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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 7 February 2001 | Vol. II No.18 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 7 February 2001 | Vol. II No.18 | ||
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(Washington, DC) Since he declared for the Presidency about two years ago, George W. Bush has shown many admirable traits, such as his "compassionate conservatism's" concern for education, reform of Social Security and Medicare, and, most important, significant tax cuts for all Americans. However, noticeably absent from his agenda is a real commitment to bringing about justice for politicians, government officials, and lawyers and judges who violate the law. Judicial Watch's motto is "no one is above the law!"
During the primary campaign, the President refused to call for a special counsel to investigate Chinagate, stating only:
While it's clear that Al Gore engaged in a number of questionable fund raising activities and gave the FBI statements that continue to raise the issue of credibility, the American people are sick and tired of all these scandals and investigations. The best way to put all these scandals and investigations behind us is to elect someone new. I'm running to uphold the honor and dignity of the White House.
At the Republican National Convention, as reported by the renowned columnist William Safire, he dismissed cleaning up corruption in government as an important issue:
Running against Washington. The Yale graduate and child of privilege assumed, Jimmy Carter style, a hardscrabble pose to assert that his 'background may lack the polish of Washington.' And then, following a focus-group distaste for controversy;, he dissociated himself from all investigations into Clinton-Gore scandals, including illegal fund-raising: 'I have no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years.' Republicans on the unpopular ramparts of the rule of law were coolly informed he preferred 'civility and respect.'
When pardons were discussed for former President Bill Clinton, G.W. stated that Clinton should be allowed to "move on" and "enjoy life and become an active participant in the American system." Later, when indeed pardons were issued by Clinton for other criminals, President Bush held:
"I am troubled by the decision the president made. I would not have made the decision," Bush told reporters Monday in the Oval Office. "But nevertheless he was the president, he had the right to do so, to make that decision, and he did. And I'm going to protect that privilege not only for me but for future presidents as well."
The latest insensitivity to the crimes of the Clintons [and other politicians who abused their office] was issued yesterday, when in discussing the Clintons' illegal heist of gifts from the White House, G.W. replied:
"Asked about the gifts yesterday, President Bush said that he was confident the Clintons 'will make the right decision.'"
George Lardner The Washington Post, February 6, 2001.
"It is time for President George W. Bush to stop playing politics with the fundamental underpinnings of the nation's well being; Judeo-Christian respect for ethics, morality and the rule of law. Without this, our country truly has nothing, and no tax cut, Social Security or Medicare reform, or education plan, will save the nation from ultimate decline," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman
[ Judicial Watch ]
"Terry McAuliffe, was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee and greeted the group with clankingly jarring opening remarks which read more as an angry fund-raising letter than as the first speech of a major political party chairman. On Meet the Press, yesterday, McAuliffe used the phrase "at the end of the day ..." 7,231 times in the 27 minutes of the first segment of the program.
"When asked by Tim Russert if he had been the hand-picked choice of Bill Clinton, McAuliffe said he had talked to 'Tom Daschle, Dick Gephardt, and John Sweeney,' before calling Clinton. Interesting, isn't it, that McAuliffe admits he DID check with the President of the AFL-CIO, but didn't even bother to talk with Al Gore? Imagine the press outrage if Governor Jim Gilmore, the new Chairman of the Republican National Committee, had said on Meet the Press he had first talked to 'Dennis Hastert, Trent Lott, and (National Rifle Association chief) Wayne LaPierre' before accepting the post.
"Terry McAuliffe, Fund-Raiser-In-Chief for the most corrupt fund-raising operation in modern history and Mortgage-Guarantor-In-Chief for the most outrageous money-grabbing operation in modern history, represents just one more of the many Clinton-droppings left behind following the Rodham-Clintons' non-departure from Washington."
[ Rich Galen, "Mullings," ]
The furnishings were donated as part of a White House redecoration project early in President Clinton's first term. But the donors now tell the Washington Post that Bill and Hillary wrongly presumed the donations were personal gifts that instead belong to the taxpayers.
