Cohen was a good and a thoughtful man and former Senator. I am sure he was saying or showing concern here for the course some security matters were taking in possible violation of the Constitution and was therefore saying, "Hey lets hold on a miniute and think about this." Now for some like Mike there is never anything to discuss, it is just a cut and dry simple answer. At times of security risk you may have to take your best shot and do the deep thinking and or appear in court later. Slowing down and looking at the Constitution is what we should do sometimes.

Absolutely and thus it has always been. The US acting within their powers and the states within theirs, Viva our democratic Union of States. The other day someone averred that we are not a nation or a people but only a collection of soverign states. Nothing could be further from the truth. People around the world know an American when they see and talk to them. An African American for example is as different from a negro living in Africa as night is from day etcetera. Because our forefathers came from diverse ethnic and regions of Europe and the world, there was a sense of ethinc differences within the country. That has all passed, we are and have been one for a long time now, one nation, one people, one unique way of behaving and looking at things, which the world recognises as a nation. We are much more than a collection of states.

Duh, that is the problem Mike you can't read. Like the Bible the Constitution is not up to individual reading and interpretation. We have experts and it is called the Supreme 'Court. Have a little respect for your superiors.

You missed the point Mike, why am I not surprised. The fact that we don't just read the Bible but have men and women for ages interpret, explain and preach from it is a lesson that we can also take to our understanding of the Constitution. They are both apparently living documents, foundations from which to work and grapple with our very human daily problems and experiences. They are not precepts or "natural law" set in concrete like so many mantras on Orwells Animal Farm set up by pigs for every one else to follow.

You don't know that I have not read the Constitution Ben, how can you say such things. You also I assume believe that the Supreme Court Justices have not read it. What kind of elitism is it that you practice. Are you the only one who has read it. Above I also meant to add that those who want their way regardless of what the Constitution says.

We all come on this site as well as those who are on thousands of other sites. We have Fox News and anyother kind of commuication media you can think of . When thnigs vary from our own views we often think that their is some sinister control behind it.

Maybe but of course it also protects the majority against those minorities who might like to corner the market on newspapers, TV, etcetera, like Fox Noise. Bureaus were established to bring professionalism to government after years of the spoils system where whoever was the latest politcal hack would bring in their own cronies. Like Bush and his Texas league of losers like Gonzo and Company and remember Reagan and his Mr. Watts. You got the cart before the horse Ben. Freedom and liberty brings democracy not the other way around. Freedom and liberty is the natural state of man, the simple math that says that each mans equal right or vote on any given issue will be considered and that the 51% solution will prevail since it advances the notion of the greatest liberty and freedom is what democracy is all about. To be ruled by the 49% mob is tyranny, and the smaller is the ruling mob the greater is the tyranny till one gets down to dictatorship. A society lacking democracy therefore is lacking freedom and liberty.

Archer seems to double talk when he calls for state sovereignity and then calls for a new American Revolution. Would not each state have to have its own unique revolution with its own flavor, issues, and style to be really a state sovereignity thing. I mean if Americans everywhere and in every state revolted for the same thing does that seem to say that Americans are united across state lines, and thus does not that scenario say that voila Americans are still United and not disUnited as some would like to see us be. Finally I think Archer as usual speaks with forked tongue.

I am an American. California, Washington State. Maine and Florida and everything in between are mine to inhabit, visit etcetera without any restrictions what ever. None of them have a right to secede from me and deny me access to my birthright as an American. If you prefer the life akin to looking at the same four walls every day I recommend moving to some small European country, I would suggest Hungary. They have a totally different psychological outlook due to theri inward looking way of life.

Mike I never oops. I cannot oops because I do not proclaim to be an expert and I am not prosyletizing like you do. I have no agenda but the serarch for truth. If I do not say something quite the away I really want to or the way that you can rightfully understand it I reserve the right to restate it later. Thus I never oops and I don't mistate facts intentionally. For someone who promotes driving on the "wrong" side of the road and such things as you do, I think you have a lot of guts telling others they oopsed! Sadly Mike the days of living unto oneself is over if it ever really existed. The states were far from the Capitol in Washington. They are not far any more. The history of the world is the history of mans coming together not in becoming further apart. The history of the world is in Unity not in disunity as you would have it. Now if you consider unity a lack of freedom and disunity a sign of freedom that is your choice and maybe just a choice of words that is driving you a bit nuts. Really why do you not go some where that has the freedom you think you are missing. Most people of the world are beating down our doors to have the freedom or style of freedom we have here. Why not go and find the style of freedom you desire, and good luck to you. I suggest Namibia in Southwest Africa.

The fact that the government established in 1787 by the adoption of the Constitution which explaind and set forth the self same governments basic operation and premise, separation of powers etcetera and so forth, still exists is the most powerful testament to the Constitutions abiding power and usefulness and the fact that it has served us well and still does. Generally those who attact it or the society which thrives and has thrived under it have some sordid axe to grind about this that or another favorite issue, issues that are usually very strange and esoteric indeed.

and like the Bible it must apparently need mans sermonizing about it. Why do we need preachers if we can just read the Bible for ourselves.

Pound was a comedian! To aver that folk like Constitutional lawyers and Supreme Court Justices, a category of folk alone which must number in the hundreds of thousands, don't read it is a foolish effort at comedy in the extreme. I feel certain that the only ones who feel that they truly understand it and correctly interpret it our those who want their own way in every thing regardless of what the Constitutional lawyers and Supreme Court says.

