JUSTICE DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN - WE ARE ALL THE KEEPERS OF JUSTICE

Of all of the values that we as human beings have or need to have, justice would be top of my list.

There is no peace without justice. I would replace PEACE ON EARTH with JUSTICE ON EARTH as the Christmas slogan, if it were mine to change. And justice must be actively and proactively pursued. Justice is never a given.

Freedom. Take anyone's freedom away, whether it be by a family member, your boss, your neighbor, social environment or your government - it will be the one thing that drives you. Human beings have the need to be free.

And just you or me having freedom isn't enough. Because if just one person is not free and has not justice, you and I will be affected.

We have choices. And a vital choice is to work toward freedom and justice for all.

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DARFUR

Today, I pass on this information from an email from www.stopgenocidenow.org

Also see their videos, pictures and journal daily entries from their recent trip to Darfuri refugee camps at www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been almost three weeks since we returned from the refugee camps on the Chad-Darfur border. Each day I wake up and think about our beautiful friends. I know many of you took daily action during i-ACT, as you have since our first trip in 2005. Our government, then and now, has not done enough to bring peace to Adef, Achta, Abdullaziz, Rahma, Fatne and all our friends who have seen unimaginable horrors and who have been forced to flee their homes to displacement and refugee camps, where their lives remain on hold.

Today, I ask you to join Damanga Coalition for a Washington DC rally to demand our government step up and lead in the right direction towards peace and justice for all of Sudan.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: Starts from the Lafayette square in front of the White House.
WHAT: Rally at the White House. Then walk to the State Department at 2:35 p.m. and arrive at 2:50 p.m.

Rally ends at 4:00 p.m.

If you cannot attend the rally, please join us in a National Call-In Day to the White House. Here is what you can do:

On July 22, contact the White House in any of the following ways:

* Call 202-456-1111
* Fax 202-456-2461
* Email the White House with their online form
* Become a Fan and Post to the White House's official Facebook page
* If you have a Twitter account, post: @WhiteHouse Support Bashir's arrest warrant, strict trade sanctions on Sudanese oil and the return home of the displaced. #obama #darfur

Ask President Obama to help the people of Darfur by:
* Supporting the ICC and the arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir
* Ensuring the IMMEDIATE deployment of the 26,000 UNAMID Peace Forces to Darfur with a full mandate, helicopters, logistics and necessary supplies needed.

Please, join in supporting a peaceful Darfur and Sudan. Your voice is their voice in our government.

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Important article by Randy Newcomb, the President of Humanity United, on the importance of the Darfur movement now and in the months to come:

Save_Darfur_must_save_itself

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Write to President Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

You can also write to the President at:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

President Obama can be called:

202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE

The White House comment line is available
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays

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Find USA elected politicians contact information at this link:
www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

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More Information:

www.stopgenocidenow.org

www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.eyesondarfur.org

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE BETRAYED

WARNING: Pessimistic and crude language, but there is a point in here.
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George Carlin has some strong opinions

My only thing is that I feel We the People gave up our democracy before the ink was probably dry. Not to mention, the genocide on the indigenous people who lived here before the colonists stole the land and cultures of the native American indians. Not to mention the racism in the Declaration of Independence toward the native American indians. And not to mention the slave trading and ownership that has been with the government since conception. Not to mention the collective blind eye that we turn to the corruption of slavery within our borders today. Not to mention the corporate ownership of our claimed institutions of liberty.

The only, ONLY thing that can possibly be our saving grace is to empower ourselves of the fourth branch of our democracy, that of WE THE PEOPLE. And that WE THE PEOPLE let knowledge creep back into our awareness of what we have let our government do in our name and the liberties that we have lost.

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The United States Constitution

Habeas Corpus and the Constitution

International
Right groups welcomes US court ruling on Guantanamo bay

Source

Washington (PTI): Legal and civil rights groups have hailed the 5-4 decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional right to habeas corpus.

"The Supreme Court has finally brought an end to one of our nation's most egregious injustices," said Vincent Warren, Executive Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights.

"By granting the writ of habeas corpus, the Court recognises a rule of law established hundreds of years ago and essential to American jurisprudence since our nation's founding. With habeas you never would have had these men so many of whom have been cleared of any wrongdoing locked up and abused because no court was watching.

"In those cases, the government will now have to put up or shut up: it will have to show an impartial judge enough evidence to justify detention. This six-year-long nightmare serves as a lesson in how fragile our constitutional protections truly are in the hands of an overzealous executive," Vincent said in a statement.

Associate Justice Antony Kennedy writing for the majority opinion: "within the constitution's separation-of-powers structure, few exercises of judicial power are as legitimate or as necessary as the responsibility to hear challenges to the authority of the Executive to imprison a person.... Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law."

Guantanamo Bay prison

WHAT DAY DID THE CONSTITUTION GET ANNULLED

? The Patriot Act has deleted our constitutional liberties. And there is a silent movement in our social acceptance to give up our valued liberties. Democracy is messy. If you want all the ducks in order you don’t want a democracy. You want a fascist government.

A man’s “house has been surrounded 24 hours a day, seven days a week. His phone is tapped and his internet access and telephone are sometimes blocked… All this for a man who has not been formally charged with any criminal offense.” Though from a feature article of Amnesty International about a human rights activist in China, everything noted here can also be done in the United States of America via the Patriot Act. *

George W Bush swore on the Bible at his two inaugurations that he would preserve the constitution. And yet when he campaigned he wouldn’t allow anyone into his “town meetings” unless he or she was a republican. Bush’s campaign used a manual on how to muffle protestors. Today, I learned that Hillary Clinton does the same in her campaigning and doesn’t allow people in her campaign events if they wear t-shirts with words or symbols on them her handlers want to censor. I don’t want “Free Speech Zones” or “stay away orders” - I want my constitution rights freed and given back to me. Now. Not after some politician tells me I can have them back. Now. I want a voice. China doesn’t allow her citizens a voice. Fascism is alive in China. And it is creeping across the facets of our American daily lives.

On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry said “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” as an ending statement in a speech. ** Perhaps that is too drastic an ideal for us to live up to. However, I feel we need to find a spine and put our First Amendment values back into our lives without reservations. We aren’t safe just because - we give up our freedom of speech or freedom of press rights, or because we give our government the right to search our homes without just cause or a court’s pre-approval, or give the federal government the right to use our emails and blogs to steal our constitutional rights. The Patriot Act gives the government the rights to do all of these.

Fear dictates what liberties we are willing and ready to give away.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xieOPvWLji4 Michael Moore’s “The Making of America” in cartoon format

ANDREW MEYER was tased today for asking questions on a college campus to John Kerry. He may have been out of order, but he broke no law, until he was told to shut up. Then his crime was to accept his freedom of speech as a sham and not something he had the right to expect. SALLY FIELD was censored by Fox in her Emmy acceptance speech. MEDEA BENJAMIN was removed from Hillary Clinton’s event because she wore a t-shirt about leaving Iraq. Bush has lied to us and broken the law, but he gets pass after pass. And no one is tasing him or censoring him.

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“And, let’s face it, if the mothers ruled the (world), there would be no God Damn wars in the first place,” Sally Field said.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=CheY0jYXJjY

This is a video of the University of Florida Police Department using force on student, Andrew Meyer, asking a question of Senator Kerry. Meyer was arrested on September 17, 2007 for disturbing a public educational function and resisting arrest. The police did not inform him that he was under arrest and did not read him his Miranda rights but used a taser gun to control him”.

Tasers deliver a 50,000-volt jolt through two barbed darts designed to penetrate clothing. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070903/NEWS01/309030019/1056/COL02

“Amnesty International’s continuing concerns about taser use” article can be found at: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510302006

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u1eyuH1-8A4 “Four Dead in Ohio” “On May 4th, 1970 - National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of unarmed students at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others wounded. Commemorating this sad day, at this link is an excerpt of the documentary, "Kent State: The Day the War Came Home" that includes interview with students and National Guardsmen who were there.” From: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/04/1342257

Fascism synonyms: repression, oppression, tyranny.
Antonym: democracy.
fas·cism or fas·cism
1. a system of government practiced by Benito Mussolini in Italy between 1922 and 1943 that was characterized by dictatorship, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of opposition, and extreme nationalism

2. any movement, tendency, or ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism

“The American system of government is founded on two counterbalancing principles: that the majority of the people governs, through democratically elected representatives; and that the power even of a democratic majority must be limited, to ensure individual rights.

Majority power is limited by the Constitution's Bill of Rights, which consists of the original ten amendments ratified in 1791, plus the three post-Civil War amendments (the 13th, 14th and 15th) and the 19th Amendment (women's suffrage), adopted in 1920.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, mission is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees:

* Your First Amendment rights - freedom of speech, association and assembly; freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.
* Your right to equal protection under the law - equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin.
* Your right to due process - fair treatment by the government whenever the loss of your liberty or property is at stake.
* Your right to privacy - freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your personal and private affairs.

We work also to extend rights to segments of our population that have traditionally been denied their rights, including Native Americans and other people of color; lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people; women; mental-health patients; prisoners; people with disabilities; and the poor.

If the rights of society's most vulnerable members are denied, everybody's rights are imperiled.” From: http://aclu.org/about/index.html

The First Amendment to the United States of America’s Constitution is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” …Except since the Congress gave George Bush sweeping rights to delete the First Amendment rights.

The standard of United States Free Speech is in sinking sand. Repeal the Patriot Act and reinstate the U.S. Constitution.

* Interview With AIDS Activist Hu Jia http://www.rfa.org/english/news/2006/03/29/china_hujia/
*Patriot Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

** Patrick Henry’s Liberty Speech: http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/henry-liberty.html