21st Century Health Care in America: Paying More, Getting Less?

With the ongoing challenges which are now being raised in many states throughout the nation regarding the recent passage of the Obama Administration's Health Care Reform Act, this boomer has watched the progression in health care delivery from the 1960's to today, and can truthfully say that while costs have exploded in those four decades, the degree of care for the American public overall has seen better days.

In order to reduce costs for many of the public and private health care clinics and hospitals, more and more Americans are not receiving the care they deserve, but what will reduce the bottom lines for the nationalized corporatized health care system that is predominant across the nation after Nixon's HMO legislation passed in the 60's. Many even public clinics and hospitals are now "owned" through various contracts by "private" corporate entities as they have become privatized, even after their initial building costs and research grants were funded by the American public.

Upon even emergency room visits, more and more patients are being seen initially by not medical doctors or those with advanced diagnostic degrees, but by physician's assistants or other support staff but at costs that far exceed those fees and charges in the past for trained physicians and without the expertise to accurately diagnose complex medical conditions.

Throughout many states, there are even signs posted at many of these emergency clinics and hospitals advising that they are not accepting new Medicare patients. Thus, the future for the boomers and their offspring at this point in America's history has not even begun to be addressed by those in Washington or at the state levels in just why health care costs have risen so out of proportion to the cost of living even though the entire HMO concept and "free market" privatized clinics were sold to the public in order to reduce costs and provide better care when that legislation was proposed back in the 60's.

Instead, it has resulted in numerous trips to several different doctors or providers in order to get accurate diagnosis, or physicians more geared toward treating the symptoms rather than the disease and using medications which many times create even more problems or different health issues in concert due to drug interactions and complications.

Changes are needed, but not the changes that Washington appears to be focused on in merely consulting the "stakeholders" in corporatized medicine. But the American public that is paying a larger share than ever before for their health care costs, both nonemergency and emergency.

How much of the health care dollars now provided by the taxpayers and insurers are now being earmarked for all those ads on television mostly directed toward choosing a hospital for maternity and childbirth needs? Or elective procedures?

Or advertising their facilities and services for non-English speaking patients for all those federal and state grant monies in providing care for non-citizens at the general public's ultimate expense? Or the increased costs in those ten to twenty page bills passed on to the public for those highly paid lobbyists at the state capitols and Washington?

It appears to this boomer in the end, the Health Care Reform Act is more similar to the mandatory auto insurance laws throughout the nation, with the same mindset and ultimate costs in increased taxation for all in passing on governmental functions, such as the settlement of property claims, or life and death issues to the financial sector, banks and insurers who will be more concerned with THEIR bottom lines and business needs, rather than quality of care.

I mean, unlike mandatory auto insurance, an unpaid or disallowed claim has a greater likelihood and much higher percentage of eventually ending in death or bankruptcy rather than a fender bender so the analogy used in order to include that "mandatory" provision left much out in regulating both those costs, and the provision and most likely will also then, as with the insurance laws, end up again costing the taxpaying public more in providing all the courts that will be needed in order to address those "breach of contract" or "wrongful death" actions.

Progress in this area, as with it appears so many others in the new millineum to many Americans, just may come at a much greater cost than even in those Nixon years.

And it appears to this boomer that the great Health Care Reform Act just may become the precursor to the Great Health Care AND Bank bailout of 2025 or sooner, when this patient dies.

Madoff Suicide Highlights U.S. Criminal Justice System Gone Awry

The recent headlined news story of the apparent suicide of Mark Madoff, the son of Wall Street wheeler dealer Bernie Madoff who is now serving a 150 year prison term in North Carolina for securities fraud, serves to remind many Americans of a U.S. criminal justice system gone astray.

A tragedy, and one in which the media and government most likely had a hand in this young man's fall, although the complete details and coroner's report has yet to be revealed.

Mr. Madoff senior bilked thousands of investors in his Ponzie scheme of a great deal of their wealth, from all reports, and was the mastermind of the scam and whose actions and activities were actually reported to authorities by his very own sons, although little has been revealed insofar as whether there was pressure also exerted on them to so do from governmental sources prior to his arrest.

Mark Madoff, from all reports, profited from his father's schemes, and was thus also then in the end targeted for investigation even after having been instrumental in his father's conviction.

The comments on most of the websites by the public have not been sympathetic, to say the least.

Which just goes to prove just how many in this country have truly lost their way in their understanding of the intent of our founders with respect to crimes such as these, which although heinous for the absolute thievery which occurred has not been adjudicated according to the "common law" provisions behind our criminal justice system in "letting the punishment fit the crimes," and in the government acting on behalf of the victims and not its self-serving ends since the punishments in so many crimes at both the criminal and civil levels are now statutory determined, rather than determined by juries of American citizen's peers.

The Madoff's, and all who profited from such schemes in this writer's view should have been henceforth precluded from ever serving in any fiduciary capacity with respect to other people's money from this day forward, and the spoils of their crimes seized and redistributed with interest to the victims of their greed and avarice.

Not the taxpayers having to now pay to jail and house Mr. Madoff in federal prison, and his son then "investigated" for the past several years, rather than concentrating on the crime itself and its victims and all parties' right to justice in a criminal fraud action, although by its very nature investing in Wall Street or the stock market clearly are risky ventures at best due to its "global" focus and composition again contrary to the intent of those founders for a "sovereign" U.S. economy.

Justice would mean recompense and precluding the perpetrators from ever being placed in such a position of trust and temptation ever again - since by their own actions proved through the "evidence" that their positions of trust were criminally abused.

Having to seek work in this now depressed U.S. economy in other fields of endeavor outside the financial sector, and losing all that they have gained at the expense of others with punitive damages added due to the nature of their crimes would have been the "legal" and "lawful" punishment called for.

Not years and years of "investigation," and subsequent media hounding - or innuendo without due process.

It was reported that Mark Madoff was found dead with his two year old child and his dog in the home where his body was discovered, with his true guilt or innocense still left undetermined although purportedly was still living a rather lavish lifestyle as a former employee of one of his father's commercial ventures, with authorities alerted by his wife who lived in another state and who had petitioned the court for a change of name for she and their son due to the continued ramifications of the crimes committed by Mark Madoff's father.

The press has been unforgiving. And the American public, most of whom were not even directly impacted by the senior Madoff's activities, just as unforgiving and brutal, although fundamentally all Americans have been impacted by the loosey goosey federal government's oversight of the Wall Street banks, bankers and profiteers.

Which governmental policies and practices in sufficient oversight of these Wall Street profiteers have remained for the most part unchanged fundamentally even since Bernie Madoff's arrest, and conviction.

Wake up, Washington. A two year old has just lost his father, and there is another Bernie Madoff trading his grandchild's future for a yacht.

Or just maybe, eventually, THIS grandchild might.

Constitution 101: Fourth Amendment Prevents Government From Asking

With all the recent publicity in the U.S. media with respect to the Pentagon's stances on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and domestic differences of opinion in the McCain household which also have recently made the mainstream broadcast media for their spins, it has amazed this Constitutional Conservative American just how far afield this "discussion" and polling has gone, and just whose opinions are being sought - rather than our framers and founders.

It seems pretty clear to me that the Fourth Amendment actually PREVENTS the government from asking, but not the gay community from telling if they so desire. It is there and was given to protect the privacy of Americans in such a matter clearly as their sexual preferences and orientations, and the government has no business knowing such information with the exception of those who may eventually be serving active duty in some foreign engagement where there might be housing concerns.

And I guess if we would get over our addiction to pre-emptive and aggressive wars instead of defensive wars only, this would be a non-issue really to begin with.

But such "news" doesn't make the headlines. Or the schoolrooms, it appears, on absolutely any level whatsoever anymore.

And if there wasn't already adequate proof that our grammar school, high school and college curriculums could use major adjustments in that area, rather than the "science and technology" fields and teaching kids how to use a computer, rather than to think, this issue makes it crystal clear just where our schools have deliberately "dumbed down" our kids, our Pentagon officials, those serving on Capitol Hill, our newscasters and print journalists.

Maybe all the McCains could get behind this one.

Or not.

Global Meterologists Sunning in Cancun While Meeting On Climate Change

It was reported in the mainstream media that while the U.S. is still facing its greatest domestic recession since the Great Depression, the globalists UN members, many flying on their private jets, are meeting in Cancun, Mexico to "study" climate change.

Below is a quotation from the mainstream media article on the meeting verbatim:

"The meeting comes as a new report by the U.N.'s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization, says greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere have reached their highest levels since pre-industrial times. These gases, which warm the Earth's surface, continued to build up in 2009 -- the latest year studied -- despite the economic slowdown, said the the report last week."

