McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the McClatchy news chain, Rob Hotakainen chose an interesting way to spin a discussion on the seeming failure of late of teachers unions to push their agenda. Instead of writing that it is teachers unions that are “feeling squeezed from all sides,” Hotakainen writes that it is the “teachers” themselves feeling this squeeze. In other words, Hotakainen tried to make it seem as if reform forces are against teachers, not the unions that represent them.

The truth is, of course, that no reform minded government official or non-governmental organization is against teachers. They are against the fraud and waste of union practices and are against union intransigence that fights against the best interests of our children’s educations.

Hotakainen points out that both the California NAACP and local Hispanic groups — groups that are traditionally on the side of unions — have supported recent moves to increase state funding for privately operated schools and instituting merit pay for teachers. He then claims that this is causing “teachers” to feel beset by all sides, left and right.
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McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers”


Brit Hasn’t a Clue About U.S. Politics

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many elitist American leftists like to go about claiming that it is only Americans that are dunces on foreign matters. There is some truth to the accusation that Americans are not knowledgeable about the rest of the world but if a column in the UK Telegraph is any indication it isn’t much better for Britain’s understanding of American politics. Worse, it is plain that even a British journalist hasn’t a clue what he’s on about when attempting to discuss the differences between a Democrat and Republican in today’s climate.

At issue is the incredibly garbled take on American Democrats and Republicans as posted by U.K. Telegraph writer David Lindsay, who claims himself to be a “freelance writer and tutor at Durham University.” One wonders why he doesn’t get a real job.

In “Why real American conservatives should register as Democrats,” Lindsay’s main point seems to be that Republicans really support what the Democratic Party supports and so GOP voters should resign from their party and join the left side of the aisle. But Lindsay’s reasons prove that he doesn’t know a thing about what he’s talking about.
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Brit Hasn’t a Clue About U.S. Politics”


Gorman For Re-Election to Cook County Board

-By Warner Todd Huston

Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman (R-17th District) is seeking re-election to her seat on the Cook County Board.

After she announced her support for an anti-nepotism ordnance, Gorman announced her bid for re-election.

“This is an opportunity for Cook County to lead the way in ethics reform. How about that?” said Gorman, of Orland Park. “This is a transparency issue … about adding sunshine, and it’s getting so bright here you’ve got to wear shades.”

Gorman, meanwhile, announced she’ll formally declare her campaign for re-election in the 17th District, which covers the western edge of Cook County from the southwest to the northwest suburbs, at an event at 6 p.m. Thursday at Sam Maguire’s in Orland Park. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, Republican U.S. Senate candidate, is expected to attend.

Campaign website: LizGorman.com
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Gorman For Re-Election to Cook County Board”


I am Loath to Call Americans Stupid, But…

-By Warner Todd Huston

When I see the elitists on the left hold themselves up as being smarter than everyone they survey I am always offended. My American can-do spirit is assaulted by such an elitist opinion. It disgusts me when leftists assume that Americans are stupid. I refuse to accept such an assessment. But then there are stories like this…

Apparently when the House of Representatives voted to admonish Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), now famous for calling out that Obama was a liar during his recent healthcare speech, Americans all across the country rushed to their computers and did some research.

Were they looking up arcane House rules of conduct? How about the names of various elected officials? Maybe they were looking up political history?

Uh, no.
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I am Loath to Call Americans Stupid, But…”


Mark Kirk Aiding Pro-Homosexual Lobby?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Laurie Higgins recently found another disturbing vote cast by Representative and Senate Candidate Mark Kirk (R, IL) revealing again his penchant of voting left of center all too often. This time he’s co-sponsoring a bill that will aid the homosexual lobby gain more influence in our schools.

Higgins reveals that Kirk is looking to vote “yes” on H.R. 2262, The Safe Schools Improvement Act — a so-called anti-bullying act. What could be wrong with being anti-bullying?
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Mark Kirk Aiding Pro-Homosexual Lobby?”


Boycotting The One

-By David M. Huntwork

As the entire civilized world now knows, President Barack Obama addressed the nation’s school children on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009. As soon as this was announced, and the accompanying Department of Education lesson plan released, a storm of controversy arose and suddenly schools were being besieged by angry parents. Bombarded principals, administrators and superintendents all across the country were almost overnight in a mad scramble for cover.

