Sarah Palin - A Female Sacrifice

August 31st, 2008 at 2:01 am (Commentary)

 

I wrote some time ago about becoming cynical and assumed it was part of just growing older with just a bit of frustration thrown in. While I am proud of the Democratic Party for nominating Obama and will work very hard to see that he gets elected. I am ashamed of the Republican Party and the sacrifice they offer up in one of the most notorious demonstrations of cynicism I have ever seen.

 

This is not about setting before the American People a legitimate challenge to the Democrats, this is about pandering to die-hard feminists; Many of whom wear the Clintonista label with pride. It is after all based on the assumption that the disgruntled feminine Clintonistas will vote for any female just to show their unity with Hillary. In the process, Sarah Palin, who may very well be a very decent person, will be savaged and destroyed.

 

It does not surprise me that this path was taken by the Republicans. During the last eight years these same people have desecrated the contract that We the People have forged with our government. Their belief is definitively elitist. They dare say to us the Government, not the People will decide what is good for us. We are not more safe now than we were prior to 9/11 In fact our Nation and our Republic are far more seriously at risk than at any time since the War of 1812. And for what?

 

So, a women, a mother of five, a hunter and a fisherman, who happens to have some interesting ideas about things will be offered up. The Republicans will say that a woman can not hope to win and will blame her for the loss. And, loose they will.

 

Yet, the real looser here will be the American People. It is not about whether there are females who have the qualifications to be Vice President, it is about a cynical political party picking some one who is the least qualified to be Vice President in modern time.

 

Sarah Palin has some measure of fault in this as well. She should have just said no. But then for the Republican view of women, giving them the right to say no, is not a good thing. By agreeing, Sarah Palin has in effect said women can not be trusted to make intelligent choices. For a Vice President that is a mandate for disaster. And, deep down inside, Sarah Palin knows this better than I.

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The First Amendment and Native Peoples

August 14th, 2008 at 11:34 am (Commentary)

 

The Contract we have with our government is called the Constitution. Article I Section 8 states in language that could not be more clear “Congress shall have the power…to regulate Commerce…with the Indian Tribes.” The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Taken together this means in unequivocal language, only Congress shall be the branch of Government to treat with Indian Tribes, not the Courts and not the Executive and further since Congress shall not infringe upon Religious Freedom, no branch of Government has the statutory authority to involve itself in the religious practices of American Indian Tribes. Congress further established this principle when it passed the Religious Freedoms Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 which in simple terms said that a person need not be subjected to unreasonable burdens in establishing the validity of their beliefs.

 

In their recent ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided neither the Constitution, the Bill of Rights nor RFRA apply to American Indians. The Courts said in a 37-page ruling that the American Indians failed to show that the use of Piss Water to make snow at San Francisco Peaks in Arizona desecrated the site. One Judge, William A. Fletcher, agreed with the American Indians saying, “…the holiest of the San Francisco Peaks, will from this time forward be desecrated and spiritually impure.”

 

Tribes are considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.

 

My Brothers enough is enough! Either American Indian Peoples are included in the Contract with the American Government or not. The Courts with increasing hostility have decided against the American Indian, limited sovereignty, permitted theft of Trust Fund monies and continued to exile The People to the poverty of a corrupt and inept Reservation System. It is time to send a message that according to the Constitution of this Republic the actions of the Court is illegal and, the First People of this hemisphere have had enough. Native land, religions, language and children have been stolen by this renegade Government and its Courts.

 

We should refuse to follow any ruling of the Executive or Judicial Branch respecting our affairs that violates the Constitution whether we are Native or not.. Each one of us who values our freedom, Native and Non-Native Peoples alike, and wishes to defend the sacredness of this land should be prepared to join of Navajo Brothers and physically stop the Arizona Snowbowl project. One by one the holy places are being taken along with the values that we all hold most dear.

 

We can not allow this rape to continue.

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The First Amendment and the New Yorker Cover

July 14th, 2008 at 9:00 am (Commentary)

 Amendment I.
 

