Federalist Discussion on Domestic Surveillance

The Federalist Society has released an excellent discussion of the administration's policy on domestic surveillance of suspected terrorists and those allegedly linked with terrorism. To read an exchange on the subject, please click HERE. (PDF)

Happy Conservatives & Unhappy Liberals

In my latest essay on illiteracy and public education, I mentioned that John Quincy Adams complained that many of his legislative peers did bad things by pretending to oppose them and prevented good things by pretending to promote them.

As one who worked for liberals during the Carter Administration and as an LA cop, I saw this doctrine injure families in Central America and South Central LA. It isn’t that injustice occurs in the world, but that the self-proclaimed champions of justice (Democrats) empower themselves by disenfranchisement to control the poor. In this way, Democrats created policies designed to hurt the people they pretend to care for. Are blacks in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York better off than they were when liberals took control of these cities? Thirteen years after the 1992 LA riots, why should LA’s liberal Democrats worry that a death sentence might cause a riot? Why aren't blacks happier?

Odds & Ends

Some recent comments from fans merit further exposure:

Reader: I really believe your viewpoints on the politics of this country would have so much more credibility if you only took the time to take both political parties to task when they exhibit such obvious hypocrisy.

Ex-Lib: I focus on information and linkages that you won’t find on cable or the press. For example, when it comes to hypocrisy, THE LEFT has little trouble reporting or exaggerating Republican failures that the MSM finds inconsequential or nonexistent when conducted by THE LEFT. In light of UCLA’s recent report and other publications on media bias, writing on over-reported stories serves no purpose. I may write about Senator Harry Reid’s “party of corruption” comments because the MSM doesn’t find his hypocrisy newsworthy. I invite readers to question my observations and to set me straight when I’m wrong. I might not be correct 100 percent of the time, but I’ll be honest to myself and to you 100 percent of the time.

Reader: By insisting on just criticizing Democrats, both liberals and moderates, while finding no fault at all with conservative stances, you really become just a Johnny-one-note instead of the astute observer of political scene in this country which, with all your reading and study, I am certain you would be viewed by those who read your blog.

Ex-Lib: This is not a Bruin/Trojan game - I loathe criminality wherever it is found. As stated earlier, if the NY Times rips into Duke Cunningham, why should I attack or defend him? Like Bill Clinton and Sandy Berger, Cunningham’s a felon. Unlike Clinton and Berger, Cunningham will go to prison as he deserves to go. My story is not that Cunningham committed felonies and goes to prison, but that Democrats who commit felonies are defended and embraced by their own party. To me, this violation of the 14th Amendment (Equal Protection) by Democrats is much more newsworthy than Cunningham’s fall from grace. I write about this story because the MSM does not.

Reader: You greatly diminish what could be an incisive thesis on literacy in America by your disingenuous declarations about the “Democratic Party”. Ironically you write, “And with only 41 percent of American’s being able to grasp this text, I pray that there’s still time to reclaim our educational excellence.” It seems like you are actually relying on the uneducated to disseminate your ideas.

Ex-Lib: I’ve linked historical data for everyone to review. I quote reputable sources. It’s easier for you to call me a liar than it is for me to provide facts – and when I do, you attack readers as uneducated or change the subject.

Reader: There are other ironic statements in your article. For example, in light of recent revelations about domestic spying (which I’m surprised we haven’t heard your justification for it), manipulation of pre-war intelligence, illegal redistricting, and so on you write, “As our literacy and analytical skills decline, Americans will rely more on emotional cues (like those of pre-war Germany) to protect the freedoms that make our system work - directly undermining the foundations of our Democracy.”

Ex-Lib: This document outlines the affects of the Patriot Act on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, 1978). Executive Order 12333 (1981) authorizes these methods in the course of foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, international narcotics or international terrorism investigations. THE LEFT’s inability to identify one person victimized by domestic spying demonstrates paranoia. That Clinton used the same authorities without criticism from THE LEFT demonstrates bias. This information is available to everyone on the Internet. That you refuse to read and study demonstrates my point.

