Our Mission, and What We're Proving

Edit: This will continue to be updated as more bloggers join, but Matt has an awesome article up on his website: From the Pulpit...: OPERATION COMPLETION!

Operation Completion is now making its way to the eastern side of the country.

I have been working with Operation Completion since January. It has been the most amazing experience. If there was one thing that sets us apart from other rallies, it is the fact that we are entirely ran by students.

Lets face it, most of society's veiw of teenagers today is as lazy, unreliable, unmotivated and irresponsible.

Not only are we showing our heroes (or at least MY heroes) that we do follow what they're doing and support them, but we are proving to society that our generation is not all in the mainstream.

We are proving that we are capable of handling GREAT responsibility, and pressing on. We are committed, dedicated, and motivated, to complete our mission and rally America to support the troops in completing theirs!

Operation Completion has had success in all 3 rallies thus far, lets keep that success going. Let us prove to America, we are able. More importantly, let us show those who have and are sacrificing themselves for OUR generation, that we and most of America support them!

Every proud American should get involved in sending out this message of hope and encouragement to the troops! We support them, let them see it!

On that note, I'm doing a blogroll, one big thing we need is to get the name and mission out. If you write a post about Operation Completion/how we need to support the troops and tell me, I'll link to the post.

Let's comlpete this mission!
Kierstyn P.

Fires update

This came in earlier tonight...

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Once again thanks for all the prayers! This morning the fire hit 60,000 acres and has slowed up some. At noon it was 62,500 acres, which is rather slow as compared to earlier in the week. Dad and I continued to get cows out of the way of the fire, gathering probably 70 this morning. The main part of the fire is off the ranch, but a TON of hotspots still flare up every day and continure burning more and more. Firefighters hope to have one of the larger ones mopped up about now, but it is starting to thunderstorm, unless the storm brings rain we could be in trouble as it is packing a LOT of wind.... *phone rings* *returns five minutes later* Well folks as I was typing the above a miracle happened. Some of the fire is most likely still burning, but my Dad was on the phone. He and his boss were out putting some salt out to keep the cows away from the fire. They decided to pray, the prayed, and it rained!!!! That rain put a lot of the fire out. Due to the amount of smoke, we cannot tell if any other fire is still out there, but the Lord has definetly moved. Thank you very much for your prayers as I have no doubt they have helped! It appears that this storm will be packing some rain which is excellent! Praise the Lord as He has brought His healing rain!

Fires

Hey, I got this in a little bit ago from Matt A.

Currently the ranch I live on has a big fire on it, it has burned 50,000+ acres. It is burning a lot of good cow country which will make it hard for the ranch this fall. Currently they have no control over it as the wind takes it anywhere. My dad, his boss, the manager, me, and a few other cowboys are all working to move cows out of the way. I just got back from getting some cows and my dad said that the area I rode this morning is now on fire. Please pray we will be able to get everything out and that all would be protected.
Matt
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Keep him in your prayers, I'll update when I know more.
*praying*
KP

Supreme Court V. America, can we win the case against Judicial Activism?

“This member of the government was at first considered as the most harmless and helpless of all its organs. But it has proved that the power of declaring what the law is…by sapping and mining slyly and without alarm the foundations of the constitution, can do what force would not dare to attempt” –Thomas Jefferson 1825.

Today the majority of America is influenced in some way by the media, the latest actor, or newest band. We pay more attention to entertainment than our government. Our culture has shown a lack of interest in the future of our government and Nation, and a rising interest in the latest movies and technology.

For most, life revolves around their sphere of friends and family, and they pay little attention to the world events around them. The oblivious state of mind today is deplorable to say the least.

In spite of the general disinterest, the government still runs and is still very influential whether we realize it or not. Sadly, our courts seem to have noticed this trend, and are using it to expand their constitutional boundaries. What is and was originally the weakest of the three branches of government is believed by many to be the most powerful and influential.

This general assumption, however, is incorrect. The “untouchable” Courts of today are in fact “touchable”. Moreover, the courts are constitutionally the weakest of the three branches.

Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper # 78 wrote “The Judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either sword or purse; no direction either of the strength or wealth of society, and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend on the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments. This simple view of the matter suggests several important consequences. It proves incontestably that the judiciary is beyond comparison THE WEAKEST OF THE THREE BRANCHES OF POWER...” (Emphasis is mine).

Also, in the constitution, the legislative branch has more authority than the Judicial Branch does.

For example, the legislative has the power to:
Tax, maintain and provide for the military, declare war, borrow money, grant letters of marquee and reprisal, provide for the calling of the militia to execute laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions, make rules concerning captures, create post offices and roads, define laws/rules and punish lawbreakers, coin money, and punish counterfeiting.
This is an excerpt of Article 1 section 8 of the US Constitution.

Let us take it a step further and look at the executive role.

The following is an excerpt of article 2 section 2 of the constitution:

The President is the Commander in Chief of the military, and has the power to:
Grant reprieves and pardons for offences, make treaties, nominate ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges, and all other offices, and fill up all vacancies. Even though it does not look like much, making treaties, nominating officers, and just running the nation is an unimaginable workload.


The judges on the other hand, constitutionally speaking, had jurisdiction over cases involving:

Law and equity under the constitution, laws of the US, treaties, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, controversies to which the US will be a party, to citizens of a state and another state, citizens in the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state and a foreign state.
(This was an excerpt of Article 3 section 1 of the Constitution)
It is important to note however, that a large portion has been nullified by the 11th amendment:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. (Ratified 2/7/1795)
So now, the role should look like this:
(The Judicial power extends to :) Laws of the US, treaties, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, citizens in the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and controversies to which the US will be a party.
By far the Executive and Legislative branches have more duties and responsibilities than the Judicial.




Reading that should also make us realize a little more of how this Nation is supposed to operate. The court, constitutionally, has little power. However, so many times, especially in recent history the court has ignored it’s bounds and stepped outside of it’s constitutional role.

In Article 3 section 1 of the Constitution, it lays the grounds for the judge’s term.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts SHALL HOLD THEIR OFFICES DURING GOOD BEHAVIOR, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
(emphasis mine)

A Biblical principle can actually be seen here, I think we all know the story of Lucifer being kicked out of heaven because he was vain and wanted to be worshipped. He originally wasn’t a threat, but then got proud. God then removed him from heaven forever. It could be said that Lucifer was not exercising “Good Behavior” and got punished…or in a sense, impeached from that “office”. God is a just God and does not tolerate lawlessness or deceit.

Today, it is increasingly obvious that “Good behavior” is not what our judges are executing. Rather, they have implemented their own ideas and agendas over the law of the constitution.

There are many cases of judicial activism that we have seen evident in recent history. Two cases in particular really got my attention; those were: Rasul V. Bush, and Griswold V. Connecticut.

The Supreme Court decision in Rasul v. Bush ruled that foreign enemy combatants had “the right to petition the federal courts to review their status as detainees” This is entirely unconstitutional. U.S. Code 28 states in part: “writs of habeas corpus may be granted by the Supreme Court, any justice thereof, the district courts and any circuit judge WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE JURISDICTION.” In Rasul v. Bush, Justice Scalia explained the verdict in the dissenting opinion: “…it permits an alien captured in a foreign theater of active combat to [bring a suit] against the Secretary of Defense.”

The Griswold case came as a result of Poe V. Ullman. Harlan, an attorney for the ACLU explained his strategy for getting the court to adopt the privacy rights approach. He explained “…If there is no exact counterpart to the particular case before the Court, there are others that resemble it in a general sort of way, and the principles applied in similar cases should also be applied- perhaps even EXTENDED a little bit- to the new case” (Emphasis mine). In Griswold V. Connecticut in 1965 Justice William Douglas adopted Harlan’s reasoning and the catch phrase “Right to privacy” became law. Douglas wrote that “specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.

Do not feel bad if you don’t know what a penumbra and emanation is. The lawyers reading the decision did not even know. A penumbra is an astronomical term describing the partial shadow in an eclipse or the edge of a sunspot- it is another way for describing something unclear or uncertain. Emanation is a scientific term for gas made from radioactive decay, also meaning an emission.

