Mr Obama,

We the People ask you not to go through with the proposed reversal of the recent changes to the conscience clause.  This was one of the rare moments where Bush was presidential and pro-Constitution.  Do not add to the damage of the Bush administration by reversing one of the pale attempts he made to rehabilitate his record.

When you were elected it was to combat the insane abuses of presidential authority and human rights that the Bush Administration blithely perpetrated.  We looked to you to turn back the course of this greatest threat to the Constitution that we had ever seen.  The proposed change to the conscience provisions is a least as draconian as anything Mr. Bush ever did.

By removing the protection to choose not to take a life and engage in euthanasia because of personal conscience you are instituting a policy that is a clear violation of the 1'st and 14'th amendments. It directly infringes on the right to the free exercise of religion, and it directly discriminates against people on the basis of creed.  Further it allows individuals, courts and institutions to do so on a regular basis.

While this proposed rule change is not an new act of Congress, it is the activity of the Executive to applying an existing one.  It's only authority is that of a confessional act and to knowingly apply it in a way that violates the Constitution is an act of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of a class of people.  If you argue that it is done under the authority of Article 2 then you are taking the same criminal position with regard to unilateral decision making that the Bush administration did.  Either way you are violating the principles that got you elected and your oath of office.

Deal with the black caucus running rough shod over your authority as chief diplomat and find a way to pressure the justice dept. to prosecute Bush, Yoon and Gonsales.  This would be a great achievement.  But don't make the keynote of your administration an attack on the 90 percentile of the American people who believe in "live and let live but don't make *me* participate in or witness things I find repugnant".

? Fred Davis. fd4ds5 at 8:46 AM PDT

Updated: 9 April 2009 8:47 AM PDT

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As I've thought over my comments in the last blog I begin to realize that I limited myself in an unfortunate way.  I used the term Umanned Aerial Weapons and I stand behind the need for a moritorium on those, but the term UAW would easily apply to a better umbrella term.  I'd like to ammend the term UAW to mean Unmanned Antipersonnel Weapons.  With this change the previous blog entry stands.

Unmanned weapons needn't be limited to those that fly. Drone tanks and gun platforms, antipersonnel mines, and remotly detonated or timed bombs are just as surely Unmanned Weapons, and we can see that the non computerized versions of these weapons are a toxic violation of international Laws of War.  This is made obvous by the current UN postitions and treaties regarding antipersonnel mines.

It might seem like a romantic notion, but war was more sane when men were forced to stare the man they killed in the eyes and recognize his humanity.  The more removed the attacker is from his target the less human the attacker is.  Subjecting himself to personal risk is the only way a man can ever kill and not become a monster and a danger to society.

? Fred Davis. fd4ds5 at 3:08 AM PDT

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Mood:  not sure

Testor Models and RC were a great source of fun back in those lazy, shell shocked days of post Vietnam California.  Model rockets, cox fueled model airplanes of a tether and el Supremo the fully functional radio controlled flyer.  Toys are fun and toy companies have been the cutting edge researchers in materials, computer and mechanical science. Doubt it? Check out the XBox (tm) or WII (tm) and remind yourself that the venerable AR-15 and M-16 rifles were made by the same people who brought you Barbie and ken (No! I do NOT mean Auqa).

Mister Obama has inherited the country in worse more fracture condition than any time since the Civil War.  It's pretty obvious that he is aware of this because instead of appealing to civil rights leaders or civil rights presidents as icons for his campaign and administration, he appealed to Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln has that cache' of the heroic civil rights leader (whether deserved or not) but he also was the decisive, and arbitrary leader of the war effort.

One might argue that Mr. Obama ought to be studying U. S. Grant's administration, because that's the man who had to deal with all the detrius AFTER the country was already fragmented and needed to be put together.  One would further hope that he learns the right lessons and doesn't fall into the same authoritarian pattern of sucessive undeclared was that Grant used to keep himself in the big chair.  But that is one of my famous sidebar issues.

The issue at hand is models.  In 1916 we had a brand new weapon and sanity, as well as sound analyses of the strategic disadvantages,cause the West to declare a moritorium on such weapons.  And Mustard Gas thus became a good thing in that it taught us to ban Chemical and biological weapons even in warfare.

