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| Dave Marlett, Editor | theconservative@usa.net | Number 38 |
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/tcn | ||
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| Dave Marlett, Editor | theconservative@usa.net | Number 38 |
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/tcn | ||
The website of the National Rifle Association has posted a letter to its website, written by Solicitor General Seth Waxman. The letter, dated August 22, contains a number of references from a series of U.S. court cases that the Justice Department says demonstrate that the Second Amendment to the Constitution does not "convey" an individual's right to keep and bear arms. "The language of the Second Amendment, when it was first presented to the
Congress, makes it quite clear that it was the right of the States to maintain a militia that was being preserved, not the rights of an individual to own a gun," wrote Waxman, quoting Legal Counsel interpretation. "Courts . . . have viewed the Second Amendment as limited to the militia and have held that it does not create a personal right to own or use a gun," said the Justice Department.
[ Joe Adams ]
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday, September 26, on legislation opposing the unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood. The Senate is expected to vote on a companion bill the following week. The Palestine Central Council has made clear its intent to take "the necessary measures to establish the state of Palestine and enforce its sovereignty on the occupied Palestine" by November 13. In reaction to Yasser Arafat's threats to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Tom Reynolds and Senators Sam Brownback and Charles Schumer have introduced parallel legislation in the House (H.R. 4976) and in the Senate (S. 2938) opposing such a unilateral declaration. The legislation features three key points: (1) it calls on the president not to recognize a unilaterally declared Palestinian state; (2) it mandates the president to instruct our ambassador to the United Nations to oppose the admission of a unilaterally declared Palestinian state to the United Nations; and (3) it would also prohibit the provision of any U.S. assistance to a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.
With most previous administrations it would not have been necessary for Congress to pass such legislation. The US was a fundamental supporter of Israel and would have taken swift action to abide by the Oslo Agreement and/or keep its hand off of Israel. This administration has shown it has no such plan. A case in point is a recent CIA publication.
In the CIA "World Fact Book 2000," the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria) is listed as a separate country with its own budget and exports and imports. It even lists its "debts" and "economic aid." It is "bordered" by Israel and Jordan. The Israeli settlers are not recognized as a part of the population figure. The main language listed is Arabic, and Hebrew is "spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians."
Under the listing for Israel, Gaza and the West Bank are cited among others as "bordering nations." Of course, Gaza and the West Bank are NOT foreign nations, but are rather a part of the Nation of Israel.
The office of Independent Counsel Robert Ray ended its six-year investigation of the Clinton regime. Former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker and 13 other Clinton associates were convicted and sent up the river. But Mr. Ray says of the big fish, "The office determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either...Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct."
In other words, the Clintons' political cutouts provided them plausible deniability, insulating them from prosecution.
Attempting to spin Mr. Ray's investigation into a "not guilty" verdict, Senate Demo-gogue Tom Daschle said, "I'm disappointed that after all these years and all the trials and tribulation and the pain and suffering...it's taken this long to find out that nothing was ever done wrongly." Of course, Daschle knows better.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, "The first conclusion to be drawn from all this is that the cover-up worked. The Clintons and their lawyers established an ethos of stonewalls, shady statements, slick lawyering, witness intimidation, and rhetorical assaults on public servants. The key players either kept quiet or were completely discredited by a brutal White House attack machine. ... The result was a series of investigations yielding evidence 'insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.' This is not to say no evidence."
Mr. Ray's office is just the latest of the record number of independent counsels to conclude criminal investigations of the Clintonistas. Perhaps the most noted of the inquiries was that of the Clinton-Gore quid pro quo illegal campaign payola, which resulted in 22 indictments, 12 convictions, 72 House and Senate witnesses pleading the Fifth and 18 witnesses fleeing the country to avoid testifying.
Thus far, independent counsel investigations have netted 32 Clintonista convictions. That is an important fact to keep in mind when Bill Clinton says, "The record of this administration is his record," when campaigning for Albert Gore.
Latenight TV host (and noted political scholar) David Letterman concludes, "Clinton is campaigning for Al Gore...and Clinton says that Al Gore was involved in everything this administration did. I'm no legal expert, but I believe the term for that is 'accessory'."
