Crisis in the Federal Courts

Another example of the effect of irresponsible, intransigent ideological posturing now substituting for rational governance in Congress. They ignore their oaths and placate uneducated minorities while driven by self-aggrandizement or sitting in cowardly obstructionism.  We would do well with our own "American Spring" movement. 

"The nation’s independent federal court system, though hardly perfect, is central to American democracy and the rule of law. Its current crisis was created by Washington politicians, and Washington politicians hold the power to solve it. The letter from the judges asks that Congress approve the $496 million increase in funding for the judiciary recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee even if a continuing budget resolution is enacted this fall keeping government spending at its current level.

That would be the reasonable thing to do, even though reason is in short supply in today’s Washington."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/federal-courts-in-crisis.html?_r=0

"Hero" Is An Earned Honor

The death of Mr. Tayvon Martin was a tragedy.  As Mr. Zimmerman’s attorney put it, the conviction of Mr. Zimmerman as charged would have been a travesty. The Martin family had every right to press the authorities for full consideration of the facts. However, both self-appointed and positioned spokespersons for black Americans fed an undisciplined, unprofessional and self-serving media juggernaut with hyperbolic and false racist allegations prior to and during the trial. THIS frenzy assuredly prompted the prosecution to overcharge with Murder when, as shown by all of the evidence at trial, there existed insufficient evidence even to arrest on that charge. The verdict of the jury is unassailable given the facts as presented at trial.

Now in the aftermath of the trial the same black “leaders” and media present hyperbole, conjecture and racist fear mongering in an attempt to justify their earlier wrongs to the system and Mr. Zimmerman and to further their own agendas.  I heard one black high official in the NAACP state that Trayvon Martin will occupy the same status and image as Medgar Evers, a black-American civil rights activist assassinated for his work in Mississippi in 1963. That angers and sickens me and should every American – particularly black-Americans.

  

Eyewitness evidence put Martin on top of and beating down on Zimmerman; Zimmerman’s injuries were consistent with that observation; Zimmerman claimed Martin initiated the physical encounter with a punch to the face; Zimmerman sustained a broken nose; there were no significant inconsistencies in Zimmerman’s statements; Zimmerman said the Martin had looked like he was on drugs; Martin in a store video seemed to weave; Martin had marijuana in his system; nothing showed racial bias or racial “profiling” by Zimmerman.

Conjure, speculate, twist and ignore what you will, Trayvon Martin deserves no honors for his conduct that night.  Certainly, neither does Zimmerman.  And don’t dare for political self-aggrandizement or action mention Martin’s name alongside that of Medgar Evers. To do so belittles the true heroes.

A form of democracy in Egypt

Some thoughts while switching from CNN to MSNBC to al Jazeera to Fox News and back around...

In Hong Kong, Portugal, Turkey, Egypt and other countries, existing governments and their ideologies are challenged by hundreds of thousands of citizens assembling and protesting in the streets.  There is often no right to, belief in or patience for an electoral process to bring about change.  Of course, the "mobs" may be manipulated and in the minority.  They may be deceiving or destructive.  They may have force of arms or not.  They may hold the will and desires of the majority of citizens or not.  Where there is protest there may be counter-protest.  Where there is success, the governments either change or adjust.  Repression or relief may follow.

On a vastly different scale Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protesters expressed their own challenge within our democracy.  To this point, it is our assumptions that the primary offices, the congress, the executive and the Supreme Court understand, accept, appreciate and apply the rules of law drawn from the Constitution for the Common Welfare.  Whiskey and tea advocates aside, we accept the primacy and legitimacy of the ballot over the street.  At least for now.

Is Egypt an example of what form "democracy" must take there (and elsewhere) if it is to have any existence where assumptions such as ours are not held by the people?  Does the faith in or the need for the Egyptian Army as the core of the nation compare to our faith and need for the Constitution?  The Egyptian people have found a way to express and demand their pluralistic interests through freedom of assembly.  "Democracy" evolves or will kill itself.

Just Mining Data

Commenting on  http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html?hpid=z1

I wrote

Why do we, as Americans - no, we as distinct human beings, invite "Big Brother" to watch each of us to the extent they are now doing? Surveillance cameras are ubiquitous, all associates, friends, businesses are identified in telephone records, all investigations, studies, inquiries, curiosities, interests, concerns are revealed in computer data. And all are retained and undoubtedly catalogued for whatever use this or another Big Brother (person or ideology) may deem "necessary for state security."

How indifferent, stupid, fearful or calculating have we become to allow this to happen and continue. The government claims that such data helped thwart a terrorist effort. They do not say the data was critical, nor decisive nor anything more than one element relevant to a success. What price did we pay for that one element to keep three, twenty, or five-hundred citizens alive? In my days as a federal prosecutor I sought as much information about a suspect as permitted by law. There was always the desire for more evidence though the case sufficient.

One politician argues the value "as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.” Yet, if they are dealing with the "known or suspected" the search must be limited to less than millions. If they are "just looking" then there is no reason not to suspect each citizen will have a dossier. Information feeds power. Feel the safety of Big Brother's arms.

President Obama's Speech, May 23, 2013

THIS IS THE CORRECT ACTION AND LONG OVERDUE.

"For the first time, a president stated clearly and unequivocally that the state of perpetual warfare that began nearly 12 years ago is unsustainable for a democracy and must come to an end in the not-too-distant future. ... the United States must return to a state in which counterterrorism is handled, as it always was before 2001, primarily by law enforcement and the intelligence agencies. That shift is essential to preserving the democratic system and rule of law for which the United States is fighting, ... ."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/opinion/obama-vows-to-end-of-the-perpetual-war.html?pagewanted=1&hp

A Burial Virginians Should Respect

"Tamerlan, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, are believed to have set off two bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264.

After Tamerlan died in a shootout with police on April 19, disposition of the ethnic Chechen's remains became controversial with local cemeteries refusing to accept them, while some family members sought to have them transported overseas. Massachusetts officials, including the city manager in Tsarnaev's hometown of Cambridge and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, called for the body to be buried outside their communities.

On Friday, an official death certificate released by Menino's office showed that Tsarnaev had been buried in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virginia, near Richmond."  http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-deserved-notice-bomb-suspect-burial-funeral-director-212654413.html

And Virginia and Virginians have objected.

Why? A technicality? Religious intolerance? Moral indignation? A technicality in the transfer of the remains: certainly merely correct the forms. Religious intolerance: certainly Virginia, the first guarantor of religious freedom, would not object. Moral indignation: certainly Virginians have laid to rest the remains of those condemned for more heinous acts. What doctrine, philosophy, morality, false piety would deny the human respect for a dead man in a dignified burial. We bury dogs and cats in "pet" cemeteries, do the remains of any man deserve less.

Guns for Grandma?

The NRA portrays and defends private sales of firearms as merely among family and friends. From a public notice on May 3rd by the U.S. Attorney's office in Virginia: "Kimberly Yvette Dinkins, 44, of Manassas, Va., was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for dealing firearms without a license. ... According to documents filed in connection with the case, Dinkins purchased 31 firearms – all handguns – on three consecutive weekends from Nov. 17 through Dec. 1, 2012. ... the firearms bought and sold by Dinkins were eventually recovered from juveniles and felons who utilized the firearms during drug trafficking schemes."