tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16802576834306331002024-03-13T16:23:19.715-07:00Waxing PoliticalPontificating on politics, jurisprudence, and policy...Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-62919949968971635202012-11-05T12:30:00.001-08:002012-11-05T12:35:14.249-08:00A VOTE FOR COUNTRY<div style="color: #000066; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #000066;"><strong></strong></span></span> <span style="color: #990000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">In G-d
we trust, as the storm’s wrath recedes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">"Call
1-800" says FEMA to victims in need</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Our
neighbors are dead and homeless – from them Sandy stole</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">But
the President walks our sullied streets and he will make us
whole</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">No
food, no water, stars and stripes soaking wet</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">4
years without a job and deeper in debt</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Glory,
glory hallelujah – al Quaeda is on its heels </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">4
Americans slaughtered in Benghazi</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Mr.
President, what’s the deal?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Candidates pleading to the undecided – only 48 more
hours</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">The
entitled will do all they can to see their prophet stay in power
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">America, America, G-d shed his grace on thee</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Stop
the spending, and pretending</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">That
Obamacare is free</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Love
who you want </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Decide
the fate of your own body</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">But
for $16 trillion in debt, how in good faith can you lobby?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Vote
for love of country</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Not
for revenge</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Stop
apologizing to those who kill us</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">And
spitting in the face of our friends</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">“O
beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">That
in our nation beats the heart of our conviction…</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Our
posterity, our might</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Break
the cycle that defeats them</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Lay
poverty and disparity to rest</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Use
your right of suffrage</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Put
freedom to the test</span></span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span> </div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span> </div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-23952207720978212902011-07-22T07:21:00.000-07:002011-07-22T13:17:36.395-07:00Freedom is A Right - Stars and Stripes A Responsiblity<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They never leave room for the possibility of self-error. Pundits, commentators, bloviators all. And those on the sidelines seem to be screaming for a simpler time, a less restrictive one, one when men stood back-to-back, walked ten paces, and turned to face each other, each intent on taking from the other's wife her husband and from his children their father. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We've walked a million miles since then. But we lost our pace. We stopped to rest on a perceived perch of contemporary thought. We stopped to enjoy our imagined excellence. We've lingered outside courtrooms to spit in the face of a social contract - one once bound in a collective embrace and still grounded in a belief that inside each of us shines the spark of the Creator. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In an age in which the private affairs of men often consumes the nation's focus, more so than the economic and social realities facing it - the lack of a balanced budget, a comprehensive healthcare bill that exceeds Congress' regulatory authority under the Commerce Clause - a pervasive lack of personal responsibility - and unconstitutional infringements on individual freedoms, remembering our genesis is critical. Remembering that we are but dust, that our time on this earth is limited, and that we have a duty to forge a better life for our offspring, requires a more judicious dealing and a return to the framework upon which our Republic was built. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was only 220 years ago, on December 15, 1791, that the Bill of Rights was ratified. These 10 Amendments to our Constitution</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> were not, as Justice Brennan opined, a product of legislative invention, rather a declaration of divinely ordained liberties. They represented a united belief in immutable freedoms, i.e. the right to worship freely, to assemble peaceably, and to speak (relatively) unreservedly (the freedom of speech, contrary to popular belief, not being absolute). </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our nation's </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">founding fathers understood man's intrinsic vulnerability and tendency toward self-preservation - hence the right to keep and bear arms. They believed that a person's home should be a place of impregnable refuge - hence the owner's ability in times of peace to decide who could be quartered there. And, the Founding Fathers believed, individual freedom was a birthright - hence the proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures, being tried twice for the same offense, and being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the founding fathers, the rights to a speedy and public trial and to protection from cruel and unusual punishment were heavenly endowments. They were antecedent rights recognized by men who believed in their existence absent any social contract. But sagacity and foresight told our founding fathers that codification was essential to forestall any infringement upon those rights.