public education

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News/Politics 3-24-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Is there any branch of government that isn’t spying on us? Sheesh. 😦

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “A parking ticket, traffic citation or involvement in a minor fender-bender are enough to get a person’s name and other personal information logged into a massive, obscure federal database run by the U.S. military.

The Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or LinX, has already amassed 506.3 million law enforcement records ranging from criminal histories and arrest reports to field information cards filled out by cops on the beat even when no crime has occurred.

LinX is a national information-sharing hub for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. It is run by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, raising concerns among some military law experts that putting such detailed data about ordinary citizens in the hands of military officials crosses the line that generally prohibits the armed forces from conducting civilian law enforcement operations.”

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2. This one is an update on the story from the other day of Pennsylvania’s Democrat AG dropping an investigation with video and audio recording of other Democrats taking bribes. She responded first by saying it was racist, and now she has lawyered up.

From HotAir  “The decision of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane to drop the investigation and potential prosecution of Philadelphia Democrats who were recorded accepting cash, money orders, or jewelry certainly seems suspicious. According to news reports, investigators collected over 400 hours of audio and video of five Democrats, including four state lawmakers, before Kane, also a Democrat, secretly killed the investigation last fall. When confronted with this troubling story by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kane cited racism and mismanagement in the investigation, but the detailed descriptions of the recordings certainly seem to indicate that the payments were made.

Kane’s reaction to reports about her decision went from bad to worse. At first, she complained that white men were attacking her:”

“That was a pretty astounding escalation. It is not out of line to wonder why a state’s attorney general would drop an investigation which is said to have obtained detailed recordings of lawmakers taking bribes. The decision to dismiss the investigation under seal combined with Kane’s accusation that it was tainted by racism certainly is newsworthy and gives rise to an inference that, although we may not know exactly what went on here, something unusual did. That’s ordinarily a reason to give something more examination, not less.

But Kane, apparently frustrated by continuing scrutiny of her decision, has now escalated further, hiring counsel and suggesting that if the Inquirer continues to pursue the story, she would start suing people!“

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3. This guy has a point. They don’t even try to hide it anymore.

From CNSNews  “President Barack Obama’s policies “have become  progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the highest court at the Vatican, said in a  recent interview.”

“In an interview first published in Polish in Polonia Christiana magazine and republished exclusively in English at LifeSite News, Cardinal Burke, the former archbishop of St. Louis, was asked about  President Obama’s policies towards Christian civilization and if there  are any “Catholic reactions against this policy? If yes, what are they,  [or] if not, why?” “

“Cardinal Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court  at the Vatican, said: “It is true that the policies of the president of  the United States of America have become progressively more hostile  toward Christian civilization. He appears to be a totally secularized  man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.””

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4. Has the existence of the so-called “low information voter” been confirmed?

From AllenBWest  “I’ve often pondered the question, “are Americans deep thinkers or just soundbite grabbers?” We now have quantitative proof.

As reported by Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post, a new study by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute confirms the existence of the “low information voter.”

According to the study, 41 percent of Americans report that they watched, read, or heard any in-depth news stories, beyond the headlines, in the prior week.

However this means around 60 percent (six in 10) acknowledge they’ve done nothing more than read news headlines in the past week. Are you part of the 60 percent? Will you admit to being a low information voter? I do sometimes read comments posted to certain stories and realize some commenting have never read the entire piece — or at least lack basic skills in comprehension.”

Here’s the piece from the WashingtonPost.

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5. Last one from me for today. A new study confirms that dumping more money into public education has not improved it in any state that’s tried it.

From HotAir  “So many progressive “solutions” to public policy problems simply involve dumping money into a hole. Education is no different. From teachers’ unions to New York Times pundits, the answer is always “more money.”  Conservatives doubt that solution – that just dumping money into the education system doesn’t actually improve student outcomes. This isn’t a new argument, but a new study out from the Cato Institute [pdf] finds that not a single state was able to improve their education outcomes by increasing the amount of taxpayer money they spent on education.

