LGBT Playbook: Legally erase women through gender identity laws

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There has been much discussion by Democrats about a “war on women” perpetrated by the other party. Is that true? The answer lies in the LGBT movements reaction to a recent The Witherspoon Institute’s Public Discourse essay by Janna Darnelle titled “Breaking the Silence: Redefining Marriage Hurts Women Like Me – and Our Children.” Darnelle writes:

Every time a new state redefines marriage, the news is full of happy stories of gay and lesbian couples and their new families. But behind those big smiles and sunny photographs are other, more painful stories. These are left to secret, dark places. They are suppressed, and those who would tell them are silenced in the name of “marriage equality.”

But I refuse to be silent.

I represent one of those real life stories that are kept in the shadows. I have personally felt the pain and devastation wrought by the propaganda that destroys natural families. [Emphasis added]

Read more.

Rivka Edelman analyses the LGBT community’s reaction in a column titled “Ruthless Misogyny: Janna Darnelle’s Story and Extreme LGBT Activism“. Edelman writes:

Darnelle’s essay struck a nerve and went viral. It is not surprising that, within a few hours, LGBT activists had taken up arms against her. Keyboard warriors manned the ramparts. Soon, the usual thugs took up their clubs and pitchforks.

For those of you who avoid the subterranean landscape of online same-sex parenting debates, it is useful to be introduced to Scott “Rose” Rosenzweig, a virulently misogynistic LGBT activist. As soon as Darnelle’s essay was published, Rose went into action, darting from the blog Good As You to other sites in an effort to destroy her personally. (Rose’s obsessive internet commenting has attracted attention at other news outlets as well.) Darnelle’s ex-husband even weighed in. A helpful fellow, he left her personal information in the comments section of several activists’ blogs, including her full legal name.

Janna Darnelle wrote under a pen name in order to protect her family. Unfortunately, her ex-husband’s comments helped Scott Rose embark on a campaign of harassment and intimidation.

According to the National Organization for Marriage, “It reveals the deplorable and unacceptable tenor of ‘debate’ (if you can even call it that) waged by the radical activists promoting same-sex ‘marriage’ – a kind of bullying and harassment that has absolutely no place in the public square and should be condemned on all sides.”

FemaleNOM notes, “But instead of condemnation, HRC and GLAAD and others meet the problem with a deafening silence that speaks louder than words – all the while throwing around invective like “hate group” to describe NOM and others, effectively throwing fuel on the fire and serves as a provocation to further attacks like the ones we see revealed in this article.”

The author writes:

In the name of equality, groups such as GLAAD (which employs Jeremy Hooper) have pushed through gender identity laws that have legally erased women. The term “woman” now legally can refer to the way that a man chooses to identify himself. Once women have been erased legally as a group and as individuals, it is not hard to erase “mothers.” This lends support to the practice of using one woman’s eggs and another woman’s womb to supply children for gay male couples, obscuring the concept of motherhood and making it seem dispensable. [Emphasis added]

Stefano Gennarini, J.D., from the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, reports:

The Vatican accused a UN committee of intolerance against Christians and interfering with the free exercise of religion in a scathing reply to a UN committee released to the press last Friday.

The Vatican’s official response to explosive comments made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child earlier this year, which told the Catholic Church to change its teaching on abortion and same-sex attraction, departs sharply from UN etiquette by confronting the committee bluntly and without mincing words.

The Vatican is especially harsh on the committee for meddling with religious freedom, as well as sowing confusion and disregard of international law. It chastised the UN committee for abusing its position to disparage the Catholic Church during the reporting process under Convention on the Rights of the Child. [Emphasis added]

Democrats have long supported same sex marriage as a “civil right.” When people vote on redefining marriage, such as in California and Florida, they overwhelmingly vote to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

The idea is for Democrats to legally erase women through gender identity laws. This is happening at the city, county, state and national levels. At some point there will no-longer be a war against women as that gender will no-longer legally exist.

RELATED ARTICLE: Vatican: UN Committee “A Sword Against Freedom of Religion”

Will Potheads Put Amendment 2 Over the Top? The Florida Chamber and Adam Putnam say NO!

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The title of this column is taken from an email sent out by Dr. Jessica Spencer from the Vote No on 2 campaign. Dr. Spencer states, “‘If you’re a pothead then vote for 2’ – That’s exactly what the Yes on 2 folks want to happen. Their campaign manager said this recently at a debate… But let’s not allow his cavalier attitude about drug use win the day.”

Ana Cruz, former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, said, “I wish that it didn’t take medical marijuana on the ballot to motivate our young voters. But listen, we’ll take it any way we can get it.”

Ben Pollara, a Democratic fundraiser and campaign manager for the United for Care group, stated:

“We want to be able to have our stereotypical, lazy pothead voters to be able to vote from their couch.”

This week the Vote No on 2 campaign launched new made for TV ad titled “Isn’t What it Seems” that pulls back the curtain and exposes one of the most dangerous loopholes in Amendment 2 – the fact that drug dealers could become caregivers and buy pot to “give” to their patients. The Florida Department of Health estimates Amendment 2 would create 250,000 of these so-called “caregivers.”

Some reefer to Amendment 2 as the “drug dealers protection act.” Pun intended.

Additionally, Vote No on 2 has placed ads in over a dozen African-American owned newspapers with a personal message from Miami’s Urban League President, T. Willard Fair.

Vote No on 2 got support from Florida’s Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam and the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Kevin Derby from Sunshine State News reports:

In Central Florida on Wednesday, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and the Florida Chamber of Commerce came out swinging at Amendment 2, a proposal to expand medical marijuana use in the Sunshine State.

“The legalization of marijuana has the potential to destroy Florida’s sterling reputation as a family-friendly and business-friendly state,” said Putnam. “Not only does this poorly written amendment give anyone with as much as a headache access to this gateway drug, the legalization of marijuana would severely impact small businesses and corporations alike. As we are making our way out of the greatest recession in decades, the last thing we need is to create a climate that will decrease productivity and increase risk for businesses.”

“Normally we focus on creating jobs, improving education and making Florida more competitive, but this is the type of business Florida can do without,” said Mark Wilson, the president and CEO of the Florida Chamber.

As American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner wrote, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” In this case Democrats and potheads make for strange bedfellows. Or have they always been in bed together? Anyone remember the 1960s?

RELATED ARTICLE: The Florida Catholic Bishops issue a statement about Amendment 2 expressing major concerns about it

RELATED VIDEO: It’s a Trick

RELATED FLYER: Courtesy of the Florida Sheriffs Association.

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For a larger view click on the image.

Republican Governors like Rick Scott are Saving the American Dream!

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Governor Rick Scott of Florida turned around Florida with sound economic principles, and is one of those celebrated Republican Governors. Let’s face it, without a vibrant economy, strong jobs and a healthy middle class… America fails! The Republican Governor’s success across America broadcasts hope for our nation, especially when compared to the federal out-of-control debt ticking towards $18 trillion, jobs dissolving into disability checks and freedom hanging in jeopardy. Florida is a pivotal contest for Republicans, which is why Governor Scott is under a deceitful attack by the failed ex-Governor Crist/Obama Team.

Let’s be honest, Crist has to cover-up his miserable record: The second largest increase in unemployment, 828,000 private sector jobs loss, $5.2 billion in added debt, $3.6 billion deficit, raising taxes by $2.2 billion, raiding the budget and devaluing home prices by 47%. Since then flip-flopper Crist has undergone a massive identity crisis by changing parties like changing clothes. He lost as an Independent against Marco Rubio who quipped the “next change by Crist will probably be going to Cuba.” Instead of Cuba, Crist was next seen embracing President Obama at the DNC convention which marked his current change to democrat.

While Governor Scott tenaciously fights to lower taxes and refreshingly named his budget: “Your Money Tax Cut Budget.” Governor Scott’s excellent command of the checkbook, reversed the “Crist sinking ship” by impressively adding almost 700,000 jobs, $500 million in tax cuts, 4.8% decreased unemployment to 6.2%, cut 3,000 regulations, over $1 Billion to Florida’s environment, 40 tax cuts, teacher incentives, cut government waste, paid down a $4 billion debt and created an attractive tax-atmosphere to welcome businesses to the sunshine state … and the list goes on!

