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HUMAN EVENTS Weekly Wrap-Up for April 15, 2005
HUMAN EVENTS Weekly Wrap-Up
April 15, 2005
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In Today's Wrap-Up:
- 1. Two Cents: A Needed Constitutional Amendment
- 2. EXCLUSIVE from BOB LIVINGSTON: Liberal Media Target Tom DeLay Because He's
Effective
- 3. Headlines and Highlights from HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE
- 4. Ann Coulter: It's Funny Only Until Someone Loses a Pie
- 5. HUMAN EVENTS Interview: Labor Sec. Chao -- Lasting Legacy of Reform
- 6. Jihad Watch: When Islam Isn't Islam
- 7. Capital Briefs: Party of Destruction
- 8. Political Roundup from Bob Novak and John Gizzi
- 9. From PAGE 3: Government Seizes Two More Days From Taxpayers
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1. Two Cents: A Needed Constitutional Amendment
Many of you probably heard about the more than 10,000 fugitives who were picked
up over the last week or so, many of whom were wanted for violent crimes. The
round-up was a result of a effort led by U.S. Marshals nationwide.
According to the AP, officers from "960 federal, state and local law enforcement
agencies took part in the concentrated search, which coincided with Crime
Victims Rights Week," and the "dragnet caught 10,340 people, some of whom had
two or more outstanding arrest warrants."
Did you know that more than 5 million violent crimes are committed every year in
this country? Crime victims' freedoms and rights first are trampled on by
criminals who have no respect for civilized society, and second are trampled on
by our nation's courts -- courts that ignore the rights of victims. A balance
between victims' and defendants' rights, which once existed, must be
reestablished. The current and growing inequality is creating a greater
disrespect for the law because the law is not just. Legislative remedies have
been tried and have failed; as the 1982 President's Task Force on Victims of
Crime concluded, the only option that will work to restore the rights of the
innocent is to pass a constitutional amendment.
The drafters of the Constitution did not include specific rights for victims of
crime as they did for people accused of crimes, but that's not too surprising if
you think about it: there wasn't a need for listing such specific rights because
victims were parties to the legal actions against their perpetrators. The rights
of victims were dramatically altered with the advent of government-paid public
prosecutors in the mid-1800s. Since then, the government, not the victims, has
been the party litigating against criminals in court. This move was made to
ensure that criminals would be punished even when their victims could not, or
would not, prosecute them.
Unfortunately, one side-effect of replacing victims with public prosecutors has
been that the victims have been forced to the sidelines. Victims are no longer
an integral part of the process, and as victims' rights diminish so do the
incentives to report crime and to cooperate with the prosecution. Many States
have addressed this issue with statutes to protect victims' rights -- and dozens
of states have adopted constitutional amendments. What makes victims' rights
protection difficult is trying to determine the best legislation to use to
provide such protection -- history shows us that the potency of statutes is
rapidly decreasing. Judges strike them down as unconstitutionally interfering
with the rigthts of criminals, or they simply ignore them.
That's why, back when I worked for the Senate Republican Policy Committee (RPC),
we actively pushed for the passage of a Crime Victims Constitutional Amendment.
Conservative Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and liberal Democratic Sen. Dianne
Feinstein tag-teamed on a great amendment that I still hope will one day be
passed.
It's about time we thwarted activist judges and amended the Constitution. I
offer the language of an amendment once offered by Kyl and Feinstein:
-----
SECTION 1. A victim of a crime of violence, as these terms may be defined by
law, shall have the rights:
- to reasonable notice of, and not to be excluded from, any public proceedings
relating to the crime;
- to be heard, if present, and to submit a statement at all such proceedings to
determine a conditional release from custody, an acceptance of a negotiated
plea, or a sentence;
- to the foregoing rights at a parole proceeding that is not public, to the
extent those rights are afforded to the convicted offender;
- to reasonable notice of a release or escape from custody relating to the
crime;
- to consideration of the interest of the victim that any trial be free from
unreasonable delay;
- to an order of restitution from the convicted offender;
- to consideration for the safety of the victim in determining any conditional
release from custody relating to the crime; and
- to reasonable notice of the rights established by this article.
