Only Memories Remain!

Dedicated to Suimatee C. Ali

In her sorrows I still see her

Crying with so much pain,

When we said goodbye and parted

I knew, we’d never meet again

Life is a dying ember

Where only memories remain,

And through the years I remember

Her crying, with so much pain

Time has passed my hair is silver

Seems like we loved in vain!

Such memories, I forever quiver

I’m filled with so much pain

When we meet up yonder

We would be holding hands again,

In a land that knows no sunder

Or pangs and pines or pain!

© Sheriff G Ali 2011

If you are bedeviled with “what does Mitt Romney stand for,” then don’t be, because Mitt Romney doesn’t know what he stands for!

Mitt Romney was for women’s rights and now he is not!

 

Mitt Romney was against Bush’s tax cuts and now he is!

 

Mitt Romney was for “National Insurance” and now he is not!

 

Mitt Romney would sell his soul if it would make him President!

 

 

As head of private equity firm Bain Capital, Romney was the lead deal-maker, buying and selling companies to make more money for investors. Whether companies boomed or filed for bankruptcy, the Boston-based firm found profits for Romney, and other executives and investors. Romney, who spent most of his career at Bain, estimated wealth in 2007 at as much as $250 million.

 

Entrepreneurs and corporate founders “create the bulk of the jobs, not the financiers. At Dade Behring Inc. a medical-testing company based in Deerfield, Illinois, Bain cut at least 1,600 jobs during a series of acquisitions before the firm entered into bankruptcy in 2002. Romney foreshadowed those cuts in a speech to employees shortly after Bain acquired the firm.

 

DDI Corporation, an electronics company inAnaheim,California, filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after Bain sold shares in the company generating at least $85.5 million and billed $10 million in management fees.

 

Employees who lost jobs at Bain-controlled companies more than a decade ago say they still hold Romney responsible.

 

“I would not vote for him for anything,” said Phyllis Detro, 68, who lost her job at Bain-owned office paper products factory inMarion,Ind., closed in 1995. “I’d like to see the jobs that he’s created.” Romney did not create jobs, he took away jobs!

 

 

http://sheriffali.blogspot.com/

 

”Trinidad and Tobago has invoked the State of Emergency more than other islands!

The Caribbean constitutions give the government of the day substantial discretion to determine the circumstances under which a State ofEmergencyshould be instituted and the presumption is that a responsible government would appreciate the seriousness of this facility and reserve it for only the most extreme cases.

This “seriousness” arises from the fact that such a declaration quickly strips the individual of fundamental rights and freedoms that the same constitution makes a considerable effort to protect.

Once a state of emergency is declared we understand that the state can invade our privacy, restrict our liberty and presume a level of potential guilt that justifies arbitrary arrest and detention.  In such situations, we accept the legitimacy of such action in the interest of the greater good.

Trinidad and Tobago has invoked the state of emergency more than other islands.  There was the first post independence state of emergency during the Black Power Revolution (1970) that was easily justified in light of this chaotic situation that militated against public order.  Their second post-independence state of emergency was declared in July 1990 in response to the coup d’état and this lasted two months.  In this instance the hostage situation might not have prompted a state of emergency but the looting which reflected a breakdown of public order clearly did.

The appropriateness of the 1995 state of emergency, declared in response to Occah Seapaul’s refusal to resign as Speaker continues to be questioned.  In this instance the contentious issue appeared to threaten the functioning of government which is essentially a political issue and not one of public disorder.  Fortuitously that declaration was localized and short, but nonetheless appears to have provided the incubator. It is perhaps not necessary to state the reservations regarding the prudence and necessity of this most recent state of emergency which does not appear to satisfy either the prescriptive requirements of the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution, nor the useful precedents established there and elsewhere in the region.  A “crime spree” is a most unfortunate development which does threaten public safety but it cannot be argued that a state of public chaos exists in Trinidad and Tobago as a result.  The Police have not been denied entry to any location in the country as was the case in Jamaica (2010) and there has not been widespread riot or looting as was the case in 1970 and 1990 respectively.  These concerns become even more compelling when one considers the severe dislocation that this declaration has caused to law abiding citizens in that country.  These are too numerous to detail here and while was no less inconvenience on previous occasions; the countervailing justification was the existence of public chaos which cannot be argued to exist at this point.

