Posted on 12/11/2004 4:55:49 PM PST by Pokey78
Donald Rumsfeld, the American Secretary of Defence, has taken time out from running the war in Iraq to defend his beloved scouting movement from assault by a liberal civil rights group.
The Pentagon chief and Eagle Scout, a lifetime honorific rank, took the unusual step of distancing himself from his department's lawyers after they reached a deal with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to end the "sponsorship" of boy scout troops by some military bases.
The ACLU launched a lawsuit in 1999, citing the constitutional separation of Church and state. It claimed that because scouts pledge to do their duty to "God and country", official military backing for scout groups represented "government entanglement in religious activity".
Pentagon lawyers recently reached a partial settlement with the ACLU, agreeing that although scouts could carry on meeting on military bases, they could no longer be directly sponsored by units from the armed forces.
The deal prompted outraged Republican and Democrat congressmen to submit bills that would prevent any federal agencies imposing limits on links between the scouts and the military.
In a letter to senators, Mr Rumsfeld effectively rejected the settlement and said that he backed their resolutions.
"The Department of Defence takes great pride in its longstanding and rich tradition of support to the Boy Scouts of America," he wrote. "I am concerned with the impression left by the ACLU that the department is changing its relationship with the boy scouts."
In America, there are 3.2 million scouts.
About 100 million boys have been through the movement since it was recognised by Congress in 1916.
Joseph Quick, the executive director of the Gulf Coast scouting council, said: "We have Jewish, Muslim and Christian scouts.
"The only requirement is to believe in a God.
"To a lot of people, it just seems the ACLU is set on a systematic attack on anything to do with religion in the United States." The ACLU has brought a series of cases against the scouts since 1981, including a failed attempt to overturn the ban on homosexual scoutmasters and to remove the oath to God. It denies that it is pursuing a vendetta.
"This is a straightforward issue. The Defence Department has agreed to abide by the terms of the Constitution and not engage in direct entanglement with religious activity,'' it said.
"A boy scout has to swear an oath to God to participate and that is a religious requirement.
"We took this action to protect the constitution."
Bump for Rummy!
The ACLU is not interested in saving the Constitution its agenda is to make this country Godless so they can push their issues of Queers, baby killers,anti-Americans , and Atheists down our throats.
The ACLU is a greater threat to America and our way of life than the Muslims.
Amen...up the ACLU.
THere's gonna be a whole bunch of "good ACLU" folks in Hell.
We can never forget that the ACLU is counsel of record for NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), the organized pedophile pressure group.
The ACLU has also fought to have homosexuals placed as leaders in charge of Boy Scouts.
Good for Rummy, he's doing the right thing.
Eagle Scout is an earned recognition of achievement in leadership self-reliance and ethical values, not a rank, nor is it an honorarium.
Ping.
HUGE Rummy BTTT!
"We took this action to protect the constitution."
Is there some reason that we (those bending over to receive our daily dose of the ACLU) don't do this on a weekly basis?
Criminey. Get mad. I am. Though you can't always tell from my poor typing...
Next week, the ACLU will demand the abolition of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps
The aclu is an affront to me, and the effin' wimps at the PENTAGON are too. I'm sick of this bullshit and now the PENTAGON caves?!
I'm only thankful that I am in my sunset...this crap makes me vomit and I'll soon be rid of it in a better place than the "Gubbmint for the peeples, by the peeples and for the peeples". Screw them. These peeples (sheeples) do not deserve my respect and they have lost it forever.
FMCDH(BITS)
Double bump for Rummy. He's one great American! And God Bless the Boy Scouts. We have friends whose grandchild has Tourettes Syndrome (sp?) and the Boy Scouts accept him and try to help him accomplish Boy Scouts things. His public school mates are rather cruel to him.
That's the bottom line my friend. I don't care if "he distanced himself". That's being a pussy. DO SOMETHING DAMMIT!
I've had a lifetime of platitudes and sorries and kudos and all the other crap...DO SOMETHING!
FMCDH(BITS)
"ACLU is counsel of record for NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), the organized pedophile pressure group."
future reference index ping!
ACLU to Defend NAMBLA
Associated Press
Aug. 31, 2000
BOSTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union will represent a group that advocates sex between men and boys in a lawsuit brought by the family of a slain 10-year-old.
The family of Jeffrey Curley of Cambridge said the North American Man/Boy Love Association and its web site which is now off-line incited the attempted molestation and murder of the boy on Oct. 1, 1997.
One of two men convicted in the killing, Charles Jaynes, 25, reportedly viewed the group's web site shortly before the killing, and also had in his possession some of NAMBLA's publications. Also convicted in the killing was 24-year-old Salvatore Sicari.
The ACLU said the case, filed in federal court in mid-May, involves issues of freedom of speech and association.
"For us, it is a fundamental First Amendment case," John Roberts, executive director of the Massachusetts branch of the ACLU, told Boston Globe Wednesday. "It has to do with communications on a web site, and material that does not promote any kind of criminal behavior whatsoever."
ACLU officials said NAMBLA members deny encouraging coercion, rape or violence.
Attorney Lawrence Frisoli, who represents the Curleys, said he is glad the ACLU is defending NAMBLA, because he has had trouble locating the group's members.
Harvey Silverglate, an ACLU board member, said Wednesday that the group's attorneys will try to block any attempt by the Curleys to get NAMBLA's membership lists, or other materials identifying members.
The ACLU also will act as a surrogate for NAMBLA, allowing its members to defend themselves in court while remaining anonymous.
According to the Globe, NAMBLA officials in the past have said their main goal is the abolition of age-of-consent laws that classify sex with children as rape.
At two separate trials last year, prosecutors said Jaynes and Sicari were sexually obsessed with the boy, lured him from his Cambridge neighborhood with the promise of a new bike, and then smothered him with a gasoline-soaked rag when he resisted their sexual advances. They then stuffed him into a concrete-filled container and dumped it into a Maine river.
Sicari, convicted of first-degree murder, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Jaynes' second-degree murder and kidnapping convictions enable him to seek parole in 23 years.
The Curleys last week were awarded $328 million by a superior court jury in a civil suit against Jaynes and Sicari.
http://www.operationlookout.org/lookoutmag/aclu_to_defend_nambla.htm
Disgusting!!! As a lawyer, it seems as if every day I see something else that makes me regret choosing this as my profession. Between the ambulance chasers, to the now famous class action lawyers (the Vioxx scam is the latest) it sickens me. However, any attorney who is willing to play the first amendment game with morality to support these rapists should not receive any due process whatsoever. Things like this make me angry, in case my post doesn't indicate otherwise.
You and me both, pal. And I've only been working for three months. I'm doing corporate defense work, so I thought that I would get some satisfaction from defending against the plaintiffs' attorneys. However, I came to realize rather quickly that it's pretty much just a game between both sides, with the goal of both to suck some cash out of the corporation. Even the corporate defense guys are Democrats too...so that doesn't make things any more palatable either.
We MUST identify the individual attorneys and key others in the ACLU and other anti-American groups. How about we start protests of each attorney in front of their homes, so their NEIGHBORS know and can weigh in. Obviously this must be done legally, without invasion of privacy--however attorney licenses and legal proceedings are public record, along with PROBABLY all information on the license applications. Let's put faces on the insidiousness....legally and in a law-abiding way, of course. Anybody have some more detailed ideas where to start on such a plan?
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