Cindy Sheehan at St. Colman

Yestereve, in the basement of St. Colman's (Cleveland, O.), there, visited Cindy Sheehan. She is on a national speaking and book tour. The local media, here and elsewhere, have maintained a blackout on the events. As is usual, a few peace groups sponsored the event, and presented an-anti war art exhibition, and disseminated literature. Ohio has had 177 troops die in bush's iraqui war. The empty boots signifies their absence.

Cindy was in good humor, feisty, impassioned and slightly disorganised, perhaps on account of fatigue. She affirmed her position as the "biggest bugger of george bush", and fully stating this war criminal should not escape constant reminding of his crimes. She also pointed out, Obama has not changed the course bushjr started.

Ms. Sheehan had some special animus for Nancy Pelosi, of whom, she invited the audience, of about three hundred, to hiss. She, also, spoke about the myths of America. The chief and foundational myth being that this is the greatest nation in the universe. This myth, as the others, benefits the robber class, which controls the country, and which creates other myths to sustain itself. It is virtually identical with the military industrial establishment. The robber class is united, and they divide the rest of the country into quarreling amongst itself.

She quoted Ralph Nader, in that, there is not two political parties in the US, but only one with two wings. She also echoed Nader in urging people to focus on their localities, where they have far better chance to effect change.

Ms. Sheehan also spoke of the lie of the volunteer army. In voluntary organisations, one is not imprisoned for attempting to leave. Also, with the "stop gap" programme enlistments are extended beyond the legal contract and agreement of service. The US government's prime focus is the support of a militaristic empire. The peace movement that stands up to it is weak and disorganised. She wishes for a better America, but seems to recognise, that, it will be what it is.

Die Schuldfrage/The Question of Guilt

In 1946, a professor of philosophy, at Heidelberg, lectured on guilt. That year a short book was published, Die schuldfrage : ein beitrag zur deutschen frage, The question of guilt: a contribution to the german question, which is usually rendered, The Question of German Guilt. Karl Jaspers had been a psychiatrist. After the first war, he became a philosopher. After 1933 and especially after 1938, life became difficult. Jaspers had married a jewess. After Dachau was established, he at any day, might become a resident, and his wife...

Jaspers was an existentialist, who was interested in christian mysticism, but did not believe in a personal God. He believed in a transcendence. As a psychiatrist, he studied delusion. As a man, he worried about the power of the modern world to crush men. He was an humanist. One can see how he would not have been a favorite of the fascists, then or now.

He wrote, and spoke, and by doing so ― questioned. There is guilt and liability, personal and collective, and there is responsibility. It is not sui generis, there is criminal, political, moral, and [he is a philosopher] metaphysical. Nuremberg had trials, at the time. The student in Germany must confront this in his culture and education.

Two of the recent award winning movies concerned this: The Reader, from a novel by Bernhard Schlink, and Frost/Nixon, from a play by Peter Morgan. In the former, Jaspers book, is specifically mentioned, at the beginning of a law seminar, as required reading. Several books are read from in the film, that one is not; but it is a thesis of the story. In the latter, there is an admission, by Nixon in an interview with Frost,“Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.”* The ‘it’― that which, Mr. Frost posits, is something illegal. This is the old political theory, that, the sovereign is above the law; it is the opposite of that which is taught, in the american classroom, to children.

After Nixon’s resignation, his successor pardoned him. Gerald Ford lost the 1976 election, in part, due the anger of that move. Much of the nation believed and wanted a criminal trial. Some Republicans wanted revenge. Carter, Clinton and Obama are immaterial, any Democrat, thoroughly irregardless of thought, belief or deed will be attacked, even hysterically ― a priori.

Now, the germans must struggle with morality. The United States has no such compunction, or even scruples. A great deal is because of the essential, calvinist mythology developed here. Such americans, and the United States are uncondtionally, predestined for earthly glory; will not be damned: because, they cannot be; they need partake in no, personal atonement, it has been done for them by God; they can never lose this state. What this means, is they have absolute license and no culpability. History, even chronicles, are devoid of meaning and cannot instruct.

The german has to consider the burden of the nation’s fascist and nazi past. Certain routes of behavior are suspect, and cannot appear to be engaged in. In the United States of America there is a sizeable percentage of people, that will complain and accuse, and condemn the “blame America first crowd” and those citizens whom “hate America”. A german is required by the world to be moral, many americans, merely, and quickly sanctify every action.

Now, Nixon was wily, paranoid and vindictive. His Viet Nam policy and all the spying, dirty tricks and criminality that surrounded Watergate indicts him to history; but the man had a certain gravitas, he did do good things, he had diligence and he is better than any Republican who followed. Perhaps, the greatest evil he did was the promotion, from political oblivion, of GHW Bush, for his spawn, had none of the good qualities of Nixon, and did greater harm to the nation, and the world, in exceeding the degree of criminalities that Nixon invoked, caused and did do.

Just recently, Miss Rice, took a question at Stanford about busheviks and torture, she answered, “by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.” Yesterday, she was asked, by a fourth grade elementary student a similar question. She responded, “So the president was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country.” She has a remarkable firmness in denial, she will not shake the party line. Those are just two incidents, but will the nation’s youth be undaunted in asking the questions, that, the press and the legal system are silent about?
__________________
*This was on the third televised program, seen 19 May 1977, in the story it is at the end.

It is four, it is always four!

Sometimes one thing reminds one of another, and sometimes there is chain of provenance of memories and works. Last night I had a couple of discussions, and in between them I remembered a scene from a television show. The scene had the actor, Patrick Stewart being subjected; the scene is a retelling of Orwell. The character O’Brien, was portrayed by Richard Burton, in an extremely grey Nineteen Eighty-Four [which I do not remember well] at the picture show, but the motivation of the interrogator (read torturer) was shown better in Star Trek as, the unnamed, Gul [captain] Madred. The two and two formula of truth, I have remembered maintaining many times as truth and freedom, and have been appalled by the other conversant not agreeing. I remember Dostojevskij, and other russians, and Aristotle, and Aquinas, and the epitome of the self evident.

