US Appeasement of Iran Endangers the entire Persian Gulf

/in , , , /by

Following the Iconoclast post yesterday on the “Two Faces of Sen. Dianne Feinstein”, there was an exchange of views with Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center and Sarah Stern, President of the Endowment for Middle East Truth.  We were discussing a  matter related to the threat that Iran posed  to the US in the Western Hemisphere; the Administration succumbing to de facto Iranian nuclear hegemony in the Persian Gulf. Daniel Pipes in an, NRO-The Corner article, drew attention to  Administration appeasement enabling Iran to strike deals with Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This resulted in  Iran gaining potential control over the strategic Straits of Hormuz, “Has Iran gained a Foothold in the Arabian Peninsula”?

Pipes’ important article appeared while Washington and the world media were focused on the implementation of the Six Powers Joint Plan of Action, portions of which were released by the White House yesterday.  Other salient provisions  of which were sequestered at the request of UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).   He drew attention to the agreements both the UAE and Sultanate of Oman:

According to a sensational report by Awad Mustafa in Defense News, a Gannett publication, not only has Tehran signed an agreement with the UAE  over three disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz, but it has also reached a possibly even more important accord with the government of Oman. Both of these agreements have vast implications for the oil trade, the world economy, and Iranian influence.

According to an unnamed “high level UAE source,” secretive talks taking place over six months led to a deal on the Greater and Lesser Tunbs finalized on Dec. 24: “For now, two of the three islands are to return to the UAE while the final agreement for Abu Musa is being ironed out. Iran will retain the sea bed rights around the three islands while the UAE will hold sovereignty over the land.”

This is big news, but yet bigger potentially is the source’s stating that “Oman will grant Iran a strategic location on Ras Musandam mountain, which is a very strategic point overlooking the whole gulf region. In return for Ras Musandam, Oman will receive free gas and oil from Iran once a pipeline is constructed within the coming two years.”

Both agreements center on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil passageway and vulnerability.

  • The UAE deal involves the tiny but strategic islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs near the straits, occupied by Iranian forces since 1971, just as the UAE emerged as an independent country.
  • It’s not clear what granting to the Iranians “a strategic location on Ras Musandam mountain” means but Musandam is the very tip of the Straits of Hormuz and Tehran winning access to any sort of military position there could enhance their ability to block the oil trade as well as make trouble on the peninsula.

Oman’s role in facilitating the UAE-Iran talks, says the source, was approved by Washington: “Oman was given the green light from Iran and the US to reach deals that would decrease the threat levels in the region and offset the Saudi Arabian influence in the future by any means.”

Couple this development with what happened at a US Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing Wednesday involving the Obama emissary who facilitated those back channel conversations with Tehran in Oman, Puneet Tawar.   The Global Affairs blog of The Hill in a post noted how two Republican minority members, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Idaho Senator James Risch stopped Tawar’s confirmation, “Rubio, Risch block Obama nominee over ‘back channel’ talks with Iran”:

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) are holding up a vote on a State Department nominee over his involvement in back channel talks with Iran that have infuriated Republicans, The Hill has learned.

The Republican lawmakers prevented the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from voting Wednesday to confirm White House Iran adviser Puneet Talwar as the new Assistant Secretary of State for political military affairs.

Talwar was one of several U.S. officials who met in secret with Iranian negotiators in Oman in 2012 and 2013 before multilateral talks officially resumed following President Hassan Rouhani’s election in June.

“Sen. Rubio is requesting additional information from Mr. Talwar about his role in the so-called ‘back channel’ outreach to Iran,” a Rubio spokeswoman told The Hill in an email.

[…]

“It focused exclusively on the nuclear issue, so there were no other side discussions underway,” Talwar responded. “And it was merged [with the multi-party talks] after the conversations gained traction.”

In my discussion with Bryen and Stern I drew attention to what an Iranian nuclear hegemon in the Persian Gulf might do to US national interests.  Iran producing a nuclear weapon might threaten US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and possibly its strategic base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.  Both of these facilities   protect the free flow of oil to U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, among others.  Bryen pointed out that Japan may choose an energy deal with Russia rather than risk an oil cutoff from the Gulf if the U.S. is no longer the guarantor.  Such a deal would change the nature of American “pivot to Asia” and alliances there.  If Iran produces nuclear weapons, which it may have already, it is likely to play a form of n-dimensional nuclear Three Card Monte.   If the US capitulates, then the Gulf emirates and the Saudis may have to resort to baksheesh to preserve their access to the Persian Gulf and Straits of Hormuz to make mega-revenues in the world energy trades.  The Saudis at least have pipelines to secure Red Sea ports. The Iranian Shia mullahs on the opposite  shore of the Persian Gulf will simply use hidden nuclear suasion to gain revenues from their despised Sunni members in the Muslim Ummah.

In a Wall Street Journal excerpt  from former Secretary Gates’ memoir, Duty, he criticized the political operatives  populating the West Wing National Security Council (NSC). In contrast to other Administrations,  many Obama NSC advisers are people to whom the Administration owed political favors. Among those he cites are  Tom Donilon, former Clinton era chief of staff at the State Department, who like his  NSC deputy, Denis McDonough, the later is Obama’s current Chief of Staff, had limited  national security groundings.  Early Obama Administration NSC chief, former Marine Gen., Jim Jones criticized Donilon for “his lack of overseas experience”,   telling him “You have no credibility with the military”, according to Bob Woodward’s, Obama’s Wars.  McDonough, prior to joining  Senator Obama’s staff  was a foreign affairs aide to former Senate Majority Leader  Tom Daschle and subsequently served in the same capacity with former Interior Secretary and Colorado Senator Ken Salazar.  We wrote about McDonough’s role in meeting  with Muslim Brotherhood leaders at the 2012 Brookings Doha Qatar Center meetings. Wendy Sherman, a colleague of Donilon at State during the Clinton Administration,   did us no favors over the oil/ food for no nukes deal with  North Korea under Kim Jong -Il, the late father of the current ruler, Kim Jong- Un.   All we received from Ms. Sherman’s efforts were nuclear tests;  test  of ICBMs and exchange of technology to assist Iran in its bomb making.  Now as Undersecretary of State, Sherman has brought us the P5+1 agreement.  As to nuclear bomb making support by North Korea just recall, the pictures we have of Iranian and North Korean scientists assisting Syria in building the nuclear bomb factory on the banks of the Euphrates destroyed by Israel in September 2007.  The Administration has failed in the view of many to meet the sense of the Kissinger adage: “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”.

The Obama Administration has jeopardized potential strategic control of the oil rich Persian Gulf.  Both the UAE and Oman know that. This could present a threat to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean with its stockpile of nuclear weapons and  cruise missiles and B-52 bombers.  As Bryen commented, “When Munich occurred at least the Chamberlain rationale was that it gave the British and French time to prepare for war against Nazi Germany”.  However, what rationale does the Administration have?

The Persian Gulf allies have witnessed the Administration losing resolve in the region causing them to seek whatever cover they can from the predatory hegemon to avoid becoming what Churchill called, “crocodile food”.   Is Israel next?

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

Benghazi: A Tale of Three Senators

/in , , , , /by

In a time where courage is a precious commodity on Capitol Hill, a Democratic U.S. Senator has set an admirable example of statesmanship in stark contrast to two of her former colleagues.

Senator Diane Feinstein of California, the Chair of Senate Intelligence Committee has sounded the alarm over the escalating threat from Jihadist terrorism and released a report in the pursuit of the truth about the terrorist attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11th, 2012.

Senator Feinstein’s words and deeds stand in stark contrast to those of former Senators Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, the former and current Obama administration Secretaries of State.

Senator Feinstein recently correctly defined our enemies as a “very fundamentalist jihadist Islamic community” – in a warning that terrorism is on the rise. During a December 1st interview on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Senator Feinstein noted,

I think there is a real displaced aggression in this very fundamentalist jihadist Islamic community. And that is, that the West is responsible for everything that goes wrong and that the only thing that’s going to solve this, is Islamic sharia law and the concept of the caliphate. And I see more groups, more fundamentalists, more jihadists, more determined to kill to get where they want to get. So, it’s not an isolated phenomenon. You see these groups spread a web of connections. And this includes North Africa, it includes the Middle East, it includes other areas as well.

