Georgia Gov. Signs Bill Allowing 10 Commandments Posted at all Public Bldgs

-By Warner Todd Huston

Georgia Governor, Republican Nathan Deal has signed an amended “historical display” law that will allow America’s founding documents as well as the Ten Commandments and the Magna Carta to be posted at schools and other government buildings in addition to the courthouses as the original bill allowed.

The amended law introduced by State Rep. Tommy Benton (R, Jefferson, Dist. 31) allows the “Foundations of American Law & Government Display” to be publicly displayed in “all public buildings.”

The display includes the following documents:
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Georgia Gov. Signs Bill Allowing 10 Commandments Posted at all Public Bldgs”


Ooops: NATO Video Says Chicago is ‘Capital of Illinois’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama must not have been paying too much attention to what his folks at NATO have been doing as they prepare for the summit coming up on May 20, 21 in Chicago because the new video touting the gathering has a few whoppers included. Namely that Chicago is the capital of Illinois (it isn’t) and is “the city he grew up in” (he didn’t).

As the mellifluous tones of the European accented, female narrator begins, we see images of the shining City of Big Shoulders, The City That Works, the legendary Windy City, the, uh, Capital of Illinois? That’s what we are told…
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Ooops: NATO Video Says Chicago is ‘Capital of Illinois’”


Thank YOU… Garish Statue of Marilyn Monroe to be Removed from Chicago Scene

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in August of 2011 I finally made it downtown to take a gander at the tacky Marilyn Monroe statue that was placed at Pioneer Court near the Tribune building on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. It was a horrible. But finally, we are told that the statue is going to be removed from its current perch. Now I call THAT a beautification project!

When I saw it in August I said, “It is nothing short of a gigantic pile of tackiness in the middle of the Windy City. But the sponsors call it ‘art,’ nonetheless.” My final word on it was, “Anyway, it is an ugly, kitschy, oversized, spectacle. I give it thumbs down.”
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Thank YOU… Garish Statue of Marilyn Monroe to be Removed from Chicago Scene”


NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive

-By Larry Sand

Tax Freedom Day is April 17th. Freedom from teacher union extortion? To be announced.

The National Education Association has thrown itself full force into the “corporate loophole” demagoguery campaign. According to the NEA, children are being victimized by avaricious corporate types who don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The NEA exhorts the American people to “stand up for the middle class and support closing corporate tax loopholes at the federal and state level, so that additional resources can be invested in public education and other services that build our communities.” In a message oozing with class warfare, we learn that “Corporate tax loopholes are costing our schools and communities resources that would help the next generation achieve the American Dream.” (Cue the violins.)

They then post a list of programs that would thrive if the greedy corporate bastards would just pay their fair share – Title 1, Pre-K education, etc. NEA of course fails to mention that these programs, though popular, are essentially federal boondoggles. They don’t really do what they purport to do. They do make work for unionized adults, however, which if you haven’t been paying attention, is all NEA really cares about. But I digress….

Using Citizens for Tax Justice as their source, NEA claims that closing the seven largest corporate tax loopholes would provide an estimated $1.487 trillion in additional revenues over the next ten years. Coincidentally, CTJ just happens to be the union founded and funded lobbying wing of something called the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive”


Petulant, Occupy Chicago Protesters Want Everything ‘Free’

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is the sort of thing that makes these idiotic Occupy whatevers… well, idiots.

Via Marathon Pundit, a cadre of comrades in the Occupy Chicago “movement” decided it would be a cool idea to have a “fare strike” and crash Chicago’s mass transit system in order to ride for free.

When Ruberry asked the gaudily masked nut what a fare strike was, he said that it means we pay “zero” to ride the bus and/or the train.

“It’s when a lot of people show up and say this is what we’re willing to pay for this public service,” he explained. “Today it was exactly zero.”

So, here’s a random question… how, exactly, do these morons think we can even have a mass transit system if no one even pays any fare to use them?
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Petulant, Occupy Chicago Protesters Want Everything ‘Free’”


Now Illinois Dems Want Crook They Supported in Primary to Step Down?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now the very same accused criminal that Chicago Democrats wanted people to vote for in Tuesday’s primary is being pressured to to step down from his office now that he won — pressured by the exact same Democrat officials that told people to vote for him only three days ago. This particular story is a perfect example of how Democrats a). Don’t care what voters want, b). Don’t care if their elected officials are crooks, c). Would rather see criminals in office than see a single Republican win an election.