Congress shall make no law ….abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…
 

The First Amendment protection of Speech and the Press only makes sense if you look at its raison d’etre. Clearly, those who penned and adopted this Amendment did so with a clear understanding of the necessity of prohibiting the government from eliminating dissent. Neither Free Speech nor The Free Press applied in their minds to anything other that the right of the People to protest the Government. Clearly, our Founders knew the difference between sensationalism, titillation and the Right to Protest excesses of Government.

 

The Courts, one of the most corrupt entities still at work in our Republic have simply got it all wrong. While I will agree that the desecration of a National Symbol is Free Speech there are other appeals to Free Speech that are far beyond what any reasonable Citizen of the Republic can countenance. One example is the idea that a student in our public schools has the right to say what he or she pleases. That is absurd.

 

Elevating the middle finger to the President is clearly protected speech as is the Bronx Cheer. Clearly, similar behavior directed at a neighbor is not protected. I will say that the elevating of the finger in the former case is in poor taste - the Constitution does not encompass manners. And, that brings us to the New Yorker cover illustration by Barry Blitt.

 

The New Yorker can assert and is asserting the legitimacy of the cover is protected Speech and protected Free Press. The artist, Mr Blitt contends it is satire and done to expose the hate mongering that is so prevalent in our society. Reason tells us however the cover illustration is inflammatory, and that crosses the line.

 

Some will argue that the Public is sophisticated enough to understand satire and any attempt to censor such Speech or Press must be resisted. That same public can exercise its revulsion in the marketplace by not buying the magazine, and it can also boycott stores who sell it. Those actions are Constitutionally protected as well.

 

The problem is that to recognize the illustration as satire requires some degree of education on the part of the Republic. A similar amount of education is required to decide whether satire or not, such an illustration exceeds our tolerance for good taste. Jefferson, knew that for Citizens to participate in the affairs of a Constitutional Republic, the citizen needed to be educated. But the greater minds of our history also challenged us to look beyond the Constitution to find the moral laws that are Superior and consider both in our actions.

 

We would not allow passing around a loaded hand gun in a public school under the premise that the students would recognize the activity as intellectually stimulating. Yet by analogy that is what the Cover Illustration accomplishes; generating the very hate and danger its creator states as the antithesis of his purpose.

 

While we must be vigilant to prevent the loss of more Rights, we can not become so base that the morality of our judgement is trumped by improper interpretations of the Limits we have placed upon Government. The New Yorker must be sent a clear message from the public, this cover crossed the line and is unacceptable and its publication NOT protected Speech nor Free Press. It is ignorant dribble that has no place in the Marketplace of Ideas that we as a Republic seek to champion.

 

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Treading Softly on the First Amendment

April 18th, 2008 at 4:20 am (Commentary)

 

“…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

 

The recent events in the Republic of Texas involving a break-away branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(LDS), puts the question of religious freedom and the Texas Department of Child and Protective Services(CPS) on yet another collision course. The issue seems to be framed by the all embracing idea that at some point the State has an Interest and can step into a case and behave contrary to the Constitution, relying of an Inept Judicial System to countenance their actions.

 

The Texas case is a mixture of Intolerance and a legitimate desire to provide for the welfare of children. From what is known, and there is not much fact, a 16-year old girl called CPS and said among other things that she had been raped and abused. No one should dismiss such a phone call lightly, and the Constitution does say that the Government of the People provides for the general Welfare. CPS had a moral and legal obligation to investigate the call and take appropriate action should the investigation warrant. CPS had no right to do what they did without investigation. That is where the intolerance comes in. This is why we must seriously question the motivations of CPS and their pocket judge Barbara Walther. Unfortunately 416 children have had their lives destroyed and where is the protection in that?

 

In 1890, in order for the Territory of Utah to become a State, the United States Unconstitutionally required the LDS to renounce polygamy. The Prophet and Seer of the Church at the time, Lorenzo Snow, had a vision. And, with the US Army about to invade the Territory, and Statehood in peril, Snow ended Polygamy. To this day LDS will excommunicate members engaging in Polygamy. Defenders of the practice say that Polygamy was a commandment of the Church under Brigham Young who also had visions. It was partially because of the practice advanced by Young, that Emma Smith, the wife of the former Seer and Revelator, Joseph Smith started the Reorganized Church of LDS in Independence Missouri.

