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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 13 October 2001 | Vol II, No. 75 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 13 October 2001 | Vol II, No. 75 | ||
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The gun grabbers have already disarmed much of the population and left many Americans defenseless at a time when an armed citizenry is the best defense against terrorism and crime, the U.S. Congress is poised to impose another burdensome restriction on Second Amendment rights.
It's called "demilitarization," and if a new bill in the Senate passes as currently written it could result in millions of innocent American gun owners being branded as criminals without their knowledge.
According to an alert issued by the National Rifle Association, the Senate has just passed S. 1438, the Department of Defense (DoD) annual authorization bill, which contains a provision that is of grave concern to hunters and sport shooters.
Section 1062 of this bill gives the secretary of defense the power to require "demilitarization" of any "significant military equipment" that has ever been owned by the DoD.
Warns the NRA, "This would include all firearms (such as the venerable M1, M1 Carbine, and Model 1911, as well as all Civilian Marksmanship Program rifles, even 'sporterized' surplus bolt-action Springfields!), firearm barrels, ammunition, and gun powder now legally in private hands.
"Demilitarization" the NRA explains, "is the term for rendering such items permanently inoperable, and Sec. 1062 allows for this action to be carried out either by the owner or a third party, with the owner paying the cost, or by the DoD."
However, if the DoD decides that it should do the job itself, it can also decide that it might cost too much to return the now inoperable weapon and can simply keep it and reimburse the rightful owner only for the fair market scrap value of the item.
In addition, this new requirement would force private citizens to determine for themselves if an item they own is subject to demilitarization, and face criminal penalties if they fail to comply.
Says the NRA, "The DoD would be under no obligation to notify law-abiding citizens that items they have lawfully owned for years, and perhaps that their families have owned for generations, are suddenly subject to forced demilitarization."
Considering the fact that U.S. military surplus has been regularly - and legally - bought, sold and traded for centuries, countless Americans now own items that could be subject to Sec. 1062.
"It is likely millions of law-abiding Americans would be affected, and could unknowingly become criminals overnight without having done anything or having ever been informed," the NRA says.
Since the DoD already has the authority and responsibility to demilitarize any item it sells as surplus, there is absolutely no reason to seek new authority to confiscate and destroy lawfully sold and lawfully owned items that are now the property of private citizens.
The NRA urges Americans to contact their U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121, and their U.S. representative at (202) 225-3121, and urge them to strike Sec. 1062 from S. 1438, the "National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2002." Says the NRA, "The 24 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the 60 members of the House Armed Services Committee especially need to hear from you. To find out if any of your lawmakers are on either committee, you can use the "Write Your Reps" tool found at NRAILA.org, or call the Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683."
The bureaucrats of the government school system in Madison, Wis., apparently thought they could get away with banning the Pledge of Allegiance and censoring the national anthem. Last year they probably could have, but not now.
An initial report in a Madison newspaper said only a half-dozen parents in the notoriously left-wing college town showed up at a school board meeting about a state law requiring a daily moment of patriotism - and all questioned or opposed it. But now the P.C. thought police are finding out the hard way that there are plenty of right-thinking, patriotic residents who oppose this kind of lunatic leftist censorship.
By midafternoon Tuesday, the school district was flooded with 426 phone calls and e-mails on the subject, with 422 opposing the new anti-choice policy, the Milwaukee Journal reported today.
· Madison resident Richard Demitros said: "I think it's ridiculous that they think they can go against the rest of the world in their own little fantasy world the school board has over there. It's just contrary to everything we believe in. If you can't pledge allegiance to this flag, then go somewhere else."
· Madison resident Keith Gant was surprised the board would cave in to the complaints of a few who objected to the pledge.
"That's a pretty aggressive move for political correctness," he said. "I find the idea kind of surprising, especially with all the patriotism and loyalty happening now."
· Mary Ginsberg, who has two children in a Mad Town government school, said: "It was fine that they were going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. The whole process was sort of goofy. It seems silly. With what's going on now, it's probably a good idea for us to instill a little bit of national pride in our children."
· Michael Furgal of the Wisconsin chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars said: "I've had people calling from as far away as Appleton saying they were going to bring carloads of people down here for any meeting on this. I've never seen people get this perturbed about anything.
"We're paying taxes. Why should the money go to a school system that doesn't promote America?"
And so begins the spinning and scrambling. School board president Calvin Williams claims the policy was somehow "misunderstood," and he has now called a special board meeting for Monday to "revisit" the issue. A Synchronized Pledge Nationwide Friday
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Rod Paige wants every one of America's 52 million schoolchildren to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at exactly the same moment in their classrooms Friday.
