Passenger Trains: A Cancer in Florida that Keeps Growing

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I guess as children we all loved playing with trains. Why this has become a fascination as adult taxpayers is hard to understand. It’s probably because we don’t look behind the curtain to see what this habit is costing society. Once you do the investigation, it turns out that passenger trains are consistent in one area only, eating up taxpayer dollars.

All Aboard Florida (AAF) is the newest passenger line being presented as an investor backed privately funded entity. It is difficult to understand why a private company as big as Florida East Coast Industries, and with their knowledge of the business, would follow the public sector into this debt laden industry. Their plan is for a high-speed passenger train to service Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando. We already have passenger trains that service this route, their names are AMTRAK and Tri-Rail. Let’s examine their profitability for the 2013 operating year.

AMTRAK has state supported routes and long distance routes, that service most of the major areas of the United States. Examining their FY 2013 Budget Statics by Route we note that they have fifteen (15) long distance routes. The one thing that is consistent with all of these long distance routes is that they all lose on average Forty-Million dollars ($40,000,000) per route each year. Just the long distance routes create a Six-Hundred Million dollar ($600,000,000) loss every year.

One of these passenger routes is the Auto Train, which is familiar to citizens in Florida. This route lost Forty-Eight Million dollars ($48,000,000) in 2013 an average of One-Hundred, Eighty dollars ($180.00) lost for every passenger who traveled on the Auto Train. This route does show employment of 34 core employees. That equals out to a loss of One Million, Four-Hundred, Twelve-Thousand ($1,412,000) per employee!

AMTRAK does better on its state supported routes. It only looses One-Hundred Million dollars ($100,000,000) per year on these operations. One of these state supported lines is the Silver Star that provides services to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando. In 2013 they had revenue on this route of Thirty-Nine Million ($39,000,000) and expenses of Eighty-Six Million ($86,000,000) for a loss of Forty Seven Million dollars ($47,000,000).

Where does the money come from to support these heavy losses? According to their 2013-2017 projected operating summary, AMTRAK received Four-Hundred, Fifteen Million dollars ($415,000,000) from Federal Appropriation Support otherwise known as TAXPAYER SUPPORT. Look at the bright side, their projections are for a Two-Billion dollar ($2,000,000,000) loss over the next five years! At least they are leveling off at a consistent loss every year into the future.

The other train that services south Florida with passenger service is Tri-Rail. Tri-Rail does not go to Orlando but it will compete with All Aboard Florida for the passengers who travel Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. How well has Tri-Rail been doing? Let’s examine their 2013 revenue and expenses.

Tri-Rail had a 3% increase in revenue in 2013 bringing total operating revenue to Twelve-Million, Five-Hundred Seventy-Five Thousand, Six-Hundred Fifty-Two dollars ($12, 575,652). That’s the good news. The bad news is they had total operating expenses of One-Hundred Million, Two-Hundred Forty-Nine Thousand, Six-Hundred Fifty-Eight dollars ($100,249,658) for an operating loss of $87,674,006. To be fair it should be noted that $30,214,462 of this loss is attributed to depreciation of assets, so the true loss for Tri-Rail is only Fifty-Eight Million dollars ($58,000,000).

The good news about this statement is we can track where Tri-Rail balances its budget. Non-Operating Revenue allows Tri-Rail to continue to operate. Where does this non-operating revenue come from? THE TAXPAYER! Here is the breakdown:

  • Federal Transit Administration (FTA) $19,163,234
  • Federal Highway Administration 4,000,000
  • Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) 30,613,700
  • Other Local Funding 184,795
  • Broward County 1,565,000
  • Miami-Dade County 1,565,000
  • Palm Beach County 1,565,000
  • Interest Income 139,080
  • Total Non-Operating Revenue $58,795,809

What a way to break even. It’s nice to know that you get the support of federal, state and local tax dollars to run your train. How much would just the Tri-Rail loss buy in better education, emergency services, medical advances or other areas that service our citizens.

By the way, did someone mention that a private investment group wants to get into the train business because they want to make a profit? I know I heard that somewhere. The only profit is in raiding the public coffers.

VA employees actually destroy veterans’ records to ease backlog

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There can be no debate that the Obama administration has a disdain for our military and its veterans. Now it seems we’ll no longer see Obama attend VFW and American Legion conferences — not that anyone will miss him.

Remember the empty promises about easing the veterans’ claims backlog? As a matter of fact, when was the last time you saw the FLOTUS and Dr. Jill Biden on a military base talking about supporting military families? Yep, the true colors of Barack Hussein Obama are as brilliant as ever.

But I’m not sure anything can be more disgusting and heinous than what the Daily Caller reported: Employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee said. Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by The Daily Caller confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.”

Apparently this brilliant method of reducing the backlog was conceived in November 2008 and put into full implementation in March 2009 under the purview of the Obama administration.

As the Daily Caller reports: “We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.” By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

So, rather than figure out a way to handle the requests, presto change-o! The VA Greater Los Angeles Officials simply decided to cancel them. You can hear the evidence.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/XnvhdV2DD0g[/youtube]

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said. Dr. El-Saden, according to Mitchell, was “the person who said destroy the records.”

Mitchell tried to blow the whistle on the scheme to destroy veterans’ records and ended up being transferred out of his department and eventually losing his job. “I filed the initial complaint with the IG. The IG instead of doing their own investigation just gave it to the facility and made them aware of my complaint.” Mitchell eventually wrote to Congress about the issue in January 2011. Two months later, in March 2011, he was fired.

In April 2013 Mitchell received a letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel stating that OIG (Office of the Inspector General) found in November 2009 that “all imaging services across the country were instructed to mass purge all outstanding imaging orders for studies older than six months, where the procedure was no longer needed”. However, Mitchell contends that in Los Angeles, exam requests that were found to still be needed were “definitely” destroyed.

I believe this matter must be immediately investigated by the House Veterans Affairs Committee headed up by Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla). If a thorough hearing and investigation verifies this incident, the punishment should be heavy. It must send a message throughout the Veterans Administration that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. As well, there should be some sort of follow up investigation to ascertain if this is an isolated practice or promulgated elsewhere in the VA Hospital system.

Regardless, the fact that we are even discussing this issue is beyond believable. Veterans, if you have had any issue with your valid exam requests being delayed beyond a six-month point please let us know and contact the House Veteran’s Affairs Committee immediately. We owe our veterans a debt that cannot ever be fully repaid — but for goodness’ sake, we should at least try.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com. It is reposted with permission.

Integrity Florida calls for Investigation of Enterprise Florida

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Dan Krassner, Co-Founder and Executive Director Integrity Florida, and Ben Wilcox, Research Director Integrity Florida, in an email state, “The lavish travel and wasteful government purchasing practices of Enterprise Florida, a taxpayer supported entity serving as the privatized commerce department for the State of Florida, was detailed in an investigative report by Michael Buczyner, WPEC/CBS 12 titled ‘State-run agency accused of abusing taxpayers dollars‘ on February 25.  The Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) is responsible for the state’s contract with Enterprise Florida, but it has clearly turned a blind eye to this waste and abuse of the taxpayers’ money.”

“Enterprise Florida travel guidelines do not comply with official state travel restrictions, even though the entity is using taxpayer funds allocated by the state legislature.  According to an internal audit prepared on March 15, 2012 by McGladrey, only three Enterprise Florida executives, Secretary of Commerce Gray Swoope, Chief Operating Officer Griff Salmon and Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Medley, all former employees of the Mississippi Development Authority, gained ‘unlimited signing authority’ on February 7, 2012, to execute contracts and make significant purchases of non-economic development goods and services,” note Krassner and Wilcox.

Since the new authority was granted to these top three executives at Enterprise Florida, here is a sampling of the organization’s questionable expenses:

  • Nearly $22,000 spent on New York Yankee Luxury Suites and related purchases.
  • More than $13,000 spent at the San Diego Zoo.
  • $12,000 spent on Texas Rangers baseball.
  • More than $7,000 spent at Cowboys Stadium.
  • More than $4,000 spent on Atlanta Braves baseball.
  • More than $4,000 spent on limousine services.
  • Nearly $3,300 spent at Truluck’s Seafood Steak & Crab House in Austin, Texas.
  • More than $2,500 spent at the 21 Club.
  • More than $2,000 spent at 4Rivers Smokehouse.
  • More than $1,300 spent on a charter fishing boat.
  • Roughly another $30,000 per month spent on American Express credit cards for unknown expenditures.
  • Thousands more on airfare, luxury resorts and hotels, expensive meals and limousine services.

