Author: ghostdancers way

This is my next Letter to the Editor

American Freedom, The Dream Turned or Are you willing to pursue it

“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.”

These are the opening words to what I consider the greatest gift we as a Nation have ever received.  Our Constitution was written to provide We, the people of the United States of America a protection for the rights we already possessed by virtue of our Humanity.
We have seen over the last 25 years a systematic dismantling of our Constitutional rights and in the last 7 years a cascade of assaults on the very heart of our Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

More below the fold:

The use of Free Speech zones, (sometimes miles from the event), at events attended by our Elected officials, the continued consolidation of Television, Radio and Newspapers under the ownership of a few well connected Corporations/Families. (1st Amendment)

The repeated use of Eminent Domain for the benefit, not for the public good, but for the bottom line of corporations, who pay very little in taxes. (5th Amendment)

The use of Enhanced means of Interrogation, (Torture), when did we become a nation that allows this barbaric practice, has our Government been watching too much TV, developing the Jack Bauer syndrome? (8th Amendment)

Our Congress stripped away Habeas Corpus in a wave of Hysteria that was unfounded and based on fabrications that someone, somewhere is out to get us.  Our Government continues to hold foreign nationals and US citizens for multiple years, without providing access to our court system. (4th Amendment and Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution)

The Executive branches, continuing illegal wiretaps of communications by US Citizens, without probable cause and the benefit of warrants. Their probable cause, someone, somewhere is going to attack us, soon. (4th Amendment)

Now we have a Congress ready to pass an Ex Post Facto law to provide Immunity to Communication Companies, who provided the means and the members of the Executive branch ( Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution) ,that authorized the Illegal wiretapping of more than 100 million American Citizen’s, phone, mail and electronic communications. (4th Amendment)

I remember as a child, my parents, my grandparents and their friends talking about WWII and how there was some fear that the enemy might attack us here on the mainland, yet there was staunch courage that no matter what, we as a Nation would prevail, not just because of sheer might, but for the absolute belief in our form of Government.  They believed that our Constitution provided the backbone for our way of life and no matter what happened outside of the US, our Freedom would prevail.)

Where has that courage gone today?  I see repeated messages from our Congress and Executive branches that we should be afraid, be very afraid.  During WWII there were Nations with armies totaling millions of armed men trying to defeat us and our country was not living in FEAR.  Today we face an enemy that totals perhaps, 10,000 individuals that have limited resources and we are told to be afraid.

Fear is the harbinger that will continue to allow those who do not respect our Constitutional rights, the Ability to continue in dismantling, those same rights, in order to “protect” us.

One of the founders of our Republic, Benjamin Franklin stated this so succinctly:

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

I firmly believe that there are those who would like to harm us and they must be given the appropriate amount of consideration when dealing with our National safety. Yet there are those within our own government that would have us freely give up our hard won rights protected by our Constitution.
I say Nay, I swore an Oath in 1972, when I joined the military that contains some of the same Oath that members of our Government, including our President swear to uphold.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;”

I believe that many of the members of the Executive and Congressional branches of our government DID NOT hear Constitution in their Oath.

I love my country, my life and my liberty; I have never renounced the Oath I took so many years ago and never will.  I love my country, with its remarkable diversity and its warts. I will do my best to bring my beloved country back on course, moving away from this insidious creeping into darkness, where our Constitution is held in such low regard.

I leave you with two statements provided by one of the Framers of our Constitution, Thomas Jefferson.

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny”

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

I agree with Jefferson, to much liberty is a small inconvenience to pay compared to the loss of liberty.  Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent or non affiliated, you have a Right, an Obligation, a Trust to VOTE and to participate in our form of Government.  We must all write, call or email our Congresspersons, our Senators, our President and be involved in the process of our Government.

As Lincoln stated,

“that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

We are all related!

