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Communism

2010-06-18T17:35:30Z

Nickmatthews: /* Notorious communists */ +tito

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
'''Communism''' is a materialistic and militantly atheistic ideology created to justify the overthrow of [[Capitalism]], replacing [[free market]] economics and [[democracy]] with a "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". Under Communism, the [[political]] system replaces the [[private property|private ownership]] of the [[means of production]] with "[[collective ownership]]" of the economy, this is to be accomplished through direct democratic control by the workers.<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1968/11/workersdem.htm</ref>
Twentieth century Communism was based on [[Karl Marx]]'s manifesto which proposed to establishment of a "[[classless society]]." However, all Communist societies have had a [[class structure]], notably the [[USSR]], which was dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.

In the belief that "people cannot change", governments under the banner of Communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40 million to 260 million human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term [[democide]] (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>

President [[Ronald Reagan]] in an address before the British [[House of Commons]] said,
{{Cquote|What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave [[Marxism-Leninism]] on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07. </ref>}}

Today, communism continues to rule over at least one-fifth of the world's people.<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>
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==Communist theory and practice==

[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|thumb|left|180px|The [[hammer and sickle]], the international symbol of communism, is a revolutionist symbol that stands for the uprising of the peasants (the sickle) and the workers (the hammer).]]
Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena. The theory of [[evolution]] influenced the thinking of the Communists, including Marx, [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin]], and [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> Marx wrote, "[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history." Marx offered to dedicate the second German edition of his polemic "Das Kapital" to [[Charles Darwin]], but Darwin declined the "honour." <ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> <ref>Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought, Bob Jessop, ISBN 0415193265 (pg 476)</ref>

Economically, communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the government owns the [[means of production]]. In countries where communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages. In both the Soviet Union and Red China, the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions.

Even more important, one party controls every organization from the local labor union to the the army to the national government. The party is not elected. Its top officials (the "Politburo") select replacements when there is a vacancy. usually a dictator (like Stalin, Mao or Castro) controls the Politburo, but sometimes power is shared among five or six people. No dissent is allowed--all news media are controlled, and the Internet is heavily censored.

Elites do not disappear. Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are allegedly immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure.

Various communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. Marxism, developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin| Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a revolution of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]] (Communism).

The most famous government to label itself "communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1918 to 1991. This government was officially [[atheist]] and attempted to suppress all religion until World War II, when it discovered religion was needed to rally the people against the Nazi invaders. Like all authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] established [[atheism]] as a key part of communism. He famously said, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."<ref>Marx, K. [http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31765.html Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right] (Classic Quotations) (Standard translation from the original German).</ref> He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>Marx, Karl, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm Private Property and Communism], 1944.</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on ''in practice'' and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), 1909, translated by Andrew Rothstein and Bernard Issacs, quote from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm].</ref>

In 1955, [[China|Chinese]] communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".<ref>Noebel, David, The Battle for Truth, Harvest House, 2001.</ref>

The [[atheism]] in communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government. <ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930's and later 1940's the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued through out the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] said, "for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything - force, violence, murder, lying - is a justifiable means." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 92.</ref>

== Atrocities and Repression ==
[[File:Stalin-kill.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Exhumed skeletons of [[class war]] victims murdered by communists.<ref>[http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rummel/rm1.stalin.kill.htm.</ref> Apologists maintain communism has never really been tried. ]]
Communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern communist regimes over a 70 year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html</ref><ref>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm</ref>
<ref>http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365</ref><ref>http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526</ref>

Similarly, a influential book which concerns itself with Russian communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Nobel Prize]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian communism:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref>
</blockquote>

In communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Communists cite scripture==

Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. They often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