SECTION 2. Only the victim or the victim's lawful representative shall have
standing to assert the rights established by this article. Nothing in this
article shall provide grounds to stay or continue any trial, reopen any
proceeding or invalidate any ruling, except with respect to conditional release
or restitution or to provide rights guaranteed by this article in future
proceedings, without staying or continuing a trial. Nothing in this article
shall give rise to or authorize the creation of a claim for damages against the
United States, a State, a political subdivision, or a public officer or
employee.
SECTION 3. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation. Exceptions to the rights established by this article
may be created only when necessary to achieve a compelling interest.
SECTION 4. This article shall take effect on the 180th day after the
ratification of this article. The right to an order of restitution established
by this article shall not apply to crimes committed before the effective date of
this article.
SECTION 5. The rights and immunities established by this article shall apply in
Federal and State proceedings, including military proceedings to the extent that
the Congress may provide by law, juvenile justice proceedings, and proceedings
in the District of Columbia and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of
the United States.
-----
If we are going to claim that we want to save the helpless from the judiciary,
then an amendment like this is what we need.
More on the debate over this amendment next week.
(Editor's note: This Two Cents is adapted from a piece I wrote for the RPC.)
#####
2. EXCLUSIVE from BOB LIVINGSTON: Liberal Media Target Tom DeLay Because He's
Effective
All of us who make our living inside the Beltway tend to develop pretty thick
hides. I know Tom DeLay has one of the thickest. I am also fully aware of the
time-honored tradition in a minority party--a "bombs away" attack agenda. The
problem I have is the seemingly complete abdication of any independent thought
by major media like the New York Times and the Washington Post.
These two venerable newspapers are confirming every Republican suspicion about
East Coast media institutions. Coming on the heels of the Dan Rather and CBS
News debacle during the presidential campaign, even the most open-minded
conservatives begin to detect a trend.
First, let's get some indisputable facts out on the table. DeLay has been the
most effective majority leader of either party in the last half century. Even
with the razor-thin margins he has had to work with, when was the last time he
lost a vote? His understanding of the intricacies of redistricting is legendary.
The only person I know who came close was Rep. John Burton, a liberal Democrat
from California whose groundbreaking use of computerized gerrymandering in the
1970s was considered clever and praiseworthy by many of the same voices who
condemn DeLay for the same talents. And on a personal note, DeLay is an
honorable, compassionate human being who does not deserve the current treatment
he gets from much of the media.
As a proud adoptive father myself, I have boundless admiration for Tom and
Christine DeLay's willingness to raise three foster children in their home. I am
amazed that he has dedicated so much of his time to neglected and abused
children. The special family court in Washington, D.C.--a court that has
doubtless saved the lives of many inner city children--would not exist without
DeLay. His work in this area earned the praise of the late Mary McGrory, the
acerbic liberal columnist for none other than the Washington Post. Would McGrory
have been satisfied with the one-sided picture of DeLay now painted by the Post?
Indeed, the Post articles that contain allegations and innuendo about overseas
trips and political work by Christine DeLay and Dani DeLay Ferro leave much to
be desired. As a co-chairman of the House Ethics Reform Task Force in the late
1990s, I am familiar with both the ethics rules and the FEC regulations at
issue. Nothing I have seen so far leads me to believe DeLay--or any of the other
members of both parties who went to Korea or London--violated House rules. Nor
do I believe allowing a politically talented wife and daughter to work on one's
political campaign is problematic. If I have somehow missed a major rules
change, then a number of senators and representatives of both parties should
immediately call their lawyers--many of them have wives, sons or daughters in
paid roles with their campaigns or political action committees.
