Commentary Archives - Page 550 of 558

The Sierra Club Hates Energy

February 6, 2014/in Commentary, Energy, Environment/by Alan Caruba

If I told you that you should hate coal, oil and natural gas, you might think I was crazy and you would be right. Everything we do involves these three energy reserves and the U.S. has so much of them that we could be energy independent of the rest of the world while, at the same time, exporting them.

When you think about energy reserves, think about the hundreds of thousands of jobs they represent. Then think about the huge revenue in leases and taxes they represent to the government that needs to reduce its debt. Ultimately, though, try to imagine a nation that does not utilize petroleum in thousands of ways or fails to tap its enormous coal and natural gas reserves to generate the electricity upon which that everything depends.

I recently received an email from the Sierra Club praising the President’s State of the Union speech in which he claimed that climate change—by which they mean global warming—is real and that the science is “settled.” No, the science entirely refutes it—except if one means that the climate has always been a state of change. The most recent climate change is seventeen years of cooling that has gifted us with record-breaking cold as far south as Florida.

What Sierra Club focused on was Obama’s call for “new sources of energy” other than the traditional ones. He was referring to solar and wind energy. A recent news article on CNSNews noted that “Solar power, which President Barack Obama promoted…accounted for 0.2 percent of the U.S. electricity supply in the first nine months of 2013, according to data published by the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration.”

According to the EIA, “the United States is producing less electricity now than it did when Obama took office…From 2008 to 2012, U.S. electricity production declined by 1.7 percent.”

Some might take this as a good thing, but “electricity has gotten more expensive since 2008—with the electricity price index at an all-time high.” So we are paying more while getting less.

The Sierra Club, however, criticized Obama saying “As long as his administration keeps throwing lifelines to old sources of energy like oil and gas, we won’t be able to lead the world on clean energy solutions like wind and solar.” They called for an “end to oil and gas fracking on public lands.” What they are not saying is that the Obama administration has virtually put an end to any exploration and extraction of energy sources on public lands. And you can forget about the massive reserves estimated to exist off-shore of our coasts.

In early January, Mark D. Green, the editor of Energy Tomorrow, a project of the American Petroleum Institute, examined the reality of our vast energy sources. Keep in mind that every product we purchase is dependent in some way on oil. “Every day 143 U.S. refineries convert an average of 15 million barrels of crude oil” that provide power for our vast transportation needs and thousands of other uses. Oil is the basis for the creation of plastic. Try to imagine living without anything that does not utilize plastic in some fashion.

As for natural gas, experts predict that lower prices as more is discovered via fracking, will increase industrial output 2.8 percent by 2015 and 3.9 percent by 2025. Policies that would allow the export of U.S. liquefied natural gas would generate between $15.6 billion and $73.6 billion to the Gross Domestic Product and help reduce our deficits and debt.

The Sierra Club doesn’t want to see the U.S. benefit from coal, oil and natural gas. It wants to see the landmass filled with solar farms and thousands of wind turbines that would not produce enough electricity to meet the needs of nation, let alone a major city. Because they are unpredictable, all require the backup of traditional plants.

Nor does the Sierra Club make any mention of the Obama administration’s war on coal that has forced 153 plants to shut down. It’s Environmental Protection Agency has proposed regulations that would require new plants to employ carbon capture and sequestration technology that is not commercially available! Nor is there any reason to capture carbon dioxide, the gas that is the “food” that every single piece of vegetation requires; a gas that plays virtually no role at all in the Earth’s climate.

As this is being written, the State Department just released a report that would clear the way for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada after a five-year delay by the Obama administration. Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and natural gas. If the U.S. cannot gain access to the oil, it will go to China and other nations.

The prospect of the pipeline was rejected by the Sierra Club. Friends of the Earth announced that it would join with the Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra Club, and other radical Green groups to hold vigils around the nation Monday to protest its possible approval and construction.

The Sierra Club is not only lying to its members, it is lying to all of us when it says “Getting all of the energy we need without using fossil fuels is no longer a question of whether we can—but whether we will.” We can’t, we shouldn’t, and we won’t…but we must wait until Obama is no longer in office and, as early as the 2014 midterm elections, we must rid our nation of his supporters in Congress.

Then we will watch our nation’s economy expand with more jobs and more revenue.

The Gay Attack on American Values

February 5, 2014/in Commentary, Culture War, News, Policy, Politics/by Alan Caruba

In societies around the world, homosexuals encounter not just resistance, but the threat of death for their sexual orientation. In the West we regard this as barbarian and it is. I concluded long ago that gays—using their own term—have no choice over this sexual aberration from the norm of heterosexuality.

In America, gays—male and female homosexuals—represent about 3% of the population. That leaves 97% in a majority and that majority is now under a full assault on their traditional values concerning marriage—intended only for the opposite sexes—and in some cases on their religious faith that deems homosexuality a sin.

In recent years we have seen gays achieve a legal status for same-sex marriage, thus undermining centuries of tradition that understands marriage to be for the purpose of procreation and as the keystone of society. We have a President who changed his mind from his 2008 political campaign and announced that he not only approved of gay marriage but that his administration, the Department of Justice, would not enforce the Defense of Marriage law passed by Congress.

The Obama administration has pressed hard to alter the military that went from “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” under the Clinton administration, to the present status that sees no problem in the close living conditions under which heterosexual and homosexual troops must live and work together. This was always regarded as a problem of unit cohesion in the long years leading up to the 1990s and it likely still is. In a similar fashion, the infusion of women into combat units poses problems that the military understandably avoided for most of the last two hundred and twenty-eight years of the nation’s history.

The passage of Obamacare has posed significant problems for religious groups that oppose abortion and related practices. It has particularly affected Catholic institutions and, most recently, the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who do not want to signal any concurrence with the law as it is written. The Supreme Court has granted that some respite, but their issue and others will surely have to be addressed by the Court at some point.

In Massachusetts, a homosexual legal group has filed papers to force a Catholic school to hire a man who is “married” to another man. As reported by MassResistance.org, “Back in July, Matthew Barrett of Dorchester applied for a job as the food service director at Fontbonne Academy, a Roman Catholic girls’ high school in Milton, Mass, and was subsequently offered the job. When he filled out a pre-employment form listing his ‘husband’ as an emergency contact the school told him that ‘the Catholic religion doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. We cannot hire you.’”

“Barrett claimed to be shocked by the school’s action,” noted MassResistance, “But it appears that he was purposefully dishonest. He told the Boston Globe that he was raised a Catholic and that he was informed by school officials during the interview process that employees are expected to follow Catholic doctrine. However, he did not tell the school that he was openly involved with homosexual behavior and was in a ‘gay marriage.’”

MassResistance regards the case as “the beginning of the homosexual movement’s legal assault on conservative churches, particularly Catholic, that have steadfastly refused to modify their religious convictions and comply with the homosexual movement’s demands on society. Up until now they’ve been largely left alone. But that is about to change.”

As the Boston Globe noted, “Barrett’s complaint, which may be the first of its kind in the country, comes at a time when religion-based schools in the increasing number of states where gay marriage is legal have been scrutinizing hiring and firing practices to ensure they conform with the pillars of their faiths”

“School administrators,” the Globe reported, “have been fired from Catholic schools and universities in Arkansas, California, New York, and Washington, among other states, after marrying their same-sex partners or announcing plans to do so.”

Bennett Klein, the lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission against Discrimination, asserts that “Our laws carefully balance the important values of religious liberty and non-discrimination. When Fontbonne Academy fired Matt from a job that has nothing to do with religion, they came down on the wrong side of the law.” It has everything to do with the free practice of religion.

“We’re seeing religion-affiliated entities more and more trying to push the line toward discriminating against gay, lesbian, and transgendered people,” said Klein.

No, it is the homosexuals who are pushing the line against religious groups who believe that their belief in God and their faith precludes the destruction of the construct of marriage is a sin against mankind and society.

It is 3% of the population demanding that 97% toss aside their faith and their values to accommodate the aberration called homosexuality. And, yes, it is an aberration because homosexuality cannot be interpreted as “normal” in any species.

MassResistance correctly says “This is madness and should not have any legal leg to stand on.”

If the homosexual assault on values and practices that have existed for centuries in the Catholic Church and in other religious faiths succeeds, the whole of our society will suffer for it. The Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion—murder—has resulted in the deaths of millions of unborn children who had a right to life.

