Treason 3

Benedict Arnold

Treason: The betrayal of one's own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies. 

Under Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid and comfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States, such as furnishing enemies with arms, troops, transportation, shelter, or classified information. If a subversive act has any tendency to weaken the power of the United States to attack or resist its enemies, aid and comfort has been given.

The Treason Clause applies only to disloyal acts committed during times of war. Acts of dis-loyalty during peacetime are not considered treasonous under the Constitution.

- Legal Dictionary

Mitch McConnell’s Number One Priority

John Boehner’s Number One Priority

Barack Obama’s Number One Priority

Imagine a political party that keeps government from helping people, because that might lead people to support government. Imagine a political party that hurts parts of the country because those parts tend to not vote the way they want. Imagine a political party that would hurt the public, the economy and the country so they could say in the next election, "Hey look at how the country is hurting, vote for us instead." That could never happen here, could it?

- Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future, July 27th 2013

   Could it?

   Why yes, it could.

   Despite House Speaker Boehner’s proclamation that jobs remain the House’s number one priority, they have voted down President Obama’s Job Bill, and not offered a single one of their own.

   Instead they’ve used limited and precious Congressional time and money voting on abortion oriented bills, names for post offices, and at least 40 times to revoke The Affordable Healthcare Act, what is often referred to as Obamacare (perhaps the Democrats should have countered the Republicans slang machine by utilizing the term “Americacare” instead. Yet the President embraced the former).

   Boehner knows a bill to repeal Obamacare will not pass through the Democratically controlled Senate, and even if it did, how likely is it that the President would repeal his own policy.

   I say almost exactly 0 chance. 0. Nada, No way. Eeemmm Uuummm.

   So what the Republicans spend their time... or I should say our time doing is appeasing what they perceive to be their base, their political support, for the sole purpose of keeping themselves in power at the expense 90% of the nation’s people.

   Let’s explore a moment Mr. Johnson’s quote above.

   “Imagine a political party that keeps government from helping people...”

   Imagine a political party that rewards multi-national corporations which ship, or outsource jobs out of their own country to other countries where labor costs and taxes may be more advantageous for those companies, but deleterious for the citizens of said country who voted that party into power in order to look after their interests (when given a chance to stop the outsourcing of American jobs overseas, Speaker Boehner and his Republican colleagues balked. In September of 2010, Republicans in Congress killed a bill that would have eliminated tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs). 

   Whose interests are that party actually shepherding, their own citizens who they were sworn to protect and nurture, or those of the multinational corporations?

   Imagine a political party that continuously votes to defund public education for the children of its own citizens, arguably the most precious and valued resource that country possesses. Imagine a political party that insists on shifting funds intended for public education to private schools that also happen to teach their own religious ideology as science to the determent of the children they have sworn to nurture.

   Look at this, this, this, and this.     

   Imagine a political party that ignores the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community (98% vs 2%), and empirical, verifiable evidence that the planet’s climate is systematically warming, providing the greatest threat the country and the world has yet faced, no matter what the cause of that warming may be, in order to keep industries like oil, natural gas and coal, running while continuing to pollute the atmosphere, with the short term goal of maximizing profits. Imagine a political party that champions these industries at the expense of newer, renewable, clean energy sources.

   Imagine a political party that insists on repealing, or defund their countries healthcare policy that provides low cost health insurance for the majority of that countries citizens, saving or improving the lives of millions of those citizens, while lowering the entire healthcare costs for the nation, entirely for political reasons.

   Imagine a political party that refuses to provide funds to improve their countries own infrastructure, it’s roads, highways, bridges, electrical grid, railroads, aviation systems, dams, and

other public use systems... in order to adhere to that parties idealogy that spending and the national debt are more important.

   Imagine a political party that continously votes to undermine their own country’s social safety net, programs designed to help it’s poor, disabled, and elderly, who would instead funnel the money used to implement these programs to business and banking interests. And imagine that same political party maintaining the facade that it champions Christian values while ignoring true Christian values in practical applications, such as programs designed to help the poor, disabled, and elderly.

   Imagine a political party that when last in power ruined it’s own economy.

   Imagine a political party that when last in power began two wars that were unnecessary, in that they could have been avoided, that were not relevant to the problem at hand (a domestic attack), costing the lives of thousands of it’s own citizens, and hundreds of thousands of lives of foreign nationals, and the displacement of millions of others.  

   Imagine a political party that continuously and systematically lies and misinforms their own constituents, at the expense of these constituents own best interests.

   Imagine a President who has to resort to what is tantamount to bribing the leaders of the opposition political party to do their job and promote programs to put that countries citizens to work, and that party still refuses to do anything to advance the country’s interests, including the interests of that party’s own constituents.

Facts and Observations

   Not a single Democrat voted for John Kline's anti-education bill, H.R. 5. It passed Friday, 221-207, a dozen Republicans crossing the aisle and voting with Team Pelosi. The bill, which Kline and the rest of the GOP zombies call the Student Success Act, was supposed to rewrite No Child Left Behind. If anything, they've managed to make a terrible law even worse. -Down with Tyranny

  

   In the rest of the United States, public education is just as underfunded as it is in Detroit. As a result, in 2008, the US' high school graduation rate was lower than the rates of the UK, Switzerland, Norway, South Korea, Japan, Italy and a host of other developed nations.

   And, according to multiple reports released in December of last year, fourth and eighth-grade students in the U.S. lag behind students in many East Asian and European nations when it comes to math and science. And those same reports revealed that European and Asian nations spend far more money and spend it more wisely on education than we do here.

    But Speaker Boehner and his Republican colleagues must be content with these stats, because they have done next to nothing to boost funding for public education in America.

   And Republican inaction in Congress doesn't stop at refusing to address public education, gun violence, infrastructure and jobs in America. Since John Boehner has been Speaker of the House, Republicans have voted nearly 40 times to repeal Obamacare, they've refused to address climate change, they've refused to reel in the big banks on Wall Street, and they've refused to address the home foreclosure crisis.

   Each year, the American Society of Civil Engineers releases a "report card" for America's infrastructure. And, in its 2013 report card, the ASCE gave a D to America's roads and highways, a D to America's transit system, a D to America's aviation system, a D+ to America's energy infrastructure, and a C+ to America's bridges.

   But, despite America's crumbling infrastructure, Speaker Boehner and the rest of Republicans in Washington have repeatedly refused to provide the funding needed to bring America's infrastructure out of the 1800's and into the 21st century.

   Nationwide, there were nearly 8,600 homicides by firearms in 2011, which accounted for more than two-thirds of all homicides in 2011. And, as we know, mass shootings like the ones in Aurora and Newtown have become the norm.

   But again, Speaker Boehner and Republican lawmakers in Washington have failed to pass any comprehensive legislation to address the gun violence epidemic in America, or the inequality and poverty that are driving it. -Thomm Hartman

The War on Women

   Republicans have been busy defunding Planned Parenthood and other forms of publicly funded family planning like Title X. They don’t want to offer birth control pills via healthcare reform. They are against sex education and promote abstinence only instead. Republicans pass these policies off as “pro-life” because they claim they hate abortion, and yet, their policies lead to more abortions.