Read the rest of this EXCLUSIVE piece, available ONLY at Human Events Online:
http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7159
#####
3. Headlines and Highlights from HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE:
"CRITICS GET IT WRONG: PATRIOT ACT EXEMPLIFIES CHECKS AND BALANCES"
The USA PATRIOT Act was passed near-unanimously by Congress in 2001 with
overwhelming bipartisan support, arming the United States with one of our most
potent weapons in the war against terrorism. Over the past three-and-a-half
years, it has delivered both the necessary tools for the government to identify,
incapacitate and convict terrorists before they strike, and also the critical
protections needed to prevent government misuse of those tools. To date, not one
court or congressional committee has found evidence of any abuse of the powers
under the Patriot Act. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7180
"SEARCHING FOR THE NEXT GOP VILLIAN"
The most important political task facing the out-of-power party--the Democrats
for now--is creating a villain to run against. It's certainly easier than
developing some grand new ideas or policies on which to campaign. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7179
"DIRECT STUDENT LOAN PROGRAM IS A TAXPAYER RIP-OFF"
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the guaranteed student loan program for
college students. The program, created by Lyndon Johnson as part of the Great
Society, has made college affordable for thousands of students. But it also has
been scandal-plagued, with billions of dollars of unpaid loans and massive
taxpayer losses. Moreover, it has contributed to the runaway inflation in
college tuitions. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7160
"DEMOCRATS TURNED BOLTON HEARING INTO CIRCUS"
John Bolton is likely to face a warmer reception in Turtle Bay than the one he
received on Capitol Hill from Democratic lawmakers last week. As U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, Bolton may win no popularity contests, but he will at
least be afforded the due respect that a man of his integrity and dedication to
public service deserves. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7161
"TOP 100 FILERS OF BAD W-2 FORMS"
The inspector general of the Social Security Administration (SSA) determined the
100 United States employers that compiled the worst records between 1997-2001
for filing W-2 forms that were so inaccurate the SSA could not match them to a
known taxpayer. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7158
"'AHNOLD' STRIKES AGAIN"
Naturally it was assumed that, having made his fortune in ridiculous movies, he
knew nothing about politics, and wouldn't know the difference between an
initiative and a garden-variety pass. Instead, he turned out to know all the
moves (in politics, that is), and scared the heck out of the Democratic
majorities in the legislature by collecting signatures to put an initiative
before the voters if the legislature refused to put legal limits on its own
wildly-abused power to spend more than the state takes in.. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7147
"PEACOCK NETWORK STILL PINING FOR JIMMY CARTER"
NBC was trying to create news that would embarrass George W. Bush, while
showering, yet again, their affection on Jimmy Carter and underline that he is a
Nobel Prize winner, the global peacemaker. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7153
"CORPORATE SCANDAL THREATENS NATIONAL SECURITY"
There's a scandal unfolding in corporate America that Bush needs to stop, given
that fixing Social Security is his top domestic goal and securing the nation
against terrorism is his greatest duty. The scandal is happening precisely where
Social Security and national security intersect. More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7138
"NO LENIENCY FOR LEFTIST HATEMONGERS"
Conservative activists must expose the left's dirty tricks and demand leftist
agitators receive the same punishments and penalties as any other criminal.
More: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7145
You can read these and many other columns at http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/
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4. Ann Coulter: It's Funny Only Until Someone Loses a Pie
Liberals enjoy claiming that they are intellectuals, thrilled to engage in a
battle of wits. This, they believe, distinguishes them from conservatives, who
are religious fanatics who react with impotent rage to opposing ideas.
As one liberal, Jonathan Chait, put the cliché in The New Republic: Bush is an
"instinctive anti-intellectual" and his administration hostile to "fact-driven
debate." In a favorable contrast, Clinton is "the former Rhodes scholar who
relished academic debates. "Showing his usual reverence for fact-checking, The
New York Times' Paul Krugman says the Republican Party is "dominated by people
who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research."
I'm not sure how these descriptions square with the fact that liberals keep
responding to conservative ideas by throwing food. (Remember the good old days
when liberals' "fact-driven" ideas meant only throwing money at their problems?)
Last October, two liberals responded to my speech at the University of Arizona
--during question and answer, no less--by charging the stage and throwing two
pies at me from a few yards away. Fortunately for me, liberals not only argue
like liberals, they also throw like girls.
More from Ann here: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7149
#####
5. HUMAN EVENTS Interview: Labor Sec. Chao -- Lasting Legacy of Reform
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao inherited a department with a bloated budget in
2001, and in each year since, she has taken steps to streamline services for the
21st Century workforce. Chao recently spoke to HUMAN EVENTS editors about these
issues.
