Posted by admin on June 19th, 2008 — Posted in Radicals and Others
I just returned from seeing the movie about Edward R. Murrow, CBS News, and the Joseph McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s: “Good Night And Good Luck.”
I read books, articles, write a few, and go to the movies, to get my regular dose of inspiration.
If you tell me a story about someone who sticks to his beliefs, handles unpopularity to do so and perhaps battles persecution, you’ll get my attention, and usually my respect.
“Good Night And Good Luck” does it for me.
Here we see the backstage drama associated with countering one of the scariest and most destructive influences of the 20th century. But more significant, this is a parable for the ages.
Government, wherever situated, on our soil and off, is always defending its policies and furthering its aims by demanding the total allegiance of its citizenry. When debate is most needed, as it was during the 1950’s, and at other times, especially on the brink of or smack in the middle of wars, it is most likely to be throttled.
People, naturally, want to keep their privileges, especially their jobs and lifestyles. Speaking out against the powerful is dangerous to one’s wealth, health, and career.
But without the heroes who resist, who question authority, who force us to think twice about national decisions, who challenge us to to repudiate dangerous if not disastrous policies, all would be lost, including that which many of us only appreciate in its absence: the right to speak, write, assemble, worship and think, freely.
When I walked into the theater showing “Good Night And Good Luck” I did something I normally don’t do. I sat, shoulder to shoulder, with the rest of the folks who were there.
We were the “huddled masses” to whom that the inscription on the Statue of Liberty is dedicated.
Let’s not forget that every now and then, one of us has to stand up to tyranny.
In his day, Edward R. Murrow & Company did this very thing for us, and this film quite justifiably celebrates him.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com
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Posted by admin on May 19th, 2008 — Posted in Radicals and Others
In 1997 Howard Dean announced his desire to appoint judges willing to subvert the Bill of Rights or in Howard Dean lingo “legal technicalities”. Two judges appointed within months of Dean infamous 1997 statement have been found guilty of civil rights violations by a federal court in Manhattan. (fn1) Dean’s top appointee and lawyer, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, was defense counsel for the corrupt government employees in this case where Sorrell has expended vast public funds to forward the goal of undermining the First Amendment in Vermont.
To get a true feeling of the judicial and law enforcement climate fostered by Dean in Vermont, it is instructional to look at his # 1 Vermont appointee and life-long friend, William Sorrell. Dean owed a great debt to the Sorrell family for mentoring his ascent in Vermont politics. Dean’s first notable gubernatorial appointment in Vermont was to install Sorrell as Secretary of Administration in 1992. In 1997, it became time to thank the Sorrell family again and Dean attempted to appoint Sorrell as the chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. As Sorrell had no judicial experience, Dean’s zeal to appoint his favorite crony was met with a legislative roadblock. Dean had a backup plan, appoint the Attorney General to the Supreme Court and then appoint Sorrell to fill the Attorney General vacancy. All was well with Vermont Cronies. (fn2)
In describing Sorrell, Dean was quite generous with his praise of his friend’s character and abilities, illustrating the nature of their relationship: “I have an enormous amount of respect for Sorrell as a human being and as a really smart lawyer.”
A subordinate of Sorrell’s issued the following prosecutorial written threat in a Vermont state court proceeding,
“The last claim involves a statement made to attorney Capriola warning that the defendant would be charged with additional crimes if he did not clam down. The statement is a reference to the defendant’s continued harassment of the victim and the investigating officer in this case through the court process. The defendant has filed a civil action against the victim because of his participation in this criminal case. The State is currently reviewing a contempt charge against the defendants because of this activity. The statement was a proper warning made through the defendant’s representative.”
Sorrell approvingly has stood behind and defended the above threat which now has become part of a prosecutor’s toolbox in Vermont. The above threat is the epitome of the government’s coercive use of the power of criminal prosecution to influence and manipulate civil court proceedings tantamount to extortion and obstruction of justice concerning a matter before a federal court. Dean’s “really smart lawyer” and top appointee at work.
Sorrell’s conduct doesn’t stop there, his subordinates followed up the above threat with a plea agreement that specified the dismissal and non-pursuit of civil lawsuits against the prosecutors themselves. The dismissal of a lawsuit is an item of monetary value benefiting Sorrell’s underlings - or to put it bluntly this conduct is tantamount to acceptance of a bribe by state prosecutors. Dean’s “really smart lawyer” strongly approved and defended the conduct. One can’t assign full responsibility concerning this government corruption to Dean’s friend alone because two of Dean’s hand-picked anti-”legal technicality” judicial appointees presided over and approved the government misconduct.