It isn’t too late. We still have time to recreate and change the value system of the present. We must! Survival will depend on it. Our Earth is our original mother. She is in deep labor now. There will be a new birth soon! The old value system will suffer and die. It cannot survive as our mother earth strains under the pressure put on her. She will not let man kill her.

The First Nation’s Peoples had a value system. There were only four commandments from the Great Spirits:

1.Respect Mother Earth
2.Respect the Great Spirit
3.Respect our fellow man and woman
4.Respect for individual freedom

We must all stand together as a force of love. Be united NOW. There is only one way. Communication. Knowledge. Arm yourself with truth, love and perseverence. Extend your family. Join with others in giving. We are all related. People of the earth take back your heritage. I am not speaking of skin color or religion. Our heritage is this earth… Our heritage is also extended beyond this earth into the heavens where the spirit once lived before our birth into this world. You are bound to both

Borrowed from http://www.greatdreams.com/native.htm

It has been a very enlightening time for me over these last 20 months of inner exploration.  I have worked through a horrendous amount of PTSD and feel a freedom that I have never known before.

I have seen our Earth Mother respond to the systematic destruction of her life giving essence.  I feel that one day, if human beings don’t gain the understanding of what is offered above, she will wipe the slate clean and start again.

I wish for all to know the joys that life has given me and keeps giving me.  I wish only for Peace, Prosperity and Joy for all my brothers and sisters.

Thank you all once again for allowing me to be a part of your life. Remember we are all Human Beings and we can disagree without being disagreeable.

Mitakuye Oyasin

Ghostdancers_way

Dear Senator

    Just a brief note to thank you for not allowing yourself to get involved in the messy war of saving the Bill of Rights and the rest of our wonderful Constitution.  Heaven forbid that you would stand up to the Imperialists who continuously facilitate the ongoing assault upon every American’s freedom.  Justice Alito will insure that only true blue Republicans will actually ever have anything resembling the rights we as Americans have taken for granted for the last 200+ years.

I would like to let you know that as of today, I will be working within the power of the Internet to not only recruit, but to insure adequate funding for a Primary Challenger against you in the next election that you are up for reelection.  I will work diligently to recruit workers and money to challege you as you have seriously damaged any credibility that you are indeed Democrats.  As a Lifelong registered Democrat, I am truly disappointed and am willing to put my money and mouth where it will help stop you from selling out the Ideals I hold sacred.  The Constitution is Sacred. the Bill of Rights is there to protect the little guy from the power of the Imperialists.  

You have failed miserably in holding the line against those who would destroy our most beloved Document, our Constitution.

Again just so you are not surprised, I will be working very hard to insure that you can never betray the trust to help protect us from the Imperialist who currently hold power.

Thank you for your attention and I wish you the best in retaining your seat in the Senate, the internet is a powerful ally in defeating you.

Sincerely,
Here is the list of DINO’s to send this nice letter to when you get a chance.

Akaka, Daniel K. (D-HI) Yes
Baucus, Max (D-MT) Yes
Bingaman, Jeff (D-NM) Yes
Byrd, Robert C. (D-WV) Yes
Cantwell, Maria (D-WA) Yes
Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE) Yes
Conrad, Kent (D-ND) Yes
Dorgan, Byron L. (D-ND) Yes  
Harkin, Tom (D-IA) NV NV
Inouye, Daniel K. (D-HI) Yes
Johnson, Tim (D-SD) Yes
Kohl, Herb (D-WI) Yes
Landrieu, Mary L. (D-LA) Yes
Lieberman, Joseph I. (D-CT) Yes
Lincoln, Blanche L. (D-AR) Yes
Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Yes
Nelson, E. Benjamin (D-NE) Yes
Pryor, Mark L. (D-AR) Yes
Rockefeller, John D., IV (D-WV) Yes
Salazar, Ken (D-CO) Yes

This is a take on a previously published editorial, which unfortunately I can no longer find to credit it appropriately.