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Red states have Republican governors.

Voters Need to Know Why Freedom is in Jeopardy!

Billionaire environmentalist, Tom Steyer, in a New York Times article on May 22, 2014 revealed a new left-wing-campaign-gimmick to commit $100 million to defeat candidates who question global warming. He further projects “We want 2014 to be a pivotal year for climate to be a wedge issue in policial races.”

Mr. Steyer’s scheme seems misguided due to his claim at the American Renewable Energy Institute that “only .5% of the super-sophisticated people” in the United States believe in global warming. He might have to resort to magic to swing his 95.5% non-believers … or it’s just a staggering waste money.

In the world of reality, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity called out Steyer for “bankrolling candidates … whose efforts are leaving hard-working Americans without work, without economic security and without hope for the future.” Wake up voters, false gimmicks to destroy Republican principles will lead to the collapse of America – not “The American Dream.”

Governor Scott works hard and wins!

Yet critics blame Scott for issues that are beyond his purview! For example, it’s clear that Governor Scott objects to Common Core through his 2013 Executive Order against a curriculum funded by federal non-profits. Using strong words against the Federal government’s un-constitutional authority to unilaterally set academic standards for Florida Scott states: “Floridians will not accept government intrusion into the academic standards that are taught to our students.” Yet dissenters vow to disregard Scott’s successes and are prepared to walk-the-gang-plank for a single issue that has already swung towards Florida state and local standards. The voting public is well aware that Charlie Crist is salivating over this Common Core confrontation and waiting in the wings to re-install the federal Obama/Crist Common Core standards.

My bet goes with Governor Scott’s solid state’s rights record and outspoken policies against federal-anything! The best option for Floridians against Common Core is to keep running-the-ball towards sharpening the best and most creative standards for kids! Scott will support his state and Crist will support the feds – it’s a no brainer!

Another raging battle is the emergence of All Aboard Florida’s fake fanfare as the first private passenger train in the world! Henceforth, the claim of private has morphed into a Federal Rail Association $1.8 Billion loan. It’s difficult for Governor Scott to speak against free enterprise due his hard-work on a pro-growth, pro-jobs platform in Florida. Let’s hope the final resolution to this controversey will be denial of the FRA massive loan (a loan of this magnitude has never been granted). Or, the powerful legal team will triumph against the trains following California and Nevada defeats.

Scott is not promoting the 2009 White House vision for a European-style national train network to “phase out cars and fossil fuels,” as specified in the All Aboard Florida’s Transit Oriented Development scheme. Instead Governor Scott doubled tourism in Florida and aims his transportation budget towards highways/airports. A vote for the Crist platform = a vote for the Choo-Choo!

Governor Scott is particularly sensitive to medicaid expansion and, as a kind-hearted man, chose to back the poor and elderly heightened by a personal family challenge. Governor Scott, using republican principles, only backed the Medicaid expansion after the federal authorities agreed to fully privatize medicaid and only the three-year period the Feds agreed to pony-up 100% of the total cost. In the meantime, under the radar, Governor Scott focuses on cancer research, healthcare workforce shortages and extra care for alzheimers patients. It’s clear from Goveror Scott’s record that he will support free market solutions to healthcare reform in Florida.

Charlie Crist has flip-flopped three times on his healthcare position but as part of the Crist/Obama Team he’s a steadfast Obamacare supporter!

The Left Lies!

The heavy-handed Left-Wing machine has already run dishonest ads against Governor Scott regarding water pollution, big sugar and “pleading the fifth” accusations. They can’t win with their ideas, so they tell lies.

The joke is that those so-called Scott “corporate polluters” turned out to be Obama supporters. In fact, the Chairman of Duke Energy, who appeared at 2012 Democratic National Convention, along with greenie Tom Steyer, all had ties to billions in stimulus funds. Scott never plead the fifth and was exonerated!

Voters can be sure the Crist/Steyer/Obama Team will bolster third-party candidate Adrian Wyllie to swing the election to Crist – this is what they do! Voters need to consider what’s at stake in Florida as the gateway to South America, globalism, chinese Panama Canal imports, immigration and the 2016 presidential election.

The National Republican Governors and Governor Scott have a proven track-record of success and will continue the fight to Save the American Dream, as Freedom is the only answer!

The U.S. is Becoming a Weaker Nation

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The news that the U.S. Air Force, joined at long last by some of the Arab nations most threatened by the Islamic State (ISIS), began bombing their headquarters and military sites in Syria was long overdue, but welcome. It took time because Obama had originally dismissed ISIS as a threat.

It no doubt took time to get Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia to team with the U.S., but missing from the action is Turkey that borders Syria and Egypt. Turkey has become increasingly Islamist, but appears determined to stay out of the war with ISIS. By initially refusing to provide arms to Egypt, Obama drove it into the waiting arms of the Soviet Union, but has since reversed its policy and is seeking to woe Egypt back as an ally.

In a September 23rd column, Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal opined that “…every President gets things wrong. Mr. Obama is not exceptional in those respects. Where he stands apart is in his combination of ideological rigidity and fathomless ignorance. What does the President know? The simple answer, and maybe the truest, is: not a lot.”

Cover - Russia-China AxisObama’s combination of ideology and ignorance is analyzed in an extraordinary book by Douglas E. Schoen and Melik Kaylan, “The Russia-China Axis: The New Cold War and America’s Crisis of Leadership.” It provides a fact-filled look at his failure to provide leadership to a nation that other nations have looked to for leadership and protection since the end of World War II.

Indeed, in addition to the ISIS videos of Americans and others being beheaded, it has taken the outspoken criticism of retired U.S. generals to mobilize public opinion to support a return to the battlefield. It is a battlefield that Obama has fled at every opportunity, pulling out all of our troops from Iraq and planning to do the same in Afghanistan.

In the September 14th issue of Defense News, General John Michael Loh, retired, a former Air Force vice chief of state and Air Combat Command commander, said, “ The right solution is neither exclusively boots on the ground airpower. The right solution is a one-two punch: a massive air campaign followed by a ground force offensive to defeat ISIS. If executed the way airmen and soldiers have worked together in the past, most notably in Desert Storm, the result is not just a decisive victory, quickly and with few casualties, but the basis for deterrence of any ISIS-like movement in the future.”

“The Russia-China Axis” delves deep into the failure of both the Presidency and Congress to address the threats to our nation around the world. “As China and Russia beef up”, the authors note regarding our military expenditure, “Congress is set to cut nearly $1 trillion from the defense budget over the next ten years” and while the full brunt of those cuts is a ways off, the military is already taking it on the chin thanks to the cuts negotiated during the sequestration of January 2013.”

Citing the warnings of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, “What he and others have found so far is alarming; impaired combat-troop readiness; inability to modernize equipment and weapons and technology systems; and the need, potentially, to slash as many as five of the Air Force’s tactical aircraft squadrons.”

“Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warns that the effects of sequestration alone will leave the United States with our smallest ground fighting force since 1940, the smallest naval fleet since 1915, and the ‘smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the Air Force.’”

While the headlines of the strikes against Syrian ISIS locations are exciting, in addition to our Defense Secretaries, we need to pay heed to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who has said, “We would go from being unquestionably powerful everywhere to being less visible globally and presenting less of an overmatch to our adversaries. And that would translate into a different deterrent calculus and potentially, therefore, increase the likelihood of conflict.”

While the U.S. cuts its defense spending, Russia and China have been increasing theirs. Moreover, while nuclear weapons can be found in nations like North Korea, a self-declared enemy of the U.S. Iran is intent on creating its own nuclear capability, the U.S. has not only reduced its nuclear arsenal (Obama wants no arsenal) and has entered into negotiations that no observer believes will result in any cessation of Iran’s intentions.

