DOREMUS
OBSERVES : MATTERS OF INTEREST
Doremus Jessup, editor
of the Fort Beulah The Daily Informer, in
Sinclair Lewis' famous book "It Can't Happen
Here", at its conclusion, "drove out saluted by
the meadow larks, and onward all day, to a hidden cabin
in the Northern Woods where quiet men awaited news of
freedom.....still Doremus goes on, into the sunrise, for
a Doremus Jessup can never die......
************************
- Lee Blasts
Bush's 'No Child
Left Behind'
http://www.afro.com/content/anmviewer.asp?a=1038&z=1
By James Wright
Special to the AFRO
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) looks at
falling test scores, dilapidated schools,
discipline problems and marginal teacher, staff
and administrative morale in her central Houston
district, and shakes her head.When she travels to
Washington for her work and looks at its public
school system, she sighs."This
administration has been a disaster for
children," she says. "The No Child Left
Behind program has been no friend to the public
schools system and its children."
Lee is talking about President Bush's
much-ballyhooed "No Child Left Behind
Act," which he signed into law on Jan. 8,
2002. The law promised stronger accountability
for results for not only students, but teachers
and schools, more freedom of choice in terms of
funding for states and communities, encouraging
proven educational methods, such as reading at
grade level at the third grade, and more choices
for parents, such as putting children in charter
schools or even vouchers for those who want to
attend private schools. However, the law has
created an uproar in the educational community,
leading critics - including Lee - to charge that
the Bush administration is seeking to undermine
the public school system with vouchers and
ambiguous rules on teacher performance and
funding at the state and local level. "One
of the chief problems with his legislation is
unfunded mandates," says Lee, who served on
the Houston City Council and was a judge in that
city.
"The Bush administration gives us all of
these rules to follow in terms of improving
public schools and teachers and staff, but does
not give us one extra dime to implement them.
"And then he said that the answer is
vouchers, which will do nothing to help students
because they cannot afford to pay the rest of the
tuition."
A voucher system is a hot topic in Washington
because Mayor Anthony A. Williams has endorsed
vouchers as the means to provide a better
education for students who attend the city's
struggling schools. Critics of vouchers, such as
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, say that
crippling the already weak school system is not
the answer, but more funding to these schools and
parental involvement will help solve some
problems. For example, she notes that many
private schools cost nearly $10,000 a year. Under
the Bush proposal, a student would only get
$2,500-$3,000 a
year, leaving the roughly $7,000 a year at the
expense of parents. But Lee says that No Child
Left Behind has a more insidious effect.
"Bush's proposals, I fear, will lead us back
to the days predating Brown v. Board of
Education, where you will have uneven and
segregated schools. Rich children will be able to
go to the schools that they want while poor
children will have limited choices."
"It will not be based on race, like in the
past, but on income. But don't be fooled. Black
children will suffer the most."
Lee notes that "children in Chevy Chase
should have the same opportunities in Southeast
Washington," but the Bush law does not
provide for that. With the weak economy forcing
cities, counties and states to cut budgets and
raise taxes, Lee says the Bush administration
should step in and provide the money. Noting the
administration's attempts to water down Head
Start and its fuzziness on funding reading
programs draws her ire. "How can you on the
one hand say 'do this and do that,' and then take
away the money to do it?" she asks. "He
wants children to be able to read at an early age
and that is good, but then he knows cities and
states are cutting their budgets, so why doesn't
he step and fund them? "It makes no sense to
me." Lee says the Congressional Black Caucus
will continue to press the Bush administration to
fund its law in terms of getting resources to
public schools, improving teacher salaries,
repairing failing schools in terms of sagging
test scores and facilities, and improving the
environment around the schools.
She pointed out U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.)
has a bill, the "Student Bill of
Rights," which guarantees that every child,
regardless of race, sex or income level, will
receive a quality education at the primary and
secondary level. U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
(D-Ill.) has sponsored a constitutional amendment
that states every child has a right to an
education. Lee applauds both pieces of
legislation, saying that they are a part of the
CBC's agenda on education. "We at the
Congressional Black Caucus will fight to see that
every child will get a good education, and truly
see that no child is left behind," she says.
By James Wright
Special to the AFRO
Warning To The World
About The New America
By Baldknobber
11-7-3
Rense.com
- For years I have told Americans to
wake up and see what was happening to their
country before it was too late for America. Now
it is time for me to tell the world to wake up
about America before it is too late for them.
-
- I have been aware of a disturbing
change in the US government for the last 12
years. It seems that the world has slept through
this change and does not realize what America has
become. I will outline some major problems, go
into specific subjects and cite examples of how
America has changed, yes, we are indeed no longer
free. Much of what is written in this report is
from my own personal experience.
-
- This is a warning to the world to
watch out for the new America. America is no
longer the moral guardian you knew it to be, in
recent years America has become a tyrant
unprecedented.