The people of Florida deserve accountability and transparency within every aspect of our government.  Given the appearance of impropriety, an inspector general report is needed to determine whether the taxpayer resources that support Enterprise Florida are properly protected and whether corrective action is needed.  A company this large, supported by hard-working Florida families, must be held to the highest ethical standards.

Additional Resources:

Integrity Florida letter to Governor Rick Scott “Eliminate government waste at Enterprise Florida, investigation needed” (read more)

“State-run agency accused of abusing taxpayer dollars” Story by Michael Buczyner / CBS 12 NEWS (read more) (watch video)

Enterprise Florida Internal Audit by McGladrey – March 15, 2012 (read more)

Enterprise Florida, Inc. Vendor Payments – January 1, 2012 to August 28, 2013 (read more)

Enterprise Florida receives more than 97% of its funding from taxpayers (read more on page 24) (watch video starting at 1:00:20 about an hour into the video)

  • $57.4 million total 2012-13 budget for Enterprise Florida
  • $56 million (97.6%) in government/public/taxpayer-funded sources
  • $1.4 million (2.4%) from the private sector

Bipartisan efforts to hold Enterprise Florida accountable with bills filed for the 2014 legislative session:

  • Applies state ethics code to Enterprise Florida staff – CS/SB 846: Governmental Ethics GENERAL BILL by Senate Ethics and Elections Commission; Senator Jack Latvala (read more)
  • Strengthening Enterprise Florida disclosure practices and fiscal accountability SB 1270: Economic Incentive Programs GENERAL BILL by Senator Eleanor Sobel (read more)
  • Strengthening Enterprise Florida disclosure practices and fiscal accountability HB 1103: Economic Incentive Programs GENERAL BILL by Representative Jose Javier Rodriguez (read more)

Dick Cheney: Obama would ‘much rather spend the money on food stamps’ than military

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday accused President Barack Obama of cutting the defense budget because “he would rather spend money on food stamps.”

[youtube]http://youtu.be/QMev7cfceG4[/youtube]

The Pentagon announced on Monday plans to shrink the U.S. Army to pre-World War II levels, in addition to eliminating the Air Force’s A-10 fleet and retiring the Cold War-era U-2 spy plane program.

“Absolutely dangerous,” Cheney told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I, obviously, have not been a strong supporter of Barack Obama but this really is over the top. It does enormous long-term damage to our military.”

“They’re basically making the decision, the Obama administration, that they no longer want to be dominant on the seas and the skies and in space,” the former vice president added. “This notion that we no longer want to have a force that’s capable of any sustained occupation of a foreign territory, that’s a basic fundamental decision that drives — supposedly justifies this. But lots of times, you don’t get to make that choice. Circumstances will make that choice for you.”

Cheney said that his “old friends” in the Middle East had told him that they no longer trusted the United States to use military power when it was necessary.

“I think the whole thing is not driven by any change in world circumstances, it’s driven by budget considerations,” he insisted. “He would much rather spend the money on food stamps than he would on a strong military or support for our troops.”

“Pretty frightening,” Hannity agreed.

Questionable Investigative Practices by the Florida Department of Education: A Tale of two Schools

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Akin to the disparity in disciplinary actions of two teachers, Mr. Emmanuel Fleurantin and Mrs. Brenda Muchnick, due to Adobegate, there seems to be a disparity of actions undertaken by the Florida Department of Education concerning cheating in two Miami-Dade high schools: Miami Norland Senior High School and North Miami Senior High School.

In a recent Miami Herald article, state Rep. Daphne Campbell decried the treatment of North Miami Senior High School in that the school still has a grade of “Incomplete” though it was cleared of cheating by the school district.

On January 28, 2014, Rep. Campbell sent a letter to Florida’s Commissioner of Education urging the state to replace the high school’s “incomplete” status and issue a letter grade, which would have been given in December.

“This is ridiculous,” Campbell is quoted as saying in a press release. “There is no reason why a school should have to wait to receive a report for their institution.”

FLDOE maintains that the “Incomplete” was given and is still in place as a state contractor that highlights highly unusual test scores again zeroed in on the school.

A school district investigation found nothing wrong or unusual, but the FLDOE is still reviewing the latest round of test results and can’t comment until the investigation is over per state law.

What lingers is a question of fairness: How is it that Miami Norland Senior High School has had significant instances of cheating the past two school years but yet was awarded school grades of “A” and Florida School Recognition Program and federal (RTTT, SIG) funds with no impediment or controversy, but North Miami Senior High School was suspected of cheating the past two schools years, eventually cleared, but has had its grades and incentive funding delayed to the angst of the school community?

For whatever reasons, did the FLDOE give Norland a free pass and decided to stick it to North Miami the past two school years?

By examining the evidence, the answer seems to be an overwhelming “yes.”

With the assistance of cheating, undertaken by Mr. Emmanuel Fleurantin and Mrs. Brenda Muchnick, and perhaps other persons unknown, Miami Norland’s school grade went from a “C” for the 2010-11 school year to an “A” for the 2011-12 school year.

As a result, total federal funds (SIG, RTTT) given out due to a grade influenced by cheating was $100,560; the total state funds per FSRP was between $130,000- $140,000; the total overall combined federal and state incentive funds were $230,560- $240,560.

Each teacher at Miami Norland Senior High School received $1730.41 from all three payouts.

During the 2011-2012 school year at Miami Norland Senior High School, there was proven, not suspected cheating as in North Miami’s case, cheating per student and teacher testimony and evidence in the form of cheat sheets and confessions. The only questions were the size and the scope of the cheating and who were all the people involved.

The Auditor General of Florida and the Miami-Dade Office of Inspector General was in possession of this evidence as of early May 2012 and the Florida Department of Education knew soon thereafter as I confirmed with FLDOE personnel over the phone in September 2012, which was three months before the high schools grades were released in December 2012.

If the Florida Department of Education handled the case at Miami Norland Senior High School the same way that it did at North Miami Senior High School, the “A” grade would not have been awarded in December 2012 and the payouts would not have occurred; rather, Miami Norland Senior High School would have received an “I” in the summer of 2012 and when the investigation concluded on Monday, August 26, 2013, with the issuance of the Final Miami-Dade OIG Report, the “I” would have been changed to an “F” and none of the $230,000-$240,000 in combined federal and state incentive funds would have been disbursed.

Yet Norland got the grade and the money and North Miami had to wait almost nine agonizing months to get their school grade and incentive funds.

For the 2012-2013 school year, history repeated itself for both schools.

As stated by the Test Chairperson at a faculty meeting on October 22, 2013, Miami Norland Senior High School led the State of Florida in FCAT invalidations as 13 student exams were invalidated for the 2012-2013 school year, a year after Adobegate, yet the school has not been assigned an “I” for “Incomplete” for the 2012-13 school year per past state practices.

In late December 2013, Norland was given an “A” and state incentive funds are scheduled to be paid out whereas North Miami has an “Incomplete” and left to twist in the wind once again.

Why did the FLDOE not award Norland an “Incomplete” and/or invalidate the “A” as there was confirmed cheating?

One would think what befell North Miami, though the school was eventually cleared of cheating, the past two years from the FLDOE would be appropriate for Norland as cheating on grand scales has actually been confirmed the past two school years.

Perhaps the Legislature should examine these split decisions handed out by the FLDOE and pass a law setting clear and consistent guidelines for the FLDOE to follow concerning schools and suspected standardized test cheating to prevent other schools from suffering the injustices that North Miami has endured the past two school years while Norland, and perhaps other like schools, were awarded school grades and incentive funds with impunity.

BUSTED: Wendy Davis supporters caught red-handed trying to cheat and steal Texas election

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James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas does it again. O’Keefe posted his latest investigative video showing supporters of Texas politician Wendy Davis trying to steal an election.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/gXKwQI_0kDI[/youtube]

The following is the full text from Project Veritas video post:

In one of our most recent videos a Battleground Texas volunteer talks about forging signatures on official voting documents (which is voter fraud) nonchalantly saying, “It happens all the time.”

She’s right it, it does. And Project Veritas has the proves it in this latest video.

Battleground Texas Field Organizer Jennifer Longoria was caught on camera multiple times making statements such as, “So every time we register someone to vote we keep their name and number.”

Doing so however, is illegal. According to the Secretary of State, it is unlawful to transcribe, copy, or otherwise record a telephone number furnished on a voter registration application.

And if they can get Texans to vote, Longoria says, they can “change the elections pretty drastically.”

The raw video can be found at http://Youtube.com/VeritasVisuals.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of LifeNews.com.

