As many of you may know, I am currently knee-deep in the law school application progress. At this point, I’ve received some acceptances, some wait-lists (the most maddening of all,) and of course some rejections. Although a rejection is disappointing, I did aim high, so when Harvard wrote back replying that it would not be reserving a seat for me, I was not terribly shocked. This is not to knock the schools which have accepted me, (indeed I should have a definitive announcement soon,) but just a reflection of fact. There are simply more highly trained applicatants than there is space for them. To get into one of the top three law schools (Harvard, Yale, Stanford - or HYS in the jargon,) you not only need a perfect LSAT score and undergraduate GPA, but also have interned at the UN, started your own business and successfully managed the subsequent IPO. So, while I’m not Harvard material (sorry Mom,) I am confident in my abilities to do well wherever I attend and create a distinguished career.

One of my interests is environmental law, and I sometimes think about working for the EPA or other governmental agencies. This said, I realize that the competition for such important jobs will be fierce and that I will have to contend with the likes of those who graduated from HYS. Or at least I did before reading this article in the Boston Globe. The article discusses Monica Goodling (the former top aid to Alberto Gonzales who has resigned and pled the 5th) and the law school from which she graduated, Regent University School of Law.

This little known law school was founded by Pat Robertson, the Christian Dominionist who wishes to turn the United States into a theocracy. In the law school’s about us page, it claims: “The mission of Regent Law School is to bring to bear the will of our Creator, Almighty God, upon legal education and the legal profession.” Digging further, the student handbook (PDF) turns up some interesting details:

1. The Equal Opportunity Policy professes not to discriminate in regards to: disability, veteran status, age, geneder, race, color, national or ethnic origin. From this list, we can assume against whom they do reserve the right to discriminate.

2. In addition to the usual exhortations against drugs, alcohol and tobacco is prohibited. The motivation for this is stated as thus: “The Apostle Paul exhorts the body of Christ that, if they truly loved their fellow man, they would set aside their personal freedom by refraining from behavior that might be a stumbling block to their weaker brother.”

3. Sexual Misconduct. Disorderly conduct or lewd, indedent or obscene conduct or expression, involvement with pornography, premarital sex, adultry, homosexual conduct or any other conduct, which violates Biblical standards, is prohibited.

Not to belabor the obvious, but I also found out that John Ashcroft often teaches courses at the law school, although he is listed as a faculty member for Regent University’s Robertson School of Government. He taught a class titled “Human Rights, Civil Liberties, and National Security.” Regent is a Tier 4 school with a median LSAT score of 153.

The Boston Globe article outlines the history of the school and why over 150 Regent University alumni have been hired to Federal Government positions since the beginning of the Bush administration. One of the most blatant reasons for this alarmingly high number is the fact that Bush nominated the Dean of Regent’s School of Government as director of the Office of Personnel Management; the OPM is responsible for hiring civilians for Federal jobs. Regent Law boasts that 1 out of 6 of its alumni work for for the Government. Since those with law degrees tend to end up in the Department of Justice, it should come as no surprise the Goodling ended up in a senior position there. The article further describes that Ashcroft, while AG, changed the hiring rules for the DOJ: “Conservative credentials rose, while prior experience in civil rights law and the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicant dropped.” As Paul Krugman notes, this is but one example of the, “infiltration of the federal government by large numbers of people seeking to impose a religious agenda.”

The United States has never been perfect, but an important ideal it embodies is meritocracy, rule based on demonstrated ability. As a 162 LSAT recipient, I realize that Harvard isn’t interested in me. But in my rejection, I rest assured that those who were accepted did better than me on the test, and thus, supposedly, are more prepared for certain endeavors. I accept this without bitterness and understand that there is a class of people smarter than I am; I hope that these people put their skills to good use in the form of public service.

If an unexperienced graduate of a 4th tier law school established only to further a narrow-minded and undemocratic agenda is promoted to great heights in the DOJ, I can only wonder how many more such individuals are crafting policy within our Federal Government. Although it seems that the Bush house of cards is starting to tumble (see banner, top right) the damage that has been done will take years if not decades to reverse. When qualified candidates are passed over for at best partisan hacks, or at worst fascists bearing flag draped crosses, the peril to our democracy can not be over-stated. This, and Iraq, and Katrina, and Walter Reed, this is the face of compassionate conservatism, this is the revolution started by Regan and re-awakened by Bush post-9/11. This is what our country has become under Bush and these are the “values” to which roughly 1/4 of our own citizens apparently adhere. If we do not all do our part to stop this, the world will have lost a beacon for enlightened government.