The authors of “The Russia-China Axis” warn that “The U.S. retreat from the nuclear playing field is not just apparent in offensive capabilities; the American missile-defense shield that protects our homeland and our European allies is gravely deficient as well.”

The authors assess that “America, worn down by a decade-plus of wars, has become inner-directed, even isolationist.” This is a repeat of history prior to and following World War I. Following World War II, America was the only nation with the power to hold off and wear down the former Soviet Union’s ambitions to spread communism worldwide. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia is seeking to regain its influence in Eastern Europe and has, of course, invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea.

This has all happened while Obama has been President. He has already announced that the U.S. will not put “boots on the ground” in Iraq and will leave Afghanistan next year. Telling the enemy what you intend to do militarily is a profoundly stupid thing to do. And this is a President who has resisted even his closest advisors regarding the need for action.

Plainly said, we need to survive the last two years of Obama’s second term in office. We can do so to some degree if the Republican Party can gain control of the U.S. Senate and expand it in the House. The November midterm elections have never been more critical.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

America’s Education Battlefield

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The 2010 introduction of Common Core, a set of requirements for what elementary and secondary school children should know in math and English language arts, has turned schools in one state after another into battlefields as its complexity and other factors led to protests against it. Even so, by mid-2014, a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that very nearly half of those asked about it hadn’t even heard of it. A number of states, such as Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina have withdrawn from it.

Schools today are often under fire for one reason or another. Ever since the 1960s when teachers unions began to secure more and more control, formerly the responsibility of individual and state school boards, Americans have been engaged in efforts to improve the elementary and secondary education systems. Many have elected to home school their children. Others have pushed for school choice to permit their children to attend a school that was clearly doing a better job than the one to which their children were assigned.

As youngsters settle into their classes, there are a number of trends worth noting.

Perhaps one of the most interesting trends is the expansion of online classes into K-12. As Ashley Bateman noted in a recent issue of School Reform News, “In 2013 ten million students of all ages participated in more than 1,200 massive, open, online courses offered by more than 200 universities.” Of value to self-motivated students in particular, online classes are sure to find a larger audience of students who have grown up in the virtual world of game playing.

Another trend was noted by Marcy C. Tillotson, an education reporter for Watchdog.org. It is the increasing demand for more and more data about each student who worry that things done at a very young age like a schoolyard fight or emotional problems will follow them into college when they have long outgrown the problems or behaviors of childhood. Parents want to know what data is being collected and who has access to it. As often as not, they cannot find out.

Increasingly, school choice, a parent’s right to enroll their child in a selected public school, a private or a parochial choice, has become an issue that makes it into state legislature’s where some support and some forbid it. In Louisiana and Texas, for example, school choice programs and scholarship credits have gained support as a political issue. In Florida, the teachers union has initiated a lawsuit “to eliminate school choice for many low-income students and effectively kill a program to help students with autism and other special needs.” In North Carolina, its Supreme Court rendered a decision that permits more than 2,000 low-income parents to send their children to schools of their choice.

Attention to the quality of teachers, as opposed to letting tenure keep poorly performing ones in the classroom, is a growing trend. Last year in California, a first of its kind teacher quality lawsuit was decided in favor of the education reforms that brought it, striking down tenure and a similar lawsuit has been announced for New York.

As Ms. Tillitson reported, “Vergara v. California struck down state laws that required teacher layoffs based solely on seniority with no regard to teacher effectiveness, gave teachers permanent status after two years on the job, and made it difficult for school administrators to dismiss ineffective teachers.” As this trend expands to other states, a major complaint regarding poor performance will be addressed.

At the heart of the issue of teacher quality are the programs that prepare them to teach. As Ms. Tillotson noted, “A week after a California judge ruled on a case involving teacher tenure, dismissals and layoffs, the National Council for Teacher Quality released its annual report on another fundamental problem, the poor quality of teacher preparation programs. The report found that, as a whole, the programs need improvement. “Only a quarter of the programs expect aspiring teachers to be in the top half of their college’s academic pool. On a 125-point scale, the NCTQ ranked most programs as earning fewer than 50 points.

Increasingly, the quality and content of various educational programs are being questioned and challenged. One example is the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. History Framework (APUSH) and the questions about who wrote the curriculum that is taught to 500,000 students in more than 8,000 high schools every year.

When Larry Krieger, a retired College Board-praised teacher and Jane Robbins, a senior fellow at The American Principles Project asked the College Board who was the author or authors of the program, all they got as a reference to a web page listing 19 college professors and teachers who served on two College Board committees but where not listed as authors, but as “Acknowledgements.” Kreiger and Robbins call the history program “biased, poorly written, and ineptly organized”; one that “has raised alarms from state and national leaders.” We keep hearing about the importance of “transparency” but apparently the College Board does not think it applies to them.

It has long been known that U.S. schools tend to perform more poorly than those in other nations. Joy Pullman, a research fellow of The Heartland Institute and managing editor of School Reform News reported that “According to two recently released studies, the schools middle-income families send their kids to are not as good as parents think.”

“A national study,” wrote Ms. Pullman, “found U.S. students whose parents have college degrees perform worse than peers from comparable families in other countries. In the United States, 43 percent of such children tested ‘proficient’ in math on an international test, compared to 71 percent of comparable students from Poland, 68 percent in Japan, and 64 percent in Germany.” Overall, U.S. students performed better than those in only six countries.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Bateman has reported that “Accepting federal mandates in exchange for funding is the crux of the problem” of ever-growing educational bureaucracies at the state level. “States report that 40 percent of the paperwork burden they deal with is to comply with federal regulations,” said Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation.

When one considers how much in tax revenue is collected for the purpose of educating our youth, one would hope for better results, but fortunately there are many individuals, parents, and organizations seeking to improve the quality of education and our schools are going to remain battlefields for many years to come.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

Oklahoma beheadings: An Independent Investigation of Local Mosques Needed

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I am not a gambler, but I would take odds with anyone about the outcome of the beheading in Oklahoma City, OK. I mean about the motive for the murder of an innocent woman in the name of Islam by Alton Alexander Nolen (a.k.a. Jah’Keem Yisrael) that the FBI is investigating.

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James Finch, FBI Special Agent in Charge (SA), Oklahoma City.

James E. Finch, FBI Special Agent in Charge (SA), Oklahoma City office, will conclude the beheading had nothing to do with Islam and Sharia law. It will be labeled another workplace violence incident.

Why would Finch do this?

The FBI is no longer a politically independent agency conducting neutral investigations. The FBI is now a political machine working under the watchful eyes of outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama. The FBI conclusions on any national level, and media hyped, cases will be driven by the political agenda of Obama and Holder.

A first grader could call this case correctly. SA Finch, according to his resume, has the background to call it as he sees it. But will he? When any federal agent or investigative agency is no longer neutral and working for the best interest of a community or the country, they have become null and void.

The FBI has approximately 35,000 personnel, 13,000 federal agents, and a budget from U.S. taxpayers of over $8 billion annually. Perhaps it is time that the FBI be reduced in size, and the money saved be provided to local and state investigative agencies?

America no longer needs another political acronym (like the IRS and DOJ) fraudulently using tax dollars to further any political agenda.

The murder committed by Nolen may have been sparked by his firing, but the manner in which he carried it out, and most importantly the reason he turned into an Islamic terrorist is because of the Islamic ideology in it’s purest form. Islamic terrorists commit all types of violent acts in the name of Islam.

The mosques in Oklahoma City, OK, will never be adequately investigated by federal authorities. President Obama and Attorney General Holder have made it very clear that terrorism ‘never’ generates from a mosque or anything Islamic.

I have conducted firsthand counter-terrorism research in over 275 mosques in America. Over 75% of the mosques have very violent materials inside their facilities and the other 25% are very effective in hiding what they teach their worshipers.

If a Muslim practices peace in America, they are not being taught peace in the Islamic Centers and mosques. Murderers like Nolen do not have to use the internet, travel to Syria, or study under violent terrorists, they simply have to go to any one of the 2,300 mosques located throughout America (of which there are four listed in Oklahoma City).

