By Joe Miller:  On this day, 224 years ago, our Constitution was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  Just a few years after its ratification, the Founders’ vision of a limited central government composed of coequal branches came under a sustained attack from the judiciary, an attack that has dramatically increased in its intensity over the past century.

As the self-proclaimed final arbiters of the meaning of the Constitution, the judiciary has shamelessly expanded the scope of federal powers by making up new roles for the government.  The Commerce Clause is now interpreted in ways that were never intended by the Founders, giving rise to never-ending regulations and controls from DC.  And where no clause can be found to even remotely justify federal involvement, the judiciary has no problem with making one up.

That’s how the right to abortion was ginned up.  First in Griswold vs. Connecticut and later in Roe vs. Wade,  the Supreme Court employed an astronomical term, “penumbra,” to divine the hidden meanings in the Constitution that were not even apparent to the drafters themselves!

The Founders never intended the Constitution to be molded into whatever shape the judiciary of the day intended.  Rather, they drafted a document that even non-lawyers could understand.

The first three articles of the Constitution describe the three branches of government, delineating their respective powers.  In the Bill of Rights, language was adopted to guard against the expansion of these limited powers.  The 10th Amendment couldn’t be clearer:  “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

So, on this Constitution Day, take the time to read through your Constitution.  As you do so, I challenge you to find authorization for the federal Department of Education, Obamacare, or even EPA controls over wood smoke in my hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska.  If you find none, join a local tea party and help fan the flames of constitutional revival across America.

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The GOP has to get it right in 2012.  It will either return to its platform of small government, traditional values, and national sovereignty, or its conservative base will abandon it.

The stakes are far too high for conservatives to support the candidacy of another business-as-usual, ruling class member. Not only are we faced with unprecedented economic challenges, we are also suffering under a dramatic expansion of government, shepherded by both parties.

Typically, economic crisis brings opportunity to the party out of power. Elections are often won by pointing out the failed policies of the incumbent.  If the past is any guide, the upside possibilities for the GOP in 2012 far surpass any downside risks.

But what makes the present crisis particularly dangerous to the GOP is the growing awareness of grass roots activists that they’ve been hoodwinked almost continuously for the past two decades.  Although their party has controlled the White House or at least one house of Congress for all but four of the past twenty-four years, the central government has grown into a gargantuan, freedom-smothering entity over this same time frame.

We’ve been told endlessly by GOP politicians that we must return to a limited government, grounded in the Constitution, and how they will uphold the sanctity of life and the traditional family.  They start their campaigns with prayer meetings, issue proclamations in honor of God and country, and talk about revitalizing the American economy, but everything gets worse under their leadership: more regulations, more activist judges, and more big government programs.

How about illegal aliens? There’s hardly a Republican in Congress who hasn’t had strong words about illegal immigration.  But when push comes to shove, nothing happens.  Proposals for amnesty, code-named “immigration reform,” are championed by many in the GOP.  No reasonable effort is made to fund a fence.  Obama is not held accountable for failure to enforce immigration laws.

The Republicans’ fight against Obama in other areas also lacks vigor.  As we stand on the verge of the greatest federal takeover of our economy with Obamacare, no serious GOP effort has been undertaken to defund this program.  Obama has not been brought to accountability for his Project Gunrunner/Fast and Furious abominations or his failure to defend DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), which the Constitution obligates him to do as the head of the Executive Branch.

No GOP leader speaks about Obama’s lack of transparency in his administration or anywhere else.  Obama’s czars also get a pass, despite their circumvention of the confirmation requirements of the US Constitution.  No attempt is made to defund such offices. And the list of unchallenged Obama outrages goes on and on.

Then we have the budget process and the debt ceiling.  Conservatives were promised at least $100 billion in cuts this year.  Turns out that was lie:  the actual number may not even be $300 million.  The debt ceiling deal was even more of a betrayal.  No cuts at all right now, just continued exorbitant spending.  There’s a promise of future cuts in 2014 but we (and Standard and Poor’s) all know that’s just a pipe dream.

So when conservatives enter their voting booths convinced of both a collapsing Republic and a complicit party, there’s zero chance of compromise no matter who’s on the ballot.  The lesser of the two evils is no option in 2012.

That spells opportunity for any constitutional conservative running for the Republican nomination.  The GOP base is desperate for a candidate who truly loves this nation and will do whatever it takes to put us back on course.

But be forewarned:  the grassroots is also quite skeptical of all candidates, given the track record of the last two decades.  A candidate who starts a campaign in Bush-like fashion by appealing to the base with a prayer meeting or a vicious verbal attack on the establishment can’t expect an immediate outpouring of conservative support.  Quite simply, the base is sick and tired of being lied to.