In a two part episode, Chain of Command, of the second Star Trek, which came out very late in 1992, Captain Picard is captured by the next series main villains, Cardassians. They want military information and plans. The interrogating officer finds out Picard knew nothing of any military plans, yet the torture continues. He shows four lights. The answer he wants to hear from Picard is that there are five.

The torturer received news of the agreement which is to have Picard released immediately, he [the torturer] quickly attempts to fool and pressure Picard to verbally break, and to state the evident falsity as actuality. Guards come to escort Picard’s release, and are displeased that the officer does not have Picard ready. Picard stands defiant, “There are four lights!”

Elsewhere, Captain Picard remarked,“Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control. One wonders why it is still practiced.” The torturer says to his daughter: “But human mothers and fathers don’t love their children as we do.” At times, the episode is chilling, it is even more chilling, that such scenes happen every day, and by fellow citizens. I have since read, that, the scriptwriter, Frank Abatemarco, was in contact with Amnesty International.
____________________
From, George Orwell, 1984, part 3, chapter 2:

'Do you remember,' he went on, 'writing in your diary, "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four"?'
'Yes,' said Winston.
O'Brien held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended.
'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?'
'Four.'
'And if the party says that it is not four but five -- then how many?'
'Four.'
The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the dial had shot up to fifty-five. The sweat had sprung out all over Winston's body. The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans which even by clenching his teeth he could not stop. O'Brien watched him, the four fingers still extended. He drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly eased.
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Four.'
The needle went up to sixty.
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!'
The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it. The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision. The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Four! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Four! Four!'
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Five! Five! Five!'
'No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?'
'Four! five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!'
Abruptly he was sitting up with O'Brien's arm round his shoulders. He had perhaps lost consciousness for a few seconds. The bonds that had held his body down were loosened. He felt very cold, he was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth were chattering, the tears were rolling down his cheeks. For a moment he clung to O'Brien like a baby, curiously comforted by the heavy arm round his shoulders. He had the feeling that O'Brien was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O'Brien who would save him from it.
'You are a slow learner, Winston,' said O'Brien gently.
'How can I help it?' he blubbered. 'How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.'
'Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.'
He laid Winston down on the bed. The grip of his limbs tightened again, but the pain had ebbed away and the trembling had stopped, leaving him merely weak and cold. O'Brien motioned with his head to the man in the white coat, who had stood immobile throughout the proceedings. The man in the white coat bent down and looked closely into Winston's eyes, felt his pulse, laid an ear against his chest, tapped here and there, then he nodded to O'Brien.
'Again,' said O'Brien.
The pain flowed into Winston's body. The needle must be at seventy, seventy-five. He had shut his eyes this time. He knew that the fingers were still there, and still four. All that mattered was somehow to stay alive until the spasm was over. He had ceased to notice whether he was crying out or not. The pain lessened again. He opened his eyes. O'Brien had drawn back the lever.
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Four. I suppose there are four. I would see five if I could. I am trying to see five.'
'Which do you wish: to persuade me that you see five, or really to see them?'
'Really to see them.'
'Again,' said O'Brien.
Perhaps the needle was eighty -- ninety. Winston could not intermittently remember why the pain was happening. Behind his screwed-up eyelids a forest of fingers seemed to be moving in a sort of dance, weaving in and out, disappearing behind one another and reappearing again. He was trying to count them, he could not remember why. He knew only that it was impossible to count them, and that this was somehow due to the mysterious identity between five and four. The pain died down again. When he opened his eyes it was to find that he was still seeing the same thing. Innumerable fingers, like moving trees, were still streaming past in either direction, crossing and recrossing. He shut his eyes again.
'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?'
'I don't know. I don't know. You will kill me if you do that again. Four, five, six -- in all honesty I don't know.'
'Better,' said O'Brien.

Thucydides and bushjr

Since it is truly hazardous to keep your position teaching the truth, yet important; I have long been of the opinion, that, history and politics need only be taught of the classical pre-christian age, the appropriate study of Herodotus, Tacitus, Livy, Cæsar will fully illuminate the issues of to-day; and still, people will know what implies what. Socrates was capitally condemned for subverting the youth. What does a knowledgeable, moral, and scrupulous teacher sacrifice for continued employment? or minimal criticism?

We can remember the play within a play, Shakespeare used, in Hamlet. He was telling the power that was, how it was. Hamlet did not survive the play. In the winter of 1933, as Weimar fell to the new reich, the operetta Der Silbersee had a ballade on Cæsar. Everyone knew that Cæsar was alive in Germany. The principals never worked in the homeland again, at least under that regime; if they had written and performed that work later, it would have been the hemlock they would taste. If the following passage was published in the papers of this land, or read on television and radio during the recent usurpation of government in early 2003, what would have been the responses?