Now, in Massachusetts and other States where same-sex marriage is deemed to be legal, the whole of the nation’s defense of marriage is under assault.

Marie Winkelman guardianship: A Test Case to Lower the Bar on Incapacity in Florida?

February 5, 2014/in Commentary, Courts & Law, News, Policy/by Dr. Richard M. Swier, LTC U.S. Army (Ret.)

The above photograph shows Willi Berchau (seated front row center) at his guardianship freedom celebration party in January 2014.

At least 100 pages of Florida law, Chapter 744, are devoted to “Guardianship,” which may or may not be imposed upon a person who is determined to be incapacitated. Holocaust Survivor Marie Winkelman is now a Ward of the State of Florida, based upon the order of the Sarasota County Probate Court, which adopted a mediated settlement agreement that denied Marie her due process rights. This is the fourth part in an investigative series on the involuntary guardianship of author and acclaimed painter Marie Winkelman.

What is incapacity supposed to be?

According to the Uniform Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act (1997), an “Incapacitated person” is an individual who, for reasons other than being a minor, is unable to receive and evaluate information or make or communicate decisions to such an extent that the individual lacks the ability to meet essential requirements for physical health, safety, or self-care, even with appropriate technological assistance.

So what was Marie’s status before she was put into State guardianship? Until July 2013, Marie lived independently in a lovely residence in Sarasota, Florida, where she cleaned her apartment immaculately everyday, organized her papers and closets effectively, dressed herself beautifully, prepared her meals, entertained guests frequently, did all of her own shopping, talked with her bankers and financial advisors regularly in person and by telephone, made and received calls multiple times per day, read the daily newspaper, paid her own bills by check and by telephone, and carried on conversations for hours, switching from Polish to English, depending upon the recipients with whom she was speaking.

Why Marie Winkelman’s guardianship is a test case …

Can Marie receive and evaluate information? Absolutely. Can Marie make and communicate decisions? Assuredly. Does Marie have the ability to meet essential requirements for physical health, safety, and self-care? Yes. By lowering the bar of “incapacity,” the State of Florida has created a substantially larger pool of affluent persons whose lives and fortunes are under the authority of the probate courts that increasingly operate in secrecy by closing hearings to the media and the public and removing court records from the public sphere.

Why is Marie in Florida state guardianship?

As a Ward of the State, Marie’s assets – millions of dollars – are no longer in her control. They can be and are being spent on hundreds of thousands of dollars of attorney bills, guardian fees, service provider charges, and other such costs that Marie never had before she was forced into guardianship. In other words, Marie’s assets are feeding dozens of professionals in a distressed economy. Only a few individuals are permitted to see the enormous bills being paid by the Sabal Trust Company from Marie’s assets, without Marie’s consent and without any court records of them.

How does Marie’s case affect you?

Have you ever left your checkbook on the table? Marie’s visiting nurse decided that this was a sign of financial incapacity. Do you have paintings on your walls? Marie’s visiting nurse testified in court that someone could take the paintings or the checkbook; so she determined that Marie must be financially incapacitated. Are you?

Can Marie ever escape guardianship?

Marie could litigate her incapacity and guardianship order, but so far, her attorney, Audrey Bear, has only asked the court for yet another mediation (scheduled for January 28, 2014), with which Marie disagrees.

Although Marie has repeatedly asked to have her rights restored, so far Ms. Bear has not filed a restoration of rights petition with the court. On December 15, 2013, Marie passed her examination of four consecutive hours by Dr. Eric Weinstock, the psychiatrist whose positive restoration of capacity evaluation promptly resulted in the freedom from guardianship of Florida Ward, Willi Berchau, who, like Marie, lived independently and successfully managed his wealth until he was forced into guardianship for many years; but, finally, at age 99, Willi is free.

Marie’s guardianship is a test case for the American people to speak out before more of us lose our life savings because we left our checkbooks lying on tables. Lowering the bar for incapacity is opening the floodgates of total state control of elders.

ABC Action News interview with Willi Berchau:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/p7izeaAPdEI[/youtube]

A Cereal Tweet Exposes Serial Unfairness

February 5, 2014/in Commentary, News, Politics/by Raynard Jackson

MSNBC’s President Phil Griffin was forced to apologize last week for an incendiary and grossly unfair tweet about conservatives. This all got started with a simple TV commercial for Cheerios breakfast cereal.

The only thing that was noteworthy about the commercial, which ran during the Super Bowl on Sunday, was that it featured an interracial married couple (one man and one woman), with a beautiful bi-racial 6-year-old daughter. Some anonymous employee (MSNBC refuses to name the person) felt comfortable tweeting the following from MSNBC’s official twitter account:

“Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/biracial family.”

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus demanded an apology from Griffin and barred all RNC employees and surrogates from appearing on MSNBC. Priebus’ move forced Griffin to issue this apology: “The tweet last night (last Wednesday) was outrageous and unacceptable.

We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet. I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At [MSNBC] we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.”

Strangely, Griffin then sent one of his on air personalities to read the apology on the air on his behalf. Why didn’t he do it himself? Now juxtapose MSNBC’s response with that of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who happens to be a Republican.

Reporters in the media clamored for Christie to hold a press conference and answer all of their questions, which he did for almost two hours.

Consequently, we now know who Christie fired and why he fired them. Whether you liked his answers or not during his press conference, at least people were held accountable. Where is this same accountability demand for Griffin to stand before the public and do the same?

He claims to have fired the employee who wrote the tweet.

How do we know that since no name has been released from MSNBC?

How can we be sure that the tweet didn’t come from Griffin himself? We can’t be sure until Griffin stands before the news media, and answer every single question asked of him.

The first question should be whether Griffin sent the tweet. If not, he should name the person who did. Even more troubling is what practices or policies did Griffin have in place that would make an employee comfortable enough to send that type of tweet? I think MSNBC should have an outside panel investigate the work environment it has created for its employees.

As Ronald Reagan once said, “trust, but verify.”

Will MSNBC force all employees to undergo sensitivity training so this will not happen again (as conservatives are always implored to do)? Where is the righteous indignation from the sensitivity police – groups such as GLAAD (founded as Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), the Human Right Campaign, NAACP, the National Urban League, and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network?

On his TV show last week, Sharpton read some meandering statement about Coretta King that had absolutely nothing to do with the tweet in question. He didn’t have the guts to stand on principle and demand more accountability from Griffin, probably because Griffin personally hired him even over the objection of Black journalists who wanted a trained journalist in that seat. Had a White Tea Party member or Republican done the same thing, MSNBC would have wall-to-wall coverage of the issue.

That’s why it is critically important for the groups listed above, who claim they stand for equality for all, stand up for all. What these groups should finally state is that they only believe in equality if you agree with their point of view. It is embarrassing to see MSNBC’s Black hosts remain silent on this issue, but never miss an opportunity to criticize Republicans when they play the race card. How can anyone have respect for people such as Sharpton, Melissa Perry, Karen Finney, Tamron Hall, Joy Reid, etc.

I know you may enjoy the money, but at what price? Is it really too much to ask Black and White employees of MSNBC to be subjected to the Christie standard – full information, full accountability?

Slavery, lynchings, segregation – thank the Dems

February 5, 2014/in Commentary, News, Policy, Politics/by Allen West

February is Black History Month and today I am attending the Republican National Committee “Black Republican Trailblazers” luncheon at The Howard Theater in Washington DC.

I am proud not just this month, but every month of the accomplishments and achievements black Americans have contributed to these United States.

My own story is one connected to the legacy of the first black men to don the uniform of America, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, whose valor shined brilliantly at Fort Wagner during the Civil War. As well, prior to myself, the last black Republican Member of Congress from Florida was Rep. Josiah T. Walls. These are the stories we must continue to tell this month, and every day to our next generation of children and grandchildren so they may never forget the service and sacrifices that enable them to have the blessings of liberty and freedom.

At the same time, it is imperative for the Republican Party to tell its story, not just during this month alone, but to engage continuously with the black community.

The “Grand Ole Party” was established in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin for one single purpose: the abolition of slavery, a dark and heinous part of America’s history. The GOP was focused on the issue of individual freedom and ensuring the words of Thomas Jefferson came to fruition for America.

