CC2009: Day Seven Recap

Summary by Richard Church, Wi Delegate
Sleep deprivation is catching up with all of us, I think. In fact, I'm having a little trouble focusing on the screen as I write this. Committees have been working late into the night and I've noticed that each day the number of delegates to attend the early morning presentation is diminishing. In fact, I missed the presentation this morning in an effort to catch up on sleep.

The topic of the morning presentation was the Sovereignty and the North American Union, but I can't really say any more than that because I was fast asleep. The afternoon presentation was on the Property Clauses. The speakers were Dr. Michael Coffman, CEO of Sovereignty International and Mr. Michael Shaw. They spoke on various issues affecting land use, eminent domain, and violations of personal property rights. (Once again I fell asleep for almost all of the first presentation by Mr. Coffman. The content was fascinating, but as soon as the lights were lowered I couldn't keep my eyes open.)

We have greatly curtailed the "chat sessions" today. The morning discussion was held to a half hour only and the afternoon discussion was done away with altogether. This is because we have a hard deadline looming. Tomorrow is the last day to hear, discuss and adopt committee reports. The last three days are dedicated to forming Articles of Association.

Michael Badnarik suggested that we meet at 6:00am tomorrow to give us extra time, but the delegates decided to meet at the regular time. What this means is that we will remain in session tomorrow as long as it takes to complete our business, which may be late into the night. We are definitely suffering the consequences of the ill-advised decision to have open discussion on each topic.

We adopted two committee reports today. One deals with the Accountability Clause, or the right to petition for redress of grievances. The resolution affirms that the government has a duty to respond to a properly filed petition for redress. In opposition to this, some delegates pointed out that, while the First Amendment protects the right to petition, it does not specifically require a response. I tend to agree with this opposing position, but I also sympathize with those who say that without such a duty the right to petition is meaningless.

We also adopted a report by the Sixteenth Amendment Committee. The resolution states that the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified and calls for an end to the federal income tax. It also directs state and local governments to protect their citizens from unlawful enforcement of tax laws. I was against this resolution, but my fellow Wisconsin delegates were in favor. I asked Brent Arnold to actually cast our vote, as this issue is very important to him. (Also, he told me that his wife asked him why he and Rudy never get to vote. Even though I am the Voting Delegate, I will give them more opportunities to cast our state's vote tomorrow.)

Unfortunately, we failed to adopt a Declaration of Nonauthority and a list of Constitutional Clarifications authored by Jon Roland of Texas. Mr. Roland is a mathematician by training, but is also a recognized legal historian and Constitutional expert. I have learned to listen closely when Mr. Roland speaks. Unfortunately, it seems many here do not share that esteem.

A few other committee reports were heard, but have been postponed until tomorrow. Several committees have been appointed that do not deal with specific agenda items. It is my sincere hope that those can be delayed until we have dealt with all of the actual agenda items.

The General Welfare Committee has completed our reports. We worked with Bob Schulz after dinner tonight to finalize our first report which deals with Foreign Policy and the General Welfare. We also finalized our second report with regard to the misuse of the General Welfare Clause in general. I was responsible for writing this second report, although many of the thoughts in it came from other committee members. I look forward to the opportunity to present it to the delegates tomorrow. So far, everyone who has read it has been very positive. I am hoping it will pass with little debate or amendment, but that is unlikely.

Tomorrow we have presentations on various topics, including: jury nullification, grand juries, health care, and possibly others. I don't believe there will be any discussion and we will probably be remaining in session into the night.
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