For Earth. For Humanity. For Freedom.

For decades the Green Movement has claimed that Earth is threatened by the activity and even the existence of mankind. Green policies dictate that the noble response is relinquishing our liberties to "save" the planet from peril. Award-winning filmmaker JD King sets off on a cinematic journey to challenge these Green philosophies, and overturn the tables on issues like carbon emissions, climate change, over-population, natural resources, and unmasks the UN's Agenda 21 plan. BLUE casts a bold new vision: that through greater freedom we can realize a fuller potential for our fellow man and this beautiful blue planet we call home. BLUE BEATS GREEN.

Watch the official BLUE trailer at BlueBeatsGreen.com.

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Debate? There is a debate about stopping child sex traffickers?

On Sunday, March 30th the Corvallis Gazette-Times published an article regarding child sex trafficking, Online sex sting sparks debate. For those who are critical of this sting operation, one must ask, What would you do to stop sex predators from victimizing our children?

Thank you, Corvallis Police Detective Bryan Rehnberg. Read More......

Dr. Mike Newton phone interviews on the Lars Larson Show (Tuesday) and I Spy Radio (Saturday)

FYI (Hat tip: Jane Newton): In a phone interview at 1:06 p.m., Tuesday, March 25th, Lars Larson will be asking Dr. Mike Newton about his findings regarding his systematic studies on streams, water temperatures, fish habitat, and the impact of "buffer strips" on fish food, which he has researched for over 20 years.

Dr. Newton is also scheduled to be on "I Spy" radio this weekend, again a phone interview. Read More......

Indiana Ends Common Core Education Standards

Indiana’s experiment with Common Core is over. ✧ Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation Monday requiring the state to come up with its own academic standards, making Indiana the latest state to pull its support for the national education standards known as Common Core.

“I believe our students are best served when decisions about education are made at the state and local level. By signing this legislation, Indiana has taken an important step forward in developing academic standards that are written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers, and are uncommonly high.”

Read more at The Foundry Read More......

Townhall: Ukraine Illustrates Hard Truths Liberals Won’t Face

By Kurt Schlichter
It’s a safe bet that the next smug liberal dork you hear repeating the cheesy cliché about how “Reality has a liberal bias” doesn’t live in Ukraine. ✧ The key to understanding liberals is realizing that they are immune to argument. The concept underlying the idea of a debate is that facts and reasoning can lead one to change his previous conclusions. But liberals begin with their conclusions; facts and reasoning that may undermine the preexisting conclusion must be at least ignored, if not actively attacked. This is why you see liberals shouting about jailing global warming deniers as blizzards rage outside. Read more at Townhall.com...

(Hat tip: JHD) Read More......

Greta: Not Even Obama's Friends Respect Him Anymore

Greta makes the point that it's not just a few jokes aimed at President Obama anymore but jokes that show real diminishing respect. Watch Greta Van Susteren's Off the Record. Read More......

Malkin: Get To Know the Common Core Marketing Overlords

They’re everywhere. Turn on Fox News, local news, Animal Planet, HGTV, The Family Channel or talk radio. Pro-Common Core commercials have been airing ad nauseam in a desperate attempt to persuade American families to support the beleaguered federal education standards/testing/technology racket. Who’s funding these public relations pushes? D.C. lobbyists, entrenched politicians and Big Business interests.

Read more at RightWing News

Cripes! There is a pro-Common Core ad smack dab in the middle of this Michelle Malkin anti-Common Core article! (screenshot at 'read more')--bc

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GOP women to screen film on sex trafficking

The Benton County Republican Women will screen the film “Chosen,” about sex trafficking, at noon Monday, March 24th, at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Read more at Corvallis Gazette-Times. Social starts at 11:30a.m. Read More......

1000 years of European border changes

See the border changes that have occurred over the last thousand years of European history (3+ minute video)at YouTube (updated link).
(Hat tip: John H. Detweiler)
Note: In the comments section at there are challenges to the accuracy of this map, but for sure, the European continent has not been static. Keep an eye on Ukraine and the Crimean area. Read More......

