of us don’t want that to be lost upon reading of our sacred document.” The fact that the Three-Fifths Clause was abolished by an amendment should be considered a reminder to conservatives that the Constitution is malleable, and has evolved along with the nation.
‘Help us Jesus!’
The reading of the U.S. Constitution text was shared by both Republicans and Democrats in what may be the final bipartisan gesture in the 112th Congress. The event took a turn when Frank Pallone, D-N.J., read the section requiring the president be a “natural born citizen.” A woman in the audience shouted “Except Obama, except Obama, help us Jesus!” The woman was arrested and escorted from the chamber.
Sources
Convicted rapists and murderers are given protection from human experiments by the U.S. Constitution’s 1791 Bill of Rights, Eighth Amendment. In 1992 the U.S. Senate signed and ratified the United Nation, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) with its, “… Article 7 – Freedom from Torture, or Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”[4] Stated is, “Written policy and practice prohibit the use of” [prison] “inmates for medical…..experiments.”![4] Cited is the U.S. Supreme Court’s no cruel and unusual punishment Eighth Amendment determination.[4] The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1987 STANLEY [3] “to harm”DOD military experiment is approved by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1950 FERES [1], i.e., by its ‘can do no wrong, ends justify the means’ ignored Bill of Rights. The STANLEY case is one of the U.S. Senate’s 1994 “During the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel” were subjected to “experiments that were designed to harm”, e.g., their reported biological and chemical agents, radiation exposure, hallucinogenic and investigational drugs, experimental vaccines and behavior modification projects.[5] To-date the U.S. Congress has rejected the U.S. Senate 1994 Report’s, “The Feres Doctrine should not be applied for military personnel who are harmed by inappropriate human experimentation when informed consent has not been given.”[5] The conducted known, certain injury trials were a dereliction of duty in direct disobedience of the DOD Secretary's 26 February 1953 NO non-consensual, human experiments.[2] During the U.S. Senate’s 1994 reported past 50 years, to 1944, most of the "to harm" service records were destroyed in a 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire. Congress’s 1974 Privacy Act censored experiment verifying witnesses from any surviving records!
The "Veterans Right to Know Act" to establish the Veterans' Right to Know Commission was proposed in the 2005 and H.R. 4259 [109th] 2006 Congress.[6] A veteran's right to get the “designed to harm” [5] needed for treatment, and experiment identifying, evidence never became law. This is consistent with the 1957, “….The intelligence community believed that it was necessary "to conceal these activities from the American public in general," because public knowledge of the "unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission." Id., at 394 (quoting CIA Inspector General's Survey of the Technical Services Division, p. 217 (1957)).”; See [Footnote 4] of Section IV, 1987 STANLEY.[3] All “activities” are conducted under the ongoing secrecy cover of National Interests, e.g., WWII, Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and Iraq.
Overlooked by many in Congress is our “Pledge of Allegiance” “with liberty and justice for all" and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ignored own, carved in stone over its entrance, “EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW”! There is now a since 1944 [5] continuation of the CIA Inspector General's “unethical and illicit activities” [3]! With all these years of Congressional talk and no correction do not the Department of Defense (DOD) “EXPERIMENTS THAT WERE DESIGNED TO HARM” [5] continue? Shouldn’t U.S. Service Personnel and Veterans get back those Constitutional Rights that convicted rapists and murderers, keep, e.g., the needed for treatment evidence? Please hold the U.S. Congress accountable!
REFERENCES:
[1] 1950 – Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 146 (1950). http://supreme.justia.com/us/340/135/case.html
[2] 1953 – DOD Secretary's 26 February 1953 NO non-consensual, human experiment’s Memo pages 343-345. George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin, "The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code; Human Rights in Human Experimentation” (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
[3] 1987 – U.S. SUPREME COURT, JUNE 25, 1987, U.S. V. STANLEY , 107 S. CT.. 3054 (VOLUME 483 U.S., SECTION 669, PAGES 699 TO 710). http://supreme.justia.com/us/483/669/case.html
[4] 1994 – U.S. State Dept., "U.S. Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights July 1994, Article 7 – Freedom from Torture, or Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” Electronic Research Collections (ERC)
[5] 1994 – December 8, 1994 REPORT 103-97 "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans' Health? Lessons Spanning Half a Century." Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 103rd Congress 2nd Session.
[6] 2005 & 2006 – "Veterans Right to Know Act" to establish the Veterans' Right to Know Commission was proposed in the 2005 and H.R. 4259 [109th] 2006 Congress. H. R. 4259.