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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 24 April 2001 | Vol. II #53 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 24 April 2001 | Vol. II #53 | ||
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You can urge your U.S. representative to vote in favor of H. J. Res. 41 by sending an E-mail message to him or calling his office.
To send an E-mail message, go to
http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=27222&type=CO .
To learn the name and telephone number of your representative, go to
http://capwiz.com/liberty/dbq/officials/ or call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
[ Kent Snyder, The Liberty Committee ]
A Pro-Second Amendment Rally sponsored by the Second Amendment Sisters will be held on the Capitol steps in Nashville on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 13, 2001, from 12:00 until 4:00 p.m. Supporting the Armed Informed Mothers' Rally, other Tennessee Pro-Second Amendment organizations including the Rights Education Fund and the TN Chapter of Women Against Gun Control and Pro Self-Defense, Safety and Education organization, the TN Chapter of Mothers Arms, will attend.
Several prominent keynote speakers and entertainment will be featured, including Geoffrey Bodine, a longtime supporter of the 2nd Amendment and driver of the NRA NASCAR Busch Grand National race team 01, owned by Sam and Kim Jarrell. The Jarrell's will also be present with car 01 and it's crew.
"We plan to attend to help provide a voice of reason to what is a very emotionally charged issue", said Paulette Mastin, TN State Coordinator for Mothers Arms and TN State Director for Women Against Gun Control. "Women must begin to take responsibility for their safety and the safety of their families. While the Million Mom March pushes for more laws, we believe that we cannot and should not rely on laws for our safety. The organizations attending the rally want to help women make informed decisions about the best way to secure the safety of their family. Our organizations will be on hand to provide information and resources for education, safety, and training issues."
The rally is planned as a counter-presence to the Million Mom March activities scheduled for the same day. Anyone interested in supporting his or her Second Amendment Rights is encouraged to attend. For more information about the schedule of events or to make a donation to help sponsor this event, please call (901) 340-4969.
[ KABA ]
"...[T]he single greatest threat to our liberty in America is uncontrolled spending by Congress. Americans need to understand the stark reality behind the often boring and confusing budget rhetoric: Congress will spend nearly $2 trillion in 2002. This amount represents almost 11% more than Congress will spend in 2001. This massive spending funds an unbelievable number of federal departments, agencies, programs, and personnel. Most Americans understand that the federal government is far too large, yet most of their representatives in Congress continue to vote for spending increases every year. As a result, the same unconstitutional agencies grow, the same counterproductive programs are perpetuated, and the same military adventurism expands around the globe. In short, this spending insures that the federal government has more and more power over our lives, power never dreamed of nor intended by the authors of our Constitution. The more Congress spends, the less liberty we have." --Rep. Ron Paul
"...America is in danger of being dissolved by multiculturalism and political correctness by America-hating professors and socialist politicians. In many of our leading institutions the nation's defenders are shouted down, time and again, by its detractors. Sometimes those who take a patriotic stand, who tell the truth about what they see around them, are forced out of their jobs. Such people include teachers, soldiers, doctors, law enforcement officials and journalists. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans live in an apathetic haze. We are losing our country." --J.R. Nyquist
"Largely unknown to the public, the whole notion of education has been radically transformed over the years, so that it no longer means conveying the accumulated knowledge and understanding of a civilization, but shaping children's psyches and indoctrinating their minds with politically correct ideologies. Not only are there individual education gurus and ideological movements which promote the intrusion of such activities into the schools, the educators themselves are apostles of this new mission and the nationwide teachers' union -- the National Education Association -- is pushing the same agenda." --Thomas Sowell
"It occurs to me that as he left office on Jan. 20 Bill Clinton left with the one thing he had always wanted and that he had spent his waning days as president frantically seeking -- a legacy. It might not be the legacy he would have preferred but it is a legacy. ... that can be boiled down to one word: Sleaze." --Lyn Nofziger
"I thought you might be interested in how we look to the Chinese communists who want to 'normalize relations' with us – providing we'll forget about our friendship with Taiwan. Huang (Red China's Foreign Minister Huang Hua) referred to the Shanghai communique jointly signed by our two countries as 'like other treaties and agreements--merely something on paper.'