I received this e-mail before the speech from the superintendent of the private school that my children attend. It did save me from having to make the decision as to whether or not take the proactive step of pulling my children out of school that Tuesday. I’m not sure I would have because I trust the Christian educators to whom I have entrusted my children’s education not to be fawning, drooling idiots when discussing the mere mortal who is currently occupying the oval office.
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Boycotting The One”


Will Obamacare Put Abortion Providers in Schools?

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a section innocuously titled “School-Based Health Clinics,” the House bill, H.R. 3200, seems to set up Democrats to invite groups like Planned Parenthood into our schools to serve as a school “health clinic.” (‘Sec. 399Z-1. School-Based Health Clinics.)

And even more insidiously the bill provides for these “clinics” to be initiated immediately — effective date to be July 1, 2010 — whereas much of the rest of H.R. 3200 does not take effect until 2013. Why the rush? If one were cynical, one might think that the fast tracking of these “clinics” was meant to catch critics off guard. After all, if these “clinics” are slipped into our schools before anyone is aware of them, it will be harder to get them out or to protest the whole deal beforehand.

Here is how Sec. 399Z-1 begins:
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Will Obamacare Put Abortion Providers in Schools?”


AP Lauds Story of Big Anti-Cheney Petition Drive… of 150 Signatures?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press must have thought that it had quite a story on its hands when it published “Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.” After all, it had Dearth Cheney, protesters, a university and a petition drive to keep the evil VP at bay. It was all the makings of a good story of “controversy” of the Bush/Cheney years. Apreantly the era of hope-n-change has not quite depleted the APs desire to rehash the Bush years.

As it happens, the Cheney family is donating $3.2 million to the University of Wyoming for the new Cheney International Center that is being built on the Laramie campus. This donation was a result of several installments that Mr. Cheney made while he was vice president.

The AP starts out with its strongest shot over the former vps bow.
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AP Lauds Story of Big Anti-Cheney Petition Drive… of 150 Signatures?”


A Teachable Moment Concerning Obama Quotations

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

As the controversy surrounding President Obama’s September 8 education speech to the nation’s school children starts dying down, it’s easy for adults and even parents to forget that what was seemingly short, innocuous and narcissistic on the surface has a follow-up program of indoctrinating American children into the Cult of Obama. The speech is over, the lesson plans are just beginning and it’s going to be nine whole months of “Obama-this” and “Obama-that” for those students stuck in our ignorance factories a.k.a US public schools.

Originally, the main lesson plan was to have students follow-up their viewing of Obama’s “I-Me-Mine” oration with essays detailing how each student could personally “help Obama” achieve the President’s goals. However, that smacked too much of turning little Johnny and Janie Q. Public into junior enforcers of socialist engineering. Instead the essay was neutered to merely describing the student’s educational goals. Considering that most students have been trained to not only be dumber than dirt but to be eager participants in our current toxic culture, Obama’s exhortations to study, work hard and invent things must have come as quite a shock. Here they were expecting to be able to rhapsodize about becoming the next bling-laden rapper or Hollywood tartlet and instead now have to lower their expectations to pharmacist and secretary. Unless, of course, they can’t spell those types of careers and have to ask their teacher to suggest something like “brain surgeon” or “rocket scientist” in order to maintain self-esteem.
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A Teachable Moment Concerning Obama Quotations”


Left Abandons Women’s Rights In Favor Of Islam

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

What do aging pop-star, Madonna, and Harper’s Bazaar have in common besides an obsession with the House of Balmain? How about rank ignorance of non-Western political agendas? Madonna just got booed while on the Bulgaria section of her latest tour not for her minimal talents but for making unwarranted, politically correct statements about the status and treatment of gypsies. She pushed the tolerance line to people, who weren’t buying because they have extensive dealings with the lawlessness, crime, fraud, drug dealing, vandalism and human trafficking that have made the Romany communities notorious all over the EU.

The 2009 September issue of Harper’s Bazaar has an article titled France’s Burkha Ban Uncovered with the usual leftist tripe that banning French burkhas equals religious bigotry by the war correspondent, Janine di Giovanni, whose cost-of-war stories always seem to tilt towards being pro-Islamic and anti-Western. So when such supposedly sophisticated taste makers like Madonna and Harper’s Bazaar don’t bother to consider the ramifications of their leftist opinions, is it any wonder then that articles like Twice Branded: Western Women In Muslim Lands by Vanity Fair editor, Judy Bachrach start showing up wondering why our Western governments do not go to women’s aid when they fall victim to Islamic misogyny?
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Left Abandons Women’s Rights In Favor Of Islam”


Dear Leader Chairman MauObama Addresses School Children

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve been fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of The One’s address to the nation’s children and have been authorized by the fairness Czar to reproduce it here.