In a national first, students are being asked to say the pledge at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, at 1 p.m. in the Central Time Zone, at noon in the Rocky Mountains, at 11 a.m. along the West Coast, at 10 a.m. in Alaska and at 8 a.m. in Hawaii, Scripps Howard News Service reported today.
"I ask students, teachers, parents and other proud Americans across the country to join me in showing our patriotism by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at a single time and with a unified voice this Friday," Paige said.
"Together, we can send a loud and powerful message that will be heard around the world: America is 'one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'"
Are you listening, Mad Town?
"God Bless America" went up on a sign outside Breen Elementary School in Rocklin, California ... and the ACLU contended it communicated "a hurtful, divisive message"!
In a letter to the school, the ACLU said that "God Bless America" is a "violation" of the U.S. Constitution - and "must be replaced immediately"!
An ACLU attorney called the phrase "a religious message" and said that the school is "dividing its young students along religious lines" ... "hurting" and "isolating" the school children!
How can this beloved phrase - words that have resounded through our history as a cry of encouragement and freedom - in any way threaten our children?
The ACLU says that displaying "God Bless America" "implies" that "only students who share the faith are truly patriotic."
ACLU's attacks on the very spirit of our nation are absurd! THEY ARE ATTACKING YOUR FREE SPEECH!
It's incredible - especially since "God Bless America" is actually CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED SPEECH. And yet, such attacks are actually happening all over our country....
- A Parent Teachers Association president in Illinois created and distributed a flyer inviting students to wear red, white and blue to school. The district demanded she cut off "God Bless America" from each flyer before children took them home!
- In Oklahoma, one community is in uproar because the school district had a sign removed from the front of a school. The supposedly offending message? "God Bless America"!
This kind of censorship must not be allowed to continue. So we are getting involved in these cases and others - setting the record straight. "God Bless America" is COMPLETELY APPROPRIATE under the law!
[ ACLJ ]
Beginning Friday, European pilots will help protect American skies for the first time ever. AWACS planes will be deployed from a NATO base in Germany to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. But, Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul is upset at the action, believing it indicates a loss of American sovereignty.
President Bush announced the action Wednesday during an appearance with NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson.
"In an unprecedented display of friendship, NATO air surveillance aircraft are on their way to the United States to help keep our country safe. This has never happened before, that NATO has come to help defend our country. But it happened in this time of need. And for that, we're grateful," Bush said.
Paul, a member of the House International Relations Committee, disagrees.
"National security is the most basic sovereign duty of the federal government in our constitutional republic. Neither Congress nor the president can cede that duty to a foreign nation or body. We cannot allow the security of our own borders to become the responsibility of any coalition or international organization, whether it's NATO or the United Nations," said Paul on Capitol Hill.
Paul also thinks the action is the fault of "interventionist foreign policy" that has spread American "military forces so thin."
"As a result, we find ourselves unable to deal with the legitimate military crisis posed by the September 11th attacks. How much longer can we continue to defend so many other nations, but not our own? The national security of the U.S. is the province of the American people and the American people only," said Paul.
Paul concluded, "The stunning delegation of our national air defense to foreign forces marks a sad day for America. The war on terrorism provides us with an opportunity to strengthen national unity, but we must begin by reaffirming American sovereignty and defending our own borders."
Responsibility for the defense of U.S. and Canadian air space lies with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, commonly known as NORAD. The AWACS planes will bolster NORAD patrols that were instituted after last month's attacks against New York and Washington.
[ CNSNews.com ]
He won't go away, but he really ought to.
"Turns out that former President Bill Clinton is one of those who thinks the terrorists are somehow suffering from economic deprivation - even if Osama bin Laden is a Saudi gazillionaire," the New York Post's Deborah Orin noted today.
The impeached ex-prez claimed in a recent "speech-for-pay" in Washington that blowing even more taxpayer money on failed global anti-poverty schemes - in which ruthless dictators siphon much of the dough - would curb terrorism. "We should reduce the pool of potential terrorists by showing people that we will not claim for ourselves what we would deny to them," said the millionaire Harlemite, sounding remarkably like fellow windbag Ted Turner.
And here's the clincher: Clinton said terrorist kingpin bin Laden and his murderous underlings "are good, they are uncompromising," Orin reported.
