Vote Fraud Test Case: US Attorney General Eric Holder’s Ballot to Vote Offered to Total Stranger

April 9, 2012 | Filed Under Andrew Breitbart, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Eric Holder, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, President, Vote Fraud, Voter ID, Warner Todd Huston, Washington D.C. | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a shocking new video, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates to the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, just why he should be concerned about a lack of voter ID laws by walking into Holder’s Washington D.C. voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Holder’s own voting ballot by simply asking for it.

The video’s about section reads:

You need ID to cash a check, drive a car, get into a court house, pass a check , etc etc etc. But not to vote, wonder who’s profiting from that? Could it be the very people that are against voter ID? Those of you that use the BS excuse that it disenfranchises minorities, are so full of it. The only minority being shut out with voter ID laws are the ones that shouldn’t be there in the 1st place. True it does cut into the Democrat base, guess that’s why you are using that lame excuse.

If it is this easy for an investigative reporter to go into a voting place and misrepresent himself to take someone else’s ballot, how often does it happen to people that have passed away or to registered voters in any other situation? How often are votes cast by people misrepresenting themselves? And why is it that easy to do?
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Court Watching: 2008 Democrat Vote Fraud in Indiana and Virginia

April 7, 2012 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Indiana, Liberals, President, The Law, Virginia, Vote Fraud, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

This month two states, Indiana and Virginia, have indicted Democrats and convicted felons on charges of vote fraud during the 2008 election cycle.

While reading these, remember that the left says there is no vote fraud in the USA…

In Indiana four St. Joseph County Democrat officials have had charges filed against them for allegedly forging Obama primary petitions during the 2008 election.

Authorities charge that the scheme to submit the fake petitions for Obama was hatched at the local county Democrat headquarters.
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Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?

April 7, 2012 | Filed Under California, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Larry Sand, Liberals | No Comments

-By Larry Sand

The release of teachers’ VA rankings should not be viewed as an attack on teachers, but as a wake-up call for the rest of us.

The recent release of teachers’ value added (VA) rankings by the New York Times reignited a controversy which began when the Los Angeles Times did the same thing in 2010. The value added technique of rating teachers is “based on their students’ progress on standardized tests year after year. The difference between a student’s expected growth and actual performance is the ‘value’ a teacher adds or subtracts during the year.”

The imbroglio has two facets – the first being whether or not teachers can be accurately evaluated by how well their students do on a standardized test. As I wrote in January,

In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation and higher adult earnings. (The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”)

The second and more contentious element of VA concerns itself with who should get to see the teacher’s ranking. Some think it should be just the principal who can use the data to help low performing teachers. Others think that parents should also be allowed to learn about the effectiveness of their child’s teacher. And finally there are those who demand that all people — especially taxpayers — should have access to them. The reasoning, of course, is that since taxpayers are shelling out for the teachers’ salaries, they have a right to know what they are getting for their money.
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Property Renter Forced to Remove U.S. Flag and POW/MIA Flag from Premises

April 6, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Free Speech, Freedom, Liberals, Patriotism, South Carolina, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A bar in Charleston, South Carolina has been forced by the company that owns the property upon which the business sits to remove an American flag and the popular black flag that honors Vietnam POWs and MIAs that the bar manager had raised months ago.

Imagine in this day and age when we have soldiers in harm’s way in foreign lands this property management company is so unpatriotic like this!

In October of last year Hope and Marty Young, owners of the Chucktown Tavern, were asked by local military vets to raise the flags in honor of veterans. The flags have flown there ever since.

But in March the Youngs were abruptly told by landlords Beach Management to remove the flags presumably after another tenant complained about noise and other minor annoyances caused by the bar during an outdoor event held there.
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Media Caught Peddling Left-Wing Narrative in Place of News

April 4, 2012 | Filed Under California, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Huffington Post, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Republicans, The New York Times, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There are several things in common that recent stories about a San Diego City Councilman who is running for Mayor have and truth doesn’t seem to be one of them. In fact, these stories are so similar that one is tempted to think that those columnists and “reporters” that wrote these stories had a bit of, um, “help” writing them.

At least three stories, one by David Brooks of the New York Times, one by LA Times columnist George Skelton, and one by partisan Huffington Post blogger William Bradley, all seem to be selling the exact same talking points — and ignoring all the same facts — on San Diego City Councilman and Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio. The three pieces are eerily similar, most especially in the missed truths, accidental, I’m sure.

