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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 29 June 2001 | Vol. II, No. 63 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 29 June 2001 | Vol. II, No. 63 | ||
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*** GOA now has a blue-light special for you!
Gun Owners of America today ridiculed the decision by Kmart to stop selling ammunition to its customers. In response to the Kmart retreat, GOA announced today that Kmart shoppers will be able to buy ammunition on the GOA website next month.
"This is a bad decision by Kmart executives," said GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt. "They claim this an economic decision, but obviously their competitors at Walmart have not found that ammunition sales need to be dropped.
"Quite frankly, this is a politically correct move on the part of Kmart's top brass who made the decision after meeting with the Million Misinformed Mommies -- a group that was recently absorbed by Sarah Brady's group.
"But Kmart shoppers need not worry. In about one month, they will be able to come to the GOA website and buy ammunition on our web mall," Pratt said. "And unlike the situation at Kmart stores, shoppers on the GOA website will find better prices in a hassle-free environment where they will not have to compete for parking spaces or wait in long lines. Instead, their purchases will be delivered to their doors!"
[ GOA ]
By Rusty Pugh and Jim Brown
Recent documentation has revealed massive waste, fraud, and accounting errors in the U.S. Department of Education. One congressman says it is time to shut down this "out of control spending machine."
The Department of Education was created in the late 1970s by President Jimmy Carter. Recently, Department Inspector General Lorraine Lewis revealed that almost half-a-billion taxpayer dollars had been lost with no accountability. Among Lewis' findings: employees writing checks totaling millions of dollars without supervision; grant money in the form of checks totaling $250 million was issued twice to the same recipients on more than 20 occasions; and employees would go on personal spending sprees using government credit cards.
This alone, done without approval of supervisors, accounted for millions of dollars. Congressman Charlie Norwood of Georgia says it is time to shut this department down.
"With the amount of money that is being misplaced over there, it would be proper to close the department down, put everybody on administrative leave, fill the department back up with auditors, and find out what's going on over there," Norwood says. "That's what any good company would do. When you're talking about $450 million that have simply gone out the window, you need to take serious steps to correct that."
During the period the Department of Education has been in existence, the problems in public schools have worsened, not improved. Statistics released in April show that 63% of black fourth graders in the United States can barely read at all, and 60% percent of all poor children in America read well below the basic level.
The new Secretary of Education, Roderick Paige, told Fox News that after spending $125 billion in Title I money, the federal government has achieved basically nothing in poor school districts.
President Bush's education bill that recently passed the Senate with a 91-8 vote allows for a $9.2 billion increase in funding for the Department of Education. Liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill had called for a $15 billion increase.
[ Agape Press ]
"Nations that stick to stale old notions and ideologies will falter and fail. So I'm here today to say, America will move forward.... NEW SCHOOLS for A NEW WORLD.... Re-invent--literally start from scratch and reinvent the American school.... Our challenge amounts to nothing less than a revolution in American education."[3] Former President George Bush, announcing America 2000 in 1990.
"The United States will sponsor the creation of hemispheric centers for teacher excellence. These centers will provide teacher training for improving literacy and basic education, both in person and over the Internet."[1] President George W. Bush, remarks at Summit of the Americas, Working Session, Quebec City, Canada (April 21, 2001).
The world court has ruled the U.S. ignored the international legal rights of two German-born brothers who were executed for murder.
Germany had accused the U.S. of breaking the Vienna Convention by not telling the pair that they had the right to assistance from the German consular.
In its ruling, the court found by 14 votes to one that the U.S. had breached its obligations under the convention to the LaGrand brothers and to Germany.
In the landmark ruling, the court also said its provisional orders to national courts were legally binding, criticising the U.S. state of Arizona for ignoring the court's order to delay the execution of one of the brothers.
German journalist Martina Koch told CNN the case was important in terms of international law, as it is the first time the court has said its provisional orders are binding.
Koch said the ruling was "symbolically" important as U.S. was not required to pay compensation, although Germany had sought reparations for the men's families..
[ CNN ]
Two rural Utah towns may put themselves on the national map by passing resolutions declaring U.N.-free zones.
Town councils in La Verkin, population about 2,000, and Virgin, home to nearly 400, plan to put to votes next month ordinances that declare the United Nations unwelcome within their town limits.
While left-leaning locales such as Berkeley, Calif., and Takoma Park, Md., have declared their towns nuclear-free zones, the Utah laws would be the first in the nation where towns have voted to give the United Nations the heave-ho.
