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Legislative Watch

``` Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 10:26:47 -0600 (MDT) From: DJABS Subject: LEGISLATIVE WATCH.2.C--July 24, 1995

_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ LEGISLATIVE WATCH Col.2.C--July 24, 1995

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S P E C I A L E D I T I O N

Featuring The Four Part Series:

NOVEMBER CHILDREN

A Parallel of Free Republics

CONTENTS:

.....Congressional Digest .....Political Action Guide .....Special Feature Part I: November Children .....Document Resources

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CONGRESSIONAL DIGEST

...HOUSE STATUS:

.....H.R. 1555 [Telecomm Reform Bill]

Expected to go to a House floor vote in late July. The palatable Leahy alternative has been attached to the Telecomm Reform bill by an amendment sponsored by Rep. Ron Klink (D-4-PA). It is expected however, that the Christian Coalition will find a sponsor to amend the Communications Decency Act to the Telecomm Reform bill.

.....H.R. 1004 [Communications Decency Act]

Expected to bring quite a fight in the House in the VERY NEAR FUTURE. Currently the CDA is still unattached to any legislation, however it is expected that someone will introduce it as an amendment to the Telecomm bill soon. House speaker, Newt Gingrich, and two House representatives have publically stated their positions against the CDA due to its unconstitutionality. The CDA would criminalize electronic speech currently protected in print by the First Amendment.

.....H.R. 1978 [Internet Freedom and Family Act]

Still sitting, waiting to be officially presented in the House. Would prohibit the FCC from regulating constitutionally-protected online speech, and would absolve sysops and services from liability if they take good faith measures to screen their content or provide parental-screening software. Looks like a good alternative. It is however, being examined by several DC policy groups in an attempt to eliminate problem any problem areas.

...SENATE STATUS:

.....S. 892 [Protection of Children from Computer Porn...] Currently in the Judiciary Committee, hearing scheduled for July 24. Would make Internet Service Providers liable for shielding people under 18 from all indecent content on the Internet.

.....S. 974 [Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995]

Not moving. Sitting in the Senate. Would make it unlawful for any person to publically disseminate encoding or encrypting software unless it contained a "universal decoding device." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

POLITICAL ACTION GUIDE

1. Familiarize yourself with the Communications Decency Act (H.R. 1004) available at:

Telnet: WWW:

WWW:

Gopher:

Email: (with "send cdafaq" in the subject line)

2. Contact your Representatives. Register your opinion against the Communications Decency Act and any other legislation designed to promote government censorship of First Amendment protected "online" free speech.

Remember, where time permits, neatly typed, personal letters or postcards are the most effective means of communicating your opinion on legislation. Mail your opinions to your representative at:

United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20510

The next most effective way to contact your representatives is either with a telephone call or a fax message. E-mail is somewhat useful, but tends to be ignored more often due to volume, and due to the intangible nature of email (nothing solid to hold). You may request a contact list from "Legislative Watch" (instructions at the bottom of this newsletter) to see who your representatives are, and to get their phone, fax and email numbers.

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SPECIAL FOUR-PART SERIES (PART TWO FOLLOWS NEXT WEEK

N O V E M B E R C H I L D R E N

PART I:

WEARING HISTORICAL SPECTACLES

SERIES CONTENTS

PART I: WEARING HISTORICAL SPECTACLES: AN OVERVIEW

..........Looking at "Weimar" Symptomatology ..........Germany's November Child

PART II: PEERING OVER THE HISTORICAL SPECTACLES: GETTING A CLOSER LOOK

..........The Shifting German Republic ..........The Enabling "Emergency Powers" Act

PART III: LOOKING THROUGH BIFOCAL LENSES: AN OVERVIEW

..........Looking at American Symptomatology ..........America's November Child

PART IV: PEERING OVER THE LENSES: GETTING A CLOSER LOOK

..........The Shifting American Republic ..........The Enabling "Admiralty Law"

N O V E M B E R C H I L D R E N

A Parallel of Free Republics

By Deborah Jabs

PART I: WEARING HISTORICAL SPECTACLES: AN OVERVIEW

Looking at "Weimar" Symptomatology--

A short trip to the local library brought home a heavy armful of research: books on Germany, the Weimar Republic, the Goebbels Diaries, Germany's big business, and the Evolving US Constitution. What a hay day! It was time for me to put on my historical spectacles, and bury my face behind the pages of the past. Maybe I would come out from hiding in only a day or two, perhaps even three...or however long it would take to solve the puzzle. "What puzzle?" you ask. Were talking here, about November Children--a parallel of free Republics. Just like the pages of history reveal, America has its own symptomatology, similar to the setbacks and changes of Germany's free Republic of the past. While piecing together sections of this puzzle, I saw that it would soon reveal the aches and pains of shifting societies. So, I called this puzzle of the free Republics "November Children". This title is in honor of the birth of Germany's Weimar Republic in November of 1918, and in honor of America's free Republic. Although America's Republic was not declared in the month of November, per say, it has taken some similar paths to the Weimar Republic, and its leaders chose November to be the political "high month". It is America's main election month, the vehicle for continuance of a governing body over the American free Republic. "Why November CHILDREN?" you puzzle? Just like the pages of history reveal, free Republics, after a time, seem to materialize into unexpected enormities. They don't seem to reign within the realms of limited authority as originally intended. Much like the library's big and tall book section, they don't seem to fit within the confines of ordinary shelving, and must be stacked with the politically "oversized". They sort of "grow up" so to speak. Unfortunately, their "growing up" also gives way to increasing meddling and a loss of "childlike" innocence. As government becomes all encompassing, its political agenda begins to shift, adjusting to knew ideologies and economic stresses. The process begins simply enough at first, in fact, by barely detectable means. Why do free republics become unweildy? It is simple, really. History has a tendency to repeat itself. Not to suggest Germany's 20th century history is an absolute road map to America's future, but rather, a compelling reason to take a look at the history of another free republic, and to become informed of how governments may shift and realign. It is especially important since America's November Child, the free Republic, is now a 200-year-old teenager beginning to show the early stages of adulthood. As I began to study the history of Germany's Weimar Republic, its struggle of the classes amidst a failing economy, its party rivalry, its clever "party" propaganda orchestrated to manipulate the opinions of the citizenry, and the public perception of its government and its weakness, I began to realize there was a lot at stake in the process of gleaning practical realities and concepts from those precious pages. I realized this was my opportunity to show the "dance" of the two partners, the German people of the 1920's and 30's, and their Republic, and to compare their "steps" with the American political agenda of our day.

