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Archive for July 6th, 2009

Magna Carta Man

Posted by rasticus on July 6, 2009

Article | The UK Column.

Magna Carta Man

John Harris“Magna Carta is such a fellow, he will have no sovereign.”
- – Sir Edward Coke

John Harris read the Magna Carta and saw that it was good. So good in fact that he decided to make honest use of it. Particularly article 61.

Article 61 is the longest and most powerful of the clauses within Magna Carta of 1215. It proved so unpalatable to subsequent monarchs that when Magna Carta was craftily re-draughted in 1297, article 61 was not to be found.

But one man’s unpalatable article is another man’s invite to freedom. Enter John Harris, Public Defender and committed common law practitioner. Making use of Article 61, his recent visit to Buckingham Palace began his process of filing for redress of grievances. Here is his report and affidavit.

John Harris’ Report ( www.tpuc.org )

On the 22nd day of March 2008 I personally went to Buckingham Palace to serve an Affidavit on Her Majesty the Queen. My Oath, (which has been signed and sealed by a solicitor) states quite clearly, that I now give Her Majesty 40 days to dismiss the traitors that reside in the Parliament of this country.

I, John James Harris now declare my right under Common Law of England to Withdraw And Withhold all allegiance & obedience to the Person and Crown of Our Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth the Queen, and those who falsely claim to speak &/or to act in Her Name, and by such action, I will remove myself entirely from the authority of those Evil Persons who now seek to abuse & misuse me in the name of Elizabeth, the Queen and in absolute violation of the Common Law of the People to which I belong.

I hereby place on record of all persons that after said 40 days have expired, being the 1st day of May 2008 and the corrections I seek have not been made, by way of the dismissal of the Traitors in the House of Commons, then I John James Harris, will enter into Lawful rebellion under article 61 of Magna Carta 1215 and therefore will become a Freeman of England within the Freedom of Common Law.

I will then declare myself free from all chastisement, Laws, taxes accorded to the state and any obligations there unto, by way of second and final Lawful Affidavit signed, sealed and served.

-start-Affidavit of John Harris

In Pursuit of Justice and Right, And in Full Exercise Of My Undoubted & Lawful Duty to My Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth the Queen -

I, JOHN JAMES HARRIS, now resident at (address supplied to her Majesty) and being the son of John James Harris (also known as Jack Harris) deceased, formerly resident at (address supplied to her Majesty) who was during his lifetime a loyal and true servant of the Crown and who was during his lifetime employed as a Personal Chauffeur to Sir David and Lady Bowes Lyons and Her Majesty the Queen, from time to time -

MAKE OATH AND SAY AS FOLLOWS –

IT BEING APPARENT TO ME and to a multitude of others that divers evil persons have falsely and unlawfully induced Our Sovereign Lady to believe that they alone are the true representatives of the people placed in Her Majesty’s Care by Almighty God -

AND IT BEING APPARENT TO ME and to a multitude of others that these same evil persons have unlawfully and falsely induced Our Sovereign Lady to give an unlawful effect to legislation that has violated and continues to violate the Common Law: Which legislation further serves to undermine; deny and destroy the Absolute Supremacy of Her Majesty’s Imperial Crown, all to the prejudice of Her Majesty’s People, and in absolute contravention of the right of the people to live in accordance with their own laws and customs (as evidenced by the terms of the Oath that was undertaken by Our Sovereign Lady before Almighty God at the time of her Coronation) -

AND IT BEING FURTHER APPARENT TO ME and to a multitude of others that the entirely lawful authority of Our Sovereign Lady the Queen to Uphold & Defend Her People is now so reduced &/or destroyed by the many processes of Treason that have been and are now being employed against Her Majesty’s Authority from within the ranks of those evil persons who have been and are now entrusted with authority to manage the affairs of Her Majesty’s Parliament & Government of the United Kingdom –

That my Security and Safety under the Rule of those Laws that are my inalienable birthright are now threatened to my personal detriment and danger and to the detriment and danger of my family; my people and my country in their entirety –

AND IT BEING FINALLY APPARENT TO ME that I can achieve no redress to those many grievances that I now have and which result entirely from the Unlawful Conduct of those Evil Persons who now surround the Person and Throne of my Lawful Sovereign, except by means of the lawful process that I now intend –