[4] Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them.* Reckless audacity† came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation‡ was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence, became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence.
[5] The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy§; his opponent a man to be suspected||. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries. In fine, to forestall an intending criminal, or to suggest the idea of a crime where it was wanting, was equally commended,
[6] until even blood became a weaker tie than party, from the superior readiness of those united by the latter to dare everything without reserve; for such associations had not in view the blessings derivable from established institutions but were formed by ambition for their overthrow; and the confidence of their members in each other rested less on any religious sanction than upon complicity in crime**. — Thucydides (Θουκυδίδης). c.400 b.C. from the History of the Peloponnesian War. Book III. chapter 82. Civil War in Corcyra (Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, Corfu)

_______________________________
*axis of evil, coalition of the willing, decapitating the regime, democracies, embedding, freedom fries, homeland security, mission accomplished, old Europe, patriot act, regime change, shock and awe, weapons of mass destruction, with us or against us, yellow cake

†...there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.―Darth Cheney. Speech to VFW National Convention. 26 August 2002.
...We know for a fact that there are weapons there.―Ari Fleischer. 9 January 2003.
...We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.―Donald Rumsfeld. 30 March 2003.
...Saddam's removal is necessary to eradicate the threat from his weapons of mass destruction.―Jack Straw (British Foreign Secretary). 2 April 2003.
...Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.―Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff. 26 May 2003.
...For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.―Paul Wolfowitz. Vanity Fair. 28 May 2003.
...for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.―george w bush. 30 May 2003.

‡En adoptant à l'unanimité la résolution 1441, nous avons collectivement marqué notre accord avec la démarche en deux temps proposée par la France : le choix du désarmement par la voie des inspections et, en cas d'échec de cette stratégie, l'examen par le Conseil de Sécurité de toutes les options, y compris celle du recours à la force...En réponse à cette question, la France a deux convictions: la première, c'est que l'option des inspections n'a pas été conduite jusqu'à son terme et peut apporter une réponse efficace à l'impératif du désarmement de l'Iraq ; la deuxième, c'est qu'un usage de la force serait si lourd de conséquences pour les hommes, pour la région et pour la stabilité internationale qu'il ne saurait être envisagé qu'en dernière extrémité...L'option de la guerre peut apparaître a priori la plus rapide. Mais n'oublions pas qu'après avoir gagné la guerre, il faut construire la paix. Et ne nous voilons pas la face : cela sera long et difficile, car il faudra préserver l'unité de l'Iraq, rétablir de manière durable la stabilité dans un pays et une région durement affectés par l'intrusion de la force. Face à de telles perspectives, il ya l'alternative offerte par les inspections, qui permet d'avancer de jour en jour dans la voie d'un désarmement efficace et pacifique de l'Iraq. Au bout du compte, ce choix là n'est-il pas le plus sûr et le plus rapide?...Il ya dix jours, le Secrétaire d'Etat américain, M. Powell, a évoqué des liens supposés entre Al-Qaida et le régime de Bagdad. En l'état actuel de nos recherches et informations menées en liaison avec nos alliés, rien ne nous permet d'établir de tels liens...Dans ce temple des Nations Unies, nous sommes les gardiens d'un idéal, nous sommes les gardiens d'une conscience.La lourde responsabilité et l'immense honneur qui sont les nôtres doivent nous conduire à donner la priorité au désarmement dans la paix.―Dominique de Villepin.14 February 2003.

In unanimously adopting resolution 1441, we collectively expressed our agreement with the two-stage approach proposed by France: the choice of disarmament through inspections and, in case of failure of this strategy, the review by the Security Council of all options, including the use of force...In response to this question, France has two convictions: the first is that the option of inspections has not been carried through to its conclusion and can provide an effective response to the imperative of disarming Iraq, the second is that use of force would be so fraught with consequences for men, for the region and for international stability that it can not be considered as a last resort...The option of war may appear a priori the fastest. But let us not forget that after winning the war, we must build peace. And let us be clear: this will be long and difficult, because it will preserve the unity of Iraq, restoring a lasting stability in a country and region harshly affected by the intrusion of force. Faced with such prospects, there is the alternative offered by the inspections, which allows to move from day to day in the way of an effective and peaceful disarmament of Iraq. Ultimately, the choice is not the safest and fastest?...Ten days ago, U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, spoke of the supposed links between Al Qaeda and the regime in Baghdad. In our current state of research and information carried out in conjunction with our allies, nothing allows us to establish such links...In this temple of the United Nations, we are the guardians of an ideal, we are the guardians of a conscience. The onerous responsibility and immense honor that we must lead us to give priority to disarmament in peace.[these two sentences, typically french]

§‘neo-conservatives’, ‘busheviks’
|| Robert Byrd, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry
**David Addington, Jay Bybee, Douglas Feith, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes II and John Woo. And of course bushjr, Cheney, Fleischer, Wolfowitz, Libby, Rumsfeld, et alia.

Ballade von Cäsars Tod

To-day is the Ides of March (Idus Martias). Most of us, who, have even a rudimentary knowledge of history, know this is the day Cæsar was warned about. We know he disregarded the warning, and met a dramatic and bloody end, in 44 b.C.

The ides came every moon and, therefore, month, sometimes on the 13th, sometimes on the 15th. The ides* was, ideally, the day of the full moon. Now, March was the month of the god Mars, the god of war and a fine occasion for a military parade. Cæsar was a brilliant soldier, a man of many talents, much ability, accomplishment and ambition.

Now, Georg Kaiser [ironic] wrote a novel, Der Silbersee: Ein Wintermärchen, The silver lake: a winter tale. The title alludes to both Shakespeare and Heine†, and to a fairy tale. Often in a fairy tale, a fanciful event and characters can refer to other realities and people. Kaiser wrote a libretto from this to Kurt Weill’s music. A singspiel (operetta) Der Silbersee premiered in three german cities 18 February 1933.

In 1923 Kaiser was jailed for stealing bread. In der Silbersee, a character is shot for stealing a pineapple. He and his shooter reconcile on the frozen lake. Sometime before this, the castlekeeper’s, soprano niece (Lotte Lenya, Frau Weill) sings a song of the death of Cæsar in seven verses, Ballade von Cäsars Tod.

The song relates the famous tale. It begins:

Rom war eine Stadt, und alle Römer
hatten in den Adern heißes Blut.
Als sie Cäsar einst tyrannisch reizte,
kochte es sofort in Siedeglut.

