Thursday, June 12, 2014

3958 Urgent! Please carefully consider this and join in the effort.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

This is Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 
There's a movement afoot for an amendment setting congressional term limits - specifically 12 years.  There's no way on earth members of Congress will agree to do away with their own lucrative power trip.  It has to be started in the state legislatures, and there will likely be resistance there, too, since they might be afraid of the same happening to them, if it hasn't already.

[I believe there are currently 15 states with term limits.  In two other states, term limits had been passed, then were rescinded by subsequent legislatures (not surprising -- I'm just surprised there weren't more) and one was overturned by the courts.  If you are interested, here's a list of states and their term limit status: http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/chart-of-term-limits-states.aspx.]

So, people are trying to generate a popular petition movement.  "WE want it, and we want it now!"  You sign the petition and it will be presented to the legislature of your state.  Here's the text of the proposed amendment,  http://www.termlimitsforuscongress.com/e-petition.html, and the online petition itself.  "Signing" consists of filling it out and sending it in online.

I don't have to argue why this is a good idea.  The chances of it passing anywhere in our lifetimes is slim.  But we must make our desires known or the chances are zero.

I urge you to "sign".  Pass the links on to everyone you know.  It does require your personal information, like name, address, email address, but even I have no fear.  I'm even making a donation.

Forward it to everyone you know.  But, SIGN ONLY ONE petition, otherwise your petition might be thrown out.

The petition is at


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Almost forgot - there's a main Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TermLimitsforUSCongress, and some have been set up for particular states - just search in Facebook for "term limits for us congress" and your state name.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Term limits have been a disaster in Michigan. No one has any idea how to get anything done - the incumbents must not have taken civics and don't have the foggiest idea how laws are written, let alone passed. They also have no interest in working together since there's no long term for them - they just want exposure so they can get cushy jobs with lobbying or law firms. We desperately need to repeal term limits - far better to have some people around with experience who can get something done than a bunch of raw recruits. It's as bad as going to a hospital ER in July and being cared for by a new intern.
Kris