I NOW PLACE ON THE RECORD of All Persons who now claim to assert a lawful authority over me in the name of Elizabeth the Queen that unless there is correction to the many processes of misgovernment & abuse that have been and are now being imposed on me; with such process of correction being commenced; undertaken; evidenced and given a first and lasting effect within a period of 40 days from this present date –

SUCH PROCESS OF CORRECTION being fully evidenced by Her Majesty’s dismissal of the Assembly of Traitors that is now falsely describing itself as the Representation of the People within the House of Commons AND WITH SUCH DISMISSAL providing the entirety of the People themselves with full opportunity to speak and to act on their own behalf in the election of representatives that are truly loyal to the purposes of Her Majesty’s Throne & People -

THEN I WILL WITHDRAW And withhold all allegiance & obedience to the Person and Crown of Our Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth the Queen, and those who falsely claim to speak &/or to act in Her Name, and by such action, I will remove myself entirely from the authority of those Evil Persons who now seek to abuse & misuse me in the name of Elizabeth, the Queen and in absolute violation of the Common Law of the People to which I belong –

AND I GIVE NOTICE that I will return to my full allegiance to the Person; Estate & Imperial Crown of Elizabeth the Queen only when Her Majesty the Queen is released from the bondage that now prevents her from the free exercise of her lawful authority and duty to Uphold the Common Law that is my birthright and to ensure for all time to come that the government of my country is conducted in full accordance with the laws and customs of my people.

May God in His Mercy, Defend the Right & May God Save the Queen from those who now hold her in an Unlawful Captivity.

-end-

MAGNA CARTA Article 61.

61. Since, moreover, we have conceded all the above things (from reverence) for God, for the reform of our kingdom and the better quieting of the discord that has sprung up between us and our barons, and since we wish these things to flourish unimpaired and unshaken for ever, we constitute and concede to them the following guarantee:- namely, that the barons shall choose any twenty-five barons of the kingdom they wish, who with all their might are to observe, maintain and secure the observance of the peace and rights which we have conceded and confirmed to them by this present charter of ours; in this manner, that if we or our chief Justiciar or our bailiffs or any of our servants in any way do wrong to anyone, or transgress any of the articles of peace or security, and the wrong doing has been demonstrated to four of the aforesaid twenty-five barons, those four barons shall come to us or our chief Justiciar, (if we are out of the kingdom), and laying before us the grievance, shall ask that we will have it redressed without delay. And if we, or our chief Justiciar (should we be out of the kingdom) do not redress the grievance within forty days of the time when it was brought to the notice of us or our chief Justiciar (should we be out of the kingdom), the aforesaid four barons shall refer the case to the rest of the twenty-five barons and those twenty-five barons with the whole community of the land shall distrain and distress us in every way they can, namely by taking of castles, estates and possessions, and in such other ways as they can, excepting (attack on) our person and those of our queen and of our children until, in their judgment, satisfaction has been secured; and when satisfaction has been secured let them behave towards us as they did before. And let anyone in the country who wishes to do so take an oath to obey the orders of the said twenty-five barons in the execution of all the aforesaid matters and with them to oppress us to the best of his ability, and we publicly and freely give permission for the taking the oath to anyone who wishes to take it, and we will never prohibit anyone from taking it.

And just for good measure, here’s Article 39.

Article 39.

39. No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or deprived of his freehold or outlawed or banished or in any way ruined, nor will we take or order action against him, except by the lawful judgment of his equals and according to the law of the land.

We repeat;

“Magna Carta is such a fellow, he will have no sovereign.”
– Sir Edward Coke

We are all Magna Carta Men and Women.

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Preamble and Articles of the Magna Carta (1215)

Posted by rasticus on July 6, 2009

Preamble and Articles of the Magna Carta (1215).