"Two of the furniture makers whose donations Clinton took with him ... say they gave them to the White House as part of a widely publicized $396,000 redecoration of the executive mansion and not to Clinton personally," the Post says.
"When we've been asked to donate, it was always hyphenated with the words, 'White House,'" New York furniture manufacturer Steve Mittman told the paper. "To us, it was not a donation to a particular person." His family-owned business gave two sofas, an easy chair and an ottoman, merchandise worth $19,900 in total. The Clintons listed the goods as "gifts" they removed to their Chappaqua, N.Y., mansion.
But according to a White House summary of the 1993 redecoration project, Mittman's furniture, along with furnishings from other donors around the country, was listed as "donations of goods and services to the National Park Service."
A disclosure statement released just a day before the Clintons left Washington indicated that, in addition to Mittman's contribution, the first family took a kitchen table and four chairs donated to the White House worth $3,650, a sofa worth $2,843, lamps worth $1,170, and a needlepoint rug worth $1,000. Joy Ficks, who supplied the table and chairs, was dismayed to learn what had happened to her offering. "We gave it to the White House," she complained to the Post. "I wondered what happened to it."
Worse still, the ex-first lady even thanked donors in writing "for your generous contribution to the White House," suggesting she clearly understood the gifts did not belong to the first family.
On Friday, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton announced they would reimburse gift givers for $86,000 in merchandise they collected last year, but would keep $104,000 in gifts given prior to 2000.
[ NewsMax ]
"The First Moochers are turning out to be insatiable, taking more than anyone first imagined. In addition to the $650,000 annual rent for the 56th floor of Carnegie Hall Tower, some of the most fashionable real estate in Manhattan, the former president is billing the government $1.5 million a year to rent an abandoned Oldsmobile dealership in an unfashionable neighborhood in Little Rock to store 76 million documents until he opens his presidential library on the banks of the Arkansas River."
[ Wes Pruden, "Pruden on Politics," ]
TCN Comment: This is that spirit of bipartisan cooperation that the Dems were talking about right after the election… I guess it depends on your definition of "is".
Today, however, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. has become a casualty of political polarization, increasingly identified with leaders and positions of "radical feminism."
In an article for Organization Trends, a publication of the Capital Research Center, Kathryn Jean Lopez, associate editor of National Review, writes that Girl Scouts this spring will once again be selling cookies, but now with an added ingredient.
Girl Scout officials "seem intent on a cookie-cutter approach to shaping a new generation of like-minded women with disdain for the past," opines Miss Lopez, who likens the Senior Scout handbook for girls 14 and over to an insert in YM or Seventeen.
It contains exercises relating to situations like "ending a pregnancy," or suggestions on how to organize "an event to make people aware of gender bias."
And what about those badges?
"You might know a Girl Scout who earned a badge for selling cookies or learning to cook," says Miss Lopez. "But did you notice her 'Domestic Violence Awareness' badge?"
A girl with green hair and fingernails also appears in a hip ad campaign unveiled by the Girl Scouts in Georgia: "Yeah, we still wear green. But a lot else has changed." Another ad features a girl's shoulder bearing a tattoo with the Girl Scouts' trefoil symbol.
Shortly after becoming executive director, the Scouts' Marty Evans boasted, "We're not your mother's Girl Scout troop."
"No kidding," says Miss Lopez. "Remember that when you consider buying this year's box of Thin Mints."
[ Washington Times - Inside the Beltway ]
Several pro-gun bills have been introduced this year which strengthen the rights and freedom of law-abiding Kentucky gun owners. Those bills are now pending in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
H.B. 107 -- this bill would prohibit the collection and destruction of firearms through so-called "gun buy-back" programs using taxpayer funds.
H.B. 108 -- this bill would require governmental agencies that do participate in "buy-back" programs to return stolen firearms to their rightful owners.
Both of these bills are aimed at strengthening your right to lawfully own and use firearms in Kentucky. If you live in Kentucky, fax, telephone, and e-mail your state representative right away and insist he or she support H.B. 107 and 108. Please mention both bills by number in your communications.
