THE FIVE POLITICIANS ON THE U. S.  SUPREME COURT

January 23, 2010

      Yesterday, in a landmark case, the U. S. Supreme Court, by a five to four decision, decided that corporations and labor unions are people and have a first amendment right, under the freedom of speech section of the bill of rights of our U.S. Constitution to contribute to political campaigns.

      When I first heard this news, I was certain it was some kind of joke, because no justice in their right mind could ever come to that conclusion, if they would only apply the law they were placed on the bench to follow, under our constitution.

       I, personally, was still smarting from the court's decision in the presidential election of 1999, when the republican dominated Supreme Court stopped the Florida presidential election recount and decided politically to award the presidency to George W. Bush, the republican candidate.  That decision has cost this country two wars, we cannot stop, the lives and blood of many thousands of American servicemen and woman and a cost in dollars that has only helped push  the U. S.,  into the worst recession since the 1930's.

      This decision reverses one made 100 years ago, when a previous court ruled unions and corporations could not contribute money to political candidates.  Of course, business men and companies along with labor unions have circumvented this law for years by forming or contributing to  political action committees and political parties and also contributing directly to the candidates of their choice through the use of lobbyists who have grown to a number that keep every hotel room in Washington, fully occupied for years.

      It is no surprise that the American people, suffering under this deep recession for nearly three years, with record unemployment and mortgage foreclosures, have become disgusted and disenchanted with the past two administrations since the people needs seem to be ignored while the Obama administration has not addressed this problem directly to help find permanent jobs, save their homes and really help the suffering people and economy.  President Obama has, on the contrary, acted in a manner to work with the politicians he promised to dispose and replace during his election campaign. He has  continued the wars he said he would stop,  failed to  correct the imbalance of trade and cost of gas and fuel oil with the OPEC nations, he has done nothing about  controlling fuel prices that  are a shock at the pump and  reaching three dollars a gallon, because of greedy domestic and foreign producers only interested in charging what the traffic will bear, to make outrageous profits with the help of congress members they pay off with money each year, Obama has made back room and  secret deals with certain congressmen to gain their votes or support with deals with the labor unions to pass a health care reform bill that  increases costs and our national debt, while the main problem with health care has always been  the cost.  Now, he wants to fight with Wall Street after he and President Bush poured a trillion dollars into their companies when they were the companies that have been responsible for the economy's collapse.  He and congress failed to place restrictions on them and now complain they will not loan money to help the economy recover with falling employment and real estate values and imbalance of trade because of the free trade policies of the last three administrations, bankers have used the money we loaned them to push up the sagging American stock market, to double its value, pay back the money we loan them and now are thumbing their noses at Obama and the American people.  Congress and the American people have learned that the Obama  administration  have encouraged the federal reserve system to also invest in the American stock market to help these financial companies make the profit there, to claim the economy is improving, how does that help the broke and unemployed workers, who may be losing their home also.

      Based on what has happened in the country for the last dozen years, it is obvious that each successive administration is ruled and run by big business and lobbyists who run around the corridors of congress delivering money to every congressman in every office.   The American people have no say in their government as a result, because each administration and congress have become accustomed to accept this free and constant  flowing money to get elected and re-elected  and thereby feel constrained to do the bidding of the lobbyists just to keep the million dollar a year per congressman contributions flowing into their pockets. 

      Of course, the result is that the people's problems are never addressed and we find ourselves in the economic mess caused by the greedy companies and lobbyists who are only interested in the bottom line, profit, at all costs.

      For the U.S. Supreme Court to come up with this decision, only compounds a crucial problem and makes it worse, putting the American people in further jeopardy than they are now.  The sad fact is that the five politicians on the court prefer to act politically, purely for personal payback reasons and not in accordance with the constitutional law, common sense and the vital needs of the American people.