He then went on to say, 'The U.S. does not have the strength to deter the resolution of the Chinese people to liberate Taiwan.' We will simply regard their treaty with Taiwan 'as a scrap of paper.'
He suggested that it was nothing more than that to us and asked if the American people have the will to share the fate of Taiwan if and when the Mainland government sets out to conquer the Free Republic of China.
Answering his own question he said, 'Go read American history, we have not seen such an instance in which the U.S. has had such resolve and courage to sacrifice for others. That is why we dare to conclude that the U.S. is a paper tiger.
It can be said that we have the deepest insight into the U.S. and, after having dealt with it for such a long time, we can paint not only its skin, but also its bones.'
Now that isn't the picture we have of ourselves and history (overall) does not support Huang's image of us.
But we should note the examples from recent history he used to support his view; the firing of MacArthur in Korea because he wanted to win the war and our failure to be decisive in Vietnam. He spoke of, 'the frailty of the paper tiger that could not withstand a beating' and described us as standing absolutely alone without 'a single dedicated fellow traveler.'
There is great danger to us in this false image making. It is more often than not the road to war...Huang said in effect China would be patient until it had the relationship it wanted with us and then it would liberate Taiwan and we wouldn't lift a finger.
If we really want peace we'd better remind the world of that America it seems to have forgotten. We'd better remind ourselves that 'paper tigers' are easily torn up." –Ronald Reagan, 1978
Village celeb Robert Redford is urging Leftist environmentalists to sign a petition against any resource development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- a vast wasteland that few people, other than rich celebs, will ever visit. Redford claims that if President Bush allowed such development, "no piece of our natural heritage is safe from wholesale destruction."
Here is what Redford and his cadre of Eco-worshipers call "wholesale destruction."
There are 378 million acres in Alaska. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers 19.5 million acres. The area which may be opened to oil exploration spans 1.5 million acres. Of that area, only about 2,000 acres will actually be occupied by oil producing facilities. For comparison purposes, the Wall Street Journal noted that Dulles Airport consists of an area more than five times as big -- 11,000 acres.
[ The Federalist ]
Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, and which is prosecuting a $100 million-plus civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Miami's Cuban-American Little Havana community, has learned, through a recent INS whistleblower, Special Agent Rick Ramirez, that Janet Reno's "storm troopers" harbored racial anti-Hispanic animus against Elian Gonzales and the other Hispanic citizens of Little Havana who were attacked, gassed and beaten during the April 22, 2000 raid.
Specifically, Ramirez in an interview given to Miami's New Times and appearing in the April 19-25, 2001 issue, reveals that former District Director Robert Wallis, who has received a promotion and is now in the Dallas field office, stated after the raid that it was the "proudest moment of his life when one of his supervisors pointed a shotgun at the head of Mario Miranda," the Gonzalez's family security person. Miguel Domingo, Supervising Special Agent in the Fraud Unit, sent an e-mail referring to Elian as a "little creep." Another non-Hispanic agent on the Elian team stated, "Who is going to be the first one up in a tree to shoot Elian?" and former Assistant District Director (and now Acting District Director) John Bulger mocked the attack on Elian and Donato Dalrymple by opening a closet during a meeting with INS agents and stating, "And now a special guest." He then went over to the closet and opened the door saying, "Come out, Mr. Dalrymple." Mr. Ramirez also recalls a box on the floor outside of the door of Section Chief John Woods' office which contained a picture of Elian and the proclamation, "KICK ME." In addition to other comments, Mr. Ramirez is aware of paraphernalia in the Miami INS Office mocking the Miami Cuban-American community as a "Banana Republic" as well as soft drink holders that contain slash marks through a Cuban flag. If this was not enough, Mr. Ramirez states that Section Chief Mario Cavallo told a group of agents, "Listen up, I need you to delete everything possible from your computers, including e-mails, concerning the Elian Gonzalez raid."
