All Republican candidates for the US Presidency at a recent press sponsored debate came out in favor of bringing back torture (e.g. waterboarding) but one, Ron Paul. But even Ron Paul and Mitt Romney favor Gingrich’s proposal to short circuit the independence of the US Supreme Court to interpret the federal Constitution.

Newt’s Poison Pill Prescription for US Supreme Court by Eric Posner

And he’s not the only one who thinks there is a huge problem with giving the Supreme Court final say on the Constitution. But make no mistake about it–should Mr. Gingrich’s plan succeed, it would place the remnant of our foundation for government as envisioned by the founders of this nation on the fast track slippery slope to fascism.

Supreme Court Executioner and Dilettante

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All three branches (executive, legislative, judicial) were intended to be co-equal and independent from the others. This full faith and credit among those branches has essentially worked. Our justices give every respect to legislatively enacted laws UNLESS they’re clearly UNCONSTITUTIONAL. While nothing straight was ever carved from the crooked timbre of humanity, failing a benign theocracy, our man made laws and judge made rulings have reasonably consistently worked as the framers intended. Our courts have struggled to maintain not only the separation of powers, but the separation of Church and State…as was intended.

Our federal judges are not elected but SELECTED. The President proposes and the Senate disposes by advise & consent to those judicial nominations. The judges receive lifetime appointments precisely because they take their seats in the ONLY branch of our government without the corrupting influence of campaign contributions, corporate influence, graft, corruption, and high powered lobbyists.

Our judges are not supposed to be buffeted by popular sentiment or political winds. If our Constitution is difficult to amend, that’s as was intended. Those rights embodied in its text were  placed there to protect minority interests as the majority (in theory) in a democracy does not need such safeguards. Those principles held to be self evident were not intended to wax and wane with political intemperance. It’s for this very reason our US Senators have 6-year terms instead of the 2-year terms of House Representatives.

Were current popular political sentiment the only material warp and weave of our national fabric of government, there’d hardly be a need for a Constitution at all. That we have one which stands like a rock in the midst of chaotic political change serves to bind this nation, to provide continuity and an appropriate degree of certainty to individual liberty. commerce, and officials alike.

Gingrich, much like Donald Trump, is a political huckster seeking to anoint a simplistic rationale with the rhetoric of reasoned debate over issues long settled since at least 1803 when one of the early Supreme Court Justices ruled it was the Court’s sole purview to provide the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution–the document which acts as the glue to bind our nation of laws.  i.e. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Our rugged Constitution has served us well for these past centuries. It would be foolhardy to trade the empty rhetoric and overly simplistic vision of this demagogue for the tried and true cornerstone that has served as the foundation of our hard won democracy and system of government. What Gingrich proposes is no less than an invitation to a Constitutional crisis.

Covering the Olympia Heritage Park encampment Monday evening (12-12-11) as well as Thursday evening, night, and Friday (12-15-11 through 12-16-11) revealed it was not safe. Threatened by a homeless man named ‘Brian’ who had recently done a stint of 10 years down South for murder who was talked out of the encampment a day or two later by a camp resident named ‘Sly’ for assaulting another resident with a large knife, it was evident photojournalists and visitors were at considerable risk Nor were these incidents (story still developing) isolated, but they should be of interest to the public.

Washington State’s Dept. of Enterprise Services (DES) has begun abatement proceedings by issuing a notice of eviction effective midnight tonight to those squatters currently camping on the Capitol’s Heritage Park grounds by the lake. Steve Valandra, a DES spokesman, assures the actual physical action to remove the structures will take place during daylight hours.

Sugar Mountain

Mr. Valandra was cautioned there are small children and handicapped citizens residing there.

Signs of Handicapped Homeless

1st Aid Tent

Baby Stroller

Occupy Olympia Heritage Park Food Tent

Joyce Turner and Steve Valandra cited instances of people defecating in the park despite the State allowing the restroom facilities to remain open 24/7. The State’s generosity has been repaid with graffiti. One woman residing in the camp stated she didn’t want to go back in the woods, arguing she felt safer in the park. But the squatters were unable/unwilling to make the general public feel safe while there even during daylight hours. (See associated story about threats & intimidation directed at the media) Given the history of some elements in the Olympia community bullying, criminally harassing, and vandalizing a Daily Olympian reporter’s home, camera, and vehicle, its townspeople may be well served having the encampment removed despite the conflicting needs for compassion toward its most vulnerable denizens.