[ NewsMax ]
*** 'Leading organizer' of campus protests praises Communist Cuba
A leader of protests against America's war against terrorism is an avid supporter of the Cuban communist revolution and its architect, Fidel Castro, according to official Cuban sources.
Gloria La Riva, identified as a "leading organizer" of the anti-war movement and key member of the International Action Center, is rallying support around a "common theme" already used by leftists "throughout the country," using the slogan, "War and racism are not the answer" as her anti-war motto.
"The response from people has been amazing … [from] over a hundred campuses," La Riva boasted.
La Riva made the statements during an interview conducted and broadcast by Radio Habana Cuba, the official broadcasting service of the Cuban government.
Included in La Riva's arsenal of tactics are "teach-ins," frequently used in 1960s protests, and as yet undefined "new, creative" strategies intended "to try to keep the energy going, to educate the people."
Despite a response La Riva described as "great," she also stated that politicians who would usually support her organization were remaining silent "because of great fear - and intimidation by the government."
Other observers note that President George W. Bush's extreme popularity, which ranges somewhere over 90 percent, may more readily account for the reluctance of some politicians to oppose a popular president, rather than "government intimidation."
La Riva urged Radio Habana's listeners to "contact us to find out how to get involved and begin the work in your community" and provided a website and e-mail address.
La Riva and her group are fully engaged in organization and propaganda activities. "Regional actions" are planned for Oct. 27, "to build the visibility and voice of this new anti-war movement," according to the website of the International Action Center.
The International Action Center has also established a separate group tagged "ANSWER" - an acronym for "act now to stop war and end racism."
Founded and headed by long-time leftist guru and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the International Action Center has opposed U.S. military activity in Iraq and Yugoslavia, as well as U.S. foreign policy in the Near and Middle East in general.
La Riva herself has made no secret of her socialist/communist politics and is effusive in her praise of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
In her interview with Radio Habana, La Riva quoted Castro as stating that leftists' anti-war activities involve a struggle in which "the very survival of humanity is at stake."
In a 1999 speech to the socialist/communist Workers World Party commemorating the 40th anniversary of the communist Cuban revolution, La Riva described Castro's Cuba as "a revolutionary society created by workers in industry and agriculture and by students" having "mass organizations in every workplace, school and neighborhood."
La Riva ended her speech with the exhortation: "Long live the Cuban Revolution!"
Observers note that the most eloquent refutation to La Riva's laudatory description of communist Cuba is given by refugees from the island risking death in shark-infested waters in hope of gaining freedom in the United States.
Those familiar with the communist system on the island recognize the ubiquitous "mass organizations" as tools to control the behavior of possible dissidents.
In a moment of historical irony, Cuban/communist support for the anti-war movement is occurring at the same time Havana is commemorating the 1967 death in the Bolivian jungle of Castro's revolutionary associate and guerrilla leader, Che Guevara.
Bolivian troops ambushed Che's rebel band, capturing and executing the leader soon after the skirmish ended.
The Castro government still reveres the memory of Che, and holds in high esteem his activities as a guerrilla fighter. Havana still pays for periodic expeditions into the Bolivian jungle to relocate and bring back to Cuba the remains of Che's defeated communist band, where they are placed in a special memorial.
[ WND ]
When is the news not newsworthy?
When it happens to a member of the news media.
On Friday, NBC News announced that a member of its staff had been infected with anthrax.
In its anouncement on its website, msnbc.com, the victim is identified only as "a 38-year-old woman."
NBC News President Andrew Lack and NBC Evening News Anchor Tom Brokaw both declined to name the woman, citing "concern for her privacy."
Aren't these members of the same media that publish names, addresses, ages, and pictures of victims and suspects?
Don't the same media personalities shove a microphone into the faces of grieving family members to get their reactions to tragedies? Haven't we all seen videos of grieving families leaving funerals on NBC Nightly News? It seems that this "concern for privacy" only extends to other members of the media.
Perhaps NBC is right.
Perhaps the victim's name should be withheld to respect her privacy. Let's hope that the media learn to extend this respect for privacy to those outside its own group.
[ NewsMax ]
"Aaron Petitt, a junior at Ohio's Fairview High School, is back in school after a federal judge overturned his 10-day suspension. Petitt's offense? He hung patriotic posters on his locker, including one that depicts an eagle shedding a tear over the burning World Trade towers. 'According to the lawsuit, Associate Principal James Haughtaling said the signs were inappropriate and could offend Middle Eastern students,' the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports."
[ OpinionJournal.com / GOP N&V ]
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