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Obama Adm. Targets Pro-life Activists as Terroristswritten by William F. Jasper
The Obama administration has aligned the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI with militantabortion advocates in a concerted effort to target peaceful pro-life activists as terrorists and tocharacterize their lawful, free-speech activities as “violence.” At least, say pro-life leaders, that is thereasonable conclusion they draw from a training program sponsored jointly by the DOJ, FBI, PlannedParenthood, and other pro-abortion groups this past August in Portland, Oregon.
“On August 25, 2010, the FBI and the United States Department of Justice co-sponsored a trainingseminar with Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation and the Feminist MajorityFoundation,” Steven Ertelt of Lifesitenews.com reported on September 30.
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A pro-life attorney and several pro-life activists were able to attend the program, which took place at theFBI’s Portland headquarters. They obtained a copy of the 84-page document entitled “Resource Guide:Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers” that the DOJ/FBI seminar leaders provided toparticipants. The “Resource Guide” and the training seminar illustrate the growing network of ties amongfederal government agencies and the major organizations promoting and providing abortion services. Thepublication and the seminar also present a troubling picture of the federal government aligning with pro-abortion militants to prosecute and silence their political opponents.
Matthew S. Bowman, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life/pro-family organization, toldThe New American he finds this “extremely disturbing” in that it indicates the FBI and DOJ are workinghand-in-hand with the pro-abortion lobby to squash the constitutionally guaranteed right to peacefulpolitical dissent. In a critique of the “Resource Guide,” Bowman writes:
The analyses urging the prosecution of “clinic violence” [define] a large swath of nonviolent, legal,free-speech activity such as picketing under the broad category of “violence.” Abortionistorganizations have long lobbied to use the law to silence free speech activities. But in this seminarthe FBI and USDOJ included those views in their own training seminar materials. This raises serious
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concerns about the United States government investigating peaceful, legal free speech activity inefforts that are ostensibly aimed at violence.
Bowman points out that the National Abortion Federation (NAF), Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF),and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) have led ongoing efforts to falsely portray theirpro-life opponents as violent criminals and terrorists. One of the chief means used by pro-abortionpropagandists to vilify pro-life forces and create the impression that they are a grave threat is the NAF’s“Incidents of Violence and Disruption Against Abortion Providers in the U.S. and Canada,” a statisticalreport that is frequently cited by the media.
Obama’s DOJ/FBI Adopt Pro-Aborts’ Deceptive Statistics
The NAF’s “Incidents of Violence and Disruption” statistical table is included on page 20 of the DOJ/FBI“Resource Guide.” This is particularly alarming since it places the DOJ/FBI imprimatur on the NAF’sdefinitions of “violence and disruption,” which include completely legal, non-threatening, FirstAmendment activities such as prayer and holding pro-life signs outside abortion facilities. Pro-abortionactivists and their media allies readily quote the NAF’s claim of “163,744 incidents of violence anddisruption” against abortion providers, often with “murder, attempted murder, bombing, and arson”included in the same sentence. The impression given is that pro-lifers are a seething mass of violentcriminals who are terrorizing benevolent abortion clinic staff members who heroically provide desperatelyneeded medical services to poor women. However, the NAF statistics quickly fall apart under examination.
Any objective analysis of the NAF statistics will note that they are seriously padded in at least two ways.First of all, the statistics cover a 33-year period (1977-2009), a fact that is frequently omitted insympathetic media reports, since it would obviously diminish the sense of enormity the NAF’s “Incidentsof Violence and Disruption” is intended to convey. Even more important, however, is the NAF’s inclusionof “picketing” in its statistical analysis. It turns out that 148,303 (90.5 percent) of the “incidents” cited byNAF are merely picketing. Even “picketing” is a misnomer in most of these cases, since much of the timethe “picketers” may be only one or a few pro-lifers merely praying on the curb or sidewalk. And whereaspicketers for labor unions, animal rights groups, environmental organizations, anti-war organizations,communist groups, and other causes frequently engage in violence, the millions of Americans who haveengaged in pro-life “picketing” have an exemplary record of conduct. The NAF provides no documentationto show that the picketing it refers to by pro-life people is in any way violent or disruptive.
Another 14,293 incidents (8.7 percent) in the NAF report are listed as “Hate Mail/Harassing Calls.” Again,NAF provides no documentation. What does it consider to be hate mail or a harassing call? That is a veryrelevant question, since pro-abortion activists have claimed that even Christmas cards sent by pro-lifers toabortionists, or letters by pro-lifers saying they will pray for the abortionist, are a form of “hate mail” and“terrorism.” Still another category of incidents is “Email/Internet Harassment,” which totaled, says NAF,345 (or 0.2 percent). As in most of the other categories, NAF provides no documentation. In other words,99.4 percent of the incidents cited by NAF consist of alleged “Picketing,” “Hate Mail/Harassing Calls,”and “Email/Internet Harassment,” which, even if verified, are of a different kind altogether from thecriminal violence associated with murder, bombing, and arson. The whole purpose of including them inthe NAF report is to pad and inflate the numbers to make a “federal case” out of the supposed violenceagainst abortion providers.
Apart from this obvious padding, there is good reason to question the veracity of the NAF figures, sincethe abortion movement has been built on fraudulent statistics. Former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson,
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a co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and a director of the largest abortionclinic in North America, has exposed his own involvement in the use of fraudulent “facts” by NARAL,Planned Parenthood, and other groups to legalize abortion four decades ago.
“We claimed that between five and ten thousand women a year died of botched abortions,” Dr. Nathansonsaid. “The actual figure was closer to 200 or 300, and we also claimed that there were a million illegalabortions a year in the United States and the actual figure was close to 200,000. So, we were guilty ofmassive deception.”
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) is likewise notorious for grossly exaggerating incidents to inflatetheir statistics. Matt Bowman notes that pages 18 and 19 of the DOJ/FBI document “summarize an FMFsurvey discussing ‘intimidation,’ and include the distribution of leaflets labeled ‘Pamphlets TargetingStaff,’ and any ‘noise disturbance.’ These would include leaflets that warn women that specificabortionists have injured or killed patients. This free speech activity constitutes a significant percent ofthe survey activities labeled ‘intimidation.’”
Ominous Omens
Matt Bowman told The New American that the Obama administration’s incorporation of the NAF, FMF,and PPFA statistics into official FBI/DOJ documents and seminars coincides with a renewed effort by thefederal government to prosecute pro-life activists for peaceful free-speech activities. He particularly notesthat Julie Abbate of DOJ, who is listed as a speaker at the Portland seminar on page 66 of the “ResourceGuide,” also filed a federal lawsuit in August 2010 against a pro-life advocate solely for leafleting whileallegedly, one time, crossing a driveway.
He points also to the 2009 incident in Wisconsin, in which the federal Department of Homeland Securityconducted a “threat assessment” on pro-life groups engaged in free-speech activities expressingopposition to the decision to begin offering abortions at the University of Wisconsin hospital. The threatassessment was provided by DHS to local law enforcement in Wisconsin. Following lawsuits from pro-lifegroups, the DHS finally admitted that the department had been involved in actions in which lawenforcement inappropriately engaged in “the collection, retention and dissemination of U.S. personinformation regarding protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security and… violated [DHS]Guidelines.”
Especially ominous is the naming of prominent pro-life organizations and pro-life leaders in the DOJ/FBI“Resource Guide.” In his analysis of the guide, Bowman notes that on pages 39-41, “the FBI’s documentthat ostensibly exists to prosecute violence lists multiple pro-life websites even though most of them are100% nonviolent free speech groups.”
