Kayenta, Arizona, Image via Wikipedia

Arizona voters have a choice. Re-elect a Republican representative, Paul Gosar, who is in bed with corporate interests, who enthusiastically supports mining the Grand Canyon for uranium, and who lacks his own direction, rather, takes orders straight from Sarah Palin and the TEA party, by way of having Palin’s two primary operatives as his advisors. It is debatable whether this is good for Alaska, but is indeed not good for Arizona! Voters may also choose to elect the Democratic candidate who lost to this representative, Ann Kirkpatrick, who voted with Republicans more often than any other Democrat in Congress. This is a candidate who 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 DREAM Act. She even voted NO on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution. Kirkpatrick stated the federal lawsuit to enjoin SB1070 was a “distracting sideshow” and refused to co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act. Neither Paul Gosar nor Ann Kirkpatrick support working class and middle class Arizonans. Both support the interests of out of state corporations and would continue anti Latino/anti Native bias.

Arizona 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. Rather than seeking wealth from the private sector, Wenona will serve the People of Arizona by providing quality, affordable healthcare, protecting Social Security and Medicare, protect our environment, and invest in clean, sustainable energy.

Arizona voters have a choice, and the choice is clear. Elect an incumbent candidate who would ruin one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World by serving his corporate masters and destroy the aquifer which supplies drinking water for over twenty five million people. Elect a candidate who ignored the needs of the People and served corporate interests while in office, or install Wenona Benally Baldenegro as Representative from Congressional District One. Have a leader who will stand up for working people, seniors, and middle class families, and who will restore our image as proud Arizonans. Representative Raul Grijalva has endorsed Wenona because she will fight for fair wages and workers rights. She endorses the DREAM Act 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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Image via 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? No. Another way of phrasing this concept is the declaration “Equal Justice Under Law”. Selective enforcement, 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.

Aristotle declared, “Law should govern”. This is an ancient concept. Law should govern, not the capricious desires of one man. 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 proven, 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.

Image by electricspacegirl via Flickr

Thanksgiving came. Thanksgiving went. #Occupiers tried to celebrate in the cold with food donated by various sympathetic merchants, charities, and individuals, as police crashed the parties with batons and pepper spray. Another, more traditional form of #occupy occurred across the nation as shoppers, as usual, camped out over night in the November cold, to be first in line as stores opened their doors for ‘Black Friday‘. Forget ‘shop local’! We want a bargain! This wonderful holiday spirit prevailed as one Wal-Mart shopper sprayed her fellow revelers, in holiday shopping tradition, with pepper spray, injuring adults and children alike. Not at all unlike other #occupy events, senseless violence was enacted for no apparent reason, just because it could be done.

Something has to be said for a society which disallows the freedom of expression of the masses by assaulting them with force, by well trained operatives of oppression, utilizing pepper spray to silence them and dissuade them from pursuing their constitutionally provided rights. This compares quite well with a crazed shopper eliminating her competition by pepper spraying them. Where have our values gone? Have we devolved into a society which mechanically does the bidding of the privileged? Not only do we not allow dissension from the prescribed order of obedience, we hysterically follow the command to ‘shop ’til we drop’.

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Congressman Ron Paul, Image via Wikipedia

Ron Paul seeks to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on Constitutional grounds. This is the Act which allows Native Americans to vote, including the Code Talkers, who had to wait twenty years to vote, after World War Two ended. If it’s unconstitutional, though, oh, well….. Paul thinks the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional, too. He doesn’t think schools must allow attendance based on race or ethnic background. Pro education, he wants to drop the Department of Education. All schools should be private, and everyone should pay to get an education. This would guarantee that only those who wanted an education would attend classes. Paul wants to cut all educational loans. If someone wants an education, he should work for it.

In keeping with his opposition to the Civil Rights Act, Ron Paul believes businesses should be able to discriminate against people because of their race, as well. Furthermore, Ron Paul wants to end all regulations on corporations. A business or a corporation is private property. Government has no business regulating private property. This kind of goes along with, “No shoes, no shirt, no service!” A variation of this sign could be, “Black, Oriental, or Mexican, no service!” That’s the ticket; like, “Irish need not apply!”

