__________________________________________________________________________
The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 16 November 2001
Vol. 5, Number 92 (#620)
[mailed Wednesday, 21 November 2001]
__________________________________________________________________________
Announcements:
01) Antifa Net , "Croatia: another nazi assault," 18 Nov 01
Web Sites of Interest:
02) Beyond Prejudice
Book/Movie Reviews:
03) Andrea Shalal-Esa (Variety), "Writer Documents Hollywood's
Vilification of Arabs," 15 Nov 01
Civil Liberties and the Current Hysteria
04) Patrick Healy (Boston Globe), "On Campus Conservatives Denounce
Dissent," 13 Nov 01
05) UPI, "Conyers Calls For Civil Liberties Hearings," 14 Nov 01
06) KPFA, "A coup against the American Constitution: Radio KPFA
interviews Francis Boyle," 18 Nov 01
Issues In the News Related to Fascism
07) Carl S. Kaplan (New York Times), "Was the French Ruling on Yahoo
Such a Victory After All? A federal ruling that U.S. protections of
free speech trumped a French order requiring Yahoo to remove Nazi
materials has some legal experts speculating that little has
changed," 16 Nov 01
08) AP, "Court to Hear Police Chief Complaint," 16 Nov 01
09) Mark Niesse (AP), "Auburn Suspends 15 Students," 15 Nov 01
10) Hannah Allam (Pioneer Press), "Man faces "creative' sentence in bias
case," 15 Nov 01
Real Political Correctness:
11) Americans United for Separation of Church and State, "House
Resolution Promoting Government-Sponsored School Prayer Is Divisive:
'It's not the job of congress to tell our children when and how to
pray.' says AU's Lynn," 15 Nov 01
Rightwing Quote of the Week:
12) Brandon Orr, [The Fascist As Sadist]
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
01) Croatia: another nazi assault
Antifa Net
18 Nov 01
ZAGREB, CROATIA -- Nazi skinheads attacked multicultural club "Mocvara"
(Swamp") in Zagreb again. They attacked club last time on 30th October
2001. Ten days after nazi-skinheads attacked a group of people in Zagrebian
district Jarun.
A group of skinheads attacked three citizens of Japan on 17th November 2001
at 3.45 am. Endu Tahakiru (20) got seriously injured. Two other men are not
seriously damaged. One witness of the assault said that he referred for
help to keepers of order (hired by the club). Keepers of order didn't want
to help.
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WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
02) Beyond Prejudice
<http://www.eburg.com/beyond.prejudice/>
"Doug Blackmon of the Wall Street Journal reported on NPR's Morning
Edition, July 16, 2001, that until 1928 there was a labor practice of
"convict leasing" in the US. This practice amounted to a form of slavery.
Many people who were picked up on vagrancy charges (about 85-95% of them
were Blacks) were leased out to work on plantations or in mines under
conditions much like slavery. Many who were arrested for vagrancy were
unemployed and were fined. When they were unable to pay the many fines
that were added together, like a payment for a witness, they would be
sentenced to serve hard time and leased to plantations, mining company, or
firms to work as slaves.
"The above needs to be seen in terms of the other issues of that time in US
history. There were an estimated 4,742 Blacks lynched by mobs between 1882
and 1968 in this nation. ("Without Sanctuary" by James Allen, Twin Palms
Publishers, 2000.)"
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BOOK/MOVIE REVIEWS:
03) Writer Documents Hollywood's Vilification of Arabs
Andrea Shalal-Esa (Variety)
15 Nov 01
WASHINGTON D.C. -- Jack Shaheen, born in western Pennsylvania to Christian
Lebanese parents, never met a Muslim Arab until he was 40 -- when he won a
Fulbright award to teach in war-torn Beirut in the 1970s.
He soon realized he knew virtually nothing about the region of his
ancestors. What little he had seen about the Arab world on U.S. television
and in the movies had nothing to do with what he experienced firsthand in
Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Shaheen spent the next two decades trying to find out why.
The retired professor recently published "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood
Vilifies a People," a catalog of the negative stereotypes of Arab men,
women and children used by the U.S. movie industry in nearly every film of
the past century that has an Arab character.