The central point of each of these stories where DeMaio is concerned is to relate that he is a hard-core, right-wing, Social-Con whose candidacy is the result of the GOP moving “further to the right” than ever. This is, apparently, to show that even on the left coast where “moderates” supposedly reign, the GOP can’t stay in the mainstream of the local political scene.
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Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March

March 31, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, California, Children, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Government, Government, Corruption, Larry Sand, Liberals, Public Employees Unions, Taxes, Teachers Unions, Unions | 2 Comments

-By Larry Sand

Julius Caesar came to a bad end on March 15th, the same date many good teachers were warned that they may be unemployed in June.

“Nearly 20,000 Teacher Pink Slips Statewide Show Drastic Need for More Education Funding” screamed the headline on the California Teachers Association website.

First, let’s straighten out the union spin. Typically when a person receives a “pink slip,” it means that they are fired. What some teachers actually received is a Reduction in Force (RIF) notice, which according to state law, must be sent to teachers by March 15th if there is the slightest chance that they will be laid off in June. School districts really don’t know in March what their budget will be for the next school year so they plan for the worst case scenario. It’s unheard of for all teachers who get the notices to actually be laid off, but some will, and they must be notified if there is any chance they will lose their jobs.

As a young teacher in New York City in 1975, I lost my 6th grade teaching because the city was in the midst of a fiscal swoon. A few thousand of us were laid off because we were the newest hires, not because we were the worst teachers. The union contract did not make any provision for getting rid of the poorest performers, just the newly employed. Fast forward 37 years and we are still doing the same stupid thing.
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Why Obama’s Birth Certificate Matters, Especially Now

March 30, 2012 | Filed Under Arizona, Barack Obama, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Government, President, Selwyn Duke | Comments Off

-By Selwyn Duke

There was a time when someone could perhaps justify sitting on the fence on the matter of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. There were those on the left who could chalk doubts about its authenticity up to conspiratorial Internet paranoia. As for the right, there was every reason to worry about being the victims of an Alinsky-style set-up designed to marginalize opponents. In other words, let the other side double-down on an incredible claim, and then, at the most opportune time (October surprise?), provide irrefutable evidence to the contrary and make them look like deluded wackos. So, for a long time, one might have had cause to watch, wait, and let the wheels of investigation render their judgment.

That judgment is in, and the time for waiting is over.

With the results of Maricopa County, AZ, sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “Cold Case Posse,” an incredible claim has become an incredible situation: a team of professional investigators, commissioned by a major law-enforcement agency, has determined that the alleged birth certificate produced by the president of the United States is a probable forgery.

Process that for a moment. The regime of the world’s most powerful nation – a republic that prides itself on adherence to the rule of law – is likely peddling a forged document. What say you, citizen?
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Florida Dems Can’t Find Voters to Protest Allen West, so They Hire Some

March 28, 2012 | Filed Under Allen West, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Florida, Government, House of Representatives, Liberals, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrats and the left are inherently a sham with little actual grassroots support and the race for Florida’s 18th Congressional District is yet another example of this truism.

Repeatedly and across the country we see unions, Democrats, and other far left groups planning rallies and protest marches but finding that they simply can’t put bodies in the streets to make all the effort worthwhile. They just don’t really have the support of the common man, the folks in the streets, to carry off these protest marches and rallies.

But these out of the mainstream groups do have a solution to this problem: the rent-a-protester. Whenever you see a left-wing protest, almost invariably you’ll find that many of the folks walking around with signs in their hands were hired to be there. They are paid protesters, faux activists only there for some change in their pockets, not because they care anything about the issue being protested.
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Growing Opposition, Conservatives Call for Prop. 29’s Defeat

March 24, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, California, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two new voices have joined the growing chorus calling for the defeat of next June’s ballot initiative Proposition 29, a nearly $1 billion annual spending binge that threatens to cast California deeper into insolvency.

David Spady of Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit conservative political advocacy group, and Nick Johnson, of conservative website Red County, penned columns last week calling for the defeat of Proposition 29, the so-called California Cancer Research Act.

“Stop me if you’ve heard this joke before,” writes Spady in Flash Report. “Liberal politician with pet cause and bureaucracy-building desire packages up his or her idea, tells voters they can achieve some laudable goal ‘for free’ and takes it to the ballot. First Five Commission. Stem-cell research. High-speed rail. And now the latest in this sad line of ballot-box boondoggles: Proposition 29.”
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Vermont Officials Seeking to Prosecute Voter Reform Advocates?