The Police can had have been making arrests and seizures during this period; however the relevant question is whether the Police could have made similar incursions under normal circumstances, using similar intelligence.  One well publicized “victory” relates to the arrest of a “gang leader” who sought shelter at a Hotel’s Presidential Suite and paid 75,000.00 in cash.  Certainly one would think that such an act would attract the attention of the Police in times of peace or war and the same can be said of several other arrests that have been made.  If the Police know the whereabouts (approximate or otherwise) of criminals, gangs or leaders, they can and should apprehend these persons, calling on the good offices of the Military if necessary, which can (and recently has) been done without a state of emergency.

Sadly this action seems to have caught the attention of theSt. Kitts and NevisOpposition which has suggested that their government needs to do the same thing and thankfully that government is more enlightened.  A state of emergency in a Petroleum driven economy is one thing but such a situation in a Tourist state is an entirely different matter.  The authorities inTrinidad and Tobagowould do well to appreciate that the most effective deterrent to crime is the quick capture and conviction of criminals, which requires criminal intelligence and capacity NOT a state of emergency.
Collaborative effort of research!

 

Rick Perry! The Preacher without a soul!

Rick Perry turned Texas into LITTLE-CHINA with minimum wage jobs, cutting funding for education and the obligations to the elderly and the poor. The jobs Mr. Perry so lavishly boasts about creating were done so at the expense of people’s lives. He eliminated taxes for business and that created an influx of companies that moved to Texas. With Perry’s no rules, regulations or obligations to most of Texas employees, Perry and his rich business friends, are living high on the backs of the people that are already suffering, the same as what transpires in CHINA!

 

CRYSTAL – CHANDELIER!

CRYSTAL – CHANDELIER!

In a Desert of dry sand filled with thorns

A Rose may not die but it will certainly mourn

Before you make this choice to be with me

Please take a good look, at all that you see

I have no Mansion on a hill with a Crystal Chandelier

The precariousness of my life, we will live in fear

For you, there will be no dresses for special dances

Necessities of life will be one in a million chances

A peaceful life to have, I must give up all that I earned

For so many decades, happiness is all I yearned

In this difficult decision, I must give up all

Only then I can answer my destiny’s call

All I have to give is standing in front of you

Think once, twice, thrice, before you say I do

Look into the ocean, the myriads of miles of Sea

That silent empty distance, well, that is me!

© Sheriff G Ali 2009-2011

Author’s Comments

I must go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, I must light up the lamps of the past. They shall glitter through the darkness, and I shall trust in the Lord till the day break, and the shadows flee away.

“I HAVE A DREAM!” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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 languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve 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 thatAmerica 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. And so, we’ve 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 remindAmericaof 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. And 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. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility inAmericauntil 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. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

 

We cannot walk alone.

And 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 self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro inMississippicannot vote and a Negro inNew Yorkbelieves 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.”¹

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. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — 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.

And 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, and 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.”²

This is our hope, and 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.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with 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 ifAmericais to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops ofNew Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains ofNew York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes ofCalifornia.

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 ofMississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom 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! ³

 

 

 

The FAT overweight: Judge Belvin Perry, is a vindictive “sorry loser!”

Judge Belvin Perry who claims that justice cannot be mocked, when he is the only “buffoon” in this whole escapade that made a mockery of the judicial system by allowing; untested smell machine; weird and untested science from Canada and a host of other “willful” egregious bias rulings that “did make a mockery of Due Process,” as guaranteed in the United States Constitution and the 5^th, 6^th, 8^th and 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. Had the Jury found Casey Anthony guilty, such verdict would have been overturned on Appeal and this is not just my opinion  but that of Law Scholars, who “do not like Casey Anthony!” Perry’s ruling to have Casey Anthony serve a second “probation sentence is in diametric opposition to the Double Jeopardy Clause:

 

The Double Jeopardy Clause is one of the clauses in the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution which provides many safeguards to the citizens of the United States. The safeguards mentioned in this Amendment have mostly to do with protecting people from unjust charges and trials by the government. The Clause reads like this:

“Nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”

 

 

Lawyers for Casey Anthony have appealed a judge’s order that she must return to Orlando next week to begin serving a year of probation that they say she already completed.

 

In a 16-page emergency petition filed on Wednesday, the lawyers asked the Fifth District Court of Appeal inDaytona Beach to vacate what they said was an “illegal sentence.” Expedited review was necessary, the lawyers said, to “prevent the continued unlawful exercise of jurisdiction by the lower court.”