Then there was the police shooting of Robert (”Woody”) Woodward in Brattleboro, Vermont in 2001. The massacre involved 7 shots from police revolvers fatally wounding Mr. Woodward - with some of the shots fired into his body while he was bleeding on the ground in the fetal position. Dean and Sorrell, both irrationally obsessive police advocates, put the cover-up machine into gear. Sorrell authored a biased report overlooking much of the testimony and evidence. When Dean was asked to appoint a special independent investigator he backed up his old crony and stated that Sorrell was a “really smart lawyer”. One of Dean’s so-called “legal technicalities”, the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits a biased decision-maker. Something as trivial as the Constitution didn’t stop Dean from deciding not to usurp his friend’s report by refusing to appoint an independent investigator regardless of his very public conflict-of-interest with Sorrell. Pursuant to the constitution, Dean should have disqualified himself. (fn3)
Sorrell has lately kept busy in the courts fighting to keep Howard Dean’s gubernatorial records sealed. In light of the foregoing, one can only imagine what vile government conduct Sorrell and Dean are covering up in the sealed records lawsuit. Sorrell’s friendship with Dean is still costing the Vermont taxpayers thousands of litigation dollars and Dean’s “really smart lawyer” friend apparently flunked attorney ethics which prohibit Sorrell’s representation of Dean under attorney conflict-of-interest principles. (fn4)
In Sorrell’s possession is a sworn transcript and audio tape of a major U.S. corporation’s quite illegal conduct constituting extortion and other crimes. To date, the reason is unknown for Sorrell’s cover-up of the criminal enterprise set forth in the audio tape aside from the fact that any such reason would be incompatible with law enforcement. Also in this questionable category is Sorrell’s cover-up of an alcoholic beverage retailer’s activities who operated without federal or state licenses for 8 years during the Dean/Sorrell decade in Vermont despite a report from Vermont’s own liquor investigator that the illegal conduct existed. Dean’s appointee response - cover up.
It appears that neither Dean nor his lawyer crony have any respect for the Bill of Rights, ethical considerations or the rule of law when it doesn’t fit into their dubious agendas. Recently, Dean has labeled the members of an entire political party as “evil”. Perhaps Dean should look in the mirror and look at the condition he left Vermont in after a decade of his appointments prior to disparaging others. The man who said 95 percent of people charged with crimes are guilty anyway so why should the state spend money on providing them with lawyers should indeed criticize very carefully from his anti-constitutional corrupt glass house. (fn5)
Scott Huminski
111-2c Killam Court
Cary, NC 27513
S_huminski@hotmail.com
(fn1)
http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,535358,00.html
http://chapelhill.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/13685.php
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/Frank_Dean-Sorrell-Corruption.htm
http://toughenough.org/huminski.html
http://victimsoflaw.net/Scott_Huminski.htm
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/543.php
(fn2)
http://yconservatives.com/Guest-54c.html
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/8836.php
(fn3)
http://www.justiceforwoody.org/
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/12/277164.shtml
http://la.indymedia.org/print.php?id=96372
(fn4)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2005/03/11/fight_over_howard_dean_papers_goes_before_vermonts_high_court/
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/dean/articles/2003/12/05/deans_unseemly_secrecy?mode=PF
(fn5)
http://www.prisonactivist.org/pipermail/prisonact-list/1996-September/000600.html
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/003199.html#003199
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/003144.html#003144
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A1907-2003Jul2¬Found=true
About the Author
Expert on Vermont Justice issues related to Howard Dean and his appointees.
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Posted by admin on May 13th, 2008 — Posted in Radicals and Others
Such would be of benefit to the whole world and to all peoples on Earth.
It is easier done than said. There has been plenty said and no progress.
What needs to be done
Seek out what can be agreed by all. Omit talk about anything else.
Decide the basic essentials, which would be agreed by all men and women of goodwill, which might exclude George Bush. So be it.
The first priority for discussion and for decision by all people of Iraq, is to decide on a monetary system that can please everyone.
Will Iraq have a single common currency, for the whole, or should each division of Iraq have its own currency.
If Government or Governments in Iraq, each had only one function, that function must be to create and issue its currency. A Parliament that does not have control of the creation and issuance of its own money, is a meaningless cipher.
Therefore if it were decided by the majority of people living in Iraq, that a single common currency for the whole country would serve them best, then automatically they would come to have one Government and one Parliament.
The drafting of a constitution would then be placed on a back burner until Parliament became established.
Likewise if each sub-division of Iraq, be that two or three or even more in number, each chose to have its own currency, created and issued by its own Government and Parliament, all talk of a constitution will be put on hold, until that process of creation is complete.
The reason for all this, lies in the fact that whosoever creates a Nations currency, has total control, power, dominion and sovereignty over that nation.
So that if the Kurds for example, decided to have their own currency, they would achieve the only independence worth having.
Knowing George Bush, such an idea for Iraq, would give him apoplexy. It would kill him politically, and he would become history.
It might cause civil war in America, but it would bring peace to Iraq.
About the Author
Dr Hamlyn is a founding member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, a veteran of WW II, retired farmer and practicing medical doctor. He is a prolific and articulate voice on the subject of monetary reform.
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