ABOUT PROJECT VERITAS

Project Veritas is non-partisan and does not advocate for political candidates or parties. The purpose of Project Veritas’ investigations is to expose waste, fraud, dishonesty and self-dealing. Stay up to date on who responds by following us on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/ProjectVeritas and on Twitter @Project_Veritas. Support Project Veritas’ investigations at http://ProjectVeritas.com/donate

Who are the top all-time political donors from 1989-2014? You will be surprised!

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American voters are increasingly concerned about the growing influence of money in the electoral process. Politicians and candidates are increasingly addicted to raising money, and with it comes political influence from donors. With political influence comes government fraud, waste and abuse. The major political parties have sophisticated systems for raising funds. So who are the top all-time political donors? If you listen to Democrats it is the Koch brothers. Republicans mention George Soros. Neither came close to making the all-time top list.

Opensecrets.org has compiled a list of the top “all-time donors” from 1989 to 2014. The totals include reported contributions from PACs and individuals affiliated with Heavy Hitter organizations, which are defined as the top overall donors to candidates, parties, Leadership PACs and other committees.

Contributions to outside groups like super PACs do not factor into an organization’s designation as a Heavy Hitter, however the totals below do include contributions by Heavy Hitters to such groups, as well as contributions to candidates, parties, Leadership PACs and other committees. Furthermore, the totals do not include contributions to politically active nonprofits, which are not disclosed to the public. For a full list of top top overall donors by cycle, independent of Heavy Hitters status, go here.

LEGEND:   Republican    Democrat    On the fence


 
  		 = Between 40% and 59% to both parties
= Leans Dem/Repub (60%-69%)
= Strongly Dem/Repub (70%-89%)
= Solidly Dem/Repub (over 90%)
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% as money can be given to third party
candidates or outside spending groups and PACs not affiliated with either party.
Rank Organization Total ’89-’12 Dem % Repub % Tilt
1 ActBlue $97,192,340 99% 0%     
2 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $60,667,379 81% 1%   
3 AT&T Inc $56,449,317 41% 57%
4 National Education Assn $53,594,488 61% 4%
5 National Assn of Realtors $51,207,902 44% 47%
6 Goldman Sachs $44,847,951 53% 44%
7 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $44,478,789 92% 1%     
8 United Auto Workers $41,667,858 71% 0%   
9 Carpenters & Joiners Union $39,260,371 74% 9%   
10 Service Employees International Union $38,395,690 84% 2%   
11 Laborers Union $37,494,010 85% 7%   
12 American Federation of Teachers $36,713,325 89% 0%   
13 Communications Workers of America $36,188,135 86% 0%   
14 Teamsters Union $36,123,209 88% 5%   
15 JPMorgan Chase & Co $34,527,277 48% 51%
16 United Food & Commercial Workers Union $33,756,550 86% 0%   
17 United Parcel Service $32,214,128 35% 64%
18 Citigroup Inc $32,198,122 48% 50%
19 National Auto Dealers Assn $31,818,910 31% 68%
20 Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union $31,313,097 98% 1%     
21 EMILY’s List $31,267,654 98% 0%     
22 American Bankers Assn $31,135,202 36% 63%
23 AFL-CIO $30,938,977 61% 3%
24 American Medical Assn $29,990,879 40% 59%
25 Microsoft Corp $29,245,015 55% 43%
26 National Beer Wholesalers Assn $28,976,510 35% 64%
27 Blue Cross/Blue Shield $28,491,678 36% 63%
28 General Electric $27,741,628 47% 51%
29 National Assn of Home Builders $27,509,880 34% 65%
30 Lockheed Martin $27,246,173 42% 57%
31 Bank of America $26,822,749 41% 57%
32 National Assn of Letter Carriers $26,106,359 84% 9%   
33 Morgan Stanley $26,074,770 42% 56%
34 Verizon Communications $25,490,499 40% 59%
35 Deloitte LLP $24,979,333 35% 63%
36 Time Warner $24,463,922 72% 25%   
37 Newsweb Corp $24,387,371 41% 0%
38 Credit Union National Assn $24,056,155 47% 51%
39 Plumbers & Pipefitters Union $23,886,248 85% 4%   
40 Altria Group $23,750,298 28% 70%   
41 Ernst & Young $23,114,243 42% 57%
42 Operating Engineers Union $23,036,848 82% 14%   
43 International Assn of Fire Fighters $22,963,260 79% 16%   
44 American Hospital Assn $22,909,326 52% 46%
45 PricewaterhouseCoopers $22,461,596 35% 64%
46 Sheet Metal Workers Union $22,372,978 95% 2%     
47 American Dental Assn $21,791,508 44% 54%
48 Boeing Co $21,502,737 46% 52%
49 UBS AG $21,354,742 40% 58%
50 Comcast Corp $20,603,390 57% 42%
51 AFLAC Inc $19,822,809 43% 56%
52 National Rifle Assn $19,771,191 17% 82%   
53 Pfizer Inc $19,699,869 35% 64%
54 Northrop Grumman $19,633,964 42% 57%
55 Union Pacific Corp $19,617,968 27% 72%   
56 Air Line Pilots Assn $19,538,047 83% 16%   
57 Honeywell International $19,447,557 44% 54%
58 Natl Assn/Insurance & Financial Advisors $19,305,624 41% 58%
59 Koch Industries $18,083,948 8% 90%     
60 American Postal Workers Union $17,957,308 86% 2%   
61 American Assn for Justice $17,581,358 80% 3%   
62 FedEx Corp $17,506,083 39% 60%
63 Ironworkers Union $17,386,345 92% 6%     
64 Club for Growth $17,271,352 0% 95%     
65 Credit Suisse Group $17,191,340 41% 57%
66 United Transportation Union $17,096,750 87% 11%   
67 New York Life Insurance $16,898,487 49% 50%
68 Raytheon Co $16,864,289 44% 55%
69 National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn $16,552,363 47% 52%
70 General Dynamics $16,549,202 46% 53%
71 Akin, Gump et al $16,463,510 61% 37%
72 United Steelworkers $16,426,444 99% 0%     
73 American Institute of CPAs $15,952,635 41% 58%
74 National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $15,883,050 77% 20%   
75 Chevron $15,826,864 19% 64%
76 Anheuser-Busch $15,612,613 48% 51%
77 Reynolds American $15,574,198 22% 77%   
78 Exxon Mobil $15,220,537 13% 85%   
79 KPMG LLP $15,112,328 34% 65%
80 National Cable & Telecommunications Assn $15,048,560 47% 51%
81 DLA Piper $14,902,117 68% 31%
82 Merrill Lynch $14,865,217 37% 62%
83 Wal-Mart Stores $14,851,004 32% 67%
84 GlaxoSmithKline $14,625,493 30% 69%
85 CSX Corp $14,118,661 34% 65%
86 Walt Disney Co $14,104,107 68% 30%
87 News Corp $13,917,083 58% 41%
88 American Financial Group $13,910,355 15% 73%   
89 Indep Insurance Agents & Brokers/America $13,731,200 34% 64%
90 American Health Care Assn $13,727,858 51% 48%
91 Wells Fargo $13,639,116 36% 61%
92 Associated Builders & Contractors $13,577,082 1% 98%     
93 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance $13,565,554 38% 60%
94 University of California $13,552,056 89% 9%   
95 American Crystal Sugar $13,309,209 61% 37%
96 WPP Group $13,257,197 53% 45%
97 American Society of Anesthesiologists $13,166,537 41% 58%
98 Prudential Financial $13,051,316 49% 50%
99 Southern Co $12,973,439 29% 70%   
100 National Restaurant Assn $12,605,181 16% 83%   
101 Securities Industry & Financial Mkt Assn $12,438,248 40% 59%
102 Human Rights Campaign $12,148,422 89% 8%   
103 MetLife Inc $12,038,047 51% 47%
104 American Optometric Assn $12,034,433 57% 42%
105 Home Depot $11,900,495 25% 74%   
106 American Academy of Ophthalmology $11,895,708 50% 49%
107 Natl Active & Retired Fed Employees Assn $11,802,200 78% 21%   
108 Saban Capital Group $11,683,172 89% 0%   
109 Eli Lilly & Co $11,651,455 31% 67%
110 United Technologies $11,577,894 45% 52%
111 General Motors $11,281,497 38% 60%
112 Associated General Contractors $11,198,897 14% 85%   
113 Painters & Allied Trades Union $11,081,080 85% 12%   
114 National Assn of Broadcasters $11,051,822 44% 55%
115 American Maritime Officers $11,019,831 46% 53%
116 UST Inc $10,930,093 22% 77%   
117 Ford Motor Co $10,739,089 38% 60%
118 Skadden, Arps et al $10,700,094 77% 22%   
119 BellSouth Corp $10,680,784 43% 56%
120 AIG $10,548,621 49% 50%
121 Seafarers International Union $10,449,415 83% 15%   
122 Exelon Corp $10,448,670 43% 56%
123 National Cmte to Preserve Social Security & Medicare $10,391,306 82% 17%   
124 Independent Community Bankers of America $10,367,285 42% 57%
125 Amway/Alticor Inc $10,312,313 0% 97%     
126 Freddie Mac $10,294,709 43% 56%
127 MBNA Corp $10,282,913 16% 83%   
128 Patton Boggs LLP $10,134,606 71% 27%   
129 American Airlines $10,071,131 43% 55%
130 American Trucking Assns $9,975,648 27% 72%   
131 American Physical Therapy Assn $9,795,983 49% 50%
132 Lehman Brothers $9,729,764 52% 46%
133 Blackstone Group $9,658,975 46% 51%
134 National Fedn of Independent Business $9,616,283 6% 93%     
135 Greenberg Traurig LLP $9,546,903 62% 37%
136 Transport Workers Union $9,531,899 95% 4%     
137 American Council of Life Insurers $9,454,728 38% 61%
138 Amalgamated Transit Union $9,453,918 93% 6%     
139 Harvard University $9,436,590 87% 12%   
140 Archer Daniels Midland $9,394,067 42% 57%
141 Aircraft Owners & Pilots Assn $9,337,413 43% 56%
142 Fannie Mae $9,140,977 53% 46%
143 National Rural Letter Carriers Assn $9,021,100 71% 28%   
144 Wachovia Corp $8,575,944 30% 69%
145 National Cmte for an Effective Congress $8,447,690 99% 0%     
146 Interpublic Group $8,286,183 66% 32%
147 Marine Engineers Beneficial Assn $8,155,379 73% 25%   
148 Bristol-Myers Squibb $7,926,699 23% 76%   
149 MCI Inc $7,659,226 45% 54%
150 Bear Stearns $7,280,973 55% 43%
151 BP $6,843,520 30% 69%
152 Enron Corp $6,544,528 28% 71%   
153 Andersen $6,267,045 37% 62%
154 Vivendi $6,037,717 60% 33%
155 MGM Resorts International $5,831,055 45% 47%
156 Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp $5,089,791 39% 60%