Nicht die Warnung konnte Cäsar hindern:
"Hüte vor des Märzes Iden dich!"
Er verfolgte seine frechen Ziele
und sah schon als Herrn der Römer sich.

Immer schlimmer schlug ihn die Verblendung,
nur sein Wort galt noch im Capitol.
Und den weisen Rat der Senatoren
schmähte er gemein und höhnisch Kohl...
___________________________

Rome was a city, and all the Romans
had in their veins hot blood.
As Cæsar became tyrannical,
it boiled immediately in seething ardor.

Not the warning could hinder Cæsar:
“Beware of the Ides of March you!”
He pursued his cheeky intention
and saw himself already the Lord of the Romans.

Evermore worse hit him the delusion,
only his word [was] valid in the capital.
And the wise counsel of the senators
he reviled [as] common and derisive nonsense...

A bit earlier, 30 January 1933, the nazis took power when Hitler became chancellor. The Reichstag fire was set the night of 27 February 1933. This event was a spectacular event of terror that was orchestrated, by Hitler, to take severe measures, and was the justification for the elimination of civil liberties, in the guise of homeland security.

The production ran sixteen times before it was banned, well before the ides. The careers of the principles were ended in Germany. Substitute Cæsar for the over reaching leader‡ of the time, as certainly people did.

Ute Lemper recorded the song, on an album, Ute Lemper Singt Kurt Weill, in 1987, Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill, in 1988. I knew of Weill and Lenya. I was very taken with the second cut on the disc. Later in 2001, and the years thereafter, I remembered the song. I wonder if other people did. The lyrics cut deeply into a tyrant, but we still have tyrants, und der Senatoren im Capitol hat getan nichts, und diese Leute hatten keines heißes Blut, als Cäsar einst tyrannisch bekommt.
________________
*and sometimes the seven days prior
†Heinrich Heine wrote a poem Deutschland: ein Wintermärchen, Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale
‡ der Führer is german for ‘the leader’

Franklin Delano Roosevelt *30 January 1882

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument. District of Columbia.
Every country’s leader would like to promise peace and prosperity. gwbjr, aka chimpy, did so and brought the opposite, he brought war and depression. He created war, so as, to be ‘a war president’. Chimpy was a typical, delusional Republican. The greatest bugbear, the greatest villain in the history of the country, perhaps the world, for them, is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Then, after twelve years of unchecked, unregulated ‘free market’* economics, that the Republicans stood for and by, delved this nation into the Great Depression. Roosevelt understood, that, there was a great impetus to really do something. Then, when world fascism and militarism forged an axis of aggression and evil, the United States was attacked by imperial Japan.

Now, many years later (1984 Dallas Republican convention, if memory serves) Ronnie Reagan forgave Hitler and blamed Roosevelt for the war. The hatred for Roosevelt has never subsided, on the part of rabid, Republican partisans. Chimpy after the 2004 election was determined to dismantle Social Security. That one programme, which perhaps, is the one, great, enduring legacy, that, Roosevelt, and the New Deal, accomplished, and is remembered, by the nation is Social Security.

Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency, to the great alarum of the Republicans. He won honestly and greatly. America was in a condition, everyone, recognised as not prosperous. War was begun by the world’s, imperialist, anti-democrat fascists that over ran Poland, and attacked the United States.

The words of FDR at the beginning of his presidential mandate, concerning the first great crisis:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. ― First Inaugural Address (4 March 1933)

The initial words of FDR, concerning the second great crisis:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Now, Roosevelt was in the habit of using the more polite term ‘economic royalist’ for fascist, and these economic royalists, supply siders, welfare capitalists, those who privatise profit, and want to wrest government, to do their will, are with us still. Roosevelt is the sort of man these Republicans hate. Here are some of the other words, which, raises the rancor, and inflames the ire of these people:

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. ― on the National Industrial Recovery Act (16 June 1933)
***
Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. ― Speech to the Democratic National Convention (27 June 1936)
***
Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.
The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing. ― Simple Truths message to Congress (29 April1938)
***
We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization. ― Greeting to the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, Washington, D.C. (9 January 1940)
***
But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.
***
Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.
***
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
***
I am a Christian and a Democrat, that's all.
***
I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.
***
If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.
***
It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.
***
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.
***
More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.
***
One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment... If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.
***
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.
***
There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.
***
Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.
***
War is a contagion.
***
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

There has been some controversies about the Roosevelt Memorial Park. What I have not read, or heard about, is the popularity of the statue group above. People are taking, especially, their small hounds, and photographing them next to Fala. Mister Fala of the White House was Roosevelt’s war time companion. Earlier, I wrote of man and dog; this continues the thought: Whosoever loveth me loveth my hound. Conversely, those who hateth me hateth my hound.

These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks — but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him — at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or 20 million dollars — his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since! I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself — such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog. — (23 September 1944)

Fala was a scottish terrier. The Roosevelts had a succession of scotties. In the film, Wizard of Oz (1939), Dorothy had a, similar highland terrier, a cairn terrier. The Wicked Witch said, “I’ll get you my pretty ... and your little dog too!”. Yes, the venom people have for you, will, also, be given your dog.
______________________
*Now, the reaganistas and the busheviks were against regulation of industries and commerce. Something, that the Constitution mandates, which has never been changed in the wording of the Constitution: Article I. Section 8. ― The Congress shall have power ... To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes ...

World opinion upon the change of government in America

Return to legitimacy

After eight long years, we have a president, de jure and de facto: one legally, and constitutionally elected and installed. Now, will the United States rejoin the comity and the community of states around the world ?

What of the early outlaw part of this century? Will this be the legacy? The die has been cast, and the pages writ.
Yesterday a group of Mainers led a peaceful protest, in front of the Executive Mansion, whereat about forty pairs of shoes were tossed. They were, symbolically, tossed at the departing occupier. Earlier, a large balloon caricature, in DuPont Circle was pummelled with footwear, satirically recalling, and combining two events from Baghdad. There is a jovial, carnival atmosphere in the District waiting for the return of Democracy.

