Stop The ACLU » PETITIONS

ACLU:State Infringing on Catholic 1st Amendment Somehow Doesn’t Violate the Constitution

Jay — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Update from commenter: Here is a petition for all people that believe in the Constitution to sign to let Obama know how we feel about him infringing liberty.

ACLU:

The American Civil Liberty Union announced today that President Obama’s decision to mandate coverage for birth control does not violate religious liberty.
The ACLU’s Alicia Gay warns that the “powerful lobbying arm of the Catholic Church” mistakenly claims that the HHS contraception mandate violates their religious liberty.
Individuals who choose not to pay for employees’ contraceptives, the ACLU counters, are forcing their beliefs on their employees.

“The fundamental promise of religious liberty in this country doesn’t create a right to impose those views on others, including ignoring civil rights laws or denying critical health care,” Gay insists.

Somehow in the ACLU’s backwards world they think that the “wall of separation” between church and state is only for the church to not infringe upon the government. It is laughable because the founders’ clear intent was to keep government out of religion. It isn’t shocking, they’ve held this belief forever. If an individual wants to mention Jesus in a graduation speech they think it is the beginning of the end, but government forcing a religion to violate its own beliefs is A OK with this dangerous organization.

Just look at this sentence: “Individuals who choose not to pay for employees’ contraceptives, the ACLU counters, are forcing their beliefs on their employees.” So, according to ACLU illogic individuals who do not pay for other people’s contraceptives are somehow forcing their beliefs on others. But somehow on the same coin….the government forcing people who do not believe in contraceptives to pay for those that do are not forcing their beliefs on others. It makes your head spin.

Ed Morrissey is all over this:

The rights in the Constitution are not granted to American citizens because the government decided to offer them beneficently at their discretion. They exist in the document as a testament to our natural rights, part of our innate humanness, and are detailed in the Constitution as a bar to government’s overreach in trampling them. If the ACLU can’t figure that much out, then not only have they jumped the shark, they’ve nuked the fridge and made themselves entirely irrelevant except for the elitist crowd that cheers on tyranny. And that is exactly what has happened with this HHS mandate.

Rhymes With Right:

The ACLU seems to thinkt that if Catholic institutions are not forced to pay for the birth control, sterilization, and abortions of their employees that some substantive right is being violated. That is nonsensical – as nonsensical as arguing that a Jewish nursing home with a kosher kitchen failing to provide bacon and pork products to its non-Jewish employees is somehow an unlawful and illegitimate imposition of Judaism upon those employees.

The reality here is that the ACLU isn’t concerned about the First Amendment here. It is instead concerned about the perpetual extension of the abortion culture in America. As a result, they are willing to see the federal government require that those with moral scruples against abortion be forced to burn a little incense at the altar of Margaret Sanger – or be crushed by the instruments of the state in the same way that the ancient Romans sought to crush the early Christian community for refusing to make such sacrifices at the altar of the emperors.

This isn’t new for the ACLU. They have always been hypocrites when it comes to the first amendment, especially if it conflicts with the abortion agenda. Abortion has always trumped the 1st Amendment as the ACLU’s top priority.

Also see: PJ Tattler
The Barber Shop

Sign The US Oil Drilling Petition!

William Teach — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:45:42 +0000

This isn’t just any petition, folks: it is one sponsored on the official White House website. I mentioned this a while ago, was waiting for it to go live, went live Thursday (unshockingly, the majority of petitions are about doing away with drug laws)

Welcome to We the People on WhiteHouse.gov. This tool provides you with a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.

The petition needs to get at least 5,000 signatures within 30 days of going live, so, October 24th. Said petition is

Open up AMWR, the Gulf Of Mexico, and other places to domestic oil drilling, along with new refineries.

The United States needs to produce it’s own oil and do away with our reliance on foreign sources. It is imperative that we open up those areas within US property to domestic drilling and production, as well as building new refineries.

Please go and sign. Unfortunately, this also looks like a way for the WH to data mine, since you must be registered and signed in. But, it’s worth it if we can get enough signatures!

EPA to Give Itself Powers to Preemptively Deny Natural Resource Development?

