******************Just as the Vietnam conflict was continuously extended, so large corporations could heap the economic benefits by draining our economy; the “future funding†vote signals to me, there may be a corporate (Halliburton, Black Water, etc.) economic factor in voting for the continual occupation in Iraq as well. If I am wrong I apologize, but in cases like this I always say, “Follow the moneyâ€. As stated before, if Clinton is the nominee, I will vote for her because the Supreme Court’s fate is in the balance, but I would like to have more of a commitment by her that regardless of the future-calculated scare tactics, by regurgitating Al Qaeda insurgence, she will end this conflict participation, which is simply a civil-war that has escalated due to our participation in it.We are the air that breaths life into that fire of sectarian violence and it is now time to remove the oxygen we supply for this heat felt by everyone in the world. Barack Obama is the fire-extinguisher, who the American people and the world sees as the hope to extinguish the fire from 9-11, forever.I think John Edwards would be a champion at Attorney General andI think Constitutional Expert Caroline Kennedy "In Our Defense-The Bill of Rights in Action" would be an awesome Supreme Court Justice. We need defenders of the Constitution now, more than ever.It’s truly ridiculous and I believe as a result of large corporations having lobbyist with complete access to our elected officials in Washington D.C., where they are far removed from their constituents at home, our voices are trumped by their voices to the point we are never heard. These corporations use their lobbyist to broker deals that are advantageous to them and to a detriment to the people Congressional Representatives are supposed to hold their loyalty too, since WE elected them into office. Our Congress has, due to the dictates of these lobbyists, instituted policies that basically call for a deregulation of corporate responsibility, resulting in the “common practice†of corporate policies that do harm to the people of America. Had there been no lobbyist on Capital Hill, I am convinced the Credit Rating System would not exist today. Because Corporations are profit driven and largely owned by Caucasian men, there is a consistency of big-business hiring and promoting practices that discriminate against the poor and minorities. This practice is unconstitutional because it contradicts the 14th Amendment (ratified July 9, 1868) which states, “nor shall any State deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.†By allowing corporations to discriminate against minorities and the poor, which creates a “class system†in the U.S.; the upper class being largely represented by Caucasian Americans and the lower class being largely represented by People of Color, the government’s inaction to remedy this harm done to this targeted segment of the American population is unconstitutional. And, as a result, any citizen should be entitled to a monetary reward for this harm. Legislative action should be created to correct this destructive act, per the 14th Amendment (ratified July 9, 1868), Section 5, “The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this articleâ€. Whenever this Amendment, or the enforcement of this Amendment comes in conflict with state sovereignty for immunity, as enumerated in the 11th Amendment i.e., a State’s citing of the 11th Amendment (Ratified February 7, 1795), “The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State,†the 14th Amendment, section 5 will trump the 11th Amendment. However, the current Presidential Administration has consistently acted unconstitutionally in the abusive use of “signing statements†to CHANGE Legislative bills rather than EXPLAIN Legislative bills, which suggest that the Attorney General (since his loyalty has consistently been to the President, rather than to the people as it is supposed to be!) will not enforce any violations with regards to the Constitution. This is why it is so crucial that a Democrat reclaim the Executive Branch, regardless as to if the Democrat nominee is Obama or Clinton, because not only will there be a further abuse of the use of “signing statements,†but there will be the possibility of two more Supreme Court Justices being selected by Neo-Conservative Republicans, who aim to wrestle even more Legislative Power away from our elected officials, should the Republicans hold on to the Executive Branch of government. Ps- the targeting of minorities by predatory lenders is also a problem that demands our Legislative Branch of government to act, but the Executive Branch and the Attorney General serve as impediments to this function of government oversight (protection of the people).***********************
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Only when there is true accountability for those guilty or complicit in this rampant assault on our female soldiers, will I be proud to have my daughter’s serve, should they choose. Currently though, if we can’t even protect our own soldiers, whether it be in declaring that we would not torture (water-boarding) prisoners of war in our custody, so we would expect others to not torture our soldiers who may be their prisoners of war; our military leaders do not condone rape, as is the case in civilian society and we would express this by holding all accountable for such actions or complicit in such actions strictly accountable, I would not give my blessing for them to serve in the United States military services. It would not be right for me as a father; to put them in that kind of harms way, knowing that they are not fully protected by the leaders of the military. It would be like putting them in prison. I have served enough for my family, so they do not have to feel obligated to do the same and it was bad enough for me as a minority. This article brings up a question, I have for Senator Murray. What about holding private contractors accountable for rapes? There was a young lady, a private contractor for Halliburton I believe, who was not only gang-raped by fellow employees, but then locked in a shipping container and held captive so she would not tell. She managed to make a phone call home, using her cell-phone, prompting her eventual rescue. Her parents contacted their congressman, who sent armed troops there to rescue her and bring her home. This company had Vice-President