After 2008, the Republican Party noticed a small but growing painful lump in the in their body politics. Several theories were proffered regarding where it came from. Some suspected a long time unhealthy diet of Oligarchy. Others thought it came from environmental issues of racism, misogyny and homophobia. Regardless the lump was growing and was becoming more painful to withstand. Tea Partyitus fed from the money supply the body politics enjoyed from corporate donors like the Koch brothers. Keep in mind that the money that was infused by the Koch’s was tainted with Libertarian and John Birch Society viruses that weren’t properly screened out. This is what most likely caused the lump to grow.

In 2009 the lump grew into a malignant mass. It began to consume the body politics. As it grew, it sapped the nutrients needed by the healthy part of the body politics, causing them to die off and being consumed by the malignancy. By 2010 the Republican Party body politics began to openly show itself to be diseased and deformed. The mental state was soon infected. The party would ramble in incoherent delusional rants lacking any grounding in reality. The mass had gone to the brain of the body politics. The party knew something was wrong. After suffering loss of strength in 2012, they sought out help from experts. They accepted that they weren’t well and perhaps a change in lifestyle was in order. The party considered allowing a more complete diet of viewpoints and tolerance in that would help bring back their strength. Sadly as the mind continued to wither from Tea Partyitus, the party continued to only ingest the nutrients they already knew were bad for them; anger, bigotry, racism, misogyny, homophobia, intolerance. All of this only caused the cancer to grow even more, consuming what little good was left in the body politics to the point of where we are today.

The Republican Party has been a part of the American Family since just before the 1860’s. It was a valued member of the Family, assisting in our growth as a powerful nation, culture, and economic power. It hasn’t been too well since after the 1930’s, but would rally from time to time and helped the nation. However, today it is stricken and may die unless drastic measures are taken.

If the party wants to survive for another generation, it must make a radical cosmetic change to it’s deformed body politics. It must undergo a complete Assectomy by 2014. It must cut out all of the malignancy. To ensure it’s all gone, it may have to remove what few clean cells exist around the malignancy. This can be done by removing all GOP politicians in all elected offices. By doing so, the nutrients the Tea Party Malignancy has been sustaining itself on will be cut and what’s left of the tumor will wither and die. Hopefully more healthy cells will begin to take hold again. This could result in the nation beginning to mend it’s wounds and move forward. The thing is, the Republicans must make this choice themselves and act upon it without delay, otherwise they will die like their ancestors, the Whigs.

This is one disease where it’s best to give money and support to others to build their strength and avoid being infected themselves.  The Tea Party is a malignant cancer of intellectually lazy, angry bigots that destroy everything it comes in contact with. Like all cancers, you can’t begin to heal until it’s completely removed.

For a stronger, healthier nation, we all must register and vote in all elections, local and national in 2014. The country’s health depends on it.

I’ve been on Twitter for around three years and have had this blog for just over a year. I’ve tweeted and even posted some thoughts regarding Twitter, dealing with Trolls and Cyber Bullying. Recently I’ve decided to focus my blog on politics and most importantly getting people motivated to get themselves and others registered to and out to vote during this upcoming midterm cycle. This blog post will hopefully be the last exception to my self-imposed rule, at least until I change the rules again. The nice thing about having your own blog, you can make up your own rules.

Now my Twitter account is focused on politics, though I do tend to throw in random thoughts regarding a host of other issues, personal views, personal tragedies, links to comedy bits and music, and my own sense of dry humor and snark. Over the past few years I’ve gone through a whole host of experiences and emotions regarding Twitter. I’ve made some great friends, I’ve made some enemies and I’ve been betrayed by some. The thing is, that’s life. It’s finally dawned on me what they mean by “Social Media.” Twitter is life in multiple 140 character posts. The only difference from Twitter and traditional living is you can have some degree of anonymity to say things that you may not want revealed to people you associate and work with. It’s an opportunity to live outside yourself and hopefully not be held to account for your views, thoughts, etc from those who can make your real life very miserable.

Sadly, events of the past several months have also shown me that this ability is easier said than done. None-the-less, if you chose as I have to remain on Twitter, you have to accept that regardless of what you do to protect your anonymity; you will be found out so you may want to be careful about what you say. If you don’t want to be so careful, you have to accept the consequences that could come from posting your views or involving yourself with others on Twitter.

Depending on whom you are, what your interests are and what you are willing to express about yourself, you have a multitude of Twitter accounts to follow. Twitter is made up of those who simply Tweet about themselves and their personal lives and happenings. These are the nicest, least threatening folks around in this medium. Then you have those who use Twitter to set up business interests over business issues. Attorneys hooking up with other legal professionals. Engineers hooking up with other Engineers. Actors and Actresses hooking up with others. And there are those who Tweet along the lines of the, let us say “Adult” interests. You get the point.

As for myself and the majority of those who follow me and I follow back, my interest over time has focused on politics, namely Progressive Politics and how it relates to Conservative Politics. Now of course there are those who see themselves as “Conservatives” and their focus on Twitter is the counterpart to mine. Now regardless of your Twitter focus, there are some out there who have, or will have, or may continuously have the penchant to get very personal about their views and air their personal problems with others on Twitter for all to read on their Timelines. There really isn’t any rule against that, there appears to be very few rules in the TOS of Twitter outside of making physical threats or spamming.

Some have no problems reading these tweets. Some take sides and join in. That’s all well and good. However, if you don’t want to get involved in that sort of thing, the best way to avoid being drawn into it is to simply not get involved. You may feel anger at how one of your friends is treated, harassed, d0xed, etc on Twitter and you feel a natural urge to respond in defense. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is, if it continues, if your entire TimeLine is focused on a turf war regarding personal views and slights of others, you detract from whatever main agenda you want to participate in on Twitter.

Nice thing about Twitter is you have the ability to follow or unfollow whoever you want. You can block whoever you want, you can read the Timelines of anyone you want (provided you’re not blocked) and simply just not get involved. You can also show moral support for whoever you want either in the open or in DM’s.

I tried to play peace keeper in a Twitter battle some months back and it came back on me and soured my whole perspective of Twitter. It dragged me away from writing about my interests and for a short while, made me the focus of attack from people I knew and thought I could trust as well as people I had no idea existed, nor did they know me. I also found friends I thought I never had showing me support. After going through this for a few weeks I decided to simply not tweet anything regarding this still ongoing Twitter feud.  It still goes on; I still follow the Timelines of those who haven’t since blocked me. I do so because many still tweet messages of a progressive nature that I see as important and I will retweet them on my Timeline to get them out to my followers. I have retweeted progressive messages from people on opposite sides of the feud. I’m more concern about getting the progressive message out rather than perpetuate a feud. I’m not going to counsel anyone on how to or what to tweet, especially if the matter is of personal interest to them. That’s not mine or anyone else’s call.

I will still defend those I feel need defending. Not from others in Twitter but from those who use the tweets of those people against them. I’m of course speaking about what happened to @DeniseRomano, otherwise known as Vox and @PrisonForBush. Their tweets were used against them by the Texas Department of Public Safety in an investigation. I saw that as uncalled for. Many joined in to defend them. What I found interesting and inspiring was that among those who spoke in a single voice defending Denise, were those who have been battling each other on Twitter these past several months. Both sides of this feud agreed that Denise was to be defended and protected. It gave me hope that maybe, just maybe things would ease between the two sides. To some degree it has, but it still continues.

