- Given that the point of having a constitution was that
it was supposed to give the people of the US a guiding doctrine, by which
to navigate the years ahead. Foremost among its departments were the
three branches of government that were supposed to balance and check one-another
in order to keep peace and order among the initial colonies, and later
to attempt to bring continuity to the expanded version of that colonial
model that lies in ruins today.
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-
-
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- The three branches have lost their individual identities
and become one vast collection of lobbyists, politicians and power brokers-all
loosely following the dictates of something called "the decider."
And underneath all these corrupt and self-appointed owners of this society
lies that first casualty whose corpse is barely still visible amid the
debris that Empire has made out of a once functioning Republic.
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- BACKGROUND: "WASHINGTON (Nov. 20) - The Supreme
Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the District of Columbia can
ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination
of the constitutional right to "keep and bear arms" in nearly
70 years.
- City officials said the law is designed to reduce gun
violence, noting that four out of every five homicides this year was
committed with a gun. Opponents of the ban pointed to the level of violence
to make their case that Washington residents should be allowed to have
guns to protect themselves in their homes."
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- What is at risk in this coming decision by the US Supreme
Court is not only the survival of the Second Amendment of the Constitution,
but the right of individuals to protect themselves, in this new criminal
environment where traditional police departments have largely deserted
their traditional role of "Protecting & Serving" the public,
to becoming an armed force that too often fails to protect victims while
they often contribute to the criminal nature of that inherent violence
that is pivotal in the national psyche now.
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- In simple terms, those people who are not protected by
the laws are still responsible for their own protection; whenever individuals
are attacked. Traditionally the police have always lobbied against this
philosophy, but the right of an individual to survive ultimately lies
with each person-and their own abilities to overcome any real threat to
their lives.
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- This idea of gun ownership was born in the run-up to
the American Revolution as a legitimate way to resist the occupation forces
in the colonies. As that fledgling government had no real resources,
individuals needed to have and maintain their own weapons, hence the Second
Amendment to the Constitution, which emphasizes its importance by being
the second out of ten amendments.
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- However the "Ban" over the ownership and use
of guns in Washington D.C. violated The Second Amendment, at least in
principle, if not in fact. The wider issue has now become whether or
not people without the influence necessary to have police protection currently,
are entitled to protect themselves-or if these future victims are to be
disarmed in the face of the reality; that the Legal and the Criminal Justice
Systems both deny as a fact of everyday life today. (1)
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- This aspect of life is what will really be 'on trial'
in this decision by the US Supreme Court, because there are at least two
Americas, one for the rich and the other one where chaos tends to fill
in all the cracks, in what remains of the infrastructure. . .
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- The depths of this problem are illustrated clearly in
our threadbare foreign policy and its ramifications for those that have
lost their jobs and their safety nets, along with most of what used to
be part of their future-all of which was consumed by illegal and unilaterally
declared invasions that the Cheney-Bush-Bandits are still calling 'the
War-on-Terror.'
-
- Those wars cost huge amounts of treasure, in both blood
and money, not-to-mention the promises deferred and the dreams denied.
The money was lavishly spent, poured out by the literal ton into that
black hole of fear and terror that has yet to be even remotely substantiated.
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- The actual body count according to the VA since Gulf
War 1 in Iraq is 73,846. http://www.rense.com/general78/since.htm
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- So-what did we get for all that blood & money? Nothing
except more privation, far-less security, and the near total collapse
of the entire infrastructure-not to mention the loss of our own Constitutional
Rights, coupled with the wholesale loss of political representation at
every level of government.
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- "What can you get for a trillion bucks? Or make
that $1.6 trillion, if you take the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
as tallied by the majority staff of Congress' Joint Economic Committee
(JEC). Or is it the $3.5 trillion figure cited by Ron Paul, whose concern
about the true cost of this war for ordinary Americans shames the leading
Democrats, who prattle on about needed domestic programs that will never
find funding because of future war-related government debt."
- "Given that the overall defense budget is now double
what it was when Bush's father presided over the end of the Cold War,
at a time when we don't have a militarily sophisticated enemy in sight,
you have to wonder how this president has managed to exceed Cold War
spending levels. What has he gotten for the trillions wasted? Nothing,
when it comes to capturing bin Laden, bringing democracy to Iraq, or preventing
oil prices from tripling and enriching the ayatollahs of Iran while messing
up the American economy.
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- But that money could have paid for a lot of things we
could have used here at home. As Paul points out, for what the Iraq war
costs, we could present each family of four a check for $46,000 - which
exceeds the $43,000 median household income in his Texas district. He
asks: "What about the impact of those costs on education, the very
thing that so often helps to increase earnings? $46,000 would cover 90
percent of the tuition costs to attend a four-year public university in
Texas for both children in that family of four. But, instead of sending
kids to college, too often we're sending them to Iraq, where the best
news in a long time is they aren't killing our men and women as fast as
they were last month."(2)
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- However what's really been lost in all these surges,
both military and economic is the realization that the country has undergone
a total makeover in virtually every area. We make and export almost nothing
except jobs. We have no functional Immigration protection for American
jobs or for purposes of population control, hence the nation is being
overrun with ever-increasing numbers of people that drive up the cost
of everything and reduce wages to minimums that no longer cover daily
life.
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- We've lost our freedom to challenge the government on
their policies, and our right to speak freely. Our control over the airwaves
has been stolen from us by the criminal actions of the FCC and the major
multinationals that seek ever greater control over everything we hear,
read or see. Consequently: There is no longer any mechanism for people
to demand redress for their grievances, except the courts, which are completely
beyond the means of most people. (3)
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- "Everybody knows the system's busted" but nobody
gives a damn-in this environment people need the right to protect themselves
from government as well as from common criminals. The government has
contributed to the dangers of everyday life here in direct proportion
to the amount of money and blood that they've wasted overseas and now
it appears that the last threshold of protection might also be taken away-but
that can't happen unless the public and the ordinary people continue to
remain silent!
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- kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
-
- 1) Supreme Court to hear Gun Ban Case
- http://news.aol.com/story/_a/supreme-court-to-hear-gun-ban-case/
20071120162109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
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- 2) The Surge in Bush War Spending
- http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2007/11/21/the-surge-in-bush-war-
spending/
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- 3) Bill Moyers on Media Consolidation
- http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/68295/???
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