March 23, 2012 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Vermont, Vote Fraud, Voter ID, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

James O’Keefe of Project Veritas released another undercover video at BigJournalism.com, this one showing that voters in Vermont could simply go to a polling place, give any name — for instance those of dead Vermonters — and be given a ballot.

As a result of the release of the video, Vermont officials had what can only be called a quixotic reaction. They want to prosecute the producers of the video instead of cleaning up their system.
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VIDEO: Jeff Semon, For Mass. 7th Congressional District

March 21, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Elections, GOP, Massachusetts, Republicans, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the last of my Challenger Series of videos made at CPAC this year, we have Jeff Semon. He is an impressive and serious young candidate for U.S. Congress from the Bay State, Massachusetts. He’s running to take the seat held by big-time lib Ed Markey.

Semon has been campaigning hard and says that in his opinion the voters in the 5th CD aren’t nearly as liberal as Markey is.

Incidentally, Semon is the fellow that created www.krugmaniswrong.com/ to nail extremist, left-wing NY Times columnist Paul Krugman to the wall.

See if you agree that Semon is an impressive candidate…

Katherine ‘Evidence Tampering’ Wessling for Corrupt Board of Education Member — SLPS

March 21, 2012 | Filed Under Education, Elections, Humor, Missouri, Paleo-Skeptic, Society/Culture | Comments Off

-By Paleo Skeptic

Only “Evidence Tampering” can help restore accreditation to St. Louis Public Schools!

It’s not often that this writer is willing to endorse a candidate. But I think it’s time to stand up in our support for Katherine “Evidence Tampering” Wessling. Ms. “Evidence Tampering” Wessling will appear on the April ballot for corrupt Board of Education member for the St. Louis Public Schools.

Not many members of the SLPS Board of Education can brag about expending so much in resources to prevent child abuse from being reported as Ms. “Evidence Tampering” Wessling. The prevention of lawful investigation of child abuse by State authorities has long been one of the top priorities of our dear old “Evidence Tampering.”

Only a few members of the Board of Education in the history of the St. Louis Public Schools can claim the level of corruption that Katherine “Evidence Tampering” Wessling brings to her duties as corrupt Board of Education member.

Ms. “Evidence Tampering” Wessling is the pro-choice candidate. With a known proclivity for the protection, preservation, and promotion of student / teacher sexual relationships, Katherine “Evidence Tampering” Wessling will ensure that teachers who are sexual predators will be able to engage in sexual relations with the student(s) of their choice. Not much could make our schools a happier place.

Illinois Family Institute’s 2012 Illinois Voter Guide

March 20, 2012 | Filed Under Chicago, Congress, Elections, GOP, Illinois, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Congressional District Breakouts of IFI’s 2012 Primary Election Voter Guide are now available for download!!

With Primary Election Day here — March 20, it is imperative that voters have information available to help them make educated decisions as they cast their votes for the different candidates.

IFI has 18 different two-page local Voter Guides — one for each of Illinois’ Congressional Districts. By printing the two-page local Guide front to back on legal size paper (8.5″ x 14″), you can easily make this a one-page handout, which you can then distribute in your neighborhood and local church. These are non-partisan and completely legal under IRS guidelines for distribution in churches.

Download them today. http://illinoisfamily.org/actions/voter-guide/

Also available is the IFI Presidential Primary Voter Guide. http://illinoisfamily.org/documents/presidential-vg.pdf

To download these guides, you will need Adobe Acrobat and will need to know in which of the 18 Congressional Districts you live. (Look up your Congressional District HERE or call IFI at 708-781-9328.) Your Congressman will be listed under “Your Federal Elected Officials” as Representative. The Congressional District number will be found after his/her name. Then simply come back to this page and click on your Congressional District below to access your customized one-page Voter Guide.

Or go to the IFI website to download your district’s guide.

Chicago Democrats Say Voting for a Criminal is Better Than Voting for Republicans

March 20, 2012 | Filed Under Chicago, Cook County, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, GOP, House of Representatives, Illinois, Liberals, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want an example of why Democrats are truly a party of criminals, you have but to look to Chicago for your examples and not just because Chicago has one of the highest rates of Democrat pols being convicted of crimes. This particular election, Chicago Democrats are actually urging voters to vote for a state rep. that was just this month arrested and charged with bribe taking instead of voting for his opponent that has a clean record — but was a Republican.