Among the pro-life groups cited in the DOJ/FBI document are:
40 Days for Life
American Center for Law and Justice
American Life League
Center for Bio-Ethical Reform
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Concerned Women for America
Human Life International
National Right to Life
Priests for Life
Pro-Life Action League
Rock for Life
Population Research Institute
Christian Broadcasting Network
Covenant News
It would seem that the DOJ/FBI has drawn up a prosecutorial “hit list” at the behest of the pro-abortionforces to which President Obama has been closely aligned for many years. (See: “President BarackObama’s Pro-Abortion Record: A Pro-Life Compilation.”) This is hardly surprising given the record thatAttorney General Janet Napolitano has amassed in targeting political dissent for prosecution (see here andhere).
President Obama’s close ties to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation, are welldocumented. (See, for instance: “Obama Gives Planned Parenthood Abortion President Frequent WhiteHouse Access.”) Portions of his speech to Planned Parenthood can be viewed on YouTube here:
Another view of Obama’s appearance before Planned Parenthood and his Q&A session with them, can beseen here:
For a more objective look at the NAF, FMF, and PPFA statistics and charges of pro-life violence, the FBIand DOJ would do well to consult the detailed analysis conducted by the website abortionviolence.com.
The extensive investigation and documentation provided by abortionviolence.com not only debunks muchof the deception and disinformation concerning the violence attributed to pro-life groups, but alsopresents convincing evidence to demonstrate that precisely the opposite is true, that it is pro-abortionactivists who are engaged in perpetrating violence. There are many more documented cases of pro-abortion activists engaging in violent actions (homicide, attempted homicide, assault and battery, etc.)than alleged violence by pro-life activists. And these statistics of pro-abortion activist violence do not eveninclude the most horrendous violence of all: the millions of unborn children who have been brutallymurdered through legal abortions.
Thumbnail photo at top: AP Images
Related articles:
More Extremism from Obama’s DHS
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Profiling and Criminalizing Political Dissent
Uncle Sams Costly Sign Languagewritten by Michael Tennant
In uncertain economic times, Americans are looking for signs of improvement. The U.S. government, bycontrast, is looking for improvement of signs — street signs, that is.
The 2009 edition of the Federal Highway Administrations Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices forStreets and Highways consists of 864 pages of detailed regulations covering everything from the color ofpavement markings to the amount of space between letters on road signs. Among the regulations arerequirements that street signs be produced in specific sizes depending on speed limits, converted from alluppercase to mixed case, and made more reflective at night. States and localities have until 2018 tocomply with the new rules.
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As one might expect, replacing almost every street sign in America is no small undertaking. The New YorkPost reports that its hometown will have to change 250,900 signs at a cost to the state of $27.6 million.(The Post also points out that the feds typeface change requirement will even force numbered street signsto be replaced.) Milwaukee, says radio station WTMJ, will spend at least $1.4 million to replace 80 percentof its 21,929 street signs. Wausau, Wis., estimates expenses will come to $100,000 or more, according toWSAW-TV. The total cost to state and local governments will surely climb into the hundreds of millions ofdollars.
The Highway Administration claims that its new regulations will improve traffic safety, but then it saysthat about all its regulations. Furthermore, bureaucrats seldom consider the costs of their mandates; asthey are fond of reminding us, you cant put a price on safety at least as long as someone else is paying forit. Thus, writes the Post, the Highway Administration acknowledged that New York and other states
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opposed the change, and suggested that the use of all upper-case letters remain an option, noting thatwhile the mixed-case words might be easier to read, the amount of improvement in legibility did not justifythe cost and then the feds went right ahead and issued the regulations anyway.
State and local governments are already struggling to stay financially solvent during this recession.Washingtons piling on new, costly regulations whose benefits are almost certainly minimal cannot helpmatters. States and localities will have no choice but to raise taxes or to cut services in order to pay for allthe new signs that the Highway Administration is now forcing them to purchase. Taxpayers, already stuckbetween the rock of high taxes and the hard place of recession, will now be squeezed even more tightly tocater to the whims of bureaucrats whose very jobs, let alone their regulations, violate the document thatcalled the federal government into existence.
Just the same, the reader may be soothed somewhat by the words of Janette Sadik-Khan, New York CityTransportation Commissioner. In reference to the Highway Administrations ruling that street signs mayno longer be printed entirely in uppercase letters, she remarked to the Post, On the Internet, writing in allcaps means you are shouting. Our new signs can quiet down, as well. There, now. Dont you feel calmeralready?
CNBC Takes Aim at Remingtonwritten by Bob Adelmann
The CNBC “Remington Under Fire” documentary that premiered October 20 misfired in terms ofsubstantiating allegations that the trigger mechanism on Remington’s highly popular 700 series is unsafe.Instead, the "10-month investigation" essentially rehashed charges, allegations and complaints stretchingback into history for years. The timing for the recycling of unsubtantiated charges was curious,considering the proximity of the program’s release to the elections.
The charges center on the trigger mechanism, designed years ago by Mike Walker, that allegedly allows around to be discharged without the trigger being pressed. The heart-rending story of Gus Barber of
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Manhattan, Montana, was covered, going back to the unhappy incident in 2000 when nine-year-old Guswas killed when a Remington 700 rifle “inadvertently went off.” Currently there are more than 75 lawsuitspending against the company claiming that the rifle is unsafe.
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One of the obvious agendas behind the report was the complaint by CNBC that recalls of the rifle cannotbe ordered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the BATFE, or the Justice Department.Consequently the poor consumer has no “protection” against the trigger risk.
The fact that the rifle has been manufactured for years, with more than five million of them being sold notonly to private owners but also to the military services, was glossed over. The CPSC’s current lack ofauthority has been upheld repeatedly by the courts, which is a good thing according to the NRA:“Congress’ wisdom in refusing to give CPSC that power was proven in the 1990s when CPSC staff told theClinton White House the agency ‘would love to get into the gun regulation business.’”
Remington was aware that the investigation was coming and developed an elegant website atwww.remington700.tv refuting much of what CNBC’s charges:
For nearly fifty years, the Remington Model 700 rifle has been the preferred choice for millions ofhunters, shooting sports enthusiasts and military and law enforcement personnel.
Despite emotional reporting of baseless and unproven allegations and plaintiff lawyer assertions,several undisputed facts remain:
• The Model 700 is the most popular, reliable, accurate and trusted bolt-action rifle in the world,with over five million rifles produced and billions of rounds fired over nearly five decades.
• The Model 700 is the firearm of choice for elite shooters from America’s military and law enforcementcommunities, and has been the platform for the United States Marine Corps and the U.S. Army precisionsniper weapon systems for over two decades, both of which specifically require the “Walker” triggermechanism [emphasis added].
• The Model 700, including its trigger mechanism, has been free of any defect since it was first producedand, despite any careless reporting to the contrary, the gun’s use by millions of Americans has proven it tobe a safe, trusted and reliable rifle.
• Both Remington and experts hired by plaintiff attorneys have conducted testing on guns returnedfrom the field which were alleged to have fired without a trigger pull, and neither has ever beenable to duplicate such an event on guns which had been properly maintained and which had notbeen altered after sale.
Remington Arms was purchased by a private investment company, Cerberus Capital Management, in Aprilof 2007 to add to its Freedom Group. In addition to Remington, Freedom Group owns Bushmaster, Parker,Marlin, H&R, L.C. Smith, Dakota Arms, DPMS, UMC, and Barnes Bullets. Altogether Freedom Group is #1in shotguns, traditional rifles, and modern sporting rifles with almost a third of the market. Cerberusgained notoriety when its investment in Chrysler was wiped out, thanks to the government illegallypushing aside Cerberus and other interests in favor of Fiat and the UAW during its “rescue” of Chrysler.
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Just 12 months ago, Cerberus filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and ExchangeCommission to “go public” with its interest in Freedom Group. Some say this was due to pressure frominvestors in Cerberus to liquidate their positions. Others say that Cerberus wanted to cash out of itspositions in those companies whose values had escalated enormously following the election of PresidentObama.
