DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: BREACH OF TRUST
SUBSECTION: MORALITY
Revised 8/15/99
MORALITY
8/7/98 Bruce Bartlett National Center for Policy Analysis "As Bill Clinton fights the various scandals he has become embroiled in, he is looking more and more like Richard Nixon every day. On the surface he seems secure, but it is all superficial; underneath, termites are destroying the foundation of Clinton's viability. .Also in 1973, Congress became alarmed over Nixon's use of executive orders to implement policies it refused to legislate. A series of articles in the New York Times in March 1973 detailed the growth of what came to be called the "imperial presidency." Among the charges: Nixon declined to spend appropriated funds as Congress directed; in foreign affairs, he refused to send treaties to the Senate for ratification, as the Constitution requires, implementing them instead through executive agreements. And as we well remember, Nixon took an expansive view of "executive privilege" in order to hinder investigations into Watergate. Turning to today, we see ominous parallels. Although Clinton's poll ratings are still high, around 63 percent, the public has yet to be fully informed about the extent of his efforts to coverup wrongdoing in the Monica Lewinsky case. .What is holding up the polls is the belief that economic conditions are still robust. But here also, there are warning signs. The stock market has fallen sharply in the last two weeks and real GDP growth has dropped from a torrid 5.5 percent rise in the first quarter of 1998 to an anemic 1.4 percent in the second. Although Clinton's economists, like Nixon's, see this as a temporary falloff, increasing numbers of private economists are starting to use the "R" word: recession. Finally, like Nixon, Clinton has greatly expanded presidential power through the use of executive orders that infringe on the Congress's legislative power. Historian James MacGregor Burns calls it the greatest expansion of presidential power in history. It is too soon to say if Clinton will be driven from office like Nixon. But the parallels are becoming too similar to ignore."
New York Post 8/11/98 Dick Morris "THE tobacco bill is dead. Clinton's education reform proposals are destroyed. The president's call to expand Medicare and child care is forgotten. Abroad, India tests its nuclear weapons with impunity and Netanyahu feels no pressure to talk peace. In Kosovo, Serbian armies advance unrestrained and once again the West is helpless. These political development reflect the reality that President Clinton's moral authority - finally vested in him by a shaken country in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City tragedy - has been revoked, sharply and suddenly, by the American people.."
Chicago Tribune 9/6/98 Stephen Chapman " .Clinton's likely legacy is the enduring diminution of the office he holds. There is no doubt that his personal moral authority has been squandered: No one could listen to him lecturing Russians on the need for self-discipline and sacrifice without wondering why he doesn't practice such virtues instead of merely preaching them. Until he came along, we assumed presidents would sometimes lie to us. Now, we wonder if the president ever tells the truth, even under oath, and the distrust will outlive this administration.."
New York Times 1/27/99 Alessandra Stanley ".Ignoring the moral lapses of President Clinton, Pope John Paul II flew into in St. Louis on Tuesday and addressed the broader moral failings of the nation. In a crowded airport hangar, the Pope referred to the infamous 1857 Dred Scott case affirming slavery, which was heard in St. Louis, and called it a "time of testing," which the United States failed. "America faces a similar time of trial today," the Pope said. "Today the conflict is between a culture that affirms, cherishes and celebrates the gift of life and a culture that seeks to declare entire groups of human beings -- the unborn, the terminally ill, the handicapped, and others considered 'unuseful' -- to be outside the boundaries of legal protection." ."
Washington Post 2/8/99 Joan Biskupic Freeper tellw ".In courthouses across the country, an unprecedented level of juror activism is taking hold, ignited by a movement of people who are turning their back on the evidence they hear at trial and instead using the jury box as a bold form of civil protest. Whether they are African Americans who believe the system is stacked against them, libertarians who abhor the overbearing hand of government or someone else altogether, these jurors are choosing to ignore a judge's instructions to punish those who break the law because they don't like what it says or how it is being applied to a particular defendant.. In all of these cases, the jury box turned into a venue for registering dissent, more powerful than one vote at the polls and more effective at producing tangible, satisfying results.."
Manchester Union Leader 2/15/99 Richard Lessner ".So this malignancy in our body politic is not to be removed. It will be left to fester and poison our politics, our morals and our values. We will endure the toxic shock of this corrupting influence in our classrooms, courtrooms, state houses and town halls for years to come. We agree with values czar Bill Bennett: William Jefferson Clinton is a malignant presence in American politics and culture. He appeals to all that is mean and base in us. His manifest corruption gives us all an excuse to lower our standards. In excusing the President's misdeeds, we excuse ourselves. Refusing to hold the President accountable, we have failed to hold ourselves responsible as a free and self-governing people. Bill Clinton is a demoralizing influence. He survived impeachment because, before he ever reached this crisis point in his Presidency, he already had so demeaned the standards of his office that the American people retained no higher expectations of him. The most discouraging aspect of this whole squalid affair is not that Americans were tricked or fooled about Bill Clinton's character; it is, rather, that they decided character does not count. Bill Clinton made the trains run on time and the rest does not matter.."