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Their conviction permeates every American flag - liberty's banner - freedom's icon in radiant red, unadulterated white and impenetrable blue. But our stars and stripes have met the challenges of human frailty. We are too readily swayed by predilection and preconception, by entitlement and greed, color and creed. We're ethnocentric xenophobes with unlimited patience for those who kill in the name of God and no tolerance for law-abiding jurors whose verdict is inconsistent with our uninformed judgment. We've forgotten that freedom is more than a right. It is a responsibility - and one that should never be wielded in ignorance.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It seems we've a long way to travel on wisdom's journey. But enlightenment waits patiently - trillions of light years in the distance. We are a compassionate, introspective, resilient people with a tremendous capacity for growth. We need to pick up the pace, however, if we want to secure a healthier and more hopeful future for our children - and for theirs.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 5pt; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Resources</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: ""Comic Sans MS"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government 1690: <br />
constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.htm <br />
<br />
John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book 2, Chapter 21, Section 51 <br />
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke#Influence <br />
<br />
Text of Declaration of Independence: <br />
earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.html <br />
<br />
nccs.net/index.html <br />
<br />
hnn.us/articles/46460.html <br />
<br />
freeonlineresearchpapers.com/philosophical-john-locke-view-religious-tolerance <br />
<br />
accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-143832_ITM <br />
<br />
accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-146481006/some-jewish-reflections-locke.html </span><a href="http://dekalbbarnews.com/?p=2217#more-2217" target="_blank"><span style="color: #007a94;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://dekalbbarnews.com/?p=2217#more-2217</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-78037086777425725362011-07-17T06:46:00.000-07:002011-08-18T09:03:01.248-07:00How "Speedy" Does a Speedy Trial Need To Be: Legal Considerations, Budgetary Realities, and Innovative Solutions<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So what constitutes a “speedy” trial? The short answer: it depends.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As recently as July 14, 2011, the Court of Appeals of Georgia weighed in on this issue in <u>State v. Thaxton</u>, reversing the trial court’s grant of the defendant's motion for discharge and acquittal for violation of his constitutional right to a speedy trial. See <u>State v Thaxton</u> (Ga.App, 2011)<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In <u>Thaxton</u>, the defendant was arrested on or about October 39, 2008, on seven counts of dog fighting, cruelty to animals, and possession of more than an ounce of marijuana. He was appointed counsel within days of his arrest (on November 4, 2008). A month later - on December 3, 2008, Thaxton was released from jail on bond, the conditions of his release including no contact with animals and GPS monitoring, except during his daytime employment.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">On January 11, 2010, almost fifteen months after his arrest, Thaxton was indicted on one felony count of possession and three counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals. A month or so later, Thaxton filed his Motion for Discharge and Acquittal on the basis of a pre-indictment delay. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In its analysis, the Court of Appeals discussed two types of pre-trial delay, the first of which precedes a criminal defendant’s arrest or indictment and implicates due process guarantees under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. <u>Jones v State</u>, 284 GA. 320 (1), 667 SE2d 49 (2008). The second type of pre-trial delay occurs after an arrest or indictment, implicating the Sixth Amendment. <u>Id.</u> at 322 (2); <u>Haisman v. State</u>, 242 Ga. 896, 898 (2), 252 SE2 397 (1979). Since Thaxton’s motion complained of the 15-month delay that post-dated his arrest, Sixth Amendment standards needed to be applied in resolving his speedy trial claim. <u>Thaxton, </u><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">supra.</i></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Considerations for determining speedy trial claims under the Sixth Amendment have been outlined by the United States Supreme Court. See <u>Barker v Wingo</u>, 407 U.S. 514, 92 SC 2182, 33 LE2d 101 (1972); <u>Doggett v. United States</u>, 505 U.S. 647, 112 SC 2868, 120 LE2 520 (1992). In <u>Doggett</u>, Justice Souter delivered the opinion, noting that a defendant's initial burden in triggering a speedy trial analysis (the first prong of the four-factor test outlined in <u>Barker v Wingo</u>) is to demonstrate that the interval between the indictment and trial crosses the line between ordinary delay and delay which is "presumptively prejudicial." A determination that the interval period is not presumptively prejudicial is the death knell of a speedy trial claim. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If presumptive prejudice is found, then the Court must look at whether the defendant or the government is primarily responsible for the delay, the timeliness of the defendant’s assertion of his right to a speedy trial, and whether the defendant was prejudiced by the delay. <u>Doggett</u>, <em><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">supra</span></em>. It is a careful balancing test. “No one factor is sufficient or necessary to sustain a finding that that the right to a speedy trial has been denied.” <u>Id.</u> None of the factors, according to the Thaxton Court, have “talismanic qualities,” but the Court is nonetheless required to make findings of fact and conclusions of law consistent with the balancing test. Because the Thaxton Court did not did not do so, the case was reversed and remanded for a decision consistent with the Court of Appeals' decision. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Interestingly enough, a couple of months before <u>Thaxton</u> was decided, The Augusta Chronicle (on February 9, 2011) published an article entitled, “Judges warn of impact of funding cuts,” noting a “failure of the system to provide access to the court,” contributing to judicial backlogs, staff cuts, and speedy trial violations. The article, which can be found at </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-02-09/judges-warn-impact-funding-cuts"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: blue;">http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-02-09/judges-warn-impact-funding-cuts</span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">specifically notes that in the Peach State, “backlogs have forced months-long waits for relatively simple matters such as child support hearings.”</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
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<div style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Georgia's Chief Justice, Carol Hunstein, reportedly had to lay off seven employees, shut down the Georgia Supreme Court’s law library, relinquish office space - even return a copy machine. The Court even had to solicit donations from vendors for pens and pencils and used unpaid student interns to keep the office running. <a href="http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-02-09/judges-warn-impact-funding-cuts"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: blue;">See http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-02-09/judges-warn-impact-funding-cuts</span></span></a>. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="background: white;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">These budgetary realities beg certain questions: When did the right of access to the Courts stop being a priority? How many children will go without child support while the State wades through backlogs of support cases that it does not have the means of prosecuting? And how long will victims of violent crimes wait to see their assailants face justice? </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="background: white;"><br />
</div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As Chief Judge Hunstein noted in her 2011 State of the Judiciary Address, Georgia cannot afford the $1 billion plus dollars it costs each year to maintain its prison system. One in every thirteen Georgians is behind bars or on probation or parole – the highest per capital figure in the nation, a figure that prompted Judge Hunstein to question whether Georgia’s mandatory minimum sentences are really making Georgians safer and if so, at what cost? </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Part of the solution, according to Chief Judge Hunstein, is to give Georgia’s judges greater discretion in the courtroom. “Our judges know how to balance punishment with the public safety. And they know that sending a young man to prison for a non-violent crime may not be the best sentence if he will emerge years later with no education, a prison record and little chance of getting a job. As a Texas legislator said, we need these offenders to be taxpayers, not tax burdens.” </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.gasupreme.us/press_releases/soj_2011.php"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.gasupreme.us/press_releases/soj_2011.php</span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to Chief Judge Hunstein, we can save taxpayer dollars and still protect the public by creating and embracing innovative changes to the criminal justice system – as Georgia has been doing with drug courts. According to Chief Justice Hunstein (who was citing to a recent report by the Georgia Department of Audits), drug courts have resulted in lower sentencing costs (up to 80 percent less than the average daily cost of other traditional sentencing options) and lower recidivism rates. And according to the Georgia Department of Audits, 7% percent of drug court participants reoffended, as compared to 29% of those who simply served time in prison for drug-related offenses. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.gasupreme.us/press_releases/soj_2011.php"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.gasupreme.us/press_releases/soj_2011.php</span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Another type of specialty court, domestic violence courts, can also help conserve taxpayer dollars – in addition to safeguarding the public, savings lives, and reuniting Georgia families. According to Chief Judge Hunstein, Georgia has the 15th highest rate of domestic violence homicides in the country. However, programs like that implemented by Clayton County’s Chief Magistrate Judge, Daphne Walker, who began a special calendar for domestic violence cases, have reportedly resulted in a significant reduction in domestic violence homicides. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.gasupreme.us/press_releases/soj_2011.php"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.gasupreme.us/press_releases/soj_2011.php</span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The upshot – budget cuts, case backlogs, and a reduction in number of judges who are able to decide criminal cases will necessarily result in constitutional rights being violated and the public welfare being placed in jeopardy. So what can members of the legal community do? Support innovative solutions, like drug and domestic violence courts. Brainstorm with colleagues about creative solutions yet untapped. And opt to be a part of the solution by lending a constructive voice to the dialogue. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span><br />