It took great courage for Senator Feinstein to publicly identify the enemy and describe the basics of the doctrine that underpins their actions. She knew full well that her democratic base will be very uncomfortable with her bold truth about a problem that is devastating our country yet no one wants to identify including the president. Her words were like a breath of fresh air. Few Republicans, much less Democrats, on Capitol Hill have done as good a job of articulating the threat we face from Jihad.

Unfortunately, Feinstein’s former colleague, Secretary of State John Kerry, is not nearly as well informed as she is. He has uttered nothing to indicate that he has any grasp of the enemy threat doctrine and what makes our enemies “tick.”

In fact, just this week, Kerry parroted the long-discredited theory that terrorism is caused by poverty. In remarks delivered during a visit to the Vatican, Kerry proclaimed poverty to be the “root cause” of terrorism.

This isn’t the first time Kerry has regurgitated such nonsense. Speaking at the Global Counterterrorism Forum in the wake of the Jihadist terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, Kerry called for “providing more economic opportunities” for youth to prevent them from being recruited to terrorism.

Perhaps Kerry has forgotten that Osama Bin Laden was a multimillionaire who left a life of luxury in Saudi Arabia to wage global jihad? Or maybe he forgets that the current leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was no pauper either. He was a professor of surgery and practicing physician at one time in his native Egypt before he turned to jihad. Then there is current captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was well off enough to come to the United States to earn a degree in engineering from North Carolina A&T.

There is no actual evidence that poverty causes terrorism. Jihadist terrorism has its roots in the doctrine known as sharia. Jihadists have come to commit acts of terror from a variety of lifestyles, nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds. There is no evidence to indicate that poverty is a prerequisite for Jihadist terrorism, despite what Kerry says.

In fact, Kerry’s statement shows a profound confusion and naïveté when it comes to the war with which we are faced. Fortunately, Senator Feinstein doesn’t have the same problem that Secretary Kerry has.

In fact, as Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Feinstein has just released a new, bipartisan report on the Jihadist terror attack on US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11th, 2012, that goes a long way toward dispelling some of the myths surrounding that attack and assigning accountability for what went wrong.

Among the report’s findings:

  • The attack was NOT a spontaneous act of violence touched off by a protest in reaction to a video about the prophet Mohammed.
  • The U.S. government did not do enough to prevent the attack or protect the diplomatic facilities.
  • The Obama State Department had ample warning of a dangerous security situation in Benghazi but failed to take proper action to secure lives and property.
  • The Obama intelligence community issued statements after the attack that turned out to be wrong and then was slow in correcting those incorrect statements.

Feinstein’s committee’s candid, accurate report is quite different from the testimony before the Senate delivered by Senator Feinstein’s former colleague, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on January 23rd, 2013. Who can forget the shameful prevarications and doublespeak from Hillary Clinton that day?

But worst of all was this cynical and infamous passage:

With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest? Or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they would go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?

Congratulations to Senator Feinstein for identifying the mistakes for which Hillary Clinton was ultimately responsible and laying out the facts for the American people that Benghazi was PREVENTABLE, because to us, it DOES make a difference!

Winning Republican Strategy: Freedom vs Control

/in , , /by

The difference between Democrat and Republican political philosophies has never been so clearly divided – boiling down to two words: FREEDOM vs CONTROL. Patriotic Americans understand the freedoms set forth under representational government by: “We the People.”

Question is: “Will Republicans unite to play their winning card?”

While the ever-so rigid left marches in lockstep doggedly sticking to failing policies: the age-old Democrat Tax & Spend, disregard for $18 trillion debt, over-reaching regulations that require semi-trucks to haul paperwork into the halls of Congress (of course, never to be read) … “The Age of Paranoia” is alive as NSA spies devour our mail, drones threaten flyovers and voters appear totally disgusted with “Big Sam” CONTROL.

Job creation is barely mentioned these days, except in a photo op. Instead Liberals steadfastly march towards income redistribution (a.k.a. income equality), while using inflammatory social issues to paint Republicans as “mean” and “uncompromising.” Don’t they realize it’s Republicans who are anti-Big Sam? While America is witnessing the high-speed decline of our culture, plummeting education scores, behind-the-scenes rogue powers spy on citizens for untold reasons … why?

It would be a blessing if the TEA Party vs Establishment dogfight could unite for the sake of freedom! It’s credibly possible that their conflict is fueled by a Liberal machete wielding power to tarnish and strike down the opposition. In reality, qualifying reasons why Republicans lost in 2012 had more to do with “hidden scandals” and little to do with political punditry. The best medicine, at this critical juncture, is a Republican truce to welcome “ALL Americans under the Republican Party Banner of freedom” – it could be an effortless victory.

Ronald Reagan would advise the party to adhere to the 11th amendment: “Not to speak ill of your own.” However, Reagan’s masterful leadership skills would have elevated him to the higher level than in-fighting and name-calling. (Reagan was a long time Democrat before he saw the light, which is why we should encourage all Americans to join us!)

In reality, free-minded citizens of all stripes can tackle a healing America by joining under the “United We Stand Republican Banner.” This is our best hope! Dr. Ben Carson, the new star on the block, wisely expressed “politics are about principle, not party!” Believe me, with this kind of clarity, America will soon shine again!

As Republicans spat, behind the scenes, the Liberal master plan is scheming to destroy our best candidates through lies like: “The GOP has no ideas.” Hard-working House Republicans would be frustrated to hear this as their 150 bills to create jobs, cut the budget and audit the Fed are disregarded. Harry Reid simply side-tracks them on his desk with no chance for a senatorial concluding vote. After all, Harry Reid’s stealth plan for massive amnesty requires jobs for our new citizens, as he needs to buy their votes for jobs to assure a one-party system!

Harry Reid’s stranglehold on America is camouflaged through the pen of his co-conspirators, the American liberal press majority. After all, his greedy power grab is unquenchable and must remain a secret because on a daily basis Big Sam imposes piles of regulations, treads on private property rights, free speech, and tugs at the heartstrings of liberal voters to trap them into a web of lifetime of dependency and strict control.

A renewed Republican Banner may initially create adamant opposition. When the ego is put aside and our traditions are honored, the efforts of our Founders will prevail. “The TEA Party was inspired by the Spirit of the Boston Tea Party of 1773 whose rallying cry was `No taxation without representation,’ and the modern TEA Party movement portends political fairness to benefit the American people through fiscal responsibility and less government interference in the lives of citizens. While the Republican Party was formed in 1854, by people who were opposed to slavery, and today freedoms principles remain lofty to support the US Constitution and inspire Americans towards “The American Dream.”

Uniting under freedoms principles will save America!

Economy – America’s free-market economy with a pro-business government will re-invigorate confidence.

National Defense – Republicans support President Ronald Reagan’s approach to America’s national defense as essential: Peace through strength, based on freedom and the will to defend it.

Health Care – Republicans support common-sense reforms that will lower costs, ensure quality health care that Americans deserve, and end lawsuit abuse while protecting the physician-patient relationship.

Education – Republicans believe in a world-class system of primary and secondary education with high standards so all students can reach their potential and parents are empowered.

Energy – Republicans believe in energy independence that encourages responsible production of all types of energy in a responsible and clean way, while opposing Cap & Trade Legislation to impose a national energy tax on families and small business that would kill jobs and raise utility prices.

Courts – Republicans believe a judge’s role is to follow US laws, and our Constitution as opposed to making decisions from the bench.

Let “Election 2014” evolve into a clear TWO word choice: Freedom vs Control.

A Message to White America: More Racial Protectionism from Eric Holder and Arne Duncan

/in , , , , /by

When the concept of doing a website was presented to me, initially I scoffed thinking there wouldn’t be enough critical material daily to comment on — boy was I wrong. Every day I am amazed at the insanity I witness in our America and here is another example.

According to a report in The Hill, Attorney General Eric Holder is at it again with his racial preference policies,

Attorney General Eric Holder called upon the nation’s school districts Wednesday to rethink “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies that he said disproportionately punish minorities and push too many students into the justice system. Alarming numbers of young people are suspended, expelled or even arrested for relatively minor transgressions like school uniform violations, schoolyard fights or showing ‘disrespect’ by laughing in class,” Holder said during a speech in Baltimore.

What did his remarks really mean? They accompanied the release of new federal guidance from the departments of Justice and Education encouraging (i.e. threatening) schools to adopt disciplinary policies that are “fair, nondiscriminatory, and effective.” The guidance offers parameters for punishment as governed by federal civil rights protections, alternatives to exclusionary discipline and a comprehensive list of regulations on the books in every state.