Boston Herald 2/17/99 Beverly Beckham ".``So how do you feel about what happened to President Clinton?'' I asked Xena, who is 12. ``Did anything happen to him, Beverly? I thought nothing did. He's still president, right?'' ``He's still president,'' I said. ``Well, I think he should have been punished, not just embarrassed. I feel sorry for his daughter. I'm glad I'm not her.'' Imagine. Not wanting to be the president's daughter... No wonder we have Bill Clinton in the White House, now nominated for a Nobel Prize, God help us, and Marv Albert about to make his return to sports broadcasting and Stephen Fagan, the lying schemer who stole his daughters from his wife 20 years ago, still walking around, and those daughters, adults now but raised by wrong incarnate, refusing to see their own mother. Woody Allen is admired and Johnnie Cochran is about to appear on a soap opera. (Isn't life just a soap opera?) And Jerry Springer is knocking Oprah off the charts because her shows have turned too goody-goody. The golden rule has been replaced by the golden calf. Never mind conscience and reputation, those things our parents and teachers taught us were paramount. What did they know? The world has changed. Everyone is guilty of something, so no one is guilty of anything.. Too bad there is only one sin in America these days. Light up and the world coughs. Lie to the world, beat up a woman, make a joke of all women, steal your kids, have sex with your kid, defend the indefensible, make a sport of everyone's troubles, and there's not even any throat clearing as the people say, it's not for us to judge.."
Michigan Journalism Fellows and Univ of Michigan Law School 2/23/99 Freeper Hillary's Lovely Legs "...Yesterday I attended the Conference on " Covering Assisted Death 'the Press, The Law and Public Policy". The conference dealt with the showing of the Jack Kevorkian video tape on 60 Minutes, but turned it to a free-for-all of death and hate. I would like to share with you some quotes from the event. From Faye Girsh, Exec Director of the Hemlock Society: " What we need is to show more real death on TV. To bring it into people's homes. We need to force the issue". On the topic of anti doctor suicide commercials " Anti Commercials should not be allowed, because the anti crowd has more money and missinforms the public" The main tone of the 12 member panel was we need to kill as many people as possible. Comfort care and pain relief are no longer an option, people need to ask their doctor to kill them without fear that it is wrong. Death is a beautiful thing and should be celebrated with your friends and family, much like a wedding. ( I am not making this up ) ... Mike Wallace was heckled by a group of disabled people in wheelchairs called " Not Dead Yet". He refered to them as YOU PEOPLE. They didn't take kindly to this term. Mr Wallace suddenly broke into a rage at ' YOU PEOPLE" and said " YOU PEOPLE ARE THE PROPBLEM!!!" Mr 60 Minutes also layed into one of the Trustees of the American Medical association, who does not support doctors killing patients, and said " Doctors are leaving your association in droves because of your backward thinking." It was mentioned more than once that Assisted Death would be popular in the future because the boomers will be sucking the medical resources dry. Considering this conference was 90% pro, and 10% against, I think that I was lucky to get out of there without a slow drip of death being shoved into my veins...."
The Toronto Sun 2/23/99 Michael Harris "...Power protects power, no matter what. Whenever this happens, any living, breathing notion of justice dies a hard death. The Bill Clinton story is about privilege and cowardice. That's why he was able to lie his way out of felonies. That's why he was permitted to bomb aspirin factories and rain missiles on Iraq under the pretense of national security, when the real issue was personal security. And it's why he almost managed to rape a woman in Arkansas without anyone being the wiser -- at least in polite media circles. Whatever small lustre attached to this profession comes from the giant-killer factor. A journalist, a victim and the truth occasionally prevail against the corrupt might of the establishment to the benefit of everyone. For anyone who has actually done it, it is the glory of the business; having the means, the colleagues and the courage to stand up and tell the story when no one in authority wants to hear it. NBC had the means but not the courage in the Juanita Broaddrick affair....Raising the bar for Bill is turning into a favourite American pastime. Despite the felonies for which Clinton was impeached, Democratic senators insisted that they didn't rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanours. It was their conduct that didn't rise to the level of integrity intended in their oath to dispense impartial justice. They let a popular president go for partisan reasons. They pretended that the subject matter of the Lewinsky scandal was too sleazy to even be heard on the Senate floor..... "
Fow Newswire 2/23/99 Jim Fitzgerald (AP) "...Three Roman Catholic families are suing a school district, claiming fourth-grade vocabulary words such as "ghoul,'' Earth Day celebrations and drug counseling violate their religious and privacy rights. The families also object to the study of a Hindu god, a field trip to a cemetery and a card game with satanic references. "There are two standards,'' said James Bendell, the families' attorney. "Any trace of Christianity must be banished, but teachers are free to smuggle in Eastern religions and any other forms (of belief).'' Bendell made the remarks during opening statements Monday in the federal court trial. Satanism, occultism and New Age religions were being fostered, he said...."