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</div>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-18986206978148779512011-07-06T16:02:00.000-07:002011-07-06T16:04:29.969-07:00The Media's Attacks on The Casey Anthony Jury Are Disgraceful<span data-jsid="text"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The media's assault of the Casey Anthony jury is as repugnant as it is inappropriate. They did their job. They sacraficed time that none of us are guaranteed away from those they love. They did so knowing they were needed by sick children, frail parents, and/or the animals who looked at the door every evening at 5:00 pm expecting them to open it. They did so - knowing they were missing their 20th wedding anniversary or a parent's 90th birthday. They did so because they were called to serve - and directed to follow the law, which, by the way, they absolutely did. </span></span><br />
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<span data-jsid="text"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The jury was not authorized to find Ms. Anthony guilty based on possibilty, probability or suspicion. They were not prepared to render a verdict that might send a woman to her death when there was no direct evidence that she killed the daughter with whom every one of the State's witnesses claimed she had a loving relationship. She may have killed Caylee - but if she did not, my guess is that Caylee would not have wanted her Mother to spend the rest of her days where she is going to spend them. Behind bars or not - she will be imprisoned for the rest of her life. I don't know if that's justice - because only she, Caylee, and God know what happened. But the media or its pundits act as if they are omniscient. They are not. They know as much - and as little - as the rest of us.</span></span>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-69994166180416106912011-07-04T14:24:00.000-07:002011-07-04T14:49:18.141-07:00Mr. Stengel: We The People Deserve More Credit<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We the people are neither as obtuse nor as self-deluded as Time Editor Richard Stengel supposes in his June 23, 2011, piece, “One Document, Under Siege.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The framers of the Constitution may not have imagined themselves pontificating on a flat screen, sexting over the Internet, or singing the lyrics to “Captivated” by Lady Gaga, but they understood human vulnerability. They understood that the absence of a social contract invited chaos, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">political repression, even genocide. That their deaths prevented them from making the acquaintance of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Ida Amin, Muammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein, and Osama Bin Laden does not nullify the promises of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No, the framers did not anticipate the deaths of more than half a million Americans during the Civil War or bear witness to the horrors of Nazi Germany. But they were students of history and they knew of man’s capacity to evil. They knew of Tomas de Torquemada, Vlad the Impaler, and Ivan the Terrible. Religious bigotry, torture, and extra-judicial killings existed before them, and the framers knew they would persist in their absence. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The framers' intent was to moderate the possibility that Americans would be susceptible to such iniquity. They provided a framework for "a more perfect” union, one grounded in justice, equality, and religious tolerance – and one wherein the general welfare of its citizens would be promoted and their liberties protected. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So would the framers think that drones over Libya constitute a violation of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution? The answer has nothing to do with whether George Washington ever dreamed that man could fly or use global-positioning satellites to aim a missile. The question is whether drones over Libya and using global-positioning satellites to aim missiles (and asking the UN Security Council to authorize the US to bomb Libyan tanks and artillery) amounts to a declaration of war and if so, whether our Executive Office usurped congressional authority in declaring it. The framers, I suspect, would not have needed time to deliberate before responding. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