Warner Todd Huston — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 02:41:57 +0000

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again an Obama regulatory agency tries to give itself wild new powers, powers that would crush American energy and natural resource development, powers meant to quash the business sector.

A press release from Resourceful Earth News imparts a warning about the Environmental Protection Agency’s newest powergrab. A left-wing Democrat Senator is asking the EPA to accept the idea of taking upon itself the power to deny mining or development of other natural resources before any scientific studies or any permitting procedures even begin. This Senator wants the EPA to just say no because, well, simply because it feels like it.

This effort is at the behest of Washington Senator Maria Cantwell (Dem.) who is urging the EPA to invoke the Clean Water Act to put a permanent end to the development of Pebble Mine in Alaska. Pebble Mine owners have already spent $120 million over three years to satisfy federal and state government regulations. Expensive and expansive scientific studies and environmental studies have already been conducted but now that the EPA has agreed to launch its scientific analysis of the mine, Cantwell wants the EPA to preempt the environmental review process the EPA itself put in place and simply decide to prevent the operation of the mine out of hand with no science needed to back it up.

If the EPA decides to try this new tact to quash American energy production and mining of natural resources, then it would from this point forward be able to wholly dispense with any need to rely on scientific facts to determine the viability of the culling of our own natural resources, those resources that made this country great. The EPA would have the precedent to shut down the use of any land merely because it deems it should be done.

Talk about the end of private property rights and the destruction of our energy and mining industries!

RE News notes that even if the mine is given permission to actually open it will still have to go through “67 federal, state, and local agencies for approvals and permits.”

Even center left Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is against this new powergrab by the EPA.

As Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski wrote, a preemptive veto of the Pebble Mine project will expand the powers of the EPA and “could have widespread and unintended consequences for any development project, including airports and other infrastructure.” Cantwell’s actions make a mockery of the federal environmental review process and leave Americans even more dependent on foreign sources to meet our needs for natural resources and energy. More American jobs will be lost and it will be another blow to our already shaky economy.

The press release give a few ways to stop Cantwell and the EPA’s obscene abuse of power.

Email Senator Cantwell’s office here
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers
Sign the petition and use hash tag #GivePebbleAChance on Twitter
Use your blog, Facebook and Twitter to let your friends know what is happening under the radar!
Get more information at here. Sign our twitter petition. Please retweet the article using the hash tag #GivePebbleAChance. Contact information for Sen. Cantwell is here.

Vote Fraud Paradise in Maryland

Warner Todd Huston — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:20:11 +0000

-By Warner Todd Huston

Thanks to SB167/HB470, Maryland is yet another U.S. State attempting to reward illegal immigrants with free or cut rate in-state university educations all at the detriment to the real citizens of the state — and all without the direct vote of the people. But this state version of the DREAM Act has resulted in some other attempted skullduggery, mainly violations of the state’s voting laws.

Here is what happened. Two Maryland legislators, Senator Victor Ramirez and Delegate Sheila Hixson of St. George’s County, introduced the bill in question that gave illegals in-state tuition to the state’s colleges – in other words, illegals will be taking the place of actual citizens at the state’s colleges. Even as the bill became law, the people of Maryland were not too happy with the whole thing. So, in time-honored fashion, the people of Maryland took up petitions to try and have a voice about being rid of this rewarding of illegals.

As it happens the citizens against this Maryland version of the DREAM Act didn’t just collect the requisite 18,579 (or so) petition signatures, they collected 40,000! This made the supporters of illegal immigrants suddenly all upset, as you can imagine, and here is where the lawbreaking came in.

Opponents of the folks trying to dump the illegal-supporting bill did what leftists always do. They began to bend, rip, distort and break the rules.

The libs trying to protect the favored status for illegals went to a friend in the government and somehow were able to get hold of all the petitions, then they were somehow allowed to remove all those petitions from the authorities, and they somehow were able to take all these petitions to a local copy shop so that they could make Xerox copies of all the petitions.

These leftists claim they wanted all the petitions so that they could “check the validity of the signatures.” Determining whether the signatures are fake or legit is not a leftist advocacy group’s job, of course. It is the job of the state. Still, it is obviously a lie, anyway. There is little doubt why these leftists want these names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers. It’s for one reason and one reason only and that would be to harass the voters that dared sign the petitions.