Now we have a World Meterological Organization, in addition to the World Health Organization?

And interesting to note that the quote references that "gas levels in the atmosphere have reached their highest levels since pre-industrial times," while also stating that they "continue to build up...DESPITE the economic slowdown."

Hello? If the first statement has any factual basis (and who knows since such measurements were not even measured in pre-industrial times, so what a hoot!), then the second statement would stand to reason that if there is an "economic slowdown" in industry, then the levels WOULD rise to levels which were present in the pre-industrial era.

What a conundrum, and what spin!

I wonder how many golfing games, and windsurfing events are on the agenda for these globalists while "meeting" in Cancun?

Climate change? Isn't change in climate the norm? And is there nothing as unpredictable as the weather? And just how accurate are meterologists in general on the daily changes in weather, much less in being able to predict what MIGHT occur hundreds or even thousands of years from now?

I wonder are these some of the same meterologists that were unable to predict the correct path of Hurricane Gustav before it hit landfall back in 2008?

I wonder if in truth they are meeting to plan the next "natural" disaster to then build up the control of the global economy instead through the World Bank? I mean, if you can seed clouds for agricultural purposes at this point in history to protect the food sources, could you not also "overseed" those clouds in order to facilitate a hurricane, say, in order to justify your existence, and feed the global bankers once again?

What politics. What spin. What utter baloney.

Maybe they are meeting with the drug cartel members, perhaps, instead?

Prince William To Wed, Bristol Palin Gets BBC Props

Although a rare watcher of the television since it went cable (pay per view), which means I'm now forced to pay for the propaganda spewed on most of the major networks and cable programs just to get the local news and weather, unless you live in a cave today's top stories were hard to avoid.

First, Prince William is to marry finally the woman he has been stringing along for over eight years.

And proposed with the ring his mother, the late Princess Diana (or former Princess Charles of Wales, to be politically correct) received upon her ill-fated betrothal back in 1986.

A marriage that did not end very happily, nor whose life's end has not had its share of detractors also with respect to the "official" stories on that crash in Paris all those years ago.

Of course, the Queen and PM were reported "delighted," as they were with Prince Charles' selection of a bride. And this one, from all appearances, even has a more sense of herself from the outset than Princes Di.

One can only cross fingers, but it is clear the Brits rule once again the U.S. media on the extensive coverage given this really non-event considering, as Glenn Beck (that other Brit worshiper in drag due to his FOX/Rupert Murdoch connections, who wears his polo shirts with "Britain" emblazoned on them during his recent book tours) so aptly put it on one of his recent rants during an entire program devoted to George Soros and his political influence in this country, our media has "bigger fish to fry," than another royal wedding on the domestic front.

I mean, who really cares who Prince William marries unless it was one of Camilla's offspring? Perish the thought.

The second news bit seems to coincide with the first.

And that is that the finalists on that BBC Worldwide produced show for the high rated "Dancing with the Stars" import from the British Isle is to include Bristol Palin, who's mother also now has a cable news "reality" program on their life in Alaska (a state which has bucket loads of oil that those Brits also wish to control).

Brandy, a far better dancer (and I do have some expertise in that field also, since I did spend many, many hours in dance studios as the mother of daughters, and also trained myself in my younger years) and who was a leader from the outset from all reports was booted in favor of Ms. Palin's progeny.

Bruno was oh, so politically correct after the announcement and shock, and admonished the viewers that their "votes count." As was Brandy's partner, a Russian immigrant who extolled the virtues of this country and its "voting" process.

Right. Although left out just who was doing the counting.

I just wonder, since Brandy did score a repeat performance next week after this travesty, just what other perks she might have received for publicly showing that "stiff upper lip" those Brits are famous for?

I'm sure that isn't a question Jimmy Kimmel will ask tonight during his post-mortem.

The other day I was really shocked when turning on the television. Not only do we now have those Spanish language programs throughout the country which you cannot "unsubscribe" for unless you also buy another device or have a degree in programming, but there was a "new" Asian station in either Japanese or Korean included in the "package" sold by a local cable company in the Western United States.

And remember, America, you ARE paying for this.

In one way or another.

America Subdivided: Washington Politicos Selling Off America?

While Barack Obama spends this last week after the disastrous election last Tuesday in India posing in front of some of India's architectural wonders, a country who has gained immeasurably by the generosity of both Republicans and Democrats in jobs and industries sold off bit by bit to foreign interests in order to "balance" the global economy at the cost of America's own, perhaps it is time to reflect on just what other industries, and America's own natural resources have been sold off to foreigners or foreign countries also progressively:

1. Our banks and currency regulation - Great Britain (London) through the Federal Reserve
2. Our oil reserves - Great Britain
3. Our gold mines - South Africa, Canada and Great Britain
4. Our independently owned or franchised hotels - India
5. Our auto industry - Mexico, Canada and China
6. Our state and national forests - now "controlled" or "wildfire" burned, in order to then honor those free trade agreements and import more Canadian lumber and timber domestically.
7. Our nuclear reactors - now foreign owned through various globally traded holding companies
8. Our clothing, apparel and durable goods (including those sovenirs) - China
9. Our cattle ranches - Korea, Japan
10. The Port of New Orleans - Great Britain
11. The Garden District and French Quarter real estate post Katrina - primarily BP execs, Britain
12. Our construction industry workforce - Mexico
13. Our agricultural workforce - Mexico
14. Our tech workforce - India
15. Our medical doctors and surgical staffs - more and more, India and South America
16. Our airlines - all globally traded, thus foreign owned
17. Our private hospitals - many "networks" globally traded, thus foreign owned

Does it really take an economist to calculate just why the American economy is continuing to spiral ever downward? Are there any American economists employed by this administration or the last several, or are they all "foreign" experts also more concerned with the world's economy than this country's, and has that industry also been "outsourced" as has been much of our television and print media?

This also does not factor in the contribution that other political branch and benefactor, the judiciary, have in their increased wealth as globalism believers in all the "corporate friendly" laws and statutes which have given "privileges and immunities" to not simply U.S. domestic global corporations, but even those foreign owned banks, insurance companies and financial institutions, PROGRESSIVELY under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Protectionism does work for America, and always has in providing both jobs, and new industry, and in removing the personal income tax per those founder's intent on domestic production and labor in order to protect this country's economy, and placing it back on foreign production and labor, it can work again.

If an American citizen or American corporation wants to hire foreign workers or buy foreign goods, so be it, and those prices will be higher as a result, but if an American citizen or domestic corporation wants to outsource they SHOULD have to pay more for those goods and services, and would also result in domestic products and services being on par or at least more competitive in the process.

THAT would actually BE a global market based economy domestically, rather than one that we have now run by the foreign Global Governors in that G-20 who are for the most part Europeans and driving this country into the ground in the process, and bankrupting the American citizenry for their ultimate dominion and gain due to their also primarily regulating and controlling through those globally also traded U.S. banks our currency rates.

And in the mortgage banking and educational loans, imposing even their own currency (the British LIBOR) on those sums through the U.S. banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even.

The Chinese definitely are not the only problem, America.

These are allies?

Euro-scavengers is more like it.

Subdividing America during those Global Governor's meetings.

Global Governor Obama Visits India

Global Governor Barack Obama's trip to India has received wide press reporting this past week, a trip which was undertaken within 24 hours of Tuesday's election and apparently another scheduled vacation week after spending most of the last few months on the campaign trail for various Democratic candidates.

I'm just wondering, have the American taxpayers been paying for all the political junkets, and these vacations to foreign countries this past two years?

I mean, it does appear that the jobs of the foreign ambassadors at this point are nothing more than "cake" jobs at the expense of the taxpayers, since during this entire Administration both Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton have been out of the country more than they have been in it.

While the United States is still mired in one of its deepest recessions ever (absent the propaganda in the mainstream media pointing to the recession "officially" ending in June 2009, since they clearly must be referring to the global economy and not that of the United States in any coherent manner whatsoever).

The latest reports on the added new jobs since October pointed to the retail sector, restaurants and bars, and medicine primary. Of course with the holidays coming up, these "seasonal" jobs for the most part will be gone by January.

Mr. Obama has been also attempting to put a spin on the number of U.S. jobs that have been outsourced to India during this week long vacation. And just what a few billion dollar trade deals with the U.S. will eventually provide in the way of jobs for Americans.

