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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 28 November 2001 | Vol II, No. 81 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 28 November 2001 | Vol II, No. 81 | ||
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[ Liberty Counsel ]
The Center for Law and the Public Health has drafted a proposed "Model State Emergency Health Powers Act" that will result is the loss of civil liberties if passed into law. The Center was founded with a generous grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Model legislation was done collaboration with the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, National Association of City and County Health Officers and National Association of Attorneys General.
The proposed law will permit the declaration of a national emergency, which in turn invokes enormous power of the state. The proposed law provides for mandatory vaccinations, quarantine, and criminal penalties against those refusing to take (and doctors refusing to give) injections. The proposed law also provides for confiscation of property and grants immunity to the state and government officials. The proposal is a sweeping blow to civil liberties. The proposed law is supposedly supported by HHS Secretary Thompson.
Note that in Phase 1 trials, the Smallpox vaccine is using aborted fetal cell lines. There are alternatives, but the Phase 1 trials are not testing them. Worldnetdaily.com reported that almost 60% of those polled stated they would refuse a Smallpox vaccine using aborted fetus cell lines.
To view the proposed legislation, visit http://www.publichealthlaw.net. Look at the right side of the website to view the 40 page document. You can also view a summary by scrolling down on the rights side of the front page.
[ family.org ]
When is it wrong to take a literal interpretation concerning the Constitution? Always - according Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer believes the Constitution should be a "living document" - not frozen in history. Speaking recently to the New York University School of Law, Justice Breyer said there is no justification for basing interpretation of the Constitution solely on issues like language, history, tradition and precedent.
But while a document may be "living," Dr. David Barton, president of WallBuilders, believes the real question is - Who gives it life?
"The difficulty with (the living document idea) is that it removed the entire interpretation of the Constitution from what the people want and put it in the hands (of) an unelected elite, and that was absolutely what was reprehensible to the Founding Fathers," Barton said. "Breyer's talking about what is commonly called a living, or organic, or evolving Constitution. The only problem is what (the Supreme Court) has done in the last thirty to forty years is to say, 'Only we, the Supreme Court justices, know how to evolve it.' "
Mat Staver, of the religious-liberties legal group Liberty Counsel, said without a literal interpretation of the Constitution, lawyers are often forced into trying to change a judge's personal ideology.
"If the judge already has a certain bent against you - and generally that may be the case in pro-life and pro-family and religious liberty issues - you really have no basis to assert fundamental right and wrong. You have no basis to assert the rule of law," Staver said.
Barton noted that the framers did intend for the Constitution to change, and provided for that inevitability.
"The Founding Fathers believed that it would evolve - that it would change," Barton said. "They put Article V in there - said when the people want to change it, let them pass a constitutional amendment."
He added, however, that the amendment process doesn't happen, often, in part, because the courts keep changing the understanding of the Constitution.
Many were surprised when Justice Breyer publicly admitted his bias. Barton is hopeful the admission will cause more Americans to take a renewed interest in the nominating process and demand that the president and Senate approve justices who will interpret - not reinvent - the Constitution.
[ Wall Street Journal Editorial ]
"It's too bad Miguel Estrada never thought of doing a reverse Geraldo Rivera (formerly Rivers) and renamed himself Mike Smith. He'd probably be sitting on the federal bench right now. But Mr. Estrada, who was one of President Bush's first judicial nominations, can't even get a hearing from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy.
"The reason, as Mr. Estrada's detractors are only too happy to whisper, is his ethnic background. His nomination is being sidelined because he is a keen legal mind who happens to be Hispanic and therefore might someday become the first Hispanic member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Welcome to the world of judicial profiling, as practiced by the liberal majority in the U.S. Senate.
". . . (I)n Pat Leahy's Senate, (Estrada's) credentials are a liability. They're so sterling they'd make it impossible for Senate Democrats to stand up and oppose Mr. Estrada if he ever did get a hearing. And that would mean confirming him to a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that has produced Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. And the last thing Democrats want to confront is an able conservative Hispanic nominated for the High Court by a Republican President."
[ NewsMax ]
For the 10th year, the U.N. General Assembly today told the U.S. to end its embargo against Fidel Castro's terrorist-aiding dictatorship in Cuba.
Fortunately, national sovereignty, though eroded in recent decades, still exists (for now); the resolution is not binding.
Only the U.S., Israel and the Marshall Islands voted against the demand. Latvia, Micronesia and Nicaragua abstained, United Press International reported today.
Meanwhile, Castro - the recent recipient of American hurricane aid - railed today against the U.S. for the deaths of 30 Cubans who perished at sea this month trying to reach the United States.
In an address to a mob, the bearded dictator said that though he regretted the deaths of the adult escapees, "for the innocent children, driven to an unfair, undeserved death, we feel true mourning," the Associated Press reported.
You'd think the clueless Castro would be ashamed to admit the escape attempt. As always, he failed to note that it his tyrannical, repressive regime that his own people are trying to flee in search of freedom in America.