"It is apparent that the vicious and illegal attack on Elian Gonzalez, his family, Donato Dalrymple, and other Hispanics in the Miami Little Havana neighborhood was not only the result of unconstitutional Gestapo-type tactics, but also racism. Judicial Watch will be sending a letter today to Attorney General John Ashcroft asking for the immediate suspension of the involved INS agents and officials, as well as order a criminal investigation. The public interest group will also be amending its complaint against former Attorney General Janet Reno, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, and former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner to include charges of racial discrimination, and will also add the involved agents as defendants," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
"Republicans like to mind their manners, which may explain why they're so quiet about the candidacy of Donald DiFrancesco for New Jersey governor: It's rude to speak ill of the politically dead. As acting governor who succeeded Christine Todd Whitman, Mr. DiFrancesco is hoping to extend eight years of state GOP rule this November. Instead he is fast becoming the poster child for ethical troubles and status quo politics. There's a warning here for Republicans nationwide who've become too cozy with the perks of power. ... If Republicans run on incumbency instead of ideas, they're going to deserve the beating they get. Nowhere is that clearer than in New Jersey, where Republicans are living off borrowed outrage.
"Nine years ago they swept to veto-proof legislative majorities as voters repudiated then-Gov. Jim Florio's tax increases. Ms. Whitman, running in drag as a populist tax-cutter, bumped off Mr. Florio a year later. That's about the last creative thing Trenton Republicans have done. Their promises to pass term limits, allow statewide referenda and reform education have long been forgotten. ... In this context, Mr. DiFrancesco at least represents truth in advertising. He's been in the state Legislature for 25 years, and he sounds like it. He's to change what Perry Como is to hip-hop.
"The acting governor's bold new idea for education is to float $8.6 billion in bonds. It takes a determined lack of imagination to offer more money in a state that already spends an average of $11,390 per pupil, close to the nation's highest. He also helped to gut school choice in the state Senate. The teachers' union rewarded him with its primary endorsement, rare for a Republican. This is all in addition to a recent deluge of bad publicity about Mr. DiFrancesco's personal finances. The details involve sweetheart loans and insider deals, the type of honest graft that voters hate and that piles up when pols are in office too long. Mr. DiFrancesco's main response is the Carville-Clinton defense: The charges are partisan!"
[ Paul Gigot, Wall Street Journal ]
The world's socialists were very unhappy with the roaring economy in the U.S. that began in the 1980s with the Reagan tax cuts and kept on rolling through the '90s, thanks to Republican Congresses that reined in Bill Clinton's schemes to dampen it.
Because Hillary's socialized medicine plan failed, the good times continued.
Because even a Democratic Congress couldn't stomach the Clinton BTU energy tax, the good times continued to roll.
Because the GOP Congress forced Clinton's hand on welfare reform, he finally signed the third bill that was sent to him. And good times rolled on.
Because about half the American people today own stocks, bonds or employer-provided retirement portfolios of some kind, Democrats in the '90s had to abandon their '80s rhetoric about capital gains tax cuts as being "for the rich." Clinton signed a "compromise" package that included capital gains tax cuts. And the good times rolled on.
Twenty years of prosperity from a country whose concepts of free enterprise were basically intact despite all the assaults on it. To the high-tax welfare states of Europe, this just wasn't "fair." Here the U.S. had 4 percent to 5 percent unemployment, while their unemployment rates were in the double digits. How can they compete in the world markets with that kind of competition? Something must be done to stop it. That something, it seems, is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
This organization, based in Paris, lacks formal authority, but is bringing the pressure of high-tax nations to bear on low-tax countries. If one nation's low-tax policy is deemed by OECD to be "unfair competition," this international body intends to punish that "offending" country by isolating its banks from world commerce.
Richard Rahn, president of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, cites Ireland as a nation that has felt the OECD boot. When Ireland lowered its tax rates and boosted its economy, he told NewsMax.com, that nation was "censured" by OECD.
The Clinton administration, perhaps frustrated by its inability to advance its socialist agenda nearly as far as it would have liked, supported this global offensive against so-called unfair tax competition.
Worldwide pressure is being brought to bear on the new Bush administration to do likewise. As in the Kyoto "global warming" treaty, which President Bush has rejected, the U.S. is effectively asked to sign what amounts to an economic suicide pact. Columnist Bob Novak Monday expressed some pessimism that the Bush people may decide to go along.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey has referred to this outfit as "a global network of tax police."
