Warsaw Ghetto, smashed into the ground by German Vernichtungskommando, according to Adolf Hitler`s order.

Pogroms against specified minorities, often used as scapegoats for society’s ills, are a fact of western civilisation. The ghetto is an effective tool of the ruling class, against the disenfranchised, the minority race, ethnicity, culture, or religion. It is very functional to mass a targeted population in one central location. Tracing the term, allegedly, to Vienna, the ghetto concept was institutionalized as an effective government tool by Prince Klement von Metternich, an eighteenth century Austrian diplomat and governmental puppeteer. It was in Metternich’s day, that the concept of the Jewish Ghetto flowered. Unique, concentrated, ethnic communities existed in Europe, and unwanted minorities were shunned in specific locales, long before Metternich, but under his rule, walled neighborhoods rapidly evolved, and became institutionalized. Targeting, isolating, and containing an entire ethnic population to make pogroms more efficient and effective was one of the Prince’s most renowned achievements. Metternich’s eighteenth century social experiment resulted in the birth of the fabulously wealthy House of Rothschild, as well as enabling Adolf Hitler’s final solution.

Fear of the ‘others’, outsiders, is especially effective as a tool against the immigrant. Immigrants speak a different language, have different customs, and often have different skin pigmentation. Immigrants are very convenient scapegoats. In a dysfunctional society, marred by economic suffering, the immigrant is an easy target. We have seen this behaviour repeated time and time again against different religious sects and ethnicities in America. Puritans discriminated against other Protestants, especially Baptists and Quakers, and Catholics. The ethnic majority English population discriminated against the incoming Germans, and later, against the Irish and Italians. Current discrimination against the Latino population is merely a repetition of an age old tradition.

Arizona’s legendary SB1070, and its offshoots in Alabama and Georgia, put a new spin on the phenomenon. Latino immigrants, because of ethnic affinities, and due to societal pressure, not unlike the governmental pressure of Metternich’s day, live in insular, ethnically characteristic neighborhoods. Signage is often solely in Spanish. Buildings, commercial, as well as residential, are frequently decorated in bright hues. Vehicles, a significant investment, especially to the poor and disenfranchised, may be parked in front yards, to increase their security. Crossing the street in any American city, especially in the Southwest, is regularly a journey from an Anglo dominated world, to Mexico, Central, or South America. Language and culture are immediately skewed, an experience profoundly awakening and dissident to the culturally ethnocentric or racist. This is a journey into the land of the ‘others’.

Identical to the actions of the Waffen SS in the Warsaw ghetto, Anglo dominated law enforcement continues to carry out ‘sweeps’ of predominantly Latino neighborhoods. Homes are invaded by deputies, to show a dominant presence, under pretense of searching for drugs or contraband. Motorists are stopped because of their skin pigmentation or hair color, using the bogus excuse of traffic violations. Pedestrians are targeted because they are walking in the ‘wrong’ neighborhoods.

As in the Warsaw Ghetto, entire families disappear in the middle of the night. Rather than being rounded up and taken to camps, the targeted population often independently vanishes to far away new locations, to more tolerant states or to their country of origin, in fear of persecution. Often, but not always, do they flee, because the same disappearance happens in the case of the notorious ‘sweeps’, wherein persons unable to adequately prove US citizenship or documentation of legal residency, vanish into ‘the system’.

The motivation for racial profiling and sweeps is abundantly clear. In their never ending quest for absolute wealth and power, Charles and David Koch funded the creation of ALEC, in 1973. Among the many ‘member corporations’ of ALEC, is the Corrections Corporation of America. CCA is an interstate, private prison corporation, which seeks to supplant public prisons. ALEC scholars write ‘model legislation’ for state government. Arizona SB 1070, the notorious immigration law, and inspiration for similar legislation in Alabama and Georgia, is a typical example of such legislation. Written by Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, with the assistance of ALEC, SB 1070 created an entire population as fodder for the profit seeking private prison system. Latinos, because of their unique language and culture, became more than merely ‘different’. They became, as a population, ‘illegal’, and were targeted for arrest, whether undocumented or not. Statistics support the thesis that American citizens, whose families have lived in the Southwest, since before the American Revolution, have been among SB 1070’s victims. Racial profiling, due to SB 1070, was legalized.

A new twist exists in the old ghetto mentality: profit. Take a population and make it illegal. House these ‘criminals’ in private prisons after they have been incarcerated in county facilities, and before being handed over to ICE, for deportation, and CCA turns a nice little profit. This action is supported by a population’s racist fears of ‘the others’ in economically challenging times. Rank and file union members, not necessarily racist as a norm, cry out in support of SB 1070, as a way to protect their assumed, threatened livelihoods. Union leaders, not necessarily racist themselves, follow the desires of their rank and file, and influence political parties for support, which is granted. Management of the political party is sympathetic, because their orders come with donations from an investor class which profits from CCA’s earnings. Society’s disease comes full circle. The etiology is Koch brothers inspired spin. It is classic Goebbels propaganda. As in the whispers of the radio announcers, steadily growing to a crescendo, in the movie ‘Cabaret’, the insidious rumors of economic disenfranchisement by ‘illegal aliens’ becomes the mantra of the dominant population. Koch investment in a profitable private prison system is secure. Adolf Hitler said that if one tells a big enough lie, and repeats it often enough, it becomes the truth. As Nazis harvested personal effects, gold fillings, hair, and even human skin to profit from their targeted populations, Charles and David Koch profit from an entire population, outright. It is the same behaviour, only less brutal.

Related articles

• The Most Racist Organization – Behind SB1070 (VIDEO) (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• Is There Any Doubt? SB 1070 is about Racial Profiling (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• Supreme Court Hears Arguments on SB1070- Decision Expected Late June (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• California Sb 1070 (socyberty.com)
• Arizona Latinos Take to the Street Protesting Deportations and Racism (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• SB 1070 Opponents Hold Vigil (myfoxphoenix.com)
• Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Arizona’s SB1070 Two-Year Anniversary (local49.wordpress.com)
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Jonathan Paton, Republican candidate for Congress, in Arizona CD-1

Jonathan Paton, also known as “PayDay Paton”, is  running for the US Congress as a Republican in CD-1. Paton is a lobbyist for the Payday loans business. In 2004, Jonathan Paton worked for the Community Financial Services Association, a payday lending  alliance.  Paton supported an industry-written ballot initiative  allowing payday lenders to remain open indefinitely,  overriding a law which required them to shut down in 2010. His efforts would allow payday lenders to “continue to be allowed indefinitely making short-term loans with fees that are equal to 390 percent annual interest, but with new restrictions on how they deal with customers.”

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard dealt a serious blow to payday lenders who attempted to skirt a ban on their day-to-day functioning with “Operation Sunset” .  Goddard notified Arizona payday loan companies that he would enforce the legislated ban on usury and prosecute any attempts to evade the law.