       As an attorney for about fifty years I also claim to know as much about the law and the U.S. Constitution as any other attorney or judge.  The reasons why I call the five justices on the Supreme Court five politicians are as follow:

• 1. Corporations are creatures of legislation by each state to insulate them from personal liability, in order to encourage them to operate without fear of personal liability for the acts of their executive officers, including their boards of directors. That alone separates them from a human being.
• 2. Each state makes its own laws regarding the incorporation of companies. Each must declare in writing as part of their charter, the purposes of that corporation and each is required to operate within the legal bounds of their stated purposes. If said corporation does not have as its purpose their right to make political contributions, they cannot by law do so in any event. No officer of a corporation or its board of directors may legally spend corporate funds without the approval of a majority of all its stockholders, the real owners of a corporation. By vote at a duly held meeting of stockholders.
• 3. For the supreme court majority to determine that a corporation is a person is contrary to the formation of our constitution and its intent for persons to partake of the election process for example:

      a.    The preamble to the constitution specifiicaly refers to persons only ("We, the people of the U.S.").

      b.    Each branch of government, (legislative, executive and judicial) refers to persons being elected or appointed to office, not corporations and each have required   qualifications to hold office related to the age and citizenship and place of residence of persons not corporation, the constitution does not make any  mention of political parties or corporations. 

      c.   Corporations or any other artificial entities do not have the power to vote under our constitution or that of any of the fifty states in our union.

      d.    A corporation is not a person since it is not capable of being held responsible for its deeds.   Only its officers can be held responsible for its contract, tort, or criminal misdeeds of corporations.  

      e.    Our representative form of government gives the power to the people to vote and to elect representatives who are elected to do the people's business, not the business of corporations. Representatives are answerable to the people not corporations or other entities.  

      f.    The first amendment to the u s constitution states, congress shall make no law---abridging the freedom of speech or of the press--- a corporation has no vocal cords and cannot speak.  However, these freedoms could be applicable to a corporation, but because they cannot vote corporations should have no voice in the operation of our government because the operation of our government is left to the responsibility of individuals and no one else. 

     g.   Corporations are not denied the right to free speech but this right must be exercised by the individual stockholders that own said corporation whether they are for profit or charitable or nonprofit corporations whose charters are for many other purposes also.  Political corporations, such as political parties or committees do not vote and should be excluded from influence of the election of all candidates for office, for that very reason.

     h.   As George Washington stated in his farewell address upon leaving the office of the presidency, "‘beware of the influence of political parties," political parties have as a main interest the well being and power of their party and its members to the exclusion of all others, contrary to the purposes of our government, "of the people, by the people and for the people." 

     i.    This country is under siege by powerful big political corporations and the two major parties and has been for far too long.  It seems that money is the most important tool to the construction of a political party and the election of their party members.      Instead of trying to encourage the best talent to the government, these greedy money people are bent at controlling the government with the power of their money and their political party.   The need or wishes of the American people or the voter be damned, they seek to control the government to favor their private needs for money and profit     for years the power of the lobbyists they send to the hall of congress have been successful in this effort, but they are not satisfied with influencing most of the representatives and senators, they also want to control the executive branch of government also.  Now, with this unjust and purely political decision by the five politician in the Supreme Court, they have succeeded in controlling all three branches of government, they want congressmen the president and the majority of Supreme Court justices to do their evil bidding in spite of the will and needs of the American people they should represent as representatives of the people as called for under our constitution.  Money corrupts and nothing is more corruptible than money, the root of all evil.

      In conclusion, it is time for congress to impeach these renegade political justices of the U. S. Supreme Court, who have put their personal ideology ahead of our   rights under our sacred constitution, to the detriment of the American people.

     The time has come for the American people to oust all the incumbents in Washington and elect persons who are willing to represent only their American voter-constituents who elect them and no one else.  It is also time to end this form of representative government and install a system where the people control the nomination and election of candidates, control the purse strings of their beloved country, by constitutional change if necessary, in order to save our country from the political parties and party members whose interest have been shown to be for their political party and not the people they should represent.  The decision is yours and the effort and interest must also be yours to accomplish this necessary goal, if you are interested in preserving those words in the preamble to the U.S. constitution, you must get involved and act now.  The very first thing you should do is change your party affiliation to that of independent, that should be the first notice to any political party that they are in trouble with the American people.  Then, all we need do is find competent independent candidates that promise to represent the American people first and always.  If we can survive one more year we will have our country back in our hand and we will put ourselves back to work in permanent jobs.  They are out there in renewable alternative energy jobs while we put an end to the free trade agreements to return our industries back to this country.

