ACLU In The News

[Soldier4Christ]

Those of us that are old enough I am sure remember who the Weathermen were. For those of you who aren't, no I am not talking about the people that report the weather on TV, it was a home-grown terrorist of the late 60's to early 70's. An article That I find to be very interesting. I also find it interesting that other supporters of the ACLU and anti-American groups were also members of similar groups in that time era, people like John Kerry.

Myself and a group of other sailors had a run-in with this terrorists group at my very first duty station, Naval Communications Station, Stockton, CA. I remember them quite well. They crossed a river and broke into our armory, stealing quite a few weapons. We managed to capture some of them and regain about half of the stolen arsenal.

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Terrorist Employed By ACLU?
by Jay on 03-06-06 @ 1:29 pm Filed under ACLU, War On Terror, News

Something..and Half of Something inform us of this story about a radical organization called the Weathermen, and how thirty six years ago today three of their members killed themselves in attempt to blow up a dance at Fort Dix. The Weathermen’s hatred of the United States manifested itself in the bombings of the U.S. Capitol building, New York City Police Headquarters, the Pentagon, and the National Guard offices in Washington, D.C.

    The Weathermen were radicals. They wanted their people to get involved, demonstrate, get arrested and force change down the throat of the “establishment.” They fought at the Democratic Presidential Convention in 1968 and converged in Chicago in 1969 for an event that came to be known as “Days of Rage.” The more violent extremists during that era were responsible for a score of bombings in places like Harvard University, various corporate headquarters and a number of government institutions. They praised Charles Manson and freed Dr. Timothy Leary from prison. Wherever there was violence and chaos in the name of dissent, the Weathermen were there.

    At a “War Council” in Flint, Michigan in 1969, their leader Bernardine Dohrn praised the serial murderer Charles Manson: “Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim’s stomach. Wild.” She then proclaimed that the time had come to launch the war against “Amerikkka” (the Weathermen always spelled America this way) and to form a Weather Underground to carry out terrorist activities.

Oh, did we mention?

    For those of you who might be wondering where the rest of the Weathermen are, you need only look to our Universities, Bar Associations, and, the ACLU. That’s right. The ACLU. The unrepentant Dohrn is currently a law professor at Northwestern University. She also serves on the Board of the American Civil Liberties Union and committees of the American Bar Association. Her husband, and co-leader of the Weathermen Bill Ayers, is now Professor of Education at the University of Illinois.

    Dohrn, Ayers and other members of the Weather Underground are currently under investigation in connection with a police officer killed by a bomb in 1970.

Is it really suprising that an organization that is always first in line to defend terrorists would employ one?

[Soldier4Christ]

Christ-o-Fascism, and How The Left Think Missouri Is Going To Establish A Theocracy

The Missouri House is looking at legislation to preserve and respect the Christian heritage of the State.

The media have not been honest in their reporting of this legislation, and…The left are freaking out!

    The fascists who bring down America will not be wearing brownshirts and displaying swastikas, but rather they will be carrying Bibles and displaying the cross. Radical Russ.

    There is no doubt that the Religious Right, a.k.a. Christ-o-Fascists want to eliminate most, if not all of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

    They want to establish America as a Christian Theocracy, in which they can kick-out the non-Christians and revert to some Dark Ages type society. It is long past time for the Christians in America who don’t wish to see their religion perverted into some sort of Fascist theocracy to stand up and be counted. The Supreme Irony

Luckily bloggers like Adam’s Blog, Gateway Pundit, Another Rovian Conspiracy, and Christians Who Think know how to do research before copy and pasting freak outs!

First of all, it is a resoultion, not a bill. It will not affect legislation.

Second: It’s obvious that the purpose of the resolution is not to establish Christianity as an official religion of the State of Missouri, rather, its purpose is to express the sentiment of the Missouri House that things like voluntary prayer in schools and religious displays on public property should be allowed.