‘Jaw-Dropping’: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Makes Bombshell Claim About Russia and 2008 Financial Crisis (and Why It May Sound Familiar)

The Chinese “received a message from the Russians” back in 2008 suggesting a pact to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities on the market, which would have nudged down the price of the debt of Fannie and Freddie and also maximized the chaos on Wall Street, a former U.S. official told BBC. It confirms a report that TheBlaze TV’s For the Record first aired back in September 2013.

Read more at The Blaze
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Does the Obamacare Deadline Apply to Me?

HERITAGE FOUNDATION/FOUNDRY - In two weeks, Obamacare’s centerpiece—the individual mandate to purchase government-approved health insurance—kicks in. Are you “covered,” as the White House keeps asking in its endless advertising? Because if you don’t have health insurance by March 31, you will have to pay a penalty on your income tax form next year.

For 2014, the penalty for not purchasing insurance will be either $95 or 1 percent of your annual income (whichever is greater). But as Heritage expert Alyene Senger explains, “Very few, if any, people will end up paying just $95, because individuals with an annual income of only $9,500 or less would likely qualify for Medicaid or a hardship exemption from the mandate.”

If you don’t make enough income to file a federal tax return, you’re already exempt. Do you think you qualify for a hardship exemption? Check out the application (subject to approval by Health and Human Services) here. For example, did you:

Receive “a shut-off notice from a utility company”?
Recently experience the death of a close family member?
Receive a notice that your health plan was being canceled, and “you consider the other plans available unaffordable”?

At the end of the list, the application form has the catch-all reason “You experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.” To prove it? “Please submit documentation if possible.”

Despite all these possible exemptions, The Fiscal Times reports, “A new study by Bankrate.com shows that about one-third of uninsured Americans are going to remain without coverage and opt to pay the penalty.” In fact, more than half of the uninsured are “unaware of the March 31 deadline.”

If you think the penalty is no big deal right now, Heritage’s Senger warns that “The mandate increases drastically in coming years, rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2015 to 2024, the mandate penalty—which the Supreme Court ruled is essentially a tax—is expected to cost Americans $51 billion.

And that was after President Obama promised not to raise taxes on the middle class.

It’s worth mentioning the official name of this tax—because it just doesn’t get any more Orwellian. Really, it’s the left’s ideal name for all taxes: the “shared responsibility payment.”

Get ready to pay up, comrades.

Source: Heritage.org/Foundry Read More......

A Summation of the 2014 Legislative Short Session

by Senator Doug Whitsett (R-Klammath Falls) [Hat tip: KimR]

Your Oregon Legislature adjourned Friday afternoon, 2/28/14, completing a disorderly and disappointing 35 day legislative session that is not working out as voters were promised.

Voters were asked by the Legislature to approve a constitutional amendment to authorize annual legislative sessions. Oregon voters adopted that amendment in 2010. The new, constitutionally approved sessions include a five month session held in odd numbered years and a 35 day session during even numbered years. The need for the short session was portrayed to voters as a way to make needed adjustments to the budgets, deal with emergencies, take advantage of short term opportunities and to make consensus policy changes, but that has not been the result.

I opposed the creation of annul legislative sessions because I believe your Legislature is unable to constrain itself to these stated goals.

First and foremost, I was concerned that the short sessions would be used as a political venue to influence elections by positioning legislators to make votes that are unpopular in their districts. This is usually accomplished by inserting a “poison pill” in otherwise needed legislation. The legislator is then attacked by his or her political base if voting yes and attacked by the media and political opponents if voting no.

Further, I was worried that the short sessions would be viewed by some legislators as a chance to adopt major policy changes, with very limited opportunity for public participation. Finally, the short sessions would provide both the opportunity and the excuse to escalate state government spending.