"Seen through Hollywood's distorted lenses, Arabs look different and
threatening," Shaheen concludes. "From 1896 until today, filmmakers have
collectively indicted all Arabs as Public Enemy Number 1 -- brutal,
heartless, uncivilized, religious fanatics and money-mad cultural 'others'
bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners, especially Christians and Jews."
Islam is also regularly linked with male supremacy, holy war and acts of
terror, he said. "Arab equals Muslim equals terrorist -- that is the
predominant image of Islam."
In tracking down more than 900 films dating back to the silent films of the
early 20th century, Shaheen haunted video stores, surfed television
channels and did computer searches using keywords such as "bedouins,"
"desert" and "sheikh."
He visited research centers across the country to screen films not
available on video, scoured movie and video guidebooks and placed
advertisements in film magazines for hard-to-find videos.
He even shopped for obscure films at garage sales.
A FEW GOOD FILMS
Of all the movies Shaheen examined since 1980, he includes only 12 on his
"best" list of those containing positive portrayals of Arab people,
including "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" from 1991 and "The 13th Warrior"
from 1999.
Shaheen worked with the producers on another 1999 film, "Three Kings," that
made his best list. The film tells the story of four U.S. Army rogues who
set out after the 1991 Gulf War to retrieve a fortune in Kuwaiti gold
bullion that was stolen by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
He said Warner Brothers hired him as a consultant after several Arab-
American groups and Islamic organizations loudly protested the studio's
1996 film, "Executive Decision," saying it unfairly portrayed Islam as
being synonymous with terror.
"Reel Bad Arabs" was published last summer by Interlink Publishing, a small
independent press, appearing just before the Sept. 11 attacks by hijacked
airliners that killed more than 4,500 people in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania.
The United States has blamed the attacks on Saudi-born militant Osama bin
Laden (news - web sites) and his al Qaeda network, launching airstrikes
against Afghanistan (news - web sites), where bin Laden lives.
Shaheen said hundreds of hate crimes committed against Arab-Americans and
Muslims in the United States after the attacks underscored the importance
of combating stereotypes.
He said it was vital to focus on the "lunatic fringe" responsible for the
attacks, and not target people just because of their national or ethnic
origins -- or their religion.
"The purpose of the book was to really explain that when you vilify a
people, innocent men, women and children suffer. History has taught us and
continues to teach us this lesson," he said.
He said there was no question the Nazi vilification of Jews through films
and other propaganda helped make the Holocaust possible, and repetitive
media images of Japanese-Americans as foreign intruders cleared the way for
the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans during World War
Two.
"When we look at the vilification of Arab Muslims, it just makes it that
much easier to hate and kill them," he said. "We should not be in the
business of vilifying people because of the actions of a minority of a
minority."
MOLDING PUBLIC OPINION
Shaheen's book is especially frightening because movies and television mold
American public opinion, said David Mack of the Middle East Institute, a
Washington think tank.
"It is incumbent upon every serious film director and producer to read this
book and take some of these lessons to heart," said Mack.
Hundred of movies dating back to 1914 portray Arabs as the "quintessential
evil," Shaheen said, citing the 2000 Paramount release, "Rules of
Engagement," as a film that "reinforces historically damaging stereotypes
(and) promotes a dangerously generalized portrayal of Arabs as rabidly
anti-American."
The movie's opening scenes show Arab children and women in burqas firing at
the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen. A U.S. Army officer orders his troops to
fire on the civilians.
That film and 13 others that show Americans killing Arabs credit the
Defense Department for providing equipment, personnel and technical
assistance, Shaheen writes.
Hollywood has remained mum on the entire topic.
Rich Taylor, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America,
told Reuters he had not seen Shaheen's book and could not comment on its
conclusions.
Part of the problem, says Shaheen, is that the major film studios -- which
over the years were pressured to abandon negative images of women, blacks
and other minorities -- have faced little criticism of their portrayals of
Arabs.
Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel agreed.
"Particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the
Cold War, (Hollywood) did turn to Arabs as villains in movies," he said.
"The Arabs did not have, initially, their equivalent of the Anti-
Defamation League to step up and protest when those stereotypes were put
up."
THE AMERICAN ARAB
Nor has Hollywood spared the Arab next door, Shaheen says.
"There have been less than two dozen films made where Americans of Arab
heritage appear or are recognizable on movie screens, and most of those
images show us as carbon copies of the Arab Muslim stereotype," he said,
noting that 75 percent of Americans of Arab heritage were actually
Christian.