That’s right, Chicago Democrats want you to vote for someone we already suspect is a corrupt, bribe-taking, politician over one who is not.

A cadre of Democrats led by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis held a rally for Smith’s election saying that it was better to vote for their arrested friend than to vote for his opponent.

“We know that our colleague is charged with criminal activity,” Davis said. “But we also know that a charge is not a conviction.”

Why would they do this? Why would they come to the aide of a guy arrested for bribe-taking?
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Fox Business Network Covering Illinois Primary Tonight at 7PM

March 20, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Economy/Finances, Elections, Fox Business Network, GOP, Illinois, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Republicans, Rick Santorum, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you’re looking for some expert commentary on the Illinois primaries, Fox Business Network will be providing up-to-the-minute coverage tonight anchored by the inimitable Neil Cavuto. The coverage will kick off at 7PM and will feature Jeff Flock here on the ground in Chicago.

FBN’s Neil Cavuto has been covering the primaries quite extensively. Cavuto has even chided his rival cablers for practically ignoring the primaries, saying that he has been surprised at how “competitors drop the ball” on their coverage. He feels viewers deserve more.

I see rival networks giving a perfunctory, ‘So and so won this primary,’ and then they’re back to a Teflon commercial, or they’re running a seven-year-old special, and I think I owe my viewers more. I think that they deserve more. People are into this. And we as a financial network owe it to (our viewers to) be into this ourselves.

For his part, reporter Jeff Flock provided some of his analysis on the GOP filed from which Illinois will choose this primary election day.

“If you are a deficit hawk there is not much difference between the three front runners. Romney, Santorum and Gingrich all push lower taxes, spending cuts and changes to the Social Security and Medicare programs,” Flock said. “All would, by most economist’s measures, add trillions to the deficit over the next decade. Only Ron Paul’s plan would cut the deficit over time.”

Flock says that Romney will appeal quite a lot to the business class.
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Hey, Illinois: Don’t Forget to Vote TODAY!

March 20, 2012 | Filed Under Elections, Illinois, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Ill. Non-Romneys Your Choice on Tues is Rick AND Newt–That’s Right, You’ll Vote for BOTH of Them!

March 19, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Elections, GOP, Government, Illinois, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you are an Illinois voter that considers himself an ABR (anybody but Romney) you have a bit of a dilemma. Rick Santorum has been surging across the country as the final non-Romney but he has a major problem in Illinois. He can win the popular vote and still not get all the delegates he’d like. In fact, because of the way the system works in Illinois, he can’t get the delegates.

So, what do non-Romney voters in Illinois do? If you want to stop Romney from winning (or at least running away with it easily) the only answer is to vote for both Newt and Rick. Oddly enough it can be done even without the famous Chicago corruption aiding you.

How can this be done? Read on, dear readers.

For those unaware, in Illinois we don’t just have a say in the beauty contest that is the popular vote. We also directly elect our delegates to the GOP convention. When you go to the voting booth you’ll vote for Rick, Newt, or Romney, of course, but you also have to continue down the ballot and vote for their delegates. Just voting for the top of the ticket won’t suffice to send your candidate to the big game, you must vote for his delegates too.
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American Cancer Society Attacks Me by Name Over California Tax Grab?

March 19, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, California, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, GOP, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, Los Angeles, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 7 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Oddly enough, a coalition of big tax hikers in California, including the American Cancer Society, has attacked me by name for daring to write about Proposition 29, a California ballot measure that will appear on this year’s ballot. Prop 29 will force Californians to foot the costs of nearly a billion dollars in new and unnecessary spending on the airy claim that the funding will somehow cure cancer and stop kids from smoking. Sounds a bit like Obama’s claims that his election would lower sea levels, stop global warming, make the U.S. beloved again, and put a unicorn in every garage, doesn’t it?

The accusation leveled against me is that I am “in bed with Big Tobacco.” Naturally, these left-wingers don’t bother with any proof. They just hang the claim out there and leave it at that. If I am working with Big Tobacco, I have to say that their checks are late. I didn’t even get a cool Joe Camel T-Shirt, the ingrates! (In case they pull down the page, I have a screen shot saved here)

But imagine. This coalition of deep-pocketed, big government-loving entities is coming after me by name. Seriously. Have you ever heard of billion dollar groups like these attacking a single blogger like this? It truly is a new world.