Reader: It seems to me that those who control the power in this country rely especially on “emotional cues” to further their agenda. Mushroom clouds, gay marriage, and guns.

Ex-Lib: When checkmated by facts you change the subject. Illiteracy and stupidity is bad regardless of political affiliation. At the same time, the attack on education has never been a Republican plan, but one used historically by Democrats and Theocrats today. You won’t find one incident of a Republican/conservative anywhere on the planet whose calculated objective was to undermined education to gain control. Democrats lynched Republicans (white and black) for the same reason that the Taliban kills teachers today. Dictators like Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler understand the dangers of education and the importance of indoctrination.

Reader: Another ironic statement is, “Democracy requires a strong middle class that is both economically and educationally sound. By reducing literacy, Americans risk the same incompetence that indoctrination and censorship create within dictatorships, monarchies, and regimes like North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine.” How exactly is the Republican administration helping the middle class? The people in the Gulf?

Ex-Lib: Well, despite the war, the US economy is strong – unemployment low. By having a good economy, entrepreneurs and investors create jobs that employ working people (mostly the Middle Class). When entrepreneurs and investors are punished by regulations and taxation, they cut jobs, close shop, and/or move away. Liberal policy has bankrupted France, Germany, and California. Brazil's Lula is redistributing wealth, killing jobs, and enforcing equality by impoverishing everyone. Cuba also offers free education, free healthcare, and guarantees jobs, but most Americans aren’t willing to work in government factories for a dollar a day, even if they get a free education. As for the Katrina victims you mention, even the Los Angeles Times agrees that Katrina cut across racial and class lines. But like most cities controlled by liberal Democrats, Louisiana’s Mayor and the Governor were too incompetent to help their people. Despite all of this information, liberal journalists still blame Bush for the failures of the Mayor and Governor. Think about it this way: When a family fight occurs in a city, the police respond. If a barricade situation occurs, the officers call for help. If New Orleans PD can’t handle the situation, they call in State resources. If the State can’t handle it, the Governor asks for Federal aid. Response always takes time. For liberals to blame President Bush for failing to immediately respond to Katrina when the Mayor and Governor refused to ask for help is as disingenuous as it is typical of THE LEFT. FEMA doesn't respond to political or natural disasters - it responds to requests for assistance from State officials.

Reader: Once again, you come close to writing a compelling article about illiteracy, but it almost seems like you are trying to cloak your raging hatred for all things “liberal” inside an intellectual dissertation about the educational system.

Ex-Lib: Cloak my raging hatred? While I’m upset that liberal democrats have hurt blacks for 150 years, my writing speaks for itself. Democrats are, by nature and necessity, unhappy people. Republicans and conservatives are happier and, therefore, not as interested in reckless changes. Because of the new media, I’m more hopeful than angry. If I can help Americans understand their past and the potential of their future, they too might become happy enough to abandon the goofy changes they want to make.

Merry Christmas!

It's been about ten years since every day became a blend of Thanksgiving and Christmas to me. Here is what I'm thankful for:

• My son (Cliff) is home on leave from the Marine Corps. Who knows where he'll be this time next year.
• My daughter (Vanessa) is in graduate school and teaching high school students in New York. She's having the time of her life.
• My mom lives with me and my wife, Carol. Mom's happy and healthy. It's a miracle that I can come home, open the door, and yell, "Hi Mom, I'm home!"
• Carol, my wife, companion, playmate, critic, and best friend. I never imagined that anyone could ever make me feel so complete.
• My health - that I can enjoy these years like a kid of fifteen on a non-stop summer vacation.
• That I have the wisdom to see that I'm among the fraction of a percent of people who live as well as I do in a place like Los Angeles, during this period of our history, as a citizen of the greatest country on the planet.
• That I have as many friends who love and support me - friends who have the courage to call me a friend despite some of the things I offend them with. I hope that I can repay them with the honesty of my heart.
• That God always watches over me - that I never worry about tomorrow because I know HE is here with me today.

