. . . to fans of 'He who speaks yet says nothing' . . .
(from http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/thomasjefferson/jeff1350.htm)
". . . An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens. . . " - Thomas Jefferson
. . . and if I may ad, a serious candidate for government office must also be 'educated sufficiently'. . .
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
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(from http://www.brainyquote.com/photos/a/abrahamlincoln151232.jpg)
I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
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(from http://reclaimdemocracy.org/who-are-citizens-united/)
The Court majority (Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas) argued:
1. barring independent political spending amounts to squelching free speech protected by the First Amendment.
2. the First Amendment protects not just a person’s right to speak, but the act of speech itself, regardless of the speaker. Therefore the First Amendment protects the speech of corporations and unions, whether we consider them people or not.
3. although government has the authority to prevent corruption or “the appearance of corruption,” it has no place in determining whether large political expenditures are either of those things, so it may not impose spending limits on that basis.
4. the public has the right to hear all available information, and spending limits prevent information from reaching the public.
The Court minority (Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor) argued:
1. the First Amendment protects only individual speech, not speech by associations of individuals.
2. government may prevent corruption, and campaign spending can be corrupt when it buys influence over legislators. Therefore government may impose spending limits on corporations and unions.
3. government may prevent the appearance of corruption, which undermines public confidence in democracy. Limits on corporate and union political spending are an expression of that authority.
4. the public has the right to hear all available information, and when corporations spend money individuals can’t match, messages from corporations drown out messages from others, and that information fails to reach the public.
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
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The Vermont Legislature recently passed resolutions to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. . . you know. . . that's the one that gave birth to the Super PAC. Five Vermont Republicans actually voted in favor. IT says that the government should have the right to regulate corporate spending on elections and that the Supreme Courts ruling was based upon a faulty legal precedent when it equated campaign financing to free speech. The population of the state gathered at 65 town meetings in one day demanding a constitutional amendment. The resolution also states that corporations ARE NOT persons. Similar resolutions have been passed in over 100 cities in the U.S. while 20 more have introduced resolutions.
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
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your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
. . . because of skin color, not because he wasn't 'tough' enough with Putin, not because of the ACA (well, maybe that one too- but not for the popularly held conservative reasons), not because he uses a teleprompter, not because he spoke to elementary schoolers standing on a 'my ABCs' carpet. . .
NO. . . but this president concerns me because. . .
(from http://rt.com/usa/obama-ndaa-detention-president-288/)
". . . President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 . . . giving his stamp of approval to a Pentagon spending bill that will keep Guantanamo Bay open and make indefinite detention for US citizens as likely as ever.
The president inked his name to the 2013 NDAA . . . to little fanfare, and accompanied his signature with a statement condemning a fair number of provisions contained in a bill that he nevertheless endorsed.
The NDAA, an otherwise mundane annual bill that lays out the use of funds for the Department of Defense, has come under attack during the Obama administration for the introduction of a provision last year that allows the military to detain United States citizens indefinitely without charge or trial for mere suspicions of ties to terrorism. Under the 2012 NDAA’s Sec. 1021, Pres. Obama agreed to give the military the power to arrest and hold Americans without the writ of habeas corpus, although he promised with that year’s signing statement that his administration would not abuse that privilege.
In response to the controversial indefinite detention provision from last year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) introduced an amendment in December 2012 that would have forbid the government from using military force to indefinitely detain Americans without trial under the 2013 NDAA. Although that provision, dubbed the “Feinstein Amendment,” passed the Senate unanimously, a select panel of lawmakers led by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Michigan) stripped it from the final version of the NDAA two week later before it could clear Congress. In exchange, Congress added a provision, Sec. 1029, that claims to ensure that “any person inside the United States” is allowed their constitutional rights, including habeas corpus, but supporters of the Feinstein Amendment say that the swapped wording does nothing to erase the indefinite detention provision from the previous year. . ."
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
(from http://abclocal.go.com/)
". . . Neil Heslin, a 50-year-old construction worker who said he grew up with guns and had been teaching his son, Jesse, about them. "I'm here because of my son.". . . Heslin said he supports sportsmen and the Second Amendment right for citizens to have firearms. But he said that amendment was written centuries before weapons as deadly as assault weapons were invented. . . ."
(from wikianswers.com)
". . . When were assault rifles first made?
Depending on the meaning of "assault rifle" they might have been made as early as the second world war. The Browning Automatic Rifle, or "BAR" fired a large caliber cartridge at a pretty rapid rate, but it was a very heavy weapon, and was assigned to the "weapons squad" in an infantry platoon. Later in the decade, a much lighter 45cal machine gun with an open metal stock was issued to the troops. It fired huge cartridges at a rate of about six rounds per second, making a noise that gave its name, the "burp gun." There were earlier rapid firing machine guns used in the first world war and as early as the late 19th century such as the "gatling gun," but none were anything that one man could carry onto the battlefield and fire "from the hip" or from the shoulder for that matter. . . "
(from http://brainshavings.com/the-right-to-keep-and-bear-what/)
". . . So does our Constitution recognize your neighbor’s right to park a brand new M-1 Abrams main battle tank in his driveway? Should we permit gun shops to hold tent sales offering great low prices on military-grade flamethrowers and nerve-gas-tipped artillery shells? Must the U.S. Government allow you to carry a “suitcase nuke” to avoid violating your fundamental Constitutional rights, even if you might trip while carrying it and level a city block? . . ."
(from http://columbiaacs.blogspot.com/2007/11/right-to-bear-ye-olde-arms.html)
". . . The Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms as such arms existed at the ratification.
Arms in 1791
Let's look at arms – specifically, guns – as they existed at the time of the ratification.
Guns in 1791 WOULD
...be made by a gunsmith.
...have rudimentary rifling.