Squatter's Rights?

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The instigating mother pictured above can be heard in the audio claiming the park is her backyard and ‘house’ while the 911 dispatcher is speaking. But she told Sgt. Elmore, when questioned, she did not live there and was leaving. She can also be heard lying about the confrontation between the violent squatter pictured below and the photojournalist.

Mr. 'cane' refuses to identify himself or be photographed--why? Warrants? Registered Offender?

A misguided knight errant refuses to identify himself or be photographed but threatens to maim or kill the photojournalist for attempting to document the incident in a public park nominally belonging to all the citizens of this State.  Other squatters voice support for his violent intimidation and claim Sgt. Elmore was sympathetic to them as well.

Sgt. Elmore stated no police report or incident number was made. It would seem law enforcement on the Capitol grounds is, as encampment residents argued, extremely selective. Both they and law enforcement personnel substitute their own prejudices or ‘religion’ for the law, blurring legal boundaries into a hopelessly unrecognizable state.

Fantasy Land for Kids?

UPDATE: After the riot police contingent of the WSP (Washington State Patrol) helped evict the Heritage Park Occupy Olympia encampment, a number of reports were published by the many news organizations that covered the event. A sigh of relief was a common thread in response to the fact no injuries or arrests resulted from either the illegal encampment or the brief occupation of the old abandoned Public Health building across the street from Heritage Park and Bayview supermarket. However, some missing details were at odds with reports such as one by Matthew Green in the Olympia Power & Light newspaper (issue #50).

Mr. Green appears to have missed the fact that a number of tents and their contents were summarily disposed of in a trash compactor truck over the protests of a young crowd of activists badgering State DES workers from outside the erected chain-link fence on the west end of the park around 1:30pm Friday. Insults and verbal challenges were flowing in both directions until one tired old reporter interceded and asked the young people to be more mindful of their purpose as well as effectiveness. Eventually a heavily accented German woman advised that the promises of storage for these particular tents couldn’t be kept because they were soaked with urine and feces which the State had no means of decontaminating and health laws prohibited being stored.

Mr. Green also fails to mention the death threats made the Monday evening before the Friday eviction by ‘Brian McCracken’ (apparently a false alias furnished by ‘Sly’, given the real Brian was met a couple months later when he was hosted by Shelton’s League of Women Voters), against a reporter for taking photographs of the encampment and some of its denizens (including one child residing there over her mother’s objections). ‘McCracken’ had recently been released after serving 10 years for murder (at least according to the now discredited ‘Sly’). Sgt. Zachary Elmore of the WSP Capitol grounds police answered the 911 call reporting the incident but refused to note it or assign an incident number even after being furnished the identity (now in doubt as fiction by ‘Sly’), sound recordings, and photo of the perpetrator. A night or two later, the same ‘perp’ was successfully urged to leave the camp after assaulting another resident with a large knife according to ‘Sly’. Sly admitted the man, who he claimed he knew fairly well, was entirely capable of/prone to killing someone. Sgt. Elmore admitted seeing Mr. ‘McCracken’ at another location on the Capitol grounds but did not indicate stopping the man or taking him into custody despite the report of criminal harassment and assault. Selective law enforcement, a phenomena much complained of by camp residents, was unabashedly on display by even the better trained WSP. So was disinformation promoted by some of the camp’s residents, e.g. ‘Sly’. The press is well advised to report what they see and little of what they hear from such encampments.

Ergo, contrary to Matthew Green’s assertion, the camp was NOT a safe place for the homeless, children, handicapped, as well as others among our most vulnerable or the general public and certainly not photojournalists. 911 and DES had received multiple complaints of altercations arising in the camp. This reporter had seen an example first hand along with the complete failure to respond constructively to the incident by the WSP. For arguably justifiable reasons, not all property seized in the park was preserved for later recovery by owners–a result of residents so sick, frail, intractably dysfunctional they could not avoid soiling their own beds yet had to endure an existence living under bridges and hiding in woods while public restrooms were deliberately bolted with the intention of discouraging their use by the homeless. To suggest, as the OL&P article claims, the camp was ‘safe’ is misleading and a gross mis-characterization of the truth. To suggest, as DES attempted, the State was motivated by health concerns for the public and camp residents is equally untrue as evidenced by the fact the State typically locks its public restrooms at 5:00pm daily precisely to discourage their use by the homeless.