KINS

Kreepy International News Service

Wednesday, December 21, 2007

Camp David, MD, December 20: El Presidente Bush, hoping to develop into Oppressor for Life, has specified the key proposals of a clandestine 230-page development deed entitled “Rationalizations for GOP Party Rule in America.”

Hundreds of sources confirm that revolutionary coercion and attacks against key American towns such as Hutchinson, KS, Poway, CA, Williamsburg, VA and other vital towns in America, will be used to activate the creation of a nationalized unanimity coalition, the Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere, or the ASSHOLE Party.  After ASSHOLE is organized, it will be ORDERED by El Presidente to hang up the US Constitution and affirm “obligatory and indispensable procedures” to wrestle the war on terror into the American soil.

Now that such a threat exists, Our Fearless Leader, El Presidente Bushco must proclaim an urgent situation, so as to issue an emergency Pronouncement of Nationwide Accord or He might have ASSHOLE declare an emergency declaration or maybe the sheeple can be trusted to vote on a countrywide referendum to relinquish their rights.

This preparation derives from EL Presidente’s progressively more antagonistic contacts with his opposition over lagging support of the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, the Black Hole prisons, the wanton permitting of torment, anguish and dehumanization, indefinite incarceration of an assortment of detainees, and alleged war crimes all over the world.  After all what is a wannabe dictator supposed to do.

El Presidente’s oomph has been disproportionately preoccupied with a determined justification of warrantless wiretapping, his followers declare.  The Federal Wiretap Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Patriot Act all formulate comprehensibly that no US Citizen has any inherent right to privacy over telephone conversations, e-mail, mail, pagers, wireless phones, computers, and any other electronic devices for communications, they declare. The majority US Citizens do not comprehend that they have no right to thwart administration prying into communications, bank and library records, and any thing else the Government wants to check out, El Presidente’s obsequious followers assert.

Even as El Presidente’s unconstitutional activities have not thus far led to his impeachment, he is resistant to the meager democratic unfriendliness that has occurred.  Sycophantic supporters dread if Bush is impeached, he will acquire Saddam Hussein’s performances in court as a mold, alternately shouting at the court, hurling temper tantrums, and walking out. They wish to prohibit impeachment if at all possible.

In spite of his oath of office, El Presidente has stated clearly to his sycophants  “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper.” Still, the development document makes a case that the only way to defend the Constitution is to shelve it for the next 200 years or until the war on terror is won, whichever lasts the longest.

Followers of the plan disagree that it simply lengthens, rationalizes, and congeals the already existing movement within U.S. government.  Rivalry in government is just as uneconomical, unruly, and contradictory as open market rivalry.  What is required is an overall plan to progress forward as one nation with one path. Overcoming the adversary necessitates nothing less, according to the 230-page development deed entitled “Rationalizations for GOP Party Rule in America.”

The vacating of civil liberties, destruction of the Bill of Rights, and annihilation of the Constitution would merely be codified, supporters pronounced.  Previous Presidents could not fight their battles by remaining steadfast to the Constitution. Why must El Presidente Bush be treated in such a manner as to diminish his ability to annihilate the Constitution, they pose?
The InJustice Department has offered the El Presidente’s Capo’s with a sequence of messages authored by John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, and others Fascists that make lawful all the wished-for procedures.                    

 El President’s intrinsic rights as Commander-in-Chief, they inscribe, permits him to pronounce hostilities.  In any case, this is dependent with recent accounts because they state, Clinton ignored the 1973 War Powers Resolution.  Yoo’s argument is that even civil liberties advocates rejoice in his image of presidential power, because they agree with the President’s desire to subject the nation to oligarchy.  Given that all branches of government have in fact discounted the Constitution, Yoo sees no grounds why Bush cannot now do the identical actions, but more successfully and proficiently in a time of general crisis.