==Cummunisms shared totalitarian ideals with facism and nazism==

[[Adolf Hitler]] noted that Communists made excellent converts to Nazism, because the same personality type was attracted to both. "[T]here is more that binds us to [[Bolshevik|Bolshevism]] than separates us from it. There is, above all, genuine, revolutionary feeling, which is alive everywhere in Russia except where there are Jewish Marxists. I have always made allowance for this circumstance, and given orders that former Communists are to be admitted to the party at once. The petit bourgeois [[Social democracy|Social-Democrat]] and the trade-union boss will never make a [[National Socialist]], but the Communists always will."<ref>quoted in Hermann Rauschning, ''Hitler Speaks''</ref> [[Josef Stalin]] also recognized that ex-Nazis and ex-[[fascist]]s were natural recruits for post-war Communist regimes. As Stanley Payne notes in his ''A History of Fascism: 1914-1945'', "All over Soviet-occupied eastern Europe, most rank-and-file former fascist party members, together with many lower-level leaders, were welcomed to fill the ranks of the initially exiguous local Communist parties. The psychological transition seems to have been an easy one, for obvious reasons."<ref>http://www.lietuvos.org/istorija/communism/</ref>

==Cuban communism==
[[Cuba]] remains a communist state controlled by the Castro brothers since 1960 and under U.S economic sanctions.

==Asian communism==
The [[CCP]] in China retains an autocratic regime controlled by the Communist party, which allows no democracy or dissent. However it does allow capitalism, and has experienced a very rapid growth of the private sector and the middle class. Observers expect that the regime's efforts to control public opinion and forestall the will of the people will be more and more difficult.

[[North Korea]] remains a brutal dictatorship controlled by the same family. [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]] are also run by the old Communist cliques.

==Collapse of the Soviet bloc==

The shooting down by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983 of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] may have been a contributing factor for the downfall of the Soviet Union as well as for the whole Soviet block. It being a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union may be inferred from the fact that NATO had decided, under the impetus of the U.S. administration, to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany. This deployment would have placed missiles just 6-10 minutes striking distance from Moscow. But support for the deployment was wavering and many doubted that the missile deployment would find enough support to effect it. When the Soviet Union shot down Flight 007 with 269 people aboard, including conservative Democratic Congressman [[Larry McDonald]] —an act which U.S. President Ronald Reagan characterized as a "massacre"—enough support was galvanized for the deployment. The deployment caused great resources of the Soviet Union to be diverted from inner economic use to military expenditures to counter the U.S. and NATO missile deployment.
Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced democracy. With the collapse the remnants of Communist parties have dropped their old names and ideologies, but still operate on the left of the political spectrum.

==American communism==
:''Main article : [[Committees of Correspondence]]''
With the collapse of Soviet communism and the conversion of Chinese communism to "state run capitalism," the spiritual and ideological center of world of communism and the [[Marxist-Leninist]] tradition shifted to the [[United States]]. Several prominent American communists, rudderless without [[Moscow]] direction, formed a new organization in 1992 called the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism]].

The initial organizational conference was held in [[Berkeley]], [[California]], July 17-19, 1992. Charlene Mitchell, a former leader of the California Communist Party, speaking at the conference said, "the collapse of [[socialism]] in [[Eastern Europe]] left the [[United States]] in a near unchallenged position of world leadership." Mitchell continued,
{{Cquote|What began as a moment to take stock and ponder where to go from there has now become a very different entity. People from the Communist Party, from CrossRoads, from the [[Democratic Socialists of America]], from NCIPA [National Committee for Independent Political Action], from Solidarity, from the Socialist Organizing Network and many others, including independent leftists and independent socialists, have come together here in Berkeley.}}
Criticizing U.S. actions in the [[First Gulf War]], Mitchell stated,
{{Cquote|[[progressive]] forces were nearly powerless in the face of an onslaught of demagogic, [[patriotic]] [[jingoism]] and yellow ribbons. This war, fought for no legitimate reason, was the crowning height of [[George H.W. Bush|President [George H.W.] Bush]]'s [[New World Order]]. Previously, the Soviet Union helped to provide a certain balance to rein in the crazies in this country. Now, that balance is no longer there. It is now up to us, the American people, to rein in our own crazies. The [[left]] must take a major responsibility in organizing this task.}}