Investor's Business Daily 2/25/99 John Berlau Freeper heyduke "...When asked about President Clinton's acquittal, the leaders of some of America's top-performing companies voice opinions that are a photographic negative of the general public's. While polls show about two-thirds of the American people agreed with the Senate's verdict, 67.9% of chief executives and chief financial officers in a recent Investor's Business Daily poll strongly or somewhat disagreed. An even higher share, 89.6%, said they would not tolerate behavior similar to Clinton's - a senior executive having an affair with an intern - in their workplaces..."
WorldNetDaily 9/7/98 Joseph Farah "If you read between the lines of what Bill Clinton is saying, these days, he has already come to grips with losing power. "Do you have any idea how much time I spend every day signing my name? I'm going to feel utterly useless if I can't do that anymore," he said in Ireland last week in little noticed comments. "You know, by the time you become the leader of a country, someone else makes all the decisions," he said last week. "You may find you can get away with virtual presidents, virtual prime ministers, virtual everything." .I submit to you that Clinton has been given the word that he's through. I don't mean by the Congress or Kenneth Starr. I think he's been told he's finished by someone in that invisible ruling elite that empowered him to reign in the first place. The handwriting is on the wall. He may pretend to be president for awhile longer, but the coup is under way. As my friend, Missy Kelly, an extraordinary researcher and political analyst, who connects the dots better than anyone I know put it: "Bill's job was to pretend -- pretend he was the leader, pretend he was in charge -- maintain the facade as a virtual president in a virtual democracy where a virtual rule of law exists. In fact, the levers of power were already controlled -- controlled so precisely, in fact, as to make the president irrelevant, controlled by people who have never been elected to office, and whose names we do not even know." ."
Jewish World Review 9/7/98 Larry Elder "."Guilty or not, we love you, O.J." The sign -- held by a black woman outside of the O.J. Simpson criminal courtroom -- still chills. During a ceremony honoring Martin Luther King, a black speaker told a scandal-weary President Clinton that blacks stand by him "through thick and thin." They do. The president's job approval rating among blacks? Eighty-five percent! Blacks feel that Clinton "feels our pain." Good thing, because here are 15 ways he increased it. 9. Treatment of black "friends." The president, it appears, did not tell close friend Vernon Jordan about the significance of Monica Lewinsky as Jordan sought job offers for her. Secretary Betty Currie, perhaps illegally, retrieved the president's gifts to Monica Lewinsky. For their loyalty, Jordan and Currie appeared before a grand jury, incurring legal bills. With friends like President Clinton ... 15. War on cigarettes. A higher percentage of lower-income people smoke. Smokers bear the brunt of tax increases to fight teen smoking or whatever "problem" government wishes to attack with cigarette tax revenues. Some cities use "sin taxes" to build sports stadiums for rich owners and players. And the "sinners" who help build the stadiums can't even smoke there! ."
AP Ron Fournier 9/11/98 "On couches and chairs in President Clinton's private quarters, his Cabinet sat and listened to the boss apologize, request forgiveness, refer to scripture and pledge to improve as a person. Then it was his turn to listen to them. ``To say it is one thing,'' Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala told Clinton, ``to demonstrate it is another.'' He must have a change of heart, a commitment to self-improvement, she said. ``You have to make it right.'' ``You're right,'' the president replied. .Those four - Shalala, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Education Secretary Richard Riley and Commerce Secretary William Daley - have the most reason to be upset with Clinton. All four avoided TV cameras after Thursday's meeting. Daley, said by administration officials to be the angriest Cabinet member, kept a previously scheduled engagement instead of attending the session..Clinton made several comments that suggested he believes his policies are more important than his personal behavior. ``Is that what you are saying?'' Shalala asked. ``Surely, both are important.'' The president replied that if personal behavior was more important, Richard Nixon would have defeated John Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. The participants said Clinton's remark was an observation, not a rebuke, and his Cabinet was not sure what to make of it; the subject moved abruptly to talk about the scripture. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was equally blunt with Clinton, taking issue with his behavior. Riley also seemed upset at Clinton, participants said.."