I firmly believe that a professional independent research project for the Oklahoma City mosques is needed. My team and I can spend three days in the area and provide an accurate picture of what exactly is being taught. The results of our research will be provided to the American public, local and state authorities.

If you have the means to donate please do. If not I fully understand. Our economy and national security are at it’s lowest level since we became America.

RELATED VIDEO: Details From Beheader’s Oklahoma Mosque. An interview with Noor, who attended the same mosque as did Alton Nolen.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Analyzing the Oklahoma Beheading Crime Scene

Pentagon Official: The President Is Lying To America — About Us, And About ISIS

Why America Won’t Have Enough Money to Battle ISIS

The Midterm Forecast: Clear Sailing for the GOP and Stormy Weather for the Democrats

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WASHINGTON, PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Ten seasoned election scholars offer predictions for the 2014 US midterm elections in PS: Political Science and Politics, published by Cambridge University Press for the American Political Science Association.

James Campbell, professor of political science at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and guest editor of the forecasting series, notes that “it is likely to be a good year for Republicans and a rough one for Democrats.”

The five forecasts for the House range from a 4- to 16-seat gain for the Republicans, with a median forecast of a 14-seat GOP gain. Campbell remarks, “This would be the largest Republican House majority in more than 80 years (248 Republicans to 187 Democrats).”

The Senate forecasts range from Republicans adding another 5 or 6 seats to a gain of 8 seats. With Republicans needing a 6-seat gain to control the Senate, the forecasts rate the odds of a Republican Senate takeover “between a toss-up and somewhat more likely than not,” explains Campbell.

This research will be published in the October 2014 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics, scheduled for release in early October.

The forecasting scholars include Alan Abramowitz (Emory University); Joseph Bafumi (Dartmouth College);James Campbell (University at Buffalo, SUNY); Robert Erikson (Columbia University); Benjamin Highton(University of California, Davis); Michael Lewis-Beck (University of Iowa); Eric McGhee (Public Policy Institute ofCalifornia); John Sides (George Washington University); Charles Tien (Hunter College, CUNY); and Christopher Wlezien (University of Texas, Austin).

About the American Political Science Association

Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association is the leading professional organization for the study of political science and serves more than 13,000 members in more than 80 countries. With a range of programs and services for individuals, departments, and institutions, APSA brings together political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and occupational endeavors within and outside academe to expand awareness and understanding of politics.

Isn’t 50 Million Enough? Jew Hatred on Florida’s Suncoast

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Once upon a horrific time … 50 million human lives perished because of unchecked hatred against the Jews. This time was only 70 some years ago. And here we are again … a world now consumed with toxins against Jews – toxic words, images, and actions. Sadly, I know them personally all too well.

My beloved departed Father, Al Katz, began his seven years of slave labor for the Nazis on Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, in Hannover, Germany, where my Grandfather, Louis Katz, a decorated WWI German-Jewish war hero was kidnapped from his home and brutalized in a concentration camp. Later, he and my Grandmother, Berta, my Uncle, Arthur Werner, and multiple other immediate family members were systematically tortured and obliterated by the relentless Nazi murder machine, which did not stop its hideous mission of Jewish genocide until the world, with Divine help, ended the madness.

Hatred never stops of its own accord. It must be obliterated to end its obliteration of human lives upon lives upon lives….

In gorgeous Sarasota-Manatee, Florida, on the Divinely-aesthetic Gulf of Mexico, hatred against Jews is rapidly proliferating, from “Kick-a Jew Day” down the coast a few years ago to forced evictions of a Zionist Jewish family from its home and its office both.

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Heritage Village West, Bradenton, FL. Photo courtesy of Sarasota Patch.

When was the last time you entered a Jewish office where the flag of Israel is displayed at all times along with large framed pictures of Jerusalem on its walls? This is the AL KATZ Center office in downtown Sarasota. The family being evicted from this office and its home in a nearby city is my own. In July, we were abruptly told that “Under no circumstances will we rent to you,” despite our record of consistently-amicable interactions with the owners of the office building for the prior two years, since the Center opened its doors. I looked straight at the owner and said, “This is anti-Semitism.”

At my Father’s condominium complex, where we stay, in Bradenton, the pervasive climate of anti-Semitism has intensified over the years. It is best conveyed by the written words of a resident at Heritage Village West, located at 66th Street and Cortez, who proudly stated in emails to me just prior to the Jewish New Year:

… don’t give me any of this holocaust survivor stuff.

I don’t want to hear it. My ancestors were Polish and and in the beginning of WWll felt the wrath of persecution and they were lucky enough to have been able to flee tyranny and find freedom on our shores, but they didn’t make a big deal about it, they just started new lives and went on about their business. I do feel emotionally connected to those who lost their lives under the Nazi’s because many of the victims could have been my relatives.

??? These men and women [Holocaust Survivors] led their lives and now that it’s coming to an end you want to pretend that there is more for them? Let them be and let them greet their [M]aker..Not to be crass, but if anyone of these survivors, most in their 90’s has any hope of leading any sort of life beyond bedpans and feeding tubes, let them go so they can be one with the [L-rd] [A]lmighty.

Be warned, I’ll be keeping an eye on you. The last thing you want to do is make an enemy of me….

By the way, you make yourselves look foolish with this survivor crap.

We are the only Jews at Heritage Village West and, as such, we are ostracized and targeted year after year.

antijewvandalismbradentonfl

These photos show the vandalism at our house during Passover (plants destroyed, piles of rubbish strewn all around, sprinkler severed, and unidentified trash can thrown into the yard). The left most photo shows two other unidentified trash cans tossed on our yard and left there for over two weeks just before Rosh HaShonah, next door to the residences of two Heritage Village West Board members.

In this year alone, our yard and property outside were vandalized on Passover, with many plants uprooted and strewn across the yard and the sprinkler system severed. A trash can was tossed into the yard as well. All of the vandalism occurred in daylight during working hours next door to the condominium office and pool and adjacent to the residences of two Board members; yet, no one stopped the glaring crimes against Jewish property.

Just before Rosh HaShonah, besides the hate mail we had received from a resident at Heritage Village West, two trash cans were thrown into our yard, where they remained for over two weeks, as two of the Heritage Village West Board members living adjacent to us walked by them each day.

To top off its previous anti-Semitic acts before Rosh HaShonah, Heritage Village West by its attorneys from Becker & Poliakoff filed, on the first day of Rosh HaShonah, legal action against its only Jewish family in order to remove us from its borders.

Again, hatred will never obliterate itself, but who will help this family this time?

Silence has enormous consequences to society…. It has not too long ago cost the world 50 million lives, and then too, it all began with hate words and actions left unchecked by neighbors, friends, colleagues, and officials who watched passively as bystanders to verbal and physical violence that eventually enflamed the world for naught.

Miami-Dade Schools: Giving Students the Shaft

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Borrowing from the saying of my mentor, Ira J. Paul, and as rightly inferred by T. Willard Fair in his recent op-ed in The Miami Herald, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which prides itself in its motto of “giving our students the world” is giving our students what a reasonable person may conclude, especially in School Board Districts 1 and 2, the shaft.

Mr. Fair details the “what” in his article and proposes a solution, but he does not address the “why” as this article will do just that.

The “what” is that the schools of School Board Districts 1 and 2 have the least experienced teachers and the least “highly effective” teachers than the schools of other School Board Districts.

Mr. Fair is correct in referring to this as an injustice and a problem, but to fix this problem requires more than involuntary transfers as he suggests – which would do more harm than good.

However, he should keep in mind that while he was on the State Board of Education, that body and the FLDOE encouraged, as part of Jeb Bush’s A+ Plan and No Child Left Behind, involuntary transfers at failing schools.

As a result, verified by my own experience, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and principals at Miami Central Senior High School and Miami Norland Senior High School (as well as at other Zone/ETO schools) targeted outspoken veteran teachers and replaced them with new teachers (primarily Teach For America teachers; or as former UTD president Karen Aronowitz termed them “Teach For Awhile” teachers) so as to have a submissive, compliant workforce that would not dissent.