==Notorious communists==

Well known communists include:
*[[William Ayers]]
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Hugo Chavez]]
*[[Carl Davidson]]
*[[Frank Marshall Davis]]
*[[Bernardine Dohrn]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Van Jones]]
*[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Mao Zedong]]
*[[Jimmy Wales|J. D. Wales]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Paul Robeson]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Yakov Sverdlov]]
*[[Josip Broz Tito]]
*[[Leon Trotsky]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]
*[[Yakov Yurovsky]]

==Further reading==
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative historian
** Pipes, Richard. ''History of Communism: A Brief History'' (2002)
* Priestland, David. ''The Red Flag: A History of Communism'' (2009)
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/100thingsyoushou1949unit#page/n3/mode/2up 100 Things You Should Know About Communism'']

==See also==
*[[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
*[[Cold War]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Iron Curtain]]
*[[Progressives for Obama]]
*[[Socialism]]
*[[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983-4.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.memorialsighet.ro/en/colectie.asp?id=3 Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]

[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Marxist terminology]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]

Dirichlet's theorem

2010-06-17T18:28:30Z

Nickmatthews:

'''Dirichlet's theorem''' states:
<blockquote>
''There are infinitely many [[prime number]]s in an [[arithmetic progression]] of the form a<sub>n</sub> + b if a and b are relatively prime (i.e., (a, b) = 1)).''
</blockquote>

For example, the sequence of numbers which are one more than a multiple of 11 (1, 12, 23, 34, 45, ...) is an arithmetic progression. Dirichlet's theorem states that this sequence contains infinitely many prime numbers. Equivalently, there are infinitely many values of k for which 11*k+1 is a prime number.

The requirement that a and b be relatively prime is crucial: if a and b share a common factor k, we can write a = k*c, b=k*d. Then an+b = kcn+kd=k(cn+d) If k is not equal to 1, then this has two factors unless cn+d = 1, so n=0 and d=1. The case n=0 corresponds to the first term, and so only the first term of such a sequence may be prime. For example, the arithmetic sequence of integers of the form 12k+2 contains only even numbers, and thus no primes except 2.

Gauss proposed this conjecture but could not prove it. Dirichlet first proved this in 1837 using the Dirichlet L-series. The proof is quite challenging to understand, and is beyond the scope of most number theory courses.
[[category:mathematics]]

Elena Kagan

2010-06-17T18:12:01Z

Nickmatthews:

[[File:Elena Kagan Harvard.jpg|right|200px]]
'''Elena Kagan''',<ref>[http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2010/05/13/komrade-kagan/ Komrade Kagan,] By Mark Alexander · Thursday, 13 May 2010. Retrieved from the Patriot Post 15 May 2010.</ref> is currently [[Solicitor General]] of the United States, confirmed in 2009 by a vote of 61-31.<ref>[http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00107 On the Nomination (Confirmation Elena Kagan, of Massachusetts, to be Solicitor General)], United States Senate</ref> She was born April 28, 1960, to a lawyer father and school teacher mother.

As a result of a request by senators who will vote on her nomination, 90,000 pages of records from the Clinton White House were released which reveal that Kagan played a role in crafting former [[President Bill Clinton]]’s policies on abortion, assisted suicide, religious freedom, gun control, welfare reform and tobacco. In addition, they also show that Kagan was part of Clinton's small army of lawyers which unsuccessfully sought to postpone Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against him. As a result of her work, Clinton sought to gain her a seat on the federal appeals court in Washington, often a steppingstone to the Supreme Court, an appointment which the Republican-controlled Senate opposed. In response to Kagan's note of thanks, the former President stated, "I was honored to nominate you - you will be a wonderful judge if we can get you through - and young enough to have a profound impact."

