Our Answers to Our Problems – You Tell Me!

 What we can do is only limited by our will and our imagination. We must think out-of-the-box. We must work together and resolve our differences. We use a very small portion of our intellectual potential. Anything is possible when there is respect, cooperation, long-term vision, and love for our fellow man – no matter his condition or position in our lives. Nothing is set in concrete. The fundamental beauty of man is our adaptability and creativity. It is a pity that it is usually wasted in petty materialism, bias, totalitarian restrictions, and hatred built by centuries of defamation. Man does not evolve in small steps, but there are significant leaps. I believe strongly, we are about to make one. Join in our national discussion – send me your suggestions for solutions to problems of our times. For a discussion of health care problems see:

http://www.ourpresidency.com/profiles/blogs/basic-principles-for-a

Questions for Obama and America – Solutions for Change

I very much would like the public to engage in a debate on these suggestions – which are a beginning and food for thought – help me develop these ideas! Send a comment – by clicking comments at the end of the post.  I have sent all these questions to the Obama-Biden Transition team.

ENDING CORPORATE CONTROL AND PERSONHOOD – RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE

 

“Would you support a 28th Amendment proposed by famed author, advocate, marine biologist, public speaker, Riki Ott, who wrote the Book about the Exxon Valdez disaster consequences to end “corporate personhood”, and return the government to the people?”

 

“Will you hire/ appoint as advisors civil rights activists, dissidents, ex-cons especially someone who has been wrongfully convicted, whistle blowers, and others in the trenches and not just use professional politicians, lobbyists and political hacks?”

 

TRANSITIONING FROM THE PAPER AGE TO THE DIGITAL AGE – MODERNIZING AMERICA

 

“Communications a new frontier – money wasted; no standardization of bills & records; difficult finding data; privacy & security concerns; elderly/disabled concerns; education concerns. Do you support new Cabinet position for Communications Secretary?”

 

FIXING HEALTH CARE

 

“50% or so of health care dollars is spent on advertising. What will you do to stop this waste. Health care providers should be like the police and fire departments, a necessary public service that does not advertise.”

 

“Would you support a steeply progressive and very high tax on advertising of drugs to discourage this practice? This would quickly reduce the cost of drugs as presently 50 % of drug company budgets are advertising costs. Or would you ban advertising?”

 

“Whether to do Phase 3 clinical trials of new drugs is decided by drug companies – encourages excessive costs by testing unnecessary “me too”  drugs with no benefit. Would you support FDA taking over this decision analagous to IL hosp plan commission?”

 

“Our veterans in chronic pain are thrown narcotics in high doses making them nonfunctional addicts instead of treating pain properly with multiple modalities (TENS units, therapy, muscle relaxants, meditation). Will you help them reclaim their lives?”

 

“Medical care at Cook Co. Jail & IL prison system is so inadequate inmates have had their leg amputated for lack of antibiotics & prisoners who were disabled lay on the floor in diarrhea for days unable to obtain water/care. Will DOJ investigate?”

 

“In Illinois Atty Gen Lisa Madigan, several Governors, and their corrupt accomplices fraudulently deny mental health care to those on Medicaid and wrongfully prosecute health care providers who are trying to provide this service. Will you investigate?”

 

 

ENDING CORRUPTION

 

“Truth commissions worked in S Africa to encourage confession, transparency, healing, accountability, and reconciliation. Couldn’t they work in the U.S to save money, increase openness, and allow us to get beyond corruption and move on constructively?”

 

 

FIXING GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

 

“AAG Patrick Fitzgerald doesn’t have half the manpower he needs to prosecute all the corruption in Illinois. Will you remedy this and make stamping out corruption a priority along with prosecuting felony civil rights violations?”

 

 

 

CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES IN JUSTICE SYSTEM

 

“Prosecution of felony civil rights violations – been stopped by Bush. Will you prosecute systemic intentional civil rights violations in prisons and jails that have led to death and loss of limb by intentional withholding of medical care and meds?”