One thing that these two cases have in common is that there are no constitutional grounds for the decision. In BOTH cases, the Constitution was distorted to fit an agenda.

These cases may seem far off and seem to have little impact on America in general. However, when we look at the cases we see the effects of it. One well-known example is Roe V. Wade. The Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion “on demand”. Since Roe V. Wade 47 MILLION children have been murdered, an entire generation has been killed since the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The resulting effects of that decision are detrimental. We have lost 47 million voters, politicians, singers, actors, businessmen, workers, and families since the 1970s.

In these instances, and many more, the Supreme Court has stepped outside of it’s constitutional role and the justices have not exercised good behavior. In article 3 section one of the constitution it reads: “…Judges shall hold their offices during good behavior…” When we look at Federalist paper 78 we will see an explanation by Alexander Hamilton about the terms of office. He wrote: “The Courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they be disposed to exercise WILL instead of judgment, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body.” In other words, they would be subject to impeachment.

So now that we have seen the problem, not only with today’s mind or lack thereof, but with the courts as well. What can we do about it? Can we really win the case against Judicial Activism in America?









There are many options of stopping judicial activism available. Two of the most prominent I’ve seen is 1. Term limits and 2. Impeachment. Both of these are good options in my opinion. Though personally, I favor impeachment as that has partially been done before, and it is constitutional. It is constitutional because any official is subject to impeachment, including Supreme Court Justices. Also, impeachment has been partially done, though the enforcement was never carried out. If we impeach a few of the justices who are not exercising good behavior, and enforce it, I believe it will send a stronger message than setting a term limit. I believe that a term limit would be effective for activist judges, but it would also hinder the judges who have a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

Do I believe that we can win the case against Judicial activism?
Yes we can, if we work hard and elect officials who are good strong Christian leaders that will not back down in the face of the mainstream media. Many republicans in office currently are timid because they are afraid of how the media will construe them. I believe that in these upcoming elections we need to pay close attention to the candidates and ask them about what they will do to prevent judicial activism. We need to remember that with God, all things are possible and we can win the case against judicial activism, if we are willing to take a stand.

Prayer Alert

We REALLY need to pray for operation completion, it is going through a hard time right now, everything is ENTIRELY in God's hands. (which, isn't a bad thing either...it's been completelty in his control since the beggining)

Currently, Micah is tied up in New York city trying to figure out how he's going to get home tonight, so if you all could just keep Micah and Operation Completion in your prayers, you have NO IDEA how much we would appreciate that! the website is www.operationcompletion.org if you want to find out more about it.

KP

National Convention and Alabama

National Convention
Was AWESOME!!!!
Not only did it give me an opportunity to run a real life simulation of a campaign, but I got to meet some very awesome people. I was able to hang out with some people that I knew from blogging. I got to hang out with Alex King, who is the editor of Regenerate Our Culture ( http://www.regenerateourculture.com/ ) and has a good blog ( www.smarthomeschool.com), Michael Drye who has a brother in the USMC, and Nathan Chartrand who is from FL during the convention. Then towards the end we all went out boating with Jared Gebel, who has competed in NCFCA and his sister debated at Regionals this year, and another girl from Alabama named Sarah Blackmont. I met up with some other bloggers and some people I knew from the GA State class as well.

One of the girls in our cabin was elected VP of TeenPact, so we were all very excited about that.

I didn't make it out of Primaries, but I was the newbie, not many people knew who I was or anything and I had 16 people running against me, so I knew my chances were slim going in.

We were split into small groups in the morning and we talked about God and what he was teaching us, and in the morning and night we would have this AWESOME time of worship. I gained some experience, AWESOME friendships, but more importantly...I was able to grow closer to God there, and give up EVERYTHING that was holding me back.

It was extremely encouraging to be able to socialize with people that think the same way I do and to be able to worship God together, as well as learn.

Alabama Student Project
was a ton of fun, and a TON of hard work. If there was ONE thing I learned this week, its perseverance!

Because honestly, when you are going out into the heat walking door to door for 10 hours a day and over half aren't home, and you have more against the candidate on your list than for, you begin to question if its worth it.