This tactic has already happened in California during the Prop 8 fight in 2008.

The main question here is simply this: how the heck is it legal for an advocacy group to take the voter’s petitions — a matter of law and the property of the state — away from the state (without any supervision at all, mind you) and remove them from government buildings? Certainly this is not legal. The state is not permitted to allow legal voter’s petitions to leave their hands once officially handed in and counted.

One imagines that this whole situation should end up in a lawsuit… or at least we hope so. One also imagines that the leftist groups and their inside government moles should be prosecuted, that the government officials in question should be summarily fired, and all involved should serve jail time.

… wouldn’t you think?

**Update**

Several days after the decision to give the illegal Immigrant activists all these petitions, the government reversed itself and told the CASA group that they would not be allowed to take the petitions.

But this only happened for one reason and that is because law abiding citizens put pressure on the illegal actions of the government and the illegal immigrant activists. If the good guys weren’t watching, the activists would have had those petitions in hand.

Union Boss Says Advocates for Spending Cuts are ‘Mentally Retarded’

Warner Todd Huston — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:14:06 +0000

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a perfect example of why unions are the biggest problem for government budget reform, John Gage, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has just pronounced anyone that wants to cut the overly generous pay, benefits, and pensions of government employees are “mentally retarded.” This is the to-the-hilt fight that the unions will go to, not only to keep their cushy remuneration, but to enlarge it still more all on the backs of the working poor taxpayers that don’t have luxurious government jobs.

Gage made the statement during a Feb. 8 march on Washington, DC.

When people say well we just have to pay less in wages whether it’s private sector or public sector, I think they’re mentally retarded to say something like that.

Like a good unionista, Gage does not want to do what needs to be done to balance our government budgets. Whether federal or state and local, the exorbitant pay and bennies that government workers get simply cannot be sustained any more. They must be cut. The simple fact is that government workers make far and away more than the average worker in the private sector yet it is the folks in the private sector that are burdened to foot the bill.

Already Americans for Prosperity started an effort to force Gage to resign. “Cutting spending,” AFP says, “is actually very sane! Insulting Americans doesn’t prove a point, it only proves your arrogance and ignorance. You do not represent the great working class of the American people and should step down.”

Check out www.RemoveGage.com and sign the petition.

Don’t Censor the Internet! STOP the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act

Warner Todd Huston — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:08:48 +0000

-By Warner Todd Huston

The politicians are at it again. They never cease to amaze for their constantly revolving attempts to take over complete control of the Internet and everything connected to it. This time, in the guise of safeguarding copyrighted material, Congressional Democrats intend to introduce into this zombie session of congress the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA).

COICA would give the Attorney General the power to shut down websites accused of illegally distributing copyrighted material by requiring Internet Service Providers to block such sites from its customers.

Certainly, as a capitalist, I am solidly for protections against copyright infringement, but, as is the case with most things that government does, this bill goes that much too far and offers a threat to freedom of expression on the Internet.

After all, this bill would give the power to block websites to a relatively few number of government officials, a situation ripe for misuse and abuse. Further such overt power could easily chill nascent companies that might shy from investing in new ideas for fear of running afoul of the government.

STOP the COICA… www.dontcensorthenet.com/. Sign the petition.

This bill has even alarmed a group of eighty-seven engineers who played a part in the creation of the Internet.

If enacted, this legislation will risk fragmenting the Internet’s global domain name system (DNS), create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure. All censorship schemes impact speech beyond the category they were intended to restrict, but this bill will be particularly egregious in that regard because it causes entire domains to vanish from the Web, not just infringing pages or files. Worse, an incredible range of useful, law-abiding sites can be blacklisted under this bill.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has many concerns over COICA.

If this bill passes, the list of targets could conceivably include hosting websites such as Dropbox, MediaFire and Rapidshare; MP3 blogs and mashup/remix music sites like SoundCloud, MashupTown and Hype Machine ; and sites that discuss and make the controversial political and intellectual case for piracy, like pirate-party.us, p2pnet, InfoAnarchy, Slyck and ZeroPaid . Indeed, had this bill been passed five or ten years ago, YouTube might not exist today. In other words, the collateral damage from this legislation would be enormous. (See why all these sites would be targets?)