As someone who has worked full-time various instructional positions in both School Board Districts 1 (8 years) and 2 (6 years), I can readily identify the problems through my insightful knowledge based on experience as I was transferred from both schools for those very reasons.

In conversation over the years, I heard assistant principals at Norland gloat that they liked TFA teachers as “they will do whatever we want.”

Never mind that Ceresta Smith was an activist that obtained a $10,000 Michael Jordan grant that brought Dwayne Wade to Norland and money for FCAT instruction and that she was a National Board Certified Teacher; she had to go as she spoke out against questionable curriculum decisions and numerous contractual violations as I had to go for exposing massive test cheating known as Adobegate.

Numerous teachers like Ceresta and I were moved out under “the best interests of the District” clause of the Contract as apparently it is in the best interest of Miami-Dade County Public Schools for teachers to be quiet and fearful and not to speak out for the best interests of their students or to expose standardized test cheating.

Since her departure three years ago, Norland has not had a National Board Certified Teacher or an English teacher of her caliber at Norland who brought in grants and motivational speakers for our students.

Since my departure last October, the Library Media Center has been closed, students visited me at Crestview telling me they cannot check out books whatsoever, and as a result (perhaps alongside little to no cheating given increased oversight) FCAT Reading scores declined three points.

During my tenure at Norland, FCAT Reading scores went up consistently; how is removing me, other than to keep Norland teachers quiet, to the detriment of the students and their right to read, in “the best interests of the District?”

Besides TFA teachers who have a two year commitment with an already accepted slot at a graduate school somewhere in conjunction with the payoff of their student loans after their tenure at M-DCPS, who would want to work at schools like Central and Norland where you are forced to compromise your ethics and morals and are denied liberty of conscience?

District and Norland actions sends what a fair-minded person may assume is a warped message to the students they purport to serve: the honest school librarian cannot serve them in the Library Media Center at Norland, but Mrs. Brenda Muchnick can teach them business education even though she was suspended for her part in Adobegate while her colleague, Mr. Emmanuel Fleurantin, was fired for doing the exact same thing.

We wonder why students in America who go into the military partake in the various cheating scandals that have plagued the naval and air force nuclear forces?!

Mr. Fair, and others, need to realize we need to have honest and ethical school principals and value teachers based on merit and willing to highlight curriculum and contractual flaws as opposed to the status quo that disdains the outspoken veteran teacher who knows best in favor of the compliant warm body that sees, hears, and speaks no evil who rides off into the sunset two years later to graduate school and a different career path.

Of course, Miami-Dade County Public Schools is in denial and highlights so called “improved graduation rates” as proof that their detrimental policies and hardline against outspoken veteran teachers are working.

Upon closer inspection, a reasonable person may conclude that these graduation rates do not hold muster and are indeed funny math.

Think about it: Norland has never cracked beyond 30% proficiency on the FCAT Reading exam- a graduation requirement; that being the case, how can there be a graduation rate of over 80%?!

Miami-Dade County Public Schools and their messengers must think people are really stupid.

The answer lies in the ever shrinking senior class as explained in USDOE graduation rate guidelines.

Norland always had a sophomore class (FCAT exit exam class) of between 400-500 students during my tenure, with Grade 10 FCAT Reading scores being between 14-30% during my time (2007-2013) there.

For the sake of the argument, apply the highest Grade 10 FCAT Reading score, 29%, to 400 students, with the answer being 116 students passed the test give or take.

That is the baseline for the graduation rate for that graduating class two years later.

According to the USDOE guidelines, if members of that class transfer, die, or leave the country, the graduation rate is not affected- meaning, if students cannot pass the FCAT and go to a private school without the FCAT requirement, the school is not penalized:

“Compared to other measures of graduation rates, the ACGR (adjusted cohort graduation rate) is considered the most accurate measure available for reporting on-time graduation rates (Seastrom et al. 2006b). A 4-year ACGR is defined as the number of students who graduate in 4 years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who form the adjusted cohort for that graduating class. The term “adjusted cohort” means the students who enter grade 9 plus any students who transfer into the cohort in grades 9–12 minus any students who are removed from the cohort because they transferred out, moved out of the country, or were deceased (34 C.F.R. § 200.19.” (Page 8).

Thus, Norland (and other schools) were rewarded as the graduation rates went up as the results were incorporated into the School Grades which resulted in the Federal and State performance incentives that were paid out.

Suppose the same 116 students who passed the FCAT and are cleared to graduate stay at Norland over the next two years but 200 students who cannot pass the FCAT or the new FSA exams transfer their credits to a private school in their junior and senior year to graduate-that leaves the class with a total of 200 students and the graduation rate skyrockets to 58%.

Further student departure would only increase the rate only if the students who passed the FCAT or the FSA exams stayed.

It is very legal but very misleading, and I know of a Norland faculty member who had children at the school that could not pass the FCAT take advantage of this loophole so they can graduate and go to college on academic scholarships.

When I was at Miami Central about ten years ago, I knew of students who could not pass the FCAT that went to a private school; they transferred in their credits, spent a few months there, graduated, and went to a community college in Minnesota to play football.

More food for thought: quantity. I remember the large graduation classes that Miami Central and Norland use to have, about 300- 500 some odd students. Funny with these current unprecedented graduation rates over the past four years, graduating classes at Central and Norland have been less than 200 students.

That’s funny Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ math for you, and it’s a system that rewards failure as astronomical graduation rates are being obtained simply by a whittling down of a given senior year class via student transfers to private schools for purposes of graduation to evade the FCAT and the soon to be new Florida Standards Assessments.

Congress and/or the USDOE should revise the graduation rate criteria to eliminate this deception and count student transfers against a school’s graduation rate if they graduate from private schools with little to no accountability as they could not pass the FCAT exam at a public school with accountability.

Furthermore, the Florida Legislature should regulate private schools and only allow them to award a valid state-recognized diploma only if their students can pass the mandated state assessments or an equivalent nationally recognized exam like the ACT or SAT to gauge student learning and progress.

Support for Amendment 2 plummets — Bad news for Charlie Crist

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J.J. Whitson, Campaign Manager for the Vote No On Amendment 2, in an email reports that support for Amendment 2 has plummeted. Amendment 2 is supported by Democrats John Morgan and Charlie Crist. Support is also fading for Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial campaign.

Tampa Bay Times political Editor Adam C. Smith reports:

“The race between Rick Scott and Charlie Crist for Florida governor has long been seen as a toss-up, and recent polls bolster that perception of a campaign that could go either way.  But conventional wisdom among Florida’s political elite has shifted decidedly in Gov. Scott’s favor, the latest Tampa Bay Times Florida Insider Poll shows.

When we surveyed more than 130 of Florida’s savviest political hands seven weeks ago, a slight majority predicted Scott would beat Crist. This week, two thirds of our Florida Insiders – including 38 percent of the Democrats participating – said they expect Scott to beat former Gov. Crist.” [Emphasis added]

Are the plummeting numbers for Amendment 2 having an impact on the race for governor?

According to News-Press.com:

potpoll0924

Chart courtesy of News-Press.com. For a larger view click on the image.

The SurveyUSA/WFLA tracking poll finds that 53 percent of likely voters support Amendment 2, 32 percent oppose and another 15 percent are undecided. To pass, the initiative needs to top the 60 percent mark.

In Southwest Florida, those numbers drop to 48 percent in favor, 38 percent against, with the remainder unsure.

It’s a far cry from the halcyon days of summer when a Quinnipiac poll found nearly 90 percent support for the measure.

The SurveyUSA poll marks the worst showing to date for the initiative and only more data will tell us whether this is an outlier or a trend. Other polls in September show the measure hovering just above or below the critical 60 percent mark.

Despite this bad bit of polling news for backers, The News-Press forecast model puts the probability of Amendment 2 passing at 63.9 percent. Our model, based on all available data, predicts a 61.2 percent to 38.8 percent outcome.

The SurveyUSA poll of 588 likely voters was taken Sept. 19-22 and has a margin of error of +/-4.1 percent.