Author Andrew J. Coulson writes:

Not only have dramatic spending increases been unaccompanied by improvements in performance, the same is true of the occasional spending declines experienced by some states. At one time or another over the past four decades, Alaska, California, Florida, and New York all experienced multi-year periods over which real spending fell substantially (20 percent or more of their 1972 expenditure levels). And yet, none of these states experienced noticeable declines in adjusted SAT scores—either contemporaneously or lagged by a few years. Indeed, their score trends seem entirely disconnected from their rising and falling levels of spending.”

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News/Politics 1-6-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Welcome to the new norm in employer healthcare plans.

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2. An interesting read from a teacher leaving the profession.

From TheWaPo  “To pursue this calling, I worked hard to earn the title of “classroom teacher,” but I became quickly disillusioned when my title of teacher did not in any way reflect my actual job. I realized that I am not permitted to really teach students anything. When I was in middle school, I studied Shakespeare, Chaucer, Poe, Twain, O. Henry, the founding fathers, if you will, of modern literary culture. Now, I was called to drag them through shallow activities that measured meaningless but “measurable” objectives.

Forced to abandon my hopes of imparting the same wisdom I had gained through my experiences and education, I resigned myself to the superficial curriculum that encouraged mindless conformity. I decided that if I was going to teach this nonsense, I was at least going to teach it well. I set my expectations high, I kept my classroom structured, I tutored students, I provided extra practice, and I tried to make class fun. At this point, I was feeling alright with myself. I quickly rose through the ranks of “favorite teacher,” kept open communication channels with parents, and had many students with solid A’s.

It was about this time that I was called down to the principal’s office with a terse e-mail that read only, “I need to speak with you.” Clueless, I took down my grade sheets, communication logs, lesson plans, and sat down as an adult still summoned down to the principal’s office. “I need to talk to you about these students.” She handed me a list of about 10 students, all of whom had D’s or F’s. At the time, I only had about 120 students, so I was relatively on par with a standard bell curve. As she brought up each one, I walked her through my grade sheets that showed not low scores but a failure to turn in work—a lack of responsibility. I showed her my tutoring logs, my letters to parents, only to be interrogated further. Eventually, the meeting came down to two quotes that I will forever remember as the defining slogans for public education:

“They are not allowed to fail.”

“If they have D’s or F’s, there is something that you are not doing for them.”

And then it gets worse. It’s time for some accountability in all areas of public education.

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3. This is probably the weirdest story I’ve read in a while. Is exorcism a “cure” for PTSD? Or is this just a cult type operation preying on those suffering from it?

From TheNYPost  “The 2005 tragedy haunted him when he returned to his home in Savannah, Ga. At night, a tall, shadowy figure crept into his room. Sometimes the Black Thing would threaten to kill him; other times it would choke his dead best friend.

The dark figure, a “Destroyer demon,” punished him, he said, “for killing and for living.”

Without answers — his PTSD diagnosis offered little explanation — he went to the one person he felt could save him: a minister who offered $199 exorcisms out of his trailer.

Daniels, profiled in the book “Demon Camp” by first-time author Jennifer Percy, is just one of many deeply troubled soldiers suffering from the after-effects of war who are so desperate for respite they undergo exorcisms at a fringe Pentecostal retreat.

Bear Creek Ranch, in Portal, Ga., is ministered by Tim and Katie Mather, a husband-and-wife team that has conducted over 5,000 exorcisms, some of them on veterans.”

Like I said, weird.

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4. Facebook is being sued for trolling the private messages of users for advertising purposes.

From TheDailyMail  “The social networking site, is accused of monitoring messages and website links sent between users so they can profile what people read online. This in turn allows the website, which has 24million UK members, to charge more for the information.”

“Facebook apparently tracked such messages so they could collect data on the interests of people who use the site. Advertising agencies and marketing companies are then allegedly sold this information so they can build up profiles of a person’s interests, and target them accordingly.

If the linked webpage contains a ‘like’ button, Facebook will activate this so any company who has been ‘liked’ will see the person is interested in their products.

Google, Yahoo! and LinkedIn are among six companies facing accusations of intercepting communications for profit.”

Facebook is denying the claims.

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News/Politics 9-4-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The President continues to shore up support for military action in Syria.

From Politico  “A new use-of-force resolution for Syria sets a 60-day deadline, with one  30-day extension possible, for President Barack Obama to launch military strikes  against the regime of Syria President Bashar Assad — and it will also bar the  involvement of U.S. ground forces in Syria.