Critics of the COICA say that there are already plenty of laws to prevent copyright infringement and this bill would only add uncertainty in an era when economic activity is sorely needed.

I have joined a growing list of individuals and organizations to try and stop this bad bill. This new effort has been launched at www.dontcensorthenet.com/. Please stop by and sign the petition and let’s send a message to Congress.

Another appalling decision from SCOTUS

JonJayRay — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:39:02 +0000

This is going to gut people’s willingness to put their names to a petition

“Those who sign a petition to place an issue of public dispute onto a statewide ballot may not later claim a broad First Amendment shield of anonymity to prevent disclosure of their names to the public, the US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. In an 8-to-1 decision, the high court said public disclosure of referendum petitions does not as a general matter violate the First Amendment.

But the court also stressed that under certain circumstances, petition signers may be able to remain anonymous. ‘Those resisting disclosure can prevail under the First Amendment if they can show a reasonable probability that the compelled disclosure [of personal information] will subject them to threats, harassment, or reprisals from either government officials or private parties,’ Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion in a case called Doe v. Reed.

The issue arose in Washington State after a group opposed to same-sex marriage sought to repeal a recently passed domestic partnership law. The group wanted the law to reflect that marriage and related legal benefits could only be between a man and a woman.”

Source

A fuller discussion of the decision here.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

Petition to Remove Statue of Murderer Stalin from D-Day Memorial

Warner Todd Huston — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:27:49 +0000

-By Warner Todd Huston

There has been a lot of anger over the inclusion of a statue of Joseph Stalin, Russia’s murderous WWII dictator, in our National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia.As a result of that anger a petition has been started to remove the Stalin celebration from the National D-Day Memorial.

Thousands of Americans feel that including a statue celebrating the life of this monster is the wrong way to go about memorializing Russia’s sacrifice during WWII and they want the statue pulled down.

Others, though, say that if we pull down the statue we are whitewashing history. After all, they say, we have statues to the other Allied leaders and excluding Stalin just makes no sense.

I disagree with those that think we must memorialize Stalin in order to be true to a valid accounting of history. What should have been done to memorialize Russia’s dear sacrifice during WWII was to recognize the nation’s effort without building a statue to one of the worst murderers in human history. The statue should have been of Russia itself, not Stalin.

It simply galls to have a statue to one of humanities worst criminals on the soil of one of the world’s freest nations. Joseph Stalin has oceans of blood on his hands and we should not be celebrating his life.

Please visit the petition at: http://stalinstatue.com/

Citizen’s Petition to Remove the Stalin Statue from the National D-Day Memorial

I, the undersigned, STAND for the memory of all the Allied troops of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Poland, Australia, and Norway who gave their lives on D-Day or in the ensuing combat on the Western Front.

I STAND for the American veterans currently living in the State of Virginia, and in all other States, who survived D-Day, risking their lives to liberate Western Europe from tyranny.

I AFFIRM that the true history of World War II must be protected from distortion and misinformation which threaten to erase or alter well-established and documented facts.

I RECOGNIZE, on the basis of overwhelming historical evidence, that neither Joseph Stalin nor Soviet forces played any part in the D-Day landings at Normandy.

I AFFIRM that a bust of Joseph Stalin has no place at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, whose stated purpose is to “honor the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of Allied forces on D-Day,” June 6, 1944, and that a Stalin statue should not be displayed with statues of the leaders of the Western Allies responsible for the triumph of D-Day.

I therefore PETITION the Officers and Board of Directors of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation to remove the bust of Stalin from the grounds of the Memorial immediately; I further PETITION Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar to ensure that if the National D-Day Memorial should come under the National Park Service, no bust or statue of Stalin will be included or allowed; in so acting, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation and Interior Secretary Salazar will safeguard the sacred memory of D-Day for ourselves, our veterans, and future generations.