To recap: Derrick Smith was appointed by the party to take a State Rep seat left empty by another Rep that moved on to a different office. As soon as he got in that office he began soliciting a bribe to fill his pockets. The FBI arrested him and charged him with the crime. Up comes the primary and Chicago Democrats, including Congressman Danny Davis, told Chicago voter to vote for this crook anyway because a criminal in office is better than having any Republican, says Davis and his crook-supporting crew The primary arrives and this crook wins his election. And now that he won

The Democrats’ endgame is to muscle Smith off the ballot and out of the House. Gov. Pat Quinn and Secretary of State Jesse White on Wednesday called on Smith to resign; Davis said Smith should not appear on the November ballot.

Just what is going on here?
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Now Illinois Dems Want Crook They Supported in Primary to Step Down?”


Chicago’s and Suburbs GOP Primary Results, And More….

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here are a few of the results of last night’s primary race in Chicago and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, for a city of millions, less than 30,000 dragged themselves to the polls to vote. Even more to Chicago’s shame, there are only just over a million people even registered to vote in a city of just under three million citizens!

Anyway, results can be found at the Chicago Board of Elections for the city and for the suburbs at Cook County Clerk’s Office.

First Congressional District
Donald E. Peloquin will face Democrat Bobby Rush (incumbent)

Second Congressional District
Brian Woodworth will face Democrat Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (incumbent)

Third Congressional District
Richard Grabowski will face Daniel William Lipinski (incumbent)

Republicans did not put up a candidate in the Fourth District, Luis Gutierrez will continue in the Fourth

Fifth Congressional District
Dan Schmitt will face Democrat Mike Quigley (incumbent)

Republicans did not put up a candidate in the Seventh District, Danny Davis will continue in the Seventh

Eighth Congressional District
Joe Walsh (incumbent) will face Democrat Tammy Duckworth

Ninth Congressional District
Timothy C Wolfe will face Democrat Janice D. Schakowsky (incumbent)

Tenth Congressional District
Bob Dold (incumbent) will face Democrat Brad Schneider

Eleventh Congressional District
Judy Biggert (incumbent) will face Democrat Bill Foster

Other Congressional Seats

As to the other Congressional races, the big fight was between Don Manzullo and Adam Kinzinger for the reconfigured 16th District. Kinzinger beat long-time incumbent Manzullo and will be taking the nomination (and likely the Nov. election) for the 16th District.
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Chicago’s and Suburbs GOP Primary Results, And More….”


Illinois Family Institute’s 2012 Illinois Voter Guide: 2012 Primaries

**NOTICE**
This is the 2012 primary guide. For the 2012 general election CLICK HERE.

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.


Welfare, Not Work: Obama Shuts Down Minority Business Agency

-By Warner Todd Huston

Hosannas. Obama has finally cut some federal spending. But noting which agency he shut down is sort of emblematic of his whole welfare/big government-pushing presidency.

On Friday, the Department of Commerce announced that it would be shutting down all five regional offices of the Minority Business Development Agency, an agency that was created by Richard Nixon to help develop minority businesses.

The administration claims that it will be saving around $30 million per year by eliminating the offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush is not too happy about the decision.
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Welfare, Not Work: Obama Shuts Down Minority Business Agency”


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

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


American Cancer Society Attacks Me by Name Over California Tax Grab?

-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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American Cancer Society Attacks Me by Name Over California Tax Grab?”


News Flash: Noted Marx-Inspired President Hopes Opponents Learn From Lincoln?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Does President Obama have gall, or what? Obama, a man famed for being born to a Marxist from Kenya, trained by communist Frank Marshal Davis, and bathed in the destructive tactics of radical, anti-American leftist Saul Alinsky says the he hopes that Abraham Lincoln will “rub off” on the GOP candidates for president who were visiting Illinois.

All three of the major GOP candidates visited Illinois during this past week to flog their candidacies in the Land of Lincoln whose voters will go to their primary polls this coming Tuesday. Feeling left out, Obama also winged his way into the Windy City — on the taxpayer’s dime, of course — to attend a high-dollar fundraiser for his now six-year-old election campaign for the White House.

