As Christmas approaches, accompanied with burnout from the political season and overload from the holiday season, I have been on hiatus, save for the occasional foray to remain at least somewhat current. In addition to supporting the causes I care about and planning for the coming year, I took a moment to visit the Gratefulness.org site and light a candle for truth. I hope you will all do the same. It's free and contributes to both your peace of mind and the state of energy in the world.
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/view.cfm?l=eng&c=7355356
Warmest wishes for peace and comfort during this holiday season and the coming year.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Letter Of The Law
"In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the laws scrupulously. Our government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example."--Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
Never were those words more applicable than today. Never have they been truer. We were once known as a nation of laws. Over the last several years, especially, our government's adherence to the values and the sacred documents of our nation has waned, drifting perilously close to the edge of oblivion as our Bill of Rights, Consitution and election laws have been whittled away in favor of granting increased power and secrecy to not only Federal government, but individual State governments as well.
Governor Blagojevich and his assistant John Harris have been arrested; Axelrod and Obama suddenly claim not to have had any dealings with either of them in spite of reports from several sources about meetings and phone calls between them in November and early December.
In the wake of the release of a 77 page Criminal Complaint, Chicago homicide detectives have requested the asssitance of Federal Prosecutor Fitzpatrick in obtaining phone records from Obama, Reverend Wright, Donald Young and others. Previous attempts to obtain these records in connection with the murder investigation of Donald Young were thwarted by the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Daley's office.
In recent years we have seen a massive breakdown in the willingness to abide by our laws in some sectors. Although the majority of Americans are law abiding, many more are not, and the question remains as to what could be the cause. Surely a government must abide by its own laws--not just SOME of the government abiding by SOME of the laws--but ALL of the government must abide by and uphold ALL of its laws in order to command the respect and loyalty of its citizens. In these times of media generated fear and global concerns it is all too easy to excuse governmental law breaking as an exigency in fending off terrorists. Witness FISA, and the issue of employing illegal spy tactics. Senator Schumer of NY voted against granting immunity to the communication corporations who broke the law in that regard; Obama, despite his assertions that he would "filibuster against [granting them immunity]" voted to grant that immunity anyway.
With turnabouts like this, is it any wonder that integrity, loyalty, honor, and respect for our words, deeds and laws has seen a downturn at the least and a drubbing at worst?
We were once a nation of laws, and to continue to be a nation at all, we must resolve to follow them--ALL must follow ALL laws, not just the ones we deem convenient, be we citizens or government.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Hubris Rules...Can the End Be Near?
"On November 10, Governor Blagojevich, his wife, Chief of Staff John Harris, Governor General Counsel, and other Washington-based advisors participated at different times in a two-hour phone call in which they allegedly discussed, among other things, a deal involving the SEIU. Harris said they could work out a deal with the union and the President-elect where SEIU could help the President-elect with Blagojevich’s appointment of Senate Candidate 1, while Blagojevich would obtain a position as the National Director of the Change to Win campaign and SEIU would get something favorable from the President-elect in the future."
At long last, Governor Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested early this morning on charges of conspiring to benefit financially from his role in appointing a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president, along with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.
Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to press for campaign contributions, prosecutors said. http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/12/us-v-blagojevich-harris-the-criminal-complaint.html The irony is not lost on the fact that it was printed in full by the Chicago Tribune, which is among those whom Blagojevich tried to extort.
This, from the governor of Illinois, Obama's "home" state. It has long been known that, as one of the most corrupt states in the Union, few things happen without the blessing and the knowledge of its governor. To deny that Obama knows about this, an every other transgression is belies either ignorance or stupidity, and probably both.
In Mike Madden's piece in today's Salon dot com, he rudely [and oh so ignorantly] ridicules all those who realize that Obama has offered NOTHING to prove that he meets the eligibility requirements of the U.S. Constitution by being a NATURAL BORN U.S. CITIZEN, and derisively derides those at the press conference held yesterday at the National Press Club. As is usually the case with the uninformed, Mr. Madden embarrassed himself more than any of his targets, and all the ridicule in the world is no substitute for the absence of fact. The fact that Obama is clearly unable to meet the basic eligibility requirements, plus the fact that he arose from the mire of the infamous Illinois political machine lend even more credence to the fact that, along with sealed educational records from three colleges including his sources for tuition [aside from Khalid al Mansour and Percy Sutton], this is truly The Man From Nowhere, and as such, is not only ineligible to be POTUS, but is touched with poisoned fruit as well.