Sure, the start of the Civil War was not about the issue of slavery, but it was the first GOP president Abraham Lincoln, who realized after the stalemate victory at Antietam, that it had to be. The film “Lincoln” beautifully portrayed the dedication — and a little nefarious actions –of one man, of one party of men, to rectify a great wrong. They set in motion the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments that would begin to make our America a better country. The first black Members of Congress were Republicans. The first attempts to institute civil rights legislation came from Republicans.

The black community must never forget trailblazing men like Hiram Revels, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington. And today’s GOP needs to remember their history and connection to the black community as well.

Unfortunately, it was one person and one poor decision that altered the relationship between the black community and the GOP. That person was Richard Nixon. If Nixon had listened to prominent black Republicans such as Jackie Robinson rather than his coterie of white advisors, and supported Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he had been jailed — history may have been a bit different.

Instead, for fear of upsetting white Southerners — mostly Democrats – Nixon did not reach out to King, while John Kennedy did. From then on, during that generation in the South, there were three pictures in black homes (including my own): Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., and President Kennedy. In that one moment, the bond, the connection of the GOP to the black community, was severed.

From then on, the black community has put all its political eggs in one basket. But let me ask, how many of you invest your hard-earned capital in only one account? I believe most people diversify their capital in several investment accounts.

So, why is it that the black community invested all its political capital in one party? Liberal progressive detractors will vehemently throw themselves into a tizzy about this, but clearly in America, the black community has become almost politically irrelevant to one party and taken for granted by the other, to whom they have given blind allegiance.

The history of the black community at the hands of the Democrat party has been one of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, poll taxes and literacy tests. America’s first “progressive” President Woodrow Wilson even praised the racist film “Birth of a Nation.” Another American progressive president, Lyndon Johnson, put the black community on the road to decimation with the welfare nanny-state, and just look at the destruction of the black family.

The current progressive president, Barack Obama, cancelled the DC school voucher program in 2009 for deserving young black children, caving to pressure from the National Education Association, a Democrat teacher’s union. My liberal colleague at Fox News Channel, Juan Williams, called the decision to end the program, “Obama’s outrageous sin against our kids.”

So today we shall remember and honor the Black Republican Trailblazers of the past as we develop the Black Republican Pathfinders of the future. Those who will clear a new path for the black community to restore our inner cities, our families, our faith in God, and ring in the harmony of liberty. I am proud to be a black conservative Republican. Hate on me all you want, but my community has survived much worse from Democrats and progressives. And we shall persevere.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com under the title “Black History Month and the Republican legacy.” Featured image courtesy of Marie-Nacc Bez, Val de Marne, Ile de France, France.

Are “We The People” really members of “The Union”?

February 4, 2014/in Commentary, Courts & Law, News, Politics, Regulation/by Don Baldauf

Recently, in my court battle with the State of Florida, the lawyer for the State argued that, although I am the sole owner of and stockholder in my company, that I was not “personally injured” when the State of Florida forcibly removed money from my company bank account. He argued that “only the company was injured and that I suffered no injury”, and the judge agreed.

Sorry, but the money they took was headed straight for my pocket so I’m pretty sure, in some circles, that would be considered a mugging. That battle is continuing and I am going to have to reconfigure some paperwork so a jury can decide that, but it made me think something this judge and lawyer may regret later.

The preamble of The Constitution Of The United States starts out “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union……..” So, who exactly is a “member” of the Union and who is not? Does the administration of this “Union” have any power or authority over an individual or group that is not a “member” of this Union?

The answer to the second question should be easy, NO.

Here is an example: My brother is an electrician and a member of the electricians union. They can make him, under their agreement to be a member of the union, to pay dues (taxes) to support the union and to participate in the union’s retirement plan. They could also declare that immediate family members of the members of the union “shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities” that the members of the union receive, but it still would not have the authority to require those immediate family members to also pay dues and participate in the retirement plan, as they are not the actual members of the union.

The first question is the real big one; who exactly is a “member” of the Union and who is not?

Once you read and understand the document, or as I like to call it “The Contract”, that formed the Union, “The Constitution Of The United States” the simple answer is The States and only The States are the members of the Union. This is important because if this is the case, The Union and the Administration of The Union, can NOT impose anything on an individual that is not a member of The Union. Only the States, under the authority of their State Constitution, can impose anything upon an individual citizen of their State. One point to note is the pure abstract and limited authorities and boundaries of The Union, is the FACT that we are the only country on the planet that does not have boundaries that are legally defined. The States are the ones with legally defined boundaries and the borders of the country are defined by the joining of the boundaries of the States when they become members of The Union. The fact is that the borders of our country have changed several times by the act of States joining and seceding from The Union.

Here is how I came to this conclusion:

Article. VII. “done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States” This is the enacting clause of The Constitution. It was done with the “Consent of the States” not the consent of “The People”.
The signers who did so were sent by the legislatures of the States with the authority to act on behalf of The States, not The People.
Article I Section 2. “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers”. The direct taxation addressed is to the several States, not “The People” because it’s the States that are the members of the Union, not The People.

So I know what you are saying “What about the 16th Amendment smart guy?” Well let’s look at what the 16th Amendment ACTUALLY says: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” Does anyone see the words “direct taxes” in the 16 Amendment? Nope!

The 16th Amendment only gives Congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from “Members of the Union”. It never gave Congress the authority to bypass the States and Directly tax “Citizens of the Member States” as the Citizens of the Member States are not themselves “Members of the Union”. We the People have been duped by a word game.

If Congress could actually tax people that are not actually members of the Union because this Amendment declares “from whatever source derived” then they could lay and collect taxes on people from Canada, Mexico and every place on the planet, so I demand these people start paying “THEIR FAIR SHARE!”

Now let’s continue with more supporting evidence that “The States” are the members of the Union and not “The People”:

Article. IV. Section. 2. “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.” First note that if “The People” were the members of the Union, this section would have no reason to be written. Second “The People” are referred to as “The Citizens of each State” further indication that The People or The Citizens are not actually members of The Union.
Article I Section 8 declares that Congress shall have the power To “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings”. Please note the “not exceeding ten Miles square” The Congress has no power or authority to “exercise exclusive Legislation” Outside of this ten square mile area. It only has the power and authority to exercise legislation on the Members of the Union, and only with the consent of the representatives of those members.

The last thing we are going to consider is how we elect a President.

As you know, we use a system known as the “Electoral College”. We don’t actually cast votes directly for the President. Instead we are casting votes for our “Preference” in candidates for President and those votes actually elect delegates to represent The State and its those delegates that actually cast the votes as “representatives of the State.” In addition, each State, through the legislature of that State, makes it’s own rules as to how the delegates are awarded. Some are “winner take all” and some are divided based on the percentage of votes cast for each candidate. In the end, the delegates, who are technically not bound to vote a certain way, cast the vote on behalf of the legislature of the State, not on behalf of the Citizens.

Some believe it was done this way to make it easier to count the votes for President in the days before modern electronics, but that is a false conclusion. It’s because we are a “Representative Republic”, not a Democracy and because The People are not the members of the Union, only the States. This process is a way to let their preference be known to the legislature, but the legislature is still not technically bound because The Citizens of the State are not members of the Union. This is also why changing the voting to count the popular vote of the citizens would be unconstitutional, as only members of the Union have standing in the process.

The final conclusion is this:

The People are not members of the Union, so the Administration of the Union cannot impose anything on The People. In addition, the Union was formed by The States and the Administration of the Union was created specifically to perform tasks outlined in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States.

Anything outside of these delegated powers is wholly unauthorized, but unfortunately exists because the States have taken their eye off the ball and allowed these actions to happen, partially from ignorance, but mostly from being co-conspirators with the administration of the Union, letting the Administration of the Union be the muscle to pilfer the coffers of The People and then accepting bribes and payoffs from the Administration of The Union to the legislature of the State to allow the pilfering to happen.

Black America: Stop The Insanity!

February 3, 2014/in Commentary, Policy, Politics/by Lloyd Marcus

Remember that spiky-haired blonde lady fitness guru all over TV years ago? Her famous line was “Stop the insanity!” As a common sense thinking black conservative, I offer the same clarion call to fellow black Americans, “Stop the insanity!” Why do you continue sleeping with the enemy; voting for liberal Democrats whose policies imply that you are inferior, stupid and culturally immoral?

When the NAACP and Democrats claim that requiring a photo ID disenfranchises blacks, such implies we are stupid. For the life of me I do not understand why millions of blacks are not highly insulted by this absurd claim. Do blacks fly? Do blacks drive cars? Do blacks cash checks?