La Verkin Mayor Dan Howard hopes his town's initiative will inspire other cities where residents oppose the United Nations' global agenda.
"We've been pushed far enough and long enough," Mr. Howard told the Salt Lake Tribune. "We're tired of marching to the U.N. agenda. Maybe La Verkin is the crucible to get the rest of the cities and the national government to listen."
The proposed anti-U.N. laws, set for a vote next month, are not the first to draw attention to the two towns, whose residents have distinguished themselves as freedom-loving, independence-declaring folk.
Last year, Virgin council members approved a law requiring each head of household in the town to own a gun. La Verkin council members last week approved a resolution reiterating the town's steadfast support of the Second Amendment.
Both town councils considered the U.N.-opposition measures after listening to a speech last week by the father of court-martialed Army medic Michael New about his son's treatment by the U.S. military. Mr. New refused to wear the U.N. insignia and beret while working as a member of a peacekeeping force in Macedonia. He received a bad-conduct discharge from the service but became the darling of conservatives around the nation who opposed what they described as the United Nations' one-world-government philosophy.
Mr. New's father, Daniel New, a Christian missionary who raised seven home-schooled children with his wife, said he planned to speak out about anti-U.N. ordinances in towns in Washington and New Mexico in the coming months, said reports published in the St. George Spectrum.
The proposed laws call for a ban on using town money to aid the United Nations. They also ban the U.N. symbol on town property and protect residents from "involuntary servitude" in U.N. peacekeeping details. Residents who support the United Nations must post signs that read: "United Nations work conducted here."
Noelle Higbee, Virgin town clerk, said the town's five-member council discussed the resolution at its most recent meeting but tabled it until the July 19 meeting to seek more public input. Most of the people who attended the meeting supported its passage, she said, declining to comment on her own views of the measure.
Virgin Mayor Jay Lee told those who attended Thursday's town council meeting that when he considered the ordinance, he concluded that the United Nations already had control of two of the four things needed for a global government, the Spectrum reported.
"The United Nations control finances and fuel," Mr. Lee said. "All they need to control now is food and firearms."
La Verkin Town Manager Douglas Wilson said the council supports the measure, although it has created little fanfare among the mostly Mormon residents.
"We've had one negative response from the community and two from outside," he said. "Most of the interest and publicity has been from outside of town."
A U.N. spokesman had no comment on the towns' proposed actions.
La Verkin council members, looking to celebrate a patriotic holiday appropriately, have called a special July 4 session to vote on the proposed ordinance.
La Verkin town Councilman Al Snow, who works as director of engineering at a Utah company, says he has become involved in the anti-U.N. campaign to protect the rights of his children. Others who live in the West should take note of the region's significant U.N. presence, he said.
"The U.N. is trying to get involved in too much of our lives. We live in the West and we see parks now where part of the fees that they earn goes to the U.N. because it is biosphere," he said. "Eighty-three percent of our state's land is federal land, and they have made deals with the U.N. to do certain things and have not even considered the people who live here.
"I can see our country's sovereignty slowly slipping away," he said. "I believe in the power of the people, and the people need to make sure that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land."
La Verkin, founded in 1891, is located about 45 minutes from Zion National Park. Virgin, founded in 1858, adjoins La Verkin and is located along the Virgin River.
[ Washington Times ]
by Robert Novak.
On March 30 in Newark, N.J., lawyers from the conservative Judicial Watch organization met representatives of four U.S. attorneys with an offer in behalf of an unusual client. Peter Paul, a colorful Hollywood entrepreneur under Justice Department investigation for stock manipulation, would give information to prosecutors if he could return briefly from Sao Paulo, Brazil, without fear of arrest. Included was his claimed contribution, unreported to federal authorities, of nearly $2 million to Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2000 campaign.
Two months of silence was broken June 12 when Alan Vinegrad, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), brought a securities fraud indictment against Paul. No interest was shown in the proffer. The Clinton administration pattern appears to be continuing in the Bush administration. Donors, not recipients, of specious political contributions are prosecuted.
The Justice Department was never informed of the Paul proffer by the four U.S. attorneys, who are all holdover Clinton political appointees or interim civil servants. Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman has brought the case to Bush appointees at Main Justice. But Attorney General John Ashcroft, after his brutal confirmation, shows great deference to non-Bush U.S. attorneys. The inclination is to ''move on'' rather than pursue the Clintons.
