A Good J.A.I.L.ing in South Dakota!
I haven't posted anything lately because as some of you know I committed to spending time in South Dakota collecting signatures and seeking signature gatherers for SDJA.
It's happened something like this: I focused on the southeastern portion of the state because I have relatives there. I put together a flyer, had 1,000 printed up to distribute and placed them in businesses that agreed to post it and hand them out. Well, the response has been fantastic!
The flyer and of course South Dakota Judicial Accountability literature and website make mention of a politician getting only a 100 day sentence where the average sentence for such a crime is seven years. The politician is former Congressman Bill Janklow. It turns out that that special treatment is a real sore spot for South Dakotans. Many figure SDJA will help cure these acts of malfeasance by a judge, they are all for it.
I managed to get some signatures and find two persons who will go get signatures and a possible third person to gather signatures in about a week. So we will get a bunch more signors of the petition to get SDJA on the 2006 ballot. But overall, with only a handful of go-getters, getting enough signatures is a daunting task to say the least! But there is GREAT NEWS! And some not so good news too. Bill Stegmeier who is heading up this effort in South Dakota emails us with the following....
News from the South Dakota trenches.
Overall, the signature gathering is going well. My crew collected 1200 sigs at a regional fair last week, while Ron and Barbie Branson collected around 540 signatures at the Sturgis Bike Rally! At the present, Ron and Barbie are going door to door in Sioux Falls with a crew of seven workers from my company.
The big news is that National Voter Outreach, a professional signature gathering company from Nevada began working their magic last Tuesday. As of yesterday, they have twelve people on the street and are hiring more daily. I have raised the website thermometer (http://www.southdakotajudicialaccountability.com/signatures.htm )
to 10,000 sigs collected because that's what NVO has been paid for so far. Ron, Barbie, and myself are 100% confident this firm will easily get us past the 42,000 signatures we need by November 1.
The bad news is that sort of guarantee of success cost big bucks. $ 2.48 per signature. You do the math!
We will continue to collect signatures ourselves as to reduce the final bill, but it was realized soon after we started collecting that going with volunteers only was not going to cut it.
We have the total bill covered, so not to worry about that. So far we have received around $ 8000.00 in donations. That and funds from a second mortgage I took out will see the project through. Of course, even after we are successful getting J.A.I.L. on the 2006 ballot, donations will still be needed to promote the value of J.A.I.L. to the voters.
And now, a word from our opposition:
The following was taken off a few South Dakota political blogsites. As you can see, there are people out there that will need to be force-fed the truth about what J.A.I.L. is all about. These two... dare I say "blog buffoons" evidently haven't taken the time to investigate J.A.I.L. but yet mildly criticize it anyway.
Oh, well, nobody said this was going to be easy!
Pictures from the Sturgis Bike Rally will be posted soon!
Bill Stegmeier
From http://prairieprogressive.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_prairieprogressive_archive.html
JAIL escapes from the asylum
Via the observant eye of SD War College comes word of an effort to JAIL the South Dakota judiciary. JAIL is the acronym of the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law, for which a petition (PDF format) is being ciruclated to place on the 2006 election ballot. All I can say is it looks a lot like the inmates trying to take over the asylum.
The proposal would add a 24-part section to the South Dakota Constitution. Basically, it would create a 13-member "Special Grand Jury" to hear complaints against judges. Naturally, "elected and appointed officials, members of the State Bar, judges (active or retired), judicial, prosecutorial and law enforcement personnel" are disqualified from serving on the grand jury. Additionally, "[a]ll allegations in the complaint shall be liberally construed in favor of the complainant" and the members of the grand jury "are not to be swayed by artful presentation by the judge."
The grand jury can sanction judges or indict them. If a judge gets "three strikes" civilly, they are removed permanently from office and get half their retirement benefits. If a judge is indicted, the grand jury would appoint 12 "special trial jurors" and "a non-governmental special prosecutor and a judge with no more than four years on the bench" to try the case. If convicted, the jury would impose sentence on the judge. Of course, no judge brought before the "Special Grand Jury" or indicted by it can be defended at public expense or by any elected or appointed public counsel or reimbursed from public funds for any losses sustained in defending themselves. And since the judges are the source of the need for this entity, the grand jury is to be funded by a mandatory 1.9 percent deduction from all judicial salaries.