So now the US Department of Justice under Eric Holder will use its power to enforce “civil rights protections” in school disciplinary actions. In fact, the DoJ and DoEd are putting schools on notice that they are prepared to use their authority to investigate the claims of racial disparity in the punishment of students.

And of course the American Civil Liberties union (ACLU) is thrilled with this policy. The ACLU offered research showing that black students make up 36 percent of those expelled, though they represent only 15 percent of students.”

Not to be outdone by Holder in the “stuck on stupid” category, Education Secretary Arne Duncan stated, “Positive discipline policies” can actually foster safer school environments, without a heavy reliance on suspensions and expulsions. Schools also must understand their civil rights obligations and avoid unfair disciplinary practices.

I taught high school for one year in Deerfield Beach, Fla and in the end, it was such an enjoyable experience breaking up fights daily, that I decided to return to the combat zone of Afghanistan.

Teachers are already disrespected and attacked, not feared. There were students at Deerfield Beach who steered clear of the lunchroom for fear of being picked on or engaged in a fight. A kid was stabbed while I was on the faculty there.

Yes, this violence on campus was perpetrated 8 out of 10 times by black students, male and female, but it had nothing to do with racial disparity. It had everything to do with a lack of discipline and control.

When a young man took a swing at me while I broke up a beat down that he and three others were giving a young man already on the ground, it had nothing to do with civil rights. It had everything to do with a criminal behavior which does not belong in a learning environment – and he was expelled. Now imagine under these new guidelines and rules, DoJ and DoEd would initiate an investigation.

Liberal progressives don’t want to tackle the problem they created, the decimation of the black family. Fifty years ago only six percent of births in America were out of wedlock Today the number is 72 percent in the black community. There was a time when “acting out” at school resulted in having to stay after school and worse, a call home to mom and dad — talk about a beat down.

Common core — now this — the progressive socialist dream of state-run education is coming to fruition. But what is even more heinous is the message being sent that race is an excuse for bad behavior in our kids, an acceptable excuse at that. It means the death spiral for education in the black community will increase as we overlook or reward the most abhorrent conduct.

Perhaps this is why Holder and Obama want Debo Adegbile as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division considering his defense of Black Panther and cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, when he was leader of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. There is no doubt that someone skilled enough to defend Abu-Jamal would be perfect to institute this policy of racial protectionism of juvenile criminal behavior.

This is my clear and succinct message to white Americans. How long will it be before “you people” realize you have elevated someone to the office of president who abjectly despises you — not to mention his henchman Holder. Combined they are the most vile and disgusting racists — not you.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com.

The “gay marriage” roller-coaster in Utah

/in , , , /by

Utah is the latest “gay marriage” battleground. On Dec. 20 (the Friday before Christmas!) an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled that Utah’s constitutional amendment on marriage is “unconstitutional.” And that’s led to a roller-coaster of legal and political responses in the three weeks since then.

MassResistance has been actively helping the major pro-family activists respond. This includes strategy discussions, an interview on a major drive-time talk-radio station, a robo-call to thousands of activists, and extensive use of our video on“What ‘gay marriage’ did to Massachusetts.”


Listen to Brian Camenker of MassResistance interviewed 
on KNRS radio in Salt Lake City (8 min 56 sec) 

Reaction to Judge’s ruling. On January 2, Brian Camenker of MassResistance was interviewed during the 5 pm radio drive time hour by Ron Arquette of KNRS in Salt Lake City, Utah’s major conservative talk radio station (which also features Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity). The judge’s ruling took the pro-family movement by surprise. A lot of people across the state — including many in the media — were stunned and were wondering what the reaction from conservatives would be.

Given Utah’s recent role as a pro-family stronghold on this issue, it has caught the attention of conservatives across the country. There are 28 other states with similar constitutional amendments. If Utah succumbs, will they be next?

Background: How it got to this point

On Nov. 2, 2004, two-thirds of Utah voters passed a constitutional amendmentthat defined marriage as one man and one woman, and prohibited recognition of any same-sex marriage-like unions. It seemed like the matter was completely settled.

But as they do everywhere else, when the homosexual lobby can’t win legitimately they work through the courts. If this lawsuit is ultimately successful, Utah will be the 9th state to have “gay marriage” forced on it by a court.

On March 25, 2013, homosexual activists in Utah filed a suit in federal court to overturn the state’s constitutional amendment on marriage. It was part of the larger legal assault on DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) that year. Like the DOMA suit, it claimed that the amendment violated the U.S. Constitution.

On April 26, 2013, the US Supreme ruled against DOMA using most of the absurd legal claims — primarily drawing on misreadings of the 14th amendment and the 5th amendment to the U.S. Constitution — that the homosexual lobby was pushing. That initiated the legal assault on Utah and several other states.

The Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City.

The three week “gay marriage” roller-coaster in Utah . . .

The past three weeks have been tumultuous. Here’s what has happened:

1. Federal judge rules “gay marriage” ban is unconstitutional

On Dec. 20, 2013, Judge Shelby issued his bizarre 53-page ruling that shocked even us. One can see why Obama liked him. He went even farther than the U.S. Supreme Court or any other court, in our observation, to institutionalize “gay marriage.” Not only did he completely buy into the 5th and 14th Amendment arguments, but he stated that the right to “gay marriage” was “deeply rooted in the nation’s history”!

This right is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty because it protects an individual’s ability to make deeply personal choices about love and family free from government interference . . . Both same-sex and opposite-sex marriage are therefore simply manifestations of one right — the right to marry — applied to people with different sexual identities.

This is lunacy and legal nonsense. But unfortunately (as we have discussed many times) it’s also the logical conclusion resulting from the weak, pathetic legal arguments that pro-family lawyers have been using. In particular, they consistently have refused to portray homosexuality as in any way destructive or even less desirable than normal, healthy behavior and relationships. And this is where that line of reasoning has led in the hands of liberal judges.

In the Utah case there were two specific factors that (we believe) weighed in favor of the homosexual lobby. First, they managed to get a recent Obama-appointed judge, Robert J. Shelby, who was clearly on the same wavelength as the Administration on this issue.

Second, according to activists we spoke to, the case was poorly handled by the Utah Attorney General’s office. During that time the AG was involved with a scandal and ultimately resigned on Nov. 21. The assistant AG who ran the case was not passionate about it, we were told, and did not fight it particularly zealously, declining to pursue several avenues regarding homosexual behavior, states’ rights, morality, and religious liberty, that might be considered politically incorrect. He also refused to accept help from lawyers supplied by conservative activists. (On Dec. 30, a newly appointed Attorney General, Sean Reyes, took office.)

Shelby is the first federal judge to use the reasoning from the U.S. Supreme Court’s DOMA decision to rule that a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage could not stand. That is very dangerous, in our opinion — and exactly what the homosexual movement has been seeking.

Shelby was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 22, 2012. Both Senators from Utah, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, endorsed his nomination. Sen. Lee described Shelby as “pre-eminently qualified” and predicted that he would be “an outstanding judge.” Obviously, they didn’t get to know him very well.

2. Hundreds of homosexuals immediately request “marriages”. Four counties refuse to cooperate.

The homosexual lobby was extremely well organized for this. Within hours of the ruling, they had hundreds of couples immediately go to county offices to get marriage licenses. According to news reports, well over a thousand same-sex couples received them.

However, in four counties the officials still refused to give marriage certificates to same-sex couples in lieu of specific orders from the Governor or the Legislature, along with their concern about the ultimate legality of the court ruling.

Dec. 20, 2013: Within hours of the ruling, homosexual couples pack the offices applying for marriage licenses in Salt Lake City.
[Photo: Reuters]

3. Both Judge Shelby and Circuit Court of Appeals deny requests for stay of ruling. AG orders counties to issue marriage certificates. Governor files request for stay with U.S. Supreme Court.

Immediately after the ruling, Utah Republican Governor Gary Herbert requested a stay from Judge Shelby while his ruling was appealed. It was denied. Among other things, Judge Shelby made the preposterous statement that “public interest will be harmed by a stay” because it would “violate constitutionally protected rights.”

The Governor then filed a motion for a stay in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.On December 24, the Circuit Court of Appeals also denied the Governor’s request.