While there he uttered these amazing words:

I’m thinking maybe some Lincoln will rub off on them while they’re here.

Well, it never worked on him and he was here for over 20 years. There is just too much Marx/Davis/Alinsky in Obama for Lincoln to “rub off” on him, I guess.
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News Flash: Noted Marx-Inspired President Hopes Opponents Learn From Lincoln?”


Rick Santorum’s Illinois Rally

-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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Rick Santorum’s Illinois Rally”


Mayor Emanuel Puts Himself in GOP Primary Race, Joins ‘Republican War on Women’ Lie

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mayor Emanuel has not left Barack Obama. This is clear with his latest foray into national political issues by joining Obama’s orchestrated “Republican war on women” lie that has been drummed up to take America’s attention away from Obama’s monumental failures as president. To help his old boss, Emanuel decided to pipe up about Rush Limbaugh’s slut-gate comments, absurdly attempting to lay the controversy at Mitt Romney’s feet.

You’ll recall the White House-orchestrated contraceptives campaign led by 30-year-old Sandra Fluke, a long time left-wing activist, that prompted Limbaugh to call the gay-rights activist a “slut” for wanting the American people to pay for her thousands of dollars a year in sex aides. Consequently Emanuel decided to add his voice to the fake “war on women” meme.

Here is what he said about the issue:
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Mayor Emanuel Puts Himself in GOP Primary Race, Joins ‘Republican War on Women’ Lie”


Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Secret New York Trip, Transparency OFF The Agenda

-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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Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Secret New York Trip, Transparency OFF The Agenda”


Red Light Cameras: Government’s ‘It’s For Public Safety’ Lie

-By Warner Todd Huston

Red light cameras are a mixed bag across the USA. Big cities love them, small cities increasingly less. But one thing is universal where ever they are tried. The whole thing is about revenue generation, not public safety. Most city administrations try desperately to hide their greed behind hoary claims of safeguarding the public, but at least Toledo, Ohio has dispensed with some of that subterfuge and is admitting straight out that making money is a main goal.

Last month Toledo’s finance director told the city council that they were installing 11 new red light cameras with the expectation that the project would “raise” $320,000. What did the city need that new revenue for? More government spending, of course.

Oh, and it’s for the children, too. Toledo Councilman Steve Steel was excited to get the new revenue. “It does restore the biggest thing we were looking for, which was giving kids something constructive to do in a positive atmosphere,” he crowed.

So, now officials will berate you if you stand against these useless devices that are just a means to give government more money to spend on pet projects because, darn it, it’s for the children! WHY do you hate kids, taxpayers?
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Red Light Cameras: Government’s ‘It’s For Public Safety’ Lie”


Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins

-By Larry Sand

Children in the Golden State will get a better education when teacher quality becomes a priority

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 only caveat from the authors is that using test scores in teachers’ evaluations could lead to “teaching to the test or cheating.” Nothing new here. Some people, when involved in any kind of competition, will try to gain unfair advantage or cheat outright. Typically, it’s a small part of the population and those who do should lose their jobs and face criminal charges.

The lesson is clear: test scores can give us a great deal of information about who the really good teachers are. But California Governor Jerry Brown, unfazed by the blockbuster study, actually called for less testing in his recent State of the State address.
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Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins”


After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?

-By Warner Todd Huston

How much bailing out does one company need? (The correct answer is none, of course) After receiving some $50 billion in tax dollars from us courtesy of Obama’s “cash stash,” GM is claiming success with a “Obama claimed that GM was “back on top as the world’s number one automaker.” But true or not, if all is coming up roses for GM why is the company now lobbying the individual states for mini bailouts?

That is exactly what is happening. The new “big success” automaker is spending millions hiring lobbyists to squeeze more millions out of state legislatures. As Justin Owen notes, GM has “turned to another, smaller government teat,” by putting its hand out to the states. GM, Owen says, “has received another $1.7 billion in taxpayer-funded grants and tax abatements.”

This is no accident of timing, either. GM admitted to the Tennessee Watchdog that begging to the states for tax dollars is a concerted effort.
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After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?”