RAGE Limbaugh Letter 9/98 ".And it is there, my friends, that the root of the rage exists. This man, Bill Clinton, has lied to people and about people from the moment he came on the national scene. The lie is his best friend. The lie is who he goes to bed with at night. The lie is who he wakes up with in the morning. It is his security blanket. The lie has gotten him where he is. The lie has propelled him to the highest office in the land. Why should he stop relying on it now? I don't think that he will. I've never seen someone to whom the truth is a bigger enemy. And he has yet to pay a price for it. That is the fundamental explanation for the rage. It gets far more detailed and, and complex, but that's the basic root..It's been seven years of deception -- and there is never any accountability. This Administration is a lie. This President's objectives and goals are lies. There are people who know this, and they are beyond frustrated that there are people who are willing to withstand that and accept that, simply because of the party he belongs to. None of this is understood by the people who cover the President..The people in this country, the 30 percent who are angry and can't wait to vote, are the people who believe in God and they're told they're extremists because they believe in God. These are people who look at the Constitution and they see an Amendment there, the Second Amendment, and when they say so they're told they're extremist murderers. They're told the reason the country is on its last legs is because they believe in an Amendment to the Constitution. Because they believe in God. These people have been defamed, they have been lied about, they have been mischaracterized, and nobody has stood up to defend them. And they can't defend themselves; they are individuals living and working and making the country work. People they elected didn't defend themselves when they were summarily charged, and they, in effect, didn't defend their voters. That's why the outrage is out there. And it's building. And that's why these people can't wait to get to the polls and do whatever it is they can to throw the people out who are responsible for the depths below the gutter to which the people who are running the country are sinking.."
American Family Association (AFA.net) 3/2/99 "…The battle in this country between those holding to traditional morality and those espousing hedonism has reached a fever pitch, manifested in no clearer terms that the ideological conflict over homosexuality…. There may be no area of debate that causes blood pressures to escalate more rapidly than the question of whether public schools should teach children about homosexuality. Now the homosexual community has thrown down the gauntlet by unveiling a video entitled It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School, and as its title implies, the video is aimed at the educational establishment. The video is produced by Helen Cohen and Debra Chasnoff, the latter an Academy Award-winning documentary producer. In 1992 Chasnoff became the first woman to openly declare her lesbianism at the Oscars. The producers went into six elementary and middle schools where teachers and principals are already force-feeding children with pro-gay grist. The narrator says the educators allowed the filming "in the hope of inspiring other educators and parents to take the next step in their own school communities to teach children respect for all." …When It’s Elementary is not pointing the finger at bigoted parents in general, it zeroes in on Christians in particular: the Christian view of homosexuality is highlighted as an example of outrageous bigotry. In one sequence of clips from TV talks shows, two apparent Christians present the view of their faith. One says, "God hates fags." The other: "The Bible that I read says homosexuals should be put to death." …"
The Baltimore Press 6/28/99 Les Kinsolving "...John Berry, President Clinton's Assistant Secretary of the Interior, surely has an astonishing sense of historical proportion. The Washington Times reports that Secretary Berry, during a speech in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, announced that the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence and the Battle of Gettysburg are comparable to (Are you sitting down?), the riot at a homosexual bar! Secretary Berry was on hand for the Clinton Administration's adding the Stonewall Bar to the National Register of Historic Places. And he declared: "The last week of June and the first week of July (of 1969) are hallowed (meaning holy or sacred) days for our country's history. It was the heat of the summer's night here at Stonewall that led to the creation of a new civil rights movement for America."....In actuality, the Stonewall Bar was moved upon by the New York Police Department because they were breaking the law, in selling liquor without a license. A mob of militant homosexuals, who far outnumbered the police, furiously pelted the cops with rocks, bottles and garbage can lids. (Picketer's Charge?)..."
Rutherford Institute John Whitehead 8/13/98 "As the clock ticks inexorably toward the end of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigations and the pace of startling allegations and revelations seems to gain speed, we come to a realization about the role of the presidency in our lives: where once we looked to the President to elevate our image of ourselves as Americans, we are faced instead with one who mirrors our culture and reminds us of our very human weaknesses and flaws. ."
Dee Dee Myers Time 8/31/98 ".The President's relationship with Monica Lewinsky was so reckless as to seem pathological. He knew the consequences of getting caught, but he went ahead. For 18 months. In the West Wing of the White House. When he was caught, he put all his chips on the same kind of artfully worded, misleading denials that had snatched him from the brink of disaster before. And for seven months he put his family, his friends, his staff and his supporters through hell.."
Washington Times Jerry Seper 8/25/98 "Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's report to Congress contains "a mountain of evidence" that President Clinton perjured himself about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and obstructed justice by trying to cover it up.."Prosecutors have put together a mountain of evidence in this case, much of which has not been reported, and I would bet it will surprise and shock a lot of people," said one lawyer familiar with the investigation. "This is an eight-month investigation that has left no stone unturned.". "
Morality In Media newsletter 12/98 ".Justice Department data obtained recently by Morality in Media show that U.S. Attorneys in fiscal 1997 began only six prosecutions in which Federal obscenity violations were the lead charge, down from 42 in 1992, a drop of 86% in the first five years of the Clinton Administration. Not surprisingly, a leading porn video distributor told TV Guide this year that "Prsident Clinton is a total supporter of the industry." MIM President Robert W. Peters said in a nationally distributed news release October 19, "The single most important reason that pornography is boomiing today is the scandalously poor record of Federal obscenity law enforcement. ... This is the Clinton failure that hurts America far more than the Monica Lewinsky affair." Justice Department data show that the 93 U.S. Attorneys around the country initiated 223 lead-charge obscenity prosecutions during President Bush's four- year term but only 105 such prosecutions in the first five years of the Clinton administration as enforcement declined sharply. ."
