Politics and telling it like it is…the summary, whew!

The ‘sweet pea monologues’ final day…hasn’t this week’s entries been eye opening? …and not only for ‘Bill Clinton’ : ) as usual, my words in bold italics…

A few of you privately stated it was long, too long, yes, I know, 1000+ word blog entries a no-no (usually) and I’m sorry about that but I just did not see any other way to divide the info effectively. I didn’t mind reading the entirety of it 4x’s so I really did not perceive it to be that long, so again, my apologies…

To honor that sentiment though, I will ’summarize’ the past 3 days and this last day…

* Lawyers have gotten a bad rap, handed down by repubs to give the perception that little people can’t and won’t win or even have their day in court.
* Dems and Repubs – both sides have signs of corruption it just shows up a bit differently, and by all accounts here at least Dems are more altruistic and have some genuine concern for the average Joe/Jane, Repubs are rich white males who only want more, more, more and don’t concern themselves with who suffers for them to get it.
* READ the consitution, especially the checks and balances the 3 branches provide, re: the supreme court justices, they shouldn’t be legistlating ‘moral values’ – who would you have in charge of my/your moral values, values of the various cultures represented in the US population?
* one of the reasons this country was established under laws was to separate the church and state. I agree in theory, anonz, but the Christian right carries a lot of hefty clout, what to do?

Way over simplified I know, sweet pea, but if you have 2 better sentence/paragraphs please share.

I left this one paragraph as is – it’s important, not that all others weren’t, I’m just concerned about attention spans here, that’s all : )

The “spirit of enterprise” that you mention has been stifled by the deregulation that has allowed the dishonest corporations and criminals to gain a huge advantage over the honest business man. Your kind has forced them to look the other way at corruption, even to join in to survive. You and your-make-money-at-any-cost kind have poisoned the well of American entrepreneurialism with your political cronyism, no bid contracts, oligopolies, price manipulations, tax relief for the rich and big corporations, labor abuses, and deprivation of affordable health care for the people. You tell it…

You’re right that most people need lawyers to sue for their rights and bring to light the government’s abuse of their basic rights/needs. “Hard work” will afford the people nothing as long as the crooks can continue to manipulate the price of the goods and services that every American works so hard for. He just ends up working to give his earnings back to the corporation that gave it to him. I’ve been saying this for some time, just wait till I shred that subject soon, it’s a vicious cycle for average Jane/Joe’s.

Bill, you did get one quote right. “more power will only make our problems worse.” If the American people give the Republican party more power, this country will belong to the highest bidder. Yes, I agree, so please, don’t do it…any of you…

It seems you’ve all gone a bit mute over the political rant – mulling it all over? Or does it feel over your head, over the top, or over the limits of what you can stand from such a powerful party?

I am going to switch to a lighter topic on Sat, you know, just bc, and why not we’ll heading into the weekend…anonz, thanks for letting me use your words and for the week off, hahaha…

Feel free to comment and/or leave questions for me, anonz, or Bill Clinton, I’m sure he’s watching, maybe we can get him to come out and play again. c’mon BC, pretty please : )

Politics and telling it like it is…

As promised today is the beginning of the ‘sweet pea monologues’…sweet pea is my personal moniker for Anonz, a commenter here and at MM’s blog…

If you haven’t yet read this past Saturday’s post along with July 3rd’s where the whole dialogue started, you may want to now just for reference and/or context…go ahead…then, come back and read this.

I’m taking the day off bc Anonz gives such good rant, there’s just nothing to add and after reading it 3x’s I could not find a thing to challenge him on, yeah, he’s that good ; )

That’s only for today though…I found a few things to challenge you on tomorrow : ) I’m glad I proofread this whole rant one more time.

Ok, Anonz, hear yourself roar…

‘…You argue that the Democratic party is bad because they are made up of lawyers. Have you forgotten that the framers of the Constitution devised it so that lawyers would be able to insure that every citizen had his day in court?

Only those who would wish to supplant the citizen’s right to his day in court with the wisdom of some elite who knows best would seek to taint the lawyer with the broad brush of evil. Just who would you suggest represent you if you had to go to court? George Bush, Chaney, Delaney? That would be a quick loss.

It is the lawyer who the Republican party has to separate from the ordinary citizen to put him in a position of depending on the government for his protection, a government that the framers did not trust to keep the faith with the people. So they sought to create three separate branches with checks and balances on each other.

If those of you who parrot the party line (regardless of the party) would take the time to read the Constitution you would learn first hand that it is first and foremost a contract between a government and it’s people (thanks AH for than little bon bon). A contract in which the people agree to accept the laws its elected representatives pass on their behalf and the representatives agree not to violate their basic bill of rights to include the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as long as it does not violate the same rights of others.

Lawyers help both sides to understand those rights and to pursue a legal remedy should one or the other believe that the contract has been breeched. Otherwise we would have a country of anarchy.
The Republican party con is to alienate the people from their source of restitution. So those in power work to remove the little man from access to anyone or anything that would enable the little man to contest that power. They do it by trying to convince him that the person or thing that is there to help him is in reality a bad thing.