Cheney on their board of Directors, which I believe may be a reason they made attempts to cover up this whole incident. There is no doubt in my mind that all leaders of Halliburton knew of this situation, but failed to act responsibly. There has since been attempts at passing legislation granting immunity to these private contractors, because as you know, the threat of “Agency†accountability could put the Vice-President in trouble, since he is or was a key executive, when this incident occurred. Through the “Discovery†process, this information would be uncovered, as well as the chain of attempts to cover it up. One can see the similarities with the recent FISA Bill not passing, then being revised to remove the blanket immunity section the President had insisted be granted for telecoms, which have lawsuits pending for violations alleged to have been committed by these companies. I applaud the House of Representatives for standing strong on that matter and would urge Senator Murray to insist that the Senate stand strong on this one. Bravo Judy, awesome journalism and getting out the truth.*********************myspace backgrounds | Generators | Profile editor | Free Pics*********************I sent an email to our Senator regarding him being the victim of police brutality. He was physically beaten up by two North Seattle Precinct Police officers, August 11, 2003 on 42nd avenue NE, while walking with his girlfriend near his home. (Please see photo album, Shane Police Brutality Pics). Nothing came of this request to the Senator. She stated this was a civil matter and that I would need to consult the Police Department regarding this matter. Naturally, the culprits in this case supported their own, as in the case of so many other instances of abuse suffered by African-Americans.Naturally, if the public does not hear about the many cases of abuse, they assume there is no problem. I would suggest simply getting a report of the number of filings, to the Law Enforcement accountability office, for cases involving alleged cases of police brutality on African-Americans. The number would be “eye-openingâ€. Do not look for convictions, because African-Americans usually do not have the economic ability to have their cases argued competently in court.My nephew was appointed a public attorney. The attorney would not allow my nephew to admit medical reports and statements taken, which I have in my photo album titled “Shane’s Police Brutality Pics.†Please take a read if you can stomach the truth. The public attorney told my nephew, he would be incarcerated unless he pleaded guilty to assault of the dog. Assault as defined in this Kangaroo Court was shielding his face from the biting toward his face by this K-9, while two police officers were repeatedly beating him, while he was defenseless on the ground.Since the lawsuit, we lost against the city and the company my nephew’s late father (Rufus Martin) worked for, the entire family has been the targets of harassment and neglect (no response when my life was in danger or when my family was harassed by neighbors) by the Seattle Police Department, the Mayors office (shifting blame to a NCAAP office, which states they are too small to handle civil rights cases) and the Senator (this is a civil matter which she cannot get involved in, so she pushed me off to the Mayor’s office) for Washington State. A quick browsing of all cases regarding Caucasians and African Americans, when it comes to disputes with city government or any other dispute requiring law’s interdiction, will show staggering numbers of disproportional justice. Still today, institutionalized racism exists, to deny this, is to condone it. http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/ web/vortex/display?slug=4039990&date=20000901&query= Martin%2C+Rufus Business: Friday, September 01, 2000. “Drowning at dock frustrates rescuersâ€. Christine Clarridge. Seattle Times.This article speaks of how, Seattle firefighters praised the heroic efforts of a colleague (Dave Powell), who dove into 40 feet of water at Terminal 115 South trying to save the life of my brother, Rufus Martin, but also expressed frustration, because had they scuba-diving equipment, my brother might have survived. Here, the firefighters have admitted publicly the proximate cause of my brother not being alive today. Their job is to save lives, but they were denied that responsibility, due to a conflict that had nothing to do with the safety for the public; but greed and personal interests for the Seattle Police Department. This same Police Department has continually harassed my family, since the decision was handed down by first Mayor Paul Schell and then Judge Alsdorf, to deny justice for my family and prevent this from happening to any other longshoreman. Jore Marine Services, which has since been sold, was allowed to practice their neglect and power over longshoreman, due to this escape from accountability. My brother was operating a Bobcat sweeper, which is a forklift –looking vehicle used to sweep a barge after unloading materials. The driver is locked into a cab like encasing while operating this equipment, so if he needs to abandon it if submerged in water, it is virtually impossible. My brother, Rufus Martin, Shane’s father, was the operator.At approximately 3:05pm, August 31, 2000, my brother was cleaning the deck of barge JI-281, located at Pier 115 for Jore Marine Services, Inc. The machine operates by going backwards, not forward. There are supposed to be railings around the barge to protect workers as they are lashing (buckling down cargo), navigating around the barge as equipment is checked and tied down with turnbuckles, lashes and chains, so railings are important so that workers do not fall over board. There is insufficient peripheral visibility from inside the bobcat. He was not very familiar with operating this equipment and had only done so every six-month.My brother, even though he had worked there for 18 years, was demoted because he did not finish high school, even though he was the most experienced deck hand out there. To add along with the subjugation of my brother, they had him cleaning up then deck with time constraints for doing so, even though he should have been in a leadership position and more efficiently directing others to do so. This is only speculation, but I had worked at that operation, while waiting to go into the Army in 1989, so I