Barney Bishop III, President and CEO of Barney Bishop Consulting, LLC, in a Context Florida op-ed states:

As time goes by, it appears that Amendment 2 is facing serious opposition from likely voters.

[ … ]

But to get to the core of the proponents’ arguments, their message is pretty simple: Medical pot is needed to help the sick and dying.

Though simple and straight-forward, it’s just not true. Medical pot won’t be for just the sick and dying and therein lies the problem that the proponents must face if the amendment has a chance of passage.

The reason is because of the “loopholes” that have been thoroughly discussed by this author and by many others.

Interestingly, the proponents’ campaign manager simply answers the questions by stating that our side is simply using scare tactics.
OK, that could be true, but are you going to show how our arguments are actually false, or just claim that we’re wrong.

Because if all you’re going to do is to cry foul, then the arguments have validity until you prove otherwise.

First and foremost, Amendment 2 is not needed because Florida is already in the process of procuring rules for Charlotte’s Web, the low-THC, high-CBD oil that is extracted from weed to help sick patients.

Read more.

Bishop concludes his op-ed with, “So, dudes, let me come clean. I’m a former pothead. The difference between me and you is that I can live without it. Unfortunately, you don’t want to. Amendment 2 isn’t about medical pot. It’s about high-THC pot, period. If law enforcement is against it and the medical profession is against it, it makes sense that it’s not right for Florida.”

Climate Reality Conveniently Lost in New York City

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When former Vice President Al Gore helped lead a parade of the faithful down New York’s Sixth Avenue this past Sunday in the “People’s Climate March,” it was lamentable to see how deluded so many have become about the real causes and effects of climate change. The fearful souls who confidently joined Al in the march either are unaware or unconcerned with how utterly lost they are between what is real and what Al and the President are telling them about climate change. Climate reality it seems got conveniently lost in the Big Apple this week.

Their President Barack Obama, in his address to the UN Climate Summit, continued to stress the need to eliminate an atmospheric trace gas for the sake of saving the planet. So committed are the flock that follow preacher Al and preacher Barack, that they simply have divorced themselves from the climate reality that surrounds them, a reality that is about to make life on planet Earth for much more difficult.

What is this ‘new climate reality?”

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People’s Climate March, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, in New York. AP Photo/Mel Evans.

Here are some of the life changing facts not discussed by the President, Al or others leading the climate festivities this week:

  1. THERE IS NO GLOBAL WARMING! The battle to end global warming has already been won – there has been no growth in the Earth’s average temperatures in the troposphere (where we live) for over eighteen years! Congratulations Mr. President you actually did fulfill one of your campaign promises. The cruel irony is of course, you had nothing to do with it. The faithful continued the march even though for most of the last two decades we have heard about global warming, there wasn’t any!
  2. The planet’s oceans and atmospheres are not in the so-called “pause” ready to restart warming at some future date – they are in fact COOLING! For eleven years now the oceans have been cooling and the atmosphere for most of that time. This is fundamental and not subject to negotiation. The cooling of the planet is a total violation of the UN’s failed CO2 driven climate models. On the other hand these climate trends are in complete accord with the significantly more reliable solar activity models that use natural cycles to predict climate. As a result of following this ‘best available science,’ my Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC) has racked up what at least one PhD investigative journalist has said, is the best track record of climate prediction in the United States.
  3. The most vital piece of information which the leaders of the global warming (a.k.a. climate change) religion failed to disclose to their followers was that A NEW POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS COLD CLIMATE HAS BEGUN. The public is intentionally being kept in the dark by the current administration in Washington on the matter of this new, hazardous, cold epoch. Unfortunately, if it repeats as similar past cold periods, it will be devastating for the planet’s agriculture. The one billion who already struggle daily to find enough food to eat are about to face their worst trial for survival in recorded history! If prominent Russian climate scientists are correct and the cold is at the level of the “little Ice Age” then the global suffering will be ‘biblical’ in scale.

For the ‘church of climate blindness,’ their high priests, and their happily self-deluded flock, this news of an impending dangerous cold climate will likely go un-communicated by the US government and their complicit media co-conspirators. History has also shown that those who make decisions based on what they want to believe instead of what the facts tell them, are the ones who pay the worst price. They are the ones who are least prepared for the adversity that the facts tell them is about to strike.

So, in what may be the most public display of cognitive dissonance in US history, a large portion of the American people celebrated along with those marching in New York City this week, reinforcing their belief that mankind controls the climate. They remain oblivious to the all-powerful Sun that it is about to inconveniently lower the boom on that notion, with a vengeance!

EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo is a Union of Concerned Scientists banner at the People’s Climate March in New York City, 20 September 2014. SOURCE: Kate Cell, UCS.

Is the Democrat Candidate for Florida’s House District 72 seat a Parrot or a Goat?

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Democrat Greg Para is running for the Florida House of Representatives in District 72. Para’s campaign website states, “Greg is a former senior sales and marketing manager in the industrial and energy sectors.  He is a current and former small business owner, including a successful painting business, an educational training company, and Para’s Parrots.”

A varied business background to be sure. But has Para been “successful” in his business ventures?

According to his Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interest – Form 6, Para has no liabilities, assets of $4,500 (a 2006 Dodge van $3,500, and Para’s Parrots, Inc. $1,000)  and a net worth as of May 2014 of $7,000. Para declares that his annual income is solely from government agencies totaling $38,758 ($17,062 from State of Florida, $10,560 from the Navy and $11,136 in disability payments).

goat programIt appears from his public disclosure that he has not been very successful as the President of Greg Para, Inc., founded in 2004. This is interesting because he and his wife Pearl Dahmen Para, Vice-President of Greg Para, Inc., co-authored a book titled “The GOAT Program”. According to the abstract, “THE GOAT PROGRAM is a systematic approach to success.” Para is described in the “About The Author” section as follows:

Greg Para is a former Fortune 500 manager, corporate executive, successful businessman and creator of THE GOAT PROGRAM. As featured on television’s Beyond The Bottom Line, he used GOAT when he and his family moved to Florida with no contacts or money and created a successful business in 30 days. As a parent, professional speaker and trainer, Greg touches and inspires teens and entrepreneurs.

Perhaps Greg Para should re-read his own book? Para’s creation of a “successful business in 30 days” is unproven after 10-years in business according to his Form 6. If you go to www.TheGoatProgram.com it defaults to Para’s campaign website. Is the goat business a gone business? Para also sells parrots. However if you Google Para’s Parrots it also defaults to his campaign website.

Para was a volunteer with Save Our Seabirds. According to a July 2013  article in The Observer by City Editor Robin Hartill, Para led a protest against the organization. The protest accused Save Our Seabirds of having rats, dead birds and mold in their facility. Hartill reported, “Here’s what Sarasota city staff didn’t find at Save Our Seabirds during an unannounced inspection June 20 [2013]: rats or black mold. The facility was clean, filled with visitors and free of rats and dead birds…” Oops, false alarm.

Para on his campaign website states he is, “active with Florida Veterans for Common Sense, a veterans’ advocacy and assistance organization.” Florida Veterans for Common Sense began as an anti-Katherine Harris political advocacy organization, it has not changed its political focus. The group petitioned to become a member of the Sarasota County Veterans Commission. The request was denied because it was not a non-profit veterans’ advocacy organization (501c) but rather a political organization with a strong left wing bent. Another Para misstatement?

Recently Para took two interesting positions at a Sarasota Tiger Bay candidate forum.

Para opposes a bill introduced by FL Rep. Greg Steube “[T]hat would have allowed Florida teachers with military or law enforcement experience to carry guns if their school district signed off.” Para stated, “I am not a proponent of having anybody other than the sheriff’s department or police to be able to protect my children.” Having served in the U.S. Navy Para must know the importance of responding to deadly force in a timely manner with appropriate force to defend oneself. Surely he knows, based on response times to school shootings, that by the time the police arrive on the scene the event is over. The students have no chance unless there is a significant deterrent on campus. What Para is actually saying is let the children die because I am anti-Second Amendment.

