Heads Up

A Weekly edition of News from around our country

March 28, 1997 #28

by: Doug Fiedor fiedor19@eos.net

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Previous Editions at: http://mmc.cns.net/headsup.html

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PROSECUTOR MISCONDUCT

Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to

decide whether prosecutors can be sued for making false

statements when seeking arrest warrants. (Kalina v.

Fletcher, 96-792)

Seattle Prosecutor Lynne Kalina was sued

by Rodney Fletcher, who was arrested in 1993 and charged

with stealing computer equipment from a private school.

Fletcher's lawsuit said that, in seeking

the arrest warrant, the prosecutor improperly filed

documents saying he had never been associated with the

school and did not have permission to enter it. The

documents also said that someone identified Fletcher from

a picture as the man who tried to sell computer equipment

from the school. Police also found Fletcher's

fingerprints in the school.

As it turns out, Fletcher had performed

construction work inside the school months before the

burglary, explaining the fingerprints. And, as it turned

out, police reports said witnesses did not, in fact, pick

Fletcher's photograph out from a group of pictures.

Therefore, the prosecutor lied to get the arrest warrant.

Later, things were sorted out, and all

charges were dropped. Now comes Fletcher's action

against the prosecutor. He started suit against Kalina

in federal court. Fletcher's lawsuit said she violated

his civil rights by filing statements she should have

known were false.

The prosecutor, of course, argues that

she should be immune from such a lawsuit. Kalina asked

the judge to grant her full immunity and dismiss the

lawsuit. But the judge refused, saying the issue of

granting her qualified immunity must be decided during a

trial.

The prosecutor appealed, of course.

However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed

with the District Court, saying prosecutors do not have

absolute immunity when preparing statements in support of

an arrest warrant. Nonetheless, the appeals court ruled,

Kalina still may avoid liability by showing at trial that

her conduct did not violate a clearly established

Constitutional right.

Back in 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that

prosecutors have full immunity from lawsuits over their

actions in initiating and prosecuting a criminal case.

But, that is only when they're acting as prosecutors. In

1991, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors do not

have full immunity when they perform investigative work.

Fletcher's lawyers said that by acting as

an investigator for the case, Kalina acted as a witness

in filing the statement for securing an arrest warrant,

and therefore she should not have full immunity.

Indeed, this seems to be a good example of

a prosecutor taking an active personal interest in

investigating a crime. And, unfortunately, that is

common practice in many states. It is also wrong.

Prosecutors are not police. Therefore, they

have no business becoming involved in the investigatory

process. Rather, the prosecutor's office should be in a

position to insure that all rights of all citizens are

protected equally -- even, and especially, from the

police. This will not usually be done by a prosecutor

personally involved, interacting with the police in the

field, during a criminal investigation.

This case will be well watched by

prosecutors throughout the country, and we can expect

many briefs to be filed in favor of complete

prosecutorial immunity. However, if the Supreme Court

runs true to form, we expect Fletcher to prevail.

COLD WAR LOOMS AGAIN

Interesting week for world leaders wasn't

it. It seems like they're all shaking hands and smiling

at each other like a bunch of good buddies. That's what

we see in the news. The problem is, the part that we are

not being told is that some of them are preparing to stab

America in the back at the same time.

First, the administration gets rid of Hillary

by sending her on an "extended" vacation -- almost as far

away as they could possibly get her without using the

space shuttle. That freed up Slick for a little

cavorting, and based on reports of his past proclivities,

he shouldn't have any problems, even with the bad knee.

Then they sent Gore off to China to thank

the Communists for those millions of dollars in campaign

contributions. He was also supposed to talk about

business and human rights, but his vocabulary is rather

limited on those issues. So, by his second day there, he

reverted to his Ozone Head mode and started talking about

environmental issues. The Chinese leaders humored him

for a while, let him watch a business agreement signing,

and then sent him on his way to see the normal tourist

attractions.

Not a word was said about the eight million

people in prison camps. Not a word was said about the

constant persecution of the Christians, or the Tibetans.

And, certainly, not a word was said about the massive

arms buildup in which China is now involved.

Bill and Boris had a little vacation

together, too. They met in a strange town. Without

their wives. Yeah, the Beavis and Buthead of world

super powers had their own little night out in a town

infamous for . . . err, how can we put this . . .

