Letter Of The Law

"In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the laws scrupulously. Our government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example."

--Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Never were those words more applicable than today. Never have they been truer. We were once known as a nation of laws. Over the last several years, especially, our government's adherence to the values and the sacred documents of our nation has waned, drifting perilously close to the edge of oblivion as our Bill of Rights, Consitution and election laws have been whittled away in favor of granting increased power and secrecy to not only Federal government, but individual State governments as well.

Governor Blagojevich and his assistant John Harris have been arrested; Axelrod and Obama suddenly claim not to have had any dealings with either of them in spite of reports from several sources about meetings and phone calls between them in November and early December.

In the wake of the release of a 77 page Criminal Complaint, Chicago homicide detectives have requested the asssitance of Federal Prosecutor Fitzpatrick in obtaining phone records from Obama, Reverend Wright, Donald Young and others. Previous attempts to obtain these records in connection with the murder investigation of Donald Young were thwarted by the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Daley's office.

In recent years we have seen a massive breakdown in the willingness to abide by our laws in some sectors. Although the majority of Americans are law abiding, many more are not, and the question remains as to what could be the cause. Surely a government must abide by its own laws--not just SOME of the government abiding by SOME of the laws--but ALL of the government must abide by and uphold ALL of its laws in order to command the respect and loyalty of its citizens. In these times of media generated fear and global concerns it is all too easy to excuse governmental law breaking as an exigency in fending off terrorists. Witness FISA, and the issue of employing illegal spy tactics. Senator Schumer of NY voted against granting immunity to the communication corporations who broke the law in that regard; Obama, despite his assertions that he would "filibuster against [granting them immunity]" voted to grant that immunity anyway.

With turnabouts like this, is it any wonder that integrity, loyalty, honor, and respect for our words, deeds and laws has seen a downturn at the least and a drubbing at worst?

We were once a nation of laws, and to continue to be a nation at all, we must resolve to follow them--ALL must follow ALL laws, not just the ones we deem convenient, be we citizens or government.

Illinois Style Politics Go National: Hubris & Corruption Reaching New Highs Daily

"On November 10, Governor Blagojevich, his wife, Harris, Governor General Counsel, and other Washington-based advisors participated at different times in a two-hour phone call in which they allegedly discussed, among other things, a deal involving the SEIU. Harris said they could work out a deal with the union and the President-elect where SEIU could help the President-elect with Blagojevich’s appointment of Senate Candidate 1, while Blagojevich would obtain a position as the National Director of the Change to Win campaign and SEIU would get something favorable from the President-elect in the future."

At long last, Governor Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested early this morning on charges of conspiring to benefit financially from his role in appointing a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president, along with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to press for campaign contributions, prosecutors said.

This, from the governor of Illinois, Obama's "home" state. It has long been known that, as one of the most corrupt states in the Union, few things happen without the blessing and the knowledge of its governor. To deny that Obama knows about this, an every other transgression is belies either ignorance or stupidity, and probably both. To assume that he knows nothing of this is tantamount to insanity.

In Mike Madden's piece in today's Salon dot com, he rudely [and oh so ignorantly] ridicules all those who realize that Obama has offered NOTHING to prove that he meets the eligibility requirements of the U.S. Constitution by being a NATURAL BORN U.S. CITIZEN, and derisively derides those at the press conference held yesterday at the National Press Club. As is usually the case with the uninformed, Mr. Madden embarrassed himself more than any of his targets, and all the ridicule in the world is no substitute for the absence of fact. The fact that Obama is clearly unable to meet the basic eligibility requirements, plus the fact that he arose from the mire of the infamous Illinois political machine lend even more credence to the fact that, along with sealed educational records from three colleges including his sources for tuition [aside from Khalid al Mansour and Percy Sutton], this is truly The Man From Nowhere, and as such, is not only ineligible to be POTUS, but is touched with poisoned fruit as well.

Tony Rezko has been convicted, just one of many in the endless parade of bad actors in this morality play gone wrong. One can only hope that the arrogance and hubris they share will bring them all down swiftly.