That same day, the Utah Attorney General ordered all county clerks — including the four holdout counties — to issue same-sex “marriage” licenses when requested.

The Governor then began to prepare the paperwork to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene with a stay while the appeal of the court ruling was taking place. On December 31 that request was filed.

4. U.S. Supreme court grants stay of ruling until appeal is complete.

On Monday, January 6, there was a pleasant surprise. Justice Sotomayor, one of the liberal Justices, oversees the Utah region regarding emergency orders for stays. She had the option of processing it herself or bringing it before the full Court.

According to news reports, Sotomayor referred the matter to the entire court, which issued the stay without discussion or recorded dissent, thus overruling the Circuit Court’s denial. The homosexual lobby and the media were particularly stunned.

5. Pro-family activists rally, speeches, and MassResistance video and robo-call.

On Wednesday, January 8, the Utah pro-family movement finally came together to confront the “gay marriage” crisis at a lunch-time rally in a restaurant in Orem, UT, a few miles outside of Salt Lake City.

The event was organized by Cherilyn Eagar, a high-profile conservative activist in the state. In 2010 she ran for US Senate in Utah, losing to Mike Lee in the GOP primary. But she continues to have a huge activist following across the state, is aprolific blogger, and regularly interacts with the top politicians there on key conservative issues.

Cherilyn Eagar, center, meets with state activists coming to Jan. 8 rally.

Robo-call from MassResistance. The rally meeting was quickly set up after U.S. Supreme Court stay was announced a few days earlier. Thousands of conservative activists in that part of Utah received a robo-call from Brian Camenker of MassResistance the day before, to inform them of the meeting. As a result, the hall was completely filled!

LISTEN to MassResistance robo-call
inviting Utah activists to rally

At the rally, Eagar played the MassResistance video “What ‘gay marriage’ did to Massachusetts” and gave a speech about how this will also affect the people of Utah.

The MassResistance video is being used to warn Utah citizens across the state!

Also addressing the crowd of over 100 was State Representative LaVar Christensen,the author of the 2004 marriage amendment, who talked about “How we got to this point.” Other speakers included the leader of the Utah Eagle Forum, representatives from United Families International, the Marriage Law Foundation, and other state-wide pro-family groups.


Inside the event people heard from a variety of speakers giving them tools for action.

From all accounts, it was a great success — a jump-start to more organizing and activism across Utah over the coming weeks to re-invigorate the pro-marriage wave that swept the constitutional amendment to a two-thirds vote back in 2004.

6. Governor announces that Utah will not recognize any “gay marriages”

Also on Wednesday, Jan. 8, the Governor released a statement saying that as a result of stay issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, the State of Utah will not recognize any “gay marriages”. That’s because the constitutional marriage statute of Utah is legally still in place, he said.

Not surprisingly, the homosexual lobby and their allies in the mainstream media reacted with outrage. The New York Times quickly published an article talking about the “emotional whiplash” and how homosexuals are “feeling persecuted.” They quoted one activist as saying that “This is an unprecedented step, which inflicts severe harms on more than 1,000 families.”


The liberal media fried over the Governor’s decision. It even got the attention of the Boston Globe.

7. Mormon Church releases statement supporting fight against “gay marriage” in Utah, but does not get involved in the court case.

Many people had been waiting to see if the Mormon Church would get involved. And if not, would it support its members who chose to get in this fight?

For many years, the Mormons were a major force in America confronting the “gay marriage” movement. In particular, the early pro-family victories in Hawaii and the Proposition 8 victory in California were Mormon driven, as in some other states. But since 2008 the Mormons have largely backed off the “gay” issue, presumably due to the vicious and inhuman tactics against them by organized homosexual activists. Nevertheless, they did file amicus briefs in the Prop 8 and DOMA federal court cases.

The announcement by the Mormon Church definitely got the attention of the media. See TV reporthere.

So it was not real surprising on Thursday, Jan. 9, when Church leaders announced that at this time they don’t have any plans to file an amicus brief in this case or be active on the issue.

However, the following day the Church issued a public letter reaffirming its stand on natural marriage and the right of its members to oppose “gay marriage” without being attacked. The language, while not confrontational, was quite clear:

Changes in the civil law do not, indeed cannot, change the moral law that God has established. God expects us to uphold and keep His commandments regardless of divergent opinions or trends in society. His law of chastity is clear: sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife. . .

The Church insists on its leaders’ and members’ constitutionally protected right to express and advocate religious convictions on marriage, family, and morality free from retaliation or retribution. The Church is also entitled to maintain its standards of moral conduct and good standing for members.

It would appear that this letter is important because it gives Mormons in Utah the go-ahead to get into this fight if they are so inclined.

8. Homosexual activists flood into State House demanding state drop appeal

On Friday, January 10, Utah’s homosexual movement flexed its muscles. Over a thousand activists flooded into the State House to demand that Governor Herbert abandon his appeal of the federal court’s “gay marriage” ruling. According to news reports they also delivered a petition of over 58,000 signatures to the governor’s office.


Over a thousand pro-homosexual activists jammed into the Utah State Capitol

to support Judge Shelby’s ruling forcing “gay marriage” on Utah. [Photo: Deseret News]

If nothing else, this action was a shot across the bow demonstrating the strength and organizational ability of the homosexual movement in Utah right now. As in other states, they have clearly been getting fundraising and strategic help from across the country. The Utah pro-family movement has a lot of catching up to do, and not much time to do it.

9. Obama administration: Federal government to recognize phony Utah “gay marriages!”

Also on Jan. 10, the Obama administration added to its contempt for the law (and its militant support for the homosexual agenda) by ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay and announcing it would officially recognize the “gay marriages” that the State of Utah does not recognize. Nor did the fact that the definition of marriage is constitutionally a state issue (according to the DOMA opinion) seem to deter them at all.

To make the point, Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced in an unusual video presentation that same-sex couples in Utah who married will be able to file joint federal income tax returns and receive other marriage benefits such as health insurance for the families of federal employees. The radicals seem to be pretty sure that the appeal is going to go their way.

Coming up: The Appeals Court battle.

It was a harrowing three weeks in Utah. Now comes Phase 2 . . .

The big threat coming is the appeal in the federal Circuit Court. It can take several weeks or months to complete. The homosexuals have a hand-picked team of skilled attack lawyers, plus experience winning these kinds of cases across the country. The Utah Attorney General’s office is relatively inexperienced in this kind of case, and is probably as reluctant to take on the necessary politically-incorrect fight as just about every pro-family attorney who wades into this.

And sadly, given the blatantly unconstitutional and “activist” direction of the American court system on this issue, this case will likely have a huge effect on the once-solid marriage amendments in states across the country. Will this eventually go to the Supreme Court? It’s not something we want to think about.

Right now, the Governor and major politicians in Utah are valiantly standing up to this tyranny, unlike in many other states. But in our opinion, at a certain point unless the conservative grassroots organizations start to show some strength, there will be an draining effect on the conservative politicians due to the liberal media, pressure from profane homosexual activists, and the void left by the Mormon Church’s stepping back on the issue.

We’ll do everything we can to help — and keep you up to date!

Republicans’ War on the Impoverished

/in , , , /by

I have written about the huge opportunity Black dissatisfaction with Obama presents to the Republican Party. It’s time to speak directly to Black Republicans and GOP congressional leadership about dissatisfaction with the loyal opposition.

Last week marked the 50th anniversary of President Johnson’s “War on Poverty,”  legislation that Johnson outlined during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964.  This was Johnson’s response to the poverty rate at the time hovering around 20 percent.  Talk of poverty normally conjures up images of Black faces, but the reality is that in raw numbers, there are more Whites in poverty than Blacks.  But, as a percentage of the population, the poverty rate of Blacks exceed that of Whites.

According to the U.S. Census of 2010, the overall poverty rate is 15.1 percent of the population. For non-Hispanic Whites, it is 9.9 percent, 12.1 percent of all Asians, 26.6 percent of all Hispanics persons of any race) and 27.4 percent of all Blacks.

The War on Poverty was a logical program if you believed in big government.  Also, to my conservative Republican friends (Black and White), please understand the historic context behind the Black community’s seemingly embrace of big government.

While many conservatives were aggressively embracing Jim Crow, segregation, and racial discrimination, our only ally was the federal government.  Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are but three examples.