I wonder what jobs the East Indians can provide for Americans? I mean, their entire tech industry has been one huge massive gain for that country's economy after all the monies both this and the last Administration has poured into Silicon Valley only to have those taxpayer sums then used to hire the East Indian workforce for the most part.

I mean, even the food stamp program in many states is "administered" by companies that are hiring workers from the call centers in New Delhi.

Heads up, Mr. Obama: Global governance is what is killing this country.

And the East Indian workforce needs far less a stimulus than that of the U.S. workforce. I mean, I'm sure all those cell phone companies are making a bundle off the East Indian workforce and the U.S. citizens both that could be then used to reduce the U.S. citizens tax burdens by imposing once again those "import" taxes on foreign goods and labor and reducing the personal income taxes of all but the top 10% earners, since those earners are the ones also gaining their profits at the public's general expense in these free trade deals, and also those taxpayer grants and gimmes.

I mean, it takes Americans twice as long on their cells now to clear up some of those billing errors in those calls to New Delhi. So the U.S. citizens are being hit with treble damages on those cell phone bills as it is.

First for the jobs lost, second for the added call time on their bills, and third for those "income" and added assundry taxes even on those bills passed off to the public that the Indian workforce are not required to pay but they are.

Maybe it's time to phone home for a reality check.

Posturing Republicans To Reverse Obamacare?

On the "high" tide of the Republican victory re-establishing themselves as the voice of the House (and, by inference, then the people although clearly those corporate special interests rather that financed that Citizens United case), it was declared that the first order of business would be to reverse that monumental Constitutional faux pas of the Democratic controlled Congress, Obamacare.

Right.

And bite the hand that actually feeds them?

Although only two Senators "officially" voted for Obamacare in order to get it through and made into "law," clearly that political move was seen by most Independents, and the non-corporate affiliated Tea Party members even for what it was.

Pure politics.

After all, Nixon was sitting in the Oval Office when the disastrous HMO concept was hatched in order to purportedly save the American people a bundle on both their insurance costs, and their out of pocket health care costs.

That, of course, didn't happen.

Instead, there is now a chain of command and numerous individuals who get a part of those insurance proceeds before you even get a diagnosis, in many cases, or treated for the malady that ails you in most of those "clinics."

With the staff of those clinics now also billing according to the amount of time each doctor spends with you, and also for filling out all those lengthy and numerous now insurance forms.

Instead of one, they now get to bill for three or four for your average physical.

Obamacare simply has increased the "corporate" control over patient care, and also the eventual costs to the public when those that are now homeless and jobless cannot pay for those even "cut rate" co-op plans that were put forth as bait in order to simply quell the outraged public and masses.

Those global and national "chains" of hospitals and health care providers have been given carte blanche over the American people's future health, especially the upcoming boomer generation, again without even a minimum of oversight or regulation other than a few "foreign" lackeys in Washington and "yes men," for their administrative decisions depending on their occupancy, budgets, and shareholders needed profit margins.

There definitely was a reason that "privatized" hospitals also were not the intent of those founders, but state and county hospitals and faith based primarily donor supported facilities.

Lower costs overall, since no shareholder profits or "advertising" expenses were needed in those budgets. And those expenses add plenty to that final bill.

And not to be a doom and gloom pessimist, but having recently experienced a three year ordeal in just how progressive and major illnesses are now treated under Medicare, can only wonder just what "cut rate" health care for the boomers will be like.

I mean, we have stepped up these death row executions within the past few years in most states throughout the nation, testing all those new lethal injection drugs on those prisoners as was recently done in Arizona using a British made drug that has been in use in this country since the 1920's (sodium pentathol), but somehow during that highly publicized event, we were "out?"

Those DNR forms also are getting attached to most admissions forms upon emergency treatment when Americans reach a certain age, so I wonder just what will happen if some of those mega-health care providers need that bed instead for a lucrative, elective plastic surgery?

And most of the boomer generation have paid far longer, and much more than the previous generations for the building of those hospitals and clinics, in both the state and federal grant monies extended to them for their building, operating and research costs through both their "income" taxes, and also their state property taxes in most states throughout the nation.

It was interesting to note a recent article that even some of the faith based hospitals are excited about ObamaCare, since it makes the value of those hospitals, built with public donations mind you, so much more valuable for them to sell to the highest "global" bidder.

Doctors are now performing for many procedures, assembly line operations for heart disease and other common degenerative diseases due to age, six and seven before even lunch.

Between ObamaCare, that carbon tax, and the foreclosure mess the Republicans certainly won't have to concern themselves much with their platform positions on the "death tax."

The boomers won't have anything left at all, when they face those DNR forms.

And this particular generation may have the shortest life span of all, for those "global" profits.

And AARP its lowest membership in their decades long history also progressively.

No wonder they start sending out those enrollment forms at 50.

Citizens United Rebound: Elections Run Amok

Tuesday was election day throughout the nation, and appears it was another occasion where "backing up" our election campaign finance laws is long overdue.

At both the state and federal levels.

"Citizens United" was by far one of THE MOST egregious unconstitutional decisions heretofore ever made by the U.S. Supreme Court in its over 200 year history, along of course with that "corporate person-hood" redefinition and blurring in the differences between the free speech rights of the people, and elected officials and those running for political office through various "commercial" special interest and PAC organizations funded with many times matching federal grant monies due to their "educational" focuses, or "non-profit" status.

Prior to that one, it was the Kelo decision, also giving corporate interests, in bed with the muncipal and state governments, more power, and has resulted in the American public's land and homes being "taken" more and more for tax revenue in then legalized "theft" by the "sovereign" on behalf on one of their "favored subjects" ala Great Britain.

All in the name of the political benefit and the added revenue "the state" can receive from such takings, and so contrary to the intention of those founders for protection of their land and homes which was also a fundamental gripe of those patriots in the land seizures in Britain at their expense, it is equally astounding in its magnitude.

That Citizens United cases has contributed to our election process becoming nothing more than political blindsiding, with a license to then libel, or spin and spin some more propaganda with the end result being the one who could dodge the bullets faster, or the mud, or has the largest campaign coffer to repeat those message ad infinitum in those prime time spots, wins.

And that was apparent this last "off" election year cycle.

There were so many ads run on the local and cable television networks by various PAC organizations and partisan political groups, it seems almost a constant barrage of election overload began from the onset and in midsummer at that.

With the Constitution itself used in many for their positions, with so many spins that my head was spinning after almost all of those one minute spots the "misrepresentations" were coming so furious and fast.

In one highly produced commercial aimed at one of the candidates from an opposing party by the PAC organization for the "Democrats," slams were taken at a candidate due to his opposition to the 17th Amendment and position that it should be somewhat "rewound" to its original Constitutional intent for state representation.

According to the "man on the street" type blurbs that accompanied the spins, the actors the actors stated he was way "too extreme" a candidate to be given any consideration.

Of course, the 17th Amendment as it is now written erased the election of senators by the various state legislatures, and put those elections also into the hands of the public unconstitutionally - thus eliminated the "representation" of the states by the state legislatures as their "representatives," with the House intended, of course, to be the balance and true voice of the people strictly living in their own legislative districts.

It was in effect done due to the difficulties at segregated times for the state legislatures to get together in order to elect a member when one of the senators either died in office, or was removed or could no longer perform the functions of office due to varying circumstances.

And also, along with the passage of the 16th and creation of the Federal Reserve, to centralize more and more power in Washington by the states, so very contrary to the intended Republican type of government those founders actually created of a "general" and "special" governments and the balance of power, and accountability to the people at primarily the more local level.

Now, local elections are primarily funded and also those ads produced by "out of district" commercial political organizations, many of which themselves owned by "foreign" corporate interests, with their "home" offices in other districts, and other states.

Thus, your local election can be "won" by a New York or Los Angeles "special interest" or media group and thus stimulating their local economies for commercial purposes using your election in Hometown, U.S.A.

And also due to those "matching sums" unconstitutionally also received by the two mainstream political parties "corporate" organizations, who have in essence completely hijacked our election process at the state level in most of the larger states and even the process itself, so much so that at this point we have an unrepresentative government on every level, and campaign election laws that continue to get more "PAC" and special "corporate" interest friendly, and less "legal" along the intent of those founders for a representative government of the states, and their respective district citizenry.

At this point, even "foreign" out of country PAC organizations are gaining more and more a foothold in our election process, through their "national" domiciled offices or those "bundlers" also accepting out of state donations to local election campaigns in order to influence or fix the outcomes.

Note to the voters: Casting your vote has never become more important, but less relevant in just how that election eventually turns out.