Unfortunately, the majority party has proven all of these concerns to be well founded. They made yeoman effort during the 2014 session to adopt major changes in public policy, increase spending, exclude public participation in the making of new laws, and even attempted to short circuit the peoples’ constitutional right to review legislative work. The introduction of several “policy” bills appeared to be only for the purpose of creating political positioning for the fall elections.

Budgets were adjusted authorizing the spending of virtually all but $150 million of the State income that is estimated to be received over the balance of the current two year budget period. The budgets adopted during the 2013 session already approved spending most of the savings accumulated during the previous budget cycle. The reserve amount is now reduced to less than eight tenths of one percent of the expected general fund and lottery revenue for the next sixteen months. Either a one percent downturn in the economy, or a one percent miscalculation in projected income, could place the state budgets in deficit.

Oregon taxpayers had little, if any, opportunity to participate in determining either how much of their tax-dollars will be spent, or in deciding for what purpose their money will be spent. Virtually all of the budget decisions were adopted after the Legislature went on one-hour posting notice. This means that a bill may be scheduled for a public hearing, to be significantly amended or to be scheduled for a committee vote with only one hour notice to the public and other lawmakers. Obviously, this procedure fundamentally eliminates the opportunity for the public to weigh-in on budget matters. In fact, about 80 of Oregon’s 90 legislators were provided less than 24 hours to examine several hundred pages of complex budget bills, before being required to vote on them.

For instance, few legislators knew that the budgets include about $350 million in increased compensation for all public employees that were subject to last summer’s state labor negotiations. By my calculations, that pay increase will automatically escalate to nearly three quarters of a billion dollars for the 2015-17 budget period. I could not find where that enormous roll-up cost was even discussed in the budget bills.

Many major policy ideas that failed to be enacted during the 2013 “long session” were brought back for another try.

* Efforts to resurrect the fatally flawed Columbia River Crossing I-5 Bridge rightfully fizzled.
* Senators Proznaski and Burdick orchestrated yet another failed attempt to curtail our constitutionally guaranteed right to possess and bear firearms.
* Adoption of Governor Kitzhaber’s signature Low Carbon fuel Standard, that would so damage Oregon’s business economy, was once again beaten back.
* Likewise, unending efforts to place useless and damaging regulations on allegedly potentially toxic materials were once again defeated.
* State Treasurer Ted Wheeler’s ongoing attempt to create a new agency to manage the investment of nearly $90 billion of state taxpayer money, with literally no legislative oversight, was rejected on the last day of the session.
* A new effort to refer a measure to the voters to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana died due to lack of support in the Senate.
* An arrogant attempt by House Democrat leadership to rewrite the ballot title for the referral of the law to create an Oregon driver card for undocumented aliens passed the House but was stopped in the Senate.

Finally, the disgraceful CY PRES bill received a much deserved death on the Senate floor.

* The measure created an outright gift to class action plaintiff attorneys, by eliminating most of the court procedure governing Oregon class action lawsuits and replacing it…with nothing. The near certain result would have been a national migration of class action lawsuits seeking Oregon judges that are willing to create court procedures favorable to their clients. It had the potential to create a “cottage industry” for filing class action lawsuits in this state. We might as well have been saying “Ya’all come to Oregon to shop for a judge who is sympathetic to your cause!”
* The bill also would have diverted unclaimed awards made to members of a class action settlement to an endowment for Legal Aid. There is certainly a constitutional question whether money, either adjudicated by the court or directed by a settlement agreement to be received by an aggrieved member of the class, can be summarily given to someone else.  Of course, the money would only be transferred to Legal Aid to be used for “humanitarian” purposes after a percentage was claimed by plaintiff lawyers.
* The bill was a masterfully written political work of art. It was designed to pit the interests of the “malevolent” world of business, against the “humanitarian service” of Legal Aid to indigent people.
* The bill was created to be an open ended political dare to anyone who had the courage to vote against this gift to plaintiff attorneys. I am proud to be one of the 15 Senators who took the dare and voted NO!

