http://www.sierratimes.com/03/03/10/carlworden.htm
Where There Is No Accountability...
By Carl F. Worden
Published 03. 8. 03 at 15:00 Sierra Time
In order to be trusted to act honorably at all times, we humans need a virtual Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. That's the way it is, because that just happens to be the way we're wired.
If we could go back and ask the Founding Fathers of this nation about this very thing, they would flatly warn us that we human beings must know we can be held accountable no matter what position in life we hold, from gas station attendant to President of the United States, and everything in between. If there is even the illusion of immunity, we human beings sometimes tend not to behave appropriately in the best of cases, and at almost all times in the worst of cases.
Former President Bill Clinton fits that latter distinction to a Tee. Our current President is holding a close second, and may very well win the top spot, depending on how many of our kids come home in body bags in the very near future, killed in a war that was not legally declared by the Congress of the United States. Any president who orders a war that hasn't been legally declared should be stopped by force, if necessary, but it will be a cold day in Hell before we'll ever see that happen.
If we were to pinpoint the exact moment we lost control of our government, it was moment we allowed the people running it and working within it to grant themselves immunity for official actions that result in civil rights violations against citizens of the United States.
Most of our elected representatives place their hand on a Bible and swear before God to uphold, support and defend the Constitution of the United States, fully intending to violate that oath with the first piece of legislation they propose. Why? Because they know there is no accountability for doing it. If there was accountability, they'd be impeached immediately, but they are immune because those who could impeach them won't. In rare cases, the voters throw them out of office the next chance that comes up, but the violator gets to keep all his or her benefits. Where is the accountability in that?
Think about it: Had Lon Horiuchi, that gutless, yellow-bellied FBI sniper who knowingly followed illegal orders to shoot at Ruby Ridge, been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the state law in Idaho, we'd see a much different attitude in his replacement and his peers. As most of you know, that slimy little fraction of a man shot Vickie Weaver in the face while she was standing in her cabin doorway, armed only with her 10-month old suckling daughter. The only accountability in the aftermath was leveled against the American taxpayers in the form of a 3.1 million dollar settlement paid to Randy Weaver's family, and to my knowledge, Horiuchi is still an agent in good standing with the FBI's murderous "Hostage Rescue Team". Nice rescue, Horiuchi.
Then there was the Waco massacre, brought on by morons running the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who wanted to pull a stupid and brutal publicity stunt that went bad. Their intended victims shot up the attackers and repelled them from the premises, only to be barbecued by the FBI later when they wouldn't come out like nice little obedient citizens are supposed to do. The Branch Davidians never should have been attacked in the first place, since they had never issued so much as a threat, let alone ever committed a violent act. But the BATF wanted to stage a publicity event in an effort to garner additional funding, so the citizens' constitutional rights not to be subjected to excessive force be damned! All the BATF agents had to do was walk up to the door and knock. Instead, they assaulted the place as if Usama bin Laden was holed up in there. Nobody was held accountable for that fiasco either.
The list of violations just keep piling up, as they always do when there is no personal accountability. It was just reported that two separate federal judges have ruled that the FBI violated the civil rights of defendants it had lured onto a web page that advertised child pornography. The judges also ruled that the FBI lied and misrepresented their probable cause to judges in order to secure search warrants. Most of those searched, arrested and publicly defamed never actually subscribed as alleged by the FBI. You can read that shocking story here.
A large city newspaper reporter once asked me what I thought of the FBI. I told him I regarded the FBI as a criminal organization. My response definitely gave him pause, and it might have cost me some credibility at the time. But after it was revealed that the Bosom FBI had cozied up to organized crime hoods to the extent FBI agents were giving the creeps the names of informants they would later murder, he just might have a different feel for my assessment.
There are federal laws on the books that specifically apply to public officials who violate the civil rights of the citizens, but they are rarely enforced as written by our equally immune judges.
United States Code Title 42, Sections 1983, 1985 and 1986 call for personal accountability when a public official abuses his power and conspires to violate a citizen's civil rights, or personally violates those rights, or is in a position to prevent such a violation, but does nothing. Violations of those laws strip the public official of his or her immunity from personal civil prosecution, but the success rate in real-life federal court actions is spotty at best. It would seem that enforcing those laws hits a little too close to home for a lot of judges who are subject to Title 42 actions themselves. Go figure.
Outside of someone like renegade Texas Representative Ron Paul, we'll never see any other career politician propose federal legislation to impose immediate and personal accountability on those who knowingly violate their oath of office. The only possible hope I can see in correcting this problem will probably begin through individual state initiatives like those available to the voters here in Oregon.