PG&E Wants Higher Rates Even While Collecting Millions for Improvements Never Made?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Since the several disastrous accidents that claimed the lives of too many Californians, Pacific Gas & Electric has been fighting criticism over its dismal safety record. In response, the energy provider cried poor and said it needed billions for upgrades and repairs and wanted ratepayers to pay even more for its services. But a new report says that PG&E collected millions from ratepayers for repairs and improvements that it never actually made.

Early last year PG&E got a large rate increase, but by August the energy provider was at it again asking for an additional $2.2 billion for upgrades, repairs, and improving its explosion-prone delivery system, a cost to be born on the backs of the ratepayers.

This January, though, the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) reported that PG&E has already collected half a billion dollars that was supposed to go to these repairs and upgrades yet the repairs were never made.
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PG&E Wants Higher Rates Even While Collecting Millions for Improvements Never Made?”


Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice

-By Larry Sand

Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California.

With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the country. In states like New Jersey and Louisiana, governors are taking the lead in proposing ways to break the devastating monopoly that government run schools – their educrat leaders, corrupt and/or inept school boards and the powerful teachers unions — have held for far too long.

As an example of Big Education gone bad, I write in City Journal about a crime that has been perpetrated on the children of California for 40 years and the lawsuit that addresses it:
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Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice”


Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din

-By Warner Todd Huston

The gauzy puffery that the Old Media slathers upon the Occupy Wall Street movement has helped keep most Americans in the dark about how nasty, how violent, how outrageous, and even how incredibly lacking in integrity this movement is. On the conservative blogs the truth is well known, of course, but the fact that few Americans seem to know how bad the OWSers are shows that as conservatives we are not effectively getting our message out there.

For the initial two years of its existence the Old Media spent its every waking moment destroying, maligning, and out right lying about the Tea Party movement. Even today you’ll see an occasional swipe at the Tea Patiers made by some hater from the left and the Old Media is happy to “report” the slander, naturally.

You might remember when Obama operative Anna Park tried to start a counter movement that she prosaically called “the Coffee Party” during the heyday of the Tea Party. You may also recall that those Old Media mavens, while daily lying and lambasting the Tea Partiers, fell all over themselves to play up the silly and quickly failed and forgotten “Coffee Party” effort.
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Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din”


Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall

-By Warner Todd Huston

I just got back from a wonderful evening taking school choice at the Restoring American Exceptionalism, Chicago Townhall. In attendance were radio talk show host Michael Medved, Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and Dr. Paul Worfel, Director of Education of Trinity International University. The discussion was moderated by John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The event was sponsored by National School Choice Week, an effort by Americans for Prosperity, and is one of many events being held across the country to encourage parents, legislators, and activists to work toward allowing parents a choice in their children’s education. Co-sponsors were Townhall.com, Salem Radio Networks, and Chicago’s WIND Radio, AM 560

Arriving at the sprawling campus of Trinity International University of Deerfield, Illinois, the biting cold outside was quickly forgotten by the warm reception all received by the event staff. The program started promptly with an introduction by local radio host Big John Howell of AM 560, WIND radio who turned the program over to John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The night’s debate was nicely balanced from right, center and left with a panel featuring the conservative side of the debate on education represented by talk show host Michael Medved, the center represented by Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and the more traditional educrat’s position taken by Dr. Worfel.

I won’t repeat the whole discussion, but here are some of the more interesting (and some might say provocative) highlights.
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Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall”


CBS This Morning Losing to Fox And Friends?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently it is not morning in America for CBS. The big network roll out of its revamped morning show, CBS This Morning, is struggling to gain a foothold. It’s so bad that even the Fox News’ morning show, Fox and Friends, is beating the network morning extravaganza. In Chicago, Fox and Friends even beat the debut episode of CBS This Morning despite the fact that Gayle King, a long-time Oprah confidante, was one of the main features of the program.

In fact, CBS This Morning isn’t even beating its own former iteration when it was called The Early Show. The new show is down 10 percent in total viewers and down 13 percent in the key demo of 25-45 year-old viewers. Interestingly, Fox and Friends is beating CBS in four of the top 20 national markets in total viewers (Atlanta, Detroit, Orlando, and Tampa).