On the other hand, a number of good ideas were enacted into law with virtual consensus votes.

* The telecommunications 9-1-1 tax was extended to point of sale for prepaid telephone cards creating much needed funding for the 9-1-1 program.
* A bill was adopted to allow employers to give preference to hiring veterans, disabled veterans and spouses of deceased veterans.
* Other bills were enacted giving preferences to veterans for access to post-secondary education and financial aid.
* A common sense bill was passed that allows the reuse of previously used wheel chairs, adjustable beds and other durable goods.
* Strong bipartisan majorities enacted the ability for cities and counties to place a moratorium on licensing “medical marijuana dispensaries”.
* Finally, $200 million in bonding authority was issued to Oregon Health Sciences University to help match the incredibly generous half billion dollar challenge grant by Phil and Penny Knight. That grant will help expand OHSU’s Knight Cancer Research facility to a world class cancer research center. It will also accelerate and help to pay for OHSU’s rural health clinic expansion into Klamath Falls.

If appropriately limited, the short session could be a valuable asset for Oregonians. As currently practiced, it is being used to enact laws behind closed doors without the benefit of public knowledge, input or participation. Worse, the primary function of the 2014 short session devolved into a blunt instrument used to position candidates for the creation of political advertising for the fall elections.

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Your Children and Governor Kitzhaber's Triple Threat

(Hat tip: KimR) - Governor Kitzhaber has put himself in charge of Oregon's Education System and Oregon's healthcare network:  the Oregon Health Authority.  As a result of this double take-over, there is a Triple Threat to our children and their families.  That threat includes the Network of School Based Health Centers (SBHCs); the grades K-12 Comprehensive Sexuality Education Standards that the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) promotes; and the Annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference in Seaside (ASC).  ...And what makes this Triple Threat even more unreasonable is that the governor is using our money to pay for it!

One part of the Triple Threat:  The SBHCs are sold to communities as basic healthcare for children.  However, as SBHC advocates are working toward implementing a clinic within your school, and as their Grant-Funded (your money!) planning continues, parents and school supporters learn that this “basic healthcare” actually and must include the offering of contraception, abortifacients, abortion and other medical services touted as treatment for the sexual health of youth, and parents are not kept informed as their children are accessing these treatment(s).  If parents research the Oregon SBHC Standards for Certification, they will learn that HIPAA law and Minors' Rights require that these treatments or referrals be part of a School Based Health Center.  SBHC advocates may tell communities that the clinic can be designed to reflect local values and not offer reproductive/contraception services.  THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH.  Advocates attempted this ploy in Clatsop County, but with months of persistence and research, parents and school supporters were able to expose the truth about the SBHC agenda, and were successful in stopping the implementation of a clinic in Astoria High School.

Another part of the Triple Threat:  In 2012, revisions to Oregon's grades K-12 Human Sexuality Education Standards (OAR 581-022-1440) were initially passed by the ODE and hidden as a “consent item” at their meeting.  Brad Victor, ODE's Sexuality Education Specialist at the time, bragged about being able to “Push the Envelope One More Time, Bingo Boom” with this consent process.  Mr. Victor also brags that Oregon's Sex Ed. Is one of the “most progressive in the country”.  These comments were made at the Adolescent Sexuality Conference along with Ms. Monica Rodriquez' comment that Oregon Sex Ed. “does not go far enough”!

This July, after adopting the extremely controversial curriculum deemed “ODE approved” in the Scappoose School District, one of the School Board members told parents who spoke strongly against the curriculum that, “You just have to trust the teachers”! (what if the curriculum itself is not trustworthy?)