Tony Rezko has been convicted, just one of many in the endless parade of bad actors in this morality play gone wrong. One can only hope that the arrogance and hubris they share will bring them all down swiftly.
At long last, Governor Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested early this morning on charges of conspiring to benefit financially from his role in appointing a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president, along with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.
Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to press for campaign contributions, prosecutors said. http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/12/us-v-blagojevich-harris-the-criminal-complaint.html The irony is not lost on the fact that it was printed in full by the Chicago Tribune, which is among those whom Blagojevich tried to extort.
This, from the governor of Illinois, Obama's "home" state. It has long been known that, as one of the most corrupt states in the Union, few things happen without the blessing and the knowledge of its governor. To deny that Obama knows about this, an every other transgression is belies either ignorance or stupidity, and probably both.
In Mike Madden's piece in today's Salon dot com, he rudely [and oh so ignorantly] ridicules all those who realize that Obama has offered NOTHING to prove that he meets the eligibility requirements of the U.S. Constitution by being a NATURAL BORN U.S. CITIZEN, and derisively derides those at the press conference held yesterday at the National Press Club. As is usually the case with the uninformed, Mr. Madden embarrassed himself more than any of his targets, and all the ridicule in the world is no substitute for the absence of fact. The fact that Obama is clearly unable to meet the basic eligibility requirements, plus the fact that he arose from the mire of the infamous Illinois political machine lend even more credence to the fact that, along with sealed educational records from three colleges including his sources for tuition [aside from Khalid al Mansour and Percy Sutton], this is truly The Man From Nowhere, and as such, is not only ineligible to be POTUS, but is touched with poisoned fruit as well.
Tony Rezko has been convicted, just one of many in the endless parade of bad actors in this morality play gone wrong. One can only hope that the arrogance and hubris they share will bring them all down swiftly.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The Significe of Papers
From the Federalist Papers, a series of essays under the nome de plume Publius, supporting the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison in the 1780s to the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam, commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in 1967 and never intended for publication, two hundred years have passed.
Leaked to the public in 1971 and exposing the administration of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, in contrast with the Federalist Papers, written for publication in support of a system of rules from which to govern a new nation, the Pentagon Papers, according to Daniel Ellsberg, the individual who eventually leaked them to NY Times reporter Neil Sheehan, "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates" and stated that he had leaked the papers "in the hopes of getting the nation out of "a wrongful war."
In that two hundred years, our nation went from one seeking truth in government for and by the People to one seeking to hide the truth from them in secretly commissioned studies, never intended to reach the public eye. In the decades since the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers have receded into the dusty shelves of library history stacks as we continued to face an onslaught of growing deception at the hands of a government once lauded for its populist view. The protection of checks and balances informed by the founding fathers continued to erode, leaving more room than ever for abuse of power and spurning of the Constitution and those transgressions for which Nixon finally fell have continued-- agreements with Iran to hold hostages until after the Reagan election, Oliver North and the Iran Contra affair, the Weapons of Mass Destruction fable floated to gain approval for the Iraq invasion and subsequent violations of privacy and human rights under the auspices of Homeland Security concerns.
Despite these tragedies, we have continued to survive as a nation even as the current administration has lowered our standing in the eyes of the world and the economic meltdown continues to unravel and unnerve the very fabric of our everyday life. As Joe Biden and Colin Powell make dire predictions of imminent food and water shortages, we struggle to recover from what appears to be yet another stolen election, this time by an entity whose very origin remains for the most part unknown, and whose titular head is most certainly not even qualified to hold the office of POTUS by the standards enunciated by Article II Section I of the U.S. Constitution and elucidated in U.S. Code, Title 8,§ 1401. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001401----000-.html
Rather than restate the arguments and their citations here, interested readers can refer to the excellent essay containing documentation links, by drkate, published on the TD site. http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/stand-by-me/#comment-27587
In recent years, freedom of the press has become little more than license for media to promulgate untruths and suppress truths, further hobbling the electorate's ability to make sound decisions at the voting booth. Schools and even institutions of higher learning have so curtailed basic civics and Amerian history classes that fewer and fewer of the American public have even the slightest idea as to how the papers of our founding fathers worked to form the structure from which our system of government grew, have almost no idea how our voting processes should work, or even the contents of our Constitution and its amendments, the first ten comprising our Bill of Rights. As a result, through ignorance and bad information from media, we are faced with a candidate who is ineligible to hold the office of POTUS,and our nation now faces the worst consitutional crisis in our history aside from the 1861 secession of the Confederate states. Perhaps saddest of all is the fact that few Americans seem to realize this or even care. Pravda, long dismissed as Russia's cold war propaganda paper, has scooped the American media on this momentous news. Not because no one knew it, but because, in spite of the thousands of entreaties by concerned Americans, the American media refused to cover it or even mention it until Friday, December 5, and when they finally did, couched the reports in snide looks, rolling eyes and pronouncements that the nearly 20 lawsuits challenging this ineligible individual's attempt to seize the White House through fraud are little more than political ploys.
