Last week while researching the Democratic presidential candidate, I ran across a campaign site for John Edwards. Johnathon Prince the Senior Adviser for John Edwards for President had a petition he had activated calling for the immediate resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Johnathan was seeking signatures for his petition and is planning on presenting a copy of the U.S. Constitution with over 45,300 signatures asking Gonzales to resign his position. Below (starting w/ Dear Kelly…)is an e-mail Mr.Price sent to me.

The congressional committee that investigated Mr.Gonzales role in the firing of 9 federal prosecutors said to have not been loyal to all of Bush’s current policies found that Gonzales was found to be the most partisan Attorney General in the history of the Attorney General position and that he had politicized his position more than any other Attorney General since the Watergate era.

Several Senators on Capitol Hill have stated that, “They had lost confidence in Gonzales and his ability to head the Justice Department, accusing him of misleading and possibly false testimony about his firing of 9 U.S.prosecuters last year and the Bush administration’s warrentless spying program.” according to journalist for Reuters.com( The most popular and reputable internet news source) James Vicini.

According to this same news article posted on Yahoo news by Vicini to Reuters.com, “Daniel Metcalfe who resigned in January after serving as head of the department’s Office of Information and privacy since 1981, said Gonzales the nations highest ranking Hispanic Official, has become an embarrassment.

John Koppell, a civil appellate attorney at the department since 1981 wrote, ” it is especially unheard of for U.S. prosecutors to be targeted and removed on the basis of pressure and complaints from political figures dissatisfied with their- (the 9 fired prosecutors) handling of politically sensitive investigations and their unwillingness to ‘play ball’.” Monica Goodling, A former aide to Gonzales was fired after confessing that she had posed, ” political questions to job applicants for career, nonpartisan positions”.

I personally watched Mr. Gonzales give his testimony and was infuriated by his blatant disrespectful and smug demeanor toward the congressional committee. He responded with some version of, “I cannot recall”, or “I am not aware…” to almost every question and the few rare times he actually answered he repeatedly contradicted himself.

The Attorney General is one of those positions meant to check the powers of the president. It is designed to make sure that top officials in the administration are operating within the law and according to the will and best interest of the American people. Alberto Gonzales has completely disgraced this important, honorable position and greedily looked out for his own personal career advancement by allowing President Bush to dictate the decisions made by the Att. Generals office. This is not only a reprehensible conflict of interest but down right dishonest, immoral, and arrogant.

Dear kelly,

A few weeks ago, we asked you to join us in signing your name to our petition calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. We promised that if we received over 40,000 signatures, we would deliver a giant copy of the Constitution—with your signatures—to Gonzales to remind him of his constitutional obligations.

You are one of 45,307 supporters to sign your name—and we thank all of you who passed this along to friends and family. Over 5,100 of you are brand new to the campaign and we couldn’t be happier to welcome you!

Here’s the plan: Monday, September 17, 2007 is Constitution Day. It celebrates the day our Constitution was signed in 1787. We know it’s not the most famous national holiday, but we think it’s a perfect moment to remind Gonzales about his constitutional obligations as Attorney General. And what better way to celebrate it than to deliver an extra large copy of our Constitution, with all your signatures, directly to him!

We’re waiting for Washington officials to come back from vacation before we deliver our Constitution to Gonzales—a document we think he needs to read a few more times before vacating his office for good!

Here’s what you can do:

(1) Forward this email to coworkers, friends, bowling buddies, your book club and anyone else you can think of to help us reach 50,000 signatures.

(2) Keep your eyes peeled for an e-mail in the coming weeks spelling out the details of the delivery to Gonzales on Constitution Day in September.

It’s time we send Gonzales a message he can’t ignore. And he won’t be able to ignore this.