[ The Federalist ]
"Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've dug in it. I've sprayed it, I've chopped it, I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it. (Newsday, 2/26/88)
During his 1996 speech at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Gore said, "That is why, until I draw my last breath, I will pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting our children from the dangers of smoking." The truth: Mr. Gore and his family grew tobacco on the family farm for years after his sister's death. In 1988, four years after her tragic death, he bragged to North Carolina tobacco growers that he relished growing and fostering tobacco.
"My first pledge will be to restore integrity to the White House. And I'll fire anyone who has lied to the American people or the United States Congress." (Al Gore, in a February 2, 1988 presidential debate)
"I didn't realize I was in a Buddhist temple."
"I certainly learned a great deal from 3,000 town hall meetings across my home state of Tennessee over a 16-year period" in Congress, Gore told NPR's Bob Edwards. ( that's 187 town hall meetings per year -- one every other day for 16 years )
"A zebra does not change its spots." Attacking President George Bush in 1992. (The Toronto Sun, 11/19/95)( Probably not a lie, but it shows that he doesn't pay any attention to what he is saying.)
"I'm very familiar with the importance of dairy farming in Wisconsin. I've spent the night on a dairy farm here in Wisconsin. If I'm entrusted with the presidency, you'll have someone who is very familiar with what the Wisconsin dairy industry is all about." (The Washington Post, June 14, 2000) [ One night on a dairy farm makes him an expert on the dairy industry. ]
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." (Al Gore, CNN's Late Edition, March 9, 1999)
"If I was the parent of a child who went to an inner-city school that was failing, I might be for vouchers, too." (Boston Globe editorial by George F. Will, Aug. 31, 2000)
and then:
"And I will not go along with any plan that would drain taxpayer money away from our public schools and give it to private schools in the form of vouchers." (Speech to the Democratic National Convention Aug. 18, 2000)
"I support the elimination of this don't ask-don't tell policy. I helped to pass the toughest new gun control measures in a generation. I believe that we ought to have total license ID's for the purchase of new handguns. I think we ought to ban assault weapons and Saturday night specials and junk guns. I also am committed to the principle of high quality affordable health care for all. And I don't really care what kind of label people apply to those positions and views." (Democratic Debate in Durham, NH Jan 5, 2000)
"We're both fans of the products that come out of the entertainment industry.... I promise you this, that we will never, never put the government in the position of telling you by law, through law, what to make." Gore added, "I know a lot of you will be standing with us." (Hollywood fundraiser less than 48 hours after threatening them to clean up their act or else in a campaign speech.)
Mr. Gore told the Des Moines Register that his tenure as an investigative reporter at the Nashville Tennessean "got a bunch of people indicted and sent to jail." The paper later verified that nobody went to jail as a result of any Gore stories. But the claim sounded good ... while it lasted.
Mr. Gore also has continually spoken of the danger he faced in Vietnam. In fact, it was recently reported that he actually had bodyguards assigned to protect him there and fellow soldiers have revealed that he was given priority treatment to keep him out of harms' way.
He claimed to have been a co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill when Mr. Feingold was not even in the Senate during Mr. Gore's tenure there.
And he told a tall tale about discovering "a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal." He added fuel to that lie by declaring he "had the first hearing on that issue ... that started it all." President Carter had actually declared the Love Canal a disaster area months before Mr. Gore's hearing.
Jerry Falwell recently wrote in his WorldNetDaily column, "This cold-blooded willingness to manufacture stories and fabricate lies has even led Mr. Gore to relinquish his one-time pro-life views in an attempt to garner votes. As hard as it may be to believe today, Mr. Gore once eloquently wrote to a Tennessee constituent about his pro-life views and maintained a solid pro-life voting record.
Recently, you will recall, he falsely stated that he has always been pro-choice. (There he goes again.) Al Gore's pro-life stance was apparently only as good as his word."
It would appear that the American voter would rather hear lies than face the truth. He would rather live in a fantasy than be conscious of the fact that American politics have reached such a depth of depravity. That is because to reach that level of consciousness, he would also have to admit that in this government of the people and by the people, he is to blame. The American voter's disgusting state of apathy has caused the decline of political morals by failing to heed the warning signs of decay. The American voter has from his degenerate greed voted to promote his personal comfort and wealth instead of the nation's health and well-being. The American voter cannot but accept the hush money of unearned Earned Income Credit, Medicare or whatever federal subsidy has been established to pay off their group, and live with the lies.