And more so by the year.

The next presidential election cycle should be starting anytime now.

I mean, Christmas decorations went up about two weeks ago throughout the country before Halloween, so look for April or May and get out the Dramamine before Super Tuesday high tide washes you away.

It has become abundantly clear to many, our personal "legal" and relevant vote is nothing more than a test of patience, and our election contribution just another donation primarily to the state and federal revenue coffers once again in those gasoline taxes for the fuel it takes to get to those polling places.

And in this "high tech" voting age, I'm wondering really how many of those early mail in written ballots will be counted, or simply tossed in File 13.

The Wisdom Of Mr. Jefferson Remix

They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please...Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on National Bank, 1791

The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge Spencer Roane, Mar 9, 1821

The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Ritchie, December 25, 1820

It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression... that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary;... working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Charles Hammond, August 18, 1821

One single object... [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Livingston, March 25, 1825

The Constitution... is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge Spencer Roane, September 6, 1819


Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Wilson Nicholas, September 7, 1803

Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

The construction applied...to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate Congress a power...ought not to be construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument.

Thomas Jefferson, Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798

The Declaration of Independence... [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Adams Wells, May 12, 1821


On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 182

It is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear either of two meanings to give it that which will allow some meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given to them. It was intended to lace them up straightly with in the enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on a National Bank, February 15, 1791

On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 12, 1782


It is not honorable to take mere legal advantage, when it happens to be contrary to justice.

Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on Debts Due to Soldiers, 1790

Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Cartwright, 1824

It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Hugh P. Taylor, October 4, 1823

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson, fair copy of the drafts of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, 1798

For example. If the system be established on basis of Income, and his just proportion on that scale has been already drawn from every one, to step into the field of Consumption, and tax special articles in that, as broadcloth or homespun, wine or whiskey, a coach or a wagon, is doubly taxing the same article. For that portion of Income with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as Income, to pay another tax on the thing it purchased, is paying twice for the same thing; it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. (In other words, since there is now a federal "income" tax, then to Jefferson it was then "double jeapardy" to then tax "consumption" also such as court fees, patent and trademark fees, gasoline taxes, etc., etc., on top of the "income" tax - either one or the other) . The same would hold true in those states with an "income" tax also which are then taxing "consumption" with sales taxes, use taxes, gasoline taxes, etc., etc.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816

He who is permitted by law to have no property of his own, can with difficulty conceive that property is founded in anything but force.

Thomas Jefferson, January 26, 1788

It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia Query 19, 1781

It must be observed that our revenues are raised almost wholly on imported goods. (NOT "free" as in "no cost" trade, but "free" as in unregulated as to our ports for commerce between all nations).

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Gouverneur Morris, 1793

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own. (No world government)

Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774

Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.

Thomas Jefferson, 1784

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to The Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland, March 31, 1809

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787

Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands.

Thomas Jefferson, 1784

The New America: Socializing The Workforce

As an American who due to piggy-back financial reversals which have occurred during this U.S. economic tsunami (and even really before due to progressive legislation that has occurred at both the federal and state levels in the past 10-20 years), has been attempting for literally months to re-enter the job market to put my life back together in later middle age, the changes which have occurred in even the job search process have been an eye opening experience for this boomer.

I had been a semi-retired single mom who had started a small business with my savings mostly from a lifetime of working in the legal profession, and then travel and hospitality fields. I have been involved in at least three "start-ups" of small or family owned businesses personally (in the corporate law field, my ex-spouses new professional practice, and my own website-based retail business) during my working career.

But even having worked in the employment and corporate law fields, and I guess especially so, I have been literally taken aback by the process that is now utilized by most of the major employers and industries in all sectors of commerce at this point.

It isn't a jungle out there anymore and you really aren't competing with the user at the computer station next to you for that open position.

It's a network.

Hour long (and longer) internet employment applications, follow-up questionnaires, disclosure forms for drug, credit and background checks, "big brother" affirmative action forms requesting information on race, ethnicity, veterans status - yada, yada, yada.

No matter what is represented, HAL from 2000: A Space Odyssey is doing the hiring, that much is clear.

From checking your credit scores, investigating your personal history for those background checks through unregulated Internet security firms for infractions and the like, to crunching your resume into "key words" for filtering before it ever even gets to a human being, HAL is at the helm.

And some of the questions!

Here are a few, for those who have not gone through the "New Age" application process:

1. What percentage of politicians do you think are dishonest? (multiple choice: retailer)
2. If you were offered a position by another company at a greater salary, would you accept? (multiple choice: retailer)
3. How often do you use the Internet? (Survey after application and questionnaire, voluntary but would be appreciated)
4. How many rings before answering do you feel are a demonstration of good customer service ( multiple choice: secretarial position)
5. Have you EVER pled guilty or even no contest to a misdemeanor or felony offense (not even been convicted anymore?) (All applications)
6. Have you ever had a bad day (multiple choice: all)

You most likely will never know why you weren't hired, but it just might be that traffic ticket from three or four years ago or unpaid parking fine. Or an identity theft that has messed with your credit score, or losing a home, being unemployed itself and thus late with your bills just might prevent you from being able to secure employment to even attempt to rectify that situation in any respect at all.

Forget work experience. Only the past ten years or so matter in this "science based" hiring process. Even for those fast food restaurant jobs, or seasonal work positions.

As one who was employed for many years in the employment law field, experiencing this first hand at this stage of my life has truly been mindblowing.

It just may not be that there aren't enough jobs out there at all for the available workforce.

Maybe, there just aren't enough HALs that match HALs formula.

Seems maybe our discrimination laws have missed the mark in 21st Century America and may need updating.

More Foreclosures, More Economic Disasters To Come

After the earlier reports this week that Bank of America was delaying any more foreclosures on homes pending an investigation into the paperwork surrounding those planned in the "judicial foreclosure" states, it was announced by the AP yesterday that such is not the case and planned to execute on over 10,000 pending foreclosure actions.

Gee, with all that stimulus money which Bank of America received and then used to purchase all that Countrywide debt and paper, I just wonder how much equity those owners have invested in total which Bank of America will be getting, and it does appear that the federal "disclosure" law that simply requires mortgage banks and lenders to disclose the fact that the loan or contract you sign today just may change tomorrow if that note is purchased by another bank or entity is repaying all those lobbying costs those banks used on Capitol Hill the last few years in spades. Over and above all those "bailout" sums.

So what occurred here is that Congress extended credit to Bank of America so that they could then purchase Countrywide, at the taxpayers' expense, which then afforded them the right to foreclose on taxpayer properties which were "at risk," no matter how much equity those owners might have in those homes?

As one who had an original mortgage which was then sold to Countrywide at one point, who then attempted to charge me when I went to refinance for simply providing the payoff figure for the original note, I continue to find it hard to believe that ANY of these banks were "at risk" or bankrupt.

Especially after that revision of the bankruptcy code which also occurred due to banking lobbying efforts back in 2006 right before this tsunami began which in effect precluded then Americans who were facing bankruptcy from in effect writing off any of their credit card debts or home equity loans without going through the Chapter 13 "reorganization" procedures first (which takes a lawyer now to go through, the procedure is so complex) before filing under Chapter 7.

Almost all protections for debtors in bankruptcy procedures have now been removed, yet we continue to live in a credit based society where even paying off your credit card debt counts against you in the configuration of your credit score.

I mean post 9-11 what did President Bush advise the American people to do?

Go shop.

And what has Mr. Obama done also since taking office?

Advised the jobless and homeless American people to either get re-educated (taking out loans for that re-education), or refinance their homes (and pay even more ultimately for your property using those mortgage counselors with additional closing costs and "new" even more restrictive loans most likely than you originally had).

With Washington and the state legislatures continuing to scratch their heads and wonder why the housing market isn't improving?

Sub-prime loans were not the problem (and most of those loans in the areas most affected were not even sub-prime loans but loans based on the London Interbank Origination Rates, not even the U.S. prime), the terms of those 50 page loans and slight of hand which has occurred post the banking bailout defining mortgages as "paper debt" and not the contracts that they are, is what has increased the foreclosures and bulked up Wall Street once again at the cost of the American homeowners.

And contrary to the "economists" predictions, there are thousands of vacant and empty homes at this point, since this tsunami started in 2006 four years ago, so it isn't a dirth of "inventory" that is depressing the market.

It is the refusal of the American people to buy into a now very "risky" investment since I'm sure that what has occurred this past four years had not been lost on the upcoming homebuying public, and just who was "protected" and who lost their shirts...