When Democrats and liberals accept over 70% out-of-wedlock births and fatherless households as a cultural norm in the black community, I am offended. http://bit.ly/1fo1iLd And yet, I am called a sellout.

Liberal Democrats policies and programs have destroyed the black family and continue to devastate the black community. Meanwhile, blacks vote monolithic for Democrats and politically beat up anyone, black or white, who offers common sense solutions. For crying out loud, stop the insanity!

God forbid that a black person dare to think outside of the liberals’ we-be-simpleminded-blacks-in-need-of “gov-ment”-intervention-to-survive box. Blacks becoming successful the old fashion way, by earning it, does not cut it with Democrats and liberals. Liberal media and Democrats grab such uppity blacks by their afros and politically drag their black derrieres kicking and screaming back to the liberal Democrat plantation.

There, such blacks are strung up in the public square with their naked backs exposed; made an example for any other conservative leaning blacks contemplating their escape. Beaten, battered and broken black conservatives are flogged within an inch of their political life with countless articles and operative pundits calling them a stupid n*****, Uncle Tom and traitor to their race.

A prime example of a black overlord of the Democrat liberal plantation attempting to rein in a black escapee is North Carolina NAACP Chapter President Rev. William Barber. Black race-baiters typically use Black History Month and Martin Luther King Day to trash America for purposes of extortion.

In celebration of MLK Day, Rev. Barber called black conservative and Tea Party American Senator Tim Scott a puppet, saying, “A ventriloquist can always find a good dummy.”

Senator Scott is about applying common sense solutions to issues plaguing our country. Thus, once again, any black who does not view themselves as a victim of an eternally racist white America, entitled and in need of lowered standards and expectations is a dummy; a tool of white Republicans – a stupid self-loathing n*****. This is not an exaggeration.

I have been called these names and worse by Democrats and liberals for many years every time I suggest that blacks stop having babies out of wedlock, stop dropping out of school, stopping killing each other, stop blaming whitey and assume personal responsibility for their lives. Too me, this is true Black Empowerment.

I do not know what it is going to take for black America to see the light; to realize the betrayal of a majority of the modern civil rights coalition. If these so-called advocates truly gave a hoot about blacks, they would celebrate extraordinary black conservative achievers such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and businessman extraordinaire Herman Cain. These blacks should be held high for black youths to see what can be achieved in the greatest land of opportunity on the planet via education, hard work and right choices.

And yet, these blacks are despised by white liberals and black civil rights leaders. Why? In a nutshell these blacks nuke the Democrats and liberals entitlement and big government narrative.

So while black America believes white conservative Republicans are burning the midnight oil plotting ways to keep blacks down, Democrats and liberals are the ones keeping them enslaved.

With the liberal mainstream media in the Democrats’ back pocket as complicit liberal plantation gate keepers, I will continue praying for divine intervention while pounding on the plantation master’s door. Let my people go! My fellow black Americans, it truly is time to stop the insanity.

Damnatio Memoriae: Erasing the name Obama from American History

February 2, 2014/in Commentary, News/by Geoff Ross USN retired Surface Warfare/Air Warfare

Damnatio memoriae is the Latin phrase literally meaning “condemnation of memory” in the sense of a public judgment that a person must not be remembered. It was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman State.

The intent was to erase someone from history, a task somewhat easier in ancient times, when documentation was much sparser.

The time has come to implement Operation Damnatio Memoriae and remove the name, picture and any discussion of the name Barry Soetoro, Barack Hussein Obama and any other names this man has used to usurp power from the American people.

Remove him from your Facebook page, your Twitter accounts and your E-mail correspondence. Refer to him only as the empty suit if you must empower him by discussing him.

Any truly effective damnatio memoriae would not be noticeable, since, by definition, it would entail the complete and total erasure of the individual in question from the historical record. However, since all political figures have allies as well as enemies, it will be difficult to implement this completely but lets give it a shot. What think you?

Americans Are Losing Their Freedom

February 2, 2014/in Commentary, News, Policy, Politics/by Alan Caruba

February 1st was National Freedom Day. It commemorates Lincoln’s signing of the House and Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment. Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865.

Short of another Civil War, Americans have reached a point verging on the loss of their Constitutional freedoms as ever before. The issue then was slavery, but Americans are rapidly moving toward having their Bill of Rights annulled by a President intent on ruling as a despot, making them slaves of a regime that rules as he wishes, ignoring the Constitution and Congress.

His actions have been supported by the Democratic members of Congress and because Republicans only control the House they have seen their legislative efforts to oppose the regime blocked, often by one man, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader. The nation’s media with few exceptions have supported or ignored the President’s actions.

Why is this happening? A brief review of the means put forth in Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, written by a “community organizer”, outlines what Obama is doing as he seeks to turn America into a socialist state. It is a process that progressives/liberals have been pursuing since early in the last century.

Healthcare – Control health care and you control the people.
Poverty – Increase the poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).
Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
Religion – Remove the belief in God from the Government and schools.
Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.

We are close to having everything we write and say known to the regime. As Andrew Napolitano asks, “What if the government spies on all of us all the time and recognizes no limits to its spying? What if its appetite for acquiring personal knowledge about all Americans is insatiable? What if the government uses the microchips in our cellphones to follow us and listen to us as we move about?”

And what if Congress, as World Net Daily’s Bob Unruh has written, has empowered the President to “arrest, kidnap, detain without trial and hold indefinitely American citizens thought to ‘represent an enduring security threat to the United States.’” That’s what the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) does!

“Some of the nation’s most respected legal teams are asking the Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the indefinite-detention provisions” of the Act “charging that the law has created the framework for a police state.” That’s how far along we are toward the destruction of the U.S. Constitution.

“The 2014 NDAA was fast-tracked through the U.S. Senate, with no time for discussion or amendments, while most Americans were distracted by the scandal surrounding A&E’s troubles with ‘Duck Dynasty’ star Phil Robertson. Eighty-five of 100 senators voted in favor of the new version of the NDAA, which had already been quietly passed by the House of Representatives.”

Ostensibly a law to address terrorists, the NDAA is a blueprint for a nation in which its citizens have none of the rights spelled out in the Bill of Rights. All it will take is the declaration of martial law or a national emergency.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading opponent of Obamacare, writing in The Wall Street Journal, said, “Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat…the President’s taste for unilateral action to circumvent Congress should concern every citizen, regardless of party or ideology.”

Americans will soon have little recourse against a government intent on controlling every aspect of their lives, spying on them, and arresting them for criticizing it.

A May 16 march on Washington may cause the White House and the Congress to pause in its attacks on our freedom and liberty. One can only hope that millions participate.

Americans fought a war to end slavery. Will we have to fight to resist becoming slaves?

Gays forcing Catholic school to hire man ‘married’ to another man

February 1, 2014/in Commentary, News, Policy/by MassResistance

The next step of the “gay marriage” agenda is about to begin here in Massachusetts. It’s the push to use the legal system to force religious organizations to include homosexuality and transgenderism.

Fontbonne Academy in Milton, MA, a Catholic girls’ high school, is under attack by the homosexual movement.

Across the country whenever a “gay marriage” battle heats up pro-family people are always told, “It’s all about civil rights. It won’t affect your religious institutions.” And the politicians and judges believe them.

That’s about to change. This week the powerful Boston homosexual legal group,Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed a complaint with theMassachusetts Commission against Discrimination (MCAD) against a Catholic girls prep school because the school declined to hire a man because he is “married” to another man.

“We cannot hire you,” says Catholic school

Back in July, Matthew Barrett of Dorchester applied for a job as the food service director at Fontbonne Academy, a Roman Catholic girls’ high school in Milton, Mass., and was subsequently offered the job. When he filled out a pre-employment form listing his “husband” as an emergency contact the school told him that “the Catholic religion doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. We cannot hire you.”

Barrett, right, and his “husband” pose for the Boston Globe.
[Boston Globe photo.]

Barrett claimed to be shocked by the school’s action. But it appears that he was purposefully dishonest. He told the Boston Globe that he was raised a Catholic and that he was informed by school officials during the interview process that employees are expected to follow Catholic doctrine. However, he did not tell the school that he was openly involved with homosexual behavior and was in a “gay marriage.” Those, of course, are serious violations of Catholic teaching.