El Presidente desires to audaciously pronounce an all-out confrontation on the citizen’s of America.  America is the next linchpin in the unending war on terrorism, according to the 230-page development deed entitled “Rationalizations for GOP Party Rule in America” and one that can succeed quite simply and speedily.  

Opinionated Democrats, a number of affiliated party members, and other anti-war and civil libertarian activists are progressively more scrutinized as coercive to organize, pessimistic, cohorts of revolutionary’s, and collaborators.

Anyone who disagrees with El Presidente is actually a seditious terrorist and should be handled as such because of their serious threat to national defense.  According to the 230-page development deed entitled “Rationalizations for GOP Party Rule in America” it is imperative that we decontaminate America prior to continuing forward with any additional out of the country warfare.  

El Presidente’s future overseas conflicts shall not be hindered, as our current war to subjugate brown people has been, by intolerant, scrawny, spineless hypocrites, pragmatist, fair weather flag-wavers and shadowy doomsayers who incessantly disparage the compassionate efforts of the fascists to recommend autocratic and theocratic alternatives to democracy.  It is imperative that first we must free America from its detractors, before continuing the resubjugation of brown peoples worldwide.

El Presidente Bushco, accepts as true that his ability as a wannabe dictator of the only enduring superpower in the world should have supremacy that is proportionate with that position.  Accordingly, it is to make a case, of why should Robert Mugabe be the Eternal President and not El Presidente Bush?  And of course why should Hirohito and Hitler have been given the prestigious Presidents for Life and not El Presidente Bush, when the U.S. is a far superior fatherland than Japan, Germany, or Zimbabwe? The plan is of two minds on if our new Dictator wannabe be labeled with one of two new posts, shall he be called Great Leader for Life or Oppressor for Life. We have selected Oppressor for Life.

El Presidente’s sycophantic followers deem that a sole Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere with an Oppressor for Life will infinitely reinforce the capability of the U.S. to achieve worldwide domination.  They clearly want to show the rest of the world’s infinitely weaker leaders, that when El Presidente Bush articulates as Oppressor for Life, he has no disagreement at all in the Fatherland.  Clearly showing he will be unrestrained by internal dissenting coalitions, the supremacy of the U.S. will be greater than before even beyond his sycophants wildest dreams.

The instrument to accomplish these transformations is a new Political Party, the Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere, which will displace the Democratic and Republican parties. El Presidente Bush’s fascist supporters contend that most Democrats will leap at the opportunity to carve up control, particularly if such authority augments their own abilities to reap the financial benefits, after the new party shelves the Constitution.

According to the 230-page development deed entitled “Rationalizations for GOP Party Rule in America” requirements for heir apparent to El Presidente Bush, which endows Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere with the choice from highly placed sycophantic members of the two main parties, and are anticipating a significant uniting of sustainable support for the Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere.  In the future, a 50-member Oppression Council, hand picked from the most fascistic corporate leaders in the US, would provide as a propagation arena for descendant tyrannical rulers.

Yet, some rifts are appearing in the midst of democrats as they see their own powers dwindling.  One faction, clearly wants to maintain the present scheme, they believe that two distinct names and two opposing parties permits the electorate to accept as true, that intermittent changes in the party connections of elected officials will make a noteworthy differentiation to prevailing U.S. strategies and schema’s.  However there is in fact a secret faction within the Democratic Party that desires to move forward out of the clandestine pogrom and acknowledge its goal of Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere.

The American peoples response to the September 11, 2001, catastrophe is the representation for the subsequent chain of events perceived by El Presidente’s sycophantic believers.  A number of El Presidente’s closest Capo’s have expressed their deepest lament that more radical achievements to disembowel the Constitution were not implemented during those dark days.  These Capo’s have made it clear they will not allow this original error to occur again. They judge that the populace will overpoweringly carry water for El Presidente in any crisis that he pronounces, whether it is, authentic, make believe, or fictitious as deemed by the super secret NSA, CIA, or the Pentagon.