   In 2010, publicly funded family planning averted 760,000 abortions, according to a Guttmacher Institute report “Contraceptive Needs and Services 2010″ released in July of 2013.

   They write, “In 2010, publicly funded contraceptive services helped women prevent 2.2 million unintended pregnancies; 1.1 million of these would have resulted in unplanned births and 760,000 in abortions.”

   So, to be clear, Republican policies will lead to 66% increase in unintended pregnancies, unplanned births and abortions — and even more among teens. -Sarah Jones

Sequester

   There is no single federal budget bill, but a series of bills for combinations of different agencies. In 2013, House Appropriations Committee has been approving budgets that present some of the most draconian cuts seen in a generation. This week saw the panel pass a budget bill cutting the Environmental Protection Agency by 34 percent, including cuts to clean water programs by 60 percent. It gave the White House a quarter of what it sought for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and cut National Park funds by 10 percent and cuts national arts and humanities funding in half. -Steven Rosenfeld

   Why are these spending cuts necessary? The Republicans claim it’s because of the huge national deficit, which they also claim is the country’s biggest problem (while also claiming that job creation is their Number1 priority).

   Yet...

Deficit

   The federal budget deficit is shrinking. That might not surprise you if you know about the sequester and other budget gymnastics that have gone on in Washington.

   But, what’s perhaps more surprising is that the deficit is shrinking far faster than anyone in Washington anticipated it would.  That bit of information, together with a slew of other recent economic reports about the state of the housing market and consumer confidence paint a brighter picture of the economy than we’ve gotten used to seeing. -The Takeaway

   The Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday that the federal budget deficit is declining this year compared to fiscal 2012.

   For the first seven months of 2013, the deficit was $489 billion. That is $231 billion less than the budget shortfall for the comparable period last year.

   The decrease is almost entirely due to revenue increases. Revenues rose $200 billion and spending decreased only $11 billion. -Erik Wasson

On and on

   In recent weeks, officials in states like New York and California have boasted about lower premiums for residents thanks to the Affordable Care Act. But on Friday, Indiana, where Republican officials dominate, announced the law would force a premium increase of 72%. How it that possible? As Sarah Kliff, Jonathan Cohn, and others explained over the weekend, GOP policymakers in the state arrived at the figure by cooking the books and jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information...

   Fourth, congressional Republicans have repeatedly denied the Obama administration funds needed for implementation. Fifth, GOP leaders have shamelessly discouraged private-sector partnerships with Washington on public-awareness campaigns, in the hopes that public ignorance might help undermine the efficacy of the system. Sixth, many Republicans at the state level are refusing to allow Medicaid expansion, no matter how much damage it does to their state. And seventh, these same GOP officials in the states are refusing to create exchanges, making it that much more difficult for federal officials to meet deadlines and fully implement the law on time.

   When I talk about efforts to "sabotage" Obamacare, this is what I'm talking about..-Steve Benen

   The Republican Party has spent 30 years careering ever more deeply into ideological extremism, but one of the novel developments of the Obama years is its embrace of procedural extremism. The Republican fringe has evolved from being politically shrewd proponents of radical policy changes to a gang of saboteurs who would rather stop government from functioning at all. In this sense, their historical precedents are not so much the Gingrich revolutionaries, or even their tea-party selves of a few years ago; the movement is more like the radical left of the sixties, had it occupied a position of power in Congress. And so the terms we traditionally use to scold bad Congresses—partisanship, obstruction, gridlock—don’t come close to describing this situation. The hard right’s extremism has bent back upon itself, leaving an inscrutable void of paranoia and formless rage and twisting the Republican Party into a band of anarchists.

   And the worst is not behind us. -Jonathan Chait

   Over the past three months, [Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary’s activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.

   An HHS spokesperson said Sebelius was within the bounds of her authority in asking for help.

But Republicans charged that Sebelius’s outreach was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to support the Affordable Care Act. The latest controversy has emerged as the law faces a string of challenges from GOP lawmakers in Washington and skepticism from many state officials across the country.

“To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. “I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law.” -Sarah Kliff

   Consider the implicit argument there. The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, and the Obama administration is legally bound to implement it. Having denied the necessary funding to do so, Republicans now want to hinder the administration’s ability to transfer other funding, to ensure that Obamacare becomes the disaster Republicans have promised. -Ezra Klien

    When a law is enacted, representatives who opposed it have some choices (which are not mutually exclusive). They can try to repeal it, which is perfectly acceptable—unless it becomes an effort at grandstanding so overdone that it detracts from other basic responsibilities of governing. They can try to amend it to make it work better—not just perfectly acceptable but desirable, if the goal is to improve a cumbersome law to work better for the betterment of the society and its people. They can strive to make sure that the law does the most for Americans it is intended to serve, including their own constituents, while doing the least damage to the society and the economy. Or they can step aside and leave the burden of implementation to those who supported the law and got it enacted in the first place.

   But to do everything possible to undercut and destroy its implementation -- which in this case means finding ways to deny coverage to many who lack any health insurance; to keep millions who might be able to get better and cheaper coverage in the dark about their new options; to create disruption for the health providers who are trying to implement the law, including insurers, hospitals, and physicians; to threaten the even greater disruption via a government shutdown or breach of the debt limit in order to blackmail the president into abandoning the law; and to hope to benefit politically from all the resulting turmoil -- is simply unacceptable, even contemptible. One might expect this kind of behavior from a few grenade-throwing firebrands. That the effort is spearheaded by the Republican leaders of the House and Senate -- even if Speaker John Boehner is motivated by fear of his caucus, and McConnell and Cornyn by fear of Kentucky and Texas Republican activists -- takes one's breath away. -Norm Ornstein

   Does all of the above constitute treasonous acts committed by Republicans in Congress? Certainly more so than the examples of Obama’s treason cited in the first two parts of this post.

   One prerequisite for treason according to the Constitution is that the country be at war. That prerequisite is met. I believe the actions, or should I say the non-actions of the Republicans in Congress, are tantamount to a  betrayal of allegiance to the United States, or rather  the majority of the people of the United States. It’s citizens. Instead their allegiance lies with powerful business interests and the ultra wealthy, at the expense of the citizens of the United States.

   The same applies for those powerful business interests themselves, and a percentage of the ultra wealthy who profit from them.

   Perhaps larceny, embezzlement, tax avoidance, and malicious mischief are better, more appropriate terms that can be applied to the crimes committed by Congress.

   But in my mind it will always be treason.



  "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." -- Sinclair Lewis

Happy Birthday Anne Archer!