The revised resolution was crafted by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bob  Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman and ranking member of the Foreign Relations  Committee, following several days of negotiations. The panel could vote on the  proposal by Wednesday.”

More here on the arm twisting, also from Politico.

And all this despite public opposition to it. Here’s the latest poll, from ABC/WaPo

And here’s further evidence that if we do this, we help the radicals. Seems there’s already delays to previous weapon supply programs because they can’t find anyone who isn’t a radical to give the guns to.

From TheWallStJournal  “In June, the White House authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to help arm moderate fighters battling the Assad regime, a signal to Syrian rebels that the cavalry was coming. Three months later, they are still waiting.

The delay, in part, reflects a broader U.S. approach rarely discussed publicly but that underpins its decision-making, according to former and current U.S. officials: The Obama administration doesn’t want to tip the balance in favor of the opposition for fear the outcome may be even worse for U.S. interests than the current stalemate.

U.S. officials attribute the delay in providing small arms and munitions from the CIA weapons program to the difficulty of establishing secure delivery “pipelines” to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands, in particular Jihadi militants also battling the Assad regime.”

The White House seems to think they can bomb Assad to punish him, and at the same time not help the radicals? Seriously? That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve heard yet. Any action tips the conflict, that’s reality.

Some are asking what’s the point of all this? Good question.

From BuzzFeed  “Frederic Hof spent President Obama’s first term as the State Department’s point man on Syria. He is now a furious administration critic, and a symbol of the growing consensus in the professional foreign policy community that the Obama Administration — no matter how its last-minute detour through Congress turns out — has badly bungled its Syria policy through two years of popular uprising turned bloody civil war.

“The events of the past ten days suggest that there was no administration forethought to the possibility of a major chemical incident in Syria,” wrote Hof, currently a fellow at the Atlantic Council, where his former boss is Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Hof had floated the specter of a chemical attack by the regime months ago.

“The results of this mystifying lack of preparedness have been abysmal,” he wrote, calling Obama’s decision to seek congressional approval for the strikes “constitutionally sound, but strategically appalling” and suggesting the White House find “an objectives-based strategy.”

Our own Generals can’t even tell what the mission actually is here.

From TheFreeBeacon  “Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey couldn’t answer what exactly the U.S. was seeking in Syria Tuesday during questioning from Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) about a resolution authorizing military action there:”

Elect an amateur, this is what you get. Consequences, ya know. It seems to be an awful lot about the White House trying to save face now. And Obama’s ego.

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As you all know I’ve been rough on the anti-war crowd from the Bush years and the disappearing act they pulled when Obama was elected. Some are stirring from their slumber, so it’s only fair I point it out. They’ve been picketing Kerry’s house, and heckling him while he “testifies” to Congress. Yes, even the nuts at Code Pink. 🙂

From WeaselZippers  “Medea Benjamin, head of Code Pink,specifically, was screaming and got tossed.

This was Occupy/Anonymous and other odd assorted anti-war kids outside Kerry’s house two days ago:”

With some photos.

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Here’s a not at all shocking piece.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Just minutes after 35 jihadists crashed through the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, nearly one year ago, the facility got word to the State Department, FBI and Pentagon that terrorists were attacking, according to a forthcoming book that provides the fullest review of the assault to date.

In “Under Fire, the Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi,” it is revealed that an unidentified security official in the Benghazi compound protecting Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens messaged the U.S. embassy in Tripoli: “Benghazi under fire, terrorist attack.” Stevens and three others died that night.

Twenty-five minutes after it began, the operation center at State received an electronic cable announcing the attack, according to authors Fred Burton, a former State Diplomatic Security agent and Samuel Katz, an author and expert on international special operations and counterterrorism.

Their findings in “Under Fire,” based on exclusive interviews of those in the battle, refute days of claims by the administration that the attack was sparked by Muslim anger at a U.S.-made anti-Muslim film, and raise new questions as President Obama eyes military action in Syria that U.S. diplomatic posts in the region are properly protected.”

It’s just one foreign policy failure after another.

From TheIndependent/UK  “A little under two years ago, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, urged British businessmen to begin “packing their suitcases” and to fly to Libya to share in the reconstruction of the country and exploit an anticipated boom in natural resources.