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</div>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-22647374190056201292011-06-10T13:16:00.000-07:002011-06-10T13:46:26.025-07:00ObamaCare: A Dearth of Transparency - What Isn't Being Said, Heard, Or Considered<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Americans are donning jaded visors – and being wittingly hoodwinked. When it comes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), we’ve been handed a dearth of transparency, while sinking into a turbid lagoon of parody and perversion. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Political and academic bellowing has been vociferous, seemingly ubiquitous, and too often blindly adopted. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For years Americans have listened to the pundits and partisans herald facts about America’s cost-prohibitive and undeniably disparate health care system, and they’ve been all too willing to accept the only alternative presented.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Countless Americans are operating under the impression that the PPACA will provide them with comprehensive, affordable, quality health care coverage that they believe Canadians and Europeans enjoy. But studies show that Americans have significantly lower cancer mortality rates than both Canadians and Europeans. Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher in Canada, 52 percent higher in Germany, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom than in the US. In the UK, the mortality rate for prostate cancer is 604 percent higher than in the US. In Norway, it’s 457 percent higher. And among British men and women, colorectal cancer is approximately 40 percent higher than it is for men and women in the US (Atlas 2009). </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">What most Americans don’t realize is that they also enjoy greater access to treatments for chronic diseases than Canadians and Europeans. Of those Americans who are candidates for statin drugs (medications designed to reduce cholesterol and inhibit heart disease), more than half (56%) are using them, while only 36 percent of Dutch, 29 percent of Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Brits, and 17 percent of Italians who could benefit from statin drugs are actually receiving them (Atlas, 2009).</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It would similarly surprise most Americans to learn that our ailing health care system provides greater access to preventative cancer treatments than that afforded Canadians. Almost 90% of middle-aged American women, as compared to 72% of Canadian women, have had a mammogram.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fifty-four percent of American men, as compared to 16% of Canadians, have had a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, and approximately 30% of Americans have had a colonoscopy, while 5% of Canadians have had one (Atlas, 2009).</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Americans have been merrily misinformed regarding the economic realities of adopting a Canadian-comparable health care system. According to John C. Goodman, Ph.D., founder and president of the National Center for Policy Analysis and a Senior Fellow for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, economic studies have shown that the financial burden of a universal Medicare program would be twice as high as the administrative costs of universal private coverage (Goodman, 2007). And while the most common argument for national health insurance is that it will give low-income and uninsurable folks equal access to health care, it is instructive that among the nonelderly, white populations of both the US and Canada, low-income Canadians are 22 percent more likely to be in poor health than Americans (Goodman, 2007).</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Americans have alternatives – to the existing, exclusive, disparate, inaccessible, unaffordable health care system – and to ObamaCare, a program that has little hope of accomplishing its desired ends.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> In 2010, 15 percent of employers with 500 or more employees had established clinics that were providing primary-care services to employees and another 10 percent of employers indicated that they were considering providing similar services in 2010 or 2011. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The costs for o</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">n-site clinic services are typically lower than community-based clinics. Some are free. Their proximity to work and greater affordability makes it more likely that employees will get annual check-ups, receive treatment for health issues that they might otherwise have ignored, submit to testing that might engender a healthy lifestyle change, or receive referrals to specialists that could prove live-saving (Andrews, 2011). While on-site clinics are not the answer to the health care dilemma, they are potentially part of an as yet undefined, creative, viable, cost-effective solution – one that is actually being threatened by the PPACA.</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As many as 78 million Americans are at risk of losing employer health coverage if and when the PPACA goes into effect. Fifty percent of employers, according to a McKinsey & Company survey, will or are likely to seek alternatives to their current health-insurance plans if ObamaCare is implemented. Among those at risk of losing their health insurance coverage are an estimated 156 million non-elderly Americans (Turner, 2011). </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Before the PPACA passed, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that only 9 to 10 million people who currently get health insurance through their employers would switch to government-subsidized insurance. The McKinsey report, however, forecasts that employers will drop employee health insurance coverage altogether, limit the employees to whom coverage is offered, or present defined contributions for insurance. Among those employers with a high awareness of the health-reform law, it is expected that more than 50% are likely to stop providing a health insurance benefit to their employees (Turner, 2011). </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But again, Americans have alternatives. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). The portability clause provides that as long as an insured has "proof of creditable coverage" for18 months or more without a lapse of more than 63 days, he (or she) is given "credit" for prior coverage and entitled to coverage for any "pre-existing" medical condition when changing insurance carriers. However, "portability" protection was allotted only to those persons insured on an employer sponsored group health insurance policy. If the portability clause were extended to self-employed entrepreneurs, small business owners, individuals and families, nearly 14 million insured Americans wouldn’t have to worry about being denied coverage for a “pre-existing” illness (Tucker, 2011). </span></div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">For those who are uninsured, have access to government assistance and have chosen not to take advantage of it, there is little reason to believe that they would take advantage of the benefits afforded them under the PPACA, under which the annual penalty for failing to purchase health insurance is $95 or 1% of one's income - and when the IRS is proscribed from assessing criminal fines against those who refuse to comply with the individual responsibility mandate. The threat that the IRS will withhold an individual’s tax return for non-compliance means nothing to approximately half of all U.S households who (as of 2009) paid no income tax (Tucker, 2011). </span></div><div style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">It’s time for Americans to step out of the fog. It’s time for vigilance, time to consider the facts, time for creative solutions, time for informed and pragmatic choices. It’s time to operate from fact – not fiction. It’s time to make decisions grounded in a framework of both personal responsibility and communal accountability, not some unconstitutional, overreaching congressional mandate that makes a mockery of our united promise “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” We the people need to establish justice in a more reasoned, insightful, equitable, fiscally responsible, and fruitful way.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">References </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Atlas, Scott W. (July 1, 2009). Ten reasons why America’s health care system is in better condition than you might suppose. Hoover Digest. Stanford University. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: black;">Retrieved at </span><a href="http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/5589"><span style="color: black;">http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/5589</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Goodman, John C. (December 14, 2007). Does Socialism Work? Debunking the Myth</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Georgia Public Policy Foundation. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Retrieved at </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.gppf.org/article.aspRT=9&p=pub/HealthCare/healthsocialism071214.html"><span style="color: black;">http://www.gppf.org/article.aspRT=9&p=pub/HealthCare/healthsocialism071214.htm</span></a><span style="color: black;">l</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"><br />
</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Andrews, Michelle. (May 24, 2011). Many On-The-Job clinics Offer Primary Care, Kaiser Health News, May 24, 2011 retrieved at </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Features/Insuring-Your-Health/Michelle-Andrews-on-office-health-care.aspx">http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Features/Insuring-Your-Health/Michelle-Andrews-on-office-health-care.aspx</a></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Turner, Grace-Marie (June 8, 2011). No, You Can’t Keep Your Health Insurance. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved at</span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304432304576371252181401600.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304432304576371252181401600.html?mod=googlenews_wsj</a></span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
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</span></div></div>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-30766181448735837412011-06-08T09:17:00.000-07:002011-06-08T13:45:16.566-07:00Obamacare: Are Americans Being Unconstitutionally Shoved Into Commerce's Tributary?<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">According to the White House, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or the Act) is suffused with sweeping reforms designed to make health insurance affordable and accessible to millions of uninsured Americans - while improving the quality of coverage for all Americans.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Twenty-six states have disagreed and challenged the Act, claiming that by forcing Americans to purchase health insurance, Congress has exceeded the commercial regulatory authority granted it under the Commerce Clause </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">(Article I, Clause 8, Section 3 of the US Constitution). The question, which is being considered today in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, is whether the failure to obtain health insurance is a commercial activity subject to Congressional regulation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">The Court will also consider a secondary issue, specifically whether the other provisions of the PPACA are severable from the individual mandate, and if not, whether the entire Act should be struck down. </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">The concern, according to the Amicus Curiae Brief filed by the US Chamber of Commerce, is that in the absence of the individual mandate, people would wait until they became ill to purchase insurance, resulting in premium strikes and healthy individuals allowing their existing coverage to lapse or foregoing coverage entirely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would foster a further rise in premiums, a potentiality experienced by states like New York, Washington, and Kentucky wherein similar health insurance reforms have been enacted in the absence of a minimum coverage mandate.