As with real life, you can involve yourself with any group, person, ideology, subject matter you want on Twitter. You can be as involved as you want or be as much of a spectator as you want. Only thing to remember, if you’re out there, expect to be drawn in and decide how much you want to get involved. Also, your privacy is in no way secured from anyone. That idiot 18 year old kid in California who ran down and killed a 54 year old woman cyclist in California knows this now. California used his tweets to show just how much he liked to speed on the road and are using his Tweets to increase the charges against him. In this particular case, I say “GOOD”.

Controversy does gain you more followers and notoriety. For those who want that, be as controversial as you want. Those like me just want to get the word out that I think we all need to be involved in the political process before its too late. I don’t have the high number of followers on Twitter or readers of this blog as others, but at least I can tell myself I’m giving it a try and I have nothing to apologize for.

I have followers/friends on Twitter for whom I’m grateful for. I have other followers who just monitor what I tweet for whatever reason possesses them. Three years on Twitter has taught me not to get personal with others for personal reasons. If they insult or attack me, I’ll just ignore and block. If I have nothing nice or constructive to say about them on a personal basis, I won’t tweet anything at all. My focus on Twitter is politics and how people’s political views and agendas impact others. For that, I will comment on and get as snarky as I damn well please. Politicians are fair game since that is what they sign-up for by getting into politics.

Private Citizens don’t deserve to be attacked by me and I won’t do that anymore in the Twitterverse or this blog. It’s simply not worth it in my opinion. But that’s just my opinion.

Now back to Politics. Thank you for reading.

Some of you may notice that recently several of the blog posts on this site have been removed. Without going into too much detail, I was asked respectfully to remove them and I decided to oblige. Those of you who have followed me on Twitter and this blog most likely know what I am talking about.

This blog is an amateur endeavor of mine with the purpose of doing what little I can to spread a progressive message about the state of politics in this country and hopefully convince at least a few people who take the time to read to get more active in taking this country back, getting like-minded progressives energized and motivated to get themselves and others registered and geared up to vote out those who are obstructing this nation’s progress. I don’t want to be part of any further squabbles by some who have appeared to lost sight of this goal. There is too much to do and too little time to get it done before the midterms.

My readership is small, others do a far better job of getting the word out to others; however, any distraction from what I feel is important serves no good purpose in my humble opinion. I’ve placed the events that began several months behind me and don’t want to be part of what remains of it. If that upsets any of you who know what I am referring to, I’m sorry.

All I ask is that all of us who agree that we need to get the nation educated as to what the right-wing fringe is doing to individual Americans, their hopes and welfare, and agree that the only solution is getting people more involved in the political discourse to correct the matter, focus on just that. Let us all please move forward and put the needs of this nation above any personal slights, insults or attacks. I know it is difficult for many, but holding on to the pain serves no one in the long run.

We don’t have to agree with everyone or every method of getting the message and views out to the nation, we just need to get the message out.

Thank you all for your time and understanding.

Peace

As we approach the next round of mid-term elections, we see a repeat of the 2009 through 2010 cycle where a small but angry, loud and often not so bright group of “conservatives” calling themselves the Tea Party are disrupting Congressional Town Hall events to speak out. As with last the last time, they are using bumper sticker phrases provided to them, heaven forbid they actually tried to think the issues out for themselves.

Last time the message was to get Congress to vote against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that they phrased “ObamaCare.” Their actions failed, ACA passed, but the coverage of the events soured the majority of moderate and liberal voters so when primaries and midterms came, even fewer than usual showed up to vote. As a result the extreme right wing took the House as well as many State Houses and Governorships around the Country. They were successful in taking over just as redistricting was about to take place, so they were able to gerrymandered Congressional and State Districts to make holding on to their power much easier. Just to be sure, they also started imposing voter suppression measures to make sure those not so inclined to agree with their fringe views would either have a difficult time voting, or won’t be able to vote at all.

ObamaCare passed but those who sponsored the Tea Party Movement got what they actually wanted, fringed right-wing pseudo conservative control of government that would favor the financial backers of the movement. It’s already been written about and confirmed that Charles and David Koch, as well as other extremely wealthy “Libertarians” and Ayn Rand following narcissists are the money and organizational support of the Astroturf movement known as the Tea Party. David Koch tried to run for office once himself as a Libertarian Vice President in 1980 and failed miserably. But why run for office if you can create an atmosphere of angry mobs spewing hatred of the poor, minorities, “takers” who are the real problem in this nation? Like many despots in the past, play to the worst in people to get them so angry they will do whatever you say to make them feel better. Because these people are so angry, they don’t stop to realize that what they actually advocate hurts them just as bad if not worse than those they are angry at. It has worked for centuries and is working again. Because they are so loud, angry and often violent; more tolerant, moderate and peaceful voices remain silent. The moderates and liberals also tend to just drop out of the system out of frustration and disgust.

The Koch Brothers and their paid “Think Tanks” like the Heritage Foundation and their political wing known as the American Legislative Exchange Council  (ALEC) have done a thorough job over the past 30 years, but even more so in the past 10 to essentially take over State and Federal Government, despite the majority views of the citizens of this nation. The Koch’s do this for themselves, not for the country and since they have the money, and get more money every day to fund their manipulation of the system, it has worked out very well for them. They push to keep the worst in office not to necessarily take over, but to obstruct those who are actually trying to help the people of this country have better lives. This serves to keep those people even angrier at a Government that doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because the Koch’s and their cohorts have been successful in getting people in office for the sole purpose of stopping government.

So here we are again in the lead up to the next cycle of midterms. The angry Tea Party faction aren’t really talking about ObamaCare per se, they want a new tactic that is this time directed at the Republican representatives, they want a Government shut down as a means to end ObamaCare. Now reasonable and intelligent people know that such a shutdown will not stop ObamaCare, but it will make Government even more non-functional and inept. This gives the money interests more ammunition to say that Government is a failure so it should be abolished. Those who think logically realize the problem with that statement. If government is so inept nothing can get done and people suffer, how does having no or little government at all help? The Koch brothers and their cohorts are hoping for the one thing that has never worked in the history of the world, a Libertarian style Government. They want a government where businesses rule completely, Oligarchy and Fascism on steroids. The voices of the workers/citizens be damned, only those with the money and power have a say and the rest of us are merely slave labor to keep those with the money even richer and more comfortable with increasing wage disparity and increasing poverty and suffering of the masses. Never in the history of this planet has such a form of government worked. It isn’t sustainable and would lead to more business government control of a growing disgruntled group of workers and citizens not happy being placed in serfdom to serve the uber wealthy. It would actually create the tyrannical government they say they want to abolish.

Polling is clear that the majority of this nation wants healthcare. Though they don’t like the term ObamaCare, when asked about each specific component of the Affordable Care Act, each one has majority support. Polling is also clear that a majority of the nation supports federal jobs programs, banking regulations, unemployment assistance, food stamps, infrastructure repair, educational support, and cooperation and compromise among the two political parties. Everything those who claim to speak for the Republican Party say their “base” the angry, misogynist, bigoted, racist, intellectually lazy and mostly white folks are against. The Tea Party is a minority voice in the Republican Party when it comes to total percentile of registered members, but they’re the only voices being heard. With the Koch brothers’ money and infrastructure, this loud angry voice shuts out the moderate and liberal politicians and voters in the GOP. For fear of being primaried by even more idiotic right-wing nut jobs, those who would be more inclined to vote for the people of the country and not the money interests are forced to go further right themselves. Others leave the party all together. Many retired Republican politicians, free of the mess their party is in speak out against what has happened. Many have simply left the party and gone independent. Problem is they still tend to vote for anyone with an R after their name, if they vote at all.