A resident of Tucson, Arizona, Paton announced his candidacy for CD-1 but must move into that district, in order to be a qualified candidate.  Yes, that’s correct, he did not live in CD-1 when he filed to run for office and this instantly brings to mind questions of his personal ethics.  Arizona voters in the 8th District already rebuffed Paton’s 2010 campaign, and it is hoped that CD-1 voters will follow suit.  According to the Arizona Secretary of State Lobbyist System, Paton is currently a registered lobbyist.  Amber Moon, of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,  publicly stated, “Arizonans need a Representative who will fight for them in Washington, not a payday lending lobbyist like Jonathan Paton who places special interests above the middle class.  Arizona voters in the Eighth District rejected Jonathan Paton in 2010, and voters in the First Congressional District won’t trust a lobbyist carpetbagger in 2012.”

Remember Wes Gullet, the lobbyist who lost to Greg Stanton in the recent Phoenix Mayoral race?  Gullet publicly admitted that he intended to continue his lobbying efforts if he was elected Mayor of Phoenix.  Wes Gullett was Chief of Staff for Arizona Governor Fife Symington, from July 1993 to April 1996, and his tenure coincided with Symington’s failed attempted  takeover of Grand Canyon National Park, to make it a State Park under his control.  Symington had a long term cozy relationship with mining interests, who would have begun uranium mining at the Grand Canyon upon Symington’s taking it over.  Considering the current attempt to institute uranium mining at the Grand Canyon, one wonders if this might not be déjà vu on several levels.

Two other Arizona men who currently work behind the scenes,  simultaneously bankrolling candidates,  are Mario Diaz and Stan Barnes.   Diaz runs Mario E. Diaz & Associates, a full-service government relations and public affairs firm in Phoenix, Arizona.  Among his affiliations is retired US Senator Dennis DeConcini,  currently a board member of the Corrections Corporation of America, and formerly linked to the Keating Five scandal.  Stan Barnes is the founder and President of Copper State Consulting Group which is also “a full service government relations and public affairs firm in Phoenix Arizona.”  In short, Mario Diaz and Stan Barnes are lobbyists.   Diaz and Barnes are two of the biggest Payday Loan lobbyists in Arizona.

Who has Payday Loan lobbyist Stan Barnes contributed to?

$6,500 to the Arizona Republican Party

$8,925 to John McCain

$4,575 to Jon Kyl

$6,200 to David Schweikert

$1,500 to Paul Gosar

$1,450 to Trent Franks

$500 to John Boehner

Obviously, Stan Barnes has donated heavily to influence conservative legislators. It is clear where his sympathies lie.  Barnes has also contributed $4,400 to Jonathan Payton.

Mario Diaz  gave money to numerous Democratic candidates, and has donated $7,600 to the Arizona State Democratic Central Executive Committee, alone.  Playing both ends against the middle, Barnes has also contributed  to the Arizona State Democratic Central Executive Committee, in the amount of $3,000.

In addition to Barnes’ contributions to “PayDay Paton”, both lobbyists have contributed to the campaign of Ann Kirkpatrick. Diaz has contributed $8,246 to the Kirkpatrick campaign. Barnes has contributed $2,500.

A total of $10,746 has been contributed by these two Payday Loan lobbyists to Ann Kirkpatrick!  This is, of course, $6,346 more than the amount contributed by Stan Barnes to Payday lobbyist Jonathan Paton.

What is the price for this loyalty?  Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard struck a blow against loan sharks, yet these Payday Loan lobbyists continue to peddle their influence on candidates in  both parties.  These lobbyists, it seems, have spent more on the candidate endorsed by the Arizona Democratic Party, than on their own lobbyist candidate, and one can only wonder why.  The Arizona State Democratic Central Executive Committee has received $10,600 and candidate Ann Kirkpatrick,  $10,746 from two of the biggest Payday Loan lobbyists in Arizona.  What will be the price for such loyalty?

Sources:

Arizona Capitol Times, 4/02/10; 1/25/12.

Arizona Daily Star, 6/6/10; 9/25/08; 10/19/08.

Arizona Secretary of State Lobbyist System.

http://dccc.org/blog/entry/payday-lending_lobbyist_jonathan_paton_not_right_for_arizona/.

http://www.azag.gov/press_releases/july/2010/Press%20Release-Payday%20Lenders%20Departure%20Shows%20Repeal%20is%20Working.html

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml.

http://www.copperstate.net/teambarnes.htm

http://medandassociates.com/

Related articles

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Former US Representative, Ann Kirkpatrick

The following is reprinted from “The Hill”, first printed on 05/11/10.

Arizona lawmakers spark ire of Apaches over copper mine, land exchange

By Sean J. Miller – 05/11/10 06:00 AM ET

SUPERIOR, Ariz. — A local dispute in this old mining town has sparked a legislative battle on Capitol Hill, and the outcome could affect the reelection races of two incumbents in Congress.

A proposed land exchange between the federal government and an international mining conglomerate would carve thousands of acres out of the surrounding national forest — land the Apache Indians consider sacred. Over the last several years, the effort to open a protected area to mining for the first time has become embroiled in an ethics controversy and sparked an environment-versus-jobs debate.

Digging for copper. Underneath the surface is one of the world’s largest untapped copper deposits — by some estimates, enough to supply a quarter of America’s annual demand for more than 50 years.

The chairman of the nearby San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, former miners and environmentalists vehemently oppose the land exchange. They’re up against Resolution Copper Co., its congressional allies and a town hungry for the jobs the mine would bring.

The state’s economy is in the doldrums, and the Copper Triangle region in the heart of Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s (D-Ariz.) district is no exception.

Her reelection prospects, and to some extent those of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has pushed the land swap bill in the Senate, may hinge on getting the legislation passed.

McCain is in a challenging primary race and Kirkpatrick represents a district he carried by 10 percentage points in the 2008 presidential election.

Kirkpatrick and McCain aren’t the first to champion the land exchange.

Former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), Kirkpatrick’s predecessor in the House, wanted land owned by one of his supporters included in the exchange. Resolution Copper balked, and the congressman was subsequently indicted, which ended his political career. The legislation, tainted by association, died.

The bill found new life after it was re-branded by McCain and Kirkpatrick as a no-cost stimulus for Arizona. “Because it’s a jobs bill, it’s a top priority,” Kirkpatrick said recently.

The measure would see the federal government give Resolution Copper 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest in exchange for 5,500 acres of ecologically valuable property across Arizona. Usually, land exchange bills move through Congress swiftly and without much fanfare. But the Copper Basin Jobs Act has been an exception.

The legislation is being held up by environmental concerns and the inclusion in the exchange of the Oak Flats Campground northeast of Superior, which was protected from development by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955.

It’s where the Apache harvest acorns and pray, and despite assurances from Kirkpatrick about environmental protections to safeguard the area, the tribe is concerned the mine will destroy one of its most sacred sites.

Apache skepticism of government promises is captured in the legend of a cliff that divides Oak Flats from Superior. An Apache band, the story goes, refusing to surrender its land and move to the reservations, leapt to its death here when surrounded by federal soldiers. The area, known today as Apache Leap, is considered a burial ground by the tribe.

When Kirkpatrick ran for Congress in 2008, she came to the San Carlos Reservation for a fundraiser organized by Wendsler Nosie Sr., the Apache tribe’s chairman.

