In Black & White

New Jersey Department of Education Revision of History Textbooks to Exclude the Founding Fathers:

Gerald Cardinale,
New Jersey State Senator:

"It’s unconscionable that some politically correct bureaucrats in the state Education Department are trying to hijack the history of the United States of America."

 

  

Jay Doolan,
Acting Assistant Commissioner of New Jersey’s Division of Academic and Career Standards:

"We don’t intentionally exclude certain names. But how long should the list of names be? Who do we include or not include?... It’s unimaginable to us why teachers wouldn’t teach students about George Washington when they talk about the new nation."


GAO Demands For Energy Task Force Records:

David Walker,
GAO Comptroller General:

"The Congress has a right to the information we are seeking in connection with its consideration of comprehensive energy legislation and its ongoing oversight activities."

 

  

Ari Fleischer,
White House Spokesperson:

"The president will stand strong on principle, fighting for his right and the right of all future presidents to receive advice without it being turned into a virtual news release. The president will fight for this right in a court of law. And the White House expects to prevail because our case is stronger, our policy is sound and principle is on our side."


Expanding Eligibility of Health Insurance for Low Income Children to the Unborn:

Douglas Johnson,
Legislative Director,
The National Right to Life Committee:

"We applaud this Bush administration proposal to recognize the existence of an unborn child in order to allow the baby, and the mother as well, to receive adequate prenatal care — a concept to which only the most extreme pro-abortion ideologues will object."

  

Laurie Rubiner,
Vice President,
National Partnership for Women and Families:

"This is not about providing prenatal care or expanding coverage for pregnant women. This is about the administration using that language to accomplish its real goal, which is granting legal personhood to a fetus."

Prayer Ceremonies at Virginia Military Institute:

Norman K. Moon,
U.S. District Judge:

"Because the prayers are drafted and recited at the direction of the Institute’s Superintendent, the result is that government has become impermissibly entangled with religion."

  

Jerry W. Kilgore,
Virginia Attorney General:

"It’s a shame today that while American soldiers are fighting for our liberty in places like Afghanistan, cadets training to be soldiers cannot pray for their safety."

September 11 Federal Fund for Victims Families:

Anthony Gardner,
Chairman of theWTC United Family Group, and Brother of a 9-11 Victim:

"The perception has gone from us generating all this sympathy to a situation where people think we are as greedy as a pack of wolves… What my mother is going through, what we’re all going through, has nothing to do with money or figures. It has to do with justice."

  

Thomas Connor,
Son of Frank Connor,
Killed in a 1975 bombing by Puerto Rican separatists:

"Everyone’s saying, ‘It’s not enough, it’s not enough, it’s not enough.’ Well, certainly it’s not enough. Infinity is not enough. But why are the taxpayers the ones who should pay for your suffering?"

Stephen Push,
Co-Founder of Families of September 11 Inc., and husband of 9-11 victim Lisa Raines:

"It’s another way that these families are being put through more unnecessary emotional anguish, feeling betrayed by their government and feeling despised by the rest of the country."

  

Marsha Knight,
Mother of Frankie Merrill,
Victim of 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma:

"In some ways I don’t understand their complaint, because there’s been so much more being done for them that has been done for any other victim’s families, or will be done for any other victim’s families. It’s not equitable."

Trial of Accused Terrorist John Walker Lindh:

U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft:

"We may never know why he turned his back on our country and our values, but we cannot ignore that he did. Youth is not absolution for treachery, and personal self-discovery is not an excuse to take up arms against one’s country."

  

Frank Lindh,
Father of
John Walker Lindh:

"John loves America. We love America. John did not do anything against America. John did not take up arms against America. He never meant to harm any American, and he never did harm any American. John is innocent of these charges."

U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft:

"John Walker chose to join terrorists who wanted to kill Americans, and he chose to waive his right to an attorney, both orally and in writing, before he was questioned by the FBI… Mr. Walker will be held responsible in the courtroom for his choices."

  

James Brosnahan,
Lead Attorney
For John Walker Lindh:

"For 54 days, he [John Walker Lindh] was held incommunicado. While he was kept away from a lawyer, officials in the federal government leaked or stated out loud their understanding of the evidence in the case in violation of the rule of this courthouse."


Libel Suits Against Hollywood’s "Real Life" Portrayals in Film:

Attorney Gerson Zweifach:

"There’s a recognition in the law that (movies) are entertainment (and) that often you have to make changes — like telescoping a long trial into a few scenes — to make the story work. If you didn’t do that, let’s face it, no one would come to see your movie."

  

Stephen Calvacca,
Attorney for Jodi Tyne,
Former Wife of
"Frank" Billy Tyne, Jr.
Sea Captain portrayed in
The Perfect Storm:

"You can’t take real people’s lives, say you’re telling a true story, and (then) holler ‘free speech,’ when challenged about the film’s authenticity. This suit’s not about money. The movie’s about money. This is about accountability to the truth."

