She just wanted to add a signing statement. GW does it all the time. Why should her situation be any different?

She wasn't even declaring that she would oppose certain portions of the oath. She wanted simply to add that she is a pacifist.

Why does California still have such a draconian law? How perfectly Fascist of them!

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The firing of this teacher is a perfect example of how the U.S. has become a FASCIST STATE. If one remembers correctly, when the Pledge of Allegiance (NOT required by any other nation on this earth, by the way) was first inflicted on this nation, it was not accompanied by the hand over the heart, it was recited with a raised arm salute, the same as in the Heil Hitler salute!


America Has a Problem…a BIG PROBLEM

“The liberty of democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic STATE itself. That, in its essence, is FASCISM – ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power.” -- President Franklin Roosevelt

THE IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM

By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Free Inquiry Magazine / Spring 2003

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -- Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -- Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to 'look the other way' or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -- The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military -- Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism -- The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media -- Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security -- Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -- Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected -- The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

READ THE REST AT: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

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OH...and by the way:

This same tactic was used to exclude presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich from the ballot in Texas during the presidential primaries...BY THE TEXAS DEMOCRATS...because he refused to sign a LOYALTY OATH on the application saying he would “fully support” whomever the Democrats eventually nominate for president.

When Kucinich, and Willie Nelson, sued the Texas Democratic Party IN COURT...they LOST.

Although they use them the most effectively, Fascist tactics and policies of fear and intimidation, courts stacked with crony judges, are not exclusive to the Republicans.

We are now, and have been for a long, long time, living in a FASCIST STATE.

WAKE UP, AMERICA!!

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This is utterly disgusting. A LOYALTY oath? Kiss my ass you fascist SOB's.

I worked as a high school teacher for two years and we were supposed to say the pledge of allegiance every day. I refused. That was one of the many reasons they hated me. Of course we would expect such nonsense from from a rural high school in Tennessee. But this was a California college where I thought they all still wore flowers in their hair. Crap. I'm going to dig myself a big hole and go live in it. See ya.


VideoProductionTips = Learn Internet Video

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Other teachers have successfully sued and won against community colleges in CA for the very same thing. One guy sued and the college caved immediately the same day they were served with the Summons & Complaint. The bizarre thing is, there's case law supporting BOTH the loyalty oath AND those who refuse for religious reasons... says a WHOLE lot about the state of the legal system today.

Lest you outside our fine Republik of Kalifornica laugh, as law trends go, as CA goes so goes the nation with about a decade of lag time. Just wait till the Gropenfuhrer passes the "Protect our Daughters Act" which no one seems to know about except the Repugs... every woman a breeder, every womb in use, every zygote sacred. Come on, sing along now...

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A teacher, a Quaker the earlier time too, was fired for not signing the oath just recently in California.
Is it really true that yet ANOTHER teacher, a professor this time, has been fired for not signing a loyalty oath?

I am not from California. So maybe someone can enlighten me as to some questions I have.
I hear that the state legislature wants to stop making the oath mandatory. Will the legislative Republicans go along, or are they blocking any progress? Will Arnold sign any change in the law?

And if the loyalty oath is repealed, will it only be repealed for those employees who have a RELIGIOUS objection, while pacifist atheists have to still keep signing the oath?

Funny. The oath says that the person doing the swearing will protect the CONSTITUTION. Ironic that the teachers have been fired for doing exactly that.

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How mindless and authoritarian can people get?

And why is this idiotic law still on the books in California, the bastion of liberalism?

Oh yeah, liberals can be just as mindless and controlling as their Republican/conservative counterparts.

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the CRIMINALS who are here ILLEGALLY and wave their mexican rag higher than our American flag??

These leeches ONLY have loyalty to their welfare checks which we pay for , of course.

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As I pointed out in Pledges and Loyalty Oaths, I have had to sign loyalty oaths in order to receive my paycheck. The first was in Kansas in 1995 and the second was in New York City in 2005.

Nor, as someone pointed out in an earlier comment, this instance is not the first time this year that an educator in California has been fired for failure to sign the required loyalty oath (see The Chronicle of Higher Education) In both situations, the educator wanted to put a qualifying statement on the oath and they were not allowed to do so.

The solution is not to rant and rave on how this country has turned into some sort of semi-totalitarian state or how democracy has been lost. The solution is to get involved in the politics and get the laws changed.

It may be that getting involved is not possible but to do nothing but rant and rave is to let the other side win.

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Dat shiz is crazy yo. Wtf?

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The writer, those who commented, and certainly the teacher are missing the point. The Teacher should have been fired for lack of common sense! I served 5 terms (20 years) as a local School Board member and relished the opportunity to agree to "defend the U.S. and CA constitution against all enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC". The "loyalty oath" empowers an elected official to defend the Constitution (not the country or it's representatives, and certainly not with violence) by using the Constitution against ALL enemies "both foreign and DOMESTIC" including Black Water, Halliburton, GW Bush & Co., and the members of the Supreme Court!!!

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... or land of the bought and paid for?

being unable to have civil discourse and attaining true compromise over deadlocked issues is part of a trend that will be the end of US political society that I've come to know and honour all my life...

I've been wondering why Americans are streaming into my country [the town I live in is now populated with approximately 1/4 US ex-patriots living and working here now... this is up from only a couple families 3 years ago]
I thought this trend was primarily for the jobs here, but now I'm wondering if perhaps this mass migration is about seeking more freedoms that the US politicals seem determined to take away!

the positive side of this mass migration is that these new Canadians are extremely fast learners bringing in more diversity into our already extremely diverse Township... and extremely humorous to see them meet a Newfoundlander for the first time...

from Campaign for America's Future
[Outright Barbarism vs. The Civil Society]
...snip
...Civility is, in a very real sense, the glue that holds this big, diverse nation together. Name-calling, othering, and losing one's temper is, quite simply, un-Canadian and unpatriotic. Failure to be civil in public is the fastest way (perhaps the only way) to get Canadians genuinely peeved at you. In the land where "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is supplanted by "peace, order, and good government" as the organizing values, there is simply no excuse at all for that kind of behavior, ever...
...unsnip

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How is it that the Nazties ended up running this Country? You Americans are all slaves to those who change the laws behind your backs and now are incarcerating those who don't comply with their agenda. It won't be long Hitler's former enemies will do the same to US as the Germans did to them, Hello Out There is Anybody Home?

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A group generates loyalty automatically and rapidly. The War of Independence was fundamentally between Brits, but the "colony", by being geographically separate from the "mother" country for a relatively short time, so developed its separate identity that it could pursue a war with Britain that it did not regard as a civil war. The propinquity of people within a defined geographic setting sets up a territorial claim that when attacked will ensure even the worst of enemies within that group will be loyal to each other - this closing of ranks was apparent after 9/11. Factions within the group which actively work against the group's wishes are simply part of the group's dynamics and should be encouraged - only the practice of violence against the group should be policed. Man is a group animal, it is in his nature to bond with his group. Forcing people to take oaths of loyalty is either redundant or schismatic. America is remarkable in the homogeneity of its extremely heterogenous population - and that is not the result of legal or moral force, but the result of man's inherent group nature. The history of the world is the merging of families into tribes into nations into nation groups. The view emerging now is the end of that process: the view of ourselves as a species in which all political, religious, racial differences will be subsumed in the final group: homo sapiens, address: the earth, the universe.

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