“The tribe fully supported her,” said Nosie.

Backing from the tribes is significant in Arizona’s 1st House district; Native Americans make up roughly 20 percent of the population, one of the highest concentrations in the country.

A falling-out. Two years after the San Carlos fundraiser, Nosie is no longer on speaking terms with Kirkpatrick. The rift between the freshman lawmaker and many in Eastern Arizona’s Indian Country started several months after she won election to the House. That’s when she first staked out a firm position on the mining project.

While in Washington for the passage of a resolution honoring the legendary Apache leader, Geronimo, last February, Nosie went to Kirkpatrick’s office for a meeting. He had heard rumors that she was planning to support the exchange and wanted to remind her of the tribe’s view.

That day Nosie and Martha Interpreter-Baylish, a member of the San Carlos tribal council, sat down with Kirkpatrick and her chief of staff, Michael Frias, around a coffee table in her office.

“Back in Arizona I’m hearing you’re supporting Resolution Copper,” Nosie recalled saying.

He asked her directly whether she supported the bill. Kirkpatrick responded that she did. They talked about the tribe’s environmental concerns, and the conversation quickly became tense, according to several accounts.

“Ann, the reason why I’m here is because you had told me that you would definitely hear both sides of the story,” Nosie said.
Kirkpatrick leaned forward in her chair.

“Chairman, tell me, how is your religion going to put food on the table?” she said. “Tell me how your religion is going to help the children getting abused by their parents. How is your religion going to turn the bed sheets of your elders?”

The chairman stopped her. “Ann, don’t even go there,” he said.

The meeting broke up minutes later. The chairman and Kirkpatrick haven’t spoken directly since.

“I certainly appreciate the importance of sacred sites,” said Kirkpatrick, who grew up on an Apache reservation, where her father ran a general store. “But I will tell you that I’ve also visited with other members of the tribe who say, ‘Look, we need these jobs.’ My take on it is that most people in that region, including many of the tribal members, really want the economic development that’s going to come with this project.”

Kirkpatrick’s bill has been assigned to the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, which is chaired by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). He has long opposed the legislative effort, but is preparing to present his fellow Democrat with an alternative piece of legislation.

“I think we’re selling ourselves short. This company, I don’t trust them,” Grijalva said recently, noting he felt there weren’t strict enough environmental protections in Kirkpatrick’s bill.

“We’re willing to sit and talk about an alternative legislative solution,” he said.

Kirkpatrick’s version includes a stipulation that a full environmental study be conducted and the results approved by the secretary of Agriculture before the land is conveyed to the company. A previous version stipulated only a truncated study and mandatory conveyance regardless of the results.

Grijalva plans to present Kirkpatrick with his own version of the bill soon.

Kirkpatrick said she’s cautiously optimistic. “I’m definitely going to push this legislation ahead,” she said, although she’s aware the chairman’s discretion will dictate when her bill is brought before his panel.

Kirkpatrick is aware that while she waits for Grijalva, McCain is working to put the exchange into an omnibus lands bill that could be approved in this Congress.

In an interview with The Hill earlier this year, McCain expressed frustration with Grijalva and indicated the bill is a priority for him.

The pressure is building, meanwhile, on Kirkpatrick. Resolution Copper ran a series of ads in local newspapers telling Kirkpatrick, “We’re counting on you to help pass this bill now.”

The company has spent more than $1.2 million on federal lobbyists since 2003, public records show.

A town in need of jobs. Kirkpatrick does not directly answer a question on whether she’s made the calculation that jobs are more important than the religious practices of the Apache. She talks about finding a balance between the two, but also points to the traditions of Superior and the surrounding mining towns.

“This region has been a mining region for a hundred years. I talk with miners who are third-, fourth-generation miners in this area. It’s not only their livelihood, it’s also their life,” she said.

Most residents of Superior are impatient for the exchange to go ahead. “This is a no-brainer. This doesn’t cost the federal government anything. We’re not asking them for a bailout. Let it move ahead,” said Michael Hing, the mayor of Superior.

The area was first settled at the end of the 19th century by prospectors and immigrant laborers who came to work in the surrounding small-scale mines. The mayor himself comes from a long line of miners. “I’m 100 percent Chinese,” he said during a drive around Superior, noting that his grandfather came over from China to work in the mines.

The center of town is now mostly a collection of boarded-up storefronts and adjacent streets lined with rundown bungalows. The town’s population has dropped from some 7,000 at the height of its mining heyday to about 3,200 today. Hing and other supporters view the project as a way to make their town flourish again. “We had shoe stores, barbershops, we had a full-time doctor here, a working movie theater — all those amenities that make a good little town,” he said.

Cabinet secretaries visit the area. On a recent afternoon a homemade sign on a building on Main Street read, “Thank you, Secretary Vilsack.” It was left over from his visit, at Kirkpatrick’s invitation, six weeks prior. Last August, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made a similar visit at McCain’s behest. Several weeks before the trip, McCain lifted his holds on two Interior Department nominees — holds he had placed in order to get the administration’s support for the lands exchange.

“The thing about Sen. McCain and Congresswoman Kirkpatrick working hard is getting the bureaucrats to come out here and take a look at this whole project,” said Hing. “You can talk about it and talk about it, but unless you walk on it and go through the town and see what we’re facing, you don’t really get the whole gist of it.”

The objections of environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition are unfounded, Hing says.

“Give me a break. We made our lives here,” he said. “I’m an environmentalist because I’m raising my four kids here. I’m very concerned about the water, the air, the land quality.”

Resolution Copper is already making preparations to mine underneath the Oak Flats Campground, expanding its existing shafts for the day it’ll be able to start harvesting the ore that lies about 7,000 feet below the surface.

In the meantime, the company is spending $50 million to reclaim the old Magma Mine site, which extends from north of downtown Superior over Apache Leap. “Doing the reclamation was a way for us to demonstrate to the community that we would take care of the environment,” said David Salisbury, Resolution Copper’s chief executive.

The Magma Mine was operational for close to a century. The old smokestack from the smelter is visible from almost anywhere in town. Before it closed in the 1990s, the miners clipped the top of what was later determined to be a mountain-sized copper ore body, though at the time they couldn’t reach it.

The international mining giant Rio Tinto got wind of the find and bought the mine. It then partnered with BHP-Billiton to set up a subsidiary, which became known as Resolution Copper.

“We will mine out of this mine in the first year more than they took out of [the old one] in its nearly a century of life,” Salisbury said outside one of the old mine’s refurbished buildings. “That’s the difference in the scale of the mine.”

Kirkpatrick’s office estimates the project will create close to 2,000 jobs. But critics say it’ll be years before the first paychecks are cut, because the mine is almost a decade away from becoming fully operational.

Labor dispute complicates passage. Environmental concerns aren’t the only thing holding up the bill. Rio Tinto is engaged in a nasty labor dispute at one of its California mines, where it has locked out some 600 workers for months.

A staffer in Kirkpatrick’s office said the company must work to resolve that situation amicably before the bill can move forward. “We can’t create 2,000 jobs in Arizona at the expense of 600 in California,” the Kirkpatrick aide said.