Based on data released by the FEC on December 16, 2013.

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of Svilen.milev. The image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

Obama Wants to Waste a Billion on “Climate Change”

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Barack Obama will be remembered for many things during his two terms in office, but high on the list, right after lying to everyone about everything, will be his determination to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on every Green scheme from solar and wind energy to electric cars, and now on “climate change.”

He is calling for a billion-dollar climate change fund in his forthcoming budget, due out next month. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the fund “would be spent on researching the projected effects of climate change and helping Americans prepare for them, including with new technology and infrastructure, according to the White House.

We don’t need any research and we don’t need any new technology. The National Weather Service has hugely expensive computers that enable it to predict what the weather will be anywhere in the U.S. with some measure of accuracy for up to three or four days. After that, it gets fuzzy. What will the weather be next week? Well, maybe a bit warmer or a bit colder.

As for the effects of weather events, we have centuries of knowledge regarding this. We know what happens after a blizzard or a hurricane, a drought or a flood.

When a huge storm like Sandy hit the East Coast, we had FEMA that was supposed to come in and help the victims. The federal government also came up with a couple of million for the States most affected, but it is still a problem that local first responders and utilities have to address most directly.

Obama was out in California to show his concern for the drought-stricken farmers and the administration is speeding delivery of $100 million of aid to livestock farmers, $15 million for areas hit hardest, and $60 million for California food banks to help the poor. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pointed out that the drought has been “exacerbated by federal and state regulations” including an environmental rule that placed “the well-being of fish…ahead of the well-being” of communities.

Like Rep. McCarthy, those on the scene point out that the drought is in part the result of the failure to restore the water flow from California’s water-heavy north to farmers in the central and south. House Bill 3964 does that, but only if the Senate will stop holding it up. Rep. McCarthy is joined by Rep. Devin Nunes explaining that California’s system of aqueducts and storage tanks was designed long ago to take advantage of rain and mountain runoff from wet years and store it for use in dry years.

As Investors.com pointed out, “Environmental special interests managed to dismantle the system by diverting water meant for farms to pet projects, such as saving delta smelt, a baitfish. That move forced the flushing of three million acre-feet of water originally slated for the Central Valley into the ocean over the past five years.”

Obama made no mention of that, but it is an example of how, in the name of climate change billions are wasted or lost, such as when the outcry over Spotted Owls caused a vast portion of the Northwest’s timber industry was decimated by the false claim that they were “endangered.”

All this traces back to the founding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program. The IPCC was given a formal blessing by the UN General Assembly through Resolution 43/53.

And what has the IPCC done? It has championed the utterly false claim that carbon dioxide (CO2) is responsible for warming the Earth and that all the industries and other human activities that create CO2 emissions had to reduce them in order to save the Earth. In 2007 the IPCC and Al Gore would share a Nobel Peace Prize. As an organization and as an individual these two have proved to be the among the greatest liars on planet Earth.

Cover - Climate Change Reconsidered IIDr. Craig D. Idso, PhD, is the founder and chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. He is an advisor to The Heartland Institute and, with Dr. Robert M. Carter and Dr. S. Fred Singer, authored the 2011 study, “Climate Change Reconsidered”, for the entertainingly named NIPCC—Not the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Published by The Heartland Institute, a free market think tank that has led the effort to expose the IPCC since 2009, sponsoring eight international conferences, the report was updated in 2013 and a new update is due in March.

Writing in The Hill on January 30, Dr. Idso said “the President’s concerns for the planet are based upon flawed and speculative science; and his policy prescription is a recipe for failure” noting that “literally thousands of scientific studies have produced findings that run counter to his view of future climate.”

“As just one example, and a damning one at that, all of the computer models upon which his vision is based failed to predict the current plateau (the cooling cycle) in global temperature that has continued for the past 16 years. That the Earth has not warmed significantly during this period, despite an 8 percent increase in atmospheric CO2, is a major indictment of the model’s credibility in predicting future climate, as well as the President’s assertion that debate on this topic is ‘settled’.”

“The taxation or regulation of CO2 emissions is an unnecessary and detrimental policy option that should be shunned,” said Dr. Idso. Unfortunately for Americans, that is precisely the policy being driven by Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Department of the Interior and other elements of the government.

So the trip to California with its promise of more million spent when, in fact, the Green policies of that State have caused the loss of the Central lands that produce a major portion of the nation’s food stocks, reveals how utterly corrupt Obama’s climate-related policies have been since he took office in 2009.

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been squandered by the crony capitalism that is the driving force behind the IPCC’s and U.S. demands for the reduction of CO2 emissions.

There is climate change and it has been going on for 4.5 billion years on planet Earth. It has everything to do with the Sun, the oceans, volcanic activity and other natural factors. It has nothing to do with the planet’s human population.

What is profoundly disturbing is the deliberate political agenda behind the President’s lies and Secretary of State John Kerry’s irrational belief that climate change is the world’s “most fearsome” weapon of mass destruction.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

RELATED VIDEO: Charles Krauthammer on Climate Change, “All of this is driven by this ideology, which in and of itself is a matter of almost theology.”

[youtube]http://youtu.be/g6Zswes9TsY[/youtube]

Yellen: I Helped Blow Up The World

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The most-destructive terrorists do not use guns or bombs.  They use their power and influence to lie in public, backed by force of law, destroying people, industry and even entire nations and their governments.  They are found in the halls of finance, and the more-powerful they are the worse they are.  Today, the head of same is found in the Federal Reserve, seated before Congress in the form of ChairSatan Janet Yellen.

First, let me acknowledge the important contributions of Chairman Bernanke. His leadership helped make our economy and financial system stronger and ensured that the Federal Reserve is transparent and accountable. I pledge to continue that work.

Uh huh.  The man who first claimed subprime is contained, who in fact invented and promoted the policies that led to the housing bubble in the first place (people seem to forget that) and then who invented and promoted the policies that have now led to the largest global asset bubble in history (second only to the one he built first, and which exploded in his face.)

The unemployment rate has fallen nearly a percentage point since the middle of last year and 1-1/2 percentage points since the beginning of the current asset purchase program. Nevertheless, the recovery in the labor market is far from complete.

There has been no recovery in employment rate of the population.  At all.

Since anyone driven from the workforce by Fed policy doesn’t count as “unemployed” Yellen’s statement is akin to arguing that the natural death rate has not gotten worse over time which may well be true but if you’re shooting people by the busload there are still more people dying — and you’re responsible for their deaths.

Among the major components of GDP, household and business spending growth stepped up during the second half of last year.

