Posted on 06/18/2006 8:05:00 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Several board members of the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concerns at a meeting yesterday over proposed standards that would prohibit board members from publicly criticizing the organization's policies and internal operations.
"I cannot vote for these proposals, as I have violated them nearly every time I have written an op-ed piece or spoken to the press," said Mary Ellen Gale, an at-large member.
Bennett Hammer, a board member representing the organization's New Mexico affiliate, cited examples of decisions in the last few years that he said had embarrassed the A.C.L.U. and contended that adopting the proposals would be yet another of "the things that have made us a laughingstock with the public."
The board nonetheless voted against motions to strike the controversial provisions from the proposals and instead opted for further discussion.
Emily Whitfield, an A.C.L.U. spokeswoman, said the failure of the motions was not an endorsement of the proposals. "A vote at this early stage would have been a departure from the board's deliberative process, and to suggest otherwise would be unfair and misleading," she wrote in an e-mail message.
One of the provisions said, "a director may publicly disagree with an A.C.L.U. policy position, but may not criticize the A.C.L.U. board and staff."
Another said, "Where an individual director disagrees with a board position on matters of civil liberties policy, the director should refrain from publicly highlighting the fact of such disagreement."
The provisions have attracted criticism from several newspaper editorial boards, members and donors, who said they clashed with the A.C.L.U.'s historic defense of free speech.
"I truly believe the A.C.L.U.'s finest moment was its defense of the Nazi party," said Alan Kahn, a longtime A.C.L.U. member, referring to the organization's legal support of the party's right to march through a heavily Jewish Chicago suburb.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The cesspool that is the ACLU continues to be just that.
Liberals eat their own...
stand back and watch the fun!
.. after the meeting, a book burning was held across the street, open to all members.
Its shills have been pointing to that legal case for decades to prove to its critics how "fair and balanced" the organization is.
As an added thought, the ACLU is just as ideologically fascist as the Nazi party is or ever was. Perhaps it was a case of birds of a feather flocking together in some perverted way.
Leni
BINGO
Among many.
Pathetic organization. I guess it was their finest moment. Can't think of anything else they did worthwhile either.
Yes, Alan, it's definitely been downhill from there - and that was in the 1970s. Thirty years of attacks on the American way of life is starting to show on these people.
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