Fatal Attraction

Picture Legend

1. Beautiful Anne
2. “The Shadow” John Archer
3. Anne’s mom, Marjorie Lord, cheating with Danny Thomas
4. “Hold me Closer Tiny Dancer”
5. Early head shot
6. First film with James Coburn
7. Or, first film with Jon Voight in “All American Boy”... take your pick
8. With Sam Elliot in Lifeguard
9. “Fatal Attraction” with Glenn Close & Michael Douglas
10. With Harrison Ford fighting Irish people in “Patriot Games”
11. A Golden Globe for Golden Globe Girl in Altman’s “Short Cuts”
12. With Ford and Clancy again in “A Clear and Present Danger”
13. “Rules of Engagement” with Tommy Lee Jones & Samuel Jackson
14. With Tommy again in “Man of the House”
15. “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”
16. Playing Jennifer Love Hewitt’s mom on “Ghost Whisperer”
17. Sexy shot
18. With hubby, producer Terry Jastrow
19. Beautiful Anne

   It is my great pleasure and honor this morning to give a happy birthday shout out to one of my favorite actresses, Ms Anne Archer!

   Anne is an L.A. girl, born here at a very early age as a small female infant. Not surprisingly her parents we’re both successful actors. John Archer, who began his acting career on the radio playing Lamont Cranston in "The Shadow," (here’s an interesting tidbit... “30 Rock,”s Alex Baldwin also played Cranston in a 1994 version of “The Shadow,” after appearing as the first actor to play the Jack Ryan character in 1990‘s “The Hunt for Red October,” a role later played by both Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. Anne of course played Cathy Ryan, Jack’s wife, with Ford in two films) before turning to films and appearing in such classics as “White Heat,” with James Cagney, “Rock Around the Clock,” with Bill Haley & His Comets,” (and which obviously inspired the famous sit-com “Happy Days”), “Ten Thousand Bedrooms,” (which when you think about it is a lot of bedrooms) Dean Martin’s first film after he broke up with Jerry Lewis, “Decision at Sundown,” with Randolph Scott, and “Blue Hawaii,” with Elvis Presley.

   Anne’s mom, Marjorie Lord, after working for Universal Pictures in several films (including “Sherlock Holmes in Washington,” starring my favorite Sherlock actor, Basil “The Nose" Rathbone), was offered the role of Kathy "Clancey" O'Hara Williams, the wife of Danny Williams, who was really Danny Thomas, on “The Danny Thomas Show,”  (known as “Make Room for Daddy” during the first three seasons) from 1957 to 1964, “The Danny Thomas TV Family Reunion,” (considered the first ever reunion show on television) in 1965, a couple of specials, and one season of “Make Room for Granddaddy,” in 1970. For those readers who may not remember Danny Thomas or his show, he is also famous for being the father of Marlo Thomas, who rose to fame in her own sit-com, “That Girl,” from 1966 to 1971. Marlo is now married to one of my favorite people, former television host Phil Donahue, and also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by her father Danny.

   Little is known of Anne’s early years as she is dark and mysterious. Perhaps she’ll read this and fill us in with a comment. Many have.

   We do know that she attended and earned a degree in Theater Arts at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont California (34°6′36″N 117°43′11″W), "The City of Trees and PhDs," because it is famous for it’s trees and the Claremont colleges there. It’s about 32.5 miles from where I’m writing this. It’s also been rated the fifth best place to live in the United States, and the first in California.

   Eat that Beverly Hills!

   I don’t know if Anne actually lived in Claremont. She may have driven home to Sixth and Broadway here downtown each day for all I know.

   Having that degree in Theater Arts and all, it was perfectly appropriate for her to seek work in the television and film industry, which is also situated right here in L.A. (also for all we know Anne has never ever left Los Angeles and it’s surrounding communities in her entire life. Many haven’t). 

   She started work in television guest roles on shows like “Men at Law,” (with Robert Foxworth) “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mod Squad,” “Ironside,” (with “Godzilla” frontman Raymond Bur. A show I delivered booze to once on their sound stage from my dad’s liquor store which was right across the street. I have the distinct honor of hearing Raymond exclaim “Shit!” after blowing a line), and “Alias Smith and Jones” (which was a ripoff of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and starred Ben Murphy and Peter Duel. I remember once delivering booze to a wrap party on a set where Mr. Duel wanted to help me carry whatever it was I was delivering (at the time I was a small child). “I can do it,” I told him. “I know you can,” he said to me.  Sometime after that, apparently depressed due to his alcoholism, he would fatally shoot himself in the head on the last day of 1971).

   In August of 1969 Anne married William Davis, with whom she had one son, Tommy. The couple divorced in 1977.

   In 1971 Anne was given the honor of becoming Miss Golden Globe,  an annual title awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The honoree, traditionally the daughter (or son) of a celebrity, assists in the Association's presentation of the Golden Globe Awards.

   For instance this year Miss Golden Globe is Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood and the actress Frances Fisher.

   Other past Miss Golden Globe’s include Laura Dern (“Blue Velvet,” “Jurassic Park”), Melanie Griffith (“Working Girl” “Body Double”), and like my third favorite Playboy Playmate ever, Rosanne Katon (“The Swinging Cheerleaders”).

   Once at least the honor was handed down a generation. In 2006 Dakota Johnson (no relation to Fanning) became Miss Golden Globe. Dakota is the daughter of “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.

   There’s some contention as to which was Anne’s first appearance in a feature film. The Internet Movie Data Base lists “The Honkers,” starring James Coburn as her first film role in 1972 (Wikipedia also lists this as her first). In the Internet Movie data Base’s bio of Anne it proclaims “All American Boy,” starring Jon Voight as her first, as does her website. It also states that movie was released in 1973. 1972... 1973... by golly, they’re so close together it doesn’t matter I guess.

    Also in 73, Anne won the Natalie Wood role in the television adaptation of the film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” which lasted for 12 episodes, the point being she was getting bigger and better jobs, which gave her larger and greater recognition.

   More television work, then in 1976 she got her first female lead in a feature. “Lifeguard,” opposite Sam Elliott. 

   At the end of 1978 she married sports and entertainment producer Terry Jastrow, with whom she is still married today, and with whom she had another son, Jeffrey Tucker Jastrow in 1984.

   She auditioned for the role of Lois Lane for 1978's “Superman,” but lost out to Margot Kidder.

   Anne helped Jason Robards “Raise the Titanic,” in 1980. She helped Ryan O’Neal find “Green Ice,” (not to be confused with Yellow Snow) in 1981. In 1985 she appeared in 22 episodes of the prime time soap opera “Falcon Crest” (reuniting with Robert Foxworth).

   Then in 1987 she gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of aggrieved wife Beth Gallagher, in “Fatal Attraction,” which also starred the lovely Glenn Close (who was nominated for Best Actress) and Michael Douglas (who won the honor of staring at Sharon Stone’s cooter in “Basic Instinct”)

   She played Cathy Ryan, eye surgeon and Harrison Ford’s wife in 1992‘s “Patriot Games,” and the producers and audience liked her so much they asked her to do it again in “Clear and Present Danger,” two years later.

   But the year before that she went back to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, this time as an accomplished actress, and won a Golden Globe Award for Ensemble Acting (the ensemble including Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Fred Ward,  Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Buck Henry, Lily Tomlin, our friend Madeleine Stowe, and musicians Huey Lewis and Tom Waits) in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts.” The year... 1993.

