Celebrate Independence. Overthrow Judicial Tyranny

Jefferson said judicial tyranny made the Constitution "a thing of wax."

If [as the Federalists say] “the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of the government,” … , then indeed is our Constitution a complete felo de so. … The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they may please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law … 

— Jefferson Letter to Judge Spencer Roane, Nov. 1819

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How Do We Stop Power-Hungry Judges?

Steve Forbes

For decades judges in U.S. courts, high and low, have been behaving like legislators, making laws as they see fit. The Supreme Court, for example, recently ruled that Louisiana could not execute a man for raping his very young stepdaughter, thereby overturning similar laws in five other states. The Justices rationalized their ruling by saying that there is "a national consensus" against applying capital punishment to such a crime.

A national consensus? Are the courts now going into the polling business before rendering decisions? Isn't turning consensus into law or instituting a change in law a function of elected legislative bodies? This ruling, alas, is not unusual. Since the 1930s justices in this country's courts have increasingly usurped powers they previously hadn't had. Precedent has meant little, and so has the U.S. Constitution. Three years ago, for instance, the High Court nullified the Constitution's ban on using the power of eminent domain for private purposes. The justices gave the green light to politicians' seizing of private property to help out politically connected developers.

For decades state courts have forced politicians to spend increasing amounts of money on schools, despite there being no demonstrable link between outlays and outcomes. New Jersey, for example, has some of the worst schools in the country in beleaguered cities such as Camden, Elizabeth and Newark, even though per-pupil spending in those schools runs around $20,000, about twice the national average.

Not content with their usurped legislative powers, judges have decided to reward themselves on a very personal basis. A New York State Supreme Court justice has ruled that the New York State legislature must increase judges' salaries, claiming that the cost of living is going up. Ponder that for a moment: judges decreeing pay increases for themselves. Talk about the ultimate ATM!

Judicial arrogance hasn't stopped there, however. In Brooklyn, N.Y. judges decided to use a public park as a place to park their cars. There are parking facilities a few blocks away, but the judges felt that walking to fetch their cars might be a danger to their personal safety. The New York City Parks Department has plans to use that park as a pedestrian walkway and told the judges to park their vehicles elsewhere. Not surprisingly, these judicial autocrats have threatened to sue the Parks Department for infringing on their self-awarded perks.

This type of egregious overreaching by grasping judges has already poisoned American politics. That's why nomination fights over jurists for the federal bench have become increasingly vitriolic and bitter.

Our Founding Fathers would be aghast at such power grabbing, which makes a mockery of the separation of powers and the checks and balances that they took such pains to enshrine in the U.S. Constitution.

Why Woman Should Not Be Bullfighters

Sieze the Moment in Colombia, Support Democracy in America

...She recalled how the day began, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and saying the rosary before being told by her guards that she and the other hostages were to be transferred to another location, where their detention was to continue.

"My heart broke because I did not want another transfer, another time, in captivity," she said.

But her guard, a woman, was unmoved and ordered Betancourt to cross a river to the pickup spot -- "very harsh, move, hurry up fast, as always," she said.

Soon, two white helicopters approached and several men approached the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia commanders who were overseeing their transfer, she said.

"They spoke with Commander Enrique and Cesar," she said of her captors. As she looked closer, she saw that the men from the helicopter were wearing shirts emblazoned with the likeness of Che Guevara, the Argentine hero of the Cuban revolution. "I thought, this is FARC," she said.

Placed in handcuffs, Betancourt got into the helicopter, still unaware of what was happening. "They closed the helicopter doors, the helicopter started flying and suddenly there was something happening," she said.

"Suddenly I saw the commander who, during four years, had been at the head of our team, who so many times was so cruel and humiliated me, and I saw him on the floor naked with bound eyes."

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Uribe pushes for peace after hostage release

Betancourt recalling freedom: "Helicopter almost fell because we started jumping"
Colombian military infiltrated FARC leadership, defense minister says»

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Hours after a military operation that freed 15 hostages, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday night urged peace by calling on leftist rebels to release all hostages.

The Colombian military infiltrated the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and deceived its members into giving up the hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the country's defense ministry said.

The FARC, which has fought a long, complicated conflict with Colombia's government and right-wing paramilitary groups, has defended hostage-taking as a legitimate act of war and is believed to hold roughly 750 prisoners in the nation's remote jungles.

