Several weeks ago, while on a solidarity visit with Ta'ayush (www.taayush.org)  in the South Hebron hills region of the West Bank, we were stopped by a makeshift Israeli Army roadblock and told that we could not pass into a closed military zone.  Having all traveled that road many times before with no problem, and watching settlers whiz by us, we asked to see the military order.  Before producing it, the soldier said, "I am very happy for any Jew to visit the Land of Israel, but leftists aren't allowed."

On June 12, 2008 the Supreme Court rescinded Senate Bill 3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006.  The justices managed to get something right.  Heaven forbid they should actually ascend to their primary duty of oath which is to protect the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” 

The most insidious enemy of the Constitution is the private moneychanger and their misuse of our security assets, the military and our police agencies. Never in my life have I witnessed such blatant assaults on our Constitution, and the moneychangers are central to that assault.  Their tactics are varied, but the most important trait is that it is relentless.  In my opinion, the first major assault on the Constitution came with the Christmas holiday passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.  Recent assaults are subtle, indirect, but primarily serve private interests.

By Jonathan Mark
Publisher of FlybyNews.com

April 5th 1968 was a strange day. I felt in a fog going along Ocean Parkway to Church Avenue on foot to take the bus to school. The faint memories of trolleys replaced by puffs of diesel smoke; I guess we all have to learn to hold our breath sometimes. My mind rambled at the bus stop, on the bus with images of blurred television news. The assassination of Martin Luther King reminded me of the Kennedy assassination. What was going to happen now to the debate between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., with a Vietnam War escalating to make any kid wonder about our future.

School seemed almost too normal that morning. But before long fire alarms rang out and we were led out of school. Word spread faster than fire, a smoke bomb was found in the ventilation system. We wondered if school would resume, but something unusual occurred. On the same side as the school remained only Black students, all other races, it seemed to me, crossed the street. It was hard to resist; I reluctantly crossed, but yearning to somehow convey my feelings of loss with my friends and football team-mates.

Our current list of national economic difficulties and governmental failures is a direct result of nearly 30 years of failed Republican policies. We are paying the price in many ways for our national love affair with slick, emotionally appealing Republican political rhetoric and candidates. We ignore the harsh reality behind the deceitful words.

We have all experienced bad relationships and failed romances. Long after the romances are over, we are still dealing with the negative consequences both emotional and financial. We keep paying the unhappy costs.

The legacy of distrust, dealing with debts accumulated based on lies, self-doubts for believing the nice sounding lies and living with an awareness that we all are subject to the weakness of emotional reasoning remain long after the relationships have collapsed. There is always the possibility that the burden of dealing with the problems is so great that we go into denial and repeat the same mistakes by buying into slightly repackaged versions. It plays hell on emotional, physical and financial well-being. We all have been there.

It is long past time for the American public to end our soured love affair with deceitful Reagan-Bush Republicanism and start cleaning up the mess left behind. It will be emotionally upsetting but has to be done. The damage is great. It will require a real change in both our behavior and thinking to undo the damage and avoid repeating the same mistakes. It can be done!