Here is the resolution (What the lefties should have sourced)

    Whereas, our forefathers of this great nation of the United States recognized a Christian God and used the principles afforded to us by Him as the founding principles of our nation; and

    Whereas, as citizens of this great nation, we the majority also wish to exercise our constitutional right to acknowledge our Creator and give thanks for the many gifts provided by Him; and

    Whereas, as elected officials we should protect the majority’s right to express their religious beliefs while showing respect for those who object; and

    Whereas, we wish to continue the wisdom imparted in the Constitution of the United States of America by the founding fathers; and

    Whereas, we as elected officials recognize that a Greater Power exists above and beyond the institutions of mankind:

    Now, therefore, be it resolved by the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-third General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, that we stand with the majority of our constituents and exercise the common sense that voluntary prayer in public schools and religious displays on public property are not a coalition of church and state, but rather the justified recognition of the positive role that Christianity has played in this great nation of ours, the United States of America.

There is the truth of the legislation, and you can like it, or not, but at least be honest about it. Freaking out calling the right a bunch of brown shirts, and acting like a chicken little screaming that the sky is falling, and Missouri is going to haul off all the non-Christians to gas chambers, only makes the left look even more like idiots than they already do.

[Soldier4Christ]

Religious instruction measure stirs debate in state House

OKLAHOMA CITY Legislation to allow public school students to leave school for one hour each week for religious instruction passes the state House after impassioned debate.
The measure passed 70-to-25 in spite of opponents who said public schools students need to remain in classes the entire school day to learn the core curriculum that's required for them to graduate from an Oklahoma high school.

Marlow state Representative Ray McCarter noted that many public schools have clubs in which students can pray and receive religious instruction.

But Del City state Representative Kevin Calvey says the issue is about what he said was discrimination against Christians. During debate, Calvey accused the American Civil Liberties Union and the Supreme Court of forcing prayer out of public schools.

The measure now goes to the Senate, where similar measures have been killed in recent years.

[Soldier4Christ]

Intelligent design sparks school-reform controversy
Thursday, March 09, 2006
By Judy Putnam
Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and a Michigan science group promoting the teaching of evolution say proposed high school graduation requirements open the public school door to intelligent design and creationism.

The graduation requirements were in a bill passed last week by the House.

The sponsor, Rep. Brian Palmer, R-Romeo, says there is no hidden agenda to promote intelligent design.

"No way, no how, not anywhere,'' Palmer said Wednesday.

Intelligent design is a modern creationist theory that holds that the universe is so complex that an intelligent being had to play a role in evolution. Strict creationists reject Darwin's theory of evolution because it conflicts with their religious belief that God created the world.

Opponents say both ideas confuse religion with science.

The ACLU issued an alert to its members Wednesday warning them to lobby against the legislation.

"Don't let legislators who support the teaching of religious views as science sneak one by their colleagues,'' the ACLU said in the alert.

Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, said the bill is "the religious right trying to impose their religious belief on the general population when it belongs in church.''

Michigan Citizens for Science, a grass-roots group led by a Michigan State University philosophy professor, also issued warnings on its Web site.

Stirring the pot is language in the bill directing the Department of Education to develop science content standards that include the teaching of scientific method. That method should evaluate theories and use data to "formulate arguments for and against those theories," the legislation reads.

Opponents of the language say it would be impossible to formulate an argument against evolution without talking about intelligent design.

Palmer said the language is summarized from a decade-old Michigan model curriculum regarding how scientific theories are tested.

Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the Thomas More Center of Ann Arbor, which supports the theory of intelligent design, said the ACLU is "theo-phobic." He defended a school board in Dover, Pa., last year that had mandated that intelligent design be taught in schools. A federal judge ruled against the Dover board, whose members were subsequently voted out of office.

Thompson said in Michigan, school districts are free to include intelligent design, although no boards have done that. Moss said that would be unconstitutional since the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the teaching of creationism in public schools.

"Intelligent design is another form of creationism. That has been ruled by the Supreme Court to be an unconstitutional imposition of one religious doctrine and religious idea on people of other faiths,'' she said.

In Gull Lake near Kalamazoo, two middle school teachers were told not to teach intelligent design, and Thompson said his group is considering a lawsuit on behalf of parents who support the teaching.

Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the flap over the House bill is much ado about nothing.

"They're all drinking Kool-Aid,'' he said.