   To put a little icing on the cake she was voted the 62nd Sexiest Star in the entire history of film by Empire magazine in 1995.

   I don’t know about the ranking but she certainly belongs on the list.

   Anne has worked consistently since. She may be working at this very moment in movies like 2000‘s “Rules of Engagement,” with Tommy Lee Jones, and TV shows like “Boston Public,” and as a raging lesbian in “The L Word” (I’ll have to check that out). In 2005 she got freaking married to Tommy Lee in “Man of the House.”

   She played Danny DeVito’s estranged wife on “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and Jennifer Love Hewitt’s mother on “Ghost Whisperer.”

   She could whisper to ghosts too, but just didn’t want to.

   I for one don’t blame her.

   Her work on the stage includes the world premiere of "The Poison Tree" at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" in Massachusetts and the starring role in the London West End production of "The Graduate", for which she received rave reviews as a raging Mrs. Robinson. She began theater in New York  debuting as "Maude Mix" in the celebrated Off-Broadway production of John Ford Noonan's "A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking".

   In 2011 she starred in the Los Angeles stage production of “Jane Fonda, In The Court of Public Opinion” written and directed by her husband Terry Jastrow. The play will be produced in the West End in London in early 2014 I’m told.

    Between 1982 and 1986 Anne was a spokeswoman for Applied Scholastics, the literacy training organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology, of which she is a member.

   She’s got good company in being a member... Tom Cruise and John Travolta, etc. A lot people think the church’s ideology is crazy, and it’s just a big scheme to separate people from their money. Well I say in that, the  Church of Scientology is little different than any other church.

   I’m not exactly sure when it was exactly that I became cognizant of Anne and her work, she was like always there for me. I do know that she is one of those rare actors or actresses who always make a film or show better by simply by being in it.

   All of us here at Joyce’s Take love Anne and wish her and her family continued good health and fortune, and of course, a very happy birthday!

   Happy birthday Anne!

Here’s a link to her web site.

Skid Row Diary 12

August 3  2003      Sunday     Day 22

   I slept in late, not concerned with signing in at the front desk. I got up at 10:15, or so, chastised myself for sleeping the day away, then showered.

   I signed up for the computer for 11:30, and had just enough time to walk up to 5th St. and buy a Sunday paper at the Hollywood Mart.

   I checked my Email on the computer. I had about 30 messages, most of them from job sites which are looking for jobs for me automatically. I tried to get into the student info system at LACC to register for classes and discovered they did scheduled maintenence on the site on Sundays, so it was unavailable to me.

   Figures.

   I didn’t try and find the VCR adapter today. I figured I’d do that tomorrow as I’d be out near adapterland anyway.

   After lunch I listened to The Prairie Home Companion Joke Show on NPR while writing.

   Man on his deathbed confessing to his wife:

   “Dear, before I die I want to admit that I was unfaithful to you...”

   “I know dear,” she replied. “That’s why I poisoned you.”

   That’s an old one.

   I turned on the television at 1:00 to watch “Death Wish III,” starring the lovely Marina Sirtis, our STNG Counselor Troi. That was the only reason I wanted to watch it. The rest of the movie was horrible.

   This was her first acting job in America (she’s British), and she played an Hispanic wife named Maria. At least in the edited for T.V. version I was watching she didn’t have any lines. She screamed a few times because she was raped and killed, which made me very sad.

   Damn you Charles Bronson! You could have saved her!

   A lady veteran has moved in just across the hall from me in room 585. She’s blonde, about my age, and seems to have a fun personality.

   I shall have to keep my distance as it is very easy for these girls to become infatuated with me, and then it’s always quite painful when I have to eventually break it off, for I am, above all, a rambling man.

   I wrote a great deal today, and read the Sunday paper.

   At 4:00 I watched “Young Sherlock Holmes,” produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Barry Levinson, and written by Chris Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter films. 

   I had liked it in 1985, but I was drunk a lot back then. It seemed pretty silly to me today.

   A very good movie, one that I hadn’t seen before, “The Deceiver,” starring Rosanna Arquette, followed Sherlock. I was reading while watching it at the same time, which I don’t do very well anymore. I’d like to rent this film, a story involving a crime suspect turning the tables on his police interrogators, and devote my full attention to it.

   My appreciation of it was stifled due to the fact that I watched an episode of “Futurama,” half way through it. I had to do it, the show was that good. Tonight’s message being, we shouldn’t take TV so seriously and turn it off once in a while.

   “Should we turn it off, Professor?”

   “Well, that depends on what’s on!”

   “Nothing’s on.”

   “Well let’s keep watching for a while just in case...”

   Beware of the TV Hypno Frog.

   I also watched “Enterprise,” (nominated for 5 Emmys, which may be the only reason it’s getting a third season). Wisps of undifferentiated nothingness were attempting to hijack the Enterprise.

   Sons of bitches!

   I didn’t finish writing until 10:30. I finished reading everything in the paper except the book review.

   An “X-Files,” episode I hadn’t seen before came on at 11:00. “The Man Who Would Walk Through Walls, But Not Glass,” episode.

   I exercised before going to sleep. I dreamt I was hooked up to a polygraph machine and Rosanna Arquette was questioning me.

   “Do you really love me?” she asked.

   “Yes, of course,” I said.

   “You don’t own any VCR tapes with me in them,” she observed. “You have three with that bitch Jennifer Connelly...”

   “I don’t have any yet!” I maintained. “Not yet. I haven’t any with you simply because I haven’t come across any yet. I’m earnestly looking for a copy of “The Wild Lady,” right now.”

   “Oh, you only like that one because you can see my boobs in it!” she exclaimed.

   “That’s not true! That was one of your finest performances in my opinion. Besides, you show your boobs in most of your movies.”

   “That’s true,” she admitted. “I know you like my sister, my younger sister. Do you like her more than me?”

   “No, of course not. I like both of you just as much... but for different reasons. Besides, you’re married.”

   “Good answer,” she said. “But not good enough!”

   She had me put in jail, and I was electrocuted a little bit later.

   You have to watch what you say around those Arquette girls.

4 August   Monday     Day 23

   I woke several times during the night because I was being electrocuted, and listened to Frank Sontag speaking. It wasn’t a dream. His voice emanated from my radio. If I would have actually seen him in my room I would have been dreaming, and would have been having a nightmare as Frank is pretty scary looking.

   But he’s a big softy at heart.

   At one point Frank was talking to gentleman who said he was black and wondered what if all the other black people in this country who felt they’ve been given a raw deal form their own country, and live happily ever after... like they do in Liberia.

   I over slept. I should have gotten up at 4:00AM, or so, but didn’t emerge from my rack until 7. Mark and Brian were bust yacking away because Priva, their lovely young board op was getting married. I turned the TV on. Giselle was wearing pants.

   I give up.

   I showered and went to breakfast... after I dressed. Scrambled eggs and sausage.