A third part of Gov. Kitzhaber's Triple Threat to our children is the Annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference held in Seaside, OR.  This is a two (school) day event (next one already scheduled for April 7&8, 2014) in which students are encouraged to attend the conference, be “trained” in sexual behavior and choices, then return to their school to “educate their peers” and advocate for SBHCs.  The conference promotes the theme of “Empowering Youth” to make important decisions about their sexual behavior, and that they do not have to include their parents in these decisions!

Having attended the 2013 event, I can tell you that vendor displays included explicit images and “suggestions” and that the break-out/training sessions included subjects such as the fascination of Porn with discussions and materials which compromise the health and safety of the youth attending.  There is concern that some Oregon Revised Statutes may have been violated at this conference.  In one of the breakout sessions titled, “I Say Porn, You Say Porn”, sponsored by a youth empowerment group based in Eugene, YEPSA (Youth for the Education and Prevention of Sexual Assault), adults suggested that teen girls could safely send nude pictures of themselves as long as it was to their boyfriends and not to just everyone.  There have been recent cases in Florida and Montana in which teens have sent such pictures then, because of resulting harassment, have committed suicide.  There was even a case locally in Clatskanie in which a teen girl was severely harassed and physically bullied after sending such pictures.  This was a front page story in the Oregonian, August 6, 2013.  Those receiving these pictures are in possession of Child Porn.  There is currently a lawsuit (filed 10/15/13) in the U.S. District Court against  Clatskanie School District #6J and a School Administrator at the time of the harassment, Jeff Baughman.

Update on the 2014 Adolescent Sexuality Conference, ASC, Seaside, OR:  One of the keynote speakers at the conference is Cory Silverberg, co-founder of “Come As You Are” cooperative in Toronto, Canada.  This is a Sex Toy & Education Shop in Toronto, but this fact is not mentioned in Mr. Silverberg's bio for the Conference.  He will also be the presenter for a workshop at the conference titled:  “From Texting to Teledildonics:  Is Technology Changing Sex?”  (note: “Teledildonics cannot be found in the dictionary!?) This workshop is intended for “Youth & Adults”.  Mr. Silverberg is also writing a 3-part “inclusive” series of books for children about gender and sexuality.  We have also learned that an organization called “Center for Sexual Pleasure & Health” (CSPH) is promoting the Seaside Adolescent Sexuality Conference on their website.  This Center is located in Rhode Island-- One wonders why  an East Coast entity is interested in the ASC, thousands of miles away!?

There are 39 Work Sessions within the Conference and several General Assembly presentations.

You can access the ASC listing of 2014 workshops at www.oregon-asc.org/2014-conference/workshops

If you review the written summaries of these workshops, you will seriously question how Governor Kitzhaber's Oregon Health Authority and his Oregon Department of Education can possibly consider this “Best Practice” for the education of our youth.  Please ask them! 

I believe that if School Boards, School Administration/Staff and parents were actually asked to make the choice to spend millions of public dollars on SBHCs, Sexuality Education, and the Adolescent Sexuality Conference, or to spend those dollars on the Education which we expect and which our children need and deserve, that the choice would overwhelmingly be for the latter!  I also believe that Governor Kitzhaber's Triple Threat is a glaring reason to strengthen Oregon's Charter School law and the use of vouchers.

For more detailed information, contact:  www.parentsrightsined.wordpress.com 

Christine Bridgens

Warrenton, Oregon
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More troubling revelations about Benghazi: CIA never conducted investigation

ALLEN WEST - Just when you thought questions and controversy surrounding the Benghazi terror attack couldn’t get any worse, something else pops up. ✧ American personnel on the ground in Benghazi the night of the 2012 terror attack are outraged after learning that the CIA’s inspector general never conducted an investigation into what happened — despite two CIA workers being killed in the attack and despite at least two complaints being filed by CIA employees, reports Adam Housley of Fox News.

Read more at Allen B. West Read More......