The privilege of being part of the governing body through our votes carries with it the responsibility to look beyond our selves to the needs of the nation, beyond our health and security to that of our future.
"…with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
WASHINGTON -- Ever since the current campaign for the White House began, I've been told by my "colleagues" in the so-called mainstream media that "nobody cares about foreign policy." The conventional wisdom has it that all Americans care about is child care, prescription medicine plans, and how well a candidate does on "Oprah." I'm not buying it.
The reason foreign policy and national security concerns rate just above pet care in the polls is because the American people just don't know what's happening outside our borders. And the reason they don't know is because these masters of the media don't know their elbows from their ears when it comes to what's going on outside the good ol' U.S. of A.
These are the same folks who poked fun at Texas governor George W. Bush fielding "pop quiz" questions about obscure heads of state during the primary season, but who failed to report that America's sons and daughters, deployed from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf to East Timor, are now on alert because of heightened threat status.
This is the same Washington press corps that devoted days of front-page ink and hours of television air time covering a two-bit story about a botched political ad containing -- for one thirtieth of one second -- the word "RATS," but ignored record-setting oil prices, heating oil shortages, and a veritable gas-tax revolt in Europe. And this is the same media that gives more coverage to Britney Spears uncovering herself at some music awards program than it does to the disastrous diplomacy of the Clinton-Gore administration.
This week, the scribes and cameras dutifully recorded the Senate's overwhelming 83-15 vote to grant Communist China Permanent Normal Trade Status (while omitting mention that St. Joseph Lieberman, the "Conscience of the Senate," didn't have the courage to go "on record" by voting "yea" or "nay"). But those who purport to keep us informed buried reports of new human rights abuses and threats to Taiwan by the regime in Beijing. The talking heads were all a-twitter when nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee walked out of nine months of solitary confinement after the government dropped all but one of the 59 charges against him. But practically no one with a pen or videotape took notice when Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, the disgraced nuclear scientist's principal accuser, suddenly discovered that "oil prices are out of control."
Newspapers and networks continue to report on the confrontation between Lazio and Clinton in the New York Senate race. They've all debated the business of bussing Mrs. Arafat and the horror of handshakes with her husband. But did any of them take but passing notice that the Middle East peace talks have all but collapsed? Have any of these "reporters" noted that the FALN terrorists Mrs. Clinton's husband pardoned are now organizing protests against the U.S. Navy's vital training on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island? If so, I missed it.
And this week, when a House panel reported on yet another diplomatic debacle -- this time involving Russia, the nation with more nuclear weapons than any other on earth -- the Fourth Estate depicted it as a Republican vs. Democrat political story rather than another alarming example of foreign policy misfeasance by Clinton and Gore.
Unfortunately, "Russia's Road to Corruption" isn't just a partisan diatribe. If it were, it wouldn't matter that the press didn't bother to read it -- and misreported its meaning.
Authored by Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., and released by House Speaker Dennis Hastert's Advisory Group on Russia, the 209-page report charges that a "troika" of Washington power-brokers, Vice President Al Gore, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, have created a foreign policy "echo chamber" with disastrous consequences for both Russia and the United States. Congressman Cox, praised by both parties for his careful chronicle on Communist Chinese nuclear espionage, is now being demeaned for his critical assessment of the "fundamental flaws" in U.S. policy toward Moscow.
Cox cites devastating errors in judgment resulting in "strengthening Russia's central government, rather than deconstructing the Soviet State"; a "narrow focus on the Russian executive branch to the near exclusion of the Russian legislature"; and "close personal relationships" with "senior Russian officials" that willfully ignored their corruption. The report is particularly critical of Gore's role as co-chairman (with former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin) of the U.S.-Russia Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation.
So, did the press bother to analyze the charges about what went wrong with the U.S.-Russian relationship and why? Not on your life. Instead, they set out to make this chronicle of arrogance and ignorance into a partisan political issue, and hunted for Democrats who would criticize the author they once commended. Liberal Democrat Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut happily obliged, describing Cox's effort as "70; a political hatchet job. It's outrageous."
He's wrong. What's outrageous is the unwillingness of my "colleagues" in the press to scrutinize an appallingly incoherent national security process. No wonder the polls show Americans don't care about foreign policy. We don't have one -- and they don't know it.
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