Why can't we practice our 1st Amendment Free Speech rights at the post office?

Until the Patriot Act was passed, we used to be able to gather signatures for ballot measures and propositions in front of the post office.  I call that the citizen's 1st Amendment right to petition the government for redress of our grievances.  Others call it 1st Amendment Free Speech rights.  In 2012, when we were gathering signatures for Prop 37, the GMO labeling effort, and Measure F, the anti-corporate personhood rights effort, the Ukiah postmaster called the police to drive the petitioners away.  I asked Steve, one of the clerks there, who replied that citizens can't petition in front of the Post Office because it is private property. 

I have heard that the USPS had privatized some of their services, but I had thought that the Post Office was federal property.  In a democracy, the government is formed by the People to serve the People, and therefore, all Federal property belongs to all American citizens. 

I had also heard that the Patriot Act had a provision that prohibits ordinary citizens from getting within a certain distance of any diplomat.  Thomas Jefferson is probably turning over in his grave about that. But it shouldn't pertain to the Post Office since there are no diplomats inside. 

Even if the Post Office was private property, the Supreme Court 1980 Pruneyard Decision ruled that 1st Amendment rights are higher than private property in places that can be considered equivalent to the town square, like a modern shopping center.  I would pose that the Post Office is also equivalent to a town square.  So the fact that American citizens can't practice our 1st Amendment rights in our democratic nation in front of the federal post office perplexes and alarms me. 

Can anyone tell me why the Post Office is now off limits to citizens to practice democracy?  Will we have to get arrested gathering signatures in front of the Post Office and take the case to the Supreme Court? 

A Wall of Separation Between Corporation and State

The Tea Party advocates told me that the Constitution protects capitalism.  That perplexed me.  I have read the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights several times and couldn't recall seeing anything about capitalism.  As a matter of fact, I carry a copy of the Constitution with me like a Christian will carry a Bible.  I can't say that I am a great Constitutional scholar, but I have a pretty good familiarity with it.  

I contended that I never saw anything about capitalism.  The closest thing I could imagine is the right to own private property.  They responded that this right IS capitalism, but the founding fathers just didn't have that word yet.  I again contended that capitalism means buying low and selling high, which is not at all the same as the right to own private property.  They disagreed, and affirmed that it is the same.  

So I looked up the word Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision for profit, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. 

The first real capitalists were the Dutch East India Company founded 1602.  They used capital for investment, but no one ever used the word Capitalism until it was coined in 1867 by Karl Marx in his book co-written with Engels, Das Capital.  The meaning Marx gave it was using capital (money) to buy commodities to sell for profit.  That seems pretty simple to me and confirmed my contention that capitalism is not the same as the right to own property.  There is no right in the Constitution to own property for profit.  Although the founding fathers assumed that shops and businesses would conduct commerce everywhere in the new Republic, they found no reason to guarantee the right to free enterprise or the right to make profits. 

That's why I believe we need to amend the Constitution to guarantee Constitutional rights only to human persons, as well as making election financing answerable only to the Public for which they will be elected.  These together will make a wall of Separation between Corporation and State. 

We can solve the issue non-violently with a constitutional amendment

The new fire in the growth of Liberty and Democracy initiated by the Arab Spring and OWS has accelerated the process of our sovereign People taking back control of our government from the corporate oligarchy. We will non-violently take back our government from within the system set up by our Founding Fathers by amending the Constitution.

The Supreme Court never actually ruled in their Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad 1887 that corporations are persons under the Constitution. The justices actually REFUSED to rule on that issue in this decision. Yet, the court reporter, a schill for the railroad barons, wrote it into his headnote, and as such, a century of court decisions have been based on this false precedent.  This is a 115 year-old corporate farce! 

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that political money is speech and is protected under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court made their worst decision to date, even worse than the Dred Scott decision. In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court legislated from the bench that if corporations are persons under the Constitution (1887), and money is speech (1976), then corporations and trade unions have the right to free speech under the First Amendment and can spend unlimited amounts of undisclosed money to influence elections. This decision overturned a century of campaign finance reform, and was certainly the most anti-democratic decision in history. 

The Citizens United decision opened the floodgates for international corporations to buy our elections. It drove the final nail into the coffin of Democracy, which is now dead. We no longer live in a Republic with government by the People. Our elected representatives are beholding to the special interests that financed their election campaigns, and not to the electorate. The whole system is seriously, seriously flawed. 

We need to take our government back. The Declaration of Independence 1776 says, “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Short of an armed revolution, many people have concluded that we may be able to solve the issue non-violently with a constitutional amendment. A sudden rash of amendments have been proposed to Congress in both Houses. Most of them concern campaign finance reform. A couple of the proposed amendments go right to the crux of the issue. They propose that only human beings are persons under the law, and money is not speech.

Collective Bargaining and the Constitution

The First Amendment to the US Constitution gives us the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.  How else will the common man do that without a labor union?  Therefore, unions are guaranteed in the US Constitution. 

Whatever Governor Walker is doing in Wisconsin is unconstitutional. 
Will DFA pay for a court trial to take it to the Supreme Court?  Or is the Supreme Court currently stacked with philosophically pro-corporate, anti-populist justices that it would surely rule against organized labor. 

In addition, the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision ruled that only Corporations AND labor unions can give unlimited support to political candidates.  That leaves labor unions the ONLY force that can balance the purchase of elections.  And Governor Walker would like to skew the balance in favor of corporations. 

Stop wasting time and money on the terrorist game

The "War on Terror" is a manipulative ploy to keep the American electorate terrified enough to justify giving up our civil rights to a creeping fascist invasion. When the Congress led by a Democratic majority falls prey to the fascist manipulations and propaganda, they are no longer serving the people.