"discreet" night life for the discriminating gentleman.

In between the cavorting, they talked about

world leader things like NATO, bombs and other people's

countries.

Now for the juicy news Americans didn't hear

about:

At the very same time Ozone Head was

hobnobbing with the Communists in China, the Red Chinese

had some of their top echelon people in Russia. And, at

the very same time Slick and Boris were promising not to

bomb each other's country, the Chinese and Russians were

still busy talking shop in the Kremlin.

Russia and China are busy arming China to

the teeth. Russia and China are also busy setting up

both strategic and tactical defenses against the United

States. You see, their plan is to create their own spear

of influence -- their whole side of the globe -- and cut

the United States out! They are even arming India as a

back up country.

China gets Hong Kong back in three months.

And, of course, it wants Taiwan too. Japan is nearby

too. . . .

What does Russia get out of this? Power,

eventually. Badly needed money, right now.

We're helping both countries do this, by the

way. We've given Billions of dollars in aid and comfort

to Russia. Their economy is still in the pits, but

they've got the money to do arms research. The Chinese

are giving Russia the money to re-tool for arms

production.

And look at China. We are probably their

largest trading partner. And, because the balance of

trade is so grossly in their favor, they now have

billions of our dollars available to spend on arms.

Worse, we are also selling them the technology necessary

to fight us!

Has anybody in Washington noticed? If they

have, this is the first thing they have been able to keep

quiet about in quite a few years. Of course, there's

another scenario that fits the situation nicely. But,

even "Heads Up" is not prepared to postulate that

possibility -- yet.

ANOTHER COMMISSION

Walter Mondale is making news again. Well,

he's trying to, anyway. Slick Willie appointed Mondale

and "former" Senator Nancy Kassebaum (Baker) to a

committee, commission, or whatever, to look into the

campaign finance problem.

Anyone find it interesting that Slick would

charge two of the very liberals who created the problem

in the first place with investigating it? Yeah, they're

both liberals, both out-of-work politicians, and neither

(and this ought to tell you a story right here!) ever

bothered to move back "home" after leaving office.

"Two decades after Congress reformed

campaign finance, the laws it passed have been

overwhelmed by a flood of money -- $2 billion in the

last election," Kassebaum and Mondale wrote in a New

York Times op-ed piece last Sunday.

"With every election, the problem has grown

worse. These laws are now riddled with loopholes and

legal mumbo jumbo that average Americans rightly consider

outrageous." . . .

"Perhaps the greatest obstacle to reform is

the loss of faith among voters that anything constructive

can come from new laws and new standards. The existing

campaign finance system dismays people from all walks of

life and all political perspectives. People know that

elected officials cannot adequately represent them if

they are constantly in thrall to special interests."

Yup! The laws were written by politicians

for politicians. That's why there are enough loopholes

in campaign finance laws to allow just about any

interpretation the politicians wish. One only need

compare the wording of any law restricting federal

politicians to that restricting the actions of citizens

to notice the difference.

They "fixed" everything in their favor.

That is, they fixed almost all of the campaign finance

laws to favor the incumbent in Washington. Anyone

surprised at that?

Let's face it, as long as they're going to

continue calling special interest campaign contributions

from groups outside of their districts "free speech,"

this problem will never be resolved. Let them get their

"free speech" from the people who elect them -- back

home, in their districts.

If all campaign contributions have to come

from registered voters in their district, some of these

Lords and Ladies of the Hill will have to talk with their

constituents every so often. Otherwise, no campaign

funds.

And, if there were a spending cap placed on

all elections -- say, $1.00 per vote cast for that office

in the last election -- incumbents would not have such an

overwhelming advantage over challengers.

But, constituents and challengers do not

make the law. Incumbents do. And, incumbents are not

going to overturn that gravy train. Therefore, don't

look for much of anything to happen.

LOSS OF LOYALTY

The nation's Chief Fabricator of the Truth

was caught playing fast and loose with the facts again

this week. Nothing new there, to be sure -- and we

wouldn't bore you with "ordinary" mis-truths anyway.

This one's better than that. Much better.

