On Hannah Giles, ACORN, and the Fourth Amendment:
(A Dialogue)

This material was written in another publishing medium about five minutes ago. The positional adversary's words will be in dark green font.

So let me get this...everyone in here hates Acorn because they broke the law, but yet are supportive of Hannah even thought she too broke the law?

The colonists also "broke the law" when they threw tea into Boston Harbor. It was once "against the law" for someone to help black slaves become free because they were "property" of other people. Heck, into the twentieth century it was once "against the law" for a black person to drink from a "white drinking fountain." Something is not always moral or ethical simply because it is legal. Law should constitute justice but it is often perverted and used as a pre-text for inflicting evils upon others.

ACORN as an entity that operated in secrecy and yet received tax-payer money was just such a situation of the immoral and unethical who now try to hide behind the thin veneer of "the law." Hannah busted them and God bless her for it. As far as I am concerned, she deserves the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for this and James deserves "documentary filmmaker of the year."{1}

Acorn's lawsuit is based on the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, so I feel like that is a fairly just claim since I support the US Constitution

Well if you support the Constitution, how about making even an elementary attempt at properly applying it rather than inventing things out of whole cloth as typical "evolving constitution" style nonsense sorts are prone to do. The Fourth Amendment was promulgated as a safeguard of the rights of individuals to provide reasonable privacy from intrusion by the government. Giles and O'Keefe are private citizens and not the government so this suit should be thrown out as the joke that it is. The key word is "should."

I also do not know how she took on this big corrupt firm on her own, CNN published articles about Acorn employees being tried nearly a year before Hannah's "breaking" story.

For election fraud sure. The corruption of ACORN goes far beyond that though. And the msm had stories on ACORN that they spiked during the 2008 election season because they did not want to make the "ObaMessiah" look bad. Furthermore, the depth of ACORN's rotted nature was not touched on by any media source prior to Hannah's expose.

Note:

{1} For some expository musings that I wrote on the subject of ACORN and corruption, see this weblog posting from earlier in the year:

On ACORN and Corruption (circa October 1, 2009)

Excerpts From Literature/Writings:

[Prefatory Note: For some insights into why I chose the particular material below for posting under this heading when it technically does not belong here, please see this previous posting for details as well as my thoughts on the material below. -ISM]

At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bring my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad I came. I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are some things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannot understand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has something wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different things. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; the Next Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief; the Law Chief; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all their mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for my people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, General Miles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.

I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.

I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three have died since I left my camp to come to Washington.

When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals.

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.

Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike -- brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.

Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht has spoken for his people. [Chief Joseph: From a Speech Delivered in Washington DC (circa 1879)]

Miscellaneous Musings:

The category to which the next post of material is to be classified is one that is usually confined to selections strictly speaking that fit the title so given but as this is my blog, I can allow in special circumstances for some leeway and as this is my birthday today, I am going to allow even more leeway still. Technically, this does not fit the category of classification but I believe the speech to be quoted from here speaks to the heart of any person who is of goodwill who sees injustices being perpetrated.

Though I am a staunch advocate and defender of this great country of ours, I am at the same time aware of the line from America the Beautiful which goes "America, America, God mend thy every flaw." And one of the latter flaws was the way in which the nation treated the Indians they had conquered in wars. As a believer in fighting for what one believes in, I also believe that when battle ceases, an important part of ethics is keeping the words to which one promises themselves. And this area of keeping the promises one makes is one of the areas where America in its leaders insofar as the treatment of the Native American tribes did not live up to the ideals espoused in its founding.

In speaking on this issue I want to be clear that I am not speaking of those tribes which continued hostilities or otherwise sought to inflict damage on the settlers or people of various states or territories. No, I speak of tribes such as the Nez Perce and the warrior Chief Joseph who when the end of the road had come in their struggle against the United States surrendered in a most noble way and was made promises by this nation which its leaders did not keep. And bearing that failing in mind, the next post will contain excerpts from Chief Joseph in a speech he delivered two years after his surrender in Washington DC when he came to the capital to seek justice and recompense in areas to which he had been promised. The basic principles he outlines in that speech are timeless and applicable to people of all times and places; ergo it seems fitting to set them forth for our own contemplation which the next post to this humble weblog will endeavour to do.

wish time would stand still
on the morrow advancing
one year more I'll be
[Written on 10/20/08]

Lawyer Orly Taitz tries patience of federal court

Those who wonder why I give virtually no time at all to this subject{1}, the article above explains some of the reasons albeit indirectly.

Note

{1} These are the only two postings I am aware of on this subject prior to the present one (posted in order of oldest to most recently):

On How To Approach the Presidential Election Results of 2008 and Analyzing the Political Trends for 2008 and Beyond (circa December 9, 2008)

Clarifying A Previous Point (circa February 25, 2009)

Washington is Nuts (Tony Blankley)

Yes Tony, they are.

Don't blame Limbaugh for our faults (LZ Granderson)

This thread is a solid read overall and the general principles it outlines apply to all communities, not just the black community.

Senate Finance Committee

Back on October 6th, I went complete William Jennings Bryan "Cross of Gold" speech-like{1} on the switchboard operator of the Senate Finance Committee. She told me the Baucus bill was put online Friday and gave me the link above but I have to update my Java software to get the health care bill link to open correctly apparently. I want to point y'all to it and ask why (if what she says is true) did I have to learn this from calling them and not from the news -ANY news program. And posting it Friday night right before the weekend??? Tell me that was not their attempt to jam it through today hoping no one would find out about it!!!

Note:

{1} In terms of the passion in which I set forth my view on this matter via the telephone.

He Won But For What?

I am not one of those alarmists who see sinister machinations behind every news story or end times gibberish under every acorn but I am not gonna lie: when I saw this article and realized that I agreed with Jennifer Loven of all people on something, I thought I might be making out on the horizon the first of the four apocalypse horses ;-)

Sunday and Wednesday
Two milestones in my life
Different yet the same
[Written just now]

The Sunday in the above haiku refers to yesterday.

Liberals Lay Off Obama

For those who wonder who could be claiming in lieu of the fact that President Obama has done NOTHING that he is "doing a great job" or has "done something", here is an example from The Daily Beast. Try to not be drinking anything when you read it though.

And yes folks, being "on your way" to doing something is now considered actually doing something by this crowd. The 10,000 point Dow level is considered significant to these same people who did not blink when the Dow under President Bush topped 14,000 in late 2007.

Furthermore, he is actually claiming the stimulus has been "slowing the nation's descent", and considering it an accomplishment that "a universal health care bill’s passage through Senate Committee." Celebrating a bill making it out of committee??? Boy these folks do not realize how they wear their desperation on their sleeves.