From a timing point of view, then, CNBC’s “examination” of Remington might have had something to dowith the upcoming midterm elections, or with putting pressure on the lame duck session to push throughlegislation empowering the CPSC to regulate the gun industry, or with impacting the value of Remingtonprior to Cerberus’ upcoming offering of stock in Freedom Group to the public. CNBC has struggled tokeep its audience, lagging behind CNN and Fox; and this report might have just been about attempting toboost its ratings. All of this is speculation. It just seems peculiar that a rehash of old news about a highlyrespected American company would bubble to the surface at CNBC right at this moment in time.
Tea Party Group Plans to Keep Pressure on NewlyElected Congressmenwritten by
A report published by the Wall Street Journal on October 25 revealed details of an internal memorandumwritten by leaders of Tea Party Patriots, to maintain pressure on new members of Congress after ElectionDay.
Tea Party Patriots, Inc, an umbrella group that serves as a central information site for nearly 3,000local groups across the country and describes itself as a non-partisan grassroots organization ofindividuals united by our core values derived from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutionof the United States of America, the Bill Of Rights as explained in the Federalist Papers. The groupsmission statement, as posted on its website, is “to attract, educate, organize, and mobilize our fellowcitizens to secure public policy consistent with our three core values of Fiscal Responsibility,
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Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.”
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Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, said in an interview quoted by the Journal: “Theincumbents have allowed us to get into the problems we are in now. We hope to get to the freshmenbefore the incumbents get to them, and start twisting their arms.”
Mecklers concerns were fueled, in part, by comments about tea-party candidates made by the formerRepublican Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, quoted in an interview with the Washington Post last July:“As soon as [the Tea Party candidates] get here, we need to co-opt them.”
Tea Party Patriot leaders said they are also preparing to fight Democratic efforts to pass legislation duringthe lame-duck session of Congress expected to take place between the election and when the nextCongress is seated in January.
The Tea Party memo also outlined the groups plans to hold what it describes as a summit of newly electedmembers of Congress early in 2011 designed to keep new Representatives informed about “what weexpect from them. Meckler said in his Journal interview that neither incumbent Republican members ofCongress nor the GOPs national leadership would be invited to the meeting.
“The incumbents have allowed us to get into the problems we are in now,” said Meckler. “We hope to getto the freshmen before the incumbents get to them, and start twisting their arms.”
Taken at face value, the Tea Party Patriot groups objectives seem worthwhile. Why not provide thoseelected to Congress with Tea Party support with a set of expectations as well as a few warnings aboutwhat to expect from the old boy network of congressional leaders?
However, one wonders how such a loose affiliation of groups hope to outmaneuver the politicalmachinations of a well-entrenched major political party. The organizations decision to paint allincumbents with one brush and exclude incumbents from their early summit might also becounterproductive. Why deprive those incoming freshman attending of sage advice offered by suchconstitutionalist veterans of Congress as Representatives Ron Paul (R-Texas), Paul Broun (R-Ga.), orVirginia Foxx (R-N.C.)?
In taking this mammoth task upon itself, the Tea Partiers are treading upon much of the same groundworked by members of The John Birch Society for more than 50 years. In her article, The Tea Party andThe John Birch Society, Raven Clabough noted that liberal bloggers have noted some similarity betweenthe two organizations and have lamented that The Tea Party movement’s ideals are an extension of thoseheld by The John Birch Society.
However, points out Clabough:
But while Tea Partiers could be viewed as relative newcomers in raising concerns that John Birchershave raised for decades, there are also differences which Crooks and Liars [a blog] fails to addressbetween Birch beliefs and the views of many Tea Partiers. For example, the GOPs Pledge to America,is viewed favorably by eight out of 10 Tea Partiers according to the Bloomberg survey but was thesubject of a critical article in the JBS-affiliated publication The New American. As noted by CharlesScaliger in “Promises, Promises: A Pledge to America,” the Pledge proposes nothing of substance to
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subdue welfarism, foreign interventionism, and inflation despite its rhetoric in support of theConstitution.
While the Tea Partys stated goals of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and freemarkets (provided they are true free markets and not false free markets dictated by multinational tradeagreements) and those of The John Birch Society are well in sync, the tendency of most Tea Partyfollowers to surrender to the lure of the neoconservative Republicans Pledge to America siren songindicates a deficiency of sorts. If Tea Partiers truly want to distance newly elected Representatives fromthe tainted policies prevailing among incumbent Republicans, why not distance themselves from theforerunners of those incumbents, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a major architect of thepledge?
If the Tea Party seeks to continue monitoring Congress after the elections and to keep pressure on ourrepresentatives to vote according to the Constitution, they will find excellent company among JBSmembers and other readers of The New American magazine, which publishes four Freedom Index reportsrating each Representative and Senator according to how he or she votes, based on the U.S. Constitution.
May we suggest that the Tea Party Patriot leaders invite each Representative and Senator who scored 100percent on the Freedom Index to their summit of incoming congressional freshmen, so the veteranconstitutionalists can mentor these political novices on how to do the job right?
Photo: Tea Party Patriots National founders and coordinators Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin (out of picture) take part in a news conferenceat the National Press Club in Washington, Sept. 21, 2010: AP Images
Centralized Hot Air vs. Economic Realitywritten by Ralph R. Reiland
Here’s a short multiple-choice quiz. Who said the following? “Were we directed from Washington when tosow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
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a. Fidel Castro, warning Cubans to resist the power of their capitalist neighbor.
b. Thomas Jefferson, warning about the inherent inefficiencies of centralized power.
It was Jefferson.
He also said, “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, whichshall leave men otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall nottake from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned — this is the sum of good government.”
Castro, of course, went in the other direction, putting every pursuit of industry and improvement underhis thumb, and the Cuban people ended up wanting not only bread but also fish, meat, cars, airconditioning, clothing, and housing.
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In its December 2008 report, “The Cuban revolution at 50: Heroic myth and prosaic failure,” TheEconomist magazine described the conditions in Cuba the year before Castro shot his way to power.
“In 1958, Cuba was among the five most developed countries in Latin America: life expectancy was closeto that in the United States, and there were more doctors per head than in Britain or France,” reportedThe Economist. “Havana boasted 135 cinemas in 1958 — more than New York City. Today, only a scoreremain open, although the city’s population has doubled.” And those few remaining screens don’t showwhat Big Brother doesn’t want the serfs to see.
The Economist summed up the economic and political results of Castro’s success in driving more than amillion of his country’s more entrepreneurial people to escape to the United States: “Mr. Castro’s Cuba isa sad place. Although the population is now mainly black or mulatto, its rulers form a mainly whitegerontocracy. The failure of collective farming means that it imports up to 80 percent of its food. Thehealth and education systems struggle to maintain standards. Inequalities have risen.”
Additionally, there are special jail cells for “prisoners of conscience,” for those who insufficiently cheeredthe regime. In a place that’s defined as a state of morally superior egalitarianism, it’s not wise to talkabout the scarcity of freedom or the lack of eggs.
National Public Radio, summing up five decades of Castro keeping a lid on individualism and capitalism,reported that government stores in Cuba “regularly run out of meat, eggs and cooking oil.” Thoseshortages in supply exist even with the government keeping demand artificially low through ration booksthat limit the amount of consumption per capita.
After half a century of socialist development and decades of Soviet assistance, the government-dictatedallotments in Cuba for coffee and vegetable oil, respectively, ran around four ounces and two cups — permonth, per capita. The fish allotment? Ten ounces per month per person in a nation surrounded by someof the world’s best fishing waters.
One thing worked in Cuba — Castro’s campaign of misinformation. “Castro’s lasting success has been as amasterful propagandist,” stated The Economist. “He has exploited the cult of Che in particular. Guevara’smyth — of the romantic rebel, not the murderous, militaristic Marxist of real life.”
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The romantic version of Guevara shows up regularly on the t-shirts of poly sci majors, those who are bigon hope and change and clueless about economics and business.