Ron Paul doesn’t believe in government guaranteeing equal protection under the law for LGBT people, either, and he opposes same-sex marriage. Paul was an original co-sponsor of the Marriage Protection Act. Ron Paul believes that states should have the right to take away a woman’s choice over what she does with her body. States’ rights should trump federal abortion regulations.

Paul wants to repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act, and he thinks that 9/11 could have been prevented if citizens were allowed to carry guns on airplanes. If he is successful, people could once again carry guns near schools and on an airplane. This would make the world much safer.

Ron Paul wants to end the EPA, and he wants to eliminate FEMA. The federal government should not be involved in the environment or in disaster preparedness or relief. He was the only congressman to vote against granting subpoena power to the independent panel responsible for investigating the BP oil spill.

The final reason I support Ron Paul, is the white supremacist organization, StormFront.org, has repeatedly endorsed him.

These are all excellent reasons to support Ron Paul. He is against allowing Native Americans the right to vote, opposes the Civil Rights Act, the EPA and FEMA, and the Department of Education. He also opposes any federal involvement in abortion. With him as president, Americans would no longer have to endure government regulation of business, education, or civil rights, and we could even carry guns on planes!

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• Ron Paul’s strength in Iowa shows it’s too soon to write him off (csmonitor.com)
• Bob Schieffer Confronts Rep. Ron Paul: Do You Think Americans Caused 9/11? (mediaite.com)
• What’s Up with Ron Paul? (thesexypolitico.wordpress.com)
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Ireland's Holocaust Mural, Image via Wikipedia

Christian Abraham Jacke was twenty six years old when he fled the chronic religious strife and warfare of his native land, his parents, siblings, and friends, boarded the Princess Augusta in Rotterdam, and sailed for the New World. Landing in the port of Philadelphia, in 1736, he found a less than inviting environment. Exemplifying this, a local editor later wrote an op ed in his newspaper in 1751. It read: “Why should Pennsylvania … become a Colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion?” The newspaper editor was Benjamin Franklin. President John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, which limited the ability of immigrants from France and Ireland to acquire full political rights.

Because of local hatred for people of his ethnicity, Jacke and many of his peers continued their migration, settling in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they farmed the land and raised their families. Leaving the security of the City of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, to forage into the unknown American wilderness in the early eighteenth century, was no small feat. People used to living in or near European population centres were forced to wander into an untamed region, resist the defenses of the local inhabitants, build homes entirely by hand, and from scratch, and farm virgin land, which never before felt the slice of a plow. They were offered little choice in the matter. ‘Philly’ did not want them.

Family tradition has it that Charlie Miller walked across Bataan with the Japanese. He survived World War II to settle in Montana, where he eventually passed away. Prior to World War II, he had been accepted for an appointment to the United States Military Academy, but, because of family pressure, remained at home in Cincinnati, studying law instead. This was not before he endured a lifetime of discrimination and prejudice, as had his parents, because of their ethnicity. They were Irish. Northern Kentucky saw the immigration of many Gaelic speaking Irish families in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Further back in history, these were the survivors of the Great Irish Famine. With or without farming skills, these people worked the land in their new found home. When they went into Cincinnati, looking for work, the Irishmen encountered the sign: ‘Irish need not apply!” Variations of this warning included the simple phrase, “No Irish!”

The Japanese experienced a similar and more brutal form of discrimination from the US Government, itself, during World War II. Families were rounded up and interred in prison camps, because they could not be trusted. Their property and personal possessions, their pets, their businesses were all forfeit. It was ignored that many of these people had fled Japan, to escape from the very totalitarian regime the US Government was now fighting against. Who can forget the valor with which the Nisei troops served in Europe, during that same war?