I have one wish on this night - that Americans and people around the world open their heart's to God's spirit so that they can find the peace, joy, and love that I have found.

Merry Christmas! Peace on Earth!

Clark

Thrashing Dem Uppity Negroes

Homeless Activist Ted Hayes

What’s up with Milton Sidley?

After spotting this Los Angeles Times story about homeless activist Ted Hayes’ visit to the Bel-Air Republican Women’s Federation, Sidley got so mad that, well, it was as if he’d seen a Negro kiss a white woman! In fact, Sidley is so upset that Hayes AND the adults and children who reside in Justiceville may soon be back on the streets!

Twenty years ago when Ted Hayes founded Justiceville, Skid Row was little more than a small shantytown near the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. Hayes had left his family in 1984 to help the homeless and worked with a small core of residents who turned the cardboard shanty into Justiceville - the first homeless community of its kind in Los Angeles County.

As Hayes helped the news media expose LA’s homeless problem, political pressures grew between social service providers, advocates, and friends of Mayor Tom Bradley, who viewed Justiceville as a political nuisance and liability. When Bradley threatened to close the encampment, Hayes fasted for 35 days in protest.

From 1985 until the opening of the Dome Village, Ted and other members of Justiceville lobbied businesses and the government, holding demonstrations, protests, and acts of civil disobedience against homelessness. Their activism promoted the idea that transitional communities like Justiceville could become a national model to end homelessness.

By 1993, Hayes had found the empty parking lot owned by Milton Sidley, a millionaire lawyer who bought and sold properties throughout Los Angeles County. After several weeks of negotiations, Sidley agreed to rent his trash-strewn rat-infested parking lot for $2500 a month, plus property taxes. Assuring Sidley that the arrangement was temporary, Hayes signed the agreement. Dome Village struggled financially until 1995, when they secured enough government funding and private donations to survive.

Justiceville had found a home, but that didn’t mean that Hayes’ efforts were over. He continued speaking out about homelessness to anyone who would listen. And while Hayes spoke out, he was also listening and learning.

Over the years, Hayes noticed that although LA’s political powers were overwhelmingly liberal and Democrat, he saw patterns that suggested that those who controlled LA didn’t want to resolve the problems of homelessness, drugs, and gangs. Instead, Hayes saw that LA’s Democrats had a need to keep things the way they were; and that if someone ever fixed those problems, Democrats would lose control of the communities they had deliberately disenfranchised. Hayes found that Democrats perpetuate the problems of gangs, drugs, and homelessness to remain relevant.

By the time I met Ted Hayes in 2003, his conversion (like my own) was complete. As he led demonstrations during the 1980s and 1990s, I’d been one of the curious police officers keeping the peace. Although we had come from different directions, we’d found the same beast: me from the inside and Hayes from the outside. We’ve been friends ever since.

In addition to the Justiceville parking lot, records show that Milton Sidley owns or owned million dollar properties throughout the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, and Malibu. He sold one of him many properties in 1999 for $5.8 million. It’s doubtful that the inflated rent was tied to Sidley’s economic distress.

So what was it about the Times story that upset Milton Sidley?

When Justiceville’s Executive Director Katy Haber received Sidley’s Dec. 6 letter, she was shocked to see that Sidley planned to raised the rent from $2500 to $18,330 a month! Close to panic, Haber called partner Dennis DeMontigny and asked if the fax was a mistake. DeMontigny said, “Oh, that's how he reacted."

"Reacted to what?" asked Haber.

"Well, said DeMontigney, "Milton saw the Times article and had a fit. I guess that’s how he’s reacting to the article.” DeMontigny suggested that the letter was likely “a cry for dialogue” and asked her to “wait for the dust to settle.”

Several days passed before Sidley called back. When Haber asked whether he still intended to raise the rent, Sidley answered, “Tell Ted to go back to his Republican lady-friends and tell them to come up with the money.”

Haber was shocked: “Is this because Ted’s a Republican?” she asked.