With Betancourt seated beside the podium from which he spoke, Uribe called the daring operation "an unbelievable military achievement and an honor to humanity."

No shots were fired in the operation.

The security forces who deceived the rebels "are entering the page of the heroes of humanity," Uribe said. Watch Uribe describe the operation to the nation »

Betancourt acknowledged she had been deceived by the mission.

Appearing healthy after being held hostage for six years in the jungle, she walked down from a Colombian military jet in Bogota hours earlier into the arms of her mother and later her husband.

"God carried out this miracle," she said. "This is a miracle because I know that all of you suffered with my family, my children, with me. This is a moment of pride for all of Colombia for such a perfect operation."

Along with Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 Colombian police and military were rescued in the operation. Late Wednesday, the Colombians were with their families and friends in Bogota, and the Americans -- Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- had arrived in the United States.

Betancourt was abducted February 23, 2002, after venturing into rebel territory in the south while campaigning for the Colombian presidency. Once one of Colombia's rising political stares, she was a reformer who fought Colombia's drug cartels as a congresswoman in the 1990s. Her platform called for a nation "free of corruption, violence and free of drugs." Watch Betancourt describe feeling guilty for being kidnapped »

Asked if she still wants to be president, Betancourt said, "If I continue with the dream to serve Colombia, yes, from the presidency, only God knows. At this moment, I just want to feel like another soldier, another soldier for Colombia, in the service of the fatherland."

She said she wanted to discuss her plans with her children and family before commiting to involvement in Colombian politics again, The Associated Press reported.

The former lawmaker said she had fallen gravely ill during her captivity, but that a nurse among the captors had diagnosed her illness and helped her recover.

She recalled how the day began, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and saying the rosary before being told by her guards that she and the other hostages were to be transferred to another location, where their detention was to continue.

"My heart broke because I did not want another transfer, another time, in captivity," she said.

But her guard, a woman, was unmoved and ordered Betancourt to cross a river to the pickup spot -- "very harsh, move, hurry up fast, as always," she said.

Soon, two white helicopters approached and several men approached the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia commanders who were overseeing their transfer, she said.

"They spoke with Commander Enrique and Cesar," she said of her captors. As she looked closer, she saw that the men from the helicopter were wearing shirts emblazoned with the likeness of Che Guevara, the Argentine hero of the Cuban revolution. "I thought, this is FARC," she said.

Placed in handcuffs, Betancourt got into the helicopter, still unaware of what was happening. "They closed the helicopter doors, the helicopter started flying and suddenly there was something happening," she said.

"Suddenly I saw the commander who, during four years, had been at the head of our team, who so many times was so cruel and humiliated me, and I saw him on the floor naked with bound eyes."

It was only then that the reality of liberation hit home.

"The chief of operations said, 'We are the national army, and you are all free,' and the helicopter almost fell because we started jumping, we screamed, we cried, we hugged. We couldn't believe it." Watch Betancourt call the operation 'perfect' »

Betancourt described the operation as "a miracle" and "a moment of pride" in Colombia.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos joined the welcome, embracing Betancourt and others.

Earlier, he outlined the operation for the news media, saying the operation followed a length fact-finding effort to develop intelligence in the area.

The Colombian military had infiltrated the FARC leadership and arranged for the hostages to be taken to the south of the country, where they were to be picked up by two helicopters that the rebels believed were controlled by another group, Santos said. Two FARC rebels were also captured, he added.

The operation was "100 percent Colombian," he said.

Betancourt added that she hopes that FARC commanders would not punish the guards who were fooled. It was not their fault, she said; the operation was too perfect for them to detect the deceit.

Betancourt, who holds dual French-Colombian citizenship, said she would travel to France on Thursday to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying she probably is alive because of French efforts to secure her release, AP reported.

In a televised address after Betancourt's release, Sarkozy expressed happiness and thanks to the Colombian government and urged FARC members to "stop this absurd combat, this fight."

U.S. President Bush phoned Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to congratulate him on the operation.

William Brownfield, U.S. ambassador to Colombia », told CNN's "Larry King Live" that the two countries share intelligence but that the operation was "was overwhelmingly a Colombian operation."

Julio Cesar Betrago, a member of the national police who was kidnapped a decade ago and released with Betancourt, was overjoyed at being freed. "I want to thank our glorious army," he told reporters. "For me, it's like being born again."

