Hopefully This Is A Trend

Posted on July 30, 2005

Under investigation by the FBI, under the microscope by us, and the American public is starting to wise up to their terrorist tactics, there seems to be some dissention in the ranks of the Most Dangerous Organization in America.

This was in my Google Alerts via email (source):

Resignations, infighting eclipses achievements of local ACLU branch
By Peter Shinkle
Of the Post-Dispatch
07/31/2005

Even as it challenges the FBI’s tactics, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri is being wracked by internal turmoil. Its legal director and two key volunteers have resigned, and a man seeking election as board president is fending off claims of racial bias.

Racial bias huh. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! (in by best Gomer voice).

Denise Lieberman, the group’s legal director since 1997, resigned effective July 15 for reasons that have not been revealed. Some ACLU members have expressed concern over her departure, and two volunteers have resigned from key positions.

Katherine Goldwasser, an associate dean of Washington University’s law school, said she resigned July 7 from the group’s legal steering committee, which decides the cases the group will pursue. She said she tried to discover why Lieberman resigned but could not get to the bottom of the matter. “I lost confidence in the local ACLU, and I resigned,” Goldwasser said.

“I lost confidence in the local ACLU…”, wow that’s a shock. The vast majority of the people in the United States have lost confidence in the ACLU. They are being exposed for what they are, judicial terrorists.

From their founding by self professed Communists in 1920 until present day, their main goal was to turn the United States into a socialist nation. That is why Stop The ACLU was formed. And the goal of our organization is exposing the ACLU for what they really are, terrorists hell bent on destroying our way of life.

Meanwhile, board member Ray Hartmann said he wants to replace the current board president. Hartmann said he believes his own media experience will enable him to help the ACLU achieve a higher public profile at a time when civil liberties are threatened.

Hartmann, 53, founded the Riverfront Times, a free weekly newspaper in St. Louis, in 1977. He sold the paper in 1998, though he continued writing columns for it until 2002. He also has been a regular panelist on a local public affairs TV show, “Donnybrook,” for almost two decades.

Pointing to his media experience, he said, “I’m in an unusually good position to give us a higher visibility on a lot of issues than we’ve had.”

Another ACLU member, longtime civil rights activist Percy Green, contends Hartmann’s decision to run for the presidency has created perceptions of “racial overtones.

The ACLU’s executive director, Brenda Jones, is the first African-American ever to hold that position. She was hired 10 months ago during the term of the current board president, Adam Zaretsky, Green said.

Under a long-standing tradition at the organization, once a person is elected to the board’s presidency for a one-year term, that person’s candidacy is not challenged in the subsequent two elections, ensuring a three-year tenure as board president. Zaretsky first won election as board president last year and is facing his first re-election Sunday. Hartmann, however, has placed his name on the ballot to contest the post.

Green said Hartmann’s candidacy shows that Zaretsky is “being punished” for his role in hiring the group’s first black executive director. “I don’t think that would happen if she weren’t black,” Green said.

Not a very PC stance for an organization which touts itself as the defender of civil rights is it? I thought they were founded to protect the “Civil Liberties” of all Americans. And they try to call us racists. What a laugh.

Green said he and Hartmann have been friends and have been on the same side on an array of issues over the years. “I think Ray Hartmann is a good person, but something is wrong with this challenge. Now is not the time.”

Hartmann responded that his candidacy is unrelated to the hiring of Jones or Lieberman’s resignation. “It’s not about Brenda, and it’s not about race,” he said. “I have the highest regard for Brenda Jones and have had since the first time I met her. She is a terrific director, period, end of report.

“I have nothing but respect for Percy Green. It makes me sad that he would say that,” he added.

Do I detect a level of hostility? The words being exchanged between these two sounds like the rhetoric between a lefty and a hard-right conservative. Isn’t it great!

Hartmann declined to comment on Lieberman’s departure, saying it is a personnel matter. He said he has no criticism of Zaretsky. Hartmann added that he wants to be president because he believes he can help improve the organization’s communication with the board and with the public. “I’m talking to you. Is he?”

Zaretsky, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, did not return several calls seeking comment.

And around and around they go, where they stop nobody knows. And the survivor wins all the marbles and the criticism for life.

Lieberman also declined to comment on her reasons for resigning, saying her separation agreement with the group blocked her from speaking. In a June 20 e-mail to colleagues, she said she was announcing her departure “with great sadness” from a position she described as “the job of a lifetime.”

Karen Tokarz, a Washington University law professor and ACLU member, described Lieberman’s departure as a “huge loss.” “She’s an exceptionally well-qualified civil rights lawyer,” Tokarz added.

Of course she can’t talk, do you think that the ACLU wants the truth to be known? Come on, this organization cries foul when the government tries to keep a secret for National Security reasons or incomplete investigations. But they go out of their way to shield their activities from the public.

She won’t talk because she got a severance package from the organization and signed a non-disclosure agreement. She knows better than anyone what kind of tactics the ACLU uses and doesn’t want to be their next victim.

Marilyn Teitelbaum, an attorney in private practice who has volunteered as one of the group’s general counsels for more than a decade, also has resigned effective upon the group’s finding a replacement. She declined to discuss the reason for her departure.

The departures at the organization have set the backdrop for the election. ACLU members will gather at 2 p.m. today at Washington University Law School to vote on the board presidency.