 

The problem is that many in this country practice religious beliefs that fly in the face of our mainstream sensibilities. The Amish drive their buggies along US Route 30 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Their children riding in these vehicles are no match for tractor trailers and other motorized vehicles. If the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were to assert its interest then the Amish would be singled out because of their free exercise of Religion.

 

Some Catholics engage in bloody religious recreations of the Passion Christ. Surely these recreations send a message of violence to the young who are watching. If the State were to ban such activities in public it would be Unconstitutional.

 

We live in a Republic with limits placed upon the Government by the Governed. Unfortunately the Puritan hypocrisy still largely influences the way we see the world. It is a good idea to remember that the first thing the Pilgrims did when they came here was to deny the very religious freedom they sought for themselves to others. The second thing they did was steal food from the Indians.

 

There are certain religious practices that must receive scrutiny by the State. But, unless there is a clear and convincing demonstration of harm the State must be restrained. If the young women who initiated this current lunacy can not be found or her story validated, the People, acting on firm Constitutional basis must demand a complete investigation of CPS and the political agenda it has fashioned in consort with the judiciary.

 

A Right is not subject to limitation; else it becomes a privilege and allows for governmental intrusion. None of what we know as The Bill of Rights can be subjected to such limitation. In the end this case will be decided by a miss-guided judiciary hell bent on achieving from the bench what it can not find in the Constitution, and by a bunch of tort-claims-paid lawyers who masquerade as pro bono advocates.

 

Unless CPS can present solid evidence of abuse it will continue the long tradition established in the Republic of Texas or creating enemies on a whim, saying evidence exists that does not, and ruining the lives of people with “Mission accomplished.” What CPS and its judges are doing is accomplishing an assault on the First Amendment based on exactly what the Constitution forbids.

 

Tread lightly Texans, there are Ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights, you seriously trampled on three so far. Some however still apply.

Comments

John McCain - Patriot Not President

March 28th, 2008 at 4:27 am (Commentary)

  

The Republic Owes John McCain a great debt. This man, and others like him, fought for this Country in what history has determined to be an unjust War. How this man managed to keep his love and devotion to this Nation while a POW is the measure of a True Patriot. His courage in fighting cancer and candor in the Keating Affair are hallmarks of a man with Honour. However, John McCain is a Man for the Wrong Season. The Debt we owe him should not be satisfied by a four-year residence in the White House.

 

This Nation finds itself again in a war that brings out the greatest of our National Shame. There is no doubt that we had a moral right to pursue the craftsmen of the 9-11 attack. If that was the only action our men and women were involved in, the will of the country would not be so fractured. Alas, we are involved in the Iraq war and we are there illegally, and without moral purpose. As has happened many times in History, Great Nations are bankrupted by such adventures, and soon sink to a notation in a History Book. That is the same path we are following. John McCain offers what is in reality another four-years of the Bush mistakes and International villainy for which our Country is paying a devastating price.

 

Unfortunately, the excesses of the Bush years in the pointed erosion of Civil Liberties comes as baggage to the McCain Campaign, from which his conservative leaning may not permit him to escape. Franklin wisely said that a people who sacrifice freedom for liberty attain neither. We seem to be numb to History and the words of those who founded this Republic.

 

The current administration has so tried the Public Resolve and understanding of Liberty that pride in being American, Pride in the Flag, and Pride in our Government is near an all-time low. Wars and questionable “bail-outs” are robbing the purse of our Great-Grandchildren, all based upon the lies of a Republican Administration.

 

I have no doubt that McCain will attempt to fix our domestic issues, but to fix our International Standing may be impossible without a quick and responsible end to the Iraq War. He is correct when he says the United States can not impose its will on other countries. But, we heard that before in a speech by John F Kennedy, just words not an effect proscription.

 

The issues faced by whomever becomes the next President are legion. We must repudiate much of the action taken by the Bush and Cheney. Our Constitutional Republic must be restored and our Respected Place Among Nations must be re-established. For, John McCain such and undertaking is simply a horse that will not be rode.

 

Out of Respect for John McCain, we can not put him in an office where failure will be his only option; and the Final Reward of the Republic he has fought so valiantly to Preserve.

