Political Corruption Reaches Courtrooms.

      What does Chicago, one of the largest cities in the country, and the tiny, impoverished municipality of Bell, California have in common?

      Corrupt politicians begging for mercy this past week before courtroom judges.

      Both settings provided tragic examples of our political structure crumbling before the American public's eyes. Instead of watching like a hawk, we naively click away to the next controversy for more juice and sensationalism.

      Just what were Chicago's attractive darlings, Jesse Jr. and Sandi Jackson, thinking during their political tenures?

      Perhaps they fantasized about a royal reality show as king and queen of the windy city.

    In real life, the power couple faces prison dates this summer after both pled guilty Wednesday to siphoning roughly $750,000—three-quarters of a million dollars—in campaign funds into personal accounts for their lavish personal and political lifestyles.

      Jesse Jr., veteran U. S. Congressman and son of the famous Reverend Jesse Jackson, and his wife Sandi, a Chicago city alderman, stonewalled the public for nearly a year. But they ran out of excuses Wednesday in separate courtrooms and entered guilty pleas to agreements afforded them by the U. S. Justice Department.

      More specifically, they lied to the IRS and the public they supposedly served.

      Will they receive the maximum sentence or just a pat on the wrist in U. S. District Court?

      The plea agreements with federal authorities are troubling.

      Jesse Jackson Jr. was reeled into the Justice Department investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, currently serving a 14-year prison sentence on bribery charges. Those charges included the selling of President Barack Obama's Illinois Senate seat when Obama was elected to the Presidency in 2008. Feds had caught Blagojevich on tape offering a trade of campaign money in exchange for the U. S. Senate appointment. Jackson was identified as the candidate offered the dirty deal.

      But Jackson was allowed to stall his own investigation, citing a six-month absence for "health problems" up through the 2012 elections, and he retained his 17-year Congressional seat before resigning after last November's election.

      What legitimate legal system remains here in the United States?

      Friday, the citizens of Bell, California, asked that very question while observing a political corruption trial too unbelievable to sensationalize.

      The two year-old Bell story, broken by a pair of investigative reporters at the Los Angeles Times, is just one more tale of the American political system failing because the public wasn't in tune with public meetings, albeit through ignorance and apathy.

      In the four week-old trial currently in the jury's hands, six Bell city council members Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo, and George Mirabal are charged with financially raping the city and its 40,000 citizens in Los Angeles County of more than $10 million worth of inflated salaries, bogus contracts, and outrageous fees.

      The apparent mastermind behind the whole scheme that had played out over a six-year period is former city administrator Ron Rizzo who, along with his assistant Angela Spaccia, will go on trial separately this summer.
     They forged signatures on contracts. Approved contracts in private closed-door meetings. Gave themselves $100,000 annual salaries without voters’ knowledge or approval, and also wrote up lucrative pensions.
      The Bell fiasco was so secretive and complex, California state judges had to nullify the contracts written and signed by the former office holders before the state could bring them up on trial and prosecute them.
      The real key in American government is the domino effect here. If indeed 9 of 10 United States cities are considered by experts to be "financially stressed", where does this road leave city citizens tomorrow?
      It is just a matter of time before another municipality falls under the bridge, due to corrupt politicians operating behind closed doors. Six like-size California municipalities and their office holders are currently under investigation in southern California. And the cry for public election campaign reforms has fallen on deaf ears in Washington, DC for decades.
      Ask yourself if we can afford the next scandal.      

Citizens Should Expose Drone Controversy.

     The robotic age may step on us before we realize it unless we decide to stand up and account for ourselves first.

     The controversy surrounding the use of drones both in the United States and abroad has reached a zenith where the lack of transparency is truly a dilemma for debate.

     Are we ready for a privacy invasion?

   The next time you’re in the backyard barbequing, and you see a hummingbird, consider it may be a drone in disguise. It may be a conduit for the government or local law enforcement agency to spy on you. To invade your space. It may be assembling data on your leisure life, calculating your wants and needs, or even marketing you for a future merchandising blitz.

     So, let's talk transparency. Drones as military devices during international conflicts are a much needed and valuable commodity. They are equalizers in the fight against terrorism, particularly the past two years. They have proven to save lives, particularly American lives.

     But, with the advent of technology that requires little more than a Double A battery to manipulate, drones are becoming a smaller and more common machine here at home.

     And that presents United States citizens with the challenge of a lifetime.

     What do we do with drones here in America? Use them as spies? Law enforcement agents? Killing machines? Butlers and maids?