Market Fox And Friends (P2+) CBS This Morning (P2+)
Atlanta 30,000 17,000
Detroit 19,000 12,000
Tampa 40,000 30,000
Orlando 23,000 19,000

Period Dates Program P2+
AA(000)
% Diff 24-54
AA(000)
% diff
CBS This Morning
Launch
1/9/12
to
1/15/12
CBS This Morning 2718 1115
Same Week 2011 1/10/11
to
1/16/11
Early Show 3016 -10% 1287 -13%

(Stats from Nielson)

It should be remembered that Fox News cable channel reaches just over 102 million homes whereas CBS ostensibly gets to 100 percent of the 116 million homes with TVs. Since CBS is one of the “big three” original TV networks, it is interesting that a cable channel has seen such an amazing success rate for its early morning show.
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CBS This Morning Losing to Fox And Friends?”


We Finally Didn’t Rank as Worst: Chicago 14th Rudest City

-By Warner Todd Huston

Finally. Illinois isn’t coming in as the absolute worst of something. This time is is rudest American city as ranked by Travel and Leisure magazine.

Chicago did rank into the top 20 rudest cities, but the Windy City — apparently “windy” for all the yelling at people a’going on — slides in outside the top ten at slot 14. Not bad. Even some southern cities are supposedly worse than Chi-Town.

Here is what T&A says:

Chicago

Can these not-so-sunny midwesterners blame their demeanor on those frigid winters? If you want to get Chicagoans to warm up, try complimenting their city — by pointing out that you love their music scene or find their pizza much preferable to that thin New York stuff. Chicago ranked fourth for its glowing civic pride.

So, for a welcome change, Illinois has something going that doesn’t put us in the worst of the worst category. Finally!
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We Finally Didn’t Rank as Worst: Chicago 14th Rudest City”


Occupy Wall Street Stealing From The Poor to Give to Themselves!

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is more common everyday. A man buys a house, the market collapses and suddenly his house is worth less than the mortgage, then he loses his job until, as a single father, he finds himself in foreclosure with no place to raise his two preteen daughters. It’s a case made for the Occupy Wall Street movement to swoop in and right wrongs, right? Maybe not because the OWSers in New York stole this poor guy’s home away from him in order to give it to one of their own members. Confused? Read on.

A Brooklyn man living in an apartment with his two daughters was alerted to the fact that his in-foreclosure-home had been broken into and occupied by Occupiers, as in Occupy Wall Street activists. When he rushed to his home he found a group of strangers that had broken into his home claiming to have “reclaimed” the house and given it to another family.

“They’re trying to take a house and say the bank is robbing the people because the mortgage is too high — so contact the owner!” fumed Wise Ahadzi, 28, who owns the home at 702 Vermont St. in East New York.

Apparently Ahadzi had bought the house in 2007 for the princely sum of $424,500 but during the housing bubble of 2009 the house ended up being worth only half that. Then, when he lost his job and got behind on the mortgage, the bank foreclosed on the property.

Enter — illegally, mind you — Occupy Wall Streeters who discovered the home in foreclosure and decided that they’d steal it away from “the bank” with the ostensible goal of helping the needy.
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Occupy Wall Street Stealing From The Poor to Give to Themselves!”


Visitors from Outer Space and Their Strange Ideas About Education Reform

-By Larry Sand

There are those among us who think that teachers unions, collective bargaining and peer assistance review are the way to a better education for kids. They look like earthlings, but in fact are extraterrestrials.

As the year draws to a close, newspapers, magazines and blogs are filled with best of and worst of lists that deal with everything imaginable. The Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force got on the bandwagon early and posted Best and Worst in American Education, 2011 in November. All solid stuff. Can a reformer not be happy about the Parent Trigger being raked over the coals, yet surviving, or that many of Michelle Rhee’s reforms are still in place despite leaving her post as D.C. Schools Chancellor after a major push from the American Federation of Teachers? On the worst list, the Task Force includes the Atlanta teacher cheating scandal and the union-orchestrated overturn of Ohio’s recent anti-collective bargaining law.