El Presidente merely has to follow what his, supporting Capo’s articulate.  That is flood the airwaves with his bland voice in a myriad of vocalizations, scripted from all his previous speeches defining 9/11 and Iraq as the same war, that have in some measure recreated some shoring up for his War on Global Terrorism.  The acceptance and inconsistency of the American civic mind have established time and again, they accept as true anything El Presidente states as fact.  However once the Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere authoritatively destroys the Constitution, they will in no way have to be concerned about the electorate ever again.

Once the fascist sycophants of El Presidente have lured the gullible electorate into turning their lives over to the Corporate Theocratic Americans Should Stop Having Organized Liberties Everywhere, life will be dictated forever by those who have always hated American’s freedoms.

Remember Wounded Knee

In 13 days it will be the 115 anniversary of the Massacre at Wounded Knee.  The 7th Cavalry distinguished itself and provided redemption for itself by slaughtering more than 350 mostly unarmed men and unarmed women and children in this most disgusting massacre of First Nation peoples.  The only thing these people did wrong was continue to practice their spirituality in direct violation of a US Army order to stop dancing the GhostDance.  The Army has historically placed the blame for the massacre upon the victims, stating that one of the men began to fire upon the troops, another version is that a trooper attempted to take a rifle from one of the Native men and it discharged and the rest of the Natives started firing at the troopers and the troopers returned fire to defend themselves.  Yes sir that is why more than 200 women and children died that day, only the Army stated it was mainly Indian bullets that killed the women and children.

If you want to read more and understand more I suggest you read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown or Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, edited by John G. Neihardt.  These two books give an amazing insight into this most despicable atrocity perpetuated by the US Army and this Nation upon the Oglala Sioux.  The most horrendous insult of this slaughter has to be the awarding of not 1 but 18 Medals of Honor, from now on referred to as the Medals of Dishonor throughout this diary.

The Medal of Honor is awarded for valorous bravery and uncommon courage in time of war with an armed enemy.  These Medals of Dishonor were awarded for the slaughter of innocent men, women and children, who were simply practicing their spiritual way of life.  I wonder how the Pope, Falwell, Robertson or Dobson would feel if a company of Soldiers entered one of their churches and began slaughtering every man, woman and child present for practicing Christianity.  The uproar would be heard around the world.

I am providing links to Two letters written by General Nelson A. Miles to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1917 concerning the Wounded Knee Massacre.  The first letter written by Miles in 1917 and another written by Miles in 1920 addressing the slaughter of First Nation peoples at Wounded Knee.

The awarding of these Medal of Dishonor should be rescinded and the names of those who received them expunged from the Medal of Honor Roll.  Please write your Congress Members, Senators, and the President of the United States to ask that these Medals be rescinded.  

You can help

During this Holiday Season, I ask that each of you step outside on December 29th and face east, north, west, south and listen to the spirits of those who lost their lives on that cold December day 115 years ago, listen for the drums of the GhostDance and singing of the song that would return the Sioux to the days when the sun shone brightly and the Buffalo roamed freely into the horizon and there were no white eyes to steal the land.  Hear the world as it was 115 years ago and know that you are indeed part of this world and part of the spiritual world of the ancestors.  I offer this prayer from Black Elk as one that may help you walk in the spirit.

Hear Me
Hear me, four quarters of the world– a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth. Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds. Great Spirit…all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up out of the ground. Look upon these faces of children without number and with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet. This is my prayer’ hear me!

Black Elk, Sioux Indian

I sometimes laugh, but most times I just want to cry when I hear or read that some so called Christians are whining, complaining and generally lying about this so called war on Christmas or a war to marginalize Christianity in American society.  If Christians want to actually see what a marginalized population looks like, I highly recommend that they look to the indigenous peoples of the United States or any of the other 44 nations that make up the worlds nations that were created by exterminating the original or indigenous peoples who populated them.