As is the case with anything that is intrusive or simply awful, another name or rationale must be found for it. And so we are told this is aimed at closing in on "tax havens" and money-laundering.
Columnist Paul Craig Roberts, in a Monday piece, says, "A Frenchman, for example, who parks some money in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands with retirement in mind, will find his bank there required to report his holdings to the French government."
Back the early '80s, there was a proposal in the U.S. to reach into personal banking accounts and deduct taxes on interest earned before we ever got to see it. That caused a gigantic uproar, not because it would cost anyone any money in the final analysis, but just because of the very idea of Big Brother reaching out to your banking account and grabbing anything out of your hands like that. There is something personal and private about your own savings account. Americans felt it then. It was a matter of privacy.
A similar principle applies where Big Brother reaches out worldwide, wherever you go through an international body to keep tabs on your money and what you're doing with it.
Right now, the OECD has concentrated on the smaller countries. Once it is built up, tax cuts for Americans in the future might be deemed "unfair." In fact, Rahn points out that if the OECD applied its criteria evenhandedly, the United States, Britain, Switzerland and Hong Kong would have been considered "tax havens." But they won't pick on the U.S. yet. At least not until this country gives its cooperation with the OECD.
In the early '80s, tax cuts caused this country's economy to take off like a rocket. Socialist high-tax welfare states don't want to see that happen again. This may be their way of preventing a repetition.
The Bush tax cuts? That congressional debate could ultimately be moot if this international body has its way.
Privacy? That's out the window if governments are allowed to tax income and activities outside their borders.
Sovereignty? How can you square that with a situation where supposedly sovereign nations can no longer determine their own tax policies? Or to put it in more personal terms, as we did the last time I wrote about this on Oct. 4, where "some socialist bureaucrat in a far-off country will already have made a decision as to whether you should be allowed to keep more of your own money."
This issue may be the sleeping giant of the Bush administration.
[ Wes Vernon ]
During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and his Republican Party ran on a platform of "compassionate conservatism." Now that Mr. Bush has been elected president, he has forsaken this campaign promise and embarked on another course of action.
Imploring the nation to "move on" from the Clinton-Gore scandals, Mr. Bush's new brand of conservatism not only eliminates any emphasis on justice for the crimes committed against the United States during the last eight years, but incredibly is intent on mimicking and continuing many of the illegal fund-raising practices of the Clinton-Gore administration.
In this regard, during his first 100 days in office, Mr. Bush's operatives -- acting through House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, House Speaker Denny Hastert, the National Republican Congressional Committee and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson -- are now offering meetings to special interest donors to lobby top Bush-Cheney administration officials, including but not limited to Vice President Dick Cheney, in exchange for money contributions to the Republican Party. This was confirmed not only by the Associated Press, but through Judicial Watch's inquiries with the office of Tom DeLay, as well as our review of the solicitations themselves.
In addition, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson has been reported by the New York Times to be holding meetings with Republican donors in his government office, a charge which the Bush-Cheney administration does not deny, but instead unabashedly endorses as appropriate.
These fund-raising activities closely resemble the illegal campaign finance practices of the Clinton-Gore administration, which consisted of selling Democrat contributors seats on overseas trade missions, overnight stays in the White House, rides on Air Force One, judgeships and other perks. Indeed, it has also been reported by The New York Times that the Bush-Cheney administration is even offering ambassadorships to individuals who have donated heavily to the "Grand Old Party," the GOP.
The similarities between the fund-raising practices of the two administrations is both regrettable and ironic, for it would now appear that President Bush's mantra of "move on" was politically designed only to allow his own administration to conduct "business as usual" in the nation's capitol.
Because Judicial Watch is a non-partisan organization, it could not turn a "blind eye" to these activities by the new Bush-Cheney administration, having filed over 80 lawsuits against the Clinton-Gore administration for similar misdeeds.
It was doubly important for Judicial Watch to respond by taking legal action against the Bush-Cheney administration for these indiscretions because, as a conservative foundation, Judicial Watch recognizes that for the movement to have the moral and ethical authority to be successful, conservatives must keep their own house in order.