[ GOA ]
Why not? He refuses to administer the tests because they "clash with his beliefs." What are his beliefs? That any attempt to judge how much they've learned will reflect on his ability as a teacher? More than likely. [ Denver Post ]
** Principal Falsifies Student's Grades:
She did it to --- get this --- "encourage students to stay in school." Never mind that "staying in school" does them no good unless they're learning. And they're not learning if she is allowing them to have higher grades without working for them. She hasn't been fired. Not even demoted. So Denver is the poorer for her liberal views. [ Denver Post --- again ]
TCN Comment: We aren't sure if the syndrome displayed in the last threes articles is caused by the thin air in Denver or the influx of Californians looking for a place to live after they thoroughly screwed up the left coast, but it appears to be very serious.
And that was before he was forced to tap his Presidential Library Foundation Fund to cover part of the rent on his gold-plated New York City office digs - or the news that Hillary "Sticky Fingers" Clinton tried to make off with $28,000 in White House furnishings.
If, as they say, it's lonely at the top, it's even lonelier climbing your way back down the ladder, a lesson the ex-president is now learning in spades.
Democrats who rushed to his defense when he turned the White House into a bordello or traded nuclear secrets for campaign cash can't wait to express their disgust over the Clintons' tawdry exit.
Even Congressman Henry Waxman, who never met a Clinton scandal he couldn't excuse, is suddenly dumping on Bubba and Bubbette over their last-minute pardon of fugutive billionaire Marc Rich.
"There's pretty widespread agreement that the pardon should not have been granted," Waxman's spokesman told the New York Daily News Monday.
Ditto for former Clinton congressional waterboys like Barney Frank and Pat Leahy, who haven't been shy lately about expressing their displeasure over the Rich fiasco either.
Compounding the Clintons' problem: The White House War Room that used to respond in a flash with evidence that Bill and Hillary's sins are no worse than those of past first families is no longer at their disposal.
Gone also is the power to order up those FBI files, which the ex-first couple allegedly used to great effect to keep both Democrats and Republicans from getting out of line.
[ NewsMax ]
TCN Comment: It's Clinton's turn to be depressed. I have been depressed since the day he started his first run for the presidency 9 years ago. The depression became MUCH worse when the people of this country elected him for an unbelievable second term. I don't wish ill on anyone, but I am just starting to feel a little better. It is Clinton's turn to worry and stew over fruits of his actions.
The specific provision of law, the official says, is Section 212(a)(10)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended. The equivalent in the U.S. Code would be 8 USC 1168(a)(10)(E).
"Clinton's pardon doesn't affect this at all," says the official, who requests anonymity. "The real question is, can [Mr. Rich's attorney] Jack Quinn persuade [Secretary of State] Colin Powell and [Attorney General] John Ashcroft to allow this? I hope not. Sincerely, I am appalled at what has happened."
Former President Clinton has taken "full responsibility" for his controversial pardon of the billionaire financier, who fled to Switzerland after his 1983 indictment in what has been labeled the biggest tax-fraud case in U.S. history.
Mr. Clinton could ultimately be called to testify before two congressional committees set to examine his 140 11th-hour pardons.
[ John McCaslin - Washington Times ]
One executive order draft currently being circulated on Capitol Hill would reverse President Clinton's 1998 order limiting local governments to union-only contract negotiations for projects subsidized with federal funds, the Wall Street Journal reports Tuesday.
Another Bush rule change would require workers at federally funded worksites to be notified about the Supreme Court's 1988 Beck decision, which allows union members to object if their dues are used for political purposes.
"This is retaliation for unions ... being such a dominant force in the last election," AFL-CIO general counsel Jon Hiatt told the paper.
Hiatt's bosses want to meet with President Bush to argue that the old Clinton labor practices should be kept in place.
[ NewsMax ]
TCN Comment: Wouldn't it be terrible if contractors bidding on federal jobs were on a level playing field whether or not they were making huge contributions from employee wages to political campaigns? What ever is Bush thinking? Surely this has to be some kind of "pay-back".
No, Clinton's order in 1998 was a pay-back. This is simply correcting the action.
The Democrat was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided to help. He walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office. He then reached into the Republican's pocket and gave him fifty dollars."
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