know how there can be this unquestioned subjugation of blacks at that company. Whites are typically placed into leadership roles, while blacks are in subservient roles, regardless of their tenure.Life-vests should be required for dock workers, while working in this capacity. While backing, with the sweeper, mounted to the front of the bobcat was down and cleaning all of the debris off of the barge, my brother’s bobcat got too close to the edge.A reliable railing system would have prevented my brother’s vehicle from falling over board, but the railing system was inadequate and the vehicle tumbled into the Duwamish River.This led to a repeat citation being issued to this company (Jore Marine, Inc., due to this insufficient railing (violation of 1918.65(h)(9), citation#: 29 CFR 1915.65(h)(9), with the company stating that this was more of a technical issue rather than a safety issue. They ended up winning the case, now you tell me; Isn’t this a safety issue?The dock workers eventually hooked a line to the bobcat, and on a single breath of air (no scuba gear because of the squabble with the Police Department), firefighter Dave Powell went arm-over-arm down the line until he reached the Bobcat and pulled my brother from the bobcat. He was given CPR and taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he was declared dead. What the firefighters had to say, "It is frustrating because we saw bubbles still coming up when we arrived," said Fire Department Lt. Jore Lund, "and because at one point we had equipment for diving below the surface that we didn't have today." My brother was alive…The Fire Department's underwater dive-rescue team was shut down after just one week of operation, in 1999. This was due to the actions of the Seattle Police Department, backed by them Mayor Paul Schell, who had historical-ties, with the Seattle Police, which interfered with his making the obvious correct rational decision regarding public policy. Economic impact to the Seattle Police Department outweighed the safety issue for the City of Seattle. Because of this, the Fire department’s scuba-team disbanded after the Seattle Police Officers Guild filed a labor complaint, claiming exclusive jurisdiction over water rescues. The Fire Department has argued that its rescue teams can almost always get to the scene faster than the police dive teams and had repeatedly proved so. Fire officials, at the time said my brother’s accident was the fourth time that year that the fire department's surface-water rescue team arrived at a potential drowning, before the police diving team. And, in all four cases, someone died. My brother’s accident was reported at 3:15 p.m. Why did it take Jore Marine ten minutes to report it!The Fire Department surface-water rescue team arrived at 3:20, according to a department spokesman.The Fire Department arrived with five minutes of receiving the call. A police truck carrying two divers arrived at 3:33 p.m., said police harbor patrol Sgt. Duane Hoekstra, but a police boat, with two divers, had arrived about four minutes before that.The police, with scuba gear, took eighteen minutes! Hoekstra said police divers reached the scene as quickly as they could. "It took about 18 minutes for us to respond from Lake Union by land and about 15 minutes from Elliott Bay by boat,†he said. He also credited Powell. "I commend the fireman. He went beyond the call of duty to do what he did." The police, as with patrolling predominately black neighborhoods, have quicker response times in affluently white or economically prosperous areas, than they do in less economically advantaged areas.Maybe we need to have a force for the rich and one for the average to poor. It appears that more and more resources, allocated to the city, somehow find their way to the economically advantaged for more adequately than to the rest of us.When the police truck arrived, the firefighters already had my brother out of the water. A similar fate occurred on Feb. 22, 2000, firefighters arriving, when Don Clovis, a ramp operator at Crowley Marine Services, died after he was thrown into the water as a barge hit a dock on Harbor Island. We also knew Clovis.U/S. society, usually never hears of the countless stories like this because African Americans are embarrassed, too proud, or simply do not trust the system. There are symbolic anti-retaliatory laws that exist, but just as with the thresholds to overcome with international human rights documents, so too do these thresholds exist within the U.S. for black justice. Corporate Companies, City Governments, citizens with the economic might to get away with abusing blacks everyday…we are continuously losing hope.To be held accountable to the I.C.C., the U.S. would have to change the existing social constructs and institutionalized constructs that subjugate African Americans in America today...prisons consisting of 50% African Americans, even though African Americans consist of 13% of U.S. population, would have to be corrected. It, as well as the sabotaging of promised freedoms, as written in our constitution, is an example of the silent genocide occurring in America today. Once in prison, once your credit is destroyed, if you are continuously denied that same rights as others; your life is mentally and physically gone...genocide. Even if you have not been in prison, my example is that of an African American who has been stigmatized by that experience, due to the racist practices of a police department in implying that I have.I believe it is in the best interest of the U.S., its citizens, and the world community for it to join the ICC (International Criminal Court). I believe that because of the access to RUDS and the ability to invoke sovereignty, discrimination and human rights violations will continue to be present in even the most democratic of states and that by domesticating international law, we will resolve this issue. I also believe that in invoking sovereignty, all that is accomplished is the creation of a closed door, so the guilty conscience of the world, for doing nothing, can be relieved. African-American citizens and the world suffer because the U.S. has no real obligation to act on human rights violations, but by joining the ICC, the U.S. is then obligated to act.**************
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You Are An ENFP
The Inspirer
You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends.