The lawyers said that although judges have the authority to correct a clerical error in a sentence still being served, they do not have the power to amend a sentence once it has been completed.

“Once a sentence has been fully served, even if it is an illegal sentence, the court lacks jurisdiction and would violate double jeopardy by resentencing the defendant to an increased sentence,” the appeal says.

 

IN PICTURES: Key players in the Casey Anthony murder trial

At issue is a dispute over whether Ms. Anthony properly served her term of probation while she was still held in the Orange County Jail awaiting her trial on charges that she murdered her two-year-old daughter, Caylee.

 

While awaiting the murder trial, Anthony pleaded guilty to check-fraud charges and was sentenced to time she’d already served in jail plus a year of probation. The judge in the check-fraud case,Stan Strickland, stated during the sentencing that she was to serve the probation upon release from jail. But Judge Strickland’s signed order did not spell that requirement out in writing.

 

As a result, the Probation Department conducted Anthony’s supervised probation while she was still in jail awaiting the murder trial. At the conclusion of her year-long supervision, Anthony was given a letter acknowledging that she had successfully completed her probation.

 

Anthony was later acquitted or the murder charges and was released from jail on July 17. The acquittal sparked outrage across the country among many who had been closely following the high-profile case and had concluded – unlike the jury – that she was guilty.

After her release, Strickland, acting on his own, issued a corrected sentence, ordering Anthony to return within 72 hours toOrlandoto serve her probation term.

That order was stayed pending a hearing conducted by Chief Judge Belvin Perry. Last week, the chief judge reimposed Strickland’s amended sentence and ordered Anthony to report for probation by Aug. 26.

 

 

 

 

Beyond this world of wrath and tears….

In the clutch of pains that follow me

From my head down to my sole,

I wonder what life holds’ for me?

In the darkness of my world

Despite the pangs I would not complain

Even when I pine,

And though at times I feel disdain

I know, I am wholly Thine

Beyond this world of wrath and tears

Looms, but the Heavens’ above,

With freedom from pains or fears

And the bounty of my Father’s love

So, in the midst of my circumstance

In this blessed evening shade,

I’ll live by faith and not by chance

Strong in heart and unafraid!

© Sheriff G Ali – May 9, 2011

http://sheriffali.blogspot.com/

The sad facts behind Rick Perry’s Texas miracle!

Rick Perry’s Texasis Ross Perot’s Mexicocome north. Through a range of enticements we more commonly associate with Third World nations — low wages, no benefits, high rates of poverty, scant taxes, few regulations and generous corporate subsidies — the state has produced its own “giant sucking sound,” attracting businesses from other states to a place where workers come cheap.

Perry’s calling card in the presidential race is his state’s record of job creation at a time when the national economy floundered. Yes,Texas has created lots of jobs, though that’s partly a reflection of the surge in oil prices, which in turn created tens of thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industries. What Perry touts in his stump speech, however, isn’t the oil boom but, rather, the low-tax, low-regulations, handouts-to-business climate that prevails inTexas. It’s the kind of spiel that businesses hear every day from leaders of developing nations —Mexico and, even more,China.

Consider the Texasthat Perry holds up to the rest of the nation for admiration. It has the fourth-highest poverty rate of any state. It tied with Mississippilast year for the highest percentage of workers in minimum-wage jobs. It ranks first in adults without high school diplomas. Twenty-six percent of Texans have no health insurance— the highest percentage of medically uninsured residents of any state. It leads the nation in the percentage of children who lack medical insurance. Texas has an inordinate number of employers who provide no insurance to their workers, partly because insurance rates are high, thanks to an absence of regulations.

Perry seems quite comfortable with the state’s lagging performance in what we might term the pursuit-of-happiness index. Consider his indifference toward education: In 2008, the state comptroller found that 12 percent of Texans lacked high school diplomas and that the level in the coming years unless the state’s commitment to education was considerably increased. This year, though, when confronted with a $27 billion budget deficit, Perry did not raise taxes but instead slashed $4 billion from K-12 schools. In this regard, the equation of Perry withChina’s leaders is unfair toChina: The Chinese understand that the better educated their people become, the more high-skill and high-compensating jobs their nation will attain. No such understanding seems to have permeated Perry’s brain.