I certainly have written about Prop 29 many times over the last year, that I admit. But another hilarious line used against me in essence calls me a carpetbagger for doing so:
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Rick Santorum’s Illinois Rally

March 17, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Budget, Chicago, Conservatives, Constitution, Cook County, Elections, Free Speech, Freedom, GOP, Government, Illinois, President, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rick Santorum visited Illinois last night stopping at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb, for a 7PM rally that drew over 2,000 people who came to hear the presidential primary candidate speak.

The place was packed with all the gym bleachers filled and most of the balcony seating also filled, not to mention standing room only on the gym floor. The capacity seating of the place was 2,500, but one is tempted to think that they allowed a bit more than capacity to rally for Rick.

An array of elected officials and long-time activists appeared to support the candidate. The crowd was energetic and Santorum signs were waved enthusiastically at many moments during Rick’s address.

On the dais before Sen. Santorum took the podium were such notables as Al Salvi and his wife Kathy, former Illinois politician Penny Pullen, State Rep. Tom Morrison, and New York Times writer Brad Thor.

Senator Santorum took the stage to raucous applause and gave a speech laden with allusions to the founding fathers, the economy, and religious freedom. He also bashed President Obama over Obamacare and his abject failure to fix this economy.
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Video: Glenn Morton for Maryland’s 5th CD

March 15, 2012 | Filed Under Capitalism, Congress, Crony Capitalism, Economy/Finances, Elections, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, Maryland, Republicans, Stimulus, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the last in my Challenger Series of interviews with congressional candidates is Glenn Morton who is running for the 5th CD in Maryland.

Mr. Morton is passionate, especially about how bad Obamacare is. In fact, Morton says he wasn’t all that political until Obamacare came about. Being an insurance man he came to realize just how bad this law was. The more he looked into it the worse it got.

In any case, here was our conversation at CPAC this year…

Annual NW Suburban GOP Lincoln Day Dinner — Newt, Roskam, Walsh, Dold, Schock

March 14, 2012 | Filed Under Aaron Schock, Congress, Conservatives, Cook County, Dan Patlak, Elections, GOP, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Joe Walsh, Peter Roskam, Republicans, Robert Dold, Tom Cross, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

I attended the annual Northwest Suburban Republican Lincoln Day Dinner March 14 and took a handful of photos for your interest. This year’s special guest speaker was Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, in town making the rounds for his run for the White House.

The program was emceed by WLS Radio personality and political gadfly Dan Proft. Also speaking were Congressmen Joe Walsh (8th District), Robert Dold (10th District), Peter Roskam (6th District), and the keynote speaker was Rep. Aaron Schock (18th District).

I got a bit rushed by the Secret Service, sadly. I had taken a chair just to the right of the stage (audience right, not stage right) and had all my computer gear and whatnot out and in use and the Secret Service decided I wasn’t allowed to be there for what ever absurd reason. I was 5 tables away from the stage and in a corner, not in an aisle. Anyway, they grabbed all my gear and rushed me to the back of the room. Sheese.

Still I settled in and was at least allowed to take my photos. So, as the program began Radio talker Proft began the night with a joke. Not that this is uncommon, for an emcee to start with a joke, but it was an amusing one, so I’ll recount it here.

Dan Proft, WLS Radio

Callista Gingrich

“What is the difference between a Democrat politician in Illinois and a mobster,” Proft asked. The answer: “A pension.”

Proft next introduced Newt’s wife Callista who then introduced the Speaker.

Newt Takes the Stage

Seeing as how this was the Lincoln Day Dinner, Newt began with some words about the 16th President, noting that he was the president of technology for his day. Lincoln held a patent as an inventor, was a railroad booster (and corporate lawyer) and was always keenly interested in new war tech as he led the union to victory.
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Berkeley Storm Troopers: Don’t Write What The Police Don’t Like or Else

March 14, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Anti-Americanism, California, Censorship, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Newspapers, Police, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

If police chiefs send armed officers to a journalist’s door because he didn’t like what was written abut him, would you feel just a tad uncomfortable as an American at the audacity? This is no academic discussion because it really happened. Not in what liberals may claim is the dangerous, intolerant south but instead in the heart of liberal land itself, Berkeley, California.

Worse, one of the reasons this whole situation arose is because police were too distracted by an Occupy Berkeley protest to respond to an incident that ended up in the murder of a 67-year-old resident.