Having taken strong action to stop the illegal fund-raising practices of the new Bush-Cheney administration, some so-called conservatives -- whose brand of conservatism consists merely of slavish loyalty to the Republican Party rather than to the rule of law and our nation's fundamental ideals -- have suggested that Judicial Watch and I are not really conservative. However, in the words of our first truly conservative President John Adams, written just 21 days before he signed the Declaration of Independence in my birthplace of Philadelphia,
Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.
The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.
How prophetic President Adams was, since 225 years later the United States has again changed its ruler but continues down a path of the unprecedented ethical decline during the Clinton-Gore years.
President Adams, who was a deeply religious man, obviously based his comments on Biblical teachings. In the Old Testament, Isaiah writes,
How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her -- but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow's cause does not come before them. ... And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city (Isaiah 1:21-23, 26).
Indeed, the American people and conservatives in general must recognize that, like Jerusalem, we will only continue as a great civilization if the prostitutes and moneychangers are eliminated from our temple, in Washington, D.C.
It is not enough, as President Bush promised during the presidential campaign, to hold his right hand high and place his left hand on the Bible and swear that he will uphold the Constitution of the United States. As the proverb goes, "actions speak louder than words," and the conduct of the Bush-Cheney administration during its first 100 days with regard to political influence peddling is perhaps even more "advanced" than what we knew of the Clinton-Gore administration during the equivalent period.
What we need now is not "compassionate conservatism," but "principled conservatism" -- particularly since a respect for ethics, morality and the rule of law are the lynchpins of the conservative ideology held dear by Judicial Watch and its supporters.
To those who say that Judicial Watch and I are not conservative because we hold the Republican Party accountable to the same standards that we have held the Democratic Party under the Clinton-Gore administration, we say look in the mirror.
You, my dear friends, are the ones who are not conservative, but instead simply "yes men," slavishly trading off of and pocketing consulting fees and other riches from your masters, the Bush-Cheney administration and the Republican Party.
[ WND ]
"Capitalism: The system of modern countries in which the ownership of land and natural wealth, the production, distribution, and exchange of goods, and the operation of the system itself, are effected by private enterprise and control under competitive conditions." --Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 1945
[ The Federalist ]
TCN Comment: Can you remember when the US was a capitalist nation?
** Confidential Document Cites "Beijing Proxies"
** Document Uncovered In Judicial Watch FOIA – Undermines Secretary of State Colin Powell's Statements on Chinese Activities in Panama
Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, uncovered a CIA document warning of the Chinese Communist presence in Panama. The previously confidential (and heavily redacted) document, entitled "Panama Facing Economic Impact of US Withdrawal," notes:
"Some Chinese companies – perhaps proxies for Beijing – are investigating the investment opportunities. Beijing may use expanded investment as leverage to undermine Panama's diplomatic ties to Taiwan."
The July 25, 1998 then goes on to describe how "a subsidiary of Hong Kong's Hutchinson Whampoa in 1996 won concessions to operate ports on both ends of the Canal." The document was produced last month under the Freedom of Information Act in response to a request of August 12, 1999.
Other intelligence documents uncovered by Judicial Watch last year linked Hutchinson Whampoa owner Li Ka Shing to the Chinese Communist government, saying that "Li is directly connected to Beijing and is willing to use his business influence to further the aims of the Chinese government." Secretary of State Colin Powell had stated recently that China poses no threat in Panama.
"The Clinton-Gore Administration lied when it told the American people there was nothing to be worried about concerning Chinese communist influence in Panama. Now we hope Secretary of State Powell checks with the CIA and other intelligence agencies before he makes any more statements concerning Communist Chinese intentions in Panama," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
A copy of the newly uncovered CIA document will be made available on Judicial Watch's Internet site at www.judicialwatch.org.
Visit http://www.judicialwatch.org/otherserver/2001/panama042401.jpg to view the CIA document.
[ Judicial Watch ]
While the Leftmedia whips up a frenzy over school shootings, Mothers Against Drunk Driving reports that in the most recent year for available statistics (1998), 2,104 teens died in traffic accidents where the driver was using alcohol. That's about six kids each day. Of course, no media feeding frenzy on this issue -- they are all too busy sipping Chardonnay. The Department of Justice reports that in the same year, other drugs claimed the lives 15,973 kids.
[ The Federalist ]
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