Eyes Right: The Public Eye - Vol. 18, No. 3

TEACHING THE RIGHT LAWS

"The Rev. Jerry Falwell will open a law school this month in hopes of training a generation of attorneys who will fight for conservative causes.

'We want to infiltrate the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession,' Falwell said in a telephone interview Tuesday with the Associated Press. 'We'll be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left.'

Graduates of the law school - part of Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, which is affiliated with his Baptist ministry - could tackle such issues as abortion rights and gay marriage, Falwell said.

Classroom lectures and discussions will fuse the teachings of the Bible with the U.S. Constitution, stressing the connections between faith, law and morality, said law school Dean Bruce Green, who has experience in civil liberties litigation.

'There is a strong need for this,' said Green, who believes many of his colleagues take sides on abortion and genetic engineering without first considering what is morally right."

Source: Chris Kahn, "Falwell opening his own law school." August 18, 2004, Associated Press.

BUSH WAY OR THE IRS WAY

"The IRS has launched an investigation against the NAACP's nonprofit status, citing criticism of the Bush administration's economic and foreign policies at the NAACP convention. 'This investigation is a brazen attempt by the Bush administration to intimidate dissenters into silence,' said People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas. 'It is a dangerous attempt to criminalize criticism of the president during an election year.'

'The people running this administration are bullies,' said Neas. 'But I know Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume. They aren't going to be bullied. They are going to fight for their right to speak truth to power. And we will be proud to fight with them.'

Neas said the announcement targeting the NAACP reminded him of an effort earlier this year to use the Federal Election Commission to impose draconian new rules that would limit nonprofit advocacy and essentially outlaw criticism of incumbent politicians' policies during an election year. PFAW and other nonprofit organizations created the Coalition to Protect Nonprofit Advocacy and successfully beat back that attempt to silence election- year criticism of the president and other incumbents."

Source: Email from PFAW, "BUSH ADMINISTRATION TRIES TO SILENCE NAACP: IRS targets leaders for daring to criticize Bush administration policies."

LOVE IN THE RIGHT, I MEAN WHITE PLACES

"William Regnery, the 'famously reclusive' member of the Regnery publishing family, is looking for investors for a whites-only dating service...

If you're looking for a life partner and are too busy to get enmeshed in the dating scene, hope is on the way: There are myriad dating services that promise to find you the perfect mate. Some arrange lunchtime meetings for over-scheduled workers; others offer a round-robin approach where you can spend a few minutes with a bunch of different prospects during one evening. There are online dating services, video dating services, and services aimed at hooking you up with an ethnic, religious or political counterpart.

If you're a white supremacist, however, none of these services may be right for you. So, if you're having trouble making a love connection and you're uncomfortable at KKK rallies, haven't made your way to a Council of Conservative Citizens confab, or aren't interested in re-locating to a compound in Idaho, William Regnery's new whites-only dating service might be right up your alley. Regnery, one of the lesser-known members of the right wing publishing family, is currently searching for seed money to launch a service that promises to hook clients up with their very own special white supremacist love connection...

In a letter to subscribers, Regnery expressed his concern about the decreasing percentage of white people in the population and announced plans for a new dating service that he claims will address the problem. Internet-based and earmarked only for whites, Regnery's service aims to increase the white population in the United States through marriage and procreation.

Regnery's letter, titled 'Population Destiny' was an appeal to potential investors. The dating service, he said, will be only the 'first arrow in a business quiver' providing 'services and products to whites.'

According to the [Southern Poverty Law Center's] Intelligence Report, Regnery pointed out that in addition to its moneymaking potential, the Caucasian-only dating service would be an opportunity to ensure 'the survival of our race,' which 'depends upon our people marrying, reproducing and parenting'..."

Excerpted from "White supremacist love connection: William Regnery, the 'famously reclusive' member of the Regnery publishing family, is looking for investors for a whites-only dating service." By Bill Berkowitz from WorkingforChange, August 24, 2004.

THE VOTING RIGHT ACT

"Bush administration lawyers are attempting to overturn of legal precedence by claiming that only Attorney General John Ashcroft and not individual voters have a right to go to federal courts to enforce the right of citizen's to vote. This according to the Los Angeles Times.

In legal briefs filed in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, the Bush administration is arguing that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act which was passed after the 2000 election.

Veteran voting rights lawyers say this would overturn decades of legal precedent and could greatly affect any legal challenge to Tuesday's election.

According to the paper, since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote, often with the support of groups such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters.

Even the Supreme Court has backed the idea of private suits. In 1969, the justices issued a ruling in a case related to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that 'the achievement of the act's laudable goal would be severely hampered ... if each citizen were required to depend solely on litigation instituted at the discretion of the attorney general.'"

Source: DemocracyNow.org