 

“In Illinois 1 prison law librarian handles ALL requests from all 40,000 prisoners for legal research, legal documents, etc. This cannot be considered access to the courts. Will the DOJ investigate and prosecute such systemic civil rights violations?”

 

 

FIXING [IN]JUSTICE SYSTEM – HELPING CIZITENS TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL AND JOIN THE WORK FORCE – FIXING THE ECONOMY

 

“Torture, medical neglect, abuse, denial of access to courts is routine in American prisons. What will you do to fix this and reduce the prison population which is 40 X greater than in any civilized country and is tearing down our economy?”

 

“Excess incarceration is killing our economy. Will you lead the battle to replace incarceration with restorative justice for non-violent offenses. Skilling should be working and  paying 99.9% of his salary to those he harmed!”

 

 

“Torture, medical neglect, forced drugging, withholding of medical diets, falsification of records by guards, beatings resulting in death is standard practice in US jails and prisons. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this topic to expose it?”

 

“Rural areas have attracted for profit prisons. The prison/industrial complex now employes 1/10 Americans. This is not productive – guards and prisoners don’t contribute to the economy – they suck the wind out of it. What will you do to fix this?”

 

“Brain surgeons go to medical school for 4 years then do internships and residencies to learn this skill for another 7 years. I don’t want a family doc doing brain surgery. Shouldn’t judges be required more education than 3 years of law school?”

 

“All sorts of roadblocks are put up to prevent pro se litigants from defending themselves and litigating in courts. Will you see that pro se manuals are written, judicial education is improved, and citizens can have access and fairness in the courts?”

 

“Judges are arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, and they routinely deny civil rights – right to self-representation, right to access courts, introduce evidence, etc. They abuse orders for fitness exams. Will you hold hearings and change this?”

 

“Corrupt politicians and police illegally use fraudulent charges of disorderly conduct, trespass, resisting arrest, etc., as retaliatory tools against whistle blowers and dissidents. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this and stop this practice?”

 

 

FIXING TORTURE, ABUSE, MEDICAL NEGLECT IN JAILS AND PRISONS

 

“US Atty Fitzgerald found systemic medical neglect and violence by guards against inmates at Cook Co. Jail. YET NO INDICTMENTS for this intentional battery resulting in many deaths have occurred. Will you prosecute these criminal officers/officials?”

 

PRESERVING OUR CULTURE AND THE ARTS

 

“Japan preserves its crafts by funding “living national treasures” – top craftsmen and artists. They are given a govnt salary to maintain and teach their skill like swordmaking, flower arranging, Samari skills. Should we do this?”

 

Impeach Judge Kathleen Pantle

Judges should be impeached when their conduct so intentionally impeads justice and so intentionally violates the Bill of Rights that they bring great disgrace upon the courts and cause great injustice. These impeachable acts are not just a mistake of law, or a judicial error, but rise to the level of intentional, disgraceful, illegal, unconstitutional, acts of harassment, retaliation, bullying, obstruction of justice, and aiding and abetting felony misconduct of prosecutors. These acts have caused great harm to their victims.  

I propose that articles of impeachment  should be brought against the following judge for the following reasons:

Dishonorable Judge Kathleen Pantle:

Dishon. Judge Pantle purposely violates the Constitution and the laws of both the United States and the country:

1. She issues excessive and unconstitutional bail orders out of spite, animosity, arrogance, narcissism, and deceit, even without a formal charge or due process.

On June 15, 2005 she raised my bail on a fraudulent Medicaid vendor fraud charge, upon a motion from the State for violation of bail, from a $10,000 personal recognizance bail to a $100,000 D-Bond (requires 10% payment) despite the fact she had declared me indigent, I am disabled, I had no criminal record, and I care for an elderly disabled father.  I had been jailed wrongfully by Pantle for contempt because I told her she was violating the law and had no jurisdiction in this void case, then politely attempted to walk out of the courtroom to preserve this issue for appeal, particularly because she had sue sponte removed me as pro se counsel and then denied me appointment of a public defender. During incarceration I was attacked by Sgt. Anthony Salemi, who falsified his record and said I attacked him from my wheelchair.