This time the actions don't just point to

lying, cheating and other types of dishonesty in high

places. This time they include an out and out lack of

loyalty, mistrust, disobedience in high places, and

probably a good amount of high level dereliction of duty

and obstruction of justice. Oh yeah, just for good

measure, add a little espionage, too. We've got

everything in the mix here but sex -- so far.

It all started when Slick Willie's personal

legal-eagle Charles F.C. Ruff (White House Counsel #5)

wrote "a top secret" letter to the Department of Justice

seeking whatever counterintelligence information they had

on Beijing's attempt to influence American politics

through campaign contributions. His excuse was that they

needed the information for a briefing of Secretary of

State Madeleine Albright, who was soon leaving for China.

Ruff wrote, "We seek information only

concerning the activities of officials and nationals of

the Peoples Republic of China and wish only to obtain

sufficient information to enable the National Security

Council to formulate an appropriate policy with respect

to allegations regarding those activities."

In other words, he wanted all of the "core

information" about the case. The White House already

knew about all of the local players -- they are all

"friends of Bill." What Ruff wanted was the really deep

intelligence background of the case.

Well folks, it's not often that the investigatees

have the cajones to demand information from the

investigators during an investigation. But in this case

Slick is the president, which outranks the Department of

Justice in the normal pecking order, and Ruff is Slick's

taxpayer paid mouthpiece. So, they gave it a try.

Janet Reno, and friend of Hillary and

deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick, being the good

team players they are, prepared a packet of information

to send on over to the White House.

Then, someone thought that maybe they ought

to run this by FBI Director Louis Freeh, who was out of

town at the time. Well, as could be expected, FBI Louie

was less than pleased! He knew that whatever went to the

White House would squelch the FBI's investigation. Heck,

he could even get fired if they thought he was getting

too close to anyone in the administration.

Freeh's position was to not give any

information concerning Chinese influence buying to anyone

in the executive branch or Congress. He knew damn well

that whatever information was passed on would leak. And

he also knew that the FBI would then be criticized for

sharing information with the president's staff.

Therefore, they watered-down the information

for the White House. As the Washington Post reported:

"After preparing several versions of a response, several

officials described the result as a 'plain vanilla'

report that contained little information beyond accounts

already described in news articles on the suspected

influence scheme by the Chinese."

Whew! So, Louie Freeh, who works for Janet

Reno, who works for Slick Willie and the Misses, refused

to give his bosses any information. And that, even after

Janet Reno was considering passing along the information.

Talk about tensions between the White House

and the Justice Department . . . it don't get a lot

better than this, folks! Not since Nixon fired a few

lawyers, anyway.

So, where does the big lie come in?

Wednesday evening, Slick Willie was on the

news complaining that the White House might not have all

the information they need to properly conduct foreign

policy. And, of course, he mumbled something about

"significant national security issues" being involved,

because he is now out of the loop for any information

concerning Chinese influence purchasing.

Then he did a very strange thing for any

public personality on camera. He placed his arms across

his chest and held himself very tightly. At the same

time he said that he had full confidence in the Justice

Department and the FBI. . . .

Uh huh. Sure he does, folks. Sure he does!

It looks like the end for this administration.

Not only do they no longer have the trust or respect of

the American people, they no longer have the trust or

respect of the people in their own administration!

EPA'S LOSS IS OUR GAIN

A while back, the EPA ordered that Virginia

and 12 northeastern states adopt California's program to

curb automobile pollution by using specially equipped

cleaner conventional cars and phasing in electric cars.

Virginia said no, and protested in court.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the

District of Columbia upheld Virginia's challenge. The

court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency

overstepped its authority. EPA cannot require a

particular measure to be part of a state's plan to meet

federal air quality standards.

EPA called it a "narrow, technical ruling."

We call it a beginning.

There is no Constitutional authority for

EPA to even exist. Therefore, everything they do is

without Constitutional authority. It's about time for

states to begin exerting their State's Rights and put a

halt to these over-burdening regulatory agencies.

A while back, Colorado State Senator Charles

Duke started a Tenth Amendment campaign. Some states

(about twenty) passed Tenth Amendment resolutions in

protest of the overreaching hand of the federal

government. Another fifteen or so states are still

necessary to make it effective.

