christian grantham
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
	last 5 posts | all posts from April 2005   Republicans Step Up Assault on Judiciary   REPUBLICAN FIRE OATHS: Ohio's Academic Bill of Rights   'Fire Oaths' for Loudoun County   2005 Republican 'Fire Oaths'   Alabama State Rep. Gerald Allen and Book Burning

April 10, 2005

Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is stepping up his rhetoric and assault on the judiciary and the democratic balance of power. Last week, I watched live on C-SPAN a 3 hour forum titled "Confronting the Jucidical War on Faith." In that extraordinary three hours, Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other conservatives launched blistering and inflammatory rhetoric calling for everything from dismantling our democratic balance of power to out-right thuggish police intimidation and imprisonment of the judiciary.

If you want to see the level of disdain for our country's Democracy today's conservative movement has stooped to, you owe it to yourself to watch "Confronting the Jucidical War on Faith." If you value Democracy in America, you owe it to yourself to arm yourself with their own words.

Republicans have chosen as their leader in the United States House of Representatives a man who is not only ethically challenged, but who is about to launch in the party's name a firey war on America's judiciary with any available means.

Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is preparing to imprison judges. He is entertaining legislation to circumvent impeachment procedures and use police to forcibly remove judges from their jobs and offices. He is prepared to shepherd radical nominations to the judiciary with inflammatory anti-constitutional views. He is preparing to dismantle the balance of power in America with your permission, the permission of the silent, the permission of the apathetic and worst of all, the permission of the entire Republican Party.

Don't take my word for it. Read a couple of sections of the forum I transcribed featuring Michael Schwartz, Chief of Staff to Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), echoing some of DeLay's previous comments. Here, Schwartz finds the jurisdiction of the courts to measure Congress against the nation's highest law simply too much to swallow. Perhaps he would prefer a dictatorship?

The Supreme Court is an inheritantly anti-majoritarian institution as long as it purports to be able to grade the papers of Congress and to be able to grade the papers of the legislatures. And, as an anti-majoritarian institution, and I don't think all anti-majoritarianism is necessarily wrong, but over the long haul, it is counter to the very basis of this Republic, which is not soverignty of judges, but soveriengty of the people. And until we can restore the sovereinty of the people, it is a sick and sad joke to claim that we have a constitution here.
[Confronting the Jusidical War on Faith - CSPAN - 04-07-05]

Here, Schwartz proposes to scrap the entire impeachment process for the President having the power to simply call the police to forcibly remove judges that violate Republican defined "good behavior." The arrogance and thuggish rhetoric of Republicans has never seen such appauling lows.

There is an easier way. Uh, because, uh, Impeachment requires, afterall, a two-thirds vote in the Senate after a trial. And, and what, uh, what, uh, uh, Professor Berger wrote harkens back to discussions, uh, in, uh the first Congress, even, at the time the first jucidicary act was written, uh, where it was proposed that Congress establish, by law, a set of standards of judicial good behavior. And those standards could include things, like, uh, obeying the text of the Constitution and being, uh, faithful to their oath and other things that, uh, I think it would be hard to pin down any of the current incumbents, uh, and find them guilty of. Uh, and uh, and I, I think that would be a much easier way, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to focus the attention of judges on, uh, on, uh, doing their job, instead of, uh, instead of doing someone else's job, namely the legislature's job. Because, if we have a clear standard, and if it is breached, then the judges term has simply come to an end, and the President gives him a call and says clean out your desk, uh, the, uh, the capitol police will be in to help you, uh, find your way home. Uh, that's the end of it. We don't need any trials. We don't need any impeachment. We don't need the politics of that. If a judge violates a clear established standard of good behavior in the law, then he can be removed by the President.
[Confronting the Jusidical War on Faith - CSPAN - 04-07-05]

February 11, 2005

Republicans in Ohio are eager to censor University professors from "persistently introducing controversial matter into the classroom or coursework that has no relation to their subject of study."

The section of the bill that concerns most professors states: "Faculty and instructors shall not infringe the academic freedom and quality of education of their students by persistently introducing controversial matter into the classroom or coursework that has no relation to their subject of study and that serves no legitimate pedagogical purpose."
[Prof-speech bill spurs faculty response - Athens News - 02-10-05]

The proposed "Academic Bill of Rights" fails to define what it means by "persistently" or where the line is drawn on how the subject relates to the subject of study. The bill also seeks to also prevent student funds from being used by student groups that fail to present a "neutral viewpoint."

The Republican sponsor of the "Academic Bill of Rights", Sen. Larry A. Mumper’s (R-Marion), just wants to make sure our impressionable children aren't learning how to be communists. Good old communist censorship seems to be his solution.