Hello my little children.

Welcome to your first day of school, and for those of you that already started, I welcome you, as well.

In this historic address to all our precious children, I have decided to offer a new tone, a tone unlike what I was left with by the former president. I think we need to get beyond politics. You great kids aren’t interested in all that anyway, right?

I do, though, want to urge you all to study hard, do your homework, and strive always to do the right thing. We all must work hard to overcome the mess left us by others, of course. And to do that we all need to pay close attention to the world around us.

For instance, if you hear someone dissing your school, making fun of education, or telling you to just forget all that hard work, well you tell them I said forget that noise. If they keep it up, you tell your teacher about it.

And if you hear someone making fun of your leaders, why call me up and tell me about it. Even if it happens to be your friends or your family, call 1-800-tellObama, or go on the web and email me at fishy@whitehosue.gov.

Once you identify all these nasty people and tell me about it, I’ll send someone around to straighten them out.

And while you are at it, go home and tell your parents to help us pass healthcare reform. We want all you kids to be happy and healthy but some people want to kill you. Tell me about them, too.

Remember, do as I tell you and all will be happy and good. If you don’t you might die horribly.

That is all, Children. Remember to OBEY.
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Dear Leader Chairman MauObama Addresses School Children”


“We The People”

-By Marie Jon


“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson

President Barack Obama, you’ve overwhelmed “We The People.” Since you were given the prestige of the highest office in the land, there has not been one day of peace or tranquility for the citizens of our country. Many Americans are feeling frustrated and angered, and rightfully so.

One could say you’ve eroded away the last of the American people’s trust, respect, and patience. You’re now threatening to intrude into every facet of our daily lives, and enough is enough.

Thou shalt not bear false witness

We see you as the “number one” community organizer sitting in the White House. The members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and union thugs are being mobilized to counter the truth at public gatherings. They are sent out for the sole purpose of confronting, threatening, intimidating, and maligning your opponents, including those among America’s elderly who’ve come to stand up for their rights at town hall meetings. — View YouTube)

Very few believe you anymore. Only those who refuse to listen to reason remain gullible. Their minds are still open to your deceptive lies. You used cunningly-crafted words and theatrics during the 2008 election to con half of America into thinking you were a special and decent man of integrity, but even your Democrat constituents are becoming aware of what you are. You and your political cronies are corrupt to the hilt, like the rest of the Daley Chicago political machine.

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“We The People””


Michael Kent Curtis: Just Another Sold-Out Leftist Professor

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Kent Curtis, the Donald Smith Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at Wake Forest University, has not only proven his ignorance of the facts, but he has also shown that truth does not matter a whit to him if it gets in the way of common liberal propaganda. He proved this in his blather in the Houston Chronicle on August 22.

Curtis, just another prosaic left-wing professor infesting an institute of higher learning, started his opinion piece off with an outright lie by claiming that “[O]rganized mobs recently have disrupted public meetings.” By this the lefty prof means the thousands of angry citizens that have shown their contempt for Democrat lawmakers at townhall meetings all across the country are not real. They are but dismissible false fronts for anti-Obamacare groups. This refrain is assumed by such as professor Curtis and his fellow leftists so that they can comfortably ignore the outrage against this socialist takeover of nearly 20% of our economy by Obama’s government bureaucrats. Consequently, this refrain of “organized protests” is the left’s talking point du jour.

But have you noticed that we haven’t seen any proof that the angry Americans that have taken the time out of their lives to confront their federal representatives at townhall meetings are not common citizens acting on their own initiative, but are merely “organized mobs”? Have you noticed that no proof of the purported “organized” nature of the protests has once been presented? Have you noticed that the left has not bothered to detail how these protests were organized, that they have not bothered to try and connect the dots? These leftists simply say it is true and then move on as if their case is self-evident.
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Michael Kent Curtis: Just Another Sold-Out Leftist Professor”


Catholic News Agency Needs Civics Lesson

-By Warner Todd Huston

I am sad, today. The Catholic News Agency seems to have shown that its reporters don’t know a blamed thing about the Constitution. Unfortunately, this uninformed reporter for CNS is not an isolated case as too many Americans haven’t a clue about what is actually in the Constitution of the United States.