Washington Post AP 9/3/98 David Espo " In a somber speech on the Senate floor, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Thursday that President Clinton's behavior with Monica Lewinsky was ``immoral and it is harmful'' and Clinton deserves public rebuke. ``In this case, the president apparently had extramarital relations with an employee half his age and did so in the workplace in the vicinity of the Oval Office,'' Lieberman said. Such behavior, he said, ``is harmful for it sends a message of what is acceptable behavior to the American public.'' .Democratic leaders had hoped he would avoid speaking, but within moments after he concluded, two fellow Democrats rose to praise him for it. Lieberman said that Clinton ``had by his disgraceful behavior jeopardized his administration's historic record of accomplishment.'' His speech were laced with remarks about the morality of Clinton's behavior. ``The president's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky not only contradicted the values he has publicly embraced over the last six years,'' Lieberman said. ``It has, I fear, compromised his moral authority.'' "
Scripps Howard News Service Lance Gay 9/4/98 "By taking to the Senate floor and talking about immorality rather than narrow legal issues like subornation of perjury, President Clinton's longtime political ally Sen. Joseph Lieberman dealt the White House a lethal blow..The powerful message Lieberman sent was that in the political arena, where impeachment issues are decided, it will be Clinton's moral fitness to be president that will be decisive if the issue comes to the Senate floor.."
USA Journal 12/20/98 Jon E. Dougherty ".Two high-ranking officials - President Clinton and House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston - fell from grace and power as admissions of extramarital sex reared their ugly heads, forcing - yes, forcing - members of Congress to `do the right thing.' One other event was societal. In Stow, Ohio, city fathers may have to remove a picture of a Christian cross and an open Bible from the city seal because the meddling American Civil Liberties Union sued to have it removed. The tragedies of these two events ought to be obvious, but unfortunately they are not to many Americans who still believe in the very mortal elites who position themselves high above us all in Ivory Towers. However, because there is a debate at all about these events proves that the country has not completely lost its soul. Anguishing over whether or not to stand for old-fashioned morality, the majority of House Republicans accepted Livingston's resignation then turned to the business of impeaching the liar Clinton. Though tens of millions of Americans have criticized House members who indeed were agonizing over what to do about these two men, it occurred to me that we should be grateful that they were tormented at all. If the kind of morality supported by Bill Clinton, socialist Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union were the norm instead of the exception, then House Republicans would have had nothing to "anguish" over and would have likely decided to let Clinton slide. They had already decided to do so for Livingston, who admitted just a day earlier that he was a serial adulterer. But alas, the pressure on them - and on Livingston - to repent was just too great. That's a plus for the moral majority.."
Roll Call 1/16/99 Mort Kondracke ".Just what is the state of the Union? Economically, it's strong. Socially, it's improving. But culturally? If Larry Flynt is a force in politics and the President is popular while on trial for perjury, the country is in some kind of trouble. The culture can't be healthy if Jerry Springer's program is TV's most-watched talk show and if radio trash-mouth Don Imus is lionized by Newsweek as a major power in American media. Things aren't great if news broadcasts are loaded with talk about oral sex, semen and cigars; if full-frontal nudity, graphic violence and the f-word are staples of the movies; if music videos advocate rape and mutilation; if attack ads are the currency of politics; and if ordinary citizens routinely yell and give each other the finger on the roadways. And yet, there is considerable reason for people to think that things are on the right track. In fact, the new conventional wisdom is that things are hunky-dory in America..."
Salon Freeper blackbag reports 7/20/99 "…According to a porn star quoted in Salon Magazine (paraphrased) Clinton's leadership by example and open sexuality has paved the way for white collar guys to enter the porn industry…"
The Weekly Standard 7/26/99 Adam Wolfson "...In 1981, a small book [After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre] appeared from a university press that looked at the modern world and saw nothing but disarray. Indeed, in the author's view, morality as such had nearly vanished, and the collapse of intelligible moral discourse marked a serious "degeneration" and "cultural loss." Arguing that a "new dark ages" had fallen upon us, he claimed we are under the governance of "barbarians." And, in an odd little concluding chapter in which he pointed out a curious parallel in the thought of St. Benedict and Leon Trotsky, he suggested that the only solution is quarantine, a breaking up of the world into small local communities in which civility might be preserved. Only a new St. Benedict-or a new Trotsky-can possibly save us..."