“Let’s put it this way,” said Sidley, “This Democrat is tired of supporting Ted and his dome village.”

Haber couldn’t believe her ears: “But Milton, I’m a Democrat.”

“Then you should be ashamed,” said Sidley.

Several more days passed. When a board member called, Sidley told him that he had offers to purchase the property, might develop it himself, and that it was “time for the Dome Village to move on.”

Although Sidley’s behavior has shocked many at the Dome Village, Hayes was not surprised.

“The Democratic Party has done this to blacks, the homeless, and the gangs for years,” said Hayes. “As long as the problems exist and activists tow the Party line, our Democrat leaders are happy. But when we begin to recognize Democrats for what they are and start talking about it, our masters tie us to trees to make examples out of us. The message is, ‘take your place in society, keep your mouth shut and I’ll let you be.’ Throughout the past two hundred years, the Democratic Party has had no place for uppity Negroes.”

As I described here, here and here, the Democratic Party has always demanded obedience from their slaves for the benevolence of their captivity. To Milton Sidley, Ted Hayes’ decision to accept an invitation from Republic Women was more important than the displacement of dozens of homeless people that this eviction will cause. To the Democratic Party, silence is their price for compassion.

Nevertheless, Hayes has promised to move his encampment in the next few months. And while Justiceville will keep moving, the Democratic Party will remain where it was 150 years ago.

Merry Christmas New York

After endless union complaints about non-union companies like WalMart and Starbucks, New York Democrats are celebrating the Christmas spirit of unions that now own them.

Liberals believe that being nice and making laws against biting (or terrorism) will keep the snake from striking. But like Aesop’s Fable this snake not only strikes, but at $400 million a day it strikes very hard. And with winter approaching, the only thing that’s cooperating with Bloomberg and commuters is the weather – for now.

As Mayor Bloomberg asks commuters to carpool, walk, or ride bikes in freezing weather, the duration of this seige depends on when and how well New Yorkers will reward their extortionists.

This could be a long winter.

A War Without Heroes

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard wrote an exceptional piece about America’s heroes and how the media treats them.

DO YOU KNOW WHO Paul Ray Smith is? If not, don't feel bad. Most Americans aren't familiar with Paul Ray Smith. He is the first and only soldier awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary courage in the war in Iraq. Five days before Baghdad fell in April 2003, Sergeant Smith and his men were building a makeshift jail for captured Iraqi troops...

Read more here…

Illiteracy: The Enemy of Freedom

Last Thursday, two men rode on a motorcycle to a grade school in Southern Afghanistan. After forcing their way into Mr. Laghmani’s classroom, the Taliban insurgents dragged the teacher from his students to the school gate and executed him for the crime of teaching girls.

Despite the ongoing threats, intimidation, and murder, teachers like Laghmani risk their lives each day to teach the six million boys and girls who now attend Afghan schools. Their ongoing efforts in this global fight are no less heroic than our own.

Before the US coalition removed the Taliban government, employment and education for women was almost non-existent. Today, girls comprise 35 percent of school enrollment throughout Afghanistan. Despite our ongoing successes, Muslim extremists have conducted at least 28 attacks like these on schools, students, and teachers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, the Balkans, Bangladesh, and India this year alone.

Because education is the key to democracy and freedom, theocrats outlaw education for girls for the same reason that Democrats outlawed education for slaves both before and after the Civil War. Slave owners agreed that “the bigger fool (made) the better nigger,” and Democrats feared that their education would “cause Negroes to leave the farms,” which would make it “difficult (for whites) to secure them for domestic service.”

In the backlash of emancipation, education, and equality, Democrats enforced disenfranchisement and segregation by lynching thousands of black and white Republicans from 1889-1940. The NAACP came close to getting Congress to outlaw lynching in 1937 and 1939, but Democrats filibustered both efforts. It was not until 1948 that President Truman made lynching a federal crime – 83 years after Republicans secured freedom for slaves.