Uh huh.  All of it borrowed, I might add.  Median household income adjusted for inflation is not rising.  Therefore all of this increased spending must be borrowed money, which is not an improvement in the common man’s situation.

The same is true with businesses; they never saw their indebtedness decrease — not even in the depths of the recession.

We have been watching closely the recent volatility in global financial markets. Our sense is that at this stage these developments do not pose a substantial risk to the U.S. economic outlook.

The Fed caused that volatility.

Our current program of asset purchases began in September 2012 amid signs that the recovery was weakening and progress in the labor market had slowed.

There has been no recovery.  Not in inflation-adjusted incomes nor in the employment rate of the population.  Neither has improved one iota since 2009.  Borrowing more money is not an “improvement” as incomes must rise net-net to service the new debt.  They haven’t.

The Committee has emphasized that a highly accommodative policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after asset purchases end.

Of course you have.  The government is blowing more money than it takes in too, and you know full well that this can’t continue forever either, but you won’t take the candy away from the baby – even when told, point-blank as Bernanke was on multiple occasions over the last few years, that Congress is incapable of rational fiscal management on its own without being forced to do so by market-based borrowing costs.

Regulatory and supervisory actions, including those that are leading to substantial increases in capital and liquidity in the banking sector, are making our financial system more resilient. Still, important tasks lie ahead. In the near term, we expect to finalize the rules implementing enhanced prudential standards mandated by section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. We also are working to finalize the proposed rule strengthening the leverage ratio standards for U.S.-based, systemically important global banks. We expect to issue proposals for a risk-based capital surcharge for those banks as well as for a long-term debt requirement to help ensure that these organizations can be resolved. In addition, we are working to advance proposals on margins for noncleared derivatives, consistent with a new global framework, and are evaluating possible measures to address financial stability risks associated with short-term wholesale funding. We will continue to monitor for emerging risks, including watching carefully to see if the regulatory reforms work as intended.

This is the biggest lie of all.

Derivatives are nothing other than a scam intended to get around margin requirements that would otherwise be imposed by the market in the absence of government bailouts and guarantees.  The “financial system” has repeatedly demonstrated that it has both, with the most-outrageous example of same being when Paulson and Bernanke literally corralled Congresspeople into a room and threatened them with economic nuclear winter if they didn’t get a $700 billion blank check.

That “need” came about due to The Fed and Congressional willful blindness toward the outright fraudulent declarations of “adequate” margin supervision and reserves against said positions.  What 2008 laid bare on the table was that these claims were outright lies, that is, public frauds, and yet none were either prosecuted nor were the firms that had made such outrageous and false statements allowed to fail, with only a couple of exceptions.

The fundamental reality is that The Fed believes, despite decades of proof otherwise, that it can successfully “manage” the business cycle and continually pump up asset bubbles without consequence. The problem with such an assertion is that every time The Fed has done this to date throughout history the balloon has found a pin and popped with dramatic consequence, and what’s worse, the severity of those excursions in terms of real-world economic impact has risen with each successive attempt and failure.

The Market Ticker

In-depth Report: Following the political money in Florida

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Whenever you find corruption and cronyism in government the first thing to do is follow the money. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Timothy 6:10. Politicians are known for piercing themselves, repeatedly.

Two organizations are helping shine the light of day on how money is used in Florida campaigns.

Dan Krassner, Co-Founder and Executive Director Integrity Florida and Ben Wilcox, Research Director Integrity Florida, in an email state, “Florida is considering replacement of its outdated website for tracking money in politics with a statewide electronic filing system for all state and local campaign finance data.”

As this potential solution is reviewed by policymakers to help the public follow the money, the LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University and Integrity Florida, today, released the latest installment in the Tough Choices report series:

Tough Choices: Best Practices in Campaign Finance and Public Access to Information. The report, an in-depth analysis of Florida’s campaign finance policies compared to other states in the U.S., found that Florida’s 2013 reform legislation set the right path, but more could be done to improve transparency.

“I am proud of our progress in making Florida’s campaign finance reporting system more transparent through stricter reporting requirements,” said House Speaker Will Weatherford. “We can always do more to increase transparency and accountability, and I appreciate the LeRoy Collins Institute’s and Integrity Florida’s thoughtful suggestions.”

The report found:

The 2013 Florida law on campaign finance is clearly moving the state toward more transparency, aligning with the state’s proud open government culture. The raising of campaign finance limits, while controversial, positions the state near the median of the country, and the call for a comprehensive state-local campaign finance data set will make it easier for citizens to hold their elected officials accountable. While the legislative call for an enhanced statewide campaign finance website that includes local data is an ambitious project, it has tremendous potential to provide valuable information to Floridians and strengthen the Sunshine State’s reputation for open government.

Click here to read the full report.

Click here to review the Florida Division of Elections proposal.

U.S. is Going Bankrupt One City at a Time

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Time to start watching U.S. cities go bankrupt. Prior to Detroit, there was Stockton, California, and, according to Stephen Moore, now the chief economist with the Heritage Foundation, there are more than sixty of the largest cities that “are plagued with the same kinds of retirement legacy costs that sent Detroit in Chapter 9 bankruptcy” last year.

“Keep an eye on ‘too big to fail’ cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York,” he warned. Among the twenty cities he listed in an August 2013 Newsmax article, he cited Compton and Oakland, CA, Harrisburg, PA, and Providence, RI. What these and other cities have in common is that “the vast majority are located in states with forced unions, non-right-to-work states.”

As Steve Stanek, a research fellow with the Heartland Institute, reported, when a federal judge, Stephen Rhodes, cleared the way for Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, in December, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFCCME) immediately filed a notice of appeal, but Detroit has more than 100,000 creditors. As its emergency financial manager, Kevyn Orr, said, “The reality is the city has no cash on hand to pay the magnitude of the debt we have, which is $12 billion–$5.7 billion of which has to do with health care obligations, $3.5 billion has to do with pensions, and $2 billion has to do with bondholders.”

At the time it declared bankruptcy, Detroit had 47 different public employee unions. The Detroit Water & Sewer Department had a farrier (a horse-shoer) who received $56,000 in pay and benefits every year even though the city had no horses in the department.

As Moore points out, “For at least the last 20 years major U.S. cities have been playgrounds for left-wing experiments—high taxes on the rich; sanctuaries for illegal immigrants; super-minimum wage rules; strict gun-control laws; regulations and paperwork that makes it onerous o open a business or develop on your own property; crony capitalism with contracts going to political donors and friends; and failing schools ruled by teacher unions, with little competition or productivity.”

The legacy costs of pensions and health benefits to retired teachers and municipal retirees force “city managers and mayors are forced to lay off firefighters, police and teachers. Detroit,” Moore noted, “has three retired city workers collecting a pension for every two currently working.”

Cover - The Great WithdrawalRecently published, “The Great Withdrawal” by Craig R. Smith with Lowell Ponte examines the damage that progressive programs and policies have done to cities and to the nation. A nation with a $17 trillion debt who’s President has only one answer, raise the debt limit, will encounter a financial Armageddon if the spending and borrowing is not sharply curtailed.

Craig and Ponte point to 1913 as the year progressive, collectivist ideas “took control of the United States government and began a ‘fundamental transformation’ of our economy, politics, culture and beliefs that continues today.”

Citing Detroit as an example of the result of liberal, progressive policies, Smith said that “by 2013 (it) had become a war zone of urban strife, poverty, decay and government profligacy.”

Recall that President Obama claimed he had “saved” General Motors and Chrysler with bailouts that cost taxpayers “at least $25 billion that will never be paid back. At least a billion of these tax dollars went to improve GM facilities in Brazil, and at least $550 million went to GM facilities in Mexico.” Chrysler is now owned by the Italian automaker, Fiat.

Bond holders are major investors in cities and corporations, but the GM bailout denied payment to secured bondholders and redistributed their rightful share to the United Auto Workers. “As a result, today’s bonds are viewed as an investment with uncertain risk,” says Smith. In 2013, investors withdrew $80 billion from bond funds.”

As Smith points out, “The progressive method of operation was, and is, that when the economy is good, they raise taxes and expand government. When the economic cycle turns negative, the politicians blame others, refuse to reduce government—and, increasingly, use the bad economy as a reason for expanding government and spending even more.”

This describes what President has been doing since first elected in 2008. For the entirety of his first term, he blamed everything on President George W. Bush.

“Put simply,” says Smith, “most progressive cities are welfare city-states in which a large percentage of the population lives on government money, either as government dependents or government employees.” This description fits the nation as well.

How bad are the present times? “27 percent of Americans have no savings at all, 46 percent have savings of less than $800, and 76% of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck.”