Thank you for all your support and hard work.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Prince
Senior adviser, John Edwards for President

Private business is concerned first and foremost with the bottom line. The public has withstood one disaster after another at the hands of big business. Has everyone forgotten the Firestone debacle, and the recent mass recall of Matel toys containing lead paint. They consider public safety to be a PR issue rather than a moral one. However it would be unrealistic to think private business could turn a profit and be responsible for lifetime maintenance of every bridge. In order for private business to turn profits they would somehow have to pass maintenance costs onto the public via construction costs or toll booths.
Would the public be safer if bridges were managed by the government? Not necessarily. In our current political climate with mass spending for the War On Terror budget cuts at the local level are occurring in record numbers. Federal monies previously allocated for education, bridge and road repairs, and health care are being diverted to military budgets. I have heard this referred to as a “simplistic idea” and that is absolutely correct. In researching my local city budget I found that property tax revenues were up 12% and the cost of annual bridge and highway repairs were up 3 to 4% annually or 11.5% in three years. While the amount of federal grant money was down 22%.
The answer would be to have a division of local government that was made up of experts in this field headed up by structural engineers, (not accountants) that would be responsible for bi-annual inspections. There responsibilities would include notifying the private company that constructed the bridge of maintenance problems due to faulty construction and requiring the company to make repairs within an allocated time. If the company failed to make the repairs then the inspectors would issue fines and notify the public. The responsibility of maintenance due to normal wear and tear would be handled by local government via permanent staff or subcontracted out to the private sector.
Americans are all about “freedoms”, if we were kept informed on the conditions of the roads and bridges we travel than we could make informed decisions on whether or not we CHOOSE to travel specific routes.

True love has little to do with first kisses, and romantic candlelit dinners and more to do with looking forward to seeing your best friend at the end of a day filled with screaming children, carpools, and obnoxious bosses.
My husband and I have been together for 14 years and have 3 children and we have had our share of bumps along the road. We certainly don’t feel butterfly’s with every kiss but at the end of a good day or bad the thing I look forward to the most is discussing the day with my husband.
Most people have trouble distinguishing the difference between infatuation or lust and love. That tingle of excitement one gets at the very thought of another person, being terrified they will see you with food in your teeth or gunk in your nose is not love. Being able to get really turned on by someone you have had sex with thousands of times, that has put on 20lbs, and gone gray over the years, has morning breath, and eye boogers thats true love.
Don’t get me wrong were not always the best of friends either but love stands the test of time. It is common for people to convince themselves the person they love is responsible for unhappiness when faced with life’s pressures of raising children, paying the mortgage and a mountain of bills, disappointing careers or worse of all the monotony of day to day life. When people find themselves unhappy with the course of their life they immediately conclude that their significant other is responsible for their unhappiness. After all its easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings than to look inward.
True love will last forever when both parties involved are able to look at their relationship realistically and not as if it were a romantic comedy in progress. When you are able to accept one another’s annoying little habits, and recognize you have a few of your own. When you work together to achieve both long and short term goals and recognize happily ever after exists only in the interim.

Power and money are the two most significant means to corrupt even the most well intentioned civil servants. When choosing a leader comes down to which candidate can buy the most publicity, we are significantly narrowing the possible qualified choices of candidates.

When campaigns rely on large sums of money, and the candidates with the most money become are only options we have created a system ripe for extreme corruption.

When a candidate takes large contributions from lobbyists, the organization they represent is expecting something in return. In essence by accepting the contribution the candidate has sold his support to the highest bidder.

When a government functions with only the largest campaign contributors agendas being heard, it is no longer functioning as a government of the people. It is obvious that our forefathers designed our government to represent all of our voices.

With a two-party system the original design cannot thrive. How many times have you heard someone refer to either of the parties as, “the lesser of two evils”? With campaign finance reform, and/or spending limits on political campaigns we would see other smaller lesser known parties gain momentum.

Common sense should tell us that when we broaden the field of political parties competing for our vote,and remove financial corruption from the equation what will result is politician’s holding one another accountable for their decisions, their votes, and their actions. I believe this is called “Checks and Balances”.