A touch of black comedy, in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, the character of Henry F. Potter, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore, was the wheelchaired villain. That part is being played by Darth Cheney, to-day.

Death penalty

To-day, I have come to the conclusion, that, I feared for some time, that, I might. I can not support the death penalty in the United States, nor perhaps anywhere.

The classical personification of Lady Justice is, that of, a woman, blindfolded, holding, both, scales and a sword. The symbolic metaphor is, that, while weighing the case in hand, no outside influences are in play, and, if warranted, the sword, which is at rest, is available for execution. This makes for a clean logical exposition.

Fiat justitia ruat coelum is a legal maxim. At first, it would suggest to many, that justice no matter what the circumstances, and consequences may be, will be done; but then, how is justice defined? Well yes, if justice means fairness and equity; but what if justice means only an official ruling and command? Then what is decreed, whether it is truly ‘just’ or grandly unjust, must be done.

Seneca writes* of the governor Gnaeus Piso and his justice. A soldier returns without his companion. Piso sentences him to death, as the sentence is about to be executed, the soldier in charge sees the presumed dead companion. This man returns to Piso and tells the tale. Piso has all three executed. Piso was not to be contradicted.

Now, we do not live in pagan imperial Rome. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion in January 1993, in which, he, with Clarence Thomas concurring, state innocence is not a reason to deny the execution of a man, Leonel Torres Herrera. The, supposed, pro-life, justice’s words:

... reluctance of the present Court to admit publicly that Our Perfect Constitution lets stand any injustice ... embarrassing question ...

Herrera was executed the twelfth of May 1993, in Texas. In the year 2000, the governor of Illinois, George Ryan made the statement:

We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system.

He said this after a 13th person, whom was to be executed, was shown to be innocent of the crime he was sentenced to. Since Illinois had revived the death penalty, 13 years previous, 12 had been executed. There had been students of journalism, in the class of a Northwestern professor, that had investigated death penalty cases. This academic exercise had shown the governor of the faulty course of justice in his state. Now as one who has read, and considered, the dangerously, subversive, collection of documents, that the church calls, the New Testament. I have to conclude: that Jesus is against such killing, as He is with all killing. Divine Mercy, and obeying the precepts of God, forbid killing; and that includes judicial killing.

The governments of man, and the state, and that includes the United States are not christian institutions. Arguments then, can be made for such killing, but not as christians. Now, besides the Illinois, Texas and Scalia points, it is also true: the United States has more people imprisoned, by absolute number and by percentage, than of any land; another mark of american exceptionalism. Why is this country so criminal, or so imprisoned? There is something gravely in disorder, here.

There is not a uniform system of justice in this country. There is too much caprice, too much imbalance and unbalance. The chains that hold the scales have been broken. The legal system, that impacts the average person, is not the legal system, that impacts the special people of power, influence, wealth and the politically separate. There has been eight years of criminal government leading this country. A new administration, this time legally installed, will be here in a fortnight. There has been little talk of visiting justice upon the wrongdoers. Bi-partisanship is rubbish, when the one party only transgresses, and dictates, and the other tries collegiality, and does not pursue justice, while the former party is unrepentant and contentious.

There is no one imprisoned, in this country, who has broken more laws than the current, now ending, administration. Then there are all their collaborators, minions, underlings and enablers. Truly, no one in America, has more blood on their hands, than bushjr and cheney. They have been a menace to the entire world. If they are not even investigated, let alone convicted and tried ― how can anyone be capitally charged?

The historian Jean Bodin† was read by Thomas Jefferson. In his mention of the knez and the slovene people, before their christianisation, and loss of independence, they found the embodiment of the social contract. Every year (later only on his initial installation), the knez (duke) of the slovenes took the oath to lead his people from the people, on the Knežji kamen, sedes Karinthani ducatus, as his throne underneath an oak. If he was to be found wanting in his leadership, he was to be executed (it is not recorded when this stopped).‡ The leader of his people was responsible to the people. We have no such system of responsibility.
________________________
*De Ira, Book I, Chapter xviii. 41 a.D.
† Method for the Easy Understanding of History, 1566, Six livres de la Republique Paris, 1576. Also written earlier, a chronicle by John of Viktring (Johannes Victoriensis, Abbot of Viktring/Vetrinj), †1347, Liber certarum historiarum.
‡The last enactment of this was in 1414, for the next candidate (that inherited the office was the Habsburg emperor, Frederick III, whom would not).
noto bene: The last president, Bill Clinton, knew something of this democratic practice.

Bombing Gaza

a cartoon from Brasil’s Carlos Latuff. see: http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/5916

There is a ruthless, virtually merciless, zionist war party that is the government of Israel. Now, there are many israelis who are for peace and justice; it would not be surprising, that, they are greater in percentage than in any moslem state, or the United States; but the peace party, within Israel, never exercises governmental policy.

There are several points that can be discussed at length, herewithin is only a partial listing:

Whenever Israel commits hostile acts their propaganda is constant. They (fill in the blank) are killing us. They have made us kill them. We have done nothing wrong. We are suffering. We have our exquisite citizens martyred and murdered. We kill the guilty and the innocent, the guilty deserve it, and we do not consider the rest, except to say, that they are unfortunately dead, and we are not responsible. We are not responsible for anything we do. We have never been guilty of anything; all those who oppose us are guilty. This argument is effective in only the United States, where many people share affinity with those sentiments, and with the jewish people of Israel.

Israel is not concerned with the world’s censure. Some places have mentioned the idea of proportionality. This idea is part of the just war doctrine, and the eye for an eye ethos. The response of Israel is: they have transgressed us, we have no limits to our response.