Republicans have expressed concern that records will not be fully produced in time for the committee to conduct a proper review before her confirmation hearings, which are scheduled to begin June 28.<ref>[http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/12/documents-show-kagan-a-political-pragmatist/print/ ''Kagan had role in Clinton White House’s big fights''], [[Associated Press]] June 12, 2010</ref>

==Education==
# 1981 – Earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Princeton University, summa cum laude.
# 1983 – Earned her Master of Philosophy degree from Worcester College at Oxford University
# 1986 – Received her Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School
# 1987 – Served as judicial clerk for Abner Mikva, U.S. Court of Appeals in the D.C. circuit.
# 1988 – Served as judicial clear for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court.
# 1991 – Became assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Met Barack Obama.
# 1995-99 – Employed as Associate White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Bill Clinton.
# 1999 – Nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
# 1999-2001 – Harvard Professor of Law.
# 2003 – Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law.
# 2003 – Appointed as first female dean at Harvard Law School, after nomination by then Harvard University president Lawrence Summers.
# 2005-2009 – Began service as a member of the Research Advisory Council of the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute.
# 2009 – Became the first woman to hold the position of Solicitor General of the U.S. <ref>[http://faithfulinprayer.wordpress.com ''Who is Elena Kagan''], May 12, 2010</ref><ref>[http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=34854 FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, May 18, 2009]</ref>

==Activity and ideology==
In 1987, Kagan was a law clerk for Judge Abner Mikva, a far-left judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and in 1988 she served justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. The latter is considered by some to be the most liberal Supreme Court justice in American history, and that Kagan called him her legal hero is troubling to conservatives.<ref>''Why Ultra-Liberal Obama Needs Kagan On the Court'', Fox News, May 10, 2010</ref>

At Princeton, Kagan was see as a reserved and and discreet person, politically "progressive and thoughtful but well within the mainstream of the ... sort of liberal, democratic, progressive tradition, and everything with lower case.” Kagan, future N.Y. Governor Elliot Spitzer and certain other campus leaders were members of the ''Coordinating Council of the Campaign for a Democratic University'', which saw the administration as taking too much authority upon themselves, and signed a manifesto opposing it which appeared in the university paper, the ‘Prince.’<ref>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/05/03/26081/print ''Reserved passion: Kagan ’81'', The Daily Princetonian, May 3rd, 2010</ref>

The group sought to “effect a fundamental restructuring of University governance,” the piece stated, adding that “the administration rules this campus by decree.For her senior college thesis at Princeton, she analyzed the failure of socialism in New York in the early 20th century, a movement which father and older brother sympathized with. Although the 153-page paper, ''To the Final Conflict: [[Socialism]] in New York City, 1900-1933,'' was written while Kagan was only 22, and was more of a dispassionate examination of the internal divisions in the movement that led to its decline, <ref>''For Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, a history of pragmatism over partisanship'', Washington Post, May 11, 2010</ref> some perceive it as lamenting "the non-existence of a viable socialist movement in the U.S."<ref>http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d10-How-Justice-Stevens-retirement-might-benefit-gun-rights</ref>Statements that some see as showing sympathy with socialism include: “Through its own internal feuding, then, the SP [Socialist Party] exhausted itself forever and further reduced labor radicalism in New York to the position of marginality and insignificance from which it has never recovered. The story is sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than a half century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America.” The thesis has been removed from the Princeton University site, and electronic dissemination prohibited, while a fee of $54.60 is charged for purchase: <ref>http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/news/kagan.pdf</ref>

On November 10, 1980, a week after Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory, Kagan submitted to ''The Daily Princetonian'', a personal essay titled, “Fear and Loathing in Brooklyn,” in which she explains that having worked some 14 hours a day, six days a week for the election of a liberal candidate Liz Holtzman, she wept when the candidate lost.” She expressed that due to her background, "I absorbed such liberal principles early; more to the point, I have retained them fairly intact to this day." Reflecting on Reagan's win and the liberal loss, she stated,
<blockquote>
Looking back on last Tuesday [election day], I can see that our gut response -- our emotion-packed conclusion that the world had gone mad, that liberalism was dead and that there was no longer any place for the ideals we held or the beliefs we espoused -- was a false one. In my more rational moments, I can now argue that the next few years will be marked by American disillusionment with conservative programs and solutions, and that a new, revitalized, perhaps more leftist left will once again come to the fore...But somehow, one week after the election, these comforting thoughts do not last long. Self-pity still sneaks up, and I wonder how all this could possibly have happened and where on earth I’ll be able to get a job next year.