Top U.S. Scientific Misconduct Official Quits in Frustration With Bureaucracy

The director of the U.S. government office that monitors scientific misconduct in biomedical research has resigned after 2 years out of frustration with the “remarkably dysfunctional” federal bureaucracy. David Wright, director of the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), writes in a scathing resignation letter obtained by ScienceInsider that the huge amount of time he spent trying to get things done made much of his time at ORI “the very worst job I have ever had.”

Read more at Science Read More......

Government's Empty Buildings Are Costing Taxpayers Billions

On a street corner in downtown Washington, D.C., David Wise is opening a century-old iron gate in front of an old, boarded-up brick building. ✧ Wise is an investigator for the Government Accountability Office, the government's watchdog group. His mission is to figure out why the government owns so many buildings, like this one, that it doesn't use.

Read more at NPR
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Latest Estimate of Illegal Alien Population Exceeds Unemployed

The Pew Research Center’s latest estimate of the number of illegal aliens residing in the United States—11.7 million as of March 2012—was less than the approximately 12.5 million people whom the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated were unemployed in the United States in the average month of 2012.  However, it exceeds the approximately 11.46 million people whom BLS says were unemployed in the average month of 2013.  Pew released its latest report on the “unauthorized immigrant” population on Sept. 23, 2013.

Read more at CNS News
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Earth is Safe From 'Global Warming' Say the Men Who Put Man on the Moon

The planet is not in danger of catastrophic man made global warming. Even if we burn all the world's recoverable fossil fuels it will still only result in a temperature rise of less than 1.2 degrees C. So say The Right Climate Stuff Research Team, a group of retired NASA Apollo scientists and engineers - the men who put Neil Armstrong on the moon - in a new report.  "It's an embarrassment to those of us who put NASA's name on the map to have people like James Hansen popping off about global warming," says the project's leader Hal Doiron.

Read more at Breitbart.com
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Fla. TV Station Exposes Voter Fraud, DOJ Sues State to Stop Purging Rolls

While the Obama Justice Department mounts a legal challenge against Florida for purging ineligible voters from its rolls, a television news station broadcasts an unbelievable segment that proves non U.S. citizens living in the Sunshine State vote regularly in elections.   The investigative piece was aired this week by an NBC affiliate in southwest Florida that actually tracked down and interviewed non U.S. citizens who are registered to vote and have cast ballots in numerous elections. The segment focused on Lee County, which has a population of about 620,000 and Collier County with a population of around 322,000. The reporter spent about two months digging around the voter rolls in the two counties and the discoveries are dumbfounding.

Read more at Judicial Watch
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Park Service Knew World War II Veterans Would Be Locked Out

The Department of the Interior knew beforehand that two groups of aging veterans would be visiting the World War II Memorial as the partial government shutdown began on Oct. 1 but decided to barricade the site anyway, according to e-mails obtained by National Review Online.

Read more at National Review
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

At This Rate, It Will Take 28 Years To Get Everyone Back To Work

From a jobs perspective, the economy treaded water in February. We didn't drown in unemployment, but nor did we manage to swim closer to the prosperity shore. It was a "blah" month, in the midst of the worst economic recovery in American history.  Full-time-equivalent* (FTE) jobs increased by 147,000, thanks mostly to a large decline in the number of part-time workers. This was enough to move the nation 45,000 FTE jobs closer to full employment. While this was better than average for a month in President Obama's so-called "economic recovery" (America is 2.2 million FTE jobs farther away from full employment now than it was in June 2009), it's not great.

Read more at Real Clear Markets
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

The Fed Is Not Printing Money, It's Doing Something Much Worse

The Federal Reserve’s seemingly endless program of quantitative easing (QE) begun under Ben Bernanke, and continuing at a slightly slower pace under Janet Yellen, has some of the punditry and much of the electorate up in arms. With good reason.  Implicit in quantitative easing is the horribly obtuse notion that central banks can produce real economic growth through their monetary machinations. If only life were so simple.