Yet now Libya has almost entirely stopped producing oil as the government loses control of much of the country to militia fighters.

Mutinying security men have taken over oil ports on the Mediterranean and are seeking to sell crude oil on the black market. Ali Zeidan, Libya’s Prime Minister, has threatened to “bomb from the air and the sea” any oil tanker trying to pick up the illicit oil from the oil terminal guards, who are mostly former rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi and have been on strike over low pay and alleged government corruption since July.

As world attention focused on the coup in Egypt and the poison gas attack in Syria over the past two months, Libya has plunged unnoticed into its worst political and economic crisis since the defeat of Gaddafi two years ago. Government authority is disintegrating in all parts of the country putting in doubt claims by American, British and French politicians that Nato’s military action in Libya in 2011 was an outstanding example of a successful foreign military intervention which should be repeated in Syria.

Next, to National Review, and the total destruction of that whole “smart power” meme thingy.

From NationalReview  “Democrats Suddenly Realize What They Miscalculated About the World: Everything”

“Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be.

You can pin this on Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, but most of all, the buck stops with the president. Those of us who scoffed a bit at a state senator ascending to the presidency within four years on a wave of media hype and adoration are not quite so shocked by this current mess. We never bought into this notion that getting greater cooperation from our allies, and less hostility from our enemies, was just a matter of giving this crew the wheel and letting them practice, as Hillary Clinton arrogantly declared it, “smart power.” (These people can’t even label a foreign-policy approach without reminding us of how highly they think of themselves.) They looked out at the world at the end of the Bush years, and didn’t see tough decisions, unsolvable problems, unstable institutions, restless populations, technology enabling the impulse to destabilize existing institutions, evil men hungry for more power, and difficult trade-offs. No, our problems and challengers were just a matter of the previous hands running U.S. foreign policy not being smart enough.”

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And last, well fine then, I guess I’ll just continue to be a bad person. At least in this lady’s eyes.

From HotAir  “We still have four more months left in 2013, but we may have found a winner for the single most vapid column of the year, courtesy of Slate. Allison Benedikt wrote a “manifesto” which appeared on their site today demanding that parents stop using private schools for their children, because — and I am not making this up — putting more children in failing schools is the path to improvement.  Benedikt begins her argument by pronouncing herself ignorant on education policy, and proceeds to demonstrate a nearly endless supply of ignorance throughout the rest of the article.

Actually, I’ve gotten ahead of myself.  She starts off her argument by pronouncing anyone who does not put their children in public schools a “bad person”:

You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So, pretty bad.

Take a moment to mull over that gem. Benedikt’s entire argument is that non-participants in an organization ruin it by their non-participation.  It’s not the actual participants who are to blame for the institution’s failures – not the teachers, not the administrators, and not the policy-makers — but the people who avoid the failure that should be blamed.  That argument conveniently lets the participants in this “most-essential” institution off the hook for their own failures.  We’ll get back to that in a minute.”

And then it goes downhill from there.

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News/Politics 4-12-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

There’s a lot to choose from, that’s for sure.

We have some scary stuff, from TheCSMonitor

“That was the bombshell out of a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.

It came when Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) of Colorado began quoting from what he said was an unclassified version of the DIA report, which has not yet been made public.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, appeared caught off-guard. The Pentagon has in recent days sought to strike a balance between words of warning to the North and attempts to calm the situation. General Dempsey’s reaction suggested that he was not pleased to have the DIA assessment made public, as it could further stoke anxieties over what is already a enormously tense international standoff.”

Greaaaaaat….. 🙄

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We have Dems pretending to be European Socialists by behaving badly….. from Heritage

“One would naturally think it impossible that anyone would hesitate – even for an instant – to honor the woman who tackled communism head on as prime minister of Great Britain. Lady Margaret Thatcher was a principled politician who helped to foster the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States that we all benefit from today.

A Senate resolution to honor Lady Thatcher was supposed to pass last night.  However, per well placed sources on the Hill, Democrats have a hold on the resolution.”

I’m not shocked at all. And they’re not pretending either I suspect.

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The President’s Priorities, from TheWallStJournal

“President Obama is pitching his new budget proposal as a fiscal peace offering to Republicans, but the details suggest everyone should expect more conflict. The fiscal 2014 plan he released Wednesday is a very slightly modified version of his previous budgets that reduces the deficit by raising taxes and trading defense cuts for more domestic spending.