Some enterprising entrepreneur should update the t-shirts: The shirt could feature both Fidel and Che,looking admiringly at each other, 1959, and underneath could be this old Texan putdown, about those whocan’t deliver — “All hat, no cattle.”
Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Tolerance “Will Bury You”written by Jack Kenny
Often the most enjoyable humor is the unintended kind, as in the oft-quoted Yogi Berra line about anoverly popular restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.” Or when Archie Bunker said oflive theater, “The age of entertainment is over! Today we got television.”
All right, I can’t verify that Yogi Berra actually said that, and I know Archie Bunker is a character offiction. But even in real life, grown-ups still say the darnedest things. I find amusing, for example, someletters to the editor expressing shock, outrage, and galloping indignation at the New Hampshire SundayNews policy of not publishing wedding announcements of same-sex couples. Indeed, one such lettercaused me to laugh out loud — or “lol,” as the techies like to say. It warned of what will happen to anewspaper that stands obstinately in the path of “progress”: “I can guarantee you that both technologyand tolerance will bury you into the ground,” wrote the broadminded, totally up-to-date reader. “NewHampshire is a forward-thinking state that doesn’t put up with your ignorance and outdated policies.”
I don’t know why the Manchester-based newspaper would be buried “into the ground,” when the city haslong since closed its landfill, and recycling is the order of the day. But what really caught my attention andtickled my fancy was the thought of being buried by “tolerance.” Tolerance has turned out to be a ratherstern taskmaster. A state that thrives on tolerance, the gentleman declared, simply will not “put up with”the kind of permissiveness that allows a privately owned newspaper to cling to a former way of thinkingthat deems a union between two persons of the same gender may be a great many things, but marriage isnot one of them. Oh, for the good old days when the only one threatening to bury reactionaries in Americawas the bully in the Kremlin. “Tolerance” now appears as a kinder, gentler Khrushchev.
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I was struck also by the number of references in those letters to the calendar as the ultimate authority onsuch matters. This is 2010, after all. The policy is “outdated,” which means it reeks of “ignorance” of how
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people are supposed to think today. The fact that most people don’t think that way — same-sex marriagehas been defeated in every state that has held a referendum on the proposal — apparently doesn’t matter.Neither do tradition, religious authority, and the moral strictures of thousands of years. All must all beswept aside for the sake of a bold new order decreed by a small, highly vocal minority that considers itselfmorally and intellectually superior to those of us whose minds and morals must still be in the Dark Ages.
Chesterton observed that every age is modern in its time, but ours appears to be the first to congratulateitself on the fact that today is not yesterday. The comedian Flip Wilson put it even better when heparodied that attitude in the person of Reverend Leroy of “The Church o’ What’s Happenin’ Now!”
Theoretically at least, people who belong to what might be called “The Church From Way Back Then” donot lose their rights just because they are fortunate enough to own a newspaper. But the prophet of“tolerance” would “bury” the recalcitrant newspaper — bury it “into the ground,” by Sappho, with littleapparent concern for the pollution of our groundwater. The writer would doubtless bury the FirstAmendment in the same grave, there to keep the newspaper company, as befitting the gentleman’s zealfor tolerance and inclusiveness.
“It’s 2010,” he writes with consciousness-raising perception, “and whether you’re a private organizationor not, you have no right to deny people who purchase your product the right to announce theirmarriage.” People have a right to purchase or not purchase products as they please, but it is interestingthat the writer is so insistent on the “right” to have something as cherished as a wedding announcementpublished in a newspaper he finds “disgusting and a disgrace.” It calls to mind the joke about a woman ata resort hotel who complains about how bad the food is there. “And such small portions!” she adds.
That letter and others like it reflect the kind of thinking that inspired a letter to the New Hampshire UnionLeader a couple of years ago, claiming that Title IX of the U.S. Code, dealing with gender equality inschool programs, requires a newspaper to devote equal coverage to male and female high-school athleticteams. The underlying premise, apparently, is that all information and all activity in the private as well asthe public sphere must be recast in the image and likeness of Caesar’s decrees. It is the notion that, asGeorge Will once described it, “every institution must be broken to the saddle of the State.”
And freedom? Well, that is increasingly becoming, in the words of an old song, “just another word fornothin’ left to lose.”
The Tea Party and The John Birch Societywritten by Raven Clabough
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According to John Amato, founder of the Crooks and Liars blog, a Bloomberg poll confirms a notion thatreaders of The New American may celebrate but left-wing media outlets such as Crooks and Liars lament:The Tea Party movement’s ideals are an extension of those held by The John Birch Society. The not-so-happy liberal blogger wrote, “A new Bloomberg poll on the Tea Party movement confirms … Tea Partyactivists are an extension of the most extreme, far-right John Birch Society values, with the added bonusof funding from the corporate right.”
According to Bloomberg, Respondents who identify with the Tea Party are almost unanimous in saying itstands for lower taxes, smaller government and personal responsibility. The Bloomberg poll also found:
“Four of five Tea Party supporters who say they plan to vote in the November congressional elections willback Republicans, even though one-third describe themselves as independents.”
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“More than six in 10 say [the Tea Party] advocates government based on Christian principles.”
“Eight of 10 Tea Party voters back the ‘Pledge to America.’ “
“Six out of 10 Tea Party supporters who plan to vote say they want to overhaul or abolish the Fed.”
“Almost seven in 10 Tea Party advocates say they would be less likely to support a candidate who votedfor the bank rescue or the auto bailout.”
“Half of the Tea Party voters consider the federal debt estimated at $1.3 trillion in fiscal 2010 by theCongressional Budget Office to be the most important issue facing the country.”
“An overwhelming majority say they want a repeal of the health-care law championed by President BarackObama.”
“Almost nine of 10 of the movements backers disapprove of the job the president is doing.”
Crooks and Liars examined the poll data specifically Tea Party’s disdain for the Federal Reserve, thefederal deficit, and the nanny state and determined it to prove that conservatives and Tea Partiers are
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influenced by The John Birch Society.
It is, of course, true that Tea Partiers are now trumpeting themes that John Birchers have been talkingabout for decades. Consider these warnings that Robert Welch made when he founded The John BirchSociety in 1958, more than half a century prior to the launch of the Tea Party:
“Greatly expanded government spending, for missiles, for so-called defense generally, for foreign aid, forevery conceivable means of getting rid of ever larger sums of American money as wastefully as possible.”
“Higher and then much higher taxes.”
“An increasingly unbalanced budget, despite the higher taxes.”
“Wild inflation of our currency, leading rapidly towards its ultimate repudiation.”
“Government controls of prices, wages, and materials, supposedly to combat inflation.”
“Greatly increased socialistic controls over every operation of our economy and every activity of our dailylives. This is to be accompanied, naturally and automatically, by a correspondingly huge increase in thesize of our bureaucracy, and in both the cost and reach of our domestic government.”
“Far more centralization of power in Washington, and the practical elimination of our state lines.”
But while Tea Partiers could be viewed as relative newcomers in raising concerns that John Birchers haveraised for decades, there are also differences which Crooks and Liars fails to address between Birchbeliefs and the views of many Tea Partiers. For example, the GOPs Pledge to America, is viewed favorablyby eight out of 10 Tea Partiers according to the Bloomberg survey but was the subject of a critical articlein the JBS-affiliated publication The New American. As noted by Charles Scaliger in “Promises, Promises:A Pledge to America,” the Pledge proposes nothing of substance to subdue welfarism, foreigninterventionism, and inflation despite its rhetoric in support of the Constitution.
By focusing on similarities rather than disparities, Crooks and Liars intended to besmirch Tea Partiers bycomparing them to the supposedly bad Birchers. Ironically, their attempt to smear the Tea Partymovement by applying the Birch label will cause many Tea Partiers and others to recognize that theBirchers were ahead of the curve in warning about the dangers of Big Government and to ask, “What’swrong with The John Birch Society anyway?”
(To find out more about The John Birch Society, click here.)