Given this growing discernment, a candidate from outside the beltway who has a proven track record of holding the establishment to account for corruption and/or the growth of government can count on significant support.  The perfect storm of crisis and establishment disgust will spawn a candidate who, in 2012, either will resurrect the GOP and its platform or will walk away with its base in an independent bid.

Saving our great Republic requires courageous and selfless leaders.  There are very few in office today. God willing, at least one will rise to the occasion in the Presidential race, rescuing our country from the edge of the abyss, and back to its foundations.

Read original article at WND HERE.

The news is full of stories about where the United States is headed if we don’t do something quickly about the debt ceiling. Leaders of both political parties warn that a failure to raise the ceiling will result in market instability and perhaps even government default. Many tea partiers are more concerned that our extreme debt problems, left unchecked, will drive us into third-world conditions within a generation. From either perspective, the sky seems to be falling all around us.

In reality, it may be, but for a different reason. An immediate, existential threat to our way of life may be under development in Ahmadinejad’s Islamic Republic of Iran. And the debt crisis severely compromises our ability and willingness to face that threat.

Now don’t think for a second that I am some sort of neocon. I cannot support what the internationalists and crony capitalists have done in the Middle East over the past 10 years at the cost of thousands of American lives. Building foreign infrastructure projects, setting up regimes and establishing near-permanent U.S. bases, all costing hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars, find little support in the Constitution. But even if intended by the founders, these foreign entanglements are bankrupting the country almost as fast as Obama’s expanding socialism.

And, to make matters even worse, the regimes we have propped up with the blood of U.S. soldiers have failed to guarantee the very freedoms enshrined in our own Constitution. Free speech is frequently accompanied by assassination in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Religious freedom is under vicious attack in both countries. All in all, the neocon approach is a fiscal, constitutional and moral failure.

But the problems with our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan do not justify turning a blind eye toward Iran. This increasingly advanced nation, awash in billions of dollars of oil revenue, is aggressively pursuing nuclear technology. This is despite its energy-rich posture with the third-largest proven crude reserves and second-largest gas reserves in the world. Energy independence is clearly unrelated to Iran’s nuclear program.

Although suspicions regarding Iran’s nuclear program are nothing new, a number of revelations within the last several weeks reflect how aggressively this enemy is moving toward acquiring nuclear weapons. Last month, Iran’s nuclear agency revealed that it is tripling production of enriched uranium, a substance not needed for its nuclear power program. Earlier this month, Iranian war games displayed the reach of a newly developed radar-evading missile with a range sufficient to hit most of Europe and U.S. bases in the Middle East. And last week, it was discovered that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is being moved deep inside a mountain near the city of Qom.

Read more at World Net Daily HERE.

Some Republicans, and not just those supporting Mitt Romney for president, have questioned my “Stop Romney” campaign, announced by the Western Representation PAC several weeks ago. Given the likelihood that Romney will be the GOP’s next nominee, they believe my work will ultimately hurt Republicans’ efforts to retake the White House in 2012.

My perspective is that another Bush-like presidency, particularly in terms of big government growth, would be devastating to the country. We’d be in the same bankrupt position that another four years of Obama would bring us. If we’re going to avoid the catastrophes lurking around the corner, more of the same – even with a Republican label – is not the answer.

Some of my critics don’t understand that many in the GOP have played an active role in our nation’s self-destruction. We’ll call these the “ill-informed followers.” Others fully recognize that Republicans have been in the driver’s seat during much of our drive toward socialism, but they and their cronies enjoy the fruits of this largesse. These are the “crony capitalists.” Still others are simply progressives who see the Republican Party as yet another means of imposing their leftist vision on the U.S. and the world at large. They are the RINOs – Republicans in Name Only.

Of course, there are varying shades and mixtures of the above players. For example, even where a Republican, like Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, is driven by a progressive agenda that includes support for federal funding to Planned Parenthood, homosexuals in the military, activist judges and internationalism, she finds herself surrounded by the crony capitalists: multibillion dollar Alaska Native Corporations that directly benefit from Murkowski’s vigorous support for their no-bid federal contracting.

I have little to say to these crony capitalists and progressives who dominate the leadership of the GOP; they are a lost cause and will continue to support establishment incumbents over constitutional conservatives trying to rescue the country. In future battles, they will always pick a Murkowski and a Reid over a Miller and an Angle. Consequently, my energies are focused on reaching the ill-informed patriots who, by their vote, literally allow these destructive forces to remain in power.

Read the rest of this article at World Net Daily here.