It was in Springfield, IL on June 16, 1858 when Abraham Lincoln made that famous campaign speech while running for the US Senate. Lincoln foolisly seemed to believe that things would somehow work out without a Civil War.
Lincoln let out that iconic line, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." He followed that up with, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”
We are again at this same crossroad with one half of the nation enslaved to the other half and an out-of-control government. Now yet another Illinois politician may be foolishly optimistic we will avoid a second Civil War.
I don’t think our present government can endure half slave and half free but that’s exactly what Barack Obama has arranged. Obama is The Great Divider.
Most Americans are beginning to realize that the Red Menace we long thought dead is here. Our freedom and liberty is on the ropes as we plunge into an abyss of failed Marxist ideas.
Instead of our economy growing it will be the body count as this Communist revolution has only begun. It is time to purge or be purged folks. We are in for a very rough ride if we can’t politically derail that despot and his henchmen.
Berlin, Germany—At the end of World War I, Germany signed on to the Treaty of Versailles that saddled the nation with an impossible war debt to pay. This was during the time they were simply printing money as the economy tanked and Germans were actually starving.
Two opposing Socialist political parties fought for control of Germany. The Communists and Nazis battled it out. The winners were the National Socialists led by a charismatic man, Adolph Hitler who expertly used the new media of radio to lead a nation of obedient sheep.
Hitler’s PR manager, Josef Goebbels was a genius that knew to never let a good crisis go to waste. They contrived a crisis and that was the arson blaze of Germany’s Reichstag. Outraged politicians quickly voted to give the Nazis absolute power to crack down on their opposition.
Hitler delivered on his promises to feed Germany and redistribute the wealth. The Jews were targeted since they were both unpopular and wealthy. Jewish property and businesses were confiscated and distributed to Nazi Party faithful. The German people allowed themselves to be totally dependent on the National Socialist government for absolutely everything.
Jews were outlawed and those that did not flee were rounded up and sent off for "resettlement" in Eastern Europe without their assets. The dirty secret was Hitler’s Final Solution to the Jewish Problem along with extermination of the medically unfit. This was also an economical move since you need not care for or feed the dead.
Germans were very desperate for peace, prosperity and security. Hitler and his henchmen seemed to provide even better than expected and that boosted his popularity. Soon Hitler was running out of Jewish money and began the occupation of his European neighboring countries. That of course eventually brought World War II.
Still the German people were overly fond of the National Socialist messiah who filled their food pantries and stomachs with food. Those who knew the real story were tried and executed for High Treason if they made any effort to expose the Nazi atrocities.
We are at a crossroads with crisis after crisis and now we have a overly large, government dependent population that follows Barack Obama like starving puppies. Obama leads them as any other effective cult leader. Obama’s followers are just as giddy as Hitler’s were to be in his presence. The similarities between these two Socialists, is indeed downright spooky.
Germany saw 9 million of its own citizens perish because of Hitler. That does not include the Holocaust, nor the loss of all the Allied soldiers. Socialism was and is nothing more than a killing machine everywhere it has been tried.
For everyone killed or murdered in the name of National Socialism there were nearly two killed in the name of the Communist USSR under Stalin.
Getting rid of Hitler was politically impossible and those that saw the horrible direction Germany was headed had no choice but to plan his assassination. By the time the German resistance got serious, it was too little too late.
We have no choice but to rid our government of every last Socialist and Communist.
This is really simple to understand. We have many millions of poor illegal immigrants in our country. They simply don’t have insurance and don’t pay their medical bills as as we are forced to pay their tab of hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
This impoverished and uneducated alien group is also involved in all manner of criminal enterprises and suffer many more drug overdoses, stabbing and gunshot wounds than citizens or documented resident aliens. The same is true for their accelerated and astronomical birth rate.
The strain on our medical providers and the medical insurance companies is beyond enormous. Lastly, nothing prevents people who can’t or won’t pay medical bills or illegal aliens from making medical malpractice claims or filing lawsuits against care providers.
If we removed the trespassing aliens. Americans and legal aliens could well afford insurance.
Rapho Township, PA—Fame nearly always brings hard cold cash so there are never ending attempts to garner fame such as the infamous Balloon Boy Caper. For every publicity stunt that backfires, there are many more that succeed.
Natalee Holloway disappeared some five years ago after leaving a nightclub with young strangers while drunk on a vacation in Aruba. Today we still don’t know if she was the victim of an accident, foul play or even if she found a new life somewhere by her own volition.