[ NewsMax ]
A California political science professor remains suspended for offending four Muslim students - despite the emergence of a tape recording that shows he did not say what he is accused of saying and the admission of one of the students that perhaps some of the allegations were "not right." United Press International reported today:
In a class discussion on the evening of Sept. 18 at Orange Coast Community College in Costa Mesa, prof Kenneth W. Hearlson discussed the Sept. 11 terror attacks and argued that silence on terrorist attacks against Israel amounted to assent.
In a phone interview, UPI asked Hearlson if he asked Muslim students in his class to account for the behavior of Muslim nations.
"That's right. ... The Muslim world - as used everyday on TV and in the newspapers - including those, therefore, in the United States."
He said his condemnation of a "hate-filled" flyer that had appeared on campus last year, which he identified as "The Reality of Zionism," by Party of Hizb-ul-Haq, inflamed the four students.
Asked if he had any reason to associate his students with this literature, he placed the blame on the Muslim student organization - which, he said, had put the flyer out - and the college, which had approved it. However, the legal point at issue seems to be a narrow one.
The aggrieved students maintain that the professor held them personally accountable for violent acts, but Hearlson said he was not referring to individuals but to "Arab nations." The transcript of an audiotape that a student sympathetic to the teacher supplied to Hearlson's attorney, a copy of which was obtained by UPI, supports Hearlson's version of events.
'He Needs to Be Taught a Lesson'
Moreover, one of the Muslim students, Mooath Saidi, told the New York Times, in an article that appeared Sunday, that even if his memory of the class is "shady," Hearlson "has a history, and he obviously hasn't learned and he needs to be taught a lesson."
When asked about this Monday, John D. Renley, vice chancellor of human resources, said: "If the student is now making statements like that, I would think it would be in the best interests of Mr. Hearlson."
Renley said he was not concerned with the substance of what Hearlson said in the classroom, which is protected by the principle of academic freedom, but rather of whether the professor accused students. ACLU, where are you?
[ Boston Globe ]
"If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a similar attitude adjustment could be boosting the size and changing the face of the region's gun-toting population. Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, gun instructors say, attendance at firearms courses in Massachusetts has skyrocketed among a broad swath of the population for whom personal safety has become a big worry. Most instructors are reporting that their classes have grown by 50 percent or more since the attacks."
[ UPI ]
Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle on Tuesday opposed Senate consideration this year of a ban on human cloning - because, he said, of scheduling.
Daschle said time limits made debate of a ban proposed by Kansas Republican Sam Brownback impossible, despite White House support.
The announcement Sunday that scientists had succeeded in cloning a human embryo drew outrage from religious groups, Congress, the Bush administration and others, and inflamed calls for a national ban. But despite these calls for action, Daschle said that the Senate lacked the room on its calendar to address the issue before January.
"I hope we will be able to avoid this subject because we have such a short time frame," Daschle told reporters. Congress was scheduled to adjourn on Oct. 5, but has remained around town to finish work on appropriations bills and to help resolve some legislative issues related to homeland security. Daschle has said he hopes for adjournment next week.
On Monday, Brownback rejected any such argument that the issue does not deserve immediate consideration in favor of homeland security issues.
"We must ban all human cloning, whether it is for reproductive purposes or for destructive experimental purposes," Brownback said at a news conference. "While I realize the debate on cloning is scheduled to occur in the Senate next spring, the events of the past day make it clear that we must act sooner. I call on Senate leadership to immediately take up and pass the House-passed bill, which is currently being held at the desk, on human cloning."
Daschle said: "I hope that the Senate will act prudently on this issue. It sure beats having to make decisions that we'll regret later."
Daschle had already announced his opposition to human cloning, but research is something he has not addressed yet publicly.
Congress is supposed to be working on an economic stimulus bill, but some believe the legislation being debated in the House looks more like pork. Is this the resumption of politics as usual?
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., recently complained that Republicans had "killed the economic recovery bill." At the same time, Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., accused Democrats of pushing a partisan package loaded with more pork than economic punch.
Richard Lessner, of the Washington, D.C.-based pro-family group American Renewal, is looking for the president to break the logjam.
"The president has a bully pulpit on this," Lessner said. "He can go to the American people as he has (in the past). He can say, 'Please give me a stimulus package. People are losing their jobs. We've already had two million job losses since the first of the year, so we need to get things going in the economy.' It will be very hard to resist the president when he goes to the people with this message, given his very high approval rating that he has for the conduct of the war."
Lessner is pleading with politicians to put politics aside.
"We need to do something to jump-start the economy, and the best way to do that is to put money back into the pockets of the American people and to provide incentives to investments so that business begins to reinvest and expand once again."
Pete Sepp, of the National Taxpayers Union, also wants tax relief.
"What government needs to do is to enact tax reductions now, so that when people regain their confidence there won't be obstacles like high taxes to impede them from beginning to get the economy back on its feet again," Sepp said.
Despite the bickering, however, both sides are still promising an economic recovery bill before year's end.
A father takes his 8 year old son for a walk around south Manhattan. They turn a corner, and see a lovely park with a monument.
Father: "Son, this is a monument to the Twin Towers victims."
Son: "Dad, what were the Twin Towers?"
Father: "Well, son, they were two of the world's largest buildings, and they were knocked down by Muslim terrorists 31 years ago."
Son: "Dad, what were Muslims?"
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