Christians who whine they are oppressed or marginalized probably would not have survived as a culture if they had to deal with the types of oppression, genocide and outright destruction of their very culture, the way the Fourth World has had to deal with these very same issues over the last 150 years.  There now is an organization called Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization that has approximately 50 different Nationalities representing occupied nations, indigenous peoples and oppressed minorities.  Many Native Americans now refer to themselves as the First World / First Peoples.

More after the fold

Try as I might, I just can’t get behind the idea that American Christians are indeed being persecuted for their beliefs or their religion.  I can however see and have been informed by many older and some who are now deceased First Peoples that they have and continue to be persecuted, discriminated against and in many cases prohibited or have been prohibited from practicing their spiritual beliefs.  Then there is the economic discrimination and outright fraud that occurs when Native peoples try to work some kind of economic development on what is supposed to be their land.

Here the issue is not having nation-state status, so no other country, government entity or business/bank in the world will do work with them.  Indigenous peoples have no embassies, diplomats, or business representatives.  They have no legal standing to create business compacts, levy taxes to create revenue, enter into political alliances, or be involved in othere areas that involve a fully qualified government.  

What few investors and corporate firms that can be enticed to come in and set up businesses (a casino or hotel, for example), it is almost always a gamble that most of the proceeds will stay in the indigenous community.  What has been the norm, however, are business rip-offs and exploitation.  (See Jack Abramoff)  

In most cases no economic development can be created unless the indigenous people own the land, which is not the case for a significant population, because of unresolved legal battles or the land being held as a trust for them by some government entity. (Indian Trust)   Because the land is held in trust, banks refuse to loan money on it, and their only recourse is to lease it to the very same government entity that is supposed to protect it and them.  This has ensured generations of exploitation of both the land and the peoples who are trying to gain support from the land.  The ongoing effort of indigenous peoples is the fight for sovereignty and the right to self-rule.

No other group of people in the United States has less control over their lives than First Peoples.  No other group of people have been discriminated against, had genocide practiced against them and had the full power of the Christian/Catholic faith and the US government try to destroy their very culture.  They attempted to eradicate the tribal nature of the indigenous peoples and acclimate them into American society as Americans.  The churches and the government went so far as to try and eradicate the very languages of the indigenous peoples of North America.  

Like I said earlier, sometimes I just want to laugh at these misguided, misinformed and culturally handicapped Christians who continue to whine, cry, protest and otherwise make a nuisance of themselves by declaring there is a war against Christians and Christmas.  Most times I just want grab them and show them the damage that their religion has perpetuated upon an entire race of human beings who simply wanted to insure that their way of life and their culture would survive.  

So the next time you hear some poor discriminated against Christian whine about their poor religion being marginalized, point them to a computer and tell them to search for genocide against indigenous peoples.  When they can show you or myself that they have been subjected to the kinds of hatred, punishment and outright killing because of their beliefs, then I will have some mercy in my heart for them.  Until such time, I hope the whiners will be continually slapped down with the truth of what constitutes marginalization, discrimination and genocide against a whole race and culture of people.

Caveat Emptor:

I was not aware that this source could have credibility issues when I posted this dairy. I apologize for not sourcing this more completely. I did however see this source posted on some other prominent blogs, so I decided then to create this diary.

I know I am preaching to the choir but this really has caused me great consternation and significant amounts of concern that the President of the United States views our Constitution as just a goddamned piece of paper.

Doug Thompson can give you far greater insights than I can, yet I wanted to put forth my own views too.

I personally find the Patriot Act the most significant piece of civil rights violating law within my lifetime.  It is onerous, egregious and violates every tenet that I have believed in concerning our rights as US citizens.  

This act does one thing and one thing only, it increases the power of the Executive Branch to the detriment of the other two branches of our Government.  I believe that GW Bush and his culture of corruption walking parade of neoCon Fascists have one clearly defined goal in mind.  They want to circumvent the US Constitution and create a fascist state run by Theocrats and Oligarchies to the detriment of the rest of US society.  