 In 1946 we had a new weapon, and cooler heads lost the argument and it took decades to start limiting nuclear proliferation.  Now 63 years later we are gritting our teeth because someone in the middle east or Asia might show the same callus disregard for reason and science not to mention Human life that Herbert Hooverdemonstrated. (Let's remember that to date we the US have been the only ones moronic or insane enough to deploy fission weapons tactically.)

In Viet Nam we learned how to defoliate and that was just the same old Bio terrorism that was supposed to be done with after WWI.  Napalm? Come on that's nothing more than an aerial assault deathcamp weapon. "Work sets you Free, man!" "Gnarley!"

Now we're apparently winding down a campaign to destroy Religiously motivated offensive geurilla warfare (code named terrorism).  Though new outbreaks may give Obama his excuse for a Grantesque series of undeclared wars.  Let's hope he's ethical enough to resist the urge even if it's the most politically expedient choice.

How does this relate to Matel Machine Guns and RC Airplanes?  Simple we have a new weapon...

Unmanned Aerial Weapons, UAWs (the US likes to call them UAVs, 'V' for Vehicle, to try and sanitize their purpose) are the next step in disassociating a commander and a soldier from the cost in terms of humanity.  But ultimately these will not be used for surveillance, they'll be loaded with bombs, even tactical nukes or bio weapons because some beamish boy wearing stars on his shoulders and splinters in his eyes thinks, "Well Duh! OUR troops aren't exposed so we can do SAFELY!"

A Stealth UAW could easily penitrate 100's of miles into the interior of a western nation anddeploy deuterium warheads, dirty bombs or antipersonnel mines.  All those things the previous administration tried to terrify us with, could become a very real threat.  All it takes is someone building a UAW.  The answer isn't to limit access to computer components, or flying models or any of the other authoritarioan insanity that has come pouring out of washington for the last 60 years. The answer is to stop people thinking of these as weapons platforms NOW before it becomes a world wrecking problem. Like bio Weapons and nukes and oh did I mention mines...?

How do you prevent weaponizing laundry detergent? Don't add it to diesel and spray it over vast acerage and light it up.How do you prevent RC toys from bcoming weapons? Don't develop UAWs with the power to carry a payload, better still don't let the military even purchase umaned vehicles of any sort except maybe bomb disposal robots but that's risky.

Please people let's learn from our past mistakes, join me in a call for a moritorium on Unmanned Aerial Weapons.  They really are the next overpowered uncontrollable doomsday weapon. 

? Fred Davis. fd4ds5 at 6:29 AM PDT

Updated: 31 March 2009 6:40 AM PDT

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Mood:  d'oh

Some of you, if you actually see this, might wonder why there is over a year between the last two posts. The answer is patience. I'd said what needed to be said, and my voice was not the only one speaking. I left it to the congress to try to clean up the mess the out going lame turkey had left us. But true to form they allowed themselves to get embroiled in yet another of his schemes to destroy this country. His parting blow being the rescue/stimulus package.

It was clear that Obama was not what he pretended, but I seriously had my doubts that the American people who used death threats and extortion to keep Joe Lieberman and a celebrated General Officer like Colin Powell out of the running, would have the will to elect a black man to office.

Really they didn't. Estranged Kenyan father, Indonesian step father, white mother and a childhood spent living abroad -- what connection does this man really have to "the black experience." I don't doubt he is capable, intelligent and motivated. But it's disengenuous for him to pretend a shared identity with the man who was born to black American parents and raised in the racial cook pot Illinois of circa 1970. But that is a topic for another discussion.

I have been waiting for the dust to settle and for the hooplah to die down, while the congress made a show of investigating the Bush Administration. But as usual it's been all show and no go. A No Va like GM. But imagine my dismay to find that some of the most outspoken opponents of Bush's, and honestly the Repulican Party's, illegal wire tapping, torture and attempts to deny the right to privacy (and yes the Supreme Court has upheld The Fourth Amedment as garaunteeing privacy) have turned about and are now proposing a national MEDICAL ID. In place of the miserable Real ID and the E-Verify, which they wisely pummeled with the stimulus package, the Democrats have simply substituted a series of studies that culminate in mandatory participation in medical tracking and the warehousing of your private medical records in a central database, where they can be perused at leisure by the federal government.