February 14^th, 2010

     Did you know that Valentine’s Day is especially set-aside for everyone to express their affection and care for each other?

     This custom is said to have been started in England more than one hundred years ago, when the English first learned to write.

     Most people could not afford to buy paper.  So they would write on each other.  This is how the practice of tattooing was started, but that’s another story.  English sailors would tattoo their girlfriend’s names on their arms and bodies, until they ran afoul with the other girlfriend’s in every port they visited, so the custom soon faded into tattoos without names.  This was because the English ruled the waves, worldwide for many years and had girlfriends in every port to keep them company.

     Soon they started a new fad of writing on their T-shirts.  They would write their “Be my Valentine” message around big red hearts over the location of their hearts, so their hearts could be close to each other.

     Then, their children at every port, ever emulating their Dads, began writing Valentine cards to each of their classmates at school, so girls and boys could flirt with each other, their teacher, Mrs. Hallmark encouraged the children to continue and expand this practice as a way of children learning to write and express themselves.  This innocent gesture was a prelude to the practice of enamored young people to pass love notes to each other under their desks.  As these children grew up, this practice spread to the sending greeting cards to each other and members of their family.  At first, these notes and cards were handmade and hand written.

     Mrs. Hallmark’s husband seized this new fad as an opportunity to make a few Shillings or English Pounds, so he started a greeting card company aptly named “Hallmark Greeting Card Company.”

     Mrs. Hallmark, Mr. Hallmark’s silent partner, soon learned how important it was to teach each child how to read and write so they could continue to send cards to each other.  Now, though, as a labor saving devise she convinced the kids, that “if they cared enough to send the very best” they should send a Hallmark Card each time, on such occasions.  Now, it was not necessary to cut out Cupids or cut hearts from a red sheet of paper or to labor over a line of poetry.

     It has been said, although never proven, that Mr. Hallmark hired lobbyists in England to lobby members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons to increase the number of State Holidays celebrated each year so there would be more occasions and reasons to send more cards.  This practice soon spread to the U.S.A. and too many other Countries, especially to Italy where they celebrate more than 88 national paid Holidays each year.  When you add Saturdays and Sundays you soon realize the Italians have 192 days off each year not counting special days off from work to celebrate the birthdays of each member of their family plus the Patron Saints Day of their home town (ex. St. Vincent is the Patron Saint of Tripi, Sicily).  This is also said to be the reason why Italians have such large families, they spend more time at home than at work.

     So, what began innocently, as a way for children to display a little affection for each other, became a huge commercial business for profit.

     The business put hundreds of poets to work composing cute poems and verses every day.  Paper manufacturers and printers found work and profit.  Factories had to be built to handle the demand for these cards, which also made work for thousands of construction workers, engineers and architects.

     Soon England experienced an industrial revolution which spread to America, and then to Japan and China, where it is in full bloom today, providing work for people who cannot speak or write English.  This is a complete turnaround because of competition and NAFCA.  Soon we English speaking people must learn Chinese in order to read the cards made in China.

     The invention of the ballpoint pen by Mr. Ball and Mr. Penn and their mass production caused such a reduction in the scrivener’s tool price that anyone could afford to write, if they can only learn to read Chinese.

     The demand for paper caused such an increase in volume of production that prices dropped dramatically.  Now, all the paper being made in Canada, because our softwood forests have been denuded because of the demand for paper and land to build homes for the baby boomers.

     All this has happened thanks to this Valentine’s Day tradition.

     So, when people try to tell you that Valentine’s Day was named after, Rudolf Valentine, the great Italian lover of the silent screen of the 1920’s, don’t believe it, because you now know that Mr. and Mrs. Hallmark really started Valentine’s Day. 
Happy Valentine’s Day to all. ©