In one significant particular, though, Perry’s policies fairly ape the Chinese. Over the past eight years, the state has given businesses nearly $500 million in grants and financial incentives to help them expand. Perry’s economic vision is the kind of race-to-the-bottom mercantilism we’ve come to expect from developing nations in the globalized economy, although, as China, Brazil and India illustrate, many such nations have begun to provide citizens with more schooling and better jobs as they grow wealthier. No comparable developments can be seen in Rick Perry’sTexas.

Now Perry wants to take his model national. In “Fed Up,” his campaign manifesto, he says the federal government has gone too far by passing laws “regulating the environment, regulating guns, protecting civil rights, establishing the massive programs and Medicare and Medicaid, [and] creating national minimum wage laws.” These are all endeavors, he argues, that should be left to the states.

I could understand how a governor with a good record on providing medical insurance, for instance, could argue that his state’s plan is one the nation should emulate, but, when the governor of the state with the highest level of medical un-insurance calls for dismantling the national programs and letting states go their own way; that’s industrial-strength chutzpah.

What Perry either ignores or doesn’t know is how greatlyTexashas benefited from the investments and regulations of the federal government he despises. He grew up; he tells all who will listen, on a small, hardscrabbleTexasfarm. But it was Franklin Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Administration that brought electricity to those farms, which, left to the mercies of the market, would have remained dark for decades. The New Deal threw money atTexas, bringing it dams, highways and schoolhouses. The cumulative effect of policies such as the federal minimum wage has been to diminish the disparity that long existed between the industrialized North and the more poverty-stricken South.

Perry wants to unravel the national social contract and once again have us go state by state, with the low-wage, low-regulations, states dragging down the others, much as Chinese mercantilism has dragged down wages and living standards across theUnited States. He is the 21st-century, homegrown version of the Manchurian candidate!

RE-POST!

 

http://sheriffali.blogspot.com/

 

 

The ultimate power of the United States, still lies in the hands of the American people!

The ultimate power of the United States, still lies in the hands of the American people, but only if they would declare a moratorium for at least the remainder of 2011, on being Democrats, Republicans and Independents, and instead, be “Americans first!”

 

Neither the President nor the houses of Congress possess the power of the “voters,” for without the votes of each citizen for a particular “Party,” no one can be elected. In all of the recent bona fide polling, Congress has a 10% approval rating and the President is at 40%.

 

From these Polling figures it is self evident that the American people are able to ascertain that the entire Government inWashingtonD.C., seems helpless in being constructive that would alleviate the problems that is eating away like cancer, the substance of hope for 98% of the American people.

 

The Democrats must understand that it is very necessary that their duty is to “means test” all entitlements and cut off all wasteful spending, thus making the programs more financial stable, that would essentially cause us to live up to our obligations as a society, to protect the poor and the elderly and provide a Government guarantee for the proper education of all of America’s children, not only for the present generation, but for generations to come!

 

The Republicans must stop their inhumane agenda to slash entitlements while protecting the wealthiest 2% of Americans from paying their fair share, and closing the loop-holes that allow companies that earn billions of dollars in profits for which they do not pay any taxes. All Republicans permeate the same sorry excuse that somehow this is “a factor in creating jobs.” They the Republicans have managed to keep these wanton policies in place for ten years and counting, and yet, unemployment stands at 9.1%

 

http://sheriffali.blogspot.com/

 

 

The Republicans phantasmagoric rationales and internecine policies, prevent the Government from taking in badly needed revenues that can help America reset its responsibilities, that would lead to a more fair and equitable system and in addition, allow us once again like we did in the late 90’s, to be financially stable.

 

Just imagine the nonsensical policies that were enacted prior to 2009! An American Company doing business in the United States and employing American workers, are allowed to usurp their business from within American, supplant it in another country and for that, they are allowed tax breaks and they are also allowed to deduct as a tax write off, all of the expenses they incur, for moving their business outside of The United States.

 

Just one example is Apple! Apple employs in the United States approximately 50, 000 employees, however in India they employ approximately “ONE MILLION EMPLOYEES, and in China Apple employs “ONE MILLION PLUS.”  But to be fair, Apple isn’t the only company that has done this, please click the link;

 

http://sheriffali.blogspot.com/2011/06/companies-that-export-american-jobs-for.html

and you would see a list from A – Z. So, if you want to know why the job market inAmericais stalled, well, this paragraph should provide you with the answer.

 

In the final analysis, unless and until the American people vote their “intelligence” and not their “emotions,”Americawould continue to entrance into even more and more, “deeper and unforgiving waters!”