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">In its Amicus Brief, the Chamber also notes that the Act’s risk adjustment mechanism cannot function properly absent the individual mandate, community-rating and guaranteed-issue reforms. The purpose of the risk adjustment mechanism is reportedly to reallocate premium revenues among insurers so that each receives an amount proportional to its risk exposure. But according to the Chamber, if the individual mandate, guaranteed-issue, and community-rating provisions are invalidated and the risk adjustment mechanism is permitted to remain, “gross inefficiencies in the health insurance markets would exist," resulting in flawed underwriting, poor health care management, and ultimately, rising insurance costs, emasculating the Act’s primary goal - affordable health care.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Let's hope that the 11th Circuit makes a judicious decision, because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in its current form, is likely to protect little and unlikely to afford the kind of protection intended. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">References:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">President Barack Obama. (September 9, 2009). Remarks to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care; Available at</span><i><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/remarks-by-the-president-to-ajoint-session-of-congress-on-health-care"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/remarks-by-the-president-to-ajoint-session-of-congress-on-health-care</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">US Chamber of Commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2011). Amicus Brief. Retrieved at </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.chamberlitigation.com/sites/default/files/cases/files/2011/State%20of%20Florida,%20et%20al.%20v.%20Sebelius,%20et%20al.%20(NCLC%20Brief).pdf"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.chamberlitigation.com/sites/default/files/cases/files/2011/State%20of%20Florida,%20et%20al.%20v.%20Sebelius,%20et%20al.%20(NCLC%20Brief).pdf</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">David A. Saltzman. (March 4, 2011).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PPACA:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Sever or Not to Sever?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life Insurance Selling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Retrieved at </span><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/73914253/PPACA-TO-SEVER-OR-NOT-TO-SEVER"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.docstoc.com/docs/73914253/PPACA-TO-SEVER-OR-NOT-TO-SEVER</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Hadley Heath. (November 20, 2010).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Severe Mistake for ObamaCare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Constitutional Corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Retrieved at <a href="http://healthcarelawsuits.org/blog/detail.php?c=2390395&t=A-Severe-Mistake-for-ObamaCare"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://healthcarelawsuits.org/blog/detail.php?c=2390395&t=A-Severe-Mistake-for-ObamaCare</span></a></span></div><h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 2.75pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Kevin Sack and Robert Pear. (November 26, 2010).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Health Law Faces Threat of Undercut From Courts</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">. </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">New York Times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Retrieved at <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2633398/posts"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2633398/posts</span></a></span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 2.75pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span> </h1>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1680257683430633100.post-74852637462126728092011-05-20T07:52:00.000-07:002011-10-18T15:30:54.801-07:00The Muslim World's True Nemesis Isn't Israel, Zionists, or Jews<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">I'm tired of ignorance and inflammatory rhetoric. It's time to separate fact from fiction. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Without a doubt, Muslims around the world have been the target of political repression, ethnic cleansing, state-sponsored terrorism, extrajudicial killings, and genocide. But the human rights violations they've suffered have been almost entirely at the hands of their own people. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="http://www.islamicpluralism.eu/WP/?p=1123"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.islamicpluralism.eu/WP/?p=1123</span></a>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you need a few not-so-subtle reminders - think Muammar Gadhafi, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ayatollah Khomeini, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Omar Hassan al-Bashir, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Idi Amin Dada, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb</span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. And postscript for those pontificating pinheads who want to blame Jews, Zionists, and Israel for all Middle East turmoil - neither Gadhafi, Khomeini, Hussein, Bin Laden, al-Bashir, Amin, al-Banna, or Qutb ever had a Brit Milah (a Jewish circumcision), became a barmitzvah (a “son of the commandment”), or recited the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sayyid Qutb, however, did advance a jihad against secular <i>Muslim</i> leaders - since they were, like Christians and