Mumper, a Republican, said many professors undermine the values of their students because "80 percent or so of them (professors) are Democrats, liberals or socialists or card-carrying Communists" who attempt to indoctrinate students.

"These are young minds that haven’t had a chance to form their own opinions," Mumper said. "Our colleges and universities are still filled with some of the ’60s and ’70s profs that were the anti-American group. They’ve gotten control of how to give people tenure and so the colleges continue to move in this direction."
[Bill could limit open debate at colleges Lawmaker says profs are pushing agendas - Columbus Dispatch - 01-27-05]

February 09, 2005

It's O.K. for Romeo and Juliet to sexualize our children with a shared onstage kiss, but when two males do the same, some within neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia break out the 2005 Republican Fire Oaths.

Now, thanks to a high-decibel dust-up over freedom of expression and values, student writer-director Sabrina Audrey Jess's one-act play, "Offsides," has a dramatically expanded audience.

Del. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun) e-mailed his supporters claiming that, in the play, "two male students engaged in a homosexual kiss onstage" and that public schools were "being used to promote a homosexual lifestyle." His son-in-law, Loudoun County Supervisor Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run), followed up with a missive of his own, warning of the play's disturbing "indoctrination." On Sunday, activists blanketed Loudoun churches with fliers decrying the production.

The school district had received about 150 e-mails about the play by yesterday afternoon, Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde Byard said.
[Gay-Themed High School Play Sparks Va. Protests - Washington Post - 02-09-05]

Here's to student writer-director Sabrina Audrey Jess for standing up to divisive forces in Virginia whose only tools in their fight against freedom and liberty are censorship and hate.

January 27, 2005

Arkansas Rep. Roy Ragland (R-Marshall) hasn't said what he'd do with existing Arkansas school textbooks that don't explicitly define marriage as being between a man and a woman. His recent bill in the Arkansas House of Representatives to require textbooks to reflect the state's constitutional definition of marriage failed, but maybe Ragland can adopt Alabama Rep. Gerald Allen's (R-Cottondale) proposal to burry them.

HB1136 would require that public school textbooks containing a definition of marriage do so "only as a relationship between one man and one woman." It also requires that textbooks be barred from "any definition of marriage that is contrary to the definition of marriage in the Arkansas Constitution."
[Bill Defining Marriage in Textbooks Stumbles - Arkansas Democrat - 01-25-05]

In the spirit of Republicans and their party's evangelical base seeking to cleanse society of references to gays and lesbians across the country, I've re-written a few Nazi Fire Oaths they can all chant as they purge American culture of the plague of homosexuality.

Fire Oaths were written by the German Student Association for Germans to chant as they tossed offending works into the fires of Nazi book burnings. Following each chant, Nazi sympathizers would say the name of the works that brought shame on Germany's purity and morality.

2005 REPUBLICAN FIRE OATHS

1. AGAINST: decadence and moral decay
FOR: discipline and decency in family and state
TO BE BURNED: SpongeBob SquarePants

2) AGAINST: equal marriage rights
FOR: defending the sanctity of marriage from homosexuals
TO BE BURNED: The United States Constitution

3) AGAINST: exposing American children to alternative lifestyles
FOR: portraying strong families with one mother and one father only
TO BE BURNED: Bert and Ernie, Tinky Winky, Buster the Bunny Rabbit

December 14, 2004

Yesterday, Alabama state Rep. Gerald Allen met with President George Bush. Before boarding his flight home today, I spoke with Rep. Allen about whether his proposed bill to ban homosexual content from public libraries and schools ever came up.

"The President is strong on moral values. I don't think anyone has a question about that," Allen said. "But my bill never came up, and I won't have anything more about that for another two months."

Another two months? Allen dismissed my question of whether the White House asked him to tone down his rhetoric in favor of higher priorities.

"The bill simply didn't come up. Now, we talked a lot about tax reform, but had the issue come up, I'm certain the President would have a lot to say about the moral values that got him elected."

The fact that the White House didn't bring up Rep. Allen's desire to burn books should tell him something about Republican Party priorities. Last week, Rep. Allen told the Guardian there was no higher priority than the "moral values" his proposed bill represents.

Last month, "14 states passed referendums defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman". Exit polls asked people what they considered the most important issue, and "moral values in this country" were "the top of the list".

"Traditional family values are under attack," Allen informs me. They've been under attack "for the last 40 years". The enemy, this time, is not al-Qaida. The axis of evil is "Hollywood, the music industry". We have an obligation to "save society from moral destruction". We have to prevent liberal libarians and trendy teachers from "re-engineering society's fabric in the minds of our children". We have to "protect Alabamians".
['We have to protect people' - Guardian - 12-09-04]

Only time will tell if Rep. Allen's visit to the White House helped him focus on more important Republican priorities than burning books.

also read: Stonewall Democrats United, Talking Points