Even the poorest of nations maintain public restrooms. So what’s with America/Washington?

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Ever wonder what really goes on in homeless encampments and at the Occupy Olympia Heritage Park site where so many homeless have congregated on the coattails of sympathetic political/community activists? Most news gathering organizations take a few photo-op shots and depart. Few or none attempt in depth reporting of the pulse and seamy underside of the squatter community currently entrenched in the park. This report is an effort to dig beneath the surface and discover what is at stake and whether the larger community is willing to pay the price or meet the demands of those homeless denizens arguing what the limits of entitlements they seek should be.

Assault, intimidation, felony harassment of media

The Occupy Olympia Heritage Park encampment turns out to often be a lawless environment where even the Capitol Campus police hesitate to enter. Violence, drugs, and alcohol are prohibited but continue to exist there largely as a product of those homeless elements who have difficulty understanding proscribed boundaries in law and a false sense of entitlement. Photos of the food tent can be seen in this clip. When asked about whether the food stocks there were on the ‘honor system’ to prevent pilfering or abuse, one activist replied they put a locked door on the food tent but it was kicked in the very 1st night. The hysterically aggressive mother can be heard claiming the camp is her home, yet she indicated to Sgt. Zachary Elmore of the Capitol Campus WSP she was merely visiting. She drove away in what the Sgt. described as a fairly new car in good condition, so he assumed she was telling the truth, but she returned later.

The belligerent man holding the stick/club/cane with his back to the camera can be heard arguing how taking pictures is ‘against his religion’. He can also be heard exclaiming how visitors to the park must do what the squatters demand/request. In fact, other photojournalists have been threatened and told they cannot record/photograph activities in the park such as the GA (general assembly) meetings all are supposedly welcome to attend.

It’s been said the test of a person’s virtue is to give them absolute power for 15 minutes. The homeless in Heritage Park hardly have absolute power yet still fail badly. They have suggested they be allowed to seize a brick building where the Public Health Agency once resided but now appears abandoned. It is well this suggestion has met stiff resistance. Judging from the audio in this clip, having the mentally imbalanced and foolhardy taking over a space with doors, walls, and barriers to the police would be an unmitigated disaster. The more aggressive of these folks are homeless for a reason: failure to acknowledge/recognize where the boundaries are. They’re also bigots in their own right with a full pantheon of prejudices they easily promote.

This is not a safe environment for kids, yet children, mothers, the halt, the lame, and the infirm (note wheelchair) obviously reside there. While the confrontational mom deploys histrionics regarding strangers taking photographs in a public park and her knight errant suggests the cameraman could potentially be a pedophile, the fact is many pedophiles are homeless for exactly that reason. It’s unknown whether the encampment has established security screening to filter out registered sex offenders. But if Sgt. Elmore is to be believed, the mother was lying to either him or the reporter. She either lives there or doesn’t, but not both.

The mother can be heard lying about ‘getting in his face’ of the man making the threats. She did so for the benefit of the 911 operator–clearly a street wise operator not above manipulating the system she condemns.  Subsequent audio reveals the Capitol Police are entirely too eager to accept this kind of subterfuge and several camp residents indicated in the audio the cops were more sympathetic with those engaging in the felonious conduct and lying to the police than they were the reporter. This comes out in the interview with the WSP Capitol Police at the edge of the park near the public restrooms building. This will be uploaded after editing to allow you to be  the judge.

The following 3rd party video follows suit, demonstrating how Occupy Olympia fails to have a theory of government up to the challenge of the issues they’re addressing–particularly civil rights.

Sammy Speaks Out

Sammy, a welding student with a dream, organizes a boycott in solidarity with the greater Occupy movement and organized labor working at the nation’s ports. His articulate pronouncements and observations regarding modern labor as well as the state of our economy belie his age.

Mary Brings Holiday Cheer

Mary Hath Spokane hands out Christmas carols to rally supporters of Occupy the Ports…some with a different spin. Mary is a peace activist who was married to a cop. She implores others to be tolerant and leave their prejudices behind. She is also one of the Heritage Park Occupy encampment’s more influential participants.