   I had an 8:00 appointment, you may recall, with Larry the job developer. I went to the Levi Center and was told Larry was in a meeting until 8:30. Did I wait for him? No, I did not. Hell no. I left him a note asking him to reschedule for a time when he would literally be there, and to leave a note in my box at the Weingart.

   No note was left in my box today, a sure sign of lazy arrogance on Larry’s part.

   I walked up to 5th St., and caught the 18 to the Food For Less grocery store, where one can buy food for less money than anywhere else (why absolutely everyone doesn’t shop there I have no idea).

   I bought three cheese rolls. I had wanted jalapeno cheese rolls but they didn’t have any. I also picked up a can of light spam to add to my collection.

   As one walks out of the Food For Less store, to the left is a big elevator which will magically transport you to a Home Depot parking lot. I walked inside the cavernous store to look for my tiny, little adaptor. Surely it would be somewhere here among the mountains of merchandise just sitting around ready to be fondled.

   Nope.

   I left all dejected and suicidal, walked down the street to the 99 Cent store on Alvarado, and bought a new mustache trimmer which cheered me right up.

   I currently sport a mustache that needs trimming from time to time.

   I also bought a small, plastic, battery operated desk fan.

   Then I got the hell out of there before I spent any more money. Next to the store is a Red Line station, which I used to get to LACC, back to the old financial aid office. I had received an Email summoning me, however their computers were down at the time and Colette asked me to come back at a latter time, presumably when their computers were working. Colette told me that when I did return I wouldn’t have to take a number to be seen, to just come up and see her. Colette and I are like peas and carrots now.

   I made my way to the library and had the assessment test lady make a copy of my math test results, as I had already lost the original.

   I then went to the counseling office and showed my PCC transcript to the counseling lady.

   “Do you want to take another English class, like one oh two?” she asked me.

   “Yes,” I answered.

   “Then you need to fill out this form.”

   I filled it out and signed it. She told me to take the form to the admissions office and have it entered into their computer. I did this. I also used a closed line telephone to register for English 102, and Law 10. I now owed the business office $8.

   I didn’t pay then. Not yet. I have to figure out how I’m going to pay for my books first.

   Poverty is such an imposition.

   I left the campus and returned via the Red Line to Pershing Square, then walked to the Rite-Aid drug store on 5th and Broadway, and there found my adapter. $2.49.

   All happy now, I then walked to Arco Plaza to check my mail. My CA7 (U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, Claim for Compensation) was there waiting for me. I knew it would be. I filled it out and mailed it back.

   Next I walked to the One Stop. As I entered the Research Center Supervisor, the young man who had previously tried to bust me misappropriating one of the computers, was presented with two bouquets of flowers in honor of it being his birthday.

   “If only I had known,” I told him.

   The lady from the 714 area code had left me another message, leaving me different phone number to call back. Very persistent she is. Obviously she wants me to be her sexual toy.

   Perhaps I should call back. The worst that could happen is that I get a job.

   I faxed my resume off to 6 prospective employers, and since there were no computers available, I left and returned to the Weingart... just in time for lunch. All my business was completed by noon.

   On my way to the Weingart I stopped at the 6th St. indoor mall at Los Angeles, and purchased a copy of “Blaze,” starring the lovely Lolita Davidovich. $3.00. It’s my favorite Lolita Davidovich film. I don’t know why.

   I think Paul Newman’s in it to.

   Back in my room I hooked up my VCR and tested it. It worked beautifully. Now I can watch all of those VCR tapes I’ve been buying.

   Since one of the classes I had registered for began at 5:00PM I decided I should drop it, and choose another that started later in the evening. I used the computer in the day room to accomplish this, however I could not find another English class that was open. I took this as a sign from God that I was not meant to write gooder at this particular time.

   Maybe later.

   I successfully registered for another law class dealing specifically with civil rights.

   I caught up on writing, read from the Watts Zen book, and meditated.

   Then I treated myself by watching a movie on my brand new VCR. I choose the classic, “Lobsterman from Mars.”  I exercised while watching, then compensated by eating 2 smoked sausages, and 2 of the cheese rolls.

   I secretly fell in love with the Lobstermans’s heroine, Deborah Foreman.

   Please don’t tell anybody.

   John Manzano came by. He brought me a laundry bag from his mother’s dry cleaners as a present. He had spent the weekend in Camarillo again, returning this morning at 8:00.

   “And I was ready to go fishing too,” I told him. “And where was my friend John? Where was the guy who invited me to go with him? I even rented a nice fishing pole...” On and on.

   He was tired and left after a while. I watched Charlie Rose interview a very laconic Nick Nolte who was promoting his latest films, “Northfork,” and “Hulk,” and about his recent problems with the law here in L.A. An addict, he had been experimenting with Rohypnol, the most famous “date rape” drug, and things had gotten out of control.

   Nolte didn’t seem very happy, rather he seemed defensive and ashamed, although he made a show of being open, wanting to get all of these pesky drug problems behind him.

   I don’t blame him.

   Later, The History Detectives were... how should I put this... boring the crap out of me, so I switched to channel 30 on UHF, to watch “High Road to China,” starring the lovely Bess Armstrong. The film was one of Tom Selleck’s unsuccessful attempts to become a big time movie star.

   Should have taken those Indiana Jones movies Tom.

   Well hindsight’s 20/20, isn’t it?

   A pre ”Cocoon” Wilford Brimley was in it as well, just off John Carpenter’s fantastic remake of Howard Hawks 1951 “The Thing from Another World,” entitled, “The Thing,” both based on the novella “Who Goes There?” written by John W. Campbell. Considering the context of the story, that’s a very creepy title.

   But I digress.

   Gary Porch dropped by while I was watching Bess, and reading from “The Criminal Law Handbook, specifically concerning search and seizures. He wanted to buy some more coffee from me.

   “What do I look like? Smart and Final?” I asked him.

   He told me had accidentally purchased regular coffee rather than instant, and was in need of some emergency coffee. I sold him a bottle of Brazilian instant. We chatted for a while. Gary likes to dicuss things that concern only him. He’s not that much interested in what others say or do. He told me he had missed his GROW appointment again today. Now his GR and food stamps will surely be cut off as he had already been issued a final warning. He told me he didn’t care. He can make a lot more money at casual labor, which he’s been doing anyway, and which the DPSS will soon discover because he pays payroll taxes at the casual labor place. Then he’ll be in the same position that I’m in.

   He told me his friend Patrick got in a spot of trouble over the weekend. Apparently he had brought a bottle of booze up to his room, got drunk, then ventured out of his room, and got  into an altercation with another resident. Those are two termination offenses... drinking in the building and fighting. Gary told me that Patrick had miraculously not been thrown out. But Gary hasn’t seen him around either.

    Perhaps he’s been liquidated by the infamous Weingart Secret Police.

   We shall see.

   He left me after a while. They all do.

   I watched the rest of the movie, then switched to channel 28 for “An American Experience,” episode about John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Colorado River journey through the Gand Canyon. I don’t believe he had a good trip, but I fell into a deep sleep before the program was half way through.