Not only do we need to complete that Tenth

Amendment campaign, we also need to start another for the

Ninth Amendment. And, then yet another for property

rights. And so on, and so on, and so on. . . .

Cause, this ain't how it was supposed to be,

folks! As someone wrote a couple years ago, today's

federal government is little more than a sick parody of

that which was intended by the Founding Fathers.

MILITARY-CIVILIAN ACTIVITIES

by: "The Sergeant"

I rarely go onto Ft. Knox since I retired

from the Army. But, on my last sortie onto the post, I

noticed some interesting changes.

Construction has been ongoing there for

quite a while, but I had not paid much attention before.

Conversations with a few other 'old' retirees about the

situation, however, increased the relevance and piqued my

interest.

The old Post Stockade has been virtually

rebuilt and has been upgraded to a "Regional Correctional

Facility." That is what the new sign in the front says.

It used to be the "Post Confinement Facility" or PCF for

short.

It has recently gone through one hell of a

metamorphosis. I hadn't paid attention to the stockade

so much because, at the same time that upgrade was going

on, the post TMP (Transportation Motor Pool) was in the

process of being demolished and turned into a huge platt

of asphalt behind an eight foot chain link fence. For

all the world, the TMP now looks like a humongous staging

area. For most of us, this destruction of the TMP

diverted our attention from the construction at the PCF.

As I noticed the new sign in front of the

newly remodeled and freshly fenced and concertinaed

(razor wire) "Regional Corrections Facility," I also

noticed something else: A tenfold increase in the

vehicles parked around the facility, both military and

POV's (privately owned vehicles).

This increased activity is of some puzzlement

and consternation to many of us who have been here for

a long time for a couple of reasons;

1) The primary 'hard-core' troops, the

194th Brigade, moved to Texas about 4-5 years ago and

Ft Knox has become the Army's Recruiting Command.

2) Recruiters are not 'hard-core' types. That is,

they're slick salesmen who would, ordinarily, not risk

their position by breaking any laws. Given that the

number of troops needed to form a Recruiting Command

is considerably less than those forming an Armor Brigade,

why is a tremendously downsized installation suddenly

expending huge sums of money for a "REGIONAL"

correctional facility?

There is very little prisoner activity in

the facility at present. Having worked in the Kentucky

State Prison system, I tend to watch the yard and listen

for sound from the buildings. Effectively, there is NO

activity.

It is no secret that a new 'Urban Warfare

Training Center' is to be constructed on Ft. Knox and,

with the recent razing of one of the oldest housing areas

on Ft. Knox, Prichard Place, speculation is that the

construction on this facility has already begun.

Although the uninitiated who depend on the government for

their livelihood welcome this, a number of us are very

leery about the need and/or reason for such a facility.

Note: "The Sergeant" was a career Army NCO.

ACCC REPORT

Last week in "Heads Up," the fledgling

American Constitutional Campaign Committee (ACCC) called

for a national boycott on all products produced in

Communist China. The response, according to Lance Crowe,

the group's chairman, was "fantastic. It was very

positive from everyone."

Major groups, as well as individual citizens,

wrote for more information on both the boycott and ACCC.

In fact, we got the impression that the group at ACCC was

rather overwhelmed with e-mail messages for a few days.

Lance says that they are trying to answer everyone, but

they are only running two computers at this time.

We also understand that both the ACCC press

release and the two pieces from "Heads Up" received quite

a lot of radio air time around the country. Readers have

already sent us a few transcripts, and others were

promised.

It's working folks! Americans are starting

to realize that we must do something . . . and the only

action legally available to us as citizens is to boycott

all Red Chinese products.

This does not include products originating in

Taiwan or Hong Kong (yet), of course. It's "The Peoples

Republic of China" -- which is neither a republic nor

operated for the people -- that are the Communists buying

influence in Washington.

So please, read those labels before you buy. Let's show

the Commies that the American people can and will make

themselves heard.

The recently formed American Constitutional

Campaign Committee is a national organization dedicated

to the resurgence of a Constitutional form of government,

as intended by the nation's Founding Fathers. The

organization can be contacted by e-mail at:

ACCC@mindspring.com or by snail-mail at: American

Constitutional Campaign Committee 5300 Scottsville

Road, P.O. Box 51851, Bowling Green, KY 42102-6851.

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