On December 14, 2005 in the same case Dishon. Judge Pantle arrested me executing her arrest warrant illegally issued on December 8, 2005, despite me informing her in writing on December 7, 2005 that I could not come to a court hearing on December 8, 2005 because Federal Judge Filip had scheduled my Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus on this criminal contempt case to be heard on that morning, and even told me prior to the hearing informally through his courtroom deputy that another judge would not arrest someone for not appearing as long as they were given notice there was another court hearing. Judge Filip denied my petition without prejudice for failure to exhaust state remedies. This Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus has now been refiled and is pending before Federal Judge Coar.   I had been illegally removed as pro se counsel (self-representation), although declared indigent denied a public defender for 7 months, denied a due  process hearing on her statement that she was jailing me because I failed to show up for hearing on December 8, 2005 and because I refused to answer questions at a fitness exam she had ordered although I showed up. It is actually a statutory right for me to refuse to answer questions. I did so in exercising this right because I am adamant that her orders are illegal and without jurisdiction – void ab initio. I refuse to bow to despots. The statute, 725 ILCS 5/104-13, even states that bail may NOT BE REVOKED to accomplish a fitness exam. Her order for a fitness exam was without legal basis – she only said my behavior in court (vigorously defending myself pro se by questioning her lack of  jurisdiction) and my copious pleadings (soon to be posted on the web motions to dismiss the case for lack of personal or subject matter jurisdiction) suggested a mental unfitness. This statement is NOT a legally sufficient allegation in open court that would justify a fitness exam.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/9694342/Shelton-Federal-Habeas-PetitionCriminal-Contempt-Conviction2008

http://www.scribd.com/doc/9708949/Shelton-Federal-Petition-for-Writ-Habeas-Corpus-Vendor-Fraud-2008

On January 6, 2006 after the Illinois Appellate Court freed me on December 30, 2005 and reduced bail from “no bail” to $10,000 personal recognizance bail, Dishon. Judge Pantle falsely stated on the record, without me in the courtroom and without benefit of counsel that I had lied to the IL Appellate Court to obtain release and then she raised the bail from $10,000 personal recognizance bail to $500,000 D-Bond (10$ cash required to get out). The IL Appellate Court again freed me 2 weeks later, overturning her order.

2. She committed felony conspiracy to violate rights under color of law in conspiring with Bill Bradley, IL State Police Investigator William Reibel, Patrick Keenan, Nicholas Cozzolino, John Fearon, Patrick Murphy, and Judges Kathleen Pantle, Jorge Alonso, and Lon Schultz, as well as other unnamed or unknown individuals to intentionally retaliating against those who are whistle blowers against government corruption in Illinois and Cook County in that she conspired to illegally prosecute providers of mental health services to those on Medicaid so as to deny care for mental health services to those on Medicaid – this is a gross violation of her oath of office in that prosecutions without personal or subject-matter jurisdiction are forbidden;

3. She committed felony violation of civil rights under color of law as above;

4.  She committed the act of aiding and abetting felony subornation of perjury by the employees of the IL Attorney General’s Office by failing to hold hearings on my motion to dismiss for fraud upon the grand jury, including the acts by State Police Inv. Reibel in making false statements to the grand juries that indicted Dr. Shelton and Mr. Glass, including false statements about the law and about evidence;

5. She violating her oath of office in allowing the void prosecution of Dr. Shelton and Mr. Glass for Medicaid Vendor Fraud without jurisdiction and in violation of the United States Federal Medicaid Code and the Constitution’s Supremecy Clause, as well as prosecuting these persons when she had evidence they were not guilty of the alleged acts;

