I'm compelled to comment, on all of the bickering that is taking place on the commentary areas of this blog.

First, let's understand our environment.

With a national debt around $8 trillion, this nation has become the worlds leading debtor. Loans from countries such as China, Korea, and Japan are all that is keeping us afloat.

In 1960, we produced and sold more products than we bought and this nation had a $4.5 billion trade surplus. Today, that is no longer true. We now have a trade deficit approaching $800 billion. Rising oil prices and natural disasters such as the two hurricanes that recently struck the gulf region assure matters will only worsen.

In 1930, expenditures by the federal government amounted to just 3.6% of the GDP. Today, it spends over 18% of the GDP. One big difference is that prior to 1930, there were virtually no social programs. Today social programs account for 59% of the national budget.

In 1948, the federal government took just 2% of the income from a family of four. Today, it takes over 25%. One source estimates that today's families, in all, are on the governments treadmills for 52% of their incomes.

Looking at historic graphs, you'll see that as taxes rise, savings fall. And as taxes fall, savings rise. So, it should come as no surprise that now when our taxes are at an all time high, our citizens have no savings and are struggling to provide for their families.

Now, you might think our elected officials surely are working to alleviate this problem. Unfortunately, they're not. In fact, I would say they're making matters worse. As a result of high taxes, over regulation, and international trade agreements, many of our manufacturing jobs have been forced to leave the country.

In the midst of this decline, the corruption of our court system has become intolerable. Numerous supreme court rulings make it clear that they no longer view the constitution as a ruling document. The courts have stripped us of our privacy, our gun rights, our property rights and more. We now lead the world in the number of our citizens that are incarcerated within our prisons. We have members of our society, including members of the bar, that have dedicated their lives to fighting judicial corruption at all levels, something I've seen first hand at all levels.

I hope all of you who are following these trials will recognize the failure of our system and the mean spirited nature of the oppressors who side with the government in these trials. The purpose of this blog is to help us form a better understanding of a judicial system that successfully prosecutes far too many innocent people.

The income tax honesty movement provides an interestingting case study. Here we have a group of people who have asked specific question which the government chooses to evade. They have asked the government to meet with them to settle grievances, but the government refuses. And, when they get people to trial, well you can see what is going on here.

The current trial of Irwin Schiff provides us with a example of how the system is failing the citizens of this nation. The judge and prosecution work in concert. The defendant is verbally and physically abused and hog tied as to what they can present in their defense. Observers are harassed and banned from the court. It doesn't get much worse than this folks.

Gerry Spence says the following about judges in his book, O.J. The Last Word beginning on page 170,

"Night after night on the talk shows, I heard criticism being leveled at Judge Ito. But I took a different position, born of years spent enduring the relentless abuse of tyrant judges, from having seen my clients' rights placed in severe jeopardy at the hands of blockheads in robes whose only claim to judicial excellence was their ability to scream and shout and intimidate everyone who came before them. Ask trial lawyers who have been around the block even once, and they will tell you that many judges mammal eating monsters that feed on lawyers and their cases, trample over justice, and spew their venom randomly over the courtroom because they do not possess the intelligence or judicial temperment to preside over a fair trial.

"Courtroom are frightening places. Nothing grows in a courtroom--no pretty pansies, no little children laughing and playing. A courtroom is a deadly place. People die in courtrooms, killed by words. If you wake up someday in a courtoom and long to tell your story to someone who can hear and understand you, someone who will give a damn, who will give you a just hearing, you will be shocked. You want to tell the jury that you are being railroaded? You aren't allowed to speak. Your lawyer isn't, either. Perhaps he can sputter. He can object. He can bow and scrape before the judge. If he's not too frightened of the despot up there, he can crowd into the half hour, arbitrarily allowed by the judge, an opening statement that should take at least two hours.

"I have seen those judges pace back and forth across that little stage up there, smirking, peering down, hollering, interrupting. I have seen them nail lawyers to podiums like goats tied to a stake, or banish them to counsel table like lepers. Your lawyer can't communicate tied to a stake or banished to a tabletop. I see judges who, the day before they ascended to the bench, couldn't ask the first intelligent question on voir dire, but who, the day after, sat up there as a judge, carrying on voir dire for the litigants that, if I had conducted it, would have been adjudged as gross malpractice. Often the result is the selection of a jury riddled with prejudice or jurors who predisposed to convict. I watch judges bully prospective jurors into saying what the judge wishes them to say. I hear them read instructions to the jury that are critical to justice but that no one, not even the lawyer who submitted the instructions, can understand. I, and every other lawyer who has practiced more than a few years, have endured their intemperance, which so often leads to error and pain and injustice. I see them rule one way one day and another way another day, depending on what they had for breakfast. God help you if you come before such a judge after he has had a bad night under the connubial covers."

Obviously, Gerry Spence holds a low opinion of judges, and obviously if judges treat Gerry Spence in this manner, you can imagine how they treat a citizen trying to defend themselves.

Another interesting aspect in following this trial are the comments coming from the pro government (quatloos) types. These are most likely IRS employees and CPA's. They are likely people whose livelyhoods are dependent upon the system in its current form. These oppressors portray themselves as elitist who insult anyone that disagrees with them using condescending and demeaning tones.

There are those that produce and then there are those that prey on those that produce. These folks are the latter. They apparently delight in the suffering of others because their livelyhood depends on it. That is the only explanation I can come up with to explain their perverse behavior.

Here is the bottom line. No one, innocent or guilty, should have to suffer through a trial like the one we are following here in Nevada. As Mark Yannone stated

"Once a society recognizes that justice is impossible in a court of law, violence will escalate radically, and no one will be immune from it."

What we are witnessing one case at a time is the ruin of a nation. Anyone that finds delight in these abusive trials is mentally suspect. Maybe they'll finally realize the error of their ways when fate puts them in front of one of these judges.