But first, on Friday, Feb. 9, Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan sent an armed officer to the door of Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley at nearly one in the morning to demand that he publish a correction about something the reporter had written about the Berkeley police department.
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Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America

March 14, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, California, Children, Education, Larry Sand, Public Employees Unions, Taxes, Teachers Unions | 1 Comment

-By Larry Sand

Teachers unions, known for fighting to keep pedophiles in the classroom, try to get rid of good teachers in Seattle.

Last week, I wrote about the particularly egregious case of a teacher in Rochester, NY who sent sexually charged emails to her principal and was subsequently jailed for ignoring a restraining order. Upon her release, she returned to the classroom, and in short order was accused of fondling her middle school students. But due to her union’s pressure tactics, the school board cannot get rid of this tenured teacher.

Across the country in Seattle, we now have a situation where it would appear that the local teachers union may have success in getting six teachers removed from the district.

Pedophiles? Of course not. They are talented Teach For America teachers who have received good reviews from their principals. In what could be a new low for teachers unions – and that’s really saying something – it would appear that through heavy pressure from the Seattle Education Association, the Seattle School Board may terminate the contracts of the six teachers for absolutely no good reason.
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Obama’s Dept. of Justice Rejects Texas Voter I.D. Law

March 13, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Eric Holder, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Texas, Vote Fraud, Voter ID, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama administration’s Department of Justice under embattled Attorney General Eric Holder has rejected Texas’ pre-clearance application for its new voter ID law. The feds say the state did not prove that the law will not discriminate against minority voters, especially Hispanics.

DOJ’s head of the civil rights division, Tom Perez, sent a six-page letter to the Texas director of elections saying that Texas had not “sustained its burden” of proof under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to show that the law will not disenfranchise the roughly 11 percent of Hispanic voters that have no state-issued identification.

Anticipating the Obama administration’s decision, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a federal lawsuit in February to have the law implemented immediately. Washington has until April 9 to respond to the lawsuit.

AG Abbott contends that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is acting on political grounds, not legal.
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School Choice: Time to Move Forward

March 9, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, California, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Larry Sand, Liberals, Public Employees Unions, Taxes, Teachers Unions | Comments Off

-By Larry Sand

As evidence mounts that the government/union education monopoly is failing our children, 2012 should see ramped up efforts to advance school choice.

Last week, Education Week published “What Research Says About School Choice,” in which nine scholars analyze the results of various studies concerning “school choice” – the quaint notion that parents should be able to choose where to send their kids to school. The report boasts no ecstatic claims, nothing about lions and lambs, no Hallelujah moments – just a sober look at the 20 year-old movement to end mandatory zip code school assignments. Some of the findings:

Among voucher programs, random-assignment studies generally find modest improvements in reading or math scores, or both. Achievement gains are typically small in each year, but cumulative over time. Graduation rates have been studied less often, but the available evidence indicates a substantial positive impact.

Among voucher programs, these studies consistently find that vouchers are associated with improved test scores in the affected public schools. The size of the effect in these studies varies from modest to large. No study has found a negative impact.

A third area of study has been the fiscal impact of school choice. Even under conservative assumptions about such questions as state and local budget sensitivity to enrollment changes, the net impact of school choice on public finances is usually positive and has never been found to be negative.

Also last week, the California Charter School Association released its second annual “Portrait of the Movement: How Charters are Transforming California Education.” Not a sales pitch or compilation of cherry-picked data data, the CCSA report is an honest look at California’s 900 plus charter schools which educate about 400,000 students. A few of its many findings:
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Texas Dems Fundraiser Falsehoods, Wisc. Dems, More False Accusations Against True The Vote

March 8, 2012 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Texas, Vote Fraud, Warner Todd Huston, Wisconsin | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Using falsehoods to sell candidates to voters has an unfortunate but long history in these United States. It is bad enough when mud is slung between single candidates in hard fought electoral contests, but when official communications from established political parties is based on outright falsehoods, one has to take a step back. Such is the case with the Texas Democrat Party attacking the voter integrity group True The Vote in a recent fundraising letter.