Sadly one of the Authors of this bill had the gall to ask, "What's so bad about wanting to save some money." That's like Captain Kramer (Commandant of Belsin) saying, "what's wrong with a little target practice and dog walking." Mister Obey it's how you do it that matters. Saving money by refusing to treat people because some actuarial table says they will die soon is murder. And the people drafting the bill, and yes that means you, are directly responsible for the suffering and death that will inevitably occur. You sir, are no better than and not signifiantly different from Alberto Gonzales. You seem to be a sincre man, and in the past you've clearly sought to promote the House Rules and perform in a manner that is fiscally and ethically upright. But this one bill is enough to outweigh any good you've ever done and unless you lead a movement to overturn the "Medical Information Technology" and "Medical Cost Savings" provisions of this bill you won't ever recover your integrity. But perhaps that doesn't trouble you.

I thought they were the party of change and new direction. This is reactionism to the politics and doctrines of the Tories under George III. Now I know the revolutionary war is not a hot-bed topic for most of us, and the fake-newsies would mock. But then they mocked us about torture in Cuba and about secret prisons and about a host of other issues where the Bush Administration mirrored that of Adolf Hitler. That is, until US Senators appearing as guests on their shows confirmed these issues on National Television. It really does take a slap stick to the temple to make Mr. Stewart really notice what he's mocking, and to make Mr. Colbert really think past his smug Characatures.

Don't mock. THINK! Our mutual future depends on watching washington more closely and actually acting to hinder the agendi of BOTH political parties. I'm not being alarmist, when the president that everyone in the media is so in love with that he can do no wrong, uses that love fest to sneak National ID and government funded Euthenasia Targeted primarily at the aged, through a congress that proudly proclaims its determination to be compassionate and reverse the totolitarian trend in US Government.

So I don't know if I'll be having cause to blog more often. I hope and pray that in the very near future the people will surprise me by waking up and taking back the power they've given into the hands of incompetents and maliscious politicos. If that were to happen then likely this blog -- designed to stir people to take back the reigns of power and change government from rule by the Corporations, for the Subcultural Minority and of the Wealthy Minority; to the fabulous vision that Lincoln espoused on that dolorus day in Gettesberg -- would likely become irrelevant. But it's a very thin hope. In an Era of "strict constructionist" judges, we have a federal circuit court daring to hear a case and go so far as to make a ruling on a properly drafted and legally implemented amendment to a State Constitution. The hope that the people govern themselves and Democracy (rule by the simple majority) is fading far to quickly.

? Fred Davis. fd4ds5 at 5:11 PM PST

Updated: 13 February 2009 6:08 PM PST

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Mood:  don't ask

In his opening salvo President Obama is seeking to eliminate the last remaining one out of the three forms of privacy garaunteed by the fourth amendment of the US Constitution. While republicans and democrats alike grind away at the question of methods and idologies regarding economic stimulus, the real business of the new stimulus package is to remove our last civil right. Our last civil right, because this particular attack on privacy quashes our Right to Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.

Included in the draconian depths of the stimulus package bills before the two houses are provisions for "studies" to evaluate the feasibility of euthenizing the elderly by preventing medical practicioners from providing health care to those who will likely not have a long life span. Make no mistake. It specifically includes authority for the Department of Health and Human Services to use federal law enforcement and military to enforce these measures.

 Another pernicious attack on the American People is a provision requiring that ALL persons resident in the US be compelled, by any federal means including military and Law enforcement, to submit to being documented in a central MEDICAL datbase by 2014.

Simply put, after testing competing methods and systems on military personnel and medicare/medicaide recipients, and our nation's veterans -- the federal government will construct a central medical database of all persons and you will be compelled to submit. Even persons whose sincere religious faith prevents them from using western Medicine will be compelled. Alternatively, if those persons are aged, they will be compelled to register, only to be promptly denied health care.

Amish, and other traditional cultures will be compelled, potentially at gun point. YOUR representitives are creating this. And Barack Obama is the most vocal spin doctor promoting it. Tom Daschel is the devil who conceived it. If you doubt me, read his book

Those of you who are Republican, your representitives have failed you, because they can't be bothered to deal with the civil rights issue that would have sickened men like Dwight Eisenhower and even Ronald Reagan. All we hear from them is, "look how much money is being spent." But there's no mention of the end of the privacy that was instituted to protect dissent and religious freedom.

This bill will end civil rights in the US, not with a warcry but with a whimper. But you go back to your TV and don't worry your head about it. After all, it's not your responsibility to watch your representatives... Is it?

 Fred

? Fred Davis. fd4ds5 at 9:06 AM PST

Updated: 13 February 2009 6:11 PM PST

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