I can only hope that each and everyone of you who read this will let others know just what the Presnit who currently occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, thinks of our Beloved Constitution.

Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’

By DOUG THOMPSON

Dec 9, 2005, 07:53

Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.
GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”
“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

 

emphasis mine

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

And, to the Bush Administration, the Constitution of the United States is little more than toilet paper stained from all the shit that this group of power-mad despots have dumped on the freedoms that “goddamned piece of paper” used to guarantee.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while still White House counsel, wrote that the “Constitution is an outdated document.”

Put aside, for a moment, political affiliation or personal beliefs. It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent. It doesn’t matter if you support the invasion or Iraq or not.  Despite our differences, the Constitution has stood for two centuries as the defining document of our government, the final source to determine – in the end – if something is legal or right.

Every federal official – including the President – who takes an oath of office swears to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he cringes when someone calls the Constitution a “living document.”

“”Oh, how I hate the phrase we have–a ‘living document,'” Scalia says. “We now have a Constitution that means whatever we want it to mean. The Constitution is not a living organism, for Pete’s sake.”

As a judge, Scalia says, “I don’t have to prove that the Constitution is perfect; I just have to prove that it’s better than anything else.”

President Bush has proposed seven amendments to the Constitution over the last five years, including a controversial amendment to define marriage as a “union between a man and woman.”  Members of Congress have proposed some 11,000 amendments over the last decade, ranging from repeal of the right to bear arms to a Constitutional ban on abortion.

Scalia says the danger of tinkering with the Constitution comes from a loss of rights.
“We can take away rights just as we can grant new ones,” Scalia warns. “Don’t think that it’s a one-way street.”

And don’t buy the White House hype that the USA Patriot Act is a necessary tool to fight terrorism. It is a dangerous law that infringes on the rights of every American citizen and, as one brave aide told President Bush, something that undermines the Constitution of the United States.

But why should Bush care? After all, the Constitution is just “a goddamned piece of paper.”

This tidbit from the News Blog.

He had to go, he was black

It appears that the divisive wing of extremists in the Republican party are surging in their desire to clean up America.  If you want to hate those who are sexually, racially, ethnically or religiously different than you, please call the extremist religious/sexual/ethnic cleansing wing of the GOP, because they want you.

For all intents and purposes they have shocked and awed Jesus right out of Christianity as they practice it.  

I wonder if Jesus is weeping?

I believe that Great Spirit is saddened by the hatred and bigotry that these people display on a daily basis.

Racism alleged in dismissal

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer

RIDGEFIELD — An attorney representing a Ridgefield police officer contends his client was fired seven weeks ago because he is black.

Police Chief Bruce Hall fired Officer Carl Mealing on Sept. 28, reportedly after being repeatedly pressured by City Manager George Fox to dismiss Mealing.

…………………………

“In early August, I was called into my city manager’s office, George Fox,” Hall said in his deposition. “He had a discussion with me, kind of out of the blue, that had to do with Officer Mealing, and the conversation started out that Officer Mealing is scary, people are afraid of him, he’s creepy.”

Which means he was a nigger

According to the deposition, Hall said Fox continued that conversation.

“And then he said to me, ‘Carl needs to go. Carl needs to be fired. He needs to be let go,’ ” Hall said in his deposition.

“Was I told by my direct supervisor to fire him? Yes. I was told that we can fire him at anytime because we don’t like the color of his tie. I mentioned to him we can’t fire someone because of the color of their skin, and he told me to fire him.”

Hall, reached by phone Tuesday evening, said he was satisfied with Mealing’s job performance and still doesn’t know why he was told to fire the officer.

……………………..

Attorney Trumble’s brief also includes excerpts from a deposition given by Ridgefield resident Jaclyn Emter, who said City Manager Fox told her Oct. 2 that he fired Mealing the previous week.