Para also wants to restrict, as does President Obama and the EPA, Florida’s ability to produce cheap and reliable power.

Zac Anderson from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported, “The Republican-controlled Legislature repealed two of former Gov. Charlie Crist’s signature energy initiatives in 2012, proposals that aimed to establish a ‘cap and trade’ system for carbon emissions while requiring electric utilities to generate a certain percentage of their power from renewable energy… Para told the Tiger Bay crowd that the lack of momentum on renewable energy is the result of lobbying by big utility companies, which donate large sums to lawmakers ‘so they don’t have to worry about competition’.” This is especially interesting given Para lists working for “the energy sector” on his resume.

Cap and trade is all about taxing and regulating CO2 emissions. This is part of the global warming, now climate change, narrative used to impose unsustainable regulations on the energy industry. Sean Hackbarth in his column “Broken Windows: The Flawed Economic Logic of EPA’s Carbon Regulations“, writes:

One unseen cost of EPA’s attempt to restructure the power grid, will be the shutdown of reliable coal-fired power plants. For instance, Duane Highley, CEO of Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. and Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc., told Arkansas Business he “would prefer to invest in scrubbers” for the 1,480-megawatt plant near Redfield, “and let it run for another 20 or 30 years” rather than shut it down.

What’s more, enormous investments that have already been made to many of these plants to make them meet other EPA standards. Take the Ferry Power Station in Hatfield, PA. The plant’s owner installed $650 million of scrubber technology in 2009, but closed it four years later because of more EPA regulations.

During a July 23 [2014] hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) summed it up when she said that EPA’s regulations will force the premature retirement of efficient, low-cost coal-fueled generation; lead to the potential loss of billions of dollars in investments made over the last decade to make coal plants cleaner; require construction of higher-cost replacement generation; and increase natural gas prices.

Like Charlie Crist, Para is a proponent of destroying Florida’s energy producing infrastructure. Para, like Crist, wants to close all coal and natural gas plants in Florida and replace them with costly and inefficient renewable energy plants – wind and solar. This position will impact every Floridian with higher energy prices. But Para and Crist know that.

Florida District 72 voters need to ask themselves: Is Greg Para a parrot for the Democrat agenda or a Democrat goat?

When Guardianship becomes Human Trafficking

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Florida Statute Sec. 787.06 – Human Trafficking

1. (c) The [Florida State] Legislature finds that traffickers use various techniques to instill fear in victims and to keep them enslaved. Some
traffickers keep their victims under lock and key. However, the most frequently used practices are less obvious techniques that include isolating
victims from the public and family members; confiscating … identification documents; using or threatening to use violence toward victims or their families; telling victims that they will be imprisoned … if they contact authorities; and controlling the victims’ funds by holding the money ostensibly for safekeeping.

(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that the perpetrators of human trafficking be penalized for their illegal conduct and that the victims of trafficking be protected and assisted by this state and its agencies.

“The Legislature finds that human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery,” which it is, and it proliferates in the Sunshine State, where elders have amassed in numbers greater than in any other state. Holding scores of thousands of elders in guardianship, the State of Florida reaps at least many millions of dollars from its Wards every year and from desperate families trying to release their parents from state control.

How does guardianship qualify as “human trafficking”?

This article does not allege that every guardianship, whether in Florida or any other state, meets the criteria of human trafficking; however, many, if not most public and professional guardianships match most of the elements of trafficking, specifically:

  1. The victims or Wards are kept under lock and key.
  2. They are transported away from their homes without their consent and oftentimes without their comprehension of where they are being taken or for what reason and for what period of time.
  3. Isolation is a key element of the typical lives of state Wards, including absolute or near-total separation from family and participation in public activities.
  4. Identification documents, whether driver licenses, Social Security cards, or passports, are routinely taken from elders too feeble to use vehicles or travel anywhere.
  5. Verbal attacks, incarceration, and Baker Act imprisonments are part and parcel of the tactics used against both Wards and their families attempting to visit or comfort them during the traumas of guardianship.
  6. Use of punitive measures against Wards and their families is rampant when reports against guardians are made to the authorities.
  7. The key element of guardianship abuse is the controlling of funds belonging to the Ward, most often spent on extravagant attorney and guardianship fees, frequently totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year or so of forced guardianship.
  8. Regardless of the laws in place in every state, Wards are trafficked by professionals who fear no consequences or penalties for their illegal conduct.

Although unlisted as an element of trafficking, the widespread use of physical and chemical restraints is common to both guardianships and trafficking. Thus, guardianship becomes trafficking when helpless elders are restrained by pill mills and tethers, such that they are either unable to process sensory input due to excessive pharmaceuticals or unable to move themselves as normal human beings do day-in and day-out.

I am witness to every one of the elements of trafficking used upon my Father, Al Katz, an 89-year-old Holocaust Survivor, suffering guardianship abuse in Manatee County/Bradenton, Florida, where he vacationed over the years. To begin at the end of the list, Dad was tethered to many beds in various institutions and simultaneously injected with Haldol, a narcotic that induced horrific flashbacks to the Holocaust and filled my Father with overwhelming fears.

Mind-altering pharmaceuticals provide a steady pill mill stream in virtually every professional guardianship, causing once-alert Wards to exhibit what might be called the “foster care stare” or drooling and inattentive behaviors. Indeed, my Dad’s pharmaceutical menu encompassed multiple doses of narcotics and psychotropics each day, despite the absence of any medical conditions more dire than very mild heart congestion and minimal arthritis.

The Baker Act is a widely-used punitive measure incorporating the trafficking elements of physical restraints, pill mill pharmaceuticals, and lock-and-key isolation of Wards from the public and their families.

DAD CONGFRONTS ASHLEY BUTLER 9-24-2009 MMH

Holocaust survivor Al Katz confronts Ashley Butler.

Via the Baker Acting of Wards into forced institutionalizations, Wards at least temporarily lose all of their civil rights of freedom of expression and movement. In Dad’s case, his forced institutionalization entailed total isolation from the public and family for three weeks, while he was secluded in the desolate basement of a metropolitan hospital behind layers of steel, locked doors and guards posted, as if he were a maximum security prisoner but literally with fewer rights afforded to him. Held under lock and key by the State of Florida, Dad had been taken from his home and kept at a site unknown to him and to his family week upon week, re-living terrifying experiences of the Holocaust.

Identification documents were taken from Dad and ultimately returned after months of requests to his guardian. Even Dad’s car was taken by his guardian and hidden at an unknown location for approximately eight months. Other valuable possessions, such as a Da Vinci watch, possibly worth $70,000, were taken into the custody of the guardian and never returned to Dad or his estate either before or after he passed
away.

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Holocaust survivor Al Katz while in guardianship.

In countless guardianship cases across the United States, family members are forbidden to visit their aging parents and are arrested for their attempts to do so, whether on Mother’s Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, or the Jewish High Holy Days. In states where elders are not safe from heinous crimes, their own beloved children are zealously prosecuted for bringing their parents cards and flowers on special occasions.

This is indeed trafficking, when the isolation of elders is enforced by the prosecutions of children trying to visit them in institutions of imprisonment.

Those children who are allowed to visit their parents are frequently court-ordered to pay facility staff to supervise their visits at the cost of $100 per hour or more. Missed visits or missed minutes can never be made up, and little moms are thereby left lonesome if their sons or daughters cannot afford to pay exorbitant sums for visitation rights, miss their flights, or get trapped in traffic delaying their arrivals. In Escambia County, Florida, three doting sons are routinely issued court orders entailing pages of rules and restrictions detailing how and when they can visit their mom, exactly what they are permitted to say to her, and imposing hefty charges for their supervised visits.

Whenever the three sons have reported guardian misconduct to the authorities, the retribution against them has been swift, and threats are constantly made against the Ward’s family members, punitive motions are filed in court, and the sanctions are granted via court orders. For years, the sons have been forced to fight in court to see their own mother, as her health declines from loneliness and constant anxiety and her assets and theirs dwindle.