Insight Magazine 7/16/99 Stephen Goode "...For the generation that came of age during the Depression and won World War II, the traditional values of duty, honor, patriotism and sacrifice were second nature......No wonder that in 1945, at the war's end, British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill declared: "The United States stands at this moment at the summit of the world." And no wonder, too, that in a recent book, The Greatest Generation, NBC Nightly News anchorman Tom Brokaw called the men and women who came of age during the Depression and went on to fight World War II in the next decade "the greatest generation" this nation had ever seen . . . It was "a generation of towering achievement and modest demeanor," Brokaw declared, a generation for which sacrifice was a key word, unquestioned and serious sacrifice of time and effort, of limb and sometimes even of life itself for virtues such as patriotism, honor, duty and responsibility. Nearly 292,000 Americans lost their lives in battle. There was a total of 1.7 million injuries. ..."
CNSNews.com 7/22/99 William Lind "...America today is increasingly a conquered nation. What has conquered us? An ideology --specifically, the hideous ideology known as Political Correctness, which is really Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms....Here is where the difficulty arises. In science, when reality and theory clash, the theory is revised. But in politics, such revision is considered heresy by the ideologues (In Marxism, "revisionist" was a nasty insult). In their view, the theory is incapable of error. Therefore, reality must be denied, and suppressed. Anyone who recognizes it must be silenced, and punished. The result, as we have seen in Germany, in Russia and elsewhere, is the end of freedom and the growth of tyranny. In terms of the clash between theory and reality, Political Correctness is an extreme ideology, because it is an ideology of total inversion. Beliefs and social relationships are not merely changed, but turned upside down. The old sins, such as sex outside marriage, become virtues, while the old virtues, such as disapproval of homosexuality, become sins. Women are elevated over men, some (not all) racial minorities over whites, the sexually deviant over the sexually normal, the young over the old. Art is intended alienate, not to beautify. Paganism is preferred over Christianity. The more violently an ideology conflicts with reality, the more tyrannical it must become. The tyranny of Political Correctness is already seen on many a college campus, where any professor or student who dares question, finds himself in serious trouble. Any public figure who contradicts its dictates must offer a groveling apology or be cast into outer darkness, exiled from the public square. ...."
World Net Daily 7/21/99 Jerome Zeifman "...There are some who look forward to economic superiority through the establishment of a world order led by NATO and the United Nations. They would do well to heed a warning given by Edmund Burke in the 18th century. Although supporting the ascendancy of a British empire on which the sun would never set, he argued that the people of Ireland, the American colonies, and India had God-given rights that neither King George nor Parliament could destroy. As the founder of modern conservatism, Burke warned English mercantilists that economic control of the colonies could not be maintained "by the might of armies, but by the majesty of the law."..... The grandeur of justice is being replaced by the glamour of the main stream media -- with moral judgments determined by public opinion polls...."
Chicago Tribune 7/29/99 Eric Reeves "...The ongoing catastrophe in Sudan stands as the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today... A carefully assembled set of data for the U.S. Committee for Refugees makes evident that almost 2 million people have perished in the most recent phase of Sudan's ongoing civil war. As many as 5 million refugees have been created, making the refugee problem the greatest of its kind in the world. And at the height of last summer's famine, more than 2 million more people, mainly children, were at risk of starvation. And the catastrophe continues: famine, epidemic disease, human enslavement and scorched earth warfare remain defining features of the landscape in the south, where the civil war has been so devastatingly concentrated And yet Americans remain painfully unaware of the catastrophe. How can this be?.... it bears the curse of being in Africa, where any policy success is almost surely destined to be overshadowed by Clinton's abysmal moral failure in the Rwandan genocide. Africa can contribute nothing to the "Clinton legacy" that is being cobbled together, and so--despite its vast geographic, political and cultural variability--a continent has been relegated to the extreme periphery of White House attention....And the news media--television most egregiously, but newspapers as well--have made the marginalizing of Sudan almost effortless. Not one major American newspaper, for example, reported on a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 15 declaring the Khartoum regime's conduct of civil war in the south of Sudan to be "genocidal." Could this have been declared at any time during the past 50 years of any European or Western government without explosive news coverage? Why is Sudan's death struggle so entirely unworthy of national attention? ..."