   I had a dream. I dreamt I was flying in a monoplane over the hills and glens of County Cork in Ireland with Moria Kelly, the beautiful and talented star of “The Cutting Edge,” and “Chaplin. We both had scarfs wrapped around our necks, and the wind streamed through our hair. I looked back at Moria. She was gorgeous.

   The day was bright and sunny, the countryside rich and green. We both sang the same song, or ditty, over and over again. It went like this:

  

“Those magnificent men in their flying machines,

    they go up tiddly up up,

    they go down tiddly down down.

    They enchant all the ladies and steal all the scenes,

    with their up tiddly up up

    and their down tiddly down down.

    Up, down, up, down, flying around,

    looping the loop and defying the ground.

    They're all frightfully keen,

    those magnificent men in their flying machines.

   And so forth.

5 August   Tuesday     Day 24

   My alarm woke me just before 3:00, I drifted back to sleep for another half hour before getting up and watched the last half of Voyager while consuming a tuna sandwich.

   Fish protein.

   At 4:00 I showered with a black gentleman, one of my neighbors who lives down the hall from me. It wasn’t prearranged or anything like that. He just happened to be in there when I came in.

   I quickly finished up, dressed, and left the building.

   Walking around downtown Los Angeles at 4:15 in the morning is not recommended for anyone, including muggers (because we have Mugger Muggers here in L.A. Muggers who mug only other muggers), but especially a cute, white boy like me who looks like he might have a nickel or two in his pocket. I’ve never had a problem, probably because I stay in well lighted areas and pay attention to my surroundings. It doesn’t hurt that my route took me right past the Central Police Station. But you never know, so I brought my bazooka just in case.

   Just kidding. No one uses bazookas any more. It’s actually a grenade launcher.

   I walked west on 6th to Broadway, and turned north. I made it to the Pershing Square Red Line Station without mishap, and caught the first train of the day to North Hollywood.

   I arrived in Reseda, at Trimar, at 6:07. There was a waiting list on the door which I signed. I was 6th in line.

   I purchased a Super Lotto ticket and a 20 once cup of Columbian coffee at the 7/11 across the street, then returned to Trimar. I sat down and wrote, waiting for them to open. Others arrived and signed their names on the list. A lady asked me if I was a regular donor, and I told her that I was. She hadn’t seen me before, that was the reason she was asking she said. Those of us who arrive early on specific days get to know each other.

   At 7:30 they opened up and I signed in. The movie “Ronin,” starring Robert De Niro had already begun, a movie I’d already seen about 5 times too many. I read from “Ghost Story.”

   I was soon  called to donate. I had gained 5 pounds according to the scale, BP 120/70, pulse 372. My lovely friend Aurica stuck me, and I asked after her health and that of her family.

   “Good, good,” she told me. “I am good. Baby is good. Daughter is good. Everybody good. But,” she added, “it’s not perfect...”  

   After she had finished tending to me I gave her the birthday card I had prepared for her. She seemed pleased and said she would read it later.

   When later came, she thanked me for the card once again, all smiles. She became very attentive, giving me extra bandages and alcohol pads to take with me in case I started bleeding after I left. She hadn’t been like this for months and months... since last Christmas at least. I was very happy that she liked the card.

   I will miss her when she goes.

   Just as “Ronin,” finished, so did I. I caught the next bus to Van Nuys, picked up some coffee, cheese slices, lemon juice, vitamin E (to put on the scar tissue in the crock of my donation arm, per Aurica’s orders), multiple vitamins with iron, Batteries, a blank VCR tape, 2 packages of brown gravy mix, mustard of course, a can of corned beef hash, a can of spaghetti and meat balls, and a can of green beans.

   I took all of this stuff back downtown to the One Stop Center to check my messages. None on my voice mail, and no computers were available to check my Email, so I left.

   It was a little after 11:30, and I had an appointment with Roger Pagel, PhD, at Voc Rehab at 1:00. I decided to go straight there.

   I wrote in the Voc Rehab waiting room for 30 minutes, then read from “Ghost Story,” until I began to get sleepy. At 1:05 (these guys are never on time) myself and 2 other men were called in by Dr. Pagel. We were seated at a conference desk, and given several aptitude tests. Math (I finished about three quarters of it before resorting to the uneducated guess, I’m proud to say), a vocabulary test where I missed 1, and some other word recognition test, all of which were approximately 30 questions in length. The good doctor interviewed us one at a time.

   I was given a spelling test which utilized a tape recorder and head phones. 47 words were presented to me via the tape recorder, and I was supposed to spell them. This was the same list of words that I had used as a tutor at Harbor Light, but my familiarity with the words did nothing to help me spell them.

   Once, when I was in the second grade, our teacher handed all of us students the last spelling tests we had taken, making a point by saying, “Only one of you failed this time.” Guess who it was.

   I’ve been traumatized ever since, and blame this incident for my addiction problems, and the sad, sorry state of affairs which is my life.

   However, my spelling has improved over the years, mostly because I use words a lot when I write... and I write quite a bit, and I was able to get about 44 of the little bastard words spelled correctly.

   Next I was given a tedious pattern recognition test, in which I was called upon to recognize various patterns.

   Tedious.

   It was then my turn to be interviewed by the good doctor, a tall, shaggy, white gentleman, maybe 4 or 5 years my senior. He asked almost the same questions Ms Tran had asked me on my last visit, except for one interesting difference.

   “Why do you think you drink?” he asked.

   “Because I was the only one in my second grade class to fail a weekly spelling test and the teacher made fun of me,” I didn’t say.

   “Because I want to escape,” I told him.

   “What is it that you want to escape from?” he asked me.

   “Well doctor, we could talk about why people are alcoholics and drug addicts all this week and half of next, and still not come up with a definitive answer.”

   He insisted, “Why do you want to escape? Escape from what?”

   “Well, I’m not completely sure myself. Escape from self persecution, from unrealized expectations, from a society I never asked to be part of, from life’s disappointments, from being a drug addict. I mean it’s not an unusual thing for people to do. Every time a person reads a book for pleasure, every time someone goes to the movies, or watches a sit com on television... they do it to escape.”

   “But,” Roger interjected, “reading a book, or watching a sit com is legal...”

   “So is drinking, doctor. So is smoking cigarettes... I’ll tell you this. To be quite frank... the legality of using substances, or acting out an unacceptable behavior, is of little concern to the addict. You are making reasonable suggestions and considering logical alternatives. The addict abandons reason and logic to selfishly fulfill their immediate needs. That’s all that’s important to the addict. My wishing to escape is most likely a universal desire. My addiction sets me apart from other people only in the degree I disregard moderation, embrace low impulse control, and don’t consider the consequences of my actions in both the short and long term. This type of behavior may or may not be a physical predisposition. The AMA says it is.”

   “Why don’t you drink now?” he asked.

   “I’m finally tired of it I imagine. Not of using drugs or alcohol, because sometimes that really was fun. But I’m tired of the life that using drugs and alcohol has given me. Maybe I’m beginning to appreciate the consequences... and I want to stop smoking because I’m told that can kill ya. The consequences outnumber the rewards a hundred fold. The only problem with smoking is nicotine is the most addictive substance know to man... and women.”