The freed American hostages -- Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes -- arrived around midnight at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas aboard a U.S. military flight. They were working for Northrop Grumman Corp. as part of a U.S.-funded counternarcotics effort when their plane crashed in Colombia on February 13, 2003.

The rescue operation is the latest in a series of blows that has battered the FARC this year. Since March, three members of the rebel group's seven-member general secretariat have died or been killed, including the founder and leader of the rebels, Pedro Antonio Marin, also known as Manuel Marulanda Velez, and the group's second-in-command, Raul Reyes.

The military strike that killed Reyes led to the discovery of a treasure trove of intelligence from computers taken during a raid by Colombian military forces on a FARC camp inside Ecuador, a move that led President Rafael Correa to break diplomatic ties with Colombia.

The computers included reported links between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the rebels.


Chavez has denied supporting the rebels and has changed his stance from calling for diplomatic recognition of them as legitimate combatants to calling for them to lay down their arms and end their military struggle.

In an interview with CNN en Espanol, Betancourt said she admires "what Chavez and Correa have done for all of us, but it is key that they support our democracy. In the same way they were elected in a democracy, they have to give the Colombians a chance to solve our problems by ourselves.

Barak's Abortion Machinations

Watch this all the way to the end for Bill Bennett's explanation.
He's a clever man, that Barak Obama. A good Christian, too, he says but personally, his brand of Christianity is alien to me. Against capital punishment but all for abortion or the criminal neglect of a live aborted baby. Exactly upside-down and backwards if you ask me but what can you expect from a church and a "Christian" hospital which carry out late-term abortions and leave the babies to die in the "soiled utility room.?" There's something very disturbing about Barak Obama.

Obama in Violation of Senate Ethic Rules

Let us see how the new American "Ace of Hearts" and his handlers play this little hand. First a little inconvenience in the Senate Rules:

Standing Rules of the Senate
RULE XXXV
GIFTS

1. (a)(1) No Member, officer, or employee of the Senate shall knowingly accept a gift except as provided in this rule...

(19) Opportunities and benefits which are..

(E) in the form of loans from banks and other financial institutions on terms generally available to the public; or...

Now the problem where the three card monte begins:


Obama Got Discount on Home Loan
Campaign Defends Lower Rate as Lender Competition for Business

By Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; Page A03

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the rate was adjusted to account for a competing offer from another lender and other factors. "The Obamas have since had as much as $3 million invested through Northern Trust," he said in a statement.

Modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common among financial institutions as they compete for business or develop relationships with wealthy families. But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans.

Within Obama's presidential campaign organization, former Fannie Mae chief executive James A. Johnson resigned abruptly as head of the vice presidential search committee after his favorable Countrywide loan became public.

Driving the recent debate is concern that public officials, knowingly or unknowingly, may receive special treatment from lenders and that the discounts could constitute gifts that are prohibited by law.

"The real question is: Were congressmen getting unique treatment that others weren't getting?" associate law professor Adam J. Levitin, a credit specialist at Georgetown University Law Center, said about the Countrywide loans. "Do they do business like that for people who are not congressmen? If they don't, that's a problem."

Under financial disclosure rules, members of Congress are not obliged to disclose debts owed to financial institutions for personal residences. Names of lenders and rates paid on mortgages sometimes can be determined by scrutinizing property transaction records. In March, in response to media questions, Obama posted on his campaign Web site records related to his house purchase.

Last week, during debate on a bill to help homeowners caught in the foreclosure crisis, some members of the Senate ethics committee proposed an amendment to require that lawmakers disclose their mortgage lenders and loan terms in annual financial forms starting next year.

In Obama's case, he received a lower rate than the average offered at the time in Chicago for similarly structured jumbo loans. He secured his final mortgage commitment on June 8, 2005, and during that week, rates on similar loans for which information is available averaged 5.93 percent, according to HSH Associates, which surveys lenders. Another survey firm, Bankrate.com, placed the average at 6 percent.

"It's certainly safe to say that this borrower did better than average," said Keith Gumbinger, an HSH vice president, noting that consumer rates vary widely. "It's a good deal."

The Obama campaign called the rate "consistent with Northern Trust policies, and it reflected the base rate set for that period discounted to address the competition for the account and other opportunities, such as personal financial services, that the relationship would bring to Northern Trust."

When the Obamas secured the loan, their income had risen dramatically. Obama assumed his Senate seat in January 2005, with an annual salary of $162,100. That same month, Random House agreed to reissue an Obama memoir, for which it originally paid $40,000, as part of a $2.27 million deal that included two future nonfiction books and a children's book.