With the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—the Congressional Budget Office released a report predicting that, over the next decade, it will cost the nation about 2.3 million jobs and contribute to a $1 trillion increase in projected deficits.

Hans Bader, a senior attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, notes that it contains massive marriage penalties that discriminate against married people, huge work disincentives for some older workers, has slashed hiring, cut economic growth, and induced employers to replace full-time workers with part-time employees. In the process, millions have seen their healthcare policies canceled or replaced with policies with higher premiums and deductibles.

There are already 92 million Americans who are unemployed or ceased looking for work. There are 47 million on food stamps.

The ultimate progressive, President Obama, is impoverishing millions of Americans. Unlike Detroit, America cannot declare bankruptcy. It can only collapse if voters do not replace those Senators and Representatives that voted for Obamacare and who refuse to take the steps to reduce government spending and borrowing. We have three years in which to survive Obama.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

A Real Stunner: Obama IRS “not even a smidgen of corruption”!

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 “Anything is better than lies and deceit!” – Leo Tolstoy

It’s been a rather stunning week.

It began with Denver fans sitting stunned as they watched the Seattle Seahawks totally decimate the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Then, the President stunningly said the IRS targeting scandal had “not even a smidgen of corruption”. That was news to lots of Americans.

Sadly, the President said this in the face of what has already been presented from numerous Congressional investigations and hearings, and likely without having been briefed on an unfinished, albeit what appears to be a highly politicized Justice Department investigation.

Then three days after the interview, at Wednesday’s Congressional oversight hearing, Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp presented a June 14, 2012,email between Ruth Madrigal, a career attorney at the U.S. Treasury Department and several top officials with the IRS in Washington.

In this rather stunning email, Madrigal wrote, “Don’t know who in your organizations is keeping tabs on c4s, but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off – plan) in 2013, I’ve got my radar up and this seemed interesting…” Folks, in Washington speak, “off-plan” means hidden or secret from public view. So much for transparency.

This was followed by yesterday’s explosive IRS oversight hearing. Attorney Cleta Mitchell charged, “First, the IRS scandal is real. It’s not pretend, it’s real. Number two, the IRS scandal is not just a bone headed bunch of bureaucrats in some remote office contrary to what the President of the United States told the American people on Sunday. And, number 3, the IRS scandal is not over. It is continuing to this day. And, the Department of Justice Investigation is a sham. It is a NON-EXISTENT investigation.“

Mitchell then chronicled a series of what she described as “lies” during a stunning, opening statement.

The combative hearing culminated with several Members beating the drum for a Special Prosecutor. There’s only one word for this – stunning!

One wonders if the President now regrets making his “smidgen” declaration.

What has happened with the IRS scandals cannot be undone and deserves a full and unbiased, non-partisan investigation led by someone other than a major donor to the current President of the United States. And, today’s clarion call for a special prosecutor is a wise next step. Going forward, there is only one way to ensure that this kind of political terror never happens again.

HR 25, the FairTax Act of 2013, currently before Congress and the Committee on Ways and Means is the only legislation that provides simple and fair taxation for all Americans.

More importantly, HR 25 is the only legislation that defunds and disbands the IRS in its entirety.

It is time that Congress stop the perennial IRS theatrics – theatrics created by 74,608 pages of special interests driven tax code approved by Congress – and pass HR 25 / S 122.

Finally, Americans For Fair Taxation® is a key sponsor of the Western States Conservative Caucus in Phoenix, AZ onFebruary 22, 2014. Approximately 1,000 attendees will receive a FairTax lanyard, FairTax button, FairTax pocket card and FairTax briefing information in their registration packet. In addition, Neal Boortz will be a keynote speaker during the plenary session and will lead an exciting panel discussion, “The FairTax: An idea whose time has come,” which also features FairTax spokesperson Steve Hayes and retired AZ State Senator and longtime FairTax advocate Lori Klein.

Our AZ FairTax team, supported by grassroots FairTax leaders coming in from across the nation, will have a booth to share more information on the FairTax Plan with participants. This conference promises great educational opportunities for the FairTax. If you would like to join the FairTax team, you can register for the conference here.

I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix!

The Two Faces of Fraud: Teacher gives herself credit for Professional Development course she taught?

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In 2012 Miami Norland High School two teachers were caught helping students cheat on an industrial art test. This led to a major IG investigation and district scandal. It would seem Miami-Dade teachers, administrators and district staff would be hypersensitive to any hint of cheating or impropriety. That may not be the case, it appears history is repeating itself.

Morcos

Mrs. Mary Morcos

On Monday, November 4, 2013 Mrs. Mary Morcos, an English teacher at Miami Norland Senior High School, cancelled a Professional Development (PD) training session and had a replacement course approved. According to sources, Morcos erroneously created a meeting for no points, caught her mistake and canceled that session, and then offered a session for credit per Contract the next day, less than 3 days before the beginning of the Professional Development course. This is a violation of District professional development policy.

But it gets worse.

Morcos then registered herself as a student for the course and received a “satisfactory grade” along with a Certificate of Completion. Morcos is listed as the facilitator for the course, which was in fact taught by her friend and colleague, Ms. Linda Garcia, a Reading Coach and member of the Professional Learning Support Team (PLST) at Norland SHS. However, Morcos taught a class the same day, November 8, 2013, which was approved by the Center for Professional Learning (CPL) on November 6, 2013, less than two days before the beginning of the course, as evidenced by class lists and a student’s registration.

Garcia

Ms. Linda Garcia

It is not possible for one to be a student receiving credit and an instructor teaching a course and awarding credit to students for all day professional development activities all on the same day. Yet Garcia allowed Morcos to be granted credit as did CPL for her and the students she taught in her separate course.

Moreover, per CPL procedures, Mrs. Morcos was supposed to cancel her registration in the course instructed by Ms. Garcia if she could not attend. The District’s Professional Development Frequently Asked Questions reads:

“27) Am I required to cancel my registration if I cannot attend a session?”

“Yes. Click on the My Course link course in the PD Menu and Registration System. Select the course you would like to cancel and click Cancel in the upper left corner.”

The follow up work for the replacement course, Data Analysis & Instructional Content in the Education Transformation Office (ETO), was supposed to be for one point, meaning it would take an hour to complete it. As evidenced by an email sent by Morcos on November 19, 2013, the follow-up work was one paragraph which a reasonable person would assume would take 10 to 15 minutes to complete. The email also alludes to questionable attendance as faculty was reminded to sign in eleven (11) days later which leads to verification questions.

ANALYSIS

The issues detailed in this column pertain to timeliness; course quality; lack of adequate controls by CPL; and a suspicion of fraud as points may have been illegally obtained. Given the numerous errors by Morcos, it is doubtful that she was properly trained. Despite possible lack of training, she should know as it is common sense that one cannot earn credit as a student and teach a course on the same day during the same timeframe.

TIMELINESS

According to the 2013-2014 Professional Development (PD) Guidelines, all course sessions must be posted to the PD Menu and Registration System at least two weeks before the scheduled start date in order to provide employees with sufficient time to register prior to the commencement of the session or course, and disallows credit of participants who do not pre register for courses.

Morcos, according to school records, posted two sessions just days before the November 8, 2013 PD Day: Data Analysis & Instructional Content in ETO, session posted on November 5, 2013; and Relating ESE/Homeless Awareness &Prevention, session posted on November 6, 2013. Furthermore, it appears Norland school administration should have not approved these courses as they violated CPL timeframe policies. By procedure, Mr. Lee, as the Norland SHS Principal, has to approve courses and Ms. Gilzean has to be apprised of the PD sessions.

As a former PDL, Morcos should know CPL policies and procedures.

Additionally, two teachers, Mr. Malcolm Marshall and Mrs. Natasha Exemar, registered late, the date being November 13, 2013, but were given credit. Though Mrs. Morcos submitted the course templates and offered sessions, CPL personnel approved her course templates and allowed her to offer those sessions, allowing teachers to register for these sessions and earn credit from them, two of them (Marshall and Exemar) late registrants, though they were submitted in an untimely manner contrary to CPL policies and state law as surely this conflict with Learning Forward standards Course Quality Courses are supposed to be based on “rigor, relevance, and research,” as stipulated in the Professional Development Guidelines 2013-2014.

A previously prepared course, Common Core for Viking Teachers (CCFVT), available to Morcos, is rigorous given the nature and structure of the course and the follow-up activity. Given that Common Core will be implemented in Florida high schools in August 2014 and only three teachers at Norland have been trained in the CCSSI, it is critical that meaningful and rigious courses be taught. CCFVT is relevant is based on the latest research as proffered by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers as outlined in their position papers. To ensure relevance, the sessions (four in total) for this course were offered by subject matter and instructed by the respective instructional coach as the CCSSI was meant to be presented and understood as applied in a particular subject matter. CCFVT has not been used to date.