“We’re not going to fall apart, and we’re going to work through whatever issues we need to work through. There’s no question about that,” she said.
No, go ahead and fall apart. It would be the best thing that you could do for the nation.

And here comes the propaganda. I’m only including it to be “fair and balanced”. HA! Who am I kidding? I’m including it to back up my own claims.

The ACLU has deep roots in St. Louis. Roger Baldwin, a conscientious objector during World War I who taught at Washington University, went on to help found the ACLU in New York in 1920. A St. Louis civil rights group formed in that same year - the St. Louis Civil Rights Committee - changed its name to the ACLU of Eastern Missouri in 1968.

The St. Louis chapter’s cases have included one in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that a Ladue ordinance violated a woman’s First Amendment rights by barring her from having an anti-Gulf War sign in her window.

Recently, the group has helped bring a lawsuit claiming that St. Louis police carried out arrests that violated the rights of people planning a protest at the World Agriculture Forum in 2003. In addition, the group publicly criticized the FBI for investigating three young Missouri men who planned a protest at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last year. The FBI has defended the probe as a justified response to a credible threat of violence.

In addition, the group last year launched a racial justice initiative. It includes a program aiming to improve relations between citizens in north St. Louis and the police force, while at the same time protecting citizens’ rights in cases of improper policing.

Jones, a communications specialist who formerly worked for the Missouri Botanical Garden, said that for the ACLU the racial justice initiative is “a new way of thinking about how to work in these communities.”

Here’s the bottom line campers, they are imploding. This FBI report when made available to special prosecutors and eventually the public, will be the unraveling of this Un-American organization. And some of their own members know it. And like rats, they are deserting the ship before it sinks.

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Comments

11 Responses to “Hopefully This Is A Trend”

The Capitalist on July 30th, 2005 10:42 pm

The implosion in St. Louis echos rifts nationally among liberal special interests.

The last vestiges of the “me” generation, dealing with a loss of power and influence.

What a pity.
loboinok on July 30th, 2005 11:53 pm

Good news is always nice! Lets hope this causes a BIG ripple.
Joseph (OK Liberal) on July 31st, 2005 6:43 am

Good post Jay but I think you had one thing wrong: the ACLU wants to make America a Communist nation, not a Socialist one. A Socialist nation is one like Canada; a Communist one is a nation like the old Soviet Union. I’m a Socialist myself but definitely not a Communist.

I never paid attention to the ACLU much before 2004 but when I finally started to notice what they were up to, even the most Liberal part of me screamed out in rage. That organization is evil and 90% of its goals and accomplishments are also evil. I have for a long time suggested that the good aspects of the ACLU should leave and start their own organization. That would be the best way out of the Left-Wing quagmire the ACLU has gotten us into and perhaps it would lead to the final death knell for a body long deserving of being brought to an end. I wouldn’t miss them, that’s for sure.
Joseph (OK Liberal) on July 31st, 2005 6:55 am

Good post Jay but I think you had one thing wrong: they wanted to make America a Communist nation, not a Socialist one. A Socialist nation is one like Canada; a Communist one is a nation like the old Soviet Union. I’m a Socialist myself but definitely not a Communist.

I had never paid attention to the ACLU much before 2004 but when I finally started to notice what they were up to, even the most Liberal part of me screamed out in rage. That organization is evil and 90% of its goals and accomplishments are also evil. I have always been an advocate for the good aspects of the ACLU to leave and start their own organization. That would be the best way out of the mess and perhaps would lead to the final death knell for the ACLU. I wouldn’t miss them, that’s for sure.
Gribbit on July 31st, 2005 8:19 am

Actually Joseph, this is one of my rantings. And to me Socialism is Communism Light.
Joseph (OK Liberal) on July 31st, 2005 12:04 pm

Sorry Gribbit… I looked at the wrong place when I saw who posted it. I’m not used to the new design yet.

As to Socialism being Communism Light, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think that monitoring company activities to ensure they don’t abuse their privileges is important. I also believe that having things like Social Security, in some form or another, is important too. This is why I’m a Socialist. I don’t believe in government having control but I DO in government taking part. Cheers!
Christopher K. Leavitt on July 31st, 2005 1:27 pm

Great post, Jay. As always; informative and thought provoking.
Malebranche on July 31st, 2005 2:12 pm

Great post Gribbit. Lets hope this continues!
The Capitalist on July 31st, 2005 3:02 pm

Maybe this is a trend. Some of our younger generation is starting to recognise the evils of the liberal agenda. Check this out:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/31/Northpinellas/Student_turns_down_AC.shtml

A good sign, if you ask me.

TC
Jeff on August 2nd, 2005 1:08 pm

Infighting at the ACLU? Sounds a lot like the infighting among the labor unions these days. That’s the trouble with such liberal organizations: Ultimately it’s more about “what can I get out of it?” than “how can we work together?”
Steve on August 2nd, 2005 4:15 pm

Good post. I’m in STL and things are looking bleak for the Eastern Missouri chapter when Ray Hartman is brought in to steady the ship. Hartman is the definition of Moon Bat. He is the local poster boy for the extreme-ultra-socialist left and is a true blue radical. He is also incredibly divisive not only with right of center people but a lot of left leaning people. Pure and simple he is probably in my opinion the most divisive public person in STL………………..