THE EVOLUTION OF JUDICIAL TYRANNY IN THE UNITED STATES:

"If the judges interpret the laws themselves, and suffer none else to interpret, they may easily make, of the laws, [a shredded] shipman's hose!" - King James I of England, around 1616.

“No class of the community ought to be allowed freer scope in the expression or publication of opinions as to the capacity, impartiality or integrity of judges than members of the bar. They have the best opportunities of observing and forming a correct judgment. They are in constant attendance on the courts. Hundreds of those who are called on to vote never enter a court-house, or if they do, it is only at intervals as jurors, witnesses or parties. To say that an attorney can only act or speak on this subject under liability to be called to account and to be deprived of his profession and livelihood by the very judge or judges whom he may consider it his duty to attack and expose, is a position too monstrous to be entertained for a moment under our present system,” Justice Sharwood in Ex Parte Steinman and Hensel, 95 Pa 220, 238-39 (1880).

“This case illustrates to me the serious consequences to the Bar itself of not affording the full protections of the First Amendment to its applicants for admission. For this record shows that [the rejected attorney candidate] has many of the qualities that are needed in the American Bar. It shows not only that [the rejected attorney candidate] has followed a high moral, ethical and patriotic course in all of the activities of his life, but also that he combines these more common virtues with the uncommon virtue of courage to stand by his principles at any cost.

It is such men as these who have most greatly honored the profession of the law. The legal profession will lose much of its nobility and its glory if it is not constantly replenished with lawyers like these. To force the Bar to become a group of thoroughly orthodox, time-serving, government-fearing individuals is to humiliate and degrade it.” In Re Anastaplo, 18 Ill. 2d 182, 163 N.E.2d 429 (1959), cert. granted, 362 U.S. 968 (1960), affirmed over strong dissent, 366 U.S. 82 (1961), Justice Black, Chief Justice Douglas and Justice Brennan, dissenting.

" I do not believe that the practice of law is a "privilege" which empowers Government to deny lawyers their constitutional rights. The mere fact that a lawyer has important responsibilities in society does not require or even permit the State to deprive him of those protections of freedom set out in the Bill of Rights for the precise purpose of insuring the independence of the individual against the Government and those acting for the Government”. Lathrop v Donohue, 367 US 820 (1961), Justice Black, dissenting.

"The legal profession must take great care not to emulate the many occupational groups that have managed to convert licensure from a sharp weapon of public defense into blunt instrument of self-enrichment". Walter Gellhorn, "The Abuse of Occupational Licensing", University of Chicago Law Review, Volume 44 Issue 1, September of 1976.

“Because the law requires that judges no matter how corrupt, who do not act in the clear absence of jurisdiction while performing a judicial act, are immune from suit, former Judge Ciavarella will escape liability for the vast majority of his conduct in this action. This is, to be sure, against the popular will, but it is the very oath which he is alleged to have so indecently, cavalierly, baselessly and willfully violated for personal gain that requires this Court to find him immune from suit”, District Judge A. Richard Caputo in H.T., et al, v. Ciavarella, Jr, et al, Case No. 3:09-cv-00286-ARC in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Document 336, page 18, November 20, 2009. This is about judges who were sentencing kids to juvenile detention for kickbacks.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The demographics of the rural Otsego and Delaware County, New York - people are leaving, while the government is growing

Yes, yes, yes, I know, there is small lies, big lies and statistics.

Statistics may be manipulated, may be forged and fabricated, that's true.

But, when many business decisions are independently made by various businesses and local governments based on demographic statistics, such statistics must be true.

People who want to make money will not turn money down based on fake statistics - they will research.

And Fox Hospital from Oneonta, NY did its research of demographics in the area.

And is closing its maternity services that were serving Otsego and Delaware Counties.

Not enough babies being born is cited as the reason.


Oneonta, NY, by the way, is located right on Interstate-88, while Cooperstown, NY is reachable only by one-lane county roads that can be tough to navigate in winter.

This is the second maternity hospital that closed in the area within the last 10 years - after the maternity wing in Delaware Valley Hospital in Walton, New York.

Delaware Valley maternity hospital (where my teenage son was born) served rural community in Delaware County for years - and served it well.  

Delaware Valley had only two labor rooms in the entire hospital.  When I was giving birth there, it was the only birth for 2 days.

