Thursday, January 2, 2014

There Are Constitutionally Mandated Jobs and Titles

                                   
Throughout the Constitution, there is mention of many different jobs and/or job titles.  This is done through direct identification or by allusion to them.  Direct identifications of specific jobs, like Representative and Senator come early in the document's Article I.  But they are even earlier alluded to with the mention of the Senate and the House of Representatives.  The first mentioned jobs, in the Constitution's first sentence, would be Legislator or Congressperson,  with the use of the words legislative and Congress.
The job of Elector is mentioned first in Section 2 of Article I.  Is that to say, that by its early inclusion, that it is the third most important job in US governance?   In the same breath, the term state legislature alludes to State Senators in all states, including Nebraska, which only has Senators in its unicameral state legislature.  The other 49 states and the assorted other represented regions of the US, like Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, which only have Legislators in its one house legislative body, have State Representatives, Assemblypersons, General Assemblypersons, Delegates and in the case of Washington, DC, Councilors. More inclusive terms describing the state legislatures in their respective wholes would give us General Court Members from Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
In the next paragraph, the 'job' of US Citizen is written into the text.  We know what that is and what it's supposed to be.   Besides being Electors, or voters, as we are admonished to be in Article I, we, those citizens are beseeched to also serve as Jurors, in Article III.
In requiring a regular enumeration of the population, the Constitution mandates the jobs of Census Takers and/or Census Workers.  In referring to the executive authority in the states and such, we can presume the jobs of Governor, Lt. Governor and in DC's special circumstance, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem or Deputy Mayor, or whatever.
Deeper into Article I, there is specific identification of Speaker of the House.  There is non-specific mention of other officers of the House of Representatives, which has given us the House Clerk, Historian, Chief Administrative Officer, Inspector General, Law Revision Counsel (a Lawyer/Attorney [yuck, puke, spew]) who has to be one busy government employee presently, Legislative Counsel  (again, a Lawyer/Attorney [and again, yuck, puke, spew]), Parliamentarian, Sergeant at Arms or Doorkeeper, Chaplain, and Ethics Officer, who should be the busiest worker in Congress.
In the senatorial section of Article I, we get the US Vice President, who is also the Senate President, along with the Senate President Pro Tem.  Non-specified officers of the Senate include duplicates from the House payroll, like Sergeant at Arms, Historian, and Chaplain.  I'm still sort of amazed that neither House has abolished that position, despite the recent Congresses' love for ever bigger, and never shrinking government.  Similar to House jobs, the Senate has their Reporters of Debate, Public Records Officer and Senate Secretary.  Additionally in the Senate, officers include the Curator and Majority and Minority Leaders.  I suppose that in the House of Representatives, those are considered part of the parties' critical apparatus, rather than part of the whole body's apparatus.  and we have also come acquainted with the job title of Whip and Conference Committee Chair and all of the Assistants and Deputies needed to ease the busy, self-imposed burdens of governing.
Finally, near the end of Section 3, the President is mentioned, and almost immediately thereafter, is the Chief Justice.  Makes you wonder if Baracka Obama and John Roberts are supposed to be as powerful and authoritarian as they are
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On into Article I, each House is required to keep a journal of its proceedings, which I guess Constitutionally mandates the specific jobs of House Clerk and Senate Secretary, mentioned above.   As the federal treasury is mentioned, I suppose that that creates the Cabinet level departmental secretary, as well as the Treasurer.  In enumerating the powers of Congress, Section 8's first directive is the collection of various taxes (that figures), thus creating IRS agents and ICE agents, who are also mandated in the soon following paragraph concerning an uniform rule of naturalization.  And if this part of the Constitution doesn't mandate IRS agents, Amendment 16 surely does.  And in the same sentence, bankruptcies are mentioned, so that that is an allusion to bankers, bankruptcy police, lawyers and judges. With the power to regulate commerce, a Secretary of Commerce and a Commerce Department is authorized.  Calling for the punishment of counterfeiting, more judges and lawyers, as well as Secret Service agents are mandated.  In establishing post offices and post roads, that creates jobs of Postmasters and mistresses, various postal workers, as well as logistics personnel responsible for transporting the post and other goods, including road building and maintenance crews, waterway and air travel workers and professionals, right up the cabinet level Secretary of Transportation and the Postmaster General.  In promoting the sciences and useful arts, that gives credence to the jobs of scientists and artists, particularly authors, as well as patent and copyright clerks, and of course, lawyers (yuck, puke, spew).   In constituting tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, jobs for federal judges, lawyers, and clerks are created, along with Supreme Court Justices and their cadres of clerks and minions. The following paragraphs create jobs for Coast Guard and National Guard/Militia personnel, as well as soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including JAG officers and other assorted lawyers (yuck, puke, spew). Section 9 starts off referring to slaves, without using the word.  Though many modern day activists maintain that slavery still exists in America, as it does in other parts of the planet, particularly Africa and the Middle East, it only does so outside the boundaries of law, unlike those other aforementioned locales.  As no title of nobility shall be granted, the jobs of king and prince are specified, but would also include queen, princess, duke, duchess, and on and on and on.
Moving on to Article II,  President and Vice President are named, as are their electors, who are a different type than those mentioned early in Article I, referring to the voting populace.  No other job is  mentioned, that hasn't been before, until Section 2, wherein is the phrase "the principal officer in each of the executive departments", giving rise to the President's Cabinet.  Washington had four members in his cabinet.  Hussein has fifteen, sixteen, if you include jerkhead Joe. Plus there are seven others, who hold cabinet rank, without being official members of the cabinet, or being part of the line of presidential succession.  Among those seven is the Chief of Staff, which is a job title that would have been an anathema to truly good presidents, like Washington and Kennedy.
  
In that same paragraph, the power to grant reprieves and pardons admits that there is the job of criminal, which I suppose, could and can be dually applied to many who have held or do hold many of the aforementioned jobs. Paragraph 2 mandates ambassadors, public ministers and consuls.  And as the President is assigned to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, that creates jobs for a lot of police and attorneys (yuck, puke, spew).  Section 4 closes Article II with the mention of traitors and bribers, as well as criminals, in general.
In Article III, no new job is directly or indirectly mentioned that hasn't been mentioned before, except that of Juror, to which I alluded earlier.  It does address witnesses and enemies of the state, but in today's world, we have no enemies, right?...except for our allies, of course, like Israel.  And since much of no one wants to get involved any longer, we have damned few witnesses.  
The final four Articles create or mention no jobs not already mandated or suggested.  In the Amendments, several are.   Number 1 mentions the clergy and the press, as well as perhaps lobbyists.  Number 5 alludes to executioner.  Number 8 makes way for bail bondsmen.
Though never specifically mentioned or mandated in all of the rules for governance, with all of the necessary manpower for governing, I suppose that civil servant and bureaucrat are legitimate job descriptions.  I can't think that for a nanosecond that the Founders and Framers envisioned or imagined the bureaucracy we have today.  And the one job title that we hear all of the time in today's America is politician.  Nowhere in the expansive imaginations of the Founders and Framers did they conceive of citizens who would spend a lifetime seeking, securing and staying in public office.  That is why we are in the sad, sorry state of affairs we are today.  And that is why my Constitution for the 21st century and beyond specifically outlaws such personal, professional political ambition.
                                       

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