Jews, “infidels.” And Qaddaffi, well shoot. All he did was fund a little worldwide terror, including “widespread and systematic attacks” on Muslim civilians</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13408931"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13408931</span></a>. </span></span><span style="font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And let’s not forget Khomeini, who overthrew Iran’s secular government and excuted 30,000 of his own people - political activists. Gem of a guy. </span><a href="http://listverse.com/2007/09/05/top-10-most-evil-men/"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://listverse.com/2007/09/05/top-10-most-evil-men/</span></span></a> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri;">But heck, its easier to blame the world's oldest scapegoat, so why not continue to point fingers at Jews, Israel, and Zionists? </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes, t</span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he Judeo-Christian world has its share of monsters - Yigal Amir and David Duke come to mind, respectively Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin and the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the KKK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But protestations of collegiate critics to the contrary, neither the West nor the Jewish State is</span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> an enemy of Islam. Neither is responsible for t</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">he deaths of 300,000 Ugandans during Idi Amin’s reign of terror - or the slaughter of 300,000 Darfur civilians at the behest of a nefarious Sudanese government - or the loss of 20,000 lives during the Croatian War of Independence - or the annihilation of 1,000,000 people during the Iran-Iraq War. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fact: Israel’s War of independence (in 1948), the Sinai Campaign (in 1956), the Six Day War (in 1967), and the Yom Kippur War (in 1973) cumulatively resulted in the loss of approximately 50,000 Arab and Israeli lives. But in the six plus decades since Israel’s birth, 11 million Muslims have been obliterated, 90% of them murdered by fellow Muslims, including militant Islamist groups like al Qaeda. <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=28394"><span style="color: blue;">ARTID=28394</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/14/al-qaeda-hurts-muslims-most/?page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/14/al-qaeda-hurts-muslims-most/?page=1</span></span></a>; <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fact: Approximately 85,000,000 people have died in conflicts since 1950. One person out of every 1,700 killed in those conflicts died due to Arab-Israeli fighting. More aptly said, 1,699 of every 1,700 deaths that occurred in those 60 years of fighting had nothing to do with the existence of a Jewish State. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=28394"><span style="color: blue;">http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=28394</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fact: Within the Jewish State reside 1,587,000 Arabs (comprising 20.5% of Israel’s population), who vote, study, worship freely, participate in parliament, are members of the IDF, and who – men and women alike - enjoy equal rights under the law. In fact, 77% percent of Israeli Arabs report that they would rather live in Israel than anywhere else in the world. </span><a href="http://www1.cbs.gov.il/www/hodaot2011n/11_11_101e.pdf"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www1.cbs.gov.il/www/hodaot2011n/11_11_101e.pdf</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fact: Between 1948 and 1967, the West Bank and Gaza were under Arab rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were no Jewish settlements, and neither the Jordanians (who occupied the West Bank) nor the Egyptians (who occupied Gaza) made any demand for an independent state - not until Israel took control of these lands in the Six-Day War. </span><a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22.html#d"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22.html#d</span></span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fact: The </span></span><span style="font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) wrote a doctoral dissertation denying that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust and suggesting some conspiratorial relationship between Nazis and Zionists. He denies that for which even Germany has apologized. His dissertation forms the basis for Holocaust studies in the PA. This is the man with whom Israel is expected to negotiate a lasting and meaningful peace. </span><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143752"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143752</span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<span style="font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fact: If the Arabs had not gone to war in 1948 in opposition to the United Nations Partition Plan, "a Palestinian state...would be celebrating its 54th anniversary." </span><a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22.html#d"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf22.html#d</span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">So, for those </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bombastic, bloviating elitists who want to blame all Middle East unrest on the Jews, Zionists, and Israel, time to set the scapegoat free. If you enjoy hearing your own voice, do your homework first. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: ""sans-serif"", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your rabble-rousing rhetoric serves no one. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>Rachel Aliza Elovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05034948494307900186noreply@blogger.com0