Despite the hurdles, Kirkpatrick believes the legislation will pass.

“I’m optimistic that we can find common ground and balance and move this project ahead,” she said.

Nosie said the tribe will keep working with Kirkpatrick on other issues, but he won’t support her reelection.

“She gave Indian Country a great hope,” the chairman said on a recent Sunday morning at the Oak Flats Campground. “And now that’s wiped clean.” He paused. “Another politician. Another politician that played us good.”

These remarks are significant.

“Back in Arizona I’m hearing you’re supporting Resolution Copper,” Nosie recalled saying. “Ann, the reason why I’m here is because you had told me that you would definitely hear both sides of the story,” Nosie said.

“Chairman, tell me, how is your religion going to put food on the table?” Ann Kirkpatrick asked. “Tell me how your religion is going to help the children getting abused by their parents. How is your religion going to turn the bed sheets of your elders?”

“Ann, don’t even go there,” Nosie said.

“I think we’re selling ourselves short. This company, I don’t trust them,” Grijalva said recently, noting he felt there weren’t strict enough environmental protections in Kirkpatrick’s bill. “We’re willing to sit and talk about an alternative legislative solution,” he said.

“She gave Indian Country a great hope,” the chairman said on a recent Sunday morning at the Oak Flats Campground. “And now that’s wiped clean.” He paused. “Another politician. Another politician that played us good.”

“Doing the reclamation was a way for us to demonstrate to the community that we would take care of the environment,” said David Salisbury, Resolution Copper’s chief executive.

Resolution Copper is a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, an ALEC member corporation. Aside from being an ALEC company, Freeport McMoRan has an abominable record of human rights violations in third world countries, where it conducts business. This record includes murdering persons objecting to their business practices, as well as working conditions outlawed in the western world as unsafe and unsanitary. Resolution Copper, therefore, should be less than concerned with any form of reclamation. Freeport McMoRan’s past, supported by public record, establishes this. Reclamation of Navajo land, from the mining of uranium, during and after World War Two, has yet to happen. The flooding of the Rio Puerco on the southern border of the Navajo Nation, the famous Church Rock disaster, because of failed containment efforts of radioactive waste from uranium mining, was never answered. The cleanup of Three Mile Island, a contemporary disaster, in contrast, began almost immediately. Clearly, indigenous peoples are considered ‘collateral damage’ by US business.

Raul Grijalva has spoken of “an alternative legislative solution”. He stated, about Resolution Copper, “I think we’re selling ourselves short. This company, I don’t trust them.” The elephant in the room is the question of why we must continue to allow the rape of the land, and destruction of indigenous cultures, by multi-national corporations, as our only consideration for business, when so many other, clean, businesses exist.

Rick Renzi’s corruption is legendary. His indictment cost him his re-election. One is compelled to remember, Mrs. Kirkpatrick was so unpopular with her constituents that she was voted out of office. It is also worthy of note that Senator McCain has joined with Senator Kyl in spearheading efforts to rob the Navajo and Hopi nations of their federally guaranteed ancestral claims to Colorado river water, only to balustrade the business of Peabody Coal, another ALEC corporation.

“Chairman, tell me, how is your religion going to put food on the table?” Kirkpatrick said. “Tell me how your religion is going to help the children getting abused by their parents. How is your religion going to turn the bed sheets of your elders?” is a painful reminder of another quote by a colleague of Rep. Paul Gosar, Dr. David Eichler, who suggested during an Alaskan court battle, in an online message board, that Native tribes had “poor dental health due to ignorance and deserved to die out.” Western civilisation’s hubris, insensitivity, and total disregard for the civlisations of indigenous peoples stem the first contact by Columbus.

Considering Ann Kirkpatrick’s connections to other ALEC contributors to her campaign, one must question her concern over jobs being created in the Superior region. As already noted, “Critics say it’ll be years before the first paychecks are cut, because the mine is almost a decade away from becoming fully operational.” The Apache nation is about to take another leap.

Former US Representative Ann Kirkpatrick

The American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, the man who coined the phrase, “Moral Majority”, and, with Jerry Falwell, embarked upon a homophobic crusade, hearkening to the time of Joe McCarthy. This is no coincidence, since the monies used for ALEC’s founding came largely from the coffers of Charles and David Koch, sons of Fred C. Koch. Robert Welch and Fred Koch were principal founders of the John Birch Society, which still extols McCarthyism as an heroic American value.

ALEC’s mission statement declares it exists to “advance principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.” Remembering history, Benito Mussolini also sought a “public-private partnership” of “legislators…the federal government, (and) members of the private sector”. He called this fascism.

The Arizona Association for Economic Development was founded, a year later, in 1974, “by a small group of economic development professionals and business leaders dedicated to expanding the industrial and economic base of Arizona. This group came together to discuss issues affecting Arizona’s economic development, to promote economic development in the State of Arizona through an interchange of information and educational opportunities among its members, to act as a liaison with outside groups having the same objectives, to influence legislation affecting economic development and to continually improve working relationships among its diverse membership”, according to its webpage. The similarities in objectives, between ALEC and the Arizona Association for Economic Development are striking. One is compelled to question whether the Arizona group might be an offshoot of ALEC.

TRIADVOCATES LLC is a significant member of the Arizona Association for Economic Development. TRIADVOCATES provides integrated local, state and federal lobbying, and government relations consulting services throughout Arizona. Its principal member is Kimberly Knox.

The Policy Development Group, also an Arizona lobbyist, is a product of Ron Ober, who ran successful campaigns for retired US Senator Dennis DeConcini, of the ‘Keating Five’ scandal fame. DeConcini’s current interest is involvement in the Corrections Corporation of America, the notorious private prison system, where he sits on the board of directors for a sum of $175,000.00 per year. CCA is an ALEC member corporation.

Sal Baldenegro has stated that Sen. DeConcini has urged potential donors to the election campaign of Wenona Benally Baldenegro to walk away and provide her with no monies, which would impair her chances of being elected to the US House of Representatives.

Senator DeConcini, Ron Ober, and Kimberly Knox are listed as official donors to the campaign of former US Representative Ann Kirkpatrick. Other donors include Richard Harris Silverman, General Manager of Salt River Project, Judith Williams, President of SRP, Gena P. Trimble, Manager, SRP, Mark B. Bonsall, Executive Management, SRP, Jane Alfano Rasor, attorney, SRP, and John F. Sullivan, Associate General Manager, SRP. Salt River Project is an ALEC member corporation. Ms. Kirkpatrick’s donors also include a Washington D.C. lobbying firm, Wexler and Walker Public Policy Associates, a division of Hill & Knowlton, one of the oldest public relations firms in the United States. Hill & Knowlton designed the tobacco industry‘s strategy for counteracting scientific evidence which linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer. Wexler and Walker Public Policy Associates were founded by Anne Wexler, 1981. Wexler has been listed as one of the most powerful women in the Washington, D.C. by The Washingtonian. Wexler is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Former Representative Ann Kirkpatrick voted NO on HR 1256, the FDA Oversight of Tobacco Products, aiding and abetting Big Tobacco. Her connections to destructive mining practices are even more insidious. Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is an ALEC member corporation. Resolution Copper is connected to Freeport McMoRan, through a web of partnerships. Resolution Copper currently threatens to establish the world’s largest copper mine on sacred Apache land. Ann Kirkpatrick, along with former US Representative Rick Renzi (R), Flagstaff, both endorsed measures to allow this venture to come to fruition.