An in depth investigatory report on the tensions within that camp, the public demeanor of, the cheeky sense of entitlement of the homeless residing there, and questions about boundaries/ownership in a community park will soon appear on this site for a unique perspective on prevailing lawlessness there.

Words of Encouragement from Cooper Point

Michelle Morris (and her husband) live in a home on Cooper Point. She was active in spearheading the drive to stop TESC from installing a biomassacre plant on campus. Whether she’s part of the 99% financially, however, is open to question. When asked at one point early on to meet, she demurred by claiming she was busy washing her yacht.  Her husband was ruder still when contacted by phone. Conclusion: Politics makes for strange bedfellows and even the rich would like a little clean air left to breathe.

No Paparazzi, please!

Michelle attempts to instruct the photographer not to take pictures, but when informed she had no right to privacy in a public street, she rolled up her window and drove off in a huff! Still, her arrogance in assuming rights to quash the 1st Amendment isn’t isolated to the 1%…far from it. Homeless squatters in Heritage Park were violently aggressive and threatening while trying to make the same argument that has been denied by our State Supreme Court to peace officers and to which Michelle felt entitled. The squatters went so far as to argue visitors to the park had to comply with their wishes because it was their ‘back yard’.

Our youth and politically active seniors seeking social justice may have a naive faith in government remedies, but there’s no doubt they’re on the right side of history. The squalid conditions the dispossessed are forced to endure, the police brutality visited on those who peacefully protest this nation’s injustices, the arrests of even those sitting on a drum in a ‘busking zone’ shed light on just how far the erosion of American principles has gone while most of us were trying to get on with our lives but paying too little attention to the political process.

It’s not a new story, but it has reached crisis proportions. Our fate and our future are ultimately in the hands of a few–those who have renewed their faith in the promise of an American vision and dream Dr. King had or the greedy elite who rely on government corruption at all levels to establish rules designed to benefit their special interests at the expense of the people.

Save The Country, Climb On Board the Glory Train

Government will NEVER be the sop young (and old) idealists hope for, yet it can (and should) act as a bulwark to prevent force & fraud as well as provide for the national defense–including the environment, of course. Corporate welfare queens who steal the commons that is the right of all living creatures (such as clean air & water) commit violence against all and should be tried for crimes against humanity. Some day, God willing, they will be!

That day has yet to arrive. Until it does, we must keep our swords sharp and rely on our youth, our children and their boundless energy, their limitless idealism, their profound sense of injustice, to save the country. Those who abuse even the least of these will have to answer for it, sentenced to perhaps the worst punishment of all, having to keep their own company.

A Day in the Life of the Dispossessed

On 12-12-11, our children will be struggling to take back our country and the institutions we created to serve us, not corporate masters who promote the legal fiction that somehow corporations are ‘persons’–‘persons’ who do not bleed when cut, who have no soul, no conscience, no goal but to make unending profits for their share holders without personal accountability, and no commitment to the quality of life for the people.

Come on down, lend your support, join the Glory Train. You don’t need no ticket, just climb on board 12-12-11 all day long @ the Olympia Port, corner of Franklin & Market. Your Country needs you.

Organized labor, workers, and other members of the 99% are especially encouraged to demonstrate our common cause in attempting to wrest control/power from the wealthy few and return it to the people else the brute police power of the state will destroy us. The most fundamental revolutionary change will come of an understanding of how we are all connected and must act in our mutual best interests, not through government fiat, but by the compassionate exercise of a new social order where charity (a critical element too important to be left to the indelicate, inept, unreliable, corrupt hands of government) is restored to its rightful place with extended families and the community.

Life in a Political Vacuum

WeLFAre The 99%

Income Redistribution by Government Fiat

Occupy Olympia has some compassionate motivated souls in the rain besotted encampment at Heritage Park. Many are destitute and homeless. It’s not an easy life or one most would choose. Yet there’s a certain dignity in the poor spread before the world to see on our Capitol’s lawn and lakeside park–more about that later.

Confiscatory Taxes for a Better Society?

Bless the poor and the children. They are our unsung heroes because, if they can survive, they starve the beast! They have nothing (but their liberty) the power elite can take from them.