This week in my American History class we have been studying the the New Deal. As we deciphered all the alphabet agencies and reached the late 1930’s, we were able to conclude that while all those programs did help get America back to work, it was ultimately the massive armament for the Second World War which truly brought the country back from the brink of massive social and economic ruin. As a precursor to next week’s lesson, World War II, we looked briefly at the situation in Weimar Germany during the 1930s.

*****

As Germany had been destroyed during the first World War and the Treaty of Versailes imposed extremely harsh punishments on the nation, its economy was never able to regain footing. As a result, the tenuous ability of the Weimar government to maintain control and win the confidence of the populace was destroyed as the depression’s effects were felt worldwide. In this void, Hitler was able to gain a following among the German people by presenting himself as savior of the nation and architect of a great German revival. Just one month after he was sworn in as Chancellor, the Reichstag was destroyed by fire. Blaming the fire on Communists, Hitler and President von Hindenburg were able to pass a sweeping decree suspending many constitutional liberties. This decree was predicated on the assumption that Communist violence against the state posed a danger to public safety, and thus appropriate measures needed to be taken to counter this threat. The decree abolished: habeas corpus, freedom of speech, press and the right to protest, and privacy rights for postal and electronic communications. Legislation following soon thereafter granted expanded powers to the executive (Hitler,) allowing it to create new laws and amend the Constitution as it saw fit, without the approval of the Reichstag. Though these powers, granted in response to a specific Communist threat, were to last for only four years, they continued until the end of the Second World War.

*****

The American economy had been destroyed by globalization, and as a result, people began to lose faith in the ability of government to protect their interests. In this time of uncertainty, George W. Bush was able to strike a chord in many Americans by promising a great cultural and spiritual revival. Just half a year after his election as President, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. Blaming the attacks on terrorists, Bush and a compliant Congress passed the Patriot Act, curtailing many of Americans’ constitutional rights. Habeas Corpus was denied to individuals held on terrorism charges, a massive extra-judicial wiretapping effort against the American people was undertaken, and the executive branch continued to exercise powers in contravention of Congress’ wishes through signing statements. Although many of the key components of the Patriot Act were written to expire in four years, it has since been twice renewed and remains the law of the land…

*****

Next Post - PNAC, 9/11, and the New Pearl Harbor

Here…

** Warning - The Following Audio is Graphic - Listener Discretion Advised **

I do my best to keep up with the state of affairs back home, a feat that is largely aided by the internet. One of my most enjoyable means of doing this is via. the Mike Malloy Show, which I download from The White Rose Society. Mike is a talk show host who is dead on, and amazingly unabashed. His anger and analysis highlight everything that has gone wrong in our country while reminding us that rational thought is still possible. Tonight, while eating dinner (roasted chicken, white rice and cauliflower with garlic sour cream dip,) I was listening to his program. For the first two hours he kept mentioning a controversial statement he was going to read from “a blog.” Well, at about the time I was finishing up my food, thankfully, he got around to the reading. Please listen:

Mike Malloy Reads “My Heartfelt Apology to South Dakota.” - MP3

Sources:

Blog - “Come Armageddon”
Statement - South Dakota Republican State Senator Bill Napoli
Reading - Mike Malloy
Archive - White Rose Society

So much is going on these days, that I find it hard just to keep track of things. As you’ve probably already noticed, I have added an “Impeach Bush” banner to the top right-hand of this site. Here’s my rationale for this: By condoning secret wiretaps on American citizens and sidestepping the FISA court, George W. Bush has violated our constitutional protections regarding unreasonable searches. As the President, he swore to uphold the Constitution. Since these actions are contrary to that oath, he must be removed. What I’m really dumbfounded about is how Clinton’s BJ ranked as a more serious threat to our nation than Bush’s current actions. As the right wing continues to melt down and crooks and liars are exposed for who they really are, I hope that this demand becomes more powerful. Even if we are unsuccessful in the actual impeachment, it is crucial that we try; someone like Bush, unlike Nixon (who, while a nut, did at least leave the country with a few good social programs,) will never resign.

Since I’m abroad, I am unable to watch the David Letterman show. I like Letterman. He’s got a wit about him that resonates with me. Well, I’m very sad I missed this live, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was able to view a segment of his show where he had Bill O’Reilly as a guest. O’Reilly, one of the Right’s most shrill shills, gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter by the king of late night. Enjoy the files in the following formats: (Windows Media - WMV Bittorrent - QuickTime Bittorrent) This is well worth the download - trust me!

I’d also like to announce some new sites that have been added to the Links section of this blog:

MadKane - I stumbled across this lady’s website while looking for limericks for my students. She is a talented humorist who makes political limericks and popular song parodies regarding current political events. Her site includes a blog, lyrics and a podcast.