   “I agree with you that people use books and television to escape,” the doctor added. “Sometimes to the point of self-abuse.”

   “I know. I probably do that too.”

   “I’m glad you want to stop,” he said.

   “I really do. I can tell, doctor, because during the last few times I was able to self indulge to my heart’s content... it was never enough. It didn’t make me happy. Hell, I don’t even like the taste of alcohol.”

   He got back on track and gave me a reading test. I was lucky as I just happen to know how to read.

   Then he asked me to place some metal pins into what looked like a giant cribbage board.

   I was ushered back to the conference room and given a few more tests, then dismissed. The doctor told us we would be notified of his determination within a couple of weeks.

   I had a vague suspicion and resentment that I had been given more tests than the others.

   I took two buses back to the Weingart, and to my lonely room.

   I treated myself by watching a movie on my new VCR. I choose Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory.” He is my favorite film director, but I’m sorry to admit I have not seen all of his early work like “The Killing,” yet. This is what drug addiction and poverty has done to me. Because of poverty and drug addiction I can now look forward to watching these films.

   I had seen part of “Paths of Glory,” and upon watching the whole movie for the first time I thought it was brilliant. And very good as well.

   Well acted by Kirk Douglas (an unusual role for a big time Hollywood star at the time it was made) and Ralph Meeker, indeed the entire cast seemed inspired. I have only one criticism of which I’m positive, absolutely positive I tell you, that Stanley agonized over... this story of French soldiers during battle in World War I, and the trial afterwards, all portrayed by American actors who sounded like they were born in Brooklyn, New York, and made no effort to hide it.

   Or why they were speaking in English at all, for that matter.

   Eerie music. The cinematography placed the viewer right in the battle (this film must have influenced Spielberg when he made “Saving Private Ryan”) and on the way to a firing squad.

   I fell madly in love, madly I tell you again, with Suzanne Christian, the only woman in the film, who played a German singer in the last scene. Her character seemed so vulnerable and at the same time strong, being put on display in front of a crowd of unruly soldiers for their enjoyment. But she prevailed, and had those soldiers crying like little babies by the time she was done with them.

   I don’t pretend to understand exactly what Kubrick’s ending was supposed to mean, if anything, but for my money, Miss Christian’s performance was the most natural, and moving performance of the film.

   And I’m not saying that because I’m madly in love with her.

   Guten tag.

   Stanley liked her too I guess, because he married her.

   Swedish meatball mush for dinner.

   I had to take a little nap at 6:00 because my eyes were sporadically closing by themselves.

   I laid down and dreamt I was in a town in France during World War I and Suzanne Christian sang to me a song in German. I started to cry like a little baby, and sang along with her although I did not know what the words meant. 

    I woke at 6:30, and wondered how I could of had such a wonderful dream in such a short period of time.

   Charlie Rose spoke to some sub-secretary of the Defense Department concerning Iraq. I read about police searching and seizing again.

   At 8 I watched an “American Experience,” documentary about Seabiscuit. Now I know more than I ever wanted to about that horse. He and his long time jockey inspire me to carry on... that you can win even after you’ve been all banged up.

   And I liked his style. “Most horses,” the narrator observed, “can only sleep lying down for about five minutes at a time. In contrast Seabiscuit slept constantly.”

   I watched a PBS program about forest fire fighters, and learned a good deal about carbon being released into the atmosphere because of forest fires.

   We should ban forest fires.

   But forest fires have been around since there were forests, you say.

   That’s true. Forest fires do occur naturally sometimes, and are even helpful in promoting some forms of plant life.

   But it’s only been within the last 150 years that humans have been pumping massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

   I hate to be the one to break it to Republicans, but the Earth will only stand so much before it gets rid of us.

   And here’s another interesting problem. The planet’s oil supply is finite. Some day we’re going to run out.

   I was very tired after watching the forest fire show, and could only get through a page and a half of “Ghost Story,” before I drifted off.

   I dreamt I was on a hill fighting an approaching forest fire with Mary Louise Parker, the beautiful and talented star of films like, “Grand Canyon,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” and “Hannibal.” We battled and battled that fire, worked, dug, and chopped until Mary came across a garden hose and put the sucker out.

   “See,” she said, “that’s all you need.”

   “Oh yeah,” I said. “I could have done the same thing if I had a big hose.”

   “Promises, promises,” laughing, and wiping a dirty smudge off of her pretty face. “Come on big boy. Let’s go get another one.”

   We went off in search of more fires.

Treason 2

Treason: The betrayal of one's own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies. 

Under Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid and comfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States, such as furnishing enemies with arms, troops, transportation, shelter, or classified information. If a subversive act has any tendency to weaken the power of the United States to attack or resist its enemies, aid and comfort has been given.

The Treason Clause applies only to disloyal acts committed during times of war. Acts of dis-loyalty during peacetime are not considered treasonous under the Constitution.

- Legal Dictionary

   Let’s continue.

   The second proof that President Obama is a traitor according to the claim above is that:

   “2. He has been WRONG on innumerable issues affecting the security of the U.S. (the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, Federal Stimulus, reckless spending).”

   I sincerely hope the author or authors of the above statement get a chance to read this so I can remind them that President Bush, as in George W., started the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (which were both unnecessary), and the spending associated with them, and the federal stimulus package, not President Obama, so Bush must have been guilty of treason, which I’ll agree with wholeheartedly. .

   President Obama ended the war in Iraq. He will end the war in Afghanistan next year. Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, helped keep the country out of a depression. Why did he need to keep the country out of a depression? Because of the Great Recession of 2007/2008 that began during the George W. Bush years in the White House. You remember, Wall Street gone wild due to lack of regulatory oversight, the housing bubble burst, T.A.R.P., Leman Brothers gone, the country and world on its knees. Yeah, Barack stopped all that. As a matter of fact he hasn’t gone far enough.

   Reckless spending is a traitorous act? Then all of our Presidents have been traitors... according to that crazy chart above, and Obama the least of them.

   Okay, #3.

   “3. He has been lax in enforcing illegal immigration and boarder security.”

   Again, this is a traitorous act? Again, if it is then every President has been a traitor. Oh, and President Obama shouldn’t really be asked to enforce illegal immigration. I expect the authors meant just the opposite (morons).

   Considering that Congress won’t do anything concerning immigration reform how does that translate into Obama being lax in enforcing those laws? Has the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency packed up and gone on vacation? Not according to all of those “Boarder Wars” programs I keep seeing on the  National Geographic Channel. And considering that actual illegal migration into the United States from Mexico is basically down to zero due to the weak economy the republicans caused when they were last in power, heightened border enforcement, and a rise in deportations, how much is there really to enforce?