So, it’s not so much that Blacks are in love with big government, but without big government, Blacks would still be in slavery, have separate but unequal schools, would not be able to vote, or be able to eat in the restaurants of our choosing. Those are undeniable facts.

Yet, last week, I saw and heard many Black Republicans on TV, radio, and in newspapers criticizing Johnson’s War on Poverty.  While I was in agreement with the substance of their message, I didn’t hear or see any workable alternatives to address intractable poverty.

I saw Republican congressional leaders giving major policy speeches at  conservative White think tanks; but they never appeared before Black organizations. Even when it comes to optics, Republicans tend to be tone deaf.

Increasing the minimum wage is not the solution to poverty; more preferable is enhancing job skills through education (college or vocational).  When will congressional Republicans take this message to an HBCU with the launch of a major policy initiative? Obama’s record with the HBCUs is abysmal and can be exploited politically.

Another issue is the plight of small business, the economic engine of our country.  They are the job creators, not the Fortune 500 companies.  Yet, small business owners are finding it almost impossible to access credit from the very banks the federal government bailed out only a few years ago.

Congressional Republicans, what is your policy solution? When will congressional Republicans visit a successful business such as World Wide Technology (WWT) in St. Louis to give a major policy speech on small business issues?  WWT is the largest Black-owned business in the U.S., with annual revenues in excess of $ 5 billion and led by David L. Steward,  a major donor in Republican politics.

When will congressional Republicans partner with the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, led by Robert L. Woodson, Sr., to address the values issue within the Black community?  He is doing some things with Congressman Paul Ryan, but our leaders need to do more, especially in terms of private funding.

So, to my Black Republican friends and congressional leaders, always remember that it is easy to be against something.  But what are you for? Blacks are thirsting for answers to the problems facing them.  As a graduate of Oral Roberts University, I am reminded of what Oral would always tell us, “Go into everyman’s world and meet them at the point of their need.”

If you truly believe the Republican message can really turn around the lives of those that have been hurt by liberalism and big government, when will you take your solutions to the marketplace of ideas in those communities?

Just think back to your elementary school days when the teacher asked a question and you knew the answer.  You threw your hand up in the air and could not wait for the teacher to call on you; and when she did and you gave her the right answer. Remember how good you felt inside?

Well, Jeremiah had a similar experience in the Bible in Jeremiah 20:9, “… But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”

Blacks’ disenchantment with the Democrats and Obama is the match that should ignite a fire within the Republican Party in regards to the Black vote. But there won’t be a spark among those ranks until Republicans present a genuine program for Black America, not an endless list of what they are against.

Pope Francis Unquestionably Condemns Abortion as Wrong

/in , , , , /by

Pope Francis is making news this morning after he suggested that abortion “kills children who will never see the light of day.”

The popular Pope, who has consistently spoken against abortion, raises the issue just 10 days before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

He noted that abortion is part of a “throwaway” culture that wastes people and food. He also called for more respect for the elderly and the protection of children from exploitation of many kinds.

Heritage policy analyst Sarah Torre weighed in, telling The Foundry, “As the Pope alluded to, abortion harms all of us. It has created a culture that disregards the dignity of human life, endangers women, demeans motherhood and denigrates men’s role as fathers.”

In the remarks, distributed today, Francis reaffirmed his position:

“Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world.”

The Pope’s words come at a time when pro-life activists around the country are set to take part in the annual March for Life in Washington next week.

LifeNews.com’s Carol Tobias in her article “Young Americans in the Post Roe v. Wade Generations Will End Abortion” writes:

I had the opportunity in recent months to speak on the campuses of both Princeton University, as a guest of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, and the University of Dallas, as a guest of Crusaders for Life. These are two very different campuses, but both had wonderful, sincere students with similar questions.

Many of them wanted to know how they can impact their generation in favor of life. One young man wanted to know if he should even get involved in what is touted as “a woman’s issue.” Another wanted to know how he could influence people since he isn’t very outgoing and comfortable with bringing up the issue of abortion for discussion.

One young lady already has a plan to get involved in politics and hopes to end up in Congress. Others wanted to know about internship possibilities with NRLC or wanted more information on our summer Academy, or “pro-life boot camp” as I like to call it.

Read more.

Time to stop the killing of the innocent brought about by a few men in black robes.

RELATED COLUMN: Are US Judges more Racist and Bigoted than either the Ku Klux Klan or New Black Panthers?

FLDOE Common Core Standards changes to be revealed on January 14th

/in , , /by

Over fifty leaders of groups from all over Florida met Saturday, January 11th, the same day of the RPOF annual meeting of Committeemen and Committeewomen from Florida’s 67 county Republican Executive Committees. At the RPOF meeting these grassroots leaders voted overwhelmingly to oppose Common Core. The executive committee of the RPOF voted against allowing that to go forward. “At least 27 of those counties have resolutions opposing Common Core so far,” said Chris Quackenbush, co-Founder of Stop Common Core Florida. 

“We are upset and concerned that our leaders are not listening and this will have great consequences at the ballot box this election year.” She said. “Our new radio ad campaign will serve to alert the public, still largely unaware of the massive takeover of education.” “This issue has something to hate for just about everyone, including students, teachers, parents, grandparents, and business leaders everywhere.” If you want higher costs, lower results and loss of freedom, Common Core delivers,” writes Quackenbush

Quackenbush warns, “The FL Department of Education is rolling out changes to standards on Tuesday January 14, 2013 without adequate notice and with no advance information on the changes proposed.”

Pressure from rising numbers of grassroots opponents of Common Core forced Governor Scott to hold three hearings last October 15-17. As a result, over 19,000+ comments were taken. A vast majority oppose the implementation of Common Core which has already been a disaster in other states (NY and KY) which adopted the unconstitutional national education program earlier.

“Coerced into accepting Common Core as a condition of receiving waivers from No Child Left Behind, another failed national program, 45 states blindly signed on before Common Core standards were ever revealed to them just to escape problems and costs caused by past federal intervention and usurpation of control over education,” notes Quackenbush.

Quackenbush states, “These Common Core standards were not developed in or by Florida, but by two lobbying groups in Washington DC paid by the federal government, and they are copyrighted by them, meaning we must buy them and matching curriculum and have no control over content, nor can we change or alter them. The same corporations creating and supporting Common Core stand to gain billions from implementation and ongoing contracts. Those include Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, Jeb Bush’s foundations and Pearson, a British company whose 3rd largest shareholder is the government of Libya.”

Commissioner Stewart, the 5th Commissioner of Education in just 3 years, met with experts and leaders of the opponents of Common Core and promised the results would be posted for their review and proposed changes would be open for public review and comment soon. Three months later, there is a superficial report categorizing comments. There is no published list of changes available as you see at the end of the notice below, and yet public comment is to be on January 14th. No notice was posted other than this in a sub-page of the FL DOE web site.

Only one half hour of a conference call will be held twice that day and comments can be posted.

Here is the obscure notice in the www.FLDOE.org website:

Notice of Development of Rulemaking

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
State Board of Education
RULE NO.: 6A-1.09401
RULE TITLE: Student Performance Standards

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: The purpose of this rule development is to revise Next Generation Sunshine State Standards in Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies, The Arts, Health Education, Physical Education, Gifted Education and Special Skills, including core content connectors. The effect will be the proposed adoption of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards in Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies, The Arts, Health Education, Physical Education, Gifted Education and Special Skills, and Next Generation Sunshine State Standards, including core content connectors.

SUBJECT AREA TO BE ADDRESSED: Standards for Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies, The Arts, Health Education, Physical Education, Gifted Education, and Special Skills.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY: 1001.02, 1003.41 FS.

LAW IMPLEMENTED: 1001.03, 1003.41 FS.

IF REQUESTED IN WRITING AND NOT DEEMED UNNECESSARY BY THE AGENCY HEAD, A RULE DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD AT THE DATE, TIME AND PLACE SHOWN BELOW:

DATE AND TIMES: January14, 2014, 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

PLACE: Via Conference call #: 1(888)670-3525, Passcode: 6865599751# or in person at the Florida Department of Education, 325 West Gaines St., Suite 1703, Tallahassee, Florida 32399. Instructions for joining the webinar will be posted at https://app1.fldoe.org/rules/default.aspx.