His own version of the graduation requirements, in a bill introduced today, does not include the language in question. Kuipers said he doesn't oppose teaching intelligent design and would like a debate on it in the Legislature, but he doesn't favor adding it to the graduation requirements.

[Soldier4Christ]

Tennessee Senate votes to remove abortion right from state constitution

Tenn. Senate backs anti-abortion step
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn't guarantee a woman's right to an abortion.

The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.

The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution grants women a greater right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution.

Abortion rights supporters are attacking the measure as a stepping stone to prohibiting all abortions in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade.

"The resolution is an all-out attack on the women of Tennessee and seeks to rob women of their right to make choices about their own health, safety and personal welfare," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

Sen. David Fowler, a Republican sponsor of the bill, proposed a similar resolution last year that cleared the Senate but stalled in a House committee.

"I regret this will cast me as being hardhearted, unsympathetic and unkind but that's not who I am," Fowler said.

Tennessee has a long process for amending its constitution, requiring approval by both chambers in session of the General Assembly, two-thirds approval by both chambers in the next session, and then approval by voters.

Several states are considering restrictions on abortion that eventually could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. South Dakota's governor signed a law Monday that would prohibit all abortions except those necessary to save a mother's life.

Some opponents of abortion rights hope the additions of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito will make the court more likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, although a majority of the court still appears to support the 1973 ruling.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU targets drug dogs at Marin City school
Don Speich

The American Civil Liberties Union has called on the Sausalito Marin City School District to stop using drug-sniffing dogs at a Marin City middle school because the district "lacks a legitimate basis" for the practice.

In a March 2 letter to the district, the ACLU does not say what it will do if the district fails to comply with its request. Stella Richardson, media director for the civil rights organization in San Francisco, would only say, "We are still waiting for a response and we continue to monitor the situation carefully."

School board president George Stratigos said Wednesday the district has no plans to halt the use of dogs at the 38-student Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, even though he and other board members concede there is no evidence of a drug problem at the school.

In the letter to interim district superintendent Mary Buttler, ACLU Legal Director Alan L. Schlosser wrote: "Considering the fact that MLK Academy's small student body is primarily African American, the district's decision to apply the dog sniff policy to all students, in the absence of a drug problem, raises serious questions about whether the policy is, in part, racially motivated."

The district contracted with Interquest Detection Canines of Houston earlier this year to perform monthly inspections at the school. During the inspections, which will continue to the end of the school year at a cost of $2,500, students go outside, leaving behind backpacks and other personal items, and the dogs are taken into classrooms to sniff for drugs.

The first inspection occurred on Jan. 23, a Monday. Parent said that the previous Friday, they received a letter from the district notifying them of the inspections for the first time.

Parents and students protested at a February board meeting about both the drug-sniffing program and the late notice, saying there was no time to prepare their children - some of whom are frightened of dogs.

Trustees stood firm behind their decision made in November, reiterating, however, that no drug problem was suspected.

"The act of requiring the entire MLK Academy student body to part with their belongings and leave them in classrooms for dogs to sniff constitutes a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and must therefore be justified by individualized suspicion," said the ACLU letter.

It noted legal precedents and cited a federal case that upholds the ACLU's position that the searches are illegal.

"Under California and United States Supreme Court precedent, searches or seizures of student possessions 'must be based on a reasonable suspicion that the student or students to be searched have engaged, or are engaging, in a proscribed activity."

In Marin, drug-sniffing dogs are used in the Novato Unified School District and Marin Catholic High School. Both programs are conducted by Houston's Interquest.

Sharon Turner, a Marin City activist, charged at a community meeting Wednesday that the rationale behind the drug searches is to find a scapegoat.

"If they could find even one incident of drugs, they could say the district's (test) scores are because of drug problems," said Turner, speaking a meeting of the ISOJI community group at the Manzanita Recreation Center in Marin City.

"The board said they are trying to prove there is no drug problem, which is not rational," she said.

Stratigos, who attended the meeting, told the group a guarantee of a drug-free school district would give a new superintendent - expected to be hired by July - evidence that drug use will not impede a mandate from the board to make Sausalito Marin City "the best district in the county."