6. She committed malicious prosecution against Dr. Shelton and Mr. Glass in that all these persons were whistle blowers against corruption in Illinois government and these fraudulent and malicious prosecutions amounted to retaliation for exposing the criminal conduct of members of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, as well as officials in the City of Chicago, County of Cook, and State of Illinois;

7. She was aiding and abetting the felony violaton of civil rights under color of law by AAGs Fearon, Murray who were and are still grossly violating due process in not only prosecuting these persons without subject matter or personal jurisdiction, but also in doing so in a process indicative of gross prosecutorial misconduct in violating many rights required by due process under the Constitution;

8. She committed the felony federal crime of slavery concerning Dr. Shelton in jailing her without legal process in violation of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution;

9. She violated her oath of office and snubbed her nose at the Constitution in stating in open court in answer to my concerns about her lack of jurisdiction, “I don’t care,” in open defiance of the rules of law;

10. She gave false information to Judge Alonso , who had taken over the case against me when Judge Pantle was transferred out of the criminal court to the Chancery Division, while in the judge’s chambers behind the bench on April 13, 2007, so that Judge Alonso would again illegally hold me in contempt and summarily jail me – Judge Pantle was “visiting” the courtroom to finish up a few cases and hid herself in Judge Alonso’s chambers during one of my void pre-trial hearings – Judge Alonso, falsely thinking that Judge Pantle understood pro se and contempt issues BLINDLY followed her suggestions and procedures thereby also illegally finding me in contempt in an act of not just judicial stupidity, but also in an unconstitutional act;

11. She committed court ordered elder neglect, in a heartless and unethical act, by not considering my father’s situation and not allowing me to arrange for the care of my disabled father whenever she took me into custody- during May to June 2005 he lost 20 lbs and I found him at home dehydrated and depressed;

12. She ignored the well being and health of a defendant, as well as denied due process, by continuing hearings when I was substantially impaired by an asthma attack and/or dehydration and medical neglect – Cook County Jail staff had withheld my heart and lung medication;

***further details to be added to this post – work in preparation***

I call upon the Illinois House to investigate this matter and consider articles of impeachment. I call upon Chief Judge Evans to remove this incompetent, arrogant, dangerous, witch from the bench before others are harmed.

Please write the Majority Leader of the Illinois House at:

Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie
300 Capitol Building
Springfield, IL   62706

and the Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge:

Chief Judge Timothy Evans
Richard J. Daley Center
50 W. Washington, Rm 2600
Chicago, IL 60602

It is criminal in my opinion that she is now a bond judge in the main criminal court building concerning the most serious felonies in Cook County. Presiding Criminal Court Judge Biebel should be ashamed that he has appointed her to such an important task.

Illinois Corruption Extreme – Quadraplegic Hispanic Man Convicted of Resisting Arrest and Police Battery!!

Quadraplegic Convicted of Resisting Arrest and Battery of Chicago Police Officers Sues for Excessive Force

A paralyzed man convicted of resisting arrest and hitting a Chicago police officer in a 2006 incident is suing the city and several of its police officers for violating his civil rights. Daniel Casares, who is a quadriplegic, says that police pulled him from his vehicle and beat him even after he told them that he was paralyzed and could not get out of the car.

Casares has been a partial C2 quadriplegic for a long time. He only has minimal movement only in his right arm, and of course is confined to a wheelchair. Most of his movements are muscle spasms not under his control. Emotions increase the muscle spasms as they did on the date in question. Casares was sitting in the passenger seat of a car in an alley where he had gone with his brother to admire a car. One of his interests is in cars so he is taken to look at interesting cars owned by his friends.

The police were apparently suspecting that drug deals were done in that alley and suspected his brother. They pulled their guns and told everyone to get out of the car. When Casares did not get out, despite everyone yelling he was quadriplegic, Casares claims a female officer got in the driver’s seat, pulled her gun and pushed it at his thigh and said “you’re going to walk now.” This great stress induced a muscle spasm that slapped her in the face. Immediately after that the police dragged him out of the car and beat him. His face was severely contused and swollen. They beat him more harshly because he refused to walk.