For CNS, reporter Chaz Muth published a story headlined Interactive display at Library of Congress makes Bible come alive, but right away the first sentence condemns Chaz to the ranks of the uninformed.

Separation of church and state is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution but that doesn’t mean the Bible can’t be admired and appreciated by a public or government institution.

No, no, no, no.
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Catholic News Agency Needs Civics Lesson”


All the President’s Bigoted Men

-By Selwyn Duke

When Barack Obama said that the Henry Louis Gates affair was a teaching moment, he spoke truly. But the key is ensuring that the right things are taught and the right people learn. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen.

There is no need to rehash the events of July 16 chapter and verse. We all know about how the Harvard professor flew into a rage of racial accusations and haughty posturing after Sergeant James Crowley appeared at his Cambridge home to investigate a report of a possible break-in. We’ve heard that Gates called Crowley a “racist” and said he was being targeted because “I’m a black man in America.” We know how Barack Obama stirred the pot, saying at a press conference that he didn’t know all the facts but then averring that the police “acted stupidly.” And we also know that it’s a foot-in-mouth moment Obama wishes he could do a Groundhog Day on, and that he fancies a beer a substitute for an apology.

Moreover, the obvious points have already been made. We know that the police were simply following procedure in requesting Gates’ identification and asking that he step outside his home. It has also been mentioned that, far from the police racially profiling the man, he and Obama applied that technique in assuming that the white police officer was bigoted and/or acting stupidly. And, in keeping with last point, some of the boldest commentators even have hinted that bigotry may lie in the hearts of Gates and Obama. Yet no one has thus far dared expose the pretense.
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All the President’s Bigoted Men”


The Liberal Lexicon… Emphasis on the Con

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once in a while I take a break from the issues and news of the day for a little tangent. Today’s tangent, then, is to discuss words and phrases that make up a liberal’s lexicon. Liberals have a lot of code words that they use to further their agenda, words they use to promulgate an assumption of their own supposed purity and intelligence. But, in reality, most of the words that liberals use mean precisely the opposite of what they appear to mean on the face. So, here are just a few of those to serve as an example. (in no particular order)

CRISIS- A crisis may or may not have elements of actual trouble in it but more often it is an over dramatized incident often inflated with untruths and inaccuracies and used to float the growth of government. The “Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Bill” is an example. It was said we have a “crisis” of gay bashing and to prove it advocates used the “gay bashing death” of Matthew Shepard to prove that a hate crime bill must be passed immediately. Unfortunately for the truth Shepard was not killed because he was gay and the whole story used to further the hate crime bill was a lie. The Stimulus, healthcare, and bailout debate is also an example of a “crisis” used to advance a socialist state. If a Liberal says there is a “crisis” you can be sure that, while problems may exist, there really is no need to rush a “solution.”
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The Liberal Lexicon… Emphasis on the Con”


The Two Faces of California’s Steve Poizner

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the next Governor of California gears up his – or her – campaign we are witnessing a near complete collapse of state government in the Golden State. It is a situation that the next governor will be faced with immediately, leaving not a second to celebrate victory.

There are some obvious solutions to what ails California: lower taxes, an end to the opulent welfare state, cutting off the free ride for illegals, an end to the free ride that unelected, overly powerful state employees unions have been allowed to attain, and the like, but the question is do any of the candidates on the Republican side have the backbone for the tough decisions that will have to be made before it’s too late… if it isn’t already.

When I first began to look at California’s GOP candidates for governor, I was heartened by the fact that the one Republican elected to state wide office had thrown his hat in the ring. Unfortunately, the closer I look at State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the more like a tax and spend Democrat he appears. It is becoming increasingly clear that Poizner does not represent the right direction for California, but more of the same failed liberal policies that have destroyed the state.
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The Two Faces of California’s Steve Poizner”


UN Putting Education in Government’s Hands and the End of Homeschooling

-By Warner Todd Huston

Homeschooling is a growing trend in the United States today. Many thousands of parents wary of government indoctrination of their children, not to mention tired of the plummeting level of actual education threatening our kid’s futures, are taking their children’s education into their own hands and setting up homeschools. The trend is also starting to alarm the bureaucrats in government that count on using our children as a device to bring in state and federal tax money as well as teachers unions that relish the power of controlling our progeny. Consequently, state governments are increasingly looking at regulations meant to hamper homeschooling efforts.