Magna Carta (1215) The Great Charter

The Great Charter (1215) The Magna Carta

[Preamble]

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciars, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants and all his officials1 and faithful subjects’ greeting. Know that we, out of reverence for God and for the salvation of our soul and those of all our ancestors and heirs, for the Honour of God and the advancement of Holy Church and the reform of our Kingdom, on the advice of our reverend fathers, Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry and Benedict of Rochester bishops, of Mater Pandulf subdeacon and member of the household of the lord pope, of brother Aimeric master of the Knights of the Temple in England and of the noblemen William the Marshal earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William earl of Warenne, William earl of Arundle, Alan of Galloway constable of Scotland, Warin son of Gerild, Peter son of Herbert, Hubert de Burgh seneschal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew son of Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip d’Aubigny, Robert of Ropsley, John Marshal, John son of Hugh and others, our faithful subjects2.

1 Officials (ballivi)— A bellivus was a minor local official responsible to the sheriff
of the county, but as here, the word is often used in a more general sense.

2 Faithful subjects (fideles)— those bound by an oath of loyalty, in this context
probably the freemen of the country.

Editor’s Note: Only those Articles pertaining to today’s constitutional guarantees under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1867 to 1997, the Constitution of the United States of America and other relevant statutes are reproduced herein Ed.


Article 1.

1. In the first place we have granted to God and by this our present charter have confirmed, for us and our heirs forever, that the English Church shall be free,3 and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired; and it is our will that it be thus observed, which is evident from the fact that, before the quarrel between us and our barons began, we willingly and spontaneously conceded and confirmed by our charter, and got confirmed by the lord pope Innocent III, freedom of elections, which is held most important and very essential to the English Church; the which we shall observe and wish our heirs to observe in good faith forever. We have also granted to all the freemen1 of our kingdom, for ourselves and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written below, to be had and held by them and their heirs from us and our heirs.

3 Free— here particularly liberty to obey the canon law of the Western Church which, amongst other things, insisted on ecclesiastical elections being free from lay pressure. Criminal Code of Canada, Section 176

1 Freeman— those of free status in the eyes of the law (i.e. not villains) and as such having certain rights denied to villeins, such as access to the Kings courts in certain actions, freedom to move about and marry and exemption from certain onerous duties.

Article 17.

17. Common pleas1 shall not follow our court but shall be held in some fixed place.

1 Common Pleas— suits between subject and subject regarding real property
i.e. at this time principally land, buildings and titles.

Article 18.

18. Inquests2 of Novel Disseisin3 of Mort d’Ancestor,4 and of Darrein Presentiment5 shall not be held elsewhere than in the court of the county in which they arise, and in this manner:— we, or, if we are out of the realm, our chief justiciar,6 shall send two judges through each county four times a year who, with four knights of each county elected by the county [court] shall hold the said assises8 in the county on the day and in the place of meeting of [that] county court.

2 Inquests— formal inquiries made by the sheriff acting on a royal writ whereby a local jury was summoned to testify as to the facts in a particular matter. In the three particular types of problem now cited (see the three following notes) the jury had to establish which party was previously in possession, not which had the rightful title in the dispute. In all cases the plaintiff was given possession if the verdict was in his favour.

3 Novel Disseisin— an inquest into an alleged recent eviction of a tenant from his free tenement.

4 Mort d’Ancestor— an inquest as to whether an heir had been prevented from taking possession of some property he should have inherited.

5 Darrein Presentiment— an inquest to establish who presented the incumbent to a benefice whose patronage was in dispute, on the last occasion that it was vacant.

6 Justiciar here the chief (capitalis) justiciar, an official who acted as regent during the frequent absences from England of the early Angevin kings.

Article 19.

19. And if [all] the said assises cannot be taken on the day of the county court, as many as may be necessary of the knights9 and freeholders present at the county court on that day shall remain, by whom sufficient judgments shall be made, according to the amount of the business.

9 Knights— originally a mounted soldier, here a well-to-do landowner, below baronial rank.

Article 20.

20. A freeman shall not be amerced10 for a small offence, except in accordance with the degree of the offence and for a grave offence he shall be amerced according to its gravity, without imperilling his status; and a merchant, similarly, without imperilling his stock-in-trade; and similarly, a villein shall be amerced always without loss of wainage1 — if their liability is to us. And none of the aforesaid amercements shall be imposed except by the sworn evidence of worthy men of the neighborhood.

10 Amercement a fine imposed by a court of law.

1 Wainage the chattels on which the villein depended for his livelihood such as his farm implements, seed-corn and stock.

Article 22.

