Dear Friends and Voters:

Well, the dust has now settled from the frenzied election filing last week. Judging from the tracking service, many in the Establishment were all over my website, asking themselves, "will she or won't she?" and breathing a huge sign of relief that I did not file. Others were no doubt disappointed by my decision. For those in the Establishment wing of the beast, its not quite time to uncork the champagne yet. You have not beaten me. I am NOT vanquished nor have I given up.

Prior to filing, I evaluated running for seats on the Court of Appeals as well as the Supreme Court. My decision ultimately not to run was for several reasons. First, most of the seats on the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals had a female member of the Democratic Party who was running. This meant that if I got into the race, there be a primary (one of my rules - never run in a primary if it can be avoided). Moreover, as the candidates were female, this meant that I would have female opposition and the female vote would be divided between the two of us. Neither I nor any Democrat would appeal to the hard-core 28%'ers that make up the base of what is left of the Grand Old (Pervert) Party. Hence, by splitting the vote, there was a possibility that the Republican candidate would survive the primary and proceed to run in the fall. Yes, I am aware that this is a non-partisan race, but from my prior experiences, the races became anything but non-partisan. It would be better if the political parties completely got out of the race, and that goes for Democrats (remember there (UN)Fair Judges.net from 2006?) as well as Republicans. But it is not a perfect world and wishing for political parties to leave the judicial election alone is not going to happen anytime soon. And I am not going to assist in any way in electing Republicans who are controlled by the Puppet Master, Art Pope.

There is a more important reason I decided not to run, however. It touches on my personal life and that of my husband. Some may consider me selfish for espousing such reasons. Think that if you choose, but Connie and I sacrificed more than any other candidate in recent memory. When I ran in 2006, I had other individuals tell me "I wish I had your courage but I am trying to get my time in with the state/county so I can get my pension." Not one of them had to endure what Connie and I did. We laid it on the line financially. Aside from the political vitriol and the hateful comments by the mainstream media, we had to endure criminal investigations and being harassed by the police. And we let a lot of things go, including our health. Minor things were neglected by me because of the brain tumor. Connie also let things go to his detriment. Before I ran for office, he had major vascular surgery and was slow to recover. The campaigns took their toll on Connie. Last year, he had to have a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted. Now, his arteries have clogged back up and we are waiting for an appointment with the vascular surgeon. So for all of these reasons, I have chosen not to run at this time and will allow other candidates to step up to the plate.

That does not mean that I cannot serve in other ways. I am still going to comment as time and work permit upon things I see happening, both on the national forum as well as that in our own state.

Which brings me to the second part of my remarks. I have spoken in the past of the candidacy of Ron Paul and Congressman Walter Jones. However, both have done some things of late which have caused me to think. Both are good men and we need more individuals like this in Washington, DC. However, Walter Jones has been in Congress for over fourteen years; Ron Paul for eighteen if you count his first stint from 1976 to 1984. What is wrong with this picture?

I think back to Cincinnatus, the Roman leader who served around 460 B.C. After he served as consul, he retired to his farm. However, Rome was battling one of the barbarian tribes with whom it was at war and the Senate declared Cincinnatus to be the Dictator for a six month term. Cincinnatus yielded to the demands of his country and left the farm and defeated the barbarian army in a few weeks. He then relinquished the trappings of government and returned to farming.

Who is like Cincinnatus today? George Washington set the example in America. He served for two terms and then retired to private life. According to some reports, he believed it to be a duty, but not an enjoyable one. Where are the Cincinnatuses and Washingtons today? They are gone. Public service is no longer about serving the public; it is about serving oneself. It is about hanging on to that public seat to get a pension or to get cushy perquisites from lobbyists. However, public service is just that service. If elected to office, you served your country or city or state for one or two terms and then you returned home to let others do their service.

While Ron Paul and Walter Jones are not as bad as some (Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, John McCain and Robert Byrd come to mind), I listened to a speech by Ron Paul. Ron Paul's speech was not about his candidacy, but about saving the Republican Party and his Congressional seat. Saving the party? People ought to drive a stake through its heart like a vampire as they should for the Democratic Party. This country was not founded on political parties and had none at the outset. Parties must be done away with. People should run, not parties.

I also came across a news story about Walter Jones and how he was having big names from Washington, guys like Newt Gingrich, appear at a fundraiser. Having a Washington insider host a fundraiser for you is akin to breaking bread with the Devil. And he promised he would term limit himself! Some term limits.

What do these events have in common? It is about hanging onto that seat, hanging on to the little bit of power and not giving someone else a chance. It is about power and control, those twin children of the beast.

All of this has left me somewhat depressed and less than optimistic about the future of our country. If even good men can succumb to the demons of power and control, what can the rest of us hope for? What are we to do?

Like any lawyer, I have gone through a list of possible options. Understand, I am not advocating for any violence, but I am listing it as a possible option. The options are, in no particular order, as follows:

1. The "nuclear" option - this is hitting "re-set" button on the Constitution, i.e., the Second Amendment. If government does not respect the First and other Amendments, we can overthrow the government. Certainly, our government does not respect our rights. We have torture, we can be detained indefinitely, the government can send out "national security" letters and see what books we are checking out of the library, they can do "black bag" searches and seizures under the misnamed "Patriot" Act, and they can spy on our phone conversations, just to name a few things. Its way past time for treason and impeachment trials and there seem to be few other options left. Unfortunately, we have puny weaponry compared to that of Blackwater and the government. We will be annihilated if we try a full frontal assault of this type.

2. The "ostrich" option - This option involves doing what most sheeple are doing. Nothing. They figured out long ago that the situation is hopeless. They have tuned out to politics and do not even bother to vote. They are more into Britney Spears' latest love interest, this season's contestants on Survivor or American Idol or watching Dancing With the Stars. They figure that what they do not know will not hurt them and even if they knew, there is nothing much they could do about it anyway. Left with this option, we will degenerate into becoming slaves of one kind or another.

3. Civil disobedience option, à la Mahatma Gandhi - This one might work, but it means that an awful lot of people in the millions have to be involved. A "million man march" on Washington, D.C. will not cut it. We need marches all across the United States. At different times; unscheduled and unpredictable.

4. The form a new party option - I know, I know, I do not like political parties, period. This party will be different. This party does not have a plank. It does not believe in much except returning to honest and good government. It is about returning the power and control back to the governed, not the corporate interests and their vulture-like lobbyists, picking on the dying American carcass for a few crumbs of flesh. It will not be easy, but nothing ever worth having is. The party needs to be full of people, not neutralizers and crazies, like the Libertarian Party. It needs to take the best ideas of the Democratic and Republican Parties and jettison the rest.

But how we will we get started? Something about the Ron Paul campaign sparked a thought. His campaign was wildly popular, although it did not translate into votes. It was not about him, although he was the catalyst. It was about the message. It was decentralized. As a result, people were doing their own thing without any direction from the campaign. There were no handlers, schedulers and packaging. There was just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. And they proved that they could raise money. Big money and it was not from lobbyists. The Barack Obama phenomenon is part of it too. Obama has tapped into the same American desire for change, for something new, from someone who is not a Washington insider.

So, what can you do? Now that Ron Paul is, for the most part, out of the presidential picture, allow his "revolution" to be the base of the third-party. Continue with the meet-ups and the other ideas, not in support of his candidacy, but to promote the ideas that he talked about. Raise the funds. Get on the ballot where possible and find people to run for office, not just warm bodies to fill a slot who have no chance of winning. Keep confronting the minions of the beast. Let them know that we are out here. We are change and if we pull together, we can give the beast a run for its money. Now lets get to work!

RACHEL LEA HUNTER