But it isn’t just American bureaucrats and unions looking to justify their jobs that homeschoolers should worry about. From outside the U.S. there is a looming threat to homeschooling. Not only education sits in the crosshairs but the very the rights of parents to decide what is best for their own children could be threatened. This threat will likely manifest itself if the U.S. ratifies the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Currently the U.S. is not a signatory to this treaty and it would be better for parents if that remains the case because the UNCRC, if ratified, could set the stage for a complete government takeover of all education regardless of the desires or religious convictions of parents throughout the United States. And as mentioned this treaty also has the potential to eliminate parent’s rights altogether and, not just with education. Current events in Great Britain, a signatory to the treaty, are being closely watched by American homeschoolers and evidence seems to be mounting that worries about the UNCRC are well founded.

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UN Putting Education in Government’s Hands and the End of Homeschooling”


Slouching Toward Orwell’s 1984

– By Jeff Lukens

George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” tells of an advanced world where there are no individual freedoms, and the state uses fear to manipulate and control people to conform to a prescribed belief. In the book, the Party maintains absolute power, and power has become an end to itself. His book is as relevant today as ever. In the age of Obama, the freedoms that define American life are slipping away and being replaced with ever more state control.

In Orwell’s book, the Party constantly rewrites history and rewrites the language to restrict the true meaning of words and the ideas behind them. They eliminate words to reduce vocabulary and thereby reduce uncontrolled thoughts. Doublespeak makes people believe what they would otherwise know to be false, and is encapsulated by the phrase: “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.” Orwell defined doublethink as, “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

In the book, the Party rewrites historical documents to match an evolving propaganda line, which changes daily. They amend newspaper articles, destroy evidence, and delete the existence of people identified as “unpersons.”
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Slouching Toward Orwell’s 1984″


Box-Of-Rocks Lefty Tells City Council of ‘Vegetable Trees’ and ‘Slavery on the East Coast’

-By Warner Todd Huston

You have to see this video to believe it. What you see here is a video of an open mike night at the Santa Cruz City Council. Unfortunately, the end result is not intentional stand-up comedy because this twit is serious. We see here an empty headed, box-of-rocks that thinks she has all the solutions for California and, in the end, proves why California is in such trouble. This is what you end up with when you mix our modern “educational” system with modern liberalism, folks.

One could not find a better example of the emptiness of lefty thinking… if “thinking” be the proper term.

Highlights of this brain dead liberal’s rant:

  • “…We need the food because it’s food and stuff…,”
  • “We can be rich in cotton and silk worms…”
  • “…on the east coast they have slaves and they believe in slavery and made in China, but on the west coast, the new west coast, we don’t believe in that, we believe in the union… and that is what we are…”
  • “… you can grow every kind of fruit and vegetable you want, that’s how they do it, they have fruit trees and vegetable trees that’s where fruits and vegetables comes from…”
  • “… you freeze the fruit and vegetables, it’ll last forever… well, it might go bad in a while…”
  • “… growing food is so good for the people because it’s free. All’s ya have to do is pay the farmers and pay for the land…”
  • “… um, the food’s free, so we should just sell it at the farmer’s market…”

Is it too much to hope for that the San Andreas fault sends California drifting off into the middle of the ocean somewhere?

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Box-Of-Rocks Lefty Tells City Council of ‘Vegetable Trees’ and ‘Slavery on the East Coast’”


The Racial Setasides in the House Health Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

Attorney Allan J. Favish reported a few days ago on the shocking racial set asides contained in the House Healthcare bill that shows that, once again, Congress is more interested in serving politically correct interests than in actually “doing something” serious about healthcare.

Just as Congress routinely adds riders and earmarks to bills that have nothing to do with those earmarks and riders (such as sticking abortion funding in an armed services supplemental bill, and the like) House Democrats slipped into the healthcare legislation racial preferences concerning minority students seeking entrance to medical schools.

It appears that the healthcare bill will give preferential federal funding to medical schools that “have demonstrated a record” of training students from “underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds.”

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The Racial Setasides in the House Health Bill”


Can Obama Spell “Failure”?