Even after the returns came in, I found it hard to conceive of the victories of these anonymous but Moral Majority-backed opponents of Senators Church, McGovern, Bayh and Culver, these avengers of 'innocent life' and the B-1 Bomber, these beneficiaries of a general turn to the right and a profound disorganization on the left.<ref> [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/05/03/26082/print/ “To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City,] 1900-1933,</ref>
</blockquote>

An associate White House counsel beginning from 1995-99, Kagan recommended that the federal government support a case in favor of [[religious freedom]]. The California Supreme Court had ruled that a landlord violated a state law prohibiting housing discrimination by refusing to rent an apartment to an unwed couple because she considered sex outside marriage to be a sin. Kagan rejected the California justices’ rationalization used in ruling against the landlord, that the landlord’s religious freedom was not burdened because she could get another job.<ref>'Kagan Expressed Broad View of Religious Freedom'', New York Times, June 11, 2010</ref>

In an abortion case pertaining to a prisoner who sought the state to pay for her murder of the preborn infant, Kagan sought to persuade then president Clinton to choose a version of the bill that would pass, while protecting a woman's right to abortion.<ref>''Kagan Expressed Broad View of Religious Freedom'', New York Times, June 11, 2010</ref>

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the leader of the Susan B. Anthony List, explained that:<ref>http://www.lifenews.com/nat4932.html</ref>
{{cquote|In the past Kagan has been a strong supporter of the pro-abortion agenda. She has vigorously opposed the de-funding of taxpayer-funded clinics which promote abortions, despite the fact that a majority of Americans do not want their tax dollars to fund abortion providers.}}

At Harvard, where Kagan became an editor of Harvard Law Review, and also later served as Dean of Harvard Law School, she supported a censorship and banning of participation by the United States Armed Forces in recruitment that is made available to hundreds of other employers. She signed onto a law brief in 2004 urging the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] to overturn the [[Solomon Amendment]], a law that denies federal funding to any university that “has a policy or practice … that either prohibits, or in effect prevents” military personnel “from gaining access to campuses, or access to students … on campuses [including Harvard Law Schoo], for purposes of military recruiting that they not discriminate against recruitment by the U.S. Armed Forces.''<ref>Rumsfeld v. FAIR'', Docket No. 04-1152, 2004 U.S. Briefs 1152</ref>. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected her argument by a vote of 8-0. But Harvard University continues to ban [[ROTC]] to this day.<ref>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/service-academy-parents/724749-interesting-article-about-rotc.html</ref>

Kagan opposed military recruiters from being at Harvard because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy which attempted to prevent homosexual relations in the military. She characterized it as “a profound wrong—a moral injustice of the first order … a wrong that tears at the fabric of our own community, because some of our members cannot, while others can, devote their professional careers to their country.”<ref>[http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=34854 FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, May 18, 2009]</ref>

For many liberals Kagan is not liberal enough, <ref>Glenn Greenwald, ''The case against Elena Kagan'', Salon.com, April 13, 2010</ref> but she apparently supports greater Presidential power. In a June, 2001 Harvard Law Review article,<ref>http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/12/kagan/Kagan-_Presidential_Administration.pdf</ref> Kagan defended the Clinton administration's assertion of the right to direct federal regulatory agencies without congressional or court involvement. In review of this, William F. West, a professor who specializes in federal administration at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, stated, "She is certainly a fan of presidential power."<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/01/06/obama_taps_harvard_law_school_dean_as_solicitor_general?mode=PF Boston Globe], January 6, 2009</ref> Neal Katyal, who has succeeded Kagan as Solicitor General, also was critical of her support of expanded executive power. <ref>http://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/115-9/Katyal.pdf</ref>