Targeting religious organizations that refuse to change

Historically, GLAD acts very strategically. From transgenderism to public sex to gay marriage, they take on high-profile cases in order to force changes on society.This case represents the beginning of the homosexual movement’s legal assault on conservative churches, particularly Catholic, that have steadfastly refused to modify their religious convictions and comply with the homosexual movement’s demands on society. Up until now they’ve been largely left alone. But that’s about to change.

As the Boston Globe related, this represents a new front in the culture wars:

Barrett’s complaint, which may be the first of its kind in the country,comes at a time when religion-based schools in the increasing number of states where gay marriage is legal have been scrutinizing hiring and employment practices to ensure they conform with the pillars of their faiths.

School administrators have been fired from Catholic schools and universities in Arkansas, California, New York, and Washington, among other states, after marrying their same-sex partners or announcing plans to do so.

The legal assault begins

The well-funded homosexual legal groups, fresh from their victories in “gay marriage” federal and state lawsuits across the country, are now ready to take on the churches.

Bennett Klein, the GLAD lawyer representing Barrett, makes their position against religious groups perfectly clear in the GLAD website’s presentation of this case. Klein states:

Religiously affiliated entities do not have a free pass to do as they please in how they treat employees, particularly when it comes to our important laws against discrimination.

Our laws carefully balance the important values of religious liberty and non-discrimination. When Fontbonne Academy fired Matt from a job that has nothing to do with religion, they came down on the wrong side of the law.

And as Klein said in the Globe article, the there is a big “problem” that the homosexual movement must stamp out:

We’re seeing religion-affiliated entities more and more trying to push the line toward discriminating against gay, lesbian, and transgendered people.

In other words, God’s laws must be made to bend to the gays’ will, not the other way around!

One clue of the seriousness of this is that GLAD got the story placed on the front page of the Boston Globe instead of somewhere inside. And GLAD had the Boston Globe’s reporter interview Barrett in GLAD’s downtown Boston office rather at his house or some neutral site.

Front-page Boston Globe article Jan. 30, 2014.

Long-time animosity toward the Catholic Church

It’s not surprising that a Catholic institution is the first being targeted by GLAD. Of all the major religious denominations, the Catholic Church in America has been the most consistent in not compromising its core beliefs to the Left, particularly on abortion and “gay marriage.” Over the years, this has caused a particularly venomous hatred of Catholicism in the homosexual movement.

For example, as MassResistance often reveals just about every “gay pride” parade contains a strong anti-Catholic element, often mocking and profane.

Men dressed as nuns mocking the Catholic Church march in Boston Gay Pride Parade on June 8, 2014.
[MassResistance photo]

Another local example: In 2012, as MassResistance reported, a Catholic Church in Acushnet, Mass., simply had a sign outside supporting traditional marriage. Angry homosexual activists threatened to burn the church down, and demonstrated outside of the Sunday Mass with signs calling the parishioners haters.

Sign outside Catholic Church in Acushnet, MA that generated horrible attacks by homosexual activists, including threat to burn church down.

What happens next

We don’t think that GLAD would publicize this case so dramatically if they didn’t think they could win it. They certainly have huge ties to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. In addition, we expect that GLAD will put the full force of its legal team, and possibly even recruit free help from lawyers from gay-friendly downtown Boston firms to ultimately force Fontbonne Academy to hire Matt Barrett.

The homosexual movement knows that if it is successful in this case, it will set a precedent for Massachusetts and send a strong message to every other conservative religious institution in the state. But worse, it will surely become a template for similar action across the country in states where “gay marriage” exists, despite “religious freedom” clauses that may exist in their laws.

Our side must fight back hard!

This needs to be taken seriously by our side and fought hard! It is madness, and should not have any legal leg to stand on. But as we’ve said over and over in the past, much of the mess we’re in now is the result of mushy, fear-based legal defense by pro-family lawyers in important cases. We are praying that Fontbonne gets the necessary kind of legal firepower to stop this.

As states across the country are confronting the issue of “gay marriage” being forced on them by activist judges and corrupt politicians, many “conservatives” have been backing off and saying that this won’t affect them. This shows that they’d better think again.

And to those pro-family people who simply say that the “gay marriage” fight is about “every child needs a father and a mother” or “we’re not against anyone; we’re just pro-marriage” or similar politically-correct platitudes — you need to come out of your fantasy world.

We will keep you informed on this case!

2. Update: Pro-family Jamaicans continue their bold fight against repealing law banning open homosexuality in their country.
The Jamaicans are setting an example for the rest of us here in America. They are not backing down, but are pushing forward!

As we reported earlier, on December 10, 2013 — International Human Rights Day — Brian Camenker of MassResistance went to Jamaica and delivered a stirring speech at a pro-family rally in Kingston. The speech was broadcast live over national radio.

Camenker was invited by the Jamaican pro-family group Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS). He was asked to come and warn citizens about the slippery slope effects that would come with legalizing homosexual behavior, which is now being considered by the Jamaican government.

The government is considering repealing the 150-year-old “Buggery Law” which currently makes sodomy technically illegal. The law is widely supported across Jamaica. But homosexual and left-wing activists buoyed by well-funded international groups are mounting a national campaign to get the law repealed, and thus build a public homosexual movement in that country. JCHS has been at the forefront of this issue.

Carrying on the PR battle in Jamaica’s media

Dr. Wayne West, the head of JCHS has continued to write and speak on this issue. JCHS understands the stakes involved in losing this fight. As a result, they confront the homosexual movement with fearlessness and clarity that is rarely found here in America.

Dr. Wayne West, head of Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, introduces Brian Camenker at event on Dec. 10, 2013.

The group has recently resurrected a powerful full-page newspaper ad that directly exposes and confronts the medical dangers of homosexual behavior. The ad was previously published in Jamaican newspapers on International Day Against Homophobia, May 17, 2013 — to counter the propaganda from the other side.

Powerful full-page ad by Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society that appeared in Jamaica newspapers.

Here’s what the ad said:

Most people here and abroad are unaware about how overwhelmingly harmful and even deadly such behavior is. And worse, most pro-family groups — particularly here in the U.S. — are afraid to bring up the health issue, even in court cases, for fear of being labeled and attacked by the Left!

How many American pro-family groups would have the nerve to publish this ad? We are grateful that Jamaica has a fearless group like JCHS led by a such a bold, articulate man as Dr. Wayne West. They set an example for all the rest of us!

3. MassResistance in the Washington Times.
Our international footprint in the “gay marriage” arena is starting to get noticed!

Recently MassResistance was quoted in the Washington Times newspaper. In their December 25, 2013 article titled, “Gay marriage makes a world of differences in a defining year,” the newspaper wrote:

In Massachusetts, the traditional values group Mass Resistance has found that its materials — including a video on what same-sex marriage “did to Massachusetts” — have been of interest to people in Australia, the United Kingdom, France and, recently, Jamaica, said Brian Camenker, president of the group.

In America, gay-rights groups were able to conduct a “blitzkrieg” in some states, thanks to deep-pocketed benefactors and political allies, he said.

Overseas gay-rights advocates “just don’t have that enormous advantage,” Mr. Camenker said. “So that sort of holds them back.”

It’s quite surprising how many calls each week we get from around the country and beyond for advice, strategy, and general information on confronting this issue..

By the way, that video really has caught on around the world! And people are truly shocked. You can watch it HERE.

Southwest Airlines Funds ‘Creating Change’ Conference Promoting Homosexual Extremism and Abortion

January 30, 2014/in Commentary, Culture War, News/by Americans for Truth

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is exposing the radical corporate giving priorities of Southwest Airlines – including Southwest’s role as a major funder of the annual homosexual activist “Creating Change”conference put on by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF).

Creating Change, which begins today in Houston, Texas, promotes: the “homosexualization” of Christianity; extreme transgender activism including laws allowing transgender “girls” and “women” (read: boys/men in dresses) to use female restrooms; pro-homosexual/transgender programs in schools (even for very young students); and sadomasochism.