"You have all these characters that are Jewish, that are Italian, that are
Hispanic, that are Asian. They're all American, but they have these
wonderful roots," he said. "But where is the character that talks about
falafel?" Falafel, made of ground chickpeas, is a typical food in some Arab
countries.
Shaheen grew up in Clairton, a steel town outside Pittsburgh. He worked his
way through college in the mills, doing hard labor with people of all
colors and religions.
For many years, Shaheen taught mass communications at Southern Illinois
University before retiring to South Carolina seven years ago. Now, he
lectures about ways to overcome prejudice and stereotypes. He also
encourages Arab-Americans to enter journalism and other media-oriented
professions.
One of his earlier books, "The TV Arab," is used at many U.S. universities
in courses on race and prejudice.
His newest project will focus on Arab-American characters in the movies and
television -- or rather the lack of them.
Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who also has Arab ancestry,
has described Shaheen as a "one-man anti-defamation league who has exposed
Hollywood's denigration of Arabs in most, if not all, of its films."
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CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE CURRENT HYSTERIA
04) On Campus Conservatives Denounce Dissent
Patrick Healy (Boston Globe)
13 Nov 01
A conservative academic group founded by Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice
President Dick Cheney, fired a new salvo in the culture wars by blasting 40
college professors as well as the president of Wesleyan University and
others for not showing enough patriotism in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
"College and university faculty have been the weak link in America's
response to the attack," say leaders of the American Council of Trustees
and Alumni in a report being issued today.
The report names names and criticizes professors for making statements
"short on patriotism and long on self-flagellation." Several of the
scholars singled out in the report said yesterday they felt blacklisted,
complaining that their words had been taken out of context to make them
look like enemies of the state.
"It's a little too reminiscent of McCarthyism," said Hugh Gusterson, an
associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He was named in the report for his comments at a campus peace
rally where he made a connection between American suffering after Sept. 11
and the suffering in war-torn Afghanistan.
"This kind of document reminds me of the Soviet Union, where officials
weren't satisfied until 98 or 99 percent of people voted with them,"
Gusterson said. Lynne Cheney, who was a powerful voice for conservative
intellectuals as chief of the National Endowment of the Humanities during
the first Bush administration, is not an author of the new report. But it
is peppered with quotations stating her views, and it was prepared by two
close allies. She was until recently the chairwoman of the council, a
private nonprofit organization based in Washington.
Her agenda - to promote Western civilization and American culture as the
bedrocks of US education - continues to guide the group's activities. The
report lists 117 comments or incidents as evidence that campuses are
hostile to the US government and out of step with most Americans who,
according to polls, support the war in Afghanistan.
"Indeed," the report says, "the message of much of academe was clear: BLAME
AMERICA FIRST." While there have been some campus antiwar protests recently
- such as the burning of two American flags at Amherst College - these have
been relatively rare, and most were criticized by college officials
concerned about other students and alumni who lost loved ones in the Sept.
11 attacks.
Anne Neal, an author of the report and council official, said that while
she is sure many professors and students support the US government, they
are afraid that if they speak out, liberal colleagues might shout them
down.
"For the most part, public comments in academia were equivocal and often
pointing the finger at America rather than the terrorists," Neal said.
"It's hard for non-tenured professors to speak up when there's such a
chorus on the other side." Among the scholars named in the report, however,
several said yesterday the council was carrying out its own political
agenda painting higher education as a bastion of political correctness and
trying to silence any criticism of the Bush administration. "These kinds of
attacks will only discourage professors from speaking out and opening up
dialogues about what's happening overseas, and why," said Kevin Lourie, a
professor at the Brown University School of Medicine.
The council cited Lourie for writing, in a Brown news service opinion
article, that the United States may be "paying an accumulated debt for
centuries of dominance and intervention far from home." Lourie said he was
attempting to explain how other nations and societies may view the United
States. Douglas Bennet, the president of Wesleyan, was named for a Sept. 14
letter to the Wesleyan community. The letter condemned the terrorist
attacks, but the council singled out one passage in which Bennet voiced his
concern that "disparities and injustices" in American society and the world
can lead to hatred and violence, and that societies should try to see the
world "through the sensitivities of others." Bennet complained that the
report's authors took his comments out of context. He said that he strongly
supports the Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks and
that an American flag has hung on the door of his house since Sept. 11. "I
don't know where this group gets off extracting language from my
statement," Bennet said. "They're trying to perpetuate cliches that belong
to an earlier era. I don't think it'll wash - we all have important, real
work to do as a nation."