Nevertheless, a lawsuit filed by Paul in Los Angeles June 19 against Bill and Hillary Clinton paints a picture all too familiar in American political fund-raising generally and by the Clintons particularly.
Paul in 1998 co-founded Stan Lee Media Inc. (SLM) with Stan Lee, creator of ''Spider-man,'' ''The Incredible Hulk'' and other comic book characters. He claims he wanted President Clinton to honor Lee, but associates say Paul really sought the president as a business partner after he left office. What better way to woo him than by helping Hillary Clinton get elected?
Court papers show Paul claiming he ''spent approximately $1.9 million of his own personal funds'' paying vendors for a lavish Hollywood ''tribute'' last Aug. 12 that raised a net $1.5 million for Clinton's candidacy. Campaign finance lawyers see law violations in neither reporting this money nor reimbursing Paul.
''Generally, we don't comment on Judicial Watch activities,'' Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy told me. The Clinton FEC filing shows a $500,000 ''in-kind'' contribution by SLM, but actually, the company gave nothing. Paul's canceled checks substantiate his $1.9 million unreported contribution.
Help for Hillary Clinton's campaign was not all that Paul promised. The court filing asserts that in return for a one-year commitment to work for SLM once the president left office, Paul last July offered him $10 million in SLM stock, $5 million in cash and $1 million for the Clinton library. Paul alleges that Chicago businessman Jim Levin conveyed this offer to the White House and returned with a perquisite package including a Lincoln bedroom stay and a Camp David weekend. Levin did not respond to my phone calls.
On Aug. 14, Washington Post columnist Lloyd Grove reported that Paul spent 30 months in federal prison after a 1979 conviction for trying to swindle Fidel Castro's government and cocaine possession. Hillary Clinton's campaign immediately returned $2,000 directly contributed by Paul and his wife but ignored the $1.9 million.
Paul says he sought a presidential pardon in September. Democratic Party General Chairman Ed Rendell said ''he was working on it,'' the suit alleges. Rendell told me his appointment book reflects no meeting with Paul that late in the year. ''I can't recall any talk about a pardon,'' Rendell added.
Paul talked to me from Brazil this week, under the stipulation not to discuss his indictment. Did he really think spending all that money for Hillary Clinton's campaign would entice her husband into his firm? ''I wonder if I was taken, and that's why this lawsuit was filed,'' he replied. The question now is whether Paul will get what is known as a ''queen for a day'' arrest-free visit to tell his story to prosecutors--if they want to listen.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
Bill Clinton recently spent part of a week in Los Angeles hanging out with celebrities, but also doing some business -- business, some might say, of a personal nature.
According to on former Clinton aide, the ex-president bragged about meeting with the creator of the TV show "Power Rangers," Haim Saban. No, not about a TV show, but about a Bill Clinton action figure, which would be sold -- with accessories -- in the Clinton Library gift shop in Arkansas. "There are any number of marketing and fundraising opportunities available to us," says a fundraiser for the library. "Licensing agreements for President Clinton's likeness could be profitable and carry his legacy to another generation that won't remember as well as we do."
This apparently wasn't Clinton's idea. Rather, it was something proposed by toymakers. Saban's Power Ranger toys bring in tens of millions of dollars a year as an off-shoot of the popular daily syndicated TV show.
[ Washington Prowler ]
TCN Comment: There's no word yet on whether one of the accessories will be an intern version of Barbie.
Clinton was having so much fun out in Los Angeles that he committed to spending several more weeks out on the Left Coast later this summer. He's been living on the kindness of strangers, including several DNC fundraisers, who have lent him beach houses and pool houses for his visits.
One problem with some of Clinton's plans: he had to be reminded he had a vacation date with wife Hillary on Martha's Vineyard. "He tends to forget about dates, long-term planning stuff," says a former aide. "That's why he has people do it for him."
The Martha's Vineyard trip will come during the Senate summer recess in August. But it won't be at a vacation spot recommended by Hillary's staff, according to one of her aides. "We wanted her in New York, hanging with her constituents," she says. Clinton's staff looked into vacation spots on Long Island, the Hamptons, the Fingerlakes region, the Catskills, even a brief stop in Cooperstown, "because she claims to be such a baseball fan," says the aide. "The Hamptons weren't doable because of scheduling, and the rest of our suggestions weren't appealing to her. She said they all sounded 'too touristy.' It was very frustrating. She just had no interest in spending time off in her adoptive home state. Voters will remember this kind of behavior." They will?
[ Washington Prowler ]
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