An irrefutable pattern exists. Ms. Kirkpatrick has supported the destructive mining prospects of an ALEC corporation. She aided ALEC supported Big Tobacco, by voting against HR 1256, and has received financial support from senior employees of an ALEC member corporation and a CCA board member, himself with a past soiled by corruption. Her supporters include a wealthy and very influential Washington lobbying firm. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it’s a duck.

Sources:

Maplight.org /us-congress/contributions?s=1&office_party=all&election=all&politician=768&business_sector=Lawyers %26 Lobbyists&business_industry=Lobbyists&start=07%2F01%2F2009&end=06%2F30%2F2011

Votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/28425/

http://threesonorans.com/tag/ann-kirkpatrick/

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/03/19/20100319arizona-mine-bill.html

opensecrets.org/politicians/pacs.php?cycle=2010&cid=N00029260&sector=E&seclong=Energy+%26+Natural+Resources&cat=E04&induslong=Mining&newMem=N

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“You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything!”

Aaron Tippin

The citizens of Maricopa County have a choice in the impending Sheriff’s election. They can maintain the status quo, perpetuating a regime of sporadic, targeted law enforcement, where the incarcerated stands a very good chance of being tortured to death, as in the case of Marty Artencio, and several other preceding prisoners, of inhumane incarceration in tents, chain gangs, denial of medications, and international embarrassment. They may also choose one of two challengers to the regime, a former police sergeant in the country’s sixth largest police agency, with no command experience, or a lieutenant in a bedroom community of the same city, who, by virtue of his rank, has limited command experience. The Arizona Democratic Party supports the sergeant. The same cabal of ultra conservative wealthy Arizonans, who support Joe Arpaio, endorse the lieutenant, a former Republican, running as an independent.

Another choice exists, a Democratic candidate, who retired from the largest police agency in the nation, NYPD, at the rank of Deputy Assistant Chief, John Rowan. This is a man who currently teaches ethics and community policing at the college level, and who was delegated the task of overhauling and administering New York’s police department and the security agency in Iraq. Rowan was deployed by NYPD at ground zero, on September 11, 2001. Naysayers within the Democratic Party will declare Rowan’s having been recently terminated by Goodyear Police Department. This is true. He was indeed terminated. However, what naysayers fail to report, is the actual reason for his termination. Rowan testified in court, pertinent to police involvement in a fatal hit and run collision with a teenaged pedestrian. He refused to participate in a police coverup of a wrongful death. His testimony resulted in several early retirements and terminations, including those of both the Chief of Police and the City Manager of Goodyear. Subsequent to this, Rowan has endured numerous threats. On his way out the door, the city manager, not being used to such treatment, fired John Rowan. Therefore,  Rowan paid with the loss of his job, for having the integrity to tell the truth. He is currently paying for his integrity, by having his, and his family’s, personal safety jeopardized. Perhaps it is actually true that the voters in Maricopa County have no choice. They can either perpetuate the status quo or elect a sheriff with the background, dedication, and integrity to effectively clean house in MCSO,  before the U.S. Department of Justice is forced to step in. You decide. Take a stand.

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Kayenta, Arizona, Image via Wikipedia

Arizona Democratic voters have a choice. They may  elect a Democratic candidate who lost her seat to a TEA Party Republican,  because she voted with Republicans more often than any other Democrat in Congress. This is Ann Kirkpatrick. She voted YES on extending the Bush tax cuts. She supported drilling for oil on public lands and offshore.  Remember the Gulf Oil Spill? Kirkpatrick skipped the vote on the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the DREAM Act, and the Mine Safety Act. Ignoring the miner, Kirkpatrick was generous with the mine owner, supporting legislation which allowed development of native lands, and expansion of mining interests, benefiting the corporations. Initially, she alleged being hospitalized, as her reason for not voting on the DREAM Act. When this was questioned and no hospital admission could be substantiated, her ‘hospitalization’ became an outpatient procedure. Outpatient procedures can be rescheduled. She even voted NO on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution, and opposed requiring a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan. Kirkpatrick stated the federal lawsuit to enjoin SB1070 was a “distracting sideshow” and refused to co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act.   She supported Big Tobacco by voting NO on HR 1256, the FDA Oversight of Tobacco Products, in keeping with the desires of Big Tobacco’s favorite servant, John Boehner. Like Paul Gosar,  Ann Kirkpatrick does not support working class and middle class Arizonans. Each supports the interests of out of state corporations.

Arizona Democratic voters have a choice. Wenona Benally Baldenegro is the other Democratic candidate for Arizona Congressional District One. She was born and raised in Kayenta, Arizona, where she graduated High School as salutatorian. A child from a single parent household in an economically depressed community, she went on to achieve not only a college education, but two Masters Degrees and a law degree from Harvard. Despite her advanced education, she has not forgotten her roots. Education such as this guarantees employment in a Wall Street legal firm. Rather than seeking wealth from the private sector, Wenona chooses to serve the People of Arizona by providing quality, affordable healthcare, protecting Social Security and Medicare, protecting our environment, and by investing in clean, sustainable energy. Despite the Arizona Democratic Party’s favoring Ann Kirkpatrick, and discouraging donors from giving monies to Wenona, then broadcasting her not being electable, because of her being unable to raise money, Wenona Benally Baldenegro tenaciously clings to her grass roots campaign, focused on winning. It is this tenacity, with her working class roots and stellar education, which make Wenona the superior candidate.

Arizona Democratic voters have a choice, and the choice is clear. Elect a candidate who  ignored the needs of the People and served corporate interests while in office, or install Wenona Benally Baldenegro as the Representative from Congressional District One. Have a leader who will stand up for working people, seniors, and middle class families, and protect our fragile environment, and who will restore our image as proud Arizonans. Representative Raul Grijalva  endorsed Wenona because she will fight for fair wages and workers rights. She endorses the DREAM Act, opposes SB 1070,  and will protect Social Security and Medicare. Wenona supports FAIR TRADE, not free trade, and is against outsourcing US jobs. Arizonans have a choice. The choice is clear. Continue and exacerbate disenfranchisement and neglect, or move toward a brighter, happier future. The choice is yours.

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona speaking at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio has exclaimed repeatedly that he supports the Rule of Law. But, what is the Rule of Law? Does Rule of Law require strict, blind obedience, obeying all laws completely, even bad laws? Does it mean rigid application to certain segments of society, but not to others? According to Friedrich von Hayek it does. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises were pivotal in the Austrian school of economic thought. Hayek, later a faculty member of the University of Chicago, was influential upon the Chicago School of Economics. Hayek wrote, “….because the rule of law means that government must never coerce an individual, except in the enforcement of a known rule…..” and “….the conception of the rule of law is confused with the requirement of mere legality in all government action.” Hayek also wrote, “The rule of law is not a rule of the law, but a rule concerning what the law ought to be.” This is significant, “what the law ought to be” rather than a “rule of the law”. Aristotle declared, “Law should govern”. This, obviously,  is a very ancient concept. Law should govern, not the capricious whims of one man. If the rule of law does not imply the rule of the law, what does it imply?