Long Island Newsday 7/29/99 Mark Simon "...MORALITY? As I have read over the last few weeks of NATO's "moral victory" over Serbian dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, I've reflected on the almost simultaneous, allegedly CIA-aided capture, subsequent conviction and death sentence in Turkey of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan and the moral imperative in U.S. foreign policy. The United States and NATO took nine long years to confront Milosevic over Kosovo, nine years in which the Kosovo Albanians mounted a truly remarkable, nonviolent campaign against Serbian apartheid, aggression and the beginnings of ethnic cleansing-that is, routine harassment, beatings, torture and murder. The Kurds in Turkey, by contrast, don't even have the dubious benefit of a NATO military intervention. Striving for a measure of autonomy, they are up against the Turkish military, with the second largest army in NATO-and the worst human rights record. Why does the West turn a proverbial blind eye? The answer has little to do with morality..... "
U.S. News Online 8/9/99 John Leo "... Traditional values lower the self-esteem of women who believe they are fat, according to studies by University of Michigan psychologists Jennifer Crocker and Diane Quinn. They found that belief in the Protestant work ethic or a conservative ideology-or just being exposed to these values-has a harmful effect. Good news, though: Traditional-value damage may be temporary..... "
Worldnet Daily 8/3/99 David Limbaugh "... It is very telling that Clinton's friends have deified John Dean for ratting on President Nixon -- despite Dean's undeniable criminal complicity -- while demonizing Tripp for ratting on Lewinsky (who was acting as Clinton's dupe to suborn Tripp's perjury). Despite their phony protests, it is not the "betrayal" that bothers these liberals; it's who was being betrayed. It's sublime to betray their nemesis, Nixon, but unspeakably evil to betray their savior, Clinton. Linda Tripp is not a criminal, nor a betrayer of a friend. Friends don't pressure friends to commit felonies, especially on behalf of the President of the United States. Tripp did exactly what any of us would have done if the most powerful man in the world were trying to frame us and his lawyer had falsely accused us of lying on national TV. Can we even comprehend the horror she must have felt? Where is our outrage? Bill Clinton's politics of personal destruction must end. If it hadn't been for Linda Tripp, Clinton would never have been impeached. For that alone, this nation owes Linda Tripp a medal, not an indictment. ..."
The American Enterprise, a National Magazine of Politics, Business, and Culture 9/10 1999 "...Ithaca, New York is a typical college town. A hotbed, in other words, of left-wing Big Brotherism. At Ithaca's Boynton public middle school, all students were recently indoctrinated in a day-long "celebration" of homosexuality. For four school periods there were videos, lectures, and panels featuring gay teachers, parents, and students. "I did not know that I was a lesbian in the seventh grade, but I have since learned to like 'doing it' with a girl," explained one student panelist. "Now that I have 'done it' with both boys and girls I find I like both." At one point, all students were asked to stand in solidarity with homosexuals. When roughly one-third of the 11- and 12-year-olds did so, parents in attendance observed adults and student peers putting pressure on the rest to conform. After lunch, all students returned to their rooms for the remainder of the day for small group discussions led by teachers who organized the presentations. When a number of aprents registered concerns about the all-day seminar with Ithaca School Board President Steve Shiffrin (who is a Cornell law school professor in his day job), he told them that if they didn't like the district's "multicultural" policy they should put their children in private schools. The same school district has just proposed banning the Boy Scouts (and other single-sex groups) from distributing any literature on school property, on the grounds that they are intolerant organizations...."
Heritage Foundation 8/6/99 The Honorable Rick Santorum US Senate "...Ever since Alexis de Tocqueville, foreign observers have consistently noted that the United States is one of the most religious countries on the face of the planet. Year after year, Gallup polls reveal that nearly 90 percent of all Americans consider religion either "very important" or "fairly important"--and even those who don't regard themselves as conventionally religious generally profess to believe in a Supreme Being. On any given Sunday, more Americans are to be found in church than the total number of people who attend professional sports events over the course of an entire year. Although Friedrich Nietzsche famously argued, a century ago, that "God is dead," here in the United States He appears to be alive and thriving. Yet, at the same time that Americans confound secularist predictions about God's imminent demise, we are increasingly reluctant to make critical moral distinctions, when necessary. Whether things are true or false, right or wrong, good or evil doesn't seem to concern us very much any more--so long as we are all pleasant to each another and do nothing to call into question our collective self-esteem. Social critic Michael Novak writes, "I don't know if `judgmentaphobic' is a word, but it ought to be. Where conscience used to raise an eyebrow at our slips and falls, sunny non-judgmentalism winks and slaps us on the In my remarks to you this afternoon, I will examine the paradox of a people that strives to be both religious and non-judgmental. How is it possible, I wonder, to believe in the existence of God yet refuse to express outrage when His moral code is flouted? To have faith in God, but to reject moral absolutes? How is it possible that there exists so little space in the public square for expressions of "faith" and the standards that follow from belief in a transcendent God? How is it possible to be a theist and a relativist, a traditionalist and a post-modernist, a believer and a "judgmentaphobe"--all at the same time? How is it possible to mantain liberty while banishing from the public square any reference to a transcendent moral code? My answer to these questions is that it simply is not possible...."
Heritage Foundation 8/6/99 The Honorable Rick Santorum "...To prevent the new United States from being similarly corrupted over time, its institutions had to be founded on the solid rock of "self-evident truths." Consider the famous words of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident": "Truths"--not "opinions," not "premises," not "assumptions," not "collective myths," not "accepted rules of procedure," not "value-judgments," not "working hypotheses"--but "truths." And what made them truths was that they accorded with what the Declaration calls the "laws of nature and of nature's God." To the Founders, these God-given truths--that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights"--are no more open to discussion or debate than the laws of gravity. They are simply there, part of the created order. And because they are divinely sanctioned, it followed that even if a wicked and depraved majority tried to subvert them in the name of "democracy," the moral minority would be obliged to resist the majority's wishes in the name of moral truth...."