3000 people died 6 years ago in one day from terrorists. To retaliate, we have killed countless 10's of thousands in Iraq, displaced millions, destroyed the infrastructure of an entire country, bankrupted the US Treasury, killed 4000 American GI's, countless thousands of mercenaries, and maimed 25,000 GIs. Yet we let the mastermind of that terrorist attack go free when we had him surrounded, and we protected his family members like royalty.

Since 6 years ago, countless 10's of thousands have died every year as a result of global climate change, but we continue to support the petroleum companies and polluting policies that have caused it. If petroleum companies are causing the deaths of so many people and species of wildlife, I would consider them to be homegrown terrorists.

Since 6 years ago, 450,000 Americans have died from alcohol related injuries. I would consider the alcohol companies to be homegrown terrorists.

Since 6 years ago, 500,000 Americans have died from tobacco. I would consider the tobacco companies to be homegrown terrorists.

The morbidity and mortality worldwide from air, water and soil pollution, from the effects of burning fossil fuel, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco exceed the single act of terrorism on 9/11 by about 500X, yet we fall for the manipulative propaganda of a war on Muslim terrorists in order to justify the invasion and occupation of sovereign nations and the erosion of American civil liberties.

Wake up Congress and start defending the Constitution from the tyranny within our own government. Stop playing the game. Get real and start serving the people. America has some very huge real problems that are being totally ignored while you waste our time and money playing the terrorist game.

Just remember that Luis Posada Carriles, the terrorist that exploded an airplane in mid-air with a toothpaste tube full of C-4, is scott free on the streets of Miami while the rest of the world gets their toothpaste tubes confiscated at the airport.

A Message on Iraq to President Bush

As the President of a Democracy and defender of the Constitution, it is your role to carry out the will of the people. If you were the CEO of a large corporation, you would have to answer to your Board. In the case of the United States, your Board is Congress. They legislate and you carry out the legislation.

It is anti-American and contrary to the Constitution that you enforce legislation that favors big industry at the people’s expense, and derail legislation that benefits the people at the expense of big business.

You waged preemptive war on a sovereign nation, Iraq, which had nothing to do with avenging the 9/11 attacks. You are prolonging a bloody occupation of a sovereign nation, which is totally unConstitutional. You have enriched your war-profiteering cronies at the expense of thousands of American lives, countless Iraqi civilian deaths, millions of Iraqi refugees, and the unborn Iraqi generations that will be contaminated with the radioactive munitions that were deployed by the USA. Yet, the 9/11 attackers were mostly Saudi and a few Pakistani, both nations count among our best allies in the region.

Vengeance belongs to the Lord. You are not the Lord. Civilized nations negotiate using diplomacy. The military should be our last resort only for defense.

You discarded diplomacy in 2003 and declared preemptive war. You deceived the American People with a premeditated strategy to use fear to justify unConstitutional acts. You have twisted your priorities and sabotaged America to the point of its self-destruction. You depleted the Treasury, decreased revenues, expanded the budget and put our nation in debt for generations to come. Your business policies encouraged the exploitation offshore cheap labor, which terminated manufacturing jobs in the USA. The lack of funding toward education has caused a decline in the education levels, which lowers the quality of the American worker pool. There has been a sharp decline in University applications from abroad due to the declining quality of US education. Your derailing of the environmental protection laws has led to increased contamination and pollution of the common resources, food, water, and air. Your tax and economic policies have widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

You are a liability to America. I suggest you resign instantly!

The NEW Declaration of Independence

…Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. The history of the BUSH ADMINISTRATION is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the American People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors Legislators to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. Or he vetoed them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish their rights the right of Representation in the Legislature GUARANTEED IN THE CONSTITUTION, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies IN SECRET, at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with EXCLUDING OPPOSITION TO his measures.

He has dissolved OBSTRUCTED the Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness ETHICAL OBJECTIONS his invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE HAS DISTRACTED THE PUBLIC FROM THE REAL ISSUES WITH MEDIA CAMPAIGNS FOR POPULAR BUT UNSUBSTANTIVE ISSUES.

He has endeavoured to obstruct the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers AND BY REMOVING THE POWER TO MAKE RULINGS FROM THE JUDICIARY.

HE HAS ILLEGALLY SIGNED OVER 1000 “SIGNING STATEMENTS” HOLDING HIMSELF ABOVE THE LAW.

HE HAS PASSED THE “MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006” WHICH SUSPENDS THE 900-YR OLD WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS AND ALLOWS HIM TO DECLARE ANYONE TO BE AN “ENEMY COMBATANT,” ARREST AND INCARCERATE THEM WITHOUT EVIDENCE, AND HOLD THEM INDEFINITELY WITHOUT TRIAL.

He has made Judges and U.S. Attorneys dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction CONTRARY TO OUR CONTITUTION, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For protecting TROOPS, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For imposing DEBTS on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas TO OFFSHORE DETENTION FACILITIES to await trial for pretended offences:

He has abdicated THE CONSTITUTION by declaring us ENEMY COMBATANTS and waging War against us.

He has FACILITATED LARGE CORPORATIONS TO plunder our seas, ravage our coasts, POLLUTE OUR AIR, WATER, AND SOIL, PLUNDER OUR NATURAL RESOURCES, and destroy the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow NATIONAL GUARDS to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited VIOLENT insurrections DURING PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS, and has endeavoured to SCAPEGOAT MUSLIMS TO INSTIGATE GENERAL FEAR AMONG THE PEOPLE.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A PRESIDENT, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people!

THEREFORE, we must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

IMPEACH!