     Eleven states are already considering legislation on measures to restrict and/or prohibit drones from said territorial air space. The city of Charlottesville, Virginia recently became the first municipality in the United States to declare itself essentially a "drone free" zone within its city limits.

     It appears as if this drone controversy could reach the U. S. Supreme Court to decide how drones are used in America and under what authority.

     Why wait for that upcoming controversial decision? Why not allow the people to decide  how drones will be used in the U. S., via a national referendum and a short questionnaire? Why not empower the public with this major step forward for mankind?

     About two years ago, the White House started a secret program from a military base in Saudi Arabia designed to thwart al-Qaida terrorists on international grounds. The so-called "kill list" opened eyes and really got attention in Congress when the story relating to these missile-firing drones broke in the media. The drones have killed three United States citizens abroad, and that news has prompted even more controversy.

     So now the debate hits closer to home. On our own territory. As technology advances, so does private industry marketing these drones in all sorts of different shapes and sizes to government agencies, law enforcement, and even private corporations.

     A drone surveying a public park from the air and instantly sending data back to local law agencies sounds like a marketable idea to fight crime. A drone spying on someone's living room or bedroom habits does not.

     It sounds like the perfect issue to start a public movement toward national referendums. Allow the voting populace a chance to voice their opinions on how drones should and should not be restricted within U. S. boundaries. It would also give the government an opportunity to revamp an election voting system that, in all candor, could really use some revamping and outside expertise.

     This is not rocket science, folks. It's a matter of getting enough Americans involved in what is good for the future of our nation. The drone issue could become the first stepping stone toward revitalizing a healthy society. Consider taking action. Write or talk to your local politicians today.

     If drone strikes disturb Congress, just wait until the American public gets its fair share of attention from eyes in the sky.

Manhunt Adds to America's Gun War.

     Are Americans frustrated enough with the wave of recent mass murders and mental health dramas to act?

     Are we willing to sit down and resolve the very uncivil issues destroying our communities and this country, or are we merely clicking the control button toward the next television episode?

     It may be time for all of us to make that decision.

     The largest manhunt on the west coast continues today. This one defies logic but could explode into epic proportions. The Los Angeles Police Department have called upon more than 100 law enforcement officials to canvas Southern California and neighboring Nevada to find one of their own.

     Former LAPD and Navy Lieutenant Jordan Dorner has killed two people Sunday and shot three LAPD officers on Thursday, killing one, before vanishing into the mountains. After literally igniting a raging fire of terror in the greater LA area and beyond, he remains at large.

     Considered deranged and dangerous with a 6,000-word “manifesto” to his credit, Dorner has hit the Los Angeles area so hard, his own former bosses are holding press conferences underground in heavily secured buildings.

     It may surprise you to learn more cops committed suicide in 2012 than were gunned down by fugitives. It might not surprise you Dorner, who was fired by the LAPD in 2008 and possesses vast military and weaponry skills, is considered a one-man army.

     The real question is whether this is the start of something worse in society. Survivalists taking on the very community they either serve or reside in. More guns, more anger, more mental health issues, and even support from the area’s disaffected.

     “We look at the police differently from the way you look at police in your community,” Hodari Sabadu, a 56 year-old South Central Los Angeles resident told the New York Times.

     “In your community, the police is there to protect and serve. In my community, the police are there to harass and insult and to kill if they get a chance.”

     There are more than 100 law enforcement agents, including SWAT, along with some of the most sophisticated weaponry and surveillance in the United States trying to track Dorner down. And folks, that effort in itself, day by day, costs a lot of money, man-hours, and worry.

     People were outraged when a single gunman killed 20 children and six adults in the Newtown massacre in December.

     That’s old news.

     This latest western madman is creating a dire frenzy throughout the third largest police force in the nation and, to date, law enforcement officials have been unable to capture him.

     Now that is a terrorist by every definition.

     He says in his manifesto he plans to strike again. The professionals hunting him say he has the equipment to start a small war.

     When will Americans wise up and realize we are at war? We are at war with mental health issues, poverty, unemployment, and immigration within our own communities. We are at war with our neighbors who we believe will stay across the street forever. We are at war with the very people who are assigned to protect us. We are at war with our youth who do not have the proper tools or opportunities to deal with the future.

     Will new gun laws be a start toward ending the day by day violence in America?

     A recent Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed that 92 percent of the respondents support expanding background checks to all gun sales, including gun shows now exempt from background checks. Earlier in the week, a Pew Research Center Poll showed 85 percent of Americans back universal background checks on gun sales. Yet, Congress continues to stall.

     We hide our heads in the sand and believe it won’t happen to us. And then when it does, we cry wolf and want justice.