Another way of framing this concept is the declaration “Equal Justice Under Law”. In addition to all persons, regardless of status, being subject to the law, all persons, regardless of status, are protected by the law. Selective enforcement and unequal enforcement, is repugnant to the Rule of Law. Simply stated, the United States is a nation of laws, not a nation ruled by the whims of a dictator, at least, not yet. When a nation is not ruled by law, where selective enforcement exists, so does tyranny. Due to Hayek’s philosophy, Rule of Law has become a buzz word of the Cato institute, and Hayek’s narrow view has proliferated among the ultra conservative.

Rule of law determines everyone in society is subject to the law. Everyone, even those who enforce the law, those who write it, as well as citizens or non-citizens are subject to the law. This means law enforcement must stand by it, and the law abiding citizen, the criminal, children, foreign visitors, even the undocumented alien, is protected by it. This is how a civilized society works. Capricious or sporadic enforcement is incongruent.  Therefore, application of the law with ethnic or racial profiling involved is wrong, according to the American theory of jurisprudence, wherein justice must be applied equally and in every case. Many citizens and non citizens alike have complained that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies, with his direction, have singled them out and harassed them only because of their skin colour or assumed ethnicity. Video has captured images of persons disagreeing with Arpaio’s methods and focus being singled out and arrested for speaking  against him. They are charged with criminal trespass in open, public meetings, which they have a right to attend. This would be at least a mistaken application of the Rule of Law. At most, if intent could be demonstrated, it would be criminal. Equal Justice Under Law is a precept of the United States of America. Unless our country has devolved into an abyss of tyranny and dictatorship, the Rule of Law still survives, and Arpaio, if he acts in accordance with it, must stop his practice of discrimination against the Latino and the economically disenfranchised.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has publically discussed his retirement. One would hope that his legacy is not a continuation of “Unequal Justice Under Law”, of selective enforcement and discrimination. The culture of abuse runs deeply in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Racial and ethnic profiling in law enforcement, deaths of inmates from torture during interrogation, denial of, or inadequate  necessary medical support until the inmate must be admitted to the ER, and neglect from exposing inmates to extremes of temperature in tents, with poor nutrition, are merely symptoms of a deeper, greater disease.

In post Arpaio MCSO, a general house cleaning is in order. Policies and procedures must be examined, personnel must be scrutinized, and selective, discriminatory practices must be eliminated. The United States of America is a nation of laws. It is time to remember that.

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Image by B.T. Indrelunas via Flickr

As I write this, at 12:21 PM, on December 2, 2011, #Occupy activists are performing an action at the Salt River Project Offices in Tempe, Arizona. My information is provided by live stream and twitter. Phoenix Police, as usual, are maintaining a strong ‘police presence’, and arrests have been made. Reports are that eight people are in police custody. SRP is an ALEC member corporation, as is Arizona Public Service. A citizen of Arizona is left with no choice, if he wishes to not participate with ALEC, for these are the main, and in many cases, only options an Arizonan has for water and power. Phoenix Police maintain that they are ‘maintaining public safety’, but consistently guard ALEC from the People. It is clear who city government represents. ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is a means whereby Charles and David Koch may control local and state government by creating law in their think tanks, and disseminating it through super lobbyists, legislators they have bought. Russell Pearce was a member of ALEC. He did the bidding of his corporate masters. SB 1070 was not about border control, rather about providing raw material, people, prisoners, for Corrections Corporation of America, an ALEC member. In conjunction with ALEC, SB1070 was crafted with assistance from FAIR, an organization heavily biased by the white supremecist eugenics influence of the Pioneer fund. Governor Jan Brewer continues Pearce’s tradition.

Member corporations participate in composing law, which profits them. Fascism, per Mussolini, is a melding of business interests with government. His approach was direct. The Koch brothers are merely using a backdoor approach, with the same end in mind. Legislation will be composed by corporations, circumventing government, thereby replacing it. Contrary to Fox News reports, that #Occupy has no message, spokespersons are succinctly expressing the dangers of mining and water table damage being done to the land of the Navajo people. Peabody coal is strongly implicated. Louise Benally, from Black Mesa, is a very articulate spokesperson, being interviewed by Channel Fifteen. An excerpt from the complaint she is trying to deliver reads: “The coal ash that they’re trying to dump on our lands now—it’s really no different than the uranium that we have suffered from for so many years. It’s toxic and poisonous, and there’s no safe place to store the coal ash.” So, are we repeating the same genocide committed in the middle of the twentieth century, then, in the name of war effort and national security, now, in the name of filthy lucre?

Channel twelve news has arrived. The action, which had briefly died down, has picked up momentum. So far, no chemical weapons have been deployed. Protestors are approaching live stream personnel at the scene, decrying their presence. Ironically, certain persons do not want the message getting out. Are they ignorant, or agent provocateurs? The Kochs and their minions have many insidious ways to destroy the effort. Advice is given to expand the mind from the small stream perspective. This is good advice.

It is now 1:03 PM, and the live stream has terminated.

It is 1:28 in the afternoon, and riot gear is beginning to be deployed. Protestors have been loud, but non-violent. It is time for the police to meet citizens expressing their rights to freedom of speech and assembly with violence. Welcome, Police State!

2:00 PM and riot cops are advancing. Scottsdale PD is kettling. Three police agencies are deployed, Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale. What can the People do, if they are prevented from addressing their grievances? As the man said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Now, at 2:29 PM, riot cops encircle people being cut out of lockdown. Fortunately, we have no reports of an LRAD, yet. Expect chemical weapons assault at any minute. We can’t have people speaking out, now, can we? We must preserve public safety; sheep being governed by wolves.

Five more arrests have effectively ended #Occupy’s action at SRP, in Tempe. Those able to provide jail support must proceed in that endeavor. Godspeed, everyone!

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency was established Sunday, April 1, 1979, by President Jimmy Carter’s Executive Order No.12127. This became federal law, 44 FR 19367, 3CFR, which provided for the transfer of functions of certain agencies and offices, the abolition others, and consolidation of duties previously spread among numerous bureaucracies into one single agency. Included were operations and responsibilities transferred from the Department of Commerce, specifically the functions of the Emergency Broadcast system, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, and the Superintendent of the National Academy for Fire Prevention and Control. Also incorporated were the duties of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, pursuant to the Federal Flood Insurance Act of 1956, the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, and the National Housing Act, to the extent necessary to permit borrowing from the Treasury Department, to make payments for re-insured and directly insured loses. In short, after April 1, 1979, the historic and infamous fragmentation and duplication of agencies in emergency federal disaster response and recovery would be eliminated. One agency would be responsible for management of the devastation from fire and flooding, restoring homes lost in these events, and for operating the Emergency Broadcast System. This agency would come to be known as FEMA.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated James L. Watt to the position of FEMA Director. His appointment created a new cabinet level position, forming a direct link to the Chief Executive. In 2001, subsequent to the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, the agency added a focus on issues of national preparedness in the event of such attack. FEMA coordinated its activities with the newly formed Office of Homeland Security. The Office of National Preparedness was assigned the responsibility for insuring the nation’s first responders were trained and equipped for dealing with weapons of mass destruction. In March, 2003, FEMA joined other agencies in another federal consolidation of bureaucracies, forming the Department of Homeland Security. FEMA’s mission statement declares it exists “to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from disasters with a vision of A Nation Prepared.” FEMA continues in its mission statement, its intention is to “reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man-made disasters by leading and supporting the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency has evolved from a consolidation of several unrelated bureaucracies, duplicative in their responsibilities, into a mega-department determined to eliminate and solve a plethora of problems. Its scope has become very broad.