Jewish World Review 8/11/99 Cal Thomas "...THE NEW JERSEY SUPREME COURT'S ruling that the Boy Scouts must admit homosexuals because scouting is a public entity, like police and fire departments, is flawed on legal and moral grounds. Chief Justice Deborah Poritz dismissed assertions by the Boy Scouts that words in the Scout Oath which speak of "morally straight'' and "clean'' constitute a statement against homosexuality and allow the organization to keep homosexuals out. Poritz said she doubts that young boys "ascribe any meaning to these terms other than a commitment to be good.'' The concept of what is good has undergone a transformation. Some years ago, then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo spoke of a state supreme court judge friend of his as a "good man'' after the judge was convicted and sent to prison for threatening to kidnap his ex-lover's daughter. In the past few days, Hillary Rodham Clinton has described her philandering husband as a "good husband and father.'' Luciana Morad, the mother of rock singer Mick Jagger's latest illegitimate child, told Europe's Hello magazine that, even though Jagger has yet to meet his 4-month-old son, he is "a very loving father.'' ........ "
WorldNetDaily 8/11/99 Llewellyn Rockwell "...The New Jersey Supreme Court says the Boy Scouts must accept gays as leaders or else. The theory is that gays should have the same opportunity to join the organization as any one else. But this theory is at odds with the free society. The word liberty conjures up a vision of endless opportunity and choice. But liberty also means the right to exclude because property owners decide questions of access. There is no right to crash a private dinner party, for example. The owners of the house have the right to invite or not invite on any grounds. Similarly, there is no right to invade a private organization. Yet the right to exclude has been under attack in American law for decades. The New Jersey Supreme Court defined the Boy Scouts as a "public accommodation," and thus subject to New Jersey anti-discrimination law, which specially protects gays. Note that there is nothing the Boy Scouts could have done to avoid this special designation, apart from going out of business. But the designation means that government decides who can and cannot be excluded from entry, which is no different from a homeowner being forced to invite Kosovo refugees or some other politically favored group to dinner The courts might respond that the Boy Scouts serve the "public" whereas a homeowner serves himself. But there is no such thing as the "public" as such. Hotels and restaurants do not offer service indiscriminately. They turn people away when they are full, for example, or exclude people because of their dress or drunkenness...."
WorldNetDaily 8/11/99 Llewellyn Rockwell "...Here in a nutshell is the basis on which liberty and property are undermined in America every day. Victimization: if a group can plead supposed bourgeois prejudice, it can gain special privileges granted by government. Equality: a notion more applicable to arithmetic than human beings, now so expansively applied that it overrules every other consideration of life. Discrimination: a word that once meant good judgement, now distorted into a sin. What if the Boy Scouts had decided to exclude, say, racists as Scout masters. Would the courts have intervened on behalf of, for example, a Klan member's right to join? Not on your life. This is not an equal application of the law, but one that favors interest groups approved by government. For that reason, the temptation is to defend the religious grounds on which the Boy Scouts exclude gays....."
APB online 8/12/99 James Gordon Meek "...Incidents of misconduct among FBI employees shot up by nearly half last year, according to a report issued by the bureau. From Oct. 1, 1997, to Sept. 30, 1998, 615 investigations ended in disciplinary action against 301 workers, up from 212 the year before, according to a report issued by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). The infractions ranged from downloading pornography on bureau computers to a road rage incident in which an agent pulled a weapon on a deputy sheriff during a traffic altercation, the report said. All told, 32 employees, including 11 special agents, were dismissed, and two dozen were allowed to resign or retire, according to the report, which was distributed to approximately 27,800 FBI employees. The report left unclear why the special agents were fired and does not link specific misconduct allegations to the punishments cited....."
Washington Times National Weekly Edition 8/9-15/99 Matthew Rarey "...When Somerville, N.J., obstetrician Dr. James Delahunty met Deborah Campano in 1993, she was 21 weeks pregnant-with a problem. There was a thickening of skin around the neck of her unborn son, a possible sign of Down syndrome. He says he offered her an amniocentesis. She says he did not. Five years and $1.85 million later, the doctor was on the losing side of a "wrongful-birth" lawsuit, one of a growing number of such cases around the country. "Some women want to kill their children because they are handicapped," said Dr. Delahunty, founder of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "If genetic tests give them the wrong results, they blame the doctor. I was blamed." A mounting number of obstetrician/gynecologists are being sued by patients who say they would have had abortions if prenatal tests had detected fetal abnormalities. "This is directly contrary to our national and state policies promoting the lives and livelihoods of people with disabilities" said Clark Forsythe, president of Chicago-based Americans United for Life. "What we're dealing with here is the promotion of eugenics as a birth policy whereby doctors are sued for not weeding out the 'unfit.'"...."