The Texas Democrat Party sent out a fundraising letter on February 29 alerting Texas Democrat donors that Houston-based True The Vote had gotten involved in the Wisconsin recall petition signature verification effort. Sadly, the Party decided use incendiary language to paint a negative picture of the voter integrity group and cast a long list of falsehoods against them in order to cajole dollars out of donors. (See image of letter here)

Calling the group an “infamous voter intimidation group,” for instance, is beyond that pale. This is a claim made solely by True The Vote’s enemies, not one actually proven as true. One would think that a legitimate state party would not use blatantly false statements in official communications, but here we see it anyway.
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Secret New York Trip, Transparency OFF The Agenda

March 8, 2012 | Filed Under Chicago, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Rahm Emanuel, Taxes, Transparency, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, looks like the RahmFather isn’t going to be one of those mayors that gets all excited by that silly old transparency stuff. Fox Business Network revealed that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in New York on a secret visit on Tuesday and this is the second secret trip that Mayor Emanuel has made on Chicago tax payers’s dime.

Emanuel ended up in Manhattan at a high-end restaurant named Sistina where he was seen hobnobbing with a retinue of his old buddies in the banking industry along with his chief economic adviser.

FBN’s Charlie Gasparino wonders if Rahm was in the Big Apple to raise cash for team Obama. After all, Rahm is still an active fund raiser for his former White House boss so it’s a good bet that he was wringing wallets dry for Barack “One Billion Dollar Campaign Fund” Obama.

Emanuel’s office, though claims the Mayor was in New York in order to bring new business back home. Yeah. He’s meeting with old friends established heavily in New York to convince them to drop the financial center of the country in order to come to the state with the worst business climate of all fifty? (Not to mention most corrupt city and worst in nearly every other category, too.)
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CPUC: When a Consumer Advocate Isn’t

March 6, 2012 | Filed Under California, Democrats/Leftists, Electric, Energy, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Natural Gas, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) is suppose to be a consumer advocate, it’s supposed to be a watchdog agency that keeps California’s public utilities in line so that they don’t rip off rate payers. Unfortunately, as the SF Chronicle’s Katy Grimes says, the regulator is instead responsible for a culture of corruption with the state’s utilities.

It almost seems as if the CPUC is an arm of the rate-hiking utilities instead of their minder!

“The California Public Utility Commission,” Grimes says, “has a history of allowing utility companies to increase utility rates without much proof of need, resulting in some of the highest utility rates in the entire country. Despite gross mismanagement and well-documented negligence, the CPUC has allowed Pacific, Gas & Electric Company to continually increase utility rates, passing tremendous costs on to rate payers.”

Grimes details a lot of the scams and broken promises about rates in California all this quite despite the fact that PG&E is actually responsible for the deaths of at least 8 Californians due to its negligence.
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DC Deputy Mayor: Dear Victims of Crime, Better You Are Beaten, Raped, Stolen From Than You Protect Yourself

March 6, 2012 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Security/Safety, Warner Todd Huston, Washington D.C. | 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Washington D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice wants you all to just stop whining about the rising crime in his fair city. He wants you to continue being a victim and like it. Not only that, but he thinks it’s a good thing that you should become a victim. Better that than protecting yourself, don’t you know?

That is what Dept. Mayor Paul Quander told victims of crime in Washington D.C. last week during a Third Ward public safety meeting. You don’t have any right to protect yourself, Washingtonians. You have only one response available to you: allow evil to prevail.

Unlike other big American cities, crime in D.C. is up 40% in the first two months of 2012. But Quander thinks it’s no big deal. Cowering is his motto.

A young citizen attending the meeting came to the open microphone to ask Dep. Mayor Quander what crime victims are supposed to do when confronted with violent criminals bent on mayhem.

“The choice that you have to make,” Quander rambled, “is to give them what they want. You walk away and you live and you survive.”

But the young man was incredulous and for good reason. “But how do you know that you are going to live and survive, you are completely at their mercy,” the young man asked.
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VIDEO: J.D. Miniear, Indiana 7th Congressional District

March 4, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Elections, GOP, House of Representatives, Indiana, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Next in my Challengers Series of videos taken at this year’s CPAC is a few minutes with J.D. Miniear, a Republican who is vying for the GOP nomination for Indiana’s 7th Congressional District centered around the state’s biggest city — and capital — Indianapolis.

The current occupant of that seat is the odious Andre Carson, who, you may recall, has been mired in many controversies over the outrageously racist things he’s said over the years. The latest was his outrageous claim that all Tea Partiers wanted to hang blacks from trees.

As far as I am concerned, ANY Republican that takes Carson’s seat from him is a good candidate!

Still, Miniear faces a whole slew of GOP candidates. No less than seven candidates fill out the 7th CD’s primary field. Seems like an uphill climb for Mr. Miniear, for sure.
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