Around the same time, the University of Chicago Hospitals promoted Michelle Obama to a vice president and more than doubled her pay, to $317,000.

The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths, including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar, a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored kitchen.

The Obamas had no prior relationship with Northern Trust when they applied for the loan. They received an oral commitment on Feb. 4, 2005, and locked in the rate of 5.625 percent, the campaign said. On that date, HSH data show, the average rate in Chicago for a 30-year fixed-rate jumbo loan with no points was about 5.94 percent.

Jumbo loans are for amounts up to $650,000, but the Obamas' $1.32 million loan was so large that few comparables are available. Mortgage specialists say that many high-end buyers pay cash.

Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, has no mortgages on properties he owns with his wife, Cindy, who is a multimillionaire.

Unlike Countrywide, where leaked internal e-mails documented a special discount program for friends of chief executive Angelo Mozilo, Northern Trust says it has no formal program to provide discounts to public officials. Loan officers may consider a borrower's occupation when establishing an interest rate, the bank said.

"A person's occupation and salary are two factors; I would expect those are two things we would take into consideration," said Northern Trust Vice President John O'Connell. "That would apply to anyone seeking to get a mortgage at Northern Trust." He added that the rates offered to Obama were "consistent with internal Northern Trust rates at that time."

"The bottom line is, this was a business proposition for us," he said. "Our business model is to service and pursue successful individuals, families and institutions."

O'Connell referred additional questions to the campaign.

Since 1990, Northern Trust employees have donated more than $739,000 to federal campaigns, including $71,000 to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Obama's house purchase has been a source of controversy. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that on the day of the closing, the wife of Obama's longtime friend and fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko closed on an adjoining lot that had been the estate's side yard.

The Obamas bought the house for $300,000 less than the asking price of $1.95 million, while Rezko's wife, Rita, bought the neighboring lot for the full asking price of $625,000. Rita Rezko later sold a portion of the undeveloped lot to the Obamas, enlarging the senator's yard.

Tony Rezko already had been linked to a grand jury investigation involving public corruption. Last month, he was convicted of 16 counts in an influence-peddling scheme that reached the highest levels of Illinois state government.

Did You Know that Blacks Have Their Own National Anthem?

'Black national anthem' stirs controversy for city

9 News
DENVER - Mayor John Hickenlooper's annual State of the City address may get more attention for what wasn't included than what was.

At the start of the event Tuesday morning, City Council President Michael Hancock introduced singer Rene Marie to perform the national anthem.

Instead, she performed the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," which is also known as the "black national anthem."

When she finished, the audience responded with mild applause. The national anthem was never performed.

In the spirit of equal time

The War Record of the Perfumed Prince, General Wesley Clark

Belgrade Burning

April 5, 1999: Bombing of Aleksinac
The 13th night of air strikes included the first major NATO mistake when an attack on a barracks on the southern mining town of Aleksinac resulted in missiles striking a residential area. Five dead and at least another 30 injured when the three missiles fell 600 m short of their target. The missiles struck apartments, an "emergency centre" and a medical dispensary.

April 12, 1999: Grdelica train bombing
NATO attack on a railway bridge hit a passenger train, killing 14 and leaving 16 injured. The Belgrade-Thessaloniki train had been crossing the bridge near Leskovac, southern Serbia as the air-launched missile released several miles away reached its target.

April 14, 1999: Bombing of a refugee column
On April 14, during daylight hours, NATO aircraft repeatedly bombed refugee movements over a twelve-mile (19 km) stretch of road between Đakovica and Dečani in western Kosovo, killing seventy-three civilians and injuring thirty-six-deaths Human Rights Watch could document. The attack began at 1:30 p.m. and persisted for about two hours, causing civilian deaths in numerous locations on the convoy route near the villages of Bistrazin, Gradis, Madanaj, and Meja.

April 23, 1999: Serb Radio and Television headquarters bombing
Sixteen RTS civilian technicians and workers were killed and sixteen were wounded.

April 27, 1999: First Bombing of Surdulica
At least 16 civilians were killed after two NATO missiles hit a residential area in the southern town.

May 1, 1999: Bombing of a civilian bus
At least 23 people died when a NATO missile aimed at the Lužane bridge north of Priština hit a passenger bus.