The real news is that his budget ratifies much of the spending increase of the first term and tries to lock it in. He wants the feds to spend $3.78 trillion next year ($11,944 per American), which would still be 22.2% of national output nearly four years into an economic recovery. Before the financial panic in 2008, the government was spending about $1 trillion less, or closer to $2.7 trillion a year and an average of 20% of GDP—and President Bush was no slouch as a spender himself.”

“On the other hand, debt held by the public as a share of the economy will continue to climb—to what the White House predicts will be a peak of 78.2% of GDP in 2014. As recently as 2008, U.S. debt was 40.5% of the economy. Mr. Obama has nearly doubled it. (See the nearby chart.) With a modicum of spending restraint and faster growth, the debt burden will start to decline. The danger is that there’s no room to avoid Southern European debt levels if we have another recession or an interest-rate spike.”

Good thing we don’t have a spending problem huh? 🙄

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So how exactly did that bi-partisan gun deal come about? Why in typical DC fashion of course. From TheWashingtonTimes

“Sen. Mark Kirk says the real driving force  behind the gun deal that was hatched by bipartisan work was booze and boat  retreats.

The Illinois Republican said to reporters that visits to the Black Tie, a  yacht owned by Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin,  played a large role in the Democratic-Republican come-together over background  checks and other legislation related to gun control, Roll Call reported.”

“You guys really ought to go out to National  Harbor and see the Black Tie, which has been much of the reason for much of  the bipartisan cooperation around here,” he said, as quoted in Roll Call.”

You can look, but don’t touch it. They don’t like the commoners touchin’ their stuff.

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Next we have a serious case of judicial, and I suspect liberal, stupidity. From FoxNewsBoston

“The illegal immigrant who was drunk driving when he hit and dragged a Milford man to his death has been ruled incompetent to stand trial.

Judge  Janet Kinton-Walker says Nicolas Guaman’s “unique cultural background” and language barrier means that he doesn’t understand the court process. The court  also said that he lacks the ability to consult with his attorney properly.”

“FOX 25’s Melissa Mahan asked Maloney whether she believes Guaman does not understand the court process in the United States because of his language  barrier.

“No, I don’t believe it,” said Maloney. “In the past, he’s had other run-ins with the law. He’s been in court multiple times on other charges prior to all this in August 2011 and a Spanish interpreter or no interpreter was used for those hearings and he’s always managed just fine.”

Sure. And does he keep breaking the law because he doesn’t understand it too? Oh well. Let’s face it, the DoJ and INS would probably just release him anyway, what with Sequester cuts and all. 🙄

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These last 3 are all education/indoctrination related. We have some doozies today.

First, from the hallowed halls of higher learning we have the Clown Prince of Professors, from FoxNewsRadio

“For two years the University of Southern California student had listened to the classroom ranting of liberal professors. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Darry Sragow, his political science professor, launched into an anti-Republican tirade on the first day of class.”

“The 20-year-old political science major bought a hidden camera disguised as a shirt button. And that’s how he was able to secretly videotape every single lecture delivered by Professor Sragow.”

““On the first day of class he talked about how Republicans prevent blacks from voting,” Talgo said. “He also said that he used to work for Democratic candidates and it was his job to kill Republicans.”

““They’re really stupid and racist,” Sragow said at one point. “The Republican party is increasingly the last refuge of old, angry white people who don’t like what’s going on in this country.””

And yes, there’s video at the link. But with a  CONTENT WARNING!!!  for some cussing.

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Next we have the further indoctrination of public school kids, disguised as education of course. Gotta get ’em young. From NationalReview

“One doesn’t need to be a global-warming skeptic to be appalled by a new set of national K–12 science standards. Those standards, developed by educrats and science administrators, and likely to be adopted initially by up to two dozen states, put the study of global warming and other ways that humans are destroying life as we know it at the very core of science education. This is a political choice, not a scientific one. But the standards are equally troubling in their embrace of the nostrums of progressive pedagogy.