Finally, Delaware Valley considered it not cost-efficient to continue to run its "labor and delivery" services in an area with dwindling population - where an entire elementary school building, the Abraham Kellogg Elementary School, had to be closed in 2008 and sold by the Delaware County School District because there were no children left to fill that building.


Fox is not the business or entity taking notice of dwindling population in the area.


Which is quite an extraordinary event, considering that just this past November the so-called "Pool Committee" has decided to "go forward" with construction, and was soliciting bids - and donations for such a construction, and that donations are being solicited to this day.

By the way, even though the pool is not going to be built, at least in the original scale, at least at this time (looks like ever), and even though the decision that bids are not approved has already been announced on January 16, 2016, that announcement did not appear on the "Pool Committee"'s website, and the website still has the "Donate" button as of today.


So, I wonder where all of those donations already collected are going.

Once again - on November 4, 2015 (the day of elections, by the way), there was a "go ahead" press release soliciting written bids and donations from the public.  It was like a plea - RE-ELECT ME NOW!  We brought this great project about.

On November 15, 2015 the Town of Delhi, NY published the invitation for bidding for construction of the pool (issued, curiously, 6 days prior, but for some reason not immediately published - why? "the near and dear" to the Town officials' hearts were first notified in a private setting?).

On December 11, 2015 there was an announcement on the Facebook page of the Pool Committee - but not on its main webpage - that "a legal snafu has caused a delay in the bidding process".



The latest "news" on the Delhi Pool Committee's main webpage remain this - those who know the location will see the playground in the back dwarfed by the "project" that was to be built in the area usually flooded by the West Branch of the Delaware River (I lived in Delhi, NY for 17 years, experienced such floods and saw this particular spot as a lake with ducks instead of people swimming all over it):


If you click the "read more" little red words, this opens:


In early January of 2016, bids for construction of the pool (two) came "too high", and the Pool Committee together with the Town of Delhi and the State of New York (that participated with a grant) is now considering a "scale-down" of the project - without notifying its readers on either their main webpage or on the Facebook page, and while continuing to invite donations, even though there is no assurance that the pool-building project will ever go ahead.

The interesting part is that there are no suggestions to collect more donations - only to "scale down" the project.  No people to "serve", it's starting to dawn, right?

And boy do they have to "consider" a scale-down - with the schools having to close and maternity hospitals in the area having to close - because people are leaving the area, with children in tow - who would come to use this "project"?

It will be an "attractive nuisance" and a liability for the remaining Delhi Town taxpayers, it will require a lot of funds for upkeep and garbage removal, it can be overrun by recurrent floods in the area, but it is doubtful that it will be "serving" a lot of people.

It is very obvious that, based on the facts of 

  • schools that are closing for lack of children,
  • maternity hospitals, even in a relatively large college towns, are closing;
  • "scalings-down" of major "community projects"

population in Otesgo and Delaware County is flying out.

In droves.

Which brings me to the question:

what will happen to the budgets of:

  • The school districts - when there are less children to teach;
  • Social Services - where there are less families to supervise;
  • Police and District Attorney's offices - where there are less people to commit crimes;
  • the Court system - where there are less cases to be brought voluntarily by local residents, and by social services and the District Attorney?

So far, the process was in reverse to the population dynamics.

There is a huge inflated budget of Delaware County Department of Social services - that, of course, has to feed: 

In July of 2015, a new, fourth prosecutor, was authorized for the Delaware County District Attorney's Office, see here and here.

 In other words - while people are leaving the State of New York, and the rural counties, which is shown by business decisions to close schools, maternity hospitals and ditch the much-promoted swimming pool project, the "demographics" of the local government goes in reverse - it grows, salaries of officials grow, numbers of officials (judges, prosecutors) grow.

 Why? 

 Because these people will not survive outside of the government, in an honest self-made business?

 They need taxpayers as captive cash cows to subsidize them?

 Watch out, Delaware County taxpayers, as well as Delhi Village and Town taxpayers, for any increases of levies or taxes.

 The parasites in the local government need the money of the remaining captive cash cows, the taxpayers, to survive, thrive and feed their clans.

 Say "no" to the growing local budgets.

 They have no basis to ask for growth.

 And - I will run a separate blog on the unfunded increase of the salaries of local County District Attorneys, as well as a separate blog about the alleged "budget savings" recently reported by the Delaware County Department of Social Services.

 Stay tuned.







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