-By Selwyn Duke

There actually was a time when an “e” ended a political career. Or, at least, the misuse of an “e.” I refer to that fateful day in 1992 when Vice President Dan Quayle told a 12-year-old schoolboy that “potato” was spelled with an “e” at its end. While the reality is that a flash card Quayle had been given bore the misspelling, the mistake was seized upon by the media and used to cement the eye-candy-and-air image of the boyishly good-looking vice president. It was a silly way to measure a man, but image is everything in politics.

So now it’s time for the gander’s sauce. If it was justifiable to write off Quayle as a dolt for stumbling over the spud, how should we react to frequent misspellings in press releases issued by the White House? Michael O’Brien at The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room reports on this story, writing, “Misspellings continued to plague the Obama administration on Thursday [9/9], after two more releases containing errors were sent to reporters in the last 24 hours.”

First the White House staff misspelled Obama’s first name, writing it as “Barak.” Then, O’Brien reports, there were two more examples. They are, “Recvoery.gov Version 2.0 $18 Million Contract Awarded” and, referring to U.K. leader Gordon Brown, “The Prime Minister wlecomed the President’s plans for a nuclear security conference in 2010.”
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Can Obama Spell “Failure”?”


U.S. News and Hot, Sexy Chicks

-By Selwyn Duke

If you’ve ever seen the movie Idiocracy, the title of this piece may seem familiar. The film is a dystopian comedy about a futuristic America in which complete ignorance is the norm. People are inarticulate to the point where even those of status — politicians, doctors, etc. — mangle the language and use profanity to fill in gaps when expressing themselves. The president is a porn star and ex-professional wrestler who wears a muscle shirt, the society’s number-one rated show features nothing but an endless array of groin shots, and the farmers water their plants with a sports electrolyte drink called “Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator” and yet can’t figure out why the crops fail to grow. And, to illustrate how people have become consumed with frivolity and sex — and frivolous sex at that — the title of a certain famous news magazine that just recently curtailed its print publication (in reality) has been changed to “Hot Naked Chicks & World Report.”

It’s a silly movie rife with profanity, so I cannot give it a thumbs up, but I’ll tell you what brings it to mind. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Hannity on Fox News, and one segment concerned media attacks on Sarah Palin — in particular, a Vanity Fair hatchet job written by Todd Purdum. Hannity had columnist S.E. Cupp and one of Fox’ anchors, Kimberly Guilfoyle, as guests, and he was making much of what he characterized as Purdum’s sexism in devoting copious ink to Palin’s comely appearance. Guilfoyle chimed in, complaining that Purdum’s implication that Palin only succeeded because of her looks was “insulting and degrading to women.”

Now, while I’m no fan of Purdum, I find Guilfoyle’s commentary insulting and degrading to my intelligence. Let’s face it, to deny that Palin’s looks played a part in her rise to prominence is to ignore the pink elephant with the frilly dress and lipstick in the middle of the room. However, I will add a little perspective. First, I’m not sure Palin’s looks are quite the factor some people think. Second, despite the “Oh, the patriarchy strikes again!” narrative, appearance is a factor with men as well. Remember how Richard Nixon’s five-o’clock shadow sealed his fate in his 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy, the first televised presidential debate in history? Titillating John just trumped Tricky Dick. And could you imagine a short, fat, ugly, bald man capturing the Oval Office? Why, its current occupant is all image, with his decent, youthful looks, resonant voice and rock-star persona. So attractive is he, in fact, that his teleprompter just can’t stand to be apart from him.
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U.S. News and Hot, Sexy Chicks”


Obama’s Secret Dinner With Lefty Historians

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is it any surprise that the historians that attended a secret White House dinner with President Obama last month are nearly all well known for a leftist outlook on history? Is Obama programming his “historical” coverage already?

Was there a Richard Brookhiser in attendance or a Larry Schweikart? Was there someone like Forrest McDonald at Obama’s secret dinner? Nope. Except for one attendee, the invited historians have all used their status as historians to make all sorts of ahistorical proclamations about modern politics which is quite un-historian-like of them.

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Obama’s Secret Dinner With Lefty Historians”


Teachers Union Seeks to Impair Charter Schools

-By Warner Todd Huston

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school’s success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them.

But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in their operations.