-
- Control Of Media
-
- The American press can no longer
be trusted. When the Government passed the
Telecommunications act of 1996, it allowed
consolidation of the media and control of all
information received by the people to a small
group of sources. This showed itself as large
media mergers and virtually all information was
soon controlled by the same small group of
people. In June of 2003 additional legislation
was passed which now allows all the news to be
controlled from a single source. The day I typed
this I called CN8 live, a national cable news
program to speak on the air. They took my
personal information including name, address and
phone number. They then hung up and called me
back to verify that I really was at that address.
They then said something that scared me half to
death, They said that if I did not stay on
subject and say what I told them I would say that
they would "notify the authorities". I
am someone who has called news programs
frequently in the past, and that never happened
before. Itís obviously a new policy. So much for
a free press.
-
- Police Brutality
-
- I know a man who manages a store
close to where I live. His brother has a sixteen
year old boy and seven year old girl. Outside his
brotherís house some police were beating a man
who was laying down on the road and not fighting
back. The sixteen year old opened the window and
shouted at the police, telling them that they
were doing too much and that they did not need to
beat the man so hard.
-
- They did not let up, instead they
kicked in the door to the house and assaulted the
boy. So now they were beating up the man on the
street and beating up the kid in the house. The
seven year old girl ran to the officer who kicked
in the door and tried pulling him off her
brother. The officer pushed her away so hard that
she hit the wall and broke her arm. It never made
the news. This is not an isolated incident, it is
the new America. Contrast this with the glossy
happy-go-lucky "police are great and
accountable for their actions" media
coverage on shows like Real TV and
"Cops", there is much more to the truth
than we are allowed to see.
-
- In the past I had heard stories
like this from strangers but did not believe them
until I heard it from someone I knew well. Indeed
the foreign governments who have started to call
the US a police state are much more correct than
they realize. I am waiting for them to have the
courage to say it without retracting comment.
-
- Asset Forfeiture
-
- America has a new policy towards
personal property called "asset
forfeiture". This is the act of confiscating
property without a trial. The way it works is
this: The police accuse you of a crime and take
whatever they say you had in your possession when
the alleged crime was committed. This could be a
vehicle such as a boat or car, or a computer, or
even your house. You have to go to court to prove
your innocence to get it back, and if you win
your case you have to pay a return fee which is
usually 50% of the property value. If they take a
car that was worth 12,000 you will have to pay
6,000 to get it back. If you cannot afford the
6,000 they will sell it at auction to
"recover" their "funds". If
you have a loan or mortgage on the property they
sell at auction, you are still obligated to pay
the bank for what you no longer have.
-
- This happens frequently and the
evidence is easy to find. Go to Google and type
the search term "US government
auctions" or "asset forfeiture
auction" or pick any state and add the word
auction. The auctions are everywhere, selling
property seized from people who were often judged
by the courts innocent.
-
- If you are a property owner with
tenants in a 200 room apartment complex and one
of the tenants gets arrested in an apartment for
possession of drugs or stolen property, or
committing a crime such as calling a prostitute
to his room, the city or state can take the
apartment building away from the owner who was
not involved in any way and say that the property
committed the crime and therefore needed to be
taken. Confiscation of large complexes has
happened more than once, confiscation of single
family rental houses and private homes is
frequent.
-
- Forcing A Crime
-
- It has become common for a judge
to force a crime. The way this is done is to
issue a civil judgement that cannot possibly be
implemented by the person the judgement is
against. When the person the judgement is issued
against fails to implement the judgement, a civil
matter becomes criminal due to "contempt of
court". This is commonplace in family law
when a man is forced to pay ìchild supportî
Child support judgements often leave a man with
less than 20 percent of his income after taxes,
despite the 50% rule. This forces the person the
judgement is against to make a decision - pay
"child support" as ordered and suffer
severe hardship, often including dependence on
friends or being homeless or living in a car or
camper, or get behind on "child
support" and become a "criminal"
due to contempt of court.
-
- Violation Of Ex Post Facto
-
- In the constitutional republic the
United States used to be, there was a rule of ex
post fato which prevented any government, be it
federal state or local from writing retroactive
laws. But since 1987 there has been a new and
disturbing trend.
-
- The federal government along with
many states and municipalities has started to
write and enact retroactive laws. As an example,
let's say that in 1998 you painted your house and
at that time it was legal to paint your house
without a permit. If in 2003 your municipality
writes a retroactive law that states that you now
needed a permit to paint your house, and makes it
retroactive to 1995, you will be in violation and
guilty of breaking the law in 1998.
-
- Retroactive laws are commonplace
now and are usually enacted in the areas of
taxes, family policy, and land usage. It is a
frequent event now to have people suddenly
discover they owe huge sums of money or are now
subject to punishment for doing things that were
legal when they did them.