The angrier you are, the more easily manipulated you become by others who give you something to be angry at. Thoughtful intelligence and reason are often a defense against giving in to your anger and avoiding being manipulated by others. Sadly it also leaves you less inclined to take a strong stand to fix the situation. We all need to reach out to those who remain in the Republican Party who are disgusted with what has happened to their party and help them to take it away from the Libertarian Koch brothers and other money interests. We need to convince the moderates and liberals who remain to be heard over the loud angry voices of the Tea Party Faction and call them out for what they are. Yes, this will result in politicians being primaried, it will result in individual voters being insulted and despised by the angry mobs who are the Tea Party, but many respect those who do stand up against Tyranny. The Tea Party are the pawns of the Koch brothers plain and simple, and they need to be reminded of that. They need to explain to us how fighting for the things their leaders tell them to fight for helps them individually and the nation as a whole. It’s not easy, but we need to reason with them to latch on to what little intelligence they may have left and lead them away from the Dark Side of current day Republican politics.

We need to go further, we need to also make sure that everyone votes, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents and whatever other parties there may be out there. The more people who vote, the more of the will of the people is heard and takes hold, not the minority corrupted views of the money interests who control and manipulate the Tea Party and uses them to do their will. We need to also demonstrate we respect and encourage debate, cooperation and compromise. Finally, we need to stop fighting among ourselves.

I’m seeing on this side of the political divide the same tactics being used on the extreme side of the right wing. Self appointed keepers of what is or isn’t liberal, progressive and/or democratic calling people out for not abiding by their litmus test. It would be nice if as the founders intended, we didn’t have political parties, only political views. Most Americans of all political factions and the independents actually agree on most core issues for the people of this country. Focus on those issues, not whether they’re your political clone and willing to kiss your ass on every subject. Encourage debate on this side of the aisle and see if it spreads to the other.

Debate our views with the views of the other side and maybe come up with compromises that will make this country stronger and better for all. The Republicans of old once did this on a regular basis. This is how we became an economic and military power as well as the most envied country in the world, all factions working together for what was best for the nation. It’s only when the Republicans decided that no voice would be heard but their own and that cooperation and compromise were bad words and a bad concept and  then this nation started to fall apart. Now the Democrats are hinting at doing the same. This is no better. As many have said, no one person or side has all the right answers.

The current state of political discourse was several years and millions (possibly billions) of dollars in the making. Changing it will also take time and requires a plan.

First step is to encourage the Moderate and Liberal members who still remain in the Republican Party to stand up and make it clear they want moderate and liberal voices to be heard in the party or they will vote for someone from the other party.

Make sure that they follow through and vote, not sit any elections out.

We then need to work together to fight back all efforts to suppress the votes.

We need to join with those on the other side who’ve been afraid to speak out and tell them that we have their backs.

Just because they may now or were once registered as Republican doesn’t make them the enemy for life. That is the kind of litmus test many on the left want to implement. This is counterproductive and that is quite simply asinine. You have to question the reason of anyone who tells others not to listen to or acknowledge anyone they think once belonged to a party they don’t like. Listen instead to what people have to say, what their priorities are and begin the discussion.

Again, as many have said, we all have much more in common than what we disagree with on. Those who want to isolate completely others only tend to divide a movement and weaken it.

The more tolerant, more receptive, more inclusive we become, the stronger our overall movement becomes and then the power of the money interests fails because; though they may have the money, we will have the votes.

However, if we wait too long to start this change, we may no longer have the ability to vote anymore.

Bring all people back from the Dark Side to the good side of American Society where we all look after each other’s backs, even if we don’t particularly like them because if we do,  they might just do the same for us.

During the August recess, Republican members of Congress will be holding Town Hall meetings to galvanize their constituents to send them back to Congress to repeal ObamaCare. This will be reminiscent of the 2010 Town Hall Meetings that used astro-turf Tea Party rallies to get media attention to keep ObamaCare from passing. It failed of course. Since then, even though a conservative Supreme Court has ruled the Affordable Care Act as Constitutional, the House has voted 37 times to repeal it. Considering the Senate will never take this measure up and even if they did, the President would veto it, the Republicans continue. They hope to get media coverage for this like they did in 2010. Not to repeal ObamaCare, but maybe to sour people from voting in the Midterms, like they failed to show up in 2010.

However, if they are going to hold Town Hall Meetings about the need to repeal ObamaCare, maybe we all should show up and have them explain the consequences to the American People if it is repealed and how this would be better for all Americans.

If the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is repealed, the following would occur:

• Lifetime limits of healthcare coverage will be reinstated
• You can be denied coverage for pre-existing medical conditions
• Insurance Companies, who are now required to spend 80% of premiums exclusively on providing healthcare, will again be able to spend more on CEO bonuses, perks and non-healthcare related expenditures
• Coverage can again be rescinded after claims are made without notice or appeal
• Millions of Americans who have recently received healthcare coverage will lose it
• State Governments will lose billions of dollars meant to supplement Medicaid expansion for their indigent population
• Healthcare costs will rise as more uninsured people go to emergency rooms for care, with the costs being sent out to those who have insurance and tax-payers to compensate for
• Children who are now covered from age 19 through 26 on their parents’ coverage will lose coverage
• Insurance company “Death Panels” (for lack of a better term) will deny services to covered patients who are current with their premiums, for any technical reasons they can find to avoid paying out and the patient will have no recourse to appeal
• Coverage for testing to prevent onset of more serious conditions will be cut
• Profits for the CEO’s, Board of Directors and shareholders will increase while premiums for insurance plans increase and coverage decrease (as it was prior to ObamaCare going into effect)
• Medicare expenditures for wasteful “Medicare Plus” plans being reinstated, reducing the lifetime solvency of Medicare.
• Prenatal care programs will be cut
• Women’s healthcare costs will increase over that of men’s coverage
• Mental Health parity coverage will be eliminated
• Millions more will lose healthcare benefits as health insurance costs increase beyond their ability to pay
• Bankruptcy rates resulting from catastrophic medical healthcare costs will return

This list is not complete. The Republicans want to repeal the entire program and they do not have anything to replace it with. As a result, all of the above and more will be bestowed on the entire nation if ObamaCare is repealed. Bring these bullet points to the GOP Town Hall meetings, plus any others you may have and demand the Congressional Representative explain how this will be avoided.

Speak loudly though, angry Tea baggers will be there again to try to drown you out.

The murder of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman was years in the making. Racism and profiling aside, a system has been created in Florida and other states in this union of ours that set the stage for this happening. Further as it stands, this can happen almost everywhere in this nation and will continue unless we all recognize what set this course and what is needed to correct it.