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Lies, Damned Lies and the Clintons

March 27th, 2008 at 1:46 pm (Commentary)

 

Former President Slick Willie Clinton makes all the sounds of a disagreeable bowel movement. He is, depending upon what your definition of is, is, about as honest as Jackson and Sharpton. But, instead of looking at his efforts, he seems to be loved and encouraged at each grunt to make a more odorous deposit upon the publics’ sensibilities.

 

The Clintons are the master’s of dishonest campaigning. They often speak in innuendos and leave the specific attacks to their surrogates. But when they choose to lie they do so without any inkling of remorse or apology. They trust the stupidity of the electorate to allow their emissions to continue to float. But, it is the attack-dog mentality of the former president that continues to demean the office. Not that he could do much more to demean it than he already has.

 

Hillary’s claim of landing in Bosnia under sniper fire is an outright lie. Yet, she continues to use the story and embellish it, even after the public has seen the real story that was video-taped. That is contemptuous behavior by any stretch of the imagination. Before, the public puts this away they should consider the reason Hillary gives for leaving Bill at home. She says, that it was unsafe for the President to travel there. That is the reason these two clowns agreed to offer. Unsafe for whom? His wife, his daughter? Whom? The truth is Hillary is the embodiment of a Monstrous Lie. Well, now she says she mis-spoke. She is a damned liar! She admits she mis-spoke because she got caught! Do we want another four years with a liar as president?

 

Hillary continues to say how NAFTA was a bad idea and she never supported it. Well, Madame, that is not what the record shows. But, records be damned. I will support my husband and hope we can fool the People yet again. It may be that NAFTA was a good idea, but we have too many confusing interpretations of it. However, Hillary lies and Willie swears to the truth of the lie. No apology for this yet, maybe she was exhausted while waiting for the 3 am phone call and listening to Willie murmur in his sleep about Monica and cigars.

 

Willie continues to takes swipes at Obama’s patriotism. Yet, where was patriotism when Clinton lied to the American Public about his abuses of Power, only to reaffirm it later when asked why he did what he did with Monica; “…because I could.” Again it is an “in your face” contempt that seems to impress the voters. Where was the patriotism of Willie when he had the terrorists who would eventually pull-off 9-11 in his sights; and demurred?

 

Slick Willie is a closet sexist, racist and bigot. He and Hillary fool people into believing their cares are genuine but in a moment, Willie throws the spitter. His skillful use of the race-card in this election is no different than he has played before. Were it not for the dribble he left on the dress, he might have buried the truth of that event as well.

 

The Clintons believe that if they turn each faction against each other to in order to return to the Whitehouse. Then, they can show their love and affection by healing these groups. The “come together” speech has probably already been penned by that other surrogate, James Carville.

 

Carville, aka Peter in the story, takes for his Easter message the betrayal of Hillary, by analogy Jesus, by Bill Richardson, Judas; His comment, “…the Clinton’s. I love them to death.”  So, in the message of hope from the mouth of this erstwhile toad we find affirmation that Hillary the supreme victim of our time needs to be bailed out, resurrected as it were by none other than Willie, God. The loss of Richardson can be spun as necessary because of his Hispanic ancestry. What better way to start the “healing process” than to accuse Richardson of supporting the Hispanic vs Black schism in the country.

 

The Clinton’s affection for religion is also a tool used to convince the Public of their caring nature, while continuing their fraud. After all, Hillary’s time as a member of the Family, an obnoxious group of “Christian” fundamentalists was akin to her last temptation. This association trumps Rev, Wright. All Hillary knows about is based upon her assent to supreme victimhood. Truth is not part of that journey.

 

The Clinton’s are evil people who trade on the fears of the people. In any other time, these two folks would be under federal investigation. They have powerful friends, and the field is strewn with the bodies and careers of those who dared challenge them. The Clinton’s would be right at home in an Absolute Monarchy. They could do just enough good to escape Revolution but not so much to appear benevolent.

 

The time has come for this Country to remove the Clinton Stain from our political landscape. By exposing Hillary and Willie for the huckster carpetbaggers they are will do a great deal to heal this country. We can not permit these foul smellers to continue to pollute the republic. They must be denied public office at the ballot box. They must be investigated and put in jail for the frauds they have perpetrated on the Republic. If we lack the courage to do this, they will surface like sewerage from a clogged toilet to foul our Nation.