Morcos’s course for the general faculty, Data Analysis & Instructional Content in ETO, appears to be redundant as teachers engage in data analysis in common planning sessions. The course seemed to lack rigor as the follow-up work was one paragraph; it seemed irrelevant as the faculty was well-versed versed in data analysis; and it does not seem to be well researched. Under prerequisite skills, the following reads: “Teachers and Instructors will evaluate data based on previous school wide assessments based on Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and State DOE mandated instructional practices and Educational Transformation Office Guidelines (ETO) guidelines for performance indicators.”

Interestingly, the state does not even know or have an approved assessment to assess the CCSS, so what is Marcos referring to? The CCSS has not been assessed school wide. Teachers dissect Interim Assessment data in common planning sessions, but those are based on FCAT
Reading and EOC data.

The CCFVT course was based on materials from AchievetheCore.org and videos from the Hunt Institute. Morcos’s course is based only on data analysis which teachers do on a weekly basis as a matter of course. One cannot reasonably believe this took up an entire six hour session. Morcos’s course may be indicative of last minute planning. Yet CPL approved and allowed it. One only has to compare the CCFVT course to the Morcos course, to determine which is more relevant.

The course Morcos allegedly taught on the same day, and 15 staff members received credit for, Relating ESE/Homeless Awareness & Prevention, was posted for session in less than two days before the course began. The course template lists the audience as student services and paraprofessionals, yet seven teachers took and received credit for the course. Initially nine (9) staff members were granted credit, but weeks later, six (6) more were granted credit which raises additional questions.

POTENTIAL FRAUD

Professional development compliance is every teacher and administrator’s responsibility. However, compliance begins and ends with the instructor. The instructor, though he/she can defer to the facilitator and/or PDL, is responsible for registering and grading students.

For the course Mrs. Morcos received credit for as a student, Data Analysis & Instructional Content in ETO, Ms. Linda Garcia was the instructor. Both Mrs. Morcos and Ms. Garcia accepted the Instructor/Facilitator Agreement to uphold professional development protocols and procedures.

Did Mrs. Morcos show up for the first and last 30 minutes of Data Analysis & Instructional Content in ETO, teach her class (Relating ESE/Homeless Awareness & Prevention) for which 15 staff members received credit for in between, and Ms. Garcia said and did nothing, thereby being complicit?

The evidence suggests just that.

Moreover, CPL lacked adequate controls to catch these incidents as personnel failed to cross reference her course as a teacher and her participation as a student on the same day during the same hours.

CONCLUSION

If Mrs. Morcos did indeed instruct her course, Relating ESE/Homeless Awareness & Prevent, while she received credit as a student in the course Ms. Garcia instructed (Data Analysis & Instructional Content in ETO) a fair-minded person would assume she and Ms. Garcia violated the following provisions of Florida’s Code of Ethics – Education Profession:

“6B-1.001 Code of Ethics of the Education Profession in Florida.
3. Aware of the importance of maintaining the respect and confidence of one’s colleagues, of students, of parents, and of other members of the community, the educator strives to achieve and sustain the highest degree of ethical conduct.

6B-1.006 Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida.
5. Obligation to the profession of education requires that the individual:
a. Shall maintain honesty in all professional dealings.
h. Shall not submit fraudulent information on any document in connection with professional activities.
n. Shall report to appropriate authorities any known allegation of a violation of the Florida School Code or State Board of Education Rules as defined in Section 1012.795(1), Florida Statutes.”

The Florida Department of Education is conducting a Protocol Review of the Miami-Dade School District during the week of February 24-28, 2014. Given the nature of Report No. 2013-108, issued by the Office of the Auditor General of Florida, a reasonable person would conclude that one of the 35 Miami-Dade schools being visited would be Norland SHS.

Sex Research Group Linked to Pedophiles Granted UN Recognition

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NEW YORK, January 24 (C-FAM): An academic group whose research was obtained from pedophiles and launched the sexual revolution in the U.S. has received accreditation by the United Nations.

The infamous Kinsey Report was the basis for relaxing attitudes and penalties for sex crimes against women and children, and for comprehensive sexual education that teaches small children about sexual acts.

This week the Kinsey Institute went before the UN committee that accredits groups to participate in the UN. This comes as abortion groups are lobbying for comprehensive sex education to be a major part of the UN’s policy agenda and development work.

Alfred Kinsey claimed children are sexual from infancy. His primary sources were adult men who recorded details of their sexual contacts with children for his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.

One man provided Kinsey details of his abuse from 1917 to 1948, shown in Table 34 in Kinsey’s book. It records the number of “orgasms” in certain time periods by children as young as 5 months up to 14 years.

Orgasm is defined as “violent convulsions,” “sobbing, or more violent cries, sometimes with an abundance of tears (especially among younger children),” “excruciating pain,” “will fight away from the partner and may make violent attempts to avoid climax although they derive definite pleasure from the situation.”

Another Kinsey source beginning in 1943 – during WWII – was a German Nazi officer, Fritz von Balluseck who in 1957 was convicted of abusing children for over 30 years. The judge reportedly said, “I had the impression that you got to the children in order to impress Kinsey and to deliver him material.”

Kinsey claimed 95 percent of men committed sexual crimes, so society should redefine “normal” and reduce penalties for sex offenses. He testified on behalf of child molesters and his work helped change laws to be lenient on sex offenses.

“Of course, we knew when we interviewed the pedophiles that they would continue the activity, but we didn’t do anything about that,” Paul Gebhard, a Kinsey associate, told a newspaper. “There couldn’t have been any research if we turned them in.”

Gebhard, who became director of The Kinsey Institute, later said, “It was illegal and we knew it was illegal and that’s why a lot of people are furious.”

Kinsey assured “his informants of anonymity” and avoided “any value judgments of their behavior,” stated Kinsey Institute director John Bancroft.

One victim of a Kinsey child molester has come forward. When “Esther White” (a pseudonym) was 9, she found a sheet of paper “and my father was checking off things he was doing to me.” After Kinsey interviewed Esther, he handed her grandfather a check for about $6,000.

In 1964, The Kinsey Institute launched SIECUS to promote Kinsey’s ideology through sex education. SIECUS already has UN recognition and has become very influential there. SIECUS’ Comprehensive Sexuality Education teaches 5-year olds about masturbation, and engaging in sexual behavior with others shows caring.

The Kinsey Institute provides scholarships honoring John Money, a pioneer of “gender identity” and responsible for the sex “reassignment” of an infant told in the book The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl. The boy ultimately committed suicide. Money’s gender identity clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital was shut down by his successor.

The homosexual group ILGA lost its UN accreditation in 1993 due to its links to groups that promote pedophilia.

A Wiki-leaked document titled “Pedophilia Certification,” shows the U.S. conducted a “thorough review” in 2010 and UN agencies certified that none had accredited any organization that promotes or condones pedophilia.

EDITORS NOTE: This column was written by Wendy Wright, Vice President for Government Relations and Communications, C-FAM.

RELATED COLUMN: 5 Horrific Examples of Cultural Decay in America

Small Town Political Corruption in Botetourt County, VA

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After serving on my local Republican Committee and, eventually as its Vice Chairman, I was encouraged to run for a position on the Board of Supervisors.  In Botetourt County (Southwest VA), our County is divided into 5 Districts, each serving between 5000-6000 residents.  Our Board’s members have staggered 4 year terms, 3 Supervisors up for election, followed two years later by the election of the other two Supervisors.

I won the Valley District in the election of November 2003 as a political newcomer despite my opponent being hand picked by his predecessor who also served as his campaign manager. Running on a campaign of Open Government, Integrity, low taxes and new ideas, I won with over 55% of the vote. I served on the Board for two terms, ran for re-election in 2007 unopposed and served back to back terms as Board Chairman (never done before) as well as Vice Chairman for two years. During my tenure, I made the motion to lower the County’s real estate tax rate by 10 cents per $100 of assessed value but saw it reduced to 5 cents per $100 by a vote of the other Supervisors. I was also responsible for moving the Board’s meeting hours to afternoon/evening vs morning/afternoon, thereby making it more accessible for those who worked and wanted to attend the meetings.

