It's about upholding 'the Civil Rights' of the individual over that of one's government.
"The right to live."
Human rights.
"The right to be happy."
"The right one's body and it's safety."
"The Rule of Law" and "The Commerce Clause" were never conceived to injure citizens anywhere on Earth. They were designed to protect the public trust of the USA. They were designed to enable benevolent interactions internationally without war. The misuse of these 'ideas' and 'laws' has to be rolled back. Without question. Where they are applied correctly there can be astounding results. I would think the USA also could take some jurisdiction over oil companies that have committed murder of citizens as in Nigeria in their pursuit of commerce.
Zambia Praised for Taking "Strong Stand" Against Corruption
Nation signs threshold agreement with Millennium Challenge Corporation
By Charles W. Corey
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The people of Zambia and their government -- under the leadership of President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa -- have "taken a strong stand against corruption," and a $22.7 million threshold agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) will help them achieve even greater transparency efficiency and prosperity, according to Lloyd O. Pierson, assistant administrator for Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Pierson joined John Danilovich, MCC's chief executive officer, and Ng'andu P. Magande, Zambia's minister of finance and national planning, to sign the agreement at MCC headquarters in Washington May 22.
Pierson said the $22.7 million two-year plan will further anti-corruption efforts already under way by pursuing a three-pronged strategy to help prevent corruption in targeted institutions, improve public service delivery to the private sector and improve border management and trade. The MCC provides economic-development aid to poor countries that show results in ruling justly and promoting economic freedom.
"USAID is pleased to support the government of Zambia in the design and implementation of the threshold country plan," Pierson said.
Danilovich said the agreement stands both as a "natural extension" of Mwanawasa's established policy of zero tolerance for corruption and one of Zambia's "several pioneering programs of reform for a more democratic, transparent and accountable government."
The successful implementation of the threshold program, he told his audience, will bring "many benefits to the Zambian people, including more accountability and transparency in ministries that are responsible for land registration, taxation and immigration; expanded business and investment opportunities for regions outside of Lusaka and a dramatic reduction in the time it takes for imports and exports to clear Zambia's borders."
Danilovich expressed MCC's confidence that this program -- combined with broader efforts already under way by the Zambian government -- will bring the country closer to achieving an even greater eligibility for the Millennium Challenge Account and inspire greater confidence on the part of the Zambian people in the institutions that serve them.
Magande said the people of Zambia were grateful and "overwhelmed" by the award. The agreement, he pledged, will be well utilized over the next two years "because we are determined to move on to the next stage" of the process.
Magande went on to reiterate Mwanawasa's pledge of transparency and public accountability.
"We intend to reduce the opportunities for corruption. That is one of the most basic things. To make sure that the systems are in order, the procedures are in order, the documents are in order, the tender process is in order and everybody knows what they are doing" to eliminate the chance for corruption.
Magande said his government is forming a Zambian Development Agency "as a central receiving point" for those -- both foreign and domestic -- who want to invest in the country. As an inland country bordering on eight African nations, he said, Zambia could do much more to facilitate regional trade if the right transparent and functional systems are put in place.
He went on to praise his country's long-term relationship with USAID and said the agreement will help Zambia in a number of ways: it will cut in half to 30 days the time it takes to title land; outlaw and bribes to customs officers that have often been needed in the past to clear goods out of customs; reduce from 60 to 30 the number of days needed to export products from Zambia and likewise halve the 60-day period it now takes to import goods into Zambia.
"At the end of two years [the term of the threshold agreement], "I think we will have made quite a lot of progress," he said. "If we do encourage our people by facilitating their operations, that is what brings wealth into their pockets and reduces the poverty of our people," he said.
Within the two-year period, Magande said his government wants to demonstrate the benefits of operating a "transparent, effective and accountable government to the people of Zambia and the world at large.
"Such success will lead to immediate improvements," he said, and will help create wealth for the Zambian people.
MCC's threshold program assistance now totals approximately $116 million in six countries: Burkina Faso, Malawi, Tanzania, Albania, Paraguay and Zambia. The threshold program is designed to assist countries that are on the "threshold" of Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) eligibility for broader assistance, known as compacts.
Since its creation in 2004, MCC has committed more than $1.5 billion in compact assistance to eight countries: Madagascar, Honduras, Cape Verde, Nicaragua, Georgia, Benin, Vanuatu and Armenia.
For more information on U.S. policies, see Millennium Challenge Account and Africa.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Application of the Federal Commerce Clause to State Environmental Laws (Please click on)
It's Saturday Night
One of the first acts by George Walker Bush was to raise the legal allowable 'arsenic' levels in local water supplies without viable study to state is was a benign act. Arsenic is a heavy metal and intolerable to the human body, especially the 'in utero' infant (Kindly click on). It's an act of atrocity by this man putting his signature to such an Executive Order.
ONE MIGHT NOTE:
... leaving the long-term, low-dose interaction unexplored.
THIS TYPE OF ATROCITY is unacceptable in the USA and it's negotiated interactions with other countries. If every country in commercial interest with the USA were required to abide by The Clear Air Act and the Clean Water Act of the USA the populous of the world would be respected and so would we. The numbers of cancers alone globally would be hugely decreased. These types of standards are not a priority with this administration and hence neither are human rights.
The Commerce Clause
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause, empowers the United States Congress
"To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."
Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas as a separate power granted to Congress. It is therefore common to see references to the Foreign Commerce Clause, the Interstate Commerce Clause, and the Indian Commerce Clause, each of which refers to the power granted to Congress in this section.
The founders' understanding of the word "commerce" is unclear. Although commerce means economic activity today, it had much broader and non-economic meanings at the time.