WikiLeaks Condemned by Governments on ThreeContinentswritten by Thomas R. Eddlem
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The publication of nearly 400,000 secret U.S. military documents about the Iraq war by the whistleblowerWikiLeaks earned condemnation from governments on three continents within hours of their posting onthe Internet. The U.S. government, the British defense ministry, and the Iraqi prime minister’s office allquickly condemned the documents being revealed to the public.
The October 22 WikiLeaks posting of 391,832 secret U.S. government intelligence reports on the Iraq warfrom 2004 through 2009 was a follow-up on the nearly 90,000 secret documents revealed by WikiLeaks onthe Afghan war back in July. The “Iraq War Diary,” as WikiLeaks called its most recent group ofdocuments, reveals that the U.S. government kept detailed files on civilian casualties in Iraq (despiteclaims to the contrary) and allowed the press to underestimate civilian casualty numbers by more than15,000.
According to the U.S. government, the WikiLeaks posting endangers American lives. “This is anextraordinary disservice to America’s men and women in uniform,” Pentagon press secretary GeoffMorrell charged in a government press release. “That danger is now exponentially multiplied as a result ofthis leak because it gives our enemies the wherewithal to look for vulnerabilities in how we operate and toexploit those opportunities and potentially kill our forces. That is just shameful.”
The British Defense Ministry claimed that WikiLeaks "can put the lives of UK service personnel and thoseof our allies at risk and make the job of armed forces in all theatres of operation more difficult and moredangerous.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office also released a statement that the WikiLeaks posting was anattack "against national parties and leaders, especially against the prime minister."
Asked if he is worried that the release of so many secret documents could cause the deaths of U.S.military personnel, WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange replied: “No, I’m worried that the press chooses tocredibly report statements like that from the Pentagon…. Most wars that are started by democraciesinvolve lying. The Vietnam War and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution involved lying. The start of the Iraq warinvolved very serious lies that were repeated and amplified by some parts of the press.”
The Pentagon charged that WikiLeaks had endangered U.S. service personnel or informants after itposted information in July on the U.S. war in Afghanistan, but has since made no mention of any actual
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deaths resulting from the public posting of the documents.
The condemnation of WikiLeaks by governments seems largely to have been because the documentsreveal crimes by these governments. “Britain’s role in the alleged torture and unlawful killing of Iraqicivilians may be the subject of legal action,” the British Manchester Guardian reported October 23. TheGuardian noted that Phil Shiner of the British group Public Interest Lawyers claimed the WikiLeaks-released documents have exposed prosecutable war crimes. “Some of these deaths will be incircumstances where the UK [has] a very clear legal responsibility,” Shiner contended. “This may bebecause the Iraqis died while under the effective control of UK forces — under arrest, in vehicles,helicopters or detention facilities.”
Meanwhile, the government condemnations have forced WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange into a virtuallife on the run. “Julian Assange moves like a hunted man,” the New York Times reported October 23. “Hedemands that his dwindling number of loyalists use expensive encrypted cellphones and swaps his own asother men change shirts. He checks into hotels under false names, dyes his hair, sleeps on sofas andfloors, and uses cash instead of credit cards, often borrowed from friends.” Assange is being investigatedfor anonymous accusations of rape in Sweden, a nation with strong free press laws where the WikiLeakswebsite is hosted, and he has been denied residency in the country.
Photo of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: AP Iimages
Related articles:
WikiLeaks Releases Nearly 400,000 Classified Iraq War Documents
WikiLeaks Documents Reveal Extent of Pakistani ISI Activity in Afghanistan
WikiLeaks.org Releases More More Than 90,000 Afghan War Secret Documents
Who’s at Fault if WikiLeaks Endangers Innocents?
Juan Williams’ Forgotten Victimizer: The Man in theMirrorwritten by Selwyn Duke
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If anyone should feel loved right now, it’s social commentator Juan Williams. His firing by National PublicRadio (NPR) for comments he made on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor has drawn harsh criticism from allquarters, left, right and center. And I join this defensive phalanx. Sacking a man for saying that he gets“worried” and “nervous” aboard a plane when he see people “identifying themselves first and foremost asMuslims” with their traditional garb is an example of political correctness run amuck. Heck, Williams wasmerely giving voice to a disquiet felt by a majority of Americans.
And if any entity should feel unloved — and unlovable — it’s NPR. Not only was their action grossly unjust,but then we found out that it might have been taken in response to a complaint from the Council onAmerican Islamic Relations. The station has also been disingenuous, claiming that the pink slip wasrendered because NPR commentators “should not participate in shows … that encourage punditry andspeculation rather than fact-based analysis,” yet never applied this standard to its very own speculating,fact-bereft Mara Liasson and Nina Totenberg. To top it all off, station President and CEO Vivian Schillerstruck a mercenary note, saying she was “profoundly sorry that this happened during fundraising week.”Islamist-leaning, dishonest, and greedy, NPR casts itself as the perfect villain and Williams as haplessvictim. He has become just a bit of a martyr and a bit more of a hero.
But not so fast. Does it occur to anyone that Williams has been victimized by a politically correctenvironment that he, as a decades-long supporter of the Left, is partially responsible for creating? Now,don’t get me wrong, I know that the commentator is no frothing-at-the-mouth Jacobin; he’s a liberal morein the 1975 mold. It’s also true that he appears a gentleman, willing to debate civilly and not at all givento speech-code squelching of opposing points of view. That is not the point, however. It is that the ironcurtain dropped over American social commentary did not magically descend from the heavens. It alsowasn’t woven by those of us on the Right; rather, it’s the handiwork of social engineers in politics, themedia, entertainment, and academia — and their supporters, people such as voters, readers, viewers, andalumni donors. And Juan Williams is one of those supporters.
I know that what I’m saying may not be popular. After all, Williams is a nice fellow and man is easilycharmed. People also don’t like dissention in the posse when a propaganda outlet such as NPR is rightlybeing lynched by a wave of almost monolithic pundit and public opinion — going against the flow is alwaysperilous. But while I would welcome the demise of NPR, remember, there’s a reason why Williams was
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working there in the first place: Even if he’s not the Left of the Left, he is a man of the Left.
And if someone sides with the barbarians at the gate and the city falls, does it help if he says, “Well, Ididn’t agree with all their positions, and of course I didn’t want civilization to collapse. It’s just that Ifound them more palatable than our nation’s defenders and had to choose a side”? Having good intentionsis fine, but we all know what they’re used to pave. Being sincerely wrong is still being wrong, andammunition used against what’s right kills even if supplied by a saint.
And it has been killing careers and opportunities — mainly of those on the Right — for years. Radio talk-show host Michael Savage has been banned from Britain, Rush Limbaugh lost his job as a NationalFootball League commentator and his chance to buy the St. Louis Rams, scientist James Watson had toresign from the chancellorship of the Cold Spring laboratory, and golf commentator Kelly Tilghman and Ihave something in common: We both were targeted by the thought police for innocently using the word“lynch.” She was suspended by Golf Channel for two weeks and I was featured on the Southern PovertyLaw Center’s HateWatch page. I wonder, should I, as a Christian, get upset over liberal Mitch Perry’sheadline, “NPR getting crucified for Juan Williams firing”? (Emphasis added.)
And the greatest tragedy here is not that honest debaters are destroyed — it’s that honest debate is. Wecan’t as a society discover the truth on important issues of the day if we’re afraid to discuss them frankly.And, frankly, this is precisely what those whose agenda is contrary to truth want.
Speaking of those folks, when a conservative is targeted and honest debate squelched, when does the Leftever line up with the right to defend him in the way the Right is defending Williams now? It simply doesn’thappen; it is the behavior of the principled, not the petulant.
And since we must be the former, we should be passionate in our defense of Williams. We must upholdtruth no matter who utters it and combat political correctness whenever it rears its ugly head. I just wishthe Williamses of the world would come to understand who their friends really are and that leftists, likenations, generally don’t have friends — they have interests. Because history is littered with the corpses ofgood men who learned only too late that, to those they considered brothers in ideological arms, they werenever anything but a certain useful something.