And shelter.

The announcement that the 50 Attorneys General that are calling for an investigation into the foreclosure mess right before an election is just oh, so typical and oh, so political once again.

Now four years later? Sort of like closing the barn doors after the horse has escaped, and seems merely another job stimulus for the job security of the legal profession. I mean, who will you need to address such a case if not, once again, the foreclosure lawyers who have made a bundle this past four years and seems that the collection and foreclosure industry is another of those "favored special interests" that has benefited tremendously during this recession.

Depressed and vacant housing, thousands of Americans with black markets on their credit unable to get jobs due to the use of those reports by most of those national and global industries, and a low paid workforce due to all the outsourcing and insourcing which has escalated since the Reagan years.

With such a scenario, just how does Washington expect the economy to revive since it has bankrupted at this point a good segment of the American people, at least the middle class and boomer and World War II generation, at this point?

Social Security COLAs denied based on the fact that the COLA has not increased? Just where is the Department of Labor getting those figures, because the cost of living for those over 55 has definitely increased.

Many now have extended family members living with them. Their medical expenses have exploded due to lack of regulation over the mega health care providers, and for those assisting with college costs for the grandkids even, those costs have gone up.

Food prices have increased, and gas is still higher than it was before this recession began.

Instead, a $250 check is in the mail? Seems the new mentality in Washington has also been borrowed from corporate America.

Not benefits, but annual Washington configured rebates. Just where did they get that figure?

Meanwhile, the president and those running for re-election are running around the country contributing to the carbon emissions in order to bulk up those revenues eventually for the new carbon tax.

I've got news for the Washington, the bankers and economists.

The stock market is no barometer of the economic health of America.

The local unemployment offices, residential neighborhoods, and Main Street USA are.

And just where ARE all these candidates getting all that campaign money for all those ads on TV?

Let me guess. The bankers, or "government" contractors in rebates.

Saturday Night Live Needs An Extreme Makeover

As a boomer who remembers the New York based "Saturday Night Live" from the beginning and watched the very first show, it has amazed me on the very, very few times I have tuned in since those first few seasons the "changes" which have occurred.

Known for its outrageous skits and occasional timely political commentary, it has taken a rather dark turn it appears as of late, and not in a good way.

Always, always liberal in its political focuses, that liberalism also has become simply irrelevance at this point in America's history, and its formerly "gross" humor not even very funny to a large segement of the population, it seems.

And some of the musical entertainment clearly even more far out and just as wacky and politically off the wall for any residing apparently outside New York (or L.A., its sister city).

Cases in point in just the few that I have watched for partial programs the last year (and this IS a show that starts at 10:30 or 11:30 in most of the country, but appears directed more so at a "youth" and younger audience with each decade who mostly are at home up late during the weekend - since as those young comics age also they routinely disappear into either spin offs of their characters in movies or eventual oblivion):

1. A skit in which Tina Fey as a teacher fantasizes over a pre-teenish "student" Justin Bieber(?), a Canadian pop star being marketed in the U.S. to pre-teen girls as "wholesome entertainment."

2. A skit in which a "loving family" mouth kissed mere strangers and extended family members (and their pets) to demonstrate their love for one another at the funeral of a relative, in which one of the family members licked and mouth kissed eventually the deceased laying in a coffin.

3. An entire segment on the Weekend Update segment this past week with Amy Poehler and Seth Myers addressing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies of gay men and women in the military in the name of "equality." I wouldn't hesitate to guess that the comics and writers on the program support unlimited abortion rights for women under the guise of "privacy," but believe that the "privacy" of gay individuals now serving in the military doesn't also come under those same Constitutional provisions of such a personal and private issue as an individual's sexual preferences?

I mean, just how many in the military who are gay truly want "big brother" to have such intimate and personal information documented in their enlistment papers on government databases?

The rest of the segment was dominated by the blind Governor of New York, inside jokes on the New Yorker-Jerseyite relationship, and the Governor's past term of office and irrelevance at this point in time during the upcoming elections, and his disability with the Governor, of course, then making an appearance alongside the "imposter." None of which I'm sure the other 49 (48 outside Jersey) states would have any interest in as "inside jokes."

4. And also on this particular program, a pop tart star ala another Madonna dressed to Bob Mackie rhinestone excess in glittery teenage cheerleader style mini-dress with backup football players singing a song devoted to having a back seat teenage sex session and while singing the chorus then rubbing her legs suggestively promoting her "skin tight jeans?"

I mean the Bees and Blues Brothers have a place in the history and television archives for this 70's ground breaking comedy, but I just wonder what new drug they are smoking during those writing sessions?

The only segment that appeared even remotely funny was the impersonator of Will Smith ala Eddie Murphy.

Maybe "Home Improvement" needs to do an extreme makeover," from the ground up with new writers. Or better still...

"Live from (take your pick outside New York) it's Saturday Night!" just might clue them in as to what is politically relevant and comic, and just what is just so, so New York, and not "out there" but "in there" in truly messed up New York Gomorrah-land.

Definitely not for that ever-growing Tea Party crowd, or former Republicans and Democrats who are now independent of any political party affiliation.

Those Indians clearly came out with the better deal on this one.

Election 2010: More Spins Than The NFL

Since the November midterm elections are coming to the wire, the political ads and spins are coming as fast and deep as those touchdown passes on Monday Night Football.

But at least those arm-chair quarterbacks in the booths can't spin quite as much as the special interest two mainstream political parties can.

As one who lived in two states that have been "political" hotbeds especially these past ten years, Arizona and Louisiana, (the former my "home" state, and later that of extended family members in which I was located for a couple years after fleeing Arizona in 2006 after over 45 years for various political reasons), it is rather discomforting to know that the same old, same old occurs now in this country no matter where, it seems, you may be at election time.

That Citizens United case was a boom for the telecom industries, and certainly has stimulated their budgets, while of course making our elections less and less Constitutional by the year...

I mean, how can you have a representative government when those running for office are afforded to now accept massive campaign monies from "out of district" bundlers and global and national corporate entities in state elections?

Such another wacko decision by the "liberal" Supreme Court once again undermines and clearly negates the entire foundation upon which our Constitution is grounded as those representatives being the voice of the "people" in their particular districts.

In any event, the two parties are at it again, and with more fervor than ever.

There is an election here for a Senate seat.

Of course, the Democratic ads are portraying the opponent as one who is behind cutting and/or eliminating Social Security, cutting education funding, increasing the budgets for the prisons (for those federal grant monies, of course, and also since I have learned this state also has "privatized" some functions of the penal system under outsourced "corporate" government contractors, unconstitutionally transferring a clearly governmental function), and a host of other "benefits" for big business.

The Republican ads, of course, have the same tenor but different spins. These ads portray the opposing candidate as one who voted for "government run" health care (although that is definitely NOT what occurred, rather, the Democrats too fed big business on that one in those upcoming clearly unconstitutional "health care taxes" and mandates and then even without absolutely any regulation over those mega health care networks and insurers whatsoever), and a "wasteful" spender on the stimulus which stimulated nothing but the government, and both parties government contractors and special interest corporate campaign supporters.

Feeding the global and national special interests on both sides of the aisle, of course, and due to Citizens United then there is so much more "outside" campaign monies to tap again come next election by those two mainstream parties whose platforms have really nothing whatsoever to do with Constitutional government at this point whatsoever.

I mean both keep funding the war, and both keep feeding Wall Street and the global economy at the cost of America's own.

We clearly do have at this point, the "best" government that the most lucrative "special interest" can buy.

And after that bank and Wall Street stimulus, I wonder which sector that might be?

We're in the final quarter, and I just wonder how many of the voters already left at halftime?

But before you cast your vote, you might check with the Vegas bookmakers on this one.

Since I'm sure they, rather than those mainstream "political analysts", have the inside track.

Michael Moore and Larry King Spin on Chilean Rescue, Deepwater

Although I personally watch little television and haven't for quite a number of years with the exception of the weather channel, I was visiting one of those all night markets for a few items and while walking through the electronics department caught about five minutes of an interview Michael Moore had on Larry King last evening.

The short segment I viewed had them discussing the recent rescue of the Chilean miners after 69 days, and all the celebrating that is going on throughout the world on the rescue and positive outcome, and efforts of all those involved.

A monumental moment, that's for sure, given the number of days in which they were trapped.

But then Mr. Moore went on to somehow compare the rescue to the efforts taken during the Deepwater Horizon disaster in Louisiana, and how long it took "us" to plug a seven inch hole, far longer than it took the Chilean government to rescue these trapped workers.