----------
HUMAN EVENTS: You've served four years as Secretary of Labor. What has been your
greatest accomplishment?
CHAO: I am very proud of my team. They're courageous, they're principled, and
they're smart. We are probably one of the most active departments. We have
tackled many difficult and long-standing issues.
We have been able to strengthen overtime protection for 6.7 million working
Americans. The regulations governing white-collar exemptions under Section 541
of the Fair Labor Standards Act had not been changed since 1949, when Elvis was
a teenager. The ambiguity gave rise to record numbers of class-action lawsuits
in the workplace. Every administration since Jimmy Carter's has tried to update
and modernize these regulations. President George W. Bush's administration is
the first one that has succeeded.
HUMAN EVENTS: So you've seen a diminution in the lawsuits as a result?
CHAO: We believe that in the long run that will be the results of these changes.
If the government is asking the regulated community to comply with the law, the
government has a responsibility--at the very minimum--to make clear what the law
requires.
We also were successful in completing several other important regulations. The
previous administration put out a regulation that would allow states to dip into
the unemployment insurance fund to pay for paid parental leave. That was a
concern to us because it essentially turned the unemployment insurance trust
fund into a bank to pay for programs completely unrelated to unemployment. We
believed that it was inappropriate to divert money from a fund that helps people
at the most vulnerable period of their lives to pay benefits to people who are
voluntarily absent from the workforce.
We have also opened up the grant process to competition. We believe the best
services could be obtained if we threw open the doors and allowed more groups
and organizations to compete for the billions of dollars we give out in grants.
One of the things I've learned throughout my career in government, the public
and non-profit sectors, is that you must pay attention to the long-term impact
of what you're doing. It would be regrettable to leave the government without
having made long-term, systemic changes.
----------
Read the entire interview: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7166
#####
6. Jihad Watch: When Islam Isn't Islam
The Toronto Star last week profiled Indonesian Muslim feminist Musdah Mulia, who
"blames Muslims, not Islam, for gender inequity" in the Islamic world. This is
related to a large and growing problem: analysts attribute the actions of
terrorists to a hijacking of Islam, without caring or daring to look at what
exactly it is about Islam that gives rise to fanaticism and violence.
Mulia, says journalist Haroon Siddiqui, "wears the hijab but says it's not
Islamically mandatory, a position augmented by a big majority of Muslim women in
Indonesia, indeed around the world, who don't don it and feel no less Muslim."
Neither Siddiqui nor Mulia mention the Islamic tradition in which Muhammad
commands that "when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit
her that she displays her parts of body except…face and hands."
Musdah Mulia, exults Siddiqui, "is an Islamic scholar, with a PhD from the
Institute of Islamic Studies" in Jakarta. "When her bosses issued a white paper
last year updating religious laws, she wrote a 170-page critique that annoyed
them and the conservatives."
Mulia is the "granddaughter of a cleric, went to an Islamic boarding school and
grew up in a strict environment." But then she traveled to "other Muslim
nations" and realized that "Islam had many faces. It opened my eyes. Some of
what my grandfather and the ulema (clerics) had taught me was right but the rest
was myth." So what led to her transformation?
Get the rest of this week's Jihad Watch: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/article.php?id=7146
#####
7. Capital Briefs: Party of Destruction
For the fourth year in a row, the House of Representatives voted this week to
abolish the federal estate tax, also known as the "death tax." Under current
law, the death tax dies in 2010, but, like a vampire, is resurrected in 2011.
The House-approved bill prevents the resurrection of the tax. Forty-two House
Democrats joined 230 Republicans in giving the bill a 272-162 majority.
Each of the last four years the Senate has blocked the bill from becoming law.
This year Democrats are vowing to filibuster, meaning repeal will require 60
votes. On judicial nominations, Democrats have used the filibuster to become the
Party of Obstruction. By blocking a bill to save family businesses from being
forced into liquidation by a 47% federal estate tax, the Democrats would prove
they are also the Party of Destruction.