WikiLeaks Releases Nearly 400,000 Classified IraqWar Documentswritten by Thomas R. Eddlem
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On October 22 the Internet-based whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published some 391,000classified U.S. military documents on the Iraq War. WikiLeaks alleges the documents prove that the U.S.government continued to look the other way to Iraqi government torture through the end of the first yearof the Obama administration and that civilian casualties in the Iraq war were much higher than publiclydocumented.
“It really is the most extraordinary compendium of war that has ever been released,” WikiLeaks founderJulian Assange told the Australian Broadcasting Company as the documents, named the “Iraq War Diary,”were released.
The reports document that the Iraq war has been five times as bloody as the Afghan war, and according tothe USA Today for October 22, “include deaths unknown or unreported before now — as many as 15,000by the count of one independent research group,” Iraq Body Count.
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Then-National Security Adviser James L. Jones claimed back in July that WikiLeaks’ massive leak of U.S.military documents on the Afghan war “could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, andthreaten our national security.” But since then the White House has been silent about any actual deaths ofAmerican soldiers, informants, or allied soldiers who were killed or endangered as a result of the JulyWikiLeaks “Afghan War Diary” release.
President Obama echoed Jones’ concerns about the Afghan war leak of approximately 90,000 documentsback in July, telling the press that “I’m concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from thebattlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations. The fact is, these documents don’treveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan.” But news of thehigher-than-previously-reported body count, some 60-80 percent of which are civilian non-combatantdeaths, in the “Iraq War Diary” means that President Obama can’t credibly maintain the same objectionsto the current WikiLeaks release.
This is not to say that Obama’s orginal argument that the Afghan WikiLeaks didn’t reveal any newinformation to the American public ever held water. The July leak of Afghan war documents revealed forthe first time that the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, had been complicit in aiding the insurgents
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even while U.S. agencies aided Pakistan with billions in foreign aid and technical assistance.
Moreover, the WikiLeaks release did not catch the U.S. government by surprise; the government’s Voiceof America reported October 22 that a “120-member task force has been working in secret for months.”
According to WikiLeaks, “The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation inIraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009)as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. Theydetail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first realglimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy tothroughout.”
The U.S. government has reportedly attempted to silence WikiLeaks through its founder, Julian Assange,by seeking criminal indictments against him in several European countries. Assange was charged withrape by Swedish authorities back in August, a charge dismissed later that month. But Swedish authoritiesreopened their probe in September and refused Assange, an Australian national, residency October 18.Assange claims that the rape charge is phony and part of a pressure campaign by the U.S. government tostop the organization.
In addition, the WikiLeaks website had been down for several days on what the site listed as “scheduledmaintenance” for days before the release, and search requests have occasionally overwhelmed the sitesince the release. The website is based in Sweden, which has strong press protection laws, so WikiLeaks’leadership has remained outside the reach of U.S. criminal prosecutors. U.S. officials did arrest formerU.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning in May, however, and media have speculated that Pfc.Manning was WikiLeaks’ source for the Afghan and Iraq war leaks. WikiLeaks has refused to disclose itssources.
Photo of Iraqi Army soldier escorting two hooded detainees: AP Images
Related articles:
WikiLeaks Condemned by Governments on Three Continents
WikiLeaks Documents Reveal Extent of Pakistani ISI Activity in Afghanistan
WikiLeaks.org Releases More More Than 90,000 Afghan War Secret Documents
Who’s at Fault if WikiLeaks Endangers Innocents?
Conviction: The Movie and the True Storywritten by Raven Clabough
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Conviction tells the real-life story of a single mother named Betty Ann Waters, who tended bar whileacquiring her GED, bachelor’s degree, and then her law degree, all so that she could represent herbrother Kenny, wrongly convicted of murder. Both the film and the true story are accounts of incredibleloyalty, courage, and determination.
The story’s history goes back 30 years, to when a Massachusetts woman was brutally murdered, and BettyAnn’s brother was convicted of the crime.
Betty Ann had faith that her brother was incapable of committing such a horrific crime. CBS Newsreported, “[She] said that Kenny was the life of the party, and admits he was a troublemaker. But in herheart she knew he was not a killer. So Betty Ann, a high-school dropout, enrolled in community college,then on to law school, and became her brother’s attorney.”
Following his conviction, Kenny declared, “I told them I never killed nobody. I don’t know what you aretalking about. I had a five-day trial and I was away for the rest of my life.”
Not if his sister had anything to say about it. Betty Ann began her own investigation of the crime andbecame increasingly suspicious of Nancy Taylor (played by Melissa Leo), one of the arresting officers.
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Betty Ann’s story is comprised of setback upon setback, as her marriage and her relationship with hersons were strained by her efforts, and yet she never once seemed to consider giving up. And so, with thediscovery of DNA at the murder scene, the unending determination of Betty Ann, and the assistance ofBarry Scheck’s Innocence Project, Kenny Waters was finally exonerated after 18 years in prison.
Sadly, Kenny suffered a fatal fall in 2001, just six months after his release — an ironic twist of fate forcingpeople to contend with the often-confusing (from our vantage point) elements of God’s plan. However,Kenny’s tragic death did not make its way into the film. Director Tony Goldwyn explained:
"It was a hard decision. But I think that, ultimately, that’s not what the movie’s about. It’s moreabout his freedom and their relationship — Betty Ann’s and Kenny’s."
This is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that Betty Ann no longer practices law.
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The amazing story was discovered by a cub reporter for the Boston Globe named Farah Stockman, whohappened to encounter Barry Scheck, a lawyer for the Innocence Project, a group which describes itself as“a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted peoplethrough DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.”
Scheck shared Betty Ann’s story with Stockman, who then called her. According to Stockman:
Betty Ann, who to this day works at an Irish pub in Bristol, R.I., was shy and guarded. She seemedreluctant to portray herself as a high school dropout or a hero. Being a single mom was not a big deal,she said. Neither was dedicating herself to her brother’s case. It’s what you do for family, right? Shedidn’t seem to be looking for fame. Even so, fame found her.
Betty Ann’s tale became a front-page story in the Globe.
The tale then went viral, and ultimately Betty Ann sold her life rights to agents. Thus, ten years later, thestory is now on the big screen in Conviction, which opened October 15.
In this powerful film, Betty Ann is played by Hillary Swank, an award-winning actress who has used thisopportunity well to showcase her talents. Betty Ann’s brother Kenny is played by Sam Rockwell, and PeterGallagher depicts Barry Scheck. Though all the performances are enthralling, Swank and Rockwellultimately steal the show; in fact, their portrayals alone are reason enough to see the film. Swank losesherself in the role as she really seems to have limited control of her emotions during the most frustratingand intense scenes. Likewise, Rockwell’s fiery rage makes for a riveting performance.
Even the minor characters are refreshing additions. Betty Ann’s classy schoolmate, played by MinnieDriver, is a lot of fun on screen. Likewise, Juliette Lewis does an excellent job as Kenny’s memorable ex-girlfriend.
The film spans a period of nearly 30 years, strewn with flashbacks to the challenging childhood of BettyAnn and Kenny that ultimately cemented the bond between them. These flashbacks are vital, since thenature of the story does not permit Swank and Rockwell to appear together very often.
The court scenes are fairly predictable, full of elusive witnesses and sharp prosecutors, but they serve todepict both the intensely desperate situation in which Kenny finds himself, and the miscarriage of justicethat allowed ambiguous evidence to put a man away for life.
Similarly, Conviction aptly portrays the political and administrative red tape one must fight in order toachieve justice. The scenes of Betty Ann contending with the criminal justice system amply displaySwank’s desperation and angst.
