POTUS BARACK OBAMA ANNOUNCES AIM TO HAVE BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR GUN BUYERS. I SUPPOSE LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED WITH, THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS! WATCH VIDEO.

On Martin Luther King, Jr., day, why can't we love one another as Christ commanded us to do?

(Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering his 'I Have a Dream' speech from the steps of Lincoln Memorial. (photo: National Park Service))

On today, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s day, we are reminded -- once again -- of the words of the Great American (reprinted below), as we witnesses that racism continues to rear its UGLY head in our society, with Presidential candidates trading accusations of racism with one another, and a couple of them (who will remain nameless) even openly flirting with racist groups.

I ask each and every one of you, why we find it so difficult to love one another as Christ commanded, yet many of us profess to be Christians?:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I promised new Contributors after the election. Please welcome our first one, Frank Friday. His first post is: NO-TAX DAVIDS CLOBBER GOLIATH.

NO-TAX DAVIDS CLOBBER GOLIATH

If you needed any proof just how powerful anti-tax sentiment can be, look no farther than Louisville, Ky. and the November 6 referendum defeat of a proposed library tax.

Led by Democrat Mayor Jerry Abramson and some liberal Republican elected officials, tax supporters in May of this year proposed creating a separate library taxing district that would rake in $40 million a year, and be run by appointees of the Mayor.That would also have created a windfall of over $17 million per year in current library funds the Mayor would keep for himself in perpetuity. Abramson recruited a galaxy of elite businessmen, sports stars, and celebrities to campaign for it, and even had the wording of the proposal couched in a highly deceptive way, so no mention of the word tax was made; voters were just asked if they wanted to see improvements at the library. The left-wing Courier-Journal newspaper editorial page was an almost hysterical supporter as well.

If that weren’t enough, the library itself spent hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars in a soft campaign to promote the scheme and had its employees out soliciting signatures for the referendum, telling them their only hope for salary increases was to help pass the measure. The library even morphed a children’s summer reading program into the campaign; instead of giving the kids prizes for reading books, they received yard signs that seemed to promote the referendum. It all looked unstoppable.

But it was too much to take for a trio of ordinary citizens. Republican Councilman Hal Heiner, reminding everyone that Abramson had been promising for years to build several new libraries without raising taxes, put forward his own non-tax plan. Ex pro-football player/businessman Chris Thieneman led an opposition committee to explain the other side of the issue, carefully calling his group, SUPPPORT THE LIBRARY, NOT THE TAX. Norman Morton, a former library employee, who had quit over the outrageous misuse of the library’s resources for politics, spilled the beans on what was happening.

With just a month to go before the election, and the library tax proponents having a money edge of about $1 million to $40,000 the contest took off, but not as expected. Using free media, talk radio, automated phone calls, the internet, and some brilliant TV commercials featuring the Mayor's own words against him, the tax opponents scored heavily.

Louisville is a high tax city with unimpressive services, so the citizens were ready to be skeptical of the tax hike plan. As they got to know more about the scheme, anger just boiled over. The tax proponents were stunned as the campaign went on, spending more and more money on fancy TV commercials which only reinforced the controversy. The library’s director was virtually in hiding for the last month of the campaign rather than talk to the press about misuse of public money.

The final tally was an amazing 67% NO to 33% YES. Every part of the town, from the majority black West End, to the blue-collar south side to the affluent eastern suburbs, went against it, with just a few ultra-liberal pockets going narrowly for it.

The Mayor and his allies now have to glumly look forward to Councilman Heiner and his colleagues making good on their broken promises, and delivering a new library system, but without raising taxes.

The Louisville vote demonstrates once again ordinary tax payers have had enough; they want to see government work hard and innovate in delivering services, not just gouge their citizens at every turn.


Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.
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Please support Mitch McConnell's plan to make the internet/web a tax free zone.

Keep the Web Tax-Free


Show your support of the efforts of Senator McConnell and others to pass S.156, the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007, by signing the above petition.

Congress should encourage expanded Internet access, broadband deployment and the development of new technologies that will create jobs and economic growth. New taxes will stifle those goals. Therefore, you should join this national movement to permanently block such a tax.

Isn't it ironic ... don't you think?

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

That was the refrain from the song by Alanis Morissette, entitled: Isn't it ironic ... don't you think, and the lyrics go like this:

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic... don't you think?

Chorus:
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought... it figures

Mr. play it safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
"well isn't this nice..."
And isn't it ironic... don't you think?

Repeat chorus

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face

A traffic jam when you're already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic... don't you think?
A little too ironic... and yeah i really do think...

Repeat chorus

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

Where am I going with this? Well, let me tell you.

I have lived in Bowling Green for a spell and I routinely have to drive on US 68/80 to go to points West of here. Today was one of those days. For many of you who do not know this area, a monument to Jefferson Davis is erected on the Christian County line -- yes, the same Jefferson Davis that was the President of the Confederacy (he was born in the neighboring Todd County).

I have NEVER stopped to visit it before ... until toady.

I stopped on my way back from Court in Christian County, as I had time to "kill". I stopped to take pictures so I took out my camera phone.

As many of you know, Abraham Lincoln is my hero, and I have his picture (the one with a beard -- my favorite) as my wallpaper. I flipped open my (near worthless RAZR) and Honest Abe stared back at me with that stoic expression of his, and I think I heard him curse, so I QUICKLY closed the phone and walked away.

Now isn't that ironic ... don't you think? that Jeff. Davis is being honored in a CHRISTIAN County, when NOTHING he stood for, has to do with CHRISTIANity?

On my way home further down the road, I noticed a big sized Fletcher "NO CASINOS" sign, and I thought: Isn't ironic ... don't you think? that Fletcher appears to be the ONLY one (maybe, there are a few others who have been ill-advising him), who think that the voters SHOULDN'T have a voice (and a vote) in deciding whether or not Kentucky should allow casinos or gaming?

And then I continued further, and I kept thinking about the news media deciding who is going to win elections depending on how much money the "will win" candidates raise (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama have raised nearly $30 million each this quarter, Ron Paul and Fred Thompson about $5 and &7 million each, and etc. .) and I thought ... yes, you guessed it: Isn't ironic ... don't you think? that the media encourages the buying and selling of candidates for public office, thereby encouraging Democracy for sale to the highest bidder(s)?

then I remembered; of course, the media encourages it because the media profits from it.

After all, where else are the candidates going to spend most of that LOOT if NOT with the media.

But again as Alanis would sing it:

It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic... don't you think?

Burma freedom fighters: The people of the United States are with you.

Burma freedom fighters: The United States is with you, in your struggles against your fellow country men/women, who seek to deny you God given liberty.

I dedicate to you the new blog labels of Freedom and Liberty.