Mounds of paper have already been drawn and served, and mounds will continue. Over 60,000 letters had reached the Supreme Court by the December 5 conference which was convened to examine the merits of granting certiorari for the Donofrio, and many more will follow. Lawsuits continue to mount as those who hold our Constitution dear try to wrest its destruction from the hands of the enemy within. The vigil of work and prayer continue as we strive to save the blueprint of our Democracy.
For updates see http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/ , http://drorly.blogspot.com/
To assist in the efforts, visit the links above or email RichardLawrenceMusic@gmail.com
Leaked to the public in 1971 and exposing the administration of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, in contrast with the Federalist Papers, written for publication in support of a system of rules from which to govern a new nation, the Pentagon Papers, according to Daniel Ellsberg, the individual who eventually leaked them to NY Times reporter Neil Sheehan, "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates" and stated that he had leaked the papers "in the hopes of getting the nation out of "a wrongful war."
In that two hundred years, our nation went from one seeking truth in government for and by the People to one seeking to hide the truth from them in secretly commissioned studies, never intended to reach the public eye. In the decades since the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers have receded into the dusty shelves of library history stacks as we continued to face an onslaught of growing deception at the hands of a government once lauded for its populist view. The protection of checks and balances informed by the founding fathers continued to erode, leaving more room than ever for abuse of power and spurning of the Constitution and those transgressions for which Nixon finally fell have continued-- agreements with Iran to hold hostages until after the Reagan election, Oliver North and the Iran Contra affair, the Weapons of Mass Destruction fable floated to gain approval for the Iraq invasion and subsequent violations of privacy and human rights under the auspices of Homeland Security concerns.
Despite these tragedies, we have continued to survive as a nation even as the current administration has lowered our standing in the eyes of the world and the economic meltdown continues to unravel and unnerve the very fabric of our everyday life. As Joe Biden and Colin Powell make dire predictions of imminent food and water shortages, we struggle to recover from what appears to be yet another stolen election, this time by an entity whose very origin remains for the most part unknown, and whose titular head is most certainly not even qualified to hold the office of POTUS by the standards enunciated by Article II Section I of the U.S. Constitution and elucidated in U.S. Code, Title 8,§ 1401. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001401----000-.html
Rather than restate the arguments and their citations here, interested readers can refer to the excellent essay containing documentation links, by drkate, published on the TD site. http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/stand-by-me/#comment-27587
In recent years, freedom of the press has become little more than license for media to promulgate untruths and suppress truths, further hobbling the electorate's ability to make sound decisions at the voting booth. Schools and even institutions of higher learning have so curtailed basic civics and Amerian history classes that fewer and fewer of the American public have even the slightest idea as to how the papers of our founding fathers worked to form the structure from which our system of government grew, have almost no idea how our voting processes should work, or even the contents of our Constitution and its amendments, the first ten comprising our Bill of Rights. As a result, through ignorance and bad information from media, we are faced with a candidate who is ineligible to hold the office of POTUS,and our nation now faces the worst consitutional crisis in our history aside from the 1861 secession of the Confederate states. Perhaps saddest of all is the fact that few Americans seem to realize this or even care. Pravda, long dismissed as Russia's cold war propaganda paper, has scooped the American media on this momentous news. Not because no one knew it, but because, in spite of the thousands of entreaties by concerned Americans, the American media refused to cover it or even mention it until Friday, December 5, and when they finally did, couched the reports in snide looks, rolling eyes and pronouncements that the nearly 20 lawsuits challenging this ineligible individual's attempt to seize the White House through fraud are little more than political ploys.
Mounds of paper have already been drawn and served, and mounds will continue. Over 60,000 letters had reached the Supreme Court by the December 5 conference which was convened to examine the merits of granting certiorari for the Donofrio, and many more will follow. Lawsuits continue to mount as those who hold our Constitution dear try to wrest its destruction from the hands of the enemy within. The vigil of work and prayer continue as we strive to save the blueprint of our Democracy.