In their adopted resolutions, the NEA paid lip service to the “potential” reforms and “creative teaching methods” that can more easily be adopted at charter schools. Yet the following resolutions seemed determined to undermine and eliminate the very freedom and flexibility it paid lip service to at the outset. One is struck by the logical disconnect. Why, exactly, do the unions imagine that the freedom realized at charter schools lends itself to that innovation in the first place? Conversely, why is innovation not seen in public schools?

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Teachers Union Seeks to Impair Charter Schools”


A Conservative High School in Idaho?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Idaho is about to get its first conservative high school, Nampa Classical Academy, to be opened next semester in Nampa, Idaho. Founder Isaac Moffett has organized the school as a public charter school.

It’s about time that a school based on American exceptionalism again grace the land and Moffett aims to fulfill that very goal.

Nampa Classical will teach Latin and Western classics, including the Bible. The school will not teach “certain sex ed,” will eschew anti-American rhetoric and troop bashing and will impart the “good of America, the good of Western civilization,” Moffett said.

Moffett has modeled his curriculum on that of Hillside Academy, a private Christian prep school in Michigan which is part of Hillside College.

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A Conservative High School in Idaho?”


Setting New Standards with Online Education

-By Nancy Salvato

“The full-time residential model of higher education is getting too expensive for a larger share of the American population.” (The College of 2020: Students) Is it any wonder “more and more students are looking for lower-cost alternatives to attending college?”

What does the future hold for higher education?

  • White students will likely be outnumbered by minority students on college campuses.
  • People will need to rely on more and more formalized education to advance their careers or change to new ones.
  • It is estimated that ten years from now, the average cost for a 4 year public college in-state resident will be $31,949.28 per year. (Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority)
  • Almost one third of the 121 institutions that responded to a survey believed that by 2020, students will take over half their courses entirely online. (The College of 2020: Students)

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Setting New Standards with Online Education”


Obama’s Racist Judge

-By Warner Todd Huston

Soon the Senate will take up the cause of President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court. In the news this week, one of her decisions that appeared before the current court was reversed. With Sotomayor in the news, then, it is time to look her over once again. It must be said, though, that any close scrutiny finds her wanting.

To begin with, it’s shocking that President Obma has nominated for a spot on the Supreme Court a judge whose decisions have been reversed or rejected in five out of the six times her cases appeared before that august body. Additionally and by her own admission, she was admitted to Princeton ahead of other law students as a result of affirmative action despite having lower grades. She once gleefully called herself a “perfect affirmative action baby,” even as her grades were “highly questionable.”

“My test scores were not comparable to that of my colleagues at Princeton or Yale,” Sotomayor once said on a discussion panel during an event sponsored by a non-profit law organization in the 1990s.

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Obama’s Racist Judge”


Fiscal Realism: Adam Andrzejewski Wants to be Illinois Governor

-By Warner Todd Huston

First of all, I know it looks impossible to even say, so let’s clear up that last name. It’s pronounced An-gee-ef-ski. I know, I know, that means here in Illinois we could possibly go from a Governor Blagojevich to an Andrzejewski. But the difficult last name should stand as the only similarity between the two men, for Adam seems to have some ideas on how Illinois might get out of its fiscal nightmare. I interviewed him not long ago and he had some very interesting thoughts on how to fix Illinois. (adamforillinois.com/)

In fact, Andrzejewski has already made some headway in shining the sunlight of accountability on various sate and local agencies through his self-funded program — self-funded to stay independent, he said — dubbed “For the Good of Illinois.” Andrzejewski has been at the vanguard of encouraging school boards and county governments in Illinois to put their check registries and finances on the Internet for all citizens to see. In fact, his catch phrase is “every dime online in real time.”

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Fiscal Realism: Adam Andrzejewski Wants to be Illinois Governor”


The Path to the Future Requires a Return to the Roots

-By Frank Salvato

As President Obama thunders ahead with his liberal agenda, unencumbered by any significant opposition in either chamber of Congress, the focus for the Right has been on how to re-invent the Republican Party so as to be competitive in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. This renewed and urgent focus is more akin to a meeting of rival mafia families, each faction unwilling to cede influence, power, control or status to another, than it is a quorum of individuals dedicated to true and original Republican principles. In light of this it is appropriate to revisit the founding platform of the party.

In the immediate aftermath of the inaugural 1856 Republican Convention in Jackson, Michigan (the party was founded in Ripon, WI, in 1854), the Republican Party declared as their founding platform commitments and allegiances to:
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The Path to the Future Requires a Return to the Roots”