Three police officers that testified at Casares’s criminal trial offer a different account. They claim that they never drew their guns during the altercation and accuse Casares of hitting a female cop when she asked him to exit his car.

Cesares was charged with resisting arrest and misdemeanor battery. He was convicted at a bench trial. Judge Brown apparently was impressed with Caseras’ muscles – he is well toned in the arms because of constant involuntary spasms. Caseras told the judge he had only limited movement of his right arm demonstrating that he could move it a little up and down. The judge was so incompetent and outrageously biased that he ignored the fact that Caseras is quadriplegic with mostly muscle spasms and limited movement and the likelihood that Caseras involuntarily slapped the officer in the face and convicted Caseras who was sentenced to probation. To say there is NO reasonable doubt is insane and unfair.

Civil rights organizations and disability rights groups should jump onto this case and aid Caseras. We should also consider racial bias and discrimination against Caseras because he is Hispanic. Judge Brown should be removed from the bench for this outrage. The case should be overturned on appeal and if it is not, then we truly live in a totalitarian police state where police can beat, abuse, harass, and kill people with impunity!

This is a case screaming for the intervention of the U.S. Attorney. To me this is felony violation of civil rights under color of law, excessive force, unlawful arrest, malicious prosecution, and racial discrimination.

A Message To Secretary-Designee Daschle – How to Reform Health Care

Health Care reform needs creative thinking. Policies and procedures of the past just won’t do. We can’t just copy Canadian health care systems. Nor should we just leave everything to the “free” market. Free market theory ASSUMES one is ABLE TO make a choice for the most competitive service provider.

First we should analyze what is the meaning of health care. In America we have fire and police departments, public road maintenance, and other public services  where the employees provide services to the captive public for a salary. How well they do their work or how much work they do is not tied to their salary. When a burglar confronts you with a gun, or there is a fire at your house, there is no ability for the person in this “captive” market to shop around. I believe that Americans think that fire and police protection, garbage collection, etc are a right. 

These are not areas where there are super exorbitant  profits for those that supply the fire engines, police cars, and garbage trucks or who man the fire engines, garbage trucks, etc. Competition for services and supplies is somewhat limited. Therefore, the principles of the free market capitalist system just doesn’t work well.  

The questions is do Americans now believe that health care is a right and not a privilege as I do?  I don’t believe that exotic and futile health care however, is a right. Half our health care dollars (my estimate which may not be completely correct) are spent on futile health care at the end of life or the beginning of life.  We need clear guidelines as to when a  person at public expense will be placed under hospice care and taken out of the ICU and guidelines for other such end of life decisions. We cannot give every possible treatment to stretch out misery and suffering to the very last moment, nor keep brain dead people “alive” on ventilators at public expense instead of using that money to help those that can be saved!

If one believes it is a right then WHY do we allow pharmaceutical companies, high-tech health equipment and supplies manufacterors and suppliers the right to set exorbitant high fees without competition in a captive market? Executives of health insurance companies and HMOs, executives of “not-for-profit” hospitals, physicians who perform more procedures than others (heart surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, opthalmologists, etc.) bill exotic fees and make hugely outrageous incomes in the millions to tens of millions of dollars (in comparison to the President of the United States – $400,000, the average family practitioner or pediatrician $150,000, or the executive of other non-profit agencies) when the patients are a captive market who have only limited abilites to shop around. How can a person shop around when they are being taken to a hospital by ambulance for a heart attack and need bypass surgery?  A captive market is NOT a free market. The Milton Friedman model does NOT work with a captive market where people obtain life-saving and essential services. When only one company makes a PET scanner, how can a hospital shop around for competitive bids?