I had to laugh, really, about the comparison and also the "blame" which was levied leaving out much again of just what did occur post-Deepwater.

After all, it didn't take "us" longer to plug that hole, it took the British that long.

Since the entire cleanup and resulting ramifications were transferred by the Obama Administration to that huge global British corporation, with the Coast Guard merely acting mostly as backup and liason on the repair and cleanup efforts. And yes, it certainly did take longer since there really wasn't much of an incentive for the British to plug that hole very rapidly.

Instead, they got permission to drill two MORE wells under those lease agreements with the U.S. government renegotiating the terms in the process of their "take" of America's offshore mineral reserves (while we continue to fight the major battles in the Mideast for the British and European's future oil needs most of all, in addition to continuing to search for bin Laden?).

This is the country whose National Health Care plan Mr. Moore couldn't lavish enough praise and attention to in one of his most recent political docudramas, and how much superior it is to the U.S. in its coverage and affordability.

In a country that has one of the highest tax burdens, and for which many of their citizens have sought citizenship in this country in order to escape. Or Greenland even.

Including my own grandparents back in the 1920's.

With, of course, Larry nodding in agreement at what a mess "we" made of Deepwater.

Which was, after all, the second "accident" by this British global corporation involving the loss of American lives.

While, of course, downplaying in his political docudrama the enormous waits that most of the Canadians also have for non-emergency procedures in their own country under their "better" taxpayer funded plans, who have also been immigrating to the U.S. by the score in the last few decades, at least in the Sunbelt states owning second homes there while being almost full time residents (except those ghastly months of June, July and August when they are on holiday elsewhere somewhat cooler or more temperate, due to their higher currency).

I applaud the Chilean government on a job well done, although do wonder if such were the case in this country, since Canadian and South African companies own the majority of the gold mines in the U.S. (with the U.S. the third country in production after Australia and South Africa - so first our oil, now our gold mineral rights have been outsourced!)...

Just how many more days in such an event would it take for either of those British or formerly British countries global corporations to rescue any trapped American miners?

If Deepwater is any indication of British know-how or priorities?

But then again, I did only watch a very small segment of the program so maybe they got to that later on...

This is not to say also the U.S. health care system is not a mess, but then as what was evident in what recently occurred also in that respect, it doesn't appear the "stakeholders" that were consulted by the Obama Administration for this health care reform had really reform in mind, other than reforming the amount of their "stake" with those new health care mandates and taxes through the backdoor - with absolutely no regulation over those health care costs, or some of these huge megacorporate health care systems and practices in any manner whatsoever.

And although the increasingly bankrupted American people and "market" have been and are continuing to speak out over both their now "British" tax bites, and health care costs, it doesn't seem the Washington "stakeholders" are listening.

I mean, the entire HMO and "corporatized" health care legislation ala Richard Nixon has simply increased costs, not decreased them, so I just wonder also about the much ballyhooed Internet markets and "new" co-op "cheaper" plans which were thrown around in order to placate the masses with this "deform" and just how effective those will be, rather than simply just another "jobs creation" bill at the general public's ultimate expense for the financial sector and medical conglomerates once again.

Luis Ramirez Case Demonstrates Criminal Justice System Gone Awry

The highly publicized ongoing "hate crimes" case in the death of Luis Ramirez at the hands of a group of white American football players/teenagers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, a mostly blue-color small town northwest of Philadelphia, appears to this writer to demonstrate how the American criminal justice system has truly lost its way.

Primarily also due to the inconsistent reporting also that has occurred throughout the nation on the case.

With the first inconsistency being just whether or not the victim was a 25 year old American citizen of Mexican descent, or an illegal immigrant.

Sources in the news media have portrayed him as both, and his initial trial was in state court in which the teens involved were convicted of criminal assault in the beating death of Mr. Ramirez, who they encountered in a park where the victim was out with his 15 year old girlfriend late one evening.

Apparently, the group of teens had had too much to drink and were spoiling for a fight, and from all reports insults were hurled prior to the eventual encounter in both directions. I wonder if the proprietor of the establishment who sold those kids the alcohol has also been brought up on charges, since they were, after all, 16 and 17 at the time of this incident and apparently it occurred after a football game.

The teens were also charged with "ethnic intimidation" under state laws at the time of their trials, but apparently those charges were either dismissed or they were found not guilty on those counts.

Much, of course, has been made that an "all white" jury was involved in the state action, and apparently there are also charges that local authorities were involved in some cover-up of the investigation then thereafter, some of whom are scheduled to be brought up on those charges at some later point in time (although this incident occurred more than two years ago).

The community, of course, has been adversely impacted as this is a town that is a magnet for the claimed "Hispanic community" due to the draw of jobs in the agricultural and industrial (factory) sectors. Of course, Pennsylvania's major industrues are in the coal/steel/industrial sector, with many during this recession also hard hit and out of work.

The uncertainty of this young man's immigration status as reported in the media does bear scrutiny as the prosecution in the subsequent federal case has also inconsisgtently been reported as under the "hate crimes" bill recently signed by Congress (about the same time as this incident occurred, it appears, but that also bears scrutiny). Even more strange is that the federal case is actually being prosecuted against the teens as a violation in affording the victim fair housing under the "Fair Housing Act."

Say, what?

Apparently, since the state dismissed the charges against the teens under the state provisions for "ethnic intimidation" the federal government is barred from then bringing an action under the "hate crimes" legislation passed in 2008, or it was an ex-post facto law in any event passed after this particular incident. Or to then proceed and charge the teens with violation of the federal Hate Crimes Act would, in effect, be double jeopardy since the state prosecutor or the jury had dismissed those charges at the state level.

But now prosecuting them under the "Fair Housing" Act?

MALDEF, a federally funded "educational" group, of course, is involved in the prosecution of the case. Another group that stands to benefit from any and all actions which can in any way be deemed a "civil rights" matter - apparently whether brought on behalf of an actual American citizen or not, since the status of this man's citizenship has been reported, at least in the Boston papers, as an "illegal immigrant."

Although one of the Washington news sources reports him as an "American, of Mexican descent."

But I guess if MALDEF is involved then he must be a Mexican-American. Or the federal statute providing for those legal fee awards makes no distinction, since the words "civil rights" are being used quite liberally by the federal prosecutors for this now Fair Housing case.

A tragic incident, and while the state has actually got the technicalities correct in at least the fact that "ethnicity" just may have been a factor, the federal government is using the "racial" discrimination label - when Hispanic is not actually a "race" at all any more than being of German, Irish or Russian descent.

I wonder when those cases will be brought under the Fair Housing Act?

Alcohol and teens do not mix, but then neither do hormones and teens.

When I was growing up in Arizona during even the grammar school years, the "big tree" outside the schoolyard was famous as the site where any and all fights between the pre-teen boys occurred. Although they were equally matched in most cases, at least one-on-one.

But instead of charges of "bullying" as would occur in any other such incident due to this young man being outnumbered at the outset, and by a group of high school teen football players at that, we are charging them under the Fair Housing Act, after they were already convicted of criminal assault?

It seems to me this new "hate crimes" legislation is going to result in an increase in our adolescent jail population also progressively, and of course our deficit for all those legal fees to all these special interest groups on the illegal immigrant gravy train, when if our borders were secured and then the immigration process also then simplified and made less costly for all those from poorer countries especially who wish to immigrate such cases as these just might also progressively decrease.

I just wonder also, will the ACLU be there for the next European-American young male who is beaten by some Mexican gang members in one of the border state neighborhoods in order to protect their civil rights?

I guess that question is rather rhetorical, since the Fair Housing Act doesn't apply to that "ethnic" group.

And with all the demonstrations and unrest that the illegal immigrant and border situation has resulted in these past few years, and actually since the Reagan amnesty in the 1980's as reported in the media night after night, and being used by the politicians for political purposes most of all each and every election, and in this ever spiraling economic tsunami with more and more Americans continuing to be homeless and jobless by the month, is it any wonder that such a mentality would filter down to especially the adolescent males in a small mining town in Pennsylvania.

I mean, this does appear to be another case of federal negligence at the eventual cost of the public at large, and increasing the tensions over this issue.

This community, far from the border, it also has been reported has been "at war" ever since this incident took place.

Which does not excuse what obviously occured and the "mix" of the circumstances, alcohol, and hormones which eventually led to the death of this young man, but is it any wonder?

And call me somewhat a formerly "overprotective" mom of teens, but just what was this 25 year old young man doing with a 15 year old girl out in a park late at night anyway who it was reported also was a father and had children?