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Sovereignty Belongs to the People

March 21st, 2008 at 5:10 am (Commentary)

  

The People of this Constitutional Republic are sovereign. Not the courts, not the Congress, and not the Executive. The “unalienable rights” we enjoy are without constraint and without regulation. For, to regulate a right, the right becomes a privilege to be enjoyed by the governed, at the whim of those who govern. Rights must be absolute and given to The People and guarded by them in the most jealous of manner. When governments reduce Rights to a Privilege, they are no longer Rights. They become the chains of Tyranny by which despotic Governments exert their will upon The People.

 

We the People spoke clearly in the 9th and 10th Amendments. We The People were not all wise, but We knew the full extent of our Freedoms we wished to give up to those we elected to Govern. Those things we did not enunciate, those things in the future of this Great Republic we could not see, we retained to our individual States and to the People. We did not give our Government the unfettered right to explore the omissions.

 

Our Founding Fathers knew how oppressive and how demonical a loved Government could become. They knew that a Government that was able to remove at a moment’s twitch that which made us Free, was not a government to be welcomed nor defended. It was simple, the Power to Govern was conferred by The People, and The People had the Right, nay, the Obligation to enforce its will upon the Government. No branch of the Government could wear a crown. No branch of the Government could be immune from the control of the Governed. This Republic chose change by the Ballot Box, not the canon, nor the saber.

 

The prime protector of our Rights and Liberties, remains We the People. We the People have entrusted our Congress to place constraints upon any potential abuse of power by either the Courts or the Executive. We have not asked Congress to engage the Courts and Executive in confrontational acts, but we have and we continue to insist, that they take care, in our name, to prevent those two branches, for whatever well intentioned reason, from depriving us of, or usurping the Rights we have not given them. If our Congress will not exercise this responsibility, We the People have the Constitutionally protected power to see to it that they do, or be replaced by those who will.

 

I am tired of the Nefarious Nine trying to tell me what the Founding Fathers wanted and what Rights they think we should have. They are simply wrong when they conspire to remove the Rights we have clearly reserved for ourselves. By their rulings they have interpreted incorrectly the Will of the People and the limits of Governance. Instead of carrying out their Constitutionally Derived Responsibility of making sure that no Law or Action taken by the other Two Branches exceeds their constitutional authority, they have fallen victim to their own demagoguery. They have made Law that they have no Right stemming from The People to make. They have become a dangerous bunch of pseudo intellectuals, gnawing at the very heart of the Republic.

 

The current debates before the Court involving the 2nd Amendment is classic. It is clear to even the most unschooled of persons that the 2nd Amendment grew from the fear our Founders had of any Government. Yes, they had established a Republic, imperfect as it was, but they understood that by ceding power to the Government they left ajar the door through which Government abuse of power could enter and destroy those unalienable rights they so clearly stated. We may argue that those who wrote this amendment could not foresee the type of weapons that might exist two-hundred years in the future. Clearly, they did not want the basic Right to Live Free to be decided by a Government possessed of unlimited weaponry bent on the subjugation of its People. They after all had seen this and soured of the idea that any government could be cautioned to use restraint once armed.

 

Times have changed, but alas when we commission armor-clad thugs to break into the houses of People and the businesses of Sovereign Entities, we must provide law-abiding People with the Right and Means to first, dissuade such intrusions, and second, to resist unlawful excesses of power being visited upon the People.

 

Many of the issues that have brought us to this point have been derived from the rulings of the very Court that now sits hearing these cases. It is the Court that has set in motion the conditions that vex the Citizens of this Republic. The idea of a Free and Independent Judiciary has become bane of the Republic. We would not be debating whether, guns are needed by Common Folk if the Courts did their jobs and saw to it that those preying upon the Citizens of this Republic did no have more Rights than the Citizens themselves. We would not be so insistent in defending our own Liberties, if the Courts had correctly limited the abuses of the Executive. We would no be where we are if the Courts had insisted that the Rights of Corporation were not superior to the Rights of People. But, limiting the Right to Bear Arms is not the answer.

