ACLU In The News

[Shammu]

So brother, when do you think the ACLU is going to sue. The homosexual-activise cop for harassing Christians??

[Soldier4Christ]

Figure the odds of that happening.   

[Shammu]

Figure the odds of that happening.   

1,000,000,000,000,000 to 1 of the ACLU suing.   

How are them for odds, I think I'm about right....................

[Soldier4Christ]

How about      ..............      Never.

[Shammu]

Thats just about what those odds are, never.

[Soldier4Christ]

Yep but you a very slight margin as way out for you in case they did take the case. You gotta be bold ... take a strong stance.


 

[Soldier4Christ]

Lawyers say many left out of tax refund

Millions of small businesses and low-income taxpayers will be shortchanged or excluded altogether from a Bush administration tax refund program, lawyers who have filed a class-action lawsuit in the controversy said Friday.

The criticism comes amid a Treasury Department plan in which the public stopped paying a 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls as of July 31. The tax collected by phone service providers had been levied without congressional authorization.

The government says taxpayers can get back the last three years of the excise tax payments by asking for the money on their 2006 tax returns. The Treasury Department said recently that $13 billion will be refunded, but it provided no estimates of how much the average phone customer might receive.

Many senior citizens and other phone customers will get no refund because their income is so low that they don't have to file tax returns. A study by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found more than 10 million households will be left out of the tax rebate program.

"Since I do not file a tax return, it does not seem right that I am expected to fill out a tax return because of what someone else took from me illegally," James Gillis, 78, stated in a declaration in the lawsuit.

The IRS said it is developing a "very simple, straightforward form" for low-income people to file next year to get a refund.

"We recognize there are many people who have no filing requirements and we want to make sure that these people get the refund they deserve," the IRS said in a statement.

Attorneys in the class-action suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington say consumers ought to be entitled to refunds covering most of the past decade, not just the past three years. A study by Congressional Research Service estimated that $6 billion a year had been collected from the long-distance phone customers.

The tax has been levied for decades, dating back to when long-distance phone charges were based on time and distances of the calls. Many companies long ago dropped the distance factor and began charging a flat per-minute rate. The government continued to collect the tax, even though Congress had not amended the tax law to reflect the change in long-distance charges.

Large businesses started filing lawsuits, winning favorable court decisions. In May, the government stopped fighting the lawsuits, and the
Internal Revenue Service issued the refund rule without seeking public comment.

"They met illegally behind closed doors and the refund is only a fraction of what the government took," said Jonathan Cuneo, a lead attorney in the class-action case that the Bush administration is asking the court to dismiss.

Small businesses that lack the time or money to collect the last three years of their phone bills will be forced to rely on an IRS formula that is likely to shortchange recipients, said Cuneo.

"It would be very impractical for us to spend the time and money to go through our company's old phone bills and determine the amount of money that we shouldn't have paid in the first place," said Peter Loevy, founder of Catering By Design in Conshohocken, Pa., and a plaintiff in the court case.

[Shammu]

Yep but you a very slight margin as way out for you in case they did take the case. You gotta be bold ... take a strong stance.


 

So you mean work, on being more blunt.

[Soldier4Christ]

Right!

 

[Soldier4Christ]

Groups back use of medical marijuana


The ACLU and other groups backing medical marijuana use are joining the defense against the county's lawsuit challenging the Compassionate Use Act.

The county filed suit in San Diego Superior Court contending that state laws allowing medicinal use of marijuana are superseded by federal laws banning drug use and possession. The suit was filed in February against San Diego NORML – the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws – after the county Board of Supervisors refused to implement part of the state law requiring counties to issue identification cards to medical marijuana users that could protect them from prosecution.

The counties of San Bernardino and Merced later joined in the suit, on the county's side.

Superior Court Judge William R. Nevitt Jr. ruled yesterday that the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Safe Access and the Drug Policy Alliance may join the suit on behalf of medical marijuana users.

Nevitt found the groups do have a direct interest in the lawsuit and will be allowed to intervene as long as they don't raise any new legal issues or seek to delay the case.

The next hearing on the case, a motion for judgment, is scheduled for Nov. 16.

“We look forward to the opportunity to stand together with patients in defense of the rights of states to allow medicine to those in need,” ACLU lawyer David Blair-Loy said in a statement in response to the ruling. “We are heartened that the court recognized the necessity of giving voice to those truly at risk from the counties' ill-conceived actions.”

The Compassionate Use Act, allowing use of marijuana for pain relief and other medical reasons, was passed by California voters in 1996. The state Legislature later added provisions requiring counties to keep a database of users and issue identification cards.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Wants Parish to Nix Katrina Memorial Cross Plan


    Alarmed by newspaper reports that a hurricane memorial in St. Bernard Parish will feature a cross bearing a likeness of the face of Jesus, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is reminding parish officials of the Constitution’s separation of church and state.

    Never one to back down, Parish President Henry “Junior” Rodriguez has a simple reply: “They can kiss my ass.”

That probably isn’t the most Christian response he could have come up with but it is quite simple and to the point. Its a message the ACLU should probably hear alot more of.

    In a July 28 letter to Rodriguez and other officials, Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Joe Cook said that the government promotion of a patently religious symbol on a public waterway is a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, which prohibits government from advancing a religion.