The Fair Housing Act violations seem a stretch, since I wonder if those teens even knew about the Fair Housing Act.

And I wonder what MALDEF's bill will be eventually for this one, since there is also a "Justice" Department lawyer involved in prosecuting this case?

A Personal Story: The Patriot Act, Unemployment And Political Harassment

In this post-911 world, and after passage of the Patriot Act, it has been amazing to this writer just how this Act of Congress is being used also by special interest groups and politicians in order to use as a means and weapon subliminally in order to facilitate their agendas against Average Americans who have been more and more addressing the two party system and also the continued Constitutional violations which have escalated since that time.

I was nothing more than a "retired" legal professional, and also mostly at home employed then "self employed" mother doing her best to raise three children post a divorce in the 90's in a city that I grew up in that was spinning out of control over the border situation, and explosive growth which had occurred through the past several decades - Phoenix, Arizona. Adolescence particularly was tough under those circumstances, especially given the area in which we resided post-divorce off a major metro thoroughfare not so very far from the north-south corridor and interstate throughout the State of Arizona.

An area particularly hard hit after the expansion of that interstate from Nogales to Flagstaff in the 1980s for "commercial" reasons.

My costs of ownership on a home I had purchased post-divorce were also spinning out of control, and escalating not merely by the decade, but by the year. And also progressive loss of any and all ownership rights I even had to the property due to special interest legislation that also escalated post my purchase.

I eventually lost the house, or any interest in retaining it since the writing was clearly on the wall and a legal action pretty much "took" my home from me in the end. I, of course, wished to spread my story so that at least some unaware Americans could be spared my fate, also from a historical perspective as one who had almost seen it all through four decades.

What has occurred since that time due to also progressive policies of Washington could be characterized as "subliminal" harassment through both my published articles, and also other means.

My credit rating after what occurred is not "prime," although throughout the first almost four decades of my life received offer after offer of increasing my credit limits, or taking out new credit cards due to the access those credit companies had to my credit scores in the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's prior to my divorce. With children that had, through my spouse's and my joint income, during their most formative years come to a certain standard of living that I most certainly struggled to maintain post divorce.

And was mostly successful in downsizing quite a bit our housing, and other costs but of course those teen years were trying, and those expenses quite high with new drivers in a state where auto insurance rates for youth, especially, not to mention the general public had gone off the charts primarily also due to the open border situation, accident rates in a city which had quadrupled in size in less than two decades, and as a tourism spot for snowbirds.

I started writing the legislature about what had occurred, and also political matters which had adversely impacted the state, and low and behold started receiving speed dialed "collection" calls on a cell phone which continued even after I discontinued the original service, and started buying some of the cheaper "pay as you go" models due to my lower credit score after the litigation, and losses I had suffered in a business then also going under during that "abuse of process" action based on a small claims action that resulted in an over $17,000 attorney fee award - a great deal of the equity eventually of my home, along with the $16,000 realtors "fee" for handling the eventual transaction. And all those other "closing" costs.

When I say subliminal, here is what occurs.

You begin receiving "collection" calls daily from a lawyer's recorded message that indicate they are looking for someone else, and to call them in order to be removed from their lists after being instructed to "hang up" if you are not the party they are seeking. And usually these calls occur later in the evening. I've had at least three different entities at this point seeking three different individuals with their recorded messages contact me in such a manner during the past four years after leaving my former home state.

And usually right after I publish any article on some of the citizen journalism sites, my own blog or forward any of them to my former legislators.

Since, of course, these collection lawyers have carte blanche to access under that Patriot Act any citizens personal information or phone numbers even through those telecom companies, or their private "homeland security" trained investigators in the name of creditor rights.

And politicians also, who just might be a little peeved at having the public get any information at all on what is truly occurring in this American economic meltdown and national security fiasco from any source other than those which have been deemed "politically correct" which will publish the fiction.

Those credit scores and credit reports, and background checks are being used to politically target quite clearly those citizens who are not simply the "sheep" but were actually educated in American history and government at a time when the federal government had far less power over the state and local schools, and take exception more and more in what is going on in our courts, our schools, and our federal and state government which truly has led to where we are. And America's intended form of Constitutional government revered above all other countries. Not world government, but American government.

And it seems that although what I and many writers who have become more politically active disclose, although the truth and clearly more mainstream than those publishing the spins, the politicians and government leaders still don't get it.

The proof of what we speak is all around them in the fact that the housing market hasn't picked up, the war is costing this country and its future posterity their legacy, and this globalization in this global economy is bankrupting this country by the week, at this point.

Instead, they spend their time harassing the victims and attempting to marginalize them while this scenario gets worse and worse.

And it is quite clear to see, that a Harvard or Yale education clearly isn't worth the parchment anymore it is printed on, and Joe the Plumber (actor though he may be) has a better feel for the pulse of the American people than those serving at the state capitols, or on the Hill.

Fox, BBC Worldwide, and the British Barrister's Association, and Ivy League globalists have contributed to the American economic meltdown far more than those Tories of so long ago.

Plea bargained, even low level felony American citizen prisoners were just denied their voting rights?

Hello, Great Britain circa 1776. And I certainly am not the only one in this country that can now see the forest, for the trees.

I just hope with the next number, I can remember it.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: California Judiciary Does It Again

After the gay marriage issue and the unconstitutional denial of prisoners' voting rights (even while on parole, after serving jail time for low level criminal offenses) now this...

Apparently, a San Diego judge has placed an injunction on the military's "don't ask, don't tell," policy, again just weeks before an election according to a published AP article.

My question on this issue has always been, just how many in even the gay community serving at this point even care or would actually prefer to keep such a private issue as their sexual preference truly private?

I mean, the military is not supposed to be a dating service anyway, so just what has this particular rather personal issue have to do with serving in the military in this country, other than without such disclosure it does make battlefield housing and living arrangements a bit more complex?

This article also set forth that the American people at this point are less concerned with "social" issues such as these and the war than they are with the economy. Which again goes to prove just how far off the mainstream media are, and wonder just who is conducting and what segment of the population are being used for their polls.

The war has much to do with the economy, and joblessness and homeless in this country. After all, the costs for continuing this war for now nine long years has escalated and added to our deficit far more than even those discretionary expenditures for those bridges to nowhere. And will so for decades in all the veterans benefits and costs that will be needed for the next, oh say, fifty to sixty years.

A decision such as this should not be made by a federal or state judge, but as a policy decision, especially in times of war.

I believe this goes along the lines of all those policies regarding "fraternization" while serving, and also during times of war. I mean, just how much time do most of those serving really have for developing romantic attachments?

Maybe we need to rethink this entire "standing army" concept, or leave those decisions to those who are more aware of the ramifications. And again, just how many gays are actually serving, is what I would like to know, since it would seem that the majority of gay individuals are not exactly also supportive of this ongoing war either at this point to begin with, at least from my experience.

So just how many really are enlisting, and I would not hesitate to guess, not many and many of those that are or have, don't seem to be those which continue to push this agenda, but the civilian activists that somehow perceive that in keeping such a fundamentally personal issue private is denying them their "rights." But "rights" to what, I'd like to know.

Solicit?

The courts do seem to be continuing to accept cases and extending standing to "disinterested" parties more and more, including those now brought on behalf of "foreigner's" rights somehow in this country, under our Constitution and Bill of Rights ("We the People of the United States...for US and OUR posterity"), or using some perceived injustice or disenfranchised individual on behalf of a special interest group in order to feed the legal industry most of all under those federal statutes that provide for the payment of legal fees, at the taxpayer's expense, for any and all actions which can in any way be perceived as a "civil rights" case.

Your sexual preference is a "civil right," but while serving in the military (which is not a "civil" organization, in more ways than one, it would appear as of late) is not.

The military and its members are fighters, after all, not lovers.

Just think of the complications of a totally gay and separate unit with such a policy, and the additional questions that would need to be asked in such an event for at least housing purposes.

For example, "What are your tendencies, "butch" or "queen?"

California and its judiciary does it again, and no wonder there continues to be more at least generational Americans leaving that state, than new residents.

I just wonder whether they also just might work, through their political connections, for the AP which more and more does tend to focus on sensationalize, explosive and exploitive politically charged journalism and their "polls" each and every decade, rather than even questioning a military policy being addressed in a civilian court outside any true Constitutional basis or intent of those founders whatsoever.

Who would most likely hold that gays are more than welcome to serve in the military and volunteer army to protect the homeland if it is their desire.