Germany's November Child--

After having lost world war I, Germany's emperor "flew the political coup", and in November of 1918, a free republic was born--the Weimar Republic.[1] This was a government established with a new Constitution, one that guaranteed liberty, much like the American "Bill of Rights", and was a government "for the people". From an American, free perspective, one could assume this change should have been dynamic and well received by the people. Dynamic it was! Well received, it was not. In fact, the Weimar Republic was a boiling pot of multi- party political factions. The people had long been ruled under an authoritarian regime, and they were not readily "taken in" by the promises of freedom guaranteed under reformed free government. Frequent struggles erupted between communists, socialists, leftists, rightists, and the "old- line" thinkers of authoritarian dissent. Truly, only a handful (in the scale of percentages) supported the values of the Weimar Republic. During the first years of infancy, in the early 1920's, this Republic could not provide for the means of prosperity and civil stability. A teetering economy was challenged by the demands of the Versailles Treaty, in part, shaped to dismantle German military and political strength in the world. Through the Versailles Treaty, the Weimar Republic, and the German people were essentially forced into accepting the conditions which would drain Germany's nearly dry, economic "basin" into the reparatory "bath" of war-scarred countries. Germany withstood a harsh blow in the winds of crisis. In response to the economic strain, the breath of inflation took a deep gasp, like that of a dying man. As the people remembered an average item costing 4.2 marks in 1914, they felt that sucking gasp of economic ruin as they witnessed the same item rise to a cost of 4.2 trillion marks by 1923.[2] There was a definite enmity between the majority of German people and the small minority who supported the Republic. Though few in number, they represented the defenders of German economic tragedy, and were thereby labeled the "November Criminals," according to the birth month of the Weimar Republic. The majority considered the Republic and the stifling Versailles Treaty, the first "step" in the fall of Germany.[3] Was the Weimar Republic really "criminal?" or was it merely the victim of political and economic circumstance?

LOOKING AHEAD:

PART TWO IN THE SERIES "NOVEMBER CHILDREN" will be published in the next issue of "Legislative Watch":

PART II: PEERING OVER THE HISTORICAL SPECTACLES: GETTING A CLOSER LOOK

..........The Shifting German Republic ..........The Enabling "Emergency Powers" Act

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FOOTNOTES:

SOURCES:

Bullock, Alan. HITLER: A STUDY IN TYRANNY. Revised Edition, Published by Bantam Books, New York.

Heiden, Konrad. DER FUERHER: HITLER'S RISE TO POWER. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1944.

Fourcade, Marie-Madeleine. NOAH'S ARK: THE SECRET UNDERGROUND. English translation copyright 1973, by George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., and E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. Abridged and translated from the French L'Arche de Noe, copyright 1968 by Librarie Antheme Fayard. Published by Zebra Books, Kensington Publishing Corp.

Krausnick, H. Mau and H. GERMAN HISTORY 1933-45. Copyright by J. B. Metzlersche Verlagbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart. Translated from the German by Andrew and Eva Wilson. Oswald Wolff (Publishers) Limited, London, 1959.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DOCUMENT RESOURCES

Request the following documents at shofarRT66.com:

US Constitution/Declaration subject line: Congressional Contact List subject line:

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Comments, inquiries and submissions may be directed to the Editor, Deborah Jabs, at email:

shofar@RT66.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Legislative Watch" originated out of a concern for our religious liberties. It has grown into a larger "watch" because the errosion of the Constitutional guarantees by the government, in the name of "protecting our children", "tracking down illegal aliens", and "tracing terrorist activity", will eventually result in the wrenting of the very fabric that ensures the Christian, the Jew, the Muslim, and, yes, the Branch Dividian the freedom to worship or not to worship without fear of government interference or control. You can be informed of the issues that you hang your freedom on by subscribing (free, of course),to "Legislative Watch". Simply send an e-mail message to:

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"Legislative Watch" is edited by Deborah Jabs: DJABS

Deborah is also a correspondent for the daily electronic newsletter:

"The American Reporter,

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_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ LEGISLATIVE WATCH Col.2.C--July 24, 1995

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