22. No clerk shall be amerced in respect of his lay holding2, except in accordance with the above mentioned rules and not in accordance with the amount of his ecclesiastical benefice.


 2 Lay holding— property held by performing secular and not ecclesiastical duties.

Article 24.

24. No sheriff, constable, coroner or other of our officials shall hold pleas of our Crown4.

4 Pleas of our Crown grave criminal offences such as ambush, forcible entry,
neglect of summons to local military service.

Article 30.

30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours or any one else shall take the horses or carts of any free man for transport work except with the agreement of the said freeman.

Article 31.

31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take other people’s wood for castles3 or doing other work of ours, except with the agreement of the owner of that wood.

3 Castles— before the reign of Henry II even major castles were mostly built of wood as were the less important buildings and auxiliary defences long after his time.

Article 33.

33. For the future, all fishweirs5 shall be completely removed from the Thames and the Medway and thought all England, except those along the sea coast.

5 Fishweirs— used in a general sense to cover all large, static contrivances for catching fish;
inevitably these might cause serious inconvenience to boats navigation in inland waters.


Article 35.

35. Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely “the London quarter,” and a single width of cloth (whether dyed, russet7 or halberjet8) namely two ells9 within the selvedges10 and let it be the same with weights and measures.

7 Russet- a coarse, home-spun cloth much used by the peasantry. (Probably hemp-Ed.)

8 Halberjet- probably a superior type of cloth. (Probably hemp-Ed.)

9 Ell- a standard measure of length said to have been based on the length of the right arm of king Henry 1.

10 Selvedges- the borders which were usually of a different weave from the body of the cloth.


 Article 36.

36. In future nothing shall be given or taken for the writ of inquiry concerning life and limbs, but it shall be given freely and not withheld.


 Article 38.

38. In future no official shall put anyone to trial merely on his own testimony, without reliable witnesses produced for this purpose.


 Article 39.

39. No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or deprived of his freehold or outlawed or banished or in any way ruined, nor will we take or order action against him, except by the lawful judgment of his equals and according to the law of the land.


 Article 40.

40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice.

45. We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well.


 Article 61.

61. Since, moreover, we have conceded all the above things (from reverence) for God, for the reform of our kingdom and the better quieting of the discord that has sprung up between us and our barons, and since we wish these things to flourish unimpaired and unshaken for ever, we constitute and concede to them the following guarantee:- namely, that the barons shall choose any twenty-five barons of the kingdom they wish, who with all their might are to observe, maintain and secure the observance of the peace and rights which we have conceded and confirmed to them by this present charter of ours; in this manner, that if we or our chief Justiciar or our bailiffs or any of our servants in any way do wrong to anyone, or transgress any of the articles of peace or security, and the wrong doing has been demonstrated to four of the aforesaid twenty-five barons, those four barons shall come to us or our chief Justiciar, (if we are out of the kingdom), and laying before us the grievance, shall ask that we will have it redressed without delay. And if we, or our chief Justiciar (should we be out of the kingdom) do not redress the grievance within forty days of the time when it was brought to the notice of us or our chief Justiciar (should we be out of the kingdom), the aforesaid four barons shall refer the case to the rest of the twenty-five barons and those twenty-five barons with the whole community of the land shall distrain and distress us in every way they can, namely by taking of castles, estates and possessions, and in such other ways as they can, excepting (attack on) our person and those of our queen and of our children until, in their judgment, satisfaction has been secured; and when satisfaction has been secured let them behave towards us as they did before. And let anyone in the country who wishes to do so take an oath to obey the orders of the said twenty-five barons in the execution of all the aforesaid matters and with them to oppress us to the best of his ability, and we publicly and freely give permission for the taking the oath to anyone who wishes to take it, and we will never prohibit anyone from taking it.


Article 63.

63. Wherefore we wish and firmly order that the English Church shall be free, and the men in our kingdom shall have and hold all the aforesaid privileges, rights and concessions well and peacefully, freely and quietly, fully and completely for themselves and their heirs from us and our heirs in all things and places for ever as is aforesaid. Moreover an oath has been taken, as well on our part as on the part of the barons, that all these things aforesaid shall be observed in good faith and without any evil intention. As witness the above-mentioned and many others. Given under our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede (Ronimed) between Windsor and Staines on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign.

