Political Science

Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment.
— Example of changes to an Environmental Protection Agency report made by White House officials under George W. Bush, June 19, 2003

Political staff are becoming increasingly bold in forcing agency officials to endorse junk science.
— Jeremy Symons, a climate policy expert at the National Wildlife Federation, June 19, 2003

Evolution is back in Kansas.
— Headline after the Kansas Board of Education reversed its 1999 vote, February 21, 2001. Two other fundamental scientific theories, cosmology (the origin and fate of the universe), and plate tectonics (the movement of continents), were also restored to the classroom.

©2002 Focus on
the Family

In 1999 Darwinists launched a vicious campaign of threats and ridicule when the Kansas State Board of Education refused to require that Darwinism be taught as the sole explanation for life's diversity. (They did not ban the teaching of evolution, as the media widely misreported.) Sadly, those tactics paid off the following year, when state elections shifted the board's membership enough to reimpose the old orthodoxy.
— Mark Hartwig, Focus on the Family magazine, 2002. The theories of evolution and intelligent design are treated as matters of religious orthodoxy and opinion.

salon.com

On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth.
— George W. Bush, 2002

Can Science Conquer Kansas?
— Headline after the Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 on August 11 to make evolution a local option in the state's 304 school districts, September 27, 1999

Kansas just embarrassed itself on the national stage.
— Dr. John Staver, chairman of a 27-member committee of scientists and teachers that had worked for more than a year on questions of science and religion in the Kansas public schools, August 11, 1999

Freedom of Speech

Exceptions to majority rule

In 1912, feminist Margaret Sanger was arrested for giving a lecture on birth control. Trade union meetings were banned. Peaceful protesters opposing U. S. entry into World War I were jailed. In 1923, author Upton Sinclair was arrested for trying to read the text of the First Amendment at a union rally. It was in response to the excesses of this period that the ACLU was founded in 1920.
― Freedom of Expression, ACLU Position Paper

Stephen Downs, 61, of Selkirk, New York was arrested Monday on a trespassing charge after wearing a T-shirt saying "Peace on Earth" and "Give Peace a Chance" in Crossgates Mall.
― Associated Press, March 11, 2003

Wal-Marts are private property. This means that Wal-Mart has the right to ask you to leave their premises if they do not approve of your behavior. The situation is trickier on sidewalks and parking lots owned by Wal-Mart. Though these spaces are technically private, some courts will still protect your free speech rights there because traditionally they are "public" forums. The Supreme Court explicitly left this issue up to the states in Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, after which states have differed in their conclusions, most falling on the side of protecting property.

The state decisions have focused on large shopping malls that have taken over the traditional functions of a downtown's Main Street. The states of Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon have all made rulings that favor protecting free speech on these types of private property. Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin courts have all ruled against protecting speech in these situations. Most states are still undecided on this issue, but lean towards the majority view that speech is not protected on private property.
― National Labor Committee In Support Of Worker And Human Rights, March 9, 2003

"You mean, it's the content of my sign?" I asked him. He said, "Yes, sir, it's the content of your sign."
― Brett Bursey, before his arrest by airport police in Columbia, SC, October, 2002.
Bursey was told he was trespassing, but was later charged by United States Attorney J. Strom Thurmond, Jr. for being in an area restricted by the Secret Service to protect President Bush. Bush supporters in the area were not arrested.

Patriotic Ceremonies

Exceptions to majority rule

Students pledging to the flag with the Bellamy salute, March
1941

No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. . . To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.
― U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 1943, striking down a requirement that school children salute the flag.

One of the things that the flag stands for, the Court said that day, was the right not to salute it.
— Ira Glasser, 1991. The Supreme Court decision was made in the middle of World War II.


Iwo Jima Flag Raising, Joe Rosenthal, 2/23/45, ©1945 Associated Press

World Trade Center Flag Raising, Thomas E. Franklin, 9/11/01, ©2001 The Record (Bergen County, NJ)

Two patriotic moments. Voluntary, spontaneous, not routine.

Not Getting Our Money's Worth

More than one-quarter of Medicare dollars are spent in the last year of life.
― Todd A. Borus, MD, August 13, 2002

The U.S. has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world.
― Robert Novak on "Crossfire", October 20, 2002

Life expectancy in the U.S. is well below that in Canada, Japan, and every major nation in Western Europe. On average, we can expect lives a bit shorter than those of Greeks, a bit longer than those of Portuguese.
― Paul Krugman, The New York Times, October 20, 2002

Doesn't our high and rising national wealth translate into a high standard of living - including good medical care - for all Americans? Well, no. Although America has higher per capita income than other advanced countries, it turns out that that's mainly because our rich are much richer.
― Paul Krugman, The New York Times, October 20, 2002

Northern Sun Merchandising,
Minneapolis, MN

The U.S. Congress is preoccupied with terrorist threats. But, to my mind, the nursing shortage is a colossal flaw in the American health care system, a life-and-death issue.
― Sheela Murthy, a Washington immigration lawyer advising nurse recruiters and hospitals hiring foreign nurses, February 10, 2003. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration projects that vacant nursing positions, now totaling more than 110,000, will exceed 700,000 by 2020.

Most of the 40 million Americans who lack health insurance pay for our political leaders' health insurance premiums through taxes. Since our leaders as a group have universal health care, why can't they in return find a way to provide that same benefit for us?
― Philip Pollner, MD, chairman of the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care, August 12, 2002

Taxes and One Super-Rich Guy

The tax relief I propose will give 23 million small-business owners an average tax cut of $2,042 this year.
— George W. Bush radio address, January 18, 2003

Most small businesses will get a tax break of less than $500; about 5 million of those 23 million small businesses will get no break at all. The average is more than $2,000 only because a small number of very wealthy businessmen will get huge tax cuts.
— Paul Krugman, The New York Times, January 21, 2003, citing the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

A liberal and a conservative were sitting in a bar. Then Bill Gates walked in. "Hey, we're rich!" shouted the conservative. "The average person in this bar is now worth more than a billion!" "That's silly," replied the liberal. "Bill Gates raises the average, but that doesn't make you or me any richer." "Hah!" said the conservative, "I see you're still practicing the discredited politics of class warfare."
— Paul Krugman, The New York Times, January 21, 2003

Ted Rall © 2003

Faith-Based Government

Out of fear, ignorance and occasional bigotry, faith-based groups have been prohibited from competing for federal funding on a level playing field with secular groups.
— Attorney General John Ashcroft, White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Conference, January 13, 2003. President Bush issued an executive order last month prohibiting federal agencies from discriminating against religious organizations in awarding grants for social work, but religious groups that become federal contractors may still discriminate in hiring on the basis of religious beliefs.

In 1996, then-U.S. Senator John Ashcroft steered through Congress so-called “charitable choice” provisions intended to allow religious groups to garner federal funding without proper civil rights and civil liberties safeguards. Ashcroft, an ally of the Religious Right, wanted faith-based providers to be able to hire and fire based on religion, even in programs supported by taxpayer dollars.
— The 'Faith-Based' Initiative, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 2017