Americans forget that we are a nation of immigrants. We, who are not Latino, forget that our ancestors endured the same exclusionary behaviours now being endured by that group. Italians were portrayed for years, as being gangsters. Irish were a bunch of lazy drunks. The Germans spoke a funny language, had strange customs, and were not to be trusted. Poles were Catholic, and “you know how those people are….” Like President John F. Kennedy, they showed more allegiance to the Pope, in Rome, than to America, or so it was said. “Polacks will drink like fish, screw each other like mad, and shoplift all week, then go to confession on Friday, and it’s all forgiven!” was the common line of the White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

Discrimination and exclusion are not reserved for the immigrant. Had it not been for the Native American Code Talkers, one United States Marine Corps officer stated, Marines could never have taken Iwo Jima. Yet, it would be twenty tears before these brave men would be allowed to vote. This was only possible after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which certain politicians would repeal on the basis of its Constitutionality.

The established majority in America seems to feel it has license to exclude, and keep the newcomer and people of colour down, and it has been this way for centuries. Isn’t it time this dysfunctional and inhumane behaviour stopped?

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• Congress to honor Japanese-American soldiers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Former Arizona Senate President, Russell Pearce, Image via Wikipedia

“Every American who ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants”

John F. Kennedy

Former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was the major sponsor and legislative force behind a bill which was to become synonymous with institutionalized racism: Arizona SB 1070. Pearce had for many years been Arizona’s most vocal enemy of undocumented immigrants. He, personally, had successfully forced several pieces of harsh legislation against people he termed “invaders on the American sovereignty”, prior to the passage of the infamous bill. However, Pearce is not the author of the bill, only the sponsor. The bill was actually written by one Kris Kobach, a professor of law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Law. He is also the Secretary of State of Kansas.

Kris Kobach earned an A.B. in Government, summa cum laude, from Harvard,  and was subsequently awarded a Marshall Scholarship allowing him to earn an M.A. and PhD in politics from Oxford. He attended Yale Law School, earning a Juris Doctorate in 1995, where he served as editor to the prestigious Yale Law Journal. Kobach published two books: The Referendum: Direct Democracy in Switzerland, and Political Capital: The Motives, Tactics, and Goals of Politicized Businesses in South Africa. Kris Kobach has taught constitutional and immigration law since 2003 at the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Law, and has come under attack for anti-immigrant bias. In January 2007, fliers appeared on the university campus accusing Kobach of embellishing his credentials and crafting bad law. In the classroom, he uses as a text, Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity, by deceased Harvard political science professor Samuel Huntington, which argues that large scale Latino immigration will “divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, two languages.” Professor Huntington used mathematical equations to formulate his theses. Mathematician Neal Koblitz accused Huntington of misusing mathematics and engaging in pseudo-science. Professor Serge Lang, a Yale University mathematician, said of Huntington, he uses “a type of language which gives the illusion of science without any of its substance.” Other critics have concluded that Huntington used a methodology which was not valid. These criticisms call to question Kobach’s using Huntington’s work as a text.

Although he is an Anglican, Kobach is a far-right Christian fundamentalist. During his 2004 campaign for Congress in the 3rd District in Kansas, he accused his opponent of associating with groups supporting “homosexual pedophilia,” referring to the Human Rights Campaign, a mainstream gay rights organization which has never even resembled embracing pedophilia. In spite of his years of advanced education, Kris Kobach clings to a very narrow, homophobic religious experience, and endorses what is generally considered spurious academic work.

Kobach has long been associated with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization which advocates changes in U.S. immigration policy, that would significantly reduce immigration in the U.S.

FAIR was founded by John Tanton, a retired ophthalmologist, who also started two other groups with a similar goal: the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank, and NumbersUSA, a lobbying group. Tanton is a leader in the movement to make English the official language of government in the United States. He co-founded and chaired U.S. English and ProEnglish, but Tanton is the direct product of immigrants. His father was John Fitzgerald Tanton, born in Ontario, Canada, who in 1928 immigrated to the United States. His great grandparents, Martin Johann and Carolina Koch, were born in Germany. Ironically, John Tanton is widely recognized as the leading figure in the anti-immigration and ‘official English’ movements in the United States.

Dan Stein is the current president of FAIR, having held that position since 1988. Prior to his association with FAIR, he was the executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a law firm dedicated to controlling ‘illegal immigration’ and reducing ‘legal immigration’ to “levels consistent with the national interest of the United States”. He has testified in Congress on behalf of FAIR and spoken on immigration reform across the country. Stein received a Baccalaureate from Indiana University and received a Juris Doctorate  from Catholic University.

Andrew Wroe, author of The Republican Party and Immigration Politics, calls FAIR an extremist group. FAIR advocates 7 Principles of True Comprehensive Immigration Reform:

1. Reduce the flow of immigrants

2. No legalization

3. No Guest-Worker Program

4. Protect Wages and Standards of Living

5. More Enforcement

6. No Asylum

7. Immigration Time Out (Very strict immigration only for ‘a narrowly focused refugee resettlement program’)

Fair declares its mission is “to examine immigration trends and effects, to educate the American people on the impacts of sustained high-volume immigration, and to discern, put forward, and advocate immigration policies that will best serve American environmental, societal, and economic interests today and into the future.” It states, “Today the United States is receiving more immigrants than at any time in our history.” This is a highly debatable statistic. Fair continues, “Immigration has become an important issue because it affects virtually every aspect of life in America. With more than a million legal and illegal immigrants settling in the United States each year, immigration has an impact on education, health care, government budgets, employment, the environment, crime and countless other areas of American life. It is evident to most Americans that large scale immigration is not serving the needs and interests of the country.” Again, this is highly debatable. In a country with open borders to the north and south, with the free passage of people on a daily basis, how can it be said, “People enter the US illegally?” Anyone, irrespective of citizenship, may cross either the Mexican/US border or the Canadian/US border, at any time and in any direction, without prejudice. What is the basis for FAIR’s immigration statistics? The remaining claims are fallacious, and intended as scare tactics. If an undocumented immigrant is employed, he or she pays taxes. Taxes pay for services. Any increase in population will “impact education, health care, government budgets, employment, the environment, and crime.” While we demonize immigration, we should also consider ceasing the advancement of medicine, so as not to allow for population growth. The jury is still out as to whether a national increase in crime is, indeed, occurring or not, and again, the source of any crime is highly debatable. FAIR uses the immigrant as a scapegoat.

According to the Anti Defamation League, FAIR received grants totaling $600,000.00 from the Pioneer Fund, an organization which is frequently described as racist and “white supremacist”, and which has been described by the New York Times as having been established specifically for supporting research into eugenics. Eugenics was a cornerstone of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The Pioneer Fund maintains that Blacks are genetically less intelligent than Whites. This agrees with Rushdoony’s theological assumptions defending slavery. The Southern Poverty Law Center classified the Pioneer Fund as a hate group. FAIR supported an anti-immigration op-ed by John Tanton, in which immigrants were compared to bacteria. Linda Chavez, formerly an official with the US Civil Rights Commission, called Tanton’s views “anti Hispanic, anti Catholic and not excusable.” FAIR demonstrated hostility towards Hispanics and the Roman Catholic Church when its president and executive director, Dan Stein, told an interviewer, “Certainly we would encourage people in other countries to have small families. Otherwise, they’ll be coming here, because there’s no more room at the Vatican. Many immigrants hate America; hate everything the United States stands for. Talk to some of these Central Americans.” Clearly, Stein foments hatred for Latinos and Roman Catholics. One should be moved to question why a population which hates America and hates everything the United States stands for should be so motivated to come here.

Not limiting its vitriol to Latin Americans, FAIR sponsored a newspaper ad which was highly critical of US Senator Spencer Abraham’s position on immigration legislation. At least FAIR can be shown to spread its hatred equally among all ethnicities. A photograph of the senator, who is of Lebanese ancestry, was juxtaposed with one of Osama bin Laden. The ad suggested the senator’s position would cause Americans to be “needlessly exposed to the threat of terrorism.” Abraham had defeated Tanton in the Michigan Republican primaries. FAIR’s advertising campaign against Senator Abraham produced such a controversy that staunch conservative, Senator Alan Simpson, quit his association with FAIR in protest. The Detroit Free Press described FAIR’s ad campaign regarding Senator Abraham as “hysterical rhetoric…disingenuous and nativistic. It comes perilously close to a smear.” It is ironic that the product of a retired ophthalmologist should be so myopic!