“I said, ‘Well, why did you fire him?’ ” Emter said in her deposition, according to Trumble’s legal brief. “And he said, ‘Because he’s black.’ “

Trumble, in his brief, called Fox’s conduct “outrageous, illegal and morally repugnant.”

Trumble, when reached by phone Tuesday, declined to comment on the case, except to say that the city should not release records in the pending matter.

The allegations of racism could result in a civil rights lawsuit being filed against the city of Ridgefield in federal court.
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Fliers scattered in the city express support for official accused of racism

Oh the glorious days of witchhunts, where our religious leaders determined who was not a heretic and who is one.  It appears that two wingnut fundie religious maniacs, determined that Professor Paul Mirecki should be punished for his opinions about fundamental religious extremism.

Follow the links more information.

Mirecki beaten in Kansas

Mirecki beaten in Kansas video report

This one author brought to me the value of who I am as a Native American and how much value that living within the spiritual realm of the Native American people.  That indigenous peoples all over the world heralded him as a tireless leader in the human and civil rights fight to insure fairness, openness and honesty when dealing with the indigenous populations is a credit to his outstanding desire to improve the lives of all indigenous peoples.  

 I still remember the first book of his that I read, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties.  I have included a link to many of his books, some are easier to read than others, yet all of them encompass one central theme, the continued fight to regain human and civil rights denied the Indigenous peoples around the world.  Vine Deloria ceaselessly fought to insure that Indigenous peoples could and would have self rule and reliance upon themselves in how they lived their lives.  Thank you Vine for all your hard work and efforts.

 Please burn some tobacco and offer a small prayer to Great Spirit for the joy of having had Vine Deloria in our midst for these 72 years.

You will be sorely missed my brother,

Wado

Mitakuye Ayasin

Books by Vine Deloria Jr.

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A little more below the fold

Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 5:27 pmPress Release: The Maori Party
15 November 2005

“The passing of Vine Deloria, Jr. a prominent Native American scholar, whose research, writings, and teaching have encompassed history, law, religious studies, and political science is indeed a sad occasion for the international indigenous community,” said Tariana Turia co-leader of the Maori Party, on the death yesterday of a favourite son of the Standing Rock Sioux.

Hailed by Time magazine as “one of the eleven great religious thinkers of the twentieth century”, Vine Deloria a retired Professor Emeritus of history at the University of Colorado and the author of many highly praised books, including Red Earth, White Lies, and God is Red “shone as an intellectual beacon amongst indigenous people”. said Mrs Turia.

Vine Deloria, Jr., Standing Rock Sioux, 1970, 1994

“Western civilization, unfortunately, does not link knowledge and morality but rather, it connects knowledge and power and makes them equivalent. Today with an information `superhighway’ now looming on the horizon, we are told that a lack of access to information will doom people to a life of meaninglessness — and poverty. As we look around and observe modern industrial society, however, there is no question that information, in and of itself, is useless and that as more data is generated, ethical and moral decisions are taking on a fantasy dimension in which a `lack of evidence to indict’ is the moral equivalent of the good deed.”

“In recent years we have come to understand what progress is. It is the total replacement of nature by an artificial technology. Progress is the absolute destruction of the real world in favor of a technology that creates a comfortable way of life for a few fortunately situated people. Within our lifetime the differences between the Indian use of the land and the white use of the land will become crystal clear. The Indian lived with his land. The white destroyed his land. he destroyed the planet earth.”

“Scientists, and I use the word as loosely as possible, are committed to the view that Indians migrated to this country over an imaginary Bering Straits bridge, which comes and goes at the convenience of the scholar requiring it to complete his or her theory. Initially, at least, Indians are homogenous. But there are also eight major language familied within the Western Hemisphere, indicating to some scholars that if Indians followed the trend that can be identified in other continents, then the migration went from east to west; tourists along the Bering straits were going TO Asia, not migrating FROM it.”