But disclose they would have no time for dating, and if that was their objective than maybe the career military or a foreign engagement during a time of war wouldn't suit their primary or the military's ultimate aims.

Ninth Circuit Denies Voting Rights To Prisoners

It was announced in the mainstream media that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a prior panel ruling (?) which had found the State of Washington's prohibition banning voting by felons unconstitutional.

The case apparently was grounded and brought as a "racial discrimination" case, however, and the basis for the decision appears politics also just may have been a factor in this recent ruling.

After all, with the exception of two states in the nation all have some provisions barring convicted felons from the election process. Some more stringent than others, and even a few that actually prohibit felons from voting for life (forget "letting the punishment fit the crime," or after the punishment has been handed down and fulfilled "records" being then wiped clean upon petition for felons, and automatically for misdemeanor offenses).

Seems to me maybe the lawyers for the case might have missed using that other Constitutional provision, the "privileges and immunities clause," that also might have been another legal avenue to travel. I mean, two states do not remove voting rights for felons, so aren't those prisoners getting a "privilege" that those prisoners in other states do not, since the buzz words also being used by the spin doctors on this one is that voting is a "privilege" in this country, and not a "right?"

Huh?

In a government of the people, by the people, for the people it most certainly is a "right" in this writer's view, but then we have also quite clearly lost any measure of having a representative government due to just such wacko court decisions as these, as of late, all the way to the top branch in that last Citizens United "corporate" case brought by a somewhat "commercial" entity, or perhaps dare I say, federally funded through its "educational" focus?

I mean, foreigners now are exerting their influence in the hallowed halls of Washington more and more, both through their lobbying efforts and also through their campaign donations to those "bundlers."

The court also cited a "precedence" from an 1886 case, and strange that this "progressively liberal" court would hold with a case while bypassing the intent of the founders and their reverence for just what type of government they were creating, and which actually had to do more so with capital offenses in which jury trials actually were given in those days, and cases were not plea bargained, or those jailhouse appeals denied as regularly as they appear to be more and more then thereafter.

Many times, for budgetary reasons.

I wonder if Washington State has privatized its state jails as Arizona has?

I mean, the fewer inmates, the less those Wall Street penal conglomerates get for their budgets and shareholders, and the less the states also get from the federal government in order to also run some of those state prisons. This is, after all, another emerging industry creating all those jobs for those homeland security graduates and ex-military primarily.

Is it any wonder that more and more of those pro se jailhouse appeals are getting either denied, or "lost," as was the case in Louisiana several years ago in a published article which was written after a Clerk of the Court committed suicide presumably due to his guilt over having been a participant in such a court process for at least a decade.

And while Arizona's prisons have been privatized right and left supposedly due to "budgetary" constraints, I just wonder where all those monies also are coming from in order to upgrade and build all those new jails especially with the budget being of such major concerns to a great many states these past five years, while the most monies that went in that stimulus actually did go to the states for such purposes. I guess this is another "outsourcing" of governmental powers and duties to private industry in these now "commercial" prisons once again that will have their bottom line profits most in mind in running them, and with little state oversight whatsoever as was recently in the headlines.

I mean in this "ends justifies the means" style governing now on every level, the more and more that minor offenses are criminalized which don't involve loss of property or injury, the more "jobs" it creates, and dividends for those shareholders who are invested in those commercial ventures at this point.

This is the mentality that seems to be running rampant at the city, county, state and federal levels more and more.

Just think how much crime stimulates the economy, and creates jobs. Construction jobs, security and prison guards for the returning military and homeland security grads, the "tech" industry for all those cameras and surveillance devices, identity theft protection companies and jobs, insurance company profits for expanded coverages then needed on homeowners and auto insurance due to the rising auto theft rates in most state throughout the nation - why it does appear that it is a major stimulus for quite a few sectors of Wall Street.

In fact, if there wasn't crime at all, just think how many more would be lining up at the social service offices right now.

Maybe that is also a factor in this economic depression.

The need for more criminals in order to stimulute also the global economy, Wall Street, and the U.S. economy - after a theft, you have to go out and buy something to replace what was taken, after satsifying that deductible, that is. After your car is stolen or broken into, you need to satsify that deductible when making those repairs, or buying tha new (or used) car to replace it.

Maybe this is why more and more in local communities there are no neighborhood patrols really much anymore in residential communities, since that would affect and impact the economy and jobs of those private security companies too, although they have no real legal authority to do anything really other than place a call to the local police force if the worst should happen and there should be a property crime in their jurisdiction.

It just might not be the budget at all If there were regular neighborhood patrols once again there just might be less crime, maybe, and thus less jobs and profits for those on the "crime does pay" gravy train. Or if the economy actually did improve significantly.

But with lesser offenses, this country IS supposed to be the "land of the free" - so just why has there been such a progressive move to criminalize more and more petty offenses, offenses in which there is no direct victim such as many of those minor "possession" charges on marijuana use, not sale, and others. You can spend jail time even for misdemeanor offenses at this point in most states throughout the nation.

Many of the even public misdemeanor jails are charging inmates for their own meals, or confiscating their wages then from any work they do for the "privatized" jailhouse general stores upon their return. I mean being in jail itself, deprived of your freedom and separated from society for your crime, was SUPPOSED to be THE punishment for major offenses.

Those incarcerated, especially those felonies not involving harm or injury to another, are or were taxpayers - but it appears when handing down their double, triple and even quadruple penalties for even minor felony offenses, the states are forgetting the common law provisions on civil and criminal crimes in this country. And most aren't even "convicted" but are plea bargained also for "budgetary" needs by those public defenders.

Letting the punishment fit the crime has been lost in the process. And even giving those juries the instructions that they also have not only the duty to hand down their verdict on the evidence presented, but also the duty to examine the law and punishments attached by statute also as to legality in their view as representatives of "the people," and not "the state."

Although even obtaining a jury of your peers is almost impossible, since juries are now profiled by the lawyers involved, or are comprised of citizens that truly are not "peers" of the defendant at all - many of whom are themselves city, state, county or federal workers who are paid from some of those fines and fees attached to those crimes - especially the minor offenses.

And yet, there is a concerted move also progressively to continue to attempt to remove trials by jury for more and more offenses even. With the state acting as both the charging party, and jury in more and more "bench" trials for misdemeanor criminal offenses, and with even traffic fines at all time highs requiring most to enter into "payment plans" at added costs even over and above those fines, which should be a clue right there as to the levels at which they are now set. The very definition of fascism, actually.

So how is removal of voting privileges in any manner letting the punishment fit the crime, unless it truly is the highest offense within our Constitution.

High treason.

I mean spies, and those in high political office should not be afforded that "right" when by their actions they have shown that it is not this country or its Constitution which guides their actions, or to whom they owe their fealty.

I wonder, just how many in Washington that are highly publicized casting their votes even while running for office, should have their ballots challenged?

Maybe what we need at this point is a recount ever decade, rather than a census.

I just wonder how many "foreigners" and "party politicians, including those "mavericks" of both mainstream political parties whose political leanings have nothing to do with Constitutional government, votes would then be thrown out.

Another ruling by the Ninth that appears to be following British law at the time of the American Revolution contrary to those Bill of Rights primarily and fundamentally, and not U.S. true law at all, as this ruling to this writer flies in the face of the entire intent of America's founders in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Weighed against the increasing access to the U.S. Courts by foreign individuals for even prosecution matters not to mention their appeals paid for through Americans taxes for those numerous appeals before deportation for true capital offenses, who are not even American citizens, speaks volumes in just how far off this recent decision is as by this court especially, as opposed to Constitutional intent in the entire foundation of America's intended form of government.

Whose "prisoner" voices should be heard most of all really, as those who have been many times "politically" convicted due to "budgetary" restraints, or whose crimes have been criminalized which under the common law are merely civil crimes without a clear "victim" to begin with.

While those pardons are given to high level Wall Street officials whose "direct victims" were literally hundreds or thousands of individuals in property theft, rather than banning them from any further employment in the financial sector for at least a good many years, the pot smokers and low level DUI offenders under those three strike rules are banned from the political and voting process, or those plea bargained lower felony "civil" victimless offenders "for life" in a few states?

Or how about those foreign drug dealers and auto thieves who are peddling their wares to America's youth most of all or stealing cars cross borders, who then are afforded to gain "standing" somehow in the U.S. courts and turn around and sue for "emotional distress," as what occurred by at least one foreigner after having been shot in the rear by the American border patrol, to then profit from their crime?

San Francisco, your "heart" seems to be misplaced, along with this Court's fundamental understanding of Constitutional government.