Read all our regular Capital Briefs: http://www.HumanEventsOnline.com/blog-cb.php
#####
8. Political Roundup from Bob Novak and John Gizzi
EVANS & NOVAK: A new development confirms that Minnesota will be this year's
political Armageddon. The state will have both an open Senate seat and a
competitive governor's race. It will also have at least one relatively
competitive open House seat with strong candidates representing both parties in
the 6th District. As if Minnesota were not already one of the most important
states in American politics today, White House strategist Karl Rove upped the
ante with his recent visit. Rove stopped in Minneapolis to raise money for Gov.
Tim Pawlenty (R.), who faces re-election in 2006. According to published
reports, Rove requested specifically to raise funds for Pawlenty rather than the
state GOP. The significance is immediately obvious. Pawlenty, who has strong
bonafides with both social and economic conservatives, is known as an
environmentally friendly conservative who strongly supports gun rights and
opposes abortion and gay marriage. He has cut his state budget without raising
taxes, and he supports re-importation of prescription drugs. If he enters the
2008 cycle as the popular second-term governor of a key swing state, he could be
presidential material, strong with his base and with some significant crossover
appeal. Rove's visit confirms this analysis. Pawlenty's weakness, however, is
his state party's poor showing in 2004. Democrats, therefore, have every reason
to defeat Pawlenty next year. Their only fear is that their once-strong
political bench is all but depleted.
Read the rest of Bob Novak's weekly analysis here: http://members.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7163
JOHN GIZZI'S POLITICS 2005: Team Yuschenko -- "The best turnout and the best
outcome in our election came from the village of Chicago," Ukrainian President
Viktor Yuschenko told an overflow crowd at the Willard Hotel in Washington on
April 6, recalling his own "re-run" election after the first one was overturned
amid massive evidence of fraud. He said that "99.6% of eligible voters turned
out, but actually, in Soviet times, the turnout would be 101% or 102%." The man
known worldwide for surviving a poisoning that left him disfigured was a major
hit in Washington, as he met with President Bush and addressed a joint session
of Congress. Yuschenko also drew more than 500 admirers to the Willard event,
co-hosted by the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican
Institute. As the magnetic Ukrainian spoke through an interpreter, an eclectic
crowd that included such guests as conservative Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney cheered him on. Former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright repeatedly hailed Yuschenko as a "democrat"--a reference to
his commitment to democracy, but which many in the room thought sounded like a
party affiliation. As if to clear up the matter, Sen. John McCain, the IRI
chairman, told the crowd, "He's a Republican." Whether Yuschenko really has
political leanings in the U.S. is unknown, but wife Catherine Yuschenko, it
turns out, does indeed have political leanings: She's definitely a Reagan
Republican. The daughter of Chicagoans of Ukrainian descent, the future First
Lady of Ukraine served in the administration of the 40th President. At both the
Willard event and a luncheon earlier in the day, Catherine Yuschenko was greeted
and embraced by many former colleagues in the Reagan Alumni Association.
Read more political news from Gizzi: http://members.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7165
#####
9. From PAGE 3: Government Seizes Two More Days From Taxpayers
The Tax Foundation each year calculates how many days Americans must work to pay
for all local, state and federal taxes. In recent times, the news has been good.
From 2000 to 2004, the overall American tax burden fell and Tax Freedom Day
arrived earlier each year.
But this year the news is bad: Americans are losing ground to taxes again. Tax
Freedom Day moved from April 15, 2004, to April 17, 2005. This happened in large
part because economic growth pushed many Americans into higher federal
income-tax brackets--even as tax rates remained constant.
The forecast, too, is gloomy. Because the Alternative Minimum Tax will hit
progressively more Americans in the coming years, and because the Bush tax cuts
are set to expire after 2010, the tax burden is expected to grow dramatically.
If current policies stay in place, the projection now is that Tax Freedom Day in
2015 will not arrive until April 29!
Get more on Tax Freedom Day: http://members.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7167
----------
And Finally. . .
I know I've mentioned it before, but I wanted to remind you about "Conservative
Booknotes" -- a great new blog we've linked to at Human Events Online. Booknotes
is run by Elizabeth Kantor, Managing Editor of the Human Events Book Service,
and it provides views, news, and analysis of conservative books and authors.
Check it out: http://www.hebookservice.com/conservative-booknotes.asp
Later,
Chris Field
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