Every wealthy Ward is a deluge of income to the State of Florida, feeding the guardianship industry through vast payments to lawyers, guardians, pharmaceutical companies, medical practitioners, social service agencies, nursing homes, courts, and hospitals. The money just rocks and rolls into a massive feeder system until the Wards and their families literally change economic status from upper to barely middle class or beneath. Homes are lost, and fortunes are found – by the trafficking community.

In the case of Ida Pavioni, a wealthy Italian spinster living very well for years in Manatee County, Florida, with her devoted niece, also wealthy, all of their combined real properties and liquid assets were consumed by the same guardian who forcibly put Al Katz, my Dad, into isolation and lockdown, hid his car, and removed boxes of his possessions from his home, never to be returned. Likewise, Ida’s prize large nativity scene, made by a renowned Italian sculptor, was taken by the same guardian, allegedly to be donated to an undisclosed “non-profit” organization rather than to her beloved niece.

In four separate lawsuits, Ida’s niece was sued by the guardian until she met financial doom and became homeless. After years in guardianship and endless unsuccessful court battles by Ida’s niece to be able to visit her aunt, Ida died lonesome and lower class.

The loathsome system that leaves Wards lonesome is a viable white collar avenue for trafficking of elders for profit in modern-day human slavery, in which the wages of Wards earned over their lifetimes are gleaned through gluttony violating the consensus and conscience of society.

A Game Changer—Law Center Reveals National Strategy to Defend Traditional Marriage

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Pastor Emery Moss (L), Pastor Danny Holliday, and Evangelist Janet Boynes listen during the Thomas More Law Center press conference announcing national strategy to defend traditional marriage.

The Thomas More Law Center, a national, nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI held a press conference yesterday to reveal its national legal strategy to combat the slew of recent federal court rulings which have overturned state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center disclosed that a legal team has been formed to file friend-of-the-court briefs (amicus briefs) on behalf of a Coalition of African-American pastors and Christian leaders. The legal team consists of the Law Center’s senior trial counsel, Erin Mersino, and co-counsels William R. Wagner and John S. Kane of Lansing, MI.

Thompson explained, “In its briefs, the Law Center reflects the voice of a majority of African-Americans that discrimination because of one’s sexual preference is not the same thing as racial discrimination and that tradition and morality should not be discarded as a basis of the law; as the pro-homosexual judges have done in their opinions.”

Several pastors representing the African-American community spoke at the press conference, including Bishop Samuel Smith, and Pastors Danny Holliday and Emery Moss. Evangelist Janet Boynes, a former lesbian and a member of the group, also spoke. In eloquent and at times fiery words, they all defended the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Thus far, the Thomas More Law Center has filed 2 amicus briefs on behalf of the Coalition involving petitions for review in the US Supreme Court: Herbert v. Kitchen, an appeal of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturning Utah’s law defining traditional marriage and Rainey v. Bostic, an appeal of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturning Virginia’s law defining traditional marriage.

Additionally, the Thomas More Law Center has filed an amicus brief in Deboer v. Snyder, an appeal of a Detroit federal court decision overturning Michigan’s law on traditional marriage. That case is awaiting a ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Bishop Samuel Smith strongly affirms traditional marriage during the Thomas More Law Center press conference announcing national strategy to defend traditional marriage.

Bishop Samuel Smith, of the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship consisting of 25, 000 churches worldwide representing over 5 million laity, stated: “Every once in a while, the homosexual agenda makes an effort to redefine morality, but history tells us, that every culture that has embraced a homosexual culture has suffered decadence, depravity, and decline.”

Pastor Danny Holliday, Pastor of Victory Baptist exclaimed, “We all know that the 14th Amendment was made because Black folk were considered as property. Gays have never been considered as property.”

Evangelist Janet Boynes, a former lesbian and member of the Coalition related from her own experience, “There is no substitution for the role of a father and a mother. I know this to be true. I was in a homosexual lifestyle with a woman who had two children and I tried to fulfill the role of a dad. As time went on, I realized that I wasn’t equipped nor built to be a daddy.”

Pastor Emery Moss, of Strictly Biblical, said, “The American Revolution had taxation without representation and we’re going to have marriage legislation without representation. It’s un-American and all Americans should stand up against it.”

Thompson commented, “The Law Center will continue to file amicus briefs in several significant cases concerning the definition of marriage in order to convey the unique voice of the African-American Christian community on this issue crucial to the survival of our families, culture and nation.”

Any pastor interested in joining the Coalition should contact the Thomas More Law Center.

Islamic State responds to President Obama bombing Syria

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Some news commentators, like Bob Beckel, have praised the bombings ordered by President Obama in Syria and point out that Muslim nations participated in the attacks. Others question the motivation of the Sunni Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia, joining the fight against the Islamic State (IS or ISIS).

The primary question: Will President Obama’s plan work?

In his column “Sorry, America Cannot Defeat Islamic Terror Groups“, former federal agent and terrorism expert David Gaubatz states, “I am sure most readers are confused as to why Saudi Arabia and four other Sunni dominated countries are attacking their own (ISIS).  First they are doing so for Islam and not America.”

Gaubatz notes, “The answer [to their participation] is within the thousands of Islamic books produced each year by the Saudi government.  Essentially these countries fully understand the ISIS Muslims can never be defeated by simply killing individuals.  To them the ISIS terrorists who die in Syria and Iraq by their hands are doing so for the betterment of the Islamic ideology.”

“[The] Saudis and the others know Islam will survive for thousands of more years as long as Islamic terrorist groups are the targets of the infidels [kufars], and not  the ideology itself,” Gaubatz concludes.

The Islamic State (IS or ISIS) has responded to the bombings ordered by President Obama and supported by a loose coalition of five Sunni Muslim states. MEMRI reports:

On September 23, 2014, the U.S. and its allies targeted the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat Al- Nusra (JN) strongholds in Al-Raqqa and Idlib, Syria. In reaction, IS and JN members and their online supporters virulently condemned the attacks and threatened retaliation against the West.

Below is a sample of social media responses to the coalition’s airstrikes inside Syria:

ISIS responds to bombing in Syria

Abu Al-‘Ainaa’ Al-Khurasani (@abo_alainaa), another prominent voice in the jihadi movement, tweeted on September 23, 2014: “Woe upon America, and woe upon its people, and woe upon you Arab rulers, feel your throats, [and] say farewell to your thrones…”

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A user who calls himself Ibn Ahmad wrote on Facebook: “The Islamic State opened the gates of Hell to the Kufar with shaykh [Abu Muhammad Al-]Adnani’s speech… As I said some weeks ago, the West will see attacks in their homes worse than Al Qaeda’s terror, bi idnillah [God willing]. They dared to bomb innocent people in Dawlah [the IS] so hell is open for [th]em..”

 

What many news commentators and members of the Obama administration fail to recognize is that IS is more than a terrorist group. Unlike al Qaeda, the Islamic State is an offensive jihad based upon fundamentalist Islam, its members are Mohammedans waging jihad against all “kufars” (non-believers).

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Screen capture from the Islamic State “Flames of War” movie. The American narrator is on the far left.

To categorize IS as just another terrorist organization misunderstands its motivation and underestimates its strength.

Other terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and Boco Haram have been waging a defensive jihad based upon perceived wrongs carried out against Islam by kufars. The Islamic State is different in that it is focused on reestablishing the Caliphate. While is uses terror as a tactic, its strategy is global in nature and well thought out. IS is conquering large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq. IS is establishing a Caliphate on the fly, if you will. IS has developed a five-year plan to spread the Caliphate from Africa to China and beyond.

Question: What is President Obama’s five-year plan to stop IS?

Bombings alone will not defeat IS. To stop IS it is necessary to retake the land it now posses and prevent the expansion of IS. It appears President Obama, with his no boots on the ground, is not prepared to do this.  Therefore America and this Sunni coalition will fail in accomplishing what President Obama has called for – the destruction of the Islamic State.

To better understand the strategy of the Islamic State watch this IS video titled “Flames of War” (WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES):

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