- - - - -
05) Conyers Calls For Civil Liberties Hearings
UPI
14 Nov 01
WASHINGTON D.C. -- House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers,
D-Mich., said Wednesday a decision by President George W. Bush that
terrorist suspects might face a military tribunal adds to questions about
civil liberties. In a Nov. 14 letter to Committee Chairman Rep. James
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., Conyers called for hearings on civil liberties,
including an administration plan to monitor some defendants' communication
with their lawyers, and the status of suspects detained in the government's
investigations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Conyers said Bush's Tuesday decision to establish military tribunals run by
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld only adds to his concern.
"Indeed, the very purpose of the directive appears to be to skirt the usual
constitutional and criminal justice rules that are the hallmark of our
democratic form of government."
While Sensenbrenner did not return calls seeking comment, Conyers' request
comes one day after United Press International reported that Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., might soon hold
hearings on the new government policy on monitoring communication between
defense attorneys and their clients, and the status of what lawmakers said
could be 1,000 people detained by the government. Some of those detainees
have reportedly been released.
Leahy twice sent letters to Attorney General John Ashcroft on the issues on
Oct. 31 and Nov. 9.
"We also have received no cooperation from the Justice Department in our
effort to obtain information regarding the 1,000 plus immigrants who have
been detained in connection with the terrorism investigation, as reflected
in a letter that several Democratic Members transmitted to the attorney
general on Oct.
31, 2001," Conyers wrote to Sensenbrenner Wednesday. "We would be remiss in
our duties, however, if we did not also oversee the extent to which the
Department may be abusing its authority and wrongfully targeting innocent
Americans."
- - - - -
06) "A coup against the American Constitution" Radio Interview With Francis
Boyle
KPFA
18 Nov 01
Good day,
Yesterday, Dennis Bernstein, host of the incomparable Flashpoints program,
on KPFA radio in Berkeley, interviewed Professor Francis Boyle, of the
University of Illinois Law School, an expert in international and human
rights law and a long-time champion and proponent of a foreign policy based
upon decency and justice. The subject was George Bush's breathtaking order
authorizing (potentially secret) military tribunals for foreign nationals
suspected of "terrorism."
Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the Flashpoints web
site, where those suitably equipped can listen to yesterday's program via
RealAudio.
--- BEGIN EXCERPT
Boyle: First this executive order must be considered in light of the
massive assault by this administration...against the U.S.
Constitution.. .one blow after another, after another.. this is one of the
more outrageous... [C]learly aliens here legally are entitled to the
protections of the Bill of Rights... [T]he Geneva Conventions of 1949
clearly apply to our dispute with Afghanistan...[T]rial protections must be
adhered to...due process of law set forth in both of these treaties..
otherwise it is a war crime.. [T]his executive order is very dangerous...
[We are, effectively,] saying to Al Queda, "since we're not giving you the
protections.. then you can violate protections for U.S.
military personel captured too" [The] problem is Bush has said that Al
Queda is not entitled to prisoner of war protections.. thereby exposing our
military to the same treatment: secret trials and executions
Bernstein: a quiet coup?
Boyle: [A] coup against the American Constitution...[T]he president and
secretary of state are bound by the 4th Geneva convention
overseas...[D]omestically they are bound by the Constitution of the United
States.. yet this is exactly what this executive order is undoing.. [W]e're
becoming a Banana Republic, with 'disappeared people'..[There are] reports
a immigrant prisoner was tortured to death in a New Jersey lockup.. [W]hen
will these government agencies start to turn these powers against the
American people? That's the next step.
END EXCERPT ---
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ISSUES IN THE NEWS RELATED TO FASCISM
07) Was the French Ruling on Yahoo Such a Victory After All? A federal
ruling that U.S. protections of free speech trumped a French order
requiring Yahoo to remove Nazi materials has some legal experts
speculating that little has changed
Carl S. Kaplan (New York Times)
16 Nov 01
A federal court decision last week was cheered by Internet companies and
civil liberties groups as a victory for free expression, but some legal
experts are speculating that, in reality, little has changed.