Finally, to make sure the proposed amendment doesn't have to worry about the rest of the Constitution, it provides that no judge who would be subject to the "Special Grand Jury" (i.e., every judge in the state) has jurisidction to hear a challenge to JAIL and any such "pretended adjudication shall be null and void for all purposes" and provide a basis to file a complaint against that judge.
According to the sponsoring organization, the initiative is a grassroots campaign "designed to end the rampant and pervasive judicial corruption in the legal system of the United States," which will occur only if the judiciary is made "answerable and accountable to an entity other than itself. The individual circulating the petition, who calls himself the "South Dakota JAILer-In-Chief," appears to be having a skirmish with the Legislative Research Council over the language and form of the measure.
But if the special grand jury is going to be acting as a judge, why isn't it subject to JAIL? And won't it be interesting to look at the names of the people who sign the petition if and when it ultimately gets filed with the Secretary of State?
The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic. H.L. Mencken
From http://dakotawarcollege.blogspot.com/ South Dakotans for T-Shirt Accountability
More Ballot Initiative fun: J.A.I.L. will prevent such practices as secret defaults, ignored laws, ignored evidence, sophistry, confiscation of property without due process, involuntary assignment of do nothing probate lawyers that are unneeded, unwanted, and expensive, probate fraud, secret dockets, graft, falsifications of court records, and other abuses. You know, I'm just an illiterate political hack, but I do have moments of clarity. Sophistry? If I had to look that up, so will most South Dakotans.
According to one of the on-line encyclopedias: In modern philosophical usage, sophistry is a derogatory term for rhetoric that is designed to appeal to the listener on grounds other than the strict logical validity of the statements being made. Well, that would be all political hacks on either side of the aisle. I'm not sure if the J.A.I.L.ers just picked the term because its scary sounding or they pulled the text off of some pre-existing ballot initiative from another state. What I do know is that if you pledge to collect twenty signatures for them, You get a free t-shirt.
WOO WOO! Free t-shirt. Don't believe me? See the advertisement from one of this week's weekly newspapers below:
Okay, aside from the fact that the advertisement appears to violate campaign laws regarding advertisement disclosures; you know, the little one that says Paid for by a bunch of t- shirt people against judges, the ad looks like something advertising a carnival or the local Shrine Circus.
The website is registered to Site It design in Sioux Falls (at least according to Network Solutions), and the ballot initiative has a name on it of William Stegmeier. This might be the same person who is the state coordinator for We The People.
He might be worth a "10 questions with..." just to find out what all this is about. You can also view the Secretary of State's link to the measure here.
Anyway, at this point, I don't think this one is going to make the 2006 ballot. But at least they have T-Shirts and cash prizes.
posted by PP at 12:15 AM | 0 comments
Friday, July 15, 2005
Unfortunately, there are those who will try to put a negative bent on this legislation and those too who are sorely misinformed but flapping their gums about SDJA in a negative light just the same. Even after the large amount of cash is spent on getting the necessary names for this initiative to hit the 2006 ballot, there will have to be an aggressive campaign to overcome the public cries of some misinformed and miscreants and also to get people to actually vote for this legislation.
My personal plea to each and everyone of you is this: Think of the importance of passing this initiative for you, your children, your grandchildren. You probably don't live in South Dakota but once this passes there, you will see a huge "me too!" movement for J.A.I.L. spread across the entire land; we will finally be able to rein in the activist, sometimes corrupt judicial system located in every state in America.
Please get active, spread the word and for God sake, make whatever donation you can afford. No donation is too small! Keep this positive liberty movement going. Your posterity is counting on you! It is the adults of TODAY who MUST become activists and TAKE this country back from those who think they deserve it more than you do!
To donate navigate to SDJA or to donate to the national J.A.I.L. follow the instructions below.
Donations may be paid to VictoryUSA@jail4judges.org at PayPal.
Or mailed to:
Ron Branson, JAILer-In-Chief J.A.I.L.4Judges P.O. Box 207 North Hollywood, California 91603
Make checks payable to "J.A.I.L."
I Thank You for your participation in this history making event. God Bless you.
JP