 

Every time the Republic is asked to surrender more of its Rights for a Higher and More Noble Purpose, we awake less free. We quake at the fear of a terrorist attack so we willingly surrender our 4th Amendment Rights of Privacy. We define the Rights of Privacy to have no effect in a public place, yet we are not free even in our own homes from the goons who come calling with ramrods, snipers and armored vehicles. We allow the Courts to spend our Tax Dollars without the Constitutional Authority to do so. And, the abuses go on.

 

We the People can no more allow the continued degradation of the Constitutional basis for our Republic than we prevent the sun from rising. We must demand that all branches of the Government return to the principles of a Constitutional Republic and recognize the supreme source of their authority comes from the Governed; a sovereign People. Continued usurpation of our Liberties will bring about chaotic anarchy from which the Republic can not re-emerge.

 

It would be a gentle breeze of change if in acknowledging the Absolute Sovereignty of the People, the government would once again move toward a More Perfect Union.

1 Comments

The Hidden Cost

March 11th, 2008 at 5:09 am (Uncategorized)

 

Ed Rendell and John Corzine have signed on  to the Hillary Team to raise money to redo the Florida and Michigan Primaries. Both endorsed Hillary, and so far Corzine’s New Jersey has delivered a Primary Victory. We do not know what Hillary promised him in return but Rendell may be a VP pick. There are two troubling issues with Corzine’s involvement. Both relate to money and both short change citizens of the Garden State.

 

Corzine, you will recall was almost killed in an accident caused by his speeding vehicle, driven by a State Policeman. And his injuries were made all the more serious because he, Corzine, was not wearing a Seat Belt. While I admire Corzine, this incident showed a disregard for the rules, to which all citizens are held accountable. So, even though Corzine took his lumps in the press for his contributory actions, and he voluntarily paid his fine, the actions themselves showed to the public that laws are made to be broken, and routinely are, by those we elect to lead us. No surprise then that he would endorse the Clintonistas for whom rules apply only to everyone else.

 

Now, in the height of one of the biggest fiscal messes in the State’s history, Corzine, while being paid by the State of New Jersey, will try to raise money to break the rules of his own Democratic Party. Here again, as in the accident, Corzine seems to be saying rules do not apply to him or to others in Power. As his years in the financial world no doubt taught him, one’s word and one’s ethics are situational.

 

Corzine has proposed draconian measures in the Garden State to address the fiscal mess it faces. The mess was not his fault, but he has the obligation to fix it, and as unpopular as his proposals seem, he is trying to do that. Fiscal irresponsibility should really replace the motto The Garden State for New Jersey; we got to where we are because of mismanagement by both Republicans and Democrats. The State has the highest property taxes in the Nation and interim solutions such as Abbott-funding have only put off the day of reckoning.

 

One of Corzine’s solutions involves massive Toll Increases for the New Jersey Turnpike and the

Garden State Parkway

. All of this will be paid initially by those who use these roads, but eventually by all of us who use the goods that move commercially on the Turnpike. Thus it becomes a traditional double hit.

 

What message does it send to the Citizens of this State to have the governor out raising money to overturn a Democratic Party Rule instead of being in Trenton? It is another double whammy. If he and Rendell succeed we may yet see Hillary in the White House, and our Tax dollars will have been indirectly and illegally spent to accomplish this.

 

The Costs are high but the total cost must include the message that laws and rules be damned. Such is the world of Kings Ed and John, and the Grentch whole may yet steal the election.

John, stay at home, get New Jersey out of its financial woes, and send a message that you have been to the Mountain and where obeying the rules is not measured by political advantage but by ethics.

Comments

The Smoke Shop Chronicles

March 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm (Commentary)

  

Imagine if you will that you are in your home, when suddenly a group of Goons, AKA State Police SWAT Team with a dog and 51 supporting officers approach. You repeatedly ask for a search warrant, yet the invasion of you property, a direct violation of your Fourth Amendment Protection continues. You protest, members of your family challenge the invasion and after a scuffle you and your family are arrested. You are hauled away still asking for a Search Warrant.

 

No let’s change the venue just a little. Suppose you are living in a foreign country, with sovereign rights. The same assault begins, by people who belong to another sovereign entity. You resist and you are physically removed to another sovereign jurisdiction.