As a frustrated John Quincy Adams wrote to his father 200 years ago, “This is now in general the great art of legislation: To do a thing by assuming the appearance of preventing it… (and) …to prevent a thing by assuming that of doing it.”

When the Democratic Party could no longer rely on lynching, Jim Crow, and the KKK to enforce illiteracy to control of blacks, they gained control of education through teachers and their unions. Like the former plantation owner who promoted slavery because blacks could not survive without the benevolence of slaveholders, Democrats who declared themselves the champions of education and now control secondary schools, colleges, and universities have delivered the failure of education that now threatens the United States.

In the recently published National Assessment of Adult Illiteracy, reading and analysis among the educated has dropped significantly since 1993. Although more adults have college degrees, one in 20 Americans (11 million) are illiterate and 29 percent have only basic reading skills. Among Americans who graduated from college and graduate schools, less than half (41 percent) can successfully analyze lengthy and complex abstract texts. Hispanics showed the most significant drop with illiteracy rising from 35 percent in 1992 to 44 percent in 2003.

What this means is that, throughout the past decade, a smaller percentage of Americans have acquired the skills necessary to understand the complex issues that we face each day as taxpayers, jurors, and voters. As our literacy and analytical skills decline, Americans will rely more on emotional cues (like those of pre-war Germany) to protect the freedoms that make our system work - directly undermining the foundations of our Democracy.

Democracy requires a strong middle class that is both economically and educationally sound. By reducing literacy, Americans risk the same incompetence that indoctrination and censorship create within dictatorships, monarchies, and regimes like North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine.

US commissioner of education statistics Mark Schneider understates the problem as either relaxed admissions, diversity (language or cultural challenges), or colleges that are not “doing the job as effectively as they should.”

I sense a much deeper problem: that like Islamic extremists and Jim Crow Democrats, teacher unions and the Democratic Party’s responsibility to educate is offset by their need to fill unions with undereducated and indoctrinated laborers. Whether true or not, the outcome is the same.

Until enough Americans recognize the parallels of anti-black repression, Palestinian indoctrination and the Taliban’s anti-women policies, America’s educational and social implosion will continue to grow. And with only 41 percent of American’s being able to grasp this text, I pray that there’s still time to reclaim our educational excellence.


Related articles:

The Union Contract
School Reform
LAUSD Failure

Morgan Freeman on Black History Month

At risk of being attacked as an Uncle Tom or Oreo, actor Morgan Freeman says that the way to get rid of racism is to stop talking about it.

Still considered black among the pro-apartheid LEFT, Mr. Freeman agrees that the idea of a Black History Month is as ridiculous as a white history month. I always consider it a personal victory when one of my Hollywood neighbors says something smart. After all, this isn’t rocket science: As a kid, I wondered how one nation indivisible could have multiple histories.

History is a continuum, not a cake. Slicing Americans along racial, economic, or other lines is a tactic that politicians and America’s enemies use to create distrust and anger among ourselves to gain control over us. Free men like Morgan Freeman do not need Black History Month to celebrate a black identity – his hard work and success defines him as a great American. Nothing else matters.

Mike Wallace interviews Mr. Freeman on 60 Minutes this evening.

Conservative Bigots Slay Civil Rights Leader

Stanley “Tookie” Williams, Nobel Prize nominee and writer of children books was slaughtered by conservative bigots this morning at San Quentin Prison. After numerous appellate courts refused to rehear the case, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused clemency.

Former President Bill Clinton also considered clemency in 2001, but that fell through when Tookie failed to raise enough cash for the Clinton’s Presidential Library and Defense Fund.

Williams, who was falsely accused of the shotgun killing of four people, was framed after conservatives identified him as the next great civil rights and Democratic Party leader. The devout Democrat and visionary was convicted, sentenced, and crucified as Jesus Christ was two thousand years ago.

Democrats have lowered their flagging patriotism to half-mast and John Kerry has proposed to make December 13th “Tookie Day.”

US gang members, Al Qaeda, and other Democratic Party associates plan to work through the holiday.

