Do not underestimate the capacity of your own state governments to see both of these bills as potentially 'good things' and enact 'me, too!' legislation in your own state.

When the legislature meets, a 'red alert' should be declared among the constituents, because there will be members who think such things are good ideas, and will attempt to spread the rot into your state laws.

I feel sorry for people in SD...

by Lorie Johnson on Fri Mar 17, 2006 at 11:23:37 AM EST

Newly-retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor issued a similar warning not long ago. It hasn't gotten nearly the attention it should, especially since she is not generally outspoken -- even her decisions were very tempered and understated.  It's some pretty strong commentary for anyone -- describing the first steps to "dictatorship" -- but for them to come from a Republican and conservative such as O'Connor, it shows what a sad state things are in.  It should be widely read and circulated.

Current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg also indicated, separately, that she and Justice O'Connor had been the subject of death threats.

As reported in the UK's Guardian , here is some of what Justice O'Connor had to say:

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University ... Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

She pointed to autocracies in the developing world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, Ms O'Connor singled out a warning to the judiciary issued last year by Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader in the House of Representatives, over a court ruling in a controversial "right to die" case.

After the decision last March that ordered a brain-dead woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, removed from life support, Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

Mr DeLay later called for the impeachment of judges involved in the Schiavo case, and called for more scrutiny of "an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president".

Such threats, Ms O'Connor said, "pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedom", and she told the lawyers in her audience: "I want you to tune your ears to these attacks ... You have an obligation to speak up.

"Statutes and constitutions do not protect judicial independence - people do," the retired supreme court justice said.

She noted death threats against judges were on the rise and added that the situation was not helped by a senior senator's suggestion that there might be a connection between the violence against judges and the decisions they make.

The senator she was referring to was John Cornyn, a Bush loyalist from Texas, who made his remarks last April, soon after a judge was shot dead in an Atlanta courtroom and the family of a federal judge was murdered in Illinois.

Senator Cornyn said: "I don't know if there is a cause and effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country ... And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence."

by cyncooper on Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 04:39:32 PM EST

The high priest has been a part of the scene ever since Phaaoh.  Controlling people has been the same throughout history.  Religion makes the rules people must live by and the governor, Pharaoh, king, emperor, you name him has enforced those rules.  Pharaoh goes back a long way and is only the first, the standard setter.  July 4, 1776 that changed.  For the first time in history the people would set the rules by which they lived their lives.  What is going on in America today is an attempt to return to the original, Pharaoh and high priest, king and pope form of government.

When the voter abdicates his vote to his minister he is saying, let the high priest make the rules.  The politician has no choice but court those who can deliver the votes otherwise he won't get elected.  This would appear to be a fail-safe system for the notion of king and high priest as a team running the world.  This concept began with Pharaoh and seems to be a stable system except for one thing.  There are a lot of high priests and an equal number of would-be kings.

The fundamental story used to construct the Bible is about an event that happened when a woman attempted to eliminate males from Pharaoh land, about, 3,350 years ago.  Her name is, Mutemweya.  She was a queen of Egypt that siezed power from the king and attempted to change the male dominated world where women had no rights into one run by women.  She appears in the Bible as the figure, Samuel who has the earmarkings of "power without office."  Samuel got his power by talking to God and telling everyone what God said.  Fundamentally, the Bible is her story that proves beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt that the Bible is a hoax.  For those who believe that God was and is behind the democracy created with the signing of the, "Declaration of Independence" this recent discovery comes as a, "God send."  It's the WMD of religion.

It remains to be seen how the world will react.  At this time those who have seen seem to be in a state of shock.  We have become domesticated, like herd animals we flock to the church to get our next instructions the way the cows instinctively come to the barn to be milked not knowing why.  It's force of habit, a thoughtless process as though there is no other way.  July 4, 1776, some rather brave men put their signatures to a document that was treasonous.  Today it takes a brave soul to put his name on a document that proves the Bible is a hoax.  Those who have managed to work the tax free, tax deductible world of religion in America into massive personal fortunes, that group including those who, like Samuel talk directly to God have an awfully lot to lose.  Those who believe in democracy, the people's right to decide their own fate have everything to gain.

Over 42 million Americans and orders of magnitude more world wide agree the Bible is a hoax.  Multitudes are reviewing the evidence proving it, the Bible is a hoax and joining the chorus.  So lift up your heart.  Democracy is far from dead.  It is my opinion that democracy is yet to fully realize it's potential.

See the proof and a little more at: http://www.hoax-buster.org

You may see this as a test of the ministry.  Do they really champion truth, justice and the American way or are they simply lining their pockets with tax free, unaccounted, tax deductible tithes levied on all Americans.  Tithes - taxes collected and spent by God's representatives.

by Bill1935 on Sun Mar 19, 2006 at 10:08:07 AM EST