The 2006 Congressional report on FEMA’s failure in handling the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina stated that it was “…a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare.” FEMA’s operation included a slow and inadequate response, wherein NGO and local government assistance from individuals and groups including the Red Cross was blocked. Photographing the dead was banned. Reporter’s equipment was confiscated, as were homeowners’ registered firearms. It is alleged that Hurricane Katrina provided a test run for a government pogrom, allowing FEMA to rehearse rounding up and relocating large numbers of people to camps, suspending their constitutional rights, confiscating their arms, and militarizing the region. Mercenaries were deployed by Blackwater USA, to aid in this endeavor.

After the Hurricane Katrina disaster, several federal laws have evolved, streamlining presidential and federal authority in emergency response. Congressional amending of the Insurrection Act of 1807, which limited the right of a president to deploy troops within the United States, by the Defense Authorization Act of 2007, effectively nullifies the Posse Comitatus Act. Posse Comitatus denied the right of anyone to “willfully use any part of the Army or the Air Force as a ‘posse comitatus’ or otherwise to execute the law, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.” Historically, as provided by Article I, Section viii of the United States Constitution, the federal government has relied upon state and local governments for the initial response in the event of insurrection and rebellion. Federal involvement is only to occur in the event of failure to maintain order by state and local authority. Presidential powers for law enforcement are intentionally limited and delayed. Numerous Presidential Executive Orders have been issued, authorizing the takeover by federal agencies of essential state, local, and private functions. The Readiness Exercise of 1984, which is an emergency response program involving the implementation of martial law, the movement of civilian populations, and the arrest and detainment of segments of the population set the stage for President George W. Bush to establish the role of the Executive Branch in a crisis. On May 9, 2007, Bush declared that during an emergency all national essential functions can be taken over by the Executive Branch of the US Government through the Department of Homeland Security. Operation Garden Plot is a United States Army and National Guard program under control of US Northern Command, providing federal military support during domestic civil disturbances. This allows the mobilization and deployment of US federal troops on American soil. Article I, Section viii of the United States Constitution provides that “legislative Powers shall be vested in the Congress of the United States” including “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel invasion.” The ‘Militia’ is not federal. It is a function of the state. Calling it forth is not a power of the Executive Branch. The Militia is deliberately intended to be separate from the Army. Allowing direct circumvention of this constitutional principle is an avoidance of the system of checks and balances.

In August, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft declared American citizens who were deemed enemy combatants may be detained indefinitely and without charge, independent of the judiciary. This, again, trounces upon Article I of the Constitution, which provides that the Writ of Habeas Corpus “shall not be suspended” unless the United States is in a state of rebellion or invasion. Section ix determines that this can only occur in the event that public safety might be compromised. Three Roman Catholic Nuns, who protested prior to the bombing of Iraq in 2002, were arrested, handcuffed, and left on the ground for three hours. Their horrendous criminal act was painting blood on a missile silo, clearly a threat to public safety. They were subsequently jailed for seven months before being tried for sabotage and obstruction of justice. Habeas Corpus has been nullified, as has Posse Comitatus. Federal troops, or their delegated representatives, are empowered to arrest and indefinitely hold anyone, without charge, at the whim of a president. DHS and FEMA provide the command and logistics structure for carrying out any such presidential order, and are legally permitted to even relocate entire populations, if desired. The United States Constitution and the American system of checks and balances are a part of history.

Senator John McCain is sponsoring S3081, a bill which allows for the indefinite detention of anyone sans Miranda rights or charging with a crime. Co-sponsors of the bill include Senators Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown. This bill would deny the right to trial and would allow arrest and imprisonment of anyone Homeland Security deems a threat to national security. Local police authority granted to federal troops and removal of Habeas Corpus and Miranda Rights result in streamlined law enforcement and enhanced potential for oppression in the United States. Denial of basic constitutional and statutory rights, a crime from the highest levels of government, is in the making. The crime is evident. The motive is less so.

Mainstream media, particularly Fox News, has declared incessantly that Occupy Wall Street has no message. Nothing could be further form the truth. Remember the words of Adolf Hitler, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” Hitler also said, “How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.” Occupy’s general assemblies have come together with a common message, “Get the money out of politics.” Most commonly, a call for legislation to offset the Citizens United ruling has been vocalized. Banking system reform, to prevent fraud and manipulation, has been demanded. Restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, done away with by President Bill Clinton, figures prominently in Occupy’s litany of demands. Glass-Steagall separated investment banks from commercial banks, preventing investment banks from wiping out commercial and savings banks with risky investments. Restoration of Glass-Steagall will correct conditions which caused the current financial crisis. Most damning is the demand by OWS that legislation be drafted to prohibit an obscure loophole which allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they, themselves, are investors. Legislation denying lobbyists the ability to amass huge fortunes from the legislative process, reforming the banking system to preclude profit making from fake derivatives, and preventing legislators from personally profiting from their own legislating are ample reasons for a coordinated response from law enforcement to suppress resistance, with the potential of permanently removing opposition. OWS is a global phenomenon, not, as fomented by mainstream media, a bunch of disorganized, scruffy hippies. It represents a serious threat to the infrastructure of corruption extant between Wall Street and Capitol Hill. A recent phone conference between DHS and local mayors, resulting in a violent police crackdown on OWS is exempletive of the collusion between financial chiefs, corrupt legislators, and local, city governments. So, we have motive. Huge sums of money are being made by lobbyists, Wall Street bankers, and congressmen and they do not want this to stop. FEMA and DHS have developed into sleek vehicles for the dissolution of any form of dissent, under the guise of national security. Posse Comitatus and Habeas Corpus have been removed, and Miranda is under attack, paving the way for further embellishing a well coordinated national system of police authority with the power of the military, without even having to read the arrested person his rights.