    Rodriguez did not say whether he has responded to Cook’s letter, but in an interview, he said he sees nothing improper about the memorial, which will be mounted near the shoreline of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet at Shell Beach. The cross and accompanying monument listing the names of the 129 parish residents who died in Hurricane Katrina are earmarked for what the parish says is private land and are being financed with donations, Rodriguez said.

    Nonetheless, Cook asked the parish to erect a religiously neutral symbol and also voiced concern that the Parish Council was sanctioning a religious monument.

    Returning Rodriguez’s volley, Cook added, “It would be better if he would kiss the Constitution and honor it and honor the First Amendment.”

Is this the best comeback Cook could come up with? Surely he could do better. After all this is the same Joe Cook that compared the mindset of school prayer supporters in Tangipahoa Parish to that of the 9-11 terrorists.

    “The memorial is being coordinated by a group of volunteers on their own time, and no public money is going to the project that will be on private land,” Reppel said. “The committee members are all volunteers, including me. We are putting in a lot of unpaid overtime.”

    Other committee members include St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Anthony Fernandez Jr.; St. Bernard Tourism Director Elizabeth “Gidget” McDougall; former Parish President Charles Ponstein, who is working with a state agency on local business retention; Lorrie Allen, Reppel’s assistant; and LaBruzzo.

    As for the parish’s statements that the memorial is being done outside government’s auspices, Cook seems unconvinced.

    While the ACLU thinks a memorial to the storm and its victims is “clearly appropriate,” Cook said, St. Bernard’s is “still all very questionable. I think there is official government involvement with the endorsement and advancement of this clearly religious symbol.”

So now we have a branch of the ACLU pushing to censor religious expression by volunteers on private land? Joe Cook has shown a history of anti-Christian bias in his rhetoric, manner, and actions. It is good to see that the parish is not backing down. This is just another reason why we need the Public Expression of Religion Act passed.


Following is the full article from The Times-Picayune

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU wants parish to forget cross
Katrina memorial bears Jesus' face


Alarmed by newspaper reports that a hurricane memorial in St. Bernard Parish will feature a cross bearing a likeness of the face of Jesus, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is reminding parish officials of the Constitution's separation of church and state.

Never one to back down, Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez has a simple reply: "They can
*** ** ***."

In a July 28 letter to Rodriguez and other officials, Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Joe Cook said that the government promotion of a patently religious symbol on a public waterway is a violation of the Constitution's First Amendment, which prohibits government from advancing a religion.

Rodriguez did not say whether he has responded to Cook's letter, but in an interview, he said he sees nothing improper about the memorial, which will be mounted near the shoreline of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet at Shell Beach. The cross and accompanying monument listing the names of the 129 parish residents who died in Hurricane Katrina are earmarked for what the parish says is private land and are being financed with donations, Rodriguez said.

Nonetheless, Cook asked the parish to erect a religiously neutral symbol and also voiced concern that the Parish Council was sanctioning a religious monument.

Returning Rodriguez's volley, Cook added, "It would be better if he would kiss the Constitution and honor it and honor the First Amendment."

The St. Bernard Parish Council voted several months ago to erect a monument, but at the time did not offer specific plans. The parish recently announced plans to dedicate the memorial on Aug. 29, the one-year anniversary of the devastating hurricane.

The cross is being designed and fabricated by Vincent LaBruzzo, a welder and fabricator from Arabi. The stainless-steel cross will be 13 feet tall and 7 feet wide and will be lighted, according to a note on the parish's Web site, www.sbpg.net

LaBruzzo worked for the parish before recently taking a job with Unified Recovery Group, the company clearing the parish's storm debris. Rodriguez said he helped LaBruzzo get the job with URG. LaBruzzo did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Rodriguez and others like the idea of putting the monument along the banks of the MRGO, because that waterway, dug by the federal government as a shipping shortcut in the 1960s, is widely blamed in the parish for accelerating the deadly flooding that accompanied Katrina. Over the years erosion has widened the outlet, so the bank on which the cross will be erected is on privately owned land, Rodriguez said. He added that the parish is researching who owns the land on which the stone monument bearing the names of the victims will sit, but he thinks that it is also privately owned.

Parish Councilman Tony "Ricky" Melerine and Charlie Reppel, Rodriguez's chief of staff, said they are co-chairing the memorial committee on their private time.

"The memorial is being coordinated by a group of volunteers on their own time, and no public money is going to the project that will be on private land," Reppel said. "The committee members are all volunteers, including me. We are putting in a lot of unpaid overtime."

Other committee members include St. Bernard Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Anthony Fernandez Jr.; St. Bernard Tourism Director Elizabeth "Gidget" McDougall; former Parish President Charles Ponstein, who is working with a state agency on local business retention; Lorrie Allen, Reppel's assistant; and LaBruzzo.

As for the parish's statements that the memorial is being done outside government's auspices, Cook seems unconvinced.

While the ACLU thinks a memorial to the storm and its victims is "clearly appropriate," Cook said, St. Bernard's is "still all very questionable. I think there is official government involvement with the endorsement and advancement of this clearly religious symbol."

[Shammu]

Okay I will admit I laughted at Parish President Henry “Junior” Rodriguez 1st comment, to the ACLU.  For that I am sorry, but at the same time it is funny. And yes it is quite simple, and to the point.

[Soldier4Christ]

Whoa .....  I meant to edit that out and for some reason forgot to do so. Thanks for bringing it to my attention brother.

[Shammu]

Whoa .....  I meant to edit that out and for some reason forgot to do so. Thanks for bringing it to my attention brother.

A senior moment there brother??