The film also raises questions on priorities and competing family values, as Betty Ann allows her marriageand maternal responsibilities to fall by the wayside in her all-consuming mission to save her brother.
The title is apt on two accounts, addressing not only Kenny’s false conviction, but also Betty Ann’sconviction that her brother did not commit the murder.
It’s important to note that the film contains some gruesome crime-scene imagery, as well as nudity,suicide references, and heavy profanity; however, moviegoers may feel it is redeemed by its positive story.Still, it is not suitable for younger audiences.
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Louisiana Builds Berm “Islands” to Trap Oilwritten by Kelly Taylor-Holt
Since June, the Bayou State has constructed a series of low-lying sand berms by dredging sand from theGulf of Mexico. The attempt to block and capture oil from this summer’s oil spill, caused by a blowout atBP’s Deepwater Horizon well, is under scrutiny for its effectiveness.
According to the Oct. 21 New York Times, federal officials and scientists argue that it’s a pointless effort,the oil having become too dispersed to be captured by the berms. So far the project has captured only1000 of the five million barrels believed to have escaped from the well.
BP Managing Director Bob Dudley joined Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal at a press conference July 7 tocommit “$360 million to construct six sand berms seaward of the Louisiana barrier islands, and promisedthat BP would fund the project through to completion.”
So far, the company has disbursed $240 million to the state.
The NYT’s article quoted Texas A&M University’s Larry McKinney, who heads the Gulf of Mexico researchcenter at Corpus Christi, Texas. “It certainly would have no impact on the diluted oil, which is what we’retalking about now. The probability of their being effective right now is pretty low.”
Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil were captured at the wellhead by BP, burned off by Coast Guardvessels, or recovered by skimming operations.
Some refer to the project as Jindal’s folly, since the amount of oil recovered so far doesn’t justify themoney spent for the effort, but politicos suggest that abandoning the project before completion wouldjeopardize the public perception that Governor Jindal handled the spill in a positive way.
On May 27, Navy Times reported Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen approved Louisiana’s plan to ring itscoastline with a network of six-foot tall sand berms. One location for the berms is along the Chandeleur
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Islands in the Gulf of Mexico and the other is a string of barrier islands west of the Mississippi River at theriver’s delta. But according to the NYT, the Coast Guard has had little or no oversight or involvement inthe countermeasure since then.
At the time of Adm. Allen’s approval, the Army Corps of Engineers objected to the plan, claiming it wouldalter tidal movement, but has since given permission to the state to proceed. The Corps regulates offshoreengineering projects but has little oil-spill expertise.
The berm project has boosted Louisiana’s industry. But the Shaw Group, lead project contractor, based inBaton Rouge, has been one of Jindal’s leading campaign contributors.
Some environmental groups are again complaining, however, that the project isn’t just ineffective, butthat it threatens wildlife, and that the resources could be better used for future coastal restoration.
Louisiana’s coastline has been severely damaged by previous dredging projects, and natural barrierislands are disappearing since the Mississippi River was originally diverted and channeled by levees. Theislands are starved of land-building silt deposited with each yearly flood. Conservationists argue that thedisappearing islands could be bolstered by dredged sand, just as natural processes would have done.
The berm plan originally called for 40 miles of berm, but has been altered to only 22 miles in order to staywithin the $360 million budget. The reduction would ease concerns that the berms were too closetogether, impeding natural tides, and interior bays, harming existing fisheries.
Now that the well is capped, recovery has proceeded much more quickly than expected as naturalprocesses have been allowed to work. Officials question whether the money would be better spentelsewhere.
“Circumstances have changed considerably,” said Thomas L. Strickland, assistant interior secretary forfish and wildlife and parks. “And that would seem to warrant a revisiting of whether or not a continuationof the berm-building is the best use of limited resources, when we’re looking at such substantialrestoration needs that exist in the gulf.”
Beleaguered Louisiana, known for corrupt politics since before the days of the Long brothers, seemspoised for another battle in the aftermath of the oil spill.
Photo: AP Image
Hereafter Poses Life’s Toughest Questionwritten by Raven Clabough
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Hereafter effectively brings spirituality to real-life events, ranging from the now-historic 2004 Indonesiantsunami to the terrorist attacks of a London train station. It highlights the very question nearly everyperson asks, particularly during the most trying times: What happens after death? Hereafter ventures aguess that will help audiences remember their faith.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Hereafter simultaneously tells the story of three people, each heart-wrenching, though in dramatically different ways.
George Lonegan (Matt Damon) was blessed with psychic abilities after he suffered from a menacingcondition as a child, though “blessed” would not be the term George chooses. By the mere touch of thehand, George is able to see another’s pain, and help them to communicate with a lost loved one. Aftermaking a career of his talents, he quickly learned that to encounter another’s pain on a regular basis isdebilitating to his very existence. He decides to resign his position as a well-renowned psychic and takes ajob in a factory, hoping to run away from the “gift” that he calls a “curse.”
Marie Lelay (Cecile De France) was one of the lucky few survivors of the tsunami, though her rescue wasa close-call. Having nearly drowned, Marie teetered on the line between life and death, and in doing so,was given a brief glimpse of the afterlife. Days and months after the close encounter with death, Mariecannot help but wonder whether her vision was in fact real, or a mere hallucination brought about by herunconsciousness. Her intense confusion gives way to an all-out investigation.
Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren) is the younger of twins, by a mere 12 minutes. His brother, Jason, istragically taken when he is hit by a speeding vehicle, leaving Marcus alone to deal with his mother, who isaddicted to drugs and alcohol. Shortly after Jason’s death, Marcus’ mom decides to relinquish care of herson to children’s protective services so that she may seek proper care for her addictions, but Marcuscannot help feeling abandoned by his mother and brother. Desperate to speak to his brother yet again, heattempts to enlist the help of George Lonegan, a man who wishes to forget that he has the ability tocommunicate to the dead.
One character trait shared among all three characters is the absence of faith and religion. George, Marie,and Marcus find themselves searching for answers as they are confronted by elements in their lives larger
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than themselves.
People of faith are fortunate to take refuge in the knowledge that we are small components of a largerplan — that life for a good person can culminate in a serene, pure afterlife. Without belief in such acomforting notion, George, Marie, and Marcus search for answers, eventually finding consolation in eachother.
What’s most notable, however, is that the answer they discover is God, though they may not quite know it.Yet people of faith will watch and know that the serendipitous meetings of these individuals could onlyhave been guided by the hand of God.
Likewise, the film seems to attempt to confirm the existence of God through rational research. Suddenlyquestioning her secular world view, Marie visits a doctor whose experiences in a hospice facility forcedher to confront her own atheism. The doctor explained to Marie, “As a scientist and an atheist, my mindwas closed to such things.” However, the doctor reveals that patients claiming to have had near-deathexperiences tend to describe similar experience, whether they were raised to believe in a higher power ornot. The doctor explains that once she opened her mind, the answer to life’s toughest questions was sosimple: There is a God.
Because the film addresses such spiritual questions, it is a peculiar decision on the part of the film’swriters to give a quasi-natural explanation to a supernatural endowment by attributing George’s psychicabilities to his childhood disease.
Despite the film’s title, it is important to note that Hereafter is less about the afterlife and more aboutgrief and the search for answers. However, when it is depicted and described on film, the afterlife appearssimilar to Heaven, a place of light. During one of George’s rare psychic encounters, he’s told that theafterlife is a place where “You can be all things at once.”
The film also criticizes the illegitimate “psychics” who, with no real psychic abilities, attempt to profit offothers’ grief. This is particularly evident when Marcus is portrayed in a montage of psychic visits, eachproving to be more bogus than the last.
Hereafter opens with a spectacular recreation of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. In fact, theatricality is ahigh point for Hereafter, as many of the quickest scenes pack the biggest punch.
Where the movie suffers is in the clumsy and sloppy conclusion. The plot’s ending seems to close conflictsthat were not apparent from the beginning, and wraps an all-too perfect bow around the story.