Read more at Forbes
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Malkin: The Inevitability of Obamacare for Illegal Aliens

You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. When government expands entitlements, illegal aliens always end up with a piece of the pie. Obamacare promoters relented to GOP pressure to include an illegal alien ban on eligibility and vowed endlessly that no benefits would go to the "undocumented." But denial isn't just a river in Egypt. It's the Obama way. ✧ In Oregon this week, officials confessed that nearly 4,000 illegal immigrants had been "accidentally" steered from the state's low-income Medicaid program and instead were enrolled in Obamacare in violation of the law. Oopsie. The Oregonian newspaper's Nick Budnick reported that the health bureaucrats "discovered the problem several weeks ago and are correcting it." Get in line. The beleaguered Cover Oregon health insurance exchange has been riddled with ongoing problems, errors and glitches since last October that have yet to be fixed.

Read more at Townhall.com Read More......

Capitol Hill Press Conference on Obamacare Lawsuit: Congress Makes the Laws

THE AMERICAN

It was my distinct honor and privilege to stand on Capitol Hill with members of Congress to discuss my Obamacare lawsuit on the employer mandate. The case remains the ONLY one on ANY of the illegal executive actions within Obamacare. Together we hope to end the lawlessness of an imperial presidency. --Dr. Larry Kawa

(Hat tip: Jerry J. Jackson, Sr.) Read More......

Unmuzzling the Bully Pulpit

There’s a fight brewing that you should know about. While many Americans today are concerned about losing our present liberties, this fight is about regaining a liberty lost more than 60 years ago.

In the mid-1950’s Lyndon Johnson was deeply involved in a hotly contested senatorial race in Texas. The opposition he faced included two organizations actively supporting Johnson’s opponents. Looking to counter this opposition, he proposed an amendment to the IRS tax code which was under consideration at the time. This amendment, which came to be called ‘The Johnson Amendment’, worked to withhold tax-exempt status from certain organizations that actively supported pending legislation or political candidates.

Read more at AMAC
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Sowell: The 'Fairness' Fraud

Thomas Sowell - It seems as if, everywhere you turn these days, there are studies claiming to show that America has lost its upward mobility for people born in the lower socioeconomic levels. But there is a sharp difference between upward "mobility," defined as an opportunity to rise, and mobility defined as actually having risen. ✧ That distinction is seldom even mentioned in most of the studies. It is as if everybody is chomping at the bit to get ahead, and the ones that don't rise have been stopped by "barriers" created by "society."

Read more at Townhall.com Read More......

The Appalling Atrocity in America's Public Schools

David Horowitz - There is a human tragedy smoldering in America’s inner cities. Twelve million poor children, mainly black and Hispanic, are trapped in failing government schools that are teaching them nothing. As a result, they will never get a chance at a middle-class life. Virtually every school board and every administration in inner city districts is controlled by Democrats, and has been for over fifty years. Everything that is wrong with inner city schools that policy can fix, Democrats are responsible for.

Read more at Go 4 the Heart Read More......

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ): Culture of Control is Unfair & Un-American

MAR. 4, 2014 - Despite not knowing your situation or your specific needs, perfect strangers now decide what is best for you. ✧ Whether it's the food you want to eat, the home loan you want to get, the toys your kids want to play with, the cars you want to drive or how much water your toilets can flush, America's everyday choices have always been plentiful. A primary reason for this abundance is the tradition of negligible government intrusion in your lives. ✧ Unfortunately, this tradition has been eroded over the years, and your choices and your freedom to make even the smallest decision are suffering because of it. ✧ Faceless bureaucrats — strangers who have decided they know better than you — set out a handful of options that they like and force you to "choose" from them. In today's America, this is what government bureaucrats pass off as your choice. The façade of choice is present, but — as you and I both know — we accept their dictates or else.

Read more of Rep. Garrett's opinion piece at Garrett.house.gov/opinion Read More......