Iraqi War Veteran Against Cut-And-Run

As an infantryman whose boots are still caked with blood and dust from Iraq, Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia is at a loss to understand what Representative John Murtha (D-PA) was thinking when he recently delivered his defeatist comments about our military efforts.

Read what this combat veteran has to say in this FrontPage commentary.

Coulter Injures Moonbats in Logic Contest

A writer who calls himself Chudogg posted a front-row narrative of Ann Coulter’s Dec 7 speech at the University of Connecticut. I was relieved by Chudogg’s essay because O’Reilly had reported the interruption of Coulter’s speech but said nothing about her hour-long Q & A afterward. According to Chudogg, Ann invited lefties to take their best shots and left them limping and snarling like injured moonbats.

Factor guest Ellis Hennigan defended the unruly students by saying that Coulter, “can take care of herself.” To Hennigan, Coulter’s First Amendment Rights to speak and the audience’s right to peace were not as important as the disruption by a handful of lefties.

What makes this story newsworthy is not that leftist fascism is alive and well on campuses and the media, but because the ubiquity of its existence makes it no longer newsworthy. Leftist defenders of the double standard wear their hypocrisy like a badge of honor.

Next up: Campus book-burnings draw yawn from the left...

Courtesy of Gary Varvel

An Answer to Political Incontinence

There is no reason… that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children… Iraqis should be doing that.

Sen. John Kerry Dec 4, 2005

AS I WATCHED Senator John Kerry’s latest performance on FTN last Sunday, I was amazed not by his content but by his command of rooterspeak. When Bob Schieffer asked Kerry the same question that Donald Rumsfeld answered in one word (absolutely), Kerry used his entire interview to parry the host – even after Schieffer repeated his questions. If you think I’ve misdiagnosed Kerry’s schizophrenic echolalia, read the transcript and write back.

More and more, Democrats and some Republicans parry questions with nonsensical incoherence that wastes time, undermines democracy, and as in Senator Kerry’s case, attacks our national security. Unlike the spin that politicians and lawyers use to make bad things look good, rooterspeak links random strings of gibberish into something that is dangerously mistaken for intellect. On FTN, John Kerry delivered the wisdom of Chauncey Gardiner with the urgency of Rain Man. I couldn’t wait for the commercials.

As I descended into the fog that cloaks the cul-de-sac of Senator Kerry’s genius, I started to think about fast food, rodents, and the LA County Health Department’s restaurant grading system. Most folks avoid C- or un-rated restaurants and if an eatery has less than an A-rating, I’m probably not there either. The media and video games use rating systems. Good Housekeeping and Consumer Reports save consumers hours of confusion, heartache, and research before they buy products. Ratings help us make intelligent choices while reducing the time it takes to discern quality. It also eliminates the surprise of porn at theaters and roaches in salads.

With the advance of the mainstream media’s growing senility, the need for organizations that grade those who suffer from political incontinence becomes evermore important. Like consumers buying their first computer, many voters are too preoccupied with life to waste time with rooterspeak. If letter grades were assigned to politicians [i.e., John Kerry, D-MA (F), Joe Leiberman, D-CT (B+), Randy Cunningham R-CA (F)], politicians might have an incentive to include components of veracity and coherence in their messages while media outlets that carried more A/B than D/F politicians might be more selective with those they interview. First Amendment rights do not preclude media companies from selecting lucid guests.

If Senator Kerry delivered one clear message it is that such a rating system is long overdue.

My Son Comes Home

I graduated from Marine Corps bootcamp Platoon 2105 on December 11, 1975.


Yesterday, December 2nd 2005, my son Cliff graduated with Platoon 3131. I could not be more proud of his accomplishment.


Because of his time with us through the holidays, I will likely be too distracted to keep up regular posts but will return when Cliff resumes his training next month.

In the meantime, I’ve posted a link to our graduation photos.

I pray that your Christmas and New Year will be as rich and blessed as ours.

Clark Baker
Semper Fidelis