A TALE OF TWO ADMINISTRATIONS
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 12/29/2008 - 11:56pm
December 31, 2008
A TALE OF TWO ADMINISTRATIONS
Dear Friends and Voters:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
And so began Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Tale of Two Cities.” In the novel, Dickens compare England and France. In the book, France suffers terribly under its king and leads inevitably to the French Revolution and reign of Terror. In England the populace also suffer, although the citizens do so in a less bloody-way, as rich and poor alike are subjected to the lawlessness of the highwaymen and the hangman.
But Dickens could just as easily have compared our own King George to Barack Obama. One is currently president, the other is the president elect. One is white, the other black. The former has led us into the abyss of financial ruin; the latter it is hoped will lead us out. However different they appear on the surface, they do not seem to be all that much different underneath. Like the kings of England and France, neither knows how to solve the problems facing their realms except to print more paper money and spend it.
Obama was swept into office because of a yearning on the part of the American people for “hope” and “change.” In fairness to Obama, he has not yet taken office and we may hope that by some miracle things will change. However, the practical pragmatist in me knows that they will not. Even of Obama had the best of intentions, King George has left behind one h*ll of a mess for his successor to clean up. Few could even hope to succeed in this situation and people’s affection for Obama will quickly fade when he proves that he is not up to the task. Moreover, his appointments have proven to be most disappointing and most telling about what kind of person he really is. There are over 300 million souls in America (more if you count the illegal aliens) and all that can be found is Clintonistas and Washington insiders? Here is a link to a column by Jeremy Scahill where he analyzes just some of the picks thus far: http://www.alternet.org/audits/107666/this_is_change_20_hawks,_clintonites_and_neocons_to_watch_for_in_obama/'s_white_house/?page=entire
Forget their much vaunted experience and having learned from their mistakes. Among this group are the pro-war neo-cons, both left and right, AIPAC/Israel supporters and former members of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Suffice it to say that this is NOT the hope and change that we sought and voted for.
National politics aside there is not much stirring on the home front. I have not written in awhile as my significant other has endured multiple surgeries, including a very bad reaction to medication during the second surgery. Hopefully, he is at last back on the road to recovery. Thanks to all for their good wishes for his health.
The big news is that “they’re b-a-a-ck.” And no, its not the poltergeists. Its those fine folks at the NC State Bar. Full of themselves after the Mike Nifong show trial, they are just brimming with hubris.
The State Bar has chosen yet again to set its sights on me. What could I have possibly done to arouse their attention? There are two things that will get one disbarred – sleeping with one’s clients or taking a client’s money. Messing with one’s trust account is a close third; sloppy bookkeeping can sometimes be excused as long as one does not take client’s money. However, none of these are at issue. I have been far too busy working and attending to my partner.
It has to do with my 2006 campaign for office. 2006? Don’t they know you lost? Apparently, the NC State Bar has been bunking in an Afghanistan cave. Hello! The election is over! Even if some poor soul was deceived into thinking I was a judge, I did not win and the judiciary is safe from me.
So what is this really about? Ostensibly, its about my use of the nickname, “Madame Justice,” which by the way, has nothing to do with a female member of the court. It is used must in the same way as things like the “Institute for Justice” or the “NC Advocates for Justice.” Nobody stops these organizations from using the generic word “justice” even though we refer to the judges on our highest court as “justice.”
With record foreclosures and people losing their jobs, with our country bankrupt, municipalities and this state facing a serious financial shortfall, one would think that these people would have more significant problems to worry about. And where were they when George Bush trashed the Constitution (he referred to it as a god-damned piece of paper)? When Alberto Gonzales and George Bush said it was ok to torture? Or lock people up indefinitely? Or wiretap and spy on us? Not a single word. How about when Mike Nifong was using the Duke non-rape case to get elected? Did the NC State Bar seek to interfere in his campaign? No way. So why did they seek to interfere in mine and have continued to do so?
This is all about politics. You see, the legal establishment, which controls the NC State Bar, is afraid. Very afraid. They are laboring under the misconception that I might run again. In fact, they accuse me of running in 2008, even though I was not a candidate for any office on the ballot. To make sure I NEVER EVER again run for office, not even for school board, they are out to take away my law license. People in this state should be outraged over this blatant misuse of public resources and unbridled abuse of power.
I will do my utmost to defend myself. To them, it is just another lawyer. To me, it is my very livelihood that is under assault. You can read the complaint filed by the state bar and my answers [http://www.rachelforjustice.com/news_releases.html] . And I am confident that I ultimately will prevail.
We know not what roads the New Year will lead us on. Will we come out of this crisis or will things get worse? Will we rid ourselves of the corrupt and high handed bureaucrats and greedy Wall Street financiers? Will a meaningful third party emerge and be led by someone like Jesse Ventura to fill the void? I know not what is in store. However, like Dickens’ Farmer and Woodman, we will work silently and unceasingly to pave the way for a better tomorrow.
Happy New Year to all!
Rachel Lea Hunter
- 's blog
- 723 reads
The Bar Sucks?
Re: Rachel's statement
From: Jack Dawsey (dawseyjh@embarqmail.com)
Sent: Tue 12/30/08
To: Max the Dog 2
Connie....I've learned during my little stint in county politics that when the "powers that be" get a hard on for you, they will go after you, BIG TIME. Nothing will stop them. If the "powers that be" cannot destroy you and your livelihood, they will destroy your mind by subjecting you to a barrage of interrogations, questions, harassment, and dominate your mind with threats and suspicions.
In my opinion, Rachel is in for the "fire-storm" of her life.
While I believe she is one of the brightest and best, that Republican crowd in the NC Justice Dept...so call justice.......are hell bent for leather to destroy her. In my opinion, they intend on getting her out of circulation, period. They may succeed. I hope not.
I wish the people of NC would rise up in revolt against this bull-shit that the BAR is about to pull over on Rachel, but I suspect "the people" won't budge. I've also learned that "the people" in NC, (and in America for that matter), just don't give a damn anymore about anything except what happens to them, personally. We have become such a self-centered society that even the best and brightest among us, (even people of the caliber of Rachel), may not be able to politically survive. The corruption in our local, state, and federal politics is run amuck and has become "beyond the pale." I wish I had an answer for Rachel, but I'm come to believe the only answer is revolt. But that won't happen either until "the people" began to starve and perish in the streets........which may not be far off the horizon.
Madame Justice Answers Fans
From: Rachel Hunter (rhunter@carotennlaw.com)
Sent: Tue 12/30/08
To: Max The Dog 2
tell jack he is right on - they are like orcs (from lord of the rings) they keep on coming and coming
all i can say is i am right. their actions are evidence of the corruption and greed that has infected every aspect of our lives.
no answer other than what jack suggested and what i suggested obliquely.
read the first chapter of a tale of two cities about the woodman and the farmer - here is excerpt:
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous. ...
ll these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures--the creatures of this chronicle among the rest--along the roads that lay before them.