Thursday, January 12, 2012

Truth in Jest. . .

I couldn't help but share this cheeky (truthful) video that pokes fun at Hollywood. . .




Friday, January 6, 2012

"Look Up!"

I wanted to share this brilliant video compilation inspired by Charlie Chaplin's profound speech from, The Great Dictator.  In a world full of pessimism and political deterioration, it is obvious that the wisdom derived from this 1940's classic is still applicable today.






"I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible: Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die liberty will never perish…

Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, use you as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you.  You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let us use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting – the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality."

The soul of man has been given wings – and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow – into the light of hope – into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us.

Look up. Look up."

Thursday, January 5, 2012

NDAA: A Slippery Slope

William (Bill) Edmonds served with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department from 1973-1995 where he received the following honors: Department -  Unit Commanders Citation, Exemplary Service Award, Legendary Lawman, and LA County Board of Supervisors - Deputy Emeritus.  He currently owns CRASH FACTS Collision Reconstruction where he performs detailed collision investigations and reconstructions for insurance companies and attorneys.  He  has over 38 years of litigation experience within the court system in both criminal prosecution and civil cases.
Below is Bill's response to NDAA:
NDAA:  A Slippery Slope
Having spent over 20+ years (now retired) with the largest Sheriff’s Department in the United States, and now for the past 18 years a forensic expert that routinely testifies in court, I think I know a little about the judicial system from both sides – prosecution and defense. 

The singing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) may make it law, but it does not make it a good law. 

We are a nation of laws, and the Constitution is “supposed” to be our guide for making those laws.  But, over the years it has become bastardized by political influence (Congress and the President) and personal motivations (Supreme Court).  

Congress passed the NDAA and President Obama signed it into law on New Year’s Eve.  It allows for “anyone” to be indefinitely detained.  This includes American citizens – on American soil.  If so ordered, even an American citizen can be indefinitely detain just not in a military prison – without formal charges being filed or a court hearing as to the merits of the detention being held.  The word “detention” is used in place of “arrested”.  An arrest is the formal taking into custody of someone suspected of violating a law and formal charges are bought in front of a court within a very specific time frame depending on State or Federal statute.  That court then makes a determination if there is enough evidence to hold a person until a trial date.  A “detention” is used while a “suspected” criminal is investigated and the actual detention time differs from State-to-State, usually hours… not YEARS.

While I rarely (if ever) agree with anything that the ACLU is involved in, I do feel that “indefinite” detention without due process, of anyone, is a disgrace to our judicial system of law and only further inflames countries that once looked to the US as a great democracy where personal freedoms were protected and guaranteed under LAW.

It is an extremely slippery slope we are headed down when we, as US citizens, elect people who take away our personal freedoms in the name of freedom.  While the indefinite detention of “some” persons may be argued as having saved our country from additional attacks by extremist militant groups, it doesn’t give any legitimacy to the American foundations of democracy or the US Constitution.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

ACLU's Response To NDAA

The following was a statement issued December 31, 2011 on ACLU's blog regarding NDAA: 

 

President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Into Law 

 

President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today, allowing indefinite detention to be codified into law. As you know, the White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use it and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.

The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.

Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again.  The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA.  In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war.   

We are extremely disappointed that President Obama signed this bill even though his administration is already claiming overly-broad detention authority in court. Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back those claims dimmed today.  Thankfully we have three branches of government, and the final word on the scope of detention authority belongs to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the scope of detention authority. But Congress and the president also have a role to play in cleaning up the mess they have created because no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this or any future president misusing the NDAA’s detention authority.

The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.

FOR MORE ACTUAL TEXT OF NDAA, CLICK HERE.

What Exactly Does The NDAA Say?

Did you know that on New Year's Eve our government did away with Due Process and an American citizen can now be held indefinitely without a trial?





Below is the actual text, as written in H.R.1540 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.  

Here is a LINK to the Bill of Rights.  

You tell me:  Do you see any glaring violations?

If so, sign the petition to get it repealed!!