You are also unconventional, irreverant, and unimpressed by authority and rules.
Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives.
You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're qutie the storyteller!
You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. What's Your Personality Type? Get this video and more at MySpace.com..**************A house is only as good as the foundation on which it stands. Without a steady foundation, all that is built is doomed to a future, much shorter than that initially promised. There have been strides in the fight for equality, but due to a foundation of deceit, the assumed gains in social equality during the civil rights movement, were not fully realized.The civil rights movement was initiated to correct the barbaric mentality of a society, in their widespread treatment of African-Americans. One, not convinced of this, need only view some of the footages of numerous reels, displaying treatment of blacks by all sectors of American-society.To deny this ugly past, is to deny the reality of the genocide that took place in German, after the Liberal-Weimer Republic, was defeated by the Hitler Neo-Nazi regime. Blacks, like Jews in Germany, were treated as sub-human here in America. African-Americans were treated as if we were less intelligent than our light-skinned counterpart due to our difference in skin pigmentation.We even began to internalize this treatment, treating our own differently, pitting light-skinned blacks against dark-skinned blacks; a very ugly component that has no place in human social-development.Of course, such more realistic theories such as less income which contributed to less food were never considered to have an impact on intelligence. Such irrational thinking gives one a look into the evil mindset that controls the framing of a whole society. I believe it is time to finally change the mindset that has protected this framework which conditions a society’s social development, or in this case, retards it.If one isn't given a nutritional diet, at the early years of development; be it in the mother's womb or post pregnancy, this withholding of a key nutritional diet can have a detrimental affect on one's learning ability later on in life. The pigmentation of one's skin has absolutely no affect on intelligence, but an institution that prevents a race of people based on pigmentation of skin color, may give the appearance that color is a determinant of intelligence.As you can see, institutionalized racism can have a far greater affect on intelligence than the color of one’s skin, but when those responsible for this phenomenon are not held accountable for their obvious destruction of a race of people, the abuse will continue indefinitely.Institutionalized racism, due to opportunities of economic wealth, can also have an affect on early individual attention during schooling. Any private school student can attest to the advantages of having 15 students in a class as compared to 30 or 40. Any teacher can attest to the attention difference in attentiveness between a child who is basically starving and one who is not, yet these obvious factors seem to consistently be outweighed by the depiction of African-Americans as subordinate to their Caucasian counterparts because their skin is darker.There is also an also a learning advantage when one is consistently exposed, at an earlier age, to certain subjects that require a step-by-step building of understanding to master these areas of learning, such as math and science.There is also the phenomenon of African-Americans having less job opportunities, because they did not own companies that would employ them, leading to a continuous poverty cycle for this demographic of Americans.One can see numerous obstacles facing African-Americans, which cannot and must not be dismissed in understanding the challenges we still face in becoming truly the great America we can be.There were numerous displays of police brutality, lynching, rapes, beatings, not to mention the humiliation of being spat on, while my parents were growing up, not to mention the very real situations of a grown man being humiliated in public by a Caucasian child and society daring the man to react without the real possibility of being lynched or incarcerated.This was acceptable behavior in this society, not too long ago. Currently, the humiliation is less obvious, but still very much a fabric of this society, as seen by the unfair sentencing guidelines between African-Americans and their Caucasian counterparts.Look at what is going on, even today:Two African-American women; given horrendous sentencing measures for acts that their Caucasian Counter-parts have been shown leniency. For those who continue to state, “Why do you continue to use race in politics?†My answer: “Because it’s simply a sense of realism. If one simply open their eyes and takes a real look around them, it shouldn’t be hard to see.