A Fitting Way To Celebrate Madison’s Birthday

As The Classic Liberal reminds us:

March 16 marks James Madison’s birthday. He was “the father of the Constitution”; no one had a greater hand in constructing and interpreting the highest law of our land. His understanding is especially important today, given how far we have moved away from the very limited government the Constitution authorized and toward one that continually expands its power at the expense of Americans.

We could all profit by remembering Madison’s understanding of the federal government authorized under the Constitution, a sharp contrast to what we see everywhere around us.

Quite.

TheCL then goes on to offer some inspiring quotes from the great man.  Here are two:

Hitherto charters have been written grants of privileges by Governments to the people. Here they are written grants of power by the people to their Governments.

And…

The powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.

Today in the nation’s capital, there wer several rallies held to protest the planned usurpation of The Constitution by the Congress and the Executive branch in attempting to socialize our health care system and in the methods being contemplated to achieve this end.

-Smitty, Vice President In Charge Of Facilities over at The Other McCain, was there today and, via Stacy McCain, kept us informed on the event.

-Nice Deb has very good coverage with pictures, links, and video.

-DaTechguy, Chief Videographer of the Wolverines, covered two TEA Party protests today in Massachusetts.  Reports and videos here and here.

–One of the best aggregations can be found over at Donald Douglas’s joint, American Power.  He’s got it covered, per usual, from all angles.  [On an unrelated matter, check out The Prof’s posting on how Bolshe heads are exploding because of Erick Erickson and CNN.]

 -Over at Three Beers Later, Richard offers some damn good advice for how to talk to your Congressman.

I think Mr. Madison would be happy to know what was happening across the country he helped create today.