White Rose Society - I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy listening to the Mike Malloy Show on Air America Radio. Since I’m far from the airwaves, and to listen live I’d have to get up at 6 a.m., I download the episodes from this site. Not only is the Mike Malloy show included, but you’ll find many other liberal talk radio hosts here. Superb service.

GLBT- A new category has been created for GLBT issues.

After Elton - This site discusses the portrayal of GLBT people in the mainstream media.

BlogActive - A very controversial blog, the goal of BlogActive is to illuminate anti-gay types who are found to be gay themselves. Considering that the Republican party is full of such individuals, there is always fresh content.

Uzbekistan - A new category has been created for issues relating to Uzbekistan.

Craig Murray - Mr. Murray was the UK’s former Ambassador to Uzbekistan. Known now as a whistleblower, he refused to keep quiet about the murderous regime of Islam Karimov which was being supported by the US/UK as part of the global “war on terror.” Mr. Murray has recently released some firsthand documents, called the Tashkent Memos - and will soon have a book out on the whole subject. Fascinating reading, and insightful about the dark and dirty side of this new “war.”

Eurasia Insight - This site features articles regarding civil society initiatives in the Central Asia / Caucuses region. This site is mostly sober and article based and offers a good starting point to those who wish to understand the complexities of the region.

neweurasia - This relatively new site is in the list because it purports to be student-run. Some interesting takes on current events.

Registan.net - Arguably the king of Central Asian / Uzbekistan sites, Registan.net provides extensive coverage (and linkage,) along with mostly sound commentary from a libertarian perspective.

In my American History classes, we are now up to World War II, and I’ve set aside the whole month (translation - four 50 minute periods) to study this subject. In my Culture and Civilization classes, we are discussing Iraq. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and teach both classes the infamous Supreme Court case, Korematsu v United States (1944.) This case regards the internment of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during the war. The basic idea was that since some Japanese Americans may have retained loyalties to the Emperor of Japan, it was not safe to have such individuals living near the West Coast, where they might possibly assist the enemy. FDR approved of this, and the internment was carried out.

The majority opinion of the court agreed that this was Constitutionally valid. Here is some of what the judges had to say:

“Exclusion of those of Japanese origin was deemed necessary because of the presence of an unascertained number of disloyal members of the group… it was impossible to bring about an immediate segregation of the disloyal from the loyal… when under conditions of modern warfare our shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power to protect must be commensurate with the threatened danger.”

A strong dissent was also penned:

“That this forced exclusion was the result in good measure of this erroneous assumption of racial guilt rather than bona fide military necessity is evidenced by the Commanding General’s Final Report on the evacuation.. In it, he refers to all individuals of Japanese descents as “subversive,” as belonging to “an enemy race,” and as constituting, “over 112,000 potential enemies… at large today.” … No reliable evidence is cited to show that such individuals were generally disloyal.. to infer that examples of individual disloyalty prove group disloyalty and justify discriminatory action against the entire group is to deny that under our system of law individual guilt is the sole basis for deprivation of rights… [this is to] open the door to discriminatory actions against other minority groups in the passions of tomorrow.

Amazing, isn’t it? This was 1944. But if we were to substitute a few words, how easily does this translate into today’s “passions….” ? I think as a nation we suffer from historical amnesia. Maybe it’s because the idea of America is progress… out with the old and in with the new. We are so constantly moving away from where we have come, that the actions of the past seem almost irrelevant. Having been in Europe now for half a year, it is clear that the burden of the past, though spoken or implied, weighs heavily on all that is done. Bush often states that our “war on terror” began on 9/11. The absurdity of this statement is tremendous. 9/11 was not the beginning, it was, instead, a culmination. The world did not suddenly change after 9/11, rather American’s woke up to the fact that there is a larger reality beyond the borders of our cities and towns.

I lived for half a year in the country of Uzbekistan. Baring any radical changes, Uzbekistan is headed toward a bloody future. I’ve seen how repression twists people - kills them in a way. And I’m starting to understand why people who come from such situations may be willing to strap some explosives to their chest and give it the good college try. Our support of tyrants, given in the name of fighting terror, but in reality as a desperate measure to ensure that our liquid lifeline keeps flowing, makes us not only weak but also hypocritical. And with Bush in power, the level of these offences has reached a new high (or shall I say low,) and the rest of the world is not so stupid to get upset over the “war on Christmas.”

As Bush himself is fond of saying, these are difficult times. Let us respond to the challenge in the best way we can, first, by cleaning house. Only when those types of individuals who are currently in power are gone can we possibly hope to undo the damage already done, and then, perhaps, try to shape a world that is truly more free and just.