For example, in 18th century writing one finds expressions such as "the free and easy commerce of social life" and "our Lord's commerce with his disciples".
Further, interpreting interstate commerce to mean "interstate human interaction" makes more sense for the foreign and Indian commerce clauses as one would expect Congress to be given authority to regulate non-economic relations with other nations and with Indian tribes.
COMMERCE is dominated by human interaction, however, "The Commerce Clause" does not lend interpretation in my opinion over the humans so much as the commerce in regard to the benevolence of the public trust. It certainly is never to be so interpreted that human well being as in the roll back of environmental laws adversely affect the health of a nation, it's interactions with other nations or the aesthetics of living. Civil Rights, Environmental Law is grossly in the balance in the USA under this administration and Congress. Law is not a toy, however, it is all too frequently being treated as such by today's legislators.
"To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."
Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas as a separate power granted to Congress. It is therefore common to see references to the Foreign Commerce Clause, the Interstate Commerce Clause, and the Indian Commerce Clause, each of which refers to the power granted to Congress in this section.
The founders' understanding of the word "commerce" is unclear. Although commerce means economic activity today, it had much broader and non-economic meanings at the time.
For example, in 18th century writing one finds expressions such as "the free and easy commerce of social life" and "our Lord's commerce with his disciples".
Further, interpreting interstate commerce to mean "interstate human interaction" makes more sense for the foreign and Indian commerce clauses as one would expect Congress to be given authority to regulate non-economic relations with other nations and with Indian tribes.
COMMERCE is dominated by human interaction, however, "The Commerce Clause" does not lend interpretation in my opinion over the humans so much as the commerce in regard to the benevolence of the public trust. It certainly is never to be so interpreted that human well being as in the roll back of environmental laws adversely affect the health of a nation, it's interactions with other nations or the aesthetics of living. Civil Rights, Environmental Law is grossly in the balance in the USA under this administration and Congress. Law is not a toy, however, it is all too frequently being treated as such by today's legislators.
Innuendo, a variety of tastes?
It's Saturday Night
Is it a misinterpretation? A misunderstanding? Or a vital aspect to exploitation of law?
Who is served by the 'innuendo' that exists in today's courts?
The citizens?
The opportunist criminals?
Or an exploitation of dominance of a social culture?
A prime example is the continued insistance of the question, are Gays citizens, are they people with perferences allowed by society or are they abberations a society has to tolerate?
I am concerned about not only environmental law, but, the 'slippage' of the treatment of human beings that begins with the scapegoating of a social class, be it Gay, Poor or Hispanic. The way law is practiced at the highest levels of government is not only incompetent. It is dangerous. We expect too much from 'morals' and need to protect ourselves from it through broad interpretations of Civil Rights vs. Victim Creating avenues of exploitation and social regress.
My favorite misuse of language.
A State Board of Health team arrived to inspect a local hospital.
One of it's concerns was the security of the patients and visitors against large supplies of medications of all kinds.
The hospital staff was using 'rolling' medication carts whereby the cart could be taken to the patient room for administration of their ordered perscriptions. There were no narcotics in the medication carts. There were 'lay people' including children in the hospital rooms. The carts had locks.
During the inspcection a surprise visit was payed to the Orthopedic Department where many patients were encouraged to be ambulatory in their recovery from surgery, either with or without assistive devices. The inspector approached a medication cart outside a patient room. The nurse administering medications was inside the patient room. The inspector reached for a draw with a patient name on it and opened it with ease.
When the nurse came from the room the inspector was annoyed as she hastily wrote down the violation. "You left the cart unlocked. You are endangering the lives of innocent people including inquisitive children. I'll have to include your name in this report." The inspector wrote down the name of the nurse from his identity badge.
In reply, he stated: "Excuse me. Before you write anything down, I am completely within the practices of the law."
The inspector quite astounded by the assertion stated, "I am sorry, but, you are not."
"Oh yes, I am." said the nurse. "The law states the medication cart has to be locked."
The inspector, "That's right."
The nurse, "Well, it is. It doesn't roll anywhere. I have the wheels locked."
One of it's concerns was the security of the patients and visitors against large supplies of medications of all kinds.
The hospital staff was using 'rolling' medication carts whereby the cart could be taken to the patient room for administration of their ordered perscriptions. There were no narcotics in the medication carts. There were 'lay people' including children in the hospital rooms. The carts had locks.
During the inspcection a surprise visit was payed to the Orthopedic Department where many patients were encouraged to be ambulatory in their recovery from surgery, either with or without assistive devices. The inspector approached a medication cart outside a patient room. The nurse administering medications was inside the patient room. The inspector reached for a draw with a patient name on it and opened it with ease.
When the nurse came from the room the inspector was annoyed as she hastily wrote down the violation. "You left the cart unlocked. You are endangering the lives of innocent people including inquisitive children. I'll have to include your name in this report." The inspector wrote down the name of the nurse from his identity badge.
In reply, he stated: "Excuse me. Before you write anything down, I am completely within the practices of the law."
The inspector quite astounded by the assertion stated, "I am sorry, but, you are not."
"Oh yes, I am." said the nurse. "The law states the medication cart has to be locked."
The inspector, "That's right."
The nurse, "Well, it is. It doesn't roll anywhere. I have the wheels locked."
Kindly 'click on' play tones of "Traditional A, B, C's"
A - B - C - D - E - F - G
H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P
Q - R - S - T - U
and V,
W - X - Y
and Z
Now I know my A - B - C's
Next time won't you sing with me?
H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P
Q - R - S - T - U
and V,
W - X - Y
and Z
Now I know my A - B - C's
Next time won't you sing with me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)