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE PROPOSED RULE DEVELOPMENT AND A COPY OF THE PRELIMINARY DRAFT, IF AVAILABLE, IS: Mary Jane Tappen, Deputy Chancellor, Curriculum, Instruction and Student Services, Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Room 1502, Tallahassee, FL, (850)245-0818, Mary.Tappen@fldoe.org. To request a rule development workshop, please contact: Cathy Schroeder, Agency Clerk, (850)245-9661 or e-mail: cathy.schroeder@fldoe.org or go to https://app1.fldoe.org/rules/default.aspx

THE PRELIMINARY TEXT OF THE PROPOSED RULE DEVELOPMENT IS NOT AVAILABLE.

FL Legislature: Adultery, Cohabitation & Marijuana are fine but Texting while Driving is a Crime?

/in , , , /by

“Did this really happen? House committee moves to decriminalize adultery, co-habitation and a strain of marijuana,” reads the headline on the Miami Herald Blog.

The Miami Herald Blog reports. “Word is today that people are still wondering if they existed briefly in an alternate reality Thursday as they watched the conservative House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice embrace a proposed committee bill that would decriminalize adultery, co-habitation and a strain of non-euphoric marijuana as part of a sweeping rewrite of the state’s sentencing laws.” Read more here.

Tad Mackie, an Executive Committee member of the Republican Party of Sarasota, in an email states, “I didn’t ask but I’m OK with it. Adultery is morally wrong … But criminal? Cohabitation is morally wrong … But criminal? Pot should be legal. (like it was before 1934).”

But what are the social costs for legalizing adultery, cohabitation and pot?

Florida has a growing drug abuse problem, especially among our youth, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement looked at drugs in deceased persons and reported, “The Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Statistics estimates that about 85,810 deaths occurred in Florida during January through June 2012. Of these, the medical examiners reported on 4,126 drug-related deaths (whether the cause of death or merely present) through toxicology reports submitted to the Medical Examiners Commission. In order for a death to be considered ‘drug-related,’ there must be at least one drug identified in the decedent; this is recorded as a drug occurrence. The vast majority of these 4,126 cases involved more than one drug listed in the report.”

TrustForAmericasHealth.org reports:

Florida has the 11th highest drug overdose mortality rate in the United States, with 16.4 per 100,000 people suffering drug overdose fatalities, according to a new report, Prescription Drug Abuse: Strategies to Stop the Epidemic.

The number of drug overdose deaths – a majority of which are from prescription drugs – in Florida doubled since 1999 when the rate was 6.4 per 100,000. Nationally, rates have doubled in 29 states since 1999, quadrupled in four of these states and tripled in 10 more.

The report also finds that Florida received seven out of 10 possible indicators of promising strategies to help curb prescription drug abuse.

Florida also has a growing number of single parent families, which strain the state’s social services programs including Medicaid.

According to CountyHealthRanking.org Florida has 37% of children living in a single parent household. Individual counties range from 20% in Lafayette County to 59% in Gadsden County, FL. An interactive map of children living in single parent households may be view here. Numerous studies have found a correlation between single parent households and poverty.

Decriminalizing adultery harms divorcees, most of whom are women. So decriminalizing adultery harms women and their children. Great idea.

According to Divorce.Net:

Florida is a “no fault” divorce state. This means that either party may seek a divorce without proving any reason for it other than the spouses don’t want to be married anymore. The spouse seeking a divorce simply needs to state that the marriage is “irretrievably broken.” This rule relieves the court of the complicated duty of deciding who is at fault, and the parties to the marriage are spared having to talk about painful personal issues in court.

Effect of Adultery on Child Custody

However, if one spouse committed adultery, it might affect other elements of the divorce. For example, “moral fitness” is one of the factors the court considers in making custody decisions, so if one parent can prove that the other parent’s adultery had or is reasonably likely to have an adverse impact on the child, the judge might limit that parent’s custody or visitation.

Effect of Adultery on Property Division

Adultery may also affect the division of marital property and debts. Florida is an equitable distribution state, so there is a presumption that the marital assets and liabilities should be evenly divided. This presumption may, however, be overcome by proof that one spouse has intentionally dissipated or wasted marital assets. Gifts, trips, apartment rent, car payments, and dinners for a non-marital partner are all considered a waste of marital assets. The court may reduce the adulterer’s share of martial assets to compensate the other spouse for this waste.

Effect of Adultery on Spousal Support (Alimony)

Florida laws specifically list adultery as a factor to be considered in determining the amount of alimony awarded, but courts have struggled to reconcile the consideration of adultery with the “no fault” concept. The bottom line is that judges will only increase a wronged spouse’s alimony if the adulterous conduct somehow increases that spouse’s monetary needs.

Finally, legalizing marijuana seems to be the new rave or wave by state legislators. Why? Because then they can tax it and spend the money taking care of the growing numbers of drug addicts, poor children from single parent homes and growing number of Floridians on Medicaid.

The Florida legislature is violating nature and nature’s laws. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: FL Rep. Ray Pilon wrote on his Facebook page,  “FYI it was only a workshop and no vote was taken.” Rep. Pilon sits on the Criminal Justice sub-Committee.

RELATED COLUMN: Study: Fatal Car Crashes Involving Marijuana Have Tripled – Now 1-in-9

An Open Letter To Ways And Means

/in , , , , /by

Welcome back to Washington and Happy New Year

As you return to the business of the House Committee on Ways and Means, you and your colleagues will, in many ways, determine the direction of our nation by the decisions you will soon make on fundamental tax reform.

You have a clear and distinct choice to make. You can continue to pander to the special interests that will forever hold you hostage to their gluttonous demands, or you can break from this insidious cycle and fully represent the will of the people who elected you.

If you choose to continue in the bondage of special interest slavery, the demands they exact will rise to levels that even you cannot imagine. Once the fatted calf becomes addicted to the feed trough, its’ appetite becomes insatiable.

Contrast this to the people who elected you who simply want to pay their fair share of taxes without the fear and intimidation of an agency that continues to be used as a political weapon.

Even the IRS’s own watchdog, Nina Olson, stated in her just published annual report, “Public trust in [IRS] fairness and impartiality was called into question because of reports the IRS subjected certain applicants for tax exempt status to greater review based on political-sounding games.”

Sadly, Olson’s only remedy is an IRS generated U.S. taxpayer Bill of Rights. By the way, didn’t you already try this in 1988 when Congress passed the first of three Taxpayer Bill of Rights?

To Olson’s suggestion, ladies and gentlemen, isn’t this a little like the fox guarding the hen house; just like the U.S. Justice Department appointing Barbara Bosserman to lead the IRS targeting investigation?

fox guards henhouse

Silly me, I am sure any individual who shelled out over $6,000 in donations to the Obama campaign will show total impartiality during a criminal probe involving conservative organizations.

The bottom line is this – the American people want a simple and fair system of taxation without all the drama, theatrics and corruption. They want the fox to leave the hen house and they want their representatives to put a stop to the longstanding reign of terror by the IRS.

The FairTax® Plan does this and more.

Reduced to its most basic terms, the FairTax eliminates taxes on wages while taxing wealth and borrowing when spent. It eliminates the income/payroll tax system and replaces it with a single rate tax on consumption.

More importantly, it is fair, simple and universal in application – no exceptions, no exclusions, and no more special interests feeding at the trough.  And, it fosters economic growth and efficiency while fully funding the government. 

You will soon have a decision to make on fundamental tax reform.

Option 1: You tinker with the current system, call it major reform and continue in the bondage of special interests.  With this option the American people continue as the losers.

Option 2: You represent the will of the people who elected you and enact HR 25, The FairTax Act, freeing them from the bondage of an out-of-control IRS and a gobbledygook tax code that is fast approaching 100,000 pages. With this option, the American people have a fair and simple tax code that also eliminates the yearly tax return nightmare that has already begun.

Which decision will you make? Perhaps you can draw inspiration from General Robert E. Lee who once said, “You have only always to do what is right. It will become easier by practice, and you enjoy in the midst of your trials the pleasure of an approving conscience.”

Your electorate awaits your decision. Remember, they too have decisions to make in November 2014.

The New Liberal Killing Fields

/in , , /by

As President Obama returns from a well deserved and earned two-week vacation in Hawaii – ok, being quite facetious here – I wonder if he did any reflection between rounds of golf. And why is it that the First Lady remained in Hawaii to celebrate her 50th birthday?