Libertarianism and Homeland Defense:

Columnist
George Will:

"The events of Sept. 11 have underscored the limits of libertarianism… [Libertarianism] asserts that freedom exists where government compulsion does not."

  

Edward H. Crane,
President,
Cato Institute:

"Government is created precisely to secure our liberty, and the use of compulsion for that purpose is wholly appropriate. Government should exercise its authority to protect our liberty, which is the framework within which we can all pursue our various ends as free people."


Bush Versus Daschle on the U.S. Recession:

United States President
George W. Bush:

"There are some in Washington saying that the tax cut caused the recession. I don’t know what economic textbook they’re reading. The best way to come out of a recession is to say to the small business person, we’ll let you keep your own money"

  

Senate Majority Leader
Thomas A. Daschle
(D — South Dakota):

"[The administration has provoked] the most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation’s history. The tax cut has taken away our flexibility and left us with only two choices, both of them bad. We can shortchange critical needs, such as homeland defense, or we can raid the Social Security Surplus and even run deficits to pay for those critical needs."


Televising Suspected Terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui’s Trial:

Court TV Attorney
Lee Levine:

"Through television, the means exist for all Americans to exercise their constitutional right to observe this trial."

  

United States Attorney
Paul J. McNulty:

"While the First Amendment includes a right to attend criminal trials, it does not include a right to observe such proceedings on television. Instead, the case law draws a clear distinction between an open trial and a televised trial, and rejects any claim the media has a First Amendment right to broadcast criminal proceedings."


The Government’s September 11 Victims Compensation Fund:

Lee Kreindler,
Veteran Air-Crash Litigator:

"...[The fund is] a radical and untried system, full of contradictions, loaded with Hobson’s choices and replete with denials of remedies (claimants) thought they had a right to expect."

  

Senator Patrick Leahy
(D — Vermont),
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

"Thousands of kids went to school that day and came home to learn they were orphans. Is this program perfect? No, but it’s the best we could do in the short term."


National Energy Plan and Drilling in ANWR:

Teamsters President
James P. Hoffa:

"Exploring in the ANWR is clearly the right thing to do. It will reduce our reliance on foreign oil while creating thousands of jobs for working families. A vote on the energy package must not be delayed any longer."

  

Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle
(D — South Dakota):

"What we’ve got to do is look for new ways to conserve. Look for new ways to develop new kinds of energy and, obviously, spur production in those environmentally safe areas. We don’t need to drill in ANWR."


Human Cloning:

USA Today Editorial:

"By outlawing both therapeutic and reproductive cloning in one expansive ban, congressional worriers would pull the plug on promising research while merely pushing reproductive cloning offshore and underground."

  

U.S. Senator Richard Shelby
(R — Alabama):

"Congress and the international community must act in a thoughtful and reasoned manner to define the boundaries of ethical science and ban the cloning of human beings."

Military Tribunals: On the Power to Detain Non-Citizens Without Court Approval:

Timothy Lynch,
Director of the Criminal Justice Project of the CATO Institute:

"If the President can suspend one constitutional principle today, the danger is he can suspend others tomorrow."

Mindy Tucker,
Spokeswoman Justice Department:

"We do not believe our system of justice prevents us from protecting people’s constitutional rights and protecting American lives."


Charlie Daniels’s New Song: "This Ain’t No Rag, It’s A Flag":

Charlie Daniels:

"This ain’t no rag, it’s a flag, and we don’t wear it on our heads… Political correctness is out-and-out junk. This is a time to rub salt in the wounds."

  

James Zogby,
President of the Arab American Institute:

"The notion of a ‘rag head’ has the same meaning as nigger, kike, or spic."

Cross-Burning and the Constitution:

Virginia Supreme Court Justice
Donald W. Lemons:

"Under our system of government, people have the right to use symbols to communicate. They patriotically wave the flag or burn it in protests; they may reverently worship the cross or burn it as an expression of bigotry."

Virginia Attorney General
Randolph A. Beales:

"Cross-burning with the intent to intimidate is a form of domestic terrorism, which is intolerable in a free society."

 


Free Speech vs. Intellectual Property Rights:
The DeCSS Case

Robin Gross,
Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

"What this case isn’t about is intellectual property rights. What it is about is the First Amendment rights of people who come across information in the public domain who want to republish and discuss that information."

Jeffrey L. Kessler,
Attorney representingThe DVD Copy Control Association:

"The decision would be a devastating blow to the U.S. economy, and it makes absolutely no sense… Beyond our case, if this decision becomes the law of the United States, all trade laws are unconstitutional."