Where There Is No Accountability...
By Carl F. Worden
Published 03. 8. 03 at 15:00 Sierra Time
In order to be trusted to act honorably at all times, we humans need a virtual Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. That's the way it is, because that just happens to be the way we're wired.
If we could go back and ask the Founding Fathers of this nation about this very thing, they would flatly warn us that we human beings must know we can be held accountable no matter what position in life we hold, from gas station attendant to President of the United States, and everything in between. If there is even the illusion of immunity, we human beings sometimes tend not to behave appropriately in the best of cases, and at almost all times in the worst of cases.
Former President Bill Clinton fits that latter distinction to a Tee. Our current President is holding a close second, and may very well win the top spot, depending on how many of our kids come home in body bags in the very near future, killed in a war that was not legally declared by the Congress of the United States. Any president who orders a war that hasn't been legally declared should be stopped by force, if necessary, but it will be a cold day in Hell before we'll ever see that happen.
If we were to pinpoint the exact moment we lost control of our government, it was moment we allowed the people running it and working within it to grant themselves immunity for official actions that result in civil rights violations against citizens of the United States.
Most of our elected representatives place their hand on a Bible and swear before God to uphold, support and defend the Constitution of the United States, fully intending to violate that oath with the first piece of legislation they propose. Why? Because they know there is no accountability for doing it. If there was accountability, they'd be impeached immediately, but they are immune because those who could impeach them won't. In rare cases, the voters throw them out of office the next chance that comes up, but the violator gets to keep all his or her benefits. Where is the accountability in that?
Think about it: Had Lon Horiuchi, that gutless, yellow-bellied FBI sniper who knowingly followed illegal orders to shoot at Ruby Ridge, been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the state law in Idaho, we'd see a much different attitude in his replacement and his peers. As most of you know, that slimy little fraction of a man shot Vickie Weaver in the face while she was standing in her cabin doorway, armed only with her 10-month old suckling daughter. The only accountability in the aftermath was leveled against the American taxpayers in the form of a 3.1 million dollar settlement paid to Randy Weaver's family, and to my knowledge, Horiuchi is still an agent in good standing with the FBI's murderous "Hostage Rescue Team". Nice rescue, Horiuchi.
Then there was the Waco massacre, brought on by morons running the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who wanted to pull a stupid and brutal publicity stunt that went bad. Their intended victims shot up the attackers and repelled them from the premises, only to be barbecued by the FBI later when they wouldn't come out like nice little obedient citizens are supposed to do. The Branch Davidians never should have been attacked in the first place, since they had never issued so much as a threat, let alone ever committed a violent act. But the BATF wanted to stage a publicity event in an effort to garner additional funding, so the citizens' constitutional rights not to be subjected to excessive force be damned! All the BATF agents had to do was walk up to the door and knock. Instead, they assaulted the place as if Usama bin Laden was holed up in there. Nobody was held accountable for that fiasco either.
The list of violations just keep piling up, as they always do when there is no personal accountability. It was just reported that two separate federal judges have ruled that the FBI violated the civil rights of defendants it had lured onto a web page that advertised child pornography. The judges also ruled that the FBI lied and misrepresented their probable cause to judges in order to secure search warrants. Most of those searched, arrested and publicly defamed never actually subscribed as alleged by the FBI. You can read that shocking story here.
A large city newspaper reporter once asked me what I thought of the FBI. I told him I regarded the FBI as a criminal organization. My response definitely gave him pause, and it might have cost me some credibility at the time. But after it was revealed that the Bosom FBI had cozied up to organized crime hoods to the extent FBI agents were giving the creeps the names of informants they would later murder, he just might have a different feel for my assessment.
There are federal laws on the books that specifically apply to public officials who violate the civil rights of the citizens, but they are rarely enforced as written by our equally immune judges.
United States Code Title 42, Sections 1983, 1985 and 1986 call for personal accountability when a public official abuses his power and conspires to violate a citizen's civil rights, or personally violates those rights, or is in a position to prevent such a violation, but does nothing. Violations of those laws strip the public official of his or her immunity from personal civil prosecution, but the success rate in real-life federal court actions is spotty at best. It would seem that enforcing those laws hits a little too close to home for a lot of judges who are subject to Title 42 actions themselves. Go figure.
Outside of someone like renegade Texas Representative Ron Paul, we'll never see any other career politician propose federal legislation to impose immediate and personal accountability on those who knowingly violate their oath of office. The only possible hope I can see in correcting this problem will probably begin through individual state initiatives like those available to the voters here in Oregon.