Students educated under the Next Generation Science Standards will begin their lifelong attention to climate change as soon as they enter school. Kindergartners will be expected to “use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area” (perhaps this is what used to be known as “building a fort”) and “develop understanding of patterns and variations in local weather and the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.” Things get even scarier by the third grade, when students should be asking such questions as: “How can the impact of weather-related hazards be reduced?” The standards don’t mention protesting the Keystone pipeline as a possible “real-world” answer to the question of how to reduce “weather-related hazards,” but rest assured that the graduates of America’s left-wing education schools will not hesitate to include such hands-on learning experiences in their global-warming-politics — oops, make that “science” — classes. By high school, students are squarely in the world of environmental policy-making, expected to “evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.””

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And the last of the bunch is also from a public school, again, get the kids. From EAGNews

“Eighth-graders in Wisconsin’s Union Grove school district were assigned to fill out a “Liberalism vs. Conservatism” crossword puzzle, and they learned some new and very questionable “facts.”

Students learned conservatism is “the political belief of preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms … ”

Conversely, they learned liberalism is “the political belief of equality and personal freedom for everyone, often changing the current system to increase government protection of civil liberties.”

“On the back side of the crossword puzzle was a political survey students were required to fill out to identify their beliefs, something Varebrook believes is equally troubling.”

That’s how they figure out who the free-thinking trouble makers are. Can’t have ’em influencing the collective with their conservative values. You know how radical 8th graders are. Best to identify ’em early.

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News/Politics 4-1-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, as always.

Here’s a few to start off.

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Ready or not, here comes amnesty, and with the borders left open.

From TheHill

“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators  working on an immigration-reform bill, said Sunday the group had agreed on a  deal to be unveiled soon and that he was confident the bill would eventually be  signed into law by President Obama.

“We’ve got a deal,” said Graham on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “2013 I hope  will be the year we pass bipartisan immigration reform, signed into law.””

“Sen. Charles Schumer, another member of the immigration group gave a similar  timeline. He said the final draft will be done this week, Senate Judiciary  Committee hearings would be in April, and the bill could hit the floor for a  vote as early as May.”

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What is it with this guy and Pastors who make radical statements?

From TheBlaze

“The pastor at the Washington, D.C. church where the Obama family celebrated Easter on Sunday said members of the religious right want blacks “in the back of the bus,” women “back in the kitchen” and immigrants “back on their side of the border.”

“It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back…for blacks to be back in the back of the bus…for women to be back in the kitchen…for immigrants to be back on their side of the border,” Rev. Dr. Luis Leon said in his sermon, according to the White House press pool report.”

More on the Pastor’s comments here, from TheWeeklyStandard

And a Hat Tip to Donna J 🙂

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We have an interesting read here from FreedomWorks

“As a 15 year old, I never imagined my activism in politics would translate into controversy for me at school.

My name is Benji Backer and I attend a public high school in Appleton, Wisconsin. I have always supported the public school system and plan to do so for the rest of my life. Many Americans who stand up for the public school system and the unions believe there is no attempt to sway opinion or that students with opposing beliefs are singled out. Unfortunately, experiences I have had with harassment and bullying prove that wrong. This is a timeline of the most extreme cases of harassment and indoctrination I have had in the three different public schools I have attended over the last three years.

I am currently in my freshman year of high school and the incidents are happening more frequently and I believe are more severe.  As you can imagine, the ongoing pressure and bullying has been disturbing to me, my friends and my family.”

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And as long as we’re on the subject of public schools….

From TheWashingtonPost

“The former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools and nearly three dozen other administrators, teachers, principals and other educators were indicted Friday in one of the nation’s largest cheating scandals.

Former Superintendent Beverly Hall faces charges including racketeering, false statements and theft. She retired just days before a state probe was released in 2011 and has previously denied the allegations. The indictment represents the first criminal charges in the investigation.

The previous state investigation in 2011 found cheating by nearly 180 educators in 44 Atlanta schools. Educators gave answers to students or changed answers on tests after they were turned in, investigators said. Teachers who tried to report it faced retaliation, creating a culture of “fear and intimidation” in the district.”

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And we’ll end with this story on the fiscal nightmare years of Democrat rule will get you. Detroit has nothin’ on Cali.

From TheSacrementoBee

“Were California’s state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits.

The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state’s negative status — all of its assets minus all of its liabilities — increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue.”

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