Last year, a court in Paris rattled the legal pads of Internet lawyers
around the world when it ordered Santa Clara-based Yahoo Inc. to censor
Nazi-related auction items on its United States-based Web sites so that
French users who access the sites are not exposed to materials that are
constitutionally protected in this country but are illegal in France.
Yahoo had argued, among other things, that because it lacks the technology
to block people in France from viewing the Yahoo auction site, it could not
comply with the order without banning all Nazi-related material from its
services altogether.
The court was unconvinced and to make sure the company was listening, it
imposed a daily fine of 100,000 francs (about $13,300) for each day after
the end of February, 2001 that Yahoo didn't comply with the judgment.
The case became a battle cry for some civil liberties groups. After all,
they argued, if by imposing its legal values within its borders, France can
effectively censor Internet content created and freely expressed in the
U.S., then any country could do the same thing. Before you know it, they
argued, speech on the Internet would be subject to control by foreign
governments, who could tell Americans what to say.
A little more than a week ago, the case apparently came to a happy ending
for Internet service providers based in the United States. Jeremy Fogel of
the United States District Court Judge in San Jose, ruled on November 7th
that the French court's order and fine are not enforceable against Yahoo in
the United States. He said that to enforce the foreign order would be
repugnant to the First Amendment, which protects the sale or display of
artifacts or expression of viewpoints associated with a particular
political slant, including Naziism and anti-Semitism.
Civil liberties groups cheered. Yahoo, which two months after the French
court's ruling revised its auction guidelines to ban certain Nazi-related
items -- but not coins or stamps -- issued a victorious press release. But
increasingly, some Internet law experts who specialize in the arcane
subject of jurisdiction are wondering if Judge Fogel's decision, as a
practical matter, is less than meets the eye.
Jack Goldsmith, a law professor at the University of Chicago, is one of the
skeptics. "What Judge Fogel held was that the French judgment was not
enforceable in the U.S. Well, every lawyer who knows this area of the law
knows that you can't enforce a foreign judgment like this in the U.S.," he
said. He referred to precedents where judgments awarded in libel-friendly
English courts were held to be unenforceable in the United States because
of the First Amendment. He added that a foreign country's criminal laws,
such as the French hate speech code, have not been enforced in other
nations for hundreds of years.
Goldsmith said that the French plaintiffs in the case didn't try to enforce
a money judgment in the U.S., because such a move would have been futile.
Instead, Yahoo filed a lawsuit to block possible enforcement of the order.
"It was a pure PR thing," said Goldsmith. "They wanted a U.S. court to say
. . . that what the French court did was wrong."
In any case, said Goldsmith, the French litigants - composed of groups
actively opposed to anti-Semitism -- can collect on any money judgment in
France. Yahoo has a licensing contract with its French subsidiary, Yahoo
France, said Goldsmith. "There is a debt that Yahoo France owes Yahoo,
Inc.," he said. "They can attach that."
Goldsmith said that Judge Fogel's decision has not changed the fundamental
nature of the jurisdictional dilemma posed by the Internet. "If you are a
global Internet company [with foreign assets] doing business in many
countries, you have to follow local laws," he said. "I don't know why
that's shocking."
In Yahoo's case, said Goldsmith, the company could use filtering technology
to reasonably --though not perfectly -- filter out French viewers from
certain content. Thus he said, its "fair" for the French court to impose a
filtering burden on the company.
Michael Geist, a Internet law expert at the University of Ottawa, agreed
that Judge Fogel's decision was "a no brainer" and not particularly
significant as a practical matter.
"People who say this case was a great victory are making several
fundamental mistakes," he said. One is presuming that the French Court was
wrong to impose its view on a United States actor.
"Every country has an issue that it regards as particularly important, such
as gambling, free speech, privacy or copyright, and every country believes
that for that one issue its law has to apply" to Internet content that
originates on a foreign server, Geist explained. "In fact, there have been
U.S. cases where New York State, for example, has imposed its anti-gambling
laws on foreign companies whose off-shore gambling sites are accessible to
New York residents."
"The fact is that people have got to recognize the multi-value self-
interest that each country has to enforce its own laws against Internet
content that has significant negative effects" within the country's
borders, said Geist.