The Holloway case has captured the imaginations of those Americans that don’t have a life and hang on every word of the former prosecutor and now tabloid TV, crime harpy, Nancy Grace. These folks want the young men who were last seen with Holloway hanging from a gallows. Thankfully there is a decent form of Due Process on this Dutch governed island.
Now John and Patti Muldowney have produced a photograph of a shape on the ocean floor taken while snorkel diving. Now they have generated a major speculative media frenzy that has little basis whatsoever. I’m sure they got a hefty price for their photo.
Is the shape human remains? I can’t see a basis to draw any conclusion whatsoever.
If it is somehow a real human corpse, what are the odds that it’s Holloway? I’d ventured to say that millions of corpses have been dumped into our oceans. Some were murdered and others simply buried at sea. Then there are those that drowned or had fatal encounters with sea life.
We all need to learn from this that anyone can dupe the media and make money too.
Los Angeles, CA—I first wrote about this great 2006 film only last August in a review. I caught the film by accident on the Encore Network one night. What a treat it was!
If there is a God of all film directors I’d have to call him, Paul Verhoven(Basic Instinct, Robo Cop,Total Recall and Independence Day). His other films are pretty good to say the least but he hit a Grand-slam Homerun with Black Book.
I have a serious problem. I can’t stop watching this film, over and over.
If you’ve not heard of this film that perhaps because it’s filmed in Dutch, German and only a bit of English. Don’t worry it’s subtitled in your language. The acting is so superb you will become part of it.
This film is based on a true story of a sexy and beautiful Jewish cabaret singer, played by Carice Van Houten, hiding out in Holland for the duration of the war and Nazi occupation. Van Houten’s character, Rachel Stein aka, Ellis de Vries is drafted into the Dutch Underground and spends the last year of the war, 1944 as a spy. The dangers Stein faces are unimaginable as she proves to be the ultimate survivor. This film is a non-stop thriller.
Verhoven’s entire cast is terrific. Sebastian Koch plays a kinder, gentler, head of the local Gestapo who understandably falls in love with the beautiful espionage agent. The love scenes are real, since these two actors were smitten both on and off screen. Sadly the distance between Amsterdam and Berlin ended their relationship, according to my very own beautiful spy, Andrea, living in Berlin.
You will need a score card to separate the villains from the good guys as every thrilling scene unfolds. The script written by Gerard Soeteman and Paul Verhoeven is as good as it gets.
You will see and recognize Van Houten, Christian Berkel, Waldemar Kobus and that stunning redhead, Halina Reijn from Black Book in the Film, Operation Valkerie that also stared Tom Cruise as Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg. Reijn shows up, this time as a brunette playing Stauffenberg's secratary.
I think the greatest thrill I’d have in my life would be to work with the incredible cast and crew of Black Book in another great European film. Mr. Verhoven, I’m available! Just have your casting director call my agent! Of course there is my screenplay, Come Friday waiting for someone like you to direct!
Carice Van Houten is very busy making more films right now. She has what it takes to be the greatest leading lady ever.
Don’t rent this film, buy it and see if you can stop watching it.
Chicago, IL—Yes, I’ve see Chicago police bosses in handcuffs before. In the 1970’s Clarence E. Braasch and Mark Thanasouras made the perp walk and took an extended vacation at Club Fed. That of course involved serious corruption and violations of public trust.
I can’t recall a boss getting pinched for a misdemeanor offense, ever. That all changed last night, with the arrest of Fillmore District Commander, Penelope Trahanas over an allegation of, telephone harassment.
Trahanas is accused of making a threatening call to her former boyfriend, Matthew Jackson, a policeman currently assigned to headquarters. The basis for the arrest surround voicemails left by Trahanas that allegedly threatened Jackson’s career.
Jackson ran to a judge, sought and obtained an Order of Protection against his former lover. Jackson also instigated a departmental investigation of the allegations. Now, Trahanas has made the perp walk, got stripped of her gun, star and police powers.
Of course this mess will be reviewed by the courts that are notoriously slow in Chicago. If there is a guilty plea or a trial ending in conviction the once promising career will end in disgrace.
Washington, DC—Americans seem to be too willing to put up with nearly any kind of abuse in the name of security. Despite solid Fourth Amendment protections Americans entering the buildings their taxes pay for, they submit like sheep to invasive, intrusive and degrading searches of their persons and belongings.
This idea caught on like wildfire in the 1980’s after cowardly judges and bureaucrats wanted special protection from unhappy litigants and taxpayers. Metal detectors and X-Ray machines are everywhere as government agents or government contractors simply violate the rights of visitors conducting government business.