Although there were some conflicts over the years between me and 1 or 2 other board members, we all got along until the Spring of 2011. During the School Board Budget Meetings (I served on that Board for 7 years), I discovered that County employees’s benefits were significantly higher than those of school employees. When I began to check into the specifics of those benefits, it ruffled some feathers, particularly with one Board Member, Terry Austin, who represented the Buchanan District. To my amazement, I discovered that County employees enjoyed benefits unheard of in the private sector as follows:

  • Up to 8 weeks of paid time off after only one year of service which included two weeks vacation, 12 paid holidays and 15 sick days that could be carried over indefinitely.
  • 100% reimbursement of the single rate on health insurance plus between 75-92% of dependent coverage depending on whether it covered just spouse, children or family.
  • No increase in employee out of pocket cost for dependent coverage in 18 years!
  • 100% paid retirement plan with no employee contribution and a 7.5% rate of return guaranteed on money invested for them.

When I found out this information, I asked the Board to do a Pay and Benefits Study of like sized counties in the Commonwealth of VA to see how ours compared. Although that motion was approved on a 4:1 vote, to this day, nearly 3 years later, that study has yet to be done. One Board member (Austin) publicly accused me of trying to sabotage County employees and took it on himself to put forth a Board resolution full of praise for the employees. Then, as a member of the County Budget Committee, he proposed a 2% pay raise for county employees even though County Staff had presented the budget with no pay raises, citing shrinking state revenues, a shortfall in the VRS (State Retirement Plan) and unfunded mandates passed on to counties by the State.

After the Public Hearing on the budget in May 2011 where the presentation included a foreboding outlook for the next few years, we had a full meeting of the Board with the Budget Committee where we were told that “Presto” we suddenly had a $5 Million Budget Surplus over and above our required reserves and that we “could easily afford” this pay increase at a cost of $1.1 million including the same 2% for teachers.

I and another Conservative Board Member questioned where this surplus came from and were told by Staff and the two Supervisors on the regular budget committee (Austin and Clinton) that we were aware all along that the surplus would be there.

At our Board meeting in May, I voted against the pay increase but was outvoted 3:2. At our July meeting, the County Finance Director advised that we had ended our fiscal year (June 30, 2011) with a $4.65 Million Surplus. However, in a closed session of the Board in the August meeting, while discussing the potential sale of a County owned asset, we were encouraged to proceed with the sale because “we really don’t have a $4.65 Million surplus”.

From that point on, there was a concerted effort by Buchanan District Supervisor Austin and the new GOP Chairwoman, to recruit someone to run against me and they stacked the Mass Meeting to deny me the Republican Nomination – a two term Conservative Republican! After a couple of days with dozens of folks encouraging me to run as an Independent, I got the paperwork and began collecting signatures with the help of a few close friends. The Mass Meeting was held the evening of August 11 and the deadline for obtaining the required 125 signatures was August 23rd.

Botetourt County was also in the middle of Redistricting and one of my Circulators, Mr. Doug Gimbert, was right on the line of where that redistricting occurred. The County did not notify anyone who had been redistricted until two weeks before the November 8 election so lots of people did not know which district they were in nor their voting precinct. Doug had heard that his home might have been affected by the Redistricting but had no formal notification. The night of the mass meeting on Aug. 11th, members of the Electoral Board were present with their computers and, when Doug went to register, he was told he was in my district (Valley). Numerous others were mistakenly told that they were in one district when, in actuality, they were in another. It was more mass confusion than a mass meeting.

Working diligently, I amassed 199 signatures and forwarded them to a friend, Mr. Mark Tyson, who checked them against the State Board of Elections (SBE) VERIS website to confirm whether they were qualified voters in my district. The morning of August 23rd, we double checked them again and, co-incidentally, Mr. Gimbert’s name was one of the last one’s we checked. Their website clearly showed him in the Valley District.

We presented the documentation to the Registrar’s office even noting that, of the 199 signatures submitted, we could only verify 175 as valid voters. Being in our August Board meeting the remainder of the day, I had asked for notification from the Registrar’s office to notify me if there were any problems with my submission. At approx. 3:30 that afternoon on a scheduled break, I had a voice message from the Deputy Registrar, that I had qualified with 125 valid signatures. At another break around 5:00 pm, I phoned the Registrar and asked her if she could confirm that I had qualified to be on the ballot. She said “yes”. I further asked her how many of the names did she qualify and she responded that the system would only allow you to input 125 valid names, thereafter locking you out from inputting additional ones. Remember this fact!!

That afternoon, the Registrar’s office released to the Press that I had qualified to be on the Nov. 8th ballot as an Independent Candidate. Now is where the fun begins. The GOP Chair, not wanting my approval to stand, then took Mr. Gimbert’s Mass Meeting registration to the Registrar and to the Commonwealth Attorney, Joel Branscom, accusing Mr. Gimbert of falsifying the affidavit on the back of the candidate petition, claiming that he knew that he had been redistricted into Blue Ridge from my district, Valley. After two full days, I was contacted on Friday afternoon just before 5:00 pm the Vice Chair of the electoral board, advising that I was being disqualified because Gimbert’s petitions were being thrown out, leaving me 9 signatures short of the required 125. Keep in mind that the SBE’s guidelines for Registrar’s mandates that they first check the circulator’s credentials and establish that they are a qualified voter in the district of the candidate.

Preparing to leave town for a week, I asked them to hold off and that I would have a response in their hands on the very next Monday morning. Although I was out of town, I had a rebuttal delivered to the Electoral Board and to the Registrar’s offices that morning as promised. I had specifically asked that they not notify the Press until they had contacted me regarding my rebuttal. However, a reporter contacted me in another State and advised that Botetourt County’s Commonwealth Attorney Branscom had been on a news broadcast criticizing me for not following the rules and stating that he “had disqualified me”. Nowhere does it give the Commonwealth Attorney this power – his job is strictly advice and consent to the Electoral Board and the Registrar. He also announced that he was launching a State Police Investigation – after he had disqualified me!!!

Only later would I find out that the Police Investigation would not even consider my charges of election tampering and collusion but was narrowly drawn to go after Mr. Gimbert and charge him with a felony that could send him to jail for up to 10 years in addition to a fine of thousands of dollars. The Police Investigator told me directly that Gimbert was the only focus of the Investigation and that the Commonwealth Attorney is the one who sets the focus. Branscom later was quoted that he never limited the scope of the investigation – a blatant lie! This was pure and simple political retribution for my challenging him and the Electoral Board and the Registrar.

Only after the election did we know for sure why there was such a concerted effort to remove me from the ballot, thereby ensuring my defeat at the polls. Barely 6 months after declaring we had a $4.65 Million surplus, the new Board and staff declared that the county was facing a $4 million deficit and that they may have to close schools, shutter athletic programs and lay off teachers – a swing of nearly $9 million! They then pushed thru the largest tax increase in Botetourt County history – $2.3 million. Did they use this tax increase to mitigate the supposed $4 Million budget deficit? No, but turned right around and gave County employees a 5% pay raise and teachers an 8% raise which cost some $4 million!

To this day, they have refused to answer where the $9 million went or whether the “surplus” was a fabrication to justify the pay increase for public employees and teachers.

We subsequently wrote letters and sent packages to the FBI, Dept of Justice, State Board of Elections, Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Amazingly, we have absolute proof that:

  • The County Registrar illegally used wite-out on my petition signatures to hide her original approval of Gimbert as a qualified voter and circulator – a clearly illegal act.
  • That the State Board of Elections conspired with the Electoral Board and the Registrar to move the “flip date” for redistricting of Botetourt County, specifically to disqualify me.
  • That the Registrar went into the SBE’s Voter Registration website and manually manipulated it to show that she had originally approved 126 voters – an impossibility by the SBE’s own admission.

We also have proof that in the November 2009 election, the Electoral Board and the Registrar conspired to approve then candidate Austin for Buchanan District as an Independent candidate even though he had less than 70 of the required 125 required valid signatures. In addition, by turning in paperwork which had 9 signatures added a week after his own wife notarized the petition, we believe that he is guilty of fraud! Austin also included 4 petitions that were notarized by his spouse which is a clear violation of the Virginia Notary Act, thereby nullifying all of those signatures. When this was brought to the Commonwealth Attorney’s attention, I asked him if I could request an investigation of fraud and his response was “I’m not sure”.

I contend that there is and has been a collusion among what we refer to as the “Courthouse Gang” in Botetourt County. We believe that this consists of two Board Members (Austin and Clinton, now both off the Board as of 12/31/13), Commonwealth Attorney Branscom, the Electoral Board (3 members, one of which is Austin’s personal and corp. atty. and another, his campaign treasurer in 2009), the former GOP Committee Chair, the editor of the local paper (Fincastle Herald) and even a sitting Judge in Botetourt County. This case is begging for an Independent Prosecutor to dig into clear cut cases of election tampering, malicious prosecution, and fraud among a number of other illegal activities. If we ever hope to have free and fair elections in this country, this cannot be allowed to stand.