     On Friday, Black Bear Lake Mayor Jay Obernolte openly joked at a press conference that the ski resorts will remain open and residents aren’t panicking or worried. He actually told everyone to enjoy their stay while in the well-known affluent resort community. That was the same day police found Dorner’s truck abandoned and burned.

     If and when Dorner strikes again, the mayor might not be as happy.

     Dorner is believed to be on foot and hiding along the San Bernardino mountainside with up to thirty weapons at his disposal. The police are checking all of the dwellings in the Big Bear Lake community. Let’s hope the mayor won’t be eating his own words real soon.

Killing Machines Don't Help Anyone.

     Until Americans step up to accept and promote dramatic change in our culture, we’ll continue to be comfortably numb toward gun violence.

     That is, until the bullets knock on your door.

     What arguably started at Columbine in 1999 has actually become an epidemic in 2013 of Newtown proportions. There were sixty mass killings across the country between those two tragic events, and Congress talking the same nonsense.

     More gun laws. An assault weapons ban. Arming teachers in our schools.

     Think those ideas will work in Chicago where 503 murders took place in 2012 and forty-two murders have already taken place in January of this year?

     They aren’t working right now. A sixty-five year-old Vietnam veteran is holed up with a five-old boy he has taken hostage in a bunker down in Midland City, Alabama. The suspect had shot and killed a school bus driver in front of twenty-one children who’d fled for safety. Police are trying to negotiate for the boy’s safe release.

     Is there any law that would indeed have prevented this situation?

     Local folks have gathered outside the Midland City Town Hall to sing “Amazing Grace” in support of the boy's safe release and family.

     We need a whole lot more “Amazing Grace” here in America.

     Fifteen year-old Hadiva Pendleton was shot and killed a mile away from her school just days after performing at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Event recently. She was killed in a Chicago park a mile away from her school by random gunfire. Obama owns a house in the affluent neighborhood less than a mile away. Pendleton was an honors student.

     Chicago has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, say experts. That hasn’t stop the criminals, though. They can travel to Mississippi and purchase killing weapons at gun shows without dealing with background checks. In fact, thirty-three states in the U. S. don't require mandatory background checks at gun shows. Gun manufacturers continue to pour lobbying funds at federal and state officials for those Second Amendment rights to grow. The Second Amendment under the Constitution allows folks to bear arms and defend themselves. There is nothing written about game-killing other human beings in that document that I know of.

     Do you want freedom? Whose freedom? Nine year-old Christina Green had paid the ultimate price for hers two years ago. She now has a softball complex named in her memory. The third-grader was one of six people gunned down at former U. S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords’ public speech in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords was shot in the head and survived to speak three short sentences before Congress last week. It was deeply moving, troubling, and unfortunate her wounds have left Giffords sounding like a third-grader at the public hearing.

     While Giffords testified before Congress, a gunman walked into a Phoenix office and shot three people. Two eventually died. The following day, Mark Hasse, Assistant DA in Kaufman County outside Dallas, was shot and killed while getting out of his car for work at the courthouse parking lot.

     After watching dozens of YouTube videos on gun violence combined with countless gun laws articles I'm aware of the complexity of the issue. Now I’m afraid to leave the apartment. I close the windows tightly and lock the doors at night. Four blocks away, a teenager had been murdered at a grocery store last month.

     Is it a lack of civility in society? Violent video games captivating young innocent minds? Blood and guts on television selling commercials for the almighty dollar? A lack of discipline and authority in the home today?

     All of the above. But there is more. Mental health, unemployment, ongoing cuts in social services, and the lack of prosecution of violent offenders in our courtrooms are leading us toward our own demise. It’s a rapidly growing national epidemic.

     Ladies and gentlemen, we are dying left and right at the hands of our own guns. We don’t need another war with a hostile country. There are enough weapons in the United States to arm everyone.

     If the American people do not take matters into their own hands, our society will turn into the Wild Wild West again in no time. Get ready. It’s coming.

     Last year there were 5,000 gun shows in the country. Opinions on what to do next range from Newtown parent Mark Mattioli, whose son was one of twenty children who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a lone gunman, said, "It is a simple concept. We have a lack of civility across our nation."

     Yet, NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre counters with his criticism of President Barack Obama's administration stating, "I don't think you can trust these people."

     Each and every adult in America has a civic duty to get involved in some way. The first step is your local government. You can take an active role into the safety and vibrancy of your own community. But you have to make a sacrifice and take a step.

     Or you can sit back and wait for the next nearby tragedy. Have your cell phone handy with the 911 code ready and waiting. It may not be a long wait.