Politics has become a growth industry and pays out very well to those who get involved with it. It’s become this way because over the years and generations, as citizens stopped showing up at the polls and exercising their right and responsibility to register and vote, a smaller and often defined group remained as the only players. So those desiring power and those desiring money and power examined the situation and over the years have set things into place via propaganda and legislative acts that would pay them back with interest.

We all know that those of the extreme conservative ideological viewpoint of this country do one thing right that many of us don’t, they vote. They vote their interests, or at least what they think are their interests, and they end up being the target audience of those who want to make a killing in politics, both financially and by doing so set up an ideological course that works to their benefit and power.

A myth was created in this nation based on half truths and a creative narration that gun ownership was the main focus of our American revolution. This myth was created by a lobbying group for gun and ammunition manufacturers known as the National Rifle Association (NRA). This group was formally just a hunting club created just after the civil war. They once advocated safe and responsible gun ownership. However they have since morphed into a Washington DC lobbying group advocating for the big multi-billion dollar gun and ammunition manufacturers.

Now to get lobbying money from gun manufacturers, the NRA had to create a narrative in the country that we were and continue to be a nation that is centered on gun ownership rights. That the second amendment was placed there only to keep government honest, otherwise the citizens would fight them back with guns (untrue), that only a gun guarantees you protection from crime (untrue), that anyone with a gun can protect society since the police cannot respond in proper time (untrue), and that anyone with a gun is trained, qualified and able to shoot straight at the right target and cause no collateral damage (very very untrue).

Guns became items of worship and ownership of guns makes people heroes by their definition, armed people not to be trifled with and armed people are always right. They are defenders of truth, justice and the American way. This has been pummeled into the American psyche since the 1970’s. The focus group of this campaign is the conservative, ideological, easily gullible types who just happen to always manage to go out and vote.

They publish studies full of “anecdotal” stories of how guns prevent crimes and saved lives. None of these stories are ever peer reviewed, none of them measure up with validated, clear data to back up their assertions, because they are merely stories, not scientific measurable facts. So after all of this, everyone is convinced that in order to protect him from crime and our government, you must own a gun. Not just a gun, a lot of guns and a lot of ammunition. Training, qualifying, psychological evaluations aren’t necessary. A gun makes you a man and a hero.

Once this story hit critical mass, the NRA used the American Legislative Exchange Counsel, ALEC to start writing laws they want enacted in State Houses across the country that not only encourages the purchases of more guns, but absolved the gun owners and manufacturers of any civil or criminal liability for misusing the weapons.

They create the “Stand Your Ground” laws that make it easier to justify shooting anyone you fear without having to explain why you feared them or the context of why there was a confrontation in the first place. They also work to prevent any laws to be enacted that keep guns away from convicted criminals and or the mentally disturbed.

They do so knowing that if criminals and mentally ill don’t have weapons (or at least can’t get them easily), then gun owners won’t have as many anecdotal stories to report to justify owning a gun in the first place. In short, Gun Manufactures, the NRA and ALEC work together to arm all sides; the criminal element, the government element (police/military) and the “law-abiding” citizenry. “Everybody must have guns.”

Keep in mind, over this period of time “accidental gun deaths” as well as mass shootings continue to rise and no validated data has ever been provided showing a direct link to gun ownership and reduction in crime.

So because only the extreme ideological fringe vote, Stand Your Ground laws, Concealed Carry, No background Checks, Civil Immunity laws get enacted and placed in the system. This feeds into the deranged minds of those who buy up the NRA narrative that anyone with a gun is Batman, is a hero and is not only allowed to enforce vigilante justice, they are required to.

Enter George Zimmerman, a man who we know wanted to be a cop but couldn’t, a man with a violent temper that resulted in being fired as a bouncer, having a restraining order issued on him, and for being arrested for “resisting arrest” and assault on a police officer. A man who took MMA classes for 18 months but couldn’t demonstrate the skills or strengths necessary to effectively defend himself in a fight. That didn’t matter to him because despite his past, despite documented concerns about his mental health, he was able to get a concealed carry license.

He became his own “neighborhood watch” member after some break-ins in his neighborhood by a “black man”. Now that perpetrator was actually caught and arrested. But George had it in his mind that since “they all get away” he continued his patrols of the neighborhood. He then saw a black boy in a hoodie walking home in the rain.

He did what all neighborhood watch members are suppose to do, he called it in, then he did what they aren’t suppose to do, he got out, followed and confronted Trayvon.

No one saw the initial contact of the two and how it occurred. The only one still alive who can explain it is George. There was a fight, George may or may not have had the upper hand in that fight, no one other than George knows. However, we do know that none of his injuries were anywhere close to being life threatening, they could even have been self inflicted.

What we do know from the laws of common sense, is that the only way George could have drawn his weapon from his hidden holster, concealed in the small of his back, under his waist band, and would be if Trayvon wasn’t on top of him pummeling his face as George said he was. The prosecution failed to make this demonstration to the Jury in an effective matter. Trayvon could not have been on top of George when George fired his gun through Trayvon’s heart. Its simple common sense and logic. However, under our legal, since the State couldn’t show Murder 2 or Manslaughter to the Jury beyond a “reasonable doubt” George got away with killing a 17 year old boy who only had Skittles, a can of tea and a hoodie and was only walking home in the rain.

Because not enough people voted in Florida, Stand Your Ground, Concealed Carry, No Background Checks for Gun Ownership laws, all written and promoted by the NRA and ALEC for those few people who do vote on a regular basis, George was legally authorized to carry a concealed weapon, and didn’t have to go into the old requirement to prove self defense that existed prior to Stand Your Ground laws. A combination of Gun Manufacturers, the NRA, ALEC and Florida voter apathy set the events in motion that allowed George Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin and get away with it, never to be tried for that offense again.

When you do not register and take your right and responsibility to vote at every election, the ideological fringe element who do vote end up selecting the representatives and executives in State offices who present and enact the laws that allow the Trayvon Martin travesty to occur without any consequence to those who as John Guy pointed out in closing “have hate in (their) heart.”

This same voter apathy allows for people to get elected to enact laws that take voting rights away from those who would not vote for such things as this, take hard won civil rights laws away, take hard fought pro-choice laws away and take the rights of people this small group of ideologues don’t like, away. In short, they’re taking your rights away and you are letting them by not getting active and voting in every election.

Trayvon is dead; it is a travesty of justice for a life to be cut so short before it could even begin. This murder had caught the nation’s attention, the majority of people agree that Zimmerman should have been convicted of Manslaughter for his acts prior to, during and post his shooting of Trayvon. But the Florida laws that are in place due to voter apathy allow him to walk.

You want to Honor the short life of Trayvon Martin, get active and vote those who support such laws out of office. End the reign of terror by ALEC and the NRA working in support of gun and ammunition manufacturers. Vote them out and change the laws back where we are protected and the guilty are punished before what happened to Trayvon and his family happens to you.

After September 11, 2001 the country rallied behind our President, George W. Bush. Mind you at the time his popularity had been slipping. It had been a close election and he actually lost the popular vote to Al Gore, but with the Supreme Court stopping the Florida recount, he was able to secure enough electoral college votes to win the presidency. Nevertheless, the country had been attacked. We were all angry, scared and knocked clear out of our complacency to world events.

We did what people often do when attacked and threatened, we rallied behind our leader, regardless of who it is.