For updates see http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/ , http://drorly.blogspot.com/
To assist in the efforts, visit the links above or email RichardLawrenceMusic@gmail.com
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Patriotism + Passion = New Nation
Most of us grew up learning about the birth of our nation in school--brave words and deeds from passionate patriots so committed to their beliefs that they risked their lives and their property to declare independence from British rule and form a new nation, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. [Declaration of Independence, T. Jefferson, 1776 http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm ] Of course, as we have evolved, women and people of all colors and creeds have come to be included in that phrase of equal protection, and women like Betsy Ross, Dolly Madison, Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul have taken their place along with the founding fathers in our history.
The combination of patriotism and passion has always been forged in fire and, like the ever-enduring phoenix, rises again and again in times of trial to build a new nation or restore an old one.
The events of the last several years, culminating in the election of 2008 and the financial meltdown have taken a severe toll on our once proud nation but have also awakened the inherent patriotism and love of country in many Americans and they have come together to work for shared goals despite differences in ideology, party affiliation, religion, race, creed or social origin. For that is true patriotism: for the love of one's country to supercede all else, and make one willing to sacrifice to preserve and protect the laws, rights and constitution of the country one loves.
We await tomorrow's conference at the United States Supreme Court with baited breath--rarely, if ever, has the fate of our nation hung so much in the balance, with a constitutional crisis of such magnitude just inches from our heels. Tomorrow a vigil will be held on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court as our nation waits and prays that those within will muster the courage and conviction to uphold the sacred tenets of our Constitution. These are indeed the times that try all of our souls, and raise the strength within us all to fight for our country and its nation of laws.
Rarely have we seen our country so besieged--not since the American Revolution have so many had their consciousness raised in such a way as to energize them to come to the aid of their country. But having been thus called, the Movement for the Love of Country continues to grow, and the goals for which we all work will again be realized.
The combination of patriotism and passion has always been forged in fire and, like the ever-enduring phoenix, rises again and again in times of trial to build a new nation or restore an old one.
The events of the last several years, culminating in the election of 2008 and the financial meltdown have taken a severe toll on our once proud nation but have also awakened the inherent patriotism and love of country in many Americans and they have come together to work for shared goals despite differences in ideology, party affiliation, religion, race, creed or social origin. For that is true patriotism: for the love of one's country to supercede all else, and make one willing to sacrifice to preserve and protect the laws, rights and constitution of the country one loves.
We await tomorrow's conference at the United States Supreme Court with baited breath--rarely, if ever, has the fate of our nation hung so much in the balance, with a constitutional crisis of such magnitude just inches from our heels. Tomorrow a vigil will be held on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court as our nation waits and prays that those within will muster the courage and conviction to uphold the sacred tenets of our Constitution. These are indeed the times that try all of our souls, and raise the strength within us all to fight for our country and its nation of laws.
Rarely have we seen our country so besieged--not since the American Revolution have so many had their consciousness raised in such a way as to energize them to come to the aid of their country. But having been thus called, the Movement for the Love of Country continues to grow, and the goals for which we all work will again be realized.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Hail Madame Secretary!
The election is over. And Hillary won, in more ways than one. Today she has been officially announced as Obama's choice for Secretary of State. As much as I dislike the idea of losing her as my Senator from New York, my love of country and faith in her superior ability to serve allow me to be grateful for this change. There is no one, except possibly former President Clinton, who could do as well, especially in these troubled times. If there is anyone who can help to heal our nation and repair our reputation in the eyes of the world it is Hillary. Whatever she does, she does extremely well, putting her heart, soul and considerable mind into it with complete dedication and commitment to doing her very best. We can ask no more, and she will do no less.
Once again, she has shown us how to win no matter what hand she is dealt, and how to do it with utter grace, restraint, and foresight. She has refused to let anyone get her down--not the thugs from Chicago, the low lying media or the misogynists. She has truly risen, flying far above the crowds, showing the way as always with dignity, humility and faith in her own abilities.
There is no better way to end this piece than to quote her very own words:
"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you're knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on...for everyone who's been ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up -- this one is for you! --hrc
Once again, she has shown us how to win no matter what hand she is dealt, and how to do it with utter grace, restraint, and foresight. She has refused to let anyone get her down--not the thugs from Chicago, the low lying media or the misogynists. She has truly risen, flying far above the crowds, showing the way as always with dignity, humility and faith in her own abilities.
There is no better way to end this piece than to quote her very own words:
"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you're knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on...for everyone who's been ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up -- this one is for you! --hrc
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