American Legion National Commander Praises 9th Circuit Pledge Ruling

This is a battle fought every year between the secular left and the majority of Americans, but the sad part here is that Luzerne County officials chose to surrender to the anti-Christian hate groups, including the ACLU, instead of standing up for the majority of county residents.

From The Associated Press:

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Officials in northeastern Pennsylvania have removed a pair of religious holiday symbols from a public space after being threatened with legal action.

Luzerne County commissioners took down the creche and menorah from the courthouse lawn on Wednesday after receiving an objection from two civil liberties groups.

The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State told the county in a Dec. 11 letter that the displays are an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

County Solicitor Vito DeLuca says officials chose to forgo a legal fight because of a local budget crisis and other pressing matters.

The nativity scene is county-owned and has been placed on the lawn in Wilkes-Barre for decades. The county added a menorah about 20 years ago.

For more on how to fight the liberal fascists, check out the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) Web site.

Talk radio host and author Doug Giles offers encouragement in the form of an open letter to the so-called "mob" of Americans expressing their First Amendment right to free speech during recent town hall meetings with members of Congress.

From his letter:

Isn't it funny that the liberals, who have historically encouraged the contrarian, are now crying foul since conservatives, libertarians and non-Obama addled Democrats have decided, en masse, to become the contrarians and shout Obama, his policies, and his step-n-fetch gofers down?

As you know by now, the Obamanoid's town hall sale of Obamacare ain't going that well for Dems because thinking, unbeholden people aren't buying Barack's crack. So, what did the White House do in light of the GP's legitimate concerns over Barack's proposed legislation? Did they go back and flush it down the crapper? No. Did Obama bend one of his big ears to our bigger concerns? Yeah, right.

No, the White House, in the spirit of tolerance, hope and change officially dispatched some pursed-lip chick to video warn the serfs of Obamaland that if we disagree with His Highness' health scare bill in a "fishy" e-mail or casual conversation then the White House wants to know about it — and we could very well be deep weeds.

What is this, Russia? Did I wake up in Venezuela? Is this an Austin Powers flick, or a joke? If it isn't, I'm screwed; all I have been doing for the past umpteen weeks is ... uh ... disagreeing with B-HO on my show.

Read the full column, "My Fishy Letter of Encouragement for the Town Hall Rebels," at Townhall.com

Nat Hentoff is a leading authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights. He also happens to be one of the most liberal syndicated columnist in the country. So when Hentoff wants to discuss how the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has clearly violated the Constitution by passing a law to target "thought crime," everyone needs to pay attention.

From a recent Hentoff column:

Why is the press remaining mostly silent about the so-called "hate crimes law" that passed in the House on April 29? The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed in a 249-175 vote (17 Republicans joined with 231 Democrats).

These Democrats should have been tested on their knowledge of the First Amendment, equal protection of the laws (14th Amendment), and the prohibition of double jeopardy (no American can be prosecuted twice for the same crime or offense). If they had been, they would have known that this proposal, now headed for a Senate vote, violates all these constitutional provisions.

This bill would make it a federal crime to willfully cause bodily injury (or try to) because of the victim's actual or PERCEIVED "race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability" — as explained on the White House Web site, signaling the president's approval. A defendant convicted on these grounds would be charged with a "hate crime" in addition to the original crime, and would get EXTRA prison time.

Liberal fascism is upon us. And if Obama stacks the Supreme Court with far-left idealogues, who will be left to protect our Constitutional rights? This could help explain the rise in gun ownership in this country.

Read Hentoff's full column here.

Everyone knows the newspaper industry is struggling, but there seems to be a growing number of people who are enjoying watching the demise of some of the nation's great newspapers.

Randy Siegel, co-founder of the Newspaper Project, argues that many of the people who are sounding the death knell have ulterior motives.

From Siegel's column in The Providence Journal:

As newspaper companies fight for survival and try to rectify many of the mistakes they have made in the last decade, they don’t deserve a break from anyone — their readers, their advertisers, or their competitors. What they do deserve, however, is a little more objective coverage of their problems and more detailed disclosure about the possible motives of those "critics" and "analysts" who are hardly unbiased observers.

Read the full column at the newspaper's Web site.

You can find out more about the Newspaper Project at www.newspaperproject.org

There's also an interesting column by Leonard Pitts Jr. that says politicians and government bureaucrats would love to see fewer newspapers because there would be no one left to hold them accountable.

From Pitts' column:

Too many of us fail to understand what that death would mean, believe newspapers provide no service they can't get elsewhere ... Local TV news specializes in crime, weather and sports. CNN has a national purview. Even the Internet primarily synthesizes reporting done in other media.

No, only the local paper performs the critical function of holding accountable the mayor, the governor, the local magnates and potentates for how they spend your money, run your institutions, validate or violate your trust. If newspapers go, no other entity will have the wherewithal to do that. Which means the next Blagojevich gets away with it.

Read "Don't expect sympathy cards from crooks, corrupt politicians," at The Miami Herald's Web site.

A reminder to everyone who holds public office or is paid by taxpayers:

"The First Amendment doesn't exist so we can freely praise our public officials. It exists so we can freely criticize our public officials."

-- Chris Lamb,
Educator, College of Charleston, S.C.