Creating Change is the organizing event for more than 3,000 LGBT (lesbian, “gay,” bisexual and “transgender”) activists across the nation – with “how to” workshops on:

Redefining Christianity with pro-homosexual messaging. One Creating Change workshop , “Catholic Teaching and LGBT Justice: Good in Bed Together? God’s Truth!” is described as follows (emphasis added): “Use solid Catholic teaching, tradition and practice when advocating for the equality of same-sex love? Yes.…We will work interactively from your wisdom and lived experience and join it with the best of Catholic sexual ethics to craft a message that speaks powerfully to people in the ‘malleable middle.’ This is subversive work!”
Advancing the radical “transgender” agenda, including winning government (Obama-care)/insurance coverage for body-disfiguring “sex reassignment surgeries” and hormone therapies;
Promoting extreme agendas under the guise of “sexual freedom.” As the euphemism for the radical, “anything goes” fringe of liberal sex politics, “Sexual Freedom” includes advocacy for: prostitution (“sex workers”); “polyamory” (multiple-partner sexual relationships); “kinky sex” (sadomasochism); pornography; sexual “swingers”; and opposing obscenity laws and public decency efforts, e.g., banning strip clubs in neighborhoods;
Defending abortion-on-demand, under the euphemism of “Reproductive Justice.”

Southwest took out a full-page ad in the Creating Change program with an accompanying letter (see pages 22-23) from Communications VP Linda Rutherford, who wrote, “Southwest Airlines is proud to support organizations like the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.”

AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera said: “The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force leads the Hard Left of the homosexual/transgender movement. It even gives out an annual award to its favorite self-identified sadomasochist (‘Leather Leadership Award’). Corporations like Southwest are giving more money than ever to LGBT organizations – but I doubt that they want their consumers to know about the extreme nature of the immoral agendas they are underwriting.

“Creating Change is heavily dedicated to ‘queering’ Christianity – as their workshops put it,” LaBarbera said. ”In other words, Southwest is subsidizing a conference that instructs LGBT activists on how to mislead believers and undermine the clear tenets of Scripture that proscribe homosexual behavior as sinful.”

Other corporate/organizational funders of “Creating Change” include:

Hilton Worldwide: 703-883-1000 or 901-374-5000
Office Depot: 800-463-3768
Wells Fargo: 888-715-0380
Quaker Oats (PepsiCo): 800-367-6287
Comcast/NBC Universal: 800-934-6489; and
AARP: 888-687-2277

Note that Planned Parenthood is also a major supporter of Creating Change.

TAKE ACTION: Contact Southwest Airlines through their online Contact Page – or call Customer Relations at 214-932-0333 (press #1).

I Am Afraid of My Government

January 30, 2014/in Commentary, News, Policy, Politics/by Alan Caruba

I came into this world when Franklin D. Roosevelt was President and I have never been afraid of my government until now.

I am not alone. A consistent and growing theme of commentaries on the conservative news sites and blogs that I read every day is the fear of the Obama administration that has been cracking down on those who criticize it. They get audited by the IRS. They are refused the same status as non-profit entitles engaging in public education as Left-leaning organizations. They are accused of being racists, homophobes, anti-immigration, and anti-women.

This goes beyond the ordinary disagreements between individuals and groups that express opposition to the Obama administration. It has the look of a deliberate campaign and we have three more years of Obama as President in which to endure it.

In a speech to the leftist nonprofit Center for American Progress, Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-BY) recently urged the IRS to “redouble” its intimidation tactics against the Tea Party. He represents a State whose governor recently said that conservatives were not welcome to live and do business. Its largest city, New York, just elected a Marxist as its mayor.

For a larger view click on the image.

Jim Lakely, the director of communications of The Heartland Institute, a free market think tank that has led the effort to debunk the global warming hoax, recently posted a commentary, “The Unceasing Political Thuggery of Obama’s Gangster Government.” He noted Michael Barone’s description of the Obama administration as a “gangster government.”

Lakely cited the growing list of actions taken against who have expressed criticism. It includes Dinesh D’Souza who produced a documentary about Obama’s life, “Obama’s America” and who arrested on felony charges for violating campaign finance law. “This is beyond absurd—especially in light of what the FBI and IRS have found not worthy of any investigation, let alone indictment” in the past. A Hollywood group of conservatives, the only one there, received an IRS demand for its complete donor list; this is a repeat of similar demands of Tea Party groups seeking non-profit status. James O’Keefe whose Project Veritas exposed the nonprofit status of the leftist ACORN is being audited as was Frank VanderSloot, a big Republican donor as was conservative journalist Wayne Allen Root—twice. The list keeps growing.

The Heartland Institute was subjected to the stealing of its confidential budget and planning documents by global warming activist Peter Gleick “for the purpose of harassing” its donors, but no action has been taken against him by law enforcement authorities.

“Never in the history of this country have we seen such a broad and coordinated abuse of the government’s power to threaten criminal prosecution and ruin the lives and livelihoods of people the President and his party see as political ‘enemies’”, says Lakely.

“This should be the political scandal of the century—if only we had an honorable and competent MSM (mainstream media) press corps in this country.”

Ordinary Americans have cause to share my fear as they discover the wreckage that Obamacare is inflicting on our healthcare system, losing their insurance plans, and now we are hearing that the insurance industry may have to be bailed out as it is subjected to major losses. The government’s website is not only a disaster, but it subjects anyone using it to the threat of identity theft as experts testify it can be hacked with ease.

The economy of a nation with enormous energy reserves, enough to make us energy sufficient for decades, is being undermined by a deliberate campaign to shut down coal-fired plants and make the construction of new ones impossible. The Keystone XL pipeline from Canada has been delayed for five years despite the jobs it represents and access to oil at the same time the government has slowed the provision of leases to oil companies seeking to explore and extract our own reserves.

And millions of Americans are out of work or have ceased looking for work as the result of the worst economic “recovery” in the history of the nation. This is occurring at a time when the Obama administration has added $6 trillion to the nation’s debt, causing a leading credit agency to downgrade the nation’s credit rating for the first time in its history.

The scandals attributed to the Obama administration keep mounting from “Fast and Furious” that transmitted weapons to Mexican drug cartels, to the failure to provide security to our Libyan consulate despite many requests, leading to the Benghazi killing of a U.S. ambassador and three brave security personnel who went to his aid. The list keeps growing.

There is ample reason for Americans to fear their government these days and the mood of the nation is growing worse as they realize that they have a President who lies all the time and pursues “climate change” policies that have no basis in known science and a campaign of class war based on “income inequality” as the incomes of Middle Class Americans have suffered a decline. The solution to income inequality has always been an increase in the national economy.

The nation’s military is being undermined by budget cuts and policies that encourage open homosexual participation and the introduction of women into its combat forces. A growing list of generals and admirals have been forced to retire.

It has taken only five years to bring the nation to this point and none of the scandals has resulted in anyone in the Obama administration being held accountable.

They have good reason. When they can no longer depend on the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other elements of the government to act lawfully, this nation—a nation of laws—we are all in jeopardy.

For these and other reasons I and many Americans are growing fearful. We have good reason.

IRS Probe: A Disgraceful Investigation

January 30, 2014/in Commentary, Courts & Law, News, Taxes/by Marshall Frank

How do you hide from an obvious scandal? Pretend it isn’t there and let the time run out the clock.

Benghazi, Fast & Furious, harassing news agencies, and the IRS targeting select groups because of their conservative politics. The list goes on.

When Nixon and Clinton were slammed with serious questions concerning possible crimes and the integrity of a sitting president, independent special prosecutors were rightfully assigned to conduct the investigation and , if necessary, reach a legal conclusion holding the guilty parties accountable for their egregious actions.

This will not happen in the Obama administration. We, the people, are not privileged to basic honesty in government.

Consider this: The humongous IRS investigation – in which evidence exists that the government was ordering special targets for non-profit status and audits based on conservative leanings – has been assigned to a top trial lawyer in the Justice Department for investigation. Her name is Barbara Kay Bosserman. She works directly under Eric Holder.

So what? You say?

Barbara Kay Bosserman is a major contributor to the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012, now with personal donations of over $6000 invested in assuring her a $160,000 a year job. Is this not the ultimate in conflict of interest? As a loyal presidential bootlicker, there is NO WAY she can conduct an independent and objective investigation into the actions of the IRS, and hold the guilty parties accountable, particularly if they are close to the president, or the president himself.

That would be like assigning a lawyer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) the role of prosecuting the Muslim Brotherhood. They’re all part of the same ideology.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to echo the democratic mantra that these are all “phony” scandals. The administration says they have more important and pressing issues to attend to. In other words, let’s all drop it. That’s old news. Forget about it. Let time pass. “What difference does it make?” (Shhh – maybe it will go away)

We can let time pass but it doesn’t make the people in the administration and less culpable in their roles of obstructing justice. If anyone has been obstructing justice, it has been the Attorney General himself, who has been caught lying to congress more than once in his efforts to protect the president.