Ricardo Montcrief, ISOJI executive director, said Marin City parents and students, as well as civil rights activists from throughout the county, plan to protest the drug-sniffing dog program and other matters at a district board meeting tonight.

Turner and Terri Harris Green, a school district parent and a member of the Marin City Community Services District, said they had met with Buttler and board member Shirley Thornton last month to voice their continuing concern about the drug dog policy. They said they were assured the subject would be on tonight's board agenda, but it was not.

Buttler denied their charge, saying, "There was no promise." The only thing agreed to, she said, is that at a future meeting the issue would be included on a board agenda.

"I think there is a lot of drama and I'm taking one step at a time to work with the community," she said. "I'm trying to build that."

But at Wednesday's ISOJI meeting, several people voiced anger about the board's isolation from the Marin City community.

Jude Thilman, coalition director for the Marin Human Rights Commission's Roundtable on Hate Violence, said board discussion of the matter at a later date "gives us a lot of time to put them up against the wall."

[Soldier4Christ]

Anti-Game Study Approved by Senate Panel

By Kris Graft
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has approved a broad study of the impact of electronic media, which was pushed by known anti-game Democrats Joseph Lieberman and Hillary Clinton.

CNET speculates that if the findings of the report indicate a link between violent games and aggression or other types of unfavorable behavior in minors, they could be used in court hearings pertaining to anti-game laws. One of the prime reasons that many game laws have fallen is because there is no hard proof of such a link.

The report, dubbed the Children and Media Research Advancement Act, is being organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A dollar amount hasn't been attached to the study yet, although CNET reports that the original version of the bill was allotted $90 million.

Marv Johnson, legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union fears that if a link between violent games and aggression is found, findings could provide sufficient groundwork for restrictions on other types of media.

"Down the road when -- if there is some sort of finding that there is harm in this -- then we're going to see calls to regulate speech because of the potential harm," Johnson said. "That's where there's going to be a problem."

The bill would not only investigate videogames, but "electronic media" as a whole, which could include movies, TV, DVD, the Internet, cell phones, and so forth. The study will cover a variety of categories, including electronic media's effect on children's diets, aggression, social behavior and cognitive health, to name a few.

The bill is co-sponsored by the controversial Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Sam Brownback of Kansas, also a Republican. The National Institute on Media and the Family, the Center for Media and Child Health at Harvard University Medical School and the American Psychological Association have all offered their support for the bill.

Lieberman's bill has yet to receive a full Senate vote.

[Soldier4Christ]

Lawmakers look to recognize Christianity

Critic: Religious declaration political ploy
By Sadie Gurman

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. —

A lawmaker who signed on to a resolution affirming Christianity as the state’s majority religion said he isn’t trying to turn Missouri into a theocracy, but he just wants Christians to feel free to publicly express their faith.

Rep. Barney Fisher, R-Richards, said the recently filed resolution was met with backlash from critics who, he said, have distorted the resolution’s intent.

“They feel minority rights have been threatened, which they haven’t,” Fisher said. “They feel we’re trying to create a state religion, which would be impossible to do. Some people feel threatened by this.”

The House resolution, recently approved by the House Rules Committee, champions prayer in schools and public venues, and recognizes a “Christian God.”

It states that the majority of Missourians are Christians, and that elected officials should “protect the majority’s right to express their religious beliefs while showing respect for those who object.”

It also calls upon the Legislature to “exercise the common sense that voluntary prayer in public schools and religious displays on public property are not a coalition of church and state.”

In a recent e-mail to one of his constituents, Fisher wrote that he fully understood that controversy would surround the resolution because, “Today, uttering the words Christianity or Christ in public draws all manner of scorn and labels.

“I have truly enjoyed watching the liberal element of our state and nation come out squalling like scalded dogs in protest, being forced to unmask their watered-down Christian views, wrap themselves in the Constitution, and try to justify the view that the will of the minority should trump the will of the majority.”

Critics of the resolution charge that it is the first in a string of attempts to make Christianity a dominating force in Missouri politics and schools.

“This is a cynical attempt by a certain faction of politicians to utilize religion to divide the people of Missouri along religious lines during an election year,” said Brett Shirk, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri. “It essentially asks legislators to vote on whether they believe in God and whether they think that the Christian version of God should be ratified as the state religion of Missouri.”