21st Century Centurians Eject the Poor

The rich need big government far more than the poor–they receive substantially greater benefits proportionate to their accumulated wealth.

A Pointed Exchange

But it’s a mistake to believe even more power concentrated through greater taxes or regulations that go beyond the core functions of a just government (preventing force & fraud, providing for the national defense…including defending the environment) will act as a sop.

Fresh Faced Youthful Energy/Ideas

The truth is power concentrated in government is like a big jar of honey without the lid. It attracts flies, other opportunists such as corporations, and special interests. That’s human nature. The answer lies in reforming our social order, not even more powerful government because that way there be monsters. We already have witnessed a severe erosion of social justice and civil liberties due to the encroachments of a military-industrial-government complex. The more power is vested in government, the greater the incidence of corruption and inequity. Power must be devolved and redistributed to the people else too much honey attracts too much money (the mother’s milk of politics).

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Think about it. America might actually be a better place without the rich…no one wants to be poor, but it’s beginning to smell like the only path to freedom.

Where there's Life, there's Hope

I’d rather be free than saddled with the delusion of Horatio Alger in America. That vision died when money was ruled tantamount to free speech.

PBJ & Honey express feelings of love during interview at the Occupy Olympia encampment for their community while relating how they were targeted, their 1st Amendment civil rights violated by the power elite in Olympia and sentenced to jail for sitting on their drum in a designated busking zone.

PBJ and Honey Discuss Jail Sentence for 1st Amendment Activity

UPDATE:  As of Thursday evening, 12-1-11, Honey & Jason were in transit via Portland on their way to California and a job. Neither had begun their jail sentence. It’s unknown whether Thurston will issue a bench warrant for their arrest, but likely. During the phone interview, Jason expressed regret but accepted responsibility for putting his wife and young child’s welfare before the edicts of Thurston’s power elite. A job, food, housing all looked pretty good to a homeless hungry father trying to provide for his family. Jason & Honey reckoned they’d settle up with Thurston’s persecutors at a more appropriate future date after they established a little more stability for their infant. All compassionate souls who have met these good spirits wish them well.

  Seattle – Special Occasions

Flamenco de Raiz  Friday Dec 9, 8PM at the Triple Door

World renowned Gypsy singers 

Jesus Montoya and Jose Cortes

 will join Eric & Encarnacion for an

evening of original flamenco
compositions, dance compositions,
and the deep song style known as
cante jondo.

For more about Eric & Encarnacion and for reservations, see

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION Erickson Theatre off Broadway, Seattle,Sunday, Dec 11, 7:30 PM www.brownpapertickets.com  Tickets also available at the door, $20.  $15 for students and seniors. Under the direction   of Rubina Carmona,”Fiesta Navideña” is a concert of flamenco music and dance with a holiday theme, including Spanish Christmas songs and a suite of Sephardic music to celebrate “la convivencia”.  The concert will also feature some major works of choreography by Rubina Carmona, including  Tango de Malaga, Siguiriyas, Cantiñas and Taranto. On stage: guitarists Markus Kolb and Gustavo Lopez, percussionist Steve Roy, vocalists, Rubina Carmona, Stephanie Hughes and Kristin Clingan-Roy, dancers Solita Locsin, Nancy Fetch, Rachel Sprague, Julianna Jones, Kristin Clingan-Roy, Janette Mackay and Patricia Oates. More about the Carmonas’ Flamenco Arts Northwest  at www.fanw.org -206-932-4067     Oleaje Flamenco, not performing on Guyamas Cantina’s patio in the winter months, will appear with David Carmona on the cajon at The SEA MONSTER in Wallingford on December 18. More details about this upcoming show, the groups’ bios and photos, see  Oleajeflamenco.com Ongoing Flamenco Events in Seattle 3rd Thurs. of month: Flamenco Gitana performs  at the Bilbao Spanish Restaurant. Join in for an evening of tapas and flamenco dance. Shows at 8pm and 9pm. 4500  9th Ave. NE. Seattle, (206) 547-5034. More about Maria Gitana at www.flamencogitana.com   Every Tuesday 8:30PM: Live Flamenco! with Eric and Encarnación  flamencoseattle.com   The Capitol Club, Serving light meals/tapas. 414 East Pine, Seattle WA.  2 drink minimum, no cover.