ACLU says 'No, thanks'

Chattanooga Times Free Press ^ | Oct. 30, 2004 | Unknown

[w6ai5q37b]

The Ford and Rockefeller foundations hand out millions of dollars each year to a variety of organizations. We may or may not agree with the activities of a given group that gets some portion of that money, but both foundations have properly drawn a line against their money supporting terrorism or other violence.

The Ford Foundation says funding recipients must agree not to engage in activity that "promotes violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state." News reports say this rule was put in place because some Ford money previously had wound up in the hands of radicals who bitterly oppose the state of Israel.

The Rockefeller Foundation says recipients may not "directly or indirectly engage in, promote, or support other organizations or individuals who engage in or promote terrorist activity."

It is hard to see how anyone would argue seriously that those guidelines are unreasonable. No American organization ought to want to support hateful, violent causes, let alone seek money from foundations to do so.

But amazingly, the American Civil Liberties Union has deemed the rules too restrictive and therefore has turned down more than $1 million in grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.

The ACLU complains that the "vague grant language" might "have a chilling effect on civil liberties." An ACLU board member said the rules sounded too much like the anti-terrorist Patriot Act and seemed "to have arisen out of this kind of climate of fear and intimidation or something that the administration is pushing," The New York Sun reports.

We don't see the foundations' rules as an attempt to crush civil liberties. But the guidelines might have a "chilling effect" on terrorists. We hope so.

[w6ai5q37b]

The ACLU was founded on January 12, 1920. Among its founders were William Z. Foster, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Louis F. Budenz. All three later became prominent leaders of the Communist Party, USA, although Budenz broke with the Party in 1945 and became a militant anti-Communist.

In 1976, Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act, which was designed to encourage private lawyers to take on suits to protect civil and constitutional rights. The law provides that judges can order federal and state governments to pay legal fees to private lawyers who sued the government and won. The result has been a flood of civil rights cases in federal court.

From The New American Feb. 2, 1987

[Netizen]

No American organization ought to want to support hateful, violent causes, let alone seek money from foundations to do so.

Kind of like the terrorist Arafat getting the Nobel Prize for peace

But amazingly, the American Civil Liberties Union has deemed the rules too restrictive and therefore has turned down more than $1 million in grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.

Speaks volumes.

[AmishDude]

This is grandstanding. There is no slippery slope here. If the foundations make a fuss, the ACLU can drop the money at that time. They have no problem taking gubmint money though.

[Jackson Brown]

Anarchist Roger Baldwin founded the ACLU in 1919, after his release from prison where he served a sentence for draft evasion, at a party attended by Socialist Party notable Norman Thomas, future Communist Party chairman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Soviet agent Agnes Smedley.

In 1920, Rev. Harry Ward, the Red Dean of the Union Theological Seminary was Chairman, Baldwin was director, and Communist publisher Louis Budenz, who would later go on to testify against Communism, director of publicity.

Other Communist and radical founders included William Z. Foster, author of "Toward Soviet America," Harold J. Laski, Morris Hilquit, A.J.Muste, Scott Nearing, Eugene V. Debs, and John Dewey.

The 1930's membership would include such radicals and change agents as Vito Marcantonio, Haywood Broun, Corliss Lamont, and Bishop G. Bromley Oxnan. The 1940's roll would include George S. Counts, Norman Cousins, Melvyn Douglas, Robert M. Hutchins, and Freda Kirchwey. Most prominent American luminaries of the left were, and are, members of the ACLU.

On January 17, 1931, the Special House (of Representatives) Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States issued a report which stated the following:

"The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90% of its efforts are on behalf of Communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly; but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to attempt to protect the communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag with a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each State by the Federal Constitution...Roger N. Baldwin, its guiding spirit, makes no attempt to hide his friendship for the communists and their principles"

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0701aclu.htm

[KwasiOwusu]

ACLU = Biggest threat to American Civil Liberties ever.
ACLU's activities also amount to blackmail, extortion, intimidation and sheer terrorism to anyone unlucky enough to be the focus of their malevolent eye.
All patriotic, freedom loving Americans need to get together and rise up against this this ACLU blot on the landscape and the evil ACLU cancer eating away at the very fabric of the American way of life and American society.

[wardaddy]

what's worse .....Nadine Stroessner's Gestapo or the Foundations?

[Paul C. Jesup]

In 1976, Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act, which was designed to encourage private lawyers to take on suits to protect civil and constitutional rights.

Thank you, now we know one of the laws that need to be targetted for tort reform.

[ladyinred]

e. All patriotic, freedom loving Americans need to get together and rise up against this this ACLU blot on the landscape and the evil ACLU cancer eating away at the very fabric of the American way of life and American society.

A big Amen to that one!

The ACLU needs to be exposed and abolished, yesterday!

[Bonaparte]

The the Ford and Rockefeller foundations have gone back to just funding the garden variety leftist subversive groups?

[drt1]

It would seem that the ACLU has a relatively open field as measured from the standpoint of the absence of an official, organized opposition. Add to that the fact of secure sources of funding and you have the ability to continuously grind away at Conservative principles. The only opposition appears to be from ad-hoc organizations or action committees formed for single issue fights. As I see it the first order of business is to attack their funding and second, to organize more effectively to present a strategic challenge to these fifth columnists. My question is, why aren't these efforts underway and, if they are, why are they not sufficiently visible to average Conservatives like myself?

[drt1]

It would seem that the ACLU has a relatively open field as measured from the standpoint of the absence of an official, organized opposition. Add to that the fact of secure sources of funding and you have the ability to continuously grind away at Conservative principles. The only opposition appears to be from ad-hoc organizations or action committees formed for single issue fights. As I see it the first order of business is to attack their funding and second, to organize more effectively to present a strategic challenge to these fifth columnists. My question is, why aren't these efforts underway and, if they are, why are they not sufficiently visible to average Conservatives like myself?

[Route101]

What do the words "civil liberties" really mean to the ACLU?...Liberty to support arrested terrorists who would kill as many Americans as possible???...Liberty to not defend this country against foriegn invaders???..What do they really stand for???....They are attempting to overthrow this country through the manipulation of our own laws. They are a subversive communist/socialist front group...They smell of rotting fish on the history of America.....

[gr8eman]

Anarchist Roger Baldwin founded the ACLU in 1919

Must be relative to Alex Baldwin and his clan!

[gr8eman]

Anarchist Roger Baldwin founded the ACLU in 1919

Must be relative to Alex Baldwin and his clan!

[shubi]

The ACLU caused Cincinnati to have the highest murder rate in the city's history. The ACLU forced the City to cancel an ordinance that banned anyone arrested and convicted in the inner city from showing up there again for a year (if they did not live there). 80% of the crimes in our inner city are committed by non-residents of the neighborhood.

There is blood on the ACLU's hands here and I am sure all over the place. There is no doubt that the ACLU is a communist organization committed to destroying America, not preserving it.

[risk]

bump

[Old Phone Man]

Maybe the ACLU does not need the money I read that when the ACLU sues somebody, even if the other side wins, ACLU attorneys fees are paid by the taxpayers. Sounds like a racket to me.

[stopem]

What I found shocking was that the ACLU is protecting the
groups on the streets in Las Vegas, there are Christians there
that are standing in front of Casinos with signs that read
"Dont Gamble with your life, come to Jesus", "Jesus Saves",
and handing out leaflets and the casino owners want them moved because its bad for business.

ACLU claims they have the "right to free speech and the right to demonstrate" amazing huh?
They are usually against any form of Christianity.

[Grampa Dave]

ACLU conducts daily acts of Jihad with a law degree against America, Americans and Christians.