Bush had a Republican Senate and House and using the fear and anger of the people as motive, measures were prepared to “deal with the issue” and to make sure we were never attacked again due to lack of intelligence information. I won’t go into the fact that there was intelligence that existed to place the dots together and had the Bush administration paid attention, 9-11 could have been avoided. However, using what was known to the public, at least what was fed to the public who were willing to believe what they were spoon-fed, this is what happened:

Citing a “lack of intelligence” (a term that make me grin when stated in context with Congress) Congress began on work to correct it.

They prepared legislation that would combine all intelligence gathering operations under one office.

They would tear down walls that kept internal intelligence sources from communicating with foreign intelligence services so they could compare notes and connect dots.

They expanded what they were allowed to do to gather such information.

They expanded and made easy the process for getting wire-taps, setting up surveillance, streamlined the FISA Courts, etc.

It was a major overhaul of an intelligence apparatus that had been created over decades to deal with World War II and then the Cold War. They worked to “correct” a system decades in the making.

On October 26, 2001; only 45 days after 9-11, George Bush signed into law the USA Patriot Act of 2001.

Mind you, on October 24, 2001 it had passed the House 357 to 66, only a day after it was introduced by Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. The next day, October 25, 2001 it passed the Senate virtually unchanged 98 to 1. The only Senator to vote against was Democrat Russ Feingold.

Though there are varied estimates of how long the bill was, some say over 340 pages, most in Congress admitted they “didn’t have time to read” the bill before voting on it. The bill was rushed through a Republican House and Senate and signed by a Republican President while the pain of 9-11 still gripped the country. So despite some “weak” Democratic opposition, the bill was passed with no real input coming from the people it would impact the most, the citizens of the United States. No real hearings regarding the “unintended consequences” portions of the bill could create. Something had to be done and done quickly, so it was.

In the years that followed, as we fought our war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, as the Bush administration and Vice President Cheney lauded how terrorist acts were prevented due to the Patriot Act, most Americans accepted it. The pain from 9-11 was subsiding and since there had been no attacks, most thought maybe it was working. However, word began to seep through about some of the things the Patriot Act was doing. Those provision that impacted foreign terrorists nobody cared about. However, when it became known that FISA Courts were being bypassed for warrants to eavesdrop on international phone calls, scans of internet activities etc from the NSA, some started complaining. However, it actually got little attention because the people were content. Perhaps mainstream media thought it wasn’t all that “newsworthy” to spend time on. Some journalists looked into the matter, but very little of that got out to the public.

Much of the bill was set to “sunset” in 2005. Some argued that civil liberties were being violated and there were calls, mainly from the Senate for major changes. The Republican controlled House wanted to keep it intact. The two versions went to conference committee and most of the changes proposed in the Senate were removed. This got very little news coverage at the time. So the bill actually was reauthorized almost entirely intact from the original 2001 version and was signed into law by Bush again on March 9, 2006. Though more time was spent on it and more information about it was available to the public, little public outcry came from it. Again, there had been no additional terrorist attacks. The thing must have been working. It was during this time that the full extent of what the NSA was doing in terms of metadata gathering and storage first came to light. Few paid attention.

The revelations of it this year didn’t come seven years late, our notice of it came seven years late.

Although the Democrats took back control of the House and Senate in 2006 midterms, it really had very little to do from the public’s dissatisfaction with the Patriot Act. It was other issues that were being played in the mainstream media. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were of concern. The public didn’t vote the Republicans out because of the Patriot Act, because they still were purposefully ignorant to what it was doing. Even though the information was all out there for them to read and get an understanding that the Congress and the President had, with the consent of the people (due to not expressing anything opposing it) let the Genie out of the bottle. The groundwork was set into place. The government now had authorization to gather phone and internet information from all Americans. The information could be stored for future reference and investigation. This was set into place during the Bush Administration and with support from the Democrats. The American people appeared to have been willfully oblivious to what was happening.

In November 2008, due to the economic problems that country was aware of and expressed concern, Barack Obama was elected president with more seats going to Democrats in both the House and Senate. Not discussed during the campaign was the Patriot Act. Issues of terror were discussed. Closing down Gitmo was advocated by both Obama and McCain. Some talk about shutting down certain intelligence gathering operations on Americans were discussed and Obama was on record saying he would shut them down. But again, this got very little play in mainstream media. The people didn’t appear to really care all that much. They were focused on the collapsing economy and again, we hadn’t been attacked in over seven years, so maybe the Patriot Act was working and nobody was concern over what the government may be doing with their phone and internet information.

It wasn’t in the news because the news didn’t feel a need to report on it because few spoke out against it. Again, it wasn’t “newsworthy” even though the information was already out there for all to see.

The Patriot Act came up for reauthorization again. On May 26, 2011 President Obama signed the reauthorization of much of the original Patriot Act. He had a Democratic controlled Senate but a Republican Controlled House after the midterm beating he took in 2010.

Though this time more information was seeping out over the Patriot Act, few moderates and liberals showed up to vote in 2010 even though an increasing number of them were complaining about the intelligence gathering operation. Some said they would show Obama what they thought by not voting in the midterms, effectively handing the House back to the Republicans as well as state legislatures and governor offices across the Country. The GOP took this opportunity to start redistricting Congressional districts following the 2010 census to ensure they could keep the House.

However, still little coverage of what the NSA was doing under the authority granted it by the Patriot Act or the fact that although Obama did bring some civil liberty protections into play; he didn’t go as far as he had originally promised. Further, the Genie was out of the bottle and it is very difficult to put it back in when these intelligence agencies have been able to do it unchecked for now over 10 years.

When Greenwald “broke” the already broken story, those who actually paid attention about NSA wiretaps and heard the “revelations” from Edward Snowden, began to realize that this really wasn’t a new story. Some recalled it being revealed seven years earlier. It just didn’t get the play it should have.

Snowden and Greenwald did provide some details not previously available and some corroborating evidence. However, the overriding content of the story, that the NSA was gathering phone and internet records of US citizens and storing them for future reference was information already available for the public to know. Only now are they showing concern and expressing betrayal and anger. But why now and not sooner?

Many have focused anger and ridicule on Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden over the “leak” which really wasn’t a leak. By doing so they do take focus away from the core of the story.

However, in my opinion the story isn’t that the NSA is spying on us; it’s that we as a society have allowed them to do it unchecked for over seven years and only now are starting to take notice.

Greenwald and Snowden are easy targets. They are both narcissistic and more concern for being noticed than effecting positive change in the world. They are perfect Libertarians, out in it for themselves, not others. They both have skeletons in their closet. If the NSA story was to have come out (again) it would have been better to have some professional and seasoned, ethical “journalists” present the full story to the public. Not these two. Then the focus would have been not that “we suddenly found out the NSA was spying” but the reality that we’ve allowed the NSA to spy on us for seven years.

The problem my friends lie with us. United States Citizenry is not a spectator’s sport. You must be active and knowledgeable about what is happening on the field at all times. You must also then take appropriate actions to effect the course of the game that will give you and your nation the win it deserves.

If you do not pay attention to what your elected officials are doing in your name and hold them accountable, they feel free to do whatever they wish, or whatever their funding sources tell them to do. It’s simple, if they do right, let them know, if they do wrong, really let them know. Then most importantly, vote.

Not paying attention, not letting your elected officials know you are paying attention and will vote accordingly is forfeiting your rights as an US Citizen to someone who owes allegiance to those who have only themselves and their profit margins to be concerned over.

The rich and the corporations may have the money, but you have the votes. You also have the ability to see through what mainstream media is or isn’t telling you by doing some simple research and making some simple deductions. You may not always be right, the information you pull could be wrong or incomplete, but it still puts you in a better place to be aware about what is happening, how it impacts you, your family and friends and the nation as a whole. And with that information, unless you vote, you are wasting your time.

2014 is nearing. Who we elect to office will determine where our government surveillance is going. They will also determine our banking system, corporate regulations, infrastructure, your rights, your choice, your freedom, your privacy.

Voting is not only a right, it’s a responsibility. Get off the bench, learn the game, study the playbook and vote. Otherwise, the few who do vote will keep those in office that will continue to use government services like the NSA to infringe on your privacy.

If you’re not active in politics you only have yourself to blame for the outcome.

As we near our annual celebration of Independence Day, I would like to throw out a few comments regarding the people involved in creating the Declaration of Independence and where we are today in relationship to them.

First of all, in a technical sense of the word, those who wrote, voted for and signed this document weren’t “Patriots.” They were in fact rebels guilty of treason against the government that ruled them. The thirteen colonies owed their allegiance to the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain. Further, in a technical sense, the revolution had already begun long before they even thought of creating this document.

The Second Continental Congress was comprised of unelected representatives of the thirteen colonies, established by Great Britain. Boston was already occupied by the British; blood had been spilt on both sides. However, some in Congress wanted to still work for reconciliation with our “mother country” while others wanted to break from them for all time. Many remained in the middle.

In 1775 the First Continental Congress had sent King George the Third a petition for redress of grievances. In June 1775 the Congress established a Continental Army, a Continental Currency and in July of 1775 a “Post Office” for “The United Colonies”. In August 1775 King George III replied to the petition, a royal proclamation declared that the King’s American subjects were “engaged in open and avowed rebellion.” Later that year, Parliament passed the American Prohibitory Act, which made all American vessels and cargoes forfeit to the Crown. And in May 1776 the Congress learned that the King had negotiated treaties with German states to hire mercenaries to fight in America. The weight of these actions combined to convince many Americans that the mother country was treating the colonies as a foreign entity.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia read a resolution to the Congress beginning: “Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” This was not unanimously supported by the Congress. It was decided that a document should be prepared to list the grievances that led to this situation and in effect, attach legality to an illegal act before the entire Congress would vote on the resolution. Further, the vote had to be unanimous.

A Committee of Five was formed to write the “Declaration” to be heard before the Congress before a final vote was to be held to determine if the members of Congress would all hang together or hang separately. The Committee consisted of John Adams of the Colony of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of the Colony of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of the Colony of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston of the Colony of New York and Thomas Jefferson of the Colony of Virginia.

Roger Sherman was essentially a self educated man who had no legal training yet became an attorney, Justice of the Peace and later a Justice of the Superior Court. He was the only member of the Committee of Five who ended up working on and signing all four major documents regarding our founding: The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Association, The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and the United States Constitution. While working on the Constitution, he was the one who created the 3/5 compromise regarding slaves and was opposed to paper money. Jefferson said of him, “That is Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, a man who never said a foolish thing in his life.”

Robert Livingston was an early anti-colonialist who was a member of the Whig Party. He was another lawyer and became Chancellor of New York and was the man who gave George Washington the Oath of Office when he was sworn in as our first President under the Constitution. Though on the Committee of Five, he did not sign the document having been recalled to New York before the vote was cast. He went on to join Jefferson as a member of the Jeffersonian Republicans, later known as the Democratic Party, in opposition to the Federalist Party under Hamilton. He was Jefferson’s Minister to France and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. After signing the agreement Livingston said “We have lived long but this is the noblest work of our whole lives…The United States take rank this day among the first powers of the world.”

Benjamin Franklin was quite frankly a self-made man. He was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman and diplomat. He was among the first to push for colonial unity. He invented the lightening rod, the Franklin stove, bifocals, and the odometer. He was an international figure and though elderly, quite the ladies man. He was the first to actually map North Atlantic Ocean currents as a result of his many trips to Europe and his role as British deputy postmaster. He opposed slavery and later wrote of the importance of integrating Blacks into American Society. He started the first abolitionist society on these shores. He was educated, had a keen wit, sense of humor and an uncanny ability to size people and organizations up for political purposes. In today’s world, he would be considered a mix between Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Bill Maher and Hugh Hefner. When leaving the Constitutional Convention he was asked what sort of government we would have to which he responded “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

John Adams was considered the driving force in getting the Congress to break from the mother country. He was disliked by many in the Congress. A Harvard graduate and attorney, he opposed the Stamp Act of 1765 and continued to have issues with British rule and taxation. However, in 1770 he successfully defended the British soldiers charged with killing 5 Boston civilians in what became known as the Boston Massacre. He went on to become a staunch supporter of independence from Great Britain citing the tyranny of King George and the harm inflicted in Massachusetts during Concord and Lexington and later Bunker Hill. Then again, he negotiated the peace treaty with Great Britain following the end of the Revolutionary War and also secured our nation’s first loans from Amsterdam. Though serving in Congress, he was known to have said that “One useless man is a disgrace; two become a law firm and three or more a Congress.” By today’s standards he was considered a Conservative. Of note, his government negotiated the “Treaty of Tripoli” which was unanimously approved in the Senate, made up of the founding fathers and cited clearly that “the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” However, Adams was a devout Christian himself. He went on to become the second president of the United States. He wrote in “Thoughts of Government” “There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British Constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is an empire of laws, and not of men.” Despite this, he imposed the Alien and Sedition Acts, considered even today as very draconian attack on free speech in our nation. He sided with the Federalists who were opposed to Jeffersonian Republicans. Of interest was the fact that Jefferson was his Vice President at this time. The Jeffersonian Republicans over time became the Democratic Party. He lost re-election to his Vice President, Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was from Virginia, he owned slaves, he was a Deist, and he did not believe in the “miracles” written about in the Bible and went so far as to remove all of them created his own Jefferson’s Bible. He cited “Nature’s God” not the Christian God. Although he ended up being the third president of the United States, although he was responsible in doubling the size of this nation via the Louisiana Purchase, although he instituted many of the practices of the Executive Branch still followed today, on his Tombstone Jefferson wanted no mention of his Presidency. Instead, he wanted written “Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson: Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, Father of the University of Virginia.” And below is what he wrote that we celebrate on July 4th:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Those on the Committee of Five were different men with different views and values. Yet they had one goal in mind and although Jefferson wrote the document, it was with the consent and contributions of the others. Further, this document was presented and passed by the Second Continental Congress. Members of this body were from all thirteen colonies and all had extremely varied views on religion, government, slavery, commerce, sovereignty and most important, whether we should even be declaring our independence.

At the end of the day, by unanimous consent, the document was approved and the illegal act of rebellion of given the face of legitimacy. These men of varied views worked and compromised for the common good. Let us also not forget that during this period of our history, the two million inhabitants were not united in wanting to break with Britain. About a third did, another third didn’t and the final third were in the middle and weren’t sure. Much as it is with this country today on most subjects. But then again, over time and reflection we came together as a new nation. Those who couldn’t bring themselves to accept what the nation was becoming, left for Canada or England and the rest remained and we started as a nation. A nation with multiple views and values, strengths and weaknesses, priorities and political ideation. However, unlike today, with reflection and common purpose, we came together, the mid 1800’s notwithstanding.

Common purpose, compromise, cooperation, and tolerance are not bad words. This is what made us what we are today. We should reflect on what was happening in 1776 and the people involved. For the most part, their composition and attitudes aren’t that different from our nation today. They got past it; we should honor them by following in their footsteps.

Happy Independence Day.

The Founders were the intellectual elites of their time, they were also the most creative and thoughtful people of their time. They created and enacted the Constitution in 1789 to correct the numerous errors contained in the failed Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. They created the Executive Branch, the Congress as we know it today, and The Supreme Court in order to have three co-equal branches of government. Though each branch would have specific duties and responsibilities, the other branches would have various abilities for checks and balances on the other two. However, I don’t think they placed enough thought in the creation and duties of the Supreme Court.

Article III, Section 1 created the Supreme Court and other “inferior” courts where the Justices who serve in them “shall hold their office during good behavior.” Section 2 gave the Supreme Court authority to hear cases for matters that fall under the provisions of the Constitution, as well as deal with legal issues between the states or citizens of the states regarding other states or their citizens. Section 3 discusses “treason.” Problem is, the founders were too general in exactly what the Supreme Court and other inferior courts would do how they would do it and what their limits would be. Time and additional congressional acts and case law would determine those things.

Though not specifically spelled out in Article III, has been interpreted to say that Justices of the Supreme Court and inferior Courts, upon confirmation will for life unless they resign. Only way prescribed to remove a Justice is trial in the Senate upon Articles of Impeachment being drawn up in the House of Representatives. This has only happened once and the Supreme Court Justice was acquitted in the Senate.

So even though the President requires a majority vote from the Electoral College (which is derived by a popular vote of the citizens of the United States) and can only serve two four-year terms in office, even though Senators can only serve if elected by a majority of citizens from the States they represent, even though members of the House can only serve by a majority vote of the citizens in their congressional district, Supreme Court Justices do not require a popular or electoral college vote to be placed on the highest court of the land and they can serve for life.

In Marbury v Madison, the Supreme Court gave itself the authority of Judicial Review of the Constitution and determining what was or wasn’t constitutional. This case would be the foundation for the Supreme Court being able to overturn any legislative act from Congress, signed by the Executive Branch, on grounds of whether it was constitutional, even though the other two branches of government support the law. This wasn’t spelled out in Article III, but the authority exists today. Though sparingly used in the early years of this country, over time the Supreme Court more and more made its interpretation of the Constitution on matters presented to them and made her rulings. Often they would overturn their own ruling based on re-interpretation of the constitution and “intent” of the founders. This has been the history of the Court.

This brings me to the 21st Century and the current state of the Supreme Court. Over time the Court has become more of a political institution than a legal one. It was only natural. A president using a political litmus test nominates a Justice, the Senate determines if the nominee is “safe” and confirms and the Justice sits on the Court for life. If they have a political agenda of their own, there really isn’t anybody to stop them other than the associate Justices ruling the opposite way.

However if you have a majority of conservative leaning Justices, you will have conservatively interpreted versions of the Constitution as the basis for Court rulings. If you have liberal leaning Justices, you have liberally interpreted versions of the Constitution as the basis for Court rulings. It’s no longer the Constitution and law per se that determines what the ruling will be, a major part in the ruling is based on whether there is a majority conservative or liberal interpretation of the same document(s). Too many 5-4 rulings, based on the same constitution and same case law testifies to the fact that these are less and less true and “pure” legal rulings.

Let’s look at the two major rulings this week. In the matter regarding the Shelby v Holder (the Voting Rights Act), Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy cited essentially that under the “State’s Rights” provision of the Constitution and the fact that despite evidence presented in arguments and overwhelming support of the Act in 2006 by the House, Senate and Republican President, since they do not believe racism is any longer an issue in this country, the formula used in Section 4 is outdated and unnecessary.  They ruled that individual states covered under Section 4, using State’s right, can draw up their own districts and voter registration criteria without prior approval of the Justice Department. Within two-hours of the ruling, Texas immediately stated it would impose redistricting and voter ID laws already shown to be discriminatory against voters based on race that was overruled in 2011. States rights ruled supreme with these Supremes. However, the remaining four Justices cited strong opposition to the majority opinion.

In the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) case, Justices Kennedy, Kagan, Sotomayer, Ginsberg, and Breyer cited the “State’s Rights” provision of the Constitution and evidence presented in arguments for their ruling and despite the fact that a majority of the Senate, House and a Democratic President signed it, State rights ruled supreme because individual states, using State rights can determine what a marriage is and the Feds have no authority to deny marriage status on a national basis that overturns the States’ decisions. The remaining four Justices cited strong opposition to the majority opinion.

All nine Justices read the same Constitution, all nine heard the same evidence and same arguments pro and against, all nine read the same applicable laws, yet we had a 5-4 decision in both. Only Justice Kennedy cited “State’s Rights” for both opinions. Regardless of where you stand on these two issues, how can you not see that politics and political leanings had more to do with the rulings that the constitution and laws of this land?

The most egregious example of the politics of the Supreme Court impacting the nation in a way that there is no recourse was Bush v Gore.

The ruling in this case actually went against State’s rights by stopping the State of Florida from counting all the ballots to determine which Electoral College votes would go to whom. The constitution clearly provides that the State determines their electoral college and sends them to vote for the President. It’s very clear and the Florida Supreme Court ruled that all the ballots had to be counted until the US Supreme Court overruled them. To add insult to injury, the Court took the additional step to say their ruling would only apply to this case, not any future case. How was this not political?

This was the Supreme Court determining who was to be the President of the United States. It’s the Chief Executive and Senate who are to determine who sits on the Supreme Court. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say the Supreme Court can decide who sits in the White House. There remains debating stories on who would have won had all the ballots been counted. The tallies were too close because voter turnout wasn’t as high as it should have been. This brings me to the point of this rant.

The makeup and composition of the Executive and Legislative Branches of our Federal Government depends on who gets the majority vote. The makeup and composition of the Supreme Court, Justices who serve for life, is determined by who occupies the White House and Senate at the time a seat becomes available. Once confirmed to the Supreme Court, short of resignation or impeachment, the Justice is there for life. Since the Justices are becoming more and more of a political branch of government and less a judicial branch, we need to be very sure who we elect to the Congress and Presidency. 50% or less voter turn-out does not represent the majority view, wishes and needs of this country. More people need to take the time to go out and vote in all elections, especially the midterms.

Look at who we have on the Supreme Court now: Both Thomas and Scalia have close ties to conservative groups and the Koch brothers. Their rulings on cases that impact the Koch’s business dealings and political causes mirrors those of the Koch’s. There’s no difference at all. Worse yet, even when close ties with the Koch’s have been shown prior to a case that directly impacts them, neither Thomas or Scalia recused themselves from hearing or ruling on those cases, something judicial ethics demands. However, there’s nobody to stop them.

Justice Roberts who was appointed by Bush and wouldn’t be there had Gore been elected worked in the Reagan Justice Department. His job was to find ways to stop the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However in Shelby v Holder, which the Voting Rights Act was the key issue, he did not recuse himself, something judicial ethic demands.

Further, both Roberts and Alito (who was also appointed by Bush and wouldn’t be there had Gore won), were corporate attorneys with corporate leanings and interests and fought for cases that favor corporate interests in the United States, prior to being on the Court. Neither recused themselves from hearing or ruling on Citizens United that ruled that Corporations are people (only entitled to more rights than people).

On the other side of the political aisle of the Supreme Court, Justice Kagan actually has recused herself from hearing cases she worked prior to being appointed to the Court. She showed judicial ethics that ended up in rulings that hurt the progressive cause.

Conservatives vote, conservatives in the House and Senate will block and/or kill any legislation that helps move this nation in a progressive direction and helps the neediest among us. The issue of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act can be fixed if Congress acts, but this Congress won’t because of the majority of Tea Party Conservatives in the House and enough of them in the Senate to filibuster.

State GOP officials are now clear to gerrymander districts in their favor, free to impose voter ID laws that disproportionately target minorities and those who would vote Democratic. Even though they can be overturned in the Courts, because Section 4 is dead, it could take time and the elections would be held and can’t be taken back once they are over.

Time for action to fix this is now. Even with gerrymandering and voter ID laws, if we can get everyone to register, get the required ID and actually get them out to vote and challenge anyone trying to stop them, we can turn these elections towards the progressive side.

Conservatives always vote, frustratingly, progressives don’t. This has to change.

I like Nate Silver; he knows his numbers and is always right. He’s predicting the House remaining in Republican Control after 2014. This is based on historical voting trends. I would love to prove him wrong. However, this will require shooting for 100% progressive voter turnout in 2014. Otherwise, the Supreme Court could go further towards the conservative, anti people and pro business directions that Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas have taken it.

Only a solid Democratic majority in House and Senate can stop it. Further, it’s not just the November election I’m talking about; it’s the primaries and caucuses too. This is where we get the most progressive of the Democrats on the ticket. We don’t need any more pro NRA types who happen to be Democratic in the Congress to stop needed gun control legislation. In a year from now, the primaries for the 2014 midterm elections will begin. Get active now because we are running out of time.

This post is somewhat premature, but this issue has been weighing on my mind for the past several months and is one of the major reasons I haven’t been posting much on this Blog and going days without being on Twitter. This will be a tribute to a man I’ve come to respect from the day I met him some 23 years ago when my (at the time) girlfriend introduced me to him. Many can understand the natural fear we guys feel when we first meet up with the father of the person we intend to marry. This man gave me a lot to be concerned over.

Don is a Marine veteran. He volunteered to serve this nation in World War II and was deployed to the Pacific island fighting campaign. He received two purple hearts, he was involved in the Okinawa campaign where he received his second purple heart after being severely wounded in hand to hand combat. After the war he was deployed to China as part of the “China Marines” looking out for American interests and assisting in building a railroad there, until the communists drove the Americans out.

He came back to this country and went to college earning an engineering degree. He went to work for the Santa Fe railroad. He married and raised three wonderful daughters. His family settled in Prescott where he was City Manager and for a long spell, the only city engineer the town had. Don quite candidly helped design much of Prescott and Prescott Valley. He is honored and respected by the old timers there. He was active in his church, his community, and his politics. However, his family always came first. As for the politics, he is a very conservative Republican and nothing will dissuade him from his political views. Despite our “difference” of opinion regarding politics and political figures, we continued to respect each other. The one thing that kept us respecting each other was the one most important thing in our lives, the deep love for his daughter who happens to be my wife.

He was always full of stories, from his childhood through his time after the War. Only in the last few years did he start talking about his experiences in combat. He talked about being a Marine, something he is very proud of doing, being active each year for the Marine’s Birthday celebration, but rarely talked about combat. This is normal for veterans. Though he has an understandable hatred of the Japanese (understandable considering his life and death experience) we came to realize that he worries about his immortal soul for what he had to do as a Marine to survive. He is a very religious and moral person, so this weighs on his mind.

He was very active in work up until a few years ago. His entire life was his devotion to his mother and family, the nation, the Marines, his wife, his children and his community. As he grew older he came to realize he needed to step back and he did. Sadly, his health began to decline over a year ago and this once strong and powerful figure of a man succumbed to his age. As he became less able to care for himself and dependent on others to care for him, we could see the depression setting in. This is a man who prided himself for caring for others, not having others care for him.

He didn’t respond well to a surgical procedure a few months back. He had some setbacks and has spent almost the entire last two months in a hospital. Last week he was assessed for hospice care. This has been the longest he’s been away from sharing a room with his wife of 60 years.

I went to visit him last week knowing that this would most likely be the last time I would see this man alive. He’s confined to a hospital bed, his voice is weak, he struggles to find words, but he lights up when he sees his daughters and his wife; though only for a moment, then he falls asleep. During the visit I pondered how I was going to say goodbye to him.

I decided to treat him with the respect I’ve always shown him over the past 23 years. I came up to him and said “Don, I need to take my leave of you.” Then I thanked him, not for his service to the nation, the Marines, his community, his church, that wasn’t necessary because he knows that I have always had that respect for him from all our conversations over the years. I thanked him for providing me my wife. He raised a wonderful girl who grew to be a wonderful woman. I thought that was the most appropriate thing to say. Then he told me that I was a good son-in-law. Then I said “Take care Sir,” and left. Though we disagreed on politics, we both share a love of this nation and my wife. That is all that needed to be said.

He is still holding on to life as I write this, but this story has been spinning in my head and for my own mental and emotional state I felt the need to share it with those of you who are interested. We owe so much to the generations that precedes us as well as the generations that will come after us when we are no longer in a position to hold things together.

It is easy to engage in personal conflicts over petty issues as we move through life. Often it seems it is easier to hate others, hold grudges and to find ways to hurt those you have issues with. It’s been that way for eternity and will most likely never end. However, if you have problems with yourself or others taking that course, you can do something about it. Maybe not for others but for yourself. Despite the differences you may have with somebody, whether it is for personal or global issues try to find what you have in common and nurture it.

From the rhetoric most people like to post on Twitter, their blogs, Facebook, etc almost everyone cites their love of family and country. If you are true to that belief, then demonstrate it by focusing on your love of family and nation and endeavor to do those things you think will have the most positive impact. The “greatest generation” of Americans as Tom Brokaw called them is dying off. Each day around 700 United States World War II veterans die. They gave their all to those of us who followed. They gave their blood, sweat and tears to protect and build this nation. We need to pay them back, not allow others to take services away from them.

Further, by making sacrifices for those who sacrifice for us and by our efforts to build and maintain this nation for ourselves and our families (while we are physically able) the future generations quite simply owe us the same favor. In fact, this is the history of human society. Each generation caring for the preceding and next generation to perpetuate a stable and caring society.

We must be always faithful to those who came before and those who follow or we cease to be a society worth keeping.

OVERDUE UPDATE:

Don did pass away last July a few weeks after I first posted this story and about two weeks prior to his 92nd birthday. He was given full military honors with a Marine Honor Guard and his ashes were interred along with his son overlooking a peaceful valley just east of Prescott. We are all coping with the loss, but are comforted in knowing he was truly an honorable man who cared for his family, church and nation and is doing recon work for all of us as we speak. Semper Fi Don!