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Op-Ed Columnist – Now, Sarah’s Folly – NYTimes.com

Posted by rasticus on July 6, 2009

Op-Ed Columnist – Now, Sarah’s Folly – NYTimes.com.

July 5, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist

Now, Sarah’s Folly

By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

Sarah Palin showed on Friday that in one respect at least, she is qualified to be president.

Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy.

Usually we don’t find that exquisite battiness in our leaders until they’ve been battered by sordid scandals like Watergate (Nixon), gnawing problems like Vietnam (L.B.J.), or scary threats like biological terrorism (Cheney).

When Lyndon Johnson was president, some of his staff began to think of him as “a sick man,” as Bill Moyers told Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Moyers and his fellow Johnson aide Dick Goodwin even began reading up on mental illness — Bill on manic depression and Dick on paranoia.

And so it was, Todd Purdum learned, as he traveled Alaska reporting on Palin for Vanity Fair, that the governor’s erratic and egoistic behavior has been a source of concern for people there.

“Several told me, independently of one another,” Purdum writes, “that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ — and thought it fit her perfectly.”

The White House can drive its inhabitants loopy. So at least Sarah Palin is ahead of the curve on that one.

As Alaskans settled in to enjoy holiday salmon bakes and the post-solstice thaw, their governor had a solipsistic meltdown so strange it made Sparky Sanford look like a model of stability.

On the shore of Lake Lucille, with wild fowl honking and the First Dude smiling, with Piper in the foreground and their Piper Cub in the background, the woman who took the Republican Party by storm only 10 months ago gave an incoherent, breathless and prickly stream of consciousness to a small group in her Wasilla yard. Gobsmacked Alaska politicians, Republican big shots, the national press, her brother, the D.C. lawyer who helped create her political action committee and yes, even Fox News, played catch-up.

What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued: Sarah wanted everyone to know that she’s not having fun and people are being mean to her and she doesn’t feel like finishing her first term as governor.

She can hunt wolves from the air and field-dress a moose, but she fears being a lame duck? Some brickbats over her ethics and diva turns as John McCain’s running mate, and that dewy skin turns awfully thin.

Maybe there’s another red Naughty Monkey high heel to drop — there’s often a hidden twist in Sarah’s country-music melodramas. Or is this a reckless high-speed escape from small-pond Alaska, where her popularity is dropping, to the big time Below?

Even some conservative analysts admitted that the governor’s move seemed ga-ga before venturing the spin that Palin might be “crazy like a fox,” as Sarah’s original cheerleader, Bill Kristol, put it.

Maybe, Kristol mused, she could use the 18 months she would have spent finishing her term to write her book and study up on the issues for 2012.

Why not? Palin/Sanford in 2012, with the slogan: “Save time — we’re already in Crazy Town.”

Palin’s speech is classic casuistry.

After girlish burbling about how “progressing our state” and serving Alaska “is the greatest honor that I could imagine,” and raving about how much she loves her job, she abruptly announced that she was making the ultimate sacrifice: dumping the state on her lieutenant.

Why “milk it,” as she put it, when you can quit it? “Only dead fish go with the flow,” she said, while cold fish can blow out of town. Leaving Alaska in the lurch is best for Alaska. She can better “effect change” in government from outside government. She can fulfill her promise of “efficiencies and effectiveness” by deserting Juneau midway through her term — and taking her tanning bed with her.

“We need those who will respect our Constitution,” said Palin, who swore on the Bible to uphold the Constitution. She said she can’t fulfill that silly old oath of office in the usual way because she’s not “wired to operate under the same old politics as usual.”

Naturally, she dragged the troops in, saying that her trip to see wounded soldiers overseas “fortified” her decision to give up because “they don’t give up.”

She refuses to succumb to the “politics of personal destruction.” It’s no fun unless she’s the one aiming those poison darts, as she did when she accused Barack Obama of associating “with terrorists who targeted their own country.”

Sometimes, she explained, if you’re the star, you have to “call an audible and pass the ball” and leave at halftime, “so the team can win” somehow without you.

The maverick must run free when greener pastures beckon. The musher must jump out of the dogsled when warmer climes call. As Palin’s spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, says, “The world is literally her oyster.”

But just remember, beloved Alaska, it’s all about you.

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