ACLU sues over Nevada immigration initiative

JonJayRay — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:37:56 +0000

Nevada’s high rate of unemployment (the nation’s highest at 14%) should make the proposed laws a shoo-in, so we must not let the people decide, must we!

The ACLU of Nevada and a southern Nevada business coalition have sued over a ballot initiative that would ask voters to approve tough immigration laws in Nevada similar to those in Arizona.

In their lawsuits filed Friday, the ACLU and the Nevada Open for Business Coalition ask Carson District Judge James Wilson to block the initiative from going to the Legislature or voters. The groups contend it violates state law requiring petitions to contain only one subject, promotes racial profiling and would hurt the state’s economy. “Not only does the intent of the proposal blatantly violate America’s most fundamental values of fairness and equality, the expansive scope of it intentionally confuses voters,” American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Maggie McLetchie told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Assemblyman Chad Christensen, R-Las Vegas, the initiative’s sponsor, said his proposal provides protections against racial profiling and would save the state money in medical, education and incarceration costs for illegal immigrants. “Every time I debunk one of their bogus complaints they come up with something new,” he said.

Christensen said he will collect the required 97,002 signatures by a Nov. 9 deadline to have the “Nevada Immigration Verification” initiative considered by the 2011 Legislature. “We’ll hit our mark for sure,” he said.

If lawmakers fail to act or reject it, the petition would be put to voters in 2012.

Among other things, the initiative would require noncitizens to carry proof they are in the U.S. legally, require voters to present IDs at polls, prohibit illegal immigrants from applying for a job and make it illegal to transport or harbor illegal immigrants.

The Arizona law requires that police conducting traffic stops or questioning people about possible legal violations ask them about their immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that they’re in the country illegally.

The ACLU filed its suit on behalf of an advocacy group called What Happens in Arizona Stops in Arizona, which includes the NAACP of Nevada and Robert Johnson, president of Gun Owners of Nevada.

Members of the business coalition include Assemblymen Mo Denis and Ruben Kihuen, both Las Vegas Democrats, and Latin Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Otto Merida.

Denis said the coalition reflects “a broad effort of a wide variety of business, gaming, labor and other community interests.” He said coalition members believe the petition would have a devastating impact on Nevada’s economy. Arizona’s new law already has cost that state nearly $100 million in lost revenue, he added. “We cannot afford that in Nevada,” Denis told the Nevada Appeal. “Every one of us would feel the economic impact of boycotts and lost business, something our state can ill afford in these challenging times.”

SOURCE

Let’s Have A “Read The Arizona Bill” Sing Along!

William Teach — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:11:58 +0000

I wonder if Obama has read it yet?

Have you signed the petition at Secure The Border yet?

Meanwhile, you know something is really hinky when a San Fransisco Chronicle columnist not only supports the Arizona law, but takes Obama and his administration peeps to task. After smacking Mexico President Calderone around, Debra Saunders writes

For his part, President Obama is a virtuoso at talking out of both sides of his mouth on immigration. He calls the immigration system broken, then proposes to fix the system by paving a path to citizenship for those who broke the law. He has called SB1070 misguided in order to appeal to the lathered-up pro-illegal immigration corner. Then he appeals to “misguided” voters, by assuring them that he is gung-ho when it comes to enforcing the immigration laws.

It’s always strange to see a SF Chronicle writer, plus the commentors, take a Conservative, common sense, and adult position.

ABC News reports on a study that states that illegal immigrants cost U.S. citizens $100 billion per year.

Finally, some awesome legislation that Queen Nancy will never allow on the floor for a vote, the No Social Security For Illegals Act

Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has cosponsored legislation that would prevent wages earned while working in the United States illegally from being credited toward Social Security benefits.

“It’s no wonder this country has a serious problem with illegal immigration,” said Rehberg, the co-chairman of the House Northern Border Caucus. “As long as we’re rewarding people for breaking the law by letting them count income earned through illegal work toward future Social Security benefits, people are going to keep coming. On the one hand, we’re telling foreigners not to risk their lives attempting sometimes deadly border crossings, and on the other hand we’re giving them a check when they get here. Talk about sending the wrong message.”

Unshockingly, Rehberg is a Republican.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach