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| Friday, April 28, 2006 Lack Of Logic Mr. Whitehead, I read your piece on Detention Camps on American Soil, and I must say, I find myself at issue with you, your lack of logic, your irresponsible propaganda, your technique, and your intentional misrepresentation of reality in order to sell yourself and your agenda. The cost of your arrogance is too high, it will be my freedom and personal sovereignty that will evaporate in the socialist movement you are either knowingly advancing, or ignorantly supporting. In the second paragraph, while delineating the rationale advanced in "the government contract" to build these camps, it is claimed by you, that according to the principles, they are to be built for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" ... in case of a natural disaster for example. You then translated, or at least inferred that to mean they are going to be used as prisons for political dissidents. The art of rhetoric is clearly not lost with you Mr. Whitehead. If you have seen this contract, and you better have since you advanced direct quotes of the "government contract", then by all means, share it with us. If you haven't, which is more likely in my opinion, then you knowingly misrepresented, or in other words, you lied. We are then maneuvered through "Paranoia, fear, and a post - 9/11 mentality" that you expertly manipulate into the "anticipation" for martial law. Citing Bush's call for more military involvement in American Life, you have deftly removed a phrase out of context, and inserted it in place to make your paranoid point. The call for more military involvement you refer to, was in fact, a call for military assistance at ground zero of a natural or terrorist disaster site. Good job on the twisting of facts to further your own agenda. What followed was a farcical collection of unfounded, biased, and inaccurate rumor represented by you as "proof" that FEMA has become a secret agency with designs on martial law, and responsibilities for quelling civil unrest as opposed to being in place for relief efforts. That would be the point of your diatribe where, in this mans opinion, you became completely irresponsible. There is an assumed mantle of responsibility when in a position such as the one you have accepted. I do not see you upholding that responsibility. Fact sir, that is your responsibility, not hearsay and rumor. Additionally, if you want to convince people to seek your guidance, and to accept your words in your effort to broaden your own power base, fact is your ally. Case in point, the internment camps from WWII were filled with a majority of non-Japenese Americans. Not that this fact relieves the wrongness of the act in question, for it does not, it does however paint a different and more accurate picture of what happened, and fails to support the contention the U.S will do the same thing with Americans of Arab descent. The other grossly misrepresented fact from the same passage claims "countless Arab Americans were swept up without due process immediately after 9/11". Countless Mr. Whitehead? Arab Americans Mr. Whitehead? Oh really Mr. Whitehead? You know that is not true, as do I. Arab immigrants were definitely rounded up. Arab visitors were also rounded up, and I will believe that Arab Americans were also mistakenly rounded up, until their identities were uncovered. Do you have a problem with this Mr. Whitehead? I do not. American citizens were not treated wrongly, resident and nonresident aliens were investigated at a time of crucial need, and I pray to God we continue that policy of action in order to protect the CITIZENS of this country. The government is accountable to the citizens of this great land, not citizens of the planet Mr. Whitehead. By the way, I believe if American's civil liberties were violated, we would be seeing "countless lawsuits filed by Arab Americans who were rounded up without due process" The ACLU would ensure that Mr. Whitehead. I have sounded off. Christopher M. Gas Prices I'm just an ordinary retired guy in Virginia you never heard of who's had enough. It's time to do something. Gasoline has been pushed to over $3 a gallon in most of the US this year due to the cost of oil. Every mile we drive or fly, every mile an 18-wheeler travels delivering goods, every watt of electricity generated from oil by the power company, national defense, medicine, every bit of plastic to wrap anything else in, each uses petrochemicals and cost more. Everyone in the chain of manufacture and sales can pass the added costs along. The only ones with no one to pass the costs to are you and me. We are the ones the others pass them to. We reimburse everybody. Who do we see about this? We can't expect anything but spin tokenism from the Bush-Cheney administration. Those families have been part of the oil industry since long before these men ran for office. We knew that all along. We can't expect help from the best Congress money can buy. Someone can, just not us. We can only do something about price gouging and excess profits ourselves. We can make intelligent choices. Here's who I'm not buying from. Exxon-Mobil Corporation announced on April 27 that it had $86 billion income in the first three months of 2006, and that $6.9 billion was profit. There's probably a good reason for this. They may even be entitled to it. Wall Street was disappointed it was so little. I don't care. Exxon-Mobil is the largest company in the U.S. as ranked on the Fortune 500 list. It's also the largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world. And it's the most profitable. Its operating profit in 2005 was $36.13 billion, an all-time record for any publicly traded company, replacing Wal-Mart as the world's largest corporation by revenue. Who does Exxon-Mobil blame for high oil prices? Car makers. John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute notes that, referring to a recent Exxon Mobil ad that blamed auto companies for the rising price of gas, Chrysler chief spokesman Jason Vines said: "Despite a documented history of blowing their exorbitant profits on outlandish executive salaries and stock buybacks, and hoarding their bounty by avoiding technologies, policies, and legislation that would protect the population and environment and lower fuel costs, Big Oil insists on transferring all of that responsibility on the auto companies." Which could explain why US auto companies are losing billions while Exxon-Mobil is making them. Exxon-Mobil is regarded by many environmentalists as an example of corporate irresponsibility and disregard for environmental concerns. The company has been a target of a number of campaigns by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and People and Planet. In 1989 the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled approximately 10 million gallons of oil into the waters of Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the most devastating oil spill of all time in U.S. waters. 34,000 people, most of them touched by the fisheries industry, were harmed by that spill. In 1995 a court fined Exxon $5 billion in damages. How much has the company paid? Zero. Exxon has been working the legal system all it can filing appeals and delays. This is a bad corporate citizen, one of the worst. For window dressing they donate a smidgen of their monster profits to charitable causes. A little here for Little League, a little there for the opera company. It gives them something cheerful to blurt about in full-color, full-page magazine ads. Expensive ads are a powerful influence on magazine and newspaper publishers not to take a hard look at a generous supporter like Exxon-Mobil. That's the American Way. You don't have a magazine. I don't have a newspaper. We have no reason to look the other way. Except that we were taught to turn the other cheek when we encounter abuse. Abusive companies like Exxon-Mobil act like we have no end of cheeks to turn. I've reached the end, and now is when I stop supporting Exxon-Mobil. There's nothing special about their gasoline. There are plenty of other filling stations with fuel of the same quality. In fact the two best German car companies say other brands have better additives, but that's not the issue here. The issue is that for the rest of 2006, none of the four cars in my family will be gassed up at stations selling Exxon-Mobil products. I hope you do the same for a company you choose. I hope you send this email to everyone you know. If enough people in America have backbones, and that's a big IF, our monster corporations might learn there are limits to the corporate abuse we will tolerate. Or maybe there aren't any limits for you? That's your decision. Nothing is without fallout. It's unfortunate that filling station operators must suffer but ordinary people have no power except individual choice. We can support the operators with car repairs and other automotive needs. You can expect to read newspaper stories attacking this idea, and the news channels will chatter. That's why corporations have public relations departments. Enjoy it; ignore it. --Rey B. Bravo Bravo Mr. Whitehead, for a job well done in exposing yet another discraseful example of our elected representatives trashing the very constitution they all swore to uphold. Detention camps on US soil, torture scandals, secret prison systems, unsecured borders in the era of suitcase atom bombs, attempting to sell strategic seaports to middle easterners whilst at war in the same region, spying on American Citizens without warrents, repeated violations of the first and fourth amendments with their Patriot Act, their Real ID Act, their Emergency Heath Powers Act, and their Terrorism Survalliance Act, wrecking our economy by driving us into the greatest debt the world has ever known, etc, etc. You're a lawyer Mr. Whitehead; and if I recall correctly, The Rutherford Institute was instrumental in helping to get Bill Clinton impeached for lying about an embarressing personal affair. Clinton was indisputably immoral, but this administration's transgressions border on the treasonous, wouldn't you agree? Additionally, didn't you found The Rutherford Institute to drive home the important point that "no one" is above the law? So I'm curious, exactly what you are doing to get President Bush impeached? It will be very interesting to hear your response to this letter. Sincerely, James H. Wednesday, April 26, 2006 Fascists Hmm. Didn't know about this but it doesn't surprise me. As usual it's the Bush/Cheney cabal. They wrap themselves in the cloak of patriotism when they are nothing but Fascists. Thank god they are only here for 2 more years. I can't imagine any future president, Republican or Democrat that could be as bad as this guy. --M. Tuesday, April 25, 2006 Internment Facts Mr. Whitehead either does not know the facts regarding internment in the US during World War II or he omitted the truth of the internment program. I say this because he only mentions the camps that were constructed for Japanese Americans. First, almost one million persons, 600,000 Italian Americans and 300,000 German Americans were declared to be and were required to register as "Alien Enemies." The registration resulted in the loss of their civil liberties; they were not permitted to fly; they were not permitted to possess cameras, short-wave radio receivers or firearms; they could travel outside of their neighborhoods; and they were required to report any change of address or employment to the Department of Justice. Second, almost 11,000 German Americans were interned in more than 50 camps and detention centers across the United States and in Hawaii. Thousands of the these internees were deported, including US-born infants and children to a Germany under siege where they were exchanged with our enemy, the Third Reich, for Americans and wounded soldiers caught behind enemy lines. For more on the internment of German Americans please visit http://www.foitimes.com. Sincerely, Arthur D. Jacobs Major, USAF Retired Concerned Friday, April 21, 2006 Outstanding Advice I just read your column today. Outstanding advice. In fact, I will continue to boycott Exxon and its subsidiaries as I have since the Valdez spill. Michael B. Thursday, April 20, 2006 The People Will Not Do It Oh I agree with you all the way, but the people will not do it. They will not stick together on this. I even said for a week or two 'don't buy gas period'. Fill your cars or trucks up on Sunday and hold out as long as you can. I understand as my Husband has to drive 50 miles every day to work. But we the people need to do something???????? Let's put an end to these people using us and laughing all the way to the bank at our expense. Carolyn Hoax I read your article on “Fight back against fast-rising gas prices” and found a website that claims the boycott is a hoax. However, I do agree with you about the fast-rising gas prices being very outlandish. Something needs to be done. The American consumer should not be the one who pays the most for the high demand or shortage of gas. If we can’t win with a boycott, than we need to find a way to stop the fast-rising gas prices. http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp Sincerely, Blake G. Tuesday, April 18, 2006 Keep Spreading The Word I applaud this; keep spreading the word and let's do it. I am one who almost always uses Exxon products, but no more for the rest of the year. I think it can work if we get the word out! Robert F. Tennessee The Real Immigration Problem Hello. Nothing real will be done. Too much money is being made for "free trade" by keeping an open border.Plus politicians can say they are not racists but are multicultural and have Christain compassion for the economically oppressed. The politicians are laughing and winking at each other. They will pass laws but know they will not provide money to enforce them so you get credit for doing something and at the same time credit for saving money.Even if there was money provided the laws will not be enforced since if they did then the campaign contributions would dry up. Even if it could be shown that an American city was nuked by terrorists who came across the Mexican border nothing would be done but talk but it would provide an opportunity to bypass constitutional freedoms. In fact I believe the government would try to cover up exactly where the nuke came from. We are screwed. Our government is not on our side but is a captive of large corporations and other special interests. However our "leaders" will make out like bandits.The real paid whores and pimps are our elites in management, politics,the law,the entertainment industry, the media and academia.One could try to be kind and hope most of these people are just ideologs or ignorant."Sex" sells for sure and the middle class are becoming the slaves.Pay your taxes,believe what you are told and make yourself and your children available for military service; otherwise just keep your mouth shut. Thanks for your attention. Monday, April 17, 2006 The Only Problem The only problem with that is that it is not how the “gasoline industry” works. They all sell gasoline to each other, share pipelines, local suppliers, etc. In fact, there is no difference in gas from Exxon to Shamrock to Chevron to Wal-Mart etc basically until it gets to the storage tank at your corner convenience store. If we don’t buy gas from Exxon, Exxon will sell that gas to Chevron, etc. The only people this will hurt is the local mom and pop store (of which the vast majority are mom and pops) and possibly smaller suppliers in our local area. Sorry, we represent several local gas station owners and I also learned very well how the “system” works when I worked on a fuel-pipeline spill case a few years ago in east Texas. Joshua B. Wednesday, April 12, 2006 Good Work Good work on your recent victory. My husband and I are glad that you are keeping the standard up. In other words, it is getting to be ridiculous in America. We can not even STAND on a PUBLIC sidewalk or in a PUBLIC park here in Alabama without being falsely arrested and imprisoned. The fact that the school would attempt to eliminate JESUS' name reveals the "anti-Christ" spirit