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Madison said a lot of stupid things in his old age. Some evidence suggests that he was going senile.

So senile that Monroe sought his advice, he helped revise the Virginia state constitution, and took up a position as Rector at UVA. Sorry, the senility argument doesn't even pass the sniff test.

Furthermore, he was arguing against the authority of the "general welfare" clause a decade after the letter I cited. So if he was going senile, that's an argument against your point.

He contradicted his own earlier statements frequently, and was caught lying about his own words in regard to state interposition.

It's called being a politician, and has nothing to do with senility.

So if he's a standard issue flip-flopping lying politician, why would you want to place exceptional weight on his opinion as to how the Constitution should be interpreted?

Jefferson and Wilson disagreed with you

Jefferson was not involved in framing the Constitution, he was in France at the time. (And why we should respect the opinion of a slave rapist is beyond me.) James Wilson was the author of the obscene "three fifths" compromise, so, fuck him.

The Federal government was given only a limited set of powers.

Correct. One of those powers is to tax and spend for the general welfare. It's in the text of the document. "We didn't mean it to be there!" doesn't change that fact.

Even if you honestly believe that Madison's opinion at the time doesn't matter (which is about the silliest thing I can imagine...

If you believe that its silly that the text of the Constitution is primary, and that in case of ambiguity the understanding of the people who signed it is far more important that the intent of the authors, then take it up with Madison.

So being a Constitutionalist is "Right Wing"?.

I don't see the word "Constitutionalist" anywhere up thread; and I don't think most of the ACLU members and supporters out there with the "I'm a Constitution Voter" bumper stickers would agree at all that supporting the Constitution is "right wing", no.

But what the hell, it's outdated and people like Elena Kagan know better than than the founding fathers.

Considering that the Founding Fathers envisioned an agrarian nation founded on stealing land from the American Indians, where only white male landowners could vote, where citizens had no recourse against oppression by state governments (since the Bill of Rights didn't apply to the states until Amendment XIV was passed), that many of the Founders owned slaves -- and in Jefferson's case, raped them -- yes, I do indeed hope that people like Elena Kagan know better than that.

Could we please put down the stupid mythology that the Founders were some sort of intellectual and moral paragons? They didn't believe that themselves. Thanks.

Really?

"Keeping Hope a Slogan!" If we're going to have token figureheads on a window-dressing democracy in the US, then Obama suits me!

How David Axelrod works as the Obama dirty-tricks dept.:
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/olson_obama.htm

Extensive and critical examination of Obama's campaign and its 'engineers', in "The Black Commentator":
http://www.blackcommentator.com/279/279_obama_campaign_dynamics_kilson_ed_bd.html

"The crisis of pollution and depletion of water resources is viewed by Monsanto as a business opportunity."

"Monsanto's genetic engineering trials in India are dangerous and anti-democratic"

"Why Iraqi Farmers Might Prefer Death to Paul Bremer's Order 81"

"Corporate biopiracy and the terminator seed"

"Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian farmer and seed saver of many years, was sued by the Monsanto Corporation (producer of the poisonous "Round Up") for growing GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) seeds patented by Monsanto. The seeds had blown into the ditch by his field. He is fighting this huge corp. which has the potential to control all the food in the world if not stopped."
http://www.suesupriano.com/audio/schmeiser.mp3
http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

"Terminator ban undermined at UN meeting in Spain"

This is about "full-spectrum domination" as far as I'm concerned; imagine if you could simply turn off a region's food supply.

For example, when psychologist Angela Neal-Barnett in 1999 asked some focus-group students to identify acting-white behavior, they listed actions that ranged from speaking standard English and enrolling in an Advanced Placement or honors class to wearing clothes from the Gap or Abercrombie & Fitch (instead of Tommy Hilfiger or FUBU) and wearing shorts in winter!

Ironically, the electoral college is one of the last vestiges of Slavery with any weight in the Constitutions. In fact, Jefferson wouldn't have gotten elected if not for the Electoral College. I believe other early elections had the outcome affected also.

See here, or just google for "Slavery" and "Electoral College".

My largest concern for the Electoral college is the sense of "my vote doesn't count", and the fact that we've devolved into two parties and that's it. The lack of any third party candidate to get real traction concerns me. Effectively there is a lot less of a market place where people can't pick from more people. It'd be novel to have a legitimate opportunity to clue the established political machine that things should change, without them having to make it blazingly obvious to the entire public that the system is incredibly broken.

Kirby

The lady is no friend to real opposition and champions of the people of America.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/171/171_blankfort_ mckinney_seniority.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/donham12092004.html

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction
rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.
-- John Kenneth Galbraith

This means Pelosi would sell you to the glue factory, if it meant keeping her mansion in Pacific Heights.

With only five percent of the world's people, the U.S. accounts for 25 percent of the planet's prisoners - fully half of them Black. One out of eight prisoners on Earth is African American.

Maybe some links to news articles