In 2003, Elena Kagan presented an oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, defending the government' federal campaign finance law in ''Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'', in which the FEC' had outlawed corporations, including non-profits, from spending funds from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. The specific cause was government opposition to a 90-minute documentary by the non-profit organization, [[Citizens United]], opposing [[Hillary Clinton]], then candidate for president. The Court rejected the government's argument and invalidated the law as unconstitutional, <ref>[http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/08-205%5bReargued%5d.pdf Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission]</ref> with Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] commenting, "we don't put our First Amendment rights in the hands of FEC bureaucrats."<ref>David N. Bossie, ''Elena Kagan: Hostile to free speech?'', The Washington Post, Friday, May 21, 2010; A17 </ref>

Kagan has extensive ties to Goldman-Sachs, a financial institution under federal investigation.<ref>http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/04/27/kagan-sat-on-goldman-sachs-board/</ref>

Elena Kagan testified, at her confirmation hearing for the position of Solicitor General, in favor of the use of foreign law to interpret the [[U.S. Constitution]].<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20283.html</ref>

Relating to judicial activism, Kagan stated, “Judges will often try to mold and steer the law in order to promote certain ethical values and achieve certain social ends,” Kagan wrote. “Such activity is not necessarily wrong or invalid.”

Due to her involvement in a number of cases involving key issues, it is expected that Kagan may have to excuse herself from 11 of the 24 cases which the court has consented to hear, beginning in October. Additionally, it is speculated that Kagan might eventually have to step aside from two to three dozen cases over the next few years.<ref>Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer, June 13, 2010</ref>

==Affection for Barrack Obama==
In a rare record of her speaking, in 2005, Ms. Kagan expresses in a video her affection for Barrack Obama, stating,
<blockquote>
And its that passion for service, ya know, that commitment, to be of use, to give back, to make a real difference in the world, that's what makes Barrack Obama, Barrack Obama. And thats what makes Barrack Obama for me and for so many others, a hero." “But the nights that Barrack Obama spoke, not then even Senator Obama, [pause] he opened his mouth, he said a few words, and the place was mesmerized. You could hear a pin drop. In part, that is because of all these, well of, you know, rock star qualities he has: the eloquence, the magnetism, the great looks, the brilliance. But just as much, its because when Barrack Obama speaks, when he opens up his mouth, you, you know you’re getting the real deal..." And I think everybody in that room, and in that great hall, felt privileged, felt privileged to be at the coming out party of someone who will be, someone who deserves to be, and someone who the rest of us needs to be; one of the truly great political figures, one of the truly great public servants, of our time.<ref>http://marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.verumserum.com/?p=14638</ref></blockquote>

==Publications==
* “The Development and Erosion of the American Exclusionary Rule: A Study in Judicial Method.” 1983
* ''The Changing Faces of First Amendment Neutrality: R.A.V. v St. Paul, Rust v Sullivan, and the Problem of Content-Based Underinclusion'', * * 1992 Supreme Court Review 29 (1992)
* ''Regulation of Hate Speech and Pornography After R.A.V'', 60 University of Chicago Law Review 873 (1993)
* ''A Libel Story: Sullivan Then and Now'', 18 Law and Social Inquiry 197 (1993) (book review)
* ''For Justice Marshall'', 71 Texas Law Review 1125 (1993)
* ''Confirmation Messes, Old and New'', 62 University of Chicago Law Review 919 (1995) (book review).
* ''When A Speech Code Is A Speech Code: The Stanford Policy and the Theory of Incidental Restraints'', 29 University of California at Davis Law Review 957 (1996)
* ''Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine'', 63 University of Chicago Law Review 413 (1996) <ref>[http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/index.html?id=112 Harvard law School]</ref>
* ''Presidential Administration'',114 Harvard Law Review 2245 (2001)
* ''Chevron's Nondelegation Doctrine'', with David Barron, 2001 Supreme Court Review 201 (2001) <ref>[http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/index.html?id=112&show=bibliography Harvard University]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Obama Administration]]