   According to Alex Nowrasteh of Forbes magazine, not exactly a bastion of liberal philosophy, “President Obama has actually increased immigration enforcement and restricted legal immigration.” and “Obama’s DHS has so far deported more people than during the first six and a half years of George W. Bush’s administration. Just shy of 1.5 million unauthorized immigrants have been forcefully deported from the United States under Napolitano’s leadership.  These annual deportation figures are higher that at any other time in U.S. history, pushing the backlog for deportation cases to a record 314,147 this June. The government is apprehending unauthorized immigration so quickly that it cannot effectively process them all.” - Forbes, July 30, 2012.

   Ask one of those 1.5 million who were deported how lax Obama has been.

   Let’s push on...

   “4. He has given support and encouragement to the communist and Islamic inspired radicals.”

   “Communist inspired radicals?” Has Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned from the grave?  “Excuse me, I can’t hear you or see you because of all of these communist inspired radicals in the way.” I don’t think there’s any communist inspired radicals even in communist countries!

   Islamic inspired radicals? Well, I agree, there’s plenty of those. But then there are radicals, and then there are radicals. Is a mullah an Islamic inspired radical the same way a priest is a Catholic inspired radical? Or a monk a Buddhist inspired radical?

   Why yes, they are!

   I believe the authors were referring to violent Islamic inspired radicals, like those who take up arms against U.S. forces who have invaded their country.

   And I guess the authors are right about this one. Obama should be impeached as a traitor for giving encouragement and support to Islamic inspired radicals by killing them with mortars, guns, and drones.

   “5. He has illegally appointed to federal positions, Czars that are unaccountable to the American People nor are Constitutional.”

   According to Wikipedia, the term “Czar” in the United States refers to “high-level officials who oversee a particular policy.”

   Again, if Obama is a traitor for appointing these so-called Czars, then every President since Franklin Roosevelt was a traitor as well, since they all appointed Czars. George W. Bush appointed 33 of them, but Obama is the biggest traitor of all of these Presidents as he appointed the most... 38.

   And what are these “Czars” doing that requires direct accountability to the American people, irregardless of the fact the President himself is accountable to the American People? Why they're doing such nefarious, traitorous things like being a Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, or the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, or the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (anti-poverty Czar), or the Treasury Advisor, Head of the Auto Task Force, you remember, save that auto industry Romney was willing to throw to the dogs. On and on.     

   The President’s Cabinet is filled with folks who are appointed to federal positions and are unelected and not directly accountable to the American people (irregardless of the fact the President himself is accountable to the American People).

   The word “Czar” does not appear in the Constitution (neither does filibuster, but the Senate acts as if is did). I know, I’ve read it.

   So should the authors of the above list.

   “6. He has consistently appointed anti-Christians to Federal office:

   Upholds the Supreme Court in it’s Anti-Christian rulings.

   Socialists, Marxists, and Communists abound in Federal offices.”

   Wow, I hardly know where to start.

   In that very same Constitution that Obama is betraying according to the authors, there’s this part that’s called the Establishment Clause. It’s within the very first Amendment so it’s easy to find. It states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . . .” It does not say, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion... except Christianity.” And it does not say “The President is required to appoint Christian enthusiasts to Federal Office.”

   President Obama has appointed loads of people to federal office. Literally loads. Here’s a list of just the judges. Who knows if they all like Christianity? I certainly don’t, and neither do you probably. But I’ll tell you this, I’ve never seen any federal official, whether Obama appointed them or not, who has publicly made anti-Christian statements, or advanced anti-Christian policies. I may be wrong, it happened once, that’s what the comment section is for. Please write a comment correcting me.

   Should the people of the 5th District in Minnesota be put on trial for treason because they elected a Muslim, Keith Ellison, to Congress?

   Why yes, they should. every single one of them. Children too.

   Uuuummm, not that it’s the President’s job to uphold, or enforce the rulings of the Supreme Court, that would be up to the Justice Department, and I’m not immediately aware of all of the anti-Christian rulings the Supreme Court has passed, other than those that uphold the Establishment Clause. But it’s the Justice Department’s job to enforce any ruling by the Supreme Court, even when the Supreme Court has been hitting the sauce, like when they ruled on Citizen’s United, or when they gutted the Voting Rights Act.

   Stupid Supreme Court.

   And as far as Socialists, Marxists, and Communists abounding in Federal offices... so do homosexuals, gay (happy) people, Buddhists, black and Hispanic folks, cats and dogs, Bering Sea crab fishermen, Carla Gugino and Dwayne Johnson (I’m watching “Escape to Witch Mountain” as I’m writing this), aliens, alligator hunters, lobbyists and hobbyists, postal workers, ice cream tasters, telephone operators, plaques with dead trout nailed to them... on and on... who knows what Senators and Representatives keep in their offices. I certainly don’t, and for that matter don’t care. And what does this have to do with Obama being a traitor?

   “7. He has been caught in fantastic LIES to the American people (including personal ones like his birth, past, and illegal attempts to seal all documents and proof of his eligibility.”

   Alright, this is a two parter. He’s lied to the American people? He’s a politician, of course he’s lied to the American people. He’s even probably lied to people who aren’t American. And the second part... the birther argument? Really? Seriously? Who wrote this, Orly Taitz?

   And what illegal attempts to seal all documents and proof of his eligibility? How many times does Obama have to submit his birth certificate, and in how many ways, or write about his life, in how many books. I mean really!

   “8. He has betrayed the trust and confidence of the American citizens.”

   Really? How so? By having Osama bin Laden killed? By stopping the republican economic crisis and keeping the country out of a depression? By ending two wars the republicans started? By trying to get more Americans health insurance than ever before? By trying to get equal pay for women in the work place? By passing financial reform laws to keep Wall Street in line? By trying to get Americans back to work through his Jobs Bill, and keeping Americans in their homes with last years Mortgage Relief Plan? I’ll take that kind of betrayal any day.

   “9. He has waged an unethical campaign against the news media and anyone that has an opposing view.”

   I just don’t see this happening, and even if it were true, like when George Bush was President, it’s not treason.

   What do the authors mean by “unethical?” I need a little clarification here. Is there such a thing as an ethical campaign against the news media and anyone that has an opposing view?

   I think the President has shown a remarkable amount of restraint really. If it were up to me... if I were President, I’d send the FBI over to the Fox Propaganda Network, Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck’s homes, and have all of these misinformers, sowers of descent, liars, and fear mongers  arrested and thrown into individual oubliettes, and left to rot.

  But left to rot with love.

   And lastly...

   “10. He has openly lied and mis-represented this country in numerous speeches both here and abroad.”

   Examples please? Just one or two. And again is this treason? If it were Mitt Romney, he would have been guilty of treason each and every day... actually every time he opened his freaking mouth.

   So, according to the definition of treason listed above I cannot see how our current President could be considered guilty of it in any real sense. I’d even go so far as to claim the list above was not written to withstand serious scrutiny (you think?), but rather was written to stir up and inflame those who can’t think for themselves, the ignorant, ill-informed, hate filled, prejudiced male and female lemmings, ah er, people... who currently inhabit the republican base.

   In the next post we’ll take a look at some in the federal government who could really be considered traitors to this country, according to the above definition, by their actions... or inactions.

   I’ll give you three guesses as to who they are.

To be continued.