Shirk said the ACLU supports a student’s right to voluntarily pray in schools, and that it would defend students if their right to pray was being hindered.

“It’s one more attempt to create a theocracy,” Shirk said.

A House resolution is not a bill, and therefore cannot become a law.

Rep. Marilyn Ruestman, R-Joplin, said House resolutions are largely symbolic, simply reflecting the opinion of lawmakers who sign on to them. She said they usually don’t carry much consequence.

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR Chairman Elected to Board of ACLU-Florida


In a not so suprising development, CAIR National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed has been elected to the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

    “American Muslims view the protection of civil liberties as one of the most important issues facing our nation today,” said Ahmed. “By working with the ACLU in Florida, I hope to strengthen constitutional rights and help balance those rights with legitimate national security concerns.” Ahmed is a resident of Jacksonville, Fla.

    The ACLU of Florida, with headquarters in Miami, is the local affiliate of the national organization. It has 16 staff members, 16 chapters and more than 22,000 members and supporters across Florida.

CAIR and the ACLU have cooperated on a number of issues at the national level to defile America like defending people with admitted terror ties, destroying National Security, and a number of other anti-American activities.

It really isn’t a suprising move for the ACLU to accept a member to the board from an organization with known terror ties. Its not like its the first time.

If you don’t know about CAIR’s ties to terrorist, you need to read this.

    Perhaps the most obvious problem with CAIR is the fact that at least five of its employees and board members have been arrested, convicted, deported, or otherwise linked to terrorism-related charges and activities.

    Randall (”Ismail”) Royer, an American convert to Islam, served as CAIR’s communications specialist and civil rights coordinator; today he sits in jail on terrorism-related charges. In June 2003, Royer and ten other young men, ages 23 to 35, known as the “Virginia jihad group,” were indicted on forty-one counts of “conspiracy to train for and participate in a violent jihad overseas.” The defendants, nine of them U.S. citizens, were accused of association with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a radical Islamic group designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State in 2001. They were also accused of meeting covertly in private homes and at the Islamic Center in Falls Church to prepare themselves for battle by listening to lectures and watching videotapes. As the prosecutor noted, “Ten miles from Capitol Hill in the streets of northern Virginia, American citizens allegedly met, plotted, and recruited for violent jihad.” According to Matthew Epstein of the Investigative Project, Royer helped recruit the others to the jihad effort while he was working for CAIR. The group trained at firing ranges in Virginia and Pennsylvania; in addition, it practiced “small-unit military tactics” at a paintball war-games facility in Virginia, earning it the moniker, the “paintball jihadis.” Eventually members of the group traveled to Pakistan.

    Five of the men indicted, including CAIR’s Royer, were found to have had in their possession, according to the indictment, “AK-47-style rifles, telescopic lenses, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and tracer rounds, documents on undertaking jihad and martyrdom, [and] a copy of the terrorist handbook containing instructions on how to manufacture and use explosives and chemicals as weapons.”

    After four of the eleven defendants pleaded guilty, the remaining seven, including Royer, were accused in a new, 32-count indictment of yet more serious charges: conspiring to help Al-Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan. Royer admitted in his grand jury testimony that he had already waged jihad in Bosnia under a commander acting on orders from Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors also presented evidence that his father, Ramon Royer, had rented a room in his St. Louis-area home in 2000 to Ziyad Khaleel, the student who purchased the satellite phone used by Al-Qaeda in planning the two U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in August 1998. Royer eventually pleaded guilty to lesser firearms-related charges, and the former CAIR staffer was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

Or how about this?

    Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR’s Texas chapter, has a long history of funding terrorism. First, he was convicted in July 2004, with his four brothers, of having illegally shipped computers from their Dallas-area business, InfoCom Corporation, to two designated state-sponsors of terrorism, Libya and Syria. Second, he and two brothers were convicted in April 2005 of knowingly doing business with Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader, whom the U.S. State Department had in 1995 declared a “specially designated terrorist.” Elashi was convicted of all twenty-one counts with which he was charged, including conspiracy, money laundering, and dealing in the property of a designated terrorist. Third, he was charged in July 2004 with providing more than $12.4 million to Hamas while he was running the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, America’s largest Islamic charity. When the U.S. government shuttered Holy Land Foundation in late 2001, CAIR characterized this move as “unjust” and “disturbing.”