Regardless, I reflected upon the words of George Santayana, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. Reason being, as President Obama returns to Washington DC he is part of a repeat of history. After the fall of South Vietnam the rise of Southeast Asian communism ensued, Cambodia was embroiled in a five-year civil war, 1970-1975, resulting in the ascension of the Khmer Rouge. Under the brutal leadership of Pol Pot the following four years resulted in one of the most horrific acts of genocide.

It what would come to be known as the “Killing Fields” the Khymer Rouge reign contributed to the deaths of between 1.7 to 2.5 million. Pol Pot presided over a communist dictatorship that imposed a radical form of agrarian socialism on the country. His government forced urban dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor projects. The combined effects of executions, forced labor, malnutrition, and poor medical care caused the deaths of approximately 25 percent of the Cambodian population.

His death grip over the Democratic Kampuchea (funny how communists and socialists always call themselves Democratic) ended with the Cambodian-Vietnamese War.

Then as now, the liberal progressives of the Democrat (there’s that word again) party ardently protested and undermined the efforts of our military forces – then Vietnam, now Iraq. Then it was communism, now it is Islamic totalitarianism. Then it was the killing fields of Pol Pot, today the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. Just as the Democrats abandoned Southeast Asia, now they have abandoned the Middle East.

President Obama as true to his colors, believed that a political promise was far more important than a strategic decision. Therefore, against the recommendations of Commanders on the ground, he decided against any residual force to remain in Iraq. There will be the detractors who will say, Americans were tired of fighting. My response is that America was not fighting, it was committed Men and Women, warriors, who had defeated a vile, vicious Islamic terrorist, jihadist enemy.

Just as men like my older Brother had embarked to fight in Vietnam, yet again, politicians let them down – some things never change.

Leadership, principled, courageous leadership, would have explained to the American people why a complete withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq would not bode well. Leadership would have reminded the American people of the killing fields of Pol Pot.

Leadership would have held a press conference and stated, “I have consulted with the Commanders on the ground in Iraq, combat leaders, and concur with their recommendation for a residual force. Our men and women in Iraq have done that which many, to include myself and others in my party said was impossible. Against all odds they persevered, displayed American warrior resolve, and defeated Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism. Now, those of you would say, it is time to withdraw, retreat, claim victory, but that is not how we sustain these fragile gains. We will maintain a residual force in Iraq that will provide an external cordon for this fledgling but historic land and people to recover. We will position our forces along the borders with Syria and Iran in order to interdict any terrorist elements. As well, we shall station forces in northern Iraq to foster military to military relations with our Kurdish friends and ensure their security along with any Christian (Assyrian and Chaldean) minorities. This may not be a popular decision, but I am not here to be a popular person, but a strategic minded President, a visionary leader. I have studied history and recall what happened after our precipitous, and dishonorable, exit from Vietnam and the killing fields of Pol Pot and the bloodthirsty communists. We shall not abandon those who risked their lives to support our efforts in Iraq. We shall not steal defeat from the jaws of success. We shall not dishonor the sacrifices of so many who over these eight years gave the last full measure of devotion. We will not let up and now is the time, now is a moment when we can, and we will, drive a stake into the heart of Islamic terrorism and send a clear message, “you can run but America will ensure that you will die tired”.

Instead, America saw a charlatan, a political imposter who, with the aid of a complicit, propagandized media, made our Nation believe there was honor in retreating. That combined with the insidious lie, “Al Qaeda is decimated and on the run” now means that a new killing field is being harvested. It is happening on the ground where American blood was shed in order to plant the seeds of liberty and freedom from islamists.

Thanks to President Barack Hussein Obama the black Al Qaeda flag now flies in Fallujah and may soon fly in Ramadi, it already flies in Benghazi.

Secretary of State John Kerry has stated that we will not send US troops – he lies. Unlike the Vietnam where he went to visit, this enemy will not rest until they have restored a global caliphate, and it starts in the Middle East. Somewhere, sometime, we will have to send US troops, again.

I served in Operation Desert Shield/ Storm. I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And I spent two and a half years in southern Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom as a civilian-military advisor to the Afghan National Army. I wonder how long it will be before the Taliban flag is flying once again in Kandahar?

The Very Green Keystone Pipeline Delay

/in , , , /by

Stopping the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from carrying Canadian oil, a major trading partner and ally of the United States, is just part of a much larger environmental agenda aimed at preventing access to this energy source, but it is larger in scope; stopping or slowing the development of America’s huge reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas.

Just before 2013 came to an end, the Sierra Club sent out an email claiming that “2014 is shaping up to be a defining year for the environment” warning that “Superstorms, wildfires, and mass destruction from climate change threaten us all. Future generations and endangered species like wolves and bear are counting on us.” This is pure fear-mongering. In 2013, all the factors mentioned were in decline.

On the first Earth Day in 1970, here are just some of the predictions that were made:

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.” — Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” — George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.” — Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.” — New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

On December 29, 2013, the Sierra Club was celebrating the shutdown of the 150th coal-fired plant that provided electricity. They want more solar and wind power, the least reliable source of the smallest production of electricity. They applauded the Obama administration’s plans to restrict any drilling for oil in the Arctic and “proposed new EPA rules on carbon pollution.” There is no carbon pollution.

According to Wikipedia, “Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium and oxygen. It is present in all known life forms, and in the human body carbon is the second most abundant element by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. This abundance, together with the unique diversity of organic compounds and their unusual polymer-forming ability at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth make this element the chemical basis of all known life. (emphasis added).

Calling carbon a threat to human life is so absurd that it defies known science, but that was exactly the basis for all the “global warming” lies, claiming that carbon dioxide would warm the Earth when it plays no such role in the atmosphere. Suggesting that humans have any role in “climate change” is the basis for the legislative and regulatory objectives of the Obama administration that declared a “war on coal” when it is in reality a war on electricity production, the most essential element of life in America.

My friend, David Rothbard, the president of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) a free market think tank, led a team to visit to Fort McMurray, Canada in 2012 to see first-hand the tar sands from which oil is being extracted. “I have to tell you,” he said, “not just by the technology being used to bring much-needed oil up to the surface in situ with hardly a trace of environmental impact…but much more so, by the infectious spirit of opportunity in this bustling frontier town. To me, Ft. McMurray is a symbol of the kind of progress and prosperity that can come when people are able to discover and access abundant natural resources in a way that serves society and protects the environment.”

What the Greens see in Northern Alberta and in Nebraska that is enjoying an economic boom thanks to the fracking technology that produces more natural gas are people having more wealth and freedom, more jobs, more energy for the rest of us.

Pipelines in US

Pipelines in United States.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration:

“The nation’s more than 2.6 million miles of pipelines safely deliver trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of billions of ton/miles of liquid petroleum products each year. They are essential: the volumes of energy products they move are well beyond the capacity of other forms of transportation. It would take a constant line of tanker trucks, about 750 per day, loading up and moving out every two minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to move the volume of even a modest pipeline. The railroad-equivalent of this single pipeline would be a train of 75 2,000-barrel tank rail cars every day.”

“Pipeline systems are the safest means to move these products. The federal government rededicated itself to pipeline safety in 2006 when the PIPES Act was signed. It mandates new methods and makes commitments for new technologies to manage the integrity of the nation’s pipelines and raise the bar on pipeline safety.”

So why has President Obama, for five years now, blocked the extension of the Keystone XL pipeline to America’s Gulf Coast where many of the nation’s refineries are located? Because it represents jobs and further economic development.

The AFL-CIO wants to see Keystone XL built. “The American construction industry has suffered greatly. The national unemployment rate for construction workers remains about 13% and far too many of our members have lost homes and are struggling to put food on the table. For many members of our unions, Keystone XL is not just a pipeline; it is, in the most literal sense, a life line.”

Typical of Obama’s lies was his view of the Keystone XL pipeline when he said “They keep on talking about this—an oil pipeline coming down from Canada that’s estimated to create about 50 permanent jobs—that’s not a jobs plan.” His own State Department estimated that 42,000 jobs would result from the construction of the pipeline.

Obama does not want more jobs. He wants more Americans on the unemployment dole and on food stamps. He doesn’t want more electricity, more gas and diesel for our vehicles. He wants to destroy the nation’s healthcare system. He wants to undermine the economic growth of America in every way he can.