By accident, the 28th of December is the Massacre of the Innocents (on the christian liturgical calendar). This commemorates the event, when, the judaen king, Herod the Great ordered all male babies, and toddlers, about the area of Bethlehem killed, so as, to eliminate a perceived threat to his throne. The news of the Gaza strike was in the papers on the same day. This biblical co-incidence is not unique, in 2006 Israel bombed Cana.

President Obama does not hold office yet; the bushevik regime has indulged, humored, accommodated Israel. It is an opportune time for an attack. The busheviks will never hold Israel to any standard.

For Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be a desert, they shall cast out Azotus at noonday, and Accaron shall be rooted up. ― Sophonias ii.4.

The year of the rat is ending

The year of the rat is ending. I know little about the chinese zodiac and its folklore, but the year of the rat is about to end. The busheviks are leaving, the plague has run its course. Now, it is the time to bury or burn the corpses. The hard working ox has to plough a stony field filled with rubble.

Lies run and dart very quickly. Often the first story out is remembered, and set as a template. The busheviks are frantically, persistently, campaigning falsities. The term ‘legacy’ is being fabricated to whitewash the evil, and the incompetence, that, these last eight years of usurpation have been. They have used the example of the Reagan propaganda team, but really, this current squad of liars are akin to a situation, where Hitler and Goebbels did not die in the bunker, but were allowed to escape alive and create their vision for their ‘legacy’ to you.

There needs be those who tell you that ‘w’ can only stand for ‘worst’ or ‘war criminal’. Midas the king turned all he touched to gold, bush the rat turned all he touched to either blood or excrement. A creature between a sociopath and a malignant narcissist has occupied the office, and his vice regent is a cold, cavernous malignancy.

A fellow named Feller had published an article that spurred me to write. It was run by the Associated Press ― complete bushwa, a collection of fabrications from the on-going campaign to disseminate deceptions, bold, blatant and banal. In a totalitarian regime one is subject to this continual flood of lies, that are produced, to dissuade one (you) from the exercise of your sight, reason, logic and memory.

Besides his scandalous, and illegitimate, performance in office, and the carnage ― there is what he has done to the United States in the eyes of the world. How is the country to recover from Republicans?

The absurd lies concerning his person: he has not read 95 books in his life, he has not stopped drinking, he is not a follower of Christ ... Rice and Rove have no scruples in regard to truth, they do not waiver from the party line. Tenacity and will may be valued as to their intensity, but not to the quality of illumination, for they do not illuminate, they obscure.

Michael Connell

Michael Connell died, while pilot of his small plane, in northeastern Ohio. The Akron Beacon Journal, on 21 December, wrote and described him as a family man, and a very, impressively, involved, catholic parishioner.

But, there is far more. He was a Republican party operative. His ability in computer information technology made him a rich man, but ominously is reminiscent of a character in The Great Gatsby, the man who fixed the 1919 Series. He owned and ran the computers that, are alleged to have, changed the election results for Ohio in 2004. If this is true, Michael Connell fixed the election for Rove and the Bushes, his frequent customers. From the bushcheney ’04 campaign, he is reported to have, received in the excess of $800,000. He had been involved in Republican campaigns for more than twenty years, including the first george bush, and Rove’s electronic mail system.

If this is true he co-operated with great evil. This has not been reported by the american corporate media*. Independent individuals and internet journalist bloggers have: Velvet Revolution, Larisa Alexandrovna, ePluribus Media, RAW STORY, Brad Friedman, Clifford Arnebeck, Bob Fitrakis.

On the 22nd of September he was subpoenaed, on the 31st of  October he gave a deposition, in federal court concerning rigging the ’04 Ohio election. On the 19th of December he flew to Washington, on the 20th he was dead.

His great, deep and intense involvement with Republican party tactics, has been suggested, to have been, centered on his beliefs concerning abortion. Did he ever realise that the Republicans did not end abortion? Did he wonder about the subversion of government, popular sovereignty, democracy, law, and justice?
______________
*It is often easier to find, and read stories, concerning US political news in the english papers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3885913/George-Bush-aide-dies-in-plane-crash.html

Flying shoes and clueless legacy

I always thought the word ‘shoe’ delightfully fun to say. It has only two sounds, each funny in itself ― the consonant š or ʃ and the long vowel ― u.

Sunday, in Baghdad an angry reporter let fly his shoes. His target dodged the shoes easier and quicker, than he dodged questions and Viet Nam. Muntadhar al-Zeidi yelled, “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” with the first toss, and “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” with the second.

Now, it looks funny in an hostile, ridiculous manner to an american viewing, while it looks severly hostile, and extremely contemptuous, to an arab. bushjr did not seem to gather that. The words of al-Zeidi should be noted, he clearly, and defiantly tells all.

bushjr and his defenders falsely claim, that, this is a fruit of the freedom of the new democracy, that was absent before american intervention. Even under the worst tyranny, a man is free to act once. Now, a second time would speak to freedom, not the first. Where is al-Zeidi now?* and what sort of physical shape is he in? can he walk? can he stand? can he talk?

bushjr was there on a victory strut, though a secret, unannounced one. In all, he spent not much more than minutes in Irak, just long enough to mark the territory.

The last historical funny concerning a shoe was, when, Nikita Sergejevič Khruščev pounded a table with his shoe. In Baghdad it was with joyous contempt, when, several people beat the head of the statue of Saddam Hussein, that was torn down by members of the US military. Now, humorists and comedians are being given a parting gift. It is easy to have people guffaw over this. A sketch could be pantomimed, wherein, after the first two shoes are thrown, there is a pause, then a wild flurry of shoes fill the air, and then a few stragglers. Or will there be a security confiscation of all footwear, so that,only, the unshod can be in the presence? No cavalry units in any military review, george does not like horses or burros, anyway. Well, if the shoe fits...