Fair endorsed China’s forced abortion policy as an “international family planning program,” and provided a link on its internet web site to the California based Voice of Citizens Together (VCT), a virulent anti-immigration group. Again, FAIR shows incongruence in focus. FAIR’s principles are white supremacist, mirrored by and balustraded by fundamentalist Christian principles. Christian fundamentalism abhors Planned Parenthood. Aborting fetuses must be permissible so long as the fetuses are not White. VCT’s web site has referred to “Mexico’s invasion of the United States” on numerous occasions. It predicts, “California will be taken over by Third World forces, led by Mexico, who have an axe to grind against European Americans.” This is hate speech, determined to stir and magnify intolerance among the non-Latino population. Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel said, “The trash that this crowd puts out is just beyond terrible.”

In Texas, the Coalition for the Future of the American Worker, a FAIR front group pretending to represent labor interests, produced ads focused on images of dark-skinned men loitering on corners and fleeing police cars, an obvious reference to Latino casual loborers. One of the ad’s prime targets, Rep. Martin Frost, condemned the ads as racist. Pete Sessions, the Republican challenger, found the ads so disgusting he joined Frost in calling for them to be pulled off the air in their district.

The litany of FAIR’s racism continues, and Kris Kobach continues his association with them. Kobach mixes religious intolerance and xenophobia with a misunderstanding of United States history, when he endorses the theory that America was founded as a Christian nation. Apparently he has never read the writings of Thomas Jefferson, nor is he familiar with the Treaty of Tripoli. To avoid the pogroms of Tudor England, the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution determinably created a secular, rather than Christian nation. The United States was founded on principles of the Enlightenment, not upon the principles of any religion. Despite an education at some of the world’s most prestigious universities, Kobach maintains a very narrow, exclusive religious faith, misinterprets his nation’s history, and deploys spurious academics in his university teachings. He associates with an organization which still believes in the debunked theory of eugenics, the basis of the Nazi Uebermensch. One must question the efficacy of his training Maricopa County Sheriff’s personnel in immigration law, especially at a $300.00 per hour price tag. Kobach’s racism became manifest in legislation he has authored throughout the United States, including Arizona SB 1070. Former Arizona Senator Russell Pearce, himself an overt racist and anti-Semite connected to the National Alliance and associated with notorious Arizona neo-Nazi, J.T. Ready, was but an effective tool of Kobach and FAIR. In his position as President of the Arizona Senate, Pearce would prove quite adept in facilitating FAIR’s agenda. Pearce’s race hatred was augmented and exacerbated by greed, when he realized an SB 1070 would supply fodder for his interest in the Corrections Corporation of America, supplier of private prison systems. If an entire population could be declared ‘illegal’ the sky would be the limit, and the money would pour in. SB 1070 was never about securing America’s borders or Pearce’s famous ‘rule of law’. It was merely about deep seated, institutionalized race hatred and greed.

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Seal of the State of Arizona, Image via Wikipedia

It was another shot heard ‘round the world, or a shot across ALEC’s bow. Republican candidates in Arizona universally went down in defeat, yesterday, as a progressive, Democratic, Phoenix mayoral candidate with working class roots, and real family values trounced a corporate lobbyist with a long history of being involved in successful, cynical, slanderous campaigns. A firefighter overcame a TEA party candidate for a Phoenix City Council seat, and a vile, corrupt, career politician was forced to finally accept the recall results imposed upon him by his constituents. The People came together as one, a rainbow of ethnicities, races and religion, and pushed the corporatists away. The ripple effect will be felt in Wisconsin and Ohio, as the People become further inspired to throw off the chains of corporate domination, and #Occupations will be emboldened. Oppressive politicos everywhere have watched us, and know that they are next. The Arab Spring may well have become the American Autumn.

The American voter has historically been under informed and complacent, and ALEC’s crew is stalwart and cunning. Charles and David Koch have had long lifetimes to ferment their racist, John Birch Society inspired, libertarian tainted ideology. They have the billions to bring their dreams of dominance to fruition and their surreptitious tentacles are widespread. Rather than sit back and bask in the radiance of victory, the Arizona Democratic voting public must expand and educate itself, and continue its resistance against the corporate masters, fighting them at every turn, sending the message across the country. We must overcome! Si, se puede!