There’s lots more where that came from. Read it all.

I am sure that Mr. Ahmed will fit in perfectly with the terrorist defending ACLU. After all, when confronted with the facts about his organization he was very crafty in his response, something the ACLU will find very handy.

    Dr. Parvez Ahmed, went a step farther, implying that statements against CAIR are subject to SLAPP lawsuits or other legal action:

    People who make statements connecting CAIR to terrorism should understand the legal consequences of their attempted slander and defamation. The First Amendment does not protect defamation.

Congratulations ACLU, you’ve picked another winner. It is sure to improve your relations with mainstream America.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU to Represent Suspended NYC Prison Imam

By Sher Zieve – The former Director of the ACLU’s New York division (NYCLU), Norman Siegel, has announced that he will represent Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil. Abdul-Jalil was suspended from his position as the Head Chaplain of New York City’s jails for making incendiary anti-American and anti-Semitic comments.

Abdul-Jalil was caught on tape speaking before an Arizona Muslim Students Organization in April 2005 saying: "We have terrorists defining who the terrorist is. We know that the greatest terrorists in the world are inside the White House, without a doubt. We found this in our facility in the Metropolitan Correctional facility, in Manhattan. But they literally are torturing people." The imam also said that Muslims are being detained in the US and "not charged with anything other than the fact that they come from Eastern descent."



Abdul-Jalil is also reported as having said: "We have to stop allowing the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us."



Abdul-Jalil is said to have converted to Islam, during the time he was incarcerated at Attica prison.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Calls on U.N. Human Rights Committee to Hold U.S. Government Accountable
 

NEW YORK - March 13 - The American Civil Liberties Union today criticized the United States for violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a major human rights treaty the U.S. ratified in 1992.  In remarks to the 86th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the ACLU called for a rigorous investigation into violations of the treaty. 

“In the name of national security, the Bush administration has eroded the rule of law and the system of checks and balances in the United States, both fundamental principles in any democracy,” said Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU, who presented today’s testimony. “In our America, we will not tolerate illegal spying or torture. The ACLU calls on the Human Rights committee to join us in our effort to hold the U.S. government accountable.”   

In a statement read today at the opening session of the Human Rights Committee, the ACLU said: “In the last four years we have witnessed serious setbacks in the protection of civil and political rights within the United States.  The U.S. government has instituted a number of unbalanced and unchecked policies that clearly undermine fundamental rights and liberties long recognized and honored in our country.  These policies affect a broad range of issues, including women’s rights, immigrants’ rights, racial justice, national security and the freedom of religion and belief.”

The ACLU also provided details in its testimony about remaining flaws in the recently reauthorized Patriot Act and on the illegal National Security Agency spying program.
 
“America cannot hold itself as a moral beacon to the world if it violates the rule of law by engaging in illegal spying, torture and secrecy,” said Jamil Dakwar, an attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Working Group. “The ACLU is committed to making sure that our government complies with universally recognized human rights principles and upholds our Constitution.” 

Last October, the United States submitted its second and third periodic reports to the U.N. Human Rights Committee which oversees the implementation of the Covenant by the 152 signatory member states. The U.S. report was seven years overdue and did not include information on U.S. conformity with the Covenant overseas, claiming the treaty does not apply beyond U.S. soil and therefore is not applicable to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The full review session of the U.S. report by the 18 members of the Human Rights Committee will take place next July in Geneva. Meanwhile, at the end of its New York session the Committee will publish a list of questions and issues to be considered at the meeting in Geneva with representatives of the U.S. government.

The U.N. Human Rights Committee was established to monitor the implementation of the ICCPR. It is composed of 18 independent experts with recognized competence in the field of human rights. The Committee meets three times a year for sessions of three weeks' duration, normally in March at United Nations headquarters in New York and in July and November at the United Nations Office in Geneva.