 

This is the nonsense that continues in Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations. Thank goodness the whole world was watching the events unfold in July 2003, so that the lies are easily exposed. Now, we have another miscreant, one Sergeant Donald E. Devine, Jr. of the Rhode Island Gestapo, telling us that there was a Search Warrant, but it was folded in his back pocket. But, you see he did give to the tribe’s lawyer 10 minutes after the tribal members who stood in opposition to the raid had been arrested. No one, from these wonderful defenders of truth and justice even thought to show the warrant to tribal police who were the responsible law enforcement agency on the Narragansett Reservation. Not one person answered Sachem Thomas’ request to be shown the warrant.

 

The lies continued as Devine tried to square his testimony with video tape shot during the raid. Suffering from apparent mental incapacity, he was unable to tell the truth about the arm in the door and dog attack incidents. Is it not comforting to know that people like this carry a badge and weapons? Alas, he seemed to recall that the Police were told to back-off if faced with resistance, but they brought buses to carry away anyone arrested or wounded. We will never hear the truth about what they were told to do and not do, because the King of Rhode Island with agreement from the Court has invoked executive privilege and will not be brought to testify. How convenient.

 

Yes, this is the late, great USA at its best. Lying cops, leaders who are above the law, and courts who know where their bread is buttered. Intolerable Acts redux.

 

The fact is, Goons from the State of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations illegally entered on Tribal Lands and created an incident that, if it had happened to a white man, or his business, would have seen the State investigated by the Federal Government for Civil Rights Violations. Since the events continue the rape of my brothers and sisters, nothing happens. The entire trial is a sham.

 

The solace is that the whole world is watching. Yes, watching a country, who refused to approve the United Nations Resolution on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, continue its path of cultural hegemony.

 

The United States again demonstrates that the Constitution does not offer equal protection to its citizens. This country, its rulers and its courts are out of control. Jefferson’s idea of the protection of the minority from the tyranny of the majority is a hollow truth and a joke. If the government succeeds in this trial, you are next.

Comments

Nader Again

February 26th, 2008 at 5:34 am (Commentary)

 

As sure as the swallows return to Capistrano Ralph Nader has announced that he is a candidate for the presidency. The problem is that this has become a tired old joke and it shouldn’t. Even with my infatuation with Obama, Nader speaks to the issues that need to be spoken to. A shame he has marginalized himself.

 

Every time I think Obama is going to say that he has been to the mountain, he stumbles and says that he has only seen the mountain. I take solace in knowing he is maybe too young to have been to the mountain. Even that is better than Hillary who only knows a mountain when her campaign managers suggest that she look for one. When we need some people with vision leading this Republic this is all we get.

 

Nader speaks to me. He defines the problems and posits solutions that seem plausible. Yet, to accomplish a scintilla of what he says we have to do battle with big business, you know, the ones who squeeze us at the pumps and steal our pensions. The timid among us say it is just too much to ask. Perhaps that explains why the other candidates do not even mention it.

 

We will have yet another debate tonight between Ms Nasty and Obama. Her tears got her an advantage in New Hampshire, and her tirade got her noticed. So, Hillary how much of your experience in the last 35 years are you going to disavow? Sadly, that question, and the answer to that question, which she will give to any question she chooses not to answer straight on, will occupy the debate. If anyone doubted the ability of this idiot to lead the Republic those doubts should be erased by now.

 

We will hear Obama defend his mailings, perhaps he will also touch on why he does not wear an American Flag pin on his lapel, and may try to explain his wife’s new found pride in the Republic. Yet he too will shortchange us.

 

This country has serious issues. Our cities are war zones with no jobs, no safe streets, and little or no hope. Our colleges and schools have become target ranges for the deranged, and the frustrated social misfits who have far too easy access to guns.  Nader sees this, but the fact that these issues do not excite the electorate tells me that nobody cares. Maybe he should be at the debate. Again.

 

I worry as this process moves toward the Convention that we will have a person with ideas, a person with none and eventually a candidate who will just keep house. Another failed presidency. Even though I still believe that Obama will prove to be an effective leader. Somehow the problems framed by Nadar must find their way into the discussion and become the mandate for change, sorry Mr Nixon.

 

Running for president against all odds is not the answer. Even Nadar’s role as a pesky mosquito seems less likely this time around. That is sad, but we can be certain that he will run again next time, and maybe…

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