WSJ: Obama's Hidden Budget

How does President Barack Obama plan to fund the new savings program he announced in January? It remains a mystery, even after Tuesday's release of Mr. Obama's 2015 budget proposal. Expect resistance on Capitol Hill as the President appears to be once again testing the limits of his ability to act without Congressional approval. ✧ In his January State of the Union address and then at a subsequent speech in Pennsylvania, the President touted his new "MyRA" plan, a type of Roth Individual Retirement Account that allows after-tax dollars to grow tax-free and will invest only in government debt. He also claimed the authority to create the program administratively. ✧ Team Obama says that the MyRA plan will allow private-sector workers to enjoy the same returns as government workers enjoy in a retirement plan known as the G Fund, but without paying any of the fees.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal Read More......

Controversial DOJ nominee fails to clear Senate test vote

Senate Democrats failed to muster enough support to push a controversial Justice Department nominee past a key test vote on Wednesday, leaving the nomination stalled amid bipartisan concerns about his past work on behalf of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. ✧ The nomination of Debo Adegbile for head of the Civil Rights Division was blocked, on a 47-52 vote. ✧ Maureen Faulkner, widow of the Philadelphia officer killed by Abu-Jamal, told Fox News after the vote that Adegbile was "the wrong person for the job." She thanked Democratic senators who "broke ranks and had the courage to do the right thing."

Read more at Fox News Read More......

IBD: President Obama's Growth Gap Hits $1.31 Trillion

Stagnation: With fourth-quarter GDP growth downgraded in the latest government report, President Obama's anemic economy stretches on. If this had been only an average recovery, we'd be $1.31 trillion richer. ✧ Remember all that talk at the beginning of last year about how prosperity was — finally — just around the corner? In February 2013, for example, Reuters reported "signs are emerging that a more robust recovery is around the bend." ✧ The same month, Bloomberg told its readers that "most Fed policymakers expect growth of 2.3% to 3%." ✧ At the start of last year, the Obama administration projected growth in 2013 would be 2.3%. The Blue Chip consensus forecast was slightly higher. ✧ None of those projections was stellar. But with the Bureau of Economic Analysis' sharp downward revision of Q4 growth — from 3.2% to 2.4% — each turned out to be overly optimistic. Actual gross domestic product growth for 2013 came in at a pathetic 1.9%.

Read more at Investors Business Daily Read More......

History: Why is healthcare tied to the workplace?

(TIMELINE 2005: Gov. Romney is working on a universal health care plan for Massachusetts)

Excerpt: While employers first started experimenting with health coverage during the war [WWII/FDR era], the next decade saw a huge expansion of corporate health benefits. Between 1946 and 1957, the number of US workers receiving health coverage through an employer jumped by a factor of 12. By 1957, firms were covering 12 million workers plus 20 million dependents. The employer-based system was well suited to the America of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a time when healthcare was relatively inexpensive-amounting to less than 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product, as opposed to nearly 15 percent today [2005]-and when many Americans spent their entire working lives toiling for one company.

Read more at the Boston Globe Read More......

Oregon's Sad Focus on 'Happiness'

By Joel Kotkin
Oregon is a beautiful place, and, for many of the state's well-heeled residents, including many refugees from equally beautiful but overpriced California, economic growth not only is unimportant but is even a negative. Rather than create opportunity, the real issue, according to Gov. John Kitzhaber, is making sure the state ranks high on “the happiness index.” Forget sweating the hard stuff, and cozy up with a hot soy latte. ✧ There's a problem with this. Oregon's unemployment rate remains above the national average and underemployment – the measure of people working part-time or well below their skill level – stands at nearly 17 percent, behind only Nevada and California. Since 2007, the state has lost over 3.4 percent of its jobs, a performance much worse than the national average and even California. ✧ “You have to wonder about the rhetoric of happiness,” suggests economist Bill Watkins, who predicts the state won't be back to 2007 employment levels till next year. “You need jobs for people to be happy, you would think.”

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