May 7, 1999: Cluster bombing of Niš
NATO confirmed that a cluster bomb aimed at an airfield in the Yugoslav city of Niš hit a hospital and a market, killing 14 civilians. A further 60 people were injured in the daylight attack which left unexploded cluster bombs lying in gardens.

May 7, 1999: Chinese embassy bombing
The U.S. admitted that an out-of-date map used by its intelligence operations had led NATO to mistakenly launch missiles at the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people, injuring a further 20.

May 14, 1999: Bombing of Koriša
At least 100 civilians died after NATO bombed what it said were "legitimate military targets" in the village of Korisa, southern Kosovo.

May 19, 1999: Belgrade hospital struck
A Nato bombing attack led to the deaths of at least three patients in a Belgrade hospital. Parts of the Dragiša Mišović hospital, near a barracks in the Dedinje district, were reduced to rubble.

May 30, 1999: Bombing of Varvarin
11 civilians were reported killed and a further 40 injured when Nato bombers mounted a daylight raid on a bridge in Varvarin, south-central Serbia. Yugoslav sources said local people were attending the town's market when the attack happened at 1pm local time. Witnesses said four cars fell into the Velika Morava river. Rescuers who went to aid of the injured were hit in the second attack.

May 30, 1999: Second Bombing of Surdulica
Nato planes have hit an old people's home at a sanatorium in south-eastern Serbia killing at least 11 people. Officials say the town was hit by four bombs at around midnight, two of which landed on the old people's home. Another building in the grounds of the sanatorium was also destroyed.

May 31, 1999: Bombing of Novi Pazar
At least 10 people were killed and 20 injured in a Nato missile attack on an apartment building in Novi Pazar, southwest Serbia.

Obama hit man and self-appointed judge of McCain's flying skills.

Too Bad for Zimbabwe that Robert Mugabe is not White.

If he were, he would be long gone. In America and much of the world there are two intellectual and behavioral standards, those acceptable and demanded of whites and the No-Go areas reserved for blacks.

Americans are scared pale of any critical analysis of anything Afro-American.

The double standards are staggering and anyone who dares to call attention to their racial piousness is branded (of course) a "racist". The examples are legion. Picture media reaction to a White Congressional Caucus or John McCain if he attended a militant Caucasian-centric church for twenty years.

The recent video posts of black students trashing an Asian owned convenience store is a daily reminder of the hypocrisy of the press and and the timid denial of Americans to a deep enduring social problem. Had those students been white and the owners black, Al Sharpton would be pitchin a bitch and the MSM would be homin in.

Hate is hate and racism is racism. Zimbabwe is a victim of the racist murderer Robert Mugabe. The whites are dead or gone but Mugabe's old habits developed against them exist.

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African leaders stay silent on Mugabe
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor Independent
Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Africa's leaders have failed publicly to condemn Robert Mugabe for stealing Zimbabwe's presidential election by proceeding with a run-off vote in which he was sole candidate at the height of an officially orchestrated intimidation campaign.

At a summit of the 53 member states of the African Union – in which stable democracies remain a minority – Mr Mugabe was praised as a "hero" by the veteran President of Gabon, Omar Bongo.

Although he was not addressed as "Mr President" by fellow summiteers gathered in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the embattled Zimbabwean leader was comforted by speeches in which few spoke out about the political violence in his country. His most vocal opponent, President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa of Zambia, suffered a stroke and was rushed to hospital on the eve of the summit.

The summit host, President Hosni Mubarak, did not mention the Zimbabwe crisis directly in his opening speech. Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister of Kenya, was a lone voice sniping from the sidelines in Nairobi where he called for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the AU until "free and fair" elections can be held.

Conference sources said that while African leaders were more outspoken in private meetings, they declined to criticise Mr Mugabe in public. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda was said to have been "particularly unhelpful".

The summit is expected to wind up today with a call for dialogue between Mr Mugabe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has urged the AU to deny the Zimbabwean President the legitimacy he craves. The dialogue is intended to produce a government of national unity or a transition to fresh elections.

The US and the EU have branded the election a "sham". Britain fears that Mr Mugabe will control the transitional arrangements unless they are conducted under the supervision of Mr Tsvangirai, who came ahead of the 84-year-old President in the first round of voting on 29 March. Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office minister for Africa, came away disappointed with his talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, after the UN deputy secretary general, Asha-Rose Migiro, warned the AU that it faced a "moment of truth".