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We the People Scoop
12/03/05
====================================================================== WE THE PEOPLE SCOOP - TO EXPOSE! ** ** Visit the website: http://www.stanley2002.org ** ** OR Our NEW Offshore Host at www.wtpconstitutionalactivism.org ** ** Like the Scoop? Forward it to everyone you know! ** ** ** ** SPECIAL NOTICE: Many of our readers know that the scooplist has ** ** been down for just over a month. We have been given no answers ** ** by our previous hosts, so obviously we were taken down by the ** ** Powers That Be (PTB) that do not what to see this kind of info ** ** coming out. Hence, we have moved our newsletter and will mirror ** ** the Stanley2002.org website to offshore servers where they ** ** cannot be tampered with. The new mirrored site will be at: ** ** http://wtpconstitutionalactivism.org ** ====================================================================== OPINION RELEASE: REFLECTIONS ON A FALLEN
MAN
Carl F. Worden I am terribly saddened by the guilty plea and subsequent tearful public confession of California Republican Representative "Duke" Cunningham to charges of abject corruption in accepting bribes from several defense contractors for favorable contract awards. Representative Cunningham was a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense dollars awarded to competing defense contractors, and as such, he would be a target of those who might seek his favors illegally over those of other defense contractors who play by the rules. It is reported that a number of other elected congressional officials are also under investigation in connection with the Cunningham corruption case, and I reasonably expect to hear of more indictments to come in this case. By now, most of my readers know I am a financial consultant by profession,
and
my specialty is in employee benefits. As such, I am often involved in negotiations with employee unions to provide voluntary supplemental insurance benefits to their membership. A few years ago, I approached a firemen's union in San Jose, California,
for the
purpose of providing accident disability and cancer coverage to their membership. Firemen get hurt far more often than police officers in their line of duty, and firemen are also noted for coming down with cancer, during, but usually after they retire from service. This is because they come into contact with all kinds of nasty stuff burning as they perform their duties, and California is a state that recognizes the problem to the extent that the state awards Worker's Compensation benefits to firemen during and after retirement if the individual comes down with cancer. The problem is so rampant that at last report, 60% of all firemen eventually die of cancer -- and that figure does not include the number who survive it. I looked at all the plans for accident and cancer coverage offered by all
the
many insurance carriers admitted to California, and found one insurer that would offer both plans that provided the highest possible benefits in relation to cost. I am an insurance broker because I refuse to be a "captive" agent, able to offer only what a primary insurance company has available. As such, I can "cherry-pick" from the best offerings out there, unlike captive and semi-captive agents who represent companies like Aflac and Combined Insurance. So there I am, sitting in front of the managers and leaders of this
firemen's
union, and the top guy asks me to "kick-back" 15% of my commissions if they allow me to sell my insurance via payroll deduction to the various firemen in a number of agencies in the Santa Clara Valley -- often referred to as the Silicon Valley. I said there was no problem in doing that if the union had an insurance license. Nobody can collect insurance commissions unless they are a licensed insurance agent in California, so my condition was both legal and reasonable. Since employee unions are registered with the IRS as non-profit, such an arrangement would be quite illegal. To cut to the chase, I didn't get the contract. I am proud of my stand, with reservations. Some other dirt-bag broker
will come
along offering a lesser product, and will agree to pay the kick-back, and who gets screwed? The union members, of course, and they didn't even get to know what I was prepared to provide them. Which brings us back to the sad tale of Vietnam fighter pilot ace
Congressman
Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Here's a guy who served in the armed forces and relied on the very best weaponry and equipment the United States Government could provide, and the little bastard sold his soul for 2.4 million in various gifts and cash to sell out the best interests of our men and women in uniform. Who knows what the other defense contractors had to offer? Did they offer better body armor than the "competition" who gave Cunningham a Rolls Royce? I don't know under what circumstances Cunningham got the Rolls, but it really doesn't matter. How badly did Cunningham betray those who serve now? This betrayal of trust borders on outright treason on Cunningham's part, and I sincerely hope the judge gives the man the harshest sentence allowable under federal law. James Madison wrote words on this subject, particularly related to
the
environment of war. He was rebuking the 3rd Congress for considering giving their authority to declare war to the president. If you recall, that is exactly what happened when Congress voted to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq. Congress has no authority under the Constitution to give their authority to declare war to the president, but that is exactly what they did, and that is why all this rubbish about how Congress was "lied into war" misleads us away from the original felony. The very fact Congress voted to give Bush their authority to declare war is the original sin in this fiasco, and any representative who voted to do so, lied to or not about WMD, Nukes and whatever, Democrat or Republican, is a traitor to his/her oath. Here are Madison's words to the 3rd Congress, which thankfully did not do
that
which our current Congress did. The Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty by James Madison, August 1793
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be
dreaded,
because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . . [It should be well understood] that the powers proposed to be surrendered
[by
the Third Congress] to the Executive were those which the Constitution has most jealously appropriated to the Legislature. . . . The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the
power of
declaring a state of war . . . the power of raising armies . . . the power of creating offices. . . . A delegation of such powers [to the President] would have struck, not only
at
the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments. The separation of the power of declaring war from that of conducting it,
is
wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its being declared for the sake of its being conducted. The separation of the power of raising armies from the power of commanding
them,
is intended to prevent the raising of armies for the sake of commanding them. The separation of the power of creating offices from that of filling them,
is an
essential guard against the temptation to create offices for the sake of gratifying favorites or multiplying dependents. ###
James Madison was the fourth president of the United States. This is
from
Letters and Other Writings of James Madison. "And the opportunities of fraud" -- did you see that part?
"Degeneracy of
manners and of morals" -- did you read that too? As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. Our Founding Fathers knew very well what men do in a time of war. Just today it was reported that a ranking American military officer in Iraq got busted for taking bribes from contractors to rebuild Iraq. For every one caught, you can count on probably 50+ who are never detected. Who knows what happened to all that cash and gold confiscated from Saddam after our invasion? If you ask, nobody seems to know. It's like it all vanished into thin air. Our government is seriously corrupt, and has been made more so by
this
unconstitutional and illegal war. And that concludes my thoughts for today.
Carl F. Worden
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[LibertarianExchange] OPINION RELEASE: REFLECTIONS ON A FALLEN MAN
We The People Constitutional Activism Sat, 03 Dec 2005 08:25:43 -0800