Mary Catherine Wirth, senior corporate counsel in Yahoo's international
division, defended the importance of Judge Fogel's decision. For one thing,
she said in an interview, the court extended classic law about enforcement
of foreign judgments to the Internet context -- a first.
More importantly, the French Court's assertion of jurisdiction over Yahoo,
merely because its Web site is accessible in France, is rendered
meaningless by the U.S. decision, she said. She said that Yahoo has no
assets in France, and that Yahoo France is not a part of the lawsuit. "The
French plaintiffs have no way to enforce the judgment except by coming
here, and if they can't do that, then that [French] judgment really isn't
worth anything," she said.
Wirth acknowledged, however, that other global Internet players with assets
abroad might not be in as advantageous a position as Yahoo.
Asked if the French court could seek to extract money from Yahoo France's
licensing fees owed Yahoo, she said: "That would be an issue of French law.
It's not something I could comment on."
- - - - -
08) Court to Hear Police Chief Complaint
AP
16 Nov 01
STRASBOURG, France -- The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear
a complaint by Maurice Papon, a French former police chief imprisoned for
his role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II.
The court said late Thursday that it had declared admissible Papon's
complaint that he was denied the right to appeal his 1998 conviction for
complicity in crimes against humanity. His other complaints were rejected.
Papon, 91, is serving a 10-year prison term in Paris' La Sante prison. He
has become the center of debate in France on the imprisonment of the
elderly. Last month, President Jacques Chirac rejected a third request to
pardon Papon on health grounds.
Papon, who led the Bordeaux area police during the Nazi occupation of
France and later went on to become budget minister, was convicted for his
role in the arrest and deportation of 1,500 Jews.
He fled to Switzerland after the conviction, but was arrested and began
serving his sentence in October 1999.
In June, the European rights court dismissed an appeal for Papon's release,
rejecting his lawyers' argument that incarcerating such an elderly man
constituted "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," which is banned
by the European Convention of Human Rights.
The European court enforces that 1952 convention, which all 43 members of
the Council of Europe are bound to uphold.
- - - - -
09) Auburn Suspends 15 Students
Mark Niesse (AP)
15 Nov 01
AUBURN, Ala.-- Auburn University said Thursday it has indefinitely
suspended 15 students who wore Ku Klux Klan costumes and blackface to
fraternity Halloween parties.
The school said the students violated its harassment and discrimination
rules. They could face additional disciplinary action - including
expulsion.
"The continued presence of these students in the university community poses
an immediate threat to the well-being of the university, and we're taking
that action," Auburn President William Walker said.
The suspended students include five from Delta Sigma Phi fraternity - one
who wore blackface with a noose around his neck, another dressed as a
policeman and three more who dressed as hunters.
They appeared in a photo with a fraternity member dressed as a Klansman who
was pointing a gun at the man in blackface. The school said the student
dressed as a Klansman has dropped out of school.
"They just did something stupid," said Delta Sigma Phi President Matt
Furin. "Everyone feels responsible and everyone wishes they could do things
different."
The other 10 suspended students were members of Beta Theta Pi who wore
blackface and afro wigs at a separate party.
The two fraternities were previously expelled from campus by their national
chapters. They both made public apologies.
The university has also requested that local prosecutors conduct an
investigation to determine whether any crimes were committed at the two
parties, which occurred on Oct. 25 and Oct. 27.
Auburn has created a task force to discuss opening a multicultural center
on campus, and will expand course offerings on tolerance and diversity.
Fewer than 10 percent of Auburn's 22,000 students are black.
"We're going to redouble our efforts to diversify," Walker said. "The level
of cultural awareness on this campus is not nearly where it should be."
Separately, the University of Mississippi has suspended the Alpha Tau Omega
fraternity for a year after an Internet photo showed one member dressed as
a police officer holding a gun to another in blackface. The fraternity
expelled both members.
- - - - -
10) Man faces "creative' sentence in bias case
Hannah Allam (Pioneer Press)
15 Nov 01
If a Dakota County judge follows through on his promise, a 19-year-old man
who harassed a 4-year-old biracial boy after attending a KKK rally will
remove his "100% Honky" tattoo and read a novel about racism as part of his
sentence.