†Republican Congressmen where jumping all over themselves, showing their allegiance to Roger Clemens in the doping allegations surrounding his professional baseball career. It has even been stated that if he is convicted of the same crime, handed down to Marion Jones (African-American track star charged and convicted for lying about using performance enhancing steroids), President Bush will pardon him, with their approval. I believe there are more serious crimes to send someone to prison for. Steroidal use is not a crime that should result in a prison term, in my honest opinion, but you must, then at least be consistent with your application of the law. Why are African-Americans constantly given a different sentencing guideline than Caucasian Americans? Most links to the handling of Marion Jones’ case on the internet have been deleted, so as to possibly make the American public forget about the difference in applying the law. Doesn’t anyone else question this obvious conflict? Doesn’t anyone else think this is odd? Does any care? Judge Chuck Superville sentenced a 14-year-old Caucasian girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family’s house, to probation.A 14-year-old African-American freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, shoved a 58-year-old teacher’s aide at paris high school in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun. She was tried in March 2006 in the town’s juvenile court, convicted of “assault on a public servant†and sentenced by the same Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.Does anyone see the miscarriage of justice here? Does anyone care that there is a serious inconsistency with the application of the law? Does anyone believe there should be some sort of accountability, so others know by this example that this will not be tolerated? Obviously, there has been no accountability, because this miscarriage of justice continues to happen to African-Americans all over the country, today.Most African-Americans still hold blue-color jobs and jobs of a servant role. This, I believe, is because our leaders of the past mistakenly assumed that the court system was the place to have the demands for equality, addressed, when the courts where controlled by the very people who were complicit (by standing by and doing nothing) in this denial of civil-rights in the first place.In hindsight, what I believe was needed at the time, was not the access to a court system that was constructed to maintain the status quo. i.e., the supreme court has a very strict set of rules governing who becomes a supreme court justice, such as being educated in the most prestigious schools (entrance denied to African-Americans and women at the time); having the most prestigious set of legal experiences; being a product of good-stock; in other words, being a white-male.In other words, only those that had perpetuated a society of marginalizing blacks need apply. Only those classified as an "insider," by proving themselves in constructing the rules that conditioned this society to behave as they were behaving, need apply. Sort of like the court system asking if you believe in capital punishment, before allowing you to sit in on a court case, requiring a decision to use capital punishment or not. My thinking is; if you align the jury with racists, or those who believe in murder, you’re already sealing the fate of the one being accused.OUR MISTAKEWhat was needed was access to the people and to the world, to inform them of what was going on, to have the opportunity to convey to them the pain we were going through, in a way they could identify with, in a way that would move them to institute change.Most people wanted change, it is only human nature to be compassionate for the African-American state-of-being, of what one could see was obviously wrong. So, what was needed was access to a political entity that would force ALL of American to adhere to the mandates of humanity.This would give those who truly wanted change, a way of helping to realize this change without having to answer to that controlling minority, which by the commandment of the resources they had, always found a way of maintaining the status quo which continued to serve their interests.In hindsight, the courts system was a trap for the civil rights movement, which was a social movement better suited to stay in the streets where the people could monitor its progress. The civil Rights movement of the 60s was ambushed.When we removed the civil rights movement from the streets, and hushed it away into the hallow halls of the courts to be redefined as they wanted it, we removed it from the transparency that could only be realized by the public sector. Now, instead of allowing all of society to hear the full argument, disclosing all of the atrocities to the American people, so they would finally have the proof top make them see what a travesty was going on to African-Americans; to see the truth in its full richness through the “discovery†of all who was complicit in its deliberate planning of hate, we brought it into the courts where the full argument was censored and only the portion that would not completely blow away the argument from the other side was re-introduced to the public.Here the movement was stripped of its true meaning, putting those who brought the argument to the court, constantly on the defensive, effectively changing the momentum of the movement and derailing it so the full-force of the truth was slowed by the braking of changing its meaning. The offense (the true meaning) was never allowed the light of day to mature.The argument was affectively censored and redefined by the courts, and then released to the public in a shell of it former self.Bringing this fight to the courts sealed the fate of the civil rights movement. The conservative-old guard could not have been more pleased. The old guard succeeded in redirecting our fight to a secret place, governed by their rules; on their home turf. They secured “home field advantage†and the hostile crowd of secrecy silenced a once promising movement, to this day.*************** Family Court Crises 2008Family Court Crisis -2008 Family Law documentary
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