Pharmaceutical companies spend an estimated 50% of their expenditures on advertising. They convince doctors to prescribe marginally “better” drugs at great cost when the doctors could prescribe cheaper and just as effective medications. Yet we allow Medicaid and prisons medical facilities (who provide a LOT of health care in the US) to limit drugs in a ridiculously strict fashion that amounts to medical neglect. The disparities are astonishing in terms of availability of appropriate drugs and the use of unnecessary drugs.

We have 200 times (my estimate) the number of employees as countries with national health plans in the health care/industrial complex just to push around invoices for medical care and collect money from patients who can’t pay.  Hospitals charge 3 Xs reasonable fees to make up for the lack of payment from those who cannot afford to pay and are brought to their hospitals in dire straights unable to choose a cheaper facility.

Employers are expected to pay for medical care and our economy is driven into the ground by this when companies cannot compete due to this “benefit” package.

Lets be reasonable. We need the following and we need creative ways of obtaining it and a national dialogue about how much medical care is a right and how much profit should be allowed to be taken out by greedy people (executives, a minority of doctors, high tech product suppliers and manufacterers, pharmaceutical company executives and stockholders).

1 – remove health care from ties with employers so when you lose your job you dont’ lose your health insurance and to prevent employers from pushing out employees with chronic health conditions that make the companies insurance too costly,

2 – consider excess gradated taxes on advertising of drugs and high tech products to discourage inappropriate use of new expensive drugs, while increasing grants to pharmaceutical companies and research scientists to develop new drugs,

3 – consider either putting doctors and health care executives on a salary, a partial salary, or imposing a steeply progressive excess income tax (say 50% tax on portions of income over $400,000) or some creative variation of this, coupled with free education for physicians and nurses, which would be similar to free education for firemen – this will produce huge savings – why should the CEO of an HMO going out of business get $40 million in a golden parachute as the company goes under – these dollars should be used for health care and NOT TO ENRICH EXECUTIVES OF PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES AND HIGH-TECH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT COMPANIES, AND DOCTORS,

4 – regional health care plans instead of employer based plans, which would have to compete against each other,

5 – subsidies or tax benefits for companies that are very small and employ a lot of low paid workers, for the disabled, and the poor to help them pay any premiums,

6 – reduce paper and standardize electronic medical records so there is inexpensive access to information, so that disasters don’t wipe out records, so that services are not duplicated when results are lost, and so that erros are reduced – this will produce huge cost savings that can be used to fund the system instead of increasing taxes,

7 – a VA like health care system that people can choose instead of the private insurance companies,

8- don’t leave the decisions only to the legislators, the AMA, the powerful, and the elite, let those of us on the front line have a say – by being in every working group and on every board concerning any aspect of health care.

Letter to Attorney General Designee Eric Holder – Stop Corruption!

 

Mr. Holder:

 

Congratulations on your appointment as AG.

 

Due to this appointment, I write to make you aware that there is a large group of individuals who litigate pro se, who are patriots and have been fighting for civil rights and against government corruption for a long time. I am one of them. Please see that the information that I have provided to the FBI and US Attorney over the last five or so years is reviewed and dealt with. Government corruption, retaliation against whistle blowers, torture in state prisons, and blatant, violation of the Bill of Rights by high government officials must stop, and should be priorities for your department.

 

Please occasionally review the evidence laid out on a new blog:  http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/

 

I pray that our/my long nightmare will be over. Please consider the words of Justice Douglas:

 

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DOUGLAS IN 1970 – “Does the answer to the problem of political trials involve defining the procedure for conducting political trials or does it involve the designing of constitutional methods for putting an end to them? . . . . It will be time enough to resolve those weighty problems when a political trial reaches this Court for review.”

The criminal conduct of the Illinois Attorney General in laundering money for kickbacks in Illinois, denying mental health care to persons on Medicaid, and continuing in her position when she is not qualified, along with the pervasive corruption in Illinois demonstrated by the Daleys should not be tolerated.

 

God bless and may righteousness, fairness, and love of fellow man guide your actions in the coming years.

 

Most sincerely and prayerfully,

 

Dr. Linda Lorincz Shelton