-
- The public tolerance of the now
commonplace violations of ex post facto has
opened an avenue through which governmental
bodies are prosecuting people for violations they
did not commit, collecting taxes that were never
owed and seizing properties which were
"improperly used" in the past.
-
- Legislation Without Representation
-
- Starting in the late 1980's, most
states authorized the practice of legislation
without representation. It is standard practice
now for un-elected people in state agencies to
enact policy and write laws that were never voted
on, approved, or asked for by the public.
Legislation without representation often takes
place in secret, with the public unaware of what
is happening until the new law is put in place
and enforced. This has removed accountability
from government and allowed serious abusive
practices to be implemented without the presence
of any individual or group to be held
accountable.
-
- My own personal experience with
legislation without representation occurred when
I calculated that over 80 percent of my income
was being taken in taxes and "child
support" for two children. I called the
child support agency and asked them who wrote the
laws that made such a thing possible. I wanted to
know which senator, representative or other
elected official was responsible for enacting
such a draconian policy.
-
- The state agent replied: "The
child support statutes were enacted by this child
support agency and have nothing to do with
elected officials. As for the individuals who
write the policy, you are not permitted to know
who is involved".
-
- This most serious practice,
probably the one that has destroyed our freedom
the most, is occurring everywhere through many
avenues, not only "child support".
Legislation without representation allows a
corrupt government to thrive because the people
who write the legislation are employees of the
government who work in secret, will never be held
accountable and cannot be voted out of office.
-
- In a democracy, the people can
effect change by voting the people who are going
against their will out of power. Legislation
without representation circumvents the democratic
process and takes the will of the people out of
government. Due to the now common practice of
legislation without representation, America can
no longer be considered a true democracy.
-
- Road Closures
-
- In the back country they are
closing down the roads to limit access. If you
get caught riding even a bicycle on the road
beyond the barrier, having left you car at the
barrier, they will confiscate the bike, the car,
and throw you in prison, and you will lose
everything 100%. I was familiar with the back
country of the intermountain west and noticed
that around 1996 the road closures began to
happen. I believe the closures are an attempt to
de-familiarize the public with alternate routes
of escape in the event of a police lockdown or
martial law. They also closed down any road that
led to safe water in remote regions. In High
School, I had a German teacher who was alive
during Hitler's reign and she said that Hitler
closed down access to the wilderness areas after
the Reichstag was burned which proved to be an
effective method of eliminating resistance from
the portion of the population which did not agree
with him. She warned us to never let it happen
here.
-
- Road closures are usually done
with very large immovable barriers such as
boulders or trenches and signs warning of what
will happen if you get caught attempting to
travel beyond them.
-
- Citizen Spies
-
- In the name of fighting terrorism,
the so-called "department of homeland
security" has employed a network of citizen
spies who may have in reality been hired to
identify people who are upset with the new
government policies. When the Reichstag was
burned, Hitler also set up his network of citizen
spies. Was Sep11 a Reichstag? One thing is
certain, the videos you can download now are not
the same as the ones I downloaded on Sep12.
Immediately after Sep11 they clearly showed
explosives going off in sequence, bringing the
buildings down in a perfect demolition wave. Most
of the ones you can find now no longer show the
explosions, they have been
"photoshopped" out.
-
- Terror is a common tactic or
excuse used by oppressive governments to get the
people to give up their freedoms for a little bit
of security. Hitler used this tactic after the
burning of the Reichstag to justify the military
actions he took in the opening days of World War
II. To keep the population safe from terror,
Hitler also employed his network of citizen spies
who did little but turn their neighbors in for
expressing dissenting views.
-
- Common Police Searches
-
- It has become commonplace now for
police to stop people for no reason and search
them. This began long before Sep11. This has
happened to me personally three times, once at a
roadblock, once when I was walking on my way to
work, and once when I was sleeping in my van due
to homelessness caused by a divorce. It would
have happened many times, but I got good at
spotting the roadblocks - just look for a traffic
jam with evenly timed cars coming toward you in
the opposite lane. Normally, the traffic jam
would be long enough to allow me to pull a u-turn
without being seen. I never did anything wrong,
but I hate those road blocks.
-
- Anonymous Accusation
-
- In recent years, Federal, state
and local law enforcement bodies have started
arresting and punishing people due to anonymous
accusations. Now when you show up in court you
have no right to know who has accused you of a
crime. Without any chance of any repercussions,
individuals, groups and organizations now
commonly issue accusations to get revenge, gain
unfair advantage, or simply because they were
going on assumption rather than actually being
witness.
-
- The right to know your accuser was
a cornerstone of American justice; it created an
environment which brought accountability to legal
prosecution. Without it, people are now going to
jail, being fined, and losing their children in
civil disputes without ever knowing why.
-
- http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_
government&Number=1013010#Post1013010
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