Damon continues to astound audiences with his incredible talent, evident in Hereafter. His performance isconvincing, as he aptly depicts a man torn by self-doubt and a desire to assist others alongside the naturalhuman instinct of self-preservation. His character’s love of Charles Dickens is artfully portrayed when heboth listens to Dickens’ book readings and as he participates in a tour of Dickens’ home in England.
The other actors, however, appeared devoid of real emotion. In the case of Cecile De France, her storylineis not as emotional as it is intellectual, providing her emotional leeway in her performance. George andFrankie McLaren, however, are seemingly ill-equipped to perform in such dramatically intense roles,perhaps coasting on their precious and generally melancholic looks.
Overall, despite the few low points, Hereafter is a great movie. Each narrative is simplistic, yet full of
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profoundly real conflict, to which any moviegoer can relate, specifically the fear of death and theunknown. Hereafter does not include much action, instead focusing on internal conflicts and emotionalstruggles. Much of the film is overwhelmingly sad, but so true to life.
Hoplophobia is Curablewritten by Bob Adelmann
Jennifer Willis exhibited all the symptoms of hoplophobia in explaining her return to sanity in her article inSalon magazine, “I Was Anti-gun, Until I Got Stalked.”
I’m afraid of guns…I abhor them. I used to date a guy who owned a handgun … I madehim move [his] small gun safe…to another room….
The idea of owning a gun made me sick to my stomach … I dreamed that people were pointing double-barreled shotguns at me.
These are all classic symptoms of hoplophobia, defined by author and firearms instructor Colonel JeffCooper as “an unreasoning, obsessive neurotic fear of weapons as such, usually accompanied by anirrational feeling that weapons possess a will or consciousness for evil, apart from the will of their user.”
Alan Korwin of GunLaws.com further defined the condition as that which “may cause sweating, faintness,discomfort, rapid pulse, nausea, sleeplessness, nondescript fears [and] more at the mere thought of guns.Presence of working firearms may cause a panic attack.”
This phobia was exhibited by another writer at Salon magazine a few years ago, Sallie Tisdale, whoexpressed her anti-gun point of view in a vitriolic diatribe, holding that the Second Amendment needed tobe abolished, and all weapons of any kind whatsoever be eliminated entirely.
Imagine your worst nightmare, your scariest neighbor, your angriest employee or the most
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frightening student at your child’s high school loading up on ammo this weekend at a conventioncenter near you. It’s perfectly legal. It happens all the time, and we act as though there is nothing wecan do about it….
I am unmoved by claims of freedom, lifestyle or privacy in this realm….
I am afraid of guns. I am afraid of people who like guns, own guns … I am a little scared all the time….
I no longer want gun control. I want an absolute ban on the manufacture, sale, possession and use ofhandguns … I realize there must be exceptions.The police needs guns…
Willis, happily, had a brush with reality which turned into a wake-up call. She was being stalked by a manwho expressed his interest in her through a series of phone calls, emails, and gifts sent to her in the mail.In one of the more recent emails the stalker mentioned knowing about a trip she took recently which shehad told no one about, and that’s when an LEO (law enforcement officer) who responded to her callsuggested that she purchase and learn to use a handgun for self-defense. Oregon is a “shall-issue” statewhich means that a concealed weapons permit or license to carry concealed must be issued if theapplicant meets certain criteria under the law. The LEO reassured Willis: “Getting a concealed carrypermit isn’t hard. And they make ladies’ purses with concealed weapons compartments.”
Willis wrote of her change of mind about carrying. She said, “I believe in compassion and peace … thevery idea of a gun was a compromise of my principles.” Her boyfriend provided the incentive when heasked her: “Which would you prefer, compromising your principles or getting abducted by Crazy Man?”
She finally “got it.” She applied for her CCW and now carries for self-defense. She put it aptly: “I can stillbe the compassionate, diplomatic, interfaith groovy gal I’ve always been; I’ll just be packing heat in casenegotiations tank.” In her article she warned her would-be abductor: “I’m not as afraid of my stalker as Iused to be … I’m armed now, with more than words and good intentions. He keeps sending upsettingletters, but if he ever pays me a visit — Jenny’s got a gun, and she knows how to use it.”
It is hoped that Willis has had a chance to influence Tisdale’s highly emotional hoplophobia to bring herback to reality as well. Massad Ayoob, author of In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm inPersonal Protection, reminds his readers that “the only real [gun] control exists, not in the law books, butin the individual conscience of the citizen who chooses to arm himself against the grave and presentdanger of personal, criminal assault.
I can…remember the words of my father on the day I turned twenty-one and applied for my first pistolpermit. On that occasion, he presented me with a Smith & Wesson .38 snub nose, and a piece ofadvice that would guide my own approach to armed defense: “I hope…you never need to use it,” hetold me. “But if you ever do — don’t miss!”
Cuccinelli: Obama Worse Than George IIIwritten by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli understands the difference between unpopular andunconstitutional. During a speech October 21 at the Fall 2020 Legal Strategy Forum sponsored by theHeritage Foundation, Cuccinelli told attendees, “We don’t sue because we don’t like things. That is whatelections are for.”
To support his thesis, Cuccinelli gave listeners a little lesson in the early history of the Republic. It is rarethat a politician would mention the words “Intolerable Acts” and King George III in a presentation to legalprofessionals, but those unusual references are what make Ken Cuccinelli unique and imbue his remarkswith soberness. In the age in which we live, any time someone says something not meant to be ironic, it isworth noting.
In his discourse, Cuccinelli specifically referenced the lawsuit challenging the individual mandate of thenew healthcare law that his office filed against the Obama Administration on behalf of the Commonwealthof Virginia. (The Heritage Foundation blog, “The Foundry,” notes that the Old Dominion is also suing theEnvironmental Protection Agency for its economically disastrous decision to use the Clean Air Act toregulate greenhouse gases thought to cause climate change).
As Cuccinelli noted in his speech, the First Continental Congress passed bills authorizing the boycott ofBritish goods. This historic stand was regarded as a legitimate act of defiance by self-governing coloniesagainst the tyranny of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
King George III, riled by the effrontery of his American subjects, sought the advice of his ministersregarding the right of colonists to thus obstruct the King’s will. His Majesty was informed that there wasno royal prerogative permitting him to force his subjects to purchase any specific commodity. The analogyis obvious.
“The power of the United States government under the Constitution must be smaller than that of KingGeorge,” concluded Cuccinelli.
Like the government of King George, the national government of the United States has for decadesdisregarded constitutional checks on the limited powers granted to it. With the Supreme Court andCongress as willing accomplices, one administration after another has taken the inch of limited powergiven them and stretched it into a mile of boundless despotism.
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To his credit, Cuccinelli called out these usurpers. He cited a response given earlier in the day by formerSolicitor General Walter Dellinger, who, when asked to identify the boundaries of the power of the federalgovernment, replied that the only boundary was politics. “Congress could force you to buy cars,” Dellingerclaimed.
That Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court would crave such power and perform whateverillegitimate act necessary to satisfy that craving is, by now, not remarkable. What is remarkable, however,is the notion that gradually, incrementally, the American people are becoming inured to such tyrannicalabuses. While we rant and rave against “big government” and “socialists,” every couple of years weinexplicably re-elect the co-conspirators (or their sympathizers) to represent us in Congress. As the sayinggoes, “He may be a closet socialist, but he’s my closet socialist.”
Kudos to Attorney General Cuccinelli for infusing his discourse with lessons from our own history, whichin the historical perspective, didn’t happen very long ago. With his apparent understanding of history andthe Constitution, however, he must realize that it is folly to rely on the federal courts to impede thenational government’s road to absolutism. A man of his wisdom should know that the only sure andconstitutionally sound means of accomplishing this vital mission is for the states to steadfastly reasserttheir sovereignty and to nullify all unlawful acts of the central government.
Photo: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