An attorney for Michael J. Pigg of St. Paul said his client has no problem
with this week's proposal from Judge Robert King. Pigg pleaded guilty
Tuesday to bias-related harassment -- a felony -- and will probably testify
against a co-defendant in exchange for the dropping of less serious
charges, said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. Pigg will be
sentenced Nov. 21.
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REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:
It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been
11) House Resolution Promoting Government-Sponsored School Prayer Is
Divisive: 'It's not the job of congress to tell our children when
and how to pray'.' says AU's Lynn"
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
15 Nov 01
The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to vote today on a
resolution encouraging public schools to set aside prayer time for
students.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the non-binding
resolution, H.Con.Res. 239, is unnecessary and recklessly encourages school
officials to ignore constitutional law.
"As a Christian minister, I believe in prayer, but it's not the job of
Congress to tell our children when and how to pray," said the Rev. Barry W.
Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "Parents, not politicians,
have the responsibility to instruct our children about matters of faith."
The measure was introduced by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), a freshman
lawmaker with strong ties to the Religious Right. The resolution expresses
the "sense of Congress that schools in the United States should set aside a
sufficient period of time to allow children to pray for, or quietly reflect
on behalf of, the Nation during this time of struggle against the forces of
international terrorism."
AU's Lynn said the resolution ignores the American principle of church-
state separation. The measure not only promotes school prayer, he noted,
but even instructs students what topic they should pray about.
"In some countries," Lynn said, "the government tells people when and how
to pray. I wish Congress understood that in America, individuals make
religious decisions for themselves.
"If this resolution passes, public school officials should ignore the
House's advice," added Lynn. "For decades, federal courts have mandated
that the state not promote prayer in schools. With that in mind, schools
that act on this resolution may find themselves in court."
Lynn noted this is the second time in less than a month that the House has
devoted time to endorsing non-binding measures regarding religion in public
schools. On Oct. 17, House members voted unanimously to endorse a
resolution expressing support for the display of the words "God Bless
America" in the nation's public schools.
"At this time of national crisis, the last thing we need is political
bickering over prayer and religion," Lynn concluded. "This resolution
invites divisiveness when we are striving for unity."
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington,
D.C., which has led the opposition to congressional attempts to require
government-sponsored prayer in public schools. Founded in 1947, the
organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state
separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
RIGHTWING QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
For those who believe that fascism is only a thing of the past
12) [Brandon Orr: The The Fascist As Sadist]
[note: Remember that when Orr writes of "revisionism" he is referring to
the doctrine that the Nazi crimes against humanity never happened. --
tallpaul]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ministry of Propaganda)
[sic: Brandon Orr]
Newsgroups: alt.revisionism, soc.culture.jewish, talk.politics.misc,
alt.politics, soc.culture.israel
Subject: Revisionism: Methodology Proceeds From Ideology
Date: 14 Nov 2001 21:46:41 -0800
As a revisionist, it is important that I define the ideological wellspring
from which my revisionism proceeds. This is necessary because an effective
methodology can be constructed only under favorable conditions. One of
these conditions is that a coherent ideology must be present. Methodology
proceeds from ideology.
My ideology, being Sadean in its basis, regards the issue of "right vs
wrong" as a bourgeois distraction. Though animated by a dark romanticism,
the amoral foundation of Sadean philosophy means that Sadean politics will
often be pragmatic. The long-term goal must be not to "do good," but to
mobilize and lead the revolutionary vanguard to victory. The method is not
to pursue "truth," "justice," "equality," or any other abstract value, but
to develop sophisticated propaganda and disseminate it effectively.
Revisionism thus becomes a many-faceted tool which is indispensable in the
struggle.
Need revisionism be "moral"? Hardly. It need only be effective. My
political tendency has as its goal the destruction of the present world
order. Zionism is indisputably central to this order. Consequently, it is
desirable to regard revisionism as a crucial weapon in the fight against
Zionism. This is a position founded on pragmatic, rather than ethical,
considerations. When the world loses faith in the Holocaust, it will be not
long after that Zionism meets its demise.
Historical revisionism will ultimately discredit not only the Holocaust
religion, but eventually all of the Abrahamic religions. This will create
an atmosphere highly favorable to revolution. The same forces that stormed
the Bastille will tear asunder the Gothic cathedrals. A Sadean ideology
demands a Faustian methodology. The ends not only justify the means; they
necessitate the means.
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
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