in which the Bible speaks of. Please keep fighting for our BASIC constitutional rights of freedom of expression of our Religious beliefs. Please keep filing these lawsuits because the Bible demands that we go into ALL of the world and to preach the gospel to EVERY creature. Rutherford is definitely being obedient to GOD to help us to preach the gospel...even in the school. In JESUS' name, Glynis B. Thursday, April 06, 2006 Court Victory It never fails to amaze me how the ACLU continues to waste its time trying to dictate restrictions on statements of Christian belief, as if they didn’t have better things to do while the Constitution is being burned down around us, and as if censorship is not one of the major problems facing us! Notice, it’s supposedly okay to buy a brick and say “God Bless You” but not “Jesus Loves You.” Insane. As if censorship ever stops anywhere. It advances or it recedes (and usually a little of each, alternately). Do you want greater censorship? If not, you’re going to have to put up with other people expressing opinions you might not agree with. Is that really so hard to understand? Frank D. Tuesday, April 04, 2006 Wrong Once again you are WRONG. You would give Hitler, Stalin, and Nero all a Politically Correct trial. You know we need more people who call war what it is. The most humane thing one can do is win the war, sign the treaty and everybody go home and end the killing. Romney D. Proper Role Monday, April 03, 2006 Foolish Criticism Cut out the sophistry. Charis & shalom, Robert B. Barber & Bartz Santa Clara High Principal Completely Reversed His Stand Against Clubs! Joie M., Christian Clubs Advisor SCHS Santa Clara, California Typical Attitude I read with curiosity John Whitehead’s recent article “Edging Near Dictatorship?”. I agreed with him right up to the point where he suggests that judges are here to protect us from evil dictators and the like. Whitehead even quotes O’Connor to make his point, WOW! This is, unfortunately, a typical attitude among lawyers. Lawyers in general have an inflated idea of their position and intellect. Whitehead decries the rule of a dictator for the supposed benevolence of an oligarchy of justices. The Judiciary’s responsibility is to judge cases, not make law. Judicial review is a lawyer’s fabrication, supported both by the continued ignorance of the masses and manipulation of the power elite. If five out of nine men and women can rule that a law passed by Congress is unconstitutional and then have that ruling carry more weight than what Congress deliberated and passed, then we have an oligarchy. No where in the Constitution does it say that the Court has this authority. The Court can make whatever ruling it likes and then pontificate on that ruling until the Justices are blue in the face, but it’s not until the President chooses to enforce that ruling, that it can have meaning. Just ask Andrew Jackson. Congress can limit the appellate jurisdiction of the Court. Congress can impeach and punish both Justices and the President. Congress can override a presidential veto. Therefore, it is Congress’ duty, more than any other branch, to protect the people, through its power of the purse, power of impeachment and appellate oversight, from activist judges (lawyers who believe that they are wiser than all) and chief executives who believe that they should be kings. What Whitehead should really fear is the conglomeration of lawyers in Congress, men and women who should know the law and their proper role in representing, not leading, their constituents. Congress is shirking its responsibility to reign in the activist court and restrain the president. It is far easier to manipulate and control a single executive and five out of nine judges than it is to amend the Constitution. That’s why those offices are so often used to create policies and laws that would otherwise die on the vine in Congress. The Judiciary and the President have to be restrained and it is Congress’ duty to do so. Hopefully the lawyers in Congress will shake off the brainwashing that they received at law school and give their loyalty to the Country instead of their own kind. Chad B. JPRCC.org P.S. I noticed that John can no longer be e-mailed directly with comments. Private Property I read your article in the Grand Rapids press this past week and want to make a few comments about it..You mention Sandra Day O'Connor but you don't mention how she voted on the private property issue and several other votes she has made that are off base as far as I'm concerned so for her to mention that we are losing our freedoms when the Supreme court is part of the problem is almost laughable. Your article is only concerned about the 1st amendment but there are several other amendments as well including the 2nd amendment that politicians and lawyers such as your self seem to want to change but never the 1st amendment. In my opinion part of the problem is that the Supreme Court is taking the over what our Legislator is suppose to be doing, and finding stuff in the Constitution that isn't there. You might want to go back in history and check what our Government has done in past wars. And if you are going to get on a soap box about the 1st amendment then I would like to suggest that you do the same for the rest of the constitution. Thank you. Sincerely, Larry B. Grand Rapids, MI. |
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