Thus at every opportunity those in power seek to limit the ordinary citizen’s relationship with his lawyer. They try to make it prohibitive economically for a lawyer to take a malpractice case, a civil rights case, a product liability case, a government abuse of office case, etc, etc. They do this by limiting the amount of award a lawyer can get, by limiting the punitive damages that can be levied against the offending corporation, limiting the share of the award the lawyer can bargain with his client for, etc, etc, etc.

On the surface these may seem like much needed laws to prevent the “big bad” lawyers from taking advantage of their clients. But they are designed to make it impossible for a plaintiff to get good legal representation. Ergo, only the powerful, who can afford good lawyers will win in a court of law. Just because the poor can not afford a lawyer doesn’t mean their is no court for the matter to be litigated in. 100% of nothing is still nothing, if you can not afford a lawyer.

The same people who argue that the free market should determine by supply and demand what the price should be are so quick to limit the ability of lawyers and their clients to negotiate their rates. Why because it is a ruse to make it non economical for a lawyer who in most cases has to wait years to solve a case to take the little guy’s case. The Republican party does this while assuring the little guy that they are doing it to protect him from the “big bad” lawyer.

Now let’s look at the guy’s who are not lawyers. How come the first thing they do when they take office is to go to the lawyers in the Justice Department and appoint lawyers that will give them the authority to fuck the American people?

The Constitution has been eroded so badly as to be almost ineffective in protecting the average American citizen from an abusive federal and state government. What powers they have not taken for themselves they have given to the corporations; a body of declared greed(a corporation’s charter says if is formed to maximize its members profits) with no citizen oversight.

I’ll leave you to think about all that.

Tomorrow we’ll visit ‘Bill Clinton’s’ list of people, Tuesday it’s the Dem’s, Wednesday it’ll be the Republicans and by Thursday I’ll be reading hundreds of e-mail’s and wishing for more days off : )

Not true, I love this banter, political or otherwise, and your e-mail’s make my day, most of the time, although Fiesole, I know now you’re an Italian male, but you better simmah down…! Besides, since when do guys like you care whether a woman has brains, too??? Hahaha…
You know I’m just goofing, you can take a joke, si o no? Can I just say grazie??

Comment as you wish, here or Lmdevin@att.net or Lillian@lilliandevin.com – Ciao!

**from xplg gmppalbn, yeah, crxnf and uztnfsg to you, too ; o)

Paging ‘Bill Clinton, Mr. Bill Clinton’ and the ’self evident’ truth about equality

***commenters, see end of entry***

For those of you ‘attached to form’ here I am : )

…by the way, there is nothing inherently wrong with liking ‘form,’ as long as it isn’t your highest priority in regards to me or yourself. So, what could be your highest priority?

I’ll share mine, I renew it every morning, and it’s simple: be the best Zen Lill possible, not always easy. My other daily philosophy: whoever I interact with, for whatever reason, we both leave the exchange feeling good, about ourselves/each other, even if I have to say why out loud, hate that part sometimes, but I’ve learned, people are not mind readers. This practice isn’t always easy either but if you try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised…people totally dig hearing why exactly you like them, even if you think it’s “self evident” (…my lead in to today’s blog entry, clever, no?)

I was reading a book and in it were Jefferson’s words ‘…as it was self evident…’ followed closely by ’…all men are created equal…’ and well, my mind hasn’t changed on this since I was seventeen, so I again added, ‘…though some are more equal than others…’ then I began thinking…what the hell, I had time, I was kicking it by the Kern River where my only choices were: shall I go floating on the river, now or later? Shall I have a soft or hard bevvie, now or later? And, which book shall I pick up, ‘A New Earth’ or ‘Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets’ (these two choices did not go unnoticed by the newbies in the group and provided thought-provoking convos with both in the evenings) now or later?

So given the above scenario: I had to agree with Mobs’ author, and myself, in thinking, ’self evident’ oh yeah, really? to who other than yourself, Mr Jefferson??? Is the politician/celebrities/Bush family kid really on par with a child born in the barrio? Don’t white males basically have it over almost everyone else: women, people of color, etc…? I could go on with the questions, but I’m tired today…

So, you talk : )

What do you think of Jefferson’s ‘…self evident…all men are created equal…’ constitutional statements?

Cindy, I hope you’re feeling more emtional already, you and Bill Clinton, well, I do hope you’re both tuned in today, Anonz has a few things to say today (I think, depends on his life schedule though, I suppose), and I respect and admire the man and most if not all of his observations, so, please give him a listen, thanks for indulging me : )

commenter: Fiesole…hmm, the Etruscan and little ‘Medici’ town up above Florence, Italy? or ? Well, Fiesole, you mentioned that Zen is opposite of Edgy, hmmm, let’s look at the definitions I work with: ‘edgy’ – daring, provocative and trend setting (don’t I wish) and ‘Zen’ – enlightenment attained through meditation, self contemplation and intuition. I haven’t reached total enlightenment but for the most part, the definitions fit me.
And look, I’m only an imperfect being just like everyone else so don’t think too much of me. And, sigh, I’m a dreamer, too (translation: a bit of a fool)…and as such, I often need/request forgiveness, shrug, what else can I do…?

Just read Michelle Moquin’s blog, and you can, too…I must warn you, you may walk away believing in, um, aliens…from (look up) out there, check it @ http://michellemoquin.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/phone-encounters-of-the-first-kind/
Tell me what you think, wow, politics and space beings who communicate with Michelle, does it get much better than this???