And thanks to the Democratic Party and the millions who still believe in “global warming” and “climate change” he was elected to a second term in 2012.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

President Obama picks Cop Killer’s Defender to Head DOJ Civil Rights Division

/in , , , /by

The nation’s largest police union is blasting President Obama for choosing an attorney who defended a cop murderer—and member of the radical Black Panthers—to head a key division at the Justice Department, the agency responsible for enforcing the law and defending the interests of the United States.

Judicial Watch Blog reports, “Obama’s nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Debo Adegbile [pictured above], spent more than a decade in various leadership positions—including director—at the Legal Defense and Education Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During Adegbile’s leadership the NAACP volunteered its services to represent Mumia Abu-Jamal, a member of the Black Panthers who murdered a police officer (Daniel Faulkner) in Philadelphia three decades ago.

Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death by the jury that convicted him in 1982 and his supporters—including the man who could soon be an Assistant Attorney General—have long claimed that he was the victim of a racist legal system. Nevertheless, Abu-Jamal has lost multiple appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court has twice rejected his case. In 2012, under the leadership of Adegbile, the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund represented Abu-Jamal in his latest appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The cop murderer lost that one too, but the fact remains that Adegbile continues fighting on his behalf.

Understandably, this is upsetting to hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers represented by the National Fraternal Order of Police. In a hard-hitting letter to President Obama, the group expresses “extreme disappointment, displeasure and vehement opposition” to Adegbile’s nomination. “As word of this nomination spreads through the law enforcement community, reactions range from anger to incredulity,” the letter says, reminding that there is no disputing that Officer Faulkner was murdered by the “thug” who Adegbile continues defending.

“This nomination can be interpreted in only one way: it is a thumb in the eye of our nation’s law enforcement officers,” the letter continues. “It demonstrates a total lack of regard or empathy for those who strive to keep you and everyone else in our nation safe in your homes and neighborhoods—sometimes giving their lives in the effort.” Adegbile will certainly exacerbate the growing division and distrust between law enforcement and minority communities, the FOP claims. The group ends by telling the commander-in-chief of its hope that candidates with records of “fairness and respect to all Americans” are considered for future leadership positions in the administration.

Don’t hold your breath. It’s really not all that surprising to see a radical candidate like Adegbile nominated for this particular job. Remember the last guy (now Labor Secretary Thomas Perez) Obama picked to head the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division? He is a renowned La Raza advocate who led the DOJ’s attack on Arizona’s illegal immigration enforcement law and state Voter ID measures nationwide. Perez was also heavily embroiled in a scandal involving the DOJ’s abrupt decision to abandon its own voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Judicial Watch uncovered documents that show Perez lied under oath to a commission investigating the Black Panther debacle.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on the Judicial Watch Blog.

America’s Favorite ‘Failed” Education Reforms

/in , , /by

Daily reports come in warning America’s public schools are failing. When a new report comes out there is a clamour for “reform” from politicians. Public schools in the US have been subject to at least seven periods of different reforms, not one of which has addressed the root cause of the failures in the classroom. The latest reform is Common Core State Standards, the be all and end all reform of reforms. Untested, unproven and not addressing the purpose of education, which is to “show the way forth” it will surely fail as well. Along with these education reform failures we have generations of children who are failures and become wards of the state.

“A new Friedman Foundation report released today found what education reforms were most popular, in terms of their perceived effectiveness, among surveyed adults. The graphic below shows where Americans ranked them in importance, with one perceived as the most efficacious, and seven viewed as the least efficacious.,” write Katie Brooks and Drew Vessely from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

When looking at America’s top three favored reforms through a wider lens, we see them not as reforms, but rather outcomes of a better reform: school choice. There are two ways each item can be achieved.

Smaller Class Sizes

  1. Force schools to pay for expansions to build more classrooms and hire more teachers. Reducing class sizes this way could take years before parents and children see the effects. Plus, how many students per classroom is too many? Too few? That arbitrary decision will have to be made by politicians and administrators.
  2. Give parents school choice options, such as vouchers or education savings accounts, that empower them to find schools with classroom sizes they want. In time, trends in what parents want will emerge and all schools will tailor their class sizes based on families’ needs.

Technology

  1. Charge more taxes to afford buying schools more technology. The problem? Who decides which technology is best and how much schools need? What happens if they guessed wrong and all those taxpayer dollars were spent on technology that is obsolete in two years? Are new tablets for every student necessary if only a small percentage of them have an interest or natural gift with technology, programming, and computer science? This strategy awakens more questions than it does solutions.
  2. Give all parents school choice options, so they can choose schools that fit their desired levels of technology-usage in their children’s education. The technological needs of a child who wants to nurture a gift for writing, debate, and communications, for instance, is less than a kid who has a natural gift for computing or, say, graphic design.

Accountability

  1. Force all schools to adopt the same curriculum and test all kids the same way to make all schools easily comparable. If teachers and schools cannot drive a minimum proficiency score, which lawmakers determine, then they get a poor rating. Enough poor ratings and teachers could be fired or schools shut down.
  2. Give all parents school choice. If a school is not providing the services or driving the outcomes parents expect, they have the financial power to leave. When parents move to a new school, their child’s money follows them. When schools lose money if they don’t meet parent standards, they have incentive to innovate and improve in such a way that will meet parent standards.

Ultimately, each of these desired outcomes in schools boils down to one question: What’s the best way to pay for it? Do we spend more money quickly in reaction to treat a symptom, or do we creatively invest money we already spend now to treat the cause?

To read the full report that analyzes multiple surveys to gauge Americans’ views on education reform, visit edchoice.org/SchoolChoiceSignals.

The “War on Poverty” is lost – time to pull out!

/in , , /by

“When President Johnson launched the War on Poverty on Jan. 8, 1964, he pledged ‘not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.’ Sadly, the half-century legacy of Johnson’s Great Society has not lived up to that noble goal,” writes Jennifer Mitchell from the Heritage Foundation.

The War on Poverty has not done justice to the poor. Our responsibility to our neighbors in need demands more: a redirection of public policy and a commitment from each of us to do what we can in our own communities.

Mitchell notes, “Despite spending nearly $20 trillion since the War on Poverty began, the poverty rate remains nearly as high today as it was in the mid-1960s. Today, government spends nearly $1 trillion annually on 80 federal means-tested programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care and targeted social services for poor and low-income Americans. Clearly, policymakers can’t hide behind reams of programs and billions in spending and declare they’ve done their duty to the poor. Good intentions aren’t enough.”

We need to change the character of public assistance. That means redirecting incentives in federal welfare programs. “Sometimes those incentives encourage dependence, even for generations,” said Robert L. Woodson, Sr., founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, testifying before the Senate Budget Committee last year. Woodson sees firsthand the effects of these programs as he works with community leaders across the country to empower those in need to overcome adversity.

On the other hand, the right kind of incentives can “help people gain personal responsibility and pursue their dreams,” observes Woodson. Transforming incentives to promote personal responsibility has a dramatic effect: After the 1996 welfare reform began to require recipients to work or prepare for work, welfare rolls fell by more than half, and poverty rates among single mothers and black children fell to historic lows. But that reform redirected the incentives of only one program among more than 80 federal welfare programs.

As Woodson concludes:

So if we want to help those in need, we need to ask: Is the approach we are taking to relieve poverty by what we call the safety net actually helping or is it injuring with the helping hand?

In addition to promoting work, any serious effort on behalf of those in need must get serious about restoring marriage, America’s most important inoculation against child poverty. Children born and raised outside of marriage are more than five times more likely to experience poverty than their peers raised in intact families.

When the War on Poverty began, 8 percent of all children in America were born outside marriage. Since the mid-’60s, unwed childbearing has skyrocketed to more than 40 percent of all births, and from 25 percent to about 73 percent among black children. A child born and raised outside marriage is more than five times more likely to experience poverty than a child raised in an intact family.

Rebuilding a culture of marriage calls for policy reform to reduce marriage penalties in welfare programs. It also requires the kind of relational restoration that must happen on a personal level, through the work of churches and community initiatives like First Things First in Chattanooga, TN, that build relational skills. These and other efforts to overcome poverty should engage us personally in the effort to help restore lives, families, and communities.

Promoting work and restoring marriage “would be a better battle plan for eradicating poverty in America than spending more money on failed programs,” writes Heritage Senior Research Fellow Robert Rector in today’s Wall Street Journal, “And it would help accomplish LBJ’s objective to ‘replace their despair with opportunity.’”

RELATED COLUMN: Poverty level under Obama breaks 50-year record