It is eight months since the scandal became public. So far, zilch. No one is being held responsible.

For the American people, this is a simple act of arrogance: A classic, ‘In Your Face.’ The appointment of Barbara Kay Bosserman is one of the most audacious acts perpetrated by Holder. She is a devout follower and contributor of Barack Obama who at the very least, cannot be objective and neutral, and at the worst, can rightfully be perceived as a protectorate who will go to all lengths to prevent disgrace to cloak the White House.

The disgrace, in fact, belongs to the White House for approving a grossly biased investigation. This is not seeking justice. It’s obstructing it.

Americans: Where are your voices?

Click here: 2013 IRS scandal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click here: JUSTICE: Feds pick Obama supporter to lead probe into IRS tea party targeting – Washington Times

The State of the Dis-Union: Preparing World Citizens

January 30, 2014/in Commentary, Education, News, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Mary Grabar

There were many who had reason to be outraged by President Obama’s State of the Union address: the military whose funding has been cut, and who have been besmirched as emotionally unstable while they are forced to be sitting ducks in battle and then face the potentiality that the administration will abandon what others had died for, like Fallujah; the millions in the middle class whose health insurance has been dropped or whose premiums have doubled and who are losing jobs to illegal aliens and are insulted by the idea that a job that pays $10.10 is something to aspire to.

But I want to focus on Obama’s continued efforts to re-educate America, to re-educate her people so that they become shriveling dependents who long for a leader who will unilaterally make decisions for the masses.

Only such a people could believe Obama’s claim of having “a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class.”

Only a well-educated, independent-thinking populace could feel the chill of words regarding “congressional action.” Conflating America with himself, Obama said, “America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Once again, there was discussion of government job-training programs. (Has anyone actually gotten a job as a result?) To prepare “tomorrow’s workforce” (and that’s all it is: a workforce, not an educated citizenry), we must guarantee “every child access to a world-class education.”

Translation: indoctrination into world citizenship.

Obama referred to one “Estiven Rodriguez,” who “couldn’t speak a word of English when he moved to New York City at age nine.” Apparently, Rodriguez “led a march of his classmates – through a crowd of cheering parents and neighbors – from their high school to the post office, where they mailed off their college applications. And this son of a factory worker just found out he’s going to college this fall.” Obama referred to the army of tutors and teachers that helped him, but immigrants have done far more with only night classes, and often working two or three jobs.

Then, said Obama, “Five years ago, we set out to change the odds for all our kids. We worked with lenders to reform student loans, and today, more young people are earning college degrees than ever before.”

There is a reason why this government wants to monopolize student loans to produce more “peace and environmental justice studies” graduates: Democrat voters.

Obama invoked the misleadingly named “Race to the Top” contest (really a race for stimulus funds attached to federal education standards called Common Core). He claimed, it “has helped states raise expectations and performance. Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. are making big strides in preparing students with skills for the new economy – problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, and math. Some of this change is hard. It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test. But it’s worth it – and it’s working.”

Notice how he didn’t reference Common Core, now dubbed Obamacore. After test scores plunged and mass confusion ensued, even the New York NEA teachers union came around to opposing Common Core. “Problem solving, critical thinking” are hallmarks of progressive educators, like Linda Darling-Hammond, close pal of Bill Ayers, who has been in charge of designing one of the two Common Core national tests. And what, exactly, is wrong with filling in a bubble? It means the test-taker has to know something and the grader can’t give extra points for correct attitudes.

What, also, is the “new economy”? Did we not need science, technology, engineering, and math in the old, twentieth-century economy?

By stating “It requires more challenging curriculums,” Obama admitted what Common Core proponents deny: it does change the curriculum. These are curriculums that eliminate most history, except that which advances the U.S. as racist, sexist, homophobic, imperialistic, etc.

The reference to “New ways to measure how well our kids think” is not reassuring when the Department of Education promotes the idea that “educational strengths” include “social competence” and “ethnic awareness.”

The new standards do not involve knowing about the country’s founding or the Constitution. Such students might understand this pre-speech message from Jon Carson of Organizing for Action:

“Friend –

“Tonight, President Obama made sure everyone knows:

“He’s not waiting for Congress. He’s taking action now, and he’s going to explore every method in his power to restore real opportunity for all Americans.”

Then he asks for a $5 donation.

But kindergarten is not early enough. Said Obama, “The problem is we’re still not reaching enough kids, and we’re not reaching them in time. That has to change.”

He cited “research” to justify making “high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old”: “Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education.” Funny, how they always say “research,” but not which research or what the research actually says about government-funded preschool.

Nonetheless, “As a parent as well as a President, I repeat that request tonight.”

What if Congress doesn’t snap to and fulfill his “request”? Well, Obama has friends: “And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.”

Such “coalitions” must ensure that Obama fulfills his promises: “Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years. Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit.”

Of course, Microsoft is in the “coalition” of “business leaders and philanthropists.” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest funder for Common Core; all tests must be taken online. The other companies surely appreciate the business, too.

Obama’s Department of Education is redesigning high schools: “We’re working to redesign high schools and partner them with colleges and employers that offer the real-world education and hands-on training that can lead directly to a job and career.” It seems all bases for government control are being covered. Oh, and “real-world education”? It means being trained for a job—only. (See my review of Terrence O. Moore’s book The Story-Killers.)

The feds have not only taken over financing, but they now want to rate colleges. But this is how Obama put it: “We’re shaking up our system of higher education to give parents more information, and colleges more incentives to offer better value, so that no middle-class kid is priced out of a college education.”

The Education Department is appealing to the youth vote by holding “summits,” inviting college “student experts” to weigh in on college “accessibility” and “affordability.” The youth experts have spoken and Obama heard: “We’re offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to ten percent of their income, and I want to work with Congress to see how we can help even more Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt.”

The scary part came when he used himself and Michelle as examples: “The bottom line is, Michelle and I want every child to have the same chance this country gave us. But we know our opportunity agenda won’t be complete – and too many young people entering the workforce today will see the American Dream as an empty promise – unless we do more to make sure our economy honors the dignity of work, and hard work pays off for every single American.”

Oh, you mean college students should write theses like Michelle Obama’s? Can we all write “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community” and investigate how “attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society”?

Education was bad enough back then. As a result, we have her in the White House with her Columbia and Harvard educated husband. It can only get worse when he invokes “widely shared” prosperity, calling on Americans to “toil” together, and summoning “what is best in us, with our feet planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow. . . .”

Citizens Common Core letter goes viral: “Hey, Gov. Scott, YOU should READ THIS!”

January 30, 2014/in Commentary, Education, News, Policy/by Dr. Richard M. Swier, LTC U.S. Army (Ret.)

Victoria Bear, a citizen of Florida, sent a letter to Governor Rick Scott about her concerns with implementing Common Core in the sunshine state. Bear got a reply from the Governor’s office. She decided to reply back and her letter has gone viral, being shared by parents, teachers, educators and citizens across the state and beyond.

One of the comments to Bear’s letter is from Jack Mertz from The Villages TEA Party. Mertz states, “You really need to take a Survey of how Florida voters feel about Common Core — not what Obama or Jeb Bush think. They cannot vote for you — or donate to your campaign –but We the People can (or not). The Tea Party groups in The Villages area would love to discuss Common Core with you — if you would deign to come for a visit. Recall, there is an ELECTION coming. You need to do something intelligent to convince us that we should vote for you. We will wait and see what your final decision is on Common Core. Then we’ll make your final decision also.”

As the 2014 election draws nearer the Common Core may become the defining issue in the campaign. Some say that Governor Scott risks losing if he does not take a stronger stand against implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

Here is the reply from Katrina G. Figgett, Director of School Libraries and Information Services at Florida Department of Education, to Bear’s letter:

Dear Ms. Baer:

Governor Rick Scott has asked our office to respond to your correspondence regarding Common Core. On behalf of the governor, we would like to thank you for contacting us.

Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Department of Education are committed to ensuring our students have the highest academic standards so they are prepared to succeed in college, career and beyond. The Florida State Board of Education first adopted state wide education standards called the Sunshine State Standards in 1996 and has been a leader in the United States for ensuring all students have access to education standards and assessments that match those standards. The current set of English language arts and mathematics standards are the third set adopted by Florida. Recently changes to these standards, which were recommended as a result of public input, were proposed to the State Board of Education. If you would like to look at the proposed changes they can be accessed at: http://www.fldoe.org/eduaccsummit.asp. A recommendation regarding the tool for assessing Florida Standards will be forthcoming in March.