Of course our cab drivers, 7-11 clerks or people that face real danger get no special protection from government. This is about protecting the powerful, not the public.
In America we only frisked prisoners or criminal suspects upon Probable Cause or by a Search Warrant. To do otherwise is only the routine of a Police State.
Of course the screening is never used on those who demand others be searched. That is at a minimum a denial of equal protection under law. If one American must submit every American should have to suffer the undignified frisking.
At the Capitol there are members of Congress and their staffers that insist they are above being searched. They bitterly complain when asked to submit to the screening. The result is a plethora of internal police investigations alleging racial profiling, assault and abuse against the hapless Capitol cops. Congress has the power to rid its chambers of the vile practice but they are too timid to do the right thing.
We need to establish once and for all that all Americans are equal. Either everyone or no one should ever lose their right to privacy when entering a public building or airport. This should begin at the U.S. Supreme Court with the screening of those Justices that don’t seem to have a problem with this practice.
Chicago, IL—I have been a long time critic of the three decade-old popular court process used for disputes, and domestic discord.
Our politicians found a way to sidestep establishing proof beyond a reasonable doubt to punish people accused of threatening behavior. One party visits a courthouse and makes whatever accusations they wish. If that party simply alleges assault, battery, criminal damage to property or some kind of threat the judge issues an Order of Protection that can have dire consequences.
The judge can order an accused person out of his home, to surrender all lawfully owned firearms and make the accused avoid going to his or her place of employment. The accused does have a right to a future civil hearing where the burden of proof is only minimal. The courts will only error on the side of, keeping the order in place. No judge wants to be blamed should something later happen to the complainant.
When the accused is a law enforcement officer or security professional they automatically lose their ability to work if their job requires they be armed.
The Orders of Protection are un-American and the real problem is that only law-abiding people can be counted on to obey them! Criminals violate the orders and kill or injure victims with or without the orders in the normal course of events. The orders just don’t work to protect anyone at all. This well-intentioned crime prevention concept has only been a massive failure.
The place for punishment is after conviction for a crime not upon some unsupported allegation. Far too often the orders are sought for malicious reasons only. Society is no better off with the Orders of Protection than without them to curb domestic violence. Society would be far better off to rid itself of this entire vile concept.
If there exists probable cause of a crime and the suspect is deemed a danger to society judges have the ability to raise the bail beyond the suspect’s ability to gain release.
Now Fillmore District Commander, Penelope Trahanas is on the receiving end of such an order. So far they have not stripped her of her star and gun, however not to do so would give her special treatment. Trahanas’ former boyfriend, Matthew Jackson, also an officer obtained the order complaining of telephone threats. I somehow don’t think this was necessary or that the sworn and armed boyfriend can’t take care of himself without the Order of Protection.
To me it looks like Penelope and Matthew need to move on with their lives without involving the courts or their employer. We need to change the law to keep this crap out of our courts and to quit ruining lives.
U.S. Constitution: Thirteenth Amendment - Slavery And Involuntary Servitude
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Our politicians seem to have forgotten that slavery was outlawed long ago. Our taxation and national debt has made slaves of all taxpaying Americans. Will they establish debtor’s prisons for those who won’t or can’t pay? Every day we are closer to a second Civil War.
Washington, DC—Our out-of-Control Congress and President care not what Americans want anymore. They are a bunch or rogue, unresponsive renegades on a Socialist mission.
A large group of these Socialists and Communists inside our own government will do whatever they can, legal or not to strangle freedom in America. Our calls, E-mails and letters are insufficient to get their attention. Stronger messages are the only answer now.
It’s time for, we the people to exercise every option to maintain freedom and liberty. Failure to act will be catastrophic to the American way of life.
Charlotte, NC—Former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be the keynote speaker at the NRA’s annual meeting, May 14-16, 2110.
As usual there will be a grand exhibit hall full of the latest and greatest firearms. There will be loads of seminars and events tailored for men, women and children.
For lawyers there is also a really useful firearms law seminar that qualifies for CLE credit. This will enable lawyer to defend people accused under unconstitutional gun laws as well as dealing with frivolous civil litigation.
This a great opportunity to be seen with thousands of defenders of our Second Amendment!
Be sure to stop by the Eagle Grips booth for the finest accessories for your handguns.
Yes, Crimefile News will be reporting from the Charlotte Convention Center.
Millions of people thoroughly dependant on government need your participation. A high count will bring us the things we really need like more taxes and more career criminal, Congressmen.
The count gives government guidance for where to waste more of your tax money.
By all means cooperate fully so we can a much bigger and powerful government to run every aspect of your life.
Imagine having speed limits eliminated on major highways? Envision having no vice police for adult prostitution or gambling? Visualize no more drug profits, theft or violence related to drugs that cost no more money to produce than coffee or sugar. More importantly, how many hundreds of billions of dollars would be saved if government ended its over-regulation of human behavior?
Germany has not had speed limits on their highways in our lifetime. The Autobahn is safe and reliable anyway. Prostitution is legal in Europe and the sky never fell. Gamblers gamble despite all laws. Drug addicts consume tons of illicit drugs despite outrageous consequences both legal and life threatening.
If all drugs were legalized would we begin putting needles in our arms just because we could? The answer is no! Drugs are in reality more attractive to young people just because they’re illegal!
Laws against driving under the influence can still be enforced and vice activities can be zoned away from residential areas and schools.
Some would say we should tax these things, but then we’d simply create an extortion programs and make criminal enterprises to evade the taxes.
We are embarking on the greatest depression of all times as we spend ourselves deeper with optimism and bravado. Too many want to believe our anointed Messiah, Barack Obama will save us all through epic government growth and taxation. That Socialist idea has failed absolutely everywhere. Freedom has never failed anywhere.
We were free after the American Revolution but where did all that precious freedom go? We need to take it back.
Los Angeles, CA—I wrote extensively about legendary record producer, Phil Spector’s first murder trial that ended in a mistrial when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. . I was not able to do much with the retrial because of other commitments, but it was even worse that the first trial.
Both trials were as unfair, and as outrageous as I’ve ever seen in my 40 years of experience inside the criminal justice system. During the trials I compared L.A. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler to Roland Freisler, the President of The People’s Court of Germany’s Third Reich. I don’t think that was an exaggeration because of nearly every ruling made by Fidler.
It was obvious to me that Judge Fidler had an agenda to convict Spector at any cost after numerous embarrassing high profile acquittals of other celebrity defendants. Fidler was drunk with power as he satisfied the harpy-pundits of that failed TV network, Court TV. It just so happened that I met Judge Fidler when he was invited to San Francisco to attend an Investigative Reporter’s and Editor’s conference in San Francisco with that very pretty, former Court TV correspondent, Beth Karas.
Spector’s trial was not about evidence but was an exercise of pure hatred. The trial manifested hatred for Spector’s wealth, flamboyant hair, manner of dress and lifestyle.
Spector had a lifetime’s worth of gold-digging women satisfying his libido and then angered when Spector did not give them the wealth and fame they sought. The very worst of this group were allowed to testify against Spector about decades old affairs.
Spector’s real crime was his sometimes horrible taste and judgment in the women he allowed in his bed. In that mix were thieves, extortionists and drug addicts. Some would return to haunt Spector for a slim chance at fame and of course the cash they could get from the tabloids for their tall tales.
The dead woman, Lana Clarkson fit Spector’s bedmates well. Clarkson was a failed and now too old actress with habit for ingesting Vicodin nearly a dozen times a day. The poor woman was an alcoholic suffering from depression and was nearly destitute. It was clear that Clarkson was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol when she died.
None the less Clarkson was a sympathetic figure that Hollywood used and spit out. Clarkson was beautiful and there was evidence she tried very hard to gain fame and fortune that sadly never materialized. Clarkson was really just another tragic story from The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Clarkson did not go home with Phil Spector who she just met for anything more than an act of commerce. Spector had money and Clarkson needed some.
A violent death occurred but the evidence of murder just was not there. On the contrary there was a lot of evidence suggesting suicide or a self-inflicted accidental shooting by a drunken woman.
We don’t have a video, instant replay of this tragedy. We and the jury had to guess how Clarkson died. It’s a human trait to want to assign blame for a needless death. The blame went to Phil Spector.
In Judge Fidler’s court Clarkson’s problems were sanitized while any and everyone who wanted was encouraged by the jurist to throw mud on Spector.
Phil Spector was railroaded to a prison cell for more years than the 70 year-old has left on earth. Spector very well may never live long enough to win his appeal. This is wrong.
With The People’s Court of Germany, the public did not see much of anything wrong with Judge Freisler’s show trials either. “Justice” was always administered there, swift and sure. What happened in this Los Angeles courtroom can happen to you or someone you love.
Los Angeles, CA—In light of last night’s Westwood Village home invasion, robbery and kidnapping of a half-dozen UCLA students, lawyers can be counted on to uncover security shortcomings at Midvale Plaza Apartments.
Here are some tough questions:
1. What licensed security or investigative professional was hired to perform a security audit of the premises? 2. Did Midvale Plaza Apartments follow the recommendations? 3. Was there licensed, trained and armed security present, and if not, why not? 4. What in the way of recorded security cameras were present and operational? 5. What instruction did Midvale Plaza Apartments give tenants about not allowing strangers into the building?
Somehow I don’t think Midvale Plaza Apartments will have the right answers. The marketing signs I saw today offer a lot of wonderful extras for the tenants but I did not see safety and security on the list.
This seems to be a new complex. What steps have they taken to protect the very lives of their tenants? Last night’s horror show could have easily degenerated into mass murder bloodbath.
I can only hope that the owners Midvale Plaza Apartments take every possible future step to insure the safety of the tenants that have entrusted them with their very lives. At a minimum their building should be more secure than others in the area.
One last question: Why was there no lock on this door?
Los Angeles, CA--The Midvale Plaza Apartments located at 527 / 540 Midvale Avenue became the scene of a home invasion robbery last night. Six UCLA students were studying for final examinations only to find themselves being held-up at gunpoint.
Four male masked male offenders including one Black and one Asian were armed with at least one shotgun as they forced the students to turn over cash, jewelry, laptops, and their cell phones. The robbery crew tied up the students with shoelaces and forced them all to lie on the floor of the apartment.
The offenders escaped and are now being sought by UCLAPD and LAPD officers who will need all the help they can get.
The robbery makes little sense since students generally have little money. This sounds like a really dangerous crew that needs to be stopped and removed from society. Anyone with information needs to snitch on these thugs in a hurry.
Note: On January 3, 2010 there was another similar home invasion only a block away at 433 Midvale committed by a lone Asian male with a silver colored handgun.
Washington, DC—There may be benefits to this idea. What we really get is a greater Police State. This is about total control over every man woman and child.
They will be scanning your card everywhere, when you travel, vote, are stopped for minor traffic violations, visit government buildings or do your banking. The power connected to those with access to the database is absolute.
This is the kind of program that we need to resist with everything Americans can muster. To wait and see will be too little, too late.
With a national ID card our government will never be suddenly motivated to use any tool in for the apprehension and deportation of illegal aliens. Illegal aliens will still be working for cash under the table.
They will force me to obtain the national identity card over my dead body.
Burbank, CA—Another family is going to hit it big in the lawsuit lottery complaining about the “unfortunate” 14 year-old who learned too much, too soon from his sexy and hot English and Social Science teacher.
According to police sources, Amy Beck, 33 allegedly confessed to police that she had sexual relations with the male student between March and September of last year. If Beck really talked to the police she needs a mental evaluation since nobody in their right mind would do that.
For her cooperation Beck is now being held in jail on a $400,000.00 bond
Beck taught for ten years at Burbank’s David Starr Jordan Middle School until she resigned last Friday.
If I was on the criminal jury there could be but one verdict from me, NOT GUILTY.
Okay, I just don’t get it. I don’t see anything but a lucky young lad who got a special treat. If there was a crime here it was the kid blabbing.
As for damages against the school district I’d not give a red cent to anyone if I was on the civil jury.
Yes I would have a different opinion if the sexes were reversed or it was a same sex student-teacher relationship.
Can we please spend precious tax dollars on something important rather than this crap?
Chicago, IL—Adolph Hitler had absolute power during his 12 year reign of terror. Hitler’s wildest dream is about to be outdone in the Windy City if police Superintendent Jody Weiss has his way. The taxpayers of this once great city will be paying for hidden cameras to spy on themselves.
Citizen privacy has been on the ropes in modern times. With data collection, telephone records, privately operated surveillance cameras, I-pass toll roads, photo traffic enforcement, the TSA along with their naked cameras and relaxed government searching rules, there’s no escape. The only final privacy frontiers left to violate will be government bed, toilet and shower cameras.
There are those that will say, “We must do everything possible to catch criminals.” That, as they suggest just where to position the cameras. Of course it will be away, from themselves but toward their neighbors.
Is there no expense government can’t seem to incur? It’s great to live in a country than can afford to spend unlimited money on maintaining a police state.
China--Here we have loyal, brave, Kool-Aid drinking Socialists at work. We need to ask our politicians why do we trade or do any business at all with these despicable tyrants?