The ACLU's new Human Rights Working Group is dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to universally recognized human rights principles. The Human Rights Working Group is charged with incorporating international human rights strategies into ACLU advocacy on issues relating to national security, immigrants' rights, women's rights and racial justice.

ACLU’s statement to the Human Rights Committee is available online at: www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/gen/24498leg20060313.html

In September 2005, the ACLU submitted a full list of issues of concern to the Human Rights Committee regarding counter-terrorism measures adopted by the United States.


_____________________

Yet thery could care less about the rest of the countries that violate human rights.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Blasts Bush at UN for Spying on Terrorists

By Sher Zieve – On Monday, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU Ann Beeson blasted President Bush for spying on terrorists, via the NSA terrorist communiqué intercept program. This latest ACLU criticism against the US president advises that spying on terrorists is illegal.

Beeson delivered her statements to the UN, which included: "In the name of national security, the Bush administration has eroded the rule of law and the system of checks and balances in the United States, both fundamental principles in any democracy. In our America, we will not tolerate illegal spying or torture. The ACLU calls on the Human Rights committee to join us in our effort to hold the U.S. government accountable."



The ACLU is now claiming that the US has violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the US was a signatory in 1992.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU upset over talk of single-sex
classes at Arrowhead
Boy-only or girl-only classes considered

TOWN OF MERTON - The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is challenging recent discussions by Arrowhead High School officials over offering single-sex classes for the 2006-07 school year.

In a letter to Arrowhead Superintendent Dave Lodes on Thursday, ACLU Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty asked for an explanation of the legal basis and educational rationale for the school’s consideration of single-sex classes and wrote that he found the plans "troubling."

"If they do go ahead with plans to offer single-sex classes, they would pretty clearly be in violation of the current rules regarding discrimination," Ahmuty said. "It would obviously be discriminating on basis of gender."

At a school board meeting Wednesday evening, Lodes said he had talked to a lawyer about the idea of offering same-sex classes and that the lawyer told him that as long as the school offered the same curriculum to boys and girls, he felt there was no problem.

"I don’t see any way that this would hurt students," Lodes said.

Ahmuty claims that the school is using "outdated, unsupported stereotypes" to support its idea to offer an experimental series of same-sex classes.

"Sure there are differences in the ways young men and young women learn," Ahmuty said. "But individual differences might be greater than gender differences."

Wisconsin statute provides the school district a reasonable amount of time to reply to the ACLU’s letter.

"They may get this letter and just turn it over to their attorneys," Ahmuty said. "Which is fine, we can handle it through our attorneys as well. But I would hope we could just talk about what’s best for the students."


No girls allowed
Official: All-boys scenario has worked for St. John’s

DELAFIELD - Though not nearly as prevalent in public schools, single-sex classroom environments are more common among private institutions.

Locally, St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy has had an all-male student body for more than 120 years - which has put its boys ahead of the learning curve, former director of enrollment and current Director of Marketing and Communications Charles Moore said.

"The single-sex classroom is an environment that’s ideal for boys," Moore said. "A lot of boys that find success at St. John’s Northwestern were struggling in co-educational environments before."

Boys attending St. John’s typically raise their grade point average a full point in their first year at the school, Moore said.

"Boys are much better off academically in a same-sex environment," Moore, a former teacher, said. "There are far less distractions, and they are able to concentrate better."

Part of the reason boys are more distracted nowadays is the fact that "kids are much more in tune with their sexuality than they were 30 years ago," Moore said.

"Look at the girl in your average school," Moore said. "Is she wearing what your grandmother wore to school?"

Arrowhead Superintendent Dave Lodes agrees.

"With all this Britney Spears-type clothing girls wear nowadays, it’s no wonder the young boys can’t concentrate," he said.

Which is why same-sex classroom environments are most effective in middle school and high school, said Moore.

"Both sexes are trying to figure out who they are," Moore said. "It makes the classroom environment more difficult to manage."

[Shammu]

Brother I think the ACLU should be held accountable, for stealing our rights. All the ACLU, want to do is to destroy us (Christians,) from within the system they are setting up.

[Soldier4Christ]

That's a well known fact unfortunately they still have a lot of supporters that are blind to that.