It has been alleged in cyberspace, that over six hundred prison camps exist in the United States, all fully operational, but empty, ready to receive prisoners. The allegation further states all facilities have both rail and surface road access, and that many are adjacent to airports. Though often constructed in remote areas, camps have been located in heretofore abandoned warehouses and factories. Halliburton is reputed to be the primary contractor for the construction of these sites. In 2006, its subsidiary KBR was awarded a contract from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch. The contract provided for building temporary detention and processing facilities for use in warehousing immigrants, and to “support the rapid development of new programs”. Most camps can accommodate twenty thousand inmates and are already staffed with full time guards, should martial law be declared.  The obvious question is whether these personnel are from the private prison system. Profit is always a prime motivator. At a rate of $200.00 per prisoner, per day, prison camps could easily create another source of revenue for greedy, corrupt officials. Concurrent with this allegation is a series of internet statements about special railroad cars and coffins. Allegations have also been made about utilizing special federal troops as death squads. Remembering the redeployment of specific regiments from the Middle East to the United States, during the Bush administration, for use in the event of civil unrest, is cause for concern. Offering limited credibility to this speculation is the rebuttal of Popular Mechanics, the traditional vehicle of right wing denial.

Totalitarian regimes of the past have not bothered with special railroad cars and coffins. The Nazis used the common boxcar, the ‘forty and eight’, to transport their victims. Individual coffins were unnecessary in enormous mass graves. At Baba Yar, victims were merely cast into a ravine. It is doubtful that Pol Pot gave coffins for his victims even a passing thought. Cyberspace reports of special railroad cars, death squads, and coffins are likely sensational tales intended to discredit and obfuscate reality.

This much is clear: it is a matter of public record that KBR was granted a no-bid contract to construct multiple detainment facilities across the nation for only marginally certain purposes. Whether rumors of modified boxcars, coffins, and prison camps have any credibility, the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on how to suppress Occupy protests. The decades old program of gradual militarization of police departments guarantees success. A coordinated effort has been launched, nationwide, to disrupt and disband Occupy Wall Street. It is understandable. Billions of dollars hang on the success or failure of the initiatives OWS represents, irrespective of the assertions of mainstream media that it has no message. Obviously, it is imperative that the public be kept ignorant of this message. DHS cannot operate on its own initiative. The chain of command begins with New York Representative Peter King, head of the House Homeland Security subcommittee. It ends at the White House. It is curious to note, President Obama was in Australia at the time of the most recent DHS coordinated violent crackdown. The question must be asked, “Does someone in the White House, other than the President, have the authority to initiate DHS activities?” This is almost irrelevant, since, a phone order from Australia would suffice, but it is worthy of consideration. Remember the authority of Karl Rove, when he was chief of staff. Also of note are Senator McCain’s current and timely efforts to remove Miranda rights. This lends another speck of credibility to rumors of FEMA mandated concentration camps. We have a disruptive segment of our population, OWS. It represents a significant threat to wealth acquisition, by persons in authority. Constitutionally mandated rights and statutes have been removed. Now, we have a senator trying to end the Miranda debacle which has hampered Law Enforcement for so long. The stage is set. The population is targeted. Now, where shall we put them?

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Entrance to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Headquarters, Washington, DC, Image via Wikipedia

Monique was a darling child with an engaging, infectious smile. Her sweetness and endearing ways made her the star of the neighborhood. She would sit semi reclined in her wheelchair with its integral head and neck support, shaded from the late afternoon Sun by her family’s carport. Passersby obligingly drew near because of her singular vulnerability and warmth. As each person approached, Monique’s face erupted with happiness revealed by an innocent, appealing beauty from her merry eyes and inescapable grin. This was the apex of her communication skills. Monique could not speak. She could not walk. Her body movements were futile and in-coordinated. She could move her head. She could move her face. Monique’s mother had to abandon attempts at working, to remain home and care for her invalid daughter, ensuring that she would not be neglected by marginally trained and uninvolved ‘professional’ care givers. Consequently, Monique never suffered from skin breakdowns or had urinary tract infections, in spite of having a permanently indwelling Foley catheter. Her shiny, thick black hair was always freshly shampooed and impeccably combed. The family was at subsistence level, living in section eight housing, surviving on welfare and food stamps, and state and federal aid programs for incapacitated children. Monique suffered from cerebral palsy, and though she was unable to verbally communicate, and could only smile and blink her eyes, she responded appropriately enough, so that everyone who encountered her knew this little girl was quite the sentient being, disastrously trapped in a useless body.

Directly across the street from Monique, lived another girl with Cerebral Palsy. Her name was Juliana. She was a much higher functioning patient, able to walk with unpredictable spastic movements, and could marginally speak a sort of garbled, ill pronounced language all her own. Juliana suffered from grand mal seizures which occurred with increasing frequency as she matured. Unlike Monique, Juliana rode the short bus to school and might have eventually been able to function somewhat independently, had she not experienced a fatal seizure one afternoon, alone in her bedroom, and strangled on her own oral secretions. The Sun beat down with the usual summer intensity, one Sunday afternoon, and Juliana’s lifeless body lay on a fire department gurney, with one hoseman pushing from the head of the apparatus, and squeezing an Ambu bag attached to the endotracheal tube protruding from one side of Juliana’s mouth, while another hoseman pulled at the foot. A third man stood on a bottom rail of the gurney, holding on to a side member with his left hand, while doing compressions with his right hand. CPR was interrupted only momentarily as Monique and the gurney were quickly lifted into the waiting rescue vehicle. Compressions and ventilations continued to the ER, where she was pronounced dead.

Monique’s family moved away from the neighborhood a long time ago, shortly after Juliana died. Now we have Junior to amaze us with his extroverted friendliness and warmth. Like Monique, he has the engaging, infectious smile of the mentally handicapped. Junior is about seventeen, going on seven. Better able to walk and talk than Juliana, he regularly plays softball in the street with children ranging in age from half of his own, to perhaps two or three years younger than he. His functionality is such, that he may well be able to bag groceries one day, or even ask the famous words, “Paper or plastic?”

The etiology of the disease afflicting these children and their families is inadequate or non existent pre-natal care. This is a common affliction of the poor and one symptom of the general health of a population which receives its primary care from an emergency room. As in other facets of health care, treatment is delayed or ignored until it is too late to render simple, inexpensive measures which would avert chronic disabilities or death. Planned Parenthood offers free or low cost pre-natal care to the poor and disenfranchised. This is determined on a sliding scale depending on a patient’s ability to pay for services. Since 1942, Planned Parenthood has provided a range of services to over three million people in the United States and its caring extends to over one million clients out of the country. It screens for breast, cervical and testicular cancers, and performs pregnancy examinations. Planned Parenthood tests for and treats sexually transmitted diseases, and performs comprehensive sexuality education. It is unique in that it also offers counseling and therapy for the suffering associated with menopause. Termination of pregnancy is also a service, amounting to only fifteen percent of Planned Parenthood’s annual revenue, a service which is not federally funded. Abortion is the primary focus of the religious right, but it is obviously only a small part of the agency’s concern. Planned Parenthood has been the primary subject in the American abortion debate, and has been the most well-known target of ‘pro-life’ activists for decades. Clinics have been the target of many examples of anti-abortion violence, including bombing, arson, murder, and attacks with chemical weapons. The pogrom for the destruction of Planned Parenthood, by the religious right and its ultra conservative political allies, serves to deny reproductive healthcare to millions of both women and men, and further ensures a strata of the working class condemned to a lifetime limited to an ultimate goal of asking whether the customer wants “paper or plastic”, and maybe being lucky enough to sack groceries.