But then you realize, that it IS worth it, that we're doing this for God, that we need Christians involved, and you press on and move forward. So, if anything, God REALLY taught me how to persevere and rely on Him.

Now for the Stories of the Student Project
My team really didn't have a whole lot interesting happen until Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday:
We went door to door again and had some interesting remarks.

FFirst Story:
One of the girls on my team runs up to a door knocks and runs back. I'm like "what?" and she says "there's some creepy guy in there, and he just gave me this mean look" so I respond, "ok, should we leave lit?" "no, I'm not going back there" "ok then, we should probably just skip it" so we do, and we wait for the other girl to get back before we move on (we were working duplexes). So while the other girl is at the opposite door, the guy comes out and says "what do you want?". So, I start my speel and he interrupts saying "I"m a REPUBLICAN, there's no way in the H* I would vote for that man!" so I respond, "Ok sir have a nice day" as I run up to the other girls who decided to walk a little ways ahead. My reaction to them was "a republican who cusses?" The guy turned to go back inside and then peeped his head back out and starts yelling at us "That man is MAD..." So we were almost laughing at the way the guy was acting and replied "OK sir, have a nice day" and moved on.

Second Story

We went up to this one lady's house and she was a supporter, so we were JUST about to leave and she tells us. "Now you know, tomorrow is 666, so be careful because that's the devil's number. Tell your parent's NOT to do anything or write a check tomorrow, tell them to do it tonight or postdate it, because its the devil's number" and she went on...And on..And we're like "yes ma'am" "yes ma'am" trying to find a way off the porch without being rude. Finally we did :D. But we laughed about how superstitious people could be......

Third Story

Originally traumatizing turned HILARIOUS.

We were doing out LAST area for the night, our driver dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and us girls had an easy straight shot. Our van was down the road, the guys were in the general area and we were ALMOST done with our project! So one of us goes up to this door...With a dog. A kid comes to the door and gets his dad who then comes out and says "Get off my property" so she did. Then, the dad and his dog came out and followed her up to where we were waiting, and came up close to us and said like he owned the place "There will be no canvassing for Roy Moore in this neighborhood!". By this time the person across the street let THEIR big dog out too. So we said "Yes Sir" and turn to go, and then he FOLLOWS us WITH the 2 dogs. Keep in mind, this guy is a 200-300 pound hippie, and we're 3 tiny little girls, so we are walking extremely fast up the hill with this guy yelling behind us. So I do the first thing that comes to mind, I sang the Star Spangled Banner at the top of my lungs while the other girls called for our van. While I was singing, the guy was still chasing us UP THE HILL with 2 DOGS and yelling stuff about Francis Scott Key and Tories or something, and it made NO SENSE. I was trying to drown the guy out with my screeching, but I was bursting out laughing at the same time....Once I finish that song, I switch to Battle Hymn of the Republic, by the time I switched songs, he stopped yelling, but I kept going anyway. We made it to the top of the hill and then all three of us just started singing a worship song to calm ourselves down, and then we started chuckling at the situation and how weird it was.

I got a nice pocket knife out of that ordeal too. After, we told the story in the van when we got the rest of the crew, one of the guys who brought 3 pocket knives gave me one of his. :)

The Fourth and Final Story...Tuesday Morning

Tuesday morning we went Signwaving, and this guy comes up and yells "go to h*" at 2 of our people and then circles back AGAIN. Afterwards, we were all in the Parking lot awaiting our next assignment and the SAME guy pulls up and starts yelling at us. I thought he had a gun, because he was sitting at an angle. I was the first person on the curb and if he had a gun would have been at point blank range. Thankfully, one of the guys recognized him from earlier and jumped up from where he was sitting to ask the man in the car to leave, and then some of the other people in charge followed him and told the guy to leave also. So finally the guy leaves, but not before saying "SEGREGATION, SEGREGATION NOW!!!" and we're all looking at each other trying not to laugh. He finally left and we just started laughing.

We figured that all those people were on drugs or something, because they all did something that was weird.

Anyway, Judge Moore didn't win, but it was worth it. I learned a lot from this past 2 weeks, and I wouldn't have opted out even if I knew the outcome.

KP