Martha Raddatz had a conversation, and interview, with bush after the shoe incident. She remarks to him, that, the shoe throwing is ‘a huge insult’. his response: “I guess... I don't know what his beef is...” Soon he takes credit for securing america and the world against al Qaeda:

bush: Clearly, one of the most important parts of my job because of 9/11 was to defend the security of the American people. There have been no attacks since I have been president, since 9/11. One of the major theaters against al Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq. This is where al Qaeda said they were going to take their stand. This is where al Qaeda was hoping to take ...

Raddatz: But not until after the U.S. invaded.

bush: Yeah, that's right. So what?

These words, are the words, of a spoiled teenager: ‘I guess’ = dismissive, (perhaps feigned) disinterest, uncomprehending. ‘I don't know what his beef is’ = incomprehension and obliviousness, that, anyone would have a problem with him is narcissistic idiocy, where idiocy is that form of self-centered egotism, where, nothing outside of the self is recognised. Then the numbing effect of the response to his parried falsity: ‘Yeah, that's right. So what?’ = surly defiance and anger with no appreciation for truth and reality. He presents an argument and its conclusion, and she shows that the the entire premise of his argument is false, and therefore the argument is non credible, it is worthless, because it is false; and he admits it is false, and dismisses that the falsity matters not at all.
____________________
*Since I have written this, earlier to-day, I have read a Reuters article, that states, that, a judge has seen al-Zeidi, and al-Zeidi is currently in hospital with injuries. He faces imprisonment of 7 - 15 years. An Associated Press article says, that, al-Zeidi will be in court Wednesday facing 2 years in prison, and is some what doubtful about injuries. Many reports say injuries from severe beating.

Job 1 for President Obama

Mister Luckovich created supra, and he often demonstrates, that, there are some great and succinct editorial cartoons, that, tell so much more, and with actuality sometimes remiss from the standard, talking head ‘expert commentators ’.* Eight years of the treasonous misrule of usurpation are nearly over. Still, the reprobates can do great damage, in addition to the lingering damage already done. Six more weeks to wait.

It is not so much that they were wrong in programme, but that they knew no law and despised those whom did. Virtually nothing appeared in the campaign on this most important issue. The press was timid. Many people were interested, only, in their pet issue. The bishops had been co-opted by the Republican party, and were devoted only on abortion, and ignored their pastoral and prophetic duties to speak on other issues. After Obama won the election, in this period of deep, economic recession, the gun enthusiasts, quickly, purchased more weapons.

Mister Obama has been left a country with far more problems, and far less resources, than, that of which, Mister Clinton left when he relinquished the presidency. This interregnum has been a disaster.

Mister Obama has quickly been assembling a new administration. In the forefront of his planning is that of the economy and ‘national security’, but, perhaps, the greatest damage that the busheviks have committed was that done to justice and law. The justice department was whorred out. Intensive repair, recovery and rehabilitation, there, is needed. Those responsible should be found out, and made to bear their guilt and responsibility.

I am sure, that, after the 20th of January there shall be more than a dribble, but not the torrent, of information on the depth and breadth of illegality and corruption, that has been the last eight years. I remember Ronnie Reagan wore dress morning clothes for his inauguration. There are horizontal, black and white, striped suits a waiting for the out-going Republicans.
____________________
*Instead of presenting the blowhards, and propagandists that network and cable television foist upon us, it may be better just to have the camera linger on good cartoons, when they appear.

Restore the Constitution

Barack Obama is the first man to win the presidency since 1996. This eight year period of usurpation, seems to be ending. The standing of this country has suffered in the interval. The populace is gripped in economic trepidation and financial crisis. The rest of the world is rejoicing in the upcoming transition, with near unanimity, that, is far beyond the national evaluation.

Barack Obama has shown calm calculation and poise. He is speaking of conciliation. What he has given barely a public clue to is — restoring and defending the Constitution.

The interloper is shameless. He has been accountable to nothing. The current economic troubles were created by his incompetent policies, and now he tells the world, that, capitalism, his term – free markets, have no cause to be blamed.

The man who practises pre-emptive war is without remorse. The man who knows no law, but his own will, is unbowed. There is still two more months until the return to democracy. In those two months great mischief can be made.

Will Barack Obama undo and, even prevent, some of bush junior’s unique concoction of evil, malevolence, arrogance and incompetence? Perhaps verbal reticence is a shrewd tactic. And of course, though weakened, his political party still exists, and it too, is unrepentant. Obama is speaking only of unity.

Diagramming the Preamble

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


Reed-Kellogg parsing drawings analyze, and give graphic, configurations of sentence structure in a logical demonstration of grammar. The base ground is the subject and predicate, a third is the object, which does not have to be expressed, beyond that, many other portions of speech can be tacked on; but they can all be pictorially related. This is done for understanding, there is an intelligence, a logic of construction that gives order. The words ‘in order to’ are a subordinating conjunction, which then allows for several infinitival clauses, which list the programme of purpose (the direct object) of the project (Constitution).

To-day is the anniversary of the establishment of the grounding document of the government of the United States. The seventeenth of September 1787, it was signed. It is currently in danger. Our government has been usurped by individuals, whom have, betrayed their oaths to defend it. Their non-democratic party has ruled without it. The american people, as a whole, are ignorant and complacent about this illegal, operative status quo. It should be a primary concern of the electorate. This non-democratic party, the so called Republicans, should be forced to acknowledge the Constitution. The electorate should disqualify them from consideration at the polls, until they make admission and amends. The Democracy should govern the democracy.

The preamble to the Constitution defines its purpose and scope. It is the law of the land and patriots uphold it. Fascist tyrants and lackeys of the moneyed interests have subverted it. WE the People need to return to our roots.