Decisions regarding curriculum are made at the district, school and classroom level, and we would encourage you to share your concerns regarding curriculum with your child’s classroom teacher and/or principal. You may wish to contact individual districts with specific suggestions concerning their curriculum. District contact information is available at http://www.fldoe.org/schools/schoolmap/flash/district_list.asp.

It may help you to know that under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), student information cannot be shared without prior written consent from parents or guardians. The only disclosure exceptions pertain to sharing information in regard to health and safety emergencies, school transfers, state and local authorities for compliance, or research organizations. Directory information, such as name, address, date of birth and dates of attendance, may be shared without consent. However, schools are required under FERPA to give reasonable notice to parents prior to any information sharing and allow parents or guardians to opt out of the information sharing. Schools are required to annually notify parents of their rights under FERPA, but notification methods are left up to local leaders. There is no national database that houses student information and there is no plan for such a database.

If the Bureau of Standards and Instructional Support can be of further assistance, please contact me at 850-245-0758 or via e-mail at Katrina.Figgett@fldoe.org.

Sincerely,

Katrina Figgett

Here is Bear’s reply to Katrina Figgett:

Ms. Figgett in lieu of GOV SCOTT:

First, thanks for writing back and taking time to send me a response. Since you bothered, I would like to set the record straight.

I am very well informed on Common Core and the devastating effects it will have on our children. Unlike Gov Scott I am not playing politics or playing with our children’s futures.

#1 It’s not about the sharing it’s about the collecting -NO right to collect (see constitution amendment #4 unless a student wants to volunteer to give it with parental consent)- I’m sure their data bases are as secure as Target and the Healthcare Website- Right?

The only way to assure no privacy compromise is for them to never have the data to start with! This will be the start of profiling of our children in a country that is very eerily looking like NAZI Germany more every day.

#2 No matter how much they amend the standards it doesn’t change that they are equal to curriculum because the standardized tests test the standards (content) not the student’s proficiency like former placement tests.

The standards being grade specific is a big problem because it completely restricts curriculum since different curriculum introduce concepts in a different order and the only curriculum that would be used are the ones aligned to the CCS (modified or whatever).

Other countries like Finland have standards that are used as guidelines but are not graded with standardized tests at grade level. They are the only international country in the top five that have consistently improved in the past couple of years.

China’s numbers are fraudulent (surprise) since they only report Shanghai (they don’t even hide that it’s Shanghai only-guess they know how little the average person pays to such detail).

# 3… You quote FERPA… Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Seriously? Guess you and the GOVERNOR are not up to speed on the changes and DISTRUCTION of FERPA. Please see below. NICE TRY…NOT GOING TO WORK!

1974 the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) became federal law. FERPA limited the authority of school officials to release personally identifiable information about any student, without student or parental consent.

On April 8, 2011 the US Department of Education initiated a proposal to amend the regulations interpreting FERPA. The proposed regulatory change was put out for Notice and Comment as required by the Administrative Practices Act. The Department of Education issued the final amended regulations on December 2, 2011 and they took effect on January 3, 2012.

The amended regulations provided a new definition for three key statutory terms. Under the new definitions, detailed information about students, along with individual student ID numbers or other unique personal identifiers, may be disclosed “nonconsensually,” by “an educational agency or institution” with very little constraint. The changes essentially gutted FERPA and removed just about every vestige of parental control over the use and release of personally identifiable information in school records.

Whether the Department of Education had the authority to make these changes will be decided by federal judges. In accord with administrative law jurisprudence, a regulation issued according to the process specified in the Administrative Practices Act has the force of law, although a regulation may be challenged in the courts. There is such a court challenge at present. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) claims that a comment they filed during the Notice and Comment period was completely ignored in the amended final regulation.

Shortly after December 2011 when the amended FERPA regulations were issued, the Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) was activated. The SLC’s five member board of trustees included two corporation officers who were affiliated with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, one with the Carnegie Foundation, one with the Council of Chief State School Officers, and one was a former state governor affiliated with an educational advocacy organization . SLC was disbanded in November 2012 when the nonprofit organization, inBloom, was created. inBloom, which is supported by $100 million in grants from the Gates and Carnegie foundations, inherited all of the SLC’s software development.

The massive databases that inBloom intends to create are supposed to make it more efficient for school districts to store, access and process data for educational purposes. In theory, it would become possible to tailor instruction from stored data to meet individual student needs. Databases within a district are not always able to “talk” with each other; using a common platform and infrastructure in the Cloud would remedy that problem. If all the various school databases in the nation are also in communicable format in Clouds, it would be possible to examine and collate information on a national scale.
Those enamored of technology see a wonderful world opening up. Others fear that the age of Big Brother watching is coming all too close and that data would be used to monitor schools, teachers and children without notice. The FERPA changes will allow access to educational data for commercial or other purposes without the trouble of gaining parental or student consent. After all, the public is assured, we must facilitate digitalized education to modernize American school systems. (inBloom’s CEO, Iwan Streichenberger, somewhat disingenuously noted that their [computer] platform is compliant with the Family Education and Privacy Act and that their top priority is data privacy .)

The federal regulatory process is relatively silent. In the past, parents would not have known their legal rights had been diminished. Thanks to both the rapid spread of information and the impending court challenge to the amended FERPA regulation, parents across the country were soon informed that their state or education district intended to release individually identifiable data to third parties as part of an initial tryout of the inBloom project. The records are not only to be shared with consultants to help school districts adopt modern day information technology. They may also be available to private for-profit businesses able to target sales pitches to children’s teachers and parents and to school districts. This would bring to education the intense targeted marketing based on data collected from websites and by search engines.

Concerned parents who had been voiceless in the regulatory process, have begun to organize. They are learning that they cannot “opt out” of the arrangements and they want to assert their constitutional right to direct the education of their children. They oppose the invasion of privacy: the risk of disclosure of sensitive personal information such as test scores, health status and disciplinary records. They also are opposed to commercial exploitation of their children and their participation in research projects without parental consent.

When school officials in Brooklyn held a public meeting recently, parental fears were stoked. An inBloom representative confirmed that while inBloom would not share information with for-profit businesses to the detriment of students, the school district could decide to share the information stored in the Cloud with for-profit entities. Parents were distressed to learn that inBloom could not guarantee the security of information in the Cloud, and that in their contract with the City, inBloom was absolved of responsibility for any breach of security, including hacking.

During the meeting, one parent asked whether parents of a disabled child whose name was released to third parties, could be the target of aggressively marketed for-profit special education services. When the Chancellor of the New York City schools vowed that student privacy would not be violated, his reassurances were met with skepticism by parents whose level of trust in public school officials is not high.

While parents have had nowhere near the resources, the time, or the expertise to mount effective resistance to the efforts of the foundations and the organizations supported by them, that situation may be changing. Many states have pulled back from participating with inBloom. In New York State however, while two bills to protect parent rights to privacy were passed in the Assembly, a comparable bill in the NY Senate [S4284] was held up. Concerned parents intend to keep up the pressure. Given sufficient anger, and the internet’s ability to put people in touch quickly and inexpensively, parental resistance may become a democratic counterweight to the unbridled powers of big business and huge foundations to influence public educational policies without accountability.

Murray Levine and Adeline Levine, Buffalo – http://artvoice.com/issues/v12n29/letters_to_artvoice/goodbye_privacy.

There has been a victory though!!! Maybe you can encourage Scott to follow NY’s lead of all the COMMUNISTS states… Scott pushes the BUSH’s destructive programs for our education as “RACE TO THE BOTTOM” and “EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND”. Time to get off the political tit and do something for FREEDOM IN EDUCATION!

Read http://www.educationalfreedomcoalition.com/criterion-referenced-testing/

PS. You can also tell Gov Scott that as much as he campaigned for HEALTH CARE FREEDOM he has FAILED us on OBAMA CARE as well!
HE IS A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT TO CONSERVATIVES ALL OVER THE STATE and I SHOULD KNOW …I HAVE HUGE EMAIL LISTS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND THE UNITED KINGDOM and I’ve CC this to my whole FLORIDA list with over 3000 names!!!