I did not oops Mike. I was generally correct that much of the states were the brain child of men who gathered in our nations capitol and set in motion the idea of manifest destiny. Get a grip. When travel and communication was as antiquated as it was in 1800's when Calhoun said this local autonomy was much more important. Now we have far flung business franchises and corporations nation wide that operate and dictate policies and procedures from one central location, one board of directors and one Chief Executive. How realistic is it for the population of these various states to not be in communication, and cooperation and United on so many issues of mutual concern -like swine flu for instance, like civil rights for instance. You can talk political theory all that you want to but you have no sense of reality. Your desire to be what you call free is just an inane and anti-Washington sentiment based on nothing but... well inanity.

State governments standing in the school house door made this a joke. City corruption in some states made this a joke. The corruption caught and prosecuted by the FBI and US Attorneys were the watch dogs not the states.

As long as you all vote for people who will cut taxes and then sell bonds, we will always be in debt, and not by 10 trillion by an exponential amount above that. The republicans say government should be run the way good republican families are, then get in power and BORROW AND SPEND us into ever greater debt. Why can't you get this simple message. We have fought a war under Bush and had 4000+ of our folk killed and we our to much cowards (some of us that is) to even pay for the damn thing. Will we ever grow up. Let us start at least on this site.

Thanks for proving my point. I said that all may not like the output of the chorus. There will always be disgruntled chorus members. Most of them are on this site. At least Mike is having fun, I guess the some of the others are the sullen ones of which I spoke.

PS: Most of the states at least all of them in the west including California were acquired and posited into the Union by acts and action of the wise men ensconced in Washington, D.C. By such actions as the Lousiana Purchase, Mexican War, Gadsden Purchase etcetera territories were added to the whole and states were allowed to be formed and were given life by Washington. Only the original thirteen were a union of originally soverign states.

We have long outlived these views and opinions. Not only has American humanity become one via the speed of travel, and intrastate highways, tele communication and now the internet, continents and hemispheres have become one. The whole world wonders after the likes and brillance of Susan Boyle the Scots diva of the moment. Some still long for some type of local autonomy. Like the Pomerians of say that they are not Polish any more etcetera. Americans are born in Florida and live out there lives in New York etcetera. Our loyalties are to America not to our states. Calhouns and the others paradigm has shifted exponentially. Good quote but old hat, lets move along.

I don't think taxes are all that high. My friends and acquaintances are all doing very well. I vacation and see yachts and motorhomes strewn across the waters and countryside, and fabulous resorts every where. If taxes were so high how is it that we are able to live this way. I don't get it! We have hundreds of billionaires, and hundreds of thousands of millionaires and yet our government is 10 trillion dollars in debt, thanks to Reagan and Bush/Bush!

It is great to see someone identify the paranoids and schizophrenics and the unknowledeabe and misinformation specialists on this site. Arranging your tax situation can be as simple as buying a home rather than renting so that you can deduct the interest.

Our society, our democracy, our nation is based upon participation. Beware of the silent majority as Nixon called it who do not speal up and thus harbor resentments and are therefoe sullen. Do what you can do, hope for the best and then let it go. None of us can change the world ourselves but we for our own health we should participate. All voices will then make one chorus. The change may not be exactly what you wanted but such is life.

Go to IRS.gov and where it says search, type IRS Budget. The exaxt figure I stated was for 2006. The 3 trillion is like the last several budgets of W. Anyway you cut it the American people do a respectable job at paying the taxes under the law as written. If you take away enforcement, it would be like taking away plumbers. The result in your house is that eventually the water would stop running, get it, eventually the funding of the governemnt would dry up. Now lets get real, pay off our debt, and then cut taxes.

The IRS does not cost it PAYS! The 2006 IRS budget was $10,679,261,000. The US Federal Budget was approaching $3 trillion. That is a ratio of 10/3000. Boost and support the operations of the IRS and cut spending elsewhere and we will solve our borrow and debt problems. Again guys like Carlton, Mike (misinformation Mike that is) and Archer will follow men who kick and beat up on the hated IRS just like their ilk followed Hitler for kicking and beating up on the hated Jews. Somethings never change. Terry again great stuff. Reagan financed his tax cuts for the rich by increasing social security taxes on the rest of us. Now we have to not only pay the Chineese and Russians but also the Social Security System. It is great to find someone on here with facts for a change.

Thank goodness for Terry and for facts. People and politicians who use the IRS as a whipping boy for their own political gains are no better than or just the same as Hitler who used the Jews for the same purpose. To beat up and kick someone who is already hated by everyone is the work of cowards. Let me hear from the man or woman who will stick up for those individuals who enforce and adminster the laws, hell that they themselves via their elected reprsentatives wrote and write. The IRS is us and the war is not in Iraq and Afghanistan but on the streets of America where some percentage of folk cheat the rest of us out of 200 to 300 billion a year. Do away with law enforcement? Quit being so ridiculous! The IRS is the only agency of the government that does not cost, it pays. Every dollar allocated to them brings in 10 dollars to the treasury. Mind you these are dollars that should have come in anyway but some folk need a little more prodding. Increase the IRS and cut back on other agencies, bring qualified (accoutants) military officers into the IRS thus reducing military spending and investing the money into something that pays like the IRS, That is the answer. Pay off our debt then if you feel inclined do away with taxes altogether, but we must first take care of what we have neglected for so long, our debts. You guys will follow George because he hates the IRS just like the Germans followed Hitler because he hated Jews.