Remember their last candidate

To-day, Labor Day, is being besmirched by those, whom wish, to take away all rights from labor. That party is the institutional fascist party. That party, which, has usurped government and proved treacherous to the Constitution. That party of miserable failures, and filthy lucre. That party of chimpy bush, that roved John McCain in 2000.

Now, for seven and a half years, McCain has toadied to junior. He has become John McBush. He has lived longer than the three score and ten allotted for a, full, active life. He may soon be of the second infancy, and senility, that Ronnie the actor experienced. He may have sold his soul in the craving desire for the presidency.

Certainly, the Republican party slime and distortion machine, that had him targeted, now, is being used on his behalf. They must be judged on their actions, not on their words and promises. His party has stolen government, and has been wretched in, almost, every way. For these sorts of reasons, they have disqualified themselves for consideration to represent and rule. The first operating logical criterion in catholic ethics, is that, the means never justify the ends!

Chinese Olympics

The propaganda, preening and placement of this Olympics must, assuredly, be compared to the Berlin games. This is a production of the Chinese government and the party that controls it. China wishes a prominent rôle on the world stage, and they wish to direct it as much as possible.

Yesterday, I watched the first hour and a half of NBC’s coverage, until I could take no more. I dislike shilling, and the first half hour was pure shilling, not just for the show, and China, but for g.ogre bush junior. The president of the United States has never travelled to an olympic game outside the US.

China, as many people know, occupies Tibet. Less publicised, acknowledged and prominent in the mind of the public is China’s relationship with Sudan. China has combined capitalism and communism in an unique and terrifying manner. It is exercising the might of technology against nature. The perpetual smog that envelops Beijing will be emblematic of this olympics. It is a marriage of materialism against the human spirit. Freedom of thought, political and religious, does not exist. The rights of the workers, do not exist. Respect for anything other than profit and political influence, do not exist. It is the exercise of raw power.

Bush is being criticised, justly, in some quarters for his visit. His defenders argue, falsely, that it would be a diplomatic slight if he did not appear. There is no precedent, for him to appear. He has had no problem with ignoring protocol, or creating diplomatic slights. He wants to be there. The chinese way of doing business is his way of doing business. He enjoys being a fêtard as he is the supposed president.

It must also be noted that, the current premier of Russia, Vladimir Putin, was there too, on the day where his country engaged in a new war, with the former province, now state, of Georgia. So goes the olympic truce. The french president has also come. China has become one of the world’s power players. So goes the olympics.

Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” — James Madison, principle author of the Constitution.

Republicans do not much care for the rights of people. They would have been the Tories of 1775, the Democrats would have been the Patriots. Now, most Republicans believe in the second amendment, at least they believe in getting the gun fans’ votes . They do not seem to understand, that the right to bear arms, is there to protect the citizen/resident against the power of the unleashed state. The second amendment guarantees* are guaranteed to ensure and support the rights recognised in the fourth amendment, so anyone who tries to destroy, impinge and detract from the fourth, likewise wishes to do the same to the second.

Well, the fourth amendment is a statement based on the maxim, “A man’s home is his castle.” The wretched, virtually impotent, and disrespected, anonymous, man of little note is still the lord of what is his. The world’s greatest power does not have the absolute, unrestricted authority to violate the poor soul, and this includes the local police force.

The acts and trespasses of bush junior’s regime have violated the Constitution. The vile provisions, of the orwellian monstrosity, “Patriot Act ”, and the immunity of the nefarious FISA†, have attacked us. No patriot can be a willing party to them, and the like. They are totalitarian measures not compatible with free men.

The spirit of the rights guaranteed have been transgressed by other than government forces. Required blood, and drug tests are contrary to our freedoms. A personal aside, I am not now or have ever been a druggie. My union coerces, its members to undergo urine tests, for a drug screen, which I am told are, just for marijuana. I have to have a card, in order to take a job, or to stay employed. Some contractors push for this. One is always suspect. One reaches an age and has never, after ‘x’ number of tests failed; he is still suspect, and of course, the testing company makes profit. Sometimes the police, for all practical purposes, force breath analyzer tests. As a nation, we are far less free, than a generation ago, and the pace of the erosion has sped up. The majority of the populace does not mind, until, of course, they become the fly in the cobweb.
______________________
*Rights are not given by the state, they are recognised and sometimes guaranteed or supported. The only one who can grant these rights, is He, Whom us did create, whom the founders (most prominently, Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democracy) of the Republic referred to as “nature’s God. ”
†On the 9 July 2008 senate vote, 69-28-3, gave immunity to the phone companies, another victory for chimpy. Perhaps, the courts will rule it unconstitutional, but again, there are too many fascists on the Supreme Court. While many Democrats disgraced themselves, and voted with the criminal-in-chief, not one Republican said, “NO”. Obama voted yes, McCain did not vote.

Kucinich the Patriot

Dennis Kucinich is the congressman that represents the west side of Cleveland, Ohio.. All America can be proud of the old boy. He makes a point of carrying a copy of the Constitution on him. The man knows that it is more than a prop. It is reminiscent of people who wear religious medals around their neck, or of Earl Weaver, the Orioles manager, who would wave the baseball rule book at umpires. That Constitution has been in great danger, and has been disregarded by the public. This regime in power has shredded it unto confetti.

Mister Kucinich has been laughed at and ridiculed. But he clearly, and accurately, sees the existential situation of the Republic. He is pressing for impeachment, impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors far greater than Nixon’s. He is not going for the petty and tawdry circus of revenge as the Republicans did against Bill Clinton. He is not trying to squash a non-conformist to Republican rule, as was the case of Andrew Johnson in the mid-nineteenth century, when the Republicans first came to power. He is attempting to protect the country from an usurper, whom believes only in the exercise of his own will, and the nefarious cabal that has blackened the honor of the land.