Then lo and behold, we received a dispatch from Planet Ravitch on December 23rd. (Most people are not aware that shortly after astronomers ruled that Pluto was not a planet in 2006, a new planet would be identified. And it is inhabited!) The people who live on this celestial body (named after Diane Ravitch, a former reformer who turned into a champion of the failing status quo) are afflicted with a dyslexic-like condition: they have the entire education reform picture exactly backwards. The way to true reform is to hold their ideas up to a mirror with the resulting image revealing the best way to proceed.
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Visitors from Outer Space and Their Strange Ideas About Education Reform”


Boston University Muslim Chaplin Raising Funds for Al Qaeda, Mass. Pols Embrace Him

-By Warner Todd Huston

Abdullah Faaruuq, a Muslim “spiritual advisor” and chaplain from Boston-based Northeastern University, was a key speaker at a fundraiser for al Qaeda’s Ma Barker, the criminal female terrorist named Aafia Siddiqui, also known as “Lady al Qaeda.” This man, Faaruuq, is living off American taxpayers yet advocates for his followers to use “the gun and the sword” to advance Islam in America.

The fundraiser for Siddiqui was held at the Islamic Center of Worcester, Mass. on Dec. 8 with the stated goal of raising $30,000 to assist this female terrorist convicted in 2008 of attempting to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

As Steve Emerson of Family Security Matters reports, Abdullah gave Siddiqui high praise.
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Boston University Muslim Chaplin Raising Funds for Al Qaeda, Mass. Pols Embrace Him”


Tenure for Teachers: Enough is Enough

-By Larry Sand

Every year untold thousands of school kids are harmed by teachers who shouldn’t be allowed in a classroom. Parents must be given an opportunity to send their children elsewhere.

A teacher arrives at work high on drugs…daily.

A teacher regularly flies into rages, terrifying kids and coworkers.

A teacher talks in explicit terms about sex to the students.

A teacher makes constant sexual advances to other teachers.

A teacher doesn’t teach her students anything.

These are a few of the teachers that new Perth Amboy schools superintendent Janine Caffrey has to deal with on a daily basis. She is quick to point out that most teachers are committed and talented, but there are a few….

The evil here is tenure or permanence, which in New Jersey bestows a position for life on teachers after just three years on the job. (It’s even worse in other states – in California, for example, a teacher can get into the untouchables club after only two years.) Tenure for teachers would be nothing more than a bad joke if it didn’t destroy the education experience for tens of thousands of children who are subjected to incompetent/cruel/perverted people on a daily basis.
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Tenure for Teachers: Enough is Enough”


The Route to Teacher Union Extinction: Is the Other Shoe Dropping?

-By Larry Sand

In addition to online learning, Democrat’s abandonment of their traditional union allies could put an end to the educational status quo and decimate the teachers unions

In my October 18th post, I wrote about Terry Moe’s book Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools. I specifically addressed that part of the book in which he builds a scenario for the eventual undoing of the teachers unions. One of the two ways he claims this will happen is via technology, in the form of online learning. The other route to marginalization is the realization by Democrats that education is really a civil rights issue and that they are morally bound to get on board with reform and choice. By adopting this position, they will be abandoning their longtime political allies – the teachers unions.

As with the rapid ascent of online learning, Moe’s second nail in the unions’ coffin is picking up speed. In a recent Huffington Post entry, Joy Resmovits addresses the “new education lobby.
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The Route to Teacher Union Extinction: Is the Other Shoe Dropping?”


Even NY Times Doubtful About California Boondoggles

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know a government project is headed for disaster when even the New York Times becomes skeptical about it.

In a recent article, the “newspaper of record” interviewed several public officials, transportation experts and historians who raise “serious objections” about the viability of California’s High-Speed Rail project — a project created by a ballot initiative.

Each critic cites cost overruns, inflated ridership projections and questionable travel routes as reasons why this transportation project a ballot measure funded by taxpayers is going to cost billions more than expected — and literally create a road to nowhere. This revelation comes at a time when the state is already facing financial Armageddon.

“…several experts suggested that the train would never attract the promised ridership…” the article said. “Low ridership would undercut the economic and environmental benefits that are part of the argument for the project.”

Worse, those tasked with planning and running the new high-speed rail project are scheming instead of planning. One of the serious questions about this project is where the construction is set to begin. The first leg is being started in an area of low population density among people who have little interest in using the railway.
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Even NY Times Doubtful About California Boondoggles”