...be single-shot weapons.
...be loaded through the muzzle.
...fire by means of a flintlock.
Guns in 1791 WOULD NOT
...have interchangeable parts. (Popularized in 1798)
...be revolvers. (Invented in 1835)
...be breachloaded. (Popularized in 1810)
...use smokeless powder. (Invented in 1885)
...use a percussion cap, necessary for modern cartridged bullets. (Invented in 1842)
...load bullets from a clip. (Invented in 1890)
Courts can't wish the Second Amendment away, but they can construe it in a manner that works in today's society. . ."
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(from http://www.revbilly.com/about-us)
". . . Let’s talk about the Devil. Corporate Commercialism has sped up to a roar, virtually unopposed. Consumerism is normalized in the mind of the average person, sometimes we even refer to ourselves as consumers forgetting that we are also citizens, humans, men, women, animals. We forget that we share many resources, public spaces, libraries, information, history, sidewalks, streets, schools that we created laws and covenants and governments to protect us,, to support us, to help us… The subjugation of these resources and these laws to the forces of the market demands a response.
We are a post religious church. We hold “services” wherever we can, in concert halls, theaters, churches, community centers, forests, fields, parking lots, mall atriums, and perhaps most importantly, inside stores, as close to the cash register as we can get, within spitting distance of the point of purchase.
We sing, we dance, we preach, sometimes we perform small “interventions”, invisible plays, acts of ritual resistance. We exorcise cash registers and remythologize the retail environment, we illuminate the Devil. We make media and send it out around the world. We get hassled by security guards and sometimes get arrested.
Above all we try to complexify the moment of purchase, to snap people out their hypnosis and back into the mystery of being human. We remind people that things come from somewhere, that products have a resource past, a labor past. Someone made It, and It is made of something, we trace the route a product took to get on the shelf, the life it might have when we throw it away. We animate the objects that surround us and in so doing we re-animate ourselves. We become citizens again. . ."
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(from "It's Even Worse Than It Looks; How The American Constitutional System Collided With The New Politics of Extremism" by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein)
". . . Help your readers, listeners, and viewers recognize and understand asymmetric polarization. The [political] Parties are different in many important respects. . . Document those differences, report on them, and consider the implications of those differences for ordinary citizens.
A balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon is a distortion of reality and a disservice to your consumers. . . media should report the truth. Both sides in politics are no more necessarily equally responsible than a hit-and-run driver and a victim; reporters don't treat them as equivalent, and neither should they reflexively treat the parties that way. . . don't seek professional safety through the unfiltered presentation of opposing views. What's the real story? Who's telling the truth? Who is taking hostages at what risks and to what ends?
Fact checks are important contributions to contemporary journalism. What treat them all as equally important and bury them in the back pages? Move them into the body of news stories and onto the lead, and repeat them when politicians continue to repeat falsities despite the fact check.
Stop lending legitimacy to Senate filibusters by treating a sixty-vote hurdle as routine. The framers certainly didn't intend that. Your consumers should be better informed of the costs associated with it. Report individual senators' abusive use of holds and clearly identify every time a minority party uses a filibuster to kill a bill or nomination with majority support. Do not say or write that Congress of the Senate killed a bill or stopped a nomination if a majority in both houses voted for the bill or the individual-say or write the truth, that the bill or person was blocked despite majority support, by the use of a filibuster. This is especially true, as with the example of the DISCLOSE Act on campaign finance, when all the members of one party (in that case, fifty-nine) support a bill and all the members of the minority vote against. It was not Congress that blocked disclosure-it was one political party via the filibuster.
Your highest priority should be to clarify the choices voters face and the likely consequences of those choices after the election. How would they govern? What could they accomplish? What differences can people expect from a unified Republican or Democratic government or one divided between the parties? The "how would they govern?" story is always important, but more so now than ever. . . "
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". . . CNN
reports Barack Obama "reluctantly signed a defense authorization
bill, saying he was concerned about some in Congress who want to
restrict options used by counterterrorism officials."
Even before the bill was signed by Obama, there were mixed feelings on
NDAA.
The bill only has a 2 percent approval rating on a poll conducted by OpenCongress.com.
Only 8 people support the bill out of 395 voters.
Another poll, of 397 people, conducted by PopVox gives the
bill a 9 percent approval rating.
One of the more controversial aspects of the bill involves the ability
for the president to detain United States' citizens.
According to The International Business Times, "The bill affirms and
codifies the U.S. President's authority to indefinitely detain in
military custody anyone, including U.S. citizens, suspected of terrorism
or supporting terrorists."
In a statement
released after the signing of the bill, Obama says, "I want to
clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite
military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe
that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values
as a Nation."
Even though Obama signed the bill he does not agree with everything
that's included in the bill.
"I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with
certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and
prosecution of suspected terrorists," Obama said.
CBS
news reports, "If Mr. Obama violates any of the provisions in the
bill, Congress could challenge the White House in court, which would
have the final say in any dispute."
The $662 billion bill also includes tough sanctions against Iran over
its nuclear program and allocates money for the military.
NDAA was sponsored by Howard McKeon Republican Representative from
California. The bill was introduced on April 13th.
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This was going to be my next post, although I knew that something could happen at any moment. . . and IT DID!!!!
"Shouldn't the citizens of a nation have a say in their government? Have we not evolved enough to appreciate the simple truth in such a prospect?
What part of this does Mubarak (and his cronies, and the 'analysts', and other Arab leaders) not understand? Does the Egyptian population have to paint him a picture?
Michael Scheuer (author and former CIA employee) says we (the U.